World-Building, general approach
I'm trying to pull off a top-to-bottom World Build approach, but races keep poking in!
Here is the effort thus far.
Annanor Geography/Economy
The north and middle-western regions are low regions, yet rigid for continental plates. The north-west, where the kingdom Ar’Sorai resides is slightly mountainous, yet have many even lands fit for agriculture.
Atarnor is also similar, save that the rivers that course through the land benefit it and give it greater fertility than Ar’Sorai soil, which draws some Ar’Sorai farmers to purchase lands. The roads between the two countries are safe, credit to both Hunters and human soldiers. Atarnor is one of the richest regions in Annanor, both for natural resources like mines of iron, gold, copper and trulivar, the only port between the west and east of Annanor, and for deals made between guilds of Atarnor and Ar’Soray, all of which enriches the two cultures.
Atarnor people have their economy based on both mining and selling ores and monitoring the roads, sometimes even offering traders protection and escorts along the way to their destinations through the dangerous land of Annanor. With the kingdom’s close kinship to the Ar’Sorai, some building guilds assist Atarnor guilds and teach them the arts of stone working and gem crafting. The fields of Atarnor are slightly mountainous and mostly flat, with the southwest delta and the eastern coast for grazing and farming crops like wheat, fruits and vegetables.
South Atarnor is a murky swamp forest land, the Gap, where lots of rivers run in the ocean-even level, where salt and sweet water mingle. There are some Atarnor outposts, where they assist traders freely of any price. Some Ar’Sorai travel the swamps alone, but only set off at 2 A.M. Most travels in the treacherous land filled with mystery and shadow is to reach Dardeep, the second human kingdom south-east the swamplands.
Dardeep has two outposts at the mountain gates, where most traders rest before heading out to the first major city or the Capital City. The region Dardeep is a high region, where the Gap ends and where the daring slopes rise to the kingdom. The flight is well-earned, for people of Dardeep appreciate metalworking and ores, something abundant in traders’ carts, in the Gap and is in the tenuous property of Atarnor. Dardeep is also a rich country, depending on the skill of its people in blacksmithing and tourism of their lands to earn profit. A recent trend adopted by the lord of Dardeep is manipulating electricity and generating it. Dardeep is lit by long metal wires that emit a powerful glow, bathing the cities in an eerie yet warm light.
The skill of Dardeep blacksmiths is legendary; although the lack of iron veins in the kingdom, mining and smithy guilds are skilled and renowned for that skill. It is safe to say that dealings with Atarnor provide the bulk of the money needed to sustain the country, thus Dardeep seeks to protect the road viciously from any outlaws and fearful creatures of the night. Although the mutual dependency, Atarnor and Dardeep have tenuous relations based on land and right for resources. Dardeep’s people are grateful for Hunters who keep their roads safe, but would rather let their own sons be the shield of their people. Hunters usually do not care less, and leave human outlaws under the suspicious eyes of Dardeep to seek immortal enemies which roam in the Gap.
The east half of Annanor is over the Silver Lagoon, named that after how the image of a full moon makes the far-off island glimmer like silver. There are two human kingdoms in the east, the Sea Kingdom and the High Kingdom.
The Sea Kingdom is based on seafaring, sailing, farming, and sea-resources like pearls, fish, sunken treasures and trading. The port cities are larger than Atarnor’s port cities, and only their strong ships and able sailors can traverse the Silver Lagoon, which storms frequently for low-pressure warm air (from the west) to high-pressured cold air (from the north and southeast). Atarnor’s port is fit for traveling to the Hoary Island, but no further. The Hoary Island is owned by the Sea Kingdom, and is a checkpoint to fairs between the east and the west. It contains two major trading cities and three port towns. The Hoary Island is not fertile, but well-conditioned nonetheless, despite the storms that rage between its western coast and Atarnor’s eastern port town. Many traders reside and manage their businesses there. Ar’Sorai culture is present near the sweet-water lake, and many live in the coast town.
