derrick_mace

Ok. I'm not saying TOO much, but the antagonist's backstory is big enough for a book. It's really serious, political and tense. I'm thinking of making it a book, too. It'll be a smaller one, though...but hey.

This character development is really stunning. Now I can't believe I once had antagonists who just did things 'because they're evil'. I never really did have one of those -the worst being the evil sword in Forgotten Legends-, but I mean...I LIKE the antagonist. He's really sincere, but that doesn't make him friendly. Gone through a lot, and I think that the burden of a crown drives a man insane.

I'm up late.
I have work tomorrow.
At 9 A.M. I'll sorely regret it, but I can't sleep with this on my mind.
Dardeep is a strict monarchy, with princes ruling over patches of land and the king holding the capital, main resources, and the road. The army and the guard all answer only to the High General, who answers to the king in commands. The government is sorted out for numerous purposes, and each branch of the government has three council members and one to report the results to the king. The branches are as follow:

Military,
Economics,
Education,
Social Workforces,
Interior Affairs,
Exterior Affairs,
And Resource Management.

They are given assignments by the king through requests from the people, and debate amongst themselves for a time, and then come up with a solution or resolution, and present it to the king, who either approves or disapproves of.
Monarchy in Dardeep -being the government system for over five hundred-even years-  is a serious thing and heirs are trained once born. There are usually multiple heirs (at most thirty, and at least five), but the primary successor is not publically announced until the time of the death of the current king.

At a death of a king, the people are in a state of mourning for a week, and most political affairs are put on hold, as the new heir is prepared during the mourning week. The event pictures gray flags being tossed to the ground (mostly made of silk) or being burned.

Queens have little say in political matters, but they rule in other matters, primarily in interior affairs, economics, and social workforces. When a queen dies there is also a week for mourning, but it is more prelevent in peoples lives, as there are more events happening in the queen's mourning days than a king's. Gifts of consolation are given to royalty and nobility from the people, and said nobles have the tradition of burning their House flag's on the day. The king is free to take whatever wife in a following week, but is unheard of a king who marries just after his wife's mourning, preferring to remain at least a year or two after her death.

Relations with Tharnil are friendly and trading is open, for Tharnil was a great ally for Dardeep in times of old, and where Dardeep cannot access the sea, Tharnil sailors are only happy to oblige and assist. The two cultures share a deep economical and cultural appreciation of alcohol, the latter fremating it during long sea travels, and the former being the prime importer.

Relations with Huik are estanged; people of Dardeep don't know much of the men of the far north, but appreciate the latter's consumation of their wines and ales. Sometimes, a weaponmaster from the northern lands comes to the warmer South, where their skills are prized.

A primary warrior's arsernal of arms fits the needs and dangers of Dardeep; most warriors and heroes travel with a shortsword, a couple of spears and a buckler. The Dardeep style of fighting focuses on dual-wielding the spear and the sword, using a combination of the two to attack from multiple sides. Their style is flexible and is reknown thus. The reasons the spear and shortsword were used were for the prime enemies of the people of Dardeep; mountain lions, salamanders and Land-Dragons. The spear is enough to stab, parry, and "dance", according to martial artists with the enemy. Seeing that Salamanders and Land-Dragons have softer underbellies (albeit between scales) for the former and weak points under the armpits and the eyes for the latter, the use of a sword was added for closing in on horseback, where a sharp sting with the spear would help cripple the enemy long enough to lunge with the shortsword.

Long-Ranged combat is with focus on canons, as the government of Dardeep has been funding more to minimize the size of the weapons.

Dardeep architecture is relient on stonework and metalsmithing, but despite that fact, most buildings are of wood. Dardeep architecture examples straight angles and little arcs, and has focus on engraved pillars.


"They love fire and noise," says Prince Arrious. "Canons, fireworks, bonfires--you name it. As long as it has fire or noise -preferrably both-, you'll find it there."

Aside from fireworks, bonfires and canon demonstrations, fire is predominent in Dardeep culture. The spears of the Royal Guard are often wrapped with dyed silk, so that it flares when touched by flame. In other uses of fire are Signal Watchposts, or Towers of Flame, which are ordinary towers, save that when the guards witness something theatening, they light the wood up the towers, so that a visual symbol passes on.

