Encylopedia Wysdomica

 Encyclopedia Wysdomica is an in-universe lore book. Everything is seen from the perception of people from Wysdom and her associated territories. While everything is factual, there will still be bias from those who don't wish to be smited by the imperial family. 

Crimsons are a species of bipedal mustelid species that mostly have red fur. They can be upward of 60 inches, and can reach a weight of about 200 pounds. Some species have tails. Hands and feet have opposable thumbs. 

Crimsons originate from the planet Vytyl like Oranges. Theories speculate the name of Crimsons came in tandem with Violets and Oranges, but no-one can say so besides the theory being ranked "really freakin' obvious" by Lavandar Tech Institute. 

Crimsons have several unique abilities to them. Alongside Violets, they also have the ability to truly distinguish between fellow species and subspecies and discriminate. For example: If a dirus wolf lets a fox into her pack, she will inevitable treat the fox as one of her own. And if a dirus fox of the Illyrian subspecies met with a dirus fox of the Malaise subspecies, they will get along. However, Crimsons may discriminate between Otterines and Minkites, but even Valarrian Otterines may discriminate against West Dhumese Otterines. 

Crimsons also have more of a propensity to commit in wars. The most famous for this is Otterines with several various empires like the Otterman Empire and the Rose Empire.

The two above traits were very well noted during the Lupegarthe invasion. They separated the dirus foxes and wolves in an attempt to make them fight amongst themselves instead of against the persecutors, but the dirus didn't understand the point and instead ripped apart their "masters". 

Crimsons are poisonous in blood. They are typically polygamous, with many crimsons living underneath a household being raised by above generations. In the Wysdom Empire, polygamy is only permitted at Luxworth, a known "safe zone" for crimson culture.

They have a diet nearly as wide as dirus, from herbs to meats. There are thoughts they may prefer tropical environments because of body type, but this isn't proven true. 

They have had several major nations in history: 

The Rose Empire is one of the most well-known empires in history, being one of the only true rivals to the Wysdom Empire. Operating from the Dhuma landmass, they were able to sends ships of to take over many different areas in Vytyl and Voto. The Empire was highly dominant until Rhett the Tamer attempted to sack the Seventh Kingdom of Wysdom. 

During that moment, according to legend:

At the Temple of Golden Tears, Queen Sumhyr judged Rhett the Tamer through a game. He had to learn who was willing to backstab him. He failed the game, and as punishment, Queen Sumhyr turned him to gold.

Afterwards, the Rose Empire never truly had the same mass as various parties fought for dominances, eventually leading to the severing of the Rose Empire during the Grand Claiming. 

Luxworth in Wysdom is widely regarded as an offshoot of the Rose Empire. The area is well-known for academic excellence, having had a major university established by Rhett the Tamer where he sent his own daughter. 

Luxworth is tropical and has one of the best educational systems in the world. Three of Wysdom's best universities and two of the best in the world may be found there.

Abilities: 

Crimsons can hang upside down for extended periods of time, have opposability, and also have great sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. However, they are incredibly sensitive. 

Crimsons are notoriously easily to defeat by sensory overload if necessary. This makes them weaker to light or lightning mages. 

Crimsons have great throwing ranges and are greatest at being archers of any species besides Violets.

 

Vocabulary: 

Grand Claiming - a period post the year 9000 where Owlis took over both Voto and Vytyl. 

Author's note: Anyone who read N:Era Worlds: Tunnels Under Wysdom knows that Rhett the Tamer actually died because he WON the game against Sumhyr. He proved he knew what staff member betrayed him. So Sumhyr rewarded him by dropping boiling gold on him.

Lore Recap - the Summer-Autumn War

As a note: This is only going over stuff that has been canonically mentioned and only the parts mentioned.

 

Grand Claiming Era: 

Empress Owlis of Wysdom took over all the land in Vytyl and Voto. Queens Sumhyr, Ryvoh, and Snofall all held their own territories around this time. 

Hundreds of years later, there was the 

Relinquishing: 

In a gradual process, Owlis surrendered the idea of being the worlds' monarch and instead began giving land back, even land that belonged to the various queens. 

