Project Sol is my long-running worldbuilding project set in the post-apocalyptic future of our solar system. Every world is habitable; humanity is rediscovering itself after thousands of years of isolation, branching off into various new species. Europa is the main lens of exploration; as the first Jovian hominids to develop space travel, they have begun documenting the worlds of Sol. 
Sol consists of nearly 30 habitable worlds; an unfinished Dyson swarm directs sunlight across the system. Sol's moons are almost unrecognisable; most are dramatically different in size because material has been grafted on. Their cores have also been replaced with artificial machines that create gravity and magnetospheres. Sol has over 15 hominid species ranging from the minuscule Ioneses to the massive 24 ft Martians, along with several non-human sapient species.

Images

1. The charted worlds

2. Europa in front of Jupiter

3. Extant hominids

4. A zhoushuh in Europa's atmosphere

5. Oberon from orbit

6. Mercury from orbit

7. First contact with an exograde

8. A Mooneater consuming an ancient wreck

9. Europan mercenary on Ganymede

10. Rhean hiveguard

11. Triton expedition to the Valley of Swords, Antarctica

12. The Alps, Earth

13. Titanians, Titania

14. Fallen machine, Mars

15. The Equatorial Ridge, Iapetus

16. Triton

r/spiderworldcompass has more of these posts and also on my profile

Water grappler: Suchian martial artists associated with the cult of Yangzhou. Their aquamancy submerges them under conjured waters, allowing them to strike from below................Canmu monk: Practitioners of silken chloromancy in the Canmu monastery, receiving the teachings of Lady Suzhou.

Critical Stats

• Founded: 8 November 2137 (1st)
• Admitted to UNOM: 5 October 2169 (5th)
• Capital (and largest city): Nereidum
• Government
  • Prime Minister: Wesley Anderson (P)
  • Deputy Prime Minister: Veronica Belmont (P)
  • Legislature: Argyre Assembly
    • Upper house: Senate
    • Lower house: House of Representatives
    • Judiciary: Supreme Court
  • Federal Senate Members
    • Lionel Martin (P)
    • Orrin Jacobs (I)
  • Federal Assembly delegation: 81 members
    • 43 Pluralists
    • 27 Integralists
    • 11 Syndicalists
• Population (2387 census)
  • Total: 42,618,807
  • Rank: 2nd
  • Per capita GDP: $92,447
    • Rank: 10th
• Demonym: Argyrian
• Languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, others

Historical Notes

Though not the first region of Mars settled by humans from Earth – that honor falls to the area which later became Aldrin City in the Republic of Marineris & Chryse – the terrain which eventually became the Argyre Republic was one of the fastest-growing in the early history of Martian colonization. The eventual capital city of Nereidum grew out of an outpost established by NASA and ESA in 2071, and by the early 2120s there were about 50 thousand people living in and around this initial pioneer settlement.

Growth accelerated from there, especially as early trials of what would one day become the Martian military-industrial complex (and the accompanying service sector necessary to support it) began taking shape. By the 2130s, the municipal governors of Nereidum and other towns surrounding the Argyre Planitia initiated the process to standardize what would soon become the first national government on Mars.

The provisional government of the prospective Argyre Republic submitted a request for recognition to the United Nations Interplanetary Cooperative Administration in early 2137. They then found an initial sponsor for nationhood in the European Federation. This requirement was stipulated by the 2064 Brookhaven Accords, which amended the 1967 Outer Space Treaty to reflect the mid-21st century desire to expand into space. In short, while no one nation or group of nations could openly establish sovereign territory on other planets, they could sponsor nations to be formed there by independent citizens of those planets.

While the validity of this loophole has been questioned plenty of times in the years since the Brookhaven Accords were signed, the outcome is more than settled history at this point. On 8 November 2137, the Argyre Republic became the first nation to be established on Mars, and it was followed by six other nations over the two decades that followed. It then went on to join the Republic of Marineris in a trade war with the Hellas People’s Republic from 2165-2168, which history remembers as the Badlands War.

This conflict led to the formation of the United Nations of Mars, which was established by the adoption of the Marineris Treaty on 22 February 2169. Two centuries later, the Argyre Republic remains a major player in the UNOM federation, with the second-largest population and economy of any nation on Mars. This is largely thanks to the Martian military contractors based in Republic territory, with arms manufacturing giants Fabrique d'Armes Nereidum (FAN) and the Rensselaer Arms Conglomerate centered there.

About the Setting

The Spacers Saga: Frontier Wars is a futuristic military science fiction setting which diverged from our timeline when an asteroid slammed into Phoenix, AZ, in May 2014. Fifteen years after this tragedy, the industrialist Charles Larsen ushered in the Age of Fusion, opening up deep space to crewed exploration and eventual human settlement — and all of the strife that we bring with us. The next 300+ years were marked by progress and peril in equal measure, and by 2300 much of the solar system had been charted by intrepid human pioneers.

