More about the atlas...

I was asked  a question that's pertinent to the current subject of the blog (the Atlas Elyden as well as the Encyclopaedia Elyden, of which it is a part). Here's the querstion:

"...I am curious as to whose perspective this atlas is from. Is it the High-Empire, or reaffirmed. On the point of the reaffirmed one, are the Reaffirmation wars a war between reaffirmed empire and someone else? 

"Sorry to continue with the bombardment, but is Nova Malicharan effectively Malichar abandoning the (apparently) sinking ship that is Korachan?

"What year is this map set in?"

So, to give an answer to one question requires some knowedge pertaining to the others so I'll just reply in the form of a short essay. Thanks for the question btw :)

The atlas is an imperial (Korachani) one, though that's oversimplifying things. As I mentioned in my first Atlas Elyden post, The Encyclopaedia and Atlas were originally imperial creations which were updated on a yearly basis depending on new discoveries innovations etc, first appearing in c. 3500 RM. Though originally of Korachani authorship, the worlds' advance into something more akin to the late 18th century of the real world, the publishers spread across the civilised world and got offices in various nations (even though Elyden would never become as colonialist or imperialistic as real world England or Spain for instance).

Anyway, in the year 3705 RM the Korachani empire, which until then had dominated lands around the Inner Sea fragmented into two - the Northern High-Empire of Korachan centered around Korachan herself and ruled by the Archpotentate Malichar (Korachan, Azazem, Laaskha, Pelasgos, Varr, Lyridia and Venthir, amongst others); and the Southern Reformed Empire, centered around Sarastro and ruled by the Lich-king Sathep (Sarastro, Zion, Ba'ath, Lidea, Mharokk, Vaalk, Karakhas, amongst others)

This time would become known as the Dark Ages and was the dawn of a long wane which heralded a stagation of technological innovation, brought death to cross-border trade and commerce, and in which religous fanaticism grow exponentially (with a outlawed cults resurfacing, particularly those devoted to dead Demiurges).

This period lasted until the year 4008 RM, where Korachan fully disintegrated. This left its vassal and suzerain states independent (if not so already) and the heartland of the northern empire - the Korachani peninsula fragmented into many warring states ruled by remnants of the old regime. This became known as the Reaffirmation Wars, with each faction vying for the 'empty' throne left by Malichar. This is the present day in the world though there isn't a year as such. I have written details as far in the future as c. 65 RMe (based on the new calendar which started the year Korachan faltered, in 4008, which is the equivalent of 1 RMe), though I'd imagine the true present day is something around 4008 RM - 4 RMe - the period of the Reaffirmation Wars.

This atlas is a reprint of the original Atlas Elyden, published alongside contemporary printings of the Encyclopaedia Elyden. This particular edition appears a few years (around 5 RMe, equivalent to 4013 RM of the old calendar) following the Sundering of Korachan and is a major reprint, trying to take into account fluctuating borders around the Inner Sea. So is possibly less biased than before though was complied using fewer resources than previous editions, so is inaccurate, largely due to the state of flux inheent to the period - something that will be addressed in a foreword. So make of that what you will!

What happens to Malichar and his Empire is a tale for another time, though :)

the Atlas Elyden

I've been working away at more leafs for the Atlas Elyden, trying to get the neatlines and graticules done on as many maps as possible. Its a very tedious process, and possibly the most time-consuming part of each map, other than the labelling, (which, given the fact that only a fraction of the intended areas, settlements and features currently exist may take a while once I get round to them).

the Republic of Almagest

I Got nine done in all so far, including those previously posted. I've tinkered a bit with the degrees outside the neatlines, making every tenth number bigger than the others, to make it stand out more. And I also tried my hand a little characterful thing I often see in atlases - making certain areas protrude from the neatline as way of better using page space. I think they look quite nice, though wondered if anyone has any opinions?

the Haréshk

I've also started coming across areas of maps whose peripheries copy maps that I've already made, though in different orientations and scales. It's been fun challenging myself to make sure I'm not changing any areas and that everything aligns up properly - for instance the bottom right of the new Venthir map includes the bottom left of the Tzallrach (Char Mathi) map; or the entire right-hand side of the Korachan map is repeated in the Pelasgos map. To make sure I don't map the same coastlines twice with different results I'm using the same land layer masks on different maps when they share land area - the best way to make sure coastlines remain correctly proportioned to one-another and properly aligned, which is something I'm very concious of! I'll be coming across this more and more as I go along though look forward to the challenge.

