"Which I steadily began writing up into a book. But then I got distracted from the story by the worldbuilding, and then I got distracted from the worldbuilding by the conlanging." I relate way too much to these sentences.
18:48 If you can pause right there, there's a single frame of some kind of logo. Please be foreshadowing. And please more Refugium: this is even better than I had hoped. Edit: yep, it’s Aan
Refugium? An interesting name, to say the least. I like it. I’d love to see what happens when they discover electricity and explore the shadow lands, it sounds really interesting.
They will found our that the rest of the planet is ded and they are in fact one planet drifting through void between galaxies, kept alive by the unexplainable energy source.
I know I’m 5 months late, but I noticed something this time I didn’t pick up on when first viewing this. On the volcano island, supposedly on the very edge of the world, perpetually shrouded in twilight, there are ruins. Many, many, ruins. Now the people that lived here a few thousand years in have developed ways to deal with the cold, but I’d say those who first colonised the islands wouldn’t have been able to survive, and certainly not thrive, in such a frigid environment. And certainly it wouldn’t be one of the first civilisations. So what’s going on here? Well here’s my crackpot theory. The people who first colonised the volcano islands thrived because it wasn’t cold, it was paradise. Once upon a time, those islands were warm, or at least warm enough to support decent civilisation. But it’s now began to grow colder. And colder. And colder. This leads to one, terrifying conclusion. The sun is _shrinking_
More ideas: -The sun is moving. -The sun has been reborn. (Sorta like the Aztec mythology concept of there being fives suns and therefore five ages.) Since there are the godlike essences, maybe as they each struggle for control, the world stops and restarts again? What about those things in the nightlands? Are they eldritch-godlike beings or are they just another part of what the essences control?
What if Aan is the most powerful essence bc it literally keeps the sun in place/from shrinking/from dying? It keeps the others in check by basically being undestroyable if you want anything to actually rule over after defeating it.
@@cometnight0 I love the idea of the sun moving. Imagine this whole thousands-year empire is built around worshiping the sun and sticking to their ancient traditions but then within like a month the sun has moved 2000km towards those dudes you don't like.
Wow. I’ve literally never considered a world like this. With different physical mechanisms to create reality. Most fictional worlds are boring compared to this. It’s genuinely incredible.
Reminds me of a world of mine from when I was 12 that's on the inside, rather than outside, of a giant sphere, with the sun (actually the corpse of a god, slowly decomposing and going black) in the middle. I should do something with that.
I hope later when they have better technology they go explore the dark lands. I really wanna see what’s in there. I think it could be done using flashlights and very insulated suits akin to our space suits that we use, just minus the oxygen tanks and probably colored black instead of white to attract more heat. I’d also bring weapons in case those silhouettes of beasts that you mention weren’t fairytales. And of course, a lot of food.
17:45 "Many say that staring into the darkness for too long will drive one mad" If it does actually drive one mad, you can't really do anything to go there, there's probably something very powerful you don't want to see. I'm interested to see how scary the darkness could be.
The amount of effort you put into this is just breathtaking, i could barely make one conlang, let alone an entire world of them. Its very inspiring . Ive been watching you for a while, and seeing an overview of everything is really appreciated! Thanks!
I believe that, if you get nothing else from Biblaridion's fantastic body of work so far, you should know that you CAN make a conlang, one that you are proud of and others will be interested in. All you need is a little thought, a lot of time, and some modicum of work, and you can take what you've learned here and make something that will inspire other would-be conlangers.
I personally realized that I have no particular interest in conlanging. Linguistic trivia is fascinating and seeing how stuff fits together is amazing, but what I'm into is the worldbuilding, so I focused on what I cared about rather than trying to do everything. So my world has one-dimensional languages that were generated by a script, but all of my effort goes into figuring out how the societies work and where they came from.
Thandian was kinda the oldest iteration of Edun. notice how “Tsann(ur)” and “Thand” line up, and how langs like Ilothwii were made soon after the abandoning of Thandian
2:51 if, hypothetically, someone were to scour the umbral plains, seeking vengeance against the dark lords who had wronged him, would those that tasted the bite of his sword call him anything in particular?
