Day 9 Of Creatuanary :

Universal Lore- Part 4, The Elemental Planes

All life has the drive to evolve, whether they know it or not. Some are fated to lose the race of genetic and intellectual superiority, some never achieve the creation of civilization, and it is debatable whether or not some will ever even achieve sentience.

Some beings are beyond evolution in the High Realms they isolate themselves in, beings that perceive themselves as the closest to the ideal of perfection and thus are stagnant so long as they believe so.

Some beings are the purest form of evolution, elemental beings that can alter the shape and thought of life through assimilation but could be mistaken as mindless to those that fail to understand a simple truth: the purest defiance of fate is evolution.

If the High Realms represent the driving hand of fate, the Elemental Planes represent the breathing will of life.

These elementals, of course, have their own realm, or rather level of existence, that they are born in- physically it is beneath the Lower Realms, but is as deeply intertwined to the other's existence as are the High Realms and Lower Planes, and is (if anything) closer to mortals than High Realms beings are.

The purest of elements are Stellar, Flame, Air, Earth- the first elements that drive evolution before water and nature come forth, and thus these elements are the ones that make up each sector of the planes where the first elementals came.

The planes form as a vast cave system would, the four largest chambers each holding an elemental core, and from these cores do the energies coalesce and birth new elementals into the current Existence.

The elementals, though beings of pure energy, are unstable lifeforms in their first century of existence, and there is a high chance for their forms to separate into core and body.

The body is capable of developing its own core through the energy created by the division, and so it becomes a physical elemental. The core does not develop its own body, but in exchange gains greater intelligence, and so it becomes an ethereal elemental. On occasion, one half may not become an elemental at all and collapses back to a basic energy state that lacks consciousness. Some elements are more prone to splitting compared to others, and some may only form as a specific type by default.

Air is closest to the ideal of formless freedom, and thus they may only become ethereal elementals.

Stars are second closest to the ideal of steadfast perpetuity, and thus they may become both physical and ethereal but have a greater tendency to form as the latter.

Flame is closest to the ideal of mastery through trial, and thus they may equally become physical or ethereal.

Earth is the closest to the ideal of corporeal self, and thus they may only become physical elementals.

The few elementals that remain whole in both physical form and ethereal mind become Potentates that anchor the Planes, voluntarily falling into eternal stasis until their cores burn out to maintain the existence of the realm.

But what of the impure elements that too drive evolution, and what of hybrids of the four?

They do not exist on the Elemental Planes, instead being born upon individual worlds in the Lower Planes and the in-betweens of space.

Some are "natural" in a sense, water and nature elementals while not being true elementals are at least considered half-elementals and naturally come into existence upon worlds with Potential, although they are a sort of byproduct of evolution. Due to this, they can freely choose between a physical or ethereal form.

Some are created unnaturally, being hybrid elementals born from the collision of pure elementals and/or half-elementals. Whether they are physical or ethereal is dependent on the property of the material they resemble, with storm elementals being ethereal and crystal elementals being physical.

All, however, are capable of assimilation and all share the drive to evolve and become greater beings. They seek Potential and to spread their influence, either being born from said Potential or drawn to it from the Elemental Planes.

When a world meets the threshold of Potential either through an event or natural evolution, Elementals will cross into it and fuse with certain mortals to their whim, merging their ideals and thought and spirit and form in order to create an "evolved being".

These evolved beings become almost a separate race from the race they came from, with some being genetically different(or may not even have genes left) and some still having genetic similarity to their original race but difference in ability and appearance, though all will now have a core akin to an elemental's, and so their lives become intertwined with the power of the core and the ability to pass onto the Realms of Death is forfeited.

When the core's energy fades or the core shatters, so will their consciousness, and they too will meet the same fate as an elemental that fails to return to their birthplace should they have one- reversion to their element's base material.

Such was the fate of the Sky Lords of Avianaen that became no more than the passing breeze, and so did the silent Åskorhaia sentries that became stone and Mountainheart.

--------------------

Taglist for writing-

@aneci

If anyone else would like to join the taglist, feel free to DM me or send in an ask! I will also have a separate taglist for art posts.

