World Building - Blog Posts
Hold my hand
Ooo baby it's a long way down
To the bottom of the river
Some scattered thoughts about Desmona's mask, why she wears it, and how she got it.
Taglist: @glacierruler
"This is the land of the glass bots. We abandoned them, abandoned their lands, and instead of staying dead like they should have, they turned into walking memories."
And now, finally, Glass (ey/em), linguist, translator, and traveler of the desert.
Info:
First to join the group, joined Sprocket a while ago.
It was just the two of them for a very long time
Glass' main role on the team is as a protector (ey wields that spear well) and as a navigator
Before Sprocket, ey was a translator
Glass lived with other glass bots, and worked closely with their king
When humans needed to interact with the glass bots for any reason, Glass would act as a translator
Because Glass people speak in frequencies humans can't always hear and cannot learn to speak any other language, Glass learned sign language, which ey still uses to communicate now
Ey also became a kind of negotiator, learning how to translate what the King had to say into mannerisms and politeness that the humans would view favorably, and vice-versa
This regular involvement with humans grew Glass's fascination with human culture and languages, something not necessarily appreciated in the glass bot world
Of course it was Glass's job to understand these things, and ey was respected given eir high-ranking position, but ostracized as well
Eventually, this fascination with the outside world, resentment in eir own community, and disagreement with the King's rule drove Glass to leave and strike out on eir own
Soon after, ey met Sprocket, who offered em a job
Out of the group, those two are probably still the closest
They had a lot of time out in the desert to grow this bond, learning about each other, about each other's worlds
Glass is a very curious person, and often has many questions
Ey is very passionate about languages, and always eager to learn more, as well as teach people
Glass is an excellent teacher as well, eir patience makes em well-suited for it
Once Desmona joins the team and they have an actual human mouth to feed, ey also discovers a love of cooking!
"Leaving Deslocar? What, the whole fucking planet? Ha, yeah, as if. Listen, this place'll chew ya up and spit ya out, sure, but I wouldn't leave if you were givin' out first class tickets to the stars."
Alonze (he/she/they), a former bandit, now fresh out of jail, with nowhere else to go.
Info:
Was the last to join the scavenging group, and acts as hired guns basically, protecting the group from rivals and bandits
Desmona (one of the younger members of the crew) didn't like her at first because she can be kind of... a lot
And since Desmona didn't like him, Glass didn't either
Also by the time Alonze joins, he's the only one that doesn't know sign and therefore can't communicate with Glass, which doesn't help their relationship
Eventually they both warm up to her
Used to know Sprocket, which is how they nail the bodyguard job so easily
The two of them used to be part of a crew of bandits a while back, but after Sprocket- well after Alonze got arrested, it was a while before they saw each other again
She used to have two of those old colt-inspired pistols, but Sprocket was only able to hang onto one for her
Shoot first, ask questions later kinda gal
They're very quick to anger, and very impulsive
This makes him good at thinking on his feet, and good in high-pressure situations, but not very good at making a plan and carrying it through
This drives Sprocket insane
An excellent shot, cares very deeply for their weapons
Cares deeply for a lot of things, really
He's very passionate, and opinionated, has a stance on anything and everything and will die on any hill
Apathy???? never heard of her
"I wouldn't say I hope for the crashes. They simply happen, whether we're there to harvest the parts or leave them to rust in the sands. Might as well make something good out of it."
An old mining bot gone rogue, Sprocket (he/him) is now the defacto leader of our little group of scavengers.
Some info:
Was originally scavenging on his own, but started the group when he picked up Glass (another member)
Bounced around in different jobs as he found a spot to settle down on Deslocar after his mining days, the most important of these being his bandit and mechanic days
He still isn't quite settled down now, but there's certain towns and cities he floats between a lot
Very much an engineer, knows his way around all sorts of machines and is great at fixing stuff, including himself
Has made a lot of adjustments and modifications over the years
accidental dad friend
Freaks out HARD when anyone gets hurt, and has a habit of offering the humans water when they complain about literally anything because like??? that's what people need right?????
Not super a fan of violence, but he does what's necessary. Tries his best to keep the crew out of shit, when he can, especially after it's not just him and Glass
The tubes running outside of his body help maintain his temperature- robots run on a liquid power source and it gets hot
Works like rabbit ears yknow?
