Questions tagged [written-material]
For questions about the creation and usage of different sorts of written material such as books and newspapers.
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Determining the qualities of a quill based on the qualities of the bird [closed]
Quills made from different birds are noted to be different, but I cannot find information of what factors are behind these quill differences
The relevant species is a flightless flamingo-like wader ...
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Alternative chalk board materials
For the sake of context, this is a fantasy setting where this character has no access to magic and lives in a small village. He would like to write a book and since wiriting materials are a little ...
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What are good heat-resistant materials for writing a self-immolating spellbook?
The magic in question operates on a magical language of runes that give off a constant heat. When the runes are "at rest" (as in, nobody is reading them) the heat is very mild but warms up ...
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Was there a waterproof paper or a substitute that could be written on in the medieval ages?
I'm making a character that keeps their books stored in their many large mouths. Thing is, it's a medieval setting and I'm not sure how the book would be made to survive being in such an environment.
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Specific type of invisible ink
I know so called ''invisible ink'' exists in the real world.
The most common types can be revealed either by applying heat to the paper it is written on (lightbulb, clothes iron, candle, lighter, etc.)...
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Paper or Ink that naturally degrades in a month or less?
The end result is that a delivered envelope or the writing on it is designed to completely decay within 2 weeks to a month, ideally through natural processes caused by the type of materials used, so ...
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I'm making a tattooed repository of paramedical knowledge for a religious ceremony. How small can words be if they're tattoos made of cremation ashes?
I have a character. One of their parents died. Said parent was cremated, and then - by their own choice; this is a quasi-religious thing - their cremains were mixed into tattoo ink, and the character ...
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Immortals and privacy: how do they protect their writings and drawings?
We are pretty used to read private letters of important and less important people who lived in a distant past: for example we can read the quite explicit letters that Mozart wrote to his wife and love ...
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How to write martial/magic arts manuals so they can be deciphered and practised in a distant future?
TL;DR
This question is about an information encoding method/system. The text below describes the types of information that need to be encoded and lists limitations existing in the world I am building. ...
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What sort of texts would survive in a sunken ruin?
Hundreds of years ago, the once-opulent city of not-Atlantis incurred the wrath of the gods and was cast to the bottom of the ocean. Now, our intrepid adventurers have been sent to the lost city of ...
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Underwater Cuneiform?
I am developing a culture for a species that lives in freshwater. They are solidly stone/bone-age, so no issues with "how do you develop metallurgy underwater?" and so on, but I would like ...
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What's a good fire-resistant material to write on?
In my setting (pretty generic medieval fantasy), certain valuable texts can simply not be copied (because of certain religious beliefs, a will to protect information through secrecy or because of some ...
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How to decide what language(s) to use for place names? [closed]
I have a homebrew world for a TTRPG where I have generated languages for each of the cultures populating the planet. When referring to those places (on a map, in the player's guide, in-game, etc.), I'...
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How could've Japan's Crown Princess foolproof guaranteed her letter of passage to Robert Childan? [closed]
Pre-suppose the background and context in the TV series Man in High Castle. If you remember the details I forgot, just edit this please.
I can't remember why and what episode, but the Crown Princess ...
user69651
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How do I make a writing system undecipherable, while not intended as such in-world?
It is relatively well known that hieroglyphs were not fully translated, or at all for that matter, until a while after the Rosetta Stone was found.
It is less well known that the script known as ...
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Can Papyrus be folded?
I want a character to invent the codex (that is, modern-shape books) in Ancient Egypt, which means that the primary writing material is papyrus. However, most book binding processes involve sections ...
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What is a writing material that persists nearly forever or for a long time? [closed]
I'm designing an alien society with a low population density. I intend for them to have 1 book per topic per place; books update annually as new information arises. I call them books, but they can ...
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A 500 years vault for books?
I love books,
This love brought me to gather hundreds of books of all different types. When I disappear, like all old men's belongings, these will be scattered, thrown away, sold, burnt.
Let's ...
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How could written materials be preserved after 3000 years of history? [closed]
Premise
Grandmaster Fredrietch Kalven, a researcher of lost arts, was tasked by the king to find and record all written histories of their world since the earliest writings.
After many years of ...
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What factors would affect the choice of direction of script writing to the inventor of a new writing system?
i.e left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom etc.
My guesses so far :
righty/lefty person,
material on which writing is done,
tools by which writing is done etc.
But I'm not able to convince ...
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Paper from human skin
I'm writing a story about a people that lives in a very cold, icy environment. Their technological level of advancement ranges from stone age to dark ages in different areas.
I'd like them to record ...
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Which parts of our civilization would survive 1000 years? [closed]
If some catastrophic event happened that wiped out humanity tomorrow, not destroying any objects or places, which parts of our civilization would survive for 1000 years? What would the world look like?...
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Where does ink come from in a Medieval setting? [closed]
In a medieval setting, in an area mainly on chalk or limestone, with a northern european climate were would ink for writing come from?
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Sharing digital data on physical medium
How can one store digital data in a manner readable without a computer?
To pose a more concrete frame around the question, let's assume we can transport some limited amount of mass into the 1950s and ...
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In a culture that writes in circles, what would the medium for writing look like?
Most Earth cultures — as far as I know — tend to use square or rectangular surfaces to write upon, and similarly our texts are also organized into square and rectangular shapes. However, a culture ...
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Can the Great Race of Yith's record-keeping actually last for eons? [duplicate]
I was researching the alien races of H.P. Lovecraft when I came across this passage:
For those unaware, The Great Race of Yith are so named because they've mastered time travel as a means of living ...
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Can a modern book that traveled back in time be proven to be older?
Imagine I travel back in time ~500 years, leave a modern ship/boat log book in a cave and the log book was discovered today. Since the book was discovered after it was possible to buy it off the shelf ...
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If people forgot how to write, how would the world be affected? [closed]
Suppose that you woke up tomorrow and the world had lost all memory of written communication including how to make paper and how to use pen, pencil, typewriters, colors, keyboards, basically any means ...
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What would it take for Jane Doe to craft a book from scratch?
Background
Say hi to Jane Doe. Jane is a writer and, after years of writing and rewriting, has finally achieved what she believes is her greatest, most personal piece of writing ever.
And she has a ...
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What could an aquatic civilization use to write on/with?
As the topic asks, what could an aquatic civilization use to write on/with?
By aquatic, I mean they live in the oceans, breathe water, etc. -- like mermaids and such. And they are trying to create a ...
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Creation Myth Development Help [closed]
C.W Lewis's Narnia and J.R.R Tolkien's Middle-Earth series all had creation myths for their characters to believe.
I want to have a go for one of my projects but I'm stuck.
I would like suggestions, ...
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The Printing Press of Alexandria
"You think we should come up with a faster way to transcribe this stuff in case some guy tries to burn it all down?"
Suppose someone at the Royal Library of Alexandria had invented the printing ...
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Suitable name for book of prophecies, book of riddles [closed]
I have used some prophecies and riddles in my stories. All of them were written into books placed in library called Old world diary.
That book should have name - to it could be quoted as source of ...
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How could a book be constructed to last forever?
The Clock of the Long Now is a clock designed to mark time for 10,000 years. That's a really long time for humans, but what if there existed a species that would see such a clock as "a bit short lived"...
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Would a human culture that developed in a world where audio recording was straightforward also develop written language?
Possible situations where this might happen:
Early human culture develops in a situation where audio recording and recall is straightforward - perhaps in a place where there is an abundance of tame ...
user17965