#map ~ tagging system

[kikunai]

a disgraceful knight

[robinsonprojection]

Seven-Fold Sea Periphery: Scale Islands Archaeological Site Findings

On top is the full extent of the document, closer copies and more detailed explanations to follow

Below is a world map, outlining the location of the Scale Islands with a dark red box

Located on the southeastern edge of the Seven-Fold Sea phenomena, the Scale Islands are an archipelago of space-originating islands formed of fragments broken off of the First Bright Moon, having gradually accumulated thick limestone beds in the lowlands during the last period of major sea rise.

A map of the Scale Islands

The lunar rock found in the islands has long been prized as a building material, with quarrying evident from the time of the first Hurricane-Engine City Ships, with temples constructed from the material present from the Salt region to the Crust region.

On the left, the rock type by depth of the archaeological dig, with the corresponding energy levels recorded by depth to their right.

On the right, the Island of Baltora, with an inset map showing the location of the archaeological dig.

The islands have been of note in recent years due to the discovery of an array of large-scale cave systems deep below sea level of a similar type as the long known lower reaches of the Bunker region. Evidence of human cohabitation dating back to the early Xerranian period is present in some of these caves, having remained untouched since then as opposed to the still currently inhabited caves in the Bunker region.

The particular site was discovered through drilling undertaken in a quarry in the east of the Island of Baltora.

The known extent of Baltora's Lunar cave system, with the entrance present in a small cave to the left of the largest chamber indicated by a +▵

The site of the discovered mural is indicated by a small star in the bottom roughly hexagonal segment

Preliminary examination of the inhabited sections of the cave have proven fruitful, with recent advancements in the Neon regions image capture technology having cut down energy costs to the point images can be captured without large, heavy infrastructure, and without the resulting energy output scouring all spirit/energy traces which can be useful for anthropological studies.

A sketch of the room containing the mural, with the location the image was taken indicated by a small star

The mural (10.8m Tall by 8m Wide) appears to show a draconic being and a humanoid towering above mountains and forests, with a stairway leading up to a large circular structure (presumably the moon) visually continuing the stairway up to the mural. Holes in the base of the mural appear to have been used to hold scrolls, while indents in the figures and patterns likely were meant for gems.

The photo of the mural, with annotation attempting to translate the symbols on the engraved scrolls to the left and right

A translation of the main body text from the Linear script into English has been provided below, any more specific translations will be provided by request.

Image taken during the year 927 expedition into the newly discovered macro-scale cave system located in the Scale Islands using a low energy grayscale LightCord camera isolated within a hooded pouch laced with silver to prevent energy contamination of the site.

The Scale Islands are known to originate from chunks of the first moon which fell from orbit several million years ago in planetary time, experiencing a crash consistent with stellar bodies, exhibiting little gravitational attraction and lacking mechanical failure upon impact.

The mural was found in the southern edge of the cave system, in an area identified as having human habitation. The chamber itself is notably formed of fossil space, an unusual anomaly considering the freestanding voids of the other constructed caverns in the area.

Wax placed along the left and right sides of the chamber formed out of an unknown plant based material, this wax contains Energy traces which date the last major residence of the site roughly 45000 years ago in local time. The date cannot be identified more precisely, as the material's energy decay rate is unknown.

The mural's ordered spirit is well formed, having very little intention pollution which occurs in public facing facilities. The intent of the mural's creator was preserved through the period the site was in use, suffering less than 10% pollution.

The chamber has partially collapsed near the opening on both sides, with dust stranding in the air above the rubble piles typical of a natural collapse rebound of a pocket of fossil space. Residual corrosive residue on the rock near the entrance clued in researchers to the rooms existence, appearing to have been the result of the hinges and locks of a doorway.

Small degrees of mechanical erosion of the rock in its early period is evident in the intent pollution experienced by the murals spirit, likely from cleaning the soot created by the candles off of the surface.

Chemical damage to the mural was caused by seawater intrusion into the chamber through the caves connections with the overlying limestone rock, the resulting erosion occurred in a low energy environment. This damage was not repaired until the high energy seas of the Abyss era, magnifying the spirits repair of the mural, resulting in the current murals rounded features.

Translations completed in concert with the people's of the island chain, along with the older translation work completed by the L'emmerak expedition of early y200, as the symbol base discovered in the Bunker region Lunar Caves dates back to the same region.

Direct influence by Miss Ziava-Ossan is unlikely, but cannot be ruled out during translation, none of their signature Pitch Black energy was captured by the candle-wax within the room at the time the image was taken.

Contributing Authors: Nessen Ralynoh, Ialm Chiroha, Parruh and Lakkan Collu, Geissec Harzui.

