Edeia Development

So you have an Edeia - now what? This page will offer help in how you can start developing your Edeia. 

First things first - it is highly recommended that you read the Lore Guide. The Inspiration section would be good to read for enrichment, but much of the guide would likely be useful for development. 

Note from Auspice: I will note that I often use Edeia to explore personal growth, but you may make of them what you please. Just remember that the process of Actualization involves discovering your identity, so there should not be any Edeia who live an existence they don't wish to; if they do not, their existence will shift to become who they want to be. There can be periods of turmoil, transitioning, and transformation, but the more intense changes typically happen before Actualization. 

Conceptualization

A good first step to Edeia development is a Conceptualization. This is a form you can fill out that provides something of a structure to your development.

There are no rules to this if you are doing this on your own, but Auspice is offering a free artwork with some requirements: if you fill out the form below and send it to them, they will review it and, after approval and any necessary changes, will make some simple artwork of the Edeia in question - nothing too complex, and the style will be up to them.  The freebie art cannot be claimed for Edeia created through a Conceptualization Event. To be clear, there are three situations where one can send a Conceptualization form to Auspice: 

All owners have one "Standard Submission" by default; essentially, you can submit the form and receive artwork. Subsequent submissions must be done in the Discord and have more restrictions and requirements. You will need to go through peer reviews as well as pay one figment (prompt currency) or 10 USD to claim artwork from Auspice, or request free artwork from a volunteer. More details are available in the server. 

To send Auspice the form, it is preferred that you send a message in the #conceptualization-submissions channel in the Discord with a Google Doc with comment permissions so that they can more easily offer feedback. 

Please do not submit incomplete conceptualizations to Auspice. If you have specific questions about whether or not something would be allowed that you want to ask before submitting, you can ask in the #questions-suggestions-feedback channel or ask in that channel if you can DM Auspice for a character development question. Of course, if Auspice requests to be more involved in the character development, as is likely to be the case for special trait Edeia, you are free to DM them directly for discussion and inquiries.

Conceptualization Form

Name:
Idea:
Gender:
Pronouns:
Age: (Can be inexact - must at least have the era they were born or Actualized in. See the Setting section of the Edeia lore guide for details. You can consider the "present" to be exactly 100 years from now. For fusions, you can consider the age to be defined based on when they were first formed.)
Origin:  (Main Ideation Continuity, alternate timeline, external dimension, etc. Refer to the Origins Guide.)
Previous Form: (Human, animal, object, other species, etc. Refer to the Origins Guide.)
Height: (Can be any size you wish and can be variable, but it must be one that actually feels right to the Edeia; as most Edeia were human, they tend to be about human-sized.  It can be numerical, exact or approximate; it can be a comparison, i.e. "size of a horse", "size of a blue whale", etc. You must provide a screenshot/image of your Edeia on a height chart, which can be the official height chart, a duplicated copy of your own, or an image with your character added on. All of these can be found here. You can edit/make your own height chart as well. If it is your own copy, you may add other forms as you wish.)

Personality: (Minimum 60 words)

Abilities: (There are very few limitations for this. The power of Ideas is driven by imagination and shaped by interpretation - if you can imagine it, it can be so.  That said, there are some caveats/guidelines, which you can see here.)

History: (Minimum 100 words. Can involve other existing Edeia if you wish, yours or others' with permission. Generally, it may be good to include early life/things leading up to Actualization, the Actualization and/or what they do after Actualization. Auspice is particularly interested in stories of personal growth and discovery, how they grew to identify with their Idea. Keep in mind that death at Actualization is very uncommon. It is recommended to look at the Actualization section of Edeiology for ideas, as well as the Origins Guide for their previous form.  

For fusions, you can discuss how the involved components met and how the fusion came to be. You can also discuss what the fusion does and how often they are formed.)

Description of Abstraction: (Minimum 60 words)

Examples

For some examples, you can see Auspice's Edeia with full profiles, which likely have all this information. Some profiles of interest, history/lore-wise, are Auspice (born in our present, in the Age of Secrecy), Mu (born in the Age of Secrecy), Repose (born in the Ancient Ages), and Sess (born in the Age of Reunion). 

Other Forms

You may wish to design (or commission others to design) different forms of your Edeia. Some examples for Val are below. 

From left to right: Val's main form, alternate form, humanoid form, previous form (human), and cat form (in the "other" category). Not to scale. 

Alternate Form

Edeia may have one alternate form if you wish, and you do not need my approval to make one. This is a form that they find just as comfortable as their usual form, and they may stay in this alternate form as long as they desire. The colors of the alternate form may vary but it is common that they are the same, or the Edeia is otherwise recognizable. The alternate forms of some Edeia may change drastically, while others may only have minor changes (such as changing only one part of the body). 

This is my way of giving you all the opportunity to essentially "redesign" your Edeia without going through the whole process of payment and masterlist edits; this form can fully represent the character as much as the main form.

Previous Form

Most Edeia were human in the past, but they could be any animal or other species. For non-mundane species, they must have entered the Ideation dimension and/or have been influenced by Ideation's abilities (i.e. being given an Idea or developing one by being in proximity to a fragment of Ideation). Edeia forms of other closed species and such are allowed if it is allowed for the other species, but note that becoming an Edeia is irreversible. They may shapeshift to look like their previous form, but once they become an Edeia, that is their state of existence.

Generally, there may be gradual cosmetic changes as an ideated individual approaches Actualization. Eye color typically changes first, though later on, hair color and skin color may change. In rare cases, there can be drastic changes in physical form (such as part of a body shifting into an energy form as Edeia bodies are; extra appendages; more eyes, etc.). If a to-be Edeia's magic is unstable (whether caused by emotional instability or lack of control over the magic), then drastic changes can be more likely. 

How changed your character is by Idea magic prior to Actualization is up tp you; some still end up only with changed eyes. 

Humanoid Form/Hybrid Form

Edeia may also have a humanoid form, a.k.a. a gijinka form, or a hybrid form with resemblance to whatever other species they were previously. This is a special case of a shapeshifted non-alternate form. 

A hybrid form that closely resembles an Edeia's natural form can be used for significant spans of time without extreme discomfort. It's a bit like wearing a suit - obviously not as comfortable as comfy wear like soft shirts and sweatpants, but very manageable. 

The more closely it resembles their natural Edeia form, the more comfortable it tends to be.

Usually, these forms resemble Edeia's previous forms; Edeia who had a previous form of a different species may have the equivalent form with their previous species. You are welcome to make a humanoid form even if they weren't human previously, of course - it would just count as an "other form." 

There are not any rules for hybrid forms, per se - this is something mostly for fun, and as a  creative exercise . That said, my general approach for humanoid forms is to try and make them more "cosplayable," with a very human shape at the core. 

Other Forms

Edeia are very much capable of shapeshifting in the general sense, and you are welcome to make as many temporary forms as you wish. For instance, you may be interested in making a cat form, a winter form, a mer form, etc. 

Development Prompts

The Development Prompts are a set of prompts that you can complete for each Edeia you own. The main goal of this is to have fun and help guide the development of your Edeia, and the main reward is considered the development and content you make for yourself. 

See the Development Prompts page for more information. 

What Next?

There are still plenty of activities to do - I will offer prompts on an approximately monthly basis, which can help you think about your Edeia further.

You may also enjoy designing fusions between your Edeia, your and others' Edeia, and with entirely different species. 

If you want to talk with me and other folks about your characters and such, I recommend joining the Discord server as well!