I'm Glad You Liked The Question, @oh-no-another-idea! Thanks For Turning It Around, I'll Try To Answer

I'm glad you liked the question, @oh-no-another-idea! Thanks for turning it around, I'll try to answer it! (:

I am a huge fan of worldbuilding, so most of my WIPs are very high fantasy settings, lmao. I've mentioned the pantheon of gods from The Last Wrath and Tales of Wilted Flowers in a few other posts, so in this one, I'll cover the pantheon of Celestials from Realms of Loss - which happens to be a huge part of the story, because some of the MCs are half-deities and the plot vastly revolves around the return of a dead god (who is actually a demigod ascended into Godhood, but details, details...)

In Helvastte, the main continent of that WIP, the actual Old Gods are dead, having perished in a dreadful battle centuries prior, which ravaged the lands and caused the appearance of a terrible curse. So, the main deities who rule over and are worshipped in Helvastte are the Celestials, who were born of the remnant strings of magic from Ichor, the blood of the Gods, after the fall of the first pantheon.

Celestials are immortal and incredibly powerful beings, but not nearly as powerful as the Old Gods. For example, Celestials cannot create or destroy worlds, which the Old Gods could easily do, nor change the Tides of Fate, which didn't affect the Old Gods. They also aren't immune to the Forgotten Curse, because - much like them - it was created out of the Ichor spilt by the Old Gods in their battle.

But what can Celestials do in Helvastte? They hold incredible power over specific domains, such as the Storms, Chaos, or Marriage to name a few - and so, because of this, there are many demigods, some more or less powerful than others depending on their Domain. They are also magical entities and have a lot - and I mean a lot - of sway over the decisions and wars waged by the human kingdoms sworn to them. They can be patrons of some specific orders of Casters, and often sire half-deities, known as Divine Heralds, who are the magical elite of the realms - the most powerful kinds of mortals.

For example of a half-deity in the actual story, Kassien Vann was a highly trained Divine Herald of the elite royal guard, son of the Celestial of Storms, Moyrah, and a human man.

There are two rival Celestial Courts in Helvastte, which favor specific human kingdoms in their neverending war to decide who will rule what remains of the continent, as conquests are paramount for survival in a land ravaged by a curse even the Celestials aren't immune to. Some Celestials aren't a part of the Courts and are often called the Unseen.

Happy WBW, Cass!

In the world of your WIP, is there a main pantheon of deities/gods that is worshipped? Are they actual celestial beings that exist or are they figments of the people's imagination? If they exist, do they have anything to do with the magic that exists in that world?

Hello, pal, thanks for the ask! <3 Man you've managed to hit me right in the chink of my armor! As a writer who is low on world building, I don't think a single one of my WIPs has any sort of new or imaginative religions/gods. 😭

This is still a terrific question though--may I turn it around and ask YOU the same? 💛

Happy WBW!

I've got two questions for you:

In the world of your WIP, is there a main pantheon of deities/gods that is worshipped? Are they actual celestial beings that exist or are they figments of the people's imagination? If they exist, do they have anything to do with the magic that exists in that world?

Do you worldbuild before writing your WIPs first draft, like a form of plotting, or does worldbuilding come naturally to you as you develop the story?

Thank you! This one is also super relevant to the Champion & Mage novella I'm working on:

Pantheon:

Yes! There are 5 deities that used to be more directly involved in humans' lives until they started an incredibly destructive war. Thanks to that oopsie, they're now self-banished from the humans, with only their Champions as channels for their influence. (Each deity gets one Champion.)

Their destructive war left behind a ton of magic remnants, which humans harvest and use to create enchanted objects. This has spawned a whole field of mages: novices, harvesters, artifcers, overseers, etc. However, given that the gods aren't around anymore, this scavenged magic is finite, so it's very valuable.

World-Building:

I usually try to have all the relevant bones of the world in place before I start plotting, but things will always come up as I'm drafting for the first time! For example, when starting the first draft of the story, I had to stop to think about details like food, clothing, jewelry, superstitions, architectural style, and traditional offerings.

Ask Game for someone’s OC(s)

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

💼 - What do they do for a living?

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

🎯 -What do they do best?

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

Happy STS, Claire!

What is easier for you in a first draft of a WIP: expressing the emotions/feelings of your characters or describing the setting's details?

Happy STS and thanks for the ask!

So the answer is actually a secret third thing: dialogue. Generally, my Draft Zero reads like a screenplay. Every draft after that sketches more of what is happening around that dialogue. This is partially because just enjoy writing dialogue, but I think it's also because I tend toward hyperphantasia, so I can see where the characters are, what they look like, and every other visual thing around them in my head to be able to write what they're saying. That means that for my own purposes, I don't necessarily need it to be spelled out on the page at that point. (Obviously, the reader does, though!)

Of the two you mentioned, emotions and feelings would definitely come first, or second after dialogue. Descriptions of settings and other details are usually the last thing that gets added (not surprisingly, it's also what I enjoy writing the least). 😂

KNIGHT - Pick one! Forbidden Love or Enemies-to-Lovers?

Thank you so much for the Ask, @clairelsonao3!

I would choose enemies to lovers any day over the typical forbidden romance trope any day, for the specific reason that I usually like my romance stories to have a happy ending - especially that ending that gives the read a warm fuzzy feeling of the character's love and hope, or at least an ending that could lead to happiness in the future, and the forbidden romance trope usually (but not always) ends in tragedy. It's also interesting to see the character growth that happens in an enemies to lovers romance, and the chemistry born from it is always perfect. I might be a hopeless romantic who loves an old-fashioned fairytale romance with a twist, lmao.

However, I do like a good "star-crossed lovers" (which I find is a variant of the forbidden love trope) story, but only the variant when the lovers are able to overcome what obstacle is keeping them apart and triumph in the end. The trials and tribulations - plus whump potential - that come with this trope make that happy ending all the sweeter.

(One of the worst things a good-aligned OC did in one of my WIPs, aside from murder) In Enchanted Illusions (during his backstory) Thaddeus prioritized his revolutionary endeavors over spending time with those closest to him, breaking his promise of being there for his friends, and due to Thaddeus constantly getting in trouble with powerful and dangerous people that absence turned into a mistake that cost his friends' lives - which is also a reason why he is so cautious, so that this would never happen again.

Besides murder, what’s the worst thing your OC has done to another person?