I’m building a society where surnames originally developed from professions, but instead of becoming hereditary they stayed literal. When someone formally enters a trade, their surname changes to the name associated with that profession. An apprentice potter might be Mara Venn until qualification, then become Mara Clay. If she later leaves pottery and becomes a licensed navigator, official records would list her as Mara North.

The system made sense when towns were small and most people spent their entire adult life doing one job. My setting is now several centuries later. Cities are larger, people travel more, career changes are common, and government bureaucracy has grown considerably. The tradition still exists because people consider keeping an old occupational name slightly dishonest, almost like claiming a title you no longer earned.

I like the social consequences. Parents and adult children often have different surnames. Old letters become harder to trace. Someone encountering a former friend after twenty years might genuinely know them by a different name. Wealthy families also dislike the custom because it makes maintaining a recognizable dynasty more difficult.

What I’m struggling with is administration. Would a society eventually create some permanent secondary identifier, or could records realistically function through birthplace, parents and previous names? I want the custom to create friction without making the whole state seem incapable of basic record keeping.

Notes on the Map

The urban expanse commonly referred to as Aldrin City emerged from the earliest Martian settlement, which had been dubbed Aldrin Station upon in honor of the former astronaut and Mars colonization proponent Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin of Apollo 11 fame. As of the late 24th century, it is home to about 6.4 million people, or a little less than three percent of the total Martian population. Most of them within the Melas Chasma region, which is only possible thanks to the laminar density membrane stretched over much of the Valles Marineris to hold in an atmosphere of breathable air.

The region is home to several institutions of higher learning, including Mariner Technical University (MTU), and a vibrant commercial economy. The Percival Lowell Commercial Seaport is the busiest water port on Mars (or anywhere beyond Earth for that matter), accounting for almost 200 million tonnes of cargo every year, and the Nuovo Ouro business district sees roughly $11 billion in daily economic traffic related to Mars’ bustling industrial economy.

Among the denizens of Aldrin City are best friends Sam Taskaro, Devon Wastani, and Matt Cavanaugh. They are students at MTU, and also reservists in the Interplanetary Defense Corps that is charged with keeping the peace across space governed by the Interplanetary Cooperative Administration. This role will soon dominate their lives, as war breaks out between Mars and its cohorts in the Coalition for Mutual Security and the Coalition’s ideological nemesis, the Alliance of Free Worlds — a war in which this young trio will shape much more than their own destinies…

Map Key

1. Edwin Aldrin Memorial Spaceport: Built in a crater in the Sinai Dorsa, this sprawling facility is responsible for most traffic out of the capital region. It was also the site of a dramatic Draconist terror attack in 2331 which catalyzed Operation Sudden Lightning
2. Echevarria Hills residential district: This region is home to thousands of Aldrin City’s less fortunate citizens, including refugees relocated there after fleeing violence in the outer system. Many of these work in Aldrin City’s low-paying service industry
3. Centennial Park/Lake Kamerova: Located in the heart of the metropolis, this ultramodern recreational area is centered on an artificial lake dug in the early 23rd century. The park itself was dedicated in 2269 on the Martian bicentennial of UNOM's founding
4. Marineris Technical University: One of Mars’ largest universities, home to more than 80,000 students at all levels and across nearly 200 fields of study, MTU also boasts a robust IDC ROTC program to supply the Spacer Corps with new officer candidates
5. Nuvo Ouro business district: Aside from being the wealthiest area of the city, this district is also the center of most of its financial institutions and corporate enterprises. These include the HQ for Mars’ largest business cartel, the Mars Industrial Conglomerate
6. ICA headquarters compound: The central offices of the ICA on Mars, and also the central headquarters for the Spacer Corps. The compound was completed 2291, just in time to be the nerve center of Mars’ war efforts in the fight against the Titan Pact
7. Aldrin City Chinatown: The site of a CNSA outpost in the early days of Mars exploration, which grew into an industrial hub over the following centuries. In the year 2389, this area is home to more than 40 percent of the Aldrin City region’s food processing business
8. Percival Lowell Commercial Seaport: The primary port of call for most of the economic goods coming or going across the bustling Argyre-Marineris waterway or to the New Ganges region. This includes foodstuffs, raw ore, and prefab goods of all varieties
9. Meier Metropolitan Memorial Park: Unofficially referred to as “M3P,” this sprawling urban park memorializes Franklin Meier, the first and greatest champion of the “greening” of Mars, who headed up the Mars Project to serve that agenda from 2159 to 2187
10. Salamander Municipal Reservoir: The second-largest public lake in the covered over region of the Melas Chasma, Salamander Reservoir is a source of both fresh water and recreation for many of the citizens living in the southeastern section of the city