The Hajaari are a common sight in rural Dardeep, where you might find the giants lumbering near cliffs or in small forests, often sleeping or searching for something they "lost", which is quite common. Oft could one find them helping those who call for them, and they especially love building, often acting like walls to support a construction. Said Hajaari often forget what they were doing and simply doze off, which is something construction workers are grateful for; they cannot be roused from their sleep by whatever noise the builders could hope to make.

"I suppose they search for those delightful glowing mushrooms they keep in their caves," says Princess Thiadris. "It is held legend that a Hajaari could take anything and make it glow by rubbing it in their hides. How true the legend goes is a place of question."

So that's all I could do. I think it's quite nice, and sets up a good sight once you think of it.

I like Dardeep. I wonder who I'll do next. Maybe Huik.

Lccorp2 is right; I am going too far with the world building. I deleted the entry that relates to the plot, since I'm taking it to the lands beyond writing into making a story out of the effort.

Doesn't mean I'll delete all my world building notes; I won't. I won't go either extremes, like not planning at all and going with the flow -Like Lccorp- or not writing at all and just planning -like I'm doing now-.

Thing is that most of my writing effort is under other projects, and I'm not really putting this under high priority; that's why you're seeing less of my writing.

Regardless, I am keeping the map. I'm going to be needing that.

And Lccorp, if you have something else to say or another argument to bring, please notify me instead of posting it on ImpishIdea. I gain from your advice more than I allow myself to say.


It's FABULOUS!

"Has a surreal look to it, does it not? Something like a shifting ghost where he is supposed to be."
-Illun

Here I will focus on making the "Dark Side" of my story's world, and by dark I don't mean the Adorai's realm. What is so scary about people who appear in our world at twilight and sabotage our land's balance? That's child's play.

Here, I will talk about Light's End, or in other words, the realm which overshadows Anoria, Airona, and all the other worlds containing any form of life; it is the realm of Eternal Night, where there is no sleep or death, but only loneliness, pain, and fear. A realm where humans cannot imagine, and a place where Unari, and their descendants pray to never see.

Inspired partly by Hell in Arahamic religions, Light's End is also known as Hell, or the Gray Road.

Holes between Anoria and Light's End sometimes open, and some demons seep into Anoria, but not all intrusions go unchecked; when stronger, darker demons attempt to cross a hole to Anoria, they will be confronted, and not confronted by mortals, but by guardians of the sky who drive the demons back to where they came from.

But not all of them are confronted, either. Only strong and capable demons attract the attention and rouse the Guardians of the heavens. Most seep into the world and reside in dark corners, healing themselves from their stay in Light's End, and when capable, set off to work under their masters and put their plans into motion.

Common Link Locations:

Most links between Light's End open -ironically- near water and under shade, waterfalls, underground lakes are very common to be a potential Link Point. Throughout history, humans kept clear from those locations, since nightmares plagued those near such areas with alarming frequency, and forced the denizens away from the underground lakes and kept them near rivers. A frequent tale between villagers of such areas is how on some nights, inhuman roars would shake the air, and a great flash of light would follow, before all was silent again. Men later learned of the intrusions of Anoria and how the Great Demons of shade and fire were fought away by beings of pure light that shook the air with an unearthly presence. Links are called in Atarnor's language, 'Wasail', called in Dardeep and Thrarnil, 'Gathes', and in Soraiden known as, 'Athaweb.'

Demons' Nature:

Demons cannot exist naturally in Anoria, of in that regard, any mortal plane at all. They cannot stay for a long time, and the dangers of passing through Links is too risky and attracts the ever-watchful eyes of the Guardians. In response to those complications, demon lords send minions to promote their existence through cults designed and financed by humans to host the demon lords in sacrificial bodies, and sometimes, make a leak between mortal planes and Light's End to design a link wide enough to allow a demon lord to crawl into a mortal plane without the distortions that result from narrow Link usage. To counter this, human paladins, Ar'Sorai judges and hunters roam Anoria endlessly, traveling for miles everywhere they feel there could be danger. Sometimes, those individuals are even guided through dreams and visions to where demon lords make their plans, but mostly, the Guardians of the heavens wish to keep mortals living on their lives without employing them to counter those evil of their kind.
Of course, as devils do have a similar ability to speak to mortals, albeit more vague, they could impersonate a Guardian and trick the paladin, judge or hunter into working for them.

