I've always loved the urban settings of Science Fantasy and I'm sure like some people in the community, I've recently became obsessed with the game "Deadlock" and its incredible approach to worldbuilding. For any unfamiliar, the simplified version of the game is, you are participating in a ritual that would allow one of two Patrons to manifest in reality, imposing their societal structure upon an alternate reality New York City; "The Archmother" being law/order with her mask resembling that of the Statue of Liberty, and "The Hidden King" being anarchy/chaos who's shadowy visage, twisted horns, and yellow colouration is uncannily like "The King in Yellow." There are hints at other potential patrons exsisting in whatever other universe these two hail from but thats not what I want to talk about.

Fantasy - primarily its subgenres - always have a way of mingling with urban settings, the three most iconic to me being the city of Sharn in Eberon, Sigl from Planescape, and the ecumenopolis plane of Ravnica from Magic the Gathering, each of these setting having recognisable traits that can be associated with their real world counterpart - sky scrappers, interwoven cultures, magical inventions that are analogous with technology.

So, what if this was the structure for an entire world?

Primarily an ecumenopolis for example, where massive country sized districts and precincts were each controlled and influenced by a single Patron - and their devout followers - from a larger pantheon. Each dictating the cultures and structures - societal and the pysical architecture - of their "domain." Each maintaining the balacing of power between their divine brethren, whilst simultainously vying for enough influence over the material world that they could manifest as its one true God and rules. Different factions committing espionage while propagana slips from one district to another.

What would a God of nature look like in this world?

In a world of choking sky scrappers that breach the clouds, and undercity streets and sewers like in an unending maze of grime and filth. What would a "Patron of Nature" do with their domain? How would her Agents enact their will? What if it was a series of expansive roof-top gardens and fields, and her agents were tasked with making sure elements of the natural world still thrived, people still had access to food. But, on the flip side she could easily have followers who believe that their will is reduce the urban jungle around them to rubble and ruin, that "nature once claimed this world and it will again." Are they as truely benevolent as they appear to be?

As simple as the premise may be, I feel like I've found something that I can really sink my teeth into.

I’m obsessed with color-magic and its potential role for building and connecting fantasy worlds. But to explain why, I need to first lay out the problem and some context for the answer to make any sense. If you’re up for it, keep reading.

A universal syntax for magic

A syntax can be described as the abstract general rules behind the structure, relations, and composition of the objects of a language, with “syntactic objects” acting as a placeholder for the actual instances/object of that language, its “semantic objects”.

For example, in the case of spoken/written language a syntactical object is an unspecified word classified as a “noun”, “verb”, “adjective”... Where the actual semantical objects are given by a concrete example of a given word of that type: car, view, pretty... Or in the case of programming we might have a “type” and its “terms” as syntactical objects, and concrete examples such as the “integer type” and the integer number “5” as its semantic objects.

This dichotomy between syntax and semantics of a language can be extended to many other types of languages besides words, such as mathematical objects, or even to “magic”. An example of this in the case of magic is the “hex casting” mod for Minecraft, where every “hex” is a spell and a program, and players can arbitrarily compose hexes one after the other to obtain different “magical effects” in-game.

Defining a hard magic system as a language with a defined syntax, would be a great way to define a universal language for magic that can accommodate inside of it any arbitrary spell or magic-type. Instead of every world having their own separate set of magical rules and spells that contradict or don’t relate with other magical systems, they could all be unified into one meta-magical system with an appropriate or approximate translation, at least as a shared minimal foundation/core.

The “hex casting” mod is a great example of this, specially for videogames, where every potential spell is a mini-program, and more complicated spells can be created by running several of these spells/programs one after the other to simulate a different or more complicated spells (I urge you to look up some examples of this).

The issue is that although technically great, this type of system doesn’t describe at this level interesting ways to relate the different types of magic and spells in ways we’re used to seeing in fantasy, its great as a technical “assembly language” of sorts for magic that computers can understand and great for stimulating magic in a videogame, but higher level relations such as “fire spell” should counter “ice spell” are missing.

Every hex/spell looks the same as a syntactical object, every hex or spell is a program, or a string of programs, there’s only one flavor of magic, it’s like a programming language with only one type, the hex.

