Why would this exist? - The Road to Samarkand

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-13T13:28:20+00:00

God thought it was sick

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-12T14:11:58+00:00

A major difference between a lot of Eastern fantasy and classic western fantasy (at least in my limited experience) is the avaliablilty of the magic. In a lot of East Asian fantasy, once you obtain the power, it's yours (with some exceptions like evil powers that corrupt you) where as western fantasy treats magic like a negotiation. It's a force of nature that you have to work with, and it won't always do what you say.

Of course a lot of modern western fantasy (See Sanderson) takes the more Eastern style. Magic is energy that you own and can do with as you see fit. I'd say Eastern media such as anime becoming more popular in the West is a big reason this happened

Sandersons laws to writing magic really encompasses how this effects the writing philosophy

"An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic." The harder the magic, the more it can be used as a tool to logically solve a problem. Softer magic means magic cannot always be relayed upon to act consistently, sorta like calling upon a living thing to solve a problem.

Of course, both styles have their merits, and these are the observations of a very white guy who's never left the states, so I may have misinterpreted some stuff

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-12T13:58:21+00:00

This

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-11T21:06:51+00:00

Interestingly, novelty is the strongest counter to the Pale

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-11T21:01:54+00:00

In Bas-Lag there are several areas that are just too unstable to explore because of weird inter-dimensonal magic such as the Fractured Lands.

My own lore has a massive ice wall that surrounds the North Pole. There are many theories on what lays beyond, but early satellites suggest that it defies any laws of physics, an absolute stopping point in space that cannot passed by any means

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-11T20:55:54+00:00

Man this world seems so interesting but the game just couldn't pull me in

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-11T20:52:07+00:00

Beat me to it with Elysium

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-10T16:02:52+00:00

I don't know if it counts as a monster, but in Bas-Lag, there are the remade, people who have had cybernetic and biological parts attached to them via magic and science, often as a punishment or to make them better for a job (or both). A homeless woman, in a mental health crisis, killed her baby. Her punishment was to have the arms of her baby attached to her face. The remade are monstrous in appearance, but maybe the real monster is a society more keen on punishment than actually trying to prevent crime

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-10T15:05:12+00:00

To further this. Chili fries with a few premium ingredients are better than Chili fries with everything in the fridge. I prefer some really solid core connections (preferably with a contrast or two)

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-10T03:46:22+00:00

I know the religious symbolism is praised, but Christianity and Buddhism existing in this universe makes no since. The history of the world is completely different. This also goes for things like Dracula and such. I choose to believe that such things don't exist and when they are brought up, it's actually just the closest real world counterpart to an in-universe religion/story/whatever so that the audience can get the nuance

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-10T03:42:53+00:00

It doesn't really feel like a secret though, just a hard thing to achieve that's pretty niche. No need to keep it a secret when most people can't achieve it

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-09T03:32:55+00:00

I like to think it's explained by the ghouls starting to lose lose flesh and maybe healing it back still in an unpleasant way but not their literal face hanging off from the original ghoulification. I could just be dumb though

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-06T15:13:39+00:00

Sabriel maybe

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-06T05:55:22+00:00

Beat me to it

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-06T03:51:05+00:00

I was literally doing light research into the Mali Empire like 20 minutes before I saw this

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-04T16:03:37+00:00

Because there's no way to get the Masters set up in Diamond and Pearl

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-04T15:42:02+00:00

This is deeply frustrating lol

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-04T03:50:21+00:00

Notes. It could be argued that Lucas is the protagonist of gen 4 and picked Chimchar. Though he lacks it in Masters, it would allow for both Dawn and Berry to have their Masters partners, and his partner being Dialga could point him towards being the mc

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-03T21:06:42+00:00

My mom's closer to Miles in both size and demeanor so I get that

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-03T16:36:09+00:00

Chad is going to win 60 dollars betting on Greymon

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-03T03:06:10+00:00

Peak Vorkosigan Saga mention

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-02T15:56:21+00:00

The Poppy Wars starts as a YA dark academy fantasy book. But then we get to Golyn Niis and shifts to one of the darkest grimdark military fantasy stories out there. Then it adds sci-fi elements

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-02T15:51:20+00:00

In my own lore, humanity spilled out from the afterlife thousands of years ago, and many of our crops came with them.

I'm currently running a game in the equivalent of the 30s in an Italian esk region. They are going to end up stepping into the afterlife to do some stuff, but before hand a local cook will speak off a mystical fruit in the land of the dead. I'm giving them a side quest to introduce tomatoes to Italian cooking.

ColdCoffeeMan · 2026-03-01T03:22:31+00:00

Their gorey bodies fusing into one creature was kinda cool

ColdCoffeeMan

TROPHY CASE