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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #4 - THE DEEPFOLK
Legends whispered in dark taverns and cargo holds speak of a world unutterable at the bottom of the ocean, where names do not exist, and age does not kill. Legends, and that is all the world knows them to be, for how could such a thing go unseen for so long?
Perhaps it is because the Deepfolk begin life as oarfish. Live as any other would, until a century of infancy ends with the sprouting of a torso from their throat. Only another five centuries, and their youth as males will come to an end with the ripping of their second voice, should they survive that long in the deep.
Those who are lucky enough to reach womanhood never stop growing, never succumb to age. Death is plentiful still, but when one lives long enough to outgrow their planet, nothing will bring it.
The Deepfolk remember a time before the Goddesses chose their oceanic planet for their next act of creation. She Who Wraps Thrice Around the World remembers the day exactly, for she watched the first land rise from the waves not a century after her womanhood.
She remembers three hundred thousand years like the surface remembers a decade.
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wallacejwriting · 1 year
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Hi!! Happy WBW from @magic-is-something-we-create!!
I was looking through your WIP list, and Tairkyda from City of Fractured Dreams caught my eye - what's keeping the island/city afloat? Is it magic, technology, or a blend? Are there other cities/places like it in that world, or is it one of a kind?
And you mentioned in the synopsis the idea of Topside and Underside - is the island more like a chunk of ground that was lifted with the city itself, with sewer systems and undercity attached, or was the whole thing constructed with the intent to float? Like a really big ship with people living in the maintenance hold??
(Also, I'd love to be added to the taglist if you have one for that WIP!! It sounds really cool!!)
I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!!
!!! ;-; You're so sweet.
So every single land form in that world floats. Not just Tairkyda. The planet's surface is infinite ocean on all sides with terrifying depths in some places. There's places shallow enough to stand in, if you're willing to be up to your hips, in a handful of places at low tide, but that's it.
So the island is a literal floating island. The surface, like we see walking around, and then tonnes and tonnes of rock and dirt and sediment and plant matter and ore and all sorts of stuff beneath it. Like tearing a land form out of the ground and lifting, getting all the dirt and rocks underneath. Literal islands in the sky, undersides and all. Some islands are much shallower than others, but Tairkyda is a fairly deep island.
No one knows why they float. There's been many studies over the world, but no one can figure out why. Best guess is that it's the same thing that creates the magic polyhedral dice and the literal river of souls and fog that winds its way around the planet every year. But as far as everyone knows, this is how things have always been. It's not technology though, and it's not on purpose. To everyone in this world, the floating islands are totally normal, like how tectonic plates are normal for us.
Topside is the surface of Tairkyda, so everywhere that gets the sun. Underside is literally beneath Topside, with Topside's infrastructure of piping and sewers being the literal roof of the top level of Underside. Underside is carved out from the sides of the island, creating tiers of docks and living space where only those living on the very edges get sunlight. It exists due to overpopulation of the island, increasing class differences, increasing police presence, and the tendencies for the lost and the isolated to go carve out their own spaces.
It is like a bunch of people living in the maintenance hold, though. That is definitely a big part of the vibe of Underside.
And yes I will add you! Oh my goodness thank you! (I love Ehlverse so much & I'm v excited about Millenium Saga)
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alittlewarlord · 9 months
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Happy WBW, lovely! Not sure why, but today I'm asking about fashion?? What does the fashion-- I'm talking high, street, or anything else-- look like in your world(s)?
Hi Tori!! Thank you for the ask <3
Fashion in the Ehlverse varies a lot between the different peoples, due to differing needs when it comes to clothes and ideas of modesty!! But talking specifically about the Millennium Saga, there are a few to highlight (with a couple examples!):
The upper-class fashion of the Mae Ehlves is usually super gaudy, with inspiration from both Victorian English and traditional Japanese fashion - there's a lot of bright colors and embroidery, excessive fabric, and typically a lot of bead work in the hair styling. This is, like, the one fashion thing I haven't drawn yet, though, so... maybe that's something for me to draw on stream this weekend :D
HOWEVER. The street fashion of Aree especially is something that you get to see early on, and it's way more varied than other fashion areas because the city is so much of a melting pot. You'll see everything from classic "Medieval" fantasy outfits to ones with more diverse inspirations. And while it's toned down in embroidery, it's much more experimental and bold in color and silhouette. Here's a couple examples from my art of the characters:
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Note: the characters in the top left (or second picture, depending on how the formatting changes) are canonically, in order, 1. one of the most beloved and attractive actors in the city, 2. the tailor for the lord's family, and 3. their sister who doesn't give a single fuck about what she wears.
