Posting art today but idfk what to draw lmao
When? No idea, but heads up that it will be split in half because it's going to be long as crap. First half is the Age of the Cycelian Empires, telling of the three(four originally) kingdoms that came before the modern ones. Second half are The Age of Shadows and the Age of New Kingdoms following the end of the Cycelian Empires from an event called The Fall. By the way, if these oversimplifications aren't doing it for you, feel free to either ask in my ask page for more detail or comment on a blog for the proper bullet point form. There was once a full story format but that got scrapped because of lore revisions
“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.
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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@aneci
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Writing tool for your fight scenes.
This is completely irrelevant information tbh and I never made names for the non-magic tribes, only for the big 5 Åkthora- storm magic, they're one of the tribes that came out for the war against the Dak-Shan but went back into isolation when the war ended. Their descendant races still exist in the modern day Elvaria, still somewhat isolated and one is about to go extinct Nelthari- celestial magic(sun moon stars), one of the tribes that fought in the war and did not return to isolation so they could help build a civilization. Their descendant races are everywhere, like basically all of the non-Jukevor and Åkthora descendant races came from the Nelthari Invaêlka- never decided the type of magic but probably land(earth and plants) or element invocation, they fought in the war but went back into isolation and went extinct Salkaitha- never decided the type of magic, but probably very rudimentary animal speak and something related to telepathy/sound. They fought in the war but their shit sucked so they went extinct during it Jukevor- air/illusion magic, one of the tribes that did not fight in the war and stayed in isolation. Their descendant race still exists in the modern day Elvaria, still somewhat isolated
Okay so I find this important to say in the context of the High Realms lore posts(and upcoming one for Boriasonde)
So A- This knowledge is limited only to the High Realms beings from each realm, and whatever they know is only as much that their creator lets them know. This is pretty irrelevant to Elvaria itself but there are some Tilemgians there, just very reduced in power and they hide out.
And B- You may draw your own conclusions as to who is in the wrong since it's all over the place canonically, but basically it boils down to:
Avaas thought Nix would be fine on his own, Tilisnet and Seclir agreed since they've all been existing for a long, long time and nothing really changes in each Cycle besides civilizations and regular things that don't matter too much in their eyes Nix took this the wrong way because he wasn't involved in the discussion so he thought he got abandoned and that the other three were trying to replace his nothingness with their somethingness to make him permanently disappear He basically made himself disappear and created Civalthax that would fuck shit up Inadvertently made Boriasonde collapse and that caused Tilisnet to disappear to who knows where His people, the Voiskanans, basically have a very skewed view of existence. Nix thinks destruction is how he can restore the old ways. The Voiskanans think destruction is how they'll continue to survive. Basically "everyone forgot about me so I'll make them remember" and "everyone is out to get me and I have to hit them first"
Seclir thinks Nix is just gone like Tilisnet Avaas doesn't want to admit that this was his fault Spaelculans think the same as Seclir because that's all they know too Altersaeans think the abyss is just a natural force because they were lied to by Avaas
Tilemgians though, they know what happened- or at least they remember the feeling of it. Even if their memories are slowly disappearing, their being remembers how it felt. They saw this coming but their memories are fading without their realm, so they cannot properly warn the others.
"The Darkness was once our brother, no longer is it right. This has spelt the end of Time, and the others will soon follow." This is the only message that has come out of the Tilemgians that were able to reach Seclir. He has spread these words to the Spaelculans to ensure this message would not be forgotten in case he were to suddenly disappear as well, but it is cryptic, and no one knows anymore what this was supposed to mean.
By the way this is an incredibly irrelevant note but if someone were to ever talk about the High Realms besides my echo chamber you can really use any pronoun for Tilisnet, Avaas, Seclir, and Nix, like he, she, they, it, xe, etc. The bunch of them are older than the concept of gender by a long shot and don't even look humanoid, I just use he for each of them so there's no struggle to differentiate they(singular, pronoun) and they(plural) when reading.
Organizations of the realms in the Elvaria Universe
Boriasonde is crossed out since it collapsed(refer to Voiskanan lore)
Avaas had always been the first of the Four that embodied existence in the boundless cycle, as he represented the very idea of "alternatives" and was The Watcher of all that would ever exist. He was the only one of the Four that could still remember all that had occurred since the very first Cycle- the indescribable joys of observing the first civilizations that advanced to traverse space, the sorrows each time the Cycle was at the time to close and planets could no longer exist, the emptiness in the time between Cycles, and the pain of betrayal in the times where there was a Fifth. The Fifth of his kin would've been the same innumerable age as him, would it not have been the fifth being sealed away some many distant Cycles ago after going mad in the face of inevitability.*¹ Avaas' duty was and has always been first and foremost preservation until it was fated for his duty to end, and in this Cycle it was no different, save for one minor difference. He felt that Nix had become irrational, in a sense, over each Cycle, never learning to become independent from the rest of them, and thus never developing that sense of a "beyond" that stretched past the expanses of nothingness that Nix was. So he assumed that in this Cycle, Nix would be fine on his own and find his way back to them without them to guide him towards the radiance of creation, and would learn that there was more to existence than what he[Avaas] could ever teach him.
Tilisnet of Time and Seclir of Space did not disagree with Avaas' choice, as they too felt that Nix needed the valuable experience of "growing up" after many Cycles where he did not need to. After all, each Cycle started and ended about the same, so it surely wouldn't have been too difficult for Nix to find his way through creation's light as he did in the previous Cycles. But of course, none of them truly understood the essence of Nothingness past "lack of an existence", but Nothingness could wallow and knew misery and fear. Tilisnet, Seclir, and Avaas were furthest from the beings that came from creation, and thus they did not realize that Nothingness could perceive the fear creation held towards Nothingness. They did not know that Nix feared disappearing as creation spread across the many universes, and they did not realize that Nix would judge their choice to find his way alone would be interpreted as abandonment. Avaas, The Watcher of all that could exist, had turned away from the darkness, and was blind to what lurked in the Abyss. In this action did he fail at his foremost duty to preserve, as this mistake would cost this existence dearly. But do not mistake Avaas for an ignorant being, as he had duties to perform that were separate from preservation. As Tilisnet let his sands flow through existence and bring the concept of time and Seclir weaved his spatial threads to create the tapestry of space, Avaas was to oversee the first light of this Cycle as the first universes were born. As one does with a tree did he cultivate and graft branches onto the first universes, creating alternate ones as these seeds of existence sprouted and grew, and quickly in the eyes of the timeless did planets and stars emerge. As The Watcher, Avaas was to witness each of the planets that could potentially develop life, and as The Preserver, guard them until it was their time to fade with the end of their universe. It was a strenuous duty to watch every planet with life across the whole existence of a Cycle, some inconceivable number beyond mortal understanding which was under his jurisdiction. In the past Cycles, he would assume this duty himself without complaint, but early in this Cycle did he feel an unusual air of dread that echoed throughout the existence. For the first time since the Fifth was sealed away, he knew fear.
In order to split his duties to better watch over all the new planets across the universes he observed, he created beings out of the very concept of "alternatives" he represented. The first of these beings was granted parts of his knowledge to pass on to the others, and he asked the first to name themselves. The being would choose the name Anaare, and so Avaas would name the realm created for the beings to roam Anarexen in their honour, and name the beings themselves Altersaeans.
These beings would aid him in watching over and protecting planets with life across the many galaxies and universes in existence, and they were the alternative to him if he were to fail in his duties or some force were to stretch across existence to smother the light of creation and life.
As these beings were the many eyes of The Watcher that gave him more reach into the corners of existence*², they were also the first to notice the creeping darkness that reached toward stars and snuffed out their light, and they would realize that they could try as they might to preserve, but they could not escape inevitability against a force even Avaas did not know.
They would try to hold out against this creeping darkness, sending some tens of them to hold it off of developing civilizations, but even their mighty power perceived as godly by mortals were many times not enough.
Sometimes they were successful in holding off the darkness and the beings that sprung from the rifts the darkness bled through, sometimes they could only buy time as the worlds were doomed and the only choice left was for civilizations to flee to another planet, but in the cases were the Altersaeans could do neither, they could only watch the worlds be consumed and the people be damned to whatever lay in wait in the devouring abyss.
Avaas would take notice as he watched some of the branches of universes begin to lose their light, and he watched as stars would flicker and disappear from existence. The Altersaeans began to report of the darkness that consumed the stars and many mortal lives, and they said that the darkness had felt like a false life- nothingness that tried to imitate the idea of existence but was limited by its own being. They said it had felt familiar, like a distant brother that had lost their way and stumbled in the dark calling for them-
But they said that they also felt afraid of this darkness. This darkness was subsequently natural and unnatural, lonely but vengeful- and Avaas would quickly realize that this was the dread that he had felt long ago, the dread that warranted the creation of the Altersaeans.
He knew all they had felt, as they were a part of him as much as he was a part of them, but he did not want to believe his mind's first thought. It was likely the truth, but as he felt fear, he did not want to accept the truth.
His fear turned him irrational, and so he did not tell the truth to his people.
He did not want to believe that the darkness that plagued the light of creation sprung from his own kin Nix, and so for the first time in his existence did he choose to tell a lie.
This lie was for himself as much as it was for his people.
They all bore witness to the fall of Boriasonde and Tilisnet's sudden disappearance, and Avaas would learn of the increasing amounts of turbulence and breaks in the fabric of space from Seclir, but he continued to hide the truth from his people as he did not want to be seen as a flawed and irrational being, and he himself acknowledging the truth would be acknowledging that he had failed the duty of preservation that he was meant to embody. His own blindness and lack of foresight to Nix's perspective of existence was what would spell the unnatural end of this Cycle.
In this did he realize that he was never omnipotent, and that even the embodiments of the 4 concepts of existence were as flawed as the mortals they presided over.
He could not find Tilisnet even in the in-betweens of universes, and with Tilisnet's creations being scattered around existence, he could not ask them if they had foreseen this.
Something so simple as assuming a seemingly small change would not lead to disaster had led to this, and Avaas still could not accept this.
To this day, the Altersaeans are not aware of the truth, continuing to perform their duties in the belief that the abyss was natural with the passage of time and that it stemmed from the inaccessible in-betweens of universes. They try in genuine faith to their duty and Avaas to protect as many civilizations from this abyss as possible, and their work has thus far held off the darkness well enough for mortals to not be aware of its existence, but this will not always be enough, and they knew as well as Avaas did that this was an undeniable truth. The darkness does not halt for the whims of what it believes to want it destroyed, and it will continue to spread its roots throughout existence- to the worlds with boundless "potential"*³, and so the Cycle may once again return to nothingness.
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¹- Post coming at some point when I feel the time is right, it's in the perspective of Avaas to recount the Fifth.
²-This will be mentioned in the posts for other realms, but despite other realms being part of the existence that makes up a Cycle, no High Realms being can access any realm other than the Lower Planes(where planets are). The Elemental Planes are far too low for their power to reach into as their concepts are entirely separate from that of the elementals, and the realms between the High Realms and Lower Planes are either related to death or are small pocket dimensions limited to regions of worlds that reject High Realms influence.
³- Refer to this post since even though it's a note to self it does somewhat explain what the "potential" is -------------------- 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.
A fantasy worldbuilding project focusing mainly on elves. This account has been retired, my posting account is now @ilisteria
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