#ehlverse goblins

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Hey Pax talk more to me about fantasy computers plus 👀

HI HELLO i posted that snippet and that call for discussion and then promptly got distracted, went to bed, and forgot to check tumblr pretty much all day. i wasnt sure id have much to say on the matter but i ended up rambling only half-coherently so <3 no hard feelings if its Too Much to read, let alone comprehend. im not proofreading it myself so good luck and thank u for prompting me to ramble <3<3<3

BUT

FANTASY COMPUTERS

aka normal real-world computers shoved into classic high fantasy land because i like to fuck with genre expectations like that. except like cyber/solarpunk future computers because again. genre is fake

anyways. the goblins of the ehlverse are a) the only people without either a magic source (see: elementalism, human blood runes, dwarven metallurgy, etc) or an inherently magical biology (see: dragonkin being literally made of magma, shara'i being feathered and mammalian and terrestrial and eyeless a la moles, etc) AND B) have been thus excluded from much of the world's politics and power due to magical inability for literally tens of thousands of years

so of course they invented computers and robots and sustainable electricity and gadgets and such that are capable of not only emulating certain commonly useful aspects of magic, but also of doing things no magic can, just to keep up

something that i've had in mind while building out the stories in the ehlverse (mainly TMS but it impacts whispers too) is the like. meta level of How the World Works. and technology like computers and such being a big huge useful innovation in real life!! and how to justify only the goblins and a scattered few other people around the world actively using them. and how politics and superstition and practicality for the majority all intertwine into the situation as it is in TMS and whispers

and like. a lot of the politics on ehl are like normal politics with magic added to the resources/skillsets of certain groups. so like that shit impacts trade and warfare heavily and it's basically useless to ally with another political entity that has nothing to offer you of the most important thing in the world, right? and so when it comes down to it, half of why computers aren't nearly as widespread as they could be is because the people in power in a lot of the world simply don't care to start trade negotiations for things that scribes and scrupulous bookkeeping and massive libraries can do just fine. because outside of the goblins, no one cares about like. the internet. the most enticing things are databases

superstition-wise, there's a lot of thinking in certain communities on ehl that if you spend enough time with goblins and only goblins, you lose your magic. and like there's no proof of it, but people believe it anyway, and oftentimes they extend that belief to anything goblins make, too

and THEN. practically speaking. the vast majority of ehlves (who are the global majority, probably ~70% of the people on ehl have recent ehlven ancestry) are fire, water, earth, or metal Elementalists. and guess what? elementalism means you have fun(!) ambient effects on your environment. like, say, a fire mage immediately overheating any computer they come in contact with. or an earth mage getting upset and causing microshakes that mess up the delicate stability instruments inside robots. or a metal mage's inherent magnetism completely ripping a phone apart from the inside out. or water mages doing some magic nearby and not realizing they made a full cup of water condense out of the air right onto their keyboard. and thats not even getting into light (aka electricity) mages and every way they can make things go wrong, even as a relative minority compared to the above

and until the superstitious (xenophobic) and political aspects get resolved, it's not likely that the practical ones will be solved. purely because you need lots of people to test these things to see if the solutions work

(there is a solution. it will revolutionize all of the ehlverse once it becomes widespread. it is found out in TMS and present in whispers if you think about a very specific detail when you come across it. but it will rely on governments getting their shit together so anything i write using that specific state of the world will require it being much further down the timeline than ive explored so far so)

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Happy WBW!! Could you tell me a bit more about the level of technology in your saga? From everything I've read it sounds like a super interesting mix. Any fun details or sciency facts you're particularly proud of for thinking of?

Hi kat!!! thanks for dropping by with this ask, i didn't mean to leave it in the inbox for two weeks but i'm glad i did so i have something super fun to start off with in this catch-up!!!

SO

in the Ehlverse, there's a few different levels of technology going on at once (which is 100% most prevalent in Millennium Saga because they actually interact with multiple different tech levels for plot reasons throughout the books) - and the reasons for these differing levels basically comes down to how prevalent certain magics are in the culture/area we're talking about, because certain Elements, all Sorcery, and most Alchemy manifest in ways that break the physical laws of universe, which breaks things like computers that rely on, say, electricity always flowing in a certain way through the crystals in the motherboard.

