#bleach worldbuilding

[recurring-polynya]

My kid asked me to explain blood types to her today, which made me remember the odd little fact that in the character profiles that appeared at the ends of the earliest Bleach volumes, there are blood types listed for the human characters, but not for the shinigami characters. Shinigami obviously have blood, we've all seen it, we've seen so much of it, honestly, but is it like blood blood? Is blood transfusion a thing they do?

I did not have any particular recollection of anyone ever receiving a blood transfusion in Bleach, but I looked up all the hospital scenes I could think of off the top of my head. Both Byakuya nor Hinamori have sort of a notable absence of things sticking out of them. I'm no expert and I don't even particular like doctor shows, but this is a situation where I would expect both of them to have IVs for hydration, if nothing else. Hinamori's got a respirator and some mysterious carts off to her far side, at least, and maybe Byakuya's just far enough on the upswing that he doesn't need it anymore.

Next shot was the famous Rukia and Renji sharing a hospital room scene.

Renji's respirator goes...under his blanket? Is this right? This doesn't seem right. Rukia doesn't seem particularly attached to anything, although there's kind of a bundle of wires? tubes? coming out of her right shoulder area. You can see them better in this shot:

That sure doesn't look like medical grade tubing, the lower one looks kinda like Hihiou Zabimaru, tbh. IVs usually work by gravity, no? Also those tubes are way too big to be going into someone's veins.

Finally, here's Kira, getting his dubious Squad 12 medical procedure.

More shady, giant, intestine-ass looking tubes that... go into him? wtf. They're attached to a computer. Maybe these are data cables?

The upshot of all of this is that I don't think shinigami have blood transfusions. I can't imagine that they don't know about them, so I imagine it's more of a case of their blood is just part of their soul, like, all of them is just soul all the way down, and it would be nearly impossible to accept a transfusion that was made of someone else's soul (soulmate-enjoying fanfic writers, take note). They do like sticking tubes in people, tho.

This sucks because when I was originally thinking about this, of course I was thinking about all the blood Renji has in his body and whether or not he's a universal donor, because, frankly, if he is, I think they would have a special framed painting of him at Squad 4 and let him have as much donuts and apple juice as he wants.

I think the main reason manga list characters' bloodtypes anyway is because Japanese people use it as a personality test, similar to horoscopes. For the record, here are the characters whose blood types we know:

Ichigo - AO Orihime - BO Chad - AO Tatsuki - AO Isshin - AB Uryuu - AB Don Kanonji (????) - BO

When I was trying to look up what they meant, I found this hilarious graphic, thank you verywellmind dot com

Looks to me like these blood types were definitely chosen to tie into personality at least to some degree (I'm not sure about Isshin, but he probably has fake Urahara Shouten-brand gigai blood-substitute anyway, so I am choosing not to read too deeply into that). Anyway, along those lines, judging from this chart, if we wanted to bootstrap Renji's blood type from his personality, I think he would, in fact, clearly fit into the idiot-on-a-skateboard quadrant. So he is a universal donor! (or at least he would be, if he were filled with blood instead of high-concentration ghost juice.)

[bleachbleachbleach]

Botany AU

I love the bioluminescent hotarukazura plants in Bleach specifically because they are never mentioned again, but it makes sense that Kuukaku and her often-itinerant mostly-underground, off-grid house would want alternative sustainable lighting. It's a woody creeping vine, so is it like a kudzu, and grows like the dickens? Is it indigenous to Junrinan--and all regions of Junrinan--or are Kuukaku and her itinerant house spreading aggressive bioluminescent invasives? Is it normally bioluminescent, or is the hotarukazura a specific cultivar? (While we’re at it, what about the boars?)

If grows wild (either indigenously or as an invasive) the forests out there must be LIT. 🥁

Ishida is asking all the right questions, and he's so cute about it ToT:

[Bleach 079]

I'm fascinated by the Soul Society energy grid in general. They seem to make use of many options all at once. We've seen things lit by plant; we've seen electrical wires and transformers; we know that they can plug in laptops that look imported but who knows, are maybe proprietary SRDI laptops that have had their aesthetic toned down. We've seen things lit by torch, and by kidou (though idk if that's reproducible at scale). There's some sewers and some wells and maybe they have hydropower. They have lots of wood. Do they have oil? Natural gas? Nuclear? The KIDOU CANNON?

