u/Jack_the_Lizard

Listening to Fidelio feels at times like looking through a glass bottom boat at a world where everyone wears a sign aroudn their neck telling you what they're like. It's fascinating for none of the right reasons. The music is great but Beethoven didn't seem to realize an opera also lives and dies on its story. They can be trashy and stupid but they need to be engaging.

Fidelio is as engaging as being stuck in a car with a man who has chronic flatulence. Beethoven was pointed to as the successor to Mozart and this is the one time I felt he was trying to fit into that mold. Mozart could tinker with the liberetto, but Mozart had theatrical instincts. He knew what would work and what would fail.

Beethoven has a message he wants to give. Did you know tyranny is bad? Thanks B, wouldn't have guessed.

The opera is a strange work, with great moments stapled onto a pretty terrible story. I don't feel Beethoven ever got it the way he wanted it. But with the constant fiddling I don't think anyone could have. He kept mixing and mixing until he was left with a lovely shade of mud.

I have a story I finished, 33 pages, I'd like to share with someone but I have little money. If someone though wants a reader for their work I'd like to swap.

I finished a 33 page story in my world I call the Single Earth, I'd love to swap critique with someone. If you're interested in a darker story with echoes of Dostoevsky and influence from Dickens, please let me know, I'll gladly read your work.

I have a lot of repair work to do, a lot of editing, the middle especially is a mess, but I did it! I wrote a novel! I am so happy right now I wanted to share. My first fantasy novel, 103,000 words. No matter what, how hard it is to write, you gotta do it. It's wonderful when you get it done.

I have a lot of repair work to do, a lot of editing, the middle especially is a mess, but I did it! I wrote a novel! I am so happy right now I wanted to share. My first fantasy novel, 103,000 words. No matter what, how hard it is to write, you gotta do it. It's wonderful when you get it done.

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I created six races for my world but the two most important for the story I am writing are the Sem and the Neda/Starborn. I want to know how to improve these two races, how to make them more real. Since I am writing a story about them, it's important they feel as real to the reader as they do to me.

The Starborn are cervines, though they've evolved to have horns instead of antlers, meaning they don't shed them. They are perceived by non-Starborn as being very controlled, conservative and distrustful of outsiders. Not that this stops there from being emotional Starborn with friends from other races. They are the only herbivore race on the world and their biology reflects this. They have low amounts of body fat and no upper incisors, instead possessing a mouth pad.

The horns meanwhile exist as symbols of age and experience. They first begin turning when a Starborn puck (child) is about two years old and finish their first complete cork-screw turn between the ages of sixteen and seventeen. This used to be the determining factor of when a Starborn is an adult. Now adulthood is more often determined by parental consent, or given legally at the age of twenty.

The Starborn have children from around 14 to about 45, but they have some issues with reproduction, mostly due to their pregnancies lasting ten months. Twins are also very rare, but they're considered a blessing when they do happen.

Unlike most of the other races, the Starborn claim they are directed not by the need for food, but for balance. The Starborn believe the idea land is one with rich soil, clean water and plenty of light. It's a place where Anzatals can grow. Anza meaning enduring sacred memory and tal being their word for tree. Anzatals are trees that can twist as they grow and produce orange leaves year round.

As such they are considered sacred to the Starborn. Supposedly the first Anzatal was planted by the creator God of the Starborn, Tuma.

For the Starborn, there great struggle is with the Sem. The Sem seemed biologically pre-disposed to be enemies of the Starborn. While the Starborn desire balance, the Sem are all emotions. While the Starborn (claim) are peaceful, the Sem (are stereotyped as) warriors. While the Starborn are herbivores, the Sem are carnivores.

4500 years ago, during the first era of history (The Era of Chaos), all Starborn lived in the Blessed Anzatal Forest. They lived in absolute peace and no one knew war. Then one day, from the frozen north, 100,000 Sem arrived, demanding land. The Starborn gave them land, but the Sem demanded more, until war began.

That's the version the Starborn tell. The Sem claim it was 10,000 and claim the Starborn tried to enslave them in exchange for bags of grain. In truth no one knows.

