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More often than not I’ll crack into a sprawling fantasy series and, while I appreciate the luscious descriptions of furniture, landscapes, and clothing, all I’m focused on is that I don’t actually know how this world works. I only know what it looks like.  

Including some functionality to your universe can add to immersion and give your reader a strong foundation on which to build their mental model of your universe. 

You certainly don’t need to use all of these questions! In fact, I recommend against that, as all of these certainly won’t make it into your final draft. I personally find that starting my worldbuilding off with 5 to 10 functional questions helps pave the way for glittery and elaborate aesthetic development later on.

How is the healthcare funded in your world?

How does healthcare functionally differ between the wealthy and the poor? (i.e. can only the wealthy go to hospitals? do poor families often have to rely on back-alley procedures?)

Where are health centers (i.e. hospitals, small clinics, etc.) organized in your cities?

Does it differ in smaller towns?

How does this affect people’s ability to get healthcare?

Is healthcare magical, and if it is, how does that affect the healthcare system? 

If healing is instantaneous, how does that affect people’s views on injury, illness, and chronic ailments?

If you have both magical and physical healthcare, which one is deemed superior and how does that affect society? 

What illnesses are common in your world? 

How does this affect daily life? 

What do the people in your world think illnesses are? 

Is it a miasma theory? 

Humor theory? 

Demons? 

Do they know about biological viruses and bacteria? 

How does this affect healthcare?

How do people get water? 

Is the water sanitary and if not, how do they sanitize it?

How does agriculture work? 

Is it large corporations or individual farms?

What sort of agricultural technology exists in your world and how does it affect food production?

Are farmers wealthy or poor?

What sort of natural resources does your world/country(ies) have and how are they obtained?

How does this affect the average wealth of the country?

How does this wealth affect the culture? 

What livestock or beasts of burden are most valued? Least valued? Why?

What is considered a luxury good vs. a regular good?

What forms of transportation does your world have?

What classes use what forms of transportation?

How far has the average citizen traveled, given your transportation limitations?

Which cities are the most accessible and which are the least? Why?

How do popular transportation methods change how cities/towns are laid out?

Does your world have public transportation? What is it?

Is there a coming-of-age aspect to travel?

Describe your world’s postal system or whatever equivalent there is. 

Who pays for it? 

How reliable is it? 

Are there emergency methods for transporting information?

How does your world keep time (i.e. watches, sundials, water clock, etc.)?

Does your world have a currency system, barter system, or something else? 

If you have multiple countries, do different currencies have different values across said countries?

How does this affect travel?

Do you have banks in your world and if so, how are they run?

Who owns the banks? Government? Wealthy? How does this affect the economy and/or class system?

How does credit operate in your universe?

Does your world operate more on big corporations or small business? Something in between?

How are workers/labourers treated in your world? 

Are there workers unions and if so, what are common views on unions? 

Describe your tax system. If you don’t have a tax system, explain why and how your world is affected by that. 

Can certain social classes not own property, certain livestock, certain businesses, etc.? Why?

How are business records kept? Are business records kept?

If your world has technology, does your world prioritize developing entertainment tech, communications tech, transportation tech or something else entirely?

What does this say about your world?

How does this affect your economy?

To the closest approximation, what type of government does your world have? 

How are rulers/presidents/nobles put in place? 

How much power does an individual ruler have? 

Is there a veto process? 

If you have multiple countries, do they have different types of rulers?

Describe any large-scale alliances (i.e. countries, factions, etc.) that are present in your world. 

How did they come about and how are they maintained? 

Are they strained or peaceful? 

How does it affect the greater politics of your world?

Describe how wars are fought both internationally and nationally. 

Do methods of war differ between countries/races? 

What about philosophies about war?

If there is a military, what is its hierarchy structure?

How does the military recruit?

Is the military looked upon favourably in your society?

What weapons are used by each country/type of people during warfare, and how does that affect war strategies?

