Ewolf20
Minstrel
disclaimer: I honestly don't read that many fantasy books so bias might rear its ugly head. But i do look up alot of fantasy media.
Now, I know some people don’t spend time writing a full blown essay on why that did this or why they did that. But what I feel needs to be said came from a realization of why I crafted this world in the first place. All of you may be wondering why I wanted to a make this essay. I just made it to highlight my concerns with creativity and how familiarity is kind of bogging it down a bit, why it creates this idea that you have to be this to appeal to people, what makes a world tick that gets people interested.
When I first started getting involved in world building, it was mostly by accident. I didn’t start seriously world building until I joined a subreddit called world building and went nuts. And soon, I began to take interest in expanding the ideas in my head and creating worlds filled with sights and scenes to crannies and nooks. It was almost expected that I at least added a few bits of world building to each setting to make things feel less empty. It was to the extent of tradition that I had to bring to existence, a structured setting. I even connected a few together to make this concise universe where everything fits together. So what does Ookraia have anything to do with this? It was one of those worlds.Ookraia didn’t start off as setting where they were just walking talking bugs. Ironically, it began as a typical fantasy setting that was connected to earth and the main races were faeries, orcs, and trolls living in tribal societies. I forgot what I use to call this setting but it has something to do with magic for sure. The main highlight of the world I created were the rose guardians, protectors of nature and guardians of the white rose princess. They were a sausage fest to be counteractive to the magical girl archetype that I loved as a kid. As expected, they turned into fairy dudes. Overtime, they undergone many changes over years with some genderfilps here and there until I found a version I liked...and that version was where they could turn into bugs. That was the moment in my life that I grew to love bugs, a creature overlooked by many.
The new version of this setting was called Velyria and this took place in a hidden world where bugs were more sapient and intelligent than meets the naked eye. I mostly did this to because the idea of insect like beings living in mostly tribal setting with shaman magic and talking trees sounded awesome. And the main draw? it got no humans. To lack a human element sounded like suicide for some. Not many fantasy settings omit the human element all together and manage to gain interest. That’s kind of where my main problem arises when it comes to other people’s settings.....they kind of feel generic. You know where people get the idea that fantasy is where elves, dwarves, humans, and orcs all co-exist in this vaguely euro-centric medieval setting? You can blame Tolkien for that, or more specifically, blame his derivatives that barely know how his works manage to work in the first place. The reasons his work is because he borrowed inspiration from Norse mythology while making up his own takes on it. When other people do it, they’re just taking what Tolkien established and making a arguable rip-off that feels less genuine than the original. That’s what been irking as of late, i could never find a fantasy book that i actually like. I’m bored to tears by the political intrigue, the backstabbing, the royal marriage agreements and the various clichés fantasy brings to the table. The whole point of fantasy is to make things up, not take everything you see and mash it into this generic mess of a setting.Now, unless you’re doing dnd, the whole medieval Europe setting makes a lot of sense. It’s familiar and people love familiarity. So much so, that any deviance of that very familiarity would lead to less book sells, quick glances, and overlooking. No one in their right mind would read a book where the main character is a humanoid spider with the mannerism of a spider. Sure, as long as they don’t look scary it’s all good, but you underestimate people. You can have the most well written book or comic in existence and it would only garner only a few people, by the virtue there’s no humans in it. Well of course there isn’t since that’s the story I wanted to tell. Again, I’m exaggerating and taking people for granted.
But the thing is, it’s an adult thing. Kids have no issues reading books like these. That’s why you see so many stories starring furry animals in them, they find it appealing. But try making a story starring non-human characters but aimed for adults, it won’t get as much reception. Even things like kill six billion demons still has to have a human element to ground the audience to reality, as if they ever attempt to get rid of this element, good luck getting an audience. I’m not trying to say that something that lacks humans is a bad thing, your just shooting yourself in the foot. We’re humans after all, we just can’t truly make an alien being feel alien unless we’re looking at them at afar.
But did all these complaints stop me? No, it didn’t. I don’t care if you have issues with what i do. If it’s not your cup of tea, it’s not your cup of tea. The primary cause of making Ookraia was because fantasy needed to expand its horizon. It shouldn’t limit itself in Tolkien tropes and conventions. It should break free from these constraints and do whatever needs to do. I’m not begging all of you to drop your books for being unoriginal. Nothing’s new under the sun. It’s how you execute it that makes the work you do worth it. I’m currently working a comic strip series called 666 days in hell, and it’s by no means original. Premise sounds like it would make for a random isekai anime that takes place in hell. But did that stop me, no, it hasn’t it. I’m doing art for it, might write down the script, and do what has to be done. Don’t be discouraged but add some elbow grease to make it less of a Tolkien rip off. So why did you make Ookraia again? Cuz I thought bugs are pretty cool guys that’s why.
