#homebrew region

[pokemonbiologyirlthetabletop]

Staryu & Starmie

Staryu (#120)

Petrocephalus pentagramus

General Information: Staryu the Star-Shaped Pokémon, this is believed to be an extraterrestrial Pokémon from beyond the stars. Its likeness to earthen sea stars is entirely coincidental.

Staryus average at 2’7 feet (0.8 M) tall and weigh around 76.1 pounds (34.5 kg).

Habitat: They are most commonly found in the ocean, but some can be found in brackish waters and freshwater streams that connect to the ocean.

Life Cycles: A Staryu is born in the winter, often in the coldest parts of the ocean where the chemicals it needs for chemosynthesis are most abundant. They are born as singles (or twins on rare occasions) and are fully independent upon birth. Many Staryu never know who their parents are, and that’s quite fine by them. After birth, a Staryu will explore and wander on its own, using its red light (which is unseeable to most creatures in the abyss) to communicate with others of its kind. When the summer arrives, Staryus will emerge from wherever they have made themselves at home, and surface en masse together. These mass gatherings of Staryus are multi-functional: socializing & communicating with each other, mate finding, and conversing with the stars.

Staryu are actually predated upon all the time, but so long as their core remains intact, a Staryu will fully regenerate any part of itself within the day. Most that predate upon them tend to only nibble on bits and pieces, which grow back swiftly, so the Staryu is largely unbothered by it. The biggest source of true predation is by juvenile Sharpedos, who will eat the entire Staryu, core and all, without hesitation, until they learn that keeping the core intact means more food in the long-run.

Like other Pokémon, Staryu become reproductively mature at level 15. They may take a few years to find a suitable mate, whom they may stay with for a couple years or even a few decades, and autumn they will lay an egg that they will leave hidden at the bottom of the ocean and let it fend for itself.

Behavior: At night at the end of summer, Staryus can be seen at the surface of the ocean lighting up the waters with their shining cores, like red stars shimmering on the ocean. They seem to be using these flashing lights to communicate with the stars in a language that scientists are still trying to decipher. Are perhaps the Staryus of Earth trapped here? Are they a migratory species like Solosis? The answers to these questions and many more, remain a mystery.

Diet: Staryus are chemosynthetic organisms. They utilize the chemicals found naturally in ocean water to provide the energy that they need, and since these chemicals are in ready abundance at all times, it allows them to regenerate quickly. This is in stark contrast to the native sea stars of Earth, who are voracious predators of mollusks and corals, and this is additional evidence to the belief that Staryus are not actually sea stars and are, instead, freaky little alien dudes that happen to resemble a sea star.

Players, this means that you do not need to feed your Staryu (or Starmie) except by allowing them extended time in ocean water.

Conservation: Least Concern

Relationship with Humans: There are some cultures in Oceania that believe Staryus to be born from stars that fell into the sea. Pop culture media tends to associate Staryus with the Pacific Ocean and its many islands. Some cultures even revere the Staryus as fallen stars, messengers of the ocean or night, children of the stars, and many more. There are also cultures that eat parts of them, but honor their sacrifice and their ability to regenerate with ease, believing them to be a gift from the creator as an unyielding food source so long as they’re treated right.

Staryus make excellent starter Pokémon for trainers of all ages. They may not have parental instincts, but they know how to love and be loved by its colony/family.

Classification: Staryus are believed to be an extraterrestrial Pokémon. It bears no genetic similarities to any other Pokémon with one key exception, Deoxys. Between the striking physiological similarities with their regenerative rocky cores and their vaguely similar protein and cellular structures (the DNA is still very distant in relation), scientists speculate that wherever Staryus hail from, they come from the same Mew as Deoxys.

Starmie (#121)

Petrocephalus irispetrocephelus

General Information: Starmie the Mysterious Pokémon and the evolved form of Staryu. When it surfaces at night, the its core (the gem in the center) emits signals that are so powerful, it’s believed that they can travel the vast distances of space. It can produce light of any color of the visible spectrum and well into the infrared and ultraviolet sections, too. These complex signals are believed to create a deeper, more complex, and more nuanced language than Staryus are capable of. No one is entirely sure who it is that Starmies are talking to out in space—perhaps others of their kind?

Starmie swim by spinning their body like a propeller. Their ability to emit signals are so strong, that sometimes when humans approach, their psychic powers give the human a headache.

Starmie average at around 3’7 feet (1.1 M) tall and weigh a whopping 176.4 pounds (80 kg). Most of their weight is the gem at their core.

Habitat: Starmies migrate through the ocean in all depths. They can technically live on most places on Earth, but they really prefer the ocean, where their food is in abundance. They are resistant to the effects of climate change other than its impacts on the plankton supply.

Life Cycles: Starmies are relatively rare compared to Staryus. Their life cycles are nearly identical to Staryus. A big difference though, is that Starmies are bigger and stronger, making it easier for them to defend themselves against the few predators that they do have. Unfortunately, this does include humans.

Starmies are believed to live for hundreds of years with no known life expectancy. The main causes of death are predation, poaching, and disease. Like with Solosises and their evolutionary relatives, a Starmie’s ability to regenerate is dependent on its access to Earth’s (relatively) abundant nutrition.

Behavior: Starmies are highly intelligent creatures with a complex language. They are independent at their core but enjoy the company of friends.

Diet: Starmies are chemosynthetic creatures, but they also eat plankton. 

