Changelog

This change log will notate the major contributions or changes to the work. In general, things that alter the 'bones' and 'meat', such as character identity, design, narrative story, etc. Minor alterations or clarifications will not be tracked as, ideally, these serve to enhance and clarify any issue. The log will be sorted as: top is most recent.

CHANGE LOG

Alpha V1.22

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Bestiary

New

Miststealer Crowbat

A creature of ill-repute and steeped in terrifying myths who may be far more helpful to people than many realize at all.

Soot Creeper

A type of spirit commonly found around expended fire sources, collecting ash, dust, and soot for some mysterious purpose. Also notoriously terrifying despite being completely harmless.

Omenfly

A small and generally helpful carnivorous insect that preys upon flies, mosquitos, and other pests. It may also whisper warnings of impending calamity to people ...

Characters

New

Jahulmt-Zahm, the First Deathwalker

A new minor character! The Head Investigator of Votyoger, Jahulmt-Zahm is an uld dragon perhaps quite literally as old as death itself. At the very least, she may be one of the oldest necromancers on Veltrona, and a living doorway to the realms of the dead few ever truly experience. Changes

Akai Juugatsu, Hidden Horror Born In Blood

Rewritten; expanded and cleaned up lore, slightly adjusted appearance, better distinction between her 'disguised' and 'true' forms. Akai is pretty happy in her design space, but her design simply was a product of its time and needed touching up. Overall, she should feel pretty familiar and more robust in her history, as well as what she's actively doing in the current time frame.

Civilizations

Changes

Votyoger

Updated with new information, modernized some other aspects. Funny enough I wrote an entire new Votyoger article because I couldn't find this one. Turns out it was still there, the search bar wasn't finding it because there's two overlapping articles of the same name (the organization and the continent). So anyway I just ported over the new writing into the original article lol

Lore

New

Alchemical Medicine

A look at the fundamentals of creating advanced magical medicine.

The Secret of Mana

New Section: Corpus and Soul Vestiges. A new foundational mechanic that fills in the missing hole for a fair number of other aspects within Veltrona's universe. In essence, vestiges are physical remnants of a being's life once in the world. Corpus Vestiges are that of their body, while Soul Vestiges are that of their memories and soul. Those who once lived still leave a tangible, if decaying, impact in the world that the living may yet find. This mechanic better supports the foundation of concepts like Vampyr, Vampires, Necromancers, and many other things related to the body and soul.

Architecture: Integral Structuring

A glimpse into how engineers confront hostile magic against their buildings. Changes

Cultivation Arts

Formerly 'the Path of Cultivation'; complete overhaul and re-envisioning. A principle issue with Veltrona's adoption of the Chinese cultivation idea is that it was largely envisioned toward being continent-locked within Nerzin. However, cultivation itself had the ingredients to be ubiquitous, and more of a mainstay in the fantasy landscape of Veltrona at large. It was a little weird that everywhere else on the planet had (possibly European-centric) mages, but Nerzin had cultivators and mages, so why not let cultivators be everywhere as well? Through refining the concept of cultivation on Veltrona, it was changed to adapt it toward broader usage and understanding. In that way, it integrates much better with the setting as a whole, and develops a more organic connection to the surrounding narrative. This isn't too dissimilar toward some other common, popular ideas that exist-as-is within Veltrona as well.

Sun-gold

Rewritten; more / new information. Sun-gold is a powerful metal, and perhaps one of the great reasons why gold is coveted on Veltrona. Still, for all its amazing potential, it is limited by the rarity of its raw materials. This is largely rewritten to be more culture agnostic, but Atenkhet remains 'the' civilization that uses sun-gold the most / best.

Flora

New

World Bloom

A bizarre 'flower' whose fruit results in the creation of entire new pocket dimensional worlds.

Thunderblood Berries

A wind-aspected type of coffea plant, its enhanced super caffeine supercharges the body, often to the point of complete self-destruction.

Brightbulb

A plant that mixes water and lightning-type mana to grow large, illuminating bulbs. They light up their natural spots on cliffsides, creating quite the spectacle at night.

Forsaken

New

The Forlorn

A type of Forsaken defined by their relationship to the unknown, the bizarre, and the alien in a way utterly incomprehensible to the rest of Veltrona. Pity the poor souls taken by these unnameable forces and their unimaginable suffering.

Hilfe-Mir

A type of Forlorn, notorious for its haunting cries of 'help me', and the all-consuming danger it poses to those who come to give aide.

Geography

New

Votyoger - City

The physical city of Votyoger, existing as the literal capital for the Draconic Forum.

Aohuten

'The' capital city of Aochen, and the home of the Lin dragonkind lineage, Aohuten is an epicenter of trade and worldly pleasures. Anyone who has anything to do in Aochen invariably crosses path with Aohuten.

The Dark Ocean

A look at what space and the kosmic neighborhood that Veltrona, the planet, exists within. Changes

Votyoger

Updated. Old/superfluous information changed or removed, new information added pertaining to more up-to-date geography standards.

Magical Arts

New

Avatar Magic

A kind of divine magic associated with goddesses, one that can allow them to manifest a 'second body' in order to project their power.

Puppet Magic

A particular magical artform arguably inspired by Avatar Magic, it focuses on manipulating objects remotely with mana, or animating them to create autonomous puppets.

Species

New

Puppetkin

A manifested species that emerges when puppets created by Puppet Magic reach a certain level of complex sophistication. No one is really sure what the measure of that is, as even two puppets of the same exact model will not always--or one will and the other won't--manifest as puppetkin.

