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//'The Forming Lands'// is the translated colloquial name of a small-scale, low-technology world, registered but unoccupied by the [[Ethereal Order->Order]]. It is considered abandoned, with the creator-deity being absent far back enough that its oldest remaining gods do not remember having one at all.
90% of the the realm is uninhabitable, unformed wasteland and completely barren ocean, owing to its abandonment. The only source of life comes from the remnants of a divine corpse, which has since decayed and formed a habitable landmass. The name 'the Forming Lands' initially refers to this continent specifically.
Currently, the Forming Lands are under independent stewardship by the primordial-class matriarch MARA-GETTA, or [[Mother Greta->Greta]]. The [[pantheon->Divines]] itself lacks structure, as a loose collection of egregores and outsiders that have claimed domains. It has been subject to several ethereal occupation attempts, and retains a small population of renegade divinities.
So far, the main catalyst for the Forming Lands is a simple symbolic [[Magic Structure]], but with the absence of a proper steward the structure is unrefined and subject to mutation.
Currently, [[the dominant sapient races->Civilized Nations]] consist of generic offshoots such as [[dwarves->Dwarvenkind]], [[goblins->Goblinkind]], [[elves->Elvenkind]] and [[humans->Mankind]], among others. It seems that these blueprints have been set up before the absence of the creator-deity, and left to develop naturally under the current pantheon.
MARA-GETTA, known by various derivates such as Mol Gret and Mother Greta, is one of the oldest deities in the current pantheon of the Forming Lands. She has primordial origins, and reflects the image of the race that created her, [[the Gol->Goblinkind]], or this world's goblinoid generic.
Her primary domain is motherhood, and her portfolio includes fertility, childbirth, deception and trickery. As a combination matriarch and trickster deity, it's within her nature to nurture her chosen people just as much as it is to sabotage her divine peers. Her tricks, punishments and other forms of retribution have done more to shape the world than anyone else in her pantheon, by virtue of her capriciousness.
In the absence of a creator deity in the Forming Lands, Greta currently holds several of the fundamentals of the world's meta-arcanic structure. She only openly wields the amending words CHAOS=LIFE, invoking it to corrupt and change to her own ends. Owing to her domain, she tends to corrupt individuals through sex or by the compulsion to breed.
Her children are innumerable and divine-touched, but only rarely has she birthed true divines into the world. She is often pregnant, and can manipulate the development of her brood at her whims, including their biological makeup. Divine touched descendants of her progeny are considered more fertile themselves, with the occasional goblin descendant being affected by a bearing-curse that causes spontaneous pregnancies. Usually, by her grace she opts to dispel her offspring of this quirk of her passed-on divinity.
Healers who specialize in midwifery are almost always clerics of Mol Greta, who desires her most faithful to intimately hold a connection to motherhood. Priests and priestesses both are required to bear at least one child in her name, and those biologically ill-equipped to do so are presented with free fleshcrafting services. Instances of non-goblin faithful are not unheard of but exceedingly rare, as the flesh-tithe is easier for a Gol than other, less fertile races such as elves.
''Relationship with Gods''
Mol Greta has had a long history of antagonizing and chastising the rest of her pantheon, who she considers largely young, immature, and in need of discipline. Inadvertently, or for her own unknowable means, Greta is associated with the creation of several members of the pantheon, and has corrupted several more.
Her most significant interaction that has since shaped the world to come is the taming of the sun god [[Limer]], getting him to provide equal light and warmth to the rest of the Forming Lands at the expense of his sanity. Their union has also produced the personification of the moon, [[Lone]]; whom out of her innumerable children Greta seems fond of, granting her a role in the pantheon.
By establishing Limer's role and creating a source for a day/night cycle, Greta saved the world from slow decay into an inert form from the absence of a creating force. She has also solved the pressing issue of establishing an afterlife structure, though inadvertently, by corrupting the witch [[Erda]] into a seedbed for the recycling of spirits.
In addition to being the driving force behind the creation of mankind, Greta also prevented their hundreds-year conquest headed by [[Invictus]], whom she married in order to corrupt and humble into a proper husband. Though she intended to ruin Invictus to hobble the ambitions of mankind, she grew fond of the man she shaped him into, and remains his wife and advisor as he leads the Reviled Nations through unity instead of subjugation.
Greta has also interacted briefly with other outsiders from the Ether, including hosting a visit from [[Lord Manis->Manis]], who intended to recruit her to [[the Order->Order]]. She rejected the offer curtly, and warned him of meddling in her world's affairs. Afterwards, Greta hosted the company of [[Sylvia]], though it is unknown whether she understood or even cared for her many crimes. While Sylvia crossed several boundaries, their similar domains drew them close time and time again.
''Relationship with Mortals''
As the patron of the Gol, Greta favors goblins above all else, and considered everything she does to further her protection and uplifting of them as a whole. Her opinions on other races tend to be poor and judgmental, and her punishments and tricks on non-Gol are often much more severe.
Greta holds vanishingly little love for [[Mankind]] in particular, even after marrying their patron and despite having a hand in their creation. She created the first man as a punishment and a distraction for dwarven and trollenkind, but it seems she did not expect them to flourish in the way that they did. One could consider her acts of sabotage and retribution upon the nations of men to be her 'cleaning up her own mess'.
[[Elves->Elvenkind]] are also an annoyance to her, as their patron Limer's selfishness towards them led to her breaking his heart and mind in the first place. She encourages her Gol's antagonistic relationship with the children of Limer, citing their biological differences and 'aberrant' reproductive methods as justification.
[[Introduction]]
[[Divines]]
[[Civilized Nations]]
[[Magic Structure]]
[[Other Characters]]
[[Locations]]A worldbuilding project by Romaine Vee and Contributors
''Pantheon of the Forming Lands:''
[[Mol Greta->Greta]]
[[Limer]]
[[Lone]]
[[Erda]]
[[Invictus]]
[[Svampkeldr]]
''Visiting Outsiders:''
[[Laurentius]]
[[Luscent]]
''The Ethereal Order:''
[[Manis]]
[[Sylvia]]
[[Ivanc]]LIM, or Limer, is the patron of the elves and the personification of the sun. His origins are from the ether, having wandered into the world at some point after the disappearance of the Forming Land's creator-deity. Despite filling a power vacuum with no competing celestial body, Limer almost solely provided light, warmth and attention to his creation, [[Elvenkind]]. This was to the detriment of the rest of the world, as most of the surface ecosystem was designed to benefit from a sun that was never brought into being.
After the [[Gol->Goblinkind]] escaped the underground, they found the surface as cold, dark and hostile as their original home. It was their patron, [[Mother Greta->Greta]], who saw that the elves had a monopoly on the light of the sun, which never moved from a position that favored their territory. Upon trying to appeal to the fellow god, Limer mocked the perceived filthiness and impurities of the matron and her people, denying her and the Gol his life-giving light. Insulted, Greta began mocking and taunting Limer by flaunting her nudity in the mud, with the intent to seduce him.
When Limer took the bait, Greta fornicated with him for several days and nights, slathering him with the material filth of the mortal ground and ruining his perceived purity. By the time she was done with him, Limer had been driven mad with lust and shame. When she left him at last he gave chase, and the matron led him on a loop around the entire world before slipping away, leaving him to begin his endless wandering across the sky.
The copulation between Greta and Limer begat their daughter [[Lone]], the personification of the moon. As Limer continues his eternal pursuit, it is Lone's duty to keep him on the course, and ensure he never truly catches her mother.
While Limer appears as the glowing orb of the sun to most mortals, it is the elves that see their god in his disheveled, tainted state as he staggers across the sky. Unable to aid their patron, the elves take out their frustrations on Lone, whose protective shawl is marred by tears and holes from their projectiles.
The elves hope that one day, Limer will catch Greta, come to his senses, and possibly kill her. The goblins, however, believe that should Limer catch up to their mother, Greta will simply lay with him, produce another child, and start the cycle anew.
As the result of [[Mol Grett's->Greta]] tryst with the sun god [[Limer]], their daughter Lone has been elevated to represent the moon in the realm's cosmos. This was both to ensure that there will always be a light source in the sky, and to keep Limer on his endless course across the world.
As the [[Elves->Elvenkind]] hold resentment for Greta driving their creator to madness, many of them have taken it out on Lone over time by shooting arrows and projectiles at her. To protect her, Greta wove a protective shawl that she still wraps herself with, though over time the elven assault leaves it full of holes and tears.
Lone is considered one of Greta's favorite children, and thus is said to play a role in natural fertility cycles, and emergent rituals in various cultures.
As the Forming Lands did not have a dedicated death and rebirth system in place by the time [[Mol Greta->Greta]] emerged, the spirits of mortals wandered freely within the realm after their mortal bodies broke down. As mortalkind were not meant to exist as bodiless, immortal spirits, these ghosts were prone to developing misanthropic, often violent tendencies. Furthermore, their living peers were developing new ways of manipulating spirits to their own ends, forcing them to inhabit bodies - whether those bodies once belonged to them or not - and be put to work as manual labor or cannon fodder.
Since the [[Gol->Goblinkind]] were short-lived and exceedingly prolific, the souls of goblins were a commodity for these 'necromancers', to Greta's disgust. She sought out the Crone Mother of the grave-witch coven, Erda, and pleaded with her to spare her Gol children, mistaking Erda's title in her coven to be the shared kinship of motherhood.
Erda, who mistook Greta to be a grieving mortal mother herself, mocked the goddess' pleas. She refused on the grounds that the immortal spirit shed its mortal ties upon death, including its parentage, property and rights, both legal and divine. She was, of course, punished for her insulting tone and presumptive behavior over a goddess.
