u/-DyingOx-

Just saying…

Edit:
What I’m building right now is mainly the script/writing system. The English to letter mapping is an out of world tool so I can write, test and refine it without having to fully dive into entire spoken language first. So no sounds for this language yet. And some of you pointed out the massive combinations that could appear, which I am currently working on, so thank you for the feedback!

In my world, The Shell, the main universal language is called God’s Tongue.

It is spoken across almost every Great Land (the major landmasses/continents of the world), but is not the only language. Most countries, cultures, religions still have their own native languages and regional slang. God’s Tongue is simply the shared language most people use when dealing with strangers, law, trade, schools, courts, ports, and international politics.

After the terrible ruin of the old world and the Mana Wars, the surviving nations eventually united through a political gathering called The Great Parley. The Great Parley is not an empire or world government. It is more like a massive treaty where recognized nations send representatives called Mouths to speak for them. It is held in City Of Vowspire on The Seven Lanterns, one of the most important Great Lands in the Shell. (Think NATO)

Ancient writings were discovered on The Seven Lanterns, carved into ruins and fragments that seemed far older than any surviving nation. Many believed these writings were not human in origin, but remnants of the language of the Gods. More specifically, the language of the Father of the Siblings, the being believed to have existed before the Sister and Brother. (The Gods thought to of made mankind they way they are now) And because of that, the language became known as God’s Tongue.

The old form of the language was difficult, sacred, and not very practical for common use. It had meanings that did not translate cleanly into modern thought. During The Third Great Parley, scholars, translators, record keepers and representatives from many nations worked together to translate, simplify, and standardize it.

The goal was not to erase local languages. The goal was to give the Shell one shared voice after generations of war, broken records, and distrust. A farmer in one Great Land, a rail worker in another, a mage in a Wellspring Academy, a merchant at a port, and a diplomat in Vowspire could all speak to each other without needing five translators and a chance to start a war by accident. After the Third Great Parley, God’s Tongue was taught everywhere it could be taught. Over time, it became the standard language..

But there is still tension around it. Some people see God’s Tongue as holy. Some see it as practical. Some see it as political. Some cultures resent how dominant it has become, even if they use it every day. Older priests argue that the simplified modern version has stripped away sacred meaning. Scholars argue that without simplification, it never would have spread. Nationalists accuse the Great Parley of using it to soften local identity. Merchants, meanwhile mostly just like being able to read contracts without getting robbed by translation errors.

The written form of God’s Tongue also has a practical design reason behind it. I built it using the fewest marks possible, which is why it is made only vertical lines, dashes and circles. When letter grouping, I researched which letter pairs and combinations appear most often in English and based that on how Flares would work, so common sounds and combinations could be written and grouped together more efficiently. Because of that, some longer words become much shorter when written in God’s Tongue, yet sometimes short words can look longer. It also means certain groups or “sets” may look similar at first glance, so reading the language depends heavily on context. The surrounding letters, words and sets all help clarify meaning.

!

Im putting EVERYTHING about my world in an app called Endless Paper, which basically gives me an infinite canvas that I can keep zooming into. So instead of making separate maps for continents, countries, cities, roads, ruins, climate zones, lore notes, character info, and historical events, I can keep everything in one massive document.

The cool part is that it almost feels magical in real life lol. From far away, it look like a normal world map. Then I can zoom in and reveal landmasses, then countries, then cities, then rail systems, then individual landmarks, quotes, icons, histories, and notes. It feels like one piece of paper that somehow contains the world’s knowledge. So I decided to make that part of the worldbuilding itself.

In the lore, this map is called The Endless Page. It is a magical world map created in The Lantern Archive, the largest library in the Shell, located in City Of Vowspire on The Seven Lanterns (one of the major landmasses/continents). The original artifact was funded by the governments of the five God Cities, who wanted a shared source of knowledge that could help unify the world, improve trade, preserve history, and make the Shell easier to understand. it became the Shell’s version of a massive living encyclopedia. It’s basically this world’s Wikipedia.

The man responsible for filling it is Edran Vale, also known as The Living Atlas. Before becoming the map’s legendary creator, he was the head of The Lantern Archive. Then he spent 197 years traveling the Shell, recording locations, drawing maps, collecting stories, solving mysteries, documenting cultures, marking dangers, and correcting old records.

The Endless Page does not magically discover truth on its own. It only remembers what is given to it. Edran has to actually travel, observe, verify, sketch, interview, and survive long enough to record things. He adds information using special inks, location anchors, witness marks, sketches, certainty notes, and layered magic. So the map is powerful, but it still depends on human effort, memory, and obsession.