Dialect : Bostonian
At the chilly north, the High Kingdom trades mostly in furs, meat and light cloth, their economy rising in winter and summer and running smoothly in other seasons. Sometimes they make profit in weaponry and training guilds, where some countries send their young soldiers to train under the High Kingdom’s expertise in battle. The most present breed of animals in the far north are wolves and bears, and the presence of those natural enemies hardened the northern people to battle and sharpened their natural cunning.
Another race…I have the Hajaari, the Ar’Sorai, Men, and Adorai. I was thinking of a Zora-type race, but it sounds…unpractical and too out-there, and it will ruin the ecology.
Dragons fit in perfectly with some logical twisting.
Dragons
Dragons are large, lizard-like creatures that are fairly intelligent, yet violent and impulsive. Carnivorous to many creatures, ranging from humanoids to sea creatures like sea pythons and whales.
Dragon Culture
Like most predator races, dragons live in solitary from their kin, and the meeting between two dragons can only occur for mating, settling a score or parenting. Dragons are known to sometimes speak Common, Soraiden and have strange dialects that are usually accompanied by a hiss or a click.
Dragons are known for their villainous deeds; decimating villages, stealing gold and hoarding it in their lairs, killing people and poisoning rivers with disease, and interfering in wars, often bombarding the side the dragon favors least, and rarely even demanding human sacrifices from villages, which is mostly actually done by mortals who revere them.
Such deeds set Men and Ar’Sorai bound by duty and honor to hunt down dragons in precaution. Most of the deeds are done by Hunters deployed after a village raid or one sent to retrieve a human sacrifice, which is kept by the kidnapping dragons for their amusement. The Hunters, however never seek out dragon blood, but let it combust on its own, not leaving until not a magical drop of blood remained.
Few benevolent dragons existed throughout time, most of which headed to mortal races with ominous warnings of impending doom, all of which have been heeded.
Dragon Magic
Dragons are magical creatures, ones whose magic are in their blood and runs where their blood does. Vials of dragon blood are very rare and used for powerful and often dark sorcery. Killing a dragon for their blood is a common notion, but very few adventurers return with a vial or two. Dragon blood burns when exposed to air, a thing many scholars were concerned of; if dragon blood burns, wouldn’t any healing for dragon scales prove perilous for clerics, and (maybe) to the dragon itself? The fears were groundless; dragons’ scales shift to where a dragon can be wounded, and cover the wound quickly, almost as if the creature is a crafted toy.
Dragons have a limited ability to shape-shift into a number of beings-only that of which who’s mass is around one sixth to one tenth their own mass.
“Strange things happen around dragons. Some are evil, some are pure, and they are always silent.”
Dragon Biology
Dragons grow up to ten feet high and seventeen meters long. Their wingspan is twice their length and is bat-like. Dragon scales are hard yet small, like scale mail. Dragons rarely breathe fire, but mostly spit acids and exhale toxins to destroy their foes. A dragon is immune to their own poisons and acids, but not to others. The most logical assumption is that dragon hide is the same material present in their stomachs to withstand the acids. Logically, the reason so strong acids are there is behind their diet, but most dragons do not feed on land creatures unless “They’re trying to prove a point,” the Ar’Sorai High Scholar says. “The focus of their diet is sea creatures, probably whale meat if whale meat was hard enough to digest, but another mammal comes to mind.”
The other mammal, which the High Scholar suspects is the main course of a dragon’s diet from birth to death, is the Dragonfish, ironically named after dragons for its scales. “Maybe the acids’ purpose is to dissolve the scales, and maybe it is to dissolve the flesh. Neither sorai nor man reported eating Dragonfish before, and they are too rare around the areas Men and Ar’Sorai normally fish. Light only knows.
“The curious thing in dragons is that their ears are poking out of their bodies, yet they lay eggs. While they share lizard-like qualities, we don’t really know if they are hot-blooded or cold-blooded-except if we take it literally,” the High Scholar finishes with a grin.