Demonic Motivations:

Demons have an innate hate to humankind, due to their history of conflict together, while the former are supported by their devil lords, the latter are (sometimes) supported by the Guardians of the Heavens.
Demons -for the most part- are selfish, tricksters, long-visioned and incredibly intelligent and chaotic creatures. Contrary to popular belief, demons were not always demons. Demons and devils are all a branch of one race, one race with incredible spiritual power, sufficient enough to transfigure the being into others through shapeshifting. The shapeshifting aspect is effected heavily by their actions. An evil person of that race would eventually transfigure himself into a demon, and when they take a darker form and grow in strength.
Devil lords are the highest demons in their social structure, which is based on wealth and reputation. The greater wealth of deeds that damaged humanity (from whatever plane they reside), the higher the reputation, for demons hate Men with a blinding passion.

Demonic Plans:

Demons' strength is in their wits and ploys, and rarely in physical or mental harm, but the all demons are large in comparison to men, ranging from the lesser peons to devil lords.
Demons primarily want to scour humanity from the universe, and take over mortal planes to stage assassinations against the Guardians of the Heavens, and from there, attack Heaven.
In Anorian Legends, they plan to use magic lines to tear the planet apart to make it resembelent of Light's End, thus Men cannot live there and it would stage the perfect ground to start their war.
In these plans, they are in conflict with the Adorai, who want to use the magic lines to channel all of Anoria's reserve to fuel their master's plan, and thus the Adorai and the Devil Lords are in an evil-vs-evil war for years, which actually started with the Unari's crusades.
The relation between demons and Unari have sparked some consperacy theories of the Devil Lords tapping into the Unari ruling council, and through that, the rituals of appointing rulers. Some say that the sword that is the finall step in determining the rulers was corrupted by a Devil Lord, and some Ar'Sorai think they were behind the straying of the lord of the Adorai House, Illun.

Demon Features:

Devil Lords' skin shrinks as their bodies grow from radiation of dark energy; their anatomy changes and their bones grow black and charred, resembling horns. They lose all hints of being living creatures and become intelligent bodies of negative energy, often manifesting from waist-to-head, while their lower halves are torn and resemble tornadoes of blackened meat and rags.
From the radiation from Light's End, their bodies grew somewhat dead, yet are held together by a magic flame; a mockery of life which cannot sustain itself, but drains whatever energy it needs to function from other beings. They no longer have blood as they once did, and their bodies are resillient to magic and impact.
Yet, any counter to dark magic, like Spiritual power or weapons enchanted by Anuvar, which burns the demons with silvery-blue flames that remain forever as long as they possess the same body.

Demons In Mortal Cultures:

There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding demons in various cultures; people of Atarnor think demons are humans who returned from Hell; Dardeep and Tharnil share the idea of demons being supernatural beings who seek the concept of ruining humanity and mocking it; the elderly of Hiek have stories of people who are touched by artifacts of inherit evil, and thus transformed and were transfigured by witches into demons.
The Ar'Sorai have a deeper understanding of demons, growing from the fact of the many wars fought between the Unari and the Devil Lords, and the Adorai have identically the same understanding.
However, these negative images have not held back many individuals throughout history from summoning, consorting, and making deals with Devil Lords for one thing or another. Most of those betrayers have got what they wanted, but not in the way they wish; demons still harbor a great hate for Men and the descendants of their mortal enemies, the Unari, and even those who serve demons are hated and mocked.

And with a pen and the program Paint, I post these works of Ar'Sorai handwriting samples, followed by human samples.


Firstly, top right is Atarnor samples of handwriting in their tongue. There has been no change of styles in the handwriting method save direction of words.

The bottom left has Dardeep and Tharnil handwriting, which are very similar seeing that their cultures are very close. (Highest one is old Dardeep, middle is modern, and under that is Tharnil writings).


The beauty of the ancient culture and language spanning five thousand years!

