"We had always known that we would not be forever. We could see all pasts and all futures, and we could see which of those was most likely to be the true path of time. This "absolute time" was what we were created to control, to ensure that the sands of time would always flow in one direction and never loop back.
"We could see the futures of many civilizations both new and old and the future of the dimension-travelling Altersaeans and space-weaving Spaelculans, but we did not see one for us. In all the threads of fate and each of the grains of sand that held a destiny, we did not have one. No endless expanse of black or white, but a simple nothing- we were fated to never have a future.
"We could not prevent this, and we could not flee- after all, without our home realm or Tilisnet, there was nowhere we could survive in- no realm held the exact conditions that could sustain our beings. More so was that none of us were able to warn Avaas or Seclir of Nix's hand in our destruction- Tilisnet said that it was not our place to do so, as we were never made to defy time- only protect it- so we could only accept our fates and live while we still could.
"Now, Tilisnet had created us to have some semblance of free will- more than the Spaelculans, but less than the Altersaeans, as he foresaw that it would one day be necessary that at least some of us would be able to sever ties with him. This had also meant that we were capable of arguing, but some of us did not want to and clung onto the hope that there was one path that could lead to the preservation of Boriasonde. Some of us argued that this was folly and that absolute time cannot be defied, and that we must endure for surely we will persevere in some other form.
"I was part of the latter group. I knew we had no future as the Tilemgians of Boriasonde and the Peoples of Time, and I too feared that The Tearing was our end, but a part of me knew that we would change, that at least a few of us would survive and become something new.
"I was correct, but there was no joy in this as my old friends that were of the former group are all deceased. So, so many of my brethren are dead and cannot be brought back even if Tilisnet were to return and Boriasonde to be rebuilt. Those that have died had their clockwork hearts be torn apart by the tendrils of the abyss or shattered by the piercing shockwaves from the very fabric of Boriasonde's reality being torn apart.
"If their hearts were still intact, they had a chance of being restored, but there is nothing left of them besides memories, and even those are becoming fainter with each day that passes.
"We are scattered throughout this existence- some flung into a distant future, some in the present, and some in the past; some were fortunate enough to make their ways onto planets with strong magic that could preserve us though not save us, and some were able to muster enough power to travel to Derizaren or Anarezen-
"-But our fate has been sealed, and what was once our greatest power has become our greatest detriment.
"The Altersaeans are meant to only remember for as long as the celestial body they guard exists. When that body is destroyed through unnatural means, they are "reset". The Spaelculans gardually forget as time passes as they were never meant to remember every detail of the Lower Realms' lives and worlds. Us Tilemgians were special in that we were never meant to forget, as this inherently violated the duty we were created to perform. We could not suffer from memory overload due to our close bond to time itself, which made us the exceptions to the rules all else in existence must abide by.
"Thus, our memories were our pride until The Tearing. With The Tearing and our scattering throughout time and the High Realms and Lower planes, we have been reduced to a lesser form for the lack of a better term. Our memories that count to almost an infinite amount of years are now a disease, and these memories cause us to become sickly as our now near-mortal minds cannot handle the burden of infinity.
"Many of us have both willingly and unwillingly forgotten some of these memories so that we could preserve our lifespans, some have also gone as far as to give up some of their abilities such as foresight.
"But the remainder groups...they still cling tightly to these memories, as they believe that to abandon them is to abandon our duties. They feel mortality so keenly in their sickness and yet they are stubborn in believing that we are still infinite. I envy them in that regard, but they too will die if they continue to live in this way.
"But enough of wallowing in our misery and mourning what was lost. The existence of the Tilemgians is now in the past and we cannot change this- but we can change ourselves. We now can evolve as the drakes on the elven planet and the crystalline structures on the pseudo-planet have done.
"Though we have lost much, we have been reborn to a trial by flame, and I hold hope that we will endure and become a new species that will carry on the duties of time while being both Eternaveilan and Mortal."
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I'll release the drafts for the alternate versions of what this was going to be later, and yes this story is supposed to be a lot shorter because it'd otherwise reiterate what was already stated in the other High Realms posts.
