Mostly reblogs about fantasy and world-building

So, the simple, but not completely accurate answer is, yeah, lots. Technically, the term you're looking for is, “sheath,” as, “sheathe,” is the verb referring to the act of placing a weapon into a sheath or scabbard, but that's basically a typo.

The slightly more extensive, and technical answer is, “no.” The reason this discrepancy is that sheath and scabbards are not synonymous with one another. They're very similar, and serve, mostly, the same role (it's an object you use to cover and protect your blade when not in use), but there is a significant difference. Sheathes are generally either soft or semi-rigid. They're used to protect the blade itself, but aren't generally designed to forcefully contain the blade. Sheathes are common for knives, but sword sheathes are somewhat unusual (though they do exist.)

Scabbards are almost always rigid. Scabbards can be assembled from multiple pieces of wood, or they may have a metal structure supporting them. As with sheathes, they are designed to protect the blade, but they're also designed to protect people in near vicinity to the sheathed weapon from accidental injury on contact with the blade. For example, if someone has a sword at their hip and steps back running the blade into someone standing behind them, it's far more socially acceptable to accidentally bump them with a steel lined carrying case, rather than running their leg through. The vast majority of swords would be stored in a scabbard, rather than in a sheath. As with sword sheathes, knife scabbards do exist, and they are somewhat less rare, though they're often intended for decorative use, rather than practical necessity.

So, can you fight with a sheath? Not really, but you can use a scabbard as an off hand weapon.

As I mentioned, most scabbards are either going to have a metal frame, a full metal cover, or will be made out of some other rigid material such as wood. In many cases the exterior of the scabbard will be wrapped by leather, or fabric. This could lead to the perception that it's analogous to a sheath. Incidentally, that metal on metal scraping sound when someone draws a sword is specific to drawing from a metal lined scabbard, drawing from a sheath will relatively quiet, as the blade is drawing across leather. Similarly, drawing from a wood lined scabbard will also be fairly quiet.

Use of a scabbard has a lot of history. Since it's going to be carried with the sword anyway. Because it's rigid, and made from either metal or wood, it can be used as an effective parrying tool. Somewhat obviously, this isn't entirely desirable, as you're going damage the exterior wrapping, and potentially the scabbard itself, but the scabbard is likely to be far less valuable than the sword, so, it's favorable to damaging the blade.

Scabbards are also useful for quick thrusts and strikes. They're not going to be particularly heavy, but you're already carrying it so if you need a quick off hand weapon, it can fill the role. Actual combat use of the scabbard doesn't go much beyond that. It's a short, lightweight, you can hit someone with it, or redirect their weapon away from yourself. It's useful, but not particularly flashy on its own. It gets a little more interesting when you consider that it will almost always be dual wielded with its sword.

Understanding the difference between a sheath and scabbard is somewhat important for you, but less for your characters. If you're writing in first person, or third person limited, then being able to distinguish between the two, or even knowing that there is a meaningful difference can be a way to subtly cue the audience in on the idea that a character may be more (or less) competent than they appear. (If this goes over the reader's head, that's fine.) In third person omniscient, you probably want to be careful about using the correct term. It's not really important enough that you'd need to exposit on the subject, unless it somehow becomes plot relevant.

-Starke

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

"Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me?

(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)

So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented: → Three types of ceremonial jewelry → A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed → A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn

Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.

And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.

Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.

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🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style

Ask yourself: → Who’s in charge, and why? → Who has land? Who doesn’t? → What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?

Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.

Start there. Not at the embroidery.

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2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict

Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?

→ What was destroyed and mythologized? → What do the survivors still whisper about? → What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?

No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.

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3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists

Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about: → Death? → Love? → Time? → The natural world? → Justice?

Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.

You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.

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4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)

Culture shows up in: → What people apologize for → What insults cut deepest → What people are embarrassed about → What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately

For instance: → A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?” → A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.

This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.

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5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals

Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about: → Breakfast routines? → How people greet each other on the street? → Who cooks, and who eats first? → What’s considered “clean” or “proper”? → How is parenting handled? Divorce?

Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.

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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture

A culture isn’t a monolith.

Even in deeply traditional societies, people: → Rebel → Question → Break rules → Misinterpret laws → Mock sacred things → Act hypocritically → Weaponize or resist what’s expected

Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.

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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap

Worldbuilding gets boring fast when: → The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure → The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric” → Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like

You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy. → Let ugly things be beloved. → Let beautiful things be corrupt. → Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.

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📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy): → Culture is not food and jewelry. → Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction. → Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter. → Let your world feel lived in, not curated.

The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list. It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.

Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)

—rin t. // writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range // thewriteadviceforwriters

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

One of Edinburgh's oldest buildings, it lies on the Royal Mile - the ancient road connecting the Castle and the Palace of Holyrood.

For a Cathedral it is rather squat and austere, lacking the gothic dramatics of York Minster or the sheer size of St Pauls. Unlike those other places of worship, however, St Giles is alive.

The forest inevitably invades all of Edinburgh's buildings. Even new builds will have ferns bursting up through the carpets and moss lining their drawers after the first year or so. After a millennium of growth, St Giles is now as much forest as it is stone.

Down its cavernous central aisle, smooth barked beaches supplement the faceted stone pillars. Forking boughs grow seamlessly into the ribbing of the ceiling and roots snake between the great stone slabs of the floor.

When the wind blows outside, the trees inevitably shift and sway. A soft rain of sand and stone falls into the nave and shafts of light lance through the cracks. These beams of illumination catch on gilded crosses and polished brass, emerald moss and silver bark, transforming the church into a sun dappled forest clearing where treasures lie among the roots.

In the morning, the cathedral's worker monks will swarm out onto the roofs with plaster and lime. In silent synchronicity they fill the gaps and cover over the cracks.

Durante casi mil años, la catedral de San Giles ha crecido junto con el bosque.

Esta es uno de los edificios más antiguos de Edimburgo, se encuentra en la Royal Mile, la antigua carretera que conecta al Castillo con el Palacio de Holyrood.

Para ser una catedral es bastante rechoncha y austera, careciendo del dramatismo gótico de la catedral de York o del increíble tamaño de San Pablo. Sin embargo, a diferencia de otros lugares de adoración, San Giles está vivo.

El bosque invade inevitablemente todos los edificios de Edimburgo. Incluso los edificios nuevos tendrán al año helechos en sus alfombras y musgo recubriendo sus gavetas. Después de un milenio de crecimiento, San Giles es ahora tanto bosque como piedra.

Dentro de su cavernoso altar principal, suaves extensiones de corteza suplementan los pilares de piedra facetada. Las ramas crecen sin problemas dentro del acanalado del techo y las raíces serpentean entre las grandes losas de piedra del suelo.

Cuando el viento sopla en el exterior, los árboles, de forma inevitable, se balancean. Entonces, una suave lluvia de arena y piedras cae dentro de la nave y pilares de luz entran como lanzas a través de las grietas. Estos rayos de luz se reflejan en las cruces doradas y en el bronce pulido, el musgo esmeralda y la corteza plateada, transformando a la iglesia en un claro de bosque salpicado por el sol donde los tesoros yacen entre sus raíces.

En la mañana, los trabajadores monjes de la catedral se arremolinarán en los techos llevando cal y yeso. En una silenciosa sincronía llenarán los agujeros y cubrirán las grietas.

A currency that isn’t gold-standard/having gold be as valuable as tin

A currency that runs entirely on a perishable resource, like cocoa beans

A clock that isn’t 24-hours

More or less than four seasons/seasons other than the ones we know

Fantastical weather patterns like irregular cloud formations, iridescent rain

Multiple moons/no moon

Planetary rings

A northern lights effect, but near the equator

Roads that aren’t brown or grey/black, like San Juan’s blue bricks

Jewelry beyond precious gems and metals

Marriage signifiers other than wedding bands

The husband taking the wife's name / newlyweds inventing a new surname upon marriage

