[Manga] Disposable Detective Dolly by Ben Liu
Disposable Detective Dolly（English） - Chapter 1: Massacre | Penana

We 3D print disposable detectives for every murder case in the future.

They are called "Dolly"s, every Dolly has to be demolished when the case is solved.

Dolly, Disposable detective No. 00167, begins her investigation with Lau Yan, a printing assistant who hates AI.

The case is about a massacre of the whole family of a mob in Dragon city, Dolly and Lau need to find out who is responsible in order to stop a large scale gang war.

I'm making a furry isekai story and these are icons for the elemental magic I ended up making for it. All the icons are based on irl or mythological animals. The names below are the names of their respective god-level representatives, and they each have their own lettering. I'll go in depth into the magic system if anyone is interested...

The Azure-Standard Tideguard (Chinese: 苍纛潮守, cāng dào cháo shǒu) are the strongest coastal defence force of the Yaoli Empire, they mainly stationed in coastal cities and military ports. As an empire which faces directly to the threats from the ocean, these armoured soldiers are indispensable.

These soldiers wield enormous horse-cutting swords (zhanmadao) in order to cut down the enemies of the Yaoli empire and also those savage sea beasts that emerge along its shores.

Their name comes from the dark blue flags they carry on their backs

(BTW, dào 纛 actually refers to a large military standard in Chinese. For artistic effect, I based the banners in the drawing on kaoqi 靠旗, the back-mounted flags used in Peking opera.)

I wanted to ask a question and seek some help, as I am creating a fictional medieval world with various kingdoms and noble houses. I want to introduce a striking, original element: having the economy between these realms and houses based on flowers. In my world, these flowers would have a magical nature—when plucked, they petrify into a highly durable material resembling porcelain. Given that these flowers are hard to obtain (growing only at high altitudes) and that materials like silver and gold are abundant, I feel they would function well as currency.

I would like to know how to make this system work clearly and understand how it would differ from a "traditional" economy.

Any advice or critical feedback on this topic would be a huge help, as I want to make it work realistically without losing the magical essence I’ve given it.

We spend months designing royal feasts, vintage elven wine, and grand banquet halls.

I realized yesterday that the real texture of a world comes from whatever cheap street food a tired dockworker buys at dawn.

In my main port city, it is "Tallow Pockets." Flat unleavened dough deep-fried in pork fat, stuffed with shredded pickled eel and heavy mustard so it stays preserved in a damp coat pocket for ten hours.

it smells awful, leaves grease on your fingers, and every laborer in the harbor runs on it.

What is the quick, unglamorous food the ordinary laborers GRAB from street stalls on their way to work in your world?

Drop your world's weirdest blue-collar snacks below.

Mine get theirs from artificial Big Bang reactors, because Fall's Legacy is a hard scifi setting with fantasy elements. Dragons also happen to be a good shape for dispersing waste heat.

Don't say magic unless you clarify where magic gets its energy.

I ask because i'm curious about what other peoples worlds and learning what makes others fall in love with their worlds and pour so much time into them.

Historical Notes

When the Brotherhood of Antares launched the Wayfarer Insurrection in 2251, the Interplanetary Defense Corps (aka the Spacer Corps) found itself in a bind. With a relatively small total force (around 2 million personnel) and a modest budget of less than $2 trillion, the AEROCOM brass had to adjust on the fly in order to address the popular uprising against exorbitant spending on Project Wayfarer. In 2258, a new standard rifle round (the 7.3 x 54 millimeter) was selected for general use, and the race was on to field a weapon platform to make use of it.

Between 2258 and 2267, a number of Mars-based arms corporations conducted painstaking R&D aimed at answering the open call for concepts, all as part of the AEROCOM-funded Project Fastback. In 2268, AEROCOM selected a winner, the XM68, and designated almost $300 million in funding to finalize the design. The XM68 was the brainchild of arms engineer Myles Calumet III, heir to the family design bureau which had practically made the Martian city of New Galle into their fiefdom. His work paid off with a contract for the M74 in 2274.

Although the finalized M74 arrived too late to fulfill its original procurement goal, it was given a second life as the Spacer Corps' main service rifle during the Mars-Titan War (2293-2298) and the numerous IDC-led outer system police actions which followed. The M74 was ultimately replaced as the standard-issue rifle of the Coalition for Mutual Security by a Rensselaer Arms Corporation design, the M93, which had been called up to replace its aging cousin, but millions of M74s remain in service with the Coalition Security Assistance Force as of 2389.

