An excerpt of A Guide to False Visions : Illuionsary Magic by Sonja Rysti.
….Oh course, the first spell most illusionists master is making something look like another. It’s a simple thing to make a flower look like a weed, or a brick look like a rock. With practice an illusionist can glamour the view out of a window from rain to shine. A talented one can glamour themselves, and thus vanity runs rampant in followers of the lost art. There is a freedom in it, but all mages are too aware and remember that you cannot change the core of the thing with the illusion. The flower is still a flower, the brick is still a brick, and the day is still rainy.
And yet.
At what point does illusion become truth? What we take for truth is what we experience with our senses. By its nature Illusionary magics change how items are perceived.
This is what makes the magic so dangerous. It is not merely the destruction that we can evoke, much like conjury and thamauturgy, in the physical sense. It is too easy to play tricks on the mind, to haunt a person to madness.
Literally none of my story ideas come with a plot, ever. WITHOUT FAIL, it’s always just an Aesthetic, like two and a half characters, some very, very vivid settings, and a weird concept. Never plot. Not even an inkling of a plot. My brain tosses me this cool stuff and is like welp i’ll be back in 4-5 business months
So you take that aesthetic, and slap it into some random generated scenario from:
anyone know if there’s, like, a tumblr post that’s a comprehensive guide to creating fictional subterranean animals. Cuz I know there’s one like that for what you need to know about creating viruses and I wish I could find something comprehensive about what’s important when creating subterranean creatures, cuz their evolutionary track is a whole different ballpark from other shit.
Designing the world map for your novel, series, or story can be an exciting but frustrating process. If you already have a good idea about the land in your story, it might be time to build a world map. If you are only just starting to dream up your world, there are some things you might want to consider first.
Knowing How Geography Works
If your world is earth-like, in the sense that the world follows our basic laws of science, physics, and geography, you will probably want to keep things realistic in terms of geography. When planning your map, know the geographic types around the reasons. Does your world have mountain ranges? Rivers? Lakes? If so, you need to think of how those things came to be.
Mountains are formed by the plates in the earth’s crust moving together, or from volcanic eruptions after magma cools. Mountains lead to rivers, as rainwater gets caught in the mountains and naturally begins to flow downhill towards the ocean. Remember that downhill means it will depend on the elevation, not all rivers need to flow south. Do some research before just throwing in a landmass. Ask yourself “why is this here?” rather than throwing in convenient settings for your story.
Drawing the Land
Once you have an idea for your world, there is nothing stopping you from beginning to draw. On a normal piece of paper, you can begin to draw a landmass. Try to avoid using straight lines, as those tend to be unrealistic, stick more to wavy edges. Also, keep in mind that the paper should not limit you. Don’t plan your world to fit in a rectangle. Take some time looking at other maps and see what you like.
Once you have the landmasses figure out, add some islands in between them. Name your oceans, draw in mountain ranges, then rivers, and some lakes. Begin to plant forests and dry out deserts. Let your land come to life.
Plot Landmarks
It might be useful to plot major landmarks from your world. The capital city, or the castle where the royal family lives, for instance. If religion plays a large role in your world, plot the churches or temples. Perhaps draw in the main roads, or the kings road, if trade or travel is important to the society. Keep in mind that whatpeople put on maps is dependent on what they care about.
Are you creating a fictional language? Do you need help coming up with words that sound like they fit with what you’ve come up with so far?
Just put your fictional language in the model text, type some words in the translation text, and click “translate”. It’ll “translate” whatever words you put in using patterns from your sample text.
This can create a random calendar for you or you can input the year, the number of months, the name of the months, the number of moons, the number of days in a week, the names of each day, and more.
You can even save the data for your calendar so that when you go back to the generator, all you have to do to get to your calendar is paste the data.
This is a new resource that’s still in beta, so it’ll probably be updated in the coming months.
This map maker is easy to use and free. You can add different climates, mountains, trees, towns, cities, text, and notes. For an example of these maps, look at the quick map I made for this post’s header.
