#world-building

[doggoboigaugau]

Omegas' Dystopia

This story is based on this post.

Pairing: Alpha!Male Reader x Omega!Ghost / Submissive top!Male reader x Dominant bottom!Ghost

Tag: A/B/O, world-building, dystopia, historical fiction

Summary: Alphas are the victims of society's hierarchy. Ghost finds the medic of his team in a building and in heat.

Word count: 2129 words

Distant noises of men screaming and shouting were piercing through your brain while continuous explosions almost deafened your ears. You tried to urge your brain to work on recalling what the hell was going on at this very moment, but it was inundated with too many noises for analyzing to make room for another matter. Helplessly, you turned to your body, internally screaming for it to function as you found yourself unable to open your eyes, move your arms, or open your mouth. On top of that, you can feel your whole body burning uncomfortably as if you’re put on a cross and burnt alive like the Omega ‘witches’ in medieval times, and the burn feels the worst in your stomach. 

Your heat arrives. Worst, it arrives in the middle of a gruesome battle, and you are the only medic alive on your team. 

“Fuck.” You mumble. It won’t be too bad if you have your emergency kit containing scent suppressants with you like always, but during the ambush earlier, you dropped it while running for your life. If your enemy finds that kit, they’ll know there is an Alpha somewhere on this battlefield.

That won’t be of the gravest concern for you right now. Because you are in heat, your scent will soon flood this whole compound, and any Omegas that can sense it will blow this place up and search every corner to find you. A weak, lonely, delicious, and especially rare Alpha. It’s scary to even think about what will happen when they find you. Given that only 2,9% of the population now are Alphas, and most Omegas are likely to live their lives without experiencing Alpha scents and intercourse with Alphas until their very death, once you are found, you’ll never be found again. You’ll be kept in a cage, whether it is a room in a military base, a luxurious mansion, or a literal cage, and your only job from then on is to be a pretty little thing for the Omegas to cherish and sexualize.

“I have to think of something…” You mumble to yourself again. But what thing? Without scent suppressants, the Omegas will soon locate you and ‘eat you alive’.

Suddenly, the sound of heavy boots echoes on the first floor of the building whose second floor you’re hiding in. Who is this? You ask yourself. Are they on your side or on the enemy’s side? Either way, if you don’t think of an escape plan right now, your life as a free individual will end abruptly. 

You look outside the window of the room, looking down at the ground below.

“Too high…” Even if you escape from this building, your legs probably won’t be good enough to run from potential predators later.

Much to your horror, you can no longer hear any sound anymore. The sound of the heavy boots just earlier appears to vanish into thin air, since now the only noises your fuzzy head under the influence of the heat can make out of are from gun fires, explosions, and screaming. Where does that person go? The inability to locate the potential enemy and the fear of losing freedom forever, subjected to hungry men’s wishes, makes the burning in your brain and stomach worsens, scared of your own active imagination.

“Doc?”

You jump. It’s a familiar voice, belonging to the person whom even in the middle of a crowd you can always recognize.

“L.t…” You mutter, turning your head back to what is supposed to be the door of this room in this dilapidated building. Ghost is standing there. His expression is hard to tell as always because of his skull mask, but you can easily guess his eyes are widened in surprise.

“You- you are an Alpha???” The massive man exclaims. It’s a piece of information that renders even the most unimpressionable man like Ghost speechless.

*****

Since the first record of humanity on Earth, there have been three genders: Alpha, Beta, and Omega. At the beginning of mankind, according to prehistoric parietal art, drawings on vessels, bowls, or potteries, and earliest writings, Alphas were described as the dominant individuals of the communities, leaders and decision makers of all trades, and the biggest contributors to growth and advancement in every field of the early societies. Betas and Omegas were by no means members of no use, but their roles were rather more passive and behind the scene, and when outright wars threatened, it was the Alphas that were powerful enough to withstand successive tortuous days of fighting and sustaining horrendous injuries. Portraits of Alphas were often men of tall and muscular build and in powerful poses, such as riding on horses with weapons in hands, or standing before a throne and overlooking a kingdom. Archaeological evidence suggested that during the early time, Alphas, Betas, and Omegas lived in harmony and each gender had specific roles to play in society, as Alphas–the gender bestowed with physical advantages–were in charge of diplomatic activities which also included wars; Omegas, with their slender frames, delicate hands, and exceptional reproductive abilities, were creators of the majority of arts, as well as the housekeepers responsible for educating offspring; Betas, who seemed to be the most “ordinary” of all since they were without any exceptional traits, would do anything necessary that Alphas and Omegas didn’t have the time for to keep the society function properly. In short, all genders were important parts of the early society, each represented a strong link in the chain of the prehistoric generations. 

Regarding attraction and reproductive activities, humanity functioned mainly based on scent. Alphas and Omegas, as the most sexually active ones, had very strong and unique scents, and as a result, their scent glands which were located on the back of their neck were more prominent. Betas’ scents were much weaker, so the glands on their necks were not as noticeable. Another notable characteristic of Alphas and Omegas was heat circles. This varied across individuals, but on average, every three weeks or a month, they would experience heat, the time during which their reproductive capacities were greatest, and contrary to popular early belief, both Alphas and Omegas needed gentle care and constant scent reassurance from their mates. In order to mark someone as their “mate”, Alphas or Omegas would bite the scent gland on the back of the mate’s neck and inject their own scents into the individual through it, although historians agreed that Alphas were often the ones to do this kind of gestures due to their more dominant role in the early society.

However, the harmonious relationships among these three genders started to show signs of deterioration when mankind began expeditions to other territories in search of safe trading routes, both on land and at sea, to boost their economy. As trading exploded on various continents, bestowing great wealth and luxury to men, the consumers’ needs also brought about the emergence of new commodities. Omegas were one of those. Slavery became immensely profitable, and Omegas were abducted, captured, and forced to leave their homes. Since then, the value of Omegas was reduced to that of property that Alphas could own.

That part of the dark history was not taught in schools to children nowadays. The details of that time are only known to the historians, and are protected by the governments, which are now mainly run by Omegas. In fact, more than 90% of the people in power now are Omegas. 

What brought about such a chance? The Omegas never accepted their place as slaves. After several generations of slavery, which could amount to some centuries, Omegas had become stronger, larger, and more muscular in build. They secretly connected to each other from all countries, and with the help of many progressive Alphas who opposed slavery, organized revolts against the governments. Victory ensued, and a society of equality was slowly being built again. The progressive people hoped to rebuild the balance of the old societies, but the majority of Omegas in power, who feared that history could repeat itself, had another plan. They slaughtered Alphas in secret, even the ones that used to help them regain their freedom. And when the brutality meted out to the Alpha population could no longer go unnoticed, they continued their quest of complete decimation despite opposition and warnings from the forward-thinking. 

Only until there was no trace of the Alphas did these men stop their barbarity. But then they realized why the so-called forward-thinking were so scared of a future without any Alphas. 

The heat circles.

Both Alphas and Omegas needed care and reassurance from their mates during these times, and an Omega without the scent of an Alpha, just like an Alpha without that of an Omega, would turn into a berserk monster blinded by the instinctive and primal needs. Thousands of men were turned into such a state every month, as the governments were now desperate to find any Alphas that had been lucky enough to hide from their blade, as well as fund projects that could produce remedies to this instinctive desire. Some Alphas were found, hidden away by their Omega and Beta relatives who truly cared for their wellbeing, but these poor boys were vulnerable and subjected to serious health problems, and even death, as they had to care for too many men.

