#some worldbuild

[mr-orion]

Please tell me abt your OCs

No

Jk

Backstory lore dump i guess, i did not proofread this so if you see errors no you fucking didnt

You get Elliot because I like Elliot rn. Elliot was inspired by pirates, he even used to be one as he was adopted by humans. Hence why he parrot esque hair, bone appendages, and the flying dutchman colored magic. Very pirate stuff.

So a dragon socialized as a human and not a dragon makes Elliot incredibly different. He hadn't even seen another dragon until at port one day. Elliot being naive and dumb assumes the best intentions of this dragon when he approaches him and asks him for courtship. Elliot laughs and tells him to come along to sea.

This relationship is not good, his lover is a serial cheater. And as Elliot stumbles upon more and more books about dragons he learns he is an awful mate by raging beast standards too. Unfortunately, this revelation comes waaaayyyy too late. Especially after they both have joined souls.

When dragons have a strong connection with each other, they can form a bond that links their souls as one. This also allows dragons to draw power and magic from each other. It is supposed to connect dragons for eternity.

Since its so serious when a soul link is broken the dragon who broke it usually won't live more than a week, unless they have a new person lined up or go back to their ex. Obviously many would rather die, including Elliot, who strategically breaks the bond when they are at port and flees. He walks the coast out of town for days, completely drained and expecting to die.

That is until he is pummeled by Baron, who thinks he's on his sand to threaten his spouses or rob him.

Elliot lays on his then womanly charm, effectively pacifying Baron as he does appear very weak and not threatening to Barons testosterone.

It's actually Neve who whacks Baron on the head and suggests letting Elliot inside for a meal. As an apology for Baron pouncing him when Elliot technically wasn't even on Baron's property.

Elliots not dumb, he knows there's 3 dragons here at Baron's manor, that means at least one of them is single. (Right?)

And decidedly, that must be Neve as Neve keeps awing over him and calling him cute and masculine (tehe). The masculine part wasn't something Elliot usually heard but Neve is really good at picking up human gender. Baron is not and keeps accidentally misgendering him the whole dinner. Neve corrects him like the true MVP. Baron is confused but at least apologetic.

Dragon gender is based on wealth and who can birth babies. Since theres a lot of intersexuality in dragons the gender works on a gradient. Many to establish one's social hierarchy.

Neve eventually works the truth out of him, so Elliot suggests maybe he could form a soul link with him, or any other single dragon so he doesn't have to die right now.

Baron is annoyed with that. So he asked him. "So some lowly scum tricked you into a soul link and you couldn't break that one because you're weak, yet you expect to break another one with my spouse?"

Elliot obviously flustered doesn't say much as Lezna scolds him. Lezna doesn't think it's a bad idea for Baron to make it and then later break when Elliot is back in good health. Baron's never been one to turn down someone in need no matter how pompous he is. So he offers to make and break the pact for Elliot.

Elliot is of course thankful and spends every waking moment training to get stronger. He even tells Baron what the humans are up to now and explains some of their customs more in depth. He eventually gets around to explaining their gender and how he wants to be a man. It all kind of clicks for Baron after he tells Elliot he's a dragon not a human and Elliot reexplains. Baron tries to equate that to his own dragon gender and that helps him understand. It finally clicks for Baron that it's not Elliot wanting to change just his social status but also his physical traits. He enthusiastically tells Elliot that there's an ancient witch who knows a potion for making humans male. So if he can find him then it might work on Elliot!

This begins Elliots adventuring. He does find the witch, unfortunately the potion is much to weak and its affects are temporary , BUT he's able to bring the potion back to Lezna. They tamper with it ad it effects gradually help masculinize Elliot and keep him masculinized as long as he regularly ingests it. A lot of his adventuring is a conquest for gender affirming care.

He really does love adventuring and eventually decides to open an adventurers guild.

Also. Everyone kind of justtttt forgets about breaking the pact. Baron especially because he's afraid that after Elliot won't want to remain friends with him.

And y'know Elliot knows how awful it is to break a bond. He wouldn't want to do that to Baron. In fact. He should get strong enough so he can do it. That would be the right thing to do.

Lezna and Neve aren't about to remind amyone either. Especially Neve who is head over heels with adoration for Elliot. Then again everyone is, Neve just extra.

