#the first one is Sufficiently Advanced Magic

[lovelylovelyartist]

Reading Arcane Ascension Series again and uuuuuugh my children, my sweet sweet traumatized children, I just want to wrap each of the characters up in soft blankets and yell at any adult that tries to talk them into life threatening quest shit, "THEYRE 17, LET THEM BE KIDS FOR A LIL LONGER, FFS"

[vixensdungeon]

Alright, time to talk about one of the hot button issues in D&D today: skills, and how they've evolved over the 50-year lifespan of the game. We'll start, of course, from the beginning.

Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

So there actually isn't a skill system here. But the primordial origins are there, in the various neat little procedures of adventuring. Firstly there are languages. Humans know the "common tongue," which at this point isn't a single language, it just refers to the local Lingua Franca. I think all non-human player characters are assumed to be in 20% of other creatures who speak the language along with their own one. You also know an alignment language (Lawful, Chaotic, or Neutral), and one additional creature language for every point of Intelligence above 10.

NPC reactions. This is rolled on a simple 2d6 table for recruiting hirelings. Another 2d6 table is for monster reactions.

Surprise rolls. There are no stealth or perception skills, and adventurers are simply assumed to be sneaking around while in dungeons, with surprise rolled when monsters are encountered.

Doors can be listened at and secret doors found, with simple d6 rolls.

There's also a chance of getting lost in the wilderness, which sort of implies a general ability to not do so in most situations.

And that's basically it! You can already see several different skills we know today forming in the primordial soup.

But you feel like something is missing, right? Ah, of course! We must take a little detour to

Greyhawk (1975)

Did you know that in the original game, the only classes were fighting man, magic-user, and cleric? That's right, the now classic thief would not be introduced until the first supplement! And with them came for the first time actual named skills.

Thieves could open locks, remove traps, listen for noise, move silently, pick pockets, and hide in shadows. Additionally they could read languages, treasure maps, and even magical scrolls at higher levels.

Now, these skills are only for thieves, so what are other characters to do? Well for most of them, nothing. It simply is not a fighter's job to pick pockets, or a cleric's job to open a lock. Certainly an item can be forcefully taken from an NPC, and a door bashed open, so they are not completely helpless in these tasks. But the thief simply excels at doing such things with superior ability and grace. And of course any character can hear noises behind doors, thieves are simply better at it. Moving silently and hiding are two slightly odd skills, as they overlap with surprise rolls but don't interact with them. It can be assumed that a thief moving silently can scout ahead and report back without actually encountering the monsters they find, and a hiding thief can let wandering monsters pass by even when there isn't sufficient cover (as only shadows are needed, other characters can obviously still hide behind cover if they are aware of the need to do so). Other characters can also climb using ropes and other tools, but won't be able to climb sheer surfaces unaided like thieves can, so again the thief can simply do something general in a superior manner.

There are many classes with their own skills to be found in various magazines, but I'm not going to dig through them. So let the totality of original D&D skills be the above.

Next time: we get Advanced

[dduane]

The first part of that last message got me curious -- given how long-running of a series YW is, how do you keep track of All That when writing a new entry? Copious amounts of notes? Re-reading the entire series backlog? Keeping a fully-functioning simulation of the entire YW universe running in your head with perfect accuracy? (only mostly joking with that last one)

And somewhat-relatedly, did you have any plan or idea when you started for how long YW would run? Or was it more of a "I'll keep writing about this universe until it stops churning out ideas," type of thing and that point just (very thankfully!) hasn't happened yet? I know for per-book purposes you're a proponent of outlining (I swear I'll try writing to one one day Q_Q) but do you also apply that to a series as a whole?

Let me take this backwards, as it may make more sense that way.

Particularly when doing series work, outlining is more vital than usual for me. (Which is saying a lot.) Some of the most basic reasons for this are laid out over here.

The simplest one, though, for series outlining, is logistical. Without having achieved a sense well in advance of what events (or effects of events) are going to be most formative or important (or both) for the characters in a series, you won't have allowed yourself time to think about them enough. And to fail to spend enough time on this is to cheat both yourself and the books in the series. (And your readership.)

If you're smart, you learn very early on that attempting to save time by shortchanging or omitting the planning stages is potentially profoundly destructive. You need to have a plan... and you need not to let anyone make you ashamed of needing one. Putting off your detailed character-interaction and event planning in the name of some magically occurring fit of inspiration, or theoretical bid toward creative spontaneity, will serve neither you nor your creation. You can throw "Hail Mary" passes all you like... but you'd better be damn sure there'll be someone in the end zone to receive. ...If not Herself.

...And just in case you're worried, your initial plans can be really loose! They don't have to jump out of your head full-formed like some local war goddess after somebody hits her dad in the head with an axe. The plan for the Middle Kingdoms books—after The Door Into Fire dumped me gasping by the side of the road and left me a few minutes to breathe—was nothing more than "Now that his boyfriend's finally upped the ante beyond all expectations, Freelorn finally gets off his feckless Would-Be Robin Hood shit and gets to work becoming king." I then spent the next decade thinking purposefully about how that was going to happen, and writing the second book in the series—while sufficiently working out the fine details of the climax (and beyond) to then be able to get busy executing the third book. Even though there was a change of publishers between the beginning of that series and the end of it, the basic dead-simple MK plan from a very early stage quickly became detailed and robust enough (because the series was short enough) to withstand the change. Not least because I'd been thinking about it in a general way since the early 1970s... and continue to do so, pretty much daily. The Door Into Starlight is still hanging fire...

YW has been a different story—quite literally—because the only plan extant at the start of things was, "Everybody slowly gets older (and slowly closer)." I always knew there were going to be more than the original three: there was way too much interesting ground to cover to just stop with those. (I've never yet succeeded in finding out who started the rumor that there were only going to be three books. Over time it's become one of those things you just shrug at and move on.)

(Adding a break here, because this does go on a bit. Caution: contains publishing skullduggery, plans ganging aft agley, approximate word counts, software recommendations, and value judgments.)

("Now wait just one minute. 'Feckless would-be Robin Hood shit'? Can she just say that??")