Yes. More refugium is DEFINITELY needed, would love to hear more about the Nhlogqwa- BTW are they racially distinct from the other groups or just an extension of one of the other races?
I think they are the same race/subspecies as the thireans and the people of Tsannur. Thirea is the only major landmass close to Nhlogqwa so I don't think its anything else. Also, I think if it were a distinct race/subspecies he would mention it like he mentioned for the other cases.
In the Ilothwii video, he mentioned that the Ilothwii language was suspected to share a very distant common ancestor with the Thirean languages Nekachti and Edun. This leads me to suspect these peoples are of common stock, but that they have probably formed a distinct population given the time since divergence and the geographical isolation of the islands.
And you'll also hate that it is hypothetically possible for them to exist in real life _i am sorry for having to bring that up to your information table_
@@alostalex7449 a number of spiders have bodies that can function similar to parachutes or sailing, so that they can glide in the wind or fall gracefully from heights. This is how golden orb weavers migrate.
Will you ever talk about how lexical stress can move from one syllable to another? Like how proto-Germanic had a sound change that moved stress to the first syllable of the root of the word, or how stress was moved from the final to the penultimate syllable in Cornish during the eleventh century
The case with Proto-Germanic is just an example of leveling. In other words, in Pre-Proto-Germanic stress was unpredictable and had to be “memorized” for every word and created meaningful distinctions, whereas by Proto-Germanic it had become predictable and non-distinguishing.
So I'm guessing shadows in this world would be somewhat unusual (outside the obvious Shadow Lands’ “shadows”), since shadows cast by the sun would be more or less permanent. I wonder what sort of unusual flora/fauna might develop within the larger areas of shadow cast by mountains, or canyons or other large features. I also wonder if reflecting light would play a large role in the lives of the world’s people. Since the light from the sun is unmoving, you could easily set up any type of polished surface to reflect the sunlight towards a specific spot, and it wouldn't waiver or need adjusting (during the day obviously). Shutters and other simple mechanisms could be used to suddenly light, or darken, areas. The layout of buildings could be altered if natural light could be artificially directed into normally dark interiors; I can especially see religions utilizing reflected light for dramatic effect within their architecture or rituals. Things like solar ovens, water heater, etc. could be set up and would have a permanent, consistent, and easy to scale output. Long range communication systems could be set up relatively easily using focused light bounced from one reflected surface stationed at towers or some similar type of relays. I am absolutely not any sort of expert on light, or optics or anything related to this, so I will leave it there. I am worried I might be missing some obvious issues that make all of these concepts untenable, but my mind immediately ran away with ideas about this, and I wanted to at least mention them. One final thought: Since every "night" is essentially an eclipse, I wonder if the people of the world would give any special significance to those odd, crescent-shaped shadows that things like trees, and any other variation of a pinhole, cast right before and after totality. Or, would they just be considered completely normal, and treated as nothing more fantastic than an indicator for when night is approaching? Either way, I assume the people in the areas that experience the eclipses would have unique words for them, and they would likely feature in poetry and various sayings/idioms. Sorry if that is a bit of a ramble. I felt the need to write this all down quickly before the concepts could get away from me. I just love these types of what-if worldbuilding concepts. Great vid Bib!
This is a very underrated comment, & is indicative of the kinds of imaginative consequential worldbuilding that Bib should incorporate into the Refugium, if he hasn't already.
Absolute banger comment wtf Ever see those solar furances where they get all the light from a massive french hill and put it into one little spot? Imagine that but it was built in like ancient china for some cool reason im not creative enough to think of
Astounding. The description of the dark region alone gave me chills. You translated a maritime ecosystem into a terrestrial one, with light gradually disappearing not with depth but distance. I'm wondering if bioluminescent animals could live at its border, sustaining themselves by "what enters their realm", sorta like abyssal creatures does into Earth's seas.
