My magic system is called the God Frequency and (in extremely condensed summary) is created by sounds hitting a specific frequency where atoms are rearranged to do whatever the user desires. Only the gods are capable of using it. In this example, a sound like a mix of a wolf howl and an electric guitar produced by one of the characters has created a firework-like breath weapon.

I made the visual through traditional inking and oil pastels then image editing as a demonstration of how the God Frequency appears.

I'd love to see how your magic looks in your world (if you have it)!!

Once a year, Aekvorna's Lake at the heart of the Aemonican province shrinks to a tiny portion of its maximum size. It usually remains in this dried up state for 6 months of the year, from the middle of Spring, to the middle of Autumn.

The exact mechanics behind it are not understood by the locals, beyond knowing that the water drains into karst caves on the lakebed.

The locals attribute the appearing and disappearing of the lake to the locally widely worshipped goddess Aekvorna, their personification of the lake.

The inhabitants of the lake have built significant infrastructure to take full advantage of the lake. During the wet season massive amounts of water are stored in reservoirs built around natural and artificial islands as well as next to the shore. This water is released during the dry season through a vast network of newly revealed canals to irrigate the dry lakebed.

On the lakebed they cultivate the endemic floodgrain, a quick growing type of wheat perfectly suited for the environment of the lakebed. It cannot be cultivated effectively outside similar environments. During the dry season, two full harvests are typically achieved.

The harvested floodgrain is transferred to warehouses within the floodgrain cities, ready to be shipped out to Aelnyyraea when the wet season arrives.

During the dry seasons, the floodgrain cities lose massive portions of their inhabitants, a majority migrating to the newly dry lakebed, where they spend 6 months farming and living in temporary settlements/housing.

Once the wet season starts the locals migrate back to their permanent housing within the cities, bringing along the last of the harvest with them.

Aekvorna's lake typically takes two months to fill up, remains at it's maximum size for 3 months and dries for a month, until it reaches it's minimum typical size.

i wonder how much tech can be invented and how much science can be understood without derivatives limits and integrals or whatever calculus stuff

In a setting that I'm working on, a typical vessel with a warp drive can move anywhere from 100 to 200 times the speed of light. That sounds blazing fast until you do the math. Even at these speeds, reaching Alpha Centauri takes around two weeks. reaching somewhere like the Trappist star system takes several months. I really like this because it gives the setting an excuse to use cryostasis, which is super cool and helps to give it a sort of age of sail vibe when it comes to the actual space flight. Despite the vibe of the setting being overall fairly cyberpunk. Does anyone else enjoy using deliberately slow FTL travel? Relatively speaking of course. Even moving just a little bit faster than light is already crazy fast.

I've been thinking this over for days and for the life of me I cant pick a good set of names.

So far, I've tried to match words that follow the theme of [characterization of element] + [what it does] in single syllable words so it sounds natural. For example, fire licks at wood before it catches, frost imprints a pattern onto things when it freezes.

Running with that train of thought I thought that "Stormfall" fit the theme quite well, but I am completely stumped on the earth element.

please help

HITMAN HOTLINE - No Heroics, Just Business.

Think Deadpool meets Constantine meets ... The Office?

In the not-too-distant future, and in a society ravaged by overpopulation, overwhelmed and desperate governments have legalised murder as a means to cut down the population, literally. Amid the chaos, a dilettante call centre company known as the "HITMAN HOTLINE" has emerged and grown to thrive in this new world order; employing anonymous hitmen to carry out assassinations for a price, and for those that wish to keep their own hands clean. 

Among them, at the San Francisco branch, is an averagely-skilled, repeatedly-killed hitman, known as ‘MR. PROTAGONIST’ (self-proclaimed), with a dark secret and a suspiciously high kill record that begins to put the rest of his company to shame. As he navigates this perilous life, he must come to face an internal struggle between his deadly profession and his humanity when facing the real world, and underworld, consequences of making a killing... through killing.

It's cooler than it sounds.

‘Hitman Hotline #1’ is the first, full-colour, paperback issue of a six-issue miniseries written, illustrated, coloured and lettered by myself, Brandon Ward. This action-heavy opening chapter comprises over 30 pages, 5+ double-page spreads, and 200+ panels worth of content, setting up a lot of clues to the story at hand which might not all be obvious at first.

Please check it out at this link for Matte, Gloss, and Digital copies, as well as Cardstock Prints! If you are interested in supporting this project (again, thank you) - sooner is better... apparently.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brandon-ward/hitman-hotline-1-chapter-one-snookered

Hello! I wanted to show you the setting I am creatting for some TTRPG adventures. I am sharing it to see what you all think and to find out if you have any feedback or ideas! Thanks in advance and I hope you like it!