But back to Ishida. Honestly, I am open to whatever careers the gang chooses to pursue in the epilogue. Ishida, doctor, sure why not. But WHAT IF he decided to be a professional Plant Guy instead??? When he applies to Botany PhD programs, he could write about all of his adventures in cryptobotany in his Statement of Purpose. Like, he is consistently our Plant Guy (even when the plants are rocks):

[Bleach 244]

[berrymascarpone]

A Brief Tour of Seireitei

So I’ve been reading the Soul Society Arc again after finishing the Bleach manga a while back and now that all the plot tension has already been resolved, I’ve found myself looking at the scenery. And by scenery, I mean the architecture and city planning of Seireitei.

Now, the good thing is Ichigo and co really get around a bit in this arc, not to mention the cuts to the captains and lieutenants doing there thing in the background, so here’s a brief tour following along with them.

The first thing we notice about Seireitei is that clearly they spend much more on infrastructure in the city than in Rukongai. That is where all your tax money has gone folks, to nice tiled roofs, whitewashed walls, fancy windows.

But also, considering the magically appearing wall that just straight up falls from the sky when you go near, it’s probably a good idea to have some way of demarcating where you have to stay away from in order to stay un-pancaked.

(Also electrical wires? Just what era is their infrastructure from?)

It looks like there’s a pretty open layout here, but later on, the streets get more labrythine, with long walls splitting the space into narrow roadways.

However, from above, it appears that these complicated halls are actually just blocks of mazes, separated by normal roads. Are they compounds? Is this just the geography of that particular area? Are they individual houses? Who lives there?

And although the streets look pretty narrow from these angles, another ground angle shows that they are actually pretty wide. But also, you might run into something like, uh this.

We all knew the Gotei 13 was pretty fucked up, but uh, yeah. Makes me wonder which earlier generation captain had this installed.

Anyways, after destroying many of those walls, Ichigo and Ganju eventually make it below the uniformly tiled floors to make it to the sewers (or are they storm drains? They feel very tall for sewers.

These remind me somewhat of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, which I had to look up once for a fic, so that makes me think it’s more of a stormwater system. Also, apparently they don’t mark their manhole covers in Seireitei? And it looks kinda fragile too, what with only that tiny little ledge to hold up such a big board. What happens when a particularly heavy person (and we know there are some real big boys in the Gotei 13) steps on one of these tiles and falls through? I imagine Komamura and Zaraki Kenpachi have learned to memorize the locations these manhole covers, or they accidentally step through the floor every few blocks.

Once we exit the underwater canals, we arrive at Sōkyoku Hill, the most scenic view of Seireitei, and also where they lock up and execute their prisoners. I guess they would at least get a good view before they die?

Not only is it on a hill, but the architecture takes quite a brutalist turn. All square blocks and flat tops (except for the nice little row of towers up there? And also a few sky bridges, for the scenic view.)

As a side note, this area appears to be surrounded by several warehouse-like buildings. Not sure if it’s actual warehouses, and this is the prison/industrial district of Seireitei, but interesting to note.

But also, when Ichigo and Renji absolutely wreck a few of these buildings in their fight they appear to contain…absolutely nothing?? Like not even some broken furniture, or debris.

Anyways, after a bit of regrouping back in the underground waterways (which also have some room-like areas a bit further away from the water…for…reasons…) our heroes finally venture forth into brutalist architecture wonderland.

I assume this area is a prison complex, since, judging by the texture, it appears to be made out of Sekkiseki, the reiatsu-suppressing stone. Also interesting to note, the buildings appear to be placed haphazardly, at odd angles. Is this to confuse invaders and/or escaped prisoners? Is it because their city planning consisted of Yamamoto scribbling out something on a napkin? Is it because this hill was one big sekkiseki deposit and they had to carve buildings out from the ground, so their planning had to follow the natural contours? And why is there absolutely no one here? Like the empty warehouses, this area seems to be abandoned. Are there not enough prisoners, or did the last crisis in Soul Society wipe out enough people that there aren’t enough to fill these houses? Is it like those fake buildings that are actually subway stations and the top part is just for show?

Anyways, it seems like I’ve hit the limit on the number of images I can add on the mobile app, so I’ll continue in a part 2 once I get around to it.

