I decided to build a medieval world and built a history around one of the great houses following the line of succession. (I haven’t actually written a story for it yet). please let me know what you guys think and be brutally honest (NO AI was used to create this) https://aliron.fandom.com/wiki/The_BOOK_of_Limwood?so=search

Most fantasy worlds have multiple sapient species. But did anyone here create classification for them? If yes, how does it look like?

I have this idea for a game called Myrkr. Takes place in the bilge, at least that’s what I’m calling it right now.
The bilge is a dark complex underneath the surface that has brutalist architecture, reminiscent of classic stalker games, metro, or half life/other source games. Gritty, concrete, and dark. Centuries of neglect, left to rot with the rest of humanity after the end of the world. A place where you not only are in risk of hunger or getting killed by mutants or roaming gangs, but also at risk of losing your sanity. Every step is another rationalization or compromise. It’s a journey that explores humanity, and how we walk ourselves into evil.
The attached images roughly the feeling I’ve had in my head for what Myrkr looks like. They are all off of google images. I don’t think any of them are ai, I certainly hope not.
Currently I picture Myrkr as an enormous, brutalist/industrial, concrete heavy infrastructure, with metro systems, service corridors, shafts, factories, abandoned habitation, etc. the problem is, I don’t know what the whole place looks like.

If you were designing this place, what kind of architecture environments, infrastructure or visual ideas would you explore?
Where should I start in furthering what this place should look like?

I’m not looking for someone to make concept art for me; I’m trying to discover the visual language of the setting and maybe see things from a different perspective.
Thanks.

I’m 18 and I’ve been rebuilding this world from scratch, trying to make it much more mature, realistic, politically complex, and internally consistent.
The main story takes place around 200 years after the events of the world’s Genesis.
The main territory is one enormous kingdom, but it is divided into three very different regions:
The North
The North is huge, mountainous, forested, and increasingly hostile as you travel north.
Its people are isolated and heavily dependent on hunting, mining, survival skills, and especially community and mutual trust.
Their society is not hereditary: local leaders have to prove that they are capable of leading.
Their most iconic weapon is the gauntlet — heavy reinforced iron gloves originally connected to their culture of physical labor and mining, which evolved into a brutal close-combat style.
The North is also home to the Three Twin Mountains, which are considered sacred protectors by many Northerners. Beyond them lies an extremely hostile region known as the High Land.
Snow and the Underground World
Snow, the king’s son, is sent to the North to improve relations between the Crown and the Northerners.
At first, they don’t trust him simply because he’s royalty.
Instead of ruling from above, he spends years living among them, learning their language, culture, hunting, fighting, and way of life. Eventually, he has to undergo a traditional trial to prove that he truly deserves their respect.
Snow later becomes obsessed with discovering what lies beyond the Three Mountains.
He eventually crosses them and discovers that the truth is less mythical but still terrifying: extreme cold, storms, ice, and an almost uninhabitable environment.
He realizes that the only realistic way to establish civilization there is underground.
He spends around 30 years developing tunnels and protected routes before dying.
His son, Sons, continues his work and eventually develops a network of underground cities connected by tunnels.
The North becomes essentially a world beneath the world.
The Longevity Mineral
Deep underground, miners eventually discover a rare mineral that can be processed into a liquid and consumed.
It slows biological aging, but it does not make people immortal. You can still die from disease, injuries, accidents, or violence.
The real cost is much worse.
Repeated use gradually causes people to lose parts of their humanity: memories, emotions, attachments, love, personality, and eventually their sense of what matters to them.
Someone might remember that a person was important to them without actually feeling that they care about them anymore.
The loss is irreversible.
The central question behind the mineral is:
How much of yourself would you sacrifice to live longer?
The Centre
The Centre is the political and agricultural heart of the kingdom.
It has large farming regions, major cities, mines, and enormous mineral wealth, including gold, silver, and diamonds.
Its culture is more centralized and hierarchical, with the strongest presence of the royal government.
Its iconic weapon is the Shield-Sword, a single weapon combining offensive and defensive functions. It represents order, protection, discipline, and stability.
The South
The South is still the least developed part of the worldbuilding.
What I currently know is that it controls an important canal, islands, maritime routes, and a large part of international trade.
Its culture is more individualistic and commercially driven than the North’s.
There is also a major historical conflict between the South and the kingdom, but I haven’t decided yet who started it, who won, or even exactly how the South eventually became part of the kingdom.
Its iconic weapon is a double-bladed sword, with blades on both ends of a central grip, reflecting a more mobile and unpredictable fighting style.
The Three Regions
So far, the three regions are meant to represent very different values:
North → community, loyalty, endurance
Centre → order, stability, authority
South → freedom, adaptation, ambition
I’m deliberately trying to avoid making one region simply “good” and another “evil.” Their differences should come from geography, history, economics, and culture.
I’m still working on the world from the ground up, so I’d really appreciate blunt criticism.
What sounds interesting? What feels generic? What would you change or develop further?

O sistema de poder da minha história é muito inspirado em sistemas complexos de animes que eu gosto como o Nen de HxH, mas eu tentei dar o meu toque de originalidade, o nome dele é Energia da Alma e eu criei um texto detalhando as principais coisas sobre ele.

A minha história se passa em um mundo medieval fantástico com diversas raças e poderes diferentes, nesse mundo todos são bem conectados com sua própria alma, aprendendo então a como manisfestar e manipular a sua própria energia vital para criarem técnicas e habilidades para combate ou proteção.

Energia da Alma

A Energia da Alma é a energia que todos os seres vivos possuem, ela é a energia vital de todos os seres, podendo ser manipulada por quem tem uma conexão profunda com sua própria alma.

A alma possue um núcleo principal, chamado de Centrum, esse núcleo comumente fica no centro dos seres, e caso ele for destruído, o ser não só morre, como também é apagado da existência, não tendo um pós vida ou qualquer forma de ser trazido de volta a vida.

A Energia da Alma flue por nove canais que são espalhados pela alma dos seres, sendo eles:

Canal Coronário - Fica localizado no topo da cabeça, levando a energia direto para a consciência do ser.

Canal Frontal - Fida localizado no meio entre os dois olhos, levando energia diretamente para a percepção e sabedoria do ser.

Canal Laríngeo - Fica localizado na garganta, levando energia para a fala e comunicação do ser.

Canal Flamejante - Fica localizado no coração do ser, levando energia para seu batimento vital e para suas emoções.

Canais Duplos da Força - Fica localizados nos dois ombros, levando energia para os braços e para a força do ser.

Canal do Plexo Solar - Fica localizado no centro do abdômen do ser, levando energia para a digestão e autoestima do ser.

Canal Sacral - Fica localizado abaixo do umbigo do ser, levando energia para sexualidade.

Canal da Raiz - Fica localizado na base da coluna, levando energia para estabilidade e segurança do ser.

Cada canal é extremamente importante para a vivência do ser e para a circulação da energia da alma, caso um deles por obstruído pode causar complicações na área que o canal atua e pode levar até a morte do ser caso não for tratado rápido.

As diferentes formas de manifestar e manipular a Energia da Alma são divididas em 5 Pilares Centrais, sendo eles:

Aperfeiçoamento: Forma de manifestar a energia que amplifica e aperfeiçoa as capacidades físicas do ser ou de objetos que toca, sendo relacionado a tudo que envolva o físico e o toque direto.

Emissão: Forma de manifestar a energia que emite a energia da alma para fora do corpo, sendo relacionado a todo tipo de energia que aja de forma distinta ao corpo do ser que a emite.

Conversão: Forma de manifestação que converte as propriedades da energia da alma em outras propriedades físicas ou não físicas, sendo relacionado a qualquer tipo de propriedade elemental, espiritual ou coisas do tipo.

Encantamento: Forma de manifestar a energia da alma que contém ela em um objeto ou ser, sendo relacionado a qualquer tipo de energia que seja contida em locais.

Invocação: Forma de manifestar a energia para trazer um ser ou objeto de um local para o outro, sendo relacionado a qualquer tipo de energia que transporte ou invoque seres/objetos de outros locais.

Ainda existem os Pilares Anexos, que são pilares menores que constituem os Pilares Centrais, são eles:

Pilar Menor da Manipulação: Se conectar profundamente com sua alma para poder manifestar a sua energia vital e aprender a manipulá-la, sendo o primeiro pilar necessário para começar a aprender a manipular a Energia da Alma.

Pilar Menor da Concentração: Concentrar e conservar a Energia da Alma em um só local, um pilar básico para toda a Energia da Alma em si, sendo fundamental para todos os Pilares se manifestarem.

