/lit/ - Literature

>>23104326
Thread Questions:
>How do people in your setting court one another, do they just go out and try and find someone, or is there a ritual to things? And how does this vary between cultures?
>After dating, what about weddings in your cultures, how do the ceremonies compare and contrast to what we in our world typically think of when talking about weddings, and what inspired these wedding rituals?
>What about love and religion, I presume that there's a deity, whether real or not, with love in its divine portfolio. How does this god and their priesthood affect love and marriage? For instance, do priests of this god officiate marriages?
>Last but not least, do any holidays dedicated to love exist in your setting? And if they do, how do make them distinct compared to Valentine's Day in real life?

Bumping

How weird can a setting get before it stops being relatable?

>>23105962
Depends on what gets weird and the tone of the setting. Like Discworld, it’s a flat world on the back of a turtle, with lots of crazy shit going on, but the humor, among other things, keeps it from becoming too weird.

I'm wondering just how to narratively justify the demise or collapse of the pseudo UK of my world. In our own world, the British Empire didn't really collapse so much as it faded away, and that only happened because the US rose to take its place.

Is it pointless to make stories that seem to make predictions of the future? I'm making an analogue for the United States that is supposed to be in a slow collapse as the story continues, and I don't want to actually focus on it because American readers may see political implications. Which will alienate people no matter what I do.

If I say that it's because of too many wars, Republicans will be turned off. If I say it's because of ethnic tensions, Democrats will get my story banned from the site. If I say it's because of environmental factors, EVERYONE will leave because of the preaching. There seems to be no option except to ignore the elephant in the room.

>>23107535
Why not all of them? Global warming/Climate change, wars in multiple theaters, race riots, recessions, labor struggles, leftist infiltration, maybe even a secession or two.

All. At. Once.

Let the readers argue over what really took them out. You're covered.

>>23104330
>What about love and religion
Like most religions, the ones in my setting only promote love between married couples for the purpose of procreation. Any other type of (sexual)love is haram.

>>23107517
Maybe some kind of natural disaster.

>>23107684
...diseases outbreaks and mass poisoning too.

in reality they are all connected. only a fictional world would be so kind as to disentangle them.

I just make it up as I go or whatever best serves the plot. I also throw in random tidbits to spice up dialogue every now and then with no intention of ever bringing it up again. The entire continent of shadow monsters? We're never ever going there.

>>23109470
It's painfully obvious to seasoned readers/writers when an author is just making shit up, and it takes you out of the text immediately. At least make notes and reference stuff multiple times at different parts to make it seem less contrived.

>>23109426
Hell, why not? Might as well go for broke.

worldbuilding just makes books so much better that i've began to notice authors who don't put the effort in and i drop them immediately

You know, it's actually not necessary for the fall of an empire to involve actual defeats. It's just as dramatic if they decline one victory at a time - losing more than they can replace but still inflicting permanent defeats on their enemies.

The successor states can just be imperial remnants.

>coming up with names for characters
>figure I'll just use German names like "Brunhilde."
>however these characters are not German so their names shouldn't be German
>came up with the idea of just adding extra syllables, for example "Brununu-hilde."
what do you guys think?

>>23110333
What cultures are you emulating?

worlbuilding isn't real

Why is it impossible to write alien races? The general idea for mine is that they’re these powerful elder type aliens. Their main goal is to control entire planets and add them to their gigantic machine. The more developed a society is, the harder it is to control. The only way they can takeover a planet is through the sacrifice of souls powering these machines they implanted into planets. They skipped out on earth during the prehistoric period. In the present they basically use this CEO of a large brother eye police force to sacrifice souls for them. Every mission is somewhat fabricated and just an excuse for causalities. The answer to “why couldn’t they just kill a bunch of people at once” is that some souls can power the machines and some are basically useless. How should I change this?

>>23110463
they're elves. I thought about using Nordic names but it just seemed too obvious.

>>23110798
Doesn't matter if it's obvious. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.

>>23110776
>sacrifice of souls powering these machines they implanted into planets
Science fantasy I see, then borrow fantasy tropes as well.

>>23110333
What’s the story? That affects things.

>>23104326
Can't you just take this shit to /tg/ with the rest of the neckbeards?

>>23112365
Unironically we got kicked out by the nazimod.

>>23104326
>>23104330
My setting is largely elemental, a bit like in Avatar but with more diverse inspirations, what might work for romantic gestures and dating rituals in such elemental cultures without directly copying it? For cultures aligned with Fire, for instance, I was thinking that their equivalent of carving their names into a tree would have them burning a slip of paper with their initials, in the hopes that doing so will essentially burn away anything that might harm the relationship.

Not sure about wedding ceremonies beyond maybe some basics, like Fire marriages might have the wedding culminate with the couple lighting a bonfire together, to symbolize their relationship and love blazing to life. I have more ideas, but this should be enough to give an idea of where I'm going with this. What are your thoughts on this or the other three elements, is there something that I could improve here?

>>23104326
Anybody else doing "worldbuilding" in a realistic setting? I am making a fictional region within my country, sort of like Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha.

>>23113220
Same. Mostly working on a series in a setting sort of like Plato's Atlantis. My dark psychological stuff is set in something like Huxley's “Savage Reservation” in New Mexico.

Then I have a detective series based in Stephen King's Castle Rock, Maine

>>23113220
I'm trying to make a more wet Central Asia. Needless to say, I'm at my wit's end. I really don't understand all those wind currents, elevation, or how rivers move.

Whatever, I'll just wing it.

>>23104326
it’s a society where hair is considered sacred, a gift from the goddes.

When you wish to propose to someone you braid it and give a loop to the person.
if they give you one rate of their own that is acceptance of your proposal.

at your the wedding equivalent a holy person, melds into you your own hair, giving you a stripe of their hair that becomes yours.
it grows along with your hair own hair, but seal retains the curl pattern and color of your partner.
Even if they were to die it would still be a part of you.

>>23107517
Make the colonies more united against them.

>>23112979
Read avatar fan fics, specifically ones that have tags like wedding and relationship

Also Tumblr head cannons could be a good thing to look through to see what they’ve imagined.

>>23112979
Why do you want to make an element their entire culture?

>>23113220
I'm working on a fantasy series where the Indus Valley Civilization never fell and Aryans got enslaved by the dark skinned Dravidians. It's mostly realistic, once you get past all the plot coupons.

>>23113801
>dravidian manlets who worship women winning against a literal warrior race
>realistic

>>23113830
Dravidians are bigger and stronger, with better weapons. The horse nomads lose because some of them get bought out into handing over their horses, others get turned against their rival tribes, and the majority just get rolled over by superior technology.

But all of them basically just become Helots for the new Meluhhan Empire.

>>23113574
No, their cultures are influenced by the elements, both in aesthetics and rituals, and they would worship elemental gods, but each elemental culture would still acknowledge that the other elements exist and are necessary. Again, it's a bit like the elemental nations in Avatar but with a more classic fantasy bend.

>>23113426
I do want to differentiate things from Avatar even if it's a good starting point, but thanks for the suggestions. Before I go looking do you have any fics or headcanons in particular that you'd recommend? Also, I haven't seen The Dragon Prince yet, and now that I think of it that might have some ideas with what I've heard about its elves, what do you think?

>>23110333
>"Brununu-hilde."
I'm fucking crying

When did these generals start happening on /lit/? I don't browse this board very often but I thought worldbuilding was frowned upon. I am glad to see some people who share this interest.

>>23105962
When characters stop reacting humanly to situations.
>>23107517
Maybe the pseudo UK and it's colonies didn't have abundant coal deposits and was left behind in the industrial revolution.
>>23107535
Has Parable of the Sower been cancelled? It deals with similar themes.

>>23104326
i'm struggling with having multiple races but just one language...
i'm writing my generic fantasy setting, my story has 10 different races populating the same world and they all can communicate with each other, which means they all must speak the same language but i feel this is "unrealistic". problem is, i'm no tolkien, i'm not smart and or educated enough to come up with 10 fully functioning different languages so i don't know what to do...
i was thinking on making it so that all the races can communicate with each other because of a magic spell cast on the world itself a long time ago but don't know if this just creates more "plot holes"
any thoughts?

>>23116731
Having a common language for business purposes is not unrealistic

>>23116731
You could go with a real world parallel. In the USSR they forced everyone to use Russian. So no matter who you were or what your mother tongue everyone could speak Russian. That or you just never address it and just pretend the problem doesnt exist like almost every other fantasy author.

What kind of conflict/struggles that people in postcyberpunk setting would have? Since the genre is the 'better version' of its pessimistic predecessor, I was thinking that maybe gang war or criminal stuff is not that rampant in postcyberpunk setting

>>23116750
Yeah, we use Latin for science shit after all.

Is there a point to writing character arcs for nonhuman non-Tolkein races? I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that the vast majority of readers are incapable of sympathizing with something unless it looks like them.

>>23104326
Besides the abilities from picture related and/or those of Fullmetal Alchemist’s Homunculi, what are some powers or abilities that make sense for demons or other beings that are either aligned with one of the Seven Deadly Sins or have magic based off of it? There’s inciting the Sin in others of course, but what else? I’d say that Wrath having command over the element of fire makes sense for instance, as well as going into a berserker fury to increase strength. If you have any other ideas, or suggestions for the other Sins, I’d love to hear them. And don’t worry if there’s overlap. Like, maybe Lust also has flame powers.

>>23117172
Yet millions could somehow sympathize with that ugly turd in ET. Skill issue

>>23117172
i used to think similarly to you but then i discovered people unironically relate to godzilla.
like the other anon said, skill issue.

I was doing some research and stumbled upon a series called Dragonlance and its extremely similar to what I thought was decently original.

>Setting is a patchwork with zero intentional consistency, literally invent regions as my story arrives at them, custom tailoring them to match whatever plot I have in mind
Thoughts on this? I keep expecting this to bite me in the ass at some point but my world is almost complete and I've had almost no issues.

>>23118837
its called discovery writing i think

>>23118985
Not them, but thanks.

>>23118674
What exactly are the similarities?