His eyes emit a light glow, it's hard to see in the daytime but very noticeable at night, some say to an unnerving degree
He has slats above and below his eyes that he can use to emote
Talks through the speaker on his face, but also knows sign language and can flash his eyes to speak in a kind of morse code
He taught it to Glass a while back, and they use it to communicate sometimes, either when its convenient to be able to talk without talking or signing, when they dont want anyone else to understand them, or when Sprocket just feels like it
New Species for my World-Building Project Species Name: Aleysians
Classification: Sub-Magic Wielder Ranking: B- (case to case basis tho) Powers: Aura reading, slight increased healing Explanation: Their abilities are passed down from the Elisier in their blood line so potency of their magic (and in retrospect strength of their powers) depends on how far down the bloodline they are. If the magic is still potent enough or awakened somehow, they are tend to manifest weak clairvoyancy. In truth, their abilities tend to be aura reading that with training can be used to determine potential futures through reading emotions and energies of people and locations.
Background Info: A sub-species of Elisiers and humans technically as the small amount of Elisiers mean that Elisier couples are basically impossible. Direct Aleysians are born from the reproduction of Elisiers with a mortal counterpart (making them a less common sub-species), however, generational Aleysians are more often found around (some even unaware of the fact they are one.
New Species for my World-Building Project Species Name: Elisiers
Classification: Sub-Magic Wielder Ranking: S+ Powers: Rapid healing, Clairvoyance Power Explanation: The power they are most well known for is clairvoyance, essentially being able to predict the future. However, what makes this species especially unique is the fact that there is no set way in how they predict it. Some known methods are through dreams, visions, emotions, however, not a lot of information is known about them or the specifics...
Background Info: They are born from stardust, which is what grants them their abilities, due to star dust being magical residue. With it thriving within their very beings, they tend to be incredibly powerful beings. As a result, they are an extremely rare species, very few exist at the same time.
Well, now I gotta try to draw some Mandalorian armor (despite being terrible at armor in general)...
While I'm here, though, have you done anything like this for clone trooper armor? If you have, I wanna see it.
Mandalorian Armor, a simple guide
Oh dear. Several months late, but here we go. This will be a broad term overview of mando armor in canon at the moment, not an exhaustive list. Feel free to skip “materials & history” if you’d just like some more concrete guidelines and refs!
(Remember to click on the images for a better look!)
Material & History
A Small Intro Course
Mandalorian armor is supposed to be made out of beskar, an alloy (and yes all beskar is an alloy in disney canon (at least as of May 2021), like steel for example. Yes even “pure” beskar). The secrets of how to make it is limited to the Mandalorians, and the materials used to make it are most likely limited to Mandalore or the Mandalore system. It’s been in confirmed use as an armor material for at least 900 years & can take straight blaster bolts or hold off the circulating energy blade of a lightsaber for short periods of time, possibly until the beskar heats up enough to loose its integrity, but the heat would most likely cause serious damage to the wearers body before that.
Beskar armor is most often inherited, passed from generation to generation and reforged to suit the current wearers needs. It’s seen as passing down the history, the battles and the will of those who have worn it before and making it your own. However the material is rare, possibly because the mines have run dry ages ago (old EU), or because war and/or the New Mandalorians stopping production. The Empire interfering by taking over Mandalore and trying to get their hands on as much beskar as possibly and then later “glassing” the planet while hunting its only known creators surely did not help either, in any case.
This means that not all Mandalorians had access to the material, or at least large enough amounts to make a full suit of armor. This lead to the make of “impure” beskar that can take less of a brunt & armor made of other metals such as durasteel. This is most likely what makes up the majority of Din’s kit, beyond the helmet and possibly the chest piece, when he’s introduced in S1 and he still wears pieces that might be one of these materials as of Season 2.
Characters like Sabine Wren, Bo-Katan Kryze and Boba Fett all inherited their armor from their aliit (clan/family) through several generations and it’s most likely already pure beskar based on its age and how it reacts to blasterfire.
The armor is most often painted and there are various designs and colors that indicate personality, achievements or allegiances, but that would have to be another post. (Would anyone like a post on Mandalorian armor fashion? Because I have thoughts)
Helmet
Let’s start from the top. The helmet, aka the bucket. The buy’ce.
