1. What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything?
2. Do they have any titles? How did they get them?
3. Did they have a good childhood? What are fond memories they have of it? What’s a bad memory?
4. What is their relationship with their parents? What’s a good and bad memory with them? Did they know both parents?
5. Do they have any siblings? What’s their names? What is their relationship with them? Has their relationship changed since they were kids to adults?
6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate?
7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood?
8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals?
9. Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals?
10. Do they like children? Do children like them? Do they have or want any children? What would they be like as a parent? Or as a godparent/babysitter/ect?
11. Do they have any special diet requirements? Are they a vegetarian? Vegan? Have any allergies?
12. What is their favourite food?
13. What is their least favourite food?
14. Do they have any specific memories of food/a restaurant/meal?
15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?
16. Do they collect anything? What do they do with it? Where do they keep it?
17. Do they like to take photos? What do they like to take photos of? Selfies? What do they do with their photos?
18. What’s their favourite genre of: books, music, tv shows, films, video games and anything else
19. What’s their least favourite genres?
20. Do they like musicals? Music in general? What do they do when they’re favourite song comes?
21. Do they have a temper? Are they patient? What are they like when they do lose their temper?
22. What are their favourite insults to use? What do they insult people for? Or do they prefer to bitch behind someone’s back?
23. Do they have a good memory? Short term or long term? Are they good with names? Or faces?
24. What is their sleeping pattern like? Do they snore? What do they like to sleep on? A soft or hard mattress?
25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves?
26. How do they act when they’re happy? Do they sing? Dance? Hum? Or do they hide their emotions?
27. What makes them sad? Do they cry regularly? Do they cry openly or hide it? What are they like they are sad?
28. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared?
29. What do they do when they find out someone else’s fear? Do they tease them? Or get very over protective?
30. Do they exercise? Regularly? Or only when forced? What do they act like pre-work out and post-work out?
31. Do they drink? What are they like drunk? What are they like hungover? How do they act when other people are drunk or hungover? Kind or teasing?
32. What do they dress like? What sorta shops do they buy clothes from? Do they wear the fashion that they like? What do they wear to sleep? Do they wear makeup? What’s their hair like?
33. What underwear do they wear? Boxers or briefs? Lacey? Comfy granny panties?
34. What is their body type? How tall are they? Do they like their body?
35. What’s their guilty pleasure? What is their totally unguilty pleasure?
36. What are they good at? What hobbies do they like? Can they sing?
37. Do they like to read? Are they a fast or slow reader? Do they like poetry? Fictional or non fiction?
38. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had?
39. Do they like letters? Or prefer emails/messaging?
40. Do they like energy drinks? Coffee? Sugary food? Or can they naturally stay awake and alert?
41. What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship?
42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition?
43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people?
44. What is their favourite season? Type of weather? Are they good in the cold or the heat? What weather do they complain in the most?
45. How do other people see them? Is it similar to how they see themselves?
46. Do they make a good first impression? Does their first impression reflect them accurately? How do they introduce themselves?
47. How do they act in a formal occasion? What do they think of black tie wear? Do they enjoy fancy parties and love to chit chat or loathe the whole event?
48. Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend?
49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?
50. If they could only take one bag of stuff somewhere with them: what would they pack? What do they consider their essentials?
Sometimes worldbuilding is “this is how the dread armies are affecting agricultural output in this region, and the changing influence of the different gods as farmers see their crops collapse, and the erosion caused by fewer crops is turning the river silty and hard to navigate, causing difficulties in trade that would have alleviated the effects of the famine"
And sometimes worldbuilding is “the guards here are mostly lightning wizards because imagine how fucking sick it would be to have a bunch of guards shooting lighting down from the battlements. Badass.”
*Tini'kaa are nocturnal, and can see fewer colors than humans can. *Each spellcaster has a magical "signature", which is difficult to hide and reveals their elemental alignments. *Weniket have very good senses of smell! *Familiars can, in fact, change their forms or exception over time. It isn't a conscious choice, but the result of their bonded person growing and changing. *The "common" language used to communicate across the species is usually Isagian, Zenan, or Kefkan.
The world I am building is a sci-fi/fantasy setting, with slight emphasis on the fantasy elements. Spaceships, science, and magic all coexist in this setting.
I focus on a set of elementally-themed species, their cultures and societies, and their native planets. The basic elements are water, earth, fire, air, and nature. Each basic element has a corresponding sentient species.