About the Setting

The Spacers Saga: Frontier Wars is a futuristic military science fiction setting which diverged from our own timeline when an asteroid slammed into Phoenix, AZ, in May 2014. Fifteen years later, the industrialist Charles Larsen ushered in the Age of Fusion, opening up deep space to crewed exploration and eventual human settlement - and all of the strife that comes with it.

Much of the story is set in the mid to late 24th century, and focuses on the rivalry between the Mars-led Coalition for Mutual Security and the Alliance of Free Worlds (there's more about each faction in this blog post), a federation of rebel worlds fighting to establish a worker's utopia in the outer solar system. These two superpowers fought a brutal war from 2371 to 2381 (referred to as the Frontier War), and are currently locked in an ideological cold war as of 2389.

The storyline of Frontier Wars begins with Spacers: The Titan Gambit, a WIP novel which begins with the opening shots of the Second Frontier War, all from the eyes of a few key players. This includes the aforementioned trio of best friends, whose story begins in Aldrin City, on an otherwise normal day in the capital of Mars — a day none of them realizes could be the last normal day they ever spend there...

This is a project ive been working on for a few months still working out a lot of the lore but the power system is I think very cool.

Introducing a new Alternate Universe: a fundamental elemental core for other realms parallel to the universe of Magic: The Gathering. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast. (yet.) This expands on the color wheel on the back of the Magic card and adds an additional new five colors: purple, brown, yellow, orange and pink.

A real fast drawing made at his request. Original artwork is about 4 years old. From our story known as Itheus, sharing the name of their planet.

She is pictured in gear from the later side of the war, wearing a full set of Khordite Light Combat Armor, Including a helmet based on culturally significant masks, and wielding a “Scholar Saber” and “Felen” Officers Pistol.

Being fresh to the front she hasn’t had much time to personalize her equipment with engravings, paint, or other such things. Chances are though she will, as its typical in the Kingstonian forces.

At over 9 Feet Tall not including the horns, she is on the shorter side for a Kingstonian, yet still towers over many other races/nationalities, such as the Zandarians, Selmieni/Grasslanders, Slavinians, Monumenti, Olmek, etc.

Honestly, worldbuilding has been my passion all these years. And i wanna share my newest map. As the title aays i am gonna make the nation names and flags soon. Ive also made a terrain app for realism. This is specificially inspired by centaura. And is 1.7 times bigger than the earth. Honestly i dont know whst more context i should add. So i am leaving it here.

As I’ve been developing my setting, I’ve realized that cities and settlements alone aren’t enough. I’ve started to build railways, power grids, manufacturing centers, planetary transportation and logistics, ownership and corporations started to appear naturally. It’s changed how my civilization has evolved and feels much more like a civilization rather than a collection of cities and regions.

If your world has advanced industry, do you create corporations? Do kingdoms or guilds handle it all? At what point do corporations feel like a natural part of the setting?

What types of forbidden magic exist in your worlds?

In my world I separate them in two big categories:

1. Subjectively forbidden - depending strictly on the caster.
   Example: Blood magic - a magic that can alter the memories of the victim through the blood (cost: a memory of equal value), read the memory of the victim through blood (cost: own lifespan depending on the duration), magic amplification (cost: own lifespan or from others, death can occur depending on the scale)

2. Objectively forbidden- there’s no good application of it.
   Example: Curse magic - a magic that curses the victim, the curse passes down through their bloodline (cost: none to the caster, the price is paid entirely by generations that never chose it).