[stackslip]

the difference between bleach and a lot of 90s/2000s shounen is that it had elements of truly excellent, subtle writing and compelling female characters who had interesting relationships between one another, which is what makes its downfall into the worlds most boring typical battle shounen that much more of a tragedy

[crispybonkeggllama]

You know you're spending too much time coming up with different aus when you suddenly have a mix of mushishi, yosano from bsd, seals from naruto with revrse harem fantasy otome game plot where the main character from the fandom you're currently writing this fanfiction was isekai-ed as a background character-

And all of that for the sake of repeating a naruto fanart you saw years ago but with your ship

( ._.)

[mediumsizedpidegon]

do you think that while all the cannibalizing and fighting is going on there are some hollows that are just trying to live normal, enjoyable (un)lives?

I do.

In the depths of dark, sunless Hueco Mundo, there lies a great house carved into the base of a sandstone cliff. It is well built and untouched by any violence– no claw marks or dents marring the outer walls. Bleeding golden light out of the windows, the place is a landmark and lighthouse both.

It is a restaurant. The first and only restaurant of Hueco Mundo. It serves Living World food made for non human palates, made by unhuman hands in an unliving place.

Go, open the door. Come in from the cold, seat yourself and wait your turn to ask for the dish you want most. No payment needed expect for a new recipe, if you have one!

You can hear the thunk of knives. The crackling of a lit fireplace. The cook, Mercy Ann, singing in the kitchen.

None of it human, no, but what does that matter?

[sleepingjasminetea]

On The Inner Sanctum:

Deep within the bowels of The Temple, at the heart of the Shield, there are a set of rooms. And in those rooms, there is a door, and behind that door, there is a room. Only accessible by the Serif, the Heir, and the High Priestess of Lady Death.

Referred to as the “Inner Sanctum”, it is the place in which a Serif may be re-embodied, and pass down the Burden of being the Bridge Between Gods and Men. 

Here, in the heart of a dead volcano, at the source of the godsmagic that connects the Ascended Gods, is the closest the mortal realm can get to the Gate of Death. 

Shielded by godsmagic, this is also the safest place for a Serif, as only the above-mentioned people and the gods may enter this room.

When a Serif dies, and their body is too damaged for Lady Life to heal and return the soul to inhabit, she will disperse the old corpse into sand and stardust and spin a form anew, molding it into being in the Inner Sanctum. The thin veil between the land of the dead and the mortal realm allows the Serif’s soul to inhabit and make a home in a form that they had had no tie to prior, allowing True Respawn to occur.

This thin veil also allows the transition of power from Serif to Serif. The Serif and his/her chosen heir enter the realm of the dead, and meet the pantheon there, and the pantheon transitions power (the focus of the godsmagic anchoring the Ascendeds to the mortals) and The Primordials bless the new Serif, and Lady Life and Lady Death return both to life.

Each Serif decorates the Inner Sanctum and surrounding rooms according to their tastes, for this is meant to be their “safe space” 

Yahya decorates his like the inside of his family’s traveling tents, large canvas drapings on the walls and ceilings, and a low cushioned couch. One of the other rooms, he’s turned into one of his alchemy and apothecary labs (and a stillroom). Which is a good thing. Because My Man works with poisons so regularly that he had to draw on godspower to set up a purifying magical barrier.

[thebirdandhersong]

BRO

[recurring-polynya]

Yesterday's post about shinigami blood types (or lack thereof) reminded me about an idea I had awhile ago that shinigami had an equally woo system of assigning personality types based on reiatsu color. This is especially charming to me because of the fact that Ichigo, who hates horoscopes and such, changes reiatsu colors like seventeen times over the course of the series and I feel like the Reiatsu Color Girlies (gender neutral) would have a field day with him.

For funsies, and because it's Friday, I decided to take a stab at making one. I started with the reiatsu color chart from the Bleach wiki. I threw out all the really minor filler arc characters. This is mostly a shinigami thing, so I considered non-shinigami characters as I was thinking about the categories, but they were, like, supporting evidence. I decided that black reiatsu is not a thing people have normally, that's...you know, final form nonsense. Both Yoruichi and Soi Fon's shunko is listed as white, but I feel like shunko is just white, that's not the same as having white reiatsu and is not a personality reflection. On the other hand, when one's bankai is a different color than their normal, that's like revealing a secondary personality type, which is oddly consistent with bankai as a concept. I futzed around for a bit, and finally decided I wanted it to be color-wheel balanced, so, while the Bleach wiki uses the categories of Orange, Golden Orange, Golden Yellow, and Yellow, I just used Orange and Yellow. These are all designed as a spectrum anyway, so if someone's reiatsu is somewhere in the middle, or two-toned or something, they are considered to either have the traits of both, or to be somewhere in the middle.

