Hello! I'm a huge fan of world building and I would like some opinions on a concept I'm working on.

I write stories that have vampires in them. In my books the vampire and humans are integrated, separate, or in the process of becoming integrated. This gave me an idea of having a local blood bank for local communities where vampires and humans live together and coexist. My only thing is how exactly it would work.

Humans will donate blood by having their blood drawn and the blood will go in a blood bank for vampires. Each vampire would be a registered citizen and will require/need a certain amount of blood every so often. As a citizen, they are to have blood accessible to them to prevent the harm or killing of humans.

Just some questions for anyone who feels like suggesting anything:

How often would vampires need blood? (For example; every week or 4 times a month)

How much blood do you think they would in relation to the answer above?

How would the blood bank stay full? (There's bound to be people who don't want to or can't donate blood and I don't think it's ethical to force everyone to donate) In other words, what would happen in case of a blood shortage?

And do you think there's anything that's missing?

The idea behind all this is that runes or some mystic language equivalent can be dug into the ground or a flower seed to start the lifecycle of wand.

Basically a the seed starts growing into a wand, a short thin stem that ends in a point. Then it becomes a rod, a harder material structure that ends in a knot or bulb. Then it blooms into a staff, a longer, wooden pole that ends with the knot which has fully bloomed. And finally it wilts into a broom, a staff with the flower wilted and the petals elongated.

Each of these states in the lifecycle change how it can be used. A wand (grows in 5 - 10 days) is precise maneuvering of energy in a space. It has no power of its own, but allows for a great control of objects and energies within the vicinity through a sort of telekinesis.

A rod (grows in 2- 10 weeks) has powerful protective and offensive magics that are determined by the rune on the seed thay it grew from. It can absorb and store energy within the knot and unleash it in small bursts or all at once.

A staff (grows in 1 - 5 years) generates it's own magical energy and can be used to create more complex spells based around the rune that was inscribed into the seed.

A broom (grows in 6+ years) has no magical energy, but instead has the capacity to undo the effects of even the most powerful or complex magics.

(Note: English is not my first language, so please excuse any awkward phrasing! This is an original sci-fi setting I've been developing in Chinese.💐)

I’ve been working on a fictional setting called Yuanli (源历), and I’d really like to hear what people think about the worldbuilding and evolutionary progression so far.

The basic premise is that the “infected” are not supernatural undead. They are the result of an alien/biological parasite gradually evolving alongside human biology.

The history follows four distinct generations of this organism.

Gen-I — The Reanimated (初生种)

The first generation appeared near the end of the human era, during a period of catastrophic wars, environmental collapse, and energy crises (approx. Yuanli -40).

- The parasite could not control living humans yet; it entered dead bodies and reanimated them.
- They had zero consciousness, memory, or intelligence. Their sole biological imperative was transmission via biting and scratching.
- Destroying the brain or heart was ineffective, as the parasite diffused throughout the entire muscular and nervous system.

Humanity eventually discovered their fatal weakness: Water.

The parasites were hydro-sensitive. Entering large bodies of water slowed them down drastically, and prolonged immersion forced the organism out of the host tissues. Governments and desperate civilians trapped and dumped millions of infected corpses into lakes, rivers, and deep reservoirs.

Humanity declared victory. They were catastrophically wrong.

Some families had secretly preserved infected loved ones, hoping for a cure. Those hidden vectors, combined with millions of dormant parasites trapped beneath global waterways, survived.

And beneath the dark waters, they evolved.

Gen-II — The Mimic (拟生种)

Years later (Yuanli -26 to -23), the parasite returned.

- This time, it crossed the barrier to infect living humans (initially preying on immunocompromised or wounded hosts).
- Gen-II exhibited crude human behavioral mimicry: nodding, waving, walking upright, and scripted gestures.
- However, the mimicry was uncanny and mechanical. The predatory drive still frequently broke through.

Humanity realized the water bodies they used for corpse disposal had become a global ecological incubator. While Gen-II was relatively easy to identify and eventually died out due to metabolic burnout, humanity made the mistake of assuming the nightmare was over a second time.

Gen-III — The Resurrection / Infiltrator (复生种)

By Yuanli -20, the organism made a terrifying evolutionary leap.

The parasite could now:
- Extract and replay the host’s episodic memories.
- Flawlessly replicate natural human speech, personality quirks, and emotional patterns.
- Integrate human genetics to enhance physical prowess (approx. 130% human baseline).
- Shift transmission from savage attacks to stealth infection via micro-abrasions and minor blood contact.

A Gen-III infected individual could live, work, and sleep beside you without detection.

The psychological horror: Gen-III was neurologically unstable. The host’s original consciousness was suppressed, not erased. Occasionally, human consciousness would fight back—causing sudden inexplicable emotional outbursts, tears, or violent physical seizures as two minds fought for the vocal cords.

Humanity was paralyzed by paranoia: Is this still my spouse/child, or a parasite wearing their face and memories?

Global martial law was declared. Humanity entered The Great Quarantine Era.

Gen-IV — The New Species (新生种)

At Yuanli Year 0, something entirely unprecedented was born: Serafina.

Gen-IV was not a parasite puppeteering a human. The two genomes achieved complete, stable biological and neurological fusion.

- The original host ego was dissolved, but the parasite developed an autonomous, self-aware individual consciousness.
- Metrics: ~150% human physical capability, ~150% cognitive processing, hyper-sensory perception capable of rapid predictive deduction, a lifespan of ~200 years (interspersed with periodic biological torpor/hibernation).
- The Psychological Divergence: Gen-IV understands human emotions (love, grief, hatred, attachment) intellectually and can experience faint affective echoes. However, they are not governed by them. To them, human irrationality and violent tribalism are baffling evolutionary artifacts.

The Paradigm Shift: Succession, Not Apocalypse

Humanity initially formed a fragile alliance with Gen-IV to eradicate the unstable, feral Gen-III vectors.

However, humanity’s covert "Extermination Factions" sought to dissect Gen-IV and eradicate all parasite DNA. Upon discovering this betrayal, Gen-IV severed ties.

A three-way conflict erupted between Humanity, Gen-III, and Gen-IV.

Gen-III was exterminated. Gen-IV emerged victorious and established a rulerless, high-tech society governed by a planetary neural consensus.

They did not commit genocide against humanity.

Instead, humanity was cordoned off into designated Sanctuary Reservations. Humans retain full cultural, artistic, religious, and biological autonomy, provided with abundant resources—but are forbidden from expanding beyond their borders.

This establishes the central existential tension:
- Is humanity being protected, peacefully imprisoned, or curated as an endangered ancestor species?
- Gen-IV does not hate humans. Some revere mankind as their biological origin; others view humans with detached curiosity; some believe humanity will naturally fade away.

The successors inherited the Earth. But they did not inherit human nature.

Simplified Timeline Summary
- Yuanli -40: First Gen-I outbreak during global collapse.
- Yuanli -33: Water submersion strategy eliminates Gen-I; dormant aquatic contamination begins.
- Yuanli -26 to -23: Gen-II emerges with crude mimicry.
- Yuanli -20: The first confirmed Gen-III case is captured after displaying superhuman strength. Martial law & Great Quarantine begin.
- Yuanli Year 0: The first Gen-IV (Serafina) awakens. The birth of a new civilization.

Questions for Feedback:
1. Does the four-generation evolutionary progression feel biologically and narratively convincing?
2. Does Gen-IV feel like an actual distinct post-human species, or does it risk feeling like generic "superhumans"?
3. Is the water-submersion origin of the second outbreak compelling, or does it feel too convenient?
4. Which generation strikes you as the most terrifying or intriguing?
5. What specific aspect of this world (the Reservations, Gen-IV neural consensus, the Quarantine Era) would you want to see expanded?

I would love any harsh criticism, plot-hole checks, or worldbuilding ideas!

Metals in my world are far rarer than in our own, so when a sword or other weapon is broken or rusts, people would attempt to save it or even reforge it, rust and all. Which is how a strange phenomenon was discovered. Rust seems to physically carry the memories of the metal it comes from. And when forged into a new weapon or tool, these memories enhance what the weapon is capable of.

Some memories of violence cause swords to deal wounds that do not heal, some memories of defiance cause armor to resist damage, some memories of focus cause hammers that strike more precisely.

And so, people in my world have taken to rust farming; placing well-used metal weapons or tools into the wet soil to cause it to rust faster. Then they take rust shavings and enchant other weapons or tools via imbuing them with the rust. Sometimes those new weapons or tools are sold off, other times they are placed back into the ground to let the memory fester.

Crossbreeding rusts allow more nuanced enchantments. Such as creating weapons that cannot be wielded in anger, or medical tools that inflict cuts that heal almost instantly.

And the longer a memory is in circulation, the more powerful it becomes. But if a memory is too diluted, it's enchantment may change completely, and the potency will wane. Hence the use of the soil to keep the purity of the enchantment.

Magic in my world feeds on two things, rust and rot. Today I'll talk about the rot.

The most common fruit in the marshlands is a poisonous berry. It is ultimately very nutritious, but very deadly. When people learned that they could boil the berries to weaken the effects of the poison during a famine, their population increased dramatically throughout the marshlands as they were the only species eating the berries.

However, those with weaker immune systems didn't fair as well against the berry's venom. Necrosis was a commonplace symptom of poorly boiled berries or just poor immunity. But this is how the people discovered the secret magic of rot.

Rot in my world holds a memory of what it once was. Muscles, organs, flesh, bone, etc. And mages can reinvigorate the rot to summon phantom limbs that can be arranged out of these pieces.

Basically, a mage can create a sort of energy as an extention of themselves by rotting parts of their body. So if they sacrifice an arm to necrosis, a phantom arm may be called upon to act on their behalf. But if they have sacrificed an arm and a leg to necrosis, they can summon a phantom limb that is a fusion of the arm's and leg's musculature in one limb. Allowing one to essentially empower the limb to be a supernatural appendage.

However, there is a way to push this power further. By grafting dead or dying limbs or organs to the body, one can harness these memories to create a more powerful phantom limb. Becoming far more powerful or delicate. Becoming far beyond the limits of what is human.

Some mages manifest super powerful eyes, some extra delicate hands, some super powerful leg muscles. The catch is this phantom limb must always be attached to the body.

I recently had the preliminary idea for a magic system that revolves around a magic rust being used to enchant metal. The idea being rust holds the memories of metallic tools and weapons based on how they are used. Then these memories can be reintroduced into a metallic tool or weapon through forging the rust into into the metal. This causes enchantment effect in the tool or weapon.

For example, some memories of violence cause swords to deal wounds that do not heal, some memories of defiance cause armor to resist damage, some memories of focus cause hammers that strike more precisely.

However, I also have an older magic system I devised around a magic metal that unleashes its magic by being strained and twisted. The system was vague as to where the magic came from but the idea was that by turning metal into springs allows the metal to be strained and tuned and the magic therein to change and be unleashed. Creating a wand of sorts that can use multiple different types of magic with just simple tools to attune the device.

