Other Worlds Than These

    Descent (and by extension Vall) is not the only part of the Stone and Void universe worth talking about. There are other Kinworlds, other Spireworlds, and other Nullworlds. That being said, I would like to define those terms.

    A Spireworld is a world inhabited/controlled by the Spire. Spireworlds are notable for their lack of humans, instead being populated by strange creatures such as the Swarm. The belief of these creatures (who are, by and large, sentient) creates gods, which further shape the cultures of the world. The magic of every Spireworld is the same, since it comes from the same source. The Spire uses worlds under its control as foundries, in an attempt to create the ultimate weapon to use against Kinworlds. Notable Spireworlds include Irrith (a harsh desert-like world with alkali seas, homeworld of the Swarm and their Tower-Worms), Anit Aar (homeworld of the Pale Ones, humanoid entities with a peculiar symbiosis to their Heart Trees), and Auldres (a particularly diverse foundry world, home to four major species: the Shades, the Dvari, the Mo'Opuna, and the Wandering Wood.) (I'll do write-ups on these worlds in full later, probably.)

    A Kinworld is a planet that shelters an Elderkin. The Elderkin, we've met before. They are fragments of creation, blood spatters as reality ripped itself into existence. They speak in the Elder Speech, the "source code" of the universe, and most importantly: they all fucking despise each other. There's a lot of infighting, and the Elderkin hide within their Kinworlds as much to avoid one another as to hide from the Spire. Each Elderkin is unique, and as such each Kinworld has a different magic system (though they share several commonalities.) Notable Kinworlds include Vall (currently under attack by the Swarm, home to the subterranean city of Descent.), Itherande (probably closest to your standard fantasy milieu, with magic being more about manipulating the flow of energy via a large, grotesque insect fused to the spinal column.), and Denmair (the planet on which I confine my obsession with the Western genre, inhabited by perhaps the only explicitly malevolent Elderkin. Magic here is transformative, corruptive, and frankly somewhat gross.)

    A Nullworld is a world free, in one way or another, from the influence of either power. There are likely more Nullworlds than either other type, but most don't warrant discussion. There is, however, one Nullworld that is of particular note: the world of Godfall. Godfall used to be a Kinworld, before it was impaled by the Spire. Now, the two powers balance one another out. On this world, there is a single city built around the stone carcass of a titan, also named Godfall. I'll do a write-up on them later.

    However, in addition to the Stone and Void Universe, there's another project that is near and dear to my heart- the cyberpunk dystopia of Neon and Chrome. This alternate Earth is run by massive corporations (at least more overtly than our own), crime is rampant, climate change has melted the ice caps and caused widespread ecological disaster, and there's Kaiju swimming around the irradiated oceans. All in all, not a particularly great place to live. 

    Moving forward, each post will be tagged with the setting it relates to in addition to general categorization tags. Expect more Neon and Chrome content in the near future, as well as a full write-up on APRPG 3.0.