What kind of a world do the Steem Monsters inhabit? We don't know exactly, but the answer is beginning to take form. I've learned a few things since my first iteration of this map entry:
- Their world was once whole, but through some cataclysmic event the world shattered.
- The creatures and their summoners now live in the splintered remains of their world. They do not know exactly how this happened, but they believe the world may one day be restored.
- Through playing the game we will find clues about what happened and what it will take to make the world whole.
- The world is much more massive than I initially envisioned. Each element has its own continent, its own culture, people and cities.
Whole World Map Contribution
Given the devastation that befell this world, there is no way for its inhabitants to know for certain what it was like before. It is possible their predecessors were more technologically advanced, but without a doubt they have suffered major setbacks.
This pre-splintering world is a disc world, with land features and towns rising both above and below a round horizon of water. Maybe the world was actually shaped like this, or maybe it was in fact a planet and the people simply cannot comprehend what that was like.
The elements are integrated much as they would be on Earth, only this world is inhabited by many magical creatures. Visible in this image are a cloud city, jungle temple, underworld cities, and several settlements near the coast, the rivers, and forest.
Dragons are massive, nearly as large as mountains. Their magic draws elemental energy in their wake, as you can see by the gathering storm and erupting underworld volcano.
To create a whole world that is destined to be splintered, I needed a working concept of what happened to this land. In a natural landscape, I imagine dragons of gold would be hidden - to be found only by those who are brave and determined, ready to face the horror of such awesome power to earn a great reward.
The following is my vision:
On the Breaking of the World
Great Dragons were once the engine that moved the world. They moved through fire, through ice, through the air, the earth, and darkest void. In their wake flowed each element in turn, and their energies sewed the lands into a harmonious whole.
These were not the lesser dragons that you know today, and neither were the lands splintered as we know them now. Fire met with water to create sparkling mists, and water meeting fire lands cooled them into earth. Earth joined with water to create green things, whose lives cycled through the void of death and decay before rising again to sprout new forms. And the earth breathed its life into the air and the sea.
Throughout the world was woven gold, the element of dragons. Stable yet pliable, able to change its shape without altering its nature, gold flowed freely through the lands. Until something deep within the world was broken.
There are many stories that try to explain the splintering of the world. Some speak of a great force from outside this world, a cataclysm that split the lands and forced the dragons into hiding. Others tell of a great war fought amongst the dragons themselves, until they ripped the lands apart in their rage and retreated into the various factions we see today.
I believe the splintering followed a slow decline in the elemental forces of our world. Living in harmony and comfort, the children of the early world grew complacent. They believed they knew all there was to know of the world. More and more they looked for answers in the places they'd already seen, until they had forgotten how to seek dragons altogether.
The flow of gold that bound our lands together stagnated. Elemental energy weakened and faded. Fearing what they did not understand, summoners sought to control the force that bound our world together. They turned to their alchemists with a desperate hope to forge gold from the other elements.
As you know there are alchemists who attempt this today, and none have ever been successful. The attempt is considered by many to be a dark art, as I believe it should be.
In the time of the splintering, I believe one alchemist succeeded in creating gold, and in the act wrought havoc on the early world. The energy released at the moment of gold’s conception would have shattered the world into shards. The remaining elementals, dragons included, would have gathered in whatever splintered land offered refuge. These are the lands we know today, splintered, perhaps never to be reunited.
Maybe it happened that way. Then again, maybe it didn't.