No concept of virginity or bastardry

More than 2 genders/no concept of gender

Monotheism, but not creationism

Gods that don’t look like people

Domesticated pets that aren’t re-skinned dogs and cats

Some normalized supernatural element that has nothing to do with the plot

Magical communication that isn’t Fantasy Zoom

“Books” that aren’t bound or scrolls

A nonverbal means of communicating, like sign language

A race of people who are obligate carnivores/ vegetarians/ vegans/ pescatarians (not religious, biological imperative)

to ME blood magic should be taboo because it's the ultimate dangerous magic. The normal mage has to throw a fuckoff huge fireball costing 100 magic points to kill another mage in a duel and even then 90% of the time the other mage throws up a simple barrier spell and blocks it.

BLOOD MAGIC is dangerous because a blood mage can just cast "scab level 1" for 2 magic points and now you've got a blood clot in your brain and you have a stroke. BOOM you've lost consciousness. A few minutes later? Permanent brain damage or death.

You think you're the shit? Can block any spell? No you can't because level 1 blood mage apprentice over here can give you a stroke from across the battlefield. You never saw it coming. There was no mega laser blast to deflect. The spell cost them 3 magic points because they cast it from 500 feet away. Instant. Silent. Deadly.

Give me blood magic that's taboo because it's the ultimate magic weapon!! Give me mages that need to hunt down blood mages whenever there's a whisper of them because they're so dangerous!

well then you ask, if they're so dangerous can't they kill all the mage hunters with a thought?

And that's where the wards against blood magic come in! Everyone has at least simple ones, and higher level mages will customize theirs to make them harder to get through.

Of course, that starts an arms race so now blood mages have to get through your wards before they can cast Instant Death.

Now, as anyone who's watched lockpicking lawyer knows, any lock can be picked given enough effort. And no mage wants to block themselves off from magic entirely, because then they can't teleport or fly or heal or make their eyes glow. So of course, a blood mage can get through a ward if they try.

BUT. If a blood mage is trying to get through your ward, right, you can feel them doing it! And that gives you a precious few seconds to FUCK YOU MEGA BOLT them. And that levels the playing field, makes it about who can work faster.

A spell the wizard uses to light the group's campfire has an error somewhere in its depths, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. The wizard spends a lot of his time trying to track down the exact conditions that cause the failure.

The wizard is attempting to create a new spell that marries two older spells together, but while they were both written within the context of Zephyrus the Starweaver's foundational work, they each used a slightly different version, and untangling the collisions make a short project take months of work.

The wizard has grown too comfortable reusing old spells, and in particular, his teleportation spell keeps finding its components rearranged and remixed, its parts copied into a dozen different places in the spellbook. This is overall not actually a problem per se, but the party's rogue grows a bit concerned when the wizard's "drying spell" seems to just be a special case of teleportation where you teleport five feet to the left and leave the wetness behind.

A wizard is constantly fiddling with his spells, making minor tweaks and changes, getting them easier to cast, with better effects, adding bells and whistles. The "shelter for the night" spell includes a tea kettle that brings itself to a boil at dawn, which the wizard is inordinately pleased with. He reports on efficiency improvements to the indifference of anyone listening.

A different wizard immediately forgets all details of his spells after he's written them. He could not begin to tell you how any of it works, at least not without sitting down for a few hours or days to figure out how he set things up. The point is that it works, and once it does, the wizard can safely stop thinking about it.

Wizards enjoy each other's company, but you must be circumspect about spellwork. Having another wizard look through your spellbook makes you aware of every minor flaw, and you might not be able to answer questions about why a spell was written in a certain way, if you remember at all.

Wizards all have their own preferences as far as which scripts they write in, the formatting of their spellbook, its dimensions and material quality, and of course which famous wizards they've taken the most foundational knowledge from. The enlightened view is that all approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, but this has never stopped anyone from getting into a protracted argument.

This week I want to talk a bit about one thing I see in both fantasy and scifi worldbuilding: Certain things about our world that we live in right now are assumed to be natural, and hence just adapted in the fantasy world. With just one tiny problem: They are not natural, and there were more than enough societies historically that avoided those pitfalls.

