#The Golden City | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

project-zorthania · 9 months ago

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so what do you think are hytham and basims ages?

I hope you'll forgive the amount of snark and sass that I'm about to use to answer your question anon, because if I had the time and energy to spend making an hour long video essay to reply to this, I would.

You’d think tying in all your games around real historical events would mean creating a consistent timeline for your characters, but no! Ubisoft’s canonical timeline continues to be an absolute disaster, which makes this ask both a blessing and a curse as I’m left with a plethora of information to source for my answer.

I want this to make sense for everyone reading along so bear with me, I’ll try my best to keep this as short and sweet as possible.

A fair warning that this post will be riddled with spoilers for the following:

AC Valhalla

AC Mirage

The Golden City

Sword of the White Horse

Giermund's Saga.

Now without further ado, let’s break it down.

By the time we first see them in Valhalla, I estimate Basim to be in his late 30s and Hytham to be in his early 30s with no bigger than a 6 year age gap between them.

Here is what we know.

AC Valhalla starts with Sigurd meeting Basim and Hytham in Constantinople just a few months prior to their long trek up to Norway together in 872 CE.

We also know that the book 'The Golden City' takes place in 867 CE, during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Basil I in Constantinople. That’s exactly 5 years before the events of Valhalla.

And exactly 6 years before the start of 'The Golden City' was the era of extreme instability in Baghdad after the assassination of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil in 861 CE.

Here’s a visual of the timeline surrounding these events:

The following clip is from the official Ubisoft Developer Trailer Breakdown, the rest of the video is available to watch on youtube here.

According to the Narrative Director at Ubisoft Bordeaux, Mirage takes place 20 years before Valhalla, which...

*confused whale noises*

One could argue that Sarah Beaulieu meant 20 years before Basim’s betrayal in Norway, which takes place in 877 CE, (that’s still only 16 years) but if all of this were true, then the entire timeline for 'The Golden City' starts to get very messy.

If you haven't already read the novel, the story follows Basim and Hytham and their mutual struggle with fatherhood. The author, Jaleigh Johnson, seamlessly manages to tie in the AC universe with the reign of Emperor Basil and the very real assassination attempts on his child, Leo. It is the origin story to their inseparable companionship and elaborates on how Hytham develops a striking degree of loyalty and trust towards his partner/mentor.

There are a couple instances within the book that allude to Hytham's age.

The Golden City - Chapter 6: Hytham's first encounter with Justin, Leo's former personal guard.

The Golden City - Chapter 15: Justin defines his relationship with Leo.

The Golden City - Chapter 25: Basim's call-out.

A couple things to note here:

Hytham considers Justin, a man in his early 20s, young.

Justin considers Leo, a very small child no older than 10, a little brother.

Hytham is old enough to consider this same child his son.

If Hytham considers a man in his early 20s young, and said 20 year old considers a child his little brother, what on earth does that make Hytham? The book is telling us that Hytham must be between his mid to late 20s in order to think this way. His struggle with his paternal instincts and numerous conversations regarding the topic with Basim are a testament to that.

And if you're still not convinced:

Hytham is explicitly telling us that they're not far apart in age. This isn't speculation, he's telling us that he knows just how old Basim is. Granted, he doesn't know that Basim has merged with an Isu reincarnation, but right here, standing before all of us, Basim is still Basim residing in a human body that has lived through very human years.

Now if we go back to Mirage's canon of their ages and compare what we know from the book (and bear in mind, the book was released prior to the release of Mirage with intention to setup for it, so this really should've been something deeply considered by Ubisoft before Mirage released)

My god, it's like Ubisoft didn't even TRY.

Muhammad Ibn Tahir even makes a passing comment about Basim looking to be in his 20s. Granted, the man's definitely guessing here, but he's likely not far off given that the game starts with Basim being 17. If we go by what Muhammad says, this tells us that 3 years has passed since Basim killed Al-Mutawakkil in Anbar at the start of the game.

This is the same 20 year old bearded Basim that we see meet Hytham atop a minaret in Karkh (approximately... we really have no idea what the timeline of events are within Mirage, which is another thing that irks me to no end).

I'm reluctant to entertain the idea that Hytham is any younger than 14 here because 'The Golden City' is dependent on portraying both Basim and Hytham as older men with relatively similar ages, and since the novel relies heavily on historical events, that leaves us with little to no wiggle room in moving the story's timeline around.

