Arrunal is the world and setting for my personal fiction. I have shared portions of my stories in the past but I've never put out my world's setting. I kept my notes together fairly well organized in the past, but without any peer review, it was largely in the format of stream-of-thought documents. Now it will slowly be put out there for everyone to see.
Key Features of Arrunal
By virtue of ease, Arrunal is very Earth-like setting. I toyed with the ideas of tweaking the size or density of the planet, throwing extra moons in orbit or other variations seen across fantasy and sci-fi, but wanted to represent anything I did more realistically. I quickly became overwhelmed by how even a small change has dramatic outcomes on a system as complex as a planet. Many liberties have still been taken, but I enjoy focusing on keeping it realistic.
Technology
Contemporary technology exists in the world. While I may often describe most of this technology for its real-life equivalents, much of it will not work exactly like our own. Since magic exists in this world, as a force of the universe, it's harnessed and used with technology like any other force in our world. A great example is on the main page, where the character turns on the television with a flick of his hand. The television is built with a tuner that can read incoming arcane energy, identify the user, and react, just as it does with a remote. Readers don't need to understand the intricate details to appreciate it, as long as the rules are consistent.
Machinery and electronics typically take priority over magical objects because they are easier to use, require less power, and generally aren't as dangerous. Even in modern contemporary war, you are more likely to see mobilized artillery and bomber squadrons than a squad of mages. It takes months to a few years to train a pilot, it can take decades to train a mage capable of creating an effective and predictable explosion.
Magic
I don't consider my setting high-magic, I don't have mages that change the course of history with powerful spells, but it's not appropriately low-magic either, as magic really is everywhere and anyone can use it. The important distinction is that, while it exists everywhere, and everyone can utilize it, for most, it's just not worth it. It takes years of practice to cast specific spells, and years of conditioning to be able to do it efficiently. In a sense, it's a lot like sports in our modern world. Anyone can play Basketball, but only a few people ever develop well enough to compete nationally, and even then, they have to continually train remain competitive.
Fantasy Races
Like most fantasy, I include other races in this world. I have incorporated a few typical fantasy races, such as
elves, and created my own unique ones, such as the
Ger'Kvay. I've been careful in my attempt to predict how early races would interact. When looking at our own history, it's hard to imagine any other races surviving genocide, but I've tried to create plausible reasons why the world didn't eradicate all but one.
Main Focus
When updating and adding to the world, I will be focused most heavily on a few key areas. Most of this will be centralized on settings important for my main novel, or areas important to the backstories of characters. I do have other areas of the world, no area is completely empty, but will be adding to them much more sporadically.
Geographic Setting
Mhyrian Saga, as of now, has taken place almost exclusively in
Balor, but will quite likely include other areas of the world later in the saga as the problems progress. Many of the characters are not from Balor however, so I will working on their homelands to get a better grasp of their characters. Not only will I be including general information, but will include biographies from their homelands as well.
Races and Ethnicities
In the main series, there are four races that are present in a very large way in the book, and I wish to capture this accurately. While cultural differences will be a large aspect of how each person interacts, different races will be forced to interact differently based on their biology. It's cute to think of a giant and halfling shaking hands, but really...would they if they were real? Seems potentially dangerous for the halfling given the strength difference.
The Arcane
The magic of my world is largely rooted in quantum physics by design, but it's not purely a mathematical system. Since there are rules, I need to make sure they make sense, and when using a system related to quantum physics, that's proved to be difficult. I have the rough idea in my mind, and know fully well on a gut level what can and cannot happen in the world, but getting the "why" on paper has proven harder than I expected. Not relevant for the stories as long I keep consistency, but something I wish to tackle for my own sanity.
My Hopes Here
A large reason I've decided to push from my private notes to a public forum on here is for the community feedback. While I don't expect to see much traffic without self-promotion, I hope that a few individuals will become interested enough to engage in genuine, polite, critiquing.
I plan, once I get more established, to return in kind. I will ask questions and probe the authors for details, and hopefully we can all see our worlds grow the better for it. Anyone interested in exchanging critiques can feel free to message me or leave friendly but thoughtful comments.
Wait! Before you go...where are the pictures?
Compared to many worlds on here, I have few pictures. I will try to get more up here. I don't feel great about grabbing pictures from around the web, even if they are free to use, and my own artistic skills haven't really matured past elementary. Surprisingly, I make my own maps, but honestly, I'm pretty terrible at it and tend to create simple work. If a sudden boom of traffic were to appear, I may be inclined to invest in more pictures, but that is an issue for the future.
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