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cripplecharacters · 2 years

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What do you think about a blind character who uses her cane as a magical focus? it's in a fantasy setting where magic is very widespread and works in a variety of ways, mostly based on the channels that work well for the individual. I thought it might make sense for her to use her cane for that, because it would be an object with a lot of significance that she would have around all of the time, but are there problems with it that I'm not aware of?

Also, would it be okay to have spells to give her a sense of an area or tell her where people are? I imagine they would have a limited scope and she wouldn't be using them all the time, so I don't think they would fall under "superpowers that allow the character to see," but I want to be sure. They're space pirates, and I planned for this character to have a fighting role, but I can find another job for her if that's bad. Or she could do that without orienting magic?

Sorry for my several different questions. I don't even know how large of a role this character will play in my story, I just start designing characters and get carried away. thank you have a nice day

Hi! To answer your first question about using her cane as a magical focus, I don’t think there is much inherently wrong with that idea. Personally, I find it more interesting to separate disability and powers, and would more enjoy seeing a blind character whose focus was something completely unrelated to her disability, but I don’t think it’s particularly problematic on its own. The only thing that comes to mind is that it can run the risk of making everything revolve around this characters blindness, so I would personally encourage you to consider who she is outside of her blindness and what other kind of object she might choose. It helps when a disabled character isn’t just disabled as there only predominant feature and has other interests that are reflected in other parts of themselves. Make sure the object she chooses fits who she is as a person, not just what her disability is.

As for giving her spells that would allow her to form a mental image of an area, I would generally advise against that as it does cross into the territory of super powers that negate a disability, giving her a sort of magic vision. Powers that would replace a mobility aid are frequently a little too conveniently powerful and wind up allowing the disabled character to read more like an abled one, erasing big chunks of the disability. It’s often used as a way for abled writers to be able to just write the disabled character the same way they would write an abled character, which can lead to a lot of instances of it feeling like the character is only disabled when it’s interesting or plot relevant or convenient for the author. However, I do very deeply appreciate that you still planned to give this character a cane and not fully replace it with these powers. That is already a huge and awesome thing to see that doesn’t happen often enough.

I think it’s super important to consider exactly how a power like that would convey all the necessary information as well, in order to really understand what benefits might be possible, what the drawbacks might be, and where its limitations are. Often times, powers like this are used as sort of a shortcut to avoid finding out those answers, so I would suggest doing a little more research about what kind of information a blind person can receive already without powers and exactly how a power might provide information that is more useful. Often times, when people come up with super powers or even real life technology that is supposed to provide information to a blind person, it ends up being information that a blind person can already receive pretty easily with their own body and senses.

For example, if she needs to know where people are in a space, people generally make a lot of noise, even if they don’t realize it. Breathing, walking, the shifting around of fabric from their clothes — heck, even if the person is standing totally still, in close range, a blind person who’s already learned how to adapt can usually hear the fact that the air is not very open in that spot and it sounds like someone might be standing next to them trying not to breathe and be caught.

In particular about your character, close range fighting is something that is super easy to do without any augmentation. Plenty of blind people are on wrestling teams in school or blind sports teams with only minor modifications to equipment, and it’s really easy not only to hear where your opponent is moving based on the sound their actual body is making, but also based on the openness of the air and the feeling of air displacement as limbs move about quickly. They might miss a few things here and there, but by and large, physical close range combat is pretty easy to do without seeing.

This topic comes up a lot when people try to design real life technology to tell blind people if their friends are nearby or if there are objects in their paths, because most of the time, your own senses will give you a ton more detail and specificity. Simply hearing a person talking to you will tell you who it is, their exact angle, and a pretty solid estimated distance from you, but technology can often only give you a vague idea such as “left.” But then, in that situation, you are left wondering who is to the left? How far to the left? Are they 3 feet to my left butt 10 feet back? And even if it can tell you in that exact specificity, it often takes several sentences for technology to describe exactly where, and can only tell you about one person at a time, and it’s often faster and simpler to just call out your friends name and hear them respond. The same thing applies with powers, and it’s often a case of “don’t fix what’s not broken.”

Similarly, there are a lot of technologies designed that claim to be able to replace the white cane, such as vibrating tools that buzz when you are near an obstacle. But it cannot tell you what the obstacle is, what size it is, exactly how far away it is, what kind of angle it’s at, or any other super important pieces of information. On the other hand, if you simply touch the object directly with your cane, that alone already tells you exactly where it’s located and what angle it’s at, what material it is, how big it is, and what exactly the object might be, because not only can you feel it directly, but you can hear the way your cane interacts with the material which tells you a ton of information all at once with one single tap. This method is often far more effective and efficient then standing around waving this little buzzing gadget for a minute and a half trying to build the most vague outline of the object.

