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>>24567943
Thread Questions:
>Do the people in your setting believe in any celestial beings like Angels or something similar? And do these beings actually exist, and if so, how accurate are the beliefs?
>How about Demons or similar beings, how accurate are their beliefs to reality? And how do you add your own twist to them, or to Angels?
>Are there any other categories of otherworldly entities in your world, like the Fae, Yokai, Ghosts and specters, Grim Reapers, Elementals, etc.? If so, how are they related to Angels, Demons, or each other, if at all, and what are they like?
>What about the gods in your world, what are they like, how are their pantheons structured? And what is their relationship with the other mystical entities in the setting (do they have any specific groups of Angels serving specific gods, etc.)?

>>24567948
>Do the people in your setting believe in any celestial beings like Angels or something similar? And do these beings actually exist, and if so, how accurate are the beliefs?
Such thing do exist, and they do serve a noble goal , but theyre ae different from typical angels.
Usually most angels are actually a comglomerwte of a few heaven/good soul put together. The same can be said about Demons with evil souls.

There are similar spiritual entites exist and run by the same logic of previous souls turning/being made into said entities. Fae, Youkai, Reaper. All souls made new in death,

>>24568551
How much do the Angels, etc., retain of their old selves?

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What are some books set in the late 1700s or early 1800s? I've read Les Miserables, War and Peace, and The Count of Monte Cristo. They can be fiction, nonfiction, or reference books. I'm looking for inspiration for a setting I'm working on.

I would have angels exist, except instead of only very rarely being seen in the material world, they can be easily accessed by anyone who just asks for a consultation in prayer. A high-ranking angel involved in matter of running the world probably won’t answer to trivial requests, but there are many lower angels who will respond. Everything they tell you will be true and the will of God. HOWEVER, there is a HUGE risk to your soul upon beseeching an angel. When an angel tells you something, ALL of the normal grace and patience God shows to you is instantly gone forever. When an angel tells you something, NOT doing it, denying it, doing something contrary, doing it only begrudgingly, etc, immediately damns you. It’s tantamount to rebelling against God and it’s really hard to come out from under that. Furthermore, obeying the angel to the letter doesn’t get you ANYTHING, spiritually, and is seen just doing what you are supposed to do, nothing more.

So, if you ask an angel “how do I get into heaven”, it will tell you exactly how. Your test on the Earth is now over, you either do the required things or you go to hell. If you ask it how you can become rich, or how to get love, or how to heal someone, etc, if it’s within the angel’s authority it’ll show the way — but you have to follow it perfectly and enthusiastically of you’re in serious trouble. The word’s churches strongly prohibit people from calling angels, as it is usually a very difficult challenge for an average human to pass because few people realize just how harsh it is to obey the full law of heaven and not be covered for by grace.

>>24569247
I have a non-book suggestion or two, if you’re interested.

>>24570718
By all means.

Bump

Imperial Measurements read and write better than Metric Measurements.

>>24568551
>most angels are actually a comglomerwte of a few heaven/good soul put together

is this inspired by ancient caananite sacrifices for making cherubs ? Sound spretty dope. Can animals be thrown into the mix to make chimera-like angels, like the aforementioned cherubs ?

>>24569191
Angels can separate back into their own selves but becoming one is sort of like unified mind. Especially if they are very willing to work together.

Demon's main personality is controlled by one soul, will the others are drained of their power in the conglomeration as a form of torture. Less fusion and more soul eating.

The others are on a case to case basis

>>24572560
Never heard of that concept but it sounds cool. as for animals.
Animals are a bit weirder. Its not ideal to do full fusion but it is possible. Most lingering animal souls either get "eaten" or just combine with other animals. They very much do their own thing.

>>24572826
slight continuation.

The makeup of the soul:
The soul is made up of three major parts: Essense, Core, and the Spark.

The Essense has two parts to it, the Fill and the Film. The Fill is the majority floating part of it, the air in the bag. The film is that part that has it be attached/enveloped onto an actual thing.

The Core in the sense of self of a soul and is made of four parts: The Will, Luck, Faith, and Identity. Identity is the consciousness of it, the personality and memories of a living thing. Will is the power of the soul to chose and act, power itself even. Faith is the belief of the soul, its capablity to hope and believe. this is the part that feeds greater beings when practiced. and Luck is as it says, ones luck. I see it as one part good/bad luck, one part fung shuei. In an even grander sense its the part of the soul that governs the fate of a person.

The last part is the Spark. The part that created the Core and is the most important distinction between what is a living thing and what isnt. It has a chicken and the egg paradox with life. Life is responsible for it existing or is it the Spark that created life? A never-to-be-solved paradox. It is responseblie for the "Mist of the soul", more soul essense being made, and is the most improant thing of souls.

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>>24567943
I’m working on a setting where if one overuses a kind of magic it can start to physically affect them. And mentally, but that’s more of a chicken and egg thing. Depending on the specific spells used and the personality the exact traits that the user will gain/be altered will vary. For example, one illusion-focused mage might get eyes that slowly shift colors, while another might get ones that look like mirrors, etc. It gets better over time if one limits their magic use though, and some healing spells can help the process along. This process is particularly pronounced for elemental magics. Speaking of, I’m looking for some more ideas on how users of the different elements might have their appearances change due to their magics besides hair made out of their element, eyes colored/glowing the color of said element, skin colored to match their element, or glowing marks in the shape of their element. There’s giving them traits of animals associated with their element, but what else works? Someone replied in the last thread with some useful suggestions, like them having an affect on the area around them, like fire mages raising the temperature in their vicinity, etc., emitting smells associated with their element, physical and mental cravings related to the element, and things like apparent burns, among others, but the thread died before I saw it.

>>24571524
If you have Netflix, Castlevania: Nocturne is set during the French Revolution.

Bump

>>24575009
I've seen that, it's good.

Which do you prefer for fantasy?
Round world, or flat world?
Globe maps, or flat maps?
This is for a game, and the map will be enormous regardless.

>>24577945
Globes, probably takes up less space.

Is it better to start off with a logical world or a cool idea?

>>24569247
Charles Dickens might be worth a look for you.

>>24569247
Isn't the original Peter Pan set in that era? Or am I remembering wrong?

>>24577945
>This is for a game
What game?

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>>24569247
The original Frankenstein.

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>>24567943
I’m looking to create a setting where there are six elements, Light, Void, Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. Each element has a god that embodies their element, as well as having other domains in their portfolios, with no element being “good” or “evil”. For instance Light has dominion over Creation and Chaos, Void has Destruction and Order as domains, one of Fire’s domains is War, etc. I’m trying to brainstorm ideas for other domains for each god, what would you suggest?

As for the angels, the idea is that elementals were accidents, made from shed bits of power when the gods made the world. The gods then refined the process to make angels, which further inspired them to create mortals. So each god/element has their own variety of angels, and I’m looking for ideas on things to give each one. Halos and wings that showcase their element of course, like wings and halos of flame for Fire angels, halos that look like black holes for Void angels, etc., if you have any ideas that would work well, please let me know. Demons would be elemental as well, but they’re not as developed yet.

What makes for a believable religion? Does it have to involve an afterlife? Code of behavior? Strict adherence to rules? Are there religions that aren’t just control systems?

