What are the inter-district politics like? Do High Queens declare war on each other to gain territory, or are the borders mostly stable? Are there any particular enmities/alliances between districts?
all of the high queens in general dont really care that much about the other high queens
theres no real threats to the high queens other than their own children! sometimes they decide to send a powerful monster or three or whatever to another palace, but they know that it wont ever amount to anything other than just peeving off the other high queen and just sort of laughing about that
on the princess level theres not much either, they are all acquainted with each other and they squabble like teens and kids and theres varying levels of friendlyness between them but for the most part they dont really care about any grand scheme of things, and are much more concerned with their own district
the group thats most engrossed in inter-district dealings are the noble type monsters under the high queens who basically have to actually do administrative things! their policy depends on what they think is best for them, but in general they are all conniving asshats who want to get as much power as possible and couldnt care less about the general people
cool stuff, this monster government!
big changes and happenings dont happen often because every noble knows that deep down their continued survival is competently dependent on queens who’s idea of fun is causing international incidents which is to say they dont have any chance
are the districts sorted by species? if so then is it something that's being put in place officially or is it just folks congregating together
its a bit complicated of an answer, but id say its a little of both!
like part of it is that some monsters straight up just come into existence in the district that matches the sort of monster they are! so a lot of the undead are in the eest district because thats just where theyve been/where they were born!
but at the same time, its like, each of the high queens has the most control over the sort of monster they that they are, so they want the districts to have the "correct" sort of monster to be closest to them! so while they probably didnt set it up they arent in a hurry to do anything that changes the status quo
that said, there arent any rules against going to a different district, but its almost always going to be weird and there arent really like... communities of a certain sort of monster in other districts... like theres not a group of pure wehstern/animal based monsters in the nyorth/robot land. theres the areas where they crossover, and those are inviting to either side, so you'll probably find /some/ sort of place for you unless you are soughth-nyorthern or eest-wehstern in which case theres probably not A Specific Place for you and you'd probably have to settle for one or the other?
centrall is the only exception in that its got a little bit of everything but even then it still has a preference for Centrall monsters over any mixed or other sorts
on the note of communication, theres probably an absurd amount of languages in monsterworld, with soughth having the most and nyorth having the least
despite this, communication in the world isnt that big of a trouble because of the Influence of the High Queens.
each of the high queens emit some pheromones that in addition to keeping the populace more or less tame and content, allows any monster to speak to any other monster in some way, if they want to/can speak at all! so thats essentially how the common language works!
as for all of the other ones, some of them exist for the purposes of magic, for the sake of keeping secrets, or just because of tradition! theres probably also some monsters that like, are a language or similar?
id imagine also, that high queens all can speak a language that can only be understood by princesses and other high queens, and that they also speak another language that can only be heard by species of the same district
there are probably but they wouldnt be seen as a separate thing from other monsters in the same way that its Humans > Other Creatures, its all just Monsters, with the districts being the only significant difference in terms of Classification
so pets and equivalents to like, farm and food animals exist, but they are just monsters that dont have much intelligence?
im sure that there would be some mix-ups, like some monsters that dont speak would get confused for lets go with livestock monsters, but most of them would either be tough enough (like kreder) or smart enough to evade that sort of thing! id imagine that would only happen in the case of Unique Examples of those sorts of monsters, who would be caught for the purpose of being pets for nobles or something, farmer monsters and stuff probably breed and deal with a specific groups of monsters that they know arent intelligent and specifically produce the sort of things they want or do the things they want them to
beautidine likes walking around the palace and the palace grounds and looking at pretty things!!! she likes going to new places and meeting new people and making friends and having nice parties and stuff!
she wants to have a fun time with her friends and do things like sleepovers and tickle fights and stuff! unfortunately she doesnt have much else going on, but i'd imagine that if television or the internet existed on monsterworld, beau would probably watch my little pony and make fanfic and fanart and just absolutely adore all of the cutesy pastel graphics and colors and be horribly traumatized by bronies
other than that shed probably like gardening and cosplaying but those dont exist either! poor beautidine
some time ago when i wanted to write things more i made a writing blog and the only thing that i really used it for was beautidine, a naive monster princess in a pretty shit monster world and besides making a few monster characters for an eagle time thread ive also put some thought into the stories general flow but i like talking about things so let me give ya'll a basic rundown of monsterworld and i can get start begging for worldbuilding wednesdays or whatever
also i should note that im still gunna do rm things im just bad feels and writing is hard ha ha
so the basic premise is that we've got five districts in this nameless monsterworld, each with their own high queen, princess, and general type of monster within
centrall district is beautidines! it has otherworldly/eldritch creatures! monsters that would be considered "aliens" things that would supposedly make your mind melt, that sort of thing lives here
eest district is where armaza, the Deuteragonist lives. her districts gimmick is general undead sorts, both corporeal and noncorporeal. zombies, ghosts, ghouls, possessed objects that sort of thing
wehst district has Cleoctra, the last real named princess i have! Wehst District is animal-like monsters, werewolves, insect people, mothman, centaurs, etc
up to nyorth district is a robot princess because all of the monsters here are inorganic mechanical things including living programs and probably monsters made out of waste or similarly "man-made" things
finally, theres soughth, which is mythical monsters like vampires, demons, angels, djinn, and cryptids, yokai, and various other monsters that wouldnt already be in the other districts
theres a lot of mixing and matching though! the world is a circle, with each of the districts melding into each other the farther away you are from the center of the District's Palace! theres a lot of fun things and the basic ~rule~ of all of the monsters is that while a lot can be distinctly humanoid, none of them are human. they may resemble humans but what would be a normally human half of a centaur is always something else and werewolves always turn into something thats just vaguely humanoid
tech and society wise its iffy and anachronistic and the districts are generally in good terms with each other but all of the high queens are sort of awful so who knows how that could change!
