voidbrood

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part of an unfinished painting of Sideris I did a while ago

painted in krita, as usual

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Reblog if you're okay with receiving asks for backstory info on any/all of your fics.

If not all, specify which ones in the tags.

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hope this isn't a massive bother to you but you're like The worldbuilding person to me so i thought i'd ask. i've been trying to worldbuild some based off of a series i like with... let's say shaky worldbuilding of its own, and i'm having fun and i enjoy doing it but i keep falling down rabbit holes of things to consider which is also fun but it just reminds me that there are massive gaps in my knowledge that i know translate into massive gaps in my worldbuilding. i don't really know anything about anything, and i am trying to learn but it still stresses me out - should i abandon this hobby until i have a better understanding of the world? what amount of knowledge is enough to do anything with any degree of confidence? much love to you and your work on this blog, i really enjoy your posts both about media and about real-world issues, they're very informative and i'm grateful to you for sharing them with us.

Please, please, do not feel that you should abandon your hobbies. I know I insist a lot on worldbuilding but that's because I'm passionate about it as a hobby. You should have fun with it, not feel stressed.

No time you spend researching is wasted. You are learning about the world, you're reading things outside your expertise, and that will make you a better writer. What you need to do is to find what things you're passionate about rather than the details. Worldbuilding ALWAYS tells a story: the food, the fabrics, the religion and belief and customs, the language... it's not just nitpicking, in fact it's never about nitpicking, it's about as making a world as living as your characters.

So, find something you're really interesting on knowing how it works, focus on that, and you'll find out it's also connected to other stuff. Over time, it comes naturally. You consider climate because you consider crops, you consider crops because agriculture is how societies are fed, and you consider that because it puts the food on the table for your characters to eat.

But please do not feel frustrated or useless, remember, no time you spend learning about the world around you is ever wasted.

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my thoughts while writing a certain original story

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Wrath: curled up like a cat (at least the part of xem that does sleep; Shadow is a shipmind and thus doesn't need sleep, and Purgatore is a mogry who only pretends to sleep to pass as human while he's busy uploading intel to Shadow)

Sideris: face down sprawled out like a wet rag sb threw in a corner

Idk yet abt the others tbh

How does your OC sleep? What position do they prefer?

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Sideris would like a bunch of notebooks and ink

Wrath wants a few tons of highly enriched uranium

Mangtas wants rum and cigarettes

Juster wants coffee and cigarettes

everybody else seems to want *checks notes* yup, just coffee

Lancaster and Rasmussen are arguing abt who pays for their coffee but I think they'll have figured it out by the time you're back, otherwise Jepkosgei will throw a coin to settle it

I'm going to the store. Does your OC want me to pick something up for them while I'm there?

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this is one of my fav things to play with when conlanging tbf

It's easy to take for granted all the words and phrases that are influenced by our environment and the society we live in. Many common words and expressions would make no sense in a setting that doesn't take place on a planet, or where there is no sun.

In The Invention of Lying, the actors were unable to improvise due to how naturally we say things like "honestly". The concept of honesty would not exist in a world where noone can lie.

Think about whether words and terms would exist in your conlang, and try to find alternatives that are more appropriate for your setting.

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I really like this option. this is a perfect breeding ground for fun and interesting limitations, complications, and worldbuilding shenanigans!

can't personally do that (as such) in my scifi 'verse bc there magic is just extremely advanced tech, but ya know. if you got both, this is prolly one of the most interesting ways to mix the two, imo

Not "technology and magic are incompatible" or "techno-magic/superpowers is an established thing" but a secret third thing (technology and magic can be combined, BUT they're complicated in entirely different ways and you need a very good understanding of both of them to combine them without losing fingers, and most people just don't have that).

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from the Winterbourne story:

I'm looking at you, Sideris, you know what you did

Has your OC ever poisoned someone? If so, how did they do it, was it intentional, and what was the outcome?

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from the Winterbourne story:

Purgatore, he's a mogry, ie. a machine shapeshifter (think android but like, tech way beyond what humans have at that point)

he usually looks entirely human, unless you look too closely; synth skin is pretty damn good but it does not perfectly mimic the real thing

sometimes he changes his look to that of a different person, and occasionally he ditches the disguise entirely

Which OC can change their appearance at will?

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there's a few... some of them with fitting names

Killing Song is a bard, who sometimes sings in a band but mostly solo

Wrath Sings-to-the-Void is a Voidsinger (as the name implies), which makes xem good at singing bc that's how they found xyr folks out in the void (which is how the Voidsingers got their name)

Which OC is good at singing?

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one of Wrath Sings-to-the-Void's old enemies, but saying more would be serious spoilers for one of the stories I'm currently working on

which oc is presumed dead? bonus: are they actually dead?

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"if you want to hear about my ocs, my inbox is ope-" NO!! START YAPPING UNPROMPTED!! DO NOT WAIT FOR OTHERS TO TAKE INTEREST, POST THINGS THAT WILL MAKE THEM TAKE INTEREST!!!!

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Sol War story: Rasmussen, but he hides it well by being competent, unless he's being flirted with (esp if it's a certain Captain Lancaster who's doing the flirting)

Winterbourne story: Sideris, he's trying to hide it behind arrogance, which works until it doesn't (which is to say, he got away with it for long enough bc he could mostly avoid dealing with people outside his order)

Space pirates story: Renée, she's an aristocrat who would totally elope with a space pirate so she won't have to deal with high society bc that prospect gives her anxiety (she does indeed elope with a space pirate)

Which OC is insecure?

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how abt one who would eat, and indeed has eaten, nuclear fuel rods? bc I got one

(okay fair, not entire nuclear fuel rods at once, do you have any idea how many calories that would be)

eta: since that makes xem (and xyr entire species) quite capable of eating uranium-bearing minerals, xe could indeed eat a rock and very likely would (and probably has as some point, tbh)

Which OC would eat a rock?

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Juster (one of my space pirates) has heterochromia. his left eye is brown, the right pale grey

(pinging @jinglebellrockstars bc you read one of the stories I wrote abt him)

Which OC has heterochromia?

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lots of anatomical drawings of respiratory systems happening rn