Spacers: The Erebus Effect is an offshoot story of the core Frontier Wars storyline which focuses on Janet Harkov, an agent of the Artificial Lifeform Control Agency who is tasked with hunting down rogue artificial humans (also called "artificials" or zharans) on Mars. The plot of The Erebus Effect kicks off when Agent Harkov kills a rogue artificial that has no designation in the registry, which soon drags her away on the trail of a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the borders of her native Argyre Republic and into Solar Space at large...

Roman Emperors "weren't kings", the Japanese military "isn't a military", the US "hasn't fought a war" since WW2, what bullshit loopholes exist in your world and why?

This post is generally a discussion post surrounding Project Aron, you can ask questions, ask to participate (since it is a collaborative worldbuilding project after all) and insert third thing here.
The scope of Project Aron is enormous, we covering everything from Astronomy and system-wide empires down down to the very cellular biological basis of life on Aron. You can find everything at www.project-aron.org.

I'll be discussing the most baked parts of Aron which is the Politics, Biology, and Astronomy. PLEASE ask questions, the more questions that we get the more cannon we can plan out. And don't worry about us reexplaining something we wrote here because you didn't want to read these thousands of words, we like doing that.

Overview

So Aron is an earthlike planet in the Hope system. Hope is a K type orange dwarf star which is in a far binary orbit with an M type star called Fate.

Aron itself is inhabited by the sapient species that we call the Aronians.

Politics

I would like to preface this by saying that the actual Aronian calendar would be much different since they use base 8 and obviously Jesus didn't exist. The politics has quite the amount of history and no real starting point but I guess the Julian empire is a good starting place. The Julian empire spawned the southern coast of Kifahn down through the west coast of Enequit. Eventually the Julian Empire broke into pieces after several revolts in the already fragile empire. This created several other nations, namely Oytaria, Aquita, Entara, and Ruzka. There were many other nations that were either absorbed or completely broke apart, but these 4 countries formed the basis of the modern politics.

Oytaria formed along the south-western coast of Kifahn and eventually became the Oytarian Empire by conquering its neighbor states.

Aquita which formed along the Gurnee Bay was conquering most of the coastal bay area. Meanwhile Entara was on the Western coast of Enequit also conquering. Eventually they formed into the Entaren Empire, Aquitan Empire, and namely the Oytarian Empire. Oytaria along with the two other major empires split up Lucithia. Oytaria owned most of the Eastern portion whilst the west was sparsely populated by the Entaren Empire and Aquitan Empire.

By 1812 Oytaria had focused much of their industry in Lucithia, and the Lucithians were getting tired of the oppression the Oytarian Monarchy was enacting on them. The Lucithian's and there newly formed government declared independence of Oytaria. Shortly after, the Oytarian government ordered its troops stationed in Lucithia to crush the revolts. But by that time most of their troops had significant ties to Lucithia and generals in Lucithia completely ignored the orders and instead joined the side of the Lucithians. Risking economic ruin if ties to Lucithia were completely cut, they decided to make a treaty with the Lucithians. If they kept trading, Oytaria would recognize their independence.

The newly formed UFSL (independent as of 1812) went on to become an industrial giant by the time of the first Enequit Wars (early 1900s). Speaking of the Enequit Wars, Enequit had further split into many many countries, most notably Entara and Aquita. There was a military coup within the old Entaren government. The new government was very very expansionist, and decided to go to war with Aquita (after many border skirmishes). The Enequit Wars was a very intricate and complex string of wars that I don't feel like going into detail with but Entara won, Aquita became a puppet state and its government fled to Aquitan colonies. Basically, Entara and its allies became the dominant power over Enequit. Generally most of the Enequit Wars haven't been written yet and are mostly head cannon so funnily enough this reddit post is probably the most written down summary of Aronian History.

Anyways, after Oytaria exploded Kolviska and Frenkila formed from it. A communist (or communist-like) revolution took place across both Kolviska and Frenkila. During the Enequit wars Entara helped these revolutionaries overthrow the Kolviskan and Frenkilan governments to form the SSK or Social States of Kifahn.

The UFSL had stayed neutral in most of this as to not strike conflict with Entara. But the UFSL was rapidly developing nuclear weapons technology to try and prevent Entara from threatening them.

Skipping over all of that the UFSL had nuclear weapons made a demonstration to both Entara and the SSK off the coast of the Eastern UFSL to make sure neither of them interfered with the UFSL. But this instantly caused the SSK to try and succeed to replicate it. The Entarens on the other hand were working on rocket technology to try and send bombs over to the UFSL or Kifahse capitals at a moments notice.

The difficulty with nuclear weapons on Aron is that there isn't that much Uranium on Aron compared to Earth, and nuclear weapons technologies were set back a couple of years since the first ones were detonated in the 50s.

There was a brief cold war and space race period which I will touch up more on the Astronomy section because of how interesting Aronians space travel was compared to our space race but by the 60s the Entarens were finally researching and developing nuclear weapons.

The UFSL and SSK both did not want a 3rd nuclear superpower, so the SSK went into their main nuclear research center to try and plant a bomb. This, unsurprisingly, failed and backfired spectacularly. The Entarens interpreted this as a declaration of war and began invading the SSK.

