What are some chronic illnesses that can only occur in a fantasy setting?
Partial transformation - mummy rot is slowly turning you to sand, a near miss from a medusa left you with partially stoned body parts, etc.
Hypnotic suggestions from being mind controlled persist after the controller’s death, causing the victim to occasionally take actions to support the cause of a mind flayer cult that no longer exists.
Repeated demonic possession has left the patient with permanent gaps in their soul’s defenses, causing them to immediately get re-possessed if they go outside a consecrated area.
Post-resurrection trauma as the revived soul remembers an unpleasant afterlife.
Magical healing can get very weird if something is stuck in the wound. It’ll get you back on your feet, but you can get outcomes like “there’s a chunk of wood fused into your chest because the magic couldn’t figure out how to get the arrow out of your chest and just healed it in place,” and this can cause mobility issues or infection vectors down the line.
SHealth tied to something else - the health of a tree, the amount of frost on the ground, the inverse of another person’s, the political power of whoever cursed you
Curse of bad luck - makes any small illness or injury potentially fatal if not treated with anti-curse in addition to anti-infection procedures
Magical reliance on a magical or nonmagical substance - can have any number of side effects
Repeatedly being drunk by vampires can cause an increase in blood production and therefore high blood pressure and related ailments. Can be treated by blood letting.
There’s a lot of hybridization happening in a lot of fantasy settings, and that’s just asking for a lot of people with weird half-dragon genetic disorders. Works out fine for some people, not so much for others.
Parasitized by (insert creature here). If you don’t take the correct precautions to keep it dormant it will continue to spread and eventually hatch out/transform you.
Repeated contact with the undead has left you open to their influence - leading to hearing or seeing things that other mortals can’t, which can distort or distract from more mundane concerns.
Alternately to being more vulnerable to intrusion, one’s soul can form a scar that makes helpful magic more difficult to take in.
Sleep disorders that make one fall into an impenetrable sleep at a specific trigger, or to do so for years at a time.
Out of phase with 4D space, one’s body not connected to itself or anchored in place/time in the usual way. There could be a consistent two hour gap between the things you hear and what has happened, you might clip into the floor as if it was in a different place for you, or you might slide through the material plane in cross section.
Intermittent intangibility.
Split into two people, each with only half your traits.
Stuck in a mirror.
Sensitivity to ambient magic - like the thing where peoples’ joints ache before a storm but for being near ley lines or people with a lot of magic built up or other magic reservoirs. - The potential for magic, but where the magic has not yet begun.
Heal spell dependency: years of repeated serious injuries being healed by magic causes the body to stop healing naturally. seen often in professional fighters and those with a long career in hazardous occupations.
the forgotten dread: memory modification magic has caused the subject’s conscious mind to forget some past trauma, but their subconscious still remembers, causing them emotions that they cannot explain or justify ranging from mild discomfort to blind panic when presented with triggers related to the aforementioned trauma. often encountered in cases where the subject has paid an unscrupulous mage to make them forget their past as an ill-advised alternative to therapy.
Psychically Transmitted Memories: the subject’s mind has been linked to another person’s and, although the bond has since been severed, they have retained memories or thought patterns from the other person that are difficult to distinguish from their own.
Negative Life Syndrome (previously “False Life Syndrome”): seen most often in cases when the subject is exposed to dark magic while in the womb, Negative Life Syndrome leaves the subject’s life energies tainted by undeath without making them truly undead. common symptoms include intolerance of radiant magic, aversion to sunlight, and the inability to set foot on hallowed ground; rare symptoms include healing from negative energies, sudden necrosis, and the desire to eat flesh or drink blood of living beings.
lycanthropy
Early Life Possessions: the subject was possessed by a spirit or demon during early childhood or infancy, and the possessing presence was in control of them when they learned important milestones, such as how to walk or speak. The subject is now dependant upon the possessing presence to help them perform these tasks or, in cases where the presence has since been exorcised, performs the relevant tasks at a level appropriate for an infant or small child.
Body requires nutrients not found in human food, and you must eat rocks, or gems, or some other alternative. You may or may not have the ability to actually digest these without magical assistance
Awareness of too many dimensions makes it difficult to interact with just this one - either to keep track of conversations, or walk to specific locations without ending up on another planet instead
Telekinetic psychosis - delusions tend to physically affect those around you (but HIGH chance for ableism in this one!)
you have flare-ups where your skin tends to slough off and be replaced by some other substance
After sharing life energy with a dying loved one, you’re now both trying to survive off one person’s supply. Like chronic fatigue, but if your loved one gets too big of a bruise you won’t have the energy to get up until it heals
living in reverse
stuck at a certain age
supersenses lead to constant overstimulation
you’re a changeling, and if you don’t have someone who loves you close by, you’ll turn back into sticks and mud
One that I like is the idea that paladins (and anybody else with supernatural immunity to disease) have their own “disease” in the form of severe allergies. If you’re magically insulated from ever catching any disease, ever, your immune system isn’t getting any kind of natural use. So it overreacts to everything. Being immune to being sick makes them “sick.”