It took the Omegas various decades and millions of deaths of men who craved Alpha scent but could never have it to produce types of suppressants strong enough to prevent further painful deaths. Still, the Alpha scents are what men have always sought after, and since below 3% of the world population now are Alphas, only the wealthiest, most successful men can lay their hands on an Alpha.

Alphas are now treated like Omegas in the old societies, the pretty little things that offer men pleasure and help to show off their status, but obviously, the Omegas are not very proud of what they have done to reach this stage.

*****

“I’ve always thought you’re a Beta…” Ghost says, his voice surprisingly so much softer than usual as he looks at the trembling Alpha in the corner of the room.

“It was…thanks to the scent suppressants…” You stutter.

“Then you’ve hid it well, haven’t you?” The man with the skull mask asks. You hiccup helplessly as you can feel Ghost radiating his strong scent which quickly wraps around your burning body like a warm blanket.

Scotch. His scent smells like Scotch. It’s funny enough because it’s also the man’s favorite drink.

“What are you doing…?” You ask, curling up into a ball in the corner, looking like a weak, newborn wolf pup who has lost his pack, alone and vulnerable in the middle of the vicious wild.

“Helping you to hide your scent, idiot.” The man chuckles, which is even more strange. He kneels down beside you, his strong hands grabs your arm, forcing you to open up before him.

Your self-defense mechanism kicks in as you try to struggle against this unrivaled Omega, “Let me go! What do you want?”

“Shhh…” Ghost whispers to your ear. His eyes narrow as he loosens the collar of your white coat, revealing your swelling, reddened scent gland. The poor little thing is twitching constantly, which is a clear sign of the individual being in heat and desperately needing suppressants or their mates’ care and scent reassurance. 

“Let me mark you.”

“What???” You exclaim, unable to believe in your own ears what the man just says.

“I said, let me mark you.” Ghost patiently repeats, “As in I’ll bite your scent gland and inject my scent into you.”

“What??? No way!!” You protest and struggle again.

Ghost easily suppressed your weak attempt to get away with his strong hands and arms, “This is your only chance to get out of here safely, Doc. If I don’t mark you, your scent will reveal to every man here on this battlefield that you’re the rare Alpha that they’re supposed to have no opportunity to meet during their entire lifetime. You can imagine what happens after that, right? To them, you’re the delicious little prey that they wish to have at least a bite on. But, if you let me mark you, my scent will act like the natural suppressants, and you can go back to the base without fear of being found out and then take care of your heat later. What do you say, huh? Little Alpha?” 

Seeing that you’re still indecisive, Ghost lowers his head to your neck again, “Or if you like, I can help you to take care of your heat as well…”

“I don’t need your help with my heat!!” You exclaim, then try to stay calm despite your furiously blushing face, “F-fine…Mark me…”

To be continued...

New series lmao...Also my surgery was delayed :) There will be smut in this one, but rather with a darker theme because this is a dystopian society after all lmao 👍👍👍

#cod x male reader #ghost x male reader #male reader #top male reader #bottom simon riley #call of duty #gay #simon ghost riley #ghost cod #ghost mw2 #call of duty mw2 #mw2 x male reader #ghost x you #mw2 x you #simon riley x reader #omegaverse #abo #world-building #dystopia #historical fiction

[gallusrostromegalus]

Something that you might have discussed that I just missed for AEIWAM - if Hell is basically Soul Rehab for souls that aren't Contributing Properly, then why does having high spiritual energy mean that you're more likely to go to Hell? Are they basically bleeding off excess energy from those souls, or?

Yes and no?

1. Hell is rehab for Souls that would damage the cycle of reincarnation*specifically*. People only go to hell for two* reasons: they do a lot of harm to others (aka Bad Karma), or when reincarnating them would throw the balance between worlds off (High power)

Basically, there needs to be... Approximately the same amount of spiritual energy in the living world, spirit world and Hell. So when an exceptionally powerful spirit like say, a Captain, dies and moves onto the next plane, there sort of needs to be 'room' for the incoming powerful soul. There usually isn't, and also the Life Machine that generates reality needs to eat, so Hell solves both problems by having really powerful souls come to hell and vent power for a while until they are only about as strong as a regular soul, and then send them back to the living world.

2. So, yes, the more powerful a soul, the more likely they are to go to Hell, no matter how they behave in the living or spirit world.

For people on the level of Gotei-13 captains, it's pretty much guaranteed, unless they manage to do something bizarre like drain all of their spiritual energy into a magical barrier or leave it stored in the Family Cursed Artifact (looking at you, Tsunyashiro clan). Lieutenants stand an estimated 50/50 chance (unless they learn Bankai in which case, again, guaranteed), and all seated officers are at some increased risk.

3. How they behave while alive still makes a difference though.

See, Hell in AEIWAM isn't *necessarily" The Bad Place. Souls cause harm to other souls for TONS of reasons that aren't evil: mental illness, getting caught in terrible circumstances, genuinely trying to make the world a better place and severely fucking up, and sometimes it's just bad luck. Hell isn't there to punish, it's there to figure out what went wrong that this soul hurt so many people, and try to fix it.

Sometimes that's things like "magically removing the ego and putting a different sized one in", sometimes it's "cognitive behavioral therapy" sometimes it's "you're not a bad person but you did fuck up so you gotta do a really boring and gross task that helps restore the ambient vibes of the universe for 400 years to balance out the damage" sometimes it's "actually, we can trust you to do good deeds, here's a visa to the living world to dole out minor miracles to anyone who needs it".

In AEIWAM, the only difference between a devil and an angel is that the angel does field work and the devil does back office.

So sure, all the captains are going to Hell at some point. But if they did their best while alive, they more or less get to skip rehab and have Free Time until they're weak enough to leave. It fun, actually! Captains and the like get assigned a Demonic Personal Assistant and told to go have fun, don't break anything, and are turned lose to go adventuring, get married, take up farming and/or stamp collecting or whatever they desire.

*note from above: there is a third "legitimate" way to enter Hell: Superlative Karma.

It's RARE, but once in a while a soul so vastly improves life for everyone else they end up with such extremely good karma that they run the risk of unbalancing the planes just by sheer vibes clash. Superlatives are plucked out of the cycle of reincarnation by Hell to help the spend some of that karma having a very literal HELL OF A GOOD TIME.

4. And so, all the planes of the wheel lived in harmony, UNTIL THE BOURGEOISIE ATTACKED.

Problem is, about... 1500ish years ago, a bunch of the noble houses got together, tricked The Monk Who Speaks The Name into letting them into the house of the guy that maintains The Life Machine, they very literally butchered The Divine Tech Support, and used parts of his body to jam up the wheel of life, because they thought they could be God better than God.

Dumbasses.

One of the things they jammed was the Exit from Hell, so now only a few people can leave at a time and the backup is threatening to unbalance the entire wheel now, so Hell is also being VERY VERY CAREFUL to not let any of the Captains die until they've gotten enough souls out that there is effectively 'room' for the Captain.

