#and a very vague concept for a magic system

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Heyy please tell me about your ocs!!! they caught my eye and now I'm interested. Give me the summary or the full dump, either works :3

(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*) I- yea sure gladly!! Though I‘m still a bit new to this whole making characters (with actual character traits) thing so it‘s probably all over the place and not the best, hope that’s not too disappointing

Also prepare for a big info-dump. I tried making it short but it didn’t work. I‘m sorry.

For context, the setting‘s pretty much "standard fantasy rpg but technology is a thing“ (which mostly just means they’re all based on rpg classes lol, it’s why the outfits are so weird), and a bunch of info on all five is spread throughout posts in the "original character do not steal [tm]“ tag

But anyways

There‘s Mage, first oc of this group who kinda started this whole concept, unofficial official main oc and thus the most fleshed out one, and also the only one I actively posted about before which you can find here. In short, he‘s a (usually traveling) merchant with dark magic, lots of secrets, kinda shady but also happy-go-lucky, (so more or less true neutral if we‘re going by alignment charts?),a sad backstory the length of 2 sentences, addicted to knowledge, and really likes to poke jabs at Yel.

Yel is a permanently tired postman with constant :| face who only became one because he lost his Hunter class due to being short-sighted, and this was the next best thing to still roam around the woods freely while being undisturbed. Kept and uses his survivalist skills from that time though, which made him the group medic and also the one bringing back Red others when they get lost. Stickler to rules most of the time, pretty much the only thing that‘ll ever make him disregard them is his loyalty towards people he cares about. And even then it’s quite the internal battle (though he knows which side will always win). Hasn’t actually ever told the others his real name, and isn’t even sure if they’ve realized it yet. As far as he‘s aware, they think Yel is his real name and not a nickname slapped onto him by Mage, and can’t be bothered correcting them. Also doesn’t wanna admit it at all, but secretly enjoys bickering with him because Yel‘s sassy too, he just doesn’t show it.

Red is what happens when you complete a videogame and just keep chillin at the fishing area or building a third house for your twenty Minecraft dogs. Once the picture-perfect hero main character, now she‘s just. Relaxing. World‘s saved, after all! The hero-ing never vanished though, and they don’t bother hiding it, still helping whoever needs it, exploring new places found while getting lost, and pretty much enjoying her time until someone inadvertently ropes them into another great quest because she just can’t say no. Incredibly protective, pretty friendly and chill most of the time, but can’t deal with situations where she can’t be 100% in control. Also, you do. Not. Want. To be a traitor. If you’re standing on the other side, you are an enemy, and enemies get cut down, twice so for daring to lead the people around them on with their lies. Will forgive people who betrayed her though, if they decide to change their mind. But otherwise, Red’s alignment is chaotic good I think? Finds it funny when someone realizes The Hero hasn’t mysteriously vanished or epically sacrificed themselves in the last grand battle like everyone thinks, but is currently hanging upside down from a tree taking photos to fill up their dex.

Deniz kinda started out as an NPC-style character so there’s not much to him, he lives near the sea, flight over fight but will fight with everything he’s got when the first isn’t an option, really good at dealing + commanding people though sudden situations at reflex due to sailing, teaming up with Yel as the navigators of the group, and the first-aid person for serious situations. Not part of the Red-Retrieval club due to being just as prone to exploration, though. They kinda enable each other. Doesn’t care about rules unless he sets them up himself, because unlike other rules, he knows his own are there for survival, and you better listen to him. If something happens because you didn’t, that’s on you, and only you. But if something happens because you did listen to him, that’s equally on him, and he will carry that guilt alone. (So more of a neutral good, but a different flavor than Red, if that makes sense?)

Violet - your princess isn’t in another castle, she broke out after getting kidnapped to escape fulfilling [insert evil goal of every endboss here]. Literally. That’s her backstory. A very "the end justifies the means“ person, but more prone to stick to the rules while doing so, and only disregards them if necessary, but very willing. Has no problem with half-truths and playing mind chess against others. Pretty good at formulating plans beforehand, but can’t do it on a whim, quick to read the room, and kind of a history nerd. Also quite the cold judge. Unlike Red, Violet will never forgive you, no matter what you do, since there’s always a chance everything just repeats again. Also, pretty good at light magic, and thinks Mage is a bit shady because of his secrets (and not just because of his standard shadiness). She really doesn’t like when she‘s not getting information. But neither does Mage, so they found a common ground there, ironically. Either lawful or true neutral…? Not sure which one fits better.

Aaaand that’s them! Hope it’s not too different from what you expected? Tbh a lot of this is probably gonna chance anyways, I enjoy collecting and changing things gradually over time instead of sticking to a bunch of set notes. I mean, some info on them only exists because another anon‘s ask made me think about it, but doing it that way is pretty fun!

So yeah, feel free to ask more, completely ignore and/or criticize them, (dump some info on your own oc‘s if you’ve got them and want to? 👀) whatever you vibe with

[barbieaiden]

i have 4 stories already but making another one can’t hurt... right

[segretecose]

this idea of the patriarchy as an abstract concept that just exists and is perpetuated by an unknown evil force vaguely referred to as society rather than a very real and tangible system that is deliberately put into place and upheld by real life people so that everyone's magically absolved yeah it sure makes movies nicer less buzz-killing and threatening to men's sensibilities but it doesn't make it true does it now

[shy-sapphic-ace]

List of queer books I read, loved & recommend!

(There isn't any particular order, I wrote these as I remembered them)

Master Of One - Jaida Jones & Dani Bennett (mlm, fantasy, very cool worldbuilding and magic system, funny, cool characters)

Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree (wlw, fantasy, very soft & chill vibes)

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon (wlw, high fantasy, cool worldbuilding, kinda reminds me of LOTR but with more dragons and feminism and lesbians)

Even Though I Knew The End - C.L. Polk (wlw, supernatural noir, cool 1930s detective story with angels & demons, I loved this one!)

The Love Interest - Cale Dietrich (mlm, science fiction, very cool concept)

The Darkest Part Of The Forest - Holly Black (side mlm, fantasy, cool fae lore)

The Weight Of The Stars - K. Ancrum (wlw, not quite science fiction but space stuff is involved, lovely and complex characters)

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz (mlm, fiction, very nice in general, there is also a sequel)

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzi Lee (mlm, historical and vaguely fantasy, nice story but I preferred the sequel honestly)

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy - Mackenzi Lee (wlw, the sequel to the one before, more fantasy elements than the first, asexual main character!!)

