#urban fantasy wizard school

[lets-get-ready-to-ramble]

Do you think in like, an urban fantasy setting, with a modern lab and chemistry knowledge you could brew super specific potions? Imagine getting a C on your lab final for Potions 238 because you didn’t balance your equation correctly and accidentally added 4 mols of salamander blood when you only needed 2. You lose points for incorrect titration, leading your potion of invisibility to last 10 minutes instead of 20. Would you treat each magical component as its own element/ compound or would you have to break it down into organic molecules? What does “enchanted” MEAN in terms of reactance!!! These are the real questions!!

#ngl might write this actually #urban fantasy wizard school #but like #science magic setup #brought to you by me struggling to study for finals and realizing wizard college students would also be struggling #despite magic there’s always a deep level of stuff to study #writing prompt #writing #fantasy #writeblr #urban fantasy #college #chemistry

[ardentmystacina]

Wizard School - Werewolf Lore

Werewolves are prone to different kinds of medical conditions which can result in the symptom of 'rampaging across the countryside as a terrifying man-wolf' and they all have treatments and medications.

The most common werewolf illness is an inability to absorb enough moonlight to fully transform, resulting in partially transformed man-wolves running on partial sapience and stress hormones.

When a werewolf transforms properly they have a wolf body with wolf instincts and no access to thumbs. And even when kept in strange, unfamiliar locations a fully transformed werewolf is less aggressive and more easily managed.

After all, to keep a fully transformed werebeast contained you only need to provide food, treats, and enough stimulus to stay entertained and not try escape from wherever they're staying for the full moon. Meat-stuffed gourds go down a treat!

Thus, the most common medications for werewolves are moonlight supplements. Which can be consumable potions or enchanted objects kept on their person.

It's like anaemia, just usually more furry. There can be a lot of causes, but the specific ailment is easily managed.

The second most common medication for werewolves is allergy medication - because, like with lactose intolerant people, a lot of them aren't going to stop eating something tasty just because it makes them sick.

#werewolves #my writing #misc #urban fantasy #fantasy #sci fi & fantasy #fantasy setting #Wizard School

[hallowgracie]

The Anouir Institute is located on an island beyond the iconic arches of the Dragonsgate Bridge, one of many dotting the long coastline of Ventura Sound. The island once belonged to the Anouir family, a now-extant lineage of witches who were known for their impressive command of alchemy and the creation of legendary magical artifacts. The mansion they once lived in is now where the Anouir Institute holds their classes as a premier academy for the magical arts. 

The Anouir family mansion was converted into a school by the last Anouir to live on the island, as he vowed to never have children and to let the family name die out. The reason why, he never stated, but some wonder if the reason has to do with the prominence of hurricanes around the island. After all, it is known that nature will lash out if its magic is misused. One wonders what blood lies in the secret passages and rumored labyrinth beneath the school that led to such a violent backlash from the very world?

The hurricanes have become less frequent over the last two-hundred years, as the Anouir family fades further into obscurity.

The campus consists of the Big House where the classes and meals are served, the extensive gardens, and the dormitories. There are the general dormitories, which has been remodeled and built upwards recently into a skyscraper. Then there is the pavilion known as the Coven Center, where the coven houses are located. Once a student joins a coven, they have the option of taking a room in the coven houses, similar to fraternities, sororities, and other societies in American colleges and universities. 

Another area of interest is in the ruins of previous versions of the Anouir Estate, which were destroyed by the ever-present hurricanes. Students often explore it, and administration will turn a blind eye, as it is a good test for students to apply their magical skills practically. There are rumors that hidden in these ruins are entrances to the secret labs and labyrinth that hold the greatest artifacts ever made by the Anouir family, a source of great power. Many have tried to excavate and find them—but none have succeeded. 

It’s generally considered a safe, good school to send young witches to study at. Or it was. 

Twenty-four years ago, there were a string of murders of several powerful young students. No one ever discovered who killed them, or why. The only hints lie in the one survivor of the bloodshed—Julien Frey.

And he has his own reasons for keeping quiet.

#house of apocalypse #writeblr #worldbuilding #magical schools #magic schools #magical boarding school #wizard school #witch school #urban fantasy #fantasy world #high fantasy

[physalian]

What No One Tells You About Writing Fantasy

Every author has their preferred genres. I love fantasy and sci-fi, but began with historical fiction. I hated all the research that historical fiction demands and thought, if I build my own world, no research required.

Boy, was I wrong.

So to anyone dipping their toe into fantasy/sci-fi, here’s seven things I wish I knew about the genres before I committed to writing for them.

1. You still have to research. Everything.

If you want any of your fantasy battle sequences, or your space ships, or your droids and robots, or your fictional government and fictional politics to read at all believable.

In sci-fi, you research astronomy, robotics, politics, political science, history, engineering, anthropology. In fantasy, you have to research historical battle tactics, geography, real-world mythology, folklore, and fairytales, and much of it overlaps with science fiction.

I say you *have to* assuming you want your work to be original and unique and stand out from the crowd. Fanfic writers put in the research for a 30k word smut fic, you can and will have to research for your original work.

2. Naming everything gets exhausting

I hate coming up with new names, especially when I write worlds and places divorced from Earthly customs and can’t rely on Earthly naming conventions. You have to name all your characters, all your towns, villages, cities, realms, kingdoms, planets, galaxies, star systems.

