Concavia: The Bearer of Talanã.
Added 2025-10-20 17:08:44 +0000 UTCHello all, I wanted to rename two major locations in Concavia to distinguish them from their real-world mythological counterparts. Those being Atlantis and Hyperborea. This is mainly to avoid confusion, but also because these places have grown into something of their own and I do not want to muddy the waters with one-to-one names with real world mythology.
I’ll just cover one for now and talk a bit about the lore too. In previous lore posts I spoke about the Nunacairn and about Atlantis. The Nunacairn were the cone-headed Atlantean race.
Atlantis is now to be named Talanā, and the Nunacairn are to be renamed the Talanos. Allow me to explain how I arrived at those names:
I wanted a new name for Atlantis that evoked the feeling of the original. Atlantis takes its name from Atlas. This is not the Titan who holds up the sky, but the son of Poseidon and Cleito. In either case, the name Atlas means “bearer” or “endurer”, from the Greek tlēnai, which can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European *telh₂-. I went back to that root and built up from there to name the continent in Concavia. The whole bearer/endurer thing slots in perfectly, but I’ll explain that in a bit.
Anyway, *telh₂- would have been pronounced roughly as “tal” with a breath at the end. In Indo-European languages you can add endings to show “a whole group” or “a land”. The ending -nā is one such ending. So tal- + nā gives Talanā, meaning “the land of the bearer/endurer”. As for the Nunacairn’s new name, the -nos at the end of Talanos means “of” or “belonging to”.
Now, a bit of lore on Talanā:
“At the southern end of the great and storied land of Talanā lies one of the most striking sights in all Concavia, the Bearer. Its height was so awesome that it almost reached the ringéd moons of Gelh, to whom the only loftier thing is the sleeping sun god himself.
The Bearer was builded by a wayward band of Alves, now known as the Oath-breakers; for these homesick Alves had forsaken their watch in the northern land of Upergora to wend back to the fair moons of Gelh. There they wished to be joined once again with their beloved Silvern kin, the Albes.
But the Oath-breakers could not raise this spire themselves, so they called upon the folk of that land, the Talanos, for help. The Talanos lent the might of their kingdom in return for wed-lock with their lordly houses and for deeper lore of the shaping of the world and might over the Craft.
Mehter thought ill of the Oath-breakers’ climb to Gelh, and ere it was ended, for she cast a curse upon the Bearer, that not one stair more should be laid to lift its height; though strive all one might, it could not be done.
Now the Bearer stands as a token of an oath broken, of the burden the Alves bear: to watch over Upergora evermore, lest the world fall.
In later days, when the truth was lost, folk came to believe that the spire itself held up the sky, and so the name “the Bearer” took on a new meaning. But with the loss of meaning so too came the loss of lore bound with that meaning, and Talanā fell under the sway of the Dwalves, the dark kin of the Alves and Albes, who strive ever to bow to their dark lord, Tàmhas.
The Dwalves brought the Talanos another side of the Craft through the mingling of blood, and with it, greater might and longer lives. Hidden fellowships of witches fell for the lure of the Dwalves; of all the Talanos, they had the most unquenchable thirst for knowledge and strength. They wormed their way into the high halls of Talanā, rose to rule, and bent the mighty kingdom to the will of their shadowed lords.
Over many life-years, a hidden worship of Tàmhas took root in the heart of Talanā and was suffered to spread beneath the shadowy hand of the Dark-witches. This black fellowship turned the tale of the beginnings upon its head and hailed the dark god Tàmhas not as foe, but as a god wronged. It held that by helping to bind Tàmhas’ soul once more to his body, that is, to Concavia itself, his followers would be led to a better life after death in the new world yet to dawn.
Through the Dark-witches, the Dwalves wrought their will to lay waste to the northern land of Upergora. Their aim was to shatter the warding-mark that held Tàmhas’ soul outside the world’s bounds. But Mehter flew down from Gelh with her host of Albes and withstood them.
The Dark-witches and the Dwalves came so very near to breaking the binding that held Tàmhas beyond the world. To end the war that had brought such wreck to the world, Mehter loosed her Great Flood. The waves swept away the halls and holdings, that they might never again grow so wide or so strong. To see that such might should not rise again, she shaped the land-wights who tear down steads that take too much from the earth.
And with that, so closed the Days of Copper and thus began the Days of Iron. The fallen kingdom of Talanā sank beneath the waves and Mehter, having spent all her store, fared to the sun and shared his everlasting rest; never shall they waken till the end of days be upon us.”
