Q:11 and 21. All four of them.

firegrowshigher

yay!

11. What do they do when they need comfort? Do they seek out a person, a food, an activity, etc?

  • Ansi: Ansi tends to just sit in silence and contemplate things. He’s not one for talking, nor is he one for moping—he just prefers his silence and prefers not to have anyone worrying about him.
  • Loq and Cyros: Loq seeks out Cyros and some fun. Loq’s a jokester and is plenty happy, but when he gets down or just needs some comfort he gravitates toward his best friend and sees what shenanigans they can get up to. Cyros is cheery as well and will always be happy to help Loq out or have Loq help him out. Whether it’s something passive like playing cards and drinking or something active like practicing fighting or something, they usually tend to help each other out.
  • Kani: Aahahaha Kani and comfort. She usually just ends up ranting shit out to Ansi after she’s had more than a few drinks. It takes her a while to even rant out to Ansi, though—she’s a pro at just drinking her troubles away and going out of her way to make herself seem independent. That changes once she meets Silas, though.

21. How well do they take criticism? How do they react to others noticing their flaws?

  • Ansi’s alright with criticism; he will gladly take it and try to learn from it, even if he doesn’t vocalize that he’s hearing it. He’s also good at critiquing others from an objective point of view.
  • Loq’s great with criticism. He takes everything in stride and even if it’s in mean spirits it doesn’t affect him much because he’s content with who he is and who he aspires to be. He’s aware of his flaws and aware of what he has to fix but doesn’t let that bring him down!
  • Cyros is okay with criticism, from only a certain few. Namely, Loq and Ansi. He was used to tons of criticism from his home tribe and it made him very guarded and pompous, but a few years surrounded by his good friends has helped him lighten up  and be less offended by things.
  • Kani thinks she’s good with criticism. She’s not. At all. She sees her flaws and she hates herself for it but whenever someone else points them out she instinctively goes on the defensive or acknowledges that she already knew. Ansi’s probably the only one who can get through her thick skull until Silas comes along.

Q:3 6 22 25 on the red guy (Loq, I'm assuming)

thebesttexan-deactivated2013041

Yep, that’s Loq! :D

3. What is their preferred method of transportation? 

  • Loq is part of Kani’s crew, so wherever The White Crow goes, Loq goes with. He never really traveled anywhere by ship before, so the novelty of it makes him really enjoy traveling by ship!

6. What languages do they speak? Do they have any idiosyncrasies or identifiable patterns of speech, word usages, etc?

  • He speaks Ardokkic and Atlaiic, and knows a smattering of Kuali words. He tends to cut words in half when he’s explaining something, “family” to “fam,” “stupid” to “stup,” etc. While he is by no means unintelligent he doesn’t exactly have a flowery way of wording things.

22. What are they like when they get sick? Do they have a particular system (ears, lungs, etc) that illness gravitates to?

  • Loq’s illnesses tend to affect his lungs and throat the most. He also gets really bad chills. As an Ardokki he’s more durable than most, but when they end up in Kaeiut where it’s all swamps and frost and chilly he’s really susceptible to getting ill. His voice gets all husky and he coughs a lot and generally gets all cranky and bleh.

25. What do their hands look and feel like?

  •  Loq’s hands are all callused and rough; he’s a big guy so he’s got large hands and since he fights and climbs and smiths his hands are rough like dry sand. 

so it’s five am and all i want to do is stay up and rewatch all of ze frank’s videos because he inspires the heck out of me and i have a story to write for tomorrow

buuuuuuuut it’s five am, whoops

SO INSTEAD HERE i’m posting my notes and my vague hero’s journey outline, woop woop. i’m writing a legend/myth based on the moth-people’s lore of Upper Armeis and how they stopped feuding with the humans. 

Read More

Q:Ok, so I've pretty much got the set list down for the EP. It includes Bringer (intro piece), First Adventure (Kani piece), The White Crow (general theme?), Unamed love song, Staircase of Stars, and Above the Clouds (piece about Upper Armeis). I've basically written three of them already, so I have to make 3 more, plus White Crow is getting a major overhaul and First Adventure is getting spiced up at the end and in the middle. Also, I might need some information about the staircase?

doublejoeseven

OH MAN THIS SOUNDS ALL SORTS OF AMAZING ALSJDFOijlasfjdoijasdflkj like i’m actually just flipping out that you want to do an EP for my silly little story aaaaaaaaaah AAAAAAAAAAH

YEAH OKAY SO ABOUT THE STAIRCASE it’s actually not a staircase, not really, it’s just this archway on this mountain on a faraway little island in the dead waters, an island with fields of sunflowers and calm breezes and also quicksand and carnivorous plants and poisonous things everywhere and it basically is just a doorway that leads to Upper Armeis (specifically, the basement of Caldwell’s engineering lab in the Risalian palace, that is monitored by both Staroul and Cutler! And Caldwell doesn’t know anything about it lol).