All this is to say that I think it’s important to consider exactly what kind of information these spells can supposedly provide and ask yourself if it would really be any more effective than regular non-visual techniques. Sometimes there are spells and powers that can totally be useful, such as transmutation spells that might be able to raise printed letters so your character can feel them, thereby acting as an accessibility aid. But more often than not, navigational powers like this often don’t really have any benefits that can’t already be gained in the traditional ways even better. Frequently, the answer turns out to be no, or at least not without straying into disability negating territory.

Other important questions to ask before giving your character a power like this include the following:

How time consuming or energy intensive is it?

In what situation is it not useful?

Does it come with any negative side effects?

How else could the character accomplish this task without the power? How do they do it if they are in a situation where they can’t use the power?

How long has the character had this power and known how do use it? How did they accomplish the task before that?

Would this character actually want powers like this? Does it fit who they are as a person and what their interests are?

I think my final — and possibly most important — point on the topic of spells that would allow her to navigate is to really consider whether or not this character as a person would be interested in those powers, especially if these are her only or primary spells and powers. Too often, disabled characters are given magic or super powers that are conveniently tightly tied to their disabilities, rather than powers that would suit the character, the way powers would be assigned to any other abled character. It’s often fueled by an underlying assumption that of course a disabled person would want to feel less disabled. Of course a blind person would want to see or get as close to it as possible. But in reality, that’s not always the case, and very frequently is not the case at all.

Would this character personally take interest in spells or powers like that? What are her other interests? What other kind of powers would she like to have? What kind of powers might suit her personality better? What method do you use to determine the spells and powers used by your abled characters? Whatever that method is, apply it in the same way to your disabled characters. Allow their character as a whole to dictate their powers, even if the powers you come up with using that method have nothing to do with their disability or are even outright contrary to it. That goes along way toward making a disabled character feel more well-rounded and human and complete, rather than just a living embodiment of disability.

The blind character with blindness accommodating powers is often not just common but the default. If there is a blind character with powers, it is almost always powers that a little too conveniently happened to revolve around hearing or feeling or augmenting other senses in order to negate chunks of the blindness. I have seen hundreds of these characters, but hardly ever have I seen a blind character who can fly or speak to animals or just blow things up with their mind. I would love to start seeing more blind characters who have magic or super powers that have nothing to do with blindness whatsoever but instead have everything to do with the character as a person.

I’m sorry this answer has gotten so incredibly long! I will undoubtedly end up using lots of this to make a more generalized post about giving magic or super powers to blind characters, but I hope it wasn’t overwhelming. Thank you so much for asking this question!

Mod Lane

#mod Lane #blindness #writing blind characters #white canes #mobility aids #accommodations #anonymous #magic aids #disability negating superpowers #disability erasure

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exilley · 7 months

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Its not even that i think self-inserts are bad i think sometimes society coerces our subconscious to want to insert ourselves into materially dysfunctional and bland worlds that have nothing interesting going for them

#exilley's diary #like orv at least in this respect has def helped shape my understanding of the appeal of escapist fiction #but it applies anywhere #sometimes self-insert characters are a great narrative proxy for the audience and the story (see: utdr)#sometimes theyre vessels for the audience to project their prejudices and misunderstandings into a reality that magically accommodates them

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thegeekyartist · 9 months

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It's 2am so I get to be a hater:

I hate crossovers and I ✨hate✨ musical episodes!!

#theyre always bad!!#ALWAYS #the writing has to tie itself in knots in order to make sense #why are they singing? can other people hear them? are they all magically great at it?#will they acknowledge they dont normally sing?#and then the songs are also usually bad!#if the show itself is already a musical then its fine #(yes even glee. it was never trying to hide what it was)#but theres no reason for them otherwise #alternatively #crossovers are just excuses to get more people watching a show #and while they've always been bad #theyre even worse in the age of streaming when that sort of thing doesnt really equate to more viewers!!#people arent tuning in weekly so why bother breaking your shows formula and writing styles to accommodate a different show??#even the eps of Frasier where the cheers cast would come back #those are notoriously TERRIBLE episodes!#and theyre all from the same fucking show technically!!#anyways #that is my Rant of the Day #personal #tv #television

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legolasghosty · 8 months

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jatp + dnd au? (general fantasy au if dnd isn’t your thing)

Oooo okay anon, thanks for the ask! I'm fairly new to DnD but I shall do my best!

Julie is an eladrin(elvish) wizard(she prefers sorceress though), well known throughout the land for her skills in communing with the dead. Everyone knows her by that reputation, so they visit her tower expecting lots of gothic art and black, only to be surprised by all the plants growing around the space and how light and free the space feels. Her secret to connecting with the dead is to offer them a taste of life through her space and powerful aura.

