Hello!

So, there’s been a bit of a radio silence on my blog over the past year. For those who are unaware, I’ve basically switched over to my Patreon page – don’t worry, all the content you used to see on here – maps, lore, history, etc. – will still be available there free-of-charge, but there is bonus content to those who become paying patrons, such as access to map PSDs, higher-res files, textless maps, more detailed lore etc.

however, I thought I’d upload some of the maps I made over the past year here, more for completeness than anything else,

So please find various regional maps here over the coming days, as well as links to more details with each map:

Atlas Elyden #21 - Ezasuh and Tahall

Ezasuh and Tahall

Atlas Elyden #20 - the Old Forest and Rhamia

Atlas Elyden #20 - the Old Forest and Rhamia

Known as Tar yo- Dhai in the Korachani empire and as Vanefar by its natives, most names for this region, regardless of language, can be roughly translated as: Old Forest. Not without reason is that name used, for this area is amongst one of the few virgin woodlands remaining in the continent of Llachatul.

Ancient accounts tell us that the forest once stretched across all of central Llachatul, from the eastern shores of the gulf of Skaros in the west, to the Argent mountains in the east, and from the northern shores of the Inner Sea to the polar circle in the north, covering most of central Llachatul - an area no smaller than * square-miles. So vast was it that it became a haven to disparate people fleeing ancient wars and genocides. Its dense cover and size meant that anyone with the ability to survive in the wild could enter its periphery and disappear, forgotten by the outside world for millennia.

The descendants of those early immigrants went on to populate the Old Forest, and from these small pockets emerged various groups of people - the attori, ramon’athi, valkai nomads, sidhe, and vanefari, amongst others - each with a history going back to the Fourth Age. These people populate different regions of the Old Forest and though propaganda and bigotry informs outsiders that they are a united people, they are in truth divided, linked only by the ancient traditions and religions they adhere to, and their hatred of outsiders.

There is a great deal of superstition surrounding the Old Forest and its people. What was once history became corrupted by distance into legends which have become ingrained in the cultures of lands surrounding the Old Forest. Tales of blood-moon worshipping druids, ley lines of ancient power, horrific fey creatures that defend their lands savagely from intruders, unicorns whose blood is said to be magical, ancient dragons, and bestial tree-kin are all common within lands such as Almagest and the empire. Modern scholars have tried to trace the origins of these myths to their mundane roots, though common sentiment is difficult to change. Besides, the greatest evidence of the evil nature of the Old Forest can be found in the tombs of the beings that rest there - no less than four Demiurges are believed to be buried within its reach, tainting its lands, adding to the sense of unease that overcomes outsiders entering that primal realm.

Testament to the depth of such superstitions has been the Korachani empire’s reluctance to explore the region, which is found so close to the capital’s doorstep, even though its explorers have charted all of the world’s seas and marched thousands of miles south into far more inimical lands.

Despite this almost preternatural distrust of the region, the scattered progress of technarcane arts and the coming of industrialisation between 1400 and 1800 RM saw nations as disparate as Korachan, Laaskha, Azazem, Almagest, Pelasgos, Ahrishen, Saua and Vârr growing hungry for natural resources. As old sources became depleted, they looked elsewhere to sate their hunger. Beneath the forest hid a great wealth of resources - coal, umbra, gems and ores in abundance, and the forest itself was a thoughtless source of fuel. Strip mines, quarries, refineries and lumber-yards all appeared, rapidly consuming huge swathes of the forest’s edge. Every passing year moved its borders dozens of miles from the coast until all that remained were scattered pockets.

By 2200 RM the forest was no longer a singular expanse. It had been reduced to various smaller forests, the largest of which were the Old Forest in the west, the Malani forest in the east, and Kolchis (?*) in the north. The industries that had replaced the forests had mostly fallen dormant by 2800 RM, leaving abandoned pits, polluted lakes and thousands of square-miles of tree stumps. Fertile land changed to dust which blew over the forest into the lands that would later become known as the Desolation of Astudan.

That millennium of expansion and exploitation became known as the Forest Wars, not after its battles, but its wanton destruction of the region. What little trust could exist between the civilised world and the Old Forest was shattered by that period, which decimated hundreds of locations sacred to the religions and cultures of the forest, leaving them xenophobic and highly protective of what remained of their world. They clung even harder to their barbaric beliefs, butchering any and all missionaries and crusades into their lands, feeding the very myths that caused outsiders to distrust the forest-dwellers, which are now labelled as witches and druids.