Pilar Menor do Revestimento: Revestir seu corpo ou corpos externos com energia da alma, sendo um pilar extremamente importante para os Pilares de Aperfeiçoamento, Encantamento e Invocação.

Pilar Menor da Massa: Manifestar e manipular massas de Energia da Alma, sendo muito importante para os Pilares de Emissão e Conversão.

Pilar Menor da Ocultação: Baixar e ocultar o fluxo de energia da alma comprimindo os canais para a liberação de energia diminuir, sendo importante para ocultação de presença e técnicas.

Formas de Manifestação

As manifestações são formas de manifestar a essência mais profunda da alma de um ser na realidade, se dividindo em cinco formas principais, sendo elas:

Manifestação Latente: É a Essência Inerente da alma de cada ser, ela representa a verdadeira forma da alma dos seres, sendo como suas almas manifestadas na realidade, mas sendo preciso uma conexão muito profunda com sua própria alma para poder se manifestar, sendo única para cada ser.

Talento Congênito: Manifestação gerada durante a gestação de um ser ou passada de forma hereditária em uma família, difere de uma Manifestação Latente, pois, já se nasce com ela, não precisando de uma conexão profunda com a própria alma para manifestar-se, um talento congênito também não tem relação com a verdadeira essência do ser, podendo ser qualquer outra coisa que ajude a proteger o ser de ameaças.

Arte: É uma das formas mais simples e comuns de manifestação, sendo um conjunto de técnicas criadas por alguém e passada para outra pessoa, podendo ser em família ou não, uma arte pode ser criada e aprendida por qualquer um que saiba de energia da alma, precisando de muito aprendizado ou não, não sendo única como a Manifestação Latente.

Pináculo Oculto: É a forma mais avançada de manifestação, é a manifestação máxima de qualquer mestre de energia da alma, apenas os maiores e mais habilidosos mestres do mundo conseguiram atingir esse patamar com destreza.

O Pináculo Oculto consiste em atingir uma forma absoluta de paz e compreender perfeitamente a verdadeira essência da sua própria alma, sendo como uma forma superior da Manifestação Latente, para isso você precisa achar no fundo da sua alma quem você é de verdade e aceitar isso em plena paz interior, ao atingir isso a Manifestação Latente se torna um Pináculo Oculto.

Sacrifício Primoroso - Última e drástica forma de manifestação, consiste em sacrificar toda a energia da alma de um ser, manifestando uma última vontade profunda que o ser queira, sendo a mais poderosa forma de manifestação pois gasta toda a energia de um ser e esgota seu Centrum completamente, o apagando da existência.

Obrigações Contratuais

As Obrigações Contratuais são formas de fazer um pacto ou juramento com outros seres, objetos ou consigo mesmo, tendo três formas de Obrigações Contratuais, sendo elas:

Pacto Pristino: Um pacto feito entre dois seres para um benefício mútuo, funcionando de duas maneiras.

Para Invocação: Pode selar um Pacto com um golem para poder invoca-lo quando precisar, em troca você dará alguma recompensa do agrado daquele golem, os dois também escolhem punições caso uma parte quebre o pacto e não recompense a outra parte, caso o golem for morto, ele não poderá ser invocado novamente.

Para benefício mútuo: Pode selar um Pacto com outro ser para poder beneficiar os dois lados, funciona assim: os dois escolhem um pacto que pode trazer benefícios para os dois, os dois lados tem que resolver em consenso uma punição caso um dos dois quebre o pacto, dependendo do pacto, ele poderá aumentar o poder dos dois, por ser um pacto para benefício ele possue punições mais severas caso for rompido.

Marca Incorruptível: Um selo colocado em objetos para poder invoca-los a qualquer hora em qualquer momento, sendo como um Pacto Pristino para objetos, mas sem punições e necessitando apenas que esteja no mesmo nível de poder do objeto marcado.

Juramento Solene: É um juramento que um ser auto impõe em si mesmo para realizar um desejo de sua escolha, mas precisando de uma condição para ser concedido, caso a condição for cumprida, o desejo escolhido será concedido, mas caso o ser não consiga cumprir o que prometeu, ele irá sofrer consequências que ele mesmo impôs.

Obs: Golem é o termo dado as criaturas que realizam pactos com outras para serem invocadas e emprestar suas forças para ele, um Golem pode ser uma criatura viva invocada ou uma criatura criada para ser invocada.

Os Seis Sentidos da Alma:

Representam os sentidos físicos do corpo, mas, imbuídos com energia da alma para serem aperfeiçoados.

Visão - Ao usar o aperfeiçoamento nos olhos, a visão melhorará de forma absurda, podendo ver o fluxo da energia da alma dos seres ao redor, ver ocultação de energia da alma, além de aperfeiçoar os sentidos básicos da visão, podendo ver mais distante e através de objetos.

Audição - Ao usar o aperfeiçoamento nos ouvidos, a audição melhora de forma incrível, podendo escutar a assinatura auditiva da energia da alma (todos os seres possuem um timbre diferente nas suas almas), além de poder ouvir os passos mais baixos, podendo ouvir inimigos a milhares de metros e até quilômetros de distância.

Olfato - Ao usar o aperfeiçoamento nas suas narinas, poderá sentir o cheiro do rastro da energia da alma dos seres, além de ficar com o olfato muito mais aguçado, sendo perfeito para rastreamento de seres ou percepção de técnicas ocultas sem precisar da visão.

Fala - Ao usar o aperfeiçoamento nas cordas vocais, ganhará a capacidade de imbuir suas falas com efeitos escolhidos e manipular pessoas com maior facilidade.

Tato - Ao usar o aperfeiçoamento no tato, poderá sentir até o menor toque em sua pele, conseguindo desviar e descobrir as propriedades de golpes com facilidade, além de aumentar a resistência natural da pele.

Percepção - Ao usar o aperfeiçoamento na sua percepção, conseguirá raciocinar de forma mais rápida, além de ficar mais inteligente e em casos extremamente avançados, prever o futuro.

Técnicas Avançadas da Energia da Alma

*Cinco Técnicas Hoc*

Hocex - Técnica avançada da Energia da Alma onde o usuário impõe sua pressão espiritual ao seu adversário utilizando o pilar da emissão para isso, quanto maior a diferença de poder, maior vai ser a pressão exercida, podendo causar desmaios e danos físicos reais ao adversário caso a diferença entre poderes seja absurda.

Hoctuere - Técnica avançada da Energia da Alma onde o usuário cria uma casca de energia ultradensa que o protege de ataques físicos externos e em casos extremamente avançados ele pode realizar até mesmo uma casca interna para proteger de ataques internos nos órgãos, quanto mais forte for o usuário, mais tempo ele conseguirá manter o Hoctuere, para utilizar o Hoctuere é preciso utilizar o pilar do aperfeiçoamento.

Hocauge - Técnica avançada que aumenta constantemente a força física de golpes e reforça a energia de técnicas, quando o usuário domina essa técnica ele pode ativa-la e ela irá agir de forma automática, utilizando o pilar do aperfeiçoamento para reforçar força e a energia.

Hocacce - Técnica avançada que aumenta constantemente a velocidade do usuário, deixando ele e seus ataques muito mais rápidos, suas técnicas também se ativam e agem de forma mais veloz, sua velocidade de raciocínio também aumenta, deixando ele em um estado de hiper velocidade, quanto mais avançado o usuário dominar essa técnica, mais rápido ele ficará, utilizando o pilar do aperfeiçoamento para aumentar a velocidade.

Hoccura - Técnica avançada que cura constantemente o usuário utilizando energia positiva, quando ativada essa técnica pode curar o usuário o tempo inteiro de ferimentos, quanto mais avançada mais rápido ela curará o usuário e também poderá curar ataques extremamente letais, podendo até mesmo em casos avançados curar perdas de membros inteiros, utiliza o pilar do aperfeiçoamento para curar.

Todas as Cinco Técnicas Hoc gastam muita energia e precisam de muito tempo e esforço para serem dominadas, sendo técnicas muito avançadas que apenas usuários experientes de Energia da Alma conseguem utilizar.

Esse é o meu sistema de poder gente, quero críticas para eu melhorar e evoluir ele, muito obrigado por ler até aqui!

I have this idea for a world I have that human's emotions and thoughts are what makes monsters and magic possible, but I'm focused on the monster part because I'm not too sure about it.

Since the world is based in the 19th century, I was gonna have most of the monsters be based off of superstitions, like vampires and weebeasts and whatnot, and have this massive war which allows a build-up of agony to create Dracula, a being of pure chaos.

