REFLECTION
My world builds on ancient greco-Egyptian mythology and high fantasy. The audience of my world is for all who have the slightest interest in magic. Since this world takes place generations after the destruction of the human race, there are some post-apocalyptic elements that can be appealing to some readers. The message of the world subtly hints at the impact technology has on human creativity and greater thinking, while diving into racism.
When creating this world, I had to start entirely from scratch. It was a strenuous task, since I wanted to have some realistic and factual information in the world’s history. At first, I didn’t know what kind of magic I wanted to use, so I explored Wiccan, Egyptian, Greek, and even Indigenous magic. Recognizing my love for the ancient world, I built on the idea of what our world would look like if the ancient world continued to prosper.
In the Hellenistic period, 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 bicultural. The most vivid symbol of the new Greco-Egyptian culture that developed was the popularity of the Egyptian religion, particularly the goddess of Isis. The culture is a unique blend of ancient Egyptian and Greek culture. I wanted to explore how Egyptian beliefs influenced Greek philosophy, mathematical speculation, science, and the arts. The interest in magic also rose due to the greater abundance of texts in Greek and Latin. The spells and incantations that had been used by the Egyptians were copied then copied by the Greeks. Fascinated by this unique blend of culture, I decided to stick to this Greco-Egyptian background.
I love being able to incorporate the ancient world with this high fantasy world, and have the present fantasy world look into the ancient worlds history to uncover the truths to their own magic and past.
I had to look into how magic was performed in the ancient world. Magic included encompassed spells, curse tablets, drugs, potions, poisons, amulets, and talismans. There was a fine line between magic, superstition, religion and science. Ancient magicians were seen as symbols of widows, keeper of secrets, Master of Arts, mathematics, science, and particularly chemistry.
I think the hardest part of this world was discovering how magic was created, or why and how it made sense. Why would there be multiple species, why would there be gods, why would there be multiple biomes? However, having researched the god Heka, the personification of magic itself, I thought that this would be a great reason why magic exists. I built on the idea of Heka, and thought that magic existed because it was his attempt to regulate the amount of power the other gods had.
The reason why I’m spending so much effort on this project is not only for the class and my own personal enjoyment, but because I hope to use this in the future for the video game project. In addition, I had a pre-existing story of a witch who gained power from making increasingly difficult dishes with magical ingredients, and this was a perfect opportunity to create a world around this story. I hope to use this for my sophomore animation thesis.
Elle the Warlock 