#and MAYBE worldbuilding Wednesday if people do that still?

[incandescent-creativity]

Quick which day of the week doesn’t have a writeblr event

[cain-e-brookman]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! So, I know a little bit about the gods of your setting, but how does your average citizen worship? Which gods get the most attention and which are less well known?

ahh, thanks for the ask! i need you to know, every time i'm asked about world building i become this image

this is undoubtedly going to get long so answer under the cut

the the short answer is: it depends. i think i mentioned in my post about Raschic but i'm not sure, but there are the 8 main gods who give power to one of each of the Mage Kingdoms. (Light, Shadow, Fire, Water, Plant, Stone, Sky, and Force. This doesnt really matter for the context but there it is.)

So Mages are expected to be somewhat religious, but depending on the god they're tied to, it changes what that looks like. The Sea God isn't horribly concerned about day to day life of his Mages, but they must still do certain rituals and pay proper tribute to allow them to remain attached to him for their power and immortality. As such, the kingdom of the Water Mages as a whole isn't super immersed in religion. On the other hand, Shadow Mages are very devout, to the point where even those without magic are still incredibly religious because it's so steeped in the culture of the ruling Mages.

even when you get into human kingdoms, it's going to look different depending on who a person is and what they do. Uslaria, (the setting for my current WIP) has the most concentrated group of witches in the known world, so much so that one town is known for being the unofficial capitol for witches. everyone in Uslaria can tell you a bit about the Goddess Lythis, Grandmother of Witches, but few actually worship her. a farmer in Uslaria might pray to the Sky God to bring his godly children through with warm winds and generous rains, may also pray to the Goddess of Stone to bless his crops with good soil, may also attend festivals or holy days for the main pantheon if they live close enough to a city or town that might make a big to-do about it, but as far as most gods go, especially the main pantheon, they're so distant from the reality of most people. gods in the minor pantheon, like the Trickster, are more the topic of superstitions and tales to tell by a fire. day to day worship might be done for a lesser god residing in their area, or sometimes house gods that follow a family line, but the names of those gods are too intimate to the area to be remarked upon outside of that circle.

tl;dr: the average citizen (except maybe in the Marshes with the Shadow Mages,) only really cares about the gods that affect them and treat any others with a distant respect. (for the most part)

[writingonjorvik]

Did it.

Was this ideal? Absolutely not, but the first week of every event is always rough. I know a lot of folks will contest the 18k, but under the assumption that SSE is going to follow their methods of increased gathering from (almost) every prior event, Hollow Woods was almost 33k before the price change and plenty of folks did that in a week. Is that overlooking the other methods of gathering from the Summer Camp and Hollow Woods? A little, but under the assumption that those things will be added as the event goes on. Is this still the best way to encourage people to play? Eh, you need like 500 a day which is a half hour of play time if you get a good loop, and that time will go down. I hold that judgement until later in the event personally, they may add a wisp and/or cache equivalent Wednesday and that would make progress feel a lot better.

The bigger issue I think with this track was the filter. I never personally had issues with the color filter, but it did make the map feel oppressive. Which, if you lean into the spooky ghost stories part of the season, is a vibe. But I know a lot of folks did have an issue with the filter, either with headaches and migraines or with making it feel like the event was depressing due to the lack of color. I think the markers for change to the filter are way too high. There is no noticeable change at the first quest (6k) other than some crystals lighting up, and the filter only drops to 50% at the second (12k).

I think there are far better ways to indicate lack of life in the village than the color filter that would have had less of an impact on the game, like the animals slowly returning or there being less visitors or some vendors (like the retro shop or cafe) being closed. The filter should have been dropped at like, the first reward, which should have been a boosted tutorial for free players who haven't played the Hollow Woods content yet. I think also instead of as many XP or shillings rewards, there should have been more quests to indicate this progress throughout, because the rewards as are made the whole thing feel slower for me as someone with all maxed horses.

If you want to make things a little more bearable, looking over any mechanics that may be added in future updates or big rewards in the Advent presents, here are my recommendations for getting through it:

Listen to something. I say this about training too. I was super behind on CR campaign 3 when the event started and I got through like 3 months of episodes in the process.

Avoid the ice as much as possible. The drift will only add time trying to catch singles. Do a pass for the piles, any singles on the way, and then do a circuit on solid ground.

Nooks are not worth it. You will get more mounds to respawn by running around the edge of the lake and then through the lake than you will going off into nooks for maybe a mound and more likely singles.

My circuit was to start by the small pond with penguins at the bottom of the ramp and circle clockwise until I reached the other side of the lake, and then I would counterclockwise on the lake to get back to the pond. Repeat.

Something I didn't notice at first, but EACH of the ice carvings reward 20 snowflakes, do all 4.

If you're saving the Advent for horse XP, day 7 is 500 snowflakes.

Have someone to share progress with. @centeris2 helped me with this, particularly today doing the last 4k.

The bar at the end is looping rewards for, as far as I can tell, just more HXP. Now, I've got a text RP and my new project to get back to because I couldn't just do this but also had to dive 10k + worldbuilding doc into a new project plus my home game's downtime stuff to do.

[anyablackwood]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! Do your characters have any particularly interesting fashion choices? What are they and why?👔🥻👘👗👚🛍

HOW DID I MISS THIS??? I'd wait to answer this tomorrow to be another Worldbuilding Wednesday, but I don't want to! Thank you for the ask! For this one, I'm choosing to go with my Crown of Blood WIP, since it's one of the few that I actually have kind of a plan for AND isn't just IRL casual clothes, lol.

For Crown of Blood, it widely varies by region, as well as social class, but most if it is medieval era Western (and East Asian!) clothing. I don't really know how to explain the fusion quite yet, but basically for Adrasteia specifically, she has a wider range because she's literally royalty and can therefore afford import costs. Her outfits range widely from more standard traditional clothes to clothes that have a fusion in terms of cuts and patterns. Skirts that wrap and tie, but are shaped kind of western, etc. Think some of the fancier clothing in Meiji period Japan as well as the mutual Eastern influences on Edwardian England and France.

There's an article about it on "lilyabsinthe.com", and while I don't know the validity or full accuracy of these claims, either way I liked the idea and want to explore it more. I've seen more modern examples of ideas online, of people mixing traditional and kinda modern pieces that I like, but I unfortunately don't have any on hand (it is VERY messy in my phone lol). But I'll leave it here because it's getting WAY too long haha.

The commoners/less obscenely wealthy, I'm thinking of a few ideas for. I initially was curious about the idea of clothing similar to some minority subgroups (I was particularly fascinated with Ainu and Nivkh clothing), but then I realized that might come across as insensitive/sending a bad message, etc. So I think I'll leave that for another story. My current idea is to have either medieval western clothing or even older East Asian clothes, though I haven't 100% decided which one is better/simpler etc. I'll have to determine the weather first. Obviously since this is an empire, there are definitely other cultures and societies that all make up the bigger entity. So they're not going to all have the same clothes, even amongst commoners if they're from different regions.

I think I'll have to determine the weather/terrain and culture of the regions first. The main hub of the empire is kinda woodsy with various bodies of water (but no ocean), so they might traditionally opt for tighter fit clothing- but I mean, Europe had plenty of forests, and people still wore long skirts, so... maybe I'm just trying too hard!

This is DEFINITELY too long now so I'll cut it here! Basically I've no clue yet, but I'm really fascinated by the idea of a fusion! Thanks again for the ask!

[itshype]

Ao3 WIP Tag Game!

