populations and peoples don’t just suddenly change at a border marker. cultures interact and blend.
there are usually a multitude of cultures in one place, and religions often have different factions within them
what are the differences between the upper and lower classes? is there a lower class? what system is used? fuedalism? capitalism? communism?
how does your society view and deal with poverty?
think about the diaspora. invent a large population of immigrants. why are they there? how long have they lived there? how does their culture now differentiate from their homeland?
languages. is there a global lingua franca (a language that people use to speak internationally. historically this has been latin and french, and right now, english)? if so, why That One? are there smaller lingua francas within different nations?
a large country will almost always have smaller languages within it. put some in. you don’t even have to name them, just have someone mention that they often have to translate for their parents
the lingua franca will usually be the language of the majority, but not always. if a particular ethnic group has control of the government, and therefor education, then that language will probably become more widespread. although sometimes there are “official languages” and “daily languages”
i could write a whole other post about languages honestly
what things do different cultures see as beautiful? is it eyes? hair? what parts of the body are considered scandalous. are the bodies of men and women seen differently? how do people feel about breasts?
how is makeup used? is it daily? is it ceremonial? do different colours and patterns have meanings or is purely for aesthetic? is it seen as gendered?
basically just don’t take everything in your culture as the “norm.” there is no norm. the world is weird.
learn about other cultures in our own world. please.
while im not sure if the mad god will appear to people other than lemming and mouse yet, one thing im certain of is the mad god appears differently to different people based on how they, like, think of the mad god?
initially the mad god mimics lemming’s appearance to ~mess with his brain~, after their first few encounters this changes. i’m kind of working on that but i think lemming is kind of like............ what does a human look like (mentally generates a hot dude)
the mad god appears to mouse kind of like a potential vague older version of herself. though she doesn’t realize it, her mad god also looks a hell of a lot like her father, the leader of the cult.
at some point the mad god shows lemming mouse’s version to fuck with him bc the mad god is like hey i kind of look like an older mouse huh? bc she’s going to become the vessel of the mad god? this is what you really think of her, isn’t it, even though you try to deny it
when lemming ultimately confronts mouse’s father he’s like. you people talk a lot about how the mad god doesn’t have just one face... the mad god can be any person at any time. but i’ve seen the mad god in my dreams, and, wouldn’t you know it? i’ve seen your face before
and i think if the mad god ever appeared to mouse’s father, they’d look the same
think i tend to talk/think a lot more abt lemming than mouse which isn’t quite fair since they’re supposed to be Equally Main Characters of order rodentia.
i guess i don’t have as solid a handle on her character? also don’t really know how to write children lol. but im gonna ramble abt her under the cut
but like mouse’s childhood pre-lemming is........... :( like deeply fucked up not in a normal way b/c this is what happens when your parents are part of a cult and you were brought into existence for the express purpose of becoming a vessel for the mad god so that the mad god could be killed.
she hasn’t necessarily been ‘mistreated’ as in like... her physical needs have been met, she’s a relatively healthy average human girl of her age. though that’s really not saying much when the people raising you do not.... like you are not a child to them. you are a tool. and even if they were not necessarily, like, ‘cruel,’ that’s an incredibly cruel way to think of a child, and it obviously had an effect on mouse.
bc mouse has never, like, been outside of this environment, this is. this is like her System of Thought. she doesn’t know this is wrong and she’ll comment on it in the most blase matter much to the horror of her new parents. and she’s eight! she’s a baby. she like does not even begin to have the ability to process how terrible all this is
mouse’s major influences have been a) the cult and b) the mad god visiting her in her dreams. neither of which are great! and i think the like, uh, obvious results of this on her personality are like. the cult primarily shaped her view of herself and her existence... like she views herself as essentially belonging to a greater purpose. she doesn’t even really view herself as a person as much as a purposeful creation? she hasn’t been told that purpose was to be killed. but honestly she can’t really process what death means, she’d accept being killed.
the mad god essentially is like. the Origin Of Mouse’s Few Social Skills. the mad god is the only person in mouse’s life pre-lemming who has actually socialized with her and treated her in a positive way as opposed to like, a ‘this is my duty’ kind of way. the mad god also stresses the kind of ‘greater purpose’ kind of thing.
interacting with the mad god has led mouse to develop a morbid sense of humor and generally oddly cheery and cheeky personality. like, she almost seems like a normal, if kinda silly eight year old sometimes? but there’s always something kind of off about the way she acts. and in certain situations you realize oh my god, what the fuck? she can be really surprisingly observant and insightful and she literally does not care about anything. which to be fair is kind of how kids are generally. she looks at you and figures out your deepest fear in an instant and she does not care about how it affects you.
the cult doesn’t like, Discourage mouse’s interactions with the mad god since like....... getting her to be the mad god’s vessel is kind of the point? i don’t think it’s ever been explicitly stated to her that the cult’s purpose is to kill the mad god/that they, uh, hate the mad god’s existence. but she’s kind of picked up on some like. I Don’t Think They Like My God-Parent.
