We need one of those buzzfeed quizzes for this, "Which essence is your dominant essence?" And then all the questions have nothing to do with personality or the essences
Some of them do make it kind of hard to imagine what an individual person would be like in the refugium though. Like are there just entire civilizations or religious communities where the followers are rash and unpredictable?
Dude I love how none of the essences is like the “good guy”; and how each of them comes into their acolytes by the natural vices of humans. They’re like the manifestations of the deepest, most integral flaws of humanity
They're not just manifestations of flaws. Each of them is necessary to maintain what we would consider a good world. As Tsenkaras and Mohayzu keep each other in check, so do Aan and Virastir. And what is life, without passion, knowledge, and beauty?
@@cheshire1 true, which is even more interesting. They’re each good in moderation, it’s when you take it too far and give it too much sway that it turns into a vice. Speaks to the idea of “too much if a good thing is a bad thing”, ideas of balance, etc. rly cool
@@skylark7921 They remind me a lot of the Chaos Gods from WH40K In that universe the Chaos Gods are seen as evil but the only reason they are evil is because life sees them that way. They exist in the Warp which is sort of like a dream dimension were all mortal thought arrives, so the Chaos Gods aren't inherently evil it's just that they are given nothing but evil thoughts from mortal life and so they reflect those evil thoughts. I really hope he continues making content for this world and then releases a book or something I'd buy that immediately.
Damn, this might be the first time in a fantasy story where I went "maybe the world would be better off without magic actually." This shit is terrifying, well fucking done!
"The acolytes of Mohayzu view rulership and order as constraint, causing their own bodies to rebel against its natural order, until the acolyte tears itself apart out of an unwillingness to rule itself." Damn dude, that's one of the most terrifying and badass concepts I've heard from a hard fantasy setting. Amazing work!
@@baltofarlander2618 Well, let's face it...the concept of the Affliction is similar to that of karma except even more directly and personally in the sense that retribution is inflicted upon you not by other people but by your own body/self. Acolytes of Aan who go astray literally turn to stone and become trapped in their own bodies (one assumes they don't die but remain conscious to at least some degree) in the same way that they tried to block or confine or obstruct others. Acolytes of Hlatikuulmak transform into savage beasts and lose control of themselves as they carelessly and impulsively brought instability to others. Acolytes of Nga'uri-thaal go insane and are deceived by their own minds as they have deceived others. Acolytes of Imunrakhar dissolve and prove that they have paradoxically become as corrupted in their own way as those whom they sought to cleanse or heal or judge. Acolytes of Tsenkaras become mindless slaves serving the will of others just as they tried to subject others to their own will. The acolytes of Mohayzu flout the rules and will of others with the result that their own bodies defy them. Acolytes of Virastir literally decay and eventually are destroyed in the same way that they have brought destruction to others.
In comparison with... ...becoming a savage animal? ...going totally insane? ...turning into a mindless slave? ...becoming hideously deformed? ...turning into a living corpse? Hell, yes -- turning to stone doesn't sound so bad (although starting to glow and then dissolving into air doesn't sound that bad either).
@@OreadNYC It's a tragic fate no matter which of the essences you're dealing with. Stone would be much worse if you remained aware of your surroundings while being unable to interact with them; in other words, lacking a mouth but needing to scream.
@@thepikamence1250 While I do see what you mean, the video says that acolytes of Aan who fall victim to the Affliction begin to lose touch with the world around them. Their mental as well as physical faculties slow down and their senses are less acute. From the sound of it, I think the closest equivalent to being an acolyte of Aan in the final stages of the Affliction would be someone who is catatonic or comatose rather than someone who's merely suffering from physical paralysis. If the acolyte remains alive after being turned to stone, they're probably hovering on the edge of consciousness rather than being wide awake -- the pilot light is still on, so to speak, but that's about it.
The fact that the essence of "meh" is the most powerful is definitely a very interesting one... what does it hold that we cannot perceive that does not make it resist our change?
It makes sense if you consider how it's basically the divine/magical version of inertia, which is by itself a very powerful force in its passivity. Movement and change need energy and a waste of power and resources, but stillness can remain without any fuel. Every object or being naturally gravitates towards it unless it actively tries to fight it. The rest of the Seven Essences seem to be achieved through trial, but Aan is achieved by lack of trial, by just not doing anything and spending no energy to achieve it. It makes a lot of sense it's the strongest Essence.
@@CM-ss5pe I would argue that in our world, everything naturally tends to decay, since entropy is a fundamental phenomenon of nature. The refugium may be different.
Well, Virastir might be the most powerful of the essences, since it's likely the reason for the ocean of darkness. Aan is just so powerful that it can keep it at bay. For now.
So basically Virastir is fighting Aan, Mohayzu is fighting Tsenkaras, Imunrakhar is too perfect to care and Hlatikuulmak is just nuts. Nga'uri-thaal (chad) is simply trying to take a nap.
Nga'uri-thaal is just that shy non-talkative introvert friend is actually really wise and has a lot of knowledge about things. It shares this knowledge with his acolytes just so that they stop bothering it and let it sleep again lol.
I really like this, how original it is how well thought each essence is. It's really refreshing to see a magic system working with elements that aren't just different variations of "earth, wind, fire and water". You really thought meticulously about each aspect of each essence and i don't think i could even associate them with more familiar elements that i saw in other worldbuild. And that is only speaking about the "elements" part of the essence too, i also really love how it's not just magic that you wield it actively changes you it makes you think and act a certain way according to it, each aspect of the essence are connected to each other in a very cohesive way. I'm very impressed and i wanna thank you for inspiring me and showing me what a good original worldbuilding looks like.
I already want to do a D&D homebrew in this setting. Divide every spell based on essence type, custom spellcaster classes based on Psions from 3.5 ONLY. Could be awesome.
You may wish to look into Glorantha setting by Greg Stafford, and its companion RPG, Runequest, by Chaosium. Around in some form or the other since the late '60s, it is also based on a "based on quintessences of the universe" sort of aspect, which are the eponymous Runes.
@@SteveMND I'm 20 years deep in D&D. I'll most likely world build my own flat world, sun and moons rising and setting into the Primordial Chaos that surrounds the rotating disk. The rotation can give me seasons, a belt of summer chased by autumn and heralded by spring, the exterior edges where the sun is furthest having winter. A great spire can mark the planar axis, surrounded by a tropical zone. The outer rim would have planar incursions, "wild magic", and looser bonds of reality. Seems easier really, as I can have day/night cycles and seasonal variance. Homebrew some unique critters, borrow from Biblaridion and Michael Swanwick generously (with credit obviously). I'd probably forego the alignment system, write some custom dieties, and create a 3D map of the Planes. Seems like a good bet.
@@blackguard5883 Yep; it's the Circle Of RPGs that most enthusiasts fall into anymore these days: most of us start out as players, then some of us then become Gamemasters, then some of THAT portion create their own settings, and lastly some of THAT portion end up creating their own game mechanics. And if they are so inclined, maybe a lucky handful of us can also actually make money off of our interest at some point along the journey.
@@blackguard5883 It's mainly for Pathfinder 1e, but you might like the sphere's of power system. It divides up pretty much everything into various spheres or themes, and you can pretty easily build stuff from them, dividing up the various spheres into the different essences
Every essence lets you do cool magic if you are devout to them, but can backfire if you are too devout. Finally a magic system with decent consequences
@@cerberaodollam except the consequences of being too devout in Christianity is that you become a Karen As opposed to being petrified, a monster, insane, disappearing into the ether, becoming an automaton, a husk or just plain dead
I didn't see it that way. A person who is devout is generally considered to be someone who's humble (genuinely so and not falsely, hypocritically, or pretentiously so). The video implies that the Affliction punishes those who become corrupt and egotistical to the point that they attribute the power to themselves more than the Essence and attempt to direct it primarily for their own purposes. ("Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.") That doesn't sound like someone who's sincerely humble to me -- and therefore, it doesn't sound like someone who's devout. In much the same way that the smartest people paradoxically acknowledge how little they actually understand, truly devout acolytes of one of the Essences would accept that they're merely conduits of the power and not the source of the power. It does not serve them...they serve it. As such, they must be willing to put their own egos aside to at least some degree and allow Essence to work through them instead of trying to bend the Essence to their own will. (That's actually a lot harder for many people to do than they think, because it's all too easy for humans to deceive themselves.)
These Essences are like a dysfunctional family where each has their own bad reputation and every Thanksgiving or other reunions are unpleasant. I like it.
The worldbuilding in this video is spectacular and so fascinating! I would 100% read a high fantasy novel set in the world of Refugium and the Seven Essences.
I love how each essence embodies or demonstrates a deep flaw with humanity Aan - Laziness Hlatikuulaak - Impulsiveness Nga'uri-thaal - Ignorance Imunrakhar - Imperfection Tsenkaras - Pride Mohayzu - Nonconformity Virastir - Hatred You said you may make a story out of this. You could extract amazing themes from this.
Probable equivalents for the Seven Deadly Sins... Aan = Sloth Hlatikuulaak = Lust Nga'uri-thaal = Envy Imunrakhar = Pride Tsenkaras = Greed Mohayzu = Gluttony Virastir = Wrath Aan, Imunrakhar, and Virastir are obvious -- the others, less so. I envision Nga'uri-thaal as Envy because it wants what it does not have (knowledge that is hidden or secret). I envision Tsenkaras as Greed because it wants control and power for itself -- but also because greed can paradoxically cause people to become enslaved just like Tsenkaras can. I envision Mohayzu as Gluttony because Mohayzu doesn't want to acknowledge limits any more than the glutton does.
I imagine there’s two sort of teams each pushing a different theme. Aan, Imunrakhar, and Tsenkaras who push humanity towards a more orderly and structured world And Mohayzu, Hlatikuulmak, and nga’uri-thaal who prefer a chaotic and more free world. All with a the common enemy of Virastir who wishes for nothing but death. Maybe in the book the characters representing opposite themes have come to a middle ground in order to stop Virastir.
I like how the magic system is unique and thought out, like it's not just "create water because magic words" Edit; Should've worded the comment better. Magic with the use of magic words isn't necessarily bad, what I mean is when people copy paste the same system over and over again and doesn't get creative with it until the magic aspect exist just for the sake of it. Heck, some don't even explain their magic system and just expect the viewers to already know it because it's the same thing over and over again. Tl;dr magic via chanting isn't bad, just very overused without any creativity
That's... Rather dismissive. Different sorts of magic systems have different uses in fiction, and just because one is a little close to the norm doesn't make it bad.
@@amazinggoob9108 true but i think they mostly meant that they appreciate the originality rather than to say that other magic system were inherently bad for being closer to the norm. Maybe i'm wrong tho i'm not them
@@amazinggoob9108 if there is no clearly set defined rules in magic, nothing will make sense. No opposition can exist because the good guys can just kill or freeze or indoctrinate them will spells, and vice versa. Ex. The bad guys could just cast a spell to murder everyone or destroy a planet or something.
