"A body makes there own luck, be it good or bad" - Laura Ingalls Wilder

I have been reading a lot lately.

Mostly on Substack but also audiobooks, I have finished Rich Dad Poor Dad (Robert Kiyosaki) so many things to talk about in that book, and now I am reading "The Millionaires Fast Lane" (MJ DeMarco).

These two books have a similar vibe just different wording,

Making money is a skill.

Let that sink in quickly because I was not brought up to believe this. Making money (in a capitalist society) is a skill not luck

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Are successful people lucky?

I think they are but in the same way, if you take a 1 in 10 change 100 times you will score 10 times. It's more about doing the same thing many times than getting lucky.

MJ talks about how most successful people have a process not a random chance. I haven't met a writer who posted on substack "Hey guys thanks for 1000 followers after my first blog I ever wrote." No, everyone on here writes for years sometimes decades before anyone cares. Fuck, I have been writing since I was 12 and I have 10 subscribers to show for it.

So no I think most people work fucking hard for their luck and we should recognise the effort put in instead of discrediting the achievement by blaming luck.

My 100 chances

I set myself the goal of writing 100 blog posts, at my current rate I will finish this in about 2025. I am posting about 75% of them so that means by late 2025 I hope to have 75 blog posts out. I have been gaining around 1 subscriber per post. That means I could have 75 subscribers by the time I am done writing. That is fucking cool!

I am so glad I started this I can see myself next year being glad I started. Yes, some people will see it as luck and talk about the algorithm, but those here on Substack who came along for the journey will know better.

What will your 100 chances be?

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PS, I hope you enjoyed this mid-week post, given my goal is 100 posts I thought posting one mid-week would mean on Sunday I would still need something to write for this week (trick my ADHD into thinking I have a deadline), maybe 3 posts this week? I would love to get to 100 posts this year? Imagine what that could look like...

Stats at time of writing:

10 subscribers
37 followers
162 views in the last 30 days
56.25% open rate.
(I stole this from Jake Edwards on YouTube, It seems cringe now but will be cool if I get anywhere)

I am posting these on Substack becuase I would fucking love to read this exsact blog so here you go!

This week I have been reading Million Dollar Weekend. My favorite idea from it is rejection quoters. The idea is to instead of trying to get sales or something good. You look to get rejections. If you offer 100 people something you might get 10 sales. By Aiming for the rejections you will be less bothered by the rejections as you wanted them anyway. Very useful for people with rejection anxiety.

Money made for the week from side projects:

- Tutoring. £30 for two lessons

- DND session for 6 kids. £48

Substack.

First none IRL subscriber

23 followers

2 consecutive weeks of posting a blog on a Sunday

Ideas validated this week.

Some sort of service for finding in-person therapists.

People who want therapy find therapists. Not being able to find one seems only an excuse to most people in this situation so of the 3 people asked 0 would pay for me to find them therapists.

Had a chat with a therapist, they do not have issues finding a clients

In conclusion, this idea does not pass validation

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Shocking I know, I am not the first, nor the last. Most people don't like working for others but this dislike motivates me in a way It doesn't most other people.  

I was a student ambassador for a year and I really enjoyed it, I liked helping people with their problems and the freedom to do the job how I wanted, I didn't have a script to read from when giving a tour.

What I didn't like was the management, the people who shot down good ideas because it wasn't the plan. Maybe I am biased, other people don't want to be creative for £10 but I cannot help it, I love finding solutions to problems. Doesn't matter how much I am making, I like it.

I want to work for myself, I want to follow my interests and the problems I see in the world and get the chance to fix them, and hopefully make enough money to feed my DnD addiction. When you spend as much time in the entrepreneur space online you see so much trash, for every and on Substack there are 100s of people trying to do the same thing and giving bad or meaningless advice.

I want to be one of the people giving good advice but it's hard to seem genuine in a space full of people trying to make it simple by saying whatever will get them to the top.

I have no real solutions other than writing about what I have really learnt and what I really care about. I hope this comes through in my writing.

Have a great week!

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PS. I am currently reading a book called "Million Dollar Weekend". In it, he recommends getting a friend to invest £1 in you to practice selling. I already made that sale and I am writing a weekly report on the things I am trying. If you want to read these reports I am going to turn on substack paid subscriptions for as low as they go, anyone who upgrades will get these reports. I hope they are helpful,

• Culture

• Myth

• Apprence

• Followers

• Symbol

Culture

I always start with culture first, this is an idea from this Matt Coville video

I started using this when I wrote the gods of the city Neola, I found it useful then as it helped me develop the people in the city as well as the gods.

The idea is, to start with what the people feel like, which informs what gods are like. In my world, the Dragons care about, order, knowledge art, and magic. This is a useful baseline, while world-building lore often implies the gods came first, as in many cultures, but gods are a manifestation of what the people believe.

Next, I write a small amount about what that means, for instance for Draconic culture they live so long that their main enemy is time and entropy, this means they value art that lasts a long time, writing will decay when written on paper and the language will change. What they value is things in Stone.