In many ways it is thought that they value the Firmament and Atramenta and the natural world in ways forgotten by those outside their lands. The truth is far more complex and we are unlikely to know for certain the truth behind these people’s way of life. We know little of their cities or their culture, beyond what twisted lies Church bigotry and imperial propaganda have fed us for centuries, and it is unlikely that we will anytime soon.

#Vorropohaiah #Elyden #FantasyCartography #FantasyMap #Worldbuilding #AtlasElyden

Another two character bios with accompanying heraldries

#Carceri, #Elyden, #Worldbuilding, #Heraldry, #Vorropohaiah

Dothil, Surveyor of Impossibilities

Another addition to the as-yet tiny collection of mini biographies with HERALDRIES! Fun and relatively quick to make (my my standards) I'm really hoping to get more of these done over the coming months. They don't take too much time out of my mapping schedule and I can easily use them to flesh out parts of the world that might not otherwise get much attention.

In this case it's probably my favourite region in all of Elyden - the Prison Carceri.  

#Carceri, #Elyden, #Worldbuilding, #Heraldry, #Vorropohaiah

reddit AMA - Sunday September 25th

I'm doing an AMA about the world of Elyden on the /r/worldbuilding reddit tomorrow at 18:00 (GMT +1). This isn't going to be a live AMA that will only be open for an hour or anything, so if you can't make it at that time, don't fret, just ask something and I'll reply. As long as i find comments I'll continue replying to them.

This will be mostly themed towards worldbuilding aspects so ask about things like cultures, religions, toilet habits, themes, etc.

For those of you who don;t know AMA stands for ask me anything, and, well, that's pretty self explanatory. It's used in this case as a way for worldbuilders to tackle subjects and questions that they otherwise might not have thought of. Hopefully something productive will come of it.

Thanks :)

ATLAS ELYDEN #13: the Desolation of Astudan, and Sabia

Here's the latest map in the series, detailing a largely empty expanse. Funny how it took me so long to finish... 

I've added a few new features, including the rock desert ( semi circle patterns) as well as a faint bevel/emboss texture to the land to give the impression of more detailed elevation.

Let me know what you think!

Atlas Elyden #13: the Desolation of Astudan and Sabia 

Remember, if you become a patron you gain access to exclusive content like High-res maps, textless maps as well as more background and history about the world of Elyden.

* * *

Aptly named, this region, which exists as a buffer between west and east, and south and north, is an expanse of cold stone deserts characterised by wind-worn rock formations and boulder fields and very little else. The lands of Astudan are unclaimed by most, though there exists an oasis of culture in its south-east that has as its nucleus the legendary city of Gâtha.

Gâtha is an independent city-state that begun life as a Korachani colony that busied itself mining lodestones, but after high-yield mines were exhausted in c. 3350 RM, Korachan left the region under the leadership of the Interreges. The city experienced a renaissance of sorts decades later and once more became an autonomous region. It attracted adventurers, halfbloods, outlaws, other races, and explorers from far regions, many of whom settled there and its diversity remains a defining feature to this day.

Sabia is situated to the north east of Astudan. Located across the polar circle has made its people hardy and hard workers. Its fishing fleets are well-equipped to navigate the frigid waters of the Bielost and the Sea of Daggers to the north and are legendary for their prowess at hunting whales and sea serpents and it is a major manufacturer of whale oil and ambergris. Like many other regions it was once a target of the Korachani empire, which was interested by its large deposits of meteore under the Echanem mountains. That unfortunate past of servitude and subjugation is now in the past and Sabia enjoys its independence.

Being situated along the Nullambit makes it a place largely neutral to the Firmament and the Penumbra and its lands and culture are also free of their influence.

#Elyden, #Fantasycartography, #Atlaselyden, #Fantasycartography, #Sabia, #Desolationofastudan

the Tomb of the God

The Twilights of the Gods. The Restless Death. The Dreaming Lands. They have many names, these places of languor for fallen powers.

This is the Tomb of the God, yet it is so much more… and less. Though there exist many places on Elyden that have been touched by the ancient Demiurges in one way or another, the Tomb of the God stands out in stark contrast.

Granted, the Prison Carceri is of a scope and age far greater than any other; Azora is both fearsome and brilliant without compare; the Tree of Agen is of a mysticism that erudites, in their millennia of searching, have failed to unravel; but no other place can claim without shadow of doubt to be the final resting place of a deity. The Tomb of the God is such a place, and no other part of Elyden is said to match its eerie hollowness.

