aurel: (Default)
aurel ([personal profile] aurel) wrote2025-10-08 03:26 am

The technology of Mirand Sia

On my previous post I mentioned how my dnd world Mirand Sia has a level of technology similar to that of the 1920s, but this isn't entirely accurate. While most of Mirand Sia's technology is like that, there's some wild outliers.

I'll begin by explaining Ironwroughts, the warforged of the setting: Basically, robot people. Name courtesy of Kibblestasty Homebrew. More under the cut!

Read more... )

Most of the technology of this world comes from arcane magics, meaning it's being powered from the magic flowing through the Leylines and onto the weave of magic around the world. This not only means the energy produces has these soft, pretty cyan colors, but it also means that magic is being used up faster than the weave can regenerate itself, creating pockets of dead magic zones around the world. Arcane generators have to be relocated every few years, and the land is suffering from it. This also means that magic itself is less strong as it used to be, since the weave is weaker than it was before Arcane tech began to develop.

Examples of Arcane technology

Read more... )

That's all for now, It is 4:18 AM and I'm getting sleepy writing all of this. Nova is being super cute curling on the chair beside me, soon I'll make a post about her!
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-08 01:03 am
Entry tags:

Good News

Good news includes all the things which make us happy or otherwise feel good. It can be personal or public. We never know when something wonderful will happen, and when it does, most people want to share it with someone. It's disappointing when nobody is there to appreciate it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our joys and pat each other on the back.

What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?

ysabetwordsmith: (Fly Free)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-07 10:23 pm

Poem: "The Road to Transformation"

This is today's second freebie, thanks to new prompter [personal profile] andromedaprime. It also fills the "transformation" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. It is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

Read more... )
amphobet: Doobie Ralsei fanart with a pentagram shopped onto his forehead (daaanink)
Amphobet ([personal profile] amphobet) wrote2025-10-07 06:04 pm
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An Apology to Our Readers

It has come to our attention that some episodes of Steven Universe were previously listed as being viewed on the incorrect date.


This oversight has been corrected, and we apologize to any of our readers who were inconvenienced by these inaccuracies.

amphobet: glitched image of Amphobet on a green monochorme monitor (glitch)
Amphobet ([personal profile] amphobet) wrote2025-10-07 05:56 pm

Media Diet for October 6, 2025





Video Games

Dead Cells: 3 h 41 m (1 h 41 m Over Budget)

Video


47 m

16 m (didn't finish)

Total YouTube: 1 h 3 m

Shows


Steven Universe S01E09 "Tiger Millionaire"
11 m

Steven Universe S01E10 "Steven's Lion"
11 m

Total Shows: 22 m

Total Video: 1 h 25 m

Other Activities

Self-Care: 31 m
ysabetwordsmith: (Fly Free)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-07 05:47 pm

Poem: "Maybe She's Just Singing"

This is today's freebie. It was inspired by prompts from [personal profile] rix_scaedu and [personal profile] mama_kestrel. It also fills the "magic" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem belongs to the Practical Magics series.

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-07 04:16 pm

Green Burial

Traditional burials are bad for the planet. So this woman created her own 'cocoon coffin' made of seaweed instead

Ultimately, she made her own — a fully compostable, translucent “bioplastic” material made out of seaweed. Creating this material even led Kostur to use it in fashion accessories and wedding floral displays, which is now how she spends most of her time professionally.


This is one of the very few modern funeral displays that meets or exceeds the splendor of some historic ones.  Plus the symbolism is extremely helpful.
gs_silva: My character cheerfully saying hi (Default)
gs_silva ([personal profile] gs_silva) wrote2025-10-07 02:52 pm
Entry tags:

Inktober comics, 1-7

I'm unofficially doing Inktober, in that I'm using the official prompt list because it's very much in line with my style and storytelling, but I'm avoiding the social media connections so I won't have to deal with the copyright weirdness.

This is publicly viewable, so if you like my comics, please let me know! Add me, encourage your friends to add me, it's all good.

