How to end a world

Yesterday I noted that: “I had one of those amazing epiphanies during the weekend when a lot about the world you are writing in (or building) becomes clear. I had known for some time that the stories of Airthai which I am writing at the moment are a build-up to more and more of the history of a changing world.”

The Time of Tears 

I had had some vague ideas about the rest of the future of Airthai – for example, the Diminishing (during which the Talent bestowed on people at the creation of the world gets less and less) and the changing technology of the world during the ages. At first I had only a second Sundering in mind (to read about the first, or Great Sundering, click here), but this soon grew until I ended up at the destruction of the world.

For the Creation of Airthai – read here.




The Second Sundering, The Time of Tears
Five generations before the Second Sundering took place, the Elders of the Keepers of Holt Haliern all received the same dream. In this dream the people of Airthai were warned of a catastrophic change which would take place. Great waves, earthquakes and fires were told of in these dreams. An, indeed, the Midlands and Eastern Lands often felt tremors of the earth and smoke was seen rising from the great mountain in the Circling Stone.

The Midlands and the Eastern Lands tore apart

Because the great library of Holt Haliern was still being kept in tact during this time, the scholars could turn to the old texts telling of the Great Sundering and realized with much trepidation that this may happen once more. This time, however, the people of Airthai had not stood together to beg a sundering of the lands by the Creator, but the darkness in Airthai was as great, if not greater than before the Great Sundering.

In the Second Sundering, the great mountains – the Grey Mountains and the Cloudstepped Mountains – that once served as the border between the Midlands and the Eastern Lands tore apart. Great fire spewed from the area of the Circling Stone and great quakes ripped at the mountains, unlike any of the quakes which had been felt since the Great Sundering. And so, in the Second Sundering – also called the Time of Tears – the Continent ripped apart and lost being known as the place chosen by the Creator; unlike the Sundered Lands which lay to the south.

Forge: paths of fire 2, by Miguel Saavedra 

The Third Sundering and the Great Reckoning
Just before the Second Sundering, some of the Elders were visited by the Airus and warned that the Second Sundering would take place, but that this would not yet be the last of the breaking of the land. There would be a Third Sundering, breaking the lands once more and this Sundering would be brought about by the people of Airthai themselves.

After this Third Sundering, the time would not be long before the fourth and final sundering would take place. During this, the Final Sundering, the oceans would churn and rise and swallow all the lands. This would mean the death of all on Airthai, but there would also be a Great Reckoning of all, when those who followed Allwaldans would be sundered from those who had followed the Lewjan Lords and the darkness. And so it would be that the world of Airthai would end in fire and water.

Worldbuilding Maps and Illustrated History of the Midland Wars

Below are two new maps of Airthai which I have completed – the first is of a part of the Eastern Lands and the second of the Land of the Six Rivers. This worldbuilding history is already available on Kammastories in Afrikaans, and will be posted here in English from next week.

A Map of part of the Eastern Lands

Land of the Six Rivers

I've also made a pdf of the history of the Midland Wars – and it's illustrated! – which you can download by clicking this link: The Midland Wars.

You can also check out this Pinterest page for more of the maps of Airthai.

Medallion with courtesy of the Graphics Fairy.

Worldbuilding Wednesday: Festivals, Fasts and Feasts

With the year galloping towards its end and various celebrations being held all over the world, I decided to do a worldbuilding post about some of Airthai’s festivals, focusing on those relating to the Sundering.

For a brilliant podcast about holidays in fiction – and especially in fictional worlds, I highly recommend listening to this one by the team ofWriting Excuses.

With the Sundering being such a big part of the history of Airthai, there are various festivals across the lands of Airthai which in some way commemorate this event.

The most wide-spread festivals or days which are commemorated at the time at which the Sundering happened, which touched everyone on Airthai. The Coastal Peoples have, for the most part, the most or the longest festivals that has to do with the Sundering. Different days are added or removed depending on what had happened during the Sundering in that specific part of the world. 

Festivals of the Sundering in the Eastern Lands

In the Eastern Lands some of the biggest festivals are held by the Saerímavolk and their neighbours and are set around the events of the Sundering and the events thereafter. The Saerímavolk holds the Festival of the Sundering at the end of summer every year. This festival incorporates the following: the Day of Sundering, the Night of Fire, the Week of the Lost and the Day of Thanks.

The Feast of the Sundering

The Feast of the Sundering is made up of four different holidays, starting with the Day of Sundering. The fourth month of the year, when the plants slowly recede and lose their leaves, is a month which includes a week of fasting - known as The Week of the Lost as the loss of the Sundered Lands to the Shadow is remembered. The month ends with a great feast on the Day of Thanks to give thanks that the Continent was saved through the Sundering. 