Gallant - V.E. Schwab (no romance, but in the background one of the characters(?) uses they/them pronouns, very cool dark fantasy vibe)

Stranger Than Fanfiction - Chris Colfer (gay main character, trans main character, coming-of-age, nice book)

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (yes it's the Love, Simon book, mlm, fiction, pretty nice)

They Both Die At The End - Adam Silvera (mlm, sci-fi ish but mostly fiction, cool ideas, but the ending is sad! Very amazing book though, I haven't read the prequel yet)

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid (wlw, bi main character, historical fiction, cool story, just a neat book in general)

This Is How You Lose The Time War - Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (wlw, sci-fi, very cool time travel stuff!! and very beautiful, it felt like reading poetry most of the time)

One Last Stop - Casey McQuinston (wlw, background trans & pan & queer characters, sci-fi or fantasy idk, but time travel, I loooved this book, great)

The House In The Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune (mlm, fantasy, THIS BOOK oh my gosh you should read it!!, just cute and lovely and good)

Under The Whispering Door - TJ Klune (mlm, fantasy, this book is also sooo amazing, great character development and awesome relationships and stuff, it's been a while since I read it but it was so good)

And They Lived... - Steven Salvatore (nblm, fiction, about gender identity and learning to love yourself, read it a while ago but it was very nice)

I Wish You All The Best - Mason Deaver (nblm, fiction, about finding your identity and people who care about you, very cute and sweet)

The Song Of Achilles - Madeleine Miller (mlm, historical, very good in general)

Carry On - Rainbow Rowell (mlm, background wlw in the third book, fantasy, it's a trilogy, basically Harry Potter if it was gay and also better)

Silver In The Wood - Emily Tesh (mlm, fantasy, very pretty, lots of fae stuff and lovely descriptions, it has a really good sequel too)

Pretty much anything by Alice Oseman (all cute and lovely and great, though I've only read Radio Silence so far I hear only good things, Solitaire is on my to-read list)

I Kissed Shara Wheeler - Casey McQuinston (wlw, fiction, it's been a while but I liked this book)

The Falling In Love Montage - Ciara Smyth (wlw, fiction, this book was so cute and funny and deeply emotional it made me Feel way too many things, I'd definitely recommend it)

What Big Teeth - Rose Szabo (a bit of queerness all around, fantasy, werewolves and monsters, this one was pretty cool!, lots of original ideas for the world/character building)

[physalian]

8 Signs your Sequel Needs Work

Sequels, and followup seasons to TV shows, can be very tricky to get right. Most of the time, especially with the onslaught of sequels, remakes, and remake-quels over the past… 15 years? There’s a few stand-outs for sure. I hear Dune Part 2 stuck the landing. Everyone who likes John Wick also likes those sequels. Spiderverse 2 also stuck the landing.

These are less tips and more fundamental pieces of your story that may or may not factor in because every work is different, and this is coming from an audience’s perspective. Maybe some of these will be the flaws you just couldn’t put your finger on before. And, of course, these are all my opinions, for sequels and later seasons that just didn’t work for me.

1. Your vague lore becomes a gimmick

The Force, this mysterious entity that needs no further explanation… is now quantifiable with midichlorians.

In The 100, the little chip that contains the “reincarnation” of the Commanders is now the central plot to their season 6 “invasion of the bodysnatchers” villains.

In The Vampire Diaries, the existence of the “emotion switch” is explicitly disputed as even existing in the earlier seasons, then becomes a very real and physical plot point one can toggle on and off.

I love hard magic systems. I love soft magic systems, too. These two are not evolutions of each other and doing so will ruin your magic system. People fell in love with the hard magic because they liked the rules, the rules made sense, and everything you wrote fit within those rules. Don’t get wacky and suddenly start inventing new rules that break your old ones.

People fell in love with the soft magic because it needed no rules, the magic made sense without overtaking the story or creating plot holes for why it didn’t just save the day. Don’t give your audience everything they never needed to know and impose limitations that didn’t need to be there.

Solving the mystery will never be as satisfying as whatever the reader came up with in their mind. Satisfaction is the death of desire.

2. The established theme becomes un-established

I talked about this point already in this post about theme so the abridged version here: If your story has major themes you’ve set out to explore, like “the dichotomy of good and evil” and you abandon that theme either for a contradictory one, or no theme at all, your sequel will feel less polished and meaningful than its predecessor, because the new story doesn’t have as much (if anything) to say, while the original did.

Jurassic Park is a fantastic, stellar example. First movie is about the folly of human arrogance and the inherent disaster and hubris in thinking one can control forces of nature for superficial gains. The sequels, and then sequel series, never returns to this theme (and also stops remembering that dinosaurs are animals, not generic movie monsters). JP wasn’t just scary because ahhh big scary reptiles. JP was scary because the story is an easily preventable tragedy, and yes the dinosaurs are eating people, but the people only have other people to blame. Dinosaurs are just hungry, frightened animals.

Or, the most obvious example in Pixar’s history: Cars to Cars 2.

3. You focus on the wrong elements based on ‘fan feedback’

We love fans. Fans make us money. Fans do not know what they want out of a sequel. Fans will never know what they want out of a sequel, nor will studios know how to interpret those wants. Ask Star Wars. Heck, ask the last 8 books out of the Percy Jackson universe.

Going back to Cars 2 (and why I loathe the concept of comedic relief characters, truly), Disney saw dollar signs with how popular Mater was, so, logically, they gave fans more Mater. They gave us more car gimmicks, they expanded the lore that no one asked for. They did try to give us new pretty racing venues and new cool characters. The writers really did try, but some random Suit decided a car spy thriller was better and this is what we got.

The elements your sequel focuses on could be points 1 or 2, based on reception. If your audience universally hates a character for legitimate reasons, maybe listen, but if your audience is at war with itself over superficial BS like whether or not she’s a female character, or POC, ignore them and write the character you set out to write. Maybe their arc wasn’t finished yet, and they had a really cool story that never got told.

This could be side-characters, or a specific location/pocket of worldbuilding that really resonated, a romantic subplot, whatever. Point is, careening off your plan without considering the consequences doesn’t usually end well.

4. You don’t focus on the ‘right’ elements

I don’t think anyone out there will happily sit down and enjoy the entirety of Thor: The Dark World.  The only reasons I would watch that movie now are because a couple of the jokes are funny, and the whole bit in the middle with Thor and Loki. Why wasn’t this the whole movie? No one cares about the lore, but people really loved Loki, especially when there wasn’t much about him in the MCU at the time, and taking a villain fresh off his big hit with the first Avengers and throwing him in a reluctant “enemy of my enemy” plot for this entire movie would have been amazing.

Loki also refuses to stay dead because he’s too popular, thus we get a cyclical and frustrating arc where he only has development when the producers demand so they can make maximum profit off his character, but back then, in phase 2 world, the mystery around Loki was what made him so compelling and the drama around those two on screen was really good! They bounced so well off each other, they both had very different strengths and perspectives, both had real grievances to air, and in that movie, they *both* lost their mother. It’s not even that it’s a bad sequel, it’s just a plain bad movie.

The movie exists to keep establishing the Infinity Stones with the red one and I can’t remember what the red one does at this point, but it could have so easily done both. The powers that be should have known their strongest elements were Thor and Loki and their relationship, and run with it.

This isn’t “give into the demands of fans who want more Loki” it’s being smart enough to look at your own work and suss out what you think the most intriguing elements are and which have the most room and potential to grow (and also test audiences and beta readers to tell you the ugly truth). Sequels should feel more like natural continuations of the original story, not shameless cash grabs.