I'm really interested in this world now. Especially the eeriness of the dark lands and the "enormous ineffable things" that roam there. What's past these giant sheets of ice in the oceans? As mankind progresses, they would discover more and more about these fringe lands. It's all so interesting I'm really hoping to see more of this
Are we all just going to ignore that right at the start he literally says that something happened to the entire populace? And then proceeds to constantly refer to every civilisation in the past tense.
Neat. I particularly dig your cosmological structure of multiple moons passing intricately between the land and sun in a manner that feels constructed, like the workings of a machine.
Headcanon: this world used to be a futuristic planet, spherical and everything (not earth). Then everything collapsed when their sun died. The remaining geniuses built an artificial sun over tsannur that only shines in a 6000 km radius. They also built moons for day/night cycle. A long time passed and humans started over. Nobody of the present knows any of the “sun dying” story. Edit: grammar
"But then I got distracted from the story by the worldbuilding" Same, same. Finished my novel's second draft just an hour ago after five years passed just writing, deleting, rewriting, redeleting and re-rewriting the worldbuilding :-D
I seriously want there to be a series about exploring the unknown parts of Refugium, like what's in the dark area? Or what are those moons supported by? These are burning questions that just NEED to be answered.
Theoretically if there is one sun then there may be more. I would like to believe that there are more oasis's of life far out in the darkness. makes me want to borrow your idea and make a sister "world" using the same mechanics as yours. of course i would need your permission. :)
Do get inspired, but do not copy the idea. I've found it very enriching to take a general idea or mechanics and ponder about its possible variations I could use in my worldbuilding. That way I'm not copying anyone's ideas, but rather making myself discover entirely new things!
Not only is this intensely fascinating, but it goes to show how differently a world that is flat would behave from ours. It can sometimes seem quite similar (hence all the flat-earthers) but it is undeniably a different beast altogether. If someone tried to claim the world was round within the Refugium, they'd rightly be laughed out of town, banished to live outside of their magical sun's influence, probably.
imagine it is, and there are several more suns scattered about the world. it would make sense. light doesn't just "fade" it could very well be disappearing off of the horizon.
My world is also roughly circular and flat with a central star, has an alternate biosphere somewhat, and is season-less with a sun-worshipping imperialist human empire! Ours are different enough that I don't feel the need to scrap anything, but man, it's weird how completely different people can come up with such similar stuff. Loved this, really hope to see more Refugium!
"The only refuge for the inhabitants in the midst of an otherwise forbidding, unknowable void, a tiny speck of light and life in a vast oppressive, all-encompassing cosmic darkness." Okay, I can definitely see why you would worship the sun.
I've been watching your Alien Biospheres videos. I'm really glad I checked this video out though, it's absolutely fascinating. I'd love to hear more about it
I would love to see something like Feature Focus but for the social aspects of language, like "Feature Focus: Standard/Prestige Varieties" or "Feature Focus: Dialectal Variation".
Calling it now, the Sun moved a long time ago, which made civilization collapse, that's why Nhlogqwa is the oldest human settlement, that's why they had writing before everyone else, and why they lost it, and someday the sun will move again
I don't know much English, so I'm sorry. Biblaridion, you are a very good author and Creator of worlds. With your brilliant imagination, you can write books. So I'll be waiting for a book on this world. I liked everything about this world: the very concept of having a shelter that is illuminated by the sun. And these five main ones and one far moon are brilliant. By the way, it reminded me of Atlantis (this was a cartoon) I also liked the concept of the animal world from extinct animals: Andrews, halicoteri, Trilobites (for which a separate like). I also liked the animals you made up: Flying spiders, seal-like animals, and beautiful flightless bats. I will wait for the next videos on Refugium, especially about its animal world and the geography of the no written lands. Continue at the same pace and you will succeed. Definitely like it.
Wow, this is so damn interesting. Both the concept of the world and cultures in it seem SO unique and exciting. I really wish to learn more about this.
Just did the math, this would have a surface area of ~314,159,265 square kilometers, and earth has a surface area of ~510,100,000 kilometers, meaning this would only be about 3/5 the size of earth.