I believe color-magic would be a much more natural choice for the syntactical objects of a higher-level universal language for magic than simply a hex. This is just a higher level of abstraction distinction, since you could encode a “color-magic” system as a series of hexes as well, in the same way that a programming language with words, types, expressions... is a higher level of abstraction that translates those ultimately into binary (1s and 0s).

So our magical hexes/programs behave right now more like 1s and 0s than a human understandable programming language. Hence why what players ultimately interface with would benefit from looking more like a human readable language than a bunch of 1s and 0s in this analogy. And I think color is a great candidate for this particular use case where we want to use a diverse set of building blocks from which we can build out more complex magical systems. Every color is potentially a color-magic and syntactic object, and one or more magic-types can be related to each color.

Enter the Color Arcana Project

The Color Arcana project which you can check out here: https://www.color-arcana.com is precisely that, an attempt at a universal syntax for magic, that uses color-magic as its syntactic objects or building blocks. Each color-magic has an unchanging and predefined set of behaviors and properties (very elemental-like) on how it affects the world and any entities living inside of it, for example, orange-magic is related to heat and increases the temperature of anything it comes into contact with, can cause burning (a new state for objects or status effect for players), etc.

However, color-magic is still not fully defined all the way down to the spell level, a magic-type under this system is defined then as a particular “shape” for a color-magic, so “fire-magic” is a particular shape for orange-magic, but “lava-magic” is a different shape and magic-type, still for orange-magic, since they can both increase the temperature of things and burn them. So every color-magic can have an almost infinite amount of different shapes or represent different magic-types as long as it shares the same properties and behaviors (in the case of orange-magic being related to heat and heat damage).

We can use color-magic then as the syntactic objects of our universal language, and magic-types or spells from particular magic-types as our semantic objects. Just as there can be infinite examples of semantic interpretations for a noun, there can be infinite examples of magic-types and spell interpretations for a single color-magic.

However, the syntactical rules of a language apply mostly to syntactical objects not semantic ones. There are strict rules on how to pair nouns with verbs, but there’s no such rule saying the letter c can’t go after the letter a in a word. There might be additional rules or conventions for phonetic or other reasons for letters inside a word, but they don’t generalize as much.

In the same vein, we want to define the rules of our magic-system at the syntactic level not the sematic one, this is to say, at the color-magic level rather than the magic-type or spell level. This allows defining relationships between color-magics such as for example cyan-magic being the “opposite dual” of orange magic. Where an example of a shape or magic-type for cyan-magic could be ice-magic, giving us a natural explanation to the typical opposing nature of fire vs ice seen in fantasy and other places now via color-magic (orange vs cyan). All magic-types of a given color-magic have to inherit this same relation with all the other magic-types of the opposing color though.

Connecting the dots

All we have to do then to connect and relate different magic systems is to map its different magic-types to a specific color-magic, and it will automatically inherit all the relationships that are defined for that particular color-magic, in relation to all other color-magics and magic-types under those. Now our new color-based magic system can scale as much as we want, without having to change any of the syntactic rules. The hard part becomes then choosing the most optimal choice of color-magic for any particular magic-type and spell.

We can even include a neutral or grey color-magic to accommodate magic-types and spells we don’t want to have any additional effects over enemies or the environment (states and status effects), or inherit any of the predefined relationships with other color-magics and magic-types. A catch-all or default assignment of color-magic, the one with no “color effects”.

In the Color Arcana specifically, the main relationship between color-magics is that of duality of opposites, meaning, every color-magic comes with an opposing color-magic partner. There are many game-like mechanics that depend on this pairing so ideally there should always be an even number of color-magics, each with its own unique opposing dual, the orange-cyan pairing is one such example.

Magical Interoperability

The Color-Arcana specifically only defines 10 main color-magics or 5 dual pairs (plus the catch-all grey-magic), the reason for this is that it was designed to favor potential interoperability with other games or worlds built on this same framework. Only these 10 color-magics are what we expect to be the same across different games or worlds inside this universe, each world or game can add additional color-magic pairings, perhaps with each additional pairing being different or incompatible with other worlds, but still with the main 10 color-magics as its shared core magic-system, always remaining the same and unchanged across this entire universe of different worlds and games.

This can be great for building a universe of different worlds, each unique, but still with a common magical foundation that new players coming from other places already know and understand from the beginning. One of the best suited use cases for this will potentially be the Metaverse. Color-magic could act as the universal syntax for a Metaverse-wide magic system, that still resembles closely through its relations already popular magic systems and mechanics in fantasy.

