#worldbuilder rambling

[equinoxts2]

Attraction Concept Refluff

Yes, the acronym is deliberate.

No story posts yet. I’m still playing the first (non-blogging) rotation, and trying to implement a new idea that I’ve been kicking around with my mum lately. Which means I must ramble about that idea!

So, as you may know, I’m aroace and the concepts of attraction, romance and woohoo go right over my head (when they’re not making me squirm or sneeze). That makes matching sims up, and writing posts involving that stuff, very difficult for me. I can’t take it out of my game completely - that practically eliminates two aspirations from gameplay, not to mention making things feel a lot duller on one level even as it makes the game easier on another! My mum suggested I “refluff” what these aspects of the game represent, a concept I can definitely handle as a tabletop gamer. So here I am, looking at what the “romantic” aspects of TS2 are in the most general terms, and working out what else they could be.

First off, my biggest problem: woohoo. If I take it to mean what EA intended it to mean, it grosses me out. However, on-screen, all it is is two sims disappearing under something blurry for a while and boosting their relationship with each other. That tells me that it can represent a private ritual to honour the spirits, or something along those lines. I’ve replaced the text strings in ACR to say “Rite of Seclusion” instead of “Casual Woohoo” and so far I’m preferring that change in terminology. Also, I decided that pregnancy does NOT result from this ritual, but from dreaming spirits drifting away from their bodies.

Moving on to the concept of marriage/commitment, I’m replacing that language too. It’s now pathbonding in the Seeriverse, and committed partners of any sort are pathmates. Here, I’ve actually taken a cue from the TS4 Werewolves pack’s concept of fated mates: pathmates can sometimes be determined by the spirits, and that’s where “attraction” comes in. I’ve also chosen to make nearly all my sims bi according to ACR, since I’d prefer these relationships to grow as much from a strong friendship as from those darn lightning bolts, and I don’t want to force pathbondings outside a sim’s gender preference.

Speaking of which: I’ve also replaced the icons and text for the aroace traits I use. Aro trait is now “Chosen of Sola” - Sola is the Seeriverse’s god of the suns, battle strategy and not being interested in all that pathbonding business. Ace trait has become Self-Mated, representing someone who prefers not to engage in Rites of Seclusion.

Ramble over for now - I’m feeling a whole lot more at ease with my gameplay now though. :)

[ecosystem-administrator]

Okay it's four in the morning and I'm not entirely right in the head and I absolutely have not thought through the ramifications of this in its entirety, but

Garleans can't use aether, but they can affect and be affected by dynamis. we've seen this in canon.

Culturally Garleans seem to have a lot of emotional repression, breaking through only when pushed to extremes, which has no doubt prevented them from actualizing the combat potential of dynamis in the past. There is now an opportunity for this to change.

as they rebuild and reform their culture we should see Garlean bards becoming a thing, and they should invent heavy metal

[da-shrimping-station]

Devildom having traffic not only on the ground but also in the skies is interesting af.

A good chunk of the population have wings (let's say it's a 50/50 split between winged and tailed demons) so surely it's a norm that you see demons flying around doin their own business.

You seen those crowded streets where pedestrians bunch together while crossing the road? That but with winged demons, flying at different heights and speeds trying to get to their destination.

Imagine MC going outside and being careful of not only foot traffic but also air traffic cuz some demons don't bother warning others that they're landing or passing by. They'd hear a woosh and needing to duck cuz some idiot flew too low and nearly clipped them with a wing or two.

There would also be exclusive no-fly zones around certain places. Also needing to check the weather if it's a good day for flying (i bet the weather and climate in Devildom can get unpredictable at times) or if it's better to walk or commute instead because air traffic is so stupid today and you can't be late for an appointment.

Imagine you chose to commute home for today cuz your wings are tired but the vehicle broke down and goddammit I wanna go home asap i guess i have to fly.

One of the reasons Lucifer agreed to Mammon getting a car cuz there's 3 of them who can't fly.

Mammon and Satan arguing about which route to take for faster travelling while Levi plays in the back seat with Belphie leaning against him and napping. Meanwhile up above, Lucifer, Asmo, and Beel keep pace with them.

