WARNING; THIS PAGE IS FOR BORING EXPLANATIONS
⊗- You're gonna need some patience if you want to down all of this - nothing TOO relevant is here, though.
- ⊗ Page 4 - The nerd stuff. -
Temperature
Temperature varies little between the entire planet, due to the red star's light better penetrating snow, which means less of it is reflected by the equator, the oceans being darker also equates to them absorbing more of the sunlight, and with currents, it helps spread the temperature even more, along with them being geothermically warmed, which helps keep the heat spread all over the planet even at night, AND the world's axis tilt is really small, which makes seasons a little faint, along with, again, helping the equator and poles have less temperature variations. All of these factors help keep the global temperature more uniform, keeping the poles and the equator ALMOST around the same temperature range.
Water
Water, which is kept liquid in oceans and rivers by the organessonium concentrations, has a weird cycle, where the snow is either evaporated by sublimation, bringing the vapor to the winds and into clouds, carried from the land to the ocean by winds of huge, global level storms, or melted by the heat producing grass, which also brings water into the soil, that can get into underground flows, and then into springs, forming rivers. All of this, as previously mentioned, also helps with snow buildup, although it is never enough to EVER completely defrost a region.
Flora
Flora To survive the global blizzard storms, plants absorb and store energy from the sunlight they absorb, and release it as heat during the global storms to stay warm enough to not die off from the wind and chill. altough a small amount of it is also released naturally at all times. Trees, and some other plants, produce a sweet sap, to help with heat retention and distribution, also commonly sold as a food ingredient! The darkest blue hued trees make use of their shade to absorb more sunlight (and heat), which lets them be stronger and healthier. This makes rainforests (or just areas of heavier vegetation) have a darker hue of blue, while seasoned forests and lighter vegetation has a more cyan-leaning hue. Flowers are also a little more common (somehow), some types grow sparsely and alone, although others grow in huge fields, trees, bushes, etc.
- This one is insane, so, the "triangulators", they're MASSIVE "mushrooms", dark green, they look like these massive fucking "blades" from the ground that reach even the clouds?? they have a "hollow ground cross section" shape (⊗- not even i know what this means, man.), with a base that looks a lot like a tree's, having roots and overall flattening near the ground. They are THICK, like, MULTIPLE meters thick each, combined with their massive height, we're lucky theres only a few packed together every a-lot-of kilometers. \\ ⊗-Being really close to one is fucking disgusting, though, they have this heart-like """organ""" inside that distributes this liquid from the base to the top to help with heat distribution, but hearing a heartbeat from a fucking mushroom is really unnerving - i'd say "chop'em all down!" if i could be sure that it wouldn't mess with the ecosystem around it. When they fall down naturally, they're a really good food boost, both to the nearby ecosystem or to whatever people get to chop them down before nature claims it.
Moons
Moons Geographically, "Trinitite" (the green moon, and the closest one of the 3), has a HUGE crack in its surface, that reaches all the way to its core. this makes it so that, very rarely, glimpses of the core's glow shine through to the earth, which people see as a sign that, somewhere, somehow, a guardian angel is still watching over them. A lot of people think this crack actually happened because GOD, to be frank, wasn't all too good with making celestial bodies, which resulted in Trinitite being overly dense. When god finally parted, without the constant maintenance, the moon's guts finally splintered themselves open. Kali, the FURTHEST moon, actually has a smooth, (almost) cratered surface, since it PROBABLY used to be a rogue celestial body that just so happened to be catched by the planet, its fairly recent, and didn't get to eat any asteroids - Yet, at least.
Kalisto plane
the kalisto plane is basically pure magic. its where people rip magic off of to use - we don't intentionally pick our magic from there, the body just does it. The plane also "leaks", covering patches of the surface that are usually dozens of meters wide, having a coreless root-like formation, although they disappear eventually, leaving only a few of them existing at the same time, and making it an extremely rare find. The plane itself has the effect of dark visual snow, the raw magic is so crude and concentrated that it forces the retina to register it, making you see an illusion of black noise. Inexplicably, the plane also emits a sound of a faint, echoing white noise, that almost sounds like its really far away.