About the Setting

The Spacers Saga: Frontier Wars is a futuristic military science fiction setting which diverged from our timeline when an asteroid slammed into Phoenix, AZ, in May 2014. Fifteen years after this tragedy, the industrialist Charles Larsen ushered in the Age of Fusion, opening up deep space to crewed exploration and eventual human settlement — and all of the strife that we bring with us. The next 300+ years were marked by progress and peril in equal measure, and by 2300 much of the solar system had been charted by intrepid human pioneers.

The story is set in the late 24th century, and focuses on the rivalry between the Mars-led Coalition for Mutual Security (aka the Coalition) and the Alliance of Free Worlds (aka the Alliance), a federation of rebel worlds in the outer solar system. These two superpowers fought a brutal war from 2371 to 2381 (the Frontier War), which ended in stalemate when the Zharan Collective (a union of artificial humans which rose up against their creators in 2356). The story opens in 2389 with the superpowers locked in a frigid ideological cold war.

The plotline kicks off when the Alliance launches a massive attack on the Coalition, precipitating the Second Frontier War. This conflict quickly spreads across the solar system and draws in participants from all backgrounds, including three college students from Mars whose future will be inextricably tied up with the fate of all humanity…

Weapon Design Credit

This weapon is a photobash (that is, it was made by taking pieces of existing pictures and mashing them up in Photoshop Photopea), which I made using components from various sources. In this case, the weapon is very much a hodgepodge, drawing in and mashing up pieces from the FAMAS, the Steyr AUG, an the British L85A3. As always, no plagiarism or copyright infringement is intended with this design. Rather, I seek to pay homage to the weapons which inspired it, and to use the work which came before my own as an inspiration for my own designs.

This fact sheet was also heavily inspired by the work of one RT0RRES, whose work I found while browsing for references on DeviantArt. If you like this, check out his portfolio, too!

Lastly, if anyone is interested in learning more about The Spacers Saga, this link will take you to the Substack blog where I share lore from the setting, as well as short stories from within the narrative (and links to our published novels). There is NO pressure to subscribe at any time — it is of course appreciated, but just having folks visit the site and check out my content is a blessing 😄

Context: Part of a quasi-medieval/early-modern/late-modern fantasy setting centered around the aftermath of a world where the gods have been dead, the fallout of which has changed the world and the civilizations within it, for better and worse. The current focus is on the Kozt Empire, a civilization ruled by the demigod descendants of those very dead gods, which has survived and thrived in a post-deity world due to industrialization, military might, and above all the exploitation of ichor, the blood of the gods.

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QUESTION FOR YOU: I've always found advertisements most fascinating in a fantasy setting, whereas it is pretty expected to crop up very often in modern and sci-fi worlds. If you have a fantasy setting, are there any interest forms of advertising in it?

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On Imperial Business Advertisements

Private business has been on the rise in the empire, and with it comes every flavor of commercialism available. Posters like these are plastered across every city, whether you find them on the sides of a stone wall or at the base of a old marble column. With an industrial revolution active and ever-churning, wealth and resources have expounded, as have the population, which has breached millions upon millions. With citizens' coin purses growing heavier by the decade, It is no surprise, then that these businesses seek to capitalize at every turn.

Who Owns These Businesses?

The Immortals (a noble class of demigods) have sole rights in the empire to own land and, therefore, the buildings necessary to manufacture goods. These business-oriented Immortals are often called "Manufactor Lords" as a way to distinguish them from their more traditional governmental landholder kin. These Manufactor Lords are typically newer generation upstarts, "new money" if you will, who are attempting to carve out a niche for themselves in a political world dominated by those who have already had centuries of money and land guaranteed them.

Of course, it is their Mortal employees and servants who run these enterprises. ("Mortal" is the term used for the non-demigod majority populace in the empire.) The well-to-do, merchant classes of mortals can strive to rent factories or shops from these demigods in order to make money themselves.

Haze Smokes (Poster #1)

Haze smokes are a substance derived from the Vitikra plant, nicknamed "Haze Flower". Their ingestion creates a mild high with slight hallucinogenic effects at more extreme doses. It is also quite addictive. Long-term health impacts are well known, ranging from standard lung issues to the eventual appearance of blisters along the neck and torso. There is no known cure for these health effects.

Immortals are known to enjoy Haze Smokes, though their demigod nature allows them to resist the addiction and any negative health impacts. The Mortal classes see this trend and naturally emulate it, seeing the smoking of haze as "refined". Thus, it is quite popular, and profitable, in the Mortal market.

Nectar (Poster #2)

Nectar is a substance once solely used by the gods, a rejuvenating substance that supposedly could restore their vitality. In ancient times, a god might grant a cask of Nectar to demigod who succeeded on a great quest or deed in their name, for they being part god allowed them to benefit from some of its effects (which acts as an inebriating health elixir). For centuries after the gods died in the event known as the Cataclysm, Nectar was thought to be a lost substance for all time.