Tell me, if you have heard this one before: You have this fantasy world with so many differnet gods that are venerated. So what do you do to venerate those gods? Easy! You go into those big temple structures with the stained glass in their windows, that for some reason also use incense in their rituals. DUH!

Or: Please, writers, please just think one moment on why the fuck you always just want to write Christianity. Because literally no other religion than Christianity has buildings like that! And that has to do a lot with medieval and early post-medieval culture. I am not even asking you to look into very distant cultures. Just... Look of mosques and synagogues differ from churches. And then maybe look at Roman and Greek temples. That is all I am asking.

Let's make one thing clear: No matter what kind of world you are building, there is gonna be religion. It does not matter if you are writing medieval fantasy, stoneage fantasy, or some sort of science fiction. I know that a lot of atheists hate the idea that a scifi world has religion, but... Look, human brains are wired to believe in the paranormal. That is simply how we are. And even those atheists, that believe themselves super rational, do believe in some weird stuff that is about as scientific as any religions. (Evolutionary Psychology would be such an example.)

What the people will believe in will differ from their circumstance and the world they life in, but there is gonna be religion of some sort. Because we do need some higher power to blame, we need the rituals of it, and we need the community aspect of it.

Ironically I personally am still very much convinced that IRL even in a world like the Forgotten Realms, people would still make up new gods they would pray to, even with a whole pantheon of very, very real gods that exist. (Which is really sad, that this gets so rarely explored.)

However, how this worship looks like is very different. Yes, the Abrahamitic religions in general do at least have in common that they semi-regularily meet in some sort of big building to pray to their god together. Though how much the people are expected to go into that temple to pray is actually quite different between those religions and the subgroups of those religions.

Other religions do not have this though. Some do not have those really big buildings, and often enough only a select few are even allowed into the big buildings - or those might only be accessible during some holidays.

Instead a lot of polytheistic religions make a big deal of having smaller shrines dedicated to some of the gods. Often folks will have their own little shrine at home where they will pray daily. Alternatively there are some religions where there might be a tiny shrine outside that people will go to to pray to.

Funnily enough that is also something I have realized Americans often don't quite get: Yeah, this was a thing in Christianity, too. In Europe you will still find those tiny shrines to certain saints (because technically speaking Christianity still works as a polytheistic religion, only that we have only one god, but a lot of saints that take over the portfolios of the polytheistic gods). I am disabled, and even in the area I can reach on foot I know of two hidden shrines. One of them is to Mary, and one... I am honestly not sure, as the masonry is too withered to say who was venerated there. Usually those shrines are bieng kept in a somewhat okay condition by old people, but yeah...

Of course, while with historically inspired fantasy settings make this easy (even though people still hate their research), things get a bit harder with science fiction.

Again, the atheist idea is often: "When we develop further scientifically, we will no longer need religion!" But I am sorry, folks. This is not how the human brain works. We see weird coincidences and will go: "What paranormal power was responsible for it?" We can now talk about why the human brain has developed this way. We are evolved to find patterns, and we are evolved (because social animal and such) to try and understand the will others have - so far that we will read will in nature. It is simply how our brains work.

This week I want to talk a bit about one thing I see in both fantasy and scifi worldbuilding: Certain things about our world that we live in right now are assumed to be natural, and hence just adapted in the fantasy world. With just one tiny problem: They are not natural, and there were more than enough societies historically that avoided those pitfalls.

Tell me, if you have heard this one before: You have this fantasy world with so many differnet gods that are venerated. So what do you do to venerate those gods? Easy! You go into those big temple structures with the stained glass in their windows, that for some reason also use incense in their rituals. DUH!

Or: Please, writers, please just think one moment on why the fuck you always just want to write Christianity. Because literally no other religion than Christianity has buildings like that! And that has to do a lot with medieval and early post-medieval culture. I am not even asking you to look into very distant cultures. Just... Look of mosques and synagogues differ from churches. And then maybe look at Roman and Greek temples. That is all I am asking.

