#worldbuilding wednesdays

[high-fantasy-sw]

That's Right. Worldbuilding Wednesdays are Back

This installation: Technically Part Two of Clone Culture, even though it's the first Worldbuilding Wednesday for that particular topic. Part One can be found by clicking the link.

HUGE shoutout to @majorproblems77 for helping me come up with, like, 90% of this lore. Thank you so much, Major, I really couldn't have done this without you :)

Also, I'd like to keep this consistency up, so if you're so inclined, let me know in the tags what you'd like to know more about in the AU, and if you're even more so inclined, don't hesitate to send an ask and help me talk it out! I love hearing your ideas for how I could make this AU better :)

@whyoneartheven @anime-obsessed @magpie-sherlock

Edit: Well, crap. I accidentally posted this instead of scheduling it. Oh well, I guess you get Worldbuilding Monday today.

Edit Two: CRAP CRAP CRAP I AM REALLY BEHIND IT TODAY AND COMPLETELY FORGOT TO PUT THE DIAGRAM THERE. OKAY IT'S BEEN ADDED

Identification Rings

Every Clone, at birth, is given an identification ring: a plain iron band with his number stamped on the surface. This ring, purportedly, serves a two-fold purpose. As well as being his official identifying information, it’s also an enchanted artifact: the Kaminoans claim that, as powerful as their alchemy is, it’s not strong enough to create and sustain an entire human being on its own, especially with modifications such as advanced aging; the rings are therefore created with a spell that supposedly splits the life-sustaining alchemy between itself and the Clone in question, and once a Clone reaches the age of nine-eighteen, he is told he must wear the ring at all times or his alchemy will begin to unravel and he’ll die. (Prior to this, cadets wear their rings on chains around their neck, as seen in their concept art; apparently, Kaminoan magic can hold itself mostly together until a Clone reaches adulthood.)

The Clones are extraordinarily protective and even possessive of their rings. Besides their life-preserving properties, they’re also the only items the Clones can truly call personal possessions, the only thing they can really point to and say “That’s mine.” (True, once the war breaks out and they bond with their Jedi Generals, many of them receive numerous gifts from their newfound families, but in truth they often have trouble really seeing these presents as truly theirs, since in the walls of Kamino Fortress there was an unspoken understanding that everything they had- armor, clothing, room and board, anything and everything they touched- was really on loan and would be given to the next batch of brothers when they couldn’t use it anymore.)

Since these rings are so important to the Clones, a culture of sorts has sprung up around them:

As noted earlier, Cadets (Clones under the age of nine-eighteen and/or who have not passed their final exam) wear their rings on chains around their necks. As part of their coming-of-age ritual, their rings move from their necks to their right hands, and they reconfigure their chains from a single loop to this cuff design:

This new chain has both a practical purpose and a symbolic one. Practically, it prevents the ring from sliding off of a Clone’s hand and being lost (the chain is non-removable; all the links are closed). Symbolically, however, the chain has a much deeper meaning. It consists of two segments: the chain of identity (seen in red in the diagram) and the chain of brotherhood (seen in blue). 

The chain of identity is the segment that goes over the back of the hand and connects the ring to the chain of brotherhood. It symbolizes the connection that an individual Clone has to his brothers, and also his own individuality and personhood. Many Clones use this chain to express their own quirks and personality, painting it or attaching small mementoes to it. 

The chain of brotherhood is the segment that goes around the wrist, and to the Clones is the most important segment. It represents the brotherhood between all the Clones, and- eventually- between the Clones and their Jedi generals. There is a very important ritual associated with this chain: they are painted in memory of fallen brothers and Jedi, one link (usually; it can be more, depending on who or how many died) for every slain friend, in the color or colors of their armor (or, in a Jedi’s case, the color of their lightsaber). The inch or so of chain right over the back of the wrist, where it meets the chain of identity, is considered the most personal segment of the chain, and is usually reserved for fallen batchmates (though there have been exceptions to this norm- for example, after Ahsoka left the Jedi, Rex painted his section green for her.)

