Worldbuilding Meta

Waterfall by AndreasRocha

Greetings traveller! The world of Elladia awaits you! This is my very first project outside the science fantasy world of Ad Infinitum and my first truly fantasy project ( despite it having genetic engineering, planet sized manticores and the main characters sometimes travelling to other planets using magic portals over the course of the series). I think that this project is honestly, a testament of my improved worldbuilding skills. The articles are on average in my opinion, better in elladia than in ad infinitum due to me gaining many worldbuilding skills such as in depth writing, formatting and what not before starting this world
The world and the stories inside it are particularly shaped by the experience i have of belonging to a family with military roots and also belonging to a place that has quite an interesting history. Hearing stories of war and battles, as well as reading about them in history books and fantasy as well as sci fi ones always attracted me. The world of Elladia reflects this in the militaristic themes of the major geopolitical players, as well as how the wars between them personally affect them. But first, i think i should introduce the world itself

The Setting

The stories are largely set on the eponymous planet Elladia. Being somewhat larger than the gas giant Uranus, Elladia is a rocky planet which is positioned as the fourth planet from its parent star. However, many other places are visited by the characters such as the moons of Elladia, other planets in the solar system, magical planes and demonic realms etc

The Planet

Keplers discovery by https://www.deviantart.com/chromattix

Elladia is not the only place in the vast universe where the main characters will visit but it is indeed, the homeworld of most of them. Ranging from the emperors of the Human and Argonite empires, merfolk kings and archmages to the lowest class of citizens and factory workers, Elladia is home to most ( and all the known) species of sapient beings. Despite this, there are alien things on Elladia, such as the cryptic race of the ancients who went extinct ten millenia ago and the various creatures around and in Lake Ithurius, which was formed when a smaller planet crashed into Elladia.
Elladia is the fourth planet from the star Rilvaran. However, due to Rilvaran being brighter, bigger and hotter than our own star, as well as Elladia being larger and having a slightly thicker atmosphere, the climate is earthlike with a few notable differences such as much more ice caps and ice sheets due to there being not one but two polar continents as well as many mountain ranges covered in snow and ice throughout the entire year. Besides these, Elladia has many other landscapes ranging from volcanic wastelands to lush magical valleys formed by the rifting of the land by magical leylines. These are just some of the few breathtaking places that are found on Elladia, and much more awaits the eager traveller willing to brave them

The Moons of Elladia

Jil"Kandral, the rocky moon by Andead

Elladia has four moons, each orbiting it at various distances ranging from half of that between the Earth and moon to over three times that. The moons are in order of size and climate as well as other features:

1. Lasintara- The largest of Elladia's moons, Lasintara is thought to be a planet that was captured by Elladia at some point in its life. Evidence for this lies in the fact that not only does Lasintara have a retrograde orbit, it also has its own moon which has mysteriously managed to stably orbit it despite the gravitational influence of Elladia and its other moons. The climate of the planet resembles a cooler version of Elladia, with rich perennial rivers flowing across the moon and dense woodlands of alien vegetation covering much of its surface. Despite it being the largest, it does not look as impressive as Jil"kandral, which whilst being the smallest moon is also the closest to Elladia


2. Velkronia- In size, Velkronia is very slightly smaller than Venus, but in contrast to the planet, Velkronia is much more colder. Most of its surface is covered by giant sheets of ice with a thick cover of snow. Only around the equators and in some oases farther north and southwards can one find liquid water and vegetation. Due to its thin atmosphere, the planet is riddled with craters, some of which form lakes in the moons equatorial regions. From the surface of Elladia, Velkronia looks like a gaint snowball peppered with meteorites, and is a beautiful sight to look at during full moon nights, which gives the moon the nickname of "The White Maiden"


3. Jernael- Jernael appears deceiving to the untrained eye. Though the moon looks lush, green and verdant, the atmosphere is incredibly poisonous and somewhat corrosive too for humans and argonites. The moon is filled with strange and incredibly deadly alien flora and fauna, who always violently compete with each other to become the apex predator. The landscapes on the moon are also diverse, having everything from thick jungles and swampy deltas to volcanoes where giant lava serpents make their home


4. Jil"Kandral- The smallest but not at all the least majestic of the moons, Jil"Kandral orbits rather close to the planets surface. Its orbit lies at 200,000 kilometres on average but can sometimes get as close as 150,000 kilometres and as far as 250,000 kilometres. The moon is much more geologically active than its brethren and is perhaps the youngest moon of Elladia. From the surface of the planet, the moon looks largely reddish due to the iron oxide in the planets crust as well as the large volcanic regions. There are however bands of green and a few other colours, which are vegetation as well as blue areas, the very first water bodies on the planet due to it cooling down.
   Due to its proximity, it has been rather well studied and many myths are attached to it. For example, it is believed among many humans that whenever there are earthquakes, it is actually Jil"Kandral and Elladia shaking hands, which sends ripples of force across both of them. It has symbolized war and fire as well as violence in nearly every culture of the sapient races and has prominently featured as the god of war in many pieces of art