You have to name your rebel faction, your imperial government, significant battles. Your spaceships, your fantasy companies and organizations, your magic system, made-up MacGuffins, androids, computer programs. The list goes on and on and on.

And you have to do it all without it sounding and reading ridiculous and unpronounceable, or racist. Your fantasy realms have to have believable naming patterns. It. Gets. Exhausting.

3. It will never read like you’re watching a movie

Do you know how fast movies can cut between scenes? Movies can balance five plotlines at once all converging with rapid edits, without losing their audience. Sometimes single lines of dialogue, or single wordless shots are all a scene gets before it cuts. If you try to replicate that by head-hopping around, you will make a mess.

It’s perfectly fine to write like you’re watching a movie, but you can’t rely on visual tricks to get your point across when all you have is text on a page – like slow mo, lens flares, epically lit cinematic shots, or the aforementioned rapid edits.

It doesn’t have to, nor should it, look like a movie. Books existed long before film, so don’t let yourself get caught up in how ~cinematic~ it may or may not look.

4. Your space opera will be compared to Star Wars and Star Trek

And your fairy epic will be compared to Tinkerbell, your vampires to Twilight, your zombies to The Walking Dead, Shaun of the Dead, World War Z. Your wizards and witches and any whisper of a fantasy school for fantasy children will be compared to Harry Potter. Your high fantasy adventure will be compared to Lord of the Rings.

You can’t avoid it, but you can avoid doing it to yourself. When people ask about your book, let them say “oh, you mean like Star Wars” to which you then can say, kind of, except XYZ happens in my book. These IPs will never fade from the public consciousness, not while you exist to read this post, at least, but Harry Potter isn’t the only urban fantasy out there. Lord of the Rings isn’t the only high fantasy. Star Wars isn’t the only space opera.

Yours will be on the shelves right next to them, soon enough, and who knows? You might dethrone them.

5. Your world-building is an iceberg, and your book is the tip

I don’t pay for any of those programs that help you organize your book and mythos. I write exclusively on Apple Notes, MS Word, and Google Suite (and all are free to me). I have folders on Apple Notes with more words inside them than the books they’re written for.

If you try to cram an entire college textbook’s worth of content into your novel, you will have left zero room for actual story. The same goes for all the research you did, all the hours slaving away for just a few details and strings of dialogue.

There’s a balance, no matter how dense your story is. If you really want to include all those extra details, slap some appendices at the end. Commission some maps.

6. The gatekeeping for fantasy and sci-fi is still very real

Pen names and pseudonyms exist for a reason. A female author writing fantasy that isn’t just a backdrop for romance? You have a harder battle ahead of you than your male counterparts, at least in the US. And even then, your female protagonist will be scrutinized and torn apart.

She’ll either be too girly or not girly enough, too sexy, or not sexy enough. She’ll be called a Mary Sue, a radical feminist mouthpiece, some woke propaganda. Every action she takes will be criticized as unrealistic and if she has fans who are girls, they will be mocked, too.

If you have queer characters, characters of color, they won’t be good enough, they won’t please everyone, and someone will still call you a bigot. A lot of someones will still call you a bigot.

Do your due diligence and hire your army of sensitivity readers and listen to them, but you cannot please everyone, so might as well write to please yourself. You’re the one who will have to read it a thousand times until it’s published.

7. Your “original” idea has been done before, and that’s okay

Stories have been told since before language evolved. The sum of the parts of your novel may be original, but even then, it’s colored by the media you’ve consumed. And that’s okay!

How many Cinderella stories are there? How many high fantasies? How many books about werewolves and witches and vampires? Gods and goddesses and celestial beings? Fairies and dragons and trolls? Aliens, robots, alien robots? Romeo and Juliette? Superheroes and mutants?

Zombies may be the avenue through which you tell your story, but it’s not *just* about zombies, is it? It’s about the characters who battle them, the endurance of the human spirit, or the end of an era, the death of a nation. So don’t get discouraged, everyone before you and everyone after will have written someone on the backs of what came before and it still feels new.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #fantasy #scifi #writeblr #what no one tells you about writing

[anim-ttrpgs]

"All our projects" so there's other ANIM projects in production? anything you're able to talk about?

Yes, we plan to have a long-running career in the TTRPG space, and have several backburnered!

I’m just gonna rapid-fire these off the top of my head. We don’t know exactly which one of these is coming after Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is fully released, because it is actually our patreon subscribers that vote on that.

Mastadon(title pending)

Yes, this is intentionally misspelled though we might change that in the future in case it hinders search results and stuff. This is a world where dark fantasy and 90s retro-futurism collide, literally. Think of knights with machine guns, space marines with enchanted swords, high-calibre rounds leaving dents in mythril breastplates, and men-at-arms on cybernetic horses. In the distant future of 2016, a scientific experiment on a lunar research station opened a portal to another world. At the same time, in a dimension of sorcery and feudalism, a council of wizards opened a portal to another world, and explorers from each land found themselves in the same mysterious place.

Cultures and technologies have clashed and mixed in these mysterious lands since. The PCs are mercenaries, taking odd, usually violent, jobs to get by.

Gameplay-wise it’s largely a combat-focused dungeon crawler emulating retro-FPS combat in TTRPG form, with an emphasis on making every type of gun feel totally unique by tying them to entirely different dice mechanics, which in turn makes warriors using these guns strategize entirely differently.

