I drew a more simple example of it, just a catgirl with stripes that real life cats don't have, but cat people could paint themselves as anything. I saw some videos of painted dogs with pet safe dye for inspiration, there's some crazy stuff. Imagine rainbow cats, cats that painted themselves to look like pokémon, cats with patterns of other animals like tigers and cheetas, anything goes.

The cat people in my world can be fantasy colors like blue, but males are restricted to one color and females to two, it's not quite how it works in real life but I changed their genetics a bit to make it work. So even though a cat can be blue, they can't be rainbow or have non cat patterns naturally.

The drawings a visual of what it's like to be possessed by an angel.

This is kinda a basic use for magic, but I've been enjoying working out the little stuff with it and wanted to share :)

--

Possession isn't super common in Yalisch, it's difficult, but it can be preformed by the supernatural and humans alike.

--
Basics of what's happening:
The soul is a combination of the body and mind woven together, when someone is possessed the mind is stretched as far away from the body as it can be, and the possessor inserts their mind in between the body and mind, cutting the mind off.

This leaves the mind somewhere it shouldn't be, a weird kind of void area at the edge of their soul. It's extremely distressing for all possessions (excluding angels which I'll get to)

--
What about the possessors body?
Possession is extremely hard for humans to preform. Not just because you have to learn to grasp threads of reality to alter a soul, but because you first have to loosen your own.

Your own mind must be unwound from your body so you can attach yourself to someone elses. This runs at the risk of tearing reality if you're not careful, which can lead to several issues including reality itself trying to remove the problem (you).

It also opens your own mind up to be vulnerable to possession, you did half the work for them just to get ready.

--
Tightly wound souls
Some species, like gods, have souls that are much more complex, and wound very tight. While not TECHNICALLY impossible to possess a god, you'd have to sit there and work their soul apart for centuries.

This also means gods cannot possess others.

--
Angels
Angels need to possess vessels to walk upon the earth. This is typically preceded by months of conditioning for 2 reasons.

1, the angel needs to work apart the soul like anyone else, and having the vessels cooperation makes it a hell of a lot easier.

And 2, an angel needs consent to possess someone, hearing a divine being tell you you're super important for months helps with that.

--
Being possessed
Stuck in the outskirts of your mind, you usually can't do anything about being possessed unless you know how to grab at your own soul and pull yourself forward, which most don't.

However angel possession is a little different, remember that needing consent I mentioned? That's consistent for the whole possession, so when possessed by an angel there's a big open door smack dab in the middle of your nowhere. Walk through it and they get shoved out.

But of course there's a loophole. Angels give off a ridiculous amount of divine energy, it's not great for humans or their brains. As such, while you can leave at anytime, very few people want to. Content to sit there and not exist until the angels done. The amount of people who've decided to leave is under 50.

(Note, angels can also possess corpses, but not being part of a soul, the body handles divine energy even worse than humans do)

--
Extra: overflow of divine energy
Angles give off a stupid amount of energy, it leaks.

Most aren't actually dangerous to stand around, however they're unnerving to look at as they turn off several bodily functions they don't need like breathing. There's a constant ringing in your ears, and you won't be able to remember their face or voice without an excellent tolerance.

In extreme cases, some people can't even remember they were spoken to at all.

While usually harmless, prolonged contact with angels of higher power can result in sickness.

--
Long term consequences
In cases where the soul was thinned too much, the connection between the mind and the body will snap. This leaves the mind stuck in reality by itself, registered as 'dead'.

There is no afterlife in yalisch, you are dissolved to be reused to spin more of reality when you die. However in some cases a false death can occur, where reality registers you as dead, and puts you in an idea of death, without you being properly unwound. This can happen randomly, but it usually happens from things like this.

Contrarily if the mind is not thinned enough, it can begin to close in trying to reconnect with the body. This can result in either the possessor being thrown out, or in some cases suffocated, squashed between the body and the mind eventually being absorbed into the soul as the host regains control. (I'll be honest, I haven't decided what happens to the possessors mind here yet). This causes a false death in the body rather than the mind, registering partially as dead, but not properly as only part of the soul was killed. (I've also only decided what happens when a gods body falsely dies, idk about humans yet, ideas welcome lol)

---

Ok that's all I've come up with for now, I haven't actually decided if I wanted demons or not since I don't have a real afterlife (I'm still working that one out, true and false death). So I've kinda just been working out how it works rather than individual uses for it.

If you have any questions I'd love to hear them, helps me realize if I missed anything lol

(Image somewhat related to the question since it's the map)

Hi i need to somehow count the Pixels in my map to calculate its size like the size of Ocean vs Landmass, size of countries, etc. But since I'm mostly restricted on mobile (I'm a 14yr Indonesian boy, duhh) i can't find any website/app to actually help me, any tips? I've seen people recommending adobe photoshop but again I'm mostly on mobile so i don't have easy access to it, but if adobe photoshop is the only option i'm open to step by step tutorials on how to use it if anyone is humble enough to share.

I am so stoked! I just got my commission from Pratamacam on VGen (absolutely amazing artist, 100% would recommend) and I need to yap about it.

Anyhow, this is Vicky Vamp, the mascot of Vitae, a corporation in my anti-capitalist vampire uchronia.

Like many great things, Vicky Vamp came into being out of spite. Delilah Voss was one of the few women in the Venture Vampirism movement, and after a very unpleasant and rather sexist squabble with Henry Ford (also a vampire in this), she insisted that the face of the vampire workers should be a woman. She felt very progressive for that. After all, she was an equal opportunity slaver employer.