the Heartland of the Korachani High-Empire

Something else I'm also thinking of doing is dividing larger nations or those with lots of different territories, like Almagest and Korachan, respectively, into many smaller maps with more detailed information - like perhaps heraldry or other pertinent details.

the Pelasgosi Free-isles

Included in the new maps is a map of the City Kingdoms of the Haréshk, which some of you might remember is a region of my world I've already mapped. That was a map created by someone from the region. This will be a foreigners' map of the same region so it will be interesting to see the differences. This map also contains a small inset map of an island that's part of the Haréshki kingdoms though which did not fit on the page - I'm pleased with it but I'm not sure it's entirely clear. Any feedback on this? I've also uploaded a resized and re-oriented version of the Korachan map that's been changed to be more in-line with the new pages.

***

On another note I do love it when people leave coments as it shows that people do read my ramblings and often have ideas and questions about certain things. This is very encouraging to me as it also makes me think and question certain things I might have missed otherwise.

Such an exchange of comments led to someone mentioning one of my favourite characters: Queen Hetepheres the Strangler, a sphinx (one of the last, if not the last of her kind). It got me thinking of a short story I hope to post here in the coming weeks. Fingers crossed (but lets not hold our breath)

the Atlas Elyden

Hi all! So much for turning the blog into a bi-weekly affair - man it's difficult keep up with a blog! Major kudos to those of you with real-world jobs and hobbies who also manage to keep up-date with your blogs! I don't think I'll ever be able to do it, but i'll try... sporadically... 

"Many are the reasons for your intrepid authors' absence, chiefest amongst them the plotting and shaping of his constructed world, known otherwise as Elyden."

Though having said that, I really haven't been doing that much work lately. I've been slowly plodding away at my second novel (don't get excited, the first one is still far from being published), though it's far from completion. What other time I have has been spent on commissions and other pursuits (sounds shifty). It's only recently that I've started work on my world again, and this time it's cartographical baby!

That damned Encylopaedia Elyden has been taking up so much of my time. Pehaps I should go into a bit more detail. The book itself is both a real and imagined things and, as such, exists in two different worlds -  

1) It exists in the real world as a series of files on my computer and google drive accounts, constantly being revised, added to, and updated. This version started out almost 10-years ago as little more than notes hand-written and sketches to help me in my own writing and world building. I'm incredibly forgetful and were it not for such notes I'd forget most of my ideas before I ever get round to implementing them. Over the years the notes were digitised (though I still have my earliest notes and the first hand-drawn Inner Sea map, dating back to around 9 years ago) and grew in scope and complexity and have become themselves a goal, rather than a means to an ends. They help me locate places, items and other things I'd otherwise forget about. 

Today I have around 600,000 words typed out with much much more to come. Over half of this is bullet points, along the lines of traditional encyclopedia entries (think an early edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica for style). I haven't actually counted how many individual entries I have, but it must be thousands (though I might be overestimating), and most link-back to other entries in an intricate web (perhaps a wikia is the next logical step, though I shudder at the thought of all hyperlinking involved). The rest of the words make up the histories (of which only a small portion are 'complete', religions, mythologies, bestiaries etc. 

***

2) The Encyclopedia Elyden exists as an in-world book that summarises the worldly knowledge of a particular nation (the High Empire of Korachan), much like the aforementioned Encyclopaedia Britannica's yearly updates. One thing I'm aiming for in my version is to one day create a hand-made version of this book for my own pleasure (oh my!), though I don't see that happening until many many years (or decades, even) down the line, if at all, as I'm constantly adding to it and don't want to commit to something that's so rough.

This in-world book is divided into 3 volumes: 1) the encyclopedia, 2) the world histories, mytholgies and religions, and 3) the atlas. Initially i intended the 3 volume to be synchronous: the same size and clearly of the same breed, so-to speak, with similar covers etc, though I'm beginning to rethink this as the atlas clearly necessitates a larger page-size than the encyclopaedia. At the moment I'm leaning towards A3 for the Atlas and a bit shorter than A4 for the encyclopaedia and Mythologia volumes. 

At the moment I'm mostly concerned with the third volume (atlas). After much fretting about I've finally started work on this. After an uncompleted political map of Korachan I've settled on a style I'm happy with and will now set about mapping every known nation, realm and major land formation in the world. A monumental task, that, if completed, will leave me with a many-hundred-page-long document.