Finally, keep in mind, this is in-universe hokem, so it's actually very on-brand and hilarious for someone to be grossly miscategorized.

Some notes:

From the very beginning of this project, it was hilarious to me that Matsumoto was getting thrown into the same personality archetype as Hitsugaya and both Kuchiki. In my mind, Rangiku strongly identifies as a white reiatsu person, despite the ample evidence to the contrary. No one is sure if this is a bit or not.

I took all the Arrancar off this chart, but obviously Grimmjow's is blue, and I think it's a hilarious Seireitei microaggression that he would go into the studious class overachiever with Kira and Ishida (I realize that Ishida is also not a shinigami, so to him, it's a microaggression how on-brand this is)

The pink category was such a mixed bag, and it also contained basically every girl Arrancar. I tried to come up with something that literally every one of them would make a horrified face about, a club to which absolutely no one wishes to belong.

The red category feels very solid to me and I love the collection of characters within it, except for Urahara, what is this man doing here? I feel he would be very "hmm, maybe I am a man of action" about it, which is definitely a bit, and Yoruichi has nearly murdered him over it on multiple occasions.

Has there ever been anyone with green reiatsu who wasn't absolutely insufferable over it? Certainly not anyone on this chart. (Kira is both vocally critical of the reiatsu color personality system and incandescently angry that he doesn't have green reiatsu)

[bleachbleachbleach]

[Bleach 076]

Orihime tell me moooooore! I'm curious if it feels different because Jidanbou is the size of a small moon, or if healing a shinigami in a reishi body feels different (even from Ichigo?) or if, even if it's not what she's specifically referencing here, it feels different to heal in Soul Society. Orihime tell me moooooore!

[berrymascarpone]

Finally found out definitive evidence refardjng the location of Karakura town.

And also the layout of the town itself

[grandcrossoverworldbuilding]

The Four Worlds

Many thousands of years ago on the planet Earth, there were stories. People wanted to know how the world worked, but did not understand. And so they told stories to explain it, stories of magic, monsters, and most of all, Gods. And it was through the telling of these stories that the Gods came to be. Earth had been saturated with metaphysical objects known as “Authorities”, which were akin to admin privileges for pieces of reality. The “Authorities” became a core, and their bodies were made from human imagination.

These gods were sustained by worship from the same humanity that created them, and they would grant boons to the humans of Earth in exchange for said worship. It was a prosporus time, but it would soon come to an end thanks to a threat from beyond the Earth. Deep in space, one of the civilization destroying entities known as the Reapers had encountered something that caused it to deviate from it’s normal path. This Reaper, known as Velber, wandered through the universe on a set path, a route which took 14,000 years to traverse, and dispatched machines that wiped out any civilizations it encountered, regardless of how advanced they were. When it passed by Earth, it wiped out 80 percent of life on Earth, and slew the majority of the Gods.

The key players in driving off this menace were Agamotto and Mamaragan. Agamotto was the mortal son of a goddess named Oshtur, who had helped codify many of Earth’s magical systems. Agamotto commissioned several Fae clans to forge a sword of his design, Excalibur, in order to slay Velber’s forces. Agamotto knew he himself could not wield the sword to it’s full effectiveness, and that is where Mamaragan enters the picture. Mamaragan was an Aboriginal god who was well respected amongst the the gods. Earlier in the conflict, Mamaragan’s apprentice Oggar had hatched the idea of creating Letters of Power, symbols imbued with the lent power of gods and legendary figures. The Letters of Power could in turn be made into Words of Power, giving great strength to their Wielders. Oggar had intended these letters of power to be used by himself and Mamaragan to defeat Velber’s machines, but Mamaragan foresaw that their godly nature would leave them vulnerable to the enemy’s weapons. So he instead gifted the Word of power to a mortal. That mortal then used Excalibur to defeat the machine menace.