It must take place during the reign of Emperor Basil between the years of 867 to 886, and they're already in Norway by 872.

I want to honor the author’s dedication and research into making a cohesive timeline between all the main line games and their novel, especially when its story expands on the characters in question.

Because if we even attempt to go by Mirage's canon, we're going to run into all sorts of problems trying to make sense of a 22 year old Basim running around Constantinople with his acolyte, who is apparently... also a child.

The part that really breaks my heart? That scene between them atop the minaret is such a touching moment. I was beyond conflicted when I finally happened upon Hytham in Mirage, and now I'm being forced to contend with its canonimity :/

Hilariously, if Ubisoft truly intended for Basim to be 20 years older in Valhalla, it only further solidifies that they wanted to canonize an older Basim in his late 30s. The bad math could've been an oversight... even if it is a big one.

Let's delve into Valhalla next.

Thanks to Eivor's AC Rebellion bio, we know that her age ranges between 25-30 years old throughout Valhalla. This is further supported by Kjotve's comment about 17-18 winter's passing since the death of her parents near the beginning of the game, and further cemented when she's talking to Basim by the campfire, stating that she lost her parents at the tender age of 9.

This is important to note when observing the way Basim interacts with Eivor throughout the story, especially since Mirage's canon insists that they are only 2-3 years apart.

Early in the game Eivor teases Basim about jumping the gun to find a new apprentice to tutor, and his response is to lend her guidance.

In Cent, when completing the quest 'The Instrument of the Ancient's, a dialogue triggers when Eivor and Basim are on their way to infiltrate Canterbury's Cathedral to rescue Sigurd:

This is not how friends talk to each other in their late 20s. This is a man with years of experience, eager to impart his knowledge to one much younger. He's not using a condescending tone here, he genuinely believes he can guide her.

Also, have you SEEN the man?

Does that look like a 30 year old to you?

Better yet, have you seen Hytham?

Because this man looks like he's in his 30s, but according to Mirage he's supposed to be barely 20 here?

I'm sorry, I know this sounds like I'm harping on Mirage a lot, but you have to understand that all this frustration comes from a place of deep affection for a franchise I practically grew up with. Part of what makes Assassin's Creed so incredible is it's ability to immerse a player in a historical setting and create impactful stories within those settings, but so much of that has been lost overtime due to corporate greed, it's become disheartening.

Why on earth would Ubisoft create such an expansive and incredible recreation of 9th century Baghdad only to spend little to no effort on it's story? So little effort in fact, that they couldn't even tie in the story with their main line series properly. Imagine having a team of historians and architects dedicated to bringing an accurate depiction of old Arab/Persian/Levantine culture to life, only to drown it out with a lukewarm story and poorly constructed timelines?

The point I'm trying to make is that I'm being forced to pick and choose my canons because of inconsistency's like this. Will the canons I choose to abide by for the sake of world-building be the same as everyone else's? No! And I don't expect it to either. This is my opinion based on the research I conducted, and this is how I'm choosing to make sense of everything to provide myself with an ounce of sanity when creating fanworks.

Which is also the reason why I haven't included 'Giermund's Saga' or 'Sword of the White Horse' in this response, as I personally found their depictions of Hytham and some supporting characters a little ooc for my taste.

And before I get into why, I want to make a disclaimer that my intent in dissecting the stories told in these novels isn’t to undermine the work that the author has poured into these works. These writers have my utmost respect and admiration for dedicating so much time and effort in expanding the AC universe and bringing to life their own interpretations of these characters, and I feel it’s important to acknowledge that my opinions here are my own and not a reflection of the entire fanbase. This is not an invitation to dunk on any of the works that they’ve so clearly poured their passion into. I only mean to dissect it for the sake of analysis and I want to be honest for the sake of this ask.

Here's an excerpt from Giermund's Saga as Giermund meets Hytham for the first time.

Giermund observes that Hytham looks to be in his 20s. This observation is given from the perspective of an outsider. He is an unreliable narrator guessing the age of a man he has just met. I could easily do the same thing- guess the age of a stranger I see down the street and for all I know, I could be woefully wrong.

