Flora - Blog Posts
Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions (Fauna and Flora)
Fauna and Flora Worldbuilding Questions:
What are the most common animals or plants, the fly, pigeon, grass and weed equivalents in your world?
What are humans or others’ relationship to fauna and flora? (For example, are some groups more respectful, reverent, or caring of their environment? Why?)
Who in your cast of characters cares most about your world’s fauna and flora? Who cares least?
Who nurtures or exploits your world’s plant and animal life?
Where are plants and animals more abundant or scarce, and why?
Where do plants and animals get their names from?
When will plants or animals first appear in the story, and what will their purpose be in regard to character or plot?
When did common species of plants or animals first appear in your world, and how did they evolve or adapt?
Why do certain plants or animals have cultural or religious significance – what is their backstory in myth or legend?
Why do specific plants or animals have economic value, and how does their availability affect this value? Do these aspects change over the story’s course?
❯ ❯ ❯ Read other writing masterposts in this series: Worldbuilding Questions for Deeper Settings
I recently redesigned an old character of mine. She’s like a Demi god… sort of? Like on the latter of divinity she is something similar to a god but only on the scale of one world whereas true gods are not confined to a single world.
Bet you could never guess what her “godly” domain is…
Anyways, the redesign was inspired by those cool ass tulip Bantu knots I’ve seen floating around. She’s always, or at least for a very long time, had a rose motif in her hair but it was still hair, just an Afro stylized so that the texture looks like roses. Now it’s actually flowers. There’s some other minor changes too but the hair is the biggest.
Some ideas (subject to change) on my furry characters and their relationships. And because this a terrible diagram, here’s the info in text form.
Matonne Cerise and Bev: Each other’s main romantic (and sexual) partners. Their love language is making all manner of animal noises at each other and cuddling a bunch. They have a shared love of speculative fiction, abstract art, food, and encouraging each other to be bold.
Matonne and Camry: They date, sometimes swap clothes. They in particular like to have group dates (and sleepovers 😉) with each other and their main partners.
Matonne and Flora: Probably the most physical of the two’s platonic relationships, since both of them crave physical affection. Occasional bedmates.
Matonne and Octávio: Housemates and drag performers who work together. Most of their bonding is over fashion. Every so often they’ll, uh, share a bed.
Matonne and Joan: Matonne highly respects (and is slightly intimidated by) Joan who admires Matonne for his artistry. Joan sells the clothes Matonne makes in xir store.
Matonne and Tristan: Neither of them quite know how platonic or romantic their relationship is. Both are really good at (and comfortable with) listening to the other vent. And yes, Matonne’s bed is open to Tristan too. Bev and Camry: Met through each other’s main romantic partners. Like going out for sweets together, with or without their partners. They love talking with each other about their crushes (which include their current partners).
Bev and Flora: Best friends who met in college and currently live together. Bev and Flora helped each other out a lot in their queer journeys. Bev has a slight crush on Flora (Flora knows). Traded entire wardrobes.
Bev and Octávio: Gym buddies who also trade recipes. They also both really love speculative fiction, mostly movies though where they fawn over the costumes.
Bev and Joan: Joan sells Bev’s books. Bev is less intimated by Joan than Matonne is.
Bev and Tristan: Gaming buddies. Sometimes Tristan proofreads Bev’s writing.
Camry and Flora: Lovebirds. They’re constantly reassuring of each other through hugs, and head pats, and words of affirmation. They’re both can be pretty sensitive, and are both the most understanding of that for each other.
Camry and Octávio: They absolutely love clothes shopping together. Often these two, plus Flora, will just give each other makeovers.
Camry and Joan: Camry works at Joan’s shop and lives with xir. He’s often very jokey with xir and is the only person Joan trusts to run the shop without xir.
Camry and Tristan: Cousins, best friends, and roommates. They’re always finishing each other’s sentences (and sandwiches) and playfully bantering. Camry is the person Tristan near always turns to when he needs physical or medical assistance.
Flora and Octávio: Octávio teaches Flora makeup. Flora teaches him board gaming. Octávio can sometimes be a bit much for Flora, but he’s learning to tone down his intensity around her.
Flora and Joan: Flora was at first intimidated by Joan, but xe quickly made sure she felt welcome around xir. I mean, Flora is at Joan’s house a lot.
Flora and Tristan: They trade gaming and gender tips. Frequently mistaken for siblings in public.
Octávio and Joan: Octávio is the muscle of Joan’s store, taking care of most of the heavy lifting. Joan is probably the only person who can reign in Octávio’s wild energy.
Octávio and Tristan: They did it once together when Tristan was still figuring out his orientation. You’d think this would make things awkward from then on, but actually, they’re really chill and hang out a lot.
Tristan and Joan: Joan may be Tristan’s boss, but they’re almost like family at this point. Joan is pretty lax with Tristan when it comes to his work and understands his limitations and medical needs. They both bond over media and art preservation which they use to guide the direction of the store.
I saw @jacked-anime-lloyd 's post about Ninjago flora, and I draw this "Ice Berries", but in the half way of this my white pen said "nope" and now we have this. But I think it turned out better than it could be😅
I will say, one good thing about the live action remakes is that they are forcing us to realize what is at the heart and soul of the original stories.