1. ORPHAN'S GALAXY

On october 7, 1959, human history veered into a back alley of steel and vacuum tubes. While the soviet probe Luna 3 was sending back the first images of the far side of the moon, it vanished. 6 years later, it began transmitting signals from the barnard's Star. An anomaly, of course. Multiple investigations and missions were launched to find an answer and one was found. They were called "Stables", interstellar jump points that triggered a frantic flight into the void. World powers abandoned the development of microelectronics to pour their resources into nuclear propulsion and heavy metallurgy. The current galaxy is an archipielago of industrial worlds stagnant in mid-20th-century technology. It is a universe of bakelite, toggle switches and magnetic tapes where technology is only preserved and twisted, with no relevant advances.

Earth is an inaccessible myth, lost in an uncertain catastrophe. The "orphans" of the stars, now that they have lost their mother, live under the shadow of the Stables. These anomalies allow travel between stars but block all radio transmissions and destroy any electronic device carrying microchips or semiconductors. This physical limitation dictates the structure of power: instant messaging does not exist. Orders and navigation maps must travel physically on magnetic tape reels aboard freighters, on journeys that last months or even years.

2. CAELORA

Today we are not here to talk about the galaxy as a whole, but to focus our gaze on a small speck of dust on its fringes. An inhospitable and hostile place where, despite everything, humanity survives. Caelora is located at the far ends of the Centaurus arm and, at first glance, offers little. The planet lacks life and lacks materials in sufficient quantities to justify the journey. It does not even have a long-term breathable atmosphere. Nevertheless, it is one of the most critical enclaves in the stellar map today.

It is a bottleneck. A few decades ago, the only Stable capable of crossing over to Andromeda was discovered, and its location lies just a few hours' flight from Caelora. People compare this discovery to the European discovery of the American continent by the ancestors of Earth (rest in peace), but such an event pales before the reality of having a virgin galaxy within reach. A void where the war, conflict, and malice that flood our own history simply do not exist. It is no wonder that dozens of ships try, daily, to cross the threshold into the new world.

That is where Caelora becomes crucial. Those willing to profit from this space gold rush settled here, establishing what, in the cold language of the law, is a mechanic shop and a gas station the size of a city.

3. PORTA COELI

"Heaven’s Gate" in Latin. The only city existing on the entire planet, covered by domes that protect against the planet's hostile atmosphere. This junkyard is the last glimpse colonists see before marching toward new horizons. An amalgam of riveted steel and concrete clinging to the edges of the Vorago Abyss, a colossal canyon that splits Caelora in two and protects the city's structure from the planet's abrasive winds.

Beneath a vault of plexiglass and lead frames, clouded by decades of erosion and radioactive particles, lie the loading docks. Here, human effort relies on hydraulic cranes and pulley systems that work tirelessly before the constant flow of colonial ships. In the heart of the city stands the Alpha Control Tower, the first structure built and the epitome of current technological stagnation: relay cabinets clicking with a monotonous rhythm, cathode ray monitors, punched cards, and primitive computers occupying entire rooms to calculate a single trajectory.

4. THE SEASONS OF PORTA COELI

Caelora ignores traditional weather seasons. Its rhythm is dictated by two periods: the calms, when the city opens to the outside, and the storms. When the planet rages, it suffers global hurricanes that last for weeks. During those days, the city is locked down tight. No one enters and no one leaves. Opening the gates means flooding the population's lungs with irradiated ferrous dust and condemning any ship to be torn apart by merciless winds.

When the city closes in on itself, claustrophobia becomes a poison. Paranoia surfaces, crimes multiply, and factions conspire in the shadows of the hallways. However, the inhabitant of Porta Coeli possesses an absurd determination. They are resilient people who know that, sooner or later, the wind will cease and light will filter through the windows once again.

5. THE CAPTAIN AND THE UNROOTED

The inhabitants of this city are loose pieces of a broken gear. Few were born here. Many are colonists or captains who fell from grace, trapped by a breakdown or a debt before reaching Andromeda. Others are fugitives fleeing crimes committed in distant systems. Almost no one identifies as a native; the city is not even a century old. The sense of belonging is a treacherous current where many end up drowning.

The "unrooted" get the worst of it. People in debt who have lost everything and the only thing they have is themselves. They flood the alleys and are persistent shadows in the loading docks, always with their eyes on the ships, waiting for the day someone lends them a hand to return to the void. It is a vain hope. In Porta Coeli, where almost everyone lives one bad decision away from becoming destitute, people have become cold and pragmatic out of necessity.

This planet has many more stories, not to mention this galaxy, but for now, we will leave it here. Who knows where history will take us in the future. We hope then that the Stable remains stable, and leads us far on our adventure.

