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So I was looking through the thousands of art I have saved on my secondary reddit account to look for some things that reminded me of Carlos' cool post about the apocalyptic submarine story, and it made me want to share more of the super cool art I have saved. Most of the art I save is because it directly relates to or is an inspiration for the worlds I write about. I'm currently working on three separate worldbuilding projects, one more seriously than the others, and I thought it would be cool to share some art that fits each of their vibes while also talking a bit about them!

The Hollow Valley
The Hollow Valley is the main project that I am working on right now, and the only one of the three that has some actual story and characters si far. It's a somewhat dark, post apocalyptic medieval fantasy world. For thousands of years a World Tree called Ilmapuu grew miles high in the center of the continent, and provided life and magic to the world. Around two hundred years ago, the World Tree died. Hundreds of portals called 'rootdoors' grew on and around its roots and trunk, each leading to another realm. Thousands and thousands of monsters and marauders poured out of the doors and swarmed the valley, massacring all those who lived there. Now it is a desolate, destroyed region filled with monsters and the ruins of old civilizations. The only people who call it home now are those who venture from the Outer Ring to start new lives, run from the law, explore the region, or etch their names in the history books by slaying any of the particularly noteworthy monsters.

The Hollow Valley is heavily inspired by both the Witcher and Fromsoftware games, the latter being the main inspiration for most of the monster design and the former being the main inspiration for the characters and general tone. It's generally a bit over-the-top and is filled with music references, JoJo style. Here is some art that I think encapsulates the vibe I'm going for:


Gates of Barovia by Jedd Chevrier


Cloud King's Legacy by Dylan Scher


Demon Hunter by Jian Li


Landsknecht by Seungyoon Lee

Nyra
Nyra is my longest-term project of the three. This is the world I am putting the most thought and attention to detail into, creating a hard magic system, custom languages and dozens of interwoven cultures, religions, etc. Nyra is a fantasy world set in the loose equivalent of the 1890s. Nyra is the lightest in tone of the three settings, but is still dark in the way the real world is. The main story will possibly be focused around a university where magic is taught, at least at the beginning.

Here is some art that fits the vibe of Nyra:


Wild West by Alexander Forssberg


Magician by Daria Ovchinnikova


Wizard by Andrey Harchenko


Victorian City by Michael Andrews


20170804b by Kou Takano

Machinations
Machinations (working title) is the newest of my three projects, and also the darkest. It is a dieselpunk dark fantasy alternate history setting. I don't know much about it yet, but I know it takes place in the 1940s or 50s where the world has been in a seemingly endless war since the 1900s. There are cyborgs, robots, mechs, and all sorts of dieselpunk technology. The world is very dark, ripped apart by endless war, a war which is now the centre of every person's life. Everything is for the war. The dominant religions in the world are more ritualistic and satanic than in the real world, and real demons and monsters have risen from Hell as a result of the lengths some countries have gone to to win the war. This is an apocalypse unfolding in real time.

Here's the vibe:


WWI Trench Knight by Trace Thompson


Dieselpunk Motorcycle by Yevhen Nesterovych
This but... less shiny.


1920 - Red October by Jakub Rozalski


Yeoman of the Principality of New Antioch by Mike Franchina


Orthodoxy Officer by Mike Franchina


The Rocket Brigade by Josh Guglielmo
These guys but... more fucked up.


Heretic Trooper by Mike Franchina


Paris 1920 by Jakub Cervenka


1920 - no man's land by Jakub Rozalski


Retired by Park Pyeongjun


The Sisters by Jakub Javora

Very sick I very like! I took a rootdoor and it lead to ur mums house.

I love me some alternate history wild west, a lot of alternate world 1800s stuff tends to just be late 1800s and very steam punk influenced (which can often suck a little). Getting some cool bloodborne esque vibes from your idea which is really cool (although souls games often insistence in making the plot in service of cool visuals and striking enemies rather than being able to determine the nature of things does annoy me often). Also those last pics reminded me that I once had these two pics by Jakub Rozalski printed and hung in 2 frames on my wall. I assumed they were supposed to tell some sort of combined story.

PanOfSteel wrote: ↑Tue Apr 05, 2022 7:30 am Very sick I very like! I took a rootdoor and it lead to ur mums house.

I love me some alternate history wild west, a lot of alternate world 1800s stuff tends to just be late 1800s and very steam punk influenced (which can often suck a little). Getting some cool bloodborne esque vibes from your idea which is really cool (although souls games often insistence in making the plot in service of cool visuals and striking enemies rather than being able to determine the nature of things does annoy me often). Also those last pics reminded me that I once had these two pics by Jakub Rozalski printed and hung in 2 frames on my wall. I assumed they were supposed to tell some sort of combined story.

Yeah, I like steampunk but I realized everything I like and don't like about the genre actually leads me to prefer dieselpunk, hence Machinations.

Nyra is loosely in the late 1800s, mostly because I like the 'taming of the West' vibe going on in things like Red Dead Redemption 2, though with the magic and other fantasy elements it is so far divorced from the real world that it is definitely pretty far from the stereotypical late 1800s or early 1900s steampunk thing. If Nyra has steampunk elements like airships or robots they would be more like armoured flying creatures and magically animated stone statues.