December 14th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

The video is still loading, so onto the rest of the creatures.

-mythical birds
-dragons, wyverns
-golems
-regular animals
-elementals

Starting on mythical birds, there are a lot of different legends about magic birds so I'm going to find a list. I did not find a list. To clarify I didn't find a lot of mythical birds other than the usual Phoenix and Thunderbird myths. So I've decided to not include mythical birds in my world, there isn't enough variation to separate it from creatures such as elementals. So mythical birds are being scraped.

Onto Dragons and Wyverns, firstly I'll clarify that there is a difference. I learned this while looking into the dragons in Skyrim. The dragons in Skyrim are actually Wyverns, they have two legs, plus wings. Dragons have four legs, plus wings. The only other difference I found between the two is that Wyverns are apparently smaller. So I'll be working with that as a basis for their appearances, as well as having smaller Dragons and Wyverns be weaker at magic. I'm going to have both creatures live in mountainous regions due to historical references and their ability to thrive in said environments. Dragon and Wyverns, similarly to humanoids in the world can use any type of magic, depending on their souls and magic capacity. Which ranges in the levels between 6 and 26, I wanted there to be a lot of variation in dragons. That includes personality as well, I want Dragons and Wyverns to be equal in mental capacity as humanoids, maybe even smarter in general. As for social structures, I think dragons would be more likely to live separately or in small communities of two or three. Wyverns would mostly live in groups, with weaker Wyverns banding together in large packs of 20-30.

Golems are different from the other creatures in the world, being unnaturally brought to life through magic. A lot of how they would work would depend on who in the world made them. Such as a character with weaker magic wouldn't be able to create a Golem that has a personality or the ability to use magic. Golems are basically the magical equivalent of programmable robots. So I'm just going to play loosely with Golems in the story, basing their abilities on the character who created them.

Just going to sneak in between, the video has finished loading so now I'm waiting for it to upload to YouTube. Back to work on creatures...

Regular animals are regular animals, same as real life. Though that does raise the question, how do regular animals survive with such powerful predators living in the same environment? Answer to that is population growth ratios. Regular animals would reproduce more often than the other creatures, like how rabbits do in comparison to wolves.

Last but definitely not least, these are my favorites actually, Elementals. Elementals, unlike Aetherals, are physical animals. With their magic linked to a single element each. Though due to their physical forms their magic is weaker than Aetherals, they can directly interact with the world. Appearance wise they would be influenced by their individual elements. Using Lina, my character's familiar, an air elemental ferret as an example. She has a light blue and white tint to her fur, and weighs very little in comparison to a regular ferret. They would have levels between 17-23, with rare ones reaching levels 24-26. their personalities would depend on their elements but would also be distinct from it, having their own force of will. They would live close to their elements, depending on the animal and element whether or not the live in groups.

So that's all the non-humanoid creatures in the world, I'll do concept pieces for these creatures in my next post. I'm not finished with this post just yet though, the speedpaint is finished uploading so here's that...


Now I'm done.

December 13th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Okay, now to draw wraiths, I have an Idea for how I want these to look, but no clue how to get there. I'm going to be experimenting a lot. I think for this one I'm going to draw it in my sketch book first.

I started off by loosely sketching the shape. Then I drew in the details, I didn't like how the face looked so I changed it to a gaping face thing. I want the cloak to look like it's falling apart into the wind. As well, I want the crown to look rusted and dull.

Now, to draw it on my computer I'll be uploading it into Clip and tracing over it.

So I did the initial sketch, but since I'm trying to do a completely different style than usual. I figured instead of explaining step by step, I'd do another speedpaint. So I'll record my work as I go, wish me luck.

Alright so I recorded the whole thing, around an hour and 10 minutes of work. The final image looks really cool, almost exactly what I was going for. So now I'll be using the same program as last time to edit the clips together, speed them up, and add music.

Alrighty, I'm finished the editing, now I just have to wait for it to export. I had a bit of trouble with speeding the video up, for a bit it wasn't registering that the speed had changed. It kept on listing the times as the same as they were originally. I fiddled around with it for a bit and found that while the clip will list as the original speed, the sequence of clips will register as the sped up times. The rest was easy, the video was just a minute longer than all the audio files. So I just staggered them so that there would be 30 seconds at the beginning and end of the video.

I'm going to end this post here. The video should be finished exporting by tomorrow, once it is I can upload it to YouTube. While I wait for that to load I can go through the other creatures like I've been putting off for the past couple of posts.