>>23121035
>>23118674
This dragonlance thing looks like the ultimate, most generic slop ever made, so I'd find it very worrying if my work was at all similar

>>23121035
Basically just the cataclysm/fall and humanity losing contact with the Gods and therefor magic. That might just be very generic in general and I'm overthinking it.

>>23121895
Yeah, you're probably overthinking it. Can you tell us more about the setting while you're here?

>>23104326
Which element(s) would you associate with different emotions and why? Fire and Anger make sense, as does Love, but what about emotions for Water, Earth, and Air, besides maybe Determination for Earth?

>>23117638
I think it’s because he’s ugly, but in a way that looks oddly cute at the same time.

>>23104326
I just realized that I will need to change the map I had originally designed because I need a character to be on a steppe, and it wouldn't make sense for him to be in the steppe zone I've had until now.

>>23113420
NTA, but how exactly?

>>23118066
They do? Why?

>>23107517
The British Empire collapsed because of traitorous politicians who encouraged the world wars and sold of the empires assets. You could use that.

I've been making a world on and off for awhile, mostly as a place I escape to in my imagination for a sense of comfort. It's about a displaced culture of people who have been pushed into a long exodus and eventually settle in a hidden mystical valley and build a new world for themselves among all of the fantastical beings that live there. The angle is, they know very little of the outside world or their own past history, so the map of the world is inaccurate, only reflecting what places they've seen and what they imagine to be outside of that. I use this as a mechanism to add more and new details and ideas into the world building as I do it.

What they do know of their past was passed down in oral tradition, and told in the story in the form of a festival of symbolic parades, memorial performances and dramatic stage plays that the characters attend and participate in. The main focus being the city they were driven from, and how the heroic prince of the city died in a duel against the champion of the invading horde and the city was sacked and laid to waste after, with only their ancestors escaping death and slavery in the exodus. Then sometime into their journey, the people began experiencing shared dreams and visions of the valley, manifested by a circle of druids who had just come to it themselves after their sacred isle was raided and destroyed by seafaring conquerors in a similar fashion. These druids guide and shape the new culture of the people, teaching them language and a new way to develop civilization in tune with nature and the mystical creatures of the valley. It's been 3 generations from these events transpired with only the very oldest having been young children at the time of the settling.

The world presented is small in physical size, two main cities, one similar to this picture, and another at the mouth of the valley that is styled like a wooden frontier fortress, like a marching camp made semi permanent and then fully permanent over time that acts as a bulwark and gateway between the valley and the world outside of it. There are dozens of villages and homesteads between and around the two cities. This culture has no nobility and instead is a republic centered around several guilds that are guided morally and spiritually by the circle of druids who live within a magical hidden Grove in the forest.

That's just place setting, from here I just have many little pieces of detail about the specific races and creatures who dwell here with the humans, parts of their habits and cultures, myths and superstitions about them, stories about invidual people and events that happened to them and just the inner workings and systems of this civilization, problems it encountered and solutions it found

>>23125374
I'm not saying there's no external conflict, but I created this world to explore a fully functioning idyllic landscape that exists in a period of restoration, peace and harmony. The troubles and conflicts they face are met with unity and balanced solutions that preserve this peace and improve their collective society. A lot of stories of people being drawn into the homes of the mystical creatures and seeing their weird Jim Henson style ways of life, stories about the land going through a cycle of seasons and their myths and traditions pertaining to this passage of time, stories that serve as a vehicle to explore the inner workings of each guild and show them functioning without inner corruption or power struggles, stories about the druids creating a sort of education system that all ages of people participate in to created a shared language and write their own history and develop new technologies and techniques, stories about sporting events and tournaments. Many stories within the story of recounting myths and fairy tales.

The most traditional adventuring stories within this world would be trading expeditions launched from the frontier fortress city at the mouth of the valley to explore the steppe and interact with the nomadic horse tribes in the great grass sea. It's all an amalgamation of many different influences, there in no one single culture or philosophy this fantasy culture is built upon.

>>23105962
That's impossible to answer definitively because it is dependant on the reader how he understand and relates to a work

>>23112365
No

>>23122153
Seconding please, I’d love to hear more about what you have.

Is wanting to create a fantastical city based on this style of architecture enough to base a whole world building concept on?

>>23127181
>a wizard conjured up a magical realm to hide a mcguffin
>the realm is basically Piranesi's The Prisons but with different architecture
>eventually adventures stopped looking for the mcguffin and people started living in the endless buildings which grew into a metropolis

>>23127311
I always loved the idea of an infinite magical building. Reminds me of Gormenghast

>>23127363
Never heard of it. But doesn't an infinite setting come with some issues?

>>23128563
Not at all, if you go in with that intention

>>23128629
Okay, please elaborate then.

Oh wow the spambot is on /lit/ too.
He posts random pictures with inane questions or "please elaborate", single-handedly killed /tg/ I hope he genuinely fucking dies screaming

>>23104326
I’m considering adding a floating city to my setting, besides the obvious “what keeps it afloat”, what do I need to consider?

This is my first completed short story, would appreciate any feedback.
https://mega.nz/file/hpghxBwI#7gbi2cvW9aSFDOazz51sr-QFrfcfVWKGUqGoR52QRv0
Thank you for the advice I've gotten in this thread and the /tg/ one

>>23130636
It's pretty good. Is there more?

>>23130758
Thanks! At this time there is not, but I want to keep writing short science fiction stories to practice for the big fantasy series I’m planning out

A guided philosophical meditation with ChatGPT that blurs the distinction between real and imaginary, creator and creation.

https://sys.4chan.org/derefer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.com%2FkcPLQwGh

>In the days of the Mathurin Regnier this tavern w called the Pot-aux-Roses, and as rebus puzzles were then in fashion it had for its sign a pillar (poteau) painted pink. In the last century the worthy Natoire, one of those imaginative masters today scorned by the formal school, having several times made merry in this tavern at the very table where Regnier had caroused, to show his gratitude painted a bunch of Corinth grapes on the pink pillar. In his delight the tavern-keeper altered the sign and had these words emblazoned in gold: "To the grapes of Corinth". Hence the name "Corinth", which gradually displaced the Pot-aux-Roses.. No longer even knowing about the tradition, the last tavern-keeper of the dynasty, Pere Hucheloup, had the pillar painted blue.

Just a random, one-shot location... why do you like fantasy worldbuilding?

>>23112886
HAHAHAHHAHAA

>>23116731
Maybe set it in a pre-tower of babel type of setting where languages still haven't become so niche. A world where God still communicates with its people.

>>23130632
What do they eat? Where did they got their water from? How did they transporting goods? Did they use some airplane or some magical bird? Does the city have some kind of border so that the children wont fall to the ground? How about the area below the city? Is there any civilization under them or is it some kind of apocalyptic wasteland? What kind of clothes they are wearing? They lived on top of a floating city, so the climate is probably more colder/warmer than usual, also from that climate what kind of plant that grows in there? et cetera et cetera

>>23124727
if all the colonies revolted at the same time, it would spread the uk military and resources thinner. as well, they could invite other countries to back them even more

Post revolutions if they were united in their hatred of the UK, then they could all work together to keep the UK down.

I have once read that all fantasy stories have the premise that "the world suffered from a great catastrophe and is trying to put itself back together" or that there is some kind of finality to the world.
Do you think that's true? Can a world be made without it? Can you even write a history for a world where there is not some kind of goal in sight?
Is it just human nature to believe that there is an end to it? We today see ourselves as a civilization destined to either reach the stars or fall and fade away, but what about the hundreds of thousands of years of human history when entire generations existed in a high imperceptible eternity of wandering, hunting and surviving?
I guess I am just musing here.

>>23133171
I've read a lot of fantasy that had nothing like that. You should exercise extreme doubt when someone claims to know "all fantasy" because there's more made every year than any standard mortal can hope to cover.

>>23133197
I dont think it was meant as the central plot theme, but even in LOTR there's a sense of finality to it, as history is progressing along a straight line and the world is still marred first by morgoth, then sauron.
I guess Feist's works dont do that but kind of they do, as in Magician, it's revealed there was a cataclysm that split the world into multiple parallel ones when one of them built a portal to war against the other ones.

>>23133211
It's a common subject because it's part of our own history. The world has been through six mass extinction events and the ruin of many civilizations and we know our time here is finite. But again, not nearly every fantasy author includes things like that.

How to conlang or what is a good conlang to get into appreciate conlangs? I want to get into linguistics but is implied I have no knowlege about it.

>>23133821
>How to conlang
here's a basic guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHK1gO2Mh68&list=PL6xPxnYMQpqsooCDYtQQSiD2O3YO0b2nN

on more specific features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPByou0EIb4&list=PL6xPxnYMQpqtRYXTLyNgF-oCc4SHYpIYq

Also David Peterson is good source for pointers
https://www.youtube.com/@Dedalvs/playlists

and the conlangery podcast is good for both general linguistics and consanguinity proper

there's also pic related book

>>23124727
>>23127181
>>23128563
>>23129463
>>23130632
just fyi this is a spammer/bot
does the exact same shit on /tg/
picks an image of google and asks a random question so that retards reply to it, I assume to collect data to train the bot or waste people's time
After someone points it out he says "who cares if it's a bot? the discussion is interesting' and you get banned by a tranny janny

Bumping

>>23104326
Besides War, Fertility, and perhaps the Moon, what are some potential divine domains that work well for a Love deity? My only other idea is Archery, because of Cupid’s arrows.

>Not only does AI make better characters than you, they get materialized in under a week

>>23124170
Why precisely do you need the character to be on a steppe, and what do you have so far?

>>23130763
What are you planning for the big stories, anything particularly interesting so far?

Is Elder Scrolls' lore worth my time? I hear there are many resources online to catch up with it, but after hearing bits and pieces of lore about the Dwermer and Thalmor races in Skyrim, it intrigues me about TES' universe. Is this rabbit hole worth diving down, or is it amateur by /lit/ standards and more just good by /v/ standards?

Sorry if this is the wrong thread. I'm a bit of a newbie to /lit/, and I didn't take this to /v/ because I feel like the discussion would go further here.

