Worldbuilding | The Void and the Abyss

You gaze into the abyss, and the abyss gives you cool magical powers.

[@mathematicalmatt]

It would be an interesting (and sad) way of exposing infidelity. When a girl goes to the sisters of the man she thought was her father only to realize her powers are different than her supposed aunts'.

[@Cachalyce]

The most interesting part here is the speculation of who was infidel if the girl is the only daughter of her parents . Because it could also be her paternal grandmother who had the "luck" to give birth to a son so it wasn't discovered. If they have two or more daughters it is clear who cheated because of the supposed difference or similarity in the girls powers.

[@Mysteri0usChannel]

@@Cachalyce that could lead to this culture pressuring you into conceiving at least two daughters and a son, so that the population would grow rather fast and would have a disproportionately high percentage of women which could then go on to justify polygyny aka men marrying multiple women but women only having one husband each.

[@madmachanicest9955]

this brings up another interesting point. magic that is inherited changes and runs family bloodline would work like a genetic trait. a daughter's magic could be defective or she could manifest a new power entirely. what would society do with women who do not have magic? ( personally, I think they would be killed )what would society do with a daughter that has new Magic?( most likely the girls abilities would be examined by a council of Elder women.she would be trained as well as possible to use her new magic and then be gaven man and land to start her own family line.

[@jekalisclockwork7333]

@@madmachanicest9955 But given the way magic is passed down wouldn't it make more sense that the mutation occurred in the father and was only discovered due to his daughter's unusual attributes? As such it would be his sons that carry on the attribute, not the daughter.

[@parabolaofmystery]

Floating fishing villages made up of the dozens of house rafts that people let fall off the edge of the flower when they moved inland. The elderly always complaining about how everything used to be closer together back in their day.

[@vicenteisaaclopezvaldez2450]

So. what you're telling me. is that these people make maracas out of their deceased?

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

This is perfect 😂 They should just have those be giant gourds instead of huts.

[@rainbowsomeone]

That whole thing is really interesting!! and I have a question: When the flower grows from the inside out, who gets the land on the inside? Is it a sort of nuclear family thing where a newly married couple move to the inside of the flower? Who gets the land on the outside? Is there a sort of class system set up? Is the flower one big city or is it just a collection of various family’s farmlands? Is it like that one city from Riyia Chronicles (by Michael J Sullivan I think) where there’s a Noble Quarter, a Lower Quarter, a Merchant Quarter, etc?

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

I imagined it as a world of individual farmlands. The newly appeared land would be unappealing because it would take a few decades for it to be covered with soil that's good for farming.

[@kzeriar25]

knowing that the new lands will eventually become good to plant will make families want to claim them beforehand, though, right?

[@BonaparteBardithion]

Maybe new land belongs to the priests. Someone has to be responsible for moving the bridge supports back in to keep it from being stretched to the snapping point. It would also keep at least a couple conveniently placed for the coming of age ceremonies that must happen several times a year.

[@johannageisel5390]

@@WorldbuildingNotes Where does the soil come from?

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

Primary ecological succession.

[@nakenmil]

As an anthropologist, I love how intervowen the cosmology and social practices are. Great stuff.

[@specialagentdustyponcho1065]

A family living near the Abyss raises capybaras for food and furs. In the winter, a bear that failed to hibernate takes to preying on these capybara to survive. In a tragic happening, a young herder girl is grievously wounded by this bear, and out of rage for revenge, her older brother kills the bear and throws its corpse into the Abyss. The little sister is scarred and disfigured, but survives. When she comes of age and crosses the bridge, she stops in the center and begins to weep. A great gale blows in from the ocean.

[@alexanderkorol677]

Will they really have the same seasons that we do though?

[@iiiiitsmagreta1240]

...I'm gonna be thinking about this for a while.

[@mnnkhu]

Woot woot for a new video! my biggest inspiration in the world :eyes:

[@incanusolorin2607]

Amazing as always! I really admire how the internal consistency of your worlds makes it easy for us to suspend our disbelief, even in regards to something as alien as a flat flower world. On a side note (and I’m sorry if someone already asked this before), will you make more videos about the River Basin?