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>>24569247
Try Outlander. There's time travel in it, just to be clear.

>>24567948
In my world, all of the fantasy races worship the Abrahamic God, or at least, their own interpretation. My world has a point of historical divergence, in which Yahweh worship was imported on a mass scale to other countries, which lead to syncretization with other gods. For example, Giants worship a form of Yahweh that never split completely from his El/Golden Calf warrior god identity, this lead to the adoption of Yahweh by the Greeks, where he was syncretized with Pan and Ares. I still haven’t worked out all the details or historical ramifications.
Giants believe that every other race’s flesh is unclean, while theirs is pure and untainted, they view killing and cannibalization as the ultimate act of mercy, where they take another’s flesh unto themselves, so it may be purified and saved

>>24587494
*Exported on a mass scale

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>create a race of people
>decide to pitch the idea to myself that they speak in a more casual form of iambic pantameter
>test this out in a campfire conversation between characters
>everytime they talk it absolutely fucks with the pacing and I have to write out that even the characters have to take a beat to understand what they're saying
>everyone looks at these characters like they have some sort of Tourette's syndrome so they're just tolerating them like they're retarded
Jesus Christ that was bad

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Hypothetically, if you were a mage in a fantasy world what kinds of spells would you focus on learning? Combat spells? Healing magic? Turning lead into gold?

>>24587564
That's seems like a curse a character has.
"Only able to talk in Rhymes and limrics"

Ertigan the Demon character.

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>>24588200
I'd go the gandalf route and learn about the world, travel and help people who couldn't cast magic, probably occasionally charging for my help if I needed the cash.
>>24588283
Yeah that's really what it turned out to be.

>>24588200
I dunno, I guess the kind of magic that’s the most useful with the least amount of consequences

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>>24588200
Depends on a million factors, but generally what the limits of magic actually is. I know I wouldn't do necromancy since I'm not retarded, but that's about it.

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>>24588200
Item creation, both magical and mundane.

>>24588200
It depends on what the magic and the world are like. If it's your genetic fantasy world with lots of combat them obviously focus on combat and learn medical engineering on the side. If it's a peaceful world like ours then focus of magical engineering or some other thing that is sought after as a service.

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>>24586178
The key to a plausible religion is one that either:
>Inspires powerful hope
>Inspires tremendous fear
>Bribes people with assurances of afterlife
>Explains why life is so shitty (a la the Greeks)
>Has such high stakes for non adherence that people don't let one another question it (a la the Aztecs)
>Props up the social order
Or some combo of the above.
An effective religion should also have an engine to memetically reproduce, either through inertia and heritage ("this is the faith of my fathers"), institutional support ("the city is sworn to Athena"), or conversion ("go make of all disciples" / "convert or die").
A good masterclass in this is Till We Have Faces, where CS Lewis manages to both do a better and more respectful job depicting pagan religion than most other modern works as well as speak to his own Christian beliefs without just making Jesus a lion like in some of his other stories.

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>>24592699
>Till We Have Faces, where CS Lewis manages to both do a better and more respectful job depicting pagan religion than most other modern works as well as speak to his own Christian beliefs without just making Jesus a lion like in some of his other stories.
NTA, but please do elaborate further on this. Also, I don't quite get what you mean by "engine".

>>24588200
Too sleepy for a proper reply but ask on /g/ what programming languages people learned and why
Some just fit your brain better
If you hate touching slimy things you’re not going to specialize in magic that has an item component of “live toad”

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>>24593650
>my use of engine
System is a valid alternative. Basically just that religions that succeed need to have a way to overcome attrition and 'reproduce'. That is to say they need to either be very sticky (very few people apostasize / leave the faith), be very conversion focused, or both.
Religions that prioritize neither don't generally stand the test of time.
>Till We Have Faces, where CS Lewis manages to both do a better and more respectful job depicting pagan religion than most other modern works as well as speak to his own Christian beliefs without just making Jesus a lion like in some of his other stories.
To elaborate, Lewis sets his story as a retelling of the Greek myth of Psyche from the perspective of one of her sisters. It's set in Colchis, a decidedly pagan place.
The kingdom of Glome, where the story takes place, is heavily devoted to the local version of Aphrodite / Ishtar. Her temple has substantial moral & political influence and the rites of that temple are the the heartbeat of the city itself.
Now, rather than outright dismissing the 'retarded pagans' for believing in a dumb god that isn't his, Lewis tries very much to empathize with them.
>Why would people worship such a god, even to the point of sacrificing people they love to it?
>Since God doesn't make Himself obvious, isn't it only fair that humans will seek Him wrongly, sometimes?
Furthermore, thanks to having a Greek slave in the cast, Lewis actually has Philosophy and Pagan belief compete a bit - and in the end although Philosophy has a ton of virtues Lewis shows it utterly missing the primordial truths that Pagan religion understood: namely that there are things that cannot be proven, that meaning cannot be quantified or artificially reproduced, and that man desires more than simply beauty and pleasure.
To that last point there's a excellent scene where a fancy new Greek statue has been installed in the Temple, although the goddess had traditionally only been idolized in the form of an ugly obsidian stone. The faithful ignore the new statue in favor of the lumpy rock, because they know that the rock has a more real connection with their god than the fancy statue.
Finally there is the God of the West Wind, who is very much the Christian God and especially Jesus. His goal is to have an intimate relationship with each person and bring them into glory, but successfully doing so requires change and overcoming the contrary intentions of the world. This is the source of the main conceit, that "we can't meet God face to face till we have faces".
(1/2)

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>>24593650
>>24594053
So in summary, Lewis successfully and respectfully gets across three approaches to religion when most fantasy stories barely manage one:
>Stoicism / Cynicism
Is presented as very astute but ultimately self-serving, searching for the 'god within' and getting to look down on all the retards who believe in 'fairy tales'. At best it produces a Socrates but at worst it makes you a Reddit atheist.
>Paganism
Raw. Simple. Communal.
The power in pagan belief systems is that it is extremely correct about two key theological points:
1. Sacrifice is Important
2. Doing what is meaningful doesn't always mean doing what feels good or is pretty.
Lewis presents this as a road to deep knowledge, sometimes deeper than even the Philosophers can attain, but emphasizes it's cruel collectivism too. The gods aren't kind, nor do they really give a fuck about you in particular. The smart move is to pay them their dues, especially as a community, but otherwise do your level best to avoid their notice.
>Christianity
Presented in the form of the God of the West Wind, this is the one Lewis actually believes in but he doesn't let that ruin his handling of the other two.
The key differentiators here are:
1. God wants a relationship with *you* personally.
2. Communing with God requires *you* to make changes to yourself, not just participating in communal rites.
3. God doesn't give up on you, even when you let Him down.
4. It has the promise of real salvation after death, unlike the other two.

The key takeaway for fantasy writers is that if a religion is successful it *must* give something to its adherents.
Whether it's the community and primal truths of Ishtar, the hope of liberation in the Christian God, or the aloof and thorough pursuit of knowledge in the Stoic / Cynic approach, each of the three are shown as producing good, virtuous people and you get *why* they believe what they believe.
Compare that to, say, GRRM. Every religion in ASOIAF is less fleshed out in all those books than these were in one. And most of them offer fuck all as far as reasons to believe in them except for the Red Faith since it actively performs miracles.

