The Place where Life Springs from the Ground Geographic Location in Felithera | World Anvil

The Place where Life Springs from the Ground

The Birthing Grounds

Written by littletoes101

And indeed, when ey first laid eyes upon the land, it startled and frightened eir quite terribly. For by now, Suseil had realized that wherever ey had come from was gone. Whoever ey had been previously was gone, too. There was only now. There was only whatever came after this.
— From Chapter 0 of Book 0 - After Man.
  The Place where Life Springs from the Ground was not named for the lush vegetation and fertile ground, despite what many may believe upon first glance. In fact, this place known to many by many names (though "Birthing Grounds" remains most popular by far) gets its title from the fact that life quite literally comes from the ground. Or so it seems, at least.   No species ever evolved on Felithera. As they are species which already existed before Felithera did, they had to come from somewhere. It just so happened that the "somewhere" was Earth, and the species now populating Felithera are extinct on Earth. While new species have obtained numerous adaptations, no species truly evolved here from any other life form. The predecessors of their species have all come from the Birthing Grounds. They were born of the mud and earth from the crater and became the stars when they died.

Geography

As one of its names suggests, the Birthing Grounds is actually a huge crater caused by a meteor slamming into the fledgling planet of Felithera millions of years ago. Had there been any form of life on the planet at the time, this impact would have caused an extinction event to rival that of the dinosaurs on Earth. However, because there was no life, this event went relatively unnoticed by most.   Over time, as the planet grew more fertile, so did this place, in the Place of Much Rain. Because of its location within the rainforest continent, it seemed only natural that the Birthing Grounds would be suited for settlement of a species should a species ever arrive on this planet. By the time the Caelesti had been assigned to Felithera, it was very much ready to be populated. All that was left to do was find something to populate it with.
Alternative Name(s)
Grounds of Life
The Spawning Place
Birthing Grounds
Hole of Existence
Type
Crater / Crater Lake / Caldera
Location under

Comments

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Jul 1, 2019 18:05

A nice premise and very interesting location.I like the way you talk about the way species just come from the ground. I also like the aesthetic of the crater lake within the lush jungle you have here. One thing of note is the use of "ey" and "eir" in the quote. I am unsure if they are names or pronouns. Andother thing that was a bit unclear for me: When you say there are no species on Felithera, do you mean no intelligent ones? Or is all life on the planet just plantlife and the like?   All in all a nice little article.

Jul 1, 2019 18:17 by Richard Bradley

Ey/em/eir are pronouns, yes! They're called neopronouns. And yes, there was no intelligent life on Felithera before the cats came. Thanks so much for the review!

ricky -- 24 years old -- he/him, fae/faer, tiger/tigers pronouns -- current project: novanati rebuilt
Jul 1, 2019 18:11

"it seemed only natural that the Birthing Grounds would be suited for settlement of a species should a species ever arrive on this planet."   Using 'a species' twice, so close to each other, reads a bit awkwardly. You could replace the the second instance by 'one'   "it seemed only natural that the Birthing Grounds would be suited for settlement of a species should one ever arrive on this planet."

Jul 1, 2019 18:16 by Richard Bradley

Ah thanks so much for that, it does read more smoothly that way, thanks! I appreciate the feedback!

ricky -- 24 years old -- he/him, fae/faer, tiger/tigers pronouns -- current project: novanati rebuilt
Jul 1, 2019 18:22

I already gave you a critique beforehand, but I'm going to post it here for the critique channel:

  • The opening quote is good and does present a nice picture of what is happening
  • The title itself is a tad long, I feel like both subtitle and title can be switched.
  • The last sentence of the first paragraph is a bit odd, and the stuff in brackets can be put in a tooltip.
  • Excerpts for the links can be a lifesaver, use them to explain the articles.
  • Otherwise, the premise that most of the planet's life came from a impact crater sounds actually creative and fun. I'd only say that the writing is a bit confusing at points which makes reading it harder. HOpefully this critique helped!

    Jul 1, 2019 18:41

    Interesting premise. I'm curious though, did any sentient life that emerged from the mud and earth? The last line makes me think only various forms of flora grew up around the area but not any animals or sentient life. If there are native species, how do they share the area? Also, how big is the area? Do stronger species force weaker/newer to live further away from The Place where Life Springs from the Ground? Is there fighting between the various species? Or do they coexist peacefully?

    Jul 1, 2019 18:47

    I love the quote, mainly the use of neo-pronouns! As a nonbinary person, I really like that bit. However, like another comment says, the specific neo-pronouns you use are a little confusing, since they're not commonly seen, even more so than xe etc. Perhaps a different neo-pronouns would make more sense to readers? I think the vowel at the start threw me off.   I was also a bit confused about how the life didn't actually spring up out of the ground, but maybe that was just be not being thorough enough.   Overall I really liked it! It was short and easy to read as well, which always helps.