#paracosm lore

[nebulabasket]

Alterbeings in Paracosm

I realized that I unintentionally normalized ¿alterbeingity? in my paracosm (the place Glow Bright, Star Prince, Specter Warden, Grin Reaper, Anonymous Cryptid, and 000 originate from specifically; the origin of the party's abundance of shape-shifting dragons).

How shape-shifting works for them is that they have to learn how to shape-shift into each form individually; they can't just turn into whatever they want whenever they want. So, for example, if someone would want the ability to shape-shift into a crocodile and a mouse, they would have to spend time learning how to take the shape of both individually through training and practice, often taking weeks or even months to get down properly depending on a few factors. Those more experienced with shape-shifting may get it down faster, and it's easier to learn a form that is similar to a form they've already masters, but each form still has to be individually learned irregardless.

Usually people will learn to take forms that help them in some way, such as blending in, increased mobility, etc, but it's also just completely normal for people to just learn a specific shape because it make them comfortable and happy and they prefer it. For example, BlackFlame is commonly know to just exist as a cat for no reason other that they want to and they feel comfortable as a cat. Black Flame is unfamiliar with the concept of therianthropy, but I'm more than certain they would relate to the experience of therians.

It's interesting picking up on all these little things over a decade later.

~ 🍭 Cyannide Lolypop 🍭

[star-drip]

my favorite au i've been thinking of recently is one where luca shows up to the main group's city to try to find emerson, (they're twins who were separated at birth). so she is literally right there, and he doesn't know. she was too scared to tell him it was her (and her real name is lydia and no one knows that. luca thinks he is looking for a lydia. she's hiding her identity kind of?).

the issue is, if she told him, then that would reveal that she was also cursed to everyone around them. (isla, diana, aiden, etc.) and that information about herself is shit that she did not want to disclose.

SO BASICALLY, SHE IS TRYING TO HELP LUCA AND EVERYONE ELSE FIND HERSELF. FUCK.

this hurts.

once those mfs start using DNA tests, she's cooked.

[imstilldaydreaming]

Magic Runes: dev. segment 1 (or 2?)

alrighty, someone's been working on the so rumored runic alphabet for my little magic system and I'm starting to reach conclusions, so have a dump on that!

so, first of all, magic comes from within, sorta. you need to provide your own energy to make it work (I've made a post explaining this more in depth, but yea).

what's important here is that the more complex the spell you cast, the more powerful it is and the more energy that's depleted from it. but what makes a spell complex anyway?

RUNES! but it could be different things!

- the length of the spell. longer strings of characters= more stuff= more energy cost.

- the runes used. there are 2 categories where all the runes fall into: major creed runes and minor creed runes. the major creed ones are mor powerful and complicated. the most powerful spells only use them (and sure use a lot of them)

- other combinations within the string. I'm still developing this part, but there'll be certain marks that you can use that can alter the meaning of what you write. [like turning an a into an à or a c into a ç]

an example of these would be caster marks. they indicate that the affected rune will matter for the casting part of the spell rather than the element. and could also tell that the writing's over

oh, and btw, you can write normal text in runes. it's all latin, though, and some runes have the effect of the terminations. I still have to see how I'd translate that (as I still need to make more runes)

[solannecontinuum]

Hylictober 2023 Illustration Series.

PROMPT 3 SET. UNCANNY - RADIO TOWER - CAT. SET 1 | SET 2 | x | SET 4 | SET 5 | SET 6 | SET 7

[germplush]

so guess what. in daydreams / paracosms Cheese and Greydancer's story IS FINALLY developing, they gave each other a nose to nose kiss (started by Greydancer, he was shy but went for it!!) they're not "dating" yet but their feelings are starting to show on sleeves... 2 age stunted multi disabled young adults,, forming some type of love? platonically? who knows right now they're both questioning how they feel bout each other

[sordidmorbid]

" all the nerves in my brain and the blood in my veins made of CANDY "

(candy - nelward)

[scuttledusk]

Lantern Eclipse Cast

THE ACCUSED

Fairywren Merlo - A hitman from Guardian City who was forced to flee after a job gone wrong.

Eddie Reeves - A successful, respected businessman of the Violet District in search of a mysterious artifact.

Ford - A Terror who spent the past 40 years in servitude and just recently gained his autonomy.

Bex Dlamini - A former Shepherd removed from service for his softness and now lost in the Cursed Wilds.

THE FORSAKEN

Heidi Cantrell - A wandering trader and musician, leader of a motley crew of outcasts and “freaks.”

Davin Fitzgerald - A protective sharpshooter with a mechanical heart of gold - or, well, titanium.

Ratshot Durchdenwald - A hyperactive young mechanic and medic-in-training with a venomous bite.

Judas Durchdenwald - A game hunter with a long family history and an even longer criminal record.

Gloria Tungalag - A singer and sniper, who’s been traveling with Heidi for as long as either can remember.

THE DEVOTED

Marcus Ramsey - Paladin of the Breaking Dawn and a trusted, noble leader to his team.

Nisha Houghton - Knight of the Breaking Dawn, a ride-or-die friend with an indomitable spirit.

Hank Montoya - Happy-go-lucky technician for the Breaking Dawn, as well as the best cook on his team.

Arthur “Art” Danus - Knight of the Breaking Dawn, blunt and judgmental but a loyal friend.

Reuben Haverkort - Cleric (or healer) of the Breaking Dawn, who has harnessed cursed magic to help others.

Sadie Clem - Knight of the Breaking Dawn, soft-spoken and timid but never one to back down from a fight.

THE HIDDEN

Anderson “Roach” Trengrove - A member of a failed revolutionary group, now the guardian of his two nephews.

Styke Trengrove - An impulsive young punk with a tendency to get into more trouble than he can handle.

Benji Trengrove - An innocent younger boy, oblivious to the horrors of the world, with a passion for sports.

Francis “Wasp” Mortimer - An old friend of Roach’s, and the only other survivor of their lost revolution.

THE INSPIRED

Pearl Artair - The charismatic and elegant owner of a nightclub in the Violet district called “The Visionary.”

Finnegan “Mercury” MacEirie - A prostitute working at the Visionary, on the run from his past.

Inez Coronel - A singer at the Visionary, as well as a collector and broker of secrets and important information.

Vera Romeo - The bartender of the Visionary, who has new romantic troubles every day without fail.

Vaughn Grandis - The owner of a rival club and an influential figure in the Violet District’s underground.

THE IDOLIZED

Kerry Faulcon - The captain of the Rhettshore Redhawks, a cordball team known all across Guardian City.

Gage Bandy - Another member of the Redhawks, calm and reasonable but a bit condescending.

Lauren Bandy - A player on the Redhawks, who fans think may drop out of the league after this season.

Emerson Wheeler - A Redhawks player widely appreciated for his looks and charm rather than his skill.

Belle Eriksson - A skilled Redhawks player who is believed to be competing with Kerry for the title of Captain.

THE DAMNED

Antony Valdovinos - The mastermind behind the Damned, leader of a deep-rooted criminal organization.

Simon Demaret - Antony’s second-in-command and personal assassin with a secretive background.

Natalia Barrueco - A down to earth but extremely irritable member of the Damned, Antony’s cousin.

Kian Kinnerk - An entertaining young man and member of the Damned, who brings his violin everywhere he goes.

Vivi Seacoal - An extremely intimidating older woman, the muscle of Antony’s inner circle.

Lazarus Cain - Friend and rival, a mysterious young assassin who is always present yet rarely seen.

I’ll try to update this whenever I need to, since new paras and storylines pop up every now and then! These are also just the “major” paras - there are a few side characters who just aren’t mentioned at all bc. this ain’t abt them

fun fact: eight people on this list are dead </3

[cambriancrew]

Innerworld Lore Dump: Resonance of Rehia, Week #1

Rehia is a planet on one of the outer rings of a spiral ringed galaxy far from the center of the universe. The universe it's in has several interconnected planets that support life, including Earth, but they're spread out across many different galaxies.

One of the main languages of Rehia, known intuitively in some form or another by most of the intelligent, talking creatures of the world, is called Zeranhan. Zeranhan translates to Resonance, more or less. According to myths, the language the world was spoken into being, or in some myths named after creation, was Zeranhan - each name resonating with the creature or thing it described. A name that sings in the heart and says yes, that's me. That's why it's very common for humans, dragons, and other intelligent creatures of the world to have a name they were given at birth, and a name they chose as an adult. Sometimes these names have deeply important meanings. Sometimes they're chosen just because they sound nice or feel nice to hold.

Humans are not native to Rehia, but rather are imports from Earth. (According to some, they're an invasive species.) They have to be taught Zeranhan, same as with any other language. It's not the only human language. Some bring with them Earthly languages, notably English and Spanish, but Russian, Japanese, and Mandarin are also not entirely unheard of. This is due to where humans enter Rehia from - travelers lost in the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil's Sea south of Japan and in the Golosov Ravine in Russia often end up on Rehia. There's also a couple of human languages that only exist on Rehia. One sprung up as a kind of coded language on Ebrau (EH-broo), a continent that was used as a penal colony in the First through Third Eras. Another is one used by the islanders, and seems to have its roots in such a wide variety of Earthly languages that it's impossible to tell what came from where.

Zeranhan has a few forms. There's the very intricate formal form, used in a lot of holy texts and national records. There's also a couple different informal forms, one primarily used by dragons which is in many ways still pretty close to the formal form, and one used by humans which is very informal. There's also several dialects. For the most part, these dialects and forms are mutually intelligible, but there's some things, particularly in holy texts, that are difficult to understand without a solid grasp of the formal form of Zeranhan.

Next week I'll show off some of what the language looks and sounds like! :)

[acircusfullofdemons]

updated. eternal labyrinth's worldbuilding doc. looked at the page count. how did i get here.

[ustwoforsaken]

atticus pierce, aka sparrow

fantapara of tim drake/red robin. his father, savior (corentin morroway) is, essentially, evil batman. he speaks eight languages fluently, but can understand many more than that if he listens to them long enough. he has killed people (and thinks that destroying himself in order to fix it is fitting retribution.) he started out as his own independent vigilante at age 14 (where he took up the name sparrow), though he did go out in the field with savior regularly under the name nightingale before that.

bedrock, a senior superhero, contacted him and offered to train him. initially sparrow declined, because he thought savior was a good person once too, so who could say whether bedrock would be? but sparrow began following bedrock on his patrols-- and he saw the way civilians would look at bedrock. they would be grateful, excited, the fear in their eyes would dim. bedrock could coax civilians from their panic. savior never did that. civilians looked at savior the same way that criminals did.

sparrow didnt know how to comfort civilians. he didnt want to be like how savior was. one night, sparrow got closer then he usually would while following bedrock, and bedrock finally called out to him. he had known sparrow was following him the whole time. and bedrock asked him, do you want to work with me?

teach me how to calm civilians, sparrow said. and bedrock did. he was under bedrocks mentorship for two years, and met apollo through bedrock, a young adult who'd been on the superhero scene for 7-ish years. apollo drew sparrow out of his shell and they became very close friends.

then sparrow was invited to join a new superhero team, new warriors. he declined outright. it took the combined effort of sphynx and apollo to get him to agree and he was still very begrudging.

in the current time, hes 17 and has been on new warriors for about a year and a half and hes very close with all of them. he hasnt revealed his identity or who his father is to them yet, though.

[star-drip]

i can't stop thinking about when luca first ran off and searched for emerson, she literally wanted nothing to do with him. she was like "lol who tf are u psycho."

BUT the only reason she believed him is because he was like (unknowingly), "wait ur name is lydia, right?"

LORE TIME: this is her biological mother's name that she was originally named after. she HATES her mom and wants nothing to do with her, so she changed it. (any reason she chose emerson? no idk). she lives with her aunt, because her aunt kinda kidnapped her away from her mom to save her from the cult. (sorry luca you were left behind </3). emerson doesn't know that though. she just believes her mom neglected her severely and abused her. she was too young to remember much at all.

anyways, she was like "how THE FUCK do you know my real name fuck you you creepy stalker bye." and then eventually trusted him enough to talk to him and believe him. :)

poor luca LMFAO

[nexus-nebulae]

love watching new media and knowing that if i had watched this as a teenager i would be the least normal person on the planet about it

[imstilldaydreaming]

ok soo... I've had an idea for how the monsters from WoH are! finally, am I right?

so, they're kinda like shadows. their whole body is black except for their eyes, which can have different colours, depending on its element. (gotta find a lore reason for this, damn it)

element? yeah, monsters have elements too, but they derive from something different than magic. rather, magic and monsters derive from the same base. I still have to daydream more about this, as this is super unclear, even for me.

I will create scientific names and a classification system for the different types of monsters as they come up.

but, for now, have these early sketches. help why can't I draw monsters well aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[solannecontinuum]

JUST THIS ONCE ... you can take off your crown and NOT vaporize into light! It seems pretty happy about it. (¯▿¯)

GODSEND - my old KH AU from 2014 will be 9 years old this year, along with Sorakami/The Will of Kingdom Hearts. It's based on a very old video about Sora being The Soul of Kingdom Hearts that ascended me and my creative hype to high heavens back when I was 17.

Essentially, Sora had a fragment of KH within him, and sometimes the two would merge, thus ascending Sora into The Will of KH, AKA Sorakami! It was one of my biggest passion projects of that time in my life - which would also make the very beginnings of shaping my Paracosm to what it currently is now.

It's insane; now that I'm much older and have become a lot more skilled and confident in my abilities as an artist, I can now finally realize Sorakami in full color. I normally don't have lighter contrast in my art like this, but I'm incredibly satisfied with the outcome! Here's to 9 years of my OG Paracosm King and his radiant son!

Nevermind the fact that I've had this done for about a month now and never posted it until now wwwww

[friendfromdsmp]

You mentioned sirens in the short story, could you elaborate on that? 👀

I would LOVE to, thanks for the ask!

So one of the locations in the story is called Haffólk, the largest of the islands surrounding the mainland. Haffólk is used as a place of connection and trade between the aquatic-based fantastical creatures and land-based fantastical creatures. This does, however, attract a lot of sirens

Now, sirens aren’t inherently evil or malicious, but the issue is that speech doesn’t work the same way underwater as it does on land. If you talk underwater, it all just sounds gargled and usually incomprehensible. This is the same for merfolk, so speaking Mer tends to work on sensing frequencies and vibrations in the water, and it can take a lot of effort for someone who is used to speaking Mer all their life to adapt to all the different vocal formations required to learn a different language since they’ve effectively just been making any noise at the right pitch or tone all their life

This would all be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that the easiest way to speak Mer is thus through humming and singing…

Sign language forms are growing in popularity among sirens in order to enable them to communicate with those on land who are affected by their singing, but it’s not quite widespread enough yet for people to not still be weary. Other merfolk tend to be immune to the hypnotising effects (though may still feel a pull towards the melody despite being fully capable of resisting) and those that aren’t are able to seek what’s effectively exposure therapy should they find a siren willing to help. That process can take a while and in small, controlled sessions that aren’t exactly replicable in a ‘wild encounter’, for lack of a better word, so typically merfolk without immunities, such as selkies, will send their young in order to have them exposed early in life. It’s kind of like back to back chicken pox parties; expose them early so they’re safe as an adult

A fun fact about siren song, and one relevant to the snippet where I first mentioned the sirens, is that it only works should your sexuality be compatible with the singer. You like girls? Girl sirens will get you. You like guys? Guy sirens will get you. Are you bi or pan? Better watch out for all of them. Ace? You’re basically either a siren’s greatest wish or worst nightmare, depending on the scenario. Basically, if you’re closeted, don’t go to Haffólk, because if a siren shows up and tries to say hi you run the risk of outing yourself… and also drowning, but at that point it doesn’t matter anymore

So yeah, the sirens don’t typically TRY to drown people, it’s just that they’ll see someone and try to say hi or something and then the person comes over and they’re all like “Ooh they’re coming over let’s chat! Wait why aren’t they breathing? I should call for help!” and then… yeah, in their panic they unintentionally prevent you from saving yourself. Sirens aren’t usually the brightest, unfortunately, but they make up for it by being good hunters and they do tend to be friendly. A lot of the time you have a selkie or two effectively lifeguarding around the shore on Haffólk just physically intervening to make sure nobody gets unintentionally friendship drowned

Thanks again for asking, I always enjoy the excuse to ramble about this stuff!

[sordidmorbid]

normalize making kin lists for ur ocs (this is light hearted but im clarifying because i feel like im going to get jumpscared about this anyways)