#I've...I've really got to stop and think about the concept of shape birth if I want to write their backstories huh

[astro-b-o-y-d]

So don't take this as any sort of canon confirmation, because I could absolutely change my mind down the line, but I keep veering towards the idea of how if Bill and Mina hadn't been born as twins, they would've been born as one complete rhombus.

Again, don't take this as any sort of confirmed concept, it's just one I keep finding myself drawn to and one I kinda like.

[writingdesknashu]

The Other Side of Myth Chapter 47 Conceptualization Post

Hello, welcome once again to Lord Nashu's writing desk. Where I shuffle the mess around and give you a look at the mind behind my creative process. It's been a couple of weeks since The Other Side of Myth Chapter 47 came out, and while I've been a little down in the dumps, I think it's long overdue time for a Writing Concept post about this chapter!

Starting this off...

A Strike Against the Seed of an Empire is just a great title. Back in the day, I couldn't write until I knew what the chapter title was. I don't think that changed, though I do change them later title if I don't like them after all. This was not one of those cases though. I needed a chapter title that said, "Diana's fighting in this one." but also one that said, "Things are kicking off." Rocwen is a new character from this draft, introduced to bridge the plot of Kiara's world with the rest of the story. As such he represents a shifting in the global space. The party isn't just fighting to stop the Yoshiki Sect in this arc, they're fighting to stop the birth of the Yoshiki Empire. But he also represents...

World Building

Because Rocwen is old. As the story goes on, readers will come to know that Magdalea and Nandaxia are pretty old worlds themselves, that have been through several phases before this current point. Rocwen comes from a phase when the Serpent Dynasty (now called the Orchid Triumvirate) had a strong chance of being one of the rulers of the world. He was essential to that too, serving as an ally that anti-demon magic and tools couldn't best. We got a bit of this from him in some of the previous chapters, establishing how demons were once the ruling body of the Dynasty, and how Jade Warden (the triumvirates demon slayers) were once one of the many forces trying to dismantle the dynasty.

In this chapter, we get more about how he lived during those times, sharing his bed with beautiful women and thinking about one beautiful man in particular. Ruelin, who is also new to this draft, was more a scholar at the time, and what he teaches Rocwen leans into an overarching narrative of how the stories magic system shaped the world. We also get mention of the Spirit Princess again, though don't pay too much attention to her. Make a note, but don't pay too much attention. The main focus of this chapter is what knowledge about magic can help you do, which brings us to Diana and...

Runic Magic

Runic magic is something I've been thinking about introducing since the second draft, but I didn't really know if I wanted to implement it heavily into the story. As I moved forward to this one, I got to thinking about how each culture formed their magic understanding differently, and for Diana's homeland of Nithellan (one part of the Greenlands.) magic was formed through runes. There's some deep lore to that, but on the surface of it, I knew I didn't want it to be an unknown language. Magic's earliest stage in the world was more wild, so I wanted runes to reflect that. I also wanted them to reflect that scholars in Nithellan thought they were a language. My decision was to lean into iconographic languages, rather than phonetic ones. The way runes are strung together as tunes or ballads is meant to invoke this idea that each rune is a picture that comes together to tell the story of a spell.

How do you tell that story? I implied it at best in this chapter, since Diana does her work then goes to the fight, but the idea is that each rune has to have some sort of narrative bond. Take these for example:

Carefully drawn with a mouse in paint, you see what I'll call the narrative principle of runic magic. The direction doesn't matter, but the order does. Diana tries writing the second runic tune first, but out of order. The top is medium growth the bottom is mountainous blast. Before the eureka hits her, she just knows what this runes do, not what they symbolize so she writes it as "mountain blast->medium growth." which can't form a narrative principle. As it's written here though it goes "medium growth->mountainous blast." and the principle can be read like, "Something grew into an strong blast." The "something" is usually energy, but that mostly goes without saying.

"Well, daring Lord Nashu, why couldn't it be read as "the blast grew into something strong?" Because the runes have to "capture" the energy first. Worth note, the first tune has a different narrative structure. "The sea launched a blast of lightning." Illustrating a principle of observing a storm. There's some meat in there about how tunes differ in their structure based on the period they were written in. The left being more primal while the right is more mechanical. But we could sit here and talk about runic principle all day! We shouldn't though, because we still haven't talked about...

The Fight

Having both thought about how their knowledge of magic can help them grow stronger, Diana encounters (Scarecrow Spirit) Rocwen and the battle starts. There's quite a bit of world building in the banter too. Like Rocwen calling Diana's homeland the "old Angel country." And how that tells her immediately how old he must be. There's also how he notes that mages nowadays don't need to use incantations, nor need someone to protect them. That leans into a central narrative of OSoM about how "Magic on Magdalea progressed like Technology on Nandaxia." Pulleys and levers go from being human powered to machine powered, but magic. I like it though, as well as how the fight itself plays out.

Rocwen shows how scary he is through how he effectively makes the scarcrow spirit's body his own. He has essentially become that spirit and can effectively use its fear magic against Diana. Diana for her part knows that fear magic is mostly in the mind and tries to calm herself, but also knows the fear is triggered by your perception. It doesn't do her a lot of good when the fear pollen gets into her system, but that strange detection ability of hers comes up again, letting her detect Rocwen without having to perceive him.

Combining her new runic knowledge with the sealing techinique Keigo taught her before, she uses Striker Drumming: Second Verse to overcome Rocwen's lesson in magic, but not quite stop his plans. Still, things are underway as she sends a note to the others. And Diana takes a step closer to being strong enough to find her older sister....