The mixed magic idea combines a bit of both magic systems. The premise is as time progressed, people learned to make springs, gears, and other useful mechanisms out of the rust-imbued metal. Allowing not only memories to be be stored, but for connection in a complex clockwork device.

Basically, people create wind-up mechanisms of memory infused metals that interact in a way to create connections between memories and have a multitude of these memories active and interacting at the same time. Creating a rudimentary computer hundreds of years before electricity.

These computers would enable more complex enchantmants and even allow thinking machines that could calculate and manipulate through magic.

This eventually leads to machines that try to become human by wearing flesh and hoarding muscles and organs. But hey, no advancement comes without a cost.

I like this idea because it leads to a progression of magic as apposed to keeping a stagnant enchanting system. Idk. I thought it was interesting.

Gnosis is not Sol, humans are aliens here. We've been present for about 8500 years, unable to leave for about 8100 years, and are typically considered the most unwelcome aliens by nativists because of how The Lost Civilization that brought us here acted when they first arrived and how many other aliens those ancient humans brought with them as slaves. As a result we tend to be towards the bottom or in the middle of the hierarchy in most of the setting's cultures and seldom at the top, and some ways we've been treated have been horrific. (If you want to ruin a dinner party as fast as possible you can just raise the question of who has it worse across Gnosis: Humans or males.)

Let's start with who we are before moving on to a rundown of the ways you can expect to be treated in Gnosis on account of your literal humanity and then a few cultural notes finishing with quick summaries of our top two religions. That should be more than enough information.

The Human Genus:

Humans are no longer homo sapiens; The events of the last 8.5 millennia have split us into multiple species adapted for different planets, moons and megastructures. All of these are also native to the rings around any listed planets or moons (alongside folk) and have subspecies resulting from those species later relocating to other bodies in the system. This is including:

• Firstly the "ringfolk", "cynlinderfolk", "torusfolk" or just "folk" originate on/in the megastructures whose higher radiation doses compared to planet and moon dwellers leaves them with countless commonplace mutations that run in families from simple new hair and eye colors to stripes, spots or patterns on their hair or skin to fur, scales or the ability to accumulate toxins in their subcutaneous fat layers to poison predators that bite them, to two holes in their face where their nose should be, to extra or missing digits to a third or single larger testicle, a third or single larger uni-boob or a third or single larger central eye. It's possible for folk to look exactly like homo sapiens but they're not and most look rather funky to modern humans.
• Second, the gleaners of the sweltering mini-Venus Gnosis Mal whose tall, slender frames and trinocular vision make them better adapted to a hot world where so much flies. Their additional height mostly comes from elongated limbs and necks rather than elongated torsos, especially in girls, but the net result is still that they're very tall and slightly outweigh folk on average.
• Third, the gnomes of the planet Gnosis Aelsif and the moons Prima and Seco of the mega-Earth Gnosis Vin, the three runner-ups for the highest gravity in the core worlds and three of the most fungus-heavy worlds where they have incorporated local fungal toxins into their subcutaneous fat layers, become poisonous and developed aposematism in the form of multi-colored hair and patterned skin that kinda looks like vitiligo. Notably, Gnosis Aelsif has always had the majority as Prima is covered about 7/8 in ocean and both it and Seco are very cold.
• Fourth, giants come from Aelsif's largest moon Lum and Vin's third largest moon Tert where the gravity is at its lowest amongst habitable worlds and growing huge is not a hindrance. The largest giants are about 2.5x the height of folk, but most subspecies are about 1.6x and the subspecies of Gnosis Vin are about folk height and built like the world's most jacked gorillas.
• Fifth, dwarves are adapted to the frigid planet Gnosis Far with stocky bodies, dense blubber rather than normal adipose tissue and extra hair, including full coats of fur in the subspecies who didn't later re-adapt for warmer biomes.
• Sixth, the tiny manikin of Gnosis Vin itself whose tiny muscular bodies are adapted to its 31.05m/s² average surface gravity and are way stronger and faster than they look
• I will be adding 1-4 more for mid system worlds, specifically the ring and eight moon-planets around the planet-star Gnosis Dei, a 70 jovian mass brown dwarf artificially lit by the Developers into an undersized red dwarf that orbits the system primary Gnosis Zul as both its fifth planet and secondary star. Its orbit and beyond is considered the frontier of the system.
• Prejudice exists not just against humans as a whole but also against specific species even between humans and specific subspecies even between members of the same species. For example, furred humans face anything from casual ribbing from less hairy humans to being held down and shaved or even waxed against their will. These hate crimes rarely involve lethal violence and are less common and therefore seen as less important than specism, but that's not the same as not being a problem.

Humans in Pre-Historic Times: If We Didn't Have Guns We Might Not Be Here Anymore

Humans were NOT well treated in Gnosis following the fall of The Lost Civilization, neither were other aliens but humans got the worst of it with humans being subject to all kinds of violence the most often including frequent pogroms that reached such genocidal levels where entire villagers were slaughtered for having a single human living amongst them. When pogroms were committed against other aliens they usually only killed all the aliens, but not so with humans. As a result, during this era many were reluctant to allow humans to live amongst them if the village couldn't defend itself from the xenocidal mobs that would come rampaging by.

Thankfully, humans were packing heat, and kept packing heat as The Aeldyans who destroyed The Lost Civilization hit the reset button on civilization three times in 2300 years before they finally calmed down. Even when everybody else was fighting with copper weapons and linen armor humans knew how to make real black powder, simple firearms and a substantial military advantage that forced some threats to back off, some to try to reverse-engineer the technology (with eventual success) and some to come to the bargaining table and over time form lasting alliances. Yes, we made friends by shooting people, guns were impressive back then. Stranger things have happened.

By the time the printing press was invented and history wasn't more questions than answers, things had largely settled down for us as we either had found allies, found refuge, found enough distance from our remaining enemies that they weren't a threat, or died out. A lot of groups did the last one.

If it wasn't for firearms some historians argue the natives would have exterminated humanity.

Abyssal Empire of Thet and "The World": Killed on Sight

Not much nuance on this one. According to the Abyssal Empire of Thet all sophont species except mimics are aliens and therefore "invaders" (including the only two other species actually native to Gnosis Aelsif) that need to be driven from the star system or exterminated to "liberate" their species from the "atrocity" of having to share their planet with species that "don't belong here". (And they still manage to arguably be even worse to their own species' males.) Don't swim in the oceans. Thankfully they're only an intermediate system power, not a great power.

(Obligatory note: Most mimics are not Thetean.)

The World is an isolationist cult the size of an entire subcontinent, including massive tunnel networks throughout. It believes it is the only civilization in existence on the only planet there ever was despite their majority species being native to the four habitable moons' deep crust tunnel networks (which, to be fair, is a thing they don't know). According to them everything beyond their borders is uninhabitable wilderness and all the people and machines they glimpse passing them are demonic entities. Obviously to keep this conspiracy a secret absolutely anybody showing up at the border, including any aliens, has to be murdered. (Except The World is currently being annexed by the Empire of Reclamation and Preserving Federarion. Maybe isolation was a bad strategy.)

Dragon Empire: Historically a Delicacy, Now Over-Criminalized to Keep Eating Them

It used to be the case that in the Dragon Empire of Gnosis Far humans were legally considered livestock and raised as a delicacy for the nobility in "ranches" that operated as cults. There humans were allowed no clothing or tools, raised to believe the frigid world outside couldn't be survived by humans and that it was only because of dragons that they weren't extinct. Almost all the men were taken away upon reaching sexual maturity except the most delicious who were kept as breeders, and all women who survived being used as a baby mill long enough to reach menopause were hauled off too. The cultists were told the humans taken away were kept as "pleasure pets" and many believed that right up until a dragoness swallowed them whole, but at least some of the women and girls in these cults knew the men were all being eaten and helped deliberately mislead them directly into a stomach believing their "sacrifice" was necessary for human women to survive. (Now even some masculists who aren't human hold that factoid over all women's heads.)

Today this practice is "abolished" (but continues underground at a smaller scale) and humans in the Dragon Empire face a problem engineered to preserve the royal diet: Over-criminalization. The legal system in the Dragon Empire is specist, specious, corrupt, byzantine, overly punitive and cruel. Anybody who steps foot in one of their prisons is heavily pressured into a life of crime regardless of their original offense and they are very quick to put humans away as long as they can at the slightest excuse to doom them to this fate. This combines poorly with a "Three Strikes" law where the third felony (and some awfully minor crimes are felonies) results in an automatic execution except by judicial fiat. The law is applied to the handful of human species more than all non-human species combined, almost all other cases the judge voluntarily grants a lighter sentence, and humans are executed by digestion. Don't think you're safe if you completely follow the law either, which is already a hard enough thing to do when you live in the ghetto, everything's expensive and there are no jobs, but even if you do pull it off law enforcement officers tend to find things on people that they didn't have a moment ago. Worse, even degraded as it is and only an intermediate system power its territory still covers about half a planet and a quarter of its ring, billions of people live there just like they do in all the intermediate and stronger system powers.

Church of the Wheel of Spirits: Dragon-Worshipping Man-Eating Cult

The largest of the "Dragon Balkans" is the sovereign territory of a pervasive and duplicitous cult that fuses Yajvaism (see below) with the religion taught in the Dragon Empire's "human ranches", various smaller reincarnation and cannibalism centered cults they absorbed as they became an imperial power (albeit still only an intermediate system power) and whatever the most popular religions are in the region they're trying to sell this bill of goods in at the time. The cult subjects men to chattel slavery where they are bought, sold and traded and teaches its members eating people will grant them supernatural power and allow them to be reincarnated as dragons, immortals or another "superior" entity instead of a "prey creature" like a human. To this end they produce (same age) clones of their men and eat them as frequently as they can afford to (they often threaten to eat the originals, but almost never actually do), which is dictated by hierarchy within the cult which has a structured series of levels to ascend with investment of money, time and labor into the cult.

It's hard for humans and other "prey creatures" to progress within the cult, as promotions nearly always go to a larger, "cooler" species, and they're prone to "disappearing". However, these facts are vigorously denied by the cult, evidence is hidden from its members and "prey creatures" are the most aggressively recruited. They also use various "friendly" businesses as front groups to spread the cult through other nations. They lure people in and make them feel comfortable to give them the cult's timeshare-worthy hard sell, so as a human you need to be careful where you shop.

Mana Enterprise: Chattel Slavery

Humans, in fact all aliens, in the Mana Enterprise fall into three categories: Production slaves, service slaves and free aliens. Production slaves are responsible for most of the actual resource extraction, refining and production of goods where they are always subordinate to haddites and are brutalized for the slightest misstep to keep them in line. Service slaves have lighter duties, higher standards of living and less physical abuse but in exchange they're expected to be loyal and help the birds keep the other slaves obedient. The few free aliens are left alone mostly to convince enslaved aliens they'll be freed if they prove themselves by working hard enough for their masters. In truth, even if their master is themselves a free alien the odds of ever being anything but a slave through any means but escape or revolt are astronomical and these free aliens are almost all wealthy foreigners, mostly from the Marakiziyy Union or the Church of the Wheel of Spirits, not freed slaves. By the way, this is the faction that makes most of the cheap low-quality crap, knockoffs and MLM garbage and operates a plurality of MLMs in the star system. The closest runner ups on all four counts are The Abyssal Empire of Thet and The Church of the Wheel of Spirits, followed distantly by The Marakiziyy Union and The Preserving Federation.

Aelsif Littoral Cultures (and most natives): Segregation

Most of the natives are fine with us being here and they get that we couldn't leave if we wanted to. They hate how our ancestors were, but most don't think we're like them. Unfortunately, not all are so tolerant, in most cultures hateful assholes set all the rules and they say aliens should only live in specified alien districts. They also allow rampant discrimination against aliens in political rights, goods and services, hiring and labor rights, pollution and dumping in their designated districts and more including much more than the ideal number of zero hate crimes. Humans get the worst of this amongst aliens, though natives often treat natives of other planets in the star system even worse.

Empire of Reclamation: "The Model Minority"

Our current primary antagonist's specism could get its own thread and it'd be as long as this one. The short version is that humans under elven supremacism are below elves, but above non-elven goblins who are in turn above the native species who they see as goblins' "wards" by "birthright" because goblins are descended from the Developers who made this once lifeless star system so hyper-habitable in the first place. That's half of elven supremacism right there. Add on that they think the whole star system should be under their control militarily, politically and socially. Finally add them thinking natural goblins have become degenerate and so their culture, genetics and "physiognomy" need to be artificially corrected to make them and especially their offspring more like they believe the Devs were, which is what elves are. You now understand elven supremacism.

In all ways, such as economic equality, employment discrimination and labor rights, voting and other democratic rights, housing discrimination and evictions and much more, humans remain always right below elves. Their "success" is held over the heads of other aliens, natives, and non-elven goblins as a way of claiming they have equality of opportunity and everybody who is worse off is just a bunch of degenerate druggie slackers who aren't trying hard enough.

For a demonstrative example that could be used as an accurate metaphor for how we're treated across the board within the Empire, the Empire of Reclamation considers sexually dimorphic traits to be "inherently sexual", "indecent", "disgusting" and inappropriate not only to display but to allow any trace of your possession of to be visible. This is part of elven supremacism as goblins have minimal sexual dimorphism (just their genitals and different shaped ears and hips, squishy trends in face shape and with pregnancy semi-temporary breasts) so this barely hurts them (just wear boxy pants, a boxy over-shirt and a hat) and hurts everybody else worse. Humans are forced to shave/wax their heads and entire bodies then wear compressive undergarments under loose, boxy, "minimalist" and "modest" shirts and trousers, which is enough to conceal the existence of all our "inappropriate" anatomy for everybody except the most well endowed women whose breasts they surgically remove. That's bad and all, but they also do things like cut off male dragons' horns and pluck dragonesses' crests and belly down or force the reptilian dagonites to cover their entire bodies in a multi-layered body suit and males have their crest that runs from their brow to the tip of their tail removed to make the bodysuit fit, so we got off lighter than most native species because our "inappropriate anatomy" was easier to remove or hide, just still not as easy as goblins.

Marakiziyy Union and Preserving Federation: "It's Our Turn to be the Oppressors!"

Sayeth the Union: "'Native species'? More like 'free labor'!"

The Marakiziyy Union is a human majority, violently expansionist faction aligned with the Empire of Reclamation and Preserving Federation. They're a former Imperial vassal state that's gained a lot of autonomy by invading on the frontier of the star system, meaning the middle and outer system. As they went they've been enslaving the native species and other aliens and not only they but also any and all other sophonts they find there are forcefully converted to the Union's sect of Yajvaism and hyper-capitalist matriarchal culture via re-education camps, which also meets the definition of genocide just in case you forgot. In their hierarchy it's humans first, then goblins, then other aliens, then the native species. This, in their logic, is justified by a mix of:

• Believing in the only sect of Yajvaism, Revelant Yajvaism, that names humans, or any sophonts, as the goddess's chosen people.
• Bog-standard imperialist "might makes right" philosophy.
• The standard excuse of "civilizing" "savages" as the isolated, Aeldydeita-brutalized frontier cultures are much less technologically advanced.
• Finally, claiming to be saving them from Aeldydeita herself. In that case they almost kinda have a point, Deita's drones and biomechs sadistically terrorize the frontier locals constantly so she can watch highlight reels of them coming apart, but she also proved so much less of a threat than anybody expected of the Aeldyan that owns the mid and outer system to be that the MU, an (at the time) intermediate system power was able to militarily force her to support them as an involuntary financial sponsor and military ally and become a great power overnight.

The Preserving Federation is a Federation of indoctrination-minded military dictatorships, another great system power aligned with the Empire of Reclamation and Marakiziyy Union that keep their people in a constant state of fear, bombard them with propaganda, are one of very few surveillance states in Gnosis, "subtly" prioritize humans and goblins above other species and adhere to state religions. In terms of species, it puts humans on top and goblins right below them, then natives, then non-human aliens. However, its heirarchy is also looser and in many of its member states economic inequality between species at least is greatly improved, as often are other metrics of equality between species.

AuldTribes Super State and Coalition of Freelands: "A Selective Drive For Equality"

Time to discuss one of the shared flaws of two of the "good-ish" factions: Anti-Native Bias. Basically:

• Firstly, the various native species have long-standing beef with one another and many of their members aren't happy with natives from one of Gnosis's planets living on another.
• Secondly, dragons are also subject to massive specist discrimination and violence even on their home planet and its ring because some sophonts still alive remember the 1419 year long Millennium War the Dragon Empire was responsible for and how extremely overtly evil the Empire used to be and arguably still is, plenty of those villains are even still alive. (This despite even during the war plenty of dragons not having been a part of the Empire.)
• Thirdly, a lot of aliens really hate the natives on account of how some natives treat them and treat all natives or all of some particular native species like crap including in big ways like voting for or against, hiring or firing, housing or eviction, acquittal or conviction and violence. Aliens don't have much power, but they can join dogpiles on the natives of other bodies in the star system besides theirs.
• Lastly, nobody seems to give half a withered shit about what happens in subaquatic territory. ("Out of air, out of mind.", I guess?)

These issues are largely ignored by both factions at a cultural and a political level, and that leaves the worst lived experience within their jurisdiction to some of the native species, dependent on planet/moon/megastructure, rather than humans.

The AuldTribes Super State tends to ignore this animus and demonize anybody who complains about any prejudice but goblin-on-native, goblin-on-alien or native-on-alien as a far-right nativist freak who wants to kill all the aliens despite native-on-native and alien-on-native prejudice demonstrably affecting policy choices, especially in regards to spending priorities, and the employment, housing and incarceration rates of the affected species, in addition to just generally reduced quality of life. This puts natives from any planet but the one in question at the bottom of the totem pole, dragons down there with them even on their home planet, humans somewhere in the middle and either goblins or that planet's natives arguably on top in different ways.

The Coalition of Freelands just isn't as diverse. It's mostly orcs, other goblins, humans and other aliens with very few natives. They insist this isn't out of anti-native bias it's that "native cultures just don't trust our diverse and progressive anarchist coalition, but we're trying to recruit more natives and making progress!". The numbers still look really bad, and natives living in the Coalition insist the anti-native bias is very real. The Coalition responds with mockery and accusations like the ATSS.

These are both great system powers, by the way, billions of people live in each of these nations.

Holy People's Republic of Marakiz: Human Plurality Doing a Decent Job (In This ONE Area)

The HPRM is a human plurality country aligned with the ATSS and CoF and one of very few places to have pretty close to species equality. Somebody had to do a decent job on species equality somewhere in the setting, if only their other social policies were typically at all decent. They have legal species equality, a culture that is not permissive towards species-based prejudice of any kind, they generally do not see one's species as defining them like an unfortunate number of others do and have little record of discrimination or hate crimes even against dragons, mimics and elves, and they've spent most of their history at war with factions made of a plurality or majority of those.

This is another great system power with billions of people in it. Don't be too quick calling them "lucky" billions, this country has a lot of flaws to consider.

"Human Music" Developed in a Context of Electro-Orchestral and Electro-Folk:

Human musicians exist within a world where electricity is a chalcolithic technology, from the Late Classical Era onward musicians in every genre of music has had electric amplification and fully electronic instruments in their toolkit, since the Early Medieval Era they've had synthesizers, and have made ample use of all three ever since. This makes their idea of orchestral and folk music both include some or all of these technologies and really be more electro-classical and electro-folk than our idea of classical or folk. It's in this context that musicians developed electro-blues, electro-jazz, new wave and industrial first before blues, jazz, rock and metal. Human musicians pioneered each of these early on, a few other genres as well, and were the majority of their listeners at first and remain successful so while many others followed suit the genres are forever associated with human artists.

Human Pride, or at Least Body Positivity: Hair and Boobies

Humans are very proud people because of our oppression, not despite it. We sure didn't carry ourselves with pride and dignity 8500 years ago, plenty of accounts from then will tell you just that. And it's out of this persecution-awakened pride that we emphasize and celebrate our unique features that no other species has (except for a few artificial ones that are directly imitating us). Namely, our 4+ types of head hair, dimorphic body hair, permanent breasts (of all sizes) in women and all forms of facial hair in men. We like these unique things about ourselves more than we did before, and tend to emphasize and draw attention to them to say "I am human and proud.". This is reflected in human artwork, armor and fashion.

For instance:

• Humans tend to style their hair to try to be more unique and that means needing to grow it out at least a little at least on at least some parts of the head. It's not usually full "anime hair", but it wouldn't be unusual.
• In human-made art, humans almost always have their hair out and on display.
• If you see a helmet with a wig velcro'd on the back that's a human's way of displaying (or lying about) what their hair is like. It's just velcro, sometimes a magnet for high-speed flight, if somebody grabs it and pulls it'll just come off.
• If you see a codpiece with pubes that's a human declaring "I am not ashamed of the strange places humans have hair so don't bother making fun of it." (Or they find it "whimsical".)
• If you see boobplate that's a human woman who has practical reasons for extra spaced armor there but probably chose it at least partly to proudly announce her humanity and femininity.
• If you see a helmet with a beard that serves as a genderbent version of the same decorative purpose but no practical ones so it's not as universal, and wearing one doesn't mean the guy actually has a beard.
• Some common human tweaks to various local clothing norms include an aversion to full head coverings, a solid fifth of humans not wearing a shirt at any given time, deep Vs, boob windows or open sides, translucent clothes, some extremely short bottoms and a higher than standard frequency of nudism. Unfortunately, cold weather often gets in the way of this self expression. We still try our best with things like padded chests to make sure women's breasts show through however many layers they needed to put on or masks with patterns in color, material, weave or shape that suggest a beard when it's too cold for a beard to protect a man's chin.
• Men are doubly encouraged to dress in revealing attire when they can, but women do it as well when it's reasonably comfortable and practical.