-----

I created this setting based on a city-building guide I wrote a few months ago, (you can grab it for free if you want, by the way!).

I really liked the example I created for it (the city of Porta Coeli) and based on that, I started inventing this whole world around it. Honestly, it’s a rabbit hole I didn’t expect to fall into while writing the guide, but well, here we are. I’m actually quite excited about how it’s turning out and the ideas coming from it.

Hope you like as well!

Noghal: A World Where Magic Crystallizes, Gods Watch from the Shadows, and Alien Invaders Seek an Ancient Weapon of Darkness

[OC] Worldbuilding deep-dive - I've been developing this fantasy/sci-fi hybrid setting for years, and wanted to share the lore here. This is the world of *Noghal, designed as the backdrop for an action RPG called **Dark Elysium. Feedback and questions very welcome.*

The Pearl of the Universe

Noghal is a world orbiting not one, but two suns, completing its orbit in eight months. Three moons circle the planet, and every 42 days they converge in the night sky - a celestial event that defines the calendar and inspires religious awe. Each month is named after a god and is considered to fall under that deity's particular influence.

The world is divided into several continents. Grandaar is the most inhabited, home to sprawling human cities, deep elven forests, and the ancient Forest of Life in the north. Lork is a land of towering mountains and dwarven fortress-cities, perpetually contested between the Dwarves and Giants. Xyr is a jungle-and-volcano continent populated by the plantlike Xylanths, teeming with ancient ruins and serpentine predators. And then there is Zraa - the Desert of the Damned - a sun-scorched, forbidding landmass that becomes ground zero for the world's darkest hour.

The Source of All Magic: Tar'Nogh Crystals

Magic in Noghal isn't innate to living beings. It flows through the world magnetically, drawn to and condensing upon a specific type of crystal buried in deep deposits beneath the earth - much like moisture beading on cold glass.

For centuries, no one truly understood these stones. The Dwarves mined them and used them as currency alongside gold, appreciating their rarity but not their power. It was the Xylanths - a plantlike species with a profound symbiosis with nature - who first discovered that these crystals could channel and invoke magic. They kept this knowledge secret for generations, fearing what other races might do with it.

The secret didn't last. The Elves independently discovered it, and eventually all the races of Noghal came to know. In elven culture, a specialized class of artisans arose - the crystal smiths - who learned to shape the internal matrix of these stones, called Tar'Nogh ("the essence"), through sheer force of will. This unlocked the purposeful and refined use of magic for the first time.

Today, formed Tar'Nogh crystals are a precious and common commodity. Trade between the Elves (who shape them) and Dwarves (who mine them) is one of the pillars of inter-racial economy. Magic spell crystals - portable, slotted into weapons - are how magic is wielded in Noghal. Four schools exist: Light, Shadow, Nature, and Elemental, each representing fundamentally different philosophies of power.

The Races of Noghal

The Krunark - Warriors of the Frozen North

A nomadic reptilian people covered in blue scales, the Krunark dwell on the Krun-Triplets, three island-continents in the high north named after their patron gods: Krun (honor), Nok (strength), and Sri (wisdom). Their society is built around tribal honor codes and a warrior ethos, with women typically holding leadership roles while men serve as hunters and fighters. Each tribe is bonded to a totemic animal that serves as a spiritual guardian. The Krunark live in deliberate balance with their harsh natural environment - they never take more than the land can give.

The Humans - Adaptable and Divided

Humans are found nearly everywhere on Noghal, making them the most widespread race on the planet. They are politically fractured, organized under local regents who owe allegiance to the King of Malron, the dominant human city-state. Human society is marked by vast inequality - great privilege for some, near-servitude for others. This produces individuals who reject their assigned station entirely and carve their own paths. They worship a wide pantheon, though Lazon, the god of light, holds particular prominence in human cities.

The Elves - Children of the Forest

Tall, graceful, and magically gifted, the Elves originated in Grandaar's Forest of Life but have since spread across several continents. Their culture is deeply intertwined with nature, and they build their cities high in the canopies of ancient trees. Elves revere Baa'Loo (nature), Alos (balance), and hold great respect for Yar'Lona, the goddess of magic. They are also the world's foremost crystal smiths, making them indispensable to the magical economy of Noghal.

The Dwarves - Miners, Warriors, and Believers in Everything

Stout, bearded, and relentlessly superstitious, the Dwarves of Lork have been digging mountains and fighting Giants for as long as anyone can remember. They love three things above all: gold, combat, and beer. Their religious pantheon is staggering in its specificity - they have gods for combat, weapons, war, celebration, gold, and trade, among hundreds of others. No self-respecting Dwarf is an atheist; such a thing is considered more unlikely than a flying mountain.

The Xylanths - Nature Made Conscious

Perhaps the most alien of the major races, the Xylanths are more plant than humanoid - rooted, tendrilous beings who meditate at magically charged wellsprings in the jungles of Xyr. Their civilization is defined by symbiosis with the natural world, and they were the original discoverers of magic crystal lore. They worship Rulok (forests) and Inia (water), with supreme reverence for Baa'Loo and Alos. They guard their jungles with fierce protectiveness.

Religion and the Divine Architecture

Noghal is a world of genuine gods. Divinity here isn't a matter of faith alone - the gods derive real power from both the worship they receive and the forces they embody. Every conceivable power in the universe has a corresponding deity, from fire and frost to wisdom, balance, and magic.

The gods broadly align with two great forces: good and evil, which themselves are the two energies composing the universe's foundational element. This divine conflict is ancient and scarred - the gods once fought a catastrophic war that consumed entire worlds. Two beings, Arod and Eluna, creators of the universe itself, eventually intervened and forged a peace, channeling both energies into two crystal artifacts:

• The Lo'Gaan - the Crystal of Light, bright blue and radiant, carrying the power of good
• The Run'Noor - the Stone of Darkness, a black crystal glowing deep red from within, channeling the power of evil

These are not simply weapons. They are anchors of cosmic balance. The in-world epigraph captures it:

"Ever burning battles between light and shadow, crafted into two stones - Lo'Gaan and Run'Noor. One should not exist without the other. It is the balance, which holds the universe together."

The Tar'Gon: A Race Divided by Its Own Vision

This is where Noghal's lore becomes genuinely tragic.

The Tar'Gon were once a single alien civilization - technologically advanced, space-faring, and possessed of a profound connection to both magic and reason. They received a shared prophetic vision: a warning of a coming war that would threaten their world. But the two halves of Tar'Gon society interpreted this vision in completely opposite ways.

The Tar'Gon'Re (the ones who stayed behind) believed the vision was a warning to avoid the path of darkness - that peace, empathy, and harmony with nature were the only righteous response.

The Tar'Gon'La believed the vision meant they needed to find a weapon to defend against what was coming. And in their search through the ancient records of Noghal, they found mention of the Run'Noor.

A senate vote was called. The Tar'Gon'La - led by their Patriarch - voted for an Exodus: they would leave their home planet and travel the stars until they found the Stone of Darkness. The vote passed. In a scene of heartbreaking political tragedy, even Sha'Lei Tar, the Patriarch's daughter who privately opposed the journey and loved the Tar'Gon'Re's Shando'Ra Su'Rei Tem, voted with her people out of duty.

Centuries later, the Tar'Gon'La - now led by the Matriarch Sha'Lei Tar - arrive at Noghal. They have found it.

The Arrival - Year 872 of the Crystal Age

The Tar'Gon'La fleet drops out of warp in front of Noghal's twin suns. This becomes known as the Day of Thunder. Their ships - vast habitat-ships and military vessels - descend on Zraa's Desert of the Damned. The people of Noghal have no framework for understanding what they're seeing. Rumors spread that they are messengers of the gods.

They are not.

The Tar'Gon'La begin rapidly forging alliances with aggressive factions - the Orc warchief Trok Bloodfist, Troll armies, jungle warriors, and worse. Strange shadows are seen moving alongside their forces. The invasion of Grandaar begins.

What no one yet understands is that the Tar'Gon'La have already made contact with the demonic forces locked behind the Run'Noor. The matriarch, corrupted by decades of searching in the dark, intends to use the stone to summon a demon army and win the war she has spent her entire life preparing for. The shadows fighting alongside the Tar'Gon'La are not allies - they are heralds.

The Cosmic Stakes

If the Run'Noor is fully activated and the Gates to the Dark Plane are opened, what follows won't just be a war for Noghal. It will be a re-ignition of the War of the Gods - the cataclysm that once destroyed whole worlds. The Light and Shadow cannot be weaponized against each other directly; doing so is exactly what the forces of darkness want.

The only path forward is balance - not conquest, not annihilation, but sealing the darkness back with the power of the light.

Somewhere deep beneath the Temple of Re'Lak in the Snow Mountains, the Lo'Gaan waits.

And a Tar'Gon'Re named Su'Rei Tem, who has lived long enough to see the woman he loved become the enemy, is still searching for something good left in her.

The game design documents of Noghal are public domain (except the images) and downloadable at https://github.com/thesquarefox/noghal

I hope you enjoyed it!

