AT LAST, the epic final installment of The Warriors of Bhrea is here! Stakes are at their highest, the heroes are ragged and nearly losing hope, and the villains are on the brink of complete victory. How will Lauren and her friends prevail?
The ebook, paperback, and hardcover are all available. Order your copy today, and I hope you enjoy The Empire of Damnation! Check out the whole series HERE.
The kingdom of Bhrea is on the brink of destruction.
All that is left to defend Bhrea and the rest of the world is the small, haggard group that survived the failed attempt to retake the capital city Terrn from the clutches of an evil goddess. They are weak and on the run; meanwhile, the enemy runs rampant in a terrorized city, soon to set their sights on the rest of the world. What Lauren and the other survivors don’t know is the enemy’s final plan, nor the catalyst that will set the endgame in motion.
The heroes have one final chance to win the battle—but are they prepared for what is in store? While they gather allies and resources, Astrin and her cohort of imposters stay one step ahead. Each choice, each move brings Lauren and her companions one step closer to the ultimate checkmate. And if they lose this time…there is no coming back.
Welcome to Part 2 of my Culture Building 101 series. For the other posts, click here. For the Conlanging 101 series, click here. To see these concepts in action in my books, click here.
Metaphysics (and Physics)
Whether we recognize it or not, metaphysics plays an important part in our everyday lives. Without it, we would be unable to know anything about anything at all. It pertains to the nature of reality, the nature of consciousness, and what is existence.
Why have I suddenly waxed philosophical? What does this have to do with building a culture? Consider these questions:
Is there a God?
What is our purpose?
Who am I?
Am I the one really making choices or is free will an illusion?
You have a belief that answers each one of those questions, and there are a variety of ideas that seek to get to the bottom of all these matters. All these questions address fundamental qualities of reality such as identity, cause and effect, purpose, and, well…what is reality?
Really weird, that’s what.
Cultures and individuals will operate according to how they understand and seek to answer these questions. A real world analogy you can consider is the nature of time in different cultures. Many cultures consider time to be circular or even an illusion, whereas other cultures consider time to be a linear, progressive aspect of nature. This can influence how people of different cultures value things like punctuality or recording events. Another way metaphysics will fundamentally affect entire cultures and individuals within them is whether they believe there is such a thing as objective truth or reality at all. This can especially impact morality, leading to either a relativist moral system or a concrete one with distinguishable acts of good and evil.
Most people will choose to create a world where the metaphysics and physics, the essence of reality and how it manifests, is generally the same as ours and recognizable. Cause and effect, the direction of time, all go in the same direction as our reality. Gravity and light behave the same. It would take a LOT of work and imagination to come up with an entirely new pattern of existence, so understandably, most apples don’t venture too far from the proverbial tree.
Heh. It’s a gravity joke.
Where it can get very interesting is how a magic system might affect the laws of physics (or the metaphysics of reality itself). Are gods bestowing power upon wielders of magic, like a cleric or warlock in Dungeons and Dragons? Is there a non-sentient font of power that those with particular traits/heritage can draw upon? Are there multiple dimensions beyond what people can directly see, with other planes of existence where more powerful beings exist? Is there a multiverse that allows people to “pull” energy from in order to use in their universe, or that people can travel to? Perhaps those questions can get the noggin joggin’.
Top Down vs Bottom to Top
Depending on where you are in your worldbuilding journey, you will approach it in one of two ways. The first way is you will start with a broad (often metaphysical) concept and start creating a world from the ground up using that concept as a foundation. You might start with a question such as “what if the Greek gods were real?” or “what if our universe is a simulation?” and try to map out how those questions that concern the metaphysical reality of your world affect the rest of the “pyramid.” The second way is you have a specific phenomenon or scenario in mind, and you work backwards all the way to the metaphysical questions in order to explain the phenomenon/situation. This second way is largely how I planned the culture in my series, The Warriors of Bhrea. I had an idea about warriors who could manipulate elements such as light, water, and earth, and over time, I figured out the metaphysical mechanisms that would explain and power these abilities. The way you choose to go about your own worldbuilding is entirely up to you—there is no right or wrong way!
Okay, maybe a wrong way is just copying the entire worldbuilding schema of Star Wars and calling it Schmar Doors.