Greta, considering Erda's claims, cursed a bearing seed within the witch; drawing the stray souls of the dead from all over the Forming Lands into Erda's womb. By Greta's will, these souls would be recycled, reborn anew from the witch to allow them to inhabit new bodies throughout the realm. Erda, who was neither a mother nor the rightful owner of the souls of the dead, remained so even in this state. She was now instead a Seedbed, or a womb that had forfeited its personhood under the affect of Greta's corrupting magic.
As the Forming Lands and its inhabitants develop and grow in number, the sheer amount of souls Erda must birth constantly has warped her body beyond recognition. Locked away in the land of the dead, she has become but a mass of innumerable womb-chambers and honeycombs of birth canals, tended to by her coven. Her disciples-turned-faithful are known as seedbed necromancers, who take on but a fraction of her immense burdens to give birth to souls in use for their own ends. Through divine ritual, seedbed necromancers claim ownership of their 'children', in order to appease the mother-goddess. As long as the exponential population growth and the recycling rate of souls remains at a stable equilibrium, their rituals are allowed within reason.
INVCTV, once known by other derivatives such as the Conquering Spirit and the Subjugating Lord, was a contemporary addition to the pantheon as the patron god of [[Mankind]]. Born from the subconscious will and constant infighting between the widespread nations of men, Invictus's domain was conquest and tyranny, fueling the worst habits of his people. He united the fractured nations of men against every other race and occupied every corner of the Forming Lands at the height of his faith. This campaign steadily made him more powerful as mankind became more violent and power-hungry, eventually eventually threatening other deities within the pantheon.
The campaign was brought to a halt when his armies reached the Gol Valley, and disturbed the [[Gol->Goblinkind]] in an era of peace. [[Mol Greta->Greta]], seeing the goblins' clear disadvantage, refused to see her children bow to a big-man. She conspired then to undermine Invictus' plans of world domination; first getting close to him through offering herself as a bride, then manipulating his spirit through satisfying him sexually. Over time, Greta corrupted Invictus into a softened, mind-broken beacon of debauchery. His loss of interest in conquest in turn lowered his power and influence over mankind, and abandoned his conquest to remain Greta’s favorite husband.
In the time after abandoning his domain, Invictus took on the title of the Reviled Lord, and those who had remained loyal to him became as corrupted as he was. Now a god in the domain of hedonism and the outcast, Invictus welcomes all races and creeds to join his Reviled and live in relative peace in the frigid badlands of the Forming Lands. Greta, who didn't intend on such an outcome, found herself genuinely loving her husband in his fall from grace. In an unprecedented move she took his side at his throne, and her goblins in turn shed their previously isolationist nature.
The fall of Invictus, though clean-cut to the perspective of the gods, remains a highly debated, troubled era of human history. Countless myths and rumors spread to explain the actions of their former god, though only few touched on aspects of the truth. The unity of the Nations crumbled, and ever since Mankind has not been able to achieve such cohesion among its ranks. This has led to the formation and rise of the first contemporary dynasties of Men, who in turn shaped the current territories of humanity in the Forming Lands.
Few populations still worship Invictus as the god of conquest, as many people believe that he has either abandoned them or perished. Those who remain steadfast in their faith despite both possible outcomes include the southern clan of Drakondam. The house of [[Aurescu->Aurescu]] on the other hand traced their prosperity to the fall of Invictus, after the founder of their dynasty spread the rumors of Invictus’ abandonment to uphold himself as his mortal successor.
As of the contermporary era, Invictus remains a patron of pleasure and excess, an example to the Gol of the perfect, submissive, virile husband. His once-savage nature is tamed by Greta distracting him with her love, and his lust once used in subjugation of women is slaked by bearing his wife regular broods.
Svampkeldr is the former patron deity of [[Dwarvenkind]], who guided their emergence in the beginning of the early mythic era. He is the oldest known divinity in the Forming Lands since the being that became the Corpse itself, and his origins are up to debate.
To the dwarves that revered him, Svampkelder is considered wholly borne from the remaining tissues of the corpse to guide them in the darkness underground; similar to the origins of his ‘sibling’ and counterpart, [[Mol Greta->Greta]]. Some suggest that it is more accurate to say that he was not the product of the subconscious desires of the dwarves, but from the innate sentience of the fungus that makes up the ecosystem of the Hollow, citing his role in protecting the subterranean flora and fauna. Other myths draw more comparison to his connection to Mol Greta by claiming that he was ‘borne displaced from the dead god’s womb, left to fester in the decay of the entails’; an ectopic pregnancy of divine proportions.
Widespread worship of Svampkeldr uplifted the dwarves through the mythic eras, up until the discovery of Artifice and the technological and industrial boom that followed. As the culture and society of the dwarves began rapidly changing, faith in Svampkeldr grew ever fainter. Since the dwarves refuse to leave the underground, the development of their metropolis has greatly encroached on the fungal environs of the Hollow, replacing life-sustaining natural resources with industrialized solutions. Since the contemporary era, there has been little sign of Svampkeldr’s presence in the underground.
Before his disappearance, Svampkeldr held a gentler role in dwarven culture and myth in comparison to Greta’s mark on the world, though they share a slant towards trickery and mischief. Very few myths exist of the two interacting, the most known story being the account of Svampkeldr’s first and only visit to the surface. There, he was blinded by the brilliance of [[Limer]], and could only open his eyes at night when Greta and Limer’s daughter [[Lone]] provided a softer, kinder light that the subterranean deity fell in love with. Attempting to seduce and convince the goddess to return underground with him fell flat, and Svampkeldr returned solemnly to the Hollow to attempt to recreate Lone’s light in the form of bioluminescence.
Svampkeldr’s mischief is associated with the dangers of the underground, such as rot-pits and the multitude of poisons and ailments his fungi can give to non-dwarves. However, there is no malice in his association behind these hazards, just as there is no malice to be had within the simplicity of fungi. Life and growth from death and decay is baked into the very soul of the realm, and to be taken by the rotting environs to feed the Growth and sustain future generations of dwarves was once considered an honor.
Though dwarves have largely abandoned the animistic worship of Svampkeldr and the Growth/Decay itself, fringe sects of naturalists and luddite environmental advocates spurn the direction Dwarvenkind is going in, and try to preserve the doctrines of their absent god.
SYV, or Sylvia, is an outsider-deity from the [[Ethereal Realm->Ether]], who briefly resided in the Forming Lands while on the run from persecution. Her domain is evolution and adaptation, though she is considered a matron goddess by the arbitrary classification of the [[Divine Order->Order]]. As a result, the mortals she oversees develop at a more rapid pace than others. In her past, she oversaw her native realm's iteration of humanity, and drove them towards their own extinction as they destroyed their world in pursuit of resources.
Sylvia, during her time in the Forming Lands, took a shine to [[Mol Grett->Greta]] as they shared a penchant for trickery despite being mother-goddesses. Greta let Sylvia shelter in her world, and in exchange Sylvia gave her the knowledge of amending words, and the amendment CHAOS=LIFE. With this, Greta had the power to claim the entirety of the realm for herself as a creator-deity, but she chose not to, offending her guest.Laurentius, also known as the Celestine King, was a middle-grade deity within a now-defunct pantheon known as the Celestine Accord, which has since been subsumed into the [[Divine Order->Order]]. While Laurentius initially allied himself with Manis to stage a coup for his realm, he ultimately abandoned their alliance after being rejected for sole leadership of his realm. As result, Laurentius went rogue and fled the Order, but not before bearing Manis an [[illegitimate son->Luscent]].
Laurentius and Luscent were travelers in the [[Ethereal Realm->Ether]] for most of his son's life, during which the former Celestial fed him a an embellished version of their past that painted his father as a deposed and scorned king from a realm destroyed by Manis' tyranny. Eventually, they came across the Forming Lands - a realm untouched by the Order, and absent of a proper leader within their pantheon.
Luscent, also known as the Celestine Prince, is the son of [[Laurentius]], born in the Ether after his father abandoned their home world after a falling out with Luscent's second father, [[God-Sovereign Manis->Manis]]. Kept ignorant to his father's treacherous past and taught an idealized version of their legacy, Luscent grows up to be fiercely loyal and dependent on his father's word.
As he is entirely [[Ether]] and raised, Luscent has not known mortal sensation nor experience from being in a material world. He is immediately overwhelmed when he is thrust into the material; finding even the air around him to be oppressively uncomfortable. He remains hypersensitive even after growing accustomed to having a material body, though he quickly a taste for sensation-seeking that crosses the line to masochistic. Luckily - or perhaps unluckily -his truly immortal nature makes any bodily harm a mere convenience, and it leaves him foolhardy as a result.
Though he believes and trusts his father utterly, his fretful, anxious nature is a point of contention with Laurentius, who frequently belittles and downplays his second-guessing constantly.Goblins, also called Gol or //Golkint//, are a goblinoid iteration with only one native territory, the Gol Valley. Originally from the heart of the world alongside the [[dwarves->Dwarvenkind]], the Gol found underground life miserable and claustrophobic, leading to a mass exodus to the surface world. There, they established their tiny nation with great risk, as their small and fragile forms made them subject to new natural predators as well as the prejudices of other kind, like [[trolls->Trollenkind]] and [[elves->Elvenkind]]. The elements and changing seasons also brought hazards to this vulnerable nation, and within the first year of their exodus, the population of goblins was halved.
During their first winter on the surface, surviving Gol pined for the warmth of a mother figure, and their sheer force of will and desperation formed their patron goddess, Mother Greta. She instilled within her newly minted children her cunning, and bolstered the ambition that drove them beyond the heart of the world. Since they were weak as individuals and possessed a middling lifespan, she encouraged them to breed and multiply in excess to ensure their survival. Much of what she did to shape the Forming Lands, including taking on a stewardship role of it, was for the sake of her goblin children - for better or worse.
