#worldbuilding concept

For example I have a country called Alaria! It has different types of harnessable magic like elemental via crystals, sound and telekinesis via soul magic, and other magic via wand or staff. We have big cities full of music (Pop Cecilia) and small farming towns full of community and laughter (Namib). The country also has a special native creature called an OxCat which works as therapy creatures and working creatures for ranches and officials.

For my passion project the Epicon Mythos (see Epicon Mythos' pinned post or description for more info), I've made some ideas for the deities. I've got some I think I could try to share. These are all work-in-progress and I'm always happy to hear all suggestions, critique, inspiration, and questions! The main types of deities I have planned are:

Gods who originated as humans but through the mastery of the divine became far more powerful than most humans. Many monarchies were initially established by them, but among them were both just and evil, and their descendants became scattered across the World after the last of their civilizations (the Kingdom of Eden) collapsed in the 41st century BC.

Gods who are born from dying stars and live in societies amongst other star-born gods in nebulae before they die and form new stars, planets, and godly societies. Their hearts and minds form stars, but their flesh and bones form planets, moons, and asteroids. When they die, there is a special kind of energy emitted by these gods that effects the way things exist on an almost unpredictable manner. It is often conjectured that these gods use this special energy to influence their creations after they die.

Gods who exist eternally as unfeeling forces of nature which are omnipresent across the entirety of a World Tree, but have no verified backstory and could never be completely understood by humanity.

Gods whose cultures embody entire moralities. These different nations battle for millennia to preserve their own ethics. They are psychic in nature and thus can't affect humans in the same way other gods might be able to, but they do often send out avatars or incarnations to humanity as agents of their own values.

(The Four Creator Titans being the creator of my little multiverse and vehicles for me to play around with things that exist above simple material / mortal living; them being more nameless creators than true characters. I don't actually know if I've brought them up on this blog before)

Physical (associated with the Earth Mother), Spiritual (associated with the Sky Father), Life (for the Living Other), and Death (for the Dead Unknown). I think if it as a sort of compass or quadrant set up, if that makes sense. Elements can then be channeled through one of these lenses, and each is expressed differently as a result.

Using fire as an example:

To channel the element of fire through the Physical Lens is to create a mundane fire as worldly beings would understand it through whatever means. Think like your average fireball, for example

Channel fire through the Spiritual lens and you get this bright white fire that sears the soul / spirit of whatever touches it, including the caster. If improperly channeled and without proper control, it is more harmful to the 'worldly' caster than it's intended target. Often associated with things derived from Outsiders (beings not native to the physical world; gods and demons and elder beings for example)

To channel fire through the lens of Life is to create a spell with a life of its own. Elementals as a whole exist because of this concept, but a mage who does this creates living or even endless spells if not careful in casting it (thank you Warhammer for introducing me to endless spells)

Channel fire through the death lens and you get a flame that is invisible to the living 'worldly' beings, save in specific circumstances. Most living things will only see death as an absence, after all, and so they won't know a flame of death is burning until they touch it and have the life burned from whatever touched it (a hand would turn shriveled or even skeletal). Those who had extremely close near-death experiences and those counted among the undead (vampires, liches, etc.) can see it, among other phenomenon.

I've been working on this fun Eraden lorepiece for a while now, slowly chipping away at it. (scroll to see that poster only!)

Some background: Since the upper half of the continent has very harsh climate and even harsher wildlife, most Arabeleans live in subterranean tunnel-cities. The original tunnels were dug out by syllks, an apex predator with a semi-hivemind structure of conscience. Syllks tolerate Arabeleans as long as they don't try to invade the tunnels they frequent or their hunting grounds. This wasn't much of a problem throughout history, as it was quite obvious visually which tunnels are animal-made and which are artificial and designed for Ghalla.

However, in the modern age with the rapid expansion of Ghalla populations there are some hiccups along the way. Namely, idiotic tourists from the southern half of the continent tend to ignore the graphic warning posters that decorate the civilian-use tunnels, which gets them mauled, or more often than not, killed. The southern half of Eraden doesn't have as aggressive or large animal species, so the awareness of the genuine dangers posed by syllks and other Arabelean wildlife still isn't as prominent as it should be. Arabelean authorities have stopped trying to prevent the deaths by closing off the so-called "black tape" tunnels, as it inhibits the movement of syllks and other animals and causes more problems that it solves. Arabeleans are happy to let a couple tourists get eaten from time to time if it means appeasing their syllk allies.

