Lord of the Prompts | Spooktober 2025

I've got so many prompts, they're falling out of my pocketses!
— Between this and Swordtember...

One Does Not Simply...

My approach to the Spooktober challenge is a little different this year. I set myself on a new quest last month during the Worldbuilding Showdown where I swore to myself and my community that I would take on the true challenge of tidying up around my world Malkora, and pull my older content into shape — at the very least, make the information a bit less scattered, and a lot less outdated.

Tidying the Hobbit Hole

This challenge, for me, will be sort of a two-parter. For each prompt, I will go and find one of Malkora's older articles, and then:

I will make edits to the article as needed to bring it into the modern age
I will add some new information to the article based on the relevant prompt

Lessai Traditions

^{Answering Prompt: Ring}

Though rings were historically worn by the ancestors of the Lessai people, metal bands around the finger act as a great hindrance to the many Myren who call Nimavi home. What the Valsheri still consider to be wedding bands, the Lessai now wear only as symbols of grief and mourning, bearing the physical weight in addition to the mental and emotional toll of their losses.

Lessai

Ethnicity | Sep 27, 2025

A sheltered people, whose lives and essence are bound to elemental nature.

This is the article that kickstarted my quest for organization, my entry for the Worldbuilding Showdown!
This one actually came with a fairly crucial update, a quickly-developed retcon that already needed to take place: my original vision for these folks to be Leyborne, seemed to morph into a reality that they ought to be Eldwrought! My understanding of the people of Malkora is starting to grow, and I love that!

Sins of the Alabaster Hand

^{Answering Prompt: Defile}

The throne of Aurel was held by the Arsaces Family for almost as long as the Alabaster Hand existed, this line of rule only ending when the Hand stepped into the role of judge, jury, and executioner. With claims that the monarchy had defiled the throne, accusations of the late queen consorting with dark forces, and warnings of imminent judgment by the gods themselves, the Hand enacted the deposition of the monarchy in a hall crowded with subjects who once claimed they would sacrifice all in the Arsaces name.

The Alabaster Hand

Organization | Sep 27, 2025

First religious order of The Purifier, the totalitarian shard of Strength Incarnate.

This article still has a long way to go before it's up to my new standards, but it's at least got some of the dust brushed off now! With some updated information and new sections, I can at least say that there's no weird inaccurate info in here anymore!
It's going on the list for article overhauls, one hundred percent! I have a lot of stuff I could write about these guys and what they're up to, but that's set for later, when I have more time to get lost in the sauce of writing!

Fruit of the Glacial Fern

^{Answering Prompt: Pits}

Glacial ferns are inherently magical plants, growing from earth infused with the energy of the land's underlying leylines. It is theorized, however, that these plants are not new life brought by the leylines, but rather a native plant transformed by the surge of arcane energy throughout the forests. This is a theory supported by the Lessai practice of glacial fern cultivation and harvest, as the people draw traditionally-consumed pitted fruit from the ferns that they are no longer known to produce.

Glacial Fern

Species | Oct 4, 2025

A rare flowering fern found in the deepest reaches of the Hearthwood, sought after by the Lessai Elves for marriage rites.

I think the concept of the Lessai people and this plant as used in their culture was one of the very first ideas I truly invested in developing when started building out Malkora. Because of that, it's pretty fun to go back into this article and some related ones to make some corrections about how it functions, the connections it has to the leylines and natural environment, and how the people interact with it.

Lives of the Iskani

^{Answering Prompt: Remote}

Carrying the boon of the Primordials in their blood, the Iskani are built to adapt to whatever changes their homelands face, no matter how extreme. Their tendency to live in extreme conditions makes their populations few and far between, often thriving in only small, remote pockets of the world.

Iskani

Species | Oct 4, 2025

Eldwrought humans who begin to meld with their natural environments as their lands shift and change with the leylines.

This article features one of my oldest sketches for the world of Malkora (so old it still, currently, has my old watermark on it)! This concept here needed to see some serious reworking, and I honestly still have to go back into this one to pull and adjust more information throughout. A lot of this info might do really well in the article for the Eldwrought people as a whole, rather than in the Iskani article that falls under its umbrella.
This one was really fun to tackle on stream, with the flood of questions the concept kicked off in my brain — it put quite the bullet point list in my notebook! Getting to know the nature of humans and magic in Malkora, article by article! I'll tackle the different types of Iskani next.

Buried Among the Earthheart

^{Answering Prompt: Barrow}

In certain regions, it is said that Iskani who perfectly match the colors of the stone of their homeland are gifted with an ancient wisdom, that only time will reveal to them and their people. Similar tales are told of those who take on hues entirely unfamiliar to their homes, which many believe to be either an omen or a promise of new discovery.

Earthheart Iskani

Species | Oct 15, 2025

Iskani infused with the essence of the elemental plane of earth, taking on visual properties of stone.

The Iskani were one of the first people of Malkora I ever wrote about in depth, and that includes subtypes such as the Earthheart and others you'll see below! I need to spend a lot of time thinking more about these folks' relationships with the lands they inhabit, and just how closely they must live with it as a result of their transformations.
This kicked a good train of thought regarding how these transformations even take place, and what exactly triggers them. Can the non-Boharin travel freely? At this time, it seems entirely dependent on what a transformation has done to the human and their relationship with their land.

