#worldbuilding project

[clownomics]

Polka Pox is a viral infection common among clowns regardless of breed ancestry, characterized by colorful polka-dot rashes on the skin. Symptoms include fever, itching, and fatigue. Ensure your pet clown is up to date on their vaccinations!

[yzegem]

Adult male sphinx.

Another sapient creature for the Cross Lands setting.

Sphinxes evolved from a forest ground dwelling ape similar to a mandrill (obviously) that became more specialized for living on open savannah. They grew in size and took a digitigrade stance.

With this new way of locomotion they lost their opposable thumbs, but they didn’t become vestigial appendixes and still retain a lot of mobility, specially on their hands. Their fingers, though short and stubby, also retain a lot of mobility and can grasp small objects and aid in eating and grooming peers.

Their diet expanded to include meat, specially carrion. Though they are not the best hunters, their large canine teeth and coordination in large groups allow them to intimidate predators off their prey. They can also grasp relatively heavy stones with their hands to smash bones open and eat the bone marrow.

They ecosystem they inhabit hosts mass large herbivore migrations (similar to the Serengeti migration) that sphinxes follow and have developed a close relationship with.

The sphinxes benefit from the protection of these large groups and are also known to rest on top of wild horses.

The sphinxes also feed on the sick, injured or elderly herbivores left behind, but generally avoid calves.

On the other hand, the sphinxes have a great vision (they have front facing eyes and can see the same color range as humans) so they can detect and alert when predators get close. They are also sapient, have great memory and live longer than most of the herbivores, so they get to know the routes and the predator’s behavior really well. When predators get too close, the sphinxes are really good at scaring them away. In general, the herds guided by sphinxes are more successful during the migration. So much so that some stay together even when the migration finishes.

Over the centuries, the sphinxes have slowly “domesticated/tamed” these herds, specially the horses, and human domestication of the horse in this setting started off this sphinx stock.

Regarding their intelligence, they have spoken language, but also rely a lot on scent for identifying each other, so they are not that good at recognizing exact facial features or visual features in general. This, and their lack of dexterity in their hands blocks them from further technological advances. (this is my own personal interpretation of how human intelligence came to be how it is).

They do surpass the human mind in one area. While humans are not very good at conceptualizing large quantities in our mind and need to picture them in groups or other strategies (a billion of anything is too much for us to picture, so we usually think of how long it would take us to spend that many dollars, for example), sphinxes can intuitively comprehend and calculate with large quantities. This is largely because their sapience evolved to guide and manage very large herds and they needed to keep them in sight and in mind at all times. Who knows? maybe in the future some sphinx living among humans might become the next great mathematician, or be hired as living calculators…

Sporadic peaceful contact with both humans and giants have occurred, and tales of red-faced dog people have spread among distant human cultures.

bonus crappy sketches:

[grirnoires]

the matcherrrrrrs

[corabun]

The Weeping Bride — Portrait of Emmeline Albrion by a well-known painter, 140 A.G.

The union of Lady Emmeline Albrion, heiress of Lion's Gate, and Lord Cerhir Beithir, Lord of Edina, sealed the long-awaited pact between their houses. This alliance was forged in the aftermath of their loyalty to King Alfons II during the war against his elder brother, King Philip I. Yet, despite the political triumph, the marriage was anything but happy. Lady Emmeline’s sorrow was evident, for in every portrait painted after her wedding, not once was she seen smiling.

Emmeline is a character created by me and lives in the original setting Artesia. You can read more about Emmeline here

(art by @shripscapi )

[lizardsaurus-art]

Where have I been? Making a game!

That's right, while I was gone, I was basically just working on a game related to my world of @total-convergence. The first playable version is technically out, but I have to fix some bugs relating to display on different screen sizes... Stay tuned for more updates!

[redd956]

could you give me some advice on worldbuliding gender roles? trying to write a matriarchy

Sure, of course! :D

Worldbuilding: Gender Roles

There's many interesting ways to take gender roles in worldbuilding, from matriarchs to patriarchs to other alike.

I do have some other posts going into things related to gender roles that can also be of help.

Wedding Ceremonies

Gender & Sexuality

Head of Household

Typically gender roles are centered in the household the strongest, following a head of the household, or head of the family. Just in real life we see this change from culture to culture. Even patriarchal structures can be drastically different from one another, such as nuclear family of the United States versus the Salaryman of East Asia.

Their placement as leader in the family, often represents their role in society as well (bosses, political figures, decision makers, etc.) The same goes for the other shoe.

What values does this society hold that makes a certain gender be more upheld in familial hierarchies? Is it how mothers are seen as strong, nurturing, and good caretakers for their ability to produce children? Is it how one gender has historically worked in difficult workforces or fought as soldiers? Was it something in the anatomy?

This can be even more wild when it comes to fantasy races, and the differences amongst their genders.

Societal Expectations

With gender roles comes societal expectations: pressures that hold over the heads of children and adults alike.

These expectations can be as small as expectant personality traits, to the biggest decisions in one's life. Who are the soldiers? Who are the housekeepers? Who does the cleaning? Who rears the children?

Such expectations would be suggested to people all throughout their life through society, from school, to work, to even what one does in their free time.

How these expectations came about can be both logical and irrational. Many of these social ideals can originate from historical events, religious beliefs, spiritual practices, traditions, and even malicious influence.

Marriage & Love

For awhile in the United States it was customary for the man to ask out the woman, simply because of gender roles. Nowadays has those rigid roles have faded away, its a more equal playing field.

The more rigid of gender roles the more there is opportunity for blind spots of darkness in romance, from heteronormative societies, to domestic abuse, to more.

This opens opportunities for things like arranged marriages, dowries, extravagant wedding ceremonies, and favoritism amongst children.

Who gets to say what in a relationship can be dependent on gender roles? Why in more equal societies it simply won't matter...

Employment & Housework

What are these gender roles found in the workforce? Are certain people not allowed to even work in particular workforces? Is promotions more difficult to get for one gender or another? What happens if things suddenly change?

The goes for things inside the home, especially childcare. Are certain chores and duties split amongst the members of a relationship? Are children expected to take certain duties in the house as they grow older? What kind of things does breadwinner have to do when they return home?

Beauty Standards

Beauty standards, although seemingly random, often times can also reflect gender roles and cultural standards. They change alongside culture, reflecting ideas good and bad of the current times.

Although not everyone bends to beauty standards, they still remain important and catch a variety of people within their clutches.

American values of the current day overtly hyper-masculine man with a square jaw so sharp it requires plastic surgery, and abs so defined they can only be achieved through severe dehydration is also an overrepresentation of American values upheld in toxic masculinity, such as physical strength, sharpness/rigidness, with a sprinkle of racism.

In the meanwhile the East Asian standard of the submissive wife is can be found in someone so pale they never leave the house, so skinny they cannot fight back, and so thin they have the will put themselves through torture for those around them, therefor potentially their own lover.

These extreme beauty standards though don't really at all mean what the actual common person finds attractive.

Despite how frequent the skinny Asian beauty is in China, the endearing image of the Chinese mom is one with weight and a happy round face. While the ideal man of plenty of American's includes a beer-belly, hair all over, and puppy eyes.

This doesn't even get into how these very tropes of beauty standards can subvert in queer cultures...

Discrimination & Prejudice

With rigid gender roles comes extreme ideals, and usually comes discrimination.

Due to how prevalent sexism is both ways alone, better yet towards women all around the world, about everyone knows how it goes. I'm sure everyone's heard a sexist comment at least once.

These things can also hurt cisgender, transgender, and genderqueer people alike when it comes to those who feel need a to incite their gender role expectations onto others.

In a society that is more friendly, lenient, and queer allied; hopefully rampant sexism is a thing of the past.

Genderqueer Roles

In societies of ancient times and cultures long since damaged by imperialism, it hasn't been uncommon for genderqueer people to be seen as sacred or more magical in some kind of way. While strictly heteronormative cultures see such queerness as an anomaly.

Designing gender roles in worldbuilding can apply to queer genders as well. One of my favorite pieces of fanfictions that experiments with this is Growing Up Gerudo, a comic following an AU of Legend of Zelda.

In my NMA worldbuilding series, the Irisians of the north operate on six primary genders.

Gender roles aren't necessarily more lenient despite the upheld values of queerness in Irisian culture, but instead lean heavily on anyone who is a cisgender mobub, as they are seen as the most magically adept for spiritual reasons since they present with bigenitelia, while also having the preferred gendered body type to Irisian values.

Mobub are expected to be the leader, excel in academics and workforces alike, and rear children one way or another. Meanwhile the opposing gender, Jadl (androgynous with a lack of sexual organs), are expected to be supporters to others, especially the mobub.

Either way I just wanted to say that you can do this gender roles stuff with worldbuilt fantasy species and gender queerness too...

[total-convergence]

The Yanaw, a creature I vreated based on my friend who maked weird noises. They’re small predators that live in forests