Nightmaricwriter - NightWriter

Better than what I imagine the requirements of invoking anti-Dark-God magic are. (Who would want to recite a whole incantation in a different language while pouring your blood on the ground and hoping you have enough magic power to not fail and or die that could very easily be stopped by even a second of hesitation- I'd fail.)

Magic system

How many WIPs

And

Challenges you have faced with your WIPs

Thank you for the ask <333

There's an essay incoming, beware

—

How Many WIPs?

I have no less than four novel-intended wips (Flamebearer, A Healing for the Birds, Soulswapped and the Lady's Lament), plus a few shorter works (The Disappearance of Charimone Eschredaine, [Succession of the Underground*] and [The Assassin's Promise*]) and a developing anthology of certain characters' backstories (This Blood-Stained Charcuterie)

*Placeholders; I've no clue what to call them yet

Challenges Faced With WIPs

A Healing for the Birds:

The main challenge with this is dealing with all the plot threads. One thing that has remained consistent even after all the changes since the first ever iteration of this wip (it used to be called Seafarer, then Obsidian Sapphires, and now this), is there being loads of plot threads. The difference is now those plot threads are more centred around the Allaitri Chalice and the political chaos of it being unearthed.

Up until recently, I wasn't sure what the core of the story was, but now I know. It centres around familiar ties and the things that people do in the name of love. (Sounds a bit corny out of context, though lol)

Flamebearer

I put this one on hold because I know it's going to be complex due to the heavy political themes in this. Unlike A Healing for the Birds, where the political situation is a little bit lighter and more petty, in a sense, the political scene is very charged here. There's a lot of resentment pointed towards the royal family due to things like Serrantine trying to rejoin Selade or the legacy of the Twenty-Year Winter, leading to unrest, death, grief, a lot more sombre and complex issues to deal with. I hope to be more confident in my writing so I can do Flamebearer justice, I find people seem to really like the premise and starting ideas, its associated Flash Friday pieces do quite well 😅

Soulswapped

Again, another wip put on ice to focus on the bird wip. I do want to get back to this at some stage, I have some vague ideas for how I want it to play out. I don't envision it to be as long as the two above, because its concept (the main character has to fight her way out of jail and the court it's in) is more constrained. There's nowhere near the amount of plot strings here. (The darker intrigue happens around the end/slightly thereafter 👀)

The Lady's Lament

I do not have experience writing contemporary stuff, which I think is what made it hard to start it. The concept's there, easy enough, but it's just actually sitting down and planning it that's the main thing.

Another challenge that is unique for this one to an extent, is the presence of Gaeilge here. The book is intended to be an ode to Irish culture, and if I was to complete it, I do intend for there to be a Gaeilge translation.

This Blood-Stained Charcuterie

One word: timeline. The setting for this collection has thousands of years worth of history, and so the challenge is figuring out who killed who and when. And not to mention all the stuff going on in the background, some of it is more influential than others.

The Magic System

Basically, it's based on the idea of magic being a biological substance present in the world. Most living things have a tolerance for it, but not all living things can actively use it.

Even then, there's two broad categories; faerie creatures, whom rely on simpler magic like moving things or simple tricks, and then the faeries/Carithaikh [start with one fae/one human parent, subsequent generations by any combination that isn't two faeries; these people can also be dubbed as witches], who can perform magic in a wide variety of ways.

Most people are born with an affinity to an element (such as fire, plant, water/ice, air, light, shadow, blood, lightning, dust, rock, metal, etc), which is then honed as the person gets older. It is also possible to learn certain elements, but some are harder than others, going on into near-impossible (e.g, it's hard to learn fire if one doesn't have an affinity for it [the genes of those who do are adapted to prevent burns and manage the heat more efficiently], but water is fairly easy to learn).