Mages that have complications of their own magic, such as Pyromancers overheating if they don’t let off a fireball now and then, or conversely, being prone to hypothermia and needing their fire magic in order to stay warm.
hey do you have any tips on plot development? how to do come up with relevant but dramatic things to keep the plot going? i also don’t want to make it too intense?
coughing up blood trope but the blood is a different color than it’s supposed to be send post
no I’m not done with this actually
frothy, white and pink, like something rabid, accompanied by maddened eyes, by heavy breathing, by unfiltered, raw terror
black and thin like ink, like a curse from within, like the very essence of life is removed from the bloodstream and replaced with something else
black and thick like coffee grounds, like the inner workings of your organs are tearing themselves apart, like you have very little time left to live at all
blue, choked, horrifically stale blue. something is deeply, deeply wrong with you. are you breathing? why aren’t you breathing?
milky white and it’s not supposed to be that way, you were always told you bleed red. but now it’s on your hands and your lips and they’re looking at you and knowing you’re made of metal. say goodbye to your humanity; you were never deserving of it anyway.
something neon and glowing and radioactive that pools in your hands and the irises of your eyes, that transforms you, that takes hold and plays your puppet strings. the newest zombie in the apocalypse.
ichor gold. you have been made into something holy. whatever you were doesn’t matter. what do the gods ask of you? spill your blood on the altar. this is what you were made into. be grateful. die pretty.
I’ve been giving this writing advice to a lot of my friends lately so I’ll do a mumbling post about it here.
You gotta play dolls with your characters.
Slap them in AUs, make silly fanfiction, make “what if?” senarios. You gotta recreate the feeling of taking your toys out as a kid and improv-ing a story on the spot. You’ll get a sense of what makes them who they are outside of their main storyline.
Take a piece of yourself, expand and explore upon it. Create characters and storylines that are love letters to those you’ve cared most about. Take that little ball of hate and/or despair and give yourself a little therapy lesson.
Be bored! Be frustrated! Be unsatisfied! “Someone should make a story about ___” YOU should make that story! If you aren’t satisfied with the media you see, make for yourself the story you DO want to see! Don’t worry about how others will view it. For right now, for right at the beginning, the only way you’re gonna make progress is if you’re having a bit of fun.
Yeah, sure, seeing new things is helpful as a fantasy writer. But. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that exposure to new things is the same as traveling. You know what else exposes you to new things? The internet. Documentaries. Books. Freaking Youtube. So when you’re bored of cats and cooking tutorials, go on an adventure!
TRUTH. What you need is imagination, and you don’t need to go anywhere to use it.
The best thing about the internet is that it means its not just the fortunate sons that get to learn, and explore and imagine and write. We get to see stories from all over the place, from all sorts of people, who bring All Kinds of New Ideas.
If u want to write a story about a character that’s just you but hotter with a dark twisted backstory and magical powers and a pet falcon or something, I think u should just go ahead and do that. Who’s gonna stop you? The government?? Fuck the police.
What if someone barges in, points at said character and scream, “Mary Sue!”
Tell them to come back with a warrant
This post came across my dash again and now I am having an absolute blast with self insert hotter me that gets the girls and guys everywhere.
it’s literally the evilest thing in the world to finally have time to write but then be tired. like wow you’re telling me these two hours before going to bed are completely free but my brain is just Not Feeling It? fuck off
✧ Broken ribs suck. You don’t just “walk it off.” Breathing hurts. Laughing hurts. Existing hurts. Characters with rib injuries won’t be doing heroic sprints.
✧ Concussions aren’t instant naps. Dazed vision, nausea, dizziness, maybe even personality changes, but they’re not going to collapse neatly like in the movies.
✧ Blood loss is sneaky. It’s not just about dramatic pools of blood. It’s dizziness, confusion, and the body getting cold as circulation tanks.
✧ Adrenaline lies. Someone can take a serious injury and not feel it until the fight’s over. That “I didn’t realize I was bleeding until later” trope? Very real.
✧ Twisted ankles are brutal. One bad step and suddenly running is off the table. Even walking hurts like hell. Perfect way to ground a chase scene.
✧ Burns linger. Even small burns hurt more than most people expect. Blisters, infection risk, constant pain, it’s not just a cool scar later.
✧ Dislocated shoulders = useless arm. Characters can’t keep swinging a sword or firing a gun. They’re basically fighting one-armed until it’s fixed.
✧ Shock is a thing. Pale skin, trembling, rapid heartbeat, and eventually disorientation. A character might not even realize how bad their wound is.
✧ Stitches aren’t magic. Getting sewn up is painful and recovery takes time. They’re not instantly battle-ready after a needle and thread.
✧ Scars tell stories. Some fade, some don’t. Some stay sensitive forever. Don’t forget the aftermath when the wound becomes part of the character.
coughing up blood trope but the blood is a different color than it’s supposed to be send post
no I’m not done with this actually
frothy, white and pink, like something rabid, accompanied by maddened eyes, by heavy breathing, by unfiltered, raw terror
black and thin like ink, like a curse from within, like the very essence of life is removed from the bloodstream and replaced with something else
black and thick like coffee grounds, like the inner workings of your organs are tearing themselves apart, like you have very little time left to live at all
blue, choked, horrifically stale blue. something is deeply, deeply wrong with you. are you breathing? why aren’t you breathing?
milky white and it’s not supposed to be that way, you were always told you bleed red. but now it’s on your hands and your lips and they’re looking at you and knowing you’re made of metal. say goodbye to your humanity; you were never deserving of it anyway.
something neon and glowing and radioactive that pools in your hands and the irises of your eyes, that transforms you, that takes hold and plays your puppet strings. the newest zombie in the apocalypse.
ichor gold. you have been made into something holy. whatever you were doesn’t matter. what do the gods ask of you? spill your blood on the altar. this is what you were made into. be grateful. die pretty.
the number 1 rule of fanfic is have fun and be yourself. the number 2 rule is the average healthy adult male can lose roughly 2 liters of blood before dying.