Fun fact: the "tourist" on the left is my best friend's ghallasona! Tentativelly named Geed (Ghalla+weed), she is a silly in-world self insert that I used here so that I don't have to design a dummy character just for this illustration. The guy is a dummy non-character character, but he was adopted by a person in one of the art servers I frequent :)

Call it an AU because it's not a confirmed theory, I'm here to bring you a worldbuilding concept for the Land of kings universe. I feel like it has whay more storytelling potential than it initially seems.

SO, let's talk about animals in the card world!

... there aren't any.

Except for that one brown turtle that somehow got it's way into Zontopia.

Anyways, this fact doesn't sit right with me. Like, shure, the argument for why there aren't any animals is probably:

"Oh, it's because the clones didn't need them for their societies to function, so they didn't create them."

But imagine how much richer the world would be with them!

Now, maybe we are wrong and some clones made animals, which we just haven't seen because we haven't even seen much of their countries yet. My guess is that Kuromaku, Dante and Spade made some. (Taking into account that Gabriel already made at least one turtle, I don't have to guess because we know he did do that.)

And I'll start the theory by suggesting an example of what kind of an animal would Spade create for his country.

BEHOLD!

Spade's warhog!

Why would Spade create such creatures? What purpose would they serve him? Why would it be worth wasting generator energy on them?

I'm glad you didn't ask! I'll explain and give arguments for it anyways!

Arguments:

1. Meat

So far, in the land of kings, we only saw people eating plant-based food (mostly in Felicia and Zontopia). Now, this might as well be the only type of food people eat here because there aren't any animals that would provide meat.

Meaning people in the land of kings are vegan.

Seeing as how Spade's favourite stuff to eat is meat, I have a feeling the prideful King Emperor would rather starve than be forced to be a vegan for the rest of his life.

And we do still want to be reasonable and somewhat teenager friendly in the comics, so I don't think cannibalism is an option. Besides, Spade probably has too much pride to resort to such undignified and inhumane practices.

So, how do we solve this problem? Easy! Create a big animal that you can farm and exploit for meat. For a traditional example, a big boar!

And why stop at meat? Perhaps make few breeds of this animal that give milk, and boom - we got milk based products as well!

Now Spade's country is the least vegan place in the card world, and can finally make a proper sandwich with ham and cheese!

2. Various uses for various breeds

If I remember correctly, in comic it was established that citizens live shorter, or at least age quicker, than the clones.

Now, irl animals usually have shorter lifespans than humans, meaning that in the Land of kings, their lives are even shorter, meaning that the process of making new breeds is much faster than irl.

Making breeds is useful because it diversifies the uses of the animal without needing to waste generator energy on a new one.

Here are sketches of some breeds that I think citizens of Spade's country could make, as well as few notes about their characteristics for each:

I'll tackle some uses more in depth in the following arguments.

3. Materials

The animal and plant based materials are a really useful resource. Not only can it be reused to produce more of itself (example, dead plant and animal matter enriches the soil so more plants can grow to feed the people and animals), but once the species is created with the generator energy, Spade doesn't need to use any more generator energy to create more of them.

Depending on the breed, the warhogs not only give meat, but also leather, wool, bones etc.

Animal materials can be used to make good quality clothes, as well as many household items, like leather covered furniture and wool blankets.

Also, I feel like Spade would find a use for bones in clothes accesories as well because I feel like he'd love to look even more edgy and intimidating lol.

4. Trade

An interesting possibility we haven't seen much in the Land of kings.

Why don't clones trade resources with eachother? Do they think they do not need each other's stuff?

Lack of this activity might make sence if we consider that all raw materials are produced by the generator energy, so they all have basic resources and there is no need to aquire them from others (water, stone, iron, etc.).

What they can trade are products specific to their country, but that also depends on how interested the people of other countries are in those.

However, something a lot of people might be interested in trying that comes from other countries is cuisine aka. food (probably misspelled cuisine but whatever).

Think about it, at one point Felicians might get curious what else is there to eat besides raddish-based products.

Same goes for other countries.

(A possible interaction between a Spade spy and a tratiorous Felician.)

And seeing as how, hypothetically, no other country produces meat-based products, Spade has got himself a humble monopoly in the card world.

5. Sign of power and taming practices

Now, this is a bit more related to the abstract implications of creating this animal, as well as it's nature.

