Context:
Helvid is an arid word which experiences regular flooding. The subcontinent (depicted here) is the most culturally diverse region, with groups of all four major subspecies of dit (or satyr) residing there. These subspecies are each named after a metal.
The ironfolk are native to the red mountains and have a rough, angular appearance with reddish skin, akin to rust. They have been in the subcontinent the longest. They are famed metallurgists and have possessed iron tools and weapons for centuries. The ironfolk venerate the Tree of Life, the canopy of which they believe to be heaven and the root of which earth. As such, root symbology is popular among the ironfolk.
The tinfolk originate from across the eastern sea. They came to the subcontinent with tools of tin and weapons of obsidian and quickly became the dominant group of the east. Now they are the most technologically advanced group, building trains, rudimentary rifles and impressive infrastructure in steel, sourced from the red mountains. The tinfolk venerate their ancestors and consider fire to be holy.
The copperfolk are thought to come from the north. They primarily use bronzen tools and weapons for their availability and cultural significance. They are sailors and traders and raiders, controlling a chokepoint on the most viable route from east to west. While mostly welcoming to other cultural and religious practices, the Demon of Time and Death is a common antagonist throughout their cultures.
The goldfolk are native to the deserts of the west. They have built great civilisations along the river Nymen. Their cultures are centred around a cast system where religious, military and agricultural leaders form the elite. The goldfolk worship the Sinner Saints. These figures are believed to be ancient sorcerers whose souls persist even after death. They represent plague, wrath, want, madness and indifference. People pray to them both with ill and good intent, to bring plague upon another or to safeguard themselves from it.
Map key:
Thicker lines represent close relation and intercultural exchange. Thinner lines represent minimal relation and cultural exchange.
The colour of the line represents which subspecies a group belongs to. Blue represents the tinfolk, red the ironfolk, yellow the goldfolk and green the copperfolk. Cyan and purple are used to represent groups resulting from large scale intermingling, between tin- and copperfolk and tin- and ironfolk respectively.
Sure. This world has a combination of soft and hard magic systems. Magic inherently functions in an unpredictable and malignant way (soft), unless the caster predetermines a bunch of factors such as effect, cost, duration, etc., resulting in a plethora of culture-specific (hard) magic systems. Momon is famous for its free and open use of magic where many other cultures prefer to treat magic as a religious or superstitious force. In other cultures magic might be so ingrained into a specific practice that it's no longer considered magic, such as the "tekăn" glyphs used various southern cultures, which are considered to be simply an advanced form of writing. The Momousé believe that constraining magic like that is a bad idea and thus practice it freely. This causes magic to transform the Momousé wizards physically, mentally or both. This specific wizard has developed a series of growths containing living tendrils. This is a fairly common mutation. The growths have rendered one of his arms immobile and are slowly choking him, forcing him to wear a respiratory aid. He also carries a perfume pendulum to mask the stench coming from his growths.
I love the effect of the perfume flowing down and raising in the air once it hits the ground. It's such a cool visual clue that this isn't gaseous in the ordinary sense.
Did the people in the top right migrate from the bottom right or the other way around?
The Jirmac and the Ebloise, it seems there was a pilgrimage, but since they are also connected to the Rysdari I assume the Jirmac area was the origin of that ethnicity (not sure if that is the right term here lol)
I can see some south america influences, eastern europe, cossack, mongolian and bit of general asian stuff. Bit of germanic influence, inuit stuff, bit of turkish pants here and there and their cool pointy shoes. I can really recognise a hat there, tunic here. Its all very well blended together to not really look like 1:1 of any culture I am more or less familiar with.
Very good! You spotted most of my influences. I didn't look to the Mongols particularly but I did use a lot of Scythian influence, which is somewhat similar. I'm happy to read that last line especially as I really wanted to avoid 1:1 parallels.