Additionally, Hytham appears to have pierced ears. Do I have a thing against pierced ears? Absolutely not 😂 and I'd be over the moon to see fanart of this, but has Hytham ever been depicted with them in Valhalla before? No! What an odd addition that contributes nothing to his character for this brief appearance.

In Sword of the White Horse, Hytham is described to having brown eyes:

Which again, I don't have a single problem with brown eyes, it's just not what canon Valhalla has depicted him with.

There's also mention of him sustaining a lasting leg injury from his assault on Kjotve. You know... the one where he's swatted away like a fly on the wall. This is supposedly the same injury that confined him to his bureau for the entirety of Valhalla, but it couldn't be farther from the truth because in actuality he sustained a punctured lung, likely from a cracked rib that never properly healed. This change almost feels like it's understating the severity of his inflicted injuries. A punctured lung would've been infinitely harder to tend to than a leg that long ago, especially since the fall of Rome in the 5th century ended the advancement of surgical knowledge in Europe (not that it was that advanced at the time to begin with).

However, the biggest deal breaker for me is Hytham and Eivor's reluctance to return an artifact belonging to it's indigenous ancestors.

The premise of the book revolves around the retrieval of a sacred weapon to the protagonists people, Excalibur. But Eivor's reluctance to do so is in direct conflict with her character in Vinland, as she quite literally comes across an apple of Eden and returns it to the indigenous population of the land without a second thought. Given Hytham's overall generous nature, and the fact that he's played an advisory role within Ravensthorpe for some time now, it would make just as much sense for him to respond similarly and give back to the people what is rightfully theirs.

Furthermore, neither of these novels follow historical events with impact to the Valhalla story line. With a bit of research, I was able to find that Giermund was a real viking but very little else is known about him.

I cannot reiterate enough that these works are fantastic and should be enjoyed and appreciated in their own breath, but for the sake of breaking down canons and making sense of their ages, I'm opting to keep them out of timeline discussions, along with any other material with depictions of Hytham and Basim that have little to no impact on their speculated ages.

With all of that out of the way, here's a side by side comparison of the timeline Mirage has setup vs what I'm proposing based on all the canon information we've dissected.

I sincerely think that the mess of Mirage's timeline could've easily been solved if Ubisoft had simply aged the boys up a little.

As much as I adore tiny Hytham being shown how to do a leap of faith, I would've equally settled for Basim being introduced to Hytham training under Rayhan in Alamut as a young man instead.

There's even a cleverly placed letter making mention of Norse warriors in Constantinople that can be found in Fuladh's office just beside Enkidu's perch.

A subtle nod to the plot of 'The Golden City' soon to come:

Which means that the writers fully intended to tie Mirage in with 'The Golden City,' making it impossible to ignore.

I will leave you here before I ramble any further. I promise I'm not always this exasperated with my replies _(: 」 ∠)_

I sincerely hope this wasn't too convoluted to follow. Please do with this information what you will anon, but this is how I've chosen to make sense of everything and I hope you can track my logic.

To those of you who managed to get this far, I send you all my love and many kisses. Thank you for reading, and please do feel free to send me any other questions you may have!

I'll try my best to keep my response shorter than this one ;)

PS: I am aware that Hytham's wiki states that he was born in the 850s, but this wiki entry infuriates me to no end because there is NO SOURCE. Never has Hytham's birthday been explicitly stated anywhere, and someone just decided to randomly give him one. Please be VIGILANT in your research when you look up stuff about your favourite blorbos, as wikipedia can be edited by literally anyone.

k, end rant, thank you for coming to my ted talk. That's all i wanted to add 😂

#basim ibn ishaq #hytham #ac valhalla #ac mirage #the golden city #sword of the white horse #giermund's saga #my asks #thanks anon :)

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umbralaether · 6 months ago

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#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #the golden city #eisha pantera #dawntrail #dawntrail spoilers #eisha screens

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thekingofwinterblog · 3 months ago

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The Black City WAS Golden Once - The Final Mystery

So in the Veilguard, we learn seemingly ALL the secrets of the black city, and all mysteries are uncovered.

They were done so in stupid, badly written ways, but all the answers were seemingly given, and all made logical sense.

The black city was the prison for the evanuris, it was the origin of the blight already in the world which we already knew, but we learned that the blight was caused by the titans being mentally castrated and the madness and eldrich fallout turned into the taint that blighted everything it touched, solas used the city speciffically as the prison for said taint, then later his fellow gods, and because he used it as the prison for the taint, that's why it was blackened when cory got there.