The circumstances surrounding the writing of Deep Wizardry and High Wizardry, though, made it plain to me that I was not going to be at the then-publisher (Dell) all that much longer. By the time HW came out, they were already starting to pull away from midlist books and authors in order to spend that part of the budget on best-sellers... so it became plain to me that attempting to construct a long arc with/at that publisher would have been folly. Because who could be sure what was going to happen next, and blow everything I'd built to smithereens?

Sure enough, when I finished A Wizard Abroad, Dell declined to pick it up (even though the books had been selling steadily and increasingly strongly in paperback). This annoying validation of my concerns—and my shiny new agent's—made it plain to me that further books in the series were going to need to be thematically driven, rather than mostly character-event-driven, and almost entirely capable of being taken as standalones. Any long arc was going to have to be one that could be suspended, or reworked, with little warning. Because what happens to you once, in publishing, doesn't at all mean you're immune to it after that.

It wasn't until the YW books were picked up by Harcourt in the mid-90s, with a strong editorial team behind them, that I felt confident enough to start building longer-arc material into the books, beginning with the arc that kicks off in The Wizard's Dilemma and more or less completes in Wizard's Holiday and Wizards At War. There is a secondary (and I assume, generally less obvious) arc that picks up material still unhandled in the "War Arc," and deals with it in A Wizard of Mars and Games Wizards Play. But plans for those stories' management were already nailed down in electrons as soon as 2001, because I had made some early choices about where I was going with the characters and their situations; and as new books came out, my editors agreed with me that the choices had been sound, and should remain.

I'll say this only because I've said it before: there is one piece of business planted in So You Want To Be A Wizard that has never been explicitly dealt with/followed up on in any of the books, and is at the core of YW #11. For the moment, it's safest merely to say that I do not willingly leave loose ends hanging. Beyond that, I'll leave you all to your own deductions.

...Now. How do I keep track of all this stuff? (The urge to mutter "With great difficulty" and run off into the wings is strong. But never mind.) :)

The question's fair, as there's a million-plus words' worth of it in the series at the moment. ...Mostly my guide remains the books themselves, in ebook form (in their NME versions. If I need to, I refer back to the traditionally published versions as necessary). I normally have a general memory of where a given event happens or where a given issue comes up for handling. I then pull that copy of the ebook(s) in question, and do a search on various useful target phrases until I find what I'm after, and where it leads.

For new work, or stuff not yet committed to what passes for canon, I do have lots of notes. Some of them are actually out in public, at the currently-being-revised Errantry Concordance (though they're not in any form that anyone but me will recognize). Others are tucked away in the notes sections of pertinent Scrivener files—this being one of the most valuable things about Scrivener, as far as I'm concerned: the ability to store project notes in the project itself as opposed to "all over the damn place." Others yet are in my iPad, as either typing or dictation, and get transferred to other files/formats as necessary.

But the very first thing that happens, when a new work comes into train, is an outline. Sometimes a hilariously simple one, sometimes one with more detail in the middle than at the beginning or the end. Doesn't matter what shape it starts in. All notes, scraps, prose chunks, random thoughts, and midnight cogitations, get slotted into place in this until it's ready to be organized and sent off to an editor. And this outline—no matter how fragmentary or how polished—remains ready to hand at all times until I've finished with correcting the book's ARC and am looking at the release date.

And then I zip it up and put it away where I can find it later if I need to... because some other plan, still in the building stages, may need something in that one that never happened, but now has its chance. Because in YW, as everywhere else in my work, it's so often about the things that have always almost happened... until they do.

...Anyway: HTH!

[transmutationisms]

being reductive here but i do think the covid pandemic has & continues to expose a very specific strain of techno-optimistic or utopian thinking wrt medical technologies in particular---this idea that you can simply solve a massive socio-technical problem (disease spread) through a solely technical intervention that thus requires no input or cooperation from the average person besides a vague sort of 'pro-science' stance. you see this first with the crowd who thought the 'post-vaccine world' was one in which things ought to immediately 'get back to normal' but you also see it with those who seem to believe that eg a risky recreational event (parties, bars, &c) would be magically transformed in a binary manner into a wholly 'safe' one if only people were to wear masks. in this sort of politics there is no real understanding of risk as being along a spectrum or varying according to numerous factors including people's social behaviours; instead it is a technical problem solved instantly by a singular technical intervention. there's no need then to engage in larger and messier conversations about things like capitalist de/valuation of biopower, or disabled people's right or ability to participate in society. you sidestep the whole issue because you have applied the right technical means to simply dispense with the political problem. obligatory i wear masks when i have to be in public and i am boosted and blah blah but i'm under no illusion this means i can't get or spread covid (or other diseases). but more to my point here, i think this mode of thinking has dangerous consequences for all manner of social theorising that's simply answered with a lazy appeal to technological 'development' or advance---assumed to be something we can magic away if we throw enough money at pharma companies or weapons manufacturers or whoever else. what this ultimately does is stifle political consciousness and bolster the power and epistemological authority granted to institutions tasked with producing and protecting hegemonic forms. and my point here is not 'anti-science' or techno-pessimistic either; again, i am profoundly grateful for many a technological intervention into my life and i will continue to avail myself of them, including medtech. however the fantasy that problems of political and social forms and arrangements can be solved by sufficiently advanced technology is both foolish and dangerous.

[labelleizzy]

You have to understand what is happening on a mythic level, okay? What we have here is a relatively rare phenomenon: advance warning of an imposed culture change. It is critical to understand what the people who are going to be in charge believe to be true.

As you read this, remember mighty Achilles had a heel.

Everyone has a heroic self, and among the leadermen a coming they are strong and smart and capable; unafraid and fearless, they know better than anyone else how things should be done. The heroic challenge - they have been unjustly prevented from setting things right by a thorny poison wall. Through heroic exertion - generally the use of violence, trickery, and expendable companions - victory is achieved. The wall is severed and the hero prevails. The hero is rewarded with buxom adoration, many children, some degree of material success and the regard of the lesser, non-heroic people.

For thorny poison wall, understand laws, regulation, and the acknowledgement of universal human rights.

Within the myth, the hero in confidently invincible. Outside of the myth, confidence does not guarantee success. This can be quite a shock to the system. It is important to push back. The hero may still kill their opponents, but eventually someone will get him. Even immortals die from time to time; it's the rebirth thing that saves their ass.