This is becoming an obsession and will probably be a lifelong hobby now lol…

(My Art)

In my fantasy world, magic comes from a finite internal mana source called the Reserve. Every human is born with one, but no one knows how deep their Reserve is. If someone uses up the last of it, they suffer the Sister’s Toll and crumble into dust.
There are also divine crystalline relics called Cores. A Core can be magically and surgically bonded into a person’s heart through a dangerous ritual called Heartbinding. If successful, the person becomes a Core Bearer and can use that Core’s specific magic without draining their personal Reserve. But if Heartbinding fails, the result creates a Hollow Saint.

A Hollow Saint is what remains when a Core fails to properly bind to a human heart. During a failed Heartbinding, the Core partially connects to the body but burns away the person’s soul, mind, memory, and identity. The body survives, but the person is gone. What remains is a mindless, constantly suffering being driven only by survival instinct.
A Hollow Saint is not undead.
It is not possessed.
It is not evil in a moral sense.
It is a failed miracle.

Early religious thinkers believed failed Heartbinding “emptied” a person before the Sister. Some thought these beings were holy. Others saw them as cursed. Over time, the name Hollow Saint stuck, even though most people now use it with fear, pity, or disgust.

A Hollow Saint has no true human reasoning left. It cannot speak meaningfully, plan like a person, or learn new magic. It is in constant agony because the Core is wrongly joined to its body. Its violence comes from pain, fear, and survival instinct.
It may attack because…
Sound hurts
Light hurts
Magic hurts
Movement nearby feels threatening
It’s own body is in constant pain
A Hollow Saint is dangerous, but also tragic.
A Hollow Saint is not hunting you because it hates you. It is hunting because everything hurts and you moved.

A Hollow Saint is tied only to the failed Core’s specific magic. It cannot use other kinds of magic. It does not become a general wizard monster. Its powers are instinctive, broken, and uncontrolled. (My Sketch is of just a basic generic Hollow Saint)
Examples…
Fire Core Hollow Saint
A burned, heat-radiating creature that smolders constantly and causes nearby cloth, wood, or flesh to blacken.
Water Core Hollow Saint
A swollen, weeping thing that hides in wells, cisterns, rivers, or sewers and may drown people without needing open water.
Stone Core Hollow Saint
A slow, heavy creature with cracked mineral skin that burrows into ruins or foundations and can fracture walls around it.
Mind Core Hollow Saint
A being whose broken thoughts leak outward, causing panic, hallucinations, memory loss, shared pain, or false recognition.
Body Core Hollow Saint
A flesh-horror that regenerates incorrectly, grows extra bone or muscle, and survives injuries that should kill it.
Spirit Core Hollow Saint
A rare and feared Hollow Saint surrounded by death echoes, ghost voices, broken oaths, spiritual contamination, and restless dead.

Heartbinding is supposed to be carefully regulated. In legal nations, it requires trained Core surgeons, Body and Spirit magic specialists, Ash Dean approval, consent, witnesses, and ritual phrases spoken in High Gods Tongue.
Failure can happen because of…
Poor ritual technique
Illegal Ash Den training
Damaged or unstable Cores
Mistranslated binding phrases
Interrupted rituals
Forced or coerced Heartbinding
Bad compatibility between Core and host
Attempts to bind multiple Cores
Simple bad luck
Even with perfect preparation, Heartbinding is never completely safe.

A Hollow Saint incident is called a Saintfall.
A Saintfall is treated as a major magical disaster. The area is evacuated, Well Hunters are called, and the Core must be recovered if possible. In Parley-aligned nations, creating a Hollow Saint through illegal Heartbinding is considered one of the highest magical crimes.

I’m building a fantasy world set inside a hollow sphere called the Shell. At the center is the Sister’s Light, a fixed divine star that gives the world light, gravity, and magic. Orbiting around it is the Brother’s Shield, a massive rotating plate that creates night, called the Brother’s Dream. I plan on adding icons, trade routes, landmarks and other things. My 1st map so I’m still learning.

Due to my last post I figured I’d do a deep dive about my worlds magic system…So this is what I have so far…(my art also)

I’m building a fantasy world set inside a hollow sphere called the Shell. At the center is the Sister’s Light, a fixed divine star that gives the world light, gravity, and magic. Orbiting around it is the Brother’s Shield, a massive rotating plate that creates night, called the Brother’s Dream.
Magic exists because of the Sister’s Light, but it is not safe. In this world, magic is both a miracle and a death sentence.

