Most dwarves in fantasy are Scottish or Norse coded, however I feel that Indian dwarves also makes a lot of sense. Given that historically India was a major centre of skilled metal working in the ancient world. For instance the large scale production of high quality wootz steel which was exported to the Middle East. Indeed if you look at the Deccan Plateau where much of the Indian steel was produced it's suitably dwarven very mountainous.

In addition quite a lot of Indian architecture involves stone masonry. And there are also many sites which involves caves ie Ajanta and ellora . Much of Indian craftsmanship also does seem dwarf coded as it involves working with inorganic materials granulation gold work steel chiselling metal inlay jade carving . And so I feel Indian dwarves could be a good fit what do you think?

This is just a minor lil' tea spill, but I wanted to share with you all an experience I had with a test reader this month.

She's a friend, and she and I agreed to test read each other's manuscripts. Mine is a fantasy in which gunpowder weapons are already somewhat common (albeit primitive). The dominant ranged infantry weapon is no longer any kind of bow, but basically a banded metal tube with wood, wicker, or bone furniture from which a metal ball or dart is propelled by a charge of explosive powder. This powder is lit by touching a slow-burning alchemical match to a covered vent. Infantry do this by hand, while wealthy cavalry prefer clockwork mechanisms for creating a spark.

She had a great deal to say about how this was a cool idea, but seemed totally impractical as a military weapon. Specifically she thought they'd be dangerous to handle and unreliable to ignite, two problems which pretty famously plagued early gonnes and muskets, so kudos to her for anticipating that. Ultimately she felt it was just plain unrealistic, amounting to a "hand-held exploding death tube". I showed her a video of someone loading and firing a matchlock musket and she was completely dumbfounded.

Have any of you fine folk encountered realism-based pushback to something in your world that was, well... quite real?

Tired as hell

Huntsman are specialized bioweapon units created through the unification of human frame with nephilim corpse tissues.

Manufactured by Babel, a colossal laboratory funded by USSR’s Ministry of Defence

Huntsman belong to a category of gun platform bioweapon and created primarily as tank hunters. Their belt-fed anti-material rifle can immobilize a squadron of heretic tanks with ease.

The flexibility of the gun platform bioweapons comes from their ability of adjust their flesh rifle’s internal mechanism to accommodate for different caliber or variations of rounds.

However, their rate of fire does not change so it’s best to provide the appropriate ammunition to their corresponding gunner.

"Goblin brooding pits" are a fairly common staple of fantasy. I starting thinking about how such a pit would work. At least where the pit itself is a living part of the reproduction cycle. And not just like, a receptacle for broadcast spawning or eggs.
So, I came up with "imps," which are single species with dozens of different morphologically distinct "castes."

TLDR: they are insect-like humanoids. They have brooding pits made up of millions of barnacle-like polyps. Dead or dying imps are thrown into the pit and broken down. Their DNA "fertilizes" the polyps, and thousands of imp larva emerge a few days later. Depending on their biological sex, they develop into dramatically different creatures. Only four (out of thirteen) sexes are intelligent.

LIFE CYCLE:

