#Cultural World-Building
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World-Building in Fantasy Writing: Crafting Unique Realms
In the realm of fantasy writing, the creation of worlds is an art unto itself, a meticulous process where each word, each detail, bears the weight of building something extraordinary. The task is daunting, for within these words, worlds must spring to life, realms that breathe and stir with unique cultures, landscapes, and histories. In this exploration of world-building in fantasy writing, we…
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#Building Fantasy Realms#Character Development#Conflict in Fantasy Worlds#Creative Storytelling#Creative Writing#Cultural World-Building#don&039;t tell#Fantasy Geography#Fantasy History#Fantasy Literature#Fantasy Worlds#Fantasy Writing#Fantasy Writing Tips#Immersive Realms#Language in Fantasy#Magic Systems#Reader Immersion#Show#World-Building#World-Crafting
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Illustrated Comparison of Asian Architecture and Roof Styles
#architecture#roofs#design#illustration#culture#asia#asian#world culture#china#taiwan#thailand#philippines#japan#korea#buildings#art
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even ignoring everything else wrong with lore olympus (which in itself feels impossible) there is just something really egregious and insulting at the way a "modern retelling" over an ancient greek myth just full-heartedly whitewashes the entire culture and mythos.
and it's not like rachel is the first to do it - greek myths and legends have been whitewashed for centuries, depictions of the gods have been categorically stripped of their ethnicity and origins long before rachel got a hold of them. it's the fact that rachel goes out of her way to insult the original myths whenever she can, that she emphasizes and pushes a western-centric mindset and viewpoint over and over and over and not only reinforces the whitewashing, but continues it down the line.
like, this is the first episode.
rachel goes out of her way to mock the original styles and wardrobes of the ancient greek world, and i get her attempt was to make persephone feel "out of place" with the more "modern" clothing that the other gods wear, but it really just does more to a) demonize demeter, who is almost always in traditional clothing, b) sexualize persephone.
go even broader with it, move away from the clothing itself, and rachel doesn't even bother to use any of the ancient traditions that are core to the myths. like for the love of god, she uses a christian wedding for persephone and hades!
greece is the birthplace of modern democracy and had a powerful judicial system, and rachel instead uses the modern / western iteration of court because ... why not
(completely unrelated but the inserts of everyone except eros and aphrodite come from the stupid zoom session zeus had back when he first charged persephone with treason, meaning we have proof yet again that rachel isn't drawing the characters into the scene, she's making pngs and sticking them into pre-arranged backgrounds downloaded from stock images)
and there are ten thousand more examples i could pull, because this is just the whole entire comic. you can look at a lot of modern adaptions and see where things have been modernized respectfully, and where they are done with disdain for the source material - no one is claiming percy jackson, for example, is perfect, but the author took a great deal of care in his research, and the love for the original myths and culture shine through. lore olympus has zero respect for the original stories, exemplified in how rachel demonizes demeter - the actual crux of the myth. it's bad writing and bad research and further attempts to whitewash a rich and storied culture that had people from so many walks of life, who existed in full spectrum of lgbt identity, who did not conform or even know of the world that exists today. you can modernize without erasing it, and rachel's refusal to do so is one of the many issues tacked to lore olympus.
#anti lo#anti lore olympus#i didn't grab the best screencaps bc there was literally so many to choose from lmao#but the wedding always bothered me SO much#ur in ancient greece!!! why are u doing this!!!#like i don't think it's wrong per SAY to have phones or tech in a story about ancient cultures#provided you explain how / why they're there#but of course there is ZERO world building in lore olympus
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I have come to the annoying conclusion that many search engines are becoming super useless in trying to track down historical research without bending over backwards for answers. The amount of garbage that shows up in the results is so incredibly aggravating and has nothing to do with my search terms or questions. I cannot in fact "just use X search engines" apparently.
#history#culture#search engines#it's the most SIMPLE questions and yet I get nothing but sales sites and ai nonsense or real articles for something completely irrelevant#silly me trying to look up neat historical facts for world building purposes in things I wanna make#personal#personal ramblings
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okay but can we talk about how fucking good the food would be in the Jedi Temple?? and all of the absolutely fucking baller and totally unique fusion dishes that would have to exist?? they're by far the most diverse group of beings we see in star wars, with lineages made up of people from all across the galaxy. the best food in that galaxy has got to be something from a lineage dinner table that's been made and modified by generations of Jedi and no-one ever wrote down
#making myself emotional in the cantina tonight#something something food and education and cultural exchange as love languages#there's so much room in star wars for deep and meaningful world building#and instead we get 'make it blue so they know it's space food'#Jedi#jedi meta#jedi positivity
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Feel free to ignore this if it doesn't spark your interest but worth a shot. Can I ask what breed of dog Jesus was in your dog world?