The Blessed Anzatal Forest was eventually burned to ash and Sem were given the land. This happend 2500 years ago. The Starborn were forced to leave their ancestral homes and have never returned. Meanwhile the Sem live there in peace and prosperity.

Kind of a sore spot.

The Starborn emphasize organization and structure. What this means in principal is that everyone knows where they should be and what they should be doing. In principal. In practice it means they have a ruthless caste system.

I have so much more I'd love to tell you, but this post is long as it is. As such I'll give you a few links.

Learn about the Starborn here

Learn about the Sem here

What I want to know is, what jumps out? What could be improved? What is weak about this race? And especially, what is unrealistic? I tried to map biology and behavior together, what can I do to make that more explicit?

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I was told when I posted for the Sem I'd not get much attention, but I actually got a fair bit. As such I thought I'd try again. I created six races for my world but the two most important for the story I am writing are the Sem and the Neda/Starborn.

The Starborn are cervines, though they've evolved to have horns instead of antlers, meaning they don't shed them. They are very controlled, conservative and distrustful of outsiders. They are the only herbivore race on the world and their biology reflects this. They have low amounts of body fat and no front teeth, instead possessing a mouth pad.

The Starborn have children from around 14 to about 45, but they have some issues with reproduction, mostly due to their pregnancies lasting ten months. Twins are also very rare, but they're considered a blessing when they do happen.

Unlike most of the other races, the Starborn are directed not by the need for food, but for balance. The Starborn believe the idea land is one with rich soil, clean water and plenty of light. It's a place where Anzatals can grow. Anza meaning enduring sacred memory and tal being their word for tree. Anzatals are trees that can twist as they grow and produce orange leaves year round.

As such they are considered sacred to the Starborn. Supposedly the first Anzatal was planted by the creator God of the Starborn, Tuma.

For the Starborn, there great struggle is with the Sem. The Sem seemed biologically pre-disposed to be enemies of the Starborn. While the Starborn desire balance, the Sem are all emotions. While the Starborn (claim) are peaceful, the Sem (are stereotyped as) warriors. While the Starborn are herbivores, the Sem are carnivores.

4500 years ago, during the first era of history (The Era of Chaos), all Starborn lived in the Blessed Anzatal Forest. They lived in absolute peace and no one knew war. Then one day, from the frozen north, 100,000 Sem arrived, demanding land. The Starborn gave them land, but the Sem demanded more, until war began.

That's the version the Starborn tell. The Sem claim it was 10,000 and claim the Starborn tried to enslave them in exchange for bags of grain. In truth no one knows.

The Blessed Anzatal Forest was eventually burned to ash and Sem were given the land. This happend 2500 years ago. The Starborn were forced to leave their ancestral homes and have never returned. Meanwhile the Sem live there in peace and prosperity.

Kind of a sore spot.

The Starborn emphasize organization and structure. What this means in principal is that everyone knows where they should be and what they should be doing. In principal. In practice it means they have a ruthless caste system.

I have so much more I'd love to tell you, but this post is long as it is. As such I'll give you a few links.

Learn about the Starborn here

Learn about the Sem here

My boyfriend asked me to explain Rush and explain my seeming obsession with this group. I explained they were Prog. He pointed out my favorite album is Signals. Yes but my second favorite is Counterparts and that... doesn't help my argument. Finally I said Geddy Lee was on HIMYM. My boyfriend said that's unfortunate. Yes but I explained you can't summarize them. They are an experience.

Then he asked me "Rush or Pink Floyd?" Damn it.

I am struggling in my spiritual journey and could really use someone to speak to about this. I am a teacher, I make little money and I'm saddled with two toxic parents I have spent 36 years trying to get away from. I write and that is my great joy in life.

Others I know make more money than me, got away from their families easier than me, have successes I don't. It just makes me feel small.

I'm rereading Roses Among Thorns by St. Francis de Sales. In the tenth chapter Francis writes about Accepting God's Will. Specifically "consider this will in your own person, in all that befalls you for good or for ill, and in all that can happen to you, except sin. Then accept, praise and bless all this, and declare your intention always to honor, cherish and adore the sovereign will".

