World-building: Kairula

[Ximero]

Oh, and the Salamander! The glowing effects you gave her made her look particularly 3D, a bit like a figurine or bumper sticker – very very nice! I realise i’m a bit of a reactionary in this crowd by actually *not* liking shading very much – obviously no offence to the masters thereof, i just feel my own works look better without them. or i still live in denial, whichever – but in this case they definitely make her “pop out”, as the word goes around here 🙂 So yes. Just giving credit where it’s due 🙂 Carry on, then.

[Kaylin88100]

Thanks for the kind words, Ximero!
I actually hadn’t noticed the “dang” hidden in b’dang-dang, I just chose it because it sounded good, but I think it has potential. (It’s “orangutan”, by the way)

Yeah, I like the salamander. She took me a while, because I did shadows as well as highlights, which you might not have noticed. I like putting shading on some illustrations, just to make them stand out just that little bit more, and I thought Ms Salamander merited some extra attention.

I like the gloamglozer as well, but I have to admit I stole most of the concept from a series of books called the Edge Chronicles, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell (look up “Curse of the Gloamglozer” by them to see Chris Riddell’s version). I’d be interested to know which you (or anyone that can be bothered to look) think is scarier! *cough*Mine!*cough*

The original idea for the nymphs/elementals came when I made the dryad, and thought of making a water nymph. So I made her, and liked the idea so much I wanted to make a set, one for each element. Then I thought about how they would reproduce…and it all just went from there! 11 characters for the price of 1 idea! Cool or what?

The additions to the magic section aren’t quite finished yet, but I should get round to that soon.

[Kaylin88100]

PROGRESS UPDATE:
Added some more to the “Magic” page, basically finished the sections I was working on and added another PICTURE. This one’s of a mage using his power.

Still not quite finished (sorry), but you can now read about Lupus magic, Vampire magic, Eosi magic and Mind magic (a subset of Human magic).

[Kaylin88100]

PROGRESS UPDATE:
Created the “Humans” page – finally! Doesn’t have much on it yet, and some of what is there won’t make much sense yet (I need to add more pages with clarification, especially on the Valheru), but it’s up and it’s got a few interesting facts on.

[Kaylin88100]

PROGRESS UPDATE:
Added some more to the timeline on the “Humans” page.

Suggestions please for what other groups of people could settle on Kairula. I want some of them to live on an island, and they can’t be too recent – Pilgrim Fathers is too recent. I’ll say 10th – 11th century max.

[Ximero]

10th-11th century… the Vikings would have been all over the place at that time, so why not Kairula too? 😉 Alternatively (or, maybe also), Kairula could benefit from the presence of some Moors, who were thriving in Northern Africa and South-Western Europe around the same time. They could add some Norse (Runic) magic and Alchemy/Djinn summoning, respectively, to the mix. Maybe some of the Precolumbian or Native American cultures? Plenty of options 🙂

[Ximero]

Also (because i had to comment the above before having actually read your updates :D), i am now intrigued about the Nydigovia business. Now of course, this is your fantasy world, and you alone control the ratio of historic-speculation-to-pure-fiction, but, unless by complete chance, your choice of the year 101 AD would suggest you have some knowledge of the history of the region later known as Transylvania. And, if so, if you are acquainted with the Dacian/Getae tribes of Scythian descent living there, it would make much more sense for werewolves, rather than vampires, to have crossed over from that area. Just a thought 🙂

[Kaylin88100]

@Ximero, I did look up some history on the internet to find out when Transylvania might have been invaded, and that’s how I got the year. But I’m intrigued now: what’s this about werewolves?

Also, thanks for the suggestions. I’d completely forgotten about the Vikings. Silly me. I’ll add some right away.

[Ximero]

Glad to have been of help with the Vikings 🙂

As for Transylvania, well it’s only known (in pop culture) as Vampire HQ because of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ novel of the late 19th century. Now Stoker simply did what most commercially successful fiction writers do, namely take a smattering of real-life data and wrap it around with thick layers of historic speculation, and especially his own sheer imagination (not dissing him, since i do that myself). He knew he needed a scary and seductive creature of the night, but more than anything else he needed a context to place it in. It was possibly by mere chance, his discovery of the Saxon chronicles about Vlad the Impaler aka “Dracul(e)a” before, say, those about ‘Bloody Countess’ Elizabeth Bathory, that the world now only thinks of Transylvania (and not Hungary, or Bohemia or various Slavic regions) when mentioning vampires (the genuine ones, not the sparkly ones). Plus, “Trans-sylvania”, “The Land beyond the Forests” in Latin, does sound much more, well, Gothic and dungeony than other geographic names around it 😉