Queen Sumhyr, owner of the Seventh Realm and Sunnyvilla, grew annoyed as her own territory was stripped away from her without permission. So she gathered the other two seasonal cousins, Ryvoh and Snofall. The three goddesses began a war to oppose Owlis.

66 years ago: 

The war began. Sandrun and Luxworth stay back to protect the main kingdom city-state of Lavandar. 

In Glacialane, Ryvoh's rebellion is countered by the sub-rebellion launched by Raynfall. 

Luxworth begins developing secret depots and train stops where supplies can be unloaded in a hidden manner.

64 years ago:

-Owlis wins the initial war, leading to a brief respite. Most of the seventh kingdom has fallen. 

-The previous queens are slowly replaced, and Sumhyr, as the leader, is exiled, while Raynfall takes over.

-Sumhyr, in exile, begins the next part of her plot.

31 Years ago:

-Sumhyr returns for a new round of fighting, however, she is pregnant. 

-Ryvoh and Snofall join in with these efforts. 

-At a final stand in the Seventh Kingdom, Owlis corners Sumhyr, but Sumhyr unleashes a blast that obliterates an entire city. After this, she vanishes, never to be seen again. 

30 years ago 

-Cyras Sumhyr is born.

Several years ago: 

The leader of the rebellion, Sumhyr, dies in the Wilds. 

Recently: 

Cyras Sumhyr enters Wysdom. 

Owlis tracks her scent back to Ryvoh and captures Ryvoh. 

Miscellaneous:

Sheerwalls, Glacialane was apparently a part of the war. Their side is unknown, however as they're from the "floodlands", they may actually have been on Ryvoh's side as the floodlands were largely loyalists to Ryvoh.

 

-Queen Jazmyn the First dies during the war, leaving Queen Jazmyn II and Queen Jazmyn the III.

Current gaps in Cyras' knowledge:

-How does a god die and is Sumhyr actually dead?

-Why did Owlis perform Relinquishing or Grand Claiming?

 

Writing Rant: Genshin and Three-Dimensional Settings

Yo, so Genshin Impact dropped our first taste of Natlan and we're gonna have non-trademarked Pokemon. Ironically, the Pokemon here are better than most that have come out in generation nine and I would actually play them, but that's neither here nor there. 

But people are already ranting on their little cellular phones about how they liked the tribal, aggressive aesthetic we were supposedly getting and now instead there's grass and cute creatures, and they thought we were going to be playing with volcanoes and we'd be dodging enemies at every moment. 

Bros. 

Calm, the hell, down. 

Like, they're having an issue that Genshin is introducing a three-dimensional setting. A land of war doesn't mean that war is the only thing people think about. Fontaine isn't a nation that only focuses on justice. Even though we see the prisons, and even though we see the courthouse is also the opera house, we still have bakeries, underground areas. And a lot of these all relate to one another and the general theme of justice, but there's more to this world than who goes to jail. 

Genshin has always been a game where you never know someone or something's full intentions, and the writers put twists in every single character quest. You might predict the twist, you might not like the twist, but there's nothing straightforward in these games. 

If there's no war, then yeah, you're probably being let down. But there is war. There's just animals and life forms living throughout. 

Guild Wars 2 has all kinds of issues with each map but you also have animals out in the wild along with the Risen. But no one has every said, "Wow, these anti-Krytan traditionalists in the shadows in Cantha really detract from the beautiful technology. You know, how am I supposed to immerse myself in End of Dragons if there are traditionalists amongst this beautiful mechanical world." 

No, we understand intuitively that all the lesser factions and all the little animals that run around like the tigers are there so we have something to fill out the world so this looks like a living, breathing world, and isn't just dedicated to the Jadepunk plot. 

Besides that, how boring would the game map be if this was just a volcano? Chances are, you're probably gonna be able to fight using your Pokemon too. 

Just, just, grow up. They're trying to appeal to more people than your stupid ass with every region of Teyvat. 

More Writing Articles? May's Agenda

I plan to move to biweekly writing articles, focused on in-depth information about specific topics. For right now, I am working on the article about how to write exposition. 

