You Really Believe In That "Han Dynasty" Crap?

Day 36 (1:06) of rewriting my novel

Today was a day I didn't even think would be hard for me writing-wise, but it was. The vision in my head was "and Tagif, Hota, and Izi all go to Tolftorrijv uneventfully," but I decided to torture Tagif and Izi with their father's journal.

Xajas, Izi and Tagif's father, kept a journal off and on for like 900 years, and the last entry is about him battling his cancer. Here's a quote:

I told him to be loyal to himself first. Above all else, that is what he needs. I will always regret that I was not there to be with him when he needed me most. I believe it is his love that has kept me alive since Dolgof went away. That luck has run dry.

Last month, Lozef helped me write my will. I left everything to Izi. I explained to him everything I never could. About his mother, his sister, Lozef, the Heroes, and how his mother left the throne of Zeneste to him. Lozef promised she would see to it that I got it. 

But I know better than to be so blind to how lawyers work here. They're greedy. They'll rip the will to shreds if they ever get their hands on it. The courts refuse to digitize it, so once it's gone, it's gone for good. Lozef is smart, and she's clever, but she'll never be more cunning than those damn lawyers.

My only hope is that Izi is clever enough-and bold enough-to find this journal before it's all spoiled to him. That he may remember me for who I was: not through the rose-tinted glasses of a child, but through the retrospective eyes of a century-old man who died before he could ever truly know me.

And to Iziser, my loving son, if you are reading this, I owe you the world. You're a strong kid. You'll be an even stronger man. Whoever is lucky enough to share your company I adore. Relish your life while you have it, young man. There is no Hero of Life to keep us alive. Only ourselves.

Part of this is also to highlight how brutal and capitalist the Zenestian legal system is. After Xajas dies, no matter how hard Lozerief fights to protect him, everything is taken from Iziser, including his house. The lawyers destroy the will and take everything, agreeing never to speak of this. This is an unfortunately common practice in Zeneste.

Apparently boomer Democrats are having meltdowns over a gen-z progressive who is primarying an 80 year old Democrat because she "went on trans podcasts" and wore a Charizard kigurumi

Foreshadowing is so fun! Even though I'm still on draft one of my novel, I may list which of these elements I've incorporated so far below.

Lozerief knows stuff she shouldn't. How did she know Izi's dad? If she knew his dad, did she know his mom? (Spoilers, yes, she did, duh.)

Colors. Everywhere. Lozerief wears black, foreshadowing her role as Hero of Earth. Izi wears white, foreshadowing his role as Hero of Cognition and her antithesis. Hota wears teal for their role as Hero of Mind.

I (mostly) know how this will end.

Not a Checkhov's gun but I repeatedly bring up Izi's old home for more reasons than just trauma.

I keep track of what I put in languages that I create so that only I (and the characters who speak those languages) know what they're saying. (I foreshadow the rise of the White Army this way.)

Names with meanings is a big one for Lozerief...

I realize only now that Lozerief is the character who hides the most, and it's amazing she doesn't spoil it all right away. Maybe she's bound by some old agreement...?

subtle ways to include foreshadowing

one character knowing something offhandedly that they shouldn't, isn't addressed until later

the crow rhyme

colours!! esp if like, blue is evil in your world and the mc's best friend is always noted to wear blue...betrayal?

write with the ending in mind

use patterns from tragic past events to warn of the future

keep the characters distracted! run it in the background until the grand reveal

WEATHER.

do some research into Chekhov's gun

mention something that the mc dismisses over and over

KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU PUT. don't leave things hanging.

unreliable characters giving information that turn out to be true

flowers and names with meanings

anything with meanings actually

metaphors. if one character describes another as "a real demon" and the other turns out to be the bad guy, you're kind of like...ohhh yeahhh

anyways add anything else in the tags

midnight mspaint drawings

*gong sfx*

tried doing comic accurate virska from memory

roxyy

sprites from memory

ok well this is just getting stupid

and minecraft ones

Day 40 (1:13) of rewriting my novel

I hit 50K today! For that I'm very excited.

Some liked my previous Low Zeneth translations, so I'll share another here.

Hior bv puw ijsonvn bivq

IPA: [ˈhi.or.ˈbə̃.ˈpuː.ˈiː.so.nə̃n.ˈbjə̃t͡ʃ]

Lit. Translation: wish.PRES.SMP 1ST.SNG 3RD.SNG is good.

Translation: I hope you enjoy it. (Literally: I wish it is good.)

Some notes on this: ijsonvn /ˈiːsonə̃n/ is a dummy verb for non-predicative adjectives, like the word bivq /ˈbjə̃t͡ʃ/, which can be "good," or used independently as an NP to mean "goodness."

Syntax in subordinate clauses switches to SVO, as you saw in the example above. A grouping of it might look like this.

[VP [V hope] [NP I] [VP [NP it] [V' [V is] [NP good]]]]

Maybe one day I'll get around to making a syntax tree to describe what's going on, because that grouping isn't quite accurate, but it's good enough for right now.

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! Where in your setting would you most like to visit, and where would you avoid at all costs? 😉

I may have to start celebrating Worldbuilding Wednesday. (I'll probably participate in Lexember this year, though.)

Mixed feelings about most of the places in Meiste, but there are a couple I'd really want to go to, and a few I'd desperately want to stay out of.

The runner-up place to go in Meiste is...

Ytos and Itaush: The Twin Duchies

In addition to the inhabitants of Ytos and Itaush having a history of hospitability, Ytos and Itaush both occupy the North Pole of Meiste. My ideal trip would start in Ytos City, to see the Hero's Landing, then make my way North to hike to the North pole. It could also be cool to do an arctic cruise (or something like it) around the coast, but most importantly, I'd want to see the thousand-year old architecture in Itaush city. (Oh, pretty important aspect: The Ytos and Itaush have a history of treating queer people as equals in ways that most of the rest of the world really doesn't because it's in the Zenestosphere.)