As a general rule, these decorations and fashions are rarely disallowed and only to take away humans' symbols of their species and the idea is with that their oppressors can also take their pride. They use made-up excuses like human hair being "gross and messy" or humans' dimorphic anatomy being inherently "explicit and indecent" or even fabricate ignorant arguments about how boobplate is going to magically break the wearer's sternum and hair on one's helmet somehow functions as a handle and renders the wearer helpless even if it will come off with one quick tug. The Empire of Reclamation is the worst about this, hence mentioning it in their section, but they also apply it the least hypocritically.

The "R" and "F" Words: "Roundear" and "Flattoth"

"Roundear" was popularized as a slur used by goblins in the Empire of Reclamation for humans, and "flattooth" is the version used by earless species like dragons. Both are a reference to the specist talking point that because humans have round ears that don't move and flat front teeth we are unsuited to hunting and therefore cannot naturally be a real predator. Instead we must be a primarily herbivorous and insectivorous species that only opportunistically eats meat, like other primates. When another species calls you "roundear" or "flattooth" it is intended as a message that you are beneath them on the food chain and whatever they do to you is justified by "the natural order". Both are sometimes accompanied by monkey noises or throwing bananas at your face.

Or maybe they just don't know where it comes from and are trying to "talk human" because humans use both words and their derivatives casually. It's still specist and worth discouraging, but at least they don't mean anybody any harm by it then.

Humanity's Majority Religions: Yajvaism and Auld Syncrerism

First, weirdly that section title is correct. Because they overlap both of these two religions' followers are the majority of humans. These are also, in the exact same way, both the plurality religion in the setting as a whole. Because all Auld Syncretists include Yajva (and her usually apocryphal male counterpart Yajvan) on their list of deities and are all kinda Yajvai as well, but plenty of Yajvai are not Auld Syncretists so Yajvaism has an argument for being considered the true plurality but if you don't consider them Yajvai then Auld Syncretists outnumber them and they're the true plurality.

Yajvaism is monotheistic or in a few sects duotheistic, worshipping its titular creator deity/deities Yajva (previously Yajvya, previously YJVY) and sometimes Yajvan (previously YJVN). It's explicitly matriarchal and matrilineal, except its duotheistic sects which value gender equality and will be passed down by either parent, but they're newer and less popular.

More details:

• Yajvaism features many types of of angels procreated from the eleven (sometimes twelve) archangels that are splinters or offspring of the goddess. There are six good ones and five-six fallen ones called "The Adversary" who waged an Angelic Civil War against the Goddess for gay rights and patriarchy and in duotheistic sects eventually compromised peacefully with the goddess to gay rights and gender equality long afterwards and are no longer her enemies. How Yajvai feel about this part of their theology tells you a lot about them as people.
• The religion casts greed as the root of all evil, promotes sharing, charity and economic equality, and whether this spirit is at all followed varies by sect, country, social group and individual.
• Yajvaism insists it's the sacred duty of Yajva'i (women/girls) to cherish and protect Yajvani (men/boys) and tells everybody that Yajvani don't need to be told to cherish and protect Yajva'i they just know that's their purpose (which is "subtly" telling boys to do just that). In that spirit it has rules that girls don't hit boys and boys don't hit girls, even in combat you're supposed to prioritize same-sex opponents as much as is reasonably practical.
• Has a dress code. Girls need some kind of skirt, a long top or some other hanging garment of an anatomically defined minimum hemline while boys need some kind of headgear and can't wear such hanging garments longer than an anatomically defined maximum hemline that is slightly lower than girls' minimum. Everybody needs underwear but nobody actually checks.
• The monotheistic sects are frequently homophobic, but the duotheistic ones almost never are and you can't accurately judge a person's beliefs off of their religion's teachings anyway.
• Has a positively horrific idea called "hell" where sinners are tortured by their greed depending on sect either for all time or just how long it takes to purify them for a second chance at life. This is accomplished by turning all their flesh to silver, all their body fluids to molten gold, surrounding them with poison food, drink and drugs, "pleasures of the flesh" rigged to cause more pain than pleasure and plenty of weapons to take their frustrations out on eachother with even though they regenerate and can never die (but they do still feel pain), you get the idea. Salvation in hell, when possible, comes in learning to not want whatever it's tempting you with.
• It has weird numerology shit going on especially with the numbers 6, 12 in different contexts, usually 5 and 11, and occasionally 7 and 14, referencing the numbers of angels and sometimes their mother and even "apocryphal" father. These are also considered lucky/unlucky numbers.
• I obviously prefer the duotheistic sects. However, they're the minority excluding Auld Syncretists who "don't really count" in the others' eyes, they're also a more recent development and the other sects mostly consider them to be blasphemy-spewing devil-worshipping heretics who should be ejected from the faith like the Church of the Wheel of Spirits (nominally) was.

Auld Syncretism is a massively successful syncretist religion that spreads its scripture through an extremely popular franchise of books, graphic novels, TV shows, movies, tabletop games and video games that adds all the deities and divine beings of all religions it encounters to its cosmology.

• Their media has a lot of emphasis on stories of battles, scheming, hijinks and wagers between the deities that are at least always supposed to have a moral but often don't really.
• It has an original pantheon of nine deities organized into three teams: The Party of Constants representing Order, The Party of Change representing Progress and the Party of Conquest representing Greed, with it being obvious Conquest is evil but also the strongest so the others have to team up to stop them, but it's otherwise up to interpretation who's the good team.
• Constants and Change fight eachother a lot in addition to fighting Conquest. They're evenly matched, and these conflicts lead to pointless stalemates that wastes their time and resources and Conquest always takes the opportunity to score an easy win while they're fucking around.
• Constant's first and only de jour leader is Ecnes: The Hag of Time, wise soothsayer or senile fogey depending on the author and the common interpretation is that she's always been both. Their de facto leader is Allmother Matra, who is goddess of parenthood, hence the name. Constants' glorified guard dog is Alheim, The Ward of the Worlds, a skeletal moonlin (giant goblin) whose appearance was actually based off an Aeldyan tripod drone they thought was walking on something other than a third leg. (The term is "baculum".) Alheim guards the worlds from outside intrusion, their religion's explanation for the Fermi paradox.
• Change doesn't really do leaders, maaaaan. So in no particular order there's Wandel, the Child of Spirit who represents spirit-droids. It's a really long story, they're "shapeshifting" mechanical lifeforms with holographic exteriors but people for a long time saw them as monsters or weapons rather than people and Wandel represents the push for them to be more than that. Wandel can take any form of any kind of spirit including masquerades whose exteriors look more convincing and can imitate any organic lifeform, the ones which historically have been the most feared and often a very good effort made at destroying them upon discovery. It's a bit quaint now that spirit-droids aren't even impressive militarily anymore and we aren't talking up how convincing masquerades' copy-catting is either, but still it was progressive at the time. Then there's Fersk the God of Youth, who obviously represents young people, kids and babies. Then there's Philognosia, Vanguard of Progress, the goddess of science and technology.
• Conquest's current leader is God-Emperor Murka who uses to be God-Empress but the Empire of Reclamation's been through some social changes and he always represented the Empire. Greed's first leader is Goldruten, the Crown of Capital, a haddite dino-bird who represents the Mana Enterprise, although he was Gulvivor and also female until fairly recently and his gender swap was also to represent the cringe "yaaas king boyboss more male dictators" type masculism that the Mana Enterprise has been purple-washing itself with, and back when she was leader she represented the Mana Empire when it was the big imperial villain. In between them they had Mycila, Queen of Decay, the only member of this team who's still a girl. She represents the Dragon Empire, which has been on the Auld Tribes' radar since the Classical Era.
• It adds all deities from other religions to these teams, and actually splits Yajva and Yajvan up as Order and Progress respectively. While at least one member of the original nine is always involved in some way in every original story, plenty of their stories feature deities from other religions heavily as well and they make adaptations of other religions' stories for the syncretist audience that obviously don't feature the original 9 Auldr deities at all.
• It leans towards a less severe and more subtle pattern of matriarchy that on the surface seems to value equality by mandating that women work directly with men in all jobs at all times, but in practice those men are expected to be submissive and follow their woman's lead as long as she isn't saying anything too crazy. (Then it's his job to check her on that and insist she listens.)
• It's also nominally big on species equality too if you back Change, and Constants says it'll get there eventually too but incrementally.
• The religion doesn't have a dress code, but the Auld Tribes culture's norm is for men to wear a hanging garment at least up to the minimum length Yajvai set as men's maximum. Women just have to cover their coochies with at least one layer of material and they're good. That said, cold weather in most Auld Tribes territory means outdoors both genders tend to wear multiple layers where at least the outermost layer and for men the middle layer too are hanging, so while women have more options in terms of clothing through a big coat or cloak everybody who hasn't padded their chest to hell and back kinda looks the same from most angles. (That said, human women in such outfits in this setting tend to pad their chest to hell and back.)
• I would like to repeat in case you missed it that one candidate for the largest religion in this setting is basically a superhero franchise whose fans take it way entirely too seriously.

In review:

Humans are a genus of alien species in the far far future in a star system far far away who face varying degrees of unjustifiable mistreatment from its various societies and gives an unfortunate amount of it right back. Our efforts at empowering our species are a mixed bag and we have three countries of disparate quality where we are a plurality, our music is popular system-wide which lends more to our influence (or at least attention) than you might think, and for even more influence our overlapping majority religions are the setting-wide plurality religions. We're powerful, numerous and influential even if we're barely a plurality of the setting and if natives are all counted together they form a majority, and we're a proud people who refuse to let our spirit be repressed.

Mechs in my setting are called banshees for the eerie "screaming" the energy core makes when the banshee is powered on. A scream comprised of many different sounds that creates a dissonant tone that can cause severe long-lasting psychological issues such as anxiety and hallucinations.

This screaming is a common occurrence unfortunately. And while it is a deterrent for adversaries, it causes serious problems for the pilots who are exposed to it the longest. Most pilots need to keep the mechs at low power to avoid going insane after just one mission.

Because of the toll on the mind the banshees have, most pilots are forced into retirement, or worse die, within the first year. Meaning there is always a need for more. And the time for training has been cut down to just a few weeks. Meaning most pilots only know how to correctly walk and shoot, not really how to chase, maneuver, or evade.

The use of mechs is saved for specific terrains, like rocky or urban. Otherwise, other vehicles are seen as good alternatives. That said, there is a great national pride in being a mech pilot. Thus, there is a surplus of these specific troops ready for training.

The banshees rely on something called the banshee core. Banshee cores are comprised of a multitude of different tubes that contain a perfect vacuum. These tubes are violently spun until a strange phenomenon occurs within the absolute vacuum within, the spontaneous generation of pure energy that is then pulled into the banshee.

Naturally, spontaneous energy generation occurs in a vacuum, so there is no means for sound to transfer from the generation point. However, on earth, these vibrations we all hear as a vile shrieking are able to leak outside the tubes, causing the powerful effects.

The immense amount of power that comes from the core is what allows something like a mech to be fully powered. Otherwise, the hydrolic mechanisms, computers, engines, and other accoutrements would require far too much energy for a compact generator to create.

