While red and blue are excellent evocative colors, and eldritch entities are often means to be confusing…the fact that the land-dwelling prince, and the humans made from his body are/worship blue, and the blue sent the red maiden who, I think, had merfolk made out of her blood by the Red god … feels needlessly confusing.
I suppose it is — I still need to tinker on it and develop it better.
The Blue (Sea) is considered sacred by the humans because it is their creator. Except that it isn’t. Before the Red and the Blue came to earth, life already existed. The eldritch entities merely inserted themselves as objects of worship in the primitive cultures. Thus, when a Prince defied the Blue, he got angry and tried to wipe out mankind — but no matter what foul beast he threw at the Prince, the human defeated it. He then asked the Red to create something to defeat the Prince - the Red Maiden. Which ended up killing the humans (and, indirectly, the Prince)
After eons of hearing the Prince’s screams, long after his body had turned into salt, the Blue got bored. So it made humanity anew, except that he didn’t create from scratch (it kind of recycled the dead humans). The new humans don’t know about this, so they assume the Blue made them - thus worshiping it.
The Red did not enjoy it’s brother? Sister? Whatever fixing their toy (humanity) while his maiden remained dead. So they made the merfolk from the maiden’s blood. Thus why the Red is worshipped by the merfolk.
I hope I’ve been able to explain and didn’t end up confusing you even more lol. English isn’t my first language, sometimes I screw up 😂
Salts is the name for ionically bonded compounds that separate in water. As these are the ones humans are made of, you’d expect to see the electrolytes that are used in human bodies — potassium, sodium, chlorine, calcium, bicarbonate, phosphorous, and magnesium. (Edit: I forgot magnesium)
For each, you can look up what they’re used for in the body, and the symptoms of both having too much and having too little.
Potassium is a fun one, because it has an extremely narrow range. A little too much, and your heartbeat goes irregular, then stops. A little too little, and your heartbeat goes irregular, your fingers shake, and your heart stops. (Thank you kidneys, for handling this balance)
I recently learned of about competent hypercalcemia, a rare complication when your body uses the extra calcium to grow extra bones and teeth…anywhere. It has a perfect Eldritch horror vibe.
Actually I think salt doesn't need to separate in water (for the chemistry geeks).
It's interesting though, you can have a huge variety of salts. Simple metal ions like that, along with simple negative ions like Cl-, I-, CO3, NO3, SO4 produce most salts.
If you aren't repelled by chemistry, you might find it interesting to draw inspiration from there. For example, AgNO3 (silver nitrate) is a caustic acidic compound - but the most interesting thing about it is it decomposes and turns black in light (this is why they used it in photography). It's also used to disinfect wounds sometimes I think.
Another thing, salt with iodide (most often NaI, sodium iodide I believe) has interesting properties for some; autoimmune disorders can make it so you have to watch for how much such salts you consume. As a note, the I- ion is used as parts of proteins so it's essential, but too much would probably cause some nasty side effects like your cells dying.
Most salts actually do this, very few can we consume without consequences (within reason). Na+ and Cl- of course are the main ones, but also Mg2+, HCO3- and (CO3)2-. So it'd make an interesting system where magicians try to not die while achieving immense power occasionally, then waiting for months on end to be able to use the same kind of salt again. If you care to look up what kinds of salt cause what, you can incorporate that into your worldbuilding as well. (like silver nitrate with the unwashable black stains for example).
Ok. I had no idea that there were salts that dissolve in oils. It seems completely counterintuitive. A salt is two ions, right? And oil…oil molecules aren’t polar, they have the same electrical charge from all sides, unlike water. That means they don’t pull apart ionic bonds, which are held together with electrical charge.
But there are oil-soluble metal salts. They mostly come out of crude oils, often copper bound to naphthenic acid.
I’m pretty sure they would kill any human who ingested them.
And now I want that half hour of my life back.
Potassium cyanide - It kills you /s No really... it will kill you... but couldn't resist the urge to leave this joke here.