Why is it so important to this hero to control fertility is because on a very deep primal level they understand it's their only route to divinity. As much as they value innovative accomplishment - and heroes by definition are surrounded by novelty, they are always the first in a strange land - they cannot through their own efforts ascend to being any greater than they are. Women, specifically via the provision of children, make heroes into better men, at a minimum, and via sufficiently obedient behaviors, into the closest to Godhood as they're going to get.

When you say but that's gender essentialism, let me clarify that that's exactly the point. The existential threat inherent in independent women is the disruption of the heroic path to divinity. They may say it is a mission from God, but in fact, it is a mission to be God.

And how do we defeat would be Gods? We don't believe in them. We certainly don't treat them with the fear and dread they desire. There is no respect or veneration due. That thorny, poison wall will hold. They that hold it may bleed, but the wall will hold. It may get cut but as long as one thorn remains, it will grow back. Regulations and laws are written in blood. They are sacred words in their own way. But they must, like all magic words, be used, guarded, and protected.

You may not live long, with what's coming. But in myth, you live forever. Their way of being a hero is not the only way. And somebody has to save our ass.

If you were waiting on a call, this is it.

(author requests anonymity)

[elodieunderglass]

Delicious in Dungeon and Weasel Heart in Defiance are wonderful (as is the Sharpe story; my inner teenage crush on Sgt Harper was immediately rekindled).

My ask is a silly one. I'm writing a story where a spell/knot of spells/magical algorithm briefly posessess a weasel. That's actually pretty normal in my setting -- but normal doesn't make a good story. The spells should dissipate after their task is done; instead of fading away it retains the weasel-shape and weasel-spirit (not the weasel itself; it goes home just fine) and becomes Something Else. (Her name is "I.")

The ask: what advice would Bee offer to the newly enweaseled? (Provided she's willing to advise without hire, of course. Don't want to cause any issues with the union.)

(In reference to the absurd crop of daemon AUs I’ve randomly written this year, and Bee the least weasel from Weasel Heart / His Delicious Materials)

Thank you so much! I love this!

Bee does have a secret weakness for silly and trashy fiction, according to a joke scene in HDM that I’ll never probably be able to fit in anywhere, so she would be super into The Assassins of Thasalon by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is part of the Penric and Desdemona series, in which wild demons (scraps of elemental chaos) sometimes possess animals and imprint on them, picking up their intelligence; after passing through human hosts they become humanised. In the setting, a person who catches a sufficiently advanced/humanised demon becomes a sorcerer and can do chaos magic. In Assassins the characters meet someone who has taken on a wild new weasel demon. So her first advice would be to passionately insist that your weasel ought to pick up this story, because it’s Representation. She would REALLY like to be part of a mustelid book club. Would “I” like to be in the book club with her -

(This is where she slightly diverges from her human, who, to Bee’s annoyance, in the belief that it would help him avoid a conversation, has claimed in front of witnesses that he “couldn’t read.”)

For more advice she offers VERY reasonable retainer! daily rates payable in advance.

[renguro]

My first dunmeshi OC, Pickpen who is very precious and close to my heart I'm really not certain what to type here other than uh explodes x1000 look at him if you think i haven't been putting out enough canon content it's his damn fault

(adventurers bible style profile writings under the cut if you wanna know more about him also you can ask--)

Raised within the confines of the dungeon, Pick has adapted to become an intensely clever and self-sufficient young man. Through a combination of actions to look trustworthy, and then breaking the favor he curries without the other person even realizing it, he lies and cheats his way through every interaction to get exactly what he wants. Though his actions make him look two-faced, this half-foot would argue it’s all for the sake of survival, and that he just happens to be better at it than everyone else. Though half-foots using magic is nearly unheard of, Pick is an extremely advanced magic user, weaving illusions to be somewhere one moment, and gone the next. Just how did he acquire these abilities…?

True Name: Pickpen Roys Age: 15 years old Race/Gender: Half-foot / Male Birthplace: Northern Central Continent Family: Father (deceased), Mother (deceased) Physique: Roughly 95cm / BMI 20 Likes: Everything he hasn’t had Dislikes: Rabbit, Mushrooms

[rhodes-knightwife]

Okay! So, first chapter - and cutscene chapter - of Path of Life! There's a lot there, so let's take it by characters, shall we?

Starting with Rhodes and the Abyss Hunters, I should preface this by saying I do not have the right context for this event. I have not played Under Tides, I have not played Stultifera Navis, and I have not played most of the main story. I know some things through the grapevine, but I am mostly in the dark. With all that said, while seeing Kal'tsit actually concerned for the Doctor's well-being made me feel like I woke up in some alien planet, hearing more about Skadi and Specter's lives before they became Bloodborne characters is delightful, as is seeing Laurentina post-treatment in a way I'd never seen firsthand. Gladiia is interesting enough so far, but without the context from previous events I can't comment on her much. This line was funny though:

When it comes to the Iberians, Irene and Jordi are quite fun, though I do know that I also lack context on their end. Their personalities are made clearer though, and Jordi's struggle is laid out plain and presented sympathetically; I do want to see him find himself in a meaningful way. And the buddy cop dynamic between Irene and Secunda promises to be fun, I appreciate Underflow's no-nonsense sort of attitude.

And speaking of, the main star of the show - Ægir itself. What a god damn introduction. I felt GENUINE fear when they picked up signatures from the SKY and we were greeted with this:

Seeing Ægir come in with such a show of force and a display of superior tech all in one sells perfectly everything they're about. Progress, yet also arrogance in a way that's so effortless it almost can't possibly be malicious! (Almost.) From the greco-roman names and the almost cyberpunk take on togas and tunics, they go HARD into being presented as superior, enlightened, and thus alien. Any sufficiently advanced tech may as well be magic... and not all magic feels like it's meant to be understood.

I have no idea if Clementia is a villain or not, but I truly hope she is, because if so she'd be one of my favorite kinds. The kind that in a sense, believes she truly knows best! She comes at you with a sword, yes, but also with open arms and a warm embrace... you almost can't believe she'd ever do anything to harm you.

(Almost.)

[comicaurora]

I know you done content on hard versus soft magic systems but what is your opinion on crunchy versus smooth?

I will use atla to explain.

