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First time Spamton and Tenna met? OR the moment they realized they had feelings for each other. Dealer's choice
Their meeting was mostly uneventful, it wasn't until they went out for a few drinks, Spam made a dumb joke that wasn't even all that funny, and Tenna laughed...
Though, Spamton would never admit whether it was the goofy snort laugh or the realization that Tenna had fangs that finally reeled him in.
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A Workshop for Creating Magical/ Fictional Crystals: A Guide from a Geologist
Hi folks, its me, here to talk about fictional writing again! Today I'm just tackling the idea of magical stones/mana stones by looking at existing minerals today and some neat properties that they have, and how you can apply these things to a fictional world. The goal is mainly to help you if you are stuck trying to come up with a unique magic system, or a unique identification/characteristic of your mineral.
First Things First: Mineral Shapes
I am exhausted, petered out, down-right fatigued by seeing every mineral depicted with having the crystal structure of calcite and quartz. There are soooooo many cooler, more interesting crystal structures, don't you think you would stop and take a look at a perfect cube in nature? It is completely unsettling.
Second: Color
Color within minerals can either be really important, or not important at all! It is your choice to decide if color is going to be something that means something to your mineral. But what are some times when the color is important? Well.... there are some elements that are called chromophores, this classification just indicates that these elements, when present, will determine the color of whatever they are in. So, if you wanted to treat mana like a chromophore, you could say, "Oh everything that contains mana turns green!" This could mean that regardless of the mineral, if that mineral is a specific color, it means it contains mana. This concept is exciting because you can just stop here and use minerals that already exist! You can also use it as an indicator for a magical ore! Chromophores are typically metals, so if you are making a new metal weapon, making the ore of that metal a unique color would make a lot of sense!
However, your mineral can also just be every color of the rainbow like quartz and perhaps that's what makes identifying your mana stones elusive and create an illusion of scarcity that your character can solve.
There are other things that can change the colors of minerals, like radiation damage, and electron exchange, but I think that is beyond what would be helpful! So lets talk about some unique color properties that happen in nature that seem magical in the first place! Maybe you don't need to design a mana stone, but you want a unique gemstone that only the royal family passes down or something (IDK).
The first one is the alexandrite effect! This is where a mineral can change color in natural light vs. incandescent light. (the mineral itself is not changing, but the lights contain different amounts of different colors that then get absorbed by the stone). Even if you don't use electricity in your fictional world, you could have the colors change in the presence of light magic. This could create fun misunderstandings about what the mineral is reacting to!
Pleochroism
Pleochroism is something that most minerals have, it is frequently used to help identify minerals in thin sections, however minerals are usually not pleochroic enough for it to be visible to the naked eye! Pleochroism is just a fancy name to describe the change in how light is absorbed based on the angle of the mineral! So if you scroll up to the first image where I showed a lot of crystal shapes, most of them have angles where they are longer and shorter! This will effect the way light travels in the crystal. Tanzanite is a popular mineral that does this.
Photochromism
This is when a mineral will change color (in a reversible way) when exposed to UV light (or sunlight), I am not going to go too into the details of why this is happening because it would require me to read some research papers and I just don't feel like it. The mineral that is best known for this is Hackmanite!
Alright! These are all the really cool color effects that might inspire you or maybe not, but now I am going to talk about how you might find your minerals within a rock!
When I see a lot of magical caves/mines, typically I see them with some variation of a geode honestly, but most minerals are not found like that! Now I am sure most of you guys have seen a geode, so I will not really talk about those, but I will talk briefly about porphyroblasts which is when the mineral grows larger than the minerals around it, this happens in metamorphic minerals!
sorry random stranger, but this is an image of garnets inside a finer-grained rock at gore mountain in New York!
Another way you might find minerals is in a pegmatite! This is when all minerals are really large! This is a formed from really slow crystalizing magma!
But something else to think about is that your mineral might just be massive, it doesn't have to have distinct crystals, it may be similar to jadeite where small grains grow together which leaves it looking smooth and seamless! A note about all of these is that you would have to mine into the rock to find these, there would not be any natural caves in these rocks! Caves are only ever really formed in limestones and maybe marbles (rocks that react with acid).
How can your characters identify these minerals?
Typically when you are out in the field you will look to see what type of rocks the minerals are found in (The overall texture of the rock will tell you how it formed). If you know how the rock formed, it will narrow down the amount of minerals you need to think about by quite a bit! Next, you are going to look closely at it and observe its crystal structure, does it have an obvious crystal? if so what is the general shape? If it is broken, how did it break? Did it fracture like glass or did it break along uniform planes. Some minerals have a thing called cleavage (breaks along planes of weakness). If a mineral exhibits this habit, it will again help narrow this down. Next we can look at color. Color can be misleading, because minerals like quartz can be any color imaginable, but minerals like olivine will always be green! The next thing your character can do is test for hardness, minerals all have a specific hardness that can help identify it as well.