Conservation: Least Concern but only a technicality. Because Staryus are considered Least Concern, Starmies are legally considered to be as well (at least in most countries), but in truth Starmies in particular are rare, and becoming rarer, due to overhunting by humans.  

Relationship with Humans: In modern times, Starmie Cores have become the subject of poachers who will kill the Starmie and sell its gem-like core for a high price to jewelers.

Starmies are incredibly useful in laboratory settings and in space research. Many astronaut teams utilize the signaling power of Starmies to communicate directly to stations on Earth, who have their own trained Starmie to send and receive signals to each other, who can then use their intense psychic powers to learn telepathy and speak directly with humans. This is not an innate ability of theirs, but the fact remains that Starmies can learn to speak human languages fluently, and thus conservation efforts are on-going in the fight to win Starmies the Right To Be Left Alone.

Classification: Starmie and its pre-evolution, Staryu, are in their own clade, Petrocephalya, which they share with Deoxys. This clade is unspecified but is generally treated as a extraterrestrial domain-type tier, akin to Archaea, Prokarya, and Eukarya.

The name “Petrocephala” and its variations means “rock-brain.” The species epithet for Starmie, “irispetrocephelus” simply means “rainbow rock-brain,” a reference to the fact that it can emit light of an color of the visible spectrum.

Evolution: It evolves from Staryu with a Water Stone.

~~~~~~~~

Hey guess what, if you like my stuff, this is my website where you can find other Pokémon I've written on and more information about the game that I’m slowly making! Check it out! I write books sometimes too.

[skullhaver]

B A S I C S :

Full Name: Atlas "Loam" Angra

Pronouns: They/them

Gender: Nonbinary; "gender is not a high priority to me" subtype

Sexuality: Bisexual

D E T A I L S :

Birthplace: The village of Angra in the marshy region of Pantalpan

Age: 28

Species: Half-orc, half-human

Job(s): Ranger. For several years, Loam was a wayfinder working with a small company of adventurers that escorted travellers between the big city of Akara and various towns and villages in Pantalpan. Twice, they even made the transit through the southern jungles to glimpse the isolated city of Cere! They called themselves Expeditious Expeditions.

Family: Loam comes from a happy, blended family. Their mom (Naghat 55F) is an orc and their dad (Andreas 50M) is a human. Naghat's former partner passed away; from her previous relationship Loam has two full-orc half-siblings (Makhel 35F and Ushat 33NB). They also have a half-human full-sibling (Orion 30M).

Alignment: Chaotic good

Phobias: Slight fear of heights

Guilty Pleasures: Generally speaking, Loam doesn't feel guilty about the things that they enjoy, but they can get a little shy about their sheer enthusiasm for ice cream. It's a big city treat that's a bit hard to come by in their more rural home region.

Hobbies: Loam likes to keep moving and likes friendly competitions, so they can easily be recruited into trying any sport. This could be as casual and low-impact as kicking around a hacky sack or as full-contact as fantasy rugby, which I imagine they'd adore. They're also a huge fan of the traditional orc art form of scripted, theatrical wrestling (see: professional wrestling) which is not widely enjoyed outside of their home region. They're always keen to introduce new people to its epic highs and lows.

T H I S - O R - T H A T :

introvert / extrovert

organized / disorganized

close-minded / open-minded

calm / anxious / restless

disagreeable / agreeable / in-between

patient / impatient

outspoken / reserved / in-between

leader / follower / flexible

empathetic / unempathetic

optimistic / pessimistic / realistic

traditional / modern / in-between

hard-working / lazy / depends on the task

O T H E R :

Animal: Giant anteater, for their animal companion Fernanda! 

Color: Rich red soil

Song: Feelin' Good as sung by the legendary Nina Simone. Nina's voice is something like how I imagine Loam's: low, mellow and warm, with moments of rough gravel.

Number: 6, for the members of their bio-family and the members of Expeditious Expeditions.

Day or Night: Day

Plant: Jenipapo, a gorgeous tree that grows in clay soils in the tropical flooded forest where Loam grew up. The small yellow fruits are versatile: unripe, they can be used as pigment for paint, tattoos and for insect repellent. When ripe, they have a pear-like flavor and are often made into preserves (or ice cream👀).

Smell: Dirt, baybee. All manner of musky, earthy smells.

Gemstone: Loam is broadly opposed to mineral extraction, so if you made them pick a "gemstone" they'd probably say freshwater pearls.

Season: Dry season (has never lived in a four-season climate).

Place: Breaking camp on a fair-weather morning in the serrado. That fluttery, excited feeling of a journey ahead.

Food: High-protein diet with a lot of meat and beans.

Drink: Honestly water?? Loam has big "person who always has a water bottle on them" vibes. But also, growing up in a predominantly orc village, they do go hard on the alcohol when it's time to party. Sugarcane hard liquors like rum and cachaça would be their go-tos.

Astrological Sign: Sagittarius vibes

Element: Earth

[transgender-anakin-skywalker]

i made a dnd character. perceive my boy

so basically his deal is that he’s a blind ex-pirate captain, he’s cursed as fuck because he lacks impulse control, and he’s a 128 year old human (don’t even worry about it).

he’s attempting to infiltrate and stop a cult with the help of a tiefling “time witch” sorcerer noble, a lizardfolk druid who journeyed across a desert and an ocean to escape her past, a half orc barbarian (who is now a werebear. again don’t worry about it) trying to rescue her kidnapped daughter, and a human fighter ex naval officer who kills pirates on sight.

more info about him under the cut

personal info

height: 175cm

weight: 170lbs

skin colour: light, ashy grey-brown (like the skin of someone who isn’t entirely alive)

eye colour: milky white

hair colour: black with grey streaks

personality traits

Extremely loyal to people he deems as his crew, especially when he perceives himself in a leadership role to them.

You are very direct and usually speak your mind without worrying about the feelings of other people. 

ideals

Ambition. Everyone wants things, I am just better than most at getting them.

bonds

Being hunted by dead crew

Connected to the cursed ship

flaws

You are very impulsive and often act before thinking through the consequences.

backstory

one of the older children born to a large family. grew up near the docks on the edge of the city. had poor eyesight from a young age. his parents were merchants who had many dealings with the thieves guild due to their success with smuggling. isaac often worked with the smuggling side of the family business, giving him good connections to the thieves guild and skills with handling a ship and managing a crew. as an older teen he left his family and joined a new ship, The Umbra. he took over from the captain after killing the creature that had killed the captain and possessed their body. the umbra spent the next 9 years attacking military ships, earning isaac a large price on his head, and hunting for legends. after 9 years the umbra found their greatest legend, the ghost ship known as the pandora, and it killed the whole crew except isaac, trapping everyone’s souls aboard. isaac lost what remained of his sight to the darkness, and was cursed to sail the ghost ship and his undead crew through the night, searching for the escaped spirit of hope, and to kill the undead crew of the pandora every morning. after 100 years, isaac came close enough to capturing hope that it gave some of himself to him, giving him the resolve to be free he lost when the pandora took him. he escaped and found his way back to the city he was raised in, finding it completely unrecognisable 100 years later.

ghost ship lore

a ghost ship that sails the waters of the Archon Knout sea, both on the surface and in the underdark. any who tries to take the helm will replace the cursed captain, and their companions will be added to the pandora’s undead crew. the pandora sails forever lead by their lantern wielding captain, on an endless mission to recapture hope. during the night it sails the seas, its image shimmering under the moonlight. during the day it sails through the underdark as the undead crew attempts to kill their trapped captain. each night the felled crew rises again, desperate to complete their mission.

[pupuseriazag]

I think I finally perfected my Tav

[rennybu]

okay i know Loam Thursday is about your character, Loam, but every time i see it i think of soil that's relatively equal amounts of sand, silt, and clay.

it’s both in my heart afhsjgnsjgkdkd🥺!!! (he picked his name as a kid after learning about the many useful characteristics of loam) (his mom is a medicinal gardener and his dad literally makes bricks)

[spidermilkshake]

Ancardia's Greatest Monstrosities: The Manananggal

Classification: Monstrosity (horror)

Habitat: Warm, humid jungle and caverns.

            The Manananggal is among the most feared monstrous undead horrors to be found in all of Ancardia, made all the worse by their evil-natured method of creation and their great calculating intellect. These creatures can assume a form which very accurately passes as a normal humanoid, which they maintain during the day. At night, they shapeshift back into their true hideous form and separate their upper portion from their lower one, leaving it behind in order to fly out and seek out victims. Like ghul, the manananggal must sustain itself with either raw flesh or living blood, and given how it is created it usually chooses the latter, and in egregiously lethal ways.

            Manananggal are created by particularly sinister necromancers, usually in service of a violent cult but sometimes also on their lonesome for purposes of vengeance or threatening locals. Unlike ghul, manananggal are not conscious individuals with free will, but rather animated by the will of a possessing evil entity, usually a lesser demonic or stagnatic being. When the manananggal’s body is destroyed or consecrated, the link between itself and the fiend is severed and it can no longer control the body. One of the primary methods of monster-hunters to rid an area of a manananggal is to find the place where it stashes its lower body each night, usually in a damp cave, cellar, or in a locked room somewhere. Once the lower body is found, burning it, salting the cut-off stump, or lacing the stump with a potent natural acid such as lime juice or vinegar are the usual ways to prevent the upper half from rejoining before dawn; if the manananggal can’t reconnect with its lower half, it will wither away and die automatically.

            During the day, manananggal are generally indistinguishable from ordinary folk—whatever species they choose to resemble. Many reported manananggal have taken the form of humans, and some of ratlings, hurthlings, half-orcs and the odd wood elf; manananggal in some areas are known to have disproportionately created from the corpses of women, generally in regions where femicide is more common and usually at the hands of the necromancer taking out violence against women and girls they know. This has, in some of these areas, led to the idea manananggal are all female and are not possessed of evil beings, but are the result of promiscuous, improper, or otherwise taboo behaviour in women and arise from the lady’s jealous ghost. This unfortunately tends to reinforce the social trend towards misogyny in these parts. In some regions, these horrific creations are known as Penangglan, or as Krasue, but they are all three some variation on this bloody and evil-natured ritual.

[toledopilled]

ughhhhh people in the homebrew (aroma specifically) help discord are so fucking rude lmao sorry i made a mistake i just said this was my first time doing anything like this omg!!!!!!

[requinoesis]

hi! stumbled upon you with the humans post and honestly it would look like an awesome tattoo. anyway, I'm in a dnd group with homebrew races, classes, background ect. I decided to go with a humanoid shark race that resembles a black tip reef shark and was wondering if you have any interesting facts about them? sorry if it's weird thing to ask

Oh that's an interesting shark question! 🦈✨

Over the years I've seen a few articles on the curiosities of this species of shark, these are the ones I remember:

⭐They Have Social Behavior: As they are a small species, it makes sense that they would group together in small groups with complex social systems to protect themselves from predators. In a fantasy inspiration, they would probably always be united in large families and live in tropical regions such as beaches and reefs in large houses or villages.

⭐They Have Best Friends: It's a recent discovery and apparently happens in several species of sharks, they are usually always in pairs, always of the same sex, two females or two males, they always swim together and there is even the hypothesis that they will defend their friend. There have been cases of scientists or divers having to interact with a shark to remove a tag or hook, and another shark biting the diver lightly, which could be that shark's faithful friend.

