A Ramble About Malidine

 I've already very slightly reorganized the decans within the calendar. Their elements/Gods remained the same... I think it was only swapping two of the Earths and two of the Sounds. 

Let me tell you something, though.

I'm sick of the decans/archons. I'm desperate to think about something else. I'm actually itching to draw and, after rereading the Mirror of Stone short stories and the partially made Bolin's Folly story, write. Production over worldbuilding.

I'm only frustrated that today is the last of my two days off and, due to work exhaustion collapsing me into a midday nap and a therapy appointment that wasn't cancelled until the last moment, I lost most of my other one. 

I had a neat idea, though.

I'm imagining a third era city built into and/or over a second era quarry that may or may not have been produced by a first era machination. If built over, I could see the lower being the slums. Anyway, it would be like an abandoned quarry that has filled with water over time. Travelling the lower pools would require small boats and long poles. 

Burcumsy was supposed to be a city built on three plateaus with slums between them (think similar to Thunder Bluff from World of Warcraft but before it was cool--aka because I was a kid and it didn't exist yet) so this could be a really cool replacement. Imagine, it could chain into the Malid "prison pits" that are still guarded by reworked mechs from the first/second era. It would be nice for Burcumsy--whatever it would end up being called--to have relevance again. It was an important city for Malidine in the past. Malidine itself is hardly relevant anymore, because of so much retired (mostly high fantasy) content. Burcumsy was initially important due to a river flowing out of one of the only entrances to the "Dwellings," an underground nation that I've passed on to my cousin and his fantasy domain. It was the only route of trade between the two nations.

Outside of the topic of that city, there was once an "Illusory Forest" that was this dense forest permanently blanketed by a very thick mist. It sat directly in the center of Malidine and had four rivers running from it in fairly cardinal directions--or running into it, rather. I just recalled the river that passes Burcumsy did ultimately flow into that forest and out of it to the south. The forest itself was guarded by Arkvunda, who is now Aowar, the God of Body. Back then, she was a serpent with strange legs that she used as footing on trees as she wound through the misty woods, permanently guarding what was in the center. The ruin in the middle was Calle Dhima, which will still exist, likely in Malidine. The magic corruption from the original first era ruins kept the crater filled with water and frozen. The three tall buttes that stood around the ruins were stuck in an unnatural arctic limbo. Those buttes now exist in the bay at the mouth of the Heskegi river, a less unnatural arctic terrain for them. I don't know what will keep people out of Calle Dhima now or if they're unknown like they once were.

A later development were the Kespol trolls, but trolls have been moved to their own realm and entirely separate saga. They certainly don't live in Malidine anymore. I'm not sure if their swamps will remain, though. They were added to Malidine as part of old migration maps I had drawn out.

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For the last few hours, I've been distracted reading about ancient mineral usage. I just learned about Chinese oracle bones and cinnabar's use not only as ink, but as sculpted, beautiful "ink sticks." This world is amazing.

About Gods in the World

Gods, as they are right now, are not sentient things, but rather massive constructs made by the first advanced species on this planet. The species has vanished so long ago that only what they've built out of a certain strange material still exists. Some of it was made to provide some kind of service to the race in question and still continually functions without their presence. Those things seem to be worshiped as Gods by the newer races that have evolved to fill the gap that the first species left.

There are a lot more Gods than there used to be.

Once, there were only six deities, three greater and three lesser. Now, there are [checks notes] twelve. Even at half capacity, I hadn't placed all of the "God Mechanisms" into the world. It's a lot to do. The religious of the world share the same religion, but they have wildly different ideologies and cultures. Some have preferences and have named their nations after their favored God (which usually has something to do with the presence of the deity within their land, such as Ividnon birthing the Ivid and Jhordone patrolling the high plains of Jhordona.)

Speaking of, that's the two easy ones I've had set in stone for the longest time. The other I know the whereabouts of (somewhat) is Kurdah, who is said to be "slumbering somewhere deep beneath the Folstrom orogeny. I'm using pretentious jargon for a reason--the Folst is a massive, nasty region of tectonic mayhem. Whether Kurdah truly is asleep under there or is actively "raising the Folsts upon Its back" as the popular story goes is up for debate, but the intention was to shroud It in a veil of mystery that may or may not ever be revealed.

That leaves nine more to sprinkle about.

The other three of the older Gods had locations, but their actual forms have been retired, which means they may be placed somewhere else when they've been redesigned. Well, one has also had Its original homeland taken away, too. Jeohan, God of Light (formerly fire,) has always been dominant in Erihan. It--or, He, at the time--was a large bipedal strange entity that wandered the nation like a lumbering giant. Gods do not function like this anymore, but Jeohan should be in Erihan. Aowar, formerly Arkvunda (and a She,) was a winding serpent-like creature with many smaller arms along Its body, which were used to wend through the trees and grab them for stability. There is no more "illusory forest" for It to guard, as It was just a sentry protecting a dangerous ruin (Calle Dhima.) This may still factor into Aowar's placement, since that ruin does still exist and would certainly be dangerous. It just may or may not be in the heart of Malidine as it once was. Unfortunate Probihan was an "amorphous mass" that slid over the Nokan homeland of Wai Nokan Tire like a magical translucent slug. It not only needs a new home, but a new body and purpose, too, because the Nokan folk have been moved to Wasakha and beyond.

Actually, Balki existed in Atavai, but in the spirit realm. Balki can probably stay in Atavai, but certainly needs a new identity.

Never had any idea about any of the others, especially the two newest, Ordea and Ta'al. Motion could be interesting. Sound? Can you imagine a God of Sound that's just a massive floating foghorn sounding off? I can come up with something cool. I've got some notions.

I have a notion about Jeohan, too.

Imagine a mechanism shining an insane amount of light from atop a mountain across a barren tundra, piercing the night with a strange white light. I can see low wintry clouds behind it, also illuminated when low. I can see an aurora composing a backdrop behind it. Jeohan is the God of Light, now, and It happens to preside over a people who live in a land of midnight sun and near twenty-four hour spans with no sunlight, depending on the season. The original mechanism could have been employed for that very reason by the first era, too. Jeohan's light may even grow plants in the night. I can see the God drifting between locations, too, perhaps seasonally. It could come to rest over Alphite in the summer season, maybe deactivating until the long span of dark winter returns. Maybe It never deactivates, but doesn't hurt the mortal eye, either. This is a fantasy domain, after all.

A lot of thoughts going on right now. One of which is whether I like that spelling of Alfeight better. I made it up because I'm tired of typing it the old way and it's flagged for rename. It'll do for now.