The lands we walk...or at least will...maybe?

 Hello and good day, friends and fiends. Today I want to let you in on a bit more about the kind of world “Mirage” is going to play in. (Mirage is my comic that I am currently working on) But where to start? What to tell and what not? I thought maybe we should start at the beginning. How everything came to be:

There once was a man, lost in the mist. He is all alone, for nothing exists. There is no space, not time, no up and no down. The man doesn’t know where he came from or if he even came from anywhere, since nothing seems to be there at all. But deep in his mind thoughts begin to stir. He starts to think about somewhere, a  place he once might have known. Under him nothing becomes land and more nothing becomes sky. The mist is driving back as he continues to think about the world, and while he thinks, he creates. Slowly the world comes to be and the lost man is lost no more, instead he wonders around the places he creates. Thinking and creating even more. He calls himself Dern Isleen, even though there is no one to call him by this name. So he starts to think about something to call him, something to share his world, something to help him. And so the guardians come to be, the first gods. Time passes and things change. Alew puts their stars in the sky and weaves their web. Keeping all of time, Dusan flys over all the land as a sign of change. Alamort, borrowed deep into the earth, keeps their records about everything that has ever happened. And Taysa sits in the shadows, waiting.
And Dern Isleen walks his world and thinks. There are so many thoughts. So many. Too many for only one mind. All chaotic and conflicting and confused. And out of this contradiction of thought that all want to be created steps the elemental motherchaos, Aita. A being of pure chaos, her body is made out of the elements that constantly repel and fuse with one another.
Dern Isleen banished her back into the mist. This mistake was not allowed to destroy all his hard work. What goes into the mist, stays in the mist. But chaos rarely follows rules and so Aita survives. She hides in the mist and waits. Slowly learning how to shape the mist herself. So she builds herself a home. An island, as chaotic as herself. But where chaos dwells, order will follow. And once the mists are driven away even farther, Aitas island is no longer her secret. Dern Isleen sends Lacun and Kalliste, law and order, to make rules and twist the chaos back into logic. But they are not enough. They call out to their fellow guardians and the hunt begins. On her own island, Aita, the elemental motherchaos is destroyed. And as they rip her body apart, out spring countles elementals, scattering across her island and further into the world. So even now, chaos would live on.

At least, this is one story that is being told. Who knows how much of it is real. So first things first, the world of Mirage is very much mad and run by belief. If enough people believe in something, it might just be created by the mist. At this point in time the mist is only covering one piece of land, but more about that later. So magic users have to tap into this weird power of believing in something so much that you can actually make it happening. (I'm still working on that) Now to religion and all that stuff. Of course they are gods present in Mirage, people need stuff to explain other stuff. But the “gods” have, let’s say, a few subclasses.
First off, we have the first ones, The Guardians. A few were mentioned in the creation text, but not all. They all have functions and need people to believe in them, otherwise they will…It is somewhat like dying. One guardian has already befallen this fate, so they actually sometimes have to work for recognition.
It is possible to kill a guardian and resume their place. It is really hard and only happened once. (as far as I know) This does have a few bad consequences tho, that I will not further discuss just yet.

There is the very slight chance that people will make up a completely new god, because when the guardians were created this problem or event didn’t occur. So “Believed Ones” happen, they are very unstable, since those concepts are being viewed vastly different and nothing sollid can be created from it. War is such a thing. People think differently about it. It can be just and righteous or cruel and uncaring, it is the father of everything and the destroyer of lives, so much tragedy and glory and emotions come from war, there is no possible way it could manifest in one consistent being.

On to the next tier we have Elementals. Oh and I don’t only mean water, earth, fire and wind, although those are the most common. There are other elements like light, darkness, chaos, maybe even metal and wood. They have spread quite a bit, but most still remain near their home island. A few have made a name for themself, for better or worse. Some are regarded as gods and some as legends. Here is a little story about Mirages version of the sun and the moon:

Over 10.000 years ago an fire elemental, named Jua threatened to burn the whole world. A great hero named Manê was the only one who was strong enough to fight them. On top of the highest mountain in all of Caligula they fought and it seemed like Jua would be victorious, but she didn’t expect Manê’s great sacrifice. With their last breath they spoke mighty words of magic power and transformed themself into a prison for Jua and cast themself into the sky, so hopefully no one would ever attempt to free them. Still, they fight above our heads. In the night you see Manê, trying to guide our way and bring light into the darkness, but in the day, Jua gets stronger and would burn each creature on the surface, weren't it for the prison she is in. Manê is constantly consumed by Jua’s fire and each month their strength slowly vanishes, that’s why on the last day, when they almost disappear into nothingness and Jua’s freedom is all but sure, a traditional ritual gives Manê new strength and the circle begins anew.

So we basically have one body that is moon and sun as well, I call it the suun. And it could destroy the world at any second.
This is actually a good example of our last kind of god, this one is the lowest and possibly even more an just immortal thing.
Legends. People, real people who do great things that other people talk about, over and over. So like legends. Sometimes they just do their thing, but some get worshipers and have a similar status as gods. They are immortal and develop powers connected to their stories.

