Crystalis' World Guide Part 1: Welcome to Seilleanna · 11:26pm Nov 5th, 2015
So as a way to drum up inspiration for myself down the line, I've decided that I want to start officially writing down details about the fantasy world that I wish to write about. My own original story which revolves around the Cast weapons that appear in a few of my stories. I hope you all enjoy this little peek into a world that has been slowly shaped in my heart for a great many years of daydreaming.
The world of Seilleanna (Say-lay-ah-nah) was born from a shared dream. The dream of brother gods, wielding the powers of creation and destruction, the very core forces of the universe. Together these brothers turned void into existence, birthing the cosmos and forging the laws that hold it together. One weaved the beginning of all things, and the other created the inevitable end. New life shall always come, and just the same, those lives must inevitably end. The same applied to everything, from rocks to planets, stars, and even the cosmos itself.
All things begin and end.
So it was that after many eons, the gods descended upon the cosmos themselves, building a world across countless millennia that would be the pinnacle of their work. Thus was Seilleanna born; a world brimming with the fundamental energies of the universe, the eight aethers, whose flow traveled through eight mighty obelisks that dotted the globe.
The gleaming Shine.
The murky Shroud.
The burning Flame.
The frigid Frost.
The whirling Tempest.
The stalwart Terra.
The flowing Surf.
The sparking SurgeLife flourished on Seilleanna, with countless plants, animals, and monsters, as well as spiritual creatures born of the aether itself. The corporeal and incorporeal existed in parallel, and eventually civilization sprouted. The spirit creatures of many shapes and sizes, the Aetherians, formed their own groups and cities on their alternate plane just as humans came into being and started doing the same. The two sides lived side by side, yet never knowing of or seeing the other. One day that too changed, and a human, revered and regal, held hands with an Aetherian of might and righteousness in camaraderie. The gap was bridged, and the world entered a new age of prosperity.
The power of Aether was never stronger than those days, when man and spirit worked together, their nations flourished around the globe and technology grew greater and greater still with each passing year. The pinnacle of this golden age was the creation of the Casts. Both a weapon of personal defense and a tool without compare in utility, the Casts unlocked heights never before dreamed of. Binding to the spectrum of aetherial energy in the wielder, their soul, the Casts were capable of weaving the aetherial energies within and without into a weapon that best suited the user's abilities. Their second function unlocked the latent elemental forces within the user, allowing them to manipulate the elements around them, the strength being determined by their own affinity. And lastly, in unlocking the bounds of their spectrums, the Casts enabled that power to grow over time through everyday use and in the fires of battle.
And the beginning of the Casts could be found in the human king, and the Aetherian whom he allied with. Together, they forged the first pair of Casts, the originals, with the power that forged all others, the Artificer Casts. Each took one of the gauntlets, mighty in their own right, and forged a new age together.
Magic grew greater and greater. Conflict did break out time and time again, as it always had and always would, but life marched ever onwards. Unfortunately, such times could not last forever; indeed, they did not even last past the life of the first king. That trust was summarily broken when that man, King Xakar, laid siege upon the Aetherian realm, enraged by the passing of his beloved, who some believed was killed by a spirit.
The war that followed devastated both planes, and life innumerable was lost. In the bitter end, a singular salvation was found in a small band of heroes, each bearing but a fragment of the mighty obelisks, and lead by a beautiful woman with wings of a shimmering burnt-golden light. She was Seraphima, the first of her kind, an Angeal, and she bore one half of the Artificer Casts in battle against King Xakar, eventually slaying him and taking the remaining half of the Artificer Casts.
In the aftermath of that bloody war, many things were lost. The human and spirit population was pitifully low, and the presence and strength of monsters the world over skyrocketed. Cities were abandoned and overrun with beasts, and the mighty obelisks that once dominated the landscape of the world vanished mysteriously. With the obelisks, the spirit plane and the human one grew further and further apart, eventually becoming completely separated. What remained of humanity flocked to the centers of their nations, the capitals which were built at the foot of the obelisks. Each of these eight nations was isolated for centuries; simply trying to survive the beasts and the forces of nature around them.
The years from that day are lost to history. Seraphima and the Artificer Casts were never heard of again, and almost entirely vanished from knowledge. All that remained were a few fanciful legends, Casts, and the powerful gems that came from the obelisks, the Keystones.
From this time onward, humanity clawed its way through a dark age of survival and evolution, and the face of the world that would come would be completely different from anything seen before.
Sounds like a great setting for a tabletop RPG,
3523303 Well this world does have a lot of high-fantasty inspiration, with some Japanese fantasy sensibilities in how I intend to execute it, and this is just the age before the one the story will take place in. There's even some critical details I'm intentionally leaving out here and there, but I'm taking a lot of inspiration in this from worlds of Final Fantasy and the Tales video game series.
I'm quite pleased that you think it could be a great tabletop setting, and I hope you look forward to whenever I get around to the next installment, which should cover the current state of Seilleanna.