#talk to me about worldbuilding

[transcendragon]

I'm adding new art to my Redbubble again! I'll probably add more soon. As the holidays are coming up you might want to check it out, especially if you're getting gifts for anyone who's nerdy and/or LGBTQ+ (and this is tumblr, so you probably do). It has notebooks, mugs, clothes, magnets, pins, coasters, and more with my art!

Here's some of the new art I recently added, please feel free to request that I add any piece of mine to Redbubble that you like!

[quesocheeso]

Hi! I’ve seen you answering and kinda info dumping about pregnancies in your Au and how they work, and I was wondering how they work biologically.

I’m always so interested by world building and new ideas, and as me myself is creating a pregnant Au, I’m really curious about the process. Would you be willing to explain more in-depth? (Sorry if this is a weird ask :3)

I mean there ain’t really much to it y’know

…when two people love each other very much they— *gets dragged away*

Okay but yeah the process is basically a normal pregnancy, people bombayayah and if they don’t use protection- *boom* a baby is created,, but that’s the normal stuff, so looking at it through the magical lens…

High magical procreation/birth/pregnancies are RARE, and it’s not because the higher the magical ability the lower the fertility, its actually the opposite (kinda), it’s rare because of the mortality rate for the birther and the baby so a lot of beings don't go through with it unless they know their partner could feesibly handle it.

So fertility wise, a lot of times I see how the more powerful the being the lower their fertility but let's put it here as the opposite, that along with the low rates of births, you wind up with strong beings who need to be calculated in who they partner up if all they want is a heir.

This is where arranged/political marriages come in, however the risk is higher to the partner who would be the birther so they have to be given a higher political status and benefits to their families to equal out the risks they'll have in the marriage.

(This also means that people who have already gone through a high magical pregnancy and survived are much more sought out for and receive courtship letters after a certain period of time after the birth even if they are still married....which means Macaque gets real popular after Xiaotian is born lmao)

For couples who are not looking to have children due to the risk but still want to be intimate, there have been spells/sigils passed down in families to prevent pregnancies from happening,,, which becomes real funny when you realize no one in FFM would be privy to this kind of info so Wukong has to suck up his pride and ask DBK for his family's spell lmaooooo brother gets laughed at before he gets sat down and given a detailed presentation over the sigil,,, the couple just has to make sure to always cast it or else they'll be getting a lil surprise lol

The whole process is calculated and thought out for powerful beings, it's a gamble not many are willing to take and seeing as a lot of them are immortal many don't see the need for children

Also going back to my previous point:

This is how Macaque looked when he reintroduced himself to the court after his magic deficiency was finally gone from Xiaotians birth

Tell me who wouldn't want to write courting letters for this beautiful mf

[regheart]

there's something i find particularly annoying in this fandom and it's the way purebloods are written as highly sophisticated extremely rich and straight up a rip off of regency period novels

i understand the choice of this specific portrayal, i can see it as an approximation to historical drama, where the social restrictions are compelling and are relevant to the story, and a good writer can make any concept believable and good

HOWEVER as much as the worldbuilding on wizarding costumes (and a lot of other things) is extremely inconsistent and gets progressively worse towards the later three books, the implications that i see don't point towards this version of a sophisticated performatic elite who interacts only with itself

while i tend to see the blood status in the harry potter universe as a distinction of class and not at all a distinction of race, i don't think the difference is, in practice, as marked as it is in real world contexts, mostly because of how numerically small and insulated the wizarding community is

this post is part of my personal vendetta against purebloods as charming aristocrats & what appears to be the necessity of writing each and all of them as so very well spoken and politically savvy and never-caught-dead-speaking-to-a-half-blood

for once, the sacred twenty-eight is extra canon information and is disputed IN UNIVERSE, because it was anonymously published and received backlash for the inclusion (weasley, ollivander) and exclusion (crabbe, goyle, potter) of certain names

the malfoys are the only extremely rich family we see in canon. extra canon information tells us they made money before the statute of secrecy by trading with muggles

compare that to the potters who are also very rich (there's no scale to tell us who is the richer family), but made most of their money from the invention of sleakezy in the 20th century

the blacks are also implied to be wealthy: sirius manages to live off his inheritance after buying harry an expensive broom, and he says his grandfather likely paid for an order of merlin

there's a lot to be said about the blacks (e.g. they should have at least a couple more properties other than grimmauld place), but the big picture and the similarity with the gaunts (not about the incest, stop fixating on that) suggest they were a family in decadence by the time sirius was growing up

i believe that the implication is that neither of them had a proper job, which creates a similarity with gentry, but gentry lived off rentals and while it is possible they had a country state i don't think grimmauld place was making a lot of money