  • 89 Plays

doublejoeseven:

There hasn’t been much on the BOTA EP front, so here have a wip from July I haven’t worked on in a while eheheheh. It’s the lovesong theme I guess?

aaaaaaaaaah idk how i missed this!!! THIS IS FANTASTIC AND I’M STILL SUPER FREAKING ECSTATIC ABOUT THE FACT THAT YOU EVEN LIKE BOTA ENOUGH TO MAKE AN EP FOR IT AAAAAAH ; A; you are all sorts of awesome and everyone should go follow joe right now

Q:On the topic of magic, what can and can't magic do? Does each person have the ability to use the same magic skill, or is everyone different and/or specialize in a certain area of magic?

doublejoeseven

Hmm. Magic. Magic is…hrm.

So. The magic in Armeis is known as “The Voice.” This is totally different from the voice which is the speaking language of the nolms. 

Essentially, it is a communication between natural forces and the heart and soul of the world. It is an innate connection to the life force of the Deity and the First. Think Passive and Active, internal and external, life and action in terms of classifying what type of magic it is. 

Passive magic affects internal systems. It’s like a conversation with the internal life force of a person or object, because everything has life. Everything has a soul and can be communicated with. 

Active magic is a conversation with the active energies and beings outside of someone’s body, whether it is your own, or someone else’s. Think of the wind, the sun, the sea, etc. Active magic effects the exterior surroundings of that person.

Some limitations (I’m still thinking up some more):

  • No resurrection
  • No forcing something that would not have come about naturally (if someone’s heart is cut in half you cannot heal that shit)
  • No love potion hullaballoo
  • No time fuckery
  • You can’t just do magic because you feel like it, at least, not right away. You have to get in tune with the language of the universe and the stream of life that flows through it and everything in it. And in the beginning it’s going to be really hard to tap into that. It’s not just about clearing and focusing your mind, you have to clear and focus your heart, and your body, and your soul. A lot of non-Paudwa (who are the only ones who can “easily” tap into it without a ton of proper training) can actually go insane because feeling that much connectivity is overwhelming. It can really strain a Speaker to suddenly feel such a rush of presence in everything. It’s a complete awareness of everything in the world around you—not just the leaves blowing in the breeze in the tree nearby, but the leaves being blown along hundreds of miles away by that same interconnected wind and air and sky. 

The source of magic is the connectivity throughout the universe, the strands of inevitable life and ineffable creation in every being, everywhere, as threaded by the First and the Deity. 

The tecnique is a silent conversation using the universal language of the world. Think about it like this: you are using something’s true name in a true language that remains unspoken, untainted, and unused. There is no actual dialogue, and yet, there is. 

Some examples with my two Ardokki twin Speakers:

  • If a person is actively falling from the sky and actively interacting with the forces around them, Zherda can speak with the wind and the water, to even billow up a huge breeze to bring the person down to earth safely.
  • If a person has a deep wound and is succumbing to it, then Terrana can basically converse with that person’s soul and lifeforce to get them to stay around long enough while she also speaks to the unmoving herbs and poultices and plants to coax them into wounds or something. The same technique could be used to, say, get water out of someone’s lungs. 

Magic is essentially the same across the board. BUT. Among Paudwa tribes, there is a definite difference in specialties. Some are born with an innate ability towards Active Speaking, some are born Passive. Some are born without the Voice, and that’s fine too, there’s jobs for em. But depending on who Speaks in what way, there is a different life path for them. Actives are trained on how to defend and attack, Passives are trained as healers. 

Ardokki Speakers are similarly trained, but less formally, as magic is rarer.

Among humans, however…to be a Speaker is incredibly rare. Totally rare. It’s been known but it’s so poorly documented. Which is why the fact that Oskandr exists, and the fact that he’s shown prowess in both Passive and Active communication, is so intriguing!

Q:What are the cultures/magicks in your world like, how to they react/interact with each other and where are the alliances and/or tensions between them?

atrafeathers

ALRIGHT I’m going to try to sum this up as best I can:

Lower Armeis:

The main conflict of cultures is between humans and everybody else. Magicks are primarily gifted to those created by Ikreth; Paudwa are the primary magic users in the land, but there are a few gifted Ardokki. Magic in Nolms or Humans is VERY rare, but there are known cases. Humans want to use the halfmen to succeed in building up to the sky—legends say of a whole new echelon of existence will be waiting for them once they reach it. 