>>23137464
The biggest one is a high fantasy with a loose Native America setting, showcasing various cultures based off various pre-Colombian societies.
I also am working on a Sci-Fi story about a marine xenobiologist who visits several planets, and another one about working on various types of spaceships, based on my own stories working in the maritime industry

>>23136412
>>23136808
kill yourself you fucking nigger spambot

>>23104326
Speaking of gods, does anyone have anything to say on designing fantasy temples and the rituals therein, for love deities or otherwise? Because I’m working on something where otherworldly temples just start popping up all over the world, but when I try to flesh them out for some reason my traitorous brain either goes with Christian cathedrals or something Greek like the Parthenon, and I want them to have more variety than that besides the obvious like a solar god having sun imagery plastered everywhere. Help would be greatly appreciated, even if it’s just you talking about what you did.

>>23134426
Not the same guy, but these are all great, thanks.

>>23104326
What are some secondary magics and abilities that I can give each of the four elements in my magic system? For instance, Water getting healing spells as something mages of that element can do more easily than those of the other elements can. Avatar’s given me a couple ideas, like Fire mages being able to harness lightning, but I feel like I need more for each element, do you guys have any suggestions please? I’d suggest a Bloodbending equivalent for Water, but that’s both OP and rather hard to use if you’re a good guy, and flying magic for Air holds a similar issue with being something that could make it harder to justify conflicts. My best idea for an Air specialty so far is divination magic.

>>23136733
So, how exactly does AI make characters that are so great? And what do you mean by "materialized"?

Also, what's going on in that image of yours? I can't seem to look away, and it might even be worth basing a demon or monster on if I had a little more information. One that can use the mirror to reflect spells back at their caster.

>>23125230
BTA, but come again? That sounds like a conspiracy theory.

>>23125222
You relate by many things that aren't physical. Situation, personality, random abstract things. For example I relate to Celaena Sardothien, even further removed from humanity than Godzilla, she is a woman.

>>23139562
A few ideas I thought up right now.
Air: Clarity, vision, chemical warfare
Water: Healing, Privacy as if hidden in the deep ocean, emotion
Fire: Cleansing (embrace the prometheum). rage,
Earth: fucking bricks? What loser picks "STONES" as a magic power? IDK, humility? Mineral wealth?
Aether: Transcendence

>>23142028
Well, the idea was more that some mages would be better attuned to one element than the others, like how the element one can bend in Avatar, if one has the ability at all, is genetic. And while throwing rocks at your enemies isn't very flashy, you wouldn't want to get hit by said rocks either, right? Not to mention the uses in construction.

Thanks for the suggestions, though I'm not sure how "humility" would work via Earth magic. Or why Water would have emotion or how that would work, though Water being able to obscure targets from magical observation is a cool idea, again, thanks.

>>23142164
DESU mate, I'm not sure how "humility" is supposed to go into a magic system either. But it's my thoughts regarding Earth Magic. Same sort of deal with water ==> emotion, though that has a deeper history and ties with psychological theories, notably dream analysis, where water usually represents the human emotions as dark tides that carry people forth.
I will be honest, I'm drunk.
I would also, if planning a system around the 4 elements, be wary of making them too samey. It is harder work, of course, but making the other schools work in completely incomparable ways to "water = healing" stops them all feeling like 2d6 with a coat of paint.

Maybe waters tend to creep through dreams? Through the subconscious? A little difficult because I don't know where the magic in your world is at, whether things like mind reading are verboten or not.
Humility? Doesn't lend itself to magic powers. But maybe humility as an emergent aspect: by many earth mages working hard and unsung, they can get something great done?

>>23142219
Well, if you can come up with ideas like this when drunk, I'd love to see you take another crack at it when sober then.

Do you have any links to these theories? Yeah, I feel a similar way, I want to give each element things that it can do that the others can't (or at least things that are much easier to do with that element, like for the healing example, while Water is 'the' element associated with healing, Fire can still be used for some healing purposes, namely cauterizing wounds), you feel me? Okay, Earth mages being able to link up more easily due to the sheer size and mass of the planet could work, thanks! What about defensive warding spells, that could it into the 'humility' angle if you squint a little. As for the Air stuff, by 'chemical warfare' you mean toxic gasses, right? And by 'clarity' and 'vision' you mean scrying and truth-revealing spells I presume. What about illusion magic for Air, or would that work better with another element in your book?

>>23135036
Yep, and you missed a few. Fuck this cancer.

>>23110305
Who are some of these authors that don’t put in the effort?

I started a world last night to fulfill a sword and sorcery fantasy. It's a gladiator story about a soldier who uses his payout from his service to fund a gladiator school to rise through a long series of leagues and tournaments. I want it to be loosely Roman inspired but not too direct. The first part of the story begins in a newly founded city in the northern frontier, constructed from the framework of a semi permanent marching fort with collective long houses being put up in the place of tents. It has a roughly put together battle ground that serves as an arena that is among the lowest tier in the imperial leagues, with several other battles grounds scattered across the forests and lands for smaller games

>>23134426
Besides the links >>23134426 suggests, there's also the Language Creation Society, which is a site for people who want to conlang and discuss it. The link is below if you want to check it out.
>https://conlang.org/

Oops, I meant to link to >>23133821 in >>23144555, not sure what went wrong.

Pretty terrible line-art render, but I am working on an entire world solely focused around a massive tower that pierces the sky, using Zbrush+Blender and Houdini. I am still not satisfied with the design, but it'll be steampunk with turning gears, automation etc.

The tower itself houses Demon's that plague humanity, and the inside is rich with artifacts that have special properties, like a stone being able to turn steel into sand upon contact.

>>23142352
The water = emotion thing is lifted from "101 Dream Interpretation Tips" by Jane Anderson (not a very good book, but it was $2). The rest is trying to sus out unconscious symbolism, e.g. gut reaction. Air, wind, clarity, imagining cool winds in an open field, though in bright sun, hence clarity. Perhaps, as it is so tied to the weather, doing it again at night yields an auxiliary 'aspect'?
My stuff doesn't have an elements. It's based on blood, as in bloodlines, and blood as in literal flesh used, which can be donated/taken. So can other types of flesh, e.g. bone. (In horrific ways, so anything involving it as magic source is regarded as a dick move) It's as static (think runes) spells, or just standard-fantasy spellcasting. I'm aiming for a lowish-magic setting, so it's ok that it's fairly limited.

I wouldn't put scrying magic or truth revelation, (low magic setting), but it lends itself to communication, and telepathy really doesn't fit, but what if trained air-wizards could communicate over the air? As in, putting thoughts into the wind and blowing it at each other, or letting it carry like a smell.
I really like the defensive aspect of earth magic, I missed it, but it fits so naturally as the safety against winds and rain of a thick wall, cave or a stone castle. Warding spells, maybe they are visualised or metaphorically explained like fortifications.
Illusion magic doesn't fit with clarity/truth, but if night is the auxiliary aspect, totally. Maybe it's even tied to the day/night cycle, what magic an air-adept can do.

Having water be the primary healing thing, but with fire as a secondary healing, keeps the magical roles from feeling cleanly or arbitrarily divided, the little bit of complexity feels realistic.

>by 'chemical warfare' you mean toxic gasses, right?
... I was drunk and meant chemical warfare very literally (mainly as gasses). It's in the setting I'm making, but umm... yeah, it might be a pretty poor suggestion, lmao.
Aether was IIRC considered by the ancient greeks part of the earth water etc thing.

>>23144608
So, there are only demons and artifacts in the tower, and regular humans live outside, to be clear?

>>23144981
Yes, here's a silly demon I am working on for this specific world, I like sculpting the stuff out.

>>23145030
That’s cool. Do you have any other demons like this? And where did the tower come from?

Pic related, it reminded me of when I read into Aristotelian ethics, where even something that seems good at first must not be given total reign over all aspects of life. I want to orient a world around the concept of several forces of unspeakable horror fighting against each other while humanity/creation sits in the middle of it, all, thrown around like a boat in a storm. A true fight against something ancient and eldritch while life flourishes only in the margins.
Got any good material to inform such a background? Fiction, philosophers, artists, etc.

>>23144670
Thanks, I'll check it out, unless you have a better suggestion for that kind of thing.

The idea of Air magic having the truth/clarity aspect to represent the sky during the day and illusions for the night sky does make sense when you think about it, or maybe I could do it so it's more clear skies vs cloudy ones, but regardless of which I choose, that's a cool justification, thanks. Of course, now I have to consider other potential aspects for the other elements as well...

If you're okay with it, I'd love to hear more about your own stuff. Maybe I can give you some feedback, help you like you've helped me. Like, how useful is animal flesh/blood compared to the stuff from people, and why?

Communication like that could indeed work for Air mages, thanks.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well, do you have any other ideas for Earth magic? For instance, I'm torn between making Earth magic the element most suited for enchanting, or just having enchantment of items be elementally neutral, with the element being used to enchant determining what effects the item can have. I'm leaning a bit more towards the latter, what do you think?

Oh, I see. Again, I would like to know more about your setting please.

>>23113406
Why do you want it to be more wet? Is there a particular reason? Or do you just like canals or something?

>>23104326
I’m planning on including a group of succubi in a future story of mine, in which they act as Hell’s spies in the mortal realm, and I could use some help coming up with names for the succubus characters that have actual meaning to them. If it helps, as of this writing the story will be a modern fantasy one. I’m not comfortable enough with worldbuilding to create something entirely original yet.

>>23147035
Name one Succu-Bitch and have her look like this girl

is making hard sci-fi worth even giving any regard to if you aren't an actual scientist, specifically a phycist?

>>23147104
I've never heard of that "Goku Midnight Eye" anime that this is from before, do you actually like it or did you just use the image? And is it actually any good before I seriously check it out? Regardless, I need more than just one name. Do you have any more, jokes or otherwise?

>>23148201
>>23148201
It's like an autistic hyper masculine power fantasy in the style of a sexy violent 80s cop movie, so it's good if you're into that sort of thing. It's not particularly deep or tasteful but it's animated really well.

