Fandom Problem # 4074

(Please god I had to block like 15 of them today)

Universal Lore- Part 4, The Elemental Planes

All life has the drive to evolve, whether they know it or not. Some are fated to lose the race of genetic and intellectual superiority, some never achieve the creation of civilization, and it is debatable whether or not some will ever even achieve sentience.

Some beings are beyond evolution in the High Realms they isolate themselves in, beings that perceive themselves as the closest to the ideal of perfection and thus are stagnant so long as they believe so.

Some beings are the purest form of evolution, elemental beings that can alter the shape and thought of life through assimilation but could be mistaken as mindless to those that fail to understand a simple truth: the purest defiance of fate is evolution.

If the High Realms represent the driving hand of fate, the Elemental Planes represent the breathing will of life.

These elementals, of course, have their own realm, or rather level of existence, that they are born in- physically it is beneath the Lower Realms, but is as deeply intertwined to the other's existence as are the High Realms and Lower Planes, and is (if anything) closer to mortals than High Realms beings are.

The purest of elements are Stellar, Flame, Air, Earth- the first elements that drive evolution before water and nature come forth, and thus these elements are the ones that make up each sector of the planes where the first elementals came.

The planes form as a vast cave system would, the four largest chambers each holding an elemental core, and from these cores do the energies coalesce and birth new elementals into the current Existence.

The elementals, though beings of pure energy, are unstable lifeforms in their first century of existence, and there is a high chance for their forms to separate into core and body.

The body is capable of developing its own core through the energy created by the division, and so it becomes a physical elemental. The core does not develop its own body, but in exchange gains greater intelligence, and so it becomes an ethereal elemental. On occasion, one half may not become an elemental at all and collapses back to a basic energy state that lacks consciousness. Some elements are more prone to splitting compared to others, and some may only form as a specific type by default.

Air is closest to the ideal of formless freedom, and thus they may only become ethereal elementals.

Stars are second closest to the ideal of steadfast perpetuity, and thus they may become both physical and ethereal but have a greater tendency to form as the latter.

Flame is closest to the ideal of mastery through trial, and thus they may equally become physical or ethereal.

Earth is the closest to the ideal of corporeal self, and thus they may only become physical elementals.

The few elementals that remain whole in both physical form and ethereal mind become Potentates that anchor the Planes, voluntarily falling into eternal stasis until their cores burn out to maintain the existence of the realm.

But what of the impure elements that too drive evolution, and what of hybrids of the four?

They do not exist on the Elemental Planes, instead being born upon individual worlds in the Lower Planes and the in-betweens of space.

Some are "natural" in a sense, water and nature elementals while not being true elementals are at least considered half-elementals and naturally come into existence upon worlds with Potential, although they are a sort of byproduct of evolution. Due to this, they can freely choose between a physical or ethereal form.

Some are created unnaturally, being hybrid elementals born from the collision of pure elementals and/or half-elementals. Whether they are physical or ethereal is dependent on the property of the material they resemble, with storm elementals being ethereal and crystal elementals being physical.

All, however, are capable of assimilation and all share the drive to evolve and become greater beings. They seek Potential and to spread their influence, either being born from said Potential or drawn to it from the Elemental Planes.

When a world meets the threshold of Potential either through an event or natural evolution, Elementals will cross into it and fuse with certain mortals to their whim, merging their ideals and thought and spirit and form in order to create an "evolved being".

These evolved beings become almost a separate race from the race they came from, with some being genetically different(or may not even have genes left) and some still having genetic similarity to their original race but difference in ability and appearance, though all will now have a core akin to an elemental's, and so their lives become intertwined with the power of the core and the ability to pass onto the Realms of Death is forfeited.

When the core's energy fades or the core shatters, so will their consciousness, and they too will meet the same fate as an elemental that fails to return to their birthplace should they have one- reversion to their element's base material.

Such was the fate of the Sky Lords of Avianaen that became no more than the passing breeze, and so did the silent Åskorhaia sentries that became stone and Mountainheart.