So yes. Higher spiritual power means a soul is guaranteed to go to Hell, at least for a while-but it also means they won't be going there for a long, LONG time.

#aeiwam #an elephant is warm and mushy #bleach #bleach fanfiction #hell mention #world-building

[exobiotica]

Brand new website!

Check out Exobiotica.com for all your weird alien needs. Get prints, read new content, and go in-depth into the project. Enjoy!

#alien #aliens #creature #scifi #creature creator #science #art #artist #planet #space #web design #built from scratch #illustration #world-building #nature #artwork #speculative biology #Speculative Evolution

[nitewrighter]

Not to sound like the “no fun allowed” guy but am I the only one who feels like too many stories rely on humor rather than pathos to keep their audience’s attention these days? Like we’ve already talked about the “Everyone is Deadpool” problem, and I think this is kind of an auxiliary aspect to that. Like they both stem from basically this same writer’s reflex of “I don’t trust my audience to take this story at face value and empathize with it, I have to lampshade the hell out of things and jingle keys in their face.” And on top of that, because the story seems to be so afraid of its own substance so much of the humor just ends up falling flat. I think one of the reasons we all had such a blast with Dracula Daily and we’re also kind of emulating the Dracula Daily vibes now with Goncharov (although Goncharov has the additional meta joke of not actually existing)--basically we’re all starting on the footing that these pieces of media do have a lot of serious substance and subject matter (again, we are making up the cultural impact of Goncharov but that’s kind of the agreed upon footing of the joke), and that we do, deeply and unironically, care for the characters and plot, and then we’re taking it upon ourselves to throw in a bunch of silly meme humor, but that also deepens our appreciation for said media. I guess what I’m saying is, it’s getting to the point where media that gets really ironic and lampshade-y and unable to take itself and its world-building seriously is starting to feel like someone else chewing your food for you, you know what I mean?

#media #storytelling #world-building #dracula daily #goncharov

[wildjuniperjones]

Juniper’s Massive World-Building Resource List

(Shamelessly cribbed from a dozen different sources)

1. The Checklists

These are the kinds of things that present you with a list of questions about your world, that you then answer as creatively as you want to. I find myself continually having to go back and add to them, because goodness sometimes I just want to write and not think about stuff that isn’t directly relevant to the plot...until it is. And then suddenly I have to think about the ramifications of that.

CRV’s Worldbuilding Checklists (originally from btot.de) - obviously more fantasy-focused Patricia Wrede’s Worldbuilding Lists - a good balance between fantasy and other genres

2. The Masterlist

This link has nearly everything you can think of. It’s not the be-all-end-all, because nothing is, but it’s damn good.

r/Worldbuilding’s Resources List

3. The Visuals

Yes, there’s the ever-present AI-generated images, things such as Artbreeder or Wombo Dream, but sometimes you need something more concrete. Like maps. Or people.

Also, pay artists to make beautiful things whenever you can. AI art is designed to remove the actual humanity from the creative process, and while it’s fine for face claims or inspiration, I would never ever use it as, say, my book cover.

Alsoalso, learn a little something about graphic design. Please. Color theory. Rule of thirds. I beg of you.

Things I have used for maps:

Inkarnate - Browser-based, but almost entirely fantasy-focused

Wonderdraft - Large-scale mapping for countries/continents/worlds

Dungeondraft - Smaller scale mapping that shines when doing smaller areas, especially interiors (both ‘drafts are from the same creator, and are desktop only) There is not, as of yet, a Towndraft, although the community is ravenous for it!

I highly recommend the art packs from Cartography Assets, although if you’re going to use them in a commercially released work, do be a good human and pay the artists for their work! If you want to do sci-fi or modern maps, this is where to get your assets!

Things I have used for people:

HeroForge - A 3D tabletop miniature creator with a vibrant modder community. The free version lets you create as many figures as you want, but their Pro deal lets you organize them into folders, which I absolutely love. It also lets you save specific colors/materials to use across multiple figures, which saves a lot of time when creating folks with a shared uniform. You can even import people/outfits/poses from other figures! I’m told that facial feature modification, clothing patterns, and kitbashing are coming this year! (I’m a little addicted, as you might’ve noticed.) Best on desktop, but you can get a quick “sketch” done on mobile.

Picrew - A truly massive collection of portrait creators. The Discord associated with it is really helpful, in that you can frequently get links to creators that meet your specific requirements, like ‘must have elf ears and POC skin tones’ or ‘must have heterochromia and vitiligo’. This site got me through the roughest parts of 2020. Great for mobile.

Meiker.io - Similar in scope to Picrew, Meiker has a few treasures, including a lot from the now mostly defunct DollDivine, which relied entirely on Flash. There are a few that I return to again and again, but not many. Best on desktop and very easy to create your own creators.

Neka.cc - A Chinese-based site with a lot of similarities to Picrew, although a lot less diversity, both in skin tones and bodies. Great for mobile.

Storior gets an honorable mention because it has a ton of potential, with a lot more options in some respects, but precious few in others. Best on desktop. Can you tell I really love these things?!

4. The Organizers

It helps to have somewhere to store all this information, right? Preferably in an easily accessed database? Perhaps with links or prompts?

These are the ones I’ve used:

World Anvil - Browser-based, incredibly detailed and complex, even for the free version. I found it to be too complicated to figure out, but maybe it’ll be your cuppa!

Campfire - Browser-based, mostly focused on writers, and has a suite of options that you can opt into or out of. This also wasn’t as useful to me, since there’s nowhere to put an outline!

Kanka.io - Browser-based, and just this perfect sweet spot between bare bones and overloaded. There are specific modules you can enable or disable, like in-universe calendars, dice rollers, character journals, etc. It’s my preferred option for organizing my world-building, outside of things like Google Docs.

I also understand a lot of writers like using Scrivener for their work, but as I have Linux, I don’t have any experience with it.

5. The Rest

So, a lot of world-building comes down to how well you know our world. I love world-building because it means I get to use all my education and interests together to create something that feels realistic to my readers and players. This is a time when ADHD is absolutely useful! Chase those squirrels! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ended up reading an article on, say, rivers, only to end up with an idea for how leylines function in my world!

So here are my top 5 recommendations for figuring out how our world works:

Sociology! - If you want to know how different cultures interact, why certain customs come about, or just how a population reaches a decision, learn about sociology. It’s probably my favorite subject, and most useful to very culture-focused world-builders.

Geology! - If you want to know how your world fits together, what it’s made of, where things like mineral or gem deposits might be or how they might form... in addition to how rivers, lakes, and “strange” geographical features form, geology’s a great place to start.

History! - Okay, maybe this one is cheating, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read about something in history and thought “what if it went this way instead?” BAM, there’s a premise for you. (I have an entire novel idea built around that, told mostly through a writer interviewing a famous figure in this alt-history for their biography. After seeing the popularity of Dracula Daily, I almost want to release it like that...)

Ecology! - Oh man, if you want to figure out the botany and zoology of your world, ecology is a great place to start. It builds very nicely off of geology, and covers such a broad range of topics and how each of these pieces interact with one another - like how hydrology affects meteorology affects climate affects plant distribution affects animal distribution... which of course then affects culture!

