#cattail fields

[centipeedles]

finished! i love otherworld for the colors, it’s such a pretty place

[alteredstatesstuff]

dragon fly

[weaselmcdiesel]

i made a parallax scene for an assignment and i thought it looked p cool :3 and the full image under the cut <3

also i was working on it for so long i got bored and drew a little karkat for fun keke

[abirddogmoment]

Ready for sniffings

[stargalaxy20]

Does anyone else just lay in their bed playing cozy video games for 24 hours on their days off or is that just me

[dailycattails]

day 49

[delurkr]

I was today years old when I realized there is a water tower behind the diner. No clue how I missed it.

Was this important to point out? No, but this is always a pretty screenshot so let's admire the lighting too

[humornaut]

An Analysis of Foreshadowing in Omori's Prologue

Hey everyone!

With the Omori manga's first chapter's release, one thing has been made clear: They are FLYING through the game. Unless they are doing something weird, the entire prologue segment has been moved to right after the Aubrey fight, a move I can only believe has been made so that the real world characters appear in the first chapter. I won't be making any judgements until I see how it all fits together (and maybe I won't make many judgments in general, I don't really consider myself a judgmental person for better or for worse), but it did get me thinking about how well Omori's prologue works in general! So today, I'd like to take some time to talk about that!

The Sidequests

The first things I want to mention are the side quests! I've mentioned it before (or maybe I haven't, I don't remember everything I've said), but nearly all the side quests in Headspace are symbolic on a meta level. A lot of people dismiss this as boring repetitiveness (perhaps true), but the vast majority of the side quests are about finding a lost item or individual. This is, of course, echoing the larger Headspace plot of Basil going missing. However, there is something about this concept that I'd like to point out using one of the sidequests!

In the quest "Whereabouts of Duckie Jr.", you are tasked with determining the whereabouts of Duckie Jr! Crazy, I know. Remember how I said that most of the sidequests are reminiscent of the quest to find Basil? Like 2 seconds ago? Well, this one is good for actually illuminating what is going on with that questline overall! Duckie Jr. and his family are references to a famous optical illusion in which a person can see either a duck or a bunny. Take a look at the house that the family lives in:

They live in a present! Now take a look at this!

"SUNNY won't leave the box, so KEL put a food bowl inside. I guess this box will be SUNNY and MEWO's new home."

So that's interesting! Add in the distant demeanor of Duckie Jr's father, as well as Mari's statements about Duckie having his head in the clouds and comparing Duckie to Omori, it becomes clear that Duckie in this situation is a reference to Sunny, not Basil. What does this mean? Well, it means that we should rethink the Headspace quest all together! The quest to find Basil is much more a quest for Sunny to re-find himself.

Now this (as well as the quest for the character Daisy that I have mentioned previously) is interesting, but it isn't exactly foreshadowing. For that, I would like to draw your attention to the sidequest Stick in the Mud.

In this quest, you must go around Cattail fields to find Mr. Scarecrows three crow friends, and have them return to him. In order to do this, you have to use Hero when interacting with the three crows.

I personally believe that this is a bit of foreshadowing to the Sunny route. Hero's maturity is necessary to bringing Sunny, Kel, and Aubrey back together and bringing them to Basil. I also choose to see Mr. Scarecrow as an analogue for Basil rather than Sunny due to the coloring of Mr. Scarecrow's sprite (Blond hair, blue eyes, green clothes), and Hero doesn't actually bring Basil specifically to anyone (heck, Hero doesn't actually ever talk to Basil in the real world segments of the game)

I also want to make clear: I'm not trying to imply that this is symbolism on the part of Sunny's mind, like a lot of the things that I talk about on this account, rather that this is a bit of meta storytelling foreshadowing how the real world plot will turn out. This will go for everything else that I talk about here as well.

Captain of the Space Pirates

Now that we've talked about the sidequests, I'd like to draw your attention to the main questline of Otherworld. As a reminder, once the gang gets into Otherworld, we are introduced to Captain Spaceboy, who is bedridden and depressed following his break-up with Sweetheart. In order to solve this problem, we have to go through the junkyard to find his mixtape. We aren't the only ones looking for it, and while there, we meet Rosa, a Sweetheart super-fan.

We get the mixtape back, bring it to Spaceboy, at which point Kel plays it, triggering Spaceboy to start his boss fight.

The argument for this all being one large bit of foreshadowing goes like this:

Spaceboy would be Basil (purely from a narrative perspective, not in any kind of character-sense). We go to the junkyard and dig through the trash to find the mixtape, just like we eventually get the photo album by digging through Aubrey's trash. Rosa in this case represents Aubrey, attempting to take care of the mixtape due to her personal connection to the item, revealing that Spaceboy is the one that threw it out in the first place, echoing how in the real world, Aubrey takes care of the photo album for four years due to what it means to her, despite how Basil (from her perspective) destroyed it originally.

We bring the mixtape back to Spaceboy, and just as Kel is the one that kicks off going through the photo album with Basil, he is the one that rushes to put the mixtape into the boombox, triggering the memories that set off Spaceboy, causing the fight.

Admittedly, things get a little cloudy here, as the fight between Sunny and Basil isn't directly caused by the photo album. You could even say that the Spaceboy fight represents the fight with Omori (or even both the Basil fight AND the Omori fight) due to Omori's fight being due to Sunny's mind reacting to memories of the past, better mirroring the Spaceboy fight. But hey! Spaceboy's hair turns green and his eyes turn red so who can say. :P

Then, after the fight, we get a few things! We get an eyepatch (goes without saying), a train pass (representing how Sunny will be moving after the conclusion of the game), and a sno-cone ticket (yeah I don't think this one represents anything).