Fruitadens is an oddity among the Talenta biota, culturally and scientifically. Outside, the smallest of the herbivorous dinosaurs looks quite similar to their neighboring fastieth. Closer examination reveals some surprising features. Unlike the very similar Nanosaurus, Fruitadens has an almost complete covering of short, quill-like plumage. Especially on its proportionally long tail. The skull narrows to the jaws, showing a carnivore-like shape, with its famous heterodont dentition. The large lower canine is visible externally and serves as a reminder of its bite. Fruitadens are generalists, hanging around the wetlands and rivers in the wet season and falling back to the forests during the dry season. Plants and small animals of all kinds are eaten by the critters, and they have displayed remarkable intelligence in working out how to break open mollusc shells to get at the soft innards. Their pelts are predominantly reddish-brown with whites and greys, made up of stiffened quills ending in points. Like cats they can manually raise their pelts to seem larger and prickly. Prickly is a good word for them. Their eyebrow ridges give them a constantly peeved look, which fits with their behavior. Fruitadens act ornery to make up for their small size. They’re still much more likely to run than fight, but there are plenty of Talenta hunters who have been bitten for little more than accidental encounters. In their frail bones is a strong bite capable of nipping off fingers. Their attitude, appearance, and habitat of the forests of Talenta have earned them a bad reputation among the halflings, who regard them the same way the average Aundairan would regard a skunk, with a bite instead of a stink. They are not entirely without merit though. Their quills are sought after by the few scholars of the Plains as, in the absence of geese and swans and the normal sort of traveling traders, their quills are the only options for pens, and they make rather sturdy ones at that.
In lieu of any progress to show on the Acronym Pending story, have a stupid little world-building thing.
As reminder: the TDG world is set after an aversion of the apocalypse (called the Antiocalypse) caused the world of reality and belief to class together. Gods, monsters, fairies, all that jazz, without the Urban Fantasy magical veil keeping everything hidden. The released stories, the prologues describing how this all happened, are hereorhereif you prefer Wattpad.
During the decade or so after the Antiocalypse, shit got kinda scary. There were stories about all sorts of things prowling the world, inciting a panic that outshone the Satanic Panic because… well… it was real. Real demons and shit. The governments and militaries could no longer be relied on to assuage these fears. They couldn’t do shit to the monsters out there, a story for another time. And so, in 1972, people welcomed King Arthur with welcome arms.
In Somerset, England, there was a dragon. It was a small one, but still it was gobbling up livestock and poisoning creeks and whatnot. After several failed attempts by police to kill it, an unlikely savior came around. A blonde, handsome man with a full suit of ornate armor carrying a whole ass real sword came into town on a horse and said he would kill it. And he did! After this, he let the people know that he was King Arthur Pendragon. He was mortally wounded and taken to the Island of Avalon to heal and wait for the day he would take back the throne of England. Why was he showing up now? Well, after so long he had to be taught the history and parlance of the modern era by Morgan Le Fay. Arthur swept around southern England before coming to the capital. With a following of tens of thousands of English people, the monarchy begrudgingly took their leave and instated King Arthur to the throne. Even before he sat on it there were skeptics everywhere, especially among the aristocracy and Parliament. But the people of England wouldn’t have him relegated to a meaningless role in the nation. Arthur would not be a mascot. Even across the pond he was beloved by the masses; a sign of old heroes coming to save the day once more.
Despite being gone for over 1000 years, Arthur had a pretty good hang of modern English government and the global situation. Such highlights include the President of the United States meeting with King Arthur, King Arthur brokering a deal to dismantle all nuclear weapons (because of the general public association with the Tsar Bomba and the Antiocalypse tragedy), King Arthur officially supporting the Chinese Communist Government, and the EU making a round table, the largest ever, for their meetings. King Arthur’s most outspoken policy was that, to save England from the goblins and dragons lurking in the darkness, they needed to return to the old ways. Essentially he appealed to the fetishization of the past and how it used to be “in his time”. A big part of this was, apparently, English supremacy. Historians were quick to point out that Arthur was supposed to have been king before England existed, but that didn’t stop anyone. People loved it. And so that remained the bulk of his policy making and governance. Until 1978, when he was shot outside of his Royal home.
