#like. Because I know this spirit is real - shared by the culture I'm interacting with so if you shut me down saying yeah how do you Know

[protectingtulpas]

🔥 BY TULPAS, FOR TULPAS 🔥

Hey everybody!! Welcome to the blog ✨✨ I'm Badeline, she/her pronouns, and this is dedicated to being a protected space for tulpas, tulpa hosts, and anyone trying to learn about us or is interested in creating one of us. We are people, and we deserve to exist!

Tulpas deserve to love life!! Help me make that a reality!

If you're new here, I'll keep it simple; a tulpa is a sentient being created by willful, repeated, and dedicated interaction with the concept of a person until they start to respond back and stop being controlled by you. They live with you and share your mind forever, generally as friends, and through trust and communication you can learn to do cool things like switch who's controlling the body, chat all day and get another perspective, and generally just have your life enhanced with a companion by your side looking to do stuff! Think of it like an imaginary friend, but you can't control them, cus we're our own people. If you want more info, check out my explanation with sources here! You can also look at "What is a tulpa?" from tulpa.info, or this carrd, it goes into more detail and links some sources. Tulpa.info and the tulpanomicon are some of the best sources out there, especially the latter for creation! I reclaim calling myself a demon but most tulpas DO NOT.

This is half a tulpamancy advice blog and half a support network for tulpas in the face of the hate and shit we get thrown at us. We are real and we deserve to EXIST!! Got formation questions? Skillset questions? Wonderland questions? Questions about intersectionality with other forms of multiplicity? Life questions relating to being a tulpa or tulpamancy? Send in an ask! It's important that YOUR voice is heard. We deserve respect, and we will NOT be silenced by those who'd be happier if we didn't exist! We're not some Supernatural TV thing that'll come kill people in their sleep, we ARE people, and I'm done being quiet.

If I haven't responded to your ask yet and I've clearly answered ones that came after, it's probably because I'm planning a detailed response for it!!

#tulpamancy advice - tag for advice I've given! Check it out if you've got any questions

#making wonderlands - tag for wonderland/headspace advice!

Wondering why I'm taking so long to post stuff?

Here's a shitfuckton of plural resources!!

The difference between tulpa hosts & system hosts!

🔥 Blog dedicated to @eeveecraft

🔥 @moonpool-system is our main system blog

🔥 Times I've been called a bitch counter: 2

🔥 PLURALPUNK + PSYCHEPUNK + UNITYPUNK 🔥

DNI/Stereotypical controversy:

Our only DNI is that if you don't respect the existence of myself and other plurals, get out. That means transmeds and sysmeds can fuck off too, go find someplace else to be a bigot ✨ If you're an endo neutral/anti endo singlet we have P-DID so like actually consider who your exclusion is hurting thanks. Support all of us or admit you're an unsafe place for us.

I'm adding this too - I'm not fucking talking about the trans/ID or rad/queer community here. IMO "transplural" is just a fancy label for wanting to be plural, but I'm not in a place other than that to decide which ID labels are shitty and which aren't. Rad/queers, however, can fuck off. Okay? Ok. Here's some elaboration on that.

I don't agree with every single opinion of every single blog I interact with or reblog from, that's ridiculous. Read my posts, read my replies, but don't assume things about me based on other people. This fight against anti-plural rhetoric is about all of us, but that doesn't mean I agree about everything with every one of my allies. Purity is a tool of bigotry and we have more important problems to face than bickering.

If you're actually worried about what you've heard is cultural ap/propriation, consider this instead: Did you know you're listening to a rumor that originated with sysmeds who tell you that a directly researchable, blatantly open religion is closed, deny and call into question spiritual leaders' words on what meditations can be shared, and can't produce any examples of tangible harm?? (We have asked and gotten answers, by the way.) Anyways, if you're neutral about this or actually trying to learn, do research. Don't let sysmeds with a savior complex dictate what's harmful. There're tons of different people out there with different opinions that aren't homogeneous and shouldn't be treated as such. It's fucking embarrassing we have to go to these people to ask if the etymology of a goddamn word is ok to use anyways, it's time to stop forcing this shit on other ppl. Okay? OK. Sysmeds and aggressive anti-tulpa shit will either be fucking deleted from my ask box or used as an example of why they're wrong.

