#aetherspace

[yourlocalbreadenthusiast]

I would like to move to wizard island island since someone has shut off the aetherspace network from the rest of the world

Oh sure. Just tell me where you want your spot on the island and what you want it labeled as. I will warn you though, that ask will not be answered because unless I see it in the inbox to remind me, I'll forget.

[rainbowbarnacle]

*settles into the FFXIV queue with coffee*

I want to commission somebody to draw this enormous winding line in aetherspace that ends with, like, Selene sitting there at the very end propped up against her dozing sin eater mount with her pile of gear, looking bored out of her mind

[somechubbynerd]

Pat-patting Taylor from beyond aetherspace, but for real this time!

Whoaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

[thenoirarchive]

✟ Intro Post ✟

Archive loading...

Updating headspace...

Loading SP profiles...

Connecting you to front...

♱ Welcome to The Noir Archive, continue? ♱

》Yes | No

Hi there! We are a multigenic plural

collective of around 200+ headmates!

✟ FREQUENT FRONTERS ✟

[Cain - it/they - host - 🦝]

[Ivory - she/they - co-host - 🖊]

[Amai - she/her - caretaker - 🍰]

[Ginger - she/her - protecter/rotmate - 🐺]

[Ethel - she/they - depression holder - ⛪️]

✟ CODES ✟

Plural Code [10/07/24]

N++++#$- | P[nb/gf/o"xenogender"/bi/xo"autosexual"] | A-(b r---!/+++!!!/A^) | S.H+/S.T+/S.U+/S.S+/S.F+*/S.K*/S.N+*/S.Mc+*/S.Mf+*/S.Me+*/S.Un+*/S.Mu+*/S.Mr+*/S.B+*/S.A+/S.P+*/S.L+/S.~+ | Om/Opa | Mq/l/s/sb/t/m | Wf/c/t/o/x/~/$ | C(cc+/m#) | OF(r--/o+++) | Fpg+^/pk+^/sn+^/m+^/aut^/div+^/mw+^/#+^ | Mpsy/ast!/cry/spi/mag | Rf/p/r+/r/m | V++*!- | X+ | G+ | S(r---/o+) | R

Syscourse Code [10/07/24]

👍/❤️/📘/🔺️🔸️/🟠🟢/🌘🌗/🟥/🌳/☁️/🥧/🐲/🐝/

.🐳🐬.

✟ ARCHIVE INFORMATION ✟

🪦 The host and co-host are both irl yanderes, so there will be the occasional obsessive posting about our partners (it will be tagged).

🎧 We are collectively against psychiatry, do not suggest therapy, psychiatry, or drugs to us.

🐈‍⬛ Headcount 》 suspected 200+

🎥 Headspace 》 artfulspace, prochotechspace, willospace, aetherspace, locspace

🕸 Other terms 》 mutovisum, oculovisum, netplural, cephaconscious, multiplexconscious, fictive heavy, specutien

🔦 Plurid identities 》 fungusplurid, spaceplurid, starplurid, deathplurid, weirdplurid, insaneplurid, musicplurid, writerplurid, traumaplurid, nonhumanplurid, horrorplurid

🌑 Origins & Modifiers ➠ /ᐠ - ˕ -マ [pronouns.page]

✟ TAGGING SYSTEM ✟

# ⛧winn-dixie's dairy aisle⛧ [our posts]

# ⛧televangelism⛧ [plurality stuff]

# ⛧gold satin dreamer⛧ [witchcraft]

# ⛧tammy faye eyes⛧ [obsessive stuff]

# +1 headmate [headmates we've split]

✟ DNI ✟

🌑 basic dni (racist, anti lgbtq+, etc.)

🌑 MAPs because y'all trigger us

🌑 if you're here to hate on us

🌑 anti therian/otherkin/nonhuman

🌑 anti xenogender, neopronouns, etc

🌑 if you're here to fetishize us

🌑 if you're pro-c for noncon paras

🌑 if you think that forced psychiatry is okay/justifiable, you believe in narc abuse, or you demonize PDs & psychosis

[definitelythatstarkergirl]

Are there any fic recs out there in the aetherspace of tumblr?

I’m not big on Starkercest BUT give me Tony and Peter who discover AFTER they’ve fallen in love and slept together (aka fucked hard) that they’re biological father and son. And they’re in too deep now, so I guess they’ve just got to continue dating and fucking because there’s no way they’re breaking up JUST because they’re related

[somewhat-eternal-fr]

Heeheehoo I made a xenomorph

[acornrising]

finished up my first Aether. Gotta get her a more matchy familiar BUT.... I love them.

idk they have the weirdest colors but I am CHARMED, little baby stargazer

[bewareofjabberwock]

His name is Dave. He's a little messed up 💖

[malware-wizard]

Unrestricted Aether Access to the wizard council's Aetherspace

Ye who approacheth the Gnomus Tower must answer me these questions 3, ere the inside you’ll see.