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Taglist for writing-

@aneci

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The Current State of Elvaria

Ember War is over, everyone is sad and trying to bring back order but some people try to celebrate because no more war So because Salgirtus is dead and had no kids, the throne now passes to his younger sister, so it's now Queen Lidisina Mirankis Zhonal of Zodiana Leonnox didn't want to deal with the humiliation of Flaerna getting its ass handed to it and also didn't want to deal with the political fallout so he abdicates his throne to his cousin, now known as King Garaxyran Alaystav Kolvastran of Flaerna With the old Treaty of Elorinar having been violated many times over, a new treaty is drafted by Queen Lidisina and the representatives sent by they various kingdoms around Elorinar in the hopes that peace will last longer, called the Treaty of Elemortia Floernia, Dalirna, Zodiana(by default for obvious reasons), Walekria, and Föllen Alatsa immediately vote to ratify it because they're sick of war(Warring Era lasted for 22,500 years) Offers are extended to Åskorhal, Yukiosa, Lustarise, Jivankova, and Avianaen(they were found around the end of the Ember War), Queen Vethørigya of Åskorhal basically tells Lidisina to fuck off with the terms but Yukiosa and Avianaen would agree to ratify the treaty

Jivankova isn't even visible to the other kingdoms because of their weird ass barrier that makes Kavathanar "disappear" so they don't have to deal with other kingdoms Lustarise just doesn't care, they don't sign and return to isolation but send some of their mages to Dalirna for a bit to help them rebuild and recover due to similar ideals regarding the pursuit of knowledge Flaerna is pretty much forced into it because A, they don't have the forces to bother trying to fight it off, B, they kinda started the war, and C, the other kingdoms are in the position of being able to straight up invade if needed to force a signature from Flaerna So what made Flaerna and Åskorhal so against signing it? They'd be forced to demilitarize(this term specifically aimed at Flaerna), and should any kingdom be attacked by an outside kingdom, all the kingdoms in the alliance detailed by the treaty must get involved to quickly end the war and quell the threat through war Basically, if shit happens, they get another continent spanning war and Åskorhal doesn't want to deal with that The Military Sect of the Scorching Council is dissolved and all of the soldiers in the Flaernan military are honourably discharged, with the ones that fled returning to Flaerna to help rebuild So now the kingdoms that ratified the treaty are in a massive alliance called Elemortia, or the Order of the Elemental Kingdoms, and they also have to help each other rebuild which also includes setting aside what happened in the Ember War so The Beef™ doesn't create yet another war

Lidisina also creates the Starsworn Council in Zodiana to remove some ruler duties from herself because now that war is over she has to deal with a whole lot of shit and also because, well, her immediate family is dead so she doesn't want to solo rule or appoint a singular advisor she may have to marry to for public image

She also sails to Yinorael as a second thought realizing that it would be a good idea to make the two kingdoms over there enter a Non-Aggression pact so war doesn't break out there since it was terrible in Elorinar Both Hikarina and Yūregina choose to ratify it, but on terse agreement, so now there's the Order of Yiagilia but it's not a very stable order Good enough for now though So now it's year 233 post-Ember War, what's going on now? Yūregina, in a bid to try to stop the plague, has been experimenting with necromancy since it turns out that dying and being reanimated does actually stop the progression of the plague, but of course, no reproduction(if anyone wants further elaboration on how Yūregian necromancy works and why it's only them that can do it, just ask in my ask blog Consulting the bored Altersaean) and Hikarina doesn't like it at all They're still at their trade disputes though There's a running problem along trade cities(usually on borders of kingdoms) where a strange shadowy elf-like being is sowing chaos in the cities and capital cities are on high alert The Fractured Span, a section of the sea floor that's basically collapsing in on itself, is, well, collapsing in on itself and Walekrian researchers are trying to figure out wtf is happening Yukiosan researchers are still researching strange relics that are out of place in the technological skill of the modern and Classical Kingdoms(as far as they know because they don't know about big brain Estellis) Jivankova only opens up their barrier every 5,000 years for a week at a time so right now there has only been one expedition from outside kingdoms to document and understand the lands of Kavathanar and the Jivankira Elthir, missives are sent between kingdoms to exchange information about each other Hikarina just has a little cultural dispute with some people petitioning for the capital city of Arenlia to have the name changed to Punjaranm-Ka-Sanhar, as Hikarinian culture has diverged much from Solarian culture. The royal family has left the name as is to keep as a reminder of the legacy of the Three Kingdoms And of course, some brewing political problems in Föllen Alatsa because classist divides. So basically, Caldivelle is the only city at the mouth of the caves and sprawls along the sides and ground of the cave mouth. The higher up you go, the more wealthy the people are, with some manors built into the cave walls or protruding from them. Closer down you go and into the cave are wealthy craftsmen, and anything further than surface level overshadowed by extravagant buildings from the upper echelons of society are mostly upper middle class dwellings. Even further down are workers. Some people have openly questioned the nobility and royalty about wtf is with the very obvious divides, but they've been dismissed so far since there's no one actually homeless and people live pretty okay lives because of employment and shelter programs to account for a slowly growing population. Very little social mobility though, especially for those that come from the Lower Gem Deposit Tunnels. Caleivelle's Alhiana Alatsi residents especially take issue as if the tunnels collapse one day, they all go down. There isn't a way out other than lifts and long winded routes and a small amount of teleporters, and there aren't many Alhiana living in Caldivelle to relay their complaints to