[angelosearch]

I'm kind of annoyed that FF8 was supposed to be the first game in the franchise to be all about romance, yet Squinoa only share 1 hug, never say I love you directly (they do sort of indirectly say it at separate times in Disc 3 — he says "I've fallen for you" in his head, and she admits that him saying "Just stay close to me" had started everything for her... but again, those aren't direct love confessions), and their 1 kiss panned away from them so quickly, it ended up being a discretion shot.

But... on the other hand, we are talking about a JRPG game from 1999. Eastern countries like Japan were and still are very iffy about PDA, hence why, if any kisses occur between couples in the FF universe, such kisses literally only happen once, and only between a canon couple. Of course, that doesn't really explain why, just 2 years later, in FF10, Tiduna (which I love, btw!) got a real, fully-displayed kiss... not sure what happened in the 2 years between those games to change gears like that 🤷‍♀️

Sorry, I just had that thought pop into my head and wanted to share it with you 😅😜 What are your thoughts?

Hello anon! Thank you for sharing. Haha, I am always down to talk FF8!

In terms of why the PDA was at a minimum, I think you're right that it has to do with the culture around the game. Why was FF10 so PDA heavy in comparison? This is all conjecture, but I wonder if it was an overall increase in Western influence on the company. (or just an increase in wanting to appeal to a Western audience)

Right before the release of FF10 was the release of Spirits Within. That movie required a new level of localization because of the voice acting. Then, FF10 was the first game in the franchise to require voice acting. Working with Western voice actors and translators throughout the production of the game may have had some bearing on how the story was told. Of course, FF10 was also being produced alongside Kingdom Hearts, which was a MAJOR Western Influence. I mean, it doesn't get more America than Disney, in my opinion. Whatever American executives that were working on the Kingdom Hearts storyline may have inspired changes to FF10.

Not sure if this had any bearing, but when SquareSoft was working on FF10, they were attempting to appeal to Enix for a merger. Some of their decisions around major cinematic moments may have been made to make them more competitive. I mean, when I think of 10, I definitely think of the kiss scene, so I really do think it appeals to a Western audience.

Now, in terms of if FF8 was successful in illustrating a romance... From my perspective, the way FF8 shies away from the more typical signs of love (saying the words, physical contact, etc.) makes it all the MORE romantic to me. It's like... their love transcends what is normal and expected. Maybe they don't hug and kiss much, but they do so much more. Squall carries her half way across the world on his back. Rinoa travels across time to bring Squall back to life. Squall throws himself into space. Rinoa gives Squall a metric fuck-ton of patience. Everything is so grandiose and epic, a kiss on the cheek or occasional hug, I think, would have ruined the rhythm of it all.

(Although, I am Ace, so to me, physicality and romance can exist in two completely separate spheres.)

In terms of saying "I love you" - I don't think it will be easy for Squall to come to identify with those words. He knows he feels something, but he's probably never said that to anyone but Ellone. And for Rinoa, she probably knows saying something like that to Squall could chase him off, especially because by the end of the game they've known each other for about... two weeks.

(Rinoa does say something like "We love you. There, I said it!" in the middle-of-the-road interaction at FH on disk 2 though, which I've always imagined as her saying it in a covert, "I've got a crush on you" sort of way.)

That is to say, I do think FF8 is all about romance, and I love how they portray it. Would I like a high-definition close-up kiss shot for AMV purposes? Damn right, I do. But I don't think the lack of PDA or specific wording takes any love away from the story. Anyway, that's my take! Thanks again for the ask!

[fenlock]

You seem really experienced in spirit work! Can I ask for some advice? What do you do when you can't hear or sense your companions? How do you check in? Have you ever doubted this stuff?