The gods had been killed, but the stories that spawned them hadn’t gone anywhere. And thus they were reborn anew, but it was not just the gods themselves that were reborn, it was the world around them as well. At this point in time, much of the surface of the Earth was metaphysical in nature, dictated by belief and by those with the power to shape it. And so when the Gods were reborn, so was a majority of the world around them. This was why this time became known as the Second World, and why that name scheme would persist to later iterations of the Gods.

The stories of the Gods had changed over time, so the second iteration of the Gods were different from their originals. That was not the only change, however. Velber’s destruction has stuck in the minds of man, and inspired stories of Apocalyptic destruction. The Death of the Gods would not be a one time event, it would occur over and over. Once enough gods died, the change to the next world would trigger, and all would be reset. The Gods who had been forgotten by Humanity would disappear, and Gods who’d been incorporated into other pantheons would become permanent fixtures. Gods who were not dead when the Worlds changed would be wiped away, though some (Such as Mamaragan, now going by the name Shazam) found ways to persist beyond the change. Additionally, the Demigods begotten by these gods survived, anchored to existence by their half mortal nature.

Most Gods believed that while every other pantheon was the creation humanity, their pantheon were legitimate. They believed that the creation stories of their pantheons were the genuine truth. It is entirely possible that one of these pantheons is right, but it is entirely impossible to know for sure which one is right. The stories which inspired the gods did have to come from somewhere, after all. While in some cases the inspirations are known, such as how the Ancients inspired the stories of the Asgardians, others are unknown. This means that it is possible for the stories to be inspired by legitimate Gods. There are Gods from other regions of space that are outside Earth’s system, and could have appeared on Ancient Earth. As an aside, the era wherein the stories the gods are made of were written is informally known as the 0th World.

The Second World would pass by naturally, and the Third World would begin, however the end of this world would have drastic impact on the next World. The problem began when one of Zeus’s spawn, Kratos of Sparta, slew Ares and took his mantle as God of War. This would set into motion a series of events that would lead to the destruction of the Greek Pantheon. In the absence of this Pantheon, Alien infiltrators known as the Seosten would masquerade as the Greek Gods as part of their plans to take control of the planet. The Seosten wanted to control Earth because humans had a unique ability, the power to bond their DNA with the DNA of alien lifeforms to gain their abilities. They had the potential to be highly versatile Super Soldiers, but there was an issue. Their ability to bond only worked on physical creatures, known as Alters. Metaphysical creatures, known as Others, did not have the DNA necessary for the process. Gods fell under the category of Other, and would be an obstacle for Seostenic control of Earth.

The Seosten’s ultimate plan was to hide away the Supernatural world from humanity, and advance their knowledge of science to the point that the supernatural was deemed as impossible. This would mean that the Gods would cease to exist after the third world, due to their metaphysical bodies no longer being compatible with their “Authorities”. This plan, to institute what would eventually be known as the Bystander Effect, would require a great deal of power, even for a space empire. They obtained the lion’s share of their power by orchestrating a war between the gods themselves and siphoning energy given off by the conflict.

However, the conflict would escalate beyond the Seosten’s expectations. The people of Egypt had Long be wary of body snatchers like the Seosten, due to their prior experiences with the Goa’uld, and this experience allowed them to uncover the Seosten’s presence, bringing them into the war directly. The revelation could have spurred the gods to ally with each other in order to crush the Seosten, but before such an alliance could be cemented, one of them took an action that scuttled it. Shem-Ha Mephorash had long toyed with the idea of using humanity as a weapon of conquest, and the exposure of the Seosten convinced her to enact her plans. She began to take control of Humanity via a method that involved the Universal Language of the human race. This was seen as an existential threat by the other gods, and tensions ratcheted up between them even though the god Enki had managed to scuttle it using the Curse of Balal.

Being out in the open made it harder for the Seosten to keep the war in line, and so the war began to escalate to higher stakes. Another major driver of this was the Monkey King of Korea, a reckless but powerful fighter. Eventually the intensity of the conflict began to stir the Chaos Bringer who resided beneath the surface of the planet Earth. And this drew the attention of two other groups of Gods from beyond the stars.