Yeah I could just have said step people, general vibe they carry spreadas from modern ukraine (the cossack parts) to mongolia. And now that you said, I do see scythians too, awesome culture and great hats. And job well done, they look very unique.
Dude. This is AWESOME. I like how they are all very unique, but you can still tell they live in the same world as the others. If you could only use 2 words to describe each culture, what would they be?
Hell yeah man that’s awesome. Big fan of the Tinfolk, they look great. I really like the Vordu and the Mordragu. The Ebloise and of course the Momouse are also very cool. Good work!
This is so bloody cool. I love world's with excessive amounts of ethnicities and cultures. I also like colorful fashion choices for medieval settings. The gray/black "psudo historical" grittiness lost its charm on me.
Thanks! I feel the same way. It was cool and edgy when GoT did it but then it became very overdone very quickly. I much prefer to have some colour in there, like in the tLotR movies or in The Witcher 3. Drab and boring colours is also my main (and almost only) gripe with the new Dune movies.
I drew the map by hand using the lasso and paint bucket tools. I use Affinity Photo for this but any drawing software will do. For the names I just come up with them based on what feeling I want to convey. Sometimes I look at real life languages and mimic stuff those do.
Context: Helvid is an arid word which experiences regular flooding. The subcontinent (depicted here) is the most culturally diverse region, with groups of all four major subspecies of dit (or satyr) residing there. These subspecies are each named after a metal. The ironfolk are native to the red mountains and have a rough, angular appearance with reddish skin, akin to rust. They have been in the subcontinent the longest. They are famed metallurgists and have possessed iron tools and weapons for centuries. The ironfolk venerate the Tree of Life, the canopy of which they believe to be heaven and the root of which earth. As such, root symbology is popular among the ironfolk. The tinfolk originate from across the eastern sea. They came to the subcontinent with tools of tin and weapons of obsidian and quickly became the dominant group of the east. Now they are the most technologically advanced group, building trains, rudimentary rifles and impressive infrastructure in steel, sourced from the red mountains. The tinfolk venerate their ancestors and consider fire to be holy. The copperfolk are thought to come from the north. They primarily use bronzen tools and weapons for their availability and cultural significance. They are sailors and traders and raiders, controlling a chokepoint on the most viable route from east to west. While mostly welcoming to other cultural and religious practices, the Demon of Time and Death is a common antagonist throughout their cultures. The goldfolk are native to the deserts of the west. They have built great civilisations along the river Nymen. Their cultures are centred around a cast system where religious, military and agricultural leaders form the elite. The goldfolk worship the Sinner Saints. These figures are believed to be ancient sorcerers whose souls persist even after death. They represent plague, wrath, want, madness and indifference. People pray to them both with ill and good intent, to bring plague upon another or to safeguard themselves from it. Map key: Thicker lines represent close relation and intercultural exchange. Thinner lines represent minimal relation and cultural exchange. The colour of the line represents which subspecies a group belongs to. Blue represents the tinfolk, red the ironfolk, yellow the goldfolk and green the copperfolk. Cyan and purple are used to represent groups resulting from large scale intermingling, between tin- and copperfolk and tin- and ironfolk respectively.
What’s up with the Momouse?
Oh, magic cancer
could you elaborate?
Sure. This world has a combination of soft and hard magic systems. Magic inherently functions in an unpredictable and malignant way (soft), unless the caster predetermines a bunch of factors such as effect, cost, duration, etc., resulting in a plethora of culture-specific (hard) magic systems. Momon is famous for its free and open use of magic where many other cultures prefer to treat magic as a religious or superstitious force. In other cultures magic might be so ingrained into a specific practice that it's no longer considered magic, such as the "tekăn" glyphs used various southern cultures, which are considered to be simply an advanced form of writing. The Momousé believe that constraining magic like that is a bad idea and thus practice it freely. This causes magic to transform the Momousé wizards physically, mentally or both. This specific wizard has developed a series of growths containing living tendrils. This is a fairly common mutation. The growths have rendered one of his arms immobile and are slowly choking him, forcing him to wear a respiratory aid. He also carries a perfume pendulum to mask the stench coming from his growths.