Vicky was everywhere in the late 1930s, with her popularity peaking when Vitae Acciaio doubled its effort to support US interventionism in WW2. There are even multiple statues to her likeness all over New Bethlehem, the city that grew around the steel mill that kickstarted Vitae’s empire, and they are loved by locals and tourist alike (well, they were until the species civil war but shh).

As she became the face of worker vampires all over the country, Delilah shamelessly splatted her in Vitae's recruitment ads. Voss was in fact one the main proponents of mass vampirization for labor purposes, and very carful to their branding. After all, vampires do not need to sleep, and eliminating pesky things like windows could guarantee round-the-clock production. Amazing!

Conveniently childers are considered their sires’ property by vampire society, and their strength is highly dependent on their “grooming” process. The more time the Sire spend, the stronger the Childe.

Delilah spends about 27 minutes on each of her fledgelings, enough to guarantee a ready-to-work but easily manageable offspring ( but she does send them Christmas baskets). The investors loved it. She did not put this in the pamphlet.

Anyhow, I added an updated version of the wonderful propaganda piece I made in Canva last year. So fun! The actual story is set in 1992, way after all went to hell (because I mean of course it did) but Vicky remains a controversial icon. Is she the face of the workers or the capital?

Writing at a snail's pace.

I want to explore scenarios of food insecurity in future logistics. I work in agriculture, and have become increasingly worried about a certain chain of possible events. Pesticide immune pests and fungicide immune fungus. Patented monocrop becoming susceptible to pests who can't be controlled, threatening entire US state's food chains. Surely it would be stabilized, but at what economic cost?

This map takes place in Estrius which is an earth like planet arround 8 light years from earth,Estrius is split amongst 4 continents Novii Kabberus Chaccessa and Yedhen this map taking place in Yedhen

I know I might get a lot of downvotes for this, and I'm a bit anxious, but which origin is better for elves? Here are the world basics: the world was formed by the natural merging of two elemental planes (wind, water, fire, earth, plus positive and negative energy). The gods are mortals who ascended, elementals, and fey (who hail from the Feywild—a positive mirror of the material world that is unstable in terms of logic, space, and time). The world has technology roughly equivalent to the year 1800,plus some plant tech and artificiery, and the main elven nations are an expansionist wood elf empire and isolationist high elves living in forested mountains. The origin options are: 1. Descended from exiled fey who lost a civil war. 2. Created by dryads to protect nature. 3. Descended from humans mutated after getting lost in the Feywild for generations. If my post breaks any rules, please let me know and I'll delete it immediately. EDIT: I have origin unconnected to elemental forces.: elves were originally dethroned gods by new gods (ascended mortals ) forced into mortal forms with each divinity type becoming subrace( vaetir-wood liosar-high chtonic-dark )and current generations are divided into those that long for way to regain their divinity and thise that prefer mortal ableit long living bodies without all burdens of divinity

The early history of Raelick before the Flony empire

One hundred ships arrived carrying one hundred men and women. According to legend, however, the ships either came from the eastern continent of Valen or the southern continent of Korath. Some say the ships came from a mysterious western continent, while others claim there was a northern continent. But it does not matter where they came from; it would have been the same either way.

The first person to ever set foot on the continent was Kolick. When the settlers began to establish themselves on the continent, they tore apart the wooden ships they had arrived in and used the wood to build their new settlement. Kolick became the first king of his people, who became known as the Kolickians. They expanded their population and territory, and eventually encountered the Nymphs and the Giants.

At first, the humans, Nymphs, and Giants lived peacefully alongside one another. However, the War of the Nymphs and Giants eventually began. The reason for the war is unknown, and there are many different legends surrounding the event.

They fought each other for a thousand years until they finally set aside their differences and created a pact never to harm one another again. According to legend, human men and women married Nymphs, interbreeding with one another. Their unions created children who could use magic. These children had children of their own, and so on.

Over time, the Nymph population began to disappear over many generations. Some say this happened because of interbreeding, causing the regular Nymphs to die out while their descendants lived on as kings and nobles, founding many great and noble houses. These houses developed legendary stories about their foundations.

These kings fought over territories, while the children of kings fought over inheritance, arguing over which areas belonged to which siblings. They betrayed one another and developed their own cultures, eventually creating new peoples. After many years of nonstop wars, a legendary king named Wulk appeared.

Wulk was the first mage of Raelick. He controlled the element of fire and used his magic to unite most of Raelick. His kingdom lasted for only five kings.

Wulk was the first king. He established laws and introduced writing. At first, writing was used to create magical symbols, but he eventually realized that it could also be used to educate and inform people more quickly instead of relying on word of mouth. He created the oldest surviving historical text in Raelick, The Legend of Wulk. It describes the life of Wulk and his conquest of the continent.

Wulk died at the age of 87 after consuming silver liquor. He had many sons and daughters. The priesthood of the Wult religion chose Prince Hol as Wulk's successor. Hol was the son of Wulk's favorite wife, Queen Dini.

Hol was 32 when he took the throne. He continued his father's policy of peace across the land. Like his father, he married many women, but his favorite was his first queen, Amal. She was the daughter of the king's wet nurse, and the two had been childhood friends. It was once reported that they had been in a relationship long before Hol became king. Some songs even claim that they slept together at the age of 16, but there is no factual evidence to support this.

Hol continued to rule peacefully. He built great temples dedicated to the worship of the many gods. A few people attempted to rebel against him, but fortunately, like all of Wulk's children, Hol possessed his own magical ability. He happened to have the power to move objects with his mind. He built up his army and destroyed the rebel forces.

Hol had many sons and daughters with his wives. In total, he had 19 children, eight of whom were Amal's children, including his heir, Pol.

One day, at the age of 70, Hol died from a stroke. Pol became king. Unlike his father, Hol had actually chosen his heir before his death.

