#fantasy dystopia

[probablyaseamonster]

In today’s episode of “I just discovered a song and am now mentally animating characters to it”:

My thrill-seeking pop-punk trans girl and my feral fire scarecrow pan boy are storming the evil queen’s hive to Start a Riot by BEGINNERS and Night Panda

[hellsgate-roadhouse]

📺 📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺

[barmecide-rat]

Martyrdom - Introduction

SO, Martyrdom is a placeholder name for an entire world, so like several different book series within the same world-type vibe, the same is applicable for Martyrdom (though I will eventually come up with a better name than that lol). So now onto setting and established stories

Its setting is subject to change depending on the specific comic/story we look at, as all of them focus on different characters and different centuries lol, but the main two settings are ‘Haven’- an island adjacent to the main island, and the island (also has no name lol), the geographical landscape of both is that of if u asked a child to draw what they think Ireland and Britain look like. Most of the stories are set on the island, with Haven members (both a place and a group) traveling to the mainland.

What is Haven? - Haven is an organization established by its ineffable founder to control and maintain order within the magic practice, which is common as this is a fantasy setting, if we were to go into the genre, I would say it’s a dystopic period fantasy. They have a system in which once a ‘witch’ - sounds quite infantile but I also don’t want to give the magic users a convoluted name (any suggestions would be lovely) - turns 13 they go through a process which will categorise their magic level from A-E (A being the best) and if the witch is found to be an A rank, they are sent to Haven to receive an education and forced to join Haven after graduation. Anyone who doesn’t comply is an unregistered A Rank or harbours one (knowingly and unknowingly) is executed. Haven is also split into factions with different leaders and purposes (they’ll get their own post but here a list for now):

Humility - The Admirers 

Charity - The Executioners

Chastity - The Performers

Gratitude - The Raiders

Temperance - The Berserkers

Patience - The Observers 

Diligence - The Jesters

However, as always, there is a combative force to this regime - the Martyrs. But as the name would suggest, by the time of the main conflict and story, they are all dead and are used as religious icons - all the villages on the mainland worship specific martyrs which are reflected in their enterprise, architecture, religious practice, aesthetics, points of skill and colour palette. The reason for the last point (colour palette) is as each martyr dies there begins to emerge a natural phenomenon, being that randomly areas across the mainland begin to consist of largely singular palettes in foliage and general vegetation, meaning clothes are typically dyed using the surrounding foliage and bam, village colour palette baby. Here are the titles and names of them (they will each probably get their own post at some point)

The Eclipse Martyrs

Valdia, The Martyr in Mourning 

Gwenivere, Martyr of Vengeance 

Aelius, Martyr of Ingenuity

the rest of the martyrs lol

Reia, Matryr of Thorns

Gustave, Martyr of Anguish

Amias, Martyr of Love#

The Original Martryr 

Eydis, Matryr of Peace

And that’s all I’m going to write for this post, I’ll be posting more about it in random intervals with Matryrdom in the title so as to not confuse!

[whereserpentswalk]

Imagine if a zombie apocalypse happened and nobody cared. It didn't really effect wealthier areas because guards would shoot them down. There's some paranoia that zombies would overrun humans but society never really breaks down.

You'd hear about infested areas out in the rust belt, where entire towns were overtaken by the undead. And mabye you'd see a zombie or two when you're in a really bad neighborhood and you have to cross the street. Most undead are harmless outside of large groups, but it's always good to stay safe.

And if you go to an area that's completely overun things really will look like the apocalypse. And there's something exciting about that. Society is interested in those ghost towns, not as a tragedy, but as a spectacle. You've seen reality TV where people will head into the worst of the outbreak with nothing more then a knife and a camera, all while the locals look on wishing someone could take them back.

Most people don't think about zombies. They're just another thing in the world that sucks right now. Occasionally there's a reminder of them, but eventually you forget why anyone is even afraid at all. It seems so normal.

One of your coworkers was attacked the other day by a zombie. Nobody really knew her well. The main thing people were talking about at the office when it comes to her is how lucky she is the be in the hospital having her wounds treated and disinfected, instead of stuck at work. Someone as young as her is expected to be able to fight one off, mabye she did it on purpose. Nobody was still making jokes when they realized she died, people aren't supposed to die that way if they're rich enough to work in an office.

The apocalypse isn't enough to end society. Society is meant to be more resilient then reality, that's the point.

[technicallyclassyperfection]

Paul Gulacy

[mamangasick]

Blame!

Tsutomu Nihei

[neonelven]

Nightwalkers by Ben J (detail)

[morerichka8]

[mysharona1987]

[spyboy2000]

"ɴᴇᴏ-ᴛᴏᴋʏᴏ ɪs ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴇ-x-ᴘ-ʟ-ᴏ-ᴅ-ᴇ" 𝘼𝙠𝙞𝙧𝙖 1988

[hellsgate-roadhouse]

UK underground (AI generated art)

Abandoned

1

[scipunk]

Aeon Flux (2005)

[whereserpentswalk]

You were born to be a sacrifice. When you first exited your mothers womb the oracles decided that would be your fate. They tattooed your hands and forehead so everyone would know.