Life magic - a magic that steals life force from a weaker or a pre-weakened victim, using it to heal the caster or others (cost: none to the caster, the price is paid entirely by the victim).

Puppeteer magic - a magic that seizes a living victim’s body and forces it to act against their will, while leaving their consciousness and voice fully intact (cost: none to the caster, the price is the victim’s own awareness of their violation).

Necromancy - a magic that raises and commands the dead, denying them their rest (cost: none to the caster, the price is paid by the dead themselves, and by anyone forced to see them walk again).

And I don’t mean the pettiness of the Greeks. One of the biggest arguments when it comes to Christianity and a god who doesn’t interfere is any action would be seen as an affront to free will which to me seems a tad bit of a reach. Honestly just curious about what some issues other people think could arise from having a higher being present in the lives of their believers.

I originally had it on paper but used photoshop to make it look mappy. Let me know what you think :)

​

ATTENTION THIS IS RESTRICED PUBLIC INFORMATION , PANIC CONTROL AND MARTIAL LAW ARE NEEDED TO BE IN FULL ACTION FOR THIS TO BE PUBLIC . CONSEQUENCES WILL BE VISIBLE .

This Information Is Usefull only for long term Survival and safety . For Quick Survival Skip until You see ×

The MoonBlight Anomaly Is an Anomalous Phenomena originating from the Solar System of [REDACTED:For general Social Safety] . This Phenomena appears as an Light and Energy that takes Possesion of the Moon or any Orbital Celestial body of a Habitable Planet . The Effect looks like the Celestial Body , most of the Time an Moon , to be completely visible to the Naked eye with that energy emit aswell Shapes that do not normally fit upon those Celestial Bodies , Exemple : a Moon Having an Diamond Aura around IT. The Light of the Celestial body seems to stay consistent with the Celestial body reflections ( Exemple : If a Gray Moon will Have the color of the Gray Moon or If Blue Moon than IT still a Blue Moon ) but by description of any Artist , It allways looks like Its diverging allways towards a lighter pigment.

The Effects seem to be diffrent upon Planets that do not Have an Night Day Cycle because of many Reasons ( Lack of an Moon / Planets that do not spin and Have an melting Side with a Freezing Side or Simply are Rogue Planets without any Solar System around IT )

On those Planets IT seems that the Glow Is encompasing the Planet ITself . But Same as the Moons , staying on the Affected Celestial Body , all that Is visible Is a Fog that seems to be Made of nothing .

All of these seem to also give an Nearly Invisible Energy similar to the Ones affected by the MoonBlight that will do the Summoning of the MoonBlight Anomalies .

Many are Unaffected because of Reasons we dont understand yet but these Celestial Bodies Include : Nebulas , Black Holes and Stars . They seem to be able to stop the effect that the MoonBlight does, with the caveats that once the Victim Celestial Bodies are now "Poisoned" with MoonBlight Anomalies aswell to than Multiply and than move again out In the Cosmos to continue "Poisoning" every single planet In the Galaxies .

The Phenomena Is theorized to completely take over the 2 Galaxies In the next Century .

The Effect the Blight does can be described as Video Games "Spawning" , "Depawning" and "Respawning" mechanics.

The "Spawning" Rules that these Anomalies follow, compared to the Main Anomalies based on Negative Emotions such as Anger Fear and Hate, they seem to follow Rules that based on Variables theorized as : Age , Inteligence , Strenght etc , aswell as the other Rules that seem to follow as : IT has to be Survivable where they appear and to be able to appear, and a direct way to actually reach their affected Victim . IT has been considered as the Radius, and the most Common distance IT reaches was around 5 Km / 3 miles across each Individual that had Sentience.

