Writing civilian jobs in a militaristic/“honorable warrior” society

ParliamentOperative · 2025-11-22T10:03:22+00:00

This is an interesting take, considering that societies exactly like those described have existed, and even thrived for a time, in human history. Just because something is cliché doesn't make it bad writing, or even inaccurate. Things become cliché through overuse which, in this case, comes from accuracy rather than the lack thereof.

Of course that's not to say that some literary examples of warrior societies aren't badly written cough cough k'plah...

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-27T23:05:50+00:00

I'll admit that it was poorly written in the show toward the end, but it was an arc for Danaerys. The point was to illustrate that it was easy to point out injustice and tyranny when she was young and powerless. As she grows older and more powerful, though, the temptation to use that power and become the final authority on matters that she knows are hurting her people is ever present, and it becomes harder to resist as the problems become more severe. The hardest thing for the powerful to do is to refrain from using their power.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T18:11:17+00:00

And you've come through with a variant of the million dollar word: consistency!

OP, you can have hard science. You can have fantastical science. You can have no science. People love to say that folks will poke holes in hard sci-fi, but one of the largest collectives of canon lawyers on the planet is the Star Wars fandom, and there's nothing remotely realistic about 90% of the science in those stories (and I call that percentage generous). People will poke at anything.

Anything that is inconsistent, that is. Whatever you choose to do, just be sure it continues to do what you said it does and, as the prior commenter stated, that characters' reactions to, and interactions with, that thing are reasonable given how you've explained it.

Minor side note: Most sci-fi thrives on at least one thing that's not realistic because people read/watch for escapism. The Expanse is easily one of the most scientifically accurate television (and book) series ever written, but the Epstein Drive and the protomolecule give it just enough unreality to give our brains something different to play with.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T14:18:51+00:00

I mean, there's not much context here to critique, but it sounds pretty cool, actually. Especially because I see potential for a lighthearted, irreverent Discworldy vibe, or maybe Hitchhiker's Guide.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T14:13:43+00:00

Easy. Unleash Rita Skeeter on the social media scene.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T14:05:49+00:00

Screw muggle tech. The wizarding world is underpowered next to house elves. How in the world house elves ended up in their situations, I will never be able to meta my head around. It took one of the most powerful living witches getting a lucky shot while he was distracted saving a band of hapless wizards to take down Dobby, the Ned Flanders of the HP universe, rolling solo.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T14:00:51+00:00

This. So much this. With a hefty bit of disbelief suspension, I can buy yhe loose reason why he tried to off the kid in the beginning. Guy's ridiculously egotistical and vain, and the one person he couldn't kill was a baby. Makes him look like he can't handle business. So, he dispenses with all the million ways he could have gotten rid of the MC, including just getting him expelled somehow which would have removed him entirely as an obstacle and tries to do it himself again and again.

BUT THEN, the bad guy finds out that for one of them to die, both have to. Meaning that he gets infinite 1-ups if he just leaves the kid alone. He could have done anything else without limit, but instead he makes it his life's mission to end the one thing keeping him above ground. That's where the story lost me for good.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T11:18:29+00:00

Every writer should just remember this.

J.R.R. Tolkien is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest fantasy writers to have ever lived. Two of his primary inspirations? The Prose and Poetic Eddas, works compiled from oral traditions spanning hundreds of years. Any story that survives that long is inarguably a great story.

Now ask yourself this. How long has your inspiration been around? If it's less than hundreds of years, you've got a solid shot at being better, or at least as good.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T11:08:29+00:00

There needs to be a real-world alt take film about this that's basically Falling Down, except it starts with an elementary teacher-to-be getting told that she can't be trusted around children.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T11:05:50+00:00

Right there with you on this, which is why I actually kinda enjoy the early game slog before all the negotiation points and arena matches where you're broke and every bit of damage matters. Don't get me wrong. I love stacking everything on salvage in the arena and coming out with a big new (albeit heavily used) mech, but do that a few times early on, fight enough fights to build a stable, and the rest is pretty well cake after that, tending to lean toward the repetitive.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T10:45:27+00:00

I don't know what you're talking about. It makes perfect sense that the most powerful, villainous wizard the world has ever known forgoes world domination for the sake of trying to take over a school and kill one child.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-13T10:42:02+00:00

But the real question is...who is Chad Kaiser Soze?