I noticed that too. I got a bit tired of the malevolence tbh like I found myself imagining an acolyte, finding the virtue within their philosophy, accepting and embracing their affliction as a manner of returning to what they value most. But that would’ve been too comfortable a story to tell: horror is better.
@@tompatterson1548 I think only Virastir is fast. The rest grant some form of immortality, implying that the lifespan of most other acolytes is at least over 100 years
@@maxwellsimon4538 they probably last a normal human lifespan *_at a minimum_* if their “immortality” is so well known, but I can also imagine an acolyte being found in a time of crisis like a war and they’d be forced to burn out before they’re 40 just from the stress of constantly having use their magic.
This world is so original, engaging and well thought out that I'm already constructing theories about the nature of the different essences. Here's one I just thought of; Virastir represents the passage of time, not death in of itself. It doesn't disintegrate its surroundings instantly, but simply allows time to pass over them quicker, like how stone corrodes, metal rusts, and food goes bad. Mortals simply interpret it as the essence of death because the passage of time is most clearly seen in a person's old age and eventual death. Its also the main reason for its rivalry with Aan, as Aan aims for stagnation, Virastir seeks progress. It is for this reason I think one of the sacred pieces of knowledge granted only to those acolytes who most fully commit to it is that Virastir is not only the essence of death, but also birth and growth, just as light cannot exist without shadow, neither can death exist without life. And while the language used in the video might conflict with that sentiment, the true nature of the essences is 'beyond understanding' for the people within the Refugium, and they might just be wrong about Virastir. I also wonder if, once these acolytes fully understand the meaning of life, death, and the passage of time, they are able to make peace with their own death, and willingly let themselves die as the come to view immortality as a perversion and a sin. OK, conspiracy time over. Yeah most of this comment is probably complete bollocks and I'm clutching at straws with this theory but I'd be danmed if this whole video didn't make my imagination just run completely wild. I am in absolute love with this whole Refugium project and am super looking forward to discovering more about it and the story's you tell with it. Keep up the amazing work!
They so say they're beyond our understanding, even as viewers with more context we still can't grasp their true being and so your description would be one of the countless many names and descriptions it's been given
It seems like any essence in its pure form is an eldritch and perverse force, but a delicate balance between all of them is what creates the worldly objects and people.
Always happy to see more Refugium content! This was definitely a more mystical way of seeing the world as opposed to the language video. It interests me that there would be seven essential essences to the world, but only 5 (6?) celestial bodies in the center above the Plateau of the Sun, but I suppose not everything has to be connected. I really like how every single one of the essences reads as a dangerous force that is to be feared as much as it is revered, makes it really hard to be envious of the Acolytes who can wield their powers!
This worldbuilding is so on-point. The originality is astonishing. I'm amazed at how there's so much depth from which to pull themes and plots at the same time that it's not so complicated as to be unwieldly. It's been said before, but I just want to add my voice here: I would 100% purchase any book, comic, audiodrama, or even reference grammar set in the Refugium.
FYI: The fire/air/water/earth system of "elements" comes from 19th-Century esoteric movements that were based on Renaissance and Medieval esoteric movements that, themselves, were based ultimately on Ancient Greek philosophical schools of thought, which in turn were trying to answer the question: "What is the Cosmos made of?" Different schools tried to come up with convincing explanations that, "everything is made of 'earth'," or "everything is composed of 'fire'." The one that was most convincing, and therefore survived, combined fire, air, water, and earth. So, that's where the 4-Element-System that shows up everywhere originally came from. ⋮ [Interestingly, there's a parallel between the 4-Element-System and the 4 physical states of matter: Solid, Liquid, and Gas obviously map to Earth, Water, and Air, respectively. But _parts of_ a flame are hot enough to ionize the combusting molecules. And an ionized-gas is the 4th-physical state of matter: Plasma. Lightning, too, creates a Plasma. So, one _could_ map Fire to Plasma.]
I've just noticed that the essences' names come from different languages: Nga'uri-thaal is probably an Ilothwii word (Biblaridion once said Ilothwii is a language of mystery. Hlatikuulmak is probably from Oqolawak (connection to the sea like the oqalayo people) Tsenkaras is probably from Edun (autocratic empire of the sun) All other are probably from Nekāchti
Now I absolutely need there to be a book or comic or audio drama or any type of story set in this world. I really hope you can get around to making something like that when Alien Biospheres is finished, even if it takes years for it to come out. I'll wait patiently
Biblaridon! Thank you so much for the video! Hello from Russia. I will wait for subtitles, as I don't perceive information very well by ear. And thank you for the idea of a flat world and moons, based on your ideas (if you don't mind) I decided to create and work out my world - Katafugiy ("Катафугий" - when entering into Google). Thank you very much, also for your other videos. You are one of the most interesting RUclipsrs in the world Good luck in the development of the channel!
@Les Brouettes Hyperactives I have a link to an article in VK, but it's in Russian. But the link is not inserted. It is necessary to enter "Katafugiy" in Google and find the article on my page. I apologize for the inconvenience
I love this magic system! This is quite unusual for me because a system I've created for my conworld is quite hard: magic is an act of transferring energy in ways not permitted by physics (if you need to teleport an object you must make it become molecules, send those molecules to a certain place and rebuild the object) that is caused by a mutated protein in a mage's muscles. That's why all mages overcome some mutations (similar to witchers) that make their muscles really big for them to be able to cast powerful spells. And forgot to say if you cast something you must take energy from somewhere. The best version is a lake or a river (it is going to freeze) or mage's own fat. Even though I don't create systems full of mystery I love this one. From Russia with love
"Hard magic systems" are a myth, elements of a setting can only exist as a reflection of the themes and character arcs of a work within that setting. The Refugium is a world build on regression, uncertainty, and isolation, so it wouldn't make sense for its magic to be anything *other* than atavistic expressions of base human pride, arrogance, and misanthropy. If your magic doesn't reflect your core themes and ideas to the same extent then differentiating between "soft" and "hard" is completely meaningless.
I can see this being incredibly interesting!! Imagine different clans choosing to deliberately become their affliction or force others into their affliction for different purposes. Or imagine groups merging their affliction Into hybrids and the types of beings that could form from these interactions
Nga'uri-thaal calls to me... The brooding nature, the seeking of knowledge, even knowing that madness will follow. Yes, I am also a fan of Lovecraft. It's a kindred vein.
Tsenkaras calls the most to me. I like controlling things, I am stubborn and I like making things as efficient as possible even if it means, that everything else about it sucks.
@@ascendedalchemist2551 It takes a LOT of self awareness to admit you're a control freak at heart. I respect that. But after all, my stance is no better. I'm off chasing rabbits...
jonathan haidt did a series of experiments and found all humans morally value six things harm:people shouldn't get hurt, liberty:people shouldn't be oppressed and have freedom, loyalty:people should be loyal to "the tribe", authority:people should respect authority and their social superiors, purity: integrity of form, whether through religion, genetics or culture ought to be maintained,fairness:treatment of behaviour without favouritism or discrimination and people that are honest and work hard will get benefits afterwards and losers and slackers will not .i think theres three more passion:people should fight for what they believe in/suffer for your art/strive to discover new things and people should continue to be born and people should continue to die many of these powers in the refugium encapsulate more than one value, the most obvious one is imunrakar as purity and virastir as things should continue to die i think nga'uri-thaal is passion and mohayzu is liberty i think hlatikuulmak is fairness and passion and tsenkaras is loyalty and authority aan is difficult but i think its harm,purity fairness and since bib kinda implied its like the opposite of virastir its things should continue to be born. i relate to hlatikuulmak the most i have so many things i wanna create and do and get jealous of people that have already done creative things and have a following so their art is largely spread and admired but this jealousy also keeps me going making music and experimenting and being inspired i think all these powers are essentially good things but when gone to the extreme are bad like most things in our world
Ooh. I am reminded of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, where the gods are shards of the true god Adonalsium. Each shard is an Intent embodied and they have names such as Honor, Odium, Preservation, and Ruin.
These essences really give me this sort of lovecraftian thought of the supernatural being indifferent to life. Like, the essences are just forces of nature that exist for their own sake. They are not selfish, nor cruel, nor evil persay, because they do not have morals, they don't percive morals, they only desire to further their own interests. It's like the old thought experiment of the AI that makes paper clips, it only makes paper clips.
Aan - Being as presence (Parmenides) Hlaatikulmak - Being as Becoming (Heraclitus) Nharrithaal - Being as thinking and unconcealing (Heidegger) Imunrahar - Being as Truth and Beauty (Aristotle, Bonaventura) Tsenkaras - Tehnke as progress and efficiency (Hegel, Marx) Mohayzu and Virastir - Being as decay (Mainländer)
I'm inclined to think that Imunrakhar has at least some compassion, empathy, or pity since it aspires to cleanse and heal and purify as well as judge. To my way of thinking, cleansing and healing and purification imply the removal of a corrupting influence in order to restore a person or thing to an earlier and/or more beneficial and wholesome state. That sounds rather compassionate to me.
@@OreadNYC Not if the "cleansing" purifies the target only in ways that Imunrakhar things is "pure". We have a word for those forms of "cleansing" and "purification": _Purges_ During The Reformation, "cleansing" a new sect of "impurity" by new leadership led to violent, bloody Purges. Political movements can also try to "purify" themselves with a Night of the Long Knives [which has happened in history several times]. And then you have the sort of Purges that try to "cleanse" and "heal" an entire society - using genocide, pogroms, or Inquisitions. And "healing" someone who simply doesn't perceive the world the way _you_ want them to is something that's happening right now in the real world: Conversion "Therapy". At best, conversion "therapy" is a pray-the-gay-away fraud that just leaves its "patients" with more self-loathing. At worst, conversion "therapy" boils down to torture-the-gay-away, using actual physical and mental torture techniques. More commonly, it itakes the pray-the-day-away and adds to it psychological manipulation techniques that achieve the desired changes in outward behavior by damaging the "patient's" mental health. But the people doing this firmly believe that they have "healed" someone. No, I'm not comparing Imunrakhar to conversion-"therapy". My point is that what someone or something else considers "a corrupting influence" can be nothing more than a perfectly-normal way of being different from the majority, turning the so called "healing" into mutilating someone who's different into conforming.
@@OreadNYC Also note: Biblaridion never said anything about Imunrakhar being compassionate or that its Acolytes feel the pain of others. That's the definition of "compassion": "co"+"passion", with "passion" here in its original Latin meaning of "to suffer." "Compassion" means "suffering with." An Essence with a component of compassion would have an Affliction that looks more like the Indigo-Lanterns of the DC-comic-universe: losing their personal identity to the common one that results from feeling each others' experiences. Applying it to the way Biblaridion has described The Affliction caused by the other Essences, I would expect an Affliction from an Essence with a compassion-component to result in the Acolyte becoming lost in the suffering of others, not only losing their own identity as I said above but also becoming so fixated and absorbed by the suffering of others that they stop taking care of themselves.
