Anul - a work in progress

[Rajorke]

I've changed the name of the world to "Metis" and I'm writing a rough history of the world. I thought I would share for anyone interested. There may be some inconsistencies, if you notice any please point them out.

History of Metis

The world is called Metis, after the Titan that was the mother of Athena, and was said to carry the son that would overthrow Zeus in the cycle of succession. Metis was swallowed by Zeus to prevent this from happening. Metis is also associated with wisdom and the Renaissance. The planet Metis was a beautiful world, like Earth, covered in blue oceans that from space would sparkle in the light of its crimson sun like a deep sapphire, but the lifeforms that lived in those deep waters and those that dwelled upon the barren continents were unlike those men had known on Earth or any other planet encountered in the known galaxy.

The life that lived upon the planet was deadly beyond imagining. The planet, despite its beauty, was a barren and unforgiving place, but something drew man to it, something he could not name. As the first explorers arrived upon its surface they found the air breathable, and deep underground they found drinkable water. The water in the vast oceans was not salinized like Earth’s, instead something else infected them. The first men who drank from the water were driven mad, not immediately, but over the course of several years. Some would say their minds were no longer their own, and they were possessed by something else. Many lessons, such as this one, were learned during man’s first years on Metis, but inevitably, like so many planets before it, she would succumb to the determination of the advancement of human civilization.

Man built the great city of Aod on her surface and planted enormous machines within her called Systematic Ecological Engendering Devices (S.E.E.D.’s) that would begin transforming the world into a place better suited for human life, but, at some point during those dark and ancient centuries, disaster struck man, and this plan would never be completely realized.

I: The Abandonment
Of the time before The Abandonment little is known. Those were times when The Lost City of Aod was populated by a billion men and women and the stars were charted like islands in the sea of night and men sailed that black sea, but those are days lost and now Aod lies abandoned and forsaken. No one knows what happened exactly. One day all communication with humanity’s empire ceased, and those with command of the Night Vessels left Metis in search of news of what happened, but never returned. It is thought somewhere across the far and now forgotten breadth of the empire of man some calamity spread through the echelons of man’s society striking down that civilization, and leaving Metis, and planets like her, to drift alone within the gloom of the far reaches of the galaxy.

Years passed and the citizens of Aod starved and riots broke out upon the streets of the great city and famine and war and disease were known like sleep.

Historians do not refer to the collapse of society that came as a “fall” or “destruction;” instead they call it “The Abandonment” as it is believed that humanity at-large abandoned Metis to its own fate. A fate that consisted of the technology upon which so many lives depended failing when the means of replacement for parts was not available; a fate that consisted of men, women, and children going unto an alien world that was hostile and unwelcoming to them; a fate that became even more dark when those aliens with whom man had allied and lived alongside him realized that they were just as alone now as humanity; a fate that many before them had seemingly experienced upon Metis for man and his allies were not alone. Other species had long ago came to the planet, and now lived relatively primitive existences upon the sparse lands of the world.

It did not take long for rifts to form between the peoples left behind. As they spread across Metis ideologies, some like those thought long forgotten in man’s history, took hold upon the hearts and minds of some and war followed. Men erected cities not unlike those of ancient Earth, and when what little technological devices of murder were left failed, he hefted the weapons of steel that had for so long been his tools of murder. But not all was forgotten from before The Abandonment and there were those who clung to the learning of man’s golden age, and guarded it jealously. These men arose in power and influence, but like others they too were driven apart in rifts brought forth by rival ideologies.

As the years passed new discoveries were made upon Metis. Things men had not imagined lied upon the surface of their “colony” in the years before. Rumors had existed of alien “sorcerers” and “witches” but these rumors were ignored, but when men found themselves treading upon the same soil as these creatures they learned the truth of the rumors, that this magic was real, and it was horrible. It did not take man long to master it himself, though, only a few were capable of doing so and surviving, let alone retain their sanity.

Other things were found upon Metis. Man had long been uncovering many ruins belonging to alien civilizations that had also colonized Metis in eons past, but none, xeno-archaeologists believed, belonged to a civilization that originated upon the planet itself. Then, as the millennia passed since man’s galactic civilization fell, and the last Night Vessels drifted beyond the olive skies of Metis, beings began to appear upon the world from within these ancient chambers buried beneath the sands. I should let it be known that man was never really alone in the galaxy, he had, several centuries before the Abandonment, made contact with dozens of sentient alien species, yet many of these were hostile, and many more had intelligences incomprehensible through man’s means of reason, but upon Metis man found the largest concentration of creatures with which he could communicate. But, these “beings,” that eventually appeared, were not of that breed. Entities, not quite like the species encountered so far, but beings of immense power, that were not unlike gods, and they would rule over many of man’s new nations like gods.

[Graphomaniax]

Map looks nice so far, and if you complete it, with rivers, cities and all, no doubt it would be awesome. Keep working!
And never, never think about giving up in the middle of the project!