Website

Changes

Introduction to Tales of Veltrona

The Introductory welcome page was in dire need of modernization and a new intriguing layout. The old one was overwhelming to new visitors, which was counterproductive to our goal of making Tales of Veltrona welcoming and approachable. _{—??/??/2023}

Alpha V1.21

For this patch, the primary design goal was a version 4 update of Veltrona's world map, and the semi-finalization of all its surface continents. Most notably, the change to an equirectangular projection has radically redefined the v4 map from the v3, giving us much more detail and perspective on the various continents. Zahmal itself has been overhauled from the ground up as an entirely new continent with different ideas. Some people may find its new shape rather interesting to think about. The two polar continents, Sooneyriak and Unneyria, are relatively new and otherwise unspoken for until now. Rather than make them barren, nearly lifeless lands, we've embraced Veltrona's fantastical nature to make an entire new axis of life: ice-based lifeforms. Overall, the world map is in a very usable, long-term stable position now. Any other changes we'd do would most likely be detail-enhancements under more continent-specific maps. The Veltrona article itself has received a meaningful overhaul, and introduces several new concepts into the planetary ecosystem. That aside, dragonkind received some clean up work, and the various jointed-humanoid species (upper half of a person, lower half of an animal) have been overhauled. The hated Baarham Dominion has been introduced finally, providing us a direct historical look at their empire. Alongside that, some new detail work in crysium and mana has been added.

Miscellaneous

Changes

Category: Species, Races, and Manifestations -> Species, Variants, and Manifestations

As part of Veltrona's ongoing cultural mindfulness, a design decision has been made to, where possible, replace the eytmological usage of 'race' to denote people of any kind with the term 'variant'. This is done to amplify the taxonomical nature of the identification, and remove the racist meaning behind the term 'race'. Technically speaking, all of Veltrona's sapient populations could constitute a single "species" as they are all able to, within reason, reproduce with each other. The decision to identify them as separate species is to facilitate better organization, both in-world and out-of-world, of their respective biological and cultural histories. 'Races', as originally envisioned, pertained to branches of the main species that have significantly diverged from the original ancestor/progenitor species. Dragonkind and its three variants--wokma, wyvern, and lindwurm--is a good example of this. However, the concept of the word 'race' has its roots in racist philosophies that attempt to subdivide humanity on a purely social construct basis. While this topic is deserving of greater explanation and scrutiny, it would be beyond the scope of this changelog to record. Wikipedia's article on the matter provides some insight, as seen here. Thus, the term 'variant' was chosen as a more suitable identifier. Logically, there are species, and then if necessary, any variants contained within that species. This has a wide range of usage cases, for both sapient and non-sapient species, and is generally divorced of any unsavory or racist connotations. Other possible terms, like 'subspecies', were rejected due to their proximity to terms like 'subhuman'. Despite possibly being technically correct, the cultural context around these terms is potentially problematic and should be steered away from. Please report to the Veltrona staff if the usage of the word race, or similarly unsavory words, are found.

Bestiary

New

Valzneg

An ice-aspected moth creature that harvests fire/heat and converts it into mana-rich ice, which it uses to lure its favored prey.

Character

New

Velandra, Sovereign of the Heavens

New section: Design Notes A new character sheet idea in order to offer some 'meta-perspective' looks at a character and how they operate, outside of the Lore and Story Stuff. The main intention is to help future designers or fans grasp some inner workers of a character that may otherwise not be obvious. Incidentally, Velandra's character sheet serves as something of a test bed--improvements to the character sheet are built on her design first, and then replicated to other characters later on.

Venyra, the Desolator

New section: Design Notes Changes

Bloodwing, Empress of Votyoger

Overhauled, expanded upon with a comprehensive design. Bloodwing is a relatively major draconic figure, but her initial design was a very flat "evil dragon". While that's maintained in some contexts, the greater complexity of her life serves to flesh her out more fully. Notably, her Exalted nature has been dropped; similar to Shi-Weiba, it was an early prototype idea that didn't pan out. The Exalted are generally characters whose relationship with their deities/benefactors is an important narrative function, not a sideline detail. Hence, it's more proper to focus on that for their design strength, rather then simply assign powerful characters an Exalted status.

Civilizations

New

Baarham Dominion

A look into the rise, life, and fall of one of Veltrona's most notorious empires.

Lore

New

Crystalsis

A dangerous->deadly condition resulting from processing crysium and being exposed to highly concentrated, crystallized mana.

The Secret of Mana

New section: physiology and mana. Changes

Crysium

Updated, rewritten. More detail pertaining to the nature of crysium, how its utilized in the world.

Geography

New

Version 4 of the Veltrona World Map

Show spoiler

Built from a dragon's perspective, the map notates significant geological fixtures and approximates many environments with abstract representations. For example, the largest mountains represented would be Divine Mountains, with smaller but notable mountain ranges also painted in some locations. However, minor mountainous areas, hilly biomes, varied water ways and 'minor' rivers, or other similarly significant locations are not directly shown. Similarly, open ocean facing coastal regions are generally regarded as 'arid' or 'desert-like' due to regular extreme weather events like Divine Tempests. Overall, the map can be considered an accurate but relative indication of regions; more precise maps, such as continental or regional ones, would contain more accurate information. While this map is useful to understand the general temperament of a continent or region, the exact nature of such a place may be somewhat different than is implied.

The Roil

A hostile, protective ocean barrier that surrounds Zahmal.

Unneyria

The southern polar continent of Veltrona, a frozen, ice-rich land with an incredible diversity of life and people.

Sooneyriak

The northern polar continent of Veltrona, a frozen, ice-rich land intruded upon by Zahmal and its strange ecosystems.

Silver Shores

The western neighbor of Golden Tides, situated between Etzli Cuauhtla and Honokom, it features insanely rich biodiversity and mineral wealth, but also extreme dangers.