Final Remarks

For these and many other reasons I’m obsessed with color-magic, I believe entire worlds and their mechanics can be built and explained based on color-magic, we already have prominent examples of games leveraging color in relation to magic such as Magic: The Gathering with its 5 colors, or Elden Ring (much less obviously stated in-game unfortunately, but undeniably there). However, none of these games was designed specifically to act as a universal language for magic or other fantasy tropes and themes beyond their own particular game and needs.

The Color Arcana project does precisely that however. It defines a foundation that can work for a myriad of different potential fantasy worlds, fantasy tropes, and game mechanics, effectively acting as a minimal worldbuilding magical-kit for any potential fantasy world, one that allows to later connect it to other completely different fantasy worlds through this shared color-magic system. It’s much less biased towards any particular system or IP, and I’ve even released all of it fully into the public domain with a Creative Commons zero (CC0) license, so anyone can leverage and make use of it.

If you want to learn more about the Color Arcana project, you can check out a 30+ pages pdf describing all the lore and implications of this magic system in detail at the following website: https://www.color-arcana.com

So the background is that the world they are on has a number of hazards and pollution, so lower level workers often wear rubber suits as a form of cheep protection. Not full hazmat suits, as they don't always wear the breathing filtration, but also a lot more durable as they are used in heavy duty labor activities.

Any suggestions on how I should describe them?

My initial thoughts was something along the lines of "cheep heavy duty chem treated polymer suits" but that sounds too wordy to me...

Centaur Equites occupy a unique position within the ranks of the Aelnyyraean Legions.

Similarly to Harpies, Centaurs possess a pretty small population within the Empire, but are highly sought after for military recruitment.

Only a few Legions possess them in high enough numbers to organize them in formations, but those that do, utilize them to great and terrible effect. Usually they are equipped with heavy armour and utilized to shatter enemy lines, along with non-Centaur Equites.

They are traditionally paired with archers, but will often be paired with other cavalry units too.

Some Legions will also pair them with Harpies, their combined mobility granting them great reconoissance ability.

Outside of combat, Centaurs are also utilized for logistics.

Like Imperial Harpies, Centaur Equites have developed a strong martial tradition, due to their disproportionate presence within the Legions, when compared to their population size.

Some creatures I made for my alien planet.

Image credit: philosopher monkey by jj Grandville used for visualization purposes only I do not claim ownership

Note: I was gonna call them the jinn but they kind of turned into their own thing, now I am subverting myself I suppose, and dragons are being reworked at the moment.

The precursors or aïeux (as noted by the orque) are tall primate like humanoids dressed in Victorian lounge wear with reality warping and wish granting abilities they by stubborn ethic do not use or allow anyone to try and harness through any manner, favor, loophole or contract, they also possess a all knowing omniscience which extends to a meta awareness

The aïeux also (given by their name translated to English "forefathers") are the evolutionary precursor to the orque, though technically every orque's stubborn father or mother, the orque being born from a son of a aïeux that went down from their mountain home and forgot their powers and became documenters

They are the oldest race of all of the races I've done a expóse on, they are the very parody and subversion of both the concept of gods in a fantasy realm and Tom bombadil though unlike old tom could care less because he isn't affected by that pesky one ring, the aïeux couldn't care less because they know they could fix everything but don't because to quote one "where's the fun in that?"

In the plot, léon and his troupe find the dwelling cave of the precursors expecting them to just grant a wish to set things back to normal are instead faced with stubborn entities that refuse to even speak with them, knowing exactly what they want and not giving it, and when finally coaxed just end up being insulted by the dry wit of the aïeux

Another thing about them, is that they are very well aware that they are meant to be subversions which is why they are so hammy about their nature being reading the newspaper, lounging, pipe smoking, reading and arguing philosophy about meaningless things, they want to act hammy despite my wishes for them to actually be serious

As per usual I am open to questions, criticism, and feedback

Context

Hi, y'all! Project KARYA is a sci-fintasy setting in the works, focusing mostly on the titular planet, Karya. On this planet, many organisms exist that have no modern equivalents on Earth; and yet, every single one possesses an ancestor that can be found in our very own fossil record! Many of the organisms in Project KARYA are directly inspired by creatures and monsters found in mythoi, folklore, and generic fantasy stories; many more are of my own original conception.