[@vicenteisaaclopezvaldez2450]

I like this concept, like, a lot. aside from the obvious questions of why is the world the way it is, i wander: - how exactly does the flower look?, underneath the sea, i mean, is there a bottom full of sea life or the steam keeps going into the darkness? -is there a capital at the center?; maybe it's there because of the prestige and religious significance of the hole and because it's the most stable place, as it is unlikely the land will crack there - is the growing sudden or gradual? - how rich is the land?, what minerals are present on the dirt?, i suppose people only need shovels for digging because the land is relatively soft. - i can imagine that the 5 segmentations of the island are big rivers, so there's 5 waterfalls at the abyss - is it all fresh water?, or is salt water but the people have some sort of inmunity to it or capacity to clean the water? - if the flower is 50 kilometers long does that mean the world is at least 500 years old? - how did the humans end up there?, did they fell from the sky?, did they emerge from the hole?, did they wash up on the shore?, or they rose from the land? - how long are the days and nights? - how is the climate? - do they have a satelite orbiting their world or is it all flat? My supposition is that the world overall is a huge expanding sphere of water, with something at it's core that creates more water and allows the flower to grow further, always keeping the same proportion due to their paired growth, there could be a bed of soil at the bottom covering this source, generated from all the material that has been washed away by the currents, and this leads me to my next asumtion: by the looks of it the disposition of mass is kept equal among the island, but i asume there's a tilt to it: the core being the lowest point, the middle being the highest, and the exterior being more or less in the middle height: the middle part is the area that cracks the most due to the growing nature of the island, this is because the constant washing of the waves keeps the external part from cracking, being this because it softens and levels the shore's mass, or because it keeps taking off some weight, maybe there's a good extent of the flower underwater, but it's kept this way, not growing all underwater, because as the flower grows the tension goes to the top, keeping the reef relatively unchanged. if everything thrown down the abyss washes up in the shore i suppose there's some sort of portal or leap at the bottom of the stem, because the gravity of the planet wouldn't allow any object to float to the top (the same thing as if you carved a hole straight through the earth and leapt, you simply go back and forth gradually losing energy until you end up floating at the center of gravity) i asume there's some sort of magic thing at the bottom, either intelligent or not: it breathes magic, so maybe there's where the athmosphere of the planet comes from. imgur.com/a/IGpkthG

[@vicenteisaaclopezvaldez2450]

Extra notes: If there's 5 main rivers going across the island then i asume they're very important, one idea i have is that one of them are used as some sort of messagery and shipment system, but only inwards, maybe some girls decide to go to the capital through a raft there, or they walk along the river as a tradition, i asume the areas that break the most are the middles of the petals, i would call them "the hills", so we have the cannels: the 5 rivers formed by the petals, the shore: the tips of the petals, and also the oldest parts of the ground, the abyss: the hole where it all surges from, and the hills: even thought the most dangerous areas, the most inhabited ones because of the space, the ground-levelness, the resource access, both for minerals, animals, and plants, and space and because the sun bathes them constantly from dawn to dusk, so they're good for harvesting as well. And i'm thinking that maybe the men shouldn't be incapable of contributing to the magic bizz, maybe men have an inherent sense when it comes to magic, maybe they can feel what things have a better magic flow, maybe men are thaught how to aid their wives on the crafts of magic, and women are thaught to aid their husbands on their work: as a man will find a leaf that will grow as big as a house, a woman can cast magic to make it as strong as iron, and then it can be used to make a glider, or poke holes before casting it and make a fish net. i'm saying this just so men aren't relegated to reproduction and work, and give the message that men and women are a team in this, also, i think it makes it more interesting than if just the women contribute to magic. following this idea: maybe men are forbidden from crossing the bridge because their sensitivity to magic makes it dangerous for untrained men to come in contact with it, maybe they go insane, maybe they become "blind" from the overwhelming amount of magic just like staring at the sun damages your eyes, maybe it affects the bodies of people who have their void full already and aren't resistant in negative and volatile ways (i can imagine tales of monsters that once where human that fell into the hole because of this), either way, it gives an extra layer of interest. i like the idea of one group being active magic users, and other being pasive magic users. so as women see the world as we would see it, men see the flow of magic, and if they look at the center of the island and focus really hard, they can "see" and "hear" the magic being expelled like clouds on huge columns from it. maybe this is how they identify their family members, as the more experienced detectors can see the void in the women once they're filled with magic. i can see the possibility of men standing watch as they can see the magic in all, animals, people, plants, and tools, and even the ground, so they rely less in light to see (like, even a blind man can still manage by himself since he still can "see" magic around him, even if he can't see light), maybe women develop a "feel" to it as they grow in experience, and can find the basic magic items by themselves. maybe this magic is described by the ones that feel it as "just like water: as it rises from the abyss like steam, it floats and accumulates in the sky, eventually it falls from the sky like droplets, and is absorbed by the ground and 'thus, imbued to everything", maybe this leads to another tradition: as everything contains magic, the crops that contain the highest concentration of magic are sent to the priests, or eaten ritualistically at special dates or events, like a wedding, a birthday, or it's given to mothers to pass this magic to their children by nursing them: by doing this with a female their magic will be stronger when they grow up, but if a man is fed magic then his children will have stronger magic (as when one is young their soul is "soft" and is molded by this exposure to magic), maybe there are two highest priests who are the rulers of the whole island: twins, one male, and one female, both with an exceptional inherent talent for magic (since their family is the one to do this feeding tradition the longest): the male leads investigation, and the female leads experimentation: the male's children are always born twins, a boy and a girl; the succesors to the current rulers, and the female's are placed right under them in the hierarchy. and then we have marriages: obviously the heads of the family will want their daughters to marry a man with a strong magic outline, and the men that don't have a very promising outline tend to be cast aside by society, altough this doesn't mean they're hopeless in love, as women with low power are too in this situation, but although this personal freedom is good in a way, these families often desire to raise a child with higher magic promise, so to get them up in the hierarchy, 'thus in a safer place.