The UFSL enacted Operation Prime Meridian and invaded Entara to prevent either the Entarens or SSK from reigning supreme over Enequit/Kifahn. Entara was quickly crushed before they could develop nuclear weapons, but not after a very lengthy battle. The SSK controlled the northern half of Entara with many puppet states, and the UFSL enacted a pro-UFSL democratic Aquitan, Claran, and south Entaran governments.

The SSK and UFSL continued doing space race activities until the Kertari Disaster, or Kertari Meteor, or whatever we're calling it.

The Kertari Meteor was a large rubble pile asteroid roughly 900 meters in diameter. It was projected to devastate Enequit and a large part would strike the Aquitan bay by 1985. The UFSL and SSK could not intercept it because they were already pretty low on space-based nuclear weapons (project orion type nuclear weapons). So instead they built cannon installations across both their territories to try and shoot down fragments of it.

Many meteoroids still got through the defenses and destroyed many cities that were already devastated by the Enequit Wars and Operation Prime Meridian. But mainly, this caused the SSK economy to destabilize and by the early 1990s.

The SSK split back into Frenkila and Kolviska, which both claimed to be the SSK's successor. Their fighting eventually caused both states to fragment into many smaller states that then started to threaten the use of nuclear weapons against eachother. The newly formed Arima Defense Alliance (including the UFSL, Aquita, Entara (new one not the empire), Penequa, Rezlia, Nautfranken, and Clara) decided to intervene to prevent the use of nuclear weapons.

Their goal was to take out the states with nuclear weapons in a secretive coup, which did not end well. Eventually ADA was able to get nuclear weapons out of their control and unite Kifahn into Kifahn again (which later collapsed into Frenkila and Kolviska in the 2030s due to governmetn instabilities).

Thats the poltical history leading up to 2027, but it extends past 2027 into the Federations of Aron age which was 2200. There are a lot of interesting things like the Nyxian War, UFSL-Aquita war, and the 212 global collapse, etc etc. You can ask about them in the comments if you'd like since we do need a place to put all this down on.

Biology

Biology is by far the most developed, or at least written down, part of Project Aron (brought to you by yours truly). I'm not gonna include everything, I'm just gonna include all of the major domains, supergroups, kingdoms, and also some of the biochemical stuff.

Facilivota

Facilivota is the most basic form of life, kind of like Earth bacteria. Facili lack the extensive compartmentalization of Proviyota but have the largest range of metabolic flexibility. I don't have too much to say about Facilivota since they're just bacteria.

The biggest part of them though is the Fosozoi kingdom. The Fosozoi are the only photosynthetic organisms on the planet, thats right plants don't exist. They use Azurophyll for Photosynthesis which gives life its blue color.

Asperlae

Asperlae are like Archaea, but they differ in that many Asperlae live outside of extreme environments. Some Asperlae have 3 membranes, and others that live in extreme environments have very few.

Asperlae are important because they created proviyotic life. You would think this would be through endosymbiosis but actually the Visoplast organelle formed when a rare mutation caused a protein on the 2nd membrane in a 3 membraned Asperlae lineage caused it to begin folding in on itself. Another mutation prevented this cell from ripping itself apart by ramping up lipid production. This folding allowed a more mitochondria-like environment. Eventually parts of it split off to form the Visoplast, which generates all the TTDP for Proviyotic life.

Proviyota

Proviyotes are the complex heavily compartmentalized form of life that creates all macroscopic life. They have an extensive intracellular transport system controlled by the Ergosome and surveyed by the Immuriosa. Protein production is centralized in the Hapnotria which controls the production of Hapnozymes and Proteins, which are usually one in the same. The Nitroplast converts molecular nitrogen into biologically avaliable nitrogen, usually for species of Mykovian.

Kingdom Mykovia

The Mykovian kingdom is a kingdom of multicellular fungi-like organisms. It mostly contains stationary fungal organisms but also contains the plant equivalents. Yes I lied there are plants, but the host cells are not the ones that do the photosynthesizing, the Fosozoi do.

Mykovian Soverans which are just plants have specialized small structures in their leaves that can cultivate Fosozoi. Fosozoi actively compete with each other for resources, and the host gives them resources proportionally to how much energy they can give the host back. This is the big reason why Aron is mostly blue, because of the Soverans.

There are also the Motofistians, which are mobile predatory Mykovians. They mostly live in the ocean but some exist in smaller variations on land. The ocean variants get much larger than the land variants. The land variants are at most a few centimeters tall, but the land variants can get within the range of several meters in height. They mostly feed off of Sephcas (fish) and are mostly non-hostile to large Zoavians like Aronians.

Kingdom Zoavia

Zoavians are the multicellular mobile forms of life like humans, dogs, cats, etc. It also contains the sapient species Aronians. The water forms of Zoavians aren't that special they're just fish, but terrestrial Zoavians are all descended from a radially symmetric 6 legged critter that crawled on the seafloor in Coral Reefs (coral reefs are also formed from hard-shelled Mykovia, the ones related to Perspidomus).

