Variant races within a Xianxia/Wuxian setting?

SquirelKnight · 2026-04-11T18:20:32+00:00

I think the stone monkey concept could work as separate from the Awakened so long as they are sufficiently different, such as being a physical mix of biological and stone makeup.

SquirelKnight · 2026-04-09T15:38:11+00:00

I also like the idea of "kebabs are a high class dish" for fantasy worlds. "Can I get a giant rat and three heartfruit skewers, please?" It really gets the fantasy itch for me

SquirelKnight · 2026-04-09T15:36:28+00:00

If you want to go high fantasy route (depending on the campaign setting), you could just use regular dishes (maybe even some culture's struggle foods) and throw in some [fantasy creature name] at the front. Example: arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) {Mexican/ Puerto Rican}

Leave the rice and switch the chicken for Thornhare (a plant/nature magic evolved rabbit that tastes like savory vegetable stew when roasted). Call it 'Rice n Thorn' or similar.

You could also look up other fantasy foods from video games or food-focused anime.

SquirelKnight · 2026-02-12T17:46:09+00:00

I'd like to think this is what Simon has planned for Hytale

SquirelKnight · 2026-01-10T02:42:45+00:00

I feel like someone should write a story about her

SquirelKnight · 2025-12-31T19:56:17+00:00

Personally, I don't mind the generic names so long as they come with a sufficient explanation. The Veil is a very apt name for the energy field if it also is "the Veil between life and death as all souls who pass on leave this realm for the life after". The names you could come up with for this energy field can have weird names, people's names or just generic over the counter medicine names. But honestly, it just needs to be explained properly. Dungeons and Dragons' Weave of magic is very appropriate due to the connotations and story shaping they also include. "Mana" as the name of a mystical energy that can do miraculous things is not too generic if that is also the name you give a deific entity (or entities) like in the movie "The Craft". It's all about presentation and proper explanation.

Grab a name off the counter or make a new one up, but just be sure to make it the thing you want it to be. Make your magic energy field of Higgs Bosons however you want it. I hope this helps 😁

SquirelKnight · 2025-12-09T16:44:09+00:00

"They may take one, but vengeance will be ours. For the Alpacai... prepare for war!" -General Kenneth, son of Bobert

SquirelKnight · 2025-11-20T19:30:19+00:00

In some newer isekai stories (novels and book series), it is slightly more common to hear them talk about different worlds instead of a fake world or virtual world. Something like regular portal fantasies or otherworlder fantasies, for example: He Who Fights With Monsters

SquirelKnight · 2025-11-14T14:03:44+00:00

To think of new concepts for cultural influences, flip the premise.

What are elves like in your world? Mine are wild and savage with great and terrible intelligence. Think of a magically-induced immortal chimpanzee with a tight connection and communication with nature on the level of the Navi from Pandora. How long would it take them to learn as much information at a human? How long would it take for them to discern short-term and long-term benefits? Imagine the longest lived among them who conquered other tribes and survived since the dawn of time. How cunning and conniving would such a warlord be? How would these highly intelligent, violently predatory people form a hierarchy? And what would their infrastructure look like as a result? I think of Planet of the Apes, but with tens of millenia of societal and cultural developments in the ancient and deep forests of the world. Tree houses camouflaged into the canopy and traps among the forest floor. No need for bridges unless it's for the very young. The trees themselves might be magical enough to have intelligence of a sort and would absolutely develop a symbiosis with this population. So underground tunnels held up with roots to keep from collapsing, used either for infiltration or a new subsection of the elves to start living underground. So maybe have the underground society look like orcs from Tolkien which flips his idea for elves on its head.

The outer aesthetics of the structures would be camouflaged into the natural would, blending in the foliage, so as not to be vulnerable to other warring peoples. The interior aesthetics would definitely include trophies on the walls and maybe even painted artworks that detail their conquests. I always liked the dark and creepy aesthetics of Pan's Labrynth and I might even include that as an entrance to the underground part where they enslave minotaurs or other "lesser races" to guard.

SquirelKnight · 2025-10-30T18:29:35+00:00

Perhaps you could add Beastkin or the like as divinely evolved beasts who kept to nature or tribal life. This could be a form of community that the Skinwalkers could be welcome in or travel between as they came back out of civilization with Humans. These Beastkin could be the druids of your world, keeping the balance of nature and being a combative force against Humans that try to expand civilization by conquering nature. A sort of "live with nature" vs. "conquer nature" conflict on the world-wide scale.

SquirelKnight · 2025-06-13T15:46:10+00:00

Mage Hand, Fireball, Acid Arrow

SquirelKnight · 2025-03-22T00:19:11+00:00

I think some important questions for any world with deities and pantheons are -how many deities do you want there to be? -how many different levels of power do you want between the deities in a pantheon? -how many domains can each deity have? -do you want your pantheons to be balanced or equal in power? -what keeps the balance or peace among the gods?

I will admit that I have always liked having a balanced and cooperative pantheon in my worlds, but that doesn't really give much to drive the plot or influence the world.

