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karchew — Aldarion
#fantasyworld #map #ocs #sagara #threeworlds #worldmap
Published: 2018-06-30 13:37:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 804; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 5
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My original world. Aldarion is the homeworld of elves, faeries and other magical beings.Related content
Comments: 24
Awesome! I'm guessing sailors have their work cut out for them, though. Some of those seas are bound to have some crazy currents running through them. Ooh, are there any currents that make giant whirlpools when they get close to each other?
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There aren't a lot of sailors on the sea in this world – good for them. 
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Ah, that's really interesting. In the setting of my stories, portals are also an option, but they're usually like a long tunnel you have to travel through, so most aren't an instant trip from one point to another. Flying ships were used in the past, but magic changed as a result of a war the gods had with each other, so the knowledge of making those has been lost.
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I don't know why but for some reason I like those "lost knowledge" things in books and stories.
The knowledge of how to build a portal is lost as well in my story, so they have to keep the existing ones save, if they want to keep traveling between the worlds.
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In my setting, worlds are separate planets that exist in the same universe, called the "Cosmic Plane." To get from one world to another, you use a portal that leads to one of the "transitory planes." The passage through the plane eventually opens to a different world back in the Cosmic Plane. The most frequently used transitory plane is the Plane of Earth, where the portals are literal tunnels. So, you enter what looks like the entrance to a cave, but at some point, you've left the Cosmic Plane and are now traveling through the Plane of Earth. The process reverses as you reach the other end of the tunnel, where you return to the Cosmic Plane, but are now on another world entirely, possibly one in a totally separate galaxy. Some portals connect to different locations on the same planet, but these are much, much shorter in length. The world that Humans inhabit, called the "Midlands" is basically a hub between the worlds of the Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, etc. The portals connecting those worlds to the Midlands are not nearly as long as the ones connecting them to each other. So, say you have a portal that connects the Orc world to the Midlands and another one that connects it to the Elf world. The one connected to the Elf world is going to require weeks the traverse while the one to the Midlands can be managed in less than a day at most. Thus, if an Orc wants to get to the Elf world, it's usually more efficient for him to travel to the Midlands and find a portal there which connects to the Elf world than to use the one that connects his world to the world of the Elves.
Of course, the transitory planes have dangers of their own, and the Plane of Air is extremely hard to navigate, due to its nature. However, artificial portals can be created that are more like doors between locations. These are called "gates" to make them easier to differentiate from natural portals. While some use the transitory planes, most are made by going through Limbo, a plane of empty space. Mages are still debating if Limbo is the space between planes or if the space between is "the Void," a place of total nothingness which simultaneously does and does not exist. (Many of these debates often end with people punching each other or chucking Spells at one another, so resolving the issue is going to take a while.) Regardless, a portal through Limbo is so short that travel is almost instant. You have to be paying very close attention to notice the momentary lag. As with your setting, the means of creating gates between worlds was lost for a long time, but Mages are starting to recover the techniques. Of course, it's still a complicated and dangerous process, not to mention prohibitively expensive, so most gates are relics of a long-lost time.
Limbo has one other interesting use: It can be used to make Pocket Dimensions. This is a more recent development and one which the people from the time before the Divine War appear to have never considered themselves. I wanted to make sure that I didn't fall into the cliche of all the artifacts from the ancient past being superior to things made in the present, so I decided that there would be some magic devices the Mages of the current age are inventing that surpass things of the past or are entirely original in their own right. Making a large Pocket Dimension with a door big enough to enter is extremely difficult, but making a small Pocket Dimension with a small opening is more easily accomplished, so most Pocket Dimensions are used to make chests and other containers that are "bigger on the inside." Perdita has a backpack with a Pocket Dimension attached to it. She uses it to store modular furniture she can quickly put together and take apart, allowing her to basically take her home with her. The Pocket Dimension is about the size of a tool shed, so it has just enough space in it for her to take enough creature comforts with her to keep her happy.
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This sounds really great and well thought out!
My concepts always sound like a dull lexikon, dry and humorless. Maybe I should treat them more like shortstories or reports and add a few "anecdotes".
Thanks for the insight!