5. You walk back character development for ~drama~

As in, characters who got together at the end of book 1 suddenly start fighting because the “will they/won’t they” was the juiciest dynamic of their relationship and you don’t know how to write a compelling, happy couple. Or a character who overcame their snobbery, cowardice, grizzled nature, or phobia suddenly has it again because, again, that was the most compelling part of their character and you don’t know who they are without it.

To be honest, yeah, the buildup of a relationship does tend to be more entertaining in media, but that’s also because solid, respectful, healthy relationships in media are a rarity. Season 1 of Outlander remains the best, in part because of the rapid growth of the main love interest’s relationship. Every season after, they’re already married, already together, and occasionally dealing with baby shenanigans, and it’s them against the world and, yeah, I got bored.

There’s just so much you can do with a freshly established relationship: Those two are a *team* now. The drama and intrigue no longer comes from them against each other, it’s them together against a new antagonist and their different approaches to solving a problem. They can and should still have distinct personalities and perspectives on whatever story you throw them into.

6. It’s the same exact story, just Bigger

I have been sitting on a “how to scale power” post for months now because I’m still not sure on reception but here’s a little bit on what I mean.

Original: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy New York

Sequel: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy the planet

Threequel: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy the galaxy

You knew it wasn’t going to happen the first time, you absolutely know it won’t happen on a bigger scale. Usually, when this happens, plot holes abound. You end up deleting or forgetting about characters’ convenient powers and abilities, deleting or forgetting about established relationships and new ground gained with side characters and entities, and deleting or forgetting about stakes, themes, and actually growing your characters like this isn’t the exact same story, just Bigger.

How many Bond movies are there? Thirty-something? I know some are very, very good and some are not at all good. They’re all Bond movies. People keep watching them because they’re formulaic, but there’s also been seven Bond actors and the movies aren’t one long, continuous, self-referential story about this poor, poor man who has the worst luck in the universe. These sequels aren’t “this but bigger” it’s usually “this, but different”, which is almost always better.

“This, but different now” will demand a different skillset from your hero, different rules to play by, different expectations, and different stakes. It does not just demand your hero learn to punch harder.

Example: Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2 does have more influence than Tai Lung, yes. He’s got a whole city and his backstory is further-reaching, but he’s objectively worse in close combat—so he doesn’t fistfight Po. He has cannons, very dangerous cannons, cannons designed to be so strong that kung fu doesn’t matter. Thus, he’s not necessarily “bigger” he’s just “different” and his whole story demands new perspective.

The differences between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are numerous, but the latter relies on “but bigger” and the former went in a whole new direction, while still staying faithful to the themes of the original.

7. It undermines the original by awakening a new problem too soon

I’ve already complained about the mere existence of Heroes of Olympus elsewhere because everything Luke fought and died for only bought that world about a month of peace before the gods came and ripped it all away for More Story.

I’ve also complained that the Star Wars Sequels were always going to spit in the face of a character’s six-movie legacy to bring balance to the Force by just going… nah. Ancient prophecy? Only bought us about 30 years of peace.

Whether it’s too soon, or it’s too closely related to the original, your audience is going to feel a little put-off when they realize how inconsequential this sequel makes the original, particularly in TV shows that run too many seasons and can’t keep upping the ante, like Supernatural.

Kung Fu Panda once again because these two movies are amazing. Shen is completely unrelated to Tai Lung. He’s not threatening the Valley of Peace or Shifu or Oogway or anything the heroes fought for in the original. He’s brand new.

My yearning to see these two on screen together to just watch them verbally spat over both being bratty children disappointed by their parents is unquantifiable. This movie is a damn near perfect sequel. Somebody write me fanfic with these two throwing hands over their drastically different perspectives on kung fu.

8. It’s so divorced from the original that it can barely even be called a sequel

Otherwise known as seasons 5 and 6 of Lost. Otherwise known as: This show was on a sci-fi trajectory and something catastrophic happened to cause a dramatic hairpin turn off that path and into pseudo-biblical territory. Why did it all end in a church? I’m not joking, they did actually abandon The Plan while in a mach 1 nosedive.

I also have a post I’ve been sitting on about how to handle faith in fiction, so I’ll say this: The premise of Lost was the trials and escapades of a group of 48 strangers trying to survive and find rescue off a mysterious island with some creepy, sciency shenanigans going on once they discover that the island isn’t actually uninhabited.

Season 6 is about finding “candidates” to replace the island’s Discount Jesus who serves as the ambassador-protector of the island, who is also immortal until he’s not, and the island becomes a kind of purgatory where they all actually did die in the crash and were just waiting to… die again and go to heaven. Spoiler Alert.

This is also otherwise known as: Oh sh*t, Warner Bros wants more Supernatural? But we wrapped it up so nicely with Sam and Adam in the box with Lucifer. I tried to watch one of those YouTube compilations of Cas’ funny moments because I haven’t seen every episode, and the misery on these actors’ faces as the compilation advanced through the seasons, all the joy and wit sucked from their performances, was just tragic.

I get it. Writers can’t control when the Powers That Be demand More Story so they can run their workhorse into the ground until it stops bleeding money, but if you aren’t controlled by said powers, either take it all back to basics, like Cars 3, or just stop.

—

Sometimes taking your established characters and throwing them into a completely unrecognizable story works, but those unrecongizable stories work that much harder to at least keep the characters' development and progression satisfying and familiar. See this post about timeskips that take generational gaps between the original and the sequel, and still deliver on a satisfying continuation.

TLDR: Sequels are hard and it’s never just one detail that makes them difficult to pull off. They will always be compared to their predecessors, always with the expectations to be as good as or surpass the original, when the original had no such competition. There’s also audience expectations for how they think the story, lore, and relationships should progress. Most faults of sequels, in my opinion, lie in straying too far from the fundamentals of the original without understanding why those fundamentals were so important to the original’s success.

[vintagerpg]

Other Magic (2020) is so good! The concept is straight forward: What if traditional folk magic, but translated into vaguely D&D terms for use in RPGs? Jesse Ephraim focuses primarily on American systems — pow-wows, rootwork, brujeria and Ozark magic — but also includes the very intense Russian tradition of Zagovory as a sort of contrast. This might seem odd, especially since all of these speak to a more recent historical era than most fantasy games. Early on, though, Ephraim points out that Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John is a good example of a folk magician, and the Silver John stories are clear inspirations for D&D, despite being set in America in the 1960s, so this sort of thing can definitely work (see also Lowcountry Crawl).

Ephraim details charms, hexes, enchantments and all sorts of interesting details. At a glance, it might seem like folk magic is vastly underpowered in comparison to pulpy magic like the spells of D&D, but in reading through the zine you can see how naturally fantasy magic, particularly its defensive branches (detection, protection, etc), is rooted in folk traditions. Those aspects that lack a direct connection are clearly complimentary. They offer a kind of magical methodology that could be applied to RPGs for interesting effect — the idea of magic being a back and forth, or magic as the application of secret knowledge. The traditions here are lower key and less flashy than fireballs and lightning bolts, but they also imply new systems of play. One example: there’s a charm that can be used to force a shapeshifter into its natural form — there is no corollary for that in the standard suite of D&D spells, but you can easily image it in the game, and see how it might change a lycanthrope-centric scenario, for instance.

