worldbuilding Finished a Story Draft!!

[Conure1243 He/Him]

For the first time ever, I've finished the first draft of one of my story ideas! Mind you, this draft is only 150 pages, and will be extended in draft two. I won't be posting ANY of the story, currently named Emerald of the Shattered Skies, until Draft 2, because my writing has changed a lot, and I'm not too happy with the opening.

However, I'm more than happy to share my Draft 2 Worldbuilding Ideas!

Spoiler

First off, I'm going to start with the basic idea.
For starters, the world has been shattered into thousands of small fragments, known as islands. These islands exist in layers, each one able to float for various reasons. There are two important layers: One, Shattered Skies, the World of the Winds (More on that later), and Two, the Dead World, the World of the Mind. I won't detail this one too much, as this one is supposed to be mysterious, and I think that if I shared the story it could make the experience less enjoyable. The Dead World and the Shattered Skies have almost no interaction between the two. The people of the Shattered Skies barely know that the Dead World exists, as it is the layer below them. In addition, they don't know of any of the other worlds, though there are 2 or 3... I can't remember exactly.

In the Shattered Skies, the Islands are able to hang in the sky thanks to magic crystals, named Galeshards, that formed following the Shattering (Not to be confused with anything related to Sanderson...) These crystals grant 2 powers to the people that live there. One, the power known as Windcalling, which allows people to control the winds. The second is known as Binding (Placeholder Name, maybe?) This one is very similar to Mistborn Push and Pull. The mechanics are slightly different, but I haven't worked them out comletely yet. Basically, you can connect to the "positive" energy in the crystal to pull yourself toward it, or connect to the "negative" energy to push yourself away. Binding is a hereditary ability, and those who can use it are known as the Crystalblooded, named for their shimmering white blood.

Occasionally, and event known as a Windstorm will occur, where the winds in the Shattered Skies grow more powerful, as a result of the power inside of the crystals, and rearrange the islands. Usually, in cities, Windcallers are tasked with preventing other islands from crashing into the city. Usually, being thrown around during these windstorms can cause the slightly delicate Galeshards to crack. Eventually, the crystals break and become unable to support the island. When this happens, the island falls, usually landing in the Dead World below. Nobody has been known to escape the Dead World, though very few have managed to see the Dead World as they are caught on a falling island, and escape.

A strange and not greatly understood property of the Galeshards are their use in creating Avarian Pendants. These pendants, when successfully bonded to an Avarian by a Crystalblooded, allow the person with the pendant to shapeshift them, along with any other crystals bonded to the Pendant, into a bird, typically a parrot or hawk, but it depends on the person. This is the main method of travel, but hunters and foragers are unable to carry the things they kill or harvest, so their travel is slightly more difficult.

I will explain more, but for now, feel free to ask questions and share thoughts!

[Seonid he/him]

That's amazing! Wins deserve to be celebrated.

[Lord Stormer]

Alright. I see your world really has a potential. Efforts are never in vain when you have a personal purpose. I am also writing a story at the meantime - a sci-fi space opera with a flipside fantasy magic. One of the planets that I conceived is similar to yours: an air world with layers and floating spaces (though in my case, little magic is involved).

My first thoughts, the Cosmere influences on your worldbuilding are too conspicuous. They're fine, but people might notice them quick. Or maybe the elements that I percieve inspired from the Cosmere are actually prevalent in the wider fantasy genre. I haven't read so much recent fantasy books.

I'm most interested in the gap between the Shattered Skies and the Dead World. Is it transitional or a hard border?

Do you have creatures that hop by islands? Does the inhabitants build gliders?

Thought experiment: Someone living at the lowest island of the Shattered should cast down the longest rope possible, and ask a volunteer to dangle on the bottom. If inhabitants of the Dead World try to cut that rope, make their motive part of the worldbuilding, I guess?

[AltonicKeys he/him]

I love this premise! Like Lord Stormer, I'm also interested in the local flora/fauna. How do they survive? Did they adapt to the Shattering or did it all just work out? Can plants and animals be Crystalblooded too, and use the Galeshards similarly (or in a completely different way) to humans?