[@benjaminjohannessanchez3310]

Oh my, le me grab sum snakk. This will take while, but it is probably worth it.

[@benjaminjohannessanchez3310]

Definitely worth it! (Subscribed)

[@AnkhAnanku]

Something this small could easily be just a magic flower living on a standard world. The petals and pit might only go down to the seafloor, where some tectonic entity is boiling the sea and swallowing the abyssal oozes to build more land. It could be feeding on the magic that holds the world together and farting it out a 50m anus held open by the pressure of the steam. Maybe this is why the people that live on that island have a hole in their souls: the flower ate it. Perhaps one day the creature could threaten to cover the entire planet, or maybe the edges are being nibbled by parrotfish, and that curbs its encroachment. Fish that eat the magic flower-flesh might undergo some interesting effects: my thought is they grow gigantic and slowly turn to stone, since they are eating tectonic magic they become titans of earth themselves... I like your thought on placing a capital at the center of the flower. I think the central region could be a hot, muddy swamp where the land slides apart easily even though it is stretching the most rapidly there. The holy capital might be held in place by ropes that connect the raft buildings in a ring that is pressed outward evenly as the mudland slides under it. As the mud dries out, the water seeping into the rivers between the petals, the land would be more cracky and crumbly. That would create more ravines that would drain more groundwater into streams that would further feed the great rivers. Eventually, the groundwater would have to be replenished by rain, but I expect that wet, steamy fart is providing plenty of moisture to the atmosphere to make clouds and rain for the island... Extra notes edit: I also feel ya on the other gender being involve as interpreters of magic. Maybe that’s why the priesthood is there at the bridge, because they have their head in the clouds and can actually see the magic. I kind of think it should flipped, though: with men being the users and women being the seers. Replace the priesthood with the wise women and the crossing be a young boy’s initiation into manhood. They could make women the administrators, the shamen, and the scientists who design the magic and the make men the crafters who put their strength into executing that plan. This fits more with traditional genders, with men being more strong and active and women being more sensible and receptive. Then again, I’m non-binary, so what do I know about sticking to traditional gender norms 🙃 I think, as a trope, when magic is dominated by one sex it is usually handled by women, not only to balance the physical prowess of their male counterparts but also as a metaphor to express the qualities most often attributes to strong women throughout history: intelligence and charisma. Fireballs are just knowing where to put a candle and oil and polymorphing is just a bit a glamour. On the other hand, when magic is equally open to both sexes, it becomes more an extension of willpower. It becomes another way of just _doing_ stuff. All work that requires intelligence and will are a kind of magic, and the way men and women divide their tasks is different. That’s why I would give them those roles if you were going to bring men into the mix...

