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'''The World''' is a corner of Creation unfolding somewhere in the polyverse, a universe like and also unlike ours. It has natural laws and so forth, but they're not always adhered to the same way. Out of all the stars and planets in this universe, I've been concentrating on one planet, Yeola. I think I saw the first visions of this place in, perhaps, the mid 1980s and have been steadily exploring the place ever since.




'''The World''' is an alternate reality and a faerie and something of an alternate history, discovered to be somewhat after the fashion of Tolkien's Middle Earth, but largely has gone its own merry way.
As far as planets go, it's probably not all that exciting. The Sun rises in the morning and she passes overhead during the day and sets again in the evening; west is down, east is up; oceans are deep and wet and all kinds of whales and fish and monsters live there; light illuminates what is to be seen, and dark deluminates that which is to be hidden; apples fall off trees and bonk philosophers on the head; and when you drop things, they fall down. Usually. Sometimes they fall up. But, that's pretty ordinary: just be patient and soon enough the object will reappear and properly drop to the floor again. Just be wary when things start falling sideways. That's usually a good time to go hide in a strong walled place for a while!


I’m not really sure where the beginnings of the World lie, except that I had a fairly concrete idea of an alternate world somewhen about 1980 or so, with a kind of diminutive people that had the ability to fly. They lived in houses in the forests of what is roughly Western Siberia *here*. You could tell what “race” or social group they were by the colours of their hair and feathers. Essentially, Red meant warrior, Black meant magician, White meant seer, Yellow meant ruler, Brown meant slave. These people eventually evolved into the Daine, who I've described on Conculture several times. The world's history eventually lost its "primary world" attachments and grew its own. So, all the countries of Europe and their colonies quietly left the room, and other histories took their place.


It is usually asked of world builders and storytellers, “Who influenced you in this endeavour?” Some can place the blame squarely on one author or another, but I can’t trace any of this back to one single source. Certainly Dr. Seuss’s imaginative worlds, almost conlangy lexicon and vivid illustrations of strange beasts and people were an early influence. While I can’t recall ever consciously modeling anything after Seuss, the early exposure to such wonderment may well be a key to all this. Other influences include, but are not limited to, Monty Python, J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Kelly Winters. I wouldn't say any of them provide either a seminal or a profound influence; but they've each helped in some way to give a form and shape to the Void where the World had appeared.
The World is a faerie, an alternative to reality and a place of wonder & peril to explore. One fellow traveller on these paths, Ben, said of the place that it's like simply taking the earth and making it a bit more delightful. It's not a static place the many visions of Faerie seem to make it out to be. It has a long history, from the earliest cosmogony right on down to the final eschatogony. I guess I've probably only scratched the merest surface of the whole!


'''The Universe'''


The universe, as a place, is often confused by the inhabitants of the World with the planet Earth itself. Most philosophers agree that the universe is heliocentric, that is, the Sun resides at the center of the universe and presides over a court of various small orbiting bodies: the planets, the comets and the fixed stars. This of course is not the case, as the World exists within a fairly mundane universe of galaxies, black holes, quasars, star systems, gas clouds, dark matter and other exciting astronomical bits and pieces.  
It is also something of a phantasy, as there are certainly elements of classical fantasy involved. We find some elements --- dragons and magic and wondrous palaces that are huger on the inside than on the out. And a few, even, that are, quite inexplicably, far huger on the outside than inside. And it is also something of an alternate history, for many historical events and persons that one can find *here* also exist *there*. But these things are not always in the way one might expect.


The main difference between *that* universe and ours is the existence of magic as a natural force.


'''The World'''
Aesthetically, I think bronzepunk and thaumpunk might be applicable terms. Surface iron is rare, so we find a world in a kind of eternal Bronze Age --- but a bronze age tempered and propelled by dwimmery such that we find a thaumologically modern world (at least in parts) but also a world without any kind of sensible science or technology as we'd understand it *here*. There may also be some threads of the classic fantastique, the merveilleux and the contes des Fées. It is, for all that, unanimously its own world and not bound by the conventions set by others, unless it wants to be.


Some philosophers aver that the world is a roundish disc rotating upon the backs of four oliphants that in turn stand upon the back of a gargantuan tortoise which swims through the vastness of space. In this cosmology, the Sun, planets and moons are reduced to very small orbiting rocks.