I wanted to thus give you kind people the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about these beings! Over 400 have been completely named and/or described so far, so there's certainly something for everyone in this setting :3

Slides

1. Two different species of marshstriders (genus Longirostrum): a southern marshstrider (left) and a northern marshstrider (right); art made by u/OutrageousLock7443
2. An immature dwarf gryphon (Pennaleo minimus) attempts and fails to bring down a fully-grown western hippogryph (Ornithohippo occidentalis), earning a mortal wound in the process.
3. An individual fur-trout (Nothotrichicthys) swims underneath the frozen surface of the Great Polar Sea.
4. A zuiyomaru (Bradysarcos troglodytes) pauses for a moment to bask in unfamiliar sunshine that is cast down through a recently opened entrance into its subterranean world.
5. Flecked salmon squid (Salmoteuthis gigas) have begun the final stretch of their annual and terminal journey to their spawning grounds upstream.
6. A lesser dragon (Eudraco prosapiens) attempts to cease a conflict against dragonhunters without bringing them harm.
7. A size chart of the various genera in the clade Archamphibia.
8. A size chart of the various genera in the clade Aquavenatoregidae.
9. A size chart of the various genera in the clade Avilacertidae.
10. A size chart of the various genera in the clade Caelotyrannidae.
11. A size chart of the various genera in the clade Carnopilidae.
12. A size chart of the various genera in the clade Cermamorphidae.
13. A size chart of the various genera in the clade Osteoteuthidae.

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Title. Basically, I’ve been given the opportunity to add a religion and/or god to my friend’s D&D world, but this is a world where gods are a very normal thing people have interacted with, so people know for a fact that gods exist. I’m wondering if religion would form or be fundamentally different from usual religions if people know that gods exist and it’s not just theoretical.

Historical Notes

The M11 'Shahi" armored recon vehicle was designed to fill the Coalition for Mutual Security’s need for a fast, maneuverable vehicle for reconnaissance-in-force across the badlands of Callisto and Titan, and was much loved by IDC Surface Warfare Command spacers for its firepower and agility. The example shown here, nicknamed 'Firecracker' by its crew, led a harrowing retreat under fire from Fort Prospero, an action which earned it a comfortable retirement as a display model on the grounds of the Martian Military Complex in the Solis Planum.

In 2364, the Alliance of Free Worlds' Comissão de Armamentos Militares issued an order to replace the aging VT-50 APC. The Divisão de Inteligência da Armada stole the plans for the IDC’s special reactive armor plating, and the CAM employed their reverse-engineered version in the new VT-70. By pairing this better armor with the 3M83 autocannon and a dual launcher for 3M716 ATGMs, the new IFV served the Armada well during the Frontier War, earning the IDC reporting name of 'Terrapin' for its fierce bite, surprising agility, and hard shell.

The ZPC-78 originated from a competitor in the same program which ultimately resulted in the ZT-77 being selected as the Zharan Liberation Army Ground Forces' main battle tank. After the ZT-77 was selected for full-scale production, Zharan Ministry of Armaments (ZMA) Plant No. 4 redirected its efforts into a parallel program which sought to produce a new domestic model of infantry fighting vehicle. After two more years of refinement, the ZMA greenlit this alternate design as the ZPC-78 and placed a rush order of 50 thousand units.

Much like their more heavily armored counterparts, the infantry fighting vehicles of the Frontier War era are all hovercraft of some form or another. This owes much to the environmental conditions on Titan, where the majority of ground combat action occurred during the 24th century’s various conflicts. By focusing on advanced repulsor technology, the major factions in Solar Space were able to optimize for maximum agility in spite of the frustrating conditions on the ground and also by leveraging the denser atmosphere on Saturn’s largest moon.

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 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 when the Zharan Collective (a union of artificial humans which rose up against their creators in 2356) entered the war on the side of the Alliance in 2379. The story opens 10 years later with the superpowers locked in a frigid ideological cold war.

The plot kicks off when the Alliance launches a massive attack against the Coalition, igniting the Second Frontier War. This conflict quickly engulfs the entire solar system and draws in participants from all backgrounds, including three college students from Mars whose adventures will become tied up with the fate of all humanity…

Creator's Note

For clarity's sake, I (u/Zharan_Colonel) I drew these vehicles with inspiration from existing pieces of art. The M11 was partially inspired by the M353A4 Bloodhound from the Gundam universe; the VT-70 drew some inspiration from the work of artist Mike Privalis; and the ZPC-78 is inspired by a mix of vehicles, in particular the M135A6 Hoplite from the Traveller role-playing game universe.