@@John_Weiss Very cool idea! I was wondering if and where compassion could have a role to play, since it seemed like it was missing. All I got for my question was a passive aggressive response though. :'D
I genuinely adore your fantasy world. I am desperate to see more. I also wonder if there's another "refugium" out beyond the void. I imagine it's the equivalent to a star system, but in a fantasy sense. Each refugium is literally lightyears worth of a distance between one another.
And its really interesting what happened before the refugium. What happened that humanity ends up having to create refugium etc. and probably theres also other refugiums. Really interesting if somehow someone are able to travel the darkness and able to stumble another refugium, its gonna be like an isekai even though they're in the same world just cuz how massively different theyre cultures and even biology differs.
I had a thought. Maybe the essences don't actually grant immortality at all. Instead, immortality is just a natural consequence of the lack of Virastir's essence in the acolytes. That's the essence of mortality, so a lack of that essence would do the opposite. It also explains why only Virastir's followers aren't immortal.
Well Virastir's followers from what I see are immortal it's just Virastir's influence decomposes them too much for them to keep up, this would make sense since the immortality each grants is eternal life not fast regeneration and a body that will function regardless of damage
This is so original! Each essence has its own flaws, for example, Imunrakhar and Mohayzu both have their cons. No essence is "good" or "evil", they all should be used moderately or else you turn into an abomination of the essence; I *_like_* this system!
This is big lore material, which I absolutely adore. Keep up the great work, its always nice to have a peek into what you create. This reminds me so much of how My name is Byf delivers his content, its almost scary.
YEEEEEEEESSSS!!!! This magic system is just awesome!! It’s so creative how each essence can stand for a distinct element(s)/set of values/aesthetic while never falling into a more traditional air, earth, fire, etc. system. The Affliction is the coolest weakness in any magic system I’ve ever seen, and with each essence it’s s intuitive what the drawbacks of fully embracing that aspect of the human psyche are. And the concept of the vagueness of the essence’s nature is so interesting. They operate vaguely like gods in the sense they have intentions, schemes, and simplified values but the fact they can’t be seen or understood is almost Lovecraftian. And it’s actually really dark the disregard all of these unfathomably powerful gods or more accurately forces of nature have for human existence. And then how you tie each of them into flaws with human nature and make all magic costly it’s so bleak and hopeless I love it. You’re just so creative and I admire your worldbuilding! The Refugium is the coolest thing.
Is it? The earlier video says that those who dare to travel beyond the areas lighted by the sun never return...so how do you know what's there or isn't there? From my point of view, the region beyond Refugium would if anything be the domain of Nga'uri-thaal because it's unknown. If there's nobody and nothing there apart from bitter cold and snow, that might make it a domain for Mohayzu which favors places where few people go -- and possibly also a domain for Virastir since the cold and never-ending darkness probably cause most creatures from inside the Refugium to die (that said, there are places here on this planet in caves and the deepest parts of the ocean where it is both very cold and always dark and yet life not only exists but thrives there).
@@OreadNYC Could be a place where both all and none of the essences prevail. My thinking was based only on the notion that it would be cold and largely airless (due to low temperature) owning to the lack of heat and light from the 'suns' hovering over the centre of the Refugium.
I love everything about this: everything from so big as all the intricate and comprehensive worldbuilding to everything so small as individual choices in diction. It's all delectable and tickles my brain in the best ways possible.
This whole "essences" and "aspects" things really remind me of the Cultist Simulator Universe (probably because how much time i've spent with it lately lol) But seriously, this is awesome. The idea of mysterious deities gathering a following of humans turned immortals (even though in your system it's more of an alternative death) is such a cool and captivating idea. I would really like to hear more about the Refugium in the future
Among the seven, Hlatikuulmak and Mohayzu seem the most similar to me, and to a lesser extent Aan and Tsenkaras have some overlap. But that is not a criticism, it could be interesting in a narrative setting if, say, the characters couldn't quite tell which essence someone else was most attuned to, and similar essences may often fight for control over the spirits of such people.
I agree -- Hlatikuulmaak and Mohayzu are similar to each other in the sense that they are both agents of change (although both seem a little too unpredictable, unstable, and volatile for comfort). I also see overlap between Aan and Imunrakhar in the sense that acolytes of both Essences experience deep frustration with the world as it is -- but Aan wants to avoid or retreat from it while Imunrakhar wants to fix it. Imunrakhar, unlike Aan, is an agent of change in its own way but not really change simply for the sake of it like Hlatikuulmak and Mohayzu. Imunrakhar doesn't just want to stop the ravages of time as Aan does -- it wants to reverse them. Cleansing, healing, and purifying all imply the removal of a corrupting agent and restoring a person or thing to an earlier and/or more beneficial and wholesome state. For this reason, I would think that Virastir would actually hate Imunrakhar most of all -- even more than Aan -- because while Aan wants to block the decay of Virastir and maintain stasis, Imunrakhar wants to fix the ravages of time and reverse the destruction and entropy associated with Virastir.
@@OreadNYC Virastir hates Aan more for the simple reason that Aan is more powerful. Imunrakhar would be but a mild annoyance to Virastir, being that not only is Virastir much more powerful, but also because Imunrakhar finds disgust in all other essences equally. Also yes this comment is 10 months late lmao
They're similar in that they both embody chaos, but a different kind of chaos. Hlatikuulmak embodies enmity, fighting, power, destruction. Mohayzu embodies savagery, independence. Hlatikuulmak wants to destroy order, Mohayzu wants to get out of it.
@SaoshyantMazdak Not really. After reviewing my previous comment, I realized that Imunrakr is paradoxically both an agent of change and a resistor of change (another way in which it overlaps with Aan). It is an agent of change in the sense that it attempts to alter the current condition of something, but it is at the same time also an agent of resisting change because it usually attempts to reverse change and restore something to an earlier state of being. However, change is not only inevitable but necessary and ftequently even beneficial in the long run because what does not change does not adapt or improve with the result that it stagnates and eventually dies. To conclude, Imunrakr is not necessarily good although it certainly perceives itself as good and has good intentions (but the proverbial road to Hell is said to be paved with those).
I love how you don't define the Essences by any clear-cut "good" or "evil" morals. Each on its own kinda sucks, because--as you said--too much of one Essence is never a good thing. Now that's how you do worldbuilding.
I think I figured out what each essence represents. This idea is based on the fact that this world was originally designed for table-top RPGs. Each essence is a player, and each player is roleplaying a different D&D alignment. Aan - True Neutral Hlatikuulmak - Chaotic Evil Imunrakhar - Lawful Evil Tsenkaras - Lawful Neutral Mohayzu - Chaotic Neutral Virastir - Neutral Evil Nga'uri'thaal - the DM If you had a game with 6 players who all wanted to play acolytes with either neutral or evil moral alignments, than each player would be able to pick an essence based on their alignment. The only essence that doesn't fit is Nga'uri'thaal, but given that Nga'uri'thaal is an essence based around secrets and knowledge, they probably represent the DM. The thing that jumps out at me the most is that this world doesn't have anything to offer a player who chooses a good alignment. Maybe it's not meant to be played with a good alignment, or maybe there are 3 missing essences.
So, rather than the normal fire/water/air/earth sort of elements, these ones are based off of order/chaos - the usual meanings of order and chaos are split up across seven elements, including some symmetries: aan = order (permanence) hlatikuulmak = chaos (volatility) nga'uri-thaal = concealment and revelation imunrakhar = perfection tsenkaras = order (design) mohayzu = chaos (anarchy) virastir = death
more refugium, hell yeah! very cool concept, like others said it’s very cohesive and well-balanced. it’s clear you spent a lot of time thinking about this. take all the time you need with your videos btw, they’re always worth the wait!
Was expecting something wholesome like the Seven Chakras, then realised they're actually much closer to the Seven Deadly Sins. Amazing video, rewatched twice.
When you think about it, it might not be that difficult to translate the Seven from "Game Of Thrones" to the Seven Essences. Aan = Mother (constancy, stability) Hlatikuulmak = Warrior (ferocity) Ng'uri-thaal = Crone (hidden wisdom) Imunrakhar = Maiden (purification) Tsenkaras = Father (judge/ruler) Mohayzu = Smith (independence) Virastir = Stranger (death)
I have a few questions, not about confusion but ones to hopefully bring even more depth to this wonderful project. 1. Has there ever been an acolyte that adheres to multiple Essences? I think this could be an interesting historical event. 2. Are there possibly more Essences than are currently known by man?
Since the essences shown manifest based on human emotions or characteristics, maybe some essence is so alien and unknowable to us, humans, we aren't even made out of it. But since the Essence of SECRETS have manifested itself, I find it really hard to believe that another is hiding or in isolation.
1. I was asking myself the same thing, but the way he describes the acolytes is by being closer to one essence over all others, so I think such a person would be the exception to the exception, but assuming two similar essences have some overlap in their goals, that would be interesting, I wonder if the acolyte would have an easier time avoiding the affliction, since it is the unbalance between essences, but would have a harder time trying not to lose one of these Powers by acting against the will on one of them, the person would have barely any free will, since it needs to please not one, but two essences at the same time.
This lowkey had me think of Dust/Dark Matter from "His Dark Materials" as it also seemed to have it's own will. But damn, this seems much more complex! I'm very excited to find out more about the Refugium, Bib. :)
Very intriguing bit of worldbuiilding, especially when it comes to the possibility of Acolytes who are of the right temperament to awaken with a specific Essence but don't follow its beliefs. Using myself as an example, the weary and withdrawn temperament found among Acolytes of Aan is certainly something I relate to, but the Essence's abhorrence for change I have a more complicated relationship with: the world is arranged a certain way (politically speaking) and I wish it wasn't, therefore I want change, but change is also something that on smaller scales thoroughly exhausts me so I tend to avoid it (not prevent, just avoid). A character like that might draw on Aan because they have the right kind of temperament, but their goals would be completely opposed to Aan and they'd be in a constant battle between using their powers, and between pursuing change, having to be careful about when they use their powers. Though maybe Aan, being the essence of inertia, might be the one with the least destructive response to an Acolyte who tries to use its power against its goals. Nothing happening seems more in line with the intertia aspect of Aan than a person being erased from existence (though of course, other Acolytes of Aan might disagree and hunt them down to prevent them from doing something like that). I'm excited to learn more, whether it comes in the form of worldbuilding videos or a story set in the world (yes, Nga'uri-thaal is definitely the other option for what would draw me if I were in that world).
Great video, it's nice to see more content about refugium and I hope there's more coming! That made me think, maybe there can be an "avatar" that harnesses all essences and becomes the symbol of equiliibrium? Or is every non acolyte already true equilibrium? Anyways, great worldbuilding! Reminds me of Brandom Sanderson's shards in the cosmere.