Beyond that, I plan to release a couple more parts of Tunnels Under Wysdom, with seventh being my intended goal, but eighth might be possible. Beyond that, I'm thinking of polishing a review, and I will also start posting lore droplets about various parts in the world of N:Era. 

For art, I got nothing. Just have fun.

Daily Deviation - and Future of N:Era

Here I am, listening to Fleetwood Mac, and now I've got a Daily Deviation for N:Era Worlds: Tunnels Under Wysdom, Chapter 1. 

I think my opening won them over, as Sumhyr is definitely one type of fox.

So, for those of you who haven't read yet: Tunnels Under Wysdom is both a standalone story and part of the N:Era storyline. The story revolves around entering the ruins of Aegisvale, the lost kingdom of Sumhyr/Cyras' mama who kinda rebelled against the entire Wysdom Empire. 

In short-term one-story perspective: This story is a dungeon-crawler wherein Princess Lilu of Team N:Era gets cut off by Queen Jazmyn. Therefore, the rest of the N:Era cast joins in to help regain fortune by delving into the Tunnels Under Wysdom.

In a longer-term perspective: After Cyras has found out her cousin Kryyk has come back to life (after she was the one who took him out), she goes seeking for answers. Queen Jazmyn tries to retain Lilu's Princessly Allowance as a punishment for standing against her during Cyras' trial (on the matter of whether or not Cyras attacked General Bloodstone). And finally, Kryyk returns, looking for a "key". Characters from the last story "Call of the Wolves" re-appear, such as Wasting and Snofall.

 

Okay, so, now that I've got a Daily Deviation, I want to talk about my future plans for N:Era. I've already got this story ready, and am doing final edits on later chapters as we speak. 

But, what's going to occur in the future for more N:Era is this: 

Another short will be coming out. There is no official name, but here's the 

 Synopsis: Cyras learns about Nyghtfall, the shadow fox who lives in a Chateau in Rosaberg. She helps him when his business is being attacked by a counterfeiting scam, but as they try to learn more about the perpetrators, they become inevitably mixed-up in the affairs of La Sorciere - a new faction to the N:Era universe. La Sorciere is basically this organization who performs banned rituals and spells, trying to advance the study of magic by any means necessary. 

The story also has plenty of portions focused on Nyghtfall's past in an era inspired by the Age of Sail. We will learn a lot about his various crimes in the past but can Cyras actually redeem him?

The next Novella is called Sands of Ascalon. Sands of Ascalon will be about the region of Ascalon, part of the Ascalonian Desert. Team N:Era enters Ascalon for help in a diplomatic manner, but find that no one wants to help them, especially as they're being besieged by the Fangs of Liberty. However, looking even deeper, the walls to keep the siegers out start being the walls to keep the people in. Team N:Era has to stop the tyranny within and beyond the walls, or else let everything be lost to the sands of Ascalon.

After that is a story called Archives, Ascension, Apotheosis. This story involves one of Luxworth's universities, a place of higher learning. One of Rosod's family members gets framed for Plagiarism, but oddly enough, other people have been found to be "cheating". 

A twist on a "murder mystery" that goes into the world of Academia, including political machinations behind who gets grant money, who gets laboratories, and who gets support. Nothing is sacred, not even knowledge proper. 

This story will include characters such as:

Rosaura: One of Rosod's older sisters who is a shining, bright soul, but is getting crushed by the current of the academy right now. On the year she might graduate.  

Rosetta: Rosod's eldest sister. A cynical and jaded Professor who finds negativity anywhere she goes, and yet, knows her own arrogance. Lonely and lost, she wants to take on the case for herself, but also wants to support Rosod, thinking she has everything necessary to also become part of the University. 

 

For the fifth Novella of N:Era Worlds, we've got "Beginning of the End" as the proto-type name. Cyras gets invited to a ball and a show, but mysterious goings-on occur, and Cyras finally learns more about the mystery of her own divinity and the truth of why her mother left her.

 

For the sixth and final novella of N:Era Worlds, we got--

"I never knew the truth," Cyras said, "but I always knew the lies."

Owlis asked, "And so you're saying . . . " 

"Empress Owlis, tell me the next step."