Unntyoger

The home of the Unn dragon lineage, a subcontinent of glacial mass separated from Unneyria by them many eons ago.

Hoktazahm

An artificial sea created when Unntyoger was separated from Unneyria by the Unn lineage. Also a rather unfortunate name that causes certain elder dragons to cringe when they hear it. Changes

Zahmal

Complete overhaul, brand new continent. A mysterious land of metal that may have come from Veltrona, or not.

Veltrona

Complete overhaul; lots of gathered up, modern information, and a few new things.

Species

Changes

Dragonkind

Formerly 'dragon', now 'dragonkind'. Overhauled, modernized. The original dragon article, while built with certain flavors in mind, didn't stand the test of time. Much of those details deserve to be put elsewhere, while more holistic information was needed.

Wyvern

Overhauled.

Wokma

Overhauled; formerly known as 'Ryujin'. Ultimately, further problems related to the ryujin's name (being a literal god's name from Japanese mythology) started appearing with further development. With a new name, and some reenvisioned design, this dragonkind variant has a new lease on life.

Lindwurm

Overhauled; more cohesive history, slightly-tweaked physical design that relies more on magic physiology.

Shermadi

Overhauled; the fish people of the oceans with more depth to them, and a slightly revamped physical design.

Larmedi

Overhauled; the fish and amphibian people of the seas, lakes, and rivers, with a more expansive history.

Nuhara

Overhauled; the snake people of the deserts, plains, and arid regions, the descendents of a long-gone civilization charged with purpose.

Mussuba

Overhauled; the other snake people like the nuhara, descendents of a long-gone civilization and super charged with mana. _—2/17/2023

Alpha v1.20

This patch comes swinging in with two large goals: the new short story, Magic and Might, and the newest main character on Veltrona, Nivak, Lady of the Glimmering Snow. Along with them comes the mostly-firm completion of sapient species on Veltrona, a few new articles, and some clean up for problem outliers. A capable huntress, survivor, and eventual city-ruling lady, Nivak is an urni who found her tribe's traditions too dangerous to keep following. Through harsh trials and Faunvergarz's unrelenting wilderness, she and her fellows founded a new city in the ruins of an ancient one. Still, as their would-be home grows, powerful forces start to eye the newcomers, each of them with their own agendas. Magic and Might centers on one of the first meaningful encounters between Velandra and Venyra, setting the tone for how their future relationship might grow. It also comes to touch on some foundational ideas for how magic and physical power 'work' within Veltrona's universe, albeit through the eyes of these two powerful characters. The hope here was to show how Veltrona internally views its fantastic capabilities, and what it means to some of the people who live with it. With the creation of the Onpa, the last of the major sapient species is mostly done. This isn't a 'theres nothing left to add', but rather a pragmatic limitation. History and story can only be written on certain elements, not possible maybes. When writing Veltrona's narratives, locking in 'who is there' and 'what is going on' is important. So, while new sapient species/variants/manifestations is totally fine still, the current selection allows for very certain writing to happen. There is also the fact that hundreds of species/variants/manifestations isn't necessarily needed. Due to the interbreeding rules of Veltrona, the potential combination of many species results in a truly absurd range of possibilities. Every new species that shows up exponentially affects this. So, as designed, people should be very comfortable and capable to create whatever kind of monster that catches their fancy. If for some reason the existing ones can't work for that, there's always manifestation to solve that issue.

Stories

New

Magic and Might

A flavor story for Velandra and Venyra, focusing on one of their first meaningful interactions after they'd met. Words can be a troublesome thing, but for them, actions speak a language they both understand. Edit: Based on reader feedback, new content was added toward the end of the story. For those who have already read the prior material, you will want to look for [Yet, to Venyra, it all seemed so quaint.] and read on from there.

Characters

New

Nivak, Lady of the Glimmering Snow

An elder urni of the urzmatak variant, Nivak came to reject her tribe's nomadic traditions, believing it would bring doom to them all. Instead, striving to create a safe home to call their own, she and her fellows founded Polkua. It would be under her leadership and capabilities that they all might survive, or become yet another fallen people in Fauverngarz's history.

Lore

New

Global Lexicon & Spellbook

A container for various words, phrases, magics, and other ideas that might be encountered on Veltrona.

Tarunvu

The singular, shared language of dragonkind upon Veltrona. Being immortal and resistant to change means the receipt from 5000 years ago is still valid. Changes

Interspecies Relations, Anaxials and Hybrids

Formerly known as 'On the Nature of Physical Realities' a title that literally no one can understand at a glance except me, the person who wrote it. Remember, its important to communicate clearly, even if clearness is itself like a sledgehammer. At least it works lol

Immortality and Transcendence

New section: Immortality upon Veltrona. This was originally written as a more Nerzin-specific article, especially to help out Nerzin-based characters. However, it's better suited as a more global address of what 'immortality and transcendence' are across the entire setting. There's a lot of complex nuance to work through in this topic, but for now some patch-work additions should help flesh it out more.

