My fictional land

A place where I keep track of a continent I created for TTRPGs or writing.

[melioredam]

Welcome to Melioredam! A land of peace and honour!

this is a blog for me to share my writings and worldbuilding while i slowly build lore and structure for my fantasy setting that i'm building to live alongside my partner's worldbuilding. (anything related to something my partner initially came up with will be tagged as #eldritch lore)

[duckdotcom]

wearing sky-colored shoes to hide from the devil. earth colored hat to hide from god

[ancient-debris]

Iron breastplate to ward off fairies, Fishnet leggings to ward off cod.

[frightfullytreeish]

[solarchaotica]

[static-mutt-left-deactivated202]

You're evil and you know it

[communismlives]

good thing they're hidden from god and the devil

[maddiebiscuits]

huuuughhhhh yahoo selling scraped data from tumblr to AI sloo probably uughhhwaaauuwghhhhhh

[maddiebiscuits]

Tumblr user? Here's what to know about Tumblr selling your data to OpenAI and MidJourney

Parent company Automattic will reportedly sell Tumblr content to OpenAI and MidJourney for training data. Here's how you can opt out.

bwwaaaughhhhhhgggh enshittification continues

[the-barn-rat]

this is what you're looking for to opt out!!!

[lover-of-mine]

I'm gonna recirculate this again because I had to opt out for the 4th time. It seems like every time there's a major update on the site, they default this back.

[hyperbali]

You have to do this individually for every single blog if you have multiple, btw. Check your blog settings! Fastest way to do this is on a browser.

[elbiotipo]

👀

[elbiotipo]

👀👀👀

[sapphirebluephoenix]

[Image Transcripts]

"People in the imperial core don't realize how much of the products in our lives are directly there because of colonialism. so they recreate that and then you have the weird implications of fantasy colonialism. You can say 'why does it matter for my fantasy Europe to have coffee' because you don't know why your real life Europe has coffee. And that these facts do actually have a death toll to them."

"The coffee example in particular its very interesting. Bc it'd be quite easy to justify having coffee in a fantasy story that's set in a tropical region. Or in a kingdom that trades with a tropical region or whatever. But then you realize that never happens because. sff writers NEVER set their stories in tropical weathers. I can count on one hand the fantasy worlds where there are prosperous kingdoms in tropical regions. And that opens the can of worms of: why is the default fantasy setting a temperate forest of pine and oak trees. Or a snowy mountainous landscape. While deserts and jungles are always dangerous exotic foreign lands."

[End Transcripts]

[shininginspace]

I’m genuinely confused, do you mean having large amounts of coffee present? Coffee comes from Ethiopia, and was domesticated in Yemen. It spread from Yemen to Europe by way of trade and cultural exchange at the end of the late Middle Ages/beginning of the early modern period.

I am not an expert by any means, so please chime in to expand on this if you know more, but what I’ve read indicates coffee was originally a normal trade item, not a product of conquest. So just having coffee present isn’t a sign of European colonialism from a historical perspective. Having large amounts available is a completely different story, however.

History of coffee - Wikipedia

History of coffee - Wikipedia

Approximately 200 years after coffee reached Europe, Europeans took coffee and forced enslaved and colonized peoples in the Caribbean to cultivate it. They then began to do the same in other tropical colonies. Coffee is grown in most tropical locations due to colonialism, and historically was available in Europe from existing trade networks with Yemen.

So to recap, coffee was historically cultivated by Yemen, who traded it with Ethiopians and people living it Saudi Arabia. It spread from Saudi Arabia to the Levant and Turkey. Turkey was a part of the Ottoman Empire, which covered south Eastern Europe so coffee was available there too. Venetian traders then spread it to more western regions and it became popular throughout Europe.

Thinking about it, this post was referencing Europeans forcing colonized people to cultivate coffee in tropical plantations. Which took place in the last 2.5 centuries so Europeans could have large amounts of profit and coffee available. As coffee isn’t native to the vast majority of tropical areas, people writing stories set in tropical settings should consider if they want to include coffee as a product of colonization, or to deliberately include or exclude it as a naturally occurring plant.