Sometimes Asmo sits in the back cuz he can't afford to ruin his hair from all the flying. Sometimes Belphie shimmies out the window [[(while the car is going really fckin fast mind you) (Mammon driving at a reasonable speed? Hell nah his car was built for speed and he will go fast)]] so he can hold out a snack for Beel to snatch. Levi makes sure Belphie doesn't fall off using his arms and tail. Sometimes they'd do rock paper scissors on who gets to ride shotgun this time (may or may not include threats, blackmail, or bodily harm)

Lucifer just hopes they get to their destination on time and in one piece.

On another note, once MC gets the hang of flying with magic (I'd imagine they'll use a broom but come on why not imbue a skateboard with magic and use that to fly instead), they'd try a stab at flying and experiencing the air traffic (in all its fascinating and frustrating glory).

Alternatively, MC in the car but the brothers being little shits is becoming unbearable so they ask Mammon to stop and get out to fly with the others instead.

I fckin live for Devildom being some sort of an urban fantasy setting.

[steelthroat]

Guys.

Cybertron, but the surface and the buildings are shaped like bismuth crystals...

Look at how pretty it is please!!!!!

[solarpunkani]

I think it'd be fun to imagine a solarpunk society where most buildings come with a greenhouse, whether its attached or a separate but nearby structure, and people take great pride in their greenhouses' looks and vibe.

Like imagine personalizing your/your family's greenhouse, and visiting your friends' greenhouses. How you use it in different seasons, what you have growing in it, the spaces dedicated to hanging out.

Imagine you go to a friend's house and they have a greenhouse with green and yellow panels interspersed, light shining through the glass and onto a nice warm floor on a spring day. There's a rug and some pillows tucked into the corner with a small table, so you can sit or pull up a chair to enjoy snacks or just hang out.

You go to another friend's. Their greenhouse is dedicated to output, with dwarf citrus trees and strawberries and peppers and tomatoes and herbs growing in neat little pots on the tables. Some of them will be planted in the beds outside, some will be given to friends, some will live their whole lives within the glass walls and be perfectly happy. Sometimes your friend opens the panels, and the greenhouse comes to life with all kinds of butterflies and bees stopping by to visit.

There's a nice greenhouse by the library, which has a few fragrant herbs and tea plants growing inside, but is mostly a cozy space. A nice table and a few chairs are inside, for students who like to use the space to study or hang out together. There's one great big chair that's nestled in the perfect spot to read in the warm sunlight, or to listen to the sound of gentle rains tapping against the glass in summer. In fall and winter, they keep a healthy supply of warm hot cocoa and coffee for visitors to enjoy, but in the summer you're more likely to find fresh lemonade.

You know someone who uses their greenhouse as more of a gathering place, its perfect for parties. Plenty of tables and chairs, string lights along the walls so get-togethers can last well into the night. The various panels in pink, orange, and yellow make the room feel magical as light filters through.

Some families turn their greenhouses over to the kids quite early, and it quickly becomes a place full of toys, tiny seedlings of their favorite flowers in colorful pots, a few study books tucked away in a study corner. Or a popular hangout spot for them and their friends to post up with snacks after school.

A few couples may grow a few plants, but keep the area mostly clear--perfect for times where they just want to turn on a small radio, and slowdance with one another well into the night.

And your greenhouse? You can use it however you'd like after all, make it your own.

[solomiracle]

the devildom works like an open world rpg. if you leave town and walk westward for about 10 minutes you'll casually pass a valley filled with rotting bones and a slumbering ancient beast that only rises to face challengers. walk a little more and you'll find a guy selling demon weed

[flickering-nightfall]

Hey, I was just wondering, how would the iterators' puppets leave their cans if they discovered a way? I'm asking because I wanted to maybe have the iterators' puppet leave their can sometimes.

Love your art.

Thank you!

I think that depends on how you interpret the iterators. Some people see them as mostly or totally contained within their puppet, while others see them as the entire superstructure. Rain World has a lot of inconsistencies and a lot is open to interpretation. So either way could work.

If you see the iterators as their puppets, there's a lot of options. A couple of them are:

You can straight up sever their umbilical (wires and arm). But then you have to make sure they don't die in the same cycle. How physically suited are your puppets to walking? How dangerous are their surroundings? Do they need to eat and drink, and if they do, how do they do it? How dependent on their neurons are they, if they need them at all? What are the short term and long term consequences of the severance? Is the severance permanent?

You can make the puppet detachable. Pop 'em right off like a lego piece. The rest of the superstructure could run passively while they're gone. That'd probably work better for you if you just wanted to them to leave the can sometimes.

I see iterators as their entire superstructures, which makes the puppet problem a bit harder. You could:

Make a mobile or detachable puppet with a wireless connection (this could also apply to "iterator-is-puppet" but in the opposite direction). The range is up to you. Could be limited to short range or made longer range through... communication arrays, I guess? Could be pretty funny if the signal gets cut too. Five Pebbles loses connection and ragdolls mid-conversation.

Somehow stuff a being that is several cubic miles large into its finger puppet (what I did, but it comes with several drawbacks, and most of them didn't have a choice)

That last one might be more or less believable depending how much you say the iterator's consciousness is dependent on its superstructure. Can they be contained within the puppet? Human brains are three pounds of flesh. Can you cram a whole superstructure's worth of processing in there? No, but if our personalities can be contained within that, an iterator's probably could too.

So what are the costs? An iterator in a puppet is still a walking calculator person, but it isn't a god anymore, you know? What kind of sacrifices do they have to make? Imperfect and limited memory, vulnerable body, nutrient requirements, slower processing, loss of their powers, dissonance of moving between vastly different bodies… lots of stuff to play with!

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Been having some ISaT tech level and timeline (as in 'when backstory things happened') thoughts and want to ramble a bit:

Tech

ISaT's setting is based on your classic sword and sorcery fantasy JRPG so its easy to assume that tech wise everything is 'fantasy medieval' and call it a day but consider:

Body Craft is at bare minimum is magic sex changing surgery (earliest known equivent in our world dating to 1930) that any old person can learn to do safely on themselves in only a few months, and more likely has many many broader applications like regular old surgery, the 'combat healing' Mira and Sif use, etc.

Cameras and photos are rare enough that Odile comments on it (namely she's happy the group get a photo in the House due to them being 'so rare') yet are also common enough that everyone in the party knows about them and doesn't question the existence of a camera beyond being surprised that the mirror was one. (In our world cameras date back to the 19th century, with the earliest manufacturing of them being in 1839). 

Printing presses and ways to make plenty of paper to feed those presses given absolutely everyone in this game can read, expects everyone else to know how to, and both mass produced book series and newspapers are a thing. (Note: Printing presses have existed since waaaay back but it's the mass paper manufacturing that makes newspapers and The Cursing of Chateu Castle possible that really has my eyebrows raised here, especially since neither Siffrin or Odile find either odd in any way, indicating such things are common everywhere, and while newspapers have been around since 1604 in our world, mass produced fantasy books didn't really take off until the start of the 20th century).

Food production and storage: despite being in the middle of a national disaster that almost certainly cut off trade networks and access to most suppliers for literal months now, Bonnie, a small child, is able to easily get their hands on fresh Pineapple, curry ingredients (for samosa), potatoes, plantains etc with no issues or anyone commenting on this being unusual or lucky. Oh and the only character who even brings up the concept of potential starvation is the Fishing One, and only in a sort of 'we're not at risk now but sooner or later...' kinda way due to noticing that the fish they fish up for fun are disappearing and likely being frozen. So yeah, that heavily implies Vaugarde has very good food storage tech/Craft (possibly better than ours), and likely also good food production and harvesting tech/skills also.

The Island's incredible knowledge of the stars: while the oldest known orrery in our world is dated from around 205 to 87 BC (ancient Greek, earth centric model), the fact Sif -who would've learnt this as a child/teen- is so very certain that stars are big balls of fire made up of gas is interesting as that's something our world couldn't prove the theory of until around the 1900s (note: it'd been theorized a LONG time but Sif talks like its complete facts to them . Additionally the earliest existing record of a telescope in our world dates to a 1608 patent and we see one of those in game.

Post posting EDIT: A wonderful user qds-place pointed out that Mirabelle has anti-anxiety medication in her room. This is in both ISaT and SAaP and though we're not sure what form the medication takes (pills? Valium? Megitech esc Craft boosters???) the fact they specifically have 'anti anxiety' medication at all (as opposed to idk dragging Mira off and drugging her through the gills) is kind of impressive and if it IS modern anti anxiety pills those could be as recent in creation as the 1950s! So um. Some high levels of tech implied in chemistry there <3

So... yeah. All this, plus the fact that the highest tech implied area, The Island, literally specialised in the study/Craft of turning wishes into reality (for a long enough time period that Wish Craft is culturally so ingrained in the King and Sif that they do it without thinking and it seems intertwined with their nation's religion) has been completely erased from memory to the point anything heavily associated with them has been forgotten, and also we only ever see Dormont aka a little village well away from the cities, it's not hard to conclude that you can basically justify giving the ISaT world any level of tech you want, so long as you lock any of the truly 'setting breaking' stuff like planes and rockets behind The Island's forgetting curse (I would've said trains too but thinking about it trains were invented in 1802 so it's honestly easy to imagine that they totally exist in the ISaT setting/Vaugarde but aren't ever on screen because rail is way too dangerous to consider using while the Curse is active and potentially time freezing things on the tracks).

Side note: We know absolutely nothing about Vaugarde's transport system but as a fan of fantasy RPGs it is honestly a travesty I have yet to see a fic that has flying dragons/wyverns or other fantasy mounts in setting. Like, ok yes, the party would probably have wanted to use those but maybe they don't like the Curse and fled? Maybe the King's Curse targeted them first? Maybe all their handlers dropped the heroes off in Dormont and said 'Well Saviors it's been fun, but well me and Scales here are off to Poteria until things wrap up so best of luck to you' before buggering off?

This isn't really a serious complaint just. Me reminding myself/potentially other fanwork writers out there that there's a lot about the setting we just don't know about and limiting all travel to walking, horse drawn carriage and boat is not actually required. (Also please mix up travelling to the Island. Boats are a wonderful classic and have great thematic vibes for Sif's original leaving of the Island but like. Imagine the sheer in-universe wtf of the memories of The Island suddenly coming back and people on the north coast suddenly realising there's a massive bridge, subway or underwater tunnel leading there that everyone just forgot about - potentially filled with all kinds of Sadnesses that need taking down. Or Warp Panels in a House of Change, idk XD).

Timeline

Canon notes first:

Bonnie is a preteen (8 to 12), Mira and Isa are in their early to mid 20s (with Isa slightly older), Sif is late 20s to 30, and Odile is 40+ Nille is stated to be around 18 to 20.

Siffrin ran away from home when they were a teenager (13 to 17? 18?) and this is heavily implied to be when the Island was Forgotten.

Bonnie (in ISaT specifically*) says that Nille told them that when it happened all the adults were talking about it, hence why they think The Island is close to their village. *In Start Again a Prologue, Bonnie says that they themself remember the adults talking about the Island disappearing, which er. Is a bit impossible given they likely weren't even born yet when that happened but that can be explained away by AU differences, InsertDisc5 still finalising details between SAaP and ISaT, and/or OG Siffrin having been in the loops so long they weren't actually listening when Bonnie was talking and just 'scripted' in their head something 'close enough' to what Bonnie was saying to get the idea (note: mentioned that idea before in my post here on the differences between the House and King in Start Again vs In Stars and Time for anyone curious so er please feel free to give that a read if you haven't already).

Odile mentions remembering 'when it happened' as well and has been 'travelling for years'.

The King 'appeared out of nowhere' sometime in his adulthood, and lived in the city of Corbeaux for a few years before he became the King.

The King became the King as was freezing people in time long enough before his attack on the House of Dormont that everyone inside knew he was coming, there were a wall's worth of newspaper articles about him, and everyone was expecting Euphrasie to defeat him.

Mirabelle's quest began 'almost a year ago' and Sif lost their eye 'recently'.

Thoughts on the above:

Calculating when The Island was forgotten:

Sif being mid 20s to 30 and having run away from home as a teen means that The Island has to have been forgotten somewhere between 9 to 17 years ago with nine only possible if he ran away at age 17 and is only age 26 now, and seventeen being the far opposite if he ran at age 13 and is currently 30.

To narrow down the timeline: Given Sif ran away from home because he 'didn't want to eat his veggies' and 'just wanted to scare [his] parents a little bit' it's probably safe to assume Siffrin was likely on the younger end of the teen spectrum (teens run off all the time sure but with loving parents and over veggies? That screams 'kid who has not yet learned that freaking out the parents will get their ass grounded and/or yelled at a LOT and is therefore best saved for doing fun forbidden stuff that ideally the parents will never find out about' XD) Additionally given Siffrin can't remember his age/birthday etc but Isabeau outright says near the beginning of the game "But you're older than most of the people here?" meaning Sif must be visibly older than Isa or Mira, so he's probably closer to 30 than not.

Those alone would imply the Island likely disappeared closer to the '17 years ago' side of things BUT Nille (tops 20 years old) told Bonnie that "[the Island's disappearance] was all the adults would talk about for ages" and kids usually can't remember anything prior to 4 years of age so with that in mind...

I'd say The Island most likely disappeared between 13 to 16 years ago.

Nille stuff:

This is more a general mention but. Nille is tops 20 years old. Bonnie is between 8 and 12 and doesn't remember their parents at all.

This means Nille ran away with Bonnie and gained emancipation and custody of Bonnie (if Vaugarde has formalised that kind of legal stuff) while she was at most 12 years old herself and could have in theory been as young as 6..!

Regardless, it's very likely the original home situation was that bad, Nille deserves a ton of credit for raising Bonnie as well as she has and I'd say it's very VERY likely she had a lot of help from villagers in Bambosche and/or the local House of Change in doing so. ...But also Bonnie is very adamantly 'my sister and village' and not 'my sister and [specific names who live with us]' so there's clearly by the time Bonnie was 4 or so they were living in their own place so... Yeah. Lotta drive for independence there too it seems (so the party might have more trouble adopting Nille into their group post ISaT than Bonnie might expect).

King stuff:

Already an adult 13 to 16 years ago so at bare minimum 33. Given his vibe probably much older though.

Newspapers get printed pretty quick though for there to be so much speculation and research done into his background so quick, either Vaugarde has some form of fast messaging system (something like a Chappe telegraph on top of the Houses of Change? Odile I think does mention that they'll have a message sent to let Nille know they'll be returning Bonnie...) or the King was freezing stuff for IDK around a month or two before reaching Dormont? Alas can't find out how long it takes to walk across all of France out very easily (I'm sure the numbers are out there but my brain is pudding rn) but if we had those numbers we could probably make some guesstimates based off the rough sketched map of Vaugarde InsertDisk5 did... Which I would link but apparently the tumblr post I had it linked on has been deleted???? 'wails at this very unhappy development'

Mira's journey and Sif's eye:

We really don't know a lot but almost a year ago gives us somewhere around 9 to 11 months to spread the journey out along and after eye removal surgery the patient can out and about as soon as 2 to 6 weeks after, maybe sooner with magic healing (though full recovery/growing used to the changed spacial awareness -which Sif clearly does not have- probably can't be sped up and takes around 3 to 6 months) so um. I'd guestimate Sif's eye injury is really recent; like two months ago tops recent. ...Which sorta explains a lot of why Bonnie is not dealing with it right now and also why the others might be trying to avoid bringing it up (since Sif clearly loves avoiding the issue but they haven't yet realised that maybe they really should bring it up even if it annoys them anyway?)

Odile with some Ka Bue speculation:

When it comes to The Island, how did Odile, presumably living in Ka Bue at the time, remember 'when it happened'? Was the Island well known enough even on the other side of the world that it's disappearance made waves? Or was Odile herself or someone she's close to paying attention to the region? (Like maybe her dad or a friend is/was into politics or trade, keeping up with overseas news and got concerned it could happen to Ka Bue? I'd say 'I remember when it happened' line implies it was more immediate knowledge than being informed by a messenger much later though...)

As for Odile's 'years of travel' I have to wonder, what's left behind for her in Ka Bue? She brings up going back there quite a bit, might just miss home and possibly her father if he's still alive, but given it took her years to get here for something so personal rather than idk 'materially rewarding' I think Odile might have some kinda family estate or something back in Ka Bue... Something she wasn't worried about potentially losing while far away, but solid enough to want to return to, beyond her father who she'd definitely want to see again if he's still around. (...But given how open she is to chilling about Vaugarde a few more months with the others, I really don't think he is alive, since well, given their respective ages and travel between Vaugarde and Ka Bue apparently taking years, there'd definitely an uncomfortably high chance of him passing away while she's gone and that seems like the thing that'd stress Odile out so... Yeah. Probably got an estate in Ka Bue she'd like to take the Family to visit/possibly sell off if she decides she'd like to live with them in Vaugarde so... Just my off the cuff headcanoning here and hoping that gives others ideas or something).

---

Anyway that's all the ramble I've got in me so... yeah! Hope this was interesting and useful for those needing a bit of a 'possible tech'/timeline calcs breakdown for the Island + a few more vague things and um. Probably will post a long winding ramble about my attempt at a ISaT Selkie AU fic I've been working on next <3 (Not to be confused with looped-140-and-counting's already existing and quite wonderful Selkie Siffrin AU which already has a completed oneshot fic, a snippet of sequel, two snippets of prequel/Sif flashbacking and I believe a comic too, all of which I highly recommend <3)

[flame-shadow]

What sorts of religions/beliefs/deities do you think bugs might have if they had minds more like ours?

I think transformation/transfiguration and death/rebirth would be significant for many cultures, especially ones that include species with complete metamorphosis.

Gods of regeneration. Gods of fertility. Gods of protection. Gods of family.

Spirits that can be called upon to assist in mating rituals or for luck on hunts. Spirits which haunt the giants that killed them. Spirits that whisper ethereal warnings with the faintest of pheromones.

A deity for centipedes that is of infinite length with legs more numerous than the stars or grains of sand. With its length and legs, it curls around and holds the world, keeping it close like a mother with her eggs.

A moth deity with as many wings as there are species and morphs. All are represented that they might find comfort.

A mantis deity whose camouflage and speed are such that no images dare be made of it. Wherever one thinks it is, there it might very well already be.

The firefly deity is a protector of knowledge with a focus in language. Its symbol is commonly associated with libraries.

A collection of sibling spiders who act as muses for creatives and artists of all types. Whether a single thread or an entire web, nothing is made in isolation; all is connected, and that is to be celebrated.

I imagine there would be many different interpretations of death and the afterlife too. Cockroaches never truly die - some are blessed to join their ancestors at the Great Feast while others are cursed to wander eternally the Scorched Plain. Webspinners have specific funerary rituals that must be followed, or a loved one's spirit might slip through the wrappings and be lost. Ants are reincarnated into a rival colony. Termites' souls seep into their surroundings, ideally to strengthen the home they worked on and to protect their colony further.

Perhaps there are curses too. You are marked if you survived a stare-down with a predator; surely, it knows you now and will hunt you later. Or you commit an atrocity and now carry the scent of death with you, no matter how many times you bathe or groom. May your antennae be forever fouled if you lead your sisters astray. May you lose a leg for every day you withhold a vital truth. May your spiracles feel clogged like those whom you climbed over to save yourself when they were not yet lost themselves.

Fun stuff to think about. Feel free to add on if you'd like!

[batstack]

Something that annoys me about a lot of science fantasy or industrial revolution era fantasy is how so many authors decide to make magic a stand-in for outdated or traditionalist power structures, and technology/science a stand-in for social progress/egalitarianism. And this sucks for at least a few reasons

It ignores many of the ways technological progress in a vacuum can work against democracy and egalitarianism- how the power of unions were crippled by automation, as one notable example. And while technological progress did lead to the end of feudalism, it wasn't because technology put power in the hands of "the little guy", and a band of plucky inventors removed the sway the nobility held- quite the opposite. Feudalism was ended because big central states could afford more and better cannons than individual lords could.

And on that note, you have to heavily flanderize your own fictional national leadership if you want a "magic vs science" conflict to occur. Because otherwise, there's no real reason the evil magic king wouldn't just go "alright, how far can these newfangled trains send our animated crystal warriors?"

As a consequence, you usually have to strip out any commentary on actual social development in favour of the hamfisted magic vs science narrative where both have to stand in for a lot of very complex issues, so you're left with a metaphor that is both incredibly unsubtle yet also manages to say absolutely nothing about what it should have been a metaphor of.

Just let magic be magic, magic is cool. Anyway, shoutout to Arknights: where the ancient mystical assassin org disguised as a traveling theatre troupe, putting the souls of their victims in puppets to dance for their amusement, independently realizes the convenience of drone strikes in the assassination business.

[equinoxts2]

Decision made: this new iteration of Kulo Seeri will take my sims out of their previous world of Juvash, into a whole different fantasy setting where I can really cut loose with the worldbuilding without being constrained by my fifteen-year-old self’s “brilliant” ideas. So, of course, I must ramble about my plans...

First and foremost, no human genetics! The presence of sims that look human, even if they have elf ears or something, holds me back because I keep trying to make things “make sense” according to my limited knowledge of neurotypicals. I don’t want to do that; I want to set all the rules and have things make sense to me. So that does mean that I’ll be retexturing a lot of hairs. Maybe I’ll even upload them, not that I think anyone but me would use my selection of binned unnaturals.

The second thing I want to do in this iteration is incorporate the ideas I posted about here, only without ACR or in-game pregnancies. To bring in new generations (not that I play generationally at all) I’ll be using the idea about the dragon eggs I had around the end of last year. Maybe I’ll bypass the eggs and just use the well, I don’t know yet.

Finally, I’m going to move towards only same-gender matches, because I feel more comfortable with playing them. I’m not proud of this, but when I play mixed-gender relationships I always favour the women and see them as “owning” their men (even if it’s only subconsciously, I still do it and I hate that I do it.) I don’t mean to offend anyone, I just have a lifetime of gender scars to heal and want matchmaking to reflect a partnership of equals, and this is the only way I can think of to do it.

And... that’s all I have for tonight, but I’m going to look for some CC I want to use for different species now!

[minecraftbookshelf]

One of the fun worldbuilding things I’ve been doing is figuring out how the different species life cycles work.

Like, humans are humans

Seafolk(mostly) hatch from eggs directly into a sort of toddler/older toddler stage. They have full mobility and gross motor skills and quite a few fine motor skills. Most species begin language acquisition while still in the egg, which is why it’s so important that they are cared for and spoken too in that stage (see: why Joel is kind of concerned that his new wife is maybe a little bit either crazy or possessed by a cursed artifact because she spends so much time sneaking away to go talk to and cuddle a vaguely glowing orb)

From there they usually grow very rapidly, reaching physical maturity in about half the amount of time it takes a human (this timeline does not apply to demi(?)-gods, who might, for example, be the equivalent of a pre-teen for a few hundred years at a time, to use a totally random example that has no bearing on the actual story at all 😇)

A lot of seafolk species don’t stop growing either, even after they reach maturity, growing larger and larger as they age. At all stages most Seafolk tend to both be fully capable of independent function and survival, while preferring to remain within a community and work together.

Most of these also apply to the Swamp Inhabitants, other than like, the witches.

And some more reptilian hybrid species or mollusk hybrid species.

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Elves I took some inspiration from deer and combined it with Tolkein. Elves have very long childhoods, but their children are rarely seen, since they are fairly secluded for the first 60-70 years or so. During this time they do not tend to be very active and are quiet and mostly cling to their parents. They have a safe space, usually their room or a specific place in the family home and they Do Not leave that space. They are incredibly reliant on their parents during this time. Finding an unattended elvish child is a sign that something is Deeply Wrong. (Don’t think about smol bb Scott finding refuge in snowbanks nothing to see here :) )

After this stage they hit the development approximating puberty for humans (and it does have some of the same facets) and begin growing their antlers. Then they will begin to venture out of the home and into the greater world. This is also when ideally they begin socializing and engaging in the cooperative play and work. They tend to be very high energy and are usually raised extremely communally at this point, basically corralled together and passed from adult to adult in supervision shifts. It’s a stage that is entirely about building bonds with their peers and the adults around them. (Unless of course they never actually had a true safe space during their early development and so were never psychologically prepared for this stage and don’t deal with it by isolating :) )

That stage passes relatively quickly, lasting only 20 years or so and ending usually between the 90-100 year mark at which point their antlers mature beyond prongs and they are considered adults. (But like, baby adults. College kids. You don’t rate adulty-adult until you’re at least 150, which is usually also the age where courtships begin happening.)

[da-shrimping-station]

Devildom Durability

I think things/objects in Devildom are more durable by default cuz yk, demons. They're stronger than humans and need stuff to be long lasting to keep up with their naturally long lives. There's also the perk of something being pretty damn fireproof or resistant to acid. Heck, maybe even magic-proof to some degree. Clothes more resistant to wear and tear. Infrastructures being nearly indestructible unless someone went on a rampage and really went ham with both brute force and magic. Even the paper takes at least a century or two to become yellow from age!

Items being advertised to last forever and they probably ain't lying.

Which is good for a clumsy OC/MC! Oh you always drop your phone? Well don't worry, your DDD can take a hit from a sledgehammer and not have a single scratch! Pulled something too hard? Nah you just jiggled it a lil bit. Dropped something? Not a dent on the item or the floor.

The only thing you're in danger of breaking is your own fragile human bones 😀😄

And wouldn't it be so funny if a human OC/MC accidentally break something out of anger/adrenaline/excitement/etc...

[some-pers0n]

WoF fans when the book for third graders that was said several times to be a fun little sidebook with a heavier emphasis on humour turns out to be a fun little sidebook with a heavier emphasis on humour (they are angry that it wasn't a 500 page encyclopedia with such dense worldbuilding that would make Tolkien cry)

[m3nt4llyr4v3d]

Gonna ramble here about something that’s been buzzing in my head since the introduction of Beezlebub

Do the sins have children? Can they? I honestly kind of expected there to be hundreds of sin children running around. Exaggerating of course, but I’m kind of surprised there aren’t any ( that we’ve seen so far). Maybe it’s my basic ass understanding of the sin of Lust, but I’m a little surprised Azzy doesn’t have children (that we know of, I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if later they say he’s had 100s without him even knowing). Makes me wonder who could’ve been his lovers in the past, if he had any. ALSO I do want to know where their hellborns came from or if those hellborns would be considered their “children”

That also kind of leads me into my next point, just how old are they? Like, this is mostly a Bee issue, but it’s slightly an Azzy and Luci thing as well: they don’t seem that old at all? Even though Luci has been there since the beginning of humanity, he looks and sometimes acts as old as Charlie (I know Charlie is like 200 or smth but that kind of translates in show to being in her 20s). And Bee doesn’t even seem like she’s been around before 2000, at the very most the 1970s. I never get the sense that they’ve been around for centuries, eons even. What did they look like at the very beginning? How did they dress? What were their personalities like, because Azzy and Bee especially seemed to adapt to the times very well, so I imagine they were VERY different back then

Which kind of brings me into my next point, what are the sins? Who are they? Where did they come from, since there was no war (to my understanding)? What exactly do they do? What is their relation to each other, to humans? What are their relation to the Ars Goetia? Who even are the Ars Goetia in this universe? How do they affect the world, if they do at all? Also, how do they feel about the whole, humans are stuck in one ring thing? I get that they can’t interact with the Hazbin cast for copyright reasons, but it makes me wonder what they, in universe, were thinking when hell went to WAR with heaven because of shit happening in the pride ring, and if they thought about butting in at any point.

Also, how do they feel about the class system? I mean Bee’s hellhounds are the lowest class and are basically treated like animals. I get that an entire class system probably can’t be dismantled overnight, even if you (theoretically) are one of the most powerful beings in hell, but can they even do anything do anything about it. Are they upholding it?

I get that there’s 3 sins we haven’t even seen yet, so we’ll probably get more lore and worldbuilding when more of Helluva comes out, but it really makes me wonder. Despite me not watching it anymore, I’m weirdly jittery to see Belphegor, specifically to see what’s done for their attitude

[crossroadsdimension]

Thinking about the Plants and Vash and how he brings them back from being in their red, dying state and uses his energy to do so--

Considering that it's shown in the last two episodes (the ion cannon being a good example) that Vash is really good with programming knowledge and gave Knives what he needed in order to crash the ships, I bet what Vash is doing is he's reprogramming the Plants to be stable in the desert environment.

Brad and Luida do comment on how they might not like the environment before Vash saves his first Plant (and his eyebrows darken in the process). They may be using more energy than required in order to keep their humans alive, and as a result it burns them out and they can't replenish that energy to keep the ships going.

It could explain why Vash uses up some of his own energy in the process of communicating with them, and why they turn back to blue afterwards. He's using his energy to "input" new code that they need in order to survive, because he's been out in that environment and knows what they need to adapt.

Although, I don't know if he's had to revisit Plants, and as an extension of that, whether or not the programming sticks. That could be something we learn in future episodes, or leave up in the air as a fan theory something-or-other.