Similarly to their dwarven cousins, Gol are skilled at material disciplines and industry, including the magic of Artifice. Their lack of reliance on being underground makes them more suited to the establishment of international trade and diplomacy than the dwarves, as well; though famously, goblins are finicky and distrusting creatures, who have good reason to be wary around the [['bigger races'->Mankind]].
Goblinkind's primary element is Flesh, as Mol Greta's domain revolves around themes of fertility and childbearing. They have a middling receptiveness to most other forms of magic, and most do not pursue any other magical disciplines. With their patron's influence and their affinity of Flesh, Gol produce a high number of healers and fleshcrafters in equal measure.
Variants
The most commonly recognized and distinct variant of Gol are the contemporary Pan Gol, or simply //Goblins//. Goblins have a lifespan of 90 years on average and are easily identified by their (usually) olive-green skin tone, pointed and elongated ears, five fingers on each hand and foot, soft bodies, short stature (about 4’5 on average), and speech. Goblin-speak is very similar to that of Humans (though they do communicate to one another in their own language called //“Gollic”//), resulting in them having a very distinct manner of speech, or what others call a “Goblin accent”.
Goblins are very noticeably sexually dimorphic, with the males being referred to as //“menn”// and the females //“wombyn”// in reference to their wombs, which are seen as a symbol of authority. Goblins are a Matriarchal species, pushing the importance of the females in their society and culture so much so that womb-worshipping cults have developed in their society.
Goblins breed regularly and often with no schedule as they have evolved to have a lifelong controlled heat cycle. Though incredibly common, the act is still very much cherished. Goblins are mostly found living amongst other societies, as they have intertwined with the nations growing around them. They typically engage in trading with other societies and the individual kind within, though still being judgemental and distrusting of them. Other societies are equally distrusting of Goblins as well though maintaining a close relationship. Goblins usually cover their entire body in casual or formal dress when walking about or amongst one another, not unlike Humankind.
When the term “Gol” or “Goblin” is used, it is most definitely being used to refer to the Pan Gol.
The less common Coda Gol, more commonly known by other races as //Kobolds// (or sometimes Hobgoblins, though this term is more derogatory) are a variant so distinct from Goblins that they are considered to be separate species entirely. This is due to how dissimilar they typically are, even though Kobolds are widely understood to be the oldest living variant of the Gol. Though Kobolds carry the same biological traits as Goblins, there are also several distinct differences.
Kobolds possess certain traits from the Dwarven cousins they derive from. These traits include tails, sharper claws, more prominent body hair, language and speech (they have their own language, Kobbish, similar to but different from the developed Goblin speak), shorter lifespans (50 years on average), and sexual monomorphism. Unlike Goblins, Kobolds do not have distinct genders and breed similar to Dwarves in that they are only able to conceive during their heat. However, Kobolds are substantially shorter than both Dwarves and Goblins - around 4’ on average - and unlike dwarves, they do not have to attract or impress mates during heat. They simply seek out the first Kobold without a partner.
Kobolds live in woodland areas typically along streams or in caves and are known to be rather solitary and greatly dislike interacting with other kind as they have no need to usually, though the mix of their withdrawn lifestyle and the growing Nations of Men resulted in Kobolds stealing goods such as food, materials (not for clothing, as they at most wear loincloths due to living in solitude), wealth and etcetera from Humans, Goblins, Sylvans, and even Dwarves to keep themselves sustained. While Goblins are considered annoying neighbors, Kobolds are considered feral pests- even by their Goblin siblings.
There are several explanations for how and why Goblinkind split into two variants. The most commonly accepted one is that they were one of several cases of subtle influence by the presence of Mankind; whose pervasiveness on the surface affected every other kind in turn over generations. Another explanation within Gol culture is the belief that since Greta’s daughters only beget daughter’s themselves, and so on and so forth, this eventually created a schism both biological and cultural. The reverence of wombyn within Gol culture, and the belief that the male sex is only a mutation, has led to their extreme matriarchal society today.
Reproductive Habits
Mol Greta's influence on their biology is also based around her domain, as Greta has bestowed heightened fertility and maternal resilience to the Gol. Pregnancy is exceedingly easy for a goblin, who may bear upwards of a dozen children in their lifetime. It is not uncommon for this to turn into a compulsion, as brood-addicts who derive pleasure from pregnancy and birth are not discouraged within goblin culture.
Gol remain fertile throughout their lives, but women usually stop getting pregnant once the ‘pleasure has run its course’, or rather their aging bodies experience undue strain during childbirth. Goblins that don't get pregnant often enough go into a heat state described as their wombs ‘going into yearning’, experiencing intermittent uterus and vaginal cramps alongside a sharply heightened sex drive. These episodes last from days to weeks, and come upon the Gol randomly. Older Gol experience it more often. Physicians even in non Gol societies recommend the afflicted to experience pregnancy, to sate their body’s pact with mol Greta. Of course, there are some who fetishize the discomfort similar to that of a brood addict.
Brood addiction can happen to anyone upon their first birth, though for some the psychological aspect starts much earlier through secondhand experience. Since the fetishization of pregnancy and childbirth is highly common within the Gol, no distinction is made between the average horny Gol and a brood addict until physical side effects take their toll. While Gol usually only experience fertile periods during heat cycles, brood addicts disproportionately have ‘Greta's blessing’, a genetic mutation that allows them to have more frequent, longer fertile periods. At later stages of addiction, blessed Gol seek impregnation immediately after giving birth.
Brood addicts can only experience sexual release during later stages of pregnancy and through labor and birth. This begins as a psychological issue that sinks into the body as repeated pregnancies accentuate the changes to their form. Dire cases of later stages are rendered immobile through either the size of their broods or by the incremental damage to their pelvis. Prolapse is extremely common, though with Gol physiology it is only a minor side effect. The birth canal becomes so permanently stretched that a head only really ‘crowns’ through the cervix; after this point, a brood addict may seek out larger mates to breed more pleasurable broods. It is extremely rare for a Gol to die from complications in childbirth, but nearly all cases come from brood addicts, who continue giving birth well into geriatric years when their bodies would otherwise stop receiving pleasure from it.
In contemporary society, brood addiction is seen as an unfortunate mental affliction. There were times, however, when such passion and pleasure would have exalted the addict as a holy disciple of Mol Greta.
This world's iteration of humanity was made from a profane corruption instigated by [[Mol Greta->Greta]]. As the youngest developed sapient race, the nations of man are volatile and uncooperative towards other species. Their primordial desperation for guidance bore the war god [[Invictus]], who remained their patron deity for some time.
Humans were born of the last [[dwarven->Dwarvenkind]] royal, whose quarrel with the [[king of trolls->Trollenkind]] put his pregnancy in jeopardy. Disappointed in his recklessness, Greta took pity and turned the defeated troll king into a surrogate womb to birth the premature fetus into. The resulting progeny grew beyond that of Dwarvenkind, absorbing the worst and most vulnerable traits of both species, and was born fully formed as the first man. It is implied that Greta did this on purpose, to seed a rival to distract both kingdoms from bothering her goblins.
Since there was only one original specimen of man, there is debate as to the methods that led to its propagation as a species. Regional folktales describe the First of Men copulating with trolls, [[boggits->Sylvankind]], and even Greta herself to save itself from extinction. Regardless of the truth, Mankind remains incredibly fruitful and widespread to make up for its middling lifespan and delicate constitution.
Mankind is uniquely attuned to the element of Flesh, possibly stemming from the circumstances of its birth and the goddess that instigated it. Human meat has become a commodity amongst other races for the versatility of its uses in fleshcraft, blood magic and flesh tithes; with the latter becoming so infamous within human culture that the term ‘maneater’ has become the contemporary pejorative for [[tithe-eating beast-born->Renari]]. [[Elves->Elvenkind]], with their nation bordering two major human nations, maintain a thriving gray-area market for human meat, bodies and souls due to Mankind’s propensity to enslave and exploit their own kind.
As soon as mankind began gaining a foothold in the Forming Lands, they found themselves beset by every other more established race within the realm. Whether they were to be eaten, physically exploited or financially exploited varied depending on the nation involved. Fear and insecurity ran rampant within the loosely-gathered tribes of men, and in turn bore Invictus to be their guiding force in conquering their enemies. The United Nations of Men would go on to conquer much of the realm before Greta put a stop to it personally, corrupting Invictus until he shed his motivation for conquest. The resulting shift led to more fracturing and discord among the people, and in its place the most prominent nation-states began to rely on their belief in their kings for guidance.
The dynasties of the contemporary kings of men have risen, fallen, merged and corrupted one another with dizzying speed compared to other nations of longer-lived races. Distinct, rich cultures have bloomed and crumbled underfoot as these dynasties warred without need for Invictus, eventually wiping one another out save for a few. The major powers of contemporary humanity, [[House Aurescu->Aurescu]] and Clan Drakondam, are considered two polar opposites and have largely met a stalemate.
Clan Drakondam holds its ground amongst mixed company in the Leg Bones; eschewing old human prejudices to mix its blood and people with the native Dwarven states, as well as holding alliances with the contemporary inheritors of the Gol Valley. They uphold a mix of human and dwarven customs, and continue honoring Invictus as a sort of saint during their continued resistance to their longtime rival, the Aurescu.
House Aurescu, formed when Ilexandre the First claimed to have been chosen as Invictus’ divine successor, have gone on to expand beyond its de jure city-state of Aurexia to conquer almost every human territory not already held by Drakondam. Despite having a grand monopoly on resources, land and people, the House itself has withdrawn into itself to the point of becoming enigmatic to the common folk. Rumors of the profane lengths the family has gone to to preserve the mere remaining drops of its divine blood abound.
