Verdance
Scope
The motivation behind building Verdance
Verdance is an expression of all the ideas, concepts and philosophies I have created over the years and while the world has no set theme or overarching plot I find that it adds to the realism of the world. This coupled with the familiar and sometimes redisgned fantasy elements of other worlds makes a captivating experience that can be viewed from multiple perspectives.
While most of the fantasy included in my world is familiar, some concepts that especially resonate with me from my own mind are included sparingly. As most of my ideas do not actually make it in the world or even on paper. This is because I view the reader or players suspension of disbelief to be an invaluable bond as opposed to some form of currency I can cash in for ideas that may not particularly fit with my vision.
Some worldbuilding projects may eventually incorperate something that doesn't necessarily resonate with the fans as it goes against the original theme and story of the world as the project develops. This is something I aim to avoid entirely, unfortunately one of the most painful parts about world building is having an excellent concept but having to shelf it as it simply does not fit. Having some cool aliens in Verdance would be interesting, sure, but I just do not feel as if there is any room for sci-fi in my strictly typical fantasy setting.
While most of the fantasy included in my world is familiar, some concepts that especially resonate with me from my own mind are included sparingly. As most of my ideas do not actually make it in the world or even on paper. This is because I view the reader or players suspension of disbelief to be an invaluable bond as opposed to some form of currency I can cash in for ideas that may not particularly fit with my vision.
Some worldbuilding projects may eventually incorperate something that doesn't necessarily resonate with the fans as it goes against the original theme and story of the world as the project develops. This is something I aim to avoid entirely, unfortunately one of the most painful parts about world building is having an excellent concept but having to shelf it as it simply does not fit. Having some cool aliens in Verdance would be interesting, sure, but I just do not feel as if there is any room for sci-fi in my strictly typical fantasy setting.
The goal of the project
Verdance for me is a self actualisation project. I feel as if I haven't created much in my life, I'm not an artist, I have no children and I have focused on almost exclusively STEM subjects throughout my life. While I lack most of the skills that many other creative types have such as artistic finesse with a paintbrush, an education in writing or even knowing how to play an instrument I feel as if I will never end up creating anything if i endlessly doubt my capabilities. At worst my project will be novel, someone out of their depth, attempting to bite off more than they can chew, but that is always good fun to watch at least. Like many other worldbuilding projects Verdance originally started as a Dungeons and Dragons background story setting but the more I thought and the more I wrote the more I realised that if i truly wanted to create something worth my friends time I would have to do better. I ultimately want to create a world that makes sense (at least remotely), inspires people and breaks through typical issues that most other fantasy worlds show while still not forming its identity around the idea of 'basic, but done well'
Verdance's Unique Selling point
The real difference I want is for my world to be realistic. I want Verdance to be the first world someone thinks of when they decide they might want to make a story or a playthrough in a typical fantasy setting. I want a large variety of options to be available for anybody who's looking to use my world.
There's no specific theme or mood for the world, it's not post apocalyptic or a 'goth' or a 'childrens tale', it doesn't avert itself from any unsavory things that might occur like they do in the real world and it doesnt lend itself to political ideologies for storywriting. The last thing I want Verdance to be is a product of it's time. I like to think of this world as if it really existed somewhere and that I'm merely documenting it and as such I sift my ideas and concepts through groups of people in order to ensure that while the world itself is my vision, it is not exclusively my vision that percieves it.
There's no specific theme or mood for the world, it's not post apocalyptic or a 'goth' or a 'childrens tale', it doesn't avert itself from any unsavory things that might occur like they do in the real world and it doesnt lend itself to political ideologies for storywriting. The last thing I want Verdance to be is a product of it's time. I like to think of this world as if it really existed somewhere and that I'm merely documenting it and as such I sift my ideas and concepts through groups of people in order to ensure that while the world itself is my vision, it is not exclusively my vision that percieves it.