lucius malfoy also didn't work and spent a portion of his time being a school counselor (and obviously not being paid for it, as it was a way to exercise his political power over the main learning institution in his community)

it's also extra canon that the nott family had equal footing with the malfoys, so we can assume that crabbe, goyle, parkinson and bulstrode were slightly beneath them, either in social standing or money, despite the later two being part of the sacred twenty-eight (or it could appear to be so because pansy and milicent are girls)

the weasleys are obviously the main example of a poor sacred twenty-eight family, as were the gaunts

the crouch family was most like rich (they could afford a house elf), but it's likely that most of that money came from mr. crouch having a high level ministry job. his family and connections were probably an advantage to getting the job, but it's possible he wouldn't be able to maintain the lifestyle without work

longbottom, prewett and macmillan are families that appear to be very traditional, but not remarkably wealthy

other working members of the sacred twenty-eight are: horace slughorn (school teacher, but it can be argued that teaching hogwarts is a prestigious position), garrick ollivander (wand maker and shop owner, but, again, the only wand maker, which holds a certain prestige in itself), mr. burke (shop owner), arthur weasley (ministry employee), frank longbottom and kingsley shacklebolt (both aurors). amycus and alecto carrow are also temporary hogwarts teachers

the blacks married out of the sacred twenty-eight many times (max, gamp, crabbe, potter)

all of these people and every single muggleborn goes to the same school, buys magical supplies at the same place, drinks from the same pubs, etc. that alone should serve as evidence that there aren't many exclusive pureblood hangouts around

the only place that seems to attract the malfoys (arguably the richest and most important pureblood family in the 90s) and not most other people, is the knockturn alley, which is hardly a high brow sophisticated spot

except for malfoy and flint, no slytherin quidditch player during the 90s is in the sacred twenty-eight, so that's hardly a criterion for making it into the team

mulciber is not a sacred twenty-eight name, they could very well be half-bloods

tom riddle and severus snape were half-blood students who formed ties with purebloods while in school and held blood supremacist views, assimilation to a certain level was possible

[tracklessreason]

Fallen a bit in love with the bittersweet idea of some bots being voluntary carriers (Carrys) during the war. All they do is try to repopulate.

Some of them enjoy the job, they want Cybertron to thrive and love bearing sparklings.

Others get too attached, they lapse into depression with each sparkling taken from them after birth, knowing they may never see the bitlet again, and the child may die a footsoldier before ever seeing peace on Cybertron.

It's a taboo job as well. Despite there being plenty of asexual reproduction methods, bots who take on this role are often seen as lesser, and derogatively referred to as "oil bots", the Cybertronian equivalent of hookers.

Best case scenario is being treated like a useful tool. You don't have the respect of an average mech, but at least you aren't viewed as worthless or used.

[chiropteracupola]

"...and Ardroy was a dragon's favourite if ever he had seen one. But then, Keith could not blame her."

Another illustration of Luzula's excellent Flight of the Heron/Temeraire crossover fic, 'The Flight of Dragons,' this time of Pràiseach and Ewen Cameron.

[bonesdontmelt]

The world building in Toriko is legitimately so good, and the power crawl is I kid you not probably the best I have ever seen in a shonen and these are SO related guys

Like Toriko shows up and you know he and the others are the Four Heavenly Kings and you THINK this means they're the Most Powerful Dudes Ever right but turns out that, no, they're literally just the IGO darlings because they're a bunch of orphans raised in the public eye and they ARE powerful, regular people understand that, but people don't get that they're STILL the IGO darlings -- at the beginning of the show none of them would stand a chance against Ichiryu or any of the other higher ups.

They're still very much seen as Babies and this is driven in when they reveal OHOHO there's a whole gourmet world out there that most people can't survive five seconds in--and guess what the 4 heavenly kings are NOT among the number who can. Gives them a goal, something to work towards.

ALSO usually the worst thing to do in a fantasy world is start throwing arbitrary power levels on things (7 deadly sins, DBZ I am looking at YOU) but Toriko does it and it works because they give a basic, easy meaning for each unit (capture level 1 means it would take 10 normal people to get it or something) and then it sticks to that (I think the highest we ever see is the Final Boss of the manga with a capture level of 30,000 which is a ton but sure is evocative)

And this isn't just done with the fighter people either! Komatsu gets this just as much, and it's probably one of my favorite world building things because they use our knowledge of the real world against us as readers to achieve it. Komatsu is introduced as a cook in a five star restaurant and obviously we're like "aha so he's a very good chef" only to reveal several arcs in that, in this food-focused world, the cap is actually ten stars and Komatsu is actually a solidly mid ranked chef at the start.