The Myth

Next, I ask myself, why is this thing a god? What did they do? This tends to be something big enough to grab another god's attention. For this god of art, I decided that he had been a great artist in life but had gone insane, he attempted to turn the world into his own ultimate canvas by bringing winter with him to the whole world. He was defeated and died, after death his soul was tried and he was made into the titan of art, and winter.

Appearance

What do they look like? What do they look like in the stories? Is there something in our world that is attributed to this god? For this god, I wrote the following

Kunst is a White Silver dragon who is depicted in stories of bringing almost part of a winter storm, where ever he went ice and snow followed. He has red eyes that shine in the night. Some say the Howells you here in high wind are his screams

If you know where I got Kunst from I know its a little blatant

When writing this part I try to think of what is both dramatic and easy to reference. If a player wanted to worship this god it would be easy to write a dream sequence with them in, snow plus red eyes. Done, it's easy to imagine and remember, this is important for players who might be getting bombarded with information during a session.

Followers

Most gods are worshipped by some group or another, is it a church? or an order of knights? or a cult? For Kunst, it's a cult, a group who believes that they must work to help him bring endless winter to get to the afterlife. I always give them a dress code or a type of something to make them notable if they know where to look. For this cult, the higher-ups are gifted weapons made of ice and the cult focuses on ice magic.

Symbol

Finally, what is the god's symbol, what is the crest that a paladin or cleric of the church would have on their shield? I think you get this one, for Kunst, it's an icicle.

I hope that was useful, this is a new type of content I am trying out. If you want advice on any gods you are writing for your world leave a comment below.

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When I was young 15 minutes of work felt like a lot.

14-year-old me would sigh at the thought of doing anything for 5 minutes let alone a GCSE. That's not to say I didn't enjoy learning, some of my best childhood memories are of classes I went to. I spent years going to a creative writing class (still miss Neil Ruckman), but I bearly worked. I loved the ideas and hearing other people's ideas but did I write like I do now? Nope. The amount I wrote above would have been a peak day for 14-year-old Frederica.

Now Dylexsia played its part, writing 100 words when your handwriting speed is 6 words a minute takes.... 100/6 15 minutes.... wait that didn't prove my point.

Well, I wasn't a kid who liked work. I think that's pretty unpopular to say. I am probably ADHD and Autistic so while I agree there was a reason I didn't like to work even by neurospicy standards. I REALLY didn't like to work.

While my friends wrote in their free time and did art, I played games... so many games. As I got older I started to need to work and it was so much effort. I did my GCSEs spending less than 5 hours a week studying outside of classes. I was always told to work more but I never wanted to, nothing made me care enough

I wish in some ways I had a graph to show my average working hours but it looks something like this:

1. It should be noted that I would in short very intense bursts and these numbers do not include breaks, when I am working and look at my phone I turn off my timer tracking how much I work.

2. I also want to clarify that when I talk about hours of work I mean the time I spend working, I discount breaks and time spent trying to work from that number. An hour sitting at my desk not working when I should be does not count. For more context here is a calendar showing a very busy week for me in terms of focused work

While the numbers show an increase what they don't show is the relationship with work. Now when I look at a day of uni work ahead it doesn't scare me, I never wonder if I can achieve the things I want to anymore. What is wilder to me is I now take on extra work on the sides, I try to write this blog, I run DnD games and I tutor.

So why do I enjoy work now when I didn't used to? My values have changed.

When I was a teenager I valued:

• pleasure

• problem-solving

• competing against myself

Now I value:

• expressing myself

• problem-solving

• competing against myself

Pleasure is no longer one of my driving factors and so the way I get my problem-solving and chances to compete are different. Now that I don't need to be enjoying activity on a base level I can take a more balanced approach and do things I don't enjoy in the moment that have value in a deeper sense. In other ways, type two is fun.

Delayed gratification is f!@#ing hard as someone with ADHD, my brain hates it. Lucky for methen, that I am not just my brain.

While a lot of this can be put down to age I think some of it is also a mindset, if you don't update your values as you grow older you will be stuck in the same loops. You are responsible for your actions. Your actions are a result of what you value.

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I have been thinking about how I learn new skills after my friend told me I had a lot of skills. They think I, compared to the average, have a lot of skills and I am pretty good at most of them. It didn't sit right with me. From my perspective, I have so many things I wish I could do or that I tried and failed, to list a few, Guitar, blogging and so many sports I tried to be good at.

I stopped guitar because I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere, I took forever to start blogging and posting it places and I stopped Rocket League when I was kicked from a team after almost making £5,000. Before you continue reading, have a skill in mind you want but haven't got, and try to see which of these is the reason stopping you

No one is born good at anything. Have you seen 3-year-olds paint their family, watched their plays, or seen them play sports? No, they are not good at anything, Steve Jobs wasn't born knowing how to code, Taylor Swift couldn't write songs, and Lewis Hamilton couldn't drive a car at 3. All of these people were beginners once. When it's about ourselves we will often say and think things like "I wish I could draw", and "I wish I could sing". Everyone started once, you can too.