I don't know the details of your world, but if they're spies they need to have normal mortal names to blend in. Name them after your ex girlfriends

>>23145030
How does it move? Because the way it looks, it can only drag itself along. And not very fast at that.

>>23146751
The reason I want to make Central Asia wetter is to allow a massive boom in populations and prosperity. I want dozens of minor kingdoms and principalities in the steppe, and maybe even an empire or two.

>>23148297
Okay, thanks for that.

As for the names, I was thinking that they'd have true names beneath their mortal aliases, names that would have power over them, and have meanings at least somewhat related to being a succubus, that kind of name is what Im looking for.

so i'm still at that worldbuilding codex and one idea that struck me is should i first make an "original" illustration, and then the codex illustration is based off of it? The idea is that it is a compendium of various pictographic, written and heard of sources by the author. I intend to make a small scale RPG about writing the book and the pitfalls of searching for the truth when the authority necessitates they control the narrative, and also of how history is hard to actually know and how different the sources can be, even between eyewitnesses.
Idk if i should bother with that technicality now, cause really they would just be slightly stylistically/organizationally different from the main codex version.

>>23144608
This is cool. Besides the demon below, do you have any more art from this yet?

>>23147575
Sure it is. There's a lot of cool stuff that's at least theoretically possible that we just haven't managed yet, so if you just avoid going into too much detail describing the physics of it all and are careful not to do anything blatantly impossible it should be fine.

>>23147035
Lilith works well for their boss. That’s all I have though, sorry.

>>23144555
This is great. Thanks anon!

What kind of monsters scare you? In the setting of my story, there are nine "super threats" prowling around, that are so deadly, strong, or difficult to approach, all people can do is try stay out of their way. But my ideas for them are kind of basic.

>>23153528
Elephant Seal

>>23153528
What about a monster that can send out parasites to control people, or even other creatures?

>>23145171
A bunch more I probably won't be posting, as some are still in a rougher stage and others are huge, important character(s). I'm writing a short story on this particular world and it's hard not to spoil anything. Here's an axe wielded by a much stronger Demon, it's not done yet but I wanted to get the basic shape figured out before I sculpt the real details.

>>23148792
Don't let the dragging fool you, those arms are incredibly strong, able to rip anyone in half, even if they're armored. Think of how strong an ordinary arm is on your average adult, then multiply it by how many you see grafted in the photo, to create the "main" large arms..

To actually answer your question, It will claw itself towards the target at about 14 Mph. You can outrun one if you're full sprint, but only if completely unburdened.

>>23153528
What about something like Ditto from Pokémon, where it mimics the strength and abilities of whoever faces it, so they're evenly matched (or maybe it has some kind of additional trick), and because it takes their form in the process it unnerves people and catches them off guard. And since it can be anyone, just the mention of it could make people paranoid.

>>23154187
Depending on how many parasites it can produce, how far they can go, and do they reproduce in the host body, a monster like that could potentially end the world. At least in a setting without modern medicine and blood analysis techniques. But if appropriately toned down, this could be pretty interesting, for sure.

>>23155135
Funnily, I had monsters a bit like that in another story. But if the opponents aren't bothered by the mimicry, you're left with just a pretty standard monster, nothing outstanding.

>>23155608
Why didn't you respond to my elephant suggestion? You could easily extrapolate the natural behaviors of an elephant seal into a horrific sloth demon

>>23155614
Seals are exceedingly jolly and cuddlesome. Yes, even seals with funny faces. We do not condone demonizing seals here.

>>23155614
>>23155633
Thinking about it further, this made me think of a monster that has very low mobility but is surrounded by a wide magic field that traps anyone who comes too close in the world of dreams. Unless nothing wakes the victims, they stay that way and die in their sleep. A creature that's not hostile itself, but still very dangerous. It was a good idea, after all, thanks.

>>23155608
How about something that creates endless doppelgangers of those it faces, like illusions but solid, until their unlucky foe is forced to question their own existence?

>>23156144
A lot of effort to bamboozle one guy. What happens if it meets somebody blind?

>>23104326
What are some cool necromancy abilities that don’t get used enough? Necromancy is my setting’s main magic system, you see.

Bumping

>>23156275
Containing your soul in a hidden vessel while you project an invulnerable phantom

>>23158103
So, like a lich, but more ghostly than skeletal? I can get behind that. Got any more ideas? I'm trying to come up with as many necromancy variations/spells as possible.

Bump

Has anyone done a setting where commonplace minerals/materials are rare, and rare ones commonplace? So like a castle built from crystal is just whatever, but a piece of steel is valued like diamond?

>>23156271
Well, I was thinking more about the paranoia aspect of it being potentially nearby, but it can possible create doppelgangers for more than one person at a time.

>>23156275
What about using the life-force of other creatures to replenish the necromancer's own?

Martial World is the best xianxia ever. Why? The MC uses a spear. The most successful weapon in the history of mankind.

>>23161604
I was looking for potentially kingdom-ending threats, the nine greatest hazards on a planet. "Can do unsettling impersonations" didn't make the cut, but I now have a full list of monstrosities and the show can go on.

>>23153528
>monsters
i would make all of them women if i was you.

>>23156275
how about the original use of necromancy?
before "necromancy" meant "i have an army of zombies lol"
it was a power used to forcefully extract information from the dead. this was usually portrayed as a really evil thing to do since awakening the dead was torture for the soul.
nobody uses necromancy like that nowadays.

>>23153528
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk

Quit my job and spent several months of intense work to create this map to illustrate my problem.
>City states form a loose ring around "fertile farming area"
>Farming area is comprised of a few dozen villages who enjoy independence in exchange for a share of their crops
>City states are all on very good terms with each other, don't have conflicting interests with each other (yet), and are generally happy to share the harvest of designated farming area
>Large part of the reason they're all on good terms is fighting a united war against Hazelwood about 200 or so years prior (Hazelwood has been dormant since but the cities are terrified it will begin growing again)
>Big tree is important, if you go too far from it agriculture stops working entirely
My question: On a fantasy realism scale where 1 is Lewis Carol and 10 is GRRM (probably not the best example but he's the only realistic fantasy author coming to mind at the moment), how realistic is this setup?

For reference most of my story hovers at about a 3 or a 4 on that scale.

>>23164116
There's no rational reason why the cities remain independent despite sharing farmland and a common enemy.

>>23104326
A system of magic I’m creating works by forcibly corrupting other kinds of magic, bending them to the caster’s will and producing greater power from the spell than normally possible based on how much of the type of mystical energy being altered is present in the environment, but at the cost of corruption changing the nature of the magic the more it was corrupted (for instance, if nature magic is being twisted and used to conjure vibes to trap an enemy, as the amount of corruption increases so will the random and often fearsome mutations that will manifest on said vines). It’s mainly used by mages who are desperate, immoral, arrogant, or a mix of all three because, while it allows mages to use their specialties when they’re in a place where there’s very little of the appropriate ambient power available, like a water mage in the desert or a flame mage stranded at sea, it’s believed to be tied to an eldritch force of evil that can twist a mage physically, mentally, or both if they use too much for them to handle.

I’m just having some issues coming up with ways that it can show for all the types of magic, such as elemental magic or holy magic, other than the spells odd colors and toxins, like wind magic turning into smog, which seems a bit cliché to me. Do you have any suggestions on how I can make it less cliché?

>>23164708
Maybe there's bad blood between the rulers of each city? Hatfield and McCoy level feuding.

>>23165935
Then they'd be busy trying to one-up each other and wouldn't be happily sharing resources.

>>23166428
Have tiers of factions within the society, some that do trade and some that ar against it. Factions of belief systems

>>23164832
>works by forcibly corrupting other kinds of magic

For once, I'd like to see a magic system that works as intended and doesn't enable OP cheater anime protagonists

>>23166718
You know. I have made one that is OP as the ultimate magic of my "multiverse" or realms, but I do want to make other styles that would be used throughout the cosmos. Been trying to make the first language in existance. There has been progress, but it's difficult. I think I could use a break and just think of a simple magic system.
What's your experience with creating magic systems? Are there specific types you like?

>>23167217
In writing, I prefer magic systems to work like guns. By which I mean as simply as possible. And once you've established the basics of gunpowder, and gas pressure, etc, there's no need to return to it again every 20 pages, or flesh out the many differences of a Beretta, AK-47, and H&K. The technical details aren't nearly as interesting as fantasy authors tend to think. The same mechanical principles apply to most guns and once laid down, these basics shouldn't be subverted, reverted, inverted, and reconstructed on a whim.

You may have noticed gun combat isn't really about "my gun shoots deadliererer bullets than yours!" or "my gun has the ability to cancel out the bullets of other guns!" or "my gun isn't really a gun but a gun-shaped jet fighter!" At the end of the day, the point is to kill a guy, and for that, any of them gets the job done. The details aren't important. The focus in the story should be in telling when's the best time to pull the trigger and how to set up that situation.

>>23166539
NTA, but internal strife makes a lot of sense.

>>23166718
The idea is that while it can get more power out of a type of magic, the tradeoff of the physical signs of the corruption and the risk of madness balances it out, so it's not something that a protagonist would be using unless extremely desperate.

>>23167217
I would love to hear about the magic in your realms if you're okay with that. And any thoughts on my magic while we're here?

>>23167320
What are some of the magic systems that you've made/liked?

>>23162970
What more can you say about the setting?

>>23169966
The world is very divided technologically. There are countries at close to 18th century development level, and also very medieval kingdoms, and more primitive lands, depending on their access to resources and education. No steam engines or guns, but magic tools provide some conveniences. Monsters play a major role in shaping civilization. The more there are around, the harder organized life gets. It's naturally easier for people to develop in safer regions.

>>23170138
What are some methods that people use for dealing with the monsters?

>>23171183
Wealthier countries have well-organized militaries, which have the necessary equipment and know-how to deal with monster trouble. But since armed forces must also answer more conventional threats by other nations, they rarely have the manpower to spare outside larger population centers. Individual towns may have formed their own guard regiments but the quality of these varies wildly.