Bone Grinder

Bone Grinder is a “dumber” game, but still with an emphasis on combat. It has a notably more punk and metal aesthetic. Imagine a rocker with a mohawk and leather jacket killing a demon with an axe guitar that is also actually an axe. One of the core mechanics is that players will “bone” the game master by “throwing the bones” at them, which means literally trying to hit them with dice. A successful hit will add a bonus to whatever dice roll comes up when the thrown die lands. When it is the monsters’ turns, the game master will throw that same die right back at them. So if you throw a D6, that’s a D6 attack coming back at your PC next turn. If you throw a D20, that’s a D20 attack coming back at your character next right, so you better make it count, better kill ‘em in one shot!

(We recommend using plastic dice for this one, no metal dice!)

Death Bed

This is another working title, and it is a very serious attempt to emulate Dark Souls and Dark Souls style combat in a turn-based TTRPG in response to the abysmal Dark Souls: The Role-Playing Game that was just a lazy D&D5e book.

This game will be a bit more OSR-y, with D20 roll-under mechanics like old-school D&D for skill checks, and very simple attack determinants. It will have an emphasis on predicting enemy movement, stamina management, and choice between blocking or dodging attacks. It will also feature a system whereby the PCs are not permanently dead after being killed, but do “hollow” after each death. There are several stages of hollowing, each with downsides and upsides. Fully alive PCs will be more nimble, alert, and powerful, but stand out more to mindless hollow enemies, drawing more aggro. More hollowed PCs will have stat debuffs, but hollows are less likely to attack other hollows, giving them less aggro priority. Of course, if a PC dies too many times without restoring their life force, they will become a mindless hollow themselves, becoming an enemy that the party must slay if they want to recover that PC’s equipment.

Untitled Mushroom Game

A working title of course. This game takes a lot of inspiration from the earlier Paper Mario games, and like Bone Grinder, it will have actual physical things you can do with the dice to gain bonuses to your characters’ attacks, which is meant to emulate the “action commands” from Paper Mario in TTRPG format. One example would be building a larger dice pool for an attack based on how many D6s you can stack into a tower before they fall down, with the tower falling down constituting the rolling of the dice.

Eureka Adventure Modules Vol. 2

(Vol. 1 is the set of adventure modules that are coming with the Kickstarter.) Eureka fully releasing won’t mean we’re done with it. We plan to support all of our games for as long a time as possible with new adventure modules and other supplements. (But expect the other supplements to be very cheap if not outright free. We don’t want to make Eureka a game where you have to buy 15 $50 books just to have the full experience.) This will be a set of 5, 10, maybe more pre-written adventure modules for use with Eureka. For a few teasers, one of our ideas features the PCs getting stranded in the Mojave desert, one of them features the PCs getting trapped in underground drainage tunnels with a mysterious creature stalking them, and more horrifying mysteries.

The Eureka Mobster Manual

Another working title, but it’s pretty catchy. This will act as a “monster manual” for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, featuring prémisse stats and GMing advice mundane NPCs like cops, mafia enforcers, hapless bystanders, etc. and also actual monsters, both human and inhuman. One of the monsters I am most excited about introducing is actual demons. Not just some red guy with horns, in fact they’re likely to be completely invisible. I know this term gets thrown around a lot by people who don’t know what it means, but in Eureka demons will be more “biblically accurate.” Think more The Exorcist and less DOOM. A demon doesn’t want to go “blahrarawa!” and kill you, a demon wants to gradually talk you into killing yourself. This also may feature additional playable monsters, such as the gorgon and dullahan(Kickstarter stretch goals for the main rulebook that I don’t think we’re going to meet unfortunately), plus others if we can come up with more.

Overdose

A working title again. This will be a large collection of “drag-and-drop” tactical combat encounters for Eureka, for when a GM needs a fleshed out and challenging final showdown between the PCs and the bad guy goons. These will feature plenty of cover, alternate routes, and “woo roll elements”(stuff that can get knocked over, exploded, destroyed, etc. by stray bullets, thereby changing the environment in exciting and unexpected ways.). All of this is so that the GM doesn’t have to come up with all the complexities of a good Eureka combat encounter on the fly.

That’s about all I can think of right now. After Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is fully released and the dust is settled, we will hold a vote with out patreon subscribers to find out what the fans most want us to work on next.

However, all of these things that I have mentioned are in a very raw state of completion, or even just in the idea stage. If you want to see all these projects, and more, release in the coming years, then RPG-making needs to be a long-term viable career for us. I, personally, am disabled and have a very hard time finding regular, sustainable work at “real jobs,” so this is especially important for my financial future. It’s about the only (marketable) skill I’m good at, and it’s something I enjoy doing, so I’m making this push now for my future.

The best way you can make this a viable long-term career for us is to support the Eureka Kickstarter (only 24-hours left at the time of posting this), buy our games, and subscribe to our Patreon.

The more successful the Kickstarter is, not only does more art and stuff get added to the Eureka rulebook and adventure modules, but the more buzz it generates, and the more buzz it generates the more journalistic support and more financial support we get. Even if it’s just for charity purposes to help me pay future bills when I can’t hold a normal job, pledging $10 is enough to get your name in the Eureka rulebook, and if you can’t give anything, we totally understand—we’d rather you put food on your table than go broke supporting our dreams. If you can share the Kickstarter to discord servers and the like in the last 24 hours of its crowdfunding window, or just share news of the game with people after the Kickstarter closes, that is a huge huge help on its own.