I’m going to be sacrilegious in the eyes of some of my fellow world-builders here and NOT put linguistics - not because it’s not useful, just because it’s not a field I know much about. Instead, I’d suggest looking at world myths and religions. Yeah, it’s technically part of sociology, but if you’re developing a world from scratch, the creation stories that the sentient species tell themselves can inform a lot of their culture.

For instance, the world that Starcrossed, Amongst the Goblins & the Fishes, and The Silver Hand are all set in is an alternate Earth where magic never left the land. The creation myths in this world are much more centered around humanoids living in harmony with nature, rather than dominating it. In fact, some of the human societies have a specific taboo against desecrating the earth that is taken to such an extreme that other species, like elves and dwarves, occupy that niche instead, acting as stewards of the forest and mountain because they don’t have that same taboo. Part of these myths explain the existence of ley lines, and why they wither and die out (because of excessive logging, destructive farming/mining, or large-scale slaughter of creatures). Will this ever come up in Starcrossed? I highly doubt it. But it figures into the other two VERY prominently.

Phew! That was quite a tangent. Anyway - did I get any of your favorites? Do you have something you’d like to add? Should I make this all a separate page so it’s easy to access and update it regularly? Tell me things! Ask me things! I am an open book and love talking about world-building! Tell me where you’re stuck and maybe we can figure out a way forward together! (Also hmu on Discord, I am so mediocre at Tumblr.)

#worldbuilding #world-building #world building #master list #writing #ttrpgs #dnd #d&d #cartography #heroforge #picrew #neka.cc #meiker.io #adhd has a purpose! #for me it's to assemble all the college majors I started on and never finished #into a nice tidy package #and then inject massive quantities of fantasy or sci-fi into it #also #pay artists what they're worth #ai art is useful ONLY as inspiration #NEVER use it for the final product #even if you're going for a cubist/techno-cultist angle #get a real artist to make real art #before corporations suck even MORE life out of that ecosystem

[kristiaavril1985blog]

#gas giants #world-building #stars #art #digitalart #fantasy #ai #imagination #space #aiart #moons

[toloulose]

What are shapeshifters? Shapeshifters are members of the royal family of Chanti. They’re also called blue-fingers, or simply the Vodianovas. Shapeshifters can be divided into young and old. Young ones can turn back into their humanoid form, and are somewhat sentient when they’re in a non-humanoid form. Old ones can no longer turn back. They behave more animalistic and act on instinct.

Old ones neither eat, sleep nor age. And yet, they still kill and consume animals and humans sporadically.  They never deliberately attack chanta - who do not consider themselves human, by the way - although accidents have happened. However, they absolutely kill and consume other humanoids such as homo sapiens (like islanders and mainlanders). In fact, they seem to hunt humans specifically. old shapeshifters have been observed to stalk their prey for days, weeks and even months. As a shapshifter grows older, the hangovers after turning back gets more and more intense. Around the age of 60, they lose the ability to turn back altogether.

If they are immortal, why aren’t there a bazillion of them? Mostly because of the ascension. The ascension makes each generation of young shapeshifters fight each other to the death. The sole remaining shapeshifter from each cohort will live on to attain god status in the eyes of the chanta. shapeshifters are considered extremely difficult to kill. records do exist of assassination attempts by mainlanders, however exceedingly few have been successful.

What are the chanta’s relationship to shapeshifters Chanta consider shapeshifters holy. In fact, they are referred to as Gods in everyday speech. For example, “that God just ate my pidgin”, “there’s a God over there” or “that God knocked my mother’s ashes down from the shelf”. young shapeshifters are not granted the same status, however an important rule of the ascension is that no one is to interfere. Thus Only young shapeshifters are allowed to kill other shapeshifters. The punishment for killing a blue-finger otherwise is dire.

Fun fact! jochi and chani will call old shapeshifters uncle, although some of them might be their grand-grand-grand-father, etc.

#world-building #world building #chanta #shifting borders #monsters #comic #webtoon #webcomic #monster trivia #info sheet #world-building sheet

[inky-thoughts]

Heirs to the Crown costume worldbuilding notes pt. 1

thought I could do a compilation with the stuff that's otherwise just rotting away in my brain

#inkythoughts art #my art #sketches #doodles #costume design #worldbuilding #fantasy #artists of tumblr #world-building #clothing #worldbuilding notes #heirs to the crown #httc #webcomic: heirs to the crown #attire #festive attire #casual clothing #outfits #ocs #original character #original characters #fantasy worldbuilding #concept art

[jomiddlemarch]

While You Were Sleeping

Hermione took a deep breath. The breeze that came through the open windows smelled of both night-blooming jasmine and cherry Bakewell tarts, at least to her, though she wasn’t about to ask his opinion. Before she glanced across the room again, she remembered standing in the office at the Ministry with the Head of International and Interspecies Diplomacy, the way her robes had just grazed the ground because the Hemming charm was finally working properly, the glow she’d felt when Godiva Canon-Crisparkle had announced Hermione had been specially requested for the assignment and that Chief Canon-Crisparkle expected that once again, Hermione would live up to her informal title as Brightest Witch of Her Age (a title Hermione rather loathed, but had to put up with as otherwise she seemed to be either sneeringly dismissive or falsely and sickeningly humble) and conduct herself in such a way as to bring further honor and glory to the Ministry and also lock down the trading rights, embassy site, and the official and magically notarized alliance with the Eguzkiko. Hermione had nodded smartly, acquiesced as graciously as she could when told she would be accompanied by a member of the Ministry legal department, and screamed silently when she was told who it would be.

Draco Malfoy.

Correction: Draco Black Malfoy, Esq.

(Part of the silent scream was triggered by the fact of his training and employment in Legal, when she’d pegged him as Potions or an Architect, either of which she could have accepted better given his past and family background and his decision shortly after his father was sent to Azkaban to feature his mother’s family name as the heir to the House of Black. This, however, was not new information, only data she had been struggling to accept for the past fifteen years.)

(Ginny and Padma had a theory to account for the remainder of the silent scream, but it was one Hermione categorically refused to entertain, even when Luna asked if she would entertain it non-categorically and how exactly would that be different? There was a second silent scream at the combination of frustration of only getting challenged by Ravenclaws at this late date in her life when years to dealing with Harry, Ron, and occasionally stubborn Neville had left her ill-equipped for actual debate.)

Still, the key bit was that she’d been able to hold her tongue and appear to keep her temper and channeled the string of obscenities and full body tantruming she wanted to indulge in into preparing most thoroughly for the mission, though the relative lack of information on Euskara left some holes which Hermione had to hope were not gaping. She altered her trusted blue beaded bag to appear as a slim chocolate leather portfolio and agreed to pack a swimsuit and some actual cotton nighties rather than relying on Transfiguration, since her Transfigured clothes were never cut quite as well as she liked, rather what Ginny flat-out described as dowdy enough for that cow Umbridge. 

She spent a week brushing up on language charms, stocked up on coconut oil conditioner at Boots, and accepted the bottle of Glenmorangie that Minerva pressed on her during their monthly tea. She’d planned to use it as a guest-gift it that suited the mores of the Eguzkiko but she found herself reconsidering, given the its utility in becoming black-out drunk. 