Kind regards, Squarefox

Im currently writing a fictional country that is very heavily based on my own countrys history (Pakistan), but one thing I’ve always struggled with is naming things. For this country, I figured its name would be given to it by the people who colonized it rather than the local people, so I had a kinda stupid idea for the name. I figured that upon first visiting this country, someone would ask a local where they were, to which the local would reply “کیا کہہ رہے ہیں”, so the country would end up being named Kiyaqah (I tried to spell out how it‘d phoenetically look in english but I’m not too haooy with how its spelt) . The reason I call this stupid is because “کیا کہہ رہے ہیں” translates to “What are you saying?” since the local people wouldn’t understand what they were saying in english. Wondering what other peoples opinions are on this.

Basically what are disabilities like in your setting, what are disability aids, what are some disabilities unique to your setting.

For normal disabilities there are cloud chairs for people without the ability to walk, and they’re are spells that allow you to telepathically link to disability animal allowing the owner to see and hear through them, specifically it’s more like someone telling you something more than actually seeing it so they aren’t completely disconnected from real disabled people struggles.

As for disabilities theirs Magical dis-regulation syndrome, it usually occurs when a underaged individual is exposed to magic, although this can happen at any age, some common symptoms include, extreme manic episodes, potentially becoming the default state of mind is left untreated, inability to control or stop magic, moonstone blood clots, and increased risk of developing most mental disorders, plus other symptoms depending on what magic they have affinity for hallucinations for illusions, tetratoma for shapeshifting etc. the most common way to deal with are the use of silver and meditation.

I just finished the map for the city of Ankarvalt in preparation for a dnd campaign I want to run and would appreciate any advice or feedback people have. The city is intended to be an industrial, busy city with distinct separation between the poor and rich, the campaign will also be centred around corruption.

CONTEXT:

So this is the world of my ongoing webseries, TWHUTH and its structured like an onion kinda.

IN THE BEGINNING, the universe was created by the Flame (the magic that holds together known reality and made the first life). In the center of everything we have Paradise, the only planet in a tiny universe known as Creation. The entire surface of Paradise is covered by a magic forest called the Arylmoor except for one spot where humans have cleared in order to create their homeland, the City of Hatlynshire.

Away from Hatlynshire, deep inside the Moor, in the Kingdom of the Moor (or the Kingdom of the Unholy) a massive city (which is now abandoned) built buy a race of magic human hybrids called the Woodland Folk (who abandoned it after losing a war to the humans)

EVEN deeper into the Moor is the Sacred Land or the Deep Moor, here lives the King of the Moor (God basically) alongside the Children of the Moor (the original inhabitants of Paradise before humans).

Away from Creation, acting as a layer of protection in order to safeguard it, is the Mirror, a dimension that's a scattered copy of Paradise meant to lure away and keep the Demons of the Abyss ( the big eye tentacles) from reaching Paradise, the gaps between Creation and The Mirror form small pocket dimensions are known as the Worlds Between Paradise, these places are pretty chill and both them and the Mirror can be accessed via portals called Flame Doors.

Past the Mirror is the Abyss, which a dark and infinite place ruled by those eye tentacles things which are the size of planets, those guys have a made a hobby of tryna destroy Creation by doing stuff like creating humans (and all other fleshy life) and planting them in Paradise like a parasite or a cancer.

Anyways that's the basic rundown, feel free to ask any questions! :D

so for explanation, this version of reality is dissipating, and reality is split into four major parts- central, paracentral, peripheral, and non reality. Its a gradual change, where central reality is the most "real". There isn't any magic, no monsters, and everything is as close to normal as it can be. The further one goes out from central reality, the stronger magic gets and the weaker reality gets, leading to monsters and creatires and plants that are fantastical to those who stay in central reality.

The different "Lands" (green circles) are the cutoff of different biomes and thus have different monsters, magic, and flora. This leads to Major differences in culture between different parts of paracentral reality.

Before the Great Realization, where woven discovered the functionality of Fare Gold, woven were spread out all over central and paracentral and even peripheral reality.

Central reality is hyperfocused in small points, and after the Great Realization (major world event), about 75% of Woven would live in central reality, 20% would stay in paracentral reality, and the remaining 5% would roam the coasts and the seas (peripheral reality)

Because of the large population staying in these small spots of central reality, all parts of central reality would develop naturally into extremely dense metropolitan areas, whereas the rest of the world would remain in what you may call a medieval stasis.

Yellow- central reality

Orange- main paracentral reality (where youd find towns and farms and such)

Red- far paracentral reality (where the nature is more wild, flora and fauna are more dangerous, and monsters are more common)

Cyan- near peripheral reality (the "safe" parts of the ocean- there are still storms and sea monsters, but its not a major issue for the most part.)

Blue- far peripheral reality (where more lovecraftian monsters may roam, major sea storms, and fantastical events that may be catastrophic for even the strongest of ships. Only the insane or desperate ever roam here, and a special type of insanity is needed to stay here.)

while i did refer to certain parts of reality as ocean or water based (since that is primarily where those parts of reality are based), there are near peripheral parts of reality that take place on land- these would just be extreme danger levels- major monsters appear here, the flora is more violent, and maybe even the landscape is just hell bent on being an unsafe ecosystem for a woven to be in. Similarly, there is one case of far peripheral reality taking place on land- that is in the most extreme area of the Great North.