And, just like the Sunny route, the prologue ends with an early look at Memory Lane, and the dream ends, with Sunny waking up.

There's probably a lot more I could talk about regarding Omori's prologue, so I might update this later! I hope you enjoyed reading this! Within the game, I feel like the prologue is one of the strongest bits of Headspace, and I've always wanted to talk about how I believe it foreshadows the rest of the game! This is a topic that I'd love to hear more people's opinion on!

[nthspecialll]

This might be dumb but I'm curious! Do you have any favorite (preferably hyper-specific) details from the game? Maybe ones you're particularly drawn to?

I've been wandering around every inch of the map on this specific play-through for about 2 years, and I'm still finding new places. Some of which I've become oddly attached to and will frequent quite a bit.

I absolutely love the whispering forest south from Brandywine Drop and finding the certain cliffs Arthur's able to sit on and kick his little feet over. I also love the flower field in northern Ambarino, and the cave dweller in Big Valley who claims he's the devil.

Also, this might be a little too specific, but sometimes there's a man going full-speed on his horse through Lake Isabella (notoriously an area otherwise void of any other humans). It's probably a glitch but l've seen it enough times in one play-through for it to get my attention. Chasing him down has proven itself pointless but I still find it kinda silly.

I love, LOOVVEEEE those chats you can have in the bars, they are AWESOME. I will often just go to bars to hear if anyone wants to talk to me (they rarely do)

As for places, I love WINDOW ROCK and Cattail Pond, idk it is so weird but if I am in the area I just go there and stand.... Just look around yk?

With the glitch, I have never seen that one, but this, THIS I love. I love this glitch, it is so random and awesome. Like who tf are you and why are you in my bed?

[troutfur]

Rise of a Genre? - Ramblings on "Shifting Roots" (The Alliance Saga - Clouded Moon, book 1)

From a Warriors OC indie animated series to its retooling into an original fantasy story and now with the release of the first novel in a planned trilogy, Star Cat Studios' Clouded Moon has had quite the tumultous history. Having released December 23rd, 2024 and available not only on the author's Ko-Fi page but also on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, this seemingly not-quite-indie title is particularly interesting to me as a Warriors fanfiction author steeped in the rewrite side of the community.

Throughout my time in the fandom I have seen many rewrite projects grow more ambitious. Eventually many of these have diverged so significantly in terms of plot and especially worldbuilding to the point it made more sense to spin them off into original fantasy stories. Here in the Tumblr space, the word for this emerging genre is xenomoggy, a portmanteau of xenofiction (fiction written from the perspective of a non-human character) and moggy (an unremarkable non-pedigree domestic cat, feline counterpart of the word mutt).

Shifting Roots is far from the first ever Warriors fan project to have found new life as an original propety. In the videogame world, Cattails and its sequel Cattails: Wildwood Story precede it, having been developed on the basis of the fangame Warrior Cats: Untold Tales. However it IS, to my knowledge, the first ever comercially published xenomoggy novel.

I originally envisioned this post as a review of the book, but the more I wrote the more I found myself just rambling about my thoughts on the book. To concisely summarize my thoughts, this is a 6.5/10 book. Definitely above your standard Warriors book, a series which is a very consistent 5/10 read, but still somewhat missing the mark. Regardless, I'd recommend any Warriors fan to check it out and any aspiring author of xenomoggy fiction to study it in order to take advantage of its strengths and avoid its faults.

So, without further ado, my somewhat rambly thoughts on the book below. Beware of spoilers.

The Setting

Right away, Shifting Roots shows its origins as a Warriors OC story. Alliance Lake is very transparently just the Lake Territories featured from arc 2 of Warriors onwards. And the four cat colonies that live on its shores, Oak Colony, Marsh Colony, River Colony, and Field Colony, are very transparently just ThunderClan, ShadowClan, RiverClan, and WindClan respectively. The territories may have been spiced up a little, in particular River Colony's lush tropical paradise and waterfalls, but it's not substantially different.

What really sets this setting apart is the world beyond the colonies of the Alliance. Firstly there's no humans, and thus no cities, roads, cars, or anything of the sort to threaten our cast. This world is for the most part a scorched wasteland, known to the Alliance as the Unbound-Lands. Here, magic users fight for their life in the unforgiving environment.

According to the origin myths of The Alliance, the world is like that because magic users made it like that through reckless use of magic. According to the telling by Unbound cats, however, the source of this bounty is a spell The Alliance placed that seals away magic powers within Alliance territory and redirects it towards the land and the Captains of each colony.

The change of no humans alone is a huge paradigm shift. The core premise of Warriors has essentially always been "What would your cat be up to if they ran into the woods?" Thus, even as the series has introduced more and more fantastical elements, it has had to remain relatively grounded in terms of how much elements of human society these cats can have. Asking the reader to buy into all the other fantastical elements further ungrounds the setting and raises the bar of willing suspension of disbelief required.

Thus it strikes me as supremely odd how the society of the Alliance Lake colonies still sticks so close to the mold of Warriors. Keepers --equivalent to what in Warriors fandom we'd call a "permaqueen"-- and mentors --not the same as a mentor in Warriors, those are called teachers, these are rather their overseers-- are the only new formal jobs introduced. Politically the only rank added is that of envoy, cats that along with elders, herbalists, the second in command, and the captain form a ruling council and have a vote in colony matters. And in terms of material culture there is a mention of a bag once as well as mentions of torniquets and stitches, but not really anything extreme.