We, and especially I, am thankful beyond my ability to express in words for how much support the Kickstarter has already gotten, and the patreon subscribers whose support paid for all of our advertising budget to get Eureka as well-known as it is. This is a project of extremely professional scope and calibre, and I’m proud to say that we probably shouldn’t have been able to pull it off with as small a team as we are, we’re just that talented and persistent, but no matter how talented or persistent we are, it is the fans and supporters that make it possible for us to pursue a creative career. Thank you all.

24 hours left on the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Kickstarter, crowdfunding closes at 2:00 PM CST on Friday, May 10th! That’s mid-day tomorrow! Please support it while you still can! If you’re reading this after the Kickstarter has closed, you can support us through ko-fi or patreon, and if you’re a $5 subscriber or more to our patreon, you will get regular PDFs of increasingly finished beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and its adventure modules as we continue to work on finishing it using the Kickstarter money.

You can also help us by checking out our merchandise!

If you just want to play, you don’t have to pay. You can get a beta PDF of the Eureka rulebook plus character sheets and adventure modules FOR FREE from our website or itch.io page.

Join our TTRPG Book Club We nominate, vote on, and split into groups (based on schedule compatibility) differnt indie games, then discuss, just like a book club! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

#suicide #eureka: investigative urban fantasy #ttrpg #eureka #rpg #roleplaying #tabletop #monsters #mastadon #death bed #untitled mushroom game #overdose #adventure module #bone grinder #quake #doom #doom 2 #metal #punk #punk rock #paper mario #super mario rpg #mario #mario bros #super mario #indie rpg #indie games #indie ttrpgs #ttrpgs #ttrpg community

[mbrainspaz]

Came across your Harry Potter alternative for adults. Do you you have any recommendations for kids?

The Bartimaeus sequence would be ok for older kids. There isn't much with the same potential for fandom. A lot of YA series are shorter and less well developed because publishers just wanted to blast them onto the market and get some of that sweet JKR money. That's why you get so many crappy cash grabs that devolve into brain melting nonsense after 2-3 books like the Michael Vey series, Gone, Maze Runner, and Lorien Legacies.

Here are some short series that aren't much like Harry Potter but that I liked as a kid around the same time I liked Harry Potter:

Percy Jackson (obviously. If any YA series could take on Harry Potter in terms of scope and fandom it's probably this one. Kid with ADHD discovers he's actually a demi-god and has to go on adventures and battle monsters. The series racks up a hugely diverse cast over time.)

Airborn (alternate history with airships and lots of steampunk adventuring, made me more interested in engineering and zoology, and the series has a satisfying ending.) Airman (just a single book sadly, which I liked even after I'd outgrown the Artemis Fowl books and gotten annoyed by them. Young kids might prefer Artemis Fowl.)

LionBoy (All I remember is t's about a kid who has asthma and can talk to lions, but I liked it a lot in middle school.)

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (similar vibes to Airborn but it's set in an alternate history of WW1, the books also have some truly awesome illustrations)

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima (high fantasy so it's no Harry Potter, but the main character is an urchin who becomes a wizard, so...) Her urban fantasy series The Warrior Heir is also good but pretty much revolves around human trafficking and an ancient blood feud.

Pendragon (eh... this one is borderline cash grab while still being fun. It's a good series overall but the conclusion is a little eh. Local high school boy discovers he can travel to alternate realities and is destined to fight a very evil villain who I always thought was cooler than Voldemort)

Inkheart (a personal fave I first read at 12 and still like to re-read at 30. Magic system is a little whack but the story does a great job of presenting truly evil villains through a lens of childhood.) Funke also has the new ongoing series, Mirrorworld, about a guy who travels through mirrors into a fairytale world, but that one's a little more mature.

The Knife of Never Letting Go (sci-fi, kind of like a cooler Avatar. Don't watch the movie. Very creatively written book with serious themes of imperialism, fascism, and misogyny—but in a way that kids can enjoy.)

Ranger's Apprentice (another kind of eh one in retrospect. Good for younger kids. Has some great characters but does devolve into a bit of a cash grab in later books. Harshest criticism is that the characters drink an unreasonable amount of coffee.)

I'll end on

City of Masks by Mary Hoffman (this one is a hidden gem. Urban fantasy but it's weirdly obsessed with Italian City-States. Long-ish series with a diverse cast and great recurring characters. It favors political intrigue over the magic system. Book 1 has themes of struggling with terminal illness and loss, but each book in the series introduces a new main character with a new personal struggle to overcome.)

#ya book rec #YA books #reading list #books to read instead of harry potter #good books #ya cash grab #mbrainspaz replies

[mylordshesacactus]

LOVE, WATER, FIRE

What is your best writing advice?

"Show don't tell" doesn't mean what you think it does. Learn it better, and free yourself from a half-understood mnemonic.

When you show, you slow. Learn THAT one backward and forward as well; it won't fix pacing issues overnight, but it'll help you understand what causes them.

Writing fanfiction? Go back to the source material FREQUENTLY, or you'll lose all sense of the characters and end up writing someone unrecognizable.