Isagians are the water species. They have two forms, a bipedal humanoid form and a quadrupedal otter-like form. They are omnivorous and diurnal. They are native to the planet Isaga.
Tinikaa are the earth species. They are reptilian, long and lithe, and have six limbs (a set of legs, a set of arms, and a set of limbs that can function well for either). They are carnivorous and nocturnal. They are native to the planet Zena, cohabiting the planet with the Zenans.
Kefkans are the fire species. I’ve focused on them the least so far, so I don’t have a solid design yet... but I’m thinking of something reptillian, almost raptor-like perhaps. They are native to the planet Kefka (name may change).
Weniket are the air species. They are basically four-foot-tall sentient birds. They are herbivorous and diurnal. They are native to the planet Arika.
Zenans are the nature species. They are mammalian, bipedal and have fur over most of their bodies with plants (typically moss or vines) that grow in their fur and hair. They are omnivorous and diurnal. They are native to the planet Zena, and the dominant species there.
Shynae is my oldest character, and I love her to death. But she started out... very different.
For starters, she was initially what I can now only call a mild tsuundere (I didn’t know of the trope at that time).
More importantly, Shynae also initially started out as Dragony, a fan Pokemon branching off of the Dratini line. Her original backstory was that she once was a trainer’s pokemon, but then got separated in a botched kidnapping attempt by Team Rocket members. She then found her way to a group of various water pokemon and hung out with them, angry and hurt at the apparent abandonment by her beloved trainer.
For context, I created Shynae when I was ten (I am currently in my early twenties), and much more into Pokemon.
This roleplay was set in a world where all the Nintendo franchises peacefully and obliviously coexisted. And then Link (from LoZ, specifically OoT) shipwrecked on Dragony’s shore. She latched onto him, terribly lonely for humanoid companionship, and guided him into becoming a Pokemon trainer so he could earn enough money to fix his ship. This took three years (and no, I am not sure why that is the amount of time we decided on). She then went with Link back to Hyrule, because he was her only friend and she had nobody and nothing else.
Unfortunately time worked differently across the worlds (for drama), and they arrived in Hyrule to find that Ganondorf took over and 300 years had passed there. They then had a long adventure during which Dragony evolved into Dragoness, realized she had a massive crush on Link, made many new friends, and had various adventures along the way. This finally ended with Link confronting Ganondorf and both dying in the fight. (I remember this final conflict was roleplayed in a car while we were on some sort of road trip, and that Link’s roleplayer had to tell us to stop healing Link by lobbing Pokemon healing potions at him because Link was supposed to die in the conflict, and we hadn’t caught on to this on our own. YES, REALLY, THE OTHER CHARACTERS WERE LOBBING POKEMON POTIONS AT LINK.)
Afterwards, she puttered around Hyrule and a few of the other surrounding lands, temporarily staying with the friends she made and wandering about because she had nothing better to do with herself and no real home to return to. Somewhere along the line, Dragoness fell into a magic portal (yes, really) and was transformed into a humanoid version of herself (yes, really). This transformation was inspired by a drawing that one of my fellow roleplayers made. We continued on in this vein for a couple years, both in and out of the RP.
Before I continue, I would like to confirm that yes, all of what I just typed is really what we did. My description above is actually just the most bare-bones basic outline of what happened, omitting a whole bunch of other characters and shorter sub-arcs and scenarios that happened along the way. It all seems so silly now, and kinda embarrassing, and I love it because of how much it REEKS of our young child minds.
Anyways, at about this time, I was asked to play a different game where you create your own planet and stuff. And while working on this my preteen brain realized “what if there was actually a whole species of people like Dragoness’ humanoid form? Woudn’t that be so cool???” And then after a while I realized all the potential implications this would have, retroactively, for Dragoness as a character. And I loved it. So while that game never really went anywhere, never even really got started, it got me started me on my worldbuilding.
Around this time is when Dragoness, as she is today, first started to develop. But this post got very long, so more on this in a later post.
Ean is an interesting character in part because he really was originally only made to be Shynae’s “off-screen” boyfriend. He only existed as a means to prove to my then rp-partners that Shynae was over her crush on another character (I’m pretty sure they didn’t buy it), and because when I was younger on some level I thought that happy endings meant finding (heterosexual) love and eventually having kids.
In retrospect, both of the above reasons to create a character really are a disservice to the character being created. And I kind of regret the social factors that led to such heteronormativity in my wonderfully gay little child self. But I don’t regret that Ean exists because of these factors. In fact, I’ve given him further development and now I find I am glad he exists! I’ve grown fond of him.
