Exposition - Tumblr Posts
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
How does ur hierarchy handle?? I would like to know how ur society works, if angels even have one?
A: “And besides that there are 12 noble families that hold a good voice in any of the positions of the first sphere independently of the position they are accualy in. I honestly don’t like that.
There’s a lot more I can tell you about the positions themselves, but it’s kinda long and boring, so I won’t”
The colors of magic...
Blue, Orange, and Green, respectively!
Blue: the color of magic casted by a ritualist. Most rituals (if performed by non-natural magic users) emit a blue light. As a ritualist, Maddie's magic is blue.
Orange: the color of autumn. As a natural magic user, Bryz's magic color corresponds to the extent of her magical abilities (as she is an autumn elf). And, quite conveniently, it matches her color scheme very nicely.
Green: the color of magic first harnessed by a woman nearly forgotten. Her impact trickles down an extensive and messy family tree. Witches among the Caveda family all have green magic. Cassandra simply inherited the family color.
Not all magic is a specific color for these same reasons! Magic appears in all colors! Some ritualists don't have blue magic, elves all portray different shades and colors within their faction, and The Cavedas aren't the only people ever to use green.
thinking about how fun it would be to be a surprise toy at a party full of transphobic men. to be brought out and stripped naked and felt up. immediately getting fingers in my pussy and having what's left of my tits groped. just casually being bent over and left there for the rest of the night for guests to do whatever they wanted to me. the drunker they get, the more violent and transphobic they are. calling me slurs while they fuck me, calling me a slutty girl, spanking my ass and shoving beer bottles inside of me. by the end of the night i'm crying and shaking and my holes will never be the same again.
Expository dialogue techniques that don’t rely on characters randomly explaining things to each other that they should already know, but do rely on your characters being obnoxious gits:
1. Character A fucks something up hilariously; character B upbraids them at great length about exactly what they did wrong.
2. Character A wildly misreads a situation; character B corrects their misconceptions.
3. Character A tells a complicated and implausible lie; character B points out the obvious holes in their story.
4. Character A can’t find their destination; character B provides rambling and discursive directions.
5. Character A has a straightforward question; character B requests a series of extremely pedantic clarifications.
Writing Exposition And Info Into The Story
This specific post is for @loverboyxbutch who has asked for multiple things with multiple caveats so we have to absolutely get this perfectly answered!
Question One: Exposition And Letters
The quote: I was wondering if you had any advice about telling part of a narrative through things like letters or diary entries?
There are two different ways to incorperate diary entries and letters. It all depends on your formatting
You could have the person's letter be an actual quoted segment of the letter so the reader could physically read it or you could have the basic information be relayed to the reader by the characters.
Neither way isn't better than the other but they do have different pros and cons.
The benefits of quotes is the fact that it allows the reader to see the original writer's personality to come through in their writing. The con is the fact that this quoting can quickly get out of hand and the information is kinda under the emotion.
The benefits of characters relaying the information is the fact that this cuts down on flowing emotion. All the information is laid out there! The negative is the fact that this information lacks emotion and personality.
Objectively speaking, expositio is best gathered through story since it's more natural without having to do an infodump!
Question Two: Balancing Emotion With Info
Quote: "I’m not too sure how to balance the realism and emotion with the information that needs to be displayed."
Remember, realism in stories is less "factually accurate" and more "consistent within itself".
In this case, realism in information is "would this character say this" and "how would this character say this"?
Audiences hate "infodumps" because it feels like the character's personality has turned off and now a college professor is speaking.
So it's definitely important you maintain a character's unique voice and personality when reporting on information. However this can lead to some unreliable narrating.
Ultimately, a character's emotion trumps all else. If a character doesn't have a personality that would reveal all this information in an objective way then they will hide stuff or tell the information in a way that validates their own perspective.
However, in the case a character is willing to reveal information without trying to impress their ideology and beliefs onto your character you need to keep in mind what a character could reasonably know and care about.