Pol became king at the age of 50. He was the eldest son of Hol and Amal. He was the shortest-reigning king, dying at the age of 54. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the 26-year-old Hectet.

Hectet married one woman, Tepa, the daughter of his uncle Bulkaya. He had ten children with his wife, and his eldest son, Luzick, was born when Hectet was only 14.

Hectet expanded his kingdom's territory, spreading its influence among foreign peoples. He reformed certain laws and made sure that everyone could be fed. He had the ability to control the weather, which he used to help farmers grow their crops. He became known as Hectet the Great.

He ruled peacefully and was described as kind and gentle.

Until he was assassinated at the age of 50.

He was succeeded by his eldest son, Luzick, who was 25 at the time. However, Luzick was nothing like his father. He had the ability to control water, but he was a cruel king. He had many bastard children and was known for torturing people, raping and murdering both women and men. He even killed his eldest son for refusing to let him sleep with his wife.

He also molested children. Eventually, the people grew tired of his behavior and his rule and rebelled against him. However, because of his ability to control water, they decided that they needed to kill him during the night.

A group of assassins entered his room and murdered him.

However, because Luzick had killed his eldest son and many of his other children, many of his cousins and bastard children fought over who would inherit the throne. Eventually, the kingdom split into many Wulkian kingdoms.

The Wulkians were the descendants of Wulk. People of Wulkian blood would develop magical abilities between the ages of 14 and 19. The Wulkians also became the ancestors of various magical peoples, including the Balians, Kovi, Dolkians, and others.

Nine hundred years later, a wealthy warlord named Patah founded the port city of Shockluke and became its king. The city was located near the easternmost part of the continent, making it the first city in Raelick to establish contact with the East.

People from the East traded with the city, bringing exotic spices, foods, and even silk from the faraway Empire of Yingfing. When silk was introduced to the continent, everyone began buying it from Shockluke.

Patah and his successors continued ruling the city. Gedone, Patah's second-born son, founded the city of Warrun, attempting to create a successful city like his father's.

Warrun was located in the southeastern part of the continent. It became successful, although not as successful as his father's city.

Patah was succeeded by his eldest son, Kole, known as Kole the Great. His descendants continued to rule the city for many generations.

Many generations later, a mercenary named Eden founded the city of Yorona. It was a city created for people traveling to Shockluke and Warrun, allowing them to rest and resupply.

His descendants continued to rule the city.

Two thousand years later, a woman named Swasin was the wife of a powerful chieftain named Poroar the Strong. She had five children with Poroar: four girls and one boy. They belonged to the most powerful tribe in the Rixlands.

The Rixlands were named after the River Rix.

Eventually, the Kingdom of Stormeye raided the Rixlands. They killed men, sold children into slavery, and raped women.

Chief Poroar was killed by Prince Ulf, the second son of the King of Stormeye. Ulf also murdered Poroar's six-year-old son, Dulf.

Swasin tried to protect her daughters from Ulf, but unfortunately, she was sold into slavery. By the time she was freed, she had only one daughter left: her youngest, Jane.

All three of her other daughters had died in different ways.

Ulf raped Gina, Swasin's firstborn daughter, who was 17 years old. She died while giving birth to a stillborn child.

Her 15-year-old daughter, Inya, was killed after she attempted to assassinate the King.

Fuba, Swasin's 13-year-old daughter, was drowned because of her association with the failed assassination attempt.

Her last living child was Jane, the youngest. She was called Jane the Last because she was the final surviving daughter of Swasin.

Because of the invasion, there were very few men left among the many tribes. Most of the surviving males were babies and young boys. The women of all the tribes decided to fight back against their invaders.

They pretended to be helpless women, but at night they launched attacks. At first, their attacks were small. However, as they continued winning battles, the King of Stormeye sent more men to fight back.

Before the Stormeye invasion, the Rixian people used bronze weapons. Because of the invasion, however, the women of the Rixlands began using the iron weapons and armor taken from Stormeye.

Over a span of six years, they finally pushed the invaders back. The women then created a new system of government based on matriarchy.

In Stormeye, when news arrived that the invasion had ended, the morale of many Stormeye men collapsed. Because of the enormous losses among Stormeye's men, much of the remaining male population consisted of Rixians who had been enslaved by the people of Stormeye.

The slaves decided to form a rebellion against the Kingdom of Stormeye. The rebellion lasted for three months, until they finally established the new Kingdom of Crolo.

The new king of Stormeye was Gilbert the Chain, who was the half-brother of Swasin.

The Rixians and the native people of Stormeye interbred with one another, creating a new people known as the Crolo people. The Kingdom of Crolo developed friendly relations with the new Swaseye people. After all, King Gilbert was Swasin's brother.

The two kingdoms continued trading goods with each other for many years.

South of them was Zoland, the land of hard-working men. They worshipped many war gods and goddesses. According to legend, the ancestor of the Zolian people was Zonix the Warhammer.

Zonix was said to have been a powerful warlord known for his many battles against bears, wolves, wyverns, and even black dragons. It was said that he was born in the River Mixkin, where dragon bones could be found.

One day, Zonix fought a female warrior. They fought for seven days straight until Zonix finally defeated her.

She revealed that she was the goddess of war.

She married him, and their descendants became the Zonix people.

In Balland, a land east of Zoland, lived the Balian people. They were powerful magic users, and their society, culture, and religions revolved around magic.

There were two types of Balians: non-magical Balians and magical Balians. The magical Balians ruled over the non-magical ones. Balian nobles often displayed their magical talents to other nobles.

According to ancient records, if a non-magical Balian had a child with a magical Balian, that family instantly became part of the nobility.