If you struggle to block out action sequences, genuine advice? Think in terms of combat rounds in D&D. Not literally, of course, nobody should be taking rigorous turns, but: Play out the action in your head. If six seconds have gone by, everyone in this sequence should have done something. That thing could be charging into melee range--noting that this extra combatant is running toward the fight but hasn't gotten there yet. It could be reloading a weapon. It could be clutching their side in shock and wheezing. They don't need to be Selecting A Combat Action, but fight scenes become incoherent when you lose track of who's doing what. When you forget about Goon #3 and then have him show up again doing something that doesn't remotely track with where you last left him. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO INCLUDE THEM IN THE NARRATION if they're not important! If two seconds ago your protagonist kicked a guy off the dock, we can safely assume they'll spend at least the next several "combat rounds" climbing back out. But at any given moment, YOU should know where everyone is, what they're doing, and why.

But most importantly:

Anyone purporting to give The End-All Be-All Writing Advice is either delusional or a scam. Yes, including or perhaps especially famous bestselling authors. What works for them won't necessarily work for you, and there are plenty of people who don't even like their work. You're never going to be whoever's advice you try to mimic. Write your stuff, not theirs.

Do you prefer urban fantasy or high fantasy?

Yes!

Genuinely though. They're both good and they both serve their respective narratives in some way. In general I'm more drawn to high fantasy, personally, but I'm never not going to be interested in a well-done urban fantasy.

Pedantic nitpick though, these things are not the opposites they are being portrayed as. I think what the question was GOING for was actually "low vs high fantasy" which is a completely separate concept. Words mean things! But also, I'm not an ass, and the intent was pretty clear.

(High Fantasy: This story is set in a completely separate world from ours, with no crossover into our known and lived reality. ANY completely separate world, regardless of technology level! STAR WARS IS HIGH FANTASY. This is not an opinion, this is a genre fact.

Low Fantasy: The story is set partially in our world or includes crossover or other intrinsic connections to a realistic world that follows the same rules and expectations of our world. Isekai and portal fantasies like Narnia fall into this category, as do hidden-world/veiled-magic fantasies like the Bad Wizard Lady Books, Percy Jackson, and Artemis Fowl; and also a lot of true-anthropomorphic fiction like Watership Down, Warriors, etc. Note that "low fantasy" does NOT mean "gritty" fantasy or fantasy that focuses on the lower classes instead of nobles, nor does it mean a low-magic pseudo-medieval setting

Urban Fantasy: A story with fantasy tropes and themes that takes place in an urban setting. Can be low or high fantasy!)

What is the worst thing you've ever created?

Okay so this one time in high school me and my best friend Sam were trying to make lemon bars at his house and to this day we do NOT know what the hell ingredient we neglected to add to the lemon bars

but given the state of the results, there is a non-zero chance that the ingredient we forgot was flour.

#askmeme #not today satan I do not shittalk my work #i learn from it

[autolenaphilia]

Rip A.S. Byatt, one way to remember her is to read her excellent takedown of Harry potter, Harry Potter and the Childish Adult

it clarified for me why Harry Potter doesn't work as a fantasy, it lacks a sense of mystery to its world and magic. Instead magic is a tool, with mechanical rules, which drains it of almost all significance. In the climax, Harry literally takes down Voldemort by having a better understanding of the rules of magic. It's very boring.

At the time Byatt was dismissed as a snob who hates fantasy, but she praises a lot of children's fantasy writers like Ursula Le Guin and Susan Cooper, and has nothing but praise for "the great Terry Pratchett, whose wit is metaphysical, who creates an energetic and lively secondary world, who has a multifarious genius for strong parody as opposed to derivative manipulation of past motifs, who deals with death with startling originality. Who writes amazing sentences."

Some choice quotes:

"Auden and Tolkien wrote about the skills of inventing ''secondary worlds.'' Ms. Rowling's world is a secondary secondary world, made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature -- from the jolly hockey-sticks school story to Roald Dahl, from ''Star Wars'' to Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper....."

"Ms. Rowling's magic world has no place for the numinous. It is written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip. Its values, and everything in it, are, as Gatsby said of his own world when the light had gone out of his dream, ''only personal"....'

But in the case of the great children's writers of the recent past, there was a compensating seriousness. There was -- and is -- a real sense of mystery, powerful forces, dangerous creatures in dark forests. Susan Cooper's teenage wizard discovers his magic powers and discovers simultaneously that he is in a cosmic battle between good and evil forces. Every bush and cloud glitters with secret significance. Alan Garner peoples real landscapes with malign, inhuman elvish beings that hunt humans.

Reading writers like these, we feel we are being put back in touch with earlier parts of our culture, when supernatural and inhuman creatures -- from whom we thought we learned our sense of good and evil -- inhabited a world we did not feel we controlled. If we regress, we regress to a lost sense of significance we mourn for. Ursula K. Le Guin's wizards inhabit an anthropologically coherent world where magic really does act as a force. Ms. Rowling's magic wood has nothing in common with these lost worlds. It is small, and on the school grounds, and dangerous only because she says it is.

In this regard, it is magic for our time. Ms. Rowling, I think, speaks to an adult generation that hasn't known, and doesn't care about, mystery. They are inhabitants of urban jungles, not of the real wild. They don't have the skills to tell ersatz magic from the real thing, for as children they daily invested the ersatz with what imagination they had."

#a.s. byatt #jowling kowling

[worldanvil]

Fantasy Worldbuilding: Inverting the Tropes with Amanda Hamon & Gail Carriger

Welcome to a special Bonus Season! Enjoy these sessions from this year's Worldbuilding Con! 

