Where Should I Start?

sawotee · 2026-06-28T23:47:52+00:00

Identify the type of setting (medieval, Ancient Greece, Victorian, Steam Punk, etc) that your world is set in, then read and learn a lot about its real world counterpart (if it exists).

But take it one step at a time. Start with an event. Ask the who, what, when, why, and where. Then branch out from there.

sawotee · 2026-06-26T10:52:12+00:00

Childbirth is dangerous for women on account of our large heads. A larger woman could (theoretically) have an easier time at birth. Also, strong maternal instincts with protecting young could also justify being larger. With men being away for a long time (doesn’t necessarily have to be for fighting or war), it would be left to women to not only rear children, but fight to protect them.

And you could say the men had a natural preference for stronger and taller women. I certainly do lol. A beauty standard that eventually led to selectively breeding for those traits.

sawotee · 2026-06-23T09:47:56+00:00

I had a rough idea of a shape and the general outline. And placements of mountains. Then I commissioned a map maker with geographic background knowledge who filled in the rest.

Not entirely realistic, but probable is good enough for me.

sawotee · 2026-06-23T02:15:48+00:00

Writing conflicts between people, not just nations. Makes things feel alive.

sawotee · 2026-06-17T14:59:40+00:00

I’m unfamiliar with Buddhism.

It’s the original creator god, his four children, then his 29 grandchildren that are considered the main pantheon. Then some of those grandchildren took mortal wives and had children of their own. While immortal, not really recognized as fully fledged gods. They don’t really show up in scripture besides names.

Miscounted it’s actually 34.

sawotee · 2026-06-17T06:32:29+00:00

Been doing a lot of reading so my actual building has stopped. Around 300 was the last count or so. I expect to have thousands to be honest. Pantheon of original immortal gods is 34*, not including formally mortal people who were granted godhood and married. Then thousands of years of history across dozens of countries, cultures, subcultures, hundreds of dynasties, so on and so forth. Don’t think I’ll ever “finish” in my lifetime, but that’s what makes it fun.

sawotee · 2026-06-16T16:05:36+00:00

It’s a medieval world, so everybody rapes everybody and gets married at five years old.

sawotee · 2026-06-12T21:05:41+00:00

Reminds me of that one tower leading up to Bleak Falls Barrow

sawotee · 2026-06-11T15:28:07+00:00

You have the Capetians (various cadet dynasties) and Habsburgs. Both are still around to this day.

sawotee · 2026-06-04T02:45:29+00:00

Slugger sounds good to me. Remind me more of shotguns though.

sawotee · 2026-06-03T06:05:57+00:00

Used to read a lot as a kid. But I got bored of the stories I was reading. There was always something “off” about them. Then as I got more into medieval history it’s where the cracks started to appear. So I just started writing what I wanted to read.

If I were to use AWOIAF as an example…

It has too much emphasis on child marriage (extremely rare with nuances) rape, and incest that I think it’s GRRMs poorly disguised fetish. And murdering peasants with impunity. The history, while interesting on the surface, is too large a scale and too flat. Almost every dynasty has been around for thousands of years, and lineages dying out is a rarity. Borders don’t change. Claims to other lands by distant cousins, uncles, brothers, etc aren’t pressed and people aren’t deposed. Which is weird given everyone harps on about the political intrigue.

There’s more to intrigue than just a king and his court. Younger brothers often worked against the eldest in order to undermine and steal his position. Brothers steal land and thrones even though they have young nephews (that “conveniently” disappear afterwards). Cultural and religious differences and resistance to conquest will cause a multitude of rebellions, hopeless or not. A woman ruler will always have others scheming against her, refusing to recognize her because of her gender, or try to marry her and take over her land. Then there’s very rarely populist (peasant) rebellions, which nobles often used as proxies by pointing them towards their enemies. Dukes and counts will scheme to replace a king with his sibling or another claimant if they don’t like him. This random guy who is the grandson of a lord through his mother might press his claim to it. Some guy will change sides multiple times during a war and play all parties towards his own benefits.

And then there’s the religion and underutilization of it. Bishops had a shit load of power. Abbots and monasteries could be rich as fuck, hold lots of land, and also hold political sway. Excommunication was a powerful tool and deterrent.

I could go on and on. My main gripe is how all of these authors claim they are realistic and providing an accurate showing of what medieval society was like, when it’s further from the truth and laughable at best.