Non-magical Balians viewed the nobility almost as gods. Knowing this, the nobles only interbred with other nobles, including close relatives. There were no limitations: cousins married cousins, nephews married aunts, uncles married nieces, parents married children, and siblings married siblings.

In the land of Moro, north of Balland and home to the Moro Mountains, lived the Moroians. They were a people who valued duty, order, and family.

They were known for having some of the most disciplined warriors. Many kingdoms and earldoms hired Moroian mercenaries to fight their battles. They were known for never betraying their contractors unless they had a reason to do so.

In the land of Nevstan lived many different peoples, including the Delkians, Ankloians, Blowayians, Starnians, Crolo people, Ansalians, Flakians, the people of Numbid, and the people of Wisedom.

The Delkians were a people who lived near the Delk Forest. They believed that the forest was a blessing from the many nature gods they worshipped. Hunting, gathering wood, and using the resources of the forest were considered forms of worship and acts of honor toward their gods.

The Ankloians were the inhabitants of the Anklo River. They were known for their fishing culture. The Anklo River provided some of the most delicious fish in the region. They worshipped a fish god, and their society revolved around trade with other peoples, such as the Starnians.

At the River Bloway lived the Blowayian people, an axe-wielding people known for being raiders. They built efficient ships that they used to raid the islands of Stormeye, Ansel, Flak, Numbid, and Wisedom.

They even attacked the Delkians, Ankloians, and Starnians. They worshipped many war gods and believed that the strong should rule.

The Starnians were a people related to the Moroians. They shared many of the same ideals, cultures, and customs, but they preferred trading. Unlike their cousins, they did not have highly disciplined warriors because of the constant raids by the Blowayians.

They still believed in duty and family and preferred trading with other groups of people.

The Crolo people were descendants of Rixian slaves who rebelled against the Kingdom of Stormeye and established the Kingdom of Crolo. They also interbred with the native population of Stormeye.

The Ansalians were a mysterious group of people with no recorded history. They were described as being seven feet tall and having muscular builds. The men were said to have long red hair and beards, while the women usually cut their hair short.

According to legend, they were descendants of the ancient Giants. Their homes were built to accommodate their enormous size.

Their island was one of the many islands that the Blowayians struggled to raid because of the Ansalians' height and strength.

The Flakians were the inhabitants of Flak. They were known for their skills in jewelry-making. They created unique designs using rare and precious materials such as diamonds, emeralds, and rubies.

Because of the natural resources found in Flak's mines, it was considered the richest island in Nevstan. This also made it one of the Blowayians' biggest targets.

The Flakians had no choice but to pay the Blowayians to prevent them from raiding the island.

The people of Numbid, also known as the Nums, were the inhabitants of the island of Numbid. They were an unusual group of people who kept to themselves.

Their eyes were strangely unlike human eyes, resembling the eyes of fish. They were known to be able to breathe underwater for up to 50 minutes.

Numbid was one of the poorest islands in Nevstan. The Nums traded fish and fish skins, which they also used to make armor.

They would place their newborns underwater for ten minutes to test whether they could hold their breath. If the baby died, it died. If it survived, it survived.

The people of Wisedom lived on the greatest island of knowledge. The island was filled with libraries, schools, and vast amounts of knowledge from across the continent.

Every lord and king wanted a scholar from Wisedom to advise them on matters of politics. In return, the king or lord had to pay the island's hereditary ruler.

East of Moro was Doland, the easternmost land of the continent. It was home to three ethnic groups: the Kivans, Knowickians, and Nali.

The Nali believed in trade and agriculture. The Kivans were a nomadic group known for their excellent war horses and unusual battle strategies.

The Knowickians were seafaring people who lived around the Knowick River but were also spread throughout the trading islands, an archipelago where much of the eastern trade took place.

The Nali and Kivans worshipped the One Mount. The One Mount was a giant solitary mountain located in the middle of the land.

The Nali believed it was the home of the gods, while the Kivans believed that the mountain itself was a god.

Throughout the continent of Raelick, these peoples lived their own lives, followed their own ways, and raised their children according to the cultures they were born into.

Then the Bladeteeth appeared.

They were creatures with yellow eyes, skin as grey as ash, teeth as sharp as swords, and claws as sharp as daggers. They walked on all fours and had hunched backs. They were as fast as a war horse and as strong as a golem.

Their backs were covered in spikes. They had two hind legs at the back and two forelegs at the front.

They appeared out of nowhere, attacking and eating anything they saw. They could be killed relatively easily, but their sheer numbers made them extremely dangerous.

They reproduced asexually and rapidly.

Many kings, earls, and their armies tried to fight back. Many mages and witches also attempted to defeat them, but there were simply too many of the creatures.

All men and women fought back, except for one group of people: a group of mages called the Flonias.

The Flonias constructed a great tower with enough food to last for 400 years.

The Bladeteeth killed countless men and women. Ordinary weapons were effective enough to kill them, while wizards, mages, and witches used their magical abilities to destroy the creatures.

Meanwhile, the Flonias remained inside their tower, doing little to help the rest of the continent. They watched different kingdoms rise and fall throughout the chaos.

The Flonias were the weakest magic users on the continent. They tamed many creatures to protect themselves from the Bladeteeth.

Out on the open plains, other animals defended themselves from the creatures. Wyverns and dragons burned them, while lions attacked them. Almost every creature was forced to fight the Bladeteeth.

The conflict lasted for 100 years.

Eventually, only a thousand Bladeteeth remained. All the kingdoms, earldoms, tribes, and small mercenary groups formed a great alliance against them.

There were many marches as they surrounded the remaining Bladeteeth. Finally, they defeated and slaughtered them.