The Reserve
Every human is born with a finite internal supply of magic called the Reserve. This is basically a personal well of mana. The terrifying part is, No one knows how deep their Reserve is. You could have enough magic left to cast for decades (Deep Well), or you could be one tiny spell away from death (Dry Well). There is no feeling of “running low.” You feel the same whether you have one point left or a billion. But magic does physically drain the body, like intense exercise, but that physical exhaustion does not tell you how much Reserve remains.

When someone uses the last of their Reserve, they suffer the Sister’s Toll and crumble into dust. Magic is commonly called the Empty Gift, because it can empty the user completely. If a spell costs more Reserve than you have left, the spell fails to manifest, but still claims your life.

The Great Silence
Because magic nearly destroyed the world during an ancient era called the Mana War, most societies now live under a cultural mandate called the Great Silence. The Great Silence does not mean magic is gone. Magic is still studied and used, but it is heavily regulated. Most people avoid it unless absolutely necessary. The basic cultural attitude is…
Magic is real. Magic is useful. Magic is not worth dying for unless the need is greater than your life. This is why the world developed steam technology, trains, pneumatic systems, and physical infrastructure instead of relying on spellwork for everything.

The Four Classes of Magic
Magic is divided into four major classes.

Elemental Magic
Elemental magic affects matter and natural forces.
This includes fire, water, stone, air, metal, pressure, steam, frost, and similar forces. It is useful for construction, mining, weather control, industry, and warfare.
It is also one of the easiest types of magic to abuse on a large scale.

Mind Magic
Mind magic affects perception, emotion, memory, dreams, attention, pain, and thought.
It is one of the most heavily regulated forms of magic because it threatens consent. A Mind Well can heal trauma, calm panic, negotiate peace, or become an absolute nightmare.

Body Magic
Body magic affects flesh, blood, bone, senses, healing, disease, strength, pain, and physical change.
Body Wells are both loved and feared. They can heal wounds and save lives, but the same knowledge that closes a wound can also open one.
Healing magic is precious because every miracle might be the healer’s last.

Spirit Magic
Spirit magic deals with souls, ghosts, oaths, curses, wards, death echoes, sacred residue, and the mysteries around the Sister’s Toll.
Spirit magic cannot truly resurrect the dead. It can contact echoes, bind oaths, calm hauntings, ward places, or interact with spiritual remnants, but death still matters.

Wells, Deep-Wells, and Reserve Ledgers
People who study and practice magic are called Wells. Rare individuals believed to have unusually vast Reserves are called Deep-Wells. They are often feared, exploited, recruited, or watched closely. But even then, no one can truly know how much Reserve they have. A Deep-Well is partly fact, partly reputation, partly propaganda and seen as a death wish. Licensed Wells keep magical records called Reserve Ledgers. These do not tell anyone how much Reserve remains. Instead, they track a person’s history of spell use.

A Reserve Ledger records things like…
Spells cast
Estimated cost
Purpose
Witnesses
Failed attempts
Legal approval
Physical strain
Disciplinary notes
A clean Ledger means a Well is disciplined. A missing or forged Ledger is a major red flag.

Wellspring Academies
Official magic schools are called Wellspring Academies. They are not fun wizard schools where students casually throw fireballs around. They are more like a mix of medical school, military academy, monastery, law school, and bomb disposal training. Their purpose is not just to teach magic.
Their purpose is to teach restraint. Students spend years learning theory, history, Gods Tongue (the worlds universal language), law, ethics, spell structure, and the dangers of the Sister’s Toll before they are allowed to cast anything significant. Academy officials responsible for safety, discipline, and magical oversight are called Ash Elders.

Ash Dens
Illegal underground magic schools are called Ash Dens. They teach unsafe, unregulated, unmeasured spellcasting outside Wellspring Academy oversight. They often skip theory and discipline in favor of shortcuts. Ash Dens are associated with…
Rogue Wells
Toll deaths
Forged Reserve Ledgers
Illegal spellwork
riminal magic
Botched Heartbinding
Hollow Saint incidents

Cores and Core Bearers
Cores are divine crystalline shards left behind after an ancient war between the Sister and the Brother. They are geometric, crystalline orbs that can be melded into a human heart through a dangerous process called Heartbinding. A person who successfully survives Heartbinding becomes a Core Bearer. A Core Bearer can use that Core’s specific type of magic without draining their personal Reserve (so if a core bearer’s core is a fire core, they have unlimited fire magic). This makes them incredibly powerful and politically important. However, a person can normally only have one Core. The legendary Fuse Core is rumored to allow someone to hold three Cores at once, but it has never been found and may be only a myth. When a Core Bearer dies by the Sister’s Toll, the Core drops from them. This is called the Drop. If they die naturally, the Core must be physically removed from the body. Cores are treated like holy relics, weapons of mass destruction, royal bloodlines, and black-market organs all at once.