But I hear you think, "I should have started sooner all these people started when they were children, and I am over 15"? I assume most of you are over 15. If you are thinking this I have a question. If someone doesn't learn to drive at 17 while we wait. To paraphrase Joanna again, During the pandemic, many people struggled to get driving lessons, do we now doubt they will ever learn to drive? There is some change when we are teenagers where we stop feeling able to learn new skills.

If you don't start you will 100% never learn the things you want. If you start and give yourself the chance to learn you at least have a chance. How many people do you know who learned a skill late in life, I know plenty of people who learned to knit late in life, learn to drive in their 30s, or change their job as late as their 50s. How many people who really put time into something completely fail to learn it. Yes, genetics play a part but it's the last 1% not the first 99%.

With this in mind, how do we start new things? As a child, we tried new things all the time, in different groups and for most in school. What did we do differently than we do as adults?

Pressure: Matt Colvill says "You develop taste before skill". As a child, you don't care so much if you are good at something, in fact, you bearly notice. As an adult learning a musical instrument, you are painfully aware of the missed notes and mistakes because you probably already have taste in music. We put pressure on ourselves to be good instantly. You often hear adults say to children "Practice makes perfect" but I think it's rare someone our age thinks that.

Time: as a kid, you had more time than you knew what to do with, now time is expensive. Most adults on some level have an hourly rate just not working, are you willing to spend that time to learn a skill for fun? You should be but it can be harder to find time. With my desire to learn to blog I go to a coffee shop to write. (I am writing this partly because I ran out of data 5 minutes ago and now I have to write if I want to go home.) I set up this coffee shop as my writing place deliberately, now when I come here my brain is in writing mode. That investment of time helps a lot.

For me having a system helps allow me to put the time in and I reduce the pressure by allowing myself to do the smallest possible instead of being amazing right away. The system that has worked for me to learn the most is in x steps:

1. Have a certain place you go

2. Go regularly

3. Stay 5 minutes

This system has worked for darts, blogging, and video games. let's look at darts as an example. I had a certain place on campus I liked going to, shout out Pendle Rooms. I went at first twice a week, once to practice and once for matches. When I was alone I would sometimes stay as little as 5 minutes if I wasn't feeling it but most of the time once you are there and it is something you like you get into the rhythm of it. For blogging I have a cafe I like, I go once a week with my partner, and I try to write at least 50 words. I hope you see the pattern.

I hope you got some value out of this, this post was originally going to be also about how to keep going as well but I felt I had more to say about this, if you enjoyed and want to see more stuff like this, subscribe to the email list or download substack and follow me if you dislike emails. If you have anything you'd like me to cover leave a comment below or email me back.

I got my grades back on a piece of work I got back and this was the feedback: 2/10 on part of it "Shows little to nothing of value". Danm moderators hit the needle deeper. There was 0 feedback on why I got that grade just that grade by itself. Despite getting that as part of the grade I got 50% on the module as a whole. The bad stuck with me, my top grades on my reflective writing part of the module didn't.

The human brain works by focusing on these negatives as a survival instinct. It is much more important you remember which plant killed your uncle than which plant was the best in the meal you are making. it can be difficult to overcome this. I am not about to start a conversation about therapy around this topic and how mindfulness might help you. I recommend the book "Why Has No One Ever Told Me That Before" if you want that information.

Instead, I want to talk about the ideas from the book I have been reading, Feel-Good Productivity. (Ah yes my weekly reference to Ali Abdaal.) In his book, he talks about the 3 Ps of work. Play, power, people. I think getting feedback and grades can hit all three of these. It has made me feel isolated before, I feel powerless to control them. How can we change this?

I think talking to friends you trust about your grades can be very powerful. I thought I did terribly on an assignment this term but when I chatted with my friendship group I did pretty much bang on with everyone else. If you're ahead you can lead a hand explaining your choices and might learn something. If you are behind maybe you can learn from them. Again I stress make sure they are people you trust not to shit on you.

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Power. How do we take back power when getting grades? I think it can be easy to reject bad grades as a way to take power back. This comes in two forms "I didn't care about that anyway" and "That's not the grade I deserve". I think while similar these two feelings come from the same place, trying to get power back, they need different solutions.

I didn't care anyway. This is our brain's way of taking back power by changing the rules. If you didn't care then you didn't try so the grade is what you expected. I think we have all been here. Changing this mindset is different for everyone but the biggest issue I see when you're in this mindset is not learning anything. When you reject the grade as invalid because you don't care you also reject all the lessons you could learn. It's not an easy thing to overcome but if you are here I recommend trying to reduce the stress on yourself. Expect the bad grade and instead of beating yourself up and rejecting it, try to expect the bad grade and try to learn one thing that can get you 1% better grade next time. 1% compounds pretty quickly.

If you reject the grade because it's not what you deserve or you feel wronged by the marking system listen up. I think most people like you are also rejecting the grade to regain power but you are assigning blame externally which is more dangerous. Not only that, when you go and attack the marker asking why you got. A bad grade normally makes them defensive and less likely to help you. I think anger is a normal reaction but realistically you cannot control your grades all you can do is control inputs. Fuel that energy into your next assignment instead of getting angry about the past.

