Some lore notes on my Sims stories' lore surrounding magical overcharge:
as well as making spells more powerful but more risky like it does in-game, it can also influence mood strongly depending on how 'strong' the overcharge is. At its strongest, it very much feels like a drug of some sort. It will often make people feel inexplicably powerful or euphoric, which is why it can cause major issues because a) why would you want to discharge your magic and come down from that and b) the heightened sense of power leads most people to think they'll be fine. Once the overcharge settles or is discharged by the caster, the emotional crash is heavily felt...Coming down from the euphoria sucks, but the upside is you're less likely to a) injure yourself in a spell mishap or b) die!
There has been a few written descriptions in the old times past of people actually exploding from excessive overcharge, but this is very, very few. Long-term strong overcharge can cause a lot of bodily issues, often muscular issues and migraines, as well as affecting the heart and brain. Too much magical overcharge in one go can manifest in something similar to a seizure. Before this stage, the eyes tend to glow and turn completely white and blood tends to come out from the eyes, nose, and mouth as well, so not pretty, and it can stop the heart and / or brain function altogether - which is the most common cause of death associated with death by overcharge.
For ascended casters and some bloodline casters, the body's magic can be erratic and lead to quicker and easier issues with overcharge, often leading to pallor of skin, muscular problems and migraines throughout daily life if not managed well. In the modern day, this condition is referred to as witches' pallor, at least it was in my previously-written modern-day stories. It's way more likely in ascended casters due to them not having magic from birth.
Methods of preventing or easing excessive overcharge are using wands, which concentrate the bodily's magic into a smaller surface area therefore using less of it (at least, that's how I imagine it, it's not entirely accurate I know and I don't care) or by keeping a magically-bound familiar. A caster can cast from the familiar's magic reserves instead of just their own (something I think based off in-game text IIRC?)
This comment still suits these two perfectly. Even without the vs. involved. Áine is very much an unstoppable force and Owen is absolutely an immovable object. Also as a side note both of them killed their own fathers I love them both < 3
Stolen from elderwisp who was tagged in this by somebody else, because I'll take any excuse to bang on about my story and you all know it. Under the cut!
1) How did you come up with such unique & fascinating characters?
Character building for me has always been a stronger suit than plotting, which I despise, and I think one of the only useful things I ever learned from Tumblr writing advice in my teens was the fun of building characters, doing the character interviews for them and thinking about them in-depth and their differences as well as what they'd have in common.
I wanted every character to have a different take on the world, but also I wanted almost every hcaracter to find common ground regardless of how different their lives and identities were. Despite the title being Divided, the story is largely about unity and finding support in unexpected places. Whilst it does bear in mind things like privilege and social issues, it also doesn't strictly adhere to them, nor does it strictly adhere to my own beliefs or modern morality. There's a shitload of nuance across all the characters and their interactions with one another, and anyone and everyone is as capable of love as they are of cruelty.
2) When you started writing your story, what did you take into consideration?
I had to take into consideration the historical context of the story, what to keep somewhat accurate to history and what to change depending on multiple factors. I also had to force myself to stop leaving things out that I deemed controversial, otherwise it would have made a shoddy excuse for a historical story. Even though it's nowhere near accurate to any certain period. You get me.
I also had to bear in mind certain things about the established lore, since Divided is a prequel...except I'm now rebooting the story that Divided is a prequel to. Cue the retcons, and only one of my followers will notice. Hehe.
3) How did you shape each character’s background/family?
Research where necessary, on familial, country or cultural values specific to the time and / or country, and then working out relationships and how people get along etc. Sometimes it's influenced by background and such, what with the affluent Annorin family patriarch being one of the worst characters in the series in terms of likeability.
4) Do you plan everything before starting, or are you more spontaneous?
Hard to say. Quite a bit was planned in advance, but as the series got longer and more characters starting taking centre stage, more stuff got planned fairly late in development of the story. I have numerous plot holes in the story from where I've shelved plot ideas halfway through.
