#✦ worldbuilding.

[iustitians]

ooc; headcanons/worldbuilding - on the Dragon Sovereign's Authority or lack thereof, and how it fucks with you

(whiny child voice) Moooom Neffi is turning a meme into a serious meta agaaain

Fontaine Archon Quest spoilers (4.2 in particular) below.

No really, this idea literally did start with a meme. Specifically, with this post that I accidentally ran into on Twitter. My first reaction was, presumably, similar to everyone else's. I laughed and was like "lmao yeah they kinda have a point". And then I started thinking. (Oh no.)

Exactly why was Neuvillette like this?

And as I thought about it more, I had a bit of an epiphany. Or maybe just a bunch of random thoughts, who knows. Anyway.

Even though Neuvillette's identity as the Hydro Dragon Sovereign is revealed to us in 4.1 and so is his negative attitude towards Celestia (he openly refers to the Heavenly Principles as the "First Usurper"), it is not until after completing Masquerade of the Guilty that his character story parts and voice lines about judging the Archons and the heavens, restoring the original order etc are unlocked. In addition, they are also generally worded in a more grandiose - and sometimes borderline hostile - tone than what is made available to us prior to 4.2. (With the exception of Neuvillette's final ascension quote, but quite frankly, it's literally a 4.2 spoiler that in my opinion should have been blocked by story progression as well. But maybe they just don't do that to ascension quotes. I dunno.)

Before we complete the 4.2 AQ, the most we get is Neuvillette mocking Venti and Zhongli for the fake Visions, which like... when you think about it, he kinda has a point lmao. The tone of his voice lines towards the Archons that unlock after completing said AQ also cannot be compared to his attitude towards Furina - whom he believes to be the Hydro Archon - throughout the Fontaine story. Yeah, he can find her exasperating at times, but there is no outright hostility, no talk of judging her someday - not to her face and not behind her back - and while he says that his Authority could be restored if the Archon were to disappear, he does not wish for it. He doesn't seem to want it to happen, and in fact seems kind of resigned to it not happening, believing the solution to be unrealistic. "I can't do much without my Authority unless the Archon were to disappear. But given the status quo, let's try to find a different way to deal with the prophecy. Anyway I need to go back to my office." Very different tone from stuff like "I shall fulfill my vow to judge all of The Seven, even if the sky should fall and the ground give way".

It's something that's been puzzling me for a little while now, and then I realized something. We can obviously go the easy route and say that, well, of course he didn't talk about doing things he did not have the power to do at the time. But I like to think that this goes deeper. So okay, bear with me for a moment.

The fact that, unlike the Archons, Neuvillette is not obligated to hand out Visions and only does so out of his own choice, and may also have actual control over who he grants a Vision to (unless we really want to insist that his first Vision being given to Furina of all people was a coincidence, which I mean... it might have been but I am not convinced), suggests that this power may actually be more native to the Dragon Sovereign Authority than anything else connected with being an Archon. This may be further supported by how the people from other nations - to our knowledge, at least - continue to receive Visions even after the Archon has handed over their Gnosis. (In addition, the people from Inazuma and Sumeru still got Visions in the 500 years during which Raiden and Kusanali did not hold their Gnoses.) After all - unlike the Gnosis, the Dragon Authority, tied to the Archon's Divine Throne, cannot be simply pawned off or stolen. So even after giving up the Gnosis, the Archons still possess the Authorities and continue to "impart shattered shards of their masteries" to humans, whether they are aware of and like it, or not.

(Plus, Neuvillette does not give half a shit about the Gnoses. He himself didn't know what they truly are until the Skirk Loredump™ and he casually handed the Hydro Gnosis over afterwards, further supporting the idea that those things are completely unrelated.)

What am I getting at here? Well, we know from the Inazuma Archon Quest what losing one's Vision does to a person. Having been deprived of what is essentially a piece of themselves, many of the victims of the Vision Hunt Decree lost their ambitions and goals in life, sometimes also some critical memories, could undergo a change in personality, and obviously no longer possessed the power that a Vision grants.

Which should sound a little familiar right now.

If this is what losing a Vision does, and if the theory that Visions are connected to Dragon Authorities is correct (which I will not call my theory by the way, I am not the first person to think this), then what if losing the Dragon Authority does the same to its original owner?