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>>24594053
>>24594068
Amazing analysis! Hey, I did >24585372, do you have any advice for me on that front, or on what I can do for the faith for each god, please?

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>>24594301
This post? >>24585372
I can certainly share some thoughts.
If I were you, I'd arrange it as so:
>Light: Creation & Chaos
>Void: Destruction & Order
>Earth: Protection & Humility
>Fire: War & Love (the most kino combination)
>Water: Inspiration & Fertility (primarily focusing on rain, like Tlaloc)
>Air: Life & Trickery (think a more positive Loki or Coyote)
Now, in a pagan faith, generally you give some degree of devotion to all the gods but focus on one or two in particular. This is usually related to your trade or a particular experience you had that relates to the god or their responsibilities. So most communities will have general rites for the pantheon, plus probably one main god who gets their own temple and serves as the central cult figure. The priests of that god probably enjoy privilege and influence in the community if they don't lead it outright.
The following questions, then, become essential:
>How do the gods behave towards mortals?
If they're shitters like Zeus and his kids, the people may pay them reverence but sort of look down on them. If they're abusive like Mesopotamia or the Aztecs, the people (and especially community leaders) will have the job of maintaining proper sacrifice and honoring them so as not to draw punishment.
If they're more positive in their relation with humans (see the Norse, Roman, or stereotypical native american gods) they'll be paid a lot of reverence and be seen as role models.
>What do the gods offer?
Generally this is a sliding scale of "my offer is not smiting your mortal ass" to "you will sup with me in Valhalla". In the case of the former, people treat the gods like taxes or doctor's visits, only doing the bare minimum to avoid punishment. In the latter, you will have people ready to burn alive or die for their gods, as well as those who will obsess over currying their favor.
>How clear are the gods?
Do they frequently manifest to humans? Do they instead use riddles and prophets?
>Finally, how do the gods relate to each other?
There is a world of difference between pantheons that get along as a big happy family and those who quarrel - in the case of the latter don't be surprised if cults have turf wars and rivalries.

Lastly, I consider Till we Have Faces & pic related mandatory reading if you want to depict paganism well in a fantasy story.

>>24588200
Whatever magic lets me become immortal.

>>24595982
immortality and its pursuit are underrated. in a world of uncertainty, time seems to have endless possibility

have any of you boys adapted your worldbuilding entries into substack posts? or do you know of anyone who is doing something like this, a flow world-reveals through i guess blogposts since that's what substack looks like to me a renamed blogspot

>>24596295
no, but you are free to do that if it helps you, olls korrect

>>24567943
Seeing how water and holy magic are seen as "feminine" for the MC to have and mainly use it, how do you make it "masculine"?

>>24596653
preposterous, you can make anything masculine

>>24596653
Simon Belmont and Van Helsing disagree, anon.

>>24567943
My idea for a science-fantasy story where it's mostly hard science and the only magic is done via the power of the gods, not even given power bit strange things are done through rites and prayers

The main story about it follows a girl whose lived on generation-world-ships that travel passed the bounds edges of inhabited space who have no gods and a guy with amnesia and a spirit within him thats under his command and the two explore the many territories of various pantheons

I have a few gods in my head already

There's a techno-religious empire that worships a Machine God that somewhat decently rules the empire himself along with a minor god of energy and power

A Life pantheon of a trio of gods. A Nature Goddess, a Savage-Flesh God, and a Disease and Rot God

And a large pantheon of civilization gods. Each god represent an aspect of society/civilization and something physical, with the head of it being a seeming god of power and rule whose form is able to be easily change to match to culture/theme of a given planet.


Any ideas for more pantheones and gods?
Question on how the magic works?

>>24596883
>preposterous, you can make anything masculine
NTA, but go on.

>>24597168
>Simon Belmont and Van Helsing disagree, anon.
Again, different guy, but what do you mean?

>>24587564
>decide to pitch the idea to myself that they speak in a more casual form of iambic pantameter
Is it a choice for them to speak like that or is it an inherent trait? Because if the former you can use them speaking more causally as a sign of things getting serious.

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>>24598804
Not sure what isn't clear, even though I was admittedly being pithy.
>>24596653 's claim seems absurd on the face. I would ask for any instances of holy water and holy magic being feminine, actually, because I can't think of any. Is it an anime thing? Or because a lot of final fantasy white mages are women?
I brought up Belmont and Van Helsing because throughout all of gothic story telling the toughest, most grizzled dude of the bunch is likely to use holy water and crucifixes all over the place.
Think of Solomon Kane. Or Galahad. Or anything that is inspired by The Exorcist.
From where I'm sitting Holy Water and Holy Magic are gender neutral, but honestly if they're anything they seem masculine coded. Off the top of my head I can't think of an iconic example of a character using those gimmicks who's a chick or feminine.

So I'd love to understand why you and the original anon think that they're 'effeminate' and why, because I'm clearly missing some point of reference.

>>24600026
I was bouncing around the idea of it being how they spoke originally before they integrated with other cultures, so it would be more formal, or spoken at home or among people of their kind. To a degree, I felt that if it were part of the world then other should be able to understand it, but it didn't mesh that well. Great for Shakespeare and poetry, but clashes kind of harshly, drags when speaking with others in a modern, casual way.
If you're familiar with the Darmok from Star Trek, it was similar to that vein, but eh.

>>24596653
Exorcism is exceptionally masculine.

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>>24567943
I want to include a variety of types of Angels and Demons in my setting, what kinds of celestial and infernal archetypes are there, be they roles or species?

For the former of course there's Guardian Angels, holy warriors that fight Demons, spirit animals, and messengers for instance, what else can you suggest?

As for Demons, there's Succubi and Incubi, Imps, Hellhounds, plague demons, possessors, crossroads demons, demons specializing in infernal contracts, fallen angels, warriors, shadow demons, demons that spread hatred, and demon lords, what other infernal archetypes exist?

>>24603225
For the former, be better than Vivzie and actually base them on angelic choirs. Thrones, Dominions, Cherubim, Seraphim, etc.
People keep trying to adapt Heaven and Hell but leave out the compelling stuff.

>>24596653
I think you may perceive water and holy magic as feminine because of their association with healing rather than pure combat, especially in Japanese media. But as an other anon mentioned, these types of magic are pretty gender neutral

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>>24603762
>People keep trying to adapt Heaven and Hell but leave out the compelling stuff.
Okay, so besides the Bible itself what are the best places to look for information on this compelling stuff? And what are your own thoughts on the Thrones, etc.?

>>24605187
Dumb low effort bump, you don't actually care faggot kys

how are your obisidian graph views looking?

>There was, at some point, a Civil War in Japan by the merchant classes against the Shogunate due to anger over the corruption and brutality of the feudal classes.
>The liberal democratic revolutionaries were highly successful, highly popular, and nearly took over the country by paralyzing the feudal military with riots and appeals.
>Most of these revolutionaries were from the merchant classes, young men who studied democratic ideals from abroad and wanted to modernize their own country.
>The feudal armies were brutal but untrained, and were quickly overrun by professional mercenaries smuggled into Japan through Yakuza.
>They killed the Shogun and his officials, forced the Emperor to flee to Tokyo, and nearly declared victory and revolution.
>Then Tripura, the world's predominant power, intervened to save the Shogunate.
>Their new superweapon, the Mobile Armor, easily routed the revolutionaries and retook the country.
>Many revolutionaries fled the country and now bear an ancestral grudge against Tripura.
>Most of these revolutionaries were from the merchant classes, and therefore the Japanese diaspora is predominantly educated bourgeoisie.
>They are mostly based in Tripura, Thales, and South America.