While assignments and getting grades are never going to be a thing we do for fun trying to focus on the ways we have power and the people we have around us can make them less awful an experience. If you enjoyed this subscribe below and leave a comment on your experience with getting grades.

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I think it's easy to believe the ups and downs are controllable. I was pretty deep in the kind of productivity bro space as a teenager, and I believed on some level I needed to be more "disciplined" to "fix" my issues around not doing enough work. I can remember particularly around the age of 16 certain teachers in my life telling me "I needed to get my act together".

I am in a different space now. I started reading "Feel Good Productivity" (I swear I have changed from when I was 16) and it has been very interesting. I am only halfway through, and I might (depending on my ADHD) write a review of it in more detail. It's really speaking to a part of me that's been growing for a while. I told my therapist this time last year I wanted to stop postponing happiness. I didn't want to keep telling myself I would be happy tomorrow, next year, when I get a job. This was transformative, particularly after a very different period in my first year, but it has had the consequence of me slightly losing sight of what I want to do tomorrow.

The dreams are still there; I still want to work in tech. I still probably want to start my own business, but the choices to make that happen are not. Last term, I had a very similar chance to the one I worked on yesterday, but instead of taking it, using time at the weekend I let it slide by. As mentioned above, I think this was in large part due to my ADHD being in a bad place, but I think it was also this lack of caring about tomorrow.

I watched a Doctor K video and in it, he talks about the idea of living life like you are not the person who you will be tomorrow. When we go to sleep, we will wake up new. This person should be seen as your friend; you don't want to screw them over, right? If that's the case when you say "I will do that tomorrow" you're asking that person to do something but you have no idea if they are able to. 16-year-old me would have taken this as "no breaks, you must work every second from now on." I hope I am a little wiser now.

It's easy to only see this from a work point of view "eat the frog" as they say (bad advice for neuro spicy folk) but it works both ways. If you don't rest at the weekend, your future self has to work next week when tired. If you don't put your phone away before bed, tomorrow you is going to wake up stressed. If you only eat chocolate for lunch, 4 pm you is going to feel it. I was doing that towards the end of last term and the start of this year; me had a very stressful exam season because of it.

This term I want to put in work now while I am happy and I have the energy to do it. I am also going to make sure that when I am in my low points I will take the time I need to rest, even if that means leaving some grades on the table. Most importantly, I want to plant a few seeds for future me to grow. I am going to keep writing this blog (the number of posts I am looking for by 2026 is 100 Big number I know) and I am going to try to keep doing some professional things like the competition I entered this weekend.

Hope you enjoyed that one and it made sense <3

I am going to spell check this with chat GPT all you dylexsics out there it works great

Fiction of the week: Pride and Prejudice and the City

None-fiction of the week: Feel Good Productivity

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This is a slightly odd post. Below you will find a thing (Document? a bunch of short stories?) I wrote over xmas 2023. It’s bassed of Mat colvils World Building steams, I worte it while listening to him write his world. This is for the city Neola which I might post more on later.

The TLDR is that the Drow split from my elves 800 years ago ish at the battle of 5 words. These are the Drow gods that have come in that time.

Anyway. I promissed myself when I started this that I would post random stuff on this blog just for me “Writing about her life” and while this is not technocally my life it is what I did with my life over xmas so I guess you can enjoy it. :D

Also I am going to take a differnt apporach to spell checking moving forward, this forward was not spelled checked (see xmas), as a dylexsic spell checking this to a neurotyipcal standard would take longer than writing it so we are just gonna move past it. The rest of this was spelled checked with chat GPT which did a pretty insanely good job if you ask me.

Enjoy <3

Ikal The Planner, Fate of the past. Make your own future

The Neolians believe that everyone has the power to decide their own fate; they think that the gods reward the people with clear goals who carefully plan their lives.

Ikal helps the other gods plan. He loves a good plan or scheme. Right before Neolians attempted a plan they will often pray to Ikal with a simple,

Ikal lost his eyes in a bet he made with Zac-Kuk in his youth. He was full harder and believed he could outthink them quickly. The other god had planned carefully and to show the young god the power of forethought he took the god's eyes. That way he would always have to plan as he could not see where he was going. This is why he is the Fate of the Past in Neolian Culture. He cannot see forward only remember.

Zac-Kuk The Diviner, Fate of the future. Divination magic

The Neolians put high stock in fortunes and readings, the art of Tarokka comes from House Nelona before The Battle of five words. Some of the great divinators of the modern age including Rary come from Nelona.

Zac-Kuk is the creator of the Tarokka deck. He gave it to the earlier Neolians as a way to see the future. All of the futures would kill a mortal but by giving them this deck they may see a little without being harmed. He is called the Diviner as it is his great visions which often guide the gods. There were some great visions which affected the gods.