Two characters could know the same information but prioritize others. For example, D might focus on the damn bread prices rising again while C is focused on the official's death.
Question 3: What Context The Reader Needs
Quote: "I struggle to imagine how much context the reader would want or need."
This is definitely the hardest thing to answer since this is a highly case by case basis but I will try.
The best universal measurement for what a reader needs to know is how much a character needs to know.
Your characters have information that the readers don't have and the readers have information that the characters don't have but readers don't want to know everything.
Readers need a little confusion and curiousity so they will keep reading and investigating.
The key is to get enough information out there that readers will be emotionally incentived to chase after the rest.
For Worldbuilding, unless this information directly impacts the characters then unfortunately readers just wont care about all the little details.
For future events, forshadowing and outlines are your best friend. You can also use an unconventional story formatting by having "flashbacks" be imbedded into the story as their own individual chapters.
For characters, you can use the "show, don't tell" method. Characters who aren't actively trying to deceive others will lay their personality on their clothing, their face, their room, their friends, and the way they speak.
I hope this was informative @loverboyxbutch . I genuinely appreciate your constant support and I wanted this to be an amazing post for such an amazing mutual :)
Writing tip: if you need to provide a lot of worldbuilding information at once, but don’t want a bunch of characters explaining things to each other that they already know, have somebody do something terrible that’s related to the thing you want to explain, then have them morally justify themselves in a way that requires them to explain the thing.
Recognised variants:
The “it’s not what it looks like” explanation
The “I know this looks bad, but let me provide context” runaround
The “outlining the extenuating circumstances” ramble
The “really this is as much your fault as it is mine” reproach
The “it was a hard decision and you should pity me” appeal
The “here’s why I had no choice but to do what I did“ rationalisation
The “I was justified because fuck you“ rant
Exhibition “Dressed in luxury. Art deco woman" in Moscow
« Dans ma pratique, les récits liés au Matsutake viennent souligner l’utilisation des contraintes comme générateur de formes et comme l’inventeur de possibilités de dessiner une nouvelle voie. Cela souligne par rebond la notion de raccords bricolés entre des éléments a priori antagonistes, par le contact entre des éco-systèmes différents: l’intime et le public, l’imprimé et le fragile, la peinture et la photographie, le modeste et le précieux, le design et l’art. » My-Lan Hoan-Thuy
Time for some information about Lord Valthoraxe.
Visual appearance;
Valthoraxe is a large bipedal with similar proportions to a human male. He is 265, 438cm (roughly 8’8”), weights 482,66 kg (1064,08 lbs), and is extremely muscular. Beyond that, all other features are the stuff of our nightmares. Horizontal slits for pupils, irises that burn dark orange, and eye whites as gray as stone. He possesses no hair, ears or nose, yet is still able to smell and hear. There are deep slits where his ears ought to be that glow a faint orange, and reports say there are similar “glands” at the roof of his mouth. Speaking of his mouth, you can only barely make out a pointed and very thin grey tongue behind a set of massive pointed grey teeth. The bottom row of teeth is slightly further back in the mouth, but it still perfectly aligns with the top row, creating a wall of knives whenever he grins.
His skin is perhaps the most unsettling of all. It’s an extremely dark purple, borderline black, and has a cracked and rough texture like rock or obsidian. This stone hide is strong enough to stop any known blade dead in it’s tracks, and a very faint orange glow seeps through the cracks in the skin. Several bones can be seen pushing against the skin, being his two spines, shoulder blades, knuckles, calf bones, and forearm bones. The should, forearm, and calf bones look more akin to armour than actual bone, and the dual spines form a v-shape that goes all the way to the base of the skull. He has no finger or toenails, but all of their tips end in razor sharp points that can cut through iron, and dent steel. Each foot only has 3 toes, two at the front, and one at the heel.
