hi, happy WBW to you, too, lila!!! thanks for the questions!! <3<3<3

So, for things that most people will know off the top of their head, in regards to history: Most people can name the last three Growths and Decays off the top of their head, in order, and why they’re called that/what happened/who helped in the recovery or discovery/etc.!

For instance, everyone can name the Common Growth, which happened at year 0 of the current calendar, and introduced a magical common form of all languages and their variants. They’d know about Aio Starscribe, who translated thousands of documents from before the Growth into the Common tongue so that as little history was lost as possible; they might know about Sal Mitrit, who researched what did and did not constitute a fluency in a particular form of language, and how that affected the presentation of Common.

As for history books or books of legend - I haven’t really built those up yet :( I know that history books exist, and that some of my more nerdy characters read them and reference events in them, but I haven’t really determined what they are other than that ;alskdjf

As for what historians study, it’s usually the archives that are purposefully written in languages other than Common! Most “important” works are kept in both the local language of the time and translated into Common, so that those who want to study it have fewer translation errors - because Common isn’t perfect, and slang tends to get morphed into the current versions, and references are missed, etc.

Also: diaries! Most people don’t write in Common unless they know for certain that the person who will read it doesn’t know their language. They’ve become a bit of a treasure among the historian communities of the Ehlverse :D

And, finally, to answer what’s more common or obscure for different groups:

There are different things emphasized as “important”, depending on where you go to school! For instance, a lot of Dwarven education emphasizes the Forges, advancements in magical engineering, and only mentions rulers if they did something particularly significant. Meanwhile, a lot of Ehlven education covers the different “eras” of Tieling Evergreen’s reign, emphasizes developments in magical methods that affected Elementalism, and art movements in architecture, sculpture, painting, etc!

And then, of course, the Goblins try to teach history more through a lens of “what we were doing while the rest of the world fucked around with magic and growths and ignored us”. Lots of focus on inventions, political upheaval and leaders, and only the big picture of what other peoples were doing.

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hey, happy wbw!!! thank you for the ask, and sorry the answer is so late!!!!

So, in Firebreathers, there is a king (Tieling Evergreen) but because he’s immortal, there’s no one else in the “royal family”, and the same goes for King Arthur Coldstone of the humans, since they were both immortalized in the same event.

Tieling Evergreen was set to become the King of the Ehlves before he was ever immortalized - as the Chosen One, part of his duty after stopping the great decay would be to unify the Ehlves under one leader, so he was being prepared his whole life to take the throne and begin diplomatic outreach as soon as he completed the Journey. After his immortalization and the smite on Fahrial, that process became a lot easier - everyone was thoroughly convinced he was blessed by the Goddesses, and because of that, they were quick to please him and unify.

Arthur Coldstone, on the other hand, was only ever meant to be Tieling’s guard on the Journey, and then he was to return to Avatica with Tieling’s blessing and take his place back in the Royal Guard of the king. But because he was the only other survivor of Fahrial, and the entirety of the King and his court had been attending the celebration there, well... when he was the only one to return, harrowed and Blessed, there was no dissent when he sat on the throne and forced himself to deal with the ramifications of the catastrophe.

Where Tieling was prepared all his life for unification at any cost, Arthur was taught to protect and defend those he cared about with everything he had. Tieling was known for his ruthless pursuit of control from the beginning, and though it took a long while for his people to realize it, once they did, he was forced to quell rebellion each time he became lax. Meanwhile, Arthur actually cared, and any war he entered was a reaction to those threatening his people.

Or, of course, threatening Evergreen. There’s been speculation for hundreds of years over just how devoted Arthur is to Tieling, even though Tieling has never once moved his own troops in defense of Avatica. But most people decide not to dwell on it for too long; Arthur is a good king, all things considered. They would rather let him fight for Tieling than be stuck with anyone else.

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I’m invoking my worldbuilding taglist for this, because this is all a pretty major factor in the Firebreathers rebellion!

Worldbuilding Taglist (ask to be +/-):

hey, happy WBW, bean!! hope you’re having a great one :D

There are a LOT of “inside” jokes, especially on Maelani! So many people crammed into one space, they either get annoyed with each other, or get used to it.

Most everyone jokes about the Goblins being paranoid and/or overcompensating for not having magic. Lots of innuendos are made with the latter implication.