Season one The power system is well defined but basic Air Water Earth Fire. Simple to understand very straightforward (smooth)

By the end of the legend of Korra, you have several sub-categories and completely new categories as well (crunchy)

ah, a greebled magic system

I like complicated "crunchy" yet rigidly-defined magic systems, because they give the creator a lot of stuff to play with while also giving them constraints to operate in that dictate a lot of what can and can't happen with the plot. The danger, of course, is in introducing a form of magic that actually makes no sense, or something that devalues other elements of the system because its impact wasn't fully reasoned out, or carving off a part of an existing magic chunk and making it inaccessible for unjustified reasons.

I also feel like sometimes the extra crunch of a magic system can betray a lack of creativity on the part of the creator - having to invent entirely new magics instead of considering new applications for the old ones.

Bloodbending? Lightning-bending as an advanced firebending technique? Combustion Man as a unique one-off assassin? That armless waterbender lady with a completely new martial arts style? Zaheer using airbending to kill the Earth Queen? Dope new applications of existing concepts that make the magic system feel large, fluid and powerful. These are extensions of existing concepts that feel logical, or at least understandable.

Airbenders Who Abandon All Earthly Connections Can Levitate Now? Weird and kind of retroactively disruptive that it never came up before.

By The Way Lavabending Is Its Own Special Weird Thing Now Like Metalbending Was? Feels like we needed to invent a reason for this sidelined character to matter.

There's a risk to carving off too many chunks of a magic system, I think. Avatar started simple: everything the heroes could do or figure out was an extension of first principles. Lightning is kinda like weird pure fire, so lightning-bending made sense as an advanced firebending technique with a big risk of blowing up in your face. Bloodbending is literally something any waterbender can do once they realize it's possible - the horror of it is that it's a forbidden technique that becomes impossibly easy just by knowing about it. Toph figuring out metalbending by virtue of having a completely unique and incredibly granular sense for the earth around her ALSO worked, because (a) "metal can't be bent" has been firmly established several times and is clearly common knowledge, and (b) she was clearly the first person who'd ever had that combination of skill and disability and she was building her style from the ground up.

By the Korra timeline, however, we start running into things like lavabending, which should absolutely not be its own weird thing. It's just rock. We've already seen Kyoshi bend lava. If I recall correctly, the show doesn't sufficiently explain why lavabending is a weird separate thing from earthbending, making it feel like a logical component of the earthbending powerset is being arbitrarily gated just to make an otherwise disregarded character Slightly Important by being able to do it.

Stuff like that makes the magic system feel less internally solid. "Why CAN'T this magic do [thing]" is an extremely important question for a worldbuilder to be able to answer, and an overly greebled and partitioned magic system often can't explain why magic X and magic Y are totally separate. Skills and techniques and personal preferences among casters are fine to explain why something may or may not be possible for someone, but "what magic can and can't do and WHY" is something that I think should be as firmly, logically coherent as possible.

[shadowgast-recs-weekly]

Science Fiction: A Shadowgast Rec List

This week, we have science fiction! Check under the cut for 7 fics that include a lot of space and other sci-fi tropes, and don't forget to comment and kudos if you like them!

The Schwarzschild Solution by dawl_and_dapple (13650, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

A series of meetings between Caleb and Essek across the galaxy.

Reccer says: Loved the build between them and the picture of the universe they live in

A Tapestry of Stars by Cinderstorm (127981, Not Rated) Reccer's Content Notes: Choose Not to Warn, Rape/Non-con, Dubcon/Consensual Non Consent, Domestic Abuse, WIP

Caleb and Essek end up in a political arranged marriage - in space!

Reccer says: There's so much politics and intrigue and feelings!

into the desert of your pitiless faith by burningdarkfire (24913, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

Essek is a newly-arrived ambassador in Rexxentrum, Beauregard is his assigned cultural liaison, and Caleb is the consecuted soul at the back of his mind. Empires and Dynasties do not serve: they consume. (A Memory called Empire AU)

Reccer says: So lyrical, and fascinating - you don't need to be familiar with A Memory Called Empire to read it, but reading this fic might make you want to read the novel, and that's a double win in my opinion.

calling occupants of interplanetary craft by principessa (1273, General) Reccer's Content Notes: None

Essek Thelyss, the sole Vulcan on the USS Eden Horizon, would quite like to be left to his experiments, and for the rest of the crew to stop calling his intellectual discussions with Commander Widogast 'weird science flirt lunch dates.'

Reccer says: It's a lot of fun!

you must first invent the universe by renquise (3466, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

The Mighty Nein are getting ready for a big fight. Caleb can't seem to sleep while they wait, so he ends up talking with the ship instead.

Reccer says: Absolutely fascinating world building!!

such a constellation by Chrome (6362, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

Exhausted and disillusioned with Starfleet in the aftermath of the destruction of Romulus and the loss of his friend, Romulan maybe-spy Essek Thelyss, Caleb Widogast retires to his parent's farm in Germany with the intent to view the stars through a telescope from now on. But an unexpected arrival changes everything, and Caleb discovers that the wider universe may not quite be done with him yet.

Reccer says: This is a fabulous fusion that encapsulates the wizards so perfectly in a different story. Worth every second of the read!

Sufficiently Advanced Magic by SaltCore (5880, General) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Caleb and Essek met Spock, Captain Kirk and the protagonists of the Locked Tomb series? No? Me neither, but I sure am glad I found out!

Reccer says: For one, the origin story of this fic is uniquely wholesome - it came to be as a result of all three pairs reaching the finale of a shipping tumblr poll, to extend an olive branch and honour the ships' place in their fandoms' hearts. Secondly, it's SO funny. There's humour in every little detail and it gives me a Douglas Adams vibe. The characters' voices in their POVs are distinct and endearing too. I keep returning to it when I need my spirits lifted.

Aeor is for Lovers is an 18+ Shadowgast Discord server. The above fanfic recommendations were pulled from our community for this weekly event. All fics, unless otherwise specified, will primarily feature Shadowgast. Have any questions about what this is? Check out the FAQ! Next week, we’ll be back with Established Relationships!

[kwali21]

Sahara

Species : Red fox Gender : Female Age : 26 Rank : Knight

PROCEDE WITH CAUTION

Glyph user, domain of interest seem to be weapon making and some elemental manipulation (see the "Glyph magic" chapter below for further details). Extend of fighting and glyph capabilities are unknown, as she flee when encountered. Used as an information gatherer.