[@vicenteisaaclopezvaldez2450]

@@AnkhAnanku I thought it being the sole flower in the planet because "everything eventually washes up on the shore", so i thought there couldn't be other landmasses for the objects to wash up onto. and i thought on males being the passive magic users and the women being the active ones because of convenience and symbolism; women having a void that can be filled with magic wouldn't click with just being able to *see* magic, as much as men, who have the "blueprint", and also it'd balance out power, as women having magical power would give them ground so in the case of a fight they're on equal ground as men who have an inherent physical strenght boost, also, men having the capacity to see magic is extremely convenient, as they could see animals in the middle of the night, or the things that are specially hard to reach or attain, being strong and being able to see what you are looking for mix very well, you see.

[@tesnima89]

I've just recently binge watched all your videos! I love how everything in your worlds is so lively and warm! One day, I hope to make a world that has that same feeling. They ultimately reminded me of this sci-fi trilogy I've read several years ago that I thought you might be interested in. The first book is called, The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi. (2nd one and 3rd one being A Hero for WondLa and The Battle for WondLa) It's about this girl named Eva Nine who, by living in a home underground, haven't seen the outside world until a certain incident forced her to leave. When she does, she finds a world teeming with biodiversity! Along with her mother robot and an alien guide, she tries to search for any signs of humans like her. I think you'll enjoy the flora and fauna, the stunning drawings, and a sprinkle of magical element.

[@eduardobarros3986]

One thing is that you never specified that soil is /created/ when the world expands. Assuming the "petals" of the flower are made of "not-soil" (bedrock or other unusable material), that would mean eventually farmable soil would be spread too thin to be useful. Conflict would then arise for the control of mounds of dirt.

[@RizalBudiLeksono]

It is intersting when I find if the female's power is inherited from male's line. So, it make bot economically needed. Female is usefull for their magic, and male is usefull for their inheritans ability. Then, I also realised how if you make a living ecologies inside the abyss? Like in anime tittled "Made in Abyss"? The anime give us a beatiful worldbuilding with a beautiful ecologies inside it.

[@logicgenius5229]

This is fascinating. I love how you’re able to combine already existing ideas without copying much from the source material (:

[@alexanderkorol677]

What happens when men try and go on the bridge? I can imagine some rebellious teenage boys doing a dare like that without thinking about the consequences. Maybe the magic/psychic powers would be something like Chlorokinesis(controlling plants) and/or Mycokinesis(controlling fungi) What do you think about this, Ewa?

[@flinko99]

they realize they're trans, duh :P

[@vicenteisaaclopezvaldez2450]

I like to imagine the bridge tradition is for safety, as exposing yourself to too much magic unprepared would be dangerous, think of it as a waterfall; girls of age are allowed because they have a void, a void through which magic just flows, and it gives them sick magic powers, and priests are trained so they can "push" the magic away, but if you try to go through again you get "carried" on the current.

[@alexemy2463]

I don’t think most of them would, there’d probably be some cultural repercussion against it. Even just, you’d have to live as a woman for the rest of your life would probably be a sufficient deterrent

[@budderbrinejr]

death sentence is the first thing I thought of.

[@caracol4142]

you have such a nice brain wow

[@Hobbyrepubliken]

Ursula K. Le Guin would be proud

[@fyviane]

I'm so blessed to be a consumer of this niche 😍

[@ishanshah7521]

I love the way you draw from other worlds, it inspires me to see ideas in everything now!

[@Vainaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

You always make me want to worldbuild so badly!!! It’s like Before Video: eh I could do other things After Video: time to world build 😃

[@iokei7926]

Yay! What a mood booster! :D

[@Alice-gr1kb]

I always love your interesting designs that you make!

[@merrittanimation7721]

I do have to wonder what an Earthsea book which expanded on that idea would be like though

[@shadeddreamer6864]

What if the powers were more or less tied in with the woman's emotions, since they are a component of her soul. Maybe each family line could have a specific emotion that it is tied to. For example, magic based on fear could create visual and auditory illusions. Magic based on sadness could manipulate weather. Etc. And what if- What if these girls couldn't feel that emotion. Since that component of their soul is missing. The women of the family who have fear-based powers cannot feel fear. The women of the sadness-based families cannot feel sorrow.

