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#fantasy character ideas
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Even though it's always very sad and fucked up, I really really like it when a character has to use some sort of ability or power that has an immense cost on the user and which will slowly (or quickly) kill them.
Like it's at that perfect point between the two circles of "wow cool" and "wow tragic" that makes me go wild and also probably also cry.
The crying is also definitely more likely to happen if the person using the life consuming power is using it to protect/help some people they care about while not being totally sure of if their sacrifice has actually helped.
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ratqu33n · 2 months
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kristen applebees is MY president
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probablybadrpgideas · 1 month
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Good wizard who, due to a mixup when applying for their courses, only learnt evil spells.
"Ok, I know we need to save the town, but all I know is Disintegrate Baby, Ray Of Misgendering and Mordenkainen's Needlessly Painful Death. So what strategy are we going for?"
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kleioscanvas · 8 months
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Beware the Reaching Moon
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ribbittrobbit · 6 months
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the ball bouncing around in his office
(not seen: any one of the bad kids or his mom, nodding along)
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yandere-writer-momo · 12 days
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Yandere Short Stories:
Limerence (Prequel)
Yandere Rebellion Leader x Princess Reader
TW: Yandere behaviors, mentions of past SA (on yandere’s part), murder, death, blood, a man slaughtering your entire family to be with you, etc
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(Your name) quietly sobbed into her knees, her body curled tightly into a ball on the floor of her closet. The loud screams of the servants ring out through the hallways. Not a single doubt in her mind that the castle staff were being slain like cattle by the rebel troops.
When did everything go wrong? Would she soon join the rest of the castle’s inhabitants when the troops inevitably found her? Would they be merciful or would they gut her like a fish?
(Your name) didn’t want to think about it too much… she just hoped her death would be quick and painless.
Crack! Slam! Her door was splintered apart with brute force that made the closet doors shake. (Your name) quickly covered her mouth before she screamed out in fear. She didn’t want to alert the intruder of her whereabouts…
(Your name)’s breath hitched when she spotted a pair of leather shoes that stood outside the closet door through the crack of the door. Oh god… this was it.
(Your name)’s arms flew up to shield her face but strong hands quickly moved her arms out of the way so soft lips could be lovingly pressed against her soft cheeks.
“It’s okay… it’s me.” A smooth voice hummed softly while he continued to pepper (your name)’s face in kisses. “It’s Adonis.”
(Your name) reluctantly peeked her eyes open to see if his words rang true. Adonis’s chocolate curls were wild and his sea foam green eyes were filled with admiration. This was indeed her handsome childhood friend who stood before her.
“A-Adonis?” (Your name)’s brow furrowed in confusion. Why on earth was her stepmother’s personal servant here and why did he press kisses all over her like she was his lover? Didn’t he belong to her stepmother?
Adonis hummed in reply, his actions failed to cease while his hands now cupped her cheeks. “Yes, darling. It’s me… I’m here to get you out of here.”
(Your name) was shocked to be pulled into a warm embrace. Adonis’s muscular body did little to soothe her nerves, quite contrary. Adonis’s hug felt like a cage.
“Where’s my stepmother-“ (your name) nearly squealed when Adonis nipped at her neck. An angry red mark now visible on her smooth skin. “Adonis, what was that for-“
“She’s not in the picture anymore.” Adonis inhaled deeply to try to calm himself before he lashed out any further from the mention of his despicable mistress. “She interfered in our relationship for far too long.”
Relationship? What was Adonis talking about?
“Adonis?” (Your name) then noticed the speckles of blood that covered his tan face in shock. Blood?! Adonis wasn’t bleeding so whose blood could that be… no. Did this mean Adonis betrayed the royal family?
No… Adonis had been with her family for over a decade. They grew up together! Adonis and her were always such good friends! So why would he slaughter her family in the name of love?
“I love when you say my name, darling.” Adonis bent down and pressed his full lips against yours in a tender peck. “We no longer have to worry about what others think. I abolished this unfair system.”
(Your name) felt tears run down her face as Adonis continued to ramble. His sea foam green eyes lit up with madness. “We don’t have to sneak around anymore! You and I can finally be together, the way we were always meant to be.”