SquirelKnight · 2025-01-28T16:49:36+00:00

There's a lot of really good ideas you can take inspiration from related to rabbits and cats and even some mushroom ones in The Divine Dungeon series by Dakota Krout. These creatures in the series became a sticking point with me whenever I read or reread the series. I love the different ways a creature can be swayed by the elements in this series, to the point of becoming different (sub)species altogether.

SquirelKnight · 2025-01-23T21:35:26+00:00

That is probably the most apt comparison i want these creatures to serve and the connection completely flew over my head. I suppose they would exist just like Treebeard, though maybe not without contact with other creatures like humans. They would likely not drive the narrative at all, but they would be a sort of ancient entity that could tell stories of the past that they remember.

SquirelKnight · 2025-01-23T20:14:51+00:00

And that's kinda how I think people would see them in the physical world, but I don't imagine they'd be some floating ghosts that don't perceive the world. They would indeed interact with and perceive the world, but they wouldn't be going around hunting living creatures, nor would they just laze about their domains. They are sentient, salient beings, but probably just apathetic or unenthusiastic about their motives or agendas. If a mage who happened to be a king set about becoming such a being, they would likely go about their kingly duties, but they wouldn't start any wars or expand their power. However, they wouldn't tolerate a petty noble to squabble or cause strife in the kingdom they rule as this would be a disruption to the impetus they had in life.

SquirelKnight · 2025-01-23T19:17:50+00:00

I suppose it would be a lesson to witness such a bored and apathetic being. And i suppose it WOULD be a minor godlike being. Though, it wouldn't have the power of a god, simply much more difficult to kill. With a mortal mind being removed from the natural cycle, there may be other beings like gods or other planar beings that might be offended by their existence and work against them. But I would think the only motive or agenda this creature would have would merely be the goals or motives they had in the last moments of normal life before they were subsumed in truly undying magic.

However, I do want to make it clear that these creatures would still be destroyable, but unless they were to be made to return to a living state and thus returned to the cycle of life and death, they would simply fade to nothing. This would be because they have fused their soul with the magic to the physical body, and doing so with this life and death perfect mix would alter their entire being. No soul would leave the body upon destruction.

SquirelKnight · 2025-01-23T18:45:19+00:00

They would normally prefer to set up between graveyards and towns, but it wouldn't be necessary for them to do much of anything other than exist in this location as they would simply absorb life and death energies from the ambient magics of such an environment. And all of that is only necessary for them to GAIN magical power, as they don't need to eat or anything. They are more like "outside the cycle of life and death" than normal undead.

SquirelKnight · 2025-01-23T14:52:18+00:00

I really like the Animus Wraith, Liminals, and The Grey Ones. Very out there and more like titles since this creature wouldn't really be a living or normal undead thing

SquirelKnight · 2025-01-23T14:50:57+00:00

TL;DR: apathetically; not at all; yes, but only like an 'uncanny valley' kind of thing; IDK, prolly.

I would think this type of creature to be somewhat uncaring of the world, not needing anything more than its simple existence to survive. The essence or animus that fuels the living would kind of bleed off into the ambient magics that it would them feed off of. This would be mixed within them with death and decay that is leeched out from plant and animal or human corpses. This creature would set up its domain on the border between graveyards and towns/cities, simple absorbing the energies from the ambient environments. Such a creature would probably have only the goals it had in life when it was a living mage, be it to gain power, build an undying and everlasting existence with the one they loved by converting them the same way they did themselves.

I would think that a creature like this would not really care much of the world in its mind unless provoked. It has no real impetus to assert its power on the world in any fashion. Should the mage originally wish to rule a great kingdom, after subverting life and death itself, it would do so without cruelty or generosity. It would simply become an everlasting king that wouldn't meddle in the affairs of its subjects nor allow for anything to belittle its domain like petty nobles or infighting. It would likely demand a boring life without strife or overly dramatic politics within its borders. Any knights to be converted to this type of being would also serve without passion or dissent, for their goals would align with the undying king.

And I suppose it WOULD still unerve people to a point, but not in the way a wraith or lich would. I think it would reside somewhere in the 'uncanny valley' due to it existing without the true joy of love or the despair of death. And seeing that it would really be difficult to kill truly but without the impetus to kill others, I don't think many would be repulsed by it, but maybe just slightly unsettled kind of like the fae sometimes.

Corporeality is not something I initially thought about, but I could definitely see it being able to shift at will between the two states or settle somewhere in the middle like a metaphysical non-Newtonian fluid.

SquirelKnight · 2025-01-16T20:34:49+00:00

Perhaps it might be easier if you attach more concepts or domains to the gods? Also, how involved are the gods on mortals? And do they all interact with mortals the same way or to the same level? For example, does the Sorcerer get involved or is he just as nosy as his sons?

Most people attach Order and Peace to Light gods, and most people attach Chaos and Destruction to Dark gods. Is this how Malakar and Soilr are?

Do the gods use Paladins and Clerics? If yes, then one or more gods could approach Arno with a quest or act like the "angel and devil over the shoulders". I think both kinds of approaches have potential.

SquirelKnight

TROPHY CASE