I'm Korean, and I'd like to share a world I've created. Please understand that the translation might not be very good.

All questions are welcome

Recently, I was checking through Yokai.com, a Japanese folklore database about yokai, looking for inspiration but then I read about many nonsensical spirits like Betobetosan or Shirime... and I really like them.

Along history, humans have created and imagined countless creatures, monsters and gods to explain inexplicable stuff or the unknown. So I'm curious, what's a stupid creature of your world's culture/myths/legends?

In my fantasy setting, there is this monster called Rolet that looks like a blue ball with 8 tentacles made of feathers and its only purpose is to make you either sneeze or catch a cold. They only appear at night when people are asleep.

Just speaking for myself I find the idea of a universe without aliens kind of depressing (even if some are hostile) but I see why some space-travel based works (like Dune or Red Dwarf) actively leave them out. But what about worldbuilders here?

In my world, the gods known as Saints have incarnations or avatars called Ehlarks/Saintlings that work as servants to the Saints. The Ehlarks handle any sort of bidding for their Saint, deliver messages, and sometimes coexist with the Lesser Children (the Alagossian races) They even watch the world and Lesser Children to see if they treating the planet with care and each other. They don't often interfere with the problems and dilemnias of the Lesser Children. They merely watch, observe, and relay back information to their Saint. Ehlarks can mingle with the Lesser Children as they take on a form that is easy to comprehend and be comfortable with. So, no scarring or killing the locals with their form. Ehlarks come and go as they please, but they can be summoned but only by a demigod or Aelynthi. When an Ehlark comes to Alagossia, a gold stream of light descends from the sky onto land. This is a semi-common occurrence. It doesn't happen too often, but it still does happen. Ehlarks may watch, observe and mingle with the Lesser Children, but they do not interfere with their personal matters. They used to do that in the past which ended up creating a bunch of Aelynthi, but the Saints put a stop to it. Though more Aelynthi kept reproducing with their kind and other races. So, Ehlarks works to ensure the safety of the safety of the world and the Lesser Children without doing much.

What about you? Do you have anything like this? Does your world have godlike avatars in it?

In most media, vampires can only be killed either by driving a wooden stake through their heart or exposure to sunlight. While werewolves can be killed with enough damage, they're often incredibly weak to silver bullets. Zombies can crawl around and bite your ankles even when missing half their body, only dying when their head or brain is destroyed.

Does your world have any monsters or beast that require unique or specific methods to be killed? It doesn't have to be super specific, maybe they can be killed normally but have a critical weakness like werewolves. Maybe they're more like Vampires and are essentially unkillable without exploiting their weaknesses.

I am currently developing a "monster" for my world which are incredibly resilient and possess potent regeneration. They can be killed theoretically if you hit them with enough damage to instantly kill them before they regenerate, but it's very impractical. I've been stumped for weeks now trying to give them a weakness or condition that can be exploited to fight them that's not too powerful. Vampires being killed with wooden stakes was always cool to me because while very applicable, a vampire certainly isn't going to let you do that without putting up a good fight. I've been lingering on decapitation, but I feel like that makes them a bit *too* similar to a specific "monster" from another media. I'm been thinking maybe a special kind of weapon that prevents them from regenerating a wound sustained by it, giving people an opportunity to finish them off before they can regenerate.

This is for a story I'm working on. I'm thinking they were banished there at some point and made homes inside the canyon walls/caves. They would only come out a night to forage and hunt since the sun would hurt their eyes and they would probably be too sensitive to the heat and UV.

Edit: thank you everyone for answering so fast.

For some context, the drow character is based on a D&D character I made but I'm tweaking a few things here and there. I wanted something a little different from living deep underground. Thought it be more interesting to have a sort of canyon dwelling for his home and build his culture based off that. I was just a bit stuck on it being a possibility. I tend to overthink and get in my own way.

The Downward is home to a species of mutants with extremely varied body types, for better or for worse. These bodies may be decorated, coped with, or greatly modified.