Outside of that, we do also see some glimpses of Rill and Avatican fashion (neither of which I have good examples for, but Rill fashion is based on traditional Choctaw fashion, and Avatican fashion is closer to Edwardian English than Victorian)
I must admit, though, that I don't do a whole lot of focus on fashion!! Other than those (quite broad) categories, I mostly just try to make up my own stuff that makes sense for each character's personality, and what catches their eye about other people.
Thanks again for dropping by!!
[Also, for those who don't know about any of this, this is worldbuilding from my current writing project! You can see a whole lot more about it on my writeblr, @magic-is-something-we-create]
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URYAK DESIGNS
As usual, a transcript of the words will be blended with the worldbuilding segment below, and I'll put a description of the Uryaks themselves in the alt text of the image!
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Uryaks are the favorite pack animals for the vast majority of Emarye, and have become beloved all over Ehl for their soft fur, gentle eyes, and ease in the presence of sentient peoples of all kinds. They're a resilient species built for the harsh, long winters of the far north, and wild herds can be found on the borders of the Motherfrost and the polar mountains to this day, even after a long history of domestication.
While their fluffy, dog-like fur keeps them well insulated against the cold, it's not the most practical for textiles - Woolwyrms are a much better option for Emry shepherds - and the white color has historically made them quite easy to lose in the blizzards that frequent their home. The solution to the latter is the brightly-patterned blanketed saddles given to most domesticated Uryaks (based on traditional Tibetan yak saddles and ornamentation), as well as plenty of equally colorful yarn adorning their horns to serve as a potential beacon in the ice plains, should they ever be separated from their riders. Like many Yaks and similar animals in the real world, Uryaks will often be given nose rings in their youth to make handling their rowdy adolescence easier, as well as to aid in weaning them off their mothers.
It can be difficult to tell which sex calves are for the first few years, especially because they can be far more energetic and playful than their parents, acting much more like fox pups than baby cows. Adult females tend to have shorter horns and snouts than their male counterparts, and usually weigh significantly more. They also have longer tails, which nursing calves will use for extra warmth and cover when feeding.
(From a meta standpoint, they're a blend of Tibetan Yaks, Arctic Foxes, and Polar Bears; I landed on what I would say is 60% yak, 30% fox, and 10% bear, which is, in my opinion, the cutest of all the variations I came up with along the way.)
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thank you for reading, if you did!! there's a bonus autism/tbh/yippee creature rendition under the cut because my brother insisted i make one and i love it so u all get to see it too <3
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out of LITERALLY nowhere, i decided to work on the written language of sieril tonight. and this time i actually managed to make it work and make sense :)
here's a preview of the basic writing system (without the letters or anything)
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The text reads:
Each letter makes multiple sounds. These sounds are shown via rotation (or mirroring for letters with only 2 sounds). Left half of a circle is Voiced, right half is Unvoiced; top half is Long, bottom is Short.
Syllables cluster in a maximum of 4 letters, read clockwise from the top left. Syllable gaps are anglicized using apostrophes (e.g. K'Ron, Lu'Syr, Tal'Ren).
And this is how you write K'Ron! (pronounced K-ɾon; for non-IPA, a K sound, followed with a flip/tap on the r and the word own)
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #8 - THE AHSITARI
The Ahsitari of Deltierin are a kaleidoscopic people to an extent unmatched by any other Shifters in existence.
Where most gifted with the ability to change their shape are able to become creatures of similar size and distant origin, Ahsitari and trained Greater Shifters may change any feature they wish, even as small as moving their freckles around - or as big as giving themselves wings, scales, hooves, or gills. And where most Shifters do so with great pain, the Ahsitari do so as easily as blinking, and just as often.
