Ethnis
Scope
The motivation behind building Ethnis
I worldbuild as a way digest our own world. It's the echoic byproduct of my fascination with people, technology, and nature. It is my duty to it to transcribe it from skull to text, and my art to make it digestible for you so that we may share in these strange and terrible delights together.
Through the crucible of art, Ethnis has taken shapes and evolved purposes.
Ethnis is split into history and present. The history is experienced via text — the stories and this Codex. The present is yours to define. Go make a character and join in on the Roleplay, if you don't mind testing out a Work in Progress.
The goal of the project
The Codex is written from the perspective of the final canon moment before players are introduced to the setting via TTRPG. It is the Lore Bible which helps us to keep the vast canon mostly correct throughout any story or game.
Ethnis's Unique Selling point
The water is poison, the air is thin, and there isn't a single flake of snow at the poles.
The only light in the sky is a pale disc by day and the streaking reentry of space debris by night.It is in these Death Throes that they found us. The Royal They. Whatever beyond you believe in, you'd've believed them to be from. Outsiders, come at last only to see us at the shameful terminus of our reign. Demon, Fabrication, Alien — we called them many names but they called themselves Aempis.
At our peak, our technology was far advanced of their wildest dreams, but what remained was overwhelmed by what they brought: The Meta.
Theme
Genre
If we're talking about schticks and pastiches, Ethnis aims for a punked-up flavor of sci-fantasy. It's not as dignified as a space opera, but you'll be forgiven if you compare it to one.
Instead, let's call it Operatic Maximalism — there's a whole lot going on, but there's a flow to it. And who doesn't love some slice-of-life and body horror thrown in?
Also, Ethnis is Hella Gay .
Space Opera • High Adventure • Mature Themes • Body Horror • LGBTQIA+ • Eroticism • Drugs • Philosophy • Romance • Politics • Magic • Faith • Identity • Biology • Architecture • Sci-Fi
Reader Experience
Ethnis makes a performance of dancing on precipices and standing on occaisions. To the passing voyeur: feel free to voir here and voir there for any rabbithole which might catch your eye. When you're ready to notch a name into The Wheel, you may write it here.
Warning: This new life may be more vulnerable and rewarding than your own.
Reader Tone
In Ademal's writing, the people of Ethnis are sequiturial in their experience but their fates are not. Navigating chaos. Life is lived forwards and experienced in reverse, with no shortage of joy and sorrow to find amid the flotsam. Bittersweet fantasy. The humor is dry and the details are wet. Sublime Awe. Strike up a conversation, you'll never believe what you hear.
In Barron's writing, Ethnis is an unending tale of people, places, and phenomena weaving together into an infinite tapestry. Exploring these stories through them exposes the struggle of life against elements synthetic and natural. Victory is made sweet through hardship.
Recurring Themes
Presented in the form of Mantras
Everything you want is on the other side of fear.
You will never be complete, you will always be evolving.
They'll remember what you said, not what you thought.
Victory is made sweet through hardship.
Character Agency
It's quite possible that you may Enlightenment up into Pantheon during your time in Ethnis, but even then you're a stone in the shadow of mountains. Nobody has lived forever yet.
Focus
Drama
The Lacuna is Over. The tipping point of economic power has finally been reached, launching a new expansion era in which the Banners are eager to reclaim lost worlds and claim colonies which didn't originally belong to them.
The Induvidual Is Powerful, moresoe than ever but less than they realize. The powers of this universe are ancient, but even they recognize when the winds of change spell danger for their way of life. Even the Pantheons can fade with time.