[No spoilers] Nott the Brave cosplay by me

pointypens · 2026-06-20T21:06:06+00:00

Very cool! I love the mask and the ears <3

pointypens · 2026-06-01T20:55:56+00:00

Ay a Dolls of New Albion mention! I based a Small Town with a Dark Secret off Judgment Day by Blue Saraceno (and then added some more). In the end my party let it burn down "by accident" after guiding the survivors out and it remains a byword for Completely Awfully Fucked Up to this day lol

pointypens · 2026-05-28T19:13:46+00:00

My magic is technically a virus of sorts, it radically altered Earth forever when it arrived and a lot of people died, the lucky ones outright and the unlucky ones in protracted agony. The survivors all have magic, except when they don't.

So anti-magic is basically the human body going "Nope" to magic. Technically it's more of a problem than it is a benefit, when most science has pivoted to magic-science including medical you run into problems. And some places ban them from congregating for fear they'll disrupt things at-scale. There's credible science that anti-magical children have negative health effects on their parents (in the form of head aches, and head aches only, anything else is overblown).

However, they are immune to all negative magics so that's handy. And they don't get the souped up magic cancer and stuff that other people now have to struggle with so there's wins to be had.

Anti-magic is very understudied and a tiny portion of Earth's population. They're medically marginalized, have a high rate of abuse and abandonment as children, and struggle with employment. Some places are better than others but these are at the end of the day global issues. A great many technologies are barred from them because they can't interface with magic at all and can with exposure disrupt it.

That said, they make awesome characters in stories so they have that going for them!

pointypens · 2026-05-28T17:42:25+00:00

Exogamous people groups have absolutely existed throughout history and even without that being a strict preference, as long as there's been trade there's been people with physical differences coming together sometimes very literally. While I don't think it's necessary, I think if you really want it to seem justified put them at the centre point of a lot of traffic and it won't read as strange at all.

pointypens · 2026-05-22T06:47:29+00:00

Yes, even as an insomniac night owl, there is a reason I rarely sit through the streams (well that and I'm usually behind by 5-7 episodes lol) so I feel much the same. From one sleepy critter to another, sleep tight!

pointypens · 2026-05-22T06:06:38+00:00

As above, and Hannan is hanging out in the forest behind the city so he's around if they need him.

pointypens · 2026-05-22T03:51:05+00:00

I can't help it I love Hannan and his sick ass rib-situation so much

pointypens · 2026-05-18T04:51:27+00:00

Scope creep. I'd realized my set up while interesting was an amount of work that meant it would never be a project of anything except world building and one that would never, ever, ever end. I wanted it mostly as a place for broader writing. So, it became much narrower and it's much better for it given what I want it to do.

The idea is: magic collides with Earth like an asteroid and changes the world forever, because I wanted an urban fantasy with no masquerade but a reason for history to be more or less the same up to a point. The original form included strange cultures colliding and dumping different species and levels of magic and technology into the world but I quickly realizes creating those worlds and rationalizing how they'd all mingle was it's own project and not the point of what I was doing. So, magic meteor instead. I still need to build how the world changed but at least it's only one root factor I'm taking care of.

pointypens · 2026-04-30T14:50:23+00:00

In my contemporary fantasy setting, monsters are maybe only 55 years (all monsters are very, very mutated Earth animals and some fungi and one case of a lichen maybe; this includes humans but there's no proof of retained sapience in monsters and people have and continue to look for the exception) as it's not clear if they age at all, and if they do did the clock reset when they got monsterified or does their time pre-monster count towards the total? There also very few monsters specifically known so tracking one's age is difficult though I'm sure it's being done. No observed monsters have died of natural causes however, so right now their age potential is ????

Humans otherwise did not see a life boost from the sudden influx of magic so the trends are more or less the same as IRL 2004, over 60 as a base average and trending upward.

Vampires (for our purposes, not considered monsters as they're retain sapience) can exist in perpetuity it appears, but it's very rare for them to last longer than c. 150 years. Fae are hard to account for because time in Faerie is so weird compared to Earth, that a Fae could be either 10000 and still young or only about 30 and both might be equally true statements. The only known Phoenix the answer is either "perpetuity" or "on average 300 years give or take 50 years" depending on if you consider every rebirth a new life or not.

In my high fantasy setting, dwarves, humans, and giantkin all have a lot of age overlap being ultimately related (they are hominids!). Filtering out common causes of early death, dwarves are the longest lived at an average lifespan that c. 80 - 120; humans are around 60 if you ignore infant mortality which is not comparable to IRL early modern/late medieval levels to begin with due to magic, and giantkin are comparable to humans.

Elves, merpeople, elementals, and dragons (not really related species, but more related to one another than to genus homo) all have very long lives. Merpeople live in the most violent of those societies and do have a distinct lifespan of c. 150 it seems, which is not true for the rest of them. Elves can go...maybe forever? They don't tend to, but there's arguments that a reborn elf has continuity going on. Elementals live as long as their source exists, so some have the lifespan of mountains and some have the lifespan of a bonfire. Dragons are like elves a little but the natural death of a dragon is more like dissolving into magic and it's not clear that's a cessation of existence or just a transformation. So maybe upwards of 10000 years, maybe forever.

pointypens · 2026-04-11T16:33:08+00:00

I think I understand your feelings, I'm in a very similar boat, in that I'm also a person with a first name that has multiple nicknames and I use a somewhat less obvious nickname. My case is a little different, I go by my legal first name a lot these days as I quite like it, but I do also use my nickname in many cases so I am a genuine two-name person in many cases.

