The Iconar Collective

[Channelknight Fadran]

Sixteen. I developed the character after Fifteen.

[Channelknight Fadran]

Vitera - Land of Sprites and Allivancy

Spoiler

History

No other realm in the entire Collective can hold a candle to the sheer diversity of Vitera's ecosystems. Comprised of mountainous continents, sprawling rainforests, tropical islands, vast coral reefs, glimmering caves, massive waterfalls, and dozens upon dozens more biomes and lands, it becomes impossible to truly specify distinct cultures and groups of people, let alone an overall history. How exactly the sprites evolved into being is unknown, and to this day no one is really sure where they gain their features. Sprites carry the unique property of having their physical features very distinctly match the surroundings to which they were born and raised, such as wooden skin and leafy hair, or a rocky carapace and veins of magma.

Unlike the other realms across the Collective, Vitera id not come to unify under even the likes of smaller local leaders. No true factions, kingdoms, or companies were ever truly made. Rather, the sprites stayed in wandering hermit groups consisting of large extended lineages, simply wandering from wonder to wonder and subsisting as the land allowed. Outsiders refer to these groups as tribes, but the word in their native tongue for it simply translates to "families." Some are more defensive than others, and there ahve been plenty of instances of families coming across each other and breaking into conflict - but more often than not, if they don't simply ignore each other then the two groups will join together for a time in reverie and opennness.

The opening of the Parallels went largely unnoticed by most, with only a few lucky (or perhaps not) families coming across the Gates and wandering on through. These found thesmelves in a far less friendly and comfortable world than they were used to: one with far too many enemies for anyone's liking. Throughout the years as the war raged on, the likes of Ivinan, Drakefell, Sunkane, and Carnon all took their turns in colonizing Viteran land. The space around the Gates on either end became a harsh, iondustrial fortress, and far too many "outposts" and factories wound up within the land for the sprites' liking.

It was a few years after the founding of the Order that the Channelknight of Vitera - called Oaracei - summoned together the elders from as many families as he could muster for the very first Gathering of Vitera. The details of that meeting have since been somewhat forgotten, but what is remembered is the Channelknight's instructions to them all on how best to stave off any future invaders. They say now that the elders of every family is far more connected to their homeworld than any other Sage, and that if threathened again that all of Vitera will come together to stand against their foe.

So it has remained, even to this day... not even the breaking of the Order could shatter this resolve. The many realms of the Iconar Collective have since let Vitera be.

Culture

How each family functions and whaht roles every individual takes differ from tribe to tribe, but there are plenty of commanalities between each to list. Most families are guided by a group of elders, who ultimately determine to where the family is to travel next and for how long they stay there. Most executive decisions are made by the elders and their closest subordinates among the adults, who generally take care of most of the actualy jobs.

What determines how and why a family does something is by the elders' garnered wisdom from the various places they wander to. In a sense, each of the various lands will shape the will of the family as much as it shapes their features. Each biome is large enough that most sprites will only visit a few over their lifetime, but over the course of generations this can lead to vast changes in how the family moves and operates. Many outsiders see these groups as overly traditional, but perhaps in this sense the families of Vitera are anything but.

Allivancy

Those who wield the energy of the land are called Sages. It is an ability that is accrued over decades of experience in most cases, with the slow and steady march of time and wisdom being each individual's primary teacher. There are some cases in which sprites and their offpsring will abandon their family's way of life - oftentimes they'll find themselves either more rapidly and academically growing in Allivancy, or cutting off their connction to it completely.

The exact mechanics of Allivancy are vague at best, but seem to be very closely connected to the Viterans' physical features and the shape of the land.  The elders of Vitera will speak of the land having will through magic that shapes every individual to walk within it - and then, through connection to this constant flow, one can become more like the land. Those who wield it outside of the traditional setting often record sensations of "feeling" the world around them in a sort of extended sensory fashion, and the nature of the land granting them various strengths and waeknesses akin to how it is perceived.

Most scholars agree in this: far too little is known about how Allivancy works.

