#wordbuilding

Eira's true form

Yes. Some say the Otherworld is shaped by our stories. Others say it's the other way around. Perhaps it's both. An exchange of influence. From Mother Goose to Gooseworx, for as long as there have been stories about being spirited away, people have been spirited away.

i'm a vegetarian so i'm interested in knowing how naathi cuisine would work + if they have a lot butterflies that means a lot of biodiversity so i think they should have vegetal cheeses & milk from cashews, protein from shredded jackfruit that you can fry so it has the same texture as chicken, mushrooms or lamb's ear.

silk should have a great significance in their culture with different families producing their own patterns and being a way to burry the dead (partially inspired by some cultures in Madagascar).

i think the villages and urban settlements of Naath could work like the garden towns in the Amazon Rainforest

i think the summer isles + naath should have their own Long Night mythology but rather than have snows and the cold it could be a dry season (Naath) and i haven't figured out how it would work in the summer isles yet but i think it could be a flood season or a season with treacherous winds that would make it difficult to sail.

the talking trees is such a cool thing and it connects to the weirwoods because it's a way to tie the past with the present and the future, you get it, so i think they could have a huge cultural significance and having a class of people that is trained to continuosly register the history of the summer isles in the trees.

First of all there's an emperor, because if the British (and various other Europeans, and the Japanese) can pretend that monarchy and democracy aren't mutually exclusive concepts, so can I. Don't worry though, his (official) powers are limited--just a few minor things, such as supreme control of the military (in case he ever has to throw a coup to "restore democracy") and the power to appoint justices to the Supreme Court. He's also the richest man in the world and owns shares in all the empire's news conglomerates and weapons industries, which have no bearing on the empire's politics, I'm sure.

Second, there's that Supreme Court I just mentioned; yeah, that one's just a direct copy and paste of the USA's Supreme court, because why break what's already fixed.

Third, we have the single most imaginative aspect of this system, something with no real-world counterpart because it was sourced directly from Milton Friedman's wet dreams--the Supreme Council (or Council of 21, depending on how grandiose I want the assholes controlling this state to be about it). There are twenty-one members who serve twenty-one year terms, in staggered elections--that's right: every year is election year, bay-bee! And they really are like American presidential elections, because while the Council doesn't directly touch the functions of government, it appoints the president, cabinet, and heads of various arms of government (as well as having complete control of the oversight organizations "meant" to keep the emperor in check), all of whom serve at their pleasure rather than having fixed terms, and also create the candidate pool for Supreme Court justices the emperor must pick from--hence the illusion that voting in these elections is important, in spite of the fact that you basically have to win eleven elections in a row to change anything. Made even less democratic by the fact that there's an electoral college!

(All elections are FPTP, because of course they are.)

The legislature is tricameral, and its chambers currently named after their USAmerican and British counterparts because I'm not good with names.

The Senate has the ability to veto the emperor's pick of Supreme Court justices, and its electoral quirk is that they do that thing the French do where the first round of elections is basically just a guide to help the parties rig the second.

The House of Representatives has the power to remove people from the pool of Supreme Court candidates the Council creates, and its electoral quirk is good, old-fashioned gerrymandering.

The House of Lords very specifically has no special powers at all beyond being yet another chamber legislation has to pass through, creating just that many more opportunities for minoritarian coalitions to logjam the process and create government dysfunction. A certain number of seats are appointed by the Senate, a certain number by the House of Representatives, a certain number by the Council, a certain number by the emperor, a certain number are "technocrats" appointed by various institutions of import (e.g. the bar association) or historical import (e.g. the church), and a certain number are hereditary (belonging, mainly, to titled nobles). Each individual seat has it's own term length and limit independent of what may or may not be happening with other seats, to really maximize the confusion.

There's also a leadership council consisting of the leaders of the Senate, the House, and the Lords. What does it do? Fucked if I know. Some bureaucratic bullshit designed to further muddy the waters WRT which individual lawmakers are to blame for any given piece of legislation, no doubt.

There are six major political parties, each named after a color. Every single one of them has at least one media conglomerate in its corner (because that's how you become a major party) and a number of sports teams (to give it that Roman flair). "Political debates" rarely feature discussions of policy (and never foreign policy), but rather two or three angry men--nationally there are six major parties as I said, but in any given sub-unit of the empire only a couple are "viable"--accusing each other of being pedophiles and satanists.

I'm Bear Callow, I go by Bear, I'm working on a few projects. My stories are intended for mature audiences. Mostly due to strong language.

Feel free to ask any questions about my WIP projects or completed ones. I'd love to answer any and all. I'm also willing to take requests for what you want to see

For the Hashta Gods IF:

You're a college student

You can choose your major

Fully customizable character

You can choose 1 of 4 gods to be your parent

You can choose 1 of 3 romance options (one is lesbian and I'm open to making more)

The story has slice of life elements alongside action

It's set in California and in the same universe as the Hashta Gods Tales, but has no overlap with the books.

My books2read author page

My carrd

Completed Works (Published & Unpublished)

WIP Projects (excluding code for those applicable):

Hashta Gods Tales: A Whole New Power - currently 9890 words

Hashta Gods Interactive Fiction - 7178 total words, 1,760 words per playthrough [reason for this is that Nonbinary roommates and Male roommates haven't had their scenes written so they are tanking the average] (releasing demo after chapter 1 complete or 20k words. Whichever happens later); planning to rewrite, not releasing anytime soon

Currently Unnamed Medieval Story - 2289 currently words

Hashta Gods Collection 1 - currently 20626 words