(and this got Very Long, as my wbw answers tend to, so it's behind the cut if you want more detail!! thank you again!!! i'll try to remember to hit you up with a double-wbw ask the next time i'm here for it :D)

For instance, let's take Ehlven societies (e.g. the kind we spend the majority of TMS neck-deep in) - every Ehlf is an innate font of Elementalism, and only 2 of the 9 total Elements are guaranteed not to mess with circuitboards, 3 more can be safe if they're used carefully, and the rest are catastrophic and unavoidable in their influence. A metal mage walking too close to a fantasy!iPad would wipe the memory completely with their inherent magnetism, a fire mage touching a keyboard overheats the whole machine, etc. etc.

HOWEVER, this does not apply quite the same to less delicate instruments, like steam engines. In fact, even without the help of Dwarven magic metals, Ehlven societies can get away with running steam trains and other motors without using any fuel, so long as there's either a water mage present to convert liquid to gas or a fire mage to facilitate combustion!

(That's probably one of my favorite science-y things I've done with this system!!)

On the flip side, we have the Lellan crater and the Goblins that call it home. Goblins are a people completely devoid of magic - some would say they're even magic-repellant to a certain extent. And they've been the only people without magic for a very long time.

Long enough for them to be at about the level of your classic hard cyberpunk setting, to compensate for their broader disadvantage in this magical world. And while that doesn't net them any respect when it comes to global politics (which are super magic-centric to the point of even pushing out formerly-magical peoples like the Fair Folk), it certainly makes it easier for them to make advances in science that end up benefiting the whole world. If it weren't for them, the Ehlves probably wouldn't know about, like, evolution, or germ theory, or electricity.

And I talk about it here like they're super separate societies with no overlap, but that's not quite true!! It's just the simple way to talk about it - there's lots of "Little Wasi" districts in Ehlven cities with local power generation and more robust machines and electronics, and there's a not insignificant amount of non-magically-volatile Ehlves in Wasi, Gyr, and the smaller satellite cities of the Lell. And many of the trains that cross the Maelands are of Dwarven make, with self-perpetuating clockwork at their cores.

The only truly isolated people technology-wise are the Fair Folk, whose society functions more like those of wasps, bees, and ants than humans or humanoids. They're nomadic and tend to nest solely in the Godwoods, where they hollow out one tree at a time into a hive, and don't have a huge interest in technology of any kind (or humanoid society at large, honestly). But there's still a few here and there who have stepped away from that society to mingle with humanoid friends!!

[magic-is-something-we-create]

goblins?? goblins?? tell me about them please

(also good on you for the writing before answering, it's a really good system!!)

hi!! thank you and happy wbw!!!

first of all, thanks to u and this experiment, i finished going over half of echoseers chapter 5!! a major accomplishment, because that half required a lot of adjustment :D

now, on to wbw!!

So, because I'm in the mood to ease myself into this today, here's some of the ~basics~ about Goblins in the Ehlverse!!

In terms of physical characteristics: their designs are based vaguely on horned lizards, scale-wise!! Especially on the crown of their head - while they have a bit of a strip where they can grow pseudo-hair (it's more like baleen in my mind, but they're made of similar things and goblins like to dye it like hair anyway), they also have a bunch of spiky ridges that some will put rings and other decorations on!!

They've also got only four fingers and toes on each hand/foot, purely for more bird-like design, because I like to compare Beta and other goblins later on in personality to different kinds of birds, and I think it's fun :)

Culture-wise, they've got a little bit of a rebellious streak! Mostly because of their ostracization from the rest of the world due to the no magic thing, and how that's kind of created a whole "who are you to tell us we're not worthy?", semi-combative, super-competitive pattern to their interactions with more influential people/governments.

But also, they're very much inspired by an exaggerated Sparta in some other internal conflicts/interactions, so they'll throw hands/enter heavy competition/start a duel to the death with just about anyone, given the right circumstance.

And, other than those and the magic thing, the big contextualizing thing about them as a broader culture is that a lot of things are normal/legal for them that aren’t for others. e.g. the aforementioned duels to the death (as long as both agree to the challenge, if one winds up dead and the other did it, it’s not legally considered murder), hard drugs that affect people’s mental state and body in dangerous ways (meth and cocaine are the big ones but I want to research more and also conlang terms for them), and general destruction of public property (it is public, after all).

I’ll leave it there for now, but I’ll absolutely dive into the nitty gritty stuff later!!