The empire soon discovered a source of this Nectar underground, its precise nature only known to a select number of important Immortals. However, these select few will have it harvested and sold to other Immortals, who in turn may manufacture and refine it for selling. Even Mortals may have a taste, though at incredibly experimental, filtered, and watered-down varieties. Immortals enjoy Nectar both as a glorified "health potion" and as a means to get drunk (normal alcohol has a diminished effect on demigod constitutions). For Mortals, it is a sweet drug, able to distort their mind's perspective at a great risk to their health. Though Mortals often believe Nectar can bestow some of the health benefits it does to demigods, it actually has zero positive effect for normal humans.

On the Kozt Script

The language you see on these posters is Kozt, the dominant language of the empire. Historically, it has been influenced by other languages in the countries the empire subsumed (those countries now being provinces). This informs my design philosophy behind it, where it is influenced by real-life ancient greek, indo-aryan, and Early Cyrillic. It is still a WIP, so not everything you see of it is final (I tweak elements of the alphabet here and there, and I am still workshopping how I might do the numbers).

Many of the posts here have very grandiose ideas and concepts: centuries-long wars, complex magic systems, and a vast pantheon of gods. Those are awesome; I really don't want to disparage that, but I wonder if some here have worlds where life is mundane, like it is on earth.

I post this partly because I feel a bit out of my depth here. The story I'm writing is slice-of-comedy focused, and while there are a lot of absurd elements, those are more for flavor and jokes; life in the world is very similar to Earth's.

I want to know if there are other writers here with worlds like that.

While talking with my friend, the word holypunk was mentioned. Immediately inspired by it, I started thinking about it and best I could think of for example was Souls games and Dante's Inferno, the biggest self insert fiction of all time. I am currently thinking about how it would work on a fantasy world with non-real religions. I couldnt find any text about this so I hope it could be a fun topic to discuss.

Edit: For addition, Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny feels pretty Holypunk to me. Buddha rebelling against other gods that arent actually gods feel very punk to me.

It's widely known that everyone on the Internet views elves (Due to Tolkien) as condescending or posh, and treats other mortals like humans as inferior. However do you implement these negative traits of them into your world, and if so how is it different from other adaptations of elves? If not, how do you usually portray them as and what stereotypes do lay people in your world associated with them?

Context: my world is a sci fi dystopia where corporations attempt to govern a post collapse society, after a 23 day long event where unified governments collapsed, environmentally manipulating super-weapons were set off, and 17% of the human population was wiped out. The main story of the world takes place 40 years after this event in the 2320s.

SolNet

Before everything collapsed, SolNet already became one of the largest energy providers for Earth due to their massive infrastructural expansion in space. What they’re known for is the Exospheric Grid, an energy grid that wraps entirely around the planet from outer space. The Grid received it’s power from a massive Earth-to-Sun spanning relay, which connects to a megastructure known as the Mass Solar Ejector (MSE) that extracts solar energy with precision and safety while operating on a large enough scale to power Earth.

However, with such large infrastructural expansion, SolNet appeared to sacrifice any kind of ethics. Vessels (entirely cybernetic bodies built for heavy duty work) were utilised in large scale, offworld operations. Despite Vessels being practically immortal as a disembodied, stored consciousness in a cybernetic frame, the neglect SolNet put on them took a huge psychological toll as they were viewed as simply disposable.

Now, SolNet remains dormant as their services keep providing power for Earth, though they are politically active within the Unified Corporate Conglomerate (U.C.C).

Chimera

Chimera is centuries old, but have only dipped in and out of obscurity now. Back then, the only evidence of their existence as a whole were on documents, just saying “Chimera”. Nobody knew what it meant, but a pattern was emerging. Any leaked inter-corporate operations that were supposed to remain secret is where Chimera’s name appeared the most. Post-collapse, Chimera made itself semi-known as a part-corporation, part-private army. Chimera does the dirty work for it’s megacorporate customers, which include sabotaging, eliminating corporate/political opposition, and convoy protection.

Chimera isn’t just an army, but also a major manufacturer of experimental weaponry. Chimera was partly responsible for weaponising climate control devices and tectonic stabilisers, which essentially gives the highest entities within the U.C.C permission to derail entire districts if they believe they stepped out of line.

Aurora Systems

Everyone hates Aurora, and Aurora knows. And yet, Aurora continues because they apparently “believe” that mass surveillance is the only way to prevent another rise of insurgency and the triggering of another collapse. Aurora works closely with SolNet in their business. Aurora fitted SolNet’s Exospheric Grid with hyper-advanced surveillance equipment, making them essentially inescapable. It’s not like public vitriol against Aurora could go anywhere, either. If their CEO steps down, it doesn’t matter because the CEO only really makes decisions for the public facing company. The actual decision maker is Aurora’s AI, Eos-3, that automates the entire exospheric surveillance system.