Elves, also called Ellumen or //Luminkint//, resemble the classic archetype in name only; as they were made by the outsider-god [[Limer]], their own physiology is similarly alien to the basic makeup of the Forming Lands. Originally immortal through continuous exposure to Limer's light, elvenkind only 'ages' in the night, or during prolonged periods of darkness. Keeping an elf away from the sun for too long will leave them vulnerable to illness and reliance on mortal needs, such as food and water.
In the days before Limer's madness set in, his unerring attention on his people was known as 'the age of the eternal morning'; a golden age where the species was left to pursue actualization without mortal needs, nor predators, nor competition for resources. They dominated the surface, but their numbers were limited due to having no drive nor purpose to breed during their eternal life. When Limer began chasing his [[unrequited love->Greta]] across the realm, giving equal sunlight to the rest of the land, his pampered and entitled people saw his merely brief absences as a tragic loss.
Since they were created as stagnated, eternally beautiful pets of their patron, elvenkind took their newfound mortal weaknesses to be a curse. They were never taught nor instilled with the instincts many sapient races and even animals are born with, and have had to navigate these needs on their own. During the night, elves hover obsessively around what sources of light they can; fearing the dark not for the horrors that lurk, but for the weakness it instills in them. They only eat and rehydrate begrudgingly during this time, though they have no taste for food and find no satisfaction in sating their needs.
Physiology
Elves bear more similarity to insects than any other sapient species, making it impossible to interbreed with them while also sparing them from those with anthrophagic tendencies. As purely divine-made entities, their body structure is intended more for aesthetics than survival; a result of Limer intending them to be nothing more than his curated pets. In Limer's absence, elvenkind has slowly adapted to the harsh environment of the Forming Lands.
Since the elves had no reason to breed during their eternal morning, they had to have their own ways to satisfy the new drive to propagate. A successful copulation between elves produces a single egg-seed that gestates within the fertilized elf. However, their bodies are unsuited to the rigors of pregnancy, and lack biological drive and instinct. When left unattended they will carry the seed until it eventually sprouts inside of them, generally killing the mother in the process. These 'naturally' born elves are called dryads, and are the more monstrous truth of the elves' original design.
A 'successful' elven pregnancy is one that is tracked by an elven midwife until the egg-seed is considered suitably ripe, then removed through manual stimulation, or surgery. The egg-seed still demands blood tithe, though; an estimate of an individual elf's blood supply must be given to the egg-seed for it to mature. Through trial and error, the elves have found that providing 'mixed' blood donated in varying amounts by a community produces increasingly weaker generations, with more optimal results coming from within the same family, or most ideally from the same source. More powerful families are known to bribe or kidnap sacrifices that they deem to have qualities they want their offspring to have.
As the elves struggle to survive without their patron's constant vigil, their hold on the surface has since waned. [[Humans->Mankind]] and other 'lesser' races have seized most of their original territory, leading to contemporary elves integrating themselves into broader mixed-species communities. Despite their biological differences and the attitudes of their forefathers, more recent generations - born under 'the age of fleeting noon' - are amicable, spirited individuals that try to uphold peace between other races of the surface.
Magical Attunement
Elvenkind's primary element is Spirit, and they are more receptive to immaterial disciplines than others, making them excellent elementalists and masters of soul, mind and spirit. However, they have little connection to certain material concepts such as Flesh, and have no connection whatsoever to the dwarven-made magic of Artifice.
In their pursuit of their lost immortality, elves have also pioneered life extension magic through manipulation of the soul, to the detriment of the material body. Non-elven subjects of this immortality magic eventually become sickened, desiccated husks as their bodies deteriorate - only enough to toe the line between life and death. As more and more contemporary elves form meaningful relationships with shorter-lived races, the use of this temporary and ultimately destructive power has increased behind closed doors. Often, they leave their objects of affection unaware of what they're doing to them until the effects are irreversible.
The sapient races that have inherited this world are known among each other as //kind// when referring to other races, or //kint// when referring to their own. Though the structure of the societies and cultures these kind develop vary, most often refer to both their native land and people as a Nation. Hence, 'the Nations of Man', among others. Kind who hold neither in high regard are considered independent, and are most often found integrated within other societies.
''Major Powers:''
* [[Mankind]]
* [[Elvenkind]]
* [[Dwarvenkind]]
''Minor Nations:''
* [[Goblinkind]]
* [[Trollenkind]]
''Independent Kind:''
* [[Sylvankind]]
* [[Renari]]
Dwarves are the second most populous and influential sapient race in the Forming Lands, born within the decaying heart and brain of the Corpse, from which they attribute their prized ingenuity and creativity. As the oldest of known civilizations, they consider themselves the true inheritors of their world, the underground, leaving other nations to quarrel over ownership of the surface.
They have built the most advanced civilization in the realm, with their nation’s age and cultural development being many leagues behind their other subterranean peers. They are close cousins to another previously underground species, the goblins. However, while the Gol became obsessed with the surface world, dwarves remained underground due to proximity to their favored resources. The Gol still consider the dwarves kin, though their claustrophobia often discourages interaction.
Dwarvenkind's primary element is Earth, being born from the heart of the world deep underground. They are the pioneers of most technological advancements in the Forming Lands, favoring material over immaterial disciplines. They are unreceptive to most immaterial magic, and thus hold a distrust in the manipulation of soul and spirit. Their attunements and technological advancements have led to the creation and mastery of Artifice, the material discipline that manipulates the inherent magic present in mortalmade objects.
A near completely subterranean species, dwarves have settled every inch of the Hollow: the massive cavern system that remains of the Corpse’s chest cavity. The Hollow spans a country in itself, and dwarves in their stubbornness towards expansion on the surface have chosen to settle every inch of the caverns they were born in. The majority of the population and their industries are burrowed into the sides of the cavern itself in an attempt to conserve space for the natural ecosystem of the decayed remains, from which dwarves cultivate their underground food sources. As the nation of dwarves expands and their resources and space dwindle, they are forced to expand further, deeper underground. Though, the issue remains whether there is anything beneath them to expand into, much like how all other known landmasses around the corpse remain barren and under-formed wastelands.
Through Artifice magic, Dwarves have harnessed once-untouchable Ephemeral energies such as fire, steam, and gas, leading to widespread industrialization in all corners of their underground kingdoms. This has not gone without consequence, however, as pollution from ever-expanding industries and dwindling space has begun showing lasting side effects on the ecosystem. In pursuit of agricultural development, they have seized what little of the southern Innards that haven't been picked clean by their longtime rivals, Trollenkind.
''Physiology''
Dwarves are short, stocky, frequently hairy and often furry mortals with broad features suited to digging from before their discovery of tools. Even after their race has evolved to suit their civilization’s advancements, they retain large, flat hands with two ‘digging nails’ on stiffer, stronger fingers than what they use for more dexterous manipulation. Because of this, many dwarven tools are specifically suited to the distinct shape and functionality of their hands.
Despite living underground, dwarves have not completely discarded their sense of sight, though they are uniformly nearsighted with small, beady eyes. The invention of eyeglasses have been a great boon for them, and thus most of the population utilizes spectacles, goggles or visors depending on their job and station. This has somewhat stunted their natural abilities to see in darkness, as they were originally equipped to utilize infrared sensory organs that have become vestigial as technology compensated.
Biologically, dwarves have a uniform combined sex, and barely recognize the existence of other genders. Since all dwarves possess the ability to sire and carry children, families tend to be larger than other races from couples both carrying children, often at the same time. Attribution of gendered concepts to behavior and appearance is considered a social faux pas, though other nations still incorrectly refer to most dwarves as 'male'. The closest equivalent to gender as a social construct is present within their own caste system, which has developed as the advancements of their civilization shaped their future generations in turn.
''Castes''
The Castes, though possessing superficial differences at best, have become the primary differentiation between dwarven demographics. As the physical traits of any caste can be carried recessively and present in different ways, the dictation of a dwarf’s role within society is dictated by physicians specializing in the role. Such physical traits can include height, build, body hair patterns, digging nail and tail lengths, and the outward appearance of their genitalia. Regardless of their features, the assignment of a dwarf to any specific caste is still largely biased towards economic class.
//Alpha// Dwarves are the carefully cultivated upper class of dwarven society, being the proposed pinnacle of their evolution as a species and the advanced state of their civilization. Along with their closely related lower rungs of the castes, Alpha dwarves are also the apex of the ‘city dwarf’ - highly suited to contemporary life in a Hollows metropolis, where there are carved warrens instead of caverns and shops instead of factories. Reflecting their modernized lifestyles, Alphas are considered relatively sparse of body hair, growing it in thick patches that are groomed and shaped according to fashion and taste. They are considered the most beautiful of dwarves, being noticeably taller at roughly half the height of a human. Their hair, beard and tails are often laden with the riches they are most certainly born into. Their digging nails, no longer needed for their initial purpose, have instead developed into thinner claws that Alphas either keep capped with gold or sharpened to deadly points, depending on temperament.
Befitting of their elevated stations, Alphas look down on all others, and are considered aggressive, domineering, and selfish. Though dwarven greed is hardly exclusive to them, they pursue it almost exclusively at the expense of the lower castes. Their caveat, however, is that they do not always breed true: Alpha genes are recessive, and more and more babies are being born without the ‘modern’ traits they pride themselves on. It is estimated that a not-insignificant percentage of Alphas are merely Beta or even Delta dwarves that keep up strict appearances.
//Beta// dwarves, as the lower rung on the ladder, are less grandiose and concerned with appearances. Alongside Deltas they make up the majority of what the average surfacer sees of dwarven society, as both are among the most populated of the castes. Betas differentiate themselves from Deltas by their blunted digging nails and cropped tails, as an industrialized lifestyle in warren factories necessitates keeping both traits from becoming a liability. Though their body hair is sparse and more widespread than a well-groomed Alpha, Betas do not grow hair on the top of their head, leading to a completely bald skull later in life. To compensate, they are often seen with the most elaborate and voluminous beards they can afford to keep.