Some will take humanoid shapes; others will Blend so thoroughly with the world around them, you will not notice their camouflage until they speak. But they will, and they will do so jovially, for their existence is one that takes life as a joyous chance to bring as much laughter as possible.
But though laughter is a pursuit most necessary in a world like theirs, it can be quite hard to come by in times of war.
Perhaps that’s what makes it even more important?
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #10 - THE EMRY
The Emry are a folk named not for species or inherent shared traits, but for a home: Emarye, the land known for the Nightwoods and the Motherfrost and the north pole. Known for snow and ice, for skylines billowing with steam and underbellies swarming with darkness in equal measure. For Sorcery.
While many peoples gifted with magics are universally able to use them, the Emry are not: only a small fraction of those born in the Nightwoods ever find themselves with the ability to make their imaginations come to life, and even fewer are ever able to make them feel real.
Such a magic as Sorcery--subtlety, illusion, lying--is a rickety thing to build society atop, and thus the Emry find themselves reliant on Starmetals both traded and smuggled.
Smuggled, for there’s never enough money to go around, even in the pockets of the City-states. There’s always someone slipping through the cracks, falling to the sidelines, being welcomed into the arms of those who promise help for something so trivial as a tattoo, a task, a deal.
And though lies do not a society make, one doesn’t need to lie about the consequences of a deal with the Shadow of Fowden, for one knows they are only limited by her wicked imagination - and they are never left solely Sorcery.
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #1 - THE FAIR FOLK
The Fair Folk of Ehl are an insectoid people that live in migrating colonies, known for hollowing out the outer rings of the Godtrees they inhabit, no matter how brief their stay. Because of their vast difference in physiology, the Fair Folk do not experience gender in the way some other peoples do - instead, they take on similar roles to ants and bees, and their “genders” are more likely to be described as drone or sentinel than man or woman.
The Fair Folk were once one of the greater peoples of Ehl, revered for their inherent ability to witness the Echoes in any reflection, regardless of whether they had spoken Prophecy (and thus, come close to death).
But this sight has been clouded for nearly a millennium, and they have slowly faded from their influence to become little more than traveling oddities for their more stationary neighbors in the Maelands.
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #5 - THE DRAGONKIN
The Dragonkin of the Gord Isles are a friendly people, despite what their towering heights and magma blood may imply. While their wings are grand and more than enough to carry someone more human-sized, the Dragonkin themselves remain feathered and flightless, though much more prone to having a cushioned and controlled fall.
Their home of tropics, calderas, and paradise blooms is enviable to those from the outside, and a bit small for those born and raised on the archipelago. But little of the world was built with them in mind - ten meter ceilings is a tall order for the average person, after all - and thus travel is often uncomfortable.
Nevertheless, over time, they have found a kinship with the Dwarves in the city of Glittergale. And though it gets cold enough to snow, cold enough for the magma beneath their skin to cool, the friendship between the dragons and the mice ensures a blazing hearth and molten metal always at the ready to warm them before they turn to stone, and a helping hand to reach heights tenfold of what one could usually manage.
When one’s fire finally dims, and their soul returns to Lib’s embrace, a statue will take their place. And when their family has grieved, and their crown has been decorated in flowers, they will be given to the ocean as a gift to the coral.
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #7 - THE GOBLINS
The Goblins of the Lell desert live in a world that believes gifts from the Goddesses to be the most important sign of favor and power - especially when that gift is not just life, but a new way of it. They live in this world, full of magic and impossibilities and glory bestowed freely across the land and the air and the sea.
They live in this world, and they are the only ones who have not received such a gift.
So they have had to adjust.
The line between technology and magic is thin, when one looks at it with any kind of scrutiny - the alloys and automatons of the Dwarves, after all, are used to many of the same ends as the solar engines and electromagnetic manipulation of the Goblins.
But the line lies in where such things come from, in the grand scheme of Ehl’s politics. And though the lightning-channeling crystals of computers could be seen as a magic in their own right, the fact that they are an inevitable consequence of the machinations of the universe rather than a creation of the Goddesses means they are deemed lesser.