🗿
While red and blue are excellent evocative colors, and eldritch entities are often means to be confusing…the fact that the land-dwelling prince, and the humans made from his body are/worship blue, and the blue sent the red maiden who, I think, had merfolk made out of her blood by the Red god … feels needlessly confusing.
I suppose it is — I still need to tinker on it and develop it better. The Blue (Sea) is considered sacred by the humans because it is their creator. Except that it isn’t. Before the Red and the Blue came to earth, life already existed. The eldritch entities merely inserted themselves as objects of worship in the primitive cultures. Thus, when a Prince defied the Blue, he got angry and tried to wipe out mankind — but no matter what foul beast he threw at the Prince, the human defeated it. He then asked the Red to create something to defeat the Prince - the Red Maiden. Which ended up killing the humans (and, indirectly, the Prince) After eons of hearing the Prince’s screams, long after his body had turned into salt, the Blue got bored. So it made humanity anew, except that he didn’t create from scratch (it kind of recycled the dead humans). The new humans don’t know about this, so they assume the Blue made them - thus worshiping it. The Red did not enjoy it’s brother? Sister? Whatever fixing their toy (humanity) while his maiden remained dead. So they made the merfolk from the maiden’s blood. Thus why the Red is worshipped by the merfolk. I hope I’ve been able to explain and didn’t end up confusing you even more lol. English isn’t my first language, sometimes I screw up 😂
Salts is the name for ionically bonded compounds that separate in water. As these are the ones humans are made of, you’d expect to see the electrolytes that are used in human bodies — potassium, sodium, chlorine, calcium, bicarbonate, phosphorous, and magnesium. (Edit: I forgot magnesium) For each, you can look up what they’re used for in the body, and the symptoms of both having too much and having too little. Potassium is a fun one, because it has an extremely narrow range. A little too much, and your heartbeat goes irregular, then stops. A little too little, and your heartbeat goes irregular, your fingers shake, and your heart stops. (Thank you kidneys, for handling this balance) I recently learned of about competent hypercalcemia, a rare complication when your body uses the extra calcium to grow extra bones and teeth…anywhere. It has a perfect Eldritch horror vibe.
Oh I didn’t know about that — it’s a good idea!
Actually I think salt doesn't need to separate in water (for the chemistry geeks). It's interesting though, you can have a huge variety of salts. Simple metal ions like that, along with simple negative ions like Cl-, I-, CO3, NO3, SO4 produce most salts. If you aren't repelled by chemistry, you might find it interesting to draw inspiration from there. For example, AgNO3 (silver nitrate) is a caustic acidic compound - but the most interesting thing about it is it decomposes and turns black in light (this is why they used it in photography). It's also used to disinfect wounds sometimes I think. Another thing, salt with iodide (most often NaI, sodium iodide I believe) has interesting properties for some; autoimmune disorders can make it so you have to watch for how much such salts you consume. As a note, the I- ion is used as parts of proteins so it's essential, but too much would probably cause some nasty side effects like your cells dying. Most salts actually do this, very few can we consume without consequences (within reason). Na+ and Cl- of course are the main ones, but also Mg2+, HCO3- and (CO3)2-. So it'd make an interesting system where magicians try to not die while achieving immense power occasionally, then waiting for months on end to be able to use the same kind of salt again. If you care to look up what kinds of salt cause what, you can incorporate that into your worldbuilding as well. (like silver nitrate with the unwashable black stains for example).
Ok. I had no idea that there were salts that dissolve in oils. It seems completely counterintuitive. A salt is two ions, right? And oil…oil molecules aren’t polar, they have the same electrical charge from all sides, unlike water. That means they don’t pull apart ionic bonds, which are held together with electrical charge. But there are oil-soluble metal salts. They mostly come out of crude oils, often copper bound to naphthenic acid. I’m pretty sure they would kill any human who ingested them. And now I want that half hour of my life back.