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That sounds like an awesome idea! I always love it when a story is written by a narrator who exists in the setting but isn't a participant in the actual events, like a historian or scholar. If you want a great example of that idea in practice, check out Steven Brust's The Phoenix Guards, Five Hundred Years After, and The Viscount of Adrilankha (which is one whole novel in three volumes, The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode.) The books are presented as if written by a historian from the setting, one Paarfi of Roundwood, who lives in a time well after the events of the stories take place but has used various sources to put together a historical narrative. "Paarfi" will sometimes go on hilarious tangents about various locations the characters visit, often detailing how a certain structure was built or how a certain historical figure felt about it. For example, he quotes one empress as describing the imperial palace as "the most bloody indefensible building it has ever been my duty to occupy." It makes the whole story much more fun to read.
I myself have decided that some of my Perdita Nightshade stories will be narrated by her, but they will be in the form of autobiographical articles she submits to a popular magazine in her setting. She's going to get "fan mail" from people who read her articles and send her questions, so some of the stories will have her responding to frequently asked questions. Perdita's going to become something of a celebrity as a result, which is good, because it makes it easier for her to improve society's views of Half-Orcs. She'll also be demonstrating what an intellectual she is by going into details about things which most people in the setting only understand on a rudimentary level. Perdita's not a Mage, but she is what's called an Arcanist, someone who can't use Magic but thoroughly understands arcane theory. I think because she's also fluent in multiple languages, I'm going to have her delve into linguistics on a few occasions, too. For example, I think one of the irritating things for Perdita when she was learning the main Elven language was that it has a ton of different verb tenses. Like, at least five different kinds of past tense verbs (they live a long time, after all, so their past tense verbs are very specific in regards to how far back something took place) and a five different kinds of future tense verbs. I'm getting a linguist friend of mine to help out with this. It pays to have friends who are intellectuals.
Anyway, I think you'd have a lot of fun having someone from your setting be the one conveying the concepts of that setting to some audience within that setting. I have a blast toying around with that, and I know you would too.
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Okay, Steven Burst is now on my List.
Holy Shit, great idea with the many past tense verbs for the elven language. Now I'm angry, I didn't have that idea. XD
You have a knack for interesting Elements that show how your world works. I really like that. But I struggle with that myself. I'm lacking an own style that distinguishes my book from all the similar fantasy books on this planet. Maybe I'll have a good Idea for that one day.
Thanks for the encouragement, I've got some new motivation now!
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Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. All of my ideas are derivative. I'm just taking old concepts that I like and finding a new twist on them, primarily by learning as much as I can about history, science, language, biology, food, and fashion. Let me walk you through how I came up with some ideas regarding Orcs in my setting and how those ideas led to other aspects.
When I was figuring out how Orc bodies worked in my setting, I determined that, due to the density of their skeletons, their diets would require a lot more calcium than other races. So, I started looking into what sort of foods provide calcium. Obviously, this led to dairy products. I learned about all kinds of different dishes that are made using milk, deciding which ones I could use as the basis for dishes Orcs would make. Among these were milk soups, which is something I'd never encountered personally before then. I thought that seemed like an interesting thing for Orcs to eat on a regular basis, deciding that it would be eaten along with a full meal or as a light meal on its own. From there, I started researching the progress of the dairy trade over the course of history in the real world, learning some fascinating things along the way. The invention of pasteurization came up, naturally, which is how I learned that milk borne pathogens were part of the reason European civilizations had stronger immune systems compared to other parts of the world. They'd been exposed to more of them, so their bodies were more experienced at resisting certain diseases. Thus, I concluded that the Orcs would have more resistance to certain diseases because of their connection to livestock which produced the milk they consumed. Here's where things get more interesting, though. I found out that there's an expression in English that goes, "Smooth as a milkmaid's skin." This phrase came about because milkmaids were much more resistant to smallpox than most people. Why? Well, in working with cows so frequently, they were exposed to cowpox, giving them partial immunity to the smallpox virus.