Theme
Genre
while I try to avert myself from confining my world to a specific genre there are a few key points I like to keep note of to ensure I don't stay too far into areas that break suspension of disbelief:
The time period is around the late middle ages (Castles, kingdoms, dangerous wilderness, material currency, inequality, religious influence)
The technology is around the age of black gunpowder, clockwork contraptions are seen as high end tech (such as clocks and windmills.) While medical services are mostly guesswork (microorganisms are not yet discovered)
For things that you can expect NOT to see here is a short list thus far:
Time travel
True resurrection
Anything more technologically advanced than a radio (Setting is late middle ages so a radio is seen as alien level technology)
Retcons (I hope)
Real-life political influence (Changing a character due to backlash. Not everyone written in Verdance is a nice person and they may say or do things that you do not agree with. Please keep in mind that while I do all my writing myself it does not necessarily mean I resonate with any of my characters.)
As far as magic goes there are a few very specific magic systems I have in place but to truly understand 'magic' in Verdance you will need some context. A good example I like to give is fire. For some reason when atoms vibrate a hot orange/yellow ghost appears and eats all nearby materials that it can. For someone outside of our universe that might be an utterly insane concept so what we as people may perceive as magic is simply what we perceive as non-normal or non-logical from what we have observed.
Spirits in Verdance are considered to not be magical; just a part of life and while many people may not be able to explain why or how they come to be a majority of people accept spirits as a part their world as they have always existed just like fire has always existed. Though I cannot properly summarise magic here if you plan on reading forward on Verdance I would recommend you look at my writings as this may clarify any questions you have. Anything too inherently outlandish or convoluted to the point it destroys the suspension of disbelief is likely to not be included in Verdance.
The technology is around the age of black gunpowder, clockwork contraptions are seen as high end tech (such as clocks and windmills.) While medical services are mostly guesswork (microorganisms are not yet discovered)
For things that you can expect NOT to see here is a short list thus far:
Time travel
True resurrection
Anything more technologically advanced than a radio (Setting is late middle ages so a radio is seen as alien level technology)
Retcons (I hope)
Real-life political influence (Changing a character due to backlash. Not everyone written in Verdance is a nice person and they may say or do things that you do not agree with. Please keep in mind that while I do all my writing myself it does not necessarily mean I resonate with any of my characters.)
As far as magic goes there are a few very specific magic systems I have in place but to truly understand 'magic' in Verdance you will need some context. A good example I like to give is fire. For some reason when atoms vibrate a hot orange/yellow ghost appears and eats all nearby materials that it can. For someone outside of our universe that might be an utterly insane concept so what we as people may perceive as magic is simply what we perceive as non-normal or non-logical from what we have observed.
Spirits in Verdance are considered to not be magical; just a part of life and while many people may not be able to explain why or how they come to be a majority of people accept spirits as a part their world as they have always existed just like fire has always existed. Though I cannot properly summarise magic here if you plan on reading forward on Verdance I would recommend you look at my writings as this may clarify any questions you have. Anything too inherently outlandish or convoluted to the point it destroys the suspension of disbelief is likely to not be included in Verdance.
Reader Experience
I want Verdance to feel really inspiring. There's a lot of concepts in here I either have or plan on putting a lot of effort and time into and I just want people to enjoy their own niche they choose to fill. I want Verdance to be comforting and expressive to whoever decides to use it as a tabletop game (which is in development currently). I would like Verdance to have lots of weight to its events and as such concepts like resurrection or time control are completely absent to avoid making a character death or the destruction of a place of importance a minor inconvenience as opposed to the tragedy it is.
Reader Tone
While many negative events have happened and a lot of people have suffered for it much of the people are hopeful. There is an overall optimistic tone to a majority of areas simply because of how much people have done for peace and safety so while many areas may be cautious or closed off and serious; happy people aren't a rare sight and those who have great optimism aren't widely considered as naive. Again I'll gesture towards our world, earth. While many horrible things have happened in history and they are well remembered we aren't all a mass of depressed hopeless individuals that endlessly dwell on issues.