Previous High Realms lore posts- Derizaren(Spaelcul): https://at.tumblr.com/elvaria-project/universal-lore-part-1-the-high-realmsspaelcul/910zw5urt2xv
Anarexen(Altersae): https://at.tumblr.com/elvaria-project/universal-lore-part-1-the-high-realmsaltersae/1far5pd63wga
Civalthax(Voiskana): https://at.tumblr.com/elvaria-project/universal-lore-part-1-the-high-realmsvoiskana/w8dawu2zblez
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Taglist for writing-
@aneci
If anyone else would like to join the taglist, feel free to DM me or send in an ask! I will also have a separate taglist for art posts.
Hikarina got the shit going so now more kingdoms will pop into existence in the nest 60,000 years
Åsthenar's island keeps moving and merges with a giant mountain range, so that's their territory and they call it the Gyvorkal Mountains Fulegria becomes Fulegor Adontium but still has their crisis The Hikarinians and Yūregians gave hope to remaining undecided survivors of The Fall that they could find a place in the world, so some began to sail out to the other continents they saw hints of from across the oceans Some feared that those landmasses from across the sea were only islands, and so held off on sailing until someone from the leaving groups returned Some Lunarisians travelled north to the frozen landmass they saw, learning to wield bitter frost to create icy paths through sea They never came back and some hope was lost, but more decided to sail away, believing the northerners had found land The frozen north became Halinskor, and the kingdom that would be established Yukiosa, the kingdom of ice Some Urthalisans sailed east to the continent saturated in elemental energies, learning to tame the capricious sea They created large boats which they propelled with their power, and found new land they called Jin'hu-Guo, establishing Walekria, the kingdom of water Unlike the Yukiosans, after only a thousand years, they came back for the remaining survivors on the now named continent of Yinorael, bringing fleets to ferry them to the elemental continent. Many went with the Walekrians except for a small group of Urthalisans that wished to find their own way, and this lot sailed south to the continent of Kavathanar, finding the half elves that had isolated themselves for many thousands upon thousands of years They chose to join these people in their mysterious ways and over generations would become indistinguishable from them, but never went back to Yinorael Those that went with the Walekrians would gain new power as they traversed the continent, bringing with them new kingdoms. Some Lunarisians found a light in the caves of which they followed to find abundances of minerals, and so they called the land Cevris Astal and established the subterranean kingdom of earth, Föllen Alatsa
Some Solarians felt the heat of magma that reminded them of the sun they once loved, and so they called the scorched land Emorscal and established the kingdom of flame, Flaerna
Some Urthalisans travelled through cavernous darkness along a river that seemed to breathe and found a vast cave of crystals that radiated with the glow of Asurei, and so they established the kingdom of crystal bearing the name of Lustarise, a name shared by the cave system that birthed the kingdom
Those that followed the Flaernans but did not embrace fire traveled northeast and discovered the arid desert, yet they were not satisfied with the scorching heat it brought There was no other land that they felt a call to, and this one they felt was closest to the sun they once embraced, and so they called the land Desaebla and established the kingdom of sand, Dalirna But not all of those that came to the new continent had found a place where they belonged, so they would be guided by observant beings to lands and powers they could call their own Cirania, a benevolent being among the Dysheraln descended from the Dak-Shan of old, decided to lead one of the outlier groups to the land of forests and grasslands, teaching them to embrace the powers of nature despite it not being a legitimate element, and so this land of green and the new kingdom of nature would both be named Floernia The Sky Lords, the four elves that fused with powerful air elementals over a hundred thousand years ago, would come down from the air lands above to lead another of the outlier groups to the land above the clouds, teaching them to embrace the sky instead of the distant sun and moon, and so this land far above would be named Syklari, and the kingdom of air, Avianaen, would be established The final outlier group would find their place in the continent a century later, still clinging to their roots of celestial power from the solar and lunar legacy that died after The Fall Two beings would descend from the dark of night and light of stars to bring the group past a dense forest to the north- Sarkath, The Celestial One, and Qilanar, The Black Serpent They would each bless one half of the group, with Sarkath granting his half the ability to reach towards the stars once more and draw power from stellar energies, and Qilanar granting her half the ability to pierce through the darkness of space and draw power from the inky blackness that embraced the stars These elves would call the land Qisara Kranor and establish the kingdom of Zodiana, worshipping the wyrm-like beings almost as if they were gods Elemental energies still spread throughout the world and Asurei still tainted the atmosphere, so the elves would continue to diverge and gain their own distinct adaptations and appearances to their lands until few resembled the Solarians, Lunarisians, and Urthalisans of the past(except Yūregians and Föllen Alatsans still looked mostly like Lunarisians since they didn't need to change much) However, as thousands of years passed and each kingdom gained their separate identities, they would forget their blood ties from the ages long past to reach for individual futures This would mark the start of the modern era, but also the start of war- a concept the elves had not contemplated since the Dak-Shan were defeated over eight hundred thousand years ago in the distant forgotten past.