No genre is more closely associated with Worldbuilding than fantasy. Unfortunately, this can create a temptation to “play the hits,” following established tropes at the cost of innovation. In this session, we’ll discuss how to subvert audience expectations and deliver a fantasy world that’s both satisfying and surprising. Join Janet and Worldbuilding Con guests Gail Carriger and Amanda Hamon as they discuss fantasy worldbuilding: 

What is a trope?

What is your favorite or most hated fantasy trope? 

What are the benefits of subverting or inverting a trope? 

What are the drawbacks of subverting or inverting a trope?

How can we identify and handle problematic tropes?

How can you deliver a surprising yet satisfying fantasy world?

When does a trope become a cliche?

Final advice

🎙️Speakers:

Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and millions of books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes book hugs - comedies of manners mixed with urban fantasy (and sexy queer joy as GL Carriger). She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea.

Amanda Hamon is a Senior Designer leading the production of Dungeons & Dragons books for Wizards of the Coast. An award-winning tabletop game designer, developer, writer, and editor, her work has appeared in dozens of releases from numerous publishers, including Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, and Kobold Press, and across many game systems, including D&D, Pathfinder, and Starfinder. The most recent title Amanda led is Wizards of the Coast’s Keys from the Golden Vault, an anthology of D&D heist adventures that released in February. She is the former Editorial Director for Kobold Press as well as the former managing developer and a co-creator of the Starfinder RPG by Paizo. She has appeared at dozens of events and on streams as a Game Master and player, and her weirdness knows no parallel. Amanda is absolutely not three opossums in a trench coat, though you can find her making screeching noises on Twitter at @amandahamon.

grab the latest podcast episode 👉

#worldbuilding #world building #worldbuilder #worldbuilders #world anvil #writing podcast #creative podcast #creator podcast #dnd #D&D

[satoshi-mochida]

REYNATIS launches September 27 in the west

From Gematsu

Urban fantasy action RPG REYNATIS will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam on September 27 in the west, publisher NIS America announced.

Pre-orders for the REYNATIS Limited Edition are available now via NIS America Online Store for $99.99. It includes a copy of the game, collector’s box, art book, acrylic art print, multi-panel art print, and the digipak original mini soundtrack.

In Japan, REYNATIS is due out for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Switch on July 25. The PC version will launch alongside the game’s global release.

NIS America also confirmed the game will include special crossover content featuring Square Enix‘s NEO: The World Ends With You, featuring characters, locations, and enemies from the game. If you missed it earlier, watch the trailer here.

Get the latest details below.

■ Characters

Owl

A support group for stray wizards founded by Michiro. Keeps radicalized vigilantes in check and imposes their own sanctions on troublesome matters that the law-abiding M.E.A. cannot control. The M.E.A. has placed them under surveillance as a dangerous organization. There are only a few members: Michiro, Moa, and Nika, who comes and goes as she pleases.

Michiro Kujirai (voiced by Soma Saito)

The founder of Owl, a group that supports stray wizards with no affiliation. He has a natural inclination to care for others, and looks out for the wizards and their families in Shibuya. —Michiro acts carefree and elusive but has strong convictions. He invites Marin, who seeks strength without concern for group affiliations, to join Owl.

Nika Meguro (voiced by Asaki Yuikawa)

An 18-year-old high school student and former member of the track team. She was on the verge of death due to being kidnapped, and awakened to become a wizard. Hiding this fact, she continued with her track and field career until her friend found out. Nika was forced to quit the club. Ever since, her attendance at school has been spotty. Nika has been helping Owl for a certain purpose, and met Marin by chance in Shibuya. —Nika’s combat style focuses on summoning magic. Her familiars can attack distant or airborne enemies.

Moa Fukamachi (voiced by Rina Kawaguchi)

A 20-year-old wizard. Michiro took her in when she was down in the dumps, so she’s been his biggest fan ever since. People often see her as a cheerful girl because of her bright and sunny persona, but in reality, she is prone to depression. As she must hide her identity as a wizard, she satisfies her need for approval by mumbling alone and upkeeping a private social media account with 0 followers. —Moa can change her umbrella into a hammer, granting her the ability to deliver devastating wide range attacks.

■ Wizart

Explore Shibuya to discover street art and acquire magic powers to become stronger —Find a variety of art throughout this realistic rendition of Shibuya. This type of art is a magical circle called wizart, which can grant you new magical abilities. —Gain new powers by finding and obtaining wizart scattered throughout Shibuya. —There are two types of wizart: Skills, which grant special abilities or magic, and Abilities, which enhance your stats. Some are shared with the entire party, while others are tailored to specific characters. They’ll give you an edge in battle, so it’s important to always be on the lookout for new wizart. —Your wizart can be upgraded using experience points gained in battle. Ability wizart can be upgraded for additional bonuses to stats, while Skill wizart upgrades augment the power, range, and scale of magic attacks. —An example of magic from a Skill wizart at Level 1 and max level. Max out your Skills to unleash astonishing power!

Watch a new set of gameplay videos below.

Hoodie Combat

Party

Wizart View

Skill Activation

Hoodie Exploration

Malice Level

Stress level

#REYNATIS #FuRyu #Natsume Atari #NIS America #RPG #Gematsu #Youtube

[staygoldsunshine]

your taste in posts is peak but I also saw your bio and am tempted to ask about the stories? writer/artist, please tell

Oh thanks! I changed my icon the other day and looked at my bio and decided I'm not above pleading with people to ask me about my OCs 👍

I've got 2-3 projects spinning right now, 2 of them that are further along and actually have plots. One is my take on wizard schools complete with academic hubris and necromantic hijinks. It's about my boy Vasily who would really rather study magic theory in a tall tower than deal with his personal problems, but that magical gifted kid burnout is killer (literally).