Additions to the material culture and division of labor in the Clans (e.g. tool use, crafts manufacturing, and cooking) are easily some of the most elaborate elements of Warriors rewrites and AUs I see around nowadays. Though I don't like them very much at all (at best I put up with them as a concession to the premise for the sake of an interesting story) because of how they clash with the intended feel of Warriors as a semi-grounded story, their ubiquity and popularity clearly shows I'm in the minority. Thus it feels unnecessarily austere from the authors to add so little when their world's premise alone bought them a wide latitude to make worldbuilding additions to their heart's content.

In terms of presenting the information to the reader, it can be argued that a lot of the legwork has already been made by the Warriors novels and given the primary audience for this book has already read them there's very little need to present the world beyond the additions.

I have to admit that as a Warriors reader, I greatly appreciated that we dove right into seeing daily life in the alliance without having to explicitly exposit it, and I particularly appreciated the fact the author did not insert an outsider protagonist to exposit it to. However, I'm not quite sure this set-up will be entirely intuitive to unfamiliar readers. Perhaps if the xenomoggy genre gains traction and some ground ground level tropes come to be accepted as standard in popular consciousness this will not be an issue for future writers.

With regards to introducing worldbuilding elements not familar to Warriors, althought the first few pages of the book with its maps and glossary of terms and list of characters and laws of the Alliance could be considered an info dump, the relevant parts are still introduced well in the text proper.

The Characters

The book follows a core cast of four characters, one from each of the colonies around Alliance Lake, Dawnfrost from Oak Colony, Wildfur from Marsh Colony, Wolfthorn from River Colony, and Spottedshadow from Field Colony. These four are established from early on to be a friend group going back to their adolescent days, as well as there being two sets of cross-Colony partners: Dawnfrost & Wolfthorn and Wildfur & Spottedshadow.

With the use of these relationships as drivers of the interpersonal conflicts for these characters, we once again see the fingerprints of Warriors. These are no bland repeats of forbidden love tropes seen in its source material, however.

The two mollies of the group, Dawnfrost and Spottedshadow, are an exploration of themes of ambition. The former is currently an envoy and leading candidate for Second in Command once Oak Colony's Captain, Elmtail, dies and his Second, Redleaf, assumes the position. The latter, however, is a mentor who rejected the position of envoy, precluding the possibility of ever becoming Second and thus abandoning previous ambitions for leadership, due to the realization of how it would affect her relationships outside Field Colony.

The two toms of the group, meanwhile, are an exploration of themes of social alienation. Wildfur is a social outcast in Marsh Colony and although his Captain seeks to integrate him by giving him responsibilities, such as the training of the new-claw Pool, he resents these attempts and longs to live in Field Colony, a dream he knows is impossible as it's Field Colony policy to only admit outsiders before adulthood. Wolfthorn, meawhile, is a tom that had previously ran away to wander the Unbound-Lands but returned due to homesickness, only to find that under Captain Rainfall's leadership his home colony has turned to a brutal dictatorship and no longer feels like home. Despite Dawnfrost's pleading for him to come live with her in Oak Colony and Wolfthorn's attempts to convince her to run back into the Unbound-Lands with him, they both know they are too attached to their home to ever leave.

Although the four of these are presented from the very first chapter as the protagonists, the point of view character jumps all over the place between characters of all four colonies and even to members of a group of cats from the Unbound-Lands they come to meet later in the story. Arguably, though, this story belongs more to Spottedshadow and her Field Colony friend turned political rival Goldenpelt. She is even the eponymous character of this trilogy as a whole, as when she ascends to leadership she comes to be known as Captain Spottedshadow the Clouded Moon.

Goldenpelt is a very fascinating character and foil to Spottedshadow. As her childhood friend who once dreamed of leading Field Colony alongside her not only as Captain and Second, but as mates, he holds bitterness and suspicion towards Wildfur and the rest of Spottedshadow's cross-Colony friend group for their role in her giving up her ambition. While she is optimistic about cross-colony cooperation he's distrustful and guarded, both attitudes being validated at different points in the story and driving their tension.

This is only amplified when following the deaths of Field Colony's Captain and Second, after he was left as the only envoy, the Spirits Beyond (which I don't think I have to mention are the StarClan equivalent, but just in case...) chose to appear to and bless Spottedshadow instead of Goldenpelt. When she decides to snub him further by appointing a new envoy to make into her Second for fear that him having the position would undermine her newfound power, their rift only grows.

I will say more about this in the plot section, but suffice to say I think that focus on these two as the primary or even solitary PoV characters could have helped to smooth out a very huge plot issue and really zeroed in what was the emotional core of this story. Interesting and compelling as the other characters and perspectives are I do feel very strongly the multi-PoV format was a misstep.

Plot

The plot follows a series of mysterious attacks on Marsh Colony and Oak Colony cats by an unidentified beast that doesn't even eat its victims. After failing to track down its den and suffering serious losses from Oak Colony, Marsh Colony, and Field Colony during an encounter in the heart of the Oak Colony base, the three colonies above agree to send a party into the Unbound-Lands to the presumed source of these attacks and to gather intelligence in how to face it. The questing party consists of our four protagonists (Wolfthorn sneaked out again, of course, as Captain Rainfall of River Colony refused to help) as well as the new-claw Pool from Marsh Colony, the ranger Shrewpelt from Oak Colony, and the ranger Goldenpelt from Field Colony.