So I'm guessing that the people of Nhlogqwa mainly worship Nga'uri-thaal given their religion has a heavy dream component. The emphasis on knowledge about the Night Lands makes sense, since the islands are the closest to the Night Lands. Based on the colors and the fact that the moons are color-coded, the 6th outer moon is associated with Nga'uri-thaal. (Speaking of Nhlgqwa, the fact that the island has a lot of volcanic rock means they could sell the dirt as fertilizer due to it's high mineral content, even if the climate is too cold to grow food there.) The Empire of the Sun worship Mohayzu based on the color coding, but worshiping a god of chaos doesn't really seem like their mo. In fact their ideals and beliefs better match Imunrakhar. Lastly, it's interesting that the symbol flashed near the end of that video turned out to be Aan. Could Aan be responsible for the ultimate fate of the world, whatever that is?
Good questions. Probably Empire of the sun worship no only Imunrakhar but also Tsenkaras (it's a more close match for them). I suspect the ultimate fate of the world is a great struggle between Aan and Virastir where Aan wins and petrifies the Refugium into a dead model of the world it once was
@@ИванДемин-н2с To my way of thinking, the real struggle would be between Imunrakhar and Virastir since Imunrakhar wants to undo the ravages of time (cleansing, healing, and purifying all imply the removal of a corrupting agent and the restoration of a person or thing to an earlier and/or beneficial and wholesome state) whereas Virastir desires to corrupt and destroy everything.
PERFECTION Your world is one of the best creation I've seen in my life. I firmly believe that you should (must!) write a book or manifest you world in any other shape and form. It truly deserves to be known.
So the acolyte's fate is... 1. To gradually turn to stone. 2. To eventually become a savage animal 3. To go totally insane 4. To turn into light and dissolve into air 5. To become a mindless slave 6. To become monstrously deformed 7. To become a living corpse (a zombie, basically) None of those sound very appealing, to be honest -- but in my opinion, the fourth option (Imunrakhar) sounds like the least horrible one.
Already thinking about how I can reflavor dnd’s magic system to fit this… Aan = abjuration Hlatikuulmak = evocation Nga’uri-thaal = divination Imunrakhar = illusion Tsenkaris = enchantment Mohayzu = transmutation Virastir = necromancy I know I missed conjuration, but like, you can’t map eight to seven so…
Aan: True Neutral Hlatikuulmak: Chaotic Evil Nga'uri-thaal: Neutral Good Imunrakhar: Lawful Good Tsenkaras: Lawful Neutral Mohayzu: Chaotic Neutral Virastir: Neutral Evil Technically, all 7 placements are baselines that may change overtime as the affliction wears on.
I disagree on Nga'uri-thaal's placement on the alignment. It seems unrelated to any of the good vs evil or lawful vs chaotic scales. To me, it represents the DM. I can imagine that if the players aren't sure what to do, they can have the party go to an acolyte of Nga'uri-thaal and basically ask: "Hey DM, where's the plot supposed to be?" I pegged Imunrakhar as Lawful Evil in a Knights Templar kind of way because the line "and they bear ever more disgust for all things but themselves" doesn't sound very Lawful Good to me and all the others were obviously either neutral or evil. But thinking about it more I kind of agree with you. I can imagine that in a party with one Lawful Good player and 5 Neutral or Evil players, the Lawful Good player might get really frustrated with the antics of the other players, and that frustration ends up affecting the player's acolytes. Though if I'm right and there are actually meant to be 3 missing essences (because this world was made of TTRPGs), then the nature of the 3rd Lawful essence will probably make Imunrakhar's alignment more clear.
@@Iamwolf134 I thought of them from the perspective that this world was originally for TTRPGs, and once i thought about slotting the essences into alignments most of them started fitting so well that is seemed almost intentional. Like Mohayzu and Hlatikuulmak feel very similar when you first hear the explanation, but in terms of alignment it becomes obvious why they are the way they are. It becomes very easy to imagine the essences as the players and the DM acting on the world through the game. If the essences aren't the people but the alignments themselves, then it would make sense for the essences to be static representations of their alignment.
@@astrophysicsperson528 Yeah, I thought of the 7 essences being more dynamic in their dungeons and dragons alignment. And I agree with your assessment of Mohayzu and Hlatikuulmak having some things in common, such as having little to no Unity among its acolytes, and being chaotic and unpredictable in nature. Seeing as Mohayzu represents chaos, dissonance, aberration, and anarchy, and that Hlatikuulmak represents wantonness, passion, ferocity, and tumult, they're pretty danged similar.
I'm looking forwards for more of these!!! This universe is absurdly cool, I'm almost stopping my own story to make a fanfic based on your world hahahahah I hope someday you make a book about it or something!
This was such an interesting video. I loved your other ones where you shared the languages and cultures of the Refugium. It makes me think of the world Tolkien created. While watching this I noticed that Imunrakhar sounds a lot like the Empire of the Sun, so i wonder if there’s a connection there 👀. Also, Hlatikuulmak reminds me of Odin, lol.
Probably has something to do with what the essences are. Maybe very literal words in this world’s languages or something poetically associated with the concepts of the essences.
Really enjoyed this integrated and starkly different approach to elements/pantheons in a fantasy world. I hope you do more such videos as they are good grist for thinking about my own world-building projects.
Would it be accurate to say the Essences are inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins (or at least borrow elements from them)? Aan (Stillness of earth) = Sloth Hlatikuulmak (Fury of storms) = Wrath Nga'uri-thaal (Secrets of shadows) = Lust (Maybe?) Imunrakhar (Purity of light) = Pride Tsenkaras (Order of steel) = Greed Mohayzu (Ferocity of wilderness) = Gluttony (Maybe?) Virastir (Inevitability of death) = Envy Feel free to make your own suggestions on which Essence would go with which Sin.
For me, it goes like this: Aan = Sloth Hlatikuulmak = Lust (because it's heedless, impulsive, and reckless) Nga'uri-thaal = Envy (wanting whatever it does not already have) Imunrakhal = Pride Tsenkaras = Greed (the desire for control over everything else) Mohayzu = Gluttony (acolytes don't want to share anything with anyone, even other acolytes of Mohayzu) Virastir = Wrath (hatred for the others and desires to destroy everything they create).
The world building here is absolutely amazing! All I kept thinking was how much I wanted to explore the world. My brain will be turning this over for a while. I'd love to see see stiries in this world, but I'd also LOVE to play a TTRPG in this setting (not D&D...it would have to be its own system or a pretty tightly themed adaptation of a generic system). All the Refugium videos have been great, but wow.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
We need one of those buzzfeed quizzes for this, "Which essence is your dominant essence?" And then all the questions have nothing to do with personality or the essences
Question 1: what is your favourite colour?
"Wow! Cool magic camps! I wonder which one I'll be in!"
...
"I do not want to practice magic."
I love how these essences are basically elements, religions, personality traits, and political ideologies at the same time
Aren't all those the same
So sorta like MTG colours
@@iamasalad9080 they are in the refugium
Conservatism
Anarcho-capitalism
Theism
Utopianism
Totalitarianism
Anarcho-primitivism
Misanthropism
Some of them do make it kind of hard to imagine what an individual person would be like in the refugium though. Like are there just entire civilizations or religious communities where the followers are rash and unpredictable?
Dude I love how none of the essences is like the “good guy”; and how each of them comes into their acolytes by the natural vices of humans. They’re like the manifestations of the deepest, most integral flaws of humanity
But with a name like “Refugium”, who thought the world would have magic that only worked by the natural virtues of humans? I know I did.
They're not just manifestations of flaws. Each of them is necessary to maintain what we would consider a good world.
As Tsenkaras and Mohayzu keep each other in check, so do Aan and Virastir. And what is life, without passion, knowledge, and beauty?
@@cheshire1 true, which is even more interesting. They’re each good in moderation, it’s when you take it too far and give it too much sway that it turns into a vice. Speaks to the idea of “too much if a good thing is a bad thing”, ideas of balance, etc. rly cool
@@skylark7921 They remind me a lot of the Chaos Gods from WH40K In that universe the Chaos Gods are seen as evil but the only reason they are evil is because life sees them that way. They exist in the Warp which is sort of like a dream dimension were all mortal thought arrives, so the Chaos Gods aren't inherently evil it's just that they are given nothing but evil thoughts from mortal life and so they reflect those evil thoughts. I really hope he continues making content for this world and then releases a book or something I'd buy that immediately.
Verastir is definately the bad guy tho.
Damn, this might be the first time in a fantasy story where I went "maybe the world would be better off without magic actually." This shit is terrifying, well fucking done!
What about ? Warhammer fantasy
@@med.ismailmouline7094 fantasy yes. 40k? You cant space travel whit out it
"The acolytes of Mohayzu view rulership and order as constraint, causing their own bodies to rebel against its natural order, until the acolyte tears itself apart out of an unwillingness to rule itself."
Damn dude, that's one of the most terrifying and badass concepts I've heard from a hard fantasy setting. Amazing work!
Nice pfp
Tfw you are so anarchist that your own flesh rebels against you
@@baltofarlander2618 Well, let's face it...the concept of the Affliction is similar to that of karma except even more directly and personally in the sense that retribution is inflicted upon you not by other people but by your own body/self.
Acolytes of Aan who go astray literally turn to stone and become trapped in their own bodies (one assumes they don't die but remain conscious to at least some degree) in the same way that they tried to block or confine or obstruct others. Acolytes of Hlatikuulmak transform into savage beasts and lose control of themselves as they carelessly and impulsively brought instability to others. Acolytes of Nga'uri-thaal go insane and are deceived by their own minds as they have deceived others. Acolytes of Imunrakhar dissolve and prove that they have paradoxically become as corrupted in their own way as those whom they sought to cleanse or heal or judge. Acolytes of Tsenkaras become mindless slaves serving the will of others just as they tried to subject others to their own will. The acolytes of Mohayzu flout the rules and will of others with the result that their own bodies defy them. Acolytes of Virastir literally decay and eventually are destroyed in the same way that they have brought destruction to others.
"Slaps roof Mohayzu" come get ya gender!
if you dont develop magical cancer you arent a true anarchist
Start of the video: Damn Aan is awful it steals your emotions and turns you into stone
End of the video: Being stone might be pretty cool actually
In comparison with...
...becoming a savage animal?
...going totally insane?
...turning into a mindless slave?
...becoming hideously deformed?
...turning into a living corpse?
Hell, yes -- turning to stone doesn't sound so bad (although starting to glow and then dissolving into air doesn't sound that bad either).
It was enev in the first Refugium video
@@OreadNYC "My main goal in life is to blow up, then act like I don't know nobody! HARHARHARHARHAR"
@@OreadNYC It's a tragic fate no matter which of the essences you're dealing with. Stone would be much worse if you remained aware of your surroundings while being unable to interact with them; in other words, lacking a mouth but needing to scream.