Singularity Sphere

Changed Velandra's childhood nickname for her spheres from 'yoni' to 'qiu'. Qiu (pronounced something akin to chio as a single syllable) being the pinyin spelling for 'ball' / 'sphere'. So the funny story here is I originally made the name 'yoni' as a child's simplification of 'yonfao', as the root word 'yon' is what relates to circles/sphere/ball/infinity. However, not checking the word I just made up reveals that it's actually more significant than that. It's a term literally from Hinduism. The female/feminine connotations and associated meanings were actually quite interesting to read up on. I may have brain wormed myself accidentally, as I did some research into Kundalini and Shaktipat a long time ago. I do like the symbolism possible here, but being mindful of accidentally doing something wrong, it's better to err on the side of caution. If I were to keep using the name yoni, I'd build it up more significantly rather than the accidental invocation it was currently. Well, Velandra eventually calls them douyon anyway, but I'd potentially change that. Anyway, all this to say: double check the words you make, every single time. "There's no way this means anything" is an adventure in realizing how wrong you can be sometimes lol

Geography

New

Polkua

An emergent city of the urzmatak urni in Fauverngarz, led by Nivak. Built atop the ruins of an ancient city, Nivak and her tribeswomen struggle to establish a prosperous city they can call their own. Changes

Tomu

Formerly known as 'Shu', now 'Tomu'. If any references to Shu are found still, let us know because the search feature has trouble telling it apart from other words. Ultimately, Shu is an actual place from Earth, specifically in ancient China. I wasn't aware of this fact (somehow) on top of the fact Tomu's lands are East Asia inspired, well, it causes problems. There's a fine, ambiguous line with direct name lifting (see: Aramix being a 'pharaoh') and a case-by-case analysis is important. In this case, Shu seemed more problematic than helpful, hence the change.

Teranlo

Overhauled; all the continents are due massive updates, but the exact information for them hasn't been decided. This update for Teranlo is a dry run for future work later.

Species

New

Aylier

An ice-aspected species, who once believed themselves the queens of Veltrona in an ice age long, long ago. They got cool jellyfish bells made of ice.

Ekurin

A water-aspected species, they once built great nations in Veltrona's vast oceans, only to become their own downfall. Despite it all, they endure, and rebuild for a better tomorrow.

Ilansu

A metal-aspected species, once thought extinct but somehow mysteriously alive once again on Veltrona. Prize winners for the longest anatomy section of any species because good heavens look at them, it's a mile long. I like their design tho

Aryauk

A veltron-aspected species, proud and honorbound huntresses who stalk across Veltrona in search of worthy prey.

Helunae

A fire-aspected species, the reclusive and eccentric helunae were often worshiped and revered in ancient times. Though the world eventually changed, they still believe in their divine ancestry, and see greatness as something to strive toward.

Keshlaen

A mundane species, the amiable keshlaen have ever thrived in the harshest equatorial regions of Veltrona. Their often self-sufficient, egalitarian views lends them to friendly, openly multi-species civilizations countless others have helped thrive within.

Onpa

A wind-aspected species, the gigantic onpa have long dwelled upon the supermassive 'divine' mountains that dot Veltrona. Highly individualistic and capable people, they love sports (particularly wrestling) and lots of good food, and making all sorts of innovative artworks. Changes

Nebusah

Formerly 'nebubis', now 'nebusah'. The name 'nebubis' has consistently resulted in pronounciation issues, resulting in two-to-three ways of pronouncing their name and none of them agreed. Nebusah provides a clearer and cleaner pronounciation, and seems to fit them quite well. F's in chat for the 'neboobies' as some test readers colorfully called them.

Lich

Overhauled; very old article, brand new everything. Still undead, but now a 'different' kind of dead. What is the nature of 'death', exactly, in Veltrona's universe?

Urni

Overhauled; very old article, modernized and with more information added in. The urni may not be particularly attention grabbing in history, but they sure do hang out in the background for a lot of events ...

Humanity

Overhauled; very old article, modernized and with some colorful information added in. Mostly new historical information, and some perspectives on human social connectivity being important in Veltrona. _—8/14/2022

Alpha v1.19

This patch focuses on Alexandre's story, In Our Final Hours. Join alongside a young Imperial Federation soldier by the name of Loup Huntswood. Given leave to return home to the trade-city Jalken, he encounters the hero Alexandre on the way, and discovers both of them are heading the same way. What awaits them, however, is not at all a happy homecoming. The horrors of the Traitors' War yet linger, and so too has Jalken been changed by them. Updates to the Forsaken round out their foundations better, and Vorhein has received a big overhaul into something more appropriately horrifying. The Traitors' War itself also received a complete overhaul, showcasing the overview of the war and how things unfolded much better. The Relentless were also updated on their foundations, but they need more work done in a future patch.

Stories

New

In Our Final Hours

A narrative story involving Alexandre, Hero of Aerthen.

Bestiary

New

Ananpae

A fierce and combatative relative of the ferret and weasel families, known for their unwavering bravery and reckless life style.

Zahmitar

A deadly apex predator that makes even dragons afraid. Changes

Lumii

Rewritten; same information, reads cleaner and changed to modern formatting standards.

Characters

New

Kosark

Favré Ferborne

Minben Zai, Mage-Scholar

Suhla Black-Rope

The four other members of Alexandre's adventurer group, the Fearless Ananpae. Changes

Alexandre, Hero of Aerthen

Complete overhaul; revised backstory, improved aesthetics, has a sword with a cool name.

Corentine Durand, Crown Princess of the Federation

Her father's named now: Emperor Josora Durand.

Vorhein, Of the Endless Hunger

Complete overhaul; clarified backstory, redesigned appearance.

Flora

New

Iron Wood

A strange 'tree' that grows metal and radiates heat, both being quite popular in Fauverngarz. Not to be confused with other trees that also have iron in their wood; or wood literally made of iron. Convergent evolution is funny like that.

Lore

New

Chef

Cooking in a world full of magic is a world of possibilities in itself. Changes

The Traitors' War

Overhaul; more extensive details on the war, how it came about, and the lasting impacts its had on Aerthen.

Relentless

Changes

The Relentless Herds and Packs

Rewritten; cleaned up, mostly clarifying existing ideas and adding in minor details.

Forsaken

Changes

Returned

3 new variants added in.

