Blinding Veil
1/1/215 2E
Scope
The motivation behind building Blinding Veil
Blinding Veil has been a passion project brewing in my head for almost five years. It wasn't until I discovered World Anvil that I found an outlet to flesh out and show off what I've been brainstorming in my head. The world and everything in it have been my practicing grounds for writing in the past, though now I want to expand upon it even more.
I purpose and motivation for Blinding Veil on World Anvil is to build out a wide and expansive universe that can play host to whatever stories I wish to tell.
The goal of the project
I hope to make Blinding Veil a place to tell many different stories. From short stories, novels, and maybe even beyond. At some point in the near future, I want to start writing short stories here on World Anvil.
Blinding Veil's Unique Selling point
My first rule when world-building for Blinding Veil is to create a world that feels as if it exists outside of what I, as a writer, create. I sometimes use an unreliable narrator when discussing parts of the world and omitting information for two reasons. The first reason is to make the world feel like there is more than what is written. The second is to create a feeling that the articles I write are a culmination of knowledge from in-universe experts, though even their knowledge of the world is incomplete. I wanted to go with this route as, like in real life, the world's denizens don't know everything about it. I felt like just dumping all the information about the world would feel generic and less grounded.
My second and arguably main rule is to create something fantastical but grounded. Nothing just happens, there is always a reason that is as realistic as possible or has a strong explanation within the world's metaphysics. I try to do this is by involving magic more minimally in many parts of the world to keep things like cultures and history feeling a little more realistic. One thing I occasionally try and want to do more is to incorporate more scientific ideas into my world-building in addition to fantasy elements to help with that feeling. Another part of this is avoiding things that I feel go against this rule, like "light/darkness" stuff that so often shows up in fantasy or impractical designs with no rhyme or reason for its existence (that might need more explanation, but that would take quite a while to do).
Theme
Genre
Nostrina is a medieval-era fantasy world. Any colonial-era or industrial revolution-era technology like guns or industrial machinery wouldn't mesh well in Nostrina, though I occasionally draw from designs and artwork from those eras. The same goes for things like airships and the like since they're cheesy and weird looking to me.
Reader Experience
Nostrina can be a terrifying and horrible place sometimes, but other times it's a wondrous place filled with things waiting to be discovered. It is like real life in some ways as it's what you make of it. Having the world have the same feel all around would make it feel stale after a while.
Reader Tone
Nostrina sits between being dark and in the middle when it comes to the tone of the story. However, in terms of visual look, it's more on the brighter/neutral side. My rule with the visual design is that despite the often grim stories, Nostrina shouldn't ever look desaturated and depressing; real life sucks but still many beautiful places in that.
Character Agency
Much like real life, one can person can make a difference to the world. It all depends on the goals and aspirations of the characters living in the world and what is happening around them.