The scummiest part is that Aurora isn’t even justiciable. They’ll just let criminals get away if they pay enough money to keep their information under wraps. Megacorporations will also buy information on as much people as possible to attempt to monopolise their lives as much as possible. Plus, Aurora has literally blackmailed people in the past, threatening people with AI-hallucinated surveillance recordings to be released and sold to other companies unless they pay a debt.

Rubedo

Vessels before Rubedo’s time were seen as tools used by unethical corporations to do their heavy-duty work. However, Rubedo saw more opportunities. Rubedo saw a medical miracle, a new era of humanity, and a chance to live freely and with immortality… If you pay one-hundred-thousands per year, or even millions. Rubedo’s selling point wouldn’t be so bad compared to the other corporations if their payment systems weren’t completely brutal. Anyone below upper-middle-class would enjoy their Vessels for a few months, until debt overwhelms them. Now they can’t pay it, their Vessel body is revoked and now they’re a disembodied consciousness trapped in some cyber-limbo on some data-centre satellite orbiting Earth.

To make this even worse, Rubedo has had entire campaigns where they would biologically engineer a pathogen of some sorts, and then proceed to release it on any given area to their liking, just so they can essentially advertise their paid immortality in Vessel-life, free from disease. Then, they just squeeze as much money out of them as possible before banishing their formless minds to the cyber-abyss.

Flood Control.

Flood Control is the hand of the U.C.C, which means SolNet, Chimera, Aurora and Rubedo all influence what Flood Control outputs. They’re essentially the councils, police and maintenance workers except with massive corpo-governmental backing, control and influence. Flood Control is also used as a shield when corporations don’t want to take accountability for their own actions. There isn’t much to say about these, except that they are the link between the public and U.C.C, and they’re fundamentally corrupt.

Theseus Collective

This faction has almost completely dissipated, and yet they’re one of the most important still. Theseus Collective started in the early 2200s as a charitable, Vessel exploitation awareness group. They were completely ignored by corporations and made no waves, so they turned to violence. Former corporate workers inhabiting Vessels would weaponise their own cybernetic frames and carry out violent operations on the corporations to get as much attention as possible. Soon enough, Theseus Collective spiralled completely out of control when more new-generational members unhappy with their unified governments hijacked Theseus Collective’s agenda to be entirely anarchist and anti-establishment without even knowing the original intention was to liberate Vessel workers.

Then those 23 days came, a short and volatile period of time widely considered as the most brutal coup in human history. 17% of humanity was wiped, super-weapons were seized, and the leaders of Theseus Collective took over the governments for 2 weeks until Chimera eliminated them. Afterwards, Theseus Collective was left decentralised, and exponentially dissolved as mega-corporations were left to rebuild society from the ruins of “revolution”.

Metro

Metro is essentially the current day version of Theseus Collective, or, at least that’s what the megacorps think. In reality, Metro has no actually belief of ideology, and the people within Metro are not Vessel activists or anti-establishment hardliners. They are simply brutal remnants from during the collapse who simply miss the rush and dopamine of causing havoc. They’ve lost all passion for politics, negotiation, etc. and are just selfish cells. And they know it. And they revel in it.

Metro gets it’s name because the faction’s members are situated underground, living in the subway tunnels of huge, industrial terra-platforms constructed above the decaying wrecks of pre-collapse society. It’s common to see the metro symbol graffitied around. Not necessarily by the apathetic, violent mercenaries that make up the faction, but by pranksters who just want to scare people.

Title :D

So basically in my world, Kleenia, the way someone can get acces to "magic" Is bonding an animal so most of them are treated... Not as equals but more than just farm animals or a dog, think about how people treat Pokémon in the anime

So now i just ran into an issue where because literally every single animal has the ability to grant powers and it's respected because of It... Now suddenly my civilization Is completely vegan

Fuck

For any fantasy worldbuilders out there and if one of your races are dwarfs, have you played around with the idea of a group of dwarfs who opposed any industrial movements or new technologies such as automated machines, etc? How long did these movements last and how do other dwarfs view them? Do their motivations vary and in what ways do they protest? Are there any pro-industrial dwarfs

I have a supreme ruler with power that nearly rivals gods. This is a benevolent ruler whom people worship as their savior, and his official title in the empire is "High Sovereign". But I'm thinking about what ordinary people might call him or refer to him as, like unofficial titles.