1. Polyps: the foundational "sex" of the imp species. They are monoploidal, having a single set of chromosomes. A single polyp more closely resembles a barnacle than a true coral polyp, which suggests that the species initially evolved from crustaceans. Each microscopic polyp is capable of reproducing asexually through binary division.
   • They grow in clusters, eventually forming small pitcher-plant-like traps. The smallest of these pits can only fill with few millimeters of digestive fluid. And primarily prey on insects.
   • As a pit grows larger, it changes the composition of the fluid to attract larger prey. After several decades of growth, it becomes voluminous enough to attract and digest a large animal. This includes prey animals. But also crucially, members of its own species.
2. Brooding pit: once a polyp colony becomes sufficiently large, it enters a seasonal brooding period. The layer of polyps lining the inside of the feeding pit undergo a series of physiological changes. Essentially switching from "digestion mode" to "breeding mode."
   • Critically, the pit's digestive fluid is drained and replaced with "brooding fluid." This fluid breaks down organic material as usual. But through a mysterious, anomalous process it preserves the integrity of "compatible DNA."
   • The polyps composing the "brooding layer" present fertilizable germ-cells. Once fertilized, the polyps will begin gestating millions of imp embryos.
   • The imp species does not reproduce sexually. Instead, "reproductive-aged" individuals are lured to a pit by the pheromone-rich brooding fluid. Once immersed in the fluid, the imp will quickly die and their body is broken down. The DNA in their corpse "fertilizes" the brooding layer of polyps.
3. Fertilization:
   • Depending on how "fertile" a season is, a pit can be filled with multiple different imps. The brooding period breaks down organic material, preserving strands of (relatively) complete genomes.
   • A receptive polyp collects these strands of DNA. They need not come from a single donor. It could collect 25% of a complete chromosome from one strand. Another 33% from another, etc. It can link these disparate strands together into a novel combination.
   • The polyp has an internal mechanism for "counting" how much DNA it has collected. Once it has (around) 100% of a complete donor genome, that genome is allowed to fertilize its oocyte. This process is not perfect, and the majority of the millions of fertilized oocytes do not develop into viable embryos.
   • Some polyps are fertilized multiple times. This allows tri- and tetraploidal embryos to develop. Which are important parts of the imp caste system.
   • Occasionally, DNA from prey animals gets mixed into the slurry. This almost always result in a nonviable embryo. But very occasionally foreign DNA is successfully integrated into an imp zygote. This horizontal transmission accounts for their chimeric appearance and rapid evolution. As well as a large number of vestigial traits.
4. Hatching: the eggs hatch into microscopic larva. These larva are all roughly the same size. The nutrient rich slurry (from the fertilizing bodies) nourishes them until they grow large enough to leave the pit. Depending on the sex/caste, the larva range from tick to rat-sized when they finally crawl out.
5. Sexes: Discounting polyps, there are 12 possible castes. Each caste is essentially a different animal entirely. Occupying non-competing ecological niches. That allows the species to colonize radically different environments. For example, a low-resource island may not be able to support a population of intelligent imps. But it could have a thriving population of small lice. There are four sex chromosomes: X, Y, Z, W.
   • XY/XX: these are small, parasitic mites. They live as ectoparasites on a variety of animals. Though, they have a preference for their own species. That way, if a single imp fertilizes the brooding pit, their colony of mites increases the available genetic diversity.
   • XW/XZ: Lice. Despite their name, they occupy a rodent-like niche. They are lobster-like creatures. Like all imps, once they reach a certain age they become attracted to the smell of the brooding pits and return for fertilization. Generally, the older you get the stronger this attraction is. As elderly individuals are more likely to have strong ecological fitness.
   • XXY/XXX: these are triploidal organisms, with three sets of each chromosome. They are called "soft-shelled nymphs" because they resemble mammals, reptiles, or birds. A nymph does not undergo a transformative metamorphosis like their tetraploidal siblings. Instead, they simply grow larger over time. They take a variety of forms resembling ungulates, carnivorans, etc. depending on their population.
   • XXW/XXZ: these are "hard-shelled nymphs." They resemble large arthropods, with leathery carapaces. Coconut crabs, large crickets, lobsters, etc.
   • XXXY/XXXX: "soft-shelled imps." The tetraploidal castes are the only ones capable of speech and higher reasoning. As larva they resemble large leathery insects. Once they get to a certain size, the undergo metamorphosis and develop an internal skeleton. They emerge from this metamorphosis roughly the size of a human toddler. Soft-shells are the most human-like in appearance.
   • XXXW/XXXZ: "hard-shelled imps." They resemble large (mostly bipedal) insect people. Despite their inhuman appearance, they are fully intelligent and capable of speech. Due to their size and durability, they typically occupy warrior-adjacent roles. But lack the stamina and speed of their gracile soft-shelled counterparts.
6. Larva:
   • Once an individual larva emerges from the brooding pit, they are on their own. They scavenge or hunt for food (depending on the individual). Mites, lice, and nymphs continue to grow through instar phases.
   • These castes do not develop human-like intelligence and continue to live as animals in their natural habitat. Though, it is not unusual for adult imps to farm nymphs for food. This is not considered cannibalism.
7. Metamorphosis:
   • A tetraploidal imp will (once it gets to a certain size) undergo a metamorphosis. It comes out the other size bipedal and with a vague understanding of their genetic donor's language. This is critical, because "in the wild" there are rarely adults around to guide/teach the newly-sentient children.
   • This transmission of memories is poorly understood even by imp scientists, but plays an important part of their culture. Because memories (or even personality traits) can pass on between generations, they have a much weaker fear of death. It is more-or-less similar to the human concept of reincarnation. But it occurs between multiple individuals and their hundreds of descendants. Not one-to-one. If a large pit was fertilized with dozens of adult imps, their descendants could expect to inherit some memories from each of them.
   • If an imp's head is too damaged or removed, their memories will not pass on. This is sometimes done to "problem individuals" or criminals, in order to prevent their deviance from reoccurring in subsequent generations.
8. Adolescence:
   • Once an imp metamorphosizes, they emerge roughly the size of a human toddler. If a population center exists nearby, they will usually seek it out using their donor's memories.
   • It's not unusual for an area to be completely devoid of adult imps. In which case adolescents congregate together and start civilization from scratch.
   • There are multiple instances of natural disasters wiping out entire civilizations. Only for surviving polyp colonies to repopulate the area (with new imps) decades later.
9. Modern society:
   • "Wild imps" born in the wilderness generally live the same way they've been living for thousands of years. But in large population centers, each generation is cultivated as one would livestock.
   • Recently dead or dying imps are thrown into massive brooding pits. Far larger than they would have been able to grow under their "natural" conditions. Unless an individual has a genetic defect, transmissible disease, or committed a disqualifying crime. An imp can reasonably expect to be thrown into a pit upon their death.
   • Larva are allowed to live inside cultivated green spaces and collected by "keepers" once they metamorphosize. Individuality is not particularly cherished. "Mutants" and people who diverge from preconceived societal norms are treated harshly or outright culled.

