Wraith sprite quills can break if put under stress. They usually grow back eventually, but in the meantime it may affect some of their abilities, especially if more than one quill breaks. There aren’t too many nerves out near the tips, so it isn’t necessarily a painful injury to bear, but they can feel the gaps and greater difficulty with mental signals. For a people quite used to sharing surface thoughts with their community, it can get frustrating very fast.
Category: World Building
Muunfel Lore Bits #4
Trace is the common name for the god of Mind, Patience, and Curses, but it isn’t the name he originally had. Nobody knows anymore what he used to be called, not even the deities that are supposed to know things like this. As the quiet, emotionless deity that he is, Trace is not forthcoming with the name, or even details about how exactly he lost it.
Diakon, the god of destruction and something of a parent/father to Trace, is said to have destroyed his name. Diakon is not going to elaborate on these rumors anytime soon.
Did you Know?
In Bowman of Wellwood, Jacob Andris was originally going to be a side character. Instead of the chill giant becoming Bowman Leafwing’s best friend among all humans, that honor was going to fall to Bobby Loran.
That’s right, Bobby, who readers may know is not a gentle or calm person at all, was going to be the human that helped Bowman learn how to accept people so vastly different from himself. Then, as the story progressed and I played with different approaches, the truth became clear. Bobby and Bowman will never get along, while Jacob is the perfect personality to ground out the sprite’s wild, sassy nature.
Muunfel Lore Bits #3
In the southeast of Muunfel, Synka and Heptaena are separated by a ridge of mountains called the Dragonrest Mountains. Most travelers can find their way through these mountains with a guide and following the trails, and most don’t have much inclination to try to climb too high.
The dragons that come there to sleep aren’t often friendly to anyone who wakes them up, accident or not. They are more understanding when they come down among the people, and simply request that their rest not be disturbed in return.
Fairy Tales Lore Bits #8
Shadow sprites are a bit different from their cousins. Rather than having to open up a connection to their Spirit and voice a Prayer for magic to use, they are always connected to the Night Spirit. The Lady of Secrets grants Her children a few basic abilities that they can tap into at any time, but this ease comes at a price.
Direct sunlight will drive Her back, and it is painful for the sprite caught in it. Other forms of light are a bit itchy, but don’t have the same symbolic effect on them. As the Spirit retreats from sunlight, so does the magic the sprite needs to survive in the shadows. They can be blinded and their skin can be permanently lightened in places that were illuminated. Healing takes a while, though the Spirit will eventually reconnect if the sprite survives.
Fairy Tales Lore Bits #7
Air sprites are children of the Sky Spirit, the Lady of Freedom. She emphasizes creativity and out of the box thinking in all endeavors, even the magic She provides to the sprites. Prayers to the Sky Spirit usually have wildly varying results, with only a few of them being consistent in any way.
In most cases, a sprite can try to Pray for improved luck, or influence a certain outcome of events. They can also Pray for new ideas or perspectives to help them tackle a problem. This gives them a lot of choices for how they want to approach a task.
Random Facts about Elias Dawn
Elias has many middle names, and listing them all off gets tedious for him. The city/culture he’s from tends to have a tradition of adding more middle names based on titles earned and accomplishments won. He was already born with a few: Elias Orson Phineas Kingspeaker* Dawn. Since his mother is the Oracle of a temple, he assumed the role of a temple speaker just by being born. Very few people can make sense of what Cira Dawn says due to her difficulties communicating, but Elias always had a knack for it.
He takes after his mother in looks. Since his father is a deity with no set physical form, his natural physical traits were all inherited from Cira (deep red hair, sapphire eyes, sienna skin, strong nose). He’s met his dad a few times, and while there’s no animosity between them, a part of him does blame the guy for the way Cira’s mind was broken.
Elias is pansexual and genderfluid. Since he’s a shapeshifter, he can play around a bit with his presentation. Usually, he will give the people close to him an easy visual cue so they know which pronouns to use, but not always. He sometimes enjoys dating and develops crushes fast, but the thought of anything like marriage or any implication of “forever” sort of freaks him out for reasons he keeps quiet (he has a set “destiny” and he already has a hard enough time with that).
Elias as a character is fun to write because he’s what most people would call “overpowered”. He’s a demigod with a lot of abilities, including storm manipulation, shapeshifting, summoning items out of thin air, and making copies of himself. He also sort of combines his storm and mischief aspects into something he calls “electrickery,” in which he manipulates the electric impulses in someone’s brain. He saves that for dire circumstances since it’s hard to do.
* ”Kingspeaker” is the most convenient translation from what the word is in his first language, since it doesn’t have a distinction between a male and female sovereign.
Random Facts About Chase Lisong
Chase’s actual name is Qi Shi, which according to my research means “to enlighten”. I guess if he keeps chattering away like he’s prone to do, he’s bound to teach something, right? He and his sister Minnie (Minxia, or ”Bright halo”), were given anglicized names by their parents when they moved to the US from Jiuquan. Since they were young kiddos who had to move rather suddenly, their parents wanted to give them some kind of edge, socially.
Chase is bisexual (happy pride month!). He has an ex-girlfriend and an ex-boyfriend, both relatively short relationships that ended on friendly terms. He helped set Jacob Andris up on the one and only date Jacob went on.
Chase’s health is actually quite fragile – he’s not athletic due to his asthma, and cold season tends to lay him low once a year. Despite that, the whole reason his family moved to Iowa was for cleaner air and a less stressful environment, so he’s doing better than he might be elsewhere.
I really really love how much Chase has grown into his own character since I first invented him. He’s technically a side character in the story he originated in, but I could probably write a whole story about him and his misadventures (Chase in Lilliput, anyone?).
Fairy Tales Lore Bits #6
Water sprites come in a couple distinct varieties, with different fin shapes and general skintone ranges to fit their environment.
Lake/River: Their finwings are the most reminiscent of butterfly wings. They have soft curved shapes, and the patterning on them tends to run perpendicular to the many bones within the fins. These sprites have a silvery grey range of skintones.
Ocean/Tropical: These water sprites have more blue than grey in their skin, and often the pattern on the front side of their finwings is lighter than on the back. The patterning tends to run parallel to the bones in the finwings, which are slightly more angular in shape.
Deep Ocean: Elusive deep sea water sprites’s finwings are very sharp in shape, and don’t bear any patterns on their own. These sprites have very dark blue or grey skin, and the fins on their legs are more pronounced than on other varieties. Their skin and wings can light up in bioluminescent patterns for communication, and because of their deep ocean adaptation they are extremely durable beings.
Muunfel Lore Bits #2
There are a number of elemental fae scattered throughout the world. While their magical presence is fairly minor, they are especially connected to an element of nature and act as guardians wherever they’ve chosen to live.
Flowerfae – Usually around a foot tall. They grow flowers on their bodies, and the flowers are like little mood indicators. They tend to be excitable, but can hyperfocus like nothing else.
Snowfae/Frostfae – Two to three feet tall. They’re little living snowmen. They tend to trail snowflakes wherever they go, but they never leave a mess. Surprisingly tidy and usually have some kind of vocal tic when they speak.
Rockfae – Three feet tall. Their shapes vary, but they’re made of stones. They make excellent messengers in mountainous regions and enjoy rolling around.
Mistfae – They live in bogs and don’t have a solid form. They’re not very nice and often lead travelers astray, given the chance.
Writerly Things 