Let's make one thing clear: No matter what kind of world you are building, there is gonna be religion. It does not matter if you are writing medieval fantasy, stoneage fantasy, or some sort of science fiction. I know that a lot of atheists hate the idea that a scifi world has religion, but... Look, human brains are wired to believe in the paranormal. That is simply how we are. And even those atheists, that believe themselves super rational, do believe in some weird stuff that is about as scientific as any religions. (Evolutionary Psychology would be such an example.)

What the people will believe in will differ from their circumstance and the world they life in, but there is gonna be religion of some sort. Because we do need some higher power to blame, we need the rituals of it, and we need the community aspect of it.

Ironically I personally am still very much convinced that IRL even in a world like the Forgotten Realms, people would still make up new gods they would pray to, even with a whole pantheon of very, very real gods that exist. (Which is really sad, that this gets so rarely explored.)

However, how this worship looks like is very different. Yes, the Abrahamitic religions in general do at least have in common that they semi-regularily meet in some sort of big building to pray to their god together. Though how much the people are expected to go into that temple to pray is actually quite different between those religions and the subgroups of those religions.

Other religions do not have this though. Some do not have those really big buildings, and often enough only a select few are even allowed into the big buildings - or those might only be accessible during some holidays.

Instead a lot of polytheistic religions make a big deal of having smaller shrines dedicated to some of the gods. Often folks will have their own little shrine at home where they will pray daily. Alternatively there are some religions where there might be a tiny shrine outside that people will go to to pray to.

Funnily enough that is also something I have realized Americans often don't quite get: Yeah, this was a thing in Christianity, too. In Europe you will still find those tiny shrines to certain saints (because technically speaking Christianity still works as a polytheistic religion, only that we have only one god, but a lot of saints that take over the portfolios of the polytheistic gods). I am disabled, and even in the area I can reach on foot I know of two hidden shrines. One of them is to Mary, and one... I am honestly not sure, as the masonry is too withered to say who was venerated there. Usually those shrines are bieng kept in a somewhat okay condition by old people, but yeah...

Of course, while with historically inspired fantasy settings make this easy (even though people still hate their research), things get a bit harder with science fiction.

Again, the atheist idea is often: "When we develop further scientifically, we will no longer need religion!" But I am sorry, folks. This is not how the human brain works. We see weird coincidences and will go: "What paranormal power was responsible for it?" We can now talk about why the human brain has developed this way. We are evolved to find patterns, and we are evolved (because social animal and such) to try and understand the will others have - so far that we will read will in nature. It is simply how our brains work.

So using my Anthro degree for something. This is Academic interest. I'm only giving the loose reasons why. I'm not particularly promoting fetishization here. I'm saying, do the research into this specific culture for this specific cultural aspect. rather than blind worship.

Agriculture

Of the three major regions, (West Asia, Southern China-ish, Meso America/Northern South America) hands down, The Americas.

I mean, if you look at the genetics and origin of the potato, that itself is super impressive. Through domestication alone, they managed to make the potato grow in all environments, AND changed the amount of genes the potato has. !@#$ What? Really? And then you have things like Amaranth, corn, squash, beans of different kinds, quinoa, tomatoes which is related to nightshade, which is used more than eggplant worldwide, and Sweet Potatoes which they gave to Polynesians. Also single handedly through the Potato and Sweet Potato saved China, Korea, Ireland, and several other places from famine, thus also helping to end the slavery cycle in Korea, China and Japan. I mean... who are you going to rank the highest in that case?

Second place ranking I have to give to Western Asia. Daaaaamn, you have wheat, oats, barley, sheep, goats, cows, horses (supposedly), pigs. That's pretty impressive.

Third place Southern China—rice production, most of the world's commercial flowers, soybeans, a lot of the fruits including citrus. You also get honey.

Honorable mention to South Asia for Chickens. (Indonesia and India specifically)

Despite this, apples are my favorite fruit. lol I need to eat a Courtland apple please. I can eat them by the bushel.

