ScribeI want to give background information first.
The story takes place in 3 different worlds. They're Tilmun, Erd, and Apertum, which is compact and quite nascent, so not discussing it much. To describe them briefly, Tilmun is historical, Erd mythical and religious, and Apertum abstract.
Tilmun is based on Middle Eastern cultures and history. Mainly, Islamic and Arabian. By Arabian I mean a much larger scope than what people are used to. Eastern, Western, and Central Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the Levant and Mesopotamia, which had had many Arab kingdoms long before Islam. However, I'm basing ancient history on Sumerian, Akkadian, some old Arabian kingdoms, and Elden Ring =)
I'm focusing on the obscure, like apothecaries, bimaristans (hospitals), paper-makers, unknown creatures, local medieval gangs, and even weird nicknames (like, Jinn Rooster). While I describe Tilmun as historical, I don't just blob history into my world. E.g., apothecaries are split into apothecaries and Perfumers. Perfumers are warriors who fight using idaams—"spice" blends that ignite to produce effects, which can't otherwise be produced. This mirrors the historic reality of sedentary apothecaries and apothecaries who were part of medical caravans the Buyids sent to far-flung places that had no access to medicine. The caravan apothecaries usually carried with them spices, which themselves were medicine, and perfumes to sell. Hence the name perfumer in Arabic.
For Erd, I take myths, Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and even some semantics, like elf, and exaggerate them. E.g., Elves in this world are beasts that live on the outskirts of towns and villages, which people worship as deities, a concept taken from "the hedge" of Anglo-Saxon culture. It's the space between your safe space and foreign lands where monsters and barbarians lived, while the gods and elves lived in the hedge. Hedge creatures aren't antagonistic nor allies; they're in between. They only pose a threat to individuals who break taboos, unlike creatures and peoples of foreign lands that were a threat to the whole society. Another example, there was a massive volcanic eruption which blocked the sun in Scandinavia. I took this event and turned it into divine punishment, as the Elfkins (Elves children) see it, after what they call the Forewar, when some Elves broke their pact with God, and were punished along with their Elfkins. God sent a cloud, the Tinter, that burned down their settlements with lightning and molten rocks and rained down on them glass shards. On the other hand, other peoples interpret the Tinter and the Forewar differently.
Apertum is based on colors, emotions, and Don't Starve is all I'm going to say =)
With this out of the way, the story begins 1000 years ago on Tilmun. The Impaler, Emperor Yazid of Sawad conquered the continent. As he stood on a top the mountain looking over Hasinah, the most southerly kingdom, he saw a cloud pregnant with heavy rain drift away into a different land and said, "go wherever you wish; your harvest will be mine."
A realization struck him at that moment. Did this harvest or any other harvest matter? His castles, money, clothes, slaves? None of it would matter. How much longer would he live? 20 years? 30 years? 40 at most. He wanted it to last forever. He wanted himself to last forever, to be immortal, and there's a way.
Ma, the source of power in this world, has many effects, one of which is extending lifespans. That's why the other races live longer than humans, even if not by much. For his plan, he collected Devil Hands, plants that can sense and siphon Ma out of their victims with their roots and branches. It didn't need soil or water to survive, just Ma and the blood. He built a tower and embedded the Devil Hands into it, and his hunt began.
He hunted the other races and impaled them on the tower, letting the plant siphon their Ma, which he then stored in an instrument taken from the ruins of the underground Primeval Kingdom. But that wasn't enough. He turned his attention to monsters, which were much more dangerous to hunt, but so be it, and he even impaled his own people. The the tower grew taller and the base wider with more sections as the number of corpses grew. The stones turned a rusty a brown from the dried blood, and the air acrid with the corpses' scent that didn't get removed. Bones dropped onto the ground from time to time as carrion birds, rain, and wined stripped clean the corpses.
When enough Ma was stored, he climbed the tower, laid on an altar, and hooked himself to the instrument, using the Ma-conductive veins of guradeshqs. Ma rushed into his body, but it was too much. He couldn't handle it. His body turned into a single, solid Ma crystal and shattered into smithereens. The Ma had no where to go and the tower exploded.
