u/Wonderful_Ad6287

I've collected some of my worldbuilding into a little zine, covering the creatures, places, history and such - a free readable version online for anyone who's interested: lumeria_zine_readable_online and a free printable one: print and fold zine

Also, I've made a field journal, but it's too much content for a post, so I'm limiting myself to some pages from it,

Here is a chronology of my world

The Crash

• A colony ship from Earth is brought down by the Broken Moon, a large body the planet captured.
• The survivors settle isolated pockets along the Strip, the narrow habitable band between the Freezing Hell and the Scorching Hell.
• The first colonists create the Harvesters to make use of the scarce resources. They carry Earth technology built to resist contamination. The technology becomes what is known as glyphs

The Parasite Wars

• Native parasites hijack soldiers' minds, and whole settlements are razed. Guns and explosives are buried or destroyed, and melee weapons and glyph-seeds replace them.
• Survivors inject their children with mutagens. Only the mutated survive.
• The first mages appear: people bonded to parasite colonies, raised in isolated enclaves.

The Crusade

• Catholic members of the crew decide they are in Purgatory and go mad.
• They build the Archangels and the Cherubs, and grow clone-angels in vats near the Pillars of Vaerys.
• They begin to conquer and unify the settlements along the Strip.

The Fall

• After a short, bloody campaign, native parasites colonize the creations. The Mulcs bring down the giants one leg at a time, and the Archangels decay into Walkers.
• Parasites in the pillar network enter the cloning vats, and the clones become the Angloos.
• The Crusade fails and its descendants scatter: the warriors join the Hunters as Crusader clans, the priests join the mages' Triads as Healers, and others become Secret-Keepers. The colonists vanish.
• A powerful mage makes his last stand against the Walkers. His dies, but his host parasite keeps growing, giving birth to Thorns Field
• Apphia, a hero claimed by both - human and mages- leads the last stand against one of the final invasions, while travel between the pockets is still possible.

The Forever Migration

• Every few generations the Strip shifts. Cities freeze or melt and civilization starts over.
• Frozen giants emerge from the retreating ice, and cities are built around their bones.
• Sheppards learn to command the Walkers, and each city's Heart is moved by Walker teams when the city moves.

Now

• Hunters hunt for relics and glyphs, Screamers for their thermal skin and Angloos for their fluids.
• Humans keep Embers near their camps.
• Mages live in enclaves and are grouped in "Triads", based on their parasitic companion reproduction cycle and feed the Angloos' fluid to their parasites.
• Civilisation develops in walled cities, cave cities and on their outskirts. Cities are dominated by Glyph Lords, individuals that carry mutations (aka powers) from one generation to its descendants.
• Parties of hunters and mages travel between the livable pockets and on the outskirts, facing great challenges and using the walkers as provision tanks. Walkers are led by Sheppards.
• There are conflicts between the noble houses, but the leading is ensured by the Council of Wise and its laws have a federal nature..
• There is a thin thread of commerce between the pockets, Lumeria being the Catholic one, but the travel is perilous and always a gamble.
• The Church plots its moves as always, being the only secretive institution that keeps valid historical records of all former Lumerias, as history is rather oral

I've put together a small zine featuring some of Lumeria's creatures, places, history, and other bits of worldbuilding.

Hope you enjoy it!

As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Of course, loosing your cool and obliterating parties would lead to vengeful families.

Of course some mages eventually decide to settle the score with forever hateful humans.

The Righteous are the solution for this sort of problems, even if a lot of them won't survive. And for a large amount of money.

A mask is useful as the mage might escape and remember you.

Lumeria is one of several zones located within the Goldilocks band of a tidally locked world, placed inside The Strip, a 300 km wide habitable area, bordered by 700 km of unpredictable environment.

"Humans" occupy the central zone, scattered in isolated pockets within its boundaries.

Animals are slow and adapted to dim light.

Embers can store the heat in their wings and release it slowly by tucking themselves in.

They are relentless hunters till they overheat and they are forced to find cold areas, where they can vent .

Humans learned fast about these walking bonfires and keep them close to their camps, as they are not not on the menu.

They are slow, stubborn, and prone to snapping, but they are, in their own way, lifesavers.

