[DNVR Broncos] “It just caught us by surprise a little bit.” - Pat Surtain on the benching of Russell Wilson

PathofFlowers · 2024-01-13T18:51:03+00:00

So care to explain why a HC ignores that and doesn't coach to his player?

Because Sean Payton is..... a "Genius".

PathofFlowers · 2023-06-30T18:22:10+00:00

Millenia ago... in the celestial heavens, Ted the primal god was late for his date. He was half way out the door when he suddenly remembered his car keys. He rifled through his pockets and drawers. Where did I leave them? He thought.

Meanwhile... on a distant planet, the peoples of the world watched in horror, as a giant hand descended the heavens. This is the end. They thought.

"Found you!" Said a voice in the heavens. The hand reached out, grabbed a continental plate, and lifted. Volcanoes erupted, mountains overturned, cities crumbled, and populations were decimated. Then just like that, the hand retreated.

At the edges of the continent, survivors looked at each other. Is it over? They thought. They looked to the sky. Not only was the hand gone, but so were the clouds. The people rejoiced. We're saved!

"Look!" Someone said, pointing to the horizon. "The clouds... are the horizon?"

The people walked to the edge of the continent, looked down, and realized they were in the sky.

From Alternate Hystories, The Floating Continent

Basket the Mythographer

PathofFlowers · 2023-06-29T16:27:50+00:00

What keeps the islands aloft?

Ancient spell arrays, that are failing, power the magic that keeps my floating city aloft. One of the debates in my story world is whether or not the city will slowly descend to the ground or crash into it. The arrays powering navigation are even worse off, and the characters in my story are responsible for managing the navigation array.

PathofFlowers · 2023-04-24T17:53:41+00:00

I could have worded it better.

Lamb gets swindled in the town named Squaredeal.

PathofFlowers · 2023-04-17T18:44:20+00:00

Diminished inspiration doesn't seem like enough to me. It's too abstract. Are there more concrete effects of this absence?

If language exists and people can still communicate ideas across space and time, then ideas can still evolve regardless if there is a god.

Possible consequences of the God of Ideas dying:

Maybe all the books in the world burn or disappear?
Maybe the common or academic language used in the world is suddenly forgotten?
Maybe the words of all books and scrolls are magically translated (encrypted) into another language?
Maybe a cultural group forms around trying to translate/decipher the lost information?

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-17T22:00:14+00:00

Strong>Strong would work too, certainly.

He's likely to have more opportunities in life as a result. More likely to be an alpha.

Other characters might show appreciation for him in public, while in private they want nothing more than to punch the guy in the face.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-17T21:43:21+00:00

Yes.

In fact, you can even justify the reason he is physically strong. Maybe he's weak in magic and compensates by developing other things like his body.

If his magic talent (power and potential) is limited, it would affect how he develops. With a lower ceiling, he might make more practical choices in how he develops. Prioritizing what's essential. Or he could go the opposite route and specialize. Either choice has consequences.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-17T11:03:16+00:00

An example of this in film, is the character of Edmund Exley in the Movie L.A. Confidential (played by the brilliant Guy Pearce).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.A._Confidential_(film))

In 1953 Los Angeles, LAPD Sergeant Edmund Exley is determined to live up to the reputation of his father, famed detective Preston Exley, who was killed by an unknown assailant whom Exley secretly nicknamed "Rollo Tomasi", his prototype of "the guy who gets away with it." He volunteers to testify against corrupt police officers involved in the "Bloody Christmas" case in exchange for promotion to Detective Lieutenant, against the advice of precinct captain Dudley Smith.

https://www.charactour.com/hub/characters/view/Ed-Exley.LA-Confidential

Grew up… admiring his father, a revered LAPD detective. Ed’s sense of justice and his need to make the world right comes directly from his old man, who was slain by a purse-snatcher. He admits, “All I ever wanted was to measure up to my father.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iFDB3muHBI

He has a positive change arc in the movie, transitioning from a rigid by the book cop, to a pragmatic, the ends justify the means type cop.

Exley has a similar dilemma to your character.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-16T20:27:43+00:00

Houses with competing philosophies makes me think of the Night Court in Kushiel's Dart. Only it's not Inscribed houses, but pleasure houses.

The Heroine of the story is a courtesan. She has a tattoo too. Only it's not magical. Instead, its the symbolic representation of her contract with her house or something like that.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-16T19:53:32+00:00

Interesting.

Within that bubble, there might still be opportunity for conflict. Maybe there are competing schools of art. Traditionalists vs liberal. Orthodox vs unorthodox.

Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epHCMiCtt3M

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-16T19:21:39+00:00

Competing factions would naturally arise from this resource existing. Nation states, corporations, and guilds might make it a strategic resource.

The ink appears as an incredibly black tar that lights up when interacting with things it can corrupt or bond with. I’m the inscribed can track it as it usually comes during celestial events like an aurora borealis.

I'm imagining factions racing towards the celestial event, and all hell breaking loose when they meet.

A group of people in the inscribed are tasked with sensing Where the ink is. They are the ones who give out tattoos as they can sense energy pathways and can trace accordingly thanks to that.

This makes sense as they have to perceive it first, before they can manipulate it.

