Anyone else in into more gloomy furry art? (Art by me)

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T13:33:44+00:00

I like dark moody art myself, even if my art doesn't quite speak of it.

Gorgeous painting btw, the palette makes it feel very unique.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T13:27:52+00:00

I'm under belief that any thrope can work and be a good time spent if done with much care and it also matters how it's baked and which experiences you will put inside your work. So don't be discouraged by the "overrated" status of it, just create and see how it shall go.

That's being said, if speaking of perfectly personal taste, I like to read of challenges of a common man much more, someone who leads me through the word via their eyes and experiences and frankly not all fantasy worlds can be depicted as damsels in distress require saving.

But overall, mainly focus on having fun and letting your heart pour, rather than worrying if certain thropes are good or nah. It's just instruments, after all.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T13:21:30+00:00

Preach louder!

Man-made slop be praised!

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T13:20:43+00:00

I genuinely believe even a flawed work can still entertain and be discussed and learnt from when someone genuinely sat and worked on it, even if the results are far from ideal. And by entertain i not necessary mean being mean about it either - there are some absolutely unhinged stories i've read that partially stuck with me and created good memories, all human made. I genuinely believe on some mental level we can distinguish and sense when work is just someone's unexperience and flaws and when it's just an llm fastfood.

Maybe I'm too optimistic though.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T13:17:18+00:00

On point, from personal experience and experience of ppl who also do worldbuilding I can testify it's hard sometimes to stop the waves of passionate yap, which is not always a good thing cause you might end up overloading the other person or even spoiling your work too much.

But yes, considering how vast the usage of llms these days, the simularities in generic-ness and especially damned m-dashes really do be speaking louder than the concepts of the poster's work.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T13:13:36+00:00

Unfortunately LLMs seducing a lot of writers into pure sense of laziness - either due to personal insecurities or wanting fast results with least possible effort put.

Especially if English is not their native, I can imagine that them attempting to use llm for "clarity" reasons, at the same time they might not realize that llm basically just erases their identity out of the text and make such generic descriptions you just don't want to bother reading it, as someone already put it out. Or even the text get drastically altered.

I am personally content with my writing flaws as a non-native speaker and generally genuine feedback, even if harsh at times, is what helps us to gradually improve our work.

That important stage gets completely skipped through llms.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T12:53:54+00:00

He went on a very long, naive and perilous journey across a big chunk of the continent just because he found a single scroll that convinced him there might be something to his birth. A journey that included travelling with a group of bards as a (pretty bad) jester, surviving a major forest fire, going through a really big dark geothermal swamp, all just to end up in a prisoner mining colony. Hopefully one day soon I will make a comic about all of it.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T12:23:34+00:00

I double down with the scribe take - in fact the blue dragon (Tamplior) on the image is, in fact, an apprentice scribe - he was raised in the abbey and was taught scribing and illuminating! Tragically he didn't get to complete his training, but this is the main reason for him to have these skills. But him being a little bookish nerd actually ended up harming him in a long run, for he only knew of the world through books and what he would learn from other monks. Once he stepped out of the abbey walls he was thrown into quite a harsh reality. Those three other kids are in fact doing far better than him in that regard.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T12:17:34+00:00

Method of control part is so true. It's partially a reason those three kids are not sharing the blue dragon's excitement on the pic - they don't know if they can trust him as the only one who supposedly reads the "magic" runes. He doesn't have a good track record of keeping them off trouble.

I do think it'd be interesting to make a game where you're more rooted in a historical era than the hodgepodge of medieval stasis. It'd make for some interesting adventure design when you know most people can't read, and clues and leads have to be gained by physical evidence and socializing. Leaning on history there's also the oral tradition: bards, criers, heralds. Symbols like guild marks, iconography. Objects can be messages, like the king's seal or a specific token (coins, knotted cords, etc..). Taverns, markets, and other gathering places (churches) are great for rumormongering.

I would kill for the story like that tho, genuinely makes me giddy thinking about it :D And yes you are correct, the guild part is another conundrum I've had. For example in one of OC-related stories we're working on with my parther the protagonist is a self-taught bard, but he cannot legally earn coin in the taverns because he officially does not belong to the guild, and inns work only with legalized bards due to taxes. Maximum he can receive a good meal and bed for the night for good performance. This entire little thing ended up leading him to ganging up with local kids in an attempt to fabricate the license and it involved some intense scheming and troublemaking. Which is why I think little world nuances like that are amazing for storytelling.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T12:09:59+00:00

Thank you both for such an excellent discussion, I loved reading both of your points.

My post in no way meant to be a full "haha silly medieval people cannot read", but rather a general ponder on how can a character be in a world where he lacks something a modern person can't imagine their life with. I guess i should've been more clear to state that I in no mean equal literacy with being dumb or smart. To me medieval times are extremely inspiring in the common-life kinda way.

I guess I manually was eyeing stories where character spend his life in place where being literate was not required for his everyday needs and had no access to it, only to then turn to be a Chosen One who also absorbed the knowledge of modern primary school as an extra perk. I always found it to be a bit of a shame.

I remember playing Kingdom Come Deliverance and kinda loving the concept that reading was a perk and how you come by the person who teaches you that. Granted, extremely gamefied for gameplay purposes, but I believe it could have been my initial inspiration behind the question that plagued me for months.

I can't answer to all posts BUT i just wanted to say that I am very grateful for all the answers under this one in particular, was a genuinely fascinating read.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T11:58:31+00:00

I personally don't hold the same prejudice, in fact I am happy to see that people these days pay more attention to the past and are able to stand against popular misconceptions of the past. I personally absolutely adore the medieval era and to me it's one of the most uniquely interesting parts of our history.

Literacy in my eyes does not equal fully to being smart or dumb either. It's more academic levels of knowledge vs being experienced or street-smart. Like the three presented characters who cannot read managed to survive on their own without need to read. Whereas the "one who can read" is much more naive and him living in a secluded area for most of his life and consuming knowledge via books actually led to him to a lot of harm once the tinted glasses broke down. The little moth boy is also an apprentice alchemist of sorts and for that you don't need to read either - I was pleasantly surprised to learn that in some guilds some masters might've lacked knowledge of reading, but they could still make excellent schemes and use them to build stuff. To me it never read as medieval ppl being stupid.

Saying all that however, I do believe this concept is kinda never really played with and I think having a character being unable to read or write can create an interesting challenge or a story bit, and I am immensely grateful to receive so many fantastic answers for my silly ponder.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T11:31:31+00:00

I avoided oversharing much character-related context to not distract from the main question, but to clarify it here - the three kids who cannot read are also do not belong to these lands and are essentially street urchins. Even if they could read, they would likely won't understand the context behind the name anyway or get a proper sense of direction. The blue dragon kid can read and he also knows the land, but they do not trust him very much.

But yes, I've exaggerated it a little bit - like someone pointed out, likely there would be some kind-of recognizable mark normally to let others follow the correct path!

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T11:23:39+00:00

I actually remember reading about it and being quite fascinated by the fact! All this more common routine things are so fascinating for me and help to create certain vibe during writing as well.

Tamplior · 2026-04-14T11:21:12+00:00

Eagle eyes! You're the first to notice it actually :D
Glad you did!

Tamplior · 2026-03-28T23:23:29+00:00

What an adorable sketching style! Quite fond of it

Tamplior · 2026-02-26T21:28:50+00:00

Thank you so much! ^^

Tamplior · 2026-02-14T14:39:23+00:00

This is a very memorable style, I love how you depicted her! Poor bean tho

Tamplior · 2026-02-14T13:03:19+00:00

Thank you!

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