#also if anything here contradicts canon i'm so sorry. it's been so long since i've played through aa i've forgotten so much ;~;

[aletheialed]

"What do you think, Daddy?"

Trucy's voice sounds so innocent and earnest, but if you look closely, there's strong hint of mischief hidden behind her smile as she shows Phoenix the letter she's holding in her hand. To be precise, it's a love letter, signed anonymously, one that Trucy found mysteriously addressed to her only this morning.

And what would be a better idea than showing Phoenix? Honestly, Trucy doesn't know how he might react at all, but she's sure it'll be well worth seeing his reaction. She is his darling daughter, after all. Though maybe there's a part of her... that's genuinely curious as to his thoughts on it all, too.

"To be honest, I'm not very impressed... but don't you think the effort they put in is worth responding to? I wonder who the writer might be?"

@lawbnd ( starter! )

[callmearcturus]

So since we were given permission to write in the Umbra universe I've had a fic idea kicking around in my head. I wanted to ask your opinion on something before I got too far into it. How do you think Rose's tendency for plotting and wanting to put herself in the best position is going to go as her now being head of Umbra (i assume she'd be renaming it). I'm thinking of writing the story of one of the trolls from the new shipment and I don't wanna fuck with how wonderfully you crafted her character.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been kind of swamped at work.

I'm going to be writing a sort sequely story that explores some of these things, but I plan to finish my weird esoteric magic AU first so here's my thoughts.

Rose post-KTOWL has just been handed a Lot to do. This is very deliberate on Jake's part bc he's a manipulative lil shit 24/7/365. But Rose will be running both the Umbra hotels and also the Undying Umbra outfit. She still answers to Jake and her prime directive from him (which she agrees with) is to work to get all those liabilities off the Umbra's books. Which, given what we all know about the nature of weregild is a fucking tricky task for sure. She has people with contracts she wants to get off the books, but its a lot to manage. She's gonna be busy.

Here's another thought for you. You and I both know Rose thinks of herself as a brilliant strategist and tactician. But in practice, is she really? She spent so long trying to pull strings to get the perfect circumstances to execute her plans that none of them truly came to pass. Which is not to say she's useless or anything, only that she sees herself as a general when really she's a spy and advisor. There's a joke in whomstve canon where Dave asks Rose if does anything except give boys quests and she's like "nothing whatsoever."

So to me, Rose's modus operandi is going to be figuring out operational logistics at the Umbra and fantasizing about killing Jake without putting any plans on paper, so to speak.

But truly, if you are doing a spin off from KTOWL and wanna explore Rose doing something different, by all means go for it! Have fun! It's fine if it contradicts "KTOWL canon" yanno?

[gffa]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I saw there's an entire section dedicated to the SW novels on your page, so I figured you are the best person to ask this to. While I've watched the movies I must admit I'm a newbie in regards to any work that expands the canon universe, but I'm particulary interested in the prequels and especially in learning more on Anakin and Obi-Wan's relationship, so I was wondering if you might be so kind as to give me a few suggestions on which novels I should read? :)

