Introduction to Melior
A dark fantasy worldbuilding project by TJ Trewin
Melior is a dark fantasy worldbuilding project created by TJ and acts as both a fun hobby and a creative showcase of his writing, design, CSS, image manipulation, and worldbuilding.Two continental superpowers wage an age-long war of science and magic, each seeking to prove that the other lives in chaos and blasphemy. Amidst the strife and disruption, mysterious black void-rifts have opened up into unknown realms - the world of Melior is about to get a taste of real chaos.
Rules of the Realm
In the world of Melior, Magic feels like energy: if your reserves are low it's a bit like feeling as if you're too tired to perform a spell or enchantment. This fatigue does not interrupt physical energy and tiredness, and a being will not feel more physically tired for being low on magic reserves. Maisha is the magial essence that is found in many fruits, fungi and vegetation throughout Melior. Consuming maisha-rich food restores magic energy. intelligent creatures may start to feel a magic hunger which will urge them towards consuming foods rich in Maisha.
Cosmology
No one truly knows how the world of Melior came to be, but The Originator's Order, the state religion of The Jolundrian Empire, believe that The Architect designed the world, and everything in it. Every living thing has a blueprint that has detailed plans of how their lives will unfold. There are a multitude of other cults and religions that the folks of Melior worship, but The Originator's Order has the largest following thanks to the support of The Empire.
Geography
The lands are adorned with cataclysmic scars of both natural and arcane disasters from a time before The Unknown Era. Historians believe that the world of Melior was once nearly torn apart by some horrifying event, and relics uncovered from the depths of these scars are unlike anything known to history so far. Nature has reclaimed many of the voids and healed the wounds of the majority of these fissures, filling them with diverse flora and fauna. In other regions however, predatory creatures and criminal organizations alike have turned these inhospitable landmarks into deep, dark settlements for their hideouts and dens.
Folks of the Land
There are many different folk that inhabit the world of Melior, but most commonly you'll encounter:- Humans - adaptive, yet very reactive folk
- Rakuwa - strong and sturdy tidal beings
- Manavaxians - heat loving lizardfolk
- Tarmagans - loyal yet shy birdfolk
- Quoks - tiny wholesome extroverts
Meta Information
This section contains lots of bonus information about the project itself, inspirations for the world, goals, motivations and more! Click a section below to expand it:
World Meta
Jump to quick navigation
World Inspirations
Click the left and right arrows to scroll through these images.
THERE ARE TOO MANY INSPIRING WORLDS TO LIST IN THIS ARTICLE!!
Jump to quick navigation
Melior Content Creation Roadmap
Motivations
I am building the world of Melior:- for fun / as a hobby
- as an exemplar showcase of what World Anvil can do
- as a showcase of my writing, design, artwork, and CSS skills
- as a project for me to continually improve upon these skills
Genre
Melior is a dark fantasy world. It combines fantasy elements with darker themes and aesthetics of horror, gloom and dread. There is a greater focus on the grim tones of the world such as monsters, nightmares, conflicts, disaster, and strife.
Scale
The scale of this worldbuilding project focuses on the world of Melior. Two major political factions are locked in a global war of science and magic. Player three enteres the game when portals to an unknown realm rip through the skies and let beasts of chaos roam the land. Other planar dimensions are referenced as well such as the realms of dieties, but the primary scope is on the world of Melior itself.
Mood
The world of Melior is a neutral dark setting. There is much chaos in the world, global warfare and the invasion of chaos beasts are the two major contributing factors to this mood. Times are hard. People don't trust each other. They just want to survive and keep their loved ones and posessions safe. Sinister opportunists see these challenges as ripe for personal gains and manipulation. The world view has dark clouds looming overhead, and they're about to break.
Themes
The themes and topics of Melior are not all dark in nature (but let's face it, most of them are). These include topics such as:- conflict, warfare, and strife
- cultural traditions, superstitions, and rituals
- chaotic beasts, haunting nightmares, and strange fiends
- treasures both cursed and kind, and their thieves
- food. look, sometimes I just get hungry & need to write about food okay
Conflicts
There is much conflict in the world of Melior, both at grand and local scales:- the global war between two superpowers: The Jolundrian Empire and The Melopian Commonwealth
- the invasion of chaotic beasts upon the world through arcane portals from another realm
- mysterious kidnappings, muders, and fraud
- and the daily struggle of finding a matching pair of socks
Aesthetic
I like to make collections on Unsplash of various CC0 images that I can use in my work: check them out here. I've sorted the collections into article template types to make it easy!Click the left and right arrows to scroll through these images.
Games
The lore and stories of other worlds deeply inspire Melior. From childhood favourites to modern classics, these are my top three inspirations for my dark fantasy world:Thief
Dishonored
Elder Scrolls
Music
I listen to a lot of music from varying genres while worldbuilding, but these are a few favourites for immersion in Melior:
Books
Every book I read gives me inspiration, but these three in particular have influenced my ideas for the world of Melior most:- The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
- The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
- D&D Explorer's Guide to Wildemount by Wizards RPG Team, Matthew Mercer
Artists
All of the artwork in the world of Melior is my own, but artists like these push my imagination further and inspire me to make better things. I am inspired by way too many artists to list here, but here are some favourites:World Anvil Inspiration
These worlds on World Anvil are my go-to source for inspiration when it comes to layout, design, CSS, and unique uses of the World Anvil features:THERE ARE TOO MANY INSPIRING WORLDS TO LIST IN THIS ARTICLE!!
