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Recent content by MSadiq

  1. M

    Elf and Asia Culture

    If you widen the scope of Asia to mean all of Asia, then you'll come to find that the Dwemers of the Elder Scrolls, at least aesthetically, are quite Mesopotamian. As to why, there are probably deeper reasons that we don't know, but as the others mentioned, it's probably because elves are meant...
  2. M

    Calendars in Worldbuilding.

    It feels so weird reading this because I have two worlds, too, and one of them is also very dim, though that's due to the sun being blocked by thick clouds and smoke, called Shanal-Qen, Dragon Breath.
  3. M

    Calendars in Worldbuilding.

    I've decided on two calendars for my world. One solar, which is kept for agricultural purposes, while the other is lunar, which is the more relevant to the story. The phases of the moon have an amplifying effect on the Ma (mana in a way) of creatures and people that corresponds to how much of...
  4. M

    Asking on system?

    If you're seeking novelty, add your spin on the power system. Take it and interpret it through something you really love. In my power system, which is an elemental one, etymology, semantics, and perception are important to how powers manifest, so if a character truly believes that swinging his...
  5. M

    Is it odd that my characters are far more 'animated' than I am?

    I don't think you can even separate who you are from whatever you do, and with something as personal as writing, it's bound to show, even if very little. You're all way more experienced than me, as I'm still learning and haven't producing a novel, but in my worldbuilding, even the characters I...
  6. M

    How much is too much worldbuilding?

    AI isn't even that great at present you accurate info. It straight up makes up information, gives wrong sources, and misidentifies information. A while back, I presented it with poetry, which it ascribed to a poet that lived around 300 years after the poem was composed and the styles are quite...
  7. M

    Plot Bunnies

    For me, I like to take events or things from history and shape them into fantasy. For example, in the time of Buyid dynasty, between 934-1062, there were maristans: hospitals, fully equipped and split into wards, even insane wards. They would send medical caravans to villages and dwellings that...
  8. M

    How much is too much worldbuilding?

    I'm not that concerned with the actual precise pronunciation because that's impossible to communicate, especially with such wildly different phonemes. I'm more concerned about if a reader sees a name will he stop and struggle to pronounce it? Or even stop and wonder how weird and unnecessarily...
  9. M

    How much is too much worldbuilding?

    It's really difficult to try to fit another language with another script. I had to abandon adding pharyngeals (/ʕ/ and /ħ/) because I couldn't find a good way to represent them. I tried a diagraph, like hg and hk respectively, but more than just looking awkward, people would just ignore the H...
  10. M

    How much is too much worldbuilding?

    I'd assume you'd just write the letter that's the closest to the click and mark it with a diacritic/accent, like an alveolar (the fleshy bit behind your upper front teeth) click might be written as t̂ or t̎. Or just come up with digraphs, like gh and kh.
  11. M

    How much is too much worldbuilding?

    I'm in the same rabbit hole, but more tame. Practically creating an English-Arabic hybrid and trying to making sounds shifts from South Old Arabic to Classical Arabic because I decided that semantics will play a role in the magic system, and it made everything 20 times more complicated.
  12. M

    How much is too much worldbuilding?

    When you get into the details of where the materials for the clothes each come from and you start giving them distinct names and each piece of garment gets its own name, too. Or when you get into details of what the houses are built from and their exact size. Yeah, I'm restarting my whole...
  13. M

    Plot Bunnies

    When I used to read manga I stumbled on something that's basically this, and it was surprisingly good. The protag got transferred into the realm of a game he had finished became the friend of the Hero of that world. The protag's story was much more interesting than the Hero's.
  14. M

    Most recent books you bought.

    When I find books like these, I fee like I've struck gold. Just a while back I found a book called "Nabataean Women" (an extinct Arab people) as I was searching through shelves randomly. Instantly bought it. Enjoy!
  15. M

    Plot Bunnies

    It's in reference to the young man. He pretends to be a good son to his deceased father in front of other people to gain sympathy, just like how cat cuddles up to you when it wants something. As for the donkey, in my mind, he was offered an education by clergyman, so he could read and write...
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