#worldbuilding stuff

[justanotherbirdbrain-blog]

A Workshop for Creating Magical/ Fictional Crystals: A Guide from a Geologist

Hi folks, its me, here to talk about fictional writing again! Today I'm just tackling the idea of magical stones/mana stones by looking at existing minerals today and some neat properties that they have, and how you can apply these things to a fictional world. The goal is mainly to help you if you are stuck trying to come up with a unique magic system, or a unique identification/characteristic of your mineral.

First Things First: Mineral Shapes

I am exhausted, petered out, down-right fatigued by seeing every mineral depicted with having the crystal structure of calcite and quartz. There are soooooo many cooler, more interesting crystal structures, don't you think you would stop and take a look at a perfect cube in nature? It is completely unsettling.

Second: Color

Color within minerals can either be really important, or not important at all! It is your choice to decide if color is going to be something that means something to your mineral. But what are some times when the color is important? Well.... there are some elements that are called chromophores, this classification just indicates that these elements, when present, will determine the color of whatever they are in. So, if you wanted to treat mana like a chromophore, you could say, "Oh everything that contains mana turns green!" This could mean that regardless of the mineral, if that mineral is a specific color, it means it contains mana. This concept is exciting because you can just stop here and use minerals that already exist! You can also use it as an indicator for a magical ore! Chromophores are typically metals, so if you are making a new metal weapon, making the ore of that metal a unique color would make a lot of sense!

However, your mineral can also just be every color of the rainbow like quartz and perhaps that's what makes identifying your mana stones elusive and create an illusion of scarcity that your character can solve.

There are other things that can change the colors of minerals, like radiation damage, and electron exchange, but I think that is beyond what would be helpful! So lets talk about some unique color properties that happen in nature that seem magical in the first place! Maybe you don't need to design a mana stone, but you want a unique gemstone that only the royal family passes down or something (IDK).

The first one is the alexandrite effect! This is where a mineral can change color in natural light vs. incandescent light. (the mineral itself is not changing, but the lights contain different amounts of different colors that then get absorbed by the stone). Even if you don't use electricity in your fictional world, you could have the colors change in the presence of light magic. This could create fun misunderstandings about what the mineral is reacting to!

Pleochroism

Pleochroism is something that most minerals have, it is frequently used to help identify minerals in thin sections, however minerals are usually not pleochroic enough for it to be visible to the naked eye! Pleochroism is just a fancy name to describe the change in how light is absorbed based on the angle of the mineral! So if you scroll up to the first image where I showed a lot of crystal shapes, most of them have angles where they are longer and shorter! This will effect the way light travels in the crystal. Tanzanite is a popular mineral that does this.

Photochromism

This is when a mineral will change color (in a reversible way) when exposed to UV light (or sunlight), I am not going to go too into the details of why this is happening because it would require me to read some research papers and I just don't feel like it. The mineral that is best known for this is Hackmanite!

Alright! These are all the really cool color effects that might inspire you or maybe not, but now I am going to talk about how you might find your minerals within a rock!

When I see a lot of magical caves/mines, typically I see them with some variation of a geode honestly, but most minerals are not found like that! Now I am sure most of you guys have seen a geode, so I will not really talk about those, but I will talk briefly about porphyroblasts which is when the mineral grows larger than the minerals around it, this happens in metamorphic minerals!

sorry random stranger, but this is an image of garnets inside a finer-grained rock at gore mountain in New York!

Another way you might find minerals is in a pegmatite! This is when all minerals are really large! This is a formed from really slow crystalizing magma!

But something else to think about is that your mineral might just be massive, it doesn't have to have distinct crystals, it may be similar to jadeite where small grains grow together which leaves it looking smooth and seamless! A note about all of these is that you would have to mine into the rock to find these, there would not be any natural caves in these rocks! Caves are only ever really formed in limestones and maybe marbles (rocks that react with acid).

How can your characters identify these minerals?

Typically when you are out in the field you will look to see what type of rocks the minerals are found in (The overall texture of the rock will tell you how it formed). If you know how the rock formed, it will narrow down the amount of minerals you need to think about by quite a bit! Next, you are going to look closely at it and observe its crystal structure, does it have an obvious crystal? if so what is the general shape? If it is broken, how did it break? Did it fracture like glass or did it break along uniform planes. Some minerals have a thing called cleavage (breaks along planes of weakness). If a mineral exhibits this habit, it will again help narrow this down. Next we can look at color. Color can be misleading, because minerals like quartz can be any color imaginable, but minerals like olivine will always be green! The next thing your character can do is test for hardness, minerals all have a specific hardness that can help identify it as well.

After you go through all of this, your mineral might have some special property! This could be magnetism, fluorescence, reactions to acid, or any of the color changing effects I mentioned above! Other than that, your character can take it back to a lab and do a number of things to identify it, but the most typical thing would be for them to make a thin section (very thin piece of the rock) and observe it under a cross polarized microscope!

On that note folks! I hope this helped in some way in thinking of new magic mineral properties! I have other guides that explore some different fictional worldbuilding issues you might run into, but if you have any topics you would like me to cover please that I haven't mentioned already, let me know!