[@vicenteisaaclopezvaldez2450]

And when a woman gets her void filled up they still don't express it right away, maybe that magic can only be used like a measurement, you can cry and cast magic at the same time, but your emotions and your magic will be both half-way through, girls have to learn how to put all their emotional expression on their powers, so a powerful caster is recognized for her blank face.

[@jirsadcassam]

Yay thank you so much for creating these videos, you're awesome!

[@gubaguy]

World on a flower... just gunna go ahead and borrow that for a project im working on, and make a few changes to it

[@deepstonecostco]

Amazing as always! Maybe what their magic does is also an inherited trait, like one family does fire, another does earth-shaping, another does healing, etc. It could set up tension or alliances between the varying families, hence the staking out of territories and such?

[@alexemy2463]

Idk, the Greek elements thing seems a little unsubtle here

[@rex3782]

Ewa, every time you upload it makes my day a little bit better.

[@Drawoon]

I can imagine people carving their last name into things that are important to them, then throwing them into the abyss. Once they get to the shore they're brought to the family and kept as a family heirloom with percieved or actual magical powers. Also, throwing corpses into the abyss might be a cultural practice. Maybe it's very honorable to be thrown into the abyss, as they believe the body goes on a spiritual journey. Maybe it's disgraceful, as the body will probably never be seen again, and being thrown in alive might be the worst death sentence. Maybe those who fall in alive don't actually die, and maybe the corpses become alive again. So many possibilities!

[@steggoraptor]

Small nitpick, but a world like this probably wouldn't have ravines opening in the ground, as this world would have lots of compressional forces and not a lot of tensional forces. That being said you would get rather sudden and fast mountain building events so everything still makes sense.

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

The laws of physics are my eternal enemy.

[@jfecaz]

You have such an admirable sense of creativity, I aspire to be like that one day.

[@mariabaxter8843]

You're such a good world builder!!! Every video by you is a masterpiece!!

[@Myzelfa]

Yay, first new video since I've subscribed.

[@alexanderkorol677]

welcome to the family :)

[@TrixAreForKicks]

Imagine a wife cheating and getting pregnant Husband: "honey. Wtf. Why is our daugthers void like a peanut and not like a rubber duck?????"

[@MalosPrime]

This is giving some context to my wip. A patchwork earth where the war between science and magic has caused a coming apocalypse. And the two civilations must learn to coexist to prevent it.

[@diamonds5554]

This is a really interesting idea, I love your creativity with these pieces of worldbuilding you put together. Have you ever considered making a webcomic using one of these settings or do you just make them for fun and move onto the next?

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

I used to draw a webcomic. I don't have the health for it anymore.

[@chickenbatnana4600]

yay! i looove your vids!

[@bakersbread104]

shape of the void defines their magic type. Is it a literal hole in their body? like no rogans there or is it a spiritual hole? You might be able to dig out your organs to get more magic power capacity.

[@alexanderkorol677]

That's a great question, I hope she answers it

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

Spiritual!

[@alexanderkorol677]

@@WorldbuildingNotes If that's the case, then how do they know that it exists? Or is it just a rationalization that they came up with?

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

I know that it exists! Do they know? Possibly yes, possibly not.

[@jdfullerton5187]

What do the people use for tools? Do hard, rock like plants grow, or do they fish for rocks/glass in the ocean? Small meteors?

[@brekike]

They can do tools from bone

[@skyemorningstar166]

YOU LIVE! :D I love your videos :3 Do the flower world folk have any mythology (true or otherwise) about the creation of the world and where everything came from?

[@martinpavlicek2299]

That is beautiful. In some way I also have void inside my world, it is world inside bubble, alchemical world but reversed. People live on islands on inner side of membrane of a bubble facing inside. What are continets to them are just tiny specks inside the bubble. Every world starts as drop and then expands. There are many worlds, all are created by creator god, child of foam and bubbles, it blows bubbles out of its body and this way creates the worlds and itself. When the world colapses, its drops fall to its feet where they merge again with him and he blews new worlds out of them. Well there is whole religion about that and the child actually has two parents, the child is god of time, creation and love, his father is god of order and his mother goddess of chaos. Also there is philosophy conecting elements and the way bubble works and magical system rely on integration of order and chaos. Note that people cant sail across all the bubble. Membrane of the bubble condensated into into islands and water and air around them but far away from islands water and air are not dense enough, they mix, the ship would not float there and people could not breath.