Citations: T. Iyottumaya, K. Keke'ralm, G. Vadizoa, M. Porovska, L'emmerak

[aservantnamedketchup]

day 9! accessories! stay hydrated out there everyone

[peppermintpegis]

netflix one piece live action feels a little like fanfic in that it makes sure it hits all the important notes but doesnt do all the work to make them hit which works in fic where the reader is supposed to bring all the emotional story investment from the original but doesnt work in a multi million adaptation that is supposed to be able to stand on its own or even serve as an intro to the series. it even does this in service to have more koby and helmeppo gay moments in this essay i w

[ffgallery]

been thinking about like, posting just FF related media in the downtime, not just maps but the menu music & iconography and whatnot.

i dont know, maybe i should reconsider what i want this blog to be - come up with a sophisticated tagging system, think aboout what i'll actually be posting, et cetera. there's no real reason for me to stick to being a copy of utaesthetics but for FF on this blog, and the poll resulted the way it did, so i might get to doing that tomorrow.

speaking of the downtime! the FF SDK2013CE port is 100% (well, 99.97%) complete and literally the only reason i hadn't resumed activity for months after i did that other post was because i forgot about this blog LMAO, however things in my personal life are shifting right now and soon i'll have a good excuse to dedicate my time to the blog, so i might actually ACTUALLY do the thing with this blog very soon (if i don't in a week-ish time PLEASE somebody remind me!)

TL;DR - damn i could do more with this blog, i'll have to think about that, oh and soon i'll have a good excuse to do something with it at all, stay tuned lol

[wishing4nuclearwinter]

The Mojave's got it all folks: vampire mailmen, enclave werewolves, homoerotic blood drinking, the horrors-

Some Lore(tm) below the cut

Werewolves were the Enclave’s handiwork, naturally. The original project was ultimately deemed a failure by way of its mortality rate and was consequently shut down, though not before producing a handful of living, howling, subjects. Most were wasteland captures, but a few members volunteered for the trials, Officer Gannon among them. And, as it turns out— it’s hereditary.

Their existence isn’t widely known (or at least believed) in the wasteland at large. Some NCR and Brotherhood veterans remember and keep an eye out for any signs of them. Shoot on sight, never mind the fact that the majority of them were victims of the Enclave or the victims’ descendants.

Regardless, it’s better to stay out of sight. Arcade locks himself up in the Jacobstown lodge basement during the full moon where Doc Henry can help keep away any prying eyes. Losing control is a very difficult aspect of it for Arcade as he’s terrified of hurting someone. Outside of full moons he can transform at will, but reserves it for life or death situations. Unsurprisingly, his eyesight is still shit so he heavily relies on his ears and nose to stay aware of his surroundings.

Meanwhile, south of Vegas, Doc Mitchell has largely kept to himself after an unfortunate run in with another of the wasteland’s blood thirsty creatures that left him with an affliction of his own. When Victor drags in a dying courier, he does the only thing can to keep them alive (…or, undead at least) and changes them.

Sol still wakes up with brain damage and no memory, and with a bonus of insane speed, strength, and a craving for human blood. They start wearing sunglasses to hide their eye color and hoodies or sweaters under their denim jacket to fight off the constant bone deep chill. They heal quickly, but take longer to learn self control after Goodsprings. Animal blood can tide them over and luckily the Mojave has more than enough humans willingly throwing themselves into fights to keep Sol from having to hunt them.

When Arcade and Sol finally meet, they are both aware something is off about the other, though they don’t know what. Eventually the truth come out (Does Sol is Vampire?) and they find a kind of solace in that shared monsterhood. They fight together extremely well and keep each other in check.

Sol helps ground Arcade during full moons and keeps him (and others) safe. And when needed, Arcade is strangely quick to offer himself up as a food source for Sol.

Of course, the world around them beats onward and the war won’t wait for man or beast. Thus Courier Six remains, as they have always been, Courier Six.

[babsbabbles]

it's been a long time coming but I think I'm gonna try revamping my tumblr blog. that may include a new url but I'm not sure yet

[mantisgodiveblog]

First off: “ We want to know if Siffrin would actually eat it if presented with One (1) raw potato during snack time.” I feel like he would. He is so ‘commit to the bit until I (perhaps literally) drop dead’. Secondly: Yeah, I can understand getting sick of seeing the same repetitive tropes! Somehow fanfic feels bite sized enough anything goes for me, but in actual books? Sometimes they feel like a nothing sandwich made of the same tropes as the last sandwich I just had.

We think that Bonnie should commit to the bit and start feeding Siffrin One whole raw potato, on grounds that it would be funny. Going to make the man commit to the bit so hard he gets food poisoning.