[magic-is-something-we-create]

okay but you had me at '- weirdly legal forms of murder in the goblin consulate" because this sounds amazing, please ramble :o

a;slkdfjslfkdj happy wbw!!! im glad u like my legal murder jokes <3<3<3

we're on case number 3 of the #legal murder series!!! there are more under that tag, if you want to check them out!!!

Set up: Person A really hates Person B. They send lots of terrible messages to them online, and at some point, Person B challenges them to a fight to the death. They are not saying this in person, or before witnesses, but Person A accepts. Person A proceeds to poison Person B several weeks later, and when taken to court, presents message histories to the jury.

The result: it's toeing the line, but this is legal!

The important parts are that:

- There was a challenge/acceptance - There were unaltered message histories to prove it - It happened a relatively long time after the challenge, and wasn't technically a 'fight'

The gray area of this case is mostly in how long after the challenge the murder occurred: generally, there's a cutoff of about 2 months, as that's the accepted length of time where a challenge will be on the fighter's minds. That, coupled with the private nature of the challenge could have sent A to jail or worse, but in displaying unaltered messages in court, that counted as a "public" challenge, even if it was after the fact. And the "several weeks" is vague enough to fit in the 2 month time frame.

Now, poison is a coward's way out in Goblin opinion, but it let Person A win, so the most backlash they'll get is court fees for the hearing and probably a lot of backhanded comments about it.

[magic-is-something-we-create]

weirdly legal forms of wHAT?! happy wbw!! this is one free ramble pass :D

happy wbw to you too!!!! <3<3<3

this is our last case (for now, who knows if i'll get more of these) in the #legal murder series!!! check out that tag for more weird situations!!

this last case is a very unique one, and i will use legit character names, as this is the only one of it's kind and is kind of iconic a;lsjkf

Set up:

Beta Altiana finds out a councilman named Ryker Ozal is sleeping with his wife of 5 years. Beta resolves to kill Ryker with Fantasy Ecstasy laced with one of Ryker's allergens. Beta does not issue a challenge to Ryker, which would have cleared him legally if Ryker accepted.

HOWEVER, the fallout of this murder scandal ended up with the city's representative council being completely wiped, and the reelection process left the city effectively "lawless" for several weeks. This, combined with 1) the general public taking Beta's side after his admission of guilt on live radio and 2) Beta's reputation of being one of the most intelligent and important people in the city meant that no charges were pressed against him in this time.

Because of Beta's public backing, he did not get the usual punishment for Illegal Murder; he did, however, not want to live near his now-ex-wife, and so asked the court to banish him anyway.

There is no real solid conclusion to whether this was technically Legal Murder or not, but it is the one and only time anything like this has happened in the Consulate's history. And also the entire inspiration for Legal Murder in the first place, so there you have it!

[magic-is-something-we-create]

happy wbw!! what about the human and the goblin government?

aaaa happy wbw, fran!! <3<3<3

SO the human government took a bit of inspiration from the Goblins, so I’ll cover them first!!

Essentially, the Goblin government has a central power at all times, but where that central power is depends on a form of election! They’ve got several cities: Wasi (the current capital), Gyr, and Palor are the biggest. The way they figure out what the capital city is goes something like this:

A city holds an election for a council of five lawmakers for every 50,000 citizens. This city has a population of, say, 500k people, so they will have a legislature of 50. Those 50 are now responsible for electing one representative for every 100k people in their city to be part of the federal council. So, that’s five people in the federal council, and there, they will cooperate with the other representatives from other cities to decide who among them will be the “president” (i need a better name for it but that’s the idea). Whoever the president is, their city will be the capital city until they either a) retire, b) die, or c) get on so many people’s bad side that they get overthrown (not by a rebellion, usually; there’s a voting process to change the leader or capital, and if there’s a three-fourths majority, it will go through).

This overthrowing thing happens a lot, by the way. Wasi is on the longest streak of having the capital status - it’s been about a hundred years, and twelve different leaders. The previous record was seventy years and fifteen leaders, so it’s stabilizing a little bit.

So, way back when Arthur Coldstone was supposed to take over the monarchy of the humans, he saw this structure that the goblins were using, and saw a way to maybe improve it for a people who didn’t want to shift their political maps every few years. And he also wanted to make it work for smaller gatherings of people - Goblins rely on their cities, and any smaller outposts are temporary and effectively lawless. Humans, on the other hand, are often in towns of less than a thousand people, scattered among the countryside.