[philipstephen]

your map looks amazing! i am surprised you are not swimming in rep...

i am curious about the man shaped figure under the water... statue? golem? elemental? robot? god?

phil

[Steel General]

This is progressing nicely.

[Rajorke]

This is a close-up of one of the nations. This nation, Geledia, is a center of learning and science in the world. When writing a lot of the setting I do it from the perspective of the scholars here.

[Rajorke]

This is a close up of SEED Jungle 2. The strange formation in center of the image is a broken up plateau (I'm still working on it's look) where the jungle weaves through the gorges and arroyos and the tops of the pillars rise above the canopy. There will be some interesting ruins and creatures populating this area.

I also decided I would share this. It is one of my botanical creations for the world.

Black Shawl/White Shawl - (M) Anthurium anaboladium1
These epiphytic plants are of the Metisian Araceae family. They consist of a long thin stem that grows along the trunks and branches of trees in the subarctic regions of Metis’s southern hemisphere. They grow to a length of up to possibly 40 meters, and bear a single leaf that drapes radially from the apex of the stem where the anther emerges from within. This leaf persists over the lifetime of the plant and continues to grow as it ages; it does not shed the leaf seasonally like deciduous earth plants, instead the leaf changes color over the course of its life according to it’s reproductive stage as it is consecutively monocious and protoandrous. During the initial male stage the leaf is white. During this period the plant produces pollen from within a flower at the center of the leaf. Once reaching the female stage the leaf turns black.
The plant contains a structure called the geniculum which on earth was unique to the Anthurium genus, hence it’s classification in the Metisian taxonomy. This structure allows the leaf to swivel to catch the sun’s rays and also to bring the long draping leaf into a rosette for the purpose of catching rainwater and falling debris as fertilizer. It has been said that witnessing a group of these plants in their white shawl state perform this action is one of the most beautiful of botanical experiences that can be safely enjoyed upon Metis.
Other than their foliar aspects, black shawls are unremarkable plants when seen against the backdrop of Metisian flora, but they are of note because of their association with the being called Chyss, his domain, and his religion. The plant is considered holy by the Chyssian faith and the two manifestations of the plant leaf is used as a motif in Chyssian architecture as well as in the ceremonial robes of the Gilded Choir (white drapes) and the Templar (black drapes). This relationship has been expounded upon metaphorically by a philosopher and expert of Metisian-theology named Decimus Potelis of Geledia. Potelis suggested some relationship between the, what has been called, “praetextatus white robes of the all young male Gilded Choir” and the “adulta black robes of the all mature female Templar of Chyss” that spoke to a possible aspect of Chyssian religion that has not been revealed outside of the church in that the members of the Gilded Choir, when they reach puberty are transformed into the women of the Templorum through some medical process or magical ritual.
Critics have called this metaphorically based assumption ludicrous citing that no proof has ever been established that the individuals in the Gilded Choir and the Templorum of Chyss are one and the same. “Not to mention,” critic Xeris Telitus, a historian at the University of Gavul, said, “ the actual sex of the members of the Gilded Choir has never been established and Potelis has based his assumptions upon an overactive imagination and psychological need to conjure meaning from the actions of these ‘gods’ and the surface textures of their megalomaniacal self-established doctrines.” Potelis’s counterargument was that it is known from the work of another Geledian historian named Latep Overi that the members of the Gilded Choir are indeed human, as he witnessed personally the wounds one sustained undergoing treatment during a diplomatic mission to the Domain, and that if the Gilded Choir is indeed human, then where is it that these “children” go when they reach maturity. He also cites the meticulous nature in which the being Chyss operated his faith, which is with careful attention to every detail of his church’s actions and words so as no meaning could be derived from them that is not intended.
Chyssian diplomats traditionally refused all questions on the subject.
1note on taxonomical classification - the trinomial name for the white shawl/black shawl plant once included form as a taxonomical rank under the names (M) Anthurium anaboladium f. albus for the young male white foliar state, and (M) Anthurium anaboladium f. negro for the older female black foliar state. When it was discovered that the leaf colors occurred within the same individuals as aspects of their protoandrous states the trinomial names were dropped. New form ranks have been proposed to signify the difference in these states. These being (M) Anthurium anaboladium f. praetextus and (M) Anthurium anaboladium f. adulta, but these have been denied by botanists as the originator of the trinomials had intentions of furthering political imperatives through the usage.

[Ascension]

Nicely done.

[Ramah]

Loving your work on this map.

If I had one criticisim, and it wouldn't be a criticism at all really because the fault lies with my own warped mind I guess.... but I cannot read the name of your world as you probably intend. I would guess it is pronounced Anool maybe? Every time I read it I see the word "anal." :s

[Ascension]

I had thought exactly like Ramah so I've taken to "Frenchifying" it by making it sound like An-oo-el - Anuelle. Warped minds think alike.

[Gandwarf]

Loving your maps as well, have some rep!

Oh, Ramah and Ascension have a dirty mind (which is a joy forever). I just read "Anul" and nothing else