Other Stuff:

• This one's a tad scuffed if you can't tell
• It's hard to incorporate a planet with soft worldbuilding vibes into a solar system with hard worldbuilding rules.
• No you can't be an eight-foot-tall blue person

 

[Channelknight Fadran]

Carnon - Land of Shades and Spectrescence

Spoiler

History

As a very image-oriented sort of place, the locals of Carnon quite effectively transformed their somewhat unremarkable realm into a sancturary of art and mastery. Vast and sprawling cities glitter with gold and jewels, flags of verdant colors and patterns, streets emblazoned with the handiwork of masters and children alike - all this just to come within just generations of developing beyond basic agriculture and into industry. As soon as art became available, in a sense, it became the realm's greatest strength and pride.

The realm since split into several fueding kingdoms, of which there have become too many to list here. The hiearchy of peasant to king is sometimes fuzzy without any real official titles to speak of, but the flow of power and distribution of welath was clear enough regardless. Rulers flaunted their influence by erecting statues, palaces, and catherdrals to decorate with paintings and tapestries from only the finest of masters.

It came as little surprise that Carnon was one of hte fastest to grow and spread their influence upon the opening of the Parallarity, and quickly found kinship (and strength) with their distant neighbor Drakefell as the Collective turned to war. Feuds and conflicts had of course sprung up before, Carnon was remarkably unprepared for an all-out war with Ivinan and Sunkane, and under the strict direction of Drakefell was forced to form a hastily-trained national army. Needless to say this force didn't do so well, and over the next several generations Carnon found itself being ransacked time and again by its enemies. Perhaps centuries or even milleniums' worth of art and treasure, lost.

So then Carnon was perhaps the most relieved when peace was called after the founding of the Order. They fought long and hard in the war of words to follow, and while they were paid significantly more in reparations than any other realm, the amount received could  barely compare to the amount lost. But they were nothing if not persistent, and over the next several generations began to reconstruct their grand realm with new extravangant works of art and artifacts. New lines of kings and nobles arose and fell, eras came and went - but Carnon's beauty remained.

The Breaking of the Order then, of course, came as a very ominous development. Ivinan moved to ally with them against Sunkane, testing Carnon's will to survive against its deepeset grudges. The various kings all eventually agreed to the alliance out of self-preservation more than anything, and began raising another army to defend their borders. As it stands Carnon's influence is very lackluster in the war, as apart from defending their own territory they rarely contribute anything to the cause of defeating Sunkane.

Culture

The people of Carnon - Shades - are almost entirely unremarkable physically, save for one incredibly obvious trait: their skin tone is always a single shade of vibrant color. Anything across the rainbow is eligible for the these individuals, ranging from bright red to deep blue to hot pink to rusty yellow. Outfits here tend towards flaunting these traits, often to the offense of more prudish members of other races. What color an individual shade takes on at birth is usually completely random and unrelated to their lineage, but how vibrant the tone itself is does generally depend on the parents. In general, vibrancy is seen as a more disireable trait - perhaps it is from here that the beginnings of Carnon's hiearchy is derived.

At the cusp of Sunkane's society are the kings and their nobles, who wear only teh finest jewelry, dine on the most lavish meals, and live from palace to palace surrounded by shining brilliance wherever they go. They, of course, feature the most vibrant skin tones of all shades in Carnon, selecting spouses carefully to maintain this status quo. How each house governs and passes through generations varies, but in general most follow what many would consider to be a very standard autocratic model.

Throughout the ranks below the nobles are the artists, crastsmen, and then workers at the very bottom. Those who sew, loom, metalwork, jewel, and the like are all carried in high praise throughout Carnon - oftentimes they become wealthy enough to start kingdoms of their own. Below them are the craftsmen, who do similar work but with a lesser degree of beauty. Still, they're more disireable than the peasantfolk who still plow the fields and chop the wood while their realm flaunts its wealth for all the Collective to see.

Spectrescence

The ultimate life energy of a living thing is known by many names: magic, aura, chi, soul. It is the very life force by which all creatures live, and it is the very energy that allows them to control the world in such supernatural ways. The Miragi of Carnon have a rather unique form of magic that allows them to detect and read this flow of energy in other creatures, and - with enough training and subtetly - even control it.

Learning to read a person's magical energy is considered basic training for any child who wishes to develop their Spectral skill. One doesn't sense it in a traditional manner, but rather feels it - similar to how one feels their own arm. Altering the flow of energy is also as intuitive as moving one's arm, but much less carefree in nature. Even without knowing, every person is unconsciously aware of their magical energy, and can easily detect if something goes amiss with it. The essence of spectrescence is in controlling one's energy subtely enough for them not to notice, so that the energy will more fluidly bend to your will wihout interference.