The biggest strides towards fleshing him out as a character are mostly recent, and he is still very focused on Shynae. But I am no longer bothered with this because that is who he is as a person. He is so focused on Shynae because he is smitten, and sometimes that is how love makes people. And some people really do center their lives around others a lot anyways (whether this is healthy or not is another matter).
It’s also ok to me because he’s gained many more traits outside of this relationship. He’s polite, tactful, knowledgeable, superstitious, religious, a romantic, unabashedly kind, vain, and very concerned with his image to the point he often exploits social custom to make himself look good. He’s gained an identity and is now really his own character.
One nuance I forgot to mention bout familiars: if the caster form’s species has multiple forms, then the familiar likewise has all those forms as their “one” caster form. This is NOT an exception to the rules that govern familiars.
Also, if for whatever reason, a caster does NOT identify as their bodily species, then their familiar will likely be the species they identify as in the caster form.
Character Info: Gender, Sexual & Romantic Orientation
Shynae is female (she/her). She is biromantic and demisexual. She isn’t aware of these terms at all though, and is uncomfortable with sexuality in general. Has been dating Ean for several years now.
Basilisk is female (she/her). She is aromantic and probably bisexual. She does know some of these terms, but doesn’t really care about terminology enough to identify with them.
Onyx is genderfluid (she/her or he/him, depending on current gender identity, or they/their/them when speaking generally). You can usually tell which pronouns are currently the right ones based on how Onyx is dressed/presenting. They are aromantic and asexual. They do know and identify by these terms.
Ean is male (he/his). He is heterosexual, and potentially biromantic. He is vaguely aware of this terminology, but has never really considered which terms fit him. He’s head-over-heels in love with Shynae, and has been dating her for several years.
Aellin is male (he/his). I'm not really sure yet what his sexual orientation is, or his romantic orientation. At one point he had some sort of interest in Ean, but it’s very hard to tell if it was romantic or sexual attraction, if it was even either.
I’ve yet to list all of my characters in one place on this blog, so I might as well change that. My characters are Shynae, Basilisk, Onyx, Ean, and Aellin.
I do have a few others, but most of them have fallen out of use or were never as well developed, so I probably won’t mention them again. Unless they become relevant or someone asks about them, perhaps.
I believe I mentioned in a previous post that one of my characters, Onyx, is a familiar. But I made the mistake of never explaining what exactly that means. Which is a major problem, because the fact that Onyx is a familiar is REALLY important to their character! So I will remedy that now.
Familiars are a species of sentient magical creature. They come into being in one of two ways, either conjured into existence by an advanced spellcaster or born to already-existing familiars. Their species is defined by an inherently symbiotic nature and connection to a specific individual (1), having multiple forms (2), and a set of natural principals pertaining to their connection (3).
It is more complex than that, but those are the basics! If you want a more thorough explanation of any of these, I’ve put it under the cut because it is really long.
If anybody wants examples or needs clarification, ask and you shall receive!
(1) Each familiar is magically connected to another sentient, non-familiar person. I usually refer to this person as a caster (as in spellcaster, although this can be misleading since this person is not necessarily the person who conjured the familiar, or the familiar might have been born instead of conjured). Alternate terms include master, maker, mage, and bonded, among others. Which term a familiar-caster pair uses depends on the nature of their relationship, as well as how the caster’s society views familiars.
This connection includes something akin to telepathy or psychic empathy. A familiar knows the memories of their caster as easily as if they were their own. They also know the current emotional state/thoughts of their caster, and some familiar-caster pairs even have a two-way telepathic connection. For some familiars, this connection is experienced as “just knowing” these things, as if by intuition. For others, it is more akin to a combination mental search engine/walkie talkie. And for others it is something in between! It varies across familiar-caster pairs.
While familiars are inherently tied to their caster in this way, they are separate individuals. They have their own thoughts, beliefs, values, and memories. They are not just a mental copy or extension of the caster.
(2) Familiars have multiple forms, usually two. A familiar can transform at will and with no difficulty. Each form is equally that familiar’s body, and they experience no disorientation from transforming between them. Except in the process of transformation, they can only be in one form at a time.
One form is the same species as their caster, a.k.a. the caster form. It is important to note that the caster form is not identical to the caster in physical appearance, and may differ in sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and race.
The other form is an animal form. It is often an animal that the caster knows of and is somewhat (pardon the pun) familiar with. For example, the familiar of a human caster in a large north-american city would likely have something such as a cat, dog, or pigeon form, and would be unlikely to have an elephant form or a whale form.
Sex, gender, and sexual orientation are consistent across forms.
(3) This set of principals is as follows:
Each familiar has only one caster, and each caster has only one familiar.*
A familiar has a mental connection with their caster.
The familiar can’t disable the mental connection.*
The caster can’t disable the mental connection.
The familiar dies when the caster dies.*
The familiar has two forms, a caster form and a human form.*
The relationship between a familiar-caster pair is meaningful, as are some of the familiar’s traits/characteristics, since a familiar acts as both a metaphorical mirror and a person holding up said mirror for their caster. (I find that this isn’t always obvious, and can even be fairly subtle, abstract or complex. But it should always feel right and make sense to the RPer/writer. Just keep in mind that while this is true, the familiar is still a separate person than their caster!)
Each familiar has one relatively unique exception to these principals.* (Each principal that can have an exception is marked with an asterisk.)
Wow, this blog has been sitting idle for a long time now.
So long in fact, it would be COVERED in dust and cobwebs if it were a physical thing. Which is a shame, really, because this blog is about something super important to me- my characters and world building!
So I am revamping this blog! Hopefully this means I’ll post more stuff on it. At the very least, I’ll be doing a LOT of revising previous world-building. There is a lot of stuff that has changed, that may be a little less than PC, or that I’ve thought of since. Some of the new stuff is really cool in my opinion.
Another change, the focus of this blog is going to shift a bit. World building info will continue, but I will now also include analysis/thoughts on my characters, and (if any chances arise) actual RPing with them!
I’m not sure whether I should delete the older/inaccurate posts, or keep them for prosperity. Especially since I’m kind of embarrassed about some of them. If anyone has anything to say on that matter please feel free to chime in. Any thoughts?
The Elemental Pantheon is the pantheon of the main religion on the various sister planets. It consists of 6 gods; Batet, Tinit, Khefkek, Shaas, Wenin, and Celias. Each is associated with an element. I will describe the pantheon here as they are widely understood by those of the faith.
Batet ("bah-tet") is the god of nature/life, and younger twin to Tinit. His/her name is the sound of footsteps and the padding of paws. He/she is always equally both male and female. (S)he is the one of fur and fern, the balanced one, the great chimera, and an entity of all life and death at once. His/her skin is made of the hides of all animals, and (s)he has antlers and horns. Flowers, branches, fruit and leaves always grow from his/her hair, then wither and die. (S)he is the god who created all life-forms in the universe. (S)he is also associated with birth/fertility, motherhood, death, healing, transformation, balance, and the cycles through which all life flows. (S)he is the patron god of the Zenans.
Tinit ("ti-nit") is the god of earth, and the older twin to Batet. Tinit is sexless. They are the sturdy one, the steady one, the maker of things and the great crafter. They crafted the moon as a prosthetic eye for Wenin. Their body is stone and dirt, their eyes gems and their bones steel. Their name is the sound of metal clashing. They are also associated with strength, durability, dependability, stability, power, and gradual change/trasnformation. They are the patron of the Tini'kaa.
Khefkek ("kef-kek") is the god of fire. His true name is always shifting, the sounds of coals crackling and wood burning. He is the one of passion and flame, the maker of the sun. He crafted the sun as a prosthetic eye for Wenin. He is the one who burns, and the one who incites true life beyond that which Batet can give. His body is a burst of flame, and his eyes the brightest and hottest of sparks. He is also associated with passion of all kinds, matters of the heart, emotion, destruction, impulsive action, and heat. He is the patron of the Kefkans.
Shaas ("shahs") is the goddess of water. She is the lady of the ocean, the crafter of raindrops, the painter of dew, the great revitalizer. Her name is the sound of the waves themselves as they wash upon the shore, and the sound of rivers rushing and raindrops falling. She sits outside the mortal realm, but her impossibly long hair flows into our world and tangles together as rivers and waves. It is she who enables all of us to keep Batet's gift of life. She works with Wenin to bring the weather. She is also associated with healing, tranquility, birth, motherhood, productivity, cycles, and unity. She is the patron of the Isagians.
Wenin ("whe-nin") is the goddess of sky. Wenin can be either male or female; he is free to choose. She is the great nomad, the bringer of breath and wind, the free one, the trickster, the clever one and the celestial timekeeper. She is vast and colorful, her body the air and his feathers so large we can barely see a few at a time, each a different color of the sky. His eyes are the sun and the moon, personal gifts from the gods that she kindly shares with us, endlessly shifting above and protecting us from the harsh space beyond. She has thousands of arms, invisible and capable of great gentleness or great strength, and we feel his pushes as the wind. He pushes the water vapor Shaas creates to where they need to be, bringing us weather. He is also associated with freedom, spirituality, tricks and jokes, kindness, and fortune. She is the patron of the Arikans.
