Venturing to other Worlds, 2023 edition

Author's Note: Tried something different with this, writing part of it from the point of view of a character in my world (one who claims to have the ability to travel to other universes). This is still a Work in Progress, (real life work is killing me right now...) but I do have the bare minimum for the challenge.

Once again another year has passed. Overworked and overwhelmed, I took a few days of break and headed off into Meliheal to other worlds. Working my way through the twisting branches and passages, I hope to find myself in a number of different worlds. Maybe I'll find something worth talking about, or an idea worth bring back? Who knows but I'm about to find out!

- Salika

Notes

Out of universe notes for the individual articles go here with an article block at the bottom of this page.

((Dragon's Skull by Kros!))

Dragon's Skull

While Visiting the Hottest Spices in the World of Hislariya, I came across a strange artifact. Among the endless variety of spices and herbs was a dragon skull mounted on a door. The skull appears to be well taken care of, polished to such a mirror sheen I thought it was fake at first. I've seen my share of dragons on my journeys through the cosmos, and it looked real.

I'm not a frequent visitor to this world, so I asked the apothecary about it. They refused to answer any questions. In later journeys through the world, I learned a great deal about the Dragons here, though I ended up with more questions than answers when I left. I'll have to make a note to return to this world in the future...

Notes

It's amazing how such a simple object can generate so much mystery around it. It got me to read further into the world.

The short quotes were good. Many articles throw quotes in there to fill up space or suffer from quote overload, but the three quotes here felt like a natural extension of the article. This is something I should attempt more in my own writing.

((How Not to Get Eaten By Various Phoenixes and Phoenix by Sh4d0wPh03n1x))

How Not to get Eaten by Various Phoenixes

I came across this book in a strange shop in the city of Limani in the world of Hesli. Vreathe doesn't have such a thing as a Phoenix, unless the birds transformed by dragon corruption count...so I decided to pick this book up to learn more about them. I do wish I could have read a longer excerpt before I bought it, but the reviews won me over.

It was an interesting and somewhat funny read. There was plenty of information about the Phoenixes in this world, but I'm not sure how useful or useless it actually is... I'm definitely curious about how a Bird can live under the sea in the case of Azure Phoenixes, but, such is the nature of magic.

I am glad I did read this book. I was walking through a forest later, and was about to set up camp for the night, I noticed there was a green bird staring me down. Based on what I read, I decided to not risk it, and I kept walking... I left this world soon after that, but I plan to visit again later...

Notes

The reader reviews were great.

The information in the phoenix article was great! I loved the various methods of reincarnation and the mystery that dragons might have created them.

I learned to 1) Be less serious, and 2) If you're going to have a variety of creatures, it helps to actually describe their differences in the details that matter (in the case of phoenixes, their method of reincarnation).

((Spellybeans by Bonus Action))

Spellybeans

While browsing items in a store somewhere in the Sea of Starlight, I came across a bag of candy beans, called Spellybeans. When I asked what they did, I was told to try them myself and experiment...

I ate one of the beans, and I swear I gained some wisdom for a few minutes. I am the greatest publisher of sage knowledge on Vreathe, but for a brief moment I felt like I knew more than ever before!...Then I ate one that tasted like a carrot. After washing it down, I realized I could see a little better.

By far my favorite spellybean was that of the Pitaya. I've been suffering from dragon corruption for many years through my adventures in the dragon craters of Vreathe, but after eating a dragonfruit bean, for a few moments, my mind cleared like a fog, as if I suffered from no dragon corruption at all! Unfortunately it only lasted for a moment...I need to learn the method this world has for resisting dragon corruption. There might be a way to apply it on my own world...

Notes

Picked the Spellybean articles randomly as if I were picking them out of a bag. Was not disappointed with any of them.

Bonus Action is great at mass producing content. If I ever make a DnD or Pathfinder campaign, some of the things I learned from their articles (formatting related) will be really useful.

read the following spellybean articles:

Potato Spellybean

Pumpkin Spellybean

Carrot Spellybean

Mint Spellybean

Dragonfruit Spellybean

((Magic by Tjtrewin))

Magic

Magic is always difficult to fully explain on Vreathe. My universe uses two difference sources of energy (Mana and Aether) and it has always been difficult to explain the relationship between the two. For this reason, whenever I venture to other worlds, I prioritize finding mages on these worlds to explain how magic works in their universe.

The World of Melior has only had magic for 50 years and the people there are still figuring things out. That world's version of Mana seems to be called Maisha and it seems to be difficult to use, but this is likely more because the concept of magic is so new to the world than Magic being too limited. It will be interesting to see how this world fares in 50 more years...

