Building Printhia

Before I go on, I must confess something.

.
.
.

Most of Printhia's cultures are not original.

You see, I myself cannot not be biased.
(Double negative there. . .)
Let me restate that.
I am biased.
I cannot think of anything new; only what I've already learned or been taught before.
Why am I saying this?
Because each culture that evolves in my world is influence by different, already existing cultures in our world.
As you can probably tell already, Arabs and the Middle East with a little bit of Indian culture is what influences the Fire Elf culture.

More than that though, ancient and modern religions are also pretty dominant.
What do I mean?
Well, lets just say that Greek and Roman Mythology--something I know very well thanks to Percy Jackson and the other series that I'm forgetting the name of, and a good grounding in ancient history--permeates a lot of the cultures.
That said, lets look at another kind of elf.

Earth Elves

There really isn't a single word that can explain Earth Elves.
They are a little bit of so many things; gypsies, Spanish, a little of Indian, a small bit of modern, with a touch of ruffian throughout.
That doesn't even do them any kind of justice.
I'm serious.
There culture is so diverse, and it's mainly because they are the peddlers and 'gypsy travelers' of Printhia.
I have absolutely loved creating their look.
(Truth be told, I'm still not quite happy with it.)
In fact, here's a picture that comes really close to describing it:

The shirt isn't quite right, but the over all feel just screams 'Earth Elf' to me.

Their religion, sadly, isn't very built right now.
In fact, all that I know about them is that they are one of the first groups that finds Karum's Meegonta, or God's Scriptures.

They are healers, travelers, merchants, performers, name it and they probably have someone who does it.
Thieves, mercenaries, knights, lords, kings, priests, priestesses, the list goes on.
They are the dominant race, in all of Printhia they are everywhere except. . .

Okay.
Almost gave something away there.

More on that later when I get to the Pixies and Fae.
:)

Keep on writing!

God Bless,
SDG
Joy

Building Printhia

One Little Step at a Time

As I have hinted at before, there's a story world that I've completely lost my heart to about two years ago. 

It might even have been less than that. 

It's called Printhia. 

After some research, I've found that the name Printhia doesn't seem to have an exact meaning. 

In my mind, it means something along the lines of "The Living Place" or "The Place of Life". 

From now on, I'm hoping to prepare a post over the weekend and publish it on Monday, as something to cheer others up as well as myself. 

Today's Building Printhia: The Beginnings

What started me on this journey? 

Very simply, it didn't have a very clear start. 

I didn't even think of starting to build a world with Fire Elves, MerFolk, Dragons, or Faes until after joining OYAN. 

There, I started to talk with a girl who wrote Dark Fantasy with her own version of elves, fairies, etc. 

In a character chat, I made Ieoie and his family of thieves. 

Then I decided to make him a story, as all fun characters should have one (he is fun, sassy, protective, and a whole lot of other annoying things rolled into one).

Ieoie's story is called The Water Witch's Curse. 

I still am working on getting a premise together for him, sadly. 

Anyways, the basic problem from the title is that he was cursed basically at birth for "Death now haunts his very steps." 

I'm actually a bit scared about working on his story, as it will be darker than a lot of the ones I've actually worked on. 

Then again, a lot of the stories I've thought of lately are darker. . . 

That's an interesting thought to ponder. 

Anyways, no rabbit trails! 

It was with his story idea that I started to work on the different cultures of the Elves, because, well, he's an Elf. 

So, I'll talk a little bit about the elves, and then one exact branch/kind of them. 

You see, there are three kinds of elves; Water, Fire, and Earth Elves. 

Each, at the age of maturity (somewhere between ages twelve and fourteen) an elf's gift is shown according to what kind of elf he/she is. 

Let's start with Ieoie, as he's the first one I made. 

Fire Elves

Ieoie's a fire elf, and his gift is making sparks. 

How does that work? 

Scientifically its actually possible, as he'd be only controlling the vibration of molecules in the air and combining them with oxygen. 

I've always been into making things scientifically accurate, so I'll be adding things like that here and there. 

Another thing that I'd added when I first created them (and I'm glad I did, mind you) is a bag that each elf carries with them. 

Each bag holds the basis of each elf's talent, so in a pinch (or when that elf is very weak) it can be used. 

When all of the bag is used up, it can never be refilled. 

For a fire elf, the bag contains something from/about a fire. 

For Ieoie, his fire bag contains glowing embers that are sparking. 

Each kind of Elf has a different culture. 

The Fire Elves are based off of the Arabic Culture. 

They live mainly in desert like areas, (I really need to work on creating a map for Printhia, but I'm so scared of messing it up!) and, as in Ieoie's case, cities. 

(There are other exceptions, but I'll write about those later, when I write about another story idea for Printhia.) 

Depending on where they are and who they are around the most, their heritage morphs a little. 

Example: Ieoie's family live in the busy merchant city called Limenreel where almost every culture has touched and left a little bit of itself. 

Even so, their women are known for their elegant head coverings, and their men for their unique turbans.

Each being has its own developed religion.
The Elves worship many different kinds, most of them are meant to describe why natural phenomenons happen, kind of like the ancient gods in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and other ancient European cultures.
Their main gods and their symbols are:
Jeshsoot, god of lightning and the giver of rain. Symbol: (in need of a better one, but this is what I have) A lightning staff.
Buhrneet, goddess of love and freedom. Symbol: Blue or white Sand Dollars.
Greeve, god of death and the herder of souls. Symbol: Literally any weapon covered/draped with a black cloth.
Menwageer, god of stories and the guardian of the gate to the soul realm. Symbol: A bent weed

Ieoie and his family mention Jeshsoot from time to time, and in moments of danger exclaim to Greeve or Menwageer.

That is all that I have for now on the Fire Elves. I'll either tell you more next week, or move on to the Earth Elves.

God Bless!
SDG
Joy