Another aspect that some people have but is much less common, are skill-based abilities. Shapeshifting and teleporting are the most common ones, but there's also a select few who can weave souls or see/interact with the domain of the spirits. Those last two are about one or few in a generation. (And interestingly, in Helinda there's no records of anyone who can interact with the spirit world, likely because Helindians burn their dead!)

But sometimes you'll get people with bespoke abilities. Some are merely unusual powers, such as purple fire, wood manipulation, blending with the shadows etc.

Others, are actual divine elements. They manifest as fire, light or water, and usage of then can have catastrophic effects. If the user doesn't die after using divine magic, it can cause things such as blindness, burns, nerve damage/neuropathy, constant dehydration, reduced magical abilities/stamina, chronic fatigue and/or other symptoms.

If the user has a part of a deity's soul entwined with them, then the effects are mitigated to an extent. (It occurs frequently with Fate's reprisals [her element is blue fire])

And then, there's also the external systems. These rely on the magic of the world instead of/as well as the user's. Things like runes, languages, diagrams, items, gestures and/or other tangible things are used for them.

These systems vary from place to place and between cultures, they're like programming languages in a sense. Each system has strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, Helinda's five-pointed star is great if you are a) in Helinda [or Morilaste]** b) looking to do things like a locating or summoning* spell, as well as anything relating to Helindian geography. It's great with maps!

However, it's not great for highly complex spells with lots of rules. That's where Seldaika's system shines. It has a four-pointed star, but the main mode of it is its language. It's a spell language, the grammar and vocabularly are tailor-made to support spells. Intention is also important, which is an aid in differentiating normal speech from a spell. Gestures also come into play, as do wands (syrchels), which are used as social indicators and statements of magical intent as well as to apply runes.

—

*summoning items is perfectly fine, as long as it's not someone else's item. Summoning people/spirits is illegal under Helindian law

**there's a decent amount of lore underpinning the reason for this phenomenon

—

I'm going to end it here, I hope you enjoyed it :D

Last Line/Paragraph Tag

Tagged By @illarian-rambling

Uhm I haven't written in this for a while, but I am not going to spoil some worldbuilding or character information. (I have like three thousand words I can shove at tag games so this is totally fine-)

Going with last line instead of last paragraph because either are equally out of context to what was happening.

Not with at least three out of the four named after the Ancient Gods and likely part of the same group of students.

Open tag because I don't tag people often.

Oh no, I've been... *gasps* ASKED A QUESTION? Whatever shall I do?

*writes an essay*

:>

*sends ask in response*

Ask exchange! Muahahahaha!

Behind the Scenes Writing Ask Game

So behind the scenes won the poll, but I thought I'd do an ask game with it!

✍️ "when did you get started writing?"

✏️"what are your current WIPs about?"

📜"how did you get started on your WIPs?"

📝"what stages are you currently in your WIPs?"

🖊️"how does your magic system work?"

🖋️"what inspired you to write your WIPs?"

📖"what has surprised you about your WIPs?"

💻"what perspectives do you write in?"

🖥️"what types of writing do you do?"

❤️"what are your favorite scenes from your WIPs?"

😭"what are the biggest challenges writing your WIPs?"

❗"how many WIPs do you have?"

‼️"what has stayed consistent across all drafts?"

⁉️"what do you do when stuck on a scene?"

❓ask anything you want!

If anyone wants to reblog this to play with too that's totally fine with me!

I know her skin looks tan, but that's mostly because I hate trying to make skin color accurate.

Also, I made these years ago. The sitting pose was stolen, I think? Obviously, her design has changed slightly, but the overall look is there. One is cropped to hide her name because I can.

My main oc has me bsing my way through blacksmithing...

Anyway, she is a lovely, tall young woman who finds a passion in being aggressively protective of things, like her family or a village/community. Her narration reveals that she sees herself as disposable, which is also why I make a certain narration choice with her that becomes quite apparent initially. As her view of herself shifts from negative to positive, she starts seeing herself as a main character, which shows in the narration style.