Before I alarm anyone with a basic idea of how iron supports life and manages radiation, iron is in fact on the planet. Its just in the ocean. the deep parts. where the pressure would get you first.
iron in ocean--->trace iron in water----> iron makes it into ecosystem ----> iron based blood happens.

That's about as much thought as I'm willing to spend on that.

I'm not asking about the likelihood of a planet managing to avoid accessible collecting in its development. Nor am I ruling out that iron is truly absent amongst animals that obviously depend on hemogoblin. Nor am I asking if can push the tech tree wayyyyy back.

but rather, how impossible is it really...(in the most literal sense).
For a planet in an infinite universe to just develop in a way that prevents iron collecting in a way that makes it worth the time of species like humans even with our drive for innovation, and an indefinite amount of time?

The more I google and reddit the more impossible this planet seems.

Apparently, even if humans even gain the faintest idea of iron's existence, they could just culture increasingly iron rich bacteria, and then manipulate waterways to create iron bogs (???)

https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisit/comments/1xgu446/what_is_this_orange_stuff_in_the_water/

For context: human civilization in Tarviss was established 20,000 years ago, and all the metals had been mined out before that. Tarvissian civilization was built on magic and agriculture, at some point feeding most of the neighboring worlds. But time went by, the civilization stagnated and the society stratified. Now magic is reserved for the highest caste, while peons live in conditions no better than medieval peasants.

I guess a world that important can afford to import all the metal it needs. But tools get worn out, and the skills to fix or repurpose them are in other worlds. With the country slowly decaying, metal becomes a luxury product, something reserved for nobility.

Still, they need guards to keep peons in check, so how could I arm them? I guess for weapons, wooden clubs and staffs would be the default. For armor, nothing fancier than a gambeson.

I thought about having them use flint, but flint is mineable, so it would run out at some point. I know bones can be used to make tools, but can they be made into decent blades?

More importantly, if, in a last-ditch effort, they would try to send an army to conquer the neighboring world, what type of weapons and armor could they use?

I know fantasy uses all kinds of materials: wood, chitin, or diamond, but I'm looking for something plausible. Not leather lol. Although, the main farm animal is dinosaur-like, so maybe its leather would be more efficient than cowhide. I've also seen armor made of pangolin scales, but I'm not sure how effective it was. I could make Tarvissi keep some small scaly critters just for armor-making.

What would you use?

A while ago, I commissioned an artist to design bank notes for the principal nation of my world building, The Verseinian Sovereignty. And I found a company that printed them on polymer paper like real banknotes are. I couldn't be happier with the results!

For some context, the Verseinian Mark is the main currency used in the Sovereignty, though there are others. The Sovereignty itself is a pan galactic empire in a sci-fi, far future setting. The Mark is subdivided into 1200 tauses, (singular taus), with each taus being roughly equivalent to 1 US cent, making an exchange rate of ~12 USD to 1 VM.