Notes

Magic systems are hard, but this article seems to have a solid foundation for it. The article does a good job of laying out physical limitations of magic in the world.

It was also interesting reading an article from TjTrewin that didn't have a lot of formatting. It's just a simple list of ideas but that's where people need to start when hammering out ideas for worldbuilding. The bloated, image filled, hyper formatted articles me and many others are guilty of are cool, but....

I used to worlbuild using nothing but Microsoft Wordpad and a notebook. I should probably go back to basics from time to time, especially when working with new ideas. Half my time right now is spent worrying about the look of an article instead of the information.

((Magic in Niorath and Falls by Kefkejaco))

Magic in Niorath

Continuing my look into magic on other worlds, I came across a mage willing to go into detail about the magic of Niorath. This world also went through a period in the past where there was no magic.

It seems the casters here mostly rely on crystals known as Falls to use their magic, which was once reserved only for the gods and their chosen. It seems that magic also became hereditary in some families, but just about anyone can absorb the energy of a Falls into their body. I asked if that creates a new magic bloodline, but the answer wasn't clear.

The magic here seems to be dividied into 10 types, easily distinguishable by the crystals that grant the power. Most of these crystals seem to be concentrated in one area of the world with a few exceptions. There is still some mystery to be uncovered about the nature of the Falls here, and I will be returning to Niorath soon to learn more.

Notes

Excellent in-depth articles about the history and nature of magic on Niorath.

It makes me want to tackle my magic system again which I still haven't finished.

((Military Dreadnought Class Starship - Human by Colonel 101))

Military Dreadnought Class Starship

One aspect of my own world's past that still eludes me are the nature of the Silver Age Skyfortresses, which were powerful enough to fight gods and dragon lords and chase them through the stars. Unfortunately, all of them are rusted out ruins in current times and finding information on them is difficult.

For this reason, I ventured into a dark new world looking for how humans from other worlds built one. I wasn't disappointed in what I found. I was actually completely overwhelmed at the size of it and the number of weapons and smaller airships that were flying alongside it.

I then learned how the ship was powered. This fusion of lighter elements is terrifying to think about and the destruction it could cause, but here, it's used to power these city-sized ships.

No dragon lord of my world could hope to compete with one of these things, and a more terrifying thought is that humans of my world used to have fourteen of them and might be able to build them again in the future!

Notes

This long article goes into great detail about all sorts of systems in the ship, from energy, to its compliment of marines, to its garbage, living quarters, propulsion, weapons, smaller ships its carries, etc.

Made me think about things I still have yet to write about with my own starships in my sci-fi world.

((Note: My article block CSS is broken with this one.))

Military Dreadnought Class Starship - Human

((Ocedot and Nepaxan by Tele))

Various Creatures of Zaris

While venturing through the world of Zaris, I came across several creatures with interesting traits. One example is the Ocedot. At first glance, it appears to be a normal large cat, but what I wasn't expecting that it could see in the near future to help with hunting, among other things.

Then there was the Nepaxan. My first experience with this creature was seeing a small four legged animal that I thought might have been a strange dog at first. Then I was told the giant, oily, lumbering beast next to it was the same species. Apparently they can get big, very big if you feed them alot. The people here have incentive to do that too, as the waxy substance this animal secrets on its skin is extremely useful.

The animals didn't seem that interesting at first glance, but their unique abilities changed my perception rather quickly. Zaris might be worth revisiting in the future...

Notes

Tele's species articles were consistently good and descriptive, giving lots of details about each creature.

I write a few species articles here and there, but as others have pointed out, and as it was clear reading many other species articles this year, there's a lot of gaps in my descriptions of my species that needs work...

Resolutions

My goals are actually kind of small this year (well, small for me), which is a good thing because my real life job doesn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down this year. There's only a few things I really want to focus on when it comes to worldbuilding:

Finish the Magic System for this world.

Continue work on the Kingdoms of Cassel.

Rewrite and work on the Starship Void Chaser in my science fiction world.

Start work on one of the main settings for my Science Fiction world. The small town of Redsrei and the surrounding area (no article yet).

I reframed the story for my science fiction world, which means that I need to edit information across roughly 140 articles so everything matches. This could take awhile to do...

Other than that, I settled on a formatting style for each of my worlds, which means I need to reformat all the articles I already have written so they all match (and make some CSS changes too). That's also going to take awhile to do...

Also, I wanted to figure out the CSS to make this more like a book with buttons to advance the pages back and forth, but I didn't have time to figure it out this month, so static containers it is! I want to make articles like that in the future, and before that happens, I want to figure out the book CSS.