All of it is logical in it's own way, and demystifies pretty much everything we have learned about it, and conclusively separates it from the maker... At least that was my original thoughts on the matter, before i suddenly recalled one, very specific bit of bioware Questions and Answers.

I dont recall exactly who said what, but after Inquistion, some Bioware story writer was asked something along the lines of "Was the black city always black? and the golden part was just an illusion?"

And the answer actually completely contradicts what we seemingly learn in Veilguard.

No, the city WAS Golden in the distant past. It was not JUST an illusion on the outside. It wasn't always the black city as we know it.

That... is interesting. because that suggests it WAS important BEFORE solas imprisoned the blight there.

Now the obvious conclusion if we accept this theory, is that the city was indeed the maker's citadel(as according to the chantry, he was the original god of mankind, and we now know mankind did indeed predate the elves), but it's not the only possibility, just the most logical one with what information we have.

What i will say though, is that the Black city does not in any way SEEM to have been an elven structure judging by the architecture.

And this architecture seems to have been a point of importance for the creating team, because it has remained relatively consistent since origins, when we only got to look at it up close by breaking the camera and zooming in on it.

It has a very blocky architecture, like someone carved it directly out of the mountains, with one of the roofs having a sorta factory like plating, and there being clear palaces/temples on the top.

And we see it again inquistion, though since we cant see the top(and it probably wasnt added in since we werent meant to get to go there) we cant see the temples/palaces where whoever once lived here probably used for their base.

And we know this throne exists, because Cory flat out tells us it exists, and it was empty, NOT occupied by the Evenris who presumably wandered across it's streets.

So with all of this in mind, we can draw some conclusions.

Whatever this place was, it was probably not made by the elves, given nothing in it's architecture matches the elves(Nor anythign else we have seen in the franchise for that matter).

2. The city was important before the war between titans and elves, and was probably chosen as the prison for a reason, not that it became important because it was the prison. the fact it has a royal throne tells us that SOMEONE used to rule here.

3. The city used to be golden, and it was Solas imprisoning the Blight there that turned it black.

4. The city is THE center of the fade, the de-facto gravitational center of all magic in the world... but is this because it always was so even before the veil(hence why it was chosen as the prison), or did it become so only AFTER Solas used it as an ancher stone when he separated the fade and the physical world with the veil. Both are equally possible.

Regardless of wheter one assumes it was made by some civlization that predates the Elves and known history, or was made by Maker, it's original origins remains one, final unanswered mystery that Veilguard did not give an answer to.

#dragon age #veilguard #dragon age inquisition #dragon age origins #the black city #the golden city #the maker #mysteries #meta #the blight

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wrose-writes · 19 days ago

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*crashes through the skylight feet first and lands dramatically, shards of glass showering around me in an unrealistic yet highly cinematic manner*

HELLO I HAVE A NEW WIP SLIDESHOW

text description under the cut! seriously though don't look at it unless you're planning to read it I know it's a tempting clickable button but it's A Lot of text

@ettawritesnstudies for the WishWIP taglist, @enne-uni, @ashirisu, & @mr-orion for the general writing taglist, and @cloudsthatglowinthenightsky because i mentioned you in the slideshow. Please do ask to be added or removed from any taglists!

THE NEW AND UPDATED ✨WIP SLIDESHOW✨

by yours truly, theroseempress (you can call me Rose) (kind of a comic sans WIP intro, but multiplied) ((multi-WIP slideshow idea credit to @ettawritesnstudies)

~~~

FIRST CATEGORY

MAIN PROJECTS

~~~~

WISHWIP

(I really need to give this an actual name)

Probably my main WIP as you're reading this! Probably.

status: working on the script for it! format: comic

worldbuilding/info

how do Creators, a Guide-

-basic concept is ‘what if art but superpowers’.

-less basic concept is; People who can use this world’s magic system are called Creators. There are 4 types of Creators; Withdrawers, Imbuers, Enhancers, and Invokers. Being a Creator is genetic, though it’s a recessive gene (like green eyes) so parents do not have to be Creators for their child to be.

-Imbuers are the most common and also the type general society is most unbothered by. Imbuers can embed special properties into anything they create, for example a sword that cannot break, a necklace that enhances the wearer’s hearing, or a food that heals.

-Withdrawers are the second most common, but the type regarded as most dangerous by general society. Withdrawers can bring things they create to life/into existence; said things can be controlled by their creator and are made out of whatever they’re created with.

-Enhancers are regarded as the least common type, and unlike the other two types of Creator, most Enhancers live in their own nation and do not interact with outsiders. Enhancers can enhance the art they perform, for example turning singing into a siren-like spell.

- Invokers are the most rare type of Creator, most people don’t believe they exist. Invokers can force things to happen by writing them down.

featuring-

~hard magic systems my beloved

~everyone in the cast being slightly unhinged with varying energies and at varying times

~wish trying to solve problems

~song creating problems

~rhythm ignoring problems

~lyric being involved in problems because he knows the previous two people on this list

~quite a lot of mysteries that won’t be elaborated upon until the fourth arc

~Shenanigans™

~a plot that I am overall quite proud of

characters

WISH- -the main character-doing her Best -looking for someone -badass -Withdrawer -very normal, not oddly powerful at all. -very polite -certainly does not have a Backstory

(STORMSONG) SONG- -a scholar -Not Being Chased By Anyone -A Very Normal Girl -has a pet dragon (Booklet) -high int low wis characters my beloved -disaster -non-Creator

LYRIC- -also looking for someone (his brother/cousin) -very friendly -Imbuer -canonically can’t read since his native language doesn’t have a written form and he hasn’t learnt to read any others yet (he can speak one though).

RHYTHM- -definitely not the brother/cousin Lyric is looking for -busy researching something I can’t elaborate on for spoiler reasons -Enhancer -tunnel vision 1000

SOME OTHER PEOPLE WHO SHOW UP LATER-

RED -menace to society -i love her -Enhancer

JUNIPER -’what do you have’ ‘A KNIFE -Damask’s sister -Imbuer

DAMASK -nerd -(also badass) -Juni’s brother -Imbuer

GLADIOLUS -i love him - v fun to write -[spoilier] -Withdrawer

PATTERN -[spoilers x10] -Imbuer

MERIT -an Angsty Rebellious Teen™ -Invoker (ooo)

ACCENT -just a nice guy, he’s here too -Imbuer

COPPER -[spoilers x100]

ZEPHYR -[spoilers x100]

~~~~

LIBRARIES

(it’s called this because it’s about libraries)

comment

status: status: rotating in my mind with the occasional note being taken format: either a book or web serial idk

worldbuilding/info

so, what are the Libraries?-

~in essence, they’re… well, libraries.

~Specifically, cool fantasy libraries that don’t actually let you check out books.

~I suppose that would make them more of archives? IDK

~Anyway, the Libraries are run by Librarians, who have magic powers because this is a fantasy universe and I can do what I want.

~specifically, the Libraries’ founder figured out a way to make it so that the staff of each Library can use all the Gifts belonging to the Librarians of that particular Library.

~They also serve as sanctuaries in the same way that cathedrals used to.

(sidebar; what are ‘Gifts’-

~Basically, a long time ago, Something Happened.

~that made what are called Rifts; IE places where the world doesn’t quite… work right.

~Plants and animals that grow/live near the Rifts are Kind of Funky.

~as are people! This is how magic. Magic is called Gifts- you have one specific Gift; ie super-strength, flight, etc. Like superpowers, but fantasy. Ok sidebar over).

featuring-

~Sori doing her absolute best to deal with The Plot

~Mikka being very helpful and supportive of her.

~Firefly being… he’s Doing His Best alright, it’s not HIS fault (much).

~sort of the typical fantasy aesthetic that I’ve been failing at writing for quite a while! Finally it made it into a project. Woo!

~my general love of books

~flying library! No I don’t know how that works. Magic. Don’t ask me.

characters

SORI- -the main character! -Librarian -i would be unsurprised to discover she is autistic -no Gifts aside from the ones she gets from being a Librarian. -[REDACTED] -just vibing until the plot hits and she turns into the This is Fine meme (it is not fine)

MIKKA- -another main character -traveling mercenary who has been staying at Sori’s Library for a while now -considering becoming a Librarian himself -Sori’s best friend. -also non-Gifted. but he has a sword. -generally just a chill guy -absolutely could kill you though. But why would he. That would be mean.

‘FIREFLY’- -that’s totally his real name dw guyss -arrives at Sori’s Library and stays there for No Particular Reason He’s Not Hiding From Anything Trust Me Guys -also non-Gifted, but he is an alchemist. -(that probably means something different from what you’re thinking) -he might not be succeeding but he sure is Trying

MORE PROTAGONISTS (WHO GET HERE LATER ON)

TAI -Nin’s sister -bark is bigger than her bite -non-Gifted but not exactly a normal human either (catgirl)

NIN -Tai’s sister. -bite is WAY bigger than her bark yikes -has the Gift of decay

CARO -traveling scholar -nothing else to see here (or is there)

ASHE -nobleman -has the Gift of emotion sensing -the only person who has ever called themselves ‘an empath’ and not been being dramatic

RENNA -Red Paladin -*loud sigh*