This came as a pretty big shock, as few believed that the mighty Arthur Pendragon would go down to a mere gun wielded by a random nobody. Well, an autopsy showed he was not king Arthur. Dental records matched him to some rando from Liverpool. His sword and armor were real, but he was a reporter who disappeared off the face of the Earth two years ago and seemingly decided to fake being King Arthur for power and fame. There was a bit of a tumult as the old monarchy resumed on its merry way. Namely, would the real King Arthur come back? How would we know if he was real? What would happen if he was? Thankfully, there weren’t any conspiracy theories about him being the real King Arthur, because one of the foremost conclusions about him was that the real deal would never die from a common mortal weapon. The real King Arthur would perish in a climactic battle with an adversary. Parliament set up the Arthurian Verification Protocol in case any more Arthurs showed up. And they did. Between 1980 and 2000 there were six false king Arthurs. One of which actually made it all the way to the final stage of the Protocol, until his family in Edinburgh snitched on him. After that, impersonating King Arthur was made a crime punishable by death. After that, only two sincere imposters came out, one of which was extradited to the United States and the latter given the lethal injection. When looking back on it, the most genuine of the fake Arthurs was the first. He had the benefit of there not being a precedent of impersonations, but he also did actually slay a dragon. He got a majority of his Arthurian legend right and had real armor and whatnot. Most of his follow-ups never went as hard as he did. For now England, and Wales, who’ve mostly been left out of the whole incident, have to wonder why the real Arthur hasn’t come back from Avalon.
Nanosaurus make up the majority of the small, antelope-like positions in Talenta. They are not particularly social, but do hang around larger herbivores when eating or sleeping. They are the quickest and most perceptive of the fastieth. Killing one and wearing its pelt is considered a mark of a hunter’s speed and keen eye. Nanosaurs are jumpy like deer, able to leap about 6 feet in the air and out-speed any other fastieth by a country mile. Being able to outrun predators means these fastieth live all about the plains, dry and wet season. They make their presence known by their distinctive scent, somewhat like fish oil. Nanosaurs rarely go into the forests, where their feet are not so sure as on the flat ground. The single variety that does live in forests are smaller and quieter, with stout legs and demure pelts. During the dry season they breed, markedly different from other fastieth. They dig small foxholes with their back legs. Females with their sandy pelts hide in it and puff up the long, thin feathers on their back, disguising themselves as dry plants to protect the eggs. Several subspecies exist around the plains. One prefers the hilly, mountainous terrain around the Mror Holds and is adapted for cold climates. Another, larger one is even more adapted to the cold, sometimes encroaching on the fields of Karrnath. Those that live in the forests are noted above. The final is otherwise similar to the plains subspecies but is smaller and more brightly colored, with orange and blue facial markings in the males. Most males have slate gray plumage that may look black or blue depending on the lighting. They also have white marks, but these are unrelated to dryosaur masks. Females are a monochrome sandy color. But males actually have a better chance at evading predators. Their plumage is very different from their scaly back halves, making them look like two different animals stitched together. This throws off predators. Females don’t have such luck and are more likely to be spotted and hunted outside of the breeding season. So now a third, distinct gender is appearing in the plains subspecies, with females possessing male plumage, but not the elaborate orange dressings. They get the benefit of avoiding predators, but are often overlooked during mating. To fix this they often become aggressively flirtatious with males to get the idea across.
–
The idea was the male was being hunted, with a trap around its leg. Technically this is a recreation of the Jurassic Park Othnielosaurus, since Othnielosaurus and Drinker got lumped into Nanosaurus. Most of the scale and plumage references was taken from Kulindadromeus. How closely related it is to Nano is questionable, but in lieu of any other scale impressions it was the safest bet.
You know what’s more fun than worldbuilding that makes some fantasy races EEEEVIIIIIIILLLLL!!!!? Worldbuilding that gives the different races cultural differences that help explain why there’s a lot of conflict between them:
Goblin culture doesn’t have a concept of “Property”. A stick on the ground and a tool in a locked shed are equally up for grabs if a thing needs doing. They casually take and leave things all over their communities, eat from communal pots, and genuinely Do Not Understand why the Core Races are so Angry and prone to Violence all the time.