In the “modern” era it’s usually a helmet with a rounded top and some kind of cheek indents. It has a T (or occasionally closer to a Y) shaped visor that obscures the wearers face. It also contains a large amount of technology that allows for various visual filters, binoculars, built in comms and audio enhancers (allowing for near perfect 360° hearing in the old EU, as possibly shown by Din Djarin in the new), among other things. The earcaps seen on most modern styles of helmet allows for various specialized attachments, like rangefinders.
The styles of the helmets vary between clans and eras, but there’s a few distinct modern bases that are pretty easy to identify as Mandalorian and worn by all major Mandalorian characters.
The Boba Fett, based on the original helmet as seen in the OT, and worn by basically every male character with various types of cheek indents, ridges and the like. Some are thinner or longer, but the base of the design is still very clearly the OG Boba Fett helmet. T visor, sharp slope indent that takes up the entire cheek, long ear caps & a brow ridge.
Visual Reference
The Nite Owl, based on the helmet worn by Bo-Katan and the Nite Owls in TCW. It has a cat eyed Y visor and a more of a cut out cheek indent style, or simply a less severe smaller curve under the visor ridge (the area painted red on Boba Fett’s helmet).
Visual Reference
The Kast, is the rarest so far only seen on Rook Kast & the Maul-aligned female Mandalorians. It slopes slightly inwards below the uniquely shaped T visor and has no ear caps.
Visual References
And finally, some mandalorian helmets with slightly more unique shapes and/or shape combinations that put them outside the general easy to identify pile.
From left to right, The Armorer, Paz Vizsla, Pre Vizsla and Fenn Rau:
Chest, Neck, Back & Shoulders
As with everything else, there are various styles for these pieces of armor, but here are some basics.
Breastplate
Most commonly visibly segmented into three big parts, two on the chest and one below, with a small diamond shaped heart piece in the middle. The heart piece design can also been seen on Mandalorian clothing and architecture. In The Mandalorian these parts are generally attached together to give the armor a more solid look, but they are still distinguishable. Before the fall of the empire several female mandos favoured a more solid two part design that interlocked with their neck piece and had a thin rectangular bar instead of a classic heart piece. During the clone wars women of the faction supporting Maul (mostly clan Kast and clan Saxon) used a semi-connected two part design with six smaller pieces trailing down the stomach, three on each side. There are also various other designs with solid one part chest pieces, but most at least have a variation of the heart piece in the middle, as seen on Paz Vizsla.
The chest piece usually does not go below the navel, for bending over reasons.
Neckplate
Either two pieces on the side of the neck, or a longer single piece that goes in front of the neck & sits over the collarbones. Both of these variations are usually semi connected to, or line up with where the backplate ends.
Shoulders
Bell type, like Din Djarin & Axe Woves wear. The Classic, aka the style worn by Boba Fett, Ursa Wren & most grunts. And finally a slightly rounded middle ground, smaller than the Bell but sits over the shoulder and is often favored by female characters like Bo-Katan, female Mauldalorians & Sabine Wren.
Backplate
Usually as long as the chest piece, used to protect the back and to mount jetpacks, and other useful things, on.
Jetpack
Technically not a piece of armor, but sometimes armored. Comes in various sizes and styles.
Visual References
Vambraces & Handplates
Vambraces
Both forearm protection and weapons. Developed to give a Mandalorian that extra edge when fighting stronger opponents. To that goal, they’re often fitted with various attachments such as flamethrowers, retractable blades, shield emitters, repulsors, grappling lines, magnets, missiles and various types of darts, including the whistling birds seen in The Mandalorian.
Handplates
It’s a plate that goes on your hand. Nothing more, nothing less. Can of course be fitted with various other weapons, as long as they fit.
Visual References
The Codpiece, Buttplate & Hip Plates
Ah yes. Well.
All pieces are usually worn tucked underneath and/or attached to the waist sash/girth belt/belt.
Codpiece
Look, it’s a codpiece. It’s there to protect your sensitive parts. There are less bulky variations for people who can do without the extra space. Those are often segmented. Some wear more of a lower stomach plate. Others don’t bother, or only wear theirs when they might need it since I imagine it can be a bit uncomfortable to wear day to day.
Buttplate
It’s a plate that goes over your butt. And I mean just above, not on. Din has one, Boba has one. It’s a thing. Why? Because bruising you tailbone hurts like hell.
Hip Plates
They’re plates that go on your hips. Only confirmed sighting has been on Din, but we’ve also got some good shots of them because of this so I put them in anyway.