I think dog Jesus predates most of today's dog breeds. Realistically he'd probably be some kind of mutt, probably with vaguely Canaan dog looks. But European depictions of Jesus have always been very localized, and I tend to think that in Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art he'd usually appear as a Spaniel of sorts, although it varies from piece to piece. Gun dogs more often than not.
#every society adapts their idea of Christ to fit their needs and culture to some degree right#so maybe in France he's represented by a French breed of dog and in Sweden a Swedish breed and so on#because Jesus is typically depicted as noble and handsome they would end up choosing breeds that have prestige and high status#over those that aren't viewed as favorably#so ironically very few rustic shepherd Jesuses#does that sound sensible?#yes I know#but this is in fact a thing I have to consider for world building purposes#can't have dog Catholicism without dog Jesus#answered#anonymous
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when they've got interpreting spiderman noir under a specific cultural lens at the function [picture of me going insane]
I cant help myself.. what can i say. And since you've mentioned some research going on behind the scenes.. do you have any fun interpretations? Or even anything fun about the 1800s!
OH HI
Hm. I don't have anything as fun as historical dancing, but I suppose this does give me the excuse (thabk u) to blab about Noir's childishness.
(wow putting this under the cut bc it got longer than I thought it would LMAO)
I think what a lot of people (including Noir's contemporary writers and yes even the spiderverse interpretation) fall for when trying to read Noir's character is the imitation of his idea of what an adult is, that he hides behind. Like Noir's persona is incredibly exaggerated. He's playing pretend. Look here, he's practicing.
A lot of his persona as Noir is imitation! Imitation of his uncle, of Urich, of the violence he's been exposed to. He's running around in his uncle's old uniform. Fundamentally misunderstanding WHY his uncle had been ashamed of it and his role in the war.
And then he goes ahead and steals Urich's alias because it sounds Cool (which is such a teenage thing to do jesus christ).
But like that imitation of The Adult isn't something that's limited to that exaggerated persona that Noir encapsulates. Peter himself is trying So Hard to be grown up and tough and responsible that it loops back around to him being a brat who would try the three guys in a trench coat trick. He even gets beat up for it when trying to defend his aunt. And I mean I've posted about him being a brat.
About how he looks at Urich as a Prime Example of what a strong and knowledgeable adult is (which is part of why he reacts so volatile in response to Urich showing he's not exactly as morally righteous as himself, he's wounded and let down). Whiskey? Whiskey sounds like someone Mature and Cool would drink, I'll have it too. And then proceeds to throw his drink at Osborn and laugh about it. The illusion was broken for me then.
But well it's not broken for everyone. I mean like obviously I poked at the contemporary writers, but I'm more talking about the other characters in the narrative. Mainly Urich and Felicia.
Urich taking Peter under his wing isn't entirely under the motivation to nurture Peter. I think it Becomes that, but he's really envious of that kid. He wants to see him lose that hope that he once had (ruh roh the opposite thing happened, being around the kid made YOU more hopeful Ben. Guess you gotta be good. Hope you don't die now).
Urich really is exposing him to an extremely harsh reality, and taking him places where adults are typically only allowed. He's letting Peter get a glimpse into what it's like, which will eventually enable Noir's tool of violence. All these tests will accumulate into what Peter thinks someone powerful and strong can be and do.
Then his problematic relationship with Felicia (writers I'm malleting you for this). He's clinging to her adulthood and the safety she represents, and he's young but she sees some adult strength in him. I mean she trusts him with the blackmail Urich gave her, which she really. Shouldn't, even if that's what Urich wanted.
Anyway, strength is something she's been consistently drawn to her in her partners. Strength to feel as her own. Even if it's to hers and others' detriment. There's also a part of Peter that's drawn to Felicia because Urich was. He's still honing in the good parts of Urich he wants to be.
