Another worldbuilding application of the "two layer rule": To create a culture while avoiding The Planet Of Hats (the thing where a people only have one thing going for them, like "everyone wears a silly hat"): You only need two hats.
Try picking two random flat culture ideas and combine them, see how they interact. Let's say taking the Proud Warrior Race - people who are all about glory in battle and feats of strength, whose songs and ballads are about heroes in battle and whose education consists of combat and military tactics. Throw in another element: Living in diaspora. Suddenly you've got a whole more interesting dynamic going on - how did a people like this end up cast out of their old native land? How do they feel about it? How do they make a living now - as guards, mercenaries? How do their non-combatants live? Were they always warrior people, or did they become fighters out of necessity to fend for themselves in the lands of strangers? How do the peoples of these lands regard them?
Like I'm not shitting, it's literally that easy. You can avoid writing an one-dimensional culture just by adding another equally flat element, and the third dimension appears on its own just like that. And while one of the features can be location/climate, you can also combine two of those with each other.
Let's take a pretty standard Fantasy Race Biome: The forest people. Their job is the forest. They live there, hunt there, forage there, they have an obnoxious amount of sayings that somehow refer to trees, woods, or forests. Very high chance of being elves. And then a second common stock Fantasy Biome People: The Grim Cold North. Everything is bleak and grim up there. People are hardy and harsh, "frostbite because the climate hates you" and "being stabbed because your neighbour hates you" are the most common causes of death. People are either completely humourless or have a horrifyingly dark, morbid sense of humour. They might find it funny that you genuinely can't tell which one.
Now combine them: Grim Cold Bleak Forest People. The summer lasts about 15 minutes and these people know every single type of berry, mushroom and herb that's edible in any fathomable way. You're not sure if they're joking about occasionally resorting to eating tree bark to survive the long dark winter. Not a warrior people, but very skilled in disappearing into the forest and picking off would-be invaders one by one. Once they fuck off into the woods you won't find them unless they want to be found.
You know, Finland.
(in case you wanted to know because i fucking love this language)
ad astra per aspera - to the stars through difficulties
alis volat propriis - he flies by his own wings
amantium irae amoris integratio est - the quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love
ars longa, vita brevis - art is long, life is short
aut insanity homo, aut versus facit - the fellow is either mad or he is composing verses
dum spiro spero - while I breathe, I hope
ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem - with the sword, she seeks peace under liberty
exigo a me non ut optimus par sim sed ut malis melior - I require myself not to be equal to the best, but to be better than the bad
experiential docet - experience teaches
helluo librorum - a glutton for books (bookworm)
in libras libertas - in books, freedom
littera scripta manet - the written letter lasts
mens regnum bona possidet - an honest heart is a kingdom in itself
mirabile dictu - wonderful to say
nullus est liber tam malus ut non aliqua parte prosit - there is no book so bad that it is not profitable in some part
omnia iam fient quae posse negabam - everything which I used to say could not happen, will happen now
poeta nascitur, non fit - the poet is born, not made
qui dedit benificium taceat; narrat qui accepit - let him who has done a good deed be silent; let him who has received it tell it
saepe ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit - often, it is not advantageous to know what will be
sedit qui timuit ne non succederet - he who feared he would not succeed sat still
si vis pacem, para bellum - if you want peace, prepare for war
struit insidias lacrimis cum feminia plorat - when a woman weeps, she is setting traps with her tears
sub rosa - under the rose
trahimir omnes laudis studio - we are led on by our eagerness for praise
urbem latericium invenit, marmoream reliquit - he found the city a city of bricks; he left it a city of marble
ut incepit fidelis sic permanet - as loyal as she began, so she remains
anyone have good resources for learning how to knit cables? im struggling to find tutorials or even basic explainers that are written well, and video is not accessible to me.
i want to get good at cables because the only knitwear my husband has any interest in wearing is cardigans/sweaters with complex cabling 😅
Everyone liked the color charts I test printed for Basilisk so much, I felt compelled made a nice version! Great for anyone that has an interest in Risograph printing, historical pigments, or weird medieval marginalia.
(buy it here)
What people think why i became a bookbinder: Oh she wants to explore her artistic horizon with those pretty leather bound books of hers. She even gives them out as gifts to her friends. It most likely helps her with anxiety or maybe she just wanted a more special costume made notebook.
Why I actually became a bookbinder: I just illegally downloaded and printed out several of my favourite fanfics and books and started binding them into books cuz I love reading them but looking at screens for too long gives me headaches.
Concept: a JRPG-inspired setting where instead of star signs or tarot arcana or whatnot, bullshit personality typing is based on what elemental attacks you’re weak and/or resistant to.
(”She’s resistant to fire and weak to lightning? Ouch - you know that means major commitment issues.”)
you can make nearly any object into a good insult if you put ‘you absolute’ in front of it
example: you absolute coat hanger
soup: Boil The Food To Make Food Water
stew? gravy? curry?: like soup but less water more food
porridge: add water to the starch but not so much. warm and mushy yum
pancake/flatbread: make the starch wet and flat, then put on hot surface.
fried starch thing: Use hot oil to make starch crispy yum++
dumpling: put the not starch in the starch thing and cook it.
alt dumpling: ball of starch added to soup or stew. makes chewy starch ball yum yum
filled portable food: starch wrapper of some kind to make it so you can eat the messy food with your hands.
A side blog where I'll *try* to keep things organised.yeahthatsnotgoingtolastlong
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