#wcbwe writing

[wcbweblog]

WELCOME!

WHAT IS ‘WHAT COULD BE WORTH ETERNITY,?

What Could Be Worth Eternity?, or wcbwe for short, is an art/storytelling project of mine! I currently have a comic (very early stage) in-the-works, as well as some writing and other art pieces. In short, wcbwe is what I call the original universe that holds a number of stories and characters I want to share!

OH, SO THIS BLOG IS FOR THAT COMIC?

………not exactly, unfortunately. The comic is still very early in its production, and as the only person working on it, progress is slow going. I think taking the extra time will be worth it in the end, but I’m biased lol. As it stands, this blog is not specifically for the comic in the works, but when I am ready to start posting pages, this is where it’ll happen!

…ALRIGHT. THEN WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS BLOG? WHY THE COUNTDOWN, IF THE BIG PROJECT ISN’T GOING TO BE READY FOR A WHILE?

Wait, countdown? For anyone who doesn’t know, for about two months, I was doing a… daily, countdown on my main blog, and it ended today, 2023.08.28, the day this blog goes up.

To be honest – the countdown wasn’t for this. In fact I’m writing out this lil intro post the day it’s supposed to go up while at work haha! I am incredibly unprepared. The countdown was to something at work (that never ended up happening, to my knowledge), I think we were supposed to do some sort of… media blackout? Like I said, it didn’t happen, so it doesn’t really matter. But, well, a couple of my moots saw the countdown and got curious, and I thought ‘well I should do something on tumblr, too!’. So here we are. Art blog! Yup, this is an art (and sometimes writing) blog centered around the wcbwe universe. Right now the plan is to update every Monday, but that’s subject to change because I have no clue what my uni schedule is yet XD

YEAH YEAH COOL. GO BACK TO THAT COMIC FOR A MINUTE?

Ah yes. The comic. My pride and joy, should I actually manage to stick with the project. Like I said, it’s still very early in its production; only the prologue and first chapter have been scripted, and only half the prologue has been storyboarded. And it’s going to be a very long comic, so that’s not a lot. I’d prefer to have the whole thing, or almost the whole thing, storyboarded before I start making pages. If you want an estimate? I’d say it’ll be about a year or more before I can start posting pages.

OKAY, SO IF YOU WEREN’T PREPARED TO START THIS BLOG, WHY DO IT?

Well, there’s no time like the present! I need somewhere to organize my thoughts and concepts for the universe, story, and characters, and I’m hoping having a dedicated blog might motivate me to sort out my ideas haha.

*INSERT FANCY LIL PROGRESS BAR HERE*

Wow! What was the progress again? Not to worry! I’ll keep the progress updated here :]

scripted up to chapter 4

21/? pages storyboarded

0/? pages completed

IF THIS IS AN ART BLOG, WHAT KIND OF ART WILL YOU BE POSTING?

In short, anything wcbwe related! Digital art, traditional art, short writing things, animations, concept art, storyboard sketches, etc. etc. Anything I make that has to do with the wcbwe universe will end up on here eventually! Not all of it will be Quality Art TM lol

ALRIGHT, BUT WHAT’S THE STORY ABOUT?

I don’t want to get too into spoilers, especially since I don’t have most of the plot ironed out yet. Up until the comic’s production is further along, the main focus here will be on worldbuilding and designs. With that said – you might be able to put together pieces of the plot with the art provided! I’ve got a couple big pieces coming up that have some kinda major spoilers. I just don’t want to actually talk about the plot things until I know what I’m doing. With that in mind, some art might end up getting retconned in the final production. Though, there’ll be a liiiiiiiitle plot sneak peak at the end of this post. Very small :p (it comes with art!)

ASKS ARE WELCOME!

Idk haha, if you’ve got anything to say, or any questions, drop an ask! It might take me some time to answer or I might want to save it for whatever reason, but I’ll answer eventually! Oh – asks are exempt from the Monday Updates btw! I’ll answer them whenever I answer them :3

…oh yeah I should probably mention. C a t s. (also tags are in the. tags-)

Without further ado – welcome to What Could Be Worth Eternity? Let’s dive in.

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Arceli dies.

And then she doesn’t.

[phantomdecibel]

THE BURNING RUINS

Though the flames burn bright and true, they do not burn. Or at least - not her. She had walked this path enough times in her muddled dreams to know where it would lead, and this time was no different. This place had always been on fire - and Arceli suspected that there would be no stopping the flames in the years to come. Fitting, for a temple to rebirth. Certainly, it holds the answers she seeks, if only she could remember her dreams in any real detail once she awoke...

Welcome to the Burning Ruins! A place of mysteries that our young protagonist has recently begun to see in her dreams.

+ a couple of wips! first one is without any fire, second is without a bit of shading, and third is a finished version, but with a lore/design element to the Burning Ruins that I wasn't happy with and just decided to remove until I've got a more solid design

[phantomdecibel]

How do people hunt in your world?

HELL YEAH TIME TO RAMBLE ABOUT WORLDBUILDING-!!!

Prepare yourself for a bunch of information you did not ask for :D!!!!!

Lovely question thank you very much, and very open tho so im just gonna focus on hunting in the Deadzone, since that’s the area in the wcbwe universe that I post about the most :)

…yknow. Im not sure I ever made it really clear so: the Deadzone, with all the oily, acidic water and whatnot, is only a small, small part of the universe. It’s very isolated, so all sorts of wild things go on there :p the rest of the world has normal water. I’m just focusing on developing one part at a time!

Before I really jump into this I’d like to say that the stories I’m writing inside this universe take place over a number of years, like thousands bc immortal ppl exist, so I’m gonna mostly talk about hunting and agriculture around the time that the first instalment of the story ‘Im writing starts (not that that really matters I’m just enjoying rambling lol). So: one-to-two thousand years before the people here started counting the years

oh also bear in mind that at this stage im just making shit up if u want like science behind the shit im making up ur gonna have to get it elsewhere /j :p

Okay so on to the question! How does hunting work in the Deadzone?

There’re a couple things that really shape how things like that work here; the general lack of wood, scarcity of easily accessible drinkable water, the water that can literally melt your skin off, and the fact that open flame here is a Bad Idea (sorry arson mutuals) – but that’s a whole other thing I’m not gonna get into rn lmao

Although – the whole acid rain thing isn’t as big of a problem bc most resources have evolved to be resistant to it, and the people and animals have learned to deal

SO with the dangerous weather/environment, a really popular hunting technique is the use of snares, and herding things into them. They’re reusable, so you get to worry less about the use of resources, you can set them and wait somewhere safe and don’t have to worry about getting caught out in the rain or sandstorms, and assuming you’re setting your traps in an area you know, you don’t have to worry as much about getting lost when visibility is low! Not to mention that setting a trap is less strenuous than than a lot of other forms of hunting, so you need less water, which is a coveted resource, especially at this point in time

Guns don’t exist yet, but if they did, they’d be pretty popular too – and will be when they finally do. I have no clue at what point in time firearms became a thing, but the Deadzone is incredibly isolated anyways, so I can do whatever I want anyways uwu. As it is, archery is definatly a thing instead! Bows and crossbows both are used in hunting, effective long-range weapons :)

Close-range weapons like knives and swords and whatnot do exist and are used, but they’re more so better suited against larger predators, like the murder birb cats. There are these large bug-coyote things I don’t have a solid design for (nightcrawlers; theyre nocturnal. Im so original I know /j) that are really annoying to shoot at. Most people try their best to avoid them and no one’s really out at night – its also really cold so its no big loss – but when people are out at night, you’re gonna want a sword or something. Nightcrawlers are edible, under their tough exoskeleton, but also really dangerous to the people of the Deadzone, so they’re not often hunted for food, more so just to cull their numbers and the fact that they’re edible is just a plus

The murder birb cats are ambush predators mostly, like I mentioned in my other post, and good at avoiding traps – or worse, turning them against the hunter. So they’re rarely hunted specifically (if someone has a chance to kill one though they wil definitely take it), but their eggs are often poached for both food and to get rid of as many threats to a village as possible.

Most animals are pretty difficult to actively… uh. I cant remember the word? Corral? Herd?... farm? and it’s the same with plants bc their main source of hydration is incredibly dangerous to handle – except for these one creatures I first thought up when all I could think about was the people who follow around the murder birds (dw we’re gonna talk abt that im in too deep I’m incapable of not-). The. only visual I have for them is like tall, lanky humpless camels with like. Snouts like those smooth mammal things whos faces look like a mix between anteater and capybara snouts that the only tentative first-draft name ive come up w for them is ‘snufflers’ XD and that sounds way too much like the knew Minecraft mob lmao-

At the point in time where the wcbwe universe begins, snufflers are the only truly domesticated animal in the Deadzone. They’re used as mounts, for food, and, more importantly, they can accurately predict when it’s about to rain, and start barking… maybe screamers or something would be a better name lmao theyre just too soft for that :p

Because they work as a warning system for the other wildlife who aren’t immune to the rain, predators in the Deadzone (with the exception of the nightcrawlers) don’t attack snufflers unless in incredibly dire situations, and, by extension, the people of the Deadzone are mostly safe when close enough! So they’re incredibly popular mounts for travelling the desolation of the Deadzone. Snuffler… ‘rangers’ or ‘ranchers’, this is newer lore so I’m not quite settled on any names/titles yet, have travelling farms that herd their flocks between a rotation of local villages to sell/trade them for various resources. Even just keeping the snufflers in the village deters most predators from hunting there, with the exception of nightcrawlers who will attack snufflers anyways (might be because their exoskeleton protects them from the rain so the warning means nothing to them), and the murder bird cats, who are smart enough to hunt people while leaving the snufflers alone.

THIS IS WHERE I BRING UP THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW THE BIRBS AROUND :D

Some ranchers take a snuffler or two and head out either on their own or in small groups no larger than five, to follow the bird cat flocks. When they’re quite literally sat atop the snufflers, the murder friends mostly leave them alone. Of course they also have to be incredibly careful until they build up enough trust within the flock, because they would definitely be considered a threat or food and taken out if they stray too far or close. If the rouge ranchers want to be able to follow and live among the murder friends in relative safety, they’ve got to prove that a) theyre not a threat and b) they’re more useful alive than dead

Ranchers who follow the cats tend to hunt larger prey like the nightcrawlers, and share their kills with the bird cats, among other things, and the murder friends return the favour once the ranchers have been accepted as friends. Its an incredibly important and dangerous job, but also scorned. The murder bird cats are a serious threat to villages and just the people of the Deadzone in general – and the ranchers often become protective and defensive of their flocks, which causes some conflict. Still, these ranchers (who don’t have a separate title yet) are incredibly important for life in the Deadzone. They provide information on where their flocks are so people can avoid them or hide, they have easy access to eggs they can sell or trade as food, and if they have enough respect within the flock can even help provent attacks on villages – not to mention all they learn about the predators, and it always helps to know things about your enemies. One of my ocs, and the pov character of a story I’m writing  named Arceli is one of these ranchers! Though unfortunately that doesn’t last very long and isn’t the focus at all :,)

So those’re two of the most important jobs in the Deadzone and we’ve gone seriously off topic!

Hunting, right-

Well, hunting’s pretty hard without tools lol! I don’t know much about the production of any tools you’d use for hunting n shit so I won’t really talk about that, but I can tell you a bit of what they’re made out of! Though not much sorry ;-;

Metals do exist here and while fire isn’t an option, they do still have the melty water and some forms of bioluminescence that produces heat! I wont go into details I don’t know, but both rock and metal can be heated and molded similar to how they could in our world… just not with fire haha. And also bone! This would work exactly the same as how it does on earth – but the Deadzone has an abundance of bones, particularly around the edges

The Deadzone is surrounded by a barrier called The Threshold – and the Threshold is basically a large ring of the bones of dead things that have tried to cross it. I’m tempted to try and explain but I can’t draw which would really help w the explanation and also this is already really long so I’ll just keep it simple with it’s not a hard line in art terms bc those’re the only words I know rn in art terms it sort of. Ombres and condenses before dispersing out again. and by ‘it’ I mean the bones

So bones are easily accessible, and a pretty abundant resource!

TAPIRS FUCKIGN TAPIRS THAT’S WHAT THEYRE CALLED. SNUFFLER FACES NOSES WHATEVER LOOK LIKE TAPIR FACE NOSES. anyways. moving on now.

Right bones!

Lots of em littered around; they’re used for pretty much everything from tools/weapons to for building to even for food and snacks – things to gnaw and whatnot – especially marrow (in what I’m assuming would be primarily from fresher kills).

(I don’t know why I mentioned agriculture earlier ive barely brought it up whoops. Probably won’t go into it either, unless it comes up naturally, this is just already way to long lmao)

Another thing that plays a large part in hunting is that pretty much everything, people and animal alike, have very strong stomachs, and people, in smaller doses, know how to prepare carrion in a way that wont immediately make you super fucking sick. I haven’t decided how long it takes for things to rot in the Deadzone; the air is super cold there, cold enough to significantly slow down the decomposition process bUT the sands and rocks and shit are really really good at absorbing heat from the sun, like they can get hot enough to burn you. So I guess it depends on how sunny it is but that doesn’t really matter the point is. It’s way less (if at all) necessary now, what with the invention of traps and tools for hunting and farming the snufflers, but the only way you live long enough to evolve in the Deadzone is if you’re a scavenger of some kind.

So back to hunting. I’ve mentioned it once or twice but visibility is Really Shitty most of the time, so when you’re going out, you’ve to plan to be lost for a few days or you’re dead. If you stick close to your village you’re not gonna get as good of results, but at least you’re much more likely to make it home at the end of the day. Stray too far and you could get so turned around it takes you a month to get home – but you’d probably stumble across some really good prey to bring back, when you’re in places people don’t end up in often.

OH

CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT-

Bioluminescence! Is a thing here!

Ive already mentioned that in multiple different things, but guess what! It applies here, too!

So like with bioluminescent fish, often predators use their own possible bioluminescent qualities to lure in prey. This was first observed by the rangers following the murder bird cats (I haven’t settled on a specific design but so far they’ve got whiskers that can grown from the chin, crown of the head, and along the spine and base of the tail that have a glowing bubble at the end), and was adapted by people for use in traps and as lures in the same way

Oh also there’s fish in the melty water :)

Fishing isn’t a thing just yet, but they’ll figure it out soon enough

I feel like im forgetting something but *checks wordcount* this is over 2000 words so imma just stop it here lmao-

no art sorry, I tried and failed miserably and then was at my grandma’s writing and not drawing lol