[orions-quill]

Superstitions - Worldbuilding Wednesdays (Project New World)

This is me committing to what I said about having a schedule to work a little bit on my stories everyday. Wednesdays are for Worldbuilding and today I decided to tackle superstitions in Project New World. I came up with three different superstitions that I think perfectly illustrate that religion is a major aspect of this world!

You'll be able to see a little bit about the mythology I've created and the language I'm developing. It's not a lot, but if you want to know more about those things I can go more in detail on a different post, since this activity is meant for me to create new things for my projects!

Anyways, here are the three superstitions:

When someone says something positive, or a hope or dream they have, people will close a fist and softly hit their chest over their heart three times. This comes from the act of praying, which is done with the hands clasping each other positioned close to the heart. The triple movement symbolizes three prayers, one for each of the Three Siblings, protectors of the Kishyntu (the People, from “ki” many (plural marker) and “shyntu” person).

It is considered bad luck to turn on any sources of light after dawn. Whatever light you might need to do things at night must be turned on before dawn, otherwise you risk offending Neurim, God of Darkness.

It is believed that to ensure the protection of newborn kids, they must be gifted shyntu (person), fejii (animal) and pfin (plant). Usually this is done in the form of a small sealed box that will usually contain a lock of hair from both parents, some sort of animal bone or fur, and dried plants. This is to ensure that the Three Siblings can watch over the newborn.

And that's it! I had quite a bit of fun developing these ngl! I wanna come up with more superstitions now haha

[thatndginger]

Happy WBW! As I continue my reading saga of death and grief, tell me a little about the subject in your world. How is death treated and thought of? How do your characters-- or the world at large-- handle grief in relation to it?

Hello Tori! I will probably never answer these on time but I will answer them eventually ^.^

Since I've been in a big Shapeshifter mood I'm gonna answer for that setting. Which is pretty much just our world but with werewolves and vampires, so the general beliefs about death aren't that different? All of the world religions and beliefs are pretty much the same. The presence of magic has a small effect on this, but it mostly makes people stronger believers in their religion (aka magic=miracles or evidence of a deity). So for the most part it's a 1-to-1 comparison.

However, I think there is a definite shift in the Shifter!verse towards more 'esoteric' beliefs because of magic that affects the topic of death. Sure a Christian God makes miracles happen, but the Bible and its followers have not been kind to witches in the past. It makes sense that in a world where witches exist and everyone knows it's wrong to kill them Christianity doesn't have such a strong grip on the world. I could see religions where reincarnation is a thing being a bit more popular, and of course various witchcraft beliefs and maybe even some of the older polytheistic religions. So you'd get a lot more people believing in those versions of the afterlife/cycle of life that would affect how people react to grief. Less embalming and preservation of bodies, more cremation and 'natural' burials to allow the natural cycles of life to spin. That kind of thing.

Funnily enough, all the Into the Storm characters lean hard into dealing with grief via denial, aka not dealing with it at all. Better to bury it than acknowledge it, right?

[rydykg]

happy worldbuilding wednesday i think this is how you’re supposed to do it! here’s a question:

what are the most well-known conspiracy theories in your world? or, what’s a conspiracy theory that seems most believable to your characters?

@worldbuildingwedasks ?

[tomswifty-fr]

Tundra hatchlings leave their eggs with horns and a full coat of fur and are capable of walking and running short distances just hours after birth (though they typically won't choose to for at least a couple of days).

On hatching, the horns are covered with a layer of mostly-hairless skin. The bone here is sturdy enough to serve a similar function as an eggtooth, but is still developing along with the rest of the skull. It will remain soft and somewhat malleable for the few few months to a year of life. The skin covering will die and be replaced with keratin of the same color when the horns are fully developed in late adolescence.

It's easy to affect a horn's development when soft, either accidentally or deliberately. Something as simple as a hatchling spending too much time leaning on one side can train a horn to grow in a "wrong" direction. Some cultures will go to great lengths to correct bent or asymmetrical horns, while others don't consider it a big deal as long as it doesn't affect the hatchling's health. Horns that are severely asymmetrical or curved in a very atypical way (straight forward, for example) can cause neck issues, problems balancing, or even cause stress or injuries to the rest of the skull.