Hello!  That’s absolutely not a bother, I clearly love talking and I enjoy doing recs for things as well!  :D  Keep in mind that I haven’t read everything, so I may be missing some things, but I can absolutely at least get you started!Canon hasn’t explored Obi-Wan & Anakin much in the novels yet (though, I think we’re starting to explore that area), but if you’re okay with reading comics, the Obi-Wan & Anakin five issue mini-series and Age of Republic comics (or at least the Obi-Wan one and the Anakin one) are both really fantastic for exploring them.I would also suggest the Dark Lord of the Sith comic from Charles Soule, which is set post-Revenge of the Sith, it’s about Vader, but he is still very much Anakin Skywalker and it’s a 25-issue long look at his shitty choices, his attempt to deny that he had other paths he could have chosen, and still chose this, that he was too afraid to look at what he’d actually done, so he just keeps going.  (The first Darth Vader comic by Kieron Gillen is also really good, probably one of the best of all the comics, but it’s more centered on the OT and the events that happen there.  Still a fantastic look at his character, but if you’re more into the prequels, Dark Lord of the Sith is more focused on that.)Canon also has Choose Your Destiny - An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure by Cavan Scott, which I’m not fond of the CYA style, but I loved that book very much, it’s such a delight and has Anakin being an absolute human disaster, it has Obi-Wan and Anakin struggling to learn to work together, and, best of all, because Palpatine isn’t around at the moment, they actually have a chance at working things out between them here!In the anthology novel From a Certain Point of View, you should at least read Master and Apprentice by Claudia Gray, Time of Death by Cavan Scott, and There Is Another by Gary D. Schmidt, which all are really good for those characters, and Obi-Wan and Anakin especially.  The rest of the book can be hit or miss (and that’ll depend on who you ask, but I think An Incident Report by Daniel Mallory Ortberg is also a must-read, it is the funniest thing pretty much ever) but those three are really worth reading.The Ahsoka novel is definitely about the titular character making her way through the galaxy during the time of the Empire, but there are some QUALITY flashbacks and thoughts about Obi-Wan and Anakin, so I would absolutely recommend this one, too!  Same for Dark Disciple by Christie Golden, it’s not really precisely about Obi-Wan and Anakin, but they get moments in it, and it’s a continuation of TCW and adapting a story that was going to be part of the show.For Legends, I like Wild Space a ton, it’s not quite a coherent plot (it’s more like two books stitched together and it doesn’t really earn its ending, imo) it’s the single most quotable book I have ever read and I love it because it’s so over the top while still remaining fun.  It’s HIGH FUCKING DRAMA, everyone is dialing it up to like a hundred, Obi-Wan and Anakin can’t go five damn pages without thinking of the other, even when Anakin should be thinking about Padme or Obi-Wan should be focusing on getting out of a jam.  It’s just an absolute scream.  I haven’t read Miller’s other two books, but they’re probably pretty good, too.I also like Labyrinth of Evil (though, I haven’t finished it) by James Luceno, Kenobi by John Jackson Miller (it’s a very slow read with the non-Obi-Wan parts on Tatooine, but the Obi-Wan parts are nicely ouchy about his relationship with Anakin, even after everything that’s happened).  Yoda: Dark Rendezvous is good as far as I’ve read it, though, more focused on Yoda and Dooku, but if you’re interested in the prequels, it’s a great book to read!It’s been awhile since I’ve read the Jedi Apprentice books and they’re very, very obviously written before all of the PT movies were made, much less before The Clone Wars was made, and so I’m not sure I recommend them or the Jedi Quest books (I also have trouble getting into the author’s style), so you can’t really take them for their worldbuilding or that these events happened (because they’re contradicted by stuff that comes later), but I do find that Jude Watson can really write a quotable as hell turn of phrase when she’s on.  So, it’s a half-rec, just with some caveats!  (I would anti-rec anything by Karen Traviss, who has said some pretty awful things IRL, but also clearly haaaaaates Obi-Wan and all of the Jedi, so when she wrote about them, it wasn’t very much fun.)The novelization of the Revenge of the Sith movie by Matthew Stover is also no longer canon, but is an absolute MUST READ for Obi-Wan and Anakin feelings, because they are WILDLY INTENSE in that book and it’s a really fascinating look at both of the characters, Anakin especially.  Shatterpoint by him also gets a rec just for being by the same author!SHORT VERSION:  Start with the Revenge of the Sith novelization and Wild Space, both of them aren’t canon (and often are contradicted by canon) but are FANTASTICALLY ENJOYABLE reads, then the Choose Your Destiny: An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure and the From a Certain Point of View short stories, then Labyrinth of Evil, and then maybe some comics and go from there!  ♥

[script-a-world]

I've been writing an Avatar (the 2009 Jame's Cameron one, aliens ya know?) fanfic recently that has quite a bit of world/culture building. My problem is that I'm sort of flying blind since I don't know much about tribal lifestyles. I've tried to look for some books on the subject but haven't been having much luck. This is a bit of a long shot but would you happen to know any good books (non-fiction preferably) that could give an insight into this sort of culture?

Sorry we took so long to get to this!

A couple of pylons gave good answers, so please take a look at them under the cut! 

constablewrites:

The biggest thing probably hampering your research is that tribes are not a monolith, so "tribal culture" isn't going to yield much info. Narrowing it down to a particular tribe or Nation will yield much more relevant results.

I'm trying to do a bit of digging to see if there was a particular tribe that inspired the Na'vi, but I'm not coming up with much. It seems like Cameron pulled most of his details from generic Native American stereotypes rather than the practices of any individual culture. The only specific reference I've found so far is that the language was partially inspired by Maori.

It doesn't look like WWC has touched on the film directly, but here's a post from them on writing Native American characters: http://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/95592577327/can-you-please-explain-a-little-bit-more-abou

Bina: 

First thing to consider-- this is a fanfic. Your fanfic! Once you've garnered all you can about Cameron's preset worldbuilding, you can embellish and extrapolate all you want so long as it connects well with the pre-existing canon (I'm assuming you want a solid handle on the canon worldbuilding, since your fic expands on the culture of the Na'vi).Think about this less as "writing for a tribal culture" and more "how do I fill in the rest of the puzzle that I was given in a way that's cohesive, logical, and is interesting to me?" The Na'vi's ideology and social structure are a really nice solid framework of "edge pieces" for you to start with  Lucky for us, Cameron gave us a lot of those two things! Use them as a starting point and a reference for how realistically your additions fit with the canon world!