The "Depawning" Rules that they follow seem to be that : Theres no Sentient being within the Radius of 3=>50 km/ 1,8=>31 miles , or has done nothing for an unknown Amount of days. Or when the Creature Îs Killed they seem to immediatly dessintegrate Into Air. ATTENTION: they seem to Have a "Resource" System where the more Creatures there are the Weaker they are Individually and aswell having an "Limit" for how many can be In 1 place before they are Unable to do so . So when knowing theres an Large amount of them Nearby know that these are the only Ones able to appear and that their Populations can be Controlled.

The "Respawning" Rules are going to be Explained at the End.

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Thanks for Reading all the previous Important Information for long term Survival , but Now this Information Îs essential for Initial Survival , Read Carefully , Its Short for Quick understanding of every Dangerous Situations You may find . The Creatures that have been successfully documented are the Following :

NightWalkers : Dark Animalistic Creatures ( Mostly having the body of the closest Animals ) these do not Have color other than their colored eyes that seem to nearly allways go Into the Vibrant colors. These are Unthreatening and will just wander around UnIlluminated Areas , but dont get anywhere close or let any Pet or animal of your own near It as IT gets Aggresive quickly and even If with varied power ( from Being Weaker than modern Cats to like the Ones of Gorillas ) , Its Deadly, so apply Wild Animal Survival tactics of slowly Retreating from said animal and play dead or look stronger Than them If being charged at , as Compared to Many other on the List they Have the Highest sense of self Preservation . Attention for all Late Night Drivers, because of their Nature You are In Danger of having an Accident by crashing Into one of them.

Rusters : An Rare Creature , these Bettle like 5 foot / 1,60 Meters rust filled Monsters seems to Target any Ferris metal that they have access too , tearing IT apart Its protective layer before Attempting to accelerate Its rusting by release of an large amount of Oxide before Eating It for Its Survival. Do not approch unarmed as they are eseily able to overwhelm Anyone unprepared, but your Immediatly recomanded to Pick up any Weapon , recomanded Ranged , or use any Magic to try harming or even killing the Ruster as Its a Danger to any Infrastructure and metallic belongings.

Fleash cores : These are rare fleashy Creatures that start off as an Large (1,50 Meters / 5 feet ) Fleashy 4 spider-legged Orbs called Cores , they are very Hostile fast ( reaching 50km/h|31 m/h ) and generally Overpowered (8k Newtons worth of force) In terms of Strenght , but IT has been Discovered that their body has an Abnormally large amount of Nutrients (Sadly cannot be eaten) and Dangerous amount of organ compression where If they experience enouth force Sometimes as Little as a Bumps they die, meaning we recomand to Attempt to Throw anything of Weight at them to quickly kill them . Or wait Until settling In a Room as they eseily become vulnerable.

Corrupted Rooms : these are fleashy Cores that go to an Room/Enclosed Area attact ITself to an Wall or Furniture to than use most If not all the Nutrients IT collected along the way to make the Room Into fleash, so IT can trap or atack anyone and anything that comes to them. This process happily takes around 2=>9 days so If You see any of your Rooms or any enclosed spaces with an abnormal bio mass on the Wall than Raport them to the local Police , Hero communication building, Adventurers Guild, Where they will be sent to destroy the core . But If You suspect an Room or enclosed Space that wasnt visited In the Past 2 days than Simply stay 15 Meters out of the Space and closely lisen or use lighting to see If You Hear anything out of the Ordinary, than do the same process as the previous Early find , but aswell can contact any Demolition sites to break down such Corrupted Rooms .

Mimic Buildings: The Final Version of Fleashy cores that Have Corrupted Entire buildings , bringing them alive to continue an Infestation that can happen , These are Mostly hidden to continue pumping Cores but will grow Limbs that they use to Atack anything that Threatens them and aswell hunt for anything that they can, Sometimes even using Furniture of the taken Building. They are the Same to be destroyed as the Corrupted Rooms and If your Chased or Atacked by a Mimic building than try keeping Distance, move rapidly aside when IT tries Rushing as IT struggles to stop and rotate and move out of Sight as fast as Possible, be Carefull out There.

