Credits

Design Graphics

Golden filigree/swirly decorative graphics & construction sign
From Adoble Stock and used under a Standard license for visual assets. May or may not be altered by me, which is permissable under said license.
Parchment textures
From a long-defunct website called rainharbour.net
The Black Lace background tile
I have no idea, to be honest. I've had it since 2007 so I've long since forgotten where it came from. If you know, please do let me know.

Design Graphics

Art
Unless otherwise mentioned were created by the author using AI programs such as Standard Diffusion or Novelai's offshoot of such

Font Credits

General Text Fonts
All fonts used in the text proper are from Google Fonts:
Large headers - Metamorphous
Medium Headers - Cinzel
Small headers--Crimson Text
 
Character Handwriting
Asmodeus - Comforter Brush
Astaroth - Yellowtail
Cain - Allison
Dagon - Qwigley
Dante - Splash
Duck - Inspiration
Gabriel - Shalimar
Grigorius - Smooch
Isis - Babylonica
Leviael - Bonheur Royale
Mastema - Water Brush
Samael - Kolker Brush
Generic Handwriting 1 - Oooh Baby
Generic Handwriting 2 - Whisper
Generic Handwriting 3 - Grey Qo
Generic Handwriting 4 - Qwitcher Grypen
   
"Crimson Court" logo
LeKick, an Adobe font available to users of Adobe products. Used with permission.

Tools I Have Used (or Will)

Inkarnate
Overlap maps
Dungeon Alchemist
Regional and Interior Maps
Hero Forge
Virtual Miniatures
Talespire
Complicated or Unique Maps
Microscope: A Fractal Roleplaying Game
Great for worldbuilding and timeline brainstorming
The Ultimate RPG Campfire Card Deck
For focusing on characters and their details
Story Engine Card System
Just the best for unsticking the brain.
Create Galaxy
Used to create the starmaps and starry skies on headers.

AI Chatbots

Goliath Model
A 120B open-source merge and an occasional brainstorming partner and assistant namer.
OpenAI
Not as often used due to censorship issues but sometimes very helpful
Mistral Medium
Not as often as Goliath, but helpful.

Appreciation

Hearts For...

hugowalker
I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be able to do anything useful without you there to support and inspire and brainstorm and cheer. Also, I can't overstate how influential your thoughts, your writing, your artwork, and yourself have been to me both creatively and personally. AND THANK YOU FOR MICROSCOPING THE WORLD'S HISTORY GAPS WITH ME.

Thanks To...

Clare C. Marshall
She does actual play videos of herself using things like Microscope or Story Engine to worldbuild and brainstorm. It's very inspirational. Hope she's doing well.

Inspirations...

Berserk, by Kentaro Miura
Genuinely my favorite piece of fiction of all time. Obviously there's a great deal of air space between the kind of story Berserk is and the kind of world/story I'm creating, but the influences are all over everything I do.
Early Chuck Palahniuk Novels
Mostly the rhythm of his writing, which ate its way into my brain decades ago
"Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer" by Tanith Lee
To be honest I haven't read it in ages, but it was formative
"The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman et al
If Berserk didn't exis,t this would be my favorite piece of fiction of all time
"Monster" by Naoki Urasawa
If Berserk and Sandman didn't exist, this...
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Not the show. The books. I'm not being an elitist, it's just that I read the books much earlier and all the way through whereas I stopped watching the show sometime in Season 2
Gossip Girl
Listen. If you get Berserk and Gossip Girl and merge them into a story with a lot of lgbtq themes then you'd have something not wholly unlike this world. Don't think about it too much.
A bunch of Isekai Webcomics
At some point isekai webtoons became a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine - action isekai, romance isekai, whatever - and that's basically how I came across the tropes that I'm trying to examine.
Music that's been on repeat to get me in the Empirica Sin mood
"Starlight: by Rachael Yamagata
"The Lonely" and "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri
"Cicio" from the soundtrack to the House on Fata Morgana
"Feel" from the soundtrack to Lies of Pi
The albums "Timber" and "Whaler" by Sophie B. Hawkins
"Body Parts" by Jump Little Children
The album "Haunted" by Poe
"Sunshiny Milk" by Nostalghia
"Schadenfreude" by Karyn Whittemore
Everything Damien Rice
The albums "Equipoise" and "Building the Colossus" by Happy Rhodes
"The Scientist" and "Yellow" by Coldplay
"The Ruler and the Killer" by Kid Cudi
The albums "Idler Wheel" and "Fetch the Bold Cutters" by Fiona Apple
The album "War in Wonderland" by Neoni
...I could keep going
Years in fandom
Just years and years