Overall if I had to give a number rating on how 'dark' or 'bright' Verdance is with 1 being utter bleakness and 10 being bedtime story for a child I would give verdance a comfortable 4.
Overall if I had to give a number rating on how 'dark' or 'bright' Verdance is with 1 being utter bleakness and 10 being bedtime story for a child I would give verdance a comfortable 4.
Recurring Themes
My primary motif for Verdance is perspective. Being able to think in ways you might've not been able to is an incredibly profound thought in my opinion and I always try to include perspective in all my work and I like most of my characters, concepts or creatures to not be able to be taken at just face value and have enough depth to warrant discussion.
I like to personally capture the idea of tragedy as I feel it's a rather neglected subject as of recently and has the potential to seriously invoke emotion. It's nothing I'll try to force in my world but its just something I would enjoy working on if the situation saw fit. Juxtaposing this I'll call Comedy an effective tool I like to utilise too. While the overall tone of the world is serious that doesn't mean it will be devoid of humour.
I like to personally capture the idea of tragedy as I feel it's a rather neglected subject as of recently and has the potential to seriously invoke emotion. It's nothing I'll try to force in my world but its just something I would enjoy working on if the situation saw fit. Juxtaposing this I'll call Comedy an effective tool I like to utilise too. While the overall tone of the world is serious that doesn't mean it will be devoid of humour.
Character Agency
The character agency within my stories vary greatly. Though from perspective of a plaable character, a story teller may sway the philosophy of an entire kingdom, a legendary warrior can cut down an entire army, a powerful mage may cause a continent wide spanning natural disaster. These are possible things but achieving them would require a great deal of effort from the player. The real agency comes from size in my opinion. As Verdance is only a planet it offers a moderate, healthy level of character agency as the entire story setting is not too small for any meaningful action to feel inescapable or cataclysmic while not too large for even the greatest of feats to be considered a irrelevant.
While you're most welcome to, I would say that Verdance is not best played with a godlike/demigod character as while your great feats may be influential (perhaps even permanent) and be recognised in neighboring villages if you were to enter a different continent your reputation or influence may not be carried over. Put simply: from the perspective of your character performing a world changing event would be just as difficult as it would in real life. The world is a large place and in order to make a big impact you'd need to perform something truly exceptional.
While you're most welcome to, I would say that Verdance is not best played with a godlike/demigod character as while your great feats may be influential (perhaps even permanent) and be recognised in neighboring villages if you were to enter a different continent your reputation or influence may not be carried over. Put simply: from the perspective of your character performing a world changing event would be just as difficult as it would in real life. The world is a large place and in order to make a big impact you'd need to perform something truly exceptional.
Focus
Drama
The most important plot point of Verdance is that after its namesake. The creation of the province of Verdance (a new landmass formed as the result of the end of the greatest war seen) was cataclysmic and involved a global war that lasted for generations and some argue that its end was just as grim as its existence. This was many thousands of years ago now, however. Though the world still reels from the scars it also finds verdant growth and new life in the province of Verdance.
In most surviving nations the use of conventional magic which is normally withdrawn from the essences is prohibited as its usage, while ending the war, also brought the most loss. Nowadays almost nobody knows what magic is or have even seen a spell the great leaders of nations and certain sects are clued into the existence of the arcane and practice it in controlled environments away from the public.
War is quite common, despite their common enemy, in the recorded history many civilisations have fundamental disagreements and minimal common interests which has kept them at eachothers throats for a long period of time. While many of them could not particularly afford to war with one another due to the Province of Verdance requiring the unity of all mortal races. Such unifying hatered and fear no longer unites the differing species of Verdance and thus war is once again commonplace.
A majority of the surface of Verdance is water and as such an immense ecosystem of aquatic life has taken hold of the oceans including highly intelligent lifeforms who have their own aqueous civilisations. Quite little is known about them from the perspective of land dwellers but interactions have rarely been friendly and their tampering with the ecosystems has made otherwise once friendly waters hostile while also driving aquatic life onto land leading to further issues.