Astray

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?

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(Voiskana- Civalthax)

Before the creation of this existence, there were four beings of immense power that dwelled in the vast darkness.

The first was named Tilisnet, who was born in the previous existence, being reborn every five cycles. He had power over the flow of time, able to bend and shape it to his whims, and he could repair or halt its flow as he wished.

The second was named Seclir, who was born near when the previous existence had ended, being reborn every eight cycles. He had power over the fabric of space, weaving the energies within it to create stable planes and quell chaos.

The third was named Avaas, who was born during the start of the first cycle and existence, and was far older than Tilisnet and Seclir. He had power over worlds and realms, able to travel between them as he wished, ensuring that the cycles could continue without issue.

The fourth had no permanent name, as he was reborn at the start of every cycle, and thus was referred to as Nix, meaning 'nothing' in a long lost tongue. He was the void and abyss, his death and rebirth ending and continuing cycles, creating a nothingness for time and space to turn into something. Without Nix, the flow of time cannot exist and space will be torn apart.

Normally, Nix would have been found by Avaas, as it was how it went all the other cycles, but this time, Avaas had chosen not to search. He believed that Nix would fare fine alone, as Tilisnet and Seclir were able to control their powers and prepare for the birth of a new existence. Nix, at first, found this to be odd, but let it be, as he assumed that Avaas would look for him at a later time. Though as more and more chaos was muted and turned into peace, he felt betrayed, believing that Avaas had chosen to ignore him despite Avaas having searched for him in every other cycle. These feelings of betrayal festered into anger as more time went by and the existence was created, developing an anger towards the light of the young stars that now flooded the skies, thinking that Avaas wanted to destroy the nothingness of Nix in this cycle.

In retaliation, Nix created an ultimate nothingness that became a hidden realm that even Avaas couldn't travel to, located far beyond the reach of the light of the stars, and there he learnt to turn his nothingness into something, with the something being the embodiment of his anger and feelings of betrayal, infusing this something with the chaotic energies of nothingness. These energies would come to be known as abyssal energies, and this hidden realm would be known as the Civalthax, the Abyss.

Nix continued to tamper with his abilities and the abyssal energies, learning to condense them into shapes and bending the energies to his will. He wielded them as Tilisnet would with the flow of time and as skillfully as Seclir would weave the other energies of space, and yet still avoided the eternally watchful gaze of Avaas, whom he still felt resentment towards. With the combination of the abyssal energies and his emotions, he created Nythokra, the first of the beings of the abyss.

Nythokra was a being of pure darkness, its appearance being a twisted image of Nix's own self. Nix was horrified of Nythokra, fearing that if he continued further down his path of anger and went on to destroy the light, everything else would fall along with it, leaving only him and his horrid creation. However, a little whisper from within the depths of his mind assured his doubts, as it was either destroy all or be destroyed, and he didn't want to disappear and be forgotten, unable to be reborn in the next cycle.

His hidden realm of Civalthax kept expanding as the millenniums passed by, the abyssal energies inside of it slowly twisting themselves into corporeal forms that eventually came close to being "living" beings, of which Nix named Abyssal Lords, while in the new existence, which had developed and grown considerably, the creation of worlds that could harbour life begun.

Nix watched one world in particular with great interest, one that was entirely dry but still seemed habitable, even after it had sustained three asteroid impacts. He envied that Tilisnet and Seclir could create such worlds and allow them to have life, and so he used his own few powers to create a small seed, infusing it with the tiniest bit of abyssal energies, and sent it to the planet, hoping that he would be able to create proper life or at least influence its evolution.*¹

Nythokra watched this alongside Nix and spoke for the first time, asking Nix if there were other ways for life to be created, and if true life could exist in Civalthax. Nix had no answer, and he did not know, but it left a single thought in his head: "Can I make life?" As he continued to watch the development of the planet and observed the evolution of its life, he began to obsess over creating similar, but perfect beings, wanting to spread his influence and gain the ability to create something directly from his nothingness.

Nythokra, being a twisted image of Nix and the reflection of his emotions, was compelled to aid Nix in the process, gathering the Abyssal Lords to find a way to make more pure beings that had solid forms and were alive. Though, they struggled, as they did not fully understand how life worked, and neither did Nix, who was only able to observe living beings from afar in all of his lives, and he, Avaas, Tilisnet, and Seclir were embodiments of the aspects of the Laws of Order, thus not making them able to be considered living.

Regardless of the many failures, they still continued, destroying and creating over and over, using abyssal energies and manipulating nothingness, even resorting to having to steal some of the energies Tilisnet and Seclir constantly created.