Of course, there are changes in the language and way of writing throughout the ages. I'm no fool!

Personally, I find the Adorai having the best calligraphy. Mostly because they remained in the center of their culture and haven't left their lands like the Ar'Sorai. The handwriting descends from ancient Unari calligraphy, into late Unari, then branches to Ar'Sorai and Adorai. The Ar'Sorai calligraphy resembles letters by the space between their words, because of all the time spent around Men, who use that method a lot, and thus they adapted to the languages around them.



This picture shows the process of handwriting. It's mostly random words said, like (top word): Murmas, which means Mercy as a past phrase, like "He had mercy" equals "He had Murmas." Roughly.

The drawing resembles physical features of the Ar'Sorai male. Two Itachi-like angled lines under the eyes, (only slightly) pointed ears (Come on! it's hard to make a fantasy race with identical ears to humans! It's just hard!), and most facial hair comes under the form of goatees. Aesthetic choices is the "crown", which they wear like common hats and slightly resembles Princess Zelda's crown in Twilight Princess.



That's it for now. Next post is hopefully the magic system or governmental world building.

I know what you're thinking. "What is that?"

Well, that, my friends, is the first impression of an Ar'Sorai city.
"It doesn't make sense."

Well, it does if you think of it closer. Since I didn't go past the 12th century and bought a scanner, I will have to show you guys this by (lol) my IPhone's camera.

To get you started, just imagine a market, and everything will make sense.



A city from another view.

:/

And here is some STUFF!

I don't know what it is. It began as writing down Arrious's name (the far left, barely seeable thing) but then it just became some writing, and it became me writing the antagonist's name!

Rawr.

As I did previously with Saif (Forgotten Legends), Saif (Forgotten Paths), and Mark (Forgotten Paths), I decided to make an interview with Prince Arrious from the ruling house of Atarnor just For The Lulz and (to a lesser extent) character development and world building purposes, presenting him as an example of the typical Atarnor citizen.

Derrick_Mace: May Anvar light your life, readers. Here, we have Prince Arrious humbly accepting an interview with Anorian Character Development. Good afternoon, Prince Arrious.

Arrious: May Anvar light your path.

Derrick_Mace: For the purposes of world building and character development, I intend to make this interview a bit long. I hope you don't mind.

Arrious: You're breaking the forth wall.

Derrick_Mace: So are you. We're even.

Arrious: I walked right into that one.

Derrick_Mace: Now, Prince. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Arrious: Well...I'm from a fairly distant branch of the ruling house of Atanor, so I'm not the first in line for the throne....except if all my relatives suddenly die or something.

That wasn't wishful thinking.

Derrick_Mace: Of course it wasn't.

Arrious: I don't mean that I'm cruel or something. Look, I mean that I'm only talking--

Derrick_Mace: I know! I made you!

Arrious: Man, these interviews can really be taken out of context.

Derrick_Mace: Like almost everything. Regardless, tell me more about yourself.

Arrious: I'm not pretentious, you know.

Derrick_Mace: Just go on with it.

Arrious: Fine! I'm a bit popular for doing some of King Assador's jobs, and I am a semi-frequent visitor to Tharnil, the Seaside kingdom.

Derrick_Mace: What would you say about Dardeep?

Arrious: I don't like it there.

Derrick_Mace: Why?

Arrious: *Grumble* Religious differences. It's like a diplomatic mission going there...

Derrick_Mace: I established Anoria to have three main religions, and two philosophies which I haven't fully fleshed out completely. The state religion of Atarnor is similar to the state religion of Dardeep and Thrarnil, but only in origins. Some arguments esculate, and I try my best to make the world seem alive with religious difference and various shades of tolerance and intolerance. Give us an example, Arrious, of any uncomfortable, religiously-related event that happened to you in Dardeep.

Arrious: When I was in the countryside with Princess Thiadris as a child, I accidentally stumbled upon one of their worship buildings. They didn't really enjoy it when I was still swinging my mock sword in there, and they kicked me out. Atharavv had a hard time helping me out. Some of their clerics thought what I did was intentional. (*Grumble mumble*)

Derrick_Mace: What did you do when Thiadris entered the fifth Hall of Prayer?

