To continue the development of my overall Final Major theme, I decided to create a mood encompassing all the themes and areas that I wanted to cover within my narrative. I was set on connecting my concepts together, as I believed that they could intertwine together to create an expansive world and narrative, which was one of my goals- to bring my concept alive by developing the world-building.
I decided to make the disparity very clear within my mood board to show the influence these kingdoms have on the rest of the story.
BUILDING UP THE STORY
NEW SOL AND THE PLAGUE
To begin with the narrative, I wanted to start with the significance of the main character. I decided to make him a descendant of both the Sun and Moon kingdom, who does not know of his origins- only waking within a dark, damp prison. The only thing he knows is that he has been within this prison for a long time- which sets a dreary opening to the wider world. Though, he is continuously told that he was previously an elite soldier who fought back terrors that threatened to destroy and invade the city and that he has a very special weapon exclusive and iconic of him being some sort of sword that can channel light. With this little information, he is ultimately told that he can get out of his cell by a messenger, and that he can ‘resume his duties’, and is sent to the heart of New Sol to purify and purge a threat that has loomed within the city’s thriving half.
I looked to many novels and media to build up the foundation for my story, and the idea of some sort of plague came into the narrative as I looked at one of my inspirations, Bloodborne. Though, instead of the plague being caused by blood, and causing a beast-oriented plague, I took in another inspiration, Arknights and saw their ‘Seaborn’ creatures, and decided to make this plague sea-oriented. I wanted the Eclipse Domain to be the root of the initial problem, so, the Eclipse kingdom had corrupted the waters, which corroded and infected the creatures within the ocean, causing them to mindlessly want to search and consume anything related to Sol. A lot of the creatures developed into much worse threats, being the main reason why armies are built up on the coast of New Sol to fight back these creatures and save the entirety of the city from being consumed by the Eclipse’s influence.
As the original Sun Kingdom already had a name, being the ‘Kingdom of Sol’ as ‘Sol’ meant Sun in Latin, I decided to look for a name for the Moon Kingdom, and eventually used the name ‘Selen’, deriving from the the Greek Mythos’ embodiment of the Moon, Selene.
The Kingdom of Sol and Selen were united for many ages, with the first rulers being a King and a Queen of two separate families who were granted the astral power given by outer gods that encompassed the Sun and Moon. They used this power as a foundation to rule their respective kingdoms, leading them both into prosperity and unity. The only looming threat of this time, were the ocean’s terrors, but eventually the two rulers had made an alliance with a civilisation within the Abyssal Hollow of the sea, which housed and protected an outer god who was completely embedded within the ocean floor who was simply titled the ‘Eye of the Sea’ or ‘Heart of the Sea’ and considered one of the origins of creation, and would help them control and fight back these ominous terrors that originated from outside the realm. After their alliance, they coined the term: ‘The Sun, the Moon and the Sea are one’. During the two rulers’ rule, most of the people they ruled over were various species of ‘ancients’ whose origin were from the Eye of the Sea’s vision. Though, because of her pure love for everything around her, the original Sun Monarch used her power to bring life and human vitality to many non-human things, such as inanimate objects, plants and even animals, giving them sentience and a more humanoid form. These people became the start of the ‘New World’ races, which were comprised of elementals, tree-like people (like the ents from the Lord of the RIngs), various mixes of humanoid-animal species and many, many more. However, many elitists from in the ‘ancient’ species harboured hatred, jealousy and even disgust for the people of the New World Species- but in the end, most of the New World people returned the same love and held much gratitude for the original ruler of Sol, whilst there was a rare New Worlder who would question their existence and hold some of kind of self-hatred due to the treatment they received.
After time, the line to the thrones of both Sol and Selen had to be succeeded with each family successfully producing heirs for generations. Many ruled and died off, but then, there was a point in which Sol had no viable heirs, and a random New World, lower class elemental managed to win a set of trails and duels for the throne. At this, they had no choice but to marry the elemental and the pure Selen monarch together, which caused much backlash, as not only was it unconventional to marry a Sol and Selen monarch together- they only managed to have one child, who they could not let into the public, and was thus, locked away. This would later be revealed to be the main character, who has lived so long, but lost many memories when he finally awakens in the prison in ‘modern-day’ New Sol.
