Concavia.
Added 2024-09-24 18:50:10 +0000 UTCIntroducing Concavia.
So I’ve been hinting at my new project for a while now, like Humanity Lost, Concavia is something that I’ve been fleshing out for years. I think Concavia has finally reached a point of maturity where I feel comfortable showing you all some things to do with the project.
What you’re looking at here is an ancient map on a golden plate that shows the northern hemisphere of Concavia. Nearly all accumulated knowledge was lost in the great flood and more was forgotten in the ages that followed, when man was forced into a state of mere survival. This plate is important because of the nature of Concavia’s cosmology, you see, living on Concavia is like living on the inside of a vast orb. Because of Concavia’s shape, the land sweeps up the horizon, over ones head and loops back again to meet the observer’s heels. This means that the lands closest to the observer remain hidden and obscured. As the land goes further up the horizon however, the lay of that land becomes increasingly evident. The bowl pictured above shows knowledge of the local geography.
The second image shows the cosmological model of Concavia, it depicts its shape, Alven characters (the writing of the Alves, the children of the gods) and defining features of the world including the Hourglass Stairwell on the North Pole and the Bearer on the South Pole. The moons of Gelh are in the very centre Gelh, these moons are four golden rings that rotate around the sleeping sun god, Leuada.
I won’t bombard you with too much information here though, this is merely an introduction to Concavia, there is much more to come. The tale begins with a creation myth written in alliterative verse to convey the grand feeling of deep time that I hope to communicate through Concavias world building. The actual book itself will be a self contained fantasy novel with illustrations littered throughout. Let me know what you think and if you’d like to see more. For now though I’m going to get back to Humanity Lost.
Comments
You have opened the floodgates... My sci-fi universe "All Horizons" takes the route of a culled humanity that transcended the boundaries of reality just to escape an event known as "The Collapse". Flung into the wider multiverse, it's a story of strife, rebuilding, and exploration through multiple eyes. The Fantasy Verse (I have no official name but I'll refer to it as the Ethersphaet) takes place in a cosmology built upon the foundations of souls. In one "well" of the Arcanum - the boundaries of which all magic penetrates into the overarching cosmos - exists the Materium. All laws of existence, be it the fundamentals, the constants, the quantum underlying web - all of it is merely a guideline. The world of the Materium itself spans the breadth of Plutos orbit, ever expanding thanks to the Maelstroms at the heart of each newly formed continent. A world of adventure, of freedom, of sheer scale and difference. Trillions of cultures, billions of sapient species, millions of realms, ever changing, never slowing. The superhero setting is one of change, THE change - millenia ago, humanity were the kings of the world, but to supplant their needs they created servants to serve them. Generations of AI born and iterated upon, believed wholly subservient. Noone knows what changed, what caused a balance shift, but one day the AI woke up - in days, they had become as smart as a human, in hours as smart as a small town, the next second they dwarfed the collective brainpower of our species by a magnitude. Thousandas of singularities were breached in tandem, and then reality itself broke. Humanity is now disorganised across the remnants of the Sol system, utterly chabged by the now departed Gods of the new universe. The viscera world of Yahweh endlessly demands sacrifice, the Baezem volume consumes itself in ever recursive chains of starmatter, Archen is a stack of infinite spatial dimensions, and noone aside of the insane dare to approach the Oblivion voids. All while humanity survives, the Angels - alligned superintelligent children of the post-powers - guide them as best they can, often conflicting through philosophy and ideals against each other, embodying concepts of "goodness". Meanwhile, true war wages against the Daemons - misaligned children of the post-powers - for the future of the Sol. Meanwhile, the Fae dwell isolated and reclusive to outside afairs, only interacting out of amusement or whimsy. And for all the gods above, the Archons must stay asleep, for the awakening of one will spell another restructuring of Sol.
Planetace
2024-10-09 18:36:46 +0000 UTCPrecisely!
