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Overpowered Magic in Meiste I:

Perlocutionary Language Magic

In a later post I will explain magic in my conworld, Meiste, but one form of magic is Language magic. An overpowered ability some language magicians hold is the power to turn locutionary actions into perlocutionary results.

J. L. Austin was a philosopher interested in language, and he coined the terms "locutionary," "illocutionary," and "perlocutionary" to refer to sentences which invoke actions and the result thereof. Locution is literal meaning, but illocution refers to what an utterance has done, and perlocution refers to what happened thereafter.

For example, when you say "have a good day," you invoke perlocution to enforce that the person to whom you spoke should have a good day. When you say "please pass the salt," perlocution involves somebody passing the salt.

It's not hard to see why this is overpowered, then. If a perlocutionary language magician says "damn you!" then you may or may not be damned, depending on the magic behind it. Or if they say "bless you!" you may literally be blessed.

This may even be extended to sentences like "give me money," where now somebody may give the person who spoke money.

This is definitely overpowered, but I argue definitely not as overpowered as most Earth magic.

Random but I'm a linguistics nerd from the Southern US here: am I the only one that says /ˈfʌk.ˌal/? With the stress on the "fuck?"

Although, in these sentences, I actually pronounce "fuck all" like it's still two separate words, with the stress on both syllables, like /ˈfʌk#ˈal/.

If you know about vpns do you also know about pirating stuff? Because id need some help😞

"Fuck all" means "nothing."

There are solid piracy guides on reddit, but I'm not really the correct person to answer questions about piracy.

do you guys ever just have the most BRILLIANT of ideas randomly come to you and make you suddenly SUPER happy? >:D

hmm another cool Tagalog thing that isn't in modern English (to the extent of my knowledge, that is) - and which can be found in other languages too! - are gender neutral pronouns and words for people. this wasn't something I noticed until I started reading more and more English books, because I realized that a lot of these words have no direct equivalent in English.

the word siya, meaning he/she, singular. I wouldn't say it's an equivalent to the English gender neutral "them" as it is purely used as a singular pronoun.

anak, meaning son/daughter. For me the English translation "child" is not 100% accurate, since child could also mean a random kid that isn't your son and daughter, while anak quite literally means child as in offspring.

a few more familial terms like pamangkin (nephew/niece), bienan (parent-in-law), manugang (child-in-law).

and then there are ones like kapatid, sibling, and asawa, spouse, but I think these are more often used in casual conversation compared to their English equivalents.

and then we have the aspects of the language that were directly influenced by Spanish, so we have some gendered words in usage, hence the terms Filipino/Filipina. however, in these instances, people generally aren't very strict on using the "correct" gendered word when talking casually. really threw me for a loop when I started learning romance languages that had gendered nouns, lol. thank you for listening to my random rambling~

Day 23 (32 in base 7) of Rewriting my Novel

I was on a plane again today, so I wrote a bunch. If I didn't crack 30,000 today, I'll crack 30,000 tomorrow. Yay!

I finally got around to writing an introduction for this blog, which was long overdue. I'm definitely not only shouting off into the void of binary while I continue to write.

Neither Odapir nor Ipol are to a point where I would feel comfortable publishing a dictionary, but they're to a point where I can translate as I need to and derive words on the fly. If I ever get to a point where I have 1,500-2,000 words, I'll publish a dictionary, then. Probably online.

Day 19 (25 in base 7) of rewriting my novel.

I wrote another 1,000 words ish. I've been adding roughly 1,000 words per day, and as a result, I'm somewhere along the order of 24,000 or so words total.

Today, I also completed a grambank table for Ipol! A while ago, @dedalvs created a grambank spreadsheet for conlangs that has been very helpful for documenting my conlangs' grammars (so I don't forget them,) and today I finished a "draft" of a finalized one for Ipol.

I will link it here:

Google Docs

Ipol Grambank

Language Features Grambank Feature,Basic Category,Subcategory,Y/N,Conlang Description and Example(s) <a href="https://grambank.clld.org/par

Submit any questions about it that you might have, or submit translations! I'm always looking to expand the lexicon.

That's all for now.

EDIT: I mistakenly credited David J. Peterson with creating this spreadsheet, but he's just who I heard it from! It is actually by Jessie Peterson.

Edit 2: I knew David Peterson and Jesse Peterson were married, but I didn’t piece together that it was Jesse Peterson who created the grambank spreadsheet.

I saw this from @oldfashionedidiot and this post is giving major Lozef-Dolgof vibes, especially in the "early days" (years 0-75, when Lozef was trying her hardest to win over Dolgof.)