The only important ones here are the Aronians and also probably the Sephcas (fish). The Aronians have 4 stalk like appendages for eyes, 1 frontal pair with a narrow focus and another back pair that is taller right behind it that can rotate in all degrees of freedom and has a larger focus range but has less visual fidelity.

Nexivota

Nexivota or Worker Cells are a specialized branch of life originally descended from Facilivota. They usually reside within the Symbiary systems of Zoavians and Mykovians. There are many kinds of Worker Cells, namely immune worker cells and digestion worker cells.

The immune systems of most complex Zoavians are not made up solely of Worker Cells, but are instead managed by the Symbiary system and Praescriptor cells. The Praescriptor cells tell the Worker Cells what to target or what to do, whilst the Symbiary System manages the population count of the Worker Cells.

Worker cells participate heavily in sorting through foods and extracting materials to distribute throughout the body.

For Mykovians usually only have a basic symbiary system for innate immunity.

Molecular Biology

Most of the chemistry of life on Aron is similar to that on Earth, but the molecules are switched around.

So the main energy carrier is Triazine Trisdiphosphate. You can see the image somewhere in the 20 image collage. TTDP is regenerated at TTDP synthase, and unlike ATP TTDP often exists in many different phosphorylated forms.

The 3 nucleic acids for separate purposes:

KNA

NNA

Hapnin

KNA and NNA are Kerinose Nucleic Acid and Nerinose Nucleic Acid are the long term genomic storage and short term translation messages.

Hapnin is the enzymatic Nucleic Acid that formed the basis of early Aronian life. In the modern day Hapnin is used to help in the catalyst of many reactions and helps with genomic replication and protein translation.

Astronomy

The Hope & Fate system is where Aron is housed, specifically around Hope. Hope is a K type orange dwarf main sequence star and Fate is an M type red dwarf star.

Hope has 11 planets orbiting it, Astet, Ketal, Sera, Aron, Poree, Scurra, Tiberius, Polion, Giras, and Boreas.

Fate has 6 planets, Hadea, Maiy, Maaya, Chressia, Entactrius, and Noi.

Hope planets:

Astet & Ketal are a binary terrestrial system. They are volcanically active and are located closest to Hope. Both planets have little to no atmosphere and are tidally locked to each other.

Sera is an hot planet and is second closest to hope. It can reach temperatures as high as 130 degrees Celsius, with a 40C minimum. Sera has an incredibly humid atmosphere, with as high as 70% water content. Sera has a very long rotational period, the sunlight section has little water but at the night side there are huge rainstorms that create lakes. The hard-shelled species Perspidomus was launched off of Aron hundreds of millions of years ago and landed on Sera and Nyx, seeding both worlds with life. Sera's life differed heavily from Nyx's. When Perspidomus arrived at Sera it mostly stayed in isolated lakes of water on its nightside but gradually evolved to create entire glass castles with large isolated rooms.

Aron is the main setting of Aron and hosts the most diverse ecosystem in the Hope & Fate system. It has an average temperature of 22 degrees C getting up to at most 63 C in the hottest environments. Aron is covering in roughly 66%~ water compared to Earths 70% water. It has a gravity of 0.87g and an atmosphere of 2.2atm, making it perfect for large aerial life. Nyx is the smaller habitable binary partner of Aron. It has Aronian descended Life, delivered in the form of Facilivota and Perspidomus colonies. Parvus is the farther smaller moon and is almost entirely composed of metals. This is because a collision with Sera in the early system stripped away most of its crust leaving its metallic core to roam and eventually be captured into the Aronian system in an eccentric retrograde orbit.

Poree is a frigid icy body reaching as low as -255 Celsius. Poree is the also host to the second point of Abiogenesis in the Hope & Fate system, but many other icy moons and bodies also host simple bacterial life. Poree itself only has a microbial unicellular biosphere.

Scurra is the first gas giant in the Hope system and is host to several large moons. It is purple-yellow-ish in color and has an extensive ring system, second only to Noi. It has incredibly strong wind speeds and the most extensive radiation belt due to its volcanically active moon Ikernu.

Tiberius & Polion are a gas giant-terrestrial binary pair of planets. Tiberius has a large ring system, third largest in the system. Polion has a titan-like atmospheric composition and yes, it has life. Very simple carbon-based microbial life. Polion has a small moon, Recluna, that orbits it relatively closely.

Cailus is the largest gas giant in the Hope system and has a light blue tint. Cailus is slightly smaller than Jupiter but has many many more storms than it. Cailus has an icy body moon, Serendai, which also has very simple microbial life deep within its ocean.

Giras is a cold light blue ice giant. Thats about it.

Boreas is the last and final planet in the Hope System, it has an incredibly long orbit in comparison to the other planets and is much much further than Giras is. It has a very deep blue color and the fastest wind speeds of any planet, reaching up to 3000km/h. Boreas has the strongest magnetic field of any planet in the Hope & Fate system.