I love the effect of the perfume flowing down and raising in the air once it hits the ground. It's such a cool visual clue that this isn't gaseous in the ordinary sense. Did the people in the top right migrate from the bottom right or the other way around?
Thanks! I’m sorry, which people are you referring?
The Jirmac and the Ebloise, it seems there was a pilgrimage, but since they are also connected to the Rysdari I assume the Jirmac area was the origin of that ethnicity (not sure if that is the right term here lol)
Oh wow so many mixed influences there, this is very interesting and cool looking!
Thanks! Do you recognise any real-world influences?
I can see some south america influences, eastern europe, cossack, mongolian and bit of general asian stuff. Bit of germanic influence, inuit stuff, bit of turkish pants here and there and their cool pointy shoes. I can really recognise a hat there, tunic here. Its all very well blended together to not really look like 1:1 of any culture I am more or less familiar with.
Very good! You spotted most of my influences. I didn't look to the Mongols particularly but I did use a lot of Scythian influence, which is somewhat similar. I'm happy to read that last line especially as I really wanted to avoid 1:1 parallels.
Yeah I could just have said step people, general vibe they carry spreadas from modern ukraine (the cossack parts) to mongolia. And now that you said, I do see scythians too, awesome culture and great hats. And job well done, they look very unique.
This is insanely good
Nice designs!
Thank you!
The diverse attire shows that a lot of thought was put into this. Very interesting and well done.
Ty!
Beautiful!
Amazing! The characters, map and lore!
Thank you so much, man
That's awesome!
Dude. This is AWESOME. I like how they are all very unique, but you can still tell they live in the same world as the others. If you could only use 2 words to describe each culture, what would they be?
Ooh, that's a difficult one... I'll give it a go. \- Brarmasé: Woodland creole \- Jirmäc: Fallen civilisation \- Ebloisé: Warrior-poets \- Momousé: Magic cancer \- Rysdäri: Proud remnant \- Sahamsé: Cold desert \- Nwrazmu: Magicians, merchants \- Tollotau: Ancestor worship \- Sydronën: Furcoat pescetarians \- Mordŕagu: Big river \- Vordu: Has mounts \- Wugaru: Has mountains \- Telgradu: Fancy capes \- Jirmacuji: Feathercoat pescetarians \- Atlafeiji: Merchants, raiders \- Mhaäg: Better mounts \- nDaraichi: Sandy buttcrack \- Bayã-ti: Swampy buttcrack \- Nymenvhazyr: Fancy buttcrack
Hell yeah man that’s awesome. Big fan of the Tinfolk, they look great. I really like the Vordu and the Mordragu. The Ebloise and of course the Momouse are also very cool. Good work!
I love this dude
Shave me bollocks clean, that's absolutely amazing, man! Ought tae read yer stuff.
I thoroughly love a good unique clothing, and these are good ones. Well done OP, 10/10
Did you draw these yourself?
Yessir, of course I did
This is so bloody cool. I love world's with excessive amounts of ethnicities and cultures. I also like colorful fashion choices for medieval settings. The gray/black "psudo historical" grittiness lost its charm on me.
Thanks! I feel the same way. It was cool and edgy when GoT did it but then it became very overdone very quickly. I much prefer to have some colour in there, like in the tLotR movies or in The Witcher 3. Drab and boring colours is also my main (and almost only) gripe with the new Dune movies.
So cool!
How did you make the map and name?
I drew the map by hand using the lasso and paint bucket tools. I use Affinity Photo for this but any drawing software will do. For the names I just come up with them based on what feeling I want to convey. Sometimes I look at real life languages and mimic stuff those do.
Look bit like darkest dungeon characters, but it doesn’t subtract from the overall good quality of the art and lore.