This is a note to myself Elementals- foreign beings from the elemental planes Primordials- beings that sprung from Elvaria when elemental energies started bleeding into the world Elementals aren't like fully sentient beings from the view of a regular person, they're more than that but sort of in a lower dimension way(?), like if people think in 3D(concept of length width and depth so having a tangible idea of space and being limited to what can be seen from a point on a 3d object like a globe), elementals think more like 2d where they're missing the idea of "limits" and inherently will not understand strictly 3d concepts unless they fuse with something 3d(so like half elves on Elvaria just think normally but with a different perspective of existence compared to before they became half elves) Abstract ideas to us are not abstract to elementals, that's how they think normally and vice versa with regular beings
They're not quite simple and have different needs than Lower Realm beings so they don't need ideas like distinct cultures or individuality, but rather the desire to spread influence Bringing elemental energies to Elvaria to them was extending a gift to the elves and embracing the world's "potential" as it now had the energy(asurei) to "reach" and break through limits, while the elves at the time saw it as making their problems worse and the elemental energy as bleeding into the world instead of a gift for them to prosper The elves in the modern day think of elementals as cryptic and foreign beings but elemental energies are now widely used and there is definitely more appreciation towards it
Primordials are not that smart and were never meant to be, they're basically when things in the world have the spark of "potential" and elemental energies will seep into them to create a core in something, which will spring out a primordial from similar structures(ie volcanoes created the fire giants but the main core was in Embylviska) Since they lack the kind of spark elementals have, they're very simple and think like animals even if their thoughts are "3d" Half-elementals are right in between, since by technicality they're from the world but were created from outside means that didn't come from the elementals. Their intelligence also varies since it's determined by whoever created them
So what is the "potential"? Honestly I have no idea yet, but for now the idea is ability to adapt or if it's at a certain threshold that makes it distinct from others of the same kind The ability to adapt doesn't necessarily have to have been there from the start, it can be triggered from a specific event that gives everything in the world "potential" and that "potential" will attract elementals to it naturally Not every world in the Lower Realm will have "potential", so not every world has an elemental presence. There still may be elements, but they're just regular elements like in the real world Half elves aren't necessarily elves with more "potential" than others, but rather what's most convenient for an elemental seeking to assimilate because of its core losing energy
play in this space with me
I finally got my shit done back to elvaria I'm (temporarily) freeššš
heya! I don't know if you celebrate but:
merry christmasā£ļøš and a happy new year!āØ
Hello!!! I don't really celebrate but happy holidays to you too š!
If you're from NA I hope you're doing well and keeping warm these past days, the weather is brutal right now-
Despite the Urthalisan refugees having joined the population of Jivankira Elthir during the Age of Shadows and have since become physically indistinguishable, part of Kavathanar known as The Crescent, which is the inner side of the Dinhrang Mountains, still is majority inhabited by descendants of these survivors.
Though they go by the name Jivankira Elthir, they've kept some of the Urthalisan culture to this day and continue to create clothing and buildings in a similar style, but of course with some changes due to influence from native Jivankiran culture and drift over time.
Compared to real world cultures in history, the Urthalisan descendants follow a Le dynasty Vietnamese style, and native Jivankira Either follow a middle Egyptian style.
So, you want to write about a natural disaster to advance your plot and torture your players/characters even more? Let me tell you how, accurately.
I feel like unless it is a volcano, natural disasters are a pretty slept on plot drivers, and some of them are really cool and unique! Today, I will talk to you about land slides, earthquakes (And earthquake related disasters), and volcanoes.
Landslides: Probably one I see the least in stories, but one that would be incredibly interesting to write into a plot where they believe in curses. Landslides can happen along ocean bluffs, slightly hilly areas, and highly mountainous areas, this means it is something that can happen in most landscapes. But what can trigger a landslide? Mostly all you need to trigger a landslide could be just abnormally large amounts of rain, excessive deforestation (with a little bit of rain), or an earthquake. If you don't want to use deforestation or an earthquake as a catalyst, a really cool indicator that the land is slipping and may be prone to a collapse is J hooked trees.
This indicates that there is soil creeping slowly over time, and it may lead to a major landslide.
2. Earthquakes: Probably one of the easiest things to write, earthquakes can happen anywhere, but they are most common in places that are tectonically active areas. There are about three types of environments you can expect earthquakes to be common. The first is just rugged mountains, if your landscape looks like this, you should write in earthquakes. Associated hazards could be landslides, avalanches, and large falling rocks.
The next landscape could be a thin mountain range, next to the ocean, very scenic, but very dangerous. Essentially, I am describing a subduction zone environment.
Earthquakes in these areas could equal a couple different associated disasters. Scenario one: A very large earthquake happens, and the ocean begins to recede. This is a tsunami, enough said. If you are writing a tsunami though, please, please, do not write it as a large wave, thank you. Also, a common way people are hurt by tsunami's are from them going into the ocean because they don't understand a tsunami is going to happen.
Scenario two: A large earthquake happens, your characters are in a valley and suddenly the ground begins to liquify as the ground shakes, once the shaking stops, the ground becomes solid like nothing ever happened, except everything has suddenly sunk into the now hard ground. This is called liquefaction and it typically happens in areas that have loose dirt or lots of saturated soil.
Scenario three: There are a lot of small earthquakes, they do not cause a lot of damage, but you begin to notice that one of the isolated mountains has a plume rising. Earthquakes can indicate lava moving underground and the filling of magma chambers.
The next environment that can host lots of earthquakes would be regions that have a lot of really deep valleys and small mountain ranges (not cone volcanoes), but overall seems pretty flat.
This indicates a transform fault like the San Andreas. If you want to hint at there being earthquakes in the area, you can show fence posts that are suddenly several feet out of line at a dilapidated farm or something similar.
(These earthquakes are different because they are cased from sideways movement, not an up-and-down movement this hint can only be used for this environment). Volcanoes would not be found here, but liquefaction and landslides could still occur here.
4. Volcanoes: If you thought earthquakes had a lot of information, volcanoes do too. First you have to ask yourself, what kind of volcano you want to have, what kind of eruption style? So lets break down the kind of eruptions you can have and what their landscapes look like. Hawaiian Shield volcano: This will produce a smooth fast lava, the landscape typically is pretty flat, but there will be small cones and the rocks can have a ropey or jagged texture and the rocks will be almost exclusively black to dark red.
Stratovolcanoes: These will be solitary mountains, typically, that look like perfect cones (Picture shown in earthquake section). These will have large ash cloud eruptions and pyroclastic flows, they may have some lava, but typically most damage is done from the pyroclastic flows (think Pompeii). Some hints of these, other than describing the cone features (which can be hidden by other mountains), would be to talk about petrified wood! Trees can get fossilized in the ash and I imagine it would be very strange to find this rock that clearly looks to be a piece of wood, but its a rock. Subcategory- Calderas: Used to be a large stratovolcano, but they erupt so explosively that the entire cone collapses and creates a basin.
There are a lot of kinds of volcanoes out there, so forgive me for just putting an infographic and then talking to you about these really rare types of eruptions that I feel like people should know about.
Okay lets talk about blue lava (kind of) and black lava
You will notice the lava is still red in the middle of this image, during the day these would look like a normal eruption, but at night the burning sulfur would make it appear blue. Some cool features other than this, would be that any water in the area would become very acidic and burn the skin due to sulfuric acid. This would again be really cool if you are trying to describe a 'cursed' land.
Black lava: This happens only in the east African rift I believe, but it is a carbonatite lava, but if you are writing in a rift valley (where the continent is tearing apart to form a new ocean) this might be a cool feature. The lava will cool white and will quickly erode, it makes for a very alien landscape!
Anyway as always, this is supposed to be an introductive guide for the basics of writing geology to create cool landscapes/features into dnd or fictional universes, if you are a geologist please understand my oversimplification of tectonics, I didn't want people to run away.
Anyone begging you seriously please comment, the only things I have on hand are tales(not even a large amount of them), old info I may or may not have to edit(and even then content to recycle isn't a lot, it's maybe two or three posts), and artifact lore which never got anywhere when I started thinking about it four years ago
So now that the high realms are done we're going downwards in this order:
Part 2: The Realms of Death- Realm of Endless White + Realm of Skybeasts Part 3: The Mortal Realms- Lower Planes + Lesser Realms
Part 4: The Elemental Planes- Realms of fire, air, stellar, and earth(all in one go) Some of these will be more lore heavy, some will just be explanations of how they work. These are also paired by if one is necessary to explain the other or if there's just not enough info to justify making a whole separate post.
Also yes I'm going to be posting throughout this week now that I'm finally able to fuck around(temporarily). Just not daily posts because I'll probably go crazy or hit writer's block again if I do that.
Images only, link to original Twitter at the bottom of post.
Fullš§µ here:
No I have no abandoned the account I'm just very tired
I have blocked around 34 bots in the past two weeks and just barely made deadlines for missing work and then I got hit by the Demotivation⢠so I will probably only post once this weekend
This is completely irrelevant information tbh and I never made names for the non-magic tribes, only for the big 5 Ć kthora- storm magic, they're one of the tribes that came out for the war against the Dak-Shan but went back into isolation when the war ended. Their descendant races still exist in the modern day Elvaria, still somewhat isolated and one is about to go extinct Nelthari- celestial magic(sun moon stars), one of the tribes that fought in the war and did not return to isolation so they could help build a civilization. Their descendant races are everywhere, like basically all of the non-Jukevor and Ć kthora descendant races came from the Nelthari InvaĆŖlka- never decided the type of magic but probably land(earth and plants) or element invocation, they fought in the war but went back into isolation and went extinct Salkaitha- never decided the type of magic, but probably very rudimentary animal speak and something related to telepathy/sound. They fought in the war but their shit sucked so they went extinct during it Jukevor- air/illusion magic, one of the tribes that did not fight in the war and stayed in isolation. Their descendant race still exists in the modern day Elvaria, still somewhat isolated
As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.Ā It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search termsĀ
As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.Ā As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.
Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.
ā
Google is so powerful that it āhidesā other search systems from us. We just donāt know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free
A fantasy worldbuilding project focusing mainly on elves. This account has been retired, my posting account is now @ilisteria
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