⭐Prey for the Great Hammerhead Shark: Great Hammerhead Sharks have often been seen preying on these little sharks, being their natural predator. So a blacktip reef character could certainly feel intimidated by a Grante Hammerhead character, but nothing would stop them from being friends! Imagine a big hammerhead shark protecting his little blacktip reef friend from other bullying hammerheads sharks hehe

⭐Shy, Slippery and Full of Anxiety: In personality they are extremely shy and insecure, they are very fast and slippery, difficult to catch.

⭐They are viviparous: which means that the female becomes pregnant with an umbilical cord and all!

That's it! If other people know any more curious information about blacktip reef sharks, feel free to comment on this post!✨

[writingwithcolor]

I'm homebrewing a D&D world that has the technological and cultural starting point of the 16-17th century Europe. It has fantasy races, but a focus in that each is diverse; there are majorities in certain regions, but no monolithic cultures, nations, or races. I am interested in adding a semi-nomadic people of artisans and merchants, largely elves, that utilizes covered and caravan wagons. My inspirational starting point is partially Romanisæl Travellers, as a few of my ancestors were such. 1/2

However, as it is a small part of my heritage and as none of those traditions were passed on to me, it's not something I identify with. As such, I'm unsure if I should even include this "traveling merchant" group. The largest Elven-dominant cultures I currently have are analogous to the pre-revolution French monarchy and Creole peoples outside of the continent. However, this group would be a much older ethnic group that adapted their semi-nomadic herding lifestyle to a more artisanal one. 2/2

Fantasy Romani travelers

To be quite honest with you, I think the trope of Romani-inspired traveling cultures in fantasy is a bit problematic, but that’s just my personal opinion. Yes, a lot of the Romani diaspora does travel, but it’s not usually due to a choice. It’s often to escape persecution or to find seasonal work, the later being less of an inherent negative. You did mention that this group has a more artisanal lifestyle, which does mirror some Romani-diaspora groups, but I think it should be ok as long as there aren’t any other stereotypes involved.

My worry is that this will become another “magical Romani-inspired fantasy culture”, although I am less worried since, as you say, you have some background and probably more knowledge than the average non-Roma. My advice would be to proceed with caution, and write this group respectfully and with as few stereotypes as possible.

-Mod Tess

[pokemonbiologyirlthetabletop]

Squirtle, Wartortle, & Blastoise

Squirtle (#007)

Turmentur parvaqua

General Information: Squirtle the Tiny Turtle Pokémon. It can hide in its shell from predators and when it wants to sleep. Their shells are nigh impenetrable to most, and they are surprisingly agile in the water.

Squirtles are an average of 1’8 feet (0.5 M) tall and weigh about 19.8 pounds (9 kg).

Sex Ratio: (See “Life Cycles”)

Habitat: Squirtles are found across the Old World in both freshwater and saltwater habitats, but with a strong preference toward freshwater. They are one of the few creatures that can handle both saltwater and freshwater ecosystems, but their finicky life cycles make it difficult for them to become invasive. While they tolerate both, saltwater is harder for them to handle for extended lengths of time without reprieve. Their tolerance allows them to live on small islands and islets near the coast (within a few hours of the coast at most) but won’t be crossing oceans anytime soon.

Life Cycles: Squirtles are born en masse every few years. Hundreds of Squirtles will emerge from their nests like clockwork and are fully independent at birth. In the first few hours of life, their backs are soft but quickly harden and by the sixth or seventh hour of life their shells have hardened completely. The first couple hours of life are frought with danger for the newborn Squirtles, who must contend with predators of all shapes and sizes, including Kinglers, Crabrawlers, Grapplocts, Pelippers, Staraptors, Corviknights, and more. After these initial couple hours, the hardening process has developed enough that it garners the newborns some protection, but the remaining few hours until their shells have fully hardened, can still see them picked off by dedicated predators. At all stages of its Squirtle life, they are always a beloved meal of Sharpedos. It is the presence of Sharpedos that do the most in stopping Squirtle populations from migrating too far into the ocean and evolving greater saltwater tolerance. Sharpedos love that crunch!

Squirtles evolve into Wartortle at level 16. While Squirtles can reproduce once they’re level 15, it is so unlikely for a Squirtle to remain a Squirtle long enough for this to occur that it rarely happens.

The sex of a Squirtle is determined by the temperature the eggs were incubating at. Warmer temperatures typically produce males, and slightly cooler temperatures typically produce females. In theory and in captivity, Squirtles will hatch to be about 50% male and 50% female, but in light of rising global temperatures due to climate change, these sex ratios have been growing more and more disproportionate to each other. Wild Squirtles have been hatching with 3:4 ratios, 1:4, and even 1:7 ratios in the most extreme cases.

Behavior: Squirtles are social animals with a “safety in numbers” mindset. They are individuals at their core, but value teamwork and cooperation. It is the way of things for the newly hatched Squirtles to learn how to handle themselves the hard way, but instincts drive them to seek safety with others of its kind. In fact, a key component of Squirtle survival before their colony returns to the hatching grounds, is learning to stick together and survive as a team, and Squirtles who refuse to cooperate or are exceptionally poor at the give-and-take of teamwork, die. Often, when the adults return to the hatching grounds, the surviving Squirtles have formed tight bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood with each other, and these bonds stay with them through life. The toughest survive, but they only survive through teamwork, and that’s the way of the Squirtles.

Diet: Aquatic plants, seaweed, bugs, and small crustaceans.

Conservation: Endangered, mostly due to habitat loss and the effects of climate change

Relationship with Humans: Squirtles have lived around humanity for eons. As inhabitants of the Old World, they have been around us since pre-history, have seen the rise and fall of countless civilizations, have been trustworthy companions, and like many other creatures, have been our food sources. Like with any culture or person that eats turtles, they are, frankly, easy to pick up and catch if you’re big enough and can tolerate having jets of water shot at your face.