>>24606059
Based on the Revolutions of 1848, especially in Germany, and the disconnect between Britain and the revolutionaries despite their shared ideals.

There are no women in my setting, men are begat from morning dew, fully formed

Only Sam Hyde types, walking around the woods, wrapped in bed sheets

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>>24567943
Hey, what animal features can we give angels and demons, to mix up their appearances? I mean, angels are usually depicted as having bird wings versus demons having bat wings, and demons are usually depicted as having horns, but what else can work? And what about animals for each specific Virtue or Sin, or types of angel or demon, like succubi? I want to do this in my own stuff but I could use some more ideas and feedback on what I do have.

For the Sins/demons, Rabbits, Bonobos, Roosters and Dolphins might work for Lust, Bulls, Lions, potentially Dragons, and Honey Badgers for Wrath, and Dragons again and Griffins for Greed (and someone else suggested Ants, Monkeys, and Squirrels), literal Sloths, Sheep, Pandas, Bears, and Koalas for Sloth, Bees and Flies for Gluttony (and someone else suggested Spiders for Gluttony and Greed), etc., Deer and Peacocks for Pride, and creatures that mimic others like Chameleons for Envy (and someone else suggested brood parasites like Cuckoos) are easy options but what else could work for each Sin? Someone else suggested some avian options for each Sin, but I’d like some that are less fowl, lol.

For the Virtues I have fewer ideas. Dogs can work for Kindness, domestic animals like Chickens can work for Charity, Turtles can be Temperance, Humility Dung Beetles, Chastity one of those animals that mates for life like Love Birds, Diligence could be Ants or Beavers, and maybe ambush predators like Vipers for Patience, what would you suggest?

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How fantastical is a typical high magic setting? What's the limit of fantastical-ness for a low magic setting before it changes?

>>24605250
I'm beginning to use Obsidian more for notes and moving everything to Scrivener. Considering phasing out Obsidian completely because, while the syncing is nice, I'm beginning to do as much just writing in a journal by hand and then organizing and writing out in Scrivener.

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Back in the old days, Wizards experimented with spells that can send objects from point A to point B with the shortest possible work involved.

That's how they accidentally invented the first Flying Spells. They eventually scaled them up to create actual Airships that could carry tens of thousands of tonnes of goods across the Indian Ocean.

>>24609007
Since this was done in an era where the most sophisticated tech available was badly made iron weapons, they didn't see much use. Besides, protectionist Kings simply banned these airships because they made commerce too easy.

Can't have the merchants get too reach. They'll start getting ideas.

So what Wizards did is that they overthrew all kings and created an oligarchy.....IN THE SKIES!!!

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The core of the idea was to use giant spheres containing air that's heated just a little above the temperature of the air inside it. These spheres started to float in the skies and can support a lot of weight.

For the purpose of efficiency, they are mostly moored in cool countries like Tibet and Central Asia.

Unfortunately, all that kingslaying and free trade absolutism, while good for the economy, created other problems.

Namely that now every single kingdom in Asia wanted to kill them, slowly.

But that wasn't a problem. Iron age feudal armies couldn't attack castles in the air, but airships have no problem targeting royal palaces or even nomadic tent cities.

They all surrendered in the end. Eventually.

>>24607979
I would say that in a low-magic setting, magic itself is very limited in what it can it do in terms of scale and variety. Relying entirely on magic isn’t practical for whatever reason. If magic in a low-fantasy world is actually potent and varied, it would have to be a force that hasn’t been discovered at all, or is mostly unknown

>>24606059
Background

Following the defeat of Llys in the Great War, a wave of revolutionary sentiment spread across the world as intellectuals expounded on how two republican states (Shouxian and Tripura) had defeated the mighty god-kings of Llys.

The first to fall to this sentiment was Thales, where the Viceroy officially declared his allegiance to democracy after a series of protests by students and white collar workers frustrated by aristocratic corruption and criminality. The threat of Tripuran military intervention was more than enough to force the regime to fold and institute elections.

Then one after one, the Turkic states fell after 50 years of turmoil and civil war as the Khans desperately tried and failed to suppress rebellions.

The African states faced the same, but it took over 75 years of brutal warfare before the succession of oligarchs and military rulers were leashed by the College of Magi.

Japan, which had been trapped in a brutal civil war between various feudal rulers named the Daimyo, was never expected to be one of these states. In fact, everyone believed it was only a “Middle World Phenomenon”. But thanks to the alliance between the Oda faction and Tripuran businessmen (backed by KSV), Japan was eventually pacified by Oda’s dynasty and unified under the nominal authority of the Emperor. But within less than 50 years of peace, the merchant class (swelling to great size under a burgeoning economy) became dissatisfied with the feudal government.

Some even started to call for nationalist democracy and expulsion of Tripuran and Chinese businessmen. These factions, which had great support in the army and former Samurai, started a series of terrorist attacks that threw the government into confusion and misguided repression.

>>24606108
Okay… How and why does this happen?

>>24606108
FOR EVER FOR EVER FOR EVER FOR EVER

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What kind of magic would you imagine an army of artillery specialists using?

>>24612182
I used magic napalm. Turn the battlefield into an impassable sea of fire and smoke. Toxic fumes optional.

And of course, no harm in some auto-aim magic.

>>24612188
>no harm in some auto-aim magic
I like that. Magic cannonballs that explode and spew fire or spew poisonous gas. Magic cannonballs that never miss their target. Magic cannonballs that return to their owner to be fired again. Sounds pretty cool.

>>24612194
Write the true name of your enemy on a cannonball, consecrate it in blood, and fire it at your target to create a cannonball that will never miss.

>>24612182
Fire magic. Maybe teleportation.

I don't see why magitek should be just normal, historical machines with magic spells put upon them.

Do you prefer it when a magic system is explained, either directly or through clues, or when the author just gives you the middle finger and doesn't explain shit despite having an actual system in place behind the scenes?

Was writing my creation mythos and finally figured out how to make something that isnt "humans were created by God." but still kind of making humanity, sentience divine concepts. What do you think of:
>after war in heaven, defeating demons, etc.
>the shards of God (less gods) find life self-organizing, striving to be like God (self-moving)
>but life is mindless and stupid, just devouring and fighting to continue its own existence
>gods take in life, shape it to be like God with a mind
>life keeps falling back into mindlessness
>life is unwilling to learn higher ideals
>gods banish mindless life to a black world
>then put a rotating light in the sky
>days and seasons kill all life that has no mind that cannot think, plan ahead, weigh dangers and possibilities
>world is mortal because of evil (the war in heaven)
>life seeks to overcome mortality
>overcoming mortality impossible within the mortal world
>life seeks entry into the divine world because of this
>life becomes more like the divine mind through it

My novel is about a group of half-inch tall people living in a highway cloverleaf. They live off of roadkill and get their metal mostly from car accidents. When roadkill is spotted, the various kingdoms will rush to compete for taking as much of the meat as possible. They use halved acorns as huge battering ram type things to advance against arrow fire. They mostly use bark and such for armor. They also do alchemy with pheromones for insects to keep them as cattle and use them in battle. The story will be about a child finding the edge of the kingdom, and the grand council is convened, and arguing over what to do about them inflames pre-existing tensions and causes a massive civil war that destroys them even moreso than the threat of human discovery (they are scared of being captured and studied by curious humans who would treat them like insects). It's like a cross between a Coen Brothers movie and Game of Thrones. But with tiny people.