Realization sunk into (your name) at Adonis’s words. Did he mean the moments the two of them would run into each other in the rose garden at night? The nights where she’d have nightmares of fire and death while he would be slipping out of her stepmother’s chambers? The times she’d sit beside him on the bench and listen to each other’s woes? Adonis and (your name) always had a friendship since they were children… to think he interpreted her kindness for love was astounding. What on earth made him think she loved him?
“I’m so happy to finally be free. I no longer have to touch that vile woman ever again.” Adonis gave you a bright smile. “You were my singing light through this entire ordeal of my servitude. Without you, I’d be so lost.”
Adonis pulled her towards the window of her tower to gesture to the various fires set ablaze on the castle she once called home. The same scenery she often saw in her nightmares have become a reality.
“I destroyed it all. You’ll no longer have nightmares and I’ll no longer have to be intimate with our enemy!” Adonis gave you a bright smile when he took your smaller hands in his large ones. “This is the biggest gesture I can give you to express my utmost feelings to you. I’d set the whole world ablaze if they opposed us. It doesn’t matter the extreme, because I’m willing to go to any length to be with you.”
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novaricewrites · 3 months
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Very tired of the shadowy/darkness-themed brooding male love interests in fantasy romance books. Especially the ones where the character revolves heavily around sex / sexualization.
This is especially irritating when they are 'healed' or complete as people because they are dating the protag. Seriously. It just promotes that toxic 'You can fix him with love' concept. This is such an inherently harmful message.
Not saying those kind of broody characters shouldn't be allowed to exist at all. However, the dominance of that character type over other portrayals in romance especially, subscribes to the common notion of masculinity having only one desirable form.
The main lead does not have to be the most powerful, the most virile, most tragic or most intimidating.
It's shallow and overdone.
Why can't the men and boys in these leads also be written as thoughtful and warm, sunlight characters. Soft hands and gentle voices. Complex and spirited and vibrant. Let them also be kind, lovely and full of quiet things.
I have so many thoughts on this general topic that go into way too many directions to summarize in one post.
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graceshouldwrite · 9 months
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The Most Powerful Hack to Make Your Readers Cry
You’ve seen it all: show, don’t tell, plant a visceral image in the reader’s brain of the environment/character, write a complex character arc with lots of growth and setbacks, establish deep relationships, high stakes, etc. 
All the advice for making readers cry I’ve seen so far is basically that list. But, while those things are absolutely important, I find that the thing that always does the trick, whether as a tipping point or in and of itself, is this: 
THE CALLBACK! 
Before we move on, this is an ANALYSIS heavy post, so all the book + show examples contain spoilers!!
So, what do I mean by a “callback?” Think of Chekhov’s gun, but, here, you use the gun to pierce your reader’s heart. As a refresher for anyone who needs it, Chekhov’s gun is just a rule in writing that anything you introduce in the book should play some role in the plot.
Specifically, the name comes from the example that if a reader introduces a gun in the first act, it MUST go off later, (maybe, say, in the third act). For example, in the TV show Breaking Bad, the protagonist Walter White prepares a vial of poison (ricin) that he wanted to use to eliminate an opponent early on in the series. After the assassination attempt falls through, the ricin makes an appearance again in the very last episode of the show, when Walt finally uses it to kill another opponent. 
Got that? Alright, onto the examples of successful, tearjerking callbacks: 
1. The Last Olympian (Rick Riordan); “Family, Luke, you promised.” 
Context: The character Annabeth says this line. Years ago, Annabeth had run away from home, and Luke had effectively adopted her into a found family with another kid named Thalia. Common reason for leaving home = parental trauma! Yay! He promised Annabeth that they would be each other’s “family” from now on. 
Now: Kronos, the antagonist titan, has possessed the demigod Luke and uses his body to strike Annabeth, injuring her. She’s also holding a dagger that Luke had given her when she joined his “family.”
Significance: her words + the dagger are a mental + physical reminder to Luke of his promise. They force him to recognize the sheer degree of his current betrayal by bringing him back to a different time. The fact that their found family only happened because of parental trauma bringing them together makes it worse—Luke felt abandoned by his Olympian father, Hermes. Now, he realizes that he basically did the equivalent to Annabeth by joining the titans. 