@@thepikamence1250 While I do see what you mean, the video says that acolytes of Aan who fall victim to the Affliction begin to lose touch with the world around them. Their mental as well as physical faculties slow down and their senses are less acute. From the sound of it, I think the closest equivalent to being an acolyte of Aan in the final stages of the Affliction would be someone who is catatonic or comatose rather than someone who's merely suffering from physical paralysis. If the acolyte remains alive after being turned to stone, they're probably hovering on the edge of consciousness rather than being wide awake -- the pilot light is still on, so to speak, but that's about it.
The fact that the essence of "meh" is the most powerful is definitely a very interesting one... what does it hold that we cannot perceive that does not make it resist our change?
It makes sense if you consider how it's basically the divine/magical version of inertia, which is by itself a very powerful force in its passivity. Movement and change need energy and a waste of power and resources, but stillness can remain without any fuel. Every object or being naturally gravitates towards it unless it actively tries to fight it. The rest of the Seven Essences seem to be achieved through trial, but Aan is achieved by lack of trial, by just not doing anything and spending no energy to achieve it. It makes a lot of sense it's the strongest Essence.
@@CM-ss5pe It is the most powerful because it has never used any power
@@CM-ss5pe I would argue that in our world, everything naturally tends to decay, since entropy is a fundamental phenomenon of nature. The refugium may be different.
Well, Virastir might be the most powerful of the essences, since it's likely the reason for the ocean of darkness. Aan is just so powerful that it can keep it at bay. For now.
It also explains why most people are non-magical in the setting: Aan is the most powerful essence and so most people are influenced by it.
I enjoy the fact that you have a "X elements" system where all of the elements that compose the world are basically eldritch horrors.
Also theyre not boring natural elements as usual
So basically Virastir is fighting Aan, Mohayzu is fighting Tsenkaras, Imunrakhar is too perfect to care and Hlatikuulmak is just nuts. Nga'uri-thaal (chad) is simply trying to take a nap.
Nga'uri-thaal is just that shy non-talkative introvert friend is actually really wise and has a lot of knowledge about things. It shares this knowledge with his acolytes just so that they stop bothering it and let it sleep again lol.
@@qwertydavid8070 they just like me fr
I really like this, how original it is how well thought each essence is. It's really refreshing to see a magic system working with elements that aren't just different variations of "earth, wind, fire and water". You really thought meticulously about each aspect of each essence and i don't think i could even associate them with more familiar elements that i saw in other worldbuild.
And that is only speaking about the "elements" part of the essence too, i also really love how it's not just magic that you wield it actively changes you it makes you think and act a certain way according to it, each aspect of the essence are connected to each other in a very cohesive way. I'm very impressed and i wanna thank you for inspiring me and showing me what a good original worldbuilding looks like.
I already want to do a D&D homebrew in this setting. Divide every spell based on essence type, custom spellcaster classes based on Psions from 3.5 ONLY. Could be awesome.
You may wish to look into Glorantha setting by Greg Stafford, and its companion RPG, Runequest, by Chaosium. Around in some form or the other since the late '60s, it is also based on a "based on quintessences of the universe" sort of aspect, which are the eponymous Runes.
@@SteveMND I'm 20 years deep in D&D. I'll most likely world build my own flat world, sun and moons rising and setting into the Primordial Chaos that surrounds the rotating disk.
The rotation can give me seasons, a belt of summer chased by autumn and heralded by spring, the exterior edges where the sun is furthest having winter. A great spire can mark the planar axis, surrounded by a tropical zone. The outer rim would have planar incursions, "wild magic", and looser bonds of reality. Seems easier really, as I can have day/night cycles and seasonal variance.
Homebrew some unique critters, borrow from Biblaridion and Michael Swanwick generously (with credit obviously). I'd probably forego the alignment system, write some custom dieties, and create a 3D map of the Planes.
Seems like a good bet.
@@blackguard5883 Yep; it's the Circle Of RPGs that most enthusiasts fall into anymore these days: most of us start out as players, then some of us then become Gamemasters, then some of THAT portion create their own settings, and lastly some of THAT portion end up creating their own game mechanics. And if they are so inclined, maybe a lucky handful of us can also actually make money off of our interest at some point along the journey.
@@blackguard5883 It's mainly for Pathfinder 1e, but you might like the sphere's of power system. It divides up pretty much everything into various spheres or themes, and you can pretty easily build stuff from them, dividing up the various spheres into the different essences
Every essence lets you do cool magic if you are devout to them, but can backfire if you are too devout.
Finally a magic system with decent consequences
Hell yea! It makes so much sense and gets me excited to see the insanity he can do with it!
Kinda like how irl religion works too
@@cerberaodollam except the consequences of being too devout in Christianity is that you become a Karen
As opposed to being petrified, a monster, insane, disappearing into the ether, becoming an automaton, a husk or just plain dead
@@pandoratheclay might be an abortion doc murderer though
I didn't see it that way. A person who is devout is generally considered to be someone who's humble (genuinely so and not falsely, hypocritically, or pretentiously so). The video implies that the Affliction punishes those who become corrupt and egotistical to the point that they attribute the power to themselves more than the Essence and attempt to direct it primarily for their own purposes. ("Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.") That doesn't sound like someone who's sincerely humble to me -- and therefore, it doesn't sound like someone who's devout. In much the same way that the smartest people paradoxically acknowledge how little they actually understand, truly devout acolytes of one of the Essences would accept that they're merely conduits of the power and not the source of the power. It does not serve them...they serve it. As such, they must be willing to put their own egos aside to at least some degree and allow Essence to work through them instead of trying to bend the Essence to their own will. (That's actually a lot harder for many people to do than they think, because it's all too easy for humans to deceive themselves.)
These Essences are like a dysfunctional family where each has their own bad reputation and every Thanksgiving or other reunions are unpleasant. I like it.
YESSS I was waiting for him to talk about the Refugium some more!! It looks so interesting :D
Yess same
Where did he talk about it before, this is really interesting!
@@Gorkuga there's a sort of summary Refugium vid on his channel, it's pretty cool :D
@@neta1 thanks for the reply! Find out and already watched it. It was!
The worldbuilding in this video is spectacular and so fascinating!
I would 100% read a high fantasy novel set in the world of Refugium and the Seven Essences.
I love how each essence embodies or demonstrates a deep flaw with humanity
Aan - Laziness
Hlatikuulaak - Impulsiveness
Nga'uri-thaal - Ignorance
Imunrakhar - Imperfection
Tsenkaras - Pride
Mohayzu - Nonconformity
Virastir - Hatred
You said you may make a story out of this. You could extract amazing themes from this.
I think Imunrakhar is more pride and Tsenkaras is more Power-hungry
And aan is also stubbornness
Probable equivalents for the Seven Deadly Sins...
Aan = Sloth
Hlatikuulaak = Lust
Nga'uri-thaal = Envy
Imunrakhar = Pride
Tsenkaras = Greed
Mohayzu = Gluttony
Virastir = Wrath
Aan, Imunrakhar, and Virastir are obvious -- the others, less so. I envision Nga'uri-thaal as Envy because it wants what it does not have (knowledge that is hidden or secret). I envision Tsenkaras as Greed because it wants control and power for itself -- but also because greed can paradoxically cause people to become enslaved just like Tsenkaras can. I envision Mohayzu as Gluttony because Mohayzu doesn't want to acknowledge limits any more than the glutton does.
Nonconformity is bad? 🤔
@@cerberaodollam Too much of it, yeah
I imagine there’s two sort of teams each pushing a different theme.
Aan, Imunrakhar, and Tsenkaras who push humanity towards a more orderly and structured world
And Mohayzu, Hlatikuulmak, and nga’uri-thaal who prefer a chaotic and more free world.
All with a the common enemy of Virastir who wishes for nothing but death.
Maybe in the book the characters representing opposite themes have come to a middle ground in order to stop Virastir.
I like how the magic system is unique and thought out, like it's not just "create water because magic words"
Edit; Should've worded the comment better.
Magic with the use of magic words isn't necessarily bad, what I mean is when people copy paste the same system over and over again and doesn't get creative with it until the magic aspect exist just for the sake of it. Heck, some don't even explain their magic system and just expect the viewers to already know it because it's the same thing over and over again.
Tl;dr magic via chanting isn't bad, just very overused without any creativity
That's... Rather dismissive. Different sorts of magic systems have different uses in fiction, and just because one is a little close to the norm doesn't make it bad.
@@amazinggoob9108 true but i think they mostly meant that they appreciate the originality rather than to say that other magic system were inherently bad for being closer to the norm. Maybe i'm wrong tho i'm not them
@@amazinggoob9108 yes, yes it does..
@@bruvance Why?
@@amazinggoob9108 if there is no clearly set defined rules in magic, nothing will make sense. No opposition can exist because the good guys can just kill or freeze or indoctrinate them will spells, and vice versa.
Ex. The bad guys could just cast a spell to murder everyone or destroy a planet or something.
This is some really original worldbuilding right here! Big fan of hw they are basically all "evil" in some way or another. Can't wait for more :)
I noticed that too. I got a bit tired of the malevolence tbh like I found myself imagining an acolyte, finding the virtue within their philosophy, accepting and embracing their affliction as a manner of returning to what they value most. But that would’ve been too comfortable a story to tell: horror is better.
@@AnkhAnanku it also doesn’t say how long it takes for the affliction to take hold.
@@tompatterson1548 I think only Virastir is fast. The rest grant some form of immortality, implying that the lifespan of most other acolytes is at least over 100 years
@@maxwellsimon4538 they probably last a normal human lifespan *_at a minimum_* if their “immortality” is so well known, but I can also imagine an acolyte being found in a time of crisis like a war and they’d be forced to burn out before they’re 40 just from the stress of constantly having use their magic.
This world is so original, engaging and well thought out that I'm already constructing theories about the nature of the different essences. Here's one I just thought of;
Virastir represents the passage of time, not death in of itself. It doesn't disintegrate its surroundings instantly, but simply allows time to pass over them quicker, like how stone corrodes, metal rusts, and food goes bad. Mortals simply interpret it as the essence of death because the passage of time is most clearly seen in a person's old age and eventual death. Its also the main reason for its rivalry with Aan, as Aan aims for stagnation, Virastir seeks progress.
It is for this reason I think one of the sacred pieces of knowledge granted only to those acolytes who most fully commit to it is that Virastir is not only the essence of death, but also birth and growth, just as light cannot exist without shadow, neither can death exist without life. And while the language used in the video might conflict with that sentiment, the true nature of the essences is 'beyond understanding' for the people within the Refugium, and they might just be wrong about Virastir.
I also wonder if, once these acolytes fully understand the meaning of life, death, and the passage of time, they are able to make peace with their own death, and willingly let themselves die as the come to view immortality as a perversion and a sin.