But this is still true for Lozef! I do imagine that Dolgof would eventually find Lozef's undying devotion weird, and that's part of the reason for The Big Disappearance TM, but Lozef is so undyingly loyal to Dolgof that she's also undyingly loyal to her kid, Izi.

Even though she literally stabs Dolgof in the back, she knows it's wrong and is being manipulated by the President of Zeneste to consolidate power. That's why she comes running back to Izi: not only is she loyal to him, she's also loyal to Dolgof and wants to see her back on her feet.

That, and, she literally wrote a thousands-of-pages-long Epic about her journeys with Dolgof right after it happened. This is literally the Epic of the Hero of Life.

fuck unrequited love, give me unrequited devotion! give me a character who worships the mere ground their s/o walks on. give me a character who would do anything, cross any boundary or burn any bridge for the one they love. give me a character reveres and adores their partner to a religious (and unhealthy) extent

but the devotee just doesn’t get it. they don’t understand what they’ve done to receive this treatment or why the other character looks at them like they’ve just seen salvation. they fear they will never live up to the devoted one’s expectations and sometimes they wonder if their s/o is even in love with them, or if they’re really in love with the perfect version of them that they’ve created in their mind.

bonus points if the constant devotion and worship starts to drive a wedge between them!!!!!!

If Tumblr shuts down, we should all move to github. We can make github pages and fork each others' repos as an alternative to reblogging.

Ok I figured I'd reblog this bc my most developed conlang, Ipol, is the source of the names for the six Meistian magics: Cognition, Mind, Doom, Earth, Language, and Life. The English names don't really lend themselves to the poles that the Zenestians derived.

Lozerief coined the first three terms: Earth, Language, and Life. She translated them as meiete, lozezonif, and iboelzon.

Hota, then, coined the term "espool" to mean "anti-language" magic, or "Mind."

Izi, following suit, coined the term "emeete" meaning "anti-earth" magic, or "cognition."

Tagif, finally, coined the term "eleerif" meaning "anti-life" magic or "Doom."

I just thought this was cool.

Worldbuilding and Magic Systems: Things to Consider

Have a magic system in mind for your fantasy world? Here's a list of things to consider to help you tie this system into the rest of your worldbuilding, so that it feels more believable and realistic.

Source

What is the source of magic? Is it natural or man-made? Can humans use magic or is it a force of nature that only animals or other races can use?

Does magic originate from inside a person or does it require external items to use? If it comes from items, can the items be made? How long does it take to make the items?

Does the magic cost anything- money, stamina, health, etc.?

Can a person be cut off from being able to use magic? If so, how?

Prevalence

How common is magic in your world? Is it so common that everyone has seen it or is it a subject of myths and rumors?

How long have the people in your world known about magic? Has it always been there or is it a new discovery?

How much does the average person know about magic? How much do experts know? What do people not understand about this magic? Are there any common misconceptions? Myths?

Is magic revered or feared? Or if it's common, is it taken for granted? Are there any taboos surrounding magic?

How many types of magic are there? Are some more common than others?

Are there dedicated schools of thought surrounding the study of magic? Is it taught about in schools? If so, is it taught to children or only at the college (or equivalent) level?

Accessibility

Who can use magic? Who can't? Is it something that only the rich and powerful can use? Why? Or do genetics determine who can use it? Wealth?

Are there any physical limitations that might restrict who can use magic? For instance, maybe old or sickly people can't use magic because it requires a lot of physical effort. Does your society provide accommodations for people who can't use magic? Is a lack of magic ability considered a disability?

Does education level determine capacity for magic?

How easy is it to gain access to magic? How easy is it to learn about magic?

Power/Usefulness

How powerful or useful is magic for different parts of society? Military? Medicine? Entertainment? Art? Childcare? Government? Communication? Business?

How does magic affect the politics of your world? How does it shape the economy? Are there feuds over the use of magic? Do powerful groups in your world have an incentive to limit the use and accessibility of magic? Why?

What happens when people no longer have access to magic? Does this cripple their ability to go through their daily lives? How?

Mix, match, and cross-reference these with other elements of your worldbuilding to form a believable magic system that lives and breaths just as the rest of your world does. For every answer you give to the questions above, consider and build upon the implications of what that might mean for your world. A worldbuilder's best skill is the ability to ask "How will this affect ___?" So make sure you're always considering the ripple effects of each element you add to your world.

Happy worldbuilding y'all!