[inky-duchess]

Worldbuilding Guide: Social Problems

There is no such thing as a Utopia. Every place has its problems. Social problems are any issues that have a negative effect on the population, and are often problems which are actively being tackled by the government or a point of anger for the population which they want their leaders to fix. Social problems can fall under the umbrella of the political, economical, cultural and environmental. Social problems add a layer of realism to your worldbuilding, offering your characters something to fight against, struggle against and draw opinion on - adding complexity to both your cast of characters and the world that they inhabit.

Poverty

Poverty is defined by people having a deficit of financial resources which prevents them from accessing proper food, housing, resources and healthcare. Poverty can be caused by low wages, high inflation, inability to access the appropriate resources or unemployment. Poverty can effect the population as a whole, leading to a heavier demand on some resources and aid offered or a character alone, who has to struggle to survive.

What is the leading cause of poverty in your world?

What are some of the consequences of poverty?

How does poverty effect the population?

Where are areas where poverty is more of a problem than others?

Can somebody access aid to help them out of poverty? If so, what sort of aid? Was it available for everybody?

Unemployment

Unemployment is when there is a high number of jobless people within the population. This can lead to other issues such as a strain on resources without a return to the state or other social problems such as crime as people struggle to support themselves and survive. High rates of unemployment often reflects a deeper issues within the state itself.

What is the main cause of unemployment in your world?

Are there some areas where unemployment is more of a problem?

What do the unemployed blame for the reason they are unemployed?

How does employment effect the population?

Is there competition to gain employment?

What are some factors that might bar somebody from obtaining employment?

What are the government doing to solve the problem?

Environment

The environment is another problem often effecting society as a whole. Whether it is air pollution or rising water levels or even urban sprawl, environment often effects how a society and a settlement thrives - either by the spending of money for preventative measures or the effects on the health of the population as a whole. Of course, most governments see environment as a small issue, especially if the problems are long in effecting them personally or to tackle them would have an effect on profit and business.

What are some resources that are very scarce?

How is the land itself effected by changes to the environment?

What are some effects on resources? Such as pollution or deforestation?

How does an effected environment effect every day life?

Does impacted environment have an effect on wildlife? On crops?

What are some health problems caused by poor care for the environment?

Is the environment a pressing issue?

Crime & Violence

Crime, violence and anti-social behaviour effect the population. Crime rates often have overreaching effects: high crime rates leads to an increased police presence, more surveillance on the population and stricter laws which often develop a population who may grow disenfranchised with the government and country they live in. High crime rates often effect property prices and economic growth, with areas of high crime often falling below market value and businesses wary to move to those areas. Crime and criminal activity often leads to people feeling isolated, especially if the area is written off as a 'bad' area, with people leaving the area when they can for safer areas. Crime might also effect children and young people if grow up with an exposure to violent behaviour, with a higher chance of them being victims or future preparators of crime.

Is the law fair? Does it apply to everybody equally?

What is the rate of violent crime?

What is the rate of petty crime?

Are punishments for crime seen as just?

What rights does a prisoner have once arrested? If any?

What crimes have a higher rate of occurrence? Why is this?

How is crime combated? Is it effective?

What evidence does law enforcement need to arrest somebody?

Is a prisoner entitled to legal representation?

How is crime combatted?

Is law enforcement corrupted by crime? How common is bribery?

How is justice obtained?

Are any crimes taboo?

What crimes are considered acceptable and in what situation?

Healthcare

Healthcare is an important factor in any thriving society. Healthcare ensures that the workforce is kept in top shape but also that those who struggled with health survived. Healthcare can often be divided by wealthy and poor, access to good if any healthcare often was restricted. Lack of healthcare can lead to high death rates, with some of the population often seeking other means for their health such as illegal practitioners or harmful home remedies.

If somebody had little or no money, could they be denied access to healthcare?

Is healthcare equal? Are there any classes who would find it harder to access healthcare?

Is healthcare a worry for the government?

Are there any alternatives for those who can't access healthcare?

Does the state provide any healthcare? If so, who can benefit?

What are some diseases that are rampant? Why?

What are mortality rates among children or infants? Why is it high/low?

Is there any care for pregnant people?

How is mental illness treated? Is there stigma around mental health?

How much would a doctor's visit cost?

Are hospitals accessible for all? What about clinics or asylums?

How effective are treatments for insanity?

Hygiene

Hygiene will be an extremely important feature of any society. Lack of hygiene through clean water or proper sanitation practises can have knock on effects on health and survival. Bad housing could effect the health of tenants, with illnesses caused by cheap materials, damp, mould and other features of decay and ruin. Lack of clean water can cause epidemics of cholera, typhoid, dysentery and leptospirosis. Poor sanitation practises like lack of human waste disposal, waste management, poor drainage and sewage systems and poor hygiene facilities led to rampant disease and infection rates, along with the infestation of pests like rats and flies.

What is considered poor hygiene?

How is waste managed? Is it managed well?

If the settlement or area has poor sanitation, what does it smell like?

Are there any personal pests that are rampant? Lice? Fleas?

Are there adequate drainage and sewage systems? If not, why?

What is considered luxury in terms of washing one's self? A hot bath? Shower?

What is the air quality like? If it is bad, why? How does it effect people?

Is water clean?

How many homes have access to clean water?

Is access to clean water a right or a privilege?

Is hygiene a task that the government has to tackle?