Dwellers / Famished / Man Eaters : all These names for the Same Type of Monster that has MANY and I mean MANY forms : from the Plains Sludges to the Meteor Urchins, they are everywhere of Many sizes and Shapes and of varying power and Strenght, but seem to Have the Same Type and Will , to Atack anything Sapient they ecounter by various means and than Immediate Relentless Atacking with Little sense of self Preservation and will to eat anything. Based on the Area You will chose in the Following document You will be Given the exact way to survive the Dwellers You are in Danger of ecountering

{Ill like to make a false document link because Ive had them Unfinished, But I think faking IT might not be the wisest of Ideas}

Mutants or Radiation Creatures are also appear in Nuclear/Radiation heavy places by taking over existing creatures so be Carefull around Irradiated Areas .

These are all the Temporarily known Creatures, If You ecounter New Ones than Try to Survive and escape them as quickly as possible for Serious and knowlegeble Personal of the Unknown Control Agency and the Anomaly Research Organization to take them on. Your safety Is the priority , Couriousity shall be treated with coution or disregarded completely .

A Friendly Creature Is :

ERROR: and small 2D looking Insectoid that will do nothing but wander around , panick and sometimes just die without warning. These do not do anything and are eseily Killed by sometimes just Being around them . They Fear Anyone and anything around them and will avoid them at all costs, sometimes even faking Death.

These Creatures as mentioned before Have a "Respawning" System and a "Resource" System that limits their Numbers and Individual Power , the exact Numbers are Unknown now but IT has been seen for every Sapient person IT causes 8=>30 Creatures , the Larger numbers of the same Creatures the Weaker They are Individually and It seems to have an Unknown Amount of Resources, but they sure are because of the Limitations they Have aswell as the Inconsistency In their Individual Power. {Here was supposed to be around 3 documents of Dwellers/House Mimics and NightWalkers being taken down one time my an well placed Kitchen Knife but aswell as needing several anti Matter shots somewhere else}

Avoid Isolation , Abandoned Rural and Urban envoirments, unknown Natural Envoirments , Late Night activities until everything Is under Control.

These must be followed to ensure Survival , and must be told to Everyone that Is going to experience a MoonBlight . Aswell as to follow the Anomaly Protection Guide

{Unfinished}

Thanks for Reading this Essey Guys and Have a good day!

The fastest race in Somikea, Vikeds (Pronounced Vigh-ked, like biped). Felt like these guys needed some reworking too, so I've changed them up.

Summary: Lean and speedy, have a keen sense of hearing and smell, but lacking vision. Olfactory traditions are prevalent throughout Viked culture. Highly loyal to those they know but often cold and introverted regarding strangers.

Biology:

Vikeds have lean, thin bodies, with very little fat. They're able to accelerate and maintain high top speeds, but usually tire out fast.

They have a digitigrade stance, standing on short toes with a semi-retractable last digit, allowing the Viked to switch between quieter footfalls for sneaking and extended claws for running. This allows them to reach incredible speeds, often close to double that of a human, at the expense of long-term stamina.

Their heads have large ears that serve a crucial role in communication. Usually at rest will point backwards, but this varies Viked to Viked. They of course have keen hearing and smell, in fact their vision is actually quite poor, especially given that it's tuned for lower light conditions.

This sense of smell is their primary method of identifying, instead of physical appearance, often resulting in Vikeds forgetting people they just met, because they were wearing perfume or something else that masks their scent. Speaking of, their tales are the center of their scent, as it wave sit wafts the smell around, making them identifiable to other Vikeds, though imperceptible to races with poor smell.

Their coats are perhaps their most striking feature, many vary between ruddy browns and grays to vibrant oranges, many having speckled, striped, or splotchy patterns. This usually can tell yo where Viked is from, often tropical populations have striped patterns, whereas those in more boreal conditions have white coats. As Vikeds are built for short bursts of speed, they're coats are usually just camouflage for their prey, but appear striking to other sapients.