Zanzor Devil Of The Time Stealer. Time Management

Neolians believe that when you are late for something Zanzor steals that wasted time and uses it for evil. It is believed you can make a deal with Zanzor for that time back but it will cost you something in the future. Parents will tell their children "Don't be late or Zanzor will steal your future." Adults will use the expression, "Did Zanzor get you?" if you arrive late somewhere. This is normally a joking remark but can be seen as deeply offensive.

It is considered poor judgment to be late in Nelona. People take great care to be on time places.

Aspect of the Zanzor Imprisonment. Time Piece

Most buildings have time schedules, clocks are placed throughout Neola. Watches are a massive part of the High Society. The best watches in the world are from Neola.

It is believed that a clock running on the correct time is a prison for Zanzor. He is trapped in time and cannot steal any without notice.

Meztli The Conductor, The Great Game, Fate of the present

In Neolian, it is believed you are able to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and become something. The city works on a democratic capitalist system and there is a stance among any that the poor are poor because they don't work hard enough. This is different from the Empire where the poor are seen as being born stupid, and the Surface elves who believe in fairness. The Neolians believe in hard work and opportunity.

Meztli Is seen as the referee of the game. It is them that will cause the downfall of the lazy or the cheats. He will ensure that the hard workers prove able.

The name Conductor comes from the way Neolians see him as rather than directly affecting he conducts the game like an orchestra, a seemingly small event somewhere else will have big consequences on the overall game. It is rare someone will pray directly to him. They are more likely to pray to someone from the Honesty pantheon.

Aspect of Meztli Gifts. Philanthropy

While it is believed that people are poor because they don't try hard enough there is an awareness that the best need help to escape poverty. The rich are encouraged to give chances to the poor and will give jobs and money to the poor.

Yoltzin Titan of Family

Yoltzin was once one of the foremost thinkers and philosophers in House Nelona. He was one of the leading voices of decent against the High Elf ways. He had a vision from Zac-Kuk which showed him that new elves where not being made as more and more where sent to the Noctus. He was excommunicated from society but after The Battle of five words he joined the Neolians in the underdark and took his place among them. He was made a Titan on his Death 100 years ago. He is still sometimes seen walking the streets and his writings can be found in The Great Library.

His writing is what led the Neolians to reproduce and is the reason there are so many of them. Neolians will often change their family name if they wish to make a name for themselves, if your parents got rich it is seen as a challenge to the child to beat them. It is seen as very bad if you lose a fortune or power gained by an ancestor.

Yoltzin Aspect of the open home. Multicultural

They welcome people from all walks of lives to try to win the Great Game. They also welcome outsiders to join their army and navy as Neolians believe it beneath them.

The Fates

The Fates (Past present and future in Breasea) are called, Ikal The Planner, Meztli The Conductor and Zac-Kuk The Diviner.

Hun-Nal-Ye, The Tinkerer Alchemy

Hun-Nal-Ye translates to "The Tinkerer". He is the god of Alchemy. He is the Neolians god of magic and was trapped by the fates in the Plane of no Doors. In Neolian mythology, he was trapped because he tried to cheat the great game by making a new race from the parts of other races and attempting to take over the worlds. Hun-Nal-Ye believed they created the "perfect" race. This led to a battle that he lost. His race was destroyed but for one, Vargrath.

The great Neolian divinators saw a future where the elves were left behind by the other races of the Multiverse in their technological advancements. They take great interest in all advancements and see the fields of magic and science interconnected. They prefer physical creations to theoretical ones. Rar was the first to create a telepathic link between multiple people at once but was not the one to figure out its possibility.

Neolains have mostly forgotten the warning tale of Hun-Nal-Ye and now children are expected to grow up to invest in a new spell or develop a new machine. In some corners, the scholars of the old text warn of the dangers of making too many Machines.

Aspect of Hun-Nal-Ye the Conqueror. Violence

The Neolians despise bloodshed and see it as primitive. They outsource much of their army to others, relying on diplomacy and greater technology to fight off enemies. It is seen as dishonorable to defeat enemies with violence or trickery. The battlefield of choice is words or a court of law.

### Great Valoak The Metal parent

Great Valoak is believed to be the parent to all Valoak and magical atomitones. From the Puppets used at the circus to all of the family Valoaks. Great Valoak fought at The Battle of five words and was destroyed leading to them becoming a Titan. It is believed that one day an Automaton will grow powerful enough to find the parts of Great Valoak and rebuild them. Some of the Automatons believe this will signal the start of their age.

Acan. Titan of The Warforges

Acan is portrayed as a humble warforged who was wronged by the family they worked for. It is told as a story to scare children and to show them why you should treat the Warforges with respect. Most Neolains do not believe that Acan is even real, but some of the Warforges believe that they are just biding their time till they will return. Others believe they are searching for Great Valoak.

Warforges are an old Neolian tradition dating back to the creation of Golems or Valoak as they call them date back hundreds of years. These Golems are Family creation being innovated on as they are passed down. When the Neolians came to the World Below they required more workers to build their city and developed Warforged as a cheaper, simpler alternative. In the last 100 years, these Warforged have become sentient but have not yet been accepted into society fully. There is mounting social pressure for the lawmakers to decide on their future.