After you go through all of this, your mineral might have some special property! This could be magnetism, fluorescence, reactions to acid, or any of the color changing effects I mentioned above! Other than that, your character can take it back to a lab and do a number of things to identify it, but the most typical thing would be for them to make a thin section (very thin piece of the rock) and observe it under a cross polarized microscope!
On that note folks! I hope this helped in some way in thinking of new magic mineral properties! I have other guides that explore some different fictional worldbuilding issues you might run into, but if you have any topics you would like me to cover please that I haven't mentioned already, let me know!
Worldbuilding & Writing: The Magic System
I've built my fair share of magic systems. They're one of the most fun segments of worldbuilding. One of the first things I typically decide, although it's not exactly required, is to choose whether I'm going to build a soft or hard magic system.
Similarly to how there is soft and hard worldbuilding, magic systems can be approached in the same way, but in all reality not either perspective is needed if you already have a good idea for what your plans are, nor does any particular category need to be adhered. A mix could easily suffice.
Hard Magic System
A hard magic system is known for having a rigid set of rules and explanations for how magic works, alongside foundations, laws, and limitations.
Examples
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Mistborn
Fullmetal Alchemist
My Hero Academia
Steven Universe
Soft Magic System
Meanwhile a soft magic system is far more flexible, and contains an air of mystery. Even if there are hard rules, they don't necessarily need to be explained or well known by the characters or reader.
Examples
Alice in Wonderland
Lord of the Rings
Star Wars
The Chronicles of Narnia
Hollow Knight
Mixed
But these categories are really only tools, and were coined by Brandon Anderson, so for a lot of writing we grew up with it wasn't often considered. People simply made their magic.
Examples
Naruto
Fear and Hunger
Darkest Dungeon
Adventure Time
Regular Show
Cookie Run
The Concept
And so.... we all have to start somewhere. It's time to build the bones of your magic system. I'm sure most of you have arrived to this post with an idea already in mind, so let's solidify that.
Worldbuilding Guide: Social Problems
There is no such thing as a Utopia. Every place has its problems. Social problems are any issues that have a negative effect on the population, and are often problems which are actively being tackled by the government or a point of anger for the population which they want their leaders to fix. Social problems can fall under the umbrella of the political, economical, cultural and environmental. Social problems add a layer of realism to your worldbuilding, offering your characters something to fight against, struggle against and draw opinion on - adding complexity to both your cast of characters and the world that they inhabit.
CYBERTRONIAN CULTURE AND GEOGRAPHY: an overview (01)
CULTURE - gender, arts & fashion
Cybertronian culture has many aspects to it that are rather fluid. The ideas of gender, race, religion and expression are very dynamic for them when compared to organic species but are made rigid only due to their current governing authority. The culture varies from colony to colony but there are many common uniting ideas.
One such is the idea of gender. Now, according to canon, mech is actually a gender-neutral term but it has been used as a masculine equivalent while a fanon term ‘femme’ exists for feminine. But these terms would not be sufficient to explain the elaborate idea of gender expression amongst the transformer kind. The idea of gender is a new one that emerged during the time of Nova Prime but it was one that most bots didn’t mind and actually thought was kind of cool. Until then, they sort of just existed in whatever they looked like. Cybertronians have their frames created randomly due to which the ratio of feminine looking and masculine appearing bots are near equal. But the idea of categorization and labels made it easier for bots to identify. There exists a spectrum of gender expression and the word bot is often used as a general term for Cybertronians. Until the Autobot-Decepticon war where the word ‘Bot’ was claimed by the Autobots, a term ‘mecha’ was introduced.
Moving on to solely Cybertron.
The planet is very diverse with different cities that have their own accents, styles, celebrations, fashion and lingo. The city of Iacon is the capital and hence considered the more refined out of the rest of Cybertron. The upper north of Cybertron is mainly filled with technologically advanced megacities that most of the upper class of Cybertron lives in. Cities like Iacon, Vos and Harmonex are located there. Meanwhile, down south, there exist industrial cities with mines, refineries and factories where the lower classes toil in for energon scraps. This is just a general overview. This does not imply that Iacon doesn’t have a population of lower-caste bots. They do. Iacon and Vos have docks that are staffed with dock-workers and delivery bots. After all, the grandeur of the upper class mecha are brought to life through the sufferings of the lower classes. However, most of these lower class bots in the fancy cities usually dwell in its outskirts.
These radically different living conditions produce radically different cultures amongst the different classes. The upper castes of Cybertron have easy access to the arts. Various theatres where plays are held along with massive stages for musicians to perform are all across Northern Cybertron, especially Harmonex which is somewhat of the cultural capital of Cybertron.
The lower castes have no easy access to any of the old traditional works that their predecessors have left for them so they resort to making their own art, their creativity is likited by means. Many contemporary art forms and new styles of literature exist among dock workers, manual labourers, service bots and miners— each with their own take and personality to it. Music is often sung in unison as the dock workers of Iacon load and unload cargo or the factory workers of Kaon hit their hammers against metal in a rhythmic pace. They have no other pleasantries in life. Workers use their equipment and bang on various surfaces with different densities, creating sounds akin to that of drums— music is often made this way. In the glassmaking factories, they use glass to make different tunes and pitches.