Now, I know some people don’t spend time writing a full blown essay on why that did this or why they did that. But what I feel needs to be said came from a realization of why I crafted this world in the first place. All of you may be wondering why I wanted to a make this essay. I just made it to highlight my concerns with creativity and how familiarity is kind of bogging it down a bit, why it creates this idea that you have to be this to appeal to people, what makes a world tick that gets people interested.
When I first started getting involved in world building, it was mostly by accident. I didn’t start seriously world building until I joined a subreddit called world building and went nuts. And soon, I began to take interest in expanding the ideas in my head and creating worlds filled with sights and scenes to crannies and nooks. It was almost expected that I at least added a few bits of world building to each setting to make things feel less empty. It was to the extent of tradition that I had to bring to existence, a structured setting. I even connected a few together to make this concise universe where everything fits together. So what does Ookraia have anything to do with this? It was one of those worlds.Ookraia didn’t start off as setting where they were just walking talking bugs. Ironically, it began as a typical fantasy setting that was connected to earth and the main races were faeries, orcs, and trolls living in tribal societies. I forgot what I use to call this setting but it has something to do with magic for sure. The main highlight of the world I created were the rose guardians, protectors of nature and guardians of the white rose princess. They were a sausage fest to be counteractive to the magical girl archetype that I loved as a kid. As expected, they turned into fairy dudes. Overtime, they undergone many changes over years with some genderfilps here and there until I found a version I liked...and that version was where they could turn into bugs. That was the moment in my life that I grew to love bugs, a creature overlooked by many.
The new version of this setting was called Velyria and this took place in a hidden world where bugs were more sapient and intelligent than meets the naked eye. I mostly did this to because the idea of insect like beings living in mostly tribal setting with shaman magic and talking trees sounded awesome. And the main draw? it got no humans. To lack a human element sounded like suicide for some. Not many fantasy settings omit the human element all together and manage to gain interest. That’s kind of where my main problem arises when it comes to other people’s settings.....they kind of feel generic. You know where people get the idea that fantasy is where elves, dwarves, humans, and orcs all co-exist in this vaguely euro-centric medieval setting? You can blame Tolkien for that, or more specifically, blame his derivatives that barely know how his works manage to work in the first place. The reasons his work is because he borrowed inspiration from Norse mythology while making up his own takes on it. When other people do it, they’re just taking what Tolkien established and making a arguable rip-off that feels less genuine than the original. That’s what been irking as of late, i could never find a fantasy book that i actually like. I’m bored to tears by the political intrigue, the backstabbing, the royal marriage agreements and the various clichés fantasy brings to the table. The whole point of fantasy is to make things up, not take everything you see and mash it into this generic mess of a setting.Now, unless you’re doing dnd, the whole medieval Europe setting makes a lot of sense. It’s familiar and people love familiarity. So much so, that any deviance of that very familiarity would lead to less book sells, quick glances, and overlooking. No one in their right mind would read a book where the main character is a humanoid spider with the mannerism of a spider. Sure, as long as they don’t look scary it’s all good, but you underestimate people. You can have the most well written book or comic in existence and it would only garner only a few people, by the virtue there’s no humans in it. Well of course there isn’t since that’s the story I wanted to tell. Again, I’m exaggerating and taking people for granted.
But the thing is, it’s an adult thing. Kids have no issues reading books like these. That’s why you see so many stories starring furry animals in them, they find it appealing. But try making a story starring non-human characters but aimed for adults, it won’t get as much reception. Even things like kill six billion demons still has to have a human element to ground the audience to reality, as if they ever attempt to get rid of this element, good luck getting an audience. I’m not trying to say that something that lacks humans is a bad thing, your just shooting yourself in the foot. We’re humans after all, we just can’t truly make an alien being feel alien unless we’re looking at them at afar.
But did all these complaints stop me? No, it didn’t. I don’t care if you have issues with what i do. If it’s not your cup of tea, it’s not your cup of tea. The primary cause of making Ookraia was because fantasy needed to expand its horizon. It shouldn’t limit itself in Tolkien tropes and conventions. It should break free from these constraints and do whatever needs to do. I’m not begging all of you to drop your books for being unoriginal. Nothing’s new under the sun. It’s how you execute it that makes the work you do worth it. I’m currently working a comic strip series called 666 days in hell, and it’s by no means original. Premise sounds like it would make for a random isekai anime that takes place in hell. But did that stop me, no, it hasn’t it. I’m doing art for it, might write down the script, and do what has to be done. Don’t be discouraged but add some elbow grease to make it less of a Tolkien rip off. So why did you make Ookraia again? Cuz I thought bugs are pretty cool guys that’s why.
Archmage
Auror