This got my brain positively buzzing with the ramifications something like this would have for the Orcs in my setting. They're not the most brilliant magic users or engineers, but they are observant and open to trying new things if they offer a solution to a problem. I realized that if it probably wouldn't take long for the Orcs to notice that those who only consumed milk in milk soup would be less likely to get sick from milk borne pathogens since the milk in the soup was brought to a boil, killing the pathogens in the process. Thus, they would realize that heating the milk before boiling it would cleanse it of a good portion of the diseases it could potentially carry. Because the Orcs conquered the Human world so many times, this practice would naturally get passed on to Humans, and from there other Worlds. But it doesn't end there.
The Orcs would also notice that their milkmaids were not getting smallpox as easily as everyone else. It wouldn't take much digging for them to figure out that deliberately giving yourself cowpox made you more resistant to smallpox. This practice would likewise spread to the people the Orcs conquered, which would in turn point other races in the direction they needed to go to invent the field of pathology. That would mean that, despite my setting being based of the 18th century, immunization research would already be a thing. Smallpox would not be as massive a blight on people as it was in the real world.
All this because I started looking into ways for Orcs to get more calcium in their diets. If you need inspiration, just start learning as much as you can and pondering different ways you can apply that knowledge to your setting. It's a blast, and you come to better appreciate things which most people take for granted these days.
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Your Ork-Background sounds great and authentic. I already do a lot of research like that, and you're right, it's fun and you learn a lot. I just need a way to implement it into the book, to make it more interessting.
I did a lot of plot and story building until now, and am still working on it. When I'm done with that step, I need to put more work into the characters, atmosphere and world-builing. It feels like it takes ages to finish the book, between regular work and my other hobbies.
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For me, finding the balance between work, hobbies, and writing can be really difficult at times, especially when my brain is in full blown "writing mode." But, as long as I'm still chipping away at it even just a little each day, I don't feel like I've wasted any of my time. I'm the kind of person who has to have a good grasp of his setting in order to write characters in it, but that's just me. And characterization is probably one of the most important aspects of a story, anyway, so it's not like figuring that stuff out first is wrong. No two writers work exactly the same way, so there's no "right way" to go about doing it. Plus, you don't need to have a massive amount of world building done to get readers invested in a fantasy story. If there's just a few fresh elements and the setting has internal consistency, then the reader isn't going to be bored. Steven Brust's work is incredible, but his magic system is fairly straightforward, his cultures are largely based on historical ones, and the history is presented in bite-sized nuggets that add extra flavor without becoming distracting to the story. Most of all, he mostly presents the information as it relates to what the characters are doing, so that's one way you can easily implement elements about your setting into your story. Sometimes, you just need a single line of dialogue or narration to get the point across.
For example, I notice that Sagara wears blue clothing. You can tell a lot about his situation and your setting if you reveal how easy or difficult it was for him to get those blue garments. How was the dye made? What kind of fabric is the garment? Do those things mark him as a person of stature or a commoner? Little details like that can go a long, long way in fleshing out your setting and getting your readers immersed in it.
One other resource I can point you toward is a podcast called Writing Excuses, found here: writingexcuses.com/ It's in English, which might be an issue for you, but if not, I can't recommend it enough. It's a bunch of writers just talking about how they go about doing their work and providing listeners with insight and tips they can use. Don't be intimidated by the sheer number of episodes they have, either. You can find specific subjects fairly easily, so you don't have to listen to all of the podcasts to get the insights you need. They're all fantasy and science fiction authors, so they know a thing or two about designing a setting. I've gain a lot of understanding thanks to them. One of the members of the group also has a few videos on YouTube regarding things like setting and magic which you might find helpful. Here's the link to a playlist of those videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ZDBO…
Anyway, I hope this helps. You're character designs are all very interesting and I really admire your skills as an artist. I've dabbled in drawing, but I decided that, for the time being, I'm going to focus on writing until I'm doing it as a full time job. I intend to start doing it more once that happens, but with a wife, a full time job, and a bunch of other things to juggle, adding another hobby would be asking too much. I hope that changes sooner than later.
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Hey, this might be a good start, I just didn't want to bore the reader with Sagaras clothing too much.
Thanks for the Podcast and Youtube-Channel. I'll have a look/ear. I should have no problems understanding it, it's more the active writing or speaking that gives me a little trouble.