After saving an Unbound-Lands wind mage while in the Unbound-Lands, and in gratitude being led to the rest of their group (called a gust), the group finds out that the creature in question is a bear and her cubs who has been using magic of their own to cloak their den. At this point Wolfthorn also fills them in on the Unbound-Lander's more accurate account of the origin myth of Alliance Lake. (As a side note, the bears can use magic because apparently whoever placed the enchantment that limits the magic of other cats within Alliance Lake territory didn't even know other creatures could wield it too. Thus they didn't cast to bind them as well.) Although the wind mages are unwilling at first to follow them back to Alliance Lake to help with their bear problem, as they don't want to give up their magic NOR die, as killing mages is the policy of the alliance, Captain Spottedshadow promises them sanctuary in Field Colony.

Once back in Alliance territory, the party finds out that River Colony has encroached on Field Colony territory in a bloody battle while Spottedshadow and Goldenpelt were absent. In a single scene, Goldenpelt rallies his group of supporters that believe he was cheated out of captainship and they are promptly and swiftly exiled.

This is where I pause and explain my big plot gripe. Though I definitely see where the author was going with regards to Goldenpelt resurrecting his claim to captainship following the revelation of what Spottedshadow's decision to go in the journey caused, it is very important to note this is right after the two of them had an "arc" in the Unbound-Lands to reconnect as best friends. (Arc is rather too generous. It was a bunch of set pieces not too unlike how Warriors travelling books are a series of loosely connected "quick time event" type scenes.) The immediate U-turn comes across as if their previous relationship development was completely wasted time as we are right back at square one just after it resolved.

If Goldenpelt had stayed in Field Colony and rallied his supporters while Spottedshadow was away OR the last 20% or so of the book that we were at by the time this one scene happened was dedicated to Goldenpelt regressing a bit more gradually, I think it would have been worth it. But both of these ideas I hold would work for the best if Goldenpelt and Spottedshadow were the sole PoVs instead of the constant jumping across so many characters. Capitalizing on these two as the emotional core of the story would have greatly elevated the book.

Anyway. After a disastrous Moonlight Meeting in which Oak Colony, Marsh Colony, and River Colony soundly reject Spottedshadow's plans to use the Unbound-Land mages to fight the bears, Spottedshadow takes it upon herself to break the echantment that binds the magic and which is located in the oak tree in the center of Moonlight Island. Oak Colony and Marsh Colony meanwhile set up bait and ambush the bears. Anticipating this move, Spottedshadow moves to bring unwanted reinforcements and with the help of the wind mages they manage to kill the mother bear and one cub, chosing the take mercy on the second cub and simply chasing it out of Alliance territory.

Thus, we end the book with a new status quo. Wildfur gets to live in Field Colony as the mate of Captain Spottedshadow. Dawnfrost is set to take leadership in Field Colony. Captain Hawkshell of Marsh Colony is frustrated in his attempt to take revenge on all the bears. Wolfthorn is being held prisoner in River Colony for his repeated violations of their curfew policy and suspicions of treasons. And in the Unbound-Lands a group of exiled River Colony would-be rebels hear of Goldenpelt and his supporters, who have taken to calling him Captain after a dream visit of the late Second of Field Colony, Forestleaf, that granted him a leader blessing.

I have all voiced all my plot complaints and I can only say that for the rest this is perfectly fine. I would have preferred for there to be more of a murder mystery element with regards to the bears rather than the answer being handed to our protagonists. But I can see why it wasn't and what we got is serviceable enough, really.

Conclusion

Shifting Roots is better than Warriors but not mind-blowingly good. I am certainly interested enough in continuing to read, but I can see how this would be a one and done for a lot of people. I do recommend it to other Warriors fans, if only because it's likely to be of interest and better than the usual Warriors book, and to aspiring xenomoggy writers I once again urge them to study it. But it's not exactly a read I would recommend outside this fandom. I personally think that for the moment we are still awaiting on the seminal classic of this genre.

[centipeedles]

sunny you might be coping unhealthily but GODDAMN do you have pretty colors in your head

i just want to eat them up and feel the sizzles in my brain

otherworld? so pretty. making fanart of this is is making me froth at the mouth from all the pretty colors i get to use

[alteredstatesstuff]

pond view

[thetic-core]

A whole lot of cottagecore variations for you cuties!

Classic Cottagecore Variations

Vintage Cottagecore: Antique furniture, lace doilies, and old-fashioned floral patterns.

Rustic Cottagecore: Worn wooden furniture, burlap, and earthy tones.

Pastel Cottagecore: Light pinks, mint greens, and soft yellows with delicate floral motifs.

Fairy Cottagecore: Mushrooms, glittering fairy lights, and whimsical forest elements.

Victorian Cottagecore: Romantic dresses, corsets, and ornate decor with a historical flair.

Homestead Cottagecore: Practical farming tools, garden beds, and handmade goods.

Woodland Cottagecore: Forest animals, moss-covered logs, and ferns.

Nature-Inspired Cottagecore Variations

Meadowcore: Wildflowers, sunny fields, and buzzing bees.

Ocean Cottagecore: Coastal cottages, seashells, and nautical vibes.

Mountain Cottagecore: Pine trees, cozy log cabins, and misty peaks.

Winter Cottagecore: Snowy landscapes, hot drinks, and woolen blankets.

Autumn Cottagecore: Warm oranges, pumpkins, and crunchy leaves.

