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p-seduonym · 2 months ago

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Switched At Birth (Part Eight)

A/N: I'm alive! I swear. I was just sick for a bit. Also, I had writer's block so I'm not really happy with this. Regardless, hope you like it! Also, if you're new, hi and welcome! I got this idea from @luludeluluramblings's Switched at Birth Au. Check it out and give them some love!

Taglist (I'll add you if you ask):@von-jour, @holylonelyponyeatingmacaroni, @kenyummy, @bunniotomia, @ch1cky-093, @toxicthotsyndrome68, @cynniee, @icefox8155, @eyeless-kun, @c4xcocoa, @ed15fashionista, @yourtypicalhuman09, @fightmebissh. @tsuniio, @fantasyhopperhea, @type-ink, @dirtydiavolo, @colorfulgardenerduck, @seemeee3, @ironsaladwitch, @yumeravenclaw, @jjsmeowthie, @snowy-violet, @wizzerreblogs, @ratterpatter, @gremlin-dumpster-fire-art, @anonymoustext, @a-heavenly-hell, @holderoflostmemories, @ilovecoffe0

Yandere!Batfam X Switched! Fem! Reader X Yandere!Wayne!OC

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

It was rare for Tim to not know something.

From the mundane to the extraordinary, he always had to be the first to know.

So Melissa’s recent escapades didn’t slip under his radar, even if they registered less than a ping.

As the rows of monitors blinked with surveillance feeds, data scans, and live social media aggregators, Tim considered the grainy photos halfheartedly. Barbara sat at her command chair, typing rapidly as he sipped his mug of coffee behind her.

Leaning back, Barbara pointed out with an arched eyebrow, “See this one? Melissa Wayne spotted riding through Crime Alley on a bicycle. With some girl in cat socks. Whole city’s losing its mind.”

Tim took another sip from his mug. “Yeah. I clocked it about thirty minutes ago. Midtown cameras picked them up—she’s been with the same girl a few times now. Thrift shop, old diner, now the conservatory.”

“And? Not even remotely curious?” Barbara joked with a smirk.

“Please,” He scoffed, “Gotham latches onto any Wayne with a pulse and a hobby. It’s a media Rorschach test. People are just projecting”

“Yeah, but this is Melissa we’re talking about. No offense, but she's not exactly popular. Specially in the media”

“It’s noise, Babs. A bored city sees a couple photos and gets excited. Unless she suddenly manifests laser eyes or starts dating a Falcone, it’s not mission-critical.”

Barbara, still typing, narrows her eyes slightly at the screen, “Uh huh. And what if it is something? That building they went into tonight—zoning says it hasn’t been structurally sound in over a decade. Can’t imagine any reason they’d go there”

He sighs and sets down his mug before inquiring “What? You think it’s a hidden op or something?”

“I think Melissa has never done anything unpredictable in her life–until now. And it might be because of that girl”

She paused suddenly. This didn’t go unnoticed by Tim, as he watched her pull up the footage of a Midtown surveillance camera. The screen displayed a paused image: Melissa on the back of a bike, smiling. It was a soft sort of smile, one that Tim couldn’t remember off the top of his head and that left him somewhat uneasy. The girl pedaling throws a glance over her shoulder, eyes sharp, grin crooked.

“...She looked at the camera,” Tim frowned slightly.

“Now you’re curious?” Barbara chuckled.

“Curious, maybe, but not concerned”

When Melissa gently eased herself through the crack of the front door, she paused for a moment and looked back over her shoulder. Even from the distance covering the front gate of Wayne Estate and the front porch, she could see you pedaling down the paved path.

A small childish part of her wanted to call out to you, but she bit her tongue. Instead she pacified herself with the promise you made:

“I’m gonna be honest with you Mel, it’ll probably take a bit before I’m “gala-ready”. But I swear I will be before we go, alright?”

The gala was still weeks away, but you looked so sincere that Melissa couldn’t do anything but believe you.

So, still wind tousled, Melissa turned back to enter the manor. A small smile, secretive yet content graced her face. Her fingertips gently brushed the scrunchie tied snuggly around her wrist.

That is until she saw Damian, seated at the base of the grand staircase, arms folded, shadowed by the low amber light of the chandelier. His posture was still, but coiled. Watching.

Melissa felt her smile drop.

“You’re late” He said it like she was inconveniencing him.

She blinked slowly at him which only made him grow more exasperated.

“I didn’t know you were waiting for me” She answered cautiously but truthfully, slinking closer as if not to startle him.

Damian rolled his eyes, “It’s not normal for you to be out this late. Or to be that close to Crime Alley”

Her eyes widened, “How did–”

“Please, did you think your little escapades went without notice? Those morons in the media are fixated on the two of you.”

She recoiled at his mention of you. You weren’t supposed to be in their sights.

Not yet, anyway.

Melissa fidgeted under his gaze, idly twisting the hair tie on her wrist.

“I didn’t think it’d upset you that much”

“I’m not upset. I’m alert.”

A pause grew between the two siblings before she sighed. It was that typical pitiful sigh, like she bore all the weight of the world’s brudens.

That same annoying sigh.

“I’m sorry I worried you.” She said it in such a rehearsed way, “I just went out with…with a friend”

“I wasn’t worried,” He stressed. “I was concerned for the Wayne name and how your actions would affect it.”

Melissa nodded as if she understood, but he knew she wasn’t listening. Her eyes were glazed over and stared at him as if he was a clueless child. It irked him even more.

“You. You’re hiding something”

That seemed to grab her attention. Her eyes flicked to meet his, even if they still looked forlorn.

“...isn’t everyone?” She acquiesced, in a hushed voice.

Another pause followed before he stood and pivoted in place. As he ascended the stairs, Damian stated flatly.

“Whatever it is, keep it to yourself. Don’t be a nuisance”

While he climbed, he added.

