#magic story conlang

[gay-communist-witch]

my magic story world conlang alphabet and orthography

my two main magic systems. the (12e) one has 12 elements and has 11 sections of information to read and is generally more complicated since with that one mages can have up to 3 kinds of magic. the (8e) one has 8 elements and only has 3-4 sections of information to read and is generally more simple since mages can only have 1 kind of magic at a time.

let me know which magic system you prefer, personally i kinda like the (8e) one more idk

[starshinedragon]

PANDORIAN LANGUAGE II.

SSO - Pandorian alphabet, writing and examples

(Unofficial / fanmade)

This is fanmade. Not made by the sso tean, sadly they would never put energy into something fun like this. The runes used in the game aren't spelling out anything, they were not put in with a language in mind.

This would be the new pandorian alphabet, and storywise MC would recarve the runestones for them to do actual magic.

For a more detailed description and story see my previous post on pandorian language.

[thunderboltfire]

I was having fun with making up their voices! I've also decided to solve a question of languages (languages color-coded to avoid confusion).

Also, this one has quite a lot of tiny text, so I've included transcripts.

[ID: a list illustrated with colored doodles of characters' heads. Titled Who speaks what?

Igna [cartoon picture of Igna's face drawn in brick red color]: Native language: illiraian (southwestern regional form). Understands enough elvish to know when she's being threatened, and can ask for directions, but not much more.

Argo [cartoon picture of Argo's face drawn in sap green color]: Native language: northern elvish. Fluent in illiraian, hardly discernible accent. (it took Igna 3 months to figure out what's off - he rolls 'R' a bit too hard and his vowels sometimes are pronounced too close to the back of his throat).

Theria [cartoon picture of Theria's face drawn in muted brown color]: Native language: Samhran. Fluent in illiraian, audible samhran accent (difficulty pronouncing consonant clusters, palatalising 'L's and 'T"s, mixing up vowels and dyphtongs, sometimes sing-song affect to the vowels). Speaks basic Andaran and broken Omtheron.

Daen [cartoon picture of Daen's face drawn in violet color]: Native language: Moer. Fluent in illiraian, Andaran and gods know what else. Communicative in old elvish. Understands both dwarven languages, but speaks neither. No discernible accent in illiraian.

Haart [cartoon picture of Haart's face drawn in blue]: Native language: Kará (east-dwarvish). Fluent in illiraian (mostly without an

accent, but he often switches soft and hard 'H'). Understands some Andaran and Omtheron. Knows his local variety of sign language.

Knows some expressions in samhran (exclusively swearwords and toasts).]

-

Results: Igna is a spoiled kid, she's the only one in the group who has the luxury of speaking her native language day-to-day. She grew up in complete nowhere, with a very scarce contact with other languages. Tentative A1 in elvish, due to her dad trying to teach her.

Argo probably had the knowledge of Illiraian hammered into his head during his education - inhabitants of Riss speak exclusively a dialect of elvish day-to-day, but the duchy is an enclave, and it would be severely imparing not to know the neighbors' language.

Theria has been away from home long enough to gain a pretty good grasp of Illiraian, and has around B1 level in Andaran. Both spoken with a pretty thick accent, her native language is from a different language family with a strikingly different phototactics, and she's learnt the foreign languages pretty late.

Daen speaks many languages, and all of them pretty well. Maybe it's his long lifespan, but it's possible he's got a knack for language learning.

Haart has had a similar situation to Argo in a sense he's lived in a close neighboorhood of another language and learnt it in childhood. He comes from a merchant house, so it's understandable his family would want him to know foreign languages.

[ID: a scale diagram titled "profanity meter" Left to right: Daen titled "Apocalyptic event indicator", Igna titled "curses when hurt", Argo titled "curses if pissed", Haart titled "curses to emphasise" and Theria titled "Fuck is a sentence divider"]

-

I have to face the fact that Theria most probably has a severe case of unwashed mouth. Her mercenary career spans a good few years when she enters the stage and she doesn't seem like the type to watch her language, so in all probability she doesn't even notice that she curses like a sailor.

[ID: a list titled "Voice and expression". On the left side there's an up-and-down double ended arrow titled "pitch". Characters from top to bottom:

Igna: Easily the highest voice of the group. Clean, and rather strong despite it. Makes an open and honest impression when speaking, fairly good singing voice.

Theria: on the lower side of feminine voices, full-bodied voice with a bit of a vocal fry, on average way louder than the rest of the group. Enjoys singing, but easily dominates a choir

Argo: rather raspy, matte voice. Has a tendency to mutter - the limited sensitivity on the scarred side of his face makes it harder to speak clearly. Speaks quite fast despite of this. Can't hold a note for his life.

Haart: soft, full baritone. Probably the nicest laughter. Nice singing voice, talks with his hands a lot. Makes a characteristic huff when he's nervous.

Daen: low, resonant voice. Clear pronounciation. Reticent, rarely talks more than necessary. Makes a formal impression.]

Last but not least, my trials to work out how would they probably sound like. (I'm not really one to do voiceclaims).

[velaraffricate]

the horror of realizing that writing a story means writing

[elodieunderglass]

When does Tolkien start entering the public domain?