Each page is A3 in size and will incorporate a map on one side and various geographical, political, religious, etc information pertaining to the region on the reverse. The images are, so far, being created as individual pieces, though can easily be bound together if the thing ever gets done. 

This is my work so far - mostly foundations for more detailed stuff to come later on. I've largely busied myself making a template I can quickly adapt for new maps, though sadly the creation of the neatlines and graticules are beyond my ability to automate and really take a lot of time to get done, even after running my equirectangluar world map through G. Projector. Hopefully this is the start of something far larger that won't peter out after a few months :)

Also, anyone familiar with my Holy Empire of Korachan map might be able to place these maps within that one. Keep in mind that these were made with far more precision than the older map and take precedence in the event of any changes

Cuth

Jurras

Shibbioleth

Tzallrach

Humpday Musings: Elysium, del Toro, and Man of Steel .

Movies: Just saw Elysium the other day, which I'd not had a chance to see at the cinema.

I wish I had. Though the movie itself is nothing revolutionary and some of its themes seem to be a tad on the nose, I really have to hand to to Neill Blokamp, whose 2 movies so far (this and the great District 9) show a really great sense of art direction, which is something I look out for in fatasy/sci-fi movies.

The opening shots of favela-like slums in Los Angeles set the mood perfectly. Dystopian world, poverty, disease, unemployment. Many of them have come to accept their life, but others would dare to dream, to look up at the stars and literally see a better world look down at them. Powerful imagery, if unsubtle. I love the barrenness of Earth contrasted with the lush greenery of Elysium (even its offices are teeming in greenery). Perhaps some changes less noticeable to mist include the differences between earth-based ships and those originating in Elysium as well as the scarification that many Elysians(?) seem to have.

As always, Neill Blokamp's fascination with interesting weapons and equipment shines through and WETA workshop have once more outdone themselves deigning credible-looking items. The addition of cunning product placement, such as Bulgari watches, pesonal Bugatti ships and Kawasaki exo-armour. Really great stuff!

Though I found the characters somewhat one-dimensional (Matt Damon's Max in particular seemed somewhat flat after a great sarcastic start) There was much I took away from the movie, as a worldbuilder. And this is something i admire WETA workshop and directors like Peter Jackson, Neill Blokamp and Joseph Kosinski, who devote as much time to creating a beautiful world as they do to the storytelling (if not more-so).

This in turn pushes me to try harder with my own worldbuilding, showing me where i might be at fault, or urging me to perhaps explore a part of the world i might not have before (immigration, exodus, diaspora and social inequality, in the case of this movie).

Music: I don't listen to much normal music. Its generally audiobooks and movie soundtracks/scores for me. I'm still obsessed with the Man of Steel soundtrack from this year's eponymous movie (The movie itself is another matter...). Hanz Zimmer has really outdone himself with this one - the percussions in particular just get me going and really help me create a rhythm with my writing. I find I actually write quicker to such a beat, though my girlfriend says I also hit the keys on my keyboard a lot louder too...

Geeky Stuff: I used to love Lego...

Let me digress for a moment and express my uter contempt for people who refer to Lego in the plural. It's Lego, not Lego's! :)

Anyway... as I was saying, I used to love Lego and experiences what is known amongst the Lego community as my 'Wilderness Years' at around the age of 12, by which point I had already been heavily into wargaming and roleplaying for 2-years, and though I like to keep up-to-date with many Lego sites (the wonderful brothers-brick.com, being one of them) which offer a lot of great ideas for scenarios and machines, amongst other things. For instance, Mihai Mihu's Cuircles of Hell from Dante, which just got my creative juices flowing so much!

I hit thirty this year and think I might be getting my mid-life crisis a bit early. Amongst other (arguably far more important) things, I got an urge to buy a Lego kit, so ordered a Star Wars X-wing fighter for m,yself for Christmas. I'm looking forward to it.

I also got my my girlfriend to buy me Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities for Christmas. One of my favourite directors, I;ve been fascinated by his production journals for some years, enjoying them so much whenever they pop up in the documentaries on his movies' DVD's extras. I'm looking forward to that one very much...

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…

Twilight of the Idols

Almost there! Not being published yet, though getting my 5-free copies done through Createspace. but it feels like a step closer.

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.