It's the other way around with us, honestly. Because fanfiction uses pre-established characters, all of the little ways in which poorly-handled tropes warp characterization become immediately evident. You're taking a character with their own particular personality and fitting it to a mold, and the contrast between the once-was and the is-here makes it so that every little crack is blindingly obvious. You see the shape of the roles that the characters are forced into, time and time again, and you see precisely where characters splinter to fit that, because you have that before and after comparison to show precisely where the traits are being selected.

The bite-sized-ness of fanfiction makes it a bit worse, honestly. It condenses it down to hit just the key points, and if you don't have the longform fic time to show the progress, it's all the more evident what you're introducing to get things over with in a quick period of time. We aren't immune to this, of course - we've probably got our fair share of distortions, especially in AU work - but the way that it narrows down differences to just the shift in author perception shines a brilliant spotlight on these little cracks, at least from our perspective.

It's not as though published books don't have their own flaws, but there's nothing to expose a bias like working with something people already have a vantage point on, and there's absolutely nothing that shows a critical gap in judgment as much as an author horrifically fumbling a scenario you've seen done infinitely better with the exact same characters multiple times before. Everyone working with the same tools means that it's much easier to judge execution, and it also, unfortunately, lets you know precisely who doesn't know to use the tools they've got without twisting them into something fundamentally different.

[thoughtsformtheuniverse]

aaand it's done! Things I have been trying to finish for a while but kept running into difficulties (mostly materials). Behold, a map of the Inner Lands from the Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein.

details & process under the cut

Map is 18x24inches, copied and enlarged from the map included with book 4 (https://www.rosemarykirstein.com/the-books/mapbook4/). I wanted to see what Rowan sees, about the green around the Inland Sea that gives way to redgrass, which in turn gives way to the Face. I was originally going to do a watercolor wash, but then I discovered that the only paper I had in this size isn't watercolor paper (ugh) and also remembered how much I dislike watercolors (ugh). So that trashed one map, and I copied it out again (if you need to half-ass a lightbox, putting a table lamp in a laundry basket with a piece of plexiglass on top works surprisingly well. the laundry basket is important for ventilation otherwise the light gets hot) and just did it with colored pencils and fine tipped pens. Greenery and the Inland Sea have vertical strokes while native flora (the Ocean, mountains, desert, demon lands, and the Face) go horizontally, and the redgrass is at 45º. There's also some stippling in the shallows of the Inland Sea for texture. The compass rose has guidestars in the east and west, because that felt like a fun in-world detail.

[cherryistired]

A small compilation of me falling off the map right at spawn

[activatebutterflyshield]

cracks knuckles

Alright, I’m in a worldbuilding rut, so it’s time to dump some old stuff from my Reddit account. My first proper post about the World and Light and Darkness, as well. Nice bonus.

Here are the flags of the nations of the World, and a little bit of info about each. It’s rather long and contains a lot of bright flags.

First are the Elemental nations. Elementals are thought of as feisty, known by the rest of the world as bloody warriors and passionate artists, treacherous backstabbers and mighty kings. In reality, they are a fundamentally divided people, but possibly the most diverse in terms of culture. They are native to Lyardia, the eastern continent from which the sun bursts forth every morning. Their appearance is as varied as their nations: their hair and eyes and Tears (skin patterns that signify magic connection) can be every color under the sun, from pure white to deep red to vibrant green or yellow. Though they do not live long lives, with the oldest recorded Elemental being 135 years old at death.

Let’s start in the south. The Republic of the Divided, officially named the Solar Republic, is the southernmost nation of elementals. Both figuratively divided by constant war, and literally by the Serpent-Head River, the great Split-Solar Desert has a long history of never being United. But Prime Minister Drake Farclay is doing his best, essentially keeping the capital of Emelenora out of harm’s way single-handedly. In addition to its many mangrove forests and half of the Setting Sun Mountains, the Republic holds some of the most holy sites in all of Lyardia: the Spires in the Dust and the Foothills of the Fallen are known stalking grounds of Angels.

Moving north and off the west coast, one will come across the United Island Nation. A small country lead by Chancellor Emilia Van Bellow, the Nation has nonetheless come to prominence thanks to their accepting many thousands of refugees from the Conquest, including many of the surviving Element-Born Dragons. In addition to the many ancient libraries and religious institutions of the Dragon’s Church located within the nation, the legendary Sunken City of Flickering Lights have provided the Islanders with such ancient and fanciful knowledge as the Nomad Tribes and the gift of prophecy.

Back on the mainland, it’s impossible to ignore the largest and most powerful nation of Lyardia: the Kingdom of Raicuth, under King Dominic Unican. Cutting the continent in two, all of the Flutter Plains belong to this young and mighty nation. Though the land was once populated by tens of tiny city-states and independent fiefdoms, all were untied, or conquered, under the banner of the Unified Church of the Elements, and the doctrine of the death of all Dragons. An agricultural powerhouse, Raicuth produces most of Lyardia’s food, and has the largest standing army.