The Day of Sundering

The Day of Sundering is commemorated in the third month of the year, at the end of summer, on the day before the full moon. On this day a fest is eaten and the beaches are readied for the Night of Fire.  

The Night of Fire

The Night of Fire was the night on which the Flotaferan attacked the coast of the Eastern Lands after the Sundering. The Night of Fire is commemorated every year at the first new moon after The Day of Sundering, at the end of summer. This night is commemorated by the lighting of bonfires on the beaches and has come to include mock battles and feasting, where the first nights were held in austerity, recounting the tales of the Sundering around fires on the beaches over a simple meal. 

The Week of the Lost

The Week of the Lost is held during the week after the Night of Fire. During this week people fast to commemorate the loss of Sundered Lands as well as those who still live there.

Day of Thanks

The Day of Thanks is the last day of the Festival of the Sundering, where thanks are given that the Continent was spared the Shadow of the Sundered Lands. On this day the week-long fast is broken and a feast is held to end the Feast of the Sundering. 

The Lands of Airthai before the Sundering

The Continent and the Sundered Lands after the Sundering

Worldbuilding Wednesday: A Map of Airthai

The following map of Airthai was inspired by T-O maps of Earth. It is not supposed to be a realistic representation of the world, but rather a symbolic one. It was only drawn and used after the Great Sundering of the Lands.

Just as there are four directions (north, south, east and west) and four seasons, there are also four stars that aid travellers in finding their direction and Airthai is divided into four parts. Three of these parts (the Continent and the Eastern and Western Isles) are placed against the fourth; which is the Sundered Lands. The map is therefore also used to show that the Sundered Lands are only a small part of the world and that its people would never be able to overrun and rule the whole of Airthai.

Much later, a similar map was drawn of the Continent as a form of protest by a scholar from Trelkanor after the Khalvér and their Nightwatchers had infiltrated the country. In this map he placed the “Southern Lands” – of which Trelkanor is the farthest south – in the place of the Sundered Lands. He had hoped to get some sense into the rulers of the country and its people, but was stricken by the Illness shortly after the map was made public and most copies of the map was destroyed out of fear.

Other fiction: For Part 12 of Virgin for Hire, click here.

The Great Sundering Part 3 – The Night of Fire

For your reading pleasure this week, is part three of “The Great Sundering”. Click here to read part 1 and part 2. Next week I’ll try to have something a bit more uplifting for the fiction Monday!

The Night of Fire

At the time of The Sundering, dragons still lived on the coast of the Eastern Lands. The Saerimavolk were their guardians and knew the Dragon Tongue and their kingdom was very great. At The Sundering, many of the Lewjan's servants, the forebears of the Flotaferan from the scattered trading islands, attacked first the islands not under their power, and then the coast of the Eastern Lands; as they thought that they would be spared death if they could claim the land for their own and their master. There was with the Flotaferan also a Lewjan Lord who wanted to claim and bind the Eastern Dragons to himself to gain more power.

But the dragons saw the ships approaching on the churning ocean and had time to warn their Guardians and the Saerímavolk of the impending attack. Some of the Guardians, who were not fit to fight, fled with some of the dragon eggs and younglings to the Blue Mountains; following the messengers who were to call the peoples there to arms.

The Flotaferan attacked at night, but the dragons were ready for them. They burnt most of the ships and slaughtered many of the Flotaferan, as did the warriors of the Saerímavolk. But the Flotaferan had used for the first time the deadly poison made from the Dragon’s Bane plant, with which they smeared their arrows and killed every last dragon and Guardian they could lay their hands on. The Lewjan Lord did not have the chance to bind one grown dragon to him and could find no younglings on the cliffs. The last dragon alive found the Lewjan Lord and slew him and threw his body from the cliff before he was slain by an arrow from the Flotaferan.

 This night was known as The Night of Fire, because of the many fires that lit the battlefield.

Reinforcements from the Blue Mountains also came to fight the Flotaferan. Together, they and the Saerímavolk overcame the Flotaferan and the remaining attackers fled in the boats that were still somewhat seaworthy. The slain of the Flotaferan were buried in one pit, while a mound was raised over those of the Saerímavolk who fell on that night. The blood ashes were thrown in the ocean and the Dragon Tears were used to cremate the fallen before the graves were covered and the mound constructed. As happens to the dragons when they died, the dragons’ bodies were turned to stone below the waves, or where they fell on the land, and their passing was greatly mourned.

And so, on one fateful night, the time of the dragons and the Dragon Guardians of the Eastern Lands came to an end.

(The Night of Fire is commemorated every year at the first new moon after The Day of Sundering, at the end of summer. The night is commemorated by the lighting of bonfires on the beaches and has come to include mock battles and feasting, where the first nights were held in austerity, recounting the tales of the Sundering around fires on the beaches over a simple meal.)