On the other hand, some cultures consider it normal to deliberately sculpt a hatchling's horns. This can be done for purely aesthetic reasons or as a clan/family identifier. The latter is most common in very traditionalist Tundra communities in the Southern Icefield, where it is a very old practice, and is almost never seen in northern flights or mixed-breed communities. Folklore has it that it began as a way to recognize clanmembers in storms strong enough to blow away scent - skeptics say that visibility in a storm like that would be too low to see someone's horns at a distance anyway. The former is highly controversial for being fully elective, so to speak, and Tundras who practice traditional horn modification see it as deeply weird and kind of cruel to saddle your kid with a horn shape that won't be shared with anyone else.

All stances are controversial to someone, and medical opinion is mixed on whether "standard" horn shapes are inherently healthier than just letting them grow, whether deliberate modification is necessarily harmful, when it's justifiable, and how much is too much. Add in the fact that any procedure is irreversible and can only be done when the hatchling is too young to say yes or no - it's a mess.

On the fur front, a hatchling's "baby coat" is waterproof, thin, and extremely soft. Its purpose is to keep the egg liquids away from the skin and protect them from the cold just long enough to crawl under the closest parent. Adult Tundra fur is not waterproof; it keeps them dry by being thick and heavy enough that snow or liquid simply doesn't make it to the skin. A hatchling will start growing their adult coat almost immediately after making it out of the egg, and sheds their baby coat within a couple of days.

Shed baby coats are occasionally collected and woven into fabric in the same way that adult wintercoats are, but it's far less common for several reasons. The first being that the last thing on a new parent's mind is going to be collecting fur from their brand new infant - they have other things to be worrying about! The second being that one baby's worth of fur, or even a whole litter's, isn't enough to really do anything with. At best, you get a little keepsake bandana.

[figfull]

A few years ago, I went through a phase where I tried writing dragon nursery rhymes for lore, lol. They’re pretty old, but there are still a few I like.

[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.

[tiredspirals]

I'll be collecting lore posts like delicious eggs. I'm hoping to find some goons I could maybe use as cameos for my traveling band of adventurers

It'd be cool, I think, to mention 'legendary figures' or clans that are good pitstops that actually belong to players. I'm especially interested if your clan has bounty/task boards

[autumn-millifae-fr]

Welcome to the Agate Tower

A once-dilapidated tower in the Crystalspine Reaches now stands lush and whole, peacefully overgrown in the wake of its wizard's departure.

Astralla - The Wizard

Astralla was an aether dragon, and a to-be graduate of the local magic academy... That is, until they got kicked out within their second year for eating too many books. In the wake of this expulsion, Astralla sought to strike it out on their own, and prove to their instructors just how wrong they were to do so.

Their desires to become the best wizard in the arcane realm never came to fruition, however, but they would not regret it. Astralla eventually stumbled upon the Agate Tower in its ruined state, and declared themselves the new Wizard within it.

Astralla eventually animated their beloved plush toy, Star, into a familiar with the one (1) spell they learned at magic college. Though they never truly fit in to local society, Astralla made a family of their own in this way, and was never without the company of their many, many familiars animated from the tower's relics and trinkets.

After a long life well-lived, Astralla passed on peacefully hand-in-hand with their dearest Star, and bequeathed to her the mantle of Agate Wizard.

The Seamstress (Star)

Star is a short, stout Obelisk plush that was animated into an intelligent familiar by her owner, Astralla. For centuries, she served as their closest friend and confidant, and was gifted her own sense of will, wit, and intelligence as Astralla's knowledge of magic grew.

Upon Astralla's passing, Star was given the mantle of Agate Wizard, and as such, the tower and its inherent magic would now look to her. She took a shard of Astralla's crystal staff into herself, and sewed it within her chest, so she would never fall inanimate again.