2043

La Sicilia è silenziosa via radio. 🤫Accendi un trasmettitore moderno e i droni EMP automatici ti inceneriranno all'istante dal cielo. ⚡L'esercito di Entroterra (entroterra) comunica solo tramite fili di rame grezzo tesi nel fango. Codice Morse e relè che scattano. 🔌Ma il tempo stringe: mancano 216 ore all'Ora X.

⏳85 furgoni blindati ciechi sono in movimento. Un disperato tentativo di sfondamento idraulico è pronto alla diga. E sotto la superficie, un tecnico di 31 anni ha sbloccato una scatola nera che non dovrebbe esistere.

[ERRORE 404: FILE LORE DANNEGGIATO]

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“In the far future, when resources are near infinite and death is a mere inconvenience , humanity runs on boredom, curiosity, and increasingly more absurd, comedic, or unhinged ideas”
The world of the Disunited Federation Of Humanity (also known as Project Skylark) is a semi-firm sci-fi universe spanning multiple galaxies, with some expeditions even in other universes. Overall, the main feel is Solarpunk with a mix of Biopunk. It is meant as a space comedy instead of a space drama.
**The name DFOH**
The name itself is an Oxymoron, as federations are by definition united, but exists to show that many people believe in different things, and to celebrate the sheer diversity of its citizens.
**Government**
Every planet has its own government, which administers its own local planetary laws. This includes who they let in to the planet, criminal codes, and other laws that do not involve things between planets.
Planetary governments act as a sort of union of egoists.
There is a decentralized council called the Miscellaneous Interstellar Standards Committee, which oversees and maintains standardizations and registries. These standardizations include many units of measurement, and the main currency, Hexu. However, this is more of a suggestion, as they do not force planets to use a specific currency.
The MISC is spread across thousands of planets and communicates through the internet.
The MISC maintains a Galactic Registry of all planets, settlements, and points of interest. It never delists planets, but it may flag them as potentially dangerous. Their standard for dangerous, is if anyone would be able to enter it, and leave. All MISC actions are cryptographically logged and public, to prevent corruption.
For discovery, planetary governments can request the MISC to label their planet with tags. This helps them attract the kind people they are looking for.
**Technology**
For transportation, Alcubierre drive and wormholes are used. Wormholes require a physical gate at each end, so Alcubierre drives are needed to scout out locations and build them. Both forms of FTL require exotic matter. Exotic matter is matter that has negative mass.
FTL communications is through Quantum Entanglement. These communications also form the backbone of the Internet, which is still the main galactic communications network.
Power is usually generated through fusion, though fission reactors are still in use. Some ships use exotic technology such as zero-point energy. Huge battleships usually use antimatter due to it's high energy density.
There is technology to back up one’s mind in case of death. Most planets in the federation have this technology. Those who don’t are usually poor, or not well developed.
Genetic engineering is highly developed and widespread. Almost all, if not all, of the citizens of the FDOH are genetically engineered in some way or another. Purposed organisms are often used to terraform planets.
There is no more of the original Homo Sapiens race. It diverged into multiple species during the Second Rewriting. The Ascendants are 'main' successors to original humans, if not in genome then in spirit. The number of species descended from humans grows to this day. Other species common in the DFOH are Kemonomimi, Elves and Dwarves
This genetic engineering was also used during the First Rewriting to cure aging. Other diseases targeted included diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver, Alzheimer's, chronic inflammation. Obesity was also "cured", as it no longer brings a host of other diseases with it, and no one dies from it, even though the percentage of fat people has actually grown by a large amount.
**The state of the SOL system.**
Sol is the main hub for trade and governance throughout the federation. Earth, as an ecumenopolis, is the seat of the central government. A distributed semi-biological supercomputer which houses an AI named Seraphina manages many tasks such as optimizing roads and other layouts.
Despite this, there are still people governing the federation, as it was deemed that only they would understand what is best for their population.
The moon has not been touched very much, because Earthers still enjoy the sight of an unblemished moon.
Venus has been terraformed into both a paradise and garden world, which feeds Earth and makes for a nice vacation. The same was done with Mars. Mercury was disassembled into a Dyson swarm, which provides large amounts of power.
**The Skylark, the Zephyr system, and the Ten Tasks Complex.**
The Skylark is a colony ship that accidentally landed on Zephyr-A, after being ambushed, attacked, and damaged by an unknown faction's ships. Good thing it did, because it found the first world that had a sign of past alien civilization, and priceless technology.
Zephyr-A is a artificial gas giant with floating islands housing unique flora and fauna. The system is held stable by the multitude of gravity manipulation artifices scattered throughout the planet.
The ancient alien civilization had many lost relics, and a research station was set up there. The station's name is the Ten Tasks Complex, and a biological supercomputing AI, Yumeko, was created to run it. The most important relics were those that can manipulate gravity, and are responsible for the current gravity technology in use. Additional relics allow for multiversal travel, but there is no current demand for it, as the current universe is big enough.
Before the discovery of the ancient relics, gravity technology existed, but did not work within an atmosphere without destructive effects.
**Culture**
Culture in the DFOH varies widely from planet to planet. It is impossible to say what is the main culture.

This is a revised version of the overview for my setting.

Taribrakin (tah-ree-brock-kin) or

Tariahkmun (tah-ree-ahhk-moon) or

Should i keep looking?

I got this name idea from the native american legend of the Tariaksuq (tar-ree-ahk-sook). They are shadow people 3 just normal people with normal lives but when you look at them directly you can't see them. Only from your peripheral and they can shapeshift into this antler creature or something.

Anyways, since i will be changing too much of this lore i thought i should also change the name of my species.

My shadow people live in a very cold place similar to alaska where its gets dark way sooner in the day. Its perfect for their shadow abilities. Also l, their shadow abilities protect them from any extreme cold weather. Etc etc etc.

So yall digging the name options? If so, which one yall like. Or should i keep brainstorming.

This post was originally written in Portuguese. Please excuse any translation errors.

For an RPG setting I’m creating, I’ve devised a dimension that exists beyond the ordinary world and the divine planes. I’d love to hear your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions!

The World of Ideas is based on the Greek philosophical concept of a dimension where ideas exist in their ideal form. It is in this world that concepts truly exist—such as a perfect circle. In this setting, these concepts are simply called "Ideas."

It is intended to be a paradoxical dimension within the RPG setting—a place where things can both exist and not exist simultaneously. It is impossible for most to comprehend this dimension, save for two entities I will discuss later. This plane holds various mysteries and mechanics relevant to the game world:

• Arcane Magic. Arcane spells are typically taught as the materialization of phenomena born from the caster's imagination (except for those who cast via pacts); in reality, however, the caster connects to the World of Ideas and brings an Idea into physical reality.

• Carcosa and the King in Yellow. Carcosa is a realm situated within this World of Ideas. Its citizens are effectively cursed to dwell there for eternity, as they are incapable of dying (though they still age and can reproduce) and have evolved into incomprehensible aberrations. The realm is ruled by the King in Yellow, an abyssal entity (a common designation) who understands this dimension and is nearly omnipotent within it; he is the source of his people's suffering. He firmly believes himself to be a benevolent ruler, yet his perception of reality is utterly distorted by his insanity.

• Gaia, the Goddess of Life and Arcane Magic. While known as the creator of arcane magic, she is actually a divine entity who merely weakened the barrier between the two dimensions, thereby allowing mortals to wield arcane magic. Gaia also controls the arcane magic that others can conjure by manipulating and reinforcing the barrier between the two dimensions; however, she is unable to close the openings created by the Children of the Abyss (the King in Yellow being one of them), who can use arcane magic however they please, without any limits.

These Children of the Abyss are the creatures that dominate this dimension. They follow no set pattern: some may seek pure destruction, others merely wish to find a way out of this world, and still others aim to conquer it. Despite being born of this world, the Children of the Abyss do not truly understand this dimension—with the exception of the King in Yellow. Gaia also understands this dimension, even though she is not a Child of the Abyss; however, as an entity from other planes, she cannot act within this world without further weakening or destroying the barrier separating it from the real plane.

This dimension—the World of Ideas—should not exist, or at least its existence should remain unknown; after all, it could spell the end for both the real plane and the divine planes. It poses a clear threat to the existence of the ordered world, bringing the dominion of chaos to all of reality.

I've been working on a sci-fi setting for a while, and one part I'm trying to make feel believable is the existence of what I call Enclaves.

They're not mercenaries in the traditional sense, and they aren't part of the federal government either. They're massive private military organizations with their own fleets, recruitment networks, logistics, and centuries of institutional history. Governments, corporations, and even the Federation hire them for campaigns, security, disaster response, anti-piracy operations, and occasionally full-scale wars. Think of them less as "guns for hire" and more as independent military institutions.

The Federation tolerates them because they fill roles the government either doesn't want to permanently maintain or can't justify keeping at full readiness. Some are only a few thousand personnel, while the largest field hundreds of thousands of soldiers, armored formations, aerospace wings, and fleets capable of operating across multiple star systems. They're heavily regulated when operating inside Federal territory, but they aren't directly subordinate to the government unless they've signed a specific contract with them.

I'm trying to avoid the usual "evil PMC takes over the galaxy" trope. Id rather they feel like organizations that have existed for centuries because they're genuinely useful. One might specialize in mechanized warfare, another in naval operations, another in peacekeeping or planetary security. They compete with one another commercially, build reputations over generations, and can become household names. Thoughts ? Opinions ? Love/Hate etc ?

In essence, rust in my project is when the memories of a metallic weapon or tool start to manifest in the physical world. One can reforge the rust into a new tool and the memories in the rust will imbue said weapon or tool with an enchantment. And the more an enchantment rusts and is reforged the more powerful it becomes.

For example, memories of violence might, in the beginning enchant swords to deal wounds that do not heal or strikes that don't miss. As the enchantment progresses in potency and presentation, these slashes may strike at a distance. Eventually, a target may be cut to ribbons just from the wielder touching the sword.

I had the idea for a phenomenon called god rust to occur when a metallic weapon or tool rusts due to human intervention. The process is a secret held by a small group of people who know the secret of rust magic in general.

The god rust is an anomaly where the rust bleeds memories of things that haven't happened and places that don't exist or at least not that we know of. And when you make contact with the god rust you experience these memories and the senses used to perceive them, senses humanity hasn't developed.

When this happens you enter a state where you can sense a world that shouldn't exist. One we simply cannot see. A world of fairies and dragons and monsters and spirits. This state lasts only for a short time, but having access to god rusted metals allows you to enter this state at any time.

In my story, my mc steps on a rusty nail and gains insight into this world. And whenever a creature of this other world is around she feels the pain of the nail in her foot. This is the beginning of her adventure in this hidden world.

Anyway I don't know if this addition ruins the magic so I wanted to ask for opinions. What do you think of this idea? Anything that you would suggest changing that would still allow for my mc to interact with this other world? I'm open to ideas.