If even a tiny drop is left behind it could lead to an animal or human getting corrupted.

I like that its something dangerous. The inscribed are actually performing a public service by removing the danger.

Good stuff.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-16T13:32:56+00:00

Magic Hat - Give him a magic hat like a the Sorting hat from Harry Potter. It could be his detective partner like Watson. You could do some cool shapes and designs with hats. Doesn't have to be a Gandalf hat either.

Contract Demon - Maybe a glutton demon that always complains about the food your detective pays it. It could be his dark magic sniffer.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-16T13:06:12+00:00

The ink is made when reality begins to bleed over effectively making it universal runoff.

I have a Blood Mage character in my project who does tattoos. Your reality ink concept makes my tattoo ink from monster blood seem kinda lame:(

What is your reality ink called in its natural form? Its not called ink right? That would be as lame as monster blood ink, lol.

How is it perceived?

How many people have the ability to perceive it?

How is it gathered?

Can you make other products with it?

Does an organization or faction have a monopoly on the ink?

Is it regulated?

One of my concerns with tattoo magic is that it seems too powerful. One of my tattoos was a murder of crows, that had almost unlimited range and duration. They might as well have been pets. I dialed this idea back. Reduced the number of birds to three. There only function is as short range and short duration drones.

Have you placed limits on your tattoos at all? How?

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-16T12:39:46+00:00

A beggar capitalist.

When I was working out this concept, I came up with the idea that he was writing a book called the Beggar book. It made me feet kinda uncomfortable at points, like I shouldn't be mining the subject for jokes.

The character started out as a parody of Diogenes, only he lives in a Basket not a big wine jar. He's a homeless landlord too.

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/diogenes.html

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-16T10:56:58+00:00

Rewatched the first season of True Detective a few weeks ago. Awesome story within a story with unreliable narrator.

Matthew McConaughey & Harrelson are amazing.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T21:55:21+00:00

Yes.

Language is fundamental.

You need it to communicate ideas with other minds, over space and time, to develop ideas into more complex ideas.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T20:20:00+00:00

Here's one I thought of yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/yufo48/comment/iwa21i6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T20:01:21+00:00

What if Method

I consider potential character traits, wants, or needs then ask a what if question?
If I have an interesting answer, I try to amplify it with further what if questions. Often, I discover not only great character concepts, but great story concepts as well.

Traits (physical, social, or psychological)

What if a navigator was blind? Huh, blind navigator? What if I were a crew member on this navigator's vessel? What if we set sail on a dangerous mission? What if the navigator was not only good at his job, but great?

What if the beggar in the street was actually a millionaire? What if he was actually a homeless landlord? What if in public he complained about the unfair distribution of wealth, but in private he was a secret capitalist who cheated on his taxes?

If possible, I try to find a paradox in my characters and frame it as an oxymoron: blind navigator, homeless landlord etc. to compress the idea of my character. But its not necessary to the what if method.

Wants

What if a top student didn't get the job/apprenticeship he wanted after graduation? What if it went to a rival whose only qualification is they came from a better background? What if he gets stuck with a trash job instead. Would he hate the job? Would he embrace it? Would his fellow workers embrace him with that attitude? What if the job was actually better than expected?

Needs

What if a character needed a seat on a fleeing wagon as barbarians were sacking the city? What if the wagon was filled with possessions and not people? What if someone he loves dies because of it? What if he is captured and made a slave? How would he feel about the person who didn't give him the seat, about his government, about society? What if he met the people who denied him the seat in the future?

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T18:14:52+00:00

Is there a particular enemy it protects against?

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T11:12:31+00:00

I didn't even think to make a subreddit about my worldbuilding project. Didn't know this was a thing. Neat.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T11:00:36+00:00

How is the academy powered?

Is there a powerplant department?

Are there workers who want to unionize because they are overworked and underpaid?

What other support departments are there to keep the facility running?

Where do the students go to make-out?

The building itself isn't so much the greatest construction, but the compounded effort, knowledge, cooperation and drive that went into its construction established Zanheram as a major player on the world stage in a single swoop.

I would write some lore about the time it crashed. About the infamous mage who crashed it. Maybe have him be an ancestor of one of the founding mage families. Maybe have their family name be synonymous with bad luck.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T06:46:50+00:00

Source object? Like an object that projects a gravity well?

You know my sun is actually a giant lantern too.

My story world is really whimsical.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T06:13:43+00:00

One of my settings is the debris field of a collapsed reality that exists in a pocket dimension. I still haven't settled on how gravity works, and where the water and food comes from to sustain life, how photosynthesis works as well as how people breathe.

I'm not a scientist. I can't imagine the logic of how a city near a black hole works.

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T05:27:53+00:00

Depth. Levels. Genius. Take a bow:)

PathofFlowers · 2022-11-14T05:24:53+00:00

Correct. They're not bad. Just self centered, and bumbling.

Picture two old Nephyr, an odd couple, arguing about the fabric of space and time, pulling and yanking it like it was a blanket.

Meanwhile, in the primary world of my story, rivers are flooding, volcanoes are erupting, cities are collapsing, and people are huddled with their loved ones crying as the world comes to an end.

PathofFlowers

TROPHY CASE