(In reference to this poll https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/730451774219190272 where I tagged it supporting my own personal theory and added that when Tolkien enters the public domain WATCH OUT)

Tolkien’s works enter the public domain in the USA, uk and Canada 70 years after his death - so 2043 with open season starting 2044.

If we’re all still around in 20 years’ time, make a note of it! I’ll write you a story with unhinged hobbit family structures, the Shire being a place that dampens magic, and the unauthorised yet strangely canonical adventures of Belladonna Took and the Silmarils. It will be 200,000 words long and written in the correct tone, and I promise to do completely immersive research to colour in the background: every linguistic reference, Anglo-Saxon folkway, Icelandic influence, weirdly deep dives into topics like kinship moiety and subtle mischief that characterises Tolkien’s work. This would be so funny to me.

Everyone will be racing to publish basic porn and games; the d&d franchise which will be world-eating in 20 years will finally get to drop the pretense of “halflings,” Witcher and other franchises ditto; all the fantasy writers who have tugged at the tit for so many generations will finally be able to do it openly, and the films will be constant and abysmal. But we, we alone, we happy few alone and free; we will be giggling together, like playing dolls, over what the people REALLY want: constructing elaborate conlang puns with a 200k textual payoff.

It will be my honor to work on this for no reason at all, and I will ceremoniously give it to you in exchange for £7.99. And we will laugh and laugh and laugh

[bunchashapes]

do you have a favorite magic system, or type thereof? i've been trying to think of some lately myself so im curious!

speaking as someone who used to be waaaay too into this sort of thing (and still kinda is), i do think deeply-involved magic system stuff can potentially weigh down an otherwise perfectly serviceable fantasy world. what i look for in a magic system is something that enriches the world and surprises me and doesn’t just seem like the author indulging in a personal obsession at the cost of their own story (unless it’s really funny. then i make an exception)

that said, i do think one that left a strong impression on me was the magic in the eragon series by christopher paolini. it’s been many many years since i read those books but it nurtured an interest in conlang and unnecessarily litigious magic rules that definitely influences my stuff even now, but i’ve also grown older and wiser and realized the value in a very straightforward magic system that’s just there to be magical. i’ve seen talk of a categorical distinction between “hard magic” and “soft magic” but i have no idea what that means. no one tell me

[starflungwaddledee]

🌟 hello! 🌟 art tag || comics tag || sona tag

i'm starflung, and i'm still fairly new here! i'm a kirby artist who specialises in comics, storytelling, and worldbuilding

my work is sometimes story and drama heavy, as i have a strong focus on seeing characters pull through adversity, and can be more or less angsty. i use the tag "cw angst" among others to filter that out! i have a bit of bias toward the dream land four, as well as magolor, the knights, and marx; but i'd love to learn more about all the others too! i also really enjoy developing in-depth sci-fi worlds and environments, languages and cultures, and biological or magical headcanons, which i'm of course applying to kirby stuff here! my ask box is open; please send me questions or theories about my AUs or worldbuilding or languages or headcanons or sona; they make me so happy and i often try to do art or comic answers!

(please however do not try to text-rp with me. i cannot do this, sorry!)

lastly i also love engaging with other people's works; leaving comments and seeing their own headcanons and such! i reblog 2-3 pieces by other folks a day, usually from the queue!

here are some tags and links!

work type: my art tag (all content) || my comics tag || worldbuilding + headcanons || starspeak (my celestial conlang) || my personal tag

content: (note; proper intro posts for my aus are in progress!) awtdy au || clockwork heart au || chrysalis au morpho dee || starstruck dee (my sona) thanks for stopping by!

[jessepinwheel]

just for fun here's another story survey question

this poll is more targeted towards writers, but certainly people who read stories can also care a little too much about worldbuilding, too.

obviously these categories tend to overlap and people have interests in more than one thing. you'll have to pick the one you feel the most strongly about. follow your heart!

[blankd]

The Common Language(TM)

Saw a post trying to explain how Common (a... common language) exists in fantasy settings and (I assume) DnD. I personally disagreed with OP's interpretations as they funneled explanations into two camps:

-Humans are so imperialist they made everyone else speak it (a travesty to act like humans are the center of the universe again)

-All languages form Common out of trade necessity, BUT the words contributed retreat into fantasy stereotypes (orcs are warriors, elves are artisan waifs, etc.). Which, IDK guys, at best it comes across as over-explaining US English with extra steps and baggage.

Now personally, I treat languages in my own campaign as mostly geological*- because I'm running a campaign, not writing a book/wiki/conlang.

*A few languages are bound to their speakers simply because they don't have humanoid mouths, eg: Primordial is spoken by Elementals, AKA sentient elements, etc.

Naturally, this led to wondering how the existence of Common could be a larger feature that could be interacted with. While conlangs can be fun, they are often treated as fossils when players probably prefer to walk among dinosaurs.

Note: This is written through the lens of DnD/a fantasy TTRPG, but it could probably function elsewhere with mindful tweaks., build according to your preferences.

In this scenario, all cultural languages exist, but a reverse tower of babel situation occurred. So now the world has a large magical tower that gifts all sentient humanoids (PCs/NPCs) with Common.