(One last thing: Itaush left the Confederacy in a velvet divorce, but Itaush maintains an open border with Ytos.)

And the winner is:

The Principality of Atepsi

Atepsi is in the Zenestosphere, but they're queer-friendly as Ytos, especially outside the capital city, Atepsi City. (However, since Princess In Taguchif is out as a lesbian, and also wildly popular, that sentiment is changing.)

The climate of Atepsi is hot and humid, since the whole country straddles the equator. In fact, Atepsi city is in the middle of a jungle, deep in the headwaters of the Atepsi river.

First, I'm going to Atepsi city. Open-air markets, historic places, friendly people, extravagant architecture, public transportation, etc. Easily the best city in all of Meiste. It's not even close.

Then I'm taking a boat up the headwaters of the Atepsi river and into the mountains. They say the snakes are benign in Meiste. Definitely looking for cool snakes.

Then, I'm backpacking through the rest of the mountains to get to the Straits of Odapir to find Meiste. (I definitely won't.)

Finally, I'm taking a boat through the Straits of Odapir to the islands of L'meistek. L'meistek is an island halfway between Odapir and Atepsi which is said to be at the center of Meiste and where magic is strongest. But mostly there's a dormant(?) volcano there I want to hike up lol.

Atepsi also controls the Nendisfsho desert to the South, so if I came back, I'd love to see the sand dunes and dry rainforest.

Stay Away From:

Zeneste: Ir Nouzonif

Capitalistic hellscape. This is the capitalistic, authoritarian hellscape I talk about in previous post. Many people in the province of Ir Nouzonif are also brainwashed into hating Odapir and Odpairian citizens as a means of control. In a convoluted, twisted way, the farming economy of (Southern) Ir Nouzonif is entirely dependent on migrant workers from Odapir.

After the Fall of Ir Nouzonif (in Part 4 of Meiste), the city of Ir Nouzonif becomes fair game, since it's also a religious center and Hota and Lozef completely overhaul the government, yet xenophobic tendencies remain, especially in Southern Ir Nouzonif State.

Odapir: Odapir City

Odapir is an authoritarian surveillance/police state, and Odapir City is the place the police have the most eyes. (Not to say Ir Nouzonif isn't a police state.) Many in Odapir, too, are brainwashed into hating Zenestians as scapegoats. Not a great place to be, and many in Odapir City are xenophobic as a result (much like Ir Nouzonif.)

Outside of Odapir City, and especially in the Southeastern corner (where there are no cameras) you may find the Hero of Life, good beaches, and good hikes.

Zeneste: Tolftorrijv and Zenée

Ok, maybe you can get away with going to the cities of Tolftorrijv and Obizoe, but beyond that, don't even try. The cities themselves aren't really worth visiting, and many Zenestians beyond the cities are xenophobic, in addition to there not being anything to do beyond the cities.

This has been a massive excuse for me to yap, so I hope people enjoy this lol.

Usual Suspects: @oldfashionedidiot @quillswriting

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things that happened to me when i was a woman in STEM:

an advisor humiliated me in front of an entire lab group because of a call I made in his place when he wouldn't reply to my e-mails for months

he later delegated part of my master's thesis work to a 19-year old male undergrad without my approval

a male scientist at a NASA conference looked me up and down and asked when i was graduating and if i was open to a job at his company. right before inquiring what my ethnicity was because i "looked exotic"

a random male member of the public began talking over me and my female advisor, an oceanographer with a pHD and decades of experience, saying he knew more about oceanography than us

things that have happened to me since becoming a man in STEM:

being asked consistently for advice on projects despite being completely new to a position

male colleagues approaching me to drop candid information regarding our partners / higher ups that I was not privy to before

lenience toward my work in a way I haven't experienced before. incredible understanding when I need to take time off to care for my family.

conference rooms go silent when I start talking. no side chatter. I get a baseline level of attention and focus from people that's very unfamiliar and genuinely difficult for me to wrap my head around.

like. yes some PI's will still be assholes regardless of the gender of their subordinates but, I've lived this transition. misogyny in STEM is killing women's careers, and trans men can and do experience male privilege.

Y'know, it's weird how the Egbert house doesn't have a garage or a carport or anything. Surely a paragon of fatherly responsibility like Mr Egbert would know better than to simply leave his car exposed to the elements at all times.

The High Valyrian adjective jessie "joyful" was coined in honor of my fiancée, Jessie Sams, and the glyph was made thinking of her. I've known Jessie for ten years at this point, but our lives led winding paths that eventually led us to each other. We started working together in 2019 on Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem, and I've wanted to work with no one else ever since. When I proposed to Jessie, I gave her a ring with a Valyrian inscription inside. That inscription featured her name glyph: Ao jessives ñuhys iksā, which means "You are my joy".

I'd never planned on getting a tattoo in my life, but we came up with an idea that meant a lot to both of us. I'd created a glyph for the word "joy" in High Valyrian and based the sound of that word on Jessie's name. She, in turn, had created a word based on my name in her language Zhwadi (it means "create"). Her writing system is also logographic, so there's a character associated with that. Consequently, we each decided to get each other's "names" tattooed on ourselves. Now a part of us will always be with the other. :)

Hi! I'm a survivor of childhood sex trafficking from ages7 -16. I  have chronic pain and a compromised immune system, I am in the streets fighting homelessness, humiliation.  I am heartbroken going through very dark times, making daily life a struggle.  Help me secure a safe and stable life. Now I'm looking for my own RV I try to raise $3800 but anything is appreciated🙏

Ko-fi.com/helpedinasurvive

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