Overall?

I was satisfied with everything I did in this chapter, managing to check a lot of boxes that I wasn't even aware of. As I use Rocwen more I come to better establish parts of the world, and I like that this arc has changed from just a battle with demons (as it was in previous drafts) into a battle that fills in the blanks of the Serpent Dynasty/Orchid Triumvirate. More of those blanks will be filled in as the arc goes on. Meanwhile, Diana takes a step further in her journey, and considering what i have planned for her, I'm easily excited.

This post ended up being pretty hefty though...so let's close this off. When I clear things off on the writing desk, I would be delighted if you were to join me, once again.

[kavouras]

Magic isn't real - But it does exist!

Now this might be a bit of a touchy subject, so keep in mind, these are just my personal thoughts about this. If they don't align with yours, that's cool. I just wanted to throw this out into he big internet soup of thought.

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Magic is quite a weird concept when you think about it. It can do supposedly anything, from talking to gods and ancestors, to cultivating a perfect garden, to just getting a good parking spot. Magic is one weird powerful thing. But what even is it??

Now normally with these kinds of things people stop short and say "don't question it" or "it's incomprehensible, you won't be able to understand even if you try". But I got stinky nerd brain ok? I'm not satisfied without a proper explanation. And after a good while of living this sorta lifestyle that I have, I think I've found a mindset that makes everything fit into place for me!

My personal definition of magic is: "The connection between consciousness and the reality it resides in."

So what does that mean in broader terms? Basically, as the Minecraft end poem says, "you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code; and the universe said I love you because you are love." (Wow, real cringe using content from a videogame buddy. SHUSH I KNOW. But go really read the rest of that poem. It's really beautiful). Magic is your experience as a randomly created conscious machine. It appears when you touch, sense, and exist in the world. It is there in your parents, birth, life, transformations, death, and rot. Magic is the act of the conscious experience.

But at the same time, magic itself isn't real. It is not tangible, measurable, or perfectly replicatable. But it clearly exists! We can feel it! Sense it!! Know it!!! Just like our thoughts, they are fully influenced and shaped by reality but they are not reality. Things that happens in your mind do not directly happen in the real universe, however they can influence it by sparking feelings and actions.

When we utilize magic, we are utilizing our consciousness. We meditate, using our senses to focus on our surroundings and body. We dream, astral project, and reality shift, to different imagined places in our mind to explore our inner beyonds. We commune with deities/ancestors, talking to ourselves from different perspectives using our memories and stories. We create spells, to remind ourselves that the universe will give us what we wish when the time comes so we'll be on the look out for opportunity. We practice divination, to give ourselves perspectives we've never considered before. We carry crystals, because they remind us that we're secure and more in control of our emotions/mental states. We use astrology to find thinking/social patterns in ourselves and others. And much much MUCH more! The list just keeps going on, I gotta stop.

Magic itself can't be studied as a science because it is not real. But it is essentially science. Kinda confusing I know. But think about things like philosophy, biology, archeology, psychology. These studies could all be considered magic. It is us experiencing the universe, studying it, testing it, practicing it, trying to find out how all of this even works. Because ultimately, the more you know, the less you know. The universe is just one big puzzle that our great ape brains would just love to solve.

I like to imagine there are two forms of magic on top of the basic "consciousness experience" magic. Passive and Active.

Studying the universe (that includes you) and learning about how it all works, just sitting back and observing. Simply questioning why things are the way they are and trying to satisfy own own hungry desire for answers. That's passive magic.

Active magic would be using that knowledge for our benefit. Things like making placebos and practicing introspection for our wellbeing, or making compost for our plants, or remembering the stories of the past to use in the present.

Magic is ingrained in everything we are, do, and feel. It is intangible, seemingly infinite, and nearly impossible. So yeah it's not real. It's not a part of reality. But it is our connection with it. We are real. The universe is real. Magic is not. But we do all exist and by God isn't it wonderful.

[pengychan]

Hey! I've been thinking about writing a oneshot in the flat dreams universe about like in the flatlands just after bill got arrested (with your permission of course) and I was wondering if I can ask a few questions before I start. Two actually. Firstly, do lines have legs? I honestly cant remember. I feel dumb. Second, do they have any means of color at all? Like even very dull pastel colors? Or is it just graytone? Thanks in advanced c:

Oh, that would be amazing! Sure, feel free to do anything you want!

As for Lines having legs, good question! According to Flatland, nobody had limbs at all. Really - no arms or legs or anything, and it’s never explained how they walk or even handle things:

I must omit many matters of which the explanation would not, I flatter myself, be without interest for my Readers: as for example, our method of propelling and stopping ourselves, although destitute of feet; the means by which we give fixity to structures of wood, stone, or brick, although of course we have no hands, nor can we lay foundations as you can, nor avail ourselves of the lateral pressure of the earth.

As it was directly contradicted by both Bill and Kryptos having limbs - and plus, of course, me not knowing how to possibly write something like it in a way that made sense; same reason why my version of Flatland isn’t quite 2-dimensional - I decided to just drop that point.

So yes, I imagine Lines to have legs, much as Shapes like Bill do (though now the thought of them hopping all the time on one leg is making me giggle like an idiot).

As for colors, nope! They had absolutely no color - only black, white and grayscale. That was it. Dull place. People didn’t even have the concept of color, and couldn’t imagine it - much like you and I can’t imagine a color that doesn’t exist. Explaining them color would have been like trying to describe, say, green to someone who has been blind since birth.