#World building

[connoisseursdecomfort]

The two wars in sxf

[Manga spoilers for ch.97]

...

...

...

The first war seemingly happened in roughly 40 years ago when Henderson was in his early twenties:

Ch.5 & 97

Westalis and Ostania signed the East-West Pact, but war broke out again about twenty some years ago.

Ch.62.1

It's most likely that [redacted]/Roland joined the second war between the nations. (Yor is 27 years old. Loid is most probably in his early 30s, if we assume that he and his friends were at least 18 when they reunited.)

Ch.62.2

And the second war ended officially more than a decade ago.

Ch.49

#world building #spy x family #sxf #spyxfamily #loid forger #yor forger #spy family #spy x family manga #henry henderson #martha marriott

[wbqotd]

Where do the people of your world dance? Are different styles danced in different locations?

#world building #worldbuilding #question of the day #writing prompts #the arts #leisure

[daisywords]

What are ur least favourite common plot holes

idk I'm not cinema sins so I don't really keep a list, but from off the top of my head:

there's a mega powerhouse religion controlling every aspect of society except no one actually seems to believe in that religion like at all. we just let them be in charge for kicks I guess.

a newborn is miraculously kept alive without breast milk or a functional substitute

society is very very sexist I promise but this female character just does and says whatever she wants with no repercussions. the other girls don't act like this only because they are stupid sheep

warrior society where everybody is a warrior. they all fight and kill each other all the time. (optional: they are cool and very sexy but it's still sooooo dangerous). somehow these people are managing to be a powerful and long-lasting society. there are so many of them, even though they kill each other all the time.

a character just happens to keep extremely important/relevant information from the protagonist until the right plot moment because they just "never asked"

I need to keep my special secret from my loved ones to protect them from danger, even when they are consistently shown to be endangered precisely by their lack of information

idk if these even count as plot holes though. And you can let a lot of things slide if you don't draw attention to them. but what bugs me is when an aspect of the plot/world has a lot of attention drawn to it to try and make things more dramatic/raise the stakes etc. Then it's like, okay well now I'm thinking about it because you keep talking about it

#asks #world building #fantasy writing #plot holes #hi anon! sorry looks like this was from a long time ago but I just happened to find it buried in my asks lol #but if you see this thanks for the fun question

[silentmagi]

Rising Star

Main Page

Welcome back friends, I’m glad you chose to stop back. Please pull up a seat and stay a while. Now, where were we? Ah yes, Star was getting more reading materials, and collected some scrolls. So we were going to see what was found. It was a four-way split.

1) Maps and Notes2) Spells and Notes3) Love LettersAnd 5) Let’s go check in with Luna!

I have rolled a d4 to pick the next step and it came up that we are going to check in with Luna. So time to see what is going on with the darling bard.

Sitting in the sunlit center of time, Luna’s fingers plucked at the strings as she continued playing for the good citizens. Her eyes danced with mirth as she saw them enjoying her music. But her eyes had been sharp and keen for the sight of her traveling companion. She had proven to be a masterful tale untold, one that Luna wanted to learn more about. It was almost adorable how much she protested not being the central figure in this story.

The refusal of the call to action was such a delightful element to the story and she wanted to see more about where it would lead. But also, she was taking her to Castledale, the heart of the kingdom’s knowledge and power. There were bound to be secrets galore she could glean from being there.

This little quest was going nicely, and she only felt sorrow at the prospect of it ending. 

Strumming out a playful little tune for the children to dance and play to, she reflected on that. Why was this such a change of her usual pace? What could be the cause for this sense of loss?

Why did she want to see Star smile in victory so much?

There was more of a story to her disinterest in just the tale to tell that she had been trying to avoid thinking about, something that was growing harder and harder with each passing moment. The way she lit up about her studies, the scrunching of her nose at the prospect of plodding through the mud and the muck, and she had a nice singing voice that she shared with her, something she felt was rare and she was gifted with it.

Pausing between songs, she stilled with her hand gripping her cup as a thought occurred to her. If this was a story she was telling, she would suggest the bard was smitten with the cute little wizard.