The Solar system


The Rilvaran Nebula by Cosmicspark
The Rilvaran system consists of a single F type star in the mid stages of its life, alongside 12 other planets and a few planetary bodies. Amongst these planets, six are gas giants and the other six are rocky planets. Elladia lies fourth from Rilvaran, orbiting it at an average distance of 2 AU. It is also the largest rocky planet in the system, other than Elderath which is the fifth planet from the star. There is also an asteroid belt between Elderath and Virinus, a gas giant planet. This belt is thought to be the remnants of a planet that was torn apart by the combined forces of Elderath and Virinus
In terms of habitability, only one planet other than Elladia in the system is suitable for large scale colonization and habitation without any assistance by the sapient species of Elladia, and that is Elderath. It is supposed that the ancients, a cryptic race of aliens were from that planet and had originally engineered the sapient species of Elladia. This remains to be proven however, and is still a significant source of debate amongst the savants of the sapient races


Planar Realms and Dimensions


The Arcane Realm by Tamarar
Asides from the material places, there are many other strange ones such as magical realms, planar dimensions and demonic realms too. These exist outside of the material world in their own bubble and can only be accessed either through a spell or a "gateway" of sorts. These places are inhabited by strange extradimensional entities, some of whom bend the very laws of physics and reality. Some are hostile, while others are benevolent protectors of the sapient races of the planet. It is from here these planes that mages draw their power, using the energies of the arcane realm to strike their foes in the material world


The Themes

The themes for this world would be diverse and significant, but there are a few that stand out amongst all of them.


Unity

"If only we had a bigger enemy to unite against. One that would allow us to shed our hatred"
"It did happen once. Remember The Boreal Mutiny ? We did fight together, against whatever nightmarish cult that rose up to take over the world"
"Yes we did but only a few years after that, the first border clashes began. Both of us tried our best but alas, the war escalated too much and even after trying so much to resolve it, we still war endlessly. The lull is a pleasant period indeed but i doubt it will last much longer"
"Axel, you ended our longest war. A war against a race that was even more violent than the Argonites. A race which did such hideous atrocities to our people, all in the name of "liberation and democracy". We will manage to end this war soon. I have a hopeful feeling in my heart"
"You're right my love. Despite the peace processes being botched, i think there is a chance that we can still end this war. We were at much favourable terms before this war started. Let's just pray to the gods that we can end this war and finally live in peace. To give a world free of senseless conflict to my children is an undying wish i have for the gods"
Axel Christiansen, the former emperor of The Sanguine Imperium talking to his wife about a potential peace treaty with the Aegean Empire


The Final battle begins by Blazbaros
Arguably the biggest theme in the stories set in this world are of unity. The world is currently divided between the Aegean empire and the Sanguine Imperium, both of them eternally warring to win supremacy over the planet and destroy their adversary but being at a deadlock due to their evenly matched powers. Unbeknownst to them, the war was actually caused by Arkanos, a malevolent extradimensional entity who had come to Elladia to enslave the entire planet but failed due to the efforts of the united races of Elladia. When they were united, the humans and argonites alongside the other elladian species managed to defeat Arkanos, which prompted him to sow division into these races. This culminated in the currently ongoing The Great War, which plagues the world to this day.
Arkanos has been building up his power in the meantime, and now that he is almost recovered again, has started to make serious preparations to make an all out full scale assault on Elladia. The Sanguine War will focus on the issues of unity and the battles against the forces of Arkanos and how through their hardships and sufferings, the peoples of Elladia will finally develop respect and love for each other, paving the way for a permanent unity between them.


An Evil to unite us all

"This evil, that which has been terrorizing us for the last few years thirsts for our blood. For the blood of Elladians as a whole, not just humans or Horcs or Argonites. The least we can do is at least share what we know about them with each other. Its a small step but we can start from there. Once we have more trust of each other amongst the general populace, hopefully we can enlarge our cooperation to include joint military operations too"
The Horc High Chieftain, talking to current human emperor Hans Christian Danielsen about cooperation against the Cults of Arkanos


Champion of the Dark God by Justin Gerard
Another of the big themes in Elladia is that there is a larger threat, an evil that threatens to destroy the entire world. It is a malevolent, truly alien being that has nothing in common with the beings of Elladia, twisting the entities on the planet in horrifying and nightmarish forms. Since hate is a far stronger unifier than love and kindness, the Elladians can finally unite and direct their hatred towards something that truly deserves it. Throughout the war with Arkanos, the Elladians will suffer numerous defeats and losses, which slowly breeds the permanent unifying principles of love, respect and cooperation between them. They also discover how similar they are and how they all want the same goal, a world full of peace and unity.
This paves the ground for the future unity between Elladia, as they learn about each others pains and losses. Its mostly a mix of wishful thinking on my part, and whilst unrealistic, i intend to show what people can achieve if they unite in real life and cast off petty issues such as religion, race, nation and creed.