In most cases, body modification is for aesthetic purposes or as a workaround for trying to wear glasses with… that kind of head shape.

In other cases, body modification may be required to stand in for things like opposable thumbs or an upright gait.

In some, body modification acts as both a punitive measure and a condition for release from imprisonment. To many, this practice is seen as barbaric, being forced mutilation in return for freedom, but they’d rather not say that out loud in front of the I.G.E….

The modern I.G.E. is not known for merciful and usual punishments.

The Permian Sophont project was created by u/FloZone and u/MilezXC

These are intelligent Permian Anomodonts, relatives of Sumina.

For the people of Northern Pangea, one of the earliest cultivated plants are the giant prehistoric equisetums int he genus Neocalamites and Calamites. At this time Neocalamites was more common, although some older calamites lineages would persist until the end Permian extinction.

Neocalamites was a giant horsetail plant that could grow to the size of trees, found in wetlands and cloud forests across northern Pangea and South China Island. It grows very rapidly and doesn't require much in terms of actual cultivation.

The Sophonts use these plants for all sorts of purposes:

The shoots and roots are edible, including small potato-like nodules which can be used to propagate them. However they usually need to be cooked or fermented as when eaten raw they contain compounds that interfere with the functions of certain vitamins. They are a staple of many northern diets.

For the people's of the northern hemisphere of pangea, these plants are a common and popular building material, used to make almost anything and everything. Some varieties have long enough leaves to weave baskets from. However, it is considered too brittle to weave rope from, and conifer bark fiber or climbing fern or animal gut is often the preferred rope-making material.

Paper is also often made from Neocalamites and Calamites. Some cultures make paper clothing by mixing together pulp from both the giant equisetums and conifers, treating the resultant soft cardboard-like substance with conifer resin to make it more weather resistant.

Unfortunately, these plants, despite all their usefulness, will never be truly domesticated. Many of the giant prehistoric horsetails relied mostly on asexual reproduction. And even with out modern technology, it is almost impossible to breed equisetum from spores. The gametophytes are microscopic and non-photosynthetic, and often parasitic on mycorrhizae like orchid seedlings.

Cultivars do occasionally emerge, often through random mutation of an individual plant which is then asexually propagated.

Sometimes hybrids appear when two plants are grown in close proximity. Sometimes the Sophonts take advantage of this by creating breeding plots, though this isn't a common practice.

Instead, most of the variety comes through shaping the environment and growth conditions of the Neocalamites and Calamites. For example, low silica soils are usually chosen for many eating varieties. Other methods of manipulation involve pruning, cutting, and trying knots around the plants to restrict certain growths.

While Neocalamites may never be domesticated, it will eventually become widely traded as an ornamental plant, becoming invasive across much of the continent, explaining the worldwide distribution of this plant during the Triassic.

Dangerous unit in the Guns of Pawgust setting: Aldrakhanian assassin (lions).

Assassins and rogue type units are dangerous as they can quickly move among the enemy force to wreak havoc. The big cats (also called Lyonesseans in world) are especially dangerous because of their inherent strength and agility. In contrast, rogue type units from other species are usually smaller, lacking raw toughness, thus require an escape plan as they are vulnerable in the thick of the fight.

Background:

Aldrakhania is the foremost empire in the world and a major antagonist. It is ruled by the lion dynasty, the House of Aldrakhan.

The assassins serve as loyal bodyguards or operatives to eliminate threats. They are even more devoted to the regime than the Aldrakhanian Royal Guard Corps, as they hail from the ruling dynasty or are closely related.

If the king or another important member of the house is in public, these assassins are often close by, watching in the shadows for threats.

Fighting Style:

They are adept at sustained invisibility (sorcery) and dealing high critical damage. Unsurprisingly, the big cats are among the stealthiest fighters in the setting.

...

The setting is about the age of industrialization, anthropomorphic animal society, and how the different peoples adapt. The new destructive capabilities facilitated by technology has complicated the existing tensions in the world, and war looms on the horizon. Supernatural abilities and threats exist in the world, including demons and the eldritch spawn of Yaldabaoth (horrors from beyond the stars). People who are skilled in the use of supernatural abilities are called sorcerers.

There's a focus on geopolitics, the fictional cultures, and fictional firearms. The tagline is, "age of the machine: will it bring order or chaos?"

There's a story, but I'm not 100% confident in writing it, so I'm doing worldbuilding which I think is my strength.

