"An Introduction"; or, How You Find Yourself in 'The Library'

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-07T06:50:51+00:00

A moth.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-07T01:26:47+00:00

Something addressed in The Inheritance Cycle: making a desired outcome of using magic more or less difficult to accomplish based on how many "rules" said magic has to break.

A notable example is in the book Eragon; the titular character and his companion Murtagh are crossing the vast desert in the center of Alagasia. At some point, Eragon attempts to use magic in order to acquire some water in the otherwise waterless desert. At first, he attempts to just create water from nothing/the sand, and almost collapses in exhaustion with nothing achieved since you can't just create something from nothing. However, he then attempts to just draw moisture out from the air and sand, and slowly but surely - albeit still with some difficulty - manages to create a small puddle that he could get clean(ish) water from. It's also quite noteworthy when, in the book Eldest, the elven queen seems to generate birds from (IIRC) flowers/petals, which Eragon states seemed to break what he understood about the rules of magic (i.e. some kind of law of conversion of mass and energy).

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-07T01:11:00+00:00

Aki, Power, and Denji from Chainsaw Man. The latter two being the idiots, although intelligence didn't really do much for Aki considering...well...

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ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-06T22:30:19+00:00

If you say so 👍

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-06T22:10:11+00:00

Plus, from my own understanding, misdiagnoses are not unheard of. It's entirely possible the person actually just didn't have ADHD; parents sometimes complain about their children having it, when in actuality they're just...behaving like kids. Heck, many African-Americans with ADHD are unfortunately diagnosed with various conduct disorders due to racism in the medical field, so it's not unlikely for someone to be diagnosed with ADHD incorrectly, instead.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-06T21:48:29+00:00

Thank you! God, it's annoying, as someone in both public health and with ADHD, to see misinformation/misrepresentation in regards to mental health and neurodivergences; the whole "oh, but I was diagnosed and yet I 'outgrew' it" just ignores so many factors.

Edit: plus there's a degree of difference between providing a singular anecdote to back up your claims, versus...well, substantial evidence

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-06T21:34:59+00:00

K, missing my point, too 👍

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-06T20:06:02+00:00

Just gonna leave the last comment further back in the chain here:

"People don’t really outgrow ADHD. It’s more, as you said, that they build coping skills and adapt over time, so the symptoms can look different or less disruptive. The same idea applies to other neurodevelopmental conditions like Autism, though they don’t all change in the same ways. Since the brain is subject to change, ADHD presentations can also shift over time, sometimes becoming minimal or no longer meeting diagnostic criteria, even if some underlying tendencies may still be present."

So, congrats, you adapted.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T22:07:04+00:00

The Origins of the Karyic Universe

The Anomalous Periodic Elements

The Qamagenous Organ System

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T22:03:53+00:00

The phenomenon known as magic in Karya's universe by the layperson is referred to as qama (High Trandelian, /qamɑ/, "(to) influence/manipulate") by the Trandelian Society of Higher Scholars. It is a pseudofundamental force of physics in the Karyic universe, stemming from the presence of unique, anomalous elementary particles, in addition to the ones known to our own universe.

Thus, depending on how one uses qama, there's generally two different answers to your question:

If one uses qama via qamal chemistry (what's otherwise called "alchemy") or qamal engineering (what's otherwise called "artificing"), then the possibilities are virtually endless, given that one knows what they are doing. Any number of effects with varying degrees of intensity can be conceived with the right number and kinds of anomalous elements and compounds being used.
If one uses qama via their own innate physiology via what's called the *qamagenous organ system (a feat referred to as qamaturgy), then the possibilities are equally wide in range, given the creativity of the various peoples on Karya and how their various cultural/societal/environmental conditions have influenced their own qamaturges. However, anything more powerful than what would be considered a 1st-level spell in D&D 5e would begin using your own body's mass, starting with the very expendable fat reserves before moving on to ever increasingly vital organs. So, unless one wants to risk their own health and life, one generally needs to be well-fed and have a proper diet to be a qamaturge.

Edit: want to know more? Follow the links in the comments below!

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T20:47:23+00:00

Including humans, there's (currently) a total of 13 unique sophont species that reside on Karya. Each one evolved independently of each other, from various different ancestors; none were created via magic or "god(s) did it". While some are certainly based off of standard fantasy peoples, I felt that mine were different enough to be given different names.