To take off pressure from armies, there is also an international mercenary guild which trains and pays volunteers to hunt monsters. The bounties are pittance, but for many unemployed and uneducated, or otherwise unfortunate, the guild may be the only way left to make money and get somewhere in life. Though the mortality rate is not pretty.

>>23163351
That is horrifying. Why does nature create things like that?

>>23153528
If you're still looking for ideas, what about a variation on Behemoth and Leviathan?

>>23153528
Dragonflies are objectively the most terrifying. 95% hunt success rate don't fuck around.

>>23173466
Leviathan is so overplayed, I opted for something closer to Jormungandr as the mandatory big sea monster. Kraken I've always found more funny than fearsome.

Behemoth is one of my favourite beasts and I mention it in almost every story that has monsters. But for a change of pace, I made a variation of catoblepas to fill that role. A land beast that doesn't rely only on its mass, but is also extremely unhealthy in indirect ways.

>>23173928
That's neat. What about an equivalent of the Simurgh?

>>23174295
Funny you should mention simurgh, when I considered using ziz, a newer variation of the same creature. But the monsters in this setting originate from an underground realm, so in the end I chose not to use bird types. Since it made no sense for monsters to have evolved for flight when they have no real sky.

>>23104326
What are some good potential race choices for a fantasy setting based on Central and/or South America besides picture related?

>>23125230
UK collapsed because of WW1, in turn likely a result of poor decisions made beforehand to lead up to it. Those decisions were poorly made due to the declining genetic stock of UK politicians (and the rest of the population) due to dysgenics breeding allowed to take place by the industrial revolution.

>>23174366
What about a giant bat then?

>>23174366
>ziz, a newer variation of the same creature
What precisely is the difference?

>>23175807
Yes, pure white KANGZ would save the world and only couldn't because of Jews making them gay through sissy hypno

>>23104326
Have a far-future setting that I came up with when thinking about how common it is for scifi aliens to have human features.
Basically, humans were the first species in the Galaxy to become interstellar, and for quite a while never met any intelligent species. So they genetically modified some up, from pet cats and dogs, to primitive alien fauna. Early space-faring humans created a bunch of humanoid races that fit human aesthetics and such. Even after they stopped creating new ones, and met other naturally intelligent aliens, humans still had a galactic hegemony, and it was more advantageous to be a species that was visually appealing to humans, than not—so many alien races had a trend of genetically modifying themselves to be more appealing to humans.
Even now with the relative political decline of humans, human beauty standards are the most widely ingrained across the galaxy.

>>23177409
So no life existed in the universe before humans?

>>23177458
Plenty of life existed beforehand, but humans were simply the first to achieve interstellar travel & FTL, and by the time other species reached that point, humans already controlled the entire galaxy.

There are ultimately 4 classes of sapient species in this setting, in order of their appearance on the galactic stage.

1. Humans. Plenty are genetically modified, as well.
2. Earth-bound animals that were genetically modified to take on human forms. Mostly cats, dogs, and rats. Mostly created by companies to act as "pets", tho they eventually gained rights of their own. The rats are descendant from lab experiments that escaped.
3. Non-sapient alien animals that humans modified to give them sapience. Tended to be modified to appeal to human beauty standards.
4. Sapient aliens that either reached space flight on their own, or that received assistance from humans. In the latter case, many of them would come to revere humans, and so the trend of modifying themselves to appear closer to them.

Eventually you reach a situation where a new species reaching FTL enters a galactic community where 90% of the population is humanoid, and in order to better appeal to the ones with the highest socioeconomic class, it just makes sense to undergo gene therapy. An entire population wouldn't do it, but quite a few would, and after a few generations, those with more human appearances simply had better chances at success on average, pressuring more of their species to follow through.

>>23176840
Certainly, bat type monsters are appropriate and common, able to find pathways to the surface world other monsters can't use. But while vampire bats are an annoyance to farmers, they're not especially high up on the threat scale.

>>23177343
Ziz is a jewish big bird, Simurgh persian. Descriptions of both are vague enough that they might as well be the same thing. It's probable that sumerian Anzu, arabian Roc, garuda, etc, derive from the same myths.

>>23169551
I'm still working on that one and I'm sure I wont be finishing any time soon, but like I said, I want to create more styles. Maybe I'll take a break and do something simple in the meanwhile.
As for your system. I don't think I could form a good opinion. It seems more like an abstract type and you're still working on it. I get the overall concept, but would like to know how it works in specific situations. Also. Does the corruption become the type of spell for the mage to cast. Like say, the mage corrupts a blast of wind. Does he/she take it and get to choose how to unleesh smog?

>>23178204
I was thinking that it was more of a gradient type of thing, with the twisting of the type of spell being more prominent the more power the mage is using and/or their personal level of corruption. Good question though, I'll have to think on that.

Speaking of, what about some ways that the corruption might manifest in different types of magic, like ways that wind magic might be affected besides becoming smog (after all, if the mage was using the corruption in order to breath, they wouldn't want to generate smog instead of breathable air), etc.

>>23104326
Here's a world where absolutely nothing happens.

>>23179154
Sounds boring, why would anyone make such a world? Not to mention how it would need some external force to make sure that nothing ever happened... Hang on...

I want to craft a cosmology that allows me to explore the incredible depth of time in human history, but a completely new one, wherre history and evolution merge (partly because humans evolve faster, partly because history is much longer). I have always been fascinated by the immense timespans and for how long humans have been taming nature, domesticating plants&animals, forging alliances, developing language, migrating to new places, etc.
So I came up with the idea of the entire world being built from raw, nigh-uncontrollable nature (think primordial titans), with layer by layer growing higher while ruins form the ground underneath.
What would be a good cosmological concept for that? I was thinking of something like an alderson disk where the people keep building up higher and the disk is "boyant" so it stays at the same level on the surface.
Other ideas of mine were a vast mountian that slowly sinks into the sea while people use magma from the inside tube to build it higher. Or maybe multiple mountains that are each a civilisation while the oceans between belong to a different kind of people.
Any other models or novels that explore such a concept?

>>23104326
What’s the best way to create a truly memorable sea monster besides just making mundane aquatic life forms huge and meaner?

>>23175190
Some kind of bird people.

>>23182063
Possible hot take, but the only sea monsters who freak me out are the ones that are never really "shown", you just sort of know that there's something in the water. The more a sea monster is revealed the less frightening it is.

How do I know if my characters are well-written or not?

>>23183214
Why birds specifically?

>>23183427
Quetzalcoatl was a feathered serpent.

>>23183441
Shouldn't there be snake-people instead then?

>>23183427
All those feathers they use to make cool headdresses must come from somewhere.

>>23175190
There's the Alux (a-luush) for your fae-like land or house spirits.
The Wayob/Nagual could be construed as either a race of animal shapeshifters, or a class of sorcerers, where shapeshifting is merely the preferred magic.

>>23183441
Relatedly, I wish there were more dragons with feathers.

>>23185190
I wonder what the story is behind them having so many of those.

>>23186629
Thanks for the ideas! Do you have any other thoughts or ideas for such a setting please?

True that, especially ones aligned with the Wind element, right?

>>23186649
I've thought about a Mesoamerican-based fantasy setting once before, but didn't get very far with it. Still, some thoughts I explored at the time, as I recall them.

While human sacrifice is heavily associated with the region, it was far more common to provide much less extreme sacrifices, in the form of ones own blood.
From what I've read, one method was to cut oneself in a certain location associated with the purpose of the prayer, (arms might be associated with strength, genitalia with love or fertility, etc) and soak the blood into paper, before burning said paper. This seems to be because blood and divinity & the soul were associated with each other. Blood essentially held ch'ul, a kind of essence.
So, if you were to develop a magic system, this idea of sacrificing blood could be one school of magic, alongside the wayob.

The material of choice for warfare in the area was obsidian. By the time of the Aztec's fall, bronze was already being used by the natives, but usually only as decoration, and as axes. Otherwise, obsidian was just too convenient for weapons. It's fairly simple to flake off small blades of the stuff, and most of their weapons had these small bales wedged into them. Yes, they were brittle, but trivial to replace. Fantasy materials that might fit the setting could be some sort of magical glass or similar minerals, plus maybe wood from a magical tree that would actually hold the blades.

And, well, there's plenty of ideas one can draw from real world history and religion of the area.

Bumping

>>23186895
This is all great, thanks. Did you use any particular sources when researching this stuff?

>>23125374
I like what you are doing, I'm a huge sucker for city-states(and for Switzerland lol), it reminds me a lot of some foundation myths, the whole fall of Troy->Foundation of Rome/Carthage with Dido Aeneas(and the Palladium). For the coming of age/exile angle the movie Walkabout could be of use. The tensions surrounding democracy and autocracy in renaissance Florence could also work.

>>23183419
Can you imagine them as real people (fantasy or sci-fi elements notwithstanding)?

As the creator of this general, i'm amazed it's still alive and going.
>>23183419
That's not ineherently realted to worldbuilding per-se, anon. Seek guideance in the writing thread for that.
On the other hand, from a worldbuilding perspective, a good character is one whose personality and general traits makes sense in the context of the world they live in, in other words, a characters that is justified by the setting.
If your character was rised in a city he should act like so.

>>23153528
I think maybe you should look towards creating interesting monster with imaginative propierties and features rather than focusing on making them scary. Like yeah, maybe if they have saw teeth they could be scarier, it's not that hard to make a monster scary.

>>23189924
>As the creator of this general, i'm amazed it's still alive and going.
Well, people love worldbuilding! Have you had any ideas so far, BTW, and are you going to make the next thread?

>>23189931
NTA, but what are some good existing examples of such monsters we can look at?