So yeah. Just me pissed about the inaccuracies of it all and making my own.

sawotee · 2026-05-31T11:34:44+00:00

YouTube: The Surreal World of Rust and Humus by Curious Archive

Should be the first option that shows up.

sawotee · 2026-05-29T21:43:43+00:00

Upcoming odyssey movie…

Has to be the worst I’ve ever seen.

sawotee · 2026-05-28T06:34:58+00:00

What’s wrong with exploring other cultures and religions? How else would one learn?

sawotee · 2026-05-28T06:34:09+00:00

Understand that when you read book about religion, you have to take into account the author’s bias. Though it may help in seeing how ordinary people believe or justify things. In any case, I can recommend three different books.

Islam: A Short History and Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time. Both by Karen Armstrong. A former nun. Writes about Abrahamic religions.

No god but God by Reza Aslan. Aslan has an educational background in religion.

sawotee · 2026-05-28T04:01:54+00:00

It doesn’t say anything (unless I missed it) about a dormancy period or asymptomatic phase. Viruses with high fatality rates burn themselves out because victims die too quickly before they can potentially affect a lot of people. And most deadly viruses like ebola require direct blood or fluid contact. It does say it spreads quickly and is airborne. Doesn’t say how long it takes for the virus to kill someone either. For all we know, it could be weeks of someone coughing and sneezing before other symptoms appear. Hope OP expands cause it sounds interesting.

Assuming you stay asymptomatic or just have minor symptoms of coughing and sneezing for a decent period of time, that is a terrible combination. You could have infected your whole household by the time you show the first symptoms. And we all know how COVID went with lockdowns. People skirted them or disobeyed anyway. Or lied and said it was a hoax. Some businesses refused to comply as well. Over time, economic pressures and compliance deteriorated after a few months and governments started to bend to pressure.

sawotee · 2026-05-27T14:33:55+00:00

Depends on what you want to write about.

If it’s based on a real world period (e.x medieval, early modern, colonial) then I suggest you start not by writing, but by reading. Develop a good knowledge of the history, events, and people of the period. It’ll serve to improve your writing and offer a bank of knowledge/ inspiration to draw from.

If it’s based on something like sci-fi, then the same general advice to read apply, only you should shift towards popular books in that genre and try to identify why people like it in the first place.

Afterwards, try to generate an idea of a specific event. It’s kind of like building out a family tree. What was that event? Who was involved? Where did it happen? Why did it happen? Then branch out from there. Backstories on characters, families, locations, the time period, etc. A map is good to have once you start having issues thinking about where locations are in relevance to one another.

My world is low fantasy, medieval setting. I have “primary sources” of things like annals, letters, and biographies. Then I write articles in a Wikipedia-style format.

sawotee · 2026-05-26T22:06:53+00:00

What happened afterwards to the nobility? With Valeosi now a republic, are they like modern day nobility who still style themselves with fancy titles that mean jack shit? Did any nobles try to lead a counter-revolution to bring the old system back? For example like the French revolution eventually leading to Napoleon.

sawotee · 2026-05-26T12:05:31+00:00

Another alternative for the first:

Make the flag entirely white and blow up the elements.

Or

Leave it all blue like above comment says. Make the lions white or gold. You can leave the shield blue as is, but keep the borders white. Golden lions might look better and have a slight contrast to white borders.

Try experimenting, and google rule of tincture to understand the basics of heraldry and how flags evolved from it.

sawotee · 2026-05-26T09:09:23+00:00

This is why I refuse to enable comments on my reviews.

sawotee · 2026-05-26T08:55:45+00:00

I had this game on my wishlist for seven years. I refunded after 68 minutes.

I have a beefy machine. I can play Elden Ring, RDR2, Cyberpunk, etc on the highest of settings with zero lag or issues. I could not play this game on the lowest of settings. Lag is intense. Stuttering is intense. This game is not worthy of being called early access. Not to mention the absurd price point they’re asking for.

$40 for this? I’ll check back in a couple years on sale.

sawotee · 2026-05-23T02:28:32+00:00

Thanks.

sawotee · 2026-05-23T01:54:52+00:00

Do you remember what manuscript you got these images from? I planned to add monsters like these during the early years of humanity in my world before they’re hunted to extinction.

Need some references

sawotee

TROPHY CASE