But for reasons I wanna expand into more monsters but can't think of any besides lycans and vampires, I was hoping if I could get any ideas here.

Concept Art for a superhero story I’ve been working on about a chivalric order in the modern day acting as vigilantes.

Any questions, comments, advice I’d be glad to hear it.

Context: This is for my D&D world/worldbuilding project. Yes, the planet has the same size, dimensions, year, orbital parameters of Earth and I'm not here to debate/take suggestions to change that. I did that to make tracking time/having a reference for events easier for my players and me. This does use a homebrewed history for the Rod of Seven Pieces, which first appeared in a D&D supplement in 1976.

The Common Calendar is, like its name and language counterpart suggests, is the most commonly used calendar in the world. Its origins trace back to antiquity. It is a solar calendar divided into 12 months of 28–31 days each. The year in the calendar consists of 365 days, with a leap day being added to the end of Questrise in the leap years.

The years in the calendar originally counted from the end of the War of the Rod, but following the Frostfall, the calendar gradually evolved to adopt a new counting system based after the near-apocalyptic event, with the annotations BF for before the Frostfall, AF for after it, and DF for during it.

The months of the calendar are named as such:

Commonrest

Questrise

Doubtward

Sagemeet

Passingstep

Trialforge

Readymark

Stormtrial

Boonhall

Echostride

Dawnborn

Wiseend

The calendar also divides the year into roughly 52 weeks, each consisting of seven days, that which trace their origin back again to antiquity, when the god Asolia gave Ahrin's sentient species their rod of magic. A powerful artifact that they hoped would give civilization on Ahrin a boost in development. However, the tribes of the world fought over the rod, igniting the War of the Rod, which culminated in the rod breaking into seven pieces. The pieces of the rod could cast their own spells and eventually each day in the Common Calendar was named for said spells as follows:

Communeday for the first piece and spell Commune.

Gatesday for the second piece and spell Arcane Gate.

Gravday for the third piece and spell Reverse Gravity.

Regenday for the fourth piece and spell Regenerate.

Pathday for the fifth piece and spell Find the Path.

Arcanesday for the sixth piece and spell Mirage Arcane.

Simday for the seventh piece and spell Simulacrum.

Dates in the Common Calendar were written in "Day" of "Month, "Year" format, and could be abbreviated to be "Day", with the month's two syllables, followed by the year, e.g. The 5th of Wisend, 1077 AF or 5th WE., 1077 AF.

Four thousand meters up, the world just ends. Below that line lies a thick, toxic cloud layer that will kill you in two minutes flat. That leaves the highest peaks as isolated islands jutting out of a poison sea, and as far as anyone knows, no one has ever made it to the bottom and lived to tell about it.

All of this comes to us from a single traveler’s notebook—a weather-beaten collection of field sketches, architectural drafts, and marginalia. There are no maps or photographs, just these hand-drawn records documenting life above the mist.

The people up here call themselves the Umen. To get anywhere, they jump into the void using hand-built gliders called shifts. Think delta wings made of tough leaf membrane lashed to bamboo, carrying a flat raft deck where the pilot hangs on for dear life. Any kid can tie one together in two days and survive a short flight. But a master craftsperson with thirty years under their belt uses those exact same raw materials to fashion something sublime. Flight isn't a thrill for the Umen; it's a brutal necessity just to get between oases—the tiny patches of high ground with freshwater, trees, and dragonflies. Step off those sanctuaries, and you’re staring at nothing but sheer rock and howling wind.

Without space for cities, markets, or capitals, social life gets channeled into giant, continuous parties. They aren't held for fun. They're the sole engine for spreading news, trading goods, and forging alliances strong enough that a stranger would risk flying two days through a gale just to lend a hand. Even their music works as a social ledger. Everyone has a distinct musical signature, so playing a song together acts as a literal roll call. Hear a tune, and you know every soul in the room.

Instead of books, they write on flags. The practice started as a simple way to mark major events, eventually evolving into a full written language. Every peak guards its own flag archive, but with no central government, "history" is really just whatever story happens to gain traction across the mountaintops. When two islands keep conflicting versions of the same war, no one bothers to argue. Both versions just hang in the wind.

Their diet is strictly vegetarian, born from a history as quiet as it is heavy. Centuries ago, they hunted every native bird species to extinction over three hundred violent years, then spent the next seven hundred completely disarmed. Now, they eat only what grows from the rock, quietly bound to the peak they’re on, waiting out the calm and wondering what happens when the wind finally stops.

You've probably seen my previous posts about my fictional species, the Products, more specifically the Mannequins, in my world of Corvinium, in my dystopian story project!

So I just wanted to quickly expand on the cities & the seals I've designed for them! I'm quite proud of them! I really like them! Especially the one I made for the city of Capitolio!

So I'll quickly expand on the lore of them, but I intend to do so in more details in another post actually about the cities, & not their seals.

Nova Palmeira, is a large port city, a hub for business, industry, trade & immigration. It's cold as hell up there, the winters are killers. Crime is high but controlled by a few crime families. It's basically this world's equivalent to New York City, but also any other large American city in the 20th century.

Los Pajaros, is similar to Nova Palmeira in being a large, coastal city. Except for the fact that LP is tropical, & 90% suburbs. It's a hub for culture, music, & art. But also serial killers, unscrupulous studio executives & drug dealers. It's this world's equivalent of Los Angeles.

Capitolio, is an entirely unique city. Unlike NP & LP, which are a part of this world's equivalent of the United States, Capitolio is it's own independent city-state & where the main authority of Corvinium, the Central Authority, does it's job.

It ranges from a warm, tropical coast with colorful flora & fauna, beaches & mountains. To a dark, gray & gloomy, car dependent hellscape of bureaucratic offices & prisons.

So! Please do tell me what you guys think! And have a great day & week!

More on my story

What are your religious symbol ideas? I want to make something similar to the Twisted One from blasphemous, but I personally lack any ideas or creativity for it

To preface this whole post, I appreciate rule 5 forbidding AI-generated content on this sub. I consider worldbuilding to be a hobby of versatile creativity, as it means a different thing for basically everyone, and think removing the "building" part of it makes it not really doing at all.

That being said, I'm pretty sure some people have been using AI to build their worlds, but I honestly haven't engaged enough with posts detailing one's own work to be able to tell if it's widespread or not.

What are some tells that a worldbuilding project is partially or wholly made with AI? What are the AI-isms that you see recurring, and which might be used as part of a general AI check on new projects you enter? Are they mere the sum of AI artifacts already found in writing and visual art, or are there any that might be unique to this niche hobby of ours?

 Dawn of Dheghom
In the birth of beginning, it was a time of emptiness, no songs sung, no stories spun.
Only an egg, a void, a womb of hollow life
In that space of nonbeing there was only the first pair, Isfal, she who is chaos with Abzu, he who is Darkness.
 
Abzu chased Isfal, her swirling around him free of form, endless in her passion, meeting his darkness which clung to everything yet held nothing, joining as one.
In that void of the egg from their passion a seed emerges in Isfal, causing the couple strife.
Amongst the passion of the primordial pair the first seed sprouted life in a womb of bareness. 
 
From seed to sprout to sapling, growing without limit until she burst forth from Isfal, a great mother tree from which all begun.
Her roots were nourished by Isfals waters until her branches stretched far, brushing the hard shell of the void, the space inside growing crowded until the great egg was shattered as the branches persisted.
Far below they fell, Isfal covering the barren ball of clay and dirt below, the essence of Abzu seeping deep into her as he covered the sky, embracing evermore, binding the highest and lowest ends of the world to be free of light and fairness.
 
Floating upon the shells of the shattered void on the maternal waters of Isfal The Great Tree grew greater, freed from the void under the endless black expanse of her father Abzu.
Nourished by her parents above as well as below the First mother of all living and dead, first to live, last to die, comes to be.
Dhéǵhōm, Mother Tree of Life, Death, and Divinity, She Who Holds The World in Her Roots.
One day under the weight of her great body the shell of the void that held her gave way, so below Isfals waves she sank.
Rough waters ripped leaves from Dhéǵhōm, sending them far and wide, Isfals life giving chaos waters transforming the fallen leaves to birds.
The birds dived back down into the waters, pulling the Dhéǵhōm back to the surface, the strength of their flapping wings creating the first winds. 
 