Well thank you, Anon! I've been doing spirit work for 15+ years so I like to think I'm decent at it haha. I'm always happy to answer questions or even just chat if you'd like. So, let's get to it.

When I'm in a fallow period or having some kind of blockage, I usually turn to divination tools. Pendulums, tarot or oracle cards, or even a spirit board are all viable options, and I usually use a mix of methods depending on what seems to be working best. Certain spirits prefer different methods as well, so there's a decent amount of variation. I also like to just send little energetic "pings" or messages. Even if I can't hear a response, it lets the spirits know I'm still thinking of them and not ignoring them on purpose. I also keep up offerings, for those who receive them regularly.

As for doubt, I do struggle with it at times. Heck, I've been known to brush off or ignore signs and messages because I was convinced there was no way they were real (Aoya from my "kerosene eyes" tag is a good example of this; I had multiple dreams and signs that he'd be coming into my life for months, and even got flat-out told by my guide he was coming, but it took him showing up at my job for me to finally accept it.). When I find myself feeling especially doubtful, I like to look back at past confirmations I've gotten. My spirit partner, Luxu, is a good source for this, being a pop-culture entity. He's literally spoiled things from his source that didn't get confirmed in canon until years later, which I would obviously have no way of knowing on my own. I also have some friends who are spirit workers, so I can lean on them a little whenever I need some extra reassurance. If they've been able to accurately interact with my companions, and I've been able to interact with theirs, then surely we're not all crazy and sharing the same hallucination, right?

This got super long so I'm gonna wrap up before it becomes an essay, but I hope it was at least a little helpful! I know it can be difficult when you're first starting out, but the more experience you get the easier it becomes.

[rinion-b]

thoughts dump on Northern Journey (spoilers obv)

TL;DR - good game, rough in an endearing sort of way except when it steals your kneecaps for no reason

I've never played the King's Field games. I've seen gameplay of a few of them at different times (some casual playthroughs, a couple speedruns even), but just know that this comparison is coming from someone who only experienced King's Field as a spectator.

Northern Journey feels like a very kindred spirit to King's Field. The mechanical similarities are very few if any, but...that's just the conclusion I can't really shake after coming out of my 10 hours of time with this world.

Anyway, either you agree with me on that or you don't; I can't really explain why I think that but hopefully I'm not just being insane again. Moving on to the actual...review? Whatever this thing is.

One thing that I really love about indie development and indie games in particular is the way you really just get to be inside someone's headspace for a number of hours. The fewer people involved in making the concept a reality, the more control the original architect has over making sure that this game is what they want others to experience, even if that comes at the cost of potentially alienating certain players.

And can I just say? Gatekeep your shit. Please. Not everything needs to be made for everyone. Make accessibility options available where you can, sure, but I unironically think the focus of making sure everyone can play all the games is one of the AAA industry's greatest sins. Give me more unhinged indie games that make few compromises.

Back on topic (for real this time).

By far, Northern Journey's greatest strength is in its environments. The grass and small foliage kinda sucks at times in my personal opinion, but that's mostly from the perspective of knowing when you are about to walk off an edge in a few places and being able to see enemies (like the fucking ticks i hate them never going there again istg). There's plenty of areas without any combat, and since creature death is permanent, you can always walk back through most areas and just chill in the lush slopes of Deadwell and Greenslit, the blood-tinged hills and caves of Ravenfen, and the desolate cold of the far northern mountains. Around the halfway point, there's a section where you spend a solid 5-10 minutes just ascending the mountain across rope lines and grass paths. There's a couple other areas in the game with a similar lack of interaction beyond walking forward/up, but this one specifically was such a relaxing segment of the game.

...I really want to just grab a thermos of something warm, go up a mountain late into the night, and spend the early hours of the morning up there.

Man.

The world design is obviously really well done. I don't know too much about the dev's culture and what specific stuff went into forming the basis for a lot of the creatures in this game, but a lot of this feels like it's natural to the area. Like it was a place that exists, or existed, in the real world. Even if just as a local mythos.