the general story would be about beautidine and dealing with her mother, a system that hates her, and all of the people who want her to grow up and out of her childish naive princess bs so they can use her for their own gain~~~ fun story that doesnt have any metaphors for anything in real life :)
a thing about beautidine, other princesses, and parties. #emotional abuse and #bullying are in it. there probably will be a second part???
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Bueatidine loved parties! Parties were the best!!! Parties had food and sweets and her favorite, FRIENDS! And friends meant talking and gossip and laughing and she loved parties, she loved her friends, and she adored traveling outside of the Centrall District.
Beautidine was so excited that she just had to go over the details. Firstly, there was the locale. So far it seemed that their destination would be the Eest District, where Armaza lived, which wasn't the most optimal party place, but it was still pretty nice. Even if something about the atmosphere made her feel off, overall it wasn't really any better or worse than any of the other districts! The second thing she thought about was the exclusive guest list. As per the usual parties, it would likely be the five current princesses of the Phive Districts, well, except for one. The Sougthern District Princess had her... thing, that kept her indisposed, but Armaza would obviously be there and so would Espy! Beautidine was so excited to see Espy.
As Beautidine was about to start vibrating with excitement, a subject arrived and informed her that they had arrived. She was almost to the party!!! She really was looking forward to it, especially after the last one, which... which didn't end very well. But she was sure it wouldn't end that way, and that it would be amazing.
As she walked through the green and blue tinted halls of the Eest Palace, filled with the portraits of rulers past and various heirlooms on pedestals, encased in glass, Beautidine once more recalled the drab and empty halls of her own home. Why did the Eest have such a large focus on the past, wasn't there a reason? Beautidine noticed that she was lagging behind the subject leading her to the party, so she picked up the pace, leaving her thoughts behind.
"Heeeeeello~~~<3!"
When she heard Beautidine barge into the common room, Armaza was trying to meditate and focus on her thoughts, which to the bubbly princess looked like she was just sort of sitting there and doing nothing. Armaza held back a cringe, stood up, and gave a weak wave of hello to her fellow princess.
"Hiiiiii Armaza, how are you???"
Armaza was fine. While she felt the usual confusion and discomfort from whatever Beautidine was doing with her voice, she was otherwise happy to socialize with someone from outside the Eest, even if they weren't the best to converse with. She was dressed in something a bit more formal than her normal, drab clothes, but didn't bother with rearranging her face away from the default, neutral expression with flesh hanging here and there.
"I'm sooooo glad to see you!!! It's been toooo long... Huuuuuugg~<3"
At least, Armaza mused, Beautidine had learned that she didn't like hugs. As Armaza gave out a weak, but pleasant "Huuug" in reply, the third guest entered the room.
"Oh lovelies, I hope that you haven't waited for me too long."
Armaza and Beautidine swirled their heads towards the rooms newest arrival, the insectoid Wehst District princess, Cleoctra, waving one of her two upper spiked forelimbs and outfitted in the most elegant regalia the Wehst had to offer. Armaza was glad for her lack of facial expression, as she wouldn't be able to hide the disgust she felt for her many legged peer. While Beautidine was a bit on the annoying side, it wasn't like she meant to be, and Armaza didn't like the idea of just writing someone off just because they needed to grow up a little.
"Oh Beau, I'm so glad you made it, I thought that after the last party you'd avoid us all for at least a year, you are SO brave. An inspiration to us all, you know I was telling Acey just before she tried to spit poison at me about how much of a fool you made yourself there, glad to see you bounced back so fast."
"Ooo... ooooH! Thank you... Hehe~"
Beautidine honestly was unaware of how Armaza felt, and if she knew, she would just be upset, and Armaza didn't want that, for more reasons than one. Cleoctra's problem, on the other hand, was that she knew exactly what she was doing, and she was really good at it too.