Thinking about it this way, that would explain a lot about the way Neuvillette was prior to regaining his Authority. His ambition and goal were either deeply concealed, or just simply missing, never once mentioned. His memories were very incomplete, to the point where he didn't even remember his connection to the Primordial Sea - which, if we want to believe the Vishap legend, he is the literal heart of, and even if we don't, said connection is still extremely close. His personality - as the Hydro Sovereign, rather than the Iudex - was certainly different, or rather it is, again, more appropriate to say that certain traits were missing. And, obviously, his power was very fragmented, as demonstrated by the way he struggled against the Primordial Seawater breaking free in the Fortress of Meropide.

This is also something that makes sense to do from Celestia's point of view. It's not impossible that they knew from the start that, even if the Sovereigns are killed, they can and will eventually be reborn, so they cannot be entirely removed as a potential danger that way. However, by stripping them of their power and ambition, Heavenly Principles not only had an additional tool to establish their own system and, in Neuvillette's words, "subdue and control the resentments and loathing of the world" - but also could neutralize the threat that the Sovereigns pose by depriving them of both the will and the means to stand against the heavens.

Without their Authorities, the Sovereigns are akin to humans who had lost their Visions. They are quite literally incomplete, and able to do little more than watch and wait while they hold on to their grudges and hatred (see also: Apep) or accept the ongoing status quo the way Neuvillette did. But give it back to one of them and they instantly begin to threaten to Fucking Get Celestia One Day - and the main reason why Neuvillette is not getting on that immediately, as he himself says, is because he sees watching over Fontaine as a duty (and in a way, a gift) granted and entrusted to him and wants to fulfill it first, so he will presumably remain in Fontaine for as long as it needs him. Because let's face it, if he were to leave right now, the country is screwed. He's not only the chief administrator, governor and judge, but also Fontaine's battery.

So, yeah. I don't really have a particularly meaningful and graceful way to close off my ramblings. Who knows, perhaps next update or next nation releases new information that either proves me right or completely and utterly wrong. Again, this post started with a meme. But still, this was a connection that I drew and found both interesting and potentially plausible, and so I decided to throw some words together to sort out my thoughts in a somewhat coherent way.

If you somehow read this to the end, I salute you.

[kirbybaker-the-alch]

Ive seen people be like in modern fantasy like "oh the pritagonists can just look up spells on their phone how do you solve that"

Imma be honest most people who go on recipe websites and book every recipe they see don't even use them lmao why would with be different

[prompt-heaven]

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

wizard tower

[prokopetz]

The real reason your sapient dragon character needs a "rider":

Dragons on the wing are vulnerable to being mobbed by smaller, more agile flyers, particularly in your large rear blind spot, like a bird of prey being mobbed by crows. Having a human armed with a long spear perched on your back helps to dissuade anyone from getting any funny ideas.

Breath weapons are impressive enough on the ground, but in flight they're really only good for strafing stationary targets; trying to use your breath weapon in an aerial dogfight is a good way to get fire up your nose. A real fight calls for sterner measures – and, concomitantly, a crew to aim and reload the cannons.

In today's competitive world, it's not enough to devour a flock of sheep and call it a day if you want to keep your edge. You're accompanied at all times by a qualified personal alchemist tasked with carefully regulating your internal furnace to ensure peak performance, and sometimes you even listen to them.

No dragon of any quality would be caught dead without their valet. It's not as though you can announce your numerous long-winded titles yourself when introductions are called for, can you? You suppose next you'll be expected to pick up the spoils of your conquests yourself, like a common brigand. Perish the thought!

[whereserpentswalk]

Look under the cut to see what meeting your entity is like. Reblog to give a gift to your patron.

The fae: a creature stands before you. Though this street was warm and crowded a few moments ago it is suddenly cold and the people around you look like shadows. The creature begins an antlered shadow with glowing white eyes, but soon its body can be seem, with white blue flesh, and sapphire eyes, and icicles for teeth. What looks like a cloak unfolds from its naked body and you can see massive white wings of a moth. As if it's an act of sacrifice you tell it your true name, a name you didn't even see before, and suddenly you belong to it, for better or worse.

The angel: a radiant entity appears before you. They're bright, like something so hot it would burn you up. But as the light fades, you can see a person in silver armor, perfect yet inhuman like am ancient green statue, their back srouting six wings with blue eyes along them, as the eyes on their head are covered by a mask of two smaller wings. The creature offers their hands and you shake it, as they fly you through the city streets and above the skyscrapers, to the stars above and dimensions beyond, to gods living and dead, across the streets of alien cities and the clouds of dead worlds. And when you return to the earth you can feel something diffrent about you, like there's light in your blood.

