Just Something I Thought Was Funny While Writing:

just something i thought was funny while writing:

microsoft word will randomly change my font when i do italics sometimes and i just thought this was so funny, like suffer being in a different font is just hilarious to me for some reason lol

btw my font is High Tower Text if anyone's curious

I will try and get my third weekly post out, (and respond to the stuff you've tagged me in @jev-urisk) even though at this point i'm pretty sure its been more than a week since my last weekly post. fwiw I don't think i'll be able to maintain weekly posts but imma keep calling them that, or maybe i'll rename it to something cool like "Kommodian Archive Day" or something, something unique like that cuz its like we're "walking through the archives (of gods i guess) that somehow have info on the entire world/things that even the denizens of it dont know"

idk just random nonsense, anyway back to writing for me

context: claude.ai said this about my writing and it made me want to cry

i sent it like 5-6 excerpts from various parts of my book for context.

some random things i deleted from my book #2

Another informal post, this one'll be pretty short.

origin page: pg. 23

deletion context: unnecessary, basically filler. even if i think its "cool" and shows the liveliness of the guild/makes a point of how many parties are really in here, it's just overall unnecessary imo and i really only wanted to keep it for, well, two reasons: Reason 1: It's a callback to a old dnd campaign I ran, and also a goblin slayer reference. (Xalubisteya was the name of a PC in my Saltmarsh homebrew campaign I DM'd. In another campaign, I played a human fighter named Coile Eisner, so thats the origin of him...)

It's a goblin slayer reference because the party comp is elf - human - dwarf - lizardfolk (yes ik if it was a "full" gobslay reference i'd have another human as a stand-in for priestess)

Reason 2: I wanted a way to show Arthur getting in line in the background, and like i said in reason 1, show the different people standing about, doing various things. that's really it. imo its not a particularly strong excerpt or anything, and can be removed because it isn't really doing much. I figured i could put the stuff regarding arthur getting in line somewhere else if that was all I *really* cared about, so...

Here's the excerpt:

Elsewhere in the guild, a lone lizardfolk woman looked around confused, seemingly lost. A rough-hewn man dressed in simple traveling clothes and a mix of brigandine and leather armor, the selfsame man who had spoken to Beriyl and Taka on the carriage entered the guild and stepped into line quietly. A drunken dwarf loudly argued with their party members about early-morning alcohol consumption. The latter was an amusing display to anyone who overheard it, and went something like this:

In a space amidst the crowd, stood a member of the proud dwarven race. A forge dwarf, some called him. Suited to forge and fire, making home of mountains and caves in equal measure. Currently, he was standing with his chest puffed out, thirstily drinking from a simple leather flask. His garments were plain white and beige clothes of dwarven make, with heat-resistant fibers woven in. This was the dwarvish standard, for most of their clothing. Interestingly, what he was currently wearing seemed more appropriate for a dwarven blacksmith to wear than a dwarven adventurer. His ginger orange beard and hair were well groomed and likely an object of great pride for the man. As he gulped down the contents of his flask, droplets of liquor fell into his beard, but he didn’t seem to mind.

"You’re drinking this early?" One of his companions, an elf, called as she headed over to meet him. Her clothing was truly odd, and made her look like an exotic dancer of some type. It was completely out of place even in an adventurers guild. Compared to her, the dwarvish man’s clothing choice was normal. The dwarf in question grunted, and for a moment, removed the flask from his lips. "Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Then, he was back to drinking.

"Yes!" She cried, snatching the flask away from him. "Hey!" He protested, trying to reach for the flask. Unfortunately for him, the elf had much longer arms than he did, and the flask was quickly taken far from his reach. "Stop getting drunk before we go off on jobs, Torval!" She demanded, holding the flask far above her head. At that, the dwarf’s face grew red and he clenched his fists before bellowing up at her; “You! Give me back the flask, you damned flat-chested, knife-eared wench!" The elf’s eyes widened, and for a brief second she nearly let down the flask. "Damned?! F- flat?! At least I’m not some barrel-chested brute, like you!" For some reason, she did not take issue with the "wench" or “knife-eared” part of his insult.