Spring Cottagecore: Blooming flowers, pastel colors, and baby animals.

Garden Cottagecore: Vegetables, gardening tools, and flower beds.

Swamp Cottagecore: Reeds, cattails, frogs, and murky water charm.

Whimsical Cottagecore Variations

Fairy Tale Cottagecore: Enchanted cottages, storybook characters, and magic.

Cottagepunk: A mix of rustic cottage life with steampunk or industrial elements.

witchcore: Herbs, spellbooks, and mystical moonlit rituals.

Fantasy Cottagecore: Elves, mythical creatures, and glowing forests.

Cottage Goblincore: Mushrooms, shiny trinkets, and a touch of chaos.

Enchanted Cottagecore: Sparkling rivers, magical animals, and ethereal lighting.

Pixiecore: Tiny houses, oversized mushrooms, and playful mischief.

Cultural and Seasonal Cottagecore Variations

Nordic Cottagecore: Cozy knitwear, log cabins, and snowy Scandinavian landscapes.

French Cottagecore: Lavender fields, baguettes, and rustic Provençal decor.

Japanese Cottagecore: Tatami mats, shoji screens, and Zen gardens.

Celtic Cottagecore: Ancient stone circles, green hills, and folklore.

Holiday Cottagecore: Wreaths, candles, and festive homemade treats.

Harvest Cottagecore: Cornucopias, hayrides, and golden fields.

Lifestyle Cottagecore Variations

Homeschool Cottagecore: Stacks of books, cozy learning nooks, and handmade crafts.

Artist Cottagecore: Sketchbooks, watercolors, and easels in a sunlit room.

Baker Cottagecore: Flour-dusted counters, bread rising, and pies cooling on windowsills.

Herbalist Cottagecore: Dried herbs, apothecary jars, and wildflower bouquets.

Knitting Cottagecore: Balls of yarn, handmade scarves, and cozy evenings by the fire.

Fantasy and Storybook-Inspired Cottagecore

Wizard Cottagecore: Potion bottles, spell scrolls, and magical libraries.

Hobbitcore: Round doors, lush gardens, and cozy burrows.

Princess Cottagecore: Gowns, tiaras, and castle-like cottages.

Mermaid Cottagecore: Underwater themes with shells, pearls, and ocean vibes.

Color-Themed Cottagecore Variations

Golden Cottagecore: Sunflowers, amber lighting, and golden wheat fields.

Moss Cottagecore: Deep greens, mossy textures, and earthy tones.

Pink Cottagecore: Rose gardens, soft pink decor, and strawberry motifs.

Blue Cottagecore: Wisteria, cornflowers, and serene blue skies.

Monochrome Cottagecore: Black-and-white aesthetics with soft contrasts.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Europe without trade, a worldbuilding exercise

This exercise pissed off a bunch of white people for all the wrong reasons, but facts are facts and I can link you to all the major resources. You all should be insulted at the idea that Europe can't trade, that melanin dictates that white people can't get along and find ways to trade. But that's not why they were upset. They were upset at the idea that a single region couldn't provide for people. And that's the wrong thing to get upset about. And I'm telling you that's white supremacy ideology you need to boot. Europe, too, traded and used people from other regions who migrated and were physically there on foot. Stop thinking that your lack of melanin is a force field.

So the exercise goes like this: Shortly after Homo Sapiens interbred with the Neanderthal and migrated to Europe, there was a magical force field put around Europe to cut off Europe from the Middle East, Africa, etc. ^^;; I'm sure people from the Caucuses aren't very pleased with this since they get commandeered into this exercise which racists somehow love. Later people also deemed them inferior (which takes a while to travel through but there is a wikipedia page dedicated to the term Caucasian meaning white [link] that goes over this ranking thing and the racist origins and ties to Nazis). But whatever, Nanowrimo a*holes were determined to argue against trade, fine, let's play this game and cut the whole of the Middle East/West Asia.

The other rule is that the Gulf Stream still exists, so you can have that unusual European climate which is a fluke. (This also ticked off people? But seriously, to get the gradient of Europe that far north, you need to Gulf of Mexico otherwise the latitude range would look more like the US than Europe, more south, and larger, much larger. And most people don't make a continent that large. Why people get ticked off at true facts is a whole thing.)

If you cut off the Gulf of Mexico, which a lot of world building of European-like continents do, you get Siberia. So the Gulf of Mexico has to stay for our Hypothetical Europe. (Not getting into continentality either.)

We're not counting the little bit of Turkey here, BTW. Turkey gets to stay whole. And Russia gets kicked out because it always gets kicked out anyway and besides, people were preaching about stupid things when these racists were posting, like all of Russia is white. And then people were arguing over if Russia counts. Fine. We'll kick Russia out. BTW, Australia was called all white. Haha. Aboriginals don't exist according to them. Like WTF. But whatever.

The question is what civilization can Europe grow with only the resources found naturally in Europe? Can you build a European civilization with only things found naturally occurring in Europe?

The first issue is STAPLE CROP.

Yeah, if you notice, you've cut off all of the major grains to Europe. You've also cut off the Beaker people. Oops.

Some Anthropology here, Beaker people brought agriculture to Europe. They were also from Turkey.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2018/february/the-beaker-people-a-new-population-for-ancient-britain.html

So, Stone Henge, Long burrows, and all of that are suddenly cut off.

Honestly, this one is terrible to overcome. Most of the BBC docs I watched argued that the ancient people of Britain before Brown people from Turkey brought agriculture and the Cheddar Man, were boiling and eating reeds. Think like cattails type of thing, which is really hard to eat.