In their current station amongst the castes, Betas hold enough power to live comfortably, and enough importance to remain largely uncontested when it comes to the dictation of caste placement. This is not, to say, that all Betas are naturally content, as some of the crueler supervisors and fiercer warriors around have been Betas rather than Alphas. Though Alphas refuse to see any other caste as their equal, some choose to marry high-ranking or exceptional Betas for the sake of power or potential breeding, though their progeny are seen as an equivalent to bastards.
//Delta// dwarves, often confused with or interchangeably referred to alongside Betas, differentiate themselves by being broader and stockier than their kin. Their distinctly robust, curvaceous frames are a point of charm to other castes, though Deltas have a reputation of being ‘all brawn and no brain’, stereotyped by the upper rungs as being shortsighted and simplistic grunts concerned with only smithing, brawling, fucking and drinking. Their body hair is thick, and their beards and hair form a mane around their neck and shoulders as they age, inverse to the balding Beta.
Despite being considered the bimbos of dwarvenkind, the majority of metalwork and other artisanal goods from the Hollow are undoubtedly of Delta make. What they lack in scholarly pursuits, they make up for in creative vision and an eye for the aesthetics that can give them prized positions in Alpha circles. While most Deltas prefer the more stereotypically dwarven arts of smithing, sculpting and carving, the occasional painter or musician may find themself elevated in society by an Alpha patron.
//Omega// dwarves are considered the natural inverse to Alphas in both appearance and social standing, delegated to being the unskilled laborers and service workers in dwarven society. Where Alphas are the ‘modern’ dwarf, the Omegas are surely the primordial example of dwarvenkind past; They grow thick, unkempt fur over most of their bodies, and their eyes are small and deep-set in favor of the infrared sensory organ other rungs have left to wither. Omegas sport the largest and most powerful digging claws, as they are most often the caste most likely to use them for their intended purpose. The rest of their hand, however, is less usable for more dexterous actions by comparison.
Considered unkempt, filthy and naturally ‘unclean’ by other castes, to be dictated an Omega is seen as a misfortune. Most Omegas are not given the opportunity to be anything other than the ground which others walk on; discouraged and barred from higher education, skilled labor and creative pursuits. It is a common concern among Betas and Deltas that their Alpha superiors may one day decide to eliminate their ‘middle class’ castes altogether to bring them down to the standing of the Omegas, though this fear does not motivate them towards any solidarity nor charity to their singular inferiors.
Lastly, as the genetic outliers of the dwarves, the //Gamma// and //Upsilon// castes fulfill specific niches, rather than a place in the class structure. Gamma are the genetic throwback to what would become Kobolds and later modern Gol; considered significantly weaker and smaller than the rest of dwarvenkind. The Gamma gene is inheritable, but can manifest within any caste, often causing a stir in their community in the process. As a Gamma dwarf is considered weak and sickly, they are unsuited to the roles and trades of other castes; however, a Gamma can remain sharp of mind, and those that are not ousted from society find their place in unconventional pursuits of intellect, scholarship, and subterfuge. As Alphas grow more slim of build and weak of arm as they adapt to urban life, more and more of their children are being labled as Gammas, whether incorrectly or not.
Upsilons, even rarer than Gammas, are actually a specific, prevailing mutation from the very earliest iterations of the caste system. Once considered the royals of their kind, the dynasty that the Upsilons came from had the unique trait of hairlessness and taillessness - traits that the Last King of the Dwarves would pass down to their goddess-forsaken progeny with the King of Trolls: Mankind. The outrage within the Hollow that followed led to a coup that nearly eradicated the royals, save for their lingering blood within the unlucky few born with their unmistakable features.
For the most part, Upsilons are merely suffering from congenital alopecia. But for a select few, the stories of their ancestor’s legacy is told and retold, persisting even as contemporary dwarvenkind advances toward an uncertain future.
//Dwarven terms
* Ironhewn - A Dwarf who is born typically of a clan that was already incredibly well-off with wealth in both material, skill and class. Basically already set for a promising and fulfilling life. Comes from the Dwarven adage “They were hewn from iron” (akin to the term “born with a silver spoon in their mouth”, iron being the mineral most valued by Dwarvenkind due to its resourcefulness)
* Gritborn - A Dwarf who is born into poverty or low class, synonymous to the terms “ill-fated” or “doomed from the start”. The term comes from the Dwarven adage “As if they were crawling through the grit during birth”, implying that a child is destined for a difficult life from the beginning due to the Dwarven caste system.//
Trollenkind, also referred to as Trolls or //Trollenkint//, are a subterranean beast-born race that originated within what is now the Trollinder mountain range. Originating from the gallbladder of the Corpse, the first Trolls devoured the Corpse’s putrefying entrails and gained higher sentience than they would otherwise have. As this species is especially attuned to the element of flesh, they eat almost exclusively meat in the most basic iteration of flesh-tithe cannibalism: wherein the consumption of another lends a deeper power to the consumer than energy from calories.
Like the [[Renari]], Trolls are born bestial in form and nature until imbibing their mother's milk, which takes on similar power to tithes. As their separation from other kint is not as vast as the Renari, Trolls do not need to partake in cannibalism in order to achieve sapience and humanoid features. Instead, eating the flesh of another sapient being extends their otherwise middling lifespan, and makes them hardy enough to survive the harsh conditions of the underground. For carriers of certain genes, it also passes on some measure of a creature’s memories and former knowledge. Because of these benefits, Trolls have an animosity towards almost every other race, seeing them as a vital food source.
The Trolls' tendency to see other kint as cattle has led to a long-standing rivalry with their subterranean neighbors, the [[Dwarves->Dwarvenkind]]. Trollen tribes would live partially underground for the sake of staking out territory in mineral-rich caverns, simply to try and lure in Dwarven expedition teams, or even hold the deposits ransom for a sacrifice. The struggle between the enterprising dwarves encroaching deeper into the Trollinder mountains culminated in the clash between the ruling tribal chief and the Last King of the Dwarves, which in turn gave birth to the first instance of [[Men->Mankind]].
Unlike dwarves, Trolls do not have an innate distaste for the surface world, and populated the harsh mountainous surface of their ancestral home around the same time the Gol made their own mass migration. As time progressed in the Forming Lands, Mankind became a more ideal meat source, leading to many Trolls migrating to the lowlands. Elves, who were virtually inedible to Trolls and equally dismissive of mankind, began affecting the sanctioned form of flesh-tithe as a pact and a scrip for beast-born looking to survive in the contemporary civilized world. Trolls within civilized areas are usually slaves, servants or day-laborers for [[Elves->Elvenkind]], in exchange for a pittance of human meat.
Over time, through elven intervention and natural adaptation to life above ground, lowland trolls ended up losing most of the traits that helped them adapt to darkness and confined passages, becoming the more upright, less beastly-looking Ogres. Ogres are another possibly-coincidental, post-humanity offshoot of a sentient race into a distinct species. Ogres are more suited to contemporary civilization, as they have more tenable omnivorous diets and have retained a sort of genetic memory passed on from mother to child, a variation on the gene that allowed Trolls underground to devour dwarves and ‘steal their secrets’.
//wip//Renari are an emergent species of supernatural entities aligned with the element of Flesh. Due to the timing of their appearance and their reliance on anthrophagy, it can be assumed that they are meant to be the natural predator of [[Mankind]]. Though classified as beast-born, a contemporary term used by humans for differing, 'bestial' entities, Renari are more akin to demons with mortal limitations.
Renari begin life as simple, vulpine creatures, who must eat human flesh to take on human traits and sapience. They suffer the ingrained instinct to become fully 'human' through consumption, both to satisfy that drive and to integrate themselves within contemporary civilization. The average amount of human meat required to complete a Renari's transformation is the equivalent of fifty men. The act of anthrophagy for transformation is called a 'flesh-tithe', harkening back to periods where [[Elves->Elvenkind]] would use the meat of other races as direct payment for carnivorous working class like Trolls.
As a Renari goes through its gradual transformation, they lose their bestial features until only their forked tail remains. For most Renari, their transformation stops there; the nature of the //'final tithe'// is obscured by layers of lies and urban legends perpetuated by the Renari themselves.
Their vaguely demonic nature lends to their propensity to lie, as admitting truths and facts are considered acts of vulnerability. For a Renari, the most powerful lie you can commit is a lie that you yourself believe; an act that inadvertently taps into the meta-arcanic fabric of the universe to subtly change the content of the lie into fact. Because of this completely inadvertent side effect of their nature, the Renari have effectively hidden the truth of true personhood from themselves. The actual parameters of their transformations, and the limits of what both flesh-tithe and liecraft can do for them, can differ between any one individual that can will themselves into believing a certain truth.
Another result of liecraft is the Renari's ability to blend in with civilization, whether to live out life as a civilian or prey upon human flesh. Confidence and charm is everything for them, as it is the strength of will and the ability to convince one another that prevents the lies of other Renari from having an advantage of them. Rarely, whether through liecraft or by some quirk of their blood, a Renari may not obtain humanity from human flesh, but its power and vitality, through a natural attunement to Flesh.
While the powers Renari exhibit can be exceedingly destructive in the wrong hands, most Renari go through their lives as incredibly short-sighted, impulsive, and unambitious rakes. No written truth remains of the limits to their liecraft, so the majority of Renari may go their entire lives not understanding nor utilizing the scope of their abilities.