No I have no abandoned the account I'm just very tired

I have blocked around 34 bots in the past two weeks and just barely made deadlines for missing work and then I got hit by the Demotivation™ so I will probably only post once this weekend

The Current State of Elvaria

Ember War is over, everyone is sad and trying to bring back order but some people try to celebrate because no more war So because Salgirtus is dead and had no kids, the throne now passes to his younger sister, so it's now Queen Lidisina Mirankis Zhonal of Zodiana Leonnox didn't want to deal with the humiliation of Flaerna getting its ass handed to it and also didn't want to deal with the political fallout so he abdicates his throne to his cousin, now known as King Garaxyran Alaystav Kolvastran of Flaerna With the old Treaty of Elorinar having been violated many times over, a new treaty is drafted by Queen Lidisina and the representatives sent by they various kingdoms around Elorinar in the hopes that peace will last longer, called the Treaty of Elemortia Floernia, Dalirna, Zodiana(by default for obvious reasons), Walekria, and Föllen Alatsa immediately vote to ratify it because they're sick of war(Warring Era lasted for 22,500 years) Offers are extended to Åskorhal, Yukiosa, Lustarise, Jivankova, and Avianaen(they were found around the end of the Ember War), Queen Vethørigya of Åskorhal basically tells Lidisina to fuck off with the terms but Yukiosa and Avianaen would agree to ratify the treaty

Jivankova isn't even visible to the other kingdoms because of their weird ass barrier that makes Kavathanar "disappear" so they don't have to deal with other kingdoms Lustarise just doesn't care, they don't sign and return to isolation but send some of their mages to Dalirna for a bit to help them rebuild and recover due to similar ideals regarding the pursuit of knowledge Flaerna is pretty much forced into it because A, they don't have the forces to bother trying to fight it off, B, they kinda started the war, and C, the other kingdoms are in the position of being able to straight up invade if needed to force a signature from Flaerna So what made Flaerna and Åskorhal so against signing it? They'd be forced to demilitarize(this term specifically aimed at Flaerna), and should any kingdom be attacked by an outside kingdom, all the kingdoms in the alliance detailed by the treaty must get involved to quickly end the war and quell the threat through war Basically, if shit happens, they get another continent spanning war and Åskorhal doesn't want to deal with that The Military Sect of the Scorching Council is dissolved and all of the soldiers in the Flaernan military are honourably discharged, with the ones that fled returning to Flaerna to help rebuild So now the kingdoms that ratified the treaty are in a massive alliance called Elemortia, or the Order of the Elemental Kingdoms, and they also have to help each other rebuild which also includes setting aside what happened in the Ember War so The Beef™ doesn't create yet another war

Lidisina also creates the Starsworn Council in Zodiana to remove some ruler duties from herself because now that war is over she has to deal with a whole lot of shit and also because, well, her immediate family is dead so she doesn't want to solo rule or appoint a singular advisor she may have to marry to for public image

She also sails to Yinorael as a second thought realizing that it would be a good idea to make the two kingdoms over there enter a Non-Aggression pact so war doesn't break out there since it was terrible in Elorinar Both Hikarina and Yūregina choose to ratify it, but on terse agreement, so now there's the Order of Yiagilia but it's not a very stable order Good enough for now though So now it's year 233 post-Ember War, what's going on now? Yūregina, in a bid to try to stop the plague, has been experimenting with necromancy since it turns out that dying and being reanimated does actually stop the progression of the plague, but of course, no reproduction(if anyone wants further elaboration on how Yūregian necromancy works and why it's only them that can do it, just ask in my ask blog Consulting the bored Altersaean) and Hikarina doesn't like it at all They're still at their trade disputes though There's a running problem along trade cities(usually on borders of kingdoms) where a strange shadowy elf-like being is sowing chaos in the cities and capital cities are on high alert The Fractured Span, a section of the sea floor that's basically collapsing in on itself, is, well, collapsing in on itself and Walekrian researchers are trying to figure out wtf is happening Yukiosan researchers are still researching strange relics that are out of place in the technological skill of the modern and Classical Kingdoms(as far as they know because they don't know about big brain Estellis) Jivankova only opens up their barrier every 5,000 years for a week at a time so right now there has only been one expedition from outside kingdoms to document and understand the lands of Kavathanar and the Jivankira Elthir, missives are sent between kingdoms to exchange information about each other Hikarina just has a little cultural dispute with some people petitioning for the capital city of Arenlia to have the name changed to Punjaranm-Ka-Sanhar, as Hikarinian culture has diverged much from Solarian culture. The royal family has left the name as is to keep as a reminder of the legacy of the Three Kingdoms And of course, some brewing political problems in Föllen Alatsa because classist divides. So basically, Caldivelle is the only city at the mouth of the caves and sprawls along the sides and ground of the cave mouth. The higher up you go, the more wealthy the people are, with some manors built into the cave walls or protruding from them. Closer down you go and into the cave are wealthy craftsmen, and anything further than surface level overshadowed by extravagant buildings from the upper echelons of society are mostly upper middle class dwellings. Even further down are workers. Some people have openly questioned the nobility and royalty about wtf is with the very obvious divides, but they've been dismissed so far since there's no one actually homeless and people live pretty okay lives because of employment and shelter programs to account for a slowly growing population. Very little social mobility though, especially for those that come from the Lower Gem Deposit Tunnels. Caleivelle's Alhiana Alatsi residents especially take issue as if the tunnels collapse one day, they all go down. There isn't a way out other than lifts and long winded routes and a small amount of teleporters, and there aren't many Alhiana living in Caldivelle to relay their complaints to