When observing the order of realms in this existence, it is fair to say that the High Realms are roughly in the same level as The Realm of Endless White, but most denizens of either will never encounter the other.
This realm is, as it is aptly named, pure white. There is no civilization there, and when first entering it may seem that there is simply nothing there at all. It is simply a realm of expansive ground that has no variation in topography- but there is "life", or rather the remnants of life.
To explain the Realm of Endless White, you must first know of the Realm of Skybeasts, where all dead from the Lower Planes must pass through first before they reach the White.
Whether they have sinned or were gracious in life, or were mere children or elderly before their deaths, all life of the Lower Planes is sent here and enters through a doorway known as Telvorshei Ermelorisk, or "From Where We Emerged". No living being*¹ has ever crossed through this entryway or has gazed through it to describe its appearance- but for those nearing death and those who have already died, on both ways there is only a white light within the doorway. High Realms races are unaware of the existence of this realm and none have ever entered it*².
The doorway is located in a fixed spot within the Realm of Skybeasts, but whether the entry into a realm of death is a peaceful or horrifying ordeal is a matter of your own luck. As anyone who has died would quickly find out, the Realm of Skybeasts, also known as The Plateau, is filled with strange beasts known as skybeasts, and the vast majority of them are incredibly aggressive and possess a great many ways to kill a soul, including various venoms, spikes, and teeth.
If a soul did not get mauled by a skybeast as soon as they emerged, they will very quickly also realize that in contrast with the inviting clouds that create the ground of the realm, there are a great many eyes that dot the sky in all sorts of colours and forms that a mortal never would've thought existed. On a calm period, these eyes are inactive and appear to not be present(thought if you look closely they are closed). On an active period, they will randomly emit blasts of energy that can disintegrate any soul they land on. In the distance there is also a giant gaping maw that opens during these active periods and vacuums up souls that happen to be near it.
If you manage to survive this and travel in any direction away from the maw, you will come across rudimentary shelters and outposts surrounded by fences made of various Skybeast parts.
These are the only major signs of civilization and a souls' best chance of making it to the Realm of Endless White.
The outposts are roughly the size of a town and they have very simplistic names, with the inhabitants are a mix of races from across the Lower Planes. There is no major language barrier as souls appear knowing a common language along with whatever is their native tongue, but abstract ideas that are unique to specific worlds are not automatically learned by souls from worlds without them.
As for the condition of the people and whether or not they can die, people who die at the age of adulthood for their kind will appear in the Plateau at their peak strength in life and with whatever they had on their person when they died(if they were stabbed or shot they carry the thing that was stuck into them too), but are incapable of learning new spells from other souls. Children and adolescents will appear at the age they died but will be able to grow up to the age their species considers as mature and can learn new spells. The only ways to permanently die in the realm are to be consumed by the maw, be completely eaten by a skybeast, or be blasted into smithereens by the Eyes. Souls that suffer a temporary death may slowly regenerate if a part of them remains or will reappear at Telvorshei Ermelorisk.
Life in these settlements is considered somewhat tribal, with the main concerns being food(appetites are significantly slower than in life), shelter, hunting and resource gathering, and weapon crafting. Some settlements that are close to each other will choose to specialize in weapon crafting, some in building, and some in medicine. Souls that are known to have a violent nature that cannot be persuaded to become skybeast hunters are kicked out of the settlements and left to fend for themselves.
Banditry does exist in the Plateau but is rare as some settlements may have domesticated the more tame skybeasts. Whether or not a settlement is raided also depends on the actual species(plural) in the settlement and what kind of technology the people have, so a bandit group composed of species without magic would not try to go against a settlement composed of species with magic or with technology sufficient enough to compensate for a lack of magic.
Now, the Plateau does have a sort of leadership, albeit very distant from the regular souls.
The beings are not of any race among the souls of the Plateau, so souls that have encountered them before(and have the concept of divinity on their world) view them as strange gods. Those from races without the concept of divinity have two different views, one being that they are of a long extinct race and have evolved after spending many uncountable years in the Plateau, and the second that they are actually native to the Plateau but evolved to become more intelligent than the skybeasts.