All the illustrations are fantastic woodcuts (I believe by Ephraim) that illustrated effects of spells and strange creatures they can summon, which leads us to tomorrow’s post…

[cerulean-crow]

I was a creepypasta and mlp grimdark kid- I absolutely loved them and they definitely shaped my interests in horror and gore that I have now! I am not immune to the nostalgia of these infection au’s, and honestly I am thriving. I love reading everyone’s ideas and seeing everyone’s art, and I got inspired to try my own hand at one!

I’ve been calling it the Crystal Heart Contagion. I am not sure how far I’ll take this but it’s fun to draw and think about. I considered going a bit crazy with actual gore, but this was just supposed to be a concept page and I wanted to keep it simple and just flesh out some ideas I had bouncing around in my head. Besides, I actually really like body horror that doesn’t involve a ton of gore- and like that note says, has an air of beauty alongside the disturbing elements.

Again, not sure how far I’ll take this- so I’m just gonna jot down some thoughts and notes! I’ll put ‘em under the cut because I am very wordy <3

Also I try to tag my stuff as best as possible because I know not everyone loves horror and these Mlp horror au’s as much as I do! I don’t want people to interact with my posts if it makes them uncomfortable, so if I miss a tag please let me know.

The Crystal Heart Contagion is transmitted when infected crystals come into contact with one’s bloodstream. The afflicted will experience body pains and stiffness at first, hemophilia, and symptoms like lethargy and migraines. The crystals will begin to form in clusters on the skeletal system, eventually breaking through the skin and, after a long enough period of time, will completely petrify the afflicted in solid crystal.

I imagine that one’s teeth, hooves, and horns are where crystals will begin to break through first. I like the idea of stylizing manes as they crystalize- but that’s exploration for another day!

I am currently thinking of the infection more like a parasite of some kind. Parasitic crystals that feed on magic and rely on living creatures to carry them farther in order to spread themselves.

The infection originally didn’t do much to change one’s personality, they would just get weaker and weaker as they were overtaken by the crystals. It was only when the infection started again, when Equestria was home to many more different species and overflowing with way more magic, that the crystals would begin to mutate at a rapid rate. Those afflicted would begin to show signs of aggression that would have them attacking others, thus leading to further spreading.

Some physical details I like is the eyes hollowing out and resembling geodes! Crystals emerging from the spines, horns becoming crystallized, and crystals forming over teeth and jaw to create fangs are all stuff I would love to flesh out in further detail.

I also love the idea of the chest ripping open to reveal a crystal heart held in a crystallized ribcage! I think I will forever be influenced by the Angel Trap in Saw 3

The idea of this infection is still developing and I’m still doing a lot of research and thinking on the words to describe it. My original thoughts took inspiration from a parasitic infection and rabies. My brain also likes thinking of it like a mold in how it spreads or thinking of the crystals like a coral reef (mostly as a visual inspiration)

The background and timeline is all still a work in progress. I haven’t rewatched the full series in so long and I’m implementing plenty of my own headcanons- so it’s all very vague right now.

The original idea is that the infection started during King Sombra’s reign. He created these parasitic crystals and unleashed them upon Celelstia and Luna’s army with the hopes of dwindling their numbers and expanding the reach of the Crystal Empire further through the Frozen North. When he was sealed away, Celestia and Luna would bring several of the infected back to Equestria for study. They would hide them away deep underground beneath a mountain, where the lack of nutrients in the rock would eventually cause the crystals to stop forming and enter some kind of hibernation.

Celestia would later build Canterlot after the banishment of Nightmare Moon, and she would use the very kingdom itself to block off the caverns and keep them hidden for everyone’s safety.

The Crystal Caverns would become known again during the Canterlot Wedding when Cadance and Twilight escaped from them. However, nothing would ever happen after the fact, and Celestia and Luna would continue to hope that with Sombra sealed away and the crystals dormant for so long, that this infection was truly no more.

When I first got this all in my head, the idea was that Flurry Heart’s Crystalling was what caused the parasitic-crystals to get a kickstart of energy and begin spreading again.

That is the part where the timeline starts getting really wonky. Cause I think I’d want Twilight to be running her school and have the young six around, but that’s in season 8 and the crystalling was in season 6. But I can honestly fudge the timeline however I want, it’s an alternate universe after all.

I think that Celestia sacrifices herself in order to save Luna and help as many people flee Canterlot as possible. This was when I still very early into thinking this au through and a potential story that could be told with it- and with the worldbuilding I’ve been doing over the last few days I don’t entirely know if it still fits. I love the scene in my head that comes from it though- so I decided to keep the sketch of crystallized Celestia in the end.

I love the idea of crystals on her head mimicking sun rays! And her forelegs and wings becoming one so she staggers around like a wyvern. That’s definitely a design I would love to flesh out if I get the time.

I am having fun!

[revacholianpizzaagenda]

A rebuttal of the theoretical entroponetics diagram

This one here:

PJÕL references in the last paragraph but kind of vague

As far as I'm concerned, the argument is threefold: the diagram's title positions itself in-universe theorizing. Which it almost is! It's very very close to Gary's (even though in his case it's textually not entroponetic). And it's a fun in-universe position to explore, imho. The subjectivity of people who want to believe this of the pale is interesting to me.

Secondly, check the following page on the author's website: it's his own magic system based on the same exact idea, inspired by the Mistborn novels. It seems to me like he envisioned the Elysium version of his concept (a fun practice), and agnostically framed it as a hypothesis in-universe.

Here it is!

But, thirdly... it massively shifts the themes, so no, as an actual legit thing... no thank you for me. The phasmid says something that I believe to be irreconcilable with this theory: the pale came with mankind. Not with special people. We're talking about the human condition, not about special people. It just doesn't track! Not thematically, not in practice.

The things that are shown to arrest or even recede the pale's advancement are not a lack of innovation. Ignus Nilsen himself didn't nail a godly Rhetoric check from hell for people to think that the pale wouldn't advance if we just ignored the future. Conversely, the characters who are shown effectively drawing knowledge from the pale on-page are NOT shown to increase its advancement (on the contrary: Ulv's practice temporarily halts it!). That one character who does in fact cause the spread of the pale certainly doesn't do it by bringing about innovations, DOES HE.

[normal-horoscopes]

this is not meant to be an insult at all but a question into how tarot works. you made your own tarot deck with your own meanings and art. and someone somewhere (idk who) made the first tarot deck at some point that people still use to this day. so how exactly does a tarot deck be infused with magic? is it the deck itself? or is the deck simply a medium through personal magic to show itself? i guess my question is what makes your tarot deck as "valid" as the classic one, if i went and randomly made a deck, what would make that one "valid"?

Oh that is a fantastic question!

Tbh, this is why I recommend tarot for people that are just starting out with magic. It's a hands-on way to experiment with many of the basic concepts of magic.

So cartomancy existed for a long time before Etteilla made the first tarot deck. The reasons for exactly how cartomancy works vary based on the occultist and the system they work with, but generally the idea is that the cards are little fragments of a story, and by shuffling the cards, you are letting the random chaos of the universe organize that story as it wishes. Through this, you allow the world/god/spirits/etc to speak to you. The tarot deck itself is just a tool that makes listening a bit easier.

Let's say you need to hammer a nail into a piece of wood. You could try to push it in with your hand, but that wouldn't work very well. You could hammer it in with a brick, but there are better tools. Or you could use a hammer. I would say it's less a question of a tarot deck being "valid" and more a question of a tarot deck being "effective."

Not all decks are created equal! You can do cartomancy with pretty much anything vaguely card shaped. One time I made a cartomancy deck out of a stack of fast food coupons. That coupon deck was kinda the brick in this metaphor. The pictures it painted of the world were rough and didn't make much sense. You could make a tarot deck out of just The Tower, but that means every reading would be "danger, crisis, destruction."

But that begs the question: what makes a "good" tarot deck?

There's no one answer here, but I would say that a good tarot deck is one that produces diverse, relevant, and evocative readings. The meanings of the cards need to fit together. They need to be specific enough to be interesting, but not so broad that they feel like nonsense. How you design that is really up to the individual occultist.

For example, Etteilla based his four suits on the four cardinal virtues, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, and Prudence. They give the minor arcana a sort of common narrative through line. When designing my own deck, I based my four suits on common esoteric associations with the four seasons: Change, Growth, Passion, and Materiality.

I hope this makes sense.

[indieyuugure]

As someone who does not enjoy time travel, what did you think of the way the Rise movie handled time travel? The "It's more an alternate dimension, but it's still travel" is an expert way to handle such mechanics without breaking them in my opinion. What about you?

I think the Rise Movie did a really good job with it’s time travel! They make it very clear as to how time travel works in the world and do a good job at exploring the effects that screwing with time has.

Rise’s time travel has a certain feeling of comfort to it because it has rules that it follows and clearly explained limitations and effects. I think often times I dislike time travel because of how vague it is and how many plot holes and well-the-writer-said-so-s it has. I think time travel, just like all plots needs two things: a Why, and a How.

The Rise movie’s plot is grounded in the concept of time travel. The “why” of the movie is clearly established in the first few minutes. The world is ending and the only way to save it is to go back in time and change the past. “Find the key, stop the Krang.” The why is literally told to you by Leo.

Even if you didn’t watch the series before the movie, (though if you did, this is even more concrete) it’s heavily implied that Rise has a magic system that is able to be as powerful as the person wielding the magic can make it, and that’s proven throughout the movie. The “how” is well explained and, in the setting of the world, makes sense. You’re never questioning “wait but I don’t get it, how did he go back in time??” because Rise demonstrates the power of it’s mystic abilities.

I think the reason time travel is screwed up so often in TV series is that, unless they plan on making a multi-part episode or an entire arc, the show only gets 20-45 minutes to explain everything whereas a movie gets 2 hours or more. However obviously in the case of 2012 that’s not the case since they’re given 15 episodes(approximately 5 hours) of space arc time travel nonsense and even more if you count the Renet episodes.

So to sum it up, the Rise Movie is a good example of the few times in media that time travel is aced. It presents a clear why and how that doesn’t leave you scratching your head. I think it was very well handled and actually adds a lot of cool stuff to the plot rather than subtracting it!

Good question! :]

[utilitycaster]

if you're looking for any reason to write and/or procrastinate, i'd love to hear your alluded-to thoughts on people trying to shove already-extant blorbos into a ttrpg space? it's something i've tried to Strongly Discourage (if not outright ban) at my table and i've struggled putting into words why i dislike it so much. like obviously as a dm doing homebrew world stuff it's super discouraging to feel like your players don't want to engage with it, but even beyond that it feels like it doesn't Work and i'd love to hear if you have thoughts on Why That Is

Absolutely! The biggest reason is in fact the one you say: it's really discouraging as a DM, who is doing a lot more work than anyone else, to have someone not want to build a character informed by your world. This is collaborative storytelling, and they are not collaborating. Which isn't to say that player's preferences for the type of story shouldn't be considered, but there is something very different between, for example, Erika Ishii saying "hey Brennan, I would love to play a witch" in a setting everyone in the cast committed to building collaboratively, vs. coming to your table as a DM saying "hey, this is a world I've created, it is inspired by Norse mythology" and saying "cool this is my weird west cowboy OC, why isn't there a cowboy class."

I think the other reason, and here's where I might be guessing, but I think people can get uniquely rigid and protective of pre-existing OCs. I mean...I had a vague set of OCs inspired by a lot of the fantasy stories I read as a kid for literal years, and setting aside that they don't fit in neatly to a D&D system anyway, the thought of playing one and having them die at level 2 against some will-o-the-wisps is really not something I'm open to! When it comes to a lot of the games that have character progression and start relatively weak, like D&D, most people are thinking of a cool powerful mage, not a squishy L1 wizard with 2 spell slots! I think people are precious and impatient and rigid about a lot of their OCs, so they won't take the big swings that you need to make in order to have a good time in a TTRPG because they're too afraid of losing the character before they reach their final form - and, they have a final form in mind that they might be reluctant to deviate from. Sure, some people can get past this; but many people can't. They already have too much of a story in mind and aren't open to the one being told together at the table. They won't kill their darlings and so they're going to freak out every time Darling has to make a death save.

Finally: I personally think character creation is necessarily collaborative, in that party composition is important. To give an example: I have an idea of an Eldritch Knight who learned her magic from the eccentric wizard she guarded, who then died in a locked room mystery, and she was exonerated but considered suspect (and also felt guilty) and so is in need of employment and could easily fall into adventuring. This is a pretty flexible concept in most D&D settings because a lot of the specifics aren't at all filled in. However: let's say my friend says "hey, um, one of our players had a family emergency and needs to leave our game long-term. Do you want to join?" and I say "yes, absolutely" and they say "great, they were playing a bard and were our only healer, though we do have a warlock who can be the party face," I should not play the eldritch knight with no healing! It is in fact my responsibility to roll up with, say, a cleric!

So that's really why: you can and should bring vague concepts you want to explore to a table, but you really shouldn't pick from a fully fleshed out OC because that doesn't engage with the setting nor what the party needs.

[maddiviner]

I saw you had posted about angels. Do you know anything about Angel Numbers? I see 888 and 555 a lot recently. I never saw them before moving to the east coast for school. Now they’re everywhere.

I’m not trying to upset or offend, but I’m very critical of the whole “angel numbers” concept.

Don’t get me wrong. Synchronicities can hold great meaning for a magical practitioner, and these synchronicities can involve a series of numbers that repeats in your life. I’ll even tacitly admit that these synchronicities could sometimes be a spirit’s handiwork, trying to get your attention.

The angel numbers thing oversimplifies this to an extreme. I’ve looked into it, mostly because everyone was pushing it so hard back in 2017-ish. It all just… seemed like platitudes. These folks would see the numbers, rush to the internet and google the “meaning” which was usually something like “Good things are coming,” or “you’re raising your vibration,” etc. It rarely provides actionable information.