In her grief, Star found comfort in the company of another familiar named Mosaic, and together the two devised a plan to ensure they would never be without their own friends and family. Star eventually shed her own name as her grief proved too much, stating once that she was Astralla's star. Without her wizard, she was nothing.

But it was Mosaic who suggested she take on a title instead, and gave her the moniker of 'Seamstress' once they began working on new familiars sewn together from Astralla's old wardrobe.

Just as her wizard did before her, the Seamstress worked tirelessly to ensure she and Mosaic would not be alone, eventually cobbling together the first few fellow familiars that would become the start of their toy family.

All toy dragons within the Agate Tower were crafted lovingly by the Seamstress' claws. She presides over her tower now as Matron and Wizard, and it is to her that the other familiars look to for guidance. With even more decades under her belt now of living amongst her created family, the Seamstress has found herself wondering if this peace is what Astralla felt before they passed. She has grown content with her life, and in that contentment, the quiet desire for a legacy is close at hand.

Until recently, The Seamstress had found no one worthy nor willing to take up her mantle and keep their family thriving -- that is, until she found a glimmer of her old friend within the eyes of a new apprentice.

Stuffing

In all her years of crafting familiars, the Seamstress tried to avoid creating those with small pink bodies and blue moth's wings, lest they remind her too deeply of Astralla. It's no surprise, then, that as the fabric within the Agate Tower ran out, these colors were all that she was left with. It was not another dragon that requested Stuffing's creation, but a sense of quiet acceptance from the Seamstress herself-- and a bit of encouragement from Mosaic. Together, the two fashioned what remained of their fabric supplies into the only shape they could manage with so little: the form of a tiny aether, bright-eyed and fat-tailed, ready to take on the world.

Perhaps it was fate that this little dragon, made in the image of a grand-creator they would never know, would be the one to take a keen interest in the Seamstress' sewing. They would bring her whatever scraps they could find, badger her with questions about magic, and look on with eyes rounder than the moon at even the shortest story she could tell them about magic.

Stuffing was welcomed wholeheartedly by the Seamstress as her apprentice... And though they do not know it yet: she hopes, eventually, her successor as well.

Mosaic

Mosaic is one of the very few familiars Astralla created with a higher intelligence and a semi-free will of her own. She stands taller than most other familiars in the tower, with massive wings made of stretched canvas, and a body made of intricately folded paper. Unique to her magic, Mosaic can also choose to abandon her paper body in favor of becoming a drawing incarnate, and stride freely across canvases and finished paintings as a two-dimensional figure. To aid this, most of the tower's upper observatory has been draped with canvas sheets and filled with paintings from elsewhere in the tower, allowing Mosaic free roam on the higher levels.

Mosaic is the closest of the familiars to the Seamstress, and the two share a unique bond in their mutual grief over Astralla.

Cottonfluff Desire

One of the first toy familiars crafted by the Seamstress, Cottonfluff (or 'Desire' as he will claim to any who will listen), considers himself to be the darling younger brother of Star. She made him for this purpose, after all, and to this purpose he shall serve-- even if he is a bit over-the-top at times.

Desire gets his self-proclaimed nickname from spending far too many hours reading Astralla's old (half-eaten) romance novels, and pouring over the bits and pieces of chivalry sprinkled between the gnawed pages. He thinks of himself as quite the gentleman, and embodies these lofty ideals to a fault.

Early into his knightly escapades within the tower, Desire begged his elder sister for dashing apparel to match the persona he wanted to build. As a bit of a friendly prank, the Seamstress did indeed provide -- provide a familiar, that is, with a mischievous mind of its own (Rogue Apparel).

(Desire is also loosely inspired by the Winged Lion from Dungeon Meshi :) )

Scraps

Scraps is one of the youngest familiars in the Agate Tower, sewn together from dishcloths found left under the sink. Their 'duty' to the tower is to wriggle their way into nooks and crannies in order to clean them, then wash all that dirt off in a teacup bathtub. Scraps is one of the few familiars sewn by the Seamstress that can safely get wet, on account of their stuffing being made from shredded towel.

