“We must build a future for ourselves, without the need for blind faith. Without Gods. We can only have faith in each other, and it must be earned. Am I worthy of yours?”
(already did one fully shaded thing today and this guys got armour so I’m being lazy)
I’ve shown off the design of The First Nightlord in just armour, but I deliberated and decided that ultimately I wanted him to be an evil prettyboy. Because I can.
When you combine Alexander the Great, Messmer the Impaler, and Scar, that is who I envision Nohr to be.
The man who ultimately made Vetrheim, and Nohria to an extent, what it is, and began the cycles that would define life upon the land.
In my mind he haunts the worldbuilding in a wonderful way, he has been dead for so long, but the things that he did are still having their consequences.
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This part of the world is so far removed at the moment that this character is entirely OC territory, hardly counts as an NPC.
But yes, Nohria brainworms have taken root and now it is the part of the world I will write and develop continuously for whatever reason. If there's ever another circumstance to run another mini-campaign, guess where it's going.
Anyways, fuck it, here's the OC, the current sovereign of Nohria, Nightlord Camilla Hresvelg. She has ruled for the past 95 years, and is the longest reigning Nightlord ever. That being said, she also singlehandedly brings the average up by about 30 years.
She took the title after a planned assassination turned into a violent struggle, then turned into a public execution. I think that's a good starting point.
The length of her reign is also.. shall we say assisted by a certain.. quality of hers. No clue what that could be, probably nothing to worry about.
Latest tiny bit of geographical Nohria lore, because yeah I'm still on that, I've taken some inspiration from Exoplanets of all things to conceptualise a really cool and treacherous environment.
What I'm calling the "Glass Deserts", or maybe "Crystal Deserts", are vast deserts where the grains of sand are derived from the cities of Nohria from pre-descension, where time and the terrible forces have worn down these civilisations into dust.
Now, said civilisation of the uber high-magic, high-tech, almost futuristic caliber definitely incorporated lots of glass and crystals into their architecture, and so these substances are what comprise most of the particles within the deserts.
Unfortunately, this means that if the wind really picks up, you'll find yourself lacerated by tiny shards of glass blowing at 100 miles an hour, and just breathing the stuff in is probably not good either. (maybe "Asbestos Deserts" can be their name that is a joke)
There is a purpose to going to these places, however, as not everything is completely reduced to dust (yet), and maybe some really valuable, or better yet powerful, things can be found within the ruins of the Age of Ascent.
So yeah this is inspired by those ridiculous exo-planets you hear about where like the surface is literally made of glass and there's super fast winds, so going to that planet would turn you into swiss cheese instantaneously.
Surprised it took me this long to figure this out, but this is the symbol of the Continental Adventurers Guild, found emblazoned across their outposts.
The sword, fist, key, arrow, and staff roughly correlate with members of the guild committee, but are just general symbols of the practices of adventuring
Anathaema update, and a smidge of Black Flame lore
To go along with my update to Camilla, I decided to redo her opposition that she should totally just kiss, Lady Anathaema. She didn't undergo much of any design changes, but the ceremonial blade lands a definite place in her design.
To coincide, I thought I'd lay down a little more info about the Black Flame itself, since I can't recall exactly how much I've explained about it. It is the object of Anathaema's worship, and what the Lanterns have been built around, wielding it themselves for their own designs.
The flame itself differs from ordinary fire in that rather than emitting light, it consumes it, and not only that, but it can reduce almost any other material to nothing but ash and smoke. I like portraying it as basically monochrome, so even with the name it may very well display shades of grey.
As for its source, I of course can't divulge that here and now, but it is unknown to basically everyone, save very few. What I can say is that Black Flame is connected to different forces than those of the Nocturnal Storms, and the darkness that chokes all of Nohria. Multiple flavours of darkness and evil are making a fucked smoothie out of Nohria.
It is also greatly inspired by the recurring imagery employed in fromsoft games, such as the dark pyromancies in the souls series, and the godskin incantations of elden ring. Black fire is just fucking cool.
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As a little writing/worldbuilding exercise, I've written a little in-universe documentation of the otherworldly weather phenomenon that prevails in Nohria, that of the Nocturnal Storms. I've briefly mentioned them, and have my own scope of how they work, but I thought it'd be fun to portray what they look like to an individual living in the world.
The following writing is from the perspective of an apprentice Shardseeker, the academic society in Vetrheim, not a named character (yet), just a perspective, enjoy!
The persistent storm clouds that churn on the horizon are accepted to be the source of the gloom that pervades this land, yet from my own studies there is little agreement upon their qualities, effects, or origin. I recently took it upon myself to seek out individuals who may have experience with this phenomenon, colloquially referred to as "Nocturnal Storms", to see if I could identify any consistent through-lines or trends in our current understanding.
To start, my own experience with such events is lacking, I should say thankfully, for they never appear to encroach upon the city of Vetrheim directly, always seeming to narrowly avoid it, or dissipate before they can pass over. The consequences of these storms do make their way to the city, one way or another, and this is what the local guard are often dispatched to take care of. For it's relative ease of access, and relevance, I thought I would start my investigation with them.