[interstellar-elf]

Hi Would you like to tell what is AetherSpace going to be about, or something about main character/s? ;v; I'm really curious. the tag is full of posts tho, so i don't know where to begin.

How to explain AetherSpace… Well this is going to be a journey. It’s still in development, given that my living situation has been unstable this year, so I’ll sort it out as much as I can under the cut:

 AetherSpace: Hikari is in procession of a cube of an elemental substance that is sought after by a corrupt organization. This cube, along with the strange creature called Gef that accompanies her are mysteries she has to solve in order to save the universe. In her quest she is aided by an astral witch also sought out by the organization, a mysterious glowing warrior from a rogue planet, and a hacktactivist bird-person who used to work for said organization but has since taken his inner knowledge of the place to strike back at the corruption and evil that it has caused. In addition, there is another conspiracy underlying the appearance of a rare mythical space creature that has ties to the cube.

There are a number of other characters, plot lines and McGuffins (including a really big sword and other items of importance), but it mostly follows Hikari and her three friends as well as Gef. 

Characters:

Hikari: main character, wears mostly pink

Laki: astral witch, lavender fox-elf humanoid

Iryllia: glowing warrior, has white eyes and dark skin with glowing tattoos

????: His name’s been changing so as of yet it hasn’t been finalized even though he’s an old character in terms of development, but is a hacker and activist who used to work for the organization

Gef: No one is quite sure what they are but they have the appearance of a cross between a fox and a rabbit and seems to be more intellegent than one would think

There are other characters, which includes a few scientists, Su Voronezh, a guardian magic girl, a space samurai, the organization’s head of operations, and a mecha or two.

Two main items of importance would be the cube and the giant sword that Hikari weilds

There is at least one planet named, being Blazen where Hikari calls home. It is home to strange weather and lifeform anomalies.

[redvioletpanda-art]

A character of mine in a new costume (her costume may differ in the actual comic, for simplication issues)

DeviantArt

Patreon

RedBubble

[sentimental-bottlesnake]

for people who tag for genes

can we tag for space? I really don't like it. It triggers my Bug Response. #aetherspace would be appreciated

[malware-wizard]

stupid orbless wizards browsing the aetherspace with their psychic powers, for which I have not properly developed a malware hex yet

⚠️ Here are the top 34 hoards that dragons don't want you to know about!! ⚠️

[dailyadventureprompts]

Hi Dapper, This is more of a game mechanics advice question, if you have any thoughts... You’ve suggested a few naval themed, or at least travel themed adventures. How do you run Ship based campaigns (either naval ships or air ships)? I guess, focusing on combat or encounters, rather than just travelling.

I know there are various official and unofficial rule sets, but none of these feel “right” to me. I think because, in all other respects, 5e is so individual-character focused. Most ship rules tend to remove “the character” and focus on the ship or crew as a single mass. Players aren’t rolling for their character anymore, and in some rule sets, the “captain” is singularly rolling for everyone.

I understand ships are big, and historical naval combat involves hundreds of sailors spread over hours, but this runs counter to the general vibe of the game (most rpgs, actually) that focus on a handful of PC heroes as “stars of the show.” As a result, jumping over to these more anonymising rules always feels awkward to me.

How have you navigated this discrepancy, and what things have you found to work (or to avoid)?

Drafting the Adventure: Naval Combat & Encounter Design

SUCH a good question, so thanks for writing in!

I think the discrepancy you've pointed out actually underlies a lot of what's wrong with 5e combat, in that the simple mechanical systems we are given tend to be boring when they're left to their own devices. The thing that the developers really should impress on everyone learning to run 5e gams is that these systems AREN'T supposed to be left on their own, they're supposed to be a simple framework over which you place challenges of batshit bravery/ skill and epic setpieces, which is apparently a thing we need to all learn on our own through trial and error, sacrificing the fun of our sessions in the process.

First, a note on encounter design:

Think of a default "at sea" naval encounter like a fight in a generic 20x20ft dungeon room: yes the party gets to show off their abilities, but once you've gone through one of these sorts of combats, every other "vanilla" encounter is going to seem almost rote, an exercise in tedium. Likewise, if you throw your party's vessel against another vessel in a generic void of sea/sky/aetherspace, you're going to run into the same problem: relying on a less than stellar mechanical system until it breaks under the pressure of trying to maintain the fun at the table all on its own.