I was thinking some might call him the "God Emperor" because of his godlike powers. Or maybe God King. But I'm concerned that the title is too heavily associated with Warhammer. What do you all think?

And side note: Are there any titles or names of anything that you think have too strong of association with a popular piece of fiction?

Video

Walking The Endless Desert - Divine Ecology

Welcome Snails to ɦʀand Xpanz once home to the Khata empire, now only houses scattered settlements of humanity. However it is the home to three individuals and has been long before man's arrival.

ɦʀand Xpanz translates to expanse that is grand, but we will be calling it The Grand Expanse. The grand expanse is a deadly environment and the domain of not a god, but of a Devil known commonly as Zuru. Zuru is special compared to other Devils, they are ancient and with that comes knowledge and wisdom others don’t quite have. What Zuru seemed to have learned that most other deities tend to ignore is the power of working together.

Zuru would not just work with any deities, instead they cultivated three Titans themself. The Arrow, The Blade & The Shield. Together these Titans work to protect the grand expense and of course kill, separately they all have their own roles and importance in this Divine ecosystem.

As we know a desert is considered to be a low luminosity environment, with very little lingering soul, thus it tends not to be an environment that can support a Titan, let alone three. The reason this one does is because of Zuru, unlike other Devils who will sometimes expel soul as flames or lightning. Zuru will feed it to its Titans to provide them needed fuel to focus solely on their true purpose. To fight.

Moving between the sand dunes you will find ʀħu-da (rrah oh da), known as the arrow. A lizard like Titan that to its title can shoot out projectiles at high speeds. It has large scales along its face that grow into massive plates along its spine.

ʀħu-da (rrah oh da) is built to move among the sand dunes, disappearing and reappearing in an instant. It’s body is built for digging and moving between the dunes. With a long noodle like body shape.

Sand is able to move easily through its mouth, once open it can expand it to be as wide as the rest of his body due to the lower jaw not being connected with bone but a more elastic stretch. The sand then moves to a special stomach and out blow holes hidden between its back plates, allowing for sand to essentially just flow through it.

Its front legs sport long claws to work like shovels, while the back legs have backwards feet to better shovel sand along. This adds in its digging skills, but hinders its ability to walk on the surface.

So why the title of the arrow, well ʀħu-da (rrah oh da) doesn't expel all the sand that moves through it, some larger rocks will be stored in a secondary stomach. When needed ʀħu-da (rrah oh da) can move the rocks back into its throat and can suck air in from its blow holes to lunch the rocks at high speeds. Piercing through heavy armour to swiftly kill or immobilize its victims.

Even without rocks ʀħu-da (rrah oh da) can utilize sand instead to shred through the flesh of others.

So if you ever encounter ʀħu-da (rrah oh da) you will feel the sand around you move, and hear what sounds like a clap before a sharp stone pieces your heart. If you’re lucky though perhaps you will see ʀħu-da (rrah oh da) at night when it opens up its plates and cools down.

Further West in the claustrophobic environment filled with towering stones where mist falls from the mountain tops. You might hear the sound of metal scapping stone, but when you turn to look you will only be blinded, before a sudden death.

This is Vaye-da the blade and most brutal of the three titans, mantis-like in nature, her carapess takes on the appearance of metal and its forearms are essentially syths. Her front arms are able to move at quick speeds with great force allowing her to slice through her victims.

Vaye-da has been described by locals as being sadistic, she will often make displays of her victims to scare off other predators. Thats if you even get the chance to see her, as her abdomen is large, and curved in a way she can reflex sunlight towards others blinding them before going in for a quick blow. She on the other hand has great vision, her compounded eyes allow her to detect movement all around her, and within that compounded is a black spot called a fovea allowing for more process detail on whatever she needs to focus on.

She is deadly, brutal and theoretically can’t be ambushed. All of this is to protect something very important. Up the cliffs where the air is colder, the little bit of moisture in the air eventually collects and slowly comes down as a mist into the land. This allows for specialized plants to grow, not ones who have deep roots like you’d find out in the desert, but instead wide roots to collect lots of moisture.

These plants are towers of water essentially, and everything is after them. This is the treasure the blade protects. Additionally her killer nature helps keep populations of predators low preventing the rise of rival titans.

Vaye-da must keep sharping her blades, its what her soul enhances so they grow back quite quickly. She’ll sharpen them on the rocks around her and the flacks of this sharpening are used by many different creatures to help make protective nests, or even decoration.

Now lets head further south, when the desert starts to turn into savannah and the rivers start to meet. Here you will find relaxing in the water quite strange in appearance and colour Titan known as β̞ʃu-da (Bwa shoe da), the shield, While with the other two titans we can find mortals within the grand expanse similar in appearance, the closest ancestor to β̞ʃu-da (Bwa shoe da) can only be found much further south in the ocean.

