#rixile

[joviantwelve]

Rixile observations thanks to Paper Mario

[thebeeskneesocks]

Some portraits I drew recently for an rp with bf @joviantwelve They're in a setting created by him!

[joviantwelve]

Oh boy, probably should have gotten this out for the ol’ worldbuilding wednesday, but...here’s a big one!  An elemental system for Rixile!

The tl;dr is that the group of ten is split into two separate main groups, creating five dichotomies!

The dark star is “chaos,” and the light star is “order.”  Each element represents a specific categorical role in the cycle of elements, with the ones directly across each other on the opposite star acting as the "poles.”

I enjoyed integrating order/chaos this way, because I’m starting to really dislike how it’s the new version of “good vs. evil” in things.  BOTH are productive and useful to have in a world’s magical systems!!  They’re not objectively good or evil!  The gods of Rixile represent more “balance” or “harmony” this way.

I typed up a formal introduction of the system and its related concepts at Toyhouse, which you can read here.

Below the cut is further elaboration on the creation of this Double Pentagram Chart specifically, and things I would like to do in the future with this system.  It will make more sense if you read that TH post, but admittedly it’s mostly me being excited about possibilities, where before there weren’t many.

This is something I had been chasing for a LONG time...sort of a holy grail of worldbuilding for the setting.  I never mentioned such a “system” before, because, well.  I just.  Didn’t have one.  If I wanted to incorporate one, I wanted it to be interesting at the very least, so if I couldn’t manage that, I just wouldn’t bother.

In my various revisions of Rixile there’s all sorts of silly charts I attempted to make, but I often followed Pokemon-esque principles of rock-paper-scissors strengths and weaknesses, but it felt very...phoned in to do it that way, and I could never make the circle include all 10 in a way that felt right.

Here’s one from 2008, for example:

I have no idea what the fuck this means.

Also, hey, including Light and Darkness in your elemental system actually sucks, because they’re SUCH a dichotomy that it’s hard to integrate them with anything else.  This is probably why every mobile game with elemental RPG mechanics out there just has light/darkness counter each other all alone, because it’s a hassle...

BUT LATE IN 2021...THE IDEAS CAME TO ME.  Thank you FFXIV Shadowbringers.  By embracing a dichotomy structure for EVERYTHING, I don’t have to worry about rock-paper-scissors at all, which I think is a good way to start attacking this.  I don’t necessarily WANT a system of strengths and weaknesses...more just...Interactions?

Here is a gif of the “opposites” thing btw.

I realize now it was a mistake to have this transparent and the line be white, but oh well.  It will look better on my blog itself.

For Rixile proper, opposing elements interacting creates dangerous conditions such as disasters, and may explain things like demons.  I wrote another TH post about how including EVERYTHING as “elementally aligned” works in Rixile thinking, as well as an attempt to include like, fairly modern real-world science within this magical framework regardless.  I don’t want “magic” and “science” to fight in this world, either.  Like order and chaos, both work in tandem to create a further unified whole. 

If we take the elements as introducing harmony, then I guess Rixile’s big dichotomy is harmony vs disharmony, which is not the same thing as order vs chaos.  Lmao.  I guess it could be seen that way, because “disharmony” in Rixilian terms means disease, disasters, haywire magic, etc...but “chaos” in Rixilian terms means “natural fluctuations.”  Natural vs unnatural?  Hmmm.

Well, whatever the case, I feel comfortable about how this turned out.  I think I should also mention, mostly because I can’t think of where else to put this in the post, that you could consider the gods as “elementals” for the setting.  It’s just that, being purely one element is also a quality of divinity here.  Everything else is a mix.

Back to the chart, I love that it’s a shape!!  A cool shape!  I think having some sort of cool-ass graph for your magic system opens up a lot of possibilities simply by connecting lines.

But also, it’s kind of where I fall short...because I can see other places this layout can go, such as:

(Again, looks better not on a white BG, sorry!!)

But...I’m not sure what these mean.  All I’ve figured out so far are the opposites and their relationships.  Which, admittedly, is largely helped by there being rivalries in the pantheon in the first place...the only one that didn’t really exist before is Volt/Phyll.  (even now, it’s not really a “rivalry,” they just don’t really vibe with each other.)

So for this, I guess it could be complimentary forces?  The “warm” elements of fire/earth/light are up there as a trio, with “cold” metal/dark/ice below...There does seem to be a kind of progression to the perimeter, similar to what I think I was going for with my old 2008 draft, but I haven’t figured out what it exactly means in worldbuilding terms yet.  But I would like to integrate it!  You have Terra/Volt/Galvan all in a line there, SURELY it means SOMETHING.

I think leaning on the five categories I gave the elements would help me come up with something, like how they’d interact in terms of the “cycle,” or whatnot.  Much to think about.

The final geometry I can see in the double pentagram...

I guess I’d call this “triads”?  Trios within their singular side of order/chaos.  The previous two relationships involved a chaos one and an order one, so I feel like this would have to emphasize how it’s only one side.  But what, again...dunno.  I love how Nocturne/Ignus/Mist is one of the triangles, though.  It’s perfect!!

And that’s part of the magic of making this, for me...seeing interesting relationships potentially manifest through mere proximity.  I might not have ideas for the full system, but the basics have been planted, and I’m interested to see what it could produce for the setting in the future.

[joviantwelve]

A couple years back I started (slowly) going through all my sketchbooks and scanning them.  I didn't really start scanning my art until my mid teens...so I want to preserve what I can, still.

Part of the reason it's been going slowly is the sheer amount of psychic damage I have to endure...I'm not brave enough to post the art itself here yet, but I was willing to redraw proto-Nocturne from 2005 because his design was so charmingly edgy teenager-made.

His name was Derek.

[joviantwelve]

lonely forgotten god of dark

[joviantwelve]

the sexyman quiz question mentioning "does the story have alternate timelines etc" was not something I was prepared for before. like in Rixile, the gods are absolute across all dimensions, but, like, yeah no, that's not gonna stop a potential Nocturne Fandom now, is it

[joviantwelve]

I always saw the antagonist of the Rixile story to be a sorta eldritch abomination thing, but that’s kinda hard to draw.  Still, I tried!!

[joviantwelve]

Whenever I reread GODQUEST I'm always taken aback by how funny it still is.  I always think my sense of humor years ago was garbage and I'm always proven wrong.  It's easy to beat up the person you used to be.

Anyway, "YOUR FAVORITE PASTIME IS ANGER" is the best sentence I've ever written and I think about it every time I draw Ignus.  Black for his outfit really was the better choice.