~~~~

FALLENSTARS

(I should probably make an actual name for this but I kinda like fallenstars NGL)

The probably-prologue of this is on my Wordpress (carolinaauthor.wordpress.com) if you want to read iiiit~

status: hmmformat: mmyeah web serial

worldbuilding/info

so why is this called fallenstars?-

~Long long ago, the stars fell from the sky

~Significantly less long ago, Rekha and Ven found them.

~Or at least, they THINK they found them.

~An expedition is being had to figure out if they are right.

featuring-

~shenanigans. many shenanigans.

~me trapping Vivian and Arielle in a cave-in for the simple reason that that is the ONLY WAY to get them to HAVE A CONVERSATION

~Jai being a Little Guy (who could kill you).

~did I mention names have power? because they do

~everyone in this project has a whole handful of names that they use for different purposes

‘magic’ system-

~With either training or immense peril, a human can connect to the aether.

~Once they’ve done that, they fit into one of three categories, and then can Do The Magic In That Category.

~Also there’s Elders.

~Elders are people who have managed to gather a lot of power in one way or another, and now can do special things. Also they live for 1000 years; hence the Elder part.

~Elders can ‘sponsor’ people if they have their names, which means they can grant them some abilities and what-not.

~Also, names hold power. Be careful.

characters

VIVIAN- -the protagonist -short -water coded -a Seer (this means she can see magic, also emotions) -(this is rare) -sponsored by an Elder! you may call him Sapphire. he finds Vivian very entertaining. -has History with Arielle

ARIELLE- -the deuteragonist -tall -air coded -a Channeler (most relevantly this means she can make forcefields. there’s more to it but I don’t have space to explain) -(this is the most common type) -former Warrior (this means she’s badass) -has History with Vivian

JAIREN/JAI- -other member of the main four -fire coded -an Enhancer (this means he can enhance or mute magic/any process) -(this is rare) -(& also very desirable) -Namebound. -(that means he’s effectively a magically-enforced slave) -cinnamon roll of a boy

MIRREN- -other member of the main four -earth coded -glyph user (this means he can do stuff if he has the correct symbol written down for it) -(kind of between rare and common) -has been trying to break into the Academy for a year or so now -wanted criminal, legally