''Physiology''
At the beginning of a Renari’s life, they resemble for all intents and purposes a small, mundane fox. The only hints to its true nature lie in a secondary set of ears and a forked tail; both of which may be among the last animalistic features it would lose during its transformation. As a Renari undergoes this process, hands will typically develop first; granting the creature opposable thumbs and finer motor control. Afterwards, restructuring of the body into a larger, bipedal form is a slow, painful process. It is during this period that its metabolic needs peak, and its craving of flesh doubles. As its human features begin to solidify, a Renari may retain its natural fur patterns as markings on the skin.
At the end stage, the Renari’s twinned ears separate, with the lower set forming an average set of humanoid ears, and the upper set diminishing into cartilage and fur. As the ear canals close and become vestigial, Renari often report frequent side effects such as tinnitus, vertigo and migraines. Their senses dull into human mundanity, and their ability to hunt their favored prey often suffers as a result.
As the ‘true’ final tithe for a Renari is obscured to all including themselves, most Renari’s transformations plateau by the time they can suitably pass as a human. Some who no longer have strong cravings for the flesh of man may wish to integrate into society, and utilize the service of fleshcrafters to assist in removing or forcibly changing the parts of them that are still noticeably inhuman.
A Renari at their most humanlike appearance is lithe, androgynous, and conventionally attractive by human standards. They do not develop secondary sexual characteristics, and the pseudopenis of a female is nearly identical to the equivalent male’s genitalia; occasionally corrected by fleshcraft services as standard gender reassignment. As Renari have no tangible culture of their own, they hold little regard for the social construct of gender, with many switching between identities as it suits them in infiltrating mankind.
As a Renari partaking in its flesh tithe is both man and beast, it is reproductively incompatible with either unless employing magical ends to assist in reproduction. Regardless of its state of being, a female Renari will always whelp Renari pups. Renari males may sire children that resemble the mother’s species, but they will be born infertile similarly to mundane crossbreeds such as mules. In rare cases involving fertility magic, a non-Renari may bear pups with a heightened risk of infant mortality.
The meta structure of magic within the Forming Lands is categorized using four basic states of existence: living and nonliving, material and immaterial. in-universe, all are given generalized names based on their scope of discipline. Contemporary disciplines of magic accessible to mortalkind are mapped out thusly:
FLESH (living material) governs the mortal states of life and death outside the limits of its counterpart, SOUL. Necromancy and Fleshcraft, the arts of manipulating dead and living bodies respectively, share this category with Phytocraft, which concerns other material beings such as plant life.
SOUL (living immaterial) encompasses the mortal states of life and death beyond the material body, primarily the living Mind and the immortal Spirit. Both are potent, and exceedingly difficult to master compared to material disciplines. Magic that manipulates the soul is usually either heavily gatekept for ceremonial and divine purposes, such as with the rebirth process of the goddess Erda, or outright banned, such as with the enthrallment magic of lust mages.
TERRESTRIAL (nonliving material) is the broadest category, spanning multiple states of matter present in the Forming Lands. Further specification is made based on natural and artificial origins of material, as the magical quality between the two differs significantly. Artifice is the dedicated art of manipulating the magic of manmade or 'altered' material. Practitioners of other disciplines, such as earth and water magic, must take certain measures to ensure their natural materials are pure to maximize their potential.
EPHEMERAL (nonliving immaterial) governs states of matter and energy such as air and fire, which are exempt from the same limitations of purity that earth and water demand, and thus can be used in tandem with artifice magic and mortal creations. The synergy between these arts has been instrumental in the accelerating technological race between the rival economies of men and dwarves.
The Aurescu were a royal [[human->Mankind]] dynasty that came into power during the cultural schism following [[Invictus]]' departure from the domain of conquest. Though it is unconfirmed, the claim of legitimacy the original patriarch held was the insinuation that Invictus passed down a spark of divinity to him. This lead to the family undergoing generations of consanguineous eugenics to preserve that supposed 'spark'. In truth, it was more than likely an excuse for the patriarch to engage in sexual abuse without repercussion. Nevertheless, intermarriage between generations of Aurescu dynasty members was codified into family tradition.
After several hundred years, the cultural and industrial development of the Nations of Men stagnates from middling, unfit rulers held up as puppet kings by a broader council. The Aurescu family, crippled by excessive inbreeding, believes the lies of their forefathers wholeheartedly. In order to hide the truth of their visibly deformed appearances, Aurescu members almost always hide their faces and bodies with veils, curtains, and other means; supporting the belief among the peasantry that they are too beautiful, too 'pure' and 'divine' to be gazed upon by the common folk.
The primary line of the Aurescu inheritance is carefully arranged around marriages between members that exhibit as few apparent flaws as possible. It is rumored that the males of the family have long since been rendered infertile, and thus have employed the use of servants in secret to give their wives children. Further rumors indicate that Queen Dowager Bottilde's son, heir to the throne [[Ilexandre XV->Ilya]] was a bastard with a lowborn father, giving him a sharper mind than his more inbred cousins.
The Aurescu line ends unceremoniously when Ilexandre XV takes the throne, and promptly writes it into law that the intermarriages between his family line are not exempt from existing consanguinity laws, retroactively making his family's actions criminal. The rest of the surviving family are imprisoned and put to death, though Ilexandre's mother disappears without a trace.
MANIS was previously a constructed servant to the creator-deity known as the Forge King, serving as his divine champion for an unknown amount of time. In his servitude, Manis realized the futility of his ages-long struggle to combat the Forge King's adversary, Mavera. In an act of rebellion he sided with his master's enemy to take down the god once and for all, and receive his freedom.
Upon murdering his creator, Manis was given access to the crystalline core of the Forge King's power, granting him the powers and role of a creator-deity as well as access to the Ethereal Realm. Manis chose not to take the Forge King's place, and fled to the Ether, dooming his native world in the process.
Travelling the infinity of the Ether, Manis met the newly-ascended [[Ivanc]]; who came from a different world that fascinated him, being someone who came from a relatively low-technology realm. It was then that Manis realized the isolation of all gods within their worlds, without access to the space between that connected them all. The principle of contacting and liberating other divine beings by giving them access to the Ether was what led him to found the Divine Order.
By introducing the laws and constructs of the Order to other pantheons and subsequently receiving their fealty, Manis was elevated to a higher status of power than any known entity. Claiming the title of God-Sovereign, he believes he is the first and only of his kind to attempt to unite his divine peers across pantheons. Whether he is or not is irrelevant to the sheer infinity of the Ethereal Void.
As a former construct, Manis retains the appearance of a finely crafted, unpainted marble statue when not actively disguising himself. Since his body consists of a stone-like material, his previous conflict with his former creator-deity has left him with permanent cracks in the center of his chest. He still clings to his physical shell despite his divine nature, as he has witnessed the more chaotic and unraveled states of other divinities. He naturally distrusts those who take on a malleable, shifting appearance.
Since Manis once came from a low-tech, magically dependent realm, he finds the ingenuities of more scientifically-driven and highly developed realms fascinating. He is somewhat ashamed of his ‘simple’ origins and initial lack of knowledge. Ivanc took pains to teach him his native written language, before the sheer scope of omniscience could truly set in and negate the need for that.
Consulting with a wide array of divines from different origins, rather than relying on his own limited capacity to utilize his imagination, is what really developed the Order into what it is today. His relationship with a goddess whose space-faring race had transcended their mortality has led to the blend of the technological and the divine that helps the Order do the impossible task of understanding divinity.
the Ethereal Realm is the space beyond the barriers of all worlds and the source of divinity, and as such all divine beings have access to it. However, knowledge of the Ether is not universal, and there are still infinite worlds who live and die never knowing how to access it.
Most divine beings that enter the Ether usually become lost, and subsequently die due to their natures relying on the worlds they were created for. It is the creator-deities that hold the meta-arcanic knowledge that shapes their creations who are suited to the Ether, though they too are not inherently aware of its existence.
When the divine servant-being [[Manis]] overthrew his creator and inadvertently doomed his world, the power he usurped allowed him to access the Ether, where his perspective on existence expanded drastically. He came to the conclusion that every pantheon and every world should have access to the ether, and to each other, and thus shed his former domain to found the Divine Order. The Order maintains its headquarters within the Ether, as a semi-tangible facsimile of a realm held in place by its governing body.
The Divine Order is a group based on uniting gods and their worlds by giving them access to the [[Ethereal Realm->Ether]], inducting them into their form of bureaucratic government. It was founded by a group of ether-travelers that found each other within the infinite space by sheer chance and determination: Manis, Ivanc, and Sylvia.
[[Manis]], once a divine servant within his world, broke through the ethereal barrier of his world after dooming it by killing his creator. He is the current and everlasting leader of the Order, having come to the idea of creating an interdimensional government through enlightenment by his peers. He rules through sheer charisma, and is considered by proxy the most powerful divine in known existence.
[[Ivanc]], an ascended mortal, achieved perfect, sundering clarity through his physics research resulting in finding the [[meta-arcana->Divinity]] that held his world together. He was Manis' right hand and most trusted advisor since the beginning of the Order, and helped build much of its structure and principles. Though his contributions were invaluable, the burden of his duties and his domain of truth brought him to abandon his seat.
[[Sylvia]], a matron-goddess, destroyed her own world when her domain of evolution led her to grow beyond the confines of her strict pantheon. While she lent her advice for a time, her pursuit of answers to her own divine nature caused her to break off from the Order and go rogue.
The Order presents itself as a definitive power structure by which all gods can - and must - be classified. By its own creed, the Order strives to bring stability to individual pantheons and their worlds, usually by instating a standard pantheon structure or assigning outside deities into certain roles. Likewise, it also gives any divine within the Order a chance at indulging in the act of creation, provided they do the necessary paperwork.