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I can also elaborate about this stuff, I've thought alot about how they would work practically.

>>24615030
What kind of defenses do they have?

>>24615030
How do they deal with rain (especially as it would be fatal to exposed cattle)? Are there stories about cars going over the median and obliterating multiple kingdoms? How often does this happen? Do they have metallurgy, or do they pick up fragments and use those as weapons? If they have metallurgy, what do they use for fuel? What do you mean about the edge of the kingdom? Would they not be familiar with the road where meat and metal appear? Do they know about three of the edges of the median, but the child discovers they are on an island?

>>24616291
For weapons they'd have spears and perhaps swords. Crossbows would be their best weapon. They wouldn't think much of waging war on the humans, but if they did, it'd be ballistas (shooting stuff the size of a needle) with as refined of poisons as they could.

>>24617265
I don't know how they would deal with rain. It's not good either, because they also would use tunnels to survive the snow. And to keep themselves hidden. So they'd either have to have incredible drainage systems, or something weird is going on. Admittedly at such a small size, material integrity skyrockets relatively, so maybe clay or primitive sort of concrete walling could be done.
>cars going over median
Yeah that would be a good past cataclysm. Car accidents are how they get their metal, and they would work it, maybe just a miniature blacksmithing operation (probably not even possible at such a small size, but I have to stretch some things now and then). But metal would be very expensive.
>edge of the kingdom
So the cloverleaf is the most protected area but there's also that region of grass or forest between the road and the wooden soundproofing walls some places have. So the idea is that some child wandered into a secluded area of that, and they think that he might come back and find them.
I know they mow the lawn in a lot of those places now but the one around me is more wild and I've never seen a person there.
So basically the kingdom on the outside of the median sees the child play nearby several times, but they don't have the kind of weapons needed to kill him, so they call a council, and the other kingdoms' reluctance to kill a child makes them think the other kingdoms don't care about them, exacerbating existing tensions (even though they really just don't want to attract even more attention by doing that, plus normal moral concerns).

There's more to it than that but that's my answer for now.

>>24615030
What are their origins? Or at least the legends they have to explain said origins?

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>>24567943
I’m working on a setting where the forces of Heaven and Hell are in conflict, but are prevented from waging large-scale battle in either of their two realms. As a result, they use the mortal world to get around this. That’s not the issue at hand though, I’m running out of name ideas for both sides that aren’t just the names of angels or demons from the Bible, and could use some suggestions, and I would love to hear how you name your own angels and demons as well. I want the names to be meaningful beyond just slapping “el” to the end of ordinary names for angels, which of course makes it harder on me…

One idea I had was that succubi and incubi, especially the former, mainly take on the role of spies in the mortal world, so I could use some names for that kind of demon in particular. Lilith as their queen is a given, and names of historical women associated with lust (like Helen because everybody in Greece wanted to marry her) could work for some of them, especially if the rumors are true and said women become succubi after death, but I can only think of a few and I still need some more ideas for succubi that weren’t ever human, thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

>>24618223
That I don't know honestly. I think they'd have lived there for many hundreds of years but possibly shorter lifespans since the cloverleaf would only have been there for around 50 years.

>>24615030
What do they call themselves?

>>24620716
When I was younger I called them "mini people" but I had the idea of them just considering them "the small" in that sort of understatement way that people do things nowadays. They would understand humans as humans though and would distinguish themselves from being human. "A potential war between humans and the Small" is a way they might refer to themselves. Or maybe "inchlings" or somethings like that. If I can think of something less lame I'll use it.

>>24608450
what are some benefits of scrivener? all ive done in obsidian is transfer writing scraps into it, i write by hand. i did make some lists in obsidian of same-category pages

>>24615030
How does their alchemy work?

>>24615030
How do they shape the metal pieces?

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I don't like godless settings. They're contrived and boring.

>>24625483
That's fine anon you should write what you like

>>24622788
I figured it was fairly limited, nothing magical, but stuff like distilling and concentrating poisons, as well as mixing insect pheromones in order to subdue and calm them, so that they can keep them as cattle, beasts of burden, and war mounts. That would be most of it. It would be bending reality but nothing outright magical.

>>24624009
I would say they would have made some tiny little stone or brick forges and blacksmith them that way.

Any good reference material for a story set on a research campus? Specifically, I'm working on a conspiracy story set during the Gerald Ford years focused around fictional prestigious CIA-feeder school, in which a Vietnam vet turned paramilitary participates in clinical trials on the campus. There is a private medical center that comprises part of the campus, due to substantial investment from a billionaire who has self-serving reasons for freelance biotech, a sort of microcosm in which academia, big capital, and military/spook-ops intersect heavily but all under the auspices of public interest. Looking for any story also set on a campus with good descriptions of the campus itself, as well as interesting real life features e.g. the Reed College nuclear reactor run by undergrads.

>>24625712
You could go really far down the material sciences rabbit hole if you wanted to. Look into what kind of metals deposits and pollution exist alongside roadways.

>>24625957
NTA, but do tell please.

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>>24567943
How do you put interesting new twists on classic fantasy race archetypes like Elves and Dwarves? What about species or beings from mythology or folklore that would make good fantasy races that aren’t seen much, like picture related?

>>24625957
Will do, that's a good idea.
Though if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.
I want to keep them fairly medieval in their technology, but pseudo-fantasy stuff from scavenging human detritus is definitely on the menu

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>>24594964
Oops, sorry, honestly thought that I'd replied to this already. Thanks for the feedback! Do you have any more thoughts on what I can do for my Angels, BTW?

To clarify with the gods, I wasn't planning on limiting the gods to two domains each besides their element, does that change your answers? I'm also not sure on explicitly giving any one god "Life" as a domain, especially given the implications for healing magic. Still, this is a great start, thanks again!

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was thinking that the different races were created by the different gods all combining their powers, with each race having two or three dominant elements in their makeup, so they primarily worship the gods that had the heaviest hand in their creations over the others.

I was thinking that their relationship would be more neutral leaning towards positive. The Light and Void gods tend to work on a more metaphysical level, the former constantly creating like a stream of consciousness writer, the Void god acting like an editor refining their creations and destroying that which would harm the world (monsters being creatures that slipped through the cracks). They formed first and act in a semi-parental way to the other gods, though technically they're all considered equals.

While the gods care about their followers to a degree, and will grant some prayers within reason, they're still their element, so the Fire god might burn down a forest not out of malice, but because that's what flame DOES, etc. Revering the gods is seen in part as a way to try and keep them happy and prevent any scuffles from going too far. They mainly communicate via their priests, but sometimes they create avatars to do certain tasks. If a person lived a good life, they go to the afterlife of the god they're most aligned with (they can choose between the options if there's a tie). What do you think?