The Forsaken

Rewritten; cleaned up, better presentation, and new details added in. _{— 5/1/2022}

Alpha v1.18

Veltrona's 2nd World Ember event patch cycle for WorldAnvil, and big highlights with Venyra, Laknor, and the Lovaena Airship. With Velandra and Venyra updated from their original launch versions, theirs is the standard by which I'd like to raise all the characters toward eventually. I also rather like Furlavus, especially with making Volapaws' major temples essentially have 'explosion-powered bell towers'. Laknor's secret weapon is also a pretty fun thing. Kotro is a major universe mechanic that, until now, has been an unresolved problem. The idea of 'go beyond your limits' is a popular one in a lot of media, and is expressed in varying ways. I don't necessarily want to make it impossible, but I want there to be tangible, 'will happen' side-effects from doing so. In that way, those who can go beyond and endure the backlash are that much more notable. It's a very necessary balancing force in an otherwise heavily magical setting. I will say the list for this patch version is small on a per-item basis, but it's still around 12,000 new words of content, nearly 20,000 with Venyra's update added in. So, a fair bit of work but it doesn't immediately look like it? My brain is always at odds because it sees item count more important than word count, when that isn't necessarily correct to do. Ahh.

Bestiary

New

Mok

A tiny, predatory species of lizard that has ever been dependable as any cat or dog in the lives of people.

Character

Changes

Venyra, the Desolator

Overhauled; more expansive backstory, more physical details, a new special ability that makes her growth potential basically infinite. Her attire remains unchanged, as she will be getting more work done on that later.

Flora

New

Suncradle Bloom

A radiant-aspected 'flower', one of the rare sources of such an exotic mana type.

Lore

New

Kotro

A natural magical condition that results from over extraction of intrinsic mana. Or, why going beyond your limits will have devastating consequences in magical arts.

Geography

New

Laknor

Khaaestra's home base of operations.

Furlavus

A major temple dedicated to Volapaws by the Black Iron order. Changes

Fleursowurm

Bumped population from 300,000 approximate to 1,000,000. Its a major capital of a multi-nation Federation, but population numbers on Veltrona haven't exploded. Atenkhet's fearsome 3 million number is basically one of the largest 'single city' populations in the world.

Items & Technology

New

Zarlona

A strange and otherworldy material made by the dragon lineage of Rom.

Lovaena-series Airship

The second (first?) true airship to fly in Veltrona's skies, and the mother of all those that would follow. Changes

Singularity Sphere

Rewritten; new lore tidbits, generally cleaned up. _{— 01/09/2022}

Alpha v1.17

Say hello to Kos, our newest Forsaken character! What happens when a heroine goes too far for the good of everyone? Showing up all ten mana types is the mana families, with things like lightning, tempest, metal, and ice manas. In general, Veltrona's universe has 10 distinct mana types, and the myriad magics spring from them. This is fairly comparable to other settings, which work between 4 and 8 typically. The +2 difference here is largely the Radiant and Eclipse mana types, which are pretty exotic at what they do. It could be read as '4 basic manas and 4 advanced manas', which is not incorrect but not wholly correct either. The goal isn't to say "slap fire and wind together to make lightning". Mages who are proficient in those arts can definitely achieve lightning much easier than others. However, a pure lightning mage could exist that isn't trained or able to use fire or wind magics, for example. The idea is granularity and intermixing, and to encourage thinking about the core essences of the mana types. Each one represents distinct concepts and ideas, and to make sure they're protected, their identities must be maintained. How well this'll work down the line remains to be seen. New creatures, rewrites to basic lore fundamentals, and some clean ups help to improve older articles.

Bestiary

New

Thornback Wolf

Ukralam

Changes

Gem Spider

Overhauled.

Character

New

Kos, Of the Devouring Light

Changes

Huian, the Tranquil Mistress

Overhauled, new title. Huian largely embodies the traditional culture of Nerzin, particularly Shu. Ultimately she doesn't exist solely to oppose or be a foil to Velandra, but rather the face of Nerzin's changing traditions in another way. Granted, they'll come to butt heads on the regular, but more as an organic result than something arbitrary. I hope, anyway. Also I like her disc weapons lol

Velandra, Sovereign of the Heavens

Overhauled, lots of expanded upon information and rewritten presentation mainly. Her physical attire wasn't touched as that needs further iteration on in the future.

Lore

New

Compound: Ice

Compound: Metal

Technically Compound: Metal is a new article, as well as the old Metal Magic article being fused together.

Changes

Rewritten, new content: mana families.

The Great Convergence

Rewritten.

Mage

Rewritten, new content

The Practicals of Magic

Rewrote magical technology, new content

Sokral

Formerly known as Mana-Smith; overhauled.

Immaculate Ringed Staff

Formerly the Khakkhara, now the ringed staff. No other changes. _{— 12/01/2021}

Alpha v1.16

New flavor story for Velandra and Venyra. General additions to Fauverngarz, better sculpting of that land and its history somewhat through Korebeg and the ruvenek. Large overhauls to the mana families, and the origin goddesses have some new deep lore available. I'm not 100% sure where I'd put this but I suppose the patch notes works for now? Anyway, about 'overhaul' 'rewrite' and 'cleaned up'. Overhauls mean the article was scorched and written from the ground up, brand new. The core ideas will be maintained but sculpted better. Rewrites is an article's content is rewritten in part or full, emphasizing keeping all (or nearly all) the same information. The work is changed 'in place' but not to the extreme of an overhaul. Cleaning up means significant grammar changes, better readability, and other adjustments were made. It is the smallest form of 'stuff was changed enough to be noted, but not too much'. Generally, to make older or malformed articles look and read better. Hope that helps explain the logic.