Andrawyn
2020
- July - World Anvil's Summer Camp Challenge I'll be answering the worldbuilding prompts of this challenge and fleshing out the region of Anvil in Melior! Prepare for puns and inside jokes & references!
- August/September - tidy up, expand stubs, artwork Post Summer Camp clean-up, basically. Continuing the stubs that I made during the challenge.
- October - Inktober Challenge I'll be answering the Inktober prompts with snippets of lore in Melior. I'll post these on Twitter and flesh them out as full articles during WorldEmber.
- November - ideas generation & planning This is my month of brain-dumping. I will pick a region or two that I want to flesh out and get some ideas together.
- December - World Anvil's WorldEmber Challenge WORRRLDEMBERRRRRRR!!!! BUILD ALL THE THINGS! WRITE ALL THE STUFF! GET ALL THE BURNOUT!! -wait
How to explore the world
This website is an interactive wiki for the world of Melior and you can explore it in any direction you wish! There are many tools to help you navigate through the lore. Use the search bar to find an article, expand parts of the table of contents on the homepage, or check out the interactive maps like this embedded one that you will find in some articles (or there are ones to choose from on the homepage)!Articles will be linked like this: The Jolundrian Empire, and sometimes they will be shown as article blocks. I've tried to make the navigation in my world as easy as possible. If you have any suggestions for improvements, let me know in the comments section!
If you need to get back to the top of the page quickly, click the BACK TO TOP button near the bottom left of the screen!
Interactive & bonus content
The world of Melior is jam packed with interactive features and bonus content! To get started, create a free World Anvil account and log in - this will reveal the preferences section on the side of each article near the top of the page. Click here to jump back to the top or use the BACK TO TOP button near the bottom left of the screen. Once logged in, you can click to:- enable graphic content (you must be 18 years of age or older for this one) - view all of the bonus graphic content including uncensored language, gory images, adult topics, and sensitive topics that are otherwise hidden to normal viewers!
- reveal all spoilers and secrets - there are lots of hidden secrets in the world of Melior, but not everyone wants spoilers! If you're the curious type, enable this feature to reveal them!
Click to reveal this spoiler
This is a spoiler, the content is always hidden inside of a button like this!
This is what a secret in Melior looks like (this one is a pretend one though)! There will be hidden lore in here like a character's true thoughts, secret messages, or dark secrets...
If you want to see the bonus features in action, tick either of the options in the box to the side of this article (near the top of the page) for a demonstration below this message (you need to be logged in to your World Anvil account to see it).
The example content will display between these two lines once enabled:
Jump to quick navigation
Dark Mode & Light Mode
An example of dark mode and light mode themes in Melior by TJ Trewin
How to support Melior
The dark fantasy world of Melior is completely free to explore and enjoy! If you want some zero-cost ways to show your support for this project, here's some things that genuinely help!- Follow this world! - There's a button on the homepage, or at the bottom of this article
- Like articles that you enjoyed! - If you were inspired by one of my articles, share the love by clicking the like button
- Leave me a comment! - let me know what you think! I'm always open to feedback and love to know what you think of my world
- Share it with your friends! - got someone who loves this kind of stuff? need to inspire someone with how awesome World Anvil is? Send 'em here
- Come say hi! - my usual hangouts are on Discord (melior64#0128) and Twitter (melior64), gimme a ping!
- Link to my world! - if you want to put in an article block on YOUR world that links to this page, copy and paste this link into your article: [articleblock:c5f2abb0-75e3-4c8b-9672-ea6ae0218eeb]
Credit & Disclaimers
All artwork, styling, and content is copyright © TJ Trewin (@melior64),unless otherwise specified. If you wish to feature or showcase my content in a blog post, video, or stream, please contact me! I'd love to give it an extra boost from my own social media! Please make sure to read these Terms of Use carefully before continuing to use the site.
Quick Navigation
Contents:- Meta Information
- How To Explore The World
- Interactive & Bonus Content
- Dark & Light Mode
- How To Support Melior
- Credit & Disclaimers
About the author
TJ Trewin Alias:
@melior64 Pronouns:
he / him / his Location:
Weston-Super-Mare, United Kingdom Skills:
procrastination, graphic design, CSS, image manipulation, worldbuilding Likes:
WORLDEMBER!!!, tattoos, Lego, shiny treasures, playing Elder Scrolls, being himself, making silly faces and also silly noises Dislikes:
Over-milked watery tea that's the colour of your nan's beige carpet, wasting a really good strong cup of tea that you've accidentally let go cold because you were so into worldbuilding you forgot to drink it in time
Random thought here, would science land go about destroying Maisha-rich plantations in order to keep their enemies' supplies low? Love the animated title card. just when you think it's not moving anymore, it does another beat like the heart of some sleeping ancient evil. It strikes me that the evil void portals opening around the world would be not quite magical, and not quite scientific, but somewhere in-between like a lovecraftian monster.
TJ Trewin
Great point about targeting farms & plantations in the war conflicts, especially for more valuable exports! Thanks for your feedback :D