Also, Ehlves can’t hold their alcohol, and it’s become a widespread game to time how long it takes for an Ehlf to get absolutely wasted. Usually, it’s less than twenty minutes. With the right drink, they pass out before they get silly. This has lead to the common college-kid phrase “You secretly an Ehlf, man?” when someone stops partying before it gets fun.

And then there are lots of jokes about Fairies being an entire species of Goths, since they’re always in darker clothes. (Explanation for that here. TLDR: bright colors are bad luck to them.)

Hi, Hunter!!! Happy STS to you too!!!!

I’m happy you like him!!!

For anyone who sees this and doesn’t know, his full name + title is Divine King Tieling Evergreen, and he’s the main villain of Firebreathers book one! I’ve also got a portrait of him in the WIP intro!

To answer your questions:

About 950 years before the events of Firebreathers, one of the Priestesses of Nimia (a bit more on them here and here) began speaking a Prophecy that basically predicted the end of all magics in existence. Which, y’know, would be a very bad thing, considering how much the world depends on it. She predicted that this would be part of the Decay that was already on it’s way.

About 30 years later, Tieling Evergreen was born to another one of the Priestesses. Not wholly uncommon; there were a few other kids that year, as the Priestesses were trying to get as many prophecies as possible for guidance. His mother, however, was speaking another Prophecy, relating to the Decay, and who could stop it. Prophecies are pretty vague, usually, because it’s hard to translate the language of Ehl itself into, like, a language you could actually understand, and so Tieling was determined to be the Chosen One, since his birth was what triggered the prophecy to start in the first place.

Because of this prophecy, and the general belief that he was the one to stop the Decay, he’s become kind of a demigod to a lot of people. That, coupled with being immortal (learn more about how that happened here and here*), has really made him both a mythic figure, and a major part of the Ehlven sects of Mayhism.

* tldr: he completed his quest, and the goddesses smote a city to grant him and his partner in the journey immortality, while still keeping some semblance of balance

Thank you so much for your questions!!!! I hope you don’t mind me adding my taglists, I realized I haven’t talked about him much, and he’s really important from both a worldbuilding and story standpoint!

:D Happy WBW!!! thank you for the ask, Bean!!!

So, there are a lot more rulers on Maelani than I talk about usually 😅, but there are four different governments there, so!! time to talk about more than just the humans and ehlves :D

Okay, for starters, I haven’t delved too deep in the lore for the Goblin and Dwarven governments, so for now the leaders still hold titles like King, Queen, Prince/ss, and whatnot, but the rules around who leads and how laws are made are different for all of them, so those are pretty much just placeholders right now!

In terms of standard dress and crowns, though, there are a lot more obvious differences between them.

For a kind of baseline, King Coldstone of the humans does his best to wear clothes that aren’t very far removed from what most of his people wear. He’s almost always in relatively simple and colorful clothes, with maybe a more ornate, striking cloak to separate him from those around him. But he doesn’t wear a crown, out of personal choice. And because he’s been ruling for so long, with no options for succession, there hasn’t been a crown for him to wear in a few hundred years.

On the flip side, Divine King Evergreen wears the most ornate shit. We’re talking robes of embroidered velvet in winter, and gradient-dyed silk in summer; ridiculously well-made and layered shirts and jackets tailored to him; not to mention the jewels in his buttons and the gold in the threading. He’s where fashion designers turn to for inspiration each year, and most of the nobility do their best to mimic his tastes, albeit with smaller budgets. Despite his stupidly expensive fashion, the crown he wears is a relic from before the fall of Fahrial - a simple wooden circlet carved to look like woven sticks. He’s been approached a few times with offers to design a new one, but he refuses to let go of the thing.

Now for the people I haven’t talked about as much:

The Goblins have a very different society from the others on Maelani - they mostly keep to themselves, and because of that, they don’t really meet with other leaders very often, so their fashion is wacky compared to them. King Sayell, for instance, wears a lot of... geometric(?) clothes, and most of it is white, with black accents underneath. It’s a lot more scifi-esque over there. And instead of a crown, the current ruler is tattooed along both arms, with a pattern that acts almost like a QR code, except more ~advanced~ (I’ll post visuals at some point).

Succession works a bit different with the Goblins, too. While technically there is a “Crowned” person, there is also an elected parliament that represents every ~10,000 people in every Goblin city, and 1 representative in Wasi from each parliament. This group of representatives is, ultimately, more powerful than the Crown themself, and each city can decide through voting whether they, personally, are going to recognize the current heir as “legitimate”. If enough cities vote against the next heir in the family line, an election will be held to see which city will become the new capital, and thus, which representative is now the Crown.

