Hiii Weird Question So Sorry If You Dont Feel Like Answering This (bc Thats Totally Okay) But I Have

hiii weird question so sorry if you dont feel like answering this (bc thats totally okay) but i have a question about world building in royal aus… im literally about to knaw my entire fist off clean out of frustration (💀)

thank you in advance for reading and i hope youre doing well !! ! !! !

Hello my angel!! Is your question just generally, like, what goes into worldbuilding for a royal/historical type of AU?

If yes then I'd love to tell you what I know--although it's like, very little lmao. The only royal AU I've written is in cinders (and war paint kind of, since that's a tie in), and I was woefully inexperienced when I wrote both.

But for in cinders, the story focused largely on class differences, so a lot of the world building I did was to supplement that point. Basically I had two main tasks:

Establish a recognizable hierarchy

Supply some detail to emphasize that hierarchy

And I think in general, the way we observe historical periods is through things like clothes, living/working conditions, and linguistic cues--so those were the places that I chose to supply the detail.

Establishing a hierarchy

Okay so to establish our ranking system, I basically just janked existing noble titles and ranks. I found this Wikipedia article, and narrowed everything down to the European titles as those are the ones I am most familiar with--and as in cinders is a Cinderella retelling and that is a European fairy tale.

Obviously our love interest Shouto was gonna be a prince, but I made sure to weave in other ranks as well to make it clear there was a peerage system at play. Bakugou became a Marquis, Asui become a Countess, Camie became a Lady (as a daughter of a minor noble like a Baron/Viscount might be referred to) etc.

I also wanted our poor Y/N to be at the bottom of the totem pole because I am a monster, so I also looked into the hierarchies among servants. I can't find the exact resources I used but I basically googled around to find out a) what typical castle servant roles were, like in this article, and b) what that reporting structure would have looked like, as in this article.

Scullery/kitchen girls are like, the lowest ranked (RIP) so Y/N got assigned that lmao.

Supplying the deets

Now that we have our vague hierarchy established, it's time to emphasize it! Like I said, historical periods (and class distinctions therein) are usually analyzed in terms of clothes, living/working conditions, and linguistic cues, so that's where I chose to add detail.

For clothes, I mainly drew attention to Y/N's low rank by how much she admired clothes that weren't her own. When she stole Lady Camie's dress, she narrates the "luxurious thickness of Lady Utsushimi’s skirts," implying her own skirts are thinner and more barren. Y/N's own clothing is described more in terms of its state and function: "You shook your head, grasping your soot-stained skirts and glancing meaningfully at her clean chair."

Shouto's clothes draw less of that distinction but still help set the fantasy/historical context. I basically gave him a bunch of historical buzzwords like breeches and doublet to show the period: "He wore a doublet in a blue color only one shade lighter than your own gown, and the high points of his starched collar curved up towards his sharp jawline," and "You noticed he was dressed plainly, a soft linen shirt, unadorned, tucked somewhat untidily into simple breeches."

In terms of living/working conditions, I emphasized Y/N's lack of means again by recounting a lot of her job duties: peeling vegetables, scrubbing pans, sweeping out the kitchen fire places, not exactly high-class stuff. I also put her and Ochako in a supply closet that doubled as a sleeping chamber to drive it home that wow, they poor af. For her sleeping arrangements, I gave her a straw pallet so poorly constructed that straw kept poking through and stabbing her in the back.

In contrast, Shouto's living situation is described with a mind to emphasizing how large and fancy all his shit is. He has rooms plural, and a ton of things to put in them: "The prince’s chambers spread out before you, so large they could fit the kitchens three times over. You looked to be in a sitting room, peppered with low tables and couches overstuffed with bright pillows. A large, ornate writing desk sat against one corner, covered in papers. On the far wall, a series of double doors lay open, leading deeper into his apartments. You caught a glance of a four postered bed deep within, covers dripping off the sides to lay crumpled on the floor like they had been kicked off in haste."

And lastly, linguistic cues! I don't know enough about upper class vs lower class speech in historical periods and also wasn't willing to invest huge amounts of time in this, but I did want to give some nod to a historical/fantasy setting with word choices that aren't quite modern.

If you've ever heard a Shakespearean insult, it's so clear that one of the major places modern English differs from something like Elizabethan English is insults. So when Y/N insults Kamiko, instead of having her call her a cuntwaffle or whatever choice phrase we might use today, she calls her a toad. Shouto asks if Y/N's mother has been called a dog, and Y/N replies with something like, no, a swine--as apparently back in the day people liked to toss animals around as insults.

I also just jammed a bunch of old-timey sounding phrases into everyone's speech, like perhaps and a bajillion forgive mes and until tomorrows. And I think even if a lot of the other speech sounds modern, those kinds of phrases still help highlight that the setting we are in is not 21st century.

Conclusion

Anyway all of this to say, when writing a historical/fantasy/royal AU like this one, you should focus on the elements that are key to your story--what ways of life are you detailing; commoners, adventurers, soldiers, nobility etc? Then, with that in mind, research key points of period expression unique to those ways of life: clothes, speech, living conditions, and sprinkle those details throughout!

I am also still a novice writer though, and I am a notorious skimper on details, so if anyone else has better tips please feel free to jump in!! Otherwise, I hope this helped!!

