Hinewguy
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New Fantasy Idea - Worldbuilding Draft - Tentative Title: Shardscape
🕑 Added 2023-02-11 10:14:58 +0000 UTCHey ya'll! I had a lot of time and help from friends today that gave inspiration to this new idea I'm birthing. This is just a concept so, things are bound to change. The initial concept art can be found on this post.
Backstory
- A war amongst four major titans ended with the world being split into four major shards, each eternally trapped in a seasonal state based on the titan who died upon such shard.
The World of Spring
- Nature was given a new birth and state of evolution, where life was gifted greater size and more sentience, along with a struggle for dominance. The duality of Mother Nature's essence was evolved and split, giving birth to two queens and two hiveminds, prey and predator. One took control of the flowering flora and worker insects that aided in pollination. The other took control of carnivorous flora and killer insects. The two hiveminds vied for dominance, and the humanoid races were caught in between such struggle, where they fought to fend against the two factions who threatened to take control of their people to aid their own cause.
The World of Summer
- The world had been cracked and splintered into vast oceans, where the surface was dotted with multiple volcanic landscapes. Major volcanoes culled the world above. The humanoid races fled to the only safe haven they could find from the ashen world above: underwater. They may have witnessed the death of their titan decades ago, but they fear one day that the volcanos may spur the rebirth of the titan. Fearing the legend coming true, the humanoid races constantly seek to make their homes deeper and deeper while also finding a massive amount of a specific magical crystal they could find in the deepest bowels of the sea. This magical crystal, when used in a ritual, is able to tame the wrath of a volcano, but a copious amount is necessary to keep the volcano tamed. The humanoid races live to maintain this peace, but live in fear that they are only prolonging the titan's inevitable return.
The World of Autumn
- A bountiful season comes with a layer of fear. The culling of a great harvest comes along with the culling of the weak. With the rise of every harvest blood moon comes the awakening of a ravenous, uncontrollable hunger beneath every beast in the land. Predator and prey, beasts of all kind, turn feral and monstrous, wreaking havoc on any life form without discrimination. Bloodlust must be satiated and not everyone survives the culling. The humanoid races unaffected by the blood moon can only take shelter and evade the long, terrible night, clinging onto their lives after celebrating their long harvest, which some may see as their possible last night.
The World of Winter
- Death is cold and swift in this harsh world, and only the strong and communal can survive. With reliance on hunting and resource gather alone being insufficient , the humanoid races turned to the magic of undeath as a means of extending survival. It is not common for elders among tribes to be run by the sentient skeletons of the dead, with only their soul intact as the only true living essence. Extending undead lifespans require life essence, and sacrifices are made by the weakest of members to further the life of the most needed. However, some would rather turn to darker magics, refusing to abide to sacrifice for the good of the community. Those who seek out on their own may resort to magics that make one self sustaining, turning them into wendigos. Though they may be stronger and more able to survive the winter, their hunger is insatiable, and the blood of beasts are not always enough to satisfy them. The blood of former kin is the most sought after, and the winter only grows colder with the murder of every passing kin.
Current Premise
- The worlds are dying. It won't be long before each world succumbs to self distraction, and the humanoid races get picked off one by one. However, it comes at an opportune time that a certain faction that had resided in a smaller shard of the broken world managed to make a breakthrough in magical travel. With the ways to travel across worlds being open, each world won't have to rely on their own for longer. Guilds were formed, accommodating members of each world, where the strongest members of each world are able to come together and collaborate to aid in their survival. However, this is easier said than done, with cultures continuously clashing and some worlds being more desperate than others.
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For now, I'm also coining this idea "Shardscape," which is still subject to change! If you read this idea, I would love to hear your thoughts! More art for this is bound to come over time.
The goal of this idea is to create a world where ANYONE can draw inspiration from and have a basis for character creation.
Comments
Hinewguy
Thank you for the detailed input, mate :D And I'm glad this excited yoU! I'll draw inspiration from this if I feel stumped haha
Hinewguy
I'm so glad you like the idea so far! I'll be working more on the building while balancing Red Sand! This might be slower than Red Sand tho
LustDiD Harem
This setting looks amazing!! Quite dark too, but that doesn't need to be a bad thing, depending on the themes you want to focus on. The whole thing heavily reminds me of some forgotten PS2 jewel called Primal, so allow me to describe the game's premise and its world in case it might inspire you any further. Primal's main conflict is between Aetha, goddess of Order, and Abaddon, god of chaos. While the story follows into your typical black & white conflict (Order is good, Chaos is bad xD), the four interconnected demonic realms is by far its most interesting aspect. There is a Nexus hub world in which the spiritual energies of the four kingdoms converge to, in which a guardian bound to a humongous pillar channels the energies of the four realms and redistribute them equally to ensure balance is never broken. Two of these realms are linked to Order, while the other two are devoted to Chaos. Now, each realm is heavily bound into one specific season *and* daytime. Let me give you a summarized description on each one: * Solum is the realm of 'earth'. It's a wild everlasting night landscape covered by a permanent blizzard. Its folk, the Ferai, are large furred demons with harsh manners and heavy hunter-focused culture, but they respect order and the authority of their elder and leaders. Their culture showcases a weird blend of Roman architecture with primal hunting habits. * Aqua is the spring world, and its basically a small archipelago and a huge unlimited ocean. The Undine are mer-like folks who built their civilization underwater, their architecture is as elegant and Atlantis-style advanced as you can imagine. They're chill peaceful people who just want to be in peace. * Aetha is a gothic autumn-like grey landscape of sharp mountains and bare trees. It's populated by the Wraith, vampiric-like grotesque folks who live under a tyrannical regime. Noblemen have full priviledges and isolate themselves in fastuous palaces, celebrating masquerades and feasts, while their people suffer from famine, illnesses and constant abuse from their masters. * Volca is a summer-based desert, from which a titanic volcano raises up. The realm of tthe metal-skinned bird-like Djinn is built right into their crater, since they're inmune to fire. Djinn is a pharaonic culture, their own king and queen constantly fight each other for power and domain. That's basically it. I hope it helps you somehow!
V1l3lurk
I've lost count of how many times I've read over this post, and I keep getting more intrigued every time I finish the last sentence. This is one helluva setup with some killer premise potential to boot; it also brings up some questions, like: how did this fifth faction in the smaller shard end up residing in it? What magical shenaniganry occurred for that to happen, and is that smaller shard related to a specific titan? Maybe all of em? Maybe none? Obviously I'm not expecting immediate answers; you just recently started developing this world, but the setting so far makes me look forward to finding out more in the future. I really like how every realm has their own kinds of dangers, from wild creatures, to natural disasters, to just humans taking desperate actions. Throw that on top of travelers new to those realms, and having to see that their trained mad skills won't work like back home? Perfect for conflict and character development, love that. I'm probably overthinking this, but similarly to how each world is varied in how the humanoid inhabitants cope and survive, I have to wonder if you also plan on these "guildrunners" being viewed in different ways. Positive, negative, intimidating, in pure awe...the options could be widespread. Likewise, I personally love the idea of those travelers having preconceptions of the new worlds they travel to, only to be blown away upon arrival and having to readjust their mindset. Not just because it's the right thing to do...but because it might just save their life in the process. (Okay imma shut up now, this response is too longXD cool tentative title idea btw, how'd ya come up with it?)
