king ben

ben, he/him — story, characters, worldbuilding, art, fandom I don't do commissions

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I imagine Fritz would have a fun time doing some musical accompaniment for Renger while he's telling stories in the town square, so I made a doodle about it. been wanting to do this one for a bit and I finally got around to it.

Renger Snijder (character on the right) belongs to @bengerm. hope I drew him well! he was fun to doodle.

also, bonus shitpost I made out of the same drawing for some reason:

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in case any of my like 8 followers are wondering why I don't post more frequently, here's a quick little doodle I did with my finger

anyway, been running a bit dry on creative motivation, but know I have lots of thoughts and ideas in my big huge brain. I'll share more when I feel like it/have more to share

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fritz lore. on the table. now (not forced ofc lmao 😭)

Fritz lore, you say? I am so glad you asked! (seriously, thank you anon, made my day)

I know there was a bit of a wait for me to answer this, but that's because I made some doodles to go along with the lore!

so, Fritz isn't originally from Tassing. he was raised in a moderately populated town (no idea which specific town, just, A Town) with his mother, father, and younger sister. Fritz's family are all shoemakers, and they are relatively middle-class—a bit better off than your average peasant, but not nobility of any kind.

Fritz didn't have a necessarily tragic life growing up. he was taught to read and spent lots of time poring over whatever books he could get his hands on, but he mostly enjoyed books with practical knowledge. he learnt how to play both the cittern and the ocarina and enjoyed composing tunes in his spare time.

(lots more under the cut)

the thing is, Fritz was raised as a woman. as he grew older, he began to feel reluctant towards the roles society had carved out for him as a wife and a mother. finally, when he was placed into an arranged marriage, he realized he didn't want to play the part of woman at all.

shortly after, he stole some of his father's clothes, cut his hair short, gathered some food, packed his belongings, and hopped onto a horse, spontaneously deciding to run away from his life and family in order to start over with a new identity somewhere else. he hoped to end up in a place far away where he could live quietly and convince the people around him that he had been raised a man.

after some traveling, Fritz eventually ended up in Tassing. by then, he had run out of food and coin, so he decided that Tassing would be the place he started anew. he introduced himself with a new name and said that he would like to live in their community, perhaps start a garden. he eventually started living in a small place in the forest somewhat near Smokey's hut, and made his garden there too. I imagine it'd be somewhere around here on the map:

he grows things like medicinal plants, cooking herbs, various flowers, and a few crops here and there. he usually makes money by selling whatever's ripe from his garden to the other townsfolk, though sometimes he also likes to go fishing by the waterfall and sell what he catches. if no one buys his catch, he'll just cook and eat it.

aside from working on his garden, he really does love making music, and though he can be shy about it, he's agreeable to playing some songs on request from time to time. otherwise, he only ever plays when he feels like he's alone, and his work for the day is done. even if it's not on his cittern or ocarina, he'll hum and whistle often, sometimes without realizing he's doing it.

to most of the other townsfolk, he appears guarded and secretive. he never talks about himself, his family, or where he's from, only offering vague answers to any questions that come his way. regardless, he is very kind, and always eager to show his place in Tassing's community by helping out with various jobs and errands where he can. if people need them, he'll gladly offer medicinal herbs from his garden without charge, knowing he can probably find some fish to eat.

even though he comes off as a bit tight-lipped, he does have his interests. when prompted, he will passionately speak about his garden and everything he knows about plants, as well as the beauty of music and sometimes even the songs he's working on. he also has a soft spot for his horse, who came with him all the way from his hometown. he never seems to mind the fact that he doesn't have much in the way of belongings and coin, satisfied enough with his garden and his tunes.

here is a little mini "comic" of how I imagine Fritz arriving in town to go, featuring Otto and some very quick lineart:

plus, a bonus shitpost doodle featuring Smokey that highlights Fritz's paranoia of being found out:

I know the trans flag hasn't been invented yet in 1525 but I made this to be funny okay.

anyway, for the record, I did all of these drawings (and all the other drawings I've ever posted) on OneNote, which, if you've ever used OneNote for drawing, I'm sure you'll be impressed. I genuinely don't know why I do this to myself.

that's all the lore for now, if you have any specific questions about Fritz I would love to answer, asks are encouraged. thank you for reading my long post about my silly character, have a lovely day

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not posting about Kirotar this time, but I am posting about a new oc. to be specific, a Pentiment oc.

this is Fritz Braun:

he wasn't born in Tassing, and instead moved there a little while before act 1 of the game takes place. he's a little secretive and most folk don't know too much about him, but he's otherwise kind, and when he isn't gardening, he's playing his cittern or ocarina, as well as helping out around town.

he was created roughly 14 hours ago and I already have an 800 word summary of lore for him stashed away in my notes. I won't explain it all here so I can keep this post short, but asks are open, of course.

anyway, I tried to replicate the style of Pentiment as closely as I could with this ref and I honestly think I did pretty good. if I didn't don't tell me I don't want to know

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magic-related fun facts

here are a few fun facts about magic and magic users on my planet, Kirotar.

terms like "witch" and "wizard" are not gender-specific, and instead used to describe magic users of different skill levels.

a magician: general term for any and all magic users of any skill level or discipline a witch: term for magic users who are self-taught or learned from friends and family, not professionally educated, have a non-scholarly understanding of magic a wizard: term for magic users who are educated professionally, studied magic at least to a basic level, have a scholarly understanding of magic, learned through curriculum a warlock: specialized and skilled magic users with years of dedicated professional study, sought to learn magic in higher levels of education, masters of magic a magus: magical scientists, those who study, research, and experiment with magic as a career; they are often magicians, but not always

2. people from different places have different styles of performing magic, based on the way they were taught, and each one is unique.

people from Safimatet (the east) typically perform magic with movements of the open palms to direct their magic. people from Besilyon (the south) usually perform magic by making different hand signs, with different positions of the fingers. people from Tovapikus (the west) also perform magic by moving their hands, but they use closed fists instead of open palms. people from Ramocesin (the north) regularly preform magic with dance-like motions of the hands, wrists, and fingers all at once. the thing about this is: each of these styles are equivalent! it's different methods of doing the same thing. it can be compared to drawing with a pencil versus drawing with a pen; it looks different, but the product is essentially the same/very similar. also, these things aren't necessary for performing the actual magic, it's more to assist the user. it's like using a ruler; if a person hasn't practiced drawing straight lines on their own, they'd usually use a ruler, because if they don't, then their lines are a little wobbly and imperfect. the ruler just helps them to get it right.

3. some people on Kirotar perform magic as a job. because it's so highly specialized, people will hire experts to use magic they can't use themselves. for example, builders might hire a warlock of motion magic to help them move heavy materials that they either couldn't lift or would have extreme difficultly lifting otherwise.

4. magic is something that scientists theorize about constantly. there is a lot of magic that could be possible, but it would take too much energy or skill to perform, so they can't test if it would actually work. this doesn't stop them from writing out long equations and coming up with complicated hypotheses about it, though. 5. there is a magical code of conduct which is widely accepted across the planet that dictates what kind of magic can legally be performed. depending on the area, breaking this code of conduct can be a very serious offense. one example of a magical crime would be necromancy/using magic to revive a human being.

that's all for now. there was going to be a drawing with this post (as there has been in the others so far) but I haven't had the motivation to doodle as of late, so I'm just going to post this anyway. hope the facts are actually fun

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magic system on Kirotar (2 of 2)

now that I've explained magical energy (see this post) I'm going to explain what you can actually do with magic, how they classify different types of magic, and how it's used by the people living on Kirotar...

(the person in the drawing is one of my characters, whose name is Robbie.)

with Kirotaran magic, the possibilities are unfortunately not endless, but this is not to say that there isn't an extremely wide range of things you can do with it. the humans on Kirotar have a generally accepted magic classification system which details the different types of magical acts that can be performed, but it's important to note that there are no actual different types of magical energy itself; these distinctions are purely artificial, social constructs, if you will.

there are three overall categories of magic, with three subcategories each. here is what I typically call The Tree of Magical Classification:

1. MECHANICAL MAGIC

1a. motion magic, such as: moving matter without contact, manipulating matter's speed, moving matter through solids 1b. force magic, such as: manipulating gravity's intensity, manipulating friction or tension, generating "force fields" 1c. acoustic magic, such as: manipulating a sound's pitch, volume, or direction, generating a specific sound

2. ELECTROMAGNETIC MAGIC

2a. electricity magic, such as: manipulating electrical fields, currents, and charges, generating electricity 2b. light magic, such as: manipulating the intensity or color of light, passing light through matter or reflecting light off of matter 2c. thermal magic, such as: transferring heat between matter, absorbing heat, radiating heat, manipulating the state of matter

3. CHEMICAL MAGIC

3a. bonds magic, such as: manipulating molecular bonds between matter, breaking one object apart, joining two objects together 3b. mass magic, such as: manipulating density, volume, or both, affecting size and/or weight of matter 3c. transmutation magic, such as: changing an element/molecule into another element/molecule, manipulating its properties

the examples listed here are not the only things that can be done with magic, they're just meant to create an idea of what the category entails. everything has a very vague "scientific" explanation based on my limited education on the sciences, and it's meant to mostly obey laws of the universe, like "matter can't be created or destroyed."

now, the second component of magic, aside from magical energy: skill. in order to preform any kind of magic, a person needs to have skill. it's the same as any other talent or activity, and can very easily be compared to something like drawing. sure, most everyone can put a pencil to paper and draw a shape, but in order to create something unique, detailed, and interesting, people have to study and practice for years to develop that skill. magic is the same way.

because magic is so varied and needs a lot of practice to perform, people are rarely good at all of it. often, a person will be an expert in a single subcategory of magic, while barely knowing any magic in any of the other categories. other times, a person can be decent at magic from multiple subcategories within the same category, although learning two subcategories that belong to different categories is more uncommon. magics within categories are similar, though not the same. it's sort of like a guitarist learning to play the ukulele (same category) versus learning to play the flute (different categories). a person could choose to learn some magic from nearly every category, but they wouldn't be very good at any of it.

another note is that the amount of skill it takes to do something and the amount of magical energy it takes are proportional. the more complicated something is, the more skill it takes, the more energy it uses. for example, using motion magic to make a puddle of water float in the air is relatively easy, but attempting to lift up all the water in the ocean at the same time is practically impossible because of the sheer amount of skill and energy it would require.

last thing for this post: magic is for everyone. on Kirotar, magic is something anyone can do if they choose to, and while not everyone does, the majority of people do. it's something people use in their everyday lives as a helpful tool, to make things easier, as a convenience. never, ever is it used as a weapon (more on that later). it's something people learn from their grandparents, something people go to school to study, something people experiment with. the study of magic is considered a branch of science on Kirotar, the same as biology or chemistry. it is more or less an integral part of the world and the daily life of the people who live there, even if they don't use magic often.

anyway, this isn't everything I have to say, but this post is longer than my last one, so I think I'll cut it off here. next post will maybe just be some fun facts.

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magic system on Kirotar (1 of 2)

my fictional planet called Kirotar features the existence of magic, and I've created a unique system for how it works and how it's used by the people living there. here's one of two posts I'll make about it, where I'll first talk about what facilitates the existence of magic...

(by the way, the person in the drawing is a character of mine named Fabian.)

on Kirotar, there exists another form of energy called magical energy (creative, I know). it exists in and can be possessed by all living things, and it is one of the two components needed to perform acts of magic.

there are also two kinds of magical energy: inherent magical energy and foreign magical energy. they have a few differences in the way they're used and interacted with.

inherent magical energy is just that: inherent. every living thing (plants, animals, fungi, etc.) is born or otherwise begins its existence with at least some magical energy. the amount of energy varies from species to species and individual to individual; for example, plants generally have a lot less inherent energy than humans do, but one human may have marginally more or less energy than another human. it is a fixed amount that doesn't change (excepting some specific circumstances).

when inherent energy is being used, it isn't expelled/depleted. I think the best way to explain this is to imagine it like it's a dial that goes from 0-100% of someone's magical energy. if someone is doing something that uses 50% of their energy, they can do something else that uses 50% of their energy, and the dial is turned up to 100%. the moment they stop, they're not using any energy, it's turned back to 0%, and they can use it for something else. it "replenishes" itself, in a sense, and it can be sustained indefinitely.

when magical energy is transferred between beings, it becomes foreign energy in whatever is receiving it. once inherent energy is transferred from one thing to another, it is no longer replenished, and the fixed amount of inherent energy in the being it came from decreases. if person A has high energy and gives some of it to person B, who has low energy, this results in person A now having a medium amount of energy and person B also having a medium amount of energy, until the energy from person A is used.

unlike inherent energy, foreign energy does not work like a dial. it works more like mana in video games; it is a finite resource. as a person uses it for magic, it is depleted, and they can only sustain the magic for as long as they have more energy to use up. once they run out of energy, they stop.

in order to get more energy, it must be taken from other living things. eating regular meals does not give people magical energy, because even though they're eating plants and animals, by the time they're doing so, the plants and animals are dead. commonly, the people of Kirotar will eat seeds in order to gain energy, because those are alive, even if the amount of energy they gain is small.

since this post is already pretty long, I'll talk about what people can actually do with magic in the next one. hope this explanation makes sense so far. I'd absolutely love to answer any questions about it.

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the planet I made up

since I'm planning on talking about my original world/story/characters on here, I should probably introduce the actual world where the story/characters belong first. so, here is a little bit about the planet Kirotar...

(I drew this map myself by hand, for the record, no map-making tools. it took a while.)

this is Kirotar (at least, in the beginning). it's a bit smaller than Earth and has eight little moons. one day there is around 72 hours on Earth.

as shown, there are four major continents and lots of islands in-between them. to the east is Safimatet, the desert continent, to the south is Besilyon, the jungle continent, to the west is Tovapikus, the taiga continent, and to the north is Ramocesin, the grasslands continent. (also, please notice the compass at the bottom-right of the map; it's aligned differently than what's typical for maps on Earth.)

fun fact: each of the continents is actually named after the Kirotaran god that resides over it.

this planet is inhabited by several fictional humanoid species I've made (twelve, to be exact), but I'll talk about those individually later. as of current development, there are a variety of plants and animals living there that aren't too different from those on Earth. overall, Kirotar looks very similar to Earth, but there are plenty of differences.

for example, a form of magic exists on Kirotar, which is often used by humans (and sometimes even animals). my story has elements of fantasy, but also a lot of magical realism. the system I've made for magic will also get its own post another time.

I hope that's a sufficient introduction. more to come soon.

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I think you're supposed to do some kind of introduction on here, so that's what this is:

hey, my name is benjamin, but I also go by ben or benji (I don't have a real preference on what name you use). I use he/him pronouns, and I'm queer.

I do cool stuff sometimes, like writing original stories, drawing my own characters, worldbuilding for said stories/characters, programming small video games, and a few other things.

I'm really interested in 2D animated movies/shows, like adventure time/fionna and cake, delicious in dungeon/dungeon meshi, infinity train, owl house, gravity falls, bee and puppycat, ghibli movies, and a bunch more. however, my main interest at the moment is moomin (the books, 90's show, and 2019 show). I also like pentiment, the video game.

I'll probably use this space to post about the world and characters I'm working on, maybe video games I'm working on, maybe some fandom stuff.

feel free to chat, as long as you're cool. I don't welcome any kind of hate. I'd love to talk about the stuff I create, or any of my interests. I'll take any kind of asks, but I might just not answer.

anyway, I'm new to this site and I haven't been on a lot of social media in general, so be nice to me please (it's a little scary here).