Another purpose of the Order is to observe and assist in anomalous divine events, or 'cataclysms', and prevent unlawful self-destruction of worlds through apocalypse scenarios. Agents versed in resolving issues can be gods themselves hired into the role, or the Shards - beings made from Manis' crystalline divinity that also serve in the enforcement of his divine law.
As the Ether is truly infinite, countless multiple iterations of worlds are also present with their own iterations of the same pantheons. When inducted into the Order, derivative gods are fused into an amalgamation of their other Selves known as a godhead, who in turn is given ownership of the derivative world. Several immensely powerful godheads make up the contemporary inner circle of the Order.
IVANC was previously Ivan Cold, a mortal on an inconsequential iteration of Earth and a physicist. In his research, Ivanc stumbled upon divinity when his mathematical formula reverse-engineered the meta-arcanic structure of his entire world. The divine shock destroyed his mortal form, and ascended him to become a god of truth.
Mastery over his domain led him to access the Ethereal Realm as a traveler. He wandered the Void until finding the equally displaced [[Manis]]; a man every bit his opposite, who nevertheless shared wonderment and a novel sense of freedom through this unknown state of ascension. Ivanc, burdened with Truth, was privy to the future of his new friend upon looking into his eyes. The tyranny and near infinite-scale destruction that he would see to come frightened him, and he swore to prevent such a fate to his best abilities.
Ivanc is the only known holder of Perfect Clarity, the essence of the domain of Truth that he believes may be a ‘fundamental element’ of divinity in and of itself. He sees Everything, knows Everything, and can discern the entirety of a person’s being with a single look. When reading minds, both mortal and immortal, he sees the dark and rotten subconscious before the more mindful frontward facing thoughts. Since he hates the intrusive and often disturbing imagery, he usually avoids eye contact. No sapient being has ever had a mind he enjoyed looking through; every experience is painful and overwhelming, and leaves him with less regard for the person than before. Many attempts at basic connection with others have been ruined by his ability to see how the relationship will turn out.
Though Ivanc was a renaissance man and a voracious seeker of knowledge in his mortal life, Truth and its realities have dulled that vibrance within him. He believes that though his soul is divine, his mind is still mortal - and no mortal being was meant to carry so much information at all times. The sheer scope of Ivanc’s power is too much to bear for him on a daily basis, so he has learned to keep a substantial portion of it embedded in the physical form of a keepsake brought with him upon ascension. He refers to the simple charm as ‘the Philosopher’s Stone’, though he seems to be the only man in the Ether who understands the reference.
By compartmentalizing his divine power, Ivanc is able to interact with others and live a (comparatively) normal life. Unfortunately, Manis relies on his powers too much to condone what he sees as an abandonment of his responsibilities. This is only one of many reasons that led to Ivanc stepping down as Manis’ right hand and advisor at the height of the Order’s prosperity.
By being somewhat of a renegade himself during his ‘sabbatical’, Ivanc sees himself time and time again subjected to the company of [[Sylvia]]. Their relationship remains incredibly tumultuous. The chaos-addled depths of Sylvia’s mind is a horror for Ivanc to witness, but her frontward facing self is charming and fascinating. They share many of the same questions that are beyond the scope of Ivanc’s power, though it is only Sylvia who is willing to risk everything for those answers. Since Ivanc didn’t have them - or refused to relinquish them to her - their tryst was short lived.
Divinity is the raw power of creation and mastery reality, and those who wield it are known as gods. The scope of the various forms and abstractions divine power can take are too innumerable to comprehend. the [[Divine Order->Order]], however, seeks to gain a foothold in its mastery by sorting it by arbitrary structures and classifications.
Meta-Arcania is the primary structure by which the Order has tamed the concept of Divinity, manifesting as raw power behind words that are injected into the fabric of reality like lines of code. This way, the Order can fundamentally change a world to its own means. Meta-Arcania can be wielded in any words spoken with true clarity by an entity powerful enough to handle it, but certain keywords and phrases are taught - or discovered - in certain circumstances.
The most powerful and most widely-used meta-arcanic phrase is CHAOS=LIFE/ORDER=DECAY; a blanket definition to the equilibrium of order and chaos. Many worlds have some form of the phrase expressed within their basic structure.
Since divine power is achievable by any and every entity, pantheons and creators must take measures to curb cases of mortals receiving power they can't handle. In many realms, divine power is diluted and redistributed within the fabric of reality under specific rulesets and limitations in the form of magic. This, and the complex process of compartmentalizing mortal concepts of reality, prevents cataclysm.
Arc Characters
[[Ilya]]
[[Blanca]]<img src="https://i.imgur.com/OQs0XLD.png" width="500">
Ilexandre 'the Pure' Aurescu XV, or Ilya, is a mortal prince of the nations of men, who rose to prominence in the generations following the fall of Invictus and the restructuring of [[Mankind's->Mankind]] culture around Ilya's royal family, the [[Aurescu]].
The Aurescu, in their pursuit of perceived perfection, carefully arrange family marriages around consanguinity and selective breeding. Despite coming from a long line of successful rulers and conquerors, Ilya is born subjected to a myriad of chronic conditions and congenital deformities from excessive inbreeding. He has very limited mobility, too weak to utilize crutches or use a wheelchair without assistance, and spends the majority of his days languishing in bed.
Though his body fails him, Ilya's mind remains sharper than his cousins'. As such, he caught wise to the lies and cultish behavior of his family early, and abhors the mundane monstrosity behind his ancestor's claims of divine will. He is painfully aware of his own isolation from the rest of the world, and unable to fit in with the eccentric and insular culture of the Aurescu, who go so far as to shun reading and writing in anything beyond a fractured, archaic dead language of their ancestors. Ilya has endeavored to fill in the gaps of his knowledge in secret, and finds joy in learning about a world that his family has shunned.
Ilya is, to date, the oldest survivor of his generation of Aurescu, as his younger cousins have all so far met untimely ends due to the inevitable collapse of their incestuous bloodline. His survival has guaranteed his succession to the throne of the city-state Aurexia, which his family founded. Despite the emphasis of his importance to the Arescu line by order of succession, there is mounting evidence that his father is actually a lowborn without connections to the family. Ironically, the evidence consists of his health issues not being as severe as his sibling-cousins. Among other hints, his eyes do not hold the 'divine pearlescence' (cataracts) that is endemic to his family line.
Surviving Aurescu members hold Ilya’s succession in contempt; particularly his mother, Bottilde, who had conceived him in order to recreate the incestuous romance her mother held with her father/grandfather. Since Ilya cannot take the risk that would come with rejecting her advances outright, he has moved the promised date of their marriage back further and further to coincide with the date of his coronation on his 20th birthday, which he did not expect to reach. Until then, he is subject to his mother’s overbearing, oscillating love-hate feelings for him.
Despite not expecting to survive long enough to take the throne, much of his energy is put into his studies of law and leadership. Vainly, he dreams of ruling just long enough to undo the damage his family has done, and ensure his cursed bloodline dies with him. His contempt for his family is stronger than his hatred for himself, at war with his own body and unable to hold any independence in his sickly state.
A thoughtful and well-spoken man, Ilya’s desire for basic company and companionship is soured by bouts of depression and a tendency to lash out in his moods. He retains an ingrained superiority complex towards those seen as the ‘common folk’, frequently talking down to others and taking out his frustrations with himself and his circumstances on others. Since he often comes off as rude and outspoken, he prefers the company of people who can match his attitude in kind.
Bottilde has become increasingly jealous of anyone who would get too close to him as he grew into a man, but is seemingly ignorant of her son’s frequent affairs with servants and mentors. Despite his poor health, Ilya takes brief moments of enjoyment in sleeping around; preferring men and nonhumans out of a fear of accidentally impregnating someone and passing down his family’s afflictions.
''Physical characteristics''
Ilya, for all intents and purposes, looks almost exactly like his namesake, founder of the Aurescu line Ilexandre the First. Since he resents this comparison, Ilya has opted to keep his hair grown out and rejects the status symbol of the ancestral crown unless forced to wear it in public. The only indication of his rumored illegitimacy is his clear, cataract-free eyes, though it has been so long since congenital cataracts entered the Aurescu gene pool that nobody remembers whether his brown eyes are an indication of lowborn bastardry or not. As a benign quirk amongst the Aurescu, his dull blonde hair naturally turns a darker brown at the ends.
As the Aurescu hold a strong superstitious distrust of doctors - primarily to hold onto their ignorance about the consequences of their inbreeding - many of Ilya’s physical issues are considered preventable and treatable, but a lifetime of neglect has left him in a much worse condition than he could have been. Without correction, his spine was left to twist into scoliosis, and his poorly maintained club foot is one of many factors to his chronic pain.
His left arm, despite being fused into a permanent angle, would have been considered his dominant hand. As he can only reliably use his right, its non-dominant nature adds a layer of difficulty to actions already turned into ordeals from intermittent muscle spasms and tremors brought on by a minor case of palsy. Ilya generally keeps his left arm covered and tucked close to his chest, as its shriveled appearance and the hand’s fused fingers are a source of self-consciousness.
Ilya’s malformed ribs have given him a concave chest, which puts uncomfortable amounts of pressure on his heart and lungs and exacerbates his periods of chest pains, heart palpitations and erratic breathing. Frequently, his uneven breathing is punctuated by gasps, often brought on by the sudden jolts from his spasms. His body is incredibly weak and atrophied, and his left arm and right leg are somewhat shorter than the other.
While other Aurescu indulge in correcting their weak and poorly formed limbs in secret, Bottilde has purposefully neglected to grant her son such a mercy out of spite for not returning her affections.<img src= "https://i.imgur.com/gt8TuC7.png" width="500">
Blanca is a [[Renari]] from the Bronze Quarter of the city-state Aurexia, who survived on their own by preying on the disproportionate population of vagrants and beggars in the slums. Unlike other Renari, their instinctual craving for the flesh of man has not abated with their gradual transformation into a humanoid form. As they hunt to satisfy their bestial craving, rather than the tithe of their transformation, they are considered a threat and a nuisance to other Renari staking out their territory in the city.