I struggle with this in part because I struggle to look beyond the world. I want to do better but I need help. I reach out to people and they all promise to make time, but then don't.

Credit to Thomas J Say for the image

I created six races for the world I am working on. I've actually posted these in other reddits but I'd love to hear from other writers. The first one I'd like to look at are the Sem.

I was originally asked to create a D&D setting. I didn't know shit about D&D and still don't, so I wanted to create my own races. The first thing I considered was what else would be uplifted besides primates that interests me? That's where the Sem come from.

The Sem are mustelids primarily, though I also took some inspiration from civets. They are high energy and in turn high consumption carnivores. They struggle with population growth and I designed them to be a boom or bust species, IE the population is either surging or collapsing. There are individual exceptions, but fertility is a concern of every Sem.

Sem can only have children in narrow windows of their lives (From ages 15 to 25 being the most common) and the Sem have a tendency to die in conflicts brought on by their own hot emotions. However, if food is plentiful, wars kept to a minimum and emotions maintained, the Sem can explode in terms of population. With peace, comes the chance for more Sem to reach adulthood.

Of course too many Sem means they begin to run out of food. How do you solve that? Why you take more land from your neighbors.

Because of this, the Sem are stereotyped as warriors, but they're also craftsmen, scholars, doctors and anything else they want to be. They have thick fur, golden eyes, one inch long claws and fangs. They are also known for being emotional, direct and very honest.

A lot of this comes from the mustelid mindset. Emotions are constant and strong, it takes a lot of self control to rein them in. In addition for the Sem, asking someone a personal question merely shows you are concerned about them, even if we'd find it intrusive.

One struggle all Sem live with is a state known as the White. The White is a constant, burning mad rage each Sem feels inside of them. When enraged, a Sem will enter a White state where they will attack madly with no control over their actions until drained of energy or forced to sleep. The White is the curse of the Sem and why they have a poor relationship with their creator God.

How big a deal is the White? Children are taught how to prepare for it. Youths in puberty are given herbs to slow triggering it. Murder isn't murder if it happened in a white state.

I've included more information on the Sem if you'd like to take a look, including names, habits, recreation, dress and interactions with other races. Please take a look here:

Click here to learn more about the Sem

Otherwise, thank you for your time, I would love your thoughts.

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My final race, the Kustah are reptilian herders and survivors. They are the villains of the world because of the actions of one man and they must endure or flee to survive. The Kustah specialize in magical infusion and transmutation, known as the Diversion of the Legs.

The Kustah look the same unless you know to look for the spines, only males have spines on their heads. Male scales also tend to be slightly brighter. The Kustah are not cold blooded but do struggle with temperature changes more than the other races. As such expect to see them bundled up.

The Kustah are the longest lived race, some are able to live two hundred years, meaning for them all of their non-Kustah friends they will probably get to see live, grow old and die. It's a sad fate, but it's their lot.

Learn about the Kustah here

Check out the Zhokan here

Check out the Malquetze here

Check out the Hune here

Check out the Starborn here

Check out the Sem here

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First time doing this, I understand Anne Bradstreet now.

So I am creating a world I call the Single Earth, a place where the world is one super continent with six races living upon it. I'm working on building everything from scratch, but I'd love to share my six races. I'm hopeful someone will take a look. This is the first race, the wonderful emotional Sem.

The Sem were created by me trying to think of a race that would compliment humans, but I kept thinking of simians and I hated it. I wanted more than humans in fur coats. So I though of mustelids and civets instead and that gave me direction. I wanted a race who is emotional, loyal, struggles with biological concerns and would be a boom or bust race.

The world is one massive continent that encircles the globe like a ring. The Sem came from the valleys to the north near the Dividing Mountains, near the White Drifts where the ice never melts. They migrated south and expanded. They are renown as warriors, healers, loyal friends and deadly enemies.

Please share any thoughts you have. And please excuse my at times brusque nature, I am on the spectrum so my conversation skills can seem...unique. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy and I hope you will allow me to share my other five races.

These are the Sem

And this is their evolving language