One of the defining characteristics of Ma is that it responds to intentions and thoughts, and every Lykin and Duhaym impaled on the tower wished death upon the humans, and every human wished they wouldn't die, and every monster screeched and trashed to survive. All these intentions and thoughts blended into the Ma.
Pieces of the tower landed everywhere. The western coast of the Lower Sea, Busheer on the east coast, Shoum to the west of Sawad, and even to the far-off desert sea of Safaa. Ma flooded out from the tower and its pieces as large clouds of Ma, almost a liquid in their form. They covered most of the continent. Most people that came into contact with the clouds got turned into Ma crystals and shattered. Not many humans nor Lykins remained, while the scattered Duhayms were luckier. People call this calamity the Flood.
Wherever they fell, they created Whirlpools—intense Ma that circulates in the same place, creating abnormal environments, like the Safaa Sea, whose sands ebb and flow like water. Dragon Burrow, a system of caves and tunnels that stretch under the entire continent with time and space bending properties. But these already existed, and their effects got more intense, especially the Burrow.
People from our world were getting transported into Tilmun. People speculated. Some believed it's just the effect of the Burrow getting more powerful and extending to the surface. Others thought it's impaled humans' echoes reflected in the Flood. After all, in the many decades and centuries to come, humans would be the subject of extreme hatred, and they need all the help they could get to survive. After all, its their sheer numbers was what helped them conquer the continent, which was no longer a factor. Whatever brought these people, didn't matter. They needed that help.
These new arrivals, these Strangers, are unique; despite their extremely different looks, they all spoke the human tongue, Urbi. Moreover, they had an abnormal amount of Ma compared to other humans, but strangest of all, they had no memories of their old world, no memories of earth, but they maintained their sensibilities. Why? It's still a mystery. (I have the reason)******
Skip 1000 years into the future, and the humans re-established kingdoms and so did the Lykins of Shoum, and they're in a bitter conflict currently. Mainly, the Lower Sea's kingdoms alliance against the Lykins of Shoum, while others, such as Hasinah and the nomadic Duhayms, remain mostly neutral.
I have skipped a lot of history and details and whys and hows for the sake of brevity or this post might as well be a journal.
So why people from our world with no memories? The main characters are, mostly, awful people from our world, not killers and such, but terrible personalities and abusive behavior, while one of them clearly had a traumatic past, more so than the others. I wanted to write them redemption and self-discovery arcs, struggling with beliefs, religion and the meaning of life as they run into and clash with them. Some of them might fail, die, or succeed
Characters like these are given and use their pasts as an excuse. They end up unchanged as people, but it doesn't matter because the privileges solve all their problems. I hate that. Hence why they don't have memories, yet their rotten personalities are there. If they fail, they can't blame their past, and it isn't there to interfere with them directly, although the more deep-seated trauma might get triggered. It's a new world, a new chance, gifted with power, and none of the past hindrances: not the memories, people, or circumstances. Yet, they fall to the bottom of the pile from the get-got because of their natures.
They struggle to find meaning and go through many events that land them on wanting to go back to their original world, though they don't know earth.
On one of their quests, they go down to Dragon Burrow, rumored to connect to other worlds. They stumble into Erd (I have a rough idea how and why), the second world, and they journey through Tilmun, Erd, and Apertum. Each world is meant to reflects the protagonist's mind space at that point of the story.
On Tilmun, religion exists, but it's like your nose. You know it's there. You're aware of it, but how much attention do people pay to it? Not very much, but it has effects and purpose. Still, it's in the background, while the thing the protagonist, Baqir, grapples with the most here is his goal in life and its meaning. While this is vague, I don't think it needs more explaining, as everyone goes through it.
As for Erd, it's religious and mythical, exactly because that's where these things should begin to matter to Baqir. Lastly, for Apertum, while I didn't create much for it yet, I it will be, insha'Allah, about doubt—doubt in self, belief, religion, and purpose. Where does it go after that? Will see.
It is, admittedly, a grand idea for a story and would take years of reading and research. I want to learn more about my religion, Christianity, Arab and Anglo-Saxon, as well as early Scandinavian histories, so insha'Allah, I can present, will present, a product that's worth reading.