The first group were the Elder Gods. These were the first six gods whom had been created before Unicron and Primus were split apart, and whom had subsequently fought against Unicron. The second group were the Kais. The Kais were an offshoot of the Mathusians, the same race which would spawn the Green Lantern Corps. The Kais were descended from a group of Malthusians who had apprenticed themselves under the Elder Gods in order to seek penance for Krona’s Sin. The Elder Gods thus gifted them with an “Authority” covering the concept of Creation, and the responsibility of maintaining the afterlife and various other realms connected to our cosmos. To balance out these Kais, an office known as the Hakaishin was created, who bore the “Authority” over destruction.

The intervention of these gods from the stars put an end to the war between the Gods, and forced them to come to the peace table to hash out an accord that would be implemented at the Dawn of the next World. The biggest result of this intervention was the splintering of the Earth into several realms. This was primarily done to split off the lands of the gods from the physical plane which humans resided. This was a very complex process, and due to the nature of Earth’s make up, Earth could not be split into just the Earth and the domain of the Gods. Several different realms, such as Outworld, had to be made as well in order to make everything work. Additionally, the war had severely damaged the flow of the afterlife on and around Earth, creating the need to create the Soul Society in order to regulate the damage.

Ironically, the Seosten were treated relatively leniently in this matter, as they did not posses the conceptual power to cause the damages that had drawn the ire of the cosmic gods. Thus they managed to get the Bystander Effect which they’d been aiming for the whole time, helped by the placement of a special Artifact which reinforced the planet’s belief in Science. However, the Gods did manage to get some concessions. It was agreed that the Gods would be given physical bodies in the next world, which were less reliant on the worship of humanity to survive, though it still empowered them. A Taboo was also put in place, which acted as a conceptual defense which prevented humans from being able to directly harm the Gods. The Gods won these concessions by striking a deal with the sorcerer supreme of the time, Suleimon Bin Daoud, to empower his proposed “Seal of Solomon”.

The Gods were also given a new duty, to prevent Unicron from awakening. As part of this duty, every 1000 years a God’s council would be organized, which would assess the state of mortal affairs on Earth and the adjacent realms. If a risk of awakening Unicron was detected, the Gods would hold a vote on how to handle it, with the most extreme solution available being the extinction of mortal life. Though if that provision were voted through, Mortals would have the right to challenge the Gods to a series of 13 one on one matches, to avert their destruction.

When the world’s changed over, there was a new pantheon joining the others. This was a common occurrence, but this case was set apart by one key fact: This pantheon stretched beyond the Earth. This pantheon had been born from the stories of the war between the Gods themselves, and was not simply made from the minds of humanity, but of the various alien species who had fought in the war as well. It was a story of a war between two godly races whose conflict split their world asunder. It was the tale of New Genesis, and Apokalips. After they came into existence, the Gods of New Genesis and Apokalips became major players throughout the cosmos. Apokalips’ leader Darkseid sought to restrain all things into his own image, using subterfuge and guile to lead people into giving into their worst nature.

However, they were not the only Gods who transcended the bonds of Earth. During the period of the war after the Seosten’s involvement had been revealed, Odin had allied with other alien races in order to even the playing field. Foreseeing that the conflict would eventually attract the attention of forces outside of the Earth, Odin had his allies spread the tales of the Norse to other planets. As a result, when the change to the Fourth world went into effect, the Norse pantheon became a technologically advanced race with connections that spanned the galaxy. The 3rd World incarnation of Odin attempted a scheme that would allow his consciousness to persist into the body of his 4th world counterpart, but this plot was scuppered. The 3rd World Odin was able to continue existing, and took up the name Mr. Wednesday.

The Gods of Uruk also hatched their own scheme to influence the next World. They cam up with a scheme to create the ultimate neutral party to rule over humanity and keep the Gods from losing their dominion over them. This neutral party was the hero known as Gilgamesh, who was one third human and two thirds God. However, Gilgamesh developed outside of their plans, and their attempt to rerail him back into the role they planned for him using Enkidu failed, and Gilgamesh ultimately wound up cementing the end of the Age of Gods.