Chen Titan of Light

Each morning a Chen pulls a magically glowing orb across the sky. This was once a warforged but it quickly became a Valoak and gained sentience. It is a simple-minded creature (int 5) but enjoys its work. It gained a following in the city particularly amongst the city folk who knew less about it. It became a Titan after it defended the city from a Purple worm by using the sun to blind it and trick it until the Army could get there. It was rebuilt and gifted its titan hood by the Great Valoak.

Stella God of the Arts

Stella is the collector of godly knowledge. They tell the stories of the great battles with Hun-Nal-Ye.

The Neolian people love spectacle and drama. The playwrights and poets tend to write dramas and operas about the great people of the past. Innovation is loved in the arts as well. The use of technology to enhance the experience is admired but not necessary.

Stella Aspect of Hard Work. Hard times

The Neolians believe hard times always come before good times. Their art reflects that. Their stories tell of poor people working their way up and rich people choosing to or losing their wealth and gaining it back through careful planning and hard work.

Amoxtili Titan of Blacksmiths.

Amoxtili is the Child of Stella. They took after their parents' artistic skills but used them to work with metal. Their parent was an Elf in House Nelona and they lived their first life as an Elf and then Neolian. After their death they were tried by Luythen and pasted but chose to join Stella instead of being reborn.

Tonalnan God of Honesty

Tonalnan was vital in the defeat of Hun-Nal-Ye. They are the son of Hun-Nal-Ye and was once their chief lieutenant. When they saw the Evil Hun-Nal-Ye was trying to create with their race to take over the world, they told the fates which allowed them to stop Hun-Nal-Ye in time. Honesty is important to Neolians. They like fairness, trickery, and deception is seen as a sin.

Tonalnan Aspect of the Truth Teller Honour

Your word and your honor is important to Neolians. They like to be able to trust their partners in business and knowledge.

Tonalnan Aspect of the Fair Player. Gaming

Games are veritas helping to improve the mind but gambling without careful planning is seen as foolish and trickery. To risk money or reputation on luck is seen as foolishness, a carefully planned deduction, (something like Sherlock Holmes) is seen as the height of genius. To pin one's own reputation on a belief or idea is seen as brave. The Great Game is about being able to believe in yourself. Chess comes from Neola.

Tonalnan Aspect of the Reluctant soldier

Tonalnan Chose to fight his father against his better judgment.

Vagrath Devil of Cheats. Surprise

Child of Hun-Nal-Ye. Vagrath lurks in the shadows of Neola; he waits for a player of the Great Game and offers them a trade. In return for some future part of their riches, he will give them the element of surprise against their enemies. The one who makes such a deal will see immediate improvement of their fortune and will surprise their enemies with some new scheme. But it was not fairly won and soon their fortunes will turn. Vagrath lives for when someone cheats another. To ask someone if your shocked them in with your wit is to imply you cheated. A fair player will not shock his opponent; he will have outplayed them in the open like a chess game. The opponent should be able to see the player's moves without hiding them. If you were not cheating why would you need to hide? When a Neolian says "You surprise me, sir.", this is an insult to the other person. It implies you think they are cheating.

Luythen God of Death.

Luythen Is the god of death to Neolians. As the patron of the elves, he is seen as evil. He takes loved ones and sends them to Noctus when they are evil. When a True elf dies it is he who takes them. The Neolians fear him as he may take any of them at any time.

Luythen Aspect of the final reckoning. Burial.

When a Funeral takes place the people will tell stories addressed to Luythen to try and convince him to allow Invanga to take the soul and let them be reborn instead of sending them to Noctus. This is where the expression:

Invanga Titan of Rebirth.

[[Invanga]] controls the rebirth of the Neolian Drow and Half-elves into the Moth Aldrin.

Invanga Aspect of the Loving Parent. Childbirth

It is believed that most dead Neolians that pass Luythen final reckoning are reborn as Neolians.

Invanga Aspect of the gift giver. Moth Aldrin

Some Neolians are deemed worthy to be reborn as Aldrin. As these are gifted by Invanga and not Luythen, they appear different. Taking on the form of moths and often finding their way back to Neola with the help of the fates. This Population makes up a small percentage of the Neolians but is often respected by them as there is a ritual that allows them to regain some of their former memories.

Invanga Aspect of the Lover. Love

Invanga's Lover is Zonus. Love is a new concept to the Neolians. While part of the Elf empires they were not allowed to love and have children but now they are free to reproduce. The population must grow fast and so more than half the Neolian Drow are half-elves. Falling in love is seen as a quest most will undertake as part of their life.

October was a month of two halves for me.

Part 1:

Oh boy, I took on way too many things all at once. I went from about five projects to starting uni (five new projects) starting three new D&D games and writing this blog. This was too much too quick and as you can imagine I burnt out pretty hard. I burnt out hard enough to give myself the worst cold I have had in a few years which was one.

