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

Here's the next map in the Atlas Elyden series. Slowly but surely I'm filling out the lands around the Inner Sea 😀

This map details 3 regions with a close history - Ahrishen, Virahan and Baatan (from right to left, respectively). The seas of Elyden are slowly retreating, and this is one of the areas hit hard by the advancing coastline - so the map includes an inset map showing what the coastline looked like 1,000 years ago.

Ahrishen as we know it has existed for less than 250-years, though the region has a long history going back millennia, to the dawn of the Fifth Age. Until a thousand years ago the region bordered the Sea of Pyrea, an extension of the Sea of Propontis that allowed merchant and fishing fleets to ply their trade of the eastern Inner Sea, but the slow retreat of the Inner Sea saw the Sea of Pyrea dwindle, leaving behind a flat expanse of wetlands and saltpans in its wake. This destroyed the economy and way of life that had sustained the region for centuries. The region crumbled into disparate townships and no-less than a dozen separate states that struggled to survive in their changed world. Piracy and slave-raids from Korachan did not help the situation much, either.

This state lasted until the arrival of the so-called Child-Prince, an unageing infant of prodigious supranatural ability, who managed to unify the region in 3763 RM, supplanting an ancient sky-based religion with worship of its own unchanging form. Though its fleets were no-more, the region came to be dominated instead by the river Aresh, which flows for over 2,500 miles west, feeding already rich soils with nutrients due to its yearly flooding. This has led to the region’s adoption of farming of a pastoral and arable nature. Rich cities thrive along the floodplains of this river, each surrounded by dykes and canals that defend against flooding. Between cities live gigantic herds of wildlife, relatively untouched by mortal interference.

The Ahrisheni people have a reputation for hard-work and the land is known far-and-wide for its beauty, which is even recognised by the Korachani empire. Living on the doorstep of Korachan has seen Ahrishen fend off many crusades and incursions into its land, though it’s wet coastline makes invasion from the sea difficult.

#elyden, #fantasycartography, #atlaselyden, #vorropohaiah, #ahrishen, #virahan, #baatan

Remember you can get exclusives (like PSDs, texless, and high-res versions of the map on my Patreon.

Atlas Elyden #16 - Parthis

Yes, I've been away for a while - Christmas and new year is always difficult to keep the creative juices flowing, with family obligations, though this is the first new post of what will hopefully be a return to form over the coming year. This will hopefully see the Inner Sea region fully-mapped, paving the way for the two Inner Sea poster maps I've mentioned previously.

This is a map of Parthis and surrounding areas, and, much like the map of Almagest, took a long time to get done as it covers a very large area - much larger than the average map. The topography in the bottom left took a while to get right, also, though I'm pleased with it.

Having said that I am already working on updating some parts of the topography to make it appear less uniform.

Parthis is many things to many different people. It has been a rival to the Korachani empire for millennia, managing to oust it as major superpower in the Inner Sea over the past few centuries. To those jaded and discontented by warring religions and cults it is a secular haven, one of only few of such size and power. It is a centre of flesh-weaving, and is to that art what Korachan is to technarcana. To its rivals, it is a godless land whose profane chirurgeons mess with natural laws. To its supporters, it is an answer to a corrupt ancient order that has reached its death-pangs

Parthis as a secular republic appeared almost 1,500-years ago from the ruins of civil war where 2 kings opposed each other. Before this the region was known as Parthia, before this it was part of the Seven States of Azora. Before that it was known as The Parria. Before that it was Sama Paria. Before even that one of the greatest city states of the mythic world, and ancestral home of humans - Azer - was located there. The people of Parthis draw their roots back to this mythical time and are proud of such a long and ardent lineage.

The people of Parthis are amongst the most educated around the Inner Sea, with highly-literate merchants, and diplomats who have studied in some of the most regarded colleges in the known world. Slavery was abolished there in 3794 RM, making it the only major nation around the Inner Sea to do so. Its capital, Tethra, is a marvel of design and architecture and is dominated by an awe-inspiring administrative structure that can be seen from without its walls and acts as a beacon to outsiders and citizens alike.

Sneak Peak - Parthis

Here's a sneak peak of the next map in the Atlas Elyden series - the Secular Republic of Parthis, one of the major powers in the Inner Sea. It's the largest individual area I've worked on so far, larger even than my map of the Republic of Almagest and is taking a while to get finished.




This region depicts a fold mountain range inspired by the mountains of Pakistan and would realistically be the result of two plates colliding with each other, giving an indication to the region' history. Hopefully I'll manage to get the map done by the end of the month (LOTS of labels and rivers to do on this one as it's so big)

#Parthis, #Elyden, #Atlaselyden

Elyden Audio recording

This is something exciting and completely unexpected! Below is a short 7-minute recording of one off the Elyden flavour texts originally posted here, that I found on Reddit a few days ago.