Common conception is that dragons are hot-blooded for their bodies to generate enough active energy to sustain long flights and their complex, and mysterious digestive habits.
Dragons and Art
The Ar’Sorai-Lords are grateful for catastrophes avoided for dragons’ warnings, but they are hardly trusted, even after a semi-successful attempt to forge an alliance with the mysterious beings. Dragons are more commonly admired (if not feared) in human cultures, where some craftsmen take their symbols as dragons.
Dragons are known for their love of riddles and poems, many adventurers or sacrifices caught by dragons are given a period of time to conjure a riddle or a poem in tribute. If the dragon enjoys it, the chances are that person will be given a share of the dragon’s gold and will be free to return from where they came.
Dragons in Politics
“Never trust a dragon…they’re more likely to see you as a disposable jester or a nuisance to be silenced,” Lord-Hunter Thoridal says. “They have a snaky tongue, and many a tale where a dragon disguised as a man roused a village against one another.”
“Before Highlord Assador rode out to the west, and even before he was born, Annanor’s fall is attributed not for a civil war, but for a dragon impersonating an advisor. What some historians deducted, is that the strength and daring of Annanor’s dragon hunters was too much of a threat than some dragons realized,” Lord-Scholar Joseph says. “Once Annanor tore itself apart and the Adorai swept the battered remnants of humanity, a golden dragon watched them from afar, and spoke in its snaky tongue a song,
‘Scurry, scurry, little rats, fly, fly, little bats,
‘Your house has fell, your death is knell,
‘Your flags are still, your women shrill,
‘You fell a lapse to lax, and turned the enemy your backs.’”
"Contrary to popular belief, dragons cannot disguise as men, sorai or any in between," Prince Arrious states. "The dragon performs something akin to Adorai or demonic possession to Men, and sometimes that goes beyond bodily functions to embolster the possessed one with enhanced powers, which risk his original tissue and life-science body functions to be put out of balance when the possession is over. In short, the possessed gains power, but loses his/her life. The applications of these powers come in tenious times...or rather, the applications cause tenious times."
The rest of the World Building will continue afterwards. Enjoy!
Here is the effort thus far.
Annanor Geography/Economy
The north and middle-western regions are low regions, yet rigid for continental plates. The north-west, where the kingdom Ar’Sorai resides is slightly mountainous, yet have many even lands fit for agriculture.
Atarnor is also similar, save that the rivers that course through the land benefit it and give it greater fertility than Ar’Sorai soil, which draws some Ar’Sorai farmers to purchase lands. The roads between the two countries are safe, credit to both Hunters and human soldiers. Atarnor is one of the richest regions in Annanor, both for natural resources like mines of iron, gold, copper and trulivar, the only port between the west and east of Annanor, and for deals made between guilds of Atarnor and Ar’Soray, all of which enriches the two cultures.
Atarnor people have their economy based on both mining and selling ores and monitoring the roads, sometimes even offering traders protection and escorts along the way to their destinations through the dangerous land of Annanor. With the kingdom’s close kinship to the Ar’Sorai, some building guilds assist Atarnor guilds and teach them the arts of stone working and gem crafting. The fields of Atarnor are slightly mountainous and mostly flat, with the southwest delta and the eastern coast for grazing and farming crops like wheat, fruits and vegetables.
South Atarnor is a murky swamp forest land, the Gap, where lots of rivers run in the ocean-even level, where salt and sweet water mingle. There are some Atarnor outposts, where they assist traders freely of any price. Some Ar’Sorai travel the swamps alone, but only set off at 2 A.M. Most travels in the treacherous land filled with mystery and shadow is to reach Dardeep, the second human kingdom south-east the swamplands.
Dardeep has two outposts at the mountain gates, where most traders rest before heading out to the first major city or the Capital City. The region Dardeep is a high region, where the Gap ends and where the daring slopes rise to the kingdom. The flight is well-earned, for people of Dardeep appreciate metalworking and ores, something abundant in traders’ carts, in the Gap and is in the tenuous property of Atarnor. Dardeep is also a rich country, depending on the skill of its people in blacksmithing and tourism of their lands to earn profit. A recent trend adopted by the lord of Dardeep is manipulating electricity and generating it. Dardeep is lit by long metal wires that emit a powerful glow, bathing the cities in an eerie yet warm light.
