A Journey to Arathia

Arathia is an Original Setting, and a novel I'm working on right now. I'm just showing off some cool stuff I'm making while I work the courage to write this up properly!

[wakraya-elber]

Tales of Arathia: Siblings, a little drawing and animation project I've been working on for the past 4 months.

I wanted to convey some of Wak's story and showcase a bit of the world, and what came out of it might as well be called a Trailer for Arathia in itself!

I'm quite proud of how this came out, so I hope you enjoy it!

[wakraya]

2014 vs 2025.

Pandora was the first character I ever made that I went out of my way to scan to make into a digital drawing and color in Photoshop. I started doing art seriously around like, five or six years ago, so it's not been a full decade- But seeing the progress from one of my earliest characters, and where I'm at now, is really cool I think!

Anyway, one bad slime bitch coming right up, more fucked-up than ever.

I like to imagine the goop flows up and down like a lava lamp-

[wakraya]

The Boss/Headmate felt like redesigning, and I think we struck gold with this one. 😌 She has the extra bit of beef so damn well deserves...

[arathia]

Hello! Do you have any plans on turning your story into a physical book in the far future or have you not that that ahead in time?

Originally that was the idea! Though it's gone through a few revisions since. I've found out since the good ol' times where writing was my biggest forte, that I really enjoy drawing, so Arathia went from a Novel to a Comic, and now, to a VN.

Theoretically speaking, I could still adapt the story to a Light Novel format eventually, but ideally I want to make it a VN now.

[arathia]

Anytime I hear about "Time" as a magical element for some Fantasy series I am always reminded of the "Time Mages" from Final Fantasy. As far as I can tell, their jobs don't expand on the lore of the games(or maybe i missed some things) because the magic itself is not so great as to cause massive paradoxes and/or commune with alternate lines. Which I guess feels pretty funny when you compare the ability to WARP TIME to fit the user. (1/2)

(2/2) I suppose it just comes down to how the games decides to tell their story. "Job Classes" are more or less just kind of common enough that don't warrant extra flair, unless said story says so. Time Mages are not considered powerful beings because the magic they channel does not permit them to do so, but are still plenty useful in support roles. Overall its just fun to see nuances like these between FF and your story crafting. ⏳

It depends on the kind of story you want to craft and the metaphysics of it all, yeah! Alas, I grew up with Homestuck, so when I think of 'Time' as a magic element, I need to figure out the nuances of what limitations exist and how far it can affect the fabric of the world around them. I'm just Trained to think of potential Time Shenanigans, even when the story in general doesn't rely on Time Shenanigans in any way, shape or form. X3

Either way, casting Haste and Slow Down is just fun. 😌

[arathia]

Does time travel exist in this universe or is it not something you considered magic wise?

It did, and does, but also doesn't. There's an entire element of Magic relating to Time-related shenanigans, but in modern times, Time Magic in general has become a lot more unstable and less reliable.

Still, some particularly adept Time Mages are capable of communion and interaction with parallel Timelines, or very limited travel within their own. They cannot exactly 'stop' or 'prevent' events that have happened, but they can preempt things. Messing with the fabric of Time too much is dangerous, though, and Time Mages who recklessly try to push its boundaries or spend too much time dealing with alternate streams of causality, can end up accidentally generating Doppelgangers, and, if gone too far, have their own causality Shatter and collapse into multidimensional body horror anomalies.

So yeah. Time Travel is extremely limited, but some instances exist, but also even Mages who can push things that far will think twice about it, lest they tear their own existence apart. Time Magic is largely better used to locally alter the flow of time.

[arathia]

How large is the planet Arathia takes place in? Is that the name of the continent or is that the name of the planet itself? Will you do another Arathia video or maybe a stream explaining more of the lore(I know many people would love to hear you hype fixate on your fantasy)?

I've always envisioned Arathia as an Earth-sized planet, but I have not done in-depth calculations of the full scope of it, so that may be subject to change... But yes! Arathia is the name of the World itself, the same way you'd say 'Earth'.

Hehe, ideally I'd start releasing proper Arathia content out into the wild... I have no Lore Videos necessarily planned but never say never, if I get the itch, and when I start doing the VN, I would hope to maybe do at least some intro animation of some kind so we'll see...

That said if there IS interest, I wouldn't mind doing a stream, and of course there's this and my Discord Server for just sharing about this stuff!

[arathia]

One of these days you're gonna have to do another lore video going over the multiple organisms in Arathia. You this so called EX-Librarian, go on and Library us some knowledge while we sit down for class. No this is not an excuse to see Wakraya in a sexy pencil skirt Teacher outfit. This is STRICTLY PROFESSIONAL WORLD BUILDING. 💢📛😭

Pfft, Teacher Wak... I really do need to like, sit down and properly mess around with the flora and fauna of Arathia at some point- I started a Bestiary in the past to keep track of all sorts of things but it's pretty bare-bones compared to the rest of the setting by now...

[arathia]

I have a question about your slime girls: are their different breeds of them, such as one with cores and ones without cores? And since you classify Slimes as Zombies/Undead in your world I'm curious about the rest of the Slime extended family tree? If you have a little diagram that would be most helpful. Also final question is their a fancy science name for your family trees? 💢📛😭

First of all, no fancy fantasy name for that, it's just an actual Philogenetic Tree showing generational and strangely fast evolution of Arathians, and tracing back their lineage to their common Ancestor.

