Good morning1 everyone!
Today’s World-Building Wednesday is continuing to riff off of the amazing questions I have been receiving following this note:
We’re up to 11 questions, and I’ve only answered 3!
Today I’ll go for one of the oldest and broadest questions, in hopes of nailing down a moderately good foundation which, if not entirely level, will at least tilt predictably underfoot!
This questions comes from
, who writes some interesting looking stories and some excellent poetry2, which I look forward to delving into further!Let’s start with Magic
Magic is always one of the first difiners in a fantasy world, and as I cannot see any innovative or exciting reason to not start here, here is where I will start.
Magic in Arenstar doesn’t fall easily into high- or low-magic categories. High Magic implies that there are capable magic-users everywhere, and low-magic implies that there are very few magic users. Arenstar, I decided, has a lot of low-level magic and then spikes of high-level magic. Magic flows from the land, and has formed a core of evolution in the animals therein. There are entire species with magical abilities baked into their genetics, like deer whose gaze can fill a predator with the deers intent; namely that the deer should get away. This is also further compounded by the fact that birds evolved not from dinosaurs, but from dragons, so many have the ability (albeit basic) to spit magic at their prey (or predators) to help them to survive.
As the magic flows through all living things, essentially, anyone with the correct training and willpower can learn magic. There is no blood-requirement to become a Wizard in Arenstar - unless you are cursed to be disconnected from the magic, then you can use it.
As such, many people in Arenstar know one or two very weak cantrips. They rarely ever use them, because it is tiring to channel magic and usually there are easier options - do you channel magic to create light for a 3-hour walk home, or do you just light a torch or a lantern? Additionally, the light they make will be weaker than that of the Light cantrip - true magic users are leaps and bounds above the average citizen of Arenstar.
So Arenstar has a very flat base of magic, just above 0, and then there are spikes for adventurers and wizard schools and cleric temples and the like. Overall, it’s got to be considered High Magic, simply because magic is everywhere!
How does it feel?
To be honest, this very much depends on where you’re standing!
Arenstar has been built as a world for Dungeons and Dragons, and as such it has all manner of planes to explore. I have also, purposefully, left it in a state of heavy disconnect. The main regions of the world are not connected with good roads. The road structure is also slowly deteriorating due to the recent (last 100 years) introduction of heavy-haul skyships, which run on a material called Flyorite3. These have made overland travel obsolete among anyone who can afford to fly, and coincidentally, it was the people who can now afford to fly who were paying people to maintain the roads for their goods to travel. Over the past 50 years, the roads have been abandoned - outposts previously held along the roads in the wilderness to support merchant caravns have been abandoned and repurposed by all manner of people - from hunters to mages to bandits. I dislike cliche’s, so I avoid any sweeping statements in the background of the world like “all people who you find in outposts are bad”. There will be bad ones, and there will be good ones. There are regions where people maintain the roads and are heralded as folk-heroes, and there are regions where people plague the roads as bandits. There are regions where bandits maintain the roads to make it more tempting for people to travel. There are monsters using them as lairs, and there are some that are just abandoned. You don’t know what you’ll get.
Stay tuned for a random table of outposts, I’m inspired now.
Back to the subject of feel.
The world feels quite Skyrim-esque, if I had to pick any one comparison. The main pantheon which has been used has been Norse, and the main plotlines of the world have taken place around the North, where it is snowy and mountainous, and the main dangers are Frost Giants. The regions and cities are all unique and memorable, and the regions are all begging to be explored, rather than being the more mundane and realistic acres of farmland populated by small hamlets who, whilst being happy, are fundamentally uninteresting for campaign plots!
As such, the world feels like a world made for exploring, rather than an accurate simulation of a realistic world. I have tried to consider the key elements to make each location make sense - such as what they eat and where they get it, what their imports and exports are, and where the people live, as well as why the settlement is the shape that it is, or located where it is.
A few key locations which have specific themes are:
Steepfield
Steepfield is a halfling town, and is full of colour and life, the bustle of activity. It’s more fantastical than Lord of the Rings, being that they have become capable architects, and I would argue that Steepfield would stick out like a sore thumb in Lord of the Rings. It is comprised of tall towers huddled behind a huge boulder-hill on a mountain slope, shielded from the rockfalls, which limit the floorspace they can build on, making them build upwards into cathedral-like structures. It’s almost got the vibe of a cyberpunk city, with bridges between skyscrapers, but in a cosy, cheese-obsessed halfling theme. I can’t think of a good comparison, to be honest. Hopefully this bespeaks of my ingenuity and not of my lack of reading!
Ormnir
The original homeland of the dwarves, ousted by the Frost Giants. Mountainous and cold, with huge subterranean cities carved by the Dwarves. This area is destined to be explored by the party, and they will find it inhospitable, with hurricane-force winds which blow between the mountain peaks. The cities of Ormnir are all below ground, and (as per dwarven norm) they expand into the mines as they exhaust the seams. This causes dwarven mines to be very organised, and not a sprawling labyrinth. Being subterranean, the mountain slopes will be mostly scree from the excavations. The closest feel to this would be Lord of the Rings, as there will be abandoned dwarven cities with horrors in them, akin to Moria.