Visual References
Thighs, Knees, Shins, Ankles & Feet
Varies from completely covered to almost no armor at all. On one end you’ve got Jango Fett, and on the other you’ve got Boba Fett. Ironic, in a way.
Thigh plates
Generally sit either on the front of the thigh or on the outer sides. The outward style thigh plates are more form fitting and allow for holsters to be mounted directly onto the plate, this was popular during the Clone Wars era. The front facing plates are often different sizes, possibly depending on your dominant hand/how you prefer to hold your weapon of choice.
Knee armor/pads
For knee protection, unless you’re like Boba Fett, then they’re also dart launchers. In the old EU the darts were laced with neurotoxin, but that seems to have been removed for new canon. Sit nebulously in the knee region.
Shin, Ankle and/or Boot plates
Over your shins, ankles and feet, for all your literal ass kicking needs. Comes in various types including but not limited to: boot caps, ankle plates, shin guards and of course full on greaves.
Visual References
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So there you have it! A broad overview of Mandalorian armor. This has been in my drafts for months at this point so I’m not going to go over this again so you’ll have to excuse any weird phrasing or misspelt words. And how messy the visual ref sheets got. (I’m also considering putting together something for different eras & allegiances based on design, accessories, paintjobs, etc, but that will have to be another day.)
Gourd Trees
Gourd Trees, or Tuttaps are not actually trees at all. They are an evolved form of gourd with a hollow center, surrounding flesh, and hard outer rind. Not all forms are edible but those that are are often staple foods of their region.
Gourd Trees come in as many varieties as there are gourds. They always grow from a smaller gourd and either grow larger or stack to create height. They seem to have developed in the aftermath of spreading Chloromites killing off local trees so the gourds grew taller and replaced the local trees as shelter for birds and other animals. The animals eat and spread the Gourd Tree's seeds.
Fun Facts About Jira, my world building project #2
Jira can largely be classified as a Science Fantasy world but because of the scale of the Jira project it's more accurate to categorize the different eras of Jira into different genres. For now they are as follows:
Prehistory - Speculative Biology
Surface era - Medieval Fantasy
Dispace era - Underground Fantasy
Early Island era - Fantasy
Era of science - Steampunk
Modern Era - Modern Contemporary
Cyber era - Scifi
Post Cyber era - Eco Scifi
Fun Facts About Jira, my world building project #1
Jira is home to many intelligent species other than humans.
to date there are
Silfs - human like creatures with horns and fluffy hair who are always some variant of red & blue
Avians - Bird people
Ramlans - mountain species with tough hairs like wool and horns
Iora - stationary mushroom people
Ghosts - beings made of Artificial Magic
Merpeople - an overall term for a variety of sea born intelligent life
Crystalites - beings of sentient crystal
Halfling Crystalites - corpses controlled by parasitic sentient crystals, unrelated to the crystals of the Crystalites despite the name
Grotton - ape-like creatures who originate from the darkest parts of the Ridge
Hybrids - half animal people the result of wild magic sickness
Shifters - animals who can shift into a semi-human form
Many of these species overlap with humans due to the the grip human traits have on Jiran evolution and the fact that many species are evolved forms of humans for particular environments
Since it's November 1...thought I would reblog this :D
Hello!
Do you enjoy writing? What about talking with other writers? Are you looking for someone to read through your work, help out where they can? How about participate in world building exercises and character building prompts?
Well, I might have just the place for you.
Consider joining The Writing Desk. It's an 18+ writing discord server that will hopefully help you and others find people to cheer them on while working towards your goals.
Whether you write fanfiction, historical romance, medieval fantasy, nonfiction works, or academic papers you should be able to find your place here.
The server itself has sort of a dark academia aesthetic. We have four 'dorms' that might have something to do with points later on. They are:
• Gargoyle • Harpy • Unicorn • Wyvern
Some things included in the server are things like:
• Sprinting (both shorter and longer ones) • NSFW channel that is OPT-IN ONLY • A place for resources • Some non-writing channels for fun :)
There might be some events at times! Though you don't have to participate in those.
If this sounds good to you, The Writing Desk is here for you. Just follow the link. :)
Hello!
Do you enjoy writing? What about talking with other writers? Are you looking for someone to read through your work, help out where they can? How about participate in world building exercises and character building prompts?
Well, I might have just the place for you.