Universal Lore- Part 1, The High Realms(Tilemgie- Boriasonde)

"We had always known that we would not be forever. We could see all pasts and all futures, and we could see which of those was most likely to be the true path of time. This "absolute time" was what we were created to control, to ensure that the sands of time would always flow in one direction and never loop back.

"We could see the futures of many civilizations both new and old and the future of the dimension-travelling Altersaeans and space-weaving Spaelculans, but we did not see one for us. In all the threads of fate and each of the grains of sand that held a destiny, we did not have one. No endless expanse of black or white, but a simple nothing- we were fated to never have a future.

"We could not prevent this, and we could not flee- after all, without our home realm or Tilisnet, there was nowhere we could survive in- no realm held the exact conditions that could sustain our beings. More so was that none of us were able to warn Avaas or Seclir of Nix's hand in our destruction- Tilisnet said that it was not our place to do so, as we were never made to defy time- only protect it- so we could only accept our fates and live while we still could.

"Now, Tilisnet had created us to have some semblance of free will- more than the Spaelculans, but less than the Altersaeans, as he foresaw that it would one day be necessary that at least some of us would be able to sever ties with him. This had also meant that we were capable of arguing, but some of us did not want to and clung onto the hope that there was one path that could lead to the preservation of Boriasonde. Some of us argued that this was folly and that absolute time cannot be defied, and that we must endure for surely we will persevere in some other form.

"I was part of the latter group. I knew we had no future as the Tilemgians of Boriasonde and the Peoples of Time, and I too feared that The Tearing was our end, but a part of me knew that we would change, that at least a few of us would survive and become something new.

"I was correct, but there was no joy in this as my old friends that were of the former group are all deceased. So, so many of my brethren are dead and cannot be brought back even if Tilisnet were to return and Boriasonde to be rebuilt. Those that have died had their clockwork hearts be torn apart by the tendrils of the abyss or shattered by the piercing shockwaves from the very fabric of Boriasonde's reality being torn apart.

"If their hearts were still intact, they had a chance of being restored, but there is nothing left of them besides memories, and even those are becoming fainter with each day that passes.

"We are scattered throughout this existence- some flung into a distant future, some in the present, and some in the past; some were fortunate enough to make their ways onto planets with strong magic that could preserve us though not save us, and some were able to muster enough power to travel to Derizaren or Anarezen-

"-But our fate has been sealed, and what was once our greatest power has become our greatest detriment.

"The Altersaeans are meant to only remember for as long as the celestial body they guard exists. When that body is destroyed through unnatural means, they are "reset". The Spaelculans gardually forget as time passes as they were never meant to remember every detail of the Lower Realms' lives and worlds. Us Tilemgians were special in that we were never meant to forget, as this inherently violated the duty we were created to perform. We could not suffer from memory overload due to our close bond to time itself, which made us the exceptions to the rules all else in existence must abide by.

"Thus, our memories were our pride until The Tearing. With The Tearing and our scattering throughout time and the High Realms and Lower planes, we have been reduced to a lesser form for the lack of a better term. Our memories that count to almost an infinite amount of years are now a disease, and these memories cause us to become sickly as our now near-mortal minds cannot handle the burden of infinity.

"Many of us have both willingly and unwillingly forgotten some of these memories so that we could preserve our lifespans, some have also gone as far as to give up some of their abilities such as foresight.

