Entering the shattered

Year 568, era of the Movement

Welcome to the Shattered, a broken world filled with floating islands and giant animals, a world where chaos occurs every few years, cared by the Creator, a sun-like object that gives light as it gives darkness and rain. With no memories of a past, there is only a future where learning is their only way towards improvement or disaster.

About 2000 years ago, everyone woke up.
One had no memories and knew nothing.
Two
people could be either similar or very different looking.
Three
states seemed to rule over this place: light, darkness, and rain.
Four
took to realize they could all understand each other.
Five
are the years before new events happen.
Six
are the amount of the past eras.
Seven
for the main islands.

The known world is a Shattered and chaotic place. A place with no history before 2000 years ago, and a lot of different living beings going forwards. It all surrounds a star-like object, named Creator, that can give darkness and rain as much as light.

Its landmasses are floating islands in space, some so small a house barely fits, while others are big enough to house countries. And then there are the giant space animals, creatures so big that other living things can use them as a home, as some land.

Physical rules are weird in here or straight up do not exist, things here do not necesarily make sense and thus, the craziest things are attempted to.

Away from this, only death lies, corpses of unknown creatures in a forever state of decay. No one dares leaving the furthest islands, scared to find what left them dead and frozen on time.

The Islands

Shattered is made out of thousands of floating islands, from ball-sized to country-sized. From all these islands, there are seven islands that stand out and although they are not necessary the biggest, its where most living creatures reside. These islands surround and orbit around the Creator.




Lulan

Lulan is the third smaller floating islands of the seven important floating islands. Its surface is desertic, with barely anything on it other than rocks, and its fairly flat, with some dunes breaking the flatness of the place. Most living things that inhabit this island live in underground dens, caves, or even lakes.

A white silhouette of a floating island named Lulan

Lulan's silhouette by Catoblepon


A yellow silhouette of a floating island named Oriz

Oriz's silhouette by Catoblepon



Oriz

Oriz is the smallest of the seven important floating islands, there are many islands bigger than Oriz. The island is a praire, and not much bigger than a town. It is filled with many different flora and many different insects or small animals.




Faodore

Faodore is the second largest island from the important ones. It is fairly flat and its surface is filled with wetlands. Most of the living creatures from this island are semiaquatic, being able to live comfortable in both water and land.

A blue silhouette of a floating island named Faodore

Faodore's silhouette by Catoblepon


A pink silhouette of a floating island named Meeraz

Meeraz's silhouette by Catoblepon



Meeraz

Meeraz is the third largest island of the important ones. It is filled with a city that spreads from end to end of the island. It is the island with a major number of people and they have found ways to connect their island with smaller ones that are very close by to have extra territories for farms or ranchs.




Gysol

Gysol is the fourth biggest island of the important ones. Its surface is mountainous and the underground is filled with complex labyrinthine cave systems. Most of the living in here lives underground or are nocturnal.

A red silhouette of a floating island named Gysol

Gysol's silhouette by Catoblepon


A green silhouette of a floating island named Tethea

Tethea's silhouette by Catoblepon



Tethea

Tethea is the second smallest island of the importants. It is a frozen land, with barely any flora outside caves or on surface. There is a small place in between the valleys of its mountains with natural hot springs.




Erak

Erak is the biggest of the important islands. It is filled with a giant forest where trees range between 20 and 50 metres tall. The center of the island has a tall mountain, taller than the forest, with a bare peak.

An orange silhouette of a floating island named Erak

Erak's silhouette by Catoblepon

The Giants

As the name says, the giants are creatures of gargantuan proportions. The float on space, not straying too far from the Creator. They do not seem to need to rest nor to eat, they do not display any behaviour an animal does to live, for that and the fact that they have never been seen hurt enough to bleed, the intelligent species do not consider them living creatures and simply call them Giants.

Every few months, the Giants approach the Creator and spend a few cycles surrounding them, almost like if they hugged them. The reason for this is unknown although its believed that they do so to gather energy.




Sea snake

Usually talked in masculine, he likes to slither in between the islands not caring if he touches some or moves them. He tends to spend the time in the middle of the cloud of islands, specially where there are more warm islands. He is sometimes used as a bridge between islands.