"Oh, just give it back already!" He cried, jumping up and down and trying to reach for the flask, to no avail. "No! If you can't be responsible with it, you can't have it!" The dwarf scowled up at the elf. "You're not my fuckin' mother! Give me back the damn flask, or I’ll-"

"Now, now." Soothed a deep, sagely voice. A towering lizardfolk laid his massive hands on the shoulders of both the elf and the dwarf. The elf yelped in surprise at the touch, while the dwarf quietly flinched. His hands were rough and intimidating. "Let's all get along, yes?" His voice, while calm, had a forceful air to it. He wanted them to know that they had to get along. Because he wanted them to.

Craning her neck to look up at the lizardfolk who was behind her, he met her gaze with a question. “Hmm. I don’t see Sir Coile. Where is he, I wonder?’ "I don’t know, but what does that matter right now?! Xalu, Torval- he's drunk, already!"

Since the arrival of their lizardfolk friend had caused the elf to let her guard down, the dwarf had managed to snatch back his flask. "As dwarves are won't to be, no?" Xalubisteya toothily smiled, still maintaining his firm grip on their shoulders. "But if he’s drunk, he's a liability, and I don't want-" "I'm a thousand times more useful drunk than you'll ever be sober, Elise. And for your information, I’m not even close to being drunk. Just think of it as a dwarf’s morning coffee and you’ll sleep better.”

He wasn’t wrong. Dwarves could drink a lot. During drinking contests among dwarves, it was not uncommon to see entire taverns drunk dry. In fact, if there was ever any doubt that someone was actually a dwarf, a drinking game would be held. Any real dwarf could drink at least a barrel before feeling anything. As such, one meagre drink was never going to be enough to make any dwarf drunk.

"I don’t need to sleep, Torval. Besides, how many of those have you had?” The elf had a defeated and deadpan expression on her face as she said this, her arms hanging loose at her sides. The dwarf peered over his flask at the elf as if she were insane. “How many flasks?” He raised an eyebrow. “Hate to say it, but just the one.” Trying to conclude the unproductive argument between the two, the lizardfolk firmly chimed in again. "Let's all get along, yes?"

While the dwarf and elf had clearly picked their sides, he was determined to remain impartial. "Xalubisteya,” The dwarf began, turning to his lizardfolk friend. “Doesn’t it speak volumes if a drunk dwarf is more capable than a sober elf?" The elf and the lizardfolk sighed, although for the lizardfolk it was more a gusty huff of hot air that was almost steam-like in nature. “You know elves can’t get drunk, Torval. We’re always ‘sober’.” The elf muttered. Smiling, the dwarf said; “I know! That’s precisely what makes dwarves better than elves!”

Being drunk, or being able to get drunk could be seen as a negative for some, but to dwarves, it was both a blessing and a boon. Of course, while elves were physically incapable of getting drunk, that meant, in theory, they would always beat dwarves at their own pastime; drinking games. Smiling to herself, Elise kept that realization confined to her thoughts.

Elsewhere, as the argument came to an end, Taka found he had been completely wrong. Not even an hour had passed before he found himself face to face with the receptionist.

edited 6-12-24 5:48 PM

ooh, additional fun fact about Coile Eisner:

I was inspired by L. Lawliet and Byleth Eisner. Coile's name is a mix of two things:

Eraldo Coile, one of L. Lawliet's alias' in Death Note, and Byleth Eisner's last name... Eisner.

Hence, Coile Eisner. And i think it's an awesome name. He's a mercenary, proficient with longswords, kinda no-nonsense and stoic, gets creeped out by weird party members and won't hesitate to leave in the middle of the night if he doesn't like you ;D

(some more context is, when i played him my party members, when he died, cut off his head and attached it to their belt.... and then he woke up in the tavern in the original reality they were from, with all the memories of the awful torment they'd put his head through (unspeakable tbvh, it was gross) and said "yeah alright i've had enough of these genuine psychopaths" and ran tf away to a different town so he could keep doing his merc stuff without being near borderline sociopathic dysfunctional freaks who endangered his life at near every turn lol

i dont usually reblog stuff but omg is this relatable

Me waking up: I want to write

Me eating breakfast: I want to write

Me getting ready for work: I want to write

Me at work: I want to write

Me eating lunch: I want to write

Me driving home: I want to write

Me at home, sitting in front of my laptop:

A Walk Through the Archives - Another Long RoAW Writing Post: No. 3

Hello everybody, welcome to our third weekly lore/exposition/whatever post.

In this post, we have a lot to talk about. But I believe the best place to start is where everything began-- ergo, the creation mythos.

