Lol

lol

poll time

i thought i'd do a poll and see how much engagement i get!

if i get no engagement, i will probably start posting less and just use this tumblr as an archive to lore dump (and stop pretending im talking to people in my posts), so that if i ever do succeed, then if anyone is interested in reading it (it being lore), well here is an archive from back when i was writing it!

i guess, to begin with, an archive was the point, but... I'm a little sad that it seems I have kind of, well, completely failed to create a community-- which was one of my biggest goals with this tumblr.

:D

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

some random exposition things i deleted from my book #1

This is a bit of a less formal post, but I thought people might want to see some of the lore I ended up deleting because there was no point in having pace-breaking exposition in the middle of a random scene. I had a *lot* of these and for the last few hours i've been working on compressing/removing them because they were just too much imo. Here's a few of them, for anyone who is *really* interested in reading about my world :P

On the import/export process of one of Leln's taverns:

Original page: pg. 142

reason for deletion: not really necessary even if its kinda cool

It should have gone without saying, but as a drink-serving establishment, they had a wide variety of things. From coffee, to tea. Obviously they specialized in alcohol, given that they were a tavern first and foremost, but that didn’t mean the coffee, tea, or food took a backseat in quality. In fact, one might find every item on the menu to be within the same margin of quality, regardless of what they ordered. It wasn’t the most expensive food on the planet, nor was it ridiculously decadent. It was simple and hearty, perfect for adventurers. The beans for the coffee were imported from a small village that specialized in the harvest of coffee cherries. In that same village, those coffee cherries would transform from seed to bean, where they would be sent to the various establishments who had contracts with said village. The tea was a similar affair, a product offered by farmers who held contracts with establishments. They would procure the ingredients, fill the tea bags, and through a long process of trial and error, make truly quality tea flavors, which could then be served at any number of establishments whether high or low end. The ale was, of course, created in-house and kept fresh in taps. Of course, if another establishment wished to share their blend of ale, they’d have to pay a hefty price. Taverns did not tend to share their specific fermentation process or their brewing secrets, and when and if they did they didn’t come cheap. The best tavern in Kommodia had been rumored to have declined an incredibly exorbitant amount of money, simply because they would have had to give up their secrets for it. It would be, of course, prudent to keep in mind that the quality of coffee and tea available to adventurers and commonfolk, and that which was available to nobles was quite different. It was not, of course, to say that the quality of these goods available to those who were not royalty was bad, but it certainly was not the top of the tree, so to say. Nevertheless, Beriyl enjoyed the tea he was served, even if to him, it was a few cuts under what he was used to.

On a certain merchant's business life:

original page: pg. 29

reason for deletion: not necessary for the reader to know any of this, breaks flow

Managing a store was not cheap, and neither was purchasing supplies to stock the store with. Luckily for him, he’d caught a big break recently, signing numerous contracts with several big name merchant companies. Essentially, he’d have a continuous trickle of arms and armour, amidst other things, delivered to him on a semi-regular basis. What he had was good, for where he was, anyway. Technically speaking, it’d be more profitable if he decided to move to the capital, Hamelan, simply for the fact he’d have even more business opportunity. More contracts and more contacts meant better equipment, which meant higher prices, which meant more money. Of course, he’d have to give an agreed-upon portion to the contractor, but that’s how it was already, and he was paying some pretty steep rates with a few of his existing contracts. While the dwarf shopkeeper was willing to negotiate on certain things, “nobility discounts” was not one of them. If he handed out discounts to every fool coming in claiming to be the heir to some renowned family, he’d be bankrupt in a week. Well, at least living in Leln had some benefits. Cheaper tax than Hamelan’s, at least. Perhaps it was obvious, but Beriyl had no way to know any of that. Putting aside the fact that he grew up in the definition of the lap of luxury, he had no window of insight into the man's confidential business affairs.