Scraps lives in the cupboards, where they've befriended the spice shaker, Nutmeg. They love being wrung out after a long day of cleaning, and especially enjoy hanging in their swing to dry (It feels like flying!)

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The Tower Gardens

Before Astralla took up residence in the Agate Tower, its creator had commissioned a massive, sprawling set of gardens that have since overgrown their boundaries...

Lychen

Lychen is by far the largest familiar Astralla ever animated, formerly a marble statue covered in moss. Because of his size and the amount of magic it takes for him to operate, Lychen typically rests atop his plinth to conserve his energy. He is a kind, slow-to-speak and kind soul, readily offering his masttive figure as shelter for the creatures of the garden.

Queen Myre and King Thicket

A pair of witty Veilspun who may be older than the Agate Tower itself. This mysterious pair claim to rule the overgrown gardens, and are rarely seen by any of Astralla's animated familiars. They are the caretakers of the gardens, and their brood is plentiful- occupying every hollow and clump of weed as tiny, shadowy pixies.

[kiwiana-writes]

WIP Wednesday

Thanks to @daisymae-12 @anincompletelist @suseagull04 for the tags! I'm having A Bit Of A Week so I decided to jump back into a doc I've been struggling with for a while but really love, aka Anastasia AU my beloved, and smash out a few new words for it. I'd apologise for it being so bloody long buuuuuuut turns out I'm not actually sorry!

“Age progression AI,” Nora says, and Alex nods as though this means anything to him. “Someone’s built one that they’re claiming will, quote, ‘change the game’ when it comes to missing person’s cases, but they don’t give a single fuck about the privacy concerns or the data usage implications, so I’m trying to pull it apart and prove it’s janky. Can’t rely on capitalism to do the moral thing, but I sure can trust corporations to recognise a bad investment.” Alex hums in agreement, leaning over her shoulder. “Is it good, though? Ethical quandaries aside?” “Unfortunately, yeah.” Nora reaches for the Red Bull next to her laptop, taking a long swig. “But everything I’m feeding it is already public domain—celebrities and stuff—so it’s hard to differentiate true AI generation from it scanning and returning older photos of the same person. So now I’m looking at people the internet doesn’t have photos of past a certain age, seeing what it spits out.” “Like… dead children?” He winces. “Dark.” “Dead or missing.” She minimises the window full of code, bringing up a side-by-side of two pictures instead. “Prince Henry. Disappeared the night we dissolved the monarchy, almost definitely dead, but his family still— Alex, are you okay?” It’s only when Nora says his name that Alex realises his head is spinning; he sucks in a breath, and the immediate relief he feels makes it clear that he hadn’t done so for longer than is strictly advisable. He can’t tear his eyes away from the picture on the right: the sharp blue eyes, the soft-looking golden hair, the imperious set to his jaw that drove Alex crazy for an entire semester. “That’s— you’re fucking with me, right?” “Alex, babe. I love that your brain runs a million miles a minute, but in this particular case, I think you’ve left me behind.”  Alex turns to look at her. He’s known Nora for years—biblically and otherwise—and he likes to think he can read her well enough. If he’s right, she’s not fucking with him, and somehow that’s worse. “Nora,” he says slowly, “I know this guy.”

Forever feeling feral for whatever y'all are up to, so tags below the cut and, as always, anyone who wants to play! (If you take the open tag please tag me so I can see!!)

@affectionatelyrs @celaestis1 @cha-melodius @clottedcreamfudge @cricketnationrise @cultofsappho @dumbpeachjuice @getmehighonmagic @happiness-of-the-pursuit @heybuddy-drabbles @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @hypnostheory @iboatedhere @indestructibleheart @indomitable-love @inexplicablymine @leaves-of-laurelin @lilythesilly @myheartalivewrites @nontoxic-writes @orchidscript @rmd-writes @roseapothecary @sherryvalli @ships-to-sail @smc-27 @sparklepocalypse @ssmtskw @stereopticons @tintagel-or-cockleshells @welcometololaland 

[high-fantasy-sw]

Worldbuilding Wednesdays

Part One: Jedi Clothing

Welcome to Worldbuilding Wednesdays, the weekly post that expands on an aspect of the AU! This week's edition is focusing on the clothing of the Jedi Order.

