Since this blog is going to be focused on posting articles about my worldbuilding efforts for the “Enemies of Creed” series, I figure it will be worthwhile for me to start off by providing some names and terminology with specific meaning to that world. I will likely refer to these terms fairly regularly, so it will be helpful for me to link to this post, rather than have to provide definitions every time.
It’s very likely that I will come back and update this post from time to time as I decide to add more names and terms that I find useful to reference. To avoid a common scenario where the version that people see is an outdated reblog, I’ll be putting all the actual content below a Keep Reading link. (Plus that way, I can make this as long as I want without annoying anybody.)
So, with that introduction out of the way, let’s get started with some grand, mythic-level terms and names (it’s worth noting that while these terms and names will likely be referenced a lot in articles on this blog, they actually appear very little or not at all in the books.)
Reulla - The name of the world in which the series takes place.
Domas - Referred to only in the books as “The Ancient One.” Domas is a being possessing essentially godlike levels of magical power and knowledge. Originally a mortal who lived on a world very similar to Earth, populated by a species that is practically identical to humans, Domas learned to harness life magic that allowed him to become immortal and leave his world to explore the cosmos. After spending countless centuries traveling among other worlds, Domas found a planet with no life or magic of its own, but otherwise so similar to his home world that he decided to make it his home, naming it, populating it with life, and cultivating magic. After struggling for centuries with his contentious mortal “children,” Domas eventually left Reulla to travel the cosmos again, entrusting the world to the stewardship of the Immortals.
The Immortals - The closest thing that the world of Reulla has to gods and goddesses. The Immortals do not age, and they are much more powerful and difficult to kill than mortals, but they are not technically invincible. Individuals among The Immortals can be challenged, overthrown, and replaced by mortals capable of defeating them, but this happens so infrequently that most of the mortal population believes that the pantheon of Immortals is unchanging and constant. By the time the events in the “Enemies of Creed” series take place, The Immortals have all but completely removed themselves from the workings and affairs of mortal beings and civilization. This is due to the observation that any time they do get involved in conflicts between mortals, even with good intentions, their involvement invariably escalates the conflict.
Nishpari - The first “mortal” race of beings that Domas created in his image. The Nishpari did not age, and they had great physical attributes and intelligence, but they had no dealings with magic, nor could they use magic. They were also aggressive and competitive in everything they did, each one of them refusing to settle for second best. Because of this, their civilization tore itself apart while trying to secure their dominion over Reulla. By the time Domas decided to try again and create the Five Mortal Races, the Nishpari had faded into the realm of legend.
The Five Mortal Races - Orcs, Goblins, Dwarves, Elves, and Humans. Domas created these five races modeled in his image, but also influenced by many of the great people and civilizations that he encountered and admired during his years traveling the cosmos. While humans were created to be most similar to the people on his own homeworld, Domas created all five with attributes that he valued, and created them with the ability to interbreed, in the hopes that by doing so their future generations would become united as one, and achieve gradually all the gifts he had given the Nishpari, without the arrogance and strife. (Spoiler: It hasn’t worked out that way so far.)
The Great Diminishing - One of the constant attributes of magic on Reulla is that magic abhors being tamed. It’s magic after all, not science. It thrives on what is novel, original, and intense. So while magic is not inherently violent or malicious, it does not tend to thrive in periods of uninterrupted consistency and peace either. It tends to increase and grow most during times of conflict and excitement and upheaval. The beginning of the events in the “Enemies of Creed” series take place during the longest period of peace that Reulla has ever experienced, and that has caused a great diminishing of magic that the majority of Reullans either don’t understand or don’t notice at all. The “Enemies of Creed” series focuses on the gathering conflict that is destined to usher in a new era of magical growth and innovation, and the two branching destinies that foretell who will have the upper hand in that conflict for generations to come.
Alright, I think that’s enough to get us started for now. I will likely come back and add more in an update later. For now though, I think this will suffice.
🍰 what's an interesting aspect of magic in your world?
Magic on Reulla acts like an exaggerated and amplified manifestation of creativity. It shares a similar space with concepts like “art” and “music” in that almost everyone can recognize it and agrees that it exists, but it’s very hard to define. (And it REALLY doesn’t like being limited by rules.)
In another similarity to creativity, it loses its potency over time unless it is constantly changing. Teaching the exact same spell to generations of students, without giving them the freedom to make variations over time, and that spell eventually loses its magic.
The narrative tension in my books isn’t really tied to questions like “Whose magic is more powerful?” or “Will they find the legendary thing in time?” Rather, it focuses on how a character’s growth allows them to connect with their magic in new ways, and what character flaws or fears may be holding them back from their magical potential.
🎂 How "alien" are your non-human species in your fantasy world? I get bored by how many fantasy races are just humans with one thing different or humans but with a stereotype broadly applied.
The first thing I should point out is that humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and goblins are all the same species on Reulla (and that species is called “Primafolk.”) There physical and cultural differences between the variants of primafolk, but they’re actually a lot more similar than many of them are willing to admit.
Primafolk who isolate themselves to socialize with only their own variant tend to have much more narrow views of the world. Primafolk children who have a more than one variant in their family tree tend to have fewer physical weaknesses than children of only a single variant.