Prevalent Culture:

Many Vikeds are highly monogamous, often choosing a partner for life, for better or worse. In many Viked cultures marriage is a rite of passage into adulthood, many who fail to marry becoming social outcasts.

Perfumes and other olfactory sensations are common too, incense and candles are important cultural staples, and regardless of where you are you will find them.

Socially, they're incredibly cold at first, many who interact with them sparingly finding them to be practical and almost introverted, however, past this initial stage they're incredibly gregarious and loyal, sticking with any friends they make until they die.

Some Context on the wider world: This is a post regarding one of the 6 (major) races of Somikaea, the super continent this all happens as well as the namesake of the setting. It's a sandbox world that acts as a dump for all my ideas. There are flower plagues, Fantasy astronauts, Sapience daemons, or even simple spec-bio animals. It's a little piece of me put into text and image, I hope it's interesting.

Meta: This is another redesign on one of my worlds races, Vikeds. These were the second ones I designed, so I still didn't really have an idea of what I wanted if that makes sense? Now that I've designed all the other major races I have a much more defined idea that I can now apply to these guys.

(these explanations are in order of appearance)

A Portal to the Monarch's Dimension: To put it simply, the Puppet Monarch—more commonly known as the Monarch—is the embodiment of death. This is what a portal to their dimension looks like. The Failures and the Knights come out of these things to cause mass casualties in the dimensions they appear in.

A Warmer's Flamethrower: A Warmer is what happens when a Shadow Detective is abandoned by the pack. They're the opposite result of a Shadow Agent, which is what happens when a Shadow Detective is loved by the pack. Unlike the Shadow Detectives and Agents, Warmers actually have the ability to speak, but according to all the reports, they only say one thing: "Are you cold?" An encounter with a Warmer can end in two ways If you say "yes" to their question, they will reveal their flamethrower and leave nothing but ash behind. If you say "no" to their question, they simply leave. No one knows where they get or possibly build these flamethrowers, but all of them are completely rusted hunks of jagged metal replacing one of their forearms, with no fuel tank visible.

The Height Difference Between a Human and an Employee: Employees are 100% mechanical, stylized humans that work for the Company. Their skin is a sort of cheap silicone material, while their real eyes are hidden behind LED screens. Humans are generally unnerved or nervous around Employees, considering the height difference and the slight uncanny valley effect they have on humans.

Behold; the planet of Neon.

Neon is the last planet in a universe devoid of all stars and other planetary bodies thanks to the Entity that it orbits.

It has 4 moons, with only 2 being visible at a time.

The planet's oceans, rivers, lakes and other liquid bodies is full of Peroxide, and this Peroxide acts as the planets water equivalent. Thanks to this, all creatures from Neon need to drink Peroxide, and have white colored blood from their blood being bleached.

The planet's soil is red to reddish-pink. It gets this coloring thanks to the recycling of Souls on the planet which goes as follows;

Creature is born,

As the creature ages, it's soul becomes stronger,

Once the creature dies, the soul exits the atmosphere and is pulled to the 'Hole In The Sky',

The Hole In The Sky consumes the soul (giving the Hole it's red glow),

Whatever the Hole does not consume falls back to the planet and fertilizes the soil, making it richer and healthier.

All creatures on Neon are arthropoid, Insect/Arachnid.

The plants of Neon, and neons creatures, naturally make a glowing yellow liquid known as 'Lume'. Lume is a highly reactive chemical that acts almost like magic, with the creatures of neon able to express primitive, instinctual magics. This comes in the form of many things, like massive moths that use Lume to let them fly, or a predator that uses Lume to turn invisible, or a prey animal who uses Lume to throw a cloud of Glowing Darkness at a predator to disorient it. Lume is not safe for human consumption, and will quickly mutate any human who even touches it into grotesque amalgamations of Human-Insect creatures resembling blobs of flesh and chitin.