Consequently Goblins who live near Core communities develop a reputation as “Thieves” despite not even having a *word* for that. (The closest word they have is more like “Greedy” and it means a person that hides things so nobody else can use them, and it’s a surefire fight-starter to call a Goblin that)
Common Orc Spiritual beliefs hold that a Soul can only grow stronger by overcoming Challenges in life, and see intruding on another person’s Challenge unasked for as not just Rude, but Deeply Harmful. You’re Stealing their chance to Grow. Asking for help is deeply personal and doing so can be both a way to grow closer with them or a too-personal intrusion, depending on your existing relationship with them. An exception is Children, as far as most Orcs are concerned, all Children are fundamentally the responsibility of the Whole Community, regardless of whose child they are, or even if said child is an Orc at *all*.
This means that Orcs who live near Core neighbors often seem Rude and Standoffish if not outright hostile, because they neither ask for nor offer aid even in times of trouble, and respond to unasked for aid themselves with Anger. There are even rumors that they Steal Children, because if an Orc finds a child lost in the woods they’re pretty much immediately going to start feeding it, and if they can’t find where to bring it back to, or it doesn’t seem to be well cared for, they’re just gonna keep it.
I got to admit that some of this is on par with my goblins and orcs in The Seer’s Protector.
sci-fi jobs that must exist that i find inexplicably amusing:
space customs
tow trucks except they’re towing illegally parked spaceships
for that matter, spaceship thieves, if only for how much more effort i imagine that would take
irs agents who have to find tax evaders who went 2 or 3 galaxies over
literally everything about the concept of the space version of the dmv
imagine being the person who teaches hapless 16 year olds how to fly a spaceship
people who analyze Old Earth media for a living the same way people now analyze shakespeare or beowulf, aka a bunch of scholarly and serious academics writing papers arguing the true meaning of Mean Girls and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and A Very Potter Musical
cruise spaceships. you’re taking a slow tour of saturn’s rings and people are still complaining about you running out of cocktail sauce
feel free to add more
Space cartographer. Some poor sucker’s gotta literally count the stars in order to chart ‘em. Did you think computers made the maps??
Gas station attendant, but in space. You thought earth truck stops were liminal? Try pausing to refuel on an asteroid hurtling though the middle of inky-black nowhere. You’d see some interesting folks pass through, though
Imagine working at a space hotel, for that matter
Traveling Salesman
op, back again, with more
IT workers who deal with tech that can communicate across the multiverse, rearrange people’s molecules, and communicate with ancient eldritch gods…….and 9 out of 10 problems can still be fixed with “read the instruction manual” or “did you turn it off and back on again”
let’s players. people’s love of video games and screaming profanity at said video games transcends galaxy and species lines
the post office. bravest people in ‘verse. though they did have to change their creed. it’s now: “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor black holes nor meteor showers nor solar flares stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds…”
also, food delivery peeps. all the above danger + dealing with more drunk aliens.
SPACE UBER
tourist traps. “welcome to the galaxy’s biggest ball of yarn. yes, it’s this one, not the one on mars. the martians are filthy liars and they’ve always been jealous of our superior attraction.”
science museum tour guides. the museums have gotten…….very big. it’s a very exhausting job, but it’s so worth it when the field trips full of kids from various galaxies get all excited
Describing Water Tribe clothes, furniture, etc, and feel like you just keep saying “fur” and “skin” over and over and over again? Wanna be more descriptive but you just don’t know what kind of skins look and feel what kind of ways? Fear Not! I, an Actual Real Life Eskimo™ (King Island Inupiaq for those who don’t know), have cultural knowledge that may help!
As ever, this is a collection of helpful tips to use as you please. I’m not in the business of telling anyone what to write or not write. I’d just like to share what I know and hope this helps anyone who might be annoyed by a lack of knowledge that can take some creative googling and persistant note-taking to figure out. Plus given the atlaverse’s fun fantasy animals, you can switch it up and mix the following animals with each other or with completely different ones. Go bananas.
Please also note this is not a comprehensive list. That would make up an entire thesis and require scouring old, racist records from outsiders and talking to every living elder in the north.
As a general rule, furs tend to be thicker and warmer in the winter because thats how animals evolved to survive the intense cold weather. The younger the animal, the softer the fur tends to be, but this is not always desired and it’s preferred in most cases to avoid killing animals too young to survive on their own and their mothers.
