u/EtTuHubris

I have no idea what this is

In between writing a book or making a game, a visual novel seems to be the best regarding amount of writing vs amount of coding

The God of Creation, Anshu, is responsible for the building of the cosmos, and inadvertently the mortal plane, the planet Maazat, the main continent of Tulkeyen, and eventually all of life including humans and elves. During the period of creation, the God of Justice, Uulna, became jealous of Anshu, seeing him create the material plane, when servants are made they would surely worship Anshu alone. This was Uulna's thought, and with a deep rage he disemboweled his brother with his talons, smearing Anshu's guts into the black void.

​

In my high fantasy setting, the world and the beings that inhabit it were created by a jealous god killing the God of Creation himself to prove he was better. The guts of Anshu became the moon, and his body became the planet, Maazat. His skin became the land, his tears became the oceans, his breath became the sky, his hair became the forests, his blood became the magma. All under Uulna's command. Uulna gloated to his dying brother, his harsh words cutting Anshu open, and spilled forth the animals. But Uulna was not satisfied, he wanted servants to regale with the tale of their birth, so he made the three first races, the Alkari from Anshu's skin (brown clay), the Ondari from Anshu's bones (white clay), and the Inchari from Anshu's blood (red clay).

​

Finally satisfied, Uulna left Anshu to die, and would later turn on his other brother, Enet, the God of Fate and Time. Uulna would successfully decapitate Enet, his skull and spine becoming the Serpent God Sul, who bit Uulna on the arm, marking him and the gods as mortal before escaping to perpetuate the cycle of life and death herself.

​

Although Anshu is dead, he left pieces of himself behind. Namely his breath, called the Nakri. The Nakri is the breath of life, and is consciousness itself. Within Tulkeyen the Nakri has a habit of producing spontaneous life, such as elemental wisps of fire or lightning, to more obscure creatures such as Sun Dogs which are the rays of the morning and evening sun given life. Sun Dogs are a rare sight and fade away quickly the moment the sun sets or rises fully. No one has ever gotten close to one or knows what they really do besides producing brilliant coronas from their dual heads that extend to the sky.

​

Other creatures include Sea Fingers, sea foam and frost given life by the Nakri, these odd hand shaped crustaceans walk across the surface of the sea at night, dragging their fingers behind them. Sometimes they are spotted displaying their hands upright, either as a threat display or maybe even a mating ritual but no one really knows. They are often seen by sailors as good fortune for they only walk across the sea when it is calm, and quickly sink to the sea floor the moment things turn choppy.

​

The Nakri also has a habit of spontaneously reanimating the dead, so mortals would often prefer to cremate their dead to prevent zombies from walking around. However, even these ash piles can be reanimated by the Nakri, turning into Ash Slugs, which pop out from their urns and suck up any filth they can find. They are harmless if not a little bit morbid to look at, especially when they get stuck in their urns getting the sardonic moniker of Ash Snails. Poor families will often leave these creatures alone as they're usually the only things cleaning their ancestors tombs.

​

Lastly, the Profane. Odd being born straight out of the soil from the Nakri. They have human like faces, but are incredibly tall, covered in thick black fur, have long black horns, and hooves for legs. The Profane are also known to spit fire, and often do this to intimidate or greet strangers, it's usually hard to tell. Profane are often quite kind to lost souls in the wilderness despite their uncanny appearance, but are still otherwise hunted and killed as demons. Mothers tell their children bed time stories of bad kids being buried alive and becoming Profane to keep their children in line, but the tale has no truth to it.

​

The Nakri is depicted as a white breath surrounding the wounded Anshu, in a fetal position himself trying to keep what's left of his innards inside. Sul guards them both, as she keeps track of life, death, and rebirth, and even permitted Anshu to be reborn as his female counterpart, Sa'Anshem, a more aggressive nature God in her own right.

​

It is thought that once something dies, its soul is reduced to base energy and absorbed back into the Nakri to be used again in another life, in another soul. Inversely, if an enterprising scientist were to tap into the Nakri directly, even control it, they could extend the natural lifespan, or even cure any ailment. But the breaths of Anshu are hard to decipher, and some say he has been exploited enough.

Seriously, should I intervene? I'm kinda worried about her 😞

Portrait of Red

He's a lil guy :3

Homunculi Villager (Axe), Homunculi Villager (Knife), Dwam Scavenger, Sleeper, and Homunculi Guard.

I have other enemy designs that I'm putting through the meat grinder and attempting to improve, make them stick out more etc.

At the moment I'm merely making the enemy battle screen sprites and nothing else, I haven't even started coding. So I mean it when I say *slowly*. Expect to see this project get finished by 2082 😌

Within my high fantasy setting, there are many places in history where a race was either created or diverged from another. From the very start of creation where the first beings were born, the Ondari, Alkari, Inchari, and Beastmen. The main lineage to focus on is that of the Ondari and their descendants. The coupling of the ancient Beastmen and Ondari gave rise to a "hybrid" species later referred to as the Numea or Numari who would eventually diverge into the elves and humans that inhabit the continent of Tulkeyen today.

Humans ans Elves are in essence the same species, and are cousins within an evolutionary taxonomy. The only true differences are phenotypic expressions which tend to be found within one group over another. This is to say that long ears and full sclera that elves usually possess can also be found within humans, and as such human traits can too be found on elves.

At one point in time, dark skin and facial hair was considered a "human" trait, and as such many of the Kuralki Elves were treated under that pretense, giving rise to the Sut-Nualku ethnic group, those elves who were forced to make a pilgrimage from their homeland due to the discrimination they faced, and once arriving within the Uanalkan Desert, took refuge there and eventually diverged into the many ethnic groups that remain there today.

Nowadays, facial hair and dark skin is considered a shared trait, and Kuralki Elves are considered as elves again. But the confusion still doesn't end there. Another group of Kuralki Elves are the Ilkemari who live on the coast of the Uanalkan Desert, and the only real way to differentiate them from the similarly dark skinned Baazmen race is by their long ears, as Ilkemari Elves tend to have "human" eyes with a distinct pupil, iris, and cornea.

The Ulkithi ethnic group is a mix of Kuralki Elves and Baazmen Humans, who all but their ears appear similar to one another. The Ulkithi Elves will carve their ears down to a rounded form like that of a humans to avoid being targeted by Nerethi Human slavers, all while the Ulkithi Humans protect them from potential harassment.

In the West you can find the Teymen, who are considered human by the Teyoni Elves, and treat them as impurities within their land. But the Teymen appear too "elvish" from their exceptionally pale skin and full blue sclera and as such the Numen race who inhabits the south west want nothing to do with them either, unless it is to take them as slaves. As such the Teymem are sometimes referred to as vagrant elves, who have no home and nowhere to go.

The truth of the matter is merely a long history of racism and eugenics which has encouraged the thinking of elves and humans as distinct beings, besides culture and some physical appearances, humans and elves are one in the same. Born from the same Numea race, and able to sire offspring with each other, with traits appearing on one another. It would take many years to fix the fear and hatred that has built up due to mere appearances.