For World Flavor:

The immediate obvious possibility is that several nations/peoples agreed to collaborate on this, it's up to you if any individuals are named. But since it was so long ago, that might be lost to time. Or maybe it was recently completed! Regardless, is the tower a Wonder that is communally protected or does this responsibility fall on a certain group?

Or is the Tower Divine? A gift from a god of language, a god of peace or something else entirely (a god of venom who wanted to afford all mortals the ability to hurt each other with words, etc.)? If it is divine, what is the story that explains it? Is there a faith that worships the Tower (and its god)? How do people who may dislike this god reconcile the benefits of the Tower with their distaste for the deity?

Or is it an (inter)national archaeological mystery that is currently being studied? What has been hindering progress? Is it people (who has right over this) or something more otherworldly (supernatural defenses)?

Or maybe it really is just a funny little quirk of the world- a team of wizards bestowed the world with a lingua franca for an easier conference since they don't have time to learn other languages, back to other stuff!

For Conflicts/Hooks:

Is it housed in the current world's seat of power (or was a superpower built around it)? Is this fact used as a Divine Right to be an Authority over others?

Are new words added? Does this affect magic with Verbal Components? Is this how the world's spells are created? Are expeditions sent into the Tower to attempt to add more spells? Have magical words (spells) been lost (or removed)? Does this mean the Tower is ALSO the world's seat of magic?

Can Mundane words be lost? Does this somehow erase *all* instances of this written word? Or does it remove their inherent meaning and Essence (eg: if the word Sweet was lost, would all things cease to be sweet or would sweetness slowly bleed out of the world as sweet and its synonyms are eroded? How would the remaining languages try to preserve this concept in reaction to the Tower?

Was this word loss an accident or intentional?

Is this aspect abused? Is/has it been used as a political weapon/threat? How does exterior damage to the tower, if it can suffer any, affect the language it actively imbues in people? Or does it merely impact how effective its power is?

Or is the Tower decaying and there is a lingual epidemic where communication is collapsing in places that have become overly reliant on the Common provided by the Tower? What do attempts to fix the Tower look like? If the Tower is Divine in origin, how do the pious interpret this development (a test, malice from another god, etc)?

Is a lack of Common in a person used as a pretense to do harm to them? Is it used as 'evidence' to strip them of rights/dignit? Or is speaking Common a litmus for adulthood (eg: babies babble, adults converse, etc.)? How does this belief affect Mute or Deaf people?

Are there people that believe in the superiority of a Cultural Language (since they equate effort to value and Common requires 'no effort')? Are there people that consider Common to be a mark of a lack of intelligence?

Is there an effective range to the Tower? Is there a material or other phenomena that interferes with the Tower's effect on people? How would the PCs react to suddenly being unable to speak Common within their own party for a scenario?

How would anyone react if mundane livestock suddenly spoke? What if fields of plants started screaming?

Would anyone seek a way to sever the tower's influence from themselves (or others)? If the Tower can magically/divinely influence people with the ability to use Common, what else can it do? Would someone ever seek to alter this aspect of the Tower? Could they use it to continuously, universally emit healing? What about silence? (Is the Tower simply automatically converting all words to Common, effectively robbing all the intricacies of natural cultural languages?)

Would there be a reason to destroy this tower? Who would benefit from it (culturally/politically/etc.)? How would the world be changed if it was suddenly destroyed? Who would attempt to fix it? Could it even be fixed?

For Mechanics:

Some challenge uses have already been suggested above with Common Language and/or Verbal Magic dead zones.

But more cut and dry mechanics could tie to how Silence, Comprehend Languages and other linguistically-tied spells tap into/invoke the Tower and even require a nonstandard component.

Additionally, maybe this is where the Power Words (Kill, Heal, Stun, etc.) originated from and can only be found there- and what if there are more?

If you wanted to get cheeky you could probably attribute other word/language spells (Healing Word, etc.) to the Tower, but every table is different.

Hopefully this inspires some fun at the table. Or if you're already running a campaign, you can downsize this effect to a dungeon/wizard's tower/town.

This idea is of course free for use, and if you do use it, please share your story of how it played out! Have fun o/

[amaiguri]

Meet My Mutuals #MeetMyMoots

Friends and mutuals, I am starting a new tag called #MeetMyMoots. Something I see discussed on here a lot is about how Tumblr used to have more actual community, less social-media-ness and I think community is cool and important. And I've been neglecting my Tumblr anyway. So, I'm gonna be the change I want to see in the world and get you guys all connected -- and then you should each introduce me to YOUR mutuals and then we'll all start having stronger community circles.

Please try not to put anyone on blast who doesn't want to be on blast -- I limited this one to people who explicitly said they were open to tag games, asks, friends, etc.

Okay, without further ado and in no particular order, let's introduce everyone!

@theprissythumbelina is a horse girl and writer. She posts GREAT posts about horses and the way they work now and the jobs formed around them... Right now, I think her (and I think she/her pronouns) big WIP is Mortal Sparks -- it's about wars and necromancy and complicated mother-daughter relationships.