This one has been cooking for quite a while!

All right... here we go.

In the beginning, there was nothing. Perhaps to say there was simply "nothing" is incorrect. Outside of known existence, of all reality, is a creature known as the Body of God.

The Body of God is a non-sapient, unconscious creature that simply exists. it is impossibly big, unfathomable to imagine. I tend to see it as a great white thing, with huge hulking limbs that floats in endless white space, far away from any mortal plane of existence and away from anything truly "existent" It simply is. It is not alive, nor is it dead. It does not experience reality, it simply is. It's hard to explain, but it doesn't really matter.

There are universes in each "part" of God. The Eyes of God, Head/Mind of God, Arms of God, Fingers of God, Legs of God, Feet of God, etc. The Body would be its "Midsection" if it had one, but you could also say "Body" meaning its entire being. It doesn't matter.

Now, inside this being, The Body of God, lies everything. Inside of it is infinite multiverses, universes, timelines parallel and those not. Infinite of everything. Every afterlife, every everything. Think of it as a bunch of squares lined up. Each "universe" is a block, and they can't really interact without intervention from the Gods within that "block." (it's how Lelnas was summoned, he was pulled from a parallel "block" to the one Tamalnh is in.) Basically, each "area" of God has tons, and tons, of these. Tamalnh is one such universe in its own "block".

Each world is similar-- you could think of it like how, in Shield Hero, the world L'arc came from is similar to the one Naofumi got isekai'd to, yet its fundamentally different, right? It's kinda like that, I guess.

Anyway, each "block" has Gods, and those Gods created the world within their respective block. The Gods do not know of the existence of the Body of God. "space" does not technically exist, space travel isn't really possible as there are no other planets. If a world ends, the Gods would recreate it. One shared rule is likely that Souls are sacred-- not to be destroyed. The one thing you cannot take away is ones right to experience life-- or the afterlife.

Speaking strictly to Tamalnh's universe now, in the beginning was nothing. Then, a crystal. From that crystal, was born Neutrality. From Neutrality, was born Law and Chaos. Presumably eons later, Neutrality's children waged war against eachother because they could not agree on how the world should be formed. Their battle created the oceans, the sky, the elemental planes, and many other things one would come to know as "Earth".

Eventually, there were enough Gods that they began to populate the earth. Thus, the races (and monsters) were born into existence.

Off the top of my head, these are the existing races:

Catfolk (miqo'te basically, best way i can explain it. They're anime catboys/catgirls)

Dogfolk, Wolffolk, Horsefolk, Birdfolk (aarakocra with the expressive faces of the Rito people from BoTW/ToTK, best way I can explain it) , and some other furry/scaly races like otters, snakes, lizardfolk, sharkfolk, etc (anthro furries basically)

Elves (Of the sea, being Sea Elves with gills like the Hoshigaki clan from Naruto basically. Of the forest, being Elves like Legolas from LoTR. Then Dark Elves, and finally, in the Gods very image, considered to be second to the Gods themselves, High Elves. Unlike the Gods, however, High Elves are not omnipotent.)

Fun fact; High Elves are mostly androgynous and able to have either sets of genitals, although I imagine they probably have neither as "default". They're very alien. I don't imagine they have sexual desires on the level most races do, but... some of them probably do, uh, do it. Which, yaknow, leads to more High Elves.

Humans

Orcs (think of them as vikings, basically. Orcs in Tamalnh are very viking-like)

Dwarves

Halffolk: Gnomes, Halflings, and Dwarves too

Half-races aside from gnomes and halflings come into being later down the line, when races begin to crossbreed. I.e, half-elves are human + elf. (got some fun lore about this regarding the Aschwaz lol)

Half-orcs do exist, but are likely incredibly rare as Oku (the land of Orcs) is in a really dangerous part of the world, where war is almost constant and the tribes of Orcs never really get along long enough to formulate any technology. At a certain point, they do have boats and use them to, well, raid and kill eachother, it's really just a land of warring factions. A valhalla for the living, i guess.

(ty kashimo)

tl;dr Orcs are trapped in Oku. There is a deadly sea-beast (a particularly vicious kraken) that stops people from entering or leaving that part of the world. I'm sure he's probably the inspiration for the "World Serpent" if the Orcs believe in something akin to norse mythology.