"You refuse to leave me even after learning everything?"

"I promise I will serve you, for right or wrong." 

"Why?" 

Cyras' smile almost seemed genuine as she said, "Because you're the only one I've got left." 

Also, like Cycle 1 and how we had "Liberty of Fangs", there will also be an epilogue story known as "The Final Fight On the New World". 

Synopsis: Winners and losers is a simple term. Black-and-white. However, the flag of victory looks like a checkerboard because either value is on either side. Victory must come with the greatest loss, and failure must come from the sweetest triumph. Only those who have understood this can truly master their destinies and be the authors of Fate. 

Okay, so is that going to be the end of N:Era? 

Truth is, I don't know. I don't think so. This is only Cycle Two (Worlds) of N:Era. I've got plans for more. 

Actually, speaking of more, lemme introduce my new Spin-Off, "Underlife". 

"Underlife" is a series about Misty. This story focuses on her life after the events of "Vixen of the Dead" where she tries to find a new home for herself. But after a prohibition on alcohol is placed by Queen Raynfall, crime is much more rampant, and with an increase of crime is an increase of spectral activity.

Misty, the ghost destroy, has to tame spirits and handle members of dangerous organizations, but she's not alone. She meets a fox named Sunny, and the two form a team to counter the horrors of Glacialane, while exploring this insane world. 

Underlife is focused on a bunch of people who have been wayward in life but come together as the "Weather Team". Or Disaster Team. Regardless, time to fight ghosts and save lives! This will also focus on what a person might experience in their daily lives in the world of Voto, as opposed to N:Era that centers on gods and nobles.

Underlife is still in the research and development phase and the ideas for plots and characters are still being sketched out. The story will have a limited run of such-and-such length before ending.

Anyway, thanks for reading in advance, if you do.

Neopets Nerdery: Neopets Adventure Spotlight

 I used to play Neopets Adventures a lot. Neopets was by no means a small part of my life. I would be on that site for several hours a day. I've read the Neopian Times and I also played Neopets Adventures.

So . . . what are adventures? 

Adventures are basically a choose-your-own style thing. You click play, get a pop-up window, and get choices. Each adventure was made by a user. The best of these appeared in the Spotlight. However, the Spotlight had pretty much already been defunct by the time I truly got my own Neopets account (instead of just watching Noah play). Either that, or I was never interested. 

I had an intention to play and beat every single adventure in the spotlight. I thought every adventure appeared in the Spotlight at least once, but even though I'm older and wiser, man, would beating these adventures be good. 

What I really remember is a lot of "murder mystery" type plots, wherein you kinda had to guess RNG-style, and if you died, erm, you had to re-input all your inputs. 

So, let's start off by playing an adventure. This one being 

"In Space, No One Can Hear You Score" 

( Description: High above the lands of Neopia in the super futuristic Virtupets Space Station the Gormball tournament semi finals are about to begin. Hundreds of Neopets from all across neopia have entered the competition, but you, Usula Usul, are a favorite to go all the way. Can you make it to the tournament in time and beat the reigning Gormball Champion?) 

If I am correct, this one is actually where you explore the Virtupets Space Station and might even end up getting turned to sludge. 

Ah, black background with red text, so nostalgic. 

In all honesty, I remember putting these up a lot so I'd have another window so my mom didn't get suspicious if she ever walked past. I was never doing anything, but I wanted my mom to not know I was doing nothing. 

If you ever heard the term "liminal space", that's what I feel about these. They take up my entire monitor screen if I let them and I don't have to think about anything else. I'm just in another world. Isn't that why we choose to do roleplaying games? 

And, isn't the fun part about these types of adventures just that, even though you want to win, you can freely explore bad results? 

Here are my choices. 

Already, I have the option to try and snatch food from Grundo Cafe. Wait, life in the brigg? Isn't that kinda excessive? 

Ah, I see the first thing, is you are given a "hand" by a Grundo running through the vents. And if you reject him, you go earlier into the story.