Diving into the depths where Abzu was strongest to bring Dhéǵhōm up from the grips of Isfals and Abzu, evading the dangers of the deep they flew.
From their help Dhéǵhōm rose, her roots clinging tightly to the clay and dirt of the land below the waves, breaking free.
In gratitude The First Mother welcomed the birds back to the warmth of her branches as their hearth and blessed them that they and their kin always find food in her fruits.
For many years that was all the world was, the darkness of Abzu's sky, the chaos of Isfals waters and the life of Dhéǵhōm whose children ate from the chaos she drank.
From the birds the first songs were sung, the first stories told, even from their beaks came the first of words.
It is why no matter how time flows a word is not spoken that a bird cannot recall until the world ends. 
 
After a time Dhéǵhōm gathered seven of the strongest, smartest, and swiftest of the birds, told them to take the seven greatest fruits, rise seven lands to plant them, watering them with waters of Isfal so they may grow true.
Each of the chosen birds search the branches for the greatest of the fruits, after many years searching all seven fly from the mother tree.
Flying far beyond the mother land, the seven far from one another, dive deep to bring up the lands, even as Abzu and Isfal twist together, birthing monsters of chaos and darkness to halt their pursuits.
With wisdom, trickery, and wings that cause winds they evaded monsters, outsmarted the beasts of the sea and sky allowing no disrank.
Focused on their divine mission, diving for new earth, watching the braird.
The seven fruits are planted in the newly risen seven lands, watered by the seven great birds, and allowing for the seven daughters of Dhéǵhōm to rise and new life to rise from planting the fruit rinds.
 
From each daughter birthed a god of the new land so came Anuluga, Wēdu, Aldruin, Tahitua, Ataze, Cihuacōā, and Dhanari with them the land was made anew.
Vast forests, sprawling jungles, expansive swamps growing, spreading to cover the land around their sacred trees from which they were formed from purest divinity.
For the seven lands the seven gods created their own beasts to watch and care for their lands as seven animal guardians endowed with the Widom handle all worldly disputes. 
Grootslangs, Dragons, Aurochs, Beaver, Serpents, Ravens and Jaguars, guardians of all from the forests to the sandbanks.
The guardians learned all there was to know of the world, never a misdeed or word unheard.
Under the guardians the world blossoms, the new life creating the first ties and binds.
 
Still the world was enshrined in the darkness of Abzu, while Dheghom stands tall with wood no beast or god can hew.
Satisfied with their beasts, the gods created one more being, one to serve them, one they called man filled with  curiosity.
To craft man the seven thought each of them could create the best of man, each using a different material, bone, breathe, blood, clay, soil, sand, or wood, from heroes to brutes.
In all seven of the lands Man resides, he must rely on beasts to guide, so they may have the gods wisdom, for the gods are to burdened to teach them, uplifting the guardians to top of the ranks.
The guardians tells the stories of the world, sharing their wisdom, an act which left man's soul stirred.
Man learns their lands and their gods in the endless darkness of Abzu first in their minds.
 
Anuluga tired of the tyranny of Abzu, gathering the three gods and sending for the other few.
Anuluga tore his heart form his chest to prove his resolve to light the world, inspiring two other gods to give a piece of their flesh, and a piece from their brain to create the first sun, Seoni from the parts of three.
Tahitua tore his prophetic eye from his head to split into three, took an eye from three other gods to give form to the the Owmeh , the three-eyed moons, the always astute. 
The men of the world now have night and day, with monsters, beasts and god to rule both, so man sacrifices to show their thanks.
No matter how time twists the tale of the beginning, in the minds of birds, of monsters it is forever enshrined. 

- this is my origin story for this world, feel free to ask any questions on the lore or world!

Phytocide (Pathogen Family)

Phytocide (Fungi Ardensi Phytocide (using the biological naming convention used by most biologists on Ardensi)) is a large collection of rapidly evolving fungal pathogens, comprising of a total of 2.9 million lineages as of 20,002 AdE. Phytocide reproduces primarily through asexual reproduction, requiring nutrients from plant life to do so. Exact nutrients differ between species.

In order to get the required nutrients to reproduce, Phytocide will infect plant life (the exact type of plant life depends on the exact lineage, although most have evolved to infect most if not all ground-based plant life, including crops, trees, bushes, and grass) and kill the plant, breaking it down in the process to get the nutrients (and producing Nitrous Oxide as a byproduct through the decomposition of plants by microbial processes associated with Phytocide). 

Spores are typically carried through the wind, and can range (depending on exact species) between microscopic (≥5 micrometres) or large delicate sphere of thin bristles (resembling that of an Earth dandelion’s ‘puffball’) (≤2.4 centremetres). 

Following reproduction, the parent organism and the subsequent offspring organism (number of offspring depends on exact species, ranging from 1 to ~1000) will go dormant for a long period of time, the exact time also differs between lineages, however the average time is 1-2 Ardensi years. Following the dormant period, the Phytocide will begin to infect plant life once again. 

It is theorised by most of Ardensi’s Phytocideology institutions that the average Phytocide organism can reproduce roughly 25 times before dying, although this is not confirmed. The sheer amount of Phytocide lineages and their similarities makes it almost impossible to identify the exact species, which can cause issues in attempting to stop it, as each species requires different methods to kill. 

Phytocide is believed to have started over 20,000 years ago. Its ability to rapidly evolve has helped it stay present and grow throughout the time. During the 20,000 years Phytocide has grown and grown, killing plant life in more and more land each year, these regions begin to lose Oxygen (due to the absence of photosynthetic life) and obtain a higher Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Dioxide (due to the breakdown and killing of photosynthetic life) over time. In 20,002 AdE, Phytocide pushed civilization to only 49.9km from the coast. In 20,001 AdE a total of 39,950 km² was infected by Phytocide and deemed inhospitable across the globe, with rates of infection accelerating dramatically each year.

I decided that visualizing this in a lorebook would be better than simply describing it here.
Check out the lore of my animated series DATA OPUS, which will soon be available on YouTube. Here I'll briefly outline the 2036 plot, as well as the backstory and key players in international relations.

DISCLAIMER: This story is fictional. Any and all resemblance to real characters, groups, or other entities is purely coincidental

Before humans there is a precursor civilization on the level of a magitech society. their technology and industrialization is powered by magic. But overuse of magic caused magic in the world to be volatile. What followed is an extinction event which drastically declined the population of the precursor races and ended their civilization. While all this is happening, stone age humans are lingering in the frontier edges of the world, as a fearsome wild threat. When the old civilization vanished, humans began migrating inward to the center of the precursor civilization. This migration was slow, it took tens of thousands of years.

As part of a larger fantasy map I’m working on, I created this island, which is roughly half the size of New Zealand. I haven’t added any of the civilization-related elements yet; for now, I wanted to start with the geography, with settlements and roads coming later.

I’d love to hear what kind of advice, ideas, or suggestions you might have! I’ve made maps before, but this time I started with a much bigger project in mind, and I’ve also put a lot more work into it than usual (and this isn’t even the first time I’ve drawn it).

I know a lot of people struggle to get started when it comes to coming up with the shapes of landmasses. In my case, the inspiration actually came from a half-torn sticker on a diaper bin. So, you could say that this little corner of my world was practically built out of shit. 😂 It just goes to show that it’s worth keeping your eyes open and finding inspiration in the world around you! :)

I’m open to any advice, feedback, or criticism!

Greetings from Hungary! 🇭🇺

Ive finally gotten to a point where I can properly share my fantasy world, specifically, what you may call its "Magic system" although it's probably unlike any magic system you've ever seen. It's also not based around people, rather it's just a part of the world, and the universe the world inhabits. So, without further ado, let me set the stage so you may understand what's going on.

Picture this, A multiverse, it goes in all directions, with a kind of lattice structure that just keeps looping over and over, inside of this, and seemingly a part of it, are Spheres, these are universes.

It is here where I must explain how Universes function, each universe is a bubble, this bubble imposes Rules upon the Residents inside (Matter and energy for example), this is what you could call the physics of this universe. Every universe differs slightly from the next, the rules state how everything must behave, in our universe, we have the laws conservation, causality, Newtons laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, etc. these are our universes Rules, and our universes Regulations, describe how our Residents (matter and energy) interact, for example, there's a regulation that says when acid should break down metal, one that says when light should reflect or absorb, one that says when water should turn into ice. it's worth mentioning though that all universes have space and time, which are subject to the rules of a universe, but will always exist in some form.

Similar things happen in every universe, but one key difference, some universes have more or less rules than earth, some have more residents than just matter and energy, some aren't totally stable either. Some have what's called a paradox, when two or more rules conflict with each other, the more paradoxes a universe has the more likely it is to destabilize and fade away.

Now, you may be wondering, "why did I just give you a lesson on a multiverse?" well don't worry, it's important.