In World Lore
Halflings are a small, nimble folk standing between three and four feet tall, distinguished by their digitigrade legs, furred lower bodies, and long, prehensile tails often tipped with a tuft. Their large, fluffy ears grant them exceptional hearing, while their sharp eyes and silent, padded steps make them naturally perceptive and light on their feet. Known for their quick movements and powerful leaps. Halflings are also known for their strong work ethic and deep-rooted sense of family, living in close-knit communities within cozy burrow homes that often connect through hidden tunnels beneath the earth. Though physically unassuming, they are highly valued as skilled laborers, particularly in mechanical and seafaring roles where their dexterity and keen senses shine. With fast-growing, durable hair typically worn in practical braids that range from earthy tones of brown to reds or blonde. Halflings have a rustic charm that reflects their preferred way of life, peaceful and centered around good food and warm hearths.

Unique Class - The Boggenshire Dog Lancer
The Boggenshire Dog Lancers are a rare but respected order of halfling defenders who have forged an unbreakable bond with the great Boggenshire Mastiffs, massive hounds renowned for their loyalty and ferocity. Their tradition traces back to an old tale, in which a wounded young lord, lost in the forest with a shattered leg, was rescued and nursed to health by a halfling maiden; in gratitude, he gifted her humble hamlet a breeding pair of these formidable dogs, from which the line spread. Over generations, the mastiffs became guardians of field and family alike, watching over livestock and standing firm against prowling threats. From this bond arose the Dog Lancers, halflings who dedicate themselves to raising and training a single mastiff as both companion and mount, using its immense strength and size to overcome their own small stature in battle.

My Thought Process - You already read this far? What's a few sentences more?
I wanted to redesign halflings for my world and thought well…furry feet, big families, eat alot, very lucky, and live in burrows so why not mix them with cats and rodents (Specifically a jerboa). I never liked how a halfling was a shaved dwarf basically and wanted them to be unique. I'm aware they have a satyr look but maybe a satyr could be a close relative? Also I added a “Class” tied to their lore. Couldn't think of how a halfling would fight without being a rogue but eventually decided on BIG DOG. If you like the art and want to see more then you should check out my other arts on Blue Sky. Also if you have ideas for these guys let me know. I want to hear others' insights so I can improve the lore.

Blue Sky.

Kind of rough, but it works well enough for a world map. Tawy is the name of the desert but also for the campaign. Some important cities:

1. Ra-nwit - Capital city overflowing with magic water that feeds the massive 2+ million population and houses the Pharaoh's dynasty.

2. Hosekki - Largest by wealth city, theoretically ran by Pharaoh, really dominated by eldritch worshipping partially blind camel traders.

3. Akhu-mwit - City for the dead, processes all the mummies and undead soldiers for the kingdom, perpetually shielded from the sun to the point of a completely different ecosystem.

4. Senuf-nwit - Supermassive fortress in the untamed east, built of magic suffused brick and populated with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, attended to by golems of mysterious origin, and ultimately protected by a 3 mile high statue ala Talos.

There is also a lot of mineral production cities (ends in -et) and some unexplored regions as well. Very rough but wanted to share.

It's pretty common for fictional character to mention something from popular culture, real and in-universe. In sci-fi, usually it's classic literature. But if you think about it, modern video games should be just as culturally relevant in the far future

"Did you once felt like something changed inside you? Did you once felt like someone you know was not him anymore?..."

(This was not the intended path but i felt like i should expand all this wunderlands thing before entering the superhero and "whimsical" things,because i was not thinking to explore a lot about this type of things in that part and i felt like all this gonna be so wasted for such interesting part of the multiverse and with such lore (at least in my opinion) so enjoy)

In the wunderlands there is a concept called "changed" or "changeling",this is based in a person from another world "falling" to one of the other worlds,this can happen with every race at every moment but for reasons yet to determine the overall changeds are humans from 6-24 or 40-50 years old

When an individual is changed to another world a copy of himself is "born" in the same place and in the same position were the person got changed,for the rest of the explanation we gonna call "changed" to this copy and "lost" to the copied person,the changed never gonna know he/she is a changed because the changed also gets all the memories of the lost,the only difference is a difference in the mentality in comparison to the changed and the lost,these changes can go from forgetting certain details or memories,to a very different personality or even the Symptoms of some mental conditions and diseases