She looked across the suite at the wide bed with its plump embroidered pillows, its billowing linen curtains tied to each post, the nosegay of blossoms overflowing a small vase on the bedside table.

The singular bed.

She breathed in slowly through her nose, counted to five. 

There was only one bed.

“There’s only one bed,” she announced, sounding half-strangled to herself. Draco Black Malfoy, Esq. had an impassive expression, so she couldn’t tell if she sounded half-strangled to him or whether he didn’t care or whether he was losing his aristocratic shite in the most stiff upper lip Pureblood manner.

“Yes,” he replied. “Only one. They must have made some assumptions about us—"

“Why?” she said. “Why can’t you simply Transfigure a second bed? It doesn’t have to be another one like that, a cot would do—”

“Didn’t you read the brief, Madam Granger?” he asked. He used her formal title, which was a vast improvement over both Mudblood and you, which were the only other ways she could recall hearing him address her. He still sounded entirely superior.

“I did but do go on,” she said. “I can tell you’re simply dying to.”

“It would be the height of bad manners to Transfigure anything in this suite. Everything here has been specially chosen and conveys the regard of the Eguzkiko. Furthermore, they have a prohibition on using magic in the bedchamber. And finally, I don’t think you want to begin your talks by telling them they have made a grave error about the nature of our relationship. It was indicated that anything construed as a significant loss of face would very likely not be surmountable,” he explained. He smiled and it wasn’t as snide as it could have been. It wasn’t a smirk. She knew his smirks of old. This was something else, an expression she couldn’t say she’d seen before on an adult man, let alone Draco Black Malfoy. “You are the diplomat here, not I.”

“Yes, well, that’s obvious,” she huffed. 

“Indeed?” he said, more civilly than she would have expected.

“You had to rub it in, about the brief and the rest of it,” Hermione said, glossing over his assessment that the Eguzkiko saw them as bedfellows, married or otherwise engaged to each other. “A diplomat isn’t trying to take every chance they can to assert their dominance and make the other person embarrassed. For the record, I don’t feel embarrassed, just annoyed.”

“I wasn’t—that is, I didn’t intend to,” he said. His cheeks were faintly pink. He was…flustered? Irritated? Apologetic?

“Forget it,” she interrupted. “What we really need to do is decide what we’re going to do about that,” she pointed to the bed.

“You may take the side closer to the bath,” Draco said, raising an eyebrow when her mouth dropped open. “Did you think I was going to offer to sleep on the floor for the next month and a half?”

“A gentleman would,” she said. Might. And then she would have waved her hand and said it didn’t matter, they were both adults and colleagues and would have had the upper hand (previously waved) and the moral high ground and he would be the one feeling…wobbly. The rosiness in his cheeks had disappeared as if it had never been present and she’d hallucinated it. She would have preferred hallucinating the single bed.

“But Madam Granger, I am a Wizard and a barrister. Neither qualifies me as a gentleman,” he replied, smiling again, a little wry, amused. Attractive, if she could forget he was Draco Sodding Black Bloody Malfoy, Esquire Thorn In Her Side. 

“Don’t hog the blankets,” she said, walking around to what was now her side of the bed. It was nicer to be close to the bath and it put him nearer to the door, which was the defensive position in the room. Much good that would do them, as they couldn’t use their wands or even do wandless magic and also, they were being welcomed as a diplomatic party and shouldn’t have to anticipate intruders or rogue Death Eater sympathizers. She set her portfolio down. Ordinarily, she would unpack, hang up some robes, arrange her shoes in a row in the wardrobe, but that seemed too personal with Draco standing there watching her. 

“Of course not,” he said. “I hope you don’t snore, as I won’t be able to cast Quietus or Septum Stabilis—”

“I don’t,” she snapped.

“Weasley would have complained, I gather,” Draco said. It was clear he relished a chance to disparage Ron, even at a slight remove.

“He wouldn’t dare. He spent most of that time on the run on the run from Harry and me,” Hermione said. Draco’s brow furrowed in a more appealing confusion. “When we were hunting Horcruxes, Ron scarpered off. Harry never said I made any noise at night, said he sometimes checked on me to make sure I was alive. Lavender and Parvati never mentioned anything when we shared a room at Hogwarts and they had plenty to say about my hair. I think you’re safe.”

“I very much doubt that,” Draco said under his breath. Approximately. She didn’t have especially good hearing and she heard him, just as she was supposed to.

“You have appropriate pyjamas?” Hermione said, preparing to send him off to fetch some, preferably in a dull plaid, as every other color seemed like it would set his grey eyes and fair hair to perfection. She regretted the dressing gown she’d brought, thinking no one would see it but herself.

“I came prepared for every eventuality, Madam Granger,” he said. It sounded like he didn’t regularly sleep in pyjamas then. She would not think about Draco Black Malfoy naked in her bed. She would not.

She did and sighed. He noticed. Misconstrued.

“Perhaps it won’t be so bad,” he said. “We’ll likely be knackered by long days of negotiation, all the visiting and meetings that are required—we’ll probably drop off instantly and the bed is big. You won’t even know I’m in it—”

“I’ll know,” she said, shrugged. “I’ve survived worse.”

“I know,” he said softly.

#dramione #there was only one bed #post-hogwarts #enemies to friends to lovers #one-shot for now #humor #world-building

[educationaldm]

Real world history Spartan fact.

Who and how do the cultures in your world honor their dead?

#Real World #History #Spartan #Fact #Culture #Honoring the dead #Tombstones #Worldbuilding #World-building #Fantasy #DnD #D&D #TTRPG #Dungeons and Dragons #Tabletop #RPG #Roleplaying Game #Dungeon Master #Game Master

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Update 232 Review: Butterfly and Back

Story: Place Yer Bets!

The chapter opens with Murata casually flexing his rendering skills with a hand-drawn bicycle. This man!

The story opens to a defeated looking hero with incongruously-small butterfly wings on his back. Wondering why he's doing this. McCoy calls to ask if he's ready, and soon, he's on the trail of a monster for the benefit of a select group of punters.

The 'demon'-level monster turns out to be a giant, terrified monsterised chihuahua, which advances down the road uncertain of what to do. It's a planted Wolf-Level monster, intended to give the falsely-badged C-Class hero the appearance of a tough win against the odds.

But life turns out differently. Under the stressor of its most feared situation (being outdoors), Shiverhuahua blows up into a genuine demon-level monster, and soon, 'Papillion 800' is locked in a real life-or-death battle, all while McCoy thinks that he's acting to perfection.

As the odds lengthen, Mad Devil Yankee (the real identity of the hero) forces himself to face the monster, driven by the twin imperatives of wanting to save his mother from whatever harm McCoy has planned for her, and the desire to live up to the example of his hero, Mumen Rider.

Just as it gets hopeless, with characteristic timing, Saitama comes in and blows the monster away.

The major donor looking forward to an upset win is furious, and McCoy storms onto the scene to tell Saitama and Genos off for interfering.

Saitama may ask himself who cares about credit. Genos does, when it comes to making sure his master is recognised for his work. McCoy is about to find out why the Demon Cyborg lives up to his moniker...