1. Mustache.





Mustache

Maurice is half Vietnamese, so even though his other half is Russian and his father has a full garden gnome style beard, Maurice himself is off to a slow start.

2. Weave.



weave

Maurice and Mahalia. They're bandmates, and they used to be a little more than that, but they came to an agreement so that Maurice could get married. I've heard complaints that there aren't enough Asian/Black romances in fiction, but also that there's a trope where Black girlfriends are the practice girlfriends before the cute white girl comes along. I couldn't subvert that second one entirely, but at least I was able to have Mahalia being the one who laid down the terms of their... not exactly breakup... transition back into a platonic friendship.

3. Crown.







crown

Ella and Jon Sievers, devoted siblings. Ella went from being the neglected younger sister living in her athlete brother's shadow to being his caregiver and advocate. It wasn't an easy adjustment. Ella was looking forward to being the center of her social group for once. Jon, finally having slowed down a little and noticed, does his best to offer her the attention she never had before, even while he's grieving his own loss pretty hard.

4. Murky.






Murky

Cathy and Maurice, newlyweds. Cathy is only just beginning to learn English, so a lot of her actions are still in her imagination. This is my favorite Inktober entry so far, but it hasn't gotten much of a reception on my social media. I wonder if it's too subtle.

5. Deer.





deer

Just some deer. Nature illustration was my first love, and I go back to it when I can. I posted this one before, but I want this set to stay together.

6. Pierce.





Pierce

Serendipitously, Ella has already established that her middle name is Pierce! "Like a dagger through your heart." ("How charming," replies Ren, and Ella says, "You know it.")

(This ties into the appearance of a sword in a later scene.)

7. Starfish.






Starfish

This breaks show-don't-tell too much for me, but it's just a prompt exercise. Left to right: Jodie from the band, with baby Gracie. Maurice. Ren. Ella.
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-07 02:09 pm

Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/7/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/7/25 -- I picked up some flowerpots that got knocked over.

EDIT 10/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is almost suppertime, I am done for the night.
paperghost: (What does corn dream about?)
Capy ([personal profile] paperghost) wrote2025-10-07 10:48 am

...

Pro-Israel? Pro-Palestine? You can be both.
Why Does the Media Ignore Hamas’ Crimes Against Palestinians?
Standing Firm Against Hate: A Muslim Perspective on Israel and Hamas
How to Salvage a Two-State Solution
It’s Been a Year of Failure for ‘Pro-Palestine’ Activism Following October 7

I wrote a longer post, but deleted it. I'm not checking social media or Discord much today. I haven't seen people I thought I knew get this ugly since Obama was elected. And I'm really sick of spoonfeeding people who "don't know" what I mean by that.

Read more... )
grayestofghosts: (percy)
Louis Chanina ([personal profile] grayestofghosts) wrote2025-10-07 12:52 pm

Microblogging Blues

I am not sure if anyone is aware of the drama ongoing at BlueSky, but uh... essentially, Jay has been dismissive and making fun of users who do not want Jesse Singal on the platform, and moderation has gone on a spree of banning people who criticize her, including permabanning original long-time users. So naturally people are talking about alternatives.

And it's very disconcerting because the lifecycle of these sites are getting shorter and shorter, and people are pointing out how BlueSky is meant to be a protocol that can be used by other servers (? I am still not quite sure how this works and how it's different from Mastodon in that respect, but we will see) but lots of people are talking about jumping ship and going to Tumblr or even DreamWidth and the thing is these people seem to want microblogging and yet microblogging platforms continue to prove themselves to be terrible, and it's like... maybe there's a reason why microblogging platforms, specifically, tend to be terrible.