So apparently, the quickest solution is just to wait for a teleporter to be fixed (however I did end the world once. *Butthead chuckle* Cool.) Anyway, then I get to "play Gormball". Kinda interesting, but like, now I'm against Thyassa and my options are to wait 2, 4, or 7. 

This is where I tend to dislike adventures as this is basically just RNG. Well not really RNG. But like, you just have to guess. Following that I could wait a long time and still win, I decide to wait the full 7 and . . . 

Well I did eventually get Thyassa out. Maybe I did with the 7, maybe with another option. 

So anyway, yeah, I beat that one.

But if you're curious about other options: So from what I can see, this one is fairly railroady, and that's not really that bad! A lot of adventures, the good ones, require you to work on logic. Almost like obviously incorrect test answers on quizzes. These are sometimes rigged in your favor.

There's only two "good endings". However, there's actually a slight difference between Dead Ends and "the End". The Ends basically don't let you repeat the adventure, meanwhile Dead Ends give you the option to go back.

 

Adventure 2: 

Shadows in the Light, on Page 19. 

This one is kinda weird to be honest. You start off as a "Lupe" who has a mysterious backstory, but your backstory is solved so quickly. I know time passes by quicker as an adult, but seriously? You basically question where your mom is, find her, then the story ends before you even find your siblings.

I looked through other options and this . . . isn't really Neopets? Like, this literally only uses Neopets images as options, but there's plenty of non-Neopets references. 

So I thought if I tried to lose that I wouldn't be able to, but turns out, you can meet some otherwise nice Lupe and she will just knock you in your ish for saying "oh I don't wanna tell you what's going on, sorry?" Though I do find one ending is quite ominous as you don't actually die, you're just getting closer to dying. I do remember playing this before because I can remember getting a victory where you get painted.

There's a couple different options with this one, but honestly gets boring. 

Adventure 3: 

This one caught my attention, from week 24, as I was looking through options.

(An Eyrie's Tale- The Tale of Kormarant and Tessy)

 Description: Kormarant and Tessy grew up together, and always believed they'd be together forever. But when the two eyries are sold to different owners, Kormarant must venture forth, with the help of some wild eyries, to save her from Gallion Industries who has been purchasing neopets for goodness knows what reason. But without even knowing where Gallion is, can he find her in time? 

Honestly, this one feels like this might be kinda sad to me. I'll try to win this one first time instead of messing around.

Wow, this one really throws you through the gauntlet. You can make bad choices that won't affect you for a while until you hit dead ends.

Anyway, after a wildly long time playing, I finished. Erm, not really an easy adventure by any means, but also drops an ad for Mannaseh (the creator's) Eyrie farm. Anyway, well, I was invested. Was this really all that good of an adventure? No. But for some reason, this affected me. 

 

Adventure 4: 

Page 226, A Trip Through the Haunted Woods

 Description: You are an island Lupe, parading the Haunted Woods with some of your good friends. On Halloween night you decide to see if the legends are true about the Deserted Fairgrounds. When ghoulish creatures chase after you, you and your friends get lost in the Haunted Woods and try to get out.

"A Trip Through The Haunted Woods" is a great adventure that anyone can play. It is a little creepy, but very exciting at the same time. The adventure is also not the easiest but not the toughest either. It's Just right. 

 

Not really sure if I can trust that anymore.

 . . . Nah that was easy. These are starting to hurt my eyes so I think I won't go on a deep dive for this one. Let's find one or two more and call this a night. 

There's actually one small tip. When you hover over a link, you'll notice in the bottom left of your screen a small tag that says where you're going when you click said link. A lot of times, people use the same "Dead End" screen, so when you see many options, you can just look over. There will be something at the end saying Node=Number. That Number is the Page Number. If you see two nodes with the same page number, then that usually means they lead to the same page, and that usually means both lead to a death or the same dead end. And you can even try to memorize the dead end nodes. Not that hard at all.

 

Adventure 5: Whispers

Description: Poor little Whispers! Though all her friends have grown up and become really cool and colourful, she's still just a baby and doesn't seem to be growing up any time soon. Guide Whispers along in a quest for colour, and see if you can help her grow up into the Xweetok of her dreams!  

Number 252. 

