Creating the Realm of Obscura
- Krystem Jones
- Apr 8
- 10 min read
I have always loved stories that make you feel like you're stepping into another world, where the setting is just as much a character as the people in it. Open worlds--worlds that feel immersive and real are irresistible to me which is why I can't even pass up a good open world game. I'd also like to mention that lately I've been learning about Dungeons & Dragons now that I have been dabbling in BG3. I hate that I never attempted to learn about it sooner, such a shame.
Anyway, as I have been crafting my own story full of unique characters, it's own lore, history, and so on, I knew from the beginning that I absolutely had to make a fascinating world to go with it. But it took me some time to decide what sort of world I wanted for my story.
I felt like the world had to somehow embody my own imaginings from my years of constant daydreaming. I wanted it to feel like home in a way, to not just myself but to other readers as well. I wanted everyone who read my book to find a piece of the world that they could fit into if they so wanted. Offering a bit of a helping hand to my fellow dreamers. And I think I did a fair job creating a diverse and interesting world.
In the first book "Remembering Obscura", I introduce the world to the readers at the same time it is being introduced to the main character, Ethan.
Because of this, however, the world is presented secondary in favor of Ethan's personal development.
I have read a truly lovely review left for my book on Reedsy that I felt was an extremely fair assessment of expectations of the high-fantasy genre and what the first edition to my series delivered. It was something I actually hadn't considered until reading the review, but made so much sense to me after a bit of thought. Ethan's character had been put above diving into the realm of Obscura and I fully agree.
I thought about whether or not I regretted this decision (and also tested my cringe meter) but surprisingly there was not a cringe in sight over it. I am glad that the first book presents the way that it does because I do think it was important to really get to know Ethan's character first, as well as what his problem is and why it is such a problem. The reason being as the story continues there will be (hopefully) a lot of very interesting things revealed that (I am hoping) will make the reader go ".....omG???!!" in a way. I definitely could have talked about Obscura more in the book called "Remembering Obscura", but for those who have read the book or are planning to read the book and are wishing for a bit more world building aspects, please don't worry, Obscura will be delved into far deeper as the story continues!! I have been putting a lot of thought and effort into the pieces of what makes Obscura, Obscura, and if I am to cringe over something, it is in fact over wishing I had been a bit more descriptive and/or specific during the times I talked about Obscura in the first book, but I know I can and will make up for it later on.
So how did Obscura come to be?
It started with the name. I sat for a good while during my early days of thinking up the initial story coming up with something to call this magical world. It's so long ago now that I can't really remember how I settled upon Obscura other than the fact that I wanted its meaning to have something to do with the fact that the world is "hidden". And with some Latin Googling....Obscure...Obscura....you get where I'm going with that haha.
Sounded catchy enough, anyway.
Next, I spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of world it would be and what it would contain. This, I think, was the hardest part out of everything. I had so many ideas and so many wants that at first I thought it would be impossible to have it all without it sounding like a big mess. I wanted a world with vampires, witches, fairies, possibly dragons, elves, mermaids, werewolves, so on and so on. It was extremely ambitious, and for a while I told myself it was stupid and that doing all of that would come across as tacky, maybe even childish (while still a child mind you). So I was at a standstill until I figured out exactly what direction I wanted to take. Should it only be witches/wizards with other "woodland" beings? But then how could Rose be a vampire? Maybe I could just narrow down how many mythical creatures exist so it's more simple.
At the time I had a long distance friend I would FaceTime with all the time who sat with me while I scribbled things down on paper and complained that making this specific decision was too hard. And very nonchalant-like he goes: "why can't you just have it all? I don't see why not."
I stared at him for a good minute as I went to tell him what I was already telling myself, but there was something about his tone that made me really stop and consider it a little more. He tells me that the idea sounded cool, and there are plenty of stories that have lots of different beings in it that exist. There was no reason why I couldn't do the same.
After that I felt encouraged to allow myself to be true to my imagination.
So with that I began to question how all of these beings could co-exist in this world. Is there a sort of government, are they all mixed in with one another or divided somehow?
Is there peace and harmony among them? If there are vampires and werewolves, how could there be peace when in just about all literature including them there has always been a feud of sorts. That means there isn't wholly peace but there's enough.
I had been inspired by the book The Hunger Games at the time with the "districts" that divided everyone. I thought it was a really cool concept that I could implement in my own story. Every specific creature would be put in a category and divided into their own sort of "habitat" with their own governing body that also comes together to govern Obscura as a whole. I played with words other than "district" like "county", "state", etc. But district was what made the most logical sense as it was pretty contained in the actual definition of the word. I categorized every being I could think of in order to figure out how many districts there were in Obscura. Originally I had 7 of them. The four that are in the book today, as well as three more that were roughly a place for fire elemental types, ice elemental types, and the mermaids/sirens/etc. were all going to be their very own district. But I couldn't think of too many beings that were plentiful and or strong enough in a sense to be running an entire district on their own. As well as feeling like 7 whole districts seemed like too many for the world. There are these kind of fire and ice elemental beings that do exist within the Realm of Obscura, but I decided to just group them within Sierra district because the land was vast enough for it as well as the lore being open enough that they could be included in that history. I also, for some reason didn't want an odd number, so although the creatures that lived under water could definitely have a district of their own, I decided to group them with Greenwood. Only they are a bit special as I do make it known within the story that they are very capable of governing themselves and running things on their own, there is some lore to the reason why they are grouped up with Greenwood instead in order to be apart of Obscura's main governing body. More of this shall be revealed most likely in the 3rd addition to the Ethan Moon series, so keep an eye out for that.
If you'd like to read a short overview of each district: Greenwood, Lamia, Artemis, and Sierra, you can click here to read a bit on my books website :) (BTW I am looking for someone to commission character art for me. If you are interested would you please reach out to me?)
So, now that I had four total districts to work with that all seemed to fit together quite well and bring the realm alive, its inner problems then came naturally which really helped to round out the initial story and give reason for pretty much everything. I have pages and pages AND PAGES of history, backstory, and lore just on Obscura alone. There's still a ton of it I have yet to even write down, as well as barely scratching the surface of the world itself in the first book. I truly do hope to do it justice within the next coming additions so it's not just languishing in my notes alone.
Having so many beings living in this realm with many different powers and abilities obviously means that at some point down the line there will be people and children who have powers and abilities that are different from the "norm". What is out of the norm would make them "odd". The concept of "Oddities" came maybe after a month of really working out how Obscura behaves as a world of its own. The concept worked so well, it pretty much explained and connected to Ethan's story perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that it connected to pretty much every protagonist, antagonist, and those in between as well. It gave me so much to build off of as well as giving Obscura some realistic depth. But unfortunately, I cannot go too into detail about it here (as much as I'd really like to), so I will just leave it at that for now :).
What Does Obscura Look Like?
Piecing together each district of Obscura was rather simple. It took some thought about what the land looked like for each one and how it could blend together as a whole. Lamia, the District of Vampires has an old England Gothic type of feel. Somewhere between the Edwardian and Victorian era. Lamia Common (the lower parts of the district) have cobble stone/brick roads, and mostly built like late 1800s to early 1900s London. Upper Lamia has lots of forest and hills. This hills branch out North-ward to Sierra that has a mountain range that begins on the West side. The forest landscape pretty much surrounds Lamia entirely as it does every other district besides Sierra. Going South directly below Lamia is Artemis District. If you notice in the map above (as well as pictured in the book), Artemis does not appear. I made this decision because in the first book the characters never go to Artemis, and it is hardly talked about. Simply because there was no time to go there anyway. As I am currently working on the second book, I am still deciding whether Artemis will make an appearance yet, or not. But I know for certain it will in the third. Since I have yet to write about Artemis in the story, I am still taking my time in deciding exactly how it is laid out, how it looks, and what makes it unique to the other districts. I plan to have the map updated once I have finished this! Artemis is the District of Werewolves. From what I know now, it is a bit similar to Lamia in that it has a similar layout where the upper part may be where royalty resides and the lower part is where the common folk are. There may be a few mountains, forests like I mentioned, rivers that run through out, maybe even a lake. The district has a strong Norse influence. Vikings in Scotland sort of vibe. So how it operates and how it looks I'd like to be sure includes those aspects since Artemis is supposed to be known for its rich history.
Next, to the East of Artemis is Greenwood District, the second to largest District of them all. Greenwood is specifically large because it has a variety of beings that live there unlike Lamia and Artemis that are overall homogenous. Greenwood, although primarily governed by the Druids, technically has its own little districts within it that are individually run as such. For example the town of Sidhe is where Fairies reside. Orc's are sort of nomadic and have their own clans. And most notably the merpeople who live in Obscura's waters. Witches, elves, nymphs, and other woodland beings all live mostly harmoniously there. The land, as the name suggests, is mainly greenery. Almost entirely forest. The only place that is any different is in Julieth's Quarter where it is like a modern (modern as in 1900s) city. Like New York but of marble and stone.
Far North is the District of Sierra, the largest district of the four. Sierra is unique in that it inhabits mostly Oddities. The creatures/beings who originated from there are scarce unlike the other three districts, so it currently serves as a place where most Oddities can call their home and have somewhere they can "fit in". The land here is dry and desert-like where it always seems to be pretty warm despite everywhere else following a normal 4 season pattern. I somewhat chose this to give it a stark contrast to the other districts, adding a sort of dystopian feel to further highlight its integral issues that come with it being a place where Oddities are "banished" to when they don't fit in with the more homogenous districts like Lamia or Artemis. This makes for a compelling backstory on how the district of Sierra came to be, which will one day be explained :).
I've put a lot of careful thought into how Obscura not only looks, but functions as a whole. With plenty of history, lore, secrets, and mysteries that will soon be revealed as Ethan's story progresses. But I do worry about if I can successfully transfer what's in my thoughts onto paper. But either way, I am still so happy and excited to share more of my story and the world I have created with you.
Thank you for reading! I'm wondering if you lived in my world, Obscura, which district would you want to live in?
Which District Would You Choose?
Greenwood
Lamia
Artemis
Sierra
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