u/souliieee

Hi everyone, I am writing a book about dragons. But it’s not really about dragons, more the political and dramatic landscape surrounding the world that the dragons are in. But the dragons are important, especially towards the end, as one character, at the end of his rope, makes a drastic choice to try to bond with one.

I’ve loved dragons since I was a little girl, as i’m sure many of you have! I loved HTTYD and Eragon, but i’ve always gravitated towards stories that treat dragons like gods and extremely volatile animals rather than glorified helicopters that can talk. I think in Fourth Wing, the dragons talked too much for my taste and were too readily available. I don’t want to completely flip the script since I want to capitalize on some of the foundational elements of dragon stories that I personally love, but I just don’t want to write a story where dragons become pets.

My personal idea is to have four dragons in the entire area of the world i’m working in. These dragons have names, folktales surrounding them, and have a permanent location marker on my world map. They are as old as the world itself, or at least it seems to the people that live there. Think Elder Scrolls.

People don’t bond / ride dragons in my world, but there’s old fables of some extremely powerful kings doing so in the past. That’s all my character has to go off of when he makes the decision to climb a mountain up to one. He’s got no idea how to do it, all he knows is that he can channel with his wolf-dog (Fitz style!) and that it is his last realistic option to accomplishing his goals.

Apart from this, the dragons mainly operate as giant predators that hunt in their respective territories and can be pacified by offerings if one needs to pass through.

Also they’re feathered.

What are some of your favorite dragon stories, and how would you avoid diminishing them to mounts? I’m toying with the idea that one could slowly fall into madness being bonded to a dragon, but not sure where that would take my current plot as I kind of need my character to survive for a while.

Hey guys! I am currently refining the magic in my world in order to settle in to the point where I can start writing a plot within it. I have the basics right now, but I feel like it has the potential to be so much more complex, so I'm curious what your thoughts and ideas are. I want to take it as far as possible but I also want to be mindful of plot holes.

Here's what 'I have tried':

Magic in my world is not a separate, supernatural thing. It is more intrinsic to the natural world, and in its raw form is a glittering material that can be mostly found in the warm, southern ocean. Its so potent in this particular ocean that it does not need to be refined, so most people just use the seawater itself. It is more parasitic than just a drug people take, those that drink from the ocean raw become 'infected' with it's power (in a good way, at first...) and the substance reproduces within their blood. I call it becoming 'enmaged.' The early peoples used it to improve their lifespan, create advanced medicine, and build beautiful cities. Those that are 'gifted' have the natural ability to pick up on it's presence, and they describe it as a faint ringing sound that draws them in (think Nirnroot for the sound). So the southern sea is often called the singing sea by those that can hear it.

Now, the lore is that this magic was at first a gift, and then as people used it to do more and more evil and nefarious things like necromancy, torture, and murder, it is said that the Sea grew to hate mankind and rose up to flood the main provinces that were using / abusing it along its coast. Since then, the water itself is so cursed that anyone who attempts to use it raw slowly descends into a maddened, feral sea-humanoid-creature akin to a mermaid. Because of this, the Singing Sea is renowned as a sort of conscious God-like entity. This event wipes out all the instructional scrolls and research that were kept in the capital library, so the knowledge of the magic gets virtually lost to time.

The rest of the kingdom for centuries had very little knowledge of magic to begin with since they were not near the sea, until eventually a couple hundred years later they accidentally discover trace amounts of 'seamagic' in snow deposits in the northern mountains carried from the sea through the natural evaporation / cloud movement process that we have here on earth. This material is just subtle enough to be safely used for minor things like crude potion making, rune-ink and beast magic, but is still potent enough that it causes slight transformations in those that consume it raw. This leads many of the high courts in my world to have one 'Selk', or 'gifted' person, that sacrifices their humanity to serve their province with a limited set of powerful magical abilities such as interpreting prophecies from dreams, active healing, and imbuing weapons and armor. The sacrifice is that essentially, they are stuck between human and being a creature, since the seamagic in the snow is not 100% pure.

One of the main potential plot tensions in my story is that there is one particular province that secretly discovers a sick workaround. They have found that 'gifted' people are naturally more drawn to magic because their blood is genetically inclined to it, and when they force feed them water from the ocean and siphon this blood, it can be used far more easily. It is thought that blood purifies the curse out of the water, but the drinker is still very much cursed. They literally take these 'gifted' people, force them to undergo a horrible transition into the aforementioned creature while they siphon their blood, and then dump them in the ocean when they're done with them. The blood can be mixed into wine to give soldiers insane strength and other evil-kingdom-esque stuff lol.