[@brandonmack111]

I love this one

[@madmachanicest9955]

I have an idea of what their magic could do. I think it should like necromancy in a way. everything that falls of the world into the sea becomes magic. I see this being the way the plant feeds itself but it gives magic back to the people living on it as a form of recycling. the leftover life force aka magic is used to animate golem every family's magic animates a different golem each with a different effect. some create /regrow plants, create/ move earth, create/control water, and create new animals from stones. the glom help the people grow and restore the world over time. I think a form of Retrocognition would be cool. So ill add a type of golem that reminders everything that its family has ever learned over Generations think magic Alexa Library. the last kind of golem is a speaker of the dead type that acts as a temporary lick to a recently dead person for families to say goodbye or help identify their own killers. the link is temporary because all souls most move to the sea were thy believe thy will be reincarnated as a new person but real the plant just eats the soul. if the death speakers were a thing you would find more people killed closer to the sea and bodies mutilated after death so they can't identify their killers.

[@GuiSmith]

Is it weird to say that the world on a flower reminds me of the Who’s world in How the Grinch Stole Christmas?

[@arnouth5260]

Imagine, in the future of this world, mathematicians will probably compete to find the ‘perfect shape for magic. Considering magic is an actual force in this universe, it’s likely that it follows some laws and these could be studied and maybe understood. Looking at different shapes mathematicians would probably try to find the best shape for magic (i.e. the most efficient). Awards would probably be given to mathematicians that found a slightly better shape and these shapes would then be given the name of the mathematician. Like the Euler Shape for example (if he existed obviously).

[@Skip6235]

These videos are great! I have to ask, what is your accent? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it before.

[@bonkaiblue7906]

Hmm interesting. Nice work

[@mobiuscat-h3e]

Oh my god, now i need a book with "a pack of friends goes on an adventure" but adventure is them jumping into the abyss (mb with a boat or smth) to see how it works Damn, i keep making new details as i write this. Would it be okay with you if i borrow this world and actually try to do it?

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

Sure!

[@mac0457]

I like this hits Control alt V

[@NightClawprower]

The concept is super interesting! I'm not sure I like the premise of the "Hole in the soul" though. The whole "Magic is only accessible to women" would need to be elaborated, especially if said hole is also present in men, but innactive. What makes it activate? Why can't men use magic while women can? (Please, don't just say "Because they're women". It's as stupid as saying "Magicians are only men because they're men". I'll keep using the word "void" though, as while I don't like the concept, I like that the people of the world believe in this concept, turning it into a religion of sorts. I really appreciate that "The world is on flower petals" idea though! But it does raise a question: How does the bridge stay in place if the ground is pushed towards the exterior? Is there a patch of stable ground? If so, why isn't there a capital or religious city around the hole? Is the hole decorated in any way, as to show its spiritual/mystical importance? If not, do they have to fix the bridge regularly? Does this task fall upon women, serving as clergy? Or do men have to do it, under the rule of the women. Maybe men also have a role to play! While they cannot wield magic, this "void" might affect their physiology, maybe leading to some fluke in certain individuals (Shapechangers, "mutants", etc...). This is an interesting concept and I'd love to see it developped further.

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

Re: the bridge: the structures that hold it in place on either end get moved a little bit forward on a regular basis. It's part of ordinary bridge-maintenance.

[@NightClawprower]

@@WorldbuildingNotes Oh, cool! Is there a specific way in which they act out this maintenance? Like some ritual/religious tradition? Or is it more of a practical task? I'm sorry I'm bombarding you with questions, I just really love pushing ideas further (I do this kind of thinking on a daily basis).

[@AnkhAnanku]

A.M.P.M it could be the rope bridge is connected not to the ground but to shrines on either end, and as the land splits apart the rope holds them together and they slide on their own... You maybe could build your whole capital city like this, balancing the expansion and friction with gravity and tension forces...

[@NightClawprower]

@@AnkhAnanku While things are rarely that clear cut in the world, I do like that idea! But then that would mean people need to hold the bridge during a woman's coming of age ritual, because otherwise the bridge collapses with the shrines and the person crossing over the pit. I really like this world!