The Mark is exceptionally stable due to 110% backing of reserve metals, and due to the monopoly of power the Sovereignty enjoys in international politics. It is widely used in foreign nations as a global (galactic?) reserve currency. And it is the currency most commodities are priced in.

I'm working on a retro futurism world where cassettes are used to summon magic through the use of rotating and positioning sigils in a very simple manner.

How magic works

Magic, and magic sigils as a result, is affected by magnetic fields. If iron that is properly magnetized and assembled into a sigil, the sigil becomes magic. This really doesn't do much on its own, but when two sigils face each other, they either attract or repel. And in either case, magical force comes out of the sigils and mix together to form an incredibly rudimentary spell.

This functions because the magnetic field created by the metal pulls the magical energy from an unknown source.

The above image loosely explains the means of defining the magic as it enters the world. By placing two sigils made of metal across from each other, be they loose filings of iron or nickel forged into ornaments, the magnetic field will pull the energy forwards.

Edit: Oh, the issue is that I feel that the above image that shows how to define magic, doesn't really define very much. It kinda just suggests the idea of definition but really doesn't have any hardness to it.

Any suggestions to make this more unambiguous? Or maybe am I overreacting?

This is the first mega-structure I developed for my world. Essentially it acts as a filter for souls that have left the bodies of mages. Within the soul contains information about the magic and adaptations of a user. When the souls passes through the levels/filters of this giant, that information is removed.

This was designed by a new type of mage after centuries of oppression from those who became incredibly powerful due to that information being passed down genetically to certain mages.

The key components of this structure are: the spiral at the center which acts as a conduit for soul-magic and the bells which resonate at a frequency that is complimentary to that of souls. The spiral at the center is a natural formation. In Spectra, the core of the planet is made up of molten form of alloy, which all mages use to make tools in order to conduct magic. Sometimes this molten core can escape from the center and rise as pillars around the world.

I'm curious if others have developed structures that have a function that goes beyond just housing, storage, etc...

Edit: the anchors are major ports and the lines with the point of an arrow in them are international airports.

Size from the east most point to the west most point, and north most point to the south most point is about 820km x 950km

Name: Valania
Ideology: Authoritarianism
Government Type: One-Party State
Population: 52 million
GDP Rank: 12th
Economy Type: Planned with small privatisation allowed for small businesses, certain cities, and farmland
Military: 8th

Largest Resources:
- iron -Silver
-nickel -Diamond
-coal -Tungsten
-gold -Ruby

Top Exports:
-Military Equipment
-Ships
-Automotives
-International Logistics
-jewelry

MILITARY:
-mandatory conscription
-defence pacts with its northern nations
Army:
-300,000 active personnel
-450,000 reserve personnel
-split between mountainous and mechanised amphibious warfare
Airforce:
-680 aircraft
-small expeditionary capabilities
Navy:
-250 ships
-mostly patrols the strait
-had an expeditionary corps

What do you think?

So we have all seen the trope in fantasy anime of the adventurer's guild. Basically, an organization that puts out bounties on monsters or dungeons for roaming bands of adventurers to complete for cash. Simple, but unlike how most guilds worked in the real world. I have been reading up on guilds for a possible one-shot project of mine, but I wanna be sure that this is what a realistic guild would look like. Or at least a simplified version of it.

Imagine a world where magical creatures live alongside humans and are often threats to human settlements. Because fighting these monsters is so dangerous, specialists are often employed to deal with everything from dragons to rodents of unusual size. These specialists have organized themselves into a guild and have a hierarchy depending on seniority. At the top of the totem pole are master hunters. These men and sometimes women are experienced masters of their craft. They are the ones to lead hunts and negotiate contracts with lords of the land to deal with the various pests plaguing them. They are often the ones at the table in guild discussions. Below them are journeyman hunters. Hunters who have left apprenticeship and now work under their masters as extra bodies, working further to become masters themselves. They help out by helping setting up traps or to provide back up in more extreme hunts. And at the bottom there are apprentices. These are people learning how to hunt monsters and learn the tools of the trade from their masters. When they are not learning, they usually perform menial tasks like setting up camp, cooking for the master and their journeymen, and other stuff their superiors don't have time for. Most Master monster hunters represent themselves at the hunter's guild, which regulates the trade of slaying monsters, doing stuff like regulating the cost of services, discussing how to price services when monsters are in a boom or bust, and lobbying heads of state to make sure the hunters are getting the better end of the bargain. Although it's mostly masters who sit at the guild table, sick or dead masters have substitutes stand in for them while they are away, be it journeymen named to be their successor, spouses or other family members, or simply their best friend. The guild also appoints a head to both manage their internal politics and to make sure the guild is on track for whatever goals they have set for themselves

From what I read, this seems to be the basic gist of how IRL guilds worked. But since I haven't read that deep into it, I'm pretty sure I oversimplified or misidentified something, so it'd be great if someone corrected me.