The other, which I'm currently poking at, is the story of what happens to the kids who stumble through the wardrobe after their magical kingdom is saved and doesn't know what to do with them anymore. Now my main character (let's call her Willa even though names are apt to change) is thirty and doesn't know how to solve problems without swinging a sword at them. It's basically my excuse to write about paladins and bards and urban fantasy all together in one weird pie.

But long story short, I just like talking about my stories. Thanks for asking!

#the yet unnamed wizard book #the threadbare chronicles

[i-am-a-scholar-of-magic]

Emerald Entrails As A Quidditch Team

Anyone who has followed the plot of “The Owl House” has certainly noticed that Dana Terrace and her crew like to reference and poke fun at the arguably definitive children’s urban fantasy series: Harry Potter. Frankly, it’s a given considering how influential the novels have been to the youth fantasy genre. 

Everything from overt homages like the Choosey Hat to the track colors subtly referencing Hogwarts houses, the show is chock full of nods if you look for them. 

One such reference was grudgby, a magical sport played at Hexside that served this role largely as a criticism of Quidditch – particularly the “rusty smidge” serving as a stand-in for the overpowered Golden Snitch and a target for criticism. However, season two introduced another magical sport that serves as a superior comparison to the famed “soccer on broomsticks”: flyer derby, Willow’s favored sport that served to introduce her and Gus to Hunter and form the fan-titled “Emerald Trio.”

Like Quidditch, flyer derby is played in the air on flying magical implements, though on palisman staffs rather than brooms. Both involve strategy that relies less on confrontation than grudgby, though flyer derby is more like capture-the-flag than soccer. 

At any rate, it has occurred to my rabbit-trail laden mind on a few occasions what would happen if the Boiling Isles and Wizarding Britain – particularly Hexside and Hogwarts – were introduced and played off of each other, and in no way is this more literal than wondering how the Emerald Entrails would play Quidditch. Which, finally, brought the question of how the Entrails would adapt to the roles and rules of the game. On one note for that, Quidditch requires seven players per team, and so I would think that Luz with Stringbean and Amity with Ghost would be called in as extra players. 

After a while, working my way backwards through the roles led me to a few satisfying conclusions. 

For the role of Seeker, I think Gus would be best-suited. He is described as a speed demon by Willow – very much crucial to catch the swift Snitch – and has shown great skill in flying in a hands-free style, one that greatly resembles Harry Potter himself in the first film as he wins his first match. The Keeper of the Looking-Glass Graveyard also strongly hinted that “powers of observation” are tantamount to a great illusionist, of which Gus is a known prodigy, that would serve in locating the Snitch to capture it. 

As for a backup Seeker, Hunter’s flash step or teleportation would serve best for speed. 

For the Keeper who guards the goalposts, a bit of thought brought Hunter to mind. Like the Seeker note above, Hunter’s reflexes and teleporting magic would serve marvelously in protecting the goalposts of the Entrails. 

For Beaters, whose role is to strike the flying and painful bludgers away from their team and toward the opposition, the physically strongest members of the entrails would be needed. Based on evidence, who else could that be but Captain Willow and Viney? Willow is drawn bulkier than other characters and has been shown on at least two occasions to work out in her free time. As for Viney, any girl who wrangles and holds back an angry griffin at least five times her size is anything but a weakling. 

Finally, the Chasers who handle the Quaffle, the most obvious tie to soccer or European football, would be left to the three remaining players: the strategic Skara, enthusiastic Luz, and the collected Amity. Given that Amity and Skara have played grudgby together and probably know each other very well, they would play nicely together. That doesn’t even get into Luz and amity’s closeness as romantic partners or Luz’s natural camaraderie that would mesh well with Skara’s affable nature. 

A true delight in being a fan of numerous fantastical series is the thought exercises of how they would blend together. From schools to sports, from ministries to coven systems, and from a cadaverous archipelago to a secret society upon the British Isles … They’re great stories with amazing settings and characters – which makes for a grand old time, eh?

Thanks for reading! More to come …!

#the owl house #worldbuilding #theorizing #analysis #urban fantasy #harry potter #quidditch #emerald entrails

[colormints-art]

"Witch's Hazel" chapter 7 'Träumerei, Op. 21' is out now on ao3!! 🐷🎻

Magic Realism/Urban Fantasy

Sleepy Bois Inc as Family

TommyInnit-centric

Hurt/Comfort

Modern Wizarding World and School that are not Harry Potter/Hogwarts

and more!

He remembered the day well. Wilbur had been a worried mess. "It was from that one duel everyone got into shittons of trouble for, right? Between Techno and—" Tommy thought for a moment. "—was it Dream?" The others nodded in confirmation. "I remember the police were involved."

Everyone grimaced at that.

Sapnap rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, you got it. That duel wasn't the greatest idea ever, in hindsight."

"Very illegal!" Karl chimed in, though his grin showed he wasn't too concerned with that aspect. "Started fun, though!"

Sapnap huffed. He looked at Quackity who was busy watching the ducklings running around in front of him with a pensive frown on his face before turning back to Tommy. His hand ran through the fur of his familiar. "So you don't know what exactly happened, do you?"