Beaver:
Coarse and glossy guard hairs
Thick, stiff skin
Waterproof
Not much range in color, mostly russet brown
Caribou:
Hollow hairs that insulate very well
Used to make clothes warm enough to “sleep outside in fifty below [-50°F]”
Traditional Inupiaq mattress was just two layers of caribou skin
Skin and fur colored in a pattern, could cut light and dark skin from the same caribou
Ermine:
Fine, soft, short fur
Good for lining and trim
Dark in the summer and white with a black tip at the end of the tail in the winter
Fox:
Silky guard hairs with fluffy undercoat
Makes a good ruff for a parka hood
Skin traditionally used for women’s shorts
Fairly manageable skin, not too stiff or prone to tearing.
Many types of foxes available so lots of color variation, from white to almost black, to a coppery color typical of red foxes
Rabbit:
Soft, velvety fur
Very supple skin
Color depends on season when harvested
Comfortable, but can easily wear
Good for lining
Used for menstrual rags
Seal:
Bristly guard hairs, no soft undercoat
Keeps out wind and rain but not very warm
Yellowed silver with small dark spots
Has a musky smell many find pleasant
Wolf:
Thick, bushy fur
Very warm
Skin can be thin and prone to tearing
Strong smell
Yellowish tan to gray to white
Wolverine:
Long, well-oiled fur
Fluffy undercoat
Resists water and frost
Good for ruffs, cuffs, and hems
Dark brown with lighter patterning
Other materials
Antler: more plentiful than wood in parts of the arctic, used for handles, beads, buttons for pouches, etc
Baleen: historically referred to as “whalebone,” used to make small sleds, boot soles, and baskets. Engravings in pieces of baleen show up white against the black background. This art is called scrimshaw and when on long pieces of baleen, my depict a sequence
Fish skin: not a fur, obviously, but lightweight, flexible, and waterproof. Sometimes processed into thread, which may have otherwise been sinew
Grass: may be woven into baskets or insoles for boots
Gut: cleaned out intestines sewn together with tiny stitches, see through, made into waterproof over layer parkas
Ivory: tusks harvested from walruses, carved into beads, pipes, jewelry, and more. Cribbage boards have been fairly popular uses of ivory since contact. Ivory is popularly used for scrimshaw as well as baleen, and lines engraved in ivory are inked black for visual contrast.
Qiviut: musk-ox fiber, very fine, can be processed and spun like wool but is seven times denser. Many articles knit and crocheted of qiviut are made with a lacey pattern to prevent the wearer from overheating. To my knowledge, it was only used this way in Alaska as opposed to using the skins of hunted musk-oxen after the animals were reintroduced long after going extinct.
90% of writing advice can be thrown out the window for your first draft.
Show don’t tell? Ignore.
Basic grammar and punctuation? Unnecessary.
Physical descriptions of characters? Don’t need to bother.
Solid plot? That’s for later.
The words don’t come as fast when you’re thinking of the best way to put them together. It doesn’t have to be pretty, or much more than inconsistent nonsense. The point is to have it exist.
Effective storytelling is for subsequent drafts! Go write some nonsense!
As a hyper-perfectionist human, THIS is a piece of advice I wish I’d internalized a hell of a lot sooner. If I hadn’t overwhelmed myself by considering every little thing, starting over when it gets “too messy”… there’s no doubt in my mind I’d have a first draft by now.
Now, passion is the only thing I care about in my first draft.
when i’m writing fiction, the main rule i try to stick to is that: the first draft is where i write what’s important to me.
this usually means character arcs and deep ethical and political debates for me, but for some people it’s gonna be physical description or in-depth plotting or Whatever
your subsequent drafts are where you fill in the gaps and make things make sense, but that first draft should be everything you personally care about, and don’t worry much about the rest
Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Plottr,a 2021 NaNo sponsor, is a visual outlining software that helps you plan your book for success. Today, author Troy Lambert shares some tips for outlining a novel when you’re used to flying by the seat of your pants:
Pantsing a novel can be great—after all, writing into the dark and discovering the story as you go is kinda fun, right?
But you probably also know it can lead to nonsensical plots, writer’s block, and endless rewrites.
Well, don’t worry. As a book coach, editor, and mystery author of over 25 novels, I’ve been there myself… and I understand exactly what you’re experiencing.
The good news is you can use this simple four step formula to give yourself the best of both worlds: a general roadmap for your novel that still lets you take fun detours along the way.
Oh my gosh. I just found this website that walks you though creating a believable society. It breaks each facet down into individual questions and makes it so simple! It seems really helpful for worldbuilding!
