I'm already about 1700 words in (my usual chapters are around 3000 to 3500) so I'm about halfway there! I honestly could probably even finish it today if I could give it my full attention, but sadly life duties call.
Is that a specific program you’re using (for the colorful graph nodes thing)?
Oh hey yeah, I actually use Obsidian! It has that graph view function as just a part of it. Basically, what it does is that it takes every single note that I make in obsidian (pic one, blue) and turns them into nodes that are interconnected based on what I link within the note (pic 2). So anything thats highlighted in the body text is a separate note that'll be connected, and anything in the "linked mentions" tab (pic 1, pink) will also be linked (because that shows that the current note was mentioned in a different note. You can actually see all 4 connections to "Noviquere Database" on the graph, too.
But yes, I use Obsidian for all my planning stuff, it's really great and very easy to use once you get the hang of it, I can probably talk about it more if people want. The best part is that there are so many little add ins that make it better if you want to and only if you want to use them.
Also the graph is lowkey kinda useless but it's fun and it's pretty and I like looking at it to kinda visualize my progress.
Okay so last night I was trying to just trying to write down the definitions for noviquere ("superhumans"), and generally keep going on my writing down of the extremely extensive worldbuilding and.
Okay so.
I was wanting to add in that thing that a lot of power and magic-type media does where people get compulsions to use their powers, get sick if they don't use them for long enough, etc, and. I ended up creating an entire new form of psychosis. With the causes, symptoms, different types, societal implications, why it happens, how it can be deadly and some landmarks of the disease and how you can basically turn a noviquere into a walking timebomb if you try hard enough lmao.
So here all that is!
This was supposed to be about two or three bullet points long lmao. I'm definitely gonna keep working on wording and maybe change some specifics but the idea will remain the same. Always open to questions if you have any! (more + transcription under cut)
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Novipsychosis (Noviquere Madness)
Novipsychosis is the formal diagnosis for the rare instances when Noviquere Urges become debilitating. Such cases are caused by prolonged non-activation of the noviquere's ability. It can cause almost any type of destructive behavior as their Noviquere Urges start to build on themselves exponentially, and as the urges become more intense, they will slowly start to take over the noviquere's mind and ability to rationalize, or even think. This can have many different results, although violent force-activation of their power is a very common ending that often results in an alive but completely and solely urge-driven noviquere who cannot control their own power activation (often described as either "rabid" or "vegetative"). If, for some reason, the power cannot force-activate (usually due to outside power suppression), then the Novipsychosis will continue to replicate within the noviquere until it can burst through the suppressant, which almost always results in a more violent and uncontrollable outburst of power and often results in the death of the noviquere or other casualties.
Types of Novipsychosis
Pre-activation Psychosis (quick-onset novipsychosis) - This type of novipsychosis is characterized by a noviquere being completely unable to activate their power for the first time, either because they have an activation condition for their power that is impossible to fulfill or, more commonly, because they are put into a circumstance where their power is forcefully kept inactive, such as in cases where a new noviquere starts to feel urges for the first time, and they are put in power suppressants in a misguided attempt to prevent them from becoming a noviquere. In such cases, the noviquere's urges can and will get stronger at an alarming rate, over a matter of weeks, until they inevitably succumb to it. This can technically happen to any person at any time.
Post-activation Psychosis (slow-onset novipsychosis) - The second type of novipsychosis is much more dangerous, as it happens mainly to higher-leveled Noviquere, although it is much more predictable and preventable for the same reasons. There are many reasons why slow-onset novipsychosis mainly happens to higher-level noviquere, but the main two reasons would be that a) lower level noviquere report less instances of noviquere urges in general, as well as less intense effects when urges do arise. and b) higher level noviquere's powers are much more scrutinized, reported on, and often partially or entirely suppressed by FeND - the Federal Noviquirum Department. Slow-onset novipsychosis is most often completely preventable and is caused by or made worse by negligence related to how the ability is suppressed. Once a noviquere enters post-activation psychosis, it can be very hard to stop and reverse the process, as even if they willingly allow themselves to be helped, the healing process can be very slow-going and they are often not given enough time to heal before their power suppressants must be put back on by law. The most dangerous cause of slow-onset novipsychosis, however, is actually self-infliction. Often, noviquere of any level will try to hide their abilities and never use their power for fear of being caught, and as such, will often start to develop slow-onset novipsychosis. If power activation is not somewhat regularly achieved to mitigate and heal, then without any sort of power suppressants, the noviquere's ability will eventually spontaneously force-activate and will often not be able to be deactivated, which could cause the death (or worse, continued survival) of the noviquere as well as casualties to anyone caught in the crossfire.
The Stagnation Point
There is a point of novipsychosis that is essentially a "point of no return," where, even after power activation, the noviquere will not return to normal and will instead stay "flatlined" at their current level of novipsychosis, with almost constant power activation needed to maintain their current level of functionality. Once this point is reached, it is considered nearly impossible for the noviquere to be able to incorporate back into society, both because of their dangerous power activations and because their mind is often deteriorated to some degree (although the latter is not necessarily a requirement, just a very common side effect).
There is no exact way to tell when any given noviquere's stagnation point may be, but it is generally stated to happen not long after their mental faculties start to deteriorate, usually characterized by symptoms similar to short-term memory loss, such as the inability to form long complex sentences without some strain to remember it wholly as they speak, inability to follow conversations, and other symptoms like slurred speech, insomnia, and reduced levels of consciousness. While these are some of the most common symptoms, a noviquere can display all of these traits and still be before the point of stagnation, or display none of them or completely different symptoms and still be past it.
Once the stagnation point is reached, the noviquere's power force-activation will occur soon afterward, unless halted by the activation of the ability.
Noviquere Urges
Noviquere Urges are a form of expected compulsions that a Noviquere will experience to help aid them in finding the Activation Condition for their power for the first time. Noviquere urges have also been well known to reappear in noviquere who do not activate their power for long periods of time, which can get stronger if the power is continually inactive, which can be dangerous and even lead to Novipsychosis (Noviquere Madness).
Noviquere abilities almost always have an activation condition, unless it is the type of power which can never be turned off. If a noviquere does not activate their power for long periods of time, they often start to feel new pathological-- and often reckless or dangerous-- desires to do things that would theoretically facilitate an activation of their power. These are what are broadly called Noviquere Urges.
For example, if a noviquere's ability is to bring people back to life, they may feel an urge to kill people and then revive them, or seek out dead bodies which can be revived. If a noviquere's ability is to breath underwater, they may feel the urge to drink a lot more water than usual, or want to jump into bodies of water, or even feel a strange new kinship with sea creatures.
While this sounds very dangerous, and it does have the potential to be, it is generally only noted to be of any serious issue to some noviquirum with the Power Level 3 and above, and especially start to become "unignorable" and "relentless" to Power Levels 4 and above. These types of symptoms are signs of Novipsychosis.
For most noviquirum, however, this phenomenon is felt somewhat strongly once their ability presents in them until their ability's first activation, upon which most report no further urges to use their power except for slight compulsions if they go weeks or months without using their ability at all.
To christen my new #tug updates tag (no way I'm gonna remember to keep coloring that lol), this is where I am so far with writing down all my worldbuilding.
Many of y'all might be familiar with Obsidian, which is basically a wonderfully adaptable note-taking software. I'm still in the process of learning to use it, but I basically spent all my free time yesterday retrofitting previous lore I've posted with into it and updating it as needed. I've pretty much gotten everything that I have written down already into it, so now I get to start the arduous task of writing down... literally everything else. But here you can get a glimpse of what it looks like so far!
One of the main things you'll probably notice about the villain brand note, if you've already read my work, is the new word "Noviquere." That's just the new word for what they call "superhumans," you know how governments love to dehumanize. There are also a good few other changes, if you wanna play spot the difference then the old description is here.
Then if you look at the sidebar, you'll also see some fun stuff you haven't seen before, such as "The Gone Laws" and "Kyrie Productions" and "FeND" and "Slurs and Colloquialisms." I haven't even gotten to putting any of the relevant characters from (un)official guide into this yet, I barely even got the barest of the noviquere stuff locked down. So now you might understand why this is gonna take me so long lmao. I'm just getting started >:)
An Update on the future of The (Un)Official Guide to Hero-Keeping!
Hey all!
Recently, due to some rather traumatic events in my life making me change my outlook on how I've been living as a whole, I've had this sort of a... fire lit under me, I feel. Finally. I can maybe go into a bit more detail if y'all are curious, and I certainly don't want sympathy (least of all because I view the effects of it as such a positive), but it has changed, honestly, everything. As cheesy as it sounds.
I want to publish (Un)Official Guide one day. I'm going to get it published. I want people to know my characters and I want to tell my story, and I want to inspire people in the same way that I've been inspired, and yes it would also be nice if I could have people who obsess over my work the same way I do with both my own and others work. I want to create that drive in people too. It's every writers dream, I think. And at this point, I've learned that if I want something done, *I* have to do it, because no one else will. Especially with something like this.
I'm going to publish this book series one day.
So. Where does that leave my posting chapters on tumblr?
Well, as it is now, the chapters that are up aren't amazingly representative of where the characters and story are now. It'll need a SHIT TON of revisions, definitely a full rewrite, but the base story is still there and thriving. So what I'm going to do, is I'm going to keep writing and posting the chapters. For now. And I'm treating this as basically a Draft 0. Just getting EVERYTHING I could ever possibly want and dream of into the story and posted, every single plot point and whump scene and extraneous character that I feel deserves my time. So basically, fuck yes, I'm going to keep posting.
I will say, I'm not very versed in all of this, and I'm learning as I go, and I already know I'm gonna make mistakes. I may can absolutely see a future where I decide not to post all of the chapters and save the plot twists and story for the books themselves. But for now, I'm going to keep going, keep writing gratuitously for myself, and then reign it all in and turn it into something actually readable and that I can be proud to show the more general public later, just as I've always done.
So that's where we are now! I'm currently working on getting every single thing about the worldbuilding written down and organized, which is. A lot. But I'm fixated on it so hopefully it wont take too long, and then I'm going to plot everything out. And there's a lot of plot. This is going to take a while. I'll probably also start posting chapters again as I'm doing that, maybe, but we shall see! I also have a full-times worth of commitments in real life, and my work style is also extremely sporadic and insane to begin with, so it's very hard even for me to predict when I will be getting chapters up. It'll happen though, I just ask for your patience.
I'm also going to be creating a tag for me just kinda yapping about my writing process and documenting everything as I go, #tug updates, to hopefully help with motivation. Please follow or block as needed.
I'm very happy to be back and sharing this with all of you! Above all else, I just hope I can make y'all, and myself, proud. Love y'all always, and don't hesitate to send asks and or interact, if you have advice or encouragement of questions or critiques! I'm working on my backlog and I always love to interact lol.
(Sorry for the tag, beloved taglist, I felt that this was important. As always, if you'd like to be added or subtracted, please let me know. No hard feelings :) This taglist is still solely just for chapter uploads.)