Tommy shook his head. "Techno never talked about it. At least not to me."

"Well, you're in for a treat then," Sapnap announced, clapping his hands together loud enough for the others to cringe and glance in the direction of the orchestra where a quiet piano solo was currently happening. "Because it wasn't Dream that caused the scar."

Leaning forward curiously, Tommy raised an eyebrow at the older boy. "No?"

#witch's hazel au #sleepy bois inc #bedrock bros #benchtrio #sleepy bois fanfic #sbi fanfic #benchtrio fanfic #dsmp fanfic #tommyinnit fanfic #technoblade fanart #tommyinnit #technoblade #philza #wilbur soot #mcyt #fanfiction #ao3 #this one has a lot of people #tubbo #ranboo #quackity #sapnap #georgenotfound #tinakitten #karl jacobs #dreamwastaken #and mystery man #oooOOOOoo

[krakkenchaos]

When people on here try to suggest alternatives to Harry Potter, they always seem to miss the point of why people like Harry Potter in the first place. I keep seeing recommendations for high fantasy series, but Harry Potter isn't high fantasy, it's a mix of urban fantasy and Isekai. People will recommend literature taking place on detailed fictional continents featuring intricate magic systems wielded by the bearded old fellows who are so wise, mysterious, and powerful they seem alien. The ABSENCE of all that is what made Harry Potter stand out despite very few of J.K. Rowling's ideas being particularly original. The entire appeal of the series is being able to imagine oneself as a character within it. Is that shallow? Maybe, but it's something that can and has made millions of people passionate about the art of storytelling. The Wizarding World is hidden parallel to the real world in modern times, not located on another plane of existence thousands of years ago. Wizards are scrawny teenagers with relationship drama, not reclusive old men residing atop labyrinthine towers on the cover of heavy metal albums. The magic school is just a more exciting version of a regular school. You don't have to like this approach, but there's merit and a proven appeal to it. There's a reason people still identify with their Hogwarts house.

Anyway, while I support the sentiment of offering alternatives to Rowling in light of her anti-trans crusade, it's not very effective when your suggestions have more in common with Tolkien.

#harry potter #jk rowling #fantasy literature #ya lit #books

[shouldprobablybereading]

Since I am on the topic of fate I think one of the biggest mistakes they did was make it urban fantasy

Like I get that they wanted to vibe with the wizard school lovers. But winx was always such obvious science fiction fantasy, literally both dragons and spaceships. You had girls flying around in magical girl transformations defeating people with the power of fairy dust while their boyfriends would swoop in on their flying motorbikes while wearing spandex suits. Not to mention the literal fairy of technology

Everything is supposed to be hightech while also being magical and wonderful, that’s the entire aesthetic!

#my other biggest issue is how they treated the friendships and the specialists in general #but I wrote an 8 page essay on that when the show came out #fate: the winx saga #winx club

[space-writes]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday!

How does day-to-day life in your world differ from our own? What chores do the people have to do? What don't they have to do? What conveniences do they have that we don't?

Hi Kai! happy (very belated) WBW!

in Valloroth things are for the most part (at present time of worldbuilding) Generic Fantasy Day To Day.

Magic is common enough to ease certain chores; in smaller settlements, if they have a witch (since they’re unlikely to have a studied wizard settled there), that witch can help with certain things, depending on what they’re good at. I think that especially in more rural areas, witches would end up functioning as healers/vets/farm-assists for the most part. Things that keep people alive and fed and safe.

In places, usually more urban, where there are one or more wizards, i think there’d be more magical infrastructure to reduce some chores, but not necessarily everywhere. Somewhere like Iaseri, the floating enclave owned by the Draconic Empire, i think has magical conveniences, but it also has a lot of kobolds and other non-Dracari servant classes taking care of them, because draconic wizards are far too busy to waste magical energy and prep on laundry. It’s very ivory-tower there. (also a lot of Dracari are very uhhh. think themselves superior to non-Dracarii. they’re literally made from the scales of a goddess, they have a bit of a complex about it.)

In terms of magical conveniences, since wizardry requires components, stuff like ‘magic candles’ for light I don’t think would be a huge thing, because you’d need a component for the spell anyway, which due to the sympathetic nature of magic in Valloroth, would end up being wax or oil or a wick or something anyway, so you might as well keep the candle tbh.

I should flesh it out more, because I want magic everywhere in this world, but I don’t want it to have a huge impact on every little part of life. That’s part of why I made magic common but magic-users less so. like yeah, anyone can go learn to be a wizard—if you have the money and ability to go to a wizard school, and to focus and learn. witches are born, but if you have no-one to teach you, you have to basically invent Using Magic by yourself whilst trying not to blow yourself up by accident.

And bards are so rare they usually don’t even realise they exist half the time. That’s why Zander’s such a Special Boy :p

Valloroth taglist: @cherrybombfangirlwrites @memento-morri-writes @foxboyclit @lawful-evil-novelist @at-thezenith @morganwriteblr @fayeiswriting @serenanymph @sam-glade (ask to be +/-)

#writeblr #worldbuilding wednesday #fantasy worldbuilding #i am a bit of a lazy worldbuilder i must be honest #magic does what i need it to do for the story #i have my rules and i just stick to those and invent whatever conveniences help my blorbos have a better and/or worse time #valloroth blogging #we're not talking about how long this was in my inbox TT_TT