#Worldbuilding: Ancient Sions

[corvarrow]

Aaaand done with the spirit metal art! This also happened to be the first colored piece I've done after tweaking a bunch of stuff on procreate and now the colors actually match my main monitor 8D Very pleased.

ANYWAY as I expected, the basic explanation of these got way long 8') Couple of things I had to just skip over for now but I hope its still interesting! Okay here we go

Spirit Metal is a type of material related to ancient sion's funerary customs. Normally when (any) being passes, their spirit would move on and eventually be reborn one day as someone else. Because the ancient sions were constructs and it took sooo much time and work (and trial and error) before they even became sapient, Ahveph could not stand the idea of any of it's children dying and then their souls going to the beyond. To one day Not be sions anymore. So to combat this, it built them in such a way that when one died, their soul would congeal into "Spirit Metal". The soul itself is basically in a 'frozen' state instead of being aware of anything going on anymore.

In it's raw state spirit metal is a very irregular lump of - you guessed it - metal, or at least that's what it appears to be. The average size is a bit smaller than a closed fist. It has a gray-ish base color with a more golden shimmer, and it glows with a soft light. Most of the time it does form inside their body, though it can form outside as well, depending on how they died or how fast it was. It is worth noting that sions don't decay like a normal fully organic being like humans or shapeshifters do, they actually melt, as being dead their body is no longer producing enough magic to hold itself together. (Ancients are also a little bit different from modern sions here, and they have different body handling practices as well, but this is a whole convo best suited for another day.) Anyway, the point is that its actually not too difficult to get the metal out, usually you can already see a bit and then just pull it out of the melting stuff.

Once you have a piece of spirit metal ore, it can be forged. It's special properties are that it doesn't stick to any other spirit metal, so no, you can't meld individuals together, and that it doesn't separate from itself either, so you can't split it into pieces, it HAS to be worked as one piece. Otherwise, it can be thought of as similar to gold. It's soft for a metal and easy to work with, though at the same time means that it can't be used for armor or weapons - though forging them this way wouldn't be too proper anyway.

The reforged shapes are called "Spirit Houses". The shapes they use vary a bit depending on region and by circumstances*, but most people are going to be reforged into a "good" house. The most common shapes tend to be geometric and kind of flat, though they may have various levels of detail added on - I just did a mega basic example here. Most of these are going to end up in a special type of shrine either hanging or on shelves. Sometimes they will be forged into fancier shapes depending on what the person's interests were. Some examples are fish, feathers, books, etc, even animals like that rabbit. The main constraint is the ore size and not being able to separate pieces.

*In an event with multiple casualties (battle, accident, etc) they will temporarily reform the ore using a quick method, such as sandcasting, so its a lot easier to transport, then they'll reforge it once they get to a more appropriate location.

On the other side of things, there are also "bad" houses that people can be reforged into. These ones are considered to be disrespectful to the spirit and these are usually done deliberately. (In cases of accidentally disrespectful they will be reforged so we're not talking about that here.)

Some examples: Technically, because the metal won't separate from itself, it can be spooled out into thread, but this is deeply uncool. This is said to be "stretching out the spirit" so excessively long shapes are considered bad. Similarly too many holes or too big a hole is "punching holes in the spirit" so those are also bad. Also while they use some thread, rope, etc, excessive rope use is "tying up the spirit". You get the idea.

As I said this is actually done on purpose. For example if ore was collected from a member an opposing group (after battle for instance) then they will forge them into a Bad shape. They will also do this with prisoners (as in uuusually people who have committed some type of major crime) who have met their end one way or another. That Keyhole shape is favored for that as it combines the stretched shape/big hole/excessive rope. Instead of putting bad houses in shrines they may be put on display somewhere else as "an example." Although again, the soul is frozen and doesn't actually care about any of this.

When the cataclysm / plane split occurred, the immense amount of magic involved caused all of the spirit metal to break, finally releasing those inside and letting them move on. The sions that were still alive at the time were just completely obliterated and they directly moved on into the Beyond instead of forming any ore. Broken spirit houses are still found by archeologists today, and while it's fairly clear they had something to do with grave markers, they have no idea what they have now has completely different properties. The houses are no longer malleable and seem to just be broken pieces of fired but purposely unglazed pottery. They even have kind of gritty textures on the outside while the inside seems to have turned into glass.