So I've been thinking about this. A lot of people (fairly) point out the early modern / gunpowder era is under-represented in "historical fantasy" settings, and they're right. Or, well, almost. The typical fantasy setting "right now" is often very Renaissance / early modern in aesthetics and tech, just with the guns surgically removed.

I did a good bit of reading (thanks r/AskHistorians reading list) trying to build my fundamentals, thinking I'd try my hand at including the neglected guns... and oof. I don't like them.

So this isn't a "hot take". Right now at least I'm writing to support the popular position. I now get why guns are unpopular.

But Warhammer...

...gets guns wrong. While WH Old World fantasy doesn't quite reach 40K levels of an officer with a bionic eye brandishing a Napoleonic cavalry saber while riding a WWII-type tank to lead a charge of supermen with laser pistols, WH is still obviously more about "fun kitchen sink" than seeing the consequences of its technological developments through.

So, what are my problems?

1. the "mixed stage" where melee coexisted with guns was fundamentally unstable

Hand-held small arms, the "arquebus" started spreading widely in South Germany by 1450, early attempts to integrate them into massed infantry troops were made by the the 1470's (with mixed results), but by the 1500's to 1520's Italian Wars they became the main source of death on the battlefield.

I don't want to write an essay on 16th century warfare, but the tl;dr is, guns reached a "stable" state early on; by 1530, guns reached a mostly-finished form they would retain until the 19th century. I say this because initially I hoped to "stop" gun development at the moment I found best to conserve variety-but that turned out to be (mostly) illusion. Warfare changed due to experiments and culture and growing resources, but there is no part of the arquebus that can be removed to make it... less overwhelming.

The brief window in which Western European warfare was a glorious mess of new and old - very roughtly between the 1500's and 1540's - wasn't a situation that could go on indefinitely. Slowly, commanders realized what worked and what didn't, and field armies gravitated to just being men with guns.

For all the flack "medieval stasis" gets, for me one of the joys of fantasy as a genre is being relatively timeless: this doesn't presuppose stasis, but it does mean that characters and civilizations can interact across timespans that IRL they just don't get to. Fantasy is making sense of the 3,000-year history of Pharaonic Egypt rather than the volatile timespan of European nations re-inventing their core identities every 50 years between 1797 and 1991.

(the elf-meets-time-warp thing is definitely a thing... has already been done... not my main course)

I like to be rational and consistent with the material background of my world(s): and once guns are introduced, unless they vanish for some reason, they will see their logic through. No field of warfare could remain in the "glorious mess" stage of the early 16th century forever.

*(in fact, there's reason to think Europe stayed there for longer than necessary - partly because the Swiss pikes defeating the Burgundian handgun-curious army made a lot of people think small arms fire wasn't a promising direction of development for another 50 years)

2. guns are the point where machines become more important than people

The main problem. What people from non-Western societies down to the 1800's kept remarking about the European mode of drill-and-volley-fire fighting was that soldiers became more automatons than people.

Guns ended the era when culture or personal skill were the determining factors in warfare. Young men could be turned into competent gun-soldiers in a few weeks or months, turning quantity ("manpower") into the only real resource. Whereas f.ex. longbowmen or knights were distinguished by a life skill - the specific arms were part of the person, the same way the longbow or horse were part of the social class, Welsh yeomen or French gentry - raw recruits were made to use the gun by a mechanical process that churned out soldiers out of 10,000's of (mostly) urban young men. People were just the raw material remolded to fit the tools and the job - a sentiment I've seen echoed about the soldier down to modern times.

A musketry soldier wasn't encouraged to show the old traits of heroism or bravado, even as part of a group. The "new soldier" was expected to learn a series of mechanical movements to handle his equipment, to keep up a steady rate of fire under extreme stress at the expense of all other considerations (volume over accuracy was the defining trait of early modern warfare - you just stood and fired in a general direction). The force exerted by the mechanism was independent of any personal trait: a man's job was to stand and pull the trigger as regularly as possible.