Consider joining The Writing Desk. It's an 18+ writing discord server that will hopefully help you and others find people to cheer them on while working towards your goals.
Whether you write fanfiction, historical romance, medieval fantasy, nonfiction works, or academic papers you should be able to find your place here.
The server itself has sort of a dark academia aesthetic. We have four 'dorms' that might have something to do with points later on. They are:
• Gargoyle • Harpy • Unicorn • Wyvern
Some things included in the server are things like:
• Sprinting (both shorter and longer ones) • NSFW channel that is OPT-IN ONLY • A place for resources • Some non-writing channels for fun :)
There might be some events at times! Though you don't have to participate in those.
If this sounds good to you, The Writing Desk is here for you. Just follow the link. :)
First ever tumblr post hoooly. Here are my ocs, Ȟarti and Wrsi (he’s the goat one). They’re part of a book I’m writing that takes place in my worldbuilding project with many different cultures, continents, cities, histories, and gods. There’s even a work in progress conlang which has the script done with a few basic words! Maybe I’ll make a proper introduction post to the world but I have a huge backlog of drawings for my ocs and world so we’ll see how long that takes.
Butler Mario OC: Kimoko
A royal butler that serves next to maquyo as this servant has an eyeing lore of many many dirty secrets that he holds with no question.
Leopaldo physiology (still working on)
OC protang 1 Maquyo Sandaboruto
Here is her info.
http://aminoapps.com/p/w54ev6f
Scott Pilgrim is, I think, the best example I can think of for establishing a setting's Nonsense Limit. The setting's Nonsense Limit isn't quite "How high-fantasy is this". It's mostly a question of presentation, to what degree does the audience feel that they know the rules the world operates by, such that they are primed to accept a random new element being introduced. A setting with a Nonsense Limit of 0 is, like, an everyday story. Something larger than life, but theoretically taking place in our world, like your standard spy thriller action movie has a limit of 1. Some sort of hidden world urban fantasy with wizards and stuff operating in secret has a nonsense limit around 3 or 4. A Superhero setting, presenting an alternate version of our world, is a 5 or 6. High fantasy comes in around a 7 or so, "Oh yeah, Wizards exist and they can do crazy stuff" is pretty commonly accepted. Scott Pilgrim comes in at a 10. If you read the Scott Pilgrim book, it starts off looking like a purely mundane slice of life. The first hint at the fantastical is Ramona appearing repeatedly in Scott's Dreams, and then later showing up in real life. When we finally get an explanation, it's this:
Apparently Subspace Highways are a thing? And they go through people's heads? And Ramona treats this like it's obscure, but not secret knowledge. Ramona doesn't think she's doing anything weird here. At this point, it's not clear if Scott is accepting Ramona's explanation or not, things kind of move on as mundane as ever until their Date, when Ramona takes Scott through subspace, and he doesn't act like his world was just blown open or anything, although I guess that could have been a metaphor. there's a couple other moments, but everything with Ramona could be a metaphor, or Scott not recognizing what's going on. Maybe Ramona is uniquely fantastical in this otherwise normal world. And then, this happens
Suddenly, a fantastical element (A shitty local indie band finishing their set with a song that knocks out most of the audience) is introduced unrelated to Ramona, and undeniably literal. We see the crowd knocked out by Crash and The Boys. but the story doesn't linger on the implications of that, the whole point of that sequence is to raise the Nonsense Level, such that you accept it when This happens
Matthew Patel comes flying down onto the stage, Scott, who until this point is presented as a terrible person and a loser, but otherwise is extremely ordinary, proceeds to flawlessly block and counter him before doing a 64-hit air juggle combo. Scott's friends treat this like Scott is showing off a mildly interesting party trick, like being really good at darts. The establish that Scott is the "Best Fighter in the Province", not only are street-fighter battles a thing, Scott is Very Good at it, but they're so unimportant that being the best fighter in the province doesn't make Scott NOT a loser. So when Matthew Patel shows off his magic powers and then explodes into a pile of coins, we've established "Oh, this is how silly the setting gets". It's not about establishing the RULES of the setting so much as it is about establishing a lack of rules. Scott's skill at street-fighter battles doesn't translate to any sort of social prestige. Ramona can access Subspace Highways and she uses it to do a basic delivery job. It doesn't make sense and it's clear that it's not supposed to. So later on, when Todd Ingram starts throwing around telekinesis, and the explanation we're given is "He's a Vegan" , you're already so primed by the mixture of weirdness and mundanity that rather than trying to incorporate this new knowledge into any sort of coherent setting ruleset, you just go "Ah, yeah, Vegans".