And when you say the world was shattered, is that the whole planet or just a chunk? Is there a planetary core at all? If not, how does the atmosphere stay in place?

Between the layers, I assume there's some kind of fog or something that prevents them from seeing each other. Unless it's magical, and the sunlight can't reach them properly due to crystal shenanigans?

Not trying to be critical, I'm just really curious. But it's your story, if you don't want to reveal too much then that's cool too

[Conure1243 He/Him]

11 hours ago, Lord Stormer said:

Alright. I see your world really has a potential. Efforts are never in vain when you have a personal purpose. I am also writing a story at the meantime - a sci-fi space opera with a flipside fantasy magic. One of the planets that I conceived is similar to yours: an air world with layers and floating spaces (though in my case, little magic is involved).

My first thoughts, the Cosmere influences on your worldbuilding are too conspicuous. They're fine, but people might notice them quick. Or maybe the elements that I percieve inspired from the Cosmere are actually prevalent in the wider fantasy genre. I haven't read so much recent fantasy books.

I'm most interested in the gap between the Shattered Skies and the Dead World. Is it transitional or a hard border?

Do you have creatures that hop by islands? Does the inhabitants build gliders?

Thought experiment: Someone living at the lowest island of the Shattered should cast down the longest rope possible, and ask a volunteer to dangle on the bottom. If inhabitants of the Dead World try to cut that rope, make their motive part of the worldbuilding, I guess?

Thank you! I suppose there was more info I could have shared about the Dead World, after seeing this. I can definitely understand the fact that you see Cosmere influences in the worldbuilding. A fair amount of it wasn't exactly intentional, It's a problem I've noticed myself with a lot of my stories. I think it may come from only reading Cosmere for the past few years...

There is a very hard border between the Shattered Skies, and the Dead World. The Dead world is much more stable, islands there are much larger and move very slowly. In the Shattered Skies, hunters and foragers use grapple devices that (again,) connect to the Galeshards for a firmer grip. These can usually be powered by traces of some other powers I haven't mentioned, which mainly come from worlds above the Shattered Skies (Unknown to anybody living on the Shattered Skies.) I won't go into too much detail, mainly because I don't have much more defined detail than that.

About your thought experiment, there are no currently living people of the Dead World. During the events of the story, it will become clear that there were, once, but something killed them off.

Side note: People that live in the Shattered Skies are called Avarians. I figure it would be more convenient to write than "People that live in the Shattered Skies" or something similar.

2 hours ago, AltonicKeys said:

I love this premise! Like Lord Stormer, I'm also interested in the local flora/fauna. How do they survive? Did they adapt to the Shattering or did it all just work out? Can plants and animals be Crystalblooded too, and use the Galeshards similarly (or in a completely different way) to humans?

And when you say the world was shattered, is that the whole planet or just a chunk? Is there a planetary core at all? If not, how does the atmosphere stay in place?

Between the layers, I assume there's some kind of fog or something that prevents them from seeing each other. Unless it's magical, and the sunlight can't reach them properly due to crystal shenanigans?

Not trying to be critical, I'm just really curious. But it's your story, if you don't want to reveal too much then that's cool too

When it comes to Flora and Fauna, I made a critical mistake in Draft 1. Namely, forgetting it completely. The only animal life other than the Avarians in the story are Dragons, and 2 species found in the Dead World. (It's got Dead in the name, but it has more animal life than the Shattered Skies...)

The world was Shattered, mostly. The entire planet split apart, however, the power that resulted in the blast only got so far deep, leaving a main planet beneath the Dead World, with a very rough jagged surface. This is yet another World that the Avarians don't know about.

You are correct to guess that there is fog between the Shattered Skies and the Dead World. The Dead World is typically described as having a hazy, foggy grey sky, as it is in the middle of a large fog that surrounds the Dead World and the world below it. Crystal Shenanigans wouldn't quite work the same in the Dead World, as the Shattered Skies were a bit of a unique case. I won't say too much more for now, though I may talk about the Dead World in a later post, when I've revised it for Draft 2. Currently, I'm working on life in the Shattered Skies though.

Edited September 16, 2025 by Conure1243
Clarified an explanation.