#or uh. the lore? in the world

[valcubust]

miss nico robin ❤️

[anemonet]

Sneakily posting more of my little guys....they should put me in charge of a dlc i would do normal things pls pls pls

[hdra77]

Can I give Disarrebbles a slugpup. Just a little guy. Baby. He'll be a good father and this will cause no problems

"i am an iterator. not your personal caretaker. this tiny animal wouldn't suit well inside my facility grounds. the ecosystem outside of my structure is nothing but in its current state of decay..yet it amazes me how despite everything, life seemed to find its way back into the surface."

"... go away. please." "i am not letting you rest on my shoulder, tiny creature. stop staring at me with those pleading eyes of yours" "..."

"awww~! did you make this little creature, pebbles? i did not know you are in need of companion! how was moon--" "i do not. it waddled its way inside my premises." "you should name it! how about plentiful stars frolicking across the night sky?" "i am not keeping this animal, suns."

[lyss-butterscotch]

so i just thought about a cute dynamic with your iterator AU

so, the slugcats objectively have more experience in surviving and traversing this world, so they might start treating the iterators as little siblings or pups and generally being protective of them

like, survivor might treat moon as if they were their sibling and gourmand would definitely treat her as a pup.

you ever seen those pictures of tired parents with hyperactive toddlers on a leash? that would probably be the relationship between hunter and NSH

pebbles is arti's adoptive pup. that's just how it is, i dont make the rules

Edit : Sorry for the janky writing my fancy word braincell isn't working rn

[cadere-art]

A little ahead of valentine's day, inspired by this shirt found by @2700k-moogie:

[nomsfaultau]

I recently got a comment about the use of the term Bird Pope within my charity one-shot Worth far more than your weight in gold, specifically about the world building implied there considering [Kristin] and [Philza] are notably very inhuman bird monsters (Ravengences). Specifically, the question was if there was Bird Catholicism and Bird Jesus died on the Bird Cross of Lorraine. (I think it would have to be a more complex shape given the extra wing limbs! Or perhaps an Orthodox Cross to pin the tail too?)

Anyway, let's examine the text between [Kristin] and [Philza] and the translator's note:

[Kristin's] expression changed utterly to one of delight, kneeling to affectionately bump her forehead against [Philza's]. “Praise be to the gods, I thought I was going to have to [bird divorce] you,” [Kristin] said with a relieved sigh, nuzzling into the crook of his neck.  (*While Bird Divorce is not forbidden, it is strongly discouraged by the Bird Pope.)

To explore Weight in Gold's species’ religious stance, I examined what terms they use:

Techno uses Gods (capital, plural). Ravengences refer to the seven winds (non capital, plural), gods (non capital, plural), and the Bird Pope (Capital, singular (*according to the translator)). Given Catholicism really emphasizes the singular God bit, I deduce Catholicism did not come from Piglins and Ravengences. Thus I am sadly assuming Worth in gold!Jesus was neither bird nor pig (which is good since pork is not kosher!).

As for humans, they are not worshiping Prime (as in, a god named Prime). Church Prime is the first church in the area. Akin to the format of First [Denomination] Church of [Town]. They worship the Catholic God, and centuries ago were very heavy into evangelizing. Has to be a very long time ago since Ravengences are mostly considered legends in the current time period, and aren’t particularly assumed to be sapient beings. So for the Ravengences it’s more of a legacy of cultural exchange than anything that’s happened of late.

Techno makes a lot of snide comments about the human church, and mentions not doing his sacrifices. But he does bite his tongue because the Church holds a LOT of power in human settlements. From this I gather Piglins on the whole are not Catholic, though as minorities have to navigate the sociopolitical power of the religion they don’t practice. Specifically, I note the way Techno uses the term Gods (capital, plural) which feels to me like a linguistic quirk picked up after the emphasis Catholics put on a capital G God, but in strict defiance of Catholicism by making it plural to reflect Piglins’ own pantheon before the humans started evangelizing. Along the line of 'Nyeh! Our Gods are just as important as yours!' Since we don’t see anyone trying to convert Techno, I reckon it’s something lots of wars were fought about way back when, humans eventually giving up (and probably writing Piglins off as demons in the process). Piglins rejected churches, partially rooted in the fact a central part is in money and donating it, and 1. Piglins do NOT give their gold away except in very intricate and personal situations and 2. Piglins think money is stupid. Using gold for fancy banners and clothing and murals (which Catholicism is very fond of) also didn’t fly with the Piglins. So a major part of human worship involves the (perceived!) frivolous use of gold, which is a big rift between human and Piglin culture.