Characters having assumptions about the world that are fundamentally incorrect, but correct enough. Too often I see people create extremely elaborate magic systems, and then make all the characters automatically have a clear grasp on how the system works.
There is nothing wrong with intricate magic systems, I love them too! However, the secrecy and mystery of unknown magic shouldn't be limited to only the very rare and powerful, because here's the thing: We have no idea what gravity is. Gravity, the most common and observed *thing* in all of science. Is it a particle? A curve of space-time? A force?
Guess what? Curves and particles and forces are all made up by people. They are concepts that we use to try to understand how the world works. They are never fully accurate, but they are accurate enough for what we need them for. The universe is chaos, and we apply rules to it to simplify reality. Reality exists beyond these rules, though. It is a sphere of undefinable complexity.
Here's an example: Magic Missile, the most common and used spell of all evocations. Is it caused by a sudden rise in local portent? Or maybe it is an extension of the caster's arcane properties? A sigil?
Guess what? Sigils and poetent and incantation are all made up by wizards. They are concepts that magic wielders use to try to understand how magic works. They are never fully accurate, but they are accurate enough for what they need them for. Magic is chaos, and we apply rules to it to simplify spellcasting. Magic exists beyond these rules, though. It is a sphere of undefinable weird.
Tldr; Magic=Physics, Wizards=Scientists. Nothing is certain, and we exist only in the amorphous bubble of theory
What are some world-building ideas or tropes that you want to see more of? I enjoy world-building but want something new or exciting or out of the ordinary to help get the juices flowing again
last min painting for class, apart of a bigger world build from this sem ill upload tht later when its polished..,. 🪱
Worldbuilding Survey 2
This isn't the full extent of the magic system, but I've attempted to condense each type of magic so that you can understand the gist of what it is.
The rest of my art
Holy moly, Okay, I finally found the origin of my TLOZ AU idea, it all started with my spooky little skull kid / kokiri (skullori) idea. I imagine after some time there would be blended variations or kokiri would eventually have to be tougher. See that little spike knee bracer? He totally stole it from Ganondorf and is going home to show all of his friends. Then above is some early concept designs for zurudo people (they're so unpolished ;w; ) also I had to sensor my name on these before I did my little MA signature. I hope peeps can trust me on that that these are in fact my drawings and all that but I really didn't want to leave these unshared today <3
Lore dump on my Magic System:
Alright yeah time to lore dump about my magic system. So basically, it's a bit of a mix of biology, psychology. Magic lets you do anything that YOU believe you can do. As long as you can imagine it, and believe it to be real, it will be real. Massive explosions or subtle shifts in energy can happen as fast as thought. However, there are a few limitations, and that's mostly where the science part comes in. Energy is drained from your body's cells whenever you do magic, and the amount drained is directly related to the task you preformed. At First it draws energy from the fat stored in your body, but if you were casting a really powerful fucking spell, then it just keeps pulling the chemical energy from your cells until all that's left of you is a pile of dust.
Changing the energy's form into things like heat or light are easy, turning energy into matter is much harder, and altering the energy withing living things is the most difficult. People who are smarter than me would probably pick up on the fact that the system wouldn't allow you to do too much in a short time, despite the fact that you can alter reality as quick as you can think. Your body only has so much energy in it, and at best you'd be able to do three D&D style cantrips before burning yourself out. So luckily, there are a couple in-universe work arounds that make the impossible possible.
The main one is your standard focus, you know, magically pouring your energy into an inorganic object for later use. It can be a long process, but it's the cleanest way to build power for more complex casts. Over in the west they rely on catalyst to cast spells, sacrificing something of cultural importance such as blood or a specific flower, then drawing the energy out of the scraps in order to cut down on the cost of certain effects. There are also a few spells that require certain actions or special items in order to work. An easy example would be an effigy of a person that you must make yourself in order to use tracking magic on someone. Limitations like these have been put in place after centuries of collective belief and can differ from group to group.