Luke is a human bard, because of course he is. He met Julie while on a personal quest to 'find his soul' or something like that. After finishing the quest and gaining a new, magical lute, he couldn't get the bright, lively necromancer off his mind, so he went back. They became fast friends and make music together. And Luke maybe writes a lot of songs about Julie(hey he's a bard, it's his duty to praise those around him).

Reggie is a half-elf ranger. Like Luke, he first met Julie while on an adventure. He was assisting another party at the time. But they didn't appreciate his help and expertise and cast him off as soon as he was no longer of use. Alone and wounded, he found his way back to the only sanctuary he'd found on the journey: A tower that balanced between life and death. Julie nursed him back to health and they two became close during his recovery. He still adventures a lot, he's got a fair amount of wanderlust, but the tower and those who live there have become his home.

Alex and Willie found the tower while fleeing a mob that was determined to destroy their 'abominable' union. To be fair, an elven druid and a changeling rogue aren't exactly a common combination. However, the two cared deeply for each other and were willing to risk the wrath of their families to be together. Julie granted them shelter and sent their pursuers off in the wrong direction. The two stayed in the tower for a few weeks, then began constructing their own home nearby. They have a little cottage just a few minutes away from Julie's tower. They also adopted a baby griffin they found. It was hurt and alone, what else were they supposed to do?

Flynn is a human artificer who befriended Julie before she moved out into the middle of the woods. She comes by regularly to swap stories and hang out with her best friend. She is endlessly amused by all the strays Julie keeps collecting. But also she and Willie get along really well, and he starts teaching her some fancy combat stuff. It's not uncommon to come into Julie's clearing to see the pair of them sparring in the open space. Often Julie and Alex are in the garden nearby, working on the plants and chatting and watching them.

This was so fun!!! I'm way too invested in this AU now. I hope that was what you wanted, I... have no idea.

(Send me an AU and I'll give you 5+ headcanons about it!)

#legolas tag #legolas ask #julie and the phantoms #legolas answers asks #still taking asks for this by the way!#but also I love this DnD world jatp!#Julie's tower is also magical and can grow more rooms as need be #it slowly grows more bedrooms to accommodate her growing family #Carrie is also definitely around and lives in the same town as Flynn #she's a much higher rank of course #but she pays a lot of visits to Flynn... nope nothing going on there...

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nooks-cranny-mogai · 8 months

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Hi, do you have any advice for someone who’s trying to make gender terms/other terms based on a story they’re making? Clarification: im wanting to make some in-world genders & identities for a world im making, said world has magic & the way magic is gonna work in this world- I believe would have some influence on how some of the people in that world view gender & such. Without spoiling anything, people can either be born with magical ability (tho they can choose not to use it) or they can use naturally occurring objects to do magic.

If this existed irl i think it would influence gender & identities & etc, in this world they would be real genders but in our IRL world then they could be used as- one of those fiction based xenogenders (of which I forget the name of). But i would just like some general advice as how to get started, please? Just- how to pick names for the identities, how to pick colors, things to think about when considering how the magic could affect gender & other identities.

You coin a lot of identities & make flags for them, and wanted to ask for help by someone who’s done this stuff before.

Please help me (if you have time 😅)

So you asked the right person but with just not quite enough details 😅 I'm currently working on making my own massive d&d based campaign where gender variance is very common not only in the pantheon of gods but also amoungst the many races that Inhabit the world.

Imma leave most of my rambling under a cut cause this is exciting me and I may type a shit ton. I'll go into much more detail there!

So the first thing to consider is the world itself. Is this a Renaissance/medieval setting? Is it a modern setting? Dose it take place in the far off future of the year 4098 or 1898? This will determine what all would be included in the gender variance and how the people would express it. If it's a medieval setting without the world being practically automated by magic, the colors for the flags would be more natural because they wouldnt nessearily have complex artificial dyes. Hell, would these people represent themselves by a flag or maybe an insignia? A tattoo? A language? A community? Just because your basing the idea of this gender variance on irl xenogenders doesn't mean you have to copy paste. /Not patronizing

Next, how common is intersexuality in this world? Are there multiple races that don't quite fit a human definition + magic? Is this gender variance considered uncommon or common? If uncommon, are they oppressed or is it generally accepted? What are, if there are any, the gender roles of this society? How would this society decide gender, birth sex? Interests? Physical attributes? Just because they are "human" doesn't nessesarily mean they are what we'd consider "cis male" or "cis female" or beyond. The words woman, man, male or female or other gendered language doesn't even have to exist within this fantasy world.