Younglings and Young Padawans have the lightest sentence in terms of clothing. That sounds like a bad thing but I have no better way to phrase it. What this means is that they can pretty much wear whatever they want, but there are a few rules that need to be obeyed.

All younglings wear comfortable, loose-fitting tunics and breeches in warm shades, with soft turnstyle shoes made of felt with leather soles (they don’t leave the monastery much, so heavier-duty shoes are not usually needed). They also wear their distinguishing article- their wide-brimmed caps (for boys) or bonnets (for girls); these are based on the helmet-hats seen in Attack of the Clones.

When a Youngling becomes a Padawan, the dress code remains very light: he or she is allowed to wear almost anything of his or her choosing, but it must be modest and not overly distracting- so no eye-searing colors. Boots are preferred but not required, made of soft but sturdy leather, and almost every Padawan wears a belt that matches. Additionally, they each wear a colorful sash that denotes their apprenticeship. Often, these sashes match the color of the young Jedi’s lightsaber, though this is not always the case. (For example, while Obi-Wan’s sash was light blue, and Anakin’s was dark blue, which match the colors of their Kyber Crystals, Ahsoka’s sash was purple while her lightsabers were green.) These sashes can be worn in a variety of fashions, and the style will vary depending on the Padawan’s discretion. (To use the disaster trio for an example again: Obi-Wan’s sash wrapped over his left shoulder and across his chest, Anakin’s draped over both of his shoulders like a vest or stole, and Ahsoka’s wrapped around her waist and hung down the front of her skirt). And, obviously, we can’t talk about Padawans without talking about Padawan hair. All Padawans wear their hair short, but the style can vary based on the Padawan in question. And obviously there’s the Padawan Braid. Head accessories are permitted as long as they aren’t too distracting, and ethnic headgear is allowed and encouraged (Togruta headscarves and horn montrals, Twi’lek lekku headwraps, Mirialan veils, Kel Dor and Cerean helmets, et cetera). 

Senior Padawans are Padawans eighteen years of age or older. When a Padawan becomes a Senior Padawan, he or she begins to be fully integrated into the Order, so at a ceremony called the Rite of Seniority, Padawans actually get to design the habit they will wear, within the ground rules laid out by the Order, as an adult Jedi. Many Jedi wear robes influenced by their birth cultures, and this is a practice both allowed and actively encouraged. As Senior Padawans are still Padawans, however, they continue to wear their colored sashes until their knighting, even if they do begin to wear their adult habit.

During the Clone Wars, Jedi assigned to command troops wear a somewhat standardized uniform instead of their usual habit (however, their individual habit is still worn when at the Temple). This uniform consists of a simple tunic (in various shades of brown), a chainmail undertunic, splint-armor pants, upper-chest plate armor, pauldrons, and some form of boots and gloves. (For a better picture of what this looks like in practice, please reference the Jedi Edition of my Heroforge Series.) However, elements such as color, cut, and of course, cultural aspects like headgear, may be personalized by the individual Jedi.

Thanks for tuning in! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I’d be more than happy to answer them! See you next week for part two!

[orions-quill]

Carya Kingdom - Worldbuilding Wednesday (P. Time)

And we have circled back to Worldbuilding Wednesday! Today I'm introducing to you the main setting of Project Time, which is the Kingdom of Carya or the Carya Kingdom, either or is correct. P. Time occurs on a planet much similar to Earth but a little to the left, and Carya exists sort of off the coast from Ireland, the UK, France, Spain and Portugal (all of which will have completely different names in the book).

Carya will have a mixture of influences from all the countries I mentioned before in terms of culture, and I'm excited to develop that a little more.

Here's a map of Carya Kingdom done with the lovely Azgaar! I'm still tweaking some things, so it isn't perfect, especially in terms of the size, since I can't figure how to change that yet lol I've also got to decide the main cities and stuff, so it'll take some time to get it where I want it to be.