Education

Education can either be seen as a luxury or a right, depending on how your society views it. Education is the key to social mobility and often there are barriers for the lower classes to access the education they need in order to move up in the ranks and status. An educated population is a population who questions and challenges their leaders so education may be restricted for some factions in the population. Then if education is available to all, chances are there are different access routes and levels of effectiveness - often the wealthy can afford a better level of education with better resources while the poorer classes may not be able to access the education they need or the resources.

What is the cost of a basic education?

How easy is it to access an education?

Does every settlement in your world have a school? If not, why?

What is the highest university or school one can achieve?

What is a basic education? What does it entail?

What is the rate of literacy in your world? Is literacy rates seem as a problem?

Who can access education?

Is education seen as a right? Or is it a luxury?

Are some branches of education restricted?

Homelessness

Homelessness is a social problem where there aren't enough appropriate or affordable homes for the population. Homelessness is often a result of poverty, overpopulation, personal factors such as untreated mental illness and substance abuse issues and high employment rates but also the power of the landowners and property owners, especially if they have government backing which they likely do. Homelessness is often blamed on those effected themselves but in reality, it is a reflection on the government's failures to provide alternatives or solutions to the problems that cause homelessness. Rising numbers of people without stable housing due to financial hardship or systemic failures.

How is homelessness viewed by society?

Is homelessness a problem in certain areas?

If homelessness is seen as the fault of the victim, why and how does society see it that way?

How does the government view homelessness? Is it a problem they feel they need to solve quickly?

Addiction

Addiction is a social issue that not only effects a community personally but also other factors on this list. Addiction can be substance abuse, alcohol abuse or gambling, which puts pressure on the community's ability to survive and thrive. It can also have an effect on a community's ability to work and generate wealth, pushing up crime rates.

How are sufferers of addiction viewed within society?

How does addiction effect employment and crime?

Does addiction effect both classes?

What are some things that the population are addicted to?

Is addiction a pressing issue?

Political Corruption

Abuse of power is a common theme throughout historic and modern communities. Sometimes the ability to make overreaching decisions for a population breeds greed and corruption. Bribery or blackmail might be used to sway choices. Politicians might make decisions based on personal wealth or in order to protect themselves or their incomes. Sometimes laws will be passed not for fairness but for consolidating the gap between those in power and those without.

Are elections considered fair?

How can elections be meddled with?

Are there any factions of population that are prevented from voting?

Do politicians have a reputation for accepting bribes or looking after their own interests in office?

What are some if any political scandals of recent memory?

Can politicians be prosecuted for bad behaviour?

How do the population view their leaders?

Gender Issues

Gender is an issue that effects most communities. Whether it is a pay gap between the genders or differing levels of rights or opportunities. Gender divides between men and women and non-binary individuals create levels of distrust, frustration and often danger. Gender can play into class divides, political corruption, education and crime and violence and also effect how society runs, restrictions on gender can also effect society as a whole by not allowing the whole population to be utilized as a workforce or active members of society.

What some differences in how the genders are treated by society?

If there are differences, what effect does this have within society and the fabric of your world?

Are there groups that protest against these gaps?

What are some behaviours and opportunities that are unobtainable for certain genders?

Does this effect both classes?

Overpopulation

Overpopulation is when the population is greater than the number of resources available to sustain them. Overpopulation can contribute to poverty and homelessness with too many people trying to find lodging and shelter. It can increase unemployment with people trying to access too little jobs. It can strain any healthcare providers and impact the environment. Strains on resources can often contribute rates of violence and tension.

Where does overpopulation occur?

Does overpopulation drain any resources in particular?

Is there any way for the government try combat overpopulation?

Is overpopulation caused organically or are there another factors involved?

Are there any ways to prevent or slow down growth of the population?

[cartooninsomnia]

show us how tenna working like real sheriff. fighting with enemies and shooting straight into the heart to kill (PLEASE PLEASE PLS)

There's rarely a need for such a level of violence that would call for killing anyone around Tyville!

Tenna has actually shot very few people, but he's quite good using a lasso to capture unruly visitors.

[madwormm]

it's so funny to remember you can do whatever you want with a conlang. hawk tuah is a slur in mine now. peace and love everywhere <333

[transformers-future-au]

CYBERTRONIAN CULTURE AND GEOGRAPHY: an overview (01)

CULTURE - gender, arts & fashion

Cybertronian culture has many aspects to it that are rather fluid. The ideas of gender, race, religion and expression are very dynamic for them when compared to organic species but are made rigid only due to their current governing authority. The culture varies from colony to colony but there are many common uniting ideas.

One such is the idea of gender. Now, according to canon, mech is actually a gender-neutral term but it has been used as a masculine equivalent while a fanon term ‘femme’ exists for feminine. But these terms would not be sufficient to explain the elaborate idea of gender expression amongst the transformer kind. The idea of gender is a new one that emerged during the time of Nova Prime but it was one that most bots didn’t mind and actually thought was kind of cool. Until then, they sort of just existed in whatever they looked like. Cybertronians have their frames created randomly due to which the ratio of feminine looking and masculine appearing bots are near equal. But the idea of categorization and labels made it easier for bots to identify. There exists a spectrum of gender expression and the word bot is often used as a general term for Cybertronians. Until the Autobot-Decepticon war where the word ‘Bot’ was claimed by the Autobots, a term ‘mecha’ was introduced.

Moving on to solely Cybertron.