Darkhold
The second homeland of the Dwarves, Darkhold is a swampland, rich in minerals and swamp-wood, but beset by Trolls and marauders from the underdark, to which the lands open on the northern border by way of a huge rift splitting Darkhold from the mountains above. The Dwarves are fighting to stake their claim here, seeing the Trolls who lived here as nothing but monsters. The land is shrouded in a fog which blocks magical scrying and communications, making it a more low-magic region to the world. It is possibly closest to a combination of Fallout and Skyrim4, with environmental hazards everywhere and monsters leaping out to attack unwary travellers. However, the settlements are generally friendly, and there are not many bandits or non-monstrous hostiles in the land.
The Tower
The Tower is a single infinitely tall tower which pierces every plane like a pin pushed through a folded map of the multiverse. It is 10 miles across, and each floor contains a city-sized space. Each floor was built by a different race5, and possesses different traits. Some are labyrinths built to separate floors, others are magical colleges and universities, and others still are gateways to the other planes - the Feywild, the Shadowfell, the elemental planes, and so on. One has a vast lake in it, which is bottomless - it opens to the elemental plane of water.
Lei’Thengran
The monastary dedicated to the metallic dragons6 whose lands intersected at this point, and who started teaching and protecting the people there. Following the death of the dragons, the monastary has shifted over 3000 years to be entirely rules by the Order of the Golden Dragon. The land is far beyond the wilds to the North-West of the Tower, and is not known to exist by many in the Tower-region. The people there are insular and the 6 factions - Gold, Bronze, Brass, Silver, and Copper, as well as those of Drei-neith, the colourless - all disagree on whether they should seek out new connections to the world, or remain secretive, or even spread in conquest. This is the most politically charged area of the world - years in isolation has left them fully independent and functional, but prone to inaction due to the differing factions arguing about their direction. The Gold order has the capacity to swing a tie, and the colourless always abstain from the decisions, meaning that as long as the Gold faction keeps the 4 others disagreeing, they can rule absolutely.
Alu Ath Shantir
The Sea of Trees, to the south, is a great basin wherein the trees all grow to the same height, but from differing depths. This creates a perfectly flat canopy, on which the Elves sail their canopy barges. Beneath the canopy is a dark world of luminescent creatures which drift through the air as if through water. There are great tree-whales, draped in beard lichens, drifting majestically through the gaps between the trees, and there are sharks. It is universally beautiful, but also dangerous. Somewhere in the depths there is a great library, tended by a Bookwyrm7, which contains ancient and forgotten books.
In the middle of Alu Ath Shantir there is the Wooden Mountain. This is a huge twisting conglomeration of thousands of trees, all growing together and twisting into this single, enormous mountain made of living wood. Inside is a labyrinth of passageways and tunnels, and it is tended by the Na’K’Cha’K, the woodlouse people who live within. They communicate with clicks, but can learn other languages. They are the tenders of the Amber Museum, which is a testament to the age of the Wooden Mountain. The museum houses thousands of pieces of amber - fossilised tree sap - which contain all manner of creatures which were trapped in the past, all the way back to Dinosaurs.
There is more - so much more - but I will save it for future instalments!
I hope that this has answered in some manner what sort of world Arenstar is. If it hasn’t, then ask again for more clarification on any particular point - I will gladly oblige!
Thankyou all for reading, and goodnight8!
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This greeting, belligerently, refuses to adapt to your time zone. I tried reasoning with it, but it wouldn’t listen. If you are reading this and it is not currently morning, I recommend either accepting it as a wish that your next morning is good, or an expression of wish that your morning has been good prior to now. If this is still unacceptable, you can also set an alarm to come back during the morning for a much less jarring experience. Just don’t look it in the eyes. It hates that.
I am unfortunately overly critical of poetry; I find strained rhymes jarring to the beat and dislike when a rhyming beat is skipped, even by one syllabul, and thus seldom find my own poems to be any good. So know that this is not an empty platitude!
Mined exclusively in the mine north of Stretnup, meaning all Flyorite is Stretnupan Flyorite. I do not apologise.
I am an unapologetic gamer, and as such, I do not apologise!
Some managed to build multiple floors, depending on how long they had control of the Tower in prehistory.
Dragons in Arenstar are mostly extinct, slain by Olbanor the Traveller thousands of years ago, using a weapon called the Dragon-Eater.
Yep, this is a specific dragon which hoards books. In Arenstar, the folklore says about how dragons can be formed from opinion and obsession - the oldest of which is the obsession with gold. This is why all dragons hoard different treasures. Some hoard books, born of the obsession thereof. I bet there’s a few of you out there spawning these dragons as you read this. I know I’m making one!
For unknown reasons, this farewell assumes that it has taken you several hours to read this article, and despite my best efforts, it will not change that stance. I recommend humouring it, this time. Hopefully by next time I can recondition it to behave more reasonably, or buy a new farewell to replace it.
I love the idea of roads becoming obsolete because flying ships are now available. That kind of cultural/economic/technological shift is interesting to me—lots of cool story sparks there.
What might be found in the overgrown places disconnected by forgotten roads/paths and left for good?
What kind of interesting military/battle tactics have evolved from the introduction of flying vessels?
How do I get my hands on one of those flying ships, anyway?
Good post!
A book hoarding dragon? YES!