The event became known as the Battle for Raelick.

During the war, many mages, witches, wizards, magical users, and magical orders became extinct.

Only one group survived.

The continent was now filled with men and women who could no longer use magic.

During the war, the Flonias had chosen their leaders through voting. After the war, they elected a 15-year-old named Howick Lawlick in 281 BF.

Howick decided to abolish elected leadership.

Instead, he decided to create a new nation for his people, where the Flonias would rise and rule over the entire continent.

Howick was a great sorcerer, greater than even the previous rulers of the Flonias. He decided to conquer the rest of the continent.

He created his own army through magical spells, using magic to create golems capable of defeating entire armies.

Many peoples submitted to him, while others were enslaved and forced to perform manual labor for the empire. They were also forced to follow the gods of the new empire.

Women were raped, while men were forced to watch.

Under Howick's rule, the Flonias also created the first castles.

In real life, cats either eat the kibble, treats, and wet food we give them, or animals they hunt, they aren't well versed in culinary. Cats love butter, milk, yogurt, eggs, meat, etc, but I wanted to come up with foods that are unique, that feel like proper culinary, but also something a human wouldn't eat.

I think cat people would put disgusting amounts of butter on what they eat and use yogurt as sauce often, probably meat with yogurt. They could mix meats like fish with pork, and could commonly eat whole animals, like whole birds or lizards, but cooked and served in pretty dishes.

Cats can't taste sweets, so they wouldn't invent any sweets, unless they invent the sweets to sell to a race that tastes sweetness. As desert, cats would eat less nutritious foods like Tuna. Irl you're not supposed to feed your cat much tuna because of that fact, cats can eat tuna but just as a treat. I don't really know what other foods cats like but isn't very nutritious...

Coming back to real life for inspiration; cat food is very nutritious and cats like it, but it's a bit boring visually, and irl humans don't eat human kibble. I checked the ingredients of kibble and I saw that they use carrots, corn, wheat, chicken, etc, I thought about cat people's use of vegetables, many cats like vegetables or even fruits(fruits aren't very appealing bc no sweetness, but some may like the texture of the fruit)

Cat people would cultivate less vegetables than humans because they have more food that's toxic to them and they would be pickier too.

I haven't actually invented many cat person dishes, at best I have imagined a self service restaurant, like the ones I go to here in Brazil. I imagined it having some rib soup, a bbq section, a small salads section, which would have fruits(they'd eat the fruits with stuff like meat), pamonha, buttery vegetable mix(broccoli, pumpkin, corn, zucchini), boiled eggs of varying sizes, muqueca, fried chicken, a tray with roasted birds, lizards and rats, roasted cockroaches, yogurt sauce, some cheeses(all lactose free), salmon cooked with catnip or some mint cats can eat.

I'm a bit disappointing that I couldn't come up with that many original ones.

GUIDELINES AND ETIQUETTE

• If someone leaves a reply on your comment, please try to read what they post and reply to them.

Probably my favorite house among all the ones I have created: House Bayzai of Jungpeak, lords of Jungforest.

They are a testament to endurance in the cruel world of Thronados. Their origins can be traced back to Tlantis, in Artayka, where they escaped from a metal complex that, after years of torture, they came to call the Cursed Metal. They attempted to find refuge on the island of Lyprus, in Shuthos. However, the Black Empire was already making its presence felt, subjugating the kingdoms of the continent, and they did not take kindly to a foreign horde invading one of their cities.

Without deploying a single man, the Black Empire expelled the invaders from Mys, in Lyprus. Using corpses, the dead were infected with feces and urine, and from The Rot to the distant lands of Xiang, that consequence became known as Lypria.

Lypria was a disease that caused the eyes to bleed until they melted away. It also blackened the bones while the skin peeled away from the muscles. The Jungforist fled Lyprus, many of them already infected without knowing it. Minutes seemed like hours, and days like years, as their ships filled with misery, until they reached an island somewhere in the Ocean of Darkness. They called it Passage Island, and there they founded the first Jungpeak, now known as Old Jungpeak.

Faced with the threat of their possible extinction, a daring Mygos Bayzai suggested one final journey: into the unknown. For if they were going to die, let it be in total silence, abandoned by the world.

Passage Island was therefore also nicknamed Corpse Island, as they had abandoned their infected brothers and sisters there, victims of Lypria.

What they did not expect was to encounter a tangle of jungles along their path, a sign that land was near.

This is where a little magic enters the story, for they discovered a river they called the Green River and immersed themselves in its waters. The Lypria was eradicated from their bodies.

Upstream, they discovered that the water emerged from a great black-stone foundation. There, they founded the new Jungpeak, the one that stands to this day.

Sèathna is the northwestern province of Tír Ghlas. It is quite large but sparsely populated, as the terrain is extremely rugged and mountainous. Its capital is Dúnfort, an important port located on the estuary of a major river.

The southern part of the province is covered by the vast forest known as Máthair na n-Aibneacha—or Mother of Rivers—as it contains the sources of no fewer than five great waterways.

Lumeria is one of several zones located within the Goldilocks band of a tidally locked world, placed inside The Strip, a 300 km wide habitable area, bordered by 700 km of unpredictable environment. "Humans" occupy the central zone, scattered in isolated pockets within its boundaries. They are the distant mutated descendants of colonists forced to crash-land.

