Drakon's Realm of writing and art @eldritchdrakon - Tumblr Blog

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cookiecuttercritter

Moo Deng, how did you get here?

eldritchdrakon

Idk but he deserves to be there

#ballpits are fun #especially in the backrooms

halogenwarrior

So you know how there is often a trope in fantasy where the wise wizard or princess or whoever has an affinity with animals and can get them to work for their cause of restoring the rightful king or whatever it is? And generally, this is supposed to show how positive a figure the person is and how righteous their cause is that even nature itself knows letting the good humans win will keep the balance. I think it would be interesting if it was turned on its head and played for horror - a human feared by animals, with horrific powers that can twist an animal into forgetting its basic view of the world, its survival, its home, those it cares about, in favor of zealously promoting inane human causes that would normally be incomprehensible. That magnificent deer is suddenly infused with alien horrifying concepts of human states, and human family lines, that lead to the conclusion that getting whoever that person thinks is the rightful king on the throne is more important than life itself, abandoning its herd and children for reasons it can't even comprehend. The mother wolf, loving and brave for her children, suddenly grows an unnatural obsession with a random human baby's supposed chosen destiny and abandons her children to feed the human alone, and their cries echo in the forest as they slowly starve, not understanding anything of what has happened. They claim this proves righteousness and wisdom but it's not, it's just power. And it's not even just humans who can do this, maybe it's a gift randomly born into individuals of all species. You, a human, could just be wandering around a road when suddenly you encounter a gifted prairie dog and suddenly all you can think about is the great importance of the politics and struggles of a particular colony of prairie dogs, your brain forced to comprehend a mind and world alien to yours and abandoning all of the goals and humanity you had previously to it. And any animal can have this power, at any moment any other animal's will could be bent to serve a cause it understands nothing of. That's just how it is.

accessibleaesthetics

Very Silly Concept: a show called "Accessibility Nightmares" but it's structured exactly like Kitchen Nightmares. An accessibility specialist goes to different establishments and helps them make their businesses more accessible.

The accessibility specialist asks why the door at the top of the small set of stairs has a wheelchair symbol on it. The owner replies that's the accessible bathroom. The camera zooms in on the specialist as they process this information.

A customer with a service dog comes in to a restaurant. The hostess tells them they don't allow dogs. The accessibly specialist looks over at the hostess like

And there are web accessibility episodes too. The accessibility specialist stares at the white text on the light pink background of the home page like

The specialist asks why not a single product picture has alt text, and the business owner says "Well I mean, it's makeup, why would a blind person be shopping for makeup?" The specialist just

The specialist asks the web designer how a screen reader user is supposed to complete the captcha portion of the password reset process when there is no audio alternative. The designer admits they don't know.

a-url-that-exists

this, but only if we get to yell at them like Gordon does.

accessibleaesthetics

Oh, 100%. In my head the accessibility specialist is actually still just inexplicably Gordon Ramsay. I was having a delightful time the other day imagining "your videos have auto-generated captions?" being said in the exact same way Gordon says "you're serving them frozen fish???"

But having the specialist be Ramsay-esque would be crucial, I think. On all accounts; just as Gordon is always patient and polite with the waiters and waitresses, the specialist would be patient and polite with the store staff answering questions about the accessibility options they do not control. But on the flip side, if the person who is in charge is being unnecessarily difficult or just straight up ableist, there is likely to be some yelling and dramatic background music involved.

dct239394cvvd098dffgggp

id leave the time loop ripped as hellllll youd can cut lettuce with the edge of my calf muscles

eldritchdrakon

Wouldn't the time loop reset your progress though?

robotmango

hallmark channel please hire me to write more time-travel romances:

no-nonsense modern businesswoman who is secretly falling for this odd but kind stranger: dinner was so delicious! wow... i wish my last boyfriend had ever cooked for me even once. by the way, what was in the pie?

brave yet gentle time-displaced knight: squirrels, of course

brave yet gentle time-displaced nobleman of some sort: the miasmas in this... newest of york are indeed foul. here, i have studded half an orange with cloves, hold it against thy nose, that you may not inhale any spirits of pestilence

no-nonsense modern businesswoman's mildly confused dad: so, you follow politics at all?