The planet is very diverse with different cities that have their own accents, styles, celebrations, fashion and lingo. The city of Iacon is the capital and hence considered the more refined out of the rest of Cybertron. The upper north of Cybertron is mainly filled with technologically advanced megacities that most of the upper class of Cybertron lives in. Cities like Iacon, Vos and Harmonex are located there. Meanwhile, down south, there exist industrial cities with mines, refineries and factories where the lower classes toil in for energon scraps. This is just a general overview. This does not imply that Iacon doesn’t have a population of lower-caste bots. They do. Iacon and Vos have docks that are staffed with dock-workers and delivery bots. After all, the grandeur of the upper class mecha are brought to life through the sufferings of the lower classes. However, most of these lower class bots in the fancy cities usually dwell in its outskirts.

These radically different living conditions produce radically different cultures amongst the different classes. The upper castes of Cybertron have easy access to the arts. Various theatres where plays are held along with massive stages for musicians to perform are all across Northern Cybertron, especially Harmonex which is somewhat of the cultural capital of Cybertron.

The lower castes have no easy access to any of the old traditional works that their predecessors have left for them so they resort to making their own art, their creativity is likited by means. Many contemporary art forms and new styles of literature exist among dock workers, manual labourers, service bots and miners— each with their own take and personality to it. Music is often sung in unison as the dock workers of Iacon load and unload cargo or the factory workers of Kaon hit their hammers against metal in a rhythmic pace. They have no other pleasantries in life. Workers use their equipment and bang on various surfaces with different densities, creating sounds akin to that of drums— music is often made this way. In the glassmaking factories, they use glass to make different tunes and pitches.

But many of the lower class aren’t built-in with language chips, especially after The Senate began mass producing mecha. There’s only so much metal to make chips and modules so an unfortunate consequence is that most are illiterate in the lowest castes, especially in the miner class (this is an important thing to note). Mostly the older models have better skills in things other than just mining.

This takes us to a different form of self-expression other than literature and music— fashion. Fashion amongst Cybertronians and most mechanical species revolves mainly around plating types, paints and accessories. Most of the lower-class mecha can’t afford the fancy accessories and paints but despite this, they make an effort to look good through servo-made accessories to hook on or stick on to their frame. Some use cheap dye to make their optics have different colours. Paints are usually stolen.

Meanwhile, the higher classes of bots go over the top with their sense of style. Fancy high tensile metal fibre mended into regal capes, plating with different textures that are coated in a variety of paints to make it really pop, accents and bioluminescent paints or dangling accessories to attack to their helm pieces; Cybertronians can be quite creative when it comes to modifying their frames fashionably, each revolving around individualistic style. There also exists plating textures where plating of a bot is made to look designer with different texture add ons, creating a new sensation when touched.

There are some unconventional styles in the realm of Cybertronian fashion that involve things like paints on their faceplates, it is a large part of Camien culture and religion though. Some are inspired from the sense of style in the colony worlds or foreign cultures, though it isn’t exactly encouraged and is generally looked down upon. Main-stream trends change depending on the cities.

Not to mention, different frame-classes often have different ways of accessorising due to the nature of their frame types and even different cultures.

However, most of Cybertron's rich fashion culture was wiped away when the war started. It was deemed to be impractical and as a show-off. It's one of Cybertron's many lost cultural aspects. However, remnants of this sense of style remain alive in colonies like Caminus and Eukaris.

2. GEOGRAPHY - cities -> part 1

The major cities of Cybertron include: Iacon, Harmonex, Kaon, Petrex, Tarn, Vos, Helex, Tesarus, Tetrahex, Praxus, Stanix, Polyhex, Nyon, Darkmount and Straxus. They are divided into North and South as stated before— Northern cities being mainly places of culture and scientific advancements and the cities down South being industrial factories that fuels and powers the scientific progress of Cybertron.

Northern cities include: Iacon, Harmonex, Polyhex, Stanix, Tetrahex, Vos, Petrex and Praxus.

Southern cities include: Tarn, Kaon, Helex, Straxus, Darkmount, Nyon and Tesarus.

Nyon lies in between the lines of North and South but is considered mainly an industrial city.

Each city is unique in its own right.

Iacon is the capital city, a cradle of scientific progress. It was once called Cyber City, a long, long time ago before the Primes. Iacon is the oldest city and where most of Cybertron’s politically and religiously important structures stand— such as the Senate building, the Primal Basillica and so on.

Vos is one of the most unique. Majority of its inhabitants are Seeker class warriors with the advantage of flight. This unique flight frame was developed because of the nature of Vossian terrain, high cliffs and steep mountains that go deep into chasms.

Darkmount is a military base, ground-based warrior frames set up their barracks. It was thriving during Nova’s conquests— docks and markets thriving with soldiers returning from their slaughter up in the stars. But after the era of conquest fell, it reverted to being nothing more than a military headquarters.

Kaon is the city of factories, it's the closest to Darkmount and during Nova’s expansion, it produced tons of weapons and ammunitions to Darkmount. It remains as the weapons production capitol of Cybertron.

Tarn is primarily energon rich lands filled with mines. Most of its inhabitants are usually miners or low ranking military foot-soldiers. Tarn is, in a way, the metaphorical spark of Cybertron— majority of the planet's fuel originates from this area.

There exist minor settlements and towns like Yuss or Kalis but they are often overlooked and are left unchecked. However, during the Autobot-Decepticon Civil War, they served as vital strategic points for supply lines. Most of the village and rural life on Cybertron was turned extinct by the war. Bots began moving to larger cities in mass for better protection and opportunities.