OK, conspiracy time over. Yeah most of this comment is probably complete bollocks and I'm clutching at straws with this theory but I'd be danmed if this whole video didn't make my imagination just run completely wild. I am in absolute love with this whole Refugium project and am super looking forward to discovering more about it and the story's you tell with it. Keep up the amazing work!
They so say they're beyond our understanding, even as viewers with more context we still can't grasp their true being and so your description would be one of the countless many names and descriptions it's been given
It seems like any essence in its pure form is an eldritch and perverse force, but a delicate balance between all of them is what creates the worldly objects and people.
Always happy to see more Refugium content! This was definitely a more mystical way of seeing the world as opposed to the language video. It interests me that there would be seven essential essences to the world, but only 5 (6?) celestial bodies in the center above the Plateau of the Sun, but I suppose not everything has to be connected.
I really like how every single one of the essences reads as a dangerous force that is to be feared as much as it is revered, makes it really hard to be envious of the Acolytes who can wield their powers!
There's 7 celestial bodies total, actually - The sun, the 5 inner moons, and the outer moon
Yup. Though Virastir if anything seems more connected to the endless ocean of darkness surrounding the Refugium.
@@antonioscendrategattico2302 wasn’t Nga’uri-thaal said to be the only one to know what’s out there?
@@gavinbrown216 And Mohayzu was said to be the mother of the monsters that roam out there.
This worldbuilding is so on-point. The originality is astonishing. I'm amazed at how there's so much depth from which to pull themes and plots at the same time that it's not so complicated as to be unwieldly. It's been said before, but I just want to add my voice here: I would 100% purchase any book, comic, audiodrama, or even reference grammar set in the Refugium.
I like that these essence aren’t just some boring, unoriginal element like water, fire or earth, but actually something interesting
FYI: The fire/air/water/earth system of "elements" comes from 19th-Century esoteric movements that were based on Renaissance and Medieval esoteric movements that, themselves, were based ultimately on Ancient Greek philosophical schools of thought, which in turn were trying to answer the question: "What is the Cosmos made of?"
Different schools tried to come up with convincing explanations that, "everything is made of 'earth'," or "everything is composed of 'fire'." The one that was most convincing, and therefore survived, combined fire, air, water, and earth.
So, that's where the 4-Element-System that shows up everywhere originally came from.
⋮
[Interestingly, there's a parallel between the 4-Element-System and the 4 physical states of matter: Solid, Liquid, and Gas obviously map to Earth, Water, and Air, respectively. But _parts of_ a flame are hot enough to ionize the combusting molecules. And an ionized-gas is the 4th-physical state of matter: Plasma. Lightning, too, creates a Plasma. So, one _could_ map Fire to Plasma.]
I've just noticed that the essences' names come from different languages:
Nga'uri-thaal is probably an Ilothwii word (Biblaridion once said Ilothwii is a language of mystery.
Hlatikuulmak is probably from Oqolawak (connection to the sea like the oqalayo people)
Tsenkaras is probably from Edun (autocratic empire of the sun)
All other are probably from Nekāchti
I think mohayzu is edun
Nekāchti doesn’t allow word-final r, nor does it have a phonemic u, so I think all of the other three are in Edun.
@@NcxX-c8f sorry. I was wrong
You kept character for the entire thing. Excellent work.
Ikr, even when he was thanking the patreons and artists, very impressive
Now I absolutely need there to be a book or comic or audio drama or any type of story set in this world. I really hope you can get around to making something like that when Alien Biospheres is finished, even if it takes years for it to come out. I'll wait patiently
Biblaridon! Thank you so much for the video! Hello from Russia. I will wait for subtitles, as I don't perceive information very well by ear.
And thank you for the idea of a flat world and moons, based on your ideas (if you don't mind) I decided to create and work out my world - Katafugiy ("Катафугий" - when entering into Google). Thank you very much, also for your other videos. You are one of the most interesting RUclipsrs in the world
Good luck in the development of the channel!
@Les Brouettes Hyperactives I have a link to an article in VK, but it's in Russian. But the link is not inserted. It is necessary to enter "Katafugiy" in Google and find the article on my page.
I apologize for the inconvenience
For what it's worth, the English subtitles are there now.
Very cool world! Good job with the detailed ecologies and cultures, as well as the artwork for the animals.
@@zachthewack3583 thank you very much! I'm glad to hear that!
I love this magic system! This is quite unusual for me because a system I've created for my conworld is quite hard: magic is an act of transferring energy in ways not permitted by physics (if you need to teleport an object you must make it become molecules, send those molecules to a certain place and rebuild the object) that is caused by a mutated protein in a mage's muscles. That's why all mages overcome some mutations (similar to witchers) that make their muscles really big for them to be able to cast powerful spells. And forgot to say if you cast something you must take energy from somewhere. The best version is a lake or a river (it is going to freeze) or mage's own fat. Even though I don't create systems full of mystery I love this one. From Russia with love
Holy cow mate! That awesome, do you have your stuff posted to a site or anything like that or is more of a personal thing?
@@dallinhansen2321 no, I don't have a website. My conworld is more like my linguistic playground but I try to flesh it out.
Your system is so creative! It's sort of semi-scientific and I love it.
@@purplemosasaurus5987 it is. The thing is that people of this world don't actually know its nature. All their knowledge is from empirical evidence.
"Hard magic systems" are a myth, elements of a setting can only exist as a reflection of the themes and character arcs of a work within that setting. The Refugium is a world build on regression, uncertainty, and isolation, so it wouldn't make sense for its magic to be anything *other* than atavistic expressions of base human pride, arrogance, and misanthropy. If your magic doesn't reflect your core themes and ideas to the same extent then differentiating between "soft" and "hard" is completely meaningless.
I can see this being incredibly interesting!! Imagine different clans choosing to deliberately become their affliction or force others into their affliction for different purposes. Or imagine groups merging their affliction
Into hybrids and the types of beings that could form from these interactions
Nga'uri-thaal calls to me... The brooding nature, the seeking of knowledge, even knowing that madness will follow.
Yes, I am also a fan of Lovecraft. It's a kindred vein.
Tsenkaras calls the most to me. I like controlling things, I am stubborn and I like making things as efficient as possible even if it means, that everything else about it sucks.
@@ascendedalchemist2551 It takes a LOT of self awareness to admit you're a control freak at heart. I respect that.
But after all, my stance is no better. I'm off chasing rabbits...
jonathan haidt did a series of experiments and found all humans morally value six things harm:people shouldn't get hurt, liberty:people shouldn't be oppressed and have freedom, loyalty:people should be loyal to "the tribe", authority:people should respect authority and their social superiors, purity: integrity of form, whether through religion, genetics or culture ought to be maintained,fairness:treatment of behaviour without favouritism or discrimination and people that are honest and work hard will get benefits afterwards and losers and slackers will not .i think theres three more passion:people should fight for what they believe in/suffer for your art/strive to discover new things and people should continue to be born and people should continue to die
many of these powers in the refugium encapsulate more than one value, the most obvious one is imunrakar as purity and virastir as things should continue to die i think nga'uri-thaal is passion and mohayzu is liberty i think hlatikuulmak is fairness and passion and tsenkaras is loyalty and authority aan is difficult but i think its harm,purity fairness and since bib kinda implied its like the opposite of virastir its things should continue to be born. i relate to hlatikuulmak the most i have so many things i wanna create and do and get jealous of people that have already done creative things and have a following so their art is largely spread and admired but this jealousy also keeps me going making music and experimenting and being inspired i think all these powers are essentially good things but when gone to the extreme are bad like most things in our world
@@blackguard5883 what do you mean with chasing rabbits?
@@ascendedalchemist2551 a reference to Alice in Wonderland, I imagine
Ooh. I am reminded of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, where the gods are shards of the true god Adonalsium. Each shard is an Intent embodied and they have names such as Honor, Odium, Preservation, and Ruin.
These essences really give me this sort of lovecraftian thought of the supernatural being indifferent to life. Like, the essences are just forces of nature that exist for their own sake. They are not selfish, nor cruel, nor evil persay, because they do not have morals, they don't percive morals, they only desire to further their own interests. It's like the old thought experiment of the AI that makes paper clips, it only makes paper clips.
Aan - Being as presence (Parmenides)
Hlaatikulmak - Being as Becoming (Heraclitus)
Nharrithaal - Being as thinking and unconcealing (Heidegger)
Imunrahar - Being as Truth and Beauty (Aristotle, Bonaventura)
Tsenkaras - Tehnke as progress and efficiency (Hegel, Marx)
Mohayzu and Virastir - Being as decay (Mainländer)
Aan seems like the chillest Essence. Like so long as you keep up some kind of balance, you can just keep on going.
Chilling so much that you stop everything and just don't and just stop, become rock
23:20 "Virastir is an entity utterly bereft of compassion or pitty" Okay but what makes it different from the other essences?
Active hate vs passive indifference, it wants everything to die, the rest don't really care either way.
I'm inclined to think that Imunrakhar has at least some compassion, empathy, or pity since it aspires to cleanse and heal and purify as well as judge. To my way of thinking, cleansing and healing and purification imply the removal of a corrupting influence in order to restore a person or thing to an earlier and/or more beneficial and wholesome state. That sounds rather compassionate to me.
@@OreadNYC Not if the "cleansing" purifies the target only in ways that Imunrakhar things is "pure".
We have a word for those forms of "cleansing" and "purification": _Purges_
During The Reformation, "cleansing" a new sect of "impurity" by new leadership led to violent, bloody Purges.
Political movements can also try to "purify" themselves with a Night of the Long Knives [which has happened in history several times].
And then you have the sort of Purges that try to "cleanse" and "heal" an entire society - using genocide, pogroms, or Inquisitions.
And "healing" someone who simply doesn't perceive the world the way _you_ want them to is something that's happening right now in the real world: Conversion "Therapy". At best, conversion "therapy" is a pray-the-gay-away fraud that just leaves its "patients" with more self-loathing. At worst, conversion "therapy" boils down to torture-the-gay-away, using actual physical and mental torture techniques. More commonly, it itakes the pray-the-day-away and adds to it psychological manipulation techniques that achieve the desired changes in outward behavior by damaging the "patient's" mental health. But the people doing this firmly believe that they have "healed" someone.
No, I'm not comparing Imunrakhar to conversion-"therapy". My point is that what someone or something else considers "a corrupting influence" can be nothing more than a perfectly-normal way of being different from the majority, turning the so called "healing" into mutilating someone who's different into conforming.
@@OreadNYC Also note: Biblaridion never said anything about Imunrakhar being compassionate or that its Acolytes feel the pain of others. That's the definition of "compassion": "co"+"passion", with "passion" here in its original Latin meaning of "to suffer." "Compassion" means "suffering with."
An Essence with a component of compassion would have an Affliction that looks more like the Indigo-Lanterns of the DC-comic-universe: losing their personal identity to the common one that results from feeling each others' experiences. Applying it to the way Biblaridion has described The Affliction caused by the other Essences, I would expect an Affliction from an Essence with a compassion-component to result in the Acolyte becoming lost in the suffering of others, not only losing their own identity as I said above but also becoming so fixated and absorbed by the suffering of others that they stop taking care of themselves.