If writing from a historical perspective, there should be coffee available in a very late Medieval European setting, as a (relatively costly) trade good. If someone is making a historical story set in a tropical area in prior to the mid 1700s there shouldn’t be coffee present unless it’s Ethiopia or Yemen. As an aside, it is a very similar story with sugar and I highly encourage everyone to look up about that too.

[elbiotipo]

It's not necessarily "if there's coffee, there must be colonialism". You are quite right that Italians in early modern times did drink coffee without invading and colonizing Ethiopia or Arabia. Current coffee production is a product of imperialism and colonialism, but that also could have gone in different ways.

It's about the fact that Ethiopia and Arabia EXIST. That coffee does not grow in Europe, but comes from elsewhere. Same with chocolate, same with the foodstuffs of the Americas like potatoes, tomatoes and maize. Those things come from a different cultural context, and when they appear in a pseudo-medieval pseudo-european fantasy setting without explanation, it implies that the places and peoples associated to those things don't exist. Which is poor worldbuilding because it results in a more boring, stale story, but it also reflects eurocentric biases in how people see the world.

They want the princess to eat chocolate and wear silk, but they don't want to talk about where the chocolate comes from and why silk was such a luxury item (because you had to bring it all the way from China). It results in a narrower, poorer setting, and paying attention to this stuff also helps you pay attention to things in real life.

[probablybadrpgideas]

Merfolk have both lungs and gills, but while they breathe normally and spontaneously underwater, on land breathing is a voluntary and conscious effort.

­

[melioredam]

A collection of scrolls written by various scholars throughout the land of Meli. Circa 3,000 BPE (Before Peace Era)

(Archivist note: due to recurring themes within these scrolls, the translations have been abridged to prevent redundancies.) *content warnings in tags*

One hundred days of the dead remaining stubbornly alive, their moans of agony echo through the streets. One hundred days and two since the last sighting of the God Thanamortiel. Meanwhile, the forests have been dying; animals disappearing, guardians and spirits have left or died, even the grass has withered, wild mint is no more. The Fae have all left for home, no longer wishing for diplomacy with our peoples. One hundred and five days since Baccernna fell to his death before his followers in Purtor and Nature has died with him, Its allies abandoning us as we have failed. Crops have failed, livestock have died, if the Gods or the War don't kill us, the famine will. But even Death has abandoned us when Her love was killed by our hubris.

The once kind orc traders have been twisted, their verdant skin grows pallid and marred as stone, the death of balance has brought a disease to the gentle giants that shared their hunts and helped us build our great cities. This cursed war has tainted every good in this land and we are to blame. Unending for two thousand years and wee have only been made worse. The End is nigh and we shall either not survive or be cursed in undeath for all time. There is no escape. May what Gods remain hear our pleas and forgive our sins lest we suffer for eternity in undead agony.

[sagethefae]

Welp, my partner lost his job so uh...

COMMISSIONS OPEN!!

I can do:

PINUPS

SMUT

PORTRAITS

SCENERY

PET PORTRAITS

CALLIGRAPHY

ITEM IMAGES (like for games)

PRICES (CAD):

250$ for large portraits (+50$ per added subject)

150$ for bust portraits (+50$ per added subject)

150$ for pet portraits (+50 per added subject)

30$ for item images

10$ per word for calligraphy

70$ for scenery (+50 per added subject)

[seth-whumps]

characters raised to be tools

Weapons. Trained, tested, forged in steel and fire. Failure is an inevitability that ends in death. Pain should not be felt--it should be recognized, familiar, and inconsequential

Martyrs. In the form of servants and princes, of leaders and underdogs. If blood is necessary, the martyr will lift their hands and offer it all

Shields. Like tempering a sword, but only to bear and not to lash out. Wounds are medals--not symbols of pride, but symbols of worth. A pretty shield is useless; scars mean a job well done

Experiments. Raised on the cold comfort of a lab table. Restraints are only necessary when they're not in their right mind. Is it honorable, to be twisted beyond recognition? Or is it just a necessary evil?

Monsters. Cruelty, caution, and regarding one as a creature beyond reasonable thought is tempering in its own right. But if you keep a leash at the right length, perhaps the massecre won't reach you. One can hope.