Time passed. Eventually the nation of America came to prominence on the world stage, and many of the lingering old gods relocated there, seeking opportunities to gain wider influence there. From this location, Mr. Wednesday would hatch a plot to obtain even greater power. His plan involved orchestrating a new War between gods, except this time the war would be between the New Gods, and the Old Gods, gods who had found ways to persist after the change over from one World to the next. In order to kick off this plot, Mr. Wednesday would need a villain to rally the other Old Gods to action. Wednesday, by this point was well aware of how Gods were created, and so he decided to nudge along the creation of one, with the aid of a certain Investor.

By this point in time, the industrial revolution was in full swing in the Americas, and Mr. Wednesday guided humanity’s belief in faith and industrialism to become incarnated as a God known as The Factory. The Factory, which embodied all of the toxic and destructive aspects of Capitalism, would consume anything and everything as raw material for it’s products, including other Gods. However, Mr. Wednesday’s desired war between the Gods would be put on hold, as The Factory soon came to the attention of an organization known as the SCP Foundation, who worked swiftly to contain it's products, which were the only way it could interact with the world. They had been tipped off as to it’s existence by the Fourth World Odin, who had maintained a close watch over Mr. Wednesday in order to head off any schemes. The War between the Gods would thus not begin until the Modern Day, when changes in the SCP Foundations Leadership would draw their focus more towards Superheroes, and after Odin had fallen and his son Thor took up leadership of Asgard. When that happened, Mr. Wednesday would set off this war by covertly pointing the Church of the Broken God in the Factory’s direction.

[theriftserpent]

Members of the Order of the Cosmic Tree: Pt. 1

Picrews under the cut

Andvari

Occupation: Protector of the Order

Species: Verdugo

Principles: Heart

Patron: Unnamed True Evil

As a Heart principle, Andvari is energetic and oftentimes obsessive and is known for his relentless desire to protect and preserve that which he deems important.

Despite being a Verdugo, he is very unlike his kin in that he refuses to follow the word of the Shepherd. Andvari claims he doesn't recall his life before becoming loose and whether or not he killed his Image is a mystery even to him. He is gloomy but friendly towards the members of the Order.

Abilities

Andvari possesses all the abilities of a typical Verdugo.

Arsen Renczi

CW: Mentioned poisoning

Name: Arsen Armitox Renczi

Date of birth: 04.07.1910

Age: 113

Species and Race: Humanoid, posthuman

Occupation: Poison Bearer

Principles: Rot, Lantern

Patron: Shuggor

Despite being one of the younger members of the Order, Arsen is among the most mature ones. He is generally aloof and professional, but not unkind, and rather soft-spoken. He acts as the father figure of the other members. Arsen takes his work very seriously and spends large amounts of time perfecting his skills. When he's not busy with that, he's usually sat by a kindled fire with a book and a drink.

Arsen (formerly Andrei) is the son of Vera Renczi and an unknown father. After observing her work, he gained interest in death and the occult and eventually joined the Order of the Cosmic Tree in 1939. At the age of 20, he almost died of arsenic poisoning initiated by his mother.

Abilities

Shuggor's Gift: Immortality and regeneration

Necrobotany: The ability to revive the dead through the use of plants (think of this)

Astral Communication: The ability to communicate with astral beings

Raphael West

CW: Mentioned torture, child whump, mentioned child death, poisoning attempt, murder

Name: Raphael "Raphiel" Ecarus West

Date of birth: 04.03.1910

Age: 113

Species and Race: Allegedly humanoid and avian

Occupation: Mortuary Artist, Body Snatcher

Principles: Feather, Wind

Patron: The Elegiast

Raphael portrays himself as a kind, aloof, calmly curious, mysterious, and helpful individual. Despite living in seclusion, he enjoys company quite a bit. However, despite acting as someone capable of compassion, he is detached from his own emotions and doesn't particularly care for the well-being of others. He has many sadistic tendencies, which he tries to mast when around others.

Raphael often exhibits what I lovingly call a "thirst for blood", which he quenches via torture and/or mutilation. His profession enables him to do so and, in return, it benefits from it. As a Body Snatcher, he must gather bodies for sacrifices, regardless of their state of decomposition. In order to do that, he would often indulge in torture sessions with whatever poor living sod he has set his sights on. 

If his victim happens to be the type of "pretty thing" he fancies, he either takes way longer with the sessions and heals his victim, or he indulges in a single, lethal gruesome act. Either way, he aims to preserve the victim in their most beautiful state, in life, or post mortem.