December 12th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Alright I'm going to draw the concept art for the creatures I've already explained.

I had drawn a sketch for the Camazotz already, so I just did the fine line work for that and just colored it in. In the original sketch of it had been mostly just a regular bat based on the reference photo I used. However, in the final line work I added another set of wings and made the ears bigger. Even with these changes it looks a lot like a regular bat so I might edit the design later. I do like the gradient I did on the wings though. I did one dark to light grey gradient, then in another layer above it I did a blue to transparent gradient. On the top one I lowered the opacity to tint the grey below. I did this separately on both the wing structure and membranes  (had to google the names of the different wing parts.)   I also added a leather like text to the wing membrane. Normally bats are a light brown color. I made the Camazotz grey and black, with blue tints, to have them fit more with the representations of death and darkness.

Now to start on the concept art for aetherals. One of the characters in the story has a wolf aetheral as a familiar (I'll do the world building for familiars another time). I decided to draw it for this concept piece, thing is, I've never drawn a wolf before. So I just googled "wolf" and picked an image I liked to use as a reference. I ended up just tracing the image. Well actually that's wrong, I started off by roughly tracing the shape. Then I used the airbrush tool and filled in and slightly around the sketch. I blurred the sketch and reduced the opacity on the airbrush layer. Next I did a finer line layer, followed by a layer of brightened lines that highlighted it. Finally, to show the color differential in the fur. I added a rough layer of color of over where the hair should be darker. I did this using a pencil tool I downloaded recently, because of how it inconsistently spreads. To finish it off I deleted the reference wolf image.


I'm out of time for today, so tomorrow I'll draw a concept for wraiths and finish defining the other creatures.

December 11th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Alright so now to actually set up the details for the worlds creatures. I'm going to start at the top of the list and work down.

I just realized while writing that ↑↑↑ that I should actually specify what I need to define for the creatures. That being...

-appearance                                -in world name
-location                                     -affinity for magic
-mental characteristics               -anything else I think of along the way

That's what I'll work with for now, onto the defining...

-animals with heightened features

         -increased size                                            -additional teeth, limbs, ect

         -amalgamations of multiple animals          -ect

-Camazotz

-spirits

         -daemons          -aethrials

         -wraiths

-mythical birds

-dragons, wyverns

-golems

-regular animals

-elementals

So starting with the top of the list we have animals with heightened features. Appearance is pretty simple, just imagine regular animals but with extra features or bigger sizing. I won't draw a concept art fr this one because of the simplicity. I'm going to have them called animals in the world, because there isn't any real differentials between them and regular animals. In regards to location in the world they would exist all over depending on the species of animal. They wouldn't have any magic capacity, being like regular animals. Mentally they would be the same as regular animals as well.

Next we have Camazotz, basically giant bat monsters. I only have a rough sketch of the Camazotz for now. I'll finish the concept art for this later, that will define the general appearance. I'm going to keep the name as Camazotz in the world, I think it will be a fun little thing for anyone who reads the story to research. Location wise, I think I'll have them live in hot, high altitude locations. The Mayan's associated the Camazotz with the night, death, and sacrifice, so I'll be using that as a basis for their magic affinity, making Camazotz more likely to have an affinity towards shadow and death magic. All Camazotz would be between the magic levels of 17 to 26. I'm setting it as a rule that magic creatures do not require a catalyst to use magic. Finally mental characteristics, they would be extremely violent and dangerous, attacking anything that comes into their territory. I also think they would be smart and cunning, stalking their prey before pouncing.

Onto spirits, spirits would be incorporeal beings, existing closely with magic. Their appearance would depend on what type of spirit they are. Since they are incorporeal they could exist anywhere in the world. Though their magic affinity would have an influence on where they might live individually.

I just had an epiphany while writing that last sentence. How would the creature's social dynamics work with others of their kind? With animals it would be similar to the real life counter parts. With the Camazotz, I think they would be pack creatures, just like real bats. Spirits would be more likely to live away from others of their kind or in small groups.

Back to spirits, since they aren't limited by physical forms they would have more powerful magic levels. More likely to be in the levels 24-26, but with some in the upper high tier levels. Mental characteristics would depend on the type of spirit. Onto the different types...