About the Adventurers Guilds rules/rankings/other nonsense:

context: i deleted this because this was just completely unnecessary, way too much exposition for something that isn't the biggest part of the story at a certain point, especially because the reader can infer 90% of these rules and a vast majority of them dont need to be shoved into the readers face like this. Ranks are fine imo to have shown and the rest should just be inferred.

original page: pg. 27

As Taka was told, the ranks went something like this, from highest to lowest:

Rank S: Legendary

Rank A: Platinum

Rank B: Gold

Rank C: Silver

Rank D: Copper

Rank E: Bronze

Rank F: Clay

(deleted stuff starts here, just added the stuff above for context)

Apparently, job board requests also followed this structure, although S-Rank missions were never really seen. However, for job board requests there was a special category of missions above S-Rank, known as "Crisis" and "Calamity" class missions. These were reserved for world-ending calamitous threats and other extremely dire situations. For example, in the event of a world-endangering natural disaster, a Crisis-Class, or CC-Rank mission would be placed. In the event of a mad magician rising up from his labyrinthian dungeon to take over a small part of the world, there would be a S-Rank mission placed. If, say, an ancient evil rose to destroy all humanity, that’d be a Calamity-Class, or CC+-Rank mission. However, these two types of requests hadn't been seen in a very long time according to the receptionist. Typically though, they'd be issued by the guild or government itself, as most people lacked the authority to post quests above an A-Rank. In any case, it seemed that the exceedingly high rank of S was more of a social status thing than an actually awarded title.

For adventurers, rank was important. It dictated what type of jobs you could accept, and by extension, how much you would earn for completing them. Dangerous, high ranking quests paid more, but had more risk associated with them than lower ranked, lesser paying quests. Of course, not every adventurer had to take on monster-hunting jobs. There were also crafting and gathering jobs, for those skilled in those fields. There were also rules associated with job-taking. Namely, you were allowed to take jobs ranked one higher and of the same level as you, but not one below. This was supposedly to "push fledglings from the nest" sooner, so that they might start contributing to the realm in larger amounts. It was also to keep a steady influx of low level jobs available for new adventurers, who were always in constant supply. There were also rules for forming parties; you were allowed to create a party with members your rank, or one higher or lower than your rank. This prevented lower ranked adventurers from joining very high ranked adventurers and simply riding their coattails. "You have to work for your rank", seemed to be the message the guild wanted to send with this rule. In essence, the guild was just a medium through which freelancers could band together and find work. In parties, it was common courtesy to split the gold, but different parties did things differently, and the guild did not have any formal regulations on how parties should be run. Most things were left up to the party leader's discretion.

Although it was not said in this exact order, Taka was also told that only the party leader may accept quests, and only one quest may be assigned to any one party at a time, barring a special government exception. He learned of "Clear Tags" which were small tags, much like the adventurer tags he noticed sometimes around people’s necks or wrists, used to verify the completion of a quest. They were given to clients of the guild who posted a job, so there was a clear "verifiable" way to prove that the quest was indeed completed without wasting the time of client and adventurer both, by dragging them both along into the guild and having a lengthy chat to ensure nothing went wrong. This was a recent technology; in the past, adventurers were subjected to long chats after each clear. Essentially, when you completed a quest, you would check in with the client, who would give you the Clear Tag. They'd press their finger on it, and the status depicted on the tag would change to "cleared", thus, the name "Clear Tags". By this point, Taka was beginning to feel sick with how much information was going through his head, and he worried that he would forget it all. He realized he was starting to space out, so he pinched his arm discretely to try and stay focused. Then, he learned that jobs could "expire" if left uncompleted for too long. The time until "expiration" varied from job to job, but mostly depended on the job's rank, although the client could set a "expiration" date themselves, if they so specified. There was a limit on how many quests parties could accept in a day, set at three. A and S-Rank parties however, were given special privileges, and allowed to accept and complete up to five in one day. Reasonably, the risks present and consequences suffered if you faltered in your duty or fell in the field while undergoing a higher ranked mission, could be much more devastating than the consequences of failing a lower ranked mission.