Glyph magic

Glyph appear as magic circle from wich one command is given. They are extremely versitale, as the command, born from gathered knowledge, can be almost anything.

To create one (for example : make a hammer) everything must be known : what it is, how it's made, what's the weight, size, materials, how does surface react when impact with it… It can take days to months to create a single one and if the possessed knowledge is'nt sufficient, the user won't be able to write down a glyph. Given that, glyph user have, usually, 1 or 2 domains of interest in wich they train (weapon making, elemental manipulation, healing…), having 90% of they're create seal in those domain, the 10% left are in fields that support the principal interest or go in completely different directions, the best have been known to have up to 300 hundred different glyph. The resulting creation aren't lasting if separate from the caster (to continue with the hammer example, it will disappear in under a minute if knock out of the user's hand).

Advance glyph manipulators are capable of : -Conjuring glyph where they are looking, up to 20 meters away from them. -Convergence : the use of two glyph simultaneously, creating a new effect; again knowledge must be possess as they must understand how the glyphs react when put together.

End of report.

Sahara have been with the cult for almost half of her life. She lived her 14 first year in smuggler's sanctuary, a place quite infamous, the name being pretty explicit. Useless to say that when you take a preteen, that only know the life of street orphan, out of this type of place, you got yourself quite a loyal follower. She didn't even know how to read before joigning in (not a good thing for a glyph user, as they are true knowledge hoarder).

When discover in her usual mission for the cult, she flee immediately and is quite good at scampering, meaning that no space riders as ever truly fought her. It is probably for the best as she will react with extreme aggression if feeling corner. In this case (almost) nothing is above her, clawing, biting, throwing dust in the eyes, pulling adversary to take friendly fire... She will be fighting with a "kill or be killed" mentality, an habit she kept from the sanctuary.

The sand rose at her belt was her only possession back at the sanctuary, it is extremely precious to her. In term of character she is calm and never raise her voice, she is also a deeply lonely individual, who crave companionship but remain extremely caution and distant from other (again due to her childhood in the sanctuary). The cult save her in a way, but in the long run it does not give her the much needed solace. Prayer, missions and red smoke kept her from thinking too much about it, but it doesn't fix the problem, only let it fester.

AU belong to @onyxonline

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 1C, MATCH 14 OUT OF 16!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Spinderella:

They are Cinderella Spiderman style. She chose to keep her powers after midnight so now she no longer has the ability to fall in love. 🥺

Cinderella:

Alright so, background: Girl Genius is a steampunk webcomic; they fill their hiatuses with mini arcs, one of them was a Cinderella parody, and despite being *checks notes* almost 15 years old and only like 20 pages, it stays living in my mind rent free. Half because it's deeply hilarious and half because it was the first real crumb towards the ot3 (I'm not crazy, the signs do point to it being endgame I swear) The Propaganda: - both love interests get to be the prince (constant bickering ensues) - they host a combination ball/science fair (because they are all mad scientists, obviously) - Cinderella reverse engineers her fairy godmother's magic wand ("any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science!" "what's with the quotation marks? who said that?" "me!") - it ends with her taking over the kingdom with a giant mecha army. truly the perfect fairytale ending It starts here: https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081121 but if you want an image the best one is probably: https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081215

[ckret2]

I MAY HAVE just had a Ford kin moment reading your latest chapter. I legitimately read Bill saying "magics not real" and my first thought was "huh I wonder why he believes that. Maybe something about the semantics of the definition? or the context?" It SOMEHOW did not occur to me that sometimes Bill lies and is a liar. At this rate I am going to forget he's a triangle next. Great chapter by the way!

SDLHFLK Bill claims to be a trapezoid and everyone wonders which corner is actually a very tiny 4th side before remembering that sometimes he just lies recreationally. Calling that a Ford kin moment is so funny/accurate.

But actually: yeah, you're supposed to think that!! I wanted you to briefly take him at face value, and wonder: what's his definition of "magic" for him to say it's not real, is this an "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" deal, does he know too much about the true inner workings of magic to call it that word anymore? What do we know now about Bill that we didn't know before, that he exists in a world where chanting bad Latin raises corpses into zombies and he can say "what's happening here isn't magic"?

But also he lies. In three days he might say "computers are magic, kid!" and expect you to take him just as seriously.

I think truth is malleable to him. Most of the things he says live in the fuzzy space between honest and dishonest, and even he doesn't settle on which they are unless he says something later on that retroactively establishes the level of (dis)honesty of the thing he said earlier. His idea of reality isn't steel-hard facts but soft mushy clay, and he squishes it around with his words not based on what he thinks is true but based on what feels right.

"Magic isn't real" means "magic isn't the proper mental framework through which to examine the current phenomenon or phenomena like it, therefore right now I am dispensing of it as an option to ensure that we examine the situation exclusively with non-magical tools," and also means "magic literally isn't real, you're mistaking other things for magic," but also magic literally IS real and Bill's just fucking around, unless magic isn't real and I'm the one fucking around by calling Bill's claim into question. The ambiguity goes all the way down, my friend. Magic is subjective; what is magic? Can you define it? Maybe Bill and the invisible narrative voice just have different definitions.

I think that while he said "magic isn't real" Bill believed magic wasn't real, but he probably changed his mind within thirty seconds. It's really easy to sound confident in a lie when you buy your own bull.

[belit0]

PLEASE Izuna 1? But can I make a special request that he not use any degrading language (ie bitch, slut, and the like) and instead more nice/praise like pet names?

IT TOOK ME A LONG TIME BUT FINALLY, HERE I AM!

1)Izuna: Keep moaning my name like that.

NSFW PROMPTS!

He knows it must be taking a terrible amount of willpower for (Y/N) to hold on at this moment, not to close her legs and hide between the sheets, to pretend nothing happened. It's her obedience that turns him on so much, how she tries her best to please him, to make him happy, to give him what he wants.

Izuna can't keep his mouth from between her legs, torturing her abused clit over and over again with a tongue that won't rest, having already made her come about three times by bringing out his talent.

The Uchiha believes all his years of bouncing between woman and woman trained him for this, preparing him for the moment when he genuinely wants to please the girl of his dreams, that one he chose to spend the rest of his life with. (Y/N) doesn't know it yet, but she has him in a choke hold, completely smitten and unable to think of anyone but her, ruling his mind and motivating him to be better.