2. Les Miserables (Victor Hugo); Jean Valjean’s death 
Context:  At the beginning of the book, the bishop had caught Valjean trying to steal candlesticks to sell. Instead of handing him over to the police, the bishop told the police that he had given them to Valjean, saving him from arrest and showing him mercy. This changed his life forever, kickstarting his character redemption arc. 
Now: Jean Valjean dies surrounded by his loved ones, remembered as a benevolent man who bettered thousands of lives. He’s surrounded by light from candlesticks that once belonged to a bishop.
Context: Valjean had once taken in an impoverished woman named Fantine, showing her mercy and promising to take care of her daughter, Cosette, after Fantine died. Valjean then rescued Cosette from abusive quasi-foster parents (it’s a long story), raising her as his own daughter. This furthered his arc by allowing him to finally understand how unconditionally loving someone feels. 
Now: Valjean describes Fantine to Cosette, who never knew her mother. 
Significance: Both examples throw readers back to much earlier points in the story before the completion of Valjean’s character arc. In a way, this final scene feels like an external manifestation of his kindness paying off; both he and the reader feels a sense of accomplishment, relief, and just a general “OMG WE MADE IT.” Readers don’t feel cheated, because they were with Valjean every step of his 1,400 page arc. The weight of it all just crashes down on you...
3. Your Lie in April (anime); Kaori’s letter after she dies
Context: Kaori’s entire plot significance is that she helps Kousei, a piano prodigy who can’t play piano anymore due to traumatic parental memories associated with it, play again—but also, just to help him enjoy life again after a turbulent upbringing. She meets him a year before she dies of a medical condition, and her free spirit + confidence influences him to find beauty in life and music again. They basically do a crap ton of crazy funny stuff together lol
Now: Kaori has died, and she leaves a letter to him. Among other general confessions and thoughts, she references things they did and memories they shared: she says, “sorry we couldn’t eat all those canelés,” reminisces about  jumping with him off a small bridge into the stream below, “racing each other alongside the train,” singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as they rode the bike together, etc.
Significance: Yes, the nature of the letter is just sad because she’s revealing that she loved him all along, apologizing for not being able to spend more time with him, lying that she didn’t like him (to spare his feelings b/c she knew she would die soon), etc. BUT, these small details highlight exactly how many experiences they shared, and the depth of their relationship. Thus, they emphasize the significance of her death and the emptiness it leaves behind. 
4. Arcane (show); “I thought, maybe you could love me like you used to, even though I’m different.” 
Context: Character Jinx says this in the last episode to her now estranged older sister, Vi. Without going into the crazy complex plot, basically, orphans Vi and Jinx used to care for each other before a bunch of crap went down that got them separated. They then grew up on opposite political sides; Jinx grows up on the side of the underbelly city rebellion, and Vi grows up working on the side of the richer city that essentially oppresses the undercity. Thus begins the development of their opposing viewpoints and work environments, to the point where they always meet on opposite sides of a political battle, never able to come together as a family or understand each other again. 
Now: After a super dramatic confrontation, Jinx reveals that although she wants Vi to love her like she did before their separation, she knows it’s not possible because “[Vi] changed too.” She finishes with, “so, here’s to the new us” before blowing up a political council meeting a few blocks down filled with people Vi sides with. Oops! This cleanly seals the fate of their relationship as something basically irreparable.  
Significance: This callback isn’t through literal flashbacks or items like in the previous examples. Jinx’ lines are enough to bring back images of their childhood to the audience’s mind. Now, the audience subconsciously places this image of: 1) two sisters so different, hurt, and torn apart, right next to 2) the image of two sisters as innocent children who loved each other and would care for each other no matter what. 
Why do callbacks work so well? 
If you’ve noticed something in common with all of them, you’re right: they remind audience of a time BEFORE the characters have come so far on their arcs, developed, and put on so much more emotional baggage. 
Callbacks force the audience to SUDDENLY and IMMEDIATELY feel the weight of everything that’s happened. The character’s anguish and overwhelming emotions become the audience’s in this moment. Callbacks are a vehicle for the juxtaposition of worlds, before and after significant development. 