It was for this reason that the guild did not simply hand out promotions-- they had to be earned, by doing work for the guild or by proving yourself in battle against a particularly tough foe. Even then they weren't just granted, you had to go through a special interview process with a representative of the guild, as well as a member of the local government who had been trained in such matters. Parties were not forced to accept promotion offers, should they not feel ready for the correspondingly ranked jobs. If a party turned down such an offer, they would be able to request that promotion at any time going forward. Of course, they would still have to go through the interview process. There were no penalties associated with declining an offer and asking for it again at a later time. With this system in place, the guild was able to assure those who issued requests to the guild that their problem would be solved. However, as with anything in adventuring, nothing was certain. A single mistake could spell doom for your party. It was only a small assurance that those who had proven themselves, and not fledglings would be undertaking these quests. Anything could happen during an adventure. Veteran adventurers die to the seemingly simplest of things, and newbies pass through the most seemingly impossible of tasks. All it took was a bit of luck and skill. Those who failed quests but came back alive were reprimanded and punished, sometimes demoted. How close a party came to demotion would be decided on how many "marks" you had on your card. That is to say, failing three quests in a row would result in a demotion. For F-ranking parties, there were no such punishments, as F-Rank quests were usually inconsequential. However, those who came back alive and succeeded were rewarded with the money as per the quests description and were a step closer to a promotion. One last thing Taka learned was that if a party was confirmed to have wiped, or they simply did not return for a certain period of time while away on a mission, that job would be reevaluated by the guild, assigned a higher rank if deemed necessary, or extra addendums would be put in the description. But, that did not happen often. At least, not in Leln. Sometimes, mistakes happened and job posters tried to post jobs without the guilds permission. That's where things got a bit tricky, as that could lead to double job postings if the guild was also paid to post a job, which could lead to two parties going into the same quest, which could, understandably, lead to all sorts of confusion and conflict.

This did not tend to apply to F-Rank quests, as for the most part they were safe, relatively easy, busywork quests that had you assisting people around town. Maybe you'd kill an oversized spider or two, but monster quests for F-ranks were pretty rare. Job difficulty markers did not just denote the rank an adventurer had to be to accept it, it also denoted the job's threat level. An F-rank job possessed barely any threat to your life, whereas a D, or C rank job possessed some. Put simply, the way Taka saw it was like this:

● F and E-Rank, Clay and Bronze: You'll most likely be fine, unless you drop something on your head and break your neck on accident. Barring insane coincidences like a sudden monster attack, these jobs weren't very dangerous and typically consisted of varying degrees of busywork. Sometimes you'd get a small monster elimination based job with E-Ranked duties. ● D and C-Rank, Copper and Silver: You could die. You will almost certainly fight monsters. Be on your guard, come prepared, and you'll be fine. ● B and A-Rank, Gold and Platinum: These are dangerous jobs, with high consequences but higher rewards. You will die if you do not come prepared. Although, from what Taka had been hearing, you'd die if you weren't prepared on a D or C-ranked job.. ● S-Rank, Legendary and above: Exceptionally dangerous. Exercise the utmost of caution.

That's all for now. I have a few more long deleted exposition dumps, about Dane's backstory and about a type of monster crab that a certain restaurant in Hamelan uses as a food source, but I think I'll post them later. Maybe. we'll see :d

I'll leave you with this:

THE DIE IS CAST

i love this song and how he says that, so damn cool, imma watch code geass

can we talk about how good of a song tagatame is?!?!?!?!?!?

aghhhh ok fine

I did do a music post in the past, but i'll indulge you, @jev-urisk XD

(quickly tho, cuz i'm writing rn)

one song each and a explanation of why :D (i was gonna do three each but then this post would be crazy long)

also, spoilers for Party of Three becase i can't explain these things entirely without spoilers (i tried my best to avoid massive ones)

As such:

Vague-ish spoilers for Taka's future

Minor spoilers for Beriyl's past

Relatively massive spoilers for Arthur and Eirairr's backstories

Taka:

Refrain Boy - ALL OFF

(I am very very passionate about music so this will probably be a long post despite me saying otherwise lmao)