>>23191543
Originally, worldbuilding was kind of a bad word in /lit/, the worldbuilding general was at /tg/ only. I tried to change that thinking I would fail to change anything here (many complained that the first OP copypasta was too defensive about this hobby, actually), but seems like this change was inevitable and it's here to stay.
>are you going to make the next thread?
Nah, i'm not that commited, but IMO the current OP has awful taste at picking the images for the general
>what are some good existing examples of such monsters we can look at?
Well you have many examples in mythology. First thing it comes to mind is the titanomachia, the fight between greek gods and the titans. There were were many titans, though not much is known about most of them them. Generally they represent primal aspcts of nature such as as natural catastrophes or time itself (chronus). I imagine they must be very powerful beings, since it took all gods to beat them, and they didn't even kill the titans, they only imprioned them in the depths of tartarus.
I also think of ragnarok, the norse apocalyptic myth. During ragnarok, the forces of evil, leasd by loki, will kill the gods (odin, etc). These evil forces include beings like the jotunn, which are generally portrayed as frost giants, but actually are more akin to regular trolls.

>>23191543
>what are some good existing examples of such monsters we can look at?
After a second search,Typhon, the father of all monsters from greek myth, may also be a good source of inspo. He's very cool.
Although, these all are mythological examples, not neccesarialy interesting by themselves. IMO more interesting stuff would be things like a zombie hive mind; an anti-christ figure that makes empires fall through political scheeming; a being that knows it all but only moves to cause the most pain; or maybe a living celestial body whose objetive is to cover the sun, causing an eternal eclipse and killing everyone through famine. You can get quite creative and base your ideas off myth can get limiting eventually.

>>23104326
In my system all magic is either aligned with the force of Order or the force of Chaos, neither of which is entirely good or evil. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of settings with non-evil Chaos magic I can use for inspiration, so I’m having some issues with ideas for Order and Chaos spells/magical theories. Anyone here who can help beyond recommending Recluse?

>>23148909
Thats just historical central asia before a bunch of steppe empires destroyed the canals and other irrigation works for good. It was never the most wet place on earth but it was, and still kind of is in parts, fruitful.

I really have to get going with writing, stuck with having a million ideas and not even writing them down. Was hard for me to get my world to a stage where I found it comfortable, and just ended up with a different world with fantasy elements. Fuck.

>>23192797
I feel you, I have a similar issue. What’s your world like at the moment?

>>23192830
More or less what I said, but rereading it could be understood differently. Its more or less the real life world just changed in certain aspects but many states resemble earths history ones to a degree or slightly changed. I am really bad at having an original idea for it. Also my main character is more or less just a fucking witcher lmao

>>23191705
What would you have used for an OP image for the last couple of threads then, out of curiosity?

How about the monsters from Monster Hunter? I've never played those games, but I hear that the monster designs are good. Also, by zombie ants, you mean the fungus that controls ants, but on a massive scale, right?

>>23193452
I mean, anything that stimulates the imagination and cultivates thoughts might work. Fantasy art is very good for this, but actual mythological illustrations also do the trick since myth is usually very inspiring by itself.
The current pic for example is too generic, I think that's the problem. It doesn't bring any food for though nor seeds any new ideas in my mind.

>>23192119
What about from other mythologies, like the Norse, do they have an equivalent of that guy?

>>23153528
Anything that operates in swarms. Ants, wasps, locusts...a big ugly monster is just a big ugly monster, but something about not being able to just slash and fireball something to death makes one feel extremely powerless.

bump

>>23193854
Many forms of magic are very effective against swarms, though. They're an annoyance, but you can hardly even call them monsters, never mind the apex of such.

>>23194858
Do you know what the plagues of egypt are?
Swarms of insects can devour entire kingdoms just, if not as easily, as giant monsters.
And while it's true that magic can deal with them, the plagues can also be magical in themselves.
I can assure you that, no matter how powerful a giant monster is, millions and millions of small insects can take it down and cause even more harm. That is the danger of the swarm, yeah, you can take down some with a fireball, but billions?

>>23105962
Any setting will be relatable if the characters within it react in a believably human way to whatever is in it. You can go as nuts as you like, but only if you have that relatability anchor.

>>23105962
Why do you care about the reader relating to the world? If you want the reader to feel familiar in the setting, just place it in a real country, faggot.
Also, as other mentioned, as long as the essence of the human soul can be seen reflected, it will be relatable to the reader.

>note: Im a reality shifter so this is Real for me
I have been working on a world-building cosmology (not chronology yet, tho) called "the Island System". Basically it's a world where there are theme-park style island societies and communities. Each Island has a specific "theme" to it, almost to an stereotypical degree, and is mainly used by astral visitors to engage in a lifestyle, tribe, vibe, etc.
Islands are connected to each other trough a bridge and all connecting bridges look the same. Each group of 10 (related ) islands makes a Kabbalah Tree shape, and each 10 kaballah trees are surrounded by a circle, which is part of a bigger kaballah tree and so on and on, infinitely.
Some Islands I crafted so far
> 50's Americana island: life is like a 50s white suburb family-friendly USA soap opera\ tv show .
>Halloween de Muertos Island: every day its halloween, but its mixed with dia de muertos and other latino death traditions (santa muerte, san pascualito, Paleria)
>9 god's island: the island and society is a giant network of taoist shrines, every day its festival, almost everyone is a shaman, medium, healer, exorcist or some sort of taoist spirit-worker and mystic. Ruled by sun wukong, jade emperor, 9 gods and lao tse
> Viking Edge island: the whole island is basically a huge Norwegian black metal hub, and viking hema MMA ,recreation (viking boat rowing, etc) are very popular.
>Punko island: The island is a giant hub for punk culture, and its various variants, parties, riots and messes. No one wanted to be a cop, so they built cop NPCs to fight against
General rules for ALL islands of the Tree-Systems
>no rape. no contraception either
>the moral system isnt a proposition, it has almost its own will and acts accordingly. its rule is Golden Rule + Semen Retention + Effective Altruism and Hedonistic Imperative
>you can only die or become handicapped by manually operating your soul to modify your body. Otherwise you can get throw into an industrial wood chipper and then resurrect instantly
>the maximum pain a being can feel is equivalent to a boxing fight gone wrong, an icy shower or running 20KM. the maximum pleasure you can feel is cold lemon water after a hot summer work out, or a warm shower after being sweaty, ripe and pungent all day laboring

>>23195695
holy autism

>>23195695
Other Islands I thought of so far:
>90s american high school island ( Americana High). self explanatory, desu
> Liminasland: It's always night and neon lights here. Abandoned children's playgrounds, 24-hour gas stations, empty shopping malls and cinemas dot the whole place. No one lives here permanently, its a tourist spot for urban explorers and liminal-junkies from other islands
> Max South Tree: a whole "kabballah tree" system of islands: Basically an up-to-eleven version and conglomeration of stereotypes about some areas\ tribes of the USA. Aryan Nations complexes, confederate pro-slavery pastors, flat earth creationist communities, crocodile and alligator hunters in swamp shacks , huge trailer parks, Smoky diesel drivers ,tax-protestors and off-the-grid survivalists, all this, mixes between all this, and more, are what you may find in these Tree. the black slaves they have are all NPCs.
>Atheismus Island: an island ruled by the principles of darwinism, Freudianism, and marxism. Sub-communities of Nihilists, anarchist illegalists, misantrophists efilists and animalists exist. Personally ruled by Jacobins from the terror\ national convention. a sub-council made of darwin, marx and engels, freud, stirner, nieztsche , marquis de sade, and Lokayata founders manages most affairs.

>>23195747
NTA, but what exactly is the issue with it?

Do you think it's bad taste to do an alternative history of ww1 where magic was used which lead to a different outcome?

I like the idea of a story that's set in 1960 post war. And I want to use the real geography of Europe to tell my story.
Am I being naive? Should I just write a fictional world instead?

>>23195747
It's like a One Piece concept, but focused mainly on the islands I guess. It doesn't seem bad. Just a very playful take on a world.
>>23196583
I'd say keep at it. Might be pretty fruitfull. You got any favorite islands with some detailed descriptions?

>>23195498
We could do this all day.
>there are millions of them!
>billions of them!
>TRILLIONS of them!
>and they're immune to whatever you do
>and they eat anything
>and and and
But anon, they're not interesting to write or read about. That's fatal.

>>23196731
here are some more descriptive ideas
>>23195783
Im super bad at paint, but I thought of making both horizontal Tree of Life ( as in, a huge "plain" area of islands) and also a vertical tree; a whole system of 613 trees is wrapped up in a huge sphere ,that sphere is in a 3D vertical-position tree. Like those old cereal carton toys where you assembled together a castle from cardboard pieces.
and this system of "forests" of trees-of-life, intersecting vertically and horizontally, is repeated 613 times

>>23196672
What exactly are you afraid of?

>>23196853
More interesting than generic giant monster n°6.
The plagues of Egypt were iconic, unlike your generic shit.

>>23197371
Good thing nobody's making generic giant monsters then. You can write about your wasps all you like. Also, biblical plagues fucking define generic.

>>23197412
>NOOOoooOooOoOoOo you can't make plagues an empire-ending level of threat, that's like, super generic...
>well, yes, I don't care that giant monsters are generic threats, if they aren't interesting you make them interesting, just like de godzilla movies
How old are you? 12?

>>23197574
Who are you even talking to? You're just making up imaginary arguments to attack that have nothing to do with the posts you're replying.

>>23197964
If you don't realize that's the exact argument you used, then you might be legit 12 yo

>>23197113
Does the position have any special significance?

>>23197113
This seems cool, is there any special method to navigating between islands like in One Piece with the Log Poses?

>>23197993
It's not. Why are you this mad at someone dissing your locust swarms? Could you please kill yourself now?

>>23200508
I just think it's funny how you say it's generic, and not dangerous at all since magic could deal with it, while not realizing the hypocrisy of stating that while suggesting and supporting the use of a giant monster, which has the exact same flaws. Again, you are full of shit.
But I guess not everyone is made to worldbuild, or to debate for that matter.

>>23200922
You really don't get enough attention from your parents, do you?

>>23201597
I accept your concesion that you lost the debate.

>>23192119
What are some interesting ways to spice up mythological monsters besides making them all mutated like picture related?