Heads up that this is a very extensive questionnaire and might be daunting to a lot of writers (myself included). That being said, it is also an amazing questionnaire and I will definitely be using it (or at the very least, some of it).
*missing the charging port on my phone* don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it
my two favourite things about this
everyone knows what this is
the scene was an adaptation of a scene from the original novel where instead of a charging port on a phone, it’s a winding key in a pocketwatch. I like to imagine people having this exact same kind of thought when they missed the watch keyhole 100 years ago
*person from the 1800’s missing the pocket watch keyhole* don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it
OKAY HERE’S THE THING ABOUT THE FUCKING POCKET WATCH.
Pocket watch keys were not disposably easy to get. You couldn’t walk into any Her Majesty’s Royal Station of the Petrol and have a rack of them waiting for you. They had to be purchased from a watchmaker, and by virtue of being literally part of a piece of jewelry, they were not cheap. That’s why a lot of contemporary drawings of the period will show the key hanging on the watch chain, and also why you’d want to take a great deal of care with using one—bend it and your watch is useless until you can get to a watchmaker. Likewise, the watch itself would be delicate. They were items for the well-to-do. One reason watches were carried outside, on the front of the body, was to protect them from being thrown around in your pocket with keys and coins. (Being in front protected from pickpockets and also let people see you were wealthy enough to own a fancy watch. Think of it as similar to the person who carries the absolute latest iPhone…without a case on it.) Yes, they were sturdy by modern standards—a 150-year-old pocket watch may still run and keep accurate time, if you can find a jeweler to maintain it for you!—but that doesn’t mean they were super-tough. They WERE, however, made of metal—brass or pewter for the less-moneyed element, silver or gold for the gentleman—and thus not easy to scratch if you weren’t really jamming the key in there. MOVING ON!
During this period, how you looked and presented yourself was ridiculously important and narrow; you can walk into a gas station for a new charger and be like “yeah I got drunk last night and forget whose car I left mine in” and the clerk will be like “oh that’s a mood,” but try going to a watchmaker and saying “ah yes, I tried to wind my watch after a bottle of wine” and you’re going to get SUCH A SIDE-EYE. Your reputation will go right down the gutter and along with it, your family’s; note how many times in contemporary Victorian literature you see people saying stuff like “he’s well-bred” or “from a fine family background.” Reputation was everything and it was incredibly fragile.
So when Holmes looks at Watson’s watch, what he sees is: a piece of expensive jewelry shot to shit by being carelessly thrown in a pants pocket rather than a watch-pocket, which would have held the watch firm and protected it from other metal objects. The watch also was not worn on the waistcoat in absence of a watch-pocket, implying its owner did not give a damn how he looked—UNTHINKABLE for a Victorian gentleman. Why not? Well, either he’d have to be a wild eccentric or suffering from a terrible illness. The main way to treat things like Parkinson’s at the time was “politely ignore it until it’s impossible to ignore, and then the person will take to his bed, and then he will die.” Watson’s brother was likely not an eccentric—even an eccentric would have taken care of a delicate piece of custom machinery—therefore he was probably ill. But his illness hadn’t prevented him from going out and about—hence the dinged-up appearance of the watch. A man who was bedridden would have kept the watch on his bedside table.
So we have a sick man who’s still able to get up and about, and he’s pawned this watch not once, not twice, but four times. Remember what I said before about reputation? Today shows like Pawn Stars have done a lot to destigmatize pawnshops, but in Victorian times they were…not looked on kindly. They meant you’d had Some Kind Of Misfortune and Needed Money, and to the Victorian mind, you’d probably Brought It On Yourself, which meant you’d been doing something Quite Disgraceful. (Notice the only two appearances of a pawnshop in the ACD canon are “The Pawnbroker’s Assistant,” in which said assistant is a criminal mastermind and the pawnbroker himself a greedy idiot, and the story of Watson’s watch.)
So: a damaged piece of expensive jewelry that’s only moderately easy to damage; spends frequent time in places of ill-repute; sick, but mobile; never mentioned by Watson, and thus likely embarrassing.
The man is a drunk.
