#objectxenofiction

I love you Obsidian plugins wowwowow

Currently using, for this draft of Branches and other writing projects:

Harper - Dictionary

Better Word Count - tracking story and note length

Dictionary - yes, another dictionary

Linter - modifies and/or corrects formatting in note

Longform - for drafting short stories and novels, also helps with compiling finalized work

Sidebar Highlights - create comments on highlighted sections, currently using this for revising

Smart Typography - fallback for further formatting, also skips en-dash for em-dash, converts three periods into ellipsis

Wordy - Thesaurus

Part of the story seen here under the keep-reading line. Draft 6 - still under revision, so expect some issues with grammar, spelling, or structure.

Holy shit, this timeline maker by Legendkeeper is so fucking helpful. I know I still have the ITS theme and Chronos Timelines for Obsidian, but the Legendkeepr Fantasy maker is so much easier for me to quicky create events, ranges, and drag-and-drop events throughout the timeline.

I still want this timeline for WOR to be in my Obsidian worldbuilding vault. So once I nail down the full timeline (from the Primordial Gods, Age of Antiquity, Age of Relics, Age of Hiding, Age of Tumult/Modern Era) in this timeline creator, I'll be able to reflect all events in my Obsidian vault.

Thermite and Caelestis - BLADENLESS

It's over rendered a bit, but I like this comic! Please enjoy! Loving the ichordic hair texturing, though a bit inconsistent with lighting in the scene. I didn't have an idea (yet) on a background, so I just borrowed some inspiration from the Byzantine mosaics of golden backgrounds for this. The border was from this photo of an interior of a basilica in Hagia Sophia by Raimond Klavins.

Eightenate Sword Redesign

Took a bit, but here's the updated sword design for Eightenate's sword! Redrawn with a wicked blade with a beautiful crystal and stone design! Let me know what you think of my updated style rendering. Thinking about pursuing this in my future WOR concept art!

New textures and shaders updated, LET'S GOOO!

Explanation below!

So uh, I just realized while working on revisions for my Life Cycle of a Object Mimic document that my object ocs in WOR have strange family structure dynamics due to them being asexual reproducers lol.

Here's an image is from Jeff Searle's blog post "What is Sex?" Just showing this to show a quick example of what I mean by my Object ocs being asexual reproducers.

Here's a quick sketch of me trying to figure out the family tree. Solid line is relation through the Progenitor/Ichor and dash lines is only social relation (partners). Broken dash lines represent no social relation.

Note about the sketch below: if the text is not clear, Progenitor #1 has no siblings, dies and yields at least three withered kernels, all of which are their offspring. These grow into curios, then later adult Objects. One of the siblings had a Partner, then dies becoming Progenitor #2. That Partner is now the Guardian of the curio Progenitor #2 yielded. This Guardian only have a social relation with the curio through Progenitor #2 (Guardian is the living parent while the progenitor is the deceased parent). This curio grows up into an Adult Object, then dies with no partner of any kind nor altrices to care for their curios (possibly had no access to an abbey). They yield four withered kernels, that grow into curios, that then grow into Adults. One of these adults die, becoming Progenitor #5, once again had no partner, but an altrix from an abbey steps in to care for Progenitor #5's curio. This altrix (and all altrices) are only caregivers and have no social relation with the curio. Curio grows up into an adult, then dies as Progenitor #6, yielding a single kernel, that grows up, and is now currently an Adult. This adult, and any adults/curios still alive in this graft (not counting guardians or altrices), make up the family lineage of Progenitor #1.

In short, all my Object ocs (Mimickind) in my worldbuilding only share relations through their progenitor, then their progenitor's progenitor, and so on. Any members still living are all siblings of the Progenitor or the offspring of the Progenitor.

When Objects die a true death, they leave behind a withered kernel, and once cracked open, exposes a germ to be used for growing a new curio. The only "parent" is the guardian - buuuuut thanks to a few lore changes - guardians are not just the Object who is pair-bonded with the curio's progenitor (that is just common for most objectkind).

Let me explain.

In the case of a curio's progenitor's partner is dead (both "parents"), the next one to be a guardian (depending if they accept this task btw) is either siblings of the progenitor, another Object who steps in to take care (say an adoptive Object from the original guardian family or the altrix of an abbey).