I am looking for an idea for a cosmology. I was thinking about a fantasy-like setting where peoples would be isolated from one another over millennia, really allowing for differing cultures develop deep crafts, skills and even bodily traits.
It shouldnt be SciFi with vacuum and space so it woukd allow for travel and meeting without being static landmasses (to justify how they can be isolated but also meet after long periods of time). One idea was that landmasses could drift and get close to another to signify periods of history where to cultures clash or exchange.
I am the kind of ahtist that can't just imagine "well they just drift around without any rules, so I can make anything I want happen". I need a system behind it all, a metaphor or mechanism that explains and describes it.
How would you go about it? What would be some good examples? Apart from " super fast continental drift"

>>23203696
Splice two or more together maybe? Imagine how much more terrifying they would be.

Bumping

>>23104326
What do you need to remember when designing mystical swords for fantasy worlds?

>>23207212
That you shouldn’t make them too big to actually swing.

>>23204427
The Mist. It's a known phemomenon that happens "at the edge of the map" - literally. Maps end where the Mist begins. Sometimes the Mist changes, enveloping oceans, mountains, towns, sometimes entire countries. Those who wander into the Mist never return. Occasionally, the Mist retracts, to reveal new lands or seas, which are sometimes inhabited. The basic gist of the mechanism is that the Mist is how the gods of your setting manage their lands over time, changing the settings and holdings of the inhabitants thereof. When they want to see specific things happen, they move the Mist (and the land or sea underneath it) around as needed.

>>23207927
Just on its own, that sounds more like a way to conceal the edges than explain how it works.
Why is there mist? Where does it come from?
But I figure it could be due to volcanism: the lands are bordered by tectonic active areas that can in some cases be covered with water and surrounded by mountains. When the volcanic activity boils the water, it turns to mist, fog and clouds that condense at the mountains leading to freshwater rivers runnding down the sides of an eternally-mist covered valley. The water itself is boiling hot and highly toxic, I guess, making crossing it dangerous and difficult.
The different lands move past,+ or away from each other at these faultlines where the rock is molten.
>the gods of your setting
I decided to move the divine further away from human understanding that the standard fantasy cliche, instead having primordial forces of nature, stuff like
>immense pressure and heat of volcanoes beneath our feet
>constantly consuming and growing biological life held only in check by itself
>non-stops creaming of celestial fire that would scorch our skin off were it not for the protective layer of clouds and air
>endless abyss of void that crushes everything before sucking it in for all eternity.

Is there any historical example where the hegemonic power of a region refuses to fight a weaker but growing power just because it would be too hard? Like, they could win if they wanted to, but don't dare take the casualties it would cost to do so.

That's the dynamic I'm planning within my world. Llys knows that Tripura is stronger, Tripura knows that Tripura is stronger, but neither dares seek conflict because it would cost too much....it's just that Tripura has a significantly lower threshold for how much they are willing to lose.

>>23156275 https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_necromancer_skills

I posted this a while ago, but developed it since then and still developing this world. it's a robinson projection
Do the climate zones and shapes make sense to you?
I ama ware that it is only a rough sketch, so dont comment on me not having every detail of every shoreline down.
The teal areas are coral reefs
The bright blue area is a vast salt lake
The dark green area is a floating sea of kelp dense enough to walk on
The grey/red areas are volcanic fields
The north pole is a volcanic lake/ocean surrounded by a circular wall

>>23209550
Why is there a volcano at the North pole, and what formed the wall?

How precise would a machine shop like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE0qmAl2zqw be? Inspired by Arcadian media but wanting something more than handwaving to explain why some people have relatively modern technology.

>>23127181
Slopnigger.

>>23210735
Because there's a volcano there and the volcano formed the wall. It's a huge eruption zone while the south pole is a huge subduction zone.
It's a land of clouds formed by the rising steam held back by the walls. It's basically a "wound" in the world where the earth bleeds and the boundaries to the other world disappear

I designed some weapons made of wood, considering natural growth of trees. Which one of these would you prefer to wield?
For clarification: the height at which 5,6 and 11 are, is roughly cane-height
All of them are roughly top-heavy., being made from branches of wood, so bulbous to the side.
The brighter areas are sharpened into an edge. just assume they can hold an edge thanks to magic.

>>23211586
>boundaries to the other world disappear
What's this other world like?

>>23208978
Wow, I'm pleasantly surprised that someone would reply after so long, thanks. I've never played those games so that would never have been a source I would have considered.

>>23212842
7 and 8 remind me of the staves used by the sand people in star wars. Something that doubles as a walking stick and weapon is handy. 2 is similar to the gunstock war clubs used by native americans and would be good when you mean real business.

The others I'd use to fuel a campfire.

>>23105962
Idk man
I'm writing my book entirely in two language I'm creating myself
It's a rock people language so it all is sort of hieroglyphics
The setting takes place on a distant rock person planet and the book is not even being translated at all. The other language has characters but those sections look like this
>KrrTrrpv'tk t'kk'rpkch chchri kkkr'ik'chi, krRRkt TrTrT'F-Ttrrr?
This is a very pivotal scene where the protagonist, TrTrT'F, is being asked by his mentor exactly what kind of person he aims to be. These creatures are strange because speaking so so hard for them that they never do it unless they intend to follow through on what they say, so he's essentially being asked to lay out his future which he will try to attain throughout the book
Again, none of this will be understandable until the reader masters the language, which I will NOT be releasing a translation for. There will be enough context in the book itself to be able to understand it, especially the alternative language, which is essentially just pictures, so that's fucking easy mode

>>23214521
>remind me of the staves used by the sand people in star wars
The Club of the sandpeople was literally a Fijian war club made from wood with some extra bits glued on.
I based most of those on a mix of Polynesian wooden clubs and Shillelagh, most of which were actually used as canes.

>>23214661
Sounds like utter crap, no offense.

>>23215018
NTA, but how would you improve it then?

>>23104326
What's the best way to create mythical-style monsters beyond just mashing two or more existing creatures together randomly, like this thing?

>>23217549
>twist a human with weird features like bulbous eyes and rat teeth
>make a normal animal giant and give it unusual behaviour and/or abilities (bonus points for purposeful behaviour like eating unruly children)
>mash two or more existing creatures together
>dragon but X
That's basically all mythical beings I have ever seen and I went through a ton of not just european folklore. You have to remember: people int he olden times didnt have drawings, they just described everything in terms they already knew.
Even the Giraffe was described as a leopard with the ehad of a snake and the feet of a deer.

>>23104326
I don't really know how world building works. But here's what I got for my Ace Combat meets kaiju idea:
Since the dawn of history, mankind has lived in the shadow of behemoths. Giant monsters that could move mountains and reshape rivers with their terrible might.

Millions of years ago, a war broke out between the behemoths. Their battle devastated the planet and reshaped the very continents. At the end of the war, only four behemoths were left standing. They were the gods of the new era. Although the battle had left them gravely injured. Each behemoth retreated to their corner of the world, where they would be licking their wounds and awaiting the final battle to come.

Without the behemoths roaming the globe, many new species emerged, including humans. Although clever, mankind was far from the top of the food chain, as the world was still full of monsters of various sizes. Each had a taste of human flesh.

To survive, humans took refuge in the domains of the resting behemoths. Where they developed a commensalistic relationship with the four giant beings. As the behemoths saw mankind as nothing more than bugs beneath their feet.

In the shadows of the behemoths, human beings prospered. They were able to create mighty cities and developed weapons that allowed them to venture out into monsters’s territory, thus expanding their countries and bringing glory to their names. For millennia, mankind enjoyed the protection granted to them by the behemoths and came to worship them as gods. Uncaring gods, perhaps, but gods all the same.

Of the many great human countries, the people of the high plains, worshippers of the flying behemoths, developed artificial wings that allowed them to soar freely in the skies, imitating their lord. The technology soon spread across the continent and many marvelous flying machines were created. Among them, the winged armor became a favorite among explorers who ventured out into uncharted lands. As the small yet robust frame allowed them to navigate narrow caves, as well as the open sky.

These explorers would later be known as Skyknights, humanity’s champion. Dressed in a suit or winged armor and armed with weapons they could wrap their fingers around, these Skyknights were able to face monsters ten times their size and explore the untamed wild. It was due to their efforts that the first map of the world was charted, and trade routes were formed between distant nations.

It was a golden age of exploration, and for the first time in history, humanity got a taste of what it felt like to rule the world.

>>23218085
But then it all came crashing down with the death of a behemoth. One of the four gods suddenly died, condemning all that lived under his shadow. Almost overnight, monsters swarmed the nations that were now left unprotected, killing untold millions. It was a genocide on a scale mankind had never witnessed. Architectural marvels that took centuries to create were reduced to rubble, and the survivors scattered like mice. It was a crisis brought about by what none had thought possible—the death of a god.

Thus, the golden age came to an end, ushering in an age of strife. Losing one-fourth of human territory caused the remaining nations to fear for their own survival and the survival of their guardian deity. No one knew what killed the fourth behemoth, so fingers were pointed in all directions. Communication between the three remaining domains broke down, and even nations under the same god were wary of each other.

Eventually, war bloomed around the world like dandelions. War for land. War for religion. War for peace. It didn’t matter.

In this new era of war, the Skyknights found themselves adopting a new role. No longer were they explorers, pioneers, or defenders of mankind. They were now pilots, the greatest weapon of their respective nations. Each one trained from birth to fly and kill, displaying agility and precision beyond the common man. And the greatest of them all, the best among the best, would be hailed . . . as an Ace.

is there an easy to use program out there for storing words by category?
i'm trying to make a lexicon for a conlang and i keep running into the problem that dictionary software is mostly designed for an a-z word list. even Polyglot, a pretty full featured software for conlanging, only shows words this way.
what i need is a program that lets me also give words a certain arbitrary category (like "types of cat") so that if i just want to sit and create those words, i can focus on that instead of having to consult the entire word-list to find out if i've not just made a homonym, but two stupid confusing homonyms in the same category.

the best i've found so far is lexique, but i'm too dumb for its user interface. runner up is using a spreadsheet, but that's a mess because you can't quickly toggle between "all words" and "all words in category x", you've either got to put them on separate pages and transfer them manually, or store categories in a column and then sort the whole list to group them, both of which are inelegant options.

>>23218220
Excel using keywords.
Every Database in existence is either adapted from excel or adaptable into excel.