This image was circulating on Facebook awhile back, to give you an idea of how angel numbering works in practice. The majority of these angel numbers apparently mean that your life is awesome, good things are coming, angels are all around you, and you’re very special. There’s a few that waffle around about how the person needs to “finish something” or “reconnect with spirituality.” Very broad statements, none too bad, and even the vaguely negative ones end with something upbeat like “things are getting exciting!”

I prefer systems of spirit communication (or divination) that account for the full spectrum of human experience. Imagine trying to do a Tarot reading with all the possibly-negative cards removed. You would receive an incomplete, sugarcoated picture of the situation, likely to do more harm than good.

A few sites out there do give negative (or at least less-than-positive) meanings for these numbers. The few negative “angel number” definitions I’ve seen are equal to the positive ones in their vagueness, and, again, usually give no real actionable information. All in all, the “angel number” concept often amounts to toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing. Ignoring the negative aspects won’t make them go away, you’ll miss a lot.

In my earlier Enochian reading list, I linked to a magician’s memoir of magic in the late 1980s. There’s a particularly disturbing moment described therein where repeating numbers (particularly 333) appear.

Rather than being a sign that “the ascend masters are nearby, you’re in great hands,” it was the prelude to absolute chaos. In the Enochian system of angelic magic (which the magicians in the memoir work within), the number 333 has a more sinister meaning. In fact, it’s associated with the demon Choronzon! I screenshotted part of that book - pretty ominous, eh? It’s a far cry from being in great hands! (Pardon the Wikipedia link. It may be a Wiki but it does give a good overview.)

(Sorry for the weird highlighting all over the book. I started doing it in college and never kicked the habit. It’s the best way (for me) to absorb what I read. Typically I use OpenDyslexic, too, which helps, but I changed the font so that it would be more legible for y’all.)

Goes to show you that the “meanings” of these repeating numbers are going to vary depending on what system you’re working in and what symbolism rattles around in your head. The lists and websites about “angel numbers” won’t acknowledge that, though. In fact, very few give any references as to where these meanings are coming from at all. With that in mind, why trust “angel numbers” as a concept?

I can see on Google that a could of sites are claiming that “angel numbers” is an ancient concept dating back to Pythagoras. Yeah, no. Pythagoras had nothing to do with “angel numbers.” Rather, Pythagoras is the founder of a school of numerology. While I’d consider the “angel numbers” concept to be a a (warped) form of numerology, it’s utterly unlike what Pythagoras actually taught.

In reality, of course, Pythagoras was a philosopher, mathematician, and a legit mystic. He conjured a complex system of numerology, and it endures today in some circles. It’s way different than those angel numbers, though! Have a look! This particular page, by the unbeatable Benebell Wen, focuses on using numerology to find your “life path” number, which can then be analyzed alongside other numerological values,

Notice that the meanings are compartmental, meant to be understood within a wider context. They also have both positive and negative aspects of each number listed. The negative aspects are actually negative. Life path numbers are described in terms like arrogant, bossy, argumentative, codependent, egocentric.. and yet, also with positive qualities, such as leadership skills, a nurturing mindset, a strong work ethic, a propensity to help the less fortunate, etc. Other life paths get described as artists, fighters, leaders

Pythagorus’s numerology proper gives the spirits a lot of vocabulary for communicating with you. A spirit trying to warn you of something, for example, might do it more easily with this traditional Pythagorean numerology than through angel numbers.

Above is a clip from the article on Pythagorean numerology, discussing various “life paths.” You’ve got the good, the bad and the ugly traits listed for life paths one and two. The rest of the nine paths are treated with an equal degree of balance. While this particular numerology page doesn’t provide as much info on Pythagoras himself, it’s obviously a far cry from “the microwave said 3:33, it means the ascend masters are around me,” or the usual “good things coming soon” vibe of most angel numbers.

In other words, Pythagorean numerology has little to do with angel numbers and the New Agers should probably stop saying he “discovered angel numbers” or trying to link him to them in any way. He was a mathematician in addition to his philosophical work, and he did teach that the universe could be reduced to numbers ultimately, but that’s a far cry from the angel number mythos.That site I just linked has a lot of other good information, too. I really like Benebell’s work.

Ironically, as I’m writing this, I see that the clock says 3:33 am, but I doubt I’ll post it until later today. I recognize synchronicities are real and may even be messages from specific spirits, but I don’t believe this angel number concept is the best paradigm for approaching them. There’s nothing challenging about it, nothing to get your blood flowing, no liminal push, no impetus to grow. Just “expect the highest good,” and “your vibration is rising,” etc.

Again, I hope this doesn’t offend too many people.

I’m not trying to be mean or insult people who actually do like the angel numbers concept. I just really dislike it, for the reasons I’ve given. If you’re fond of it, it’s just something we’ll have to agree to disagree about. I gotta admit, I question the discernment involved. I don’t think indulging in the concept makes you a bad person or anything like that.

After all, you’re not exactly harming another person by fiddling with these angel numbers. I’m just saying that from my perspective (which was requested), angel numbers can sometimes promote toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing. And I do think there’s better paradigms for learning numerology out there. I’m sure there’s books on numerology in various cultures that give actual details unlike angel number memes.

Most of my numerology studies (smallish, my main interests are elsewhere) came form books that weren’t about numerology, but had a section or two about it.

If anyone else has any thoughts, feel free to reblog with them…

Anyways, my personal favorite angel number is 420 I guess. 🤣

[the-devils-library]

Studying With Care

I think there's a shift happening in the way people study magic, and overall it's a good shift. This is the move towards more careful and compassionate study, towards being respectful of things like closed practices and oppressed cultures. This is a good thing, generally speaking!

However.

I notice people seem to take a very black and white approach to this. If it's not okay to just take whatever we want from whomever we like, then it's only okay to use what's existent within a strict system we know we have access to, or vague non-categorized spellwork that stays firmly within the bounds of "non-religious" practices. If a practice is closed to us, that means we aren't allowed to so much as look at it, read about it, or think about it. If an author has questionable or outdated opinions on a subject or in a certain book, that means their entire body of work is useless and not worth looking into.

This is an extremely tiresome and limiting way to study any subject, but I think it's especially sad to see such an attitude within the realm of spirituality, a field of study that relies so much on experience and personal growth.

So here's some advice from a lifelong student of these things: Yes, learn the boundaries, be respectful, listen to the feedback and critiques of others. But do not cower in a corner and flagellate yourself. Just because something is closed for you to practice does not mean you are not allowed to read about it. Just because an author uses outdated language or had a questionable moral compass does not mean they never knew what they were talking about. The point of discussing concepts like cultural appropriation or the questionable history of certain practices isn't to wall ourselves off in safe little gardens where we can be certain we'll never offend anyone, the point is to expand our horizons and be better people, which by some people's reasoning is the entire point of a magical or spiritual practice in the first place!

