#nerenti

Left to right (name, pronouns, character role):

Colloquially referred to as "The Horror", no one knows how this being came to be. It has a deep connection to the goddess Thina, akin to a powerful demigod, but Thina famously never had children.

The only thing that is known about this being is that it stalks the parts of Thinras that remain untouched by the population. People who leave the established paths often don't return and the few who do return speak of a silent being that killed all their companions - for those who return always do so alone, but had left in a group - in various brutal ways and stared at the lone survivor, daring them to do anything but run. It is unknown what happens if they don't run, the few who survived always did. No matter how big or small the group venturing out is, the outcome never changes. Those who are stupid enough to go alone are never seen again. All attempts at communication have been fruitless.

Nerenti is, of course, both the name of the world and the name of the spirit/soul of that world. The spirit doesn't always take on a form, but it can be helpful and fun to be actually visible. Mortals get pretty scared when all around them something speaks to them, but they can't see what. Travel is only possible in a physical form, so Nerenti has to take one to leave the planet.

At the top is a glowing eye, some rocks that look like planets and moons as well as a floating hand mande of rocks. One finger is a living tree, two are made of bones and nothing else, another is a tentacle and the last consists of disconnected rocks floating in a rough shape of a finger. This is Nerenti's cosmic form. They use it to travel in space, meet the spirits of other planets and scare mortals away from space if they don't think they're ready for that yet. Sometimes they also just scare mortals with it for no other reason than fun.

In the middle is a person-shaped cloud, but instead of legs the figure just has a normal looking cloud. This is the form Nerenti takes to commune with mortals who need to know who they're talking to. Sometimes they just take this form to let mortals know that they're the one changing the world around them and they don't need to fear for their lives, just because the forest is suddenly disappearing. They also like to take this shape during thunderstorms, but only during one lightningstrike, to scare mortals who see a glimpse of them illuminated by lightning, just to not see them at all the next time the sky is lit up.

I can finally say that I can tell the part in my brain that yells about "historical accuracy in fiction" to shut up! So homophobia/transphobia is not as rampant on the continent Arnervath as it used to be! (The other continents were always free of homophobia/transphobia)

What this means for the culture: they're more relaxed about extramarital relationships, marriage is exclusively used to determine heirs and ensure bloodlines so as long as you do that, no one cares who you're sleeping with outside of that.

Also, marriages may be made based on genitals (because producing more soliders and stuff), but that does not mean that everyone with a dick is seen as a man and everyone with a uterus is seen as a woman. There have now been a lot of same-gendered marriages, as long as one of the people involved was trans, and no one would ever be insane enough to claim that they were a man and a woman. Trans people are fully respected and accepted as their gender and are not invalidated on purpose. Calling a trans person their agab is a huge disrespect and anyone who does is called petty, childish and unfit for battle.

Lynnara (left) and Vaia (right), one of the couples in my books, kissing in the rain :)

They are both part of the main character group, because I could never focus on only one character and these two are awesome. Lynnara is a fire mage, Vaia is a rare lightning mage and you really don't want to make either angry.

They gave been best friends since they were 7/8 and grew up together. Supported each other through their relationships - and breakups - and saved each other's lives on numerous occasions.

This is Nerenti. Arnervath is where the three Kingdoms are located. The Mountain Realm, the Woodland Realm and the Swamp Realm. Around the core of the continent are three land masses inhabited by the Magil.

So now you have a map for all the geographic content I've been posting.

Jumping continents, but staying in forests, this is a picture of a road in Thinras on the continent of Jschevah. Also known as the Forest of Wisdom or Mathi's Forest (to the annoyance of Thina, the goddess who actually made the forest and merely adapted it to suit her niece/adoptive daughter's needs), Thinras houses many tomes, recording all the knowledge in the world. Births, deaths, marriages, relationships, flags, borders, conflicts, prices in each region for each product, how to do basically anything, even rumors get recorded. (yes, this is most certainly a breach of privacy. No, the gods do not care, they need that shit written down.)

The people who live in Thinras take care of the forest and records (some books about the gods keep disappearing, but the gods explicitly told them not to worry about it. Weird.) The sole purpose of these people is caring for the forest and doing what they are told by the gods who live there.