And, of course, he didn’t want to be a king. Sure, everyone calls him one even to this day, but a title is not a sign of qualification.

So he changed it to work on a smaller scale, and be a bit more recursive. A representative for every fifty people, so even the smallest towns could have a leader of some sort. For every five representatives, there’s one that is sent to work with the others of their kind that are the closest. For every five of those, the same thing. Towns with more than two of these smaller councils, each council is given a zone to govern. Cities with more than five zones have Districts consisting of 2-5 of these zones. Once you hit district-level government, your council stops sending 1/5 of itself to the higher ups, and you start sending 1/10 of your people to Avatica in the central government.

A lot of people in human towns/cities are very well-versed in how their government works, because of this :D Almost everyone knows someone on a council, no matter how small of a scale that person is governing over. Council members on the lowest tier do their best to hear the thoughts of everyone in their community; it’s expected that you pass these on higher and higher up to get the majority opinion on every major decision the government makes.

Also, the shift in Avatica is seasonal, and rotates between District leaders. It helps get more opinions weighed in, as well as getting people from all kinds of backgrounds the voice they deserve.

--

Thank you again for the ask!!! this has been v fun to talk about :D

Ehlverse Worldbuilding Taglist (ask to be +/-):

@charles-joseph-writes ; @violetcancerian ; @phiwrites ; @rhikasa ; @writeblrfantasy ; @talesfromaurea

[magic-is-something-we-create]

GOBLIN FIRE GOBLIN FIRE GOBLIN FIRE

GOBLIN FIRE!!! :D

happy wbw!!! thank you for sending this in!!!!

So, what I know of Greek fire is. Basically just that it a) burned hot enough to stay lit on the surface of water (?), b) no one knows how to make it any more, and c) it was green (idk if thats true its just what my brain says and i cant be assed to do research rn)

SO, what I've done with Goblin Fire is based off of that with a few ~flavor~ tweaks!!

Instead of just being a fuel that makes super hot fire, it's actually a specific explosive compound used mainly in times of war. It burns a vibrant yellow-green when it bursts, and only some very specific people in the Consulate are allowed to know how to make it, because it's extremely dangerous and they absolutely cannot trust people to be responsible with it.

For the Ehlverse, a fire that isn't doused by water isn't terribly interesting--any practiced Fire mage can basically hold their flame regardless of fuel or the presence of water. What is interesting and unique is the ability to burn Godwood.

Remember Sparkfowl? The fancy woodpecker pigeons that have firestarters for feathers? Yeah. They live in the Godwoods. Godtrees are ridiculously flame-resistant, to the point that people have to actively farm other wood to prepare for winter heating.

This is, coincidentally, why most ships in the Ehlverse are made of Godwood instead of, like, metal. Because Godwood is strong enough to support approximately a fuck-ton of weight and combine that with being flame resistant and a very renewable lumber source, why switch to metal at all?

So yeah, burning Godwood? Not an easy thing to do. Exploding Godwood into splinters? A very not easy thing to do.

A few grams of Goblin Fire can do both.

Now, how does this factor into Firebreathers?

Our resident Chaos Grandpa Beta Altiana hacked government records one time for shits and giggles and memorized the recipe when he was, like, 25. Now has at least three canister bombs of it on his person at all times. Absolutely uses it to fuck shit up at the first opportunity.

He yeets a bomb at an Ehlven navy vessel.

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AM I LATE FOR WBW??? please i hope not but here is ur question for the day: is there anything else we can know about the whole murder is legal thing because i am way too invested in this now

(specifically are there any historic cases that shouldn't have been allowed but it WAS anyway)

first off: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO LATE FOR WBW IN THIS HOUSE DONT WORRY

secondly: i am going to do this one entirely by the seat of my pants, because one of the ones from last week is the first real case that popped to my head and i dont want to just copy and paste that one, but i hope you enjoy this theoretical!!!

Set up: Person A is an influential politician who gets in a super big argument with Person B, who they happen to spend lots of time with. Person B winds up dead, and in court, Person A claims to have challenged them and gotten an acceptance to that challenge just prior to the killing fight. There are no witnesses to corroborate, but Person A presents footage for proof. The footage cuts out and could possibly be doctored.