Part 2:

With the cold in full swing, I basically did zero work for two weeks until today (Monday 6th of November). I did do some cool stuff nonetheless

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*OK so sneak preview of my Para System, this is my screenshot today which has changed slightly from last month*. I worked on 5 projects this month, my 4 uni projects and Night Below, my D&D game. In the middle of the month, I visited my best friend in Sheffield which was another project and at the end of the month, I stated Sustainability, which is my project to track my team's work for the TCS Sustainathon.

A couple of more minor projects this month were Python Tutoring, I teach a 12 year old Python, and Writer, this blog. With all of that, my time was pretty full up until I got the cold.

How does this stack up against the goals I set for this term at uni.

- 60% or higher on my degree.

- Become someone who writes

- Run cool DND for my friends.

The first and last are pretty clear, I went to all my lectures I could and I have plans to get back on track after my cold, I ran 4 good D&D sessions for my friends (including an in-person one) and everyone had fun.

Becoming someone who writes is harder to quantify and I think that's the sign of a bad goal. The spirit of that goal was as I wrote last month "I would like to work on a personal creative outlet". I wanted something outside of Uni and DND to challenge me creatively and I think I succeeded in that. This blog has truly been one of the most fun things I have done in a while. I am on track to make ten of them which would be the first time since I made gaming YouTube videos as a Teenager.

So overall: success on all fronts. for a month where I was unwell for two weeks that's really good. Two years ago I would have felt really down being behind on uni and probably dropped all the fun stuff I was doing, I am smarter now.

So looking forward to next month, What are my plans?

1. Get back on track, I have an entire project dedicated where I have all the lectures and tutorials I need to do written down. I have my reading week next week so I will get it sorted.

2. I want to post four blogs this month, this shouldn't be hard but it means prioritising myself and that's something I struggle with, Other people reading this is an added bonus. I have to make sure on a Sunday I write my blog even if I feel like I should be doing something for someone else.

3. Finally I need to run cool DND, we can't fit many sessions in this month but I want to make the ones we do fun. *Currently running something in my own city Jackcaster so if it goes well I might upload it here for others to use.*

I hope this was interesting, let me know how your October went? Hope you have a good November!

Written on the 17th of October in my university library waiting for my seminar to start.

I have been doing a lot of new stuff this month. I moved in with my partner, I started second year of uni, I started this blog and I interviewed for a job in an area I have never worked before. You can argue some of this stuff isn't new, uni is the same as last year (system wise) and the job has a lot of skill I learnt as a student ambassador but It was still scary, I still had to step out of my comfort zone to try them.

I have been more willing to step out of my comfort zone in the last few months. Its been great, I have learnt so much but It's time to rain it back in. I am trying at the moment to consolidate the new things I learnt, I have taken on new responsibilities and now it's time to get them right before I try new stuff. Its tempting to keep trying new stuff, keep chasing the high of new but I think It's time to slow down.

I was thinking today that I don't want this blog to be another abounded project I want this to be something I do for the long hall. This might be a mistake but I am gonna lay them out here.

1. Basic: Write 10 blog posts. 10 is always my number, its a great marker for something you like. If I wanna get good at something I try to do it for a unit of ten, (days, episodes, weeks). Ten blog posts would be a lot in some ways, thats at least 5000 words and 10 days I had something to say. In others its not that many, my favourite YouTube DoshDoningington posted less than 10 videos to gain a large Patreon following. If I can do ten of something I probably enjoy it more than in a passing way.

2. Intermediate: 52 blog posts. Can I keep this up for a year? There are not many things I did every week for over a year? if I uploaded once a week for a year I am pretty sure my life would change. The only things I know I did for that long without a break are: Rocket league, and dnd and they have 100% changed my life. There are things I have done for a total of 52 weeks, hockey, kayaking, programming to name some of them and they all shape who I am.

3. End: If it was a perfect world in a few years time enough people would be reading this that I could use that readership to do what ever I want in life.

The most important bit about all of this is that it has to stay fun, I am writing each day because I want to, I want to keep my streak up writing this, its fun. A massive insperatoin for me is Casey Niestat, I watched some of his Daily blogs and his ability to turn something small into a video is amazing, I want to do that with my blog.

Hopefully I am still here in a year, If I am I might write a piece reflecting on this one. We will see.

I was standing 20 feet up in the air, on a platform in a tree, looking at the ground far below, and listening to the rain patter down on my jacket. The tree was swaying as Phoebe ran along a path made of small planks connected by wires. I was looking at two very thin wires, one for my feet and one for my hands. Lucky for me, as I have terrible balance, I had two different cables and a harness holding me on the wire, but I was still scared shitless.

This feels like it should have been an accident, or a joke in a sitcom but; not only had I signed a waiver, but I had suggested it. Go Ape (not sponsored), is one of my favorite places. I have been to one 4 times since I first did one in 2021. I am an adrenalin junkie, the only problem with this is I am also as my friends might say "a massive pussy." I like the adrenalin but it doesn't take much to get me there, I have my entire life got scared on swings if they go too high. For me Go Ape is type two fun.