. . . There's so many options, and all are supposedly "good ends". I just think the creator didn't want to use Dead End even though you get eaten. My favorite ending is where you end up turning into a Faerie, but basically, you get a 50/50. Some fates are objectively awful, like becoming a guard for a prison, but are treated as a pleasant thing. 

I call this a just-for-fun adventure. You can do whatever you want basicalyl.

Adventure 6: 

 The Negg Quest.

Number 283

 This one is pretty meh.

Adventure 7: Mist Over

Description: Here, you play an island xweetok named Sylandria...although it doesn't say in my adventure. She's relaxing on Mystery Island, and when things turn unusual and upside down, she's totally unprepared for it; and she freaks out. *gasp!*

Number 259

Several okay choices in this one, I believe. Basically, you go to Geraptiku and fight various threats. 

Overall: These are interesting. Are they fun? They can pass an evening at the very least, but even the "best" aren't always that great. There's only so much you can do.

Mental Illnesses Aren't Random

Haven't said much for the month, but what I would like to talk about is mental disorders. People really like giving their characters mental disorders, but they tend to just think trauma = spin the wheel. 

People might not be logical, but there is usually a case of causality. As in, Cause-and-Effect.

For the record here, I'm not a psychologist, and I would severely recommend you look at this up on your own, if you are intent on portraying a character a specific way. However, that being said, how characters handle their own traumas is up to a writer. The amount of character trauma that is solved through legitimate therapy, where they have breakthroughs and realizations and learn how to process grief, is negligible. 

This is for a very good reason: They're characters in a story.

For example, if you asked any random person suffering Depression where that Depression comes from, very few of them could give you a straight answer. In some cases, Depression is just hardwired into the DNA. And even when you do get a straight answer, that answer is vetted by the person, so they automatically blame family, school, or work, when the reasons are multifaceted.

In stories, everything has a reason. I mean, sure, you can have a character who just has Depression, but for the most part, you want an explanation other than Depression for Depression Rep, wa-hoo! 

Okay, so I've throat-cleared a bit. Anyway, let's talk about your character's self-concept. This is ultimately what they believe about themself as formed by input on their lives. Mental illnesses typically revolve on negative self-concepts, such as "I'm worthless", "I'm fat", "no one loves me". (I won't get into some like Schizophrenia or PTSD, because those have a wildly different source).

Bulimia is created by people thinking they're fat. Maybe they were bullied for being pudgy, or maybe they think they can't be beautiful if they aren't skinny, or maybe their mom kept saying how fat they were. 

A person who thinks they're worthless because they failed to realize their dreams isn't getting Bulimia (probably), they're getting Depression (maybe). Depressed people don't eat because they lack the energy or think they're worthless. Bulimics don't eat because they think they're fat. 

"Emotions aren't logical". 

Oddly enough, they usually are. 

Let's take a character who suffers from low self-esteem. Why? Well, when he was young, his parents never let him help out around the house, afraid he'd break everything, and just took care of everything, so he has no self-sufficiency. And in-school, no one cared that he got good grades, so he never thought those mattered. 

I'm going to take one of my own characters, Misty, from "Vixen of the Dead". She suffers from Depression, and her real self-concept is "I hurt people and I'm not sure if I hate that or not". 

From her childhood, she was harsher and more driven than others to survive and win, maybe as a result of being abandoned by her father, maybe as a result of something else. As she grew up, others feared her power. 

Being a wilder, she wasn't allowed near people too often, and when she was, she couldn't understand them very well. What she knew was that hunting spirits felt good, and the best way to keep people out of the woods was to break their kneecaps. At least one. 

However, after her rageful adolescence, she reaches a more melancholic adulthood. Is what she did actually wrong? Why was she so violent? Is she at fault because no one loves her? 

Everybody does have their own personality, and there's not always going to be straightforward "mental illnesses". Honestly, some characters have clear mental disorders that the author isn't even aware of. 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and one more thing: Narcissism means more than just "I think I'm better than everyone else", and, in fact, that's not even how Narcissism works. Stop calling everyone you know a Narcissist, or I'm going to tell everyone you called your parents the N-word

Thank you.