Welcome to Nuradan, traveler. I’m Flygohr, a digital artist, and this is my forever fantasy worldbuilding project. If you like what you see here, you can support the Nuradan Project on my Ko-fi.
In case you don’t know already, worldbuilding is the art of creating fictional settings with their history, characters, factions, flora and fauna, and lore. Worldbuilding can be grounded in reality (e.g. an alternate reality Earth setting) or completely made up like the fantasy setting I’m about to introduce to you.
About Nuradan
Nuradan is a low-fantasy world, meaning magic is present but not prevalent nor particularly powerful. It’s basically just manipulation of natural elements, like making vines grow or wind blow. The world follows the rule of cool: there’s no plate tectonics or climate simulations, just a collection of varied regions and zones with different themes, races, or cultures. I will try my best for them to make some logical sense, but I won’t nitpick. The world itself uses many traditional fantasy races and tropes, like orcs or elves or dragons, but you’ll also find unique creatures and races right from the get go.
I’m putting everything up in this non-linear, living wiki that I’m updating every few days with new articles and drafts. It’s slowly growing into a web of interconnected stories, lore, and links. You will be able to click through a link and lose yourself in the writing.
You can start by reading my first blog post, The Myth of Creation. Or you can check out every region from the Nuradan World Map. Or read up about Martens, the first region I’ve decided to explore.
I’m also planning some visuals. I’ve decided to go for a pixel art style for the project, and I will update the wiki with the new maps I’m currently still working on. Pixel art allows me to take a break from traditional drawing, ties well with the retro game feel I want the world to have, it adds constraints to the project, and is more scalable when it comes to designing maps. You’ll see ;)
Forever
But what does it mean, “forever”? It means that, having started multiple IPs and at least ten different worldbuilding projects over my life, I’m finally committing to finish one. It might not mean that it’s gonna take all my life, just that I’m not allowed to start a new one or commit to another until I am done with this. Worldbuilding projects are never 100% complete, and even when this will finally be over, I will probably find myself coming back to it and adding or revising stuff.
Plus, I’m licensing the whole project under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 License, unless where it’s otherwise specified. This means you are free to share, download, print, distribute, and adapt my work, as long as you give appropriate credit to me as the original creator, do not use the content for commercial purposes, and distribute any modified content under the same license. If the project is successful enough, there could be multiple spinoffs and alternate universes set in it. You can check the Licensing page for more information.
Measurable goals
I’m a fan of measurable goals. I’ll consider this project finished when:
- Each region will have its history laid down in readable format from world creation to today’s status quo
- Each region should get at least one internal and one external source of conflict and tension (factions, wars, intrigues, etc)
- On top of that, each entity mentioned in the history should have at least one readable paragraph going along with it
- Each region will have its overview map at a scale of 1px to 3m, with outlined subregions, which I call “zones” or “chunks”
- Each region will also have enough adventure hooks for TTRPG play comprehensive of plots, NPCs, loot, lore, and encounters
- As many as the number of zones in a region
- At least one starting, or generating, from each different zone in a region
Region design
I’m also trying to develop my own region design philosophy. Regions are areas of the map with a distinctive environment that sets them apart from other regions, and have designated themes, mobs, and scenery. These areas have borders much like a state or country, and though sometimes invisible, they define areas. They may contain subregions, towns, or dungeons.
At the same time, subregions should be visually unique in the context of each region. This may prove challenging, but I want each screenshot to be tied geographically to a specific subregion. Like, you could pinpoint where exactly in the world you are just by looking at your surroundings, if you have been immersing yourself in it long enough.
Optional goals
On top of this, I have some additional goals I might be able to develop alongside the worldbuilding effort, like creating my own TTRPG system and release adventure modules for it based on the Nuradan Project. Ultimately, I would like to turn everything you see here into my childhood RPG videogame. This world is based on notes and dreams I started collecting when I was 7yo. This will take YEARS, but as long as I live there’s a non-zero chance that a playable game is going to see the light of day. In the meantime, I would like to have NPCs, creatures, and monsters all have their own 64x64px sprite, and also create a detailed tilemap at a scale of 1 16px tile to 2m for each subregion. These are optional goals and I might not be able to accomplish them all, or for every region, but I would very much like to try.
Support Nuradan
If you like what you see here, and you have the means to spare a few bucks each month, please consider joining my Ko-fi membership. Indeed times are tough, and luxury spending is a hard ask. If you’ve got spare resources for something such as supporting a worldbuilding project, I would want it to be a rewarding experience for you, and I have set up a series of tiers with different perks as a token of gratitude for your support. Some rewards won’t be available right from the start but will be unlocked as more people join.
Links
If you like what I have here, you can support me on Ko-fi. Small donations help me carve out time for the project, and expand upon it.
I have a small Discord server where I regularly discuss the project. Feel free to join and say hello!
Other links:
Link to original
Licensing
All the content in this wiki is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 License, unless otherwise specified. This means you are free to share, download, print, distribute, and adapt my work, as long as you:
- give appropriate credit to me as the original creator
- do not use the content for commercial purposes
- distribute any modified content under the same license
The Nuradan Project and any modifications made to it may not be used for the purpose of training or improving machine learning algorithms, including but not limited to artificial intelligence, natural language processing, or data mining. This condition applies to any derivatives, modifications, or updates based on the Nuradan Project source.
Please don’t use anything from the Nuradan Project in any product that promotes or condones white supremacy, racism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or other bigotry against marginalized groups. Fuck fascists. Fuck nazis. Fuck the oppressors.
Link to original