I think the one person in the narrative who doesn't fall for it? Is Aunt May. You could argue it's just her being naturally motherly, but for someone who was about to be eaten alive she's pretty frank with Noir. I think she can see that that violence and exaggerated grittiness comes from someone inexperienced and young. Even if she can't consciously recognize the similarities between Noir's persona and Peter's protectiveness of her. I don't think she wants to see that. I actually have a short comic script about that, but it probably will never see the light of day.
Ugh he's like a cat puffing up to scare away a predator. It's fake!!!!! It's all fake!!!!!! He gets intimidated by JJ, he never ties his shoes, gets powers and then immediately guns to beat the shit out of Osborn, sings about the sandman when he's getting his face bashed in, crawls to Felicia all pathetic and sad, and he made a costume to run over roofs at night in.
And it's funny how he's forcing himself to grow up, but also really sad because all the things he's being exposed to is already forcing him to grow up. He's witnessing things no kid should ever see or experience.
Then there's the time period to consider. The aftermath of WWI, being in the midst of the Great Depression, and WWII just around the corner. He's faced incredible hardship and is going to continue to face so much hardship, and he's going to mature faster than he ever should have. It should have made him crash and burn Hard when he became an adult, and to me he still does because I'm ignoring everyone after ewaof LMAO.
As for my research on the 1800s NY that's for my own spider iteration run I'm working on, so not too related to Noir until I reach the 30's :3
Hope that was satisfying!!
#tw grooming#critter talks#asks#the moots#fool!!!!!!#spider man noir#character analysis#abt the research like logically I know the typical new yorker isn't gonna know abt the specificities of the original dutch colony#and intricacies that the boom of industrialization had on lower class communities#but it's less about that and more of digging my hands into the Soul of NY#because NY is so Intertwined with any spider#so I'm starting from the Very beginning and digging my way up. man y'all were a hot mess#it's really fascinating though working my way through documentaries and books. the list is long and the dent I've made is about an 8th ASDF#anyway MAYBE y'all will see spiderman undiscovered one day...ask me abt it again if y'all like miles being a detective w a shoulder demon#for now it's me my 55 of world building slides several character note docs and a to read list of about 20 books long#would like to go to NY citay one day & oogle at the stinky subway draw some storefronts and people watch but thats not in the budget rn#also trying to look for movies n shows that aren't exaggerations of the culture so if anyone has recommendations DO @ me please#wanna do her justice bc I care about her#ALSO FOOL I'M SO SORRY FOR TAKING A DAY TO ANSWER#had to get my thoughts togther
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Tiergarten Park via Reichstag Dome ˖𓂅✼
#Reichstag Building#Bundestag#Reichstag#Platz der Republik#Tiergarten Park#Tree#Cloudy Sky#City Lights#Pregnant Oyster#House of World Cultures#Haus der Kulturen der Welt#German Chancellery#Bundeskanzleramt#Architecture#Cityscape#Tiergarten#Mitte#Berlin#Germany
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girl help I started writing down oc thoughts and have started contemplating the logistics of how a city carved into the walls of a ravine would have access to fresh water
#rye.txt#MaVst#'you should do some worldbuilding' I said to myself#'it'll be easy' i said#'just write down the little thoughts you've had floating around'#I AM A FOOL#there are so many bullet points in this fuckign document#and they're all devoted to the minutiae of how the city I have in my mind would function#how the very terrain would influence the culture#couldn't just do a normal city on flat terrain noooo I had to include homes carved into rock#anyway im pretending im upset but this is so much fun#I loveee getting to think about how tiny details all affect each other and influence the greater whole#it's like problem solving but I get to make the solutions as fun and fantastical as I want#if my ocs are my silly little dolls to play pretend with#then the worldbuilding is like getting to build the doll house#which is just as fun imo#anyway im gonna give the capital city an abandoned under-city that's no longer habitable now that the original royal family is#no longer in power#it used to be lit with the light magic of the ruler that was amplified by the crown#but now it's almost impossible to navigate and so big that your torch is liable to burn out before you can explore much at all#and without a light source it's completely pitch black darkness#<- see stuff like this is so fun to think about and I can just slap it onto my world because it's cool
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out of curiosity, would you consider yourself butch?
used to be a blonde underweight twink and now I'm a based jock still got the chanel bag and the sick albeit matured mind of a suckpig to prove it so I'm gonna let you decide whether you wanna call me that word just cuz I got a pussy and short hair. I promise you that there have been enough advancements made in the art of lesbian sexual dynamics in the past 50 years to broaden the vocabulary used to describe the plethora of types of masculine females.
