An introductory piece I wrote today for Yaldev, a sci-fantasy worldbuilding project inspired by the art and an
An introductory piece I wrote today for Yaldev, a sci-fantasy worldbuilding project inspired by the art and animations of Beeple! Credit to him for the video.
"The Path"
Travel between universes takes time. I might as well clarify some things on the way.
We’re heading to a fantasy universe. Every universe is a fantasy universe, but some are more obvious about it than others. The one you come from is about as tame as they get. It’s predictable, consistent, subtle. This one isn’t subtle. Not even close. It’s filled to the brim with mystical power, and that magic will lead to its greatest marvels, as well as its greatest tragedies—and you and I will get to see it all.
But fantasy doesn’t mean it has no rules or makes no sense. All places have rules, being a “place” requires them, and all places make sense when you remember those rules. That’s what science is all about, and we’ll be seeing some of that here. Frankly, Earth and Yaldev have very similar rules: the real difference is that Yaldev has more ways to break them. Yaldev is a planet that’s very prone to change, but that change has its own logic and some things never change at all. What I’m saying is that this place is consistent, even if it’s inconsistent with your own experience.
As for being predictable? Well, that depends how good you are at guessing games. It also depends if an entire planet can be predictable at all. We’ll be meeting people who ask questions about the future of their world. As fate would have it, we’ll have the chance to explore those questions with them. Most people here are boring, but all of them have something interesting about them. That’s a rule both worlds have in common.
We have a lot of ground to cover, and I know you don’t have all the time in the world, so this journey will be more of a skimming glance than a deep dive. We will find places to stop and dig our toes into the sand, and moments to sit down and admire the scenery. But every moment passes by and we can’t stay anywhere forever.
I’ll pick out some of the more interesting details for us to take a closer look at, and from those we’ll piece together a wider picture. By standing in the shoes of people who were there, we’ll be seeing a variety of cultures, their artworks and religions, their wars and genocides, their developing technologies and magic spells, their joys and heartaches, their struggles to survive and to find beauty in a hostile world.
Above all, I hope we both get something worthwhile out of this. That’s why I’m so glad you decided to come along. Looks like we’re here, with no time to waste. Come on! I hope you’ll stick around, because we have so much ahead of us.