brave yet gentle time-displaced weaver's apprentice: the empress maud is a pretender and usurper, i pray king stephen's forces will break the siege by michelmas

no-nonsense modern businesswoman, etcetera: what are all these children doing in my house

brave yet gentle time-displaced prince: these are my new pages. i have given them each a loaf of bread and a pallet of straw in the basement. [snaps fingers] you, boy! a cup of watered wine!

delighted ten-year-old who is skipping school, dressed in old drapes as an approximation of medieval livery: yes sir right away sir!!

beaft

my cat hates taking his pills. the only way we can get him to eat them is to turn it into an elaborate pantomime - we take the packet out of the cupboard slowly and hold it up, saying “oh!! what’s this? what’s this? a TREAT? a TREAT for louis????” while making surprised faces. we offer him a pill… then, before he has a chance to sniff it, we wag our fingers at him and replace it in the packet so it becomes a Tantalising Forbidden Mystery. we continue doing this until he’s so confused and excited that he will eat the pill as fast as possible, just so he can find out what it is before we can take it away from him again. as soon as he’s eaten it he looks utterly disappointed and betrayed, like a child who just ate a delicious sweet only to find it was a chocolate-coated brussels sprout. it never gets old

autumngracy

Op this is the funniest thing I’ve ever read

fucktheflagandfuckyou

op how could you just hide this from me in the tag this makes this objectively 10000000% funnier

stalling

50 First Doses

skyline-sunset-in-my-veins

You trick Louis? You trick Louis like a common fool? Oh jail, jail for owners ONE MILLION YE-oh what’s this? A treat?

worldsendvalent1ne

allegedly-human

Begging you to put the sound on

synobun

@atinydroid

maccreadysbaby

Some of My Favorite Ways to Describe a Character Who’s Sick

pressing their forehead into something cool or comfortable (this could be an array of things. the table, the floor, someones leather jacket, their water bottle, the countertop)

warm to the touch, or heat radiating from them (could be noticed if someone’s gauging their temperature with their hands, hugging them, or just generally touching them)

leaning into people’s touch, or just spontaneously leaning on them (like pressing into their hand when someone’s checking their temp, or just, like, literally walking up and laying their head on them from fatigue. bonus points if the character is usually feral and the other is scared to engage™︎)

falling asleep all over the place (at the dinner table, on their homework, in the car, in the bathroom — just being so exhausted from doing literally nothing)

being overly emotional (crying over things that don’t usually bother them, like their siblings arguing, or their homework, or literally just nothing)

stumbling/careening/staggering into things (the wall, furniture, other people. there is no coordination in feverish brains. running into chairs, hitting the door, falling over the couch, anything and everything)

slurring their words (could be from fatigue or pain. connecting words that shouldn’t be connected, murdering all of their conversations with the excessive use of ‘mm’ and ‘nn’ in place of words) (this is my favorite thing ever)

being overly touchy (basically like a sick kid — just hold them, please. do that thing where you brush their hair back out of their face, or rub circles on their back, or snuggle them. they won’t care. bonus points if this is also the feral character and they refuse to believe it afterwards)

being extremely resistant to touch (flinching away when they usually don’t so someone can’t feel the fever, not letting themselves be touched because they’re so tired they just know they’ll be putty in their hands if they do)

growing aggressive or being extremely rude (it’s a defense mechanism — they feel vulnerable and are afraid of being manipulated or deceived while they’re ill)

whimpering/whining/groaning (this was in my “characters in pain” post but it’s so good that i’m putting it here too. this shite is gold, especially if it’s just an involuntary reaction to their symptoms)

having nightmares caused by a fever and/or delirium (crying and murmuring in their sleep, or being awake but completely out of it and convinced they’re somewhere else)

making themselves as small as possible (curling up into a ball everywhere they lay, hunching over slightly when standing, wrapping their arms around themselves)

TW for vomiting below cut !!

angelasscribbles

elodieunderglass

changes and trends in horror-genre films are linked to the anxieties of the culture in its time and place. Vampires are the manifestation of grappling with sexuality; aliens, of foreign influence. Horror from the Cold War is about apathy and annihilation; classic Japanese horror is characterised by “nature’s revenge”; psychological horror plays with anxieties that absorbed its audience, like pregnancy/abortion, mental illness, femininity. Some horror presses on the bruise of being trapped in a situation with upsetting tasks to complete, especially ones that compromise you as a person - reflecting the horrors and anxieties of capitalism etc etc etc. Cosmic horror is slightly out of fashion because our culture is more comfortable with, even wistful for, “the unknown.” Monster horror now has to be aware of itself, as a contingent of people now live in the freedom and comfort of saying “I would willingly, gladly, even preferentially fuck that monster.” But I don’t know much about films or genres: that ground has been covered by cleverer people.

I don’t actually like horror or movies. What interests me at the moment is how horror of the 2020s has an element of perception and paying attention.

Multiple movies in one year discussed monsters that killed you if you perceived them. There are monsters you can’t look at; monsters that kill you instantly if you get their attention. Monsters where you have to be silent, look down, hold still: pray that they pass over you. M Zombies have changed from a hand-waved virus that covers extras in splashy gore, to insidious spores. A disaster film is called Don’t Look Up, a horror film is called Nope. Even trashy nun horror sets up strange premises of keeping your eyes fixed on something as the devil GETS you.

No idea if this is anything. (I haven’t seen any of these things because, unfortunately, I hate them.) Someone who understands better than me could say something clever here, and I hope they do.

But the thing I’m thinking about is what this will look like to the future, as the Victorian sex vampires and Cold War anxieties look to us. I think they’ll have a little sympathy, but they probably won’t. You poor little prey animals, the kids will say, you were awfully afraid of facing up to things, weren’t you?

canadianwheatpirates

I'm like one hour from going to bed so my take is not going to be extensive but my guess is that the social anxiety this is reflecting is the surveillance state. And the fact that private companies (i.e. not just the state) are also doing a ton of surveillance. And even the fact that the way we often use social media -- less so Tumblr, which has some anonymity still -- is basically internalising that surveillance and performing for it at all times.

It seems like there are two modes going on here: "avoid being perceived by the horror" (Bird Box, A Quiet Place etc) and "perform correctly so that the horror can't get you" (your trashy nun example). Both of them arise from surveillance logics; one is "avoid being surveilled or it will Get you", the other is "you are being surveilled, perform correctly or it will Get you".

And with regard to the social elements it's all reflecting, I mean -- have you seen the state of things? It's extremely difficult to avoid being surveilled! A monster where you have to not look at it is fucking easy mode by comparison!

(Pretend I cited Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman; they're relevant but also it's bedtime.)

elodieunderglass

Ooh yes, and breaking it down like this made me think:

- fear of observation (surveillance state)

- fear of not performing correctly (purity culture and evangelical backlashes)

- fear of confronting existential threat (climate change)

fozmeadows

my contribution to this extremely salient and clever discussion is to say: I think we should call this subgenre panopticonsequence horror

elodieunderglass

! ! !

ace-and-ranty

I gotta say, one of the greatest achievements of my 20s was that I learned (mostly) to differentiate between:

"I truly do not want to go" and

"I'm just feeling the Demand Avoidance, and I will like it once I get there."

ace-and-ranty

Well, goodness, this one resonated much more than I was expecting. I mean, I get it. My mind was also blown wide open when I found out "demand avoidance" was a thing that existed, and that I'm not the only weirdo in the world who suddenly wishes it wasn't her birthday after anxiously waiting for her birthday for days.

Loads of people in the tags are asking how I do it? I feel this won't be groundbreaking advice, but here is what I have learned:

Previous experience. Really no way around it. Now that I hit thirty, I feel like I have done enough things to know, intellectually, from experience, what will feel nice if I overcome the avoidance, and what won't. For example, every time I go to the beach, I wake up early and would rather eat a tire than get off the bed. But I remember that every time I got up and went to the beach, I was glad I did it. So I just get up, feeling like shit, and get ready, feeling like shit, and I get to the beach and magic!! I feel great, I love the beach!! Sometimes you just gotta do it scared feeling kinda like shit.

Am I avoiding the thing or getting to the thing? I have a lot of demand avoidance around just, y'know, getting up, getting ready and going out the door. Universal human experience. If I notice that doing the actual thing (Swim in the pool!) sounds nice, but I'm avoiding having to rally myself to go do that (Fetch swimsuit! Sunscreen! Towel!), then I know it's demand avoidance and I should just fucking go.

Is the thing making me feel excited at all or just anxious? I have had previous occasions when I did the opposite; I convinced myself it was just demand avoidance when I really just. Hated the thing. And wanted to stop. If you feel a mix of excitement and dread, or excitement and anxiety, that might be demand avoidance. But if thinking of doing the thing just makes you feel actively anxious, then yeah. You don't want to do the thing.

Do the thing a little bit. Used often with dishes. I've seen this advice float around Tumblr a lot and it's correct. Commit to doing just a bit of the thing; a little bit of the thing; the smallest bit of the thing you can do. Getting started will make it clear right away if you don't want to do it (and in that case, you have permission to stop), or if you just having trouble getting started.

dragonheartstring360

Some notes for anyone writing a character with glasses, from someone who wears glasses everyday:

- glasses need to come off before changing a shirt, unless it has a really big collar. Otherwise, glasses will get ripped off by said shirt collar.

- weather will affect how well you can see out of them, especially rain. Raindrops will dot glasses and it’s like trying to drive a car in the rain without working windshield wipers. Snow sometimes does this too, but not as bad, and lots of dust kicking up will make glasses dirty and foggy. If it’s humid enough (talking like swampy, Deep South levels, weather app says “90-100% humidity”), glasses will fog up when you step outside. If it’s crazy windy, glasses can fly off and the character should hold onto them or take them off and put them somewhere safe. They’ll usually get dirty or break in a pants pocket, so maybe have character carry around a sturdy glasses case if needed.

- not all materials are good for wiping glasses off. Some shirt materials just make it worse.

- if your character’s glasses are super dirty or smudged, they will be able to see it 24/7 as they look around and it’s annoying af.

- although glasses can keep things from getting in a character’s eyes (like something that’s been sprayed), it doesn’t protect our eyes all the time, especially if it’s coming at an angle or there’s a large amount. For that, you’d need actual safety glasses or goggles (and yes, they do make prescription goggles, but they’re not cheap).

- speaking of waves, for the love of god, DO NOT have your character swim with their glasses on. At best, they’ll get wet and they won’t be able to see. At worst, if they’re forced underwater or an ocean wave smacks them in the face, they’ll fly off and/or break.

- a crack in glasses is actually annoying af and makes it very hard to see.

- if a character’s face is wet, like from sweat or a ton of rain, their glasses will continuously slide down their nose and they’ll need to keep pushing them back up.

- lots of liquids other than water will make glasses opaque.

- glasses should be fitted pretty well to a person’s head. So if the character’s face is dry or there’s a moderate amount of wind, the “legs” that go behind their ears should be tight enough that they don’t just constantly fly off or slip down their nose. If they do, they’re too big (but obviously something a tornado will make them fly off).

- although I hate the whole “they took off their glasses and now they’re a ✨ model ✨” trope, people do tend to look very different with glasses on vs off - especially a character like Harry Potter who constantly wears their glasses. It’s not unrealistic that people who don’t know the character well (or even those who do, but just aren’t as quick) won’t recognize them at first without their glasses.

- as far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never been able to do this), if a lens pops out of the frames, it can’t be popped back in by non-professionals without the right tools. The glasses are just done for.

- if your character has contacts in (or this is a psa for anyone who wears contacts), DO NOT have them rub their eyes. The contact will pop out and they’re very translucent and tiny, so trust me, it will just fall and be lost forever.

- being able to see clearly out of one eye and not the other (like with a broken/missing lens or a contact falling out) causes headaches.

- glasses are expensive af in the US (idk about other places). One time when I didn’t have vision insurance, an eye exam and two frames with lenses (I have blue eyes and very extreme light sensitivity, so have to have prescription sun glasses as well as regular glasses) cost over $900USD. If you want the special frames that become tinted and basically turn into sunglasses when you walk outside, it will cost extra.

- speaking of those lenses that become tinted when you walk outside, they take awhile to fade back to normal after you go back inside. Your character needs to be prepared to still be “wearing” sunglasses for the first 5-10 minutes after they walk inside.

- if a character is wearing contacts, they can wear normal sunglasses. If not, they’ll need special prescription sunglasses to be able to see. You cannot wear prescription sunglasses with contacts in or you won’t be able to see anything. Ever tried to look through your friend’s glasses and everything’s weird and warped and giving you a headache? That’s what it will look like.

- not exactly glasses related, but people with lighter colored eyes will always have worse light sensitivity than people with darker eyes. I have very blue eyes and looking up at the sky on a sunny day will literally make me see stars, and especially if I’m driving towards the sun while it’s setting, I have to have my sunglasses on or I literally will not be able to see and tears will be leaking out my eyes the whole way home.

- speaking of prescription sunglasses, unless your character can see pretty far without their glasses or they’re far sighted, you cannot just take prescription sunglasses off and still be able to see, especially while driving. You just have to deal with it and keep the sunglasses on and look like a Matrix wannabe if it gets cloudy or starts raining, or you have to do the super speedy Dance of Death where you’re still watching the road in front of you, taking off one pair of glasses and putting the other on super fast (which usually requires you to use your mouth to open and close things).

- GLASSES ARE FRAGILE. Seriously, a very petite person could sit in them and snap them in half. They’re not something you want your character just throwing around.

- there are varying levels of how well someone can see. There’s farsightedness and nearsightedness. Some people don’t have that much trouble and can see pretty far, so only wear their glasses as needed. But some people (aka moi) can genuinely only see a few inches in front of their face. Like if I ever lost my glasses or they broke, I’d be done for. I wouldn’t be able to work or drive or do anything around the house.

- glasses need to be replaced about once a year because of possible prescription changes or sometimes lenses losing their strength and becoming harder to see through. Trying to tough it out after long enough will give your character headaches/migraines and sore eyes from eye strain.

- some mascaras (especially thick ones) will smudge glasses when the character blinks. Same with false lashes (although they’ll brush instead of smudge). Usually less intense mascaras and shorter fake lash lengths are better.

- eye makeup is harder to see with glasses on.

- please, please, PLEASE stop using the whole “omg look how much prettier/more attractive they are without their glasses” trope. Not everyone’s eyes can handle contacts and some people prefer wearing their glasses. And it makes those of us who prefer glasses or have to wear them feel like shit, especially because there aren’t a lot of characters with glasses in media who don’t become the butt of a joke (ie the one wearing glasses is the “ugly duckling” for it like in princess diaries, or like Velma from scooby doo always losing them and patting around, or people who wear glasses will always be some sort of dorky/insufferable know it all).

- glasses come in all shapes, sizes, and colors and can be used to actually enhance a character’s style! Some of them even have magnetic frames that click in place over the simple pair, so have fun using glasses to build your character’s style.

- edit to add: no one ever purposely falls asleep with their glasses on. You will crush and break them when you roll around. However, if a character does accidentally fall asleep with them on, a love interest gently taking them off so they don’t wake them up and setting them on the table next to them can be a super cute moment.

- whoops thought of some more. Hair products, especially hairspray, can be a bitch to get off glasses and doesn’t always just rinse off with water. If they’re spraying anything, including dry shampoo, the glasses have gotta come off and get out of the line of fire first.

- hair can and will get caught in the little hinge by the legs and we do occasionally not notice till we take our glasses off and rip a hair out of our heads.

- be careful when you comb or brush, cuz if the glasses legs get caught in the brush or comb, it will be ripped off our face.

Hope this helps! May the writing gods bless your work 🤓

radiofreederry

punkitt-is-here

this is cinema

natus-ex-astris

Pause this on each screen, because there's stuff in here I wasn't aware of and I'm sure I'm not the only one. This isn't just cinema, this is free education and I'm grateful for it.

arcaniumagi2

oh. Wow. HELLO.

charlataninred

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

meraarts

Might I add:

The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

The woman who raised the changeling alongside her biological child

The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship

eater-of-hopes-and-dreams

The adventures of a space roomba

Cinderella finding Araura (and falling in love)

I don’t know a snappy description but the my nemesis cynthia story certainly lives in my head

blitzlowin

hilariously, these are almost all in my fic tag. so, a compiled list from the notes (and some extras):

The God of Arepo (graphic novel 1 / 2 / 3) (ebook)

The Monster of Sentan

The Witch’s Cat

Raise Both Children

Stabby the Roomba (honorable mention)

Cinderella Marries the Prince (comic)

My Arch Nemesis Cynthia

Pirates and Mermaid

Eindred and the Witch

The Demon King

The Cornerwitch

Grandmother Beetroot

Apocalypse Daycare Worker

Grandmother Accidentally Summons a Demon

New Year Saga

A Story About Changelings

Ranger in the King’s Forest

The Difference Between a Hare and a Rabbit

Goblin Men (Canines)

charlataninred

I am in love with you /p

inkvoices

Adding Faceblind Prince Charming and Cinderella

inkvoices

21. The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship

22. The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

lightningladybug

adding the Doctors Without Borders one

inkvoices

I LOVE tumblr storytime, so here’s a bunch more your weekend reading. Enjoy!

24. The Queen with Three Cursed Children

25. Tiny Dragon with one coin hoard

26. Haunted house

27. Shark hero was about to go rogue

28. Grandma lives in the woods comic

29. A Different Aftermath comic

30. Battery (microstory but I love it so much)

31. It’s A Date comic

32. Supervillian kidnaps rival’s kid and they want to stay

33. Narrative Town

34. I have been hired to clean the wizard tower comic

35. Robot Apocalypse

36. The Statues That Do Not Weather

37. Kushiel

38. Tooth Fairy

39. Alien abduction

40. Felonious wish-granting

41. When humans met actual space orcs

42. Space cousins

dannnnnnnnnnnnex

WAIT REBLOG THIS VERSION INSTEAD

leannihilation-deactivated20230

I do wholeheartedly believe Wes Anderson is a sick sick freak. I like his movies but I definitely think this guy has like a hidden room in his spacious french apartment that he slips into quietly each night and it is just filled with tiny little doll replicas of all the actors he's ever used in any of his movies and he puppets them around and mimicks their voices and shit. and sometimes he'll text Owen Wilson pictures of his little doll with a comb or something from an untraceable number and pair it with like "see how I take care of you Owen?" and then the following day Owen Wilson will find him at the service table and go, "Geez Wes look at this," and Wes will pretend to be all concerned and horrified but there is this calculating almost eager look in his eyes that unsettles Owen Wilson. and the next time Wes is having a little soiree with all his actors, his beloved beloved actors, maybe Owen Wilson will accidentally get lost on his way to the beautiful bathroom and find that little room and see all those dolls and his throat will hitch with horror. And before he can call Bill Murray or Adrian Brody to look a dark silhouette will appear in the doorway and Wes looks sort of resigned when he says, "I see you finally found my secret, Owen," and Owen Wilson will try and pretend that he's fine with it but they both know better. and Wes will go (the look in his eyes back again) "We both know this can't get out, right?" and he'll grin very suddenly and Owen Wilson will laugh along very nervously and leave the room and eat some brioche and when the evening is over he will rush over to his Prius and frantically click his keys but over the cobbles on the beautiful beautiful street there is the sound of footsteps. and tears are running down Owen Wilson's cheeks but he can't say a word and Wes, emerging from the shadows, will gently touch him on the shoulder and say, "look, I'll drive you to the airport, huh?" and Owen Wilson will try to refuse but they both know it's futile. and, halfway through the drive, Wes Anderson will smile and say, "I'll miss working with you" and then perfectly jump and roll out of the car, wiping off his corduroy pants, while Owen Wilson's Prius swerves into a local patisserie, bursting into flames

georgesantosapologist-deactivat

55bltzkrgfrtz

professionalchaoticdumbass

galladegamer

sirenemale

callitgoodwriting-deactivated20

Worldbuilding Categories | Part 1

I'd like to preface this with two things:

worldbuilding is complex; none of this is exhaustive, but rather a starting point

unless you're doing this for RPG purposes or you're George R.R. Martin, you don't need to have a comprehensive bible on every aspect of every little thing. start with what is important to you and the story you're telling.

Languages

Most common by geographic location, demographic, religion, etc. Dead languages. Pidgin + creole languages. Different dialects, pronunciation, and communication issues within a language. Class and economic influence. Generational differences, slang, and evolving connotations of words. Education and preservation of languages. Monolingual, bilingual, polyglot prevalence.

Folklore

[Folklore encompasses legends, tales, proverbs, and myths.]

Origin of lore (religion, morality, societal need/panic, historical sightings or explanations of (super)natural events...) Focus of lore (agricultural, seasonal, health/wellness, lessons...) Common themes (deities, supernatural, cryptids...) Expression of lore (oral tradition, art, dance, rituals...)

Literature/Storytelling

Oral vs. written. Types of recording + distribution. Common and popular genres, themes, lessons... Importance in society and certain demographics.

Art

Folk art, "high" vs "low" art, fine art, popular art, classic art. Common mediums. Popular themes. How it's valued, displayed, traded/sold. Influence of socioeconomics, religion, region, history, demographics... Societal view of artists, mediums, and importance of art.

Drama

Stage plays, narrative dance, operas/musicals, radio, television, film, literary/poetic performance... Geographic and socioeconomic access. "Art" criteria can be applied here as well.

Music

Instruments. Purposes (religious, traditional, entertainment...). Lyricism and composition. Performance, recording, + distribution. Genres, themes, popularity. Perception of different variations. Prevalence and importance. Interaction with political movements and modernity. Accessibility of composition and consumption.

Celebrity

Who is valued above others (royalty, politicians, public figures, artists, performers, writers, certain families...) How gossip and information about celebrities are shared + consumed. Trends and crazes. Reality vs. generated press.

Fashion

Available fabric, dyes, labor, + technology. Expectations of modesty. Class and occupational influence. Social importance of style + quality (+ possibly brand or designer). Gendered considerations (both of wear and creation of fashion). Implications of certain colors, materials, symbolism...

Food

Access. Restaurants, street vendors, chefs... Recipe distribution. Popularity or disapproval of cuisine from different groups. Agricultural considerations. Preparation, processing, health and safety regulation, trade/sale... Diet culture. Delicacies and comfort foods. Hunting + gathering. Who's in charge of each stage of food from acquisition to plate.

Water + Sanitation

Cost and accessibility of clean water. Sewage. Running water. Bathing. Hot water. Rural vs. city. What happens to gray and black water. Toilets.

Religions

Historical significance. Modern view + prevalence. Branches + denominations. Conflict between groups. Church vs. state in government. Religion-based assumption of rights/ownership (colonization, crusades...).

Religion (individual)

Monotheistic, pantheistic, polytheistic, no deities... Prophets, messengers, spiritual beings (like angels or demons)... Closed or open religion. Written or documented material. Historical and cultural significance. Traditions, holidays, and other sacred practices. Buildings, sites, objects, and other sacred physical things. Afterlife belief. Magic. The "soul" and values/morals.

Holidays, Traditions, + Celebrations

Cultural and religious influence. Government recognition. Birthdays, equinoxes, lunar/solar calendars, anniversaries, births, marriages... Parties, parades, gifts, gatherings, ceremonies. Food, dress, location. Associated symbolism.

Marriage, Family, + Parenting

Age, gender, socioeconomic, religious, race/ethnicity considerations for partnerships. Marriage definition, importance, + practices. Birth vs. adopted children. Surrogacy. Community and extended family involvement with childrearing. Morality and ideas of "sanctity" around partnership/marriage. Legality and legacy of family. Strict vs. gentle parenting. Views of parental involvement vs. nannies, wet nurses, + other childcare. Single parenthood. Polyamory and multiple "direct" parents. Divorce, remarrying, + step-parenting. Family pride, loyalty, name importance...

Non-Religious Beliefs

Anything that (even if originally rooted in religion) has become mainstream, commonplace, universal, or widespread. Etiquette and manners. Superstitions. Understanding of science and the natural world. Ethics.

Government

The type of government and its popularity among the masses. Voting + the people's voice. Political parties + important families. Politicians. Corruption. Inherited vs. elected vs. appointed positions. Divisions (local, designated counties/states, federal...). Branches of government. Executive power. Inherited power.

Law (Enforcement + Judiciary Systems)

Who defines and implements the law. Geographic divisions of law and enforcement. Systems of law enforcement and judiciary procedure (e.g. police vs FBI, local court vs. Supreme Court). Investigations, trials, sentencing, punishment or rehabilitation efforts. Forensics and law enforcement ethics. Community-based efforts. Non-government positions (lawyers, advocates, informants, clerks...). Procedures, protocols, and protection of individual rights. Emergency response and law enforcement patrol.

Crime

Religious + cultural influence/view on criminality of acts or substances. Prevalence of crime and prejudiced/preconceived ideas of certain crimes/criminals. Legality of certain substances or services (such as marijuana or sex work). How it affects perception or traffic of certain areas/times of day. Disparities in who is victimized, suspected, and prosecuted.

As always, take what is helpful and leave the rest.

Again, this is far from exhaustive and more of an attempt to kickstart your brainstorming. There are always caveats and asterisks and whatever else because every world, universe, galaxy, etc is incredibly varied.

Take what ya need and happy writing!

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