But many of the lower class aren’t built-in with language chips, especially after The Senate began mass producing mecha. There’s only so much metal to make chips and modules so an unfortunate consequence is that most are illiterate in the lowest castes, especially in the miner class (this is an important thing to note). Mostly the older models have better skills in things other than just mining.
This takes us to a different form of self-expression other than literature and music— fashion. Fashion amongst Cybertronians and most mechanical species revolves mainly around plating types, paints and accessories. Most of the lower-class mecha can’t afford the fancy accessories and paints but despite this, they make an effort to look good through servo-made accessories to hook on or stick on to their frame. Some use cheap dye to make their optics have different colours. Paints are usually stolen.
Meanwhile, the higher classes of bots go over the top with their sense of style. Fancy high tensile metal fibre mended into regal capes, plating with different textures that are coated in a variety of paints to make it really pop, accents and bioluminescent paints or dangling accessories to attack to their helm pieces; Cybertronians can be quite creative when it comes to modifying their frames fashionably, each revolving around individualistic style. There also exists plating textures where plating of a bot is made to look designer with different texture add ons, creating a new sensation when touched.
There are some unconventional styles in the realm of Cybertronian fashion that involve things like paints on their faceplates, it is a large part of Camien culture and religion though. Some are inspired from the sense of style in the colony worlds or foreign cultures, though it isn’t exactly encouraged and is generally looked down upon. Main-stream trends change depending on the cities.
Not to mention, different frame-classes often have different ways of accessorising due to the nature of their frame types and even different cultures.
However, most of Cybertron's rich fashion culture was wiped away when the war started. It was deemed to be impractical and as a show-off. It's one of Cybertron's many lost cultural aspects. However, remnants of this sense of style remain alive in colonies like Caminus and Eukaris.
2. GEOGRAPHY - cities -> part 1
The major cities of Cybertron include: Iacon, Harmonex, Kaon, Petrex, Tarn, Vos, Helex, Tesarus, Tetrahex, Praxus, Stanix, Polyhex, Nyon, Darkmount and Straxus. They are divided into North and South as stated before— Northern cities being mainly places of culture and scientific advancements and the cities down South being industrial factories that fuels and powers the scientific progress of Cybertron.
Northern cities include: Iacon, Harmonex, Polyhex, Stanix, Tetrahex, Vos, Petrex and Praxus.
Southern cities include: Tarn, Kaon, Helex, Straxus, Darkmount, Nyon and Tesarus.
Nyon lies in between the lines of North and South but is considered mainly an industrial city.
Each city is unique in its own right.
Iacon is the capital city, a cradle of scientific progress. It was once called Cyber City, a long, long time ago before the Primes. Iacon is the oldest city and where most of Cybertron’s politically and religiously important structures stand— such as the Senate building, the Primal Basillica and so on.
Vos is one of the most unique. Majority of its inhabitants are Seeker class warriors with the advantage of flight. This unique flight frame was developed because of the nature of Vossian terrain, high cliffs and steep mountains that go deep into chasms.
Darkmount is a military base, ground-based warrior frames set up their barracks. It was thriving during Nova’s conquests— docks and markets thriving with soldiers returning from their slaughter up in the stars. But after the era of conquest fell, it reverted to being nothing more than a military headquarters.
Kaon is the city of factories, it's the closest to Darkmount and during Nova’s expansion, it produced tons of weapons and ammunitions to Darkmount. It remains as the weapons production capitol of Cybertron.
Tarn is primarily energon rich lands filled with mines. Most of its inhabitants are usually miners or low ranking military foot-soldiers. Tarn is, in a way, the metaphorical spark of Cybertron— majority of the planet's fuel originates from this area.
There exist minor settlements and towns like Yuss or Kalis but they are often overlooked and are left unchecked. However, during the Autobot-Decepticon Civil War, they served as vital strategic points for supply lines. Most of the village and rural life on Cybertron was turned extinct by the war. Bots began moving to larger cities in mass for better protection and opportunities.
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Comprehending Natlan gets a bit easier when you realize that the draconic civilization is the Aztec empire and that their influence still persists in modern Natlanese culture. Regardless of which culture the tribes are influenced by IRL, the Aztec culture just overpowers it in a way.
It is also likely that some tribes are historically closer to others which would mean a lot of cultural exchange.
Notably, the Nanatzcayan (Children of Echoes), the Huitzlin (Scions of the Canopy), and the Meztli (People of the Springs) seem to share a very close relationship as the three characters which represent them initially are very close despite hailing from different tribes.
I think it would help explain why Mavuika has a Maori name despite coming from a tribe that has a lot of Quechuan influence. It's likely that one of her parents hailed from the Meztli.
worldbuilding is so weird why am I trying to give Vampire Ageing logistics