The Grey Tombs are a cheerless place where sleep comes fitfully and dreams are troubled by the whispers of the dead god that lies buried there. It is fitting that such a place exists so far from civilisation, in the hinterlands of the Desolation of Astudan, a cold-sub tundra desert where cities have rightfully failed to take root, and only the toughest of plants and animals stand a chance of survival. The veneer of culture, that thin film of upbringing that separates man from beast is dormant in this realm; not unnoticed, yet subjugated by the harsh rule of nature.

It is here, over 500-miles west of Temur, amidst forgotten tombs and grey wadis that the memory of an ancient entity hangs with decrepitude in the air. Its memory is now tarnished warped into a  grotesque doppelgänger of what it once was. Once one of the legendary Two-and-Twenty, diptych this creator-deity was of two facets, a patriarch who cradled nobility in one hand while encouraging brutality with the other.

The aithar were his children; Seventeenth of the Two-and-Twenty mortal tribes. Like their father, the aithar were creatures of both nature and culture, fang and tome. They were strong, noble, learned, yet possessed of a ferocity that could not be denied. They were truly Malachai’s children.

While the tale of the Demiurges is told elsewhere, suffice it to say that the Two-and-Twenty creator deities were responsible for the Shaping of Elyden. They were beings of artifice, taking pleasure in the way they formed light and dark into rivers and mountains and clouds and rainbows. It was their vision that painted Elyden, that gave it life. Yet, when their work was done they never stopped, and continued altering the material realm, marring what should have been perfection.

The Two-and-Twenty tribes were born before their time into this imperfect world. The Demiurges were punished, the strength to shape worlds stripped of them, the mortal tribes ensorcelled to their aegis.

Leader of a tribe he did not want, Malachai grew laconic, his powers wasting to inaction, his land turning grey even as his siblings toiled to bring a semblance of beauty to their homes. He became possessed by a bitterness that slowly came to embody not only his every waking thought, but also that of his people, the aithar.

As the other tribes evolved, their Demiurge leaders teaching them, the aithar merely meandered alone, unaided. Where other tribes expanded, they remained insular; where other tribes learnt husbandry and farming, they subsisted on the basest levels imaginable. In place of art, music, culture, they seemed only to propagate an emptiness they could not understand. Their bodies echoed their hearts, growing dessicated and without life, grey like the unformed land around them. The only thing that fascinated them was death and the release from the pained existence it offered.

What culture they had revolved around preparing for the afterlife: repetitive rituals designed to train their spirit how to act beyond the veil of death. Temples dedicated to the afterlife and pagan deities that developed in the wake of their god and guardian outnumbered their simple mesa-dwellings. Necropoli rose like forests around their lands, drowning out the settlements in which the aimless aithar dwelt. Elyden became little more than a detour to them; a meek challenge to their spirits on the road to their true reward.

Malachai cared not to lead his children, but saw in them a dim reflection of himself, for wasn't he a child without a father? Their plight angered him, fed the bitterness that had dwelt in him since his banishment from heaven. He sought revenge on his creator for taking what was his, and saw it fit to use his children as a means to that end.

Where most other Demiurges had forsaken their creator, choosing to let their children live in ignorance as to his very being; Malachai done otherwise. He descended upon the aithar in the guise of a great prophet and told them their history, twisting events to his own ends. His creator became a reckless being, casting the aithar into the wilderness, denying them the perfection that should have been theirs. They renounced any ties to the creator and forsook him, worshipping instead their Demiurge. The attention strengthened Malachai, who for the first time since his banishment began to see the world in tint of colour, feeling the breeze of its wind on his face. Their pagan temples were toppled and, with the help of their new god, erected great monuments and totems in honour of their prophet – Malachai.

And so it was that, as other Demiurges began to weaken to languor, Malachai was born anew, benevolent leader to a misguided people. It was in this age that Allaishada the Compassionate, First amongst the Two-and-Twenty Demiurges, came to him in visitation, requesting that he attend a conclave with his siblings. Malachai, content for the first time since the sundering of his powers refused the offer, growing irritated with her insistence that he join them in counsel. Stubborn, driven by her own bitterness, eager to find a common ground on which the Demiurges could rebuild their strength, Allaishada harassed Malachai and his people, discovering finally his perversion of the aithar, how he had twisted them into his puppets. This angered her greatly, and begun sending missionaries into his lands, provoking finally her brother's wrath. The aithar, eager to defend their beliefs from this encroachment declared war on Allaishada and her tribe.