For example, the ideology. The Na'vi place a HUGE importance on coexisting peacefully and eventually merging with the world around them. When they kill an animal for food, they thank it. Upon death, the "spirit" is passed into a tiny piece of the world, a seed, to continue on as a part of nature. They even have those weird hair-connector... thingies that lets them form a psychic bond with animals for an even CLOSER connection to the world around them. And we can't forget about the pseudo-intelligence collective of Eywa that they worship.This sense of coexistance with and massive respect for nature should permeate any bit you add to their culture. It's been established that it's a part of who they are as a people!  That's not to say you should focus entirely on their relationship with the world, but just know how important it is to them and how it shapes the decisions they make and their lifestyles.Now, the social structure. We see that there are two positions of importance in the main tribe (other tribes might possible have different setups). The chief, and the shaman-style woman. You can already throw in worldbuilding such as "the shaman position is always held by a woman, passed down by blood inheritance," or "the shaman chooses a successor from her tribe when she senses she is near death."

There are lots of other positions in the tribe open for filling in. They're pretty easy to come up with once you take into account the world that they're in. They have no technology beyond basic tools (spears, baskets, things that can be made with raw natural materials, paleolithic-level stuff). The world is rich and lush and full of life. They are omniverous. There are a /lot/ of them in one tribe alone. What might they need to sustain themselves in a place like that? Hunters? Gatherers? Warriors? Traders? Scouts for new territories? How does each 'job' see the others? Do they all respect each others' positions? Do the warriors look down on the gatherers? Or does everyone see the importance in ever role in the tribe? Is there a heirarchy or is everyone equal? Are there social benefits to being one thing over another?

When you're worldbuilding, flying blind is perfectly okay! Sometimes you never think to consider a topic until it pops up in your story and suddenly you need to think about it. You can't foresee or prepare for everything in advance. Sometimes things even change, because the story you want to write might conflict with facts or details you thought about prior, and you just really, REALLY want that one thing to happen so screw your previous worldbuilding plans! Whenever I'm adding new information to my worlds, I ask myself these questions, and I encourage you to do the same to make things easier, even when flying blind."Does this new tidbit /actively contradict/ existing facts?" If so, revise the tidbit, or change the things it contradicts to make it work."Do the implications of this tidbit clash with existing culture/ideologies/ideas?" This one's kind of abstract, so I'll give an example. Say I have a race of humble folk who care more for interpersonal relationships and taking care of each other than material wealth. Then I want to bring prosperity to their village, so I have them suddenly discover a ton of gold beneath their village! error they shouldn't care about the existence of gold beneath their feet because of their life values, and wouldn't do anything with that wealth even if they did find it. Of course, they could see the use of having money and use the gold to pay for new shoes for every child or something like that, or maybe one person goes on a selfish streak and betrays the rest of his village by selling them out. Forcing the concept can make for interesting scenarios! But be conscious of the ramifications of anything new you introduce. Sometimes it just doesn't work out and can make the reader go "huh? but I thought that..."

Finally, (and this is part of the fun of worldbuilding, at least for me) what are the /implications/ of the tidbit itself? If you think of a cool new idea and realize just how much it impacts other things, and also the implications of the idea, you can go on a huge, explosive worldbuilding streak. That's happened to me tons of times, where something as simple as "magic only works during the full moon" jumps to "the highest number of crimes must also happen around that time, by opportunistic mages" and then "do people offer insurance that's active during those days to prey on the paranoid?" and "how paranoid DO normal people get during the full moon? Are mages locked up prior to the full moon by their friends and families 'for their own safety?' do mages find this unfair? ARE THERE MAGE RIGHTS PROTESTS? How does the public feel about that? Does the government do anything about it? Who does the gov't favor more?" etc etc etc. Embrace those moments! Taking a moment to think about the impact and implications a new chunk of worldbuilding has on your world can explode into a wonderfully productive time for your fic/story/universe.To actually answer your question I'll give you at least one link to something to read. It's a wikipedia article on the Paleolithic era, particularly human social structure during that time. The level of technological advancement of the Na'vi is about equivalent to that era on Earth, so it should give you a rough idea of what to start thinking about. Being wikipedia, it's a fairly dry and dense read, so my apologies about that...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#Social_organization