He refuses to believe a woman finally conquered his heart, but the feelings he has for her are undeniable, making him experience a warmth in his chest he has never felt before.

The first few dates, contrary to what had always happened with other girls, were harmless, with no sex, and normal outings. It was a month before he dared to kiss her, and a few more before even mentioning suggestive advances.

When he started bragging about his otherworldly pussy-eating powers, she simply scoffed, laughing at him and thinking it was all empty promises. Izuna became determined to prove she had no idea who she was dealing with, and this very night, he decided to fuck her for the first time. After a romantic dinner and mood setting, he laid her on the bed approximately an hour ago, not letting her up and making her come over and over again.

He still used nothing but his tongue, not even needing his fingers, and (Y/N) showed concern after each orgasm for the integrity of his jaw. She offered to switch places, claiming to have understood his point and acknowledging the magic of his mouth, but the Uchiha brought her back down by dragging her legs towards him and attacking again.

"You're such a good girl, getting all wet for me. You're all mine, aren't you?"

Izuna asks as he wipes his chin, having achieved her fourth orgasm with nothing but his jaw. He rises from the bed and surveys his work. (Y/N) tries to catch her breath in rapid gasps, her chest rising and falling in agitation, legs spread and surrendered to the side of her body with no strength to move them.

The girl nods her head but does not provide a verbal response, and the Uchiha is not satisfied, "Say it, (Y/N). I want to hear you, now." He can see her bite her lips, and knows she's embarrassed to admit what the two have known since the moment they met. Both of them were devoted to each other when their eyes first connected, and even as strangers, there was an unseen force drawing them together. She belonged to him, as much as he belonged to her.

"I'm yours, Izuna."

"That's my pretty girl. Now quiet, love, I want to hear how preciously wet you are for me, it's intoxicating." He demands while undressing, having denied her any touch of his body until she was sufficiently ready for him.

He climbs over her form, and leads (Y/N)'s exhausted legs to wrap around his waist. The girl follows his silent instructions smoothly, yielding to his will and ready to be used as he desires.

Before the main course, he gently slides his fingers along the outside of her cunt, brushing with a terrible stillness against her clitoris, triggering a reaction of hypersensitivity. He kisses her before she can moan, stifling the sounds with his lips, swallowing every exclamation of pleasure to hear the noises happening between her legs.

He knows she's embarrassed, but it drives Izuna crazy to have evidence of the effect he generates in her body.

His fingers rapidly stroke that spot, double digits making her see stars as Izuna steals her breath with kisses, and as she is about to finish for the fifth time, the Uchiha moves his hand out of the way to replace it with his cock.

They both moan simultaneously, and he allows her to scream out to the four winds as he assaults her neck with wet kisses, his tongue leaving a wet trail from her earlobe to her nipples.

"Shit… keep moaning my name like that, such a good, beautiful girl." He keeps a slow pace, letting her get used to the overstimulation and allowing her used clit a rest. (Y/N) receives and gives everything she has to offer for Izuna to continue until he decides enough is enough, to the point when he determines to cum.

It doesn't appear to be soon; I can tell you that much.

"Make no doubt about it, pretty one. I am going to use you as I need, but you've been so good, you get to decide how. So, tell me, how do you want it, my love?"

"Slo-ow first...fa-ast when you need!" She slowly gets used to the sensation, and her body gradually relaxes, molding itself to Izuna and no longer feeling extremely sensitive. She knows once he realizes this, he will eventually pick up the pace he wants, fucking her brutally and the way he likes it.

Her pussy is going to be exhausted, red, and swollen, but her man will take such good care of her after this, she doesn't even care.

The Uchiha follows her instructions, and when he notices (Y/N) no longer has trouble cooperating with the stimulation, he progressively increases thrusting, forgetting her pleasure to seek his own. She surrenders to his choice and allows the use of her body in achieving the peak Izuna wishes to reach.

"I told you, pretty girl, you have no idea who you're dealing with."

[levicorpus94]

Longing

A/N: Hello, this is my first time posting fanfic. Most of my fanfic end up in my drafts. I hope you enjoy.

Warnings: Some angst ig

Sebastian x f!reader

Note: F!reader will be called “she/her”, I don’t particularly enjoy using “M.C” or “Y/N”

Part 2

————————————————————————

It had been five years since she had graduated from Hogwarts. She was now running a small flower and herb shop near Ottery St. Catchpole. Her shop included flowers, magical plants and also vegetation plants. Her shop was attached to her home. She had a small farm with a greenhouse just behind her house where she grew the plants that she sold in her shop.

She also had a few cows and other non magical animals. She lived a self-sufficient life and she was happy but sometimes, she would feel a little alone. She was thankful for her plants and animals but she also missed her friends.

She would sometimes have Poppy and Imelda visiting her every month or so.

She also kept in touch with Ominis though she hadn't heard from him for over a year. She unexpectedly kept the most in touch with Garreth who lived not too far from her little farm.

But mostly, she yearned to hear from Sebastian who had disappeared into the void after their final days in Hogwarts. She felt a pang of anger whenever she thought of him. Sebastian, the boy she was desperately in love with.

The boy who confessed to her of his undying love. The boy, who promised to be by her side forever. But here she was living by herself. She sometimes smiled when she thought of him, their shenanigans, their late night misadventures, even of the boring classes they sat in.

Everything about him seemed so surreal, he now seemed like a faraway dream. She missed him dearly but she wanted answers from him about his empty promises. Why did he stop? Stop talking to her? Stop writing to her? Stop being her friend?

Sometimes, when her heart ached enough for him, she would lightly shed a tear looking through the things they shared and exchanged with each other when they were younger and optimistic.

A piece of parchment which Sebastian passed her during transfiguration asking her to accompany him to the three broomsticks. A small sneakoscope that he gave her that no longer worked. His old advanced book of potions that they shared with number of scribbles all over.

A red rose now completely dry he gave her the first time they spent valentines day together in their 5th year. Her broken spectacles that he accidentally sat on when they were in their 6th year. A silver opal shaped pendant with a necklace with an emerald stone he gave her for last birthday.

She would sift through these mementos among many other letters, scraps and parchments, Sebastian and her shared. Sometimes, she would smile and reminisce fondly of the best days of her life alongside the best people she met and sometimes, she would break down crying into the early hours of the morning.