[the-cypress-grove]

So, You Want To Write Vampires...

Here's a basic list of things to do/consider when approaching this creature.

Source Material

Go back to the origins. Almost every culture around the world has a story or myth containing cannibalism / blood drinking. You may want to base your origin story for vampires on one of these. This can also give you some ideas about what traits and abilities you might want to include that have been written out of modern fiction. It could help you add a unique twist.

2. Vampire Fiction

Vampires have been popping up in fiction for a very long time. Read The Vampyre by John Polidori (thought to be one of the first books written on vampires). Check out Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (the lesbian vampire story that came out before Dracula). Speaking of, Dracula is a classic.

Look at modern fiction. Vampire Academy, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, A Dowery of Blood, Crave. Read the good and the bad. Learn what qualities you like and which you will not use.

Make a list of things you like and things you don't.

3. Themes

Writing vampires brings a lot of themes surrounding mortality, immortality, morality, and at what point do we draw the line between what is human and what is other. These themes are integral to a vampire story whether you're writing a gothic horror, a paranormal romance, or a YA. There are a lot of links between cannibalism / blood drinking and love, vampires and LGBTQIA+ characters / coding.

4.Pick your traits

Vampires tend to be unique to the writer. The vampires in Twilight work differently to the vampires in The Vampire Diaries to the vampires in Dracula.

By this point you should have a list of possible traits and abilities you might want to give your vampires. My advice: tailor it to your genre. If you're writing a horror go with the traditional vampire abilities, give them the things that scare you. Think Nosferatu. If you're writing romance, then you might want to soften the traditional vampire traits in the way you find frequently in modern vampire media.

What you choose is up to you.

5. Origins

This is often overlooked in vampire stories but how did your vampires come into being? Who was the first vampire? Is this vampire still alive? How far back do vampires go as a species?

This could affect your vampires in terms of relationships with others of their kind, their powers, their strength.

This might not impact on your plot but, in terms of worldbuilding, if you intend to turn your book into a series then this could be very important going forward.

6. Society

Unless you're writing about the first ever vampire you're probably going to be writing about an established vampire population who will have their own laws, their own history, their own leadership, their own customs. This is an important piece of worldbuilding. It will affect your characters relationships, add conflict to the plot, create established enemies and can be used to raise the stakes.

7. Nocturnal Life

If you're following a traditional burn-in-the-sun vampire and they haven't found a way around this then you need to determine the night life of your setting. What is there for your vampires to do at night?

8. Feeding, Hunting, and Bloodlust

This will affect the level of gore in your story as a lot of the bloody parts in your story will take place through feeding and hunting. This will also determine your vampire population.

You need to decide how much your vampires need to feed, how often they need to do so, and what they can feed on. Do they drink animal blood? Is that possible? Do they drink human blood? Can they drink from blood bags? Do they need the blood fresh? If they need human blood do they need all of it?

The less a vampire feeds, the larger a population you can have in one area as it attracts less attention.

What happens when your vampires are hungry? What does their bloodlust look like? How does it affect a vampire? Is the amount of bloodlust a vampire experiences determined by how old the vampire is?

9. Threats

Unless your vampires are well and truly endless there will be ways to kill them and they will have enemies. Do these enemies take the shape of humans, of other vampires, or another species entirely? How can your vampires be killed? What other species are out there?

[troythecatfish]

[redd956]

could you give me some advice on worldbuliding gender roles? trying to write a matriarchy

Sure, of course! :D

Worldbuilding: Gender Roles

There's many interesting ways to take gender roles in worldbuilding, from matriarchs to patriarchs to other alike.

I do have some other posts going into things related to gender roles that can also be of help.

Wedding Ceremonies

Gender & Sexuality

Head of Household

Typically gender roles are centered in the household the strongest, following a head of the household, or head of the family. Just in real life we see this change from culture to culture. Even patriarchal structures can be drastically different from one another, such as nuclear family of the United States versus the Salaryman of East Asia.

Their placement as leader in the family, often represents their role in society as well (bosses, political figures, decision makers, etc.) The same goes for the other shoe.

What values does this society hold that makes a certain gender be more upheld in familial hierarchies? Is it how mothers are seen as strong, nurturing, and good caretakers for their ability to produce children? Is it how one gender has historically worked in difficult workforces or fought as soldiers? Was it something in the anatomy?

This can be even more wild when it comes to fantasy races, and the differences amongst their genders.

Societal Expectations

With gender roles comes societal expectations: pressures that hold over the heads of children and adults alike.

These expectations can be as small as expectant personality traits, to the biggest decisions in one's life. Who are the soldiers? Who are the housekeepers? Who does the cleaning? Who rears the children?

Such expectations would be suggested to people all throughout their life through society, from school, to work, to even what one does in their free time.

How these expectations came about can be both logical and irrational. Many of these social ideals can originate from historical events, religious beliefs, spiritual practices, traditions, and even malicious influence.

Marriage & Love

For awhile in the United States it was customary for the man to ask out the woman, simply because of gender roles. Nowadays has those rigid roles have faded away, its a more equal playing field.

The more rigid of gender roles the more there is opportunity for blind spots of darkness in romance, from heteronormative societies, to domestic abuse, to more.

This opens opportunities for things like arranged marriages, dowries, extravagant wedding ceremonies, and favoritism amongst children.

