Once I was an avid writer who could easily dive into a fictional dimension and effortlessly describe a world down to the texture of the leaves that fall off trees. Having not exercised my writing muscle in a while, I built a world that felt comfortable using a reoccurring idea I’ve dabbled with for a few years. The world I built in our 30-minute class exercise had elements that I’m still enjoy writing about but overall, it was boring. The fun of writing fantasy, is that you can explore and build on ideas that you can’t fully understand. There has been a million stories about vampires, dragons, witches and wizards, but without a universal understanding that clearly defines “what” these beings are, the magic comes from our own interpretation. Some people might write about the standard vampire who hides in the shadows while others can build on these stereotypes to then creating a vampire who uses his immortality to challenge the gods.
The world I wish to create builds on ancient Greco-Roman Egyptian magic. In the Hellenistic period (late 4th-1st centuries BC), under the leadership of Alexander the Great, Egypt was taken over by a Greco-Macedonian dynasty. In this time, the country itself became bilingual and bi-cultural. The most vivid symbol of the new Greco-Egyptian culture that developed was the popularity of the Egyptian religion, particularly the goddess of Isis. I wanted to explore and build on the this blend of Egyptian and Greek culture and how Egyptian beliefs influences Greek discovery of philosophy, mathematical speculation, science, and the arts. There was an interest in magic during the Hellenistic age due to the greater abundance of texts in Greek and Latin. The spells and incantations that had been used by the Egyptians were carried forward by the Greeks. I spent around three hours diving into ancient magical practices and educating myself on new terminology like mágos, mana, and heka. To find more inspiration, I explored the plots of a couple magic animes: Fairy Tail and Little Witch Academia. There were some overlap in ideas, but their descriptions helped me find a better explanation for my world’s magic. Surprisingly, understanding the geography, ecology, history, culture, politics, and map of my world was quite easy. However, understanding the mechanics and origin behind the magic of my world and how or if the magic is directly related to the religion of my world is what I’m spending an immense effort trying to flesh out.
My world is called Blath, originating from the greek word, “flower” due to the planet’s flower-like appearance and also due to the planets Greek history. Imagine if the earth had 6 different moons, that broke through the atmosphere. There are six different distinct ecosystems on all “moons” (they are more so an extension of the central planet).
To keep my world a little bit of a surprise, I won’t go in depth about the world’s history and how the gods impact the magic that circulates throughout the planet, although I’m quite content on the twist I put on the old greco-Egyptian empire. A base idea I can provide is that there is a magic “cycle” that circulates the environment similar to oxygen, and is collected by the earth and plants. The world is full of magical energy- an ether that exists everywhere and accumulates overtime, therefore the older the object, the more power it obtains.
Elle the Warlock 