But speaking of Latin, the year you found, 101, marks the beginning of the invasion by the Romans of what was the sizeable country of the Dacian tribes (called Getae by the Greeks), a land partly conquered, pillaged and reorganised after 2 consecutive wars (101-102 and 105-106 AD). By the mixture of Roman settlers with Dacian natives, you eventually got what today is known as the Romanian people (typically known as Wallachians in the Middle Ages), whose folklore does know of certain forms of vampirism (as does most of Eastern Europe), but wolves feature much more prominently therein, from your typical Moon-devouring werewolves (folk explanation for solar eclipses) to St. Andrew, the patron saint of Romania (yes, just like Scotland), being also the “guardian of the wolves”. Sure, there’s many animals that Romanians hold dear, and have historically fetishised, such as the aurochs (European buffalo) or various mountain eagles, but only wolves have their own saint (coincidentally… the patron saint of the entire country) and are most typically invoked in folk magic. And how would they not be, when, on one hand you had the Romans revering their Lupa Capitolina, surrogate mother for founder twins Romulus & Remus, while on the other, the Dacians with their infamous rattling battle-flag depicting a fantastic beast with a wolf’s head and a dragon/fish’s tail (it was shaped kinda like a windsock, so when the bearer ran with it in battle, the wind would cause it to roar, howl, etc., making it look rather frighteningly alive… you know, FX of the BC blockbusters…)

Okaaay… i’ve really been lecturing here *blush* But tl;dr: Transylvania would have been a Team Wolf, rather than a Team Vampire. But oh well, not ruling out overlaps, i guess 🙂 Er… hope this helped?

[Kaylin88100]

Thanks, Ximero. And yes, it is helpful, even though I knew some of it already from my research. I don’t want werewolves to have come from Earth, though, or I’d definitely change it to that. If you read my page on Lupi (if you haven’t already) you’ll see I have a different origin story for them, that I like much better, so I’m not planning to either change it, or complicate things by having two different types of wolf-people. Anyway, my vampires had to come from somewhere, didn’t they?

[Ximero]

😀 Fair enough. It was just the mythology historian in me that couldn’t keep quiet on this one 😉

[Kaylin88100]

PROGRESS UPDATE:
Added Vikings and Moors to the “Humans” History section. Thanks to Ximero for suggesting them, I’ll look into the rest of your suggestions tomorrow. Or maybe the day after.

[Kaylin88100]

PROGRESS UPDATE:
Moved the “Human Magic” section to a separate page. I will add more detail, I promise! I also now need to delete the original entry on the Magic page and replace it with a link.

TO-DO LIST:
(These are in no particular order other than the first one which is my top priority.)
Sort out the “Human Magic” entry on the “Magic” page
Finish the “Human Magic” page info and add at least one more picture
Get pictures on the “Elves” page and finish off the info
Post a picture of a Fenris on the “Lupi and Vampires” page and finish off the info
Finish off the histories of the Dragons and Elves
Create the “Valheru” page
Create the “Eosi” page
Draw a map, scan it and upload it

Any suggestions of what else I need to do?

[Kaylin88100]

PROGRESS UPDATE:
Sorted out the “Magic” page (I hope).
Added pictures of Lupi and a Fenris, and finished off the Lupi information.

TO-DO LIST:
(In no particular order)
Finish the “Human Magic” page info and add at least one more picture
Get pictures on the “Elves” page and finish off the info
Finish the “Dragons” life cycle
Finish off the “Vampires” info and sort out the layout of the “Lupi” section
Finish off the histories of the Dragons and Elves
Create the “Valheru” page
Create the “Eosi” page
Draw a map, scan it and upload it

[Kaylin88100]

PROGRESS UPDATE:
Created the “Valheru” page, added one picture and some info.
Added links to the “Valheru” and “Humans” pages on “Races of Kairula” for easier navigation.

TO-DO LIST:
(In no particular order)
Finish the “Human Magic” page info and add at least one more picture
Get pictures on the “Elves” page and finish off the info
Finish the “Dragons” life cycle
Finish off the “Vampires” info and sort out the layout of the “Lupi” section
Finish off the histories of the Dragons and Elves
Finish the “Valheru” page
Create the “Eosi” page
Draw a map, scan it and upload it

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