@tower-of-hana (she/it pronouns) is a conlanger! She shit-posts about linguistics and I love that. They're great. If you want more linguistics in your life, this is your entity!

@maiemorrae (she/her) is a writer who also plays games, especially the Sims. Right now, she's working on... (I mean, I'd call it an "IP" but that sounds so clinical but WORK WITH ME) a collection of stories and books and games set in her gaslamp fantasy world of Luctine! The barrier between life-and-death vanished and now people who use magic are highly regulated. It's very cool Spooky Victorian vibes.

(...Why are these images progressively getting bigger? I don't understand...) @anyablackwood (she/her) is one of my earliest moots. She writes a lot of different things but I THINK she just started overhauling her Big One TM (Feel free to chime in!) that's a wlw story set in Heian Japan. She's a really active member and we trade a lot of tag games! But I'd love to get more familiar with her work in specific!

@moonfeatherblue (aka Blue Mooney on YouTube) is a Vtuber and a writer? One of the few, one of the proud *Salutes*. Blue has a couple of big works (that I was supposed to read and edit and then my life fucking imploded I'm sorry I'm a bad mutual *Sobs*) but also writes and brainstorms short stories with her YouTube chat! I love her, even though I don't get to spend nearly enough time with her lolol

@pluttskutt (she/her) is a fantasy writer who writes for the joy of it! She has a lot of different stories, mostly about ace/aro people (Iand she's very active -- always posting picrews and aesthetics and participating in tag and ask games. She also runs the Trick-or-Treat writer tag in Octobers! <3

-----------------------------------------------------------------

AHHHHHH and that's all I'll inundate you all with now! Very excited to be back on Tumblr more actively! :D I'll try to do another of these sometime to cover more of my very cool Moots. And also, open tag to anyone else who would like to introduce me to their Moots too <33333

Like I said: This is about building stronger community :3

(And if anyone wants to be removed for some reason, let me know!)

[trixierosewrites]

writeblr intro :3

Hi, everyone, I'm Trixie! I'm a young (but adult) writer and classicist, currently in the middle of publishing my novella, Memento Vivere. I also write short stories and am working on a couple novels! I go by shey/heir neopronouns but if that's too complicated she/they is tolerable too.

My favourite genre is the mystery-murder mystery-crime-thriller-horror area, but I dabble in a lot, including historical and fantasy! I love to write dialogue and I am a compulsive world builder for fantasy, including seven partially made conlangs.

I'd love to connect with more writers :3

my novella: memento vivere

horror/thriller

will be available as paperback, ebook, and deluxe edition

every single character is a horrible person

high stakes, little time, and a lot of character death >:3

Aidan Whitney, four times ex-prime minister, wakes up chained to a bed in a room with ten other people. The only way to escape? Making accusations that kill the accused, and, if incorrect, kill the accuser.

my short stories and novels below the cut!

my short stories

One Hundred Times, or a retelling of orpheus and eurydice in which orpheus looks back a hundred times for a hundred different reasons with a hundred different reactions

The Wasp, or three polyamorous women trying to make it work in between crime and betrayal

a first person POV of a somewhat stuck up researcher into the fair folk

"you can't protect her forever" AKA woman offers herself up to be tortured to protect her girlfriend

a crime solving gang of polyamorous women head undercover into a den of crime, magic, sex, drugs, and lies, and come out of it a little less unattached

a failing demon falls in love with a beautiful angel, only to find that things are not as they appear

my novels

my beautiful time travel catastrophe, featuring an obscenely large cast of characters all from different time periods that come together against their will to save the timeline

Trinity, AKA what attempts to be a neutral retelling of hades and persephone, told from three perspectives: hades, persephone, and demeter. the goal of this one is to write what is clearly the same narrative with different perspectives, and ultimately tries to not hold anyone at fault

"the lillian ainsworth murder" AKA a late victorian setting for a murder mystery, featuring repressed gays, mysterious marriages, financial debt, family feuds, and an unsettling promise for revenge

a very rough plan for what is essentially out of timeline parasites that overtake someone's body with the aim of assassinating targets

[starshinedragon]

PANDORIAN LANGUAGE I.

In this post: 1. History of the runes in SSL and SSO 2. Constructing the language 3. Place in the story

1. HISTORY OF PANDORIAN RUNES IN SSL AND SSO SSL stone circle map: 10 pillars, but the runestones weren’t uniform in length and a lot of them were mirrored or reversed with the same sequence of runes. -> orange: 1. and 3. are the same.  7. and 6. are also, but reversed and shortened -> green: 2. is the same as 8. but mirrored, minus the uppermost symbol, 4. is reversed -> violet: 9. and 10. are the same, 5. is reversed

SSO stone circle map: The base rune (star, sun, moon, lighting) has been mirrored. Still 10 pillars, now they are 8 characters long each. We have 3 different sequences with none reversed or mirrored, so we will mainly use these runes for the alphabet. -> pink: 1, 3, 9, basically the same as green -> yellow: 2, 4, 6, same as orange -> blue: 5, 7, 8 and 10, basically the same as violet with little changes

Other SSO runestones : -> The ones next to the Sleeping Willow are two broken parts of the runestone yellow and one big chunk of pink. -> The narrow, older looking 8 character stones are the same as pink. -> The wider, 5 character stones are using symbols from pink, yellow and blue, but mirrored and reversed. -> The triangle runestone next to Fort Pinta is newer, made by a new artist, who only vaguely looked at the old runes. It uses some of the same symbols, but there are also 2 futhark runes in there (Gebo and Wunjo) which can’t be found on any other stones. Also the shape of the stone is unlike the other megaliths. Thus we assume that this was not done by someone who knows the proper Pandorian magic language (probably the early norse settlers of Jorvik meddled with it). It still reacts to MC’s presence, because it is made of stones from Pandoria.