The story takes place in 3 different worlds. They're Tilmun, Erd, and Apertum, which is compact and quite nascent, so not discussing it much. To describe them briefly, Tilmun is historical, Erd mythical and religious, and Apertum abstract.
Tilmun is based on Middle Eastern cultures and history. Mainly, Islamic and Arabian. By Arabian I mean a much larger scope than what people are used to. Eastern, Western, and Central Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the Levant and Mesopotamia, which had had many Arab kingdoms long before Islam. However, I'm basing ancient history on Sumerian, Akkadian, some old Arabian kingdoms, and Elden Ring =)
I'm focusing on the obscure, like apothecaries, bimaristans (hospitals), paper-makers, unknown creatures, local medieval gangs, and even weird nicknames (like, Jinn Rooster). While I describe Tilmun as historical, I don't just blob history into my world. E.g., apothecaries are split into apothecaries and Perfumers. Perfumers are warriors who fight using idaams—"spice" blends that ignite to produce effects, which can't otherwise be produced. This mirrors the historic reality of sedentary apothecaries and apothecaries who were part of medical caravans the Buyids sent to far-flung places that had no access to medicine. The caravan apothecaries usually carried with them spices, which themselves were medicine, and perfumes to sell. Hence the name perfumer in Arabic.
For Erd, I take myths, Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and even some semantics, like elf, and exaggerate them. E.g., Elves in this world are beasts that live on the outskirts of towns and villages, which people worship as deities, a concept taken from "the hedge" of Anglo-Saxon culture. It's the space between your safe space and foreign lands where monsters and barbarians lived, while the gods and elves lived in the hedge. Hedge creatures aren't antagonistic nor allies; they're in between. They only pose a threat to individuals who break taboos, unlike creatures and peoples of foreign lands that were a threat to the whole society. Another example, there was a massive volcanic eruption which blocked the sun in Scandinavia. I took this event and turned it into divine punishment, as the Elfkins (Elves children) see it, after what they call the Forewar, when some Elves broke their pact with God, and were punished along with their Elfkins. God sent a cloud, the Tinter, that burned down their settlements with lightning and molten rocks and rained down on them glass shards. On the other hand, other peoples interpret the Tinter and the Forewar differently.
Apertum is based on colors, emotions, and Don't Starve is all I'm going to say =)
With this out of the way, the story begins 1000 years ago on Tilmun. The Impaler, Emperor Yazid of Sawad conquered the continent. As he stood on a top the mountain looking over Hasinah, the most southerly kingdom, he saw a cloud pregnant with heavy rain drift away into a different land and said, "go wherever you wish; your harvest will be mine."
A realization struck him at that moment. Did this harvest or any other harvest matter? His castles, money, clothes, slaves? None of it would matter. How much longer would he live? 20 years? 30 years? 40 at most. He wanted it to last forever. He wanted himself to last forever, to be immortal, and there's a way.
Ma, the source of power in this world, has many effects, one of which is extending lifespans. That's why the other races live longer than humans, even if not by much. For his plan, he collected Devil Hands, plants that can sense and siphon Ma out of their victims with their roots and branches. It didn't need soil or water to survive, just Ma and the blood. He built a tower and embedded the Devil Hands into it, and his hunt began.
He hunted the other races and impaled them on the tower, letting the plant siphon their Ma, which he then stored in an instrument taken from the ruins of the underground Primeval Kingdom. But that wasn't enough. He turned his attention to monsters, which were much more dangerous to hunt, but so be it, and he even impaled his own people. The the tower grew taller and the base wider with more sections as the number of corpses grew. The stones turned a rusty a brown from the dried blood, and the air acrid with the corpses' scent that didn't get removed. Bones dropped onto the ground from time to time as carrion birds, rain, and wined stripped clean the corpses.
When enough Ma was stored, he climbed the tower, laid on an altar, and hooked himself to the instrument, using the Ma-conductive veins of guradeshqs. Ma rushed into his body, but it was too much. He couldn't handle it. His body turned into a single, solid Ma crystal and shattered into smithereens. The Ma had no where to go and the tower exploded.