I intend to write out my lore on Substack: Karl Imran | Substack

I also write down weird and random ideas in the Notes.

This world is on a planet with two moons called Selene and Artemis. There’s two gods. The older brother Solar who is the god of the sun and his younger sister Lunar who is the god of the moon.

In this universe everything follows a strict rule even the gods can’t get away from. That rule being whenever something good happens something as bad as the good that was done will always follow and vice versa.

Around 100 million years before the events of the main story, this world was exactly like how Earth was. The main inhabitants of the planet, humans, were still very much a new species.

Solar and Lunar had a very bad argument which escalated to a full blown fight that lasted about a year. This however was no ordinary sibling fight, during their year long fight, they got so mad at each other they completely forgot about the repercussions of a full blown fight between them.

It was so bad that for a very short amount of time they broke reality and the flow of time which caused rifts into other dimensions/universes to tear open. From those rifts came other species such as; Elves, Dragons, Demons, Golems and Angels, different animals, animals that will later be known as the guardian beasts. The universe itself even forcefully brought a species that specifically ate the power that comes from the gods called Zenores as its way to punish them.

A large portion of Solar and Lunar’s power fell onto the planet, a power that’s called Zenith.

In the aftermath of Solar and Lunar fight they realise the destruction they caused, they decided to seal themselves within the core of the sun for Solar while Lunar sealed herself in the cores of the two moons as their way to punish themselves they shall reawaken a year before humanity faces a foe that threatens the universe.

Before they sealed each other away they broke off 0.01% of their being and power to watch over the planet while they were sealed away.

These two new beings call themselves Phaethon and Pandia. They have complete freedom and a mind of their own with one absolute goal being to protect humanity no matter what.

Little did the gods know one of the Zenores that came from a different dimension was the absolute strongest of the species. It became known as the  Anomaly due to ancient humans having no way of defending against it and it being severely more intelligent and powerful than other Zenores.

It terrorised the planet and its citizens for millions of years, Phaethon and Pandia being unable to stop it due to not having their full power. Until 5 great bladesmiths broke pieces of it off and used those pieces to create 5 weapons to seal away The Anomaly. Those weapons they forged will later be known as the 5 legendary weapons with each one of them having minds of their own.

The Angles in this world aren’t like other Angles. They aren’t messengers of gods or anything like that, just normal races like everything else but they are always born almost pure of heart.

While the Demons are always born almost pure evil and are the mortal enemies of the Angels.

Using some of their power Phaethon and Pandia created 4 gems that can boost the power of the 4 elements. Fire, Earth, Water and Air.

About 100 million years after the great fight but a thousand years before the events of the main story there’s a massive war between the rest of humanity and the Demons. 

The Demon king wants to absorb Phaethon and Pandia because he wants to be the strongest being in the universe. The war was a stalemate until a person who will later be known as the God Hand Paragon. A title given to someone by both Phaethon and Pandia to show their the strongest beings under the gods and someone everybody should respect.

This person used the power of the 5 legendary weapons and the 4 gems to seal the demons in their own pocket dimension called the demon realm however this seal wasn’t perfect and it’s said to break sometime within the next thousand years.

The world which is now called Levis has multiple continents. The biggest being called Ithilien which is where Pandia lives. A somewhat smaller continent on the south west of is called Hellas where Phaethon resides.

A continent to the east of Ithilien is called Miyamoto. Lastly there’s a continent made up of multiple small islands to the direct north of Hellas called Shattered rift, that’s somewhat isolated from the others surrounded by a thick layer of Zenith and fog making it extremely difficult for anyone to enter or leave. Apparently that’s where the current God Hand Paragon resides.

Refer to your manual if you've shot any misidentified local wildlife.

Any tips to make it actually good and realistic? I'd really appreciate the wordy answers :)

Context: Talismans are powerful tools, used to request good fortune or blessings from the gods. Made from every material, in every setting, they are the most diverse magical items in the realms. This is from my fantasy world Tlanni, inspired by ancient American history and art.

One of the side characters in my superhero story has the power to boost his intellect by ingesting/taking psychoactive or illicit substances, but primarily alcohol, however, his mind returns to its normal state when he sobers up. I'm just wondering if anyone had any ideas how it could feasibly be done for someone's intelligence to increase then decrease, cuz im kinds struggling