I'm Bored Of Elemental Giants. Use Environmental Giants Instead.

Just had an idea for a zine where each issue begins with a short description of an original fictional world and each artist has to create something from that world. Whether it’s a grand landscape piece, a scientific article about one of the world’s strange creatures, or a short personal story from one of the inhabitants, every artist would contribute something to the collaborative fiction of the new world.

Universal Lore- Part 1, The High Realms(Voiskana- Civalthax)

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.

i think one of the reasons i get mildly annoyed about worldbuilding threads that are 200 tweets of why you should care about where blue dye comes from in your world before saying someone is wearing blue is that so few of them go up to the second level of "and that should impact your characters somehow" - i don't care that blue dye comes from pressing berries that only grow in one kingdom a thousand miles away if people are casually wearing blue

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 👐

Examples of Jivankira Elthir clothing

Despite the Urthalisan refugees having joined the population of Jivankira Elthir during the Age of Shadows and have since become physically indistinguishable, part of Kavathanar known as The Crescent, which is the inner side of the Dinhrang Mountains, still is majority inhabited by descendants of these survivors.

Though they go by the name Jivankira Elthir, they've kept some of the Urthalisan culture to this day and continue to create clothing and buildings in a similar style, but of course with some changes due to influence from native Jivankiran culture and drift over time.

Compared to real world cultures in history, the Urthalisan descendants follow a Le dynasty Vietnamese style, and native Jivankira Either follow a middle Egyptian style.

Small fantasy worldbuilding elements you might want to think about:

A currency that isn’t gold-standard/having gold be as valuable as tin

A currency that runs entirely on a perishable resource, like cocoa beans

A clock that isn’t 24-hours

More or less than four seasons/seasons other than the ones we know

Fantastical weather patterns like irregular cloud formations, iridescent rain

Multiple moons/no moon

Planetary rings

A northern lights effect, but near the equator

Roads that aren’t brown or grey/black, like San Juan’s blue bricks

Jewelry beyond precious gems and metals

Marriage signifiers other than wedding bands

The husband taking the wife's name / newlyweds inventing a new surname upon marriage

No concept of virginity or bastardry

More than 2 genders/no concept of gender

Monotheism, but not creationism

Gods that don’t look like people

Domesticated pets that aren’t re-skinned dogs and cats

Some normalized supernatural element that has nothing to do with the plot

Magical communication that isn’t Fantasy Zoom

“Books” that aren’t bound or scrolls

A nonverbal means of communicating, like sign language

A race of people who are obligate carnivores/ vegetarians/ vegans/ pescatarians (not religious, biological imperative)

I’ve done about half of these myself in one WIP or another and a little detail here or there goes a long way in reminding the audience that this isn’t Kansas anymore.

“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.

If you want names for the Proto-Elf magic tribes

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

Universal Lore- Part 3, The Mortal Realms(The Lower Planes & The Lesser Realms)

A Cycle consists of the beginning and end of an Existence and the nothingness before and after. An Existence consists of the universes and realms that are born and die within it.

This Existence was born with the gleaming light which pierced through nothingness, with that light having brought forth the flow of time as a seemingly endless stream of sand, the tapestry of strings that formed the expanses of space, and the possibility through alternatives that allowed the creation of new branches on the tree of universes. But of course, you've heard the whole story by now.

In that light was a force of creation that stretched throughout all the universes of existence, swathes of iridescent cosmic gas that quickly formed the first stars and planets.

To the beings that lived and remembered many previous Existences, this all came at what felt like the blink of an eye, and this plane that would belong to true life would become known as the Lower Planes.

What distinguishes the mortals from the denizens of the High Realms is what eternity is to them. To mortals, their lives are finite but what comes after is infinite- they have souls that can pass on to somewhere beyond the reach of the High Realms, an existence where there is no end other than when they feel it should end. To immortals, their lives seem infinite but what comes after is nothingness- they lack souls, with their options being to reform back in their home realm and toil once more or cease to exist; an existence where the end dictated to them is the one of all nonliving things.

Those of the High Realms lack a concept of a soul, and most do not understand what one is, save for Nix- but even he does not fully understand the origins of souls and thus can only create imitations of them, false lives that are unstable and lack a true free will.

In the Lower Planes are countless souls of civilizations and species that once or will or do exist, and thus with souls comes a force called "potential". This "potential" gives them the ability to evolve, and some by slim chance become more than mortal, but less than immortal. These evolved beings may have been created through manual evolution, magic, technology, or a fusion with elementals(should the world have them), and some are born through pure chance, but these beings often have the ability to faintly see the threads of Space.

Through these threads do they slip into a space in-between, above the Lower Planes but below the Realms of Death, and here can they thread their own strings into the grand tapestry of existence and create Lesser Realms.

These Lesser Realms are only able to be created in relation to a place in the Lower Planes, such as a city above the clouds or a mirror of the environment reflected by a lake, but some more powerful beings may create a Lesser Realm bound to a unique concept or state of conscious, such as a realm of dreams or a realm that is only accessible to those that understand a fundamental concept of a belief.

As such, some species may consider these evolved beings to be "gods", or at the very least an embodiment of some aspect of their world or civilization.

Lesser Realms are often inaccessible to High Realms beings, but if the location one is bound to or if the concept it relates to is fathomed or influenced by a High Realms being, the Realm can be subject to the influence of a force of creation, such as corruption from the Abyss' nothingness.

These realms can persist after the evolved being dies so long as they willed it, but when they die, the Realm begins to unfurl its "strings", and thus can be destroyed by another evolved being that comes across it.

In the grand Order of this Existence, the High Realms house both outsiders and creators, the clockmaker watching the clock and only reaching down to repair cogs and gears-

To the Lower Realms, the face of the clock is all they perceive, and every atom that composes the face is another world and civilization.

The hands move because Fate dictates as such, and the numbers that are raised above the clock face can observe the space above the face and the movement of the hands.

These numbers are the evolved beings, and with their differing perspective on their place in existence, they may alter the face of the clock ever so slightly to leave a scratch or dent that can slip past the eye of the Creator.

These dents are the Lesser Realms, a miniscule puncture on the grand tapestry of Space, and the way for mortals to alter Creation's truths akin to ants on an endless field.

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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.