Comments
Hey, not at all, I enjoy your questions, they get me thinking about aspects of Concavia which I wouldn’t otherwise think about, I’ll answer them all as best I can. We’re still in the early stages of this project and you’re watching it all come together before your eyes, so some of these things may change. It’s fun to speculate that some ancient technology may still exist, it could make for a great spin off story, maybe only a few centuries after the flood though because it has been many millennia since then by the time of the story. The thing is with Concavia is that it’s a very low technology setting. Even before the flood, the only major civilisational powers which had risen to a notable level were the Talanā empire and the Maäliset civilisation in the far east, there were human city-states here and there though, but most were hunter-gatherers or early subsistence farmers. The exact level of technology they managed to reach is unclear. The fact that the Talanā empire were capable of shifting enough material to construct this tower is a telling sign of their level of development however. The kind of knowledge that has been preserved is very fragmentary. It’s basically just anything they could dig up from before the great flood. Bits about medicine, the movement of the moons of Gelh, books and scrolls on rituals, divination, spells and the like. A lot of knowledge was preserved orally down the generations. What remains of the Talanos populate high up ruins that survived the purging waves below. In these carefully maintained ruins, the Talanos gather all that they can recover from before the great flood. These are buildings made of sturdy blocks of stone, that’s all that was left standing. Haha I think that both Jedi and Wielders of the craft would absolutely struggle against armoured vehicles and bullets. Heck, in Concavia they would struggle against a skilled bowman. It’s not clear how powerful they were before the flood because so much has been lost, but magic in Concavia is more nature based. Wielders can use it for things such as covering over ones footprints by calling upon snow to fall, summoning a strong wind to catch your ships sail, dispelling ghosts, or perhaps if the users connection is really strong, calling down a bolt of lightning. Most applications are non combative however. The craft is also different for men and women, men have influence over things like, the sky and the sea. Whereas women have influence over beings like plants and animals. This is because magic in this world is like a ripple through time stretching from that initial spark of creation, only those who have Silvern ancestors carry magical bloodlines, if they trace their linage back far enough, they’d arrive at the gods and goddesses. Men get their magic from the gods and women trace theirs from the goddesses. Like Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial dna. The land-wights aren’t so much like a detector that activates when there’s a certain concentration of sentient beings, they are guardians who are summoned by the unconscious will of nature, if a forest is being cleared or if the animals of an area is being pushed out of their natural habitat or are being over-hunted, a land-wight will appear and thin the numbers of that settlement to bring it back into balance with their surroundings. If a land-wight is slain, a greater one will muster. Dwalves do convene, but the land-wights have made it difficult for them to amass and maintain a sizable enough force to lay siege to Upergora. Though, they seem to have found a way around this… There are mortals of the dark line, yes. These are beings who descend in part from the Dwalves, towards the end of the Talanā empire, the Dwalves used their half-kin as agents, granting them greater and hidden knowledge of the craft from their dark-line. All magic being hereditary, these half Dwalf kin gained influence not only over the light domains, but also the dark ones. Dark magic includes influence over fungal life, illusion, sleep, scrying and necromancy for female practitioners. Male dark magic users can manipulate shadows and also the very earth around them. But these aren’t superpowers that can be used at will, they require rituals, divination and prayer which can sometimes go unanswered. It’s likely that there was magic powered technology in the form of enchanted items or divine artefacts, but magic isn’t an energy like power source, it’s a connection to the divine powers of creation. The Dwalves are master craftsmen and made the very tools of the gods, so there are definitely some magical items still kicking about. The knowledge of the craft isn’t hidden from mortals because they are lesser beings, they gain their magic through their divine linages, and that blood runs thin if the magical bloodlines are not cultivated. The reason why there is forbidden magic is because it is associated with the line of darkness. I only know the story of Prometheus from Hesiods “theogony and works and days”, which may differ from what you have read, but Hesiod is the oldest source, I believe. It all centres around the offering of the ox at Mecone. Prometheus is described as a cunning trickster god in it. At Mecone, this offering of the ox was the first ever sacrifice to the gods. Immortals and mortals alike gathered to decide how sacrifices would be delivered forever after, literally setting the pattern for all future worship. Prometheus, a titan, assumes the role of mediator between gods and mortals and prepares the meat. Being a trickster, he prepares two dishes for Zeus to pick from, one beautifully decorated on the outside but all bones and fat underneath, the other an unappealing stomach that hides all the best cuts of meat within. Prometheus does this to undermine Zeus’ authority and elevate his own wit above Zeus’ in front of everyone. Zeus picks the one that is all fat and bones and that’s why worshipers in later ages burnt fat and thigh bones to Zeus as an offering. In retaliation for the trick, Zeus withholds fire from mortals so they cannot cook their share of the sacrifice. It makes sense that this would turn men’s anger towards Prometheus for causing their suffering, which was Zeus’ aim. Immediately afterwards, Prometheus tries to outwit Zeus again by stealing the “unwearying fire” in a hollow fennel stalk (a plant actually used in antiquity to carry embers between hearths). By stealing it, the cunning Titan has not only humiliated Zeus in public but undermined his sovereignty. Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him at the ends of the earth and sending his eagle to feast daily on Prometheus’ immortal liver, which grows back each night. This is also meant to symbolise the livers regenerative qualities within the body. Later, Heracles kills the eagle and, with Zeus’ consent, ends Prometheus’ torment. Zeus also finds a price for men to pay to keep their fire, something both good and bad. He commands Hephaestus to shape a modest maiden and has all the gods contribute something to her: a deceitful heart from Hermes, grace and longing from Aphrodite, and clothing and the craft of weaving from Athena, and so on… She is named Pandora and is presented by Hermes to Prometheus’ foolish brother Epimetheus; from her comes all of womenkind. Before this there were only men, who lived effortlessly and free from hard toil, aging and painful sickness before death. After women enter the world, men marry and beget children, and life becomes one of ageing, illness, hunger, and labour to fulfil that hunger. Before the earth gave men all that they could need without work, but with more mouths to feed, they were forced to farm. Hesiod also adds “Zeus made a second evil as a price of fire: if a man avoids marriage and all the troubles women bring and never takes a wife, at last he comes to miserable old age, and does not have anyone who will care for the old man. He has enough to live on, while he is young, But when he dies, his distant relatives divide his property. The married man who gets a good wife, suited to his taste, gets good and bad mixed, but he who gets one of the deadly sort, lives all his life with never-ending pain inside his heart and on his mind; the wound cannot be healed.” Pandora is really the figure who represents civilisation in this myth, not the fire itself, I know that’s the common interpretation, but man had fire before it was taken away, it wasn’t gifted to them for the first time by Prometheus. It’s the introduction of womankind by Pandora that transforms a static, effortless condition into one of farming, household life, and illness. It’s that shift which creates the need to organise society, have descendants to look after you in your old age, carry your legacy and thus, create civilisation. It isn’t that humanity “are too barbaric or stupid to have forbidden knowledge” because I don’t think that’s the moral of the story, it’s that no one shall try to deceive the king of the gods without suffering the consequences. Your other point about it being the gods' fault for letting them become like that, I don’t think the Greek gods are omnipotent beings with that level of all powerful control, they are merely immortal and powerful beings that descend from the creators of the universe, even they are subject to the whims of the fates. Thank you Erika, hopefully that wasn’t too much to read, but I wanted to answer all of your questions. Oh nice, I’ll be sure to check callmekosm’s channel out!
Callum Diggle
2025-10-21 19:05:26 +0000 UTCInteresting! Does any technology, magical items or other powerful or advanced things the Talanos built still exist? What kind of knowledge has been preserved? Do you think magic users would struggle against technological weapons such as firearms or armored vehicles? There's almost this meme-like statement where people say that the Jedi from Star Wars wouldn't be able to deflect bullets traveling as fast as firearms shoot them out. Would the same thing apply to users of magic in Concavia? Is this why Mehter made it so civilization could not arise again, because the Alves were nearly destroyed by Talanos war machines? Also, if the land spirits destroy any significant concentration of sentient beings using the land, how do the Dwalves gather in order to destroy the warding mark? Have they found a way around the limit? Are there any other beings of the dark line other than the dark gods and the Dwalves? Is there magic powered technology in Concavia? I guess I'm interested because technology powered by dark powers has fascinated me. Is there a form of the dark arts or forbidden magic or knowledge? I guess the idea of knowledge supposed "lesser beings" shouldn't have kind of irked me. It sort of reminds me of the myth of Prometheus. I remember hearing that Prometheus made the first humans out of mud but the gods on Mount Olympus decided they should remain mortal and worship the gods. Prometheus then stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, for which he was punished severely. If humanity or others are too barbaric or stupid to have forbidden knowledge then isn't it the gods' fault for letting them become like that? I'm sure this heresy has been great but i think this comment is long enough, sorry if it was a long read. Keep up the good work. Also there is a worldbuilding/art project on YouTube called Sad Flesh by a creator called CallMeKosm. The style of his project looks a lot like a blend of H.R. Giger's style and the works of Beksinki but in what I think is a fasntasy setting. I think you'd like his stuff.
Erika Spooner
2025-10-20 18:38:47 +0000 UTC