Ravengences however do have a culture around donating gold, so it wasn’t as much as a massive conflict with human doctrine. In fact it helped facilitate the transfers in a way they liked. I imagine early evangelism with them was a desperate attempt to stop temple raids and was shockingly successful all things considered. To Ravengences, Catholic God is yet another god, added into the pantheon for flavor. I imagine they refer to God as god, since as tricky as crossing that language barrier is that particulars of capitalizing god names probably didn’t make it across. (Ravengences are seen only capitalizing names and the term Ravengence). Ravengences didn’t really agree with the whole abandoning their original gods things (what? You want me to STOP worshiping the seven winds? AND NEVER BE ABLE TO SAFELY FLY AGAIN? Are you MAD?!) and tended to eat conversionists who insisted on that point a little too firmly. The humans likely decided to shrug and declare that the Ravengence gods were really just saints if you think about it, so it’s probably okay please stop eating us now. And as the cultures lost contact, likely a lot of changes piled up in the centuries to follow. Ravengences probably lost the Catholic God (because of said lack of capital differentiation, and the lack of a name is tricky to keep track of when you have a lot of gods). But, positions like Bird Pope, which have lots of practical use regarding the distribution of donation gold so that families can have children, are likely vital to Ravengence society, and so remained, albeit looking very different to human popes. And the Bird Pope hates divorces, because Ravengences tend to want to take all of the gold for their new family, and the ex spouses probably tend to kill each other over it. Since, again, Ravengences are fond of the death penalty.

Alternatively: notably [bird divorce] [bird husband/wife] are within the translator's personal choices to explain concepts to a human audience, the mention of Bird Pope being within a translator's addendum. Even to the extent that within [Kristin’s] dialogue [bird divorce] is lower case, but the translator uses uppercase, further cementing the linguistic differences between Humans and Ravengences. So Bird Pope (capitalized) is how a human explains Ravengence culture to other humans, and may not reflect the capitalization Ravengences use (as they tend towards none) or even really the actual Ravengence cultural role being described. So all of what I just world builded could also be scratched out and explained with 'human translator trying to simplify for a human audience'. but one of those answers is a lot more fun!

[vaguely-concerned]

I just *clenches fist with tears in my eyes* love the grand necropolis so much

[kaleidoru]

bane of fallen angels

[rowanthestrange]

Ok, you’ve all had time to digest “Mrs Flood as in the biblical one that killed everything where the ark will then recreate everything” right?

I have had a brain blast and am about to make an upsetting amount of sense to you.

The above. ‘Mrs’ - She’s married. She knows what a TARDIS is. She knows where the cameras are. She points Ruby towards the TARDIS. She knows who The One Who Waits Is. Has suddenly evil vibes like she’s in league with Sutekh. She’s kind of a cow. She causes problems on purpose. She’s always hiding. She isn’t making your tea.

I think Mrs Flood is the TARDIS.

[tinycowboyart]

Woah girl, you ate that, wanna make out

If you’re my player and you see this, no you didn’t, scroll away. I don’t think any of them follow me here but uh

[radd-overzero]

this is just a filler post atp but uh here’s a bunch of doodles i did.

[hdra77]

another rainworld mo4 crossover but the rot and maidonium are swapped

MARIKINONLINE4 is really cool go play it!! but uh only if you have the patience for it since its all in japanese..its still worth to check out though

[mirwx]

hi i have some ocs. that are like, actually somewhat developed

details, image description, and transparent ver below cut ^^

These pups were created by Chasing Wind as messengers. Timeline-wise, they were made sometime around Riv's campaign. The pups were made to withstand some pretty extreme environments. Their fur also sheds like cats ^^'

The pups are both non-binary (i also hc slugcats as a single-sex species). They can read pearls and broadcasts. It's how Wind planned to communicate with them on missions.