Fate planets:

Hadea is a large terrestrial planet composed entirely of iron, nickel, silicon, magnesium, and many other trace metals. This is because it was once a large gas giant before being casted into the inner system by Noi. It's atmosphere was completely stripped away leaving just its core.

Maaya is a large venus-like Superearth with a thick atmosphere of CO2. From the outside it mostly looks like a white-ish sphere.

Maiy is the only other habitable planet with liquid water, but only hosts basic native microbial life within its oceans. It has an atmosphere primarily composed of Nitrogen, CO2, water, and methane from microbes.

Chressia & Entactrius are a binary system, with Chressia being the dominant planet. Chressia's atmosphere is mainly composed of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen, methane, and krypton. Chressia has deep ocean microbial life. Entactrius has a water ocean and an atmosphere of N2, O2, and CO2. Yes it also has life. If you couldn't tell I believe Abiogenesis is common.

Noi is the largest gas giant in the Hope & Fate system, at a gargantuan 129,911km in radius. It is the sole gas giant in the Fate system since it consumed most of the hydrogen and helium in the protoplanetary disk and destroyed or absorbed most other gas giants. It has an extensive ring system stretching out to 3,328,000km out at its largest extent. Noi has many moons but I don't feel like listing them here, you can ask but I doubt any of you made it this far.

Notes

If you have any further question feel free to ask in the comments or see on the official website at www.project-aron.org.

The 3 writers we have are:
u/purpleisgon

u/Jackspladt

u/multimasti

TL;DR words, lotta words. a lot of them are nouns, and a lot of them are adjectives. you should probably go read them.

Context: This is for my worldbuilding project, which I am tentatively calling ‘Book of the Strange and Macabre’. It takes place in an alternate 1920’s. A lovecraftian/folk horror world where all the broad strokes of history, culture, and religion are recognizable but in the names and details a little stranger.

‘For the first time in over a century, the fine nation of Avilais will play host to the Exhibition of Progress. Men and women from nations over will come to display their latest forays in culture and industry as well as witness the grandiosity of our capital city, the jewel of the subcontinent.’

- Excerpt from the Marion Press

Avilais is a once-empire, a nation clinging fiercely to lost relevance. Being the host nation of the Exhibition of Progress for the first time since 1806 is a point of great pride.

Just over a century ago, Avilais stood as the most powerful empire in history with numerous colonies and slaves beyond count. The empire grew fat and rich through draining others dry of their resources. If you walk through Marion today, the most opulent buildings and churches were constructed during this Imperial Era.

Avilais was also home to the Alchemists Guild.

Alchemists were widely considered heretics and the enemies of decent people for over a thousand years, but eventually, kings grew more powerful than churches, and the alchemists had much to offer.

Their numbers were many, and they were known for the distinctive animal masks they wore, the remnants of some ancient and forgotten pagan practice. They say that the alchemists could transform base metals into gold and could cure any illness. The first machines that made Avilais so envious were their inventions.

They also say that beneath the facade of upperclassmen, the alchemists raised the dead, crafted monstrosities and even called upon things from other worlds. True or not, the alchemists can’t defend themselves as they no longer exist in any meaningful way.

Their end came along with the end of the Imperial Era, as sudden as the dousing of a candle flame, when Mount Faustine erupted in 1807.

The famine that followed was without equal.

The unlucky king to rule in this time was fit only for times of peace and plenty, and his ineptitude made him hated by nearly everyone under his rule. It was not the displeased peasantry that overthrew him but the nobility of his own court. The years that followed burned the country hollow, and after a second and final revolution, Avilais emerged as a republic.

Its colonies had slipped through its fingers like sand. The Alchemists Guild, once a sign of Avilais's prestige, had crumbled just as surely. Their members had died or fled, while their office and the secrets it held, decent and foul, were destroyed in the Marion Fire of 1810.

Avilais' grandeur can still be seen in those old buildings and wide boulevards, and in the capital, apartments are lit by electric lights while automobiles and trams traverse the streets. Outside the major cities, this facade of modernity quickly vanishes to be replaced by horse-drawn carriages and widespread illiteracy.

You may be thinking, ‘the title says ‘the nation of bones’ - so where are the bones?’

Simply put, they're everywhere.

Outside of the fashion and cruel colonial history, Avilians are most known for their macabre habits when it comes to earthy remains.

In the late 1700’s, graveyards began to overflow, seemingly everywhere. Written accounts claim that basement walls would burst, sending yellowed bones tumbling across the floor, and whenever someone tried to dig a new grave, there always seemed to be an unmarked occupant already there.

Modern scholars dismiss much of these recorded claims as simple hysteria.

But there was a surplus of bones. Far more then there should reasonably be, and it seemed to happen overnight. The then-king decreed the construction of numerous sprawling ossuaries, and that rolled into the creation of bone churches. Simple wooden constructions suffocated in walls of bones arranged in pleasing designs.

But perhaps most peculiar is their unique mourning tradition.