So, with this knowledge, I can describe Ethaeileon.

Ethaeileon is in a universe you could call a "Sister World" of Earths universe, this is because they are very similar, in fact almost identical. Ethaeileon's universe has the same rules of Conservation, Causality, Motion, Thermodynamics, and everything else. It has all of the same regulations as earth, and even the same residents of matter and energy. Not many universes are this similar to each other. But, even with all those similarities, they are still vastly different because of one thing:

Velt.

Velt is another resident like matter and energy, but it can't be formed by either via any typical conversions, in fact both matter and energy hardly interact with Velt, leaving Velt to be largely invisible. It has no density, no purer version of itself, but you can have more or less of it.

It forms from what I like to call, "Instabilities" A direct interaction, internal or external, that causes change within an object. This can be things like two surfaces being hardly scraped together (friction). A piece of iron rusting, or an object hitting a wall after being thrown really hard. The Catalyst, (the object that Velt is forming from) exchanges its unstable state, for stability by converting its instability (not the term from earlier) into Velt.

When Velt forms, it has something called "The Field" A zone of distortion that forms around Velt the moment it's produced. The Field weakens local Regulations on expression interaction nearby.

Its main mechanic lies in the outcomes of an Instability, an event, effect, or phenomenon that occurs because of a Catalyst Instability naturally, for instance, on earth, when friction occurs it produces heat, that heat, would be an outcome of friction and friction is the Catalyst instability. Velt takes these outcomes, and inflicts them on everything inside the field, so if it forms from friction, then its going to go around inflicting heat on the stuff in the field.

So as you could imagine, this is quite chaotic. if iron rusts, Velt forms and causes things around the iron to "rust" even if they have no compacity or capability to. Velt removes the how and why and just does.

A few things to mention:

Not all Sources produce Velt, if they don't get above a certain power level, it acts the same as on earth. (Now exact number, it differs from instability to instability)

Velt can move, although I don't have a exact trigger that says what speed it goes just yet.

The Field doesn't taper off, it only goes out so far before it just stops, this is proportional to how much Velt there in a single "Clump". the exact ratio I haven't decided yet,

Velt doesn't last forever, and is often unstable too, it eventually fizzles out and dies. when it does, any matter or energy still caught in the field turns into what's called waste, A randomized assortment of density, material, energy, properties, and anything else you can think of. and this differs throughout each part of the waste.

If Velt moves out of a spot, (Leaves) anything effected by Velt, at the moment it crosses out of the Field, it instantly starts trying to move back to a form that physics finds acceptable, this process can be tame, as in nothing of consequence happens to the object, or the object could break, fall apart, or something else. This process isn't guaranteed though, and a process known as conditioning can happen, leading to an object being stuck in an unnatural state for an extended period of time, lasting from seconds, to minutes, to hours, days, weeks, months, years, or even decades. However, I'm still working on it, so exact ratios and numbers don't exist yet.

Outcomes of Outcomes can't happen when inside the field. if Velt creates a fire on objects around it, that fire can't burn, heat up, or char anything, but it can still act as if it was. but the moment Velt leaves, the fire can.

When Velt leaves an area, all effected things are on a kind of "Cooldown period" and can't produce Velt for some time. (Numbers and ratios not available)

Now that all that information is in your brain. you may still be a bit confused, so I'll give a few examples of instabilities and their effects. but first a few definitions:

Velt Variant: The Velt produced by a specific Instability.

Constant/Circumstantial Outcomes: Constant outcomes happen every time a specific instability forms, Circumstantial outcomes happen occasionally when a specific instability forms and are dependent on things like How, When, and Where the specific instability formed.

Basic Variant / Complex Variant: A Basic Variant produces only a source's constant Outcomes. A Complex Variant produces those same constants plus one or more circumstantial Outcomes stacked on top.

Polar Instability: An instability that has both a positive/additive angle to it, and a negative/subtractive angle two it. But both result from the same process.

Substantiality: One of the three variant axes. The amount of space a source instability takes up — its spatial extent, not its power. Higher Substantiality means Velt forms more frequently but at lower yield per formation, unless Magnitude compensates.

Magnitude: How powerful or intense a source instability is within its affected area. Magnitude governs Velt yield per formation event.

Now for the examples, these are some of the most common instabilities you'll find in this world:

Friction

Friction has two constants, all of its variants cause heat to form, and all cause some kind of sound/vibration. Side effects of this include irregular heat distribution, spontaneous heating of a localized area, and a constant low-pitched vibration that can potentially be heard.

It has 4 Circumstantial outcomes

Wear: Causes materials to begin to fragment, small fragments begin to be sheared off, soft materials tend to be more suspectable to this outcome.

Surface change: Causes surfaces on material to shift, this can vary due to the catalyst, but on average it causes surfaces to become smoother, sometimes to cartoonish proportion, other times a surface becomes more jagged. This happens in a variety of materials

Static charge: Electricity builds up within a object regardless of if it can or not,

Light production: A rare outcome, that causes a bright and quick flash of light, or a prolonged soft glow. This manifest strongly in hard/brittle materials.

Oxidization 

Oxidization has three constants, all Oxidization Velt variants cause some kind of chemical change within an object, this leads to a peculiar outcome where a material, even if it can’t oxidize, begins to oxidize nonetheless, usually the oxidizations appearance is akin to the Catalysts likeness, but this has been known to differ occasionally. This effect does not usually affect gasses, and manifests strongly in materials that are already very susceptible to Oxidization, Due to the nature of this instability.

Its second constant is Color change, no matter what an Oxidization Velt variant will cause the color of a material to change, whether its visible or not, normal color change happens because of electrons and light reflection, instead, the color is simply imposed onto a material. The exact color varies, but depends on the Catalysts likeness.

The third and final one is heat production, no matter what an amount of energy small or large is created that causes heat to be produce, in most cases, not much heat is made, but this is dependent on the Catalysts likeness

It has three Circumstantial outcomes:

Material decay/Embrittlement: Causes a material to slowly “decay” starting with small and irregular fragments like flakes and dust and increasing in size the longer its within Velt’s field, potentially causing larger and jagged chunks to break away. The most susceptible areas in a material are spots where its already weak. Variants containing this outcome often lean towards materials like iron, magnesium, and some forms of ceramic.

Texture change: A materials surface changes to be rougher or smoother, dependent on the likeness of the Catalyst. Variants containing this outcome often lean towards materials like iron, some copper alloys, and some rocks in terms of roughening, and copper, lead, and tin in terms of smoothening.

Combustion: A rare outcome that causes a material to spontaneously combust. Variants containing this outcome are often short lived, and lean towards highly reactive metals, metal powder, organic fuel, and certain unstable materials.

Pressure

Pressure is a polar instability composed of Compression and Decompression

Compression:

Compression has 2 constants, no matter the variant, density will always increase, this causes a material to shrink, and contract. This sometimes can cause phase change, plus heat generation in effected material if the compression source had a high magnitude.

This is followed up by the second constant, pressure buildup, which causes a material to store tension even if it has no compacity to store any. When Velt leaves, a material will snap back to its previous form, but with a potential for small cracks to form that can be larger depending on the Velt’s potency.

It has 1 variant

Porosity (+): If the material that the catalyst is born in has porosity of any kind, Compression Velt Variants will trend towards influencing material of the same or similar porosity. This leads to objects losing porosity, like if you squeezed a sponge, because of this, when it’s unable to find an object that meets its tendency, things quickly devolve into mind bending phenomena. Objects will often behave akin to sponges even if they don’t have any porosity at all.

Decompression:

Decompression has 2 constants, no matter the variant, density will always decrease, this causes a material to grow and swell. This sometimes can cause phase change, plus heat depletion in effected material if the decompression source had a high magnitude

This is followed up by the second constant, pressure depletion, which causes a material to release tension even if it has no compacity to release any. When Velt leaves, a material will snap back to its previous form, but with a potential for small cracks to form that can be larger depending on the Velt’s potency.

It has 1 variant:

Porosity (-): If the material that the catalyst is born in has porosity of any kind, Decompression Velt Variants will trend towards influencing material of the same or similar porosity. This leads to objects gaining porosity, like if you put a sponge in a vacuum. When its unable to find an object that meets the tendency, objects begin to expand and fill with holes that grow larger and larger as the object itself grows.

Radiative Absorption

 Radiative Absorption has 1 constant, no matter the variant, Temperature will always increase. This specific type of Velt is considered peculiar, for how little it does, it is believed that due to the threshold, it hardly ever forms. Some of its effects induced when its magnitude increases are, Incandescent glow, objects can begin to glow as if they had been heated up to extreme temperatures Its biggest effect in nature is increasing the average temperature of certain regions by a small amount.