There are so many more things because the worldbuilding of Toriko is in turns mind-blowingly brilliant and absolutely unhinged and I love that but basically they do an amazing job managing the audience's expectations by leveraging our knowledge of the real world and tropes commonly used in similar media to set up and then pulling the rug out from under us and I love it.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

God I wish we knew more about Dunyasha

[emry-stars-art]

A first rough try at common upper class clothing for royal au Evermore and Palmetto kingdoms respectively! Featuring second King Ichirou and Lord Abram Minyard, naturally

[noodlewitchery]

i really like how 'perfect' geometry represents heaven in a way in this story, because we got to see the gate of pride as cubes right. and then this is mentioned

also! leah's powers (her water manipulation here) show her turning the rain into perfect blocks of any size. since she's familar with channeling the angel's power i'd imagine the block shape is either second-nature or something she was taught by the church...?

and this moment where dante purifies her wounds back in the beezlebub arc.

here where she's putting beezlebub in chains.

also worth mentioning: when she channels the angels' power she has a triangle halo over her head. (love this panel by the way..... my favorite leah panel Ever).

and triangles by themselves already have a ton of symbolism!! a quick search will tell you they're associated with:

Christianity (& 3 parts of the Holy Trinity, God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit)

Fire, water, air, and earth, are all alchemic elements depicted with different upright and upside-down triangles

that's especially cool, considering leah's skill is 'alchemy', which is learning how to combine her faith with science to actually channel that power. super fun detail

this post is long enough as is but. also the fact that in (beezlebub arc) paradise the entire sequence involves rectangles, dante's salt pillar powers are drawn solid and blocky, it's all reinforcing the idea that heaven is minecraft perfect geometry.

[cookie-lore-keeper]

Here’s a question! How do cookies get in and out of earthbread? Like when gingerbrave escaped from the witch’s hut he somehow get transported to earthbread, same with white lily cookie who also somehow got to watch the witch’s banquet and returned back to earthbread. Is there like some kind of portal between earth and earthbread?

1) To answer your question, yes, there are portals that link the Cookie World to the Witch's World. The most well-known portal is the First Oven, which is a direct link to the Witch's World from the Cookie World. Cookies that are baked by the witches in the Witch's World that end up in Earthbread are often baked in that oven. It's also how White Lily Cookie managed to see the banquet of the witches. Every thousand years, the cookies can use the portal there to enter the witch's world.

2) The Witch's Hut and the Witch's Castle are in the cookie world. The witches managed to make a portal the Cookie World that allowed them to travel there, so now they are able to have residence in Earthbread.

Does it suck that the witches who eat cookies decided to take up residence in Earthbread? Yes. But, they mostly keep to themselves and make their own cookies to eat, ao you don't have much to worry about there. (Ubless you're a cookie that was baked there. If so, good luck to you 🫡)

[whump-in-the-closet]

Savior Universe

Worldbuilding that I'm too lazy to include in the storyline without an insane amount of exposition.

Savior Agency is based in a dystopian setting, somewhat current, somewhat near future; in a society similar to ours but with centralized power. 

This hero agency acts as an extension of the government, superseding law enforcement but not quite military 

Abilities are something dormant in every person but are only “unlocked” under severe stress/ pain. This isn’t publicized– emphasis is placed on keeping the creation of heroes a very tight secret, keeping the active number of heroes in each city manageable. 

It’s very rare to discover someone with traditional superhero abilities (i.e. invisibility, super strength, super speed) and much more common to have an ability that’s less stable/ less useful in combat (i.e. a polyglot who unlocks an ability to speak a language as soon as they hear it, someone who’s emotions draw plants to them, without really controlling them). 

Those with more typical superhero abilities tend to go very far in Savior, saving the city from dissenters and protecting average citizens from crime in very public stunts. Every hero has a purpose under the all-seeing eye of Savior. 

The law states these heroes have signed up voluntarily, and their compensation is in their newfound abilities. The contract doesn’t specify the amount of time they have to work for Savior. Although articles are published about normal people with superhero abilities, no one has encountered them outside the Agency.

Sometimes, ridiculously rich people or corporations acquire heroes as personal bodyguards and go against the law to achieve their personnel, paying Savior off under the table for their training. 

It’s not uncommon for dissenters or protestors against Savior to go missing and be coerced into signing on. Nor is it impossible for someone to have their enemies “recruited” by Savior. 

Training involves a whole lot of torture, mostly psychological, drugs, isolation, and beatings. Heroes who vocally resist their training are “muted”-- vocal cords are removed or severely damaged. 

Before heroes have unlocked their abilities, but after they’ve joined Savior, they will be under the instruction of a Mentor, whose purpose is to “break” the recruit down until they reach the lowest possible point where they can then unlock their abilities and continue onto training. 

Often, a Mentor is someone with powerful abilities who can withstand any attacks from the new hero lashing out at them with their discovered abilities, and then punish them for doing so. 

Training facilities are described as grey or beige, with “white rooms” for isolating training heroes. 

A typical uniform for a hero involves a blue hero suit and mask. A typical trainee uniform is a blue shirt and shorts. 

Outside of Savior, there are a few dissenters who help runaway heroes/rescued trainees. The movement itself doesn’t have a name as secrecy is key. Raids are common and feared. All involved in helping a runaway hero usually end up inside a training facility, outside of the law. 

[telesodalite]

I love the idea that, whenever a Cybertronian space-faring vessel lands or docks within a predominantly non-Cybertronian space station or port, that it's required that they either confirm or deny whether their vessel is sentient or not before being permitted to land.

1. For proper accommodation and clarification, along with the chance for communication between the vessel and crews working the station/port.

2. Because there has been... incidents... incidents that have led to the requirement of the above reasons.

[bengallemon]

< It's cold. That's how night works. The beach you are on is not lightless. Like home.

< It was dawn before. When you woke. That's how time works. You did not understand where you were.

< It hurt to stand. That's how exhaustion works. You struggled to get up before beginning to wander further inland, to try and find home.

< The heat blinded and stung. That's how the sun works. You headed forward until you saw houses alongside the water and beach. Almost like home.

< There was movement ahead, people seeing and rushing forward. That's how life and curiosity works. They stopped when they reached you, extending their hands.

< However. The strange ones only had arms to reach to you for, only legs to run to you on.

< You extended out your limbs to them, opened your mouth to ask where you are, why you're on a beach you cannot recognise-

< They freeze. The people stop and draw their hands away, their feet already ready to run.

< They do not recognise you as one similar to their kind, their strange, four-limbed existence, their flightless lives.

< The strange ones panic. They speak static to you, rising to show how they are afraid.

< You continue to reach, to ask, to understand. The closest figure raises their fists.

< You scream and fall back. That is how injury and pain work.

< You.

< Turn. And run.

< You do not stop running. Not for a second. This is how fear works.

< ...

< It's cold. That's how water works. It splashes against you, over you, around you. It's.... comforting.

< ...

< You realise.

< You do not know where you are.

< You do not know how to get home.

< You cannot remember where home is.

< You....

< Cannot remember home.

< You are alone, without name nor family nor memory nor home.

< This is how life will work from now on.

[elbiotipo]

Question: he would the hair in cat ears work for catgirls? do they get the same hair covering the ears as the rest of the head or would it be shorter for the ears only? if a catgirl has long curly hair, is the hair covering the ears also long and curly?

I would have to research that, but given I have a research subject next to me (my cat) cats do seem to have shorter hair in their ears by default, which makes sense because ears are well, ears, and they need to be mobile and clear of obstructions.

You can see here that this cat (not mine, he went away as I was writing this) has medium-length fur but the hairs covering the ears are rather short. It makes sense it would be the same for catgirls.

Now, does this mean that cat-people hair would be the same as their fur? Do notice that cat fur has a very different length and texture from human hair in that human hair doesn't have that layered thing that makes most mammal fur, individual hairs are also much longer. Furthermore, humans are WEIRD, just plain WEIRD in our hair distribution. No other mammals are like us, there are certainly hairless mammals, for sure, but the human distribution of hair is very much unlike other primates, with our hairy heads, stomach/pubic areas, beard and armpits, while those are usually bald in other primates. There is still considerable debate on the evolution of hairlesness in humans, from endothermic regulation (better sweating) to sexual selection (which might explain the persistance of, well, hair and body hair instead of complete hairlessness). What's interesting is that genes for a full fur (hair, I guess) coat in humans are still there, just disabled into vellus hairs which are a lot less prominent. If you want more on the subject, I warn you, it's a deep dive, but you can start in Wikipedia.

BACK TO CATS THOUGH, something that people often forget is that whiskers are indeed another kind of fur, but not only that, they are active sensory organs that take a big part of brains in many mammals. One we also lack. Humans are strange. But while cats can live without whiskers, it's still something very important to them. So I think that is something we forget about felines and feline characters.