.... but luckily for him, and for his role as bad-guy fixer, Child Emperor interrupts to mock him for having his rigged game upset. McCoy excuses himself quickly. Child Emperor explains the hero gambling ruse (more on that to follow). I'm just going to step out a bit to note that it's quite heart-warming to see that when Genos asks why the kid is giving them this information and Child Emperor admits to having been the one who'd been suspicious of Genos, Genos doesn't blow up but lets it slide. I like his little reassuring smiles.

After finding out what this is all about, we see Saitama sleepless in bed, furious at the idea of being thought so ill of as to deserve a x20 rating. However, he also smells opportunity.

The next morning sees him discussing with Genos the possibility of betting on himself to make money. He starts to portray it as a way to teach the Hero Association a lesson but Genos sensibly points out that it makes no actual difference to the house, which puts him on the spot. Luckily for Saitama, the odds start rolling again, meaning the game's afoot again. Saitama runs out the door, Genos following in hot pursuit.

They overtake the heroes assigned to the monster, and Saitama is just about to place his bet (his multiplier having risen to x25) when there is a scream: someone's purse has been snatched by a race-car driver! For a moment, Saitama is torn as to what to do, then...

... the lady is overcome with gratitude for having her family jewels saved. Saitama is also overcome with emotion, but it is not gratitude. At least he's getting a better public image!

However, he's then overwhelmed with a blackness. His depression is back, fuelled by his realising how close he came to the edge of becoming a corrupt money-grubber.

Temptation is never far away, and the lady offers him a diamond ring as a reward. After a long struggle, Saitama refuses it, saying he's not doing this for money.

Well done, Saitama.

Lots to say under the cut.

Meta: A Tawdry Affair

Method in the madness

A race car to snatch purses? Man, it seems anything can happen in this story! Still, when I look at how unsurprised the public is that Saitama caught the driver, I think there's method in the madness. Heroes are really super humans. Even your regular C-Class hero is impossible to out-pace on foot or on a push-bike. Modern problems call for modern solutions.

A world in which people are not surprised that the no-name hero catches a race car is a scary world.

Dirty laundry

The first thing I have to say about this is that it's tawdry. Not a great crime that leaves a giant stain to be dealt with but rather dirt, grubbiness, an all-pervading grubbiness that greys the entire fabric so that no amount of washing can make it look clean. Let's dig into this pile of dirty laundry, shall we?

Nothing wrong with aspiring to be more

I've got to give it to Mad Devil Yankee. In a world where people are often typecast for life (see Garou's despair at being considered a monster), his being able to turn his life around is testament to some serious mental fortitude. Furthermore, he's B-Class Rank 4, all without having joined the Blizzard Group: that takes serious strength.

If you remember nothing about the story, you might think that a high-ranking B-Class hero working independently is no big deal. If you do, you know this guy is the real deal: Fubuki is a hero-crushing asshole.

Turning heroism into bloodsport

It's inevitable that people would bet on heroes. Heroes are very much public figures, and the monsters are an unpredictable lot, so that makes for a highly exciting spectacle. As we can see, a lot of the people watching Papillion 800's predicament aren't anything to do with the HA.

The Hero Association getting a cut of the action is morally reprehensible. And as we see, it leads to moral conflicts. McCoy may be organising it, but the HA is facilitating it. As long as the money's coming in, look the other way.

Like a rotten apple, McCoy being allowed to operate unchecked taints everyone by association.

Unforgivable is what this betting did to Mad Devil Yankee. In a world where people often feel typecast for life (like Garou), turning one's life around in two months from infamous ne'er-do-well to hero has taken an incredible amount of mental fortitude as well as physical prowess. Additionally, as B-Class Rank 4 and yet not press-ganged into the Blizzard Group, this guy is really something in toughness. He's admired Mumen Rider, but his work ethic is all his. And for him to have nearly tossed this all away, thinking himself unworthy to think of himself as a hero, that's a crime.

Getting a guy to think that he deserved to die for making the best of an impossible situation? God, that's ugly.

McCoy bet that Mad Devil would not be psychopathic enough to bet his mother's life and dare him to threaten his mother's health. Even though he'd been coerced, he thought that a true hero wouldn't have taken up such an impossible task under any circumstance. And yet he hung in there and did his best to fight.

Threatening peoples' families is truly the lowest of actions. Using the very benefits given to heroes as leverage digs a basement under that cesspit.

It was good that Mumen Rider put it in perspective for him: no matter what had happened, he'd been faced with a very strong monster, and he'd stood up to it anyway, knowing that it was unlikely to end well for him. That's the stuff a hero is made of. I'm glad that Mad Devil looks to stay a hero, but for him to have been brought this close to despairing over his life and choices, is unforgivable.

Mumen may not have the best muscles, but he has the best words. Often imitated, but never equalled.

Take one wrong step...

Speaking of corruption, it's scary how easy it is to try to play the odds if there's money to be made. Saitama realising how close he'd come to actually participating in the hero betting game for profit was a salutatory reminder that this shit is easy to do and dangerous. If he'd chosen a little differently, he could be several hundred thousand yen up, but he'd have sold his soul to the worst of human impulses.

It's as Saitama said in a much earlier chapter, take one wrong step, and you're in hell.

Came real close to selling your soul there, didn't ya?

It's one of the things that has most endeared me to Saitama. His recognition that no matter how hard he works, there's still a lot of chance in how things have turned out for him and he remembers this when he looks leniently on people like Hammerhead, who he sees as not too different from him. Just one or two bad choices and that could have been him. That kind of wisdom and humility serves him well.

With friends like this...

I'd love to say that Genos would stop him, but damn, that guy… It's a pity he's a cocksucker has such a narrow viewpoint. Every so often, Genos reminds me that he's far more observant and intelligent than he usually gives out. He's noticed the odd rankings and monster disaster levels, and it made sense to him that it was a gambling ploy. So did he investigate the oddities? No man, he filters everything through the metric of 'does this threaten my access to Saitama sensei?' and if the answer is no, he doesn't give a shit. Seriously.

Yeah, yeah, corruption and problems at the Hero Association, but does it actually affect anything *I* care about?

Also, seeing him see what's wrong with Saitama's proposal to gamble but following Saitama to see what happens anyway… no, man, this fixation of yours is wrong. A healthy reminder of why King is so necessary. He'll not just point out what's wrong, but he won't go along with it.

Genos sees clean through Saitama's scam but stop him? Hell no! He's coming along to see what happens.

The Grab Bag of Pop Culture is Back, Baby!

This story reminds me of what's at the heart of One-Punch Man: its love of finding and referencing popular works while making them something of its own. If you know Squid Game, the rich guys betting on human lives will feel very unpleasantly familiar. If you don't, that's fine too: it's self-contained enough to not need familiarity with its references to work. It's true that a lore-heavy story such as this would often be put in an extra chapter, but because what's happening here is exceptionally germane to what happens next, it's here as a main chapter. I liked it quite a bit.

I am VERY GLAD not to see Narinki as one of the major donors betting. I would like to believe that he appreciates too much the actual sacrifices made by heroes to want to bet on their lives.

More on Monsters

I also liked a lot the fact that the HA has had to raise Saitama's ranking to maintain their fiction of a demon-level monster otherwise, it'd create more problems. Heh heh, suck it, fools. Although as it turns out, it was accurate.