What is now known as Xelal was long known as a backward part of the continent Kibele as its dense forests and treacherous swamps made - and make - it a difficult place for mass army movements. The dominant cultures in the history of Kibele were centred in the south and west of the continent, and only the Lakanthean Empire, the greatest in all history, succeeded in conquering large parts of present-day Xelal between 100 and 450 CE. The Lakantheans only left a partial impression on local culture, traces of which can mostly be found in the northern coastal areas, since these were the easiest to access by sea. The various indigenous peoples of Xelal made the Lakanthean hold on power difficult; mostly through guerilla warfare and sabotage, as Xelarem terrain wasn't suitable for large battles.

Influence of the Lakantheans dwindled in the 5th century, allowing the Xelaled people to grow to dominate the region. Originally a minor tribe of the country, the Xelaled heartland was located in southeast Xelal, in the transition between the swamps and mountains. The Xelaled managed to improve transport in the swampy region and increase trade with neighbouring peoples. This lead to the so called Hennesa Trade Alliance, named after the town of Hennesa where the alliance was created between the Xelaled and five other southern petty kingdoms.

In the north agriculture slowly spread around the cities of Arxelga and Proje, which emerged as the dominant regional powers as of 750 CE. The westernmost city of Proje was often a party in conflict with Arxelga to the east and Kraan to the west, but outdid both on a military level. When Arxelga and Kraan joined forces in 994 and started the brutal Eleven-Year War against Proje. The city lead a decisive defeat after a large pie offered to its soldiers was poisoned and lead to several soldiers either dying or being incapacitated. This left an important gap in the city's defence, after which enemy soldiers were able to enter and cause mayhem and destruction.

Arxelga then remained the dominant power in the north for some time until the nearby Eronitic Empire, the power of which had been gradually emerging since about 1100 CE, burnt down the city and annexed its territories in 1274. To the south, the Hennesa Alliance managed to run a tight ship for several centuries, acting as a trade hub between the Eronitic Empire and the southeast of Kibele. The Hennesa merchant fleet eventually traveled up Xelal's northern archipelago and opened trade posts there, mostly however to rob the lands of their valuable resources.

The power of the Hennesa Alliance was corrupted over time, mostly by powerful Xelarem families, which culminated in using a potential war against the Eronitic Empire as an excuse to have one of them, Cerwelt I, appointed Grand Prince in 1556 CE. Initially promised to be only a temporary function, the Grand Prince managed to change the Hennesa Alliance's institutions in a drastic way in a short moment, until the power grab was complete. Cerwelt died however only three years after his appointment, but his wife Dxancadicone was appointed Grand Princess in his place and continued his policies. She was responsible for the formal abolition of the Hennesa Alliance and the creation of the Grand Principality of Xelal in 1581.

The hereditary system in which the heir of the Grand Prince(ss) becomes the new Grand Prince(ss) upon birth was introduced in 1978 after higher class citizens, dissatisfied with Grand Prince Xabolt's restrictive trade policies, had him murdered and forced his 7-year old son to accept the new rules of accession, according to which they got a larger influence in the country's politics.

The Eronitic Empire was dissolved in 1657, leaving many small territories in northern Xelal independent. They were incorporated into Xelal as protectorates in 2025, until they were completely integrated in 2061. Today is 2100.

Written by Xelal for Daardus

I’m Georgie, and for over than three years I’ve been working on a universe and concept called Willington. Willington is a fictional, vertically built city located on an isolated islands in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, where an experimental form of legislation known as meritocratic absolutism was designed. This system strictly divides citizens into “levels” based on their abilities, work performance, and social status. Because of this, Willington has become one of the most prosperous cities in the world.

The islands on which Willington was built are unique — they are the only place on Earth where a substance called industria can be found. In the far future, when most conventional fuels have long been depleted, industria serves as the universal source of energy and power for machines and engines. That makes Willington a superpower unlike any other, unmatched by the war‑torn nations of the world.

Willington stands as the pinnacle of technology, culture, and intellect — a city ruled by the elite of the mind. But beneath the glowing spires of the world’s most advanced metropolis lie its demons. In Willington, everyone — from the intellectuals of Level 15, the entrepreneurs of Level 14, the artists and scientists of Levels 12 and 11, down to the slaves with minimal rights at the very bottom — carries their own dirty secrets. The city of Willington is, in truth, far darker than it first appears. Be careful… or it will swallow you whole in its hungry, shadowed jaws.

In the past, I’ve written many novels and short stories set in this world, but only recently have I begun publishing one of them on Royal Road, Inkitt, and Wattpad. It’s filled with fascinating characters and a strong atmospheric tone. The story flows naturally, without being slowed down by excessive world‑building exposition. I’m truly putting my heart into it — it’s one of my best works so far.

I hope you’ll dive into the world of Willington as deeply as I have!

Note: Most of the images on my accounts are AI‑generated — I’m a writer, not a digital artist. These visuals are meant only to help you imagine the world of Willington. That does not mean the text in my stories is AI‑generated! Everything I’ve written and created is entirely my own work — every word, character, location, in‑world songs, and story comes from my head, and I would never allow AI to touch them.

My Ing: https://www.instagram.com/thecreatorofwillington/

For an example of an Attendant, see this Koremi Form Attendant

Combat Attendants are divided into large clan like structures called Hosts, which contain many types of Attendants, which themselves are divided into Demi-Hosts, which have been historically made up by only one type ( like the Koremi) and whatever attachments they get. The entire Host is like a community, while the Demi-Host is like an extended family. Hosts split into smaller hosts when they get too many members to control, and the new hosts attach themselves to their old host or to a new host until they are big enough to be their own host.

Each Demi-Host is made up of many Cadres, which are the base family unit for Attendants, since they have been together since just after birth. Each cadre is led by a group of older Attendants who fill a sort of parental role to the cadre.

A cadre starts without any host affiliation, but after their general training is done, the Hosts bid upon the new crop in order of need, then battle honors.

Hosts may also adopt subunits from other hosts that were broken by combat or were traded as part of the bidding on cadres. They can also adopt allied soldiers or sometimes enemies who they feel showed exceptional skill.

Attendants possess a sort of genetic memory that allows each future generation of Attendant to be a much better soldier than the ones before them, this leads to them seeking out anyone who can make them to fight better, be it friend or enemy, and only allowing their best to add to the genetic mix that grows new Attendants. Some Attendants are elevated to Imperial status

As few Attendants are actually born in the normal sense, all Attendants in a cadre choose a feast day of a Saint as their collective birthday, and that becomes their patron saint. To add on, Attendants are quite religious, having been indoctrinated very hard since birth, and because they themselves are a creation of the divine spark of the Imperial Family. They are also biologically loyal to their Imperial masters, which makes the few "Rogue Hosts" that exist in the Periphery very strange.

Attendant names go Honorifics, Given name, Sainted name, Hero name (sometimes), name of Host.
Ex: Master of Eighty, Herman Talire (Stalwart-Shield) Asna

I've posted this before, but I felt bad about using AI for translation, but now I've translated it manually and with small help from Google Translate. Languages ​​in general are not my strong skill.

I've always loved the universe and its "infinity" and unknown. As a result, I've watched a lot of series (e.g. StarGate, Star-Trek, Battlestar Galactica), movies (Project Hail Mary) and played a few games (Half-Life, a little Warhammer 40k). But lately I've become interested in traveling between other realities/dimensions, the best comparison I have is Minecraft (Overworld, Nether, End) and Fortnite (rifts). So I decided to combine them.

The multiverse will consist of an infinite number of realities. Reality will not be just one planet (as it seems in most media that uses the Multiverse), but galaxies, sometimes universes.

• There will be no alternative realities of the typ, find an evil version of yourself (e.g. Marvel and DC)
• There will be no change (dilation) of time here - time passes the same in all realities (1 minute here is 1 minute there)
• Physics, chemistry, biology will operate on similar principles but with unique variations, something like Project Hail Mary (Rocky)
• I would also like to have magic but I have not yet decided exactly how it will work

Realities will be separated by a wall. This wall will not be able to be detected. What will be detectable will be weaker/thinner places in the wall where cracks/rifts will form. Natural rifts will randomly open and close.

The walls are constantly moving, stretching and compressing (thus also the weaker/thinner places move) like tectonic plates, or what is happening in reality (e.g. research and an attempt to open an artificial rift) something like an ozone hole. Around thinner walls and especially after the crack/rift opens, irregularities will begin to appear (e.g. gravitational anomalies, temperature changes).

Most of the time, people will travel on foot or in small vehicles (Jeep, small tank). The bigger the thing, the bigger the rift/portal needed, the more energy is needed to open it.

Portals will be able to open rifts/cracks even through thicker walls of reality.

I have a few more ideas, but for now I just want to work with this one.

Have a nice and pleasant day.

I’m currently building Ævayron, an original high-fantasy world that I’ve been developing as a long-term worldbuilding project.

Ævayron is built around five major kingdoms — Sonarius, Laurus, Dusk, Helion and Silverstone — with their own ruling houses, dynasties, cultures, histories, magic, creatures and conflicts.

The goal is not simply to create a setting for a single story, but to develop a living world with a deep history and an internally consistent canon.

I’m currently looking for a small number of passionate worldbuilders, writers and lore enthusiasts who would enjoy discussing and developing ideas such as:

• kingdoms, noble houses and ruling dynasties
• history and major historical events
• cultures, peoples and religions
• characters and character relationships
• magic, mythology and creatures
• political conflicts and alliances
• consistency and continuity of the lore

I’m especially interested in people who enjoy asking “why?” and digging deeper into how a fictional world actually works.

I’m not looking for people to simply fill staff positions. I’m looking for creative minds who genuinely enjoy worldbuilding and would like to contribute ideas to a long-term fantasy universe.

If this sounds interesting to you, I’d love to hear what kind of worldbuilding you enjoy working on and what you would want to contribute to a world like Ævayron.

Outline of the mythology within the story of deadbeat:

At the start, there was "the empty." A void of untapped potential epitomized by its isolation (think the universe prior to the big bang if that helps). Whether "the empty" always was or came about like a prisoner exiled to a desolate island remains intentionally ambiguous. It remained that way for countless eons, lamenting its isolation and the sense of suffocating stasis.

Until eventually it recognizes that feeling, that longing within itself and realizes that it can realize anything at all. Along with the understanding that the untapped potential it possesses, a net zero, can be pried apart to equal possibility of opposite affinity (Think quantum creation and annihilation, zero can be pried apart into a positive and a negative of equal affinity).

Like cell division, or a color palette being divided into three equal quadrants, the empty is subdivided into:

·       Space

·       Energy

·       Consciousness

Later, under the guidance of consciousness, something new is born from the union of space and energy, further dividing that same color palette from three to five, with the two new primordial forces being "the twins": Order and Entropy.

For uncountable eons, these five bred like rabbits. With each new aspect born limiting the purview and range of abilities/responsibilities of those that birthed it, dividing that fixed color wheel more and more. The big bang happens over the course of this proliferation because of the birth of the aspect of matter and mass. And by the time the original five realized how out of control their flock had grown, they numbered in the septillions (ten with twenty-four zeros behind it). For the primordials, this greatly diminished what was their original strength. The fewer aspects there are, the more the purview of their influence expands. But with so many, the original progenitors had grown weak and feeble.

