You Called The Negatives Of My Magic System Intense. You Have More... At Least Mine Has A Stage Before

Saw you liked my lastest post so I'm here to spread a little love and support! Love your work btw keep it up!!

Here you go! List 5 things that make you happy, then put this message in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! 💚

Oo positivity! Lovely!

I am going to overcomplicate the heck out of this just for fun.

Five things I like...

Off the top of my head, reading, writing, drawing, music, and being alone. But liking them doesn't necessarily mean they make me happy.

I like where I travel mentally when reading, and it makes me happy to be in fantasy land when I am reading. Away from the real world and the chaos.

I like creating a world when I write and draw, but the process is hard. Can't exactly get immediate results with either of them, and I will complain a ton, but the results make me happy.

Music ends up being another distraction from the real world and all the chaos, which I like. But listening to music doesn't necessarily make me happy. I just do it.

Being alone is another escape from life. There's something peaceful in it. But it makes me bored more than happy.

So there are two things that make me happy. Traveling to fantasy land while reading and the results of creating through drawing and writing.

I suppose I also love overcomplicating things, such as this response to such a simple question.

So there is three.

Getting compliments on my work or ideas makes me happy for a few moments, which I suppose counts.

Watching anime is fun. Unless it is a sad anime, then it makes me sad, or I don't enjoy it. I suppose watching anime I enjoy makes me happy.

So fantasy-land through reading, the results of creating through drawing and writing, overcomplicating things, compliments on my work or ideas, and anime make me happy.

There's five!

Hey guys let me tell you about advance fee scams

I hope y'all are familiar with these in this day and age, especially my artists out there, because they're incredibly common.

About half an hour ago I posted a drawing and tagged it #artists on tumblr, and very quickly received this comment.

My scam radar went off immediately, due to the generic blog name and lack of any emotion in the comment, but I decided it might be an entertaining venture so I dmed them. They asked for a drawing "of these", and sent me a random selfie. I got the details and told them it would be $15, and they promptly offered me $300. At this point I know it's a scam, but I play along for funsies and give them my paypal. Shortly, they send me this image for "confirmation" (I blocked out my email)

And they began to insist that I checked my email. I looked in my spam folder and found the following email.

This is fake. This is not a thing. And the "you're to refund the $200.00 back" is the scam. They send vaguely official-looking emails at you to "prove" that they sent you the money, then have you send them $200 (or however much the scam is for). Then, surprise surprise, you're out $200.

I continued to play along for a bit, and in the second email "Paypal" told me that I had to refund the $200 before they could "credit the $300 to my account", along with these lovely threats.

And yeah, it's silly. But it's not silly if you don't know and get scammed. So. Spread, please! And thank you very much to @mlaurel for the opportunity to get these screenshots.

Oh, that is nothing compared to what happens to humans if a dark god takes control of them. They become monsters that look vaguely humanoid, but are definitely not human. They also become bloodthirsty freaks in this state.

And this happens primarily when a human uses a weapon/item with the dark God's name etched in it.

These creatures are different from the followers of dark gods, but I am not going to get into that.

Magic system

How many WIPs

And

Challenges you have faced with your WIPs

Thank you for the ask <333

There's an essay incoming, beware

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How Many WIPs?

I have no less than four novel-intended wips (Flamebearer, A Healing for the Birds, Soulswapped and the Lady's Lament), plus a few shorter works (The Disappearance of Charimone Eschredaine, [Succession of the Underground*] and [The Assassin's Promise*]) and a developing anthology of certain characters' backstories (This Blood-Stained Charcuterie)

*Placeholders; I've no clue what to call them yet

Challenges Faced With WIPs

A Healing for the Birds:

The main challenge with this is dealing with all the plot threads. One thing that has remained consistent even after all the changes since the first ever iteration of this wip (it used to be called Seafarer, then Obsidian Sapphires, and now this), is there being loads of plot threads. The difference is now those plot threads are more centred around the Allaitri Chalice and the political chaos of it being unearthed.

