(source)

“Your art isn’t valued by the number of notes you get” okay but. If you spent 6 hours baking a cake for a party, but no one at the party eats your cake, it’s still disappointing.

The Current State of Elvaria

Ember War is over, everyone is sad and trying to bring back order but some people try to celebrate because no more war So because Salgirtus is dead and had no kids, the throne now passes to his younger sister, so it's now Queen Lidisina Mirankis Zhonal of Zodiana Leonnox didn't want to deal with the humiliation of Flaerna getting its ass handed to it and also didn't want to deal with the political fallout so he abdicates his throne to his cousin, now known as King Garaxyran Alaystav Kolvastran of Flaerna With the old Treaty of Elorinar having been violated many times over, a new treaty is drafted by Queen Lidisina and the representatives sent by they various kingdoms around Elorinar in the hopes that peace will last longer, called the Treaty of Elemortia Floernia, Dalirna, Zodiana(by default for obvious reasons), Walekria, and Föllen Alatsa immediately vote to ratify it because they're sick of war(Warring Era lasted for 22,500 years) Offers are extended to Åskorhal, Yukiosa, Lustarise, Jivankova, and Avianaen(they were found around the end of the Ember War), Queen Vethørigya of Åskorhal basically tells Lidisina to fuck off with the terms but Yukiosa and Avianaen would agree to ratify the treaty

Jivankova isn't even visible to the other kingdoms because of their weird ass barrier that makes Kavathanar "disappear" so they don't have to deal with other kingdoms Lustarise just doesn't care, they don't sign and return to isolation but send some of their mages to Dalirna for a bit to help them rebuild and recover due to similar ideals regarding the pursuit of knowledge Flaerna is pretty much forced into it because A, they don't have the forces to bother trying to fight it off, B, they kinda started the war, and C, the other kingdoms are in the position of being able to straight up invade if needed to force a signature from Flaerna So what made Flaerna and Åskorhal so against signing it? They'd be forced to demilitarize(this term specifically aimed at Flaerna), and should any kingdom be attacked by an outside kingdom, all the kingdoms in the alliance detailed by the treaty must get involved to quickly end the war and quell the threat through war Basically, if shit happens, they get another continent spanning war and Åskorhal doesn't want to deal with that The Military Sect of the Scorching Council is dissolved and all of the soldiers in the Flaernan military are honourably discharged, with the ones that fled returning to Flaerna to help rebuild So now the kingdoms that ratified the treaty are in a massive alliance called Elemortia, or the Order of the Elemental Kingdoms, and they also have to help each other rebuild which also includes setting aside what happened in the Ember War so The Beef™ doesn't create yet another war

Lidisina also creates the Starsworn Council in Zodiana to remove some ruler duties from herself because now that war is over she has to deal with a whole lot of shit and also because, well, her immediate family is dead so she doesn't want to solo rule or appoint a singular advisor she may have to marry to for public image

She also sails to Yinorael as a second thought realizing that it would be a good idea to make the two kingdoms over there enter a Non-Aggression pact so war doesn't break out there since it was terrible in Elorinar Both Hikarina and Yūregina choose to ratify it, but on terse agreement, so now there's the Order of Yiagilia but it's not a very stable order Good enough for now though So now it's year 233 post-Ember War, what's going on now? Yūregina, in a bid to try to stop the plague, has been experimenting with necromancy since it turns out that dying and being reanimated does actually stop the progression of the plague, but of course, no reproduction(if anyone wants further elaboration on how Yūregian necromancy works and why it's only them that can do it, just ask in my ask blog Consulting the bored Altersaean) and Hikarina doesn't like it at all They're still at their trade disputes though There's a running problem along trade cities(usually on borders of kingdoms) where a strange shadowy elf-like being is sowing chaos in the cities and capital cities are on high alert The Fractured Span, a section of the sea floor that's basically collapsing in on itself, is, well, collapsing in on itself and Walekrian researchers are trying to figure out wtf is happening Yukiosan researchers are still researching strange relics that are out of place in the technological skill of the modern and Classical Kingdoms(as far as they know because they don't know about big brain Estellis) Jivankova only opens up their barrier every 5,000 years for a week at a time so right now there has only been one expedition from outside kingdoms to document and understand the lands of Kavathanar and the Jivankira Elthir, missives are sent between kingdoms to exchange information about each other Hikarina just has a little cultural dispute with some people petitioning for the capital city of Arenlia to have the name changed to Punjaranm-Ka-Sanhar, as Hikarinian culture has diverged much from Solarian culture. The royal family has left the name as is to keep as a reminder of the legacy of the Three Kingdoms And of course, some brewing political problems in Föllen Alatsa because classist divides. So basically, Caldivelle is the only city at the mouth of the caves and sprawls along the sides and ground of the cave mouth. The higher up you go, the more wealthy the people are, with some manors built into the cave walls or protruding from them. Closer down you go and into the cave are wealthy craftsmen, and anything further than surface level overshadowed by extravagant buildings from the upper echelons of society are mostly upper middle class dwellings. Even further down are workers. Some people have openly questioned the nobility and royalty about wtf is with the very obvious divides, but they've been dismissed so far since there's no one actually homeless and people live pretty okay lives because of employment and shelter programs to account for a slowly growing population. Very little social mobility though, especially for those that come from the Lower Gem Deposit Tunnels. Caleivelle's Alhiana Alatsi residents especially take issue as if the tunnels collapse one day, they all go down. There isn't a way out other than lifts and long winded routes and a small amount of teleporters, and there aren't many Alhiana living in Caldivelle to relay their complaints to