Stories

New

Shared Flame

A flavor story featuring Velandra and Venyra. Boredom can strike anywhere, even for the Sovereign of the Heavens. Her attempts to be productive are quickly derailed when a certain dragon anaxial catches wind of it.

Bestiary

New

Umbudo

Characters

New

Badu, Fate's Fortune Giver

Changes

Moratahn, Wytche-Queen of the Iron Woods

Complete overhaul, new title.

Aramix, Eternal Pharaoh of Atenkhet

Nerfed (buffed?) her age by several centuries to be overall younger (from around 2,000 years to 1,600). This may change more in the future as the details of the timeline are settled upon. Generally, Warrior-king Khaf is a 'historical figure' by her time period, which is well after the Great Khanum and the Imperium. teehee, timeline shenanigans.

Laoshi Shi-Weiba, the Venerated

Changed from Exalted to Cultivator: Immortal Body. Her overall power level remains the same. Shi-Weiba's exaltation was one of the earliest designs, and reflects different thoughts and concerns of the time period. Being a cultivator is much closer to her intended narrative path.

Civilizations

New

Korebeg

Lore

New

Changes

Overhauls to the main mana types and their associated magics. In general, includes philosophical details but also pragmatic examples.

The Origin Goddesses

New content, principally aimed at better explaining the Origin Goddesses and what they 'are'.

Divine Hierarchy

Overhaul; formerly known as Goddesses, Exalted, and Religion. Redefined the divine relationships between certain entities. Faith and religion, while mentioned, were dropped as detailed subjects for another article to take up. Generally, Exalted and Goddesses should have a much clearer relationship in how they work, even if the practical reality ends up being 'muddied' sometimes.

Flora

New

Cindermoss

Jotuk

Singing Pyupo

Geography

New

Schlaier

Changes

The Heavenly Palace

New area unlocked: The Star Forge

Minor Characters

New

Linfu Jian

Items

New

Skatars

Species

New

Ruvenek

Changes

Muurun

Overhauled. _{— 10/19/2021}

Alpha v1.15

Largely centered on rewriting some critical civilizations, with a smattering of new stuff in the mix. I've been in a funk for this patch cycle, so I spent more time refining existing material. Generally that stuff is reserved for the beta version's 'clean up and fix' pass, but some of the work here has not aged well. It's a balancing act between saving major work for later, while also buffing up the stuff people are still going to end up reading right now. Gotta pick and choose my battles a bit for the time being. Civilizations and characters are worth, I think, because they're the heart and soul of the setting. The places and peoples the reader will imagine being with, within, and working from. If they can't get behind that, then a lot of this other stuff is completely pointless lol That said, managed to squeeze out two new civilizations that will help define their continents much better. I want to get some 'iconic' groups out for every continent that has them, so at least the world at large has 'active players' we can read about. Teranlo, Nemma, Fauverngarz, and Dorvar are looking like they'll need it next, at least. Ah, I just thought about all the coastal shermadi civilizations and I'm feeling myself age in real time ...

Character

New

Xubane, the Starkiller

Civilizations

New

Changes

Complete overhaul, they've been rewritten from the ground up.

Lore

Changes

Crysium

Manarium

Complete rewrites; generally cleaner and more to the point about what they are.

On the Nature of Physical Realities

The following articles have been combined into a single, larger article: On Hybrids, On Transsexuality, On Long Life and Aging, Homosexual Reproduction, and Physical Compabilities of Species. These articles all represent strong foundational ideas, but were generally scattered and in poor shape. They have all been arranged together, cleaned up, and rewritten to strengthen them.

Geography

New

Prak

Not to be confused with Prak, the article for the civilizations that live on Prak. I could've sworn I had a geography article for it but apparently I fused it into the civilization, so separating them out should help a bit.

Magic

New

Blood Magic

Homekeeping Magic

Map

New

Prak Marker

A marker denoting a location for Prak has been added. Given Prak itself is spread all over Veltrona, it's a symbolic one rather than a literal one.

Species

Changes

Abysid

Formerly known as 'abyssal shermadi', renamed to 'Abysid'. Complete overhaul of their species' history. Minor touch ups to their other features.

Nebubis

Some rewrites and general clean up. _{— 09/08/2021}

Alpha v1.14

A new flavor story dropping in around the heavenly sovereign, alongside a revamped world map, are the big highlights of this update. Some new kinds of magic and article revisions are up as well. A planet with three special moons certainly has a lot going on with them, so check that out! The Gehurm have also been completely overhauled, as they suffered from a lack of critical identity originally. The practicals of magic got touched up a bit; mostly cleaner to read, but a new section to help explain how magical learning gets passed on in its unique way.

Stories

New

Changing Conventions

Velandra oversees a traditional Nerzin-style martial tournament, changed to suit as a talent exhibition. Yet as it unfolds, her mind continually wanders to the struggles her new ways face against the overbearing tradition her people lives with. This is also a piece in a new style design coming henceforth: narrative and flavor stories. Narrative involve moving major plot points forward, while flavor are smaller, self-contained, and colorful ways of exploring a character(s) and their lives. Flavor ones are also, ostensibly, easier to make but we'll see lol

Characters

Changes

Elenuta, Of Ashes and Cinders

Cleaned up significantly. It's interesting to write a 'universal' character who is more abstract than one with an explicit history. While I like many of the concepts Elenuta embodies, it does make me wonder if abstract makes her a weaker sell to people. Her underlying theme is 'spirit of vengeance', but since the crimes that invoke her are not too specific, perhaps it is not so compelling? I'll probably revisit her again later but for now she should be fine.