Writing and drawing always went hand in hand for me. I don't know which came first. You sound a lot like my best friend. She also tried to draw her characters, but she is much more talented with writing and does a lot to work hard on her book.
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Sagaras sounds like he underestimates the observational skills of humans. Chani's going to have her hands full with him, from the sounds of it.
I'm sure you'll find Writing Excuses very insightful. I completely forgot to include another very helpful video series that was done by another member of the Writing Excuses team. This has more to do with plotting books than world building, but I think it's extremely useful, so be sure to give this playlist a look: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmiqQ… A friend of mine mentioned some other stuff done by other people from the podcast, but I haven't had a chance to look into them yet. I'll send her a message to get me the links so I can check them out. If they're any good, I'll be sure to let you know, too.
You know, it's funny you mention how you can't remember which came first, writing or drawing. For me, I was trying to tell stories before I knew how to read or write, so I would draw the pictures and have my mom write the story on the pages for me. (I'm sure most people would find them cute, but I look at them and see nothing but massive plot holes and terrible characterization. Okay, yes, I was six at the time, but, really, is that any excuse?) I've tried taking up drawing on and off over the years, but I always find myself getting too distracted thinking about the stories and always end up writing notes or outlines before I finish the picture. Some idea hits me as I'm doodling away and I know if I don't write it down, I'll forget it, so my pencil just ends up drawing letters instead of images. Ah, well, if I can become a full time writer, I'll be able to set an hour or two aside each day for drawing .
All the more reason to finish the second edition of my book, I suppose. Though, at the moment, I'm working on a short story involving another character in the same setting, one who I'll be adding to the second edition as an example of a Divine Champion. Those are mortals who act as proxies for a god in the 'cold war' that's being waged between the Light and Dark Pantheons. Some Divine Champions are warriors, some are healers, and others don't fit into any specific category. In this case, the Divine Champion is a Centaur (currently) named Tika Tremain. She's a Warden, who is basically a protector of nature, though not from people so much as monsters, who disrupt the balance and are always invasive species to whatever environment they occupy. Tika's turning out to be a lot of fun and I can't wait to figure out how she and Perdita play off of each other. I'm thinking they've worked together previously when they cross paths during the events of the book. As for the short story I'm writing with her as the protagonist, it's about Tika saving a rural town from an Ettin that's been attacking the farms and eating the livestock. I'm really enjoying this little side project, and Tika's really taking shape as a result of it. She's not like any Centaurs I've seen in other works of fantasy. I mean, do you know of any Centaurs that play the banjo?
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Yeah, it's more that he does not care.
I already listened to a few episodes and it's really helpful. I also showed it to my friend and it inspired her to do some research about the topics.
For me it is more the opposite. I write, and then I want to draw a picure of it and stop/pause the writing. I wish you good look to become a professional writer soon, so I can have a look at your drawings. I'm really curious what they look like. Especially that centaur that plays banjo!
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Oh, it's very important that you give your characters flaws and weaknesses, but you have to make sure they're consistent with who they are. Him having arrogant moments is logical, given his status as a prince. Perdita's main weakness is hyper-vigilance, which mostly manifests as an obsession with being organized and prepared. While she generally isn't easy to provoke, she can fly off the handle if she sees someone endanger others, either intentionally or by being reckless. (It's part of her Orc heritage. Orc women are "mama bears" in my setting, so if you put their children in harm's way, they do not respond kindly. Perdita has inherited this trait from her mother.) Finally, while it's a reasonable attitude to have in my setting, Perdita also believes "to the victor goes the spoils." In other words, if she defeats a bandit or the like, she's entitled to whatever they have and isn't obligated to return it to the rightful owners of the stolen items. She usually does return most of the stuff, but if she finds a nice pistol or dagger, she's going to be inclined to hold onto it unless she knows it's important to the person who lost it. Granted, in most places, it's legal for her to keep stuff she takes from bandits and outlaws because it's considered part of the payment for her services in taking them down. I personally dislike that sort of thing, but I also understand it's a powerful incentive for getting people to take down bandits, pirates, and the like.
I'm glad that you found the episodes useful. I've become much more efficient as a writer thanks to those sources I shared with you, so it's good to learn that they've been helpful to others.