The soundloud account belongs to zefmiller. The voice acting is by @Jacob-Pett, and the Music is by Ross Bugden




A few pronunciation issues aside (fair enough considering I never told anyone how some of the words are meant to be said... a subject for another post!) I think they did a really good job. The music is spot on and the atmosphere is suitably foreboding. I'd love to work with them again if I ever get the chance to. Maybe a reading of a short story or something similar!

Elyden Primer

I'm tentatively working on a PDF I hope to make available to anyone interested, detailing the world of Elyden in general. I tend to focus on micro-slave things, and I think it's about time that i show the world in a macro scale, which might show in more detail what Elyden is all about. This is the beginning of that project. I hope to licence or commission some art to show off some of the more representative regions, creatures and personalities, which will be used in guide.

This is the world of Elyden. She exists in the shadow of gods that have long-since abandoned her. Her domains are slowly crumbling, succumbing to pollution and decay. The natural order unravels, though few truly know why. Seemingly ensnared by her own decadence, Elyden has become a world far removed from the beauteous realm that once was. Deserts slowly expand, pushing the boundaries of life ever farther. Seas dwindle. The sun grows dimmer in the sky. With this unravelling of the natural world comes the waxing of the two elemental forces known as the Firmament and the Atramenta – the two halves of creation.

Her wardens, the Two-and-Twenty Demiurges, are forgotten. Once sustained by mortal worship, the Demiurges have mostly fallen dormant and are weak and hidden, forgotten by most. Those who slumber are blights upon both the material landscape and the thoughts of mortals across Elyden. The bodies of these Demiurges are gigantic and fossil-like, though they are far from dead. Though their bodies may appear lifeless, thoughts yet trickle through their minds. The dreams and nightmares of these maddened gods are felt across the world as the mortals continue in their paths to oblivion and self-indulgence. Elyden is now a place corrupted by these nightmares, where small yet steadily growing demesnes fluctuate like rotten dreamscapes of impossible design.

Those Demiurges who still live do so through their own artifice or the whims of those who yet follow them. Bitter at their own fall from grace, they survive in diminished form, decrepit and feeble. They withhold the secrets that madness has not yet consumed, leaving the mortal races to reel in their ignorance. Most have come to detest the mortals, only grudgingly seeking them out due to the restorative effects of their deference. Some Demiurges secretly reward those noble and hard-working mortals who yet worship them with minor secrets in the hopes of increasing their own power.

Above them all, unchallenged throughout the latter millennia of the Fifth-Age, has reigned a single Demiurge: Rachanael the Hungry, the so-called Undying Machine. Under his selfish reign has Elyden been allowed to rot. The cities of the Korachani empire spread like a disease around the Inner Sea, propagating his church and creating more bling followers to sustain him. Farther abroad, distant empires and nations cling to a semblance of culture, though they too are in decline.

Elyden is a land of idiosyncrasies. The art of technarcana offers marvels previously unthinkable even as the Korachani empire fractures to corruption, making such discoveries untenable. Explorers restore contact with descendants of ancient colonies even as the seas slowly retreat, rendering old harbours and ports unusable. Natural resources dwindle, pushing the value of all objects ever higher. Ancient bloodlines - patrician families, merchant houses and royal dynasties - blind themselves to the truth and lose themselves in their last days of decadence before the world or lesser people claim them.

Amid this corruption do the remnants of the Two-and-Twenty mortal races struggle to survive. Some seek solace in ignorance. Others however seek answers to questions unasked, searching cyclopean ruins of distant ages revealed by the rot of the world, hoping to find in catacombs and foundations hints as to where they came from, what their purpose is. Perhaps in such ruins might they find the answer to their survival... or madness.

This is the world of Elyden: a tomb in the making, its end within sight, yet still out of reach.

***

The lands around the Inner Sea reached an industrial age many centuries ago. Wrought iron bridges and chrome steel are a common sight, as are concrete foundations and fortifications and trench defenses, Steam and technarcane engines and machines are common, if not readily available to all classes. Steel-hulled steam-powered ships cross the Inner Sea and distant lands can maintain tentative contact through primitive telegraphy and other more esoteric methods. Single-shot rifles and mortars are the tools of war, as are primitive land-ships and ambulants that crawl across the inhospitable wastes (though trains do not exist).

It is, however, a time of decline and in many cases technology has stalled or diminished since the golden age of the Korachani empire, over a millennia past. Superstition and ceremony take the place of logical thinking in many circles and there exist many idiosyncrasies that in a sane should not be, Though the nations around the Inner Sea are industrialised, lands farther afield may not be. Technology is a treasured commodity rooted in a xenophobic and imperialistic religious tradition and though trade reaches far it is in many cases a one-way system. Many places, particularly the Surrach in Sammaea and much of far eastern and western are less technologically advanced, though that is not to say they are primitive. Many such places have a more pronounced arcane tradition than those around the Inner Sea, which have eschewed the discipline of the esoteric for the short-term gains of technaracana.

One thing that merchants are not reticent of selling are arms. Rifles, repeater cannons and revolvers are traded with pre-industrial nations without thought, leading to one of the more pronounced idiosyncrasies that are prevalent in Elyden.

Elyden’s ancient history is divided into five distinct ages,,referred to as the Five Ages of Mortal Life, and a Mythic Age preceding them. Each age is characterised by certain themes and the transition between ages is generally a major event like a war or major cultural shift. Events in recent centuries such as the independance of Almagest, the Sundering of the Korachani empire and more recent political tensions have led many scholars to believe that we are living in the autumn of the Fifth Age.

What follows is a condensed history of time that readers may be interested in learning. Do be warned though as much of this material is very much unknown to the denizens of Elyden and to know such things is to court madness:

The Age of Myth (the Four Great Acts of Shaping)

• The creator stirs, causing the Sea of Chaos to separate into the Firmament above and the Atramenta below.
• 1st Act of Shaping: between the Firmament and the Atramenta appears the material plane. In the material plane the creator forms the mesochthons – failed experiments at life, they are abominations that were rapidly abandoned, sent to the primordial material plane to waste away.
• 2nd Act of Shaping: the creator makes the Two-and-Twenty Demiurges – worker gods entrusted with shaping material plane into a realm habitable to future creations.
• 3rd Act of Shaping: the Demiurges fill the material realm with the orbs of life (planets). One such orb is Elyden and they shape its oceans and continents, mountains and rivers (c. 1 billion years ago).
• 4th Act of Shaping: the creator, pleased with the Demiurges’ work, sees that Elyden is ready for life, and places two-and-twenty pods - one for each of the Demiurges - each containing seven seeds, which in due-course will germinate into the Immortals – beings that will inherit the perfect world.

The First Age of Mortal Life

• Though their work is deemed complete, the Demiurges cannot comprehend a life without shaping and continue crafting the material realm, slowly tarnishing the perfection that they had achieved. This leaves the world an imperfect place.
• The chaos brought about by the Demiurge’s work makes the immortal seeds germinate before their time. What emerge from the seeds are not immortal, but rather imperfect versions – the two-and-twenty mortal races, of which humans are one. The mortals, like a prematurely born child, are not ready for their world. Likewise, the world, reduced from perfection to a state of chaos, is not ready for them – raw sounds and sights assault the nascent mortals, maddening them with a cacophony of stimuli.
• To help them cope with this chaos the creator (knowing they are not at fault) bestows upon them a spark of its own divinity, to help them survive the raw world. This trait would be passed on to their children. From this point mortals who die leave behind Soulstones – physical manifestations of that divine spark that take the form of large spheres, ranging in appearance from pearlescent to pitch-like. The soulstones are now thought to have been primitive corporeal souls.
• Most Demiurges ignore the mortal tribes, and go about erecting monuments and shaping continents. The creator, having given them chance to mend their ways and take leadership of their wards is angered by this indifference and exiles them to the material realm, forcing them to become leaders of their respective tribes. They will come to draw their strength from their followers (so a Demiurge without followers would grow weak).