When you turn twenty, they'll take you to the church, and they'll set you on fire. And then when your body is burned they'll give your ashes for the angels, and the angels and saints will be proud, and bless your community and family with great riches. Or at least that's what they say.

When you were young it didn't seem to mean anything that you were born to die young. Nobody cared, they just saw you as another kid. But it was always there. Adults would ask other kids what they wanted to be when they grew up, but they'd ask you what you would do once you were a ruler in the court of heaven. They'd tell other kids about marriage and sex and having children, but for you that would just be for other people, you'd die a virgin.

And at a certain age, you were removed from school. Because they said you wouldn't need it. That you shouldn't be wasting your time on such things. And you didn't understand, but you understood that all your freinds were upset that they wouldn't see you anymore. Not as much at least. And people talked about you so much differently from then on. You weren't complimented as strong, or as smart, or as ambitious, you were pretty, and pure, and brave, and dutiful. And everyone talked about how proud they were of you, how wonderful it was that you were going to die for them.

They were so nice to you. They gave you so many gifts and jewelry. You got to spend all day inside playing video games, and you got the best toys and got to go to movies and plays when you wanted to. Soldiers in power armor would bow when they saw you, and robots and cyborgs would turn off their lights. And you sat at a special place in church, and the clothing you wore was diffrent then everyone else's. And people talked about how wonderful you were, and how pretty you were, and how much they loved having you when they knew you wouldn't be on this world for long. And they were so proud of you when they showed you the platinum clothing you would wear on the day of your sacrifice. And you didn't understand why but all of the compliments sounded sad.

As you grew older things changed. The other children went through puberty, but you didn't, they gave you surgery to prevent it, ans told you how pure you were for not producing blood or seed. And you were old enough to understand that you would die, that you would burn, and it would hurt, and that nobody really knew for sure what happened after peopled died. And you saw a sacrifice, and saw the pain they were in, and there weren't any angels, there were only priests watching and chanting, and the smell of burning skin.

Your parents and family started to care much more how you behave. To make sure you're polite. To make sure you're a good sacrifice, who the angels will like. And meanwhile while all your other freinds are going to college, and talking about becoming artists, or starship pilots, or scientists, you know you'll only ever have one ending. But still, everyone loves you, and you don't have responsibilities, but still sometimes you think about how much diffrent life would be if you were born differently.

You've started meeting people who've left the faith, or people who didn't grow up in it, people who believe in diffrent religions or in no religion at all. And your heaven seems less and less certain every day. According to imperial law you're allowed to be sacrificed, but if you choose not to they can't force you. But if you choose not to you can never be a part of your faith again, and your family will be disappointed in you forever. All your family and community, everyone who you ever knew, will consider you a failure, a coward doomed to hell for not going through with what the cosmos planned for you. And all that pride and joy they felt about your fate would be replaced with anger that you never became what they were so happy and proud about you being. You don't think you believe in heaven anymore, but you still might choose to die, if it means they're proud... it's what you're raised to do, you don't know who you'll be if you choose to leave.

Better choose fast darling, it's only a few months away now. You don't want them to be upset.

[technicallyclassyperfection]

art by ian miller from james herbert's "the city" 1994

[nestedneons]

By jilt with stablediffusion

Cyberpunk art commissions

Ko-Fi

My free ai workflows

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

I hope one day YA fantasy and dystopia authors will realize just because the target audience are teenagers, it's not necessary to dumb down the concept and every aspect of war and its consequences. Yes, war is an unimaginable horror and you cannot write the gruesome and psychologically scarring details in YA, but it still should be treated as a horror and not something glorious or easily fixed. The characters cannot fight in a war in one book and be just fine in the next. You can make light of the situation without making it out to be a light situation. It's actually harmful and sends the wrong message.

If they're worried about the readers not liking it, may I remind you The Hunger Games trilogy didn't shy away from showing what war is and it's still considered one of the best YA books to this day. Harry Potter, which is considered a children's book, portrayed a corrupt government, silent overtaking of power, disappearings and mass panic fairly well.

Teenagers and young adults might not be ready for adult books, but if authors choose to write a heavy topic such as war in YA books, they should deliver it well, even if it's vague, rather than prettify the image and distort the facts.

It's insulting, even. We know what war is. We see it on the news. We see it on the internet even if we don't want to see it. Some of our loved ones have experienced it. Sometimes it's like the authors forget their books are read by people from all around the world.

"It's supposed to be an escape from the real world"- well then, give the book a happy ending. Or abandon writing war altogether and embrace the whimsy.