I expected a round world with a small, yellow sun, this was an extremely unexpected twist😂 But it was really interesting and actually quite inspiring for my own projects
Bravo a thousand times over!!! I cannot explain how incredibly inspiring and immersive this was. Every aspect of the world was beautifully fleshed out and explained. I mean come on, I've never cared for anthropology or weather systems/topography in my life but now you've got me invested in those aspects of your world. In my mind, it all feels real. Honestly I wish it was (it would be darn cool to have labyrinthodonts and terror birds alive again). You do amazing work as always. I look forward to hopefully reading any sort of book or lore of this in the future!
@@joshtatko4806 Really? That's interesting, I would have expected that to be "industrial" rather than "post-industrial". It's always good to learn something new, thanks!
@@yf-n7710 of course! And I could be wrong because technically everything after the industrial revolution is "post-industrial" but I believe that's the general time period that phrase refers to. Glad I could help
Wow. I can show nothing but praise for your amazing skill, dedication, craftsmanship, and investment in this project. Truly inspiring. Yes, we would love to see more of these kinds of videos, even if they are far apart and less detailed than this one. If you ever do write that book, you can be sure we'll buy it. Keep on going great.
" There are some things i cannot talk about yet" Me: Hmm... My gamer senses are tingling... *quick flash of the flag* *rewinds, and on minimal speed tries to stop on the map, but cannot* Ok, so flag if i seen it properly is green circkle on a white background with golden cros with ring around it center.
Btw, I also wanted made my own universe with languages, stories, countries, wars, etc... but you perfect linguist totaly showed that I am just shit, and my universe is shit - but it's also very big universe with tons of planets and multiverses, but that doesn't mean that my universe is good (it's just trash). But thank you for showing me that. You are genius, and you have talent.
Absolutely love the worldbuilding. I would like a future video expanding more on the biospheres and climates that would arise in such a world. The main things that intrigue me are how flora would adapt to these static climates that exist. Assuming these are earth-plants ported over, we know some attributes that would determine growing zones. For example, woody plants cannot exist on earth in climates with yearly average temperatures below 5 Celsius; this is one reason why treelines exist on mountains and in the polar regions. Another factor is that the process of photosynthesis cannot occur at temperatures above 38 Celsius, so likely no plants can live on that central plateau. Another thought: a static sun would mean that shadows are permanent. Any buildings, or local topography, that has a side with an angle steeper than the sun's rays at that location would have strong shadow that prevents plant growth. This would probably matter most with mountain ranges, where you would have permanently dark valleys on the sun-shadow side. This would also mean forest canopies would develop perpendicular to the sunrays. Normal forests in and near the sunny region, but in the umbral regions forests should become more staggered strips of Tall, short, med, and then Tall as the sunlight is blocked and absorbed by the trees. Overall, there are so many cool environments that I could imagine would develop in the Refugium, and I would love to know your thoughts and ideas on this.
Please I need this series to come back I want to know all the ecology if this world especially what’s in the darkness cause Ik there’s some scary stuff there and I can’t wait to see what’s in there
5:39 There have actually been flightless bats but they didn't last long and went extinct pretty early after starting to exist (according to the fossil record which isn't very good) Edit: They did still have wings however the were just too big to fly unlike the ones in this video which just had no wings
One question: If the world is actually legitimately flat, wouldn’t the “sun” be the same height in the sky regardless of your location? Very creative world.
Yeah but the further you get from it the more the light is dispersed and the darker it gets like going deeper underwater only slower cuz atmosphere isn’t as dense as water.
I'm in love with this world! I would love to see more content about it, I have so many questions. Reminds me of SCP 5005: Lamplight because of the stationary light source vs mysterious void that can drive crazy. Really well done.