REKHA -you may remember her from the last page -ADHD coded

VEN -Rekha’s partner -autism coded

SAPPHIRE/SAPH -the youngest Elder (for now) -you may recognize him from Viv’s profile

~~~~

THE GOLDEN CITY

(has an actual title 👍) (I might change it though)

the oldest WIP in this slideshow!

status: being rewritten format: text 👍)

worldbuilding/info

featuring-

~me having done way too much worldbuilding that will probably never show up

~Seriously I literally know the different countries’ burial practices When will this be useful.

~Felix responding to being in dangerous situations by either miraculously wriggling out of any consequences whatsoever, or making things significantly worse for himself.

~Felix being mentally unstable and trying to convince himself This Is Fine

~Helen having both my and Felix’s complete and utter adoration. she’s great I love her

~heists! a quest!! adventure!

~Valentin just generally being a stand up good chap

~the plot expanding and elaborating on itself with a rapidity that both surprises and intimdates me

here have some random worldbuilding info

-there are 4 countries, Solace, Ketra, Shyi, and Amora. Amora is not technically a country. It’s complicated. There is also Tali, which is conquered by Solace and technically not a country but that’s also complicated to be honest.

-Solace is the most relevant because that’s where the protagonists are. The capital of Solace is Solace. It is also called The Golden City because that is confusing.

-Solace and Shyi do not get along. Solace and Ketra have a treaty and generally get along. Shyi and Ketra do not get along (Shyi is mad because they tried to conquer Ketra and it didn’t work). The Amorians do not get along with anyone, though this is rarely their fault.

-A few decades ago, Solace had a civil war wherein they swapped out their old royal family for a new royal family. This part is very relevant to the plot.

characters

FELIX ROSE- -~the protagonist~ -Look it’s not HIS fault he wound up getting into a contract with the Shady Underground that is as a result getting him blackmailed to start a civil war -OK, maybe the first part of that might be a little bit his fault. -He’s Doing His Best, alright. -chronic charmer -dating Helen (one of his greatest achievements)

SHANNON ROSE- -Felix’s younger twin brother -scholar -busy Doing Research -bit naive to be honest. -we love him anyway -just a Little Guy -can really hold a grudge -really looks up to Felix, good thing Fe isn’t, say, hiding any incredibly big secrets that have the potential to shatter their relationship, right? :)

HELEN WHITEHALL- -a goddess among women -(alright maybe I’m being a little dramatic) -Dating Felix. -pureblooded Solite noble -not supposed to be dating Felix, who is half Amorian. currently ignoring that. -significantly more prone to shenanigans and mischief than anyone really guesses -i love her

BRICRIU CALLAN -friend of Felix’s -morally grey af -great fun to write

VALENTIN -cinnamon roll of a boy -baffled by the plot but doing his best anyway

TAYLOR/TAY -Shadow Guard researcher -spends most of the plot side-eying Felix suspiciously

MARIN CINDER -Shadow Guard, Tay’s partner -has a sword

RAZ LAMORA -oh you sweet summer child -i apologize in advance

NIKOLAI CAHILL -The Prince -generally a nice guy

~~~~

MERCY CITY

(no real title yet)

status: hmmmmmmmmmmmm format: web serial probably

worldbuilding/info

i explain affinities to you-

~So basically, everyone in this world is born with what is called an Affinity.

~This means they can manipulate a little bit of the world (which little bit depends on the affinity).

~list of affinities; fire, water, air, earth, growth, decay, light, animal, aether, sight, humanity, city, fortune, and enhancement.

~Affinities are heriditary and not recessive (IE, if your parents both have fire affinities, so will you), except for the Family Affinities.

~’but Rose what’s a Family Affinity’

~Basically, there’s four families (Solena, Lune, Maris, and Itris) who hav affinities that belong only to them. Within the families, they work as above, but once you get a generation removed from the main bloodline, their affinities (humanity, city, fortune, and enhancement) mysteriously just. Stop appearing. Nobody knows why that is.

~I reiterate, everyone has an affinity!

~except sometimes they don’t.

~except sometimes they have aether (can manipulate everything) which is actually VERY BAD.

~this brings us to the plot.

The Plot-

~meet Felice and Kiseki, they’re the protagonists and also twins

~Felice has No Affinity!

~(Felice does not need an affinity, she has a gun)

~(this is surprisingly effective because nobody thinks about guns when they have, say, Magic Fire)

~(Magic Fire is quite a bad defense against being shot, unfortunately for People Who Are Not Felice)

~Kiseki has Aether! This is bad. It means he is probably going to explode, and should really already have done so

~Felice would like that not to happen, thank you very much.

~They are on the hunt for an artifact that is supposed to help with Kiseki not exploding

~They arrive in Mercy City on their search, and are immediately sidetracked by the ridiculous amount of people with agendas in this book.

characters

FELICE VENTURA- -hey remember her she’s the main character -as previously mentioned, No Affinity -this does not make much of an effect on her in any way concievable -it does make it a bit of a pain to get through customs though, as she has to convince them she’s not hiding an affinity in her pants somehow. that usually takes a bit. -knows how to pilot a bunch of things

KISEKI TERRIS- -hey remember him he’s also the main character -as previously mentioned, has Aether -this means he can manipulate the aether. this means a lot of things. -most relevantly, this means he should really have exploded by now since the human body isn’t designed to handle that much energy -constantly wears affinity surpressors, which is very uncomfortable for him -also a pain to get through customs

CADEN SOLENA- -i love him dearly & want to put him in a blender <3 -charming bastard -heir to the Solena family, has the Solena affinity of Humanity. -this means he can heal and/or brainwash people.