Oh, this was a problem she would have to work out. She didn’t want to be tied down, and she couldn’t tell if Star was welcome to a more open situation. She would have to talk with her about this. Finishing her break, she flexed her hand and looked at the crowd to judge their mood before picking a song to play for them.

This time she decided to take inspiration from her thoughts and began a love ballad, one about two ancient deities searching the heavens for each other, and their silly adventures. She watched as the audience laughed and sang along with the refrain. It was a good one to end the show on, and then she could go get the meal at the inn.

#Story #My Writing #Rising Star #My Polls #Star #World Building #Please Participate #Star Main

[justgottafinishthischapter]

This came across my Facebook feed, felt I’d share it.

#worldbuilding #Fantasy Writing #fantasy map #world building #fantasy worldbuildiung

[animentality]

#twitter #writing #writers on tumblr #spilled ink #world building #writing prompt

[reeddraws]

Daily drawing 1531: Whatever magics created the landmark sword, keep it to this day. Only wear from a long forgotten battle marks the blade, Time bearing no power over the strange metal. But to whatever end the sword was forged, Time has claimed its rightful position of being the sole keeper of that memory.

#digital art #procreate #artist #illustration #artists on tumblr #landscape art #landscape #original art #fantasy #fantasy landscape #sword #world building

[victusinveritas]

#big oil memes #dinosaur necromancy #dnd memes #world building

[cireks]

You're drunkenly stumbling home one night and from the duckboards through the booze haze you see the most scrumptious ass teasingly glide away deeper into the dark swamp. You follow, legs getting heavier and orientation more difficult by each step.

How many times that scenario has played out in Ditovo is not easy to calculate but it's likely not zero. The more sober locals will tell you that the slamreta, also known as "harlot of the lake", is not a malicious creature, it wants nothing to do with you in fact. This animal uses inflatable sacs on its hind legs to float on the water's surface perfectly still as it looks for fish or other small things to eat. It hunts using its sharp vision and plunges its long neck to reach prey. It's long tail is curled up to act as a stabilizing anchor. At sign of danger the slamreta can deflate the hind leg sacs to dive and swim away. It spends most of its time in water and will build a nest in-between reeds or other shore vegetation.

#pls don't bother him he just wants to fish #original species #worldbuilding #world building #creature design #fantasy species #fantasy animal #fauna

[heavenlyraindrops]

World Building Checklist

Have you ever started writing a story and realized your world has a bunch of unexplained shit and you have to fill in the gaps as you go? Me too, buddy. Me too. Here’s a checklist so that you can fully flesh out your world to the max. (I’m dying)

How does Time work? (Minutes, hours, days, the daylight cycle, years, ect.)

Species (if Fantasy. Will probably make another post on this.)

Countries, Nations, Tribes, ect. (nationalities/ races. Will probably make another post on this.)

The geography of the world (draw a map. Doesnt have to be good. Just for a general idea.)

Rivalries between races (includes prejudice, racism, ect.)

Religions

Technology

The Magic system. (Will probably make a whole other post on this.)

animals, plants, ect.

The sky: Sun, Moon(s), Stars, Constellation, Are there rings? (If the planet has rings)

Educations system

Government system

Politics

Methods of transport (Vehicles)

Medicine

Can’t really think of anything else. If you have more to add then reblog and add to the list! :) bye bee

#writing advice #how to write #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writing #writeblr #world #world building #fantasy worldbuilding #fantasy writing #fantasy tips #Fantasy world building tips #Writing tips #HEAVENLYRAIN’S WRITING TIPS

[dykepuffs]

How Do I Make My Fictional Gypsies Not Racist?

(Or, "You can't, sorry, but…")

You want to include some Gypsies in your fantasy setting. Or, you need someone for your main characters to meet, who is an outsider in the eyes of the locals, but who already lives here. Or you need a culture in conflict with your settled people, or who have just arrived out of nowhere. Or, you just like the idea of campfires in the forest and voices raised in song. And you’re about to step straight into a muckpile of cliches and, accidentally, write something racist.