My Refugium inspired alternate universe, The Expanse: The Expanse is a world similar in many regards to The Refugium (flat world, 1 sun, 5 moons, no stars, umbral region) but the lines between gas, liquid, and the vacuum of space is very thin leading to a breathable atmosphere and space that you can swim through. All life inhabiting The Expanse possess a 4-part diagonal jaw structure (4 jaws which open diagonally), 2 antennae like structures used for both hearing and gas exchange (basically gill ears), 4 camera style eyes, 2 limbs, and a tail. The sky is separated into 3 zones which get darker the further up you go; these zones share the same names as the ocean zones on Earth. The Expanse possesses 2 sapient Genus's which both possess 2 limbs similar to those of a Pterodactyl (but with a thumb), a mudskipper like walking gait (except the tail is used in walking), and a prehensile tail which works in place of a hand (possessing a flat end split in 2 which can curl around objects to grab them).
No life on earth exists in the expanse, and all bird like clades are replaced by clades more adapted for swimming on Earth due to the nearly non existent line between liquid, gas, and vacuum.
The 2 intelligent genus's of the refugium have reached a level of advancement seen during the 1970's on Earth yet have advanced socially and culturally several millennia beyond humanity as we know it today.
The 2 Genus's (which I will now be calling the Ketzu) communicate through a series of clicks, whistles, howls, coos, kraas, and even licks (albeit only as a display of affection).
The Ketzu evolved on Ka'Tzu (a Taiga Island continent the size of Antarctica) from flying ancestors who often dropped stones on their ground dwelling prey to hunt.
The Expanse possesses a habitable range of about 9 Earths in diameter with all other regions being only inhabited by protocells around Hydrothermal vents (which have remained the same due to their simplicity and environment preventing any changes).
and that is exactly why i stay the hell away from conlanging, it's so amazing that if you walk into it you will never write another story. it consumes you wholesome...
This is fantastic! I'd love to have some more detailed explorations of this setting. And of course, I can't help but confess that I'm crossing my fingers that eventually Alien Biospheres will progress to similar discussions of grand civilizational exploration and conflict.
I love how creative you are with your worldbuilding. I swear I could listen to you talk about your world and how it works for hours, it's just too fascinating! Super impressive.
Damn. I *really* enjoy worldbuilding that uses a rather outlandish concept (like a flat world with a fixed sun) and takes it seriously and fleshes things out logically from there. Your Alien Biosphere series, the glowfic Silmaril, Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, some of my favorite stories and worlds are structured like this. The alternate evolutionary path is also lovely, and I'd love to see more sophisticated biology in fantasy worldbuilding.
I decided to use your world for some math practice, so here are some extra facts about your world, with a few assumptions. Under the assumption that your world is completely flat and that the Sun is exactly 100 m across, the (centers of the) five inner moons are located 978.94 km above the ground and are orbiting the point 21.06 km below the Sun at a distance of 38.74 km. That way the umbra of the shadow will start exactly at 1000 km from the subsolar point and end exactly 4500 km from it. Another interesting thing is that, the umbral cone of the shadow is 35.6° wide at it's widest, which should be cast at the distance of 1840 km from the subsolar point. At that radial distance, the totally dark part of the night should last for 12.34 hours and should become shorter and shorter in both directions reaching 0 at 1000 km and 4500 km. Another weird thing is that since the Sun doesn't move, the only thing that determines the brightness is whether or not the Sun is covered by a moon. Since the penumbral cone is not much wider than the umbral one, at 1840 km, the time between maximum brightness and total pitch black darkness should be about 6 minutes.
A single frame has got me hooked on this world's story. I hope you really continue to share this amazing story with us! But damn you man, this vid is going to stick in my head for weeks now, the theory's are forming and questions rising in my head! thanks for the awesome content! KEEP IT UP!
I'm just gonna throw out a guess here, but the reason Nhlogqwa has the oldest traces of human civilization despite lying entirely in the Far Regions is because it used to be the old Central Region, isn't it? I bet the sun moves every 6000 years or so, or it can be made to move.
I'm 2 years late but I think it's because the humanity originated in what is now the night lands but then something happened (Like the sun dimming) and they had to move closer to the sun.
@@kakahass8845 If you're correct about this, do you think this could also mean that the Central Region was far too hot for habitation back in the day, only becoming habitable quite recently?