I was tagged by @nonamemanga a while ago but I didn't have time to do this until now! Thank you for thinking of me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? Thirty Eight! (37 on my account and 1 that is currently anonymous!)

2. What's your AO3 word count? 170,914 (oooh!)

3. What fandoms do you write for? Netflix's Wednesday (2022), DC Comics (Mostly Batman), Danny Phantom. Other fandoms I have written for but I wouldn't consider myself as currently writing for are; Disney's Descendants first film, Teen Wolf, Fantastic Beasts and where to find them the first film and Netflix's The Witcher. If we're counting my long-abandoned fanfiction account I have also written Dr Who fic, I think maybe a Sherlock one and Without a Trace (2002-2009)

4. What are your Top 5 Fics by Kudos?

In ascending order:

5) Hang On, I Still Need You (Descendants)

4) The Captivating Case of Percy’s Imaginary Date (Fantastic Beasts)

3) Bad Boys, not Bad News (Teen Wolf)

2) Espy Me, While I Watch You (Teen Wolf)

1) a language they cannot understand (Teen Wolf)

5. Do you respond to comments? If I can think of something to say! I can't always though unfortunately.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I generally write the most unrepentant fluff so I think Once Bitten, Never Shy? But I still wouldn't classify that as angst.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Again, most of them are pretty happy! I'm not going to reread 38 fics to check but the overall fluffiest, happiest AU I've written that comes to mind is The Only Garden My Heart Will Ever Grow In.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I don't think I've gotten hate in my comments but I did get an unkind comment on Tumblr fairly recently saying I needed to get a lot more feedback before publishing (I do have betas) - amongst other less friendly suggestions.

9. Do you write smut? No sorry. When reading fics I'll be like "Hmm this unsafe-kink, publicly-set, PWP is a little too vanilla." But when writing I'm like, "They kiss...with the tongue....I guess."

10. Do you write cross-overs? Yep! A bunch! I haven't always loved crossovers but over the last few years I've really come to enjoy them. On my account is a few DC x DP fics (Danny Phantom and DC Comics) and one, very poorly written Batman and The Witcher I never want to think about again.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Niet.

12. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Yes! Not all of them are published and I don't think I currently have a cowritten fic on my ao3 account but yes, as a process. I enjoy it but also find it challenging to blend writing approaches and deal with time zones.

13. What is a WIP you would like to finish but doubt you ever will? All my fics are completed. However I just begun a new AU (Wyler) that's VERY ambitious so we'll see how that goes.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship? Malec. Have I ever written a Malec fic? No. Will I? Probably not. The fandom is low key intimidating. But in my heart I have so many AUs.

15. What are you writing strengths? I think my comedy and worldbuilding?? Maybe? I'd feel more confident if a reader of mine weighed in on this.

16. What are your writing weaknesses? Length. It took me almost the whole year to get to the end of A Standing Reservation in the Eye of the Storm. I'll never be one of those people who can smash out 30k in a few days.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I'm not 1000% sure what this question refers to. I think it's important to check that any real-world language is written correctly. But with real-world languages AND conlangs, ensuring readability is so important. My preference is probably the sentence in English with the dialogue tags something like "he said in flawless Mando'a" but an immediate translation in parentheses at the end of the paragraph (hover text is good but doesn't work on mobile) is decent OR have the in-text reply make the dialogue fully evident:

"3456 234567 2345?"

"Oh, I love this song too, I'd love to dance with you!"

Encoded footnotes are alright, and my detested option is full separated out glossaries that give the meaning of each word used for me to string into correct order for each sentence. A headache.

18. First fandom you wrote for? Can't be sure...I think I was involved in a Five Find-Outers and Dog fanfic (not that I used that word) as a child that never made it near a computer, let alone the internet.

19. Favourite fic you’ve ever written? OH easily A million years ago, last night & at the end of all things (also known as AMYAL). The words flowed and I loved every moment. However, I did also love writing Espy Me, While I Watch You back in 2017. I wish the third story in the AMYAL verse came 1/3rd as easy.

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day? None! Often after a fic is fully published I never think about it aga...That's all a total lie and I feel sad DAILY over the complete hash I made of Pry This Home From My Cold, Dead Mountain because I loved my au so much and I failed to show anyone why. It was just NOT good.

Tagging: @suchaladyy, @cosmic-lullaby, @katwitchwriting, & @writerrose1998 + @ohnomybreadsticks (If you'd like to be tagged please lmk and I'll add you ASAP!)

[lemonadesoda]

wip worldbuilding wednesday

I'm going to try an experiment. Just historically speaking, it will probably flop, as everything that involves me posting consistently tends to, but I will see how far I can ride this.

gonna just...publicly workshop my setting...

Intro post (you are here) | Next post (seasons) >>

Intro

For those of you who aren't aware, I'm writing an original story for Lemel and Tevane. It's based a lot on the plot and worldbuilding I did for Catching Icarus, but obviously a lot of work has to be done to backfill in the stuff that was derived from Hat in Time canon. Another thing you might not be aware of, worldbuiding, while a lot more enjoyable now than in the past, is still very much not very enjoyable to me, or maybe more accurately, is very frustrating. Maybe the dopamine from getting a single note on a post will help me pull through.

Let's start

In a binary star system, there is a planet called Altimera

The currently mainstream names of these stars are Ceri Naliphon and Ceri Kuliphon (Older Sibling and Younger Sibling, in an archaic language, though actually more literally translated as Larger and Littler Sibling respectively)

Together, they are called the Cerian Twins, despite the size difference. That's just how it turned out, don't worry about it.

Ceri Naliphon is a blue star and Kuliphon is a white dwarf at the moment. Might change that if I do more research on binary stars, but the system is based on Sirius AB, specifically because I like that star system I think it's pretty.

The sentients of Altimera have been around awhile. They've done a lot, technologically, including interstellar exploration. They're not the only species in the universe to have accomplished this, but they do have some unique ways of going about it.

One of their species capabilities is their ability to interface with the temporal dimension. Mostly, this manifests in a slightly heightened anticipatory sensitivity that appears like foresight to species who don't have any time sensitivity. In some, this foresight is more pronounced, and over the course of history, these individuals were exalted as foretellers and prophets. But on an ordinary level, it mostly just gives everyone a bit of Default Anxiety.

More recently, as in within the last several centuries, they developed technology that lets them manipulate it for space travel, largely due to the discovery of "time crystals" known as Ilakyte, which grow on the edge of an interstellar phenomenon known as a gravity well.

What's a gravity well? It's like a dimensional snarl of spacetime folding in on itself and doing it over and over until what you get is something like a megagiant permanent space storm. Spews radiation. Fucks with gravity. Absolutely do not ask me about the physics of this. This shit is magic.

Anyway, Ilakyte was discovered. Its capabilities were studied, and a specialized engine called the Chrono-conversion engine was built based on its properties that enabled powerful and efficient hyperjumps, opening the doors to travel farther and faster than the species had previously dreamed.

It also provided a (partial) solution to the death of their planet. Core-harvesting was the main supply of energy for generations, but the planet was steadily losing its power, disrupting the magnetic fields and the atmosphere.

The Altimeran people had to cloister themselves in climate controlled cities to survive, while many of them used the newfound powers of the Chrono-conversion engine to escape to the far reaches of space. Doing so has created many complicated political problems with a lot of different civs. I'll get to that some other time.

Still, the People of the Cerian suns as they began to term themselves once "Altimeran" no longer encapsulated their species-identity after they left Altimera, managed to persist through their planet's fading, and there is still a vibrant and dense population living on there, doing the things that people do.