Like others of their kind, Blanca can use the art of liecraft to subtly change reality around them, and allow them to potentially go unnoticed amongst their prey. However, Blanca employs this magic upon themself more often, convincing themself of their own lies rather than having to counteract the disbelief of others. Due to incidents in their past, they hold a particularly superstitious emphasis on the concept of truth, and become anxious when made to admit any of those individual Truths they hold dear, including their personal feelings towards others.
Blanca’s unsatisfied hunger is not unheard of, and in fact warned about amongst their kind, citing a distinction between other Renari and ‘maneaters’. Most Renari hold a measure of conscience towards what they do, and more still stop hunting entirely after becoming able to pass in human society. Blanca holds little regard for humans, preferring to see them as prey, and has no qualms about their stunted transformation. They hold Renari that have fully transformed with contempt, presumably after being abandoned by an older caretaker that chose to blend into society.
As Truth is a concept they hold very seriously, Blanca speaks very little about their past as a stray cub; only occasionally letting slip the brief presence of siblings, or the abandonment of a mentor figure. Attempts to keep others at arms length have faltered as they are naturally a social creature, but their maneating appetite has made a rift between them and the civilized people that they claim as their prey. Only a few, foolhardy people, such as the discount fleshcrafter Mol Edith and the denizens of the criminal underground willingly interact with the maneater.
Blanca lives out their life victim-to-victim, preferring the simplicity of being a beast to the more complex, contradictory emotions that come with being a human. Whether or not they have merely inadvertently used liecraft to curse themself and exempt them from ever having to join human society remains to be seen. Evidence of this, as well as the marked absence of anyone substantial named ‘Darcia’ despite their insistence to the contrary points towards Blanca’s abilities being exacerbated by latent delusions.
When not on the hunt, Blanca acts with an obnoxious pastiche of a rogueish charm, their humor and observations dipping into morbidity as they remain preoccupied with the potential taste and nutritional value of everyone around them. Convincing themself of being of superior intellect and charisma to everyone around them, they manage to skirt by by merely being insufferable.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/iuvwqU0.jpeg" width="700">
They called this realm the Forming Lands, for indeed the land remained half finished. The earth still settled, cut through by rivers still finding their shape. The mountains were jagged, freshly hewn. The Corpse still retained its shape, as mortal life stirred from its decay, and the continent formed around it. From the peaks of the mountain range that was its spine, a spear of outsider origin remained buried in its side. It was uncertain if it was once the creator-divine that left this realm incomplete. If so, who murdered it?
The known landmass of the Forming Lands is finite, consisting of one major continent formed out of a desiccated divine corpse. Whether or not this was the original creator of the realm is unknown, though some the major cultures of kint within the realm claim their initial origins from the decaying matter of the original being.
The Dwarven creation myth describes the original Dwarves coming from the heart and brain of the divine corpse - namely, the ingenious among them were born from the brain, while the industrious and creative among them were born of the heart. Their original placement within the northern and central portions of the mountain range corroborate with this myth.
The cavity that once held the Corpse’s eternal organs is vast, spanning many miles across with a ceiling of some several hundred feet. The growth that came forth from the decay of its soft tissues has led to a dense, thriving ecosystem of subterranean flora and fauna. As of the contemporary era, most of the underground’s fungal environs have since been tamed, and the thriving metropolis of Dwarvenkind fills nearly every inch of space left in its absence.
The Trolls, who established their home territory further south, are said to be beasts that gained personhood through eating the rotting guts of the Corpse. Actual myth within Trollen culture claims that they were the gallstones that fought their way out of the dead body, and feasted upon the rest of the entrails in the body cavity, forming the myriad of cave systems the mountains sport today.
Goblins claim that Mol Greta herself was a child within the Corpse's womb. All earthquakes and tectonic activity are considered the birthing contractions of the land itself.
Humans, curiously, do not have subterranean origins, but also do not claim to be from an outsider-god, like the Elves. Instead, most of the creation myths within the cultures of men revolve around the enlightening sight of the central pole, and their settling of the plains of the northern Stain in order to better admire it.
The central pole and possible cause of death is a broken, spear-like spire of an unknown material, standing some several hundred feet out of the highest peaks of the Godsbone Mountains. The Spire, known colloquially as the Torrspar, can be seen in the horizon of almost any point on the map, barring the Gol Valley. From the Torrspar flows the Hemorrhage, an eternal freshwater spring that flows from the mountains and into the ocean, shaping much of the landmass made from the congealed blood and rot of the divine.
The sprawling landmass that was once spilled blood is largely flat, with the Stainland plains to the east and largely unsettled forests to the west. The Stainlands are the most populated portion, owing to the less dense forests and large, open areas. The former occupation of Limer during the Age of Eternal Morning has permanently baked the southeastern corner of the Stainlands into a desert occupied largely by remaining Elvenkind.
Similar to the Hemorrhage, another major freshwater spring called the Verna flows from between the legs of the corpse, and through the gap that makes the Gol Valley. Allegedly, the groin of the god's corpse was where the Gol first breached the surface during their mass migration to the surface. Thus, the creation myth of Mol Greta often involves her birth from the waters of the Verna, roused by the Gol's suffering to leave the womb of her long-dead parent.
Further south down the legs, Knee-Gap Pass is where the flow of the Verna settles into marshland.
The world appears half-finished, because it is; the land itself still settles, erosion is only just starting to carve the mountains and broaden the rivers. Gol valley is, slowly but surely, filling with the water of the Verna's 'womb'.
(still very much a wip)
[[Geography]]
[[Torrspar]]The Torrspar is a several thousand foot tall black spire of an outsider nature, embedded deeply into the central mountains. It is considered the killing blow that felled the god that would become the Corpse, and acts as a central pole to the continent. All compasses direct not northward, but towards the lingering power of the spire.
The Torrspar cannot be cut into nor broken by any mortalmade material, and so far no gods have attempted to tamper with it. Its smooth, black material reflects no light, making it an unsettling black line of shadow that cuts into the sky. To the surface denizens of the Forming Lands, the Torrspar is a commonplace, everyday sight, and an important symbol in many cultures.
Dwarvenkind, in their centuries-long fascination with the spire, have taken endeavors to claim it to no avail. The ground around it has been excavated extensively, and in time settled by the dwarves, who made their first breach of the surface in order to see where the rest of it led. The mountainsides around the Torrspar have since then become one of the largest public entrances into the underground, as the dwarves have cut major trade routes into and out of the Hollow.
At several points around the internal portions of the Torrspar, a never-ending spring of fresh, clean water pours forth in abundance. Whether or not it is the blood of the dead god is up to debate, as it is also widely considered that the outward Stainlands of the surface are the congealed bloodspill of the Corpse’s murder. Regardless, the Hemorrhage forms two waterfalls on either side of the mountain range, whose flow has formed two major rivers through the surface.
To keep the Hemorrhage from filling the body cavity and drawing everyone and everything underground, dwarves have built aqueducts to direct the water to the outside, while still providing irrigation to the settlements underground. These aqueducts are supplemented by lingering remnants of blood vessels forming small tunnels through the rock.
The peak of the Torrspar, jutting into the sky, is often obscured by the clouds whose domain it breaches. No mortal has ever reached this part of the spire, so what may or may not be there is a point of rumor and legend. It is widely agreed upon that the gods themselves conduct their affairs on its summit.
The top of the spire is entirely flat, and of the same smooth, immutable material. It has become a meeting place for deities both native and outsider as a neutral ground, as here the veil separating the material realm from the Void is considerably thinner. This thin spot is a point of weakness, and Torrspar has been the beacon that has drawn the eye of outsider-deities in the past.
There is no known bottom to the Torrspar that has yet to be found by mortal excavators, but dwarven efforts to measure it have noted that the circumference of the spire is slowly starting to taper, indicating the eventual discovery of the spear’s lethal point. Whether there is anything left to dig below it is uncertain, as there is a not-insignificant chance that mining to the bottom of the known world could trigger a cataclysm event. The dwarves quarrel extensively about the ethics, means and efforts to find what they have dubbed, ‘the Point of it all’.
The Torrspar has become an ever-present aspect of mortal and immortal life in the Forming Lands. It is a symbol of sobering death, of creation, of strength and power in various definitions across the nations. Though it was an instrument of death before the beginning of time, it is undeniable that it is the cataclysm, the ‘big bang’ that brought forth the entire realm.
The Ethereal Order has attempted to investigate the nature of the Torrspar, and the circumstance of the murder, to no avail. The Shard agent Manis sent upon discovering the realm has yet to be recovered.
''Changelog''
10/23/2024 - initial creation
10/25/2024 - a few images added: Blanca and Ilya portraits; official map (Geography) and its initial concept (Introduction)
* updated articles: Goblinkind, Manis, Ivanc//The following document is a compilation of public-facing lore for a personal worldbuilding project.//
This content is intended for adults. Herein you will see content and allusions to sexual content, darker topics and themes, and The Author's Barely Disguised Fetishes. The scope of these elements has yet to taper as development progresses, so a full list of content warnings has yet to be compiled. So far it's safe to say that if you found things like, say, //Game of Thrones// too extreme and explicit, you are going to want to kill me with a rock.
By entering this wiki you are acknowledging this, accepting this, and you promise not to kill me with a rock for writing it.
//Note: images are still in the process of being added and Will be janky and possibly uncooperative with mobile.//
<img src="https://orderverse.neocities.org/dwarflore3c.png" width="256">
[[Enter->Introduction]]
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