Currently, Wasi has been the capital for about 60 years, but Princess Ahndi is really controversial as an heiress, and King Arrya is getting old and sickly, so who knows how long that will last.

And, finally, the Dwarves. The royal family is a lot more simplistic in their dress than King Evergreen or King Sayell. They’re kind of on a healthy point between Coldstone and Evergreen - it’s rich and clearly stand out, but it’s not overdone or ridiculous. Mostly vibrant reds and yellows, nice dark leather, and white fur accents. The current ruler wears a crown carved from a geode, which is the most eye-catching thing, usually, and succession is passed from parent to oldest child, with only a few exceptions in their history, usually due to intervention on behalf of the Forges.

If an heir is deemed too likely to spill the secrets of the Forges, the current Smithmaster makes their pick of the other options, or nominates someone else if the options aren’t promising. But the royal name of Kar is added on to the ruler’s name regardless, so it seems completely congruous to outsiders. Just don’t look too closely at the portraits in the great hall ;)

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Thank you for the ask, lana!!!

I’ve talked a little bit about the Ruins of Fahrial in a previous WBW ask, but I haven’t really talked about them since! And Fahrial is vastly significant on Maelani, and to anyone who practices Mayhism on Ehl!

At the most basic level, Fahrial was the capital city of the Ehlves, and it was founded around 1500 PCL (about 2500 years before firebreathers takes place) when Ehlves first found their way to the Maelands.

Note the past tense.

When Tieling Evergreen and Arthur Coldstone completed their divine journey, they were blessed by the Goddesses to live forever. But, in order to maintain some semblance of balance, a smite fell upon the city, killing all 50,000 people in it - except for Tieling and Arthur. Everything within a three mile radius of them was killed almost instantly - they were the only survivors, and since they’re immortal, and it’s been almost 1000 years, their word is the only thing anyone has.

But since Tieling and Arthur are considered Divine in Mayhism, and are generally accepted as at least a little god-like, their word is never challenged.

Heya, @writingamongthecoloredroses!! This is an older ask, but I just COULDN’T let it go unanswered, so!!! here we go, my first WBW infodump after my hiatus!!!! shit i have to remember my own tagging system now FUCK

The places of worship on Ehl vary a bit from religion to religion - for some, there aren’t even designated “places”!

In Mayhist towns, you can usually find at least one temple in the area, but they’re usually not very big. In bigger cities like Aree, there are usually upwards of 5 in the city limits, where in small towns with smaller Mayhist populations, the “temples” could just be small shrines set up by a Priestess.

Most Mayhist temples are open-air, kind of like large, stone gazebos, most of the time with plants wrapping around the pillars and hanging from arches, and a fountain in the center. If they’re in a city with a larger population in poverty or homeless, they’ll have basements underneath with beds and stocks of food - one of the core aspects of Mayhism is an obligation to help those in need, and Priestesses will always offer shelter and food.

In the as-yet-unnamed religion of the Mikrona, they kind of sit on the extreme end of the “giant churches on every corner vs. worship literally anywhere who gives a fuck” spectrum, because their form of worship is basically just. Blending.

Actually, I’m not sure I’ve talked about Blending before on here, so quick rundown:

- some people can shapeshift, but most can only do it in broad sweeps (like going from a person to a Literal Bird) and this is called Lesser Shifting

- getting really good at Lesser Shifting and being able to focus changes to specific areas sends you down the road to Greater Shifting

- Mikrona, unlike other people, are 1) guaranteed to be Shifters and 2) natural Greater Shifters.

- Blending is basically Greater Shifting but constantly. a lot of them, especially in cities, just walk around like living, 3D kaleidoscopes, with ever-changing faces and body proportions. it’s a way for them to connect to the world, which is the biggest, most important part of their religion.

- in more rural areas Mikrona will often walk around with a wild mixture of kaleidoscope skin and Basically Invisible due to camouflaging

- also dont even try to remember a Mikrona by face alone - they have a general rule of not changing their voices and eyes, but literally everything else is up for grabs

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PHEW i forgot how excited i get about WBW LMAO

also i am 100% invoking the taglist cause this was fun and also Mayhist Temples are important in Firebreathers so:

Ehlverse Taglist:

aaaa thank you ada!!! this one caught me while i was in bed last night, but I hope you’re having an awesome day nonetheless!!!