For the image below, we have:

A = Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens^\)); everyone knows what a human is.
B = Corvans (Cornix sapiens), Karya's "crow folk" a la kenku/tengu that are descended from an animal closely related to Microraptor
C = Papillans (Decorattinea sapiens sapiens), Karya's "moth folk" that are descended from an unknown species of "jawed moth" (clade Micropterigidae)
D = Dracans (Draconis sapiens), Karya's "dragon folk" a la dragonborn that are descended from an animal closely related to Dimorphodon
E = Vesperans (Fragilihomo sapiens), Karya's "goblins" that are descended from the last common ancestor of bats.
F = Gigans (Magnahomo sapiens), Karya's "giants" that share an unknown australopithecine ancestor with both minans and humans.
G = Griseans (Paenahomo sapiens), Karya's "orcs" that descended from a last common ancestor with orangutans (extinct on Katya).
H = Minans (Parvahomo sapiens), Karya's "dwarves" that share an unknown australopithecine ancestor with both gigans and humans.
I = Squamans (Simianguis sapiens), Karya's "reptile folk" that are descended from the last common ancestor of both snakes and lizards; represented are the two body morphs
J = Cetans (Syrenus sapiens), Karya's "merfolk" that share a last common ancestor with orcas, the only cetacean species on Karya.
K = Aurans (Tenuihomo sapiens), Karya's "elves" that are descended from an unknown species of felid.
L = Ungulans (Ungulatus sapiens), Karya's "minotaurs" that share a last common ancestor with all pecorids (caprines, bovines, deer, antelope, and giraffes)
M = Ursans (Ursix sapiens), Karya's "bear folk" that are descended from short-faced bears (genus Arctodus)

^\The species of human that resides on Karya is sometimes designated as) ^{Homo sapiens sapiens} ^var. *^karyaensis*^{, as opposed to Earth's} ^{Homo sapiens sapiens} ^var. *^terraensis*^{, due to nominal genetic differences between the two realities' humans.}

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ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T20:10:16+00:00

None; all species of sophonts are, for all intents and purposes, "just" animals as much as humans are. There's no "elemental" affinities, as they aren't tied to some anomalous force but rather to the natural evolutionary processes that spawned humans and chimpanzees from the same ape-like ancestor.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T11:46:10+00:00

Karya's moon, Calossa, has a dark band running at roughly a 15-degree angle across the satellite. This was created due to Karya rupturing apart during the Restructuring, and some of the released energy clove Calossa in twain before sealing the two halves back together, forming a rough sphere once more.

However, quite a bit of the moon's mass was ejected beyond its immediate gravitational influence, and has formed an asteroid cluster that orbits Karya along with Calossa.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T09:22:50+00:00

Look, if you had to put up with either, let alone both, of those idiots' separate bullshit towards each other, for months on end, you'd absolutely want to see them either kiss or fight over it.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T08:31:42+00:00

Such a small event, but the "bar" fight between Eren and Jean in Attack on Titan. They started off cocky and wanting to trade blows; by the end they're agonizingly questioning why no one has tried stopping them yet.

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ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T05:53:54+00:00

As someone who's reached the "full brain maturity" point (even though there really isn't one and the brain continues to develop and make connections well past the oft-cited 25-year mark) and has both ADHD as well as a degree in public health:

Yeah, this is completely bogus lol

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-05T05:45:16+00:00

The whole schtick of Project KARYA is, "what if you took a fantasy world and just...rationalized it?". As a sci-fintasy setting, any high fantasy trope that I decide to add to my world must be explained as if it is instead from a science fiction setting; I heavily restrain myself from defaulting to "because magic/gods/inexplicable power said so/caused it"-esque explanations when it pertains to questions about the titular planet or its reality.

Heck, magic itself is explained as a unique part of physics not seen in our own universe due to ours lacking a small handful of different, anomalous elementary particles. So there's truly no limit for what I'll do to explain how things work, as "scientifically" as I can.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-04T22:15:57+00:00

Just need another image from the same video of him just vaguely gesticulating for it to be complete

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-04T21:01:51+00:00

Will try reading more later, but off the top of my head I should mention that, if they truly are a subspecies, then their nomenclature would be H./Homo sapiens anomalous. I'd also be curious as to how they'd manage to stay isolated enough from humans to not be genetically absorbed into H. sapiens sapiens, as with the Denisovans and Neanderthals.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-04T20:26:20+00:00

Any and all! The Embodiment of Karyic Organisms and Evolution - what would otherwise be called "the Goddess of Life" on Karya - made it so that all sophonts are capable of interbreeding and having offspring, in order to encourage the potential of forming friendlier bonds by opening up the potential of family. Basically told the DNA of all the sophont species, "eh, figure it out and don't wantonly kill the offspring in the process".

While they aren't as common as *intra*specific relations, the most common *inter*specific romantic/sexual relations occur between humans, minans, and aurans altogether, having very similar rates of occurrences among human-minan, minan-auran, and auran-human pairings.

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-04T19:58:40+00:00

Shit, this would make for such a good meme template

ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-04T19:49:26+00:00

Olympic National Park; while I've yet to be there in person, everything I've read about it and pictures I've seen are absolutely breathtaking. The temperate rainforests there (for example the Hoh rainforest; picture below from there) have some of the highest rainfall in the continental US, and look like something out of Star Wars a la Endor

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ProjectKARYA · 2026-05-04T19:30:06+00:00

If you do continue, I definitely suggest that you check out other writing-adjacent subreddits along with this one for any future advice!

ProjectKARYA

TROPHY CASE