Inspo-August 2024

Written by World Smithy

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.”

— Ernest Hemingway

For the # answers (1, 2, 3) please skip the brain dump—I simply had to get those thoughts/explanations out on paper. Screen? You get the point. Happy reading!

May the Fadelight illuminate your travels, friends!

Thank you, EBelt, for giving me the opportunity to ramble—I apologize in advance. I did not mean for it to get this long.

Brain Dump, Ramblings & Shout-Outs

Where do I even begin? I believe the best place to start this oncoming ramble is a shout-out to two wonderfully made youtube channels: Pointy Hat and WritFinch. I've got both of them pasted into my WA bio, but I never went to properly link their channels—I really should after this!. Their original world building videos, “The Key to World Building for D&D” and “Let's Design a Gothic Magic System” (WF) were honestly the catalysts behind Vasara as a whole. Yes, I can already hear it now from those that go to watch these videos: Vasara is just the premise/setting from Pointy Hat's video. This is factually correct; I loved the concept so much that I lifted the framework and ran with it to make it my own. Am I a little ashamed? Yeah, a bit, but everyone has to start from something somewhere at sometime, right?

Whew, so, after the absolute dump of inspiration in the last chunk, surely I'll move on to the other sections of this article. What? What the hell is that sound? That's right, baby, it's MUSIC! I have this stuff blaring at all times. When I'm awake, sleeping, eating, chilling, writing... you get the point. Yes, I have a rough case of tinnitus from it. No, I will not be stopping any time soon. So, so much of what I've written, especially many of my short stories, have been directly inspired by music, from numerous genres. You can find all of those, with any story inspired by a song (written in the author's notes above the comments) here: In the Compendium. I'd love to dive into other forms of media I've drawn inspiration from, but, if I did that, we'd both be here all day.

Man, this trainwreck just keeps going, huh? Can't look away, I see—I appreciate you getting this far in my ramblings! I won't lie, this technically isn't my first attempt at worldbuilding. I've been a DM/GM for tabletop games for the last four years, and I've buried many settings in the backyard. None of them have come close to the sheer amount of written content that Vasara has, and I'd be crazy if I said I didn't peek at my old notes from time-to-time for inspiration. Reduce, reuse, recycle; one of the few useful things school taught me!

Mindallia Sweet by Thereasonwhy

Intruding Silhouette by Thereasonwhy

Special shoutout to Thereasonwhy, who was one of the first few to find this little project of mine. He's stuck around the entire time, chucking inspirations, praises, advice, critisisms, you name it towards me. Not to mention: this mans went and made fanart of things I had written. I mean—ART of something I wrote, I, I'm still stunned! I probably would have given up on the project, all things considered, had he not been an absolute unit of a cheerleader. For that, I give thanks! If you, dear reader, have not already checked out his world The Great Tree, you definitely should—from what bits and pieces I've had time to read (college student moment), it's fantastic! ♥

Real, Constructed Answers

One

“All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

As I mentioned above in the rambling mess of thoughts, the biggest initial inspiration was taken from Pointy Hat's first worldbuilding video. Everything he had going for it just clicked in my head and I knew how I wanted to take the concept and run with it. He's since made many streams, videos, etc further building his setting, but I've not watched them out of principle; I don't want to lift any more of his ideas! I highly recommend the channel, he makes great content for D&D if you're into that. Writfinch's setting, which she's calling Gold & Bones, is honestly so interesting to me. Highly, highly recommend watching her series on the setting, as both her writing and art style are lovely!

When I think about it, there are many things that I'm drawing inspo from. All 7 of Sanderson's Mistborn novels were fascinating examples of a hard magic system put into use (I'd love to make a hard magic system for the setting, but that would take a large amount of time & effort, neither of which is in great supply here at World Smithy Co.). American Gods by Neil Gaiman is what made me really want to nail down a pantheon for Vasara which, is uh... still under construction as of the writing of this article. I could keep going on and on with different books, movies, or other media, but these were two heavy hitters for me (at least, that made me want to reform or remake a part of the setting).

Two

“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Make some light.”

— Kate DiCamillo

Gods above, you're making me pick favorites? If we're talking specific attributes/aspects of the world, I would say that may favorite aspect of Vasara is its contrast. An odd thing to pick, right? Well, everything I've written has undertones of light/dark, as in visually. Everything outside of an Elysian Bastion doesn't see the daylight, as the Veil above prevents it from coming through at full strength. This little quirk of the world has thrown everything on its head, in that I now have to operate with an inverse day/night cycle. It's brighter at night with the Sister Moons overhead, so that is when most activity happens around the continent.

I've always loved light vs darkness as a thematic; again, we're talking illumination, not the forces of. I knew going into this project that I wanted that theme to be at the very forefront of everything I write and produce that is substantial for the setting. So far, I think I've done well with that, though I'm certainly lacking in some areas I feel like. Light as this enigmatic thing that allows us as humans to see and visualize the world is, quite frankly, fascinating to me. Hell, my entire persona here on World Anvil is Dawnmaster Xanorin Smith, a clergyman of Solaurius—god of light—if that makes my love for the theme a bit more clear. :)

Three

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Oh my, my oh my, the list; it's too long to cover, so I'll pick a few! Ernest Hemingway, Terry Pratchett, Edgar Allen Poe (a lot), Brandon Sanderson, and many others have all had their hand in influencing my mind and the way I approach things. Poe in particular has been a point of interest for me, as much of his work is gothic, dark, grim, etc and all of those are things I've wanted to crank up to 11 in Vasara. Poets are few and far between, aside from Poe, as I never found any interest in the medium when I was younger. I'd love to explore it now, but, as I mentioned before, time is not my friend.

As for worldbuilders, my list is relatively confined by the few experiences I've had over the last few months here on WA. Again, since time has been scarce, it's rare that I've been able to sit down and read other's work here. Thereasonwhy (linked above) and Mochi are really the only two that I have any sort of experience with, unfortunately. Mochi in particular really, really makes me want to start making new species for the setting, but I have so much other unfinished work elsewhere that that is a project for later, far down the line.

Upcoming Project and Bits

I've been saying it for what feels like forever at this point, but I'll eventually continue work on my manuscript: Duskwalkers. I've got the first few chapters in a rough draft state (in various stages of writting) that I would love to see actualized some time soon. For those unfamiliar, I plan to have Aetmir Ennui be the main, or at least one of the main, characters that drives it forward. I'd love for the manuscript to expand upon a region in the setting known as The Luminforge Syndicate, an industrial revolution, Victorian Era inspired nation that fuses technological progress with magic. Original, I know.~

I would chuck some info/ideas for the new sci-fi setting that I've been cooking up recently in here, but I feel it's not quite appropriate to muddle the two different worlds for this. So, that's all from this elf. Signing off, till' the next one, folks.