#worldbuilding post

[lsunstreakerl]

burning question about sharkstappen. is he still able to drive due to some sort of reverse mutation thing? if so, does he still forget every year now that he has changed?

reverse mutation! unnecessary worldbuilding here sorry guys. but I've yapped to several people about it trying to get everything figured out and they deserve a break LOL.

the mutation "needs" tend to run on a seasonal cycle.

so max could mutate at any point in the year provided the right conditions are met, but he only experiences that sickness that you saw in the last ficlet because it was the breeding season.

once he's turned for the first time, he remembers everything afterwards.

dietary choices are the best way to trigger a turn- by eating a lot of fish and kelp, both max and charles can trigger the part of their brain that says "hey time to be a fish". same for the reverse. if they're fish, and then eat red meat and nuts and berries, the kind of things you get on land, then that triggers the mutation back to human.

max takes in enough calcium through fish and fish bones (which he ingests more frequently than charles does) to handle his teeth dropping out for each turn. so he's got shark teeth when he's sharkstappen, and human teeth when he's not.

charles has that on a slightly lesser scale- it's not all of his teeth, just a few. some of his human teeth stay year round.

max's legs are technically still intact (ish) under the tail. the mutation creates a thick layer of fat and muscle over his legs, but most notably they also stretch out those joint spaces while still keeping them stable. so max's legs go from hip-knee-ankle to more of a hip—knee—ankle, which allows for the additional length of the tail. when he sheds that layer to turn back, his lower body compresses back together (kind of like a spring).

obviously the longer he spends underwater the stronger his tail gets. the first few mutations hurt, but as his body gets used to it it gets easier. it takes a few days for a full mutation for a while, but charles (who's been doing it his whole life) can mutate in about 12 hours.

charles' bone structure is different, because he was born underwater. so his "human" bones is actually his tentacles spiraling together and calcifying to form his legs! the broad flat pieces you see at the ends of those inter tentacles are what forms the feet :)

anyways. feel free to ask more questions here, I've put more thought into this than it deserves I fear.

[on-noon]

Worldbuilding in my Main Fantasy World Part 4: Mendici

Mendici is a smaller country, and the center of the medical world. Their country magic system is healing, as they have these vines that grow on a specifric type of tree (the trees are also magic organisms but they don’t really do anything). The vines can be used to make all sorts of concoctions that increase the body’s natural healing ability. Because of this, Mendici just sort of naturally became where all medical care takes place, even those not aided by the magic healing.

As someone gains more control over the healing magic, they also start to gain some control over their hair growth.

Mendici does not really have schools, and mostly people are expected to learn from their parents when young, and from the person they apprentice under when older.

Part 1: Magic (some of it)

Part 3: Dracin

[coffeecup-homebrews]

Been working on a map of the Underdark empire of Lhingmornan- a theocratic Empire run by a cult of Lolth. So excited to run a game for some friends involving this part of my homebrew setting, and I can't wait to bring this place to life!

[forestzmora]

Everston Academy Worldbuilding - Technology

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday everyone! ^u^

Compiled my notes and finally, today we're gonna take a little look at technology of the witch community. I'm excluding some elements, like communication devices, from this post because they are getting their own, separate one later down the line.

Disclaimer: I'm going to always remind people, but these worldbuilding posts will often be lengthy, so if you can't deal with that right away it's best to save this post for later or read it in parts ;)

Magic & Electricity

Electricity and magic generally do not get along. It's not that you can't use magic around electricity, but electric devices react badly in magic-dense environments and... well... they will likely explode on ya.

That being said, electricity IS a staple of modern living and the witch community did not wanted to be left out of it's perks.

Electric current in Nai is kept to minimum. Only lights are powered by electricity and occasionally other things if really needed (often secret things only few know about ;) ), but that has to be thought through.

"Wait a minute", you might think; "How is Nai even getting electricity?". Good thinking, my hypothetical reader! How do they do that indeed?

While most witches and Magicians cannot work with electricity at all, plenty of Fire Elementals can. Their magic seems to not effect the electric current and they are also prone to being able to bend it. It is after all a cousin of the fire & therefore it falls under their command. Only Fire Elemental Magicians are able to work at the few electric power plants in Nai and operate them safely. Most Nai power plants were designed & built by Tesla himself, making Naian energy inexhaustible, free and wireless. Unfortunately, Nicola Tesla didn't manage to share the basis of this technology before his death and the many, many tries of recreating & sharing this technology with humans have failed miserably.

(Sidenote: Yes, Tesla was a Magician - a Fire Elemental in fact. None of his inventions however were done with magic. In fact, the man dedicated his life to living with humans and swear off magic - some say completely, some say just Magician magic - in order to find a way humans could artificially access the frequencies that allow witches to perform the acts of magic. Many Magicians think, that his theory of fluid electrical charges running underneath Earth & the low-frequency electrical waves the Tesla Power Plants on Nai generate are the key to figuring out the artificial way of accessing the frequencies of magic. No one knows if Tesla was actually able to figure it out or not, but if he did, the knowledge is currently lost).

Electricity in Everston Academy

When the Barrier fell, it didn't just separate the Everlands from the rest of Nai - it also cut if off from the Naian electrical grid. Because of this Everston Academy had to borrow electricity from Earth. Which was no easy task, given the academy's electrical system was built for receiving wireless power. In order to still keep everyone safe, but be able to light up the place with electric power, the staff & the community of Everston had to convert the system into a cable-based one.

"Ok, El", you might say "So electricity only for lighting. Does this mean you can bring a flashlight from Earth but not your laptop purely because a flashlight is for lighting and laptop provides more?".

Well, no.

Flashlights are not included in the "electricity is only for lighting".

See, the electric current is able to run through even such magic-dense environments like Everston Academy, purely because of the specifically designed grid it is contained in. A special receiver used to capture electricity from the power plant in Nai and then distributed it through the Everston campus, making sure it runs only through magic-dampening cables & shines through fortified light-bulbs.

The problem with batteries is that even if the flashlight was built to shield then from magic, the amount of power 1 or 4 batteries produce is so weak in comparison to Magician magic, that there is almost 99% probability that the flashlight (or radio, or cellphone, or computer, or other small device you might think of) would explode. The smaller the battery, the easier it is for weaker magic to affect it.

Therefore, all electronic devices are strictly forbidden in the academy & in the Everlands in general. They were also forbidden in Nai when it was still reachable.

Technological Inventions of the witch community

Electricity might be rare, but that doesn't mean witched do not use technology at all. Everything mechanical is ok around magic, so you can easily find watches, typewriters, pens (though you'll find ballpoint ones, none of them contains plastic so they might look a little different than you're used to) as well as automaton versions of many Earth technologies.

Wind up, running on water, fire or air - there's plenty of automatic devices that make the witch society resemble a steampunk one a little.

Other non-electrical technologies are created by binding magic to objects (these are made by Binders as you can figure out).

The most common are crystal balls, used for communication (more about this & other communication methods in an upcoming post)

The others include:

Objects of Focus/ Channeling Objects - these are things that Magicians use to more precisely channel their magic & control the stream of their magic into the act they want it to cause. Many of these are wands or wand-like objects (for example spoons, feathers, paintbrushes), but many are also things like rocks, tapes/strings, boxes and other, more complex artifacts. The rarer the Magician, the more complex their CO usually is. However, the most common & the rarest ones seem to usually need no object of focus at all. It all seems to vary on individual basis more than on Magician category basis.

Exit compass - a magical compass that always guides you to the nearest exit.

Infinity sampler - a box that can store an infinite amount of samples, the must-have of any researcher Magician who needs to preserve tiny pieces of things in many tiny bottles.

Multi tool - as the name says, this is the magical equivalent of a Swiss army knife; You need to open a simple magical lock? Use a multi tool. You need to fix a crystal ball? Use a multi tool. Your object of focus needs repair? Use a multi tool. The only thing it probably can't help you with is a broken heart XD

Warming clothes - most popular form are vests, sweaters, gloves and socks. Made out of a Binder's Wool, these clothes will keep you warm even in the deep snows of winter

Noctulars - night vision binoculars; Hated by the staff at Everston, loved by the students. Who doesn't love a good sneak-around-at-night magical object, eh? >u<

Everlight candle - this candle can only be permanently blown out by a very skilled Shadowist, otherwise you may use it like a regular oil lamp/lantern by letting the flame fall low or making it rise higher with your basic witch abilities. Very useful, works basically like a flashlight

The Everston Buildings windows - these ensure safety in the buildings. If a thing that would shatter them is thrown at them, they melt away to let it pass. If it is a living being - they turn elastic to catch them and usually slide them back into the room.

The Everston Academy Entry Card - a very important magic object that every potential student finds in their possessions on Drafting Day. The card works like a portal & a key. Only the one who the card is intended for will be transported to the academy by it & it will not leave the designated person, until it is used by them. The hardest to replicate, designed by Safiya Everston herself and made by the academy's specially trained Binder. Only this Magician & the academy's Echoist know the secret of how to make these cards and how they find their recipients.