The Second Age of Mortal Life

• The mortal tribes worship their ‘patron’ Demiurge as a living god, providing it with the vitality it needs to survive and continue shaping, though this shaping is now restricted to moulding their tribes in their own image and making the world a better place for its children to live in.
• The Demiurges’ individual characteristics become more evident as they grow more distant from one another and the creator, whose existence is never mentioned to the mortals. Many grow bitter at their punishment, with them all coping in different ways: Some try to bury their resentment and anger in their work, ceaselessly erecting monuments. Others grow distant from their own children, becoming weak and insular. Others try to reforge the link to the creator, failing. Others, like Urakabarameel, turn to asceticism. Some (including Rachanael, Ashterath and Baphomet) understand the status quo and begin amassing followers in a bid to culture power.
• As the mortal tribes grow some of them fracture, with groups abandoning their homelands to forge their own fates, leaving their gods behind. Worship of the Demiurges lessens and most are noticeably weakened. Fearing what may happen if this continues, the Demiurges meet and in their desperation are convinced to elect Rachanael to teach the mortals discipline and awe.
• Rachanael betrays his siblings and enslaves unnumbered mortals, growing powerful. His siblings form an alliance, led by Talantehut. They eventually defeat him, at no small cost to their own children and lands.
• The creator sees the Demiurges’ actions and fears they have not all yet learnt their lesson. This is most balant in their failure to teach the mortal races of him. In punishment he strips them of their divinity. They are now mortal, and can die is severely-weakened. Many amongst them despair, knowing they can now die. Such Demiurges include Vorropohaiah, Nergaal, Achaiah, Ialdabaoth and Shibboleth. Others accept their new fates and cope in various ways. Sybaris turns to hedonism, as do her children (shie). Avraham, becomes a materialist and guides his tribe (humans) into an imperialistic future. The conjoined twins S’hith and Nelchael use what powers they have to give hope to mortals in the form of prophecy and visions, respectively. Neith and Kharani forsake the mortal realm and forge their own realms, creating the two moons of Siella and Arakhame’, respectively.
• With the greatest of their divine abilities gone, the Demiurges turn to the material realm to fuel their crafting. Rachanael and Duruthilhotep are the first Demiurges to master the Atramenta and the Firmament, respectively, and begin teaching the mortals some of their secrets. Others, like Nyarloth and Synchthonith, help the mortals develop technology.
• The creator grants the mortal races the gift of a conscience and the free will to seek out the truth of their world, should they wish. Upon death a mortal’s soul is no longer trapped within a soulstone and instead becomes one with the otherworld where it will eventually be reborn as an otherworlder – beings that help and hinder mortals seek the truth of their world.
• Many Demiurges continue to despair following their sundering from the creator. Allaishada calls a council of her siblings where it is decided that a great bridge shall be constructed linking Elyden to the realms of the creator. All but two of the Demiurges worked together constructing the bridge. The other two – Talantehut and Arimaspi – secretly oppose them, praying to the creator to stop them before things become worse.
• The creator responds, destroying the bridge, plunging the world into darkness for a year and a day. So they can never work together again the Demiurges are stripped their divine language and their children are given different tongues. Talantehut is granted the title of Keeper of Balance (at the cost of her children’s worship), and Arimaspi becomes the King of Kings – he alone can now shape the natural features of Elyden.
• Mortal nations rise and fall, races intermingle, leading in most cases to a dilution of the two-and-twenty mortal tribes. The Demiurges begin to wane in power.

The Third Age of Mortal Life

• The Demiurge Malachai dies – a warning to all his siblings of their mortality. Many Demiurges fall into deeper misery. Vorropohaiah copes by erecting gigantic monuments in his own name. Greatest of these is Carceri a world-spanning labyrinthine cavern, the purpose of which is unknown to all but his highest-ranking primates. Stripped of the powers of shaping the world he accomplishes this through the labour of billions of followers and slaves over millennia.
• War, expansion, fragmentation of the mortals continues. The land slowly changes at the hand of Arimaspi.
• Mortal expansion reveals the forgotten mesochthons, which wreak havoc upon the mortal plane. Synchthonith, Nyarloth, Duruthilhotep and Urakabarameel succeed in imprisoning them within Carceri. Vorropohaiah becomes their gaoler.
• The Third Age ends around 49,000 years ago.

The Fourth Age of Mortal Life

• The predecessors of extant nations appear. Very few ruins and relics found today date to before this period and indeed few survive from this age.
• The Demiurges continue to wane during this time. Most mortals have forsaken them and their memory slowly begins to fade. Many Demiurges fall into languor, their dreams polluting the world.
• Rachanael grows more belligerent and following a long conflict between his followers and those of Allaishada is imprisoned beneath the desert of Kharkharadontis. The place becomes known as Daekyn.
• The followers of Rachanael clash with many mortal tribes and their allies in their attempts to free him. This time becomes known as the Shadow War. They fail and the age ends with the near annihilation of the mortal civilisations around 6,500 years ago.

The Fifth Age of Mortal Life

• The merchant prince Malichar discovers an artifact of the Demiurge Talantehut in -23 RM, intended as a warning to the mortal races. It is a history of the ancient world and the crimes of Rachanael.
• Malichar seeks him out and, following many trials and tribulations, frees him in 331 RM (3700 years ago), encasing him in the Leaden Throne, a technarcane engine created with the aid of Nyarloth to sustain him. Malichar has been ruler of Korachan since then.
• No longer sustained by the Shaping of the Demiurges, the natural world begins to fragment. Her seas slowly begin to disappear. Life itself begins to wane.
• The Korachani empire fragments in two in 3705 RM (just under 300-years ago). This leaves the High empire, north of the Inner Sea and the Reformed Empire south of the Sea. Corruption within politics and religion is rife. Resources begin to expire. Prophecies and visions are on the rise, as are those whose dreams and nightmares reveal the bitter thoughts of the Demiurges.
• Eschatological cults become more common as people begin to feel Elyden’s sickness. Worship of Rachanael wanes and other Demiurges experience flickers of sapiency.
• Many scholars believe that we are in the last days of the Fifth Age.

***