Idols. Pretty face, pretty name, pretty hands around their shoulders and throat. There to seduce, manipulate, force any feeling to come to the surface and twist it to their favor. Any genuinity stays locked behind the guilded cage that surrounds their pretty little heart

Trophies. Status and wealth and the traditions that keep someone at their heels, on their knees, to display and serve and decorate one's ballroom.

Sacrifices. Drenched in honorable clothes, prepared and adored and cleansed. The gift of hope at the cost of one's life. Is it taken with no fight? How can you escape the ropes you were born in?

[oldpaintings]

Temple of Peace by Arild Rosenkrantz (Danish, 1870–1964)

[nilovalentine]

in this fantasy world, theres no homophobia or sexism! but the governments are still patriarchal monarchies and everyone still adheres to the standard nuclear family, two things that have absolutely no relation to homophobia and sexism whatsoever

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

In this fantasy world, there's gender equality and prostitution is holy! But people are somehow surprised if someone in a position of power turns out to be a woman, and "whore" is a common insult.

[monkey-shines-shenanigans-deact]

This confused the shit outta me

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Many writers will try to make a world where common forms of bigotry don't exist, but not actually think about what that would do to the world, so all they end up doing is revealing their own biases and what symptoms of bigotry and oppression they think are just the natural way of the world. "There's no sexism in this world!" but 90% of the background workers are men with wives at home and being ruled by a queen instead of a king is seen as a bit of a novelty and when the lady knight takes her armour off people are surprised that she's not a man. "There's no homophobia in this world!" but gruff soldiers bully other soldiers by implying that they have boyfriends instead of girlfriends. "This post-scarcity society has no concept of currency!" and the economy is very clearly structured in a way that wouldn't be possible without currency. Social and political structures that are built and heavily reinforced by sexism, racism, heteronormativity and amatanormativity stand strong as a sort of default background in worlds that claim not to have those things.

Sometimes a piece of work will make a really big deal about not having specific prejudices and make an entire story about one special token group of people that's so super cool and living naturally in their prejudice-free world and completely ignore the fact that making them some weird novelty is the problem. My favourite example of this is in Locke Lamora, where life at sea is very gender egalitarian and in fact it's bad luck to set sail on any vessel that doesn't have both men and women in the crew, where there are multiple female captains and on-board sexual relationships are completely normal, and yet somehow there's only one Badarse Middle Aged Mother Captain with her kids on board the ship, to the point where other captains gossip about how weird it is that she has kids and new crew need to be informed that there are kids and they need to be protected. Even though in the world as depicted that should be like. Every single ship.

Sometimes the problem is more general, the whole world saturated with signs of sexism or racism or whatever despite ostensibly being free of them, demonstrating that the author doesn't think of those things as being caused by bigotry, but as just part of the neutral way that the world is by default. If you're going to make these drastic changes, you have to do the homework. You have to think about what they would actually mean, what effect they would have. You can't just windex the surface of the story.

[ghouljams]

Hope this isn’t weird but I struggle a lot with writing horror. I’m trying to take a crack at it but I don’t think I’m writing it as scary and well… horrific as it should be. Is there any genre that you struggle with as well? I’m watching YouTube to listen to other authors but it’s just not clicking for me. I can see the scene in my head but writing it is like

It’s night. He chased. He had knife. She saw, she screamed and ran. Scary laugh.

I wish I could just beam the scene from my head onto my screen. Any tips in general would be extremely appreciated!!!! Maybe it’s my verbs and adjectives that are off… fuck if I know.

My best tip for writing horror is this "Get rid of the 'and then' in your head"

This goes for all genre writing but is something I see a lot of people struggle with in horror specifically. When you're writing a scene you know the progression of events, so the struggle is in the "how." As in how are you going to make those events seamlessly blend together? Every effect should have a cause.

It's night. He chased. He had a knife. She saw, she screamed and ran. Scary laugh.

How do you make all of that blend? How do you get rid of the "and then?" My go-to is diving into descriptors. Hard. I mean over describe everything you can think of and then clean it up in editing.

The night is dark and cold, a mist is starting to settle over the pavement. Jacket weather, but she'd been hoping that taking the dog out would be quick. The air nips at her exposed skin and she shivers.