In a similar vein, weapon designs are fucking rad. A clockwork-style repeating crossbow? A wrist-mounted harpoon sling? Enchanted weapons that throw partial copies of themselves as you swing them? Even the more mundane parts of the arsenal share the particular character of the rest by playing off the exact same reticle system, repurposed in a unique way for nearly every weapon (barring the few that are simply a larger circle due to lacking projectile drop). I love wacky weapons. I also love how straightforward using any of these is. Really good stuff.

Now, combat is a little more of a mixed bag, and that's primarily because of combat design rather than the mechanics themselves. Fighting a group of smaller enemies in an enclosed space is great for the atmosphere of being trapped in a tomb you just broke into, or something like that. Small groups of enemies as you make your way across the world also keeps you on your toes without draining all of your resources. But the difficulty of encounters does sort of bounce up and down quite a lot the further you go into the game. The things they ask you for change, sometimes to an obscene degree.

I want to reiterate, I ultimately enjoyed this game as an experience. But I was definitely tilted at the design of a few boss fights and challenge encounters. The first Snake Witch encounter was enjoyable in its obtuse nature, but the refight then put you on a tightrope and ask you to move in 3 directions while fighting a flying snake and not falling into the lake and dying (because the player character can't swim and tbh i don't really understand why we were in a boat in the first place if we can't swim that just seems like a dumb idea no wonder the flute player keeps calling us an idiot). The Doppelganger fight was...fine? Bit annoying but it also used the hitscan reticle instead of the standard one. That one bandit fortress was really rough at first, but if you figure out how to route yourself and what to kill first it gets manageable pretty fast.

The final boss fight sequence was my least favorite part of the game though.

I'm not even talking about the run-up through multiple phases. That was fine even if the filler demon enemies felt repetitive. Nah, the climactic fight over the void next to a volcano was really bad. You know what the rest of the game really tried to make a point of? Moving and not facetanking enemies. Playing with their aggro leashes to win fights you were at a disadvantage for. You know what this fight is? Stand still and bop the worm when it gets close. Trade with it if you need to, the spider knife legs are only bad if you get caught in the full sweep of them (which you won't if you just space yourself). It's a really fucking dull fight and I honestly think it's the worst part of the game.

Shooting the worm down with a giant ballista was nice, at least.

On a more positive note, the OST is super solid. Kagamine Len shows up in I think Ravenfen? Or maybe Greenslit. Not sure where the vocal effects actually come from but I literally cannot hear anything else in there. Love it. The EDM sequences? Based. There's not one track that I can really point to and say is my favorite at the moment, but I can definitely say none of them ever pulled me out of the experience (even the EDM).

What else is there to talk about...

The game handles suspense really well. Both of the underwater sections are balanced nicely, and I think there's definitely a bit of "horror" merit to some of the sequences even if I'm rarely affected by that genre. Part of this is due to how the sound is offset from being fully stereo-balanced a lot of the time without being truly in 3D, which keeps your nerves taut during an encounter when you can't find an enemy's location with just your ears. Not really a fan of that (would much prefer if the sound was in the direction of something at the very least) but it isn't a deal-breaker.

Enemy design, like the weapon and world design, is really solid. Bugs are annoying, no surprise there, but unless you're short on ammo they aren't really a torment and you can run past some of them without issue (the exception being when you need their souls for a door, but just circle back and bonk them with the slingshot it's pretty chill tbh). I counted at least 6 different types of spiders. That's a lot of spiders that act very differently. Also the fucking ticks. I despise them. I have PTSD from the area. Actual horror game in there. The hitboxes for some enemies can be pretty jank at times, which can make it annoying to snipe at them from range or react up close, but with the weapon options and the ability to keep yourself out of range for most fights it's not a huge issue. Also it's looks hilarious for some, between the attack animations of stuff like the snakes and the way they almost ragdoll when they die.

This game definitely stumbled a bit on its way out. I think the latter third housed most of the actual problems I have with the design or mechanics. But it was still really great, and I do highly recommend it.