So basically, sea contains magic that uses certain 'gifted' people as a host, and in turn these hosts can practice magic. But the substance can also be diluted and used to enhance everyday healing potions, used in ink to create runes, etc etc. I want the actual magic to be pretty vague since they are still re-discovering and refining its usage, and even then, only a small number of people are actually allowed to study and practice it. I liked that the magic in GoT was known but relatively volatile and mysterious in its behavior because I personally get bored when everyone in the world somehow knows everything about the magic system.

I want the magic of the past to haunt the present world, and for the bad players in that world to stop at nothing to restore and abuse its full power.

I'm super excited about this idea since I haven't personally seen or read of anything similar except maybe in the Elder Scrolls, so it's pretty much straight off the dome from me lol. What do you guys think? Are there any glaring holes in this concept that I'm not seeing? What are some other cool ways it could be implemented?

Hi! So, i’m going on a trip with my boyfriend in a week to greece and im so excited. However, I have a sneaking suspicion about possibly getting proposed to on this trip due to various little factors and coincidences that have come up recently. I already have picked out a ring but i’m not sure if he has it yet and obviously i don’t want to ask.

The ring is pretty nice, it’s a 1.2ct marquis with .4ct accent stones and a diamond band, all fully natural diamonds. I have no idea how much it costs, but i’m assuming around 10k.

I want to be prepared but i also don’t want it to seem like I was expecting it. Also it’s abroad… should I even wear it on the trip if it does happen? Should I get insurance beforehand? Should I get a travel ring that looks similar?

What have you guys done? Any advice helps, i’m stressing so bad over it!!

*(Summerstar is a city, and Firstkeep is the Keep within that city.)*

I met Hound for the first time on the cusp of my third spring in Summerstar. He was a boy of 11, scrawny and dirty blonded and strong willed. He had been taken up by the keep’s smith, who did scarce to train him and let him run around the city surrounding Firstkeep unabated like a beggar. I would often go out to the city with my chambermaid Sercy to explore and browse the markets, and it was in one of these markets a scuffle caught my attention while Sercy had ducked into the Summer’s Rest tavern to buy some of their seasonal honeymead. As I was apparently ‘too young to be found in such places,’ I watched the squabble from the steps outside. Then a boy, a fistful of coins in tow, bolted from the stall and down an alley. The shopkeeper had been so distracted with a large pup tearing at his ankle to notice where he had gone. Something wild must have gripped me, for I suddenly leapt up and followed him down the narrow alleys and into a small alcove to question his bashfulness. When I found him, I lurched back in fear despite being easily his size. He was panting a fury and staring through wild eyes as if he had expected me to be a guard. “What do you want?” He hissed as his eyes darted around for an escape.

“Are you going to return that?” I asked with a pompous innocence.

“Yes, when you leave.”

“Why did you take it?”

“It’s just for fun,” he lied.

I looked at him quizzically. Then to my curiosity, the sound of pattering feet echoed behind us. The boy looked past me and shined a smile, dipping down to the ground to greet his puppy. “That’s it, Socks!”

“You named your puppy.. Socks?” I crossed my arms.

“Yeah, look.” He held the pup up under it’s gangly front legs to reveal two white paws in stark contrast to the rets of it’s black body. It was a freakish thing, likely no older than 6 months, that honestly looked more wolf than dog save for it’s markings. It’s pink and brown splotched tongue rolled out as it looked at me with round golden eyes. “Socks!” He announced. I giggled at the face the pup made as if he had not spent the last moments being a little miscreant.

“I’m Reyeana Eery, I’m to be a princess in the keep and I could have you in a cell before night if I so much as told my chambermaid about this!” I boasted, ignoring the fact that Sercy cared little for children’s grievances lest they involve me.
I expected him to dip his head in surprise and respect as I had seen others do to the Queen, but instead he just looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“To be? So you’re not a princess.”

“Am too!” I snapped back.

“That’s not what that means!” He boasted a goading grin. “You’re just a girl with fancy clothes.” 

“Oh you’ll find out!” Childish anger rose in me.

A murmuring came from behind us, and I swiveled on my heel. “You should probably go,” the boy was suddenly hushed and tense again. Socks stood alert, growling. The voices of more boys grew louder, and without a second thought I slipped through another alley and wandered back onto the main street, not wanting to be caught up with a group of beggar boys in my elevated attire.

I ran up the road, quickly finding Sercy beet red from worry looking for me. She hurriedly dusted my skirts and scolded my absence with a few words on not to trust strangers, but punished me no further.

I did not tell her about the boy or his brazenness despite how unjust I felt he had been to me. I knew nothing of commoner life, but I felt connected to him over our brief encounter. There were no other children my age that I was allowed alone with in the Keep, so it was possibly the first real conversation I had had in weeks with someone that wasn’t ages above me in status and expectation. I figure I had come across incredibly rude and snobbish, but his disregard for those things was a bright curiosity in my young, black and white mind. 