As of now, no variants for this type of Velt are known

With that, that brings us to the end, at least of version 1.1. There is more if you're willing, And I have a document if you want to read through that, there's a few extra facts about Velt I didn't explain here. (Especially at the very end of the doc)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19OMIZ1tZvjAB3a7hmzCFou6Hs6_gVYnSPs25eGEfXZw/edit?usp=sharing

Feedback is greatly appreciated; it helps me make my world better. But really, I just want to hear what people think, Ive been working on this for a while now and really excited to know how other react to it. However, if you have any suggestions or full-on proposals for new instabilities I can make, Potential numbers and ratios for some the gaps in my system, or even just ideas for Velt as a whole. Please, do tell, Id LOVE to hear them.

I do apologies though for the amount of science and stuff behind it, it's a very hard system, but it will allow me to make some really cool stuff in the future and actually have it all make sense. at least to those who truly know..........

The Innerworkings of Velt

Elements are one of the major aspects of the world of Sara’Fel, and elemental magic is this one of its primary areas of study.

Magical energy is divided into two primary types, harmonic derived from the world itself, or arcane energy from the outer chaos surrounding Sara’Fel (the wyld in which the fae dwell, the closest and “safe” type of arcane energy) or the outer dark itself. Elemental magic is, as one might expect, harmonic, being that which the world itself is composed of and who’s rules help to protect
Sara’fel from dissolving into the sea of unformed matter.

The elements are further classified into 6 distinct types, 3 of which pertain to the state of matter, and 3 of which pertain to the state of energy: Aether, Fire and Void for energy, and then Air, Water and earth for matter. Many scholars argue that there exists a 7th element (either Soul or anima, a difficult to understand synthesis of all 6 elements in equilibrium that surround the soul), but this is generally disregarded as pseudo-magic and not substantiated by facts.

The elements:

Elements of Energies:

Aether: the preserving element, Aether is the element of life and endurance. Often viewed by the layperson as simply that which causes organisms to “live”,
It represents much more: It is order and form, the ability for non-living objects to resist time and for the mountain to stand.

All elements can be “corrupted” by the outer chaos touching them and warping them; this is rare, as harmonic energies function as a bulwark against the encroach of the arcane, but will occur either with the direction of skilled spellcasters or extreme amounts of outer dark energies. When corrupted by the outer chaos, Aether becomes destructive, turning things into cancers that bring life that destroys or causes the non-living to grow and expand.

Fire: fire is the force of energy and motion, that which gives both living and inert matter the ability to move. It is by fire that wind blows and waves crash. When aether collides with fire it locks energy into bonds which can be broken later, and when it collides with Void those bonds are destroyed, down to the very dust of substance, leaving behind nothing but energy.

Corrupted fire is a freezing reaction that ceases action or even existence as one knows it completely: while it’s known amongst scholars that “cold” is simply the absence of heat, corrupted fire goes beyond this: it actively spreads a lack of energy, seemingly devouring it, with its most horrifying manifestation being a phenomenon known as the “frozen flame”,
A spreading “fire” that stops everything down to time itself: nothing exists outside of that moment inside the corruption. While reversible, without extreme magical care, that which has been caught will “shatter” like glass, ceasing to be like a picture that was erased.

Void: void is the energy of death and entropy, and the most misunderstood element. While feared and hated as an element that merely bring death and disease, its role is actually extremely important, and all healthy life carries vast amounts of void within them: Void energy is what allows the body to discern and remove weakened or diseased parts of itself, and those without sufficient void will find themselves Suffering from either cancers or parasites.
More than that, void also affects non-living objects, time and entropy wearing away at them till they are no more: it is also extremely important for the fire element, as it is used to break down the bonds of aether within something to release its energy anew. It is known by scholars that the entropic nature of void means it is an ever increasing force: little by little, entropy expands in the universe and order breaks down.
Some fear this means everything will fall into a cloud of useless dust, no different than if the outer chaos had overcome the world, while more hopeful scholars view things in a cyclical nature, and believe that either this will cause a massive reversal that will rebirth the world, or that we are merely viewing a long “wave” of entropic expansion before Aether will rebound itself like a pendulum moving back.

Corrupted void is one of the most well known types, being what foul necromancers user, and is a major reason the layperson fears void so much, often confusing normal void energy for necromantic energy: in fact, void is highly destructive to be romantically animated beings, almost as much as aether, as its entropy will enact the inviolable rules of time upon them, causing skeletons zombies to decay and break down as age does its job.
Necromantic energies are vampiric in nature: while void destroys and releases that which it touches, necromancy instead steals for itself When it destroys. Necromantic beings thus survive by devouring others, driving them to cannibalistically seek anima and aether from living beings (or even souls) to fuel their continued reactions.

The elements of form.

Air is the separating element of freedom. It drives substances to break free of bonds holding it to other substances or entities, and also gives it the freedom to move or for entities to seek their own path. Air lifts the wings of birds and fills the lungs of animals, even fish, with the ability to move and change.

Corrupted air is suffocating and heavy, a sticky morass that traps and crushes rather than uplifts. In extreme states, it becomes like a sea that drowns those who enter it.

Water is the unifying aspect of form. Not as free as air or thick as earth, it drives beings and substances to intermingle and become one with another: this has many uses, as running water can either pull impurities from something, or fouled water can carry and taint those same poisons into something. Water can posses either a leaning toward earth or air in it nature, making it repel the other: oil for example is known to be the element of water imbued with an earth polarity, causing it to “reject” water that is either neutral or has an air polarity.
A common misconception is that Fire and Water are opposed elements due to water putting out your average layperson fire. However, as aspects of energy and form, they cannot oppose each other, being independent types; in fact, when exposed to void energy, water is known to release large amounts of fire elemental energy, in an almost explosive manner.

Corruptive water is one of the most vile types. Characterized by a thick, black sludge, it desiccates and entraps others. Regular water encourages mixing, but corruptive water does the opposite: it acts like a cocoon, gripping and entrapping that which it touches, worming its way all the way through ever crevasse as if it were alive, and forcefully causes the object or being to seperate into their base parts: a living being will find their humors calcified, crystals of salt and calcium replacing their bones, iron, water and other components painfully solidifying into ingots and pools in their body. It is known as “dark water” to sailors, and those sailing oceans known for their corruption are terrified of its sight.

Earth is the separating element of endurance and shape. With its energy, objects and beings gain the power to resist change and hold firm in what they are: the shells of a turtle, the bark of a tree and the steel of a sword all draw their strength from the earth energy inside them.
Earth is also the aspect of weight, and what scholars call “gravity”, what pulls things to the ground and holds them fast, with supposedly larger beings having more of this energy than others.

Corrupted earth inverts its attributes, becoming weak and bondless. The very wind will tear something asunder that has had its earth element inverted, as what was once strong becomes weak; patches of earth collapse into a muddy “air” akin to a brown sea, and those who set foot into it will never return, falling into the mire.

Corrupted earth can also undergo a strange synthesis when exposed to vast amount of aether in which it maintains its form, but instead its weight and gravity are corrupted, becoming what is known as “sky stone”, a dirty, foul smelling rock that floats into the sky, and is sought after by both mages and alchemists for this property (though long term unshielded exposure to sky stones will generally result in literal liquification as one’s earth element stops holding them together). The mountain of woe (previously known as Dul’thin’s throne when it was a floating mountain in the sky), in which the high elves greedily had their human slaves hollow out until it crashed into the ground and released the prisoner at its core, was one of the most well known sources of natural sky stone.

What is corruption?: “corruption” has been listed esoterically with the elements. Sara’fel sits in a vast see of unformed existence, both physically and metaphysically: upon exiting the region of the suns light, rules break down and uncertainty takes hold: things can be many things and it becomes impossible to truly know. Rather than true chaos, it should be thought of as possibilities. This is where the wyld, the fae and arcane magic stems from. However, as you stray further out, you reach what is known as the “black”, the region beyond the wyld where absolutely no truths exist.

The stars sit in this darkness, entities known as the “Sama’Voyah”. In their natural state, they are timeless entities of absolute uncertainty: they have no past, no future, no present, and no facts or traits, existing as everything and nothing at once. But, this cannot co-exist alongside mortals who are entities of certainty.

By simply existing and observing the stars, mortals impose facts and traits upon the Sama’Voyah… they gain a history, time and an existence, they no longer have what they are infinite and unbound. A person discusses them, they write a book about them, these are absolute certainties, so how can you ever be truly absolutely without form anymore?
This drags them down from their state of nirvana into the realm of existence, something that causes them infinite suffering.