(visual representation of the kalisto plane)
The kalisto plane, also has a "second layer", its accessible if you try to directly use a LOT of magic in the kalisto plane (which isn't hard, seeing you aren't expending any energy to pull it out of there into the real world in the first place). If you do that, you'll "dissolve" into the second layer, which can only be left if you are anchored to something that isn't a part of you and that is still on the first layer to pull you back, like a rope. The second layer is nicknamed "Purgatory", and it doesn't share the properties of the first layer, so you have to spend energy to use magic again. in here, the black noise sound and visual snow effect is gone, instead, a faint purple thick vein-like pattern (every "vein" is as thick as the grand canyon) flashes in the sky every few hours, leaving a distant and almost quiet thunder noise from the sky which is also BARELY grey, almost fully black. The horizon also has a faint glow, like the sun is about to rise, altough it never really does - this also emits no light. The entire second layer is also almost fully dark, with only a faint glow being emitted by whoever is in there. The eternal, fully flat floor feels like indestructible marble, it has no texture, and its 100% black, too, although it is slightly transparent (noticeable when the flashes happen), making it visible that the floor is only a few centimeters thick - a faint, extremely distant "ocean" can be seen during the flashes.
these leaks end up shrinking and then crystalizing into veins of kalistolite, which is a metal that is RIDICULOUSLY though, and shares the same visual properties of the kalisto plane.
⊗- Okay, so, one, that sounds FUCKING HORRIFYING, second, what kind of MADMAN even found all of this out???????????????? the book i picked this from is apparently reliable, but, still, fuckass PURGATORY. You couldn't give me an entire kingdom for me to do this.
Portals
> Portals can be open for up to a few months, to multiple knots at a time, which will slowly destabilize them - The longer an portal is open for, the stronger its V-Continuum gets (a constant vibration, in knot-old portals they can get slightly concerning. In the rare occurrences of three knot old portals, the terrain and flora around them were completely destroyed. The v-continuum has both a limit of how strong it gets and can theoretically be "contained" ⊗- "more like postponed, because it pretty much just stores itself until it dissolves when the portal closes or explodes in a massive earthquake. Purely theoretical stuff though, nothing proved yet."
Society
Society Farming is usually done using mountains or valleys as huge barriers for the wind and snow from the heavy global blizzards, and the biggest farming fields can only be done in these locations.
- An old tradition of humans are bunker cities, small scale cities built underground to hide away in before a global storm would hit, although they were not self sufficient, they still helped against the winds and heat. Nowadays, they're an extremely rare find, and are MOSTLY abandoned.
- More cultural differences, although in most cases smaller, can be spotted in individual kingdoms, like changing to an "official" name at 17, in the Visande kingdom, or the Unovian costume of always carrying around a notebook. Usually, society is pretty accepting of each other's' cultures (especially after the war of the 1st moon), which means most of these differences are mostly irrelevant in the survival scenario. Still, there are many universal and general laws and facts, like Arquivaki, the general and main language used by virtually everyone (popularized in the grace period after the WOT1M), or many of the laws for region claiming (prohibiting the claiming of land that has been virtually untouched) and nature preservation (to stop multiple kingdoms to grind away at entire forests faster than they recover). In our world, many kingdoms grew isolated throughout hundreds of years before connecting or expanding into clusters, and consequently the whole world - although many aspects of these kingdoms were diluted into more universal culture, one of a few aspects that didn't change is clothing, where throughout the span of entire regions, clothing styles can alter a lot, like, a LOT - It's not uncommon to see immigrants from other kingdoms dress differently than the others around them.
- Although volcanoes are not arguably common, most of them are in a "constant eruption", which basically means that they always have fresh magma in their crater. This makes it so that volcanoes create a nice microclimate around them, making the air be a decent amount warmer, and in a FEW cases, even defrosting a nicely sized portion of land around them, which has evolved into volca-tropolies, Kingdoms or metropolis' that base themselves around a volcano, which helps them be much more prosper than their neighbouring regions.
- A notably important profession to kingdoms are the Apex Hunters, very well equiped, government supplied and managed mercenaries / teams that are usually sent to unexplored / infested regions to pacify them of large predators, the one's that hunters usually deem not worth the risk to simply hunt to sell. Very important, well paid, albeit VERY hard and scarce profession. Only worth the risk if you're in it for the adrenaline rush, trust me. Their uniform is built for the weather, freeing, but still well protected in vital points, very flexible for every situation! good ref is KRIS DELTARUNE's armor.