Upside, you still have fire in the form of rush lights, though you can't use tallow or beeswax--comes from outside of Europe. And horses are too lean. So, likely the European bison? However, this limits technology quite a bit as advancements can't be made by night and only by camp fire. (Fire is safely pre-modern humans—homonins and some say Homo Erectus, though still debated. But at least Homo Hedelberengensis)

Without a staple crop, you're going to have it tough to make enough surplus to build anything. You need free time and enough food supply to build things like castles.

The closest you might get is maybe peas? The best you get is pea flour, and have you worked with pea flour? It doesn't do anything like the wheat family does. Nutritionally, it's also low carbs, which is great if you're on a low carb diet, but not great for a civilization. Pea flour: 100 kcal, 18 g carbohydrate, 8 g fiber, 0 g fat, and 8 g protein

White rice:

Total Fat 0.4 g

Saturated fat 0.1 g

Cholesterol 0 mg

Sodium 2 mg

Potassium 55 mg

Total Carbohydrate 45 g 15%

Dietary fiber 0.6 g

Sugar 0.1 g

Protein 4.3 g

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/brown-rice-vs-white-rice

68-82 amounts of energy in rice.

So peas aren't a bad choice, but the problem is that you don't have a binder. You need a binder to make bread, etc. Even this one here: https://www.powerhungry.com/2024/02/06/split-pea-bread-vegan-oil-free-gf/ Uses a binder from India. But the majority of your people aren't eating Bread. The recipes I can find include non-European things like rice or things outside of Europe. This severely hinders your tech advancements. Being able to eat on the job and not have it take forever is really hard. The portability of bread is a plus for technology. And peas can get mushy and if cooked can mold.

There are Lactofermented peas:

https://www.beetsandbones.com/lacto-fermented-green-peas/

But they aren't widely eaten and include things like garlic, which is out. Bay leaves are not from Europe. Garlic is a difficult one since garlic kills so many bacteria, but you can cope with oregano, I suppose, which kills a high amount of bacteria according to a well vetted study since it was published (original study was 1999, but followup studies since then):

Preservation is a huge part of production and an upside of grains.

Also, how are you going to produce alcohol? This makes water safer to drink. You'd have to convert to teas. (Raspberry leaf tea is a thing.) Peas are not high starch enough, as cited to hold together bread. It's not good enough to make alcohol.

But now you're thinking, OK, we got peas as a staple, they just won't make bread out of it.

Peas, a major protein source, you don't need cows, pigs, etc as much. (Though you're still kinda lacking in vitamin B12, but I'll cover that later.) And your people make a new type of pea plant (BTW, legumes is the largest plant family on Earth.)

Might limit you to not be able to carry it around easily and it's hard to rehydrate, but eventually your people get there. (If you're thinking, but lentils, yeah, not Europe. Deal).

Subsequent agriculture

Tanning leather, BTW, you need oak trees with high tannins, but this tech originated from Western Asia (or Southwestern Asia, if you want to call it that)

Oak trees are found on five continents, but it's a bit fuzzy on how they got there. Humans have a habit of picking up seeds and spreading them about. My own great grandfather loved collecting seeds and planting them. You also have Johnny Appleseed.

The processing time to make acorn flour is pretty terrible (You have to boil it a long, long time to remove the tannins, this is why I didn't suggest this as a staple), but at least you have leather.

The major other crops are out:

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, hazelnuts, walnuts, corn, wheat, rye, barley, strawberries? (This one is questionable.), pears (China), apples (Central Asia), Pomegranates (Iran), and major fruits you can think of. Think of a major fruit. Look it up and you'll find it doesn't come from Europe, though it might be grown there.

Most of the spices and herbs are out (sage, oregano, rosemary, and thyme stay in.) No, you can't have garlic. Most allium comes from outside of Europe. Animals are also out: pigs, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, llamas, alpacas.

It's debatable about horses. One thread people debated back and forth on horses, so I'll lay that out.

This leaves you likely with dogs, which probably came with early modern humans. Yeah, ummm... there's a question here, and maybe I shouldn't touch it, and the answer is likely no, probably not eating them. Not unless people get desperate. The Cambridge History of Food also questions the archaeology from Western Asia, but the archaeology also says the only time humans ate dogs were in desperation and the layer in question came at the heels of a drought? (I took a picture of the page, pretty easy to look up since it has an excellent index.).

This leaves deer. Not a good animal to domesticate, but let's say Reindeer. (Thinking Evenk here).

I'm adding in carob.

So Round up of what we have?

Staple crop: Legume, likely related to peas.

Secondary crops:

You have brassica (mustard family)

Olives

Rosemary

Thyme

Oregano

sage

horseradish, maybe.

Acorns—makes leather

carob

currants

gooseberries

raspberry

blackberry

turnip, possibly beets

parsnip Stinging nettle Dandelion (European and edible from roots which make a substance said to be similar to coffee to the buds.)

Brassica family, mainly Brussel sprouts, but possibly they would invent others.

BTW, carrots originally weren't orange until William of Orange, who gets his name from a plant native to Southern China-ish.

But other berries—cranberry, is from the Americas. And strawberry, while found in Europe, was originally domesticated in the Americas. This one is a question mark. Because it was found on both continents, but was only domesticated in the Americas.

The majority of the foods you find are domesticated in West Asia, Southern China and the Americas (mostly central Americas and Northern South America.) Welcome to the downside of temperate climates.