“To us, or her”

Watching him walk off, Melissa’s face remained fixed.

Her thoughts, however, quickly curdled.

“Damn brat” Hissed in the back of her head when she reached her room.

It was rather simple to play the pitiful, hopeless forgotten daughter. It made her unassuming. No one would think twice about what she did. However, that paranoid cretin seemed hellbent on ruining that. Melissa knew her ploy never worked on him, yet she could not drop it. Out of habit or pride, she continued the charade around him.

But, still, Damian didn’t think much of her. Even now, he likely saw her acting out as a sort of rebellious phase.

That could work.

“A quiet, rebellious girl keeping odd company”, was something that she could play.

Just until she could hit them where it hurt.

A/N: I am legit so tired. If this wasn't that good, I'm not in a great headspace rn. I just wanted to post something for yall this week.

#yandere #yandere blog #yandere core #yandere batfam #yandere batfam x reader #yandere batfamily #yandere batfamily x reader #yandere oc #original character #platonic yandere #familial yandere #romantic yandere #just let me ramble

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patricia-taxxon · 1 month ago

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im used to my own dashboard, so it feels weird going to any other furry art aggregator social media feed and just not seeing any fatfurs there anywhere

#cilantromixture

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bestanimal · 3 months ago

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Round 3 - Reptilia - Columbiformes

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Our next order of birds are the Columbiformes, containing birds commonly known as either “doves” or “pigeons”. It contains one family, Columbidae, with 51 genera divided into 353 species, one of the most diverse families of birds.

Columbiformes are stout-bodied birds with small heads, short legs, relatively short necks, slender bills, and often fleshy ceres. There is no scientific distinction between “doves” and “pigeons”; some columbiformes are simply commonly called “doves” while others are called “pigeons”. Most species have large wings and strong flight muscles, and are some of the strongest fliers of all birds. They are largely herbivorous, feeding on seeds, fruit, and/or foliage. A few species will also eat worms, snails, and insects. Species that feed on seeds tend to be dully colored, while species that feed on fruit are usually colorful. Columbiformes are distributed in almost every terrestrial habitat on Earth, except for the driest areas of the Sahara Desert, Antarctica and its surrounding islands, and the high Arctic.

Columbiformes are known for building rather flimsy nests, using sticks, vegetable matter, and other debris, which may be placed on trees, on rocky ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. The female may either build the nest, with material gathered by the male, or the male builds the nest by himself. A few species nest colonially, others nest in aggregations. Most lay a clutch of one or two white eggs at a time which take 11-30 days to hatch. Both parents care for the young, and both sexes produce "crop milk" to feed their young. This fluid is secreted by a sloughing of epithelial cells from the lining of the crop. Unfledged baby Columbiformes are called “squabs” and are generally able to fly by five weeks old. Fledglings are called “squeakers” once they are weaned, and leave the nest after 25–32 days.

Columbiformes has origins dating back to the Cretaceous, though they did not begin diversifying until after the K-Pg extinction event. Modern Columbids emerged in the Early Miocene.

Propaganda under the cut:

The Domestic Pigeon (Columba livia domestica) was domesticated from the Rock Dove (Columba livia) in the Mediterranean region at least 2000–5000 years ago. They were domesticated for food, ritual sacrifices, and as messengers. One breed, the Homing Pigeon (also known as the Carrier Pigeon), was especially used as a messenger as it was selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distances. Today, pigeon fanciers use Homing Pigeons for long-distance pigeon racing. Released or abandoned Homing Pigeons have turned into large feral populations all over the world, usually in large cities as the domestic birds still depend on humans for food. As the world’s oldest domesticated bird, they are still popular pets, and the bird species most suited for a pet lifestyle, with around 800 breeds in a variety of different shapes, colors, and sizes.

Cher Ami was a male Homing Pigeon known for his military service during World War I. The Domestic Pigeon was awarded a Croix de Guerre Medal, a gold medal from the Organized Bodies of American Racing Pigeon Fanciers, and posthumously became the second recipient of the Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery. His last message saved 194 men who were caught between the Germans and a barrage of friendly fire. Like the two pigeons who had been released before him, Cher Ami was shot down by the Germans. But after several seconds, he managed to take flight again. Cher Ami made it 40 km (25 miles) back to his loft in just 25 minutes, with a gunshot wound through his breast, a blinded eye, and one leg hanging on by a tendon. The Lost Battalion was saved, while medics worked to save Cher Ami’s life. When he recovered enough to travel, the now one-legged bird was put on a boat to the United States, where he retired for two months before his death.

Some populations of European Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) migrate over 5,000 km (3,107 miles) between northern Europe in the summer and tropical Africa in the winter.

The largest living pigeon is the turkey-sized Victoria Crowned Pigeon (Goura victoria) (see gif above) of New Guinea. It is typically 73 to 75 cm (2.4 to 2.5 ft) long, with an average weight of 2.39 kg (5.3 lb). Some specimens may exceed a length of 80 cm (2.6 ft) and a weight of 3.5 kg (7.7 lb).

Meanwhile, the Plain-breasted Ground Dove (Columbina minuta) is one of the smallest columbiformes, at 14.5–16 cm (5.5–6.5 in) long with a weight of 24–42 g (0.85–1.48 oz). The Dwarf Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus nainus) is heavier but shorter, with a total length of 13–15 centimetres (5.1–5.9 in).

Some extinct Columbiformes are some of the most famous recently extinct birds, and extinct animals in general…

The Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was a wild pigeon native only to North America. They were once considered the most numerous birds in North America, with pigeon meat commercialized as cheap food, resulting in mass hunting for decades. The Passenger Pigeon required large breeding flocks in order to reproduce, and as its numbers declined it could not reproduce effectively. Widespread deforestation in the 19th century also destroyed breeding habitat. Martha, considered to be the last Passenger Pigeon, died on September 1 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo. The closest living relatives of Passenger Pigeons are pigeons of the genus Patagioenas, such as the Ruddy Pigeon (Patagioenas subvinacea).

