This blog isn't dead making things is just very slow going when you're doing 90% of it on your phone
Currently working on art for a post about the Sphyrion (formerly Sphynxen), my species of sapient, clydesdale-sized cat people (and, much like horses, they'll break all their legs and die if a leaf falls next to them /j)
Slowly working on maps for Enterra's continents. This is Parvel, the northernmost continent, full of trees on one side and a desolate cold hellscape on the other. The bottom third is pretty normal actually
There's three gods of Enterra: Day, Night, and Tempest. Creation theories vary depending on who you ask, but one of the most widespread is that Day and Night pulled each other from nothing and gave form to the formless, creating the universe.
Day is the god of life, of nature, of fire and earth and light. It embodies the physical world, the body, plants and animals, health and healing. It is represented by the sun.
Night is the god of sleep, of love and sex, of water and the dark. It embodies the world of dreams, the mind, emotions, and purification. It is represented by the moon.
Tempest's origins are even more heavily disputed. Some say it is a spirit who grew jealous of the gods' power and sought to usurp them by upsetting the balance maintaining reality. Some say it formed from the chaotic miasma that remained after the creation of the universe. Others say that it has always been there alongside Day and Night, has always been their equal and had its own hand in the creation of Enterra.
Tempest is the god of the unknown. It is weather and disease and chaos. It is death, embodying adversity, decay, mystery. It is represented by the storm. It is the source of the Fever.
Spirits are effectively minor deities, a byproduct of the creation of life, tasked with helping the Three with the endless minutiae of existence. Spirits of healing, cooking, travel, flowers, etc. There are countless spirits, including many with similar or overlapping roles. They have more defined identities and personalities, and are far more likely to interact directly with the world than the gods themselves. Where the gods' motives and desires are utterly incomprehensible to mortals, spirits are much easier to connect and communicate with, though they often have their own intentions for their actions. Most spirits fall under the domain of one of the Three, but there are also many that exist independent of them, called solitary spirits.
Spirits are effectively very powerful souls without a physical body of their own, and many believe that certain mortals that catch the attention of the Three can become spirits after death.
Commonly just called Fever, this is a magical disease that the god Tempest brought to Enterra on the winds of a seemingly endless storm ending the Old Age. In the New Age, Fever typically spreads through the air like the flu, though it doesn't survive long outside of a body and can typically be avoided by limiting contact with any infected. Afflicted can also rarely spread the disease, typically through things like bites and contact with their bodily fluids. Most animals can catch and spread it as well.
There's a somewhat common belief that Feverhoods can also spread Fever, due to being "gifted" a dormant form of the disease, but no outbreak has ever been traced back to one and most reasonable people consider it baseless fearmongering. All New World species are completely immune to Fever.
Fever starts, expectedly, with a low fever that quickly ramps up to dangerous temperatures within a couple of days. Most also suffer from intense body pains, nausea, and dizziness, with later stages marked with delirium and hallucinations.
Due to the risk of infection for Old World species, most treatment facilities are manned by New World folk and Feverhoods. With proper care and purification techniques, many make full recovery from Fever, albeit with a greater risk of catching it again. Very late stage Fever is difficult to survive. Most either die or reach the final stage of the disease: Affliction.
Affliction causes the body to mutate rapidly, teeth and claws growing, limbs elongating far past their natural proportions, turning into something monstrous and aggressive. The Fever affects their brain to the point of madness, lashing out and attacking anyone in their sight. Affliction also affects magical ability in dangerous and unpredictable ways, making the Afflicted even greater of a threat. In rare cases, the mind can be healed back to some level of normal functionality, but Affliction is otherwise irreversible. In the New Age, the Afflicted are often an even greater threat than Fever itself.
Despite that millenia-long storm of the Lost Age being over, Fever-weather still plagues Enterra on occasion, set apart from regular weather by the oily, purple-green sheen of its precipitation (in all forms).
This is just a brief rundown of the sapient species making up Enterra. Each one will link to more detailed posts as I make them. They can be broken up into two main categories: Old World peoples, those who have existed pre-Fever, and New World peoples, those who magically evolved from those pre-existing species and are naturally immune to Fever as a result.
Old World Species
Humans: Pretty much identical to Earth humans. Typically have little inherent magical ability compared to other Enterrans but do just fine with learned magic. Tend to be a little more resilient to Fever than other Old World species, but at the cost of being one of the species most likely to become Afflicted instead of dying to the disease
Sylvans: A small, humanoid species with bug-like features. Are the most inherently magical of all Enterrans and their appearances vary greatly depending on what types of magic come naturally to them. A little on the delicate side, but Fever is rarely fatal to them and they can usually recover if infection is caught early enough.
Mer: Actually a catch all term for any sapient aquatic or semi-aquatic species, there are even more species of mer than there are terrestrial Enterrans, but many coexist in a way that community is far more important than individual species. Regardless, all mer are so vulnerable to Fever that it is nearly always fatal to them, with very few accounts of Afflicted mer ever being recorded.
Avians: Resembling tall humans but winged and covered with feathers. Their natural magic ability leaves much to be desired, but have a variety of other abilities at their disposal to make up for it. Their senses of sight and hearing are unmatched by other Enterrans. They are natural mimics, able to copy sounds and voices they've heard with eerie accuracy. And of course, most are capable of flight. Fever tends to be fatal to them.
Sphynxen: Very large, primarily quadrupedal felines with disproportionally long necks and torsos compared to the rest of their bodies. Despite their feral appearance, they tend to be gentle giants. Their size belies their frailty, often clumsy and prone to injury as well as illnesses even beyond Fever. Like humans, though, they are more likely to become Afflicted than die to the disease. Their inherent magical ability is second only to sylvans.
Dragons: Thought to have long since been extinct before their reemergence at the end of the Lost Age, much is still unknown about them due to their small population (less than 100), sprawling territories, and a pervasive superiority complex among most members of the species. They are immensely powerful, both physically and magically, but are just as susceptible to Fever as any other Old World species.
New World Species
Taurics: Developing from Afflicted humans, Taurics are a six-limbed (four legs, two arms) species resembling a combination of humans and various other mammals, most commonly ungulates. Like their parent species, they lack any significant amount of inherent magic. They are strong and hardy, able to live comfortably in climates other species may struggle in.
Fauns: Hooved humanoids that are nearly unrecognizable from their parent species, the sylvans. Instead of insectoid antennae and wings, they have developed fur and horns, and they almost completely lack any inherent magic compared to any other Enterran species. They share a lot in common with taurics, being durable and resourceful, which allows them to thrive nearly anywhere in the world.
Manticores: Their relationship to sphynxen is undeniable, being large felines with an impressive amount of inherent magic. However, they lack many of a sphynxen's typical shortcomings. They are strong and vicious, known to be cannibals and maneaters among the other peoples of Enterra. All manticores have spines and an intimidating sting at the end of their tails, but only some are venomous.
Harpies: The larger, feral-looking New World descendants of Avians. They have a more bird-like body plan, with toothy beaks and a lack of arms beyond their wings. They are not particularly magically gifted compared to most other species. They're often found building communities with avians in places hard to reach for other Enterrans, like cliff faces and jungle canopies.
Feluxe: Horned, cat-like humanoids that also developed from Afflicted sphynxen. Unlike manticores, they're not physically very strong, but are similarly gifted with magic moreso than most other sapient species. Known for their tendency to hoard sentimental objects. Have a not entirely unwarranted reputation for being troublemakers.
The setting of Feverhood is a world called Enterra, similar to Earth but with its own continents/regions: Parvel, Arizi, Rutenia, North Voxmara, South Voxmara, and the islands of Illima.
Unlike Earth, it is a world constantly influenced by magic, the meddling of the Three Gods (Day, Night, and Tempest) and the countless spirits in their domains. Much of the flora and fauna in this place resembles ours, though the peoples of Enterra are made up of far more than just humans.
The history of Enterra can be broken up into three eras: the Old Era, the Lost Era, and the New Era.
Old Era: colloquially called the Old World, this is the entire period of history before Fever irreversibly altered Enterra and its peoples. Technology was fairly modern, roughly the equivalent of ours at the turn of the century, enhanced by the magic inherent in this world. The flora and fauna of the New World were yet to exist, and the peoples of Enterra were limited to five species: Humans, Avians, Sylvans, Mer, and Sphynxen.
Lost Era: also called the Storm Era as it is marked by the emergence of the Third God, Tempest, and its several millenia-long storm introducing the magical Fever that nearly brought the world of Enterra to ruin. The Lost Era was essentially a dark age, where much history and innovation was lost as people either died or were irreversibly altered, often into monsters, by the Fever. In time, many of these Afflicted magically evolved into what are known as the New World peoples (which eventually came to be known as Taurics, Harpies, Fauns, Feluxe, and Manticores) and slowly integrated into society despite the initial mistrust and hostility of Old World peoples. The end of this era is marked by a "year without thunder" and the reemergence of Dragons, another sapient Old World species that had long since been thought to be extinct.
New Era: the New World, the modern day. Technology has yet to return to the level it was at the end of the Old Era, but people are once again thriving. Knowledge of the Fever and how to treat/prevent it, as well as the New World peoples' inherent immunity to the disease means that it is no longer quite the threat that it once was. The New Era also introduced Feverhoods; Old World people that are "blessed" by the gods and spirits with a dormant form of Fever as a way of immunizing them while also giving them more magical ability to protect others from the Afflicted. Opinions vary wildly on just how helpful or even safe these Feverhoods are.