A short but bloody conflict was then fought between the children of Malachai and those of Allaishada. The Demiurge Rachanael secretly aided Malachai, seeing an opportunity to lessen his sister’s domains, which were greatest amongst the Two-and-Twenty. With his brother's aid, Malachai weakened his sister, who was forced to retreat, to her lands, where her attentions returned to unifying the more amiable Demiurges, an act that ultimately led to the construction of the Bridge of Worlds.

Malachai's corruption did not go unpunished, however, and the creator struck him down, removing forever his link from the Atramenta and the Firmament. Malachai was a Demiurge no more, the first amongst the Two-and-Twenty to succumb to mortality.

The athai cast him out of their lands, forsaking the day he had returned to them. But with their land dead, their hopes of redemption in the afterlife shattered by his deeds, they fell into barbarism, descending yet further into the mire fate it seemed had marked them out for. Where the other tribes slowly recuperated from that age of warring sibling, spreading, growing, forgetting the past; the aithar degenerated, forgetting their father and the history that had been so cruel to them. What chance they had of seeking the truth was missed and instead they let the world overtake them, where they became little more than a footnote.

Malachai wandered the grey mesas of his home, a broken being, embittered by the weight of his deeds and the greatness that could have been. It was during this time that Malachai was subjugated by his other yet more powerful siblings, becoming little more than a slave, his heritage a blemish and curse rather than a crown worn proudly.

Subdued, his body withered until it was his to command no longer, and finally, one day, when the last mortal who owed him fealty passed from one world to the next, he fell prone into the dirt of what is now Stolas. And there he sat for what might have been millennia. 

And it was there that, years later, Malachai’s story ends, not to the corruption and decay of ages, but to the blade of his own Scion. For Akachi, his first-born scion, had escaped the ignominious fate of Malachai's children and had witnessed the degradation and humiliation of his father. Akachi found Malachai, his body half-fossilised in the wastes of Skaros, and smote him, ending what fragments of life remained. Akachi in turn took it upon himself to lead the remnants of the athai, but theirs was a dying race, without prospect or nobility and they remained in their ancestral lands, a broken people who slowly consigned the memory of their failed Demiurge-father to dust, where his name became corrupted, his existence twisted into little more than a totemic idol - Merkabh.

This is where the memory of that fallen Demiurge now dwells, rotten, decrepit, maddened by the passing of aeons, in the ruin of ages long dead-and-buried. It is under the dark protection of this dead deity, in lands of whispers and murmurs, that his children’s children live, their bodies taken to many forms, all unholy and twisted, broken, in memory of their legacy.

Time marched on and those who found that land named it Stolas, after the byzantine monuments they found in the place – idols to a forgotten deity, their fetid splendour and the unimaginable scope of their scale inspiring a piety that penetrated their dreams, urging them to worship. They, bound by fate to be forever linked to the past they could not remember, became known as the al akhi ‘kin to birds’ - descendants of Malachai's children.

And so it was under the guise of Merkabh that Malachai returned to Elyden: as a hollow deity; worshipped by the al akhi; creatures he could not recognise as his descendants, worshipping a false idol they could not recognise as their father. Had Merkabh’s divinity not been fully exorcised by his newfound cults would have spurred his inert body to life, but Malachai was no-more, his life long-since extinguished, remaining on the material plane as a soul-pearl both monolithic and worthless, buried in the middle of Stolas – remaining in Elyden, no more than a frigid whisper on a dark night.

But a whisper is an infinity away from death, and the seers of the al akhi claim that on dark nights, when neither moon shines and neither solstice nor equinox is in flux, that whispers infiltrate the idol called Sephoria, speaking in hushed tones, calling them...



#Demiurge, #Aithar, #Malachai, #Elyden, #Worldbuilding

A Globe of Elyden

Not to count my chickens, but the first milestone goal in my Patreon campaign is getting close to materialising, and I'm thinking ahead.

For those who aren't up to speed Patreon is a crowdfunding platform, similar to Kickstarter, where patrons can pledge certain amounts of money to their favourite artists in return for some perks. Artists can list certain 'milestone goals' for when they achieve certain goals.

My first milestone goal will be when when I reach $50 pledges per month, and I plan on start work on the physical globe of Elyden, which is something I've been wanting to do for some time, though which I've always put off for whatever reason.