"Soooo... it looks like we are almost alllll here, then the fun can really begin!!! Yay! :>"
"Hmmm, didn't you hear? Oh, I guess you were probably busy because of having to fend off all your siblings, oh no wait, I had to do that, and I still knew that Epsy wasn't going to make it."
"Wh...what???" Beautidine sounded upset, which made Cleoctra happy, especially when looking at the static and smiling face. The insectoid's mouth widened and she put one of her lower, harmless forelimbs around her pink peer.
"Mmm, yes, I'm not sure on the details but this is going to be everyone in attendance, I know... rumors though. I don't know if I should share though..."
"Oh come on, Cleoctra, it isn't that big of a secret what happened to Espy."
"I suppose so, bu-"
"What's going on with Epsy?!?!?! .... is she ok? She's okay right!? Right!?!?!?"
There was a temporary silence as Beautidine looked expectantly at the two other princesses and the two princesses realized that Beautidine was starting to get close to crying. In addition to this realization, Armaza noticed that she was starting to feel more and more sorry for Beautidine, a natural reaction to the pheromones that Beautidine released. Cleoctra of course, was immune to them, and was relishing in the despair, but neither princess wanted Beautidine to cry.
"Espy got in trouble. She is... grounded." It was an understatement, but any more details on what happened to the Nyorth District's princess would likely lead to the tears that Armaza was desperate to avoid.
"Oh......"
Beautidine sagged, ruining her pretty and proper look and while it didn't seem like she would cry, she did sound like she was going to sulk for a bit. Armaza grabbed Cleoctra by the limb and dragged her to the other corner of the room.
"Why do you insist on torturing someone so defenseless?"
"Oh come now Arma, you and I both know that she needs to grow up. She is supposed to be the future Centrall District High Queen! Have you seen her mother?"
Cleoctra stopped speaking for a bit as she reclined her head and began to imagine Beautidine's mother. The way that she moved in the shadows with no regard to others, the way that she emoted in the red tint of her blood, how she didn't need any fancy glands or limbs to tear her enemies into pieces, how in the world did someone so powerful, so destructive, so almighty, birth a Beautidine?
Armaza snapped her fingers at the insectoid princess, "Stop fantasizing about Beautidine's mother, you'll get your drool on the carpet."
"Well, excuse me, I'll have you know that it isn't drool, what do you take me for? A mammalian? It i-"
"It doesn't matter, the point is tha-"
"Sooooooooooooooooooooo~~~... what are you guys talking about? :>"
Beautidine had apparently finished her sulk and immediately made her way to her friends, as the last thing she wanted to be at a party was alone, or sad, or god forbid alone AND sad. While her eye was not as wide as it was at the start of the party, it, along with the rest of her body, went back up to a decent level of perky.
Cleoctra wasted no time in her response.
"Oh you know, the ususal, your mother, Beau, and how amazing she is! She's soooo amazing! I don't know how she does everything she does and deal with your antics. I bet you wish you could be more like her, right?"
"Well..." Beautidine looked towards, but away from Cleoctra and sagged a tiny bit at the thought of her mother.
"She certainly iiiiiiiiiis something."
"She is. If I had her as a mother I would be ecstatic! I'd try to learn everything that I could and follow in her footsteps to be just as amazing as she is, uh, oh, not to say that there's anything wrong with not doing that, that's just what I would do, being different is okay!"
"Yeah... I know! Uhm... so how have you all been though? It has been a while and I would just loooove to hear about what you've all been up to!!!"
Armaza knew that this couldn't lead to a fun time, or at least not the fun sort of time that Beautidine wanted. Anything that she would say would probably just depress her, and Cleoctra would make sure to weaponize all of her stories for the best reactions.
Beautidine didn't have any worries, these were her friends right? They weren't her best friend, like Espy, but they were still her friends and they would forgive her little sulk and be sure to share nice things! This was going to be a great party and they were going to have great fun! She. Was. Sure. Of. It.
Cleoctra was wondering which story would make Beautidine sad without crying. There was her brutal mutilation of her cousins last week. But the day that one of her sisters tried to knife her was pretty good too, the sister tried interesting things and it was a decent effort. Cleoctra had it down to three stories, with her mouth starting to widen, when Armaza said, "Wait!"
The last minute effort to stop Clecotra from sharing one of her awful stories was one of Armaza's less well thought out plans. As the three princesses awkwardly stared at each other, Armaza tried very hard say something, anything, that could potentially entertain the three of them.
"Uhm. Well. If that's all you have to say then I guess I'll..."
Armaza, running out of ideas, decided that another quick, thoughtless action would be better than no action at all. As Cleoctra was about to begin her story, the Eestern Princess slammed a hidden button, causing one of the many trap doors of the Eest District Palace to open below them.
As the three princesses fell into the darkness below, Armaza thought that maybe there could have been a better way to deal with the situation.