Universal Lore- Part 1, The High Realms(Spaelcul- Derizaren)

"I do not hide knowledge from my people, the Spaelculans, as there is not much to hide and not much very relevant to the duties we preform in maintaining this existence. "You may think of us as weavers or artisans, if that makes it simpler to understand what we are and what we do. All the fabric and tarps that mortals use for their clothing or tents come from the work of weavers, and the work of artisans give others the ability to build complex structures with the processed goods.

"In the same way societies and civilizations are built on the backs of craftsmen, the elaborate 'tapestry' all celestial bodies rest upon is created by us. This tapestry is very durable, but the fine threads it is built with are still fine threads even when woven together.

"When these threads begin to snap from the "weight" things in existence upon the location possess, it creates gaps that you may know as black holes. These are not created from the natural processes of stars, so they are not true black holes, but rather better described as spatial rifts. They function about the same as black holes, so there is no need to keep that distinction in mind, as you are not one of my people that have the ability to fix such rifts.

"Why I am telling you this?

"To put it simply, we, or rather I, did not always need my own people to aid me in the repairs of spatial rifts. In the many, many past Cycles, I was able to very easily manage the opening and subsequent sealing of the rifts myself. They occurred in very predictable locations and were few and far between that I could anticipate the rifts before they happened. The few that formed in an unexpected location were manageable as well.

"But in this Cycle, for some strange reason, these rifts form in completely absurd locations that I'd never have been able to predict. Locations where across the whole of existence, there is nothing that can feasibly pierce through the plane so violently and suddenly and in multiple locations at once- and I have witnessed the birth and end of an innumerable amount of universes.

"In the first 4 or so billion years of this Cycle, it was random but I could still handle it on my own, though it stretched my presence thin in the later end of that period. I refer to this as the Heralding Eon, a time where it was unusual but it was not a concern to me yet, but I now know it was a warning of more tumultuous times ahead. "By the next 5 billion years, repairing the rifts no longer was a task I could handle alone, and so I looked towards my kin Avaas' creations as inspiration, creating the Spaelculans by imparting traces of my essence into spatial energies.

"Them forming into a reflection of my image was entirely incidental, but my form is best suited to this task, so it was most efficient for them to have the same limb arrangements. After all, you do not see fish or birds weaving the webs of a spider- but to return to the story of why I am in my current predicament and why Derizaren exists...

"My people are not perfect copies of what I am. They were never meant to be, as their duty is to simply weave the threads of space and repair them in the locations where rifts form. They are also to monitor designated spaces that I cannot keep in my peripherals. But of course, the Lower Planes are unable to see the threads that make up the metaphorical tapestry- not the inhabitants being unable to, but that the threads are entirely unviewable in the Lower Planes to anything that is not me.

"They may hold the Lower Planes, but they are in a sort of phase state for the lack of a better term. The threads are formed by spatial energy which is automatically in the phase state, making them only visible through a sort of "screen".

"The realm of Derizaren was only partially made to shelter my people. Its proper purpose is to act as a "screen" that allows my people to directly view each of those strings, and the power I have imparted to my people allows them to perform their duties from there. Very rarely do they ever need to have a physical presence in the Lower Planes, and that is usually either when an Altersaean requires aid or some race that cannot be sheltered in Anarexen has to be sheltered here.