Important parts of this:

- The only proof of the challenge/acceptance is flaky at best - Person A's status as a politician

Now, for most people, this case would probably constitute Illegal Murder for the lack of witnesses, as well as a suit for presenting false evidence to the court. However, an influential politician in the Goblin Consulate generally has to be very charismatic, just like politicians irl, and if they have a lot of backers, it's entirely possible for them to be let off the hook in a skewed ruling.

thank u again for the wbw ask!!!

[magic-is-something-we-create]

happy wbw pax!! it's been a hot minute since i sent one of these and i've missed seeing your answers hskdghkdgsdgksdgk ok here we go: can we be provided with a hypothetically legal murder case 👀

HI HELLO ITS BEEN A WHILE im so happy to see u back, kexia!!! <3<3<3

ok so this is going to be the first in a long spree of "murder is ok actually" cases, i will be tagging them all with #legal murder for easy read through later if u want to see more :D and for irl legal purposes this is talk of a fantasy world i do not actually condone murder

OKAY SO:

Set up: Person A has a long-standing feud with Person B, and it has devolved into genuine hatred. Person A also has something to prove, and thus challenges Person B to a fight to the death publicly and out loud. Person B accepts this challenge and does their all to win. Person A kills Person B outside of a gladiatorial arena, which is frowned upon socially.

However, because Person A challenged them in front of witnesses and Person B knowingly accepted the set terms, this is entirely legal and the only court proceedings that will happen have to do with covering therapy expenses for surprised witnesses and overtime pay for street cleaners who have to deal with what was left behind.

The important parts of this case:

- The public challenge - The consent to the fight - The fact it was outside of a gladiatorial arena (still coming up with a name other than coliseum cause i already have a scifi coliseum and i dont want another one in a different world ;salkdfj)

The fact that the murder happened outside of gladiator sport could have thrown this into a legal gray area, as the place wasn't sanctioned by the government and there could have been issues with witnesses and consent. But because there were plenty of witnesses to attest to the challenge and acceptance, this situation is legal!

thank u again for sending in a wbw ask!!! if you're doing wbw this week, id love to know so i can send an ask your way!!! <3<3<3

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happy wbw!! tell me about the history of firebreathers. what other prominent events/rulers/figures are well known besides the eternal three and the fall of fahrial? are there any legendary history books or books of legend that people refer to? what works of old do historians study? what history is common knowledge, for the ehlves, dwarves, whatever, and what is more obscure?

hi, happy WBW to you, too, lila!!! thanks for the questions!! <3<3<3

So, for things that most people will know off the top of their head, in regards to history: Most people can name the last three Growths and Decays off the top of their head, in order, and why they’re called that/what happened/who helped in the recovery or discovery/etc.!

For instance, everyone can name the Common Growth, which happened at year 0 of the current calendar, and introduced a magical common form of all languages and their variants. They’d know about Aio Starscribe, who translated thousands of documents from before the Growth into the Common tongue so that as little history was lost as possible; they might know about Sal Mitrit, who researched what did and did not constitute a fluency in a particular form of language, and how that affected the presentation of Common.

As for history books or books of legend - I haven’t really built those up yet :( I know that history books exist, and that some of my more nerdy characters read them and reference events in them, but I haven’t really determined what they are other than that ;alskdjf

As for what historians study, it’s usually the archives that are purposefully written in languages other than Common! Most “important” works are kept in both the local language of the time and translated into Common, so that those who want to study it have fewer translation errors - because Common isn’t perfect, and slang tends to get morphed into the current versions, and references are missed, etc.

Also: diaries! Most people don’t write in Common unless they know for certain that the person who will read it doesn’t know their language. They’ve become a bit of a treasure among the historian communities of the Ehlverse :D

And, finally, to answer what’s more common or obscure for different groups:

There are different things emphasized as “important”, depending on where you go to school! For instance, a lot of Dwarven education emphasizes the Forges, advancements in magical engineering, and only mentions rulers if they did something particularly significant. Meanwhile, a lot of Ehlven education covers the different “eras” of Tieling Evergreen’s reign, emphasizes developments in magical methods that affected Elementalism, and art movements in architecture, sculpture, painting, etc!

And then, of course, the Goblins try to teach history more through a lens of “what we were doing while the rest of the world fucked around with magic and growths and ignored us”. Lots of focus on inventions, political upheaval and leaders, and only the big picture of what other peoples were doing.

