For the WIP ask meme, I am curious about the premise of Thrift Shop Vikings!!
First things first, the project name is 'thrift shop vikings' because this has even less to do with historic vikings than the TV show "Vikings." The setting, however, and some of the (hopefully temporary) names have definitely be influenced by watching a little too much of "Vikings" and "The Last Kingdom."
This is about to turn into a multiple post excursion.
@hoochieblues and @motherofqups, you've also been subjected to my nonsense, so hop in! Let's go! It'll be an adventure!
Here. Have a map to start with. I like maps. A love of maps is apparently, one of the peculiar common traits of my family which has been commented on by several in laws. No GPS, we navigate via geometric reasoning like men.
Lets have some prosaic geographic and historic world-building because obviously, this is the most important part of developing an omegaverse story, because everyone reading that genre cares about coherent world-building.
Welcome to fantasy Europe. As you can see, we have what is definitely not the Mediterranean sea. Now, technically, this is post-apocalyptic, but post at least a millennium since the apocalypse in which highly developed tech savvy society (we shall call this Not!Atlantis) died of literal consumption, fueling various legends and mythologies. Major population bottle neck with various survivor groups essentially dumped back into Iron Age/Early Medieval tech levels. The knowledge loss/gap/etc was uneven, and aggravated by a lack of easily available fossil fuels and loss of the capacity to generate significant amounts of energy to restore an industrial society. Tech that doesn't require significant energy survived much better, so they haven't had to reinvent the wheel (or the printing press, or optics, or gunpowder, or clockwork, or even the basic idea of an engine, but you would have to be fabulously wealthy to access the last at a useful level). Ruins and some amount of historical records exist, etc. (I still do a lot of hand-waving.)
In the interim, several regional empires have risen and fallen, languages have changed enough that when records are recovered they are difficult to impossible to translate. There is also a 'gap' in the extant written records resulting from Not!Atlantis's digital age. The electronic records didn't make it.
Not!Atlantis is actually relevant. I promise.
The deep lore explanation for the omegaverse tropes is gene editing gone horribly wrong in an attempt to address a fertility crisis. Now, obviously, with the number of generations in between the immediate post-apocalypse the regionally separated population groups have formed their own mythologies (as gene editing as a concept would be unthinkable within three generations, if I had to guess). There is a general consensus that the 'hybrid' (for lack of a better word) sexes are created, rather than entirely nature, and distinctly human as one does not observe in a similar crossing of phenotype and reproductive function among animal populations. Evyn, the main Ω character and resident sarcastic nerd, will deadpan that he's a creature of artifice before launching into a lecture on cross-cultural variation of mythology and social constructions regarding omegas.
[Disclaimer: CRISPR is probably too precise for anything to go wrong on this degree. But my thoughts on benefits versus harm of gene editing and international conglomerates like Monsatan (yes, that spelling is deliberate, and yes, I know it's Bayer, not Monsanto) belong in a different post.]
On to the erotica tropes!
Main feature of the alpha/omega sub-types is hyper-fertility, although limited by reproductive cycles, aka the heat/rut cycles. Because if I'm not keeping those, why am I writing this trope? (A good question in general.) I've kept 'betas' as the 'norm' and by far the vast majority of the population. Whatever Not!Atlantis did to precipitate it's fertility crisis has lingered, and left to their own devices, the betas wouldn't quite manage a replacement rate. (Whatever genes are connected with 'beta-ness' are dominant however.)
Female omegas and male alphas are effectively indistinguishable from betas with the exception of the above mating cycles. There are, of course, layers and layers and layers of gender construction imposed on top of physical differences. So, do alphas tend to a higher level of aggression because of nature? Or nurture? Who knows?
The rare male omegas and female alphas (I think I've decided on averages of 1 in 200 live births and 1 in 400 respectively), are subject to even higher degrees of social control, while again being mindful of the fact that different population groups will have evolved social roles and means. In many cases, especially in more remote areas where there greater social devolution, they've become strongly associated with liminality and given spiritual significance. Other places, the main significance of a male omega (they can be identified with certainty at birth) is more functional 'gotta get fertility above replacement rates' and ranges from a very Roman Empire under Augustus 'we really don't care what you do as long as it involves making children as well' to very high levels of control and seclusion (think upper class Greek women in antiquity) because they're valuable units of economic exchange.
As a general rule, no one knows what the hell to do with female alphas due to the combination of rarity, lack of identification until adolescence, and good old fashioned toxic masculinity because not only is this chick another competitor, but hypothetically a competitor who is extra appealing because they 'know what women want.' The more things change the more they stay the same.
I kept the trope scent-thing, mating bonds, and psychic(?) attunement between 'mated' pairs. Why? It pleased me to do so. Also creates some fun talking past each other between two leads where one is extremely superstitious, obviously it's magic/spiritual/religious and the other is hyper-rational, obviously there is a physical mechanism that we simply don't understand.
Recognizing that none of the above addresses the actual question of the plot premise, I am pausing because it has passed 1000 words. Plot and character notes shall follow. ;) After I make lunch.
[Shout out to my brother, who has patiently let me bounce world-building ideas off him even though the omegaverse trope leaves him going, 'WTF? Why?!' There are many advantages to having a little brother with an engineering degree.]
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Spamming of last art
Instagram reels are obscure place, yes I did draw this cringe vid. They looked cute 😞.
I’m not elaborating this.
My oc (^・ω・^ ). He was made as Ow oc but all abilities I gave him even backstories kinda looked too similar to upcoming characters. He was made before Illari was teased so had many sun elements which I just all scrapped. At least he is handsome…
Sketch as self portrait. Warm up after all tasks.
And… Whatever this is I drew after loose streak in game with friend… (I forgot about his arm)
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