@@John_Weiss Very cool idea! I was wondering if and where compassion could have a role to play, since it seemed like it was missing. All I got for my question was a passive aggressive response though. :'D
Being honest, I would absolutely LOVE a fantasy story or even a D&D campaign set in The Refugium!
Didn’t he say he used to use it for that?
He made the refugium originally for an unspecified tabletop game (probably d&d)
D&D ≠ any TTRPG
I genuinely adore your fantasy world. I am desperate to see more. I also wonder if there's another "refugium" out beyond the void. I imagine it's the equivalent to a star system, but in a fantasy sense. Each refugium is literally lightyears worth of a distance between one another.
And its really interesting what happened before the refugium. What happened that humanity ends up having to create refugium etc. and probably theres also other refugiums. Really interesting if somehow someone are able to travel the darkness and able to stumble another refugium, its gonna be like an isekai even though they're in the same world just cuz how massively different theyre cultures and even biology differs.
12:32 i'm impressed that there's a homestuck cosplay technique more troubling than bathing in sharpies and vodka
I had a thought. Maybe the essences don't actually grant immortality at all. Instead, immortality is just a natural consequence of the lack of Virastir's essence in the acolytes. That's the essence of mortality, so a lack of that essence would do the opposite. It also explains why only Virastir's followers aren't immortal.
Well Virastir's followers from what I see are immortal it's just Virastir's influence decomposes them too much for them to keep up, this would make sense since the immortality each grants is eternal life not fast regeneration and a body that will function regardless of damage
This is so original! Each essence has its own flaws, for example, Imunrakhar and Mohayzu both have their cons. No essence is "good" or "evil", they all should be used moderately or else you turn into an abomination of the essence; I *_like_* this system!
Ooo, new Refugium! Always excited to see this.
I need a 12 season bingeable tv series for this like yesterday
This is big lore material, which I absolutely adore. Keep up the great work, its always nice to have a peek into what you create.
This reminds me so much of how My name is Byf delivers his content, its almost scary.
The Essences sound perfect for an RPG. It’s a great balance of power and risk, and of your character’s goals vs other agendas.
YEEEEEEEESSSS!!!! This magic system is just awesome!! It’s so creative how each essence can stand for a distinct element(s)/set of values/aesthetic while never falling into a more traditional air, earth, fire, etc. system. The Affliction is the coolest weakness in any magic system I’ve ever seen, and with each essence it’s s intuitive what the drawbacks of fully embracing that aspect of the human psyche are. And the concept of the vagueness of the essence’s nature is so interesting. They operate vaguely like gods in the sense they have intentions, schemes, and simplified values but the fact they can’t be seen or understood is almost Lovecraftian. And it’s actually really dark the disregard all of these unfathomably powerful gods or more accurately forces of nature have for human existence. And then how you tie each of them into flaws with human nature and make all magic costly it’s so bleak and hopeless I love it.
You’re just so creative and I admire your worldbuilding! The Refugium is the coolest thing.
these are like my seven braincells arguing with each other when i'm trying to sleep, except they've been given godly powers
Seems like the region beyond the Refugium would be a domain of Aan, it's absolutely unchanging and functionally timeless.
Is it?
The earlier video says that those who dare to travel beyond the areas lighted by the sun never return...so how do you know what's there or isn't there? From my point of view, the region beyond Refugium would if anything be the domain of Nga'uri-thaal because it's unknown. If there's nobody and nothing there apart from bitter cold and snow, that might make it a domain for Mohayzu which favors places where few people go -- and possibly also a domain for Virastir since the cold and never-ending darkness probably cause most creatures from inside the Refugium to die (that said, there are places here on this planet in caves and the deepest parts of the ocean where it is both very cold and always dark and yet life not only exists but thrives there).
@@OreadNYC Could be a place where both all and none of the essences prevail. My thinking was based only on the notion that it would be cold and largely airless (due to low temperature) owning to the lack of heat and light from the 'suns' hovering over the centre of the Refugium.
I love everything about this: everything from so big as all the intricate and comprehensive worldbuilding to everything so small as individual choices in diction. It's all delectable and tickles my brain in the best ways possible.
This whole "essences" and "aspects" things really remind me of the Cultist Simulator Universe (probably because how much time i've spent with it lately lol)
But seriously, this is awesome. The idea of mysterious deities gathering a following of humans turned immortals (even though in your system it's more of an alternative death) is such a cool and captivating idea. I would really like to hear more about the Refugium in the future
this magic system is obe of the best I've seen. full of mystery but defined enough to be creative.
I love the vocabulary you have used in this video I could almost felt like the acolytes as you described them
Keep it up!
I love that you didn’t even break character for the Patreon thanks at the end
Among the seven, Hlatikuulmak and Mohayzu seem the most similar to me, and to a lesser extent Aan and Tsenkaras have some overlap. But that is not a criticism, it could be interesting in a narrative setting if, say, the characters couldn't quite tell which essence someone else was most attuned to, and similar essences may often fight for control over the spirits of such people.
I agree -- Hlatikuulmaak and Mohayzu are similar to each other in the sense that they are both agents of change (although both seem a little too unpredictable, unstable, and volatile for comfort). I also see overlap between Aan and Imunrakhar in the sense that acolytes of both Essences experience deep frustration with the world as it is -- but Aan wants to avoid or retreat from it while Imunrakhar wants to fix it. Imunrakhar, unlike Aan, is an agent of change in its own way but not really change simply for the sake of it like Hlatikuulmak and Mohayzu. Imunrakhar doesn't just want to stop the ravages of time as Aan does -- it wants to reverse them. Cleansing, healing, and purifying all imply the removal of a corrupting agent and restoring a person or thing to an earlier and/or more beneficial and wholesome state. For this reason, I would think that Virastir would actually hate Imunrakhar most of all -- even more than Aan -- because while Aan wants to block the decay of Virastir and maintain stasis, Imunrakhar wants to fix the ravages of time and reverse the destruction and entropy associated with Virastir.
@@OreadNYC Virastir hates Aan more for the simple reason that Aan is more powerful. Imunrakhar would be but a mild annoyance to Virastir, being that not only is Virastir much more powerful, but also because Imunrakhar finds disgust in all other essences equally.
Also yes this comment is 10 months late lmao
They're similar in that they both embody chaos, but a different kind of chaos. Hlatikuulmak embodies enmity, fighting, power, destruction. Mohayzu embodies savagery, independence. Hlatikuulmak wants to destroy order, Mohayzu wants to get out of it.
@@OreadNYC Would you, thus, describe Imunrakhar as "good".
@SaoshyantMazdak Not really. After reviewing my previous comment, I realized that Imunrakr is paradoxically both an agent of change and a resistor of change (another way in which it overlaps with Aan). It is an agent of change in the sense that it attempts to alter the current condition of something, but it is at the same time also an agent of resisting change because it usually attempts to reverse change and restore something to an earlier state of being. However, change is not only inevitable but necessary and ftequently even beneficial in the long run because what does not change does not adapt or improve with the result that it stagnates and eventually dies. To conclude, Imunrakr is not necessarily good although it certainly perceives itself as good and has good intentions (but the proverbial road to Hell is said to be paved with those).
I love how you don't define the Essences by any clear-cut "good" or "evil" morals. Each on its own kinda sucks, because--as you said--too much of one Essence is never a good thing. Now that's how you do worldbuilding.
I love this video, but it is also completely terrifying
I love the Refugium! Can't wait for more!!
I think I figured out what each essence represents. This idea is based on the fact that this world was originally designed for table-top RPGs. Each essence is a player, and each player is roleplaying a different D&D alignment.
Aan - True Neutral
Hlatikuulmak - Chaotic Evil
Imunrakhar - Lawful Evil
Tsenkaras - Lawful Neutral
Mohayzu - Chaotic Neutral
Virastir - Neutral Evil
Nga'uri'thaal - the DM
If you had a game with 6 players who all wanted to play acolytes with either neutral or evil moral alignments, than each player would be able to pick an essence based on their alignment. The only essence that doesn't fit is Nga'uri'thaal, but given that Nga'uri'thaal is an essence based around secrets and knowledge, they probably represent the DM.
The thing that jumps out at me the most is that this world doesn't have anything to offer a player who chooses a good alignment. Maybe it's not meant to be played with a good alignment, or maybe there are 3 missing essences.
So, rather than the normal fire/water/air/earth sort of elements, these ones are based off of order/chaos - the usual meanings of order and chaos are split up across seven elements, including some symmetries:
aan = order (permanence)
hlatikuulmak = chaos (volatility)
nga'uri-thaal = concealment and revelation
imunrakhar = perfection
tsenkaras = order (design)
mohayzu = chaos (anarchy)
virastir = death
more refugium, hell yeah! very cool concept, like others said it’s very cohesive and well-balanced. it’s clear you spent a lot of time thinking about this.
take all the time you need with your videos btw, they’re always worth the wait!
Sick vid. Love this project. You're one of the few RUclipsrs that only puts out content I enjoy. Stoked for the next alien biosphere video too.
My man's decided that Wombo is in fact very good at making abstract art
To be fair, it is! You can spend hours in that site.
@@CM-ss5pe Yes!
I’m so glad the Refugium has made a return.
Was expecting something wholesome like the Seven Chakras, then realised they're actually much closer to the Seven Deadly Sins. Amazing video, rewatched twice.
This man could totally set an GoT-like story in this universe and no one would complain, heck some people will want to animate it or reenact it
Got sucks so i bet this would blow up
When you think about it, it might not be that difficult to translate the Seven from "Game Of Thrones" to the Seven Essences.
Aan = Mother (constancy, stability)
Hlatikuulmak = Warrior (ferocity)
Ng'uri-thaal = Crone (hidden wisdom)
Imunrakhar = Maiden (purification)
Tsenkaras = Father (judge/ruler)
Mohayzu = Smith (independence)
Virastir = Stranger (death)
It's like a combination of biles, elements, and zodiac signs. Cool!
Also warhammer chaos gods
Well written, well-narrated and well illustrated.
This is a fascinating mix of Stormlight Archive and Cthulu Mythos and I am all for it
You know the worldbuilding is good when your readers attempt to place themselves within the domain of an Essence.
A “refugium 40k” would be NUTS
not just 4, but a whole 7 eldritch concepts to sell your soul to!
I have a few questions, not about confusion but ones to hopefully bring even more depth to this wonderful project.
1. Has there ever been an acolyte that adheres to multiple Essences? I think this could be an interesting historical event.
2. Are there possibly more Essences than are currently known by man?
Yes and no
Probably there are some Avatar-like acolytes but the essences are only seven I think
Since the essences shown manifest based on human emotions or characteristics, maybe some essence is so alien and unknowable to us, humans, we aren't even made out of it. But since the Essence of SECRETS have manifested itself, I find it really hard to believe that another is hiding or in isolation.