It would also be a real interesting thing if cat-people had different hair, as in the thing in top of our heads (which seems to have evolved to protect our stupid big brains from the sun) similar to cat fur. Perhaps a catgirl would look pretty much human, but from touching the hair, seeing her eyes, perhaps even whiskers, you would see different stuff (assuming a fantasy or such setting). Given our genetics, it's not exactly implausible to have people whose fur just sticks to their hair and tail. It's just, well, I really need to make a post on this sort of stuff one day.

For a VERY fun deep dive into cat coat and eye genetics, I found this site full of deep explanations and charts about cat genetics. Including HYPOTHETICAL cat coats:

Honestly, don't miss it if you're doing cat-like characters. This is way more fun that just sticking ears and a tail and be done with it. Put the cat in catgirls again, that's what I say.

[longagoitwastuesday]

People with Toj.i loving (or even Get.o loving tbh) usernames liking my JJK posts is always kinda baffling. They make me check my tags on the posts they liked because either I wasn't clear about how much I abhor that man in them or they are very open to criticism about their fave character/the character they have the hots for

[comikas-fandom-dump]

What is the reason for Jiraiya have toad features while using Sage Mode?

Some people say that is because he was unable to perfectly balance his own chakra with natural energy but others say that is because his reserves of chakra were not big enough to prevent it.

So, what is the truth?

To prevent gaining toad features, the user must have huge reserves of chakra to counteract the effects of senjutsu (toad features)? Or just has to be able to perfectly balance his own chakra with natural energy?

Once again, I'm not the best with these types of questions, but my personal guess is that it's both.

Fukasaku explains that, in order to acquire sage mode, you need to balance your own chakra with nature energy. If you gather too much nature energy, you will turn into a frog. Even if the scales are just ever so slightly off, the user will gain toad-like features, such is the case with Jiraiya.

But then Fukasaku also explains that without enormous chakra reserves, there is no point in training for sage mode. The nature energy would just overwhelm the user in an instant.

So what is it? Did Jiraiya fail because of poor control or insufficient chakra reserves? I think we need to differentiate between training and mastery.

First of all, nature energy is literally everywhere except it doesn't enter a user's body unless they actively draw from it (compare chapter #409, page 13-15). Fukasaku goes even further and tells Naruto how, besides collecting too much, you can also collect too little nature energy. All of this strongly suggests that the user can limit and stop the influx of nature energy.

Secondly, when Fukasaku explains that large chakra reserves are a prerequisite, he does so not in reference to sage mode itself but in reference to the training that precedes the true acquisition. As we see in the case of Naruto, even individuals with massive chakra reserves will start out struggling to counter-balance the massive influx of nature energy, both with and without the use of toad oil. This means that the training itself is extremely risky to everyone who dares.

In conclusion, large chakra reserves are only the prerequisite for training in the use of sage mode. But when it's about mastery, it all comes down to balancing.

So does Jiraiya just have poor control over nature energy and/or his own chakra? Not quite.

When balancing your own chakra with nature energy, there are mostly three different outcomes:

Too little nature energy (no sage chakra acquired)

Perfect ratio (sage chakra acquired)

Too much nature energy (user turns into a frog)

For obvious reasons, sage mode users will try to hit that perfect ratio, as both the "too little" and the "too much" ends of the spectrum lead to unfavorable results. However, for users like Jiraiya, who struggle to maintain the perfect ratio, there is also an acceptable alternative by drawing in just a little too much nature energy, hitting a nearly perfect ratio. It does have reversible drawbacks (gaining toad features) but it gets the job done and expands the margin of error for the user by not confining them to a metaphorical tightrope.

Now, Naruto, of course, is not forced to make use of the imperfect ratio. This is where my personal theory comes into play: I believe that this difference between master and student is primarily caused by the size of each of their respective chakra pools. With a larger chakra pool, minor fluctuations of influx may not have as much of an effect as they do on smaller chakra pools, giving them greater error margins. If you need a mental image, imagine seasoning your food. The bigger a soup, the less of an effect a spoon of salt will have on the taste.

This would also explain why sage mode training is better suited for individuals with large chakra reserves. Since the early training stages are the most dangerous (as the user still has no control over nature energy), individuals with larger chakra reserves (and therefore bigger margins for error) are less likely to turn into frogs right at the start. Their large chakra reserves are like metaphorical support wheels for learning how to ride a bike.

So yeah, if Jiraiya had a larger chakra pool, he'd probably have an easier time maintaining the perfect ratio for sage mode. Alternatively, if Jiraiya were to train more/harder, he wouldn't need a larger chakra pool. It's not like he physically cannot achieve a perfect ratio, it's just that it'd be harder for him to maintain a perfect balance than it was for Naruto.

Anyway, please keep in mind that this is my theory rather than proven fact.