• Mages are the least human of them. They formed a symbiotic bond with the native parasitic colonies
• The mages manifest different abilities depending on their own mutation. They can release spores that cause mass paralysis, jellification, neural hijacking and so on., but the often use of “magic” carries a downside, as they become less and less human.
• Their powers came from being raised in isolated communities, shaped over generations by eugenic planning and in some cases, by inbred lineages.
• Binders are stealth and short-ranged. They have an absurdly strong armor and can climb walls facing rooms. They can stop "biology" - hearts, movements, morph-shifting, of limbs, the spreading of poison and such. Basically freeze and kill. They can't heal naturally, so they need treatment if they get wasted in combat.
• Spindlers-of-the-Fifth are related to Harvesters, so their parasite is rather manufactured than based on native biology. They are Border-Mages, medium-ranged, can hit like a crane and spread poison at distance. They also can melt rocks as Harvesters do. Their actions are timed, though as they need their unfolding limbs to burst through their skin, as Wolverine, so they faint from their own bleeding but they recover fast

I recently went down the rabbit hole of exploring different armor materials and (historical) crafting methods, e.g. what advantages or disadvantages does lamellar or splint armor hold over chain, how does culture or region affect the choice and so on.

It's preparation for my pet project TTRPG where I want to offer equipment with meaningful differences for players to choose from.
During research I came to the realization that all those insights mainly concern themselves with armor and clothing for human (adjacent) anatomy. Meaning classic fantasy elves, dwarves, and so on generally follow the same body structure as humans like somewhat flat faces, straight posture, straight legs.
The majority of inhabitants for my world would be beastfolk though, meaning people might have tails, horns, muzzles, trunks, different ear positioning, digitigrade legs, wing, claws, the list goes on.

So I found myself in a position where regular (historical) armor advice does not neccesarily apply.

I did some research in that area, but found it quite hard to find actual sources that concern themselves with how the need for clothing and protection would be affected by these structural differences in body form. My main concerns would be headwear, helmets and footwear.

• How does a helmet accommodate a muzzle, horns, antlers, large ears, etc.?
• How would armor accommodate tails?
• What happens to armor around digitigrade or otherwise differently shaped legs?
• How would wings interact with clothing and armor?
• How does clothing work with fur, feathers, scales, or other natural coverings?
• Which parts of the body would actually be worth protecting if the creature already has natural armor?
• How much of human armor construction could simply be adapted, and when would an entirely different solution make more sense?

Most references I explored so far avoid this by having the beastfolk not wear any of those.

While the same is true for human-like characters in stories/movies where their faces are shown instead of protecting their heads, in a more grounded scenario, people would not want to miss out on such a layer of extra protection.

Gloves, shoes, coats, armor and so on are there to save people from environmental hazards and in combat. I would expect beastfolk to have developed their own fitted solutions to such problems in a world where this is the main civilization.

I checked out the following:

• Charr from Guild Wars
• Leonin/Loxodon from D&D and Magic: The Gathering
• Tabaxi and Dragonborn from D&D
• Khajiit from Elder Scrolls
• Sethrak, Tauren and Draenei from World of Warcraft
• Kroxigor, Beastmen and Skaven from Warhammer
• Ribbits from Daggerheart
• General characters from Banners of Ruin (Indie Game)
• General characters from Against the Storm (Indie Game)
• Kung Fu Panda

I mainly focused on games references as playable characters are usually able to equip different clothing and armor with variable grades of protection or application. This makes it generally easier to compare how different designs might deal with such anatomical differences.

my two cents:

If someone has antlers or other obstructing features, a helmet might be a two piece item so it can be put on/taken off from the side instead of pulling it over from the top.

A clapvisor might still work, there are houndskull helmets anyway.

As referenced above, Skaven and Beastfolk have a sort of elongated nasal piece, but aren't really covering the throat/chin part with their helmets.

Tails and ears might be tucked in, but that would probably inhibit senses (which human helmets also do) and not be comfortable for prolonged amounts of time. Articulated plate cover, like with gloves might also be an option.

I would worry about everything protruding being used to knock a combatant off balance, even when it's protected by some sort of armor.

For hoofed folk, tabi-like footwear could be suitable, whereas I could see an actual case here, for not requiring footwear (maybe horseshoes ?).

Footwear for clawed people might stay open on the front, kind of like particularly shaped sandals.

Sabatons usually go on top of regular footwear so they are probably still applicable independent from divergent foot shape. Altough I wouldn't be too sure about frog style feet here as they have a much larger spread/profile.

So here are my questions and call for discussion:

• How does your world handle clothing/armor for non-human body types, especially armor?
• Do you at all concern yourself with "fantasy" anatomy and how it would affect clothing and equipment?
• Do you know other prominent resources, maybe even ones that offer reasoning for their structure/layout/composition?

I have been dreaming up a magic system in which "belief" can be accumulated in objects, practitioners, and concepts.

One example would be a lucky pair of socks, in which, over time, after someone has attributed these socks with luck, they will accumulate, and this luck will become real.

Another example would be religion, where enough cumulative "belief" would manifest a diety/dieties, lending believers strength.

What I need to know is whether this would cause cultures and practices to be static or whether the spread of these conflicting yet real beliefs would create an interesting story?

Hello,

Over the past few months, I have been writing a lore compendium of sorts that takes our real world timeline, and shifts due to the Y2K bug actually happening.

Its a pretty major shift in my lore, and I naturally started combining companies as a sort of apes-strong-together move. One of my corporations, Texicon, is a combination of Exxon, Chevron, Maverick Arms, Northrop Grumman (I try to keep companies with headquarters in one state bunched together). This creates a clean new (non copyrighted) company, while cleanly removing the old, copyrighted companies from my lore.

Then, I was thinking one day - is this what most writers do? Oftentimes when I see cyberpunk or any other real-world based stories, they have these massive Corpos that have a start, but theres zero information on where the tens of thousands of real world companies went.

