#emarye

Woolwyrm Designs

hi hello the funky weasel dragon is done! they ended up being blends of not just mustelids (weasels + otters), but also hebridean sheep, emperor geese, and pimelodella gracilis (a kind of catfish)

anywho, some quick worldbuilding:

Woolwyrms live in the southern reaches of Emarye, among the seasonal frost of the Nightwoods. Though carnivorous and large, they often prefer fishing in the rivers in the summers, and hibernate in deep burrows during the harshest months of the winter. Their forelimb wings, and additional secondary wings along the body (more pairs indicate an abnormal length - the most recorded is currently four pairs of secondary wings) allow them to glide between trees. While active and lively, they prefer to spend more time playing and dueling with their horns than hunting, and usually take an ambush approach to their prey.

Some domesticated breeds become weighed down by wool, and thus are sheared every few weeks to keep healthy, and produce many of the textiles worn throughout Emarye. Their horns also serve as material for beads, weapons, and ornamentation, and grow back over the course of several mating seasons.

A transcript of the notes and sketches will be below the cut! And, because I filled so much of the page with just three sketches, you can look out for a part two sometime in the future!

happy wbw!!! :D

Whispers and Firebreathers actually take place in the same world!! The biggest difference between them is just that Whispers is in Emarye, where Firebreathers is mostly in the Maelands :D

(Map for reference:)

One other difference between them is that Whispers is set between several years to a decade before Firebreathers!! (probably, don’t quote me on that quite yet a;lsdjf)

There are several references to The Whispers (the crime ring) in Firebreathers!! Ember has actually considered getting help from them before, but didn’t, due to the threat of the debts being too much for them. Also, parts of the climax of Whispers will be mentioned, but unless you read both, you won’t understand them ;)

But!!! In terms of general culture, Emarye and Maelani/Sieril are very different places.

For one thing, Maelani is very densely populated, compared to Emarye, and the people there tend not to travel too far, because travel is fairly inaccessible to most. I mean, a lot of the railroads there have to either go really far out of their way to get around Godtree roots/prairie colonies/desert drifts etc., or avoid routes that would bring that entirely. So, people can be pretty wary of outsiders, and most everyone will have connections throughout the town they live, and if they disappeared, their paper trail would be traceable.

Meanwhile, Emarye has far fewer habitable zones, especially once you get past the southern mountains. A nice side effect of that, though, is the sheer intricacy of the railroads, and that means people travel more, so strangers are expected. And if a stranger just shows up one day in your small town and decides to stay, it’s not that weird. People can fake papers easily, or get on without any just fine.

And, in terms of differences on a country-like scale: Maelani has several different governments that choose to govern people and cities more than land, while still having centralized powers. So, for example, existing in an Ehlven city like Impalfahr will mean you have to follow city laws, but if you’re not an Ehlf, and you don’t live there full time, you’ll go through a non-Ehlven judicial or prosecution system if you break those laws in a significant way!

Emarye, on the other hand, works in a city-state format! So, each city is in control of the area around them, and the people in charge of that city make the laws there, but there’s no central governing force outside of that!

That’s part of why Fowden is Like That™ - the people in charge haven’t been particularly good in decades, and because of the laws they’ve thrown out over time, it’s become a bit of an easy base of operations for crime lords and outlaws.

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;ASLDKJFAFLJ happy wbw to you, too, rose!! i am suddenly very glad i took an AP Econ course so i actually know enough to answer this a;sldfkj

Seeing as I'm most familiar with the Emaryans on this front, we'll go over them!!

The Emaryan economy is structured most like the barely-checked capitalism of the early 1900s - there's no real minimum wage, but children aren't allowed to work physically-endangering jobs, and most people are paid equally because there's not really any concept of misogyny or racism. It's just that the employer decides what that pay is, and there's not a lot of effort to change that in any of the city-states.

Common imports for the southern reaches of Emarye tend to be spices, dyes, and the magical alloys of the Glittergale Forges! Lots of Emaryan technology is on a similar level to the Dwarves, and they use lots of Vigormetal and Shieldmetal in their trains and guns, as those keep things moving and working properly for much longer than regular metals would.

Emarye's biggest exports tend to be furs, jewellery, and a tobacco-like drug that's exclusive to the environment up there! I'm still coming up with the name, but the one I'm using right now is Nightbreath, because it's made from the bark of specific trees of the Nightwoods, and it's used primarily in a pipe or cigarette form.

Your average person is usually part of a family business, a miner/hunter/laborer, or involved in the continent-wide industries of the press or the railroads! Higher class people tend to work in the government or in larger mercantile companies. Some even manage trade routes, especially in the harbors of Myshari, and the highest of the upper class are usually the representatives or leaders of the city-states they call home.

Their economy is different from others in the world because they are much more industry-based and capitalistic than other governments, even including the god-awful economy that has taken root in the reaches of the Mae Ehlven government. It's part of the reason the Whispers have been able to gain a foothold - more people need help and financial aid in Emarye than anywhere else, and when you can exploit that for your own gain while still providing better aid than the government, well... It's not a recipe for good things.

;ALSKJF happy WBW to you, too, Raev!!! thank you for the ask!!!

While there may not be any King Arthur types (pls ignore one of the eternals is literally named King Arthur asl;dkfjasldfkj) on Ehl, there are other legendary folk heroes from either 1) before the Eternals’ time, or 2) places where the Eternals don’t rule!

One of my favorites of the second type is a woman named Lorelei Witmouth! She’s,,,, still alive, but she’s already carved out a name for herself in the local mythos of Myshari and Emarye as a whole! She’s a bit of a Robin Hood type, if Robin Hood were more of a paladin; she and her sisters have worked tirelessly to bring prosperity to the areas of the world that tend to get left behind.