"But we do not shelter any race. We cannot afford to be philanthropists and preservers to beings, only the fabric of space itself. If a race does not contribute in any way to the progression or maintenance of this existence or cannot so much as grasp the information carried by the threads, we do not take them. If they can grasp the flow of information carried by spatial energies, I choose to impart some of my power to them so they become a pseudo-Spaelculan and can contribute to our work. This can, of course, be revoked at any time.

"As to those of the former group, the best and more relevant example would be survivors of the Tearing of Boriasonde. Tilisnet has essentially vanished from this existence somehow, and whatever realm I or Avaas could create is not suitable to the aspect of time that the Tilemgians are, so the most we can do is grant the ones we could find among the Lower Planes and give them sanctuaries in our realm that they may shape to be more habitable to them. But this is not a perfect system, and many more Tilemgians are scattered throughout existence.

"Avaas believes that I should pay some more care towards the Tilemgians, as they are essentially the successors of Tilisnet until he reappears some day. I will admit that without them, time would not be flowing right now and the whole of existence would be stuck in a time loop, indefinitely frozen in time, or collapsing onto itself as the absence of time means the concept of progression and regression disappears, but there is nothing I can do.

"My domain is space, not time, and I and my people are spread thin enough already in this eon I have named the Turbulence Eon. Since the disappearance of Tilisnet, more of the threads of space are breaking and some have even disappeared- I cannot monitor both the Tilemgians and Spaelculans, and Avaas does not tell me anything. What little I know is what my people know as we are spread very thin trying to quite literally be everywhere at once. "Avaas is growing paranoid and irrational, and he does not let me know of anything. From what I can tell by his behaviour, he knows something very critical to the current events, but he doesn't believe it himself and hasn't spoken a word to his people.

"I can respect him as kin, but when this involves one of us disappearing, which has never happened before, I and my people reaching our limits of what we can do to prevent the total collapse of this existence, an entire High Realm collapsing and the survivors being scattered throughout existence, and the Altersaeans not knowing what is going on themselves and following orders blindly- that is where I draw the line. "This is not preservation, this is madness, and this is why I cannot do more. Derizaren and the Spaelculans exist to maintain the fabric of space, nothing more and nothing less, and the fact that I even had to create either is enough to show the state of the Cycle's order right now.

"If this existence continues to last even a billion years more, I would be very surprised and frankly the odds are very close to being zero. There used to be one of us that could likely be able to fix this problem, but I have not seen him since this Cycle was started. He may have disappeared like Tilisnet did, but I would not be able to sense him as he is the embodiment of nothingness, and nothingness does not leave a trace.

"Avaas turns away when I mention the name of the Fourth. This is how I learned for certain that he has been hiding things from me, but as to what, I will never know unless he confesses.

"Forgive me for a tirade unbefitting for a being such as I, for my frustration runs deep-

"But his silence will be our doom- there is no other way to phrase this."

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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.

Guess what, the bots are evolving They sent crap to my askbox you've got to be kidding me

So now that the high realms are done we're going downwards in this order:

Part 2: The Realms of Death- Realm of Endless White + Realm of Skybeasts Part 3: The Mortal Realms- Lower Planes + Lesser Realms

Part 4: The Elemental Planes- Realms of fire, air, stellar, and earth(all in one go) Some of these will be more lore heavy, some will just be explanations of how they work. These are also paired by if one is necessary to explain the other or if there's just not enough info to justify making a whole separate post.

Also yes I'm going to be posting throughout this week now that I'm finally able to fuck around(temporarily). Just not daily posts because I'll probably go crazy or hit writer's block again if I do that.

Big question though: What would you all like to see when the focus goes back to Elvaria as I finish up the universe building?

Unfortunately for me, carrd did not let me make my own portfolio site because of the 50-asset limit. Fortunately for you guys, I have about 29 short stories planned and some rewrites, so maybe this account will come back to life but that highly depends on my life and motivation.

I'll likely also be posting on Ao3 when my account is approved. I'll make an update post with my username when that happens.

Don't know if anyone will see this, but if you previously followed me, thanks for sticking around :)

My taglists are pretty much dead in the water now and I don't want people randomly seeing pings after a year of silence, so if you'd like to join, please DM me.

An Anaios Föllen Alatsan, Litusia Floernian, and Shan’hu Walekrian

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

Why do the bots have realistic usernames now, I've had to ask two people if they were bots or not(out of averaging 5 to 6 bot follows a day in this past week) and they were also bots