It all comes down to encounter design, you as the DM picturing what you think would be a fun/cool/exciting action sequence, and then setting up the narrative stakes, mechanics, and enemies to facilitate that. I'd say that there's a lost art to encounter design, but it's not so much lost as untaught: when the prevailing wisdom is that the party should be having 5-7 encounters PER DAY, then gives us little in the way of rules or ideas about making those encounters spicy, its no wonder we end up churning out a bunch of boring filler content.

Think of it like a movie production team, be it a writer, director, actor, or props department: anyone would struggle making 5-7 unique action scenes, when that energy could all be focused on making one scene 5-7 times as good. Translating that back into DM relevant information, focus on making fewer, more interesting encounters rather than trying to cram in as many as possible, you only have so much time and creative juice to utilize between sessions so make sure it goes where its most needed. These encounters don't need to be biggest, most epic things ever, they just need to be unique and push the story along regardless of whether your party wins or loses.

My thoughts on building those unique encounters and how to really Jazz up ship to ship combat under the cut.

How to choose the right encounters:

The first thing to do is throw out every notion given to you by the DMG about how many encounters an adventure needs to have, and anything regarding rolling for random encounters while traveling. Random encounters are an artifact of grindheavy JRPGs and the earlier editions where fights were simple, deadly, and over in a few dice throws. 5e breaks if played like that, so you shouldn't attempt to do so. Instead, have an encounter whenever it's right for there to be an encounter, when you think you've prepped a good one that fits with the rhythm of the story, something that feels like it will challenge them, and something that will have a bearing on the plot regardless of what the final outcome is.

Next, when plotting your encounters you need to consider the different goals involved in the narrative you’re spinning:  what are your party attempting to do and how does this encounter impede them? Sure you can have a generic “pirates/seamonsters attack because we haven’t had a fight in a while” sort of encounter, but those are just as boring narratively as the fight in the 20x20ft room is mechanically. Such generic battle should only be the setup for other, more interesting mechanical scenarios, such as the pirates having a strange artifact in their hold, or the seamonster’s venom poisoning somebody and potentially forcing the party to divert course in favor of seeking aid. 

Variety is your friend here so consider implementing chases, stealth runs, standoffs, and navigation challenges to frame your usual combats. These can be spaced out with social encounters to provide exposition and tension, or vignettes of how the crew is managing. I’ve actually been fond of using a “captian’s log” style framing device to breeze over repetitive maritime travel, highlighting scenes and detailing their aftermath without having to repeatedly describe the routine process of working on a ship. 

Improving Naval Combat

You’re completely accurate in that most tabletop systems are very bad at portraying naval combat, but mostly because they tend to try to run ship-actions in the same way they’d run a multi-character skirmish.  Instead, do away with your traditional initiative system and have both (or all) side stake their turns simultaneously in the following rhythm: Planning, execution, resolution. Which make the early rounds of naval combat work out sorta like a game of rock paper scissors, all chance and intuition

Planning: During the planning phase, have your party talk freely about what they should do, representing your crew feeding information back n forth and adapting to the situation at hand. At the end of the planning phase, they agree (or the captain decides) what to do, which is executed during the next phase.  Simultaneously, you as the DM determine what the opposing vessels are going to do during their execution phase, without any foreknowledge of what the party might be about to attempt. 

Execution: the ships move, and the actions chosen by their crew trigger. This prevents all the weirdness brought about by trying to run constantly moving vehicles in turn order. 

Resolution: Damage is tallied, the results of skillchecks are meted out, and the party gets an ongoing report of what the hell is happening. 

I call this system “ the Approach” and it represents the actions of the vessels involved in a more zoomed out time frame and scale that allows for actual positioning, or navigation around reefs, atolls, or inlets, as any good fight should have a proportionally interesting backdrop, if only for variety’s sake. 

Once one vessel has closed with another in a step I call “The Engagement”, you can use the d&d naval rules, with characters either acting as their role on the crew or their player character. rolling initiative and carrying out the fight as normal. Here’re a few tricks I’ve learned for making these closing segments interesting: 

Keeping things interesting during a naval fight is a matter of juggling the fight between the ships themselves and what’s happening on the party’s vessel. A LOT can go wrong on a ship, and its up to those characters without primary ship roles to deal with things like fires breaking out, holes punched in the hull, vital equipment like cannons malfunctioning, crew being injured and needing to be escorted to the infirmary. Throw at least one of these complications at the party each time they have a close engagement, and you’ll give ‘em more than enough to chew on every time they have a fight on the high seas. 