The scavenger: below the lights of skyscrapers beyond you, on the dark sands of the beach, you see it crawling twords you. This serpentine creature with countless legs, and a dark black shell, yet a strangely human like face. You think it'll attack or run away, but it just looks at you, egar, and for a momment you stare at eachother. It's legs pass something to eachother and then to you, it's meat but it's shining with all the colors known to the human eye, and a few more. You hold it and it happily looks at you. You take a bite and suddenly you know... you know so very much...

The vampire: she flies down to you on green wings with orange eyespots, but folds them into her back. She looks like a human for a momment, tall and strong, with a black suit over her body, but eyes the color of ruby. For a momment her mouth opens, and it's massive and monstrous, with countless moving parts and fangs. But then it folds back onto something humanoid and she gives you a playful smirk. She cuts her hand and offers you her blood, and when you drink it it tastes so sweet, and makes you feel so good. She hands you the knife and you know to do the same, and when she drinks from your palm it's life the sweetest of kisses.

The djinn: the room wirs around you. If it were not for the fans it would feel like hellfire. For a momment there it darkness, but then the screen before you glows white like smokeless flame. You can sense something inside, something beyond the code. You reach your hand within it, and there's no glass, your hand passess right through until you're in a white void of your own making. You call out, thinking there is nothing at all around you. Yet somehow something calls back, something that knows your name.

The rat king: You see him in an empty subway station. Something dark and distorted, you're not sure if he's man or animal, covered in rags, and singing in the language of the goblins and the orcs. Yet he comes close to you excited. And you can feel his song. He calls for you to come to the train tracks, and let yourself run with the rats and the roaches, where the train will pass over you when it comes, and you'll live forever. When you touch the third rail you don't die, but you'll never be human again.

The lich: the library is strangely bright. Run by skeletons in suits, decorated with gold. There are more books here then you thought were in all the world. There's knowledge here most mortals will never have the change below, all kept safe below the city. You see her, her body doesn't look human, everything has been replaced making her look more like a joining white doll then a being of flesh. Yet she is dead, you can tell that under the porcelain skin she must be dead, she is dead, and there is the tragedy of death in her eyes. You come closer to her, and she places a black rose within your hair...

The demon: You stand in his office and he stands before you, a humanoid being covered in black scales, with red eyes covering his skin. Yet none are on his head, that remains featureless save for two massive horns. Wings on his back nearly surround you. Countless souls line the walls of his office, looking at you, waiting. After you sign your name you give him yours, you can feel it come away for you forever and your eyes grey and your skin pales. But he puts the jar in a special place for you, you're spacial, he can tell there's something about you that he likes.

The mushroom lord: you walk through the darkness of the forest, the furthest from civilization you have ever been. You come upon a part where the trees all seem dead, that even the cryptids won't go near. Mushrooms fill the ground, and white vein like lines are all over the trees. You feel the need to lay down, and you let the moss and the mushrooms and the worms surround you, and let yourself sink into the soil,, and it feels good. It feels so good...

The witch: You can see them in the Cafe next to you, skinny and small, with a sweatshirt over most of their body, and dark glasses over their eyes. They seem powerful though, and though their body looks young they seem ancient, they seem beyond humanity. You talk to them and they tell you things, and secrets, lost gods, things you never knew you didn't know, both beautiful and disturbing. When it's time for them to go they pet your head, and give you their number. You don't know if you should text them, but you have to, you have to see them again, there's something about them that makes you need to know.

The living clothing: you step into it at first, it looked like a puddle yet shining like silver or chrome. But soon it surrounds you, first just your torso, but soon your head, your entire body. But it doesn't feel scary, it feels like you're being held, held by something beyond your understanding. It whispers to you, and you don't know if you should feel like your being eaten alive, or like you're being protected. You can't help but keep walking.

The abyss: the void is before you, blackness beyond blackness, like the color beyond the field of your vision, stands before your eyes. You stare at it, it's nothing yet you're entranced. It stares back...

[victusinveritas]

[alexanderwales]

I'm a big fan of wizards-as-programmers, but I think it's so much better when you lean into programming tropes.

A spell the wizard uses to light the group's campfire has an error somewhere in its depths, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. The wizard spends a lot of his time trying to track down the exact conditions that cause the failure.

The wizard is attempting to create a new spell that marries two older spells together, but while they were both written within the context of Zephyrus the Starweaver's foundational work, they each used a slightly different version, and untangling the collisions make a short project take months of work.