There was at least one user recommending microblogging from Dreamwidth (I guess several short posts per day on DW?) which I guess is possible but I'm not sure how that wouldn't drive people nuts. I do follow one person who does this, which I appreciate, but if everyone on my feed posted that way I think it would become unusable. I haven't been using my bearblog but I'm wondering how much it could be used for microblogging... as in, I am wondering if it would be worth it to test the character limits of the titles, and maybe it could be done. It definitely wouldn't be the same as BlueSky or even Dreamwidth at all but it could possibly be something?

I don't know, microblogging has created a unique niche in the ecosystem that I'm not sure can be replaced, and it's easy to question whether it should be replaced and even if I hate it I'm really not sure it should be.
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-07 01:06 pm

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Witches and Wizards." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for witches, wizards, other magic users, mentors, elders, teachers, students, adventurers, explorers, damsels/gentlemen in distress, historians, partners, leaders, dark lords, the Chosen One(s), superheroes, supervillains, teammates, fantasy species, ethicists, activists, queerfolk, other unusual fantasy folk, studying magic, doing magic, enchanting artifacts, breaking curses, breaking rules, exploring new territory, meeting new species, upsetting predictions, twisting tropes, flipping stereotypes, expecting the unexpected, researching, revising theories, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, experiments changing paradigms, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, other fantastic activities, witch's huts, wizard's towers, magical schools, castles, ruins, stone circles, dungeons, dragon lairs, Underhill, the forest primeval, underwater, underground, liminal zones, kitchens, campfires, libraries, laboratories, apothecary shops, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other phantasmagoric settings, unusual magical systems, pointy hats, robes, wands or staves, cauldrons, herbs, crystals, potions, magical artifacts, quests, time periods other than medieval, governments other than monarchy, dragons, unicorns, enchantments, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, inventions that change everything, time travel, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Fall Festival Bingo Card 10-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia is about live happy lesbians in a quirky fantasy world.

Clay of Life is Jewish fantasy about a blacksmith and a golem.

A Conflagration of Dragons has unforseen disasters and cultural upheavals.

Gloryroad Crossing is the weird village where adventurers go to restock.

Kande's Quest is sword & soul with caucasian-inspired demons.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household, where the line between truth and fantasy isn't always clear.

Not Quite Kansas has a helpful demon.

The Ocracies features all the political systems other than monarchy.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks.

Path of the Paladins is low fantasy about paladins trying to restore a world gone to ruins.

P.I.E. is urban fantasy about paranormal investigations.

Polychrome Heroics has primarily superpowers, but magic is described as "sorcery" there. Antimatter & Stalwart Stan are a cross-cape couple, and Antimatter essentially does science-based magic. Aubrey the Alabaster is another sorcerer. Eric the Elven King has interdimensional refugees.

Practical Magics is low fantasy with a prosaic focus.

Quixotic Ideas is contemporary fantasy where magic integrates with modern life in positive ways.

The Ursulan Cycle is genderbent King Arthur.

Yellow Unicorns is a quirky fantasy setting where the only yellow things people can see are the unicorns.

Or you can ask for something new.

Boost the signal to reveal a verse in any open linkback poem.

Read more... )
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aurel ([personal profile] aurel) wrote2025-10-07 02:56 pm

Mirand Sia, my dungeons & dragons homebrew setting.




Welcome to Mirand Sia! This is the homebrew setting and campaign I've been working on for the past few years for my group.

The basic premise of the setting is that the known world is surrounded by a massive ice wall. 603 years ago the technologically advanced empire of Eloria used their magitech skyships to launch a mass-scale expedition on top of the ice wall. Long story short, this triggered a sequence of events that caused an invasion of aberrations born from the ice, who proceeded to destroy the empire.

Hundreds of years later there's still different species of aberrations roaming the continent —Mind Flayers, Beholders, etc.—, and a new faction is created to combat the threat: The Vanguard, which is basically the adventurer's guild of the world, where people sign up and once they're ready are sent on missions to deal with these threats.

The level of technology of the world is basically equivalent to the 1920s, with the addition of extremely advanced pieces of technology found on Elorian ruins, as well as clockwork tech, and very advanced magic items in the ruins of other, more ancient civilizations.