The thing about Undead is that they're not really a species of their own. They are, as their name implies- Well, undead. Any Arathian can happen to die and become Undead, and even then, Slimes are the particularly long-lived ones. Less a 'class' or 'species' of undead, and more a shambling corpse that's shed their physical body and now exists as an independent mass of animated mana.

On that NOTE however- Slimes may try to retain traits from their physical bodies, leading to attempts at different body plans, and some Slimes can give more structure and rigidity to their body assimilating other materials in them, keeping a semblance of a skeletal structure. Cores is something I HAVE thought about, but it's less a 'type' of slime and more... If there's a 'core' of more congealed mass and spiritual energy in a Slime, that's just their own preference and how they've manipulated their own body, and they could just as well dissipate that 'core' into the rest of their body. It's up to their preference. Undead-hood is a personal matter. 😌

[arathia]

Arathia Gacha but with in game tokens you collect. Also whens the next story update? Do you put this on AO3?

Ideally, I'm trying to write a VN about it! In fact, I've been working on the engine to run it on for a while now.

[arathia]

What would you think about making your own gacha like game, but based off your world's creatures? Of course Wakraya is also included in this collect-a-thon. I just want an excuse to see Wak and friends in pin-ups like other gacha ladies. 💢😭

Listen, I can get pin-ups of my characters and draw various art and showcase different versions and developments of a character without needing to have a Gacha Game. I don't like Gacha's predatory monetary practices. I do like randomness, but wanting an outright Gacha is not the way- That said, I wouldn't mind something like XC2's in-game Gacha Mechanics that utilize non-purchase-able materials you get from enemies. The issue here is that I don't want to come anywhere close to Actual Gacha monetization system... X3

[arathia]

I think the take away from an Adoptable vs NFT vs Closed Species is that you are going in with the knowledge this character you made is just a "product" to sell. You(the creator) hold no strong feelings towards them and wish to make a profit, like you would with pins or trinkets. The buyer has free reign to do whatever they want with said purchase, and i guess its out of """"good merit""" they take care of them? Anyone else feel free to chime in on this.

That's. Fair, yeah, though I feel that's just not all the picture. Closed Species, for example, I can imagine people worrying someone will mishandle their creation, but that also seems a bit elitist and I don't wanna put words on anyone else's mouth. Likewise, with say, Adoptables, I find you may still be attached to what you've made but you have no real use for a design or vibe but still would like to see someone enjoy it? I don't know, I'm trying to see different perspectives here.

Not for NFTs though. NFTs warrant no different perspectives. Fuck NFTs-

[arathia]

(Apologize for sending this again, don't know if it was sent last time ignore 2nd ask if thats the case) That feels like the same ballpark of an NFT thing, minus any money shenanigans. And maybe the opposite of what an "Adoptable" is? Alot of these online character creations kind of confuse me and how they function. 😵😵

"The opposite of an Adoptable" feels probably close to how it feels for me honestly, though I don't particularly Get Adoptables entirely myself either way. But yeah, that's my Understanding of them, and something I Don't Partake In.

(Also good call this was one of those times where Tumblr DID eat your first ask)

[arathia]

I'm sorry what the heck is a "closed species"? I have literally never heard of this. 🤨

In furry circles in particular, a 'Closed Species' is basically like a protected IP species. There's no real copyright going on, but it's the author not wanting people to make OCs/Fursonas using the same custom species they've created. I believe there's been some drama about this stuff before, but I am not knowledgeable about it.

[arathia]

Are any of these fantasy creatures/races considered a "closed species" or "primagens"? If so how do we go about using them??

Nope! I really really really dislike the concept of Closed Species honestly. Most of Arathia's sapient species are general animal hybrids to begin with so there's nothing particularly unique, and the more unique ones that are the Primaevals are something I'd not mind people messing around if they like cool Void Abominations! If anything it's super flattering to hear that. Likewise with monsters and the like. I haven't described much of fauna and such in this blog, but I think it's a shame to gatekeep and wall creativity like that. One of the Big Things about Arathia conceptually when I first started to think about it, was that I wanted it to be flexible and allow people to fuck around with it as they wanted. And that includes not closing species like that.

[arathia]

What do those symbols mean? Are they like the Homestuck aspects and have different elemental/story significance? Based of the name from what i see on the Redbubble page they sound like names after someone. Gods? Demons? Other creatures?

The sigils are representative of each of the Magic Forces present in Arathia- Both Elemental and not, as well as doubling as iconography for their associated deities!

[arathia]

I feel like Space is an overlooked subject in Ye Olde Fantasy, which is not too surprising because we have Sci-Fi to remedy that. But it IS interesting you have taken some steps into filling out that stuff. I guess it would raise too many more questions if we asked "what's space like in THIS fanstasy" and have to explain how the solar system works again. If it's not important plot stuff, space can be left in the background void.

Unless there's Planetary Alignment stuff, or an importance given to the constellations, yeah it can be a bit overlooked! I think it's, like... Despite it being a largely Magic world, I have thought about the physics of Arathia's reality in regards to Magic, it's a part of the World and as such the World still operates on more grounded rules, just with different degrees of malleability. And I do like space a lot! So even though it's not the most set thing in the world, I have had certain Thoughts about the rest of Arathia's Universe, not just the Planet.

It also helps a good friend of mine is SUPER into Sci-Fi, and we may or may not have brainstormed together considering like, "What if there's other sapient species in the Universe" and hypothetical Futures where the setting becomes space-faring given enough time, and how the limitations of Magic would fit with this kind of advance.

Mostly for fun, mind you. X3