Demonfolk do exist, as the Hells technically do exist as a plane, despite Hell not really being a thing the Gods subject those who "sin" to. I think i've talked about the Gods idea of worthy punishments for criminals/very, very bad people in a prior post, so I won't do it again here.

Basically, Demonfolk can be seen in two "categories."

True Demonfolk: Succubi, Incubi, and regular old Demons.

Half-Demonfolk: The spawn of demons, devils, Succubi and Incubi. Basically, "Tieflings" is what DnD calls them, but because i'm scared of copyright, they really are just "Half-devils", or "cambions". They are discriminated against because people are afraid of them. Succubi (demonfolk who were cursed and thrown out of the Hells as punishment) are known to kill people trying to sate their curses, so people naturally fear them. Hamelan's government welcoming them and allowing them to run their businesses only works on two fronts;

The Hamelan Royal Family has a demonfolk fetish (and the demonfolk fucking hate it, but tolerate it because statistically Hamelan is the safest place for a Demonfolk of any kind to be)

as long as they don't kill people, they can do whatever they want (obviously, within the confines of the law itself)

Anyway, the first peoples were "created" as full adults. I imagine when they discovered sex, that they found new feelings- the feeling of being a parent. I've read that people when they have kids feel very strongly instinctively protective over them, i'm sure it's the same for the first peoples in Tamalnh.

Anyway, here's where the chronology gets hectic. There are many races at place in the first days, and humanity at large is given one prime directive, one clear defined purpose from the Gods. Build, survive, thrive. Do so, so that future generations can seek out their purpose, their destinies, and so the world will thrive into a beautiful place full of different cultures and yadayada.

For this time, the Gods walk amongst men. This time-period is where all our cool fables, mythos, and lore books in-universe come from.

Anyway, the first peoples do that stuff. A few generations later, think like, 500-1000 years, I think conflicts start to rise as people have their "necessities" decided. Not to say that conflict doesn't exist, as I'm sure certain places (Like Kaarda, due to it's harsh climate and inhospitable landscape, or Oku, due to the fact that nearly everyone there is obsessed with fighting/expanding their faction's territory) end up having small skirmishes here and there.

So, around that time- the 500-1000 year mark is when the Beastfolk-Kaardan war happens, simultaneously war amongst the elves breaks out. you could think of this as the "warring" period.

I won't go into extreme detail about these wars because it's not really necessary to, although I do have notes on them.

Tl;dr, the Beastfolk warred for territory and the war ended when 4 of the 8 (or however many, cant remember off the top of my head) racial factions were subjugated. The races that lost became slave races, and although some of them managed to escape to other places of the world (mostly Kommodia and what would become known as Katan as they were the closest) many of them remain enslaved. Basically, this war ended when most of the races had lost, therefore the continent became "majority-ruled" by a select few races who had "proven themselves" while the rest became, effectively, lower (waaaay lower, like treated like trash) class citizens.

Tl;dr for elvish war: To understand this, first understand that, for the most part, elves all existed in one place in the very beginning. Elves, High Elves, and Dark Elves existed all on this beautiful continent known as Sylvania, or Sylphlande. It is possible Sea Elves lived here too, originally known as Water Elves if they did.

Eventually however, differences in idealogy (elves wanted to explore, dark elves wanted power and more control, they felt distrusted, and the high elves wanted stability and peace-- for everyone to remain as they were forever. the elves were restless, and thus arguments brewed.)

Eventually, the Dark Elves moved into action, trying to overtake the High Elvish council by force, demanding a piece of their power so to speak. Perhaps enraged, the Gods came down to intervene and stop what was happening between their creations, but found their avatar destroyed by none other than a certain elf named Sargantas.

Sargantas, having grown bored with existence despite its beauty, having tired of the "inequality" apparent just amongst his own people, (likely being jealous of the power and respect the Gods afforded the High Elves in particular, and how they alone seemed in charge of making each and every decision regarding their lands) killed the avatar of the "progenitor god" so to speak, Neutrality. Now, know this. You can't kill a God, it is not possible. Yet you can kill their avatar. So, he kills Neutrality's avatar, takes her power, and uses it to link his soul permanently to this realm. This is but one "step" in his plan which he sort of grows as he goes along.

Basically, with this, the elves are thrown into chaos. Sargantas flees and narrowly avoids capture and a likely execution, and sets about with what i've taken to calling his "Thousand-Year-Plan".