Images only, link to original Twitter at the bottom of post.

Full🧵 here:

Elvarian Tales- Delkhiir's Worthy

In a cave sunk by time once lived a being who ascended five times.

Once upon a distant era, they were another elf from the remains of civilization, one of the many that were born in a time when the world was ravaged by volatile power and shrouded by a false night.

The first time they ascended, they received a core of stars that shone as a sun would in the ashen skies and ruins of empires.

The second time they ascended, they received a core of fire that scorched the ground they landed upon, leaving only scorching lava and a flaming wasteland.

The third time they ascended, they received a core of water that caused the tides to swell and ferry a small fleet to land.

The fourth time they ascended, they received a core of wind that swept land into the skies and seas and joined together stray islands.

The fifth time they ascended, they received a core of nature that brought forth seeds of goodwill for the new kingdoms to attain prosperity.

For an elf to survive not one but five ascensions allowed them the respect of the otherworldly elementals, and thus they were given a choice never before afforded to a mortal- to become a Potentate and see the Elemental Planes with mortal eyes but only if they forfeit the mortal realms, or to remain as a mortal soul but at the cost of renouncing their existence when the power of their cores fade. They chose to remain among the elves and life, desiring a death on their own terms and to leave mortal disciples before they passed.

The elementals seemed to understand their choice and would grant the ascender two gifts- to shift time as many times as they had cores, and a name that befit the first mortal deemed worthy by them. The ascender would receive the new name of Delkhiir, "valiant" in their strange language.

Delkhiir would meditate in a cave upon an island, emanating faint traces of elemental energy through the corners of the world in order to seek those with the sensitivity to sense them. Of the repopulating world freed from artificial night, 25 would come before Delkhiir, some that followed through strange crystals that guided them to the island, some that came of their own merit, some that stumbled upon the island by mere chance.

Of those 25, 13 would lie and 12 were sincere.

The 13 that lied were struck down with a ray of pure starlight for the audacity to lie in the face of an ascender. Of the 12 that spoke the truth, Delkhiir would choose four to be their disciples, the rest swearing an oath of secrecy and turned away kindly.

These disciples would take on pseudonyms drawn from syllables of the elemental language, the first, a Flaernan, taking the name of "Vaj", the second, a Floernian, taking the name of "Lemn", the third, an Avianaen, taking the name of "Nin", and the fourth, a Dalirnan, taking the name of "Kor".

The first disciple, though he spoke the truth before Delkhiir, had intentions far from pure. He desired the world and perhaps more, and when he received the core of fire he scorched many in war. When he died, he died as an arrogant fool- the face of a man who knew only greed and bloodlust still plastered upon his face when the lightning struck. He left a legacy of terror and slaughter, his existence scorned by the elementals. His name was Derevysk-Vajkarr, and then he became little more than ash.