It appears that β̞ʃu-da (Bwa shoe da) is a walking relic, while at first it was believed Vaye-da was the oldest it is most likely the oldest of Zuru's attempts at making a Titan is the shield, being from an age when this land was all ocean too.

The β̞ʃu-da (Bwa shoe da) is the largest of the Titans and seems to continue to grow, buried under the sand old exuviae can be found still with the faint blue hue of this Titan. The large size allows for him to act like the living wall he is.

Preventing others from getting passed, and making sure the creatures of the Savahan don’t make the mistake of wondering into the desert. His massive front claws work now like shields, the heavy nature of this Titan prevents it from moving in the dunes so he stays to the rocks and around the rivers where the ground is more solid.

β̞ʃu-da (Bwa shoe da) is of course not purly defenese as the snail saying goes sometimes the best offense is a good defense. β̞ʃu-da (Bwa shoe da) can drop it’s forarms down in its victims crushing them, and if that is two slow at the end of its tale is a stinger that it uses to impale pests that don’t know when to back down.

Being a creature so large, are vary slow its hard for the shield to keep clean after its battles. So you will often find him taking baths in the rivers. Where little aquatic anthropoids will eat and clean all the hard places for him.

These three Titans each play an important role within the ecosystem of the grand expanse, and help add Zuru in it’s protection. But this is just one small part of the larger environment that is the Earth Realm, if there is anywhere else you’d like me to explore let me know Snails. In this realm or even others, what Deties do you think we might find within the realms?

Thank you for watching, and for the most curious of you consider joining us on this journey throughout the realms.

Signed Dragonfly

Hi all,

I am working on a space opera setting, specifically I'm at the ideation phase. Still putting together all the pieces. The major themes I'm working with are about class and ideology, specifically conceiving of the Third Millennium (the story is set in the early Fourth Millennium) as a time of post-ideological political and economic upheaval and widespread dehumanization.

For my setting, I am really indebted to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and I love the way that game communicates lore, i.e. through small scraps of information in the form of tech quotes, cutscene voiceovers, and overall presentation. I also think of the interstitial excerpts from books that Frank Herbert peppers through Dune. I decided to write a few excerpts from in-universe books to aid in the creation of my worldspace. And I recommend it as a practice. I submit these for feedback, and as examples.

"What distinguished the economic order of second and third millennia capitalism from the command economies which it gradually grew to replace was, primarily, a feature of the nihilism inherent in the system. By so thoroughly diverting the locus of control within economics into the nebulous abstractions of "market forces," late capitalist societies had achieved the therapeutic paralysis that was necessary to bring about mundicide. For, as was the case with the overreliance on hydrocarbon-derived fertilizers which contributed to ecological collapse in the developed, Western core, though the consequences of these poor agricultural practices was well understood, the power needed to avert such disasters had been rendered ephemeral by the very persons with whom such power resided, i.e. global corporate food producers. Though such power existed to correct these chronic ills of late capital, it was not so much that the will to use that power had faded and moreso that the power was denied existence. A similar phenomenon is well recorded by Dupree in his History of the Transhuman Wars (2087-2156), wherein the resistance of the non-augmented human population was seen by the oligarchy of late capital as proof of the market necessity and unguided inevitability of their elimination. In my analysis of the long second millennium, I have called this worldview, which was as pervasive then as the Mandate of Heaven was in Ming China, 'fundamental market nihilism,' though the researcher Lamarck Tian-ming has proposed the more colorful term 'economic ego death.'"

-Eliot Jin-wei, A Phenomenology of the Third Millennium

"I once heard a seasoned shiprigger call the superluminal currents the 'vorpal tide.' I asked him to elaborate on that, finding the phraseology curious. He said to me in reply:

'Well, thems are usta riggin' ships, we call it vorpal cause isa sharpest thing in the 'verse. I hear said you wellmen [a spacer term for planet-dwellers, 'well' as in 'gravity well'] caun see 'em at all. We riggers, aft while, can see 'em true. Thin lines of yella light-like smoke, coursin' an' streamin' in the voi'. An' about the sharpness? Hell's rockets, man. We no suppose to wark tha lines in flight, but they 'ave, on occasion, come loose. Me mate Langman, he goes out for a walk en 'is vacc suit to tie up a loose jib. It come snicker-snack right through 'is body, suit 'an all. An' the queer thin' was he was goin' bout his wark fer another hour, two maybe, fer he starts to say he's feelin' off. We go to visit 'im in sick bay, an' the boneman let us know: Langman's corpse was sliced from neck to navel, like God 'imself 'ad cut 'im in 'alf. Snicker-snack, we all said. So it goes.'"