[greypetrel]

WIP Wednesday

I've been tagged by @melisusthewee, whom I thank for giving me the chance to share!

Since I already post wips for drawing, here you go with something written... I'm planning out the DadWolf AU, I'm gonna write it down but it needs some worldbuilding first. But my hands are quicker than my brain so... some brewing for some DRAMA, three years after this, they're both 21. (It's basically a modern time AU, so... Yeah, you know what happened to poor Cullen.)

More and a silly doodle of Aisling and Cullen at 15, before stuff went wrong, under the cut! Consider yourself tagged if you see this!

Aisling. [ Hey, stranger! Let’s see if you’ll reply this time… Are you still in Denerim or have you been reassigned? :) ]

Cullen. [ Hello. Yes. Why? ]

Aisling. [ Wonderful! Are you free to see an old friend? I’ll be in Denerim for a three days seminar, the weekend after this, but I’m free after the lessons. Ydun is coming too, but… What about doing something together? It’s been ages since I saw you, those enslavers didn’t even let you get home for First Day… ]

Cullen. [ Is Ydun ok? ]

Aisling. [ Of course, I already told her. I can see her often anyway, so you have the precedence. As for what… Nothing fancy, even just a cup of coffee to catch up? You tell me how much time do you have. Or I think our AirBnB has a tv: Netflix and chill? We can order pizza and eat it on the couch, for old time’s sake. You can choose the movie, I maaaaay also be willing to finally see Top Gun. If you ask nicely. ]

Cullen. [ My free evening is on Saturday, but I already have plans. ]

Aisling. [ Oh. Yeah, sounds right, you get so little free time… Sorry if I insisted. Well… If you get five minutes free, give me a call? I’d love to see you again, I’ve missed you. You get so little time to chat, and you disappeared these last months… And I feel like it’s only me speaking. Sorry, I must be bothering you. ]

Cullen. [ I’m very busy.

*2 hours later*I will be at this pub with some people, if you really want to join. *location forwarded* ]

Aisling. [ :D That would be wonderful! We’ll be there, sure! Any dress code we should know of? Only uniforms allowed, should I show up in lab coat, rubber gloves and goggles? I look like Gollum with goggles. u_u ]

Cullen. [ Just dress normal if you really want to come. 8pm. ]

Aisling. [ Ok? Sure… Can’t wait! :D ]

Aisling stared at her phone and that exchange for the tenth time since it happened, those weeks ago. She read and read it again, not understanding. Something was off, she could tell… Or well, it would have been off three years ago, before he left, with the shy, kind boy that was her best friend since kindergarten.  Maybe he was just too busy to stay on his phone. Maybe it was really just that. He was an officer after all, graduated with flying colours as Mia informed her -they had a party at the Rutherfords to celebrate, but Cullen didn’t show up. Cullen, actually, hadn’t written nor replied in the last six months, not even to Mia. He had responsibilities, and… Well.

A hand blocked her visual of the screen, taking the phone away from her hand with a huff.

“You’ll dig a hole in the screen if you’ll keep staring at it, doll.”

Ydun told her, looking herself at the screen and frowning, exactly as the times she showed her the messages and asked for her opinion.

“I know but… He was strange, and I’m worried. Should I write him again? Ask him if it’s still confirmed for Saturday?” She asked her, leaning her head over her shoulder. The fabric of her tailleur was rough under her cheek, but she didn’t mind that much.

“He sounds like an asshole. Write to call it off, we’ll just be losing time.”

“He’s my best friend, and Dorian’s. We’ve been friends since kindergarten. He’s not an asshole, I know when he’s strange and I’m worried for him.”

“He’s an officer in the military, Ash. He invited us, two elves, one a Dalish and the other a mage, to a party full of militaries. Add the fact that lesbianism doesn’t really help. It’s not the invitation of a nice person.”

“Maybe they’re good people. He is. And I’m bi.”

Ydun turned to look at her, a silent, very doubtful question on her sharp face, tattooed in deep crimson. Aisling knew that expression as well as she knew her Vallaslin, she didn’t need to look up to know. She frowned in all answer, scuddling closer on her seat to get closer to her girlfriend, hugging her arm with a sigh.

“You can stay home. I’ll go, check he’s still in one piece and get right back.”

“Sure, what a marvellous idea.” Ydun snorted, very sarcastically, poking at her arm. “You’ll need someone to protect you, I’ll be there with you, doll, of course.”

Aisling didn’t like when Ydun called her doll. She didn’t like when she treated her like a damsel in distress, just because she was emotional. She was a mage, writing her dissertation for her BA in Physics, and listening to her tutor, she will get into any MA program she wanted. She and Dorian just needed to choose a program and a place, and whether to make the leap and leave home. Together, because loneliness was scary and papae Solas confirmed them that they did their best when they worked side by side anyway.

…she wanted to see Cullen, and ask him. When she was scared about whether to apply to Physics or not, or just to find work because she didn’t feel competent enough, just a pale imitation of her brother, it had been Cullen who talked her down her fears and convinced to send the application. He had been right. And she… She missed him. In those three years they had seen each other a handful of times, and always briefly. He had no time to write -Mia, Branson and Rosalie all confirmed that he wasn’t writing much to them either.

She missed Cullen, and she would have seen him on Saturday.

She got her cellphone back and wrote him.

Aisling. [ Hey, stranger! On my way to Denerim in an uncomfortable train. Answer me when you can.All confirmed for Saturday? :) ]

Cullen. (3 hours later) [ Confirmed. ]

Aisling. [ Yay!! Can’t wait! ^O^ I got so much to tell you! Ydun too can’t wait to meet you, finally! Any chance to get to an Ed Sheeran concert? I’d love to be reminded what’s good music in comparison and have a pizza afterwards, honestly. ]

*no reply*

[dogmomwrites]

It's Worldbuilding Wednesday, my friend!

There have been multiple questions about fairy tales and legends, but tell me about the stories that serve as low-brow entertainment for an older audience. Are there novels in your world? What are the most popular ones about? Or maybe there are some other mainstream media like plays or puppet shows?

Basically, what's the in-setting equivalent of 'Twilight'?

Hey hey, hi! Thanks for the ask! I'm super late in replying but at least it's on a Wednesday, right? That's the important thing lol

I'm gonna use my Castle series for this since my other main WIP is set in our world and so it actually has Twilight, which would be cheating lmao

The cats of Gatherin have an extensive library, which is a setting for one of the later chapters. I'll let Old Tom say a little here—

“(...) my daughter Shyla has written several books. The Mirror Lake series. It’s quite popular.” He looked like he might burst with pride, and let out a purr of amusement when he added, “Her brother wrote a parody series of her books, and it’s just as popular. The Opaque River, he calls it. They make these funny little references to each other in the books…”

Shyla's Mirror Lake series is very similar to some of our fantasy series; the only difference would be that the characters in her books are all cats. It has magic and heroes and villains. It would be classified as a fantasy action/adventure.

Her brother's Opaque River series would have to be classified as satire first, though it would also fall into the category of fantasy action/adventure.

Idk all the details about it, but Shyla's books follow "the lost princess" as she discovers who she really is and sets out to claim her throne and her kingdom from the tyrant who rules them in her stead. Her brother's books follow a simpleton peasant farmgirl who gets put on the throne when the king dies and no one wants his incompetent son to take his place.

Both series are simple enough that young adults could read them, but with enough complexity and depth (Mirror Lake somewhat more than Opaque River tho) that older adults could still enjoy them

words written for this ask: 1,675 total words written for asks: 12,802

bonus snippet:

I knew the prejudices of my fathers would be my burden to bear, (King Kaliam) thought dismally as he swirled his water and watched it spin in circles. Something easy to control. I just didn’t expect it to be the burden of my people—I didn’t expect the fate of my kingdom to rest in the hands of dead kings. 