Since direct relations are perceived only through the progenitor and not through the Guardian (due to guardians being any kind of object who steps in to care for a curio), all family matters are controlled by siblings and (maybe) cousins? There's no parent (mother/fathers) or grandparents?

I'm not sure?? How this works??

There's also, like relationship stuff to figure out, too.

Okay, so right now in my worldbuilding, Pair-Bonds are

romantic or platonic pairings of one or more Objects. All Objects are instinctively asexual and have no instinct to find suitable mates with strong genes to ensure the health and fitness of their offspring. Instead, they are driven to protect their partner until they die, where upon death, the deceased’s curio(s) will have a greater chance to surviving to adulthood with the help of the deceased’s living partner.

Guardians in my worldbuilding are:

an Object who is usually become their curio’s benefactor after that curio’s progenitor died. They usually act as parental figures of their curios, aiding in the curio’s education and growth while they grow up in an abbey. In the case of no surviving partner, the progenitor’s or the guardian’s family may step in to aid the curio. The Guardian’s family may participate in helping the guardian care for the curio(s), but are not considered related to the progenitor’s family though the progenitor’s curio and are not related through pair-bonds. If either family rejects the curio, the curio will have an altrix or adoptive Object to act as guardian.

So, family is relation through the Progenitor (and their lineage through past Progenitors). Guardians (either pair-bonds, other Objects, or altrices) are not considered part of the Progenitor's family (and lineage). The Progenitor's family is made up of their siblings (if alive) or cousins (if also alive) of the curio (cousins being the offspring of the Progenitor's siblings, who would have died to yield a kernel). All family matters are controlled by the Progenitor's family while the Guardian(s) (and their family) have no say as they are not seen as relatives to the Progenitor. The Guardian's family (their siblings and cousins) are not a part the Progenitor's family because of this.

The only role of the Guardian(s) is to ensure the Progenitor's curio is kept safe (either rearing them or having an abbey rear them).

~Skipping ahead a bit on a thought~

So lets say you have an Object who had just started their lineage by their existence (cough a human dies then gets inverted cough), then dies (becomes a Progenitor) and yields a kernel. That kernel is cracked, germ comes out then grows into a curio. Let's say that Progenitor had a partner. That Partner now cares for their curio as a Guardian. But since the Progenitor has no siblings or cousins, that Guardian now becomes the adoptive family of that curio. The Guardian's family also steps in to care for the curio, but still retain their independence from that curio and the curio's future lineage.

So the curio grows up into an adult but their Guardian grows old, dies, then has a kernel. They had no partner in their life. So would this mean that the adult Object that the Guardian once took care of now cares for the curio of the Guardian? What does this mean for the adult Object to the curio? Is the curio a "sibling" or "child" of the adult Object in this scenario?

I rather the adult Object in this scenario see the curio as a "sibling" because uuuuuuh "child" implies something real bad and not great (yeah ew no). So maybe the adult Object is a Sibling Guardian or a Grand-Sibling of their Guardian's curio?

My project World of Relics is for adults, so it's good to see how this discussion goes since I really don't want to struggle writing WOR as an adult webcomic (Rise of Relics) and anthology (The Mundane Realm) series. I think the reason why Hazbin and TADC feels immature that they have the nostalgia of edgy kids and teens media with occasional mature themes being the inspiration, but not really fully embracing those themes from an adult's point of view. It would explain in part why they feel immature for something that suppose to be for adults.

Note: this is an underdeveloped thought, still processing it so critique is welcomed and good thank you.

This is not to say you cannot take inspiration from kids/teens media, this is more to say how does it effect how you perceive/write/create adult media. Is adult media "shocking fact that the characters are stuck somewhere unusual", "randoms s*e*x joke the 5th time in an episode", and "it's mature because shocking thing you don't see in kids media"?

Or is adult media about recognizing both the mundane and extremes of adulthood, with no escapism from certain extremes, understanding the moments of joy, pain, sorrow, etc has more to them than brief moments but instead history and context behind all of that in an adult's life.

Taking a moment to review what I been viewing and reading so that I can understand how to write World of Relics:

--Animated Series--

JJBA - Stone Ocean*

Arcane*

Primal*

Carol and the End of the World*

Blue Eye Samurai*

Blood of Zeus*

Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon*

ONE

--Books (both YA and Adult/New Adult)--

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter*

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin*

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Legendborn Series by Tracy Deonn (YA, but still handles mature themes well)

Oathblood by Mercedes Lackey*

The asterisk is for media I'm not just reading for enjoyment but learning how to handle the form of storytelling it presents. Without making this post too long, I feel gravitated to these media not for ~what shocking situation the character is in~ but the familiarity of their experiences to mine or to other people's life experiences they faced. Some more extreme than others (especially Blue Eye Samurai, Blood of Zeus, The Rage of Dragons, and The Fifth Season), the extremes of trauma, strife, hardship, discrimination, and destruction in these stories have an weight to them beyond the shock of violence or death, or the existential crisis. Like, there's no cry laughing, but there is quiet moments of grief and pain, the yearning of better days, desires of vengeance and justice. There's a substance to them that feels more thought out than what I feel from TADC Hazbin.

Note 2: I'm sorry if I'm being harsh, I love TADC. Yes, there's only two episodes out right now, but like I want more than what it presents.

Note 3: Yeah, I'm comparing apples to grand pianos, but I believe there's no harm in asking for more. I believe adult indie animation can do better, for now we have stepping stones that will help build the foundation for the next generation of adult animation. ~looking at Lackadaisy here since I'm a reader of their comic, that will most certainly be the next step if you know how it goes.

In addition to this, I will admit with my project WOR, I have concerns it might not be taken seriously as adult media, not because shocking edginess (there's a sprinkling of that here and there), but ...my characters are mostly talking object people set in a fantasy world. I have decided on certain things about them: despite them having human souls, sexuality is nearly vestigial in their species so all attraction is romantically driven -they are an asexually reproducing species, and almost all cursing/swearing will sound mostly mundane to us humans -no one says M*therf*cker but will using Blazing Hell, Broken Blades, Rusted Hell, Dirty Rags, etc (similar swears to how The Fifth Season does swearing in relation to earth and fire, WOR handles swearing to the material makeup of Objectkind - as well how biases of Hardy objects have of Fragile objects), and other things.

But, I knew, after awhile of reading and watching, what kind of story I wanted and how it appears to other people. If you like, person reading this very long post, I welcome you to read the following:

// Mild Spoilers for Rise of Relics and a little for the Mundane Realm

Note 4: The characters in Rise of Relics were gods turned to their relics after their realm was destroyed by the Inversion Event. So, if you are familiar with my story, its all baleful polymorph, almost everyone gets turned. If you are uncomfortable with that trope (due to certain past depictions in media), I suggest not reading anything World of Relics please. ~also, I'm Black soooooo, its alright! Everyone's dead lol. I equalized it!

Note 5: Also in the old draft of Chp 3 sample (its updated rn, just look at the Worldofrelics tag), Nicodemus is a crystal ball, Nikey is a trident. The flashback was before the Inversion Event. Just want to put this there in case confusion.

Do these examples of my WOR project:

Feel mature?

Feel as though, despite maybe a shocking thing or too, there's more to what's presented?

What of the characters? How do you feel about them in the situation? What about the implications of the situation they are in?

Does the voice (narration of Altostratus or how the characters in RFR Chp 3 speak and behave) feel like they are adult characters, or characters in general regardless of age, exist in a mature adult setting?

How do you empathize with them in their situation? Do you expect them to just react constantly to the events in the story in one type of way? Or do you expect as they develop over time, they adapt, struggle, and grow beyond just where they started?

If you imagine these characters in real life, would they be like what the story presents them as (in both examples, characters are above the age of 18 - from 32 to thousands of years old (read late 60s -early 100s in human years in relation to this question)?

Does it feel like at any point this could appeal to children (not because talking objects, but other reasons)? How do I improve upon that to appeal to Adults (by not adding swearing or se*xual stuff, but mature themes without making light of whatever topic I'm trying to handle)?

Giant Robot Monster Hot or Dear god, this old girl Flammin went through so much I hope they are happy with their trident wife? (they won't be, lol, oh they won't be)

Do you interpret Nikey as an angsty teen/20s or someone in their early 30s just trying to make sense of the world that died around her? (Okay, not obvious in chp 3, but give me your thoughts anyway)

Sexy Tumblr Old Man or This old man was a criminal and may have hurt people deeply and wrestling with that fact, knowing that one day he will face someone who was hurt by his actions? (still writing out Gwenny's lore, just hinting at this point tho)