Day's Ever-Shifting End

A group of men who lacked compelling local ties formed a pact to travel in search of the sun's resting place. Their treck across plains, rivers, hills, and seas yielded countless anecdotes. At last they saw the sun fall to earth ahead of them.
The place where it fell was not a well-appointed bower nor a night-defying fortress as they had supposed. Instead, it was a barren area of boulders and crags, unpeopled and useless. They passed a pale man poking among the recesses who asked them to call if they found the sun, a request to which they agreed.
They did find it, the sun, a radiant ball smaller than they expected though too large to raise without two hands and better yet two men and heavy beside, perfect in its roundness. When they called the pale man that he might see it also, he thanked them, hefted it without any sign of exertion, and hurled it far above the clouds where it became brighter still.
He followed it, but the band of travelers considered the compact fulfilled. The members traveled here and there and each became a great lord because of the power they absorbed because of the sun's brief nearness. Everywhere they encouraged their subjects (and their peers as well) to transfer their veneration from the sun to the moon.
Finis

Addender

The aliens will live in different regions of the same planets. Thus will coexistence flourish, and when plagues break out, each species will bring in doctors and nurses from an immune species.

Addendum

The same won't be true of the other planets we will undoubtedly colonize because far smaller regions will be inhabited. When you can pick and choose the best places, you don't want to leave anyway.

Earth's Future

Canals everywhere. Every continent divided into even grids by canals. Cars: Obsolete. Trains: Obsolete. Planes: Rigged for water landings. Bicycles: Retained for health reasons only. Motorcycles: I'm pretty sure they're used to annoy everybody even today, so nothing will change there.

Addendum

The pretensions of the wood golem sect are heard by none but themselves at the time, but a thousand years later people will pine for the craftmanship and delicate sensibilities of their golems, both qualities now vanished from the world.

Competing for Status

Do you think the manufacturers and owners of bronze and iron golems snipe at each other, with the latter claiming distinction based on innovation and the former pointing to both the venerability of the metal used and its superior sturdiness compared to early examples of the latter type? Because I do.

Bringing the History Back Into Fantasy

Keep in mind that in many societies, censor was an official position, and who better to hold it than your main character? The same goes for Master of Revels and tax farmer. Think of the adventures to be had from there. Running the mint though . . . won't the readers get tired if every plot is about counterfeiting or milling? How about going to look over mines with a view toward establishing a new metal source and then ghosts?

Wisdom Hidden in Remote Cavities

In accordance with custom, the aspirant upon returning to his homeland stood in the square to answer questions about his endeavor.
"Did you succeed in learning the oyster magic, and can you make pearls for us?"
"I learned everything there is, little in fact. The oyster magic causes a feeling of irritation without extending to pearl formation."
"That is no different from your usual attitude. Has the magic enabled other abilities?"
"Certainly. The general mending, the destructive spurt, the imparted lightness of motion, the specialized mending of sores, the—"
"What oyster can do those things? I doubt your claim."
"What man or woman can, and yet the human magic involves these same techniques."
"Well, I am convinced your journey was worthwhile. I perceive the sentiment is universal. Your enrollment as a citizen is assured."
"Thank you. You nincompoop."
"Wait for the enrollment to say that to a citizen."
"It is the irritation, you see."
"Certainly."
Finis

Thoughts on the Demon Princes Series

Hey, wait a minute! I think those fellows might not have been demons at all, except in a figurative sense!

Addendum

The question is whether the admonishers should resemble your peers, your parents, or other. Expect schisms and a flourishing of orders, then for most of them to die off, leaving the most popular but with several niches no longer filled.

Pending Social Innovation

The past: Monasteries where people retire from the turbulent world.
The future: Admonasteries where people go to be chided, knowing they deserve it, that they might to return to the world with renewed purpose.

Addendum

The quirky, cozy, slice-of-life version is of course Bratlantis. Unfortunately, getting people to think about bratwurst rather than immature people is certain to confuse. Even more unfortunately, the latter would be more popular.

How to Reinvigorate Old Ideas

Gatlantis.

