#santiryn worldbuilding/novel

[lilithvibeplace]

finally putting the finishing touches onto my first complete draft of my worldbuilding religion document, and it's become abundantly clear to me that i've just synthesized the Roman Pantheon and the Catholic Church, oops

[lilithvibeplace]

@illuminaughti-online TO ELABORATE ON ROMANA GOES NUCLEAR

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firstly here's the premise and characters list so far

this is a very barebones primer and such because i usually use plot-beat notes prior to writing my short stories (fuck you grrm and ur flowering bullshit i dont wanna take 15+ years to write a novel) but ESSSSSSSSENTIALLY

Romana goes nuclear or, how Romana started a 500~ (400 actually i think since i changed the years around) year long conspiracy is a short story set within my worldbuilding world of Santiryn which is all about the First Magi and the creation of her little cult & the formation of the Magi as a military and cultural order.

It's anticipated to be a short story no longer then maybe 10-15k words, just detailing the expedition of Romana into the Tendrils Mountains. However, at the climax of this lovely little short story, Romana, being the first Magi of course doesn't realize her own potential or what exactly it means to be a Magi besides "do cool magic shit" and in a rather heroic moment in the war against the ruling Kerelia, she accidentally harnesses a bit too much magical energy and during a duel against the King of Kerelia, fucking explodes similar to a nuclear bomb, wiping out 1/5th of the continent's landmass.

i'm hoping it'll be a banger short story and its one im actually writing atm which means it might actually get done someday in the future!

[lilithvibeplace]

so glad autumn is back because im writing for realsies again but also as an aside i made a deeply stupid oc meme while waiting some stuff for nox

this is funny to: only me and by GOD i will reblog this in 10 years when i finish writing this fucking book and its gonna be the FUNNIEST shit on this FUCKING WEBSITE

[lilithvibeplace]

HI. I FORGORT HOW TO SPELL IT IMMEDIATELY. AZ CAN WE HEAR MORE ABOUT AZ

YES HI SORRY IVE BEEN DEAD THE PAST EONS BUT I YET LIVE AND YET MAY STILL AZ INFODUMP

Azazel is a special lil enby they're delightful and lovely. And by that i mean of course WAR CRIMINAL 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

line break time since Az, like Nox, has much to be discussed

alrighty gang so starting at the start, Azazel is a little introverted lil enby who's particularly adept with some less well regarded magic, in particular necromancy and other fun things! they were thrown to Nox early on before the Watchers formed as a squire and pseudo-apprentice. technically they were under the apprenticeship of the same dude as Nox (Andros - Hey slij i know you'll read this im so sorry this was a genuine accident but i did name him the same as one of ur dnd characters in our campaigns im SO sorry) but in reality Nox was the one teaching them.

Anywho, Az had a bit of jealousy originating with Dusana's relationship with Nox, who as you may recall had a kind of pseudo-parental figure thing going on. This is because Az also is very depressed and lonely and found comfort in Nox and felt like Dusana was stealing her time when Dusana totally couldve just been going to Alice instead. Lots of stupid melodrama that the rest of the group is aware is stupid melodrama. But once Alice returns from Erelia with a dead Dusana and a missing Nox, Az goes wild.

They first threaten Alice demanding to know where the ever living hell Nox is. This goes badly and Az is forced to spend the night on a solo mission to spend some time away from the group. When they return, they attempt Necromancy to revive Dusana as a way to seek forgiveness from Alice. This goes worse.

Alice arrests Az for using illegal magic and is preparing plans to send them back to the Magi Council for trial. Maverick, being the icon he is (and the closest thing to a friend Az had, real opposites attract type friendship), helped Az escape and thus begins the Many Trials of Azazel, as they escape but are on the run knowing that news will spread relatively quickly of their actions.

Trial One: Azazel takes a trip to the Cursed Lands!

The Cursed Lands (name change pending) is a little section of the continent (abt 1/4 of the landmass) that is still lightly radioactive due to that time Romana went nuclear and destroyed a large part of the continent in the Erelian War for Independence. Here Azazel goes to hide out for a few months hoping to wait out the inevitable head hunt that will occur for them. And here as well, they learn more about a certain celestial, Passentha who was one that Nox worshipped and also one that was very illegal to worship. Yet her cult exists here in what is effectively a no mans land.

Trial Two: Azazel Goes to Windsbane and Steals A Sword!