So the Goblins keep to themselves in the dual rain shadow between the Godwoods and the coastal mesas, creating a world of their own better fit for their scaly skin and motherboards than the clockwork and magics of the rest. And they hope, one day, for their feats to be recognized in the ways they deserve.
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #3 - THE MULARI
The Mulari of the Kard Islands are the youngest of the civilizations on Ehl, brought to the archipelago of their home by the Millennium Cycle eight thousand years ago. Amphibious by nature and kindhearted by nurture, many spend their days in the shallow waters of the mangroves and their nights basking in the light of the moons on scattered sandbars, with little contact to the rest of the world beyond occasional Rill traders and Dragonkin visitors.
Because of the youth of their history, and their lackadaisical approach to life, many more ancient peoples of Ehl do not deign to listen to what they have to say. Much of their oral history speaks of creatures called Deepfolk that rise from the waves with spells on their fishy tongues, after all, and none else have seen enough proof of such a people to believe that.
Perhaps the world will learn that youth is not the same as naivety, in time, and that life is better spent joyous than hard-won. Maybe then, they will not need to be so afraid of the ocean floor.
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #2 - THE SHARA’I
The Shara’i of Sieril are a people few and far between, through no fault of their own; the Decay that struck the continent may have given more people an insight into their experiences being naturally Vampiric, but the disease that mimics the limits of their lives in others completely destroys them from the inside out. And though it has been nearly three thousand years since the glory of Sieril was snuffed out by the Goddesses, they have yet to recover or find a cure, even with the magical properties of the Rillflower they have held in holy reverence for as long as history can remember.
Though they do not have eyes in the sense that many other peoples do, they can see the changing light through the skin of their face - a necessity when one may drop dead after an hour in direct sunlight. Paired with extraordinary echolocation and a vivid sense of smell, they are capable of navigating the swamps and jungles of their homeland quite well, though flight is still fumbling below the treetops.
Once living side-by-side with Rill Ehlves, they now are relegated to the remnants of the cities in the northern swamps, away from potential carriers of Vampirism. And though animals and insects are just as capable of spreading it, it is the best the Rillmother can do to protect what few of the Shara’i are left.
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #6 - THE EHLVES
The Ehlves are among the most ancient of peoples brought by the Millennium Cycle, present on Ehl since the day the Goddesses blessed land with life and the power of the nine Elements, and have since spread far and wide. From the vastness of Deltierin’s steppe, to the seclusion of Sieril’s bayou, to the cold of Emarye’s Motherfrost, and the grandeur of the Godwoods of the Maelands, they can be found anywhere that life has learned to breathe air - and often at heights far greater than others can climb at speed, for altitude sickness is a curse they do not bear.
Often deemed the most connected to the natural world due to their universal and exclusive affinity to the magic of Elementalism, many Ehlves take pride in their gift of birth, whether it be Wind, Fire, Water, Stone, Plant, Flesh, Metal, or Light - though the world tends to fear that which can influence its decisions and actions, and those gifted with the Mind will always be held an arm’s length away, no matter how equal all Elements are in their affinity for both creation and destruction.
The length of Ehlven history has given them an understanding of the world others may envy; the length of their lives, though, is often a source of pain to those who find companionship beyond Ehlvenkind. Once they reach the age of fifty, their aging slows to half that of a human, and as many have said throughout time, there is a reason many elderly Ehlves are left widowers for decades.
That pain, for some, is enough to risk everything to keep from getting too close.
That pain, for one, was enough to seek Eternity no matter the cost.
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DRAGONS? 👀👀
HI HELLO YES DRAGONS
Happy WBW!! Thank you for stopping by <3
In the Ehlverse, dragons are not always the typical kind one finds in fantasy, and honestly, I've kind of run into a problem in-world of like... how do they define dragons? Why are all of these things, some of which can be argued to be on completely different Kingdoms taxonomically, grouped together?
Because, like, some of them are bird-like, some are reptilian, some are mammalian, and some are a blend of several of those, right?
(Cue a sketch I did showcasing all the dragon species I have currently (though I'm still working on the designs for the biggest and smallest in this one) with a bonus Ember for scale)
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[For context: the big black+green one in the back is a Shadewing; the one Ember is riding is a Whiptail; the sheep-ferret-goose one is a Woolwyrm; and the little one with white and red feathers is a Carrier Dragon (like carrier pigeons!)]
