The Main Character Is Absurdly Powerful Even Ignoring The Magic Thing, Buuuuutttttt Trauma Does Things

Seven Sentence Sunday

Thanks for tagging me, @illarian-rambling , even though I have barely anyone to tag. This is the first time I've been tagged on Tumblr. Hope I did this right.

Rules: Post seven sentences of what you've been working on (:

The forest is alight with life, the rustling of leaves, and chatter of animals. The trees sway in a soft breeze, creaking and groaning as some limbs are stressed by the weight of leaves and wavering in the wind. Within a small clearing, a young girl sits, her eyes closed as her silver hair sways in the breeze. Her head is tilted down, her lightly tanned skin glowing where beams of sunlight hit her skin. At her side is a sheathed sword, her left hand resting on the sheath. She takes a breath, raising her head.

"Elders of the Clan, I make a request!"

This is a new story. That is all the context I will give. Honestly, I have no idea how to do these things. So I'm not even going to tag anyone because I am an uncertain bean.

(Do not take this as a "I did not want to do this." I would love to do these things in my tiny little corner here. I just won't tag anyone.)

(This is potentially a serious story. Potentially.)

Well, you are an amazing writer, I'd love to speak Greek Mythology with you (aka learn more about it because you can never not know enough about something), and everyone needs a to be read pile/list longer than they can finish.

:>

I was attacked with positivity, so you are getting attacked with positivity, too!

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you!

Ok, erm…

1.) Getting reviews for my books. If someone has a single kind thing to say about my writing, I will not shut up about it for the next week.

2.) Baking. I love making (and eating) sweets. I would eat nothing but desserts if I could.

3.) Musicals. My favorite one that I’ve seen live is Hamilton, but I also love EPIC and Hadestown.

4.) Mythology of any kind, but especially Greek mythology.

5.) Finding new books to add to my reading list. My reading list for this year is growing faster than I can finish books hehe

You called the negatives of my magic system intense. You have more... at least mine has a stage before death- yours has death first it seems, in reference to the divine magic stuff.

Very interesting! :>

Magic system

How many WIPs

And

Challenges you have faced with your WIPs

Thank you for the ask <333

There's an essay incoming, beware

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How Many WIPs?

I have no less than four novel-intended wips (Flamebearer, A Healing for the Birds, Soulswapped and the Lady's Lament), plus a few shorter works (The Disappearance of Charimone Eschredaine, [Succession of the Underground*] and [The Assassin's Promise*]) and a developing anthology of certain characters' backstories (This Blood-Stained Charcuterie)

*Placeholders; I've no clue what to call them yet

Challenges Faced With WIPs

A Healing for the Birds:

The main challenge with this is dealing with all the plot threads. One thing that has remained consistent even after all the changes since the first ever iteration of this wip (it used to be called Seafarer, then Obsidian Sapphires, and now this), is there being loads of plot threads. The difference is now those plot threads are more centred around the Allaitri Chalice and the political chaos of it being unearthed.

Up until recently, I wasn't sure what the core of the story was, but now I know. It centres around familiar ties and the things that people do in the name of love. (Sounds a bit corny out of context, though lol)

Flamebearer

I put this one on hold because I know it's going to be complex due to the heavy political themes in this. Unlike A Healing for the Birds, where the political situation is a little bit lighter and more petty, in a sense, the political scene is very charged here. There's a lot of resentment pointed towards the royal family due to things like Serrantine trying to rejoin Selade or the legacy of the Twenty-Year Winter, leading to unrest, death, grief, a lot more sombre and complex issues to deal with. I hope to be more confident in my writing so I can do Flamebearer justice, I find people seem to really like the premise and starting ideas, its associated Flash Friday pieces do quite well 😅

Soulswapped

Again, another wip put on ice to focus on the bird wip. I do want to get back to this at some stage, I have some vague ideas for how I want it to play out. I don't envision it to be as long as the two above, because its concept (the main character has to fight her way out of jail and the court it's in) is more constrained. There's nowhere near the amount of plot strings here. (The darker intrigue happens around the end/slightly thereafter 👀)

The Lady's Lament

I do not have experience writing contemporary stuff, which I think is what made it hard to start it. The concept's there, easy enough, but it's just actually sitting down and planning it that's the main thing.

Another challenge that is unique for this one to an extent, is the presence of Gaeilge here. The book is intended to be an ode to Irish culture, and if I was to complete it, I do intend for there to be a Gaeilge translation.