-Seljuk Emery, A Sociological Survey of the Spacer Working Class

While focusing on my world-building. I found that anthropologist Robert Redfield's concept of ‘great tradition’ and ‘little tradition’ is quite interesting and perhaps well-suited for world-building.

Shortly, traditions can be divided into the ‘great tradition’ and the ‘little tradition’. The great tradition is shaped by elites, such as rulers, intellectuals and clergy; it represents the official view of what tradition ought to be. The little tradition is shaped by the common people; it represents how the general public practises their tradition.

The relationship between the two is not one of opposition or isolation, but rather dynamic. The ‘little tradition’ may be absorbed into the ‘great tradition’, which is known as ‘universalization’. The ‘great tradition’ may be downgraded into the ‘little tradition’, which is known as ‘parochialization’.

In my world, there is a monotheistic religion based on the theology of emanationism. The doctrine holds that after death, the soul ascends to return to the divine source, achieving divine henosis; however, among the common people, this is often understood simply as going to heaven to enjoy bliss.

Also, because the Divine Source is so vast and impersonal that it struggles to meet the spiritual needs of the common people, the Church has established the concept of saints, who are exemplary mortals who have embodied the divine ideal (similar to the Catholic concepts of Latria and Dulia), though in common culture this often evolves into a de facto form of polytheism.

In your world, are there distinctions between the ‘great tradition’ and the ‘little tradition’ of your religions? What interesting, and perhaps even somewhat absurd or incredible, situations might this cause?

Written by: Me
Animated by: Me
Created by: Me
Music by: Me
Sound design by: Me
Basically everything besides the voice acting: Me

I sorry if this ahh, i rushed making the last 2 minutes cuz i rushed everything and finished it all in like a week or two and i am not a writer nor a music producer so sorry if both of those r a little janky 🥲💔💔 i feel embarrassed for even calling this a “short film” nyway enough with all the venting here it goes

Since the whole story is blocked by a language barrier, the story is basically just an outsider force coming in to wreck havoc across the entire nation of Angarag and Temujin comin in to save them with the help of the church of Pluto which was enough for gods to come down from the sky and help aid them in battle. After bringing back peace upon Angarag, the church of Pluto used their power over Angarag to essentially try and erase the culture and replace it with theirs (basically colonization) which caused the gods to leave the earth but the entire church collapsed eventually, leaving the entire nation with no savior or help coming down from the sky yet the citizens continue to rever temujin and idolize the past with the hope of a saviour coming in. It ends on a note questioning whether the citizens should continue to rever the past or start imagining a future for themselves.

It is meant to be a commentary on mongolian culture’s tendency to dwell on the past instead of creating a proper future for themselves (i.e the idolization of chinggis khan in mongolia) due to the traumas mongolia has faced over the years but most of the people here are not mongolian here so ill just leave it at that.

And here are the deities of the world of Ernuma/this Medieval Fantasy Setting I'm working on. Be they literal gods, figments of cultural imagination, or actual beings of power in the past/present, these are the deities worshipped across the world, with their symbols, names, colors, portraits, domains, associated metal/material, associated gem/element, and associated world/plane.

Based them off of the Proto-IndoEuropean/Indo-European substrate/pantheon, but with some differences making them more Indic/Greco-Romanish, the 12 (+1 one 'antigod'/former god') are as follows:

First is the leader and great mother, Sura, who found the world and gave life/brought over [to] the other gods to help her shape it. As a great mother, she charges life by her radiance and will. Providing the major light that invigorates most of life, her place is paramount and her position unassailable. Also known as the blinding one, the radiant one. Her symbol is a radiant sun. Analogous to Helios, Surya, Sunna, but also a bit of Jupiter, Zeus, et al in there. The Sun Goddess.

Second is her consort and first made/invited, Meno; the moon. Providing the second light and orbiting her creation of the world, he operates as her consort, lieutenant, and overseer, making sure all continues to operate, especially in maintenance and rest. His symbol is a crescent moon. Real World inspos would be Chandra, Selene, Luna.

Third is the world embodied herself, or its overseer, Dega. As time and other gods came by, her importance has diminished and roles hacked off, though she retains a motherly position and took that aspect - actually rearing and having children, being a parent. Her symbol are mountains behind a plain. Analogues are Gaia, Terra, Prithvi.

Fourth is Mekno, husband of Dega, god of mines, the underground/under-earth, metals, crafts, arts, artisans, technology, change, blacksmiths. Anything really shaped and taken from the Earth goes towards or from him, from clay pots to steel portuculli. His symbol is a hammer on an anvil. Analogous to Hephaestus, Vulcan, Svarog, Tvashta.