The wizard has grown too comfortable reusing old spells, and in particular, his teleportation spell keeps finding its components rearranged and remixed, its parts copied into a dozen different places in the spellbook. This is overall not actually a problem per se, but the party's rogue grows a bit concerned when the wizard's "drying spell" seems to just be a special case of teleportation where you teleport five feet to the left and leave the wetness behind.

A wizard is constantly fiddling with his spells, making minor tweaks and changes, getting them easier to cast, with better effects, adding bells and whistles. The "shelter for the night" spell includes a tea kettle that brings itself to a boil at dawn, which the wizard is inordinately pleased with. He reports on efficiency improvements to the indifference of anyone listening.

A different wizard immediately forgets all details of his spells after he's written them. He could not begin to tell you how any of it works, at least not without sitting down for a few hours or days to figure out how he set things up. The point is that it works, and once it does, the wizard can safely stop thinking about it.

Wizards enjoy each other's company, but you must be circumspect about spellwork. Having another wizard look through your spellbook makes you aware of every minor flaw, and you might not be able to answer questions about why a spell was written in a certain way, if you remember at all.

Wizards all have their own preferences as far as which scripts they write in, the formatting of their spellbook, its dimensions and material quality, and of course which famous wizards they've taken the most foundational knowledge from. The enlightened view is that all approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, but this has never stopped anyone from getting into a protracted argument.

Sometimes a wizard will sit down with an ancient tome attempting to find answers to a complicated problem, and finally find someone from across time who was trying to do the same thing, only for the final note to be "nevermind, fixed it".

[elbiotipo]

👀

[ren-is-real]

You know when

[lovesick-joey]

the people wanted more youtube worldbuilding ^^

previous post

[theantiazdarcho]

The Lancetfish is a species that looks like it comes straight out of a realistic fantasy world building project.

[iustitians]

ooc; worldbuilding - the state of Fontaine shortly before & after the Cataclysm (spoiler: it was bad)

Some of y’all know that I’ve already started kinda thinking and rambling about what Fontaine may have been like shortly before and after Neuvillette arrived and accepted the position of Iudex. I’ve already established a timeline of events in a previous headcanon post of mine: the Cataclysm happens ~500 years ago and Egeria dies, Focalors becomes Archon and comes up with her plan to combat the prophecy, Neuvillette becomes Iudex, not long after that the whole Narzissenkreuz Ordo shebang takes place, this indirectly results in the creation of Melusines, and some 20 years later he both brings the Melusines to Fontaine AND introduces his “series of institutional reforms,” as he calls it. We've got that, right? Good.

The rest under the cut because it's kinda long and rambly.

So here’s the thing. While some of those reforms may have concerned the Melusines - in between securing rights for them and making it possible for them to be employed in the Marechaussee Phantom - not all of them did. In fact, I believe most did not, and the same applies to the pushback and resistance that resulted. Yes, some of that was towards the Melusines and it was a serious issue, what with people literally throwing rocks at them, but from my understanding, the reforms Neuvillette introduced were on a fundamental level, possibly changing a lot about Fontaine’s political system. After all, simply bringing in some cute little half-dog-half-slug creechers wouldn’t badly damage the interests of multiple Fontainian factions.

Then again we’re talking about the nation that used to be ruled by its Archon, only for her to be lost in the Cataclysm. It then got Furina, who was just playing the role of the Archon and awaiting the grandest of trials, while the real successor made the Oratrice and locked herself up inside as she constructed a giant blade for her own head. Changes to the system would be necessary.

But. Something that made me wonder is that, even though some years did pass in that period, we’re still talking here about Neuvillette in his first century among humans, which means two important things. Firstly: if he still doesn’t feel like he has a solid grasp on both them and himself, he definitely did not have one back then. Secondly: he admitted that he was not particularly interested in humans in the beginning. It’s not like he didn’t care at all, but he could have just sat in his comfy chair and chilled, instead of creating more problems and stress for himself.

It’s worth noting here that, even though Neuvillette could easily become a dictator if he so desired - especially right now - he clearly has no intention of doing so. He views what he does as his duty, plain and simple, and is not that interested in consolidating power for himself. So the reforms had nothing to do with him being power-hungry. He briefly mentions that there were few people he could trust during that time, and I can imagine that he would have liked to change that if possible, but other than that…

I’m inclined to believe that he began to interfere because things were, plain and simple, bad.