Most aver that the Earth is a round planet that orbits the Sun along with a number of other planets and moons. The circumference of the Earth has been measured as have the distance between Earth and Sun and Earth and its moons (none of the measurements are precise, but the scales are proportionate). Surrounding the planet, and presumably including the Sun and other planets, is the realm known as <i>Overheaven</i>. It is not always clear whether this realm is truly the mundane regions of space or is the spiritual realms that surround and imbue the universe.  
Its history and culture take place on a planet called Yeola (or Gea), though there are several other planets in the system where kindreds of Daine and Teor live. "The World" therefore refers to the whole faerie; but for all practical purposes, to events on Yeola itself. It has some things in common with Tolkien's vision of Middle Earth, and while Tolkien has had his influence, the World has largely gone its own merry way.
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[http://world.conlang.org/index.php?title=Atlas '''Atlas'''] -- Nothing like a few maps to help one visualise a place!


The surface of the Earth, the <i>Middle World</i> is where most of the known inhabitants of the World live and where they go about their daily lives (except for miners and adventurers). But the surface world is but a part of the whole picture.


There are realms known collectively as the <i>Underworld</i>, and by this we mean not just the sewers and underdelvings of the old city of Hoopelle. Many are the ancient dungeons and delvings of various dark powers, but there are also natural realms under the surface of the Earth inhabited mostly by beasts, but sometimes by peoples unknown to those on the surface except in folklore (particularly Gnomes and Dwarves). There are also tales of vast underworld chasms where whole communities of peoples live; some are said to be like the Daine, others like Men. No Middle World organisation has undertaken the daunting task of fully exploring and mapping the Underworld. It is certainly too large, too diverse and too inaccessible.


There is a philosophic speculation that the center of the Earth is hollow and that the core is a small body that generates heat and light for the hollow Underworld and also drives the thaumic field of the planet. While at present this is only to be taken as speculation, it would not be inconsistent with the structure of a magical world.
'''Miscellaneous Articles''' -- Here are some articles about the World you might find interesting: [[The World - A Miscellany]]


The Reshaping of the World was one of the most spectacular geological events in the planet's history, probably since the Creation. The Reshaping of the World was a catastrophic event that happened some hundreds of thousands of years ago when the Dark Power was defeated. Upon his demise, the beings that inhabit the very foundations of the world were agitated and their movements caused upheavals of seismic and volcanic natures in the regions of the world particularly inhabited by the Dark Power. At that time, the Dark Power inhabited the bitter East, having raised up in the eastern Ocean a great land for his minions and servants. As a result of the upheavals, those lands sunk under the waves, causing massive tsunammis, and the whole globe of the Earth turned about 67 degress to one side so that, from the perspective of those living nearest the Dark Power's domains, the lands that once were in the eastward were ever after in the northward. Those lands, however, remained quite bitter.


The Teor record in their histories that the world turns in this way about once in every two star ages. So, it might be a coincidence that the planet turned at this time. Of course, it is also possible that the motions of the subterranean beings upset some delicate balance that simply initiated an event that was immanent anyway.


Deepest of all the Underworld's realms are the very Foundations of the World itself. No dweller of the Upper World has ever gone so far into the belly of the Earth, for the heats of the <i>Ankanic Fires</i> burn all flesh, and it is said that the airs of the depths of Underworld are crushing and deadly. There, it is said, dwell -- <i>beings</i> -- of immense size and ponderous motion that uphold the basments of the upper earth. It is said their slow motions cause the lands themselves to change place, as if playing out some great and mysterious ballet. Their agitations, it is said, are the cause of volcanic eruptions (the Ankanic fire) and earth tremors of all magnitudes. These beings dwarf even the mightiest of the World's ancient mountains, Amath, Gahalt and Zahair.
[[Music and Story in The World| '''Music & Story''']] -- Here are some descriptions and examples of music that folks listen to in the Eastlands of the World as well as a bit on storytelling.


[[Category:The World]]
 
[[Category:Conworlds]]
 
[[Poetry in The World| '''A Bit of Poetry''']] -- here is an example of Daine poetry.
 
 
 
[[Cartas: Gentle Pastime, Divinatory Science]] -- an article on playing cards in the Eastlands.
 