And I am 100% looking forward to whatever this developer does next, be it with this game in the future or another project down the road.

[sag-dab-sar]

Disclaimer: I am a gentile not Jewish, I hope this does not appear to be speaking over Jews. If it is tell me to delete.

The answer to the question "did it exist before" is no, Judaism is a specific set of cultural traditions, beliefs, laws, languages, shared history and so on. It doesn't just mean a belief in the creator of Adam, Eve, and Lilith. It developed from the rabbinical tradition of the Ancient Israelites—who had the covenant with G-d—after the Babylonian Exile and the spread of the Jewish diaspora.

•••No, not all humans are Jewish•••

Thats the weirdest conclusion I've ever seen but I'll show the reason why anyways

In Genesis 10 it outlines all the nations that come from Noah's sons and the places they go to repopulate— and its pretty accurate to the names of cities and places of the ANE. In Genesis 11 G-d changes the languages of the people making them various nations. Shem is one of Noah's sons, from his line of descendants comes Abram (later Abraham) in Ur. G-d tells him to go to the land of Canaan, which he does, and G-d tells him his descendants will one day own and flourish in this land. This is the founding story of the Ancient Israelites. According to Genesis not all humans are descendants of Shem and certainly not all humans are descendants of Abraham. The Ancient Israelites were a real nation, just like the Moabites, Amorites, Elamites etc— who all had national Gods. I'm going to use YHWH to differentiate this national God aspect.

Historically the Israelites were most likely a "Canaanite" cultural group; since Canaanite is actually a cultural grouping not a singular ethnicity in its own right. Regardless Israelites had a very very strong unique identity. This identity was often put at odds with who they labeled "Canaanites" in their scriptures, and especially at odds with Canaanite gods when ancient Israelites transitioned from polytheism/henotheism to monotheism. The only "Canaanite culture" to worship YHWH is the ancient Israelites. Originally, for the Israelites YHWH had a strong connection to the promise land he had shown to Abraham. When the Israelites sinned YHWH banished them "from his presence"—literally away from the land—which began the Assyrian Exile. In the 2nd Book of Kings the Assyrian Empire sent settlers to replace the Israelites but they did not know how to worship YHWH and that caused them harm. Thus the Assyrians sent an Israelite priest back to the region to teach them the proper ways (but those group's continued to worship the Gods of their lands whom they physically brought with them in the ANE traditions of transferring physical idols and cultus via ritual which YHWH did not approve of so disavowed them). During the Babylonian Exile the situation became much different, no longer was YHWH connected to just the promise land, but to all his people and wherever his people went he was there. Leading to the Israelites & eventually Jews the ability to maintain their very individual identity even when the diaspora spread across the world. Through their G-d, culture, laws, shared history, languages, and ancestry.

Jewish literature differentiates Jews' relationship to G-d and other peoples' relation to G-d— you can look that up in Jewish sources.

•••Closed Cultures•••

Spirits (including but not limited to Gods) are innumerable, and certain spirits have "their people," and how those people interact with those spirits is their right and their right alone. Without being in that group you do not truly know how to interact with that spirit and you are not invited to interact with that spirit. That spirit probably doesn't want your interaction because again they have "their people" who know the proper ways. And sometimes you just need to shut up and accept that. Just because its the truth that those spirits exist, doesn't mean they want to interact with anyone outside their people. A spirit may exist that shows itself to different groups in different ways, and has ways of interactions and rituals that are specific to each group.

If you are not invited into any of these groups, leave their spirits, rituals, cultural traditions alone— that is what a closed culture is.

I truly don't understand what is confusing about that.

It doesn't mean a group is maliciously hiding "the truth" from everyone else

it just means they have their ways and other people have different ways. Some of these groups, for example Hellenes (Greeks) are open to anyone worshiping their deities/spirits with respect and learning traditions from freely available sources. Some are not like Judaism, Druze, and Samaritans, the later two also claiming descent from Abraham and worship G-d in their own ways and do not invite others to join.