Her whole family is a bit of a legend, actually! The way last names work on Emarye is basically “whatever your ancestors are best known for will be your last name”, but with this family, they have a habit of one-upping each other every generation. So her family tree has about 20 different last names, each associated with a more wild feat than the last. Because of Lorelei and her sisters, right now it’s theorized that the next name will be ‘Peopleshope’ or something along that line of thought!

Other names they’ve had: Courtsbane (a legendary assassin who wiped out an entire corrupt court in a week), Starword (the holy woman who translated the old religious texts into the newer form of the language, opening up room for a religious revival), Witmouth (the current one, for an investigative journalist known for ripping lying politicians a new asshole in her interviews), Elderscribe (a professor who translated pre-Common books for the masses), etc.!

Ehlverse Map - Update 9.10.2020

I spent about half an hour earlier adding in a bunch of the important, but smaller stops throughout Whispers, and a few places that are important in Firebreathers and Lifeblood! Each pin has a name and description when you hover over it, though some are more ~important~ than others!

If you want to check it out and get a little bit of a feel for the basics of the world, you can find the map on WorldAnvil here. I’ll be updating the key in the bottom left in these next few minutes!

(Sidenote: I forgot yesterday was WBW, so I’ll be sending those asks out in a little bit!! Keep a lookout in your inbox!!!)

Taglist below the cut!

Hey, happy WBW!!! Thank you!!! :D

Some common superstitions in the Ehlverse include:

- the appearance of Vampiric animals is a bad omen, usually taken as a warning of death (which is understandable, because carnivorous animals hit with vampirism can’t digest solid food, just like vampiric people, and because they don’t understand it, they become a lot more dangerous to people that they would otherwise avoid in their desperation for food)

- spotting an opalescent object or animal during your first meeting with someone is a sign that that person will be meaningful in your life

- accidentally breaking a wooden object when you fall is a sign of being blessed by the Mayhist Goddesses; on the flip side, purposefully breaking or burning a wooden object unnecessarily is inviting their wrath

- in southern Deltierin, many Mikrona believe that the first animal a child Shifts to is indicative of how that child will act when they are an adult (children that Shift to notoriously dangerous animals - like storm snakes or flint cats - are often Forsaken if the parent believes this prediction wholeheartedly)

ah fuck i never sent out mgm asks did i I’ll send you your MGM ask in a little bit, sorry about that 😅

bUT to answer for MGM, I’ll use the DC kids:

Hunter: Honestly, any puns that make people frustrated are TOP TIER. Also, stupid wordplay that makes people angry. I once edited a picture of an eye so it was in the colors of the bi pride flag, and called it a b-eye flag, and I still have not stopped laughing.

Viola: I actually have to agree with Hunter on the puns thing, as much as I hate to admit it. Their puns are AWFUL, they can’t escape that, but some people are actually good at them and make me laugh. No, I will not elaborate on who those people are.

Hunter: I need to meet the legend who actually made you like a pun. Talk about a fucking master.

And to answer for WBW, we’re back on Ehl:

There are some historical things I’ve talked about a LOT on here, but they’re always in relation to Firebreathers and how those things impact the Ehlven rebellion, but today, I want to talk about some stuff that’s more relevant for Whispers!!

So, one of the more prominent families in Emaryan history - especially for the Atali people - has had a lot of surname changes, due to the general naming convention there being “what your ancestors are remembered for becomes your name to carry”, and this family has a legacy of one-upping themselves with pretty much every generation.

As it stands right now, the current “heirs” of the family carry the name Witmouth for their grandmother, who was supposedly so sharp with her words that she made grown men - in far more powerful political positions than her - cry at the podium in shame. She was known for just, exposing all of their corrupt shit in front of literally everyone and ruining their careers with her investigative journalism and scathing interviews. Her most notable feat was sitting down with one of the more arrogant princes of Emarye and asking him about so much seedy shit he’d done that he just up and left ‘cause he was too scared to answer anything.

But this family, over the course of the last few generations, has also held the names of Courtsbane (assassin renowned for “removing” some powerful assholes), Elderscribe (professor who translated pre-Common books so that the masses could read them), and Feastbringer (farmer who worked their ass off to help break a famine that lasted 5+ years).

aaaa thank you @writingamongthecoloredroses!!

So, on Ehl, there’s like,,, 6 main continents, right? and on Emarye, the main religion practiced is based on the moons, sun, and stars!

but the moon and stars have less of a ‘mythos’ and more of a functional use - Sorcerers use their light to help… well, the best way of wording it is manipulate percieved reality. So like, they create illusions that are not only visible, but if the sorcerer is skilled enough, the illusions feel, sound, smell, and even taste real. The light of the stars and moons are the fuel, i guess? it’s kind of a cosmic magic, in the sense that the power comes from space. so a significant part of their religion is based on the idea that the cosmos itself is creating what we know as reality, and death is actually just a release into the real real world. Kinda like the matrix.

But, more myth-related, on Sieril, it’s commonly believed that stars aid the processes of their botanical magic. It’s thought that stars aren’t the things creating light - they’re the things letting light through the blanket of darkness. Like, if you have a knit blanket, they’re the spaces between stitches. Which is, yknow, wrong, even in the context of the Ehlverse, but the myth is so deeply ingrained in Rillian culture that even though astronomy has started taking root, they still rely on that belief for their process. As such, they only really do their thing at night. 

Otherwise, on Maelani, there used to be a myth that one particular mountain, dubbed ‘Stardeath Peak’, was, for whatever reason, a place where stars literally fell to the ground. Most people now know that the ‘stars’ are actually small meteorites, and Stardeath was just a place that was easily the biggest mountain for a ways, so when meteorites fell in that general vicinity, they were all ‘on Stardeath Peak’.