Embers can store the heat in their wings and release it slowly by tucking themselves in.

Humans learned fast about these walking bonfires and keep them close to their camps

When people talk about the indifference toward children who will eventually become Mages. , the truth is that they are simply hard to love. It’s not about their obvious deformities caused by the mutation, but rather about a healthy lack of trust in their alien nature. It’s hard to develop any sense of attachment to a being that looks and moves in a completely unnatural way.

They cannot talk. They groan, whistle and shout. They move in strange twisted ways, sometimes growing new limbs on the spot. They have no bones; their muscles snap and unfold, hardening into bone-like structures when needed. Pustules appear across different parts of their heads, changing position and disappearing at will. Their groans and unsettling appearance can change the hearts of even the most merciful humans.

Most of the time, they are kept chained, as no one can take the risk of letting them roam freely through the settlements.

They cannot speak until they are reborn through the ritual, and it takes a long time for them to be integrated into society. They are, however, blessed with unusually long lives.

There is no real science behind choosing the right moment for the ritual. It is determined by how much of their human appearance remains visible compared to their increasingly shapeless form. The moment must be chosen carefully, while they still look human. The parasite has a powerful mimetic ability: it remembers the last shape it “sees” and takes that form after the ritual.

Mages are living in closed enclaves. As children, they are raised by community, with an obvious lack of affection. As kids they already manifest their abilities, at least the perk of sensing the parasites in the vicinity of settlements.. Because of this, they are used like some sort of guard dogs and they are treated like ones.

They long for acceptance, and despite their fading humanity, they still consider themselves humans.

Once they arrive at the age when their mutation will kill them for sure,, they are exposed to the parasite that will become part of their life. Some of them die, but the survivors will become full fledged "mages."

Every faction has a hero and mages are no exception. Their hero is Apphia, a legendary mage .It seems that Apphia was also a leader of humans, reaching more than her mere acceptance and led the final stand against one of the last known invasions, at a time when technology still allowed travel between the livable pockets scattered along the Strip.

Her role in that final stand is rather unclear, and much of what is known about her has probably been altered. Still, Apphia remains one of the few figures claimed by both mages and humans as their own.

Apphia is pictured as offering a parasite from a glyph-seed, most likely in a serene, almost saintly posture. Perhaps it is simply a way of forgetting about the reality of the ritual, which is rather gruesome.

Here is a portrait of her, preserved in the Temple of Jesoosh

Talking about the „Heart of the city” turns to be quite literal in Lumeria's case.

As the cities are forced to move from their previous locations, the first thing to be moved is their Heart - a giant structure made of something no one remembers, found at the center of every town.

Its role is simple. It searches and provides clean water as it's digging deep in the soil till it finds a suitable source of water. The giant blob is filled with creatures. Sometimes their shadows are pregnant as they bash into the structure's walls.

Moving the heart is very expensive as it needs at least five functional walkers contracted from the  Sheppards Guild, along with their tamers. Besides the cost ,bringing a great number of Walkers into an existing city means the total destruction of every building that stands in their way.

The large caravan makes its way to the new location, followed by the Hearth on its tiny legs and leaning on the unfazed Colossi.

Once it reaches its destination, and the Heart is fixed in place, the first thing the settlers will build is the intricate structure that will support it.  The new city will unfold around it later.

• Lumeria is a portion of a 300km wide band-like zone circling a tidally locked planet, trapped between its forever sunlit half and its other dark half, buried in eternal night. The zone is known as The Strip.  
• The Strip isn't stable. Safe zones exist only where terrain offers shelter. “Humans “ live in the middle zone. They are the mutated descendants of ancient colonists forced to crash-land on this planet. Towns rise where the climate is stable for a while, then empty when the temperature shifts.

Talking about the „Heart of the city” turns to be quite literal in Lumeria's case.

As the cities are forced to move from their previous locations, the first thing to be moved is their Heart - a giant structure made of something no one remembers, found at the center of every town.

Its role is simple. It searches and provides clean water as it's digging deep in the soil till it finds a suitable source of water. The giant blob is filled with creatures. Sometimes their shadows are pregnant as they bash into the structure's walls.

