Archives

Name the Serial Family! (also maybe the Serial)

Mar31

Okay, I have a Serial family.

But they need names! Also, I need a POV character of them, pref. one of the kids. I’m thinking Middle Daughter – thoughts?

We have their brief bios (see link above) and know that they live on a tropical sky island and like to hike.

Also, they’re about to go on an adventure.

Name them?

We have Parent One, Parent Two, and Daughters One through Three.

While we’re at it, the setting/serial need names too!

—
From Rix_scaedu:

Ideas for names – won’t work together:

Rainmouse
Isa
Shining Pearl

From inventrix:
Nimbus

From: clare_dragonfly:
Billow (to go with Nimbus and Shining Pearl)

The Serial Islands, a profile

Mar15

I’m trying something new with the upcoming serial – essentially asking the prompter-level donors to fill in parts of the serial description.

Clare filled in the first blank, giving us the Serial Family of hikers.

MB & @Dahob filled in the next two, so now I have: Once, there was a [(Family of Hikers)] who lived in a [(tropical)] [(sky island)].

Here’s your tropical sky island: https://www.patreon.com/posts/serial-islands-4839730

The Serial Family – a Profile

Mar9

I’m trying something new with the upcoming serial – essentially asking the prompter-level donors to fill in parts of the serial description (you can see it in my reward-tier profile).

clare_dragonfly filled in the first blank, so I have:

Once, there was a [person or group of people(Family of Hikers)]…

Here they are:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/serial-family-4800301

Notes on Rin and her place in the royalty of Calenta

Oct24

Rin is the fourth? in line for her grandfather’s throne. Some of those before her in line have recused themselves – not interested in leadership, focused on a calling in the priesthood, interested in romance with someone who didn’t want to be in a leadership position, or not interested in creating heirs for one reason or another. Many have died. Her grandfather is quite old, and has outlived handfuls of his heirs.

More than half of the royal heirs went into the army. Calenta has a heavily meritocratic society – their rulers were originally war-chiefs of nomadic tribes – and earning a high position in the Army is one way to prove your merit. However, it’s also a good way to die, especially with an active war boiling on the front.

When Rin left to study healing, she was fourteenth in line. When she left for the army she was ninth in line. Her cousin Elen was three behind her and now is one behind her.

Her mother recused herself long ago. Her mother is a scholar and prefers her books to people.

Probably –> recusing yourself is acceptable (being removed from the inheritance is not, is considered very shameful, and it /does/ happen), but it is a one-way street. You can’t decide to un-recuse yourself.

While I decided to get rid of the immensely complicated inheritance system I’d originally thought of, it still flips genders. I.e., since the Emperor is male, his heir WILL be female, his daughter or a granddaughter THROUGH a daughter, or, if one suitable cannot be found, from his mother’s or grandmother’s line.

This has made Rin’s uncle, who needs a name (though he might have one in an earlier draft), exceedingly cranky.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/997133.html. You can comment here or there.

So I’ve been playing with paper dolls (Reiassan fashion…)

Oct23

layering.png

And I made up a bunch of them to fit This paper doll to see if I could get the layering down.

…there really should be at least one more skirt layer…

This is Rin-Era, someone working in a middle-status job, like a city bureaucrat and –I just realized I didn’t check the buttoning side–

Oh, good. they all button to the right hip. Even if there’s a sort of excessive amount of decorative buttoning.

I tell you, button-maker has to be a high-status job in Reiassan.

Edited to add: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/photo/album/3134?page=1 the whole scrapbook!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/996608.html. You can comment here or there.

Some notes on clothing in Calenta/Reiassan

Oct22

I’m working on a tiddlywiki/setting bible, which meant pulling out all my old notes on the setting here, on the old wiki, everywhere, and beginning to compile them.

And then I realized most of the clothing notes, esp. for Rin/Girey era, were in my head and had evolved mightily.

So:

The basic unit of Calenyen clothing is the kiparrie* (orig. Qitari before I realized I didn’t have a Q…). This garment has a high band collar, either split on one side or split in the middle with an asymmetrical cut going off to one armpit (Chef’s coat, cheongsam).

The side the shirts close on indicates skilled worker vs. unskilled labor.

The garment is fitted at neck, chest, and shoulders; sometimes it is fitted down as far as the hips and sometimes it is looser, even baggy. It is worn down to the knees over full pants (tozhyu) or a full skirt (kanzhyu) (except in very warm weather, when it is sometimes worn over very short pants), and it (and the pants or skirt) is almost always worn in layers.

The number of layers is dictated by weather (In summer, this can come down to an undershirt and undershorts and a vest-like over-kiparri with, probably, a light pair of overshorts) and by formality. Layers in deep winter or exceedingly formal situations can number from four to ten.

* This, like “kimono”, is a generic term, with any number of specific terms depending on shape, length of hem and sleeve, purpose, cut of collar, etc…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/995815.html. You can comment here or there.