Oooooh, aaaaaaah, atmosphere and perhaps a lead into the building suspense?

She paces the block with her dog, one arm tight across her chest to try and keep the chill at bay. The dog turns the corner at the end of the street a fifth time without peeing. She eyes her building's front door longingly before letting her gaze dart down the alley. Afraid of the darkness the broken streetlight provides, she's formed a nasty habit of looking where she shouldn't. A flame bursts through the dark to light a cigarette, one of her neighbors out for their last smoke before bed. She hopes.

Just like build and build and build. Why does she notice the man with the knife? What started the chase? Why is she out at night in the first place? Everything should feel like it has a place in the story and not just because it happens next. We've introduced a fear, we've established why our woman is out alone, maybe the reader will assume she's in a dangerous part of the city from just a few dropped words (her building's front door, the alley, broken streetlights) and that will give reason to suspect that the person in the alley could be dangerous.

You know why you would be afraid in the scene, so put your fear and emotions out there.

[probablybadrpgideas]

Someone in a casino has been cheating by using loaded dice. Any time this character has to roll for anything the DM uses actual loaded dice for the characters rolls. The players would need to get their dice away from them in game to have the DM uses actually fair dice.

­Ok I like this idea.

Their ally is someone who's doing identity fraud and you need to find their real identity to fight against their actual stats rather than their doctored ones.

[ilium-ilia]

With everything going around these days about generative AI (such as c.ai in fan settings, and chatgpt for everything else) I've decided to put together some banners for creators to put with their works if they like. Here are the ones I have so far:

(LET THE MACHINE STARVE - DO NOT FEED AI MY WORKS)

(KEEP ART HUMAN - DEATH TO AI)

(THIS WAS MADE BY A HUMAN - KEEP IT THAT WAY)

(NEURONS NOT WIRES - DEATH TO AI)

(HUMAN MADE HUMAN LOVED - DEATH TO AI)

(SAY NO TO GENERATIVE AI - DEATH TO CONSUMERISM)

(NEW THOUGHTS ARE HUMAN MADE - DEATH TO GENERATIVE AI)

(MADE WITH HEART NOT A CPU - DEATH TO AI)

Feel free to use these! I just ask that you reblog this post if you do, and tag me for credit somewhere on your blog (:

I've tried to pick a color that looked legible on both light and dark backgrounds, but feel free to ask for other colors (via askbox) if you're needing something else and I'll try to get to it!

edit: some other versions i had made as well but wasn't sure how easier they were to see, so I put them beneath the larger versions!

[ghouljams]

do you have recommendations for decent horror movies or stories for someone who's never really watched or read horror bc of anxiety?

I'm a beginner game master and I know I want to run Call of Cthulhu bc it's my favourite system, unfortunately it's a horror game, I also want to try my hand at a horror campaign bc a lot of the d&d books my partner and I have are horror and while I've read some lovecraft, and have found myself enjoying some cosmic horror stuff (mainly Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities series on netflix and Pan's Labyrinth) I've watched Rocky Picture, and the more recent Scream movie (which gave me a nightmare bc of some mild trauma but it was Halloween and my roommate really wanted to watch a proper horror movie).

I've seen you post about horror movies and games and so I was wondering, what got you into horror? what would you recommend someone do to try and better understand the horror genre so they can try and actually give their players that experience? bc I'm the only one in my friend group that doesn't like watching horror, everything I've watched was bc the rest of the group agreed to it and basically gentle parented me into sitting through it and let me hold them. Or bc my partner was watching a del toro work while I was in the room and I got curious and asked to watch with him.

I spent most of my life absolutely terrified of horror movies. I think, honestly, that the switch flipped when I started learning more about horror as a genre and really diving in to why horror as a genre worked, and what it (typically) did/avoided in order to make you scared. Horror is really interesting as a genre because so many stories spring from the fears that permeate the social zeitgeist, so I go into a lot of horror movies trying to find what they're saying about our current culture.

Slasher movies were big in the 80s-90s because there was a large social push towards "stranger danger" in the wake of serial killers becoming media sensations.