Let’s talk about countries for a bit, okay? Mirage has some of those. The “most important” place, aka where the story will take place, is called Gleinga.

Gleinga is an oligarchy, which in this case means it is governed by five adventurers that each have a little bit of land for themself but reign as a council. This land is not that old, 30-20 years max (still working on it a bit) and it used to be part of a much larger country, but was given to the party as a reward for saving the whole continent from a great evil.So let us take a look at those smaller parts, right? They are actually named after their ruler, but I won’t talk about them today.

First off we have Leth, the most south and also coastal part of Gleinga. Most of the cities are port cities and a huge part of the nation's trade goes through Leth. The climate there is pretty warm, almost tropical and to the fact that the coast consists mostly of cliffs, the cities are built up and down them. Not much farm land, mostly rocks here.

Next we have Vangelis, the corn chamber of Gleinga, most of the land is for farming grapes, weed and other stuff. The people there live comfortable lives in small towns. There isn’t much else to say.

Drystan is a riverland, one part rivers and the other swampy grassland. Towns here are either built on stilts or on rafts, some even are shiplike colonies that drift on the stream. The people are very laid back and a lot of woodwork comes from here, as well as some rather interesting and dare I say smelly dishes. 

In the northern part of Gleinga lies Whist, at the foot of the biggest mountain chain in the region cowers a dense forest, overhead flying the scattered remains of Mt. Ebbott, now known as the flying islands. A lot of cloisters and religious orders call the montainregion their home and on the island a sweet manufacture is blossoming using white snow lilies, that only grow in Whist.

Lastly we have Adrastos, well, this is where the big cities are. And with a lot of people comes progress and with progress comes apparently pollution. Yep in this neck of the wood science is written with a capital S, there are all sorts of crazy things to be found, movin buildings, mechanical people, industries and laboratories. But also thick smock, withered plant life and earth with sucked out elemental magic. On bad days you can’t even see the sky from the main cities.

There is a lot more to say about Gleinga, but I will leave it at that for today and move on to the next country. 

The northern theocracy of Gorus is a big, big, biiiiiig country. Actually, it is now only half of a big country, hence the northern part, but we will not talk about The Cut today. You can likely deduct from its name, that this land is a theocracy, meaning it is ruled by one religious belief. I don’t want to spoil anything (and I am still working a bit on this part hehe) but I imagine Gorus as far more advanced and organized than the other countries. While Adrastos for example is more steampunky, I think of Gorus more like a version of an Victorian England. Of course not all is good and well in Gorus, they conquered their fair share of land and do tend to have a distaste for other religions, but they are not the big bad empire or anything, at least for now. Actually Gleinga was once a part of Gorus and after a group of adventurers defeated a great evil for its leader, the land was given to them as a reward. 

New Caligula. Ah, yes, new Caligula. We have to go back… INTO THE PAST! Before a lot of things there was a big kingdom named Caligula, now known as Old Caligula. It was a place that valued the old myths and legends and kept a great deal of ancient lore and secrets. Well, until they got taken over by Gorus, now there is not much left of their history and lore. The land that once was Old Caligula was given to a group of adventurers and now is known as Gleinga, but some people still remember their roots and after a few riots a part of the land was given back to them. New Caligula was born. It is very young and still trying to find itself, staying connected to its origins while looking into the future. Not all look happy on the restored country, but for now there is peace, sort of.

We will leave the mainland for the time being and turn our ever curious gaze to an island nation: The former Principalities of Pran. Remember the island that Aita, the elemental motherchaos, built as her home? This is the very same island. It is a crazy place, the land is all warped and super weird. The land was split in a lot of, well, principalities, but the chiefs had formed a council if any important matters would rise up. I imagined it to be a bit pirate voodoo like, but that is something I still need to work on. Oh, a few years back a war started and after seven years they lost, so now Pran is formally under the rulership of Gorus. They haven’t changed much yet, for now they leave the island nation alone, since northern Gorus was not originally a coastal nation, so their marine is a bit on the weak side. A lot of people here are descendants from elementals or are connected to them.

Last but not least we have The Evermoor Lands of Toswain. Over this place the mist still hangs and it is feared as much as it is mysterious. It is a swampy forest landscape, magic here is extremely potent and a lot of stories are told about monsters or creatures that live inside the fog. There isn't much communication between Toswain and… anyone, but it might be that Gorus has its eye set on the moors.

So much for the location of Mirage. There are a few more lands, both rising and already fallen that I haven’t told you about, since they are not ready to show their faces just yet. But maybe soon. I personally like the world very much, but hey, I created it, so I am kinda bias. I showed a good friend all I had planned and they told me I should run a dnd campaign in this world and someday I might.

Maybe I will make a one shot someday and record it so you all can listen to it, if you would like that. I think I will go into depth with the lands someday, but next I will probably talk more about details like beliefs, traditions and other small stuff that I enjoyed creating, I hope you will like it. Oh, hopefully I won’t forget to include some drawings of a map, I do want to make a more detailed version in digital art soon.

Oh and here is a bunny butt, because you read until the end: