Deciduoh part 1

I've done a lot of work on a lot of worlds, but the one I've probably approached the most has been Deciduoh. A world that was originally created for a story I was writing (and scrapped, as I couldn't get into the characters), I adapted it for a D&D game, changing some rules and adjusting some races and such to reflect the concept.

I've always been fascinated by the concept of the Yggdrasil, the World Tree and all other derivatives.  The Great Tree is actually what drew me into researching Norse Mythology, it's what got me into SquareEnix's Mana-series games, and it convinced me to spend many an hour resting and dreaming underneath (and sometimes even in!) some of the more majestic ones.  A tree's image is used in many references, for meditation focuses, safety guides and even for the Earth itself.  So it wasn't a big surprise that, as I started developing the world, I wanted to make a world that was entirely based on a single, great tree.

In a personal interest in keeping the world a surprise, both to myself and the gamers who eventually played in the world, I kept the tree hidden at first.  The story started on the opposite side of the world, where the world's currents prevent the occupants from traveling past their hemisphere.  The idea was such, at first: Water, as all things, began at the Great Tree (Deciduoh itself), whose roots dug in to the earth to its very core.  The water flowed away and around the world, eventually being absorbed into the Earth itself through the rains and oceans.  Although the currents turn more typical and wild within the area opposite the Tree, trying to get closer via the ocean was impossible.  It gave me some breathing room at first to bring everything together, creating a world that was a bit more "typical" with aspects that gamers and readers were a little bit more familiar.

As such, as I approached more aspects of the world, I realized a theme was developing (and anyone that knows me knows I love themes), and I began to run with it, trying to incorporate it into everything I could.  Basically, everything became a strange balance of diametrics, a ying and yang that were incorporated into everything.  I separated the Deific entities into two opposing ideals: the Divine, or external force, and Guardians, or the internal force.  The Divine fell into their typical roles, but the Guardians were separated into two driving ideals, both of which had their own equal but opposite aspects.  The Angel was in charge of Life and Death, encouraging faith among mortals, the cycle of souls and maintaining the balance of the living and the dead.  The Grey Man (a recurring aspect of all my worlds; the Grey Man is to me what I assume DEATH is to Terry Pratchett) was in charge of Progress and Statis, of time and space, memory, and maintaining the balance between the idealism of history and growth for the future.

The world itself consisted of two, vastly differing land masses: the naturally occurring Earth, in which the Great Tree took root, and the Great Leaves, huge landmasses created by falling leaves from the Tree gathering debris from various sources until it seems to be an island of its own.  The leaves sometimes gather together, forming floating continents, and sometimes they drift and join the Earth, where they eventually become food once more for the Great Tree.

Although I put a whole lot into Deciduoh, I'm going to stop for now and come back to it later.  I plan on scanning a few of the maps I created of the world and talk about them in more detail, and also introduce some of the legends and characters that helped give the world its own life and character during its development.  If I'm not careful, I'll end up putting it all in this post and have nothing to write about later.  So, yeah, for now, a break.