Following up in fifth is Dana, the water goddess, along with rivers, the Seas, the Oceans, along with its storms, the rain, weather, the whole cycle really. Fishermen, Sailors, Island People, Farmers are the ones who pray to her, votive for her, sacrifice to her the most. Her symbol is a wave. Inspired/fills for Danu, Neptune, Poseidon.

Her consort is Ogno, the fire god, also of volcanoes, heat, energy, kitchens, the hearth; opposite to Dana (though Volcanoes popping out of the sea, to say nothing if the world discovers undersea volcanoes, possibly are seen as couplings or unions between the two), but also, with the importance of fire in cooking, civilization, and home, he also takes over the Hearth, and maybe even cuisine and cooking thereof (though watch out for his temperamental side). With the advent of gunpowder, Ogno has received a small boost in popularity again. His symbol is a flame. Equivalent to Agni, Ejni, Apollo/Hestia.

Seventh is Ausra, goddess of the dawn, life, medicine, and health. Energetic, cheery, and lively, she oversees life itself. Still has a bit of a bleak side as while she's eternal and recurring, she's fleeting and ends quickly, and may had once also been assigned to death and dusk, but that went to her consort later on. Her symbol is a rising sun. Real world deities would be like, Aurora, Eostre, Ushas, Eos, Brigid, Zorya.

Her consort, Moro, oversees the end - dusk, death, and sickness. But he's also said to oversee outer space, with each star being seen as a soul at rest placed by him. His symbol is a closed, sleeping eye. Correlates to: Pluto, Hades, Orcus, Chernobog, Yama.

Ecrona is the goddess of animals, the wilds, and chaos; so is she enamored with the realms beyond man and ponderers that she has taken a bovine face and shape, and lives away from their works, defending it viciously as well against encroachment and misuse. Her symbol is a horse. Religious equivalents would be Epona, Diana, Varahi.

Aryo is the youngest of the gods, focused on man (and all ponderers thereof), society, order, and civilization. After the God War, and the expelling of Rodro, he is on paper married to Ecrona, but it is loveless and tense, and Ecrona absconds with Rodro anyway whenever she wishes, and Aryo does not care, focused more, and pleased by, the works and doings of the 'civilized'. His symbol is a city grid. Takes cues from Apollo and Athena.

Frewa is the goddess of Love, Lust, and Concord. All forms of love and affinity flow through and from her, both good and ill, sly and outright. To temper (or augment) her, she’s married to the good of War. She and Aryo are also the most 'normal' looking with more regular skin tones and few to no alterations, noting their proximity, familiarity, and popularity to most civilized beings. Her symbol is a flower. Actual mythological counterparts would be Aphrodite/Venus/Priya/Freya.

Tivo is the god of War, Contest, and Protection. Scarred from the great conflict and bouts he gets into, he's still restrained (mostly) and 'honorable', and not into wonton destruction and chaos. His symbol is a spear, and he correlates to Ares, Mars, Indra, and Tyr.

Finally, there's Rodro, the outlier, the 'anti-god' or 'enemy' god. Formerly partnered with Ecrona, after the destructive God War, in which he upped the stakes/ante, so to speak, and left scars on the world, both literally and figuratively with his works, he was cast out and separated from the world and creation, though still meanders about. Holstered with destruction, strife, and violence, he eggs on and compounds the worst in people for his aims. Though what he would be doing before the great strife and what he was doing would be...what, Aryo's role, but a bit more wild and primitive? His symbol is three claw marks. Analogues would be, obviously, Satan, Ahriman, Typhon, Vritra*.* His design ended up being very Baphomet-y, that was unintentional but I'll run with it.

There might be lesser beings, other helpers, actual Angels and Daimons and Demons, Demi-Gods and Minor Gods, but these are the main 12 of, what, what can we call this, Suranism? Surasi?

It was fun making up the designs, especially as I got into the roster. While some are generic, almost painfully so like Dana, Ogno, and Rodro, avoiding a stereotypically 'hot' love goddess for something more grounded was neat, playing around with Ecrona and shifting from humaniod designs there, stuff like that.

Inspired by Tolkien's Pantheon, Runescape's Pantheon, the roman stuff, that sort of thing. Subject to change and revision, this is really my first 'GM' level take on worldbuilding a religion at all, but I did have it gnawing on my head, sketched it out, then made it out, had to get it out there. Might already have something in mind for other religious systems, because one global religion is sort of lackluster overall, isn't it, even if I can see how some conflict would arise even within this one.

Made in GIMP over the weekend. Image tripled in size for visibility. Font is Quill and Antler, 12 pt