Some extra fun facts~

•Elliot is an amputee, he uses both mechanical and magical aids interchangeably to help him walk.

•He is Mzamaki's guild master, but he also attends the college that Mzamaki's is a professor at.

•The beads he wears on his hair are for each of his spouses. White for Neve, pink for Baron, and bluish black for Lezna

[prolibytherium]

One of my all time biggest pet peeves with historical(ish) fantasy is when the writer constructs a religion with a clear bias that it's stupid and false and therefore only the Stupid People and/or commoners believe in it and all the smart/elite main characters are like, quasi-atheists or otherwise just routinely flout established religious conventions of orthodoxy and/or orthopraxy because they're Too Smart for it or etc.

It's usually an extension of assumptions that people in the past were just less intelligent than in the contemporary, just being like "I know that the sun is a star millions of miles away that the earth orbits, but this ancient religion describes it as a chariot flying through the sky" and not really bothering to learn the context and just (consciously or subconsciously) settling on 'that's a crazy thing to think and was probably believed in because they were Stupid'.

And that whole attitude pisses me off so much. People were as 'smart' 10,000 years ago as they are today. These beliefs aren't just desperate, random flailing to explain phenomena that could not directly be accounted for either, it's not like people just looked at the sun and went "Uhhh I don't know what the fuck that thing is, actually. I guess it might be a chariot or a boat or something?? Yeah let's go with that." and based entire religious practices on this. Every well-established belief system exists within broader contexts of cultural values/subjective perceptions of reality/knowledge systems/etc, and exist as part of a historical continuum of religious practices that came before. Even when not Materially Correct, they have context and internal logic, they're not always dead literal with zero levels of allegory, and they're never a result of stupidity.

[novafire-is-thinking]

Behold…

✨WORLDBUILDING✨

Excuse me as I go insane over the fact that Cybertron is an inorganic-organic hybrid planet

[lemonwrap]

[tawnysoup]

the fritter (frin critter)

[spookymoonybeasty]

Worm on a string AU, ghosts are stringless worms.

---

When a worm meets the unfortunate fate of a snapped or cut string, it is typically the end for them.

However, for reasons yet to be widely known, a worm may persist as a Worm off the String.

P2, P3

Masterpost

[elodieunderglass]

Horror isekai where Perceiving the Weird Eldritch Thing gets you catapulted into a nightmare labyrinth of puzzle-solving.

I.e Those Who Perceive The Hunt of the Goblin King Must Partake In The Labyrinth and Can Only Be Freed If They Complete It In One Day and One Night. By Fae Law. For Reasons.

But the definition of “perception” clearly needs to be updated because some normal guy simply films the Hunt of the Goblin King Behind Arby’s, and puts it on Facebook -

No, not instagram or TikTok, it’s important that it be Facebook -

Because the rules are pretty clear, “the rules are the rules” as is carved ominously in elvish runes above the grim gate, and the Contract is Sealed. and so therefore the guy and 25 of their most random real-life acquaintances must run the gauntlet together. It’s Some Guy, their immediate neighbors, their first partner’s mom, their friends from hobby Facebook groups (oh this poor guy and their hobbies; the elderly birdwatchers from Facebook and the young up-and-coming drag king community), their random teen kid niece, college friends, a dog who also watched the video, a couple consisting of a woman who is the guy’s Facebook friend and showed her husband the video, and the husband doesn’t even know Some Guy, so he’s in the labyrinth and absolutely furious about being forced to be involved, and they proceed to break up over the course of the puzzle.

It’s important that the narrative keeps trying to be a sexy dark horror isekai! but within this the comedic reality of Catherine, 52, the guy’s horse-riding instructor, being passionately involved in escape-room-style puzzle solving and grappling with minor goblins. They are in fact speedrunning the gauntlet.

The Goblin King finally has to say: all right, actually, I only really set all this up to fuck with one (1) guy at a time, thanks for your willingness to participate, but I think all 25 of you can consider the gauntlet fully run.

And the group would be quite hurt by that. The rules are the rules. We have a contract, actually. Let Catherine cook.

[canisalbus]

What if I told you that RoobrickMarine went and wrote an entire novella starring my 16th century dog couple? It's very canon-adjacent, well researched and thoughtfully put together, has inspired me a ton during these past months and it's now publicly available at AO3. I highly recommend it.