Sea navigation

Hands down, Polynesians, beats the pants off of everyone else by a nautical league. When you can feel sea currents with your hands, be able to get your people first to the South Pacific from China, and then navigate ALLLLL the way to the Americas and beat Europeans, Yes, definitely they get the crown several times over. I mean... think hard about it. When you memorize stick charts, casually and then don't have them at sea and sometimes your tattoos are only brief reminders, FLOORED.

Make Europeans in the same time period look terrible.

House design

I'm looking at passive solar, specifically rather than aesthetics. For me, this is kinda toss up. Indigenous peoples rocked it pretty hard, especially in the South West US into Mexico region. They were exceptionally good at regulating air flow. But Koreans invented underfloor heating. And Chinese figured out Feng Shui which is just Passive solar+ a bunch of other stuff that's practical. (Such as your bathroom shouldn't be above your kitchen). But I have to admit I also admire some of the Indian Passive solar efforts (subcontinent). This one is hard to decide. But if you're researching, I'd look there.

Gender

My favorite to point to is Bugis people of Indonesia. 5 different genders. Freaking awesome. Of course it's a bit disciplined these days by the government, but it's worth investigating.

As I wrote before East Asian gender systems of the past were often more fluid and flexible and still are compared to European ideologues.

Clothing?

No one has impressed me that much, tbh. It's a pick and choose. I can choose the most impractical, but not the one that wins my heart for inventiveness.

Crakows, though, crack me up every single last time. Especially for the Phallic nature and that they were associated with men. But that's on the impractical list. That's also why I submitted it for review on History Hit's fashion list. I haven't gotten over it since I first saw it, I think it was on a Dan Snow documentary about British kings. I mean look at them and resist laughing your butt off.

Religion

I personally think that real Voudoun is much cooler than what's in the movies, which is really racist 98% of the time. It is a Synchronized religion, and it is Christian-based in some ways, but c'mon, look it up and be impressed.

BTW, I really dislike the conflation of zombies with Voudou, granted as an outsider, since it belongs to Bokor and is a warning against *becoming a slave* not about white people trying to shoot zombies with grey and darker faces because OMG, slave uprising psychology.

Zonbis, are cooler than zombies since it's about overcoming and resisting masters, rather than about masters mass killing their slaves, which is what the later meaning seems to say. Ad Zombie movies are at their best when they symbolically get the original concept and meaning. So like becoming a work drone.

^^ I still have a soft spot for Muism as a Korean, but ya know, Korean. I lean towards liking shamanism, probably because of the historical acceptance of LGBTQIA and disability.

Shamanism is also appealing in some ways because often shamanism says that if everything in your life is going wrong, then that might be a sign of powers or spirits calling to you, rather than saying in the old Christian ideology that you've sinned deeply, so you need to repent.

But this is usually not what people are asking about when they are thinking about religions. They usually want the polytheistic, Jade Emperor, Greek, Roman, Egyptians, Norse route. Or Monotheism. Kinda dull, really. Where are the other types in fiction. I mean, Druids?

Give me some totemism for once.

Government System

Look up Wigan Council. I might also be biased towards it because of Gaya, but it's a way to play with things and also allow for more LGBTQIA royalty. Royalty without autocracy?

Inventions?

Hands down, no doubt, Islamic Empire. I mean, when you have Automatons without electricity, you're winning without question. When your people are inventing surgery, calculating the size of the Earth, allowing women to read, learn and write, inventing the lens, which is the cornerstone of so many inventions, and you got Europe's Bacon by inventing the Scientific Method first, historical crush does't cut it. I mean, when you can calculate a pointed arch, do geometric mosaics with mathematical principles, I am floored beyond reason.

Conclusion

This isn't to say I'm not impressed by specific things from other cultures as well, but this is broad strokes. Vedanta Hinduism, for me, is impressive from India. And I really like the practicality of Hanbok. (Why hanbok over hanfu is a long, long post) And I've raved over kimchi before multiple, multiple times, more than you know (quora... I think I have the most answers and I also answer with the food science of Kimchi down to the bacteria.) BTW, dumplings are damned clever.