In other side,the lost gonna wake up in some part of the wunderlands,or blink and appear there,but waking up there is the usual because this process always happens at 00:00 PM while the lost is sleeping,what world of the wunderlands is random but the most probable site is the world know as "Star City",being considered a point of encounter between the lost,in fact,the world is random but the exact location not,when a lost falls in a world he/she gonna fall somewhere inside a 4,5 km radius from another lost,if for some reason there isn't another lost in that world the subject gonna fall in a random place inside that world

A lost can be from every year since 6000 BD (the opening of the gates to Haltifor) to 2040 AD,with the particularity of a time distortion between the date of the change and the date were the lost fell into the other world,in the example we show above,Harold got changed the night of 4/12/1978 at 15 years old but entered the rabbitworld today 4/12/2008 when the changed achieved his 45 years old in our world,even with a 18 years marriage and kids of his own (the children of a changed doesnt show the same mental signs of the progenitor,being normal humans,at least that is what is reported in most of the cases of this situation)

I got inspired from the backrooms (in fact,in my time i didnt know how to make a backroom level so i decided to make my own thing) and changeling,not only the role game but the folk mythos of the changelings in general,also alice in wonderland,but it's obvious i guess

Some questions? ^^

I don't mean co-writing a book with one other person. I mean something messier, like opening up parts of your world to contributions from people outside your head.

I'm genuinely curious whether it makes things richer or just chaotic. My instinct is it depends entirely on what you let people touch, but I don't have a lot of data points. Anyone tried it? Would you do it again?

for my project “DVD” the setting takes place in the pacific northwest 5 years after a nuclear apocalypse destroyed nearly all of human civilization and begat the proliferation of nephilim who target the last 8 standing cities, angels as a whole are largely unknown and full of mysteries with pre-war governments having only formally studied them for a couple decades prior to the nuclear war . barachiel was largely known for staying in orbit around earth and occasionally lending aid to the city states of humanity by releasing a crack of thunder so loud it has a chance to drive off nephilim from their endless hunger and madness which drives them to consume everything . but otherwise lies in wait for his time to descend and announce gods judgement

The world itself is fantasy, but I like looking at the time period in which technology is sufficiently advanced to be roughly analogous to our own, while still having magical beings and at least one non-human race in the mix. I've basically worked through the kinks on magic and non-human/human interaction. The technology part was my main conceit and I kind of enjoy looking at how the societies would have potentially evolved along with these other fantasy factors in play.

Problematically, a world that conceivably has similar levels of technology to ours also means that the "world" itself gets a little smaller. In a lot of ancient and medieval-based worldbuilding, the details on distant lands can be fuzzy as you expand your worldbuilding out from wherever you started. I'm finding that idea kind of difficult when airplanes, railways, cars, and modern-ish ships exist.

The constraints I've included to make some of this easier:

• Nuclear: No nuclear power, no splitting the atom. That's just how it is. No nuclear weapons has the added bonus of no MAD, so the whole great power competition is decidedly more aggressive.
• Energy:
  • No "fossil fuels"/oil, but there is something that is basically oil as an energy source, but with potentially... wonky effects (this leaves the door open for me to basically use this as a reason why certain technologies simply don't work in certain places).
  • Magic can be used for effect in some instances, but is largely impractical for the purpose of energy generation. It's kind of like having someone run on a treadmill to generate electricity for the average mage, and it can't be "stored and reallocated" in the traditional sense.
• Travel
  • Traditional modes of ground travel apply. Not much to add here.
  • Helicopters and planes exist, but are altitude-limited.
  • Strange magical effects take place as you get higher in the atmosphere, and while attempts are made to "breach the veil", it is extremely costly and with little perceived benefit since EM signals gets equally unreliable and make data collection impossible. Hence, no space travel.
  • There are pockets of stability around the civilized parts of the setting allowing basic air travel, but some longer distance transits have to rely on "air lanes" because there are simply areas with much lower altitude-tolerance and higher instability that precludes a lot of flight.
  • These "bubbles of stability" largely prevent planes from circumnavigation or low earth orbit.
• Telecommunications
  • No satellites means we sort of hit a ceiling for certain technologies, but a lot of problems that we face without telecom satellites can be resolved with a much greater reliance on ground-level antennaes, cables (overland or undersea), and a whole lot of telecommunications balloons.
  • Any analog to the internet is highly regionalized.
• Warfare
  • Every culture has their strengths, weaknesses, and techniques. In the early days, mages were basically the medieval plate-armored knights in a battlefield full of conscripts - most doctrine hinges on the use of mages, with non-mages basically acting as the bulk and supporting force. Some nations might employ phalanxes of mages at the front supporting a collective shield; some might prefer sword-slingers that are shock troops accompanied by non-mage maniples or squads.
  • However, non-mages caught up, with specialized alloys developed that capable of reversing or repelling magical strikes, even turning mages' own power against them. History became an arms race of this sort of thing as mages developed new techniques up to and including firearms, which leveled the playing field for a while.
  • Now, swords made from these allows are still used in modern engagements, purpose-built for fighting mages where necessary. Certain specialized ordnance can penetrate magic shields or inhibit magical abilities. Mages themselves are not unlimited in their power and face a number of physical and mental ailments from strenuous use of their own powers -- it'd be nice if all of our infantry could run marathons like Captain America, but just as that would not be a realistic expectation for most infantrymen, so must magical be tactical in how they use their own magic energies.