[@lunokhod3937]

I do love a good abyss Do people ever try to descend into it? I hope there is no curse if they try to come out.

[@alexemy2463]

I’m guessing they’d just drown and wash up on the shore

[@maccychee3858]

If a boy were to cross the bridge, what would happen?

[@alexanderkorol677]

I'm wondering the same thing

[@jascrandom9855]

He pops and dies.

[@alexanderkorol677]

@Pecu Alex no

[@alexanderkorol677]

@@jascrandom9855 oh c'mon! something more interesting than that

[@jascrandom9855]

@@alexanderkorol677 He gets filled up by magic. But since he doesn't have a void like the females, his body can't contain it and he explodes in a rain of Gore.

[@BoogsterSugar]

I wonder if, alike how humans can be intersex in many different ways, some men might be born with expressive magical voids but never develop their skills since they wouldn't be crossing the bridge, and even if they did, they wouldn't be going to live with magical aunts or anything like that I suppose

[@cf6755]

because no soil is being added would it thin out over time?

[@mosura2695]

if you throw a person into the void, their body washes up on the shore normally or does something weird happen to them too?

[@themushroom2130]

what if the matrilineal line of a very important kingdom dies out?

[@jdfullerton5187]

How do they get water? Is the ocean fresh, or do they wait for rain?

[@danthiel8623]

interesting

[@robo1540]

what if a man crosses the bridge? do they just drop dead? does nothing happen? do they get some very weak magic that is considered illegal or taboo? do they turn into some abyssal abomination creature thing?

[@vicenteisaaclopezvaldez2450]

I have this question: how do new types of magic arise?

[@shboi8103]

I've never clicked so fast.

[@alexandrosvayakis4195]

The Earthsea spoiler... ;-;

[@eddie-roo]

You said that most of the time, the void isn't expressed by males, but what happens if it's expressed? Does he never know he is capable to use magic? Does having a void express some kind of symptoms? Would this be the way trans people exist in the world? (The same for a female who doesn't develop a void)

[@arnouth5260]

What does amitalocal mean? I couldn’t find it in your video on lineality

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

It's there towards the end, as the reverse of avunculocal.

[@arnouth5260]

Worldbuilding Notes thx

[@sirsweetpea874]

yeet

[@UglyTeddyBear251]

I would love to learn more about this world :O

[@TheZapan99]

KZbin is mistaking you for a kid channel, my sidebar is suddenly full of cartoon recommandations.

[@JoaoGabriel-hk8ub]

Mine too all of a sudden. What's going on?

[@TheZapan99]

@@JoaoGabriel-hk8ub Probably because the robot is too stupid to make the difference between two animated videos.

[@merrittanimation7721]

I know the feeling.

[@soroneir1260]

I hope that means it's showing her channel to kids. :)

[@WorldbuildingNotes]

I guess we'll just have to assume that THE VOID and THE ABYSS are popular children's entertainment keywords these days ._.

[@Vonwell_]

Damn, I love your imagination so much

[@alexanderkorol677]

IKR!

[@jdfullerton5187]

Plot hook: as part of a war over who gets to be the high priest, the old one is thrown into the abyss. Then, he washes up, dead with strange markings on his body

[@zacharybunker1135]

Why are my reccomended videos all children videos?

[@jascrandom9855]

This ain't Children's Video.

[@alexanderkorol677]

the stupid algorithm at work again

[@zacharybunker1135]

@@jascrandom9855 I'm not refering to this video

[@AnkhAnanku]

Yeah, what’s up with that?

[@thesushi1947]