Commander Eolf waited for his king to speak, then asked the question for him. “How many spellcasters do you estimate the Avrans have?” 

“Enough,” the scout said. She was small and slight, able to dart unnoticed across the fields, through the woods, and check on the Avran encampment, where their injured were being healed from most every wound. Wounds that should’ve killed them were sealed in moments. Provided they received the medical attention from their magical healers in time. 

“How many?” Eolf asked again. 

“How many are capable of healing the big hurts? A couple dozen, maybe three score. How many are capable of healing the small hurts? More. Much more.” 

He glanced down at Kaliam, willing him to speak—and he did, though it wasn’t what Eolf had wanted him to say. 

“And here we have none,” was what he said, finally lifting his gaze from his spinning water. “This battle will be even more one-sided than I thought.”

[youhideastar]

Hi!! I really love your writing! If you're still doing the WIP ask game, would you tell us about Heat-Guide Rut-Guide AU. docx?

Thank you for your patience, anon - I know it's been a few days, but I wanted to save this ask for WIP Wednesday! (And thank you for your kind words ☺️) This one is going to be a long post, so the whole thing is behind the cut.

So this WIP is a modern-day cultivation A/B/O AU very loose retelling of the plot of the drama (way fewer people die 😂). I've long been interested in the facet of A/B/O worldbuilding that posits the existence of licit and openly acknowledged sex workers available to help an unpartnered alpha or omega (sometimes just omegas, but that doesn't make any sense) through their heat or rut - sometimes you see references in fic to a "heat service alpha" or just "a professional"... almost always in the context of the main character's distaste for this option. 😒 The reflexive sex work antagonism is just... *sigh.* ANYWAY. It seems inevitable to me that there would be a class of trained professionals, because, like... what about ace people, or people with sexual trauma, or people whose partners don't have the pheremones/hormones/anatomy to meet this particular need, or kids whose heats/ruts come on too soon--or a million other scenarios where going through a heat/rut the "usual" way would be unacceptable or outright impossible?

And then I thought to myself, "Self, you know what would be super helpful in doing that job? The kind of incredibly powerful yet finely-tuned control over your own bodily processes that you get from a golden core in The Untamed." And then I thought, "Okay, then what are talismans?" And the answer was obviously: assistive devices and pharmaceuticals. And then it was ON.

All cultivator-guides are trained to be generalists, but it’s common to develop a particular specialty as well; Wei Ying is a talisman specialist, a trained biochemist who uses and invents the pills, patches, powders, and injections that they all use, to a greater or lesser extent, to supplement the work of their golden cores. Lan Zhan’s specialty is working with clients who, due to neurological conditions or physical injuries, have an impaired sense of smell. It’s a very narrow niche; so narrow that he is, as far as he knows, the only such specialist. But he earns great satisfaction from helping clients who other guides, so dependent themselves on scent, would not know how to help, or might declare beyond help.

They’d been paired with each other for their first heat and rut as guides, at the Gusu Lan Guide Academy – they were each other’s first client. And it was good, so now they handle each other's cycle peaks exclusively, which they time to coincide for that purpose. Lan Zhan tried other partners, early on, but he and Wei Ying are ideally suited - equals in cultivation, with enough in common to have something to talk about during the downtime, holding themselves and each other to high standards, and well-matched in preferences: Lan Zhan is more assertive than most alphas prefer, and Wei Ying likes rougher handling than most omegas are comfortable providing.

And then, of course, there’s the fact that Lan Zhan is hopelessly in love with Wei Ying, and that's the only time he gets to have him. But maybe he's wrong, he thinks. Maybe the fact that they keep returning to each other after all these years means something, beyond the fact that they like each other as friends and respect each other as colleagues. Maybe, someday, he'll work up the courage to ask.

[formula-fun]

Ah! (lightbulb) we definitely have very different understandings of angst, or I was more thinking about relationship-wise because the current fic feels like the story of them coming together despite everything on themselves and between each other. And internal and external perception of gender roles, external expectations and judgment hahahaha is simply part of the “everything”. I definitely is not expecting fairytale happily ever after (not that my expectations should matter).

It’s not pretentious at all hahaha, maybe it’s just even though world-building is very important for me even in fanfic (I get stuck thinking about logistics a lot of the time) , I still looked past the heaviness of gender roles, expectations and judgement because it feels like something jumping on the back of their minds and the story constantly, but when I am way too focused on “how they are feeling” instead of “how they are going to make this work” it’s kind of shoved out the way.

Though now typing this out is really making it like I’m just ignoring the elephant in the room ha. I do really like the “huge fucking mess” though, besides the glorious horse metaphors, your way of writing and very smooth incorporation into personality and interactions make the underlying discussion so much more interesting. Like it’s a very important part of the story but not center-staged with neon flashing lights, instead has the constant lurking in the shadows air to it. It is technically heavy but both of them thrive on challenges don’t they!

Oh! Or maybe I have always associated the heaviness in the background for Max in the story with his father which is being counterproductive to him embracing himself, and Charles with embracing himself, this actually is the more specific version of “gender roles, expectations and judgement”.

Forgive me for thinking that even if the plot is trying to gender stereotypes into mush they could still get ostentatious diamond engagement rings hahahhahah, maybe it’s just me thinking this would be funny, especially during the time they would literally be facing media judgement about how the “omega wife” should be home with the child not out fucking f1 with his greatness. It could (or not) be in line with Charles change in dress style!

Sorry I pretty much just wrote down my very nonlinear thought process.

Happy Wednesday! (At least we are pull through half the week now right?)

Xxxxxxxxxooooooooooxxxxoo

Hi hi again!! mwah

Yeah I think that probably explains it!! i mean it'll probably all result in some tension in their relationship but you know...it'll be fine. idk. we'll have to wait and see!! once again i am answering your ask too early in the morning and dont have the braincells i am so sorry

i do completely get you about worldbuilding too, I tend to think about writing in a really mathematical/analytical way in terms of how people and relationships fit together so i know it's easy to get caught up in logistics!! theres a lot of worldbuilding cmoing up now for me as well though because the last chapter has to do with like how mating works vs how weddings work and things like that. like mating ceremonies were already mentioned and they're different than beta weddings, but im still working out what exactly they look like. Also how gender works for kids since gender and biological sex don't really have anything to do with each other in this universe? I think i've figured out what its going to be like but i dont know for sure yet. fun fun fun

but yeah anyway i like the way you put it because they themselves exist kind of in an internal relationship and that's where the story is being told, but everything else is an external pressure that's guiding them in certain ways or making them feel certain things. Without all of that they'd probably be fine, but there's a lot going on outside of just them and we're not so much seeing those things as we are seeing how it changes them as people. So 'how they're feeling' is really what the story is about, but it's all a direct result of those things that are lurking in the shadows.

and hashshahd i'll get back to you about diamond rings!! i guess it all depends on what exists in their bubble vs what exists in the external bubble!! at this point they're starting to prioritize only what makes them feel good and completely put aside things that please external forces (max finally told his dad he needed space, charles wants to court max, charles is exploring his own self-expression in ways that make him happy--all of these things directly contradict what other people expect or want from charles and max, but they're both doing them to make themselves feel happier or more secure, which in turn makes their relationship more secure), so going forward that will probably be what they continue to do. if they want to get beta married and throw a big celebration then they'll do it, but they probably won't do it just for the sake of appearances/to show off! it's more about doing what makes them happy

but also my brain was like melted the other day from this stupid academic paper about public vs private life and i think that is now unforutnately influencing this fic. the public/private life academic paper is an external pressure on my internal relationship with my own fic. this is why we cant have nice things

anyway sorry for this long ass answer, thank god its wednesday tho and i hope youre having a great week!!!! sorry if none of this makes any sense but please know i enjoy your questions so so so much <333

[regalserpent]

Happy worldbuilding Wednesday!