Zombie movies and home invasion films become big post 9/11 in the USA because they represent a fear of the "other", people who are almost like you but different, violent. My dad will go on for hours about how zombie movies 9 times out of 10 will at their core be anti-immigrant, and tbh he's kind of right.

Anyway, that's what helped me. Also reading horror movie plots before I watched the movie, it made it really easy to anticipate story beats and if I know loosely what was going to happen I wasn't scared when it did happen.

These are some good beginner friendly horror movies. Some of them are a little older so they're minimal gore, and the gore they have is campy. They're also ones that I don't find particularly scary, but definitely can get your blood pumping.

thriller: Disturbia, Rear Window, The Shining

slashers: original Halloween, trick 'r treat, original Black Christmas

Lovecraftian/cosmic horror: Dave built a Maze, The Thing, Skinamarink(<- this movie sucked but I have been thinking about it for months, not scary but unsettling and confusing)

As for running a horror campaign, I was running a cosmic horror campaign for one of my dnd groups and I will say most of the horror is just from keeping them in the dark. The things you describe need to be the ones that are immediately apparent, pain, fear, make wisdom checks harder, make them make random constitution checks, make them suspect everything until they're arguing over whether or not to even eat. Introduce a fish with human teeth and then never mention it again, they will be asking about it for months. Obfuscate EVERYTHING and then suddenly give them so much information that they can't piece it together. Mix up timelines. Introduce an npc and then disappear them the next session. Offhandedly mention a fringe religious group and then pivot to something else.

Give one of the gay players a cursed sword that makes them dream about horrible sexy women/men who want to eat them and watch them struggle with whether or not to throw it in the ocean. Immediately punish them for getting rid of it, continue the nightmares. Give everyone the same answer on a perception check no matter what they roll, really pisses them off but it's great for confusing your players.

idk just read some stuff about the psychology of horror and suddenly you'll know all their tricks so you won't be surprised when they try to use them.

Also literally any of the conjuring movies but specifically "the devil made me do it" are so fucking stupid and absurd especially knowing that the husband/wife duo were literally keeping girls in their basement and they're trying to talk about how they're banishing evil, ok freaks... You really just gotta think about "wow this is a stupid fucking situation for these people to be in" and suddenly things aren't scary.

[melioredam]

Introducing a new Mechanicus: The Greeting Model!

This Automaton is still rolling out, having just been developed in the past 10 years. One such examples is Unit R0Z4! One of our earliest successful models. With a round frame and gentle colours, the Unit makes people feel welcomed and safe, a screen on the upper half of the face makes the Mechanicus more expressive, lending it a friendly appearance. With its chipper voice box, Unit R0Z4 can give directions and accurate information like which inns have available rooms or which restaurants have tables available with the type of food desired by the guests.

This model is now on the test run stage, with different variations being tried out in major cities! If you see a Greeting Unit, make sure to leave a review so our developers know what the public wants.

Thank you

[probablybadrpgideas]

Sorcerer bbeg who subtle casts time stop mid monologue.

The party is trying to resist the allure of his moral justifications. And suddenly there's fire everywhere, and the bad guy is gone. They have to roll a dex save at disadvantage, and then initiative. Meanwhile sorcerer McGee is greater invisible, and covered in as many buffs as 2d4+1 rounds could get him.

Actually, nevermind. This is cruel. No one's players deserve this...

­

[melioredam]

What if there was a magical virus or disease that turns creatures into monsters.

So...I'm watching The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for the first time. And I'm reminded of posts I used to see about orcs and goblins.

Anyway, point is, I've been thinking about maybe rather than "innately violent" and "naturally cruel and crude" instead there's a virus that removes goodness from a creature's soul.

Elves become cruel, worshipping dark gods and demons.

Humans get an extended life, their skin turns ashy, they start to relish in cruelty.

And Orcs...those gentle green giants, known for their vibrant culture and rhythmic music. Their hearts harden, they care only for war, they feast on the flesh of the gentle.

This virus can be passed down genetically, no one knows the cause or how it spreads. Doctors struggle to research it since most times the body must be burned to avoid spread and live subjects tend to fight or bite the researchers. Mechanical researchers are being developed, we're hoping they can help us understand this disease more thoroughly.