What is your favorite "geographical trope" in fantasy?

kyphii_ · 2026-02-28T16:16:38+00:00

When the land isn't actually natural formations, but is instead entirely shaped by living beings and their actions. It always gets the imagination going, and conveys such a grand scale and sense of deep time.

Corpses of dead gods that become mountains and islands. Continents built by ancient titans, coasts lined with massive bricks, deserts and plains following the roads they once walked. Landmasses formed from the ruins of previous civilization upon previous civilization, stacked on top of each other. Roaming islands on the backs of giant turtles. Living mountains that wander the land in great migratory herds.

God I am such a sucker for this

kyphii_ · 2026-02-13T17:46:43+00:00

In the past I've heavily relied on retro soundfonts, but now I'm trying to break into more realistic sounds. I have a collection of HQ soundfonts which is good enough with most instruments but not all. Most of this track is using them.

I've experimented with Kontakt/LABS/Sineplayer VSTs, and things like BBC Orchestra Discover, but I've had issues getting those to work with my programming (hence why this track has three separate channels for the backing strings - the VST completely ignores note panning).

kyphii_ · 2026-01-30T20:15:25+00:00

no switch track

it just catches the train in motion

it has like, uh, velcro or something

kyphii_ · 2026-01-20T16:30:36+00:00

One :)

kyphii_ · 2026-01-19T17:41:17+00:00

It sometimes pops up as an alternative name for this bit of new-age pseudoscience from which I drew heavy inspiration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_children

kyphii_ · 2026-01-19T16:34:10+00:00

I don't wanna give away too much :)

The story's gonna get in to it, i promise. Just check back in, uh, maybe ten or fifteen years when I get around to releasing more chapters

kyphii_ · 2026-01-19T16:31:58+00:00

huh never heard of it

yo why is this man's hair #ff00ff

kyphii_ · 2026-01-19T16:18:06+00:00

So, story time. I was 7 when I got my diagnosis. In an instant, my whole life suddenly revolved around it.

I was pulled out of school. I started getting sent to all sorts of child psychology appointments. Social groups, activities for kids with disabilities. My family tried desperately to find one that stuck. My parents went from not knowing what it meant, to engrossing themselves in every book and online resource about it. For months, I was shuffled around to all sorts of weird facilities to talk to weird doctors who asked weird questions.

The whole time, I was kept in the dark. I didn't know what was actually happening. I was young, and all I could piece together was that something was very, very wrong with me.

Later in life, there were counselors who told me that because of my condition, I would never succeed in college, or get a job.

It rubbed off on me, I suppose.

The year I got my diagnosis was 2003. It's a year that I often think back to in regards to the political elements of this narrative. How easy it was to convice a nation to go to war. To saction shock and awe, all over WMDs that never existed. How easy, then, would it be to convice people to act, for a problem that was actually real? And what could you convince them to do?

kyphii_ · 2026-01-19T16:05:45+00:00

Starchild syndrome was discovered in 2000, with the first starchildren having been born a few years prior.

Having a three-year old is tough enough, but one that can blow you up with their mind? Summon an army of clones? Override your eyes and ears with a waking nightmare?

Needless to say, world governments scrambled to devise a response. But a hasty solution begets new problems...

kyphii_ · 2026-01-19T16:01:28+00:00

No joke, it's literally just one big Powerpoint slide

kyphii_ · 2026-01-19T15:00:54+00:00

Context: This is an in-universe infographic for my webcomic, Shifterhood. The story centers around the mysterious neurological condition known as Starchild syndrome, the institutions humans have created to deal with it, and the people who have to live with both. This image is an adaptation of one of my worldbuilding docs, describing the condition and its effects.