I think it's extremely obvious why the martial ideals of the pre-gunpowder era were bemoaned in their passing, and kept fascinating audiences centuries after. If the fantasy genre stresses the personal over the mechanical or the impersonal - as, to me, it must - I start to get why it repeatedly creates settings where the military forces given shape by gun warfare are minimized.

(I always saw "artillery magic" as a cop-out: if you wanna have mages as ersatz cannons, just put guns in the fantasy world, no big deal. Now that I'm actually giving it thought, I get it. Magic-as-artillery is a way to put the flash-bang-boom into a fantasy world while securely tying it to a force that can only ever be personal.)

If anyone has thoughts (or answers these questions differently in their own setting), I'd love to hear them.

I just finished up a tool that might be of interest to the folks here. It's sharing time! If you're making modern (or modern-adjacent) US settings, here's a brainstorming tool to get you place names that are plausible, without the too-clever feel of invented names and without the risk of stepping on names of places that actually exist. Plus you get call letters, ZIP codes, phone numbers, and sports teams! Unlike the typical one-click "generator" that gives you one name at a time-- something that I've always thought feels a bit too brain-turned-off for my tastes-- this one gives you an array of options at a time, letting you pick.

The big innovation was a forehead-slap simple realization: How do you make up a place name that's plausible? One that's appropriately boring and vague to not look overwrought or overthought? The easiest way is to steal one, of course, but that means you're liable to be slandering people who live there and getting nastygrams and pedantic little well-actually letters about how the place isn't actually like that. So how do you prevent that? Easy! Just be sure to steal from somewhere else!

I found a list of every name of every place in the USA (thanks, US Geological Survey!), and whittled it down to a few types of features-- populated places (cities, towns, etc.), lakes, rivers... things that would make good town names. Then I sifted through it a few times and weeded out some of the uglier names-- retention ponds, numbered districts, that sort of thing. From there, it's just a matter of picking a US state and random-drawing names that don't exist in the state you picked. It's a real name for a fake place, which makes for a good common-sounding name that nevertheless doesn't exist.

Some time ago, I'd also made a tool to harvest radio call signs that don't exist. It's a similar "exclusion" idea, though on on national level. First, I pulled down a list of AM, FM, and TV call signs (thanks, FCC!), then iterated through KAAA-KZZZ and WAAA-WZZZ to find anything that wasn't in the list. From there, I also got a list of 2 letter, 3-letter, and Kxxx/Wxxx words (thanks, English Speller Database!) so I could tag call letters as having words in them (not implemented in this tool yet.)

From there, on to ZIP codes. I used the ZIP Codes by Area and District and ZIP Locale Detail spreadsheets (begrudging thanks to the USPS. Their datasets are kind of obnoxious.), and ran through that list looking either for gaps in each state, or for special-use ZIP codes that could be used in fictional addresses with varying levels of unreality. (The tool pulls in ZIP codes, but I don't have it sorted out into the "safety levels" yet of "missing/PO box/special use"-- that's on the to-do list still.) I added the state names on either side of the gap to the database, so you'd get ZIP codes that made sense for the states that the place.

And then to phone numbers. I took a couple Thousands-Block Reports (thanks, NANPA!), which lay out which 1000-long blocks of the first 7 phone-number digits are whose, and did a similar pass looking for gaps. Similar to ZIP codes, I lead with area codes by state, so you get a realistic number.

Finally, sports teams. I started with this list https://mascotdb.com/browse (thanks, MascotDB!) and did various passes of manual and automated whittling-down to get a more concise list of team names. No real state-based separation here (and there are some that are out of-- pardon the pun-- left field). The "team names" addition was kind of a last-minute, nice-to-have feature that I didn't put as much effort into.

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This is the sort of strategy that works well for US names, specifically-- and probably for other places where provinces or other political subdivisions are prominent-- because the fact that place names aren't very unique across the country, but are from state to state, makes it a particularly viable strategy to come up with a fake name by finding a common one that a certain state just doesn't have.

More generally, it just shows that databases, systems, and structures that do exist can serve as a solid starting point for making plausible things that don't exist. Get all the data, find the gaps, and sneak yours right in between. Nobody'll realize it's bogus until they find out Google doesn't give any hits on it.

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GitHub repo link, since I just realized I forgot to put a link in the page itself. Also, here's a bunch of the place-name data in a flat list, and the standalone script to pull call letters from the FCC.