Sharing the World

"Its often odd how we humans have managed to survive for so long. We share the world with another species that is just as intelligent and far more deadly and endurant and physically perfect than us. To them, we are like an intelligent species of apes who pose a potential threat to their hegemony, and thus we are often hunted by them. Yet, we have still managed to survive and not only that, we are more numerous than them and are equal to them in power. They know this too, for which they not only do not want war with us, they also respect us and want both to live in peace"
An Imperial diplomat, talking to one of his colleagues about the Argonites

In Elladia, humans are not alone. They share the world with two and a half hundred million other beings known as the Argonites. These are a race of humanoids who whilst looking somewhat human are far different on the inside. An Argonite can easily rip a man to shreds, and whilst enraged, it might take as many as a dozen humans to kill one of them. Their endurance is inhuman, with normal Argonites easily taking over sixteen arrows and still managing to survive. In almost every other physical field, they outclass humans, which has given them sort of a mythical reputation.
Yet Argonites also fear humans, for they are far numerous and can easily make up for their losses. There are four times as many humans as argonites, and they are incredibly deadly in groups, to the extent that even similar sized argonite groups have difficulty defeating them. The Argonites have lost in many battles against the humans, and they know all too well that when the humans are cornered, they will fight like wild beasts and oftentimes, tear the argonites to shreds. They also respect them as equals, and deep in their hearts, some Argonites do hold a special love for humanity


Camaraderie

"Brother, we shall pass through this. No matter what happens, we shall succeed
"Yeah? How the fuck will we even stand up to them? What we are facing is truly alien and indomitable. Not even the gods can do anything other than scratch its hide"
"Well we have to fake it till we make it. If the stories are true, then we can defeat him."
"Those are stories Casper. Nothing but lies perpetuated to us throughout time so that we don"t go mad like a group of headless chickens"
"Its the best we have. I promise that we will get through it. And even if we don"t, i will be by your side till we fall to the blades of our enemies"
Hans Christian Danielsen, talking to his brother Casper Christiansen about the recent string of cult attacks


Comrades Stand Side by Side by Vulpes i
Last but not least, the themes of comradeship often arise in the stories set in this universe. In the world of Elladia, surviving alone is a deathwish at best and at worst, a guaranteed death sentence. The themes of comradeship are exemplified in the dedication of the characters towards their loved ones, as well as them being united in their goal to fight against the truly alien and malevolent entity that threatens to raze down everything they love. An example would be Maximillian Christiansen and Victoria Elnara Astridsson. Both of them become diehard comrades throughout the Sanguine war series, and share the sorrows of fighting against a being that is far stronger than them and offers no mercy to the inhabitants of Elladia


Inspiration

Growing up in a family full of people who served in the military and have also seen wars, i have been rather heavily influenced by the stories i heard. Living in a geopolitical neighbourhood thats prone to violence then and now has significantly shaped my mind, and with that the stories i create. I often spent much time watching military documentaries and thinking about fictional worlds with wars raging on them
The inspiration for this specific world however came after reading the books of Malazan: the book of the fallen. However, the only lasting inspiration i had from that was the big empires with political intrigue aspect and most of the long lasting inspiration came from me watching a documentary about the third war my country had with another neighbour. Suffice to say, the documentary got me thinking and i slowly began to conjure up a world where the peoples are eternally warring or are at violence, with a far more sinister threat coming up to destroy them all, giving them a chance to unite and hopefully make a better future for themselves


Conclusion

In all honesty, i can say that i love this world. I can"t say i love it more than Ad Infinitum since its the most beloved of my babies but honestly, Elladia radiates a far better aura to me. The articles are way better formatted, with artwork and also better prose and wordsmithing whilst many of the articles of Ad Infinitum look incredibly bad to me. Moreover, i feel that the characters of Elladia are much more developed and realistic, which is most likely due to me getting better in character creation and development before starting this world. I plan to write a novel series depicting the war between Arkanos and the inhabitants of Elladia which i have already started ironically and also to hopefully include some short stories and other novels about other stuff and finally, in the distant future, a video game and anime about this world!
To all those who read this, thank you for taking the time to read about my world! I hope you shall all enjoy reading more about this world as i enrichen it with more lore!