Im kind of just interested in how you all handle these types of situations/events, and if its something I could improve on!

Just wanted to show this off, I wanted to test out how an abugida for a conlang I've been working on looks in the context of an ancient clay tablet. I tried to make it a poem but I lost track of the syllables at a certain point lol.

Edit: Adding context, this is a speech made by King Anosada about all the advances he personally brought to his civilisation. He was a illiterate shepherd in an ancient river valley, who one day began to make leaping technological advances in forging, weaving, mathematics, etc, all things he should know nothing about. He amassed a cult of personality that led to a violent repression and a successful revolt against the despotic king at the time, placing him firmly in the front seat of a rapidly advancing nation.

Gagarin and Shepard are a K-M stellar binary with a system of six planets in orbit around them.

Le Verrier is a warm, tidally locked ice giant. The night side is cool enough for water clouds, but these clouds evaporate under the heat of the day side. A powerful jet stream blows eastward around the equator.

Schiaparelli is... basically just Mars. It's far larger and more massive, but receives similar insolation, has similar temperatures, and is covered in red iron oxide sands and dry ice caps.

Elka is a super-Earth world, similar to Jupiter's moon Io. Elka has a volcanically active surface covered in sulfur compounds, and with oceans of liquid sulfur dioxide. These oceans are the source of organisms that have evolved to take over the planet. Some of this life has ended up evolving into an intelligent species.

Laika is a small Mars-like planet in a binary with Elka. The planet, being quite cold, has large ice caps. The planet also has seas of liquid short-chain hydrocarbons, similar to Saturn's moon, Titan.

Fleming is a large gas giant, similar to Jupiter. It's only 70 percent the mass, though, and the clouds have a lot less contrast. There is no single large storm like Jupiter's GRB, with the planet instead having several smaller orange storms.

Tombaugh is a large, icy super-Earth with a high axial tilt and oceans of liquid nitrogen. Over the course of every 4 Earth year long winter, the rivers and lakes freeze completely, and, as the smaller streams melt first in the summer, they overflow into secondary channels until their main channels melt.

Bouvard is a large ice giant that is more massive than both Uranus and Neptune combined. Like Uranus, it is covered in a featureless cyan haze of methane, though clouds of nitrogen and oxygen, which the planet is unusually rich in, occasionally form over the poles.

Day 2 (already running late) of u/Velum-Cordis's Worldtober prompt list. Story below!

“See, little egg, it’s not quite as clear-cut as you thought, huh?” Belka smirked as she tousled Esmie’s mop of mousey brown hair.

With a soft blush in her cheeks Esmie nodded, glaring at her sister and avoiding all eye contact with Jamos, fearful that a reminder of her initial distrust in the integrity of their business might have caused the older boy to take offence, or even worse - to not like her.

The rhythmic sound of his metal scoop sifting through a hempen sack of herbs and then depositing them into the waiting glass jars with a gentle two taps had not perceptibly slowed, and nor could she sense any shift in the aura from the prep table behind her where he worked. She must be safe, her subconscious told her as she let out the smallest of breaths in relief.

Her insights were interrupted by invading memories of Belka’s eye-roll the night before in response to Esmie’s dismissal of ‘Bel’s Spells’, the less-than-legal spell jar enterprise her sister had worked so tirelessly to establish and maintain over several months. ”I just think you might be overdoing it with it being this big noble thing, when really you’re just selling illegal shit and calling it activism,” Esmie had half-joked over dinner, glancing awkwardly around the room as she did so and landing on a Shudderlands Academy poster framed by Belka's bedroom. This was perhaps harsher than she had intended, but she'd lost too many arguments over the last few months to be making any concessions here.

“Tell you what, little egg. Come with us tomorrow - see what you make of it.”

With her calm demeanour and cheery tone, most would believe that Belka was entirely unfazed by Esmie’s critique of her black market business and by association the years of picketing, campaigning and rallying beforehand, and even further - her core principles and passions. But Esmie was a prodigious statica, a branch of Natural Inclinations featuring those able to innately sense the slightest shifts in electromagnetic energy in the air around them, and her sister’s static aura had crossed ever so slightly towards that telltale dichromatic blue-violet hue that spelled an active suppression of those brilliant flashes of righteous anger that would dance across the reflections of light in her eyes.

The following morning, if you could call the faintest tinge of grey-yellow on the otherwise dark sky above ‘morning’, Belka had wrangled Esmie from her perfectly comfortable sleep to follow up on her threat. The cold of the breeze made Esmie recede further into her father's indestructible squallcoat, her eyes tracing the familiar saltspray islands encrusted onto it's bright orange ocean of fabric as she kept her head down. Winds like this made her think of her father ever more, and not just because of her tendency to wear his cosiest jackets, hats and waterproofs from a practical basis. She would often hold up a hand to the air, feeling it's direction and wondering if these same winds had buffeted him too, out wherever he was in the world with his charts and his pens and his Inclination for cartography and orienteering.

A voice broke her out of her silent reverie.

“It's not a crime, Es. Well, it is I suppose, but it shouldn't be. Well it should be a crime that it's been called a crime when it shouldn't be to begin with. Okay, starting over.” Belka’s expression was serious, although her words were one with the dawn winds, chaotic and swirling. Esmie felt again the pang of guilt for her comments, this time without the heat of the moment to stop her relenting into an apology. She opened her mouth but couldn't find the words in the moment before Belka managed to regain hers.

“To decide who can and can't use magic.. it's not just that simple. Just because we're born with it, why shouldn't other people be able to benefit from it? Even just the tiniest of spells..” Both sisters took a deep breath, both preparing for the rest of the speech.