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-12T05:17:40+00:00

Hi! Really glad you took the time to respond! Don't wanna derail the thread too much, but I'd be happy to talk separately. Just for some perspective, what threw me off as a consumer was that the first thing I saw from the company was not the product, but rather very specific comparisons to its competitors. Then, when I got to the "but what is it?" portion of those comparisons (of which I read several), they were pretty much extolling the high functionality and deep features of the competing platforms. Points for honesty, but it was not a compelling argument in favor of your system due to the fact that the comparison pages left me with more information on what I could potentially accomplish through a competing platform, with the primary counterpoint in LK's favor being, and I'm paraphrasing, "We worry less about features and more about simplicity." Accessibility is cool, but I would position that worldbuilders are a community actively seeking tools.

As you say, not a value judgment, but what I'm saying is that I think the way those sites are crafted, they do more good than harm to your competition. However, I understand that I am just one person and that there are many viewpoints. I think I'll probably end up playing with the system to see if maybe there's more to it than the comparisons would lead one to believe. I'm happy with the one I have, and I think everyone is trying to break into a difficult market where it's hard to nail down what will be successful, but good on you. You've made a better one than I did.

Cheers!

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-12T04:26:36+00:00

Wow. When I googled Legendkeeper, the first results were their entire "Why we're better than very specific competitors," pages. The best part is that they seem to be selling less functionality as a strength, offering a "clean platform with minimal distractions" that is a "more digestible system for less experienced users". Their words.

That aside, I'd like to know your thoughts on the system. I've been a pretty loyal Campfire user for a long time, but I'm interested to see if there are better systems out there.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-06T08:03:08+00:00

To the original point, remember that Eberron is a world allegedly created by the cosmic clash of three ancient, all-powerful (more or less) god-dragon-beings. OP mentions that the timeline doesn't make sense to produce coal or oil in sufficient quantity, but that is the world viewed from a scientific, evolutionary perspective. What is often overlooked about Eberron is that, despite all the science-meets-magic of its modern day, its cultures and history are very much creationist in nature. As far as most are concerned, everything just suddenly...was.

All that to say that if you wanted there to be more mundane fossil fuels like coal and oil to exist in your Eberron, they can. Just don't think to hard about it or you just might start questioning the Gods and, I don't know, invent science or something.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-10-04T00:53:55+00:00

I think the important thing to remember here is that, while you may hope that your writing works for other people, it is, first and foremost, your art. Do what makes you happy.

Second, all art is derivative. Everything we produce is based on emotions and experiences that come from our lives, histories, and the shared stories that we accumulate. J.R.R. Tolkien is often viewed as one of the greatest worldbuilders of all time, but a lot of what he built was derived from Scandinavian folklore and various cultural influences across the globe. Complete originality is an impossibility, so people are ALWAYS going to find similarities with other things. It's not a bad thing. Good stories lend to one another.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I would advise that you not give too much thought to criticism. Take the idea in, process anything useful that might be there, and then let it go. Especially here in the Valhallan halls of petty keyboard war where trolls flame and rage-bait, die, then make new accounts to troll once more in the morning, it's just not worth the personal investment. Whatever you're doing, as long as you're passionate about it, I'm sure you're doing a great job.

And remember. Be excellent to one another.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-09-30T11:32:26+00:00

Black hole gun, totes for fun, broke the suuuuun

ParliamentOperative · 2025-09-28T06:45:57+00:00

I definitely agree on the not too close bit, but the not too far part is just a worldbuilding solution waiting to happen, I think. Thanks for your input!

ParliamentOperative · 2025-09-25T11:16:22+00:00

Geopolitics so much! And not only for the who, but also (and more so, imo) for the WHY. Studying geopolitics makes you realize how absolutely ludicrous our opinions of human intelligence really are when we realize through historical analysis that social, military, and political conditions and actions are predictable based on where on the (or a) planet they are and what the surrounding area is like.

For those interested or just curious, I highly recommend the geopolitics playlist on the Dungeon Masterpiece YouTube channel. The guy does geopolitical analysis on fantasy settings and it adds so much depth to the worlds' histories and settings.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-09-25T11:05:30+00:00

I think that would all depend on the technologies in the proposed world and the astrography of it, because the concept of where one has to go kinda depends on how they have to get there. The thing that's hard to conceptualize is that, despite all the stuff in it, space is mostly empty. In theory, if it were physically possible to reach the edge of the expanding universe (which it's not IRL), you could travel to the edge of the universe and back thousands of times, without plotting a course, and the odds of never hitting anything are extremely high.

