#tieflingish

Oh boy let me tell you about a hilarious bit of Lanithon history

Human Pest Control 101, or: The Founding of Vanithea

For those of you unfamiliar, this is what we’re working with:

Vanithea is the capital city, and where the majority of humans in the land live (though it is of course open to all races).

This city is a Big Deal, right. Lanithon’s calendars are set by it, it’s a hub of markets and mail systems and interracial cooperation unparalleled in the land. It was, after all, raised by magic users from every race.

What those magic users didn’t tell them was that they were only agreeing to build Vanithea so that the exploding human population would have a place to stay instead of encroaching on the lands of other races.

Humans, you see, do not self regulate like magical species do. They do not tie themselves to the environment around them, in order to sustain balance; their population grows exponentially. Worse than that, they expand everywhere they can.

Every little village icon on that map is a human town, and there are smaller villages scattered throughout the land and along the coastlines.

Even 1600 years ago from the present storyline, the situation was seen as a problem. So a bunch of elves, demons, fae, and merfolk got together to see what they could collectively do to solve this problem.

Genocide was considered, but war opens up the possibility of humans successfully winning battles and occupying territory in their lands. This was kind of the opposite of the point.

Instead, the races gathered their strongest magic users and bestowed a gift upon humanity: the city of Vanithea. Not only did it provide a more homes and jobs for people of all races, but it also serves as a focal point for humanity’s tireless progress. Humans can focus on building and developing their city, and the rest of the land can function in peace.

The meeting where the rulers of these races got together and decided what to do is infamous to everybody except the humans, and I find that hilarious.

Help, In Dreams, Saccharine, Soak

Gil gasped, adrenaline shooting through his still sleep-paralyzed limbs. His heart thundered in his ears as he swallowed past the dream still caught in his throat. Dream. Dream. Just a dream.

Sweat plastered his curls to his forehead, the bed covers and Lia's leg thrown over him stiflingly hot. He wriggled sideways, amazing his panicked panting hadn't woken her.

It had woken Adiran.

He was awake enough now to realize the other body usually spooned at his back was gone, leaving him the space for a clean getaway. Gil schlumped into the the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face, tossing his curls back, ignoring the mirror. He didn't blame Adiran for retreating--the Mind faery would be buffeted by Gil's nightmares almost as clearly as the actual dreamer. One of the many ways faery gifts cut two ways.

Another deep breath--eyes firmly on the floor until he was well away from the mirror--and Gil felt brave enough to go find his equally sleep-disturbed lover.Adiran was in the kitchen, either anticipating Gil's desire to seek out his comfort place, or else wanting the cocoa he was stirring for himself. Gil wasn't sure who all in the house liked the drink for its own sake, and how many of them had picked up the association by habit. Either way, when someone was upset, someone else was making cocoa. It's just how the house worked.

The steaming mug and the heat of Adiran at his back was unwelcome after the oppression of the tangled bedclothes, but Gil powered through both. He wanted to feel better, damn it. He willed himself to be comforted by both.

After long moments of silence, Adiran finally asked "Iason or Erumond?"

"Donia."

It wasn't often Gil dreamed of the brutal faery who had murdered Kyle, only to have her heart ground to dust in Tybee's hands as he revived the once-mortal immediately after. It was more Lia's trauma than his own. Perhaps some trick of sleeping sandwiched between her and their Mind faery beau had done it. Perhaps his subconscious had just wanted to shake things up, tried of the old "big brother tries to drown you" motif. Either way it had been horrible. His dreams had a knack for being disturbingly real. Visceral. He shuddered under the onslaught of memories, washed instantly away by Adiran.

"Sorry," his lover muttered. "Instinct."

"No, thank you." Gil turned in Adiran's arms to kiss him, and bury his face in his lover's neck. "I'm sorry you have to go through it with me."

Strong arms tightened around him as Adiran rocked them back and forth, each taking comfort in the contact, as the horrible dreams started to fade.

" 'It's not a burden. Not to me. Not if it's you.' "

Gil snorted, finally cheered by the goofy meme reference. "You dork."

Fun question!

So, I’m going to answer this primarily for Slaeyr, because they were the first culture I started developing, and I still have the most stuff for them. (Oops!) Anyway. A few things they like to do for fun, in no particular order:

“medley” - a musical game where a group of slaeyr hums a tune and one person sings part of that song, and it goes ‘round a circle with different songs. usually children’s or bar songs are used. (this is actually inspired by the medleys Peter Hollens puts up on his yt channel!)

“shield surfing” - self explanatory. it’s very dangerous, but a lot of younger slaeyr think they’re invincible.

another musical game without a title, but it involves trading off line by line or even word by word. sometimes played as a group, sometimes just between partners.

thank you for asking!!

Send me a “📖” and I’ll write about a book or story or author that inspired me

Transcript: So, I know that it’s cliche to say Tolkien is a major inspiration, but… He is. While reading the Simarillion was a bit of a slog, it’s definitely inspired me to keep worldbuilding.

—

Send me a “🎶” and I’ll write a song name (or a lyric) that inspired me

Transcript:

DNA - Lia Marie Johnson

I won’t be like you

Fighting back

I’m fighting back the truth

Eyes like yours

Can’t look away

But you can’t stop DNA

((This one reminds me of Talitha!))

—

Send in a “🔏” and I’ll write the first line of my wip

Transcript: Death surrounded her on all sides, and Jezebel had never felt safer.

—

Send me a “📝” and I’ll handwrite a favorite writeblr’s WIP title (and I’ll tag them)

Write out what the role reversal AU of one of your WIPs would be like and then tag five people.

Thank you for tagging, @tieflingish!

This is great because I have a reversal AU ready to go for Been There, Done That!

Been There, Done That is the story of Haru, a ridiculously overpowered psychic crumbling under coming to terms with the impossible world-saving expectations piled on his shoulders while his estranged twin sister Tsuya tries to distance herself from the whole psychic cryptid ordeal entirely.

Naturally, in the Role Reversal AU, it’s Tsuya who is born with seemingly limitless psychic potential and goes on world-saving adventures while Haru is brushed to the side and forgotten. 

Tsuya would scoff at saving the world like it’s a chore. She has a shit attitude toward life in general and would absolutely go off the rails if she had Haru’s powers. Really, when it comes down to it, Tsuya is the very specific sort of self-insert that lets me sort through baggage in the harmless and fascinating way that picking at a scab is harmless and fascinating doesn’t deserve those powers.

In BTDT, being left behind to grow up in an unpredictable home turned Tsuya sharp and cold, but in this AU, I have a feeling Haru would be just broken. Neither of them cope very well but Tsuya stayed barely functional for just long enough to get away. I don’t think Reversal AU Haru ever moved out.

Canon Haru has a bullet ant motif. Canon Tsuya has a paper wasp motif.

I call the Tsuya-has-psychic-powers worst-case scenario the ExecutionerWasp!AU.

So putting aside the fact that that game is on pause during lockdown, Not Great!

I honestly don’t remember the last time I updated you, but we just overthrew an evil fey king, which would be great, but we did have to go to the feywild to prep for it, and also we followed it up by making some astoundingly bad political decisions. So Euterpe’s locked into a fey deal with the Unseelie Queen that’s definitely going to make her a target of the Seelie Queen. More importantly, she alignment shifted to chaotic while in the feywild and lied a few times (and also was not considered fully a person by the fey), so she’s till processing that, especially because she’s realizing to have even a tiny bit of political aptitude, she’s going to have to give up her core values.

Ah, hamartias! My favorites!

For this one I’ll talk about Xanthe from Fairbone. One of her weaknesses, perhaps her greatest one, would be her own ability--she’s inspired by a banshee, meaning she can see the shadow of death and sometimes premonitions. However, she knows she can’t necessarily change this (whether this is true or not, one will see), which can lead to her own indecisiveness and uselessness when it comes down to battles. It makes her passive, because she doesn’t feel like she has a choice.

The last WIP that I worked on is Morsmordre.

I love, love, love the characters to death. I’m actually 100% certain that if @decantae and I didn’t start writing Morsmordre together, I would not be writing right now. This writeblr wouldn’t exist, and I probably would’ve given writing up as a hobby long ago. I’m so in love with the characters — which is why they’re basically in 80% of my WIPs — and I fall in love with them more and more every single day.