We dropped the honeymead and bitters off at the kitchens and Sercy dismissed me to my stitchery lessons with Lady Maylen. Stitchery was something that I found agreigiously boring, but the Queen required her to teach all young ladies of the skill in case they chose to do so as their Suit, and there is no way to be chosen without having shown prior talent for such a position that would clothe the royal family one day. 

I sat as I seamed two pieces of fabric letting my gaze wander out the arched window. I thought more of Summerstar, of the sounds and sights of the bustling streets and wondrous smells of different foods and spices from all along the White Sea. Summerstar was not only a formidable fortress of a city, but it was also a bastion of trade for sea that bordered the eastern side of the continent. It seemed a perfect point of entry for the Conquerors, the group of men who had settled it some millennia before. I wondered then about the King Conquerer, the first King, and how he was chosen out of the bunch to lead this new stronghold. Such things were speculation as scribery was minimal back then. But the city that resulted from the lineage’s toils was one to behold. Massive pale stone walls that held a vast litter of buildings that crescendoed to the top of the cliff, where the Firstkeep was poised overlooking the harbor. In my naive mind I wondered if it was sad the first men had not been able to enjoy the splendor that came from their discovery and domination of the lands around Summerstar.

Pain suddenly pierced my pointer finger as I winced and looked down. Lady Maylen shot a look at me just as jolting. “Do you think the queen would like to wear a dress covered in the blood of a northerner?” She scowled, ripping the fabric from my hands and replacing it with an even longer set to stitch together. “Stay until it is done, and untainted at that.”

It was Lady Maylen from who I first learned of the prejudice of my homeland. She was a native to the Royal Providence, possibly even the city itself. The Summer City was on the southern part of the King’s Covenant, and my province Eery was one of the last that had been successfully conquered centuries ago. It’s people were of lighter hair and shorter build, and there were whispers that we had descended from a long-dead race of man that inhabited the White Expanse that began miles above our borders. The people of the Eery often told stories about these folk that had frosted hair and naturally possessed the Gift, among other sorceries. There was once a time long past during the Queen Maiaq’s reign that there was a mystique and intrigue with these native histories, yet as society solidified, so their minds closed to such vast cultural discrepancies.

The moon was almost high above the Keep when I begrudgingly dropped my mess of a seam into Lady Maylen’s hands. She uttered something, but I was already halfway out the door and could not hear.

I climbed into my bed, exhausted from the day. As consciousness waned from me, I thought about the boy and the pup. I wondered where he would sleep tonight, and if the coin he lifted had fed that feral creature as well as himself. 

*(MC is 10 at this time, hence the childishness)*

Hi all! I am toying with the idea of a story and already have started writing some parts of it. For reference, my biggest inspiration right now is Robin Hobb, and I have zero intention of writing a romantacy. That being said, there is a romance plot in my idea that becomes incredibly important to the climax of the book. I want it to be addicting and exciting so that it makes sense, but I also don’t want to put too much emphasis on the romance part so that the plot comes out of nowhere. But i also want it to feel like the romance also doesn’t come out of nowhere as this has been my biggest gripe with books like TOG (please don’t come for me it just wasn’t my favorite.)

In short, my MC is a noble girl that is marrying into the royal line in my world via an arranged marriage. I loved how it felt like I grew up with Fitz in the Assassins Apprentice, so the story will probably start out when she is about 10 years old so I can try to capture that feeling. She actually really likes the prince she’s supposed to marry and loves the sophistication and beauty of being a royal, but she accidentally falls for her best friend who is a commoner boy (when she’s older of course). I need this to happen because I need his emotions and frustrations for her to feel real so that what he later goes on to do makes sense, but i’ve never written romance into a plot before and I’m scared to incorporate it too heavily.

Does anyone have any tips on how to do this? Also, want to start posting excerpts on here too soon so stay tuned!! i’ve been lurking on here for far too long so excited to start participating haha.

Hey everybody, just wondering if anyone has experience negotiating a redo or refund with a seller. The seller is a highly rated and experienced vendor on alibaba and we have exchanged multiple good sweatpant samples and had great communication thus far.

I just received my bulk order from them today and the sweatpants are somehow 5 inches longer than the tech pack I sent them and the most recently received sample. Extremely disappointed and nervous as this was a significant investment for my brand and I cannot sell them in the state that they are. I also have no idea how this happened as this does not match the measurements I sent them. And now I have 150 unsellable pants, nine thousand dollars in revenue down the drain.

This is a pretty simple problem, ideally i would like to have them remake them just at 4 inches shorter in the inseam, but I want to be careful in how i approach it so I am not out 3,200$. Just wondering how to even go about having this conversation with the seller. Any advice is appreciated!