This makes me wonder about the bridge in the center. The petals are expanding, so the bridge's ends move apart. Eventually, the people of the world would either have to move or rebuild it or wait for it to eventually snap. I'd doubt that it has more than a few meters of give before it gets broken so perhaps its viewed as a holiday of some kind. Maybe the closer the bridge is to snapping the stronger people will think the magic of girls who crossed will be, whether that's actually true or not. Perhaps parents try to time a girl's birth to align to around when the bridge usually snaps and it becomes a sort of status symbol to have a daughter who was born as close to the snap as possible. Or maybe it's just viewed as divine intervention and the last girl to cross before is destined to be a priest or something and its rebuilt in her name. Maybe the equivalent of years (or months, I have no clue if seasons exist in this world. If so, that'd probably be more central to time keeping.) is kept using the bridge. Rebuilding could even be believed to "refresh" the magic of the abyss, again, whether its true or not. It's not like many religious beliefs are built on what actually happens. It also might instead be moved because the bridge symbolizes the existence on magic and having the bridge break would be imagined to cut all ties between girls and magic. Or it's just moved because building a 50 meter long, sturdy bridge takes a ton of time and resources and it's a pain to rebuild every year. Also, to even have the bride break only once a year (i.e. to have it be 60 meters long and spanning 50 meters), it would have to sag by 15 meters in the center with a roughly 50° decline at the ends. Yikes for anyone walking across lol.

[@Mysteri0usChannel]

Since this system could easily expose when a woman cheats on her husband (or if one of her female patrilinear ancestors did), this could lead to this culture to pressure people into birthing at least two daughters (to make sure they are the children of the father) and a son to pass on the genes. This, however, would cause the population to grow very fast and have a disproportionately high percentage of women which could be used to justify polygyny, the praxis in which men can marry multiple women each but every woman can only marry one man. Also, the high "availability" of female partners and the relative rarity of males could also cause women to have a more 'manly' role in looking for a partner, more initiative on their own, making the first step, or, instead, fathers would have to pay a dowry so that a man would have a reason to marry his daughter even though there are many other women he could marry.

[@alexemy2463]

Mysteri0usChannel I doubt the concept of a dowry would be allowed to exist in a culture where women had the advantage of numbers and magic, or at least I hope not, bc otherwise what’s the point frankly

[@lipamanka]

YESSSSSSS

[@bleflar9183]

Video: Void and the Abbyss. KZbin: pePpAPig

[@ro2513]

another amazing video! :D

[@_fedmar_]

Question: which one of the Invisible Cities did you take inspiration from? I read some of if for school a while back, beautiful book, but my memory is a bit hazy.

[@Drawoon]

So how do intersex people work in this world? I'm guessing what makes sense is magical power differs in strength from person to person. If that's true there's gonna be some women with little to no magical ability. There'd also be some men who do have the potential for magic, but most of them will never get it.

[@flaetsbnort]

magic as genderflipped baldness

[@Eldagusto]

I love everything about this! Void within you that you fill with magic and. A flower world! This channel is so great for ideas!

[@ziril3972]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

[@sizanogreen9900]

great concept as always:) But is it just me or men often get the shorter end of the stick in your creations? I find it kinda sad i.e. that they can't learn magic in this world as well. But there is no need to build a world truly egalitarian as the real world is not and the trope of the magic wielding woman in the form of a witch is pretty established as well in many works. Could also just be me seeing things that aren't there, and as I said it doesn't really matter in the end. A worldbuilder is the god of their imaginary worlds after all, their will being right;) Ps. somehow the recommended videos are all a bit... strange...

[@alexemy2463]

I get the strong impression that it’s intentional, not necessarily a bad thing, but I don’t think it’s an accident

[@MohammedAli-hl4mr]

i think its more because her worlds are fantasy and made to be unique instead of just medieval magic Europe, since patriarchal societies are extremely common in this world i think her worlds being some what matriarchal is just a natural consequence of trying to make different social structures from our world.

[@jdfullerton5187]

What if during a famine someone finds out that there a huge fertilizer resource in the form of the plant lol

[@adrianvasilache1460]

*when her void is filled up* OOOF Honey, I love you, but phrasing

[@LeeTheGoat]

so i make something about the void and the abyss and a few days later here you are making a video about it

[@aadenmiles2661]

YOU SHOULD MAKE THE SHAPE OF THE VOID DEPEND ON WHAT POWER THE GIRL GETS!!! also love you and your worldbuilding vids!😊

[@azzmere]

Omg yes i missed you!

[@NathanTAK]

Does this system involve fixed families (there's a fixed set of paternal lineages that spread magic, and new ones never arise), or is the magic of a man's daughters _slightly_ different from that of his sisters, such that his daughters can still learn from his mother and sisters, but won't be _the same_ as them? In the latter case, distant cousins would become less and less relevant, since their patrilineal distance would be greater.