✦ Separation ✦

[artharakka]

Sneak peeks of some horses I've been posting on Patreon 🐴

[theartingace]

Your centaurs differ pretty wildly from the base DnD centaurs, but what I am curious about is old people. DnD centaurs travel in migrations that last generations and just leave the old or infirm behind to keep on (at which point they become Chiron types); how do your centaurs handle the elderly?

I actually had no idea that DnD centaurs did that, kinda cool, kinda wild cultural practice?? While I have always encouraged folks to use my workarounds and patches for centaurs in their TTRPG games, I actually have very little idea of what ideas are already in any of the systems that do actually include centaurs! my advice on centaurs is usually much more niche daily life stuff than most game developers and story writers tend to delve into.

For my centaurs the elderly are treated much like any human elder, what do you do with them? You cherish them!! Particularly with my centaurs, who across all their cultures depend a lot on family and group dynamics to compensate for the challenges that come with having a horse body. So elders would be an important font of knowledge and cultural memory! Now MY centaurs in particular tend to be pre-history to medieval style cultures, with access to higher medicines pretty much limited to the Port city of the Merchant's culture so living to a super advanced age would be fairly rare, but that would just make those who DO get to that age generally more important and respected (at least according to Nana)

As mobility issues arise with advanced age, there's lots of options to keep Nana mobile and healthy, from supportive corsets and harnesses to support the back to senior comfort hoof trims and special shoes- but most end up opting for being (literally) carted around in small wagons by the grandkids. Or the more independent minded seniors may drive their own carts with pet ponies and donkeys (or even goats!)

Of course wheelchairs are also an excellent choice to help with mobility at any age!

And even in my semi-nomadic Rider culture, elders are simply packed up with the yurts and tents and travel in the carts that way. No reason to leave them behind when you have stuff to be carrying anyway in my opinion!

[dramiserable]

I saw Miku at the village festival the other week trust me

[jvlianbashir]

"the creator said in a reddit thread -" "the official twitter account posted that -" "the actors confirmed in a livestream that -"

i don't care and that's not real to me. put it in the text.

[beebfreeb]

My wizards.

[filurig]

närsi in her working uniform - ive mentioned it when i posted her first, but she works in the sartrill defense force, the Sartrill Tirsekki (more specifically in the Rau-Tirsekki, the division for basilisks). and yes her wings look different bcs ive been pondering a bit of an anatomical revamp of basilisk wings... so they can have silly hands. Yey. more rambles under cut

in most basilisk communities it's not seen as indecent to not wear clothes really, as they don't really need to. but in many communities it is a fun decorative element they like engaging in and clothes may often be seen as more associated with certain events or social positions. bcs of their anatomy most clothes however extend to chest/neckpieces, hats and legpieces as it can be a struggle and a hinderance to put on stuff below the arms as their wing membrane stretches from their arms to about halfway downt he tail.

the basilisks in the Tirsekki have their own division as they are usually delegated to special reconaissance roles separate from the rest of the order, who are usually trained in more typical forms of defensive and offensive combat. the subdivision has their own leader/trainers who are usually basilisks themselves as they know their own abilities best, rather than a harpy. their shapeshifting is obviously a huge part of their work, and scouting/surveillance is their most common form of work. sometimes they are called to stuff that involves combat however too.

the sartrill tirsekki formed as a revival of an older defensive order, the kaskin tirsekki. kaskin was a crakam town that fell due to human discovery and attack, and the crakam that formed sartrill were the fleeing survivors from that siege

[dunmeshistash]

Racial Distribution world map

Map based on the population majorities living in the Dungeon Meshi World

Map from this pixiv post and was created based on the "Areas with the largest populations" mini maps from the adventurer's Bible.

Legend Translation by @heattth Thank you!

Mini maps and addional map under the cut.

Adventurer's Bible mini maps

Religious Distribution (non Canon)

This map shows the religious distribution on the world map, but I'm not sure what its based on. I believe it's a headcanon.

edit: checked with some friends and indeed the (妄想) at the description of the pixiv post indicates this one isn't canon

[wolfythewitch]

I'm so curious about what Tim is in this au

Like is he a ghost? Is he even the real Tim? Is he the stranger wearing Tim's skin?