Celias ("see-lee-us" or "sell-ee-us") is the goddess of void. She is the eldest, the muse, the tired reaper, and the judge. Her job is facilitating death and guiding the deceased to what lies beyond death. She judges them, and then rewards or punishes the deceased for their deeds and intentions. Her eyes are endless holes, and her skin inky and nebulous. She is tied to the ultimate beginning, for pieces of her body were the materials from which the universe was formed, and she will be the one to bring the end of the universe when she reclaims them. She is also associated with inspiration, magic, degeneration, despair, resignation, grieving, acceptance, judgement, law, and fate. She is not the patron of any single species or group; she quietly and subtly favors the creative and the just.
The second sentient species on Zena are the Tini'kaa (pronounced "tini-kah"). They are associated with earth (i.e. stone/metal/dirt), and are essentially six-limbed lizards. They are inspired by the mythical basilisk, as well as the actual basilisk lizard.
The six limbs are in three pairs, and each pair is morphologically and functionally different. The front-most limbs are a functionally a combination of both feet and hands. They are used both for locomotion and some manipulation. The second/middle set of limbs are hands, placed directly behind the first limbs and used for finer manipulation. The last/third set of limbs are feet, exclusively for locomotion. Tini'kaa use all three sets of limbs for locomotion when walking, however when moving fast they tuck their middle limbs under their body next to their belly. This odd set-up of limbs evolved as a means to protect and transport eggs; they were pressed up against the belly and shielded by the parent's body and hands.
Tini'kaa are about 3 feet tall from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head. Their bodies are about 4 feet long without their tail, and their tails are about 4-5 feet long, making them about 8-9 feet long in total. These long tails serve as a means of counterbalance during movement as well as a potential weapon. Their bodies are relatively low/close to the ground. In other words, they are very short and long!
Their heads are similar in shape to the real-life basilisk lizard, except they are larger in the back (behind the eyes) to accommodate a more advanced brain. I am still debating whether or not they have crests on their heads and/or backs, but I am currently leaning towards "no".
Their eyes are slitted, and they have a tongue similar to a snake. They have saw-like teeth, and claws. They may or may not be venomous, I am still deciding.
They have osteoderms/scutes, in other words they have crocodile-like skin. Like crocodiles, these scutes are highly vascularized, providing a means of quick heating/cooling.
Zenans (pronounced "zeen-ens") are one of the two sentient species native to Zena. They look kind of like anthropomorphic cat-monkeys; they are bipedal, have fur, larger/more maneuverable ears, a cat or dog-like nose, and a tail.
An average adult will be around 5-7 feet tall, with females usually being smaller/shorter.
A Zenan's fur changes with the seasons; they have a winter and a summer coat. In addition to their fur, they also have additional fur on their heads, similar to how we have hair but thicker (and I like to imagine softer). In some cases it might actually be more reminiscent of a lion's mane.
Their tails are opposable, much like a monkey's tail. While they have long since evolved from being exclusively tree-dwellers, this is an evolutionary leftover from that time. Length and functionality of tail varies by tribe and/or "breed".
Their ears act much like those of a cat, or perhaps those of a deer; they enable them to listen selectively, and swivel in order to direct their hearing. The ears also serve as a supplement to lips and eyebrows, aiding in the expression of emotions (much like in cats).
They have retractable claws on the tips of their fingers.
Some Zenan tribes have been selectively breeding themselves for a long time, and due to differences in desired traits they are now very phenotypically diverse across tribes (the reason for this is explained in the post on Zenan culture). Body type, body size, fur color, and fur pattern come in many different variations (for future reference, I will call these "breeds"). They tend to be more similar within any given tribe.
Zenans, as previously mentioned, come in a very wide range of colorations. Basically, if you can imagine the fur pattern or color of an earth land mammal, it is likely an existing phenotype in Zenans. The most common colorations are those more typical of wild animals; simple coats consisting of tans, browns, blacks, grays, whites and/or some reds. You could, for example, find a Zenan with a coat like a dalmation, but you are more likely to find one that is colored like a wolf or a fox.
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
titsay
germansingergirl
blakekathryn
pixelskylines
prguitarman