The second disciple was oblivious but only had well-wishes for the world, diffing from the first in his insidious nature. She wished no more than for the world to be given a brighter future and thus was she sent to the time of Floernia's birth with the core of water to nurture. She was overwhelmed by the power she failed to understand, and soon was she misguided and created rains that flooded coasts and raised tides. In these tides did she sink below, consumed by great sorrow. She left a legacy of failure and regrets, her existence pitied by the elementals. Her name was Adolia-Lemniin, and then she became little more than sea foam.

The third disciple was most similar to Delkhiir in intention- he too wished to take on disciples and grant them the power to alter the course of the world, but also worthy of having people to call his own through ascension. He would be sent to a time only a few millennia before with the core of air, and three would become four as he became the fourth of a kingdom's Lords. He fell to the same covetous desire of the first disciple and betrayed his ascender brothers, their kingdom spiraling into war with the deaths of their sires. When he died, he did so in shame as the remains of his brothers struck him true. He left a legacy of betrayal and ruin, his existence forgotten by the elementals. His name was Thervos-Aninaar, then Thiroaven, and then he became little more than a breeze.

The fourth and final disciple was unambitious in terms of fostering or conquering- Kor desired little more than to learn and understand what was beyond the lands and seas to wander. They would live upon the island and learn of the age lost in shadow and ideals of the elementals, declining to see the past or future in order to learn all of the present outside of the world. Delkhiir thought Kor to be strange, but there were not unwelcome to a life as a teacher rather than a master, deeming it better than to witness their fourth core be used for the domination or destruction of people. Delkhiir would pass on as much of their knowledge as they could, both tales of the past and tales of the Elemental Planes, but they knew their memory was failing as time wore away at their existence and there was only so much they could still recall.

Delkhiir once had five cores sustaining their existence, and now they had two, mortality looming over them. But they did not say this to their fourth disciple, only wishing for Kor to attain some form of happiness after seeing the folly of the preceding disciples.

The first part of Delkhiir to fail was their legs, and they could not be moved from the position of the lotus. They smiled and told Kor not to worry, but Kor was not so unlearned that they could be fooled by Delkhiir's reassurances.

Kor knew they lacked the power to slow the progression of Delkhiir's gradual descension, so they chose instead to lessen Delkhiir's grieving of their loss in the only way they could.

In the cave, where Delkhiir sat was only able to see the very top of the opening but was otherwise in darkness from sunset to sunrise. Before their legs failed, Delkhiir often would arise to view the passage of the celestial bodies and absorb traces of stellar energy, but now they could not, and it seemed to slightly quicken time's effects on their body.

Kor would chisel away at the entrance of the cave and carve openings into the sides to allow light to reach Delkhiir, and they would also scour the world for the shedding and cores of half-elemental beasts to imbue into crystals to bring light and energy into the cave.

Without the other 3 cores, Delkhiir could not be sustained on any energies save for stellar and nature, and both were rare to find from willing beings or in natural occurrence.

Once, Kor stumbled into the cave suffering from fatal injuries, as they had tried to steal a celestial artifact from the vault of a kingdom and were caught and nearly executed. Delkhiir felt great sorrow for allowing Kor to end up in this state, as Kor had spent their youth with Delkhiir instead of seeking happiness in the prime of their life, and so Delkhiir would grant the core of nature to them.

Kor would awake from a coma after the acceptance of the core and was to interrogate Delkhiir on why they had chosen to sacrifice one of the few things sustaining them for a mortal like themselves, only to find that Delkhiir was unmoving and did not draw a single breath.

Though Delkhiir was not to die yet, they had chosen to fall into stasis for whenever the absolute last being considered worthy would come before them, both to preserve their own existence for as long as what was still possible and also to relieve Kor of the burden they had put upon them.

The core of nature was small and fragile after being worn down by many millennia of existence, and Kor would perish after only a century, finding that their only happiness was as the student of Delkhiir. They did not leave a legacy to the rest of elvenkind, but their passing was mourned by the elementals that still remembered Delkhiir. Their name was Koriinaan, "gift" in the language of the elementals, and then they were little more than a single budding flower on the island.