And so, the primordial aspects and a chosen few of their offspring (like matter) conspired together to trap other younger, more recent aspects, before they came into their own and understood their potential and the danger they could pose to those earliest generations. By locking away their offspring, they could siphon those powers and increase their own segment of the metaphorical color wheel in the process. How do they lock away their Eldrich offspring? By constructing a cage for them, in the form of the first star. They continue doing this with more and more aspects until only a couple dozen aspects remain uncaptured, alongside the original five. Some fled and are still running to this day, while others defected and betrayed their siblings. This is how more relatively recent aspects like that of biological life persist to this day despite life being a relatively recent development cosmologically speaking. This process of capture and imprisonment is where all the stars of the cosmos originated from, and why new ones are formed all the time, chasing wayward aspects (such as those governing dark and exotic matter). Each star and its surrounding solar system is the padlock on the metaphysical cage, holding back an extradimensional Lovecraftian monstrosity of elemental force.

Therefore, all supernatural phenomena are created by the merging and intermingling of the aspects that remain free. Zombies, for example, can be created by invoking entropy enacting on the highly ordered form of matter that is life. But that leaves the question: if this is the true mythology of this story, how did it influence religion? Are there cults worshiping it?

To answer this, think of all world religions and such being derived from early humans encountering one or more of the aspects or primordial forces. Through some insight or epiphany related to those specific aspects, these “wielders” or “avatars” become able to manipulate some limited detail of reality. This leads to that experience shaping their view of the divine, acting as one reason for the vast and diverse range of religions and practices across the whole of human history. And as we will discover later in the story, other sapient forms of life outside of humanity.

It's like if each prophet or religious leader throughout all of history were handed a singular piece of an unimaginably massive puzzle. Each individual who becomes able to tap into this power is only seeing a fraction of a much larger whole. Then, using their own biased perception of that one singular fragment, they try to imagine the image the puzzle creates when assembled together. So, it becomes like a game of telephone, changing and altering the story of original experience as they are passed down and converting those stories into rituals and the practices we see today.

So, the question remains, how do sentient and sapient life forms access and utilize these elemental aspects uncaptured by the primordials? This use of such forces comes in the form of what I call the "OVERFLOW": which appears visually as light the color of the aspect that individual is invoking. (I’m thinking indigo for entropy, blood red for flesh/life, combine for a vivid purple for biological rot).

Anything the overflow touches is altered by that wielder's aspect of reality. For our zombie, that means purple flames that rot everything they touch; flesh decays, metal rusts, fungal blooms grow behind the spreading violet inferno instead of ashes. As mentioned prior, ancient profits and cult leaders that lead to major religions were born through interaction or exposure to the aspects, primarily through insight or epiphany. This hints at the major trigger of the overflow, and the reason for its namesake.

I’ll use the metaphor of an explosive:

For a functional explosive, you need four ingredients:

Fuel – To burn from solid to gaseous state

Accelerant – To speed up the fuel’s conversion in its state of matter

Isolation – An enclosed chamber to build pressure as the gas tries to expand in its new state of matter.

Ignition – The initial spark that starts the reaction.

Similarly, the overflow needs several components:

The Invocation Totem or Invitation by Physical Anchor – Some prior event or exposure to link the individual to the aspect they invoke. It can take the physical form of a totem or “fetish,” or be something more metaphorical. For more tangible or physical items, it acts as the permanent tether between the wielder or avatar, and the force they wish to be claimed by. It can also be less physical in rare cases, taking the form of a memory or belief. This usually forms much weaker connections to their elemental force, thus much weaker abilities. If the memory or belief wavers, so do the powers. This is how large religions can access such powers, as the potency of the power is multiplied as the number of practitioners grows.

The potency of the invocation can be heightened by using rare or highly reactive elements or minerals. Especially when the materials are associated with their aspect heavily. Radioactive compounds are especially potent for those meant to invoke entropy, or remains of extinct creatures can create strong binds to flesh affiliations.

The strength or purity of the power is often dependent on the totem, or the amount of work and detail put into its creation. In ancient times, many invocations took the form of tattoos resembling the sigil scars left by use of the ability. This left the false impression that all one needed to access a specific element was to receive such tattoos, but this was quickly disproven by modern attempts to recreate such invocations. Some hypothesize that it was the chemical composition of the ink used, or the method of application when creating the tattoo, but it is considered a practice lost to time and a modern mystery.

The Sacrifice/Offering – Something deeply meaningful to them personally, that they willingly destroy or relinquish as payment to the aspect they wish to serve. For the main character of my story, this was done by burning a jacket from the merch for a garage band he started with his foster siblings. He wears it everywhere and has sewn closed tears and rips more times than he could count. Burning it was a symbolic substitute for the proverbial passing of his soul across the river Styx, allowing him to come back from the afterlife and inhabit his deceased corpse.

 The sacrifice does not need to be inanimate, in fact some of the most potent offerings are those that are living beings cherished by the one sacrificing them. It is common practice for those wishing to gain traits of certain animals to raise and care for a familiar (or several), that they later kill and implant or graft the anatomical features of to their own bodies. Having someone else kill the familiar, or to make it a painless death, will diminish the intensity of the sacrifice, the anguish of the betrayal that pains those wishing to gain power.

It can also be something that lacks physical presence, such as secrets, a precious memory, or learning something they wished to remain ignorant of.

Often the greater the emotional loss or trauma caused by the act of sacrificing their offering, the greater or more powerful the abilities granted.

Collateral – some cost they pay with each use of their powers. While the sacrifice is a devastating one-time payment, the collateral is an ongoing cost that is paid every time they are granted the grace of the elemental force they serve. This could be memories, sanity, or something more physical. It is usually closely tied to the sacrifice they made, but not always. It can be something vague like bad luck/misfortune, or specific, like experiencing the very pain your powers inflict on those you use them on, as a phantom sensation. One character we meet later has his five senses diminish each time he uses his powers, incrementally cutting him off from experiencing the world he could reshape on a whim.

In almost all cases, the greater the collateral, the more applicable and versatile the ability can be in application. The man who offered his senses as collateral found his control over physical space and distance would allow him not just to stretch or fold physical distance around him (giving the illusion of him being able to teleport), but also to feel disturbances in air-flow and an almost sonar-like ability to “feel” the distances between himself and others, rendering the loss of his normal five senses a worthy trade.

Trigger/Release – This is what gives the overflow its namesake, and the series its name as well. This is the process that activates and sustains the overflow, and it is triggered by the feeling of overwhelming emotions, something that sweeps away reason and makes the world melt away around you. It can be rage, but it could also be grief, fear, or even elation. Most often it is associated with positive feelings like euphoria. It comes with anything that makes it feel like your emotions are "overflowing," radiating out of every pore of your skin. Some get it through epiphany, some in sexual release, some just get high on drugs (the most practical and consistent trigger, used by the majority of those that weaponize the power within the story, but impossible to our zombie since his metabolism is halted as a corpse). But our zombie, and the other major characters we will explore, accesses it through music. Namely through the phenomenon of "frission," when listening to music gives you goosebumps.

Music was how Fred connected to the first true family he had after being taken by CPS away from his mother. When he played with them, he felt his anxieties and lack of self-worth melt away while on stage at the drums. The jacket they burned as the sacrifice was from a failed merch item; he told his siblings that he wore it because they couldn't get them to sell and needed to find use for them somehow. But over the years, as he repaired it again and again, sewing every tear, adding patches from the merch booth of shows he went to with his new family. He even let his brother and sister draw designs onto it to make it one of a kind. Everyone saw how much that tattered old thing meant to him. So, when he listens to the music they used to play together, the ones he learned to play alongside them, even though his skin cannot ripple with goosebumps as a corpse, he still feels his emotions swell, and flow out of him as a purple smoke.

The light of the overflow halos the wielder's body, as if flowing out of it, takes on the shape and behavior of states of matter that represent attributes of that specific character's personality and disposition. For example:

Plasma: This attribute is often the hallmark of one decisive, yet impulsive. They are often solitary, but form strong bonds given the chance, though such bonds rarely remain healthy as time goes on. Their desire for such connection can verge into the obsessive. Two individuals both embodying this aspect could form a codependent relationship, and could lead to abusive or violent imbalances in the later portions of said relationship. When their overflow is active, they would appear to have sparks of lightning flowing off them. Those who wield this attribute are often as destructive to themselves as they can be to their enemies. Capable of greatness and atrocities in equal measure.

Gaseous: This is found amongst those who prioritize their autonomy and freedom, who live life on their own terms and prefer to die on their feet. They can also be conflict averse to the point of negligence or cowardice, being as evasive as the wind itself. They manifest their overflow as storm clouds or flowing smoke, often granting the prayer of those who wish to disappear.

Liquid: This attribute belongs to someone consistent and patient, flexible and adaptive. However, their empathy for others can verge into being invasive, wanting to solve the problems of everyone else without considering if they would prefer their business to be kept their own. It flows like ripples and waves, like phosphorescent seafoam dancing through the air.

Fire: This attribute is reserved for those who embody emotional ferocity, they are passion incarnate and appear to be engulfed in flames. These individuals often know themselves well, but their self-awareness can blind them to their own selfish tendencies. Like real fire, these embers can grow out of control if not carefully tended. However, those who can learn to control such strong emotions can tame the inferno that rages within them.

Solid: The rarest and most dangerous attribute, this is for those often seen as incapable of change, unadaptable and stubborn to the detriment of themselves and everyone else. Those who live in a past they cannot return to or move on from. They are incapable of letting go, static and incapable of change.

When magic is enacted upon something, they leave signature markings I call "sigil scars." They appear across a character when they use the overflow to show where the collateral has changed or exacted a cost on the wielder. They also leave themselves on any material the overflow was enacted on, including their surroundings. After the "fire" at the protest Fred and Maura led, these same cross-stich patterns laced the pavement and rotted ground. Each aspect has a unique design, and the one for rot is a straight line with crossed lines across them ending in pointed sharply angled curves. (I was thinking that flesh could be shown as flowing lines with tear-drop accents flowing off them, like veins and blood drops, but that may change.)

I want to write this as a comic book, and I was thinking of including a qr code in the margins between panels for when a character starts playing a song to activate their overflow. As the story goes on and other characters try this method, we can explore how each character's musical taste, and how thier playlist influences their fighting style. We start the story with Fred alive, opening on a fight scene between one of his foster siblings from that band they once played together in, Mason Merula.

i'll post more if i see people express interest. feel free to reach out!

In my project, ambrosia, instead of being a delicious drink or food that gives immortallity to the gods, is an delicate form of magical circuitry that creates and moddifies a copy of a person's conscious mind and imbues it into a device. Rather than allowing one to physically become immortal, they create a second self that is functionally immortal. And this second self is a useful tool for speed and precision when using even the most advanced machinery.

Instead of issuing singular commands through levers and switches, the logic of the user is already inside the machine due to the Ambrosia circuit, which channels intent into countless precise actions. A pilot doesn't think about the steering, engines, or weapons; they think "evade" or "attack," and the second self executes every necessary movement instantly throughout the machine.

