Hello again! If you’re reading this, we’re at the halfway point in this autobiographical series. If you’re new here, remember you can start at part 1 to get the complete experience. And if you’ve been reading since the beginning, congratulations! You’re really investing your time into reading about a perfect stranger, which seems weird to me. But you do you!
Today, I’m going to devote an entire post to discuss the early worldbuilding efforts of Evorath. I’ll start by giving a brief rundown of some historical factors and earlier efforts leading up to my proverbial putting pen to paper; in my case, it was stylus to screen! And from there, I’ll talk about what I got down in those pre-collegiate years. Without further ado, let’s jump in the time capsule and have a look back.
A History of Nerdy Shenanigans
I’ve already discussed some of the fantasy-focused activities I participated in up to this point. From building intricate stories around my Lego world, to collecting Magic the Gathering cards, to online roleplaying, and just general study of mythologies. And that’s just scratching the surface! Here are a few other things that should have made it clear I was destined for building worlds:
- Created my own roleplaying forums: Remember how I talked about being a moderator in the Adventure Quest roleplaying forums? And about the other forums I joined to roleplay? Well, I also ended up creating my own forums at one point, where many of the same online friends gathered with me. And in that case, I made my own rules and lore for that world. Sure, it was derivative, but it was a solid start.
- Made my own trading cards: When I was little, even before Magic the Gathering (and again during), I got my hands on plenty of collectable cards. My brother and I played MLB Showdown, we had Pokemon Cards (of course we did!), and so much more. I also watched season 1 of Yu-Gi-Oh (unlike the superior Digimon, it only held my attention for 1 year). Well, sometime (in elementary school I believe), I got it in my head to create my own trading cards. At first, I started by doing variants of other universes, but I went on to create my own unique card game with my own original cards and characters. Sure, the rules were basic, and the art was atrocious, but the inclination to create was there.
- Expanding the roleplaying idea: Early in high school when I drifted away from online roleplaying and when I first got my Toshiba Pocket PC, I started a beta version of worldbuilding if you will. It was still more video-game oriented in the rules and lore I established, but it involved strategy and roleplaying elements, and was ultimately planned as a sort of text-base video game. But of course, I wanted more.
My Faithful Pocket PC
I can’t say exactly when or how, but after starting to write down these ideas about fantasy species traits, different world powers, military units, rpg stats, and the like, it was only natural that I would transition to writing full on lore. And so, the early history of Evorath was written, and the first ideas that would blossom into dozens of novels was born! I started by calling the world Gaia (Greek mythology), which formed my decision to have the world be created by a goddess (and to name the world after that goddess). Deciding not to devote time to worrying about the final name of the goddess and her world, I jumped right into the substance of that world.
Using all the influence of the years from various fantasy and science fiction, I started with the basics: what kind of world would this be? Well, being that I loved camping, hiking, and all the beauty of nature, I knew right away that this would be a lush and vibrant world. Next, I thought about what I wanted my magic to look like. In the future, I’ll post some articles that go more into the magic system, but suffice it to say, it evolved over time. But I did know the world would abound with magic, so the next step was to identify what creatures would live in that world.
At first, the answer was “all of them.” I wanted to create a world that would tie in every imaginable bit of lore. In fact, my initial idea was to have Evorath be a parallel world with earth (at least that part remained). And my thought was that every single myth and legend of earth would be explained by creatures from Evorath slipping between the worlds. Vampires, werewolves, fairies, elves, you name it! If it existed in human mythology, it would exist in Evorath. But as I started to think of the logistics of that, I realized it wouldn’t fly.
So, as I neared the end of my time in high school, I narrowed down the world to far fewer creatures. A host of them can be found in my debut novel, The Birth of Death. But since I’ve only introduced the continent of Erathal, rest assured there are more sentient species that call Evorath home. And more beasts and other wild mythological creatures have yet to be revealed.
The Journey to Adulthood
Even though I eventually transitioned to a laptop, my faithful Toshiba PDA kept with me early on in college. Especially in my first couple of years, I’d spend many nights lying in bed and mapping out ideas for my yet unnamed world. And that leads to the perfect ending point for today’s post!
Next week, I’ll dive into the transition from High School to college. And my talk about worldbuilding may take a backseat, but I’ll share some of the more interesting influences that impacted me during those college years. Until next week, keep enjoying good fantasy and God bless!