Reasoning: This song to me, embodies a lot of things. The "going ahead with life even though it's hard," that really awesome feeling a lot of shonen have about "pushing through stuff with your friends no matter what," that "great things are gonna happen for you in the future" vibe, its really hard for me to put this emotion into words, but just the "You can look forward to fun stuff in the future, and as long as you have your bonds and yourself, you'll be okay, even if it's sad and hard" and i really, honestly think that embodies Taka very much. He is very much a person who cares VERY much about his friends, he's a very adventurous person, I'm very honored to get to write about him because his journey is to me, one that is very special and very beautiful. We literally watch this scared little kid grow up into someone capable of saving the world, and I think that is just beautiful. We watch him come into his own sort of groove, find out who he is and who he really cares about, what he stands for. It's just really beautiful and very personal to me. I've always loved this song, but in a sense I think it encapsulates the "journey" of Tamalnh, and my own personal journey over the last few years. Except I have far less friends than Taka, and I am nowhere near as happy as he is.

Beriyl:

Aaagh, honestly Beriyl is a tie up between Fightsong - Eve and Yumemigusa by BLUE ENCOUNT

Beriyl's story and him as a person I feel like both of these songs fit him pretty well. His is a story much darker than Taka's, because he's practically a survivor of childhood neglect. For fear of spoiling too much, I really don't know how to explain this without doing so, but Beriyl's story of overcoming self-worth issues, figuring out who he really is and what truly matters to him, and standing up for those things, is one that I think is really beautiful.

Beriyl is an immensely strong person, even if maybe that isn't readily apparent for the first, oh... two hundred pages of the book.

Arthur:

ROAR by ulma sound junction

This lyric in particular; "Where destiny gets robbed and torn in half,"

He lost everything at a very young age, struggled with severe, suicidal depression for many, many years. And he nearly did do it. In a way, he lost his future, then clawed it back into reality with his own two hands, fully intending to die all the while. He may never be able to fulfill that lost childhood dream of adventuring with Rend, he may have lost his family and village, but he found Taka and Beriyl. And they saved him, from himself, in a way.

Ecirr and Qlul:

PRIDE OF A NAMELESS HUNTER - Tadayoshi Makino

Ecirr to me, embodies the "grace" and "refinement" that Qlul doesn't really have. Qlul is the warmth and energy, the relaxed and "silly" side of the coin here, whereas Ecirr is the calm, cool, "serious" side.

Now, for some reason, I don't have a playlist for Qlul. But I do have a theme I feel fits both of them very much so.

L no Theme B - Hideki Taniuchi

Here's one more that resembles them :')

ok fine one more (feels fitting for book 2's tone)

AGHH ALSO BOOK 2 THEMING

Ecirr is really smart, and Qlul's not stupid. This song (L's Theme) to me feels like when they combine their only visible braincells and actually pull off something cool.

Eirairr:

Man, Eirairr is hard to summarize in a single song. He's such a chaotic person.

The enigma of an elf, the Eirairr-ness of... Eirairr.

Here's a few: Kannon by Kita Kouhei

Blue Moon by LiSA

Tyottohitoiki

At his core, he's a good person. He cares about his friends and has an unfathomably great love for life itself. He's also a very tragic figure, as being born as a Pactborn-Elf means that, no matter how long he lived inside that Realm as an immortal being, once outside he's only got a hundred years. Can you imagine how short a hundred years would feel to someone who's lived that long?

Eirairr himself says something to this extent; and yes, this IS a pretty big spoiler, but its necessary to really get my point across.

Some context: A very long time ago, there was a period where Fae were very active, and several curses were placed on various people/parts of the world back then. One of these was locking several "clans" of elves into permanent deification as "guardians" of elements of the world, hence "Pactborn" elves. So you have "pacted" elves of the mountains, seas, forests, etc. They basically exist in a plane that is one "layer" above the physical dimension, which intersects with the Fae realm. They can't leave their "assigned areas", and if they do, they are cursed to die in a hundred years.

(the relative timespan of a human, basically.)

Eirairr was born into that, lived for a very long time, and then decided to leave. When he left, as part of the Curse, he was given knowledge of the modern world, clothes and a weapon, and basically told; "Good luck."

alright that's all from me :D did lots of tumblr today, lots of writing, very productive day today :DDDD and i have work tomorrow aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh not excited

ok bye