The leaders themselves are known as the 7 Elders by souls and are split into two groups: The Supreme Ones and The Fragments.
From what little souls have heard about them, their names have the prefix "The Elder of" and are something akin to Many Eyes, Many Arms, Many Legs, Fragmented Life, Fragmented Death, Fragmented Time, and Fragmented Space. The maw in the land and the eyes in the sky are part of what used to be an 8th Elder known as Many Mouths, according to souls that have been in the realm from the first few thousand deaths in existence. Now, the 8th is known as The Devourer of the Plateau.
The Elders live in a very out of place citadel with geometric patterning and a large central chamber that few have ever seen, and it is generally accepted that the Elders are strange in that they have never left the Plateau.
Souls are able to leave the Plateau whenever they hit a kill quota of skybeasts, and this number tends to be higher for those that have committed something their society considers to be negative and lower for younger souls that couldn't actually commit anything considered a crime, but it isn't uncommon for souls to have quotas that are unreasonable for what they have done in life.
The Elders, though, have been present for as long as anyone knows, unable to pass on or perhaps unwilling, as the Devourer has consumed some trillions of skybeasts but has yet to disappear.
And so the focus must return to the Realm of Endless White, also known as The White or The Expanse, to complete this description.
When a soul has reached their kill quota in the Plateau, they will appear in The White in simple garb considered to be casual or sleepwear from the species they came from. In The White there is no need to eat or sleep, only to just exist. Desires such as lust or greed do not exist, and so the personalities of the souls that make it there are very watered down. Some souls choose to lay down and sleep until the end of everything, and some others choose to travel around and learn of the many races in existence with there being no skybeasts to fear anymore.
Curiously, some Altersaeans, Spaelculans, and Tilemgians have appeared in this realm before, but not many of them.
Now, the only way to permanently kill a High Realms being is to slay them in their home realm under specific circumstances and methods, which will lead to two outcomes for them: one is two simply cease to exist, the other is to appear in The White. Due to The Tearing, there are a fair amount of Tilemgians there, but all the High Realms races that appear will lose their connection to their creators and thus their abilities, with some also facing severe memory loss.
Voiskanans are believed to also follow these outcomes, however what few Voiskanans that are seen to make it to The White only maintain their existence for a few seconds before fading into nothingness, as their souls will always be incomplete and thus return to their origins.
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¹- The most immediately noticeable case is with Yūregian undead, which are technically not alive but also aren't fully dead. A Yūregian necromancer can raise a body if it's intact enough, but on the soul end, the closer a Yūregian soul gets to reaching the quota, the harder it is to raise them into undeath. If the soul manages to meet the quota, they can no longer be raised as The White fully severs the connection between the Lower Planes and Realms of Death. However, this almost never happens as necromancers are fast acting enough to prevent a soul from being in the Plateau for more than a week. As to whether the necromancers know of the Plateau, the memories of it are wiped from the undead individual and are restored temporarily each time they return to it.
²- Tilemgians may become the first exception to this as they are now semi-mortal after the Tearing of Boriasonde, so it's possible that a few that don't end up ceasing to exist after death will end up in the Plateau. Alternatively, the descendant races of them that are scattered throughout existence could reach total mortality close enough that at some point they'd be admitted to the realm as any other mortal race would.
There will be a short story posted at some point that will explain the origins of the Elders, so look out for it! This post will be linked to it too.
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Taglist for writing-
@aneci
If anyone else would like to join the taglist, feel free to DM me or send in an ask! I will also have a separate taglist for art posts.
heya! I don't know if you celebrate but:
merry christmas❣️🎁 and a happy new year!✨
Hello!!! I don't really celebrate but happy holidays to you too 🎉!
If you're from NA I hope you're doing well and keeping warm these past days, the weather is brutal right now-
Before the creation of this existence, there were four beings of immense power that dwelled in the vast darkness.
The first was named Tilisnet, who was born in the previous existence, being reborn every five cycles. He had power over the flow of time, able to bend and shape it to his whims, and he could repair or halt its flow as he wished.
The second was named Seclir, who was born near when the previous existence had ended, being reborn every eight cycles. He had power over the fabric of space, weaving the energies within it to create stable planes and quell chaos.
