Rue Marr

(The following is a link to my website where you can view all of my content: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/pretheya-ruemarr) Hi there! My name is Rue Marr (they/them), but you can call me Rue for short. To start off with some of the important things about myself: I'm a 24 year old autistic trans-feminine person (specifically agender, but I also identify with the transfem label for convenience) with ADHD. Politically, I'm something resembling an anarcho-communist, but generally refer to myself as a leftist rather than using any specific term to describe my beliefs. I'm the author of Pretheya: A maximalist speculative-fiction world simulation project with fantasy elements. Unlike many other settings, which focus on a central theme or 'hook' around which most or all content revolves, Pretheya's scope is intentionally wide and unfocused. Pretheya is a work in what I personally refer to as the 'autism' genre; meaning it's filled with the kind of highly-specific, totally useless information that I and other autistic people love binge-reading. The purpose of the project is to simulate a fantasy world in as much detail as possible; covering things like how the presence of magic would realistically affect a world, the unique cultures that would spring up in such a place and how their conceptions of important matters like sex and gender would differ from our own, and also really deranged stuff like giant transport spiders and genetically modified trees that are 4,000 metres tall and eat clouds to redistribute the water to surrounding locations. The central themes in Pretheya focus on ideas of diversity and inclusion. Where many fantasy settings draw from and are primarily based upon medieval European culture, a central design element for me has been to try and include as many non-Western cultures, religions, and philosophies as possible in what I write; in order to try and give my content a unique feel from traditional fantasy writing. As part of this, I have also placed a great emphasis on historical minority communities, such as disabled people; neurodivergent people; and transgender or gender-non-conforming people; and all types of queer people. The reasons I like writing about these topics in particular are as follows: Throughout my life, I've consumed a lot of media (primarily video games and anime, but also a fair few books too; admittedly mostly when I was younger) and I've found that, as someone part of as many minority groups as I am, it's quite difficult to feel represented by most works. At best, a piece of media might have a character who's autistic and not really interested in relationships, but that's about as good as it gets. From discussions with my friends, I realised that I'm not alone in feeling under-represented like this. I have a lot of friends who are simultaneously transgender, autistic, asexual and/or queer, and combinations of all of the above, and they frequently tell me that it's really hard to find any media that feels like it was made with them as the target audience. And so, when I started work on Pretheya, I did so with a goal in mind: I want to create a setting that, to those people, can feel like it was written just for them. In case you're wondering if this is the setting for you, the best way I can describe it is: If you like reading wiki articles on stuff you find interesting, and the idea of a high-effort Wikipedia clone for a fantasy setting with added small bits of prose here and there sounds appealing to you; then this is definitely the setting for you. If you're not sure, then you can check out the public page for Pretheya linked at the top of the page! It's got more than 200,000 words of totally free content to read, and you can make up your mind on whether or not it's the kind of thing for you before you decide to support me. --- Why do I need a WorldAnvil account to view the supporter-exclusive content? --- It's a nuisance for me too, and I would prefer that it wasn't necessary, but unfortunately it's an unavoidable problem with hosting private content on WorldAnvil. Basically, the way WorldAnvil handles access to private content is through a mechanism called 'subscriber groups.' This works by restricting access to articles and other pieces of content to only people who are in one of the approved subscriber groups that the author sets as being able to see them. The problem is, there is no way to put someone into a subscriber group without them having a WA account. Most 'professional' websites would have some sort of integration with sites like Ko-fi and Patreon in order to alleviate this problem, but WorldAnvil just simply does not have integration for either of these platforms; nor has there been any mention of any plans to add it either. So unfortunately I'm stuck with this method for the foreseeable future. --- Ko-Fi Ethos --- The Ko-fi page for Pretheya is set up a little differently than other ko-fi or Patreon pages that you may have seen in the past, specifically in regards to what you get for supporting me at a given tier. You may have noticed that none of the tiers actually explicitly say "you'll get access to X articles or thousand words worth of content per month." Allow me to explain why this is the case: My working style is very heavily influenced by the fact that I am autistic, and that I have PDA (pathological demand avoidance disorder) and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder.) These two things, in my individual case, basically mean that I struggle enormously to do work when I feel like I 'have' to do it. The moment I feel like I'm in some sense 'required' to do something, my brain starts to freeze up, I get incredibly anxious, and - more often than not - I shut down completely. This has been an issue for my entire life, ever since I was just a small toddler. Although research on PDA is currently in the very early stages, a lot of explanations for this behaviour posit that it is likely neurological; meaning it can't be cured or otherwise gotten rid of. What this means is that, if I set up a Ko-fi page where I promise to produce X amount of content monthly for the people subscribed to it, the moment I go live with the page and start feeling like I now have an obligation to produce that content, I will instantly become completely unable to work on it. Regardless of whether that content is something that I actively want to make and would enjoy making, I suddenly find myself completely paralyzed and absolutely incapable of doing any work on it. This has happened to me more times than I can count in the past, and has resulted in me having to drop out of competitions, fail deadlines, and fall through on promises to friends for things that, by all other accounts, I should be completely able to do. As such, I have made the decision to set up the Ko-fi page in a way such that I do not have any official obligation to produce anything for any of my supporters. This way, I can tell myself that I am not required to do work, and that anything I do create; I'm making the choice to create out of my own will. This also lets me work in a way that is significantly more psychologically healthy, and is likely to be much more sustainable long-term than if I was producing content under a traditional framework. This way, I am not forced to write if I don't feel up to it, as so many other people unfortunately are, which means I am at massively reduced risk of suffering burnout; which is a serious problem for autistic people in particular. Of course, this doesn't mean that by supporting, you're not going to get anything: The moment you become a supporter at tier 3 or higher, you instantly get access to all of the Mirror of Ages content; which at the time of writing is at least 10,000 words, and will likely continue to grow as time goes on. --- What Is The Money From The Ko-fi Going Towards? --- The money I make from this Ko-fi will go almost entirely towards supporting my own bills and medical expenses, as well as supporting my family whom I still live with. I have not & am incapable of ever moving out due to physical difficulties incurred as a result of my fibromyalgia, and this means I have to place a continuous financial burden on my family in order to keep supporting me. Prior to starting this Ko-fi, this is not something I have been able to do anything about: I have tried to get a job, but have never been able to find employment anywhere other than in retail, (I don't have any qualifications, because I couldn't cope with school due to being autistic and had to drop out) which I cannot cope with. In the time since I last searched for a job, my physical health has deteriorated even further, and I now struggle to be away from home for more than an hour without becoming severely unwell. I am also not safe to drive, and for the aforementioned reasons, my PDA gives me anxiety attacks at the thought of having to go to work. There's also the fact that I am an openly transgender person living in a heavily conservative area of what is currently an extremely transphobic country, which means that in the attempt I did try to find work (which I haven't done since transitioning,) it may be straight up impossible on that basis. tl;dr; I'm completely screwed as far as getting a normal job goes Right now at the time of writing, I am tenuously financially secure because both of my parents are still working at the moment, but the situation will get much more complicated when they start to retire; which is only a few years away. As well, I really don't want to continue having to be provided for without the ability to pay anything back, so I am intending the money I make from this Ko-fi to go on finally starting to pay for some of my own stuff without having to rely on them. For these reasons, literally any amount pledged is an enormous help, and will contribute directly to ensuring my long-term financial stability and ability to keep on writing in the future. It would also mean the world to me, personally; to see that people value my writing enough to support me like that.

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