Another famous extinct columbiform is the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus). Dodos were large, flightless pigeons, adapted to the relative absence of predators on the island of Mauritius. It was first recorded by Dutch sailors in 1598, and its relative fearlessness subsequently made it an easy meal for sailors making a “pit stop” on the island. Despite this, the main cause of their extinction was likely the introduction of invasive animals (domestic pigs, macaques, domestic dogs, domestic cats, and rats) to the island, which would have plundered the Dodos’ nests, hunted the Dodos’ chicks, and/or hunted the Dodos themselves. At the same time, humans destroyed the forest habitat of the Dodos. The last widely accepted sighting of a Dodo was in 1662. Even though the rareness of the Dodo was reported already by the 17th century, its extinction was not recognised until the 19th century. This was partly because, for religious reasons, extinction was not believed possible until later proven by Georges Cuvier, and also because many scientists doubted that the Dodo had ever even existed. The bird was first used as an example of human-induced extinction in Penny Magazine in 1833, and has since been referred to as an "icon" of extinction. The Dodo’s closest relative was the also extinct, swan-sized, flightless Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), which shared a similar fate. Their closest living relative is the Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica), which is near threatened.

The Socorro Dove (Zenaida graysoni), which once lived on Socorro Island off the west coast of Mexico, has been extinct in the wild since 1972, with only around 156 existing in captivity. The primary reason for their extinction was the introduction of Domestic Cats to the island. Another reason was the establishment of a military base on the island, and overgrazing due to the introduction of Domestic Sheep. Efforts are underway to breed Socorro Doves for reintroduction into the wild, but the island must first be clear of Domestic Cats and Sheep. Almost all privately owned Socorro Doves, as well as several in the captive breeding program, are likely hybrids between Socorro Doves and Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura). Suspected hybrids are not used for the reintroduction breeding program.

#fav for me because Nicobar Pigeons!#I wanted to write more propaganda about wild species but I’m already super behind on these it’s midnight and I’m tired #animal polls #round 3 #Columbiformes #Reptilia

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theoarfishexpress · 6 months ago

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Anywhere in the world that one can find shallow, sheltered waters that don't freeze over, they will likely find colorful schools of little Millifish. It is not uncommon for these to teem with tens of thousands of individuals, and yet no two of them are the same. Every single Millifish possesses unique coloration, partially inherited, but effectively limitless in potential variety. In waters that they share with their many predators, mottled, camouflaging tones favor survival, and so these individuals are most common. However, rainbow-barred and piebald and solid black and every other description are mixed among them, finding safety in close proximity to their countless schoolmates.

When not among the cover of aquatic vegetation or river rocks, Millifish stick close to each other for shelter, creating very cohesive schools that can resemble a seamless, round, multicolored mass. They tend to spread out more while feeding, pecking at tiny invertebrates and algae, but will quickly consolidate into a blob again when trouble is spotted. When food is abundant or the water warms, males and females alike compete for partners in the school. After pairing up, ideally with a large and persistent mate, the female adheres her sticky eggs to a sheltered surface, and the male fertilizes them. He remains to guard them until they hatch in a few days, after which the fry only have each other for safety, taking several months to reach maturity.

Millifish germ bodies are vaguely fish-shaped themselves, silvery and reflective, and tend to aggregate into masses as they cruise around in search of hosts.

#art #creature design #ballpointpen #sketchbook #germite #germites #fish

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seat-safety-switch · 10 months ago

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I spend a lot of time thinking about how previous generations were bored a lot. Mostly because my phone has a bad battery in it, and I have to do something with the incessant screaming in my brain while it charges every 30 to 40 minutes. Without an aggregate consciousness floating malevolently about three inches from their fingers at all times, they had to find other things to do with their free time.

Once, I tried to detox from all the algorithms, and the headlines, and the screamo ads that wake you up in the middle of the night because some marketing executive has figured out that you're 0.19% more likely to buy something while confused, sweaty, and scared for your life. Friends, I made the brave decision to back over my phone with my car. Sure, it was accidental. I left it down there after taking some beautiful pictures of the rainbow patterns in the pools of oil under the diff. I wanted that social media clout, as I'm sure you also do. Then I got in, found that reverse was miraculously working this week, and in my excitement – crunch.

I lasted about a weekend, honestly. Not because I was weak and wanted to get back to the endless series of hearts and circular arrows, but because the local thrift store had shovelled a pile of year-old smartphones into their dumpster out back. When I jumped in there to try and dig around for copper, I accidentally caught a couple of them in my pockets. Still, I had to wait for a good hour or so, hiding in the dark until the security guard went away, which gave me a chance to realize what the folks of yore used to do in order to stay amused: committing meaningless property crimes.

Reassured that I was not "addicted" to the modern miracle of instantaneous connection to an endless feed of complete dumbasses, I returned home triumphant. And then spent the rest of the evening scrolling an endless feed of complete dumbasses. Look at this one. He thinks dumpster diving should be illegal. Go touch glass, buddy.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months ago

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When prophecy fails, election polling edition

In Canto 20 of Inferno, Dante confronts a pit where the sinners have had their heads twisted around backwards; they trudge, naked and weeping, through puddles of cooling tears. Virgil informs him that these are the fortunetellers, who tried to look forwards in life and now must look backwards forever.

In a completely unrelated subject, how about those election pollsters, huh?