The skill of Dardeep blacksmiths is legendary; although the lack of iron veins in the kingdom, mining and smithy guilds are skilled and renowned for that skill. It is safe to say that dealings with Atarnor provide the bulk of the money needed to sustain the country, thus Dardeep seeks to protect the road viciously from any outlaws and fearful creatures of the night. Although the mutual dependency, Atarnor and Dardeep have tenuous relations based on land and right for resources. Dardeep’s people are grateful for Hunters who keep their roads safe, but would rather let their own sons be the shield of their people. Hunters usually do not care less, and leave human outlaws under the suspicious eyes of Dardeep to seek immortal enemies which roam in the Gap.
The east half of Annanor is over the Silver Lagoon, named that after how the image of a full moon makes the far-off island glimmer like silver. There are two human kingdoms in the east, the Sea Kingdom and the High Kingdom.
The Sea Kingdom is based on seafaring, sailing, farming, and sea-resources like pearls, fish, sunken treasures and trading. The port cities are larger than Atarnor’s port cities, and only their strong ships and able sailors can traverse the Silver Lagoon, which storms frequently for low-pressure warm air (from the west) to high-pressured cold air (from the north and southeast). Atarnor’s port is fit for traveling to the Hoary Island, but no further. The Hoary Island is owned by the Sea Kingdom, and is a checkpoint to fairs between the east and the west. It contains two major trading cities and three port towns. The Hoary Island is not fertile, but well-conditioned nonetheless, despite the storms that rage between its western coast and Atarnor’s eastern port town. Many traders reside and manage their businesses there. Ar’Sorai culture is present near the sweet-water lake, and many live in the coast town.
Dialect : Bostonian
At the chilly north, the High Kingdom trades mostly in furs, meat and light cloth, their economy rising in winter and summer and running smoothly in other seasons. Sometimes they make profit in weaponry and training guilds, where some countries send their young soldiers to train under the High Kingdom’s expertise in battle. The most present breed of animals in the far north are wolves and bears, and the presence of those natural enemies hardened the northern people to battle and sharpened their natural cunning.
Another race…I have the Hajaari, the Ar’Sorai, Men, and Adorai. I was thinking of a Zora-type race, but it sounds…unpractical and too out-there, and it will ruin the ecology.
Dragons fit in perfectly with some logical twisting.
Dragons
Dragons are large, lizard-like creatures that are fairly intelligent, yet violent and impulsive. Carnivorous to many creatures, ranging from humanoids to sea creatures like sea pythons and whales.
Dragon Culture
Like most predator races, dragons live in solitary from their kin, and the meeting between two dragons can only occur for mating, settling a score or parenting. Dragons are known to sometimes speak Common, Soraiden and have strange dialects that are usually accompanied by a hiss or a click.
Dragons are known for their villainous deeds; decimating villages, stealing gold and hoarding it in their lairs, killing people and poisoning rivers with disease, and interfering in wars, often bombarding the side the dragon favors least, and rarely even demanding human sacrifices from villages, which is mostly actually done by mortals who revere them.
Such deeds set Men and Ar’Sorai bound by duty and honor to hunt down dragons in precaution. Most of the deeds are done by Hunters deployed after a village raid or one sent to retrieve a human sacrifice, which is kept by the kidnapping dragons for their amusement. The Hunters, however never seek out dragon blood, but let it combust on its own, not leaving until not a magical drop of blood remained.
Few benevolent dragons existed throughout time, most of which headed to mortal races with ominous warnings of impending doom, all of which have been heeded.
Dragon Magic
Dragons are magical creatures, ones whose magic are in their blood and runs where their blood does. Vials of dragon blood are very rare and used for powerful and often dark sorcery. Killing a dragon for their blood is a common notion, but very few adventurers return with a vial or two. Dragon blood burns when exposed to air, a thing many scholars were concerned of; if dragon blood burns, wouldn’t any healing for dragon scales prove perilous for clerics, and (maybe) to the dragon itself? The fears were groundless; dragons’ scales shift to where a dragon can be wounded, and cover the wound quickly, almost as if the creature is a crafted toy.
Dragons have a limited ability to shape-shift into a number of beings-only that of which who’s mass is around one sixth to one tenth their own mass.
“Strange things happen around dragons. Some are evil, some are pure, and they are always silent.”
Dragon Biology
Dragons grow up to ten feet high and seventeen meters long. Their wingspan is twice their length and is bat-like. Dragon scales are hard yet small, like scale mail. Dragons rarely breathe fire, but mostly spit acids and exhale toxins to destroy their foes. A dragon is immune to their own poisons and acids, but not to others. The most logical assumption is that dragon hide is the same material present in their stomachs to withstand the acids. Logically, the reason so strong acids are there is behind their diet, but most dragons do not feed on land creatures unless “They’re trying to prove a point,” the Ar’Sorai High Scholar says. “The focus of their diet is sea creatures, probably whale meat if whale meat was hard enough to digest, but another mammal comes to mind.”
The other mammal, which the High Scholar suspects is the main course of a dragon’s diet from birth to death, is the Dragonfish, ironically named after dragons for its scales. “Maybe the acids’ purpose is to dissolve the scales, and maybe it is to dissolve the flesh. Neither sorai nor man reported eating Dragonfish before, and they are too rare around the areas Men and Ar’Sorai normally fish. Light only knows.
“The curious thing in dragons is that their ears are poking out of their bodies, yet they lay eggs. While they share lizard-like qualities, we don’t really know if they are hot-blooded or cold-blooded-except if we take it literally,” the High Scholar finishes with a grin.
Common conception is that dragons are hot-blooded for their bodies to generate enough active energy to sustain long flights and their complex, and mysterious digestive habits.
Dragons and Art
The Ar’Sorai-Lords are grateful for catastrophes avoided for dragons’ warnings, but they are hardly trusted, even after a semi-successful attempt to forge an alliance with the mysterious beings. Dragons are more commonly admired (if not feared) in human cultures, where some craftsmen take their symbols as dragons.
Dragons are known for their love of riddles and poems, many adventurers or sacrifices caught by dragons are given a period of time to conjure a riddle or a poem in tribute. If the dragon enjoys it, the chances are that person will be given a share of the dragon’s gold and will be free to return from where they came.
Dragons in Politics
“Never trust a dragon…they’re more likely to see you as a disposable jester or a nuisance to be silenced,” Lord-Hunter Thoridal says. “They have a snaky tongue, and many a tale where a dragon disguised as a man roused a village against one another.”
“Before Highlord Assador rode out to the west, and even before he was born, Annanor’s fall is attributed not for a civil war, but for a dragon impersonating an advisor. What some historians deducted, is that the strength and daring of Annanor’s dragon hunters was too much of a threat than some dragons realized,” Lord-Scholar Joseph says. “Once Annanor tore itself apart and the Adorai swept the battered remnants of humanity, a golden dragon watched them from afar, and spoke in its snaky tongue a song,
‘Scurry, scurry, little rats, fly, fly, little bats,
‘Your house has fell, your death is knell,
‘Your flags are still, your women shrill,
‘You fell a lapse to lax, and turned the enemy your backs.’”
"Contrary to popular belief, dragons cannot disguise as men, sorai or any in between," Prince Arrious states. "The dragon performs something akin to Adorai or demonic possession to Men, and sometimes that goes beyond bodily functions to embolster the possessed one with enhanced powers, which risk his original tissue and life-science body functions to be put out of balance when the possession is over. In short, the possessed gains power, but loses his/her life. The applications of these powers come in tenious times...or rather, the applications cause tenious times."
The rest of the World Building will continue afterwards. Enjoy!