Why does the live action Snow White feel so heartless? Because that isn't Snow White.
Well, we already knew the girl was kind, but wasn't until the remake was announced did we go back and see HOW kind Snow White was. The girl noticed how messy the drawfs' house was, believed they had mother, and decided to clean the house for the little "children" out of kindness (and hoping they let her stay).
Snow White went out of her way to help these little "children"...when she was still a child herself! ONLY 13 or 14 years old!!! So kind and yet so small!
Think about all the others now.
Ever kind and strong Cinderella. The determined and unwavering Bella. The Wonder-Seeking Ariel. The causally-stealing-the-show Good Faires. And on and on and on.
Hopefully, after experiencing the heartless live action remakes, the next generation of storytellers will take us back to when books and movies had, should I say, Soul.
Rant incoming
I feel like the problem with a lot of Disney's live action remakes (and arguably Wish) is they're trying to appeal to a crowd that no longer exists, namely the people who used to claim that the Disney Princesses were sexist.
All the interviews tend to include, "Well she's not chasing a MAN anymore" which...almost no one sees the princesses like that, anymore. Virtually NO ONE still believes the princesses are man-chasing sexist caricatures of women.
Cinderella is now hailed as an abuse victim who stayed strong long enough to get help to get out of her situation. Anyone who says she should have saved herself is basically regarded as a victim blamer. And it's very clear in the film she wasn't looking to marry the prince, she just wanted a night off. She was the only one who wasn't in line to meet him. She didn't find out she met the prince until he went looking for her!
Snow White is now hailed for her negotiation skills, ability to calm down after extreme stress (she had a moment of panic and had to cry for a bit, but who wouldn't after finding out The Queen hired someone to kill you?), and ability to take charge of a house of adult men. And again, she was an abuse victim, this time trying to escape ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS. While she dreamed of her prince, it was secondary to her main goal of SURVIVAL. There are also entire video essays about how Snow White gave hope to people during The Great Depression.
Everyone acknowledges that Ariel wanted to be human BEFORE meeting Eric. We all know she was a nerd hyperfixating on humans, and also standing up to her prejudiced father.
We understand Sleeping Beauty wasn't the main character, the Three Good Fairies were, AND PHILLIP WOULD NEVER HAVE BEATEN MALEFICENT WITHOUT THEM! He literally depended on them! WOMEN SAVED THE DAY! But even then, is it really such a sin for a girl to fantasize about romance and fall for someone with corny pickup lines?
We all understand Jasmine just wanted someone to treat her LIKE A PERSON. She rejected every Prince before Aladdin because they treated her like a prize. So why did they need her to want to be Sultan? How did that make her more feminist when she already wanted to be treated like an equal and have a say in her future? Is it only empowering if you want a career in politics?
We admire that Belle, despite living in a judgemental village, was kind to everyone (even though she found the village life dull), and her story teaches girls that the guy everyone else loves isn't always a good guy. What's sexist about teaching girls about red flags? And she didn't start being nice to The Beast until he started treating her with respect and kindness.
Do I really NEED to defend Mulan or Tiana? I think they speak for themselves.
Rapunzel was yet another abuse victim who just needed a little help to get out of her bad situation. In this case, she also needed to learn that she was an abuse victim, and that what Mother Gothel did WASN'T normal, much like many victims of gaslighting.
And don't get me started on the non-princess animals.
Perdita had a healthy relationship with Pongo to the point she was open to express her pregnancy fears to him, and was ready to TEAR APART Cruella's goons for daring to touch her puppies as well as adopting the other puppies. Like, she was so ferocious the goons mistook her for a hyena! She's basically that "I AM THAT GIRL'S MOTHER!" scene from SpyXFamily if Yor were a dog. She and her husband were a TEAM.....but they made a Cruella live action to turn her into a girlboss?! The literal animal abuser!? THAT'S the woman you wanted to put on a pedestal when Perdita was RIGHT THERE!?
Duchess kept her kittens calm after they had been catnapped and was classy as heck. Nice to everyone regardless of social class during a time period where that was uncommon.
Lady stood up to Tramp when she believed he had abandoned her and didn't really care about her. She found out he was a heartbreaker and was like, "Nuh uh. No. You are not doing that to me! You put me through enough."
Miss Bianca from The Rescuers was IN CHARGE the whole movie, and was willing to risk life and limb to save an innocent child. THAT TINY MOUSE TOOK ON ALLIGATORS! And she picked Bernard to accompany her because he was the only one who wasn't ogling her. And then in the sequel SHE DID IT ALL AGAIN! I wish I were as brave as her.
Like, the public haven't accused these ladies of being sexist caricatures since 2014 (Actresses and actors don't count, they're out of touch like the rest of Hollywood) yet Disney is operating under the assumption that the public still thinks that way, hence all the "sHe'S nOt AfTeR a MaN iN ThIs VeRsIOn" talk.
The live action remakes are trying to attract an audience that doesn't really exist much, anymore, and back when it did exist, was comprised mainly of people who didn't actually watch the films. The Disney princesses are no longer seen as sexist, and feminine qualities are no longer seen as weak or undesirable.
corrins war crimes!!