She has a power she despises despite using it when she needs to--on animals, not people. She got traumatized the one time that happened. She covers her eyes due to her power, although she can still see. It's just that a thin cloth prevents her power from harming others. Anyway, her senses are extremely enhanced because of her power, leading to her narration mentioning her hearing sounds and such more often than not.

She got used by her birth world, which led to her fleeing and living in the woods for a year (which, in her world, is equivalent to two of our years). After which, she is brought to her chosen world. She's my little baby.

Take over. Control everything. He is... ah... very creepily attracted to the main character. He wants to rule the world with her at his side and make her carry his children. Which is a bit hard considering she hates him and would hate him even more if he did something that would harm her brothers.

And he wants to see her eyes uncovered, which would kill him. Not the seeing her eyes part, but the her seeing him without her eyes covered.

Magic system

How many WIPs

And

Challenges you have faced with your WIPs

Thank you for the ask <333

There's an essay incoming, beware

—

How Many WIPs?

I have no less than four novel-intended wips (Flamebearer, A Healing for the Birds, Soulswapped and the Lady's Lament), plus a few shorter works (The Disappearance of Charimone Eschredaine, [Succession of the Underground*] and [The Assassin's Promise*]) and a developing anthology of certain characters' backstories (This Blood-Stained Charcuterie)

*Placeholders; I've no clue what to call them yet

Challenges Faced With WIPs

A Healing for the Birds:

The main challenge with this is dealing with all the plot threads. One thing that has remained consistent even after all the changes since the first ever iteration of this wip (it used to be called Seafarer, then Obsidian Sapphires, and now this), is there being loads of plot threads. The difference is now those plot threads are more centred around the Allaitri Chalice and the political chaos of it being unearthed.

Up until recently, I wasn't sure what the core of the story was, but now I know. It centres around familiar ties and the things that people do in the name of love. (Sounds a bit corny out of context, though lol)

Flamebearer

I put this one on hold because I know it's going to be complex due to the heavy political themes in this. Unlike A Healing for the Birds, where the political situation is a little bit lighter and more petty, in a sense, the political scene is very charged here. There's a lot of resentment pointed towards the royal family due to things like Serrantine trying to rejoin Selade or the legacy of the Twenty-Year Winter, leading to unrest, death, grief, a lot more sombre and complex issues to deal with. I hope to be more confident in my writing so I can do Flamebearer justice, I find people seem to really like the premise and starting ideas, its associated Flash Friday pieces do quite well 😅

Soulswapped

Again, another wip put on ice to focus on the bird wip. I do want to get back to this at some stage, I have some vague ideas for how I want it to play out. I don't envision it to be as long as the two above, because its concept (the main character has to fight her way out of jail and the court it's in) is more constrained. There's nowhere near the amount of plot strings here. (The darker intrigue happens around the end/slightly thereafter 👀)

The Lady's Lament

I do not have experience writing contemporary stuff, which I think is what made it hard to start it. The concept's there, easy enough, but it's just actually sitting down and planning it that's the main thing.

Another challenge that is unique for this one to an extent, is the presence of Gaeilge here. The book is intended to be an ode to Irish culture, and if I was to complete it, I do intend for there to be a Gaeilge translation.

This Blood-Stained Charcuterie

One word: timeline. The setting for this collection has thousands of years worth of history, and so the challenge is figuring out who killed who and when. And not to mention all the stuff going on in the background, some of it is more influential than others.

The Magic System

Basically, it's based on the idea of magic being a biological substance present in the world. Most living things have a tolerance for it, but not all living things can actively use it.

Even then, there's two broad categories; faerie creatures, whom rely on simpler magic like moving things or simple tricks, and then the faeries/Carithaikh [start with one fae/one human parent, subsequent generations by any combination that isn't two faeries; these people can also be dubbed as witches], who can perform magic in a wide variety of ways.