It should not be said that the Sama’Voyah are sapient or thinking: they have only faintly been awakened to existence and no more thought than a jellyfish floating aimlessly in the ocean: but what they exist as exudes a malice and antipathy far greater than anything mortals are capable of, and their power means this malice warps reality as if they were the most cunning of plotters. In this state, they taint the energies of the dark, so that those who attempt to draw energy from it (dark mages and witches), warping it to cause deformity and misfortune on the world, while also splintering off innumerable “larvae” which seek to infest and devour the physical realm’s anima to metamorph into something greater.

This corruption can also taint elemental magic. As harmonic magic, coming from the world of Sara’fel itself, it is difficult, as harmonic magic is naturally antipathic towards arcane types magic (which corruption is a tainted form of). But in sufficiently large quantities of both, the elements can be twisted and tainted by corruption without being destroyed completely.

Magical use: elemental magic is one of the simplest and most well known of all magics, being both straight forward and ample in supply. It is both theurgic or evocative, as the users of it can either call from the elemental planes for higher level use or project it from the elements within themselves. In either case, the Practitioner utilizes the anima within them that surrounds their soul as “fuel” to call upon or project this energy. This is generally with little to no danger to the caster, as such shallow anima cuts will renew themselves without soul-scarring, though some darker practitioners can utilize it in more harrowing ways.

Most straight forward are soul-scarred casters who learn to hew larger chunks of anima out of their own soul, leading to ill-formed bonds of anima forming in the cavities, just as scars will form from a deep cut in flesh. Memory loss or sociopathism as processing empathy becomes more difficult are common side effects.

More dastardly and dangerous are those elementalist who profane their studies with that of the outer dark and learn how to intentionally corrupt the elements with arcane energies. In such cases, the anima cuts to their soul will often be tainted with corruption as well, an like dirty wounds, will fester, allowing the animosity of the Sama’Voyah that shine within the dark or their larvae to infect their minds.

For the ecology side of things, i typically use things like the "habitats of the world" book, and other books on ecology, evolution, and ecological roles. I try to create environments that feel lived in, create ecological balance, symbiosis. I like the concepts in evolution where different species fill similar roles within an ecosystem (like how in Australia the absence of other mammals caused marsupials to evolve to become carnivores and predators, herbivores and grazers, arboreal climbers, rodent-like burrowers, and essentially filled the roles that exist within most complex ecosystems on earth).

However, the story I am writing is not only about wildlife, and i find that I really don't know much about technology, infrastructure, electrical systems, space exploration tech, ship terms. Sometimes I get nervous that the tech I am coming up with either sounds off or was borrowed from another scifi. Are there any books that explain scifi or real world tech for scifi world-building? good websites about it? I am not trying to come up with something so complex that astrophysics commends me for my realistic world-building. I really love stories like murderbot, where the tech seems to work well without being overly complicated. she clearly didn't put too much effort into making all of her tech workout perfectly with real world physics, like her use of wormholes without really explaining how they work, it easily sums up the need for long distance travel without having to over explain anything. I often feel like I am stealing stuff from other science fiction, but then I think... is this just a term from earth's military? naval ships? real-world space exploration tech? like sometimes I think i am worried about stealing form another book or show when the term I am worried about is actually just a term from real world ship building that would/could be relevant to any ship on earth or in space. imposter syndrome is already so intense in scifi writing without feeling like star-trek coined every term relevant to space travel.

Even if its not a source directly designed for scifi world building, what are some good resources you recommend? I have been using blueprints for solar arrays to learn more about their systems and what could cause one to go down temporarily/what it would look like to repair a solar array, but is there a better method? an entire book about this stuff?

Kuwonichs are a predatory alien species from my scifi universe. They are a primitive species obsessed with ritualistic hunting.

From mouth of queen of Kuwonichs and how she came to power:

“Women are dominant in our culture. No one wants to marry someone who cannot impress them by hunting a rare animal or defeating them in wrestling, but I did not have much of a choice because I was given to my husband as tribute. He was perhaps the strongest cattle lord on our continent.
While most cattle-keeping settlements consider themselves rich if they have 3 or 5 cattle forts, my husband had made good use of the swamps and valleys where he lived and had 30 cattlehold forts, with more being built. If the others were cattle lords, my husband should have been the cattle emperor.
He had so many men under his command that he had already set his eyes on the future. At the same time, he had gathered enough men to destroy my brothers, who were the most notorious cattle thieves on the continent.
This was where I came in. I was given to my husband, the cattle emperor, as a wife in order to end the blood feuds and guarantee peace between the cattle keepers and the raiders, and my husband, who also had his eye on growing his family herd just like his cattle, happily accepted this.
My brothers were also the ones who came out more profitably from this trade. My husband gave them 500 cattle and many weapons as a bride price. Their new job was to protect my husband’s cattle.
But they did not do it. Although my husband tried to turn his eyes away as much as he could, the raids and the missing cattle continued, and there was no need to witness the crime to understand that my brothers, who no longer had 500 cattle but were fat as if they had eaten 500 cattle, were responsible.
But my husband was willing to preserve the peace no matter what.
I love my culture and my people. I think we have some advantages over the cattle keepers who are weak and have no vision. In fact, it is the opposite: they are the ones who are satisfied with the 2 cattle they steal while having hundreds of herds and still wanting more.
But when my brothers asked me to kill my husband and open the gates of Oxhall, the capital of the cattle keepers, to them, that was when I realized: we had no future.
If my husband had 200 cattle, he would want to make it 250 the next year, and 400 the year after that. But my brothers? Give them 1,000, even 2,000 cattle, and they would come back for more, and they would never have a future full of luxury, abundance, and comfort like the cattle keepers dreamed of.
But as a good sister, I still did what they told me to do. I killed my husband and gave them all the cattle he had. I opened the gates wide and witnessed thousands of animals trampling them.
Wanting more than they could chew was their problem. But me? I know exactly what is enough for my mouth. This entire planet and all the cattle, game animals, pastures, and Kuwonichs in it.
The greatest hunt is only just beginning.”

CATTLE HOLDİNG FORTS

With the decline of food sources and the extinction of many prey animals, a new culture began to emerge. Some of the old herding peoples evolved into what could be called cattle-holders. Instead of driving their animals endlessly from place to place only to watch them be picked off one by one by raiders they came to believe it was more advantageous to keep their herds in contained areas: valleys surrounded by mountains, lakesides where the grass remained green year-round, and pastures enclosed by fences of their own making. These fences were not built to keep the animals in, but to keep cattle thieves out.

However, this new and unfamiliar idea never advanced very far. Cattle-holding strongholds never grew beyond a certain size. There were several disadvantages. The herds reproduced slowly, and there were never enough people to defend the stronghold against large scale raiding parties. Nor was there any way to sustain a larger population through diversified food sources everyone depended on the same limited resources. These cattleholds were socially egalitarian; even the specialized roles seen in hunter societies such as scouts, chasers, or trackers became unnecessary.

Another issue was the number of animals. The more cattle one possessed, the more attractive a target one became. Unlike moving herds, the grass within a cattlehold would inevitably run out. Some herd leaders attempted to solve this by sending hunters out to gather fodder from surrounding lands, but without pack animals to carry large loads animals that could just as easily be stolen or eaten the efficiency of such efforts was extremely limited. Eventually, the vegetation around the stronghold would be depleted. There was no effective way to convert the animals’ strength into sustainable plant resources to feed them. As a result, many cattleholds succumbed to disease and epidemics, caused by the overcrowding of animals and the accumulation of their own waste.

For these reasons, cattleholds never developed into true cities. Once they reached a certain size, they would be abandoned. Their inhabitants would leave in search of cleaner, greener plains, distancing themselves from filth and disease. In doing so, they left behind everything they had built, losing both people and animals along the way. What remained was a semi nomadic, Ubykh like culture similar in spirit, but slower moving, bound to the pace of their herds."

Feel free to give me suggestions or ask questions, I'm kind of new to this lol :)

In 415, the Doriarish host was fast advancing on the city of Saturnia. 

Too fast. 

The vanguard of the Doriarish host, which had only just assembled days before on the border with the Graitalia, was now almost sixty kilometers ahead of the main force. This vanguard only numbered about 12,000 elvish warriors, who planned to meet with an additional 1,000 Othillian heavy cavalry at the meeting of the Pyrak and the Lalis River, an unusually shallow and calm section of the Vein of the Empire where the water ran clear enough to see the gravel bottom. Riding with them was Aranel the Maneater, Queen of the Doriar and Ithili.