Describe the sentencing system of your world. 

Is your accused innocent until proven guilty, or guilty until proven innocent?

How are lawbreakers punished? 

If you have prisons, describe how they are organized and run, and who owns them. 

Does differing ownership change how the prisons operate?

What are the major ways in which laws between countries vary? 

Do laws between cities vary? If so, how and why?

How does citizenship work in your world? What rights and privileges do citizens have that others do not? 

Can certain classes or races not become citizens?

Are there certain taboo subjects or opinions that artist/authors/musicians are not allowed to depict (i.e. portraying the official religion in a negative light, explicit sexual material, etc.)? What does this say about your society?

How do people get around these censorship laws?

What is the official hierarchy of duty in your world? (i.e. is family the most important, or patriotism? What about clan?)

How many languages are there in your world, and how many languages share a common origin? 

How many people are multilingual? 

Which language is the most common?

How is multilingualism viewed?

How are different languages viewed? (i.e. is one language ugly/barbaric while another is romantic and sensual?)

Feel free to add your own questions in reblogs or in comments!

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Can't wait to read it!

Had a great time at #bea2016 and #bookcon. Getting the word out about #rebelgenius coming in October.

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This is too adorable. Dogs are just the best!

Gunther prefers to do his morning stretches with a friend—in this case, my old buddy, Matt.

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#tumblrsupport #globalemergency #weneedhim

I find myself in a bizarre and frustrating predicament. When I created this blog in February 2012, I used an email account that was dedicated to the sole purpose of being linked to my Tumblr account. It’s never been a problem, but when I tried to check Tumblr on a desktop browser yesterday (where I was already signed in) I was prompted that it was time to update my password. This process led me to discover that dedicated email account had been irretrievably shut down due to inactivity. Tumblr’s (understandable) security policy towards this type of situation is to recommend the person let it go and start a new blog. They feel they can’t verify a person’s identity.

I get that. However, I have offered plenty of means of verification—including now the above photo of my very Google-able self, taken today, wearing the same hoodie and roller skating unicorn t-shirt I am wearing in the photo from a few months ago that appeared on the Nickelodeon post I just previously reblogged, in my very specific office (decorated with photos that I took and posted on my Tumblr photography blog), which can be seen in such posts as on February 1st, 2016, back before my email account was deleted.

How am I posting this if I am locked out, you might ask? Luckily I am still logged in to my mobile Tumblr app. However, as soon as I am inevitably and inadvertently forced to update or replace my phone, I’ll lose this tenuous and solitary connection to this blog. Tumblr Support has stopped responding to my emails, so I figured I should post something publicly while I can in the hopes that they may see this and help me out, and to say a preemptive goodbye to all of you in case my pathetic pleas and attempts fail to verify that I am in fact ME—who I’ve always been and will always be until I’m locked out of my corporeal form and deleted, like this account might be.

I’ve never disclosed how many “followers” I have on here before, but it would be a real shame to lose this connection to all 186,187 of you lovely people who took the time and interest to check out what I might have to say or show or support. If there really is nothing that can be done to rectify this shut out, then I’ll hang on and use this account as long as I can. If I vanish one day, know that I appreciated all your support and enthusiasm on here. And know that it also means I probably now own a phone that is too big for my pants pocket.

But hopefully this can be easily resolved and this will just be a weird, frustrating, little bump in my blogging road.

Love, Bryan

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The Enigma Cafe, A New Steampunk Bar in Romania That Features Working Kinetic Sculptures Within

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Jeez this is just sad.

California 6th grade science books: Climate change a matter of opinion not scientific fact    

Only 54 percent of American teens believe climate change is happening, 43 percent don’t believe it’s caused by humans, and 57 percent aren’t concerned about it.  

A new study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks adopted for use in California frame the subject of global warming. They found and analyzed 279 clauses containing 2,770 words discussing climate change.

