Virtue Requires A Delicate Balance. 

From now on I’m only taking fashion advice from the Sailor Moon series

Beyond this, consider how these professions might vary depending on who the customers are - nobles, or lower class. Are they good at their job or just scraping by? Do they work with lots of other people or on their own? City or village?

For younger characters:

Apprentice to any of the above

Messenger/runner

Page/squire

Pickpocket

Shop assistant

Student

Looks after younger siblings

(Images all from Wikimedia Commons)

kill the shift manager in your brain

“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

I think we need to take the “what if the conventional monster was friendly?” thing in fantasy worldbuilding further. “What if the dragon was friendly?” and “what if the orcs across the valley were friendly?” are well and good, but I’m thinking more like “what if the animated skeletons in the local graveyard were friendly?”

I think with the animated skeletons in particular the key is to play up their separation from the living in a way that’s still kinda creepy, but in an odd way rather than a horrific way. Something like:

Animated skeletons are explicitly not just skeleton versions of the living people their bones came from, and in fact don’t seem to have much in the way of individual identity – or, at least, if they do, they don’t express it in the way that humans do.  

They aren’t impaired by the loss of individual bones – including the skull! – and can freely swap bones among themselves. The same pile of loose bones won’t always animate into the same number or configuration of skeletons, nor does having more available bones necessarily translate into more skeletons.  

Consequently, questions like “how many skeletons are there?” are difficult to answer.  

Animated skeletons generally seem to understand both spoken and written languages, but don’t have much capacity for producing language; they don’t speak or write, and their capacity for signing is limited to stuff like nodding or shaking their head for “yes” or “no“, pointing to indicate objects or directions, etc.  

In spite of this, they appear to be able to communicate complex information and ideas amongst themselves, but it happens via some undetectable, (presumably) non-language-based medium.  

Their otherwise limited expressive capacity notwithstanding, skeleton “culture” (if that’s the word for it) is very big on making music. Instruments and sheet music are among the few material goods that skeletons value, though the former are typically limited to those that can be operated without breath.  

(This generally means percussion and strings. Wind instruments that can be operated without breath are an occasional feature; pipe organs are a big deal in those skeleton communities that can get their phalanges on them, as are a modified form of bagpipes, operated by two-skeleton teams where one plays the music and the other inflates the bag with a portable bellows.)  

Apart from music, skeletons are mostly into repetitive manual labour, though exclusively on a volunteer basis, as they’re uninterested in payment and will simply collapse into inanimate piles of bones if coerced. If you want a skeleton to do something for you, be prepared to explain why, in detail, to a silent, motionless, and expressionless audience.  

Skeletons are notably more likely to heed a request from a priest or religious scholar than from laypersons. There are a lot of theories as to why this is; the skeletons themselves are disinclined to comment.  

A skeleton with nothing better to do may squat like a gargoyle near some well-trafficked location and observe local goings-on, remaining motionless apart from turning its skull toward points of interest for days or weeks on end. It’s generally considered polite not to draw attention to their presence.

World Building

Types of Government

♛

⤷ anarchy

➝ society without enforced government

⤷ aristocracy

➝ small, elite ruling class holds power over lower socioeconomic strata ; members chosen based on wealth

⤷ autocracy

➝ controlled by one singular person of power without restraints

⤷ communism

➝ state owns and operates industry on behalf of the people ; citizens are apart of a classless society that distributes goods & services as needed

⤷ democracy

➝ power held by the people through voting in order to ensure fair representation and prevention of abuse of power

⤷ dictatorship

➝ power held by one person or a group of people who control the masses

⤷ fascism

➝ control of the people by promoting ancestral/cultural values & eradicating foreign influences

⤷ federalism

➝ union of smaller states which are self-governed yet united under a central government

⤷ junta

➝ militaristic rule after taking over by force

⤷ monarchy

➝ authority is vested in a single figure for life and passed down hereditarily ; level of power may vary from absolution to nonexistent

➝ constitutional monarchy: limited power as outlined in a constitution // absolute monarchy: unlimited power

⤷ oligarchy

➝ authoritative power rests with a small faction of people or families who are deemed worthy due to wealth, education, and/or family history

⤷ plutocracy

➝ ruled by the wealthy

⤷ republic

➝ democratic model in which the people elect representatives

⤷ socialism

➝ collective and cooperative ownership of production, opposed to private

⤷ stratocracy

➝ ruled by the military following wars and expansion

⤷ technocracy

➝ scientists are decision makers ; rulers are chosen based on experience/knowledge/skill

⤷ theocracy

➝ power rests with religious figures ; scriptural laws and legal codes are coincided

⤷ totalitarian

➝ total control by government including the prohibition of opposition & extreme regulation of public/private life

⤷ tyranny

➝ absolute control by ruler with an oppressive power

How do I describe a tired person? I got 'dark circles under the eyes' but it kind of stops there.

Last time I wondered if Danish vagabonds, also known as Landevejsriddere (country road knights), live by some sort of code because even though they’re usually drunk they’re always very pleasant and friendly and as it turns out, yes they do. LINK

You can’t just put on a festive hat and push a pram with your earthly belongings and call yourself a vagabond in this country. You have to be mentored by an older vagabond and travel along the vagabond routes for two summers and one winter before you get your vagabond name at an annual ceremony at Hjallerup Marked where all new vagabonds are ”baptized”.

They also have an annual ceremony at Egeskov Marked where they vote on who should be their king for a year and help settle conflicts in vagabond society. They give the title to the vagabond who has been the kindest and best behaved all year.

The vagabonds have rules they live by: no lying, no stealing, no fighting and always be polite. If they catch any of their members breaking the rules they beat them up because it’s important to their survival that outsiders can trust them. They make their living by sharpening knives and scissors or doing manual labor like helping you chop wood, clean up your garden or the like.

That’s why if you see a vagabond you know you’re in safe company no matter how drunk they are. Should you come across one support an old tradition full of rituals and kindness by giving them some coins or a sandwich.

i feel like we don’t talk about things like this enough