Last but certainly not least is the northernmost nation, the Kingdom of Polaris. With the boy-king Shrike Cardinal, the Spearhead, most everyone who visits this land finds it strange. The whole thing is like a factory, with citizens molded into perfect gears from age six. Everything is primed for production and efficiency, from the court system to the navy to the very structures of families. From the Conquered Steppe to the Polar Islands, down the Boundary Mountains and north to the Polar Islands, everything in Polaris does its job.

With the east covered, let us follow the sun west to the continent of Baru, the land of the elves. Long-lived and pointy-eared, the elves are seen as wanderers and scholars, fighters of ancient wars and curators of knowledge unknown even to them. Their history is long and mostly forgotten, filled with fanciful beasts and epic heroes, goddesses in volcanoes and at the bottom of the ocean. Thin and ropey like reeds, the average elf can walk ten leagues in a day and ride twenty on deer-back.

First, let’s take a look at the largest and most organized of the elven nations, though ‘nation’ is certainly a strong word for the United Townships. Haphazardly spread across the southern Verdant Plains, its people are tree-hearted farmers and fighters. Technically ruled by Chancellor Norris Mackir, the successor-state to the Kingdom of Climbing Vines is very relaxed and far less militaristic than its predecessor.

In the center of the continent, there is a far less organized and far more scholarly group that inhabits the Landrise Mountains: the Unlost People. Earth-eyed descendants of the ancient Empire of the Lost, its people are solitary scavengers, digging up history and rarely gathering for anything beside the old holidays.

Off to the south is a strange group, more a solidified idea than anything else: the Raging Sea. Populated by rebels and non-conformers and lead by their founder-president Warrien Kallen, the Sea seeks to become a real nation, like those in the east and the south. They live isolated on Hideaway Island, refusing to communicate with any elf that does not bear the blue Tears of a tide sibling.

The other two continents are united under single nations, and each is an example of successful, but different, forms of government. There are the dwarves of Ravai, sun-sensitive and thought of as shut-ins who do nothing but garden and create, and the Shattered People of Kracon, the bestial-looking thropians, foxes, centaurs, merfolk, and long-bodied dragons.

First, the Dwarven Federation. A small but mighty nation in the very north of Ravai, its seven-member Council oversee the beautiful and strange Garden of Life, the origin of every dwarf’s symbiotic plant. Traditionally allied with the elves in the south of Baru, this nation is a peaceful and productive one.

And secondly, there’s the Sacred League of Xuanteng, also known as the Confederation of the Stars, is home to the longest-lived, and arguably the most powerful, beings in the world. The most modern nation, it was in the Sacred League’s many islands that some of the most influential inventions were first conceived: the printing-press, the steam engine, flash-powder, and countless sciences were birthed from the minds of foxes and long-bodied dragons. Its centaurs are among the best musicians in the World, its merpeople build the best ships, and its thropians are the fiercest warriors. At least, according to the League.

falls over onto a soft chair with a huff

bloody hell that felt good to write. More coming eventually, about cosmology, the creation myth, gods, terrorism, literature, and the seasons.

[drawnecromancy]

Don't remember if I've posted them here but. These idiots. I love them.

World's Most Annoying Spider bothers World's Most Annoyed Mage who got lost in the cave system that's the spider's house.

[fields-of-tin-cans]

Sometimes you just gotta take your worldbuilding a hot step further. This is a solar system map I drew after I modelled the whole damn thing for /reasons/

[foreignobjecticus]

[cjgladback]

[ID: Short video of two identical 3D rendered eight-inch C-clamps, upright on a taupe background. The body of the clamps is black cast iron while the parts that would move are copper. The clamps and camera are unmoving but overlays wipe transition from right to left, first a gradient over the background then wireframes over the clamps. The closer clamp has a much more detailed mesh, primarily grids of four-sided polygons, very dense on the screw-threaded shaft. The back clamp's shaft is a simple cylinder and it has many triangles visible on the body. The final overlay labels the back clamp with 4.77 thousand tris, the foreground clamp 71.09 thousand tris or 1.14 million tris when subdivided twice. The loop finishes by removing the gradient and then the overlays. End ID]

So about that "maybe I'll make an LOD1 of the clamp, too" thought. I now get to figure out where I should offer this as an asset for purchase and how I should format that deliverable. Ko-fi will be the easy option since they already have my payment information, whereas Sketchfab has some traffic coming in for the freebies already so it would make sense to offer there as long as fees or time overhead isn't obscene. If you have advice as a seller or purchaser of 3D assets, please feel free to share!

[thebraiidybunch]

Oh I drew the headspace a while back. Kinda. It's a mess.

Sla = somewhat limited access, la = limited access, vla = very limited access