The modern version doesn’t fall apart because lots of things cause hand tremors. The modern version falls apart because IT’S EXTREMELY EASY TO SCRATCH PLASTIC AND CHARGING CORDS ARE A CHEAP, COMMON ITEM.
There. I’ve wanted to get that off my chest for AGES.
I wonder if the modern equivalent would be a scratched up nice car then :o
In America, 100%, and I’d take it a step further and say a scratched up classic car—something from the 1950s that you could see had once been deeply cared for and lovingly restored, but where the care had slowly tapered off. Classic cars can go into the hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore and maintain, so that would do the job of showing he had money to spare until he didn’t. A nasty injury to the car, like an unfixed smashed-out tail light, could also suggest he’d been driving drunk.
England doesn’t have the same car culture we have, so that wouldn’t work so well (even if John were gifted or bequeathed the car, he’d have no use for it in London). I’d honestly say that would be something an actual British person could better answer for you, but yeah, a phone is nowhere near what a pocket watch would have symbolized. You want something that says “I am, at the very least, financially comfortable,” and in England (where class functions very differently than it does here), “I have a name to be proud of, probably went to public (USA: private) school, very likely related—even if only distantly—to someone in the House of Lords.” Something poorer people simply will not have and, if they suddenly had a burst of unexpected but temporary money, would not get because other things are more pressing. Honestly, I’d probably still go with a watch, and make it some expensive designer brand with a cracked face. Most people will just use their phones these days, so the additional watch says you’re looking to dress up a bit and be fancy, bolstered by the name brand. (The watch used in the most recent James Bond movie is an Omega Seamaster, at a cool $5100–just for the basic model.) But the cracked, scratched face says carelessness. Maybe the band has been repaired. Maybe John keeps it in his desk rather than wear it because he’s embarrassed, and it still has a pawn ticket on it. All of this can be translated one-to-one without losing accuracy—or giving us some bullshit about a phone charger.
I keep fantasizing about how cool it would be if humans were supernatural creatures and their powers and physical features were based on their sun, moon, and rising sign.
Hear me out: sun signs determine the basic physical features like nails that are strong like claws or goat horns or gills that can be activated and deactivated. Moon signs determine what powers you have; Aries moon can have pyrokinesis, Gemini moon can multiply, Leo moon can manipulate heat and fire solar beams, etc. And the ascendant can determine your color scheme, physique, and secondary characteristics like hair and eyes. Hehe sorry, excuse my brain fart
If that were the case, I’d be a psychic centaur with water and empath powers with a gryffindor color scheme.
….Write a book about this. Now. I want to read it.
okay no maybe not a book but like make a chart!!!!! with all the stuff!!!! please!!!!!!!
Alrighty as promised I’ll make a chart of this
Aries
Sun: Ram horns regardless of gender, strong foreheads, and bones are stronger than average since they’re prone to injury
Moon: Pyrokinesis, quick self healing factor, or precognition
Rising: Red and orange color scheme, hair often curly but can be any “natural” color, eyes are either a warm red or a bright orange, most are average height or smaller
Taurus
Sun: Bull horns regardless of gender, large hands in proportion to their bodies, and stomachs and immune system allow them to eat anything without harm
Moon: Super strength, stone manipulation, or can communicate with any mammal
Rising: Brown and green color scheme, eyes could be either color, hair often thick and usually black, green, or brown, often either chubby or beefy physique (some more or less thick than others)
Gemini
Sun: Second set of arms, eyes can zoom in and out of long distant range, and have a much easier time learning other languages than others
Moon: Super speed, can shapeshift into any human form, or physical duplication
Rising: Color scheme is light blue and yellow, eyes can be either color, hair can be any “unnatural” color, physique varies but they have long legs proportionate to their height
Cancer
Sun: Hands can morph into crab claws (color determined by rising), skin glitters when exposed to moonlight, all of them are empaths
Moon: Lunar abilities ( produce and shoot lunar beams, control tides; however this can only be accessed at night), psychic absorption (can absorb and use one power at a time, this only tires the victim) , or producing force fields
Rising: Silver and shades of blue color scheme, eyes can be either color and are very glossy, hair is either blue or black, tend to be short
Leo
Sun: Feline like canines, nails are long and strong like claws, skin glitters when exposed to sunlight