Thanks for the recommendations!

>>24615030
How old is this kid? How did they react to finding tiny people?

>>24629151
I don't know if he actually found them, but they think he did. He would probably be between 7 and 9 years old, so pretty fucked up if they killed him with poisoned ballista bolts. And it would probably make the situation worse, but this border kingdom is quite paranoid and even considered fielding an army into his yard to hide and shoot him with ballista bolts tipped with poison. This would of course violate many treaties, and things go bad and power-seeking actors inflame the situation and war results.

Like a Coen Bros movie on a massive scale.

>>24627020
>>24627950
There's a wide variety of industrial metals debris in road dust from standard vehicle operation. The metals content is such that this dust can be considered a valuable ore. A proof of concept:
https://hackaday.com/2016/06/06/mining-platinum-from-the-road/
Other materials get added to the dust from construction, automobile collisions, degrading paint, and more. Industrial areas will have a wider variety of metals deposits:
https://eos.org/articles/road-dust-a-health-hazard-hidden-in-plain-sight

I would speculate that the most valuable ore would settle in areas that would be the most polluted and toxic. Your tiny roadside people might variously compete over clean agricultural hills and metal-rich toxic gutters, or they might cooperate with a division of labor and different factions having cultures centered on their specific industries. The little people should have the material resources to produce basically anything that would suit a civilization of their size. Someone with a chemistry or chemical engineering background could probably give you insights into what sort of "alchemy" they might get up to but I'm just a grug who vaguely understands melting metals and beating them into shapes.

Depending on the level of realism you wish to pursue, you could do an interesting profile on real world roadside and industrial pollution and its potential and actual effects while avoiding any commentary beyond "these things are found in this setting, now watch the little people use it for war," or you could just feature a couple interesting materials to add flavor (e.g., platinum from catalytic converters could be minted into coinage, diamonds shed from construction saws could be used for their own tools, etc. etc.).

I haven't posted there in years but this might not be a bad premise for a /sci/ thread.

In a world of magic being commonplace and expected, would it make more sense for a land that has no magical capabilities - meaning nobody can physically cast magic at all in this area no matter what, not as a law but as a fundamental, immutable principle of the land - to be isolationist and hostile to outsiders, or perhaps some neutral zone for countries to meet on diplomatic terms without fear of unexpected magical retaliation?

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>>24567943
I was thinking that in my world the lord of the Abyss is a being of madness and corruption that cannot truly create, only twist and break. As a result, all demons were ultimately once elementals that came too close to a place where the barrier between the Abyss and the mortal world is thin, and got dragged through and twisted into a demonic form, but with some of their original elemental nature still shining through. I was thinking that there would be some kinds of demons, like imps, who can be of any element (flame, ice, lightning, shadow, etc.) while there are some kinds of demons that are only made of one kind of corrupted elemental, like gargoyle-looking demons for stone elementals. Besides ideas for which kinds of demons can be made of only one element, since I want there to be more than just one breed designated for each element, so succubi work better as demons created solely from flame elementals like picture related, or demons that can be any element?

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>>24567943
What are the most important things to remember when creating a magic system? And what are all the sub-types/schools/disciplines you can include like divination, elemental magic, wards, enchantments, oath magic, etc.?

Also, I love discussing magic systems, if you’d like to discuss your own here I’d be glad to!

>>24631104
Really good post... thank you. I am curious what a society like that would use platinum for, besides currently. There'd be plenty of fragments of asphalt they could break down. Diamonds would definitely be useful, possibly even for spear tips at that size. They use acorn shells as giant tetsudos, big shells their soldiers advance under to avoid crossbow fire, or halved acorns.

I might make a post on /sci/ in the next couple days. Will link it here if I do.

>>24633281
Not him, but I’d like to see that, thanks.

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Is "Historical setting but with magic" a good basis for worldbuilding or is it too cliche after A Song of Ice and Fire?

>>24634067
IIRC, A Song of Ice and Fire can barely be considered “historical”.

Considering Lucifer is mentioned as the "ruler of this world" I wonder if I could get away with lesser demons "ruling" other planets in my setting or if I'm ripping off Space Trilogy.

>>24635149
Ive never even heard of that so I'd say youre good.

A fantasy world where male elves look like female elves. Elves can tell the difference, but humans unfamiliar with elves cannot.

That or all elves are female.

>>24635149
>>24636316
Isn't that basically Mormon cosmology?

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>>24567943
How do the celestial or infernal realms tie into magic in your setting? And if mortals can use demonic magic, how does it affect them? What about dark magic in general?

>>24636391
And all elves are BHC addicts.

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>>24567943
What are the Fae like in your setting, including in terms of abilities, and how do you name individual Fae? And what advice would you give on rules for them and/or other supernatural beings to follow, like Fae not being able to lie?

>>24636476
Shit, kind of. Though I see it less as each world having their own "god" and more like each demon having territories in which they have free reign (relative to each other) to fuck with the given populace. Lucifer probably took Earth for himself and appointed others under his leadership to do what they wish on other worlds that begin to harbor life.

>>24637028
It can't be all elves, else elves would be entirely living with humans.

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>>24567943
I'm planning on including an alchemically created version of gold in my setting, and I need a name for it that isn't Orichalcum or Aurum. Does anyone have any suggestions for me please?

>>24567943
What is a goo way to end modern society that isn't Nuclear war?
I kind of wnat to do a post-apocalyptic setting, however, a lot of what I want to use would be instantly levelled in the case of a nuclear war. Plus I am not entirely sure the main place I'm interested in would even be inhabitable after.
It's more of an alternate history than anything else.

>>24639007
>What is a goo way to end modern society that isn't Nuclear war?
Modern society's impact on birthrates.

South Korea has a birthrate of 0.75 per woman. Let's assume this for the entire world. There are about 3 billion people at less than 25 years old. Once they grow up, if they have 0.75 kids per woman, then the next generation will be 1.1 billion. The one after that 420 million. Then 158 million and after a century 60 million.

Set your world 150 years in the future and say that people just didn't breed enough. The population numbers dropped, infrastructure upkeep became untenable and the world ended up filled with ghost towns. Governments collapsed because they social programs became untenable.

>>24639207
Thank you.

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Imagine a world where if enough people believe something, or if just one person believe hard enough, that thing becomes true. What would the world be like?

>Of course demons are real, everyone knows that. They're as real as whales, dragons, and dinosaurs.

>Of course Earth is flat, all those sailors died trying to prove it wasn't.

>Of course a sword can cut through solid steel, and a skilled marksman can draw in a fraction of a second.

>Of course my flying machine will work, I am a genius.

>>24639686
Mage: The Ascension from World of Darknesss

>>24633094
Asking and The Channel

The Channel is a principle of reality that has existed for all of existence. It is essential a bubble That reasserts and protects the laws of physics from outer reality events. The name "The Channle" is a bit of an anachronism from previous theory about it that stuck around because nobody really cared to change it. While it's suppose to reassert reality there was a slight unintended side effect of it in which sentient beings can connect to it and "ask" for slight alterations - Asking

Asking is the magic of altering reality to put thing into your favor, however there is a major caveat to it: The more major the exponentially harder it is. One could possibly spout fire from their hand but it would take a years worth of effort to possibly do. It's more a subtle power than anything, in that one tends to fucs in the smaller thing rather than the grander actions. One such technique is for warriors to strengthen their swords by Asking for the metal within their blades to be stronger, by Asking the the bonds of its matter to be stronger.