That's the gist of it ^w^!

As always, thank you for reading till the end! <3 If you want to be added/removed form the tag list, let me know :)

WIP Taglist: @henrike-does-writing-sometimes , @thewalkingnerdx , @writingonesdreams

[johannas-motivational-insults]

I’m a little late for this, but 11. What’s a fanfic idea you haven’t done yet? And I have a slightly modified 6. Is there a detail you’re waiting on bated breath for readers to notice, and if so could you give the vaguest of hints in the correct direction? I want to take a crack at it, which will give me a good excuse to reread, lol

Hmm well there’s the post-canon first time fic, which I did start writing but it got waylaid by Hail Mary, whoops. And another fic set in the same universe as that one, Solidarity, and The Sting in My Eyes (a loose series) where they go up to Prime’s ship and Catra finds her mask. And... is now a good time to announce that I’m working on Satisfaction sequel? ;)

As for 6, I honestly can’t think of anything right now, I’m super tired. It kinda changes chapter to chapter anyway. Instead I’ll give you a few random facts that have yet to show up in Hail Mary but are established in my head:

Lonnie’s last name is Williams and her jersey number is 23

Catra works at Denny’s (and yes I tried to work in a joke about a free birthday meal in chapter 4 but none of my attempts fit)

Catra’s father was of Puerto Rican heritage (his parents moved to the States a few years before they died), and her mom was mixed European. (I’m thinking primarily Irish and Welsh, possibly some German thrown in there, but she wasn’t really aware of her heritage as her great-grandparents immigrated in the 1800′s. She was basically from a generic impoverished white family.)

Adora’s mom was a mix of Norwegian, Welsh, and Scottish, and the last name Grayson came from the Scottish side. Her father is an unknown entity but I headcanon him as still alive and unaware of Adora’s existence, or at least unaware of the fact that she’s his. Her maternal grandparents are still alive and aware of her existence, but she was born addicted to heroin and they didn’t feel they could take care of her and their troubled daughter (who got clean and relapsed several times and eventually died of an intentional overdose when Adora was 14), so they gave her up to the system hoping a better family would take her. They were, of course, unaware that she’d turn out to be autistic and that would torpedo her chances of getting adopted (along with the drug history, obviously).

On a less heavy note, the green-haired and brown-haired side cadets are named Devon and Alycia in this universe, and they’re dating. Devon grew up in Thaymor and knows pretty much everyone there, and this leads to some interesting social encounters at Entrapta’s party. (Yes I’m bringing back my hot OC, shhh...)

EDIT: Oh! And yeah, this is in the tags of the fic and I think I’ve mentioned it on my blog, but it’s only been hinted at so far in the body of the story: Catra has undiagnosed ADHD. She kinda half-assed self-diagnosed it and is bitter that Adora gets accommodations for her ADHD because she’s officially diagnosed. Adora got diagnosed for several reasons:

It was more obvious with her because she struggled a lot in school, while Catra was better able to compensate for the scattered focus with her genius-level intellect

Adora was already diagnosed with ASD and they’re known to go together

*hurk* white privilege, i.e. hyperactivity is more likely to get written off as a behavioral disorder for POC

Weaver wanted to get it looked into with Adora because she’s the one that matters to her, while she just saw Catra as a brat (mostly because she’s a dick who writes people off, but also because Adora was a pretty even split of the inattentive and hyperactive types, while Catra skewed more hyperactive).

Related, Weaver put both Catra and Adora in gymnastics when they were 5 because they were bouncing off the walls and driving her to drink (more). Adora was clumsy af but had fun jumping into the foam pit and goofing off. She did it for a couple years because she liked spending that time with Catra, but gave it up when it started to get more competitive and she found other sports she liked better. Catra was much more coordinated and took to it easily, which was the only reason Weaver put any effort into her for the next several years. She quit as a pre-teen because the emphasis on feminine presentation made her really uncomfortable (i.e. triggered some serious gender dysphoria) and she hated the pressure to stay skinny, as she wanted to bulk up.

So yeah, if you figured out Catra has ADHD without seeing it in the tags or on my blog, you’ve already done some great detective work. ;)

Fanfic Day Meme

[inourelement]

[Worldbuilding]

[Worldbuilding facts currently unavailable while blog is rebooting]

More may be added onto this as things are revealed in posts!

[starstuck-homebound]

Avalon Exploration Fleet Escape Pod