Beyond the primafolk, there are LOTS of other species of people. Way more than I could list here. There are minotaurs, harpies, naiads, dryads, djinn, ogres, satyrs, merfolk, treefolk, imps, giants, sphinxes, centaurs, ifrit, and more. And all of them are totally different species from the primafolk.
What’s your favorite bit of worldbuilding that you have that you doubt will ever get a chance to appear on page?
On Reulla, the phrase “new moon” means something totally different than it means on Earth.
Reulla only has one natural moon, but during the Second and Third Ages there were many other moons created and used by beings of immense magical ability and might called The Immortals. These magically created moons came in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Some might be covered with forest or ice or magma or silver, and many of them served as homes to different Immortals. Some of them were connected to magical portals on the surface of Reulla so mortals could travel to them and back.
These magical moons always were much less predictable in their orbit than the original moon, and some might disappear for years or decades at a time. As the Third Age came to a close and the peace of the Fourth Age began, the magical moons appeared far less frequently, and all known portals to them had been destroyed or depleted of the magic necessary to make them work.
By the time chapter 1 of Book 1 begins, the appearance of these magical moons is so rare that many people believe they no longer exist, or were perhaps only a myth at all. To see a “new moon” on Reulla means to see one of these magical moons in the sky with your own eyes.
To say that someone was “born under a new moon” is to call them unrealistic, naive, or gullible. To be “blinded by a new moon” means to become a zealot of an idea that is unlikely, ridiculous, or unheard of. And to “fall in love beneath a new moon” means to be so infatuated with someone that you’re unwilling or unable to see their faults or treat them like an actual person.
Thanks for asking! (And yeah, I really do doubt if any of that will make its way into the actual books.)
There’s this one ethereal jellyfish that The Ancient One created really early on when he started putting magical creatures in the world. This one (which doesn’t really have a name, but I will call it Bobby) was created in a secluded ice cave near the northern pole of Reulla.
Bobby’s body goes through a 100-year cycle where it ages and grows for a century in the Physical Realm, and then spends a century in the Ethereal Realm getting younger.
It’s a fairly uneventful existence, which is why nobody has bothered Bobby after all this time.
this might be an odd question, but what does love look like in your world? Are weddings the norm, is divorce culturally acceptable? At what age do people start dating? Would you say that romantic love is valued more or less than it is in our world?
Marriages exist on Reulla, but they’re generally treated as a magical union, not a legal one. Most marriage spells and ceremonies include some element of building an empathic bond between spouses over time, as well as the ability to distribute difficulties and discomforts more evenly among spouses.
For example, if a married person gives birth on Reulla, most likely that experience is going to be shared and carried equally with their spouse or spouses.
Other magical effects can be included with a marriage depending on culture, individual preferences, or the magical abilities of the one performing the marriage, but that kind of shared bond is the most common shared attribute of a marriage on Reulla.
Divorce also exists, though again it is viewed as a magical act, rather than a legal one. Some individuals may be capable of terminating the spell that binds their marriage all on their own, while others may require magical assistance. Getting the help of a magical arbiter or healer may also help reduce the pain that can often result from severing this bond.
That’s just regarding the topic of marriage though. When it comes to love, the way it is expressed, and the types of love that exist, that would be as impossible to define or categorize as Reulla’s magic itself.
🎂 So at least some dwarves in your world speak by tapping little hammers on the rock around them. Do they have a way of speaking above ground? And how did specialized speaking hammers come to be thing? What did they do before they invented the hammers or if they don't have one with them?
The Hulfraust nation developed their language of taps and strikes as a more effective way to communicate with each other in loud forges and smithies. They use their hammer-like malatol tools to strike stone or metal when either is handy. If they are above ground they will typically use their malatol on a pauldron, belt buckle, or some other piece of metal that they are wearing.
If they don’t have a malatol anywhere nearby (which is rare since they tend to carry them everywhere) they will use their tongues to make click and clack sounds that mimic the sounds of the malatol. This is the method that Hulfraust children are taught to use for communicating, and receiving their first malatol is considered an important rite of passage into adulthood.
🎂 Happy birthday! Are there dragons on your world? And if so, what are they like?
Yes, Reulla has many dragons. In fact in the Fourth Age (when the Enemies of Creed series takes place) the entire northern hemisphere is designated as “Dragon Country,” and if any primafolk decide to live there, they are expected to accept the reality that any structure or settlement they make will only last as long as the dragons there allow it.
Dragons come in an endless variety, and no two dragons look exactly alike, so trying to sort them into groups is mostly futile. But there is one meaningful distinction: Intelligence
What most people on Reulla call “dragons” could be classified as “common dragons” (though I don’t recommend ever calling them that to their face.) The intelligence of common dragons ranges from about that of a dog, cat, or beaver on the low end, and up to that comparable to a parrot, chimp, or dolphin on the high end.
Then you have “great dragons.” Great dragons are in a completely different league and have the intelligence of a primafolk or above. They are capable of speaking, reasoning, planning, and some can cast spells. They also tend to be much larger and more powerful than common dragons.
With enough skill, strength, and cunning, a common dragon could be hunted and killed by a team of primafolk. But only a fool would bother a great dragon.