One of the defining characteristics of Ma is that it responds to intentions and thoughts, and every Lykin and Duhaym impaled on the tower wished death upon the humans, and every human wished they wouldn't die, and every monster screeched and trashed to survive. All these intentions and thoughts blended into the Ma.
Pieces of the tower landed everywhere. The western coast of the Lower Sea, Busheer on the east coast, Shoum to the west of Sawad, and even to the far-off desert sea of Safaa. Ma flooded out from the tower and its pieces as large clouds of Ma, almost a liquid in their form. They covered most of the continent. Most people that came into contact with the clouds got turned into Ma crystals and shattered. Not many humans nor Lykins remained, while the scattered Duhayms were luckier. People call this calamity the Flood.
Wherever they fell, they created Whirlpools—intense Ma that circulates in the same place, creating abnormal environments, like the Safaa Sea, whose sands ebb and flow like water. Dragon Burrow, a system of caves and tunnels that stretch under the entire continent with time and space bending properties. But these already existed, and their effects got more intense, especially the Burrow.
People from our world were getting transported into Tilmun. People speculated. Some believed it's just the effect of the Burrow getting more powerful and extending to the surface. Others thought it's impaled humans' echoes reflected in the Flood. After all, in the many decades and centuries to come, humans would be the subject of extreme hatred, and they need all the help they could get to survive. After all, its their sheer numbers was what helped them conquer the continent, which was no longer a factor. Whatever brought these people, didn't matter. They needed that help.
These new arrivals, these Strangers, are unique; despite their extremely different looks, they all spoke the human tongue, Urbi. Moreover, they had an abnormal amount of Ma compared to other humans, but strangest of all, they had no memories of their old world, no memories of earth, but they maintained their sensibilities. Why? It's still a mystery. (I have the reason)******
Skip 1000 years into the future, and the humans re-established kingdoms and so did the Lykins of Shoum, and they're in a bitter conflict currently. Mainly, the Lower Sea's kingdoms alliance against the Lykins of Shoum, while others, such as Hasinah and the nomadic Duhayms, remain mostly neutral.
I have skipped a lot of history and details and whys and hows for the sake of brevity or this post might as well be a journal.
So why people from our world with no memories? The main characters are, mostly, awful people from our world, not killers and such, but terrible personalities and abusive behavior, while one of them clearly had a traumatic past, more so than the others. I wanted to write them redemption and self-discovery arcs, struggling with beliefs, religion and the meaning of life as they run into and clash with them. Some of them might fail, die, or succeed
Characters like these are given and use their pasts as an excuse. They end up unchanged as people, but it doesn't matter because the privileges solve all their problems. I hate that. Hence why they don't have memories, yet their rotten personalities are there. If they fail, they can't blame their past, and it isn't there to interfere with them directly, although the more deep-seated trauma might get triggered. It's a new world, a new chance, gifted with power, and none of the past hindrances: not the memories, people, or circumstances. Yet, they fall to the bottom of the pile from the get-got because of their natures.
They struggle to find meaning and go through many events that land them on wanting to go back to their original world, though they don't know earth.
On one of their quests, they go down to Dragon Burrow, rumored to connect to other worlds. They stumble into Erd (I have a rough idea how and why), the second world, and they journey through Tilmun, Erd, and Apertum. Each world is meant to reflects the protagonist's mind space at that point of the story.
On Tilmun, religion exists, but it's like your nose. You know it's there. You're aware of it, but how much attention do people pay to it? Not very much, but it has effects and purpose. Still, it's in the background, while the thing the protagonist, Baqir, grapples with the most here is his goal in life and its meaning. While this is vague, I don't think it needs more explaining, as everyone goes through it.
As for Erd, it's religious and mythical, exactly because that's where these things should begin to matter to Baqir. Lastly, for Apertum, while I didn't create much for it yet, I it will be, insha'Allah, about doubt—doubt in self, belief, religion, and purpose. Where does it go after that? Will see.
It is, admittedly, a grand idea for a story and would take years of reading and research. I want to learn more about my religion, Christianity, Arab and Anglo-Saxon, as well as early Scandinavian histories, so insha'Allah, I can present, will present, a product that's worth reading.
Myth Weaver
Vala