In any case, this action more or less ends the "war" which was likely a collection of small battles mixed with ideological skirmishes. It ends when the High Elves, boiling over with rage, tear apart the very Earth, creating a terrible, seemingly endless pit-- with which they cast the Dark Elves inside, sending them to what is essentially the Underdark.

After that, the other Elves are exiled, and, creating elven tribes from their ideologies, set out to find a new home. Many make their homes in Kommodia's forests, and other places in the world-- wherever nature calls them.

Then, finally, the High Elves uproot a piece of Sylvania, leaving behind a fractured landmass below-- which becomes Lower Sylvania, as the pieces they take to the sky becomes High Sylvania. Embracing their role as silent, actionless watchers of the world, they hide themselves away and are never seen again. Many years later, explorers find the lower landmass completely barren, with no trace of anything ever having lived there. (as the other elvish subraces were likely banished permanently from the land itself)

Later on, a Fae curse befalls (well, they were tricked into the contract) several elvish tribes, giving birth to the "Pacted Elves", elves suffering from a curse of eternal devotion to a certain area of the world. These elves become like the high elves, immortal, un-ageing, but (unlike the High Elves on High Sylvania, who do not leave out of choice and spite) unable to leave lest they choose to break the contract and activate the dormant curse within their blood.

Around this time, as wars end and people start to branch out more, the world becomes more "lively" so to speak. During this time, Fae are quite active, and cause lots of trouble. Eventually (couple hundred years), they either stop bothering with the Mortal Realm, are explicitly told to stop by the Gods, or stop being able to interact with it as "tangibly" if that makes sense.

With the wars over, the Gods retreat and decide to no longer intervene, as them doing so allowed someone like Sargantas to gain power that he shouldn't have. They made a mistake, and instead of fixing it or growing, in typical God fashion, they choose to just... go away. Go away, and watch silently. Like a two year old. Some people end up believing that they entered the great white tree in the northern bit of the continent. This tree becomes known as the Godstree, and Hamelan is built around it.

Eventually, Sargantas is put an end to by the summoned hero, Lelnas, and yadayada...

Thanks to Lelnas, adventuring eventually becomes popular enough that more people are doing it (instead of it just being like 10% of people who were wandering around trying to find work and stuff like Lelnas did, or explorers tracking down a single target... like Lelnas was.)

Give it a few more long periods of time, Lelnas, Sargantas, and the wars fade into history, myth, and become fables. No one alive except for the High Elves remember a time when those people were alive....

and so slowly, we enter the modern day. An age of myth, legend, of adventure. The GOLDEN AGE OF ADVENTURING AND MERCHANTRY IS UPON US!

Pirates wage war against the Kommodian Navy on the high seas, while Navy-Pirates wage war against the... bad pirates! (fun fact: Beriyl's sister, Esmerelda, is a pirate for the Kommodian Navy)

Merchants turn fortune in their favor with the toss of a coin, and adventurers seek fame and fortune, friendship and treasure. It's dangerous work, but it's rewarding and truly... truly the freest one could be.

Thus, we meet Taka, Beriyl, and Arthur. And as such.. the story begins.

I don't think i missed anything! I hope i didn't. if something i said doesn't make sense, feel free to ask a question and i'll elaborate.

random:

There is a place known as the Hall of Mirrors, existing outside of all realities. This place holds links to every known reality in all of existence-- even other worlds outside the Body of God, every possible reality in any timeline can be "watched" from here. The Hall of Mirrors is an infinitely long square-corridor of mirrors. You can not enter other realities from these mirrors, trying would result in you being shunted back to your own, which would be quite painful. (think of it as taking Psychic and Force damage at the same time)

bear in mind that this is still being added to, theres a possibility i forgot to correct something so it wont match up with what's in the text, but it's a pretty good look at the world at large i believe. most of the sea names are likely placeholders fwiw

alrighty... that was a lot lol, took me a few hours to write (despite me having all this written down in my notes...)

dungeon meshi.... AH, dungeon meshi!

anywayyyyyy

Concluding this post, here's a poll. And a question. Well... a few.

Does anyone read these?

Does it matter?