To improve your Asking power there are 3 ways to do it: Study reality to better understand what you should ask(science way), team up with other to compound the power (kabal way), of familiarize yourself with one thing and master it(one note way)

The 5 sub-groups of the Channeler Order:
Kainthites - Warriors who use weapons with their magic
Abalas - Channelers who group together to compound their Asking in Kabals
Isha - Those who entierly focus on "Life Channeling", you Asking to controls life energy and act as healers and life masters
Pitha - Those who use Asking and other ways to craft grand things
Alchemox - Scieteist who study both the natural world and the Channel

>>24637910
You know i actually wrote an intro chapter in a story involving.
That story was set in a cyber fantasy setting where a net runner is formerly fused with a fae warrior, now sharing one body that can switch between human and fae. They're now on a quest to find a way to separate and fulfill the faes original goal

>>24641332
>and fulfill the faes original goal
I would love to hear more about this! What was the fae's original goal?

>>24606944
Lotus and venus fly trap

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My first book is finished! You can read it for free on Royal Road https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/93931/born-under-a-black-sun

>>24641541
>Lotus and venus fly trap
Interesting, I wasn’t considering plants. What other plants would you assign to each side, especially particularly Virtues/Sins?

>>24641554
Nice! What inspired the magic system here? And do you have any advice for any prospective writers here?

>>24641516
I haven't fully decided on that - I hadn't come up with the specific action, but the general idea was that he was trying to find a way to better bridge fae back to human lands, as the tech and wrought iron messes with the fae so they stay in the faiere lands.

He went out and studied the cyberpunk humans in order to find spots of possible refugee

>>24606944
Look up Native American tribes. They have some different beliefes, but you can find something. Some believe wolves to be loyal and others believe coyotes to be greatful.

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Worldbuilding from a christian lens, I wonder how nonhuman races fit in. Humans have original sin, but animals don't. Angels can sin, and dragons are representations of evil. What I wonder is, if an animal were to have evolved alongside humans to be intelligent then how do they fit into the grand scheme? Does their humanlike nature mean they are now capable of sin, and if they CAN sin then can they be saved? I'm trying to figure out how different or similar the rules are and I'm entirely within the realm of speculation.
I suppose what I could do is leave this question open and address it within my writing without providing an answer, but I feel I should have something to inform my writing.

>>24642944
I think there are actual Church writings on this from the era when explorers and merchants were reporting monstrous humanoids in exotic lands. If you don't find anything I can look into it later.

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>>24643758
I think I know what you're talking about. Cynocephali, right? I completely blanked on those, I'll have to go back and look. Let me know what you find, too. All resources on the topic help.

>>24643810
This is what I had in mind, not sure if there are other prominent writings on the subject:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/Volume_II/City_of_God/Book_XVI/Chapter_8

>>24639875
I would love to hear more about this setting. Like, where exactly did the name come from, the theory I mean?

>>24636391
>That or all elves are female.
How would that have come about? And do they seek out other races to reproduce or what?

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>>24643868
That was an excellent read. The gist of it seems to hinge on whether they're descended from Adam or not. Even if they look weird, if said creatures are descended from Adam then they're human and thus capable of salvation; non-Adamic creatures in his view are just animals like apes are. Though I wonder if his ideas would be shaken if he met a talking ape that could reason. It's a quandary, and I wonder if I should address and treat it as a quandary in my writing. Thanks for linking that to me.

>>24638968
Make it radioactive and call it something like leper's gold.

>>24645574
Maybe they've used a magic ritual to reproduce ever since male elves died in some calamity, and now all pure blood elves are essentially clones of their mothers.

>>24642944
>>24643810
>>24645679
fuck off furfag

>>24645895
>>24645574
Yes, they reproduce with other races. Elven genes just dominate the other races. Their gene is indicated with A.

Offspring:
Human male (XY) + elf female (XA) =
>XX - human female
>XA - elf female
>YX - human male
>YA - half-elf female

Human male (XY) + half-elf female (YA) =
>XY - human male
>XA - elf female
>YY - unviable, pregnancy doesn't take
>YA - half-elf female

You could make half-elves male, but then they would just be thought of as male elves.

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>>24567943
I'm planning on having my ultimate villain be a cosmic entity of insanity and corruption, born from a flaw in the formation of reality, that wants to ultimately corrupt and/or destroy all of reality (no one is 100% sure, maybe not even it), that can only twist and copy what already exists instead of making anything new. The problem is, they can't manifest in the physical world reliably, so they need servants to do their dark work, and I'm trying to think of different types that can be led by a commander that answers directly to the entity, like an archmage driven made by its power commanding other mad mages, etc., and I could use some ideas on other types, like maybe a lich for the undead that serve the entity, (but not orcs, they’re just a normal race) do you have any suggestions please?

>>24638968
Where does the gold come from? Do random alchemists make it or is it only made by a specific organization? Do they stamp some kind of insignia on the gold?

In The Jackal Among Snakes they use something called Rose-gold. It was created by the Order of the Rose hundreds of years ago. The organization has disappeared by now and the coins have become very valuable.

tl;dr if you want people to understand your coins are still related to gold then the name has to mention it. Make it X-gold.

>>24646223
Daring, are we?

>>24646529
What exactly do you mean?

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>>24645872
No, the idea is that it's harder than normal gold and better at channeling/holding magic. But thanks anyway.

>>24646280
Like I said above it's less a direct copy of gold, but thanks for the suggestion anyway.

>>24644103
Long ago before a proper order of Channelers were formed, they were disparate and secluded, teaching themselves via trial and error. Some shared info amongst each other but these were scant and not all that useful.
One such channeler was studying it and saw it flow over everything, it's reassertion of the universal laws been seen like flowing water to him, so he named it the Channel as in a river channel. You control its flow and it does as you wish,, that's what the old theory said any ways.
Even when the Order was formed after the appearance of the Gates, when the study of it could be done more cohesively, nobody really cared to change it.

>>24646779
>better at channeling/holding magic
concentrated magic gives you radiation poisoning

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>>24647178
Not where I was going with that.

>>24646196
There are also various types of pseudogamy where one parent contributes no genetic matter to the progeny, a little of it, or sometimes even a substantial amount. There are species on earth right now that breed with different species entirely but essentially just produce clones of themselves or incorporate only a tiny amount of genetic material. The problem with not incorporating any genetic material of course results in all the same problems as normal asexual reproduction, but incorporating any material from different species easily leads to outbreeding depression. These kinds of reproductive patterns tend to be quite ephemeral in the real would on evolutionary terms, but maybe you might nevertheless want to consider something like that anyway.

>>24647797
That's because the magic gold gave you brain cancer, otherwise you would have thought of it.

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>>24647922
Why are you so obsessed with trying to make it radioactive?

>>24647842
Well, humans and elves are pretty similar in fantasy. Outbreeding depression probably wouldn't be a very big deal, especially if half-elves exist and elves already share half the genetic material of humans.