Most people are born with an affinity to an element (such as fire, plant, water/ice, air, light, shadow, blood, lightning, dust, rock, metal, etc), which is then honed as the person gets older. It is also possible to learn certain elements, but some are harder than others, going on into near-impossible (e.g, it's hard to learn fire if one doesn't have an affinity for it [the genes of those who do are adapted to prevent burns and manage the heat more efficiently], but water is fairly easy to learn).

Another aspect that some people have but is much less common, are skill-based abilities. Shapeshifting and teleporting are the most common ones, but there's also a select few who can weave souls or see/interact with the domain of the spirits. Those last two are about one or few in a generation. (And interestingly, in Helinda there's no records of anyone who can interact with the spirit world, likely because Helindians burn their dead!)

But sometimes you'll get people with bespoke abilities. Some are merely unusual powers, such as purple fire, wood manipulation, blending with the shadows etc.

Others, are actual divine elements. They manifest as fire, light or water, and usage of then can have catastrophic effects. If the user doesn't die after using divine magic, it can cause things such as blindness, burns, nerve damage/neuropathy, constant dehydration, reduced magical abilities/stamina, chronic fatigue and/or other symptoms.

If the user has a part of a deity's soul entwined with them, then the effects are mitigated to an extent. (It occurs frequently with Fate's reprisals [her element is blue fire])

And then, there's also the external systems. These rely on the magic of the world instead of/as well as the user's. Things like runes, languages, diagrams, items, gestures and/or other tangible things are used for them.

These systems vary from place to place and between cultures, they're like programming languages in a sense. Each system has strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, Helinda's five-pointed star is great if you are a) in Helinda [or Morilaste]** b) looking to do things like a locating or summoning* spell, as well as anything relating to Helindian geography. It's great with maps!

However, it's not great for highly complex spells with lots of rules. That's where Seldaika's system shines. It has a four-pointed star, but the main mode of it is its language. It's a spell language, the grammar and vocabularly are tailor-made to support spells. Intention is also important, which is an aid in differentiating normal speech from a spell. Gestures also come into play, as do wands (syrchels), which are used as social indicators and statements of magical intent as well as to apply runes.

—

*summoning items is perfectly fine, as long as it's not someone else's item. Summoning people/spirits is illegal under Helindian law

**there's a decent amount of lore underpinning the reason for this phenomenon

—

I'm going to end it here, I hope you enjoyed it :D

Oo I was tagged! Thanks, @rumeysawrites.

Rules: Write the given line in the voice of my characters. Possibly make another line.

Fun, fun.

My line is: "I'm not feeling well".

Lets see what chaos I can do with this.

For Stars Of The Sky- The God-named's voices

Hades: "I am not fine, but I am alive, so I am fine."

Zeus: "My body is fighting me. THUNDER!"

Ares: "I am losing to my body. This will not do."

Eros: "*sighs* Okay, so which of the three lovely ladies I was with had a cold? Because it certainly wasn't ME who had this first!"

Aphrodite: "Awww, the bacteria like me!"

Apollo: "Being sick is for peasants, and I am no peasant. Begone, disease!"

Artemis: "I've faced worse on the hunt."

Athena: "I am feeling unwell, but you needn't concern yourself. I am still stronger than you."

Demeter: "The harvest is low and prosperity thin."

Dionysus: "I need more wine. Or alcohol in general."

Nyx: "The night yearns for me to remain, lest the sun claim me."

There are more God-named, but I think you can tell that the God-named might be influenced by the gods they are named after in some cases. Some are dramatic, I feel, and others are... Whatever Zeus is. He's supposedly calmer than that in the story. I dunno haven't written a ton of him.

For the Gods... Yeah, they don't feel unwell in canon so I am not going to think about it.

For Sightless

Astro's Twin: "... Solitude is better than my current health."

Astro: "My sis can heal me, it's fine."

Solar: "What Astro said."

Granda: "I can't work the forge for a bit, is all. I'll be back to it in a few days."