Why haven't I made one before? Anyone who's tried to make a proper globe with paper gore pasted to a sphere will know just how difficult and precise an ordeal globemaking really is. Assuming you're using 12 gores, each of 30 degree (I'd prefer 18 separate gores), I might cut the gore too small, or the sphere might not be perfect - every error has a cumulative effect on the next gore, and the next gore... until the last gore glued onto the sphere ends up overlapping with the first one. not good! And most importantly - gluing flat pieces of paper to a sphere is incredibly difficult to do without either ripping the paper or creating folds. The globe itself will be 25-30cm in size depending on the polystyrene spheres I find.

Why do I want to make a map? One reason is because a well-made globe of a fantasy world is not something we don't see very often, possibly because most fantasy maps are flat and don't take into account the world's curvature (you know the type of maps I'm referring to - the black-and-white sort designed to fit into two 6"x9" novel pages).

The main reason is simply because it's something I've always wanted to try, even before I started to dabble in worldbuilding. Another reason is that I think it will help make Elyden seem more like a 'real' world, which is always a good thing for a fantasy world.

The above map is the backbone for the map (the pink is a high-contrast colour so that once it's printed I can easily score out the gores with a scalpel). The graticules need another layer emphasising the 30 degree lines. the land is ready though I need to remove the inner glow where the pink mask separates the gores and add a bit more texture.

One thing I'm unsure of is whether or not I should go with a fully printed map (coloured in Photoshop) or a black/white map that I can fill in myself once the gores have been attached to the globe. Both have their merits (the former is probably easier, though the latter, while more time-consuming, will look nicer and more 'authentic'). Either way i suspect I'll continue working with a coloured map digitally, and then print out 2 versions. I might make 2 real-world mock up's first to see which I prefer before committing to the proper Elyden map

Where possible, I plan on making each individual label (yes, there will be lots of labels. I like labels :p) self-contained within an individual gore, as splitting text between gores will not be easy to do, especially if I'm going to be taking into account the curvature of the latitude lines closer to poles. Obviously it's not something that can be completely avoided, particularly with large labels, like oceans and snaking continent and nation names.

The poles will be individual discs 10 degrees wide that will be stuck to the top & bottom of the globe. I haven't started work on those yet, though have a good idea of how work will progress.

Obviously the above image is still a rough state. It still needs a nice equatorial, tropical and polar lines, as well as paths of the ecliptic and the nullambit (the 'magical' equator, marking the farthest point from each of the two antipodeal magical sources in the world). The globe shape will give me a lot of empty space around the oceans and deserts in which I can include a key or perhaps a few paragraphs of text if need be.

I really hope this materializes. The digital map will not be much of an issue (aside from the time-consuming nature of the labelling). It's the physical globe that's worrying me. I'm going to be doing some dummy globes with smaller spheres to test out the gluing and overlapping, so that once the time comes for me to bite the bullet and start work on the real globe I'll be wasting as little time as possible.

A Map of Venthir and Tzallrach

Here's the web-version of the finished Venthir and Tzallrach map I was working on. In the end I Settled on a different style for the mountains that what I had been thinking of. I'm happy with these though would still like to try and perfect the hatchure style as that's what I want to use on my atlas.

This coloured contour style is probably a tad too modern for the world (especially the date depicted on the map) though I like it. You might notice the lack of proper contour colours (no greens for instance). I'm not sure I want to add those as they might make it look too modern.

Please let me know what you think!

A Map of Venthir and Tzallrach

EDIT: I noticed there were some fragments around some of the mountain text so removed it and added a n elevation key to the cartouche to give an idea of the heights. I also want to add spot heights to the peak icons (white triangles) to show how high that point is, though that can wait!

More details on Venthir can be found here.

#Elyden #fantasycartography, #worldbuilding

Venthir and Tzallrach

I've been carrying on with the map of Venthir and Tzallrach, adding more labels (almost done!) and now some paths (trade routes and pilgrimage trails etc., including sea routes). The basics of the map are now close to done, with only the mountains and other features left to do now. I say that as though in afterthought but the mountains are really what will make or break this map. I'm still struggling to find a style I'm happy with. Though I haven't posted many updates that doesn't mean I haven't been working on them and I've discarded a lot of designs in the process. I'm getting closer but still not quite there yet. Hopefully it won't be too long now.

#Elyden, #Venthir, #Tzallrach, #Fantasycartography, #Worldbuilding

AGYNUR of NEKODA

I've always been interested in heraldry and have tried working it into my work on Elyden where I can. Readers might remember a recent map of the Haréshk, which includes many shields, representative of the varies fiefs of the region.