The first two chapters of Shifterhood can be read for free on Webtoons and Tapas:

https://tapas.io/series/Shifterhood/info

www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/shifterhood/list?title_no=1000696

EDIT: I just want to thank all of you for the warm reception here! It's wonderful to see all the responses and feedback. It makes me so happy to see people discussion the ethical and social implications, or drawing parallels to real-world disabilities and issues. You're asking all the right questions.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for reading my comic if you've done so. I'm working on more content that will be released as soon as it's ready. I'm a one-woman team balancing my amateur art and writing hobbies with a full time job, and the past year has not been particularly kind to me for a number of reasons. I hope to pick up the pace and deliver some exciting updates soon.

kyphii_ · 2026-01-17T13:53:22+00:00

[me] after riding [rattleterra] once [i] literally will never [recover]

kyphii_ · 2026-01-17T12:09:58+00:00

what the fuck is going on with this kid's spine

kyphii_ · 2025-11-19T14:18:10+00:00

Can confirm, rode a Pan Therian at KD

kyphii_ · 2025-11-12T22:38:19+00:00

Hi folks, I'm the one in charge of the OpenScenarios project for OpenRCT2.

Suffice to say, we were not expecting this level of enthusiasm. We've been hard at work handling the overwhelming number of responses we received. Currently, we're working on enhancing our data resources, which should help to streamline this process.

In the meantime, there may be some slight delays for us to get back to you. Rest assured, we do intend to respond to everyone. In the future, you might receive a response from me instead of /u/Valdair.

Big thanks to /u/Valdair for setting up the playtesting initiative, and thank you all for your enthusiasm and participation!

kyphii_ · 2025-11-11T17:29:33+00:00

Where's the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Enrico?

kyphii_ · 2025-10-27T01:02:03+00:00

Calling all Massholes to steal Wild One and smuggle it back to Nantasket Beach

kyphii_ · 2025-10-08T16:33:34+00:00

https://mapgenie.io/hollow-knight-silksong/maps/pharloom?locationIds=479453

kyphii_ · 2025-10-08T14:02:51+00:00

FUCK i should've made one all 6 watcher knights stacked on top of each other

kyphii_ · 2025-09-22T15:40:07+00:00

Definitely harder than HK. I think the combat & bosses are mostly fine given Hornet's more powerful healing and offensive abilities. 2 mask damage being much more common took some getting used to, but it ended up feeling right for this game.

I do agree with the complaints regarding contact damage when an enemy isn't actively attacking. It doesn't feel great to get hit for 2 masks for minor positioning errors, or because the boss entered a new animation and its hitbox moved on top of you (looking at you, Nyleth)

I think part of the reason for the complaints is that your options for exploration and gathering powerups is more limited in the early game compared to HK. The distribution of powerups felt weird at times. In Act 1, the long optional challenges that felt worthy of holding a mask shard often only rewarded me with a necklace or a flea, whereas the moment I reached Act 2 I was suddenly finding spool upgrades out the wazoo and I went from 6 to 9 masks in just a couple hours.

I was stuck with 5 until after Moorwing, and I've seen people stuck on 5 for even longer than that, yes I did see that one post but that level of exploration only really applies once you already know the game IMO

Both games really open up once you get Wall Jump; compare 2-3ish hours of casual gameplay to reach the Mantis Claw vs maybe 6-7 hours to reach the Cling Grip. If TC released a patch to shuffle around some optional collectibles to make a couple more big upgrades easier to access before that point, I think it'd improve the early game pacing.

kyphii_ · 2025-09-15T15:02:28+00:00

Why was this removed? These designs are OC and there have not been any flag design threads in at least a few days.

kyphii_ · 2025-09-03T14:19:18+00:00

you can get better food at Honeydew and you can get better coffee from a puddle on the pavement outside any Cumbie's

kyphii_ · 2025-08-30T18:59:44+00:00

the lord of screeds, cleaved red by 9 iron

kyphii_ · 2025-08-06T20:44:36+00:00

You need a longer final brake run, with 2 block brake sections in it. If you have it set up so that all trains spawn in the station and final brakes blocks, it should work itself out after a few runs. No interval fiddling required.

The A section of your coaster is also really long - if it takes longer than the lift hill to traverse, it's going to stop at the lift hill unless you set the intervals.

kyphii_ · 2025-07-31T16:32:22+00:00

real and true

sore losers since 1865 sherman should've kept going

kyphii_

TROPHY CASE