The third was named Avaas, who was born during the start of the first cycle and existence, and was far older than Tilisnet and Seclir. He had power over worlds and realms, able to travel between them as he wished, ensuring that the cycles could continue without issue.
The fourth had no permanent name, as he was reborn at the start of every cycle, and thus was referred to as Nix, meaning 'nothing' in a long lost tongue. He was the void and abyss, his death and rebirth ending and continuing cycles, creating a nothingness for time and space to turn into something. Without Nix, the flow of time cannot exist and space will be torn apart.
Normally, Nix would have been found by Avaas, as it was how it went all the other cycles, but this time, Avaas had chosen not to search. He believed that Nix would fare fine alone, as Tilisnet and Seclir were able to control their powers and prepare for the birth of a new existence. Nix, at first, found this to be odd, but let it be, as he assumed that Avaas would look for him at a later time. Though as more and more chaos was muted and turned into peace, he felt betrayed, believing that Avaas had chosen to ignore him despite Avaas having searched for him in every other cycle. These feelings of betrayal festered into anger as more time went by and the existence was created, developing an anger towards the light of the young stars that now flooded the skies, thinking that Avaas wanted to destroy the nothingness of Nix in this cycle.
In retaliation, Nix created an ultimate nothingness that became a hidden realm that even Avaas couldn't travel to, located far beyond the reach of the light of the stars, and there he learnt to turn his nothingness into something, with the something being the embodiment of his anger and feelings of betrayal, infusing this something with the chaotic energies of nothingness. These energies would come to be known as abyssal energies, and this hidden realm would be known as the Civalthax, the Abyss.
Nix continued to tamper with his abilities and the abyssal energies, learning to condense them into shapes and bending the energies to his will. He wielded them as Tilisnet would with the flow of time and as skillfully as Seclir would weave the other energies of space, and yet still avoided the eternally watchful gaze of Avaas, whom he still felt resentment towards. With the combination of the abyssal energies and his emotions, he created Nythokra, the first of the beings of the abyss.
Nythokra was a being of pure darkness, its appearance being a twisted image of Nix's own self. Nix was horrified of Nythokra, fearing that if he continued further down his path of anger and went on to destroy the light, everything else would fall along with it, leaving only him and his horrid creation. However, a little whisper from within the depths of his mind assured his doubts, as it was either destroy all or be destroyed, and he didn't want to disappear and be forgotten, unable to be reborn in the next cycle.
His hidden realm of Civalthax kept expanding as the millenniums passed by, the abyssal energies inside of it slowly twisting themselves into corporeal forms that eventually came close to being "living" beings, of which Nix named Abyssal Lords, while in the new existence, which had developed and grown considerably, the creation of worlds that could harbour life begun.
Nix watched one world in particular with great interest, one that was entirely dry but still seemed habitable, even after it had sustained three asteroid impacts. He envied that Tilisnet and Seclir could create such worlds and allow them to have life, and so he used his own few powers to create a small seed, infusing it with the tiniest bit of abyssal energies, and sent it to the planet, hoping that he would be able to create proper life or at least influence its evolution.*¹
Nythokra watched this alongside Nix and spoke for the first time, asking Nix if there were other ways for life to be created, and if true life could exist in Civalthax. Nix had no answer, and he did not know, but it left a single thought in his head: "Can I make life?" As he continued to watch the development of the planet and observed the evolution of its life, he began to obsess over creating similar, but perfect beings, wanting to spread his influence and gain the ability to create something directly from his nothingness.
Nythokra, being a twisted image of Nix and the reflection of his emotions, was compelled to aid Nix in the process, gathering the Abyssal Lords to find a way to make more pure beings that had solid forms and were alive. Though, they struggled, as they did not fully understand how life worked, and neither did Nix, who was only able to observe living beings from afar in all of his lives, and he, Avaas, Tilisnet, and Seclir were embodiments of the aspects of the Laws of Order, thus not making them able to be considered living.
Regardless of the many failures, they still continued, destroying and creating over and over, using abyssal energies and manipulating nothingness, even resorting to having to steal some of the energies Tilisnet and Seclir constantly created.