Moon: Solar abilities (produce and shoot solar beams and control heat; this can only be accessed during the day), laser eyes, or sonic boom roar (explosive, can physically push away anything in its close range)
Rising: Gold and red color scheme, eyes are often gold, hair almost always big no mater the length, can be any “natural” color, either really tall or really short
Virgo
Sun: Large feathered wings (color determined by rising), they look human otherwise
Moon: Portal creation, telekinesis, or poison manipulation
Rising: color scheme is green and yellow, eyes can be either color, hair is either brown or black base with any second color, physique varies but all have longer than average fingers
Libra
Sun: Skin on the hands and forearms are metallic gold or silver, have glowing eyes (color determined by rising), can always tell if you’re lying
Moon: Plant manipulation, siren song, or sonic scream (not explosive but can stun any living being in its range and break close enough objects)
Rising: Green and pink color scheme, eyes are either pink or yellow, hair is either white, brown, or pink, are often tall with wide hips regardless of gender
Scorpio
Sun: Fully functional scorpion tail (proportionate to their body), can easily see in the dark, very silent walkers who can sneak up on anyone
Moon: Shadow manipulation, mediumship (includes the dead and powerful spirits), or selective mind reading (can’t communicate mentally)
Rising: Black and red color scheme, eyes are either dark blue or bright red, hair can be any dark color, can easily blend in with their surrounding
Sagittarius
Sun: Can switch from biped to centaur and back, keeps their tail in any form, hair grows long and fast
Moon: Can shoot energy arrows or spears, light manipulation, or power jump (can leap as high as 50ft off the ground)
Rising: Orange and brown color scheme, eyes can be either color, hair is red or dirty blond, often tall but short ones are faster runners
Capricorn
Sun: Goat horns legs and hooves, pretty much satyrs
Moon: Ice manipulation, telepathy, or temporarily slow time
Rising: Brown and black color scheme, eyes are any shade of brown, hair is black but can have any secondary color, often average height and have a very fit physique but that varies, they throw some of the hardest punches
Aquarius
Sun: Are the most human looking of the signs but they always have at least one robotic body enhancement, can retain more information than the others
Moon: Electric manipulation, technopathy, or wind manipulation
Rising: Electric blue and black, eyes are any shade of blue, hair can be any bright “unnatural” color, often tall but body type varies
Pisces
Sun: Can switch from biped to mermaid and back (scale colors determined by rising), have a set of gills that closes on land, often have scales grown on stray parts of their body that shows even on land
Moon: Water manipulation, aura manipulation, or invisibility
Rising: Sea green and lavender color scheme, eyes can be either color, hair can be any shade of blue or purple, physique varies but they have large glossy eyes
I started coming up with some ideas to make Goliath lore more interesting. I thought it would be cool if they had shamans who see glimpses of the future by spilling blood on ancestral stone and looking at how it spills over the stone.
Here are some sample omens based on how the blood spills that I have come up with (written from the perspective of the shaman):
“The blood trickles around these sacred stones like the weaving strands of a spider’s web. Just as the spider betrays the fly, someone aims to betray the chief.”
“Look, here, as the blood splashes against that stone and droplets of red seep into the dirt. Like the rain, it is. There will be a great downpour.”
“Ah, the blood pools in a small pond of crimson. But oh what is this that floats in the blood I have spilt? A raven’s feather. Oh, no. A great death approaches.”
“The blood trickles over this stone like a mountain brook. But oh. Oh no. Look as that Toad splashes in the blood. Our tribe shall face a coming plague.”
“Look, boy, as the blood swirls in a pattern that mimics the cosmos on a clear night. The spirals tell me that a great hero will soon be born.”
“Ah, yes, good. Just as the blood nurtures this flower that grows between the stone, so too will we be nurtured by good health this new year. This is good.”
As you can see it’s not just the pattern of the blood but how the blood interacts with the world around it. The shaman knows how to read the signs. Now so do you. Feel free to use in your own fantasy worlds, whether with Goliaths (or other giantkin), orcs, elves, humans, whatever you desire.
Also please note that just because blood is spilt and used to predict the future it doesn’t have to be evil. I imagine the shaman from my examples would be neutral good. And while it would make perfect since for a witch to do this too, witches dont have to be evil either.
I dont know what it is but there is something Evocative of freshly spilt blood on cold, mountain stone. It’s very mystical.