Pandorian magic: -> Pandorians (like Ydris) can use it like sorcerers, with hand gestures and whatever they like. -> Non-Pandorians have to use materials from Pandoria (usually rocks) and carve the correct magic language on them to make magic happen. -> Jorvik has a lot of Pandoric stones from the meteor shower that happened in the past (because of the war

2. CONSTRUCTING THE LANGUAGE -> In the war with Garnok in Pandoria, when the aetherians came to help against him, the language of magic and of the resistance to evil became Pandorian. -> We assume, that aetherian and umbrasyan names are spelled in Pandorian. Thus the Pandorian words we have, that are gonna be used as a basis of the language are  the names Aideen (English spelling)- Ēyden (phonetic Pandorian), Pandoria – Pandōria, Fripp- Fripp, Garnok- Garnok.

Some grammar: -> Word order: SVO (Subject – Verb – Object), just like English and Swedish -> No conjugation -> Writing goes down in a coloumn -> The language is very melodic, with little to no harsh sounds.

-> RUNIC ALPHABET BASED ON the symbols on the runestones:

Different from English sounds: A (ɒ), E (ɛ), Ā (aː), Ē (eː), Ī (i:), Ō (o:), Ū (u:).

3. PLACE IN THE STORY -> Most runestones in their current state have no function to deter the forces of evil and act as defence. In SSO Rewritten, we have the Life Warden tree named Astral Crown protecting the Secret Stone Circle (SSC) from the forces of evil, preventing them from entering (except through a portal), so the runestones of SSC also have no function in this state (they are just ceremonial aka pretty).

-> SSO Rewritten: In Springvalley Phase 1- “Resurrection”, we get access to all of Pandoria and cleanse it, we farm the max reputation with the Pandoria faction led by Ydris. In Phase 2- “The Violet Fog” is the first time we meet Elise, when she chases MC through Jorvik. MC flees into the SSC, where Astral Crown stops Elise from entering it.

The new Runestone Questline takes place in the end of Phase 2, after Elise, but before we enter Spring Valley in Phase 3.

-> MC gets a message, that Fripp wants to meet you in the SSC. He tells you that you all have to prepare for the war to come, Elise is going to be a tough enemy. The druids have to bolster their defences the best they can, and the first step is to strengthen the SSC. The runestones around the circle only had ceremonial purposes, but now you have to make them into proper magic runes, that will protect the place. You should go talk to Ydris about how to use the Pandorian language as a magic weapon.

-> Linda comes with you. MC and Linda meet Ydris, he sends you all over the renewed Pandoria to look at runestones. You get a new page in your notebook labelled Pandorian language. You have to collect the drawings on all of the runestones in Pandoria. After you find one, you go to Ydris, who tells you the meaning (+pandorian phonetic). Once you collected all of the runestones and meanings, you unlock the last page, which is the Pandorian runic and phonetic alphabet.

-> MC and Linda return to SSC, where Fripp, the druids and other SRs are already waiting for them. Talk about which runes should be used where. MC has to choose the correct runes to be carved in the 10 stones.

-> For the SSC, they decide to remake the runestones with the help of Conrad. MC is tasked to meet him, offer the job and bring Conrad to SSC. He will work on the project for 10 day (a day for each of the stones). You have to complete the quest he gives you each day for him to finish a stone. Those will be simple, fun, fetching quests: he needs a special carving tool from Stonecutter’s Vault, needs you to check out a stone in Pandoria again to make sure the shape of the rune is correct, wants a dessert from Aideen’s plaza, etc. You get the stuff he wants and he will get to work. The next day, your first quest is to use your magic to activate the runestone he made the previous day. After that you get the usual fetch quest, get him his stuff, he gets to work, next day you activate the runestne, and so on.

-> While this is going on, MC will also be going around Jorvik, looking for all the old, not working runestones. You will need to carve them into one of the Pandorian words you learned. For each quest, you need to grab the carving tools and find the runestone. Once you click it, it will give you a pop up menu IN PANDORIAN about what you want to carve. Using your notebook you have to choose the correct thing to carve- For example, it will give you the runic options for “leaf”, “blue”, “defence” and “laughter”. If you choose the wrong one, you get a funny punishment: if you choose blue, the stone turns blue, if you choose leaf, a bush grows around the stone, and if you choose laughter, MC will keep laughing. You have to choose defence (after you figured out the correct rune combination). You replace every not working runestone in Jorvik this way with a useful inscription, which keeps evil forces away from the area.