In the modern day, Squirtles are commonly given out as starter Pokémon throughout the Old World, and thus are a household sight and seen at countless tournaments and in the field. They are immensely useful as companions for many field workers and emergency workers.

Classification: Turmentur parvaqua is the scientific name of Squirtle. “Turmentur” is a combination of “turtur” (“Turtle” in Latin) and “tormentum” (“cannon” in Latin). “Parvaqua” the species epithet, is “parvas” (small) and “aqua” (water) combined.

Wartortle (#008)

Turmentur criniticaudatus

General Information: Wartortle the Turtle Pokémon, and the evolved form of Squirtle. This Pokémon has long fluffy tails that it keeps in pristine conditions. The extra fluff on its body enables it to store air in its shell when it dives, giving the Wartortle an extended diving ability

Wartortles are about 3’3 feet (1 M) and weigh about 49.6 pounds (22.5 kg).

Sex Ratio: it's complicated

Habitat: Wartortles have a preference for freshwater lakes and ponds, but can be found elsewhere near other types of bodies of water throughout the Old World.

Life Cycles: Once a Wartortle survives its first year or two as a Squirtle, it becomes bigger, stronger, and able to mate. They partake in intricate courtship rituals every 3-5 years that involve using water guns and beautiful rocks to show off their skills to potential mates.

Of the adults in a colony or “torrent,” Wartortles make up the greatest percentage. They are known to have lifespans that stretch beyond a human’s life expectancy. Signs of age include deeper colored tail plumage and algae on its shell, and scratches on these shells demonstrate their proficiency in combat.

When it’s time to procreate, Wartortles will show off to the females of the colony in the aforementioned courtship rituals. They will pair up for the breeding season, then lay their eggs in holes in warm soil or warm sands, where they will incubate. It takes 10 weeks for the eggs to incubate, and when it’s time, the eggs will hatch en mass together with the other eggs of the colony. The parents do not stick around for hatching, for often they have already migrated elsewhere. Wartortles are exceptionally poor parents, but upon returning to the hatching grounds will welcome the Squirtles (who have been surviving on their own for a few weeks to a couple months at this point) with open arms.

Wartortles lay about 20-30 eggs in a clutch.

Behavior: Wartortles are atrocious parents and should generally not be considered for child-rearing services. An individual may be protective and nurturing and often they are happy to play with the Squirtles, but the species as a whole lacks any meaningful sense of parental responsibility.

Diet: They eat aquatic plants, seaweed, bugs, and small crustaceans. They really like fruit.

Conservation: Endangered

Relationship with Humans: Wartortles are swift, agile, Pokémon that are utilized by Search & Rescue Operations, firefighters, Pokémon Rangers, and law enforcement alike. They are the mascot of many swim teams.

Conservation efforts have been trying to reintroduce captive-reared females Wartortles to the wild, but efforts have been met with mixed results. Fundamentally, the Wartortles of captivity do not have the same hard-knock life that the wild ones do, and this leads to cultural tensions that make the captive-reared females undesirable as mates for they are seen as unfit mothers who will produce weak babies. Scientists are working on figuring out a better solution, but experiments have been… not going as well as they’d hope. There is real fear that climate change will eventually lead to the extinction of wild Wartortle (and family) populations.

Classification: Wartortle’s species epithet is “criniticaudatus” which is a mouthful that approximately means “fluffy-tailed” or “hairy-tailed.”

Evolution: Wartortles evolve from Squirtles starting at level 16.

Blastoise (#009)

Turmentur bitormentum

General Information: Blastoise is the evolved form of Wartotle. It can shoot jetstreams of water from its back cannons that some say can even pierce through concrete and steel! It sleeps inside its shell face-down, but when a Blastoise feels secure it may fall asleep quickly with its belly facing up.

Blastoise has both a Mega Evolution and a Gigantamax form.

Blastoise averages at 5:3 feet (1.6 M) in both its normal form and its Mega form, but weigh about 188.5 pounds (85.5 kg) and 222.9 pounds (101.1 kg) respectively. The Gigantamax form is at least 82 feet (25+ M) tall.

Sex ratio: it's complicated

Habitat: Blastoise prefer to live around freshwater lakes and ponds, but rivers are acceptable as well, and of course they may be seen along the coastlines.

Life Cycles: A Blastoise will become the de-facto leader of a colony/torrent of Wartortles and Squirtles, unless of course there are other Blastoises, in which case they will collectively become more of a Council of Elders. It is the Blastoises in a torrent that retain the wisdom and keep historical memory of places and events, information that they use to guide their torrent into the future and against harsh conditions. They are powerful, even vicious if necessary, and the female Blastoise of the colony will also produce more eggs per breeding season than the female Wartortles, generally producing 30-50 eggs per clutch.  

Blastoise are preferential mates in a colony and the greatest competition will be had for them.

It is believed that Blastoises can live for 10,000 years. While this is probably not true, they do not seem to have a finite life span, instead dying mostly to injuries, disease, and cancer.

Behavior: Blastoise are wise and proud. They enjoy playing with the Squirtles in their torrent.

Diet: Aquatic plants, seaweed, fruits, fish, and crustaceans.

Conservation: Endangered

Relationship with Humans: Blastoises are valued members of firefighting squads and Search & Rescue teams all throughout the Old World. They have useful in factories, in agriculture, in construction, and so much more. A Blastoise is an unvaluable companion for any lucky enough to have one. It is hard to pin point any particular thing that they are most known for, since they are regular members of human-Pokémon society and have been for ages. If you live in any city or town in the Old World, chances are, you’ve seen a Blastoise.

In Tuesdays with Turtwig, there is a fire-fighting squad of Squirtles and Wartortles that are led by Chief Blast the Blastoise.  

Classification: Its species epithet “bitortemtum” means “double cannon.”

Evolution: It evolves from Wartortle starting at level 36.

