Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! Let's talk Fate! I wanna know about everything: deities of fate, gambler's games, superstitions--anything and everything related to destiny and luck.
This is an open ask, for anyone to answer! For more open asks, check out@worldbuildingwedasks
Any rock, any pebble that you find along the side of the road or in the middle of the river or at the peak of a mountain could be a godstone. These artifacts are both treasured and feared, because the moment you touch them - you are cursed to become a god, and also to die.
There are many who believe they can divine the location of a particular godstone, there are those who are convinced it's all chance, and there are some who (accurately) have pointed out that, if a particular person had not found the godstone, the prophecies of the Ending would not have come true as they did.
To be honest, I'm the sort of writer who has deliberately chosen to remain ignorant and refrain from making a decision about whether this is because of fate or chance, destiny or luck.
I know that the people of the arrowverse believe in both, and so I try to do the same.
Definitely lots of gambling games, I'll have to design one of them to put in the comic one day huh.
As for superstition: There is a lot of superstition based around objects from the mysterious farfliers, around specific rituals to be done when keeping a piece of an arrow, and around items of clothing that are used as virtue-signaling.
The farfliers occasionally work with humans, though it is rare enough that almost nobody knows someone who has worked with them. As part of being an agent of the farfliers, humans are given mechanical enhancements. (CYBORGZ) If anyone ever tries to sell things given by the farfliers... well, usually the farfliers find it, but if they don't, there are many people who consider the technology of the farfliers to be unclean and sacrilegious in human hands.
Any god that walks among the people immediately starts a fashion trend. However, most of the gods dislike being imitated. This has led to some interesting conflicts in the past, and also some bizarre superstitions around clothing.
Oh my gosh where do I even start - all of the characters in my story are queer in one way or another. As a queer person I can't write a world without queer characters, and I just... refuse to write worlds with homophobia or transphobia, etc. Why would I put that shit in a world when there's so much more interesting issues to think about?
So I think the more interesting question here for me is how the systems of the arrowverse (yes that's what I call it, it's the world of 196 arrows, what do you want) interact with queerness in different ways.
- Magical pregnancy, if you want it (unfortunately limited to those with ovaries/uteri, essentially magical modern stem-cell IVF): The life-giving power of the arrows around which the cities are built cannot be overstated. They create life where only the vaguest possibility of life was there before. By touching the surface of the arrow itself and being blessed by its presence, uterus-havers can suddenly... be pregnant. This opens up a fair number of doors to queer folks that are usually not open in a post-post-apocalyptic low fantasy setting.
- Agents of the farfliers, apart from simply being badass, can also get body modifications (low fantasy cyborgs). There are records of people joining as agents in order to rapidly shift gender presentation.
- Polyamory, and communal raising of children, is the norm among many large religions (though certainly not all, and the tension between them is interesting).
And last (for now) but certainly not least ✍(◔◡◔)
the gods:
The way that gods are reincarnated in the arrowverse is by a rather peculiar method of... possession... kind of. When a god dies, their [soul?] is sent into a stone. It's a different stone each time, and as far as anyone knows, any stone could be a god stone. It is entirely random. When a person touches that stone, they are bonded to the god. The process then follows thusly:
- 0+ days: weird dreams of the distant past
- 4+ weeks: friends notice odd behavior, blips in memory
- 7+ weeks: larger gaps in memory, saying things they have no reason to say
- ~ 1 year: the process usually completes.
This process ends with the person who was host to the god dead, and the god now inhabiting the person's body. For the entirety of the time that the god it present, the body has the abilities of the god (which are many and extensive)
But I hear you saying: "this is just a creepy god parasite! what does this have to do with queer content?"
Oh, everything, dear reader. everything, for two reasons
1. The gods have a sense of internal gender (though rather flexible)
2. The gods can speak to the hosts.
So if you have a cishet person in a relationship, and then they find a god stone: BAM! Does the god have the same internal gender? If not, they have to negotiate with a god inside their brain about not only DYING, and GOD POWERS, but also about SEXUALITY and GENDER because now the god is also <kind of>* in the same relationship that they are by virtue of inhabiting the same body.