A Meme and a Writing Game – ask my characters things!

Oct4

Okay! I stole this from [personal profile] balsamandash, whose post is here; they stole it from [personal profile] thebonesofferalletters, whose post is here. And because October goes up to 31, I have 31 characters. The characters are from 15 different settings (Counting Fae Apoc, Addergoole, & Doomsday as separate…) so there’s a good chance your favorite setting is on here.

Here’s the game. I have a set of characters numbered from 1 to 31. You may ask them any questions you’d like, and you can keep the conversation going. You can ask them ICly or just as yourself. They will respond with an honest* answer and as people ask questions, I will update the post with who correlates to what number.

* they might lie!

You can:
ask multiple questions to one character.
ask questions of as many characters as you’d like.
ask the same question to different characters.
ask more questions of characters that have already been revealed.
ask additional/clarification/tangential questions in response to answers.
jump in on another answer/conversation if the subject sounds interesting to you and/or your character.
use original or fannish characters to ask/comment
leave your own character for people to ask questions to if you want, be it as a list form or as a singular character who you would like to play with.

1. Tess – The Planners
2. Rin – Reiassan/Rin & Girey
3.
4. Aoife – Vas’ World
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13: Basimontin –Space Accountant
14. Aquilina – Doomsday Academy
15.
16. Reynard – Fae Apoc
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29. Evangaline – The Aunt Family
30. Edora – Things Unspoken
31.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/989105.html. You can comment here or there.

Early World- and Fashion-Building: Reiassan/Homeland

May29

Okay!

So, when we (I) talk about the proto-Calenyena (lit, people of the Calentata, from Bitrani/Tabersi Shalenti, rulership-by-lay-priest, see Caliphate.), I’m talking about the Rinzyanena, (lit, “People of Rinzyant,” “People-of-this-place”).

In turn, the Rinzyanena were formed from three-plus tribes of nomadic goat-herders who were trapped by a series of earthquakes in a lush southern valley. Although the tribes spent quite a bit of time warring, they spent their downtime talking with each other and intermarrying, to the point where they were eventually one people.

Fashion: the tribes who became the Rinzyanena (whose names are lost to history) wore four primary garments: a tightly fitted vest and very short pants or hip-wrap of brightly colored felted goat wool, and chaps and a long split jacket of the same. They had narrow woven wool fabric at this time, similar to tablet weaving. And most of their garments were heavily embroidered, since embroidery is a very portable craft.

It was not until they settled into a more agricultural lifestyle in Rinzyant Valley that they discovered a flax-like plant and began weaving fabric wide enough for garments; the first woven garment commonly in use was a sleeveless tunic, essentially a rectangle with a neck-hole and side seams, which went under the vest.

It was here that the use of the side-buttoning on the vest first began: they had recently created metal buttons. A tribal chief, wishing to be obviously visible in battle, had run a line of buttons very close together on right right side of his vest (he was left-handed). Soon, right-buttoning was a thing for chiefs and others they determined worthy, because a chief had first done it.

That’s all I have for today! Next tricky bit: the Rinzyanena meet the other two major nations on this continent.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/946199.html. You can comment here or there.

Three Weeks For Dreamwidth: Three Weeks for Worldbuilding – Science!

Apr29

The thing about the Lab in the world of Science! is, they are only the good guys by a specific set of morality guidelines – specifically, Liam’s, the head of the Lab.

On the other hand, while they may not be the good guys, in a place where human/rose hybrids are possible, there are people that are worse than them.

Super(*)-villains are a thing in the world of Science!, although there are not so obvious as the comics would have you believe. There are people who have learned how to wire brains to accept and manipulate computer data: they are hackers the likes of which the normal police and FBI have a very hard time catching. There are people who use pheromones or simple mind-control drugs to drive their Ponzi schemes. There are people who implant chips into kidnap victims and use them as unknowing Trojan Horses, or, worse, sell them on the black market.

The Lab tests on orphans. There are always more orphans to be tested on, because there are scientists who release flesh-eating bacteria into the wild for fun, people who make sniperbots for giggles, people who incite riots just to cover a bank robbery.

And if that sounds bleak, well, in some places it is. But there are heroes, as well: the FBI has an Unusual Crimes division. Police have their own scientists. The Red Cross has begun keeping simple gas masks and earplugs on hand at all locations, and, more than that, sedatives; they also have holding locations for those suspected to be under the influence of mind-control… something. And, in every city, there are at least five people who have either biological or mechanical enhancement, who can withstand almost anything the villains can throw at them. They assist the police, the FBI, and the Red Cross on a consultant basis, and keep each other honest.

And under all of this, Liam’s Lab – and other like it – are churning out cures for things like cancer right alongside flesh-eating roses.

Written to kelkyag‘s prompt here.

I still need lots more worldbuilding prompts! Check it out!

(*) Also, possibly, as originally written, Supper-villains..

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/930253.html. You can comment here or there.