~~~~~~~~

Hey guess what, if you like my stuff, this is my website where you can find other Pokémon I've written on and more information about the game that I’m slowly making! Check it out! I write books sometimes too.

[jawsandbones]

okay, wait, I'm so interested in your "no player revivify spells" rule. Would you be willing to elaborate on your house ruling for that???

I would love to, thank you so much for asking!

It's 99% because of story reasons, 1% because I feel that deaths are fairly meaningless when they can be immediately undone.

In my homebrew world, Winyul, there are no gods but entities called Titans. They are the manifestations of wants, desires, hopes, memories, experiences, knowledge, and thoughts. Titans form around a community, be it a city, a mercenary band, even between lovers. The prime Titans are those who oversee the entirety of a region and all other Titans in that region are considered part of that prime Titan. [I have a bit more information on Titans in my little packets - link!]

The Titans are the arbiters of life and death on Winyul. There are no spells of resurrection that have ever worked, as no magic can find the threads of the person lost. Upon death, souls are weaved into their respective Titans, their pattern becoming a part of the Titan itself. To resurrect someone, their pattern must be ripped out of the Titan.

The Titan which holds the persons pattern, their soul, must be sought out and pleaded with, in the hopes that they might ravage their own weave. Resurrection has always been historically rare, invoked only in times of great need. Typically, those pleading on behalf of a resurrection will give up magical items to the Titan. That magical energy helps a Titan repair the damage being done by tearing out the soul. During the False Wisp crisis now, the Four of Four are the only ones the Titans have been resurrecting.

Resurrection also comes with its own risk. The more death one experiences, the tighter ones soul is stitched into the Titan. Multiple deaths and resurrections risks leaving behind threads that could not be undone. This means that, past a certain point, those being resurrected begin to forget things - as their memory, those threads, have been left behind in the Titan. It can work the other way as well, where some threads which don't belong come along during the resurrection. Die and be resurrected often enough, and eventually you're going to end up an entirely different person.

It's led to some amazing moments in campaign - from Adra, Ilsa, and Talee kneeling for hours in the snow over Loam's body begging for his resurrection, to the playful ribbing of having to haul Ilsa's corpse up a ladder which took eight hours to fully climb. The current death count in campaign is Ilsa leading with three deaths, Loam in second with two, Talee with one, and Adra still untouched by death (not for my lack of trying huhu).

Thank you again for asking! If you have any more questions, don't hesitate, love thinking and talking about Winyul. Cheers!

[three-dee-ess]

Hi! I browsed your FAQ and didn’t see anything about this, so I’m sorry if this has been asked before and I missed it, but is there a way to unlock the other StreetPass games and/or speech bubbles using homebrew? They don’t appear to be on the Hshop, though I see a few versions of the StreetPass Mii Plaza on there.

glue here!!

there IS a way :D !! to unlock the other streetpass games, the additional content should be in HShop as DLC (there's a link to HShop here with the QR code). make sure the region of your console matches the dlc's region you're downloading (idk if anything will happen... haven't tested it out myself)

don't worry--i didn't know how to unlock the additional content until someone else told me to lol

as for the speech bubbles, you gotta WORK for those. you can get them with streetplaza tickets, which are earned by playing the games. the ticket exchange booth will sell a handful of random hats/speech bubbles, and the selection changes about once a day.

hope that helps ^^

[wylanzahn]

How do you keep from Copy/Pasting existing Cultures into your Worlds?

Basically just as the title says, and I'm sure there's been pleeeeenty of discussion on the topic, but I'm genuinely curious what makes your cultures unique and original (especially when the modern aura of writing is "everything's been done"). Furthermore, is having a copy/paste culture a bad thing? For context, I'm primarily a Game Master (GM) who also on occasion writes as well as works in the TTRPG actualplay space. When you have an audience (whether friends or fans) is it necessarily a bad thing to have familiar locations, themes, and even characters that mimic real life? Can it be easier for an audience to just assume we're in "Ancient Rome" or "Habsburg controlled Austria"?