Arrious: Well, that's different. I asked her politely to leave.

Derrick_Mace: you didn't inquire if she entered Atanorian faith!

Arrious: ...I was 12. I thought she was pulling pranks.

Derrick_Mace: And Tharnil's state religion?

Arrious: Almost exactly like Dardeep, except less extreme. They have parties in their places of worship.

Derrick_Mace: How do you respond on accusations against Atanorian faith by saying it's copied off soraiden faith?

Arrious: Assador and numerous scholars state that the Ar'Sorai had their faith long before any contact with them.

Derrick_Mace: And allegations stating it was a sorai consperacy?

Arrious: People can twist everything to their liking. (*Grumble*) The sorai won't be harmed if Atarnor followed Tharnil or Dardeep's faith.

Derrick_Mace: There's a surprise for you, Arrious! When the time comes and first kingdom of Men's history is clear to you, a lot will make a lot of sense.

Arrious: What kind of sense?

Derrick_Mace: It'll sound good to you. I promise. Regardless, tell me about dragons.

Arrious: I hate them.

Derrick_Mace: Fair enough. They don't like you much either. Tell us about your training.

Arrious: Early-year combat training focused on several branches: positioning, pace of movement, profeciency with weapons and use of negative magic.

Positioning is the most important thing in Atanorian style of combat. How to stand, how to hold your weapon and how to move is everything when the going gets tough. Pace matters with heavy weapon, namely dragon-slaying great swords and medium cannons, and even the occasional Blackwood bow.

Derrick_Mace: The Blackwood bow is considered a heavy weapon?

Arrious: not officially, but it is an exotic weapon to Atarnor tastes. With the environment being somewhat damp across the year, typical threads woven by the Ar'Sorai do not suffice. That is where custom bowstring comes in. Not to mention that Blackwood bows are powerful bows, and it takes a lot of training to draw it, least of all in the heat of battle. In Atarnorian military, archers stand in the far end and aim to where they can, and not in the middle rows of the army like Soraiden armies.

Derrick_Mace: And what is negative magic?

Arrious: With the Ar'Sorai elemental magic and judges' and paladins' light magic, combat troops are taught rudementary knowledge in negative magic, which mostly neutralizes magic from other sources, save for black and light magic. The average troop is supposedly able to block a minature magical thunderbolt or a medium blast of elemental magic. This proves invaluable with some Adorai apperences in our boarders.

Derrick_Mace: Tell us about the Adorai.

Arrious: Can't do that.

Derrick_Mace: What? Why?

Arrious: It's almost dusk.

Derrick_Mace: Whatever. I'm above my own story.

Arrious: Fine, but you'll handle Illun when he finds you.

Derrick_Mace: I'll interview him, too. A good antagonist is great to listen to.

Arrious: Very well. In sorai and to a lesser extent, Atanorian faith, dusk is a magical time. In some stories, it is said that when the sun sets out, the light magic that holds the order of Anoria weakens, and thus the mirror world, Airona's features appear in our world. That's why sorai never allow their children to stay out during sunset, but allow it during nighttime.

Derrick_Mace: Airnoa sounds like a cheap reverse to Anoria.

Arrious: What am I supposed to do? You did minimal world building in Airona!

Derrick_Mace: Fine. I'll find a better name. Continue.

Arrious: That's all I know so far. Some paladins took upon themselves the duty of discovering what happens, and many returned, but some looked just shellshocked, and some kept wondering, but most retired to soraiden lands. Even Ar'Sorai hunters fear the dusk, and hide whenever they are able. A lot of nightmares happen in that time.

Derrick_Mace: I see. This has been enlightening, Prince Arrious.

Arrious: I guess.

Derrick_Mace: And you achieved some status in badassery when you one-shotted Saphira.

Arrious: She walked right into it. (*distant gaze*)

Derrick_Mace: I will involve you in any other stories that irk me as cameo apperences, if that's ok.

Arrious: You're the writer.

Derrick_Mace: And you're the man.
Thank you, dear readers for sticking by. I promise to bring out a proper post regarding Airona world building and some more human culture worldbuilding.

If anything, I will strive to make this real.

May your vampires sparkle eternally.

Illun: I am so going to kill you for that.