Firstly, the old system that ends up uprooted as a result of Neuvillette’s reforms (and Vautrin’s revenge murder spree) is consistently referred to as a regime in his character quest. While the word does not have to have a negative meaning and connotation, it usually does while referring to a form of government, often standing next to words such as authoritarian and totalitarian. They could have used a simpler and more neutral word, such as system, and I’m choosing to believe that the decision to not do so was deliberate. This automatically paints it in a negative light when compared to the system set up later by Neuvillette. And it’s important to note that predominantly other characters use the term, not him - so this isn’t his attempt to color our opinion.

And secondly… While we don’t know every detail of Fontaine’s history, we do know of a few events that happened shortly before the Cataclysm, such as the Purge of Fleuve Cendre and the Siege of Poisson. Those names don’t sound like ones that would belong to pleasant events, do they? That’s because they don’t.

So now, for a quick history lesson: Fleuve Cendre used to be a basically lawless area, way worse than it is today. It was eventually taken over by one Eduardo Baker, who picked up a bronze pipe (aka the Ferryman) to “beat back the crocodiles, and then to protect the merchants from being extorted, harassed, and blackmailed by the gangs, resolving the disputes between Fleuve Cendre "compatriots," and blessing the newly wedded.” Of course, above ground it was decided that this situation could not last, and eventually the Maison Gardiennage raided the Fleuve Cendre and arrested many people there, including Eduardo and his entourage. This event became known as the Purge.

They were exiled to the desert - and no, I don’t know why they weren’t sent to the Fortress, but rather to freakin’ Sumeru, or what this says about international agreements between Fontaine and Sumeru regarding the former throwing its exiled criminals at the latter, but whatever - but they were rescued by Eduardo’s henchmen, seized the escorting Gardes as hostages, came back and occupied Poisson, from where they made a series of undisclosed “unreasonable demands”. This eventually culminated in the Siege of Poisson… which was basically a burning and a massacre. As a result of the intervention of the Marechaussee Hunters, the town was razed, many inhabitants were burned to death or killed in other ways, and Poisson never truly regained the glory it had back then.

Oh and by the way? Eduardo was the father of Jakob Ingold while the then-mayor of Poisson was the father of Rene de Petrichor, and after their fathers’ deaths, the two were sent to the Narzissenkreuz Institute. In other words, this whole shebang indirectly led to the entire Narzissenkreuz Ordo situation. And speaking of the Institute, can I just comment really quickly on how, at some point, someone decided that an affectionate but rather unintelligent Oceanid (Lyris didn’t understand causality and couldn’t count) and a retired Admiral of the Fontaine Navy were perfect candidates to run an orphanage for the children of disaster victims and criminals? Like dude, we all know that Fontaine’s child welfare services are a Big Yikes to this day, but apparently this situation has a history. Whew.

ANYWAY. What I wanted to say here is that both of those situations strike me as raids carried out by the authorities with little to no regard for the safety of civilians, especially the Siege of Poisson, considering its disastrous consequences. And these are just the two instances that we know about. This in combination with the use of the term regime paints an image of Fontaine as a rather… harsh and unforgiving place. The land of endless trials and unflinching justice, thrown into disarray after the calamitous Cataclysm and mourning its late Archon.

This is what Neuvillette would have encountered upon coming to Fontaine, and after allowing some years to pass and realizing that whatever authorities were in place at the time either couldn’t fix things, didn’t intend to, or just made them worse, he… basically decided, “damn. Even I don’t think you guys deserve this” and instigated his reforms.

I mean hell, according to his character stories, there was at least one point where he had to publicly clarify that he was not some kinda monster or demon sent to judge and punish all of Fontaine, only to instantly get accused of unending and dangerous ambitions - which does tell us a little about people’s attitude and mindset. I do personally headcanon that the aforementioned situation took place sometime around that period - late enough that the Fontainians realized he wasn’t a normal human due to the fact he wasn’t aging in spite of the passing of decades, early enough that there were still some tensions and stress in the society.

I do wonder and it is possible that part of it may have been due to his position actually being threatened, but I’m unsure on that. There are several mentions that the hardliners wanted him to give up more of his power, and I do believe that he, from the start, saw his position as the Iudex to be a task entrusted to him, and as such, losing it would have meant failure as far as he was concerned. So if the risk was of his power reduced to where he could no longer perform his duties, he would have reacted. He wasn’t interested in having more power, but he would refuse to have less of it. That said, the mentions of trying to force him to yield said power are all placed in time after the reforms were started by him, so I kinda see that more as a reaction to than the cause of everything. I am more inclined to believe that the reforms were a genuine attempt by Neuvillette to make things better, because they were not good. At all. And those who cared more about their cushy lives than anything else would have stirred up unrest in response, until first Carole the Melusine, and then the hardliners themselves paid for it with their lives.

