Ascension
Ascension is a showcase of culture and people. Starting in the Divine Era we see a world already at the peak of its civilisation, but the coming horror that will be the first Ascension will leave the world in the Age of Rebirth, as the Divines die and the Ascended Gods now rule. Each new Ascension adds another cog to the wheel of life, Rebirth, Blood, Life, War, Love, Death and Memory.
The project will span thousands of years and culture, language, people and places will shift to match the world as it evolves.
Most of the project has been kept in Obsidian to manage connections between cultures, languages and people.
Why Ascension?
How many times have we seen a fantasy that is set in a magic version of Europe? Too many by my count. I wanted to shed light on other cultures, other myths and other monsters. So that is what Ascension is, a showcase and an ode to an under-represented fantasy world based on under-represented myths and legends in Western media.
I started the project in 2015 with a failed draft of a novel called Divinity. In it, a man named Itzli leaves his volcanic island of Cacatzactecpatl Texacalatl (Black Rock) to go on an adventure and discover the old gods. Unfortunately, I was 16 and got distracted by puberty, so I never finished it.
I tried re-writing it back in 2020, where I then realised I had only put the surface-level building into something I wanted to turn into an epic sprawling world.
I also noticed that in most modern fantasy, all people speak the same language, and there seem to be no clear borders between provinces in kingdoms. So, the second part of the project was to create languages based on people and have clear politics and settings to make the world feel as real as it should.
The third part was magic. I didn’t want a common magic system with magic bullets and fireballs, but rather a genetic magic system that was systemic in the cultures I had created. So, each species and race has their own unique magic set that only they can use.
I then made maps, so many maps, showing each country, place and Divinity. I’ll share my favourites at the bottom, but just know they are in untranslated fantasy languages, but they all names have English translations.
I now have documents within documents about the political structure of nations, the religions in each area, the monsters, the currency, and even the farming techniques. All of which will never be used in the books or shorts I want to use it for, but at least I know I have worldbuilder disease.