Whenever Valthoraxe is seen in public, it’s usually without his armour, or any other clothing for that matter. He possesses no reproductive organs or holes to remove bodily wastes, suggesting that he does not need to eat or drink to survive. He also has no want or need to intimacy, as he very clearly demonstrated when a half-orc prostitute attempted to flirt and caress the cursed lord, to which he responded by stabbing her through the head with his hand the moment she touched him. If it even is a him.
(Out of character)
Abilities;
I’m assuming you guys want to know what makes the great Lord Valthoraxe so powerful, well who am I to refuse.
-Incredibly durable hide: Valthoraxe’s hide is like a very dense, flexible stone, and is completely immune to any force not greater than that of a 9mm bullet. Even if a force breaks the skin, his blood reacts with air and instantly scabs over, even while a projectile is moving through him. This causes the projectile to slow rapidly, and his high internal body temperature will either melt or vaporize anything in his body, letting it pour out of the wound. Though a wound like this takes a long time to fully heal, taking about 3 months on earth to heal from the equivalent of a paper cut.
-Temperature immunity: Valthoraxe is simply not effected by changes in temperature, as his internal body temperature is roughly 44 million degrees Celsius.
-Lava-like blood: his blood, known as nyxor, is incredibly good at absorbing heat, which allows his skin to stay perfect lukewarm while being hotter than the center of a star. It reacts with almost anything to scab over wounds, as he would bleed out before a cut would be able to heal.
-Heat Control: Valthoraxe can control heat in it’s entirety, but can only create heat as hot as he can expel through his skin. This one power is so extremely overpowered it broke all sense of balancing I tried to maintain. Valthoraxe was going to be a hero originally, but this one ability made him so absurdly strong that it would take several instances of divine intervention to stop. The more you think about it, the stronger it is. It starts at beams of plasma, and ends up at disintegration while simultaneously freezing someone.
-strength: Valthoraxe’s size, weight, and muscle mass make him extremely strong, capable of lifting about 3-7 metric tons.
Weaknesses;
I had a bit of a panic when I realized how op heat control was, so I had to come up with a bunch of tiny weaknesses that are based off of his strengths.
-Less sensitive: His durability and lack of external sensory organ come at a cost. There is a very thick material covering his eyes that, while durable, make everything seem less saturated and darker. His lack of external ears also make his hearing capabilities less than ideal. He isn’t by any means hard of hearing, but he probably couldn’t pick up on someone sneaking up behind him or whispering something. His eyes are also farther back in his skull, giving him only 170 degrees on vision instead of a Human’s 220 degrees. On top of that, he has to open his mouth the smell, or breath in to be able to speak. He doesn’t require oxygen to live, but still needs to breath if he wishes to speak. He also has less sensitive nerves and this physically feels less, coming with the terrible curse of barely being able to taste anything. The only things he can noticeably taste are honey, extremely sour foods such as lemons, and alcohol. He can’t taste spicy foods at all.
-Weight: Valthoraxe weighs almost half a ton, making it impossible to go up most stairs, platforms, or even higher floors of a building. Due to this, I can legally say one of his biggest weaknesses is just upstairs.
-Depression, aggression, and many other mental disorders: I’m not going to get into this one, just know he has a therapist.
-Anxiety: Valthoraxe is paranoid as shit, and spends almost all of his time either forging more equipment or training by killing demons of Hell. Valthoraxe is absolutely terrified of …, heh heh, almost dropped a massive spoiler. Guess you’ll have to wait for the book to come out to learn what godless monstrosity could scare the second Hellwalker.
(Btw, don’t tell bethesda, but the Hell of Alterra is the same Hell as Doom. Valthoraxe canonically knows and trains with the DOOM SLAYER, but there is only a vague mention or two of this in the actual book to avoid getting sued out of existence.)
Bad drawing of Valthoraxe, this is my first time drawing a humanoid outside of pixel-art;
Poster format raisin encre de chine by Baldo 2014
pour l'exposition au Gibus-Café Paris du vendredi 14 fevrier au 14 mars 2014
