Mythopoet
Auror
I have the hardest time describing or talking about my fantasy world because the premise is kind of complex. So I'm creating this thread to gather my thoughts and try to get them down in coherent writing. Please feel welcome to ask questions or give feedback.
Currently, I am calling my world Khthon, from the Greek word for "earth" with an emphasis on "under the ground". Deities of the underworld are referred to as "chthonic deities". Why did I choose this name? Because I think it sounds cool and also because my setting is technically under the ground. Yes, it's a Hollow Earth setting. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Because you see, no one reading stories or indeed most people within the stories themselves, is meant to know at first that this is a Hollow Earth. And the name Khthon is mostly for my personal use at this point. Within the world there is no universal name for it.
Now, one of the main themes my early stories in this setting will explore is the nature of the world itself, which is not known by the majority of its inhabitants. So a lot of what I talk about here is meant to be a mystery to both characters and readers until it is slowly uncovered during the story. Keep that in mind as I describe it.
The world of Khthon exists millions upon millions of years in the future. It is the distant future of our own Earth. Much has happened to the Earth and its inhabitants since our current age. The Sun has gone dead and the surface has become uninhabitable and humanity has fled to the inner earth. Only around 2000 years have passed since the remnant of humanity on the surface faced extinction and sought refuge within the earth. Nothing could they bring with them and nothing did they record, choosing instead to face the future and forget the horrors of the past. Humanity had, essentially, to begin civilization over again. Now the human population has utterly forgotten that there was ever another land where they lived.
Meta: the foundation of my development of this future is that it follows after the events of The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson (which is in the public domain). Being one of my favorite SFF books of all time, I've always been curious about what happens afterward. The Night Land is about a distant future in which the sun is dead and the benighted earth has become infested with all manner of monsters and supernatural entities who prey on humanity. Thus humanity has spent the last several million years within a gigantic metal pyramid and protected by a force called "the earth current". But there are indications that someday the earth current, which provides energy for their defenses, agriculture and operation of the pyramid's systems, will be depleted. So what then? I thought to myself, if they can't live on the earth, can they live under it? I had already had ideas for a Hollow Earth setting and it was easy to connect it to The Night Land, thereby giving it a much deeper history than I had previously planned.
(I'm going to stop here for now, but add more later.)
Currently, I am calling my world Khthon, from the Greek word for "earth" with an emphasis on "under the ground". Deities of the underworld are referred to as "chthonic deities". Why did I choose this name? Because I think it sounds cool and also because my setting is technically under the ground. Yes, it's a Hollow Earth setting. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Because you see, no one reading stories or indeed most people within the stories themselves, is meant to know at first that this is a Hollow Earth. And the name Khthon is mostly for my personal use at this point. Within the world there is no universal name for it.
Now, one of the main themes my early stories in this setting will explore is the nature of the world itself, which is not known by the majority of its inhabitants. So a lot of what I talk about here is meant to be a mystery to both characters and readers until it is slowly uncovered during the story. Keep that in mind as I describe it.
The world of Khthon exists millions upon millions of years in the future. It is the distant future of our own Earth. Much has happened to the Earth and its inhabitants since our current age. The Sun has gone dead and the surface has become uninhabitable and humanity has fled to the inner earth. Only around 2000 years have passed since the remnant of humanity on the surface faced extinction and sought refuge within the earth. Nothing could they bring with them and nothing did they record, choosing instead to face the future and forget the horrors of the past. Humanity had, essentially, to begin civilization over again. Now the human population has utterly forgotten that there was ever another land where they lived.
Meta: the foundation of my development of this future is that it follows after the events of The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson (which is in the public domain). Being one of my favorite SFF books of all time, I've always been curious about what happens afterward. The Night Land is about a distant future in which the sun is dead and the benighted earth has become infested with all manner of monsters and supernatural entities who prey on humanity. Thus humanity has spent the last several million years within a gigantic metal pyramid and protected by a force called "the earth current". But there are indications that someday the earth current, which provides energy for their defenses, agriculture and operation of the pyramid's systems, will be depleted. So what then? I thought to myself, if they can't live on the earth, can they live under it? I had already had ideas for a Hollow Earth setting and it was easy to connect it to The Night Land, thereby giving it a much deeper history than I had previously planned.
(I'm going to stop here for now, but add more later.)