Other Stuff

• No, I didn't just write these to have hot color people
• ...
• ...
• ...
• .....okay, maybe I did just write them to have hot color people

 

[Channelknight Fadran]

Not me just making Corrin more autistic by the day

[Frustration]

8 hours ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Not me just making Corrin more autistic by the day

....

What?

May I have the context for this?

[Channelknight Fadran]

Also I've been using the traditional spelling of "grey" for it so far, but I'm thinking for when I get published I'll swap to "gray" for the British release

[DramaQueen]

The British audience would hate you for that

[Channelknight Fadran]

Heya, if anyone's... here

question for people

I think I need to change some names. Not all of them - just a few. Namely "Fey/Elves," "Feylore," and potentially Vitera.

if you have any ideas, lemme know

[Experience]

Any guidelines to follow or just anything goes?

[Channelknight Fadran]

well it's not like I'm going to just go with everything

[Experience]

Okay...hmm

If something comes to mind I'll lyk

[DramaQueen]

Definitely think some sort of guidelines/vibes would be helpful for thinking of stuff, otherwise you might just end up not liking anyone's ideas and getting more frustrated.

[Channelknight Fadran]

*sigh*

Ivinan has the Ivari (original)

currently, Feylore has the Fey (obv not original)

Sunkane has the Demons (which aren't original but I'm keeping them for  r e a s o n s)

Drakefell has the Drakes (which I might also change but they work for now)

Carnon has the Shades (original)

Vitera has the Sprites (which I also also might change but they also also work for now)

[Frustration]

Well, I might go with something Celtic just based on what you want.

 

How about Culait to be inhabited by the Aros

[Channelknight Fadran]

The pacing is awful

[Channelknight Fadran]

A person's first novel should be about 80k-100k words long.

Mine is 115k, last I checked.

It still feels too short

 

 

I blame Sanderson

[Channelknight Fadran]

redid the numbers

 

[Experience]

Huh

2x2=4, 4 has two of the two symbols

2x3=6, 6 has two symbol and three symbol

2x2x2=8, 8 has three of the two symbols

3x3=9, 9 has two of the three symbols

2x5=10, 10 has a two symbol and a five symbol

But how did you come up with the 12?! Zero and one symbol...

[Channelknight Fadran]

Zero and one because it would be written as 10 in roman numerals

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, 10

[Experience]

7 minutes ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Zero and one because it would be written as 10 in roman numerals

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, 10

Oh that's cool

[Channelknight Fadran]

It's easiest to understand via binary, which is Base-2. A zero is 0, a one is 1, and a two would be 10 - three is 11, four is 100, etc.

[Aeoryi]

12 hours ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

It's easiest to understand via binary, which is Base-2. A zero is 0, a one is 1, and a two would be 10 - three is 11, four is 100, etc.

Huh... Wait. That's not binary.

Oh wait the other way.

Does everyone use the same language? (and if not why?)

[Frustration]

On 9/3/2023 at 2:50 AM, Channelknight Fadran said:

A person's first novel should be about 80k-100k words long.

Mine is 115k, last I checked.

It still feels too short

 

 

I blame Sanderson

Sanderson has definitely warped my perspective on length.

 

I remember checking out my first non-sanderson book in a while and trying to hide it because I was embarrassed by how short it was, only to realize how silly I was being when I realized that used to be an average book for me.

[Channelknight Fadran]

Right-o, fellas - which is better?

Quote

A few bits of frost had decided to pinch down the edges of each blade of grass this week, crunching a little under Corrin’s steps in the stretches of unkemptness between the road and the encampment. Despite the ground’s insistence at calling out his presence to anyone within earshot, the air wasn’t quite so bad today. His breath could only barely be seen when he puffed, and with his hands firmly shoved into his pockets, all of it was quite comfortable.

or

Quote

A few bits of frost had decided to pinch down the edges of the grass this week, crunching a little under Corrin’s steps in the stretch of field between the road and Camp Foliage. Despite what the white-tipped blades might suggest, the air wasn’t quite so bad today. His breath could only barely be seen when he puffed, and it was quite comfortable with his hands firmly shoved into his pockets.

 

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood]

8 minutes ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Right-o, fellas - which is better?

or

 

the second one by far.