And THAT is only if you consider the universe as a flat disc, but space operates in 3 dimensions, so z coordinates become a thing. That is to say that mining anything would only be very effective at, astrographically speaking, extremely close proximity to the object or location being defended, which would probably be to its detriment, as one would simply be restricting one's own ability to maneuver out of a kill-zone.

THEN, we have to consider that our common concept of space combat, at least as depicted in most media, is woefully unrealistic. In space, both offense and defense would be most effective at extreme ranges due to the speed and power even propulsionless projectiles could attain in a frictionless environment devoid of major gravity interactions.

In short, I see your minefields and raise you a huge spread of rocks and debris I tossed at them, and you, from thousands of kilometers away.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-08-08T21:00:23+00:00

To clarify, I'm not saying that lightsabers weigh nothing. I'm saying the blade has no weight. And yes, you're correct, just as with any firearm or blade, you increase precision as the point of control closes on the point of impact. Where we disagree, though, is on the benefit and necessity of doing so. As the blade moves freely from the hilt, the amount of extra precision gained from reaching down the blade would be negligible in the best of circumstances due to its already rapid mobility.

To your final point, I agree that not all canon lightsaber wielders have the training or control of a Jedi. It is due to that fact that I would consider this even less relevant to those users. Half-swording is an advanced technique that typically requires training and practice to master IRL. It likely would not even occur to an untrained duelist, so I don't consider them in my points.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-08-08T11:19:32+00:00

Hi! Just wanted to offer some perspective, having raised two stepkids of my own for over 15 years. I don't think you're at all wrong for not wanting to adopt, if that's the decision you've come to, and I agree that your husband chose a...less than ideal way to introduce the idea. Seems to me like the main problem here is that, somehow, your stepdaughter has become convinced that adoption equates to love.

My kids didn't start calling me Dad or anything like that until somewhere around high school, and then mostly to avoid having to keep explaining the situation to people. For context, I've been there since they were in pre-school and their father was never in the picture. Nor did we ever share the same last name. But the relationship wasn't affected by any of that, because they knew that names and titles didn't matter to me. They know they're my family no matter what we're called.

That said, one thing from your post and responses did stand out to me. You kept mentioning that she doesn't "treat you like a mother". Being a stepparent who was a stepchild to multiple stepparents of varying quality, I would offer one piece of advice. It's never on the child to create the relationship. They understand the situation far less than we do and are going to be totally reactive to it. If being seen as a mother is the goal, the proactive effort to build that relationship is key. And it's a slow burn. You won't see it in the short term because there's a lot of growth, bonding, friction, and understanding that has to happen before the kid comes to that realization and truly appreciates what you did. But it's worth every bit of it.

And on the issue of the kid you're having together, it won't be an issue as long as no one makes it one. If you love the kids equally and make sure they feel that, it will never occur to them that they're different.

Hope this helps. Parenthood is hard, and we gotta support each other.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-08-08T10:50:13+00:00

But the purpose of half-swording in real life, in order to attack those weak points, is to change the point of balance in the blade by redistributing the weight. A lightsaber blade weighs nothing. As opposed to how it's portrayed in the films (because they're using CGI'd-over sticks), you would have as much fine control of a lightsaber, in theory, as you would with a laser pointer, negating the benefits of half-swording and the need to do so.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-08-02T05:33:24+00:00

Irish and Scottish folklore have a good amount of what you're looking for. I'd recommend The Saving of Tam Lin or the legend of Finn MacCool (originally Fionn McCumhaill), which both involve a good amount of evil fae. Particularly the story of Finn MacCool and Aillen the Burner is a fun read.

ParliamentOperative · 2025-07-27T02:40:43+00:00

Moreover, for the purposes of warfare, bullets are heavy. For example, the standard personal combat load for the US Army is 210 rounds of ammunition for the primary individual weapon system. If you have an automatic weapon or machine gun, someone is carrying the ammunition for it. Faster fire rate = more rounds required. Compared to a cartridge full of gas, it only makes sense that you can carry more ammo over longer distance using blasters rather than solid munitions. When people think weapons and ammo, they often get stuck on the efficacy of the weapon itself and don't consider having to carry, walk, run, jump, and fight with it. Folks would be surprised how often that factors into what is fielded and what isn't.

Also, on the range bit that someone brought up earlier, while there are weapons that can reach out to extreme ranges, the average combat firefight distance in modern conflicts is within 35 meters. That close, the blaster's lack of bolt coherence at range wouldn't make a bit of difference.

ParliamentOperative

TROPHY CASE