**apologies for the re-upload. I had some issues with the images

The Ashlands were once a lush prairie that was destroyed nearly one-thousand years ago with massive lightning strikes and fires. Huge crystal spires rise out from the ground where the lightning serpent Zaroth once scorched the land with divine lightning. The ground is covered in grey dust, giving the Ashlands their name. Water here is found deep underground and can be accessed by an expanse of tunnels opened by crystal spires and expanded by wildlife. Due to the harsh nature of the landscape, most creatures are omnivores who will eat anything they can find. 

To most people, the Ashlands are a dangerous and unforgiving location, and there is little benefit to going there. However, for a large culture of cat-people, it is a refuge of freedom from the eyes of the empire where they can spend their days hunting its beasts. 

Desert Lion (Hrasi) 

A huge cat weighing up to 800lbs. Hrasi mate for life and live and hunt in pairs. Like catbeasts, hrasi almost always give birth to twins. Cubs leave to find their own mates and territories at two years of age. 

The relationship between Hrasi and catbeasts is ancient and scared. The two share a common language of simple worlds which they use to hunt and travel together. Catbeasts employ their dexterity to drive Quaddecipides out of their tunnels and into the waiting jaws of their hrasi companions. 

Hrasi can live up to fifty years and many catbeasts develop lifelong bonds with lion companions. 

Quaddecipede (Shul)

A massive insect who lives mainly in expansive subterranean tunnels where they consume crystal fungi and underground tubers. They are typically fearful of catbeasts who regularly hunt them for food. If cornered, they will rear up and attack with their sharp claws. 

Bonebird (Akra)

A flying scavenger who nests high up in the crystal spires. Their cry sounds like a chilling, humanoid scream and is considered an omen of death for catbeasts.

Jackalope (Lanak) 

An omnivorous hare who can and will eat almost anything. They keep their incisors short by gnawing on bones and use their canine teeth to capture insects and small creatures. The males use their horns in dominance displays to win over females whose horns are shorter.

Dark-eyed owl (Kohiri)

Medium-sized birds who nest lower in the crystal spires than bonebirds. They are nocturnal and hunt jumping mice, dust dragons, and insects. Catbeasts appreciate having them nest near their clanhomes as they have extremely sensitive hearing and can warn of incoming danger. 

Giant Scorpion (Sachura)

The most dangerous animal in the Ashlands, giant scorpions are aggressive and their tails contain venom that can kill a hrasi in an hour and a catbeast in minutes. Killing a giant scorpion is considered the mark of a master hunter in catbeast culture. Despite their monstrous reputation, giant scorpions are excellent parents and both the male and female protect and care for their clutches of up to sixty young, even after hatching. 

Dust dragon ( Ninnin)

A species of dragon with spiky protrusions on it's skin. It produces high internal heat, but does not spit fire like other species. 

Jumping mouse (Chora)

A small rodent which will eat anything it can find. like a jackalope, it possesses both incisors and canine teeth. 

Two-headed cobra (Sanningal) 

A snake with two heads whose venom is deadly.

Night Moth (Tchalik)

A nocturnal moth that feeds on the nectar of the ash flower. Bioluminescent patterns on its wings help it attract a mate. 

Lighting Beetle (Kanari)

A tiny beetle with many colorful forms. Named for the jagged black marking on it's back. Lighting beetle wings are often used in jewelry. 

I am working on a map and am using paper to help come up with the shape as a bit of a crafting exercise.

But I need some help!

My goal was to come up with a world map but the more I stare at my current configuration and shapes it looks more like a series of islands.

Does anyone else find this to be the case?

If so what shapes should I change or are there any other adjustments I should make to help the map feel believable visually as a world map.

It is my first post here. Be easy on me, please. I've started this project back in 1995, it started with a simple concept of me living as an insect person and then it evolved into this entire macro world of various insect/dragon/humanoid creatures living in their own magical realm separate from our world.

The two realms do not mix well. If a bug from their realm were to meet a bug from our world, our reality overtakes them and they become what they view as a soulless beast, a monster.

What keeps the world separate is a barrier that to us seems like a never ending thicket of thorns, rocks, and branches. There is a portal. What keeps it sealed is the various magic elements each bug kind has. Only it grows weaker because the colonies are too fixed on their own kind and wars amongst each other to realize they are slowly weakening their own existence.

