WIP Update – 23 Mar 25
I didn’t make any story progress (not unusual for Sundays), but I did do a little work in the peripheral materials of WttW. In particular, I was wanting to detail when different Guilds were formed, to cover the different splits and mergers that happened over the years, and while I was at it, I was thinking about certain professions that weren’t included in the current set of Guilds. I could’ve left those professions unregulated, but I decided to come up with the idea of limited Guilds, that is, Guilds that aren’t represented in Axios but may have their place in other parts of the World. This is in contrast with the “Wicked Thirteen” that exist but are neither recognized nor authorized (though likely overlooked, especially with the right “donation” to the right official).
Next is something I meant to talk about in yesterday’s post and that was the extended set of Elementals. As I mentioned before, I was going to use Kodama and Kanadama for the wood and metal Elementals until I decided that the terms wouldn’t have much currency outside Murakumo, then I decided to adapt the names of Greco-Roman gods, which led me to Artemid (wood), Vulcanid (metal), Maiad (life), Thanatid (death), Themidian (order) and Eridian (chaos). While Artemis is indeed a goddess of forests, I tend to associate her more with the moon, and I imagine a lot of other people do as well, so I wanted to do something different. You might think that Dryad would be the natural choice for a wood Elemental and I’d agree, but Dryads are Nymphs, which is a distinct subcategory of Fae, so I didn’t want to do that. I was thinking about “Woodheart” after the Houchi Shoujo character (who I recently got the MR skin for), which would then make “Ironheart” a natural choice for the metal Elemental, but that just makes me think of friggin’ Riri Williams, and I didn’t want that. I decided to go with “Protodryad” in the end. For the metal Elemental, I briefly went with “Metallo”, but people will just think of the Superman villain, so instead I chose “Jarnling”, adapting from the Norse. I kept Maiad and Eridian as they were, but I renamed the Thanatids “Reapers” (as death Elementals are seen as minions/emanations of Death itself) and the Themidians “Eunomians” as I thought that would be a little clearer (though either way I’m counting on some Greek knowledge on the part of the audience). Anyway, there’s some insight into the thought process when you don’t have something served up on a plate for you.
The primary goal next week is to move forward in CoP, but I may also work on finishing Chapter 26 of TWH while I’m at it. And I’m sure there will be more work in the peripheral materials as well. Those Guild histories aren’t going to write themselves, after all. Stay tuned.
Tags: Else Arc, Welcome to the World, WIP Update, WttW
Else Arc, Welcome to the World, WIP Update | James Carmack | 24 March 2025 |