Do they speak English? Is it a made up language? It's quite a complex ask./nm. I think it's important to put as much culturally relevant context in your world before you travel into the heart of making innerworld xenogenders. Ik for my campaign, for example: gargoyles are victims of racist discrimination and those experiences are part of their culture which bleeds into their genders and cultural expectations of genders that wouldn't be considered in say.. centaur society where they aren't particularly victims of those forms of racism but arnt held as highly as certain other races and so on and so on. It sounds like you're similar to me and really want to get into the deep parts of your world so you have to figure out your base, then figure out the innerworld politics and common experiences and location and timeframe before you dive headfirst into specific xenogender experiences.

Overall, just have fun with it, avoid irl stereotypes and the wonderful thing about adding a "magic/fantasy" component is that it's the perfect way to cover up things that wouldn't make sense for the timeframe/situation/experiences. How did the air elves manage to automate cloud production with this machine? Magic! How did this automaton rise to live and speak and gain consciousness similar to 2020 ai? Magic! How did this tiny library in a tiny town have a book about some place you just dropped existing 30 hrs into the campaign?? Magic!!! It's the writers best out lol

It's all dependent on how close you wanna be to "this would actually function if this was used irl" and " idk man, magic shit". Would they make flags using natural dyes of mud/clay, berries and shells? Or would there be spells that could turn anything the specific color and shade that you need it? Are those born with magic treated better, the same or worse than those born without it? What's the social hierarchy? Would using say a wand for magic be considered a lesser item or better item than say a magic book? Are certain items socially considered more "feminine" than others? Is feminity treated as the ideal thing over masculinity, the same or lesser than? Most writers just use whatever "values" the current society they live in as a base just because it's easier.

All this to say is that it's important to, if your desire is to Garner an audience, make a world that you understand and makes you happy and a world that your audience understands and makes them happy. Be aware that, depending on your media of choice for publication (be it a ttrpg, a game, a book or even animation) if your audience needs a booklet to understand and gain definitions for the 50+ xenogenders present in your world that they will see on a daily basis, it might not jive. Ik I personally hate it when a series throws a ton of information at me the moment I open it. It's unrealistic to expect someone to read a giant book and devote hours of time before they ever even truly interact with the media. In their minds, why devote all that time and focus to learning something that may not be worth it? Have a good balance and pace, these can kill amazing games and make horrible games feel much better than they actually are. Perhaps introduce the in-world xenogenders slowly with clear definitions that they can flip back to, this not only helps people remember them but allows non-xenogendered people access to your series who want to understand but need baby steps. I only mention this because even though xenogenders are old asf, they are still relatively new in modern culture.

All these little cultural aspects, expectations, appearances, socio-political hierarchies, wealth, location, time frame, etc all determine someone's experiences within said society and therefore will influence how they fit themselves, if they choose to fit themselves, within that society. How they see those who fit within and out of that society. How they've made or haven't made community outside of it. How others treat them. Personal experiences. Gender is such a complex and personal beast and tackling it in a fantasy world where our reality is off the table is truly a feat, one many writers (often white pericishet male and white pericishet female) never bother to contend with. It's a balancing act of " do I want my fictional world to be a safe haven, accepting and example of how society should treat gender variance beyond the binary?" Or " do I want my fictional world to be closer to reality and give a voice to the real life and often painful experiences xenogender people must face in our transphobic and enbyphobic society?".

It's up to you wether you want to erase those demons or address them head on and no response is more brave than the other. There's nothing wrong with having your work represent an ideal world or harsh reality. Fiction doesn't mean it can't be truthful in its messaging.

I hope I helped you both by answering your questions and giving a little advice as someone who's been both in the depths of xenogenders and who's made a shit ton of original fantasy content and knows some of the best ways to present it. Feel free to send me some dms if you have any questions or would like some advice later down the road. Id love to assist in this project if you need me and trust my judgement.

#clover speaks #dnd #fantasy setting #magical setting #xenogenders #xenogenders in fantasy settings #i love talking about how complex fantasy worlds can get #i love talking about how the little cultural differences between slimes and goblins can help them become allies or enemies #i love talking about how gender is so complex that adding fantasy elements can add even more complexity and beautiful differences #to a world wracked by magical war #seeing people explore the facts that sex race orientation pronouns and just all kinds of variance can impact your fantasy world #its so much more interesting to talk about orc poltics and what they expect of their men than just slapping on bikini armor #and killing off a gay character in space #yes lets start interlacing more fantasy content with irl politics and cultural conversation to address real issues #we need more conversations about how the world should make accommodations for merpeople and less stormcloaks #less easily transferable to reality racism and less mysogny #the world you come to escape to is still bigoted just in ways you dont care about its not an escape #its your personal racist fantasy #where you get to kill poc and women like you desire in reality #im not gonna go on a video games cause mass shootings tirade cause they dont and theres no evidence #but id be a liar to say that men who abuse sex workers in gta rp on a daily basis make me feel comfortable #cause you dont and your sus

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