Recent content by Michael Ehrler

Well, like I said in my reply above, I know that I won't use even half of it in a book(s) and I have really, really bad ADHD, so it helped and was necessary for me to organize things on paper and develop ideas. I didn't set out to make the world so that I could write a book, I made the world for...

A story bible is a good way to think of it. There isn't a strict need for it, but its was an important part of my process even if I can't or don't use it all. I have extremely bad ADHD, so organizing and elaborating on my ideas helps me come to grips with potential stories and themes rather...

I have: Sofrians - Common humans. By far the most numerous. Iander - Neanderthal-like people who live in settlements carved into cliffsides similar to the Pueblo tribe of Indigenous Americans. There's more going on ,but that's the short version. Damphir - Vampire-flavored humans who have a...

That's rad. I *love* gravity magic and related shenanigans. It's a highly underused type of magic. I'm going for a low/soft-magic and historical/epic fantasy feel, so magic and divine beings are the sort of things whose existence is sort of hazy to most people, while being obvious to others...

Yeah, I'm going more low/soft-magic and historical fantasy, so elves and so forth weren't going to be a good fit, so I did some looking into the different human relatives that have evolved and died out over the last few million years for inspiration.

I love real word history, so there's definitely a lot of that injected into the setting. The main theme of the story I'm working on is the inevitability of change, and how people decide to accept and adapt to it. Currently have a few POV ideas that I'm fiddling with. I also need to post a link...

Do you happen to know of any good sources to learn about the styles of clothing worn by Hungarian/Magyar and Polish nobility during the late middle-ages? I've been tryin to some research, but a lot of what I'm finding is about garments introduced much later by the ottomans.

I use different species of humans in the setting I'm working in currently. More like the genetic relation between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals than having completely different high fantasy races.

Oh, absolutely. I'm not personally a big fan of hard magic systems, so it will never be explained or understood so explicitly in the fiction. My intention is to imbue the magical and fantastical elements of epic/historical fantasy with just enough real science to keep those world-building...

Look at some maps of real places and make note of what shapes you like! Then either flip 'em around or experiment with variations and different configurations of those shapes. Westeros started off as upside down Ireland, so nothing says you can't do something similar!

I think it would for me unless you do a little work to set up that they are rare and require specialist knowledge to make. Perhaps only being made in one or two places which are famous for their lenses. I had to think of something similar for my historical/epic fantasy setting, so I decided that...

Just trying to work out how to do a somewhat grounded interpretation of Vampires. My world of Telos is very much a world of epic and historical fantasy, but it is also filled with concepts and principles from real-world fields of science. So I wanted that to come across in my vampires. The world...

Been playing Baldee's Gate 3 with a friend a lot. I've bee trying to write more frequently, so I haven't been playing as many games by myself, but I've been bouncing between a solo BG3 run and Dune: Spice Wars.

Such a great idea to make a thread for this! Thanks for volunteering your expertise!

I lose interest primarily if: A.) the story is set in an overused, real-world location like New York City. B.) Primarily focuses on character architypes I don't personally enjoy. C.) An overly contrived deus ex machina without sufficient set up.