The halfmen, therefore, are all pretty much allied against humans. If  a Nolm is being chased for escaping slavery and runs into a group of very well armed Ardokki, the Ardokki will generally come to her aid. If an Ardokki comes across the hidden Nolm tribes in Aviar, they will be given shelter and food enough until they restore their strength. The list goes on. Paudwa are really well hidden away and since they’re the magic users no one bothers them because they can and will fuck your shit up without a second thought. Unless you’re Ardokki, then you’re like a weird estranged cousin so they’ll give you a chance. 

Needless to say, tensions run high in Lower Armeis. 

In Upper Armeis:

The Shorshethans are the dominant race with the humans in a close second, followed by the flightless nolms and ardokki. While there used to be tons of tension between the races before, now they are at a relatively peaceful truce with each other. Trading goes…well enough. Wraithe is currently undergoing a bit of a civil war/uprising/revolt, so we’ll see where that goes. 

(Spoiler: it doesn’t go anywhere good)

Q:How does one get to Upper Armeis? Do they have flying machines? Also, if U.A. is so centered around science and technology, how do they view the whole "floating land thanks to a magic Bringer" deal? Are the peoples (and robots) all highly civilized or are there "indigenous" tribes scattered about the floating isles?

doublejoeseven

You don’t! <.< It’s completely cut off from L.A. Except.

You know.

The first book is called The Staircase of Stars so, uh—it’s implied there’s a “staircase” somewhere and yes that is supposed to be in quotation marks. But yeah Upper Armeis has flying machines/airships and that’s why science and engineering and mechanics are all such coveted interests, because it’s really necessary to have the know how up there. 

They don’t know about the whole floating land thanks to the First Bringer deal because due to the magic separating the two lands they can’t see any islands below em either, just lots and lots of water. It all happened a REALLLLLY long time ago and any Bringers that do surface in Upper Armeis all generally keep it under wraps and don’t go about announcing their presence and changing shit like crazy. Upper Armeian Bringers more just go to get jobs in politics or monarchy or business and keep on adjusting things from high places of power instead of UPENDING THE WORLD because that’s such oldschool bringer attituuuude~

They are pretty dang civilized in general. Even the Upper Armeian Nolms aren’t as tribal as they are down below. There are poor farming towns and villages and scattered townships in poverty but not really any completely wild areas. c:

Q:Ok, question time! So, I take it Upper Armeis is litterally ABOVE Lower Armeis? Like floating? Or is it north of it, there just aren't any islands below U. Armeis? Also, how big is it. Like, is the map depicting a global view, just a medium sized archipelago, etc? Could you give a real world size comparison?

doublejoeseven

Yeah, upper armeis is legit /floating/ above the isles of lower armeis. Some time in the…fourth age, I think?? the first bringer was like WOW LOOK AT ALL THIS FIGHTING, I DON’T THINK SO and so they split the world in two. c: lower armeis and upper armeis used to be one so after the split there were just a lot of little islands/sky lands floating about. All the isles of UA are hidden by cloud cover/the first’s magic so they can’t be seen from below. Anyways so UA has skylands and sky pirates and robots and moths and all that jazz. :D also sorry I’m answering on my phone so I can’t be as detailed as I would like to be XD

Oh yeah and the maps are supposed to be like, the whole globe. I’m just very bad at drawing maps. A real world comparison…I believe Altic is about half the size of Australia, mmmaybe? The land masses are big enough for a basic start to industrialization and agriculture, but small enough to not allow for over population or easy warfare lol

Worldbuilding Wednesday! Revamp.

Right so this is version 2 of my original worldbuilding wednesday post! I’ve added more links to things, more organization, and more exposition, just in case people wanna know stuff. c:

So I’ve been working on this for a while, since you guys really have nothing to go on when it comes to the world of Armeis and The Sevenfold. Hell, you don’t even know what the Sevenfold is.

Thus!

To narrow things down, and to help me organize, here’s a handy and quick summation.

This:

Is the Lower Division of Armeis. (Bigger map pic here)

This:

is the Upper Division of Armeis. Since it’s floating skylands, there are no seas (they are instead called Spans. I didn’t list all of em here because, whoops lazy)

So, quite akin to one of those “send me a number” ask things, I am giving you all a list of topics you can choose from!

To elaborate on some of the above.

In this world live many races. The known ones (so far) are

  • Humans (Alticans, Westrunners, Lagopari)
  • Nolms (1, 2)
  • Ardokki (1, 2)
  • Paudwa (1, 2)
  • Shorshethans (Upper Armeis ONLY) (1, 2, 3, 4)
  • Robots (Upper Armeis ONLY) (1, 2, 3)

okay so there are a LOT OF LINKS i have to add but i gotta jet but for now HERE HAVE A HANDY REFERENCE SHEET IF YOU’RE INTERESTED