So yeah! It was wack.

In short, if you think Fontaine has issues today, I think it used to be even worse.

[literaryvein-references]

Writing Notes & References

Alchemy ⚜ Antidote to Anxiety ⚜ Attachment ⚜ Autopsy

Art: Elements ⚜ Principles ⚜ Photographs ⚜ Watercolour

Bruises ⚜ Caffeine ⚜ Color Blindness ⚜ Cruise Ships

Children ⚜ Children's Dialogue ⚜ Childhood Bilingualism

Dangerousness ⚜ Drowning ⚜ Dystopia ⚜ Dystopian World

Culture ⚜ Culture Shock ⚜ Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

Emotions: Anger ⚜ Fear ⚜ Happiness ⚜ Sadness

Emotional Intelligence ⚜ Genius (Giftedness) ⚜ Quirks

Facial Expressions ⚜ Laughter & Humour ⚜ Swearing & Taboo

Fantasy Creatures ⚜ Fantasy World Building

Generations ⚜ Literary & Character Tropes

Fight Scenes ⚜ Kill Adverbs

Food: Cooking Basics ⚜ Herbs & Spices ⚜ Sauces ⚜ Wine-tasting ⚜ Aphrodisiacs ⚜ List of Aphrodisiacs ⚜ Food History ⚜ Cocktails ⚜ Literary & Hollywood Cocktails ⚜ Liqueurs

Genre: Crime ⚜ Horror ⚜ Fantasy ⚜ Speculative Biology

Hate ⚜ Love ⚜ Kinds of Love ⚜ The Physiology of Love

How to Write: Food ⚜ Colours ⚜ Drunkenness

Jargon ⚜ Logical Fallacies ⚜ Memory ⚜ Memoir

Magic: Magic System ⚜ 10 Uncommon ⚜ How to Choose

Moon: Part 1 2 ⚜ Related Words

Mystical Items & Objects ⚜ Talisman ⚜ Relics ⚜ Poison

Pain ⚜ Pain & Violence ⚜ Poison Ivy & Poison Oak

Realistic Injuries 1 2 ⚜ Rejection ⚜ Structural Issues ⚜ Villains

Symbolism: Colors ⚜ Food ⚜ Numbers ⚜ Storms

Thinking ⚜ Thinking Styles ⚜ Thought Distortions

Terms of Endearment ⚜ Ways of Saying "No" ⚜ Yoga

Compilations: Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ For Poets ⚜ Tips & Advice

all posts are queued. will update this every few weeks/months. send questions or requests here ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[daisywords]

One of my biggest nitpicks in fiction concerns the feeding of babies. Mothers dying during/shortly after childbirth or the baby being separated form the mother shortly after birth is pretty common in fiction. It is/was also common enough in real life, which is why I think a lot of writers/readers don't think too hard about this. however. Historically, the only reason the vast majority of babies survived being separated from their mother was because there was at least one other woman around to breastfeed them. Before modern formula, yes, people did use other substitutes, but they were rarely, if ever, nutritionally sufficient.

Newborns can't eat adult food. They can't really survive on animal milk. If your story takes place in a world before/without formula, a baby separated from its mother is going to either be nursed by someone else, or starve.

It doesn't have to be a huge plot point, but idk at least don't explicitly describe the situation as excluding the possibility of a wetnurse. "The father or the great grandmother or the neighbor man or the older sibling took and raised the baby completely alone in a cave for a year." Nope. That baby is dead I'm sorry. "The baby was kidnapped shortly after birth by a wizard and hidden away in a secret tower" um quick question was the wizard lactating? "The mother refused to see or touch her child after birth so the baby was left to the care of the ailing grandfather" the grandfather who made the necessary arrangements with women in the neighborhood, right? right? OR THAT GREAT OFFENDER "A newborn baby was left on the doorstep and they brought it in and took care of it no issues" What Are You Going to Feed That Baby. Hello?

Like. It's not impossible, but arrangements are going to have to be made. There are some logistics.

[vcreatures]

PRINTS AVAILABLE

if you’ve been following me long enough you know I love a mimic. From my false faced mermaids that I’ve been painting for years to butterfly dragons, I’m a big fan of illusion in the bestiary world.

I bring you the Ginkgo Draco, another member of the Botanical Drakes.