For me I do like creating totally original locations with their own weird political systems influenced by magic, gods, monsters, and anything else fantastical--BUT sometimes I find a setting is more interesting of just "what if Romans could directly interact with their deities?". For me I just find the idea of almost "alternate history" but in my uniquely fantastical setting interesting. However, I also understand that some people like genuinely different worlds with no trace of the real world left behind.

When creating unique cultures I try to combine elements to create something more unique. For example I'm currently working on the ancient periods of my current homebrew world, and specifically in a portion I haven't particularly worked on before. In Evrosea, a sort of "ancients world" where Greco-Roman culture lives on well into the medieval 15th Century (of course technology has changed and evolved) I find myself studying more ancient histories. I knew from before I fully began working on worldbuilding Erosea that there was some sort of "Roman Empire" which spread its tongue as a sort of lingua franca across the continent of Dulgren (aka why Common exists in my D&D world). Also originating from the region of Evrosea was the sorta monolithic pantheon of "new gods" (aka Catholicism). So I have the ideas of imperialism and religious importance in this region. So the very clear start was Rome itself, but how could I make this Rome unique? Well here's what I found from my research on Ancient Rome:

Many pre-settlers, and even contemporaries of Ancient Rome, in Italy were nomadic grazers and herders.

The Aeneid, which tells one of the many origin stories of Ancient Rome, ties in the ancient Greek tale of the Trojan War, and makes Rome the successors of Troy.

That many of their religious practices were tied up with the Senate (especially after the abolishment of the crown).

Finally, while perhaps never directly ruled by the Etruscans, their neighbors were much more confederate like and were similar in culture rather than being a unified people or kingdom.

Taking the information I found I twisted and jumbled much of this random history and constructed a group of nomads who controlled the fertile valleys of Uvemos (home region of the ancient Carinaens, my replacement for the Romans).

Many of these nomads worshipped similar sounding gods (if not outright the same gods), and most of them lived off the lands of Uvemos. Only a select few of whom ever settled into cities. However, long after the first nomads of Uvemos walked the hilly countryside arrived a band of pirates and raiders, terrors of the ancient world, many knew not their names, but they quickly accrued a nickname, "The Sea People" (see Sea Peoples on Wikipedia for more, TL;DR a bunch of random marauders who attacked or even helped cause the collapse of some Bronze Age Civilizations). One such pirate was said to be the Prince Laogonus, an exile from Apeiros, who was said to be a direct descendant of the God King Ulios himself. Laogonus settled down on the banks of Janian Sea in a small dirt settlement near to the roaming tribes of Uvemos. Many years later the small city of Carina was established as a blossoming trade hub by the many different tribes of Uvemians. Of these tribes was born a Chieftain's daughter, Aurora. Aurora was said to be descended from the god blood of Ulios, and when she prayed to her great grandsire on the eve of battle she was enveloped in holy light-- thus becoming the world's first cleric. Of her legacy were many rituals formed and practices established, and the civitas mille clericorum* was born.

*(civitas mille clericorum) meaning "city of a thousand clerics," named after the heavy religious undertones established by the first cleric Aurora, at least according to legend.

Super cool right?? I combined some other ideas than the ones I established such as the Sea People from the Collapse of the Bronze Age, as well as these kind of Shinto-like-beliefs in the Carinaen religion, which, to me at least, seems the most like what Ancient Roman beliefs would look like to us today (though I didn't really get to talk about in my blurb). I like taking existing pillars of cultures and extending them, now rather than just being a complete Roman rip-off there's more of this nomadic or tribal culture, at least to early Carinaen history, there's more of a nautical legacy (unlike Rome, who didn't establish a truly working navy up until the Punic Wars), and finally the city of Carina is a beacon for holy warriors and classes like Paladins and Clerics (again this is D&D so that's oriented towards that).

But tell me what you think, and how best do you come up with your fictional cultures/countries? Do you merely copy off of pre-existing cultures or do you fully work from the ground up? I'm super curious to hear what you all have to say!

I'm also tagging a couple friends since I'm curious of your responses @hessdalen-globe, @northernthiefcranberry, @kerghoulen, and the ever wonderful @somethingclevermahogony.

Also guys I need you to pull me out, I'm this close to dropping out of the arts and trying to get into Harvard to do Ancient Studies. Send Help.

[psi-hate]

i know this looks like nothing to those who don't know but for me this is the culmination of my slaving away for 3 days lmao the homebrew i'm running, gbarunner3, is a virtual machine that uses the GBA hardware in DS Mode to run GBA games with a higher layer of customization and access to traditional DS hardware. an example of something similar that comes to mind is Nintendont, the gamecube loader for Wii. Technically speaking, the vWii on the Wii U is also this concept, albeit underutilized.

anyway, it's intended to run ROMs off the SD card exclusively. Meaning that it cannot run actual cartridges. I wanted to use my pokemon carts alongside gbarunner3's wireless emulation to facilitate wireless adapter features without having the more expensive GBA hardware and peripherals, for an example.

i spent the last few days learning a bit of how the DS hardware and the codebase works, and trying to implement the option of using actual hardware than only ROMs off the SD card.

the DS only has 4mb of memory! and most GBA ROMs are between 8mb-32mb. how gbarunner3 gets the ROM loaded, is that it has 1mb worth of cached ROM loaded at a time and dynamically loads a ROM region based on when the game's code needs to access it. learning how to deal with memory in the context of the SLOT2 data bus in a codebase designed around SD card caching...

