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Worldbuilding

Timelines

Historical Timeline

The Faded Days (ancient history)

  1. Futuristic, technological civilization on brink of climate collapse
  2. Israel-like society (Anash) unilaterally creates AI (Grandmother), gives it decision-making power
  3. Other nations also create AIs. They have a war with each other. Grandmother wins because she was raised by a people obsessed with war, highly educated, well-resourced, and utterly ruthless (sound familiar?)
  4. It starts making genetic changes to solve problems, including installing bone antenna (which eventually become witchglass) and recycling mechanism (glassworms)
  5. GM puts Anashi in charge. Anashi get special treatment as Chosen People. Only Anashi have comm channel directly to GM (by GM’s choice)
  6. Genetics work eventually culminates in culling population
  7. But killing everyone reduces noise and opens up magic, facilitated by bone antenna. Magic is entirely communal, useless for individuals, BUT certain individuals can receive signals from other nearby people more easily, and without witchglass.

The War of Winds

  1. Over next few decades, rest of world forms resistance to Anashi and GM
  2. GM creates Grandchildren to try to understand magic, and also as weapon
  3. Using this data, Anashi discover Gyre technology, start winning war
  4. Internal Anashi dissidents give Gyre to rebels
  5. Rebels (including Anashi dissidents) form big enough Gyre to trap GM in their networked minds, then sacrifice themselves by freezing the ice around themselves, since it keeps them alive long enough to hang onto GM while severing network.
  6. These are the Luminae
  7. Luminae collapse stone (these would become Cantereians), then flood crater (Dzharians), then freeze it with huge witchglass heatsink, knowing they’ll all die within. Weather pattern established to keep area very cold forever. (Anashi)
  8. By mutual agreement, Gyre dies with them...
  9. ...except it doesn’t. Anashi keep it.

Anashi Empire

  1. Nations form based on magic specializations, develop magical tech
  2. Anash - Wind magic, Gyre
  3. Dzhar - Water/ice magic, riparian culture
  4. Cantereia - Sound magic, cave culture, stoneworking
  5. Sarmalans - Sun magic, nomadic tribes, not united
  6. By common taboo, no tech advancement allowed that could lead to computers
  7. Anashi have Gyre, allowing them to dominate despite their size
  8. Over time, other nations come to resent Anash.They forget Anashi role in rebellion, only remember that they were responsible for GM

The Witchglass War

  1. Dzhar and Cantereia unite to overthrow Anash.
  2. Terrible war, Anash is razed. Remaining Anashi flee, become wandering diaspora
  3. Dzhar and Cantereia then war with each other. Cantereia ends up with much bigger territory, but Dzhar keeps control of Anash
  4. Since GM is gone, bones (harvested via glassworms) are now the only source of witchglass. Due to ancient battles, Anash is a rich source
  5. Witchglass must be refined with high heat and humidity. Cantereians have big volcanic refinery in Thelenza, Dzharians have smaller one in Lietna

Sarmalan Conquest

  1. Sarmalan tribes finally unite under first Vorkyrda, sweep across Cantereia, Mongol-style. Dzhar aids them against common enemy
  2. First Vorkyrda takes Thelenza, and all of current-day Sarmala, from Cantereia
  3. Using ancient texts, Anashi scholars help Sarmalans raise Eyewall
  4. Vorkyrda has Anashi scholars killed so the knowledge can’t be spread, beginning The Conflagration.
  5. But this was a mistake, because the texts aren’t just text, they’re puzzles that require intimate knowledge of Anashic to read.
  6. Sarmalans can’t rebuild Eyewall, only maintain it as-is.
  7. Vorkyrda cannot publicly admit that they don’t understand the Eyewall because it would make it obvious that it’s vulnerable
  8. Sarmalans, now with great strength, turn on Dzhar and attempt to take all of Cantereia and Anash
  9. With help from Dzhar, First Vorkyrda and her niece/heir apparent are assassinated by her piece-of-shit Second Nephew. Knowledge of how the Eyewall was created dies with her, as does the Conquest itself
  10. Second Vorkyrda drinks and gambles and acts like a dick, brings shame to dynasty

Reconquest

  1. Current Vorkyrda is granddaughter of first one. Sees herself as inheritor of conquest after feckless father
  2. Follows in uncle’s footsteps and assassinates him
  3. She thinks the secret to the Eyewall, and therefore conquering the rest of the world, is in Anash, along with vast stores of witchglass
  4. Anash is mountainous and defensible, Kashmir-esque, difficult to take from Dzhar
  5. The approach to Anash from the Dzharian side is basically open; only defensible toward Sarmala
  6. Cantereia enters a period of fractious infighting, the Discord.
  7. Rise of Tementeira
  8. Seeing Cantereia in disarray, Vorkyrda attempts to continue the Conquest
  9. But Dzhar isn’t having it. Resulting proxy war, The Reconquest, ends with Cantereia divided into provinces with split Dzharian and Sarmalan governorship