#being called butch just reminds me of how much males have the freedom to navigate between male archetypes and how people pay attention to#the distinguishing features of these varying masculinities#but when a female is seen as masculine it all gets lumped under the “butch” category#her masculinity is seen as unnatural and therefore incapable of being considered genuine or taken at face value as it is with males.#its always brought into question instead of taken in consideration with the rest of the woman's life and experiences and her particularities#Hence... Butch is still being treated as though its a huge lesbian cultural phenomena instead of a specific niche thing#also i dont mean to invite the “you dont pass!!” anons again bc that idiot is missing my point entirely (which is that im truly not trying)#but the fact is that for the past 3 years i have found myself increasingly navigating the male social world#and discovering what it means to me as a female to have access to the ability to take my “masculinity” for granted... relax#forget about it#etc#i think thats entirely antithetical to the Butch thing which seems to rest on the tension of other peoples expectations of her#people broadly are more surprised to find out that im interested in women just as much as they're surprised that im a gym queen iykwim...#ive worked hard for this and now that ive gotten the Woman Social Role thing pretty much entirely out of the way i am living the dream#i think a large part of that is learning as a dyke to appropriate the language of gay men theres a reason their terminology had#staying power even when their scene was *literally* dying meanwhile all that seemed to survive from dyke spaces was butch n femme ??#its because theirs didnt necessitate the building and maintenance of a scene in order for the subculture to hold its head above water#their labels *largely* weren't predicated on their relationships to gender roles and its telling that for dykes it was#their labels rested on the need to simply show up anonymous n be able to easily flag whether they were looking to fuck or be fucked#alongside the set of circumstances under which they would be fucking or getting fucked or what have you#it all comes back to the restrictions of female social blah blah blah and i think the sooner we collectively set down what we see as our#responsibility as lesbians and as feminists to Be A Woman the sooner we can step outside of that#n start thinking clearly about our individual circumstances and the necessity of putting on your own oxygen mask first before helping others
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Still making that digital copy of the complete allspark almanac
Thought I'd do like a mass post with all the Cybertronian tech, lifestyle & culture world building goodies I could find in there.
#maccadam#transformers#tfa#transformers animated#complete allspark almanac#tfa world building#cybertronian culture#tfa prowl#tfa optimus#tfa megatron#tfa starscream#tfa shockwave#tf archive#tfmedia#oh..strika 😳.. i wish i could do that 😔
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I think a lot about 9 year old Anakin as a slave on Tattoine promising that one day he will come back and free the slaves and then 35ish years later his daughter strangling Jabba the Hutt to death with her own slave chain
Something about the dreams of a little boy in chains fulfilled by a daughter who looked like his mother
Something about legacy
#I think if Disney had any backbone they would give us a series about ending Slavery in the Outer Rim#star wars#anakin skywalker#Tattoine#leia organa#shmi skywalker#I’ve become very obsessed with Fialleril’s slave culture on Tattoine#I love fandom world building
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If I could write stories as quickly and vividly as I can envision them, I would have written at least three lovely novellas in the last week. Two of them this morning.
#adventures in writing#i am now optimistic about the time travel story#but to satisfy my backbrain i'm still building up and winnowing down alternate possibilities#just in case the primary story hits a snag#or if i wind up with extra time#mostly secondary world stories#the trouble is that the rare few that come together with plot and world details#want to unfold themselves like paper fans into something novella-length#when i only have time for a short story where all those details stay nicely folded up in the background#this morning i envisioned a beautifully detailed mermaid culture with a proud and complex main character#and now i've got very vivid scenes from shadowstruck playing through my head#and an idea of what the story's arc has to be#but by the time i can write them down the details will have faded#and even if they don't they'll need more love and care than i'd have time for#why can't writing be as simple as daydreaming?
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I like, wish Western aoex fans would take some time and research about how religion is in Japan. Especially how christianity is viewed and practiced there. Because it's a very different thing both culturally and base level than how things go in the west. Shintoism and Buddhism is an incredibly big part of Japan's culture, but it's not in the same way as how Christianity and other western religions are for the USA or other countries.