“We found that climate change is presented as a controversial debate stemming from differing opinions,” said Román, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the SMU Simmons School. “Climate skeptics and climate deniers are given equal time and treated with equal weight as scientists and scientific facts – even though scientists who refute global warming total a miniscule number.”

The textbooks misrepresented actual scientific discourse, which asserts climate change is an environmental problem bearing immense risk, where the human impact is clear, and where immediate action is warranted.

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Commander Shepard Welcomes New Explorers in the Official ‘Mass Effect’ N7 Day 2015 Video

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more pics here 

She got torn up by a boat propeller off New South Wales in 2001 and proceeded to walk it off. Swim it off. Whatever. The scars from the propeller slices healed ~20cm deep down her back and across her tail fluke. Since then, whale watchers down under look for “the Blade Runner” every year. Just the sight of her starts conversations about whether we humans should reconsider being such gigantic floppy penises to our rad cetacean bros.

nobody will ever be harder core than the Blade Runner. She has surpassed badassery. 

She is unkillable. She is Life Goals: the Whale.

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India Declares Dolphins To Be “Non-Human Persons”, Dolphin Shows Banned

India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to forbid the keeping of captive dolphins for public entertainment anywhere in the country.

In a policy statement released Friday, the ministry advised state governments to reject any proposal to establish a dolphinarium “by any person / persons, organizations, government agencies, private or public enterprises that involves import, capture of cetacean species to establish for commercial entertainment, private or public exhibition and interaction purposes whatsoever.”

Why?

“Whereas cetaceans in general are highly intelligent and sensitive, and various scientists who have researched dolphin behavior have suggested that the unusually high intelligence; as compared to other animals means that dolphins should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ and as such should have their own specific rights and is morally unacceptable to keep them captive for entertainment purpose,” the ministry said.

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Always reblog Miranda because she's so amazing!

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Cannot wait to see this, the art looks so amazing and the concept has me hooked! Very excited!!!

I’m predominantly writing/researching volume one of Threadworlds these days, but here is a recent concept I did of the main character, Nova. (She’s just chilling, not pooping.)

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Bryan's art is always so stunning!!!

Sketch for yet another cover. 

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Art Corner: How to Velociraptor Arms.

Hi everyone, Jack here! This one’s gonna be a pretty quick and broad summary, because I am short on time, but we can go into more depth in a later instalment if you guys would like. (Also, sorry it’s a day late. I finished it on time but forgot to post the draft.) In the wake of Jurassic World (which I thoroughly enjoyed) hundreds of children (and adults, possibly) have been running around pretending to be Blue, Charlie, Echo, and Delta. The Raptor Squad have In case you didn’t read the title, today we’re going to be learning about the arms of a perfect reptilian death machine, which was about the size of a turkey and covered head-to-toe in wonderful feathers; Velociraptor. We’re going to be looking at what these arms looked like and how they would have been held.  Now, if you’d please do your best impersonation of a Velociraptor. If you’re anything like my younger self, it might look a bit like this:

(I draw DINOSAURS, NOT PEOPLE, OKAY???) Now, this is all very well and good, but the standard “raptor hand” is not quite right. This is because you are doing something no Velociraptor could ever do: pronating your wrists.  Pronation is where the radius twists over the ulna, allowing the palm of the hand to face toward the floor. You can do it very easily. Velociraptors, however, like all Theropod Dinosaurs, were incapable of doing this. Their palms would have faced inwards, as if they were about to do a karate chop. Below I’ve drawn a Velociraptor arm with the skeletal elements superimposed. I’ve also colour coded them just for you!

See that the back of the hand faces outward, and the palms would have faced eachother.  You might also notice that my Velociraptor has something more akin to a wing than an arm. This is because many Theropods would have had feathers. Velociraptor is very closely related to living birds, and that fact combined with physical evidence of quill knobs (where long, pennaceous feathers attach. This feature is found in birds, too) on Velociraptor’s ulna, as well as actual preserved feathers in many of Velociraptor’s relatives, would lead us to believe that not only did Velociraptor have feathers, but that these feathers would have been varied and complicated. 