Observed Creation Dynamics

A certain philosopher, curious as to whether snow is a special case of rain or rain a special case of snow, decided on this experiment, that he would create a new world and wait to see which weather phenomenon would occur first, reasoning that inherent decay causes later instances to sway from the original at an increasing frequency. After creating that world, he built on it a cabin with an accessible roof where he waited.
Long before his commendable patience met a test, two figures descended from the sky. One was a man, or one might say the man, for he was huge and perfect in all his parts so that the philosopher operating by established ideas concluded him to be the original. The other was a monster similarly perfect, but in horror, so that he wondered whether its eight wings and twelve horns and its twin stinging tails were of skin, scale, or the force which corrodes.
The two fell instantly to battle. Resting his judgment on similitude, the philosopher cheered for the original man, who after mighty blows did conquer his foe. The fiend screamed with such vigor that doubtless evil would never thereafter be expunged from the world and melted into a column which stretched above the sky for a few seconds before dissipating. The perfect man planted his sword then and spoke.
"I have won another planet for humans who will people it so soon as the rain or snow or ice or water come, which are all arrangements of other things I see no reason to describe or name." He too became first a column and then nothing.
The philosopher returned to record the experiment's outcome. When he published the account, he was greatly puzzled at the widespread interest in what he considered to be the less important aspects.
Finis

Addendum

And powerful spells are confined within gourds and gain nourishment from them. Beware the decay! Fruit have their own magic, and the learned understand that worms were the first to form power into curses, and they consult them when inventing something new to injure a rival or neutralize a hex.

Harvest Fantasy

So far, the best I can figure is that at some point there should be a fight between two people on top of a large table laden with dishes soon disarranged by their frantic maneuvers. Also the cornucopia is real and much prized.

Official Positions

When a fantasy country has an official archmage, lord high wizard, conjurer supreme, archon thaumaturge, etc., what are the chances he's actually good at it, and what are the chances he's the best? That's what you have to consider. The default is probably that his skills are decent but not extraordinary whereas his ancestors were extraordinary but far from decent.

Fantasy Technology Reminder

I know you've been worried about it, but I'm confident it doesn't take all that much to invent and manufacture steel guitars, so fill your setting with them without stint. Or, if I'm wrong, consult the previous entry.

It's Time to Get Excited About Not Justifying Your FTL Travel Method Again

That's the reminder to adopt a philosophy which eschews self-consciousness with regard to the fantastical elements of the story. Stop watching videos about worldbuilding and start putting in stuff you think is keen, regardless of how nonsensical or depraved it may be and ideally is. What must be maintained is not plausibility but the aesthetic you have chosen.

Gag Corner

Auto-dub? More like auto-dumb!

Culture's Finite Advance

"Why doesn't anyone visit my museum ships?" The man paced around the room, a significant undertaking given its size.
"They're stupid," someone remarked from a couch.
"Why doesn't anyone visit my museum ships? They are an everlasting archive of human achievement. The entire internet year by year preserved in a series of annual superfreighters stationed beyond orbit so that they can also be reached without being touched by any contaminating updates. My private platform offers a free shuttle service, so it can't be the cost, which is what it usually comes down to. Why doesn't anyone visit my museum ships?"
The earlier speaker shrugged. His analysis had not changed, and his employer did not require flattery, obsequiousness, or false hopes.
Therefore it was in all sincerity that another in the room offered a suggestion. "Advertise more?"
"I put it all over every journal of note, every journal not of note, every public libraryr, university, college, community college . . . You did see to that, didn't you?" A thumb rose above the couch. "There, you see?"
"Maybe more, um, popularly oriented advertising? With logos and taglines and celebrities. 'In space, you finally can has cheezburger.' That sort of thing."
"We can try," the pacer allowed.
Within a month, half the population of Earth had migrated to space colonies to shorten the trip to the museum fleet while half the contemporary internet's pages became abandoned for lack of interest.
Finis

Moving Thanksgiving

If Thanksgiving fell the day after Halloween, we could use our pumpkins for it. Such efficiency.

Halloween Post-Mortem

It's a post-mortem because I'm dead! Boo! Did I get you? Probably not, because you're all dead, too.