All of a sudden a swarm of velociraptors have manifested in the WIP you last had open. What do your characters do, and how does the world around them manage the situation?

(Or, if you’d rather, what’s a minor aspect of your worldbuilding that you haven’t had much a chance to talk about, but absolutely adore?)

Thank You For The Ask!

I’m going to do this for Incarnation.

(And yes it has been a while, and yes I haven’t revealed a tonne about it. That’s because I still don’t know. I’m so good at this.)

Immediately I’m imagining Drystan (the protagonist) running and hiding somewhere, probably yelling at Arlo in an attempt to stop him from doing something stupid. Arlo would then be doing the How To Train Your Dragon thing and trying to tame one, by running directly in front of them, while everyone (mainly Drystan) yells at him to stop.

William (Drystan’s older brother) and Elizabeth (William’s girlfriend) would both be hiding, but somewhere they can take full advantage of the situation from so either somewhere with a really good view or something like a bakery that’s been abandoned by the workers and they can help themselves to free goodies while they watch the show.

Brenda (the antagonist?) would be trying to find a way to use this to her advantage (ooh unrevealed motive, that I’m not going to reveal. sorry not sorry), quite possibly by kidnapping them and doing *totally ethical things*.

Honestly for the world itself, once someone (maybe even Arlo) managed to calm them down then everything would kind off become normal again. Just with some people having velociraptors as pets. Totally normal.

[gummybugg]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday!

In your world, what happens when people get sick/injured? What are the kinds of help they can hope for? Are there properly trained doctors or something similar?

Happy WBW, thanks for the ask!

(mild warning in tags)

You see, remember how in the last ask, I said I took inspiration from Real Life? It totally applies here, as well!

When your Average Citizen has an ouchie or a boo-boo in Crater City, they will generally take care of it themselves. Ambulence? What, do you want a police escort, too? The average citizen scoffs at those able to afford such luxuries. It is almost unheard of to get diagnosed and go into emergency surgery the same day.

Sitting in draft mode, collecting dust, is a scene in which I plan on explaining the Healthcare System in Crater City a bit more. Blair gets a toothache and must wait 6 months to fix it. "They said it looked like a termite made a home out my tooth," he says. He ends up pulling the decayed tooth out himself once the pain becomes unbearable (goodbye, permanent molar).

In another scene, we find out that there aren't really any reputable doctors or even therapists in Crater City, where Darcy tells Blair

"You just weren’t cut out for Neo-civilization. Maybe you could have been back then, when everyone still had doctors and insane asylums. But there’s none of that left."

The lack of Healthcare providers is mostly due to the staggering amount of citizens willing to go to/pay for college in a scary, post-apocalyptic setting where tomorrow is never promised. It's Very Dangerous in and out of the city border. Yet, Crater City is the most sought-after city in the country. A beacon of hope, some might say.

-------

Crater City Taglist:

@writeouswriter

@lyra-brie

[bard-llama]

WiP Wednesday: Shaking It Up Down South

I’ve been doing a lot of worldbuilding about the nations and sometimes it can seem like the Air Temples or the Southern Water Tribes were/are perfect... but nowhere is perfect. I’m still figuring out what that looks like for the Air Temples, though I have a few pieces scattered through the Accidental Shaman Zuko series. But for the Southern Water Tribes, one of their big issues is sexism. Like, Sokka learned it from somewhere. And maybe they’re not as bad as the North... but that doesn’t make them good.

So obviously we’ve gotta make them learn.

Summary: The Southern Water Tribes may not be as strict as the North Pole about the roles men and women should play – but there are still rules about it. The men protect the tribe and the women care for it. That was just the way it was supposed to be.So imagine their surprise when they learn that the Southern Water Tribes were actually founded by two women… one of whom became the first Chief.

Katara knew she had the respect of her people, she really did. She was the Last Southern Waterbender and the Daughter of the Chief and the Avatar’s Teacher, one who had helped end the war. No one disputed that.

But sometimes it really felt like all she was seen as was a little girl trying to step into a man’s shoes.

It was infuriating.

She wasn’t sure if the men had gotten worse in the years away or if she’d just become more aware of each slight, but she hated the condescending way some of the warriors treated not just her, but the other women who had kept the tribe alive while they were off playing hero.

The real heroes were the ones who had held the weight of running the entire tribe alone.

Which wasn’t really a fair thought and she knew it, but with each instance where her input would be half-ignored while Sokka’s would be enthusiastically welcomed, she found her resentment growing.

She hated it. She didn’t want to be mad at her tribesmen. They’d all suffered in this war and the time they’d been forced to be apart.

But for fuck’s sake, she’d helped stop the war! The least they could do was not dismiss her when she spoke!

It wasn’t always and it wasn’t everyone, but it was enough of a pattern that Katara found herself silently seething during the latest tribal council. The women of the tribe were part of the council, of course… but even Gran Gran was only listened to because she was the Elder.

That wasn’t fair either. There were tribesmen who listened to them – or at least some of them. But Katara seemed to be hyper aware of each and every slight, and her temper was close to reaching a boiling point.

In a discussion with the whole tribe, it was, of course, normal for some people to speak more and some to be less heard. But the whole point was that everyone’s viewpoint should be voiced and considered. So why was it that when Varnok or Haduk offered input, the conversation focused on them for long minutes, while when Keya or Rumina or Katara made a comment, they’d spend maybe thirty seconds discussing it?

But when Noaq said the same fucking thing, suddenly it was a brilliant idea.

Sokka seemed to have caught on to the fact that Katara was seconds from exploding, because he was sending her nervous glances, but it was all Katara could do to keep from blowing her top.

Now that the war had ended and negotiations had finally come to a close, all Katara wanted was to help her people rebuild. But in this moment, she was beyond tempted to bring the igloo down on all of these fucking men who kept dismissing and ignoring and–

“Man, I’m hungry,” Bekkoq said, patting his stomach. He looked around and his gaze landed on Katara. “Can you go grab me something?”

The request was perfectly polite, but all she could think about was the way that he’d asked her because she was the youngest woman in the room. Because the women were expected to serve the men and what did it matter if it meant they missed important discussion?

Something inside Katara snapped and she leveled him with her coldest glare. “Get it yourself.”

Bekkoq leaned back, clearly surprised by her vitriol.

“You took care of yourselves on ships for almost three years, didn’t you?” she bit out, “while we kept the tribe alive and functioning. So why won’t any of you listen!?” The igloo cracked with her final shout and her fists were clenched tightly and she was on the very edge and a single wrong word would send her careening over and she didn’t want to hurt her tribe, of course she didn’t.

But right now, if a single man said something patronizing, she would be going for the throat.

Rage made her entire body tremble, but she was trying to hold herself back, trying to keep from blowing up.

The men were not making it easy.

“What are you even upset over?” Taolas asked, looking between her and Bekkoq. “All he did was ask for some food.”

“Women,” Noaq scoffed, “always so emotional.”

If Katara opened her mouth to respond, she was going to end up screaming at him, so she was very glad when Niahuda stepped up to respond.