RB for the largest sample size this site has ever seen. it's time to put an end to this.

i just know bakugou would be one of those boyfriends who excavates a giant hole when you bring him to the beach

SENUDJWODHBROSWBFIIWLNEBDCIIJWBTOS

ANDY U CANT LEAVE US HANGING I NEED MORE DRAGON SHOUTO?,!?.!. please… i think ill die if u dont elaborate WHAT DO U MEAN WE’RE FACE TO FACE WITH HIM… what does he say… what does he DO… i need to know more omfg

Riffing off of @mhathotfic's tags, which I absolutely loved.

It happens on a cold January evening, just a few months after you've reached your majority.

You escape out into the frosty winter evening to join Shouto, unable to bear your family's increasingly-regular discussions of your marriageability now that you're of age.

Once you dragged home a dragon fledgling, you'd always sort of imagined that the question of your eligibility would be somewhat moot. Not many men wanted a wife who came with little dowry, and even fewer might want one who came with an enormous fire-breathing lizard who barely let her out of his sight.

You thought Shouto would sooner burn down your husband's house than listen to any sounds of discomfort on your wedding night—you didn't think many men would be willing to consummate a union with that threat lingering just beyond the window.

Not that you wanted to be married to any of the village men. Ever since you were little, you'd always had this feeling—a feeling like there was someone out there for you, just out of reach, like they were just a step beyond the next corner. Close, but somehow impossible to catch. So you'd never wanted a husband from the village, and you certainly don't now.

So once the discussion turns towards the topic of your being married yet again over dinner, you excuse yourself, and go out into the night to find Shouto, who is never more than a few hundred meters away.

You find his enormous form easily, his red-and-white patterned scales glittering in the light of a fire he's set, out in the fields you'd found him in as a child, as if he'd somehow anticipated you'd be coming out to him.

He cracks open a fiery blue eye, watching your approach, and lifts a wing as you near him, crowding you between the fire and his warm scales, creating a sort of tent with his wing to keep the heat in, and keep you close to him.

You absently pat his side, sinking down against him, sticking your hands out to the fire.

"They're talking about husbands again," you say, and Shouto cranes his neck around so that he can rest his head across your lap, nearly as large as you are, heavy and warm. You reach out to rest a hand across his snout, petting the glittering scarlet scales there.

You've always known he can understand you, given his reactions to the questions you ask, the way he sometimes watches you with knowing eyes. But how much of what you say to him he truly understands will forever be a mystery, as you'll never be able to ask him.

You think he understands enough, though, to know you're displeased.

"A husband," you repeat in disbelief, scratching over his scales again, listening to the rumble that builds up in his chest almost like a purr. He always likes to be petted, though you get an intentionally blank look from him whenever you dare to bring it up, as though he does not like to be made fun of.

"When they should know you're the only boy for me," you tell him, teasing.

Shouto's eye blinks open again, and you lean back to watch him watching you, something curious in his gaze. You begin to recognize the look for what it usually is—the precedent to some type of mischief—whether that be digging up a garden when he was still the size of a particularly fat cat, to accidentally setting a man's pant leg ablaze when he'd whistled after you, the evening of your sixteenth birthday.

You make a curious noise, and you're just about to ask him what he thinks he's up to when there's a crackle like lightning, and the hot, burning scent of ozone reaches your nose.

There's suddenly a rush of cold air over you, Shouto's massive form gone from around you, and the weight in your lap is suddenly much smaller and lighter.

When you look down, Shouto's head is no longer across your legs. Instead, your gaze meets the perfect pale skin of a very strong, very naked back. You realize belatedly that there is a stranger in your lap, a man with a mop of red-and-white hair, scarlet and snow, who has one warm, muscular arm curled around your waist.

You let out a scream, scrabbling backwards, but the stranger's arm locks around you, and the man's face tips up to yours, blinking curiously.

You freeze, your gaze meeting eerily familiar grey-and-blue eyes, set into the most utterly perfect face you have ever seen. The man's features are careful and exact, the slope of his nose blade-straight, his jawline strong, his mouth pretty and plush and weirdly captivating in the flickering firelight. You cannot help but feel you know him, though you are incredibly certain you have never seen him before.

There would be no forgetting a man as beautiful as this.

"Who the hell are you?" you demand, shock rendering you frozen and dumb.

The man blinks, slow and catlike and so hauntingly recognizable. His eyebrows scrunch, as though something's confused him, and then he speaks, slowly and carefully, as if he's just getting a feel for the shape of words in his mouth.

"I am...Shouto," he says, his voice so deep and smooth. It reminds you so much of the deep, rumbling purr Shouto had just been letting out moments ago—your mouth drops open, disbelieving.

"You're Shouto?" you echo, thrown. Though you're beginning to realize that this devastatingly handsome, distractingly naked man is horribly familiar in hundreds of different ways—from the timbre of his voice to his eyes to his hair to the way his arm suddenly curls even more possessively about your waist, the way Shouto's tail sometimes does to keep you pressed close to him.

And with Shouto the dragon suddenly gone...

"You're my dragon? My Shouto?" you demand.

The man blinks, shifting in your lap so that's he's fully turned towards you. He props up on one hand, his face drawing alarmingly close as his other arm presses you into him. He looks very much as if he likes the sound of that.

"Yes, your Shouto," he purrs, pupils going darker. Your heartbeat suddenly kicks back to life in your chest, stuttering and tripping over itself as his large, hot palm presses proprietarily at the small of your back, as he leans in to bring his mouth close to yours.

"And you..." he says, his tone going rich and smoky and dark, like dragon fire. "You have always been mine."

logging off on father's day so i don't have to see the enji fuckers acting up on the dash lol

nothing wrong with me

idgaf what college those girls went to get your damn shoes off the bed!!