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Thank you again for the questions!! This was very fun to talk about, as always :D

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Goblin Royal Fashion / Tattoos Reference -

so i hyperfocused today and slammed this out, because @writeblrfantasy‘s WBW ask INSPIRED me and i just. cannot thank her enough :D

along with the fashion and tattoo display, this is the first real thing I’ve drawn of Princess Ahndi and King Arrya Sayell, so i wanted to showcase their differences in personality!!! hopefully you all like it :D

if you want to learn more about the goblins and how they fit into the Ehlverse, check out their worldbuilding tag! and if you would like to get to know more about my WIPs on Ehl, check out Firebreathers and Whispers!

Ehlverse Worldbuilding Taglist (ask to be +/-):

@charles-joseph-writes ; @adaparkwrites ; @overlap ; @linariouswrites ; @violetcancerian ; @apricotwrites ; @hannahs-creations ; @rhikasa ; @writeblrfantasy

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happy wbw, pax!! tell me more about the dwarves and other mythical creatures of the firebreathers world. how do they interact with the story? what's their role? what are they all doin?

happy wbw to you too, lila!!! i hope your day’s goin well :D

SO, right now, the Dwarves of Ehl are just vibin, as much as they can with this political upheaval not too far from them. They’re a major world power, and pretty much every meeting that brings everyone together is dominated by the Three’s arguments and Tieling’s pleas for cooperation and whatnot, and as much as they sympathize with his plight, they really don’t like him as a person.

They end up interacting quite a bit with the rebellion storyline but that’s in spoiler territory, so make of that what you will. >:)

Their biggest issue, right now, is that people keep trying to get access to the Forges, even though the Dwarves have insisted, time and time again, that they are off limits to those not properly screened by the guilds. They don’t want their magic exploited by those who don’t know how it works, or spread to those who would use it for destruction, or used by those who don’t know how to take no for an answer. Especially when asking nicely is the best and easiest way to get access in the first place.

I guess, under the umbrella of other mythical creatures, I could count:

- the goblins, who are currently in a bit of their own political upheaval, since a princess who is widely considered ‘illegitimate’ is, quite publicly, helping the ehlven rebellion, and so the parliament is now trying to vote to make the capital (and ruler) a different city/person

- the fairies, who are starting to see a Lot of the disaster omen trickster spirits around, and trying to get other peoples’ attention about it because they don’t have a government of their own

- and the sirens, who are debating contacting the landwalkers to see if they can help with the absolutely wild shit they’re witnessing from afar

but yeah!! that’s what all of them are doing, right now!!!

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happy wbw writing friend! are there any inside jokes amongst the people in your world? any common sayings in one country or among one kind of people?

hey, happy WBW, bean!! hope you’re having a great one :D

There are a LOT of “inside” jokes, especially on Maelani! So many people crammed into one space, they either get annoyed with each other, or get used to it.

Most everyone jokes about the Goblins being paranoid and/or overcompensating for not having magic. Lots of innuendos are made with the latter implication.

Also, Ehlves can’t hold their alcohol, and it’s become a widespread game to time how long it takes for an Ehlf to get absolutely wasted. Usually, it’s less than twenty minutes. With the right drink, they pass out before they get silly. This has lead to the common college-kid phrase “You secretly an Ehlf, man?” when someone stops partying before it gets fun.

And then there are lots of jokes about Fairies being an entire species of Goths, since they’re always in darker clothes. (Explanation for that here. TLDR: bright colors are bad luck to them.)

Thank you for the ask!!!

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happy late wbw! Let's talk royalty. what are the titles of the people who rule in your world? what is standard dress for them? do they wear crowns at all, and if so, how often? what is succession like? is the country matriarchal, patriarchal, or neither? or do the people vote?

:D Happy WBW!!! thank you for the ask, Bean!!!

So, there are a lot more rulers on Maelani than I talk about usually 😅, but there are four different governments there, so!! time to talk about more than just the humans and ehlves :D

Okay, for starters, I haven’t delved too deep in the lore for the Goblin and Dwarven governments, so for now the leaders still hold titles like King, Queen, Prince/ss, and whatnot, but the rules around who leads and how laws are made are different for all of them, so those are pretty much just placeholders right now!

In terms of standard dress and crowns, though, there are a lot more obvious differences between them.