(In this, I am mostly using Gypsy as an endonym of Romany people, who are a subset of the Romani people, alongside Roma, Sinti, Gitano, Romanisael, Kale, etc, but also in the theory of "Gypsying" as proposed by Lex and Percy H, where Romani people are treated with a particular mix of orientalism, criminalisation, racialisation, and othering, that creates "The Gypsy" out of both nomadic peoples as a whole and people with Romani heritage and racialised physical features, languages, and cultural markers)

Enough of my friends play TTRPGs or write fantasy stories that this question comes up a lot - They mention Dungeons and Dragons’ Curse Of Strahd, World Of Darkness’s Gypsies, World Of Darkness’s Ravnos, World of Darkness’s Silent Striders… And they roll their eyes and say “These are all terrible! But how can I do it, you know, without it being racist?”

And their eyes are big and sad and ever so hopeful that I will tell them the secret of how to take the Roma of the real world and place them in a fictional one, whilst both appealing to gorjer stereotypes of Gypsies and not adding to the weight of stereotyping that already crushes us. So, disappointingly, there is no secret.

Gypsies, like every other real-world culture, exist as we do today because of interactions with cultures and geography around us: The living waggon, probably the archetypal thing which gorjer writers want to include in their portrayals of nomads, is a relatively modern invention - Most likely French, and adopted from French Showmen by Romanies, who brought it to Britain. So already, that’s a tradition that only spans a small amount of the time that Gypsies have existed, and only a small number of the full breadth of Romani ways of living. But the reasons that the waggon is what it is are based on the real world - The wheels are tall and iron-rimmed, because although you expect to travel on cobbled, tarmac, or packed-earth roads and for comparatively short distances, it wasn’t rare to have to ford a river in Britain in the late nineteenth century, on country roads. They were drawn by a single horse, and the shape of that horse was determined by a mixture of local breeds - Welsh cobs, fell ponies, various draft breeds - as well as by the aesthetic tastes of the breeders. The stove inside is on the left, so that as you move down a British road, the chimney sticks up into the part where there will be the least overhanging branches, to reduce the chance of hitting it.

So taking a fictional setting that looks like (for example) thirteenth century China (with dragons), and placing a nineteenth century Romanichal family in it will inevitably result in some racist assumptions being made, as the answer to “Why does this culture do this?” becomes “They just do it because I want them to” rather than having a consistent internal logic.

Some stereotypes will always follow nomads - They appear in different forms in different cultures, but they always arise from the settled people's same fears: That the nomads don't share their values, and are fundamentally strangers. Common ones are that we have a secret language to fool outsiders with, that we steal children and disguise them as our own, that our sexual morals are shocking (This one has flipped in the last half century - From the Gypsy Lore Society's talk of the lascivious Romni seductress who will lie with a strange man for a night after a 'gypsy wedding', to today's frenzied talk of 'grabbing' and sexually-conservative early marriages to ensure virginity), that we are supernatural in some way, and that we are more like animals than humans. These are tropes where if you want to address them, you will have to address them as libels - there is no way to casually write a baby-stealing, magical succubus nomad without it backfiring onto real life Roma. (The kind of person who has the skills to write these tropes well, is not the kind of person who is reading this guide.)

It’s too easy to say a list of prescriptive “Do nots”, which might stop you from making the most common pitfalls, but which can end up with your nomads being slightly flat as you dance around the topics that you’re trying to avoid, rather than being a rich culture that feels real in your world.

So, here are some questions to ask, to create your nomadic people, so that they will have a distinctive culture of their own that may (or may not) look anything like real-world Romani people: These aren't the only questions, but they're good starting points to think about before you make anything concrete, and they will hopefully inspire you to ask MORE questions.