I had some time on my hands today and made a little Bio for a historical character. If this proves to be popular I might make this into a series. Hope you like this! Let me know if you do as I'm interested in making more of these, if they go down well. Thanks!

the Path Travelled - part 2

part 2 of the Path Travelled is available over on my Patreon, so please go check it out.

I'm also working on a new map, though as always, I got caught up in the minutia, in this case, the representation of the mountains. Most of the labelling is done and once the mountains are done I'll be ready to share it. Here's a low-res WIP:

The Encyclopædia Elyden

Today’s post is about the good-old The Encyclopædia Elyden, something I’ve been beavering away at, on and off, for the past 10-years or so, now. More on the history of the The Encyclopædia  can be found HERE.

What I’m posting today is a link to the first chapter of the first volume, the entire A-listing of the volume, to give an idea of what I’m aiming at, and, if possible, in the hopes of getting some feedback on presentation and flavour.

I’m aiming for an old Encyclopædia Britannica feel to it, with entries not too specific and intended to be read-in world (so in writing them I hoped to convey an in-world feel, with no blatant real-world references.

I’m constantly updating the book with new entries as I write fiction or add regions to the map or add new creatures or titles or what-not, so it’s a constant evolving work, though I am hoping to soon come up with a template for entries so that, for instance, all entries pertaining to map locations adhere to the same format. That will help tie entries together, though I hope to also include some ‘faux’ imperfections, like researcher error or printer’s errors, though that will necessitate 2 versions – one in-world version for readers and another master version for myself, and keeping the two updated might be a bit too much work for now.

My goal is to one day print this, at least for myself, so that I can have some physical proof that my worldbuilding was not wasted. I’d love to publish it, but worry it might be a bit too wordy.

Which brings me to the point of this – anyone out there in the ether of the internet, can you please give me your opinion about such a book? I intend to add some simple woodcut style iages for some of the animals, maps for nations and heraldry and other simple designs, though nothing veering too close to contemporary illustration – so no blatantly digital images, for instance.

Would that interest readers?

Anyway, here’s the link to the first (A) entry of the Document

(please note the first 2 pages are blank)

D&D campaign - in Elyden!

I'm very excited to post this update as it brings together two things that have been very important to me – the world of Elyden, which readers will know is the subject of my somewhat sporadic world-building attempts, and D&D (and roleplaying & wargaming in general) which I have been doing since my ahem... younger days.

This marks the first time that I will be setting a game in my world which is quite interesting for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that the world was not made with gaming in mind (though I have certainly entertained the thought) and so many things that are common to roleplaying games like classes, races etc. which are made with balance in mind were the last thing I was thinking of so it presented some challenges, particularly with balancing out some of the stranger races.

Though as always what might seem like a hindrance at first ends up being a godsend and I actually ended up adding and refining quite a few things in the world as a result of this.

We haven’t started playing and as is the norm for my motley group of gamers, its to be a small game of evil characters J My games are pretty open world (especially evil-themed ones, where characters tend to have a lot of evil agendas that would otherwise interfere with the traditional roaming party), and I tend to develop an entire region, sprinkling it with interesting background, sites and NPCs that the characters can explore at will. This usually means a lot of stuff doesn’t get used, though it helps the players feel in control – I hate railroading in games (forcing the players to do a particular thing even if they don’t want to, only for the sake of moving the adventure along).

I’m quite fond of DMing but as you might expect from someone whose hobby is crating worlds, I tend to over-prepare most of my games coming up with hooks, regions, NPC’s histories and maps and gods-know what else that probably won’t ever get used. Though the waste of one campaign is the history of another. In fact, those of you who have read the blog before might remember that Elyden was made out of recycled material from previous campaign settings I had devised for D&D and I would not be surprised to see unused things from the campaign being used elsewhere in the world.

The game is to be set in a relatively new region of the world called the Surrach, which means their actions can help shape its flavour.

For anyone interested I’ve included the regional map below, as well as a link to the campaign bible that I’ve sent out to my players. So they can create their characters. Though I’m sure I left out a lot of details. We’re to use D*D 3.5 rules (still my fave so-far, though I am looking forward to trying out 5^th edition)

Campaign Bible - please let me know what you think!

campaign map:

World map.

