Afelthyr
Jonarei 1, 3123 AS
Scope
The motivation behind building Afelthyr
This world is meant to be a place where I can funnel my creativity and create an environment rich for high fantasy stories. It is a personal challenge to myself to always be creative and to never lose imagination.
The goal of the project
A world that works for both Dungeons & Dragons 5e, and Pathfinder 2e where players can accomplish heroic feats to shape the future of the realm
Afelthyr's Unique Selling point
Afelthyr is unique in that it was sung into existence by a dragon and was also plagued for thousands of years by the song of a rival dragon. Music plays a large part in the mythos of Afelthyr as music, in this world, has the power to create and destroy. The very essence of magic itself in the world is believed to be caused by the melody of Afelthyr's song continuing to echo and live on.
The pantheon of Afelthyr is also unique. The great dragon Afelthyr created the gods in order to give her creation dominion over the land. These gods serve for a millennium and then must choose a successor, because of this the gods are given titles rather than recognized by their individual names.
Theme
Genre
High magic, with some elements of industrialized magic
Reader Experience
Afelthyr can feel mystical and terrifying depending on where you are. The land of Rakthos is a cursed land meant to instill fear and a sense of treachery and dark magic, much like Mordor in Lord of The Rings.
On the continents of Asun & Creoden, the feeling is much more mystical with breathtaking views, interesting denizens, and encounters between the races.
The Nebula is a strange land with wild magic coursing through all of the lands. This is meant to feel extremely mystical and almost unpredictable.
Onari is a land that was sundered and tainted by the dark magic of Rakthos before The Sundering when the continents began to split. Onari is meant to feel barren and is almost cut off from all magic, deafened to Afelthyr's song.
Reader Tone
Somewhat in the middle. The day-to-day life for most people in Afelthyr is normal, in some parts of the world the tone is more bright, and in others, it is bleaker. The lands of Rakthos are extremely dark and almost demented. Whereas Onari feels dark and helpless. There are meant to be times of great triumph and great sorrow in the land of Afelthyr.
Recurring Themes
Music is a huge motif. It is believed that Afelthyr's song set all of history into motion. Oracles attempt to tap into Afelthyr's song in order to tell the future. Mages draw on the resonance of her song in between particles to create magic, etc.
Afelthyr is also a land of rebirth and triumph. There are always great foes that try to conquer the land but good always triumphs over evil. Everything meant for evil works out for good somehow, this is believed to be part of Afelthyr's great wisdom. Mere mortals are reborn as gods every thousand years, this shows that the land is constantly in flux and is constantly embracing change.
There is also a recurrence of the numbers 7, 6, 1000, and 4 plus one-half.
- 8 is the number of completion. This is because there are 8 tones in an octave.
- 7 is the number of incompletion. World elements that have 7 will usually become 8 in due time. This is drawn from a major 7th interval in music needing to resolve to an octave or an 8th.
- 1,000 signifies change
- 4 plus one-half signifies tension and danger, this is drawn from the musical interval of a tri-tone.
Character Agency
Characters are meant to impact the world greatly. Characters could easily find themselves becoming the next God or ushering the realm into a new age. One of the main goals of the world is for the players to be as much of a part of the worldbuilding as I am.
Focus
Drama
The disappearance of the gods. For the past 1,000 years, the Gods have been silent and many believe that Afelthyr has been abandoned by their protectors. This causes great evils in the world and plays a large part in the current age.
The ever-expanding corruption of Rakthos, and the loss of Afelthyr's song. There are areas of the world that are losing touch with Afelthyr's song and are growing barren. It is believed that the darkness of Rakthos is spreading across the land and will soon doom all of creation.
Humans, in their hubris, have tried to expand their reach creating an empire that seeks to engulf all of Asun. The continent of Asun is on the brink of war between the Humans & Dwarves within the Arterre Mountains.
In Creoden what was once a small jungle has been ever-expanding and consuming much of the continent. Elves and scholars are racing to determine what is causing this expansion and stop it before it consumes their civilization.