forum Tani - Character Feedback Wanted (please? :)

Started July 24, 2018 by @Riorlyne pets

tune

Cool, no worries!

Eastern Africa!

Yay! I find it fun to think we may possibly simultaneously have been on the same continent. :D

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In answer to the religion questions (hopefully covering all of them):

Nossi’s mythology (for lack of a better term - lore, maybe?) is analogous to the Christian one in as many key points as possible. I’m still fleshing out what exactly that means for each event/being, but that’s the direction I’m going in. The biggest factors that make a difference are the magic system and the greater concreteness of the events and beings (for example, while unmade ethereals are like demons, they’re quite visible and tangible when they’re around). So if you’re wondering if something’s a version of some Christian thing, the answer is most likely yes, but I’m still working on the execution of it.

Calar is Nossi's analogue of Lucifer/Satan. He was originally one of fourteen envoys under Berad, created to be a guardian of the world Berad was making, but he rebelled (wanted the world to be to his glory, not Berad's) and, persuading six of the other envoys and a large portion of ethereals to join him, tried to overthrow Berad. He was not successful. He despises Berad's work and stands for pretty much everything Berad doesn't: conflict, chaos, destruction, deceit, etc.

As for the Mending (that may or may not be its final name): yep, it’s a redemption analogy. At the first Rift, the eldest of the Firstmade was the first one to reject Berad - the others agreed with him but soon after killed him. (Side note: After the Rifts, people were limited to the Thread of magic they were born with instead of being able to learn all Threads. The eldest of the Firstmade would have been left with light magic.) Humanity's rejection of Berad broke their connection to him and brought the consequence of death - literally in that they murdered one of their own, and figuratively in that, like a flower picked from a bush, they were broken off from the source of life and would slowly die.

This bit I'm still working on, but due to humanity's flawed state, Berad's very presence would probably kill them, so the envoys were the ones with whom people had more direct contact. The envoys' roles were supposed to be more background-type (look after weather, align the stars, etc.) but they needed to come into the foreground to deliver Berad's messages to humans. That all goes for Berad's envoys. On the other side of the coin, the Six went around causing conflict and drama wherever they went.

Berad didn't want people broken off from him eternally, so he had a plan to deal with the consequences of the Rift. At roughly the midpoint in Nossi's timeline, Berad came to Nossi as a human, indistinguishable from the other folks. As a parallel with the eldest of the Firstmade, his Thread was also light magic. He was killed by Calar and people who disagreed with him, and his death mended the Rift (hence the name "Mending" for now). But due to his flawless state, death had to 'work backwards' (to borrow a phrase from Aslan) and he was restored to life.

His execution included being struck across the eyes, blinding him in one of them, symbolic of his power being taken from him. He keeps the one-eyed form as a visible reminder of the punishment he bore and the fact that the Rift is mended. It doesn't alter his ability or power in any way, though. People can now be near him and not die, so the envoys can stick to their original roles.

Reasons for allowing people to worship them differs between Berad's envoys and Calar's. Berad's envoys stick with their boss's wish that people be allowed to make their own choices, so they don't stop humans from worshipping whomever they choose. Calar's envoys like to stand in for whichever deities a religion has, but particularly the darker side of those and therefore encourage folks to worship those deities. To them, anything that draws attention away from Berad is a good thing.

If someone prayed to Lili for health and fair weather, Gwennedir (as guardian of weather) would work with the weather according to Berad's wishes.

The envoys don't have a sex or gender, per se, but their names and pronouns are gendered. So Gwennedir, having a feminine name, would be referred to as 'she'.

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And now on to ethereals!

For Marisel, I was thinking a sort of constant companion that's around when she's alone. She's an only child, and possibly grew up quite lonely due to her father's secret sneakiness with the whole employing-users-of-magic business. Added to which, her mother is frail and sickly and Marisel would have spent a lot of time being there for her. The ethereal would have come as a comfort/friend, and because her situation has not changed all that much as she grew up it might still be around during the events of the story (although possibly not as often as Marisel does make good friends with the other characters and might not need the ethereal's comfort as much). She would know it's there and be good friends with it, but she might not know what exactly it is or why it is there. I will probably have the folklore (and even religious lore) surrounding ethereals be slightly different from the actual lore.

(Suddenly I really want to see someone draw that) Would the other ethereals, being connected to other Threads, have looks that correspond with their respective Threads or would they all be fiery?

I tried to draw it but nope. Terrible. Evidence. Gonna stick with my imagination because my skill at animals and fire both suck.

So I was thinking about this quite a lot yesterday and got really excited and if you don't mind I'll stick a link here to my creature page on different Threads of ethereals because why not. They do have looks and behaviour that correspond with their threads. :) They also have a common animal lookalike as well, although there are (for example) fire ethereals that look bear-ish or mouse-ish. Marisel's ethereal (if I give her one - though the more I think about it the more I want to) would be an 'animal' ethereal (due to her need for companionship) and probably look a lot like a marten.

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Don't worry, this has definitely not been brainless for me! :) I find it quite beneficial, and as long as you think so too I'm happy to share these bits of worldbuilding (I would hate to bore you). There's something quite motivating about knowing that at least one person will care about all these bits and pieces.

I'll look at antagonists and culture things in a later instalment. :P