Her heart longed for him, sometimes she would try to forget about him but would fail miserably. How could she forget those mischievous but loving eyes, his crooked yet smug smile, and his hair, his messy and soft hair.

She missed holding onto his hair as he would bury himself in her neck or elsewhere. Those thoughts would make her smile and a blush would more often than not creep up on her cheeks.

-

One fine evening, she was tending her greenhouse, when she heard the bell of her shop ring. It was a slow day and it was almost closing time, she slowly walked back to her shop. There was a pretty young woman looking at some of the pansies.

"Hello, may I help you?" She asked the customer.

"Oh hello, I was just admiring your flowers here. They're beautiful." She said cheerfully. A smile crept up her face.

"Thank you." She smiled.

"I was wondering if you have any dittany seeds?" She asked.

"Oh yes. I keep seeds in the back. I'll just get them for you. How many shall I get you?" She asked as she headed to the back.

"Oh, just 2 packets." She heard her.

"Sebastian, come take a look at these beauties." She heard the customer say. Her heart skipped a beat. But Sebastian was a common name, it must be someone else. She found the seeds and went back to the front to hand them to her.

She was now standing with a man, tall, messy brown hair, his hands in his pockets. She only saw the side of him and she knew it was him. She felt a lump in her throat.

She coughed to announce that she had returned.

"Can we take these pot of pansies too?" She said and the both turned around.

It was Sebastian. Sebastian Sallow, in the flesh. Her eyes couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was him.

"Ofcourse!" She said in a falsely cheery voice trying not to get a glance of Sebastian. "That'll be 15 sickles and 10 knuts." She mumbled looking down at her feet.

"Hi, there!" Sebastian said all of a sudden. It was him in the flesh, he sounded the same as he did in school. His voice, his damned voice, that oozed confidence with a touch of smugness. Damn, she loved to hear his voice.

She ignored him still looking at her feet. She felt she would cry if she even looked at him.

"Oh do you know each other?" The girl asked looking at Sebastian.

"Yes, we went to Hogwarts together." He said calmly.

Went to Hogwarts together. His words stung her, she couldn't believe her ears. She couldn't believe he thought so little of her, a new pang of emotion struck her, the one of anger and confidence.

"Oh yeah! Sallow right? Sebastian Sallow." She said smiling, plastering a fake one quickly.

"She was a pretty good duellist back in the day." He smirked. She knew that smirk, it was the old him, his mischievous yet smug smile, the one that challenged her, the one that riled her up.

"Hah! Still am." She retorted back. The girl beside him looked up at Sebastian and back at her and smiled ear to ear.

"It was good meeting you. Always a pleasure to meet one of Sebastian's friends. We're going to be late Sebastian." She said tugging his arm as she led him out of the shop.

As soon as she heard them dissapparate, she felt tears roll down her cheeks. She stood by the counter as tear fell down on to the counter. She quickly wiped off her tears and proceeded to close her shop for the day.

She went back to her cows and tried to continue with the remainder of her day.

-

It was late at night and Garreth had come over for dinner. He seemed to be the only friend she had at the moment. She was thankful for his company, the few giggles and laughs they shared, she cherished.

"I am finally getting my potions book published!" He said joyfully.

"Merlin's beard Garreth! That is wonderful." She said pulling him into a hug.

"I cannot believe it." She said pulling away smiling at him.

"To be honest, me neither." He said sheepishly. Garreth had grown quite a bit after Hogwarts and he had kept his long curly hair, that helped him get the ladies, he said.

"To think of our Garreth, the Garreth who blew up every cauldron he touched." She laughed.

"You must blow up a few cauldrons, to finally blow people's minds." He said smugly.

"Not literally... I hope." She laughed.

"Yeah yeah." He played off her words.

"Oh, I'm going to be touring with my book release." He announced.

She felt her heart skip a beat when she heard him tell her of his latest announcement. Her frown unknowingly must've crept up to her face.

"I'll write to you every week." He said quickly grabbing her shoulders looking into her eyes before she could plaster a smile on her face.

"You can write to me whenever you have time Garreth." She assured him smiling back.

"I'm just so happy for you. I cannot wait to see you on the daily prophet." She said smiling.

"I promise I'll keep in touch. I know you miss me." He smirked.

"You wish Weasley." She smiled poking him playfully.

"I've got to get going. I'm leaving early in the morning." He continued.

"You're going tomorrow?" She asked surprised. He nodded.

"Well. Keep in touch Weasley." She said giving him another hug. She almost didn't want to let him go. And maybe he felt it too as he held her as tight as he could.

As they pulled away, a tear had crept out of her eye. He wiped it away with his thumb, but his hand rested on her cheek. The two looked at each other and he leaned ever so slightly forward and she did the same.

There was a loud knock on the door. This startled them.

"Who could that be?" She said looking at the time, it was almost midnight.

"Wait." Garreth told her and went to open the door.

It was "Sallow?" Garreth announced in utter shock.

"What are you doing here?" Garreth asked him.

"I might ask you the same thing Weasley." Sebastian replied, his voice was cold and indifferent when seeing Garreth even after so many years.

"I was just saying goodbye to my dear friend here. I'm leaving tomorrow for my book tour." He said with the same indifference.

"Safe travels Garreth." She said as she went to hug him again. He smiled and kissed the top of her head before he left.

"What's he doing here?" Sebastian asked.

"What are YOU doing here?" She asked back.

"I wanted to see you." He replied.

"Why?" She asked turning away from him.

"Why? Because I wanted to see you!" He said his voice a little louder.

"It's late Sallow. You can visit the shop when it's open but the shop is closed tomorrow. So you may return when it's open." She said turning away from him.

He stood there silent. "I came to visit you not the shop." He began.

"Well, it's much too late for a social visit. If it wasn't for Garreth, I would've been asleep already." She said walking away. Sebastian didn't move from where he was standing. She could feel his gaze following her around the room.

"Can we talk?" He practically begs.

"Depends. What about?" She asks, her back still facing him.

"About us." He begins.

"Get out." She says slamming her fist on the table next to her.

"I'm not doing this Sallow. You leave right this moment." She says as she walks to open the door.

"Since when have you started calling me Sallow?" He asked still not moving from his place.