This is the macro scale of the world. Micro scale, Benly, a soldier is just trying to be a father for two rambunctious children.​

A while back, I shared the interactive website my sibling and I coded for our alternative 90s Japan-inspired dark fantasy world, Naraku-no-Ink. Today, we are super excited to introduce the newest addition to the site: Kuroha Yoshizawa, our in-universe VTuber and the "Voice Beyond the Wall."

Instead of just posting her artwork, we integrated her as an interactive 3D model wrapped in a retro "Pirate Signal" UI directly on the webpage.

Here is the lore behind her design in the screenshots:

The Kinkyo News Orphan: Kuroha's parents were investigative journalists who got murdered. Instead of being erased,she was banished beyond the city's Wall. Now, she's a Class-S threat to the oppressive institutions of Zenith.

Organic Antennas: Those black horns on her head aren't cosmetic accessories. In our world, magic is a biological infection called the "Ink." Her horns are organic antennas grown directly from Ink-rot.

The Pirate Broadcast: Using her horns, she summons a tiny, floating Ink-monster. Its eye acts as a camera, allowing her to hijack Zenith's TVs, projectors, and radios to broadcast the uncensored truth. As her quote goes: "You can build a Wall to hide the trash, Zenith... but you can't block my frequency."

Interactive Archives: On the website, we coded a system where you can interact with her 3D model. Touching the burning white orbs around her unlocks the restricted "VTuber Archives," blending the web novel's story with an interactive web experience.

We are still learning as we code this at university, but bringing our characters to life this way has been incredibly fun.Swipe through the images to see her pirate broadcast UI, and let us know what you think of her design!

Just makes your world feel a little more alian in a way that keeps It familiar. Its really fun!

Perhaps a strange question, and incomprehensible to non-Star Trek fans, so let me elaborate.

The Tamarians are a species which only speak in metaphor. They use events in their history to describe certain feelings. The best way to figure this out is in practice.

For instance:

Temba, His Arms Wide.

This literally means to help you with your task. It describes a man named Temba, giving something to the listener, as a metaphor for helping the listener. This is used when giving Picard a tool to help start a fire.

Temba, at rest.

Temba is also used in to decline a gift. He is at rest, meaning he appreciates your offer, but does not need or want it.

Shaka, When the Walls Fell.

This meaning regret at failure. It describes a figure, Shaka, feeling disgrace and regret as his walls fall—or his failure. It can describe yourself, others, and even groups of people.

Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel.

The Tamarians also make up new metaphors on the fly. This literally means successful first contact, but can also mean a successful alliance and the establishment of understanding. It shows Picard and Dathon growing to understand each other despite using entirely different languages—this is the topic of the Tamarians premiere episode, Darmok.

So, how would you describe something in your world? What could it signify? Why is it described like this?

This is just a silly question, really. It helps to try to simplify your events into their effects both on history and culture, but for the most part, I just think it’d be fun.

In most of stories, magic/tech is primarily used in combat, to cause havoc and destruction on the battlefield. But I feel like even magic focused on elemental energy and power would be turned into tools for art, architecture, entertainment or other everyday uses. So how is the magic/tech in your world used, that has nothing to do with fighting?

The Empty Coast is a curious region, part of the world’s broken state given plain illustration. The best way to describe this place is an ocean that’s been turned inside out. Everywhere there would be water is filled with air and vise versa. Bubbles of water float up from vents in the ocean floor and fish swim in the skies above what would be the ocean floor.

Some of the most noteworthy qualities of this region include the gigantism that occurs in the life of this region. Sharks are three times their usual size and some species of whale in this region have been large enough to fit a town in their mouth. While you’ll be fairly safe on the ocean floor, this is still an ocean. You’ll find creatures hidden in the sand, predators that look to make a quick meal out of prey that sticks out, and occasionally find the corpses of creatures above falling to the ground.

The Empty Coast exists where the mythical Ocean did, something only recorded in history books about waters that reached as far as the eye can see in all directions. Now, we have the remains of such a place waiting for the return of the real ocean someday.

In various different fictions the Fae have different heights, in some they are little pixies and in some they tower over people, how tall are they for you?

There's also another part of my magic system that touches up more on the Chinese concept of 'qi' and 'Wuxing' but that'll be for another time. In the world of my fictional world, Xyruuga, the lunar calendar is mainly used to tell the time. Each day in a month has it's own animal associated with it. The last four days of the month are considered unlucky, hence why they are associated with the Four Perils from Chinese mythology.