Do background checks on authors. Compare texts. Question the word of strangers. Practice things for yourself, and if you find you've been practicing something incorrectly, or inappropriately, adjust accordingly. Learn and grow and do not limit yourself for fear of making mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. The point is not to avoid mistakes, it's to use them as learning opportunities.

[lucalicatteart]

Finally finished my weird hanging painting thing (originally a secondhand partially-done 'paint by numbers' kit that I found at a thrift store and kept to repurpose lol)! Imagery somewhat based in my own worldbuilding projects, and text written in my constructed language for one of my fantasy species, but also vaguely inspired by old tapestries and illuminated manuscripts and etc. I've never been great at neat clean patterning or text, but it looks cool from afar, and I always enjoy making "props" or things that are somewhat like real objects that might could exist in my world. :0

(additional pictures/info under the readmore)

-

Here's what it was originally! I probably didn't have to actually have a river running down the middle because it further makes the composition of the whole thing weird (various connected yet separate locations and things happening, instead of one unified event being portrayed), but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to fully cover up the already existing paint that was there.. and I can also kind of justify it by going with a more "all the imagery is just symbolic so it doesn't have to make exact sense" approach lol.. How is one half of the grass green and the other is suddenly snowy? shhhh.. it's not literal.. shhh...

Made a vague sketch, then painted over it, and then added more distinct lines in black pen. Center image first and border second.

The very last thing was the text, which actually took forever to translate because my conlang is still only like.. partially done, and some of the grammar is not worked out exactly how I would like it to be, so a few sentences I had to think about for a long time before just going "eh, this is probably not how I would do it if I considered it more, but I'll go with it for now" lol . I also am not entirely satisfied with all of the characters for the writing system, but again, it's good enough for a quick project, it doesn't have to be 100% accurate and perfect because it's a fake language that nobody knows anyway lol.

I thought about breaking down the text and translation here like I have for some of the tidbits of Avirrekava (the language) in things I've posted in the past, but I think it would take too long and is not interesting to anyone but me ghghj, so for the sake of getting the post out quickly, I shall not spend an hour typing All That lol.

The general jist of the writing though is that it's just about the Avirre'thel being cast out from the other elves, after abandoning their magic for immortality as a means to truly attain perfection (an important concept in elven culture), the usual, blah blah blah, but how it's Actually A Good Thing, because the gods are wrong and immortality is Cool actually and they like the shitty frozen lands they were sent to, so it's fine that everyone else is being a Hater about it lol

Lastly, here's a few photos outside in the sun to TRY and show the gold detailing actually shimmering or showing up! It really doesn't come through in photos, but there's plenty of little golden spots to highlight light or Importance.

Mostly the fire, the pink sparkle that represents magic, the red drop that represents blood, the light behind Inaashi's hands and head (common symbol for the elven religion/one of their main gods, shout out to anyone who read the ancient elven religion post and recognized that lol), the sun, and the symbol for the Avirre'thel/country of Navyete at the very top. I did a few other gold bits, but they're not highlighted because they're Significant, more just that it looked more symmetrical to have some gold on the border too lol.

Other things of note: The animals are not actually significant to Avirre'thel culture really, I just wanted to put a cat and a bird because I like them lol. (I also wanted to have a few funny looking creatures, as I was slightly trying to go with the 'in some old medieval painting the anatomy and perspective is very weird' vibe, though I think some of the other parts of it look too Normal to pull it off entirely). Same with the four leaf clover, which means nothing in their culture - but these are the only areas where stuff was just added self-indulgently .

Bligabata (giant cabbage that grows along rivers in Navyete) making an appearance! The architecture of the building IS based on actual concepts for ancient elven/older Avirre'thel architecture and metalwork. The Avirre'thel who's turning away from Inaashi/elves/magic and collecting blood, is doing so in a Special Bowl, as is part of their culture (collecting it in the hands, or just in a normal vessel would be disrespectful, they have Specific Bowls which is the only thing blood can be kept in, etc.).

The figure that represents Jhevona (and thus, a closer connection to magic, celestial imagery, etc.) is in weird ugly teal, which is not necessarily a color or design associated with them, as I don't have much common culture (like clothing) worked out for Northern Jhevona (who the avirre'thel would have come into contact with) yet, BUT everyone else is in more Typical colors (a northern elf in green, Inaashi in lavender + white + blue, an Avirre'thel in darker purples and reds).

Some things, like the four figures in the corners, and the two people + fish in the stream, do not currently have a meaning, but in-world they would.. Like, I could make up lore for how they're culturally significant and it would be true because I am god of the world, but I don't have anything currently. But just know.. they DO mean something, I just haven't decided it yet, maybe kind of fill in as I go, come up with a meaning later lol. Probably along the lines of an old myth from the ancient elven religion, a story, etc.

-

I don't know, probably other stuff, but that's my Trying To Keep It Short rambling for now lol. I'm just glad I finally finished this! For how vaguely sloppy it is up close (everything being completely freehanded, only used rulers once when doing the initial sketch and lining where the border should be + my hands are shaky + the canvas is bumpy + my handwriting is scratchy and terrible + etc. etc.) it still took a REALLY long time, even when not trying to make it all perfect. Especially if including the text translation + writing, which took like 3+ hours itself.

Maybe all the asymmetry/lack of things being centered is NOT because I was too lazy to measure anything, but is actually because in-universe, it's a practice illustration made by some young apprentice who has to work on little canvases for years before he can be trusted will a full sized mural or tapestry. It's his first week on the job! of course he's uncoordinated! don't laugh at him!!! lol

[jmeestella]

Okay, I have never done anything like this before, But I need to get this random thought out of my system. Small analysis and thoughts of color theory in tales of arcadia:

I really like Gaylen Krel concept and here is a little speech about why I think it would be interesting with a very vague concept of color theory (it's actually just my my totally altered perception of reality and boredom).

(An apology if anything here sounds weird, English is not my first language).

I do not think it is necessary to say that this has spoilers for the entire saga of tales of arcadia if you haven't watched it

So, there you have, the 3Below squad, as akiridions, all of them are basically blue, all equal, nothing to say here, this is clear, BUT- I think something interesting happens when they are in their human desguise: the predominant color is red.

In Aja it is easy to see this in her shirt and shoes, the only blue element is her jeans, For Varvatos it's a little less obvious, but both his shoes and his jacket are also red (His pants are a kind cream color (?), which like red are warm colors, the only cool color element is his shirt), and then we have Krel, basically all his color palette is blue, cold colors, The only red element is his shoelaces, which is hard to notice.

And just like fun fact, like, BRO- even the dog is designed in warm colors 🙃

It seems to me that this could represent a bit how difficult it is for them to fit in being themselves (?)

Another extra parenthesis, I find it curious that in the TOA saga the blue color palette predominates in characters that are "not-human at all", Like Jim who becomes a troll, or Douxie who's a 900 years old wizard.

And it seems to me another important detail that Claire and Toby represent a little about this dynamic of cold and warm colors.

Toby is orange and red, warm colors = human.

Claire is purple, closer to red, but still cold= normal human but a wizard (a kind of transition?)

