The World of Aura

Sideblog for Worldbuilding Stuff. Main blog @amashelle Avatar and banner Image Credit: Arthur Rackham's Andromeda [chosen because my main uses JWW's Miranda, and the two look alike, but Andromeda is more tormented, which is how I feel about my writing a lot of the time]

[amashellewrites]

Okay, so this is a sideblog on which I will be posting stuff related to my writing. For reference, I have two main projects, broadly speaking, with many stories.

First is Voices of Camelot, my Arthurian Mega project, which is a retelling of the legends through 30 stories, each told from a different character’s perspective. The project is divided into four books. Each book is also divided into sections. The overall plan is as follows:

Prologue: Prophesy in the Dark Merlin

Book One: Odes to the Innocent Part One: Mother’s Wish Elaine [of Carbonnek] Blancheflor Morgause Guinevere

Part Two: Faery Tales Aglovale Lynette Gawaine (Actually still debating about the e...) Ragnelle

Part Three: Quester's Call Galahad

Book Two: Last of the Sonnets Part One: Forgotten Songs Iseult/Isolde/Yssylte (still debating which spelling to use) Nineveh Elin [of Ascolat] Dindraine

Part Two: Youth's Hope Lyonesse Gareth Gwenefer Percival

Part Three: Lover's Lament Tristian

Book Three: Elegy for the Damned Part One: Broken Promises Morgana Mark or Cerdic Lamorak Brangnae

Part Two: Sweet Nothings Arthur Gwenevak Lancelot Cerdic or Mark

Part Three: Traitor's Truth Modred

Book Four: Epitaph for a Legend Part One: The Final Vow Kai Bedivere Igraine Cynric

Part Two: Echoes of Camlann Auralias Caelia Drustram or Yssylt [one of Tristan and Iseult's kids] Melehan

Part Three: Survivor's Sorrow Constantine

Epilogue: Whisper in the Mist Nimue

The second project you'll see posts about here is my own world, #Aura. This is a fantasy world of Folk and Alfar (elves) in which 80-90% of my other stories take place. I have a LOT of stories and story ideas for this world and will not list them there at this time, but this is where most of my focus is right now.

[amashellewrites]

One of the more common (and trivial) debates in Aura is the direction of things.

The folk always depict the world with Delnora at the top of the page, so that the Coke river flows down, as is only natural. The Elves put Delnora, as the source of all life, at the bottom. In later years, the integration compromise was to orient the river across the page, but debates continued as to whether it should flow to the left or to the right.

Similarly with writing, the folk write from the top left corner, across the page, working down from there.

Elves write from the bottom right, going up first and then across, because trees grow up from the ground.

The debates are common because, despite the triviality of the question, the answers reflect important ways of seeing the world.

[psikonauti]

Actias dubernardi - Chinese luna moth

[amashellewrites]

So I’m working in a new draft of my story and I’ve realized a major reveal I had planned no longer makes sense with some of the worldbuilding I’ve fleshed out since the last draft.

Which means what was supposed to be the last draft before handing it off to some beta readers will be the second last draft, because I need to go back and edit all the foreshadowing so that when the new version of the big reveal comes out, it won’t completely confuse my readers 😞

That being said, I never would have developed either the concept of this major historical event, nor the cultural impacts it spawned if I hadn’t started writing the story.

Which is all to say, your world will never be ‘fully built’ so don’t try waiting for it to be ‘complete’ before you start writing your stories.

[amashellewrites]

The frustrations of trying to re-introduce a character in a way that seems perfectly normal while also having him pop up out of nowhere like ‘heya! I see you’re all still failing to do anything right at all! Allow me to show you how it’s done! 😎’ because that’s his Thing.

[amashellewrites]

Trying to write this one scene and realizing that I have no idea what these two characters actually think of each other. Like… do you want to be friends? Frenemies? I don’t think you feel strongly enough about each other to be anything more passionate right now, but the thinly veiled indifference is making it hard to script your conversation guys.

[xalatath]

What’s a good name for a magical moth that acts as a familiar/companion to a priestess of a lepidoptera-themed goddess called Ariestra?

Its wings are about the size of an average female palm, so it’s quite large, and it has a sort of pinkish-grey-brown colouring.

As someone who loves insects, I thought you might have some ideas. I’ve been wracking my brain and nothing seems quite right.

Looking through names of species/genera is always a good bet. I am looking at some Saturniids (which are what most people will picture when thinking of a large moth) and found a few that sound nice. Epiphora, Rohaniella, Eudaemonia, Therinia, Caio, Arias, Hylesia, etc... these are from Wikipedia but bugguide.net can also tell you what the names mean sometimes.

Hopefully this is helpful but tbh i am not great at naming things LOL I usually just take names from somewhere else or do it randomly...(shameful for an elf, i know)

[amashellewrites]

Thank you, this is actually very helpful. For some reason it did not occur to me to look at species names (possibly because it’s a made up species?) but that is an excellent place to start.

[askebos]

“Stop thinking about saving your fragile face. Tell us your particularized world. Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created. We will not blame you if your reach exceeds your grasp. We will not blame you if your words go down in flames and nothing is left but the raw-scald. We will not blame you if, with the reticence of a surgeon’s hands, your words suture only the red places where blood might flow. We will not blame you because we know you can never do it properly: once and for all. Passion is never enough. Talent is never enough. Skill is never enough. But try. For our sake and yours. So. Forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don’t tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear’s caul. You, so blessed with occasional blindness, can speak the language that tells us what only language can: how to see without pictures. We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

— Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993

[adrabeetle]

If you try hard and believe in yourself you really can make any song about your OC

[voidloidsstuff]

has anyone ever thought about how in popular arthurian tradition morgan le fay brings king arthur to avalon after a change of heart after YEARS of trying to kill him but she. she does no such thing for mordred

[amashelle]

All the time. It’s a major feature of my post-camlann chapters.

[softest-punk]

While I understand the desire to make Big Art entirely and viscerally I think it's worth considering that small art often leaves an outsized impact on its audience. Short stories, teensy indie games, short films, sketches on scrap paper, carved or sculpted figures that would fit in the palm of your hand, etc. etc. are all things that, when they hit your psyche at just the right angle, can stay lodged in there forever specifically because they are small. It is not necessary for a thing to be sprawling for it to have impact.

[oc-factoids]

Tag the OC that always has a weapon on them

[amashellewrites]

Working out a timeline of my world by putting all the story ideas I have into a rough order.

Trying to avoid the let down of sequels that invalidate the trials and victories of the previous books.

I think the trick is to not let the victories be too absolute. Like yeah, Bilbo helped the dwarves reclaim their home and that was great but they didn’t deal with the larger issues hinted at. Mirkwood is still Murky and haunted by more than elves. Evil is still hiding, building power and preparing for its next big plans.

So I’m trying to set my stories in an order that accommodates loose ends that can be picked up later.

[amashellewrites]

First we have the quartet about defeating the first expansionist empire, and while that obviously gets shut down (that’s the point!) the supernatural forces that influenced the leaders of said empire are still in play, and the war itself gave rise to a new type of people who may or may not be immortal (and mad about it).

Then comes an unknown number of books (right now it’s two, but I know myself too well to say it will stay that way!) the possibly immortal people decide to try and solve their immortality problem and figure the best way to do this is to get the attention of the world’s creators by stealing all the divine artifacts that were used in the previous series to defeat the empire. Because they want all the bad press they can get, they do this by sheer brute force, decimating the Elven river region of Falnora. The books are mostly about the Falalfar and their post-decimation struggles to rebuild and retaliate under the guidance of their surviving leadership.

Then there are some stories set in a small town on the border of the human and fey lands that becomes a major battleground for the ongoing ‘immortal’ assault, eventually culminating in a peace treaty and a pseudo-solution to the immortals’ plight.

But the forces that gave rise to that first empire are still about. After a few centuries of tentative peace, these primal forces make their move, unleashing plagues of madness, consumption, and idiocy. Our heroes rally, and though they find ways to contain the influence of both Chaos and Tyranny, they know it is only a matter of time before the wards break down again.

The world must be ready. New organizations of research and information-sharing are established to seek a more permanent solution. The next group of stories are about scholars and travellers and their search to understand the ancient powers that first shaped the world and now hold it in thrall. This is successful!

Finally, I have a small collection of quieter stories. These people are not facing world-ending catastrophes, but are dealing with life in a world that no longer ‘needs’ to be united to survive. The struggles against inequity and bigotry that are all the more pronounced because there ISN’T a greater threat to force co-operation.

Idk. I think it’s a good timeline. Never mind that the stories involved will take more than the rest of my life to write and I am sure to come up with others before I get to them all as it is.

[amashellewrites]

Working out a timeline of my world by putting all the story ideas I have into a rough order.

Trying to avoid the let down of sequels that invalidate the trials and victories of the previous books.

I think the trick is to not let the victories be too absolute. Like yeah, Bilbo helped the dwarves reclaim their home and that was great but they didn’t deal with the larger issues hinted at. Mirkwood is still Murky and haunted by more than elves. Evil is still hiding, building power and preparing for its next big plans.

So I’m trying to set my stories in an order that accommodates loose ends that can be picked up later.

[amashellewrites]

Working on some timeline stuff with all my many OCs and thought I’d put my ttrpg characters into it. Because I have stories I will eventually write for them (really, I will write them all!!)

Made a list. Lists are great!

By coincidence, the older the system used to make the character, the earlier in the timeline they seem to fit 🧐

[elltions]

ive always been so fasciated by elves. Like besides me being silly and envisioning them like cats bc their ears twitch and move w their emotions and sounds, the concept of abstract beings that were forced to conform to a permanent form and storing the memories of their past lives inside their minds whenever they sleep…like thats Sick. I often see elves be seen as just humans w long ears and long lifespans , and granted i joke abt that, but theyre actually full of existential horror thats completely untapped

[spikyiwaizumi]

the issue with writing for yourself is that you will get sucked into rereading your own fic over and over and pretend it’s “editing,” but really you’re just reading because it’s exactly what you want to read. because you wrote it. for you.

[findingfeather]

and then you will be like why does this asshole never finish anything god