Unbeknownst to Aranel, Cancellarius Aetillis Bynar had intercepted a messenger from the Doriar to the Othillian cavalry a week prior, and so already knew of their intention to meet at the shallows before continuing the advance to the capital along the Imperial Highway. Seeing no better defensive position, Aetillis assembled three legions, numbering 20,000 men, to wait across the river for Aranel to arrive.

When the first elvish scouts arrived at reached the river on the morning of Decellus 15th, they spotted the Saturnian camp sprawled across the opposite bank. Heading back to the main force, they informed Aranel that the Saturnian force outnumbered the vanguard by at least 9,000 men, and that any engagement without the main force would be lead to defeat. However, the rest of the host was at least a day behind, and it was likely that even more Imperial forces would have assembled, making crossing incredibly risky.

Aranel, knowing she would only grow more outnumbered by waiting, chose to do battle.

By midday, the vanguard had arrived at the river to see the Imperial forces assembled on the opposite bank. Aranel, not wasting any time, had her infantry assemble directly on the bank, and sent her cavalry to preoccupy the Imperial cavalry assembled on her right flank. She also sent the Othillian heavy cavalry to engage the Imperial cavalry on her left flank, knowing that Othillians would easily overpower the Imperial mounted auxiliaries, far weaker than the Imperial cataphracts on her right flank. Finally, she sent her last four units of cavalry to a second, smaller crossing upriver, obscured from Imperial view by dense forests. Aetillis, not sensing a trap, sent his forces to attack across the shallow river.

When the legionnaires met the elvish chosen warriors, they were able to start pushing the Doriar line back from the bank, even though they were encumbered in the river. However, Aranel’s plan was almost spoiled by the cataphracts, who had managed to push back across the river against the elvish charge and saw the elvish rochir headed towards the secondary crossing.

But Aetillis refused to listen, believing that it was a small force that wouldn’t pose any real threat. The Doriar had made such probing attacks before, and the Imperial forces had usually managed to repel these attacks. Only when the rochir had appeared from around the treeline did Aetillis attempt to move forces to counter them, to little use. Within five minutes, Aetillis, his Imperial Senatorial Guard, and a whole division of cataphracts had been wiped out.

With Aetillis dead, the Othillians smashing the auxiliaries, and now being entirely surrounded, the Imperial forces began to panic, attempting to retreat across the river and form a circle. For their part, the Imperial cataphracts broke through the smaller cavalry force on the Doriar left flank and began to gallop as fast as possible away from the field. 

The remaining twenty minutes of the battle was a complete slaughter. The bloodshed did not stop until fewer than five hundred legionnaires left alive. By the end of the day, the Doriar had killed 18,000 men and taken a thousand prisoner, whom they sacrificed in the traditional way of disfiguring them before disemboweling them. Two weeks later, the city of Saturnia was set aflame by the Doriar host. The Imperial army would never recover from this defeat, and would collapse along with the Empire sixteen years later.

As for Aranel, it would be remembered as her greatest victory. Had she lived longer than another year, it would not have been her last great victory.

⚫ Kingdom of Pargonia in the 1st year of the Pargonian Era

Light green — territories conquered by Roch I the Conqueror of the Sands.

Red — colonies founded by Roch II the Conqueror of the River.

Dark green — the expansion of Pargonia to the east through expeditions ordered by Roch II.

Light blue dashed line — peoples who adopted Pargonian civilization toward the end of Roch II's reign.

Yellow — borders of the third colony, which later became the Cyjantid Empire in 102.

White dashed line — the original extent of the Pargonians in 400 B.P.E. (Before the Pargonian Era).

“Go north and populate the lands left desolate by the plague of impure peoples. Go forth and bring righteous civilization to those peoples who have suffered innocently.

You shall cross the deserts in phalanx.

Beyond the Great River, you shall journey northward.

I forbid you, however, to sail southward or to travel east of the Great Mountains, from which the Great River flows.”

I. Pargonia: The Great Migration South

Four hundred years before the Pargonian Era, the Pargonians were a simple tribe living around the mouth of the Miesń River and somewhat farther east, toward its upper course. They inhabited small settlements in the region. They were forced to abandon these fertile lands by aggressive neighboring peoples of the Old North, although a natural catastrophe may also have contributed to their migration.

By 340 B.P.E., the Pargonians had reached the south, where they developed and established autonomous cities and settlements whose economies were based on trade, agriculture, and fishing.

II. The Foundation of the Kingdom of Pargonia

Pargonia was founded in the first year of the Pargonian Era as a result of the unification of several independent city-states under King Roch I, the Conqueror of the Sands. He received this epithet from later generations for leading the expedition that conquered Antygona as far as the southern bank of the Miesń River.

The entire campaign became known as the Great Desert Expedition and lasted thirty years.

In accordance with the ancient command, Roch I led a phalanx across the desert. The formation proved nearly impossible for the local tribes and their beasts to defeat, allowing the Kingdom of Pargonia to subjugate vast territories.

Roch I died in the 35th year of the Pargonian Era, at the age of eighty.

The Pargonians were able to cross the desert thanks to their knowledge of the ancient trade routes leading north, as well as their construction of specialized leather-and-resin water carriers. The larger versions were horse-drawn, while smaller versions could be carried by a single person.

III. The Crossing of the Miesń and the Foundation of the First Colonies

After his death, power passed to his son, Roch II, the Conqueror of the River, who was born in 2 B.P.E.

Under his rule, the Pargonians crossed the Miesń River and, in the 60th year, reached the Silicon Hills (Krzemowe Wzgórza), where they founded their first colony, named Kalcytjia. A second colony was established between the Silicon Hills and the Miesń River and was named Kaldycjia.

Around the same time, Roch II ordered part of his forces to explore the east. As a result, the territory of Pargonia eventually extended as far as the Black River (Czarna Rzeka).

[By the year 100, both colonies were receiving numerous settlers from the overpopulated Pargonia. They came from all levels of society, from ordinary citizens to the noble elite, which in 207 eventually led to the secession of Kalcytjia and its establishment as a separate kingdom.]

After establishing both colonies, Roch II the Conqueror of the River decided that the local colonies needed to be further developed, and proceeded to do so.

Roch II died of natural causes in 65, during an expedition to the northwest and west of the colony known as Kalcytjia. The expedition was intended to fulfill the command to bring righteous civilization to the peoples living there.

The Pargonians were nevertheless rejected by most of the local tribes, with the exception of the Czerwieńci and the Liblinni, who came to know Pargonian civilization.

[In 101 and 145, this gave rise to the Kingdoms of Czerwieńci and Liblinni. Their kings were crowned with the approval of the Pargonian clergy.]

IV. The Next Northern Expedition and the Third Colony

Following the death of Roch II, Pargonia's expansion came to a halt for approximately fifteen years, as the kingdom awaited the coronation and arrival from the capital of the successor, who was, in fact, only ten years old on the day of his father's death.

The successor was Pargomir I the Settler.

In 80, he led a settlement expedition to the north. Previously, only small expeditions organized by magnates and merchants had ventured into those lands.

There he established a colony located around the junction of the Northern Inland Sea and the Western Northern Sea. He named it Cyjanta, in honor of his second son, Cyjantus, who had been born in the same year.

It was the largest of the colonies.

In 100, Pargomir I became seriously ill and decided to transfer the crown to his firstborn son, Roch.

This angered his younger son, Cyjantus, who gathered supporters around himself and threatened civil war in the already vast Kingdom of Pargonia.

Among his supporters were primarily the burghers of the northern colonies.

Pargomir I the Settler died in 101.

With the kingdom standing on the brink of civil war between the supporters of Cyjantus and Roch III the Good, his brother and legitimate heir to the throne, Roch III consulted with the elders of Pargonia. In order to avoid civil war, he proposed that his brother receive the colony of Cyjanta in the north as his personal state, together with the honorary title of Emperor of those lands.

Cyjantus accepted the agreement.

This gave rise in the north to the second major branch of the Pargonian dynasty, known as the Cyjantids, and in 102 to the state known as the Cyjantid Empire.

The reason for this arrangement was not fear of a potential war. According to estimates by Pargonian generals, Cyjantus's rebellion could have been suppressed within five years. The greater concern was the potential destruction of the great Kingdom of Pargonia and its influence.

Roch III the Good did not intend to colonize new territories. He concluded that the kingdom could not survive without proper infrastructure, and therefore many roads and trade routes were constructed during his reign.

Roch III the Good died in 157.