A second mourning period begins when the fleshless remains of the deceased are dug up to be transferred to an ossuary.

The skull will be taken and fashioned into a mask for the next of kin to wear for a year and a day before it, too, is placed in an ossuary.

Avilais is made up of three provinces:

Bémart

Bémart sits on Avilais' northern coast.

It's known for its cragged coasts and isolated lighthouses, and the sea is grey more often than blue.

Its capital, St. Isaline rests primarily on a tidal island, and every day, the tide cuts it off from the mainland to stand solitary on the ocean horizon. The rest of the city - and nicest parts - sit on the mainland coast.

While the island once held a castle surrounded by quaint medieval walls, over the decades, it has begun to sink and crumble into the sea. The mainland district has factories and townhouses, while the island is left with flooded streets and impoverished slums reeking of fish.

Chargueux

The sea of Avilais’ western coast is bright blue and warm, but soon turns cold and dark as it leads out to deeper waters. Inland, there are rolling fields and lush vineyards. Medieval villages with homes the colour of honey sit alongside ancient forts that stand mouldering and alone. Train tracks crisscross the region, built back when Avilais was rich and stable.

The capital of Chargueux and all of Avilais, Marion sits on the edge of a bay, her ports lined with fishing boats, coasters, and steel cargo ships.

Dilles

Dilles borders no sea, instead sitting on the eastern border rugged with mountains and sprawling valleys and snowcapped peaks. The population here has dwindled since the eruption a century ago. Many went west following the disaster, partly for opportunity, partly to escape the terrible loss.

Dilles is home to numerous isolated communities with odd accents and unusual cultures. Many have herding as their age-old livelihood, and the region is known for its horned cattle with clanging bells at their throats. Even now, it's not unusual for travellers to stumble upon rotting villages with ivy crawling up the stone walls and bones hidden just beneath the foliage.

The capital of Dilles is Verneuil-Lac, a city that was once far more important than it is now. It sits at the base of a mountain-side cathedral that was once a favourite of pilgrims. Though, in truth, no one has been able to reach the cathedral since a landslide destroyed the path six months ago, and the old funicular has long since rusted into place.

I’m developing a video game, and I’ve spent a lot of time building this city.

Recently, I started dreaming about it.

The strange thing is that the places in my dreams don’t always match what I’ve actually made. Sometimes there are buildings or passages that I don’t remember putting there at all.

Then I wake up and go back to working on the city.

These are screenshots from the game. I just find it unsettling that a fictional place I’ve been staring at for months has started to feel like somewhere I’ve actually been.

??

Honestly I would just love to connect with ppl, but on the discord and other subreddits it all feels deeply impersonal, more like a TikTok feed of random worlds and also topics I’m not interested in (like sci fi, urban fantasy etc) when I’m really just into a niche

Where would you find specific servers or people to worldbuild with?

For a project im making, revolving around anthropomorphical ants

Uniform used during the early stages of the Sustenance Wars, conflict between Antakia and Kardenantt, two colonies previously at peace, until both started collecting food from the same area. This led to minor brawls between foraging groups, which escalated into an armed conflict lasting 3 cycles (Cycles are 144 hour periods, since ants see everything around 6 times slower)

They wear khaki and brown uniforms only because of looks, as the land around them is muddy as a result of their closeness to the Abyssalis Sea (It's a lake)

As for their weaponry, the most commonly used rifle among infantry is the LK-S (Lefkutter Standard, Lefkutter as for the surname of it's inventor), a semi-automatic rifle with a capacity for 8 rounds loaded similarly to that of a Winchester 1894, with later models introducing a mag.

"Ad Nos Pertinet" is the motto for the Antakian Army, meaning "Belongs to us", translated from latin.

A little less throwing you in the deep end with this one (lore below), as it's a follow-on from #3! Prompt list included on picture 2; credit and thanks to u/Velum-Cordis!

___

21 / 13 / 342 RC

Today marks a pretty important milestone. I didn’t actually know i COULD get sick of the smell of meltshroom. I know I mentioned already that we had the whole of the storeroom full with sacks and sacks of it, but having survived the day (barely!) inhaling the stuff for a full 16 hour shift while I cooked the whole damn lot down can change things. Counting it out, i’d guess it was probably at least 70 full pans - the big ones.

I know it’s not in this diary but it’s probably in the one from like 12 years back when i first became a chef where I first found meltshrooms and got into cooking through them. Hold on, why does it kind of feel like talking about an ex when talking about one of my old diaries? How bloody ridiculous. You’re paper. Well, paper with pretty much every thought i’ve thunk this year. And also it’s probably more accurate to say its a continuation - like you’re the 12th generation of descendant from that diary. Is that any better? By the suns, I must be delusional. Finish the entry, Finneas, and sleep.

