#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.

[lemonwrap]

[novafire-is-thinking]

Behold…

✨WORLDBUILDING✨

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

[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.

[rassicas]

splatoon fandom: please. someone please translate the marina acht story. please me: now hold on. wouldn't you guys rather read a boring newspaper article about the development of crableg capital. because i would

[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 ✦

[marciaillust]

I added some colours to her :)

[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!

[filurig]

sekuuti and akestur, deities of the rau-kakse and crakam

LONG ASS CREATION/ORIGIN STORY OF THE RAU KAKSE AND CRAKAM HERE

the sun and moon both have important roles in northern basilisk religion, and are interpreted as two deities: sekuuti (sun) and akestur (moon).

both seen as patron deities of their respective people (rau-kakse aka basilisks and crakam aka harpies). their eggs were originally stars in the sky that fell and hatched in the world below.

at first, there was only pure spirit. something known as "tukaarti" (which is an unconscious but all powerful driver of all things) - the "natural force", arose, and began create shapes from this spirit, polarities, warmth, energy eventually the forces shaped this spirit into The World, which was barren at first, amorphous, but this shaped energy began to solidify, first into mountains, then into lakes, rivers, flora etc etc. but the water did not stay liquid long for after the formation of these things, and a brief flourishing period, the World cooled down, and fell under a great winter, as it had no sun. the sky is basically where tukaarti resides in its rawest form still, and stars are "concerntrations" of it, and the only light source. the stars began to fall eventually on occasion into the world, and that would spawn Creatures. early on when the world was still fresh after this was when the eggs of sekuuti and akestur fell, they were among the last creatures to fall onto the world. prior to them similar animals had hatched from other eggs, but they all perished trying to survive on their own.

both sekuuti and akestur were lonely and struggled on their own - persecuted by hostile ancestors of other creatures. not only was it difficult, most of all, it was lonely.

sekuuti was so lonely that she desparately wanted children, but as she was the only one of her kind she prayed to tukaarti for a way to achieve that company she desired. she was heard, and granted the ability to shapeshift to any creature that she found. this also was something tukaarti needed, as it lacked a way for spirit to go from the World back to tukaarti, and by "collecting" bodies to learn as forms, sekuuti would also return their spirit to tukaarti. with this ability, she resorted to courting different birds that she transformed into and bearing their young. and she did successfully hatch them. her children would not only inherit a lot of her features and shapeshifting ability, but they also inherited the plumage and some other traits from their other parents, and she loved them all the same. this also means that according to rauk-kaksian lore sekuuti "has no comparison" and doesnt look like an extant bird in particular, but interpretations vary. these children were the first "rau-kakse". the most important established trait of her depictions though is that it seemed that the glow from her egg ("star") never faded, and her plumage glowed strongly and brilliantly.

akestur, meanwhile, sought company with birds in a different way. he found flocks of corvids, flocks of nightjars, and found certain comfort with them. but he was frustrated with the fact that they could not communicate, he prayed for the ability to "hold a conversation" with his new contemporaries. and the tukaarti granted him his wish - the flocks that he had become familiar with were granted a blessing, but with that blessing, they also changed in morphology - they became harpies (crakam), and gained sapience. he was reminded, however, that he had gotten this wish without cost - and that the forces counted on him to do what they wished in return if they so needed it. they only cryptically let him know to "not keep his eyes off of the flame". akestur is thought to have looked like a harpy slightly, but with a different face, black as night, but with brilliant glowing white eyes.

again, the world during this time was pretty barren and harsh due to an eternal winter, as they had no sun. sekuuti, while having found comfort in her kin now, was unhappy with the state of affairs - especially as many young would die in the harsh conditions. akestur, too, hated seeing his new contemporaries suffer.

the two groups would meet one day, sekuuti and akestur leading them. the two were fascinated by one another - sekuuti brought warmth to akestur and the crakam, while akestur brought a certain darkness, that while somewhat discomforting at first, also shrouded both groups from other hostile creatures, theyd come to find out. there was safety in his darkness. sekuuti and akestur grew very close and became partners (according to most legends).

sekuuti wanted to change the state of the world and set her eyes upon the sky, wanting to become a sun and bring warmth to all and end the eternal winter. akestur was hesitant, for he did not want to lose her, and her children needed her. when seeking the guidance of tukaarti - they discouraged her from it, urged her to stay and perform her duty as a bringer of spirit from corpses of this plane back to tukaarti. but she was insistent, and one day, decided to simply go for it. she flew so fast, with such force, that she caught flame, but her will was so strong that it didnt bother her and she became one with the flames eating her as she flew up to the sky.

akestur was too late, and only realised she was gone once she had lit up the sky. betrayed, upset, but most of all - realising that he had failed tukaarti. he had let his eyes off his flame. as a punishment, tukaarti undid the blessing it had granted his people for half of them, leaving half of them as regular birds again.

sekuuti lighting up the world had done something - it had taken away the eternal winter, but the problem was - sekuuti had nothing to temper her up there. the world was beset by a devastating drought with no end in sight. akestur, trying to lead his people as well as the basilisks, then realised what he had to do.

before leaving his people, he urged them "to not take their eyes off the flames", meaning the basilisks in this case, and then, he also set off for the sky. instead of setting ablaze, his eyes seemed to burst with the pressure of the speed of his flight, engulfing him in a cold, bright light. once he joined sekuuti in the sky - the heat was finally tempered.

however, sekuuti, both overwhelmed with love but also guilt and shame over abandoning akestur, fled him. but he, loyal and also overwhelmed with love, began to follow her. and basically, the day/night cycle is their eternal chase after one another - and on occasion, they meet, during eclipses :,) perhaps they also realised that their chase is what brings the world balance. and perhaps its a bit of a punishment from tuukarti for disobeying it.

[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.

[lets-try-some-writing]

"The Titans were gentle beings, knowing neither fear nor pain. For all their power, it was the Primes who cared for them, guarding their innocent sparks." - Thundercracker, Speaker of Trypticon.

A lil bit of lore below the cut.

In my little continuity, the Primes were indeed Primus's firstborn, but they were made from the suffering of their maker as he fought to survive. The Titans though? They were born to give life, made to spread Primus's gifts to all creation. As such, they are naturally gentle and inherently incapable of violence.

They will not fight back if attacked, nor will they rise to the defense of their citizens (although they will provide weaponry and protection in the form of walls and the like). They cannot even comprehend why one would hurt another outside of the natural order of things. It is to the point where those who care for the remaining Titans have labeled them as having the cognitive capabilities of newbuilds. For all their age and wisdom, Titans are, at their core, the only entities in the universe to maintain a sense of innocence all throughout their lives. They hold no anger, no bitterness, and no grudges. Everything, in their optics, will play out as it should.

As such, the Titans have always had guardians to protect them from a reality that would seek to crush them into dust. During the first age, the Primes filled this role. In the modern era, seekers of Vos have taken on the mantle, guarding and speaking on the behalf of the three remaining Titans on Cybertron.