When the island inevitably was consumed by the tides, no fifth disciple was ever able to receive the core of stars. With time, the core would finally fail, and so Delkhiir would cease to exist.

Those that observed the stars witnessed five stars blink out of existence on the day Delkhiir died, but they would never know why nor the story of the four tragedies that came before. By mere coincidence, these stars were named Vana, Lanae, Noien, Kaio, and Delhir, and there was no one left that could grieve for these stars.

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Taglist for writing-

@aneci

If anyone else would like to join the taglist, feel free to DM me or send in an ask! I will also have a separate taglist for art posts.

okay so may as well start with a very bad oversimplification of lore (Part 1, Dust Era)

Meteors hit desert world bringing good shit Life begins to evolve Lizards Lizards grow big Big lizards become drakes(dragon with no wings and chunky) Big lizard species splits at some point One wants to be bipedal, other wants to fly, third branch is fine with being as is A lot of time passes idfk how much I have no sense of time

Bipedal drakes become drakanoids that look kinda like elves Smart drakanoids are known as Proto-Elves

Flying family starts off with dragons, splits again One flying side is wyrms(arms are wings), one side remains as dragons A lot more time passes and now the Proto-Elves are more smart Some begin to form tribes and some of those tribes are now using very rudimentary magic No mages or anything yet, sorta like medicine men and shamans Those magic tribes start isolating themselves from the non-magic tribes Suddenly angry tree humanoids(treenoids? plantnoids?) called Dak-Shan spring from caves War breaks out and non-magic tribes are not doing so hot Some of the magic tribes emerge from hiding and their magic is like better but not super complex circles and shit Takes 10k years but turns out they're enough to drive back the Dak-Shan and now Proto-Elves can work on civilizations minus regular infighting More time passes(like say 100k years), the non-magic tribes either slowly die out or merged with the magic tribes Some of the magic tribes die out because they stayed isolated or some scuffle happened with borders Remaining tribes now have cities, and soon these cities will become kingdoms, and kingdoms to empires(10k year span)

Poll for the Universal and Realm lore

I don't want to jump straight into it if there's no need for it besides basic details, so I'm using strawpoll for this Also shameless discord server plug https://discord.com/invite/t4ch8K63xP

StrawPoll

Universal and Realm lore - Online Poll - StrawPoll.com

What's your opinion? Vote now: Yes, Universal lore only, Yes, Realm lore only, Yes, both universal and realm lore, No to both...

I was asked by a friend yesterday if I could offer basic tips about comic paneling. As it turns out, I have a lot to say on the matter! I tried breaking down the art of paneling using the principles of art and design, and I hope it helps you out!

EDIT: uh uh there are a lot of people reblogging this, so i figure i may as well append this now while i can lol

This whole thing was very much cranked out in a few hours so I had a visual to talk about with a friend! If this gives you a base understanding of paneling, that's awesome! Continue to pull in studies from the comics you see and what other artists do well and don't do well! You can tell paneling is doing well when the action is flowing around in its intended reading format.

Here's the link to the globalcomix article from which I pulled the images about panel staggering! Someone sent in a reblog that it wasn't totally clear that the 7th slide mostly covers what NOT to do in regards to staggering, and that is my mistake!

I saw in a tag that someone was surprised I used MamaYuyu too, and I don't blame them lol. If I had given myself more than a couple hours maybe I would have added something else on, I just really admire MamaYuyu's paneling personally.

uh uh, final append: I am by no means a renowned master of paneling, so if you find anything off base here, by all means, counter it with your own knowledge and ways you can build upon from here! Art is always a sum knowledge of everything we find. 💪

i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

I finally took the time to photograph my vintage dip pen nib collection, and I need to share with you all how wonderful and diverse their designs are.

These two are my favorite. Just look at them! One of them is named Gorille and the other Mephisto, but to me they're little pumpkins.

And of course you gotta love the Pinocchio nib. You get to write with the nose of a tiny guy! Just not something you get to do anymore.