#mothtalks

The knight's oath: a take on Haruchiyo’s swordsmanship as a coping mechanism.

All of us, at least once, have wondered why Haru had a katana… What brought him to pick it as his weapon of choice in most timelines?

Well. I wrote a whole essay about this bdjdbdjd Enjoy!

thank you! it's very soft specbio, but let me pull some agriculture out of the drawer!

here's the latest addition! horsebirds... they're not the greatest for stamina, but faster than other land mounts available. As seen in the second image, they're large enough to hold an entire gnoll or orm. they could probably hold multiple kobolds or birdmen just so well. visually, these guys are based on emus and chickens, but i'm not familiar enough with bird taxonomy to make them align with a family properly.

iundes doesn't have horses -- or any odd-toed ungulate, including rhinoceros and tapirs -- so they use a variety of species for these sorts of tasks. notably, they typically use oxen for labor -- cart pulling and field plowing -- and a large species of goat used as a smaller pack animal, or a pack animal in situations of unsure footing. similar usecase to today's donkey.

thisun's a meat animal, a large lagomorph similar to the capybara. they're prominent in the drier parts of the northern continent, and are very energy efficient -- turning less silage into more meat. probably some are bred for their wool, but most have more wiry hair.

then there's feather barley! a domestic crop that evolved to grow in steep valleys with high, mostly-singly-directional winds. much like a feather, it's got a short, stiff side, bracing against the wind, and a softer leeward side with more space to do plant things. iundes' food crops arent as well developed, but i can tell you that amaranth is another common food crop, both for its leaves and its grain, and between these two, red dyes are very common. more towards the north of the continent, as well, there's small, sweet pumpkins, called 'speckle gourds'. they love to stuff these with meat.

your au appeared on my dash again and i just refreshed myself on its wonderous wonder

theres so much yummy lore om nom nom,,

can you explain how magic works in this au? or is that spoilers?

takes a bite out of your au again <3

ohohoh man, you have no IDEA what beast you have unleashed with this

So the magic world is divided loosely into three schools, that encompass many sub-genres:

School one is Elemental magic. This is the most commonly known/popular magic type because its the most versatile and extravagant looking one. Elemental magic also includes hybrids and magical creatures that are associated with elements e.g. nymphs, blazeborns, dragonborns ect.

the second school of magic is Curse/Cure magic. This type is the least well known and most mysterious to common folk and even other magic users, as they aren't very common. Curse magic has the reputation of being malevolent and untrustworthy, but it can be used to create cures and contributes a lot to science experiments. Their magic outlet is through physical objects; potions, charms, crystals, dolls, anything they can get their hands on that can withhold their magic.

The third major school (and my personal favourite) is Illusion magic! This type of magic is well known, but greatly misunderstood by common folk, it's associated with scammers, tricksters, and criminals. Illusion magic is quite a broad school and incorporates: illusions, creating light, teleportation, and physical manipulation in some places.

Very important is that vexes are a species who're like genetically engineered to be amazing at illusion magic and specifically persuasion magic (sub-genre of illusion), which is like mind control but more subtle. Because of this, vexes are hated and believe to be a murderous species, even though theyre just as threatening as any other species. Scar and Cub are both vexes, so theyre exceptional at illusions and persuasion.

Their ancestral history is part of the reason Scar lives in the town the au is set in...

Anyways, a person and magic, how does that work?

Anyone can do magic, but magical hybrids are basically genetically hardwired to do magic, humans can also do magic if they study it, but its harder for them than a magically born individual. There are mutliple academies to study magic at all over the place. Lots of magic users decide to specialise in sub-genres of their best school, the lovely Joe Hills specialises in matter manipulation for puppeteering!

Everyone can do any type of magic they like, but youre naturally better at one type of school than the others. which means, even though you can do them, youre more likely to mess up magic youre not naturally inclined to. For example Scar, whose super good at illusion magic, would mess up a basic plant growing spell and turn the poor victim into a completely different plant or possibly set it ablaze.

Magic is more acceptable in the world at the time the story is set, but theres still that generation-old stigma around it thats been passed down from scary stories before bedtime about the cannibalistic vexes who come out at night to kill children.

The more rural you go, the less magic users you'll find, because they aren't nearly as welcome as in the cities. So a lot of magic users who live in the country are solitary or exist in a small community of other magic users/magical beings.

This is totally a frankenstein of all the magic media ive consumed but im so obsessed with it. Love when magic is completely accessible and not gatekeeped. I hope this gave you what you want :D

(asking so i can plan the formatting for my kindle)

(yes it will be going on my kindle and no you can’t stop me hehehehhehe >:3)

the acts will all be posted together in one giant fic :D

I talk about the plot in acts just so it's easier to know where the characters are in their development and the general tone quickly. So i can skip the 'o yea, yknow the part where he grabs a water bucket? It's like kinda in the middle but later...' 'what?'

gonna do this to your scar drawings cuz !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you draw him like such a silly sckrunckly guy and I love it so much

hehehhe thank you im very flattered!! I try to make him as scrunckly as possible with his terrible haircut and outfit that is holding on for dear life hehe

omg ahaahaha 😭😭