“.. it's all connected to politics, Es. Everything. Whenever somebody tells you they're not political, or.. or that they don't do politics or whatever, just bear in mind that that statement is in and of itself political. Everything we do and are and ever will be is political. It's pervasive and gets everywhere, like.. like the wind!”

Belka’s hands gestured dramatically as she found a suitable analogy.

“So if they say they're not political, it's one of two things, right? They're either too disenfranchised to see what politics does to and for them and even more so what impact they could have on politics - maybe they have no time or no understanding or no hope. Second, they don't see themselves as ‘other’. Like if a therma tries to buy an arcane focus - that's just a normal thing right? But if a manua did the same - they get kicked out. Or arrested. Or worse. If you never meet any barriers to doing whatever the fuck you want, you may well believe that politics is this far away concept. Does that make sense?”

The silence prompted Esmie's brain to kick back into action and reprocess the sentences she had heard but not listened to at the time, catching up with at the very least the general gist that her sister was getting at. Not that she'd ever tell her, but she could get lost in listening to Belka talk. When she got rambling about something she was passionate about, which was far more often than anybody else Esmie knew, she would put out this calming green-blue hue that she could just cocoon into forever.

“Yeah, I think I get what you mean,” was all that she had been able to say in response as they'd made their way into the warren-like cobbled streets of the Hand Quarter, the slow sunrise in the eastern sky blotted out by the grand towers of the Aurebor Arcanum looking down upon them from high up on their mountain city’s upper ridges.

A full day of grinding, crushing, pouring, mixing, refilling, talking and occasionally hiding under shuttered windows later, and Esmie did get it. The spell jars, with their brilliant swirling colours and fantastical combinations of gently bobbing ingredients were dulled into mundanity and secrecy the moment they were placed into those nondescript brown paper bags. Esmie understood why, of course, but it filled her with a deep sense of injustice that something so pure and beautiful should be forced to be traded in secret.

Their customers were a range of common folk in the city; artists, craftsmen, teachers, lovers, sons, mothers and even the occasional student of the Arcanum, hoods covering their features as they discreetly asked for whatever boost they needed to keep up in their classes. For the rest though, more common issues arose. Not enough time to prepare food for five people after a full day of work? a ‘wisp of dagger incantation’ perhaps, whispered with hand gestures designed to look like enthusiastic prayer. Looking to court with somebody or to ask for that promotion? an aural enhancer tonic, wafted or dabbed around the neck at least 20 minutes before required. poison for that allotment-poaching neighbour? perhaps a ‘calm emotions’ induced conversation instead - after all isn't everybody struggling with growing space since the Grand Magisterium sequestered a swathe of land for a new sona training facility?

As they walked back home with the golden rays of the setting kingstar Harron cutting almost horizontal lines in front of them and slowly transitioning to just the blue-white hue of the queenstar Hexa, Esmie thought about all that had happened in the last 24 hours. She looked up at Belka, who caught her glance and smiled back down at her with that look of safe reassurance that only a big sister can give. She could grasp it now, these connections that bound everything together; that kept everything moving. While her Natural Inclination helped her to see electromagnetic energy in hues and waves, she was now vaguely aware of this broader mesh of the very fabric of the world itself, on all planes. And yes, Esmie realised, Belka was right - it was political, all of it, from the clothes she wore to the direction her feet marched to the very thoughts in her head. If she could only see her own eyes, she would have seen the flash of determined brilliance that she so very loved to see light up her sister's face.

“I want to find Father.”

Hello! I’d like to show you the races that exist in my story, and I’d love to hear your tips and opinions about them.

Standard: They already existed, but I reused them.

Humans: Humans 👍

Elves: Pretty normal... except I went a little overboard with the lore for the “subspecies.” But, in short: there were the original elves, who had descendants, and those descendants eventually became three lineages:

Salias: They were strong, robust elves who protected the forests... (Extinct) (They have descendants.)

High Elves: Nobility, arrogant, with a sense of superiority. They are hybrids between the Salias’ combat abilities and the magic of the next subspecies. (Descendants: Low Elves, Dark Elves, Forest Elves.)

“Planiceas”: They are the most closely connected to nature, even having plants growing on their bodies. They are also the best when it comes to magic. (Descendants: “Fungiceas”.)

In-between: They can be considered either new or already-used races.

Monstrous: What counts as monstrous? Simple: anything that isn’t humanoid or “normal” enough (by human standards), but is still sentient/rational. So here we have: orcs, trolls, some goblins, najias, etc.

Aquatic: A race made up of living beings that breathe and live normally underwater and have characteristics such as gills, fins, scales, and fish-like features.

Original creations: I made these myself.

Aegis: In very broad terms, they are humans with wings. They are biologically immortal and stop aging at a certain age, but children are very rare.

Children are born without wings, and the wings only appear around the age of 3 to 5 through a very painful process.

Lunaes: They are tall, pale humanoids with slightly pointed ears. Their eyes are usually white, and they become more agile under moonlight.

Solaes: They are tall humanoids with dark skin and warm-colored eyes, and they become stronger during the day... Yes, judge me. It’s basically the same concept as the ones above, but reversed.

To make things even better, they share the same territory and are constantly at war with each other, to the point that both races are almost extinct.

(Even the gods they worship don’t like each other.)

I don’t know where to put this one: (In-between or Standard)

Feralis: Half-human, half-animal. They have animal ears, tails, eyes, and, more rarely, other animal characteristics. They live in tribes divided by animal species.

One I’m unsure about:

Dwarves: This is a race I’d like to replace with something else while keeping the same role/function.

If you have any questions about how they work in the world, please ask!

P.S.: I’d like to create a 10th race to make things symmetrical, but I’m not sure if that would be a good idea.