Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

General debates and discussion about the Guild of Writers and Age creation

Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby Tweek » Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:35 am

So I figured I should perhaps post some updates on what I've been working on.

Some of you may already have seen bits and pieces of it from what I have posted on my blog and the dev journals.

Vaal'lin started off as an Age called Rune Tree that I was in the process of building back when I first learned Age building. Eventually aspects of the Ages' story was broken down and rolled into other Ages that I have built over the years.

During the early parts of my storyline on Beneath I had also started planning an Age called Ter'ni. Originally it was going to be a whole new world I was going to start chronicling but again the ideas were broken down and used elsewhere.

Some of these ideas were left on the side waiting to come together, which they did with Vaal'lin. Despite having ran a fan story for 10 years now when it came to D'ni I always preferred being the reader not the writer of the story. When D'ni grew stagnant I got a little tired of dealing with it and decided to create my own splinter world to build in. Not only that but I wanted to create something that had some darkness to it when needed that isn't handled with kid gloves.

So I started Vaal'lin (which in the Vaal'lin language means Rune Tree) and started folding some of my left over ideas and concepts in together. I wanted to create a world that had Linking Technology but was not connected to D'ni (or have very thin strands going back to D'ni) and I wanted the users of the Art in Vaal'lin to come from a different walk of life than the D'ni.

The D'ni have always been rather scholarly, and I wanted to see what a civilization would be like if the Art was "owned" by a society of soliders/warriors/knights/etc.

Over the last few years I have been building up the lore on my private wiki, detailing cities, events, gods, language, and people. All intertwining them together to build a hopefully decent history.

On top of that I have been working on various concept pieces and artworks that I would like to see appear in Vaal'lin and the other empires contained within the world of Ashel. My plan is to start a new chapter of Beneath, Beyond Beneath as it were with little to no references to D'ni. My goal is to start filtering out information about the world then perhaps release access to some areas for people to explore.

And I figured I'd share some bits and bobs here for those who are interested.

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Each inhabitant of Vaal’lin is equipped with a personal Linking stone that is worn on the chest. Such an item is so common place within society that fashion has evolved to include said stones within the design.

At the core of the device is an extremely small linking scroll that is connected to the rock interface allowing for a Link to be made upon contact. Similar technology was used with the Vaal’lin Public Link Service.

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Azal the God of Creation and is represented by the day. He created the universe with Ib, Hameta and Ophen. It was said he looked upon Ashel with favoritism. When Ib corrupted the people of Ashel Azal turned his back on them, refusing to help them rise up again. Feeling that they should do it on their own merit.

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Once considered a brother to Azal due to similar personalities and looks as Azal. Ib lead the corruption of Ashel and as a result was cast down and imprisoned in the darkness he helped spread. He is said to be the night.

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Ophen is often represented as either a bird or as time and is both male and female. Due to their free spirited nature and that Ophen once saw both the past and the present at the same time. Ophen was partially blinded in one eye and so their view of what came before is obscured.
When Azal turned his back on the people of Ashel, Ophen stepped forward and offered them guidance.

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Hameta is often depicted as the Goddess of the oceans/water. She inadvertently helped the God Ib in the corruption of the people of Ashel when she turned Azal’s gaze from the world.

And no despite the pointy ears she is not an Elf.

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The Temple of the Falling Star is a small temple within the Vaal’lin city and sister to the Temple of the Rising Star which resides in another Age. The two temples are linked together by a thread that goes beyond space and time.

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Don't want to spoil the subject matter of this image.

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Another painting of Ib.

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Speaks for itself, Vaal'lin don't use books they used scrolls. Later with improvements to Linking Technology they kept the scrolls sealed and used a seal made of the same stone as the Personal Linking Stones to activate the Link.

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The Blight spread quickly throughout the Qumar province. It crumbled kingdoms and from the ruins it carved out a new one for itself. Blighthunters went from door to door tearing families apart, carting off the infected to the city of Anteal and disposing of those who died from the sickness.

A new plague is hard to fight, but a plague that is sentient can be almost impossible to defeat.

The war against the Blight lasted for years. Only the Vaal’lin remained untouched as all others fell to the Blight. But when the war was over, and there was no life left to infect within the Qumar province…not even the Vaal’lin could be found.

Finally, a previously unreleased painting of Jehris

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"King" of the Cura Empire and leader of the Azal Crusade.

If anyone has questions feel free to ask, I'll answer best I can without spoilers
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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby Lyrositor » Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:35 am

An interesting take on Linking technology, to say the least. I'd be rather interested in knowing how Linking could be used for warfare by the Vaal'lin.