Fun fact, Carya is the genus of Hickory trees, which is just, a nice tree type lol

Hopefully I'll continue working on it a bit and bring you some more updates next week!

[thatndginger]

Happy WBW! I'm missing my family pup, so what kind of pets are kept in your world?

Has it been actual months since I had the energy to answer asks (and remember they're there)? Yes. Am I still going to answer this? You betcha. Because Tori you are awesome and I deeply appreciate that you sent this to me even if it took me forever to get to it.

I'm gonna be a cheeky little gremlin and talk about The Dragon Project, my newest and least fleshed out wip because, well, dragons.

There are many different breeds of domestic dragon in TDP, some of which you can see in the picture below:

There are more 'tiny' breeds of dragons, but I haven't really worked them out and I'm also going to have to make a separate reference for them since trying to show a to-scale Mottlehorn (46' wingspan) next to a house dragon (4'~ish wingspan) does not look very good.

The most common 'style' of dragon in TDP are riding-type dragons that are big enough to carry a human (or two) on their backs when in flight. These guys are the typical mode of transport, but can also act as guardians, hunting companions, or even weapons of war. The three types are Guardian-type, Riding-type, and Companion-type, and while they can all interbreed, trying to cross types almost always results in infertile offspring.

Larger dragons tend to live around 30 years, while the smaller ones only live for around 15 or so. The largest Guardian-types can occasionally reach 50, but that's rare.

aaand that's all I can think of at the moment? This morning has been a very wild one and I must head off to work soon!

[rydykg]

Hi there, and happy WBW! :D For Gentle Herb Brewery, what's the general consensus about superheroes, and do the five protags of this WIP agree or disagree?

hello!!

the general consensus is the cliche idolisation but more casual, in a way? since there’s quite a lot of superheroes, some of whom probably have their identities out there already, sometimes a bit more literally, since some superheroes are also more of celebrities instead of just superheroes, and with all the usual news that come with it.

at the same time, there’s also a lot of ppl wishing that the superheroes could try to stop causing so much damage to the surroundings when they fight. this one was definitely worse in the earlier years, but has since mellowed out in more recent ones.

another consensus is that the whole system is corrupt, although that is more towards the Superpowered Association than “superheroes” as a whole (since there ARE some heroes not affiliated with the association, though rare and not really well known)

minor spoilers ahead, but they don’t really matter too much shrug

Lydes is very much of the corrupt consensus. he’s only really working as one due to stubbornness and a promise he made (among other things) anyway.

Kove has seen first-hand how famous superhero families actually are like basically all of the time, and while they do agree that the system is corrupt, they’re wary to try and start anything. they also have hero-gossip as a guilty pleasure

Julia leans towards more of idolisation, esp. for Jubilee (heroine she idolises). kpop stan but less toxic and for a superhero instead. a bit more hopeful, I guess?

Kim occasionally goes to protests against the Association, and generally dislikes/doesn’t care for heroes. however, she knows that some of them do do good

Ves is, quite frankly, just tired and tries their best to keep Out Of It

[writeblrfantasy]

it’s reverse worldbuilding Wednesday!! if you’d like, please come into my inbox and tell me about your worlds!! don’t be shy, any sort of worldbuilding is welcome!

[figfull]

Gene origin headcanon-Brightshine/Sparkle

The original brightshine wasn’t a heritable gene. It was a gift the Lightweaver herself, bestowed on her most favorite and loyal children. These “brightmarked” were deeply respected and often given special privileges throughout the Flight.

However, it didn’t take too long for scroll artists to make imitations, some ranging from a weak sparkle to a nearly perfect copies of the brightmark. (In fact, one scroll maker flooded the market with them at a loss, purely to spite the elite.)

There was already some debate around “scrolled” vs “true” appearances, and whether using scrolls was cheating fate or dishonest etc, but the idea that any dragon with enough treasure could masquerade as a god’s chosen really set the debate into overdrive.

Scrolling fell out of fashion for a while, or at least, dragons claimed not to use them, but brightshine/sparkle had already circulated far and wide.