There's also a strange side effect, a phenomenon that has stumped the world's best scholars. Seemingly randomly, an invisible force will carve a rune into your body after you've used magic. As these marks begin to form, most people describe feeling a cold pressure, as if frozen hands were pressing into their flesh. But once the carving finishes, the resulting carving always radiates a feeling of warmth, no matter how cold the surrounding air may be. Terrible mages have ended up with intricate patterns, while one of the best mages in history only ever got strange holes that shot through her body. Most cultures treat the carvings as a status symbol, the more marks, the stronger the mage.
Adding a new character, and planning to make a reference page later. For now, here's the lore I'm working with:
His name is Fasigo, also known as Codec depending on the region. He's a short Watujeet scholar who likes investigating lost nations, and preserving history. His face was ripped off by an insane wizard, and so he created an enchanted ring that projects the illusion of his old appearance. In my head, he's the sort of character with a obsessive passion for knowledge, but he's also quite forgetful at the same time. He obsesses over one thing for months, but as soon as he's learned all there is, everything just leaves his mind immediately and a new obsession forms. He's the guy who writes most of the in-universe history books, but when you go to ask him about a fact or two he just has no idea what your talking about
I like the visual of a rough and tough band of adventures delving into an ancient ruin, spooked to see that all the monsters have already been blown apart. They reach the bottom and it opens out into this giant city or something. Then there's just... Some guy? He's got a big hat and he's just straight up chilling down here. Scribbling in a battered tome while scrying crystals float around him. He speaks to them in sign language, which the mage of the group understands, and he's all like "I hope you didn't come all this way just to rob the place... There's so much we can learn from the artifacts down here..."
Why am not ecstatic? I’ve done everything that’s supposed to make me happy. Such convoluted character development.
Worldbuilding Concept - The Raising and Dropping of the Veil
(This is part of the worldbuilding for my urban fantasy couple) The Dark Ages From the beginning of time, humanity has lived alongside the supernatural. This could be treating one another as equals, such as the relationship between humans and nonhuman-humanoids, treating the supernatural as wild animals, or even considering the magical as gods on Earth. This cohabitation lasted until a movement arose to explain the inexplicable The Scientific Revolution and the Raising of the Veil As the understanding of the natural world increased starting in the 1500 and 1600's, there was less of an explanation for the existence of the supernatural. These things became attributed to disease and a lack of education. With this the knowledge of the supernatural became restricted to small towns with traditional beliefs, and then all but disappeared until an event that overturned the beliefs that the Veil was built on. The Y2K Incident After at least 400 years of the supernatural falling out of public awareness, and even further being completely hidden by the Veil put up by common belief, everything came crashing down in 2000. The disbelief in science and technology brought on by Y2K was just enough to break the thin Veil brought up between the scientific and magical. People looked around on New Year's day and saw things they never would have believed they would see just a few hours before. The Aftermath Surprisingly quickly, the world adapted to rediscovering the supernatural. Within the first decade, governments scrambled to identify everyone with their species and regulate their lives to prevent chaos. Vampires were provided rations, and many businesses began adopting "nightwalker hours" to accommodate their, and others who prefer the dark's needs. Werewolves started being provided days off around the full moon. Even Fae contracts took on a more legalized nature, even if that didn't necessarily make them more understandable. The internet and social media has made it near impossible for the Veil to be reerected, so society will likely remain supernaturally diverse unless all technology goes down in a mass event, similar to what was expected during the Y2K Incident. It is unlikely, but nothing is impossible.
*grumpy climatologist staying at hotel for convention*
"Continental Breakfast? I'd hardly say so, it's just as lukewarm in summer as it is in winter!"
More notes on World building. I have a bunch more about HOW to use the skills,boarding for exploration. color. lighting and eventually how to find you voice as an artist ( which,yeah..I mean..I guess EVERYBODY has advice on that). Any other topics I should cover??
Where did everyone go?
I mean…it looks lovely, but I haven’t seen anyone for a while now…At least it allows me to hide here.
Writing Tips #10
Spend time world building. Even if you're writing fanfiction, you need to know the world in which your characters reside. I’ve beaten this to death, but that will require research of the source material or history books.
Is it a monarchy or is there a president? Who delivers justice? What are the rights of the people? How is education?
Keep notes and make sure nothing conflicts. It’s just as important to have a seamless world as a flawless plot. You can’t have a world full of contradictions (unless you’re writing Alice in Wonderland) and holes without hurting yourself in the long run.
Plot out your worlds like you would your characters.