*I realize that this is not really necessarily the case, but most people would treat it as true, so the characters would have to navigate that anyway
Basically, it's all a formula for queer drama between gods and humans and I love it.
Finally posting this: The story of the Ending, as told by the congregation of Irimar
AKA a story that gives a whole bunch of context for things in this world while also being wrong about a lot of it!
The story of the Ending is the foundation of our temple, and has decorated the brick entrance of every new sangrut we build. It is a telling we practice every time we walk the world, so listen closely; You may yet learn something, even if you’ve heard it before.
Four hundred plus one years before words were first scribed in stone, the creator gods made the world. Seven of them, standing together, whispered the words of creation, the words of life — and thus it was...
But the cost of their creation was high, for even as new gods awoke to a world of plenty, the gated ancient, Xiloec, uncovered what the seven creators had wrought. Humans and gods alike trembled in fear at the wrath of Xiloec, and humanity prayed and pleaded for mercy. Xiloec heard the prayers, like the screaming of a newborn child, and was not impressed.
In punishment for their deed, Xiloec sealed the creators and wrote this prophecy:
When the god of Ending awakens, they will forge 196 arrows of vengeance, and four will be sent in each direction. By their hand and by their order, the seven words of life will be burned from all living things, and the cycles will end.
Terrified of the anger of Xiloec, the new gods worked diligently to teach humans the importance of balance: Life and decay, birth and death, day and night, natural and unnatural, all were used as lessons for humanity. For an uncountable age, Xiloec was silent, and the reincarnation of the gods brought order to the world.
The peace was not to last. It was only six lifetimes ago that the god of ending and dust, the one foretold by prophecy — awoke to our world. A titan among the gods, as had not been seen in an age, he commanded a bow larger and longer than the eye could perceive.
Though they were terrified of him, the gods gathered, as they knew that the wrath of Xiloec would be more severe. The god of dust and ending requested of the four forges that they create 196 arrows of death, as the prophecy foretold. And so the Ending began.
One of the forges, Irimar, had dedicated herself to living among the people, living a simple life of service and hard work. She had seen our kindness as well as our suffering — and had developed a compassion for humanity. And so, upon hearing of her duty, the fires of righteous anger were stoked within her.
The Forge Compassionate went to where Xiloec was hidden and stole the seven words of life from the chained creator gods. With this secret knowledge, Irimar created 49 arrows of life - arrows imbued with the seven words of creation.
The creator gods, awakened by the hammering and enraged by the thievery, spoke into creation machines without life: the Farfliers — with the singular purpose of taking back the stolen words, by guiding all living things toward death.
With the craft finished, and Xiloec none the wiser, the gods gathered at the holiest site of their faiths to witness the Ending. The god of ending and dust called for the first of the four Forges to present their craft. As her sibling walked forward to present their arrows first, the Forge Compassionate, the Forge Rebellious, spoke up.
"Balance in all things. Creation and destruction, beginnings and endings, first and last. If we are to bring about the end, then let us do it together. Fire our arrows four at a time, one from each of us, that we may equally participate in the Ending."
Standing beside his bow, the god of dust and ending nodded. He sat down at the bow and made to fire, loading arrows four at a time. Every time the bow fired, death fell in three places, and life bloomed in one. And though some of the gods began to see that there was a blooming of life in the sacred directions, the god of ending and dust remained focused solely on his task of vengeance. It was not until the last four arrows were fired directly up from his bow that he looked up from where he sat, expecting destruction.
Instead, life bloomed anew where every fourth arrow had pierced the earth.
The god of dust and ending looked at those assembled, ready to set his wrath upon the four forges for their betrayal. But at that moment, the final arrow of life came falling from the sky and pierced his titan form through the eye, pinning him to the ground.
The gods perished during the Ending, with only one surviving to this day: the god of ending and dust. He is still here, still alive, his titan body a living testament to his works, and his dust producing storms that batter the holy city.
His living corpse is the ridge upon which the holy city is made: life blooming from ending, even amidst constant storms.