Something else about monsters. When you see a monster, you see a monster. They're living creatures, and they don't rampage all the time under all circumstances, not even the newly-transformed ones. Given that most monsters (including the late Shiverhuahua) gain the power of human speech, they could have just talked to it to understand it better. It's a problem because I'm sure that Shiverhuahua was a very inoffensive monster indoors -- just looking at its sweet look and trustingly wagging tail as it was faced with a guy with a handgun and an electrified prong gives me a nasty pang -- but under the right circumstances, many a monster can blow up into a true terror.

Under the right circumstances, this monster would never have hurt a person

And so it happened here. To the end, the thing was terrified and confused. The nasty human habit of exploiting monsters is perhaps inevitable -- where anything occurs, humans will find a way to exploit it -- but the short-sightedness and failure to understand the beings they are exploiting just adds to the outrageousness of it all.

Where is this going?

So what's this leading up to? Not too sure. Saitama might have another bad night if he thinks about how close to the edge he danced, but he's not the reflective sort of guy. Oh yeah, he really didn't like the idea of being thought of as trash. Now imagine how your disciple feels. It's interesting to see that Child Emperor is continuing to dig. Naturally, this isn't the first of the wrong doings.

Come to that, if Child Emperor moves over to the Neo Heroes, he's going to have a nasty shock to find McCoy there too. That's going to be something worth seeing.

I digress. Back to what this is all leading to. There's going to have to be some precipitating event that starts giving heroes a push in a big way, and that brings the Neo Heroes out. Looks like it's going to be a target-rich environment whenever that happens.

#OPM #meta #review #update 232 #long #Saitama #Genos #McCoy #Mumen Rider #Mad Devil Yankee #Child Emperor #world-building #Hero Association #man this is going to get ugly when it comes out #any bets that McCoy will leak about this? Nothing better than getting paid to double-cross your former employers #sorry this took so long: work-life balance isn't

[joncronshawauthor]

he Echoes of The Belgariad: Eddings’ Influence on Modern Fantasy

Once upon a time, as all good stories start, in the small town of Spokane, Washington, a man by the name of David Eddings put pen to paper and began to weave a tale of prophecy, magic and, most importantly, a farm boy named Garion. A tale that, unbeknownst to him, would shape the course of modern fantasy literature. This tale? “The Belgariad.” The Chosen One Now, I know what you’re thinking.…

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#A Song of Ice and Fire #Brandon Sanderson #Chosen One trope #David Eddings #fantasy literature #Garion #George R.R. Martin #Harry Potter #J.K. Rowling #Jon Snow #magic orb #magic system #Mistborn #modern fantasy influence #narrative impact. #prophecy #Spokane #The Belgariad #world-building

[card-queen]

Story Craft: Process

Okay, so this post is gonna be brief but will hopefully help you if you start to feel overwhelmed. As I started to play my world-building post, I realised that I would need to touch on a lot of plot aspects because of how interconnected everything ends up.

But that's the key: ends up.

My fantasy story looks completely different to how it started. It's gone through deep, deep revisions and just slowly ship of Theseus'd itself into something almost new. My detective game on the other hand has barely changed, I've had a stronger idea of where I wanted things to go from the start and have only added new things that tease out character ideas, plotlines, conflict and drama.

Plot, basically. These are cool scenes and set pieces you imagine. They could come from your own imagination and desires, like when you close your eyes and day dream, when you're listening to music and envision cool scenes, betrayals, twists, reveals, fights scenes, cool encounters, rescue missions, etc. Of they could come from being inspired by other things you've seen. "I loved that scene and want to do something like it in my own story", "I hated that scene, it should have gone this way", "I thought there were going to go somewhere else with that scene and now I'm disappointed", etc.

Events, plotlines and themes are just skeletal frameworks: they're entirely universal, but they all have requirements that need to be met to work properly. All you need to do is look over the event, theme or plotline with a technical eye. "What underlying components are in play to make this theme/plotline/event have impact to me?"

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to breaking down events to their core components, there are a number of things you can look at and see if they play a part. (I'll be using 'scene' as a catchall term here but this can apply to many different aspects of plot). This is especially helpful if you're starting from an Inspiration point and adapting an idea you liked/were disappointed in for your own story! Surface Details. Look over the scene and analyse it. What elements are at play, either obviously or under the surface? The characters in play often hand backstories and mindsets, so scrape away all the details and hone in on what the result is. Does the character need to be so cautious they don't trust anyone so that their rescue comes as a joyous surprise, or or focused entirely on work so they never see the budding romance, or rich and naive so that their betrayal comes as a complete shock? What about the situation between characters? Former friends and now bully & victim, or two battlefield generals on opposite sides of a conflict, or a group of co-workers who make nice and do what they can to get along being forced into a dangerous situation that relies on cooperation? And the emotional flow of events? Peaceful daily life that turns into a natural disaster scenario, or a serial killer on the loose in a quiet village, or all of the characters have been kidnapped and are in an unknown locations? Use generic words. The flavour comes from what you add, but to add flavour properly, you gotta understand the tools in your hands.

Power Balance. Does the scene use control or shifting control? Something like a betrayal, rescue scenes, reinforcement scenes, joining forces with a villain, or revealing a secret have an underlying battle of power and control. The scenes themselves often hinge on a reversal of power to have impact. Find where the power is and how it changes hands.

Realisation. This can be for the characters or the audience. We should take special care when there is a perception change at play. If we or the characters come to a startling realisation in this scene, you look over what the perception was, what the new perception is and how the change took place. (This slide's a little more vague but just.. just go with me on it)

Characters, basically. This works similar to plot. Where does your inspiration come from: something you saw or something you came up with? In my experience, those are the two places inspiration for ideas comes from. Whatever your origin point, I offer the same advice of cracking open the character and taking at peek see at the core components that get that character being ratings. Here are couple of VERY OLD slides from my early character work, but it should give you some confidence and ideas that things can evolve.

In this, you can see I use monikers like 'the honourable mage', 'merc boss' and 'wandering noble' but also refer to characters by their inspirations, like Dimitri & Felix (Fire Emblem: Three Houses). No one really has to know or see your behind-the-scenes work files, where you take inspiration is your business. I often refer to characters by their moniker or placeholder name based on their inspiration until I find a name that suits them.

This next slide is interesting because it shows that even back then, I had components in mind.

Inspirations is obviously what I refer back to when I keep thinking of their core concept. It's what helps me write the flavour text and description, and would probably be used in conjunction with typology for me these days. The Aspects part is a term I got from the FATE system of RPG books and I use it here to explain a strong core piece of the character in a term or phrase. These Aspects should be clear on their own and give you an idea of how the trait can be used to win the day or cause things to come to a crashing halt, how it can be used to create comedic scenes and have it can be used to win people over. It's important to find balance in your characters. A new rule I have in creation is 'You gotta know how your character is gonna eat shit'. I like to see the comic potential and dramatic potential in all my characters. If a character doesn't eat shit, they seem special and above the rest. Are they too good to make mistakes, be over the top or be funny to use? Think in three dimensions, friends.

Setting, basically. These are the great facilitators. They are the unsung heroes that nonetheless, must remain mostly unsung. Parts of the world and setting are of the backdrop and instigator of events, carry the physical embodiment of theme, provide resistance, encouragement and biases for characters. You often put a lot of work into world-building but if you share to much of it, it becomes a never-ending wall of text, a slew of infodumping. But by tying your aspects of your world-building and setting into aspects of the story or character.