Moving the heart is very expensive as it needs at least five functional walkers contracted from the  Sheppards Guild, along with their tamers. Besides the cost ,bringing a great number of Walkers into an existing city means the total destruction of every building that stands in their way.

The large caravan makes its way to the new location, followed by the Hearth on its tiny legs and leaning on the unfazed Colossi.

Once it reaches its destination, and the Heart is fixed in place, the first thing the settlers wlll build is the intricate structure that will support it.  The new city will unfold around it later.

Perhaps the best defining feature of Lumeria is that it is, above all, a civilization of migration.

The Strip has no fixed position. Every few generations, the planet shifts slightly, and the narrow life sustaining band moves. Sometimes tens, sometimes hundreds of kilometers, to left or right of the oldest known position. So, civilization is forced to start over from scratch, rebuilding cities that have fallen prey to extreme cold or deadly heat.

Forgotten cities and countries freeze beneath the new ice caps, technological miracles and unseen vehicles are melting under the scorching Sun. Sometimes, the current Lumeria overlaps with the site of a previous one, and is discovered again by the latest type of society.

Technology and the firepower of the old colonists lies destroyed and useless in one of the original Lumerias.

The cave system is the more lasting, one at least till its exists are not affected. As the line shifts, the border regions are abandoned first and they begin to move slowly toward the direction of life.

As a result, history and traditions, pilgrimage sites, and memories are passed down orally from one generation to the next.

The ones best positioned to understand the past are the religious cults. Through tradition, stubbornness, and a commendable dose of paranoia, they have maintained an unbroken thread of secrets and information spanning all the Lumerias.

The mages are the most suitable bearers of glyphs, but they are not the sole users.

 Certain kids are born with mage-level mutations. Left alone, their mutations would lead to their death. So when the contamination is nearly irreversible, the adolescents that have this peculiar trait are facing the ritual of being scarred with a glyph.

During the ritual  participants wear masks and some of them carry weapons, mostly for their protection, because in the end, there’ s no telling who will be the final owner of the body and the parasite never forgets faces.

 If the young candidate survives the sheer contact with the parasite and avoids being killed by the freaked out participants, he will have a place among nobility, because he is worthy.  A Glyph-lord was born.

 Getting the glyph-seed for the ritual is also troublesome. Some people inherit them and pass them through generations, but getting a new one is costly as they are rare, unreplaceable and can be found only in dangerous places

• Lumeria is a portion of a 300km wide band-like zone (also called a Goldilocks zone), circling a tidally locked planet, trapped between its forever sunlit half and its other dark half, buried in eternal night. The zone is called The Strip.
• The corridor of life wobbles sometimes due to tectonic activity and as a side effect, towns and living areas are swallowed either by scorching heat or unbearable frost, making the border zone unstable.
• “Humans “ live in the middle zone. They are the mutated descendants of ancient colonists forced to crash-land on this planet

They say you are safe once you manage to escape the perilous roads bordering the Sacrificed Lake ,once you reach The Arched path. The path follows the endless River for some time. beneath the soft and translucent arches.

Caravans and parties use it to catch their breath till the next step of the journey and by some unwritten rule, the violence is forbidden. It seems that the unwritten rule was rather enforced trough trial and error.

No perilous animals can come near this place and if you ignore the sudden circles of light popping into random places and aerials that cloud the sky, the place is rather romantic.

They say you are safe once you manage to escape the perilous roads bordering the Sacrificed Lake ,once you reach The Arched path. The path follows the endless River for some time. beneath the soft and translucent arches.

Caravans and parties use it to catch their breath till the next step of the journey and by some unwritten rule, the violence is forbidden. It seems that the unwritten rule was rather enforced by trial and error.

No perilous animals can come near this place and if you ignore the sudden circles of light popping into random places and aerials that cloud the sky, the place is rather romantic.

Travelers will tell you not to linger too long near the Pillars of Vaerys .

The less fortunate, or who knows?, perhaps the truly fortunate, begin to be slowly affected by what at first appears to be nothing more than a simple hallucination, a shadow clinging to the edge of a dream.

Little by little, the shadow becomes more concrete, an imaginary friend that separates itself from its host, becoming increasingly real to the afflicted. If asked, they will all tell the same story. The Pumpkin Fiend, as this “being” has come to be called, takes away all your sad thoughts, all your doubts. Like a sponge feeding on all the horror, it becomes more and more real, while its host becomes increasingly ethereal.

