The Map of Drak'Arna - an update on my worldbuilding project!
This is an introduction to the world of Drak'Arna while referencing the map I've created in the process - images are under the cut :)
Core premise: This world explores the question ‘What if the alchemical theory of classical elements - that instead of atoms the world’s building blocks are the elements Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, were true?’
Due to this, things that make up the world of Drak’Arna have a ‘signature’ that indicates their elemental makeup. Therefore, flora, fauna, fungi, and sapient species have elemental signatures that are impacted by their environment as much as their parents.
The way that elemental signatures are determined is based on the geographical location of the species. The world is a globe with a few key elemental locations.
Air: encompasses the atmosphere and sky, there are a few different layers that determine what kind of creatures can exist there but notably a feature of Air + Earth is the Aerlands - floating islands that float across the world, either anchored in one spot or are piloted.
Earth: from a globe view, a band of Earth splits the globe into two distinct hemispheres. This is further reflected underground with subterranean ecosystems and eventually a place the dead go.
Fire: the center of this element is found in the southern hemisphere and is a volcano called ‘The Spire’ that resides on an island surrounded by flowing lava. Between it and Earth there are various desert and savannah biomes.
Water: the center of this element is found in the northern hemisphere ocean called ‘The Seanote’ as it is seen as a hole in the ocean, the edge characterized by its waterfalls.
In addition to this, there is a spectrum of Hot/Cold and Wet/Dry that mirrors our world’s equatorial and polar effects on winds and oceans.
North Pole: Dry + Cold. Technically also wet due to the ocean, but an ice sheet is not noted on the main map.
South Pole: Dry + Cold, due to it being connected to the main continent, this is an extremely cold desert referred to as ‘The Badlands’.
Equator: Wet + Hot, also has dry pockets of land.
What about Aether?
Aether is the fifth element and is what is found at the core of this globe. It is the reason the four elements are able to exist so close together in ‘order’ rather than ‘chaos’. This will also play into a softer magic system that covers a wyrd-like fate, curses, and shape-shifting.
Map Making
Through a lot of trial and error, I create the map of Drak’Arna as pictured below after starting with some core starting points - there are two points that represent Fire and Water while between the two, in a sine wave, Earth keeps them separated. This enabled me to create various magical and mundane biomes and features.
Initial colours and drafts:
You can see a snippet of what it's become in my blog's header but I'm really happy with this progress and how it looks when I project it onto maptoglobe which I highly recommend!
~ ~ ~
*flops* compiling months of work into a single post feels like I haven't gone into enough depth about it so please ask me any questions you might have. I'm currently working on making these updates a bit more formal and putting them onto Campfire as a world wikipedia too.