Ioxchen Soulripper, Emissary of the Honored Dead

Title change. Another character in the background already possesses a title of 'Speaker' for something, but they are scheduled for a long time off. I was never 100% on sharing such similar title names, and it's probably best to touch up Ioxchen real quick. While the title itself is fine now I'm still a bit 'hmm' about it.

Lore

New

The Power of the Moons

Items

New

Imperial Crystal Coin

Magic

New

Phantasmal Magic

Ink Magic

Changes

Physical Magic

Completely rewriten. Formerly known as 'Body Enhancement Magic', now called 'Physical Magic'. Punch-wizards are real and they will cast [Fist].

The Practicals of Magic

Minor touch ups; new section, Conveyance of Meaning

Species

Changes

Gehurm

Complete redesign. Now less lizard catgirl and more xenomorph-dragon-thing.

World Map

Changes

Show spoiler

General improvement and overhaul, adding new bits and pieces to better showcase each continent and their respective environments. Bearing in mind the size of Veltrona, the lakes and rivers you see are often functionally small to large inland seas. The old map for comparison purposes can be found Here. _{— 08/11/2021}

Alpha v1.13

Setting up some more Flora and Magic, with major adjustments to the Vampires and Xaishan Accord. I feel plant life is a great opportunity to expand upon but I could end up making a billion articles for that, so I'm trying to headhunt very fantastical concepts people would like. It's easy to say "use earth plants but magical", which 'can be fine' as a background detail. One thing I really want to emphasize is that Veltrona's universe evolved with mana, it's just not something tacked on willy-nilly. I really hate when magic is just handled without consequence, like its profound existence is completely optional. In this setting it is not; it must always be considered apart of everything, and so everything is designed with it in mind. E.g, trying to take away someone's mana is analogious to trying to remove the fundamental rule of gravity from mass. It just doesn't happen; what they actually end up doing is lobotimizing people so they cannot use magic. Mana-rich objects may have their surplus mana drained, even to the point of disintegration, but they do not stop having mana, fundamentally. So on, so forth. It probably reads as a very strange detail to be a stickler for, but I believe it's one of those invisible things that affect a lot of fantasy settings. How one handles it comes to greatly inform everything built upon it. Hence, I try to treat it as serious as gravity. No, gloomweeper, stop turning gravity upside down while I'm talking.

Civilization

Changes

The Xaishan Accord

Overhauled completely into a proper civilization article.

Lore

New

On Building Settlements and Surviving Veltrona

Flora

New

Geography

New

Sskeesa

Magic

New

Items

New

Species

Changes

Vampire

Redesigned the Vampire, no longer part of the Undead, but still Forsaken. It can be said they used the power of death and life to create themselves, but as the Undead become increasingly 'those who died and came back', the Vampire wasn't shaping up properly. Historically, their myths usually concern that, so they'll straddle the line but technically would qualify as a form of 'life'. _{— 06/16/2021}

Alpha v1.12

An update introducing the first wave of spiritual beings, these ones being 'fairly universal' in nature. I quite like spirits, and they can be very defining points of interest for a culture. There's also some factors in that some beings, agnostic of culture, exist and so their manifestation is perceived differently. All that, and well, Veltrona is a rough place but I've been harping on its downsides a bit much. Some genuinely benevolent things exist there, and these spirits will be my first showing of those.

Bestiary

New

Characters

Changes

Velandra, Sovereign of the Heavens

Added a new trivia section to the bottom of her sheet. I really like the idea of fun lore tidbits for characters and other things, not sure if a catch-all 'trivia pile' is the place for it. Good working solution for the time being, at least.

Venyra, the Desolator

New trivia section.

Lore

New

Manaesia

Flora

New

Graveward

Items

New

Species

Changes

Ryujin

Cleaned up their article, rewrote some details, clarified they are a foreign species not native to Nerzin. I'm debating renaming them to 'Ryu' and folding them into the 'dragon' species outright, but ... eh. Cultures all over earth have different ideas of what dragons are, and referring to their cultural names helps invoke those specific ideas. An Aztec dragon is seen through a different perspective than a Japanese dragon, for example. It's a fine line between "make an entirely new name for this same idea" or "call a rabbit, a rabbit". The more unique a name, the harder it is for a lot of people to take it up immediately. Hence the attractiveness of using pre-existing ideas. However, the more you use a pre-existing idea, the more its pre-existing baggage comes along with. There's also issues 'separating an idea from its parent culture', as a lot of meaning can be lost or distorted ... anyway, it's complicated. Gave them a new physiological features: long catfish-like whiskers that function as mana organs.

Dragon

Cleaned it up a bit. _{— 05/08/2021}

Alpha v1.11

The third story in TOV has arrived, featuring Velandra and Venyra: This Wild World. A showcase piece of the Relentless, and a glimpse into the cultivation world of Nerzin. Some small touchups and new content accompanying the story.

Lore

New

The Path of Cultivation

Changes

Monsterkind

Improved the article.

Singularity Sphere

Improved the article.

Geography

New

Immortals' Gate

Changes

The Heavenly Palace

New area unlocked: The Compass

Flora

New category unlocked. New

Fushena

Stories

New

This Wild World

Species

Changes

Returned

Zombies have been revised into 'Returned'. This is to free up conceptual space around them, and allow for more vertical development. Zombies evoke a very specific idea from pop culture, which may not properly portray the returned and how they behave on Veltrona. Other articles referencing zombies should be changed to mention returned.