Who gets to say what in a relationship can be dependent on gender roles? Why in more equal societies it simply won't matter...

Employment & Housework

What are these gender roles found in the workforce? Are certain people not allowed to even work in particular workforces? Is promotions more difficult to get for one gender or another? What happens if things suddenly change?

The goes for things inside the home, especially childcare. Are certain chores and duties split amongst the members of a relationship? Are children expected to take certain duties in the house as they grow older? What kind of things does breadwinner have to do when they return home?

Beauty Standards

Beauty standards, although seemingly random, often times can also reflect gender roles and cultural standards. They change alongside culture, reflecting ideas good and bad of the current times.

Although not everyone bends to beauty standards, they still remain important and catch a variety of people within their clutches.

American values of the current day overtly hyper-masculine man with a square jaw so sharp it requires plastic surgery, and abs so defined they can only be achieved through severe dehydration is also an overrepresentation of American values upheld in toxic masculinity, such as physical strength, sharpness/rigidness, with a sprinkle of racism.

In the meanwhile the East Asian standard of the submissive wife is can be found in someone so pale they never leave the house, so skinny they cannot fight back, and so thin they have the will put themselves through torture for those around them, therefor potentially their own lover.

These extreme beauty standards though don't really at all mean what the actual common person finds attractive.

Despite how frequent the skinny Asian beauty is in China, the endearing image of the Chinese mom is one with weight and a happy round face. While the ideal man of plenty of American's includes a beer-belly, hair all over, and puppy eyes.

This doesn't even get into how these very tropes of beauty standards can subvert in queer cultures...

Discrimination & Prejudice

With rigid gender roles comes extreme ideals, and usually comes discrimination.

Due to how prevalent sexism is both ways alone, better yet towards women all around the world, about everyone knows how it goes. I'm sure everyone's heard a sexist comment at least once.

These things can also hurt cisgender, transgender, and genderqueer people alike when it comes to those who feel need a to incite their gender role expectations onto others.

In a society that is more friendly, lenient, and queer allied; hopefully rampant sexism is a thing of the past.

Genderqueer Roles

In societies of ancient times and cultures long since damaged by imperialism, it hasn't been uncommon for genderqueer people to be seen as sacred or more magical in some kind of way. While strictly heteronormative cultures see such queerness as an anomaly.

Designing gender roles in worldbuilding can apply to queer genders as well. One of my favorite pieces of fanfictions that experiments with this is Growing Up Gerudo, a comic following an AU of Legend of Zelda.

In my NMA worldbuilding series, the Irisians of the north operate on six primary genders.

Gender roles aren't necessarily more lenient despite the upheld values of queerness in Irisian culture, but instead lean heavily on anyone who is a cisgender mobub, as they are seen as the most magically adept for spiritual reasons since they present with bigenitelia, while also having the preferred gendered body type to Irisian values.

Mobub are expected to be the leader, excel in academics and workforces alike, and rear children one way or another. Meanwhile the opposing gender, Jadl (androgynous with a lack of sexual organs), are expected to be supporters to others, especially the mobub.

Either way I just wanted to say that you can do this gender roles stuff with worldbuilt fantasy species and gender queerness too...

[wisteria-lodge]

What do you think JKR did best in Harry Potter, and what do you think she did worst?

I'll just do the first five good and first five bad that pop into my head.

GOOD

JKR writes about grief and fear extremely well. It's complex, nuanced, visceral, messy. When I pull out really good passages of her writing, that's almost always what they're about.

She has a good eye for friend group dynamics. Harry, Ron and Hermione work. The way they crack and splinter, the way that two of them will gang up on the third and then work it out, that's really well observed. Their banter works. Their arguments work.

She has an incredible knack for side characters. There are SO MANY of them, and most spend very little time on screen. But the details we get are memorable, interesting and well-chosen - not only do you remember who all these people are, it's perfectly reasonable that your favorite character is like, Tonks - even though we barely see her.

JKR never wastes a transition. These books have a *lot* of scene transitions, and they are used to drop characterization, clues, worldbuilding, or build suspense. You never get "Harry was late to class." You get "Harry was late to class because Peeves had vanished two-thirds of the stairs up to the astronomy tower." It's a good trick for making a world feel alive, and make a mystery feel satisfying. Also, JKR ends *chapters* really well.

She's good at naming things. Good place names, product names, character names. They're memorable, whimsical, build a really strong brand identity and no wonder themed entertainment based off this series does so well. It's hard to invent a word that means something to your audience, but she's good at it. Dementor, apparate, muggle, Slytherin, Gryffindor. There's a ton of specialized vocab in this universe, and that's how she gets away with it.

BAD

... she's good at naming so long as the thing she's naming exists in Western Europe. The second it doesn't, we run into problems *real* quick. No-Maj? Cho Chang? Ilvermorny and the four houses Wampus, Pukwudgie, Horned Serpent and Thunderbird?

JKR can't write romance. It's strange, because her grasp of family and group dynamics is so good, but she just can't write a romantic couple being romantic. She can write pining, she can write longing, she can write cringingly awkward couple, arguably she can even write exes - but she will bend over backwards so the two halves of a romantic couple never actually have to be in the same scene, interacting with each other. In HP this mostly shows up in the way the Harry/Ginny stuff (and the Ron/Hermione stuff...) falls flat, and Remus/Tonks comes out of absolutely nowhere. But the Cormoran Strike books and the Fantastic Beasts movies clearly *want* to be romances, and she just can't do it.