Are these interesting?

until next time! ^.^

@thelaughingstag

ROAW Stuff - Weekly Writing Post #2

Hello, and welcome to my second weekly post ^.^

Like I promised at the end of my last weekly post, in this one I have a few topics to cover. This might be a bit of a long one! :D

Topics covered: Twin Feathers, Towns and Cities, The Afterlife

On that end, let's start with the members of Twin Feathers, the rival adventuring party that the members of Lucky Seven meet and become so inseparable from.

Eirairr

Eirairr is an interesting one-- he's a full elf, but due to his many long years of isolation he's incredibly eccentric. His personality changes on a dime, he is very much a person that takes from other peoples personalities and tries to mimic them if he thinks they're "cool" or "funny". Despite his weirdness, he's dependable when it counts. He's a good friend, and loyal-- even if he IS a bit immature and annoying at times. (and almost incapable of taking anything seriously) He is definitely the most childish out of the six.

Some of my favorite Eirairr scenes are when he's acting like a total nutcase, and then Qlul joins in because he's a bubbly, energetic birb.

Qlul

Speaking of Qlul, let's talk about him next! The resident birdfolk healer of Twin Feathers, he shares a few similarities with Eirairr. Namely, he's awful with directions, is far too energetic and happy, (although honestly, you can never be TOO happy) and has a problem taking most things seriously. His serious side does come out more often than Eirairr's. All in all, Qlul is a very empathetic person who cares deeply for his friends and the general well-being of those around him. He's dependable when it counts.

Contrasting Ecirr, he's an eagle-like birdfolk with white/brown plumage. (although honestly, i always see him as pretty much completely white)

(and he's dating Ecirr)

Ecirr

Ecirr is the closest thing to a leader Twin Feathers has-- stoic, stubborn, and serious, maybe a bit arrogant. He (also a birdfolk, but raven-like in appearance) and Qlul grew up together as close friends. They attended a prestigious university in Kaarda, then headed to Kommodia to become adventurers-- and see the world. I'd say Ecirr and Qlul are both of above average intelligence, but you wouldn't really guess it with how Qlul acts.

He has a good heart, if a short temper. He's the kind of person who won't say anything if he sees other people doing something wrong, until they notice. This tends to result in Twin Feathers getting very lost in the middle of nowhere for days on end. (and arguing alot)

Honestly, it's a miracle their party works at all. It's thanks to that when it really comes down to it, all of them can really "get their head in the game" so to speak.

Final Words on Twin Feathers

Before we move onto the next topic, I just wanted to say that I really love Twin Feathers. They give a much needed "happy" vibe to the world when they're around. They're the kinds of people that when you're around them, you can't help but smile, even if they're acting utterly ridiculous.

It may not seem it, but these three silly guys have a huge part to play in the overarching story. Without saying too much, there's a certain part where their lives (Taka, Beriyl, Arthur's) would have taken a very dark turn had they not been able to intervene/had they never met one another.

What is a "starting town"?

This will be a relatively short explanation, and I started thinking about it because I watched a scene from the new Sword Art Online Aincrad movie, (which i still need to watch, really want to) and i was like hmm... Why do I call Leln a "starting town"?

(anyway, i think that's why this came to mind)

Anyway...

In the first chapter of my book, I describe Leln as a "beginners town" or something to that effect. The reason is relatively simple:

In the world of commercialized adventuring, where everyone wants to do it and tons of people *are* doing it, it's a very lucrative business.

Leln is situated in the perfect part of the world where new adventurers can get the hang of things, do a few jobs, figure stuff out, all that good stuff. Leln is smaller than most cities, it *is* a town, after all. (I think with something like less than 20,000 people living there, probably in the 5,000-10,000 range. Compare this to the capital city which is like 300,000 or more? So...)

(the numbers aren't exact, i have them written somewhere but i'm too lazy to pull them up rn)

Basically: Leln is relatively safe. The goblins in the area are culled regularly by government-sent high ranking adventurers who can be trusted to do the job and do it right. (This, of course, is standard procedure and happens in Hamelan Territory, too. Hamelan is actually very safe, the towns outside Hamelan's walls pay a tax to the royal family to be under their knights protection, so pretty much everyone up there is relatively safe)

Back to Leln: There aren't too many caves or dungeons nearby, and given that it's a small town, the "risk level" of jobs at the Guild are, naturally, much lower than the ones you might see in a sprawling city like Hamelan (the capital). or even Demarcos (a coastal city) idk if that makes any sense.

tldr: leln calm area of the world, other places not so much, but still safe enough. leln good for new adventurer, other places ok too, but leln is the most popular destination (and also the one the *MAIN* Advent Route has carriage's go to!)

