Dear Worldbuilder Letter (2019)

[ghostwings]

Hello!

 

My AO3 name is Eida, and I have requested the following fandoms/topics:

Chalion Saga

The Future
Shamans and Great Beasts

Final Fantasy X and X-2

Dresspheres
Fayth and Aeons
Religion

Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena

Pre-canon duels and duellists

Original Work

Complex Magic Rituals
Shapeshifters (Fantasy)
Soulmate-identifying Marks
Goose That Chases You Towards Your Soulmate


I have requested both fanfiction and in-universe meta with Any or No Characters for all of the above.

 

My DNWs are as follows:

 

○ I do not want anything explicitly depicting a sexual relationship involving characters below the age of 18.

○ I do not want detailed descriptions of gore or torture.

 

Here are some things I generally like in fic:

 

○ Relationship development

 

○ Hurt/Comfort

 

○ Seeing characters be competent at what they do (and discovering their niche)

 

○ Characters who are comfortable with each other, and willing to engage in good-natured banter

 

○ Missing scenes and perspectives from characters we didn't get to see much of in canon.

 

○ Exploring the viewpoint of non-human characters who might think and behave differently than humans would

 

 

 

So far as in-universe meta goes, I don't know if I've ever meta type of document that I didn't like in that context. I'll just throw a list out in case it offers any inspiration (though some will work better with some fandoms than others):

 

○ Academic papers

○ Advice columns

○ Annotated bibliographies

○ Excerpts from biographies

○ Excerpts from history books or other textbooks

○ How-to guides/Instruction manuals

○ Internet forum threads

○ News articles

○ Religious texts (possibly with commentary)

○ Reviews of any sort of media (i.e., in-universe book or movie reviews)

Chalion Saga

 

The Future

 

I'm interested to see basically anything about where you think the World of the Five Gods might go after the end of Paladin of Souls. I'd love to see anything ranging from "here are the state of relations between Chalion and the Roknari Princedoms a few years after the events of Paladin of Souls" to "factory workers view such and such god as patron of unions" to "here are the struggles of sorcerers on spaceships" or anything in between.

 

Shamans and Great Beasts

 

How did shamanism first arise? There's a discussion in Penric's Fox about the possible the origins of spirit warriors and shamans, and it's mentioned that old legends have it that the first shaman was granted their powers by the Son of Autumn; if that's true, how and why did that occur? In the Penric books, it's mentioned that the shamans of the time are doing research to recover the knowledge that was lost after the Darthacan conquest; what sort of things do they discover? Is there any sort of selection process for what sort of Great Beast a shaman will bear outside of what kin group they're a part of (if they are part of a kin group)? Does the practice of shamanism ever spread beyond the Weald?

Final Fantasy X & X-2

Outside of Dresspheres (which only show up in FFX-2), I don't have any strong feelings about whether or not you include FFX-2 canon; I've mentioned it in the other two prompts, but if you have other ideas for what happened after FFX, by all means feel free to ignore FFX-2.

I'd prefer it if you ignored FFX-2.5 ~Eien no Daishō~ and FFX -Will-.

Dresspheres

 

We don't get to see the recordings on some of the dresspheres in the game—what was recorded on them, and how did that “translate” into whatever job the dressphere was for? Also, we saw that the Songstress dressphere had a certain influence on Yuna during the game—are any other dresspheres which influence certain people in a particular way? Do dresspheres ever come into wider usage beyond the Gullwings—maybe even being deliberately mass-produced? How would you go about trying to create a dressphere for a specific job/purpose?

Fayth & Aeons

 

In the time of Final Fantasy X, fayth and aeons are an integral part of Spiran society, but there's a lot of mystery surrounding them (both for the player and the in-game characters). 

 

What's the process to create a fayth? What does the form the aeon takes say about the person who became the fayth of that aeon? Does the fayth get any conscious choice in what their aeon will look like/what abilities their aeon has? 

 

What exactly goes on when a summoner is praying to the fayth? Going off of what Wakka says to Tidus in Besaid, the process can be dangerous; in what way? What does it feel like for a fayth to have their aeon summoned? 

 

The strength of an aeon varies depending on the strength of their summoner (and, in-game, the player can use items to give aeons abilities they don't naturally start with); are there any other ways in which aeons manifest differently for different summoners?

 

 

 

Religion

 

In FFX, it appears that people pray not only to Yevon, but to High Summoners as well—for instance, in Kilika, Wakka prays to Lord Ohalland to help his Blitzball team. Is this practice widespread all across Spira? Do different High Summoners have specific things they're said to help with, with people praying to different High Summoners depending on the issue they have?

 

Also, what does Yevon teach outside of the whole summoners-must-defeat-Sin-with-the-Final-Aeon-until-the-people-become-sufficiently-sinless thing? What role do priests and nuns play in their communities? What kind of holidays are celebrated? Are there particular Yevon rites/rituals/customs for major milestones (i.e. birth, marriage, coming of age, death)?

 

After Final Fantasy X, with Sin's defeat and Sin's true nature presumably revealed to the world, the religion of Yevon is going to undergo some serious upheaval. How do people react? In FFX-2, a lot of people reject the religion Yevon entirely, but others cling to old traditions (leading to the creation of New Yevon). What changes happen over time?

Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena

 

Pre-canon duels and duellists

 

Were the duels always carried out as sword duels with roses, or did they ever take a different form? Is every cycle of duels different? Do changes occur gradually, with things being tweaked a bit as time passes by and/or according to Akio's/Anthy's whim? Were previous sets of duelists also (mostly) in positions of power within Ohtori? (The duels have been going on a long time, and student councils haven't always existed.) What were the former duelists like, why were they chosen for the duels, and what were they fighting for? What did Anthy think about them (and vice-versa)?


 

Original Work

 

Complex Magic Rituals

 

I'm always a sucker for cool magical systems. What is it that makes these rituals so complex? Do they have to be performed at exactly the right time, with lots of astrological calculations made to ensure all the planets are in their proper places (and meaning that certain spells can, perhaps, only be cast once every few centuries/millennia)? Do they require multiple people coordinating perfectly, each performing specific ritual tasks at the same time? (Maybe they're doing dance-magic, with complicated choreography, or choir-magic, with each person needing to hit just the right notes to create the desired effect.) Is there a massive list of highly-specific spell reagents? Is there a vast magical alphabet mages have to learn, where messy handwriting in the magic circle can lead to everything blowing up in the mage's face? And what sort of other complications/worldbuilding implications might result from the ritual requirements?

Shapeshifters (Fantasy)

 

How common are shapeshifters? Can everyone (or almost everyone) shapeshift, or is it rare? What kinds of societal accommodations are made for shapeshifters (i.e. architecture that allows for, say, werehorses to maneuver indoors in horse shape, or a general societal norm that one should avoid strongly-scented perfume out of courtesy to werewolves in wolf shape)?

 

Do different types of shapeshifters have different “rules”? (I.e., werewolves are forced to transform on full moon nights, but werepanthers are forced to transform during the new moon; or some shifters need a ritual to transform, while others need to don an animal skin, while others just need to focus their will in order to change forms.)

 

Are shapeshifters in particular demand for particular jobs? Are people who shift into birds in demand as couriers, for instance? Are people who can take the form of other people (rather than animals) in demand as actors, or hired out as body doubles?

 

“Spy” is, naturally, an obvious idea for a shapeshifter occupation—but what kind of security measures are taken to make sure that, say, an enemy wererat can't sneak into your strategy meeting, or that an enemy who can shift into different human forms doesn't pose as one of your allies?

 

Soulmate-identifying marks

 

(I'm totally fine with the idea of platonic soulmates and poly soulmates, if that's the way you want to take this, but if you do, I'd prefer that platonic/poly be a known and accepted thing in the society, as opposed to people with platonic soulmates feeling pressured into an unwanted romantic relationship/people with multiple soulmates being expected to just choose one.)

 

What form do these soulmate marks take? And how do people use the way soulmate marks work to try and find their soulmate? (i.e., if everyone has their soulmate's name on their body at birth, people would presumably try to make sure to give their children unique names—and if your soulmate's name only appears on your body when you meet them, it might be considered normal for most public places to have a sign-in sheet.)

 

Does everyone get a soulmate mark? Are some people simply soulmateless? Do certain species get soulmate marks, while others don't? And in that case, what happens if someone's soulmate is of a different species—i.e. a human with a soulmate mark has a soulmate who's a dwarf, except dwarves don't get soulmate marks?

 

Does each person only get one possible soulmate (so they're plumb out of luck if they're in circumstances where the two of them never meet), or does each person have multiple potential soulmates (perhaps with a mark that reflects this—i.e., a person with a certain symbol on their wrist is compatible with anyone with the same symbol, but not necessarily all at once)? Can a person's soulmate (and therefore soulmate mark) change over their lifetime (i.e. if their original soulmate passes away, or if they themselves undergo a dramatic change in personality)?

Goose That Chases You Towards Your Soulmate 

 

I saw this in the tagset, and it just raised so many questions.

 

Is this one single, hard-working goose that's playing matchmaker, or does everyone get their own goose? Does a goose just magically appear at the birth of every person, waiting for the right moment to begin the chase? Is everyone presented with a goose egg upon coming of age, which they must incubate, hatch, and raise to adulthood in the knowledge that, once grown, the goose will herd them forcibly to their soulmate? Do regular geese in this universe otherwise behave just like Earth geese, save for the fact that they are occasionally spontaneously driven to chase people towards their soulmates? Is this phenomenon the result of some sort of benign(?) goose deity who manifests an avatar in the mortal realm when soulmates are close enough to be chased into each others' arms? 

 

Is there some great spiritual significance to the species of goose which chases you to your soulmate? Do soulmates get matching geese? Does this society attach special cultural/religious significance to geese in general? Are there some sort of goose-related marriage/commitment/etc. rituals that came about as a result of the goose-soulmate thing (i.e., a ceremonial exchange of feathers at the wedding)? Is the goose that chases you immortal, or can you be denied your soulmate if your goose gets hit by a bus while chasing you across the road? Can the goose be bribed to give you a bit of a breather, because you're absolutely exhausted and just plumb tired of getting bitten every time you stop running in the indicated direction???