>>23218220
Hey man you should totally just make a conlang and build a world and then like give it to me to write something in it. I'll give you half writing credit.

>>23104326
I have a story idea about someone who gains the ability to "see reality for what it is", but it basically blue-screens his brain when it turns on. but I'm not sure what mechanism would turn the power on or off that doesn't sound contrived or stupid. Any ideas?

>>23218353
How does it "Blue screen" his brain?
he just has a stroke everytime he sees the truth or what?
Also, think about parallels and symbols:
What do *YOU* think reveals the truth to people and how can you symbolize it? Or what does ths thing or the truth it reveals behave and what kind of artificial parallel can you create for that?

>>23218464
Well, he basically sees everything in multiple dimensions, so everything looks like fractals, and isn't limited to physical laws- it's very dream like (I actually got this from a dream I had, where I saw a cruise ship as a 4 dimensional fractal) he eventually realizes he's seeing things that aren't actually "there" outside of his fractal state, like monsters.
>How does it "Blue screen" his brain?
basically, there's just too much input. In the beginning, it leaves him comatose, but after a while it just leaves him disorientated and confused, and he goes into these fugue states, like a petite mal seizure. early on he meets someone that helps him through them.
I guess it could just be a case of him tuning in and out of the state, but I thought that was too simple, but maybe not.

He got his powers in a car wreck that killed his parents. I have a couple versions of how exactly he got them, but that's not really an issue right now.

Have any of you ever done something like this for yourself to help you keep a mythos or cosmology coherent? Is this one understandable/sensical? The gist is that a cut occurred that severed the divine from existence, making true creation and destruction impossible as well as blinding the divine from the totality of existence.

>>23217859
Huh, I didn't know that about the giraffe. Do you know of any particularly cool monsters that don't get used enough from that research?

>>23218481
>a car wreck that killed his parents
There you have a bunch of trigger possibilities.
Maybe his powers are uniquely connected to death or to accidents that cause injury. Make happenstance the trigger for a power that allows seeing the true design, makes it kind of ironic.

>>23219584
What exactly caused the divine to be cut off from the reality we know?

>>23221757
I'm gonna be honest, it's a kind of metaphysical concept I havent decided on yet completely, but I noticed that many mythologies have a sort of "fault in heaven" moment where a calamity came upon the divine realm and created imperfection. Whether it be a rebellion or an original sin or and accident caused by chaos.
It is very much related to the concept of creator and destroyer deities and their divine powers, which is why creation and destruction are affected by this. the other divine aspects can still manifest as forces of nature, matter and mind (including mortal minds, faulty copies of the divine mind), while true creation and true destruction (ex nihilo, and whatever the opposite of that is called) arent possible anymore.

>>23105962
usually 15, but sometimes you can get away with 20

>>23222957
>usually 15, but sometimes you can get away with 20
Okay... and what exactly is the context of that scale?

>>23224195
Well, 20 is about 5 more than 15

>>23224334
I mean, what are some examples of settings/stories from different points on the scale, because without context it's meaningless.

>>23116710
>incest
>libertarian pirate king
>deep spirit lore (everything is spirits, except for physical matter which is the corpse of god)
>none

Do you think that sci-fi elements or an undertone of "Earth but in future with magic" make the fantasy world less immersive and escapist? I have to somehow transition my setting from science fiction to fantasy (even if with technology). Science fiction seems worthless to meme now.

>>23214661
based conlang circus participant

>>23225571
Are you dim?

>>23227012
Is there some kind of reference that I'm missing? All that I'm saying is that without actual examples of what a setting is like at either end of this scale, if not at each point, it's useless. It's like saying that Steve is as tall as 1.3 of Dave, without giving any details on how tall either one is.

>>23226095
Well, people like Shadowrun and it can be summed up as "cyberpunk-era Earth where magic returned to the world", so if done well I would say that it's not a problem.

Hey, any tips on writing an Islamist Utopia? It's technically more of a dystopia, but I think any state founded on Islamic principles will be a dystopia by default.

They're supposed to be the background villains of the conflict, a major power that's plotting to overthrow the Protagonist's kingdom (as in, the kingdom he lives in) so that they can conquer the world.

There's a subplot where the Protagonist has to slip into their capital city (named Al-Baris/Albaris) so that he can free the Sultan from his imprisonment by the Vizier and end the conflict peacefully. I was wondering what it should look like, but my own conclusions were too shallow.
>I made it a bit like Taliban/ISIS ruled regions, with sex slaves and moral police scouring the land to kill supposed heretics and apostates
>Any images of humans are banned, as is music, art, and dancing
>Banking and finance are banned
>Open air slave markets
>Rich men having harems guarded by slave boys they feminized with chemicals (castration is icky)
>Corruption and bribery everywhere, plus military rule.

But I want to go into more depth with it.

>>23104326
What are some good ways to keep water mages from being totally overpowered in oceanic regions?

>>23229437
Energy consumed proportional to the amount of water being wielded, the feeble die of exhaustion while trying to conjure up a tsunami.

>>23104326
I'm planning my base cultures to each embody one of the seven heavenly virtues paired with one of the sins, does this sound like a good idea?
I want the pairs to flow from eachother on a logical way.

>>23229437
Why the fuck would water mages not be OP on the ocean? What's the point on trying to balance them?

Martial Arts tournaments are a mainstay of Tripuran culture. Every major public festival, from elections to independence day, has one arranged for paying audiences.
Anyone can enter to compete for massive cash prizes and accolades. This even involves known criminals and outlaws, because there is an amnesty for even the worst criminals as long as they will obey the rules of the tournament and not make any trouble.

And in four weeks from the beginning of the story, the most important of these tournaments is about to begin. It's being held in celebration of the Presidential Elections, regardless of who the real winner is. And very unusually, it's going to involve perhaps the most powerful living being on Earth: Kazar Al-Biruni.

She's basically a strange human(?) that showed up around two hundred years ago with an appearance comparable to this lady and seriously enhanced physical prowess. She claims to have discovered the next step in human physical prowess, and has spent centuries polishing her art.

There are literally dozens of experts who want to see her fight and assess just how true her claims are.

>>23231460
Is this your fetish?

Free tip: don't insert your weird fetishes into the story.

>>23231582
That's not a rule. You should not INSERT a fetish, but you can write a story with a fetish.

>>23231598
That's literally the same thing.

>>23231599
Prioritizing sexual gratification when you already committed to a particular story and meaning is one thing, expanding that meaning with coherent vaguely sexual themes is another.

>>23231605
Whatever, just don't show your fetishes so blatantly.

>>23117426
Maybe a more psychologically ability to sort of inflame the underlying passion or faculty the sin is related to in other people. Like a Wrath demon preys on and amplifies a characters anger so they start to act irrationally, tear a village apart by making everyone feud, etc. This way a demon could go unnoticed for a long time unless you are keyed into to what is going on and notice the behavioural modification.

My question is simple. Scif setting, powerful AI/Singularity has been achieved, why are there still unaugmented humans, or humans at all?

>>23231645
Because augmentation wasn't practical.

So i have this idea for a vestal virgin like cult, except it's men (from the age of 12) drinking some weird dune alien juice coming out of the ground (maybe from the roots of an alien plant?) that is coinicidentally female hormones that promote looking voluptuous (feminine hips, breasts, shoulders, face, the whole nine yards) and they are meant to guard the temple of the virgin Mary.
This is mostly in service so i can accentuate that one specific place in my world is the "weird alien place" where the early settlers got close with the local scenery and schizophrenic bird aliens (which embody the holy spirit, and thus are a vessel through which God speaks to man) Maybe in this temple is a single female bird alien who speaks for the virgin Mary?
I find it interesting how some cultures have an enshrined role for "mother-like" men, who appear like women, but are not. Jungian type shit too.
The boys are sacrificing their masculinity to keep the virgin Mary in the physical world, and thus they guard and tend to her temple.
My honest main inspiration is how trannies and shit try to co-opt traditional "gender defying" roles into their selfish mindset, so post conquest there is conflict between the locals who don't want the sacred ladyboy juice to be packaged and sold to unworthy ill persons. The whole world itself is about the conflict of a traditional, isolated society that reaches weird yet sensible conclusions and the endless cacophony of modernity that takes away all meaning.
In the present time of the story, the priests are co-opted into a tourist attraction, like thai lady-boys who now only serve for the sexual gratification of depraved foreigners. I want to really focus on how modernity likes to lie about the traditional "gender-bending" roles, nobody talks about how dishonest most of this discourse and philosophy really is.

>their world is different from ours because their world makes sense and has meaning, while our world eats itself alive.

I haven't thought too deeply on the subject, except that this is weird and can lead to interesting characters that the protagonist meets with interesting worldviews relating to self-sacrifice, but the broad strokes and aesthetics i have figured out, i feel there is something to men sacrificing their manhood for the sake of a greater power. (or i maybe make a short story focusing on a single virgin-priest). The temple itself is meant to celebrate both female beauty, and the inner woman within every man. Maybe i'll figure some cultural polar opposite about masculine women but currently not thinking about that.

The temple itself is layed out like a pyramid, the base is packed with statues representing the virgin-priests and on the temple are murals of them delivering offerings to the virgin Mary, flanked by alien birds.
In the temple they dance around the sacred spring, and opposite the entrance is a screen depicting the virgin, behind which is the holy bird who speaks as if she is the virgin mary.

>>23231816
...in my world there is a great sex-based divide, things like beauty, grace, caring and elegance are "feminie", so men who are beatuiful, graceful and elegant are seen "as women", while things like power, control, strenght and resolve are seen as "masculine", so women who are powerful, controlling, strong and full of resolve are seen "as men".

Make no mistake, they are not "trans", nor are they seen as literally being the opposite sex, rather they are seen as the bridges between the masculine and feminine, a mediator between men and women.

>>23231824
also this disregard of the material and physical is strictly for the priesthood and rulers, those with the spiritual power, or physical capital to bend the world to their whim.

Sorry, but I'm a soft worldbuilder.

>>23227973
Read up about Muhamad's Medina.

>>23231885
What does that have to do with anything?

Also, if anyone wants to make the new thread, feel free!