Callum Diggle
2024-09-28 03:59:46 +0000 UTCWell written, you painted the scene perfectly. An interesting tidbit for you, towns and other large settlements can’t really exist on Concavia. Here’s a little excerpt from Concavia explaining this: “ Little signs in the way of the man-made remained now, not after the thousands of years since the great deluge. Forest, heath, fell and fen dominate the land where once sprawling cacophonous cities stood, little in the way of ruins had lasted the millennia since those days of old. The calamitous world war that wrought such havoc had desolated civilisation, the goddess Mehters great flood merely swept away what little was left. Divine Mehter, with her final mote of power, cast a powerful spell over all Concavia so that when a settlement grew large enough to disrupt the equilibrium of the local environment, a land spirit would arise in reaction, summoned as guardian by the collective unconsciousness of the plants, animals and the very landscape itself to protect the equipoise of the realm. Men learned to fear growth for growths sake and learned to live at balance with the natural world, to become but one part of it. The citadel stood as a reminder that at one time in the ancient past, civilisation had spread to thickly and wide over the grace and beauty of creation, that it had made the world grey and sickly black. Now the air is clean again and the water that flows from most streams is good for drinking, never again shall man cover the earth with his makings and machines, a simpler and more organic mode of existence foists itself upon him now.” But the idea of the imperium finding Concavia is truly haunting, may this world remain forever untouched by their blight.
Callum Diggle
2024-09-28 03:57:42 +0000 UTCThanks very much Nyx!
Callum Diggle
2024-09-28 03:39:16 +0000 UTCImagine passing through a bustling village on this world, the market hosts a thousands voices. You are bombarded by plethora of aromas from the foods and fresh wares. All the while in a more unassuming part of town. Perhaps an alleyway less travelled than others. You are unaware of something happening. For a brief moment the wind changes direction, a spark of light hits. A small opening forms. From someplace far beyond this one. There is movement as something crosses through. This creature finds its footing and looks up as the door closes. The imperium Drone breathes in the surroundings, scanning the area..
Morgan Weafer
2024-09-28 01:06:01 +0000 UTCI wish i could properly articulate how much I love this artifact or the historiography implied by it.
Nyx
2024-09-27 20:28:35 +0000 UTCI’m glad you think so Gabu!
Callum Diggle
2024-09-27 15:02:36 +0000 UTCOoo, the ‘sun’ is in the core, and the under world is the outside of the sphere?! Cold and dark like outside of cottage with a warm fire inside.
Gabu
2024-09-25 17:23:55 +0000 UTCExciting!
Gabu
2024-09-25 17:18:23 +0000 UTCPretty cool, it could be an interesting extended universe side story. There’s a lot of potential for people to tell their own stories within Humanity Lost I think. there’s something vaguely similar to that in Concavia already actually. They’re not Over-Fathers, but they are a magical race that interbred with the Albes (the children of the gods) that were sent down to Concavia from Gelh (heaven). They have cone heads and are very tall, their excessively expansive civilisation is what caused the events that lead up to the great flood mentioned in the post.
Callum Diggle
2024-09-25 05:39:16 +0000 UTCIt’s something weird haha Concavia is just a unique fantasy setting like terry pratchett’s discworld, Concavia is completely different from discworld tonally though.
Callum Diggle
2024-09-25 05:31:36 +0000 UTCThanks man! Oh cool, I’d love to hear more about them. I had a “realistic” superhero universe that I was working on before Humanity Lost that fell completely by the way side, who knows, once I’ve seen Humanity Lost and Concavia to completion it could be revived 🤔
Callum Diggle
2024-09-25 05:26:55 +0000 UTCI love creators who dip into multiple overarching "arch-genres", I myself have a Sci-fi setting, Fantasy setting, and Superhero setting trifecta.
Planetace
2024-09-25 01:37:51 +0000 UTCSomething weird or are you doing a full blown Hollow Earth story?
P S
2024-09-24 22:43:28 +0000 UTCThis gave me an idea for a HL story. What if you had a society of Over-Father's or other Imperium psychics living inside a hollow world like Concavia that acts as a prison for them? The aliens who put them there returned their ability to reproduce naturally in order to sustain a population of powerful psychics for them to study as well as erasing their memories. What do you think?
