World of Aiers

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The World of Aiers is a Web Original Science Fantasy setting created by Chilean artist Shabazik. While originally a personal project that evolved over several years in DeviantART, over time it's become a Shared Universe, with several collaborators contributing stories, lands, kingdoms, nations and characters.

Spanning thousands of years of history in the Nebulosa of Ots, the titular planet at first glance starts out like any typical fantasy setting. The sudden appearance of humanity as beings "from the stars," however, not only brings about a new calendar but also brings about far-reaching consequences for Aiers and its myriad races. This especially becomes evident further down the timeline, as industrialization, modernization and more Sci Fi trappings take center stage.

The setting, which also contains NSFW elements, can be found here. It also has a Wiki.

Tropes used in World of Aiers include:

• Ancient Grome: The ancient human civilization of Dume is described more or less as this, crossed with the Library of Alexandria.
• Alternate Calendar: The appearance of humans on Aiers is such a significant event that people still number years from the "Apparition of Humanity."
• Apocalypse How: Happens a few times throughout Aires' recorded history.
  • The "Age of Calamities" is a period of widespread natural upheavals that brought the elves' Empire of Whide Axis reeling. It also sees the collapse of "Sky-Age" human civilization (which may or may not have involved nuclear weapons), the survivors scattering throughout Aires and eventually reverting to a Dark Age existence.
  • The "Cataclysm," set over two thousand years later (in 2676), is a massive geological event that devastates much of the planet while reshaping its landmasses to much more closely resemble Earth's continents over the course of 25 years. It's the result of a "Sky-Age" terraforming device being activated.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Averted. Christianity, Judaism and Islam, introduced into Aiers by mankind, are shown to have endured the end of the "Sky-Age" and evolve into myriad but still largely recognisable forms over the millennia.
• Earth-That-Was: It's speculated in-universe that the terraforming devices being programmed to mimic familiar landmasses like the one that triggered the "Cataclysm" may have been an attempt to recreate humanity's original homeworld, implying that Earth itself may have been lost.
• End of an Age: The arrival of humanity signaled the beginning of the end of Aiers' fantastical innocence, though it would be several generations before the elves come to realize it. The "Cataclysm," meanwhile marks the end of the so-called "Fantasy Age," as the ensuing turmoil plays a major part in truly kickstarting Aiers' modern history and humanity's true ascension as the dominant species.
• Fantastic Catholicism: Over the course of generations, Christianity on Aiers becomes dominated by three main branches. Karentian Christianity, in particular, is explicitly described as the result of unifying the "Sky-Age" Catholic and Protestant denominations, while the Unlic Orthodox are a direct descendant of the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The various human cultures and nations are reminiscent of their Earth counterparts, even down to language. Justified in that they're derived from both corrupted memories of Earth history and recovered knowledge from the "Sky-Age."
  • The Dumian language, for instance is heavily implied to be Latin. Not only is Dume in particular a mix of Rome and Alexandria, but its history even mirrors the Roman Empire, going so far as to have a Byzantine parallel that outlasts it Dumian counterpart.
  • Bazikstan bares some parallels to various Middle Eastern states (including Egypt and Syria). The vast majority are even explicitly described as being Sunni Muslim.
  • Sargos is essentially an analogue to the British Isles. Even having its own civil war and brief republican period.
• Friendly Neighborhood Chinatown: Of sorts, but the Elferies ("Elf Neighborhood/Elf quarter") would count. As time passes and with the decline (and eventual downfall) of elven civilization, many of the various elven groups wind up living in such Elferies, in part to preserve their cultural and racial identities.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Mankind goes from being an outsider among the various races to being the predominant population of Aiers over thousands of years, further helped if unwittingly by the "Cataclysm."
• Human Subspecies: The Kanovs, who are speculated to be due to humans intermingling with dwarves.
• Lost Colony: It's all but stated that the first humans on Aiers were part of a space colonization mission Gone Horribly Wrong.
• Lost Technology: The technological relics that survive from the "Sky-Age" when mankind first arrived on Aiers (called "Tekkno-Loki"), are shown to be not just remarkably durable but also shown to be highly sought after whenever working models are discovered.
• Medieval Stasis: Subverted. While the "Fantasy Age" was for the most part "medieval" in terms of social and technological norms, there were periods of advancement and decline. This is fully broken however in the "Cataclysm's" aftermath, which would play a major role in sparking an industrial revolution.
• Outside Context Villain: Subverted. While humans are no more villainous than elves, dwarves or many other races outside demons, their arrival on Aiers (and with them, knowledge of advanced technologies) was completely unforeseen.
• Ragnarok Proofing: "Sky-Age" humanity left behind a number relics that have managed to stand the test of time. A few of these though are also shown to be somewhat intact even after countless generations. Complete with functioning holograms.
• Science Fantasy: Aiers as a whole, though the line between Fantasy and Sci Fi constantly fluctuates depending on the time period and species.
• Vestigial Empire The elves' Empire of Whide Axis gradually decays in power and influence, whether from infighting, calamity or humanity. Until it's finally put out of its misery in 2997, by which point it's In Name Only due to the various elven cities being absorbed by various human-dominant nations.
• World Building: A good deal of Shabazik's work and those of other collaborators involve fleshing out the setting, from its history down to individual countries' politics.