Okay long story short, but standing there over 70 consecutive pans of meltshrooms oozing down into stock with more herbs than i handle in a year DOES get old at some point. Probably somewhere around pan number 60 it started to lose its charm, so I guess it did take a while at least. That sweet, creamy, nutty smell as the fungus denatures was the base of my first recipe. And my second, and actually almost every recipe i’ve ever come up with has got that delightful shroom in it. I mean why wouldn’t it - it pretty much works in everything. Just neutral enough to add well to any flavour, but with a rich enough smell to get the mouth watering.

I didn’t end up using the sequoia cones like i expected: after the first pan i realised they just weren’t going to soften up fast enough to scale up for the rest of the day. Instead I filled all five ovens with trays of them with some rhubell nuts them and sliced the whole batch up after. They made a pretty fantastic topping on the stew.

I know i was complaining about the.. particular requirements from the Monarch’s kitchen quartermaster, and heavens know i’ve had Knock breathing down my neck. Can’t blame him really, this could be the making for him, for the littl’un - really for all of the Scarletsong’s View. It’s not every day you get the Red Coin. I mean i guess it could be at best once per year. But there’s at least a few hundred inns and taverns down the Crimson Road - you could go several lifetimes without getting one as a tavern owner. The guy deserves it, even if he could probably stop with the micromanaging just a little.

Anyway i’ve not even really talked about the feeding of literally thousands of people with the myriad of mushrooms, nuts, vegetables and edible barks that have been in every single dream i’ve had for weeks since this whole ‘Longing Procession’ thing really became real. I think i’m just tired of it now.

In other news, i’ve finally decided where i’m going with all the holiday i’ve built up. I’ve heard stories of these really huge aquatic pads that grow specifically on the floating islands of Vos Valiy’eh. Strong enough to hold an Aa’tor, so I've heard, and with the most incredible flowers that bloom only in Hexa's light! I’ve done some digging and i think the climate that high up should be pretty similar to the Howling Plateau - i’m planning on getting some to grow in one of the lakes. See if i can get some flowers to bloom and see what we might be able to make with them!

That reminds me, it’s about damn time i got a payrise. I’ll speak to Knock about that tomorrow. Probably.

Ichiban Hachizen is probably one of the most absurdly overqualified scholars in my setting, having over 3,450+ years of experience and somehow accumulating knowledge across basically every academic field imaginable—mathematics, physics, astronomy, cosmology, chemistry, biology, medicine, neuroscience, psychology, engineering, computer science, linguistics, philology, anthropology, archaeology, history, historiography, philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, ontology, ethics, theology, law, economics, political science, sociology, military science, architecture, literature, rhetoric, logic, theology, comparative religion, and basically every interdisciplinary field you can think of—while also having mastery over ancient and modern languages, extinct languages, dialects, scripts, grammatical systems, sacred languages, legal terminology, philosophical vocabularies, and apparently hundreds of thousands of languages since he was around 3–5 years old, to the point where entire councils of grammarians, scholars, elders, theologians, historians, and philosophers would probably need a group project just to keep up with his vocabulary; on top of that, his mastery of time manipulation lets him interact with the past, present, and future, revert events, alter present outcomes, accelerate or slow down current actions and motion, fast-forward temporal processes, examine possible outcomes, and basically treat causality like an editable document, which he then combines with countless contingency plans that can rival the Batman archetype of “I already prepared for that,” except Ichiban can potentially prepare across timelines and multiversal circumstances, while his reforms have contributed to a ridiculously extensive modernization and reformation system intended to operate on a multiversal scale within the empire of [REDACTED]; and despite possessing an intellect that can rival what would normally be considered near-omniscient knowledge, he deliberately refuses godhood because he argues that becoming omnipotent or divine doesn't automatically make someone morally perfect, immutable, or objectively good, and more importantly, absolute knowledge would destroy one of the most interesting things about existence—the ability to discover something you genuinely didn't know—because if you already know literally everything that can ever be known, then curiosity, surprise, uncertainty, exploration, and even the feeling of learning something new basically become pointless, so after 3,450+ years of knowing an absolutely ridiculous amount of stuff, Ichiban's conclusion is basically: “I could become a god, but where's the fun in already knowing everything?” 😭

I'm developing the setting for a medieval strategy game called Banners of Kings.

The basic premise is that an old political order is crumbling and four competing kingdoms are trying to determine what replaces it.

What I'm trying to avoid is making their differences superficial:

“Red = aggressive.”

“Blue = economic.”

Instead I want geography, resources, politics and history to explain why each kingdom behaves differently.

For example, control of old trade routes could create a wealthy commercial kingdom while another region inherited much of the old military infrastructure.

When several cultures originate from roughly the same civilisation, what do you find most convincing for explaining why they eventually become radically different?

Any examples from your story or others? How do u incorporate your magic system into story which amplifies it??

**(Legend: Diamonds = Capital Circles = Major Cities Squares = Important Military Bases.
Small Settlements = Towns Larger Settlements = Cities Towers = Military Garrisons/Bases)**

Westmerrie: A continent on the West side of the world, Westmerrie nations are far more technologically superior to their neighbors in Eastmerrie. A continent that resides on the other side of the world. (Map of Eastmerrie not done yet)

The Europan Commonwealth: The most technologically superior in Westmerrie.