"You need to go right now." She yanks his arm and directs him outside and immediately slams the door on his face. She slumps down on the floor her back leaning against the wall as tears automatically fall from her cheeks to the floor.

Her heart hurts, she feels like she can't breathe, there is a lump in her throat making it hard for her to swallow. She covers her face with her hands as she sobs into her hands.

"I hate you." She whimpers. Little did she know that Sebastian was still on the other side of the door. He had slumped down to the floor as well. He could hear her crying. He heard her saying she hated him but perhaps not as much as he hated himself. He supported his head with both his hand as his head leaned against the door.

He knew she might never forgive him. He knew that everything he promised her meant nothing. He left her all alone. He knew it would break her yet he did.

But one thing he knew was that he loved her. He loved her ever since their 4th year. The last years were rough for him as well. His downward spiral into learning and doing the dark arts, losing Anne, losing his uncle, it all dawned upon him. So he left, he ran away. He knew he was a coward. But he couldn't live with himself. He was ashamed of himself. He felt like...no, he knew he was a failure.

She had fallen asleep crying to herself on the floor and woke up from the pain on her back. She saw it was still dark outside. She suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to close the skylight of the shop. She opened her door and to her surprise, Sebastian fell on his back on her floor, his head hitting the cold stone floor.

He woke up with a start.

"Oww" he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

"Sebastian!" She exclaimed.

"What in Merlin's name?!" She said looking exasperated. He looked cold, she could see him slightly shivering. She felt a little joy to see him suffer but she was concerned too, it was starting to get colder at night.

He slowly got up and continued to rub his head and stood with a small pout.

"I see some things never change." She commented smirking slightly at his pout.

"You look like a lost puppy." She continued.

"What are you waiting for? Get in before you freeze to death." she said in a soft voice concerned. "Sallow." She added in a completely different voice. She directed him to sit on the couch and brought him some hot tea as she gave him a blanket.

She left him with the tea and blanket to go to the shop to close the skylight, and when she returned, she saw that Sebastian was hunched over at the corner, his back to her.

"What are you doing on the floor?" She said voice a little loud. Sebastian turned around with the box of their mementos, one hand holding the box, another the dried up rose he had given her.

She had completely forgotten to put the box back in its safe spot. But to be fair she wasn't exactly expecting Sebastian sallow himself to be rummaging through it.

He looked at her with pleading eyes before he walked up to her and hugged her. She completely stood still, her arms still at her side.

"I'm sorry." His shoulders slumped over her body and his arms wrapped around her. She felt like she was about to cry again but there were no tears. The two must've stood there for what seemed like hours before Sebastian pulled apart.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

"I wish that meant anything Sebastian." She mumbled back.

"Please." He begged placing a hand on her face.

"You might as well slap me Sebastian. It wouldn't be as hurtful." She mumbled with a blank look on her face.

She gently removed his hand from her face.

"I thought I loved you. And I really did love you. But seeing you today made me realise that you already made that decision for us. You never think of anyone else except yourself, and I honestly didn't care about it as long as you were with me, but now, I just hope you find what you're looking for and I for sure know that, it's not me. You made sure of that too. I was ready to go with you. But you made your choice there too. You can't love anyone Sebastian Sallow. You only want people when they have something to give." She said walking away.

"I think it's best if you go now. And you can take that box with you. It's the last thing I can give you. My memories of you, that I've kept and cherished for so long. They've kept me up all night and sometimes helped me sleep. They're the best and the worst thing I've had and you can take them away too. Maybe after this, I won't have anything else left to give, and you can let me have my life back." She said monotonously as she held the door open waiting for him to leave. He stared at her begging with his eyes.

His eyes watered but she refused to look into them. He walked out of the door and she stood by it making sure he wouldn't stay. Sebastian pulled the box to his chest and walked out of her house and she watched as his silhouette fade into the night, hoping to never see him ever again.

Part 2

[alwayslosingtheplot-blog]

Make a World with me

Part 2: The Discovery Myth

Making a new world in public!

Read the first post to find out what we have so far: https://www.tumblr.com/alwayslosingtheplot-blog/749995149029933056/build-a-world-with-me?source=share

I'm going to have to name this thing eventually, but I don't think we know enough about it yet.

In the last post I mentioned that I didn't want to do a creation myth for this world. I wanted a discovery myth instead.

(I have made a few creation myths in my other things. I have a goddess singing herself to nothing to create everything else. I have a little golem guy making everything else from mud and sending them on their way, quite happy to be forgotten once he keeps getting to make his little things.) I want this world to be something found instead of something made for people. Because obviously, it wasn't. It is so hostile to the tiny people hanging out in one tiny area trying to cling to life. So why are they there?

The myth I think is going to be along the lines of:

Our ancestors fled their lands, fled from the great fires in the sky and the death it rained. They fled through the wizard's gate, while he would would save them stayed behind to face the dragon's flame. Once here they had to flee again, from the land of beasts and teeth until they found us a home here on this Elysium of islands.

So what's the origin of this myth?

You know that quote:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

-Arthur C. Clarke.

That.

A meteor's flight plan means it will hit a planet (Earth), but humanity has 50-100 years of warning beforehand. So plans are put in play, one of which is a warp gate. A portal to another world that should place people in a world not unlike our own at a good point in time. Only there is a miscalculation means that people arrive way too early or way too late and the world is close to uninhabitable. The running on arrival, the destruction of most of their equipment and the danger and deaths until they reach the safe haven of the islands means that most of their knowledge is lost. The higher levels of oxygen needed to sustain the larger life forms might also have negative outcomes for the first few generations of people such as shorter life-spans (even if they had their genes somewhat altered in advance of travelling).

One of the people happened to be a Classical student and referred to their travels being like the Odyssey, which gives me an idea for naming conventions for the islands.

(This also means that I can divorce the names a bit more from their actual origins and have a bit more creative freedom with that stuff)

What we have so far, the short version:

Everybody lives on a series of islands off the coast of a Pangea-like, monster-filled continent and have a myth about their ancestors running from fires in the skies and monsters before settling there.

And that's it for this post! I think this gives it a bit of Pern or Shannara feeling so far. After this post I think I will start on the islands themselves, the cultures there and all that. If anyone wants to join in and make their own world, I'm made a tag you can use for it:

#MakeAWorldInPublic