Type two fun is something you do that is only fun after you finish it, cycling is another one for me. I don't enjoy smashing my legs on the peddles up hills but at the top I look down and feel happy. I think type two fun is hiding everywhere and we don't always see it.

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Last week I was looking at a bowl of food my girlfriend made my family. I had never tried it before and I had no idea how it was going to taste. It was scary. She has made us guláš (Goulash, for all you none Slovaks reading this) and It was great, I am excited to have it again. I am a picky eater and trying new things is scary. Often it is worth it, all my favourite foods I tried for the first time at some point. She also introduced me to Kebab which Is now one of my favorites. Trying new food is type two fun, you don't *know* it will be nice till after you're done.

So if doing stuff which makes us a little anxious is good in our free time why don't we take that attitude towards work? Most of the best stuff I have done I did when I had no idea how to do it. I learned an entire Python library (PyAtuoGui) for a project I knew I could do but didn't know how. My best work at college was done when I tried something new and then got (you guessed it), feedback, from a friend and used it. I didn't know how I would use the feedback when I got it, but I figured it out afterward.

This blog scares me, putting myself out there could go wrong. Every time I write one of these I wonder if it will be good, but I will never know if it's good unless I show it. This blog is fun to write, but it's type 2 fun to post. That's why I keep doing it at the moment. When I used to make YouTube videos there was only the type two fun I didn't also enjoy making them. With this blog, I get both. I wrote an entire post about trains. Because I can. I didn't have to post it to enjoy making it, It doesn't have a point but it was fun. That post leads indirectly to this one.

So here is a challenge for you. What are you not doing? What are you not even trying that you think might be fun? Is it scary, chase that feeling! Do the slightly scary thing, I believe in you. If you want, post it below or email it to me and I will take a look at it.

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Best things from the week

If any of the things below link to an amazon link, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Fiction of the week: “The Last Dragon Slayer” - this is what I am reading currently.

None-fiction of the week: “Dwarves!” - a post on the MCDM Patreon. I am enjoying watching there games develop in front of me.

Bonus: NSFW, the best joke my friends made when I was writing this. Roses are red, Violets are blue, I am using my hands while I think of you.

Its 11:30AM on a Thursday and I have just finished my Subway and I am writing this in a typical uni Not Quite Teaching Space. To the left of me; my friend Derick plays video games, and to my right a girl is calling her family and friends from back home. Across the room students chat but behind the doors in front of me I can hear a lecturer talking. Part me of is worried that Derick will see what I'm writing? Then again... I did send the first blog post to my friends so surely I should show Derick this one as well? But what will he say?

I think its easy when doing anything creative not to want to show the people in your life the things you are working on. When ever I do something new, I want no one to know I am even doing it, I will change tab if someone comes near or change the subject if someone asks me what I am spending my time on. A few years ago, I started writing DND adventures on Fiverr and I didn't tell anyone till I had two or three orders because I didn't want to show anyone before it was ready.

I want to be an amateur with this project. "Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing" as Austin Kleon says in his book Show Your Work!. I want to show the world my blog even if its not perfect, my life isn't perfect so why should my blog have to be? I want to embrace learning this new skill in the open, right now it feels like a safe place to share my favourite things and write about what I want to?

This blog came out of a realisation as I started my second year in computing (third when you account for my year in Lancaster I wrote about in my first blog post) that I didn't want to stop doing creative stuff for myself. During summer I had a number of projects I did for fun, I made a small program to automate a part of a game I found boring, and last year I automated another project on my laptop. While this were not your typical creative projects they worked for me.

Another inspiration for creating something like this blog (Or I thought for a while youtube videos) was the book Building a Second Brain. This book changed my life and I will talk about it in more detail another time but the crux is this: Over the last year I have saved and recorded books, videos and ideas I have thought where cool and saved them to this system. Now I need a way to express that stuff. If I think these ideas are cool won't others?

This brings us back to being at uni sat next to my friend Derick. I showed him the blog. Like everyone who read it, he liked it. I got some other feedback from the first post and the first draft of this one and I am trying to use as best I can. Hopefully, if all has gone well this should be my first post on my Substack so if this is in your email or your reading it there, Hello! :D

Thanks you to Uwap, Eleanor, Derick, Holden, my Mother and Danny <3 for their feedback on the last one.

If you enjoyded this share it with a friend who you think would enjoy it too or subscribe for more content from me!

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P.S. I am going to end this by stealing a segment I like from Ali Abdaals email Newsletter and change it slightly

Best things from the week

Fiction of the week: "To all the boys I ever loved Before" - would recommended watching this with popcorn and a significant other :D. Its a very solid love story I enjoyed it a lot

None-fiction of the week: "Why Gifted Kids are the Loneliest" - Quoted in last weeks blog, just amazing, I love it.

Bonus: "Why are modern football formations so confusing? (feat. Girona)" The Purist Footballs latest video is amazing, if you like in death tactical breakdowns this guy is amaziing.

As always feedback is very welcome so leave it down below if your on substack or email me at frederica.teather@btinternet.com