Regarding Tika, my centaur, I'm still working on her design. I do know that her face resembles Irene Papas, (who I chose as a starting point by looking up actresses of Greek descent,) that her upper body is buxom but athletic (she's a very skilled archer who can use a bow with either hand,) and that her lower body is based off of a Clydesdale horse. I'm thinking that her upper body has dark, coppery skin while her lower body has a chestnut colored coat to contrast with her darker skin. However, her hair, tail, and the feathering around her hooves is a flaming red that borders on orange. I haven't decided what color of eyes she should have, but I'm leaning toward green at the moment. I've decided that Centaurs have horse ears instead of human ears and their noses have an equine quality to them. (Also, when she laughs, it sounds a lot like a horse whinnying! )
As for Tika's clothes, I'm going for a real "frontier woman" sort of vibe, so she's probably going to have buckskins as the primary material in her garments. I've been doing a lot of research into historical clothing made from buckskin, as a result. However, since I don't want the buckskins being too close a match to her chestnut coat, I think she'll have had hers dyed different colors, though I'm not sure which ones, yet. What's proving tricky is her gear. I've been looking at some of the ideas people on this site have used for their Centaurs, but I also have to work out what sort of equipment Tika is using in order to determine where she would keep everything. As a result, I've been looking into the various harnesses that are used on horses. I also ended up watching a bunch of videos on how a horse gets shoes put on its hooves and determined that, no, as flexible as my Centaurs can be (they can reach their tails with their hands if they need to) they can't shoe their own hooves.
By far, the one thing that's proving the most difficult to decide on for Tika is what kind of hat she's going to wear. I have spent hours looking into historical hats and just can't make up my mind what type Tika will have. It's starting to drive me nuts! She needs a cool hat to complete the ensemble. Plus, it will make her look cool as she trots off into the sunset, but it can't be a hat from the 19th century, so that rules out cowboy hats. Thus, I'm left struggling to pick an 18th century hat that works for her. I never thought I'd find myself fretting over what kind of hat a Centaur wears, but here I am. Ah, well, the joys of being a fantasy writer, am I right?
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Yeah, flaws are important to keep your character down to earth. It also helps to surround them with characters that are more powerfull than him/her.
Nice research work you did for Tika (I had a lot of words/names to google though, but I learned a few things 
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Well, the hat helps to shield her eyes from the sun when she's using her bow and her musket, so I do know it has a wide brim to it. I'm currently leaning toward something like this:
www.pinterest.com/pin/49940704…
Although, she might have a bandanna on underneath the hat, and I'm pretty sure she'd have a pin or two to keep it in place, either way. Oh, and maybe she would also have a few eagle feathers in the hat, to add to the whole frontier woman vibe.
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Aaah, yes, that makes sense. I can imagine her hat with a wider brim though. And feathers are a great idea! I create a lot of characters, thinking feathers might look great in their hair... and then I forget to draw them.
What does her hair look like? Maybe this helps in deciding what her hat should look like?
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Her hair is a fiery red and quite long and voluminous. Since I'm going for a horse aesthetic, I've been looking into how horse manes and tails get braided, then trying to find some comparable styles that will fit that motif. Currently, I'm leaning toward something along these lines:
www.pinterest.com/pin/11681218…
www.pinterest.com/pin/48547403…
www.pinterest.com/pin/18380322…
The main thing I'm keeping in mind is that Tika prefers to keep her hair out of her face so it doesn't get into her eyes at a crucial moment, so whatever hairstyle she has, it will always be concentrated at the back of her head. The hat will also help with that. I think you're right about the brim being wider. Plus, that will give her more of a Clint Eastwood vibe:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1711j…
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I like the first one the most. It looks more natural. And it should fit under a hat. She will look really badass with that kind of hat.
I could also imagine something like this:
www.pinterest.de/pin/687784174…
www.pinterest.de/pin/423479171…
Braided more tightly on the head, so it's not painful with the hat on, and from the nape on her mane falls down loose and voluminous.
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Oh, I like those! It definitely looks more like a mane, which is sort of the point. Great suggestions!
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