#fyi theo and evelyn are from Dia

[beneath-the-continents]

Please god tell me about the world, give me that delicious world building lore

Crystal thank you I adore you but this is not NEARLY a specific enough question like you gotta at LEAST specify a country because they're all pretty different and I could never summarize them all in a single ask

[beneath-the-continents]

first of all your map looks so sick like its so genuinely cool!! also do you have any particular details abt any of the places or cultures that you particularly like? or a favorite place/culture over all?

Thank you so much!!! There’s still a bunch of things that I want to add to it, but I’ve worked really hard on it and I think it’s pretty neat!

As for details to share that I like well let’s see... 

The Mishima Valley is named after a particular style of Korean-made pottery that involves clay pottery that is engraved, and a contrasting (often lighter) colour slip inlaid into those engravings (although I actually think Mishima might be a Japanese word for this style of pottery, because it was commonly imported in Japan - another fun fact is that I’m a big fan of Korean pottery). In-world, the name was actually given to the valley by the people of Haph, who, when they crossed the northern hills into this new land, saw the pale, whitish coloured waters of the valley’s many rivers cutting through the foggy, pastel-green landscape, and compared it to the look of the decorations of their pottery. The people who live in the valley never really had a single, overarching name for the area, since its inhabitants make up a number of distinct tribes of people, so the name stuck (at least on a foreign level), and is usually what will appear on mans and such for the area.

The People of Haph believe that their leaders are the descendants of relationships between spirits and humans, and as a result not only does this represent their people being favored by the spirits themselves, but also that looking upon the face or form of their rulers is fatal to an ordinary human being. The Haph royal family always wears long gloves and veils as well as loose clothing whenever they appear in public, and the only people who are allowed to serve the royal family are those who were born blind, who are believed to have been chosen by the family’s spirit ancestors for the task.

Salmatta is a matriarchal society, and a democratic one (and also happens to be where Dante’s mother is from)

The Council of Loch is an entirely aquatic society, and all of their cities are built on large rafts that float on the many lakes and rivers of the region, and as such occasionally entire cities will just pick up and move to different places (the bane of cartographers everywhere, I’m sure). 

The people of Maricum value beauty over all else, and their vanity is practically legendary, and they will go to almost endless lengths to ensure that their land (and selves) remain unblemished. This isn’t always a bad thing though, since Their noble houses are required to house and keep anyone who can’t provide for themselves, and does lead to beautiful architecture and ornate clothing choices, as well as being probably the only land where cosmetics are routinely worn by almost everyone, almost all the time.

Dia is probably my favorite place, and maybe that’s because I’ve spent a lot more time developing it, but one of my favorite things is that one of their three dominant cultures subsists primarily on keeping an insect called honey moths, which are similar to honey bees, and live in enormous hives built withing caves and crags in rock. Their culture is so influenced by these hives that they themselves live in similar cave dwellings, said to have been inspired by the moths that they are so dependent on.