SOPHIE LLYR -Caden’s braincells & moral compass -scholar -has the affinity of Air -she can fly!

THOMAS DARIS -Joy’s bodyguard. -very nice -has the affinity of Fire -former soldier. really badass.

JOY ITRIS -heir to the Itris family, has the Itris affinity of Enhancement -this means she’s basically an enhanced version of a human -little menace /affectionate

some Other People- Vega Maris Addison Maris Hope Lilia May Lily Fleuria Itri Stellarion Asteria Cortia Wynn Diamis Prism Ilia

~~~~

SKY PIRATES

(this was called ‘chasing butterflies’ in an earlier draft, and I do really like that name so I’m probably going to use it again)

(this is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin 👍)

status: currently not working on this one format: book with illustrations

worldbuilding/info

featuring-

~post-apocalyptic setting with the wrecks of modern cities scattered about.

(post-apocalyptic is a very fun word to say)

~people called scrappers who go into the ruined cities and collect useful stuff to bring back to the new cities

~a majority of scrappers are teenagers since being a scrapper means you need to be small and agile, and more teenagers fit that description than adults.

~it’s been a while since the Cataclysm (the apocalypse part of post-apocalyptic) so there’s a pretty thriving society set up with a rather baffling mixture of technologies

~the main cast are a scrapping crew

~they live in a flying ship! with wings! (thank you @cloudsthatglowinthenightsky)

~also there’s the Mist. It’s… well it’s mist. But like. Magical mist. It’s concentrated around the old cities for some reason.

~spending time in or near the Mist isn’t good for humans. It makes you a bit funky (and also kills you if you stay in it long enough)

~most scrappers are a bit funky

~Lute is Oddly Normal when you consider that. I’m sure that doesn’t mean anything

~also there’s pirates. forgot to mention that. they steal things from scrappers mostly

rapid-fire chaotic description of the plot-

~the cast is just vibing

~they stop at a port to get supplies

~Lute goes for a little walk

~SURPRISE SUDDENLY THERE’S A GIRL

~the Sudden Girl is running away from the soldiers

~Lute can appreciate that, so he helps

~crew is now +1 Mysterious Girl!

~Mysterious Girl can manipulate the Mist????

~she needs to go to some Old Ruins for Magic Reasons???

~there are three different factions who want to kill and/or enslave her

~OK WE’RE GOING ON A QUEST NOW I GUESS

characters

LUTE- -the main character! from the last slide. you remember him right -one of the three actual scrappers of the crew -artist (I plan to use this blatantly to put illustrations into the book) -so normal that it might actually be suspicious at this point

VANYA- -the ship’s captain -about ten seconds away from a mental breakdown on a good day -one of his hobbies is pretending He’s Fine -he has done so successfully enough to that he also believes He’s Fine. -He’s Not, Actually. -’ship in a bottle’ by stefan argus coded

?- -the Sudden Girl from the last slide -I. I haven’t named her yet. im sorry -can manipulate the Mist -comes equipped with a Backstory and Motives -she’s fiiiiiine

BLAKE- -the ship’s pilot -also pilots various drones (used for looking for useful things to scrap) -also fixes the ship when required -considers himself very underappreciated for how much he Does Around Here

ROBIN- -the ship’s medic -also one of the actual scrappers -also cooks -if anyone hurt her the rest of the crew would Kill Them Immediately -will absolutely beat you up if you don’t pay attention to her Medical Instructions

CHESS- -third scrapper of the crew -lifts heavy things -(lute and robin are both short, so you can imagine they require assistance on that front) -he’s here to have a good time not a long time

currently unnamed pirate captain -you know how some characters/people you just post a picture of and the entire comment section is just ‘not to be a lesbian but’ and ‘step on me’? yeah that’s her -also she’s evil. btw.

~~~~

OK THAT’S ALL

HOPE YOU ENJOYED

GO CHECK THE REST OF MY BLOG OUT BYE

#my writing #wip intro #wip slideshow #wishwip #libraries #fallenstars #tgc #the golden city #mercy city #sky pirates

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