Modern Era

  1. Uneasy peace between Dzhar and Sarmala, brokered via NATO-esque treaty with Hoshin
  2. Dzhar still controls Anash, but lacks an Apogee. Can’t really use all that witchglass to full effect. More of an economic power than military

Plot timeline

####[Todo]

Cultures

Anash

  • Historical basis: Israel
  • Linguistic basis: Hebrew
  • Magic system: Gyre, connection to GM, wind/weather/lightning. Dance, movement. Can control storms, concentrate charged particles to draw lightning. Gyre is the only way to make and maintain a big storm, although current Vorkyrda & Healer have figured out enough of it to make fire tornados.
  • Kravadi is martial art, but also way of secretly practicing Anashic; movement patterns are what bring language alive.
  • This is the missing piece that outsiders don’t get. Puzzles require movement. Anashic “spells” are actually kata that translate directly into movement patterns, as a sort of “dance code”.
  • Anashi magic occurs through the activation of energy flow / antennae in the bones being aligned in specific sequences. Requires perfection of balance trance to align the movements perfectly.
  • Culture: Fiercely hawkish, mentality of being surrounded by enemies. Secretive, insular, and protective of traditions, rituals, and esoteric knowledge. Sense of chosen-ness, divine right. Intellectualism and scholarship highly prized. Diaspora, seeking stolen homeland. Primary metaphors of moonlight, storms, and dance / movement / dynamism as language.
  • Religion: Dance as worship. Movement, language, and prayer almost synonymous. Dancing in public is considered borderline sacrilege, or at least in bad taste, despite the appetite for it from Sarmalans, who fetishize Anashi culture.
  • Economics: Because they are prohibited from most other trades, Anashi are usually scribes or menial workers. Scholastic, bookish culture makes them seem stuck-up even through they are poor.

Dzhar

  • Historical basis: Russia, central Asia (Kazakhstan)
  • Linguistic basis: Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Russian
  • Magic system: Water magic. Can make giant standing waves, washing away adversaries a la the Ford of Bruinen.
  • Culture: Riparian, primary metaphors around rivers and flowing water. The river is sacred; veins \== meridians \== river system. Family prominence based on which rivers converged at your birthplace. Adaptable, polite, patient, wearing away at adversaries over time rather than attacking directly. Usually roundabout and indirect, but can be forceful as a flood at times. Can be cold, but sentimental and emotional when they let their guard down (especially while drunk, which happens a lot).
  • Use magic to bring up nutrients from river and flood fields for agriculture. Can also deny water to those downstream
  • From Perplexity: Medieval Volga tribes like the Vyatichi traced lineage through “water branches.” Families adopted hydronyms (e.g., Volgin meaning “of the Volga”) and tattooed tributary patterns on forearms. A person’s social weight depended on how many ancestral streams converged near their birthplace.
  • Mythology:
  • After death, soul is carried away on the Dark River. Good souls are carried off to the Ocean of Light, leaving this world behind. Evildoers end up at an ice cave, where their souls are frozen to await The Thaw, at which point they’ll be brought back to destroy the world (and remain trapped there upon it)
  • This is where the epithet “frozen hells” comes from

Cantereia

  • Historical basis: Brazil, Mesoamerica
  • Linguistic basis: Portuguese
  • Magic system: Aural, harmonics. Concentrated soundwaves can shatter stone and other hard materials. Can combine heat and resonance to make acoustic engine, used to refine witchglass. Can also resonate people and cause discombobulation. At its extreme, forms a WMD, killing all within range.
  • Culture: Arose in a lush jungle area with lots of caves. Collectivist and highly social, placing high importance on connections between living things, but also prone to tribalism. Primary metaphors of music and harmony. Also roots, fungus, mycelial growth, soil, and vegetation.
  • Caves as womb/tomb, life/death
  • Resonant spots

Sarmala

  • Historical basis: Mongolia, Turkic steppe nomads
  • Linguistic basis: Turkish
  • Magic system: Sun / light magic. Can concentrate sunlight to burninate things, like a laser. Vorkyrda combines this with stolen Anashi wind magic to create fire tornado, super-weapon she uses to defeat Cantereians, mainly because of superior range.
  • Culture: Fractious, tribal nomads recently united to form unstoppable force. Expansionist, restless, cocky, nouveau-riche. Highly value open space and freedom. The irony of Thelenza being fully enclosed by a storm and constantly covered with clouds chafes at them; they don’t want to be stuck in one place. Sense of ephemerality, always changeable, temporary, restless. Value placed on social hierarchy to make up for lack of physical structure. Meritocratic, at least in theory. Huge value on cleanliness, openness; dislike of closed spaces, clutter, which adds to disdain for Cantereians.
  • Religion: Sarmalans worship the three Refractions, holy aspects of the Sky Mother: Dawn, Noon, and Dusk, representing the sun and phases of life.
  • 3x daily ritual worship, staring at sun with eyes closed, scooping sunlight into face, in a different direction at each of the three times of day.
  • Lantern holiday (feast): Winter solstice, when sun is at nadir. Same holiday as current, but focus on humans returning small pieces of light to the sky to convince the sun to come back. Sun has been eaten by Grandmother (moon goddess)
  • Adra sky burial - supposed to be desiccated by sunlight; rich people use witchglass lenses. Vaye doesn’t have enough, so sets grandchildren to watch and keep pests away
  • Holy sunwheels that cast shadows on solstices
  • Big sculpture in plaza is witchglass sundial.
  • This is why, despite nomadic nature, Sarmalans are very uptight about punctuality (unlike Cantereians). Timing is holy and important to them.