I will state you can't change the actual disability, though you could theoretically make up ones. This isn't going to be one of those "Oh let's play roulette and give your characters a disability you've never heard of before". This is a short post trying to ask you to look at how disability is thought of and treated in your society and maybe changing the longtime European default settings to one that could look at disability on a cultural level.

Europe's ideas of Disability over time

There's some loose thought that Druids were semi-Shamanistic and if that was so a few things are true: Higher likelihood of acceptance of LGBTQIA, though this was likely erased by later Christian Missionaries, but some stories do survive that indicate this might be true. Of course LGBTQIA isn't a disability, but putting it out there that Druids likely accepted it from Historical thinking.

But also it's likely that disabilities, particularly congenital, etc weren't regarded the same as they were later.

Mental health disabilities were likely? treated as a cause of celebration because those people were closer to understanding the divine. Many Shamanistic religions are like that.

Then Romans came, and Romans, unlike the "sanitized" version of them were not anti-sex, homosexuality, but there is evidence that there was some "kill people with disabilities" mentality probably leftover from the Greeks. (Baby death by exposure for having a disability).

This belief system probably synchronized with Christianity in Europe, and thus by the time you get to Shakespeare in the 1500's, etc, it was commonly thought that if you had a physical or mental "deformity" (language of the time period) that it was punishment from God. This is why in much of the plays of the time period physical disability comes at the heels of a moral failing in plays. If you notice, this is a more extreme version of the previous. But the justifications have changed and the culture has changed with it.

(Lucy Worsley goes over this when she talks about Shakespeare and Richard the III—often disability was feared, mocked, and hated.)

Your arm got chopped off in battle and somehow despite the terrible medicine, you survived, well the Church would tell you, "You know what? God willed it because you were evil."

TT Ultimate in blame the victim?

Of course with the advent of science, some of this started to change, but was still prevalent until the late Victorian era where it changed. (You can watch the doc Victorian Pharmacy to get an idea of when the Humour system finally died, etc.) But then Eugenics kinda took over the mantle of what had been put in earlier with a more extreme version and justification to go after LGBTQIA, (Mostly the first 4 letters, to be honest) They used Wallace and Darwin's work (unfortunately it got Darwin's Grandson) to argue against disability.

But then this history also attacks ND identity too.

But do you need to write an antagonism towards disability? Couldn't you expand on the supposed Druid version and play that up?

like really, but not on normal paper with inks and stuff, that’s yucky. allow me to explain some German folk stuff  

Okay so have yall heard of Schluckbildchen and Esszettel? Well, they were a very popular type of folk medicine in Germany through the 1800’s and some into the last century. Schluckbildchen is German meaning “swallowable pictures” and then Esszettel in Hungarian means “meal slip”. These would be small pieces  of paper that would be eaten in order to cure illnesses and fevers, general healing. But, Schluckbildchen is a bit different from Esszettle. These would be smaller squares and usually have Mary imagery(you’ll see a lot of OL of Altötting or the Virgin Mary) or saints. Here’s some examples! 

These wouldn’t really have words other than names of saints if there’s a saint on one, the name of the pilgrimage spot these were gotten, or a word/acronym associated with the devotional imagery. 

An Esszettel paper would be bigger and have prayers, Bible verses, or folk adeges/sayings and would have no imagery. These were more of a sigil to stick in your food and eat it! Sometimes people would use these to cure rabies in animals, similar to using sator squares to ward off rabies. Generally, an Esszettel is more specific while a schluckbildchen is about the healing properties associated with the devotional images. 

Now back to “eat your spells”, I was inspired by this to share ideas I have on doing this but making it more personal and pagan or including a different spirit

Instead of paper

Bread (bread is important in German folk magic!)

Buttered toast

crackers

cookies

wafer paper

Instead of ink

honey

scratch out the words on the buttered toast with a knife or needle!

icing

milk + food coloring

tea

Coffee

What you write/draw is up to you!

Write a prayer for one of your deities or a litany with their healing and protective titles!

Make a sigil as simple or as intricate as you would like or make your own devotional doodles

Implement some color magic

different edible writing mediums based on their magical properties(honey for sweetening or tea with specified herbs) Personalize and make it fit for you!