Pies? Nope. "What about Shepards Pie" Yeah, where are you getting the potatoes? Also the iron works is in question here. (later)

Short list. You're losing your mind, no pizza? Yep. No pizza. (lol Someone got mad when I pointed this out with links). Tomato is New World, Wheat is West Asia, Cows domestication is West Asia and Northern Africa. Horse milk you can't form into cheese without camel rennet. Camels, you guessed it, not Europe.

Possibly new legumes to maximize it. (They grow tall as trees, make peanuts, etc, so it's possible a culture under pressure would make new ones. BTW, peanuts is new world.)

Domesticated animals: Dogs, deer, maybe horses—horses are debated. European rabbits, yes, though don't make for good domestication since they are really difficult to work with which you'll have to look up. Look up a rabbit care video. But at least breed fast. Low amount of fat for candles, though.

You'd also have seafood. Only one type of seaweed is poisonous in the world and that is in England. But it's highly nutritious. (The native seaweed in India is apparently nasty, but edible).

You don't need as much with the pea family anyway.

European Bison are not easily domesticated, BTW, but would give you tallow-ish stuff if they succeeded or an ethnic group decided to be nomadic pastoralists with them.

For sweet taste, carob. Easy to process, and you don't need sugar beets, which is harder to process and were only invented as a source in the late 19th century. Mediterranean. The seeds are edible so just grind it up. Though it's easier to grind the pods. So it's easier to process and use in other recipes.

The other options are out: Honeybee domestication originated in China, there's a form in Northern Africa, but the frame design was late 1800's, so Victorian. Even if you had it, it would be for rich people.

Sugar cane is tropical.

Carob mildly tastes like chocolate. This is your chocolate substitute. No fermentation required. However, it doesn't have the properties of chocolate melting, etc. The fat content is much lower, but the production is much higher.

Dates, BTW, are from 4000 BCE in West Asia, fertile crescent. It's out. https://foodandnutrition.org/from-the-magazine/dates-an-ancient-fruit-rediscovered/

The problem with horses

This part is really difficult to climb through.

The first part is that horses were likely domesticated outside of Europe. Also, the invention of the saddle, etc was also outside of Europe. You need a good staple crop to have enough time to mes around with it. You would also have a smaller population if it stays in Europe.

This part got heated in the original. So the evidence is this:

Horses were domesticated outside of Europe (It's on the border of Europe, so hotly debated)

Horses were killed off in the Americas by Indigneous people before being reintroduced. https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/horses-part-indigenous-cultures-longer-western

The technology to domesticate the horse further was outside of Europe (saddle, stirrups, etc)

But horses exist in Europe, wouldn't they want to breed them?

But maybe only for food? (recent scandal at the time)

Would they be burden animals? You need burden animals fro agriculture to advance and higher production.

So yeah... without cows, pigs, goats, sheep, large questions arise about this.

Would the population split into eating and noneating? Would it not?

Yeah, limited foodstuff. Limited calories, but your people are making it, but maybe not turning white yet? Well, in Southern Europe. Introduction of grains and farming was said to be the thing that tipped people over.

Agriculture is really difficult to achieve without a staple crop like grains or starchy tubers.

But for the sake of argument, let's say they get there, and manage to never break the force field, no matter what, because racists win or whatever. No food importation in or out, no new ideas.

What now?

Arches, as an idea, came from outside of Europe. Rafts do predate humans (Homo Erectus again), but boats, was likely Phonecian. And metal working and stone working also came from outside of Europe as ideas. Beaker people, love them.

Metal working came from Northern Africa, BTW, but say they figure it out, and we let them slide.

You get stunted in Maths since ideas of math came from Babylonians. Later Migrations of Minoans don't count anymore. Linear A isn't invented, but OK, OK, there was written language invented in the Americas, so it's possible, if they get through agriculture and get up to what? Trade, they might have language. But wait, you (Nanowrimo person) just said trade is evil, so maybe they don't have a written language? In all instances of language being created it was on the back of what? trade. Maths awas also created on the back of mostly trade. Sumerians created their written language on trade. The oldest tablets we have is a trade dispute.

Look up Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir. In another words, written records were for keeping track of ledgers, one of the oldest types of writing on record.

These people think trade is too complicated and evil to exist in Europe. So OK, no written language for you, though seriously, I don't know how that works. Is Northern Europe a different subsistence system than Southern Europe?

You all are fighting for diminishing resources (considering 1500's Europe and a BBC doc about how trees were fought over and laws about not cutting down trees) each other while the rest of the world is trading back and forth on ideas and not getting imperialized. Fine. Let's play that game.

The amount of technology gets cut down severely when you disconnect Europe from the rest of the world. You don't get the iron age without some knowledge about smelting. And you need those "dirty Africans" or whatever racist thing they were thinking in order to get that smelting. You don't get masonry without PoCs (Most masonry, as an idea came from West Asia, and they would literally import those people to work on castles, see the docs on Guédelon Castle from British TV). Whatcha going to do?

Let's move onto clothes...

Flax (for Linen), silk, ramie, hemp (for clothes which is a different cultivar), coir, Abaca, Angora (rabbit)*, Angora (goat), wool (obviously), bamboo, banana fiber, cashmere (the goat), sisal, camel hair (obviously), kapok, mohair, kenaf, yak, Qiviut, vicuña,Hibiscus cannabinus, Lyocell, Modal (AKA Rayon) *, Piña (pineapple), and Soy protein are out. All of them occur outside of Europe or require an industrial society. Byssus AKA sea silk, Chiengora (dog hair), spider silk*, is in.