Ruby is very energetic and pretty enthusiastic about most things. They like eating centipedes and crunchy things.

Amber is shyer and doesn't really have preferences. They're intrigued by pearls and the ancients.

Wind basically stole the sign language Suns used with Spearmaster and taught these pups. They don't know the slugcats' less-used spoken language and (probably) never will.

The pups weren't grown to adulthood due to technical difficulties aka CW being old and dying

[ID: Reference sheets of two characters, Ruby and Amber. Ruby is a deep, pinkish red and Amber is a light canary (yellow-gold). The two pups have long fur and a diamond on their chests, as well as Chasing Wind's symbol on the back of their hands. All the markings are a color slightly darker and more saturated than their fur. Their eyes are black on the top half; the bottom half is the same color as their markings. Ruby is in three poses; sitting, floating in zero gravity, and jumping, reaching for something. Amber is also in three poses, crouched on the ground, curled up on the ground, and standing holding a white pearl. CW's symbol consists of two parallel lines and two shorter lines. One shorter line comes off of the top-left point at 45 degrees. The other shorter line comes off of the bottom-right point at 45 degrees]

[lyss-butterscotch]

Man i missed drawing this nerd so heres a bunch of doodles of them in different drips

I hc that iterators that has major religious roles to their colony would be given an ancient mask as a sign of 'equality'. [Continued hc rambles below the cut]

Ancients would consider iterators their creations, therefore beneath them in a way, so giving them masks means they are seen as equal to Ancients. Because only someone of higher standing would take such influencial role.

Both Sliver and Suns took the role of priests to their colony so they have their own masks and ceremonial robes.

Suns in their early days as a young iterator almost leaned fully to the role of a singular religious leader until Omni stepped in. They still served as a priest though not as... intensely as before.

By the time younger gen iterators were made, Suns has considerably mellowed down and would only wear their mask and ceremonial robes when necessary. Now with the Ancients gone they don't really acknowledge it.

Pines seems to enjoy the fact that with the mask on, they and parent can match!

[goodluckclove]

A Meandering Exploration on the Disability-Based Magic System of my Ongoing Fantasy Series (Because I Am Bad at Explaining it to People in my Actual, Physical Life)

I've been priming myself for critique on the world building for Songbird Elegies, with it's magic system being partially based around my "sorcerer" equivalent (i.e. born, innate magic users/birthrights) having some sort of disability.

So far most of the critiques have come from myself. because, as any disabled person likely knows (myself included yayay), what is considered a disability is frustratingly varied. And that's been complicated to explore.

This isn't what I'd usually use my taglist for but I ended up pretty proud of this so here we go hop on hop off per usual.

@kuebiko-writing @cartoonghosts 

@atlasthecactus @aroaceghosties 

@booksntea6982 @xarrixii 

@mushroommanchanterelle @whoevenknowswhatimwriting

@fukurouonthesea

I establish in book one that the supposed "Birthright Gene" (which isn't - uh - anything. It's a medical term given to a phenomena that has no actual genetic proof backing it) has been seen in a variety of conditions - mental, physical, developmental, even if they happen later on in life (an immediately pretty scary concept for most). It's not every person who has a certain disability, and sometimes a birthright will be classified as the wrong variant of magic because they have comorbidities and the "gene" only affects a certain one. My character Ollie in book two, for instance, was born with cerebral palsy, but actually has her magic based in the ARFID she manages as a result of that.

Which makes sense, in my mind at least. In my experience, and from what I hear from other people, if you have some sort of disability it's a lot easier to fall into a few other conditions. Human bodies are fleshy Jenga towers.

Uh and I've spoken to a few people about how I'm really particular about the magic, or "variants" that make up birthrights. One variant can apply to multiple diagnoses if they slightly overlap. The main idea is that there isn't a Birthright variant that's SUPER useful. The most powerful variant (Ollie's, coincidentally) is the one that allows a user to alter the chemical component of many forms of living matter (Could be all, people don't really know and are hesitant to test), but it's so difficult to even get GOOD at that it's not likely to be weaponized.