Next up, Azazel after learning more from the Ashen Chrysanthemum (the cult of Passentha) and in particular the skill to alter their appearance, they head north to Windsbane, an Empire currently ran by an authoritarian and expansionist Emperor, hoping to forge a great Northern Empire to ensure no southern nation could ever conquer them again. (they are considered a rogue empire by most nations and a large coalition is forming against them, REGARDLESS) While in Windsbane, Az learns a neat thing or two about the celestials, in particular, how to kill one! and they need a certain sword, aptly named Godkiller (previously known as Wintersbane) which is a relic owned by House Zima, the dynasty in control of Windsbane.

After doing some assassinations and quite the solo heist, they pull it off and gain Godkiller! Woooo! Congrats to our little demon! In this trial they learnt how to manipulate and take advantage of people and that people are, at the end of the day, disposable! They also cause a civil war here but thats another story for another time. They also learn that Nox is supposedly dead.

Trial Three: Az Fights a God (fails)

After Windsbane, Azazel heads south! with only a horse and Godkiller on them, they come across the Knights of the Endless Night, a cult of Neternia that began taking advantage of the chaos of the wartorn north, and had gotten into raiding local towns and churches after the Church of Santiryn had their big split and the godly civil war restarted. Again, tale for another time. Anywho! Azazel tries fighting off these rogue brigands but of course because they never were trained with a sword, regardless of how incredibly powerful the sword may be, they quickly fall in battle and are kidnapped as part of a ritual to summon an Avatar of Neternia.

While they do manage to escape this ritual and secure Godkiller, they come across the summoned avatar of Neternia who, despite being very weak due to the ritual only partially succeeding, still kicks their ass but Az using tricks learnt from the Ashen Chrysanthemum escapes still.

Trial Four: Az Becomes a Double Agent

Az reaches Erelia right as Nox began her plans to take control of the city and restore the Erelian Empire (it's a long story.), and joins up with the Ashen Chrysanthemum formally, hilarious not knowing that Nox is the newest leader of theirs.

During this, Az also meets up with Maverick and after some convincing, rejoins the Watchers and Alice forgives Az for their many, many crimes against the Magi Council since they all now have a much bigger issue, the upcoming Erelian Coronation!

So this is where stuff gets a bit messy. The Erelian Coronation is where Nox coups the coalition-installed government of Erelia and revives the Erelian Empire, and there are three simultaneous conspiracies going on here.

Conspiracy One: The global leaders invited to the Coronation are all planning in secret a plot to assassinate Nox by any means necessary even if it means most of them dying because its only been a 100 years or so since Erelia fell and they all agree we can never live under such circumstances again.

Conspiracy Two: The Magi Council alongside the Watchers are also plotting to assassinate Nox (only Alice is aware Nox is the target though), not for any geopolitical reason just because they are all very aware of how dangerous and powerful Nox is.

Conspiracy Three: The Ashen Chrysanthemum, under the orders of Nox, are plotting to kill everyone at the coronation in an attempt to summon Passentha and meld their plane of reality with hers as a final push to let the Pestanae Pantheon win the Celestial Civil War (there's a lot of proper nouns here im so sorry).

Az is aware of conspiracies two and three, and becoming the deeply brooding pessimistic asshole that they are, will align with conspiracy three! So come time for the Coronation and when the cult, Watchers, and nobility all begin massacreing each other, Az is right in the middle and gets proper site of exactly who they've been following this whole time and realize it's Nox! This causes them to fucking lose it (again) and leaving the coronation ceremony through one of the cults many secret exits, goes on a brief massacre in town to cope with the fact Nox has been alive this whole time and never once reached out to say hi.

Alice presumes Az is dead, Nox and Az meetup and have their reunion (both covered in blood, vastly worse people then they were years ago when they last saw each other), and join up with Az becoming the Court Magi for the Erelian Court, and Nox's closest confidant. And of course, leader of the newly reformed Erelian Magi Corps.