It was very annoying! I had no way to debug anything other than forcing a crash to tell when I got a certain result. it effectively was trial and error for hours and hours of blind crash debugging. the dev of gbarunner3 uses an IS-Nitro development kit to do his debugging. I didn't have that lmao

this is me oversimplifying everything incredibly because it's very hard to describe but i'm very proud of it. i'm sure it looks like nothing from an outsider's perspective though but i think it opens the gateway for some cool features that you'd otherwise have to use digital-only ROMs for.

I have a lot more to do but the fact i got this far on a whim is really neat!

[homebrew-a-la-traumaverse]

The Path of the Hellbringer - Homebrew Barbarian Subclass

by Nines, v2.0

Why should warlocks have all the fun of selling their souls? A remake of the original Hellbringer, designed for Monsters and Myths.

In this world, there once was a kingdom of dwarves, renowned throughout the land as master craftsmen. But they dug too greedily and too deep, and awakened a being of darkness and fire. Rather than face extinction, though, these dwarves managed to woo their captors with riches most opulent...

Thus the Durinsdoom Dwarves came into being. Fueled by a kingdom's worth of devilish deals, they quickly accumulated influence over the entire region... But, alas, that shall be a story for another time.

Links in reblogs, as always.

[honourablejester]

Just on the topic of things that mildly bug me from D&D 5e, I just wanna talk about white dragons for a bit?

I really love white dragons. They’re in my top three dragon subspecies, along with greens and golds. I especially adore the thing about their memory:

“Though only moderately intelligent, white dragons have extraordinary memories. They recall every slight and defeat, and have been known to conduct malicious vendettas against creatures that have offended them.” […] “A white dragon's flawless memory means that it knows how it came to possess every coin, gem, and magic item in its hoard, and it associates each item with a specific victory.” (Monster Manual)

As you can tell from things like Miirikjilinth, a homebrew white dragon NPC of mine, I love the potential worldbuilding implications of their memories. The arctic dragons, holding the oral history and memories of whole regions safe inside their minds. Now, granted, most whites are far too antisocial for that, but it’s still such a fantastic potential about them.

But. Right there in that quote is the thing that bugs me: though only moderately intelligent.

Why are white dragons written (and statted) as the dumb ones? They’re the ‘smallest, least intelligent, and most animalistic of the chromatic dragons’. Even Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, despite lightening up on things like morality and alignment for chromatics, continues to hammer this point: “I enjoy an animated debate... just not with a white dragon. Impossible and ignorant, all of them. The air must be different in their arctic latitudes.” (Fizban himself). And the stats bear this out. White dragons have the lowest mental stats of any dragon, the only adult dragons that have an Intelligence of less than 10. They’re literally the only dragons to have a minus modifier to a mental stat. And it kind of kneejerk annoys me?

Now. Some of this could be me attaching too much value to numbers for intelligence. And there is an argument that whites are intended to be essentially the barbarians of the dragon world. Their emphasis is on hunting, combat, living off the land, being remote and antisocial and far from civilisation. Which, I do get that. But.

Barbarians are a player class, and a choice a player makes on what stats they can afford to dump. White dragons are a race of beings. Well. A subspecies of an intelligent species of beings. And with that in mind, having the entire subspecies be glossed as ‘bestial’, ‘animalistic’, and ‘the least intelligent’ of all their kind feels … weird.

The dragons that choose to live away from civilisation, that choose to live off the land, that prefer treasures taken from their natural environment (“However, in their remote arctic climes, the treasure hoards of white dragons more often contain walrus and mammoth tusk ivory, whale-bone sculptures, figureheads from ships, furs, and magic items seized from overly bold adventurers.” MM), that don’t like to have to talk to people that often, those dragons are dumb and animalistic. Despite the fact that their memories are basically the equivalent of the Keen Mind feat (which increases INT) but with recall for centuries rather than months.

Intelligence in D&D measures ‘mental acuity, accuracy of recall, and the ability to reason’. Four of the five INT skills are about memory rather than the ability to think on your feet (which, granted, might be a whole other argument). The basic ability descriptions repeatedly emphasis memory (‘a character with low Intelligence might speak simply or easily forget details’ PHB). Like, this might just be me, but I feel like a ‘flawless memory’ should give them a higher INT score than 8? Is it meant to be supernatural memory and fully divorced from their actual brain? Explain please.

I don’t know why it bugs me that much. It could just be because they’re one of my favourite dragons, and I’m annoyed that they’re widely described as being dumb as bricks just because they’re not one of the civilised sorts of dragons. Their WIS and CHA scores are also the lowest of any adult dragon, at 12 each, and while CHA makes sense considering they’re the most antisocial dragons, given their emphasis on hunting and perception and ambush, you’d think they’d at least get a better WIS score too. IDK, I just feel like you could give the adult white statblock, the ‘representative sample’ of their kind, at least the same mental stat spread as blacks and brasses (INT 14, WIS 13, CHA 17)? Maybe reverse the WIS and CHA scores, because, again, antisocial, plus hunters with good perception.

Anyway. Apologies, very random grumble that may, possibly, be some of my own biases (and favouritism) cropping up. But. The description does make me feel weird, and kneejerk protective of my vicious, feral, incredibly long-memoried white dragon beloveds.