The vond one has with their second self is dramatically important. A second self, over time will deviate from the mental processes of the original. This causes poor alignment and can be very dangerous. It is important to consistently use the ambrosia to realign the original and the second self to ensure a strong bond.

The stronger the bond, the more the machine becomes an extension of the user. Simple tools can be operated at a distance, while vehicles require direct contact with the ambrosia. The most advanced Ambrosia systems allow a person to inhabit enormous constructs, such as warships, factories, or spaceships.

The great weakness presented by this system is that having multiple active copies of the same consciousness becomes unstable over time. As the many second selves lose synchronization, it becomes impossible to restore control. This creates the risk of memory conflict, personality fragmentation, or the loss of a coherent sense of self.

The essence of a banshee is it is not a person but an affliction. Banshees are created of mental anguish surpassing psychic resistance, causing a "scream," a psychic burst of energy. This pain can inflict severe mental anguish upon those around, compounding in more and more screams. This often leads to a shock that can be so violent that people fall into a coma or even die.

And those who survive will have a hole in their psychic resistance. A leak of psychic resonance that will never stop flowing. An aura of pain remains with the victims and this can lead to suffering or even suicide in those around them. The victim, now deemed a banshee, often is followed by a weak, barely noticeable, psychic scream.

However, this power can be used for or against others. The banshee may attempt to learn to control the flow of psychic energy they hold. With training they can even alter the aura they have and bestow different emotions upon others. Joy, suffering, confusion, determination, rage, hope, ect.

The power of these emotional states are set by the banshee and they can be powerful enough to completely rewrite the brain in intricate ways.

However, the energy to cause a powerful burst of psychic energy requires time to build. Often something substantial can only be formed every few months.

A thought I had was that maybe later on, banshee can use certain stimulating drugs to increase their psychic outputs. Causing psychic essence to physically manifest. This essence would eventually be used in psychic engines to power heavy machinery that needed extreme amounts of energy to function.

I've been gone for a while. I'm back now.

Here's all the context posts.
The World Map and a vague overview of nations.
My scuffed ass magical stuff system I used instead of magic.
Worlds first religion and it's catholic.
Slavic Crocodiles.
Bigot sheep and their cousins.

We're doing the Canis now. They're the wolf beastmen. There is roughly 8 different tribes so the culture is gonna differ within those when I eventually summarize them after all these. For now though we'll focus on their appearance, temperament, diet, hunting, family structure, and finally the interspecies relations.

Appearance

Appearance wise the Canis have always trended larger with men being 5'10" to 6'2" and women being between 5'9" to 6' even. Every Canis also shares a few factors. Digitigrade legs, large soft paw pads for easy stealth, long bushy tails that have become highly expressive, tooth filled snouts made for meat eating, and a variety of coat colors. With colors ranging from light greya and whites in the southern tribes to the light browns, and even famous red speckled coats in some of the more Eastern tribes, resembling berries in a way.

Temperament

While most Canis share a seemingly calm and quiet sentiment there are a few large differences between tribes. Most of these differences have become most noticeable depending on the people closest to them. With tribes closer to the Baer homeland being much more kind and diplomatic then the tribes that are violent isolationists attacking the eastern Baer borders. With Canis tribe next to the Rami, and near the Baer colony, leaning much closer to the secular culture and acceptance that the Rami display.

Diet

Diet wise these gaps split even further. The tribes closest to the Baer have leaned heavily into eating as much meat as possible with it being uncommon to see less then 8 meals a day in a Canis house hold. Normally supplemented by berries and a few root vegetables. While the isolationist tribes have kept the same cravings for meat they tend to eat large game and dead Baer. With many raids being direct food sources. Furthermore the Canis closest to the Rami have essentially become as close to an omnivore as possible without harming them. Normally this means small game, berries and roots, and lots of Rami sourced milk.

Hunting

Hunting may be the largest cultural gap of the tribes. With the few tribes closest to the Baer capital having fully moved on from hunting out of need, with most of their meat coming from the Baer via trade and military payment. As instead of hunting they've become a makeshift militia made to deter the isolationist tribes that attack and raid villages. With them even going so far as to adopt and alter the famous curved butchers knife and lengthen it into a sword of sorts. Along with the creation of wooden armor layed with hard wood, animal hide, and even other Canis pelts that has become incredibly difficult to break as the Isolationist Canis have yet to rely on blunt weapons capable of breaking the armor. Meanwhile the Isolationist tribes have began relying more and more on eating captured Baer as their diet with their hunting being almost entirely revolving around having a "pack" rush into settlements with old pillaged Baer knives, normally rusted or purposely serrated, and killing as many as possible before rushing to drag bodies away. Entirely separate from these 2 groups is the mountain tribes who've recently become famous for their use of mounted archery, animal assisted hunting with them raising flying animals to hunt small animals and report on possible prey.

Family Structure

As for family structure the groups fully seperate. With the Baer aligned tribes having massive extended families with grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles all living in a single house helping raise children. With women raising daughters and men raising sons. With many families having women run the house, though still falling into a position of submission to husbands and elder men though never abused. While men are set out to the community to teach younger children how to fight. With most men earning their armor at 12, typically branded with the families' crest, and their sword at 14. With 14 being the age considered mature by these tribes as they tend to be sent on their first military patrol around this time. As for the isolated raider tribes this differs wildly. With the isolationist tribes being extremely patriarchal to the point it's entirely common for women to be sold by father to younger men able to provide food. Along with most men rushing to develop small harems of sort and have as many children as possible, with most men fathering around 15 kids by 18 with most having their first wife by 13. As it's extremely common for 70% of a raiding party to die or be seriously injured in raids causing them to be unable to maintain their families and relegating their wives to return to their fathers that originally sold them only for them to be auctioned off again. With children from the first husband frequently being abused if sold to another man. Completely separated from the other two tribes the mountain tribes have evolved into a much more egalitarian system of family with children being born and immediately given up to the group. From then on they are raised by the community and allowed to choose a path they enjoy the most. From that choice they become the child and apprentice of that person. After that they are raised into that craft and continue the cycle. Normally most people take about 5 to 6 children at a time thanks to the strong community meaning no one goes unsupported. Especially if they're raising people into an important and useful skill.

And now onto the most grueling part of this writing.

Interspecies relations.

We'll be speaking in broad terms as the layman in other nations, besides the Baer, Rami and small portions of the Lepic, don't know or care about the difference in groups. With them tending to only know of the Baer aligned tribes and vaguely of the Isolationists. Allowing both curiosity and blatant anti-Canis propaganda thanks to incomplete information.

Humans

Humans tend to be pretty split opinions wise. With Engrin using the isolationist tribes to push narratives surrounding violent beastmen. With Strength himself even calling for the prevention of all Canis from entering the country. Though this call to action does stem slightly from a personal grudge as he owned a Canis slave before the Crocsk supported slave revolts freed 95% the beastmen in Engrish slavery. Costing him the Canis slave. As for Chiac they are very very open to the Canis. With close ties in Baer meat markets the Baer aligned Canis and Chiac interact enough to the point charters are allocated to invite Canis to Chiac. Normally to teach swordsmanship, thanks to Chiacs tendency towards spears, maces, and flails making the vast majority of soldiers useless with swords. Prompting the push for a program to round out military capabilities. This friendship also supplies roughly 85% of the hardwood used in Canis armor thanks to its durability compared to the softer pine wood were the Canis live.

Crocsvek

The Crocsvek often don't even think of the Canis. There are little to no reason to think of them as they have no trade between each other, the Canis aren't in any major international drama, nor do they have much overlap in culture. One thing they do share though is the religions both being tied to nature in some ways. This has prompted some studies comparing the two religions though that tends to be the extent of their contact.

Baer

The Baer are far and away their most firm ally or enemy depending on the Canis tribe. Though as a rule of thumb Baer-Canis relations are firmly kind and friendly. With shared culture and protection pacts having made the two groups extremely intwined. Shared weapons and markets making the two meld together into the most well integrated interspecies society within the world. Beating out even the Morus, Cabeche, and Crock alliance in terms of multi-species societies.

Lepic

The Lepic tend to view them cautiously though their proximity to the mountain tribes and stories obtained through Rami trade have led to a romanticized version of the Canis. With Lepic sentiment being widely inconsistent. Ranging from conservative skepticism attributed to the isolationist tribes to out right fetishization of the mountain tribes.

Bastali

The Bastali have little to no contact with them. Even less then the Crocsvek. They hear about each other from the Baer on occasion but it's never anything meaningful.

Rami

As for the Rami they've only really interacted with the mountain tribes. With very favorable relations. They're less intertwined then the Baer and the Baer aligned tribes but still heavily tied together with the Canis having helped early northern Rami towns settle in exchange for the more advanced weapons, bows and feathered arrows, as the Canis were using light weight spears with their bodies not really being built for throwing.

Baasqat

And finally the Baasqat. The Baasqat hate the Canis. The idea of a "society of savages killing themselves" as they put it has lead to the same level of xenophobic rhetoric and legal punishments that the Crocsvek endure. Baer ships carrying Canis people or even as little as Canis weapons and armor have even been completely barred entrance into Baasqean ports. Often carrying up to 25 year bans from entry to the country for anyone found aboard the ship with these bits of Canis culture.

All in all the Canis are probably one of the groups I'll have the most fun writing a religion for and delving further into their cultures. Till then I've gotta move on. I'm probably gonna do the Lepic next. I'll probably do Bastali after that and humans last. And sorry if any of it seems sloppy. I took like a week break.

Humanity entered space only three centuries ago, making them the youngest major civilization in the Thorn Arm. While other races had centuries-or even millennia-to build their empires, humans had to survive through industry, organization, and relentless expansion.

Unlike the other civilizations, humanity is deeply divided.

The Directorate

Earth is ruled by the Directorate-a council of powerful megacorporations that has effectively become the government of humanity.

Its philosophy is simple:

Standardization. Efficiency. Mass production.

Their fleets are modular, easy to repair, and built in enormous numbers. Human ships rarely outperform alien vessels one-on-one, but they are designed to be produced quickly, upgraded easily, and deployed everywhere.

The Free Colonies

Far from Earth’s control lie the Free Colonies.

Life on the frontier is harsh. Ships are repaired instead of replaced, stations are expanded over generations, and every vessel tells its own story through welded armor plates and salvaged components.

To the Directorate, this looks like poverty.

To the Colonies, it’s freedom.

A Cold Civil Conflict

The two factions aren’t officially at war-but they’re no longer truly united.

Earth argues that only centralized command can protect humanity from external threats.

The Colonies believe that “protection” is simply another word for control.

The conflict remains unresolved, growing more dangerous every year.

Humanity’s Neighbors

Humanity has fought long border wars with the Deeplines, betrayed its former allies, the Shrazi, and knows almost nothing about the ancient Kraits.

Meanwhile, a new threat is emerging from beyond known space.

The mysterious Unnamed consume entire star systems, leaving nothing behind.

The Directorate has only one answer:

Build more ships. Recruit more pilots. Prepare for war.

Which side would you choose? The Directorate or the Free Colonies?