GLOGtober 2023-11

So I am racing and blazing and burning the candle at both ends and if fate shears kindly I'll have this done by midnight and if fate shears too kindly I'll have this done by 11 and you'll be like, "Walfalcon what was that intro about it's not even that late," and the truth will be revealed, the truth that sometimes I write these intros before I even figure out a vague idea of what the rest of the post will be.

Anyways that's not the case here, this time I have a slight idea of what the rest of the post will be because this time I have found the niche for my blog! Every blog needs a niche. You may disagree, for many popular blogs seem to occupy a similar and non-specific space, but you see I am actually correct because when I said, "Every blog," I was using that as slang to mean, "My blog has nothing going for it so if it's never going to become good then at least it."

Hopefully that makes sense. Anyways I found my niche. And today's GLOGtober is, "Cultural gathering places for nonhuman fantasy folk." Enjoy.

Come and meet me by the ye old gazebo
We'll gaze upon the new snowed gazesnow

Performapal Dramatic Theater

Performapals tend to group up and travel in troupes. More culturally important than the family as a social unit, troupes can be anywhere from 5 people to around 20. These troupes will travel around and perform wherever they see fit, but every few years all the troupes will gather at a meeting called a Performapal Dramatic Theater. The time and location of the Dramatic Theater is not fixed and is decided arbitrarily by the Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, like most culturally important decisions. Each troupe will perform their best routine, trying to gather a bigger crowd than the other troupes. The winner will receive a boon from the Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.

The performances at the Dramatic Theater are renowned, and many travel great distances once they know it is being held. One year the Performapal Dramatic Theater was positioned in a nearly-accessible mountain range. A few people were still drawn to the event, but most of the visitors were a group of ascetics who lived nearby. The troupe with highest attendance that year had gotten lost in the mountains and never set up their tent.

I am tempted to try and write about Apoqliphort next, but...

Toon World

Toons don't exist without Toon World. Their connection to their birthplace is not one of culture or a sense of belonging but of necessity. Any Toon knows that if Toon World is destroyed, new Toons stop being born, and the existing Toons will start to fade. After that, it's a race against time to create a new Toon World before all Toon life is gone from the planet. And currently, no-one knows how to make a new Toon World.

So this fact is hidden from non-Toons. Toon World is just a castle, the center of Toon heritage, the metaphorical birthplace of the species. The real Toon World - the magic book kept deep in the dungeons of that castle - doesn't exist. If you've heard rumors of it's existence, think about it, who would even make such a thing!? It's ridiculous.

And yet it does exist. Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon and Red-Eyes Toon Dragon watch from the castle parapets, guarding Toon World. Toon Dark Magician and Toon Dark Magician Girl create wards to hide the immense power of Toon World. Manga Ryu-Ran helps raise new toons, and receives a lot of good-natured needling about not having "Toon" in his name. And all the other Toons visit, helping guard the castle for a time, bringing food and gifts to those who protect their origin.

Domain of the True Monarchs

Caius, Granmarg, Mobius, Raiza, Thestalos, Zaborg, Delg, Angmarl, Kuraz, Ehther, and Erebus. These are the eleven Monarchs. They gave their species this name, and few feel it prudent to press a new one on them. Giants, all of them, with great destructive magic. None of them seek out destruction, however, preferring to rule.

Once per year they meet at the Domain of the True Monarchs - kept the rest of the year by one of the Monarchs' squires - and discuss the issues of gaining public office when no-one knows who you are. It doesn't help when you don't know who you are beyond, "A Monarch." It also doesn't help when you're an actual giant, perhaps covered in spikes, and it is obvious to everyone that you're not a natural born citizen.

In recent years several of the Monarchs have raised the idea of starting revolutions. Standing out is good if you're the face of a revolution, right? That concept has been simmering for a bit, but no-one's decided to act on it. Mobius thinks it'd be a good fit for the kingdom she's been travelling. People there don't seem happy.

When the Domain of the True Monarchs isn't being used for the annual meeting, one of the eleven Squires - this species' name also given by the Monarchs - tends to it, switching out over an eleven-year cycle. Squires seem to know just as little as the Monarchs about the origins of the Domain, Monarchs, and themselves, but they are somehow capable of flawlessly navigating the mazelike Domain and operating its many strange devices.

Hey, ho, it's tomorrow, the shears of fate have cut their cut and 11 is posted on the 12th. By like 3 minutes, plus the one it took me to type this.