As Head of the Erelian Magi Corps they do such fun things such as:

Using magic to completely and permanently alter the terrain of the world in a twisted corrupted nature in order to bond the land more with Passentha’s ideal of the world

Using necromancy to raise troops that had just fallen in battle, effectively creating an endless cycle of troops in the middle of a battle completely ruining an opposing army’s ability to fight

Nuclear suicide bombers (think modern day dirty bombs)

consistently creates plagues to infect people in advance to an invasion

Of course, they were also tasked with handling the war on the Church of Santiryn while Nox focused on the actual war going on. This Does Not Go Well.

basically any of the Septanae that can spare time or power are sending influence or outright appearing as avatars to fight against Az’s Magi Corps and its very fucking frustrating to them, to the point that in a moment that i’m not sure i’ll keep because it is an incredibly dark turn even for my already incredibly dark turn plot arc, az forces a magi to replicate Romana’s great sacrifice, and effectively forces a magi to become a nuclear suicide bomb detonated smack dab in the middle of the Celestial Cathedral. obviously a random magi who’s not entirely willing to do an action does not have the same power as Romana’s sacrifice, and they knew this! which is why they were fine doing it in the middle of the city of Erelia. It did infact obliterate the cathedral though! and several city blocks! and leaves them with like Chernobyl level radiation. It's a completely fucked situation.

I don't particularly have their ending thought out yet, but the gist is that they'll be killed by Maverick around the same time Alice is killed by Nox. Because i'm a fucking sucker for "friends turned to tragic enemies due to an ideological divide" and Az' death is a necessary action to help end the war.

But yeah! that's Azazel! lil trauma enby who is absolutely fucking going through it :)

[lilithvibeplace]

i actually want to know about your worldbuilding stuff from your wip post, just pick a topic i'm intrigued

oh you sweet summer child of mine I don't know where to begin

wait yes i do

Erelia! The lynchpin nation of my worldbuilding project of Santiryn. Erelia is my not!Rome insert and is currently the subject of my largest planned document (currently though its quite smol). Erelia started out as this cute little duchy as part of the larger Kingdom of Kerelia, but due to their natural borders and exhaustive culture, they quickly outpaced the Kerelians and overthrew their liegelords, forming the Kingdom of Erelia.

This short lived Kingdom Era paved the way to Erelia conquering most of its immediate neighbours and founding the Magi Academy, a school for teaching people magic! and weaponizing it! for incredibly ruthless conquests!

Eventually a king comes around called Alaxdri who did some really cool stuff like reform the government, start a parliament, enslave a few races, and massively got into astrology. he actually rose up to become a celestial too! (the gods)

however like all good not!Rome's, this empire eventually does crumble from within due to massive governmental decadence combined with outside raiders from the one island they never conquered combined with an internal power struggle combined with a Magi Conspiracy to overthrow the government combined with half the provinces rising up in Reckem's Coalition of Independence!

Essentially, the empire paved the way for how the modern geopolitical situation in my worldbuilding is, literally everything is the fault of the Erelian Empire in some way shape or form, and its only been a good 100 years since the Empire fell to Reckem's Coalition, and while a permanent coalition peacekeeping force resides in the now city-state of Erelia, there is a brewing irredentism faction that feels deeply betrayed by various organizations and regularly commit terrorist attacks against their holdouts within Erelia and abroad when they rarely can manage it

and this neat little nation is actually a core plot point of the novel(la) im writing as well, as the intrique and diplomatic subplots revolve largely around Erelia and the old Imperial dynasties that fell into exile after the war ended, I'm really really excited to continue working on the Erelia document and that's why this is so brief of an overview for what is essentially the most important nation in history, because I only really have the early and end history figured out for them, that whole middle stage is a big ol question mark with some brief notes!

[lilithvibeplace]

is it concerning that i haven’t been able to write since like September but then i was talking to a bestie and realized i really wanna write a death scene and then managed to write 4.7k words for my novel in three hours exclusively so i could kill off one of my characters?

like should i be concerned that THAT is what got me back into writing after a 5 month session of writers block/depression from personal stuff making me not write

top trick to make me write: remind me i can traumatize my readers <3 💜

[lilithvibeplace]

i have good news anon this is no longer true as well :) i’ve been working on my horror’s anthology oc setting (specifically the haunted beach/lighthouse sub-setting) and some worldbuilding short stories are being worked on (plot synopsis’ and thinking of adding horror elements)!!!!!

have you done any cool writing lately

i fucking WISH but no :( i have been busy with court stuff alongside family issues meaning a lot of my writing concepts are living solely in my head :( i do however intend on doing some of my horror anthology short stories over the summer! assuming i can get the rest of my life settled lmfao