#story reference

From @eveningecho's tags...

#the laundry room is scary and ominous #it feels like there's something hiding in there even though there shouldn't be 😁😁

#the guest house is like the third main character :D its layout intrigues me enough i tried sketching it out. think i got some things wrong

It's changed a lot over time, and I think if I tried to make everything line up exactly with every written word that might be impossible

#I'd love an official map if yall have one

I have a very unofficial and very subject-to-change map we've kind of been working off of. Note the laundry room is even more ill defined than the rest of it. (I kinda think the holding cells/cages are up against the wall opposite the door. The breaker is probably opposite the washer, and the storage cabinets probably are too).

The Temple of the Dawn

One of Thailand's best known landmarks and named after the Hindu god Aruna.

The temple has existed since the 17th Century, stretching back to the Ayutthaya era but it's most celebrated feature, the giant central Prang (spire) was constructed in the nineteenth century and was completed in the year ManSuang is set.

The spire represents the mythological sacred mountain, Mount Meru and the four smaller prangs that form a square around it are dedicated to Phra Phai, the wind god.

The prangs are decorated with shards of porcelain and tropical snail shells which give it an iridescent glow when the sun hits it.

The temple was once home to the famous Emerald Buddha, the sacred image of Thailand. It was placed there by the man who would become Rama 1 but when he shifted his capital over the river and had the Grand Palace built, the Emerald Buddha was taken and placed in the newly built Wat Phra Kaew, which stands in the grounds of the Grand Palace.

Yeah, this came right the fuck outta nowhere.

-You didn’t really think things through when you decided you wanted to sell your soul. Your home life was hell and you believed anything would be better than staying with the people in your life for much longer. 

-After doing just enough research to do the summoning properly and finding the right time so they wouldn’t interrupt, you begin the ritual, not really caring who or what you summoned.

-After what felt like hours, you successfully complete the ritual and you manage to summon the Avatar of Pride himself.

-At first, Lucifer was quite vexed about being summoned. He was a very busy demon and he deemed most humans unworthy of making a pact with him. You certainly felt his irritation and were beginning to have second thoughts.

-But once he laid his eyes on you, his temperament changed. Through keen observation, he noticed so many things. You were young, maybe a bit too young and clearly being mistreated. Lucifer began to wonder what someone like you wanted from him.

-After mustering up the bravery, you finally reveal your intentions to the demon and he fairly quickly refuses your offer.

-“A bit too young to be doing something so risky, don’t you think?” -You plead with him, offering as much as you could even though you didn’t have much to begin with. But no matter what, he was firm in his refusal to buy your soul.

-In a bout of desperation, you open up about your home life in hopes that his pity would move him to change his decision. Unfortunately, nothing would sway him.

-“I don’t usually do this for a human but perhaps we can come up with a compromise.” 

-His idea was to find a proper home for you. Lucifer didn’t intend on keeping you since he already had enough to look after back in Devildom. But you would stay in HoL with him and his family until he found people worthy of keeping you.

-Of course, you gladly accepted. Just anything to get away from your current situation. And so, he takes you home. 

-Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and you were still in HoL.

-It’s been a while since Lucifer last went searching for suitable guardians. Whenever he came back, he’d go on about something he found unbecoming of them and thus they were unworthy of keeping you.

-While no one said it outright, you knew that you were there to stay. But you liked how your life turned around.

Made some art for my fanfic as I’m posting the second part

Professor Night: For Lena, ruling National City as villain Professor Night is getting a little boring. That is until a gorgeous, strange new hero, going by Supergirl, shows up.

I cannot stress how beneficial it is to have Dungeons and Dragons as a resource.

I know I just said Dungeons and Dragons but please don't click away

Whether you're playing yourself or just watching others play, it sets such a good example for setting up stories, as well as creating them. That's all D&D is anyway. Collaborative storytelling.

Firstly, when you run the game you have to go through massive worldbuilding! You create cities, cultures, religions, lore and so much more. Online, there's a plethora of reference and critical question sheets. How to build maps and place cultures in your new world. There's a huge community of people who have made content made to make a world believable and livable. Cause their worlds are meant to have real people poking around in them.

Which brings me to my second point: Dialogue. Watching a D&D stream or playing with your friends will provide you will examples of how real people will react to situations and interact with each other. Every character really does have their own personal goals and habits and postures (rather than you acting out all the characters in your kitchen at 1am).

Next: Combat. Putting combat in context is so helpful to not only keep the pacing, but to remember how each character reacts in the moment. Each round of combat lasts 6 seconds in game. Like real people, the time limit forces characters to think fast and meaningfully about the world around them. How should they use their limited amount of spells? If they move wrong way could they open themselves up to attack? Should they help their friends or rush in? Or could the character talk or charm their way out of a situation? Although you can't leave the success of these actions up to chance while writing, you can think through a more technical aspect of your characters; their strengths and limitations. Not to mention, DM descriptions of events and attacks are glorious.

In fact, thinking through the technical side of the story is a main part of D&D that could most aid writers. This provides easy templates to flesh out the strength of characters as well as their backgrounds, flaws and ideals. Because it focuses on the world as a whole so characters can go anywhere, D&D keeps track of what is going on in the world outside of the characters. It factors in subplots in real, in world time, as well as how long it takes to travel, go shopping and more.

To conclude, D&D is a really underused resource for writers. 

Alright, this one can be a writing reference or a witchcraft reference. You decide.

1. Creation of Life

2. Destruction of Life

3. Preservation of Life

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Creation of Life: As a source of life, magic can be used to create life, bring back life and create living and breathing objects (i.e. Flora and Fauna). This can also be used to create beings that walk the earth that can be considered "living" beings a.k.a. beings that posses the power to end life. It's still considered creation of life but it's the dark twisted side of it.

Destruction of Life: Magic can give life and take it away directly. It can be used to kill living beings, suck out their life source, or destroy their source of life on this earth. This can be viewed malicious and evil but you won't really say that if you end up walking among the undead and demons summoned by OP.

Preservation of Life: This part of the magical system uses magic to keep life and sustain it. The easiest example of this is immortality. Another way to use it is to help the growth of living beings. This can also be used to protect life. This can be used to preserve the way of life, civilizations, and settlements from those who wish to destroy it. This is the most common way of magic use on the mortal realm.

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