Eventually, they succeeded, creating the first living being of the abyss by forming the combined spatial energies into a solid being and making one of the Abyssal Lords mate with it, as was observed with the life on the planet. An unstable lifeform it was, but still a lifeform nonetheless. Though the being was corrupted in the process, it gave birth to a being that lived and breathed and could grow, and so, Nix named the being Voiska, though the being of spatial energies died. When Voiska was considered an adult- or at least based on the guessing of Nix, Nythokra, and the Abyssal Lords- they were given the chance to choose a mate in order to create more living beings in Civalthax. Voiska chose an Abyssal Lord named Kazilv, and with gender being nonexistent among the Abyssal Lords, the mating was successful once more, and this time, twins were conceived.
Nythokra and Nix decided to steal more of the spatial energies that Tilisnet and Seclir created, but found that they had both created their own realms and their own living beings using their energies, leading them to channel their energies to the realms directly rather than let it flow throughout the existence.
Nix was ambitious, determined to create more life like Voiska, and decided that he should make use of the instability that the flow of time constantly had, redirecting small channels of the energies in Tilisnet's realm of Boriasonde to Civalthax.*³ Going unnoticed by Tilisnet, he deemed his plan to be a success and created more beings of spatial energies for the Abyssal Lords be mated with, leading to more life like Voiska being born.
Nythokra named the elf-like beings Voiskanans after Voiska, and Nix established a kingdom for Voiska to rule, which would come to be known as Voiskana, the kingdom of the Abyss. However, seeing the life that so easily was created by Tilisnet and Seclir made Nix envious, reminding him of why he had started all of this, and he felt spite and anger towards Avaas once more, leading him to start using the Voiskanans to achieve his goal of destroying all of the light in existence, wanting to leave only him and his creations to roam around in his reclaimed nothingness.
This desire for the return of nothingness still burns within Nix to this day, fueled by his fear of being destroyed and by his thoughts that he had been betrayed and abandoned, with the Voiskanans having conquered and destroyed many worlds and stars in his name.
Now, Voiskana has opened rifts into the world Nix had long observed, named Elvaria, slowly planning to corrupt it from the inside out.
But, only time will tell what the fate of this existence will be, and one can only hope that Nix will see reason someday…
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¹- This seed did indeed influence the evolution of life on Elvaria, but not in the way Nix intended. It instead led to the growth of the ancient druidic race the Partoa Elva fought near the end of the Dust Era.
²- The kingdoms of Solaris, Lunaris, and Urthalis have by then been established.
³- The redirecting of the energies was the major influence that lead to the collapse of Boriasonde, unbeknownst to most including Nix.
Proper post scheduled to 12:30 PM EST, see you guys :)
this will be relevant soon :)
This is a note to myself Elementals- foreign beings from the elemental planes Primordials- beings that sprung from Elvaria when elemental energies started bleeding into the world Elementals aren't like fully sentient beings from the view of a regular person, they're more than that but sort of in a lower dimension way(?), like if people think in 3D(concept of length width and depth so having a tangible idea of space and being limited to what can be seen from a point on a 3d object like a globe), elementals think more like 2d where they're missing the idea of "limits" and inherently will not understand strictly 3d concepts unless they fuse with something 3d(so like half elves on Elvaria just think normally but with a different perspective of existence compared to before they became half elves) Abstract ideas to us are not abstract to elementals, that's how they think normally and vice versa with regular beings
They're not simple and have different needs than Lower Realm beings so they don't need ideas like distinct cultures or individuality, but rather the desire to spread influence Bringing elemental energies to Elvaria to them was extending a gift to the elves and embracing the world's "potential" as it now had the energy(asurei) to "reach" and break through limits, while the elves at the time saw it as making their problems worse and the elemental energy as bleeding into the world instead of a gift for them to prosper The elves in the modern day think of elementals as cryptic and foreign beings but elemental energies are now widely used and there is definitely more appreciation towards it
Primordials are not that smart and were never meant to be, they're basically when things in the world have the spark of "potential" and elemental energies will seep into them to create a core in something, which will spring out a primordial from similar structures(ie volcanoes created the fire giants but the main core was in Embylviska) Since they lack the kind of spark elementals have, they're very simple and think like animals even if their thoughts are "3d" Half-elementals are right in between, since by technicality they're from the world but were created from outside means that didn't come from the elementals. Their intelligence also varies since it's determined by whoever created them
So what is the "potential"? Honestly I have no idea yet, but for now the idea is ability to adapt or if it's at a certain threshold that makes it distinct from others of the same kind The ability to adapt doesn't necessarily have to have been there from the start, it can be triggered from a specific event that gives everything in the world "potential" and that "potential" will attract elementals to it naturally Not every world in the Lower Realm will have "potential", so not every world has an elemental presence. There still may be elements, but they're just regular elements like in the real world Half elves aren't necessarily elves with more "potential" than others, but rather what's most convenient for an elemental seeking to assimilate because of its core losing energy
Whenever I think about advancement of the elves compared to real life human technological advancement, I feel like it's an unfair comparison. Like wifi? Kind of useless when you can just say someone's name and out pops a circle that projects their image like a video call. Same issue with phones too. Cars? They have magic. They'll have hovercars before us even if their technological(not magical) advancement level is behind us.