What I'm wondering right now is if it will mostly consist of artwork and lore, or if you plan on actually creating Ages for it, eventually with the help of other developers to modify the tools to adapt them to Vaal'lin technology?
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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby janaba » Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:06 pm

Awesome artwork, Tweek, I've admired those already in the dev journals and your blog ... thanks for sharing ... :P

The linking technology is indeed very interesting and the lore I'd say seems quite similar to the one of D'ni, maybe
even more dark ... All depictions are extraordinary works of art ... The pictures that look most interesting for me
are the one depicting the Rune Tree with the ghostly person and the 'Temple of the Fallen Star' and I'd love to
see the 'Temple of the Rising Star' of course ... I wonder why you're acting out your immense creativity and
talents in the realms of darkness, though ... :)
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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby dendwaler » Sat Nov 24, 2012 2:10 am

Your artwork is beautifull Tweek!( it always is)

It realy impresses me, i wished i only had 1/10 of your artistic gifts.
The storyline you are unfolding is apealing me and a very clever , special twist on the current linking technology.
As a"whole" It can live beside the current story of the D'ni and in a way extend it with the same look and feel without any interference, nor does it violate excisting rights.
I hope you are able to find the time and inspiration to bring this to " life" one day.
Alone or with others help.
Those wonderfull Worlds are called " Ages" , because that is what it takes to build one.



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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby Tweek » Wed Dec 04, 2013 10:08 am

It's been a while I've quietly been working on this project in my spare time and have built up a fair amount of lore. Which I'm getting ready to push to the wiki and announce the site to the public for those interested.

To answer previous questions, I'm not quite sure how this is going to play out yet. For now information about Ashel will be shared through journal entries, wiki entries and artwork. I may look into building actual areas for people to port to UruCC but I'm not 100% on that yet. This Vaal'lin stuff is more focused on worldbuilding than game building currently.

Some more concept pieces that some of you may have seen already

Frostspire Warrior;
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Timelapse of the Frostspire Warrior being created;

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God Seed - Fire

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God Seed - Shrine

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God Seed - Discovery

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The God Seeds are scattered over the lands of Ashel, so named because they were placed upon the planet by the God Azal though none know they purpose of such devices. They sit mostly forgotten or in some places worshiped as altars to the 4 Gods.

Vaal'lin Concept: Public Transportation System.

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The Vaal’lin Public Link System is a large network of stations scattered through out the city. Within these devices sits a mechanism that will cycle through time triggers allowing the station to transport citizens to different locations at different times. Holographic displays above the stations give the timetable for transportations for the day allowing users to plan their trips.
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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby janaba » Wed Dec 04, 2013 11:51 am

You know that this is the awesomeness which you're presenting to us here, Tweek, don't you ... if not, that's what I have to say to this, and besides that I'd prefer to avoid an encounter with that Frostspire Warrior, though you never know what a wonderful personality might be covered behind the outer appearance lol, it is great to see your visions and your world coming to life now for us to see and admire and in such an impressive and intriguing way ... It is also great that this advanced Link System enables the citizens to link not only to different places but also timelines ... :P

Edit: When I'm just reading it again it seems that this is meant to take place within the same reality, means linking to different locations and at different times, but nevertheless a great advanced concept ... :geek:

Thank you for sharing some more of your behind the scenes quietly ongoing creations and emerging treasures and gems thereof ... :)
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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby belford » Wed Dec 04, 2013 12:26 pm

That's great stuff.

(I had not seen it before, because I wasn't reading this forum much until early this year. So I ran into all that artwork at once, just this morning.)
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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby Tweek » Wed Dec 04, 2013 12:37 pm

janaba wrote:You know that this is the awesomeness which you're presenting to us here, Tweek, don't you ... if not, that's what I have to say to this, and besides that I'd prefer to avoid an encounter with that Frostspire Warrior, though you never know what a wonderful personality might be covered behind the outer appearance lol, it is great to see your visions and your world coming to life now for us to see and admire and in such an impressive and intriguing way ... It is also great that this advanced Link System enables the citizens to link not only to different places but also timelines ... :P

Edit: When I'm just reading it again it seems that this is meant to take place within the same reality, means linking to different locations and at different times, but nevertheless a great advanced concept ... :geek:

Thank you for sharing some more of your behind the scenes quietly ongoing creations and emerging treasures and gems thereof ... :)


No alternate timeline linking. It runs like a bus timetable. So say at 6am the station will link to say the industrial district. at 6:10 the mechanism kicks in it picks a new scroll and people can link to the government offices instead and so forth.
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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby Ainia » Wed Dec 04, 2013 2:56 pm

Shorah Tweek!

Wohba! I've got my bags packed!! ;)

[[Let me know if/when you are okay with me putting your Vaal'lin art up in my Relto library]]
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Re: Vaal'lin (aka what I've been working on)

Postby Wamduskasapa » Wed Dec 04, 2013 4:35 pm

I am Drooling, I eagerly await the ages arrival.
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