#wbj2018

Aoat is a fantasy setting that I’ve been working on, off and on, for about six years now, since I was a junior in high school, although in that time period it’s gone through several major revisions in terms of tone, scale, artistic vision, etc.

It’s a setting in which magic plays a large role on the societal and personal levels, but it’s also one which isn’t particularly concerned with the typical high-stakes high fantasy perils - I’m uninterested in incursions by armies led by demon lords, or the graveful elven kingdom being threatened by a dark lord necromancer, but i am interested in things like “the glassblower’s union has gone on strike to protest late and unreliable pay” or “inhabitants of a chain of islands recently annexed by a vast empire chafe under the new laws and obligations in which they can perceive little or no benefit to themselves”.

The main focus of Aoat is a few enormous states sprawling across the map, centered around the Kymnutari Ocean. These are the Firsthomes (an ancient western association of proud and historied city-states in a land of deserts and rolling plains), Szaomngba (a southwestern society divided between sedentary horticulturalists and nomadic herders in an inhospitable landscape scarred by volcanic activity), the Black Territories (a far southern civilization whose cities sink deep like taproots to extract geothermal warmth in a frozen wasteland dominated by giant insects), Hambry (an oceanic empire of proud archers, strong-backed sailors and contemplative monks), Vuatlieo (a vast eastern state ruled by a semidivine wizard-emperor, where ley lines have been bent, broken and reshaped to maximize the agricultural yields of the territory) and Belkharoz (a cursed and frigid southeastern kingdom where serfs live short and unfulfilling lives for the benefit of the werewolf royal family and their sadistic vampire lackeys). These states, having expanded to lock borders with each other but doubting their ability to defend their ground in a war of conquest, have instead turned to addressing their own interiors, taking inventory of the peoples and places that they’ve conquered and deciding how they would best serve the state’s interests.

Aoat, the work, as it stands right now is governed by a few principles:

- People are resourceful. In my time as a student of history and of anthropology, I’ve been deeply impressed by the solutions that people throughout time and space have come up with to problems they were confronted with, regardless of the sort of resources, technical knowledge or infrastructure they were working with at the time. So i’m inspired to use fantasy as a way to highlight and showcase some of the more creative solutions people have historically had to their challenges, as well as - i hope - the general attitude that this displays, of perseverance and ingenuity.

- People are everywhere. When I was a child, it always bugged me to hear about “The Elven Forest Kingdom” or “The Dwarven Mountain Holds” which cordoned off a whole kind of person to a tiny geographic region for little perceptible reason other than “well, that’s where elves live in all the other books” - especially strange given that humans seemed ubiquitous across the whole map except in these designated places. At first it seemed simply unimaginative; as I got older and had a betterr understanding of the world it grew to seem ideologically suspect. Regardless, this isn’t how things are in Aoat. The sentient species are, for the most part, all found in every nation, in every pocket of creation, though perhaps not all in the same proportions. When a sentient species is only found in one or a few places, it’s because of some physiological quirk dictating this - amphibious folk not being suited to wander too far away from swamps and rivers, for example.

- Fantasy should be strange. I find it distasteful, and a little distressing, that the general public regards ‘fantasy’ as ‘the genre where a bunch of humans and maybe a pointy-eared human-looking ‘elf’ and a short bearded human-looking ‘dwarf’ run around and beat up some orcs or possibly foreign invaders from offscreen in an idyllic western european forest or meadow or something at the behest of The Good King, and also a wizard is there maybe’. More than that, I find it morally reprehensible that almost nothing that’s been published as ‘fantasy’ does anything to dissuade people from this position. The genre is a cannibalistic, recombinant miasma of serpents, a vessel for unexamined reactionary ideas to be endlessly reiterated upon and cemented using as glue the least charitable readings of Tolkein as filtered through Gygax. But it can be a different thing than this, I genuinely believe. Morrowind took place in a genuinely interesting setting, and each of the other Elder Scrolls installments have been set in provinces that have at the very least been /described/ as interesting and alien places which bear little resemblance to the bog-standard fantasy backdrops. It is my hope that I can capture this feeling in my own writing and worldbuilding, somehow.

Nothing is too astounding about Vaarassa’s weather, as the world is heavily based on Earth’s characteristics. However, since of the Vaarassian co-orbital moons, the tides are a big stronger/higher. 

First and foremost, there is a lingua franca in fairly common usage throughout Muunfel. Not everyone knows it, but there are usually enough people around that have at least a basic understanding for communication to happen eventually.

For a general idea of the different languages found among the peoples of Muunfel, I have considered some real-world analogs for some of them.

Elfkind: There are several regional dialects, but the elfish language is smooth, sibilant, and rhythmic like some romance languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese).

Faekind: Many fae are able to use a very low-energy glamour to speak whatever language they need to, but the fae tongue contains many compound sounds where words are shortened or combined with others on the fly (like the style of German with the sound of really smooth French).

Tamkind: The Solians speak a rolling language with a lot of hard or fricative phonemes (Arabic, Farsi). In the west, this is the second most common language in use among humans, as many of the folk living in the deserts of Rutan are descended from groups that interacted directly with Solians.

The Infinite Sky Series

The world of the Infinite Sky series, which starts with Beyond the Sky, is a hopeful, not quite utopia, science fiction world. Earth has long since colonized other planets, leading to humanity being spread throughout the cosmos. Our first story, Beyond the Sky, takes place on Libria, a small planet with extremely low gravity, allowing for movement and travel to be both incredibly unique and incredibly dangerous. This high tech world has information transferred via Couriers, people who move through the low gravity world, and the world itself is responsible for a great deal of the metals and gases used for the FTL spacecraft used to move through the entire universe.