- LAMPS! pretty much all the kingdoms use rune-lamps. These lamps are just big glass spheres on a pole with light runes on them, runes that are filled by the runechargers (government job, pays ASS.) Kingdoms always have their own unique pattern and color on their lamps so its easier to know when you're in a foreign kingdom. Follows 2 example paintings of these.
- Every kingdom has their own "signature" civilian weapon, a really simple-design weapon that pretty much all civilians have for stuff like self defense.
Global storms
Global storms Not much to say about these, they're formed when extremely strong storms fuse with each other so extremely they create a HUGE storm with so much momentum it sweeps the entire planet before fully dissipating, usually forming around 7-8 months between each other. Before getting hit by a global storm, signs can be detected as early as 13 days before - Signs include lower pressure, unusually clear skies, noticeable and temporary temperature increase, noticeably higher bird flocks passing, etc.
Don't mess them up with derechos, these little DEMONS are just global storms in a much smaller scale, if you want ref on how a global storm looks for some reason, look up a derecho on a book. Global storms are, well, most of the time snowstorms, which means that your visibility will be further obliterated by not only storm covering the sun, but also the snow swallowing even more of your long range visibility - not mentioning the horrid stinging pain from being hit by the near hundred mile moving snow particles.
⊗- oh yeah, have i mentioned the thunder? there's thunder in there too. Not a lot, most of it never hits the ground, concentrated mostly in the top parts of the stormcloud. Is the SOUND emanating from that going to be just as horrifying? yes. i've obviously lived through quite a bunch of these, and whenever i heard that shit as a kid i'd actually be horrified. Honestly, dude, these storms are fucking scary, they swallow the entire HORIZON even when they're HOURS away from hitting you and when they're close the vision is genuinely scary. Sometimes the winds just start picking snow UP from the ground and throwing it literally everywhere and THAT looks fucking horrifying.
Fashion
If you aren't particularly wealthy, you're likely to have clothes like Apollo. Hempcloth(harvested from the non-seeding varieties of frost wheat), dyed vibrantly with whatever is available, then covered by a slightly higher quality cloak*. If you're lower middle class, like Willow, you probably have higher quality clothes: thick wools, airy linings, darker dyes. Willow specifically only has one custom-tailored piece of clothing, her sweater, which she got as a reward for a quest. Everything else is just normal clothes. If you're nomadic or spend most of your time without shelter like Freya, you're likely to have reindeer wool(false name. Just normal cloth, though the thread is reindeer fur) with a thick cut and only arms and face exposed to open air; her specific clothes are a shirt and a skirt.
*It's common for people's best clothing item to be their cloak, because their cloak is what's going to protect them from the cold and also be what people see. If you're a lower class adventurer, you'll likely only have a gambeson or leather armour, whereas richer ones can afford chainmail and hybrid - Also important to note that most people only use their cloak when going outside, or in informal meetups (as long as it's not too cold), since it's not the most practical piece of clothing one can have at all times - still, lotta people out there like to use their cloak all the time.
Tailoring is an upper middle class/noble trade. The ability to make high quality clothes is seen as admirable. In nobility, like most, their fashion is very vibrant and layered: detailed dresses and suits, with painted and embroidered scenes and symbols on the fabric. Some common pigments are woad, Abyssalite, Spritemoss, and wildflowers. For bright oranges/reds, mixtures of rust and clay and ground beetle shells are used: for browns, rust and flash frozen blood. Note that Abyssalite, when painted in a thin layer over fabric, causes it to glow vibrantly when without sunlight. It's a limited and very rare resource, though, and the only person who knew how to make the Abyssalite paint was Kejota.
⊗- Oh yeah, we used to be friends before i moved kingdom as a kid, he was super cool!! He always looked extremely sick though, and thinking back on it as an adult, having the tailor that messes with VIBRANTLY GLOWING ink also "coincidentally" looking super sick all the time probably means that thing is toxic. Hope he's ok nowadays.
Generally speaking, aim for older designs, silhouettes, colours, and seams, but use more modern fashions for the clothing as a whole.
Fauna
Fauna Most bugs are actually not considered nasty, due, to sheer luck, a vast majority of them evolving to look very slightly "cute" to neutral, or simply neat or nice??? ...no, people still dont keep bugs as pets, though, they are NOT that cute, nor that smart.