And finally... Let's talk about The Afterlife

First, there are a few things I think it's important to understand about the world before I delve fully into what awaits people after death.

In the world of Tamalnh, the Gods tend to not intervene. They do exist, but a very long time ago, they swore to not intervene in the world any more than absolutely necessary to ensure it's survival. (As the Gods are omnipotent, they'd step in if a world-ending threat were to crop up, but as long as 50% of the world remains safe they won't intervene. To reiterate, if a threat capable of killing more than 50% of the worlds population arose, they would step in and destroy it to save their world, and their creations.)

Here are some fun bullet points:

When you die, there's a short period of time as your soul leaves the Mortal Realm, ascending to the Judging Realms for the "Will of the Gods" to, for lack of a better word, judge you for your actions and intents in life. When a soul has reached the Judging Realms, it can not be brought back into the body it was from- ergo, resurrection magic only works within a short window (and it's very, very hard to pull off. I will talk about healing magic, magic in general most likely, churches and resurrection magic/etc in a later post. I also want to talk about "Wills" as that is very important to my world.)

The "window" shortens or lengthens based on the individuals will/desire to live, how much they have left undone. I think the longest time a soul could stay tethered to it's vessel would be 8-10 hours. It's usually a pretty short process of a few hours, although theoretically the most strong willed of people could stay tethered for a day or two, i suppose.

You are not conscious as your soul ascends, and as souls cannot be pulled from the Judging Realms or the Afterlife itself, no memory of the "in-between period" remains, hence nobody knows the afterlife exists.

However, there are some practitioners of specialized magic known as Soul Diviners/Spiritual Diviners/whatever u wanna call em. These people serve two purposes: They can read your soul and tell you your fortune, like a palm-reader, or they can tell you the color of your soul. The color of one's magic is tied to the soul, so the proof of a soul, magic that interacts with a soul, and some other phenomenon prove that souls exist (and hence, the afterlife.) Also, Ghosts, Revenants, Wraiths, etc, exist.

The Gods believe that Soul Erasure is the worst "crime" one could ever inflict on another (apart from the act of killing someone to begin with, I wager. Although they aren't going to condemn you to eternal torment for killing in self defense like Arthur has/does, it's circumstantial.), as life does not end in death, it only begins. Your eternity begins in death, an eternity of doing whatever you wish for as long as you wish, with the ability to sleep, be intimate, read, write, do whatever you like-- forever. Taking that away from someone, taking life away from someone is something the Gods can not condone. Even the worst of criminals aren't subjected to the erasure of their soul, and only one in history was ever punished in a way even slightly reminiscent to that-- they were put permanently to sleep. They still exist, technically, but are unable to experience the afterlife, as they are asleep. Forever. Fun little loophole for the Gods, I say.

If a person dies before the age of 15 (or was it 20-25, i dont remember), when their soul is "completed", they are given a second chance and allowed to reincarnate. They lose the memories of their past life. Similarly, the two examples of isekai'ed people (Rend, Arthur's childhood friend, and Lelnas, the legendary hero. fwiw, this will never be brought up in my book, so it's not a spoiler at all) lost their memories of their time in their original worlds. For the most part, generally people who are murdered or lose their "remaining/full life" in some unfortunate way are granted a second chance if they wish to take it, a chance to reincarnate. Their soul and personality would remain the same as they're still the same consciousness/person but in a different body, going through different circumstances. You know how every person you know kind of has their own "feeling" to them? It would be like if one person you knew died, and you met another who had the same "feeling". That's how you'd know someone you cared about had reincarnated.

Closing notes:

I'm not really sure what i'll cover next, but i should still have a few things I can talk about that are general lore that wont be talked about in the main books and isnt a huge spoiler for anything. I might talk about the "Body of God" and the nature of reality and some other fun things. I think that'd fit in well to my long expo dump about magic in my next post :p

Unrelated: this song reminds me of taka, beriyl, and arthur's dynamic (and it reminds me of ecirr, qlul, and eirairr)

(the tone of the series changes alot with book 2 and i feel like this would fit as an anime ED showing the lighthearted moments of book 1 as a sort of parallel)

its a good song :D bye for now!