“What, as opposed to men, who always act with deliberation and rationality?”

“Well, yeah,” he shrugged, and Katara could feel the way the women around the room shifted, irritated. Maybe they weren't as upset as she was about the constant patronizing bullshit – but they were definitely annoyed at being dismissed as ‘too emotional’.

“Katara has a point,” Elder Siri said from her seat next to Gran Gran. “You warriors seem to have grown more boneheaded in the years apart.”

The men blinked at them in surprise and confusion – even Sokka and Dad and Bato. Katara’s breath shuddered as she sucked in air through tightly gritted teeth. They didn’t even realize what they were doing.

“You’ve dismissed every single idea we’ve suggested,” Keya pointed out, voice flat and unimpressed. “Even this latest idea. You ignored it when Katara said it, but as soon as Noaq brought it up…”

Dad tilted his head. “Who is the ‘we’ here?”

Katara turned her darkest scowl on him. “Who do you think? While you all sailed off looking for glory, we kept the tribe from going extinct! We kept the tribe alive and managed it just fine without your fucking input! And now you ignore everything we say? Fuck that.”

“Katara–” Dad started, clearly surprised at her language and her fury. She didn’t care.

“The least you could do is listen when we speak!” she snapped. “You left. You don’t know shit about what it means to take care of the tribe now. But we’ve been doing it for all this time. So fucking shut up and listen!”

Gran Gran cleared her throat. The look she level on Katara was disapproving, but her words backed Katara up. “She is right. We have changed things in the past two years. We’ve had to with all our men gone. Perhaps you have gotten used to not having other voices in your years away – but you will have to get used to it.” Her voice was sharp and she pierced each person in the room with a stern look. “Now, Katara, why don’t you share your idea?”

Katara swallowed down her fury and nodded. “Thank you, Gran Gran,” she said, and then began to elaborate.

––

When Zuko and Aang brought Appa down onto the ice, they were surprised to see the Southern Water Tribe village rather empty. There were a couple of kids who were old enough to be playing unsupervised who waved at them and asked to pet Appa, but the rest of the tribe was nowhere to be seen.

“What’s going on?” Zuko asked. The Southern Water Tribe had known that they were coming, though it wasn’t an official visit. But he knew Aang had written to Katara about their visit, so they shouldn’t be unexpected.

“Tribal discussion,” one of the kids shrugged. “They’ve been in the igloo for ages.”

Zuko blinked, exchanging a glance with Aang. “Should we… wait?”

“I dunno,” the other kid said, running their hands through Appa’s fur, “sometimes the discussions go on for days.”

“Glad we don’t have to be there,” the first kid said.

“What are they discussing?” Aang asked.

Both kids shrugged. “Grown up stuff,” one of them said.

Zuko’s lips twitched. That was fair enough. He wished he didn’t have to deal with grown up stuff sometimes, too. “Would it be an imposition if we intruded?”

The kids blinked at him and Aang giggled, translating, “can we go in?”

The kids just shrugged again.

“Let’s go, then,” Aang said, turning to look at Zuko. “Maybe something happened.”

Zuko nodded, following after Aang as the Avatar led the way towards the only igloo in the village.

It had been almost a year since the end of the war, and yet still, the rebuilding had only barely started.

He hadn’t thought much of the humble village when he’d crashed into it before, aside from some measure of surprise at how many women and children there were – and how many men there weren’t.

Still, he hadn’t really thought about it – about what it meant. He’d tried to convince himself it had just been an outpost that, for some reason, they kept their children at.

But now, after having seen what the North Pole looked like in comparison… the Fire Nation had taken so much from the Southern Water Tribes.

He inhaled deeply, bolstering himself. That was why he was here. The Fire Nation had done a lot of damage to the world – and now he served as Uncle’s Ambassador to the rest of the world to help make up for that, to find the ways that they could contribute rather than destroy.

He ducked into the igloo behind Aang and almost ran into Aang’s back, because Aang had frozen just inside, and Zuko could immediately tell why. He didn’t know what they’d just walked into, but the tension in the air was palpable and he gulped.

Hardly a single soul paid them any notice, instead focused on each other.

“At this rate,” one man bit out, “you may as well add to the list of demands that we call you ‘chief’.” The man sneered at Katara as others laughed at was apparently a ridiculous idea and Zuko immediately wanted to set him on fire. He had no idea what was happening, but no one disrespected Katara like that.

“Well, maybe you should,” an older woman that Zuko didn’t recognize snapped, glaring fiercely. “Katara was the one organizing things with Kanna while you were gone.”

Katara’s anger morphed into surprise and her eyes widened, but the words had already been said.

“Are you challenging Chief Hakoda’s rule?” one warrior asked, voice frosty.

There was a sharp inhale around the room and Zuko shared a panicked glance with Aang, wishing more than anything that he’d stayed outside the igloo.

“Don’t be absurd,” someone else said. “A woman can’t be Chief.”

Zuko blinked. “But your first Chief was a woman,” he blurted out, and then immediately regretted opening his mouth as all attention in the room turned to him.

“What do you know, ashmaker?” someone demanded, radiating hostility.

“I know from Avatar Salai’s own writings that the Southern Water Tribes were founded when a group of Northern Water Tribesmen left to create their own community. The twenty-three different tribes all had their own chiefs, of course, but Kiyari, a woman, was elected as the first Chief of the Southern Water Tribes, the Chief of Chiefs.”

There was a strange silence that had settled over the room and Zuko shifted uncomfortably, uncertain of what the issue was.

“You’re just making that up!” someone said.

“I don’t know about your founding,” Aang said, “but there were definitely women chiefs a hundred years ago. My mentor, Master Gyatso, considered Chief Toyo of the Arnaaluk Tribe to be his sister. She was really cool!”

Everyone stared.

“You’d – you’d been to the South Pole before?” Katara asked hesitantly.

“Only a couple of times,” Aang said. “Master Gyatso went a lot, though! He had lots of friends in all the tribes, but especially the Asiaq and the Arnaaluk tribes. The Southern Air Temple traded with the South Pole a lot.”

“Can–” Sokka was looking at them with an intense expression on his face, “you guys know about our history. Can – can you teach us?”

“We are not asking outsiders for information about our tribe!” someone shrieked.

“But we have no other way of learning it,” Bato pointed out.

Zuko gulped. “We would be happy to share anything we can,” he murmured. The Fire Nation had taken so much. The least he could do was give something back. It wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t ever be enough. Nothing could make up for what they’d lost.

But it was something.

[wraithblogging]

My thoughts on Netflix' Wednesday

So, I wanna get my thoughts on Netflix' Wednesday out of my system. Everything in this post is my personal opinion, not a fact or something I wanna convince anyone of. This is gonna be long as hell, but bear with me.

To preface with the positive, I loved the aesthetic. The set design and all was beautiful! The actors also all did a great job, in my opinion, and you could tell they did their best to embody their roles, which I strongly admire and wanna give credit for!

Now, I have several issues with the show. Most of them boil down to the writing. This includes characters, worldbuilding, and the overall plot but also the way the Addams family is adapted in this series. I'm still petty over the casting for Morticia, especially when Christina Ricci is right there, but that's, of course, a whole different thing.

I felt like, in general, the show was all over the place. It gave me 1/3 plot, 1/3 characters, and 1/3 worldbuilding but didn't do any of these well, cause it didn't focus on either of these things, so they were all half-assed (or third-assed in this case, badum tss).