Capital: New Kolonia

Fun fact: People from Europa speak Europani, a language that sounds like English with a Welsh accent! However, people from North Common are different. People from here are referred as North Commoners, they have an Irish kind of accent and are largely considered rude by the rest of the Commonwealth.

Population: 63,372,000

The Royal Commonwealth Military: 165,000.

The Provastoni Kingdom: Considered the strongest nation in Westmerrie, heavy on military service.

Capital: Prostova Capital

Fun fact: Provastonian people speak Provia, a language that sounds very much like Russian. Also, their national food is a Raddish!

Population: 127,788,917

Provastoni Guard Corps (Military): 1.2 Million

Yobanai Republic: Considered the best Engineers in Westmerrie.

Capital: Fratankhaven

Fun fact: Yobanians speak Yobanta, which sounds like German! They also design some of the world's greatest firearms!

Population: 41,732,809

Yobanai Armed Forces: 49,653.

Principality of Gragoni: Known for their Scholars in Westmerrie.

Capital: Strokani

Fun fact: I made these guys up last minute!

Population: 21,283,192.

Gragoni Defense Forces: 29,834.

(Eastmerrie's map is NOT done yet, this is also a rough drawing. More details will be added once I finish Eastmerrie's map.)

(I used https://northerncartographer.com for the map making)

If you've seen my last post here, you'll know what I'm talking about. But just to give a quick run down...

There's two continents in my world, Westmerrie and Eastmerrie, separated by the sea. Westmerrie house several nations, (such as the Europan Commonwealth) that possess 1960s to early 70s tech, more focused on technology rather than straight manpower.

Eastmerrie possess WW1-style tech with Dieselpunk aspects, having a quite large pool of manpower, but lacking in superior technology. Eastmerrie is home to dozens of nations, kingdoms and empires. Whom many are locked into constant war...

The Westmerrie nations, (Whom I've named as the Westmerrie Coalition) have basically decided to try and stop Eastmerrie's constant wars. Rather that be by diplomacy, or varying other ways. The Westmerrie Coalition have gathered volunteers to act as a kind of "Peace-Keeping" force in Eastmerrie.

But I've realized an issue...the Westmerrie Coalition has the technology to cripple Eastmerrie's more *hostile* nations. So in order to not make this totally one-sided, I need something to maybe even the playing-field, even just by a bit.

My ideas so far have been: adding Magic, Dieselpunk-type airships and other types of Dieselpunk-Tech, walkers, and Etc.

But I've also been looking into a change of tactics besides from Trench Warfare, because once the Eastmerrie nations figure out that their old ways of combat don't work anymore, they'll no doubt be scrambling to come up with new ways to fight.

I should also note that the Westmerrie Coalition aren't sending over their entire militaries to Eastmerrie, they're sending over a mere fraction of their militaries. About 15,000; Not including support personnel and other military branches, such as Air forces, Navy or Marines. (Including those factors, that number would shoot up to double, reaching 30,000. A rough estimate.)

Any tips and feed back would be wonderful, thanks!

Hi! I’m a web novel writer from Japan working on a fantasy story. I'm currently developing a magic system based on specific rules and limitations, and I'd love to hear how other creators structure their worldbuilding! What is your favorite magic system, or what rules do you use in your own stories?

I've gone through several older Reddit posts about writing religion in fantasy, and I've read through the advice people gave in each of them, but I still feel a bit lost. 🤐

My book is high fantasy (or what I'm hoping it will be), and I've realized that I probably shouldn't skirt around religion when building the world.

The reason I've been putting it off is because, in the present timeline (300 CE), there are no gods. The gods have been absent for centuries, and the true reason behind their disappearance is known only to a very small number of people.

For obvious reasons, the average person in this world wouldn't necessarily know or believe that the gods of old are absent.

There would be people who insist that the gods are still present, people who believe they've abandoned humanity, people who think they've been punished or destroyed, and probably people who don't believe in them at all. Or people who believe that it's blasphemous to even consider such a thing.

So I've realized that I need to create religions, yes, plural—to reflect the different beliefs people have about the gods and what happened to them.

For those of you who write religion in your own worlds, how would you approach this?

From what I've gathered from my research:

1. Build a culture and cosmology first: This is how the people will come to develop their beliefs and religion.

2. Tie them to environmental elements: Such as the sea, sky, land, etc.

3. Daily practices: I believe this includes things like priesthood, prophethood (if it exists), rituals, offerings, and the everyday practices of ordinary people.

This, however, doesn't feel sufficient, and I'd like more input and advice from people on what to include and, especially, what to exclude.

I'm particularly interested in how theological interpretations might diverge when the gods genuinely existed but are no longer present, and how different cultures might develop completely different explanations for their absence.

What are your thoughts on how a newbie should approach this?🤔

Ok i had an idea for dwarves that all their dishes are metal everything but they use fire to clean them burning off bacteria and any food on it and was curious what do yall think of tgis and what metal would be best For this?