Up until recently, I wasn't sure what the core of the story was, but now I know. It centres around familiar ties and the things that people do in the name of love. (Sounds a bit corny out of context, though lol)

Flamebearer

I put this one on hold because I know it's going to be complex due to the heavy political themes in this. Unlike A Healing for the Birds, where the political situation is a little bit lighter and more petty, in a sense, the political scene is very charged here. There's a lot of resentment pointed towards the royal family due to things like Serrantine trying to rejoin Selade or the legacy of the Twenty-Year Winter, leading to unrest, death, grief, a lot more sombre and complex issues to deal with. I hope to be more confident in my writing so I can do Flamebearer justice, I find people seem to really like the premise and starting ideas, its associated Flash Friday pieces do quite well 😅

Soulswapped

Again, another wip put on ice to focus on the bird wip. I do want to get back to this at some stage, I have some vague ideas for how I want it to play out. I don't envision it to be as long as the two above, because its concept (the main character has to fight her way out of jail and the court it's in) is more constrained. There's nowhere near the amount of plot strings here. (The darker intrigue happens around the end/slightly thereafter 👀)

The Lady's Lament

I do not have experience writing contemporary stuff, which I think is what made it hard to start it. The concept's there, easy enough, but it's just actually sitting down and planning it that's the main thing.

Another challenge that is unique for this one to an extent, is the presence of Gaeilge here. The book is intended to be an ode to Irish culture, and if I was to complete it, I do intend for there to be a Gaeilge translation.

This Blood-Stained Charcuterie

One word: timeline. The setting for this collection has thousands of years worth of history, and so the challenge is figuring out who killed who and when. And not to mention all the stuff going on in the background, some of it is more influential than others.

The Magic System

Basically, it's based on the idea of magic being a biological substance present in the world. Most living things have a tolerance for it, but not all living things can actively use it.

Even then, there's two broad categories; faerie creatures, whom rely on simpler magic like moving things or simple tricks, and then the faeries/Carithaikh [start with one fae/one human parent, subsequent generations by any combination that isn't two faeries; these people can also be dubbed as witches], who can perform magic in a wide variety of ways.

Most people are born with an affinity to an element (such as fire, plant, water/ice, air, light, shadow, blood, lightning, dust, rock, metal, etc), which is then honed as the person gets older. It is also possible to learn certain elements, but some are harder than others, going on into near-impossible (e.g, it's hard to learn fire if one doesn't have an affinity for it [the genes of those who do are adapted to prevent burns and manage the heat more efficiently], but water is fairly easy to learn).

Another aspect that some people have but is much less common, are skill-based abilities. Shapeshifting and teleporting are the most common ones, but there's also a select few who can weave souls or see/interact with the domain of the spirits. Those last two are about one or few in a generation. (And interestingly, in Helinda there's no records of anyone who can interact with the spirit world, likely because Helindians burn their dead!)

But sometimes you'll get people with bespoke abilities. Some are merely unusual powers, such as purple fire, wood manipulation, blending with the shadows etc.

Others, are actual divine elements. They manifest as fire, light or water, and usage of then can have catastrophic effects. If the user doesn't die after using divine magic, it can cause things such as blindness, burns, nerve damage/neuropathy, constant dehydration, reduced magical abilities/stamina, chronic fatigue and/or other symptoms.

If the user has a part of a deity's soul entwined with them, then the effects are mitigated to an extent. (It occurs frequently with Fate's reprisals [her element is blue fire])

And then, there's also the external systems. These rely on the magic of the world instead of/as well as the user's. Things like runes, languages, diagrams, items, gestures and/or other tangible things are used for them.

These systems vary from place to place and between cultures, they're like programming languages in a sense. Each system has strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, Helinda's five-pointed star is great if you are a) in Helinda [or Morilaste]** b) looking to do things like a locating or summoning* spell, as well as anything relating to Helindian geography. It's great with maps!

However, it's not great for highly complex spells with lots of rules. That's where Seldaika's system shines. It has a four-pointed star, but the main mode of it is its language. It's a spell language, the grammar and vocabularly are tailor-made to support spells. Intention is also important, which is an aid in differentiating normal speech from a spell. Gestures also come into play, as do wands (syrchels), which are used as social indicators and statements of magical intent as well as to apply runes.

—

*summoning items is perfectly fine, as long as it's not someone else's item. Summoning people/spirits is illegal under Helindian law

**there's a decent amount of lore underpinning the reason for this phenomenon

—

I'm going to end it here, I hope you enjoyed it :D

Seven Sentence Sunday

Thanks for tagging me, @illarian-rambling , even though I have barely anyone to tag. This is the first time I've been tagged on Tumblr. Hope I did this right.