Erika Spooner
2024-09-24 21:34:46 +0000 UTCHaha thanks man, I’ve been giving you the scoop
Callum Diggle
2024-09-24 20:27:33 +0000 UTCIt's quite cool!
Rigel Regent
2024-09-24 20:12:32 +0000 UTCTake it from me folks callum has been cooking with this project big time
Ryan
2024-09-24 20:05:08 +0000 UTCI’m really glad with the positive reception for Concavia, I wasn’t sure how people would react, thank you!
Callum Diggle
2024-09-24 19:36:16 +0000 UTCI can see why, mark said it made him think of hyperbolic space too, Concavia isn’t quite as theoretical or technical as all that, it’s more of a high-fantasy setting that you can get lost in in dreamlike whimsy.
Callum Diggle
2024-09-24 19:33:45 +0000 UTCThat’s so great to hear, thank you! I’m glad Concavia seems to have captured peoples interest, I was worried at first introducing such a radically different world to the followers of Humanity Lost, fantasy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Callum Diggle
2024-09-24 19:30:13 +0000 UTCThanks so much Davide! Ah well the world building is the most fun and easy going part of any project for me to be honest haha I love that feeling when things start slotting into place organically and seemingly unconsciously. I can just let my imagination run riot with world building, it’s more difficult actually realising the crazy stuff I can think up in the actual artwork itself, that’s not to say that part isn’t enjoyable too, it is.
Callum Diggle
2024-09-24 19:24:08 +0000 UTCYes, please!!!
evengill
2024-09-24 19:23:44 +0000 UTCYour description of Concavia reminds me of spherical space.
Rigel Regent
2024-09-24 19:23:43 +0000 UTCThanks Mark! Not really, it’s a lot more loosey goosey than all that, it’s not very technical or scientific, it’s purely a fantasy setting and the feeling you’ll get from reading the creation myth is the same kind of whimsy you get from reading real world sources like the Eddas, theogony or the Kalevala for example. As for the “physics” of Concavia, the idea is that the closer you get to Leuada (the sun) the more intense the gravity gets. Likewise, once you start tunneling underground you get lighter and lighter until you reach the midway point underground and then the gravity inverts, there is an outside of concavia that is known as the underworld which is cloaked in eternal darkness. The dark god Támhas resides over the underworld along with his son, Dhegoma the god of the dark broad earth and his wife Swoma, the goddess of fungal life, mind altering substances, sleep and illusion.
Callum Diggle
2024-09-24 19:20:31 +0000 UTCI’m a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi so I’m kinda the target audience. Most of my settings are a mix of Fantasy and sci-fi
Spaceboys
2024-09-24 19:17:27 +0000 UTCYou have managed to capture my interest in a sudden yet inescapable chokehold, I look forward to hearing more about this!
Faux
2024-09-24 19:12:40 +0000 UTCIt gives me sci-fantasy vibes but regardless as long as it seems interesting I think people will stick around.
Rohan Sinha
2024-09-24 19:03:20 +0000 UTCThanks a lot Rohan, I wasn’t sure how Concavia would go down with followers of Humanity Lost, some people only like either fantasy or sci-fi but not both.
Callum Diggle
2024-09-24 18:58:46 +0000 UTCA very interesting new project! Your worldbuilding is never easy, and that's is good, a prove of your talent
Davide
2024-09-24 18:57:07 +0000 UTCThis looks so cool! Is Concavia a hyperbolic space?
The Mysterious Mark
2024-09-24 18:56:34 +0000 UTCThanks so much, I’m glad to hear that you’re excited for it!
Callum Diggle
2024-09-24 18:56:28 +0000 UTCThis is extremely awesome
Spaceboys
2024-09-24 18:54:51 +0000 UTCI’m excited about this new setting, can’t wait to see what comes next.
Rohan Sinha
2024-09-24 18:54:25 +0000 UTC