Being uber-femme/girly in the Harry Potter books is consistently a very negative trait. Pink, bows, ruffles, painted nails, styled hair, being interested in fashion, being interested in boys (versus boys being interested in you...) It hovers somewhere around being pathetic and being villainous. If you're girly, you can redeem yourself by becoming a mother (like Fleur) or you can reject girliness (like Hermione - who can look all pretty and femme for the Yule Ball, but "that's far too much bother to do everyday.")

There is often a disconnect between a character's actions and the way the way that character is framed by the text. Like, JKR obviously has a very clear idea in her head of who Severus Snape or Draco Malfoy or Molly Weasley is... and that idea does not 100% make it onto the page. Most characters are hit with this to some degree. Someone like Ron is the exception: I do think that the version of him on the page and the version of him in JKR's head are exactly the same.

There is a very *young* sort of moral simplicity in these books... kind of. The Ministry of Magic gets more nuanced and grey as the story goes on, Dumbledore and his plan gets more nuanced and grey... JKR clearly wants to make the thematic underpinnings of her story more complex and adult... but the Slytherins are all just the bad guys. That's not a stereotype, that's not 12 year old Harry with a simplified worldview, they're all just like that. They all run away from the final battle (and/or want to turn Harry over to Voldemort.) She goes out of her way to make Snape an honorary Gryffindor, when it would have been easier and better to just... say that this is a guy who used slytherin traits in a positive way? There is something very deep in her that just wants an infallible force to pick out the Good People, and then put the Good People in charge. that's literally the plot of fantastic beasts 3.

[welcome-to-cell-hell]

Quick lil thing about cell expressions. I never know what to add to these posts lmao

[verynichewritingadvice]

niche writing advice #01

write more sapiosexual characters-characters who are romantically attracted to intelligence above all else. why? because you can recognize someone as intelligent and respect them for that, while simultaneously thinking of them as a jerkwad.

so sapiosexual hero x smart villain, anyone?

[justanotherbirdbrain-blog]

Geology of Natural Disasters and How to write them into your fictional universe.

So, you want to write about a natural disaster to advance your plot and torture your players/characters even more? Let me tell you how, accurately.

I feel like unless it is a volcano, natural disasters are a pretty slept on plot drivers, and some of them are really cool and unique! Today, I will talk to you about land slides, earthquakes (And earthquake related disasters), and volcanoes.

Landslides: Probably one I see the least in stories, but one that would be incredibly interesting to write into a plot where they believe in curses. Landslides can happen along ocean bluffs, slightly hilly areas, and highly mountainous areas, this means it is something that can happen in most landscapes. But what can trigger a landslide? Mostly all you need to trigger a landslide could be just abnormally large amounts of rain, excessive deforestation (with a little bit of rain), or an earthquake. If you don't want to use deforestation or an earthquake as a catalyst, a really cool indicator that the land is slipping and may be prone to a collapse is J hooked trees.

This indicates that there is soil creeping slowly over time, and it may lead to a major landslide.

2. Earthquakes: Probably one of the easiest things to write, earthquakes can happen anywhere, but they are most common in places that are tectonically active areas. There are about three types of environments you can expect earthquakes to be common. The first is just rugged mountains, if your landscape looks like this, you should write in earthquakes. Associated hazards could be landslides, avalanches, and large falling rocks.

The next landscape could be a thin mountain range, next to the ocean, very scenic, but very dangerous. Essentially, I am describing a subduction zone environment.

Earthquakes in these areas could equal a couple different associated disasters. Scenario one: A very large earthquake happens, and the ocean begins to recede. This is a tsunami, enough said. If you are writing a tsunami though, please, please, do not write it as a large wave, thank you. Also, a common way people are hurt by tsunami's are from them going into the ocean because they don't understand a tsunami is going to happen.

Scenario two: A large earthquake happens, your characters are in a valley and suddenly the ground begins to liquify as the ground shakes, once the shaking stops, the ground becomes solid like nothing ever happened, except everything has suddenly sunk into the now hard ground. This is called liquefaction and it typically happens in areas that have loose dirt or lots of saturated soil.

Scenario three: There are a lot of small earthquakes, they do not cause a lot of damage, but you begin to notice that one of the isolated mountains has a plume rising. Earthquakes can indicate lava moving underground and the filling of magma chambers.

The next environment that can host lots of earthquakes would be regions that have a lot of really deep valleys and small mountain ranges (not cone volcanoes), but overall seems pretty flat.

This indicates a transform fault like the San Andreas. If you want to hint at there being earthquakes in the area, you can show fence posts that are suddenly several feet out of line at a dilapidated farm or something similar.

(These earthquakes are different because they are cased from sideways movement, not an up-and-down movement this hint can only be used for this environment). Volcanoes would not be found here, but liquefaction and landslides could still occur here.

4. Volcanoes: If you thought earthquakes had a lot of information, volcanoes do too. First you have to ask yourself, what kind of volcano you want to have, what kind of eruption style? So lets break down the kind of eruptions you can have and what their landscapes look like. Hawaiian Shield volcano: This will produce a smooth fast lava, the landscape typically is pretty flat, but there will be small cones and the rocks can have a ropey or jagged texture and the rocks will be almost exclusively black to dark red.