This works because we, as mortals, fear IMPERMANENCE the most. We fear LOSS. For us, time gone is time we will never get back; callbacks make us face that exact fact through a fictional character. A lost moment, time period, or even part of oneself may hurt as much as losing a loved one, and nothing makes humans grieve more than the realization of a loss. A callback slaps the audience in the face with the fact that something was lost; loss hurts so much because almost 99% of the time, what’s gone is gone forever. 
Of course, a good callback requires good previous character development, stakes, imagery, and all that jazz, but I thought I’d highlight this specifically because of how under covered it is. 
∘₊✧────── ☾☼☽ ──────✧₊∘
instagram: @ grace_should_write
I’ve been binging general media lately: I finished Death Note, Your Lie in April, and Tokyo Ghoul all within like a month (FIRST ANIMES I”VE EVER WATCHED!!), reread lots of Les Miserables, analyzed a bunch of past shows like Breaking Bad, watched a bunch of My Little Pony, worked to fix up my old writing... and that’s not even all! The amount of times I’ve CRIED while enjoying the above media and so much more honestly just inspired this post. 
Like, no joke, my eyes were almost always swollen during this period whenever I hung out with my friends and it was so embarrassing help 
Personally, I just find that this method works super well for me, and I watched a bunch of reaction videos to these above scenes (and read book reviews on the book scenes I mentioned), and it seemed that just about everyone cried during these parts. That’s when I realizes that the callback might also just be a universal thing. 
Anyway, this post is long and dense enough as is. SORRY! As always, hope this was helpful, and let me know if you have any questions by commenting, re-blogging, or DMing me on IG. Any and all engagement is appreciated <3333
Happy writing, and have a great day,
- grace <3
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hamable · 14 days
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It’s really interesting to me how elusive Kipperlily Copperkettle has been throughout what is now the first half of the season.
She’s the closest thing we have to an identifiable Big Bad. She gets established in episode 3 to be constantly vigilant, capable of eavesdropping on anything and everything.
And then she’s physically MIA (iirc) for seven episodes, barring her scene with the food trucks at the start of episode 7. I think she’s said to be present at the assembly this most recent episode (ep 10) but she doesn’t appear to be an active participant in anything. That inaction is eating away at me… bc I know she’s doing something.
Talk about haunting a narrative… I’m constantly aware of her nonexistence. I’m paranoid. With every episode that we don’t hear from or interact with KLCK, she grows more terrifying to me. Brennan made sure to establish right away that she could be listening at literally any point. Riz tried to keep that at the forefront of his mind initially, but even he let that idea fall to the wayside as stress built up and time passed.
I think we’ve settled into a false sense of security in this respect. I think that at any point Brennan can and will drop a KLCK bomb on us and oh boy it’s gonna be deliciously messy.
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lucabyte · 28 days
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cleaned up NoHats doodle from the middle of the original discussion because i think its important to understand in what tone of voice @samhainian and i are saying
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responses to "you're the lost heir"
"THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS."
"the what now."
"i cannot spell that let alone pronounce that there are too many vowels."
"now really isn't the time to drop new dramatic family lore can we save it for our monday gossip session?"
"no."
^"what...what do you mean no?"
^"i mean no. i'm not doing that. nah-uh. no way."
^"but...but -- "
^"no."
"...do i get a castle?"
^"you'll have a bunch of duties and responsibilities and -- "
^"yeah, yeah, but the castle?"
^*sigh* "yes. yes, you get a castle."
"and you're telling me this AFTER i killed the king?"
"this would have been helpful a few years ago when i was stuck in line for hours trying to buy concert tickets. thanks for nothing."
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daily-fantasy-ideas · 2 years
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You should have a few villains with some simple/absurd motivations.
Like relateable deep characterization is nice and all, but just having some jerk whose entire deal is going "I hate when people have fun, I'm going to ruin everything with evil magic so that no one ever has fun again" is ironically a lotta fun.
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puppetmaster13u · 5 months
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Sketchin out dcxdp Centaur Danny, what do you guys think for the concept?
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Wings are skeletal from the electrocution but in ghost form well-
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Feel free to reply or reblog with any ideas you might have
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probablybadrpgideas · 6 months
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Paladin oath of the bit
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figsandphiltatos · 18 days
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the raw power of gorgug and kristen synchronized second hand embarrassment is unspeakable
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sourspecter · 6 months
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Designs for my warrior cat fantasy/humanoid au!!
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