Maybe that's on me, but I found it hard to follow the plotlines over the course of the show. There was this whole point to find the monster, but I often forgot what this was even about. The other plotlines were also not interwoven into the overall plot in a rewarding way for me. I like my setups and payoffs, and this show barely had any. The plot didn't feel whole to me and gave me no rewarding feeling, just a feeling of "glad that's done" which is pretty sad, I think. Then there's, of course, aspects that just didn't make sense to me. Why did Xavier have this psychic connection to the Hyde? What the heck was up with this Goody plotline? Why is the Addams family suddenly supernatural? I don't even know how we got to that last fight? Like, I saw it, but what?

Which leads to worldbuilding. Nevermore is set up to be for outsiders, which is handled synonymous to supernatural beings and also serves as an analogy for irl structural oppression like racism, queerphobia and the like, I guess. Why did Gomez, a nonsupernatural person, visit Nevermore? Why did they send Wednesday there when they didn't know she has visions? Why are Hydes excluded, but vampires and sirens (and presumed normies in Gomez' & Wednesday's case) are fine? I get the in-universe explanation for the last point, of course, but from an outside pov, this undermines the whole point of helping outsiders. And of course, this opens up how even in marginalised communities, there are "bad members" of the community as well, but it's not handled well, imo and fails to address this point. Like, a siren could just as well do what a master does to a Hyde. A plot device that was also strongly underdeveloped in the show. It tells me that some people are just inherently dangerous and don't deserve to be taken care of or helped, even when that's the literal goal of your institution. There's just a lot in the whole concept of normies vs. outsiders in this show that doesn't add up and just seem like they just picked up some random online discourse on marginalisation and threw it in for clout without making an actual point.

The balance of plot and characterisation was a huge letdown for me. The plot could have been more straightforward and clear, taking less detours and leaving more time for the bunch of potentially amazing characters and their relationships. I have barely any idea of who these characters were, except that they did stuff with Wednesday, when she needed them. Whenever there was an interesting opportunity to go into a character more deeply (for me, that was especially the plotline with Bianca's mother, the plotline with Enid's parents as well as her aggressive side when Ajax ditched her, and the plotline around Tyler's mother) it just wasn't taken up again let alone resolved (which to be fair could be intended for season two, but it didnt feel that way to me). Plus, the dynamics between the characters weren't believable for me most of the time, if I'm being honest. Wednesday didn't treat her "friends" good, and for most of the show, she only came to them when she needed something, and still they obliged for a long while. The show touched on so many promising things but pulled through with none of them, imo. I felt like Thing had the most character in this whole show. Especially Enid was disappointing to me, given the way she was treated in the promotional material. While I do ship WenClair, I think I wouldn't have if I only watched the show without taking part in the fandom.

And of course, the way Wednesday Addams and the Addams family are adapted in this show. The Addams family is about deconstructing normality and showing that every family has their own normal, even if it's weird for everyone else. The Addams family shows us a weird but unconditionally supportive family. In this show, however, the supportiveness was switched for a boring conflict between Wednesday and Morticia as well as an uncharacteristic detachment Wednesday has to her family. Of course, she's a teen now, unlike most other adaptions, but it just didn't fit for me. The conflict of normies and outsiders can be seen as a pick up if the normalcy aspect, but if that was intended, it was poorly executed for me. Also, why the heck did Pugsley eat in 9/10 scenes he was in? (I know why).

I also felt like Wednesday was a boringly written main character cause she was liked despite her rudeness, suffered almost no consequences, and was shown to have a seemingly infinite skillset.

The last aspect that made this whole experience unsatisfactory is the inconsistencies in morality. Wednesday has a huge thing for serial Killers, but as soon as someone shows up killing, she goes all PI to stop them? It didn't fit. One minute, she's like, "I wanna get close to a serial killer," and "Of course, my first kiss is a serial killer, I have a type," but for some reason the killing is bad? Meanwhile, one of Wednesday Addams' most quoted scene is "She's in that age where she has only one thing on her mind." - "Boys?" - "No, homicide." All of this has not been reconciled with her wanting to find that killer monster for persecution reasons. All of this doesn't fit together for me. It makes her seem pretentious, and as if the writers were worried about condoning murder while keeping up the morbidity connected to the Addams Family, which is not something I would expect from a director who is famous for creepy, cooky movies. In general, it seemed like they weren't able to handle Wednesday as an actually fun and clever character and just put some BuZzWoRdS at some points to reproduce, for example, her critique on American colonialism in Family Values. Adding up on this, I felt like they heavily relied on 90' Addams Family nostalgia with the Pilgrim theme, Christina Ricci, and the way they hyperboled 90's Wednesday's character traits almost like a caricature of the character.

The only character who gave me Addams Family was Fester. Who's a serial killer, too, by the way. Just to pick up on that inconsistency again.

I was very interested in the show before I watched it, and I wanted to love it and dive into it. But I simply couldn't, and I'm surprised the show is so positively received. Not cause I wanna hate it or whatever, but because I felt like it was simply not a quality product.

Also, the Hyde looked straight up like a zombie from plants vs. Zombies?!

[lutethebodies]

LTB Worldbuilding Wednesdays: Archipelago of the Klasioda

A weekly series in which two of my BG3 Tavs describe the original homebrew 5e world they live in.

Cannor’s Guide

“It’s cold in the ocean, but you know what they say about serving vengeance. In my experience, the Klasi think of little else between survival and staying dry, but if you’d been reduced to raiding your former homeland, you might do the same. Maybe I’m exaggerating, or maybe my Klasi friends are—we’re all a little insecure at times—but the last free Kalen lands don’t offer much to those not born to that life. I have more than a drop of Klasi blood in my veins, but that didn’t help me stay long when I finally traveled there.”

“Every able-bodied Klasi youth learns to dig peats, swim, fish, sail, fight dirty, and mine tin—often in that order. The ones who keep fighting become more disciplined, and thus deadlier. The ones who keep mining (after the mandatory two years) do so for something resembling steady pay, and they eat relatively well. The ones who keep swimming, fishing and sailing (and who are likely half-Morithevathi anyway) eventually do so widely and also eat well, traveling as far away from peat bogs as they can for as long as they can.”

“I’ve never known a people more powered by grievance and resentment. The Klasi seem to hate and fear the Vaali with every fiber of their being, a feeling fueled by the mainland conquerors picking off islets here and there at a slow but steady pace. Few fair-haired heads remain in the larger isles, let alone on the smaller fog-bound rocks. Any blonde you may see is either too powerful to cross or from families too old to insult. The foreign flag on Arleann still grates on even the most destitute Klasi peasant, and “Remember Lostland!” is only the latest battle-cry of hundreds screaming from the past. That hasn’t hindered trade with the outside world yet, but most Vaali adversaries aren’t as inept with diplomacy as King Kaspar of Kronvaal.”

“Even the once-peaceful Druidic moon-worship has become reactionary, but it slips further from mass acceptance every day. Trinda’s stones remain standing, and they have her eyes, which I didn’t doubt even before I felt them at my back at night in the wild heathland. For all the ugly dogma, though, few here are ignorant of lore and legacy. Every child knows their history, skewed as it may be, and some even learn to read it. Scions of the six high-born families on Moroleann certainly do, but other dreamers who look southeast from Iscathalon do too; it’s often their best chance to escape life on these islands.”

“So yes, the Klasioda can be grim. And yet I’ve tasted a warm meal after a day in the mines. I’ve smelled the clover fields during a summer’s day and crushed them beneath a lover’s body at night. I’ve heard an entire ship’s crew sing defiantly above a storm’s howl. I’ve seen those storms cease and rainbows descend on Greentower’s spires. I’ve felt the rush of wind when fog breaks over the Hidden Isle, my grandfather’s home. There’s little true luster on these Green Jewels, but on the right day they are a lovely sight like nowhere else in the world.”

Ruy’s Reckoning

“The Klasioda represent the eastern geographical limit of Aviridia and its parent continent Avorea. The archipelago is also (as of 507 AD) the sole remaining sovereign Kalen state, impoverished by perennial conflict with the mainlanders of Kronvaal directly to the west. The Klasi people are predominantly rural, but a few larger settlements exist. They are ethnic Kalen, but with some telltale traits of the islands’ ancient Morithevathi settlers, long ago assimilated outside of certain enclaves. The Klasi strength, seafaring, is divided between peaceful trade (mostly fishing, but some tin transport) with overseas regions of Nua, and violent piracy and raiding upon Vaali settlements in Kronvaal and, occasionally, Veirmaark. This divide also falls along geographical and familial lines; the great eastern island of Moroleann (ruled by House Natha’s main branch) is more settled, peaceful, and less dependent on seafaring, while the western, second island of Edirleann (ruled by a cadet Natha branch) houses the archipelago’s naval strength and religious centers.”

Area: 40,856 square miles. Population: 816,120; about 10-15 people per square mile. Capital: Cladduna. Main settlements: Iscathalon (Widewater; large town), Tunlan (Tinshore; small town). Fortresses: Cladduna (Greentower), Lochuan (The Refuge). Ruler: Princess Regent Eada of House Natha, for her absent sister Queen Nellie. Languages: Kalen, Erynnath. Economy: Open mercantile, producing cod, coal, herring, timber, tin, and wool; trading for cottons, furs, iron, linens, paper, silver, steel, sugar, wax, and wheat.

All text and imagery taken from "The Nua Gazetteer, Volume 1" by Keir DuBois (2022).

[circa-specturgia]

it's still Wednesday if I squint hehe ! So for worldbuilding thurdnesday, could you talk about Ciro's winged race? :o Do the wings look different, or are they all snowy white? How did they evolve their wings, or are they descended from something completely separate? Do they run into any trouble because of the wings - walking down the street, getting clothes fit, maybe people trying to steal a feather?

OHHH! Ok this is gonna be my chance to geek out a bit! Thanks so much for this ask @muddshadow!!! ✨

Note! Some of what I’ve got below is subject to some change as I’ve just came back to looking over the origins of the world and all and feel like it may be due for a rework of sorts, but this is what I’ve got for the time being!

The Æris (A’eyris), or Winged (Wing’yd), are one of several races inhabiting the world of Circa Specturgia. The unifying characteristic traits for a majority of Æris are:

- Wings. Obviously. It’s kinda self explanatory with the name, don’t know why I’m even mentioning this…

- Height varying between 200-250cm (6’6” - 8’2”). They’re taaallllll, in part because the heigh acts as counterbalance to the wingspan, in order to attain stable flight, but mainly because I like tall people ✨

- Weigh being lower than what would be expected for their height, due to alternate bone composition, more hollow like in birds, reducing weight and allowing for flight

- Unique bone and muscle structure of the upper body, wider shoulders and a far more built upper torso, to allow for proper attachment and movement of wings!

- Unique eyes, most often black sclera, in some cases entirely black eyes, in some cases possessing a colorful iris, colors ranging between predominantly yellow, red, and orange, with blue and green eyes being slightly less common.

- Most age just ever so slightly faster than Humans, though there are some races of Æris which seem to age slower.

Now, for some more specific world-building and biological details! And to answer the question too! *pushes up glasses*

The Æris are mainly comprised of races with avian traits of the clade Passerea.

However, there is a far higher percentage of all Æris of avian traits from the sub-clade of Passerea, Telluraves, these being birds including hawks, vultures, eagles, owls (Like Ciro!), falcons, and passerines! Passerines themselves are the most common of the Æris races.

The lower percentage of Æris possess mainly avian traits of the sub-clade of Passerea, Ardeae, and other sub-clades, these including Æris of avian traits of birds such as tropicbirds, herons, shorebirds, and swifts!

There do also exist a few very small and local races of Æris with traits outside the clade Passerea, these being Æris of avian traits such as peafowl (duh, obviously I added peacocks 🦚 ✨)!

So, yes! There are tons of different races of Æris, most often differing in wing structure, pigmentation, and other such traits, sometimes in diet and height as well! (A rule of thumb is that the greater the wingspan the taller the Æris to counterbalance it properly, though I have been thinking about adding a part of the wings or a form of tail to them!)

Their evolution and coming into being is a bit of an odd part of history but the theory I have for it is a concrete global genetic anomaly which acted as a sort of catalyst that caused the formation of the varied races from a single joint ancestor, approximately 1.8M years prior, to current day during an epoch of ice, with evolution doing the rest! This is pretty subject to change though but a big part of my world will be the ancient history and all that good origins stuff!

One small thing of note before I get into the whole clothes and daily life stuff too!

Some Æris can learn to ‘fold’ their wings away! That isn’t to say that they simply have them pressed to their back, as most tend to carry them, but that they are able to make them melt into their form and become immaterial! The way weight is distributed and all is odd, but, essentially it can be a bit cramping if it’s kept up for too long so while it’s a good skill to learn through lots of practice and attempts, it’s not something they many who even know how to do it keep up for long. When they’re let loose, think of getting up after being seated in the same pose for a few hours, like getting out of the car in a long drive and stretching, it’s that good stretch feel.

The same is the case for the talons and scales on the hands and feet, though these are in a reverse situation; most Æris don’t know how to bring them forth unless they are in some ways pushed to it or simply learn it, as some Æris races (predominantly those of predator birds) have a higher chance of being able to learn this.

Ciro for one is someone who will eventually be able to do both, folding his wings away to be more manageable at some times, as well as manifesting talons and scales!

As for day to day life! Æris LOVE nests. Not like, actual nests, but Æris beds are most often designed akin to wicker baskets with a sort of curvature to them, along with lots of room to lie down with the wings unfolded, and loose! Æris homes and spaces are usually pretty spacious though the winged folk themselves are characterized by their grace, so knocking something over with their wings is a rarity. It’s more often the wind from them opening that’s a bother, so, paperweights come in handy. Chairs and all usually have no back rest/a low back rest to accommodate, and pouches/harnesses for bags, or satchels are pretty common! Clothes usually consist of pants/loose fitting garments that are flowing but which don’t move around too much, ie are bound at the ankles to stay in place when flying. Some wear tailored shirts with a window in the back and buttons at the back of the neck that close it up, some prefer robes more akin to those worn by buddhist monks, with comfy fabric. Silk, while light, is expensive, and hard to come by, and so linen is a more common fabric of choice, being lightweight.

With a variety of body types, and races, any non-Æris seamster or seamstress who has some practice should be able to fit any clothes they’d need, or cut a window into anything that wouldn’t already be tailored to them!

An Æris’ feather, given willingly, can symbolize a lot of things, depending on their intention, from trust, to love, to respect, to a promise or oath. However, to take a feather without permission, to steal one already given or to even worse, pluck one off of a pair of wings is seen as possibly one of the worst insults one can give. Lots of Æris curses as a result reference plucking or the like!

PHEW, that was FUN. Took me a while, but, I had a chance to think some stuff over and add some detail to some parts I wasn’t quite sure on! Thanks for the opportunity and for the ask, again!!! Hope you enjoyed! ✨✨✨

Taglist! @bloodlessheirbyjacques @athenswrites @magefaery @writingonesdreams ✨