[shepherds-of-haven]

Where would the ROs want to travel to in-universe? I was going through the interactive map of Blest and the worldbuilding was so gorgeous and detailed so I wonder where the ROs would want to visit unless it's a spoiler ask.

Aw, thank you so much, I’m truly honored that you enjoy the worldbuilding as well as the map! 💖 And great question!

Blade: he’s been all over the Continent and doesn’t have anywhere he’d particularly want to go: maybe secret Elven cities like Shyrduin, and I think he would enjoy the seaside and just chilling at the Banteen coast!

Trouble: he’s mostly gone back between the West part of the Continent and Haven; I think he’d be interested in going to Conte in the South and definitely spending time in Lindell in the far west, where airships are being built and developed! Also, he likes spending time in Ambryn and is curious about Leore as well as Fort Lagann!

Tallys: she would definitely want to travel to the ancient Elven forests, particularly Thielwood and Sylfaen! She’s been there before but she misses the seat of Elven power deeply!

Shery: I think she’d want to see the big cities, so places like Capra and Caprona, Orlop and Brunen, Ambryn or Leore, and especially Courtshore, with all of its southern glamour!

Riel: he’d also want to see any big city; he grew up near Leore and would want to see all the similar cities with booming business and lots of culture, so a lot of the places that Shery would want to see! He’d also be interested in seeing the Ivory Isles or the Sesz Isles, both to experience their cultures and see what their trade is like!

Chase: I think he’d like to travel anywhere that has people, but if he were with MC he’d particularly be excited to show them Conte (where he grew up) as well as nearby Sion!

Red: I think he’d want to explore the West of the Continent more; he’s explored a lot of the regions surrounding Capra and would want to see what the Norm territories are like, but he hasn’t really made it over there yet in his travels!

Ayla: she’d want to check out the forests and the ocean more; she’s familiar with deserts and mountains, but she wants to immerse herself in different types of terrain! I think she’d want to see the Reach, the Bleakmoor Marshes and the fens, the southern coastlines, Thielwood, and everything in between!

Briony: she’d especially want to see the great Mage cities of the past, such as Calta, Capra, Caprona, Sion, and Stroud! She’d also be curious about the Southern Crescent and seeing the beaches and the tropical ocean, particularly since she was found somewhere near Courtshore!

Lavinet: at this moment in time, she only wants to stay in Haven and sort of settle in there. But if she were given control of a tour, I think she’d choose to visit the major cities like Shery and Riel would!

[ask-poppy]

So...

I’m pretty tempted to work on worldbuilders for Moppy, i mean, there’s the French as ‘ancient’ or ‘old’ demacian language Just as Latin. The fact that she was there since Demacia’s foundation itself, the hero would even be Noxian given the POV of what a ‘Hero’ is (not sion, gladly); How Orlon was an influence to keep her ‘calm’ rather than the rest of some ‘outrageous’ familiars.

Yeh... gotta work on Poppy’s world soon or later, and as for Demacian Lore i may have some allies to chat about it and make my ideas land in a cotton couch rather than a hard desk at this point, you get me right?

[corvarrow]

Another Aki sketch I've been meaning to do ~ Still trying to figure out his outfit and will probably have to play around with some chibis to get something satisfactory, but I did determine his hair is super fun to draw 8D

So anyway, obviously he has two main swords. Most of the time though, in what he would consider a 'boring fight', he would be using just one, then when things heat up a bit he would bring out the second one. He is super strong so dualwielding doesn't bother him, but he does want a battle that is worthy of the effort.

