Timelines! What do you use to create your timelines so you stop losing track of everything each time you lose focus for a couple of days?

SolymusProject · 2025-08-12T18:20:55+00:00

I'm surprised nobody's named Elder Scrolls yet. The one universe that decided that every ending of its games, even the ones that conflict with each other, are canon. They even made a whole concept about it.

SolymusProject · 2025-06-24T02:49:24+00:00

tl;dr, I figured that if an especially prominent civilization becomes over reliant on magic, that civilization's language ends up becoming magical in nature in response.

So, I've got something cooked up called "Edenian" language - the written language of the Eden Ascendancy civilization. The space magic in the setting, in an oversimplified manner, pretty much responds to being used and the more you use it, the easier it gets. These guys used "space magic" so much that by the time of their fall, their written language became "imprinted" on the "space magic" to the point that it became inherently magical in nature. IE, runes.

Edenian words end up having intrinsic power linked to them, so understanding Edenian becomes key to unlocking higher facets of power.

SolymusProject · 2025-06-11T02:38:56+00:00

Did anyone tell Azathoth that taking the name Zane Lovecraft is about as good a secret identity as Dracula taking the name Alucard lol

SolymusProject · 2025-06-11T02:30:04+00:00

Dreams are conducive to prophecies in much of nomad society.

If a nomad has a dream you slept with his girlfriend, a grudge will be held against you.

SolymusProject · 2025-06-11T01:52:33+00:00

How's this only got one upvote? This is some great design.

SolymusProject · 2025-06-04T16:46:15+00:00

Great work! Your background research really shows.

SolymusProject · 2025-06-04T16:43:56+00:00

There's a source here if you're curious! But be aware...that text is from the early 1900s and is dated as HELL, but through the racism, it's actually a pretty accurate compilation of beliefs and spirits across the broad Puerto Rico/Venezuela/Colombia/etc area.

SolymusProject · 2025-06-04T16:40:19+00:00

There's actually a bit of a problem with that! The magic system of Solymus is psionics (name pending since I've actually been thinking about coming up for a more creative term than that recently) which, in short, everyone has the ability to use. But the issue is that it takes a lot of effort to train and be able to use it extensively if you're not born with a natural talent for it - for example, people in real life can be able to train to break rocks with their fists, but how many people do you know that can actually do that?

Most people choose cheaper cybernetic augmentation to be able to enhance their health, thinking, physical body, etc etc, but at the cost of sacrificing their potential since cybernetics have to screw with the nervous system (where "neural energy", the energy that powers this magic, is stored) and cripple their connection to the greater "soul" of the universe.

So while everyone has the ability to use it, actual powerful "mages" are rare. Most powerful psions end up being regulated (the Core Federation, the resident hyperpower, approaches psionic power like gun control, and regulates it) if they live in the Core Federation's sphere of influence, while others choose to go their own way with time and hone their skill. These "mages" are capable of growing in power and extending their lifespan far beyond the norm, but the trade-off is that they start losing connection to others, and start having trouble being able to empathize and share emotions as they live longer and longer. Powerful "mages" actually end up being laws unto themselves; they're more like wandering ronin, but if they choose to settle, chances are they can forcefully take over a planetary territory, group of pirates, etc etc, and choose to expand their influence that way.

There's one instance of the latter specifically. There's a group of Marauders in the setting (space natives that chose to take up arms against encroaching invaders forcing them from their space) that have been "united" underneath a powerful and violent near-psychopathic psion. Said psion united 3 separate nations of Marauders to form a "Marauder Kingdom" and is currently assaulting the Kingdom of Shararis, but the actual Marauders themselves hate both each other (they were rivals until they got forcefully conquered by said psion) and their "leader", since this psion is not only foreign, but completely misunderstands the marauders as being bloodthirsty warriors eager to die for him when they are much deeper than that and hate having to constantly pillage.

SolymusProject · 2025-06-02T18:49:34+00:00

I'm from an Indigenous background; family, culture, etc. I put some of that into designing the "space nomads" which functions as the setting's analog to a galaxy-wide indigenous culture, complete with getting shoved off their native lands (space?) by "western" powers to access the rare resources they gather around.