I guess the more interesting question would be whether other races can have kids with elves and humans. Usually it's the humans that are considered to be able to have offspring with anything.

Besides, you don't mention this stuff to the reader anyway. You just write that a elf-human family has two human daughters, an elf, and a son.

How do you decide the percentage of your population that should be queer irl it’s around 33% so how much effort do you have to put into justifying it as less?

>>24649165
>33%
You live in a bubble

>>24645574
Elves were created à la Tolkien but they're all female.

>>24650245
Why did the creator make them all female then?

>>24649557
>You live in a bubble
NTA, but what do you mean?

>>24649165
0%. I don't put any effort into it, if other authors can jam queers into a work I can simply not put them in.

>>24650785
Sex

>>24651640
The world average is 5-8%
America is around 9% this decade

That guy clearly has only lived in a fucking gay ass city like San Francisco or something. Because of that they think that a third of every person is gay in some way. That's their bubble

>>24652561
So, they wanted to have sex with their own creations or what?

Stuck worldbuilding until I can have the proper paper on my math finished, trying to worldbuild using math first

>>24650785
Cute.

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rate my map

>>24652996
perfection

>>24642387
There are two. The magic system I prefer is the Beastly Arts. An animalistic magic system gifted to all men that has three main abilities: skinswitching, mixmaking, and beastbinding. Turning into animals, creating hybrid animals, and bonding with an animal familiar. Then from these three there are three other combined gifts, and then a seventh gift combining those three.

The other magic system is basic element stuff, but I threw it in there cause sometimes a scene calls for a fireball
My only advice is to write every day, and not just worldbuilding. Find a plot too, however you can

>>24652913
>trying to worldbuild using math first
How are you doing that? And I'd love to hear what you have right now.

>>24653665
Nothing anymore, I can't do the math.
>>24653333
I deleted all my worldbuilding stuff, even unrelated projects out of frustration.

>>24652913
What exactly is the issue? Maybe we can help.

The metaphysical structure of my setting can be said to be a part of the type where belief = power. There aren't gods per say. More like ethereal entities (called Apparitions) which feed upon the Mana of particular categories of reality (phenomenal, conceptual, personal, organizational), these categories are called "Domains", Domains which are attributed sufficient Mana are termed "Real Domains".

Mana is the quantifiable mental and emotional energy of individual ensouled humans. Sumana is that Mana which is embodied by positive mental and emotional states, Vimana is negative Mana in the same manner. Mana is biospiritually stored in the Sacral Chakra of the human body.

Mana Control is an indication of the extend to which one can suppress and manipulate one's Mana (i.e., mental and emotional states). Mana Capacity refers to the total capacity of one's Sacral Chakra. The greater your Mana Control the more efficiently you can transfer Mana towards Domains, which means Domains get greater Mana from people with high Mana Control. The greater your Mana Capacity the more Mana you have to give.

Devourers are those Apparitions which primarily feed upon Vimanic Real Domains, Luminaries those which primarily feed upon Sumanic Real Domains.

Templars are religious warrior orders which are tasked with the subjugation of Devourers and are contracted with Luminaries. In this way Devourers are "domesticated" and turned into Luminaries. It also involves public narrative construction on the part of the templars.

Luminaries are sealed within Temples. Temple Clergy organize the provision of Sumana towards their particular Luminaries.

In a sense you could say the metaphysics of the setting are reflection of the psychosocial state of the people. The shape of the religion reflects the psychosocial state of the society.

>>24654989
>>24653665
I have been studying math to build a setting based on alternate but I actually don't know it that well at all so it's useless, I've wasted weeks.

>>24655067
What does any of that do tho.

>>24633992
>>24631104
>>>/sci/16757495

>>24655105
>weeks
Chill the fuck out, zoomer. I figured you'd at least wasted months, if not over a year, the way you were being all dramatic about it. You haven't even been trying to learn this for a single semester.

>>24655749
I enjoy that drawing.

A scifi novel about McDonald's infiltrating an alien world would be great.

>>24655958
Why would McDonald's do that? It's not like their money would be worth anything on Earth.

>>24655674
Honestly just wanted to rationalize a "demon hunter" organization...

Plus, the implications.

>>24656858
Conversion rates

I keep worrying that if I set a more adventurous story in my world it'll undermine the worldbuilding by somehow making it "less serious." Not because I'm introducing anything particularly wacky or world-historically important in the story itself, just because of how it flows: A hero on a cool adventure instead of a big structural history driven mostly by economics.
Is this dumb? How do I calm down about it?

>>24657799
I mean you have to remeber that "hero" is a title for a character. The hero could be any form of occupation we just have to he him do good

>>24656905
What's so different then
What makes yours interesting

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>>24655949
I'm glad you do. I have some more.

>>24658788
The worldbuilding process of most worldbuilders is one form of rationalization or another. I mean, you can try to construct your setting from first principle's, I try to, but it's typically not the primary method.

As for whether it's interesting or not, I'd like to think so, but that's in the eye of the beholder.

Also, templars are less than 10% of the worldbuilding of the setting.

>>24658971
Yeah but will you do anything with them
Is there a story going along with it?
Is there action, is there an effort of study, is there a search for mysteries, a struggle against the darkness.
What are you going to do with it?

>>24657799
>A hero on a cool adventure
>a big structural history driven mostly by economics
These are not incompatible. Any great hero in history has existed in this context.

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>>24656858
McDonald's is a real estate empire. They almost certainly seek to conquer the cosmos.
>acquire alien money
>convert alien money to resources
>convert resources to shareholder payouts
There's also the possibility of a galactic/intergalactic currency or of a less technologically advanced alien world adopting the currency of the more advanced McDonald's civilization basically using it as a truck stop, mining camp, etc. The US dollar is already Earth's universal reserve currency; why not make it truly universal?

>>24659131
Good question. In the metaphysical dynamics as I described the conflict and tensions are rather inbuilt.

Templars on one level are the white blood-cells of the psychosocial ecosystem of the society. Rampant devourers would be in modern terms a "Public Mental Health Crisis", templars are the subjugators and domesticators of society's greatest "demons". When a templar is sent to subjugate a devourer which has been plaguing a village, the devourer itself is no foreign predator, but a manifestation of that village's psychological and social ills.

Moreover, subjugation is one thing, but the domestication of devourers (turning them into luminaries) requires the replacement of Vimana with Sumana, negative Mana with positive Mana. A complete transformation of the devourer's identity. The methods used by the templar are those of narrative construction, through which ever medium necessary, oral, scriptural, dramatic, etc. In this the object of the village's fear becomes the object of their awe.

Bump

>>24658864
Thanks, have any more?

>>24656920
>Conversion rates
Run this by me again please?

Bump

>>24660244
What's powers cna you get,

>>24665025
Good question, seconding.

>>24665025
Templars form contracts with luminaries. In exchange for maintaining and/or spreading their influence the templars are granted power over the said luminaries' Real Domains. The greater a luminary's influence the more Sumana can receive from the populace. The more Sumana a luminary receives the more power it can wield over it's Real Domain.

All in all, it's more soft than hard. Think of templars as almost like paladins, though, the nature of the relation is contractual and not moral.