This is why we give praise to Irimar: she saw that the world was not yet ready for the Ending, that humans have learned and can learn to live in balance. Though the gods have awoken among us since then, we live still in fear of a new prophecy from Xiloec. We must hope we can prove worthy of protection again.
I made the picrew based off the image and tbh I think I did pretty good.
Though the first image definitely feels like a younger version of her, which is perfectly fine.
heck you know I should just post the whole story of the Ending that I wrote to submit to Artifexian, that feels rather like useful context for this whole thing… okay I’ll post that later. For now, have a small piece I made between The Forge and Cansoo, the main character (kinda, it’s more a shared cast) of this story!
Anyway Irimar is the one who really kicked off this whole thing. It’s her fault that the world still exists, so that’s pretty fun. After the whole debacle of the Ending, this forge often will jokingly grumble about the name they gave her.
A short angsty scene dealing with mortality:
“And if you believe it, the others are still called by their proper titles!” She rolled her eyes as her hands bent the dark metal smoothly back into place. An almost imperceptible sigh escaped from her before she moved toward the next piece. “I’m the only one who got an entirely new name from that whole debacle? Fuck, I mean - You prevent the prophesied end of the world one time…”
“Isn’t that something to be proud of though?” Cansoo put aside the small circuit they had been fiddling with before looking at Merese’s calloused hands making movements that were foreign to that body.
The Forge creased her brow for a second, examining one of the particularly damaged plates on the side of AEH.
“Is something wrong with H? I checked the diagnostics ports on that side and did a physical… do you see anything?
“No, no it’s not that.” The Forge grabbed the plate from AEH’s side, detaching it and setting about molding the metal.
“You’re right, that’s all. I should be proud. That would be… a normal reaction. It’s weird to see them again, the other Forges, but… I should be proud. Irimar was ecstatic, after all. She always said that they could use a bit of a shake-up.”
Cansoo gave a small smile at the mention of Irimar, but kept pressing. “Flake on me for saying so, but you don’t seem very proud.”
The Forge continued the rhythmic process of molding the plate with her hand, eyes focused on the piece. “Well I’m not saying I did a bad thing, I just didn’t -”
Cansoo scoffed.
“didn’t What? You saved. the world. You’r-”
The plate of armor hit the table and was suddenly wrenched completely out of shape again as The Forge’s hands pressed into and deformed its surface.
“I didn’t save shit. I sacrificed the world so that something could keep going. Do you know how many people died that day? The world before the Ending was actually something worth saving and I messed it all up!” Her hand hit the armor again with a clang, and it was no longer dark, but red-hot. The Forge turned to stare at Cansoo out of deep brown eyes that were not hers. “And you know what’s worse? They kept dying. It wasn’t just the first day. The sands came… The world I had, the world of Irimar, and Tzeela, and Cheni… all of their families… all of my families. I have… no idea if any of their, children? Grandchildren? Still remember me? D-do they keep the photos? Did they even live? That’s the thing, Cansoo. I’m going to see you die, and there’s nothing I can do about it, except I guess make you proud of me? Which for some fucking reason Merese decided I needed to care about because she cared about you but then I killed her. too.”
The Forge blinked and looked around, seemingly realizing that she had stood up, and collapsed back into the chair, pulling back a lock of Merese’s hair that had tumbled in front of her face.
Cansoo realized that they were crying.
“I really hope you get to see her, when you do… end. That’s what she always said would happen, right?”
The Forge looked up at Cansoo for a moment with a small hopeful smile. “Yeah. Merese said she’d wait for me. I just wish I could do more.”
Cansoo got up off the table, grabbing the circuits from where they were sitting and stepping toward AEH. “We can win. That has to be enough.”
Okay I think my new goal for the week (or the month, who knows- I do have adhd after all) is to make picrews for the entire cast.
Anyway, here we go here's the next character!
Name: Merese (she/her)
About: Merese was born with the gift of metal. She works as a mechanic in the warrens, where she has been learning from master smiths since she was four.
Later in the story, she will take on Cansoo (another main character) as her apprentice. She will be invited to join the church of the blackened arrow as one of their workers. During the initial process of vetting by the church, she touches a God Stone and becomes the reborn Forge Rebellious, making contact with Irimar.