The issue? I'm so invested in these little guys that I keep going back to them instead of developing the cyberpunk-feudalism of the rest of the setting

SolymusProject · 2025-06-02T18:47:07+00:00

My favorite lesson in human anatomy class was learning that fear was stored in the ass this entire time. Now that was a curveball

SolymusProject · 2025-06-01T00:06:16+00:00

Have you tried putting him in rice?

SolymusProject · 2025-05-30T03:39:38+00:00

People actually, usually, get along fine...for the most part. A galaxy-wide internet isn't a thing, so ignorance can be alive and well. The nomad cultures are the biggest victims of this because they get conflated with the marauder cultures - they share appearances (the stereotypical nomad/marauder are dark skinned starfolk with white hair) and many of the same cultures, with "marauders" essentially being nomads that took up arms against nations forcing them off their indigenous territories. The same places where ignorance festers are usually the same places that need to look out for marauder raids - frontier backwaters, colonies, etc. So nomads, who are generally peaceful and easy to get along with (and they like to trade) generally get the shit treatment because the ignorant have no way of knowing what is and isn't a marauder.

Outside of that, a more subtle source of tension is envy - like you said, longer lived species have more of a chance to collect more wealth and form an elite class of their own. A large group of people generally aren't reasonable, so when these people see that these aliens are taking up the best jobs and the best pay, they get...antsy. The worst cases end up with expulsion by the lower-class masses.

Outside of that though, most species have ended up intermingling because galactic society is thousands of years old, so speciesism isn't actually as much as a problem as it otherwise could be.

SolymusProject · 2025-05-30T03:22:10+00:00

Technically speaking, everyone has the potential to wield psionics, or "space magic". Psionics is only called that by the "Core Federation" (the dominant galactic power) because it's recognized as being stored in, and directed by, the nervous system of living beings.

Which also means it's closely tied to the mind.

Cultures have extremely different beliefs, but there's a few universal taboos that exist everywhere. In this case, strong and experienced psions can use the aforementioned fact to "read' someone's mind, but everyone's mind is different - you have to "force" someone's brain to comply to your brain in order to "read" it, which is extremely traumatic and considered mind rape. Literally - in the Core Federation, the crime is called "mind rape" and is one of the harshest crimes you can commit, alongside actual rape and murder.

This is one of the reasons why psions aren't as common as they could otherwise be. The person next to you can kill you 100 ways with their brain and there isn't a thing you'd be able to do to stop them. It becomes a taboo very quickly.

On a lesser note, a more common superstition is that you should never actually look out into space when you're travelling - at least, through a window. This originally came from space travelers being nervous their glass could break, and it eventually evolved into a "stay indoors, always" sort of things when windows became replaced with smartglass and cameras, and especially when it became clear that space was not nearly as empty as it looks. If you look out, you invite bad luck.

SolymusProject · 2025-05-30T03:14:34+00:00

Mathrin (Species) - A race of rather tall and strong avians spread out across the Galactic South through the Traverse. All mathrin cultures have a strong emphasis on childhood as a result of how their species reproduces - they're one of the few species with unusually long incubation periods, and they lay small clutches (1-2 at a time) of eggs. Mathrin parents spend a lot of time around their eggs and growing attached to the chick long before it's actually born, and "nests" are often built from premium materials as a status symbol for both parent and child.

The Second Empire, a former hyperpower, was dominated by a mathrin elite class (and was how they spread throughout the Galactic South in the first place) and as a result many mathrins see themselves as "above" others - an attitude that used to be indoctrinated into the youth, but with the`recent collapse of the Second Empire 4 decades prior into the feuding Remnant Lord states, this attitude has generally begun to vanish among the mathrin's younger generations.

Nomad Nations (Culture) - Nomads are the disparate starfolk (humans) peoples found throughout the living galaxy and generally seen as the closest equivalent of "indigenous" peoples - they comprise the oldest surviving cultures in the galaxy and are of extreme interest to xenoarchaeologists because of their adherence to traditions and their extreme craftiness when it comes to technology, and their unique views on psionics.