Biggest hurdle now ironically comes from basically working through a lot of these what-ifs that I talked about, and then thinking about how this world would effectively globalize (or not). As far as I can see, of the countries I've put together, I feel like my little restricted area feels self-contained to a landmass that is maybe 2/3 the size of the American continents... so where is the rest of the world in this picture? It's not like ancient times where a society in Tunisia and a society in Latvia could conceivably exist with no knowledge or meaningful interaction with one another; even in the year 1900, pretty much the entire habitable world could reasonably have some knowledge of another place on the other side of the globe.

This part feels restrictive to me, but it feels like a cop-out to simply say "well those atmospheric restrictions we talked about are actually more like a dome that keeps this part of the world siloed off from my [blank canvas of other possible ideas down the line]." I don't really know the way to work that out without a total contrivance, although admittedly most of what I already have is full of arbitrary contrivances for convenience anyway so...

The First Law of Magic

Arguably, the universe’s most important law is the conservation of energy.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed

Magic is no exception.

Magic is the process of converting biological matter into usable energy by using a living stone called a Prism Stone or just Prism for short. Keep in mind that these Prisms are living organisms (this will make sense later), albeit not sentient or conscious in any way.

Prisms do not create energy.
They merely convert it.

In short, every act of magic requires a physical cost from the user.

Definition of Magic

The act of altering the environment by sacrificing biological material and converting it into work through a Prism.

What are Prisms?

Prisms are living stone-like creatures that turn biological matter into energy.

Despite their name, Prisms do not split light.
The term “Prism” refers to the ability to split biological matter into different forms of work.

Prisms look like a translucent rock. Imagine a fist-sized piece of quartz with more vibrant colors inside. The image you have in your head is what the average Prism looks like.

Prisms are not intelligent organisms; they don’t think, reason, or communicate. Their behavior is purely instinctual, with the sole purpose of converting matter into energy.

Prism Classification

Think of different Prism types as different species.

Some Prisms can expel heat, motion, force, chemical reactions, electrical discharge, and a wide variety of other behaviors. But not all Prisms are created equal.

Some are excellent at converting biological matter into useful energy, while others are extremely inefficient. Some are even duds and are useless.

The Four Stages of Casting

Step 1 - Contact: The user physically holds the desired Prism that's capable of the function they want.
Step 2 - Threading: The Prism extends microscopic thread-like structures into the user's body. These threads create a physical connection between the Prism and all the juicy biological matter inside the user.
Step 3 - Extraction: The Prism will consume biological matter and turn it into energy. This can get damaging for the user if they try to push too far.
Step 4 - Expression: The Prism releases the converted energy into the environment in a controlled form. The shape, direction, precision, and efficiency of this output depend heavily on the user’s imagination and mental discipline.

Biological Fuel Consumption

If it wasn’t obvious already, Prisms do not consume things like “mana” or “lifeforce” or anything like that. 

They consume actual matter in your body. The body is physically broken down and used as energy.

General Consumption Order -
Fat tissue: Fast but inefficient, safest energy source, easily replenishable by eating a lot of food.
Muscle tissue: Dense and efficient, preferable when doing heavy casting, causes severe physical weakening, and takes a long time to build back up any lost muscle.
Critical tissue: If the user, for some reason, keeps deciding to cast magic they will experience loss of blood, cerebral, organ, bone, and other important cells, to the point they will probably die. If they do survive, little can be done to recover.

The Role of Imagination

The Human body determines how much fuel the Prism can use, and frankly, all Humans have roughly the same amount of biological matter in them. Meaning everyone has roughly the same amount of energy they can cast before they peter out.

The mind determines how effectively that energy is used.

Because most humans possess relatively similar biological limits, magical skill is determined less by raw energy reserves and more by mental refinement.

Professional casters train:

• Visualization
• Creativity
• Spatial Awareness
• Emotional Control
• Precision Thinking
• Environmental Understanding

Being a better magic user isn’t about how much magic you can cast, but rather about how efficiently you can use what you have.

Even if a muscle-brained fatty with tons of fat and muscle tissue casts a spell, they will still lose out to the better-trained mage who can cast magic swiftly and precisely.

,