This means the players have vehicles, can communicate via shortwave radio, there's telephone lines, trains, and of course, lots of firearms.

It has been a LOT of fun running this game for my group. I have 6 players who I love very much. We've been playing together since 2017 throughout multiple campaigns and multiple DMs, and now it's been finally my turn behind the metaphorical DM Screen (we play online, through roll20).

I'm currently planning session 34, which is going to include a battle with a vampire, which the players believe it is going to be more of a spectacle: The vampire is a noble who is hosting a celebration at his mansion to thank the party for killing a Hydra that threatened the city, and he intends to end the party with a friendly battle with hundreds of the city's nobility watching. Is that what's really going to happen? Maybe, maybe not! Can't say, they might be reading.

So far DMing for them has been an absolute delight, and I can't wait for next session this saturday!

Edit: I forgot to mention! A few names on the Mirand Sia map are taken from an old MMORPG from my childhood, Tibia. Tiquanda, Edron, and a couple others I believe. The image is also immense, and you can zoom in a lot!
abyssal_sylph: Chise is looking ominously to the camera, butterflies surround her. (chise the sleigh beggy (tamb))
Abyss in Cahoots ([personal profile] abyssal_sylph) wrote2025-10-07 05:15 pm

Mislabeled As Pests {Fic}

Fandom: New DanganRonpa V3
Rating: Teen & Up
Character(s): Gonta Gokuhara, and both his families
Warning(s): implied/refrenced homelessness & poverty, death, classism and illness.
Word Count: 1060 words

Summary: An alternate interpretation of Gonta's forest family.

AO3
[Note: fill for the prompt "Found Family" from Whumptober 2025 {Fills Page}]

Read more... )
amphobet: Amphobet (Ralsei Deltarune with a pentagram on forehead) as viewed through a CRT screen. Edited to have a soft glow and scanlines. (CRT)
Amphobet ([personal profile] amphobet) wrote2025-10-07 07:26 am
aurel: (Default)
aurel ([personal profile] aurel) wrote2025-10-07 03:17 am
Entry tags:

First post test post \o/

Just seeing how things work around here!

It is currently 3:18 am, my wife is playing on the switch on the bed behind me, and my cat Nova is sleeping on a chair beside me. It's been a slow, but enjoyable day.

Tomorrow I will try to plan some of my d&d session for Saturday! But for now it's sleepy time.
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-07 01:13 am

Artificial Intelligence

More LLM fun! Miserable fail at running a vending machine business simulation

This is quite interesting. Researchers set up multiple LLMs and configured them to run a vending machine simulator, described as "Agents must balance inventories, place orders, set prices, and handle daily fees – tasks that are each simple but collectively, over long horizons." Basic business process.
[---8<---]
Basically it was a demonstration of how such large-language models are terrible for long-term runs and shows their ability to hallucinate and make poor decisions.



It is obviously a bad idea to replace intelligent human employees with sloppy programs.

ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-06 10:46 pm
Entry tags:

Vocabulary: Saxicolous

Saxicolous -- living or growing among rocks. 

What a useful word!  It can apply to mosses, lichens, most alpine plants, and some animals such as pikas, ibex, or snow leopards who also favor rocky terrain.
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-10-06 10:40 pm
Entry tags:

Today's Cooking

Today I'm making caramel apple crisp in a muffin tin.  I diced up a Jonathan apple with a little lemon juice, then divided it among 4 cups, then added a spoonful of apple cider caramel sauce to each.  The crumble topping is quick oats, flour, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and butter cut together until crumbly.  It's in the oven baking now.  :D

EDIT 10/6/25 -- Well, that turned out super awesome.  It's like a warm, diced caramel apple in a bowl.  (Note that if you prefer your caramel apples with nuts, the crumble topping will accommodate sliced or chopped nuts.)  Happily there are 2 more Jonathans and a whole carton of caramel sauce in case we want more.