I like to think of story creating in a node-based way. It's all about outlets and inputs. This is a very, veeeery basic example but check out this image.

It's a simple diagram for the components of a betrayal. We supply two characters and stakes. And in the case of things like countries or groups being factors in the betrayal, then I highly recommend having a representative from the group or nation that is the architect or at least responsible for the betrayal in some way. This is one of the MAJOR problems I have with games like Fire Emblem: whole countries start behaving like a single person and the action ends up feeling hollow and the world empty (FE4, I am staring at you specifically). We can, of course, feed more into the action device: emotions, stability, power, objects within the story, characters within the story, etc. But we're keeping it simple here: two character plus stakes in, the results for the betrayed and the results for the betrayed. These components can join into other events, decisions and moments. The newly empowered stance of the betrayer might been the actions he needed to take to get the money to propose to the Princess, so he could get closer to the Prince and carry out an elaborate revenge plot against he man who killed his entire family. The newly weakened stance of the betrayed might end up with her on the run and seeking new allies in places she would have dismissed in her earlier life, granting her new perspectives and showing her the world she never knew.

Keep these words in mind when creating: "...but..." "...and therefore..."

Nothing ends unless you say it ends. Everything can get worse or get better. Events, characters, themes, plotlines, setting, and systems all form a kind of butterfly effect where things happen because of what came before and will affect what comes after it. By taking out elements or feeding new details into them, you get a slightly different outcome. And things will change over time to fit better, more cleanly, take you in new directions, better directions, revisited directions -- it'll be a journey. And a fun one, if you let it be.

Happy creating.

Want more writing advice? Check out this post!

#story talk #character talk #world-building #structure #settings #plotlines #take it one step at a time #all things come in time #let's have some fun

[ashintheairlikesnow]

A question for Karen Renford. Miss Renford, how would you go about breaking a guard dog that's incredibly prideful and stubborn? The trainee in question got punished so severely by his handler he needed intensive care afterwards, because he refused something as small as addressing his handler as sir, refusing to show even a modicum of respect.

But the prospect insists on this specific trainee.

"Well, that would cost extra, because there's going to be a more significant time commitment," Karen says, considering. She glances down at her assistant, a trained pet himself kneeling on a cushion beside her desk. "Some are easier..."

The assistant might flush a little, but he doesn't speak or look up.

"... some are more difficult. In that case, it does suggest a need to make the trainee entirely, completely dependent on his handler initially. There is no nutrition without coming directly from the handler's hand, fed bite by bite. No hydration that the handler isn't responsible for. No interaction with anyone but the handler. What you'll need to do is start from scratch, more or less. Let the creature be worn to the barest hint of itself, and then rebuild it from there. Only when the trainee accepts total dependence on its handler and begins to build a bond do you begin to introduce the prospective as a secondary source of positive reinforcement, and eventually the primary and finally only source of positive reinforcement. We would simply charge extra for the extra time."

#karen asks #karen renford #bbu #world building #world-building #worldbuilding #box boy universe #pet whump

[evanwritesgames]

Species of Starjourn: D'Jonzi

The D’Jonzi evolved on a perpetually twilit world, tidally locked to an increasingly unstable red giant. They were forced to abandon their homeworld as its ability to support life declined and ultimately failed. Their civilization was not technologically prepared for this and had to bootstrap starfaring tech development in a very short space of time. They almost didn’t survive to reach a stable era as many of their early attempts to get into space failed, costing numerous lives and a lot of precious resources.

But the D’Jonzi kept trying and eventually fled their home using space tech that would be considered advanced to us but primitive by 25th Cent. standards.

In time, the D’Jonzi built better ships using orbital sanctuaries. This allowed them to leave their solar system, which had no other viable planets, and look for a new home. At first, they traveled as a massive flotilla moving slowly through space in colony ships. Before they could find a suitable new home, they discovered gravitronium and FTL technology. 

In the mid 2200s, human surveyors made first contact when mapping planets at the far reaches of what was then the Sol Commonwealth. The human expedition was not interested in sticking around to found a colony and ceded the world to the D’Jonzi. During this period, contact was maintained and the two civilizations found they had more in common than not. The D’Jonzi became allies of the Sol Commonwealth and later a founding member of ALTO.

To this day, the D’Jonzi primarily live in space and are common in space stations and staryards throughout the galaxy. Their colony ships are ancient but many are still in service, moving slowly through space and acting more as mobile stations than their original purpose. Most of these ships and stations are akin to ancient historical cities on Earth and are treated with reverence. They are also welcome to visitors and some have become popular tourist destinations driven by the novelty of a destination that will never be in the same place twice.

A very old species, the D’Jonzi nonetheless remained technologically stagnant for most of their history due to the limitations of life on their home planet. They are comfortable around humans after two hundred years and many have settled in human colonies. There are tens of thousands of D’Jonzi residents in the Sol System, for example. 

The D’Jonzi have also settled many worlds by this time but they are deeply romantic about their homeworld (many refuse to say its name aloud) and it’s common for D’Jonzi to agree that no planet will ever replace it, will ever be suitable enough to call home. By time of writing, efforts to assess their homeworld for resettlement have yielded little hope but efforts continue and new radiation shielding technologies have potential.

The D’Jonzi homeworld’s habitable space was always small, a thin equatorial band of twilight between two hemispheres. They evolved to be monocular and extremely light sensitive. The low gravity on their planet gave them their boneless, willowy bodies which are tougher than they look due to a solid endoskeleton made of thick cartilage. Their skin appears blue in most lit conditions but darkens considerably toward purple in twilight conditions. There is little difference between male and female D'Jonzi but they typically use cosmetics and wardrobe to differentiate as their voices are also very similar and not everybody has the right olfactory glands to properly tell them apart.

With no natural predators, the D’Jonzi are prone to existential terror when faced with “monsters” and the like. The idea that something could or would eat them is deeply terrifying to them. However, the preciousness of life on their planet, all of which they saved in genetic vaults, gives them a reluctance to kill and they are typically nonviolent bordering on pacifism. Their time as deep spacefarers promoted taking the long view in their culture and though they don’t live much longer than humans, they still tend to think in “cosmic” timescales.

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[nanowrimo]

“In fiction, setting can be an under-utilized tool. It should be as important as the characters and you can use it to engage your reader, reveal characterization, and much more. How does your character interact with the world around them? How does the setting interact with the characters? What are the emotions evoked in your character by the space? Make sure to think about these questions to bring both your characters and their surroundings to life.“

—Lisa Stringfellow writes middle grade fiction and has a not-so-secret fondness for fantasy with a dark twist. Her debut fantasy A Comb of Wishes was published on February 8, 2022 by HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books and was named an ABA Indie Introduce and an Indie Next Kids’ title. The book has received starred reviews and is included on 2022 summer reading lists by The Horn Book and the TODAY show’s Read With Jenna Jr. Lisa’s work often reflects her West Indian and Black southern heritage. She is a middle school teacher and lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her children and two bossy cats.

What kind of sensory details do you usually add to your story settings? Let Lisa know, or thank her for her Camp Care Package!

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