So, uh, I decided that in-world, "Dragon" refers to a specific set of species that arrived with one of the more ancient Growths in the Millennium Cycle - basically, a handful of animals that the Goddesses just dropped into the world one day, most of which have borderline-person-like intelligence. Kind of like how I'm going to justify the classification/evolution of whatever I'm going to call my Avian Ungulates (aka they were also dropped into the world by the Goddesses).
And because of their intelligence and their origins, they're all considered to be a magic of their own in-world!! Because magic is anything that defies the overall laws of the Universe and was given by the Goddesses, and boy, do these guys do both. Especially the Shadewings - they're uh. Big enough to nest in Godtrees. Think American-football-stadium size.
I did not get the scale right for that in the sketch, but yeah <3
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PEOPLES OF THE EHLVERSE #11 - THE HUMANS
The humans of the Ehlverse are a people displaced, rehomed, bounced-back, after a Decay five thousand years ago wiped their origin of Eqia from the face of the planet. What few survivors of the Eqian Decay there were have rebuilt to the best of their ability in the time since, becoming one of the most widely acknowledged examples of tenacity and hope in the face of disaster - to the point where, should a human appear in any narrative in-world, the audience knows they will be the one who survives, no matter the tale that unfolds.
Before two thousand years ago, humans were magicless, much like the Goblins that became their neighbors, their kin, in the Maelands.
And then they awoke on the Day of Growth, and they knew how to bend space and time itself.
A Runesman may teleport with sufficient sacrifice of blood; an engineer may paint their clockwork with a sigil to shrink it beyond what they would usually be able to build; a student rushing to class may scratch a sign of time-slowing into the back of their hand to arrive before the bell rings, becoming nothing but a blur to those around them.
And when the Great Decay was thwarted, humans were the first to delve into the bloody sciences of Alchemy and Enchantment, led by Arthur Shieldstone himself as the days of kings faded into the era of Goblin-like republic.
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Pax I don't know what day it is anymore but it is apparently Wednesday so in good Ole WBW tradition uhhh talk to me about calendars. Have you made one? Do you want to? How does time work in TMS?
Hi hello happy WBW!!! Thanks for sending this in <3<3<3
I have made a calendar!!! It's actually something I've struggled with portraying in the books, because like... realistically, when the fuck will it matter to the narrators that their year is at all different from Earth's, if it's all they've ever known? You know??
Anyway, the Ehlverse has a 400 day year split into 13 months - 10 months of 31 days, and 3 of 30. Their year starts on the winter solstice (which is, fun fact, Ember + Nimbus' birthday) and the solstices and equinoxes are how I've shown the passage of time without bombarding the reader with 13 entirely conlanged months that they'd have very little relation to in terms of seasons and whatnot.
(Time passes pretty much the same way as Earth on all smaller measures of time, though. And their moon cycles are wonky, what with having 6 of them, but that doesn't affect much because I don't care about that level of realism.)
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It's kind of hard to see them, but the days marked in red are solstices and equinoxes - they're evenly spread out throughout the year just to make it easier on myself.
Springtide is a celebration that comes up a lot in reference to dates in both Whispers and Millennium Saga, and it happens on the vernal equinox. Firebreathers starts at about the midpoint between Springtide and the summer solstice, and the majority of the book takes place between the last week of summer and the last week of the year!
As for Whispers, I'd say it starts about a week before the autumnal equinox, maybe a little bit earlier. Fowden is about to enter 3 months of no sunlight for the winter when the lackey trio gets there, so that puts their arrival around the end of month 11.
I used to have conlanged names for all the months, but I don't remember them any more 😅 I'm sure they're written down somewhere on my computer, and I remember -mat being the suffix for "month", but other than that, I haven't really found naming them to be necessary in the end. It doesn't come up as an important plot point ever, at least so far, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'll just leave that gap right where it is until I need to fill it.
Thank you again for the ask!! The calendar is something I've put an ungodly amount of work into over the years (it used to be wayy wonkier than it is now) but I almost never have reason to talk about it even in writing, so!! This was a very fun opportunity to share it 🥰
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