5) Does reality inspire you, or do you rely more on your imagination?
Both, but mainly reality. Divided takes most of its inspiration from real life history and both current and historical attitudes to various things, mainly from things in England given most of the story is set in Henford. However, it also is inspired by some of the things that sometimes writers might be a bit too scared to touch, with one of the biggest elements of Divided being that anyone can end up on the wrong side of history regardless of identity or upbringing.
Stories like these can easily turn into good VS. evil, with zero nuance. History is often uncomfortable and often challenges our ways of thinking in ways we may not like, and so Divided, being based a lot off real-life history, has to reflect the uncomfortable nuances of the past. Believe me when I say Divided has gotten uncomfortable to write plenty of times even for me. People can and will turn on people who would otherwise share their own suffering, and it happens more often than we'd like to believe. People who IRL we would not expect to give half a shit get involved in trying to change things.
Divided is more progressive than the IRL period it's based on, but people back then weren't terribly different from us if you think about it. I refuse to believe that every single person in the days of old was 100% full of prejudice, there's always going to be good people in any period of time. Most real-like prejudice in Divided is confined to the upper classes and the people that kiss their ass. Everyone else couldn't care less if someone is a little eccentric or if a guy has a male partner.
Whilst a lot of people seem to like to think of history as full of such bad people compared to our own 'perfect' time period, that isn't the case. People back then loved and cared and changed for the better sometimes, as they do now.
6) When did you KNOW you were going to make this story?
I'm pretty much like a very famous superhero comics company in the way I end up wanting to give everyone and their nan a big long-ass backstory. Áine in the previous magic universe trilogy of stories was so mysterious, and I just really wanted to delve into her backstory.
7) What has shaped your story into being the way it is?
Being an attention-seeking bitch who enjoys writing, mainly, but also the loyalty of my readership. I've lost a LOT of readers over the years, I'm not gonna lie, since a lot of my older group of occult simmers back on the old forum most left, and most of us ditched the forums once they changed to EA forums. But I've kept just as many and gained new ones. I have readers who were here since 2022, and people who have started from the beginning even with the sheer length of it.
Also this is the longest thing I've ever written in my entire life, and has finished at about 500k words. People like to get competitive with me about that because for some reason I'm not allowed to be confident about things, but here we are.
Thank you @taanoir for the tag! Also thank you herecirm and misspepeshi for the tag in the Give Me a Kiss tag game, but sadly I used all my kiss screenshots on the first time I got tagged so I got no more kisses to share... : ( Kat this time!
Under the cut:
General
Name: Katlego Anansi
Alias: Kat
Gender + Pronouns: Cis woman, she/her
Age: Early 40s as of act 6
Spoken Language(s): Since we still have no worlds based on African countries, there's no in-game analog for her native language. She also speaks Henfordian Simlish.
EDIT: This has been updated after the royalty pack to be somewhere south of Dambele.
Sexual Orientation: Lesbian
Occupation: Cunningwoman, herbalist
Favourite
Colour: Kat doesn't have one specific favourite, she just likes bright colours.
Entertainment: Reading, playing with Nia, her owl
Drink: Probably doesn't have one
Pastime: Herbalism, divination cards
Food: Oxtail, a traditional stew from back home. Her family used to keep animals, mainly cattle for meat and milk, so Kat has a love for meat dishes.
Have they…
Passed University: Didn't go
Had Sex: Yes
Had sex in Public: No
Got Tattoos: She has them all over!
Got Scarred: No
Had a Broken Heart: Not in the romantic sense, but she's been screwed over plenty.
Are They…
A Cuddler: YES! She loved cuddles!
Jealous Easily: Not really.
Trustworthy: Kat is trustworthy if you are a good person, but she'll screw you over with trickery if you're not.
Family
Siblings: None
Parents: Emene (mother) and Nanji (father)
Children: None
Pets: Nia, her familiar. She is not magically bound to Kat because Kat wants her to fly free whenever she's ready. She won't though, haha
What was the first thing you decided on, the character's name, appearance, personality or their role in the story?