A white silhouette of a sea snake

Sea snake's silhouette by Catoblepon


A yellow silhouette of a jellyfish

Jellyfish's silhouette by Catoblepon



Jellyfish

Usually talked in femenine, she does not like to spend too much time surrounded by islands and thus lives most of the time in the outer islands or furthest away. She is the Giant that needs less time with the Creator and thus is barely seen by the Living of the closest islands. Her Living creatures do not like visitors.




Turtle

Usually talked in neutral, they do not seem to have preferences for where to spend more or less time. They do seem to spend most of the time between the inner and outer islands, sometimes playing with the islands by moving them with their head, careful to not overturn them. During night, they slow down, unlike their sibilings, and hide inside their shell.

A blue silhouette of a sea turtle

Sea turtle's silhouette by Catoblepon


A pink silhouette of a lionfish

Lionfish's silhouette by Catoblepon



Lionfish

Usually talked in masculine, he floats around the outer islands. He tends to be with his spikes close to his body, and when it rains or is dark, he has the spines outwards.




Whale

Usually talked in femenine, she likes to float under or over the islands, sometimes diving or rising next to islands. During rainy times, she softly sings and nearby islands can hear the deep hum produced by her, which fills living creature with happiness and calmness.

A red silhouette of a whale

Whale's silhouette by Catoblepon


A green silhouette of a manta ray

Manta ray's silhouette by Catoblepon



Manta ray

Usually talked in femenine, she, like her sister Whale, likes to float over or under the islands, but, unlike her sister, very rarely crosses paths with the islands, only doing so to approach the Creator.




Sea slug

Usually talked in masculine, he spends most of his time far from the Creator, where less quantity of islands can be found. When he does approach the islands, to meet the Creator, the islands seem to move away from him, leaving him a clear and empty path straight to the Creator.

An orange silhouette of a sea slug

Sea slug's silhouette by Catoblepon

The Creator


The Creator is a spheric object of immense size located in the center of the Shattered. It is what gives light to this place and what takes it away.

The Creator has three states which they go through in a cycle: light, dark, and rain. The cycle tends to be light and dark alternating each other, with some rain every some changes of state. Very rarely, the cycle might have a state lasting longer than it should, which in truth is that the cycle kept moving but the new state happened to change to the same.

The Creator gives warmth, more or less depending on the state they are in, and also seem to power some species and the Giants.

The Living Creatures

Living in the middle of the Shattered there are hundreds of thousands of species of all kind. The oldest of them appeared 2003 years ago, and many more appeared on the Events. With no memories of what was before the Shattered, most of the species adapt quite well to where they appear, almost as if they were carefully placed in an environment that is perfect for them.

Living that would need to breath air does not seem to have problems with the islands not having atmospheras, and thus, not air. This allows all non-aquatic creatures to live in any island they can survive in and in the back (or other places) of the Giants.

The Stars


The Stars have not always been on the sky, they arrived at the Starry Night era, on an Event year 1388 years ago. The first 615 years of the Shattered had a deep black void in the sky, and their only light source was The Creator.

When the Stars arrived, people thought they were simply spots of light in the sky, but with time, some Stars approached and visited the Shattered. That is when the Living realized that the Stars where animal like creatures, just like their Giants, but made of light and darkness, incorporeal beings.

But they also learned that they could die, and that killing them would only angry the Creator, as demonstrated in the Darkness era.

The Events

Every five years, an Event happens. The Event can be a lot of things, from crashing of islands to new species appearing and even long states in the Creator cycle. During in those Events are also when a new era might start.

There have been six past eras in the Shattered and it is now entering its seventh era: the Movement. Portals are a new technology or magic (depends on who you ask), some portals appeared out of nowhere and these are being studied to be able to create bridges between islands.

The Corpses

Beyond the floating islands and the Giants, way too far for anyone to reach, there are corpses of creatures. These corpses are of many different sizes, shapes, and colours, dead in many different ways. Their bodies forever in decay, not showing any signs of being more or less rotten with the pass of time, it is unknown if they simply decay in a very slow pace or are frozen in time.

No one dares going towards them, so little is known about these creatures other than what can be seen from afar. No one likes to talk about them and thus, islands closer to The Creator are less aware of these corspes.