Stratovolcanoes: These will be solitary mountains, typically, that look like perfect cones (Picture shown in earthquake section). These will have large ash cloud eruptions and pyroclastic flows, they may have some lava, but typically most damage is done from the pyroclastic flows (think Pompeii). Some hints of these, other than describing the cone features (which can be hidden by other mountains), would be to talk about petrified wood! Trees can get fossilized in the ash and I imagine it would be very strange to find this rock that clearly looks to be a piece of wood, but its a rock. Subcategory- Calderas: Used to be a large stratovolcano, but they erupt so explosively that the entire cone collapses and creates a basin.

There are a lot of kinds of volcanoes out there, so forgive me for just putting an infographic and then talking to you about these really rare types of eruptions that I feel like people should know about.

Okay lets talk about blue lava (kind of) and black lava

You will notice the lava is still red in the middle of this image, during the day these would look like a normal eruption, but at night the burning sulfur would make it appear blue. Some cool features other than this, would be that any water in the area would become very acidic and burn the skin due to sulfuric acid. This would again be really cool if you are trying to describe a 'cursed' land.

Black lava: This happens only in the east African rift I believe, but it is a carbonatite lava, but if you are writing in a rift valley (where the continent is tearing apart to form a new ocean) this might be a cool feature. The lava will cool white and will quickly erode, it makes for a very alien landscape!

Anyway as always, this is supposed to be an introductive guide for the basics of writing geology to create cool landscapes/features into dnd or fictional universes, if you are a geologist please understand my oversimplification of tectonics, I didn't want people to run away.

[cartooninsomnia]

does Tenna crash out/getting mad sometimes when he's losing control of a situations or smth like that? if so, does he crashing out on ppl or only with someone who he trust. . .? (i luv ur spamtenna thx bye)

Not pictured: Spamton getting thrown into a wall

[shy-raccoon]

Worldbuilding Tip

If you have a fantasy race with animal traits look at that animals social structure when desiging their culture.

A kingdom of lion people could have 2 types of towns, one with mostly women and one man as mayor and another made up of men banished from the first town when they hit puberity. With duals to decide the mayor of the first town.

Fauns and satyrs could banish all men from town except for during mating season with only women running socity or have seperate towns for each gender like actual deer herds.

Most cultures in fantasy are real world cultures with the serial numbers shaved off or a mish mash of real world cultures. So this is a great way to make more interesting cultures in your setting.

[00venator]

The 1st things you need to know about the Defence Defence is there actually called that. Not a typo. The 2nd thing you need to know about the Defence Defence is you can't brake their chain of calm and cause they have non

Anyway I'm re-evaluating the Defence Defence's structure. It's straying away from a traditional military structure and becoming a confusing and highly effective mess, much like everything else in Scayikra.

[the-cypress-grove]

Worldbuilding Checklist (STILL UPDATING)

This is basically a bunch of worldbuilding checklists crammed together. Use what works for you, leave the rest. This is fantasy orientated and I will continue to update it regularly so reblog or comment something you think should be added.

History:

How far back does recorded history go?

How does history interact with myth and folklore?

How did the current system of governance come into power?

What are some notable figures of history?

Is your world's history broken down into eras?

What events have been twisted and changed as they've been passed down through the generations?

Geography:

What is the climate of this area?

What are the common plants of this area? Are there any fictional plants?

What are the common animals of this area? Are there any fictional animals?

Are there continents? Islands?

How much of this area is inhabited?

What area is known?

Country borders?

What are the major geographical landmarks i.e. rivers, mountains?

Where are the major trade routs?

What are the seasons like in this area?

Magic System:

How is magic practiced? Using wands, staffs, runes, etc?

How is magic learned?

Can magic be taken?

What can't magic do? What are its limitations?

What is the first thing a person learns when learning magic?

How are magic users perceived by others?

What are the laws regarding magic?

How does magic link to religion?

How has magic influenced history?

Politics and Law:

What style of leadership rules the area i.e. theocrasy (ruled by religion), monarchy (ruled by a royal family)?

How are laws created?

What is the process from the conception of a law to the point where it passed?

How is the law enforced?

What is the judicial system of this place?

Is there a death penalty?

Society and Culture:

How many major cultures are there?

What is their global population?

Where are they located geographically within your world?

Is there a social hierarchy / a division between the classes?

What are the major pieces of art in this world?

What does its music sound like? What instruments are used?

Are there well know folk songs?

What food is eaten by each group of society?

What are the treat foods of this area?

What are the foods saved for special occasions?

What holidays / special occasions are there?

Religion:

What are the major religions in this area? Do they get on with each other?

How are these religions viewed by their worshippers? By those who worship other religions? By those who worship no one at all?

How much does religion influence politics and the laws passed?

What do these religions believe in?

Are there divisions within these religions between groups who believe slightly different things?

How old are these religion? Which came first?

Which religion has the biggest influence on the world?

What are their opinions towards the government?

What are their opinions regarding the poor and the rich? Do they differ?

What are their opinions towards magic and technology?

Commerce and Industry:

What is the major industry?

Main imports / exports?

How wealthy is this country / area?

What valuable resources does this country / area have?

What are the common crops / livestock in this area?

Is this area coastal? Is there a fishing / trade industry?

Is this area forested? Logging and timber?

Technology:

What are the transport option available? For the poor? For the rich?