Taking care of an animal is not an easy task. Doing that implies that not only do you have enough resources and power to take care of yourself, but also for a whole other creature! Apply that on a larger scale that is Spade's country and you get the impression that his country is, indeed, incredibly capable and powerful to sustain both a population of people and animals.

However, there is a difference between taking care for a goldfish and a dog.

I imagine, to show off how powerful his country is, Spade would deliberatley make his boars dangerous. He'd give them an inherintly wild nature, big horns and tusks, and make them giant in size.

Why? So he can look like an even more badass ruler!

Anybody can take care of a population of animals, but only Spade's country can counquer these wild beasts and subjugate them to their will!

I imagine Spade's taming practices would be incredibly cruel. In order to get the boars to do his bidding, he'd firsth break their will to fight him, and then manipulate them with fear. Redirecting the animal's agresion could also be a metod he'd encourage.

If the boar doesn't give up easily and continues to be disobedient, it would either end up in an arena (more on that later) or as somebody's lunch.

6. Intimidation and war strategy

Spade's empire seems to be among the more technologically advanced countries of the card world, judging by the glimpse of his country in the Tome of clubs where we see all the construction machinery.

So why WARhogs?

Well, once Spade creates the boars and starts trading meat, a word would probably get around the card world about the scary beasts that boars are and create the already mentioned and calculated image of a powerful country that tamed those creatures.

This can also invoke a subtle fear among other subjects, a glance of what kind of terrifying force other countries might expect shall they ever go at odds with Spade's Empire. For if they can tame the boars, shurley they can use them against other countries.

But would he ever really use them against other countries in warfare, while he has powerful machinery at disposal?

I think he would, but it depends on who he is fighting!

You see, not all countries in the Land of kings are as equally as advanced as Kuromaku and Spade's are.

For example, Zontopia doesn't seem to use much technology ever since the original communication system "broke".

So if Spade goes to war against Brolly's country, not only is Brolly severly outmatched, but Spade wastes so much fuel and resources to get his tanks and machines to achieve the same goal he could reach if he simply sent in an army of Warhog-riders with superior weapons just strapped onto the warhogs.

7. Entertainment and punishment

Allright, let's say Spade has a few disobedient warhogs at disposal that are whay too violent and impressive to be turned into steak.

Like, Spade can see these boars have so much potential but do not listen to him. Shurley there must be a way not to waste it?

Well, boars aren't the only thing that is occasionally disobedient in his country. So are his people!

Traitors, criminals, revolutionarys, scoundrels that refuse to follow the strict order and law in the empire... Death sencence awaits some of them, and knowing Spade, he'd probably make public executions a thing to set an example to others of what happends when you go against the Empire.

Adding into the equasion that his country seems to draw some inspiration from the ancient Rome, it makes sence that he'd take after their entertainment practices...

That's right, Spade would build arenas, very similar to roman ones - but purple, where he'd force his criminals to fight for their lives against the wildest and most dangerous warhogs in his country!

(Imagine the following example, but high-tech and better shade of purple:)

It's a fight to the death kind of execution where the criminal has a slim chance to live if they manage to kill the beast before it ends them.

If the criminal somehow manages to slay all the boars they are pit against, they can become a gladiator whose life is now chained to the arena, where they will fight against other animals and criminals for the entertainment of other subjects untill they are eventually slain in one of the battles.

This not only solves the problem of rouge people and animals, but also creates a spectacle out of public executions, reinforcing the fear of regime in other citizens as well as providing entertainment for them.

Arena fights in Spade's country would probably be regarded as a type of theatre, similarly to how they were in ancient Rome.

This concludes the list of reasons why I believe Spade would create animals for his country.

Also, as if all of this wasn't enough, here is a Land of kings OC sketch based on these concepts:

(Also, some of her expression sketches:)

Her name is general Atalanta, and she supervises any and all activities relating to boars/animals within Spade's Empire, which includes running the gladiator arena. She is a great fighter and and hunter, and is experienced when it comes to animal control. She has an electric whip as her weapon which she uses when the warhogs act out of line.

So yea, thank you for coming to my Land of kings concept talk.

the angels are assistants, and often times some of them will just stand by, waiting for a command. standing on the sides of the roads, in their houses, at windows. empty, placid faces, chins sligntly tilted up, regarding the skies impassively. each screw a part of a perfect design. often the command does not come for hours, or days, but they have learned to be patient. they do not wish for a command themselves. they do not wish for anything.