I'm beginning to realise that there's a far larger emphasis placed on cartography than worldbuilding or conlanging (of which there are 0-examples thus far...). My posts are all determined by what takes my fancy at a particular time. At the moment that's the Atlas Elyden and, less-so, the Encyclopaedia Elyden. More often than not I don't work against a set schedule or time-table, as such, and just write/draw/plan whatever I feel like. Usually I tend to go overboard on one aspect for a few months before burning-out and doing nothing for a few weeks before returning to the world and developing a new aspect. So at the moment I'm in full on cartographer mode, working mostly in Photoshop, designing maps (though by necessity, the process of labelling maps means I have to update my notes to make sure that everything is on the same page so there's always a degree of writing involved when working on my maps).

Conversely, November and December were pure writing months with me concentrating mostly with my second as-yet uncompleted NaNoWriMo challenge (though I've won the challenge, i.e finished 50,000 words by the end of November, I've still a way to go... I'm expecting it be somewhere around 150-words long upon completion, possibly more, accounting for editing.

And with all these posts, I still haven't uploaded a single one to do with languages. Partially that's because I don't know anything about linguistics (or pretend to), though I do own a few books on the subject, particularly with regards to worldbuilding. Also it's because I've done very little on the subject at all. The logistics of it all worry me though...

The known history of Elyden spans some 6,000 years, with many centuries of civilised life before that leading up to a cataclysmic event from which later races evolved. languages and technologies are mostly rediscovered from the ruins of the ancient world, though in those 6,000 years many languages have evolved and branched apart from one another, leading to a dichotomy, of sorts - the historical and the modern, both of which are in use.

Make no mistake, I will touch upon language one day. But not yet :)

State of the Nation Address

So, we’re coming up to the new year and I’ve been thinking about the blog…

What’s that? Where have I been? What do you mean where have I been? Where have you been? Oh, you’ve been right here, waiting for me?

Time to back up. I haven’t posted here in a long time! My last post was back in June when I was racing against time to get my Nanowrimo ‘winning’ entry printed up for free. I didn’t get the free printouts (serves me right for leaving it until a few hours before deadline to try and sort any wrinkles out…) but I did get 3 copies printed out, which left me with an immense sense of satisfaction.

 

Even just holding the book in my hands, smelling the pages and looking at all the typos in their real-printed glory made me feel giddy – giddier than I’d have ever thought possible.

A couple of people were kind (gullible) enough to read the book (many more offered but didn’t follow through – shame on you!) and I got lots of useful feedback from them (apparently I use the word ‘thing’ a lot in my writing) which I’m planning on incorporating into a final draft (well, final is such a strong word…, at which point I’ll start shopping it around to agents. If that doesn’t work out, not to fret, I can possibly avoid a lot of hassle by self-publishing.

Speaking of Nanowrimo, I took the opportunity to spend this year’s month of frenetic writing activity to start work on a sequel of sorts to Twilight of the Idols’ (or ‘Twilight of the Gods’, as I’ve since renamed it), tentatively called ‘Legacies of the Gods’ or possibly ‘Children of the Gods’.  I’m about 60,000 words in now (about half of which is an immense prologue that needs to be severely cut down), and expect ill finish at around 150,000, at which point I’ll need to bring out the trimming shears.

Anyhow, So I’ve been busy with that, a lot of simple word-building (fleshing out my world map with regions and ruins) and working on the twin-hemisphere map I’ve been slowly working on. The latter project was made much easier thanks to the purchase of a new PC (thank the demiurges for SSD’s!) which has made work on large maps a lot easier than before.

I’ve also kept myself busy with random map commissions to help finance the PC and small bits of research here and there. I’ve just about settled into my new apartment, though the acquisition of a new demon… sorry, puppy, has meant a lot of adjusting and a lot less time to myself.

 

(to anyone interested, her name is penny and she’s adorkable, but a raging feline coprophiliac…), something my cat isn’t very happy with.

Now onto the matter at hand.

Blogging is a difficult pursuit, one which takes a lot more time that one thinks. I’ve learnt this the hard way, as my sporadic updates will no doubt bear testament to. With a new year coming I thought I’d try revamp the blog, and come up with a schedule. Not that many people are reading, but it’s more of an exercise in discipline than anything else. Now working shifts (very shitty shifts, at that) make this rather difficult, but I’ll try stick to my targets.

So, without more digression, here’s my plan for the blog:

2 updates a week:

Humpday Musings: just me talking about whatever I’ve been up to lately, cool links, films I’ve seen, movie soundtracks I’m listening to, worldbuilding stuff I’ve come across on the interwebz etc.  I expect this entry to be quite random, with pics and weirdness. Expect general geekiness to appear here.