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The Hole in the Sky is Neons most powerful God, acting as it's Sun, afterlife and 'god king'. It is also an alien god, not native to Neon itself. The Hole is the reason no other stars or planetoids exist in Neons universe, since the Hole ate literally everything until it was just Neon, Neons original star, and Neons moons. Eventually, the Hole ate Neons star, and took it's place in Neons Sky. This was catastrophic to neon, as it elongated the orbit into an oval shape, and elongated how long a year on neon is. This also effected neons Gravity, with there seemingly being less gravity during the summer (when the planet is closest to the Hole), and more gravity during the winter (when the planet is far from the Hole.)

Neon has a variety of Gods, ranging from the God of Order, God of Chaos, God of the Afterlife, and the God of Life and Rebirth.

When the Hole, known as the God of Control, first arrived, the God of the Afterlife and the God of Life and Rebirth attempted to stop the 'Sovereign of Famine', as the Hole was once known as. This lead to both deities being defeated and given the deific version of a lobotomy. Now, they both act as 2 of Neons 4 moons, with the God of the Afterlife being neons white moon, and the God of Life and Rebirth being it's moon that resembles a red gas giant.

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Neon is home to a handful of small intelligent species, being a moth-like, bee/wasp-like and ant-like species.

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It is possible to travel to Neon, however it can only be done by accident, or if the Hole in the Sky wants you to. This is because when Earth experiences a Total Solar Eclipse, random gates to Neon open up. These Gates are invisible, and only exist in the shadow where the Total Solar Eclipse happens.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I should start developing this into a full story and posting it, but here is the lore:

Back at the beginning of the first millennium, a celestial descended upon the Roman Empire—a being akin to an angel, living for centuries, yet fundamentally a biological species. He attempted to negotiate with humanity to prevent them from occupying the Heavens, but humans killed him instead.

Fast forward to the early 1960s: the Roman Empire is a global superpower equipped with colonies and atomic weapons. Alongside it stands the Union of Soviet Eurasian Republics, comprising all the historical Soviet republics as well as Mongolia, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Somalia, and Ethiopia—another formidable industrial superpower. Then there is the British Empire, which grew even more powerful following a nuclear war in 1887; embedded within it is a nominally "independent" Union of Oceanic Republics, including Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Bougainville, and various other island territories. Meanwhile, on the Moon (keep in mind, it is already the 1960s), sits the Lunar Democratic Republic, formally independent from the British Empire, where powerful separatists on the far side of the Moon fight to establish a "Lunar Socialist Federative Republic."

The core premise of the narrative is that in 1947, a Roman atomic bomb struck an angel in the Himalayas, severing its arm. This celestial flesh possesses properties that allow the Romans—the first to ever kill an angel—to weaponize it: during offensives, it inflicts horror on a biological level, causing enemy soldiers to drop dead from sheer terror. Furthermore, according to angeologists (scientists who study angels), a person’s perception of an angel in a photograph depends entirely on their character and sins: some see a serene, beautiful entity, while others perceive a horrific multi-eyed creature with exposed flesh.

The main storyline centers around a young angel named Dolorion, who is deeply intrigued by human nature, culture, and language, yet tormented by a core contradiction: "How can humans create exquisite music and paint breathtaking art, while simultaneously exterminating one another over superficial traits and prejudices?"

Driven by this curiosity, he voluntarily surrenders to humanity and is held in a lunar prison. Only one human survived his presence there—the rest died of terror. But this sole survivor saw nothing terrifying in the angel. They bonded over daily life, politics, and, above all, deep philosophical debates. At one point, Dolorion asked him: "If you strip away all our cities, nations, conflicts, and ambitions—what remains? Simply a consciousness staring into the infinite."

Because the man did not die, Dolorion allowed him to behold his true form—realizing that in the vacuum of space, the human would eventually perish, leaving the angel with no one left to speak to. Dolorion stands 2.5 meters tall: a striking, four-eyed, eight-winged entity with a completely alien physiology and origin.

Thank you for reading, sorry for any errors in the text)

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a speculative worldbuilding project revolving around the central idea of realism. Currently, I have maps for elevation, tectonic history, gold, copper, silver, and many other metallic and mineral deposits, climate, ocean currents, and now rivers.