-> After 10 days, Conrad is done. When you return to SSC, you activate the last runestone and the whole circle flares up with magic. Astral Crown awakens and thanks you for waking her by giving her enough power and helping her protect the Circle.

-> You get the usual item + lots of money reward PLUS since this is the end of the Springvalley - Phase 2 questline, you also get 100 SC, just like in the end of each of the phases in SSO Rewritten.

[48lexr]

A Proper Introduction

It only now occurs to me that I haven't properly introduced myself (or this blog!) Welcome. I'm happy to have y'all. I'm Lex (they/them) (18+), your local siren, programmer, writer, worldbuilder, conlanger, composer, and gardener. I speak with a bit of a Southern accent.

This is my main (and only, for now) blog, where I mostly post about my writing endeavors and worldbuilding "woes" (I make myself suffer for fun.) In the future, I may make blogs devoted to specific conlangs or concultures, but I will probably make a website for that, first. If that happens, I will post it here. I follow other blogs I like ad nauseam.

Additionally, I'm always taking translation suggestions for any of my conlangs in any of my WIPs. At the moment, I only have two WIPs, which I'll list below, but I'm really only working on one right now.

My WIPs are:

It Will Hurt: And There Will be no Fire - (On hold) A story about a vegan big-V Vampire, her sister, her cofee bar, and a lot of people who want her power for themselves.

Meiste - (Current) A story about several Heroes running around and trying to restore "magical balance" while also navigating political and economic strife.

Moreover, current conlangs I'm accepting translation ideas for:

Ipol (and Sinezo 'speer)

Odapir

Kwalinu and Kwaleynnũ

Ytos and Itaush

I'm normally down for connecting with writing buddies, so if you're interested, feel free to DM me! I am also willing to proofread/edit others' works, in addition to helping however I can. I can make websites, make languages, and make music lol.

I promise I wrote today, so there will also be an update following this. Take care, y'all.

[gender-trash]

hi!

not to be abrupt or vaguely out of the blue, but do you have any fun recent book/music recs? you seem like you like cool stuff and my to read/ to listen list is looking sad. or film/tv recs anything goes.

yeah absolutely, i am basically always delighted to rec books/music!!

books (fiction):

the goblin emperor: i read this for the first time recently and was just completely charmed by it. recommended if you like plotty court intrigue fantasy with a good-sized pinch of conlang. me @ maia (the protagonist/pov character):

the scholomance trilogy: not exactly a deep cut, at least among tumblr users who read fantasy, but on the off chance you haven't read it: it's good.

a tale for the time being: okay so i don't normally into litfic but once in a blue moon i'll pick some up and it'll obliterate me. alternates between the pov of a japanese teenage girl's diary and the middle-aged author-insert character in british columbia who finds the diary after the girl tosses it into the pacific ocean; plays with time in a fun way. subtle magical realism my beloved.

(and there's no such thing as an easy job has a similar subtle magical realism vibe, but is overall much less of a tearjerker. highly recommend.)

several people are typing: a guy gets isekai'd into his work slack; the story is told entirely via slack messages. this is a super quick read, and very funny. especially if you have a job that involves using slack.

the machineries of empire series: aauauahahahahgggh i need one of those mspaint drawings of a stick figure covered in blood to describe my feelings on this one. fucked-up science fiction (you... COULD call it lesbian space atrocities, i suppose!) that drops you in on the deep end trying to figure out what all these words mean and then you slowly figure out that it's technical terminology describing the torment nexus that powers society. killer shit.

song for the basilisk: admittedly i did not read this particularly recently but i will take any opportunity to rec it. patricia a. mckillip writes really good high fantasy (check out how many times she shows up in the mythopoeic awards list!) and, of all the books of hers that i've read, this is my favorite.

danmei (chinese boys-love novels) in english translation is like half of what i've been reading lately -- my all time favorite is the scum villain's self-saving system, which has eaten my entire brain (it's good in itself; it's great for chewing on in the form of meta and fan activity), but i also recommend guardian (the third and final volume of the official english translation is the book i most recently finished reading) and devil venerable also wants to know (no official translation but this fan TL is quite decent; i bound myself a physical edition, so i also have a typeset PDF i'd be happy to DM you if you're interested.)

books (nonfiction):

(going to be briefer here, since you specifically asked for "fun" books and my nonfiction taste is a little unhinged.)

one of my current reads is michael szonyi's the art of being governed -- this is an academic monograph about how military families in the ming dynasty handled their obligations to the state. during the ming dynasty, it was possible for families to designate themselves "military families", which was a tax-advantaged status but obligated them to provide one (1) man to serve in the army at all times (so if he dies or deserts, eventually the family back home would have to cough up another one). (and, by "serve in the army", often what is meant is "you are employed by the military to farm, which is more or less what you would have done back home anyway.")

if you're the kind of guy who reads patio11's bits about money or enjoys ssc book reviews, you will likely also enjoy dan davies' the unaccountability machine, which is a brief exploration for a popular audience of the (dysfunctional) system dynamics of large institutions like corporations and governments. very accessible and nontechnical, but with pointers to the Deep Lore if you subsequently want to seek it out.