First - Why are they nomadic? Nobody moves just to feel the wind in their hair and see a new horizon every morning, no matter what the inspirational poster says. Are they transhumant herders who pay a small rent to graze their flock on the local lord’s land? Are they following migratory herds across common land, being moved on by the cycle of the seasons and the movement of their animals? Are they seasonal workers who follow man-made cycles of labour: Harvests, fairs, religious festivals? Are they refugees fleeing a recent conflict, who will pass through this area and never return? Are they on a regular pilgrimage? Do they travel within the same area predictably, or is their movement governed by something that is hard to predict? How do they see their own movements - Do they think of themselves as being pushed along by some external force, or as choosing to travel? Will they work for and with outsiders, either as employees or as partners, or do they aim to be fully self-sufficient? What other jobs do they do - Their whole society won’t all be involved in one industry, what do their children, elderly, disabled people do with their time, and is it “work”?

If they are totally isolationist - How do they produce the things which need a complex supply chain or large facilities to make? How do they view artefacts from outsiders which come into their possession - Things which have been made with technology that they can’t produce for themselves? (This doesn’t need to be anything about quality of goods, only about complexity - A violin can be made by one artisan working with hand tools, wood, gut and shellac, but an accordion needs presses to make reeds, metal lathes to make screws, complex organic chemistry to make celluloid lacquer, vulcanised rubber, and a thousand other components)

How do they feel about outsiders? How do they buy and sell to outsiders? If it’s seen as taboo, do they do it anyway? Do they speak the same language as the nearby settled people (With what kind of fluency, or bilingualism, or dialect)? Do they intermarry, and how is that viewed when it happens? What stories does this culture tell about why they are a separate people to the nearby settled people? Are those stories true? Do they have a notional “homeland” and do they intend to go there? If so, is it a real place?

What gorjers think of as classic "Gipsy music" is a product of our real-world situation. Guitar from Spain, accordions from the Soviet Union (Which needed modern machining and factories to produce and make accessible to people who weren't rich- and which were in turn encouraged by Soviet authorities preferring the standardised and modern accordion to the folk traditions of the indigenous peoples within the bloc), brass from Western classical traditions, via Balkan folk music, influences from klezmer and jazz and bhangra and polka and our own music traditions (And we influence them too). What are your people's musical influences? Do they make their own instruments or buy them from settled people? How many musical traditions do they have, and what are they all for (Weddings, funerals, storytelling, campfire songs, entertainment...)? Do they have professional musicians, and if so, how do those musicians earn money? Are instrument makers professionals, or do they use improvised and easy-to-make instruments like willow whistles, spoons, washtubs, etc? (Of course the answer can be "A bit of both")

If you're thinking about jobs - How do they work? Are they employed by settled people (How do they feel about them?) Are they self employed but providing services/goods to the settled people? Are they mostly avoidant of settled people other than to buy things that they can't produce themselves? Are they totally isolationist? Is their work mostly subsistence, or do they create a surplus to sell to outsiders? How do they interact with other workers nearby? Who works, and how- Are there 'family businesses', apprentices, children with part time work? Is it considered 'a job' or just part of their way of life? How do they educate their children, and is that considered 'work'? How old are children when they are considered adult, and what markers confer adulthood? What is considered a rite of passage?

When they travel, how do they do it? Do they share ownership of beasts of burden, or each individually have "their horse"? Do families stick together or try to spread out? How does a child begin to live apart from their family, or start their own family? Are their dwellings something that they take with them, or do they find places to stay or build temporary shelter with disposable material? Who shares a dwelling and why? What do they do for privacy, and what do they think privacy is for?

If you're thinking about food - Do they hunt? Herd? Forage? Buy or trade from settled people? Do they travel between places where they've sown crops or managed wildstock in previous years, so that when they arrive there is food already seeded in the landscape? How do they feel about buying food from settled people, and is that common? If it's frowned upon - How much do people do it anyway? How do they preserve food for winter? How much food do they carry with them, compared to how much they plan to buy or forage at their destinations? How is food shared- Communal stores, personal ownership?

Why are they a "separate people" to the settled people? What is their creation myth? Why do they believe that they are nomadic and the other people are settled, and is it correct? Do they look different? Are there legal restrictions on them settling? Are there legal restrictions on them intermixing? Are there cultural reasons why they are a separate people? Where did those reasons come from? How long have they been travelling? How long do they think they've been travelling? Where did they come from? Do they travel mostly within one area and return to the same sites predictably, or are they going to move on again soon and never come back?