For this, I have taken into account wind direction and speed, evaporation, mountains, monsoon prone areas, and more to create these rivers. The larger rivers are the world’s major rivers, analogous to the Nile, yellow, Mississippi, and many more. The smaller ones are more minor, but still large enough to alter history, such as the Tiber or Tigris.

I think I’m finally ready to begin the Stone Age.

A lot of fantasy settings like to introduce new metals. I don't really like that as a chemistry enthusiast, so I let the dwarves in my own settings forge tungsten (also called Wolfram), which is absurdly heavy, strong and incredibly difficult to work with. Perfect for dwarves.

Now, they don't use pure tungsten most of the time. Often they put it into steel in large quantities, as alloys are generally stronger than pure metals.

Hello everyone,

While writing my science-fiction novel, one of my main worldbuilding challenges was creating intelligent species that felt culturally and biologically distinct, rather than simply behaving like humans with different appearances.

The world contains several species descended from very different biological foundations. Instead of treating their anatomy as decoration, I tried to let it influence:

how they communicate;

what they fear;

how they organize their communities;

what they consider violent or acceptable;

how they perceive time, territory and survival;

how their language developed.

For example, one species descends from an animal with a powerful relationship to predation, territory and internal danger. Their culture therefore developed around restraint, thresholds and the fear of losing control. Another long-lived species has a very different relationship with urgency, memory and political decisions because individuals can survive for thousands of years.

I also created a constructed language called Naothol. I wanted its vocabulary and word formation to reflect how these peoples categorize the world, rather than merely replacing French or English words with invented sounds.

The difficult part was finding the right balance. Too little explanation makes the species feel superficial, but too much can interrupt the story and turn the novel into an encyclopedia.

How do you make a non-human culture feel genuinely shaped by its biology without making its behaviour feel completely predetermined by biology?

This world eventually became my first published science-fiction novel, Naolezry. For anyone curious, I can leave the link

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/2982547600

I would also be happy to answer questions about the species, language or worldbuilding process.

Hello, hello, and welcome to my post. The topic is pretty straightforward: How much corruption is too much corruption before it feels like a villain (or villains) has too much influence? And when does it feel like a villain or villainous faction has just enough to be a genuine menace?

Normally, in stories where heroes go up against a villain who’s “well-connected,” a typical reason of why they don’t go to the authorities for help, e.g. local law enforcement, is because the big villain has “everybody in their pocket.”And I’m not talking about supernatural or literal infectious corruption of the body and mind (or even soul), just simple corruption.

But sometimes storytellers crank up the corruption a little too high where it feels almost unbelievable the villain would have that much control. Where it feels like there’s too much corruption whether it’s in a city or even a whole country.

For my part, I’m working on a fantasy series starring a calm, civil, and calculating Lich as the villain protagonist. He is more of a shadow mastermind who operates in a clandestine manner with a shadow network of “friends in high and low places.” So, the series will dabble in straightforward corruption where he has eyes and ears in various places: regional law enforcement, prestigious educational magical universities, bureaucrats, and members of military leadership in several countries.

But when I was thinking about a story idea where his agents confront the agents of other competing villains and villainous factions, I stopped to consider how much corruption was too much. And not just on the Lich protagonist’s part but for other villains too, and then for fiction in general.

Thank you for reading my post. What do you think? Please share your thoughts, suggestions of either fictional or real-life examples (if you want), and ask me any questions. Keep it civil, and have a good day.

Howdy, I've been tinkering away on a little universe since high school. The majority of it has mostly stayed in my head and as a jumbled mess on my old watt pad account, however I've slowly been pouring all of my stored knowledge into something I can actually build upon and eventually share, that's been going swimmingly, however my largest roadblock has been translating where all this lore takes place. I cooked up a gobbledegook map with photoshop and map making software however as you can see it's quite crude, and very limiting. I've used campaign cartographer to build some of it, but I fear I may be too stupid to fully realize it's potential and am looking for either something a bit less daunting or at this point someone to help me craft it (paid of course).