the world of the shining prince: this is a book about what it was like, culturally, to be an aristocrat in the heian period. since i have never in my life come within either 1,000 miles or 1,000 years of being a heian period aristocrat i find this deeply fascinating. however, my friends and family have started laughing at me whenever i bring up information about the heian period. read at your own risk.

sei shōnagon's pillow book: sei shōnagon was a heian period aristocrat! she seems to have enjoyed it, but it is something of a shame that she died approximately a thousand years too early to make a tumblr account, because otherwise i feel she would have LOVED blogging. i'm reading the penguin edition (trans. meredith mckinney) and it is, fortunately, quite thoroughly footnoted, but i haven't read any other translations so i don't know if there is a better one out there.

music:

today what i was listening to on loop was the chainsaw man ost, which is a mixture of, like, the usual sort of j-rock you find in a shōnen soundtrack and slow-paced atmospheric stuff, and somehow it works really well together. recently i've also been listening to this playlist a lot because it's the playlist i made for a fic i'm currently writing.

other songs i've been listening to this summer, in no particular order:

sungazer is music theory youtuber adam neely's jazz band; lately they've been experimenting with hypertuplets and i'm super into it.

sometimes i find electric six's vocalist really irritating and sometimes it's exactly the juice my brain needed, and i have no idea what controls this. possibly the phase of the moon.

spotify recommended me this song and i listened to it on loop for like an entire work day and then clicked on the artist name to learn more, which i didn't. googled the song just now while making this post and apparently it was in a video game? the more you know.

i've been listening to irontom a lot this summer (and, um, a lot of similar music that i eventually stuffed in a playlist entitled "music with blown-out audio channels"). it's just, you know, the vibe.

(if that's not enough, here's my "summer 2024" spotify playlist. go ham!)

film/tv:

somehow, "watching things" is a skill it is possible to be bad at, and baby i'm winning last place.

the one tv show i've managed to watch in i think the past four months is chainsaw man, mentioned above. personally i really like well-animated shōnen with a cool soundtrack and i don't care that much about its other qualities; however, the protagonist is a dipshit teenage boy whose greatest life ambition is to touch a boob, so if this frustrates you you probably won't enjoy it very much.

i really really wish more people would watch legend of hei, a chinese animated film in the same corner of concept-space as studio ghibli. it's cuteeeeeee <3333

maybe someday i'll finally finish watching oh my general, a cdrama (free on youtube!) about a female general (ye zhao) who for reasons gets in an arranged marriage with the emperor's dipshit nephew (zhao yujin). this is peak fucking content because ye zhao is constantly saying gay shit by accident and swanning about being cute/badass in probably-historically-dubious armor. also as with all cdramas the costuming is completely off the shits.

[dreadfutures]

Fanfic Writer Questions

Tagged by @plisuu and @rosella-writes - and tagging the whole rest of the DA FanFic server crew:

@warpedlegacy @rakshadow @effelants @bluewren @breninarthur @ar-lath-ma-cully @ir0n-angel @inquisimer @crackinglamb @theluckywizard @nirikeehan @oxygenforthewicked @exalted-dawn-drabbles @melisusthewee @blarrghe @agentkatie @delicatefade @leggywillow @about2dance

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

49

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,645,298

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Maximum Ride, Pokemon, Spirited Away, Zelda, Pathfinder CRPGs, Elden Ring, Dishonored, and of course, Dragon Age

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Dead Pasts and Dread Futures (Dragon Age)

Hero of the Wild (Legend of Zelda: BOTW)

When the Wind Whispers (Legend of Zelda: BOTW)

The Brave Guide (Dragon Age)

Light in the Dark (LOZ)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I try to. I fall behind very frequently but I always try to say thank you. So many people tell me why these stories touch them, and to share that with me, is such a gift that deserves acknowledgement.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably 'The Hope of Fen'Harel' (on AO3) or the scene where Solas finds out that young Ixchel is dead (here on tumblr).

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

the road seems too wild for mixing it with blues (Dragon Age) - literally it is a Solavellan happiest of happy endings. There are brown butter donuts.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yes. Not infrequently.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Sometimes! I do try to write titillating smut but if it's in my longfics, it's got to be for character reasons and serve the plot. But I have more than one smut oneshot that's just there to get people hot lol.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I have had ideas copied wholecloth.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of, but you are free to do so as long as you tag me and properly credit via the "inspired by" on AO3

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! ALL of my Maximum Ride fics were co-written. Literally sending passages back and forth over *yahoo instant messenger.* It was an absolute fucking joy. Those fics are gone now though lol.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

Prooooooobablyyyyyyy Haku/Chihiro. I will read absolute drivel if it's got them in it.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I WILL ABSOLUTELY FINISH MY BOTW FICS I AM WORKING ON THEM OKAY?! The one i don't think i will ever do is my young!Ixchel fic. It's too fucking sad. But it lives in my head and calls to me.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dreamy prose, evocative horror, and really motivated plots.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm verbose, I have a hard time connecting scenes / passing time without it feeling like it's dragging.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