But yeah there isn't a variant that overrides a disability. Birthrights are still absolutely disabled and they require varying degrees of treatment and management. The very specific rule I have to stick to is that a Birthright variant is something that could be perceived as an additional accommodation for a corresponding disability, from the perspective of someone who has never actually existed as a human being with a disability. Something that makes sense to an entity seeing humanity through a fragment of magnifying glass, but to a human being would just sort of cause them to be like huh. i guess i can do this now.

Birthrights are magic users who, for the most part, care far more about the culture, beliefs, and ethics of their longstanding communities that are coincidentally formed from their magic, but mainly continue to provide the services they'd done for generations. Mainly social services, legal representation, medical and environmental work, depending on the town they associate with.

Not everyone who is born with the Birthright Gene (which once again, isn't an actual gene, but people call it that to make things sound less scary to people who aren't willing to immediately accept that birthright magic is essentially random) lives in one of these towns. They're definitely not forced to. So far it seems a lot will spend at least a stint there, if only to get work experience in an environment that can provide further connections in certain industries while also being aggressively accessible.

There are registered birthrights, who are salaried, year-round employees of certain towns. Witch towns, as they call them, will sometimes compare themselves to a non-industrial company town. This is mainly an on-paper deal that allows for some minor bureaucratic benefits, as well as a degree of community that still provides a mild optional anonymity that being a sovereign city state would immediately destroy. It allows gives registered birthrights the opportunity to open their own businesses within witch towns, with the initial financial support of the witch town if they're willing to take a few classes.

Official witch towns are, at least so far, either Refuge Hubs or Outreach Centers. Migration Patterns (Book Two) takes place in Bluerose, Oregon, which I believe is the only witch town left on the West Coast. It's a Refuge Hub, which means it specializes in providing social services, housing, and treatment - mainly, in Blueroses case, for families, victims of domestic violence, and people just leaving the foster care system. Refuge hubs are pretty insular, being gated and guarded communities a bit of a drive from the nearest major town. Clients stay for a period of at least six months (but no more than a year), and depending on the case they might be asked to not leave the confines of town within that time (at least, not without a guard).

Refuge hubs are very difficult to keep as secure as they feel like they need to be, so out of the handful of remaining witch towns in the United States, most of them are outreach centers. Outreach centers are weird because they're "towns" that sort of just take over a few neighborhoods in existing cities. Like you're driving through Nebraska and you're right in the middle of Cheney, and all of a sudden your GPS says you're in Stillrush, but then you're back in Cheney.

Outreach centers were more connected with their surrounding communities from the get-go. You never had to be a registered birthright with the not-real "birthright gene" to get a job at an outreach center. But as time went on refuge hubs also more open about allowing non-birthrights in their ranks.

They're still super intensive in the interview process (welcoming, flexible, but thorough), but most of the naturalistic, inexplicably-humanist, pretty hippy-dippy beliefs of early birthrights are now considered outdated. More than that, in later generations there were less and less birthrights born with an "active" gene. Witch towns fell apart for one reason or another, leaving their inhabitants to scatter to adjacent towns to either retire, start new, or continue work in separate organizations.

The towns that kept going wanted to keep their communities alive, because by then a majority of the people essentially - or literally - living in witch towns were doing so for the community and the work done in that community. Even though with the balance way off between refuge hubs and outreach centers, resources are spread thin and demand is high and hard to manage. So now almost every town has a mixture of birthrights and non-birthrights, with even the occasional able-bodied and neurotypical employee.

It's getting stressful, though. The leadership in town feel it more, but everyone can tell. And no one knows why. One of the only lingering traits of old birthright culture is the insistence that they don't need to know - that the things they do and the relationships they make are what matter more than some biological party trick.

But it's hard to know how many people actually believe that. Because it's weird. It's weird that so many people had certain abilities for so, so long, and now it's looking like soon they just...won't anymore.

It's not grief that often provokes, but a vague unease. Like the thought of more and more people suddenly being born without a gallbladder. Like it's probably fine - it might even be a net positive.

But it's weird, right? Why now? What happened?

It doesn't matter though. No one really needs an answer.

Right?

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

Sigh.