Homes of the Flameheart

^{Answering Prompt: Chamber}

Flamehearts are seldom found in any climate cool enough to see ice and snow; a lack of extreme heat sources can be harmful over long periods of time. Though they are equipped to survive in the cold, doing so may drain their energy at dangerous rates. These iskani are most pleased living in and around pools of magma, open flames, or oppressive sunlight. Rarely, one might find magma chambers tucked away in frigid locales where the flameheart have found safe haven in an otherwise inhospitable zone.

Flameheart Iskani

Species | Oct 25, 2025

Iskani infused with the essence of the elemental plane of fire, taking on the visual properties of their element.

Here I do make some choices: yes, they can travel! They can move and resettle in many places, but they ought to choose the right one. Humans like these, who have their beings tied to the elements, should be careful where and how they settle.
The flameheart can brave the tundra, but if there isn't a pocket of magma waiting for them somewhere in the caverns, they're in for one chronically exhausted life.

Tideheart Floodwaters

^{Answering Prompt: Drown}

Though they live closely with water, and find it to be a part of their bodies, not many tideheart are capable of underwater respiration. A belief that all tideheart possess water breathing abilities has led to the misguided deaths of many, either at the hands of the capable, or of strangers who made hasty assumptions and left tideheart to drown in dangerous waters.

Tideheart Iskani

Species | Oct 25, 2025

Iskani infused with the essence of the elemental plane of water, taking on the visual properties of their element.

Around here is where I really started to solidify the concept that the iskani don't really take on that many otherworldly appearances, aside from the obvious elemental manifestation aspect. Gone are the unusual skin tones and hair colors (but I guess they could be situational these are just normal humans who have found themselves to be a lot more connected to the elements than they were before, with a permanent physical reminder of that connection.
Though, much like pink tieflings and other controversial TTRPG color choices, I'd leave plenty of room for the iskani to appear with any elemental-toned skin someone wanted for their own OC. Idk, have fun y'all!

Windheart Unbound

^{Answering Prompt: Swift}

Though the windheart iskani prefer to keep moving and may be seen all throughout the world, there are environments which appeal to these nomadic people more than others. Windheart move with haste, making split decisions to pick up and relocate, tearing down and reassembling their homes faster than the breeze — hardly the time for a thought or true consideration to guide their movements. When stale air rolls in, the windheart roll out.

Windheart Iskani

Species | Oct 25, 2025

Iskani infused with the essence of the elemental plane of air, taking on the visual properties of their element.

This is an article I really want to come back to again in the future, because talking so much about their moving habits and settlements makes me feel like a lot of this information describes a certain population, and not a subspecies of humanity. Not too bad of a thing, really, but it leaves me feeling like an article about a specific ethnic group of windheart might contain a ton of overlapping information.
We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I suppose!

The Piercing Everbright

^{Answering Prompt: Sting}

The people who inhabit these lands are adapted to the perpetual light, ranging from Iskani of the flame, to Boharin who shaped their lives well to live in the stinging sunlight. Dark skin is common, as a protection from the persistent rays, though fur and hair tends to be very light — or, lightens over time through exposure.

Everbright

Geographic Location | Nov 1, 2025

Grieving of the Sunwright

^{Answering Prompt: Grief}

The Sunwright were the first to engage in the tradition of light-bonding, a marital ritual that binds lovers together in the essence of Revelation. This ritual of trust, loyalty, and everlasting fidelity comes with a phenomenon some find comforting, and others disquieting: the shimmering shade of their lover, following the one who outlived them.

Sunwright

Ethnicity | Nov 1, 2025

Bolkan's Blasted Lands

^{Answering Prompt: Peril}

Though an inhospitable home to most, the Bolkhyn people have come to adapt to a life amist the lava floes and choking ash customary to their region. Comprised largely of flameheart iskani, as well as other folk such as agitation-bound Leyborne, the population as a whole is well-adapted to survival in these extreme conditions. Many who venture through these lands ill-prepared are quick to find peril where they tread.

Bolkan

Geographic Location | Nov 1, 2025

A region known for being intensely volcanic and volatile. Few choose to journey through it, much less make it their home.

Enemies of the Bolkhyn

^{Answering Prompt: Foes}

Other populations throughout Bolkan may be less hospitable, mirroring the land they inhabit. Though the Bexarem are among them, their inability to travel makes them a minute threat to the Bolkhyn, but there are other enemies of the Bolkhyn scattered across Bolkan, with some of these foes driving their hostility from the elemental entities of the land.

Bolkhyn

Ethnicity | Nov 1, 2025

The Bolkhyn are people who reside within the region Bolkan, in southern Nefyran.

Divine Ash and the Bexarem

^{Answering Prompt: Noisome}

The Bexarem and their connection to the Ashen Cloister has caused their settlements to take on a perpetual haze of smoke and clouds of ash. Their scent, bitter and corrosive, is unmistakable and dissuades most travelers from approaching the central hubs of Bexarem populations. Ever burning candles, pyres, and grimy lamps line the streets, fed daily by locals.