Hollow Saints
If Heartbinding fails, the result is not just death. It creates a Hollow Saint. A Hollow Saint is what remains when a person’s soul and mind burn away during failed Heartbinding. They are left as a mindless, suffering being driven only by survival. They are not evil in a moral sense. They are a failed miracle. A Hollow Saint…
Has no human reasoning left
Exists in constant pain
Is tied only to the failed Core’s specific magic
Cannot use other kinds of magic
Acts instinctively and violently
Is extremely dangerous
For example, a failed Fire Core might create a burned, heat-radiating predator. A failed Mind Core might create something that causes terror, hallucinations, or memory loss around it. Well Hunters often have to deal with Hollow Saints, and many people consider killing one an act of mercy.

Firelocks
This world has no gunpowder and no electricity. Technology is steam age. Firearms exist, but they developed differently. They are usually basic single-shot weapons called Firelocks. A Firelock works by loading a bullet into a sealed chamber. The user then casts a tiny, precise burst of fire magic into the chamber, creating a small explosion that launches the bullet. This developed because a tiny controlled fire spell is much safer than casting a huge fireball or using telekinesis to throw something massive. Some people even place spells on bullets to alter how they behave, though this is expensive and heavily regulated. Firelocks are rare, expensive, and hard to use because the wielder must know enough fire magic to ignite the chamber. Soldiers in many nations have access to them, but civilian ownership is usually restricted.

Well Hunters
Well Hunters are professionally trained people who hunt, capture, or kill rogue Wells, Hollow Saints, dangerous Core-Bearers, and illegal magic users. They are not anti-magic fanatics. They are state-backed specialists who enforce magical law.
They use…
Firelocks
Restraints
Anti-casting tactics
Traps
Teamwork
Limited regulated magic
Iegal warrants
Knowledge of spell structure

The Last Pour
There is a voluntary deathbed practice called the Last Pour. When an elderly, terminally ill, or mortally wounded Well is near death, they may choose to spend their remaining unknown Reserve in service of others. They might heal the sick, reinforce a bridge, ward a town, calm spirits, stop a disaster, or perform some other final public good. Because no one knows the depth of their Reserve, they may be Tolled immediately, survive longer than expected, or accomplish something far beyond what anyone thought possible. The Last Pour is honored in many societies, but it can also be abused. Poor, sick, or elderly Wells may be pressured into “voluntary” sacrifice, so Ash Deans and Parley-aligned laws often regulate it.

The Order of the Open Well
The Order of the Open Well is an extreme pro-magic ascetic order. They believe magic is the Sister’s gift and should be used constantly in service of mankind, even if it shortens their lives. Unlike those who take the Last Pour only at the end of life, Open Wells dedicate their entire lives to purposeful magical spending. They help build and maintain the Shell’s megastructures, including bridges, railways, aqueducts, tunnels, hospitals, and great civic works. They are monk-like, nonviolent whenever possible, and keep extremely detailed Reserve Ledgers. Wellspring Academies study these Ledgers because the Order’s constant magic use helps update the Mana Tables. They often die young by the Sister’s Toll, but they believe this is the only honorable death and the only true passage to the afterlife. To them, killing someone is spiritual theft, because it robs that person of the chance to pay the Sister’s Toll through service**.**

The Unlit Covenant (a group from my 1st post here that go me started on this whole journey)
They are an underground Brother-worshipping faction that believes the Sister’s Light cursed mankind by giving humanity vision and magic.
Their belief is that before the Sister woke, mankind lived in darkness under the Brother’s Dream. There was no magic, and therefore no magical war, no Toll, no Hollow Saints, and no Cores. To the Unlit, magic is the seed of human extinction. They want to snuff out the Sister’s Light, return the Shell to endless darkness, destroy or dim Cores, and erase magic forever. Members are deliberately blinded as children in a ritual called the First Closing, because they believe sight is the first wound of the Sister’s Light. Over thousands of years, they have developed extremely efficient sensory magic that enhances hearing, smell, touch, vibration sense, balance, and taste. This magic is low-cost because it is subtle, internal, and highly refined. Their assassins are terrifying because they use very little magic but use it with surgical precision.
When killing Wells or performing assassinations, they operate in groups of three called the Brother’s Hand.
The three roles are…
The Listener — tracks and reads the target
The Knife — performs the kill
The Hush — suppresses sound, witnesses, escape, and spellcasting