Arthur C. Clarke may have said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” in the context of sci-fi, but I feel like high fantasy should take advantage of thinking more on how naturally occurring magic would impact technological advancement. Maybe technological advancement is not worth it when there's widely useable spells at everyone's fingertips, maybe technological advancement only happens to make lives more convenient and slowly but surely magic usage dies out in favour of tech, maybe people invent things for fun but never use them for practical purposes, maybe magic drives advancement so that it's completely incomparable to human tech.
Too much thinking for me and thinking too much on technology kills the high fantasy for me, but maybe it doesn't to others. Maybe high science fantasy is or will become a thing in the future and future writers are more willing to delve into magical advancement vs nonmagical advancement.
Wow reading elder scrolls lore has done no favours to my writing, I think I'm getting more incomprehensible each time I come up with lore or something substantial to post about.
I don't think I'm going to do fourth wall breaks or any absurd time travel shit unless I feel like it really benefits the lore and doesn't break the pre-established rules of the existence(or would not even be possible because of High Realm shenenigans)
If anyone needs a less absurd version of any specific post, please don't be afraid to ask on the posts or in my ask box.
yo! do you have a tag list for your writing/worldbuilding posts? absolutely love your stuff but i cannot keep up b/c of the amount if people i follow haha
Hello and thank you so much! I don't have a tag list yet but I can add some from here on out for art and writing posts 👐
This is a note to myself Elementals- foreign beings from the elemental planes Primordials- beings that sprung from Elvaria when elemental energies started bleeding into the world Elementals aren't like fully sentient beings from the view of a regular person, they're more than that but sort of in a lower dimension way(?), like if people think in 3D(concept of length width and depth so having a tangible idea of space and being limited to what can be seen from a point on a 3d object like a globe), elementals think more like 2d where they're missing the idea of "limits" and inherently will not understand strictly 3d concepts unless they fuse with something 3d(so like half elves on Elvaria just think normally but with a different perspective of existence compared to before they became half elves) Abstract ideas to us are not abstract to elementals, that's how they think normally and vice versa with regular beings
They're not quite simple and have different needs than Lower Realm beings so they don't need ideas like distinct cultures or individuality, but rather the desire to spread influence Bringing elemental energies to Elvaria to them was extending a gift to the elves and embracing the world's "potential" as it now had the energy(asurei) to "reach" and break through limits, while the elves at the time saw it as making their problems worse and the elemental energy as bleeding into the world instead of a gift for them to prosper The elves in the modern day think of elementals as cryptic and foreign beings but elemental energies are now widely used and there is definitely more appreciation towards it
Primordials are not that smart and were never meant to be, they're basically when things in the world have the spark of "potential" and elemental energies will seep into them to create a core in something, which will spring out a primordial from similar structures(ie volcanoes created the fire giants but the main core was in Embylviska) Since they lack the kind of spark elementals have, they're very simple and think like animals even if their thoughts are "3d" Half-elementals are right in between, since by technicality they're from the world but were created from outside means that didn't come from the elementals. Their intelligence also varies since it's determined by whoever created them
So what is the "potential"? Honestly I have no idea yet, but for now the idea is ability to adapt or if it's at a certain threshold that makes it distinct from others of the same kind The ability to adapt doesn't necessarily have to have been there from the start, it can be triggered from a specific event that gives everything in the world "potential" and that "potential" will attract elementals to it naturally Not every world in the Lower Realm will have "potential", so not every world has an elemental presence. There still may be elements, but they're just regular elements like in the real world Half elves aren't necessarily elves with more "potential" than others, but rather what's most convenient for an elemental seeking to assimilate because of its core losing energy
A fantasy worldbuilding project focusing mainly on elves. This account has been retired, my posting account is now @ilisteria
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