...However that goes all out the window when he is at his city, Fatewinder's Beacon. Since The Beacon is actually his main body, he will build more swords for himself to fling at opponents. When they phase into this plane for use it seems as though they are appearing out of thin air. Technically speaking, these are not as good as swords that were forged by a skilled blacksmith, but multiple swords built by an unfathomably large invisible/incorporeal presence VS real swords, probably not too big of a difference in the heat of battle. (Afterwards the extra swords all disappear - he phases them back out and then breaks them back down into components so he can use them elsewhere. It's a whole Thing the sentient cities do)

Since there are only four Sovereigns, its somewhat easy to generalize their behaviors - if under attack at their homes, the other three would prefer to do something simple and quick (such as liquefy the floors) rather than play around like this. The Beacon's layout is significantly more vertical than the others though, so if he were to liquify the floors, the invaders would fall a very long way before he stopped them noclipping, and this would all probably cause much distress to residents that saw it. It is a simple way to take care of the issue to be sure, but he'd prefer to save it for bigger problems.

[corvarrow]

Aki!! One of the sketches I have been meaning to do. Usually I change the background back to white before posting but then I added the white so I just left it this time. Still playing around with figuring out how to draw him, outfit design, sword design, etc, so I'd just expect a bunch of inconsistencies for now but I like how this one came out C:

One of these days I'll be brave enough to try to explain this in greater detail but he is a type of ancient sion called a Sovereign. In this case it's used as both a title (he is in fact a king) as well as an actual type of being. Sovereigns have basically 2 bodies that they're operating at once ~ Their sion body, which is their original one (they uhhhh outgrew it) and is kind of like an avatar body, and their "main" body, which is a "sentient city", or at least, they are being perceived as one. They are mostly phased out of this plane, though sometimes you can catch glimmers of....something...out of the corner of your eye.

[corvarrow]

Okay, every time I've tried to upload this it looks blurry >_>a And I cannot figure out why so please full view!

Anyway, I present to you a better picture of one of my newer OCs, Akiyohm! He was in a few of my Lost Kingdoms art challenge pieces, though kind of loosely designed ~ I hadn't been able to work out how I wanted to draw his hair until more recently.

Aki is an ancient sion (an original race of mine) and was originally built to act as a trader, obtaining raw materials and trading out the finished goods that his siblings were responsible for making. He is a Namesake sion, but in shorthand you can consider him a type of royal, like a figurehead king. (Got a couple more notes about this here.) Although many eons pass between when he gained sentience and what could be considered his "present day", he likes humans most out of his siblings and continues to run trading routes, at least until a series of events occur.

Aki's city, Fatewinder's Beacon, is pretty far into the desert, so while he has a bunch of different outfits, his main one has him covered up because...sand. The outfits that show way more skin are usually the more 'courtly' ones.

Now I need to work out his colors, lol. I think its mostly going to be a lot of reds and browns maybe, though he has green eyes.

[corvarrow]

I haven't posted anything specifically worldbuilding in a bit so here's some stuff I'm currently working on! Ideally I'd like to post doodles or illustrations to go with some stuff soon but.... 8la It takes me a bit to get things together for posting as I'm constantly cooking soooo many things at once.

-Realized that I had accidentally recreated North America's geography, just in a slightly different shape, with one of my maps so I ended up throwing all of that out. Thankfully I hadn't gotten too far with it before The Realization struck, now I'm working on a new one. The nice part is I've made some breakthroughs on the flow of language (though I've only got enough brainpower to work on ONE conlang)

-Also currently working on Corvafex some more. I kind of want them to be like, leaning more towards form rather than functional (message delivery), or have it be that the oldest ones are more functional but not the newer ones. The whole thing with ancient sions is because they are basically sapient automatons and don't really need much to survive besides like... air and shelter, they have A Lot of time to persue passions and the stuff they make gets increasingly fancier over time. So yeah can't wait to post some ridiculous magical birds

-ALSO because of the sapient automaton thing it's made it Challenging to work on pretty much everything related to ancient sion social structures and the way things are handled ...lol. For they don't have children in the traditional sense, but they still have family groups, and people who are "technically" related. Modern sions have some similar issues to iron out but it's not as intense as ironing out ancients. Hard to explain the full extent of it but I've really made this a pain for myself 🤣

-I made a chibi "paper doll" of Aki to help figure out what's going on with their clothing layers and make some alternate outfits. Got a couple more things to draw but it's looking sooooo cute so far.