Greetings everyone, we meet again in a series of blog posts telling you about development of my game. If you still remember my last post, I told you that I want to start setting up the... well, setting of the story. There are three kingdoms in this game, Altiria, Belirium, and Arkascha.
Altiria
Altiria is the antagonist kingdom in this game. Altirians are war loving kingdom, they are people with high physical power (higher than other kingdoms) with only small percentage of people practicing magic. Altiria is an enemy of Belirium (the protagonist kingdom) because king's daughter is elope with Belirium's prince. Altiria wanted the princess back, Belirium refused, and so the war raged.
Because they love war & fighting so much, they also have a gladiator arena in this kingdom. Die in a gladiator match (or in war) is an honourable death, and cannot be avenged.
The type of government here is a religious leadership. Now, I don't know whether there's a real life kingdom with religious leadership type of ruling, but this is how Altiria run its kingdom. A king will rule together with a Grand Cleric. Before waging wars, the king would ask the Grand Cleric whether the Gods bless their war. If Grand Cleric said that the Gods bless them then they will go to war. Generally, the king is allowed to do anything while ruling his kingdom, unless Grand Cleric received a revelation that Gods are against king's action, then the Grand Cleric will veto the king's action.
Speaking of Gods, Altirians worships several Gods, which are:
Kohrob, The creator, The ruler of Gods
Carathian, the protector of lives
Voraldin, the creator of creatures
Reyrull, The ender of lives
Elloyr, The grand healer
Andallar, The God of fertility (and birth)
Altiria's religion also have a creation myth, like this:
Kohrob created the world from the void
Carathian protected the world from its threat
Voraldin brought lives to humans, animals, and other creatures
Reyrull ended those whose time has end
Elloyr shined upon the world, and healed the wounded
Andallar fertilize the land, bring life to plants, and make creatures love one another
And thus the balance of this world is set
That's good enough for a beginning. Altirians also have a prayer, "My Carathian protects you." it's pretty much the equivalent of the famous "May the force be with you". This is just a small part of Altirian's mythology, I will probably add more Gods for people to worship but these are the main Gods.
I became interested in making a (virtual) religion after I played Dragon Age 2, where they have a complex religion and mentioned often in game's narratives (like "Maker's breath", or "Praise the maker"), and it even affect how people react to each other (like how mages are feared).
As a war loving kingdom, their war technology is the most advanced among three kingdoms which make their army very strong. They have catapult, trebuchet, and battering rams (and maybe even other technologies). But they don't have a gunpowder, because if I make them own gunpowders, they will be too strong as a kingdom.
One more thing, beside human this kingdom is also inhabited by orcs. They occupy the western and northern forest, this is also why there isn't a human town in the western part of the kingdom. Orcs usually attack trader's caravans. Altiria has tried to eliminate orcs multiple times, but orcs' physical abilities are higher than Altirians, which make them hard to fight.
Other than orcs, citizens of Highview has also reported a flying dragon soar above their town, which makes people believe that the dragon has a lair somewhere in mountains, it's just noone has ever seen it. Until now dragons never attack human settlement, so nobody tried to slay it. Even if there are people who tried, none ever return.
Belirium
Belirium is protagonist's kingdom. Most of Belirium citizen are traders and craftsmen who are able to create high quality artworks. Their agriculture and livestock arent able to support their own citizens, so they're really depending on trade.
Military side of things, they are weak but there are a lot of mercenaries available for hire in Belirium. The protagonists are one of these mercenaries. People of Belirium also have a unique ability that allow them to look in the dark, how good is their vision in the dark differs from each people.
Belirium's type of governance is absolute monarchy, the king rules with the help of senate called the council of five. The king is able to rule in his kingdom to his liking and noone can disobey, the council of five is free to give suggestions but it's the king's decision to ignore them or not. There is one exception to the rule, that is when the council of five thinks that the king needs to be replaced (for whatever reason). The king may agree or disagree, but if the king disagrees then the current king and the one selected by the council of five will have to prove themselves in front of the four great spirits. They do this through the test of courage, wisdom, and power. In this time the citizen is usually split into two, the one who roots for the current king, and the one who roots for the candidate for king. The winner of these tests will become the next king.
I did say something about the four great spirits. These are the spirits that are worshipped by the people of Belirium, Belirium belives that there are other spirits but only these four that are worshipped, they are:
Efreet, Great Spirit of Fire
Behemoth, Great Spirit of Earth
Amphitrite, Great Spirit of Water
Garudeya, Great Spirit of Wind
In Belirium's mythology, the world was once an empty void until one time comes and the four great spirits agreed to create a world for their creations to live in. They gathered their most powerful powers and together they created a world with elements from the four great spirits. Belirium also have a prayer, "The four spirits are with us" which are the same as "The force is with you."
Other than human, Belirium is also inhabited by elves. Majority of them live in the Whitewitch forest but there are others who live in human's cities. In this kingdom, elves are considered second class citizens, half-elves are even far lower than that.
Arkascha
(I haven't made a map for it, but Arkascha is to the south of Altiria)
Arkascha is the third kingdom of Dorton (I actually am not sure whether this fits as a continent's name or not), I made it as a "neutral" party in this war, but they are friendlier to Belirium due to the trades relationship they have. The Arkaschan are people with extreme magical powers (even higher than the other two kingdoms), they are also the only ones who are able of shapeshift magics.
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I actually wanted to write the first chapter of the story, but worldbuilding proved to be harder than I thought (there are other details I didn't write here). Even so, I'm so satisfied with the world I created even though this is just a small part of a continent in this world. Even now there are a lot of story ideas going around my head. A big war between human and orcs, invasion from a more advanced country from the west, the arrival of people from the east with their martial arts, holy war between two religions, the rebellion of half-elves. There are a lot of ideas I can make for this world, and I haven't even touched about possibility of war against demons.
I hope you are as excited about this world as I am, or maybe you have your own story ideas? Write that down in the comment below (don't worry I'm not gonna steal it, I told you I have lots of story ideas of my own)'.
