2024 WorldAnvil Worldbuilding Awards - Vazdimet

Vazdimet has been percolating in my thoughts for decades, growing and changing with me until it finally burst to life in its current science fantasy manifestation in 2021. Since then I've filled this universe with magic and science, death and belief, and prose. So much prose.   Befittingly, my first published novel - In Spite of the Inevitable, published November 2023! - sprang to life here, with many more planned.   If you'd like to dive in deeper to the worldbuilding of Vazdimet, Explore the Universe here.

Vazdimet's magic system is my pride and joy. There's so much space here to dig into the merger between magic and technology, and since my worldbuilding was originally intended to serve as a backdrop for TTRPGs in addition to novels I took great care to try and include my own take on all the popular classes.   But of course, with a Vazdimet twist. Many spells act differently depending on where you are what what's around you, and most are grounded in my love of science. In Vazdimet, magic is merely a highly malleable branch of science, with its own rules and understandings, and much of my worldbuilding is grounded in exploration of how the knowledge of magic would shape society.

I absolutely adore the Kin. Space nomads with no planet of their own, the Vardan Kin have found their peace in a war-torn universe by making themselves not only indispensable but also unquestionably neutral in their travel between the stars.   I had a lot of fun exploring how a spacefaring society would approach such concepts as personal space and privacy in perpetually confined quarters, to the shape of families and meaning of kinship when traveling in a clan when everyone already knows everyone, to the attitude toward the Void of space where they make their home.

The Sparnell Confederation treat their people as resources to be exploited for the glory of the faction. Sparnelli Families are pitted against each other in a race to the top, with those who dare step out of line Dishonored as a warning to the others, their names stricken from history except as a warning.   But none have paid as steep a price as the Selkirks.   Known as one of the most prestigious and fearsome Families, second only to the Valcores, the Confederation itself is built on the deaths, resurrections, brutality, and absolute obedience of the Selkirks.

One of my favorite aspects of Vazdimet is exploring the meaning of death across the universe, depending upon each culture's approach to Magic, the Afterlife, and personal beliefs.   From the religious zealots of the Hydell Order to the quiet reverence of the Vardan and the irreverent Funerary Rites of the Mordena mercenaries, the potential impermanence of death has left an undeniