Welcome to my blog! You can call me Ez or Ezekiel.
A little about me:
✩ Artist (painting, digital, graphite)
✩ Queer
✩ Pronouns: they/he
✩ Nonbinary
✩ Witch, spiritualist
✩ Scottish 🏴
✩ Languages: English (fluent), Spanish (intermediate), French (conversational) Learning Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Fandoms/Interests:
➵ Worldbuilding
➵ Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
➵ Language learning
➵ Chronicles of Narnia
➵ Zoology and astrology
➵ Witchcraft, spirituality
Music:
𖧧 Clairo
𖧧 Hozier
𖧧 The Paper Kites
𖧧 Queen
𖧧 Aurora
DNI:
✩ Transphobes, homophobes, furry haters, proshippers, etc. If you have something hateful to say, don’t say it.
⊹ How does someone get magic in the first place?? are they born with it, do they study for years, does it choose them, did they make a terrible deal with something they shouldn't have. this matters SO much for your storywhat are the limits. please give your magic limits.
⊹ What can't it do. what happens when someone pushes too far. A magic system with no consequences is so boring and also makes your plot unsolvable because why doesn't the protagonist just magic their way out of everything
⊹ Does using magic cost something? energy, years off your life, memories, sanity, blood. the more personal the cost the better honestly
⊹ How do people in your world feel about magic. Feared? Worshipped? Regulated by the government? illegal underground thing? totally normal like electricity? the social aspect is so underrated
⊹ Who has access to it? is it only the wealthy/powerful or can anyone learn it. Because that says a LOT about your world's inequality situation
⊹ Can it be taken away? stolen? blocked? this is great for conflict
⊹ Are there different types of magic or schools of it and do those groups like each other (they don't. they never do. use this)
⊹ What are the physical signs that someone has/uses magic. Glowing eyes, burns on their hands, going grey early, nosebleeds. Little details like this make it feel so real
⊹ Has the magic changed over time? like was it stronger/different a hundred years ago and nobody knows why what happened
⊹ is there a moral line that magic users aren't supposed to cross and who decided where that line was and why does your protagonist keep getting close to it?
⊹ And the most important question is honestly: what does the magic mean thematically. the best magic systems reflect something about the story's core themes and it doesn't have to be obvious but it should be there
Things to consider when Writing about Gods & Religion!!
⊹ Are the gods actually real and active or is it all faith-based. because "god shows up physically to yell at people" is a very different vibe from "we haven't heard from them in 500 years but we still pray"
⊹ What do they want from their followers. worship, sacrifices, good deeds, chaos, entertainment. are they benevolent or kind of jerks about it. Ancient mythology gods were mostly jerks tbh
⊹ How many gods are there and do they get along. monotheism is simple but a messy pantheon where the gods have drama with each other?? so much more fun to write. they can have feuds. forbidden relationships. family issues
⊹ What happens when you die in this religion. reincarnation? specific afterlife? different afterlives based on how you lived? just nothing? this affects how people behave SO much
⊹ Who are the priests/priestesses and what's their role. are they magical conduits, political power players, just regular people leading prayers.
⊹ Are there religious laws and how strict are they. what are the sins/taboos. what happens if you break them.
⊹ What are the religious practices. daily prayers, annual festivals, pilgrimages, ritual sacrifices (of what though). the specific details make it feel real
⊹ Is there religious persecution. multiple religions that hate each other? one state religion and everything else is banned? forced conversions? people hiding their faith?
⊹ Do the gods play favorites or can anyone worship them. are there gods for specific groups (god of soldiers, god of thieves)
⊹ What proof is there that any of this is real. miracles? prophecies that came true? divine artifacts? or is it all just faith and tradition and nobody actually knows
⊹ How has the religion changed over time. do they have like reformation drama, lost texts?
⊹ What's the church's relationship with magic if magic exists. is magic a gift from the gods, heresy, completely separate, or did magic exist first and gods came later
🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces
(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)
So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented:
→ Three types of ceremonial jewelry
→ A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed
→ A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn
Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.
And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.
Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.
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🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style
Ask yourself:
→ Who’s in charge, and why?
→ Who has land? Who doesn’t?
→ What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?
Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.
Start there. Not at the embroidery.
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2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict
Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?
→ What was destroyed and mythologized?
→ What do the survivors still whisper about?
→ What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?
No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.
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3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists
Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about:
→ Death?
→ Love?
→ Time?
→ The natural world?
→ Justice?
Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.
You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.
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4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)
Culture shows up in:
→ What people apologize for
→ What insults cut deepest
→ What people are embarrassed about
→ What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately
For instance:
→ A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?”
→ A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.
This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.
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5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals
Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about:
→ Breakfast routines?
→ How people greet each other on the street?
→ Who cooks, and who eats first?
→ What’s considered “clean” or “proper”?
→ How is parenting handled? Divorce?
Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.
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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture
A culture isn’t a monolith.
Even in deeply traditional societies, people:
→ Rebel
→ Question
→ Break rules
→ Misinterpret laws
→ Mock sacred things
→ Act hypocritically
→ Weaponize or resist what’s expected
Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.
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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap
Worldbuilding gets boring fast when:
→ The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure
→ The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric”
→ Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like
You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy.
→ Let ugly things be beloved.
→ Let beautiful things be corrupt.
→ Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.
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📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy):
→ Culture is not food and jewelry.
→ Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction.
→ Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter.
→ Let your world feel lived in, not curated.
The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list.
It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.
Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)
—rin t.
// writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range
// thewriteadviceforwriters
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i think once people realise that labels are not categories, rather they are descriptive words, the world will get a lot more chill with queerness and people being people.
i think once people realise that labels are not categories, rather they are descriptive words, the world will get a lot more chill with queerness and people being people.
ALWAYS REBLOG WHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING LIKE THIS PLEASE; ITS SO MUCH MORE THAN IMPORTANT TO PEOPLE. IT MEANS EVERYTHING TO SOMEBODY AND EVEN THOUGH YOU MIGHT NOT SEE THIS IN THE SAME LIGHT, SOMEONE MIGHT. INFACT YOU REBLOGGING THIS COULD STOP SOMEONE TAKING THEIR LIFE TONIGHT.
Tune in next time for: Are these menstrual cramps? Am I pregnant? Is it just gas? I wouldn’t have to ask these questions if I didn’t have a damn uterus
Y'all are forgetting the all-time classic: Is it just my period or is my appendix about to burst? Some nice tea and a heatpack or 911 and emergency surgery?
Place your hand over the pain, press down slightly and release. If the pain doesn’t change by any great margin, you’re fine. If it suddenly becomes some painful you can barely stand, Get thee to an Emergency Room
Celestial Beings
Come outside
She whispers from the heavens
Blanketed in deep hues, she beckons
With a call that stirs my soul
Follow the voice
Her light dances as she laughs
Her radiant beams flash down
Spreading dappled golden patterns on the earth
Run away,
away,
away
They murmur in persistent harmonies
As they twinkle and glitter
One falls
Leaving a dazzling streak in its wake
Be with us
They all urge
“I cannot,” I lament,
“The world expects too much of me and I musn’t leave,”
That familiar ache throbs dully
As it always does with such suppression
“I’m sorry,” I breathe,
As I wrench my gaze from the skies
And close my door
a design of my original species, the Ao’ey. Native to bioluminescent forests in the world i am creating, they are quiet beings and mainly eat plants and small animals. They live in small groups of about 4-9 Ao’ey. They consume bioluminescent plants which is how they get their indigo skin and trails of illumination in their hair.
"How do you write such realistic dialogue-" I TALK TO MYSELF. I TALK TO MYSELF AND I PRETEND I AM THE ONE SAYING THE LINE. LIKE SANITY IS SLOWLY SLIPPING FROM BETWEEN MY FINGERS WITH EVERY MEASLY WORD THEY TYPE OUT. THAT IS HOW.
lord of the rings really was lightning in a bottle. it shouldn’t have worked but by god it did. peter jackson, who had no filmmaking education and was mostly known for making low budget splatter movies, had no business going out and changing the movie industry like that but he did. return of the king showed up at the oscars and became one of the most awarded movies of all time. to this day it holds the record for the highest clean sweep. hollywood will keep trying to recreate that magic with bigger budgets and high profile actors and they will keep failing. i look at the state of these blockbusters where everything is smoothed over by soulless cgi and actors are acting opposite tennis balls and they will never hold a candle to the pure heart and soul and craft of the lord of the rings. every single person involved in that project loved being part of it and it fucking shows. i’m so thankful the stars aligned the way they did for these movies to happen like that.
