Setting Spotlight: Heliopath's World
Nov. 22nd, 2016 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
k_a_webb posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
kawebbwritingWarning: there will be spoilers in this post.
Heliopath’s World, otherwise known as Atenia, was created because I wanted to explore a world with a magic system that was more punishing than most I’ve read about. The after effects of learning magic are a big reason why the mages don’t reach certain levels, but there is a lot more to it than that, especially in the city I’ve explored the most – Ildieu. Ildieu came about because I wanted there to be groups of magicians fighting against each other, which is definitely what they do, but, again, there’s a lot more to it. With the two past spotlights I’ve looked at larger collections, and this one is a lot smaller, in part because I haven’t started to explore the rest of the world. My focus has been on Ildieu.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t more to the world. Ildieu is in a country named Yana, and then there are three other countries I’m learning more about. At the moment it is very much a work in progress, because this collection did start, like so many of them do, with one story. That story was about a girl living with one of the mage groups being kidnapped by one of the others. Like with so many of the stories I started things grew from there. The girl had a brother who wouldn’t let her learn magic, but the leader of the other group wanted to teach her, and from there the story became about secrets, and long held plans, and things I definitely wasn’t expecting. When you world build the way I do that happens. It’s interesting.
When it comes to the magic system there are 10 levels, in Ildieu. The magic outside of Ildieu is different, because the city was created as a sanctuary for mages and their families during a war. It was warded, so no one could enter or leave. Almost all the mages made the decision to enter the city, but, in an attempt to protect the rest of the world, stepping into the city took the memory of that person. Obviously this caused problems. The biggest issue was the fact the mages forgot they could us magic, and for several years they had to learn again what they could do, while also dealing with the more personal issues that came from losing their memories. Any mages who made the decision not to enter the city knew more, and stayed with the old ways of doing things, which they passed down to their children, and so on. From the outside this looks like the worst choice they could have made, but they truly believed it was their only chance of survival. This is something I’m going to be writing about in more detail at some point.
As time passes the wards start to fail, and people can enter or leave as they will. Most choose not to. They have lives in Ildieu, and they don’t want to leave those lives, but, slowly, the town starts to become different. Someone from the outside enters the city, knowing far more about what’s to come that the average mage. From this point on things change. It’s inevitable, and something that needed to happen, in order to prepare the mages of Ildieu for what’s to come. Everything that the mages of the Black Hollow do is based on what is to come. At the same time the person from outside didn’t know exactly how creating the Hollow would affect him, or his children, or his children’s children.
My first story written for this story is about a daughter of the Black Hollow. She doesn’t know the whole story, and she learns about it from someone she thought of as an enemy, only he turns out not to be. That happens a lot in Ildieu, due to the secrets that are kept, and it’s definitely a world I’m looking forward to exploring more. Stories are going to be posted from different times, from different POVs, and from different parts of the world.
Heliopath’s World, otherwise known as Atenia, was created because I wanted to explore a world with a magic system that was more punishing than most I’ve read about. The after effects of learning magic are a big reason why the mages don’t reach certain levels, but there is a lot more to it than that, especially in the city I’ve explored the most – Ildieu. Ildieu came about because I wanted there to be groups of magicians fighting against each other, which is definitely what they do, but, again, there’s a lot more to it. With the two past spotlights I’ve looked at larger collections, and this one is a lot smaller, in part because I haven’t started to explore the rest of the world. My focus has been on Ildieu.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t more to the world. Ildieu is in a country named Yana, and then there are three other countries I’m learning more about. At the moment it is very much a work in progress, because this collection did start, like so many of them do, with one story. That story was about a girl living with one of the mage groups being kidnapped by one of the others. Like with so many of the stories I started things grew from there. The girl had a brother who wouldn’t let her learn magic, but the leader of the other group wanted to teach her, and from there the story became about secrets, and long held plans, and things I definitely wasn’t expecting. When you world build the way I do that happens. It’s interesting.
When it comes to the magic system there are 10 levels, in Ildieu. The magic outside of Ildieu is different, because the city was created as a sanctuary for mages and their families during a war. It was warded, so no one could enter or leave. Almost all the mages made the decision to enter the city, but, in an attempt to protect the rest of the world, stepping into the city took the memory of that person. Obviously this caused problems. The biggest issue was the fact the mages forgot they could us magic, and for several years they had to learn again what they could do, while also dealing with the more personal issues that came from losing their memories. Any mages who made the decision not to enter the city knew more, and stayed with the old ways of doing things, which they passed down to their children, and so on. From the outside this looks like the worst choice they could have made, but they truly believed it was their only chance of survival. This is something I’m going to be writing about in more detail at some point.
As time passes the wards start to fail, and people can enter or leave as they will. Most choose not to. They have lives in Ildieu, and they don’t want to leave those lives, but, slowly, the town starts to become different. Someone from the outside enters the city, knowing far more about what’s to come that the average mage. From this point on things change. It’s inevitable, and something that needed to happen, in order to prepare the mages of Ildieu for what’s to come. Everything that the mages of the Black Hollow do is based on what is to come. At the same time the person from outside didn’t know exactly how creating the Hollow would affect him, or his children, or his children’s children.
My first story written for this story is about a daughter of the Black Hollow. She doesn’t know the whole story, and she learns about it from someone she thought of as an enemy, only he turns out not to be. That happens a lot in Ildieu, due to the secrets that are kept, and it’s definitely a world I’m looking forward to exploring more. Stories are going to be posted from different times, from different POVs, and from different parts of the world.