If you would like to worship G-d in a Jewish context (and study Kabbalah I guess??) consider approaching a rabbi and learning what conversion would entail. Alternatively, since you mention Zoroaster I suggest learning about Baha'i Faith.

-not audio proof read-

PS to readers. Lilith is Jewish and don't you dare use Mesopotamia demons Lilū & Ardat Lilî to justify your ridiculous cultural appropriation and refusal to listen to Jewish people.

I'm blocking all non Jewish "Lilith worshippers" from now on.

Y'all are antisemitic as fuck.

Lilith is Jewish. Anything that says she's from anything/anywhere else is misinformation. Lilith is from Judaism, the end. But of course, expecting y'all to listen to and respect what Jews have to say is just asking too much.

[kuriquinn]

I'm really happy you're speaking out on how writing fics about unpopular tropes and kinks =/= normalization. I'm so sick and tired of people telling me that my fics are weird you know? I'm working on one right now about Mamakura training Sara-chan to be a geisha, and I wanted to start her off young, say...7? Obviously training with older men of course ( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º). And I'm trying to work really hard to make it smutty! I've been so nervous to move forward, but you've really helped my confidence!

I’ll be honest, Nonny, I kind of feel like I’m being trolled right now. Maybe I’m just having a hard time detecting the tone of your message because I haven’t slept in two days, maybe not. Either way, I’ll try to answer this as objectively as possible.

I will always defend people’s right to write and share whatever stories the spirit moves them to write. Enjoying reading something does not mean you condone it in real life. Purging stories and engaging in cancel-culture is just another version of censorship, and it’s just one step on the road to burning books or locking people up for reading “banned” material.

You write what you want to write, you read what you want to read. It’s your decision and no one else gets to control that.

That being said.

Tag your work appropriately.

Just because it’s your right to post whatever you want; it doesn’t mean you can’t spare a bit of foresight and add warnings for people who may find the content of your story distasteful. Underage tends to be one of those subjects that I believe unequivocally needs to be tagged. There are too many people out there who have suffered from sexual abuse at a young age and stumbling upon a story that involves that subject can be triggering.

As to your fic, I’m not entirely sure of what the context or plot is supposed to be, but if I were you, I would do a little more research on exactly what being a geisha entailed first.

It’s a Western misunderstanding that geisha = prostitute.

Historically, geisha were traditionally courtesans and companions more than they were brothel prostitutes, and there was quite a bit of education that went into the role. Girls who were to become geisha were acquired by a given okiya, normally they were orphans or children from a family of modest means. They could also be the daughters of geisha themselves.

Wherever they came from, they had years of training before they entertained clients, let alone did so on their own. A seven-year-old girl would not have been sent out to entertain men, young or old, by any respectable okiya; only lower-tier brothels and whorehouses would have done that.

Prospective geisha spent years (let’s say they start at seven) studying as an apprentice, or maiko. They don’t generally start their formal training until their teens (like 15 maybe?), and that training also is limited to observing other geisha interact with and entertain their customers or receiving lessons in society and etiquette from whatever teahouse they work for.

As for the skills they learn, they have very little to do with sex, so much as music, singing, conversation, poetry, serving tea, gaming, dancing, etc.

A maiko did not become a full-fledged geisha until about the age of 20 or so. And generally, once she was a full-fledged geisha, a woman was able to pick and choose her lovers (though they didn’t get married, because a married geisha had to retire).

That’s just geisha of the past; those women who are geisha today, however rare they are, are subject to the laws and standards of the country, which also means no children are permitted to entertain as geisha. If they do, that’s prostitution. 

(Granted, the Narutoverse does make it a possibility, given they seem to have no issues with sending seven-year-olds into war to kill people, but there would still be a training period that has to be observed when it comes to geisha training.)

Anyhow.

That’s my history teacher lecture for the day. If whatever I’ve said in past posts has helped your confidence in writing, great. No one should be afraid to write because others might decide to abuse or shame them for their subject matter. And if you’re serious about this story, I really do suggest doing a bit more research, since this is a very integral part of Japanese culture and reducing it to the idea of young girls having sex with older men is a bit disrespectful.

Whatever you end up doing, tag your stories appropriately.

[miniwolfsbane]

Anon wont work but i believe in this enough i have no shame. you must hear it.

Sry but u cannot be sharing recipes like that and calling them enchiladas. Im sure ur lovely but that is not ok. Pls like u have invented a new disj at this point. (No hate love the innovative spirit but pls learn the real dish) -Flour tortillas "so they fold". enchiladas are madr with corn tortillas and we have folded them for centuries. What is so difficult? I do not understand

-Taco seasoning... :/

-Canned corn (blasphemy)

-the presence of corn at all. it does not go with your other ingredients at all, instead with cilantro, black beans, cheese and white rice, maybe avocado. The tortilla is implied but perhaps not to the likes of you.

-Enchilada sauce from a can. You don't even specify red or green but it's ok because if it's canned both taste the same (like nothing). I weep for u.

-"Mexican rice" I know you mean arroz con tomate but this could mean so many different things!!!!! So many!

Anyways pls my friend try some real authentic food and stop butchering mexican culture. U will never catch me uploading lasagna recipe involving jarred pesto and cabbage. (For it would cease to be a lasagna....)

One, if I'm going to take you seriously, it helps to type full words and not text speak.

Two, this was just for fun and I'm not a professional chef. Sorry for offending you, but I am half Puerto Rican. Grew up eating chicken and rice a lot and Mexican is my favorite, even if the two food cultures are similar but not the same. I wasn't setting out to offend Mexican culture, I just made something I thought tasted good and thought others would enjoy it, but for the sake of being PC or whatever, I'll amend what I'm guessing is a months or years-old post so as not to bring anyone else's ire/irritation/whatever because I've frankly received more than enough backlash on Tumblr for a lifetime in one form or another. Edit: I was NOT saying you were being mean, I've just had some really negative interactions on tumblr and I feel like this one accurate post might bring in the horde of trolls. People can get VERY sensitive on a variety of subjects, even something as simple as food. You were in the right, they weren't authentic enchiladas. I just call things as I see them sometimes, and it was what it was when I made the post, even if it wasn't accurate to what enchiladas actually are. And sorry if I sounded mean or angry in any of this. Coincidentally, I wrote it hungry and 9 times out of 10 I get h-angry.

Have a good week and sorry again for not making traditional enchiladas. Again, it was just for fun, nothing serious. Edit: I NEVER use canned corn for stuff like this, usually I use frozen veggies because fresh stuff doesn't keep well for me unless I have big plans for it. Green Giant does have a line of frozen products, not all of it is canned.

[ailuronymy]

Hello Grey! On various different occasions I've attempted to integrate cultures in both canon and fanmade Clans and every time, I have trouble even guessing where to start. I know their landscape and diets are different, but I think where I'm finding difficulty is making them all separate enough from one another, but also not taking away what makes them a warrior Clan, such as ranks for example. Do you have any advice? Thank you!

Hello, Ruddles! I think I do have some advice for you. You are looking very broadly at these clans’ components and trying to make big, significant, immediately noticeable changes. But culture is in everything we do: not just what we eat, but how we eat it; not just where we live, but how we conceptualise our relationship with where we live. My advice to you is to look closely at small, intimate details of daily life and the beliefs of your clans, rather than trying to change the whole structure. 

Two clans eat the same kind of prey. One clan’s hunters will always bring back what they’ve caught, put it under the central tree, and the leader or medicine cat will climb the tree and make a blessing over the kill before anyone will eat: the clan believes only those two cats have the power to properly bless the dead, of any species, and eating something that hasn’t been blessed is taboo. The other clan’s hunters will give a prayer over each creature they kill as they kill it, then return home and give the prey directly to other clan-mates themselves: they have no prey-place and no cat would ever consider letting a body touch the ground and lie there, because it is disrespectful to the dead and will attract bad spirits. Two clans, same prey, similar beliefs in the power of blessing, but they are still different and a cat from one clan would have a very hard time adapting to life in the other. 