 
 
'''Languages''' -- Several [[Languages (The World)||languages]] of the World have been described: [[Avantimannish (The World)|Avantimannish]], [[Talarian (The World)|Talarian]],  [[Yllurian (The World)|Yllurian]], [[Lucarian (The World)|Lucarian]], [[Anian (The World)|Anian]], [[Mentolatian (The World)|Mentolatian]] and [[Queranaran (The World)|Queranarran]].
 
 
 
'''Peoples of the World''' -- Many races are known in the world, including [[Man (The World)|Man]], but of them all, the [[Daine (The World)|Daine]] are the most comprehensively described. Others include [[Etuns (The World)|Etuns]], [[Gnomes (The World)|Gnomes]] and [[Herrw (The World)|Herrw]].
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[[Category:The World|*]]
[[Category:Conworlds|World]]
[[Category:Planets|World]]
 
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Latest revision as of 13:41, 13 August 2019

Middle World
Map world.jpg
Distance from sun: 4,759,406 miles (Poseidon)
Length of Year: 365 1/4 days
Length of Day: 24 hours
Circumference: 34,851 mi
Diameter: 11,093 mi
Surface area: 386,622,432 sq mi
Axial tilt: understood but unmeasured
Number of moons: 2

The World is a corner of Creation unfolding somewhere in the polyverse, a universe like and also unlike ours. It has natural laws and so forth, but they're not always adhered to the same way. Out of all the stars and planets in this universe, I've been concentrating on one planet, Yeola. I think I saw the first visions of this place in, perhaps, the mid 1980s and have been steadily exploring the place ever since.


As far as planets go, it's probably not all that exciting. The Sun rises in the morning and she passes overhead during the day and sets again in the evening; west is down, east is up; oceans are deep and wet and all kinds of whales and fish and monsters live there; light illuminates what is to be seen, and dark deluminates that which is to be hidden; apples fall off trees and bonk philosophers on the head; and when you drop things, they fall down. Usually. Sometimes they fall up. But, that's pretty ordinary: just be patient and soon enough the object will reappear and properly drop to the floor again. Just be wary when things start falling sideways. That's usually a good time to go hide in a strong walled place for a while!


The World is a faerie, an alternative to reality and a place of wonder & peril to explore. One fellow traveller on these paths, Ben, said of the place that it's like simply taking the earth and making it a bit more delightful. It's not a static place the many visions of Faerie seem to make it out to be. It has a long history, from the earliest cosmogony right on down to the final eschatogony. I guess I've probably only scratched the merest surface of the whole!


It is also something of a phantasy, as there are certainly elements of classical fantasy involved. We find some elements --- dragons and magic and wondrous palaces that are huger on the inside than on the out. And a few, even, that are, quite inexplicably, far huger on the outside than inside. And it is also something of an alternate history, for many historical events and persons that one can find *here* also exist *there*. But these things are not always in the way one might expect.


Aesthetically, I think bronzepunk and thaumpunk might be applicable terms. Surface iron is rare, so we find a world in a kind of eternal Bronze Age --- but a bronze age tempered and propelled by dwimmery such that we find a thaumologically modern world (at least in parts) but also a world without any kind of sensible science or technology as we'd understand it *here*. There may also be some threads of the classic fantastique, the merveilleux and the contes des Fées. It is, for all that, unanimously its own world and not bound by the conventions set by others, unless it wants to be.


Its history and culture take place on a planet called Yeola (or Gea), though there are several other planets in the system where kindreds of Daine and Teor live. "The World" therefore refers to the whole faerie; but for all practical purposes, to events on Yeola itself. It has some things in common with Tolkien's vision of Middle Earth, and while Tolkien has had his influence, the World has largely gone its own merry way.

Atlas -- Nothing like a few maps to help one visualise a place!


Miscellaneous Articles -- Here are some articles about the World you might find interesting: The World - A Miscellany


Music & Story -- Here are some descriptions and examples of music that folks listen to in the Eastlands of the World as well as a bit on storytelling.


A Bit of Poetry -- here is an example of Daine poetry.


Cartas: Gentle Pastime, Divinatory Science -- an article on playing cards in the Eastlands.


Languages -- Several |languages of the World have been described: Avantimannish, Talarian, Yllurian, Lucarian, Anian, Mentolatian and Queranarran.


Peoples of the World -- Many races are known in the world, including Man, but of them all, the Daine are the most comprehensively described. Others include Etuns, Gnomes and Herrw.

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