Writing for The American Prospect, historian Rick Perlstein takes a hard look at characteristic failure modes of election polling and ponders their meaning:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-09-25-polling-imperilment/

Apart from the pre-election polling chaos we're living through today, Perlstein's main inspiration is W Joseph Campbell 2024 University of California Press book, Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in US Presidential Elections:

https://www.ucpress.edu/books/lost-in-a-gallup/paper

In Campbell's telling, US election polling follows a century-old pattern: pollsters discover a new technique that works spookily well..for a while. While the new polling technique works, the pollster is hailed a supernaturally insightful fortune-teller.

In 1932, the Raleigh News and Observer was so impressed with polling by The Literary Digest that they proposed replacing elections with Digest's poll. The Digest's innovation was sending out 20,000,000 postcards advertising subscriptions and asking about presidential preferences. This worked perfectly for three elections – 1924, 1928, and 1932. But in 1936, the Digest blew it, calling the election for Alf Landon over FDR.

The Digest was dethroned, and new soothsayers were appointed: George Gallup, Elmo Roper and Archibald Crossler, who replaced the Digest's high-volume polling with a new kind of poll, one that sought out a representative slice of the population (as Perlstein says, this seems "so obvious in retrospect, you wonder how nobody thought of it before").

Representative polling worked so well that, three elections later, the pollsters declared that they could predict the election so well from early on that there was no reason to keep polling voters. They'd just declare the winner after the early polls were in and take the rest of the election off.

That was in 1948 – you know, 1948, the "Dewey Defeats Truman" election?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Defeats_Truman

If this sounds familiar, perhaps you – like Perlstein – are reminded of the 2016 election, where Fivethirtyeight and Nate Silver called the election for Hillary Clinton, and we took them at their word because they'd developed a new, incredibly accurate polling technique that had aced the previous two elections.

Silver's innovation? Aggregating state polls, weighting them by accuracy, and then producing a kind of meta-poll that combined their conclusions.

When Silver's prophecy failed in 2016, he offered the same excuse that Gallup gave in 1948: when voters are truly undecided, you can't predict how they'll vote, because they don't know how they'll vote.

Which, you know, okay, sure, that's right. But if you know that the election can't be called, if you know that undecided voters are feeding noise into the system whenever you poll them, then why report the polls at all? If all the polling fluctuation is undecided voters flopping around, not making up their mind, then the fact that candidate X is up 5 points with undecided means nothing.

As the finance industry disclaimer has it, "past performance is no guarantee of future results." But, as Perlstein says, "past performance is all a pollster has to go on." When Nate Silver weights his model in favor of a given poll, it's based on that poll's historical accuracy, not its future accuracy, because its future accuracy can't be determined until it's in the past. Like Dante's fortune-tellers, pollsters have to look backwards even as they march forwards.

Of course, it doesn't help that in some cases, Silver was just bad at assessing polls for accuracy, like when he put polls from the far-right "shock pollster" Trafalgar Group into the highly reliable bucket. Since 2016, Trafalgar has specialized in releasing garbage polls that announce that MAGA weirdos are way ahead, and because they always say that, they were far more accurate than the Clinton-predicting competition in 2016 when they proclaimed that Trump had it in the bag. For Silver, this warranted an "A-" on reliability, and that is partially to blame for how bad Silver's 2020 predictions were, when Republicans got pasted, but Trafalgar continued to predict a Democratic wipeout. Silver's methodology has a huge flaw: because Trafalgar's prediction history began in 2016, that single data-point made them look pretty darned reliable, even though their method was to just keep saying the same thing, over and over:

https://www.ettingermentum.news/p/the-art-of-losing-a-fivethirtyeight

Pollsters who get lucky with a temporarily reliable methodology inevitably get cocky and start cutting corners. After all, polling is expensive, so discontinuing the polls once you think you have an answer is a way to increase the enterprise's profitability. But, of course, pollsters can only make money so long as they're somewhat reliable, which leads to a whole subindustry of excuse-making when this cost-cutting bites them in the ass. In 1948, George Gallup blamed his failures on the audience, who failed to grasp the "difference between forecasting an election and picking the winner of a horse race." In 2016, Silver declared that he'd been right because he'd given Trump at 28.6% chance of winning.

This isn't an entirely worthless excuse. If you predict that Clinton's victory is 71.4% in the bag, you are saying that Trump might win. But pollsters want to eat their cake and have it, too: when they're right, they trumpet their predictive accuracy, without any of the caveats they are so insistent upon when they blow it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDlo7YfUxc

There's always some excuse when it comes to the polls: in 1952, George Gallup called the election a tossup, but it went for Eisenhower in a landslide. He took out a full-page NYT ad, trumpeting that he was right, actually, because he wasn't accounting for undecided voters.

Polling is ultimately a form of empiricism-washing. The pollster may be counting up poll responses, but that doesn't make the prediction any less qualitative. Sure, the pollster counts responses, but who they ask, and what they do with those responses, is purely subjective. They're making guesses (or wishes) about which people are likely to vote, and what it means when someone tells you they're undecided. This is at least as much an ideological project as it is a scientific one:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-09-23-polling-whiplash/

But for all that polling is ideological, it's a very thin ideology. When it comes to serious political deliberation, questions like "who is likely to vote" and "what does 'undecided' mean" are a lot less important than, "what are the candidates promising to do?" and "what are the candidates likely to do?"

But – as Perlstein writes – the only kind of election journalism that is consistently, adequately funded is poll coverage. As a 1949 critic put it, this isn't the "pulse of democracy," it's "its baby talk."

Today, Tor Books publishes VIGILANT, a new, free LITTLE BROTHER story about creepy surveillance in distance education. It follows SPILL, another new, free LITTLE BROTHER novella about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/26/dewey-beats-truman/#past-performance-is-no-guarantee-of-future-results

#pluralistic #prognostication #polling #uspoli #elections #pollsters #fivethirtyeight #nate silver #george gallup #rick perlstein #history #past performance is no guarantee of future results #W Joseph Campbell #Lost in a Gallup

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literaryvein-reblogs · 9 months ago

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Some Worldbuilding Vocabulary

Abeyance: When the audience temporarily suspends their questions about made-up words or worldbuilding details with the implicit understanding that they will be answered later in the story.