So, for fantasy languages that you have to conlang -- I think you should just write it in English. Especially if you're not making up YOUR OWN conlang and instead relying on the work of a notorious jackass. I have taken to "[[brackets and italics]]" to indicate when dialogue is happening in Elvhen. In real life languages, such as Spanish, the current movement in ownvoices communities is to include the dialogue in its original tongue, with no italics. Readers are smart. They can look it up. And they need to get used to languages other than their own without it seeming other, alien, or magical. In my original novels, where Spanish is often used, I stick with this rule.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Maximum Ride or Spirited Away.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

it ends or it doesn't (Dragon Age), my Felassan-as-Benoit-Blanc arlathvhen murder mystery!

blank form below:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

[venomouschocolate]

Why Do They Talk Like That: a stream of consciousness

Fantasy linguistics are so hard like where do you draw the line... I mean none of my characters are referencing major theistic religions or using real life loanwords or expletives but then there's quote-unquote fun stuff like "sadism" or "lunatic" or "sinister". i.e the Marquis de Sade does not exist in this world, but the concept of pleasure from cruelty does... Latin is not a language there, but I, personally, am writing in English, which has much of its etymology rooted in Latin (as well as pretty much every other language ever), even if there is no hate for left-handed people or indeed the left in this world, so "sinister" is inexplicable in itself now (odd how the left has historically been demonised and that it's also the socialist side of the political spectrum. not that odd really. thank you robert walpole?). The same with "lunatic": the moon is literally worshipped in some areas of my world, but it's still a term characters use, despite the moon having positive connotations.

Where Do You Draw The Line... I can't write in a conlang because a) I am not masochistic but b) I want my work to actually be read. You can imply different languages with accents and word choice and compound words, but ultimately I am writing in the same language for all (despite being bilingual, go me!) and ultimately that language is one that exists only in our world and not in the one that I've created.

While we're here, let's talk about swearing (cursing if you're american?) in fantasy settings. I don't mean "oh my god/s", that's arguably blasphemy and certainly not explicit; I don't mean "bloody" (not really explicit either) because frankly that does tend to fit a fantasy vibe with the type of characters likely to use it (considering the real world stereotypes and thus the archetypes an author will write using it). I mean expletives like "fuck", "bitch", "shit": STOP USING THEM. you absolute buffoons.

Recently I read a fantasy novel which included a whole magic system and several countries with absolute monarchies, etc, and they kept using expletives and it just did not work, and it never does. A step back: I believe that using expletives when writing in a real world setting (provided it's period-believable, of course) can work, and often (not always, not even mostly) works - I do it myself. However, believable expletives and exclamations and intensifiers can and sometimes do make or break worldbuilding, at least for me. The worldbuilding in the novel was fine, good even! But every time the (twenty-eight-year-old) mc used "fucking" or "bitch", I was immediately yanked out of the story and into reality. It was like reading a period piece (say, in the 19th-early 20th century) and seeing "bitch" in the expletive (slur) sense. I don't care whether it would be used: I don't BELIEVE that it would be.

Suspension of disbelief is everything, which (as a theatre kid...) is, I suspect, why musical films don't work: we're primed for a more true-to-life piece, whereas in a theatre, we're prepared to cast a lot more aside. We KNOW they're actors, we know bursting into song is unrealistic, but it's the stage! We believe it anyway. Seeing a fantasy character, particularly one that was meant to be a minor royal, consistently THINK in expletives (and not just exclaim them!) felt to me like watching Mean Girls The Musical The Movie. I did not believe the magic (which was a major plot point so it kind of sucked). I did not believe that the characters saying "bitch" and "fuck" would say those words, especially since those characters were almost exclusively limited to the middle-aged queen, an almost thirty-year-old established to be groomed into mild-mannered obedience, the former queen's guard and a (bastard) prince. I did not believe that the characters whose thoughts I was reading would think them, and thus I did not believe in the story.

If you're going to create a prose-based world intended to be separate from our own in terms of religion/history/sociopolitical structure/magic/etc, you NEED to think about the linguistics. I'm not saying think HARD or be super mega creative: in my sky-worship country, a common exclamation is "stars-be", short for "stars-be-dimmed", ditto "skies-be" and "skies-be-felled". My sun-based little sillies go "be-set" as in "sun-be-set"; the only country in a technological revolution (also the only country with guns): "I'm not wired that way"; "he's gearing for a fight"; "I was shooting for you". Furthermore, when explaining their culture in other languages, they struggle for words, because, for example, a train is a monolingual concept (one falters when about to describe someone as a "train wreck" and just goes "sorry"). It's not clever, it's not particularly original, but, in my opinion, it makes the language, and by extension the world, more believable.

While I'm mid-rant: there's a marked difference between characters of different class and upbringing. My more religious, self-righteous queen of skycountry says "my stars": she rules the country, she is a little crazy insane, she feels that she owns the sky, too. A less-educated character uses slang like "lunar", "feared", "heartfulness" where his posh boy counterpart says "insane", "afraid" and "empathy". And yes, I am totally neurodivergent, and I think about details, and I also study the development of the English language and want to continue to do so at university, so of course I am more drawn to it, but at the end of the day if you're writing prose then the words are really bloody important.

TLDR: worldbuilding is hard; do your high fantasy (or even low fantasy) characters NEED to say "fuck"?