Reindeer
⇛ Reindeer are cervids, 2-3.5m at the shoulder, with thick antlers and very large communities. Their herds are in the thousands, but very hard to find unless they come to you of their own volition. They migrate almost constantly to evade global storms. Their overcoat is coarse or scraggly, and their undercoat is plush and fluffy. They, along with horses, are used to make leather. Usually, their skin is left out to freeze, then rolled up and stored until it can be sold and traded for finished leather. Their undercoats can be spun into thread: the resulting cloth is called "reindeer wool", but the fabric is very thick and the threads are too delicate to serve as embroidery thread. They are hunted by small nomadic tribes that follow them on horses, moving every few weeks.
Hamito(s)
⇛ Hamitos are somewhere between a rabbit and a guinea pig genetically, and a mole, hare, and guinea pig visually. They burrow underground, especially just after heavy snowfall, and use plant's heat to find them and eat their roots. They can stay underground for months, until they need to either find a mate or their food source dies. Then they emerge to the surface: they travel until they find another burrow, then attempt to mate with the Hamito inside. They are sometimes farmed, but they need to be on tile or ice otherwise they'll dig down and escape. When farmed, they feel like chicken or guinea pig, but with a more robust flavour and more fat.
Bonbranch
⇛ This is the common term for a small fruit tree kept inside the house. They bear red, ovular fruit, and their full size is usually around a metre tall. Their fruit are called "Bons", have thick skin, and an almost veiny centre with white flesh and red strings like a web inside. Their skin can be made into tea, but most people just eat them whole and don't bother peeling them: their skin isn't gross, it just tastes like nothing. Bonbranches are dicots, with a vibrant blue ring at their cambium, and their bark is papery, a cool grey colour. Their flowers are very small and white, growing above the plant like queen anne's lace. Each flower has 7 petals, yellow stigma and sepal, and next to no odor. They're generally pollinated by their owner, usually owning 2 and just rubbing their flower clusters together and letting them pollinate off each other. The flower, after being fertilized, dies slowly, and the ovum slowly expands and weighs down the stem. By the time the fruit is ripe, they are hanging around the rest of the leaves. Once all the fruit is picked, the stem dies and should be trimmed to prevent bacterial infections.
⊗- Nerd.
Sparkmoss
⇛ More information will come soon when i feel like picking this book back up.
Frost Wheat
Language expressions
⊗- "Weird, no idea why Frey asked me to write these down, does she just find these in specific nice..?"
- "No loose ends left untied"
---> A task completed with precision
- "The strands are hanging to the wind of the storm"
---> It's up to fate.
- "A nice fiber to the rope."
---> Healthy hobby / good habit.
- "A knot tied"
---> The completion of a Knot of time.
- "Sharper than a storm."
---> Objective harder to complete than surviving a global storm in the wild, usually used to exaggerate the scenario.
- "The spool of rope"
---> Like the yarn of destiny, it means the course you were predestined to track since birth.
⊗ - "I personally find this one a little bullshit, but oh well."
- "A splinter in the spool"
---> Unexpected turn of events / Unforeseeable consequence.
- "Hanging by a thread"
---> Close call.
- "A fizzle of it's blessing"
---> Lucky break
- "To spite Atraski!"
---> to promise or to make an oath that will be stronger than God's abandonment.
- "My spool is soon to be shattered"
---> 'I'm fucked.'
- "Harsher than the stormwinds"
---> Individual with dry, rude, or reclusive personality';'tricky or dangerous situation
- "May god be rotting."
---> Expression of extreme frustration.
- "DEATH OF ATRASKI" \\ "FEY'S BLOOD"
---> Expresses sudden shock.
- "I swear on the blood of our messiahs"
---> Informal promise.
- "Let my claws split the thread of fate into endless strands"
---> 'I'm about to do something with a really unpredictable outcome that may or may not fuck you OR me up'
Arquivakian alphabet
⊗- "This alphabet is a little akward. We're all forced to learn how to read it as kids but this stupid alphabet is usually only ever used in writing that the fuckass nobles think should be eternized, and are very important. Why is making stuff harder to read a sign of importance? don't ask me."
⇛ There's 4 crucial factors that choose what people wear: how good they are at magic, how much time they'll be spending outside versus inside, how much free movement they need, and obviously, wealth. Charging the Feyheart core is almost subconscious for most people, but it tires you out way faster if it's trying to heat your entire arm. If you break it up with, say, leather straps: the smaller areas, despite having the same surface area, cost less energy. Hence, it's common for people that have lots of exposed skin to instead break it up with straps and bands and ropes. Sometimes they're just a side effect of armour, though.