Absorption: The two-way street wherein the audience is immersed in the created world and is picking up the author’s metaphoric building blocks to recreate the concept in their head.

Acculturation: When an adult assimilates into another culture.

Additive: When something has been added to a secondary world, usually in the form of magic or fantasy species.

Affinity: A kinship pattern wherein the familial bond is based upon marriage.

Aggregate Inconsistencies: When audiences pick up internal inconsistencies not within the same story but from multiple sources within the shared universe.

Anachronism: Details that do not conform to their time period or culture.

Analogue Culture: Real-life cultures that the creator emulates in their work and then applies their fantasy conceits to.

Ancestor Worship: The belief that deceased ancestors still exist, are still a part of the family, and can intervene within the living world on their descendants’ behalf.

Animism: The belief that all objects, creatures, and places are imbued with a spiritual essence.

Apex Predator: The predator at the top of a food web that no other creature naturally feeds upon. Two apex predators cannot exist in the same niche.

Apologetics: In worldbuilding, the attempt to explain inconsistencies in terms of existing canon.

Appropriated Culture: Using a culture as a whole that the creator is not a member of. Different from an analogue culture in that the analogue is changed by the creator and used respectfully.

Artifacts: In worldbuilding, the observable ways a culture behaves due to their cultural worldview. This can include politics, economics, religion, education, arts, humanities, and linguistics, along with many other cultural norms.

Ascendant: In worldbuilding, a world that the magic is increasing in power and influence.

Assimilation: When an individual rejects their original culture and adopts the cultural norms and beliefs of the dominant culture.

Author Authority: When an author demonstrates expert-level knowledge in a field to their audience.

Author Worldview: What Mark J. P. Wolf calls “not only the ideas and ideologies of the world’s inhabitants, but also those which the author is expressing through the world’s structure of events.”

Autocracy: A government in which supreme power concentrates in the hands of one individual or polity.

Avatar: The embodiment of a deity in another form, usually humanoid.

B-C

Bible: In the field of television writing, a series guidebook that usually includes the pitch, character descriptions, a synopsis, as well as worldbuilding details.

Biome: The vegetation and animals that exists within a region. Terrestrial biomes include: forest (tropical, temperate, or boreal), grassland, desert, and tundra.

Black Box: In information processing, when a system is viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs without any understanding as to its internal workings.

Bottom-Up: In design, where the granular, base elements of the system are created first, then grouping them together into larger constructs over and over until a pattern forms. Also known as “pantsing” in writing and worldbuilding because the creator is building by the seat of their pants.

Callback: From standup comedy where the punchline in a joke used earlier in the set is alluded to again, eliciting another laugh from the reframing of what was already familiar.

Canon: The core doctrine for the world when conflicting information arises. Usually what the original creator made takes canonical precedence over subsequent additions.

Capitalism: The economic system wherein individuals own the means of production.

Chekhov's Gun: Often understood to mean that something must be introduced previously if it will have significance later in a narrative, but meant by the playwright that nothing should be included in the story that is not completely necessary.

Climate: The temperature and rainfall in regions over approximately 30 years. Classified as tropical (high temperature and high precipitation), dry (high temperature and low precipitation), temperate (mid temperature and mid precipitation), continental (in the center of large continents with warm summers and cold winters), and polar (low temperatures and low precipitation).

Commercial Fiction: The style of fiction that includes all genre fiction, the aim of which is entertainment. Often fast-paced and plot-driven.

Compelling: One of the four Cs of worldbuilding, which deals with how well the core concept and subsequent details maintain audience interest.

Complete: One of the four Cs of worldbuilding, which deals with the sense that the world is lived in, has a sense of history, and continues on even when the story ends.

Complexity Creep: When material gradually grows in complexity over its lifetime, raising the bar of entry for new people experiencing the material for the first time.

Conceits: Where a story deviates from reality. Usually the focus of the fiction by being what the author intends on exploring in their works.

Conlanguage: A constructed language created specifically for a story world.

Consanguinity: A kinship pattern wherein the familial bond is based upon a shared genetic lineage.

Consistent: One of the four Cs of worldbuilding, which deals with how well the material maintains its own internal logic as established by the fantasy conceits.

Constructed World: A fictional world that does not exist but was created by someone.

Continuity: A gestalt term for perception where the mind fills in obvious blanks to make a unified whole.

Convergent Evolution: When two or more species develop analogous features to deal with their environment.

Co-Residency: A kinship pattern wherein the familial bond is based upon shared space.

Cosmology: The study of mapping the universe and our place in it.

Cost: In worldbuilding, when a character must risk or sacrifice something for magic to take effect.

Creative: One of the four Cs of worldbuilding, which deals with how and to what extent the constructed world deviates from the real world.

Credibility Threshold: Where worldbuilding details must only appear plausible to a general audience rather than demonstrating expert-level knowledge.

Cultural Identity: An individual’s self-concept as distinct from others based upon nationality, ethnicity, social class, generation, and locality.

Cultural Universals: Traits, patterns, and institutions prevalent throughout humankind.

Customs: Informal rules of behavior that people take part in without thinking about it.

D-F

Deity: The most powerful of metaphysical entities, deities often exist in pantheons, have thematic powers based upon their roles, and few weaknesses or limitations.

Descendent: In terms of magic, the idea that the most powerful magics are from ages past and that magic is on the decline in terms of power and influence.

Despotism: An economic system wherein an individual or institution controls the laws and resources of an area.

Deus Ex Machina: A plot device in which an unexpected power, event, or deity intervenes to save a hopeless situation.

Differentiation: When one culture forms part of their identity by contrasting themselves with another nearby culture.

Divergent: When the creator alters something in the development of the world but it remains very similar to the real world in every detail but this fantasy conceit. For instance, a world that resembles our own but made up of anthropomorphic animals instead of humans.

Divine: The belief that something is of, from, or like a god.

Democracy: A government in which the people elect a governing body in some fashion.

Early Adoption: When an inventor or culture creates a technology long before their analogue culture did in the real world.

Easter Egg: A hidden message, image, or feature that is meant to be hunted for within the material.

Economics: The study of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

Education: A form of socialization in which we teach the youth what they need to know to become functioning members of society.

Effective Worldbuilding: When (a) the immersive state is never disrupted for the audience, or when (b) the immersive state is disrupted with a positive result.

Element X: N. K. Jemisin’s concept of when fantasy elements diverge from the real world. Similar to fantasy conceits.

Emic: An account of a cultural idea, concept, behavior, or belief documented as if from within the culture.

Empires: Multinational states with political hegemony over other ethnicities, cultures, or nations.

Encyclopedic Impulse: The consumer’s desire to know everything about the world or the author’s desire to expound upon all the worldbuilding details.

Ephemera: Transitionary materials that are not meant to exist for long term, such as advertisements, diary entries, letters, posters, and the like.

Ethnicity: A group that identifies with each other based on presumed similarities such as a shared language, ancestry, history, society, or social treatment within an area. Ethnicities are not dependent upon, but are often associated with, certain taxonomic traits or physiological similarities within those groups.

Etic: When cultural ideas, concepts, behaviors, or beliefs are documented from outside the cultural milieu as a passive observer with an eye for similarities between all cultures

Exsecting: When the creator removes something that exists in the real world from the created world.

Extrapolation: In worldbuilding, the belief that any fantasy conceit should be followed to its natural conclusion.

Face Validity: When worldbuilding detail appears believable upon immediate examination. See Credibility Threshold.

Fan Service: Material included in a story that serves no narrative purpose other than to please fans.

Fantasy Conceit: What the creator intends to explore in the world, it is where the constructed world deviates from the real world, usually in the form of geography, biology, physics, metaphysics, technology, or culture.

Fantasy Function: When analogue cultures are filtered through fantasy conceits to populate the created world with its output details.

Fetishes: Items imbued with cultural significance and power.

First Principles: Core belief and value systems within a culture that are often unconscious until confronted.

Flavor Text: Texts within stories, video games, role-playing games, and action figures that add depth by providing a sense of history but do not alter the game mechanics or story in a substantial way.

Feudalism: An economic system wherein there is a division between the lords that protect the vassals that work the land in exchange for protection.

Four Cs of Worldbuilding: See Creative, Complete, Consistent, and Compelling.

G-L

Gender: A social construct of how cultures differentiate the sexes.

Generalist: When every individual in a society has the same basic job, which is providing their daily caloric intake. A staple of hunter and gatherers and in contrast to specialists.

Generation: A social cohort group based around the period in which children grow up, become adults, and bear children of their own. Because of this shared timeframe and significant events in their lives, generations often share a similar worldview within the general culture.

Genre Expectation: The qualities audiences expect of their genres to be considered successful, i.e. is the thriller thrilling or the romance romantic. For fantasy and science fiction, the genre expectation is worldbuilding.

Goldilocks Zone: The habitable zone around a star where the temperature is right for water to exist in liquid form.

Group: Two or more individuals who share a collective sense of unity via interacting with each other because of shared similar characteristics.

Habitat: The ecosystem or ecological community creatures exist in.

Handwave: A writing term for explaining crucial events dismissively with minimal details.

Handwavium: As opposed to the handwave, when everything else in the imagined world fits logically together with the exception of the fantasy conceit, which the audience must then accept to continue on with the story.

Hard Deduction: When there is no narrator and no character bringing the worldbuilding details to the audience’s attention, who must then piece together the world rules based upon the provided details alone.

Hard Impart: When information is imparted to the audience through narrative text, usually through the narrator or the internal thoughts of characters.

Hero Props: Items that are necessary for a scene to take place, making them integral to the story.

Heroic Theory of Invention: When inventors and discoverers of scientific developments are treated as solitary geniuses rather than products of good luck or a part of a team.

High-Concept: A term from the film industry meaning an idea needs lots of background details, usually compiled from the worldbuilding, to be explained for the core concept to be compelling.

Hybrid: (a) In biology, a living thing bred together from two different species, which is not able to produce its own viable offspring. (b) A method the author can employ to get details across to the audience in which it appears they are using a hard or soft impart, but the audience deduces are not correct, which then casts provided information into doubt and adds new nuance.

Iceberg Theory: The theory proffered by Hemingway that so long as the author is aware of the underlying ideas, they can cut away anything from the story and it will still make sense. Usually interpreted to mean one only needs to reveal 10% of worldbuilding details or backstory.

Illusion of Completeness: The sense that the world is complete and that all questions can be answered within it rather than the creator explicitly spelling out all the details.

Immersion: The altered state in which the audience feels they are physically present in a non-physical world.

Ineffective Worldbuilding: When worldbuilding details become obvious to the consumer, thus breaking the sense of immersion and reminding them of the real world. This can be caused by internal inconsistencies or from reality incursions.

Info Dump: A sudden overwhelming quantity of backstory or background information supplied in a short timeframe.

Info Dump Equity: The idea that an author should not reveal worldbuilding information until the audience craves it, thus being able to deliver an info dump without anyone complaining.

In-Group: The other people an individual identifies with. While they may not share the exact worldview, they share the same first principles in understanding the world around them.

Innovation: The drive for change, usually technological, but also socially.

Inside-Out: How audiences process worldbuilding details, in that they pertain to the immediate understanding of the scene, which are then pieced together into an understanding of the world.

Inspired Worldbuilding: The top form of worldbuilding, which invites additional audience interaction via their imagination after the story has concluded.

Institutions: Stable organizations of individuals formed for a shared purpose, usually by performing specific, reoccurring patterns of behavior.

Integration: When an individual adopts the cultural norms and beliefs of the dominant culture while still retaining their original culture.

Interconnection: When the threads of worldbuilding are tied together cohesively. Part of Sanderson’s third law of magic systems.

Interquel: Stories set in an existing world but that do not connect with the original story.

Intraquel: Stories set in an existing world that fill in gaps in the existing story.

Kinship: How social relationships organize into groups, roles, and families. Usually consisting of consanguinity, affinity, or co-residency.

Limitations: Checks put upon magical powers, usually in the form of weaknesses and costs. Sanderson maintains in his second law that limitations are more dramatically important than powers.

Linguistics: The study of languages.

Literary Fiction: The style of fiction that aims for awards, considers itself art, focuses on the prose, and is usually slowly paced.

Locality: The small-scale community in which the individuals in a group grew up, usually comprising of a town, neighborhood, or block, which differentiates them from others in the surrounding area.

M-O

Macroworldbuilding: The first of the stages N. K. Jemisin breaks her worldbuilding process into, which consists of planet, continents, climate, and ecology.

Magic: Change wrought through unnatural means.

Magic Point Systems: Magic systems where the casters have a set amount of energy, usually referred to as mana, to spend on their effects.

Magical Thinking: The belief people can affect change the world around them through thoughts and behaviors.

Mana: A frequent generalized term for the finite resource magic users spend on their magical effects.

Marginalization: When an individual rejects both their original culture and the dominant culture.

Mary Sue/ Marty Sue: Originally a created character for fanfic who has no flaws and is inserted into interactions with the canonical characters. Now an insult leveled at characters consumers don’t like, usually claiming they are overly capable and without flaws.

Masquerade: A term taking from the World of Darkness RPG wherein the existence of magic is hidden from the general populous.

Metaphysics: In worldbuilding, dealing with deities, spirits, cosmology, and the afterlife. In essence, creatures and locations that do not abide by understandings of biology or physics.

Microworldbuilding: The second of the stages N. K. Jemisin breaks her worldbuilding process into, which consists of species, morphology, raciation, acculturation, power, and role.

Monotheism: The belief in a single deity only.

Mystery Box: The theory proffered by JJ Abrams that mystery drives audience interest, which will keep them invested in a story so long as they are promised elucidation later.

Mythopeia: Constructed mythologies, lores, and histories within created worlds.

Nationality: How an individual relates to their state. A component of cultural identity.

Nominal Change: A superficial change in the secondary world that contributes nothing to the worldbuilding.

Norms: What is considered acceptable group behavior and what people should and should not do in their social surroundings.

Oligarchy: A government in which power rests in a small group of people like the nobility, wealthy, or religious leaders.

One-Off: An intentional inconsistency meant to highlight the aberration as separate from the established worldbuilding.

Out-Group: Those that do not share the same collective worldview, which are often mistrusted or viewed with outright hostility.

Overlaid Worlds: Constructed worlds with real-world locations but with the addition of fantasy elements.

P-R

Pantheon: A categorization of collected deities based upon the culture that worships them

Pantsers: Creators who build or write without a clear outcome in mind. See Bottom-Up.

Pidgin Language: A grammatically simplified language used for trade that comprises vocabularies drawn from numerous languages.

Planet of Hats: The trope of treating a species or world as monolithic and with one defining trait.

Planners: Worldbuilders or writers who have a clear plan once they start creating. See Top-Down.

Politics: The decision-making process within groups and individuals involving power structures.

Polytheism: The belief of multiple gods, usually inhabiting a pantheon.

Porcelain Argument: In worldbuilding, the belief that technology stagnates at the level at which magic or a fantasy conceit is introduced.

Portal Fantasy: A subgenre in which the characters from the real world travel to a secondary world.

Prequel: Stories set in an existing world that precede the original story. They do not need to connect to the original story but often do.

Primary Sexual Characteristics: The sex organs used in reproduction.

Primary World: The real world in which we all reside and draw our experience from.

Prime Mover: A conceit that cannot be removed without the story world falling apart.

Profane: Something that is religiously blasphemous or obscene.

Prologue: An opening sequence in a narrative that establishes background details to create context, clarification, and miscellaneous information for the audience

Promise of the Premise: The term coined by Blake Snyder for the point in the story when the setup is complete and it examines its core conceits. An author breaks the promise of the premise when the story is not about the promised core concepts.

Pull Factors: Factors that draw immigrants to an area.

Purple Prose: Descriptions that becomes overly ornate and extravagant, to the point they break the sense of immersion by drawing attention to themselves.

Push Factors: Factors that drive immigrants out of an area.

Race: (a) In biology, a grouping of populations below the level of subspecies, and is rather imprecise in distinguishing the differences between them. (b) In the fantasy genre, usually understood to mean “species.”

Racial Attributes: The assumption that any one fantasy race shares not only certain abilities like flight or the capacity to speak with animals, but certain demeanors, temperaments, and biases.

Reality Incursions: When the outside world interjects itself into the created fantasy experience to remind the consumer that this is indeed a made-up world. They usually occur when the consumer has expert knowledge in a field that is not depicted correctly in the narrative.

Reciprocity: When people respond to actions with similar actions. This can be positive, as in the exchanging of gifts, or negative, as with punitive eye-for-an-eye punishments for crimes.

Relativism: The belief there is no real objective universal truth and that we base all understanding upon perception and consideration.

Religion: The cultural system of behaviors, morals, ethics, and worldview in which humans deal with supernatural, metaphysical, and spiritual conceptions.

Retcon: Short for “retroactive continuity,” the term comes from comic books when previous canon or facts are ignored or contradicted so as to assimilate new stories or understandings in current storylines.

Reverberations and Repercussions: The understanding that any change within a world creates many expected and unexpected changes to the whole.

Rituals: Formal customs often involving gestures, words, and objects performed in a traditional sequence.

Rule of Cool: The understanding that the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its level of “coolness.”

Rule of Law: The idea that laws extend to the lawmakers as well as the general populous.

Rule of Three: In worldbuilding, the concept coined by Randy Ellefson in which an author should alter at least three components of a trope to make it their own.

Saturation: Mark J. P. Wolf’s term for when there are simply too many details for the audience to fully absorb, which he maintains makes the world stronger since it invites the audience to reexperience the material again and again to glean something new each time.

Scarcity: When people put higher value on rare things and assign lesser value to things in abundance.

Secondary Sexual Characteristics: The distinguishing traits that distinguish the sexes, such as human males’ facial hair or females’ breasts.

Secondary World: A created world that does not exist.

Selection: In biology, the preferential survival and reproduction or elimination of individuals with certain traits. Can be either artificial, natural, positive, or negative.

Separation: When an individual rejects the dominant culture in favor of preserving their original culture, which often leads to minority enclaves within the dominant culture

Sequel: Stories set in an existing world that follow the original story. They do not need to connect to the original story but often do.

Set Piece: An iconic scene that exemplifies the story even though it might not actually be necessary to the story itself.

Shamanism: The belief that specific individuals have access to and influence over the spiritual realm, usually derived by ritual and entering altered states.

Show Don't Tell: The understanding that the audience prefers to experience the worldbuilding details and storytelling events in action rather than having them explained.

Smeerp: Unnecessarily renaming something to make it seem exotic. Derived from James Blish’s sarcastic use of the term when describing rabbits.

Smeerp Hole: When one seemingly minor change contributes to a whole slew of other changes on the author’s part that add little to the audience experience as a whole.

Social Class: The hierarchal social stratification of groups, usually manifesting as upper, middle, and lower classes.

Socialism: The economic system in which the workers or government own and manage the means of production.

Socialization: The process in which a group passes on the worldviews, norms, and customs to their children.

Soft Deduction: When a character with knowledge of the worldbuilding takes action based upon specific information to get the worldbuilding rules across to the audience.

Soft Impart: Information presented to the audience not through narrative text but through a trustworthy side character or source. Can often come about from an overheard conversation or explanation from another character.

Specialization: The divisions of labor and creation of occupations when the population does not individually have to account for their daily caloric intake. As opposed to generalist.

Species: A group of living creatures capable of exchanging genetic material and producing viable offspring.

Speculative Fiction: An umbrella term for fiction that inject elements into the story that do not exist in the real world. Fantasy, science fiction, horror, historical fiction, alternative history, and dystopian and utopian fiction are just a few genres that qualify as speculative fiction.

Spotlighted/Lampshaded: A potentially troublesome concept or idea that is intentionally brought to the audience’s attention before it becomes problematic to highlight that it is intended as a fantasy conceit rather than an accidental anachronism.

Stasis: The drive to maintain the current order, be it social, political, or technological.

States: Organized governments overseeing a specific territory that can interact with other states.

Streamlining: Part of Sanderson’s third law of magic in which worldbuilding details should be accounted for by already existing fantasy conceits instead of creating whole new conceits.

Suspension of Disbelief: When an audience makes a choice to suspend their critical faculties to allow for a patently unreal concept to be considered logical for the sake of entertainment.

T-W

Taming: When an animal has been taught to tolerate human presence. As opposed to domestication.

Technobabble: When a character spouts a number of details to establish their expert credentials in the field. Technobabble is not meant to be understood by either the audience or the other characters, only to establish the character’s authority on the subject.

Terra De Facto: The implicit understanding that anything that is not accounted for by a fantasy conceit must therefore abide by the rules of the primary world.

Terrain: The vertical and horizontal proportions of land masses, which includes how high it is above sea level and at what slope.

Theocracy: A government where the religious leaders and practices control the laws in addition to the religious norms and rituals.

Toehold Details: Descriptors that specifically trigger the assumption of an analogue culture and time period, and therefore help the audience to mentally populate the scene.

Top-Down: In design, when the underlying idea or system is formed on a grand scale, then with all subsequent subsystems being added and refined until everything is mapped out. Also referred to as “planner” or “engineer” when it comes to writing or worldbuilding.

Totems: Imbued emblems representing a group of people tied to a specific spirit.

Transmedial: When a story or world exists in multiple mediums.

Tropes: Reoccurring motifs, images, plots, and characterization that exist within a genre.

Unchanged: When the creator does not use a particular fantasy conceit and leaves their created world the same as the real world in regards to this fantasy conceit. See Terra De Facto.

Unobtanium: In engineering, the term used for materials or technologies that do not yet exist but will one day solve current problems. Frequently used in science fiction worldbuilding.

Upmarket Fiction: The style of fiction that aims for creating discussion. It often blends literary and commercial fiction, deals with universal themes, has accessible language, and is character-driven.

Weakness: Limiting factors that diminish the power or the person using it. Part of Sanderson’s second law of magic.

Worldbuilding Capital: Time and mental energy sunk into a world, which is why authors frequently reuse the existing world instead of forming a new one for subsequent stories.

Worldbuilding Kudzu: When too many worldbuilding choke out the pertinent information by sheer volume, thus disrupting immersion.

Worldview: How a society or individual orients their knowledge and point of view towards the world. This includes philosophy, fundamentals, existential postulates, values and ethics, ideology, and attitude. It encompasses the concept of why the world works the way it does and the “correct” way to act within it.

Worship: The act of religious devotion towards a deity or ideal.

Source ⚜ More: Word Lists

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