Dreakan: "I am... sick? No! I mustn't be! I cannot possibly be sick! I need her! (Referring to Astro's twin. Who has a name, btw. I just like hiding it-) She will nurse me back to health! And then we-" *continues to blabber on about evil plans and making babies-*

Val: "Alas, my health is in decline and my bed calls my name! I must heed its call!"

Anyway, I am not tagging anyone, but I will come up with a line if anyone wants to do it.

"My heart cries, yet I want more."

Character Voice Tag!

tagged by @theink-stainedfolk (tysm ^^ your lines were awesome)

Rules are to simply write the line you’re given in your character’s voice.

My line was “Here, take this.”

Kaiden

“You could use this.”

Felix

“Hey, I got you something you may enjoy!”

Aleksi

“Here.”

Li Hua

“Here you go! Make good use of it, yeah?”

Tobias

“Eh, I’m not really needin’ this anymore.”

Noha

*they toss The Thing to you without a word.*

teehee

Your line is “What are you doing?”

no pressure:

Tag Game List! Lemme know if you’d like on/off via dm:

@sableglass @viridis-icithus @allaboutmagic @paeliae-occasionally

@inky-anathemata @vsnotresponding @nightlylaments @ancientmyth

@thebookishkiwi @verdant-mainframe @threedaysgross @fifis-corner @bamber344

@seafloor509 @viwritesthings @rumeysawrites @pizzamanstan

@vesanal @an-indecisive-nerd @the-ellia-west @willtheweaver @write-with-will

@teratheo

and open tag!

Petitions - UK Government and Parliament

Petition: Do not stop transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards

The previous government proposed changes to the NHS constitution which would mean transgender hospital patients in England may not be treate

Well fucks? Get to it!

Saw you liked my lastest post so I'm here to spread a little love and support! Love your work btw keep it up!!

Here you go! List 5 things that make you happy, then put this message in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! 💚

Oo positivity! Lovely!

I am going to overcomplicate the heck out of this just for fun.

Five things I like...

Off the top of my head, reading, writing, drawing, music, and being alone. But liking them doesn't necessarily mean they make me happy.

I like where I travel mentally when reading, and it makes me happy to be in fantasy land when I am reading. Away from the real world and the chaos.

I like creating a world when I write and draw, but the process is hard. Can't exactly get immediate results with either of them, and I will complain a ton, but the results make me happy.

Music ends up being another distraction from the real world and all the chaos, which I like. But listening to music doesn't necessarily make me happy. I just do it.

Being alone is another escape from life. There's something peaceful in it. But it makes me bored more than happy.

So there are two things that make me happy. Traveling to fantasy land while reading and the results of creating through drawing and writing.

I suppose I also love overcomplicating things, such as this response to such a simple question.

So there is three.

Getting compliments on my work or ideas makes me happy for a few moments, which I suppose counts.

Watching anime is fun. Unless it is a sad anime, then it makes me sad, or I don't enjoy it. I suppose watching anime I enjoy makes me happy.

So fantasy-land through reading, the results of creating through drawing and writing, overcomplicating things, compliments on my work or ideas, and anime make me happy.

There's five!

Well, you are an amazing writer, I'd love to speak Greek Mythology with you (aka learn more about it because you can never not know enough about something), and everyone needs a to be read pile/list longer than they can finish.

:>

I was attacked with positivity, so you are getting attacked with positivity, too!

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you!

Ok, erm…

1.) Getting reviews for my books. If someone has a single kind thing to say about my writing, I will not shut up about it for the next week.

2.) Baking. I love making (and eating) sweets. I would eat nothing but desserts if I could.

3.) Musicals. My favorite one that I’ve seen live is Hamilton, but I also love EPIC and Hadestown.

4.) Mythology of any kind, but especially Greek mythology.

5.) Finding new books to add to my reading list. My reading list for this year is growing faster than I can finish books hehe