The Great Parley and Magic Law
Many nations participate in a five-year summit called the Great Parley, held on the neutral island of Vowharbor. The participating leaders are called the Mouths of the Shell. Not every nation participates, and not every nation follows the rules honestly. Some obey publicly and cheat privately. Because of course they do. Parley nations generally agree to shared magical laws around…
Wellspring Academy standards
Reserve Ledgers
Firelocks
Core ownership
Heartbinding restrictions
Ash Den suppression
Well Hunter authority
Last Pour consent
Mind magic crimes
Hollow Saint containment

So basically the main idea behind this magic system is that magic is not just power. Magic is cost. Every spell is a wager with an unknown balance. Every miracle might be the caster’s last. Every society has to decide when a human life is worth spending.
Some people fear magic.
Some worship it.
Some regulate it.
Some exploit it.
Some want to destroy it forevers

Thank you for listening to my Ted talk…lol

(Art by me)

Just started world building about a month ago due to this place. I stumbled on here a few months ago and I’ve been hooked! So thanks because this place has been a great help. Well, I just finished this drawing/doodle about one of my fractions that reside in my world and I figured I’d share.

In my world, humanity lives inside a massive hollow sphere called The Shell. At its center burns the Sister’s Light, a fixed star that gives the world daylight, warmth, gravity (by constantly pushing a magic force away from itself to keep people and things away), and is the source of all magic. It is always half cover by a massive rotating bowl called The Brothers Shield which provides half the Shell’s night (Brother’s Dream) at any given time. The people of the Shell live in the Steam powered area.

Magic is powerful, but it’s not free. Every person is born with a finite inner supply of mana called the Reserve. The problem is, no one knows how deep their Reserve is. You could have enough left for a lifetime (A Deep Well), or enough for just one small spell (A Dry Well). If you spend it all, you suffer the Sister’s Toll and your body crumbles into ash. Because of this, magic is feared, regulated, and culturally suppressed, even though it built much of civilization. People that choose to use their mana are called “Wells” And they “Drink from their Reserves”.. Over 1000s of years people have come up with a system that gives a rough average reserve idea. And it’s consistently being updated. But truly one never really knows how deep their Well is. Then there are Cores that are divine crystalline relics that grant specific magical powers without draining the user’s Reserve. Core Bearers are rare, powerful, and politically dangerous.

The Unlit Covenant are the anti magic/anti tech assassins of the Shell

The Unlit Covenant is an underground anti magic, anti technology faction that worships the Brother, the sleeping dark counterpart to the Sister. They believe the Sister’s Light cursed mankind by giving them magic, and that both magic and technology are extensions of the same corruption. They believe mankind trying to master forces it was never meant to command, is of the highest blasphemy . To them, steam engines, firearms, machines, Wellspring Academies (magic schools), Cores, and spellcraft are all symptoms of the same disease.

Their ultimate goal is to snuff out the Sister’s Light, return the Shell to eternal darkness and erase magic and modern invention from the world by any means necessary. Members are raised in secret cells and deliberately blinded as children as to defy the Sister’s Light. They reject technology completely and use magic only as a weapon against magic itself. Over generations, they have refined extremely low cost sensory magic that heightens hearing, smell, touch, balance, and vibration sense. They move like assassins/ninjas, hunt rogue Wells and Core Bearers and strike in teams of three called the Brother’s Hand. (Think the Japanese Blind Samurai trope)

A Brother’s Hand usually consists of…

The Listener — tracks the target through sound, breath, heartbeat and vibration.
The Knife — the close range killer.
The Hush — suppresses noise, panic, witnesses and escape.

I could go on but as my 1st post I didn’t want to data dump lol. But I’ve been mapmaking and I’ve stumbled upon an app that is called Endless Paper. I’m using it for my world map since my 16,000 by 8,000px will not be enough for what I’m trying to do. In this I can have my world map with infinite zoom, so I can zoom into each city reviling a whole new map of the city itself…at which I can repeat as much as I want, essentially having infinite space to have everything in one image.

So thanks everyone for sucking me into a new hoppy I don’t have time for lol

Hope to see ya’ll on the flip side! https://artfight.net/\~DyingOx