Eventually, they succeeded, creating the first living being of the abyss by forming the combined spatial energies into a solid being and making one of the Abyssal Lords mate with it, as was observed with the life on the planet. An unstable lifeform it was, but still a lifeform nonetheless. Though the being was corrupted in the process, it gave birth to a being that lived and breathed and could grow, and so, Nix named the being Voiska, though the being of spatial energies died. When Voiska was considered an adult- or at least based on the guessing of Nix, Nythokra, and the Abyssal Lords- they were given the chance to choose a mate in order to create more living beings in Civalthax. Voiska chose an Abyssal Lord named Kazilv, and with gender being nonexistent among the Abyssal Lords, the mating was successful once more, and this time, twins were conceived.

Nythokra and Nix decided to steal more of the spatial energies that Tilisnet and Seclir created, but found that they had both created their own realms and their own living beings using their energies, leading them to channel their energies to the realms directly rather than let it flow throughout the existence.

Nix was ambitious, determined to create more life like Voiska, and decided that he should make use of the instability that the flow of time constantly had, redirecting small channels of the energies in Tilisnet's realm of Boriasonde to Civalthax.*³ Going unnoticed by Tilisnet, he deemed his plan to be a success and created more beings of spatial energies for the Abyssal Lords be mated with, leading to more life like Voiska being born.

Nythokra named the elf-like beings Voiskanans after Voiska, and Nix established a kingdom for Voiska to rule, which would come to be known as Voiskana, the kingdom of the Abyss. However, seeing the life that so easily was created by Tilisnet and Seclir made Nix envious, reminding him of why he had started all of this, and he felt spite and anger towards Avaas once more, leading him to start using the Voiskanans to achieve his goal of destroying all of the light in existence, wanting to leave only him and his creations to roam around in his reclaimed nothingness.

This desire for the return of nothingness still burns within Nix to this day, fueled by his fear of being destroyed and by his thoughts that he had been betrayed and abandoned, with the Voiskanans having conquered and destroyed many worlds and stars in his name.

Now, Voiskana has opened rifts into the world Nix had long observed, named Elvaria, slowly planning to corrupt it from the inside out.

But, only time will tell what the fate of this existence will be, and one can only hope that Nix will see reason someday…

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

¹- This seed did indeed influence the evolution of life on Elvaria, but not in the way Nix intended. It instead led to the growth of the ancient druidic race the Partoa Elva fought near the end of the Dust Era.

²- The kingdoms of Solaris, Lunaris, and Urthalis have by then been established.

³- The redirecting of the energies was the major influence that lead to the collapse of Boriasonde, unbeknownst to most including Nix.

its official: tumblr is selling our data to Midjourney

404 Media

Tumblr and Wordpress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools

Internal documents obtained by 404 Media show that Tumblr staff compiled users' data as part of a deal with Midjourney and OpenAI.

we'd been hearing rumors about this for a bit but now its open and out there. some details from this article

it goes without saying, but if @staff goes through with this its going to be an utter shitshow and im all but certain the website will not survive it.

Oversimplified(?) Elvaria Lore- Part 4, Kingdom History(Key Points, Major Kingdoms H-Z)

Hikarina- The Alshaljilan Bloodline and the Tear of the Eclipsed Sun

During the establishment of Hikarina, one of the surviving Solarians' descendants happened to maintain ownership of the Tear of the Eclipsed Sun, an old artifact created during the peak of the Cycelian Empires era that meant to embody the might of Solaris. Inside of it was bits of power from every Solarian that was alive during the time. So they're a descendant of the artifact keepers of that era that were entrusted to keep documents of everything powerful created in the kingdom and also protect those items, but the only thing that their ancestor in particular managed to keep ahold of was the Tear The Tear is powerful enough to allow more sunlight to pierce through the sky filled with debris and more shit starts to fall from the sky, and is also strong enough to create a barrier around the new kingdom of Hikarina to leave it in eternal day. Become of that individual holding control over the Tear, they ended up becoming the leader of the new Hikarinans and would build a central cathedral in what'd come to be known as Arenlia to house the Tear. This individual would also establish the Alshaljilan bloodline, which was the previous ruling bloodline of Hikarina. So that bloodline disappeared during the years right before the Warring Era, with every last one of the 10 members that existed at the time having mysteriously just vanished This created a massive power vacuum of different noble families fighting(not a war just a lot of arguing and bribery) over which would become the next ruling bloodline, and in a century the kingdom went through 5 different families. Eventually the Falisthena bloodline arose out of nowhere(literally no one had ever heard of them) and people got sick of the chaos so the majority of the population ended up following them. The ones that didn't were either threatened to accept the new leadership by others or vanished without a trace