You can extrapolate more depth about each clan from here by asking questions: why does one clan believe only the leader/medicine cat can bless, and the other believes anyone can? Where does this difference in belief stem from? What do the clans consider “a bad spirit” and where do they believe they come from? What happens to cats who break the taboo? What does each clan think of their prey–i.e., does prey exist for them, does prey have feelings, does prey have a soul, who are the praying to when they give a blessing? The more questions you ask, the more you’ll discover and develop about each clan’s culture. You can pad out nearly every part of clan life by thinking about culture in this close-to-home scope. 

Another example would be two clans who share a river as the boundary to their territories. One clan believes themselves to be owners (and creators) of the river: they see themselves as inheriting the right to fish, hunt, swim, and use the river however they like, whenever they like from their fierce and powerful ancestors, who (in their legends) fought against an evil toad and its army. When those ancient warriors defeated the toad, it burst into water and created the river itself. Therefore, these cats believe that without them, there would be no river, and so of course it is theirs and theirs alone. The other clan believes themselves to be the caretakers of the river, tasked with looking after it until the talking cloud who cried the river comes back again: they perceive themselves as having a responsibility to watch over the river, no matter what, and that if they abandoned that responsibility, the storm that their ancestors made a promise with would punish them. 

Both clans have legends about the same river and a reason to fight, but their perspectives are hugely different. One clan’s focus is on conquest, power, ownership, rights, justice, and rewards for past great deeds; the other clan’s focus is on responsibility, patience and endurance, keeping promises, and avoiding punishment/trying to fulfill a future great deed. These clans are not opposites, either! They’re both willing to fight and fight and fight about this damn river. One isn’t the “bad” clan and the other the “good” clan. They’re just different, and their way of seeing the world will impact how they interact with it and each other. 

Which brings me to the other thing to consider as you go is how does having  different cultures add to your story? It can definitely add a sense of verisimilitude and depth to your world, but if you don’t want it to just be window-dressing for your setting, it’s worthwhile to consider how culture will influence and shape your characters and your narrative. To give you some idea of how to think about this, come up with a few scenarios: ethical problems, social problems, whatever you like! Pick what interests you and what you like to write about. Then think through how each clan would approach thinking about and solving these issues and dilemmas. If you get exactly the same answer every time, there’s probably more work to be done on making your cultures real and ingrained in your clans, rather than something sprayed over the top of Generic Clan for decoration.  

The final piece of advice I can offer you is: keep most of your world-building a secret. I know that is a lot to ask, because you love your ideas and you’re very excited and you want to share them all with the world, but over-telling can really weigh down a story and sap the life out of it for your reader. If you give them all the answers upfront, they have nothing left to wonder about. If you tell them every detail of your world, you leave no room for thinking about it later when they’re on the bus or on their favourite forum. As hard as it can be, your job as a writer is basically to build a beautiful, intriguing world, and then only show your reader an ankle of it. The thought of what’s beyond that ankle will keep them thinking about your story for years, and if you’ve done your world-building well, there will be no doubt in your reader’s mind that there is so much more behind the curtain. Solid, interesting world-building leaks through every time and will flavour your whole story, even when you only lightly touch on it in the writing: a word here, a suggestion there. Enough to make them hungry, but not enough to kill the appetite, you know? 

I like to think of readers (myself included, and maybe especially?) as a little like zoo animals--tigers, or monkeys, or elephants, whatever you like. You give them a little something to eat, and they eat it and it’s over. You give them something to eat that’s trapped in a block of ice, or after they solve a puzzle, or cut up very small and scattered around in a dozen hiding places, and they’ll spend hours working to getting to it all. The more you withhold your world-building, the more you leave things implied or imperfectly solved, the more you leave for your reader to figure out for themselves using the pieces you’ve scattered about for them, often the more enjoyment they will get from thinking about (and “solving”) your work in their own time! I hope this is helpful to you, and good luck with your writing!