Lauraume

New species trait: Pheromone Communication _{— 04/09/2021}

Alpha v1.10

Generally eyeballing some more exotic concepts, as well as adding more related to death and necromancy. The big ticket item here is Kubuadac and its associated tokyau. I started off eyeballing Aerthen for a focused content update, then got taken with the idea of 'necromancer bunny women'. Overall I quite like them, though being in Jerhegn they are falling dangerously close to 'too isolated from the rest of the world.' Jerhegn in general suffers from that, so I'll probably aim toward opening up that continent more in the future. It also needs more identity to stand on its own from Etzli Cuauhtla, but I think it's doable. Shout out to Vanzkah, definitely one of the Big Name characters looming in the lore background.

Character New

Civilizations Changes

Aerthen Imperial Federation

Complete overhaul update, much larger and more detailed. New

Kubuadac

Items New

Lore New

Changes

Goddesses, Exalted, and Religion

Rewrote the Goddesses and Exalted, clarifying many details around them and providing new insights. Slight adjustments to the religion portion, but it appears sufficient for the time being. Geography New

Mount Skyreach

Species Changes

Baarham

The baarham have received a new species trait: cold adaptation. New

Tokyau

_{— 03/18/2021}

Alpha v1.09

Grab bag of content, since I worked on this chiefly over the holidays and hadn't time for focused work. Also if anyone finds any references to the word "earth" in TOV, please message me so I can edit it to the proper "veltron" it should be. Could've sworn I got them all but it slips in sometimes ...

Character Changes

Seralkono, the Divine Tempest

Seralkono's history has been rewritten, cleaning up the ideas surrounding her and presenting some more information. New

Items New

The Mourning Blade

Lore New

Technology and Knowledge New

Changes

Solar Obelisk

Rewrote the article, cleaned up the details, and better presented its information. _{— 12/26/2020}

Alpha v1.08

A new story has been made! Centered around a modest clerk working in Atenkhet, Abasi's usual days become slightly different. Not all blessings are obvious; some problems are, after all, just a mirage. You can read it here: Abasi's Day in Atenkhet. General content update. The base CSS for TOV has been changed based on user feedback to something that is hopefully better for everyone.

Bestiary Changes

Adjustments to the content and hierarchy of the Forsaken Undead. The Dread Knight has been turned into the Nekrokin to better make it a more universal creature, as not all cultures it can arise in have a concept of knighthood. The Necromage has been buffed to be something more than a useless skeleton. Other forsaken articles received minor adjustments to accommodate this change or fix small errors. New

Kelansahdar

Species Changes

Petrakin

The Petrakin have been changed to include a more dynamic visual spectrum. Rather than a homogeneous, clone-like species, they are now more geologically relevant and display varied skin colors, textures, compositions, and the like. Articles Changes

The Goddesses

The entry for The Reckoning has been changed: the Orjanian Hymn has received a rework and improved content.

Immortality and Transcendence

Article cleaned up and some details altered; largely the same, different contextual implications. New

Atenkhet Conversational Language

Items New

Civilizations New

Citokakon

Geography New

Stories New

Abasi's Day in Atenkhet

_{— 08/30/2020}

Alpha v1.07

The Goddesses and Gods of Atenkhet have arrived, along with their religion: Uatkara! The first development pass on them, painting broad strokes to cover a number of topics.

Categories New

Divine->Uatkara Pantheon

Articles New

_{— 06/11/2020}

Alpha v1.06

The first full-fledged story in the Tales of Veltrona setting! At a whopping 12k words, it's centered around Velandra and Venyra, it explores the two of them and the politics of Nerzin, as well as some complicating matters. You can find it here: Two Differences. Definitely learned some new lessons working on this that'll be useful going forward. Let me know what you all think about it! General reminder we have a discord found HERE. No, that's not a random discord ad on the front page ; _ ;

Categories New

Stories
Characters->Minor Characters

Stories New

Two Differences

Geography New

Bestiary New

Tagraxi

Minor Character New

Bafin Xiaomei

Lore New

_{— 03/25/2020}

Alpha v1.05

Grab-bag of content; most of my energies are going into experimenting with a new character short-story and seeing how worldanvil's interface can interlink with it. Very useful, but it would mean replicating the stories to other sites becomes very difficult/feature deficient. Uncertain how much of those features I may ultimately use, though the story will get finished all the same.

Items The following articles are new:

Characters The following have received updates to their designs:

Articles The following are new articles without a particular category:

Festival of the Three Moons

Bestiary The following articles are new:

Species The following articles are new:

Larmedi

_{— 02/21/2020}

Alpha v1.04

All pre-existing bestiary articles have received a facelift and some new information; mostly to standardize new articles going forward. The first batch of items are released, principally focusing on legendary or mythical pieces.

The following articles are new: Bestiary

Items

Magic

Elemental: Ice

_{— 01/19/2020}

Alpha v1.03

New characters, as well as some basic ground work for common magic types and some exotic ones. Hope everyone had a good new years!

The following articles are new:
Mage
Khaaestra zahd Machkin, the Grand Architect
Hammu Tibern, Vizier of the Shining Legion
Amonder Moatari, the Sublime Performance
Crysium
Contractual Binding
Elemental: Water
Elemental: Wind
Elemental: Veltron
Elemental: Fire
Primordial: Eclipse
Primordial: Radiant
Energy Magic
Liquid Magic

_{— 01/05/2020}

Alpha v1.02

The world map has been updated, and most major geographical features on Veltrona have been given their own articles. While rather brief, they'll broadly paint the picture for future development of the different planetary regions.

_{— 12/16/2019}

Alpha v1.01

All articles have been looked over for interlinking hyperlinks to help aide in navigation. Going forward, they'll be more consistently added to newer or edited articles.

_{— 12/10/2019}

Alpha v1.0

Tales of Veltrona is now public alpha available. May the world find the work decent and engaging.

_{— 12/04/2019}

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