The Drifters Trilogy

Author’s Note: For World Building June, I felt it might be best to go through the prompts as though one of the characters were actually telling me about things. So for the month of June, I’ll be answering the prompts through one of the main characters that will have a prominent role in the adventure, a Shepherd who goes by the name Amaryllis. It will be told from their perspective in first person.

Author’s Note 2: For Days 9, 10, and 11, we’ll be learning things from Amaryllis’ semi-unofficial sibling Granite Mayall, a well respected member of a small Deneb Brethren village.

Author’s Note 3: I’ll be making a different post at a later date with the actual written language of Amatus. Spoken Language in Amatus is whatever the reader’s first language is, with subsets and dialects varying from people to people. As English is my first language, this is what I’ll be going off of. 

Scene: Granite is helping you prepare a bracelet for your travels, knowing you’ll come across other Brethren as you move across Amatus. Your curiosity leads you to ask about language and other forms of communication on the continent. 

Okay, now you just continue the crossing of fabric over and over until it’s time to move on to adding the clasps. That’s it! You’re doing amazing. Soon you’ll be learning how to make basket garnishes and belts and- Oh, my apologies. I’m just excited. I enjoy teaching others. There. Now you’ll have a bracelet that will tell others a little about yourself. I must say, you’re an interesting person. Thread Language is fascinating isn’t it?

Other languages? We have a lot around here. What ones do you know? Ah, I see. The Thread, Chain, and Bead Languages for introductions. Those are some of the simplest forms of language here. Easily understandable once you get a knack for it. We have other ways of communicating on Amatus. Would you like to know?

Here, let’s move to my study. I’ll tell you about the Languages we have here on Amatus!

Another cheat day! Yaaaay~ Aside from the modern and advanced cities and areas in Divina Terra, the place has a loooot of attire. The more far east and south you get, the cultures start to blend in a bit with the neighboring continents. So here, I’m going to post some pictures from my worldbuilding pinterest board. Images belong to their respected artists, of course.

"Imports come into our city on the regular, filled with items from all over the world; my country has a big market for textiles, thus it's not uncommon to have every single ship at port unloading crates of fabric, clothing, jewelry, and other such embellishments. Usually, a couple of items get set aside specifically for me... I suppose one of the pros about being queen is getting first pick of any clothing I wish! In truthfulness, it's a sign of goodwill between countries for rulers to arrange to send traditional garb of their culture to each other. I've received many of these outfits from our trade and treaty partners, through truth be told, many of them seem to underestimate my size when making their selections... The tailors that work for me are truly blessings of Fae.

"Typically, if you're travelling to another country, it's respectful to wear the garb of their people when out and about in the streets. If you're in a more formal setting, you can get away with whatever you're used to unless a specific dress code is mentioned or certain rules are implied based on the culture, but it's good to make note of the local traditions beforehand either way. I'm highly appreciative when I receive outfits from other nations because I can get a feel for what is expected of me before I arrive in their area, without having to observe and learn once I first set foot in the streets. It also gives me the opportunity to check out all the different materials other countries use in their clothes.

"Based on the availability of materials in the area, clothing is going to be made of different types of fabric and other embellishments. But like I said, my country has a large textile market, so it's not difficult to find any type of fabric your heart desires. You want fabrics made of bamboo? Look for local weavers, because that's their specialty here. Fabrics made of cotton? Find some imports from Bealtine. Wool? The ships from Pelprania don't come as frequently, but it isn't scarce. Silk? Anything from Targath is bound to use it. Embellishments and accessories are a little harder to come by if you're looking for international items, unless you're in a place with a large community of people from the area the items originate from. Otherwise, you're going to be stuck with either what's available in your country, or getting someone travelling abroad to bring stuff back for you.

"The most difficult thing to import for fashion is gemstones, honestly. The countries associated with the Witches Association tend to have a glut on the market for the production of magic tools, so receiving imports for gems comes at a high price. As you could imagine, they're a luxury item either way, only in the reasonable reach of those with high positions or a lot of cash. Metals are a bit easier to come by, so you'll see precious metals in fashion use quite often, even among the working class peoples. During festivals is when you'll really see all the bling show up, as everyone uses those occasions to flaunt a little. Well, more than a little. Many show up wearing every piece of jewelry they own, which looks silly to me...but as long as they're enjoying themselves, who am I to judge?"

Muunfel has a somewhat cautious relationship with technology and innovation. The reasoning isn’t because of resources or any specific catasrophe. In some cases, it simply can’t get a foothold to replace magical processes that work just as well. In many others, though, there is a lot of superstition around machines, as well as poorly defined ideas of what counts as a “machine.”

The reason for this is Sarin. Formerly a god of unnatural death and murder, Sarin was one of the first gods. However, during the age when mortals were ascending to godhood of their own, Sarin was cleverly trapped in his corporeal form by a very powerful mage. She enabled another mortal to ascend with a ritual that usurped Sarin’s place in the pantheon and left him with a temporary void.

They had trapped him in a machine, and it was there that he found his new purpose. The Usurped God lives in machines, making them work (or not work) and fueling their innovation where possible. Some people are terrified of meeting his wrath if they fiddle too much with machines, though he has admitted his defeat more or less.