(i think mouse might actually just straight up call/think of the mad god as her parent? she has no idea who her actual parents are)
while the mad god and the cult obviously have very different goals in mind for mouse neither of them are like..... hey you’re a kid, just be a kid, even if the mad god generally has uh, a lot ‘kinder’ intentions. since obviously the mad god does not want to be killed, and so does not want mouse to be killed. letting mouse be a kid is up to lemming and his friends.
mouse is initially like uh. ok with lemming because she’s like ‘my parent told me in a dream you’re ok :)’ but lemming genuinely cares about her (as do his friends!) and this makes this really deep impression on her that she can’t quite process at first because literally no one has actually cared about her as a kid before! and mouse ends up conflicted b/w this dawning realization that it is incredibly fucked up how she’s been treated and how she’s thought of her life, but at the same time she still does view it as, like, her duty to become the vessel of the mad god even though this will mean giving up the ability to be a normal child
realizing ive never actually like written/stated this but kaime and chrono are both 100% autistic. like not necessarily saying other lox characters aren’t. just that those two are like 100% inarguably in my head
other misc thoughts: kaime is like Has No Empathy while chrono is hyperempathetic. chrono likes 2 wear a lot of bracelets and fiddles with them all the time and he hates wearing sleeves. kaime is like If I Am Not Wearing Long Pants And Sleeves All The Time I Will Die.
i think kaime tends to be a lot more observant/has learned to pick up on a lot more like... social cues than chrono has. they’re still kind of like ‘idk what to do with these’ though. like chrono is like ‘idk what emotion i am supposed to express in this situation, aaa hold on i need to guess’ and kaime is like ‘ok i am supposed to respond with sadness, but like........... idc’
kaime i think can tend to come off as kind of Cold? but they’re really chill and generally nonjudgmental they just don’t tend to make much of an effort to socialize or see much point in it. chrono’s a lot more talkative and outgoing but a lot of what he says is not very comprehensible to people who are not lucian, and even then not all. (chrono voice) time magic is like, so like imagine a river, and time is the water, and you’re a rock in the water, except like, a sentient rock,
in a similar vein saivel and chrono are both inarguably trans, kaime is inarguably agender, diana’s gender is lesbian. doceo is genderfluid. not necessarily saying other lox characters are cis. i think abt aaron being trans but im like. undecided on it. fuse exists in a nebulous gender void
i feel like to some degree... kaime and saivel’s relationship parallels lucian and chrono’s relationship. they’ve been friends for a long time, and by the events of lox, they’re extremely close. they essentially only have each other to rely upon after dealing with traumatic events.
and i think in both cases it’s important that they kind of. like. branch out and meet new people (the rest of the lox crew), and spend some time apart from each other.
but while i think lucian and chrono stay extremely close (and like, get married) saivel and kaime became so close and like... tied up in each other that it became really unhealthy in a way lucian and chrono weren’t really? bc lucian and chrono still had other people to trust and to some extent their religion to guide them but kaime and saivel really only had each other.
like i think saivel kind of enables kaime’s loner tendencies and, like, they’re polite to people, but they don’t necessarily make friends very easily. and like in part this is because saivel is afraid they’ll leave her.
and kaime kind of enables saivel’s more self destructive tendencies by always, like, cleaning up after her but not necessarily confronting her about her actions. bc they have difficulty with confrontation and also because, in some sense, knowing that they are relied upon/can help her in a concrete way makes them feel better?
like, once things are worked out, they’re still good friends! but it’s in a significantly different way than from before the events of lox.
lyric is definitely aware on some level that lemming and sa-shin were a thing but he doesn’t. know 100% and he doesn’t know how to bring it up so he’s just like (nervously drinks tea)
i dont think he interacts with sa-shin that much? mostly they know each other bc lemming talks about both of them p often, they’re his good friends! lyric occasionally visits for business reasons.
it’s like the world’s weirdest love triangle that becomes a love.... quadrangle?
legend of xia is in large part about like… moving on from the past, i guess? and redemption/forgiveness? everyone’s dealing with their own tough backstories and forging on to a new, happier future together.
so it’s about like. reaching out and helping people and getting help from people to improve not only yourself but the people around you, instead of closing yourself off to try and avoid getting hurt
there’s also like Supposed to be order vs chaos and finding balance between the two but i always think of lox primarily as a found family story and forget that there’s a plot to it
order rodentia is more involved, thematically. like, i know what i’m doing more.
the most obvious theme is abt childhood and lemming trying to raise mouse the right way and let her have a childhood in the midst of all the messy plot that’s happening around her. which on a deeper level is abt growing up with trauma bc mouse’s previous guardians were waaaay shitty.
on another level, with lemming’s Three Romantic Interests, there’s more abt like. faith and idealism vs reality and What Is Reality, Really
and like… there’s also the idea of fate and stuff…. and perception… having a better idea of the themes in OR doesn’t mean i’m actually all that clear on them LMAO
huh. remembered my thoughts on lox were that the whole order vs chaos theme would be expressed thru views of different characters in lox... different members of the lox crew (+ minor characters and antagonists) having different approaches and views and fuse coming to his own conclusion abt it.
and obviously the greater order as a religion though im EH on religion being a big thematic thing in lox, it’s not my style
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