The Falisthena bloodline doesn't suck at leadership so for now they've remained in power and not a lot of people complain about them politically

Jivankova-

Nothing really happens here, but when the Urthalisans came across them, they found the Urthalisans interesting and let them stay, with some people adopting the Urthalisan culture over time. Since then, the Urthalisan culture has changed a lot, but the original Jivankira Elthir culture has endured

Lustarise- The War of Shattered Ruby

This was in the Ember War post but giving a bit more detail

So the Geintori are Lustariseans that absorbed a shard of the core of a crystal elemental by either accidentally touching one thinking it was just a regular crystal on the ground or having a dying crystal elemental assimilate itself to a Lustarisean through merging its core with their heart

When Geintori started becoming a thing, the Lustarisean population basically went from viewing them as regular members of society to something to be researched Some Geintori didn't mind because they were hoping there'd be a way to reverse the process, some felt their personhood(elvenhood?) was violated by the research protocols One of the Geintori that was part of the latter group was Kougyuku-rub(formerly Enshoukei Kougyuku), the brother of the Shin'nyo Apolis'Asuremant at the time Enshoukei Riebuno, with both of them being ruby Lustariseans The Geintori of course got very sick of this very soon and planned a whole revolt to gain some sort of sovereignty to they wouldn't have to deal with this if they didn't want to, so Kougyuku used his leverage as Riebuno's brother to convince the team of researchers on him to let him loose and then went on a spree of freeing Geintori on the research centers A war broke out very quickly in some of the cave chambers and a plot to assassinate Riebuno was created, with Kougyuku volunteering himself to take on the task Riebuno heard of this very soon and turned up at the front lines closest to the capital to duel Kougyuku, with the terms being if Kougyuku wins then Lustarise will allow the Geintori to become a sovereign kingdom, but if he wins then Lustarise will not hesitate to quell the Geintori population with a sound based weapon that'd shatter them all as he had been lenient with them initially The duel happened and it turned out to be a draw, with Riebuno taking a large crystal spear to the heart from Kougyuku's power and Kougyuku shattering into glittering dust and ruby shards from taking on a blast of Riebuno's power point blank(he was not the High Asuremancer for no reason) Honoring the duel's terms but also recognizing that this was a tie, Lustarise would agree to let the Geintori gain partial sovereignty as a sub-kingdom rather than a whole separate kingdom, but threatened that if another war broke out then they'd use the aforementioned sound-based weapon The Geintori would accept as this was better than nothing and would gain part of the Lustarisean cave system to claim as their territory, calling the new sub-kingdom Geintora The war would be named the War of Shattered Ruby in honour of Kougyuku and Riebuno, as agreed by both sides Some shards of Kougyuku still exist, but the amount of him turned to dust means he cannot be reformed and using substitute pieces to replace his missing parts would end up creating an entirely different person. These shards and a fragment of Riebuno's crest are stored in the central building of Geintora and Kangasaki Kyusen respectively

Walekria-

N/A shit doesn't really happen there

Yukiosa- The Tale of the Brood of Orvalak

Read here

Yūregina-

N/A shit doesn't really happen there that's worth noting and hasn't been said already

Zodiana-

N/A shit doesn't really happen there

@cilil Thank you for tagging! I haven't posted in a while because I'm missing a lot of schoolwork so this is probably going to be my only post until the weekend where I'll hopefully be able to post again

1. Are you named after anyone?

As far as I know, I don't think so? My name is a mishmash of Chinese words badly Latinized(probably not the right term) and I have bore the cure of the resulting uncommon name. My actual Chinese name though, I don't think it came from someone else.

2. When was the last time you cried?

Cried from life problems, probably last week. Cried from a game, today(Honkai has me crrying whenever Elysia is brought up)

3. Do you have kids?

No, I will die alone with 7 cats and absolutely no one can stop me.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Yeah, more than I really should. A lot of my humour is satire.

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Clothes, I don't like looking at faces more than I have to

6. What’s your eye colour?

Dark brown leaning into mahogany.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Either depending on my mood and if the writing is good. If a happy ending needed necessary and tragic sacrifices to reach it, even better.

8. Any special talents?

Uhhh I wouldn't say they're very special, but I can play clarinet and rudimentary guitar, write, draw(stuck on that point where I'm not seeing any improvement though), and design.