Raphael was born in a pretty ordinary family with a younger sister and a baby brother. From a very early age, he had exhibited great interest and delight towards the suffering of others. The earliest such example occurred at the age of five, when he kicked his sister down the stairs. At eight years old, he attempted to poison his schoolmates. When he reached thirteen years old, his mother gave birth to his baby, which Raphael suffocated not long after the birth.

His involvement in the occult started in 1927 but culminated in 1930 when he sacrificed his family. In an attempt to avoid imprisonment, Raphael began traveling with the money his family had until he came into contact with other followers of Shuggor. In 1933, he joined the Order of the Cosmic Tree.

Abilities

Shuggor's Gift: Immortality and regeneration

Healing: The ability to mend wounds and prevent infections

Umbrakinesis: The ability to manipulate darkness

Animal Manipulation: Raphael is always accompanied by a murder of crows and can also control birds (though he prefers corvids)

Thermokinesis: The ability to manipulate the temperature around oneself

Pyrokinesis: The ability to manipulate and create fire

Astral Trapping (Necromancy): The ability to trap deceased souls in vessels. The vessels can range from objects to corpses (or skeletal remains) to living creatures

Picrews:

Andvari, Arsen

[parasiteking]

We rarely if ever watch or get interested in anime however u have got me hooked on Bleach

-🃏

OMG???

um um um. if yall watch bleach skip the filler i promise you Skip It. its not worth it. ever. you can look up a guide for what to skip & what not to skip ^_^

anyways bleach is super cool if u wanna know any of the actual events that go on in bleach u can ask... i loveee kisuke urahara

[flavorcrumbs]

Worldbuilding idea #2

Magic uses that use light magic wear white robes because the light magic bleaches color out of cloth, fabric, and even leather to an extent. 

[wuxiaphoenix]

On Writing: Looking for the Right Rock

If you’re looking to lay a church foundation stone, granite is the way to go. If you want to make lithographic prints, look for fine-grained slate. And if you want to go old school and chip out arrowheads and scrapers, you want flint. They’re all rocks; not better, not worse. But they’re very different rocks.

You need to give the same considerations to elements of plot, character, and world when you create a story. Does what you’re picked fit the purpose it fills in the story? If not, why not? And how bad is the mismatch?

Sometimes you do want a mismatch. In Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick, a classic NYC private detective gets a case in a magical Manhattan, and much of the story revolves around what he does and doesn’t learn about creatures, powers, and events that explain the crime. The Fish Out of Water trope exists for good reason.

But it you’re trying to build a world that feels as seamless in its reality as the one we live in, you need to give certain story elements a second thought. Because so many Neat Shiny Things out of folklore, history, and modern science imply other elements of context that may not be obvious. And if those further elements aren’t there - it can break suspension of disbelief.

For example, take spook-lights. They come in many different manifestations. But there are a few places in the Appalachians where they specifically appear and burn like ghostly flames over a family’s grave, an omen that someone in that family is soon to die.

Creepy. Thrilling. An awesome bit of folklore to add to give your story a sense of place. But it also has implications. There is a family grave. There are people who visit the grave (in a cemetery or elsewhere) often enough to spot the flames. And at least one death in the family - or another family so haunted - has happened before, so people know what the omen means.

If any of these extra elements are lacking, say the character just moved into the big city and the spook-lights are appearing at a local crematorium they’ve never even visited - that sense of place, connection, and personal history is lost.

One a side note, this is one reason I’ve been bewildered by the “is Ichigo Kurosaki actually a dead Shinigami or a live human” tussles in the Bleach fandom. In Japanese folklore, in a lot of old European folklore as well if you dig deep enough, it’s quite possible to have a living ghost.

The ikiryou turns up in The Tale of Genji, as well as many folktales. An angry or obsessed person’s spirit, or even only part of their spirit, wanders around loose; haunting, laying curses, sometimes possessing people, and generally causing havoc. A living Shinigami would fit perfectly into that category.

Yet the realms of the dead and the living, in Bleach canon, aren’t supposed to interact. When folklore has them interacting all the time. Hence cleaning graves, respectful burials, and listening to spirits when they warn you about trouble!

Pick your story rocks for the right purpose. Make your story elements fit the world, down to the ghosts in the stones. Because fossils show what came before... and that gives your readers the thrill of what happens next!