For a kind of baseline, King Coldstone of the humans does his best to wear clothes that aren’t very far removed from what most of his people wear. He’s almost always in relatively simple and colorful clothes, with maybe a more ornate, striking cloak to separate him from those around him. But he doesn’t wear a crown, out of personal choice. And because he’s been ruling for so long, with no options for succession, there hasn’t been a crown for him to wear in a few hundred years.

On the flip side, Divine King Evergreen wears the most ornate shit. We’re talking robes of embroidered velvet in winter, and gradient-dyed silk in summer; ridiculously well-made and layered shirts and jackets tailored to him; not to mention the jewels in his buttons and the gold in the threading. He’s where fashion designers turn to for inspiration each year, and most of the nobility do their best to mimic his tastes, albeit with smaller budgets. Despite his stupidly expensive fashion, the crown he wears is a relic from before the fall of Fahrial - a simple wooden circlet carved to look like woven sticks. He’s been approached a few times with offers to design a new one, but he refuses to let go of the thing.

Now for the people I haven’t talked about as much:

The Goblins have a very different society from the others on Maelani - they mostly keep to themselves, and because of that, they don’t really meet with other leaders very often, so their fashion is wacky compared to them. King Sayell, for instance, wears a lot of... geometric(?) clothes, and most of it is white, with black accents underneath. It’s a lot more scifi-esque over there. And instead of a crown, the current ruler is tattooed along both arms, with a pattern that acts almost like a QR code, except more ~advanced~ (I’ll post visuals at some point).

Succession works a bit different with the Goblins, too. While technically there is a “Crowned” person, there is also an elected parliament that represents every ~10,000 people in every Goblin city, and 1 representative in Wasi from each parliament. This group of representatives is, ultimately, more powerful than the Crown themself, and each city can decide through voting whether they, personally, are going to recognize the current heir as “legitimate”. If enough cities vote against the next heir in the family line, an election will be held to see which city will become the new capital, and thus, which representative is now the Crown.

Currently, Wasi has been the capital for about 60 years, but Princess Ahndi is really controversial as an heiress, and King Arrya is getting old and sickly, so who knows how long that will last.

And, finally, the Dwarves. The royal family is a lot more simplistic in their dress than King Evergreen or King Sayell. They’re kind of on a healthy point between Coldstone and Evergreen - it’s rich and clearly stand out, but it’s not overdone or ridiculous. Mostly vibrant reds and yellows, nice dark leather, and white fur accents. The current ruler wears a crown carved from a geode, which is the most eye-catching thing, usually, and succession is passed from parent to oldest child, with only a few exceptions in their history, usually due to intervention on behalf of the Forges.

If an heir is deemed too likely to spill the secrets of the Forges, the current Smithmaster makes their pick of the other options, or nominates someone else if the options aren’t promising. But the royal name of Kar is added on to the ruler’s name regardless, so it seems completely congruous to outsiders. Just don’t look too closely at the portraits in the great hall ;)

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OK this one got really long a;lskfj;aslkfdj hopefully you don’t mind the infodump!!! I had a LOT of fun with this, thank you so much for the ask!!!!!

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! What are the inhabitants of your world? Are they all human, or are there other species out there? What are all their relationships with each other?

AD:LKFJSL:DKFj happy WBW!!! I hope u know there are FAR too many different peoples on Ehl for me to get in depth, so I’ll just kind of list them?? and kind of show general relationships???? im planning on doing like,,,, “a survival guide to the ehlverse” series that will introduce the basics of the worldbuilding in a lot of areas, including the peoples!!

So, for brevity’s sake, here are the names of the different peoples, grouped by general geographic location:

Maelani | Ehlves | Goblins | Dwarves | Humans | Fairies Emarye | Atali | Aliri | Kanah | Kimir Oceans/Islands | Mulari | Sirens | Drenn Sieril | Saythe | Sharali Deltierin | Mikrona | Ehlves (Realistically, Ehlves should be in all of these groups - it’s just that most Ehlves are in either Maelani or Deltierin.)

Now, the basics of conflicts, in order of how big those conflicts are:

Goblins and Dwarves have long-standing issues with each other, mainly surrounding the Forges and the fact that Goblins are kind of “left behind” by magic, as it were. There have been numerous wars between the two, but they have kept it peaceful for the last century or so, which is the longest peace time in recent history.