9. Where were you born?

Four words- oil and ranch sauce

10. What are your hobbies?

Gaming, drawing, writing, sleeping, procrastinating on homework too.

11. Have you any pets?

1 cat, 10 years old and with the density of a black hole.

12. What sports do you play/have played?

Used to do karate and swimming, then some archery. Nowadays just tennis.

13. How tall are you?

Tall for my ethnicity and gender but short for most western nations.

14. Favorite subject in school?

Tie between history and life science.

15. Dream job?

I have no idea lmao the economy is crumbling and everything I want to do will leave me in crippling student loan debt. But excluding everything being on fire and the current limits of what we know about existence, definitely a xenobiologist or xenovirologist. Anything with aliens.

Obligatory tags for future victims willing participants(sorry if you've done this already)- @aneci @jlilycorbie @chandra-chamak @melkors-big-tits @hmdeath @mirrorofagony @ourfutureorigins @theblackbookofarkera

Examples of Jivankira Elthir clothing

Despite the Urthalisan refugees having joined the population of Jivankira Elthir during the Age of Shadows and have since become physically indistinguishable, part of Kavathanar known as The Crescent, which is the inner side of the Dinhrang Mountains, still is majority inhabited by descendants of these survivors.

Though they go by the name Jivankira Elthir, they've kept some of the Urthalisan culture to this day and continue to create clothing and buildings in a similar style, but of course with some changes due to influence from native Jivankiran culture and drift over time.

Compared to real world cultures in history, the Urthalisan descendants follow a Le dynasty Vietnamese style, and native Jivankira Either follow a middle Egyptian style.

Not Oversimplified Elvaria Lore- Part 3, Modern History(Warring Era- Minor Wars)

Time passed since the last kingdom in the new continent were established, and the old mutual struggle alliances started to fall apart as each kingdom gained their own sense of identity The surface kingdoms would begin to start wars over borders and resources as they lacked formal borders between the kingdoms, and smaller kingdoms would try to establish themselves upon the borders but were subsequently crushed within days Lustarise would hide themselves from the world and seal the one entrance to their caves, and Föllen Alatsa would only be involved through trade and production of weapons for whichever kingdoms contracted them, with the deal being to not be pulled directly into the wars Avianaen, as far as the kingdoms on the surface were concerned, did not exist as it was hidden in cloud cover, and Åskorhal(formerly named Åsthenar but they changed it soon after their air land merged with the Gyvorkal mountains) would cull troops that came too close to the mountains. The rest of the kingdoms believed it was simply natural elemental phenomena rather than anything created by another elf, and so left the mountains be

No kingdoms involved in the minor wars wanted to compromise until it was absolutely necessary, and for many thousands of years they did not see it necessary even when death rates were greater than the birth rate, and death tolls would reach into the ten thousands, if not more Floernia would be the first to attempt to pull out, as they were often the victims of invasions from Flaerna and certain Zodianan politicians, and Dalirna would follow suit as they were never adept at war Walekria would be the first to suggest a treaty that would mark official borders and name the continent, and Floernia and Föllen Alatsa would quickly show support for the treaty. The minor wars on the Zodiana-Flaerna and Flaerna-Walekria border would be halted for a month for delegation to determine where each border would be, with many arguments and threats of invasion occurring but no actual action taken as each kingdom understood that these wars could not go on forever at their current pace At the final vote, Queen Anelede and King Dianeme of Föllen Alatsa, King Zhonal and Queen Galoris of Zodiana, all nine members of the Provincial Council of Floernia, and King and Queen He-Zhuo of Walekria would vote to ratify the Treaty of Elorinar King Garovstoyy and the Military Sect representative of the Scorching Council would vote against the treaty, drawing ire from the other rulers as many of them blamed Flaerna for starting most of the wars. Monarch Delstou and Queen Alshamsa of Dalirna, along with the Economic and Nobility sect representatives of the Scorching Council, would abstain from the vote.

With a majority vote of approval, the elemental continent would be formally known as Elorinar and the borders would be set, temporarily keeping the continent from warring for only a handful of centuries But of course, tensions still existed and kingdoms would still dispute over resources and borders, with Flaerna especially feeling cheated of the fertile land on the borders of Floernia and Qisara Kranor compared to the flaming volcanic wastelands of Emorscal

After all, no wars could be solved so easily, and external factors care not for who suffers. These minors wars have lasted 20,000 years Previous lore posts-

Proto Elves/Partoa Elva

14 BABY but still no funny bios

I have blocked and reported 11 prawn bot accounts in the past 2 weeks, this is ridiculous They don't even have funny bios and my account isn't even a month old, wtf