Weekend Worldbuilding: Anything related to Elyden comes here. New maps, thoughts on the worldbuilding process specific to the world. Fiction. Languages. Anything along those lines. I expect this to be the least updated section J

Let’s see how this pans out…

More on Elyden

some more notes to try and solidify tone and setting:

• Elyden is a rotten place, ancient and decaying beneath the languid dreams of the Demiurges. Seas, already barren and polluted from millennia of industry, are in retreat. Empires are in decline. Corruption is the rule - governments struggle to maintain order as resources run out across the globe. Strife and rebellion are commonplace. In other places coups have already toppled the governments and nations lie sundered, their lands prizes over which rogue patricians and magnates fight, their previous loyalties discarded. Small towns are either cut off from the heartlands of their once-nations or lie dead, populated by dregs and wretches struggling to survive. Corpses litter a land that is increasingly unravelling, the laws of nature dissolving even as the Demiurges' dreams grow more despairing and bitter. Millions are dead, their bodies a feast to carrion-beasts, their bodies leading the way to the few cities that remain: shallow mockeries of the civilised order that once was, these city-states stand as bastions against the grotesqueries that threaten to drag the world deeper into chaos. The hinterlands between cities are a festering wasteland where the dual forces known as the Firmament and the Penumbra hold sway, altering the landscape in unimaginable ways that rend once-sane minds into madness. degenerates and grotesques haunt these lands, and where a semblance of society exists it does so in morbid tribes and archaic sects that serve as black echoes to the fragments of normalcy that struggle to survive.
• The laws of nature are uravelling. It has been a long slow process of decay that has brought the world to its knees. Elyden was crafted through the toil of the once deific Demiurges, though they have long since fallen from grace. embittered by the lofty rank they once held, many have fallen into despair, the powers that once helped them create continents and oceans now polluting their dreams, warping the natural world. For it is they who are at the root of all that ails the world.
• Elyden is an ancient place, covered in ruins and dozens of strata of mortal life, going back to the first ages, perhaps a billion years past. the place is rife with ruins and the eerie cyclopean monuments built by and in dedication of the Demiurges. That these monolithic structures remain in any form at all after the passing of so many years is testament to the artifice of the Demiurges and their followers. elsewhere, continental shelves, once submerged beneath coastal waters lie exposed, little more than deserts of salt and dessicated corals. Ancient machinery lie fossilised, their secrets impossible to decipher. Once-proud metropolises stand, half broken and abandoned, their people either died (genocide, starvation, ritual sacrifice, war...) or left to join other settlements.
• Despair and grotesqueries. the people of this world have lived this way for generations, and in some areas this has gone on for dozens if not hundreds of years. entire areas once devoted to industry lie abandoned, the earth a scar of open-caste mines and quarries. lakes and inland seas are either dried up or polluted by bright-coloured chemicals. Everywhere the signs of the inevitable end are increasing - stillbirths, deformities, hydrocephaly, cyclocephaly, aepathy... the list goes on. The mortals of Elyden know their world is ending. Customs have changed and adapted to this. Some regions cling to a semblance of normalcy though in this world, they are the strange ones, living in a world of distorted traditions and broken dreams, ignoring the realities of the world. what were once deities are either forgotten or reviled as the cause for this decay. once-immaculate tenets and dogma are recycled, polluted by new apocryphal texts and used as propaganda by warlords and crusaders hoping to gain followers for their own causes. most hope is extinguished and where it remains it is distorted, as sickened as the world is grey. The Demiurges care not for the mortal's struggles and observe the world unthinking as they slowly decay to their own despair.
• the legacy of the ancient demiurges can be felt everywhere - from ancient monuments to the corruption prevalent in the world, it is their actions that shape all. Though now rotten an forgotten by most, they are still central to the fate of the world and some hope against all the evidence that if awakened and elevated to a position of power, their thoughts might yet be turned from grim darkness to rebirth. It is a fleeting hop, though and most who know of them despise them for their langour and ignorance of the mortal race's struggling. most demiurges are recognised as 'dead', their bodies monolithic and fossilised, blighting the mortal realm with their presence. Despite this infamy, many regions now recognise them under corrupted forms, and might worship them under archaic guises, giving substance to entities they might not fully understand - or care for - their plight.

so, themes of Body Horror and Dying Earth, which are two of my favourite tropes and genres.