                  Starting with Daemons, I don't think they would have an appearance. With exception to when they are possessing something. In the world I want to have them be called Daemons, and no I am not misspelling demon. Daemons are the Greek origin of demons. Instead of servants of hell they are depicted as in common media and Christianity. Daemons were viewed more like ghosts or guardian spirits. They serve and protect humans from beyond the grave, bringing good fortune to those they follow. I'm calling them daemons in my stories world so to not associate them with negative connotations. I don't intend for Daemons to be wholly benevolent creatures either though. In the world they can range between good and bad depending on the Daemon. Daemons would have the ability to possess or be summoned into objects or creatures similar to demons. This would be an ability reserved for Daemons. Daemons would be more likely to have an affinity for life and mind magic.

                  Aetherals are impossible for me to explain the origin for because even I don't really know where I got my interpretation from. I will explain my idea of Aetherals, Aethrals are spirits linked to the elements. They take the appearance of transparent animals, and while physically incorporeal they can influence the world around them with their magic. I'll draw a concept art piece for them later. They would only be able to use elemental magic, and only one element per Aetheral. Aetherals would embody their given elements, being more a force of nature than an actual creature. Being so tied to their elements, Aetherals would be extremely powerful with magic.

                  Finally, we have Wraiths. Wraiths are violent spirits that devour the magical energy of others to sustain themselves. They look like black human silhouettes, with piercing, bright white eyes. I'll draw a concept for this later as well.

To explain wraiths I have to go into my worlds history for a bit. At the start of the worlds history humans where the only race. After using magic though they evolved into the other races. Using magic directly influences humanoids, due to the fact they weren't meant to use it directly at all. In this time humans who used magic could be devoured by it. Using up all the energy stored in their souls, this is what creates Wraiths.

A Wraiths only goal is to seek out and devour the souls of others. They are very similar to wraiths on this page. They don't have a magic affinity, due to lacking an energy source to use magic.

I'm going to stop here for today. I'll probably draw the concept art for the creatures mention in this post and go through the rest of the creatures tomorrow.

December 10th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Alright I've decided to start with the types of living things in the world. After I do that I can tailor the catalyst system to function with that in mind.

Firstly listing the humanoids in the world, since I already had that finished. We've got humans, elves, fae, vampires, and the sub species of vampires, revenants. My friends and I decided the humanoids at the very beginning of writing this story. We just picked random ones we liked personally. Originally we were going to also have automatons as a race. However it didn't fit into the world we were creating, so we cut them out. So a lesson to learn about world building is to cut what you don't need.

Now onto non humanoid races, to do that I'm going to find a couple of online lists of mythical creatures. 

So I found this one list, claiming to be the "ultimate list of mythical creatures", it was pretty short so I'm looking for another one... And I found these two lists...

https://www.mythical-creatures-and-beasts.com/mythical-creatures.html

https://www.mythical-creatures-and-beasts.com/undead.html

So off of these two lists I noted down all the ones that suit my needs. While some creatures stood on their own, some were of similar characteristics or basis so I combined them. Here's the current list of potential creatures...

-Ogres, Trolls, or Bigfoot type cryptids

-animals with heightened features

         -increased size

         -additional teeth, limbs, ect

         -amalgamations of multiple animals

         -ect

-Camazotz

-spirits

         -daemons

         -aethrals

         -ghosts

         -wraithes

-mythical birds

-dragons, wyverns

-golems

-gremlins, goblins

-shape shifters

-Loch Ness Monster, Morgawr, Ogopogo

-Boogeyman, Shades, Blackdog

-regular animals

-elementals

I also added some creature that I know that weren't on the list. Now, I'll take the list I created, get rid of any that I don't really need, and define the ones I'll use. I'll mark the ones I don't need in red.

-Ogres, Trolls, or Bigfoot type cryptids

-animals with heightened features

         -increased size

         -additional teeth, limbs, ect

         -amalgamations of multiple animals

         -ect

-Camazotz

-spirits

         -daemons

         -aethrals

         -ghosts

         -wraiths

-mythical birds

-dragons, wyverns

-golems

-gremlins, goblins

-shape shifters

-Loch Ness Monster, Morgawr, Ogopogo

-Boogeyman, Shades, Blackdog

-regular animals

-elementals

I'm going to set down what each creature is specifically tomorrow. As well as possibly going through how different types of creatures can use magic and their affinity for it. 

December 7th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Alrighty, continuing where I left off, we have mid tiers.

Mid tiers are levels 6-16. I gave the most amount of levels to the mid tiers because I wanted mid tiers to have the most variation in magic potential. With any level over 6 being able to use their specialty proficiency. As well as level 6s being able to weakly use any type of magic with a catalyst. Level 16s would be able to use any type of magic with a catalyst and be proficient with magic types suited to them.