However, notice how expensive and difficult it is to make clothes of these things. So only rich can access them.

dog* hair often requires wool to be added to make the hairs stick together. And sheep wool, in particular has really good spinnable fibers.

Spider silk also kinda takes higher technology to produce into clothing. Look it up and some might find it cruel to do it that way.

Byssus also known as Sea silk was produced by the Greeks and Romans, but only for the super rich.

This means for poor people: Leather and stinging nettle fabric is what they have left. You can see a video of that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-usU7-WjUU So your people have clothing. They aren't white except for the nomadic people to the north unless you can advance their agriculture and slide the pea family to replace the major nutrition somehow.

And making clothes is torture for the common populace who have to pick stinging nettles for their clothes.

You're thinking, but Angora Rabbits? Yeah, this is possible, though not likely called that since the rabbits originated from Turkey, which is outside of the scenario, but it would be maybe possible your people come up with something similar given human nature as long as they pause the rabbit breeding long enough and have enough surplus to tinker.

So poor people are running around with stinging nettle fabric, rich are wearing most likely sea silk, and you can see the misery compared to growing something like flax.

I doubt anyone can afford to be vegetarian with limited resources. Pescitarian, maybe closer to the shore.

*Dogs were domesticated outside of Europe, but are often attributed to why humans outpaced Neanderthal and date back far enough in time that early humans likely took them to Europe when they first arrived. Cats, however, were domesticated in Africa and are OUT. (Making the majority of writers cry since there seems to be more cat people than dog people among writers).

Conclusion

You're stuck with the Humours, but does Greek civilization even exist without grains? So much collapses when you don't have the subsistence infrastructure. I mean there is a reason people made bread and carry grains and we don't eat peas as a staple.

So you'd have to build everything from scratch starting around ~45,000 BCE or earlier (when Homo sapiens came to Europe by estimates) and you don't even have those really white people then according to science except the Evenk ancestors who show white about 10K years ago? (No, it's not the Caucuses—in what right mind do you think white people developed in the Caucuses when you know about Vitamin D and darker melanin generally around the equator due to skin cancer, etc issues and so on.)

Umm, the lesson here is that Europe was never cut off and people should stop going into that fantasy. Like how did you get apples, plums, honey, etc without trade? And also, people shouldn't be afraid of trade and keep in mind temperate climates (Middle/Northernish Europe) aren't the only biomes in Europe. No matter how much fantasy wants to focus on Western Europe and ignore the Scandis. Seriously, I'm so bored of people assuming everything is like Germany or a less rainy England in fantasy. (And I do mean England, not Scotland or Wales). Can't we get some variety? You have the Mediterranean, but you also have Scandinavia, and you're doing Europe? Where are they? You also had foragers and Nomads in the history of Europe. The Romani from North Western India, for example. And some say that early Celtic groups could have been partial foragers before the coming of Beaker people.

But even in an alt sci-fi, you have to trim all of those accomplishments of PoC and then argue that your people killed all of the PoCs on the way to the planet, and really, that makes no sense. But I suppose then you can murder Bibimbap into tatertot disgusting mess later on. But really?

But even say, you had an organically grown planet that happened to grow a humanoid species, how are you going to grow it without some level of cooperation? And the majority of the food stuff is going to come from those warmer climates: Southern China, West Asia and Central-ish Americas. They don't have a winter to worry about. So it would be imperative for your people to trade.

While you're at it, I'm really squicked by the idea that people put in 16 year old girls to marry much older guys in fantasy and then call it acceptable. You can change at least those rules.

I don't get why people work so hard to cut out LGBTQIA, disability and PoCs from fantasy? Like people should have maimed legs from all the battles written.

BTW, I am amused by the idea that in Star Trek times they didn't have birth control. lol thousands of years and haven't perfected birth control? That one I can't believe. Picard didn't know how to use a condom. lol.

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Tricolored Blackbird

Photo: Marcel Holyoak

"While the Red-winged Blackbird is abundant over most of the continent, the very similar Tricolored Blackbird has a very small range in the Pacific states. It differs in its highly social nesting: in a dense cattail marsh, nests may be packed in close together, only a foot or two apart. Some colonies may have over 100,000 nests, although such large concentrations seem to be growing scarcer in recent years, as the birds shift to smaller (but hopefully more) colonies."

- Audubon Field Guide

[inuhalfdemon]

Lucifer Explores Alastor's Bayou...

Lucifer left Alastor to dine as he liked; choosing instead to explore Alastor’s bayou in the form of the white ermine he had taken most recently.

It still amazed him; how flawlessly and naturally the dimension butted up against the room in the hotel. Nothing about it was synthetic in structure; the bayou was a natural bayou – through and through.

Lucifer found genuine enjoyment in darting and trotting through the reedy cattails; and in climbing over and under dead logs to cross the mud-filled bogs. He chased and leapt at the buzzing dragonflies and even hunted a field mouse; pausing briefly only when he heard the sound of a grunting gator coming from nearby in the swamp – the sound of it sending the fur along his back and down his tail to stand straight on end.

When Alastor had finished with his meal; his shadow slinked out into the bayou to retrieve Lucifer; finding him curiously investigating some bank burrow – possibly belonging to a muskrat or a nutria that utilized the resource. He quickly turned away from his investigations; darting playfully and agilely after the shadow as they cut their way from the swamp and back to the hotel.

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Excerpt from "No One Can Know..." Chapter 16