Appearance. I knew the female vampire was going to be based on Lady D from RE8 almost immediately. XD To add to the powerful supernatural woman vibe, she often wears this dress based on the sorceress Edea from FF8.
And reverse, which one of the four things did you struggle with the most?
Role in the story was the hardest one for me. I had ideas up until a point, and then after that point I was a bit lost...but I think I figured stuff out, haha
What is the origin of their personality? And let's be honest - how much of it is projecting?
Not much of Violeta is projecting, honest! Violeta is less projecting, and more based on a reader's potential personal desire. The origin of Violeta's personality is the dark feminine, in a way that kind of gets into one's darkest desires in a way you kind of want Violeta's power for yourself. At least that's the idea. Violeta is free from a lot of the things women are generally confined to. She's not hyperpolite, she has no compassion, she's one of the strongest characters in the story. If I wrote this in 2010 she'd be considered a Mary-Sue, basically. (And here in 2020s she'd be considered pandering. XD) However, one thing she is tied to to some extent is motherhood, that of her vampiric progeny Oskar.
Violeta is one of the cruellest characters in the whole story, but beloved by a lot of readers at the same time. I got sick of people expecting all fictional (and let's face it, also IRL) lesbians to be uwu sunshine girls 24/7, so I made a complete heartless bitch with little in the way of compassion (though she does learn).
@daniigh0ul I saw this come up on my For You and I would rather respond with a post than with a comment in the community because group situations make me nervous lol... and also I figured it'd be fun to talk this sort of thing to my followers lore-wise.
Please understand that I may have completely misunderstood your question, but here's hoping I didn't.
In my story's lore, vampirism can be passed down, but vampires can only get pregnant from other vampires. Otherwise it can only be spread by turning, which is done with intent through a bite and involves a little bit of magic as the vampires are descendants of 'bloodcasters', old blood mages. The reason for there not being very many vampires despite this is due to cultural reasons. In vampire culture, it is considered an enormous evil to turn a person and then leave them to it without any assistance. To turn someone is to essentially become their new parent and teach them how to be a vampire and be there for them and such, it's basically a case of 'If you don't want to be close to them / responsible for them forever, then don't turn them.' A vampire is for life, not just for Winterfest!
As for werewolves, they cannot be turned, and lycanthropy is passed down through genetics, as is magic. The kind of lycanthropy a person is capable of is completely dependant on their lineage - a long line of just werewolves will mean their wolf form is very typically wolflike. A line where there are a lot of humans as well will mean a wolf form much closer to humanlike (probably like the ones in the actual Werewolves packs). The ones in the story use the Skyrim werewolf costume, so somewhere in the middle.
As for magic, the story has a distinction between 'true witches' - a term that means someone born from a lineage of solely witches, and a term that if it were in the modern day would likely be considered pretty awful and elitist to some extent but this is a historical story that I'm writing. Then there are the 'bloodline' casters, families comprised of humans and spellcasters. Bloodline casters are more susceptible to overcharge and it can lead to a long-term type of illness caused by it. They also have a higher chance of having children who are not born with magic. Their magic abilities also aren't as strong as a witch's. Ascended casters aren't a thing in my current story, but in the modern lore ascended casters can pass down their magic too since it becomes a part of them biologically.
There is a small chance of magic or lycanthropy (including mooncaster magic) not being passed down at all, and this chance is higher in lineages where there are not as many spellcasters or werewolves. This can lead to some interesting conflicts or character tidbits in the story. Will they be jealous of their magic siblings? Will they be thankful with not having to deal with being a werewolf?
As for who does and doesn't inherit magic, it's something I tend to pick at random unless I have a story reason for it. With the two mainline characters from magic families who don't have magic, one is partially glad she's not a mooncaster due to the issues they deal with, and the other is more or less ostracised for it and the patriarch of the family has no interest in him because of it.