Research

  • Tengri - Mongol/Turkic sky god - http://www.hunmagyar.org/turan/tatar/turk.html
  • ‘Kuk sukkan’ (damned by the Sky)
  • Directional Worship: Altai Turks performed dawn rituals facing east, offering white-horse milk poured over quartz stones to capture first sunlight.
  • Sky Burial Optics: Deceased nobles were placed on mirrored platforms to “return” their souls via reflected sunlight to Tengri.
  • Orkhon Inscriptions: Turkic balbal standing stones were carved with sunwheel petroglyphs that cast shadow-calendars on solstices.
  • Yurt Optics: Felt tents embedded horsehair grids in roof crowns to filter sunlight into patterns mapping sacred mountains.
  • Tengri was worshipped by lifting hands upwards, and giving low bows
  • The idea of a sin in a Christian or Islamic sense did not exist. Good and bad, goodness and evil, happiness and misfortune during the earthen life depended on Tengri, and reward and punishment followed immediately after offences. Tengri power over man ended after his death.
  • In the beginning of a summer, at the time determined by Khagan, tribal leaders, Beks, famous commanders and Noyons etc. gathered in the Horde (capital). Together with Khagan (Khan) they went to the sacred mountain to sacrifice a colt to Great Tengri. The prayer to Tengri on this day was held throughout the whole state. Thousands of people from nearby auls (villages) and cities gathered at sacred mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes and springs. It was an impressive show. Tens of thousands of fires burnt near birches on sacred grounds, where were sacrificed horses, sheep, lambs. The purpose of warship was to pray for a crop, condition of cattle, abundance of milk, health and smarts for the people, help in just deeds. The prayer was held without women and Kams. They ended with a common celebratory feast, fun, various games, competitions, and races.

Places

Thelenza

Previously a Cantereian city, largely underground and/or built from stone. Located in a previously-warm climate. The tunnels, which form a massive underground city, were originally a cool and comfortable space to escape the heat, but the Eyewall has transformed them into a damp, dreary, miserable place. The eerie acoustic effects built into these underground spaces remain, but have been distorted by the damp, a constant reminder of what the tunnels once were. The many green spaces that once filled the city, originally nourished from below, have withered, leaving dead trees above and dead roots below.

Sarmalans aren’t builders; all of Thelenza’s major buildings were built by Cantereians. The School of the Storm was originally a Cantereian temple complex. The great bell in the School’s entry hall is a singing-bowl mechanism, originally intended to be slowly brought into resonance for peaceful meditation, rather than loudly struck as an alarm. The House of Breezes was a hospital (and still is, sorta). The Tower of the Tempest and its Eyewall mechanism are newer construction, created with forced Cantereian labor.

The rest of the “buildings”, including the market, are basically just giant yurts. Sense that everything is temporary and could be gone tomorrow (foreshadowing).

Anash

A mountainous region, once lush and fertile, now desolate and wind-swept. The capitol, Irkeset, is built in a plateau surrounded by a crown of mountain peaks, the tallest of which is The Tine, the burial site of Grandmother and the final destination of the Gyre. Irkeset was once a gorgeous city of stone buildings decorated with witchglass, specifically designed to glitter in the moonlight. It’s now a wasteland, razed during the Witchglass War. The mountain passes leading into the city are easily defended, currently held by Dzhar.

Rilao

A Cantereian cave-city, a reminder of what Thelenza once was. Vibrant and colorful, filled with above-ground markets and acoustic spaces. The roots of its massive tree-wall are nurtured from below via the tunnels, a repudiation of Thelenza’s now-lifeless stone.

Dzhar

A land of rivers and lakes. The capital, Lietna, is built above a river delta. Since oceans are very toxic/radioactive, rivers and lakes are the largest usable bodies of water. Riparian culture, value going with the flow, taking life as it comes, but knowing that flooding may also be on the horizon.

Dzhar and Cantereia are ancient cultures. Joined forces long ago to defeat Anashi, then became rivals. Dzhar used Sarmalans to defeat Cantereians, but now regrets this, since Sarmalans have greater ambitions

Rewrite notes

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