#disability in fantasy
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I honestly keep backing out on making wheelchair users in my writing because I keep getting nervous that they're out of place or will seem stupid or something because a wheelchair in a fantasy setting? Pfft ridiculous so thank you for having so much stuff about disabled people in fiction. It kinda helps me work through my weirdness about everything (I'm a wheelchair user so I think a lot of it boils down to my own insecurity) and now I have a dragon with a wheelchair-like-thing and am having a time developing all the accomodations for disabled dragons in my world. I'd argue it's actually made the whole process FUNNER!
Sorry if this is weird or stupid or even irritating I just wanted to share how you're helping and making my experience, at least, better
Irritating?! Quite the opposite! This made my day, Nonny!
Truth be told, It also took me a long time to embrace including disabled people in my stories. I rationalized to myself that this was because I didn't want to be pigeon-holed by Abled people's expectations of me (that because of the saying "Write what you know," all I could write were disabled characters).
But after I started getting involved in the online Disability Community, my thinking started to shift on this almost without my noticing, And I realized that all that time in the past, I was basing my characters and stories on the people I saw around me, and not myself... And all through school, from Kindergarten to University, I was (usually) the only visibly disabled person in class (though by the time I got to grad school, we did have a disabled students' quasi-club, but we were all in different majors.
So, yes. Representation matters. Thanks for adding to it.
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random thought but on the topic of motorbikes i remember reading about one kind of motorbike operated entirely with hand controls and no need for any foot pedals or foot input so what if: merfolk using motorbikes to get around on land lol
Funnily enough, that's actually what my merman biker 'Ariel' uses ('Ariel' is his nickname because he's both a merman and has really long, red hair). He's a merman in my Full Moon Motorcycles universe who shifts into his human form when he's on land, but because he was hit by a boat when he was younger, he's paralysed and uses a manual wheelchair and an adapted motorbike.
So long as they can sit/balance safely on a bike with their tail, there's no reason merfolk couldn't use something like that - or adapt something so they can - to get around!
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How would you feel about a story where magic heals someone’s stump without reversing the amputation? By healing the stump I basically mean speeding up the healing process that real amputees already go through
Yeah that's totally fine! That's the approach I usually take with healing magic in most of my own works: it just speeds up/aids the body's natural processes.
#disability#disabled#writing#writing disability#disability representation#writeblr#authors of tumblr#disability in fantasy#magic and disability#disabilities#healing magic
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"Be a good pet; fetch mommy a demon heart... It's too difficult?.. But you're so big and strong 💕"
She'll yank your chain until you break. Mzamaki is typically the thrall of her ambitions. She's just too good with getting her way through praise.
Additionally, magic hearing aid!
#art#ocs#character art#worldbuilding#my ocs#drawing#sketch#daily sketch#disabled oc#disability in fantasy#fantasy#vampire#oc quotes#mr orion misc oc
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A fantasy worldbuilding thing I made that would also make sense in Urban Fantasy & I might use it more often:
Context: One of my fantasy characters has a bag that can magically hold more than its physical volume on the inside (ik it's rlly common but that's bc it's damn convenient in fantasy settings & I have them exist in all of my fantasy worlds lol), and the character who has that bag is also an ambulatory wheelchair user who also uses a cane depending on what she needs. In a fantasy adventure setting, it made perfect sense that she can put these in her magic bag.
Then I noticed the difficulty that would be getting it through the bag's opening (especially for the wheelchair). So I made it so that she could shrink and enlarge her mobility aids for easy storage when she isn't using them (like shrinking smn to put in a bag of holding in D&D).
And I realized that would be AMAZING for an urban fantasy setting!! Is your ambulatory-mobility-aid-user-character travelling without collapsible/travel-size mobility aids? Or just going somewhere and worrying about needing a different kind of aid than they were using when they left? Magic shrink & enlarge, bring them all with you! Dealing with inaccessible architecture, getting the wheelchair over the turnstile will be much easier & less annoying. The big one that made me realize this would be perfect for urban fantasy: they wouldn't need to worry about airports fucking up their wheelchair (for those who don't know, traveling by plane with a wheelchair can be a nightmare bc it's very likely the staff will end up breaking the rules & therefore breaking the chair).
