#worldbuilding to check out

[redd956]

3 Dark Works of Worldbuilding You Should Check Out

Growing up fascinated by worldbuilding I consumed it frequently as a child. Even to this I love indulging in the hard works of others, getting lost in their creations. Here is three works of worldbuilding that did so for me.

Mystery Flesh Pit National Park

This glorious, beautiful, well thought out, and bone-chilling creation is thanks to Trevor Roberts. Warning! His works are not always for the faint of heart. Mystery Flesh Pit National Park is a horror worldbuilding project, kickstarted by Trevor from reddit and tumblr. He has made quite the rabbit hole to deep dive into, providing all sorts of intricate worldbuilding.

His collections of art, found footage, merch, faux advertisements, and more provides the dark and horrific story of Mystery Flesh Pit National Park. His creation utilizes body horror, cosmic horror, gore, and more. When you delve into his stuff you begin rapidly digging for more.

I cannot fathom how intricate, detailed, and well thought out his worldbuilding to this horror story is. You seriously have to see it for yourself, and I cannot wait for what he does next!

Watership Down

Watership Down is a novel about rabbits written in 1972 by Richard Adams. It also grew in popular from its surprisingly U-rated “children’s” movie, known for its dark themes and extreme violence. I knew instantly after seeing the original movie that I needed to find and read the book, so I did. 

Adams did a spectacular job in worldbuilding. Even though the characters the book follows is a group of rabbits they feel as human and two-dimensional as possible. Adams holds nothing back in worldbuilding what a rabbit’s culture would be like, and how that effects their journey. There is even a consistent pantheon patterned throughout the book, constantly references and used as motivation to these rabbits.

Adams makes up his own words and rules, and when the characters say them it is as if you’ve heard them millions of times before. He is a great writer at allowing the worldbuilding feel incredibly natural to the story. Also a great writer at making you root and fear for these rabbits lives. Watership Down isn’t even Adams’ only book of very dark nature, with great writing skill, I encourage you to check his works out.

Cult of the Lamb

I followed the production of Cult of the Lamb when I saw its Kickstarter trailer a few years ago. I became incredibly excited due to its dark concept, and bubbly adorable art style. So when the video game released I bought it quickly as to avoid spoilers. I was not disappointed.

As an Indie game developed by Massive Monster, it is an occult themed dark game consisting of cutesy anthropomorphic creatures and exquisitely well designed dark worldbuilt settings. I myself am a sucker for strong gameplay, but what I really found myself absorbed in was the art and worldbuilding around me. Each boss’s area is alive with dark fauna, intriguing enemies, and epic OST.

The spider inspired area and the Cave of Midas both gave me chills upon first entering. The bosses themselves are based off of plentiful of dark references, and I cannot help but appreciate the research that must’ve gone into designing them. I also enjoy seeing that the lamb’s cult isn’t the only one around, and you interact with many other darkly religious designed societies running with their own deeply upsetting problems.

[andr0nap]

ITS POLAR THOMA TIME BABY

with angie and buddy bc i LOVE them sm

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I have greatly enjoyed your comics ever since i saw them and have been quietly Iurking as ya do- thought youd want to know that i played hollow knight based on how enthusiastic u were and how fuckin cool youre art of hk/mdzs is. OH and watched dungeon meshi. Your influence is vast and i have been enriched. Keep on keepin on 🫡

You have bestowed the highest honour upon me.

[lets-try-some-writing]

How do the bots smell? like you know that scene from bayverse where good old Ratchet sniffs and then claims he smells Sam pheromones level or something. I kinda picture they have a sense of smell like wolves.

I believe it was @botmilf who came up with the concept first (forgive me if I am wrong). But I live under the understanding that Cybertronians do not smell like we do. They pick up chemicals and compounds rather than the actual scent. What they read as "sweet" is not really due to the scent but instead an automatic processor reminder to let them know that whatever they are sniffing is made up of compounds that are associated with energon and other consumables.

So if they were to smell flowers, they would read the compounds that make up the pollen rather than the actual scent. Hence bayverse Ratchet picking up pheromones.

[canonicallyanxious]

There is truly very little that has brought me more joy than watching Brennan Lee Mulligan be incredibly bad at snacking, something I did not realize was possible, during a segment of his gm talk show that was concocted for the specific purpose of defending the honor of snacking in front of Matt Mercer himself

[tiredmoonslut]

Although I am mostly a fan of how Moiraine's not-stilling was handled in the show, I will admit it doesn't make a bunch of sense why it took them six months to figure out it was a shield and not a complete severance.

In the books, if I recall correctly, there is a distinct difference between what a shield feels like and what being cut off feels like. When shielded, a channeler can still sense the True Source. They can't touch it, but they can sense it. When you've been cut off, it's as if the Source never existed---which is what I think is so horrifying and traumatizing on a psychosomatic level for people who can channel. It's like a forceful organ removal, a violation of their body and soul.

More importantly, when shielded, an Aes Sedai still cannot violate their Three Oaths. When stilled, they can. Moiraine could have tested the difference immediately just by trying to say something bluntly false. If she can't do it, hooray! Shielded. Furthermore, I don't remember if we ever see it in the books, but I'm 99% sure that if you're stilled, then your Warder bond is automatically broken. They talked in the show about how Moiraine apparently cuts her bond with Lan, but how exactly did she do that if she has no access to the Power?? It doesn't really make sense.

The show confounds this even more with Logain. Logain can apparently still see weaves??? He was cut off. He should have no access whatsoever to the Power---deaf and blind, as it were.

So yeah it's a little slippery and kinda not logical that Mo was walking around clearly still bound to her oaths for six months and yet still believing herself be stilled. Now I know the whole "tied off" thing is apparently meant to be impossible (did they not do this all the time in the books tho? At least our mains did lol) but I mean come on

Book fans am I missing anything? I've only read 1-5 so Idk if I have all the facts but that's how it seemed

[marblerose-rue]

HII guess who's reading feline wizards (this is rhiow and she's my absolute fave)

[thelastspeecher]

My hot take is that I think Gregor the Overlander is the superior Suzanne Collins series

[troythecatfish]

Unvale is a new inclusive platform for artists, writers, WorldBuilders, and character creators. Unvale is anti AI “art” and anti NFT with the goal of inspiring and motivating creators to continue in their journey and build their character and story portfolio. If you’re tired of social media platforms like instagram and Twitter that make it difficult for illustrators to share their work i highly recommend hopping over to unvale and creating a portfolio, here you can easily find other artists and they can find you. The most invaluable resource available to artists in the modern day is the ability to connect with a community and share ideas. It’s easy to get started, once you’ve created an account you can upload your original characters and set up profiles for each of them you can include multiple images for each character as well as a detailed list of traits to further characterize them for your audience, it’s actually a really great way to organize your own thoughts for later reference. There’s even a category for worlds, organize your characters by which fictional universes they belong to then share them so that other artists can find your work and get exited about your stories. Unvale is 100% free to use and it’s available right now. No promo code no 133% off just free if you’re an artist and you’re eager to share your work with the world, I highly recommend creating an Unvale account and start connecting with other artists just like you.

[veradragonjedi]

Hi there!

My names are Vee/Aloe/Vera, and I go by all pronouns.

~ ♡ Masterlist ♡ ~

VeraDragonJedi — Ao3

Main work:

Blood, Blindfolds and Butterflies — Din Djarin/Vampire!Luke Skywalker, GFFA (Canon Universe), Teen And Upward / No Archive Warnings Apply, 25/? Chapters -> 128k words

Multi-Chaptered Fics:

Ink On My Faultless Frame — Trans!Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, General Audiences / No Archice Warnings Apply, 5+1, 2/6 chapters written and posted [INCOMPLETE] 12.4k words

DinLuke one-shots:

Relax, Take It Easy — G, 5.4k words, Fluff (Sickfic/Hurtfic) No Archive Warnings

A Small Galaxy — G, 2.5k Words, Pre-ANH meetup, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

The Day I Fell For You — G, 1.5k words, pun is in the name, No Archive Warnings

Skin To Skin — G, 600 words, Non-Verbal!Din Djarin, No Archive Warnings

Extra one-shots:

[UNDER CONSTRUCTION] A Dance With Delusion — Jonathan Sims/The Distortion with hinted Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood, G/T, dubcon but its ballroom dancing, No Archive Warnings (as of yet)

[witchofthesouls]

My idea for an origin for the colony world Combatron and it's culture: in the old days some TF colony worlds had specific purposes: Combatron was a colony world type called a "fortress world". This means that it was a planet in a good interstellar location to prevent alien attacks on Cybertronian space and was thus heavily militarized. There were a few others such as Thrull, based on the planet from the G1 Cartoon, and Archon, based on the planet from Aligned Novels, but Combatron was the most famous. Once contact with Cybertron got cut off, for one reason or another, Combatron's culture continued to mimic the planet's initial purpose even more.

Oh, this can be interesting exploration and divergence between Combatron and Carcer as they're both heavily miltaristic cultures.

I view Carcer as more like a version of armed neutrality along with the concept of the Gray Wardens from Dragon Age Origins. The Carcerians are the descendants that served Liege Maximo, who became their liege lord's wardens until the heat death of everything. Of course, they would develop extremist views on the containment of the Prime and his Titan that aligns with their repentant tribe's new motto: Efficiency. Security. Truth.

Combatron could be something like the Mandalorians from Star Wars and the Death World of Krieg from Warhammer. Both have fantastic ties as they mirror the civil war that decimated and irradiated Combatron. Similar to them, you would need to focus on their version of religion and spirituality with the emphasis of collectiveness, martial arts, and similar lifestyles. Even if you do utilize something more akin to Sparta of Ancient Greece, the Spartans still had all those things to bind them together. Similar issues with pulling ideas from the Vikings as raiders or mercenaries, you still need to work on glue that holds them together.

There's a lot that can be done, depending on direction you want to take. Shoot, you could even tie in something like Braavos from A Song of Fire and Ice and have them engaged in a long, vicious protracted warfare against the Quintesson Empire.

In regards to their worship, it could be interesting to play with the unknown Thirteen as he/they are called the Arisen.

"He who came from nothing, striked the final blow to become everything."

Or perhaps the Combatrians eschew the Thriteen Primes. Yes, the give their respects as all were fearsome warriors that shaped the universe, but they deliver their faith and fervor to the origins of all: Primus and Unicron.

"Much like the ways of the stars, we can not change where are we forged, but the journey after is ours. Conflict is our crucible; enlightenment, our reward."

[somethingclevermahogony]

OC Art

Hello everybody! Life has been hectic and I haven't been able to post here in quite some time. However, I have just finished the second edit of my WIP, Testaments of the Green Sea. I'm currently waiting for my editor (that is my partner) to finish their own read over of the manuscript.

Way back before everything went haywire, I commisioned a piece from @faeporcelain. It turned out amazing but I somehow failed to ever actually post it here for y'all to see it!

This is their rendition of my two MC's Narul and Ninma. Please go check out some more of their things, I really enjoy their style.

I'm not there yet but when I am satisfied with my edits, I would love to find some beta readers. And I would love discussing more about my story. Few things make me as happy as answering random story and worldbuilding questions. I used to post here relatively often, I might start doing that again if everything else in life permits it.

[windcarvedlyre]

Everyone in the Old Mond fandom has all of these thoughtful headcanons for how Decarabian looks. Meanwhile I started picturing him as Aurora Comic's storm god Tynan at some point and I can't get my brain to undo that.

Decarabian with storm cloud hair would be sick.

[definitelynotshouting]

Is lag a thing in the worldbuilfing for hunger au? Ive seen some fics describe it as areas of the world/anomalies where time seems to slow down, and i was curious if u have any thoughts? :o

I think lag in this case would be considered more of a server glitch than anything else-- so not something thats super common, and not necessarily caused by the kind of things it would be in the game irl!! I'd go as far to say that modded worlds are probably more prone to it, especially if they feature heavy code changes

Additionally i think lag in hunger au is like, less that time seems to slow down and more that the gravity in specific areas is suddenly a LOT stronger, and weighs you down a ton so everything feels like moving through molasses. I'd imagine its an absolute pain in the ass to fix, although not very harmful, just hellishly annoying 😂😂😂😂

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

The Fall That Saved Us

contemporary fantasy romance

follows a nephilim, raised to kill demons, who’s broken away from her family to run a bookstore in the city

she starts being haunted by a succubus, sent to seduce her as part of Hell’s plans to destroy her demon-hunting family

but they quickly discover that neither want anything to do with their families’ plans, and try to find a way to escape their grasps and be together

[hexiewrites]

fic rec: fourteen ways to say I love you

read it on ao3!

I was lucky enough to beta this amazing story written by a great friend as a gift for another. its 26,000 words of sap and delight, and I think you should all go enjoy it too.

summary:

There’s a huge cardboard box on the coffee table, with an envelope propped up in front of it. He slips his finger under the flap and pulls it open. There are 2 sheets of paper folded inside. By the end, Eddie is biting his lip, his heart thumping erratically in his ears. He allows himself a moment of just… staring. Coils a strand of hair around and around and around his finger as he takes in an entire box filled with Steve’s love.

OR

Eddie is facing the run up to the most romantic time of year (which also happens to be his and Steve's anniversary) alone. Or at least, as alone as you can be when your husband is on another continent.

Turns out, though, that Steve has arranged a series of surprises. Fourteen of them, in fact; one for each day up to and including Valentine's Day.

(rated E, 26k, 14/14, complete)

read it on ao3!