I mean it's cool to see people want to do things, but I don't think they realize that it's going to be a very different interpretation. I personally don't even think Shiro raised the twins christian. There's nothing in canon other than they grew up in the monastery to imply it. It felt more to me they started the place to have a good cover for the twins than it actually being a legit thing.
Heck it even looked like Shiro took the boys to shrines for new years. That's kind of a important part of Japanese culture and a big tradition. I personally don't think a catholic priest raising two kids would be taking them to a Shinto Shrine to do the New Years tradition.
It's also funny whenever this comes up because no one mentions Yukio in this. It's always Rin lol
#ao no exorcist#blue exorcist#rin okumura#yukio okumura#shiro fujimoto#like everyone is welcome to their headcanons#but i also think it's important to remember that aoex is a Japanese manga written by a Japanese woman#she does a ton of research#but there's not a lot of religion outside of implying it's there to more or less fight against demons#buddhism and shintoism is treated about the same as christianty in canon#Which is to say it looks like gods are all demons and all religion is false and true in a sense#which i think is a interesting aspect of the world building#i think a lot of interesting things can come out of this but I wish people would remember where aoex is from#it feels like they're accidentally erasing the important cultural part of this being from Japan#anyways always research if you're gonna write for a series from a different culture#it's important and actually helps make sense of a lot of things that pop up in anime and manga
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Tiefling anatomy HC’s
I CANT BE STOPPED.
-tieflings are born with horns that curve flush to their little baby skulls. They’re initially smaller and kinda squishy to touch.
-they will grow and harden in the coming months after their birth, roughly taking the shape that they will keep for the rest of their lives.
-tieflings shed their horns just once in their lifetime, usually after they’ve lost all their baby teeth and as an early step in puberty for a young tiefling.
-lots of doting parents will keep their tiefling childs “baby horns” like how some parents will keep baby teeth as a keepsake.
-Omg imagine like, a kid losing one, and the other is kinda wiggly just hanging in there.
-they tie some cord around the loose horn and the other end to a door
-all the dumb cliches humans do for loose teeth. (Oh no it’s so cute)
-the adult horns come in much bigger and harder than the baby horns.
-a tiefling tail can betray a lot about how a tiefling is feeling. Depending on how it whips and curves in a conversation can tell you if a tiefling is happy, scared, or angry. It’s called a “tell-tale-tail”. HAH. GEDDIT?
-canonically tiefling will often wrap their tails around their waists or legs when in crowds or around strangers, to avoid them getting stepped on or tugged.
-Tieflings have blood vessels and nerve endings that extend from their fingertips and into their nails, like a cats.
-Also like cats' nails, they have a “quick”, that if trimmed will bleed and is very painful.
-This is why all tieflings seem to have elongated nails, even if they are in a position or profession that longer nails would be a hindrance. A tieling can file their nails to be more blunt, but a tiefling would never purposefully trim their nails too short and cut the quick.
-I imagine there being a big discourse around trimming a young tieflings nails, (probably done by an ignorant non-tiefling parent, or the care givers at orphanages) as it’s considered inhumane… like declawing cats
-there are brands of inner-race discrimination in tiefling communities. Most prominent being how far back the infernal blood can be traced.
-a teifling line that is generations upon generations old (like, their great great great great great grandmother slept with a cambion for example ) is held in higher esteem than a first generation tiefling, because the “taint” is so far removed, and that family has had generations to establish themselves in the tiefling community and culture.
-a first generation tiefling (like, their mother was a cambion, for example) is looked down upon because the “taint” is much more immediate.
-also canonically, a group of 3 or more tieflings is called a “curse” of tieflings (derogatory)
#bg3#rolan#rolan bg3#I can’t write stories but I love world building I’m SORRY#I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT TIEFLINGS AS A RACE AND CULTURE#tiefling#tieflings#dnd lore#zelvor#alfira#dammon
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Betrothal necklaces are a Northern Water Tribe custom, I know, but I'm fond of the idea of Zuko making a necklace for Katara--except he makes the band way looser and longer. Her mothers necklace is too important to her, so he makes his necklace's band longer so she can wear both at the same time. A good old choker+medallion necklace pairing.
#Zutara#wish we got more southern water tribe customs and cultures but alas#sure we can take real world inspo but idk it's fun to see world building
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