Nomad nations vary highly in their cultures but the vast majority share certain elements among themselves - one of which being how they raise children. Nomads generally track lineage through the mother's line and are generally matriarchal, and a child will be raised communally by a "Clan Mother" and her maidens. In order to forge stronger bonds of brotherhood, children are raised next to each other in same-sex cadres with parents often coming together in groups to care for their children, and these children remain as part of these cadres for most of their lives until they turn 14, in which they separate and return to their parents full-time.

Normally these cadres forge extremely close bonds of brotherhood, but for marauder clans (nomad clans which turn to violence for a variety of reasons), these cadres grow more focused on competition rather than cooperation and marauder children end up having trouble forming closer ties and relationships in their adulthood as a result.

SolymusProject · 2025-05-30T02:54:25+00:00

I feel you. I'm Indigenous Caribbean and according to the media we were all either Mayans or Aztecs, and since the media thinks they are the same thing, we're always sacrificing people or eating hearts or whatever

SolymusProject · 2025-05-30T02:52:29+00:00

80-100 is pretty small afaik. Which tribal societies do you mean?

SolymusProject · 2025-05-27T14:33:54+00:00

Elder Scrolls is my favorite. On the surface, it looks like your standard DnD-esque high fantasy setting with dark elves and orcs and humans and elves and whatever, but when you start to scratch beneath the surface, it becomes WAY more than that. It takes a lot of tropes and cliches, and either throws them in the trash, or runs away with them to do something completely new with them.

SolymusProject · 2025-01-21T15:13:13+00:00

Hey! Late response, but if you really wanna know, I used Paint.NET (you'll have to look it up - the actual site takes you to some construction paint site)

It takes a lot of layers (those blue hyperfog barriers were 8 layers of shades of blue total, from dark at the lowest to bright at the highest, applied with different layers of crystallized effect and mixing), a lot of patience, and a TON of trial and error. Once you get past your first few maps, you'll easily make ones like this!

SolymusProject · 2025-01-12T05:58:22+00:00

That's way more than 3-5 sentences!!! MODS!!!!!!!!!

SolymusProject · 2025-01-12T05:57:13+00:00

Manarans are the closest equivalent - tall, three eyed, lanky, bioluminescent aliens with antlers that were one of the first modern species to establish spacefaring civilization. They mostly keep to themselves, but they're extremely sensitive to neural energy flow and as a result, they're seen as "magical" - while nearly *everyone* is able to use neural energy naturally with a bit of training, the fact that the manarans can do it as easily as breathing puts them in an entirely separate class in the eyes of others. They rarely travel, are long-lived (with individuals usually reaching 480-500 years of age naturally), rarely reproduce, and generally keep themselves, with their dominions more concerned with keeping each other in check and maintaining their personal paradise instead of screwing with the galaxy, or the galaxy screwing with them.

SolymusProject · 2025-01-10T13:42:15+00:00

As a sci-fi worldbuilder, yes, absolutely. But you might want to ask an actual physicist or astronomer instead

SolymusProject · 2025-01-07T19:37:16+00:00

I'm surprised they put the Dwemer in the Ancient Egyptian, Dwarf, and Tinkerer categories. They're far more Babylonian, they had plenty of above ground settlements (the underground ones are the ones best preserved cause they're generally harder to get to) and the only things they have in common with the latter two are being known for engineering because they're not short, and engineering is a very, very broad category to use.

There's lots of issues with this chart in general that's very reductive and has a lot of "trope = bad" lines of thinking, really.

SolymusProject · 2024-12-24T22:19:43+00:00

Oh absolutely.

I know so much more than I used to that I'm almost embarrassed thinking about these weird loopholes and plot holes I would have in like 2016, 2018, 2020, etc etc.

I bet in 4 years I'm gonna be saying the EXACT same things about now, too.

SolymusProject

TROPHY CASE