No one has ever encountered people happier than those who are ill. Even though their lives are short and fragile

Lumeria is a portion of a 300km wide band-like zone (also called a Goldilocks zone), circling a tidally locked planet, trapped between its forever sunlit half and its other dark half, buried in eternal night. The zone is called The Strip.

The corridor of life wobbles sometimes due to tectonic activity and as a side effect, towns and living areas are swallowed either by scorching heat or unbearable frost, making the border zone unstable

“Humans “ live in the middle zone. They are the mutated descendants of ancient colonists forced to crash-land on this planet. Towns rise where the climate is stable for a while, then empty when the temperature shifts.

Briefly every native creature tries to kill you, but some creatures are useful, as harvester.  

Harvesters are human made creatures,  created by the initial colonists in order to use the scarce resources of this world, but their resemblance to their initial creations is questionable.
Basically, they can melt anything into organic goo, which they swallow. Their residue can be processed and turned into edible mold.

Here are some "peasants" with their Harvester

The "Seed-Capsules" were part of survival kits. belonging to the original colonists.

• Each capsule contained grains of dormant engineered organisms that could be injected, implanted, or worn on the skin.
• Some glyphs prevented the owner from being overtaken by the parasites., while others granted boosts to strength, perception, or adaptability.
• Once implanted, the symbionts anchored into nerve endings and begin to grow organic “glyphs”- structures visible beneath the skin like raised scar-tattoos, hence the name.  
• They become essential, being inherited or gifted at certain moments in life, often when contamination would become irreversible.
• The current inhabitants have no longer been able to reproduce the technology and the objects that contain it, so these, in limited number, have been passed down from one generation to another.

They can be used only by mages and people heavily infected and they have brutal side effects. For example: Veilstone  deprives the user of all other senses, except sight and leaves visible scars on the skin. Shardstone discolors the skin, leads to aging and premature death. Conduitstone drains the user of energy, leaving him spasmatic or paralyzed, often  forever. Chainstone can lead to confusion, inertia, madness and death.

>Lumeria is one of several zones located within the Goldilocks band of a tidally locked world - The Strip.
The Strip is the only inhabitable band (roughly 300km wide) and it's bordered on both sides by two buffer zones (roughly 350km each) of hostile terrain, known as Borderlands.
Beyond Borderlands, the planet is completely uninhabitable - one side is charred by scorching heat, the other is trapped in a frozen wasteland
The Strip is an area defined by temperature and not by physical boundaries.
It crosses natural obstacles - mountain ranges, chasms, and canyons. Therefore, its constituent areas are independent, and traveling between them is tough.
The Strip isn't stable. The line of life wobbles due tectonic activity. Convection winds tear across its peaks, making the most high grounds uninhabitable.

"Humans" occupy the central zone, scattered in isolated pockets within its boundaries. They are the mutated descendants of ancient colonists forced to crash-land on this planet and had to face the constant contamination of the native parasitic life. 

• Technology brought from Earth was designed to resist contamination, but it could not withstand the constant assault of native life.
• The "Seed-Capsules" were part of survival kits. belonging to the original colonists. Each capsule contained grains of dormant engineered organisms that could be injected, implanted, or worn on the skin.
• Some Seed-Capsules prevented the owner from being overtaken by the parasites., while others granted boosts to strength, perception, or adaptability.
• Once implanted, the symbionts anchored into nerve endings and begin to grow organic “Glyphs”- structures visible beneath the skin like raised scar-tattoos, hence the name.  They become essential, being inherited or gifted at certain moments in life, often when contamination would become irreversible.
• The current inhabitants have no longer been able to reproduce the technology and the objects that contain it, so these, in limited number, have been passed down from one generation to another. They can be used only by mages and people heavily infected and they have brutal side effects.

For example:

• Veilstone  deprives the user of all other senses, except sight and leaves visible scars on the skin.
• Shardstone discolors the skin, leads to aging and premature death.
• Conduitstone drains the user of energy, leaving him spasmatic or paralyzed, often  forever.
• Chainstone can lead to confusion, inertia, madness and death.