"But the remainder groups...they still cling tightly to these memories, as they believe that to abandon them is to abandon our duties. They feel mortality so keenly in their sickness and yet they are stubborn in believing that we are still infinite. I envy them in that regard, but they too will die if they continue to live in this way.

"But enough of wallowing in our misery and mourning what was lost. The existence of the Tilemgians is now in the past and we cannot change this- but we can change ourselves. We now can evolve as the drakes on the elven planet and the crystalline structures on the pseudo-planet have done.

"Though we have lost much, we have been reborn to a trial by flame, and I hold hope that we will endure and become a new species that will carry on the duties of time while being both Eternaveilan and Mortal."

--------------------

I'll release the drafts for the alternate versions of what this was going to be later, and yes this story is supposed to be a lot shorter because it'd otherwise reiterate what was already stated in the other High Realms posts.

Previous High Realms lore posts- Derizaren(Spaelcul): https://at.tumblr.com/elvaria-project/universal-lore-part-1-the-high-realmsspaelcul/910zw5urt2xv

Anarexen(Altersae): https://at.tumblr.com/elvaria-project/universal-lore-part-1-the-high-realmsaltersae/1far5pd63wga

Civalthax(Voiskana): https://at.tumblr.com/elvaria-project/universal-lore-part-1-the-high-realmsvoiskana/w8dawu2zblez

--------------------

Taglist for writing-

@aneci

If anyone else would like to join the taglist, feel free to DM me or send in an ask! I will also have a separate taglist for art posts.

Classical history moment

I'm splitting the Age of Shadows and Age of New Kingdoms because the Cycelian Empires post was long as crap, so for the sake of not wanting future readers to get slapped in the face with info, I have just enough foresight to do this I honestly don't know if anyone is even reading these blogs but I will continue because I don't want to type that stupid English essay To the previous two Oversimplified Elvaria Lore posts-

I finally got my shit done back to elvaria I'm (temporarily) free🙏🙏🙏

No post this weekend unless someone wants to suggest a topic, my mind is blank right now lmao

Anyone begging you seriously please comment, the only things I have on hand are tales(not even a large amount of them), old info I may or may not have to edit(and even then content to recycle isn't a lot, it's maybe two or three posts), and artifact lore which never got anywhere when I started thinking about it four years ago

So now that the high realms are done we're going downwards in this order:

Part 2: The Realms of Death- Realm of Endless White + Realm of Skybeasts Part 3: The Mortal Realms- Lower Planes + Lesser Realms

Part 4: The Elemental Planes- Realms of fire, air, stellar, and earth(all in one go) Some of these will be more lore heavy, some will just be explanations of how they work. These are also paired by if one is necessary to explain the other or if there's just not enough info to justify making a whole separate post.

Also yes I'm going to be posting throughout this week now that I'm finally able to fuck around(temporarily). Just not daily posts because I'll probably go crazy or hit writer's block again if I do that.

Big question though: What would you all like to see when the focus goes back to Elvaria as I finish up the universe building?

Maps of current day Elvaria, made on Inkarnate.

okay so may as well start with a very bad oversimplification of lore (Part 1, Dust Era)

Meteors hit desert world bringing good shit Life begins to evolve Lizards Lizards grow big Big lizards become drakes(dragon with no wings and chunky) Big lizard species splits at some point One wants to be bipedal, other wants to fly, third branch is fine with being as is A lot of time passes idfk how much I have no sense of time

Bipedal drakes become drakanoids that look kinda like elves Smart drakanoids are known as Proto-Elves

Flying family starts off with dragons, splits again One flying side is wyrms(arms are wings), one side remains as dragons A lot more time passes and now the Proto-Elves are more smart Some begin to form tribes and some of those tribes are now using very rudimentary magic No mages or anything yet, sorta like medicine men and shamans Those magic tribes start isolating themselves from the non-magic tribes Suddenly angry tree humanoids(treenoids? plantnoids?) called Dak-Shan spring from caves War breaks out and non-magic tribes are not doing so hot Some of the magic tribes emerge from hiding and their magic is like better but not super complex circles and shit Takes 10k years but turns out they're enough to drive back the Dak-Shan and now Proto-Elves can work on civilizations minus regular infighting More time passes(like say 100k years), the non-magic tribes either slowly die out or merged with the magic tribes Some of the magic tribes die out because they stayed isolated or some scuffle happened with borders Remaining tribes now have cities, and soon these cities will become kingdoms, and kingdoms to empires(10k year span)