Just about every ship battle outside of a seamonster attack or massive military engagement is going to involve a boarding action, which can transition the fight from one of positioning and potshots with cannons to an impromptu siege. 

Again, its important to consider motivation: Loot hungry pirates may send a secondary looting force into the ship’s cargo hold while keeping the defenders busy on topdeck, forcing the party to divide their attention. Privateers or slavers may focus on attacks that prevent the enemy ships from escaping, encouraging the party to run around putting out (sometimes literal) fires.  When enemies are working in groups, their initial goal may only be to slow the party down while waiting for reinforcements to arrive in a separate boarding ship, overwhelming them with numbers. 

Just like with every other encounter, its important to consider what happens to your party when things go badly. Stress that Surrender is an option, but consider that happens to your party and their crew when that happens: are they imprisoned? marooned? left with no cargo and just enough supplies to get to the next port?  What are their patron/creditors going to say when they come back with an empty hold and excuses? Perhaps the most dramatic thing you could do is have them shipwrecked, killing off the majority of their crew and leaving them stranded somewhere to figure it all out. This should be saved for the turning point of a campaign, as it kicks them back do zero and may sour them on ever venturing out onto the seas again. 

[m-grouped]

Aetherbased & Aetherspace

Aetherbased | Aetherspace

Aetherbased

" A -based term that corresponds to Aethergenic, and refers to systems whose functions and/or architecture cannot be explained psychologically, or a spiritual-based system. This term is nonspecific and can refer to metaphysical, religious, agnostic, and other related worldviews. " ~Pluralpedia

Aetherspace

" An aetherspace is a headspace that is based in spirituality, or in which the majority of structures are spiritual in origin. " ~Pluralpedia

Aetherbased coined by The Legendarium. Aetherspace by June of the Pink Lemonade system. Flags both by me

[taguelkin]

9, 13, 14, 23

9.) How long have you been a system and/or known of your system?

I've been the owner of an independent headspace for ten years now, began tulpamancy seven or so years ago, had a long stretch of time where I was a singlet again since a bunch of my tulpas left to go figure themselves out, and then almost two years ago found the aetherspace that's now mentally linked to me (different from the independent headspace), as well as the system members I am now dating.

13.) What’s your favourite part of being a system?

Knowing I'm not alone, and that even in my darkest moments, even if there's nobody else irl who might give a shit about me, there are people in my system who rely on me and care about me. And I rely on them and care about them too, and I try to be my best self for them.

Being able to talk with my spirit partners so easily and share sensations with system members is another bonus. I've turned a singleplayer experience (my life) into a co-op one, beginning to work together more and more with the spirits that live in my aetherspace.

Plurality is more than a learning experience for me - it's a source of comfort, and a wholly unique way of going through life that I feel continually honored to possess. It's helped me figure out so much about myself, and about spirits I never thought I would work with in my life.

14.) What’s your least favourite part of being a system, if you’re comfortable sharing?

People giving me, my systemmates and my friends for just existing as an endogenic system. S/yscourse is easily the worst part of being a metaphysical plural, for me, and something I wish the world was rid of eternally. I've had some really nasty experiences with s/ysmeds lately that have left me and mine absolutely drained and disheartened.

I also think that at times, it can be a really lonely existence in that not everybody will get it and you know you can't tell everybody. I only just recently got the strength to confess what I was to one of my closest friends, and I'm eternally grateful they accepted me and my system for who we really are. But I know several others are never going to get it, which is why I have this sideblog to talk about such things without others picking up on it.

23.) Do you have any cool/funny stories from inside the headspace that you’d like to share?

My headspace/Aetherspace is an actual town in the Astral realm! So I've had a lot of very rewarding and amusing experiences in running the town and making sure everything's going alright.

I'll recount a few recent ones that have come up.

- There's going to be a wedding in said town next month, between one of the members of the town and a Dunmer he met from the realm of Morrowind. I'm looking forward to that a lot, because it'll be one of the first weddings to ever occur in the town to date.

- One system member when he was in front recently insisted on making the body stretch because apparently my "backbones were awful"?????

- There is a surplus of system members here who share the same face due to being played by the same actor. They have unionized into what's apparently called "the Same Face Society."

- One of my astral kids (we'll call her N) has been invited to a wizarding school in Japan, and will be studying over there this summer, which I am incredibly excited about and will brag about for the rest of time always.