This Blood-Stained Charcuterie

One word: timeline. The setting for this collection has thousands of years worth of history, and so the challenge is figuring out who killed who and when. And not to mention all the stuff going on in the background, some of it is more influential than others.

The Magic System

Basically, it's based on the idea of magic being a biological substance present in the world. Most living things have a tolerance for it, but not all living things can actively use it.

Even then, there's two broad categories; faerie creatures, whom rely on simpler magic like moving things or simple tricks, and then the faeries/Carithaikh [start with one fae/one human parent, subsequent generations by any combination that isn't two faeries; these people can also be dubbed as witches], who can perform magic in a wide variety of ways.

Most people are born with an affinity to an element (such as fire, plant, water/ice, air, light, shadow, blood, lightning, dust, rock, metal, etc), which is then honed as the person gets older. It is also possible to learn certain elements, but some are harder than others, going on into near-impossible (e.g, it's hard to learn fire if one doesn't have an affinity for it [the genes of those who do are adapted to prevent burns and manage the heat more efficiently], but water is fairly easy to learn).

Another aspect that some people have but is much less common, are skill-based abilities. Shapeshifting and teleporting are the most common ones, but there's also a select few who can weave souls or see/interact with the domain of the spirits. Those last two are about one or few in a generation. (And interestingly, in Helinda there's no records of anyone who can interact with the spirit world, likely because Helindians burn their dead!)

But sometimes you'll get people with bespoke abilities. Some are merely unusual powers, such as purple fire, wood manipulation, blending with the shadows etc.

Others, are actual divine elements. They manifest as fire, light or water, and usage of then can have catastrophic effects. If the user doesn't die after using divine magic, it can cause things such as blindness, burns, nerve damage/neuropathy, constant dehydration, reduced magical abilities/stamina, chronic fatigue and/or other symptoms.

If the user has a part of a deity's soul entwined with them, then the effects are mitigated to an extent. (It occurs frequently with Fate's reprisals [her element is blue fire])

And then, there's also the external systems. These rely on the magic of the world instead of/as well as the user's. Things like runes, languages, diagrams, items, gestures and/or other tangible things are used for them.

These systems vary from place to place and between cultures, they're like programming languages in a sense. Each system has strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, Helinda's five-pointed star is great if you are a) in Helinda [or Morilaste]** b) looking to do things like a locating or summoning* spell, as well as anything relating to Helindian geography. It's great with maps!

However, it's not great for highly complex spells with lots of rules. That's where Seldaika's system shines. It has a four-pointed star, but the main mode of it is its language. It's a spell language, the grammar and vocabularly are tailor-made to support spells. Intention is also important, which is an aid in differentiating normal speech from a spell. Gestures also come into play, as do wands (syrchels), which are used as social indicators and statements of magical intent as well as to apply runes.

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*summoning items is perfectly fine, as long as it's not someone else's item. Summoning people/spirits is illegal under Helindian law

**there's a decent amount of lore underpinning the reason for this phenomenon

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I'm going to end it here, I hope you enjoyed it :D

That feeling when you finally give your main character a birthplace after doing quite a bit of other things for that character-

Seriously Hades didn't have a birthplace that people outside her Clan could refer to for quite a while

She was born somewhere, but it didn't exist in the context of the world for a bit. Her Clan never named itself (Because it is not important for them to be named as a group). Quite a fun thing.

Have art

Hello!

Hello! What brings you to my asks?

what made you start your blog?

show us a picture of your handwriting?

From the 40 assorted questions

Here's both answers in one image!

some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.

So I've written fanfiction in the past. MHA fanfiction, Jujutsu Kaisen, other anime that are currently slipping my brain. So I was thinking... there is one MHA fanfiction I've written (and abandoned) with an absolutely brutal scene. The MC, in the second chapter (Or maybe third? I frame it as second.) of his story, gets brutalized. A major part of his quirk gets ripped off/out. He has wings. you'd think I should put had, but he has a second quirk and it's all fine. But the point is, I was exploring what I am willing to do to my characters. I was exploring how far I would go in an attempt to ruin the life of my own characters. How much detail would I put in a scene that I don't usually write.

Just a forewarning, the scene is describing a major injury. Blood and limbs getting ripped off level violence. If people are interested in the scene, I will hide the scene, naturally, but this is for the possibility of people voting yes who don't like scenes like that.