Rules: Post seven sentences of what you've been working on (:

The forest is alight with life, the rustling of leaves, and chatter of animals. The trees sway in a soft breeze, creaking and groaning as some limbs are stressed by the weight of leaves and wavering in the wind. Within a small clearing, a young girl sits, her eyes closed as her silver hair sways in the breeze. Her head is tilted down, her lightly tanned skin glowing where beams of sunlight hit her skin. At her side is a sheathed sword, her left hand resting on the sheath. She takes a breath, raising her head.

"Elders of the Clan, I make a request!"

This is a new story. That is all the context I will give. Honestly, I have no idea how to do these things. So I'm not even going to tag anyone because I am an uncertain bean.

(Do not take this as a "I did not want to do this." I would love to do these things in my tiny little corner here. I just won't tag anyone.)

(This is potentially a serious story. Potentially.)

How dare Tumblr not immediately tell me you responded-

Wanna send chat messages instead of reblog warring?

I was attacked with positivity, so you are getting attacked with positivity, too!

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you!

Ok, erm…

1.) Getting reviews for my books. If someone has a single kind thing to say about my writing, I will not shut up about it for the next week.

2.) Baking. I love making (and eating) sweets. I would eat nothing but desserts if I could.

3.) Musicals. My favorite one that I’ve seen live is Hamilton, but I also love EPIC and Hadestown.

4.) Mythology of any kind, but especially Greek mythology.

5.) Finding new books to add to my reading list. My reading list for this year is growing faster than I can finish books hehe

Please could you recreate the cake poll(the one with vanilla extract iykwim) and tell people to vote to make the exact same percentages as in the old one?

Thanks!!

Oo a tag

Uhm I don't have a lot of OC information out there so this would end up being the ultimate guessing game. So- Even I won't know the true answer or if the answer is canon to my own story.

Who is the most likely to be able to communicate with the Ancient God that they were named after?

Explanation: The Ancient Gods are not known to communicate with Named humans, as most Named do not do things that fall within the realm of the God's abilities that the Gods take as worshiping them. For example, if an Apollo became a doctor, he would be honoring Apollo (The God of Prophecy, Music, Healing, and Disease of the world of Stars of The Sky) because he would be healing, but an Apollo on a slaughter spree would not be. The things that fall within their realm of abilities are similar to what the Greek Gods' abilities control/lie in.

--God-named are not known to have the ability to commune with their Gods because the conditions are hard to meet--

God-named are those named after the Ancient Gods, and will be referred to as Named. Those who aren't named after the Ancient Gods are the Unnamed.

Hades - The protagonist with a strong opinion, raised to lead in her Clan. Her Personal God and the Ancient God (of her world, which I stole from the Greeks) is Hades, her Clan's believed-in God of Dead, Death, and the Underworld. She prays to her God daily, condemns those who wish to become immortal through rituals that would break the natural cycle of life and death, and she (for the sake of protecting others) puts people to death.

Ares - The main antagonist(Maybe) who believes in Named supremacy. Named after the Stars of the Sky God of War, Battlelust, Courage, and Civil order, Ares. He wants to incite a mass genocide of the Unnamed, unite all the Named, and get with Hades (That's his side quest).

Eros - A side character who has bedded more women and men than he has fingers and toes. He's named after the God of Lust, Attraction, and Sexual Desire. He's definitely slept with many people, he's gotten people together with other people, and he's a very natural flirt.

Tagging @aalinaaaaaa and @illarian-rambling

And anyone else who wishes to join.

Match the OC to their backstory!

This is an idea I had for a new tag game, and it's pretty self-explanatory. First, an event or backstory snippet is listed, then a list of characters and reasons why it could have happened to them, then you have to guess which oc it happened to. If you already know the correct answer, you may guess that, but you can't say anything like "oh, I know it's XYZ because of XYZ."

I'm starting off with characters from Sisters of Vipers with this one, but I would like to do another one with more of my other ocs!

Who was left orphaned after their wealthy parents died tragically when they were an infant?

Mola - a teenage girl who was adopted after being found, seemingly abandoned, on a beach when she was a baby. Everyone always talks about how she looks identical to a rich woman who died.

Serpent - The powerful leader of a mysterious secret trading ring. Negotiates with lords and ladies of the land and lives in a gigantic manor house.

Bahnkil- an anxiety prone man who had a strained relationship with his uncle. His uncle was very rich and influential.

Tagging @alinacapellabooks + @kiennwrites and anyone else who wants to do this!

reblog if you’re a writer who’s very terrible at responding to comments from your readers, but has read them all and loves and appreciates each and every single one of them very dearly

Reblog if you're a writer who re-reads their own work for funsies.