Here I’ve done a side-by-side comparison of what the arm of Velociraptor may have looked like and a “Velociraptor” arm one might see in a film or a cartoon or five-year-old me’s sketchbook.  Not only is the one on the left more accurate, it also looks better. Almost as if it might have belonged to a real animal that actually existed on planet Earth. Astonishing! Anyway, let’s go into a bit more detail on those feathers.

Here’s a diagram, colour coded because I’m handy like that, showing a likely arrangement of the feathers on Velociraptor’s arm. The feathers would, like in modern birds, overlap in a complicated manner in order to prevent their being damaged when the arm was moved.The secondariy coverts always fold over the primary coverts, and the secondary remiges (remiges are the large feathers forming the edge of the wing) always fold over the primary remiges , although the primary coverts fold over the secondary remiges. I’d recommend using diagrams as reference until you think you have a pretty good grasp of the layout (I know I certainly dont!). And finally, this brings us to colour (warning; lots and lots of nerdy text.) In previous Art Corners I’ve stated that in protofeathers, quills, pycnofibres, and other integumentary structures, bright colours like blues and greens are unlikely, as the pigment that expresses those colours probably didn’t occur in many of those structures. This would mean that browns, blacks, whites, rusts, and other earthy colours are most likely in many feathered Dinosaurs, Velociraptor included.  “But some birds are blue and green!” you interject from somewhere in the back row. And you have a valid point. Although Bird feathers lack blue and green pigments (with the exception of parrots and turacos, which have blue and green pigments) they sometimes have something called “structural colour”. This means that they have microscopic structures on the surface of the feathers that are iridescent. These iridescent blues and greens are great for socio-sexual displays, and can be seen in many living birds.  “But some birds are bright pink! Or vibrant yellow!” you shout, more confidently this time, from the back. And you’re right again. Many birds sequester pigments called carotenoids from photosynthetic organisms like plants and fungi or from some sea creatures, which do not produce carotenoids, but also sequester them from photosynthetic organisms, and can express these pigments in their plumage. Carotenoids are responsible for bright pinks, reds, yellows, and oranges. Now, it is possible that Velociraptor could have expressed colours in its plumage through either of these methods. However, Velociraptor was a predator living in a desert, so the only purposes for bright colour would have been display, and bright colours would likely prove disadvantageous to Velociraptor, so despite the possibility that Velociraptor could have had bright, exciting colours, I will chose to use drabber, brown-ish colours when adding colour to the wing.

And that’s that! I’m sure there’s a bunch of things I missed out, so if you have any questions or suggestions for future Art Corners, feel free to message me here, or to message the PalaeoVerse crew here. Thank you for reading! Sorry for such a specific post, but I was a little short for time. Anyway, go draw some Velociraptors! See you next time! ~Jack.

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How I wish I could get those!

IGN released these images of the exclusives Nickelodeon will have for sale at San Diego Comic Con. It’s been hard to keep this awesome 11″ Chief Beifong pre-painted PVC kit a secret! Our friends and Korra crew alum Mel and Alan started a cool company called Zwyer Industries. They’ve been hard at work making this Beifong as badass as possible. The sculpt was based on a pose drawn by Lauren Montgomery and Christie Tseng. I did a few rounds of notes on the sculpt, and they did a stellar job. The pictured version is the special one with glossy armor. The matte version is just as cool, in my opinion. Good luck snagging one at SDCC! Look out for more amazing stuff coming from Zwyer Industries and us in the future…

Also for sale is this limited edition “Avatar Generations” print I did, which will be for sale at the Nick booth. You’ll recognize the poses from the stamp I made a few weeks back. I hope it warms your hearts as so many of you have warmed mine and Mike’s!

P.S. You can see some more photos of the Beifong statue here: http://www.zwyerind.com/figure_beifong.html