Sharali blame the Saythe for the plague that nearly wiped them out - their taboo against using Rillian Botany outside of ceremonies led to hundreds of thousands of people dying. The Saythe have been trying to make amends, but they also have an immunity to the plague in question, so when they’ve tried to make peace in person, they’ve started outbreaks anew, without ever showing symptoms themselves.

This is less of a conflict between peoples, and more of a conflict between regions, but the City-State of Fowden, in Emarye, has been referred to frequently as “where morals go to die,” and it’s leadership has been fought over violently for the last 10 or so years. To give you an idea of how ridiculous it’s gotten: there have been 15 groups in the last 3 years who have gained and subsequently lost the seat of power there. It’s pretty fucking chaotic.

(There’s also tensions within the peoples and their societies themselves, but I won’t delve too deeply into those right now!)

Most peoples are pretty chill with each other, or at the very least, fairly neutral. The inhabitants of Ehl have really figured out a good rhythm for working together and not pissing each other off, and most people go about their life with a hefty respect for the others.

There is one exception, however.

You see, Sirens are... mysterious, to say the least. For one, they live at the bottom of the ocean, where no one else can reach. They also have a tendency towards manipulative Calling, which could easily be used to hurt other people. And it has been used that way - several ships are attacked each year, by their hands - but no one knows much of anything else about them, besides an extremely vague idea of where their capital city is. And when an entire people has been living right next to the rest of you, with no estimates on when they appeared, and has been overtly hostile in every interaction to date, what can you really do about it, when you can’t even approach them on equal ground?

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Y’know, I said this was going to be short - and trust me, it is so much shorter than it could be - and to keep in the spirit of that original sentiment, I’m going to cut myself off here 😅

Thank you for the ask!!

Ehlverse Worldbuilding Taglist:

@charles-joseph-writes : @adaparkwrites : @dioramic : @linariouswrites : @violetcancerian : @apricotwrites

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Happy World Building Wednesday! What are armies/military like in Ehl? Is there a lot of conflict between regions?

Thank you for the ask, ada!! This is pretty late, cause I’ve been trying to think how to word the answer for a few days al;dkjfa;ldkf

Militaries on Ehl are vastly different depending on where they’re from, obviously, but if I’m being honest, I’ve only really thought over how the ones on Maelani work haha. In my head, the Mudskippers, Fairies, and Drenn don’t really... have a use for them. They’re a pretty peaceful bunch, overall, and are anarchist societies, so they don’t have governments to fund a military in the first place. Sharali don’t have the numbers for a formal military any more, and Saythe haven’t had a need for one in millennia, so they’re out of the picture by default. And the city-states of Emarye rely more on drafting than standing militaries, and their leaders are painfully aware that war is a good way to get ousted from power.

However!! On Maelani, there are a lot of peoples with conflicting worldviews crammed into a relatively small space. 

For instance, the Goblins and Dwarves have a loooong history of war, mostly because of the Forges and the fact that Dwarves won’t teach just anyone how their magic works, even though it’s entirely possible to learn, and isn’t tied to genetics in the slightest. Both have formidable armies, in their own ways; Goblins have electric guns, hovershoes, and real-time camouflaging gear that make it difficult for anyone without the same stuff to fight against, where Dwarves have traditional-looking medieval weapons that are made and enchanted specifically to fuck over Goblins and their gear. Like, magical EMPs built into their armor, and insulated shields that bounce laser shots back at them. 

Humans and Ehlves, on the other hand, haven’t had particularly bad relations with others for centuries. But that doesn’t stop them from keeping a standing military or two.

Human troops are usually specially trained to use Runes, which are basically blood sigils that let them do crazy things with time and space. (Like, teleporting, not time travel. That would take a ridiculous amount of blood.) The difference between the soldiers and the Runesmen, though, is that soldiers do long-lasting ones pre-battle, like giving themselves more speed, and Runesmen just carve the sigils into themselves as they need them. Needless to say, Runesmen are generally more skilled and less expendable in the eyes of the general.

Ehlves tend to set up their squadrons with a good balance of Mages, 3-5 of the more common ones, 2-4 of the less common, at least 2 Healers, and maybe a Light Mage, if they’re lucky. This allows for a variety of skills and fighting styles within the teams, and it’s generally been a pretty good set up, especially for dealing with uprisings and skirmishes. Their Navy generally puts several of these squads on a big ship, so they keep that balance, and probably a few extra Healers and Plant mages, just in case.

Thank you again for the question!! This got really long alskf;alkjf