And then within that - What about the members of their society who are "unusual" in some way: How does their society treat disabled people? (are they considered disabled, do they have that distinction and how is it applied?) How does their society treat LGBT+ people? What happens to someone who doesn't get married and has no children? What happens to someone who 'leaves'? What happens to young widows and widowers? What happens if someone just 'can't fit in'? What happens to someone who is adopted or married in? What happens to people who are mixed race, and in a fantasy setting to people who are mixed species? What is taboo to them and what will they find shocking if they leave? What is society's attitude to 'difference' of various kinds?

Basically, if you build your nomads from the ground-up, rather than starting from the idea of "I want Gypsies/Buryats/Berbers/Minceiri but with the numbers filed off and not offensive" you can end up with a rich, unique nomadic culture who make sense in your world and don't end up making a rod for the back of real-world cultures.

#worldbuilding #world building #fantasy races #racism in fiction #nomads #romani stuff

[spacebubblehomebase]

"A New Day Will Dawn."

-Said some guy named Luke probably.

Welcome to my #HHStargazersAU! Stay Tuned~♡? -Bubbly💙

#spacebubblearts #HHStargazersAU #hazbin hotel #chaggie #radioapple #lucifer x alastor #charlie x vaggie #queerplatonic #or not as long as you enjoy this really #hazbin alastor #lucifer morningstar #charlie morningstar #hazbin vaggie #human au #angel #demons #let me COOK #world building #hopefully this was worth it #if ya'll want more do please let me know #I need the motivation haha TvT #vaggie x charlie #alastor x lucifer #appleradio #duckydeer #duckiedeer #humor #mystery #we barely scratched the surface of this AU and I am gonna BURST if I don't share it with anyone else I swear to GOD- #You think you know what's gonna happen? Excuse me while I laugh behind your back for a second NO YOU DON'T XD

[wbqotd]

How long does the average couple in your world know each other before getting engaged and then married?

#worldbuilding #world building #question of the day #writing prompt #relationships #marriage

[sas-soulwriter]

What to give a fuck about,while writing your first draft!

I`ve posted a list about things you don´t need to give a fuck about while writing your first draft. Here are things you NEED TO CARE about! (in my opinion)

Your Authentic Voice: Don't let the fear of judgment or comparison stifle your unique voice. I know it´s hard,but try to write from your heart, and don't worry about perfection in the first draft. Let your authenticity shine through your words.

Your Story, Your Way: It's your narrative, your world, and your characters. Don't let external expectations or trends dictate how your story should unfold. Write the story you want to tell.

Progress Over Perfection: Your first draft is not the final product; it's the raw material for your masterpiece. Give a fuck about making progress, not achieving perfection. Embrace imperfections and understand that editing comes later.

Consistency and Routine: Discipline matters. Make a commitment to your writing routine and stick to it.

Feedback and Growth: While it's essential to protect your creative space during the first draft, be open to constructive feedback later on. Giving a f*ck about growth means you're willing to learn from others and improve your work.

Self-Compassion: Mistakes, writer's block, and self-doubt are all part of the process. Give a f*ck about being kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up if the words don't flow perfectly every time. Keep pushing forward and remember that writing is a journey.

Remember, the first draft is your canvas, your playground. Don't bog yourself down with unnecessary worries.

#writing #writblr #writing advice #writers block #just writer things #creative writing #fanfiction writing #writing motivation #writeblr #original writing #writing reference #writing tips #writers on tumblr #writing resources #writing tip #writing encouragement #writing community #writers #world building #point of view #editing #character creation #dialogue #mine. #words #writingtips #writingadvice

[froggypurse2003]

#world building #fantasy world #dnd #dnd memes #d&d memes #d&d #for the love of god please let me sleep

[prompt-heaven]

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawn shop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

wind mill

wishing well

wizard tower

#worldbuilding #setting prompts #writer resources #writing inspiration #writing prompts #scene settings #writing reference #writing ideas #prompt list #creative writing #writing community #writer prompts #writing tips #world #fantasy world #fantasy worldbuilding #high fantasy #world building #epic fantasy #writing fantasy