Levels 17 through 23, high tiers, would be proficient with all types of magic with a catalyst and have mastery of their specialty.

The last 3 levels would be impossible for a humanoid creature to be categorized in. Creatures at this level would be able to use most if not all types of magic without a catalyst. I created these levels because in the story world, mythical creatures such as elementals, chimeras, and wraiths exist, to name a few. I'll go through the different types of creatures in the world in a later post.

In the lower and higher tiers I gave less levels because there would be less variation in those levels of magic capacity. where as I gave more levels in the mid tiers for more variants in capacity.

I left a lot of things about the system open for my own freedom. Such as what qualifies as proficient and the complete details of each specific level. I didn't think this was necessary to outline, because A: It will never be mentioned in the story, and B: It's always good to leave yourself some freedom when writing a story. The purpose of doing world building is to keep from falling into plotholes when writing. Not to limit yourself in what you can write.

I have yet to mention the research I did into magic systems before designing mine. I have watched and read about a lot of other magic systems over the years from reading and watching fantasy. I learned a lot from just paying attention to other works. I also watched videos about it online, while I won't go through everything in the videos, I'll embed them here...







That's all I have for today, in the next post I'll go into either catalysts or the types of creatures in the world.

December 6th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

In regards to the magic system, I have the base types of magic that can be used. As well as the idea for how it can be activated. Not much more though, so I got to thinking about what I need to expand on. What I concluded was I need to develop...

-what magic uses as a source
-how catalysts actually function
-how the magic leveling system works
-what influences how a person can use magic
-what types of beings in the world can use magic (humans, fae, animals, elementals, ect)
-ect

I think first I'll go through the magic I have and how specialties are decided. When I first started deciding what types of magic there would be, I had trouble with the huge amount of possibilities. So I set 2 categories of magic in the world: physical and principal. Physical Magic is all magic that affects physical substances in the world: water magic, light magic, solar or planetary magic, ect. Principal magic is magic that affects the laws and nonphysical aspects of the world: gravity magic, necromancy, memory magic, ect. With those 2 categories I went through multiple lists of magic on the internet and used anything that was applicable with the types. From that I got the following list.

Magic:

Physical: Principal:

-material manipulation -cycle

-alchemy -animancy(life)

-construction -necromancy(death)

-destruction -time

-corrosion -chaos

-elemental -order

-air -luck
-smoke -mind

-vacuum -moral manipulation
-earth -dream

-crystal -emotion

-dust -information

-glass -memory

-lava -sensory manipulation
-metal -sleep

-mineral -space

-mud -dimension

-sand -gate

-wood -void

-plant -sense

-electricity -illusion

-light -precognition
-color -dowsing
-laser -soul sight
-shadow -Magnetism
-vibration -temperature
-sound -inscription
-water -enchantment
-bubble -enhancement
-ice -technomagic
-snow -force
-vapor -weight
-weather -motion
-fire -inertia
-heat -purification
-explosion -quantum
-plasma -contract

-solar

-environmental

-paper

So onto specialties. They are a magic type that a person can use naturally, without a catalyst or relic. A specialty is decided by what their soul color and personality, that's why the list of magic is color coded. The soul colors are...

-blue light dark

-green light dark

-yellow

-orange

-red dark

-pink

-purple

What color a character's soul is depends on their personality. This is where I answered my first problem, the energy source for magic, I'm going the easy route and saying it's powered by energy in the soul. People who have smaller souls have weaker magic, where as bigger souls means stronger magic. That's all the info I need for energy sources, since in the book it won't need or make sense to have an in depth explanation of the magic's source, it would be unnecessary exposition.

That leads into the question of the magic's leveling system. Since the ability to use magic and how well you can use magic is variable. If I don't define power levels it will leave the story open to plot holes. My friends and I picked 26 at random to be the level cap, so levels will range from 0-26 in magic capacity.

Starting at 0, these would be people with no ability to use magic. They wouldn't have a specialty, and they wouldn't be able to use catalysts. These people would be classified as non magical.

People through levels 1-5 would have weak magic abilities. Ranging from 1s, able only to barely use their specialty. To 5s, able to use their specialty, and with a catalyst use other abilities suited to them (the same color as their soul). These people would be classified as low tier magic users.

I'm going to stop their because I'm out of time for today, I'll continue tomorrow.