-The Karnasaurs of Kuzara are good mounts and hunting companions, but don't have the stamina to act as beasts of burden
*But the Kuzarans have high magical ability per capita, and usually their sorcerers take on that role
-The Urzul have domesticated and use Rhinos as mounts and beasts of burden
-Unity City, The U.R.C. , Adela, and the Domar Union have actual vehicles, which are a *very* rare luxury anywhere else
-The U.R.C. also still uses equines sometimes in the more rural areas
-North Altairans and the Vorhei are gonna use Shags (cold-adapted equines) for pulling
-The giant dogs "Riding Hounds" of Vorheim are expensive mounts and hunting companions, but not workhorses
-Valeria just uses horses, donkeys, and mules
-"Vasan" is an archon who (of his own volition) fell to darkness, even consuming Zhal into himself. The others destroyed his form, but his soul lingers.
-"Heralds" are Watchers who fell to darkness with Vasan. His corruption spread through the Watchers like a plague.
-The seven "Archons" are the antithesis of Zhal. They are divine beings of Light, Harmony, Balance, and the Rythms of existence.
-The "Watchers" are sort of "mini-archons", angel-like beings crafted from the Archons radiance.
There are five primary kinds of nature spirit, embodying different parts of nature:
"Primals" (Life/Growth)
"Elementals" (Elements)
"Reapers" (Death/Decay)
"Astrals" (Feelings and Abstractions)
"Fairies" (even-ish mix of the above four)
There are also many *uneven* "mixed" ones.
-Nature Spirits are beings without true material bodies, but connected with nature. Imprinted with the "idea" of natural things rather than the literal form.
Like the zhal, they can take on an *apparent* physical form - but it is not true matter/flesh.
-"Demons" are simply any mortal life saturated with dark mana (corruption). Usually by the Zhal, which are what brought darkness into the material plane.
There are even demonic plants, fungi, bacteria, etc. Any life.
-The "Zhal" are eldritch beings of darkness that fluctuated into existence at the edge of reality. They are sentient blobs of cancer on the fabric of reality.
They take on forms that may resemble flesh, but they are not truly biological.
-Mortal life is a body of physical matter, animated by spirit mana. Spirit is neccesary for biology to work in my setting (even bacteria and viruses).
-Most animal life has a soul, which is linked to the body via spirit, a special kind of spirit called "essence".
Please no algorithms for recommendations. They may be better for engagement metrics, but in no way are they better for the user.
My sleep schedule isn't stable enough to even notice a 1-hour fluctuation 😐. Not sure if that's good or bad.
Supernatural Example:
The "Prophets", dark creations of the Elders - giant "growths" of brain-matter rooted by tendrils.
Thousands of eyes grow from the wrinkles in the brain, each peering into a different possible future, while the brain attempts to calculate from them the actual future.
Non-Supernatural Example:
The "Moss Bears", elephant-sized bears that dwell in the "Mobar Jungle" between Kuzara and Maljin.
They have a symbiotic relationship where they allow moss to grow on their fur for camouflage.
-And the Malji tame basically all animals. They'll take bears, tigers, moose, buffalo, hippos, even sharks as mounts and/or pets.
Their druids can commune empathetically with animals, making domestication a breeze.
-The Kuzarans have the "Karnasaurs", which are based of prehistoric land-crocs. Large, long-legged crocodilians that serve as mounts and hunting companions.
-In both Faras and Vorheim, there is an equine called the "Shag" (ripe for puns) which is best described as a bit thicker-bodied horse with long, drooping fur like a yak. Good in cold environments, but gets overheated easily in warm ones.
-The Vorhei used lifeshaping magic (a practice of spirit magic, basically magic, semi-spiritual genetic engineering) to breed giant dogs called "riding hounds".
They're basically dogs that are large enough to ride. The trade-off is that they need to eat a lot, even relative to their size.
Imagine people saying that playing through the Voidstorm MSQ lol.
Zalum's (insane) plan is to use branches of the tree to create "oases" under his control - which would then be the only land capable of producing food.
Thus, starving the entire planet into submission (or death).
I'm currently planning that the climax of Lily's story is helping defend the "Tree of Restoration" in Maljin from an attack led by Zalum.
It's a magical tree connected to all the spirit in the world, and destroying it would screw everything up - ruining the entire biosphere.
Azimuthal ED projections of the Eastlands and separate ones for the upper and lower segments of it:
#worldbuilding #mapmaking #fantasy #maps
Their towns are often designed in a manner where runoff from Fountain Trees (used for washing, bathing, and drinking) pools around Decay Trees, where waste is dumped (both trash and human/animal waste).
The Decay Trees decompose and absorb the waste to suffuse the land used for farming.
Most notable are the Malji, who have created magical plants to manage their land:
-"Spirit Trees" to nourish crops
-"Decay Trees" to rapidly decompose waste and redistribute nutrients optimally
-"Fountain Trees" to pull water from the ground like wells for watering and drinking
Spirit magic using cultures will also frequently bless/imbue crops to have a similar effect.
Most the plants farmed on a large scale are real-world ones - wheat, cotton, corn, rice, carrots, potatoes, etc.
Sometimes the process is a bit different because of magic, an alchemical fertilizer is used (in areas that can afford mass-production) to accelerate growth.
No, sorry - the duration I speak of is for how long the effect of the potion lasts for the drinker. The potion itself can remain potent for millennia if sealed well.
And yeah, they're pretty common outside of extremely poor areas. Hospitals have shelves of them, most villages have a busy alchemist.
Most of them use common or mildly uncommon ingredients.
Their effects are usually <12 hours a bottle - which usually isn't something you'd want to expend some super rare item on.
So, I kinda felt if I made any of the recipes too expensive, they just wouldn't realistically be made.
Hmm? These are like satellite-style views on the surface of parts of the world from above, not stars.
I actually have document with more than 50 potions, their recipes, their coloration, and the effects of "overdosing" on them.