I was able to get in touch with a member of the Tempests through one of my own superiors, who had built a rapport with them during his own work. The Orcish officer was kind enough to accept my request for correspondence and interview, and as an experienced member of the force, I am pleased to have his insights. A rough transcription of our discussion of relevant subjects follows:
"What is your understanding of the Nocturnal Storms?"
"Well, they've been a constant so long as I've been on the force, and for a long, long time before that. Depending on the time or day, they can be a little hard to spot on the horizon, but the clouds are always moving, churning, like... like milk that hasn't been stirred into a hot drink yet."
"Do they only appear during true night?"
"Not necessarily, but something about the light certainly keeps them away, for what little of it the sky sees. Whenever its dark enough, they form, whether or not its truly night, but it's usually easier to make them out when it's not complete darkness out there."
"Can you describe what comes next?"
"Right... the main reason the guard, the Tempests, even the Nightlord's... cavalry, any of us trouble ourselves with the storms. Wherever they gather, these horrible creatures emerge. I think the storms create them, but they also turn things that get caught in them into... abominations. You can recognise some of those creatures, the ones that are turned, I've seen cattle, wolves, people... but there are others that I am certain bear no relation to anything that belongs in this world."
"Those creatures.. the ones that can't be identified... what do they usually look like?"
"They are.. singular, usually, I can't say I've seen any two that look alike. I can't say I've seen more than I count on both hands, though, which I'm thankful for. Generally, long, twisted appendages.. gnashing teeth, sometimes more than one mouth.. I'm never sure where their eyes are meant to be, if they have them, but you can tell that they see you."
"I see... thank you... What happens once these creatures are killed?"
"They're destroyed, utterly. Anything that used to be living is putrefied by the 'corruption', and some old guard a long time ago found out that burying them all in one piece is a bad, bad idea. We burn them, and most things they touch, which I appreciate isn't exactly helpful for scholarly types like yourself, but I'm sure you understand."
"Yes, completely, I'm thankful to have you relaying all this, in lieu of gathering my own primary accounts."
I then broached the subject of having a documentarian along during the destruction of a 'nocturnal horde', a matter that I'm not sure my guest took entirely seriously, but he assured me that the matter of facing such creatures is often an unpredictable, and rapid, affair, and someone would have to be on-hand as presently as the Tempests themselves if they wished to capture any record of the occurrence.
Regardless, the first-hand experience with the storms, or at least the creatures they conjure, provided some valuable insights, however I hope to gather multiple corroborating accounts before any concrete observations are made. The prospect of witnessing a storm myself, though terrifying, seems more crucial for my research by the day, and perhaps with my connections I can worm my way into that documentarian role.
The first full depictions of Elysian royalty, the Exalt who built the empire, and the princess who will be handed the pieces left over.
Also the first depiction of the Blaiddyd family’s spear, Luìn, one of the saints relics and sharing the physical qualities of Blutgang, Thunderbrand, and Failnaught as before seen (I think that only leaves the Guwrachs glaive and the two Ferox relics? Hm.). With its importance, the Exalts are trained to wield polearms, including Eifrem.
Some more lore for the lore blog (which may have been iterated elsewhere, but for posterity and conciseness):
During her reign, Elisa's titles were varied, and few were complementary. They included The Conquerer, The Red Wolf, and my personal favourite, The Bloody Bitch
Elisa disappeared in 422 PD, so she has been missing (and presumed dead) for just over 300 years. In those 300 years all the shit she started fell apart. A ruler who really just left a mess behind and was not there to see it.
Eifrem was born in 703 PD, 2 years before the end of the Parthus Liberation War, and the death of her father, Prince Julius Blaiddyd. Her memories of him are very sparse, and she has mixed feelings on the matter entirely. Her grandfather, Mycen, however, she has very strong feelings on. They're not good ones.
This puts Eifrem at about 21 in the current year, and were she to succeed the throne at present, she would be somewhat close to Elisa's own son for being among the youngest Exalts. Mycen is kinda just rotting on the throne atm. Don't be surprised if it turns out to be an emperor of mankind situation. God that'd be hilariously fucked.
For her own spearmanship, Eifrem has been trained by the Minister of Royal Affairs, one Ephidel Vestra, among the personal guard of the royal family, known as Luìn's chosen (a group that the Silver Maiden once belonged to before her defeat)
Eifrem's character is one I've given a considerable amount of thought to, for a character who has not appeared, and isn't planned to for quite some time, if ever, but I think it's been worth doing as someone who is slated to become a major player in the world of Omnia at large.
So I drew these out before even the Nightmaiden piece, but I'm writing about them now to procrastinate another difficult thing I started.
Top is the symbol of Vetrheim, which has appeared all over the place in a few drawings. It's representative of a full moon, with a shining light in front of it, piercing the darkness. It can be seen on the armour of Aurora Guard and Nightmaidens, and a modified version (with the star-shaped replaced by a lightning bolt) being the symbol of the Tempests.
Bottom left is the Lanterns of Black Flame. I think it's an extremely self-explanatory symbol, but is a little fun for also being represented on the necklace that Lady Anathaema wears.
Then to the right of that, is the very simple symbol I came up with for the Shardseekers, to include as a little pin on the design for Lazlo. The triangle is itself meant to be a 'shard', and is emblematic of the Shardseekers 3 core principles: Discovery, Comprehension, and Application.