1. I was asking myself the same thing, but the way he describes the acolytes is by being closer to one essence over all others, so I think such a person would be the exception to the exception,
but assuming two similar essences have some overlap in their goals, that would be interesting, I wonder if the acolyte would have an easier time avoiding the affliction, since it is the unbalance between essences, but would have a harder time trying not to lose one of these Powers by acting against the will on one of them, the person would have barely any free will, since it needs to please not one, but two essences at the same time.
@@Umbraminf yeah, like Aan and Tsenkaris seem to have similar goals
This lowkey had me think of Dust/Dark Matter from "His Dark Materials" as it also seemed to have it's own will. But damn, this seems much more complex! I'm very excited to find out more about the Refugium, Bib. :)
Very intriguing bit of worldbuiilding, especially when it comes to the possibility of Acolytes who are of the right temperament to awaken with a specific Essence but don't follow its beliefs. Using myself as an example, the weary and withdrawn temperament found among Acolytes of Aan is certainly something I relate to, but the Essence's abhorrence for change I have a more complicated relationship with: the world is arranged a certain way (politically speaking) and I wish it wasn't, therefore I want change, but change is also something that on smaller scales thoroughly exhausts me so I tend to avoid it (not prevent, just avoid).
A character like that might draw on Aan because they have the right kind of temperament, but their goals would be completely opposed to Aan and they'd be in a constant battle between using their powers, and between pursuing change, having to be careful about when they use their powers. Though maybe Aan, being the essence of inertia, might be the one with the least destructive response to an Acolyte who tries to use its power against its goals. Nothing happening seems more in line with the intertia aspect of Aan than a person being erased from existence (though of course, other Acolytes of Aan might disagree and hunt them down to prevent them from doing something like that).
I'm excited to learn more, whether it comes in the form of worldbuilding videos or a story set in the world (yes, Nga'uri-thaal is definitely the other option for what would draw me if I were in that world).
Great video, it's nice to see more content about refugium and I hope there's more coming! That made me think, maybe there can be an "avatar" that harnesses all essences and becomes the symbol of equiliibrium? Or is every non acolyte already true equilibrium? Anyways, great worldbuilding! Reminds me of Brandom Sanderson's shards in the cosmere.
I love how this isn't the same fire water earth and what not stuff all over again
nice to see a different "element" system
So I'm guessing that the people of Nhlogqwa mainly worship Nga'uri-thaal given their religion has a heavy dream component. The emphasis on knowledge about the Night Lands makes sense, since the islands are the closest to the Night Lands. Based on the colors and the fact that the moons are color-coded, the 6th outer moon is associated with Nga'uri-thaal.
(Speaking of Nhlgqwa, the fact that the island has a lot of volcanic rock means they could sell the dirt as fertilizer due to it's high mineral content, even if the climate is too cold to grow food there.)
The Empire of the Sun worship Mohayzu based on the color coding, but worshiping a god of chaos doesn't really seem like their mo. In fact their ideals and beliefs better match Imunrakhar.
Lastly, it's interesting that the symbol flashed near the end of that video turned out to be Aan. Could Aan be responsible for the ultimate fate of the world, whatever that is?
Good questions. Probably Empire of the sun worship no only Imunrakhar but also Tsenkaras (it's a more close match for them). I suspect the ultimate fate of the world is a great struggle between Aan and Virastir where Aan wins and petrifies the Refugium into a dead model of the world it once was
@@ИванДемин-н2с To my way of thinking, the real struggle would be between Imunrakhar and Virastir since Imunrakhar wants to undo the ravages of time (cleansing, healing, and purifying all imply the removal of a corrupting agent and the restoration of a person or thing to an earlier and/or beneficial and wholesome state) whereas Virastir desires to corrupt and destroy everything.
@@OreadNYC probably the struggle is going to be Virastir against all other essences
This is briliant. I could listen to your worldbuilding all day long
PERFECTION
Your world is one of the best creation I've seen in my life. I firmly believe that you should (must!) write a book or manifest you world in any other shape and form. It truly deserves to be known.
So the acolyte's fate is...
1. To gradually turn to stone.
2. To eventually become a savage animal
3. To go totally insane
4. To turn into light and dissolve into air
5. To become a mindless slave
6. To become monstrously deformed
7. To become a living corpse (a zombie, basically)
None of those sound very appealing, to be honest -- but in my opinion, the fourth option (Imunrakhar) sounds like the least horrible one.
Only if the acolyte starts to forsake their humanity by drawing too heavily from their essence (excluding Virastir).
You *need* to write a suite of novels exploring this amazing world, or get someone/some people to write it under your guidance.
Already thinking about how I can reflavor dnd’s magic system to fit this…
Aan = abjuration
Hlatikuulmak = evocation
Nga’uri-thaal = divination
Imunrakhar = illusion
Tsenkaris = enchantment
Mohayzu = transmutation
Virastir = necromancy
I know I missed conjuration, but like, you can’t map eight to seven so…
Imunrahkar's endowment does not map to illusion (save for the glamor effect) but more to healing and repair.
As the Itlani would say, "Dralizhe korunavit onyare!" (You have done well!). Excellent presentation. Thank you
It's nice to see another conceptual elemental system. These are always the most fun :)
Aan: True Neutral
Hlatikuulmak: Chaotic Evil
Nga'uri-thaal: Neutral Good
Imunrakhar: Lawful Good
Tsenkaras: Lawful Neutral
Mohayzu: Chaotic Neutral
Virastir: Neutral Evil
Technically, all 7 placements are baselines that may change overtime as the affliction wears on.
I disagree on Nga'uri-thaal's placement on the alignment. It seems unrelated to any of the good vs evil or lawful vs chaotic scales. To me, it represents the DM. I can imagine that if the players aren't sure what to do, they can have the party go to an acolyte of Nga'uri-thaal and basically ask: "Hey DM, where's the plot supposed to be?"
I pegged Imunrakhar as Lawful Evil in a Knights Templar kind of way because the line "and they bear ever more disgust for all things but themselves" doesn't sound very Lawful Good to me and all the others were obviously either neutral or evil. But thinking about it more I kind of agree with you. I can imagine that in a party with one Lawful Good player and 5 Neutral or Evil players, the Lawful Good player might get really frustrated with the antics of the other players, and that frustration ends up affecting the player's acolytes.
Though if I'm right and there are actually meant to be 3 missing essences (because this world was made of TTRPGs), then the nature of the 3rd Lawful essence will probably make Imunrakhar's alignment more clear.
@@astrophysicsperson528 I only thought that such placements would be more of a baseline, that may or may not change overtime.
@@Iamwolf134 I thought of them from the perspective that this world was originally for TTRPGs, and once i thought about slotting the essences into alignments most of them started fitting so well that is seemed almost intentional. Like Mohayzu and Hlatikuulmak feel very similar when you first hear the explanation, but in terms of alignment it becomes obvious why they are the way they are. It becomes very easy to imagine the essences as the players and the DM acting on the world through the game. If the essences aren't the people but the alignments themselves, then it would make sense for the essences to be static representations of their alignment.
@@astrophysicsperson528 Yeah, I thought of the 7 essences being more dynamic in their dungeons and dragons alignment. And I agree with your assessment of Mohayzu and Hlatikuulmak having some things in common, such as having little to no Unity among its acolytes, and being chaotic and unpredictable in nature. Seeing as Mohayzu represents chaos, dissonance, aberration, and anarchy, and that Hlatikuulmak represents wantonness, passion, ferocity, and tumult, they're pretty danged similar.
I'm looking forwards for more of these!!! This universe is absurdly cool, I'm almost stopping my own story to make a fanfic based on your world hahahahah I hope someday you make a book about it or something!
This was such an interesting video. I loved your other ones where you shared the languages and cultures of the Refugium. It makes me think of the world Tolkien created. While watching this I noticed that Imunrakhar sounds a lot like the Empire of the Sun, so i wonder if there’s a connection there 👀. Also, Hlatikuulmak reminds me of Odin, lol.
I don’t know, lots of lightning and storms being wielded by someone who’s perpetually horny sounds a lot more like Zeus
hmmm, yea, you have a point, lol. Now that i think abt it, the nature of Hlatikuulmak is comparable to Ζευς, too.
You're giving me all the inspiration to keep making my world and creating new worldbuilding stuff. Thanks.
Wonderful work! Do have a question though: what do the names of the essences mean?
Probably has something to do with what the essences are. Maybe very literal words in this world’s languages or something poetically associated with the concepts of the essences.
The video says that the Seven Essences actually have many names but that these are the most common ones.
I'm so happy that you finally released this! Best news, great stuff 😁
Always a pleasure when a Biblaridion video pops up.
Really enjoyed this integrated and starkly different approach to elements/pantheons in a fantasy world. I hope you do more such videos as they are good grist for thinking about my own world-building projects.
Very unique but also at the same time familiar! I love it! Perfect blend! It's a recipe for a great setting!
Fascinating worldbuilding. I really want to see a story set in the Refugium now.
Thank you very much. I really love your channel and your videos are looking forward to a video about the industrial era.
Would it be accurate to say the Essences are inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins (or at least borrow elements from them)?
Aan (Stillness of earth) = Sloth
Hlatikuulmak (Fury of storms) = Wrath
Nga'uri-thaal (Secrets of shadows) = Lust (Maybe?)
Imunrakhar (Purity of light) = Pride
Tsenkaras (Order of steel) = Greed
Mohayzu (Ferocity of wilderness) = Gluttony (Maybe?)
Virastir (Inevitability of death) = Envy
Feel free to make your own suggestions on which Essence would go with which Sin.
I went with
Sloth, Wrath, Greed, Pride, Envy, Lust, Gluttony
Greed in secrets, Gluttony in devouring life.
In my opinion Nga'uri-thaal is gluttony (to knowledge) and Mohayzu is Lust
For me, it goes like this:
Aan = Sloth
Hlatikuulmak = Lust (because it's heedless, impulsive, and reckless)
Nga'uri-thaal = Envy (wanting whatever it does not already have)
Imunrakhal = Pride
Tsenkaras = Greed (the desire for control over everything else)
Mohayzu = Gluttony (acolytes don't want to share anything with anyone, even other acolytes of Mohayzu)
Virastir = Wrath (hatred for the others and desires to destroy everything they create).
The world building here is absolutely amazing! All I kept thinking was how much I wanted to explore the world. My brain will be turning this over for a while.
I'd love to see see stiries in this world, but I'd also LOVE to play a TTRPG in this setting (not D&D...it would have to be its own system or a pretty tightly themed adaptation of a generic system).
All the Refugium videos have been great, but wow.
I really, really like this. Thank you greatly for sharing.
I would certainly enjoy more regular Refugium content. Excellent video!
Interesting... Independently the type of content, it is always with high quality
This is finally getting continued