After a strained rule with the married Selenian and Sol elemental, an heir was produced on the Sol’s side by another section of the family, and the elemental was quickly kicked off the throne, and him and the Selenian secretly raised their son behind closed doors.
With new generations coming in, a royal Selenian and Solan returned to the throne. They announced their marriage, which was met with joy in connecting the kingdoms in this fashion- which caused confusion to New Worlders who saw the backlash that the elemental and one of the previous Selen rulers faced for their marriage- unfortunately, it seemed they had an issue with the fact he was an elemental over anything else, as the New World species still faced much discrimination. Upon this marriage, a set of twin brothers were born- Ascanius and Lupus, and when they were slightly older, they gained an adoptive sister, Mercedes, who belonged to one of the ruling families of the Abyssal Hollow. This truly solidified the unionisation of the Sun, Moon and the Seas. But not all of them had good intentions. It was clear that Lupus was not intent on uniting the kingdoms with prosperity, and everything fell apart as Lupus led a campaign to forcefully and violently take his twin brother Ascanius’ Seal of the Sun, the holder of Sol’s power. It led Sol into chaos and turmoil, whilst Ascanius was sealed within his throne room, after being forced to fight many, many battles within. Mercedes silently disappeared into the Abyssal Hollow, to protect the fragment of Sol she was given, and to defend the Eye of the Sea. Lupus then used the Seal of the Sun to join with his Seal of the Moon, creating what he called the ‘Age of the Eclipse’, and renaming Selen to the Eclipse Domain.
The Ecliptic Blight started as Lupus used his newly taken power to corrode the waters beyond the Eclipse Domain, seeping into the bodies and minds of the creatures there- it is highly infectious, making the waters beyond deadly. The monsters develop using the Lunar power, and seek anything that indicates that it has traces of Sol, due to the Seal of the Eclipse not being completely imbued with the Sun’s power, being the reason why many of the threats seek New Sol.
New Sol was a City built off of the separation of The Kingdom of Sol and Selen when the now tyrannical Selen Monarch, Lupus forcefully took the Sol Monarch’s power and, leaving the original Sol to rot without its Lord to maintain the kingdom’s order and power (as he would use his power to support his kingdom entirely). All the inhabitants of Sol had to move, many of them sailing across the seas far from Selen or Sol to find a new place to call home. Eventually, New Sol was created by many Solans, where they developed, trying to live a prosperous life away from any influence of Selen or rather, the Eclipse. Many, if not all New World species moved to New Sol to escape from the current Eclipse regime.
I wanted this city to feel developed away from from the conventions of Selen or Sol, paralleling to the real world’s development from old ages, so I remained fixed using a mix of Victorian and Classical era society, building up and developing from the long past medieval ages of the old kingdoms. I planned to at least make one ‘boss’ character for each area, so I continued to look around and further developed the fashion and aesthetics of New Sol. I looked into the dressing conventions of the Classical era (from 1750-1820) and through the Victorian Era (from 1837-1901). For the thriving half of Sol, it is usually comprised of middle to upper class people, as most of the lower class people who move into here are welcomed into a prosperous life. The population of this half lives a comfortable, ignorant life, as they mostly disregard any mention of the plague, as they feel it is beyond them. The people here either live in ignorance as an escape from all the previous conflict and torment Sol had been through, or as a way to escape duty, thinking they are untouchable. As it is inspired by Victorian and Classical eras, theatre and music are some of the common ways to enjoy here, with New Sol’s theatre scene being very largely prevalent and accessible.
For the other half of Sol, the side that touches the coast, it is far less developed due to the degradation and the plague, called the Ecliptic Blight, seeping into the city slowly through the coast. It is comprised of mostly soldiers and lower class people who refuse or cannot move into the more thriving half of Sol. There are many fortified and highly armed boats along the coast of New Sol, with many active soldiers patrolling the area.
The people within the coast wear mostly very protective gear, as they are ready for whatever threats crawl upon the coast- the majority of soldiers that patrol the area wear a mixture of lightweight cloth and armour in order to have better movement when facing any monsters. However, there are some more heavyweight soldiers that remain on the coast, for the sake of acting as a back-line barrier for defences. I wanted there to be a mix of pirate-like and knight-like aesthetics in the clothing as I thought it would be very visually unique and it built upon one of my concepts. Looking at medieval armour or armour from around the 1500s was a way to connect it back to the old fashion armour trends of Sol and Selen.