There have been times where a Giant would push an island towards the center of the Shattered if it was going too far away, towards the corpses.

The only thing that is further away than the corpses are the stars.


Cover image: Shattered (cover) by Catoblepon

Comments

Author's Notes

Four floating islands different coloured with lines of their same colour around them making the islands seem like an open mouth of a turtle
Islands are turtles by Tj Trewin


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26 Dec, 2022 16:45

This looks amazing!


Featured Articles in the Shadow War across Creation by Graylion

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26 Dec, 2022 16:52

Thank you! <3

Visit Daeliha, Iphars, Khulgran & Shattered
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!
29 Dec, 2022 10:54

I love these introductions to the islands and the colour coding is great, too! Meeraz sounds like an exciting hub of activity and technology :D Where do you recommend visiting first?


Creator of the dark fantasy world of Melior
Latest Work:
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29 Dec, 2022 11:54

I'm glad you liked it! :D And that's a good question! I think it depends a lot on what you like, but I would say probably Meeraz (if you want to meet people), Faodore I think will be interesting but you should be able to deal with humidity, and Gysol will be fun to work in (and maybe even I'll attempt to map).

Hope the Creator brings you a good colourful day!

Visit Daeliha, Iphars, Khulgran & Shattered
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!
Sage eccbooks
E. Christopher Clark
29 Dec, 2022 13:30

This is well done, a comprehensive primer to what feels like an incredibly rich world that's aching for even further exploration.

Check out The Family Tree of Frieda Jacobs—now complete with 41 portraits of the characters
29 Dec, 2022 15:04

I'm glad you liked it! I have a lot of ideas for this world and I hope people are as excited as me to read them :D

Visit Daeliha, Iphars, Khulgran & Shattered
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!
13 Jan, 2023 09:41

Hahaha lionfish.

Author of Ravare.
BlueTyger
Nimin N
15 Jan, 2023 12:20

I was browsing around for inspiration of how to write a good primer article, and had to stop here to say, "wow, this one's amazing".   It's so nicely formatted, the sections and choice of colors make it very easy on the eyes and pleasant to read. And you present the setting so well within each little blurb, concise but just enough that it entices one to want to read more. Your setting sounds so rich, and the way you write gives this compelling sense of wonder and mystery to it.

15 Jan, 2023 15:47

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Your words are very nice! I hope to soon expand the world to be as rich as I made it sound in here :D

Visit Daeliha, Iphars, Khulgran & Shattered
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!
17 Jan, 2023 19:40

Really amazing work and so clean! I really enjoyed this!

My world and three articles have been nominated for World Anvil's Worldbuilding Awards 2022. Please look over the candidates and I'd love your vote if you like my work!

17 Jan, 2023 20:36

Thank you :D Glad you liked it!

Visit Daeliha, Iphars, Khulgran & Shattered
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!
21 Jan, 2023 11:32

You've really done it! This primer is incredible and the images match so well the minimalistic style. I love the little poem at the beginning, the short and to-the-point introductions to the main concept, and the color shift to put emphasis on certain words. I only want to know more now! How do people know something Shattered, if they only knew this Shattered state? Is this an innate knowledge that everyone has?

24 Jan, 2023 14:17

I'm glad you like it and that you wanna learn more! Im not sure if people in the Shattered call the world Shattered or if they have a concept of "world"; haven't thought of that

Visit Daeliha, Iphars, Khulgran & Shattered
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!
Master PrincessESH
Aster Blackwell
4 Feb, 2023 18:35

This is so fascinating. I'm especially interested by the Giants, they're so cool! I like the aquatic theme you have with them.

4 Feb, 2023 20:32

Glad you liked it! I see you saw the aquatic theme :eyes: I've done that cuz drifting in space makes me think of swimming in an ocean :D

Visit Daeliha, Iphars, Khulgran & Shattered
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!
Master PrincessESH
Aster Blackwell
5 Feb, 2023 01:36

The vibes of Shattered remind me a bit of the vibes of the game Seashine, have you played it? It's a simple aesthetic game where you are a small glowing jellyfish in a vast dark ocean.

5 Feb, 2023 12:06

I haven't played it! Will note it down to take a look at it once I have a moment tho! :D

Visit Daeliha, Iphars, Khulgran & Shattered
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!