Together, The path of the chromatic circle represents how they move away from being human. You can check this here:

Douxie does not seem to have any predominant color temperature, this may be because he wants to go equally unnoticed in both worlds, but the detail is in his eyes, normally his eyes are amber (yellow, warm color) but when he uses magic they become blue like his magic itself.

Anyway, I don't want to stray too far from the topic.

It's been a long time since I watched the serie, But I think we even have a whole chapters on that topic. Aja even with problems at the end it fit quite easily as a human, For Varvatos, socializing is a weirder experience, but in the end he has his thing with Nancy and is quite accepted among the other older adults, But we get a whole episode of Krel feeling bad because he doesn't think anyone will remember him, because he never quite fit in.

Long short story if you already see the serie, no much what to say on that, good ending to everyone.

Well, no, I have something to say: Aja although she tried hid in the human red, in the end she fully accepts her responsibility and decides to live in the blue that she was born, while Krel, Despite being the most insistent in wanting to have his life back in Akiridon-5, Krel who lived in his eternal blue, in the end he decides to embrace that little red detail that he always had in himself.

I think you may be getting my point: For them being blue is actually good, because at the end they are not human, And they proudly show their true colors, and they actually do it in a very literally way jjsjsj

BUT-

Here we have. Blue vs red.

Only as akiridon Krel fits at all, he doesn't pretend, he doesn't hide.

I need to be honest here, at this point this becomes more imagination than anything, but I think you all might agree with me.

Gaylen represents many things that an akiridon should not be, And what color is him? Oh of course it's red, a fucking warm color.

Speaking of my theory that warm = more human, I find it curious to point out that Gaylen only has 2 arms, wich is very human for the royal ones.

All the fanarts we have about gaylen krel agree that her design would have red details that stand out like A LOT-

I don't know how the whole thing could happen to get in the story to get to the point of Gaylen Krel, but there's my final though: After that, his new red colors could represent that he would no longer fit as a human or an akiridon at all, he's would be something more, something weird or strange, not akiridion at all

Under this theory, it is similar to what Jim went through as a half-troll, although it is predominantly blue, the eclipse details are red cause after all he's still Jim, and that was sacrifice and change needed to be made, they both had to become like this, and after all, Krel would still being Krel.

Someone please tell me I'm not crazy with all these thoughts, I am traumatized with TOA

[laurelnose]

a disorganized pile of ninefox ttrpg thoughts

it is HERE! also it was late in shipping by like, a day? or two? so android press sent me the PDF version also, which was very very nice of them. For this I will forgive them the weird jank in the PDF version’s character encoding. (Maybe like 5% of characters consistently copy-paste as different characters. I think they fucked up the font subsetting somehow. It’s fine, it’s just weird. Makes quoting it a little bit of a hassle. Might be less fine if you use a screenreader.)

So pleased with several little random details which are not at all relevant to like, gameplay or the worldbuilding at large but which I just kind of wanted to know. The calendar months! The full set of Kel rank symbols! Signifiers for Kujen and Tseya! <3 Also, an additional set of symbolism for the factions per the calendar months? If I’m reading this correctly it's Rahal/Wood (!?), Andan/Bells, and Vidona/Knives. [We basically knew the other three, which are Shuos/Eyes, Kel/Pyres, and Nirai/Stars.] As a visual artist I am contractually obliged to be hype about all my little guys getting Symbols, they make my life easy and fun.

This is a slim little volume, so it’s light on lore details that you couldn’t find either a) in the actual series or b) on Lee's dreamwidth. That said, one new bit was that it was not previously clear to me that the nominal arrangement of power in the heptarchate was explicitly unequal between the Liozh and the others — I thought the extant six turned on the Liozh as one of their fellows, not that they deposed the ruling faction. Interesting.

Disappointing: there are no mechanics for the calendar besides the ability to tag the current festival/remembrance. :( I wanted to roll dice about calendrical rituals!! Funnily enough there's a whole little caveat section where he’s like, inevitably someone will want to have space battles, which can be accommodated by keeping them character-focused bc this system is not designed for battle sim crunch. No similar apology for those who might want magic system crunch, if anyone wanted any further evidence that Lee and Jedao are the same guy, lmao.

Other than that I’m not actually that much of a crunchy rules guy myself so I like the system itself fine. I enjoy the concept of every check involving not necessarily skills but character traits. And also the commitment to sixes. You need A LOT of d6s for this game.

If you’re really committed I think it would be fun to play with a set of these (normal d6s except instead of numbers or pips they have clock faces showing hours 1-6):

Jedao’s character sheet is so funny. “Complications: I have abysmal taste in lovers.” BE NICE TO HIM LMAO

It’s not entirely clear to me under which circumstances you wind up the Hexarchate Clock. Is it actually only if Kujen is in play? Does that mean he’s literally required if you want to run a long take-down-the-whole-hxx campaign?

The prewritten scenarios are neat! I don’t have a lot to say about them. They look like they would be fun. I like “The Field of Diplomacy” and the concept of the adjacent polity a lot. Oh also the note at the end of “A Heretical Sacrifice” that is just like “if the ‘human sacrifice’ bit is too vague for you and you want to add more torture, here are some ideas!” is 1) funny and 2) appreciably graphic and wince-inducing. HXX-typical gore: delivered on!

This is a petty note, but excluding servitor PCs on the grounds that this is a game about moral complicity and thus only human faction members can be PCs sure is a Statement. I know servitors are slaves and thus the moral calculus is certainly different, but like, the complicity is the entire point of Hemiola’s arc??? And faction servitors quite obviously often consider themselves to be legitimately part of that faction? The one Shuos servitor we meet is as interested in games as any fox, the assault on Shattered Needles is made possible because the Unspoken Law’s servitors consider themselves Kel, the Aerie interlude with sin 𝑥² is about a servitor who considers itself so deeply Kel it wants to go down with the hivemind. I understand they complicate things mechanically but excluding servitors for thematic reasons is silly.

That said, I feel like a servitor hack wouldn’t be too much more mechanically complex. None of the prewritten scenarios work with an all-servitor group, but I think they could all be run with one or maaybe two servitor PCs. You’d have to do some pregaming to figure out how you’d open communication between human/servitor PCs. Lore-wise, the faction traits are clearly not meant to represent the faction exotics or the Shuos wouldn’t have one; they read more like “specialized skills developed as a consequence of picking this faction” than calendrical stuff, so faction servitors could have standard faction abilities, with the caveat that a lot of interpersonal Edges may be hard for Andan servitors to hit on account of social interaction between servitors & humans being, well, you know. Alternatively, no faction abilities for servitors, but all servitors +2d6 to anything involving grid-diving and/or mechanics. Servitors can have ranks just like human PCs, though these ranks are only relevant to other servitors (and possibly moths). Servitors can probably tag calendar traits like humans, they just can’t participate in formations or affect calendrical gradients (neither of which have explicit mechanics in this system anyways). Heresies are the same for servitors as humans.

This really made me want to dig out that calendrical cryptocurrency heist concept I had to see if I can put together a scenario. And maybe also make some cardboard game spinners for a tactile clock experience...