I Needed To Infodump About My World So I Made A Blog

Profile picture made using a picrew by Stuffjademade. I can send you the link if you want.

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Humans and orcs have good relationships since neither are considered particularly sane.

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Dwarves and Cave Slime Farming

Dwarves farm cave slimes for food the way we (and other Avalorian peoples) farm normal animals. Cave slime is the major ingredient in a common dwarves dish called Rumikla– it's literally just cave slime mixed with salt and other fictional edible minerals. It has a nice, tangy flavor.

Farmers need to be careful where they raise their cave slimes, as they absorb the minerals from the ground. Many laws were put into place requiring that an area be checked for dangerous substances before cave slimes can be farmed there, after an entire town was nearly wiped out due to them ingesting cave slime that has absorbed arsenic. Thankfully, magic makes checking less of a lengthy endeavor than it would on Earth.

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The flower language of the Sissinancuan gnomes is very complex, allowing for both simple messages like "I will love you forever," to "I heard your mother was arrested for murder last week, is that true?"

And if you're wondering how you do the latter message, it's blue tulip (mother), black tulip (the recipient's mother, not the sender's), two columbines (represents legal trouble, two means someone got arrested), red chrysanthemum (murder), yellow primrose (time in weeks), and black heart flower (a fictional flower that, when paired with primroses, means time in the past instead of the future), all wrapped in yellow ribbon (which basically means you're asking if something happened).

I love putting way too much thought into Avaloria.

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I'm currently making an entire flower language for an Avalorian gnomish culture here. It's fun but also kind of exhausting.

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A Change To The Worldbuilding

I've changed my mind about the gods. Their existence is now ambiguous. Such is the fluid nature of world building with ADHD

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The Jewel Archipelago

The Jewel Archipelago is a large chain of tropical islands near the equator. Three or four nations share the archipelago, depending on who you ask. The three "official" nations are the Scarlet Isles (mostly human), the Azure Isles (mostly elvish), and the Verdant Isles (mostly fae). There is a fourth, "unofficial" nation called the Golden Isles, a coalition of pirates, escaped slaves, and displaced native demons. With the rise of social ideas like abolitionism and anti-colonialism, many are starting to see the Golden Isles as a legitimate nation when it hadn't before.

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The Big Shift

Avaloria is currently undergoing massive technological and cultural changes, collectively called the Big Shift. This period of change is due to the rise of tamed dragons, allowing for a greater exchange of people, goods, and ideas across the world.

Technological innovations include talkstones (cellphones), printing presses, moving pictures, and even interactive pictures (video games).

Cultural changes include a rise of abolitionism (yes, sadly, slavery does exist in this world), the spread of various subcultures and countercultures, and an increase in gender and racial equality.

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A Bit About Halite

Halite, the city in The Pit, is something I've mentioned before, but back then I didn't have a good grasp of what the city is like. Now, I have some ideas.

Most of Halite's population, about 47%, are demons. (Demons and angels are just two of the many races in Avaloria.) Halite's culture places a large emphasis on individual freedom, which results in it being one of the most colorful cities in the world in terms of both architecture and fashion.

There is graffiti everywhere in Halite, and it's technically legal there. The law states that graffiti is only illegal if the person owning the property being graffiti'd wishes to press charges– and in Halite, getting your wall spray painted is considered a compliment.

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A Brief Thing About Gods

Gods are real in Avaloria but they hate being worshiped and just want to do their jobs. Thankfully for them, worship has mostly died down, and they're more seen as people with important jobs.

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Gold in Avaloria

Just a brief thing to get it out of my head.

Magic staves help channel magic by giving it a conduit other than your squishy body. Denser materials channel magic better, so due to its density and relative commonness compared to other dense metals, gold is the go-to for staves.

For this reason, gold usually isn't used for jewelry, or other things outside of magic/technology. In fact, gold jewelry in Avalorian fiction is often used as a shorthand for a stupid person, since A) that gold could be put to better use, and B) gold jewelry will likely lead to you burning or otherwise magically befuckening your skin.

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Just To Make Something Clear...

The entire point of Yuang in Avaloria is to make a point about sexism by turning it on its head. There are more traditional examples of sexism, but the old "satirize the thing by reversing it" is a favorite trope of mine... and a logical extension of making the elves matriarchal.

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About My Profile Picture (and Jizhie Subculture)

As I said in my blog intro, my profile pic is a Picrew image representing a subculture in Avaloria, since I couldn't think of anything better to use.

Let's talk about this subculture, called Jizhie, for a bit. Yuang elves, like most elves in this setting, are matriarchal– actually matriarchal, not just patriarchal but with the roles reversed. They see things like farming and art as more important than fighting or hunting; these masculine activities are seen as necessary but filthy and unglamorous.

For these reasons, both genders wear traditionally feminine clothes and accessories, such as heavy makeup. Long hair is considered attractive since short hair is associated with war and fighting. Red is considered an unlucky color due to its association with blood and bloodshed.

Jizhie (or bloodstained) subculture rebels against traditional Yuang notions of beauty. They cut their hair short, wear lots of red, and get tattoos and fake scars. Some even carry wooden swords with them. As you'd expect, jizhie is popular among men, but some women take to the style as well.

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The Pit

The Pit is, well, a pit. But not just any pit– it's in the middle of the Cerulean Ocean and surrounded by tall mountains that keep the seawater out. The Pit used to be filled with saltwater, but the gods made it all evaporate by accident while mucking about, and now it's a desert.

Because mortals are stubborn and magic is a thing, there's a city in the Pit called Halite, named for the copious amount of salt it exports. (Halite is the scientific name for rock salt.) The culture of Halite shall be elaborated on (read: figured out) later.

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Welcome To Avaloria Infodumping!

As the name implies, this is my blog for infodumping about my fantasy world, Avaloria. I needed to do it somewhere.

Information will likely be posted randomly and in bursts. You have been warned.

Also, I said this in my blog description, but my profile pic was made using a Picrew by Stuffjademade. I can send you the link if you want. (That's not me, that's a representation of a subculture in this world.)