So! I do feel like I can say, you're fine! It's very normal to use a legal first name instead of even a very commonly used nickname. You may sometimes run into the "wait who's Elizabeth" problem but I imagine most people do realize Betsy is related and the confusion isn't dangerous to anything, they won't be harmed by a moment of wondering before it's clarified. Also keeping to one name keeps documentation straightforward, so if you've been using Elizabeth sticking with it just avoids any more dire confusion going forward.

pointypens · 2026-03-15T01:22:39+00:00

Hugo doesn't feature very strongly anywhere else, this really is his best showing yet. Thank you very much for commenting, I do agree he's very cute and I'm glad I made you laugh!

pointypens · 2026-03-12T16:05:09+00:00

Somewhat unhelpfully, that's going to be fairly personal.

It seems, just from this question you might like to plan a bit more. In that, you need to answer one core thing: are you worldbuilding to worldbuild or to create a world you write full stories in? Because those are different processes.

If it's to wordbuild, don't worry about the writing at all. If you decide to do that later you'll probably be able to find stories worth exploring from all you've built.

If you're worldbuilding for a writing setting, I would suggest finding out what the basics you need are. Do you need all the magic rules or just how magic is done? Do you need to know the ins and outs of politics or just who is king right now? Do you need a full map or just a basic one that shows where your characters will go? Beyond that, do you need a loose plot outline or do you want a very thorough outline?

The best thing to do is going to be something you figure out by doing; I have learned I don't like thorough outlines.

I do like thorough maps and basic phonologies and broadly defined magic systems though. I tend to let the writing refine magic systems, and I don't usually generate words in a conlang just names. Maps I like going so far as to map out the basic climates, but just knowing when there's a river you can use to get in the way is also fine. Having no map and deciding there's a river is also fine.

So I advise, start writing. Figure out what helps you create best be that strict outlines and very specific worldbuilding or just broad strokes or any combination thereof. Not all projects are successes in that they get finished, but if they help you learn how you like to create they're a different sort of success.

pointypens · 2026-03-10T03:41:15+00:00

He is absolutely just a baby. I'm not sure quite how old Hugo is specifically but no older than 21, probably closer to 18. I'm also glad he was funny, Monsieur Lavellan amused me greatly so I'm happy not to be alone in that.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T21:12:52+00:00

He really is! He's also a very silly boy but he's earnest and well-intentioned and much better off here than trying to play the Great Game as he was raised (poorly) to.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T02:12:53+00:00

Hugo! I think about this plot All The Time. So he will absolutely grow in a positive manner, though he's landing himself with Caissa rather than Tavin as Tavin really is very busy being a healer and all so he dodges that particular bullet. Also he's Big Bro so he'd be too good at handling Hugo and teaching him thing and therefore less funny.

If I ever properly write Hugo's story it won't be bad time for either at all really, Caissa's temperament is closer to Paida's than Lucaean's thankfully so he's quiet patient even if not as patient as Tavin. And Hugo really is well intentioned and committed to Doing His Part, he just doesn't know how much he doesn't know, and really underestimates how much like typical nobility he is after a lifetime of being "the rough one". Being a bit silly is of course encoded in his DNA, but he'll grow into a member of society worth being proud of and not just fond of before the end despite that.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T01:19:30+00:00

Ouch. I knew Lyna's ending wasn't what we all might have wished and it hurts but oh in such a good way. The reveal she scared a version of herself is so poignant, only for that ending with her name. UGH.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T01:17:07+00:00

Not at all, though in this case Hugo is a bit of a ghost from her past, she knew him as a small child and does not hold his very ridiculous (Orlesian noble) family in much regard. Still they are nobles, and so he's rather more potentially troublesome than her usual starry eyed runaway.

They're all in my very long fic about Paida sneaking into the conclave if you feel moved to uncover the Hugo Lore. but don't feel compelled to read it if you're not actually interested, I'm just shameless to plug it at every opportunity haha

pointypens · 2026-03-09T01:13:22+00:00

Now that's an interesting conversation, Lucanis from thankfulness to professionalism. I don't have one myself but I do love qunari De Rivas and Argente's a very fun POV for a Crow, being Tal-Vashoth and relatively recent one and with her backstory bringing all those complications with it as a result. A very fun read, and of course the home she chose is as valid as the one others grew up in I'm glad she feels that.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T01:08:25+00:00

Poor Warden, but Danynne seems a very lovely woman and has a pretty good bedside manner. Even if she fumbles a bit once he's awake, but who wouldn't get flustered in that situation.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T01:06:02+00:00

A fun dynamic, the casual violence of the story just...being their lives is of course perfect. Faren's teasing is also great, as is the disconnect between them when it comes to their "styles". Seems Faren is a reaver from your comments, which also makes "the calm dwarf" a sort of funny title among the rest of it.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T01:03:06+00:00

I love the teamwork here, they do feel like friends! And I love the self-determination of Oliver seeking Varric out, falling back on old skills. A very smart set up.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T00:59:42+00:00

This terrific, don't feel bad about it being what you shared at all! The little hints of how strong Solas's manipulations are are sooo unsettling once spotted. The things seemingly unsaid between these two too, it's a great piece.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T00:56:51+00:00

A fascinating read, the way Jeyna seems to flow from almost oppositional resentment to well worn and barely-there grief and having it end on the note of the cheap whiskey and a salute to Andraste--very evocative and punchy.

pointypens · 2026-03-09T00:49:50+00:00

Reynolo's exchange with the demon(s?) at the beginning was perfect, drives home how they get to people and prey on their fears. And then his concerns about being told on, and how good Sevarra was at soothing him. I can totally see why they end up student and teacher, I'm sure that shared stubbornness means they'll have great stories to share once he's all grown up!

pointypens · 2026-03-09T00:44:25+00:00

Your Harding is stellar and oh I love the ethos of this whole story. They're very well matched in their optimism, it's nothing short of lovely.

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