#definitely using this#yet another example of 'magic would make disabled lives so much easier bc abled ppl refuse to stop making them harder'#writing stuff#writing#writer#writing rambles#writing disability#writing disabled characters#urban fantasy#fantasy#disability#disability in fiction#disability in fantasy#magic accessibility#edited
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Are any of my followers cane users? If so, would anybody mind vetting a character design for me?
Update: I've gotten some answers from some very nice people! Thanks everybody!
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If you don’t have disabled characters in your fantasy worlds you’re boring,,,,
All of my dnd characters have some kinda disability we have written into the character.
An example
My character Brighid was a teifling Druid and she had been kidnapped as a child and spent years as a child soldier. And now when she comes across something triggering I roll for how I react to it. She has panic attacks at small things the other people in the party have learned ways to help her cope with.
My current character Shrow is a changeling rogue who has a chronic pain condition that is slowly killing him. I roll a D100 at the beginning of every day to see how fatigue affects him. If I roll lower than his current level then I have a -1 to everything I roll that day. As I level up and get older it gets more likely.
#disabled#chronic illness#chronic pain#disabled chronic illness#dnd#dungeons and dumbasses#fantasy#ttrpg community#ttrpg#disability in fantasy
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How I put disability rep in fantasy
This is mainly what I've done. So feel free to correct me.
If you want a fantasy character to have a disability for rep:
winged characters missing wings and needing prosthetic wings like a bird would.
a character who doesn't have magic *fixing* their disability and just treat it normal
have a mute siren
centaurs having those wheelchairs they give horses and dogs (i don't know how to describe)
when dealing with sound-related villains, your deaf character won't get tricked.
give your characters support systems. let them have help with things. be nice to them. it's the least you can do before you traumatize them.
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Body swap movie where one of them has invisible disabilities and when the other one lands in their body they immediately collapse catatonic on the floor from the pain and fatigue and the first one is like 'oh damn guess I don't have to worry that I'm faking it anymore'
#i have this fantasy of one my able bodied friends and or coworkers occupying my body for like an hour#just to get a real sense of how much i am truly weathering hellfire every day of my life#sometimes i take stock and im like holy crap ive gotten so used to so much#im a frog in a pot and ive convinced myself the bubbling is just fun ambience#my thoughts#invisible disability#chronic illness#chronic pain
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Huge respect to all the disabled archers out there- this is HARD!
Please check out Patreon to support these videos- I have art references in the shop!
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the injustice of the rat grinders technically playing by the rules and getting lauded for it because they have discipline and are generally Good at School vs the bad kids literally saving the world every other day and having to play catch-up to be acknowledged for it. the way that public school only caters to people who are good at "playing the game" of the education system and anyone that can't function how the school deems you should under its strict policies and conditions is tossed aside and called a failure. how are we feeling, american public school survivors?
#as a disabled person who did well in high school only because i could see how they wanted me to respond#and then as soon as college came and you actually had to like. think and do stuff. i fell apart#i am seeing some truths that. hurt.#fhjy#d20#dimension 20#fantasy high
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a setting where there are two kinds of merfolk, one who can change to have legs and one who permanently has a tail. a shifter and a nonshifter are lovers. sometimes the shifter carries the nonshifter around on land when the ground is too rough. sometimes when the nonshifter slithers and flops on land the shifter also flops about with a tail so they don't feel left out
Perhaps after a while of doing this, the shifter goes into town and gets the non-shifter a wheelchair so they can have adventures together on land and the non-shifter isn't so restricted? There are still some bits where the non-shifter will require assistance, but it gives them a degree more independence for joint adventures. (my stepmother is a wheelchair user and beaches and beach access suck for her)
They keep the chair at a land-friend's nearby boathouse when the non-shifter doesn't require it. Other times though they both lie on the sand in the sun and spread their magnificent tails out and lounge around and cuddle...
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everything about lydia finally being able to rest and not rage anymore (and even how the bad kids and specifically kristen approached her this season!) feels like a disability metaphor to me. the feeling of getting to rest after years of rage and how it can so easily be read as finding the right medication or accommodation. the way kristen immediately tries to get the gem out and how obvious lydia’s relief (and disbelief tbh) is at her immediate trying like how finding a doctor that actually wants to work with you is like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.
#i don’t know if this makes sense#but as someone who is disabled and has a lot of disabled friends who have to deal with shitty doctors and conditions#it feels really important to me#lydia barkrock#fantasy high#a.j. posts#dimension 20#d20 posting
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I wish there was more representation of disabilities and chronic illness in fantasy, science fiction and action genres.
Not just a side character with 30 seconds of screentime. An important character that doesn't just exist to further the storylines of other characters. I want a character that doesn't get "cured" or healed. A character that stays disabled and/or chronically ill. A character that isn't afraid to ask for help. One that doesn't think they're a burden and doesn't try to hide their disability/ chronic illness.
I want to see how it affects them, not just know they're disabled/chronically ill and it jist never gets mentioned again. I don't mean it should be their entire personality but being disabled and or chronically ill can affect many parts of life.
I just wish there was more representation of disabilities and chronic illness that shows every part of it. Especially in fantasy and science fiction it's lacking.
#disabled#disability#chronic illness#chronically ill#tumblr#cripple punk#fantasy#science fiction#action#representation#disability representation#chronic illness representation
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“Dragon, I am not sure that I am a prince.”
“Of course not, you are my beloved pet.”
“No, I mean… gender-wise.”
“Oh. Are you a princess?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Alright, dear. Then, what are you?”
“I think- well I’m not sure I am allowed.”
“You can be anything you want to be, my darling.”
“Well- and please don’t laugh- I think I’d like to be a dragon. … Like you.”
The dragon purred and wrapped its long neck around the smaller being and nuzzled its nose on their head. “Then a dragon you are, my love.”
“But I’m worried I’m not qualified to be a dragon. I don’t have scales or wings.”
“Dragons come in all sorts of kinds. Many are scaleless or wingless.”
“And I’m rather small and weak for a dragon…” They sighed. “I mean, I am already fairly small and weak for a human.”
The dragon studied the being who was now a smaller dragon for a long time before speaking rather gently. “I am rather small and weak for a dragon too you know… It is something I never told you, and you couldn’t know because you have none other to compare me to.”
“What? But you’re so big and strong! You fly ten miles a day to hunt for us and you defend me from nosey knights who try to ‘rescue’ me!”
The dragon nodded. “Yes, but other dragons can fly for a thousand miles a day and hunt for an army, and they could fight off an army too. After fighting a single knight I become quite tired… This is why I live alone in this cave, away from other dragons. They harass me for my weakness, and try to push me to do more… they say what I am is not enough.” With this, the dragon lowered it’s head, seeming to feel ashamed.
The smaller, human shaped dragon kissed the larger one on the snout. “Well, you are certainly enough for me. You might not be able to fight or feed an army, but your hunts keep us both full and your claws keep us both safe. And I always look forward to curling up under your wings at the end of the day. You don’t have to be alone anymore.” They frowned, their brow furrowing. “It makes me angry how you were treated.”
“It makes me angry how you were treated! That is what drew me to rescue you. I could see your society was treating you the same as mine was… Pushing you to do too much when you were tired, not appreciating you for who you are… but I appreciate you. You always know how to make me laugh, and all your little faces are so cute. I always look forward to feeling you press against my sides at the end of the day.” It nuzzled them. “You are dragon enough for me, better than any other dragon I have met. You are enough.”
The smaller dragon nodded. “We are our own sort of dragons. And that is enough.”
#otherkin#trans#disability#chronic fatigue#flash fiction#dragonkin#fantasy#my art#my writing#xenogender
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Dear people who aren't physically disabled who plan to write fantasy settings:
[ID: Several images taken from the Geordi La Forge yes and no meme format, with Geordi holding out a hand disapprovingly for the no section, then pointing in approval for the yes section.
The first image is the meme:
No: "Saying the existance of magic in your setting means there are no disabled people (this literally just means disabled people are killed. AKA eugenics)"
Yes: "Having disabled people who use magical mobility aids and other assistive devices. Realizing that someone is still disabled even if their prosthetic arm is made of magic instead of plastic."
This is followed by four more panels of yes section:
"Geordi la Forge is still literally disabled. His visor helping him does not erase his disability and make him magically abled."
"Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender is still literally disabled even though her Earthbending helps her. It does not make her disability ~magically~ go away."
"Having your disability be accomodated does not mean the disability goes away. Having a prosthetic hand, even one that's made of magic, does not mean you're not disabled."
"Magical mobility aids do not mean disabled people don't exist. It just means they use magical mobility aids instead of plastic or metal ones. A limb made of magic is still a prosthetic even if it's made of the soul of the universe instead of plastic and metal."
Then another no panel: "'There's no disabled people beacuse magic'".
Then one last yes panel: "'Magic helps disabled people in a variety of ways'".
End ID.]
This also applies to science fiction; just because Luke Skywalker's prosthetic hand is super advanced doesn't mean it's no longer a prosthetic, or that he's not disabled. Same with Darth Vader - just because he has a suit that lets him breathe and walk around doesn't mean he's not disabled. (And Star Wars' propensity for making the villains visibly disabled while the heroes disabilities get covered up by super advanced prosthetics is a topic that deserves its own post, especially with how ableist some of the authors of the books are. Troy Denning is especially ableist)
Edit:
Because people keep being fucking obnoxious and ableist in the tags, yes,,, motherfuckers, if you refuse to have disabled people in your setting, that does make you fucking ableist. If you say that the magic is used to cure all disabled people and that's why they don't exist, that's fucking eugenics.
You cannot ""cure"", more like remove all disabilities without fucking eugenics. Magically automatically destroying disabled fetuses (a very fucking popular trope!) is eugenics.
The only way to fucking "cure" autism is to fucking kill all autistic people, also known as eugenics!
What about people with PTSD? Do you just fucking brainwash them so they aren't traumatized anymore?
Do you force all Deaf people to be able to hear? Do you force all blind people to be able to see? Do you force all anosmics to be able to smell?
Do you magically force everyone with a speech impediment to speak to your standards?
Do you force everyone born with bodily or facial differences to live up to your fucking standard of beauty?
You cannot fucking say "disablities don't exist in this universe because magic cures everything" without inherently saying that eugenics exists in your fucking universe.
Not all fucking disabilities need a cure. If you ""cured"" my autism I'd just be fucking dead. You'd literally just be changing me into what you think is fucking acceptable.
Stop fucking arguing in defence of ableists on my fucking post so you can pretend that eugenics has never been written about in magical settings when it is extremely fucking prevalent.
And while we're fucking at it, let your gods damned characters become disabled over the course of their story, and call them disabled within the fucking story. I don't care if they're a robot. I don't care if they have magic. Not all fucking damage can be fixed. Curses exist. Hardware can go out of fucking date and no longer be manufactured anywhere.
Let your characters become disabled and do not magically fucking cure them back to brand new every single time they get hurt. The only thing you accomplish by doing that is destroying any chance of ever having stakes.
No, "magical healing leaves scars on the mind from the memory of the injuries though!!!!" is not fucking good enough. Let your characters have scars. Let them become disabled. Stop being fucking ableist cowards.
Edit number fucking 2:
No, motherfuckers, you do not get to comment "if the disability was caused by magic it's not ableist to cure it with magic". You are the ableist this post is about. Shut the absolute fuck up, stop treating being disabled as the worst possible outcome, and just admit you're a fucking ableist. If you don't want your characters to become disabled, then don't fucking make them disabled.
[ID: The Garfield "you are not immune to propaganda" meme, now edited to read:
"If your first thought upon reading this post is, 'Oh, but it's okay to magically cure disabilities caused by magic!' Congrats…you are the exact sort of ableist jackass this post is about."
End ID.]
Edit number fucking 3:
Autistic people exist! People who are born with disabilities exist! You cannot create a setting where disabled people do not exist because we're all "cured" or "fixed" and not inherently say that you are killing disabled people as soon as they're born, or fucking aborting us as soon as you figure out we'd be born disabled! That's fucking eugenics!
There is no way to "cure" autism without eugenics! There is no way to "cure" people with body differences without eugenics! There is no way to make disabled people nonexistant in your setting without eugenics! Thinking you can and should "cure" and "fix" all disabilities IS EUGENICS!
Also:
[ID: A character shouting at the camera, now edited to read:
"Shut up about Dungeons and Dragons! Shut up about Dungeons and Dragons! If the rules of Dungeons and Dragons are ableist, then fucking change them! It is your fucking personal responsability to be a better person than your bigoted society wants you to be!".
End ID.]
[ID: White text on a dark brown background with white and black borders around the edges, that reads:
"I don't fucking know or care about Dungeons and Dragons.
This post is not about Dungeons and Dragons.
Do not fucking throw the rulebook of Dungeons and Dragons at me like it's some sort of 'Gotcha!'.
You will literally just be blocked like the rest of the ableist assholes who've already tried it.
If you play dungeons and dragons, it's your responsability to make your games not be ableist, even if it means breaking the rules.".
End ID.]
I do not fucking care what the ableist rules are in Dungeons of Dragons. Do not fucking throw ableist rules for a game I have never and will never play at me on a post I made so that people could learn how to make their settings less ableist. If the rules in Dungeons and Dragons are ableist, then fucking change them. If you don't want to change them, then stop fucking playing an ableist game.
Disabled people deserve to see ourselves represented in fiction just like everyone else, without any fucking requirements that we be "cured" or "fixed" before the story ends.
How the fuck would you feel if a trans and gay character's whole story revolved around going on a quest to become straight and cis, did so, and only then was allowed to live happily ever after?
Why do you fucking think suggesting people write stories about disabled people going on a quest to be cured because it's the only way they'll ever be happy is any less fucking offensive?
Also:
This post is NOT a place for you to talk about how disabled people in fiction should have the option of curing their disabilities. It's just not. That's the fucking default for this society. That is not a revolutionary concept. It's not novel. We fucking know this society wants us gone. A post about how disabled people deserve representation is not the place to talk about how "Well, actually, in fiction disabled people should be cured!" Like that's not the fucking universal default???????????
Edit #4:
Everyone needs to stop tagging this singing praise for Fullmetal Alchemist. A story that uses disability as a punishment and the characters are on a quest to cure their disabilities is not the amazing representation you're all claiming it is just because the character who is only disabled because of DIVINE PUNISHMENT uses prosthetics.
Read this post, and this one. Fullmetal Alchemist is a hell of a lot more ableist than you people are letting on.
guess what you can now find a PDF version of this post on the web archive.
Edit #5! August 23rd, 2023!
A) Everyone. Disabilities that can only exist in the magical setting are still disabilities.
Trying to cure the younger brother's magical disability of being a soul floating around in a magical suit of armour is, in fact, going on a quest to heal a disability!
It doesn't matter if the older brother doesn't want to get his limbs back when they're going on a quest to heal the younger brother's disability! Especially when they BOTH get magically healed at the end!
Magical disabilities that can only exist in that setting, but not real life, are still disabilities, and it's not okay to magically heal them either! What part of the Garfield meme on this post did you all choose to ignore?!
B) When you leave tags on a post you are reblogging, the original poster can see them! When you leave tags on this post, I can see them!
If you think this post is ""too aggressive"" then simply do not reblog it! Don't fucking tone police me on a post I've had to edit five times now due to the constant ableism people have been commenting since I made it!
I have been called the R slur by multiple people in response to this post! People have literally reblogged this post to defend eugenics abortions! You can't see these comments or replies anymore because I blocked the poster!
If you think minorities are being too aggressive by responding appropriately to bigotry, you're a bigot! And you should either not reblog the post at all, or at the very least, shut the fuck up and not tone police us!
Do not fucking put tags on this post complaining I'm being too aggressive! That's called tone policing and you're a bigot if you do it! Don't fucking do it on anyone else's posts either! They can see your tags too!
C) When I fucking say Harry Potter fans are banned from this post, yes, this means YOU!
Either stop supporting a billionaire who's literally using the profits from her bigoted shittily written books to fund REAL FUCKING GENOCIDE, or fuck off!
By continuing to support the Harry Potter series, you are literally giving JK Rowling free fucking advertising! You are encouraging more people to read the series and watch the movies, spending more money and giving her more fucking money with which to LITERALLY SHAPE A COUNTRY'S LAWS TO COMMIT GENOCIDE. She is literally fucking fighting to make being trans illegal! She is literally fucking fighting to have even more of autistic people's rights taken away!
You cannot fucking be a fan of the Harry Potter series in 2023 and call yourself an ally to all the minorities harmed by JK Rowling and the bigotry baked into her shitty series!
Read another book! The Web Archive has tons you can read for free! Literally every single book on gutenberg.org/ is free! Including audiobooks for some of them!
If you write Harry Potter fanfiction, simply fucking get rid of the names and identifiable features and start writing original fiction instead! It's literally free!
Not supporting a literal fucking genocidal billionaire costs LITERALLY NOTHING! And if you refuse to fucking stop supporting JK Rowling, which is what you are doing when you support the Harry Potter series and squeal over her OCs, you are not an ally to any fucking minority! No! Not even if you're trans yourself!
= = =
Edit again Nobember 28th 2023 because this comment is just. such a perfect example for all of you that think this doesn't happen.
butter-whore2 said, two hours before this edit:
kind of a fan of tumblr's slightly more algorithmically elements for reminding me of the hell's other people construct for themselves but this one hits like five of the boxes. How do people do this to themselves? it's such a bizarre way to act over media I genuinely do not believe is capable of stirring an emotional response
the metaphysics of disability here are unintentionally really funny but disability is not a coherent ontological framework, it's a vague descriptor for literally thousands of different things none of which lend themselves to categorizing
Moralizing over fiction is incredibly lame.
Liking harry potter is also incredibly lame, it's not morally wrong nor transphobic and you do not get to decide that lol.
people literally do get "cured" of their disabilities all the time, many of them have a positive experience in doing so.
this is not what eugenics is.
the anti abortion stuff lol
Literally how do you live like this? you guys don't even read real books I don't get it.
Archived version of the comment for posterity.
So yeah, lofl, block this fucker.
#long post#described images#fantasy#writing#writing tips#writing advice#fantasy writing#writing fantasy#scifi#science fiction#also applies to scifi#Luke Skywalker's not magically abled because his prosthetic hands advanced#disability#disabled#physically disabled#neurodivergent#<- so more people see it#and beacuse a lot of just neurodivergent people are really fucking ableist towards physically disabled people#especially people who only have ADHD or are just Autistic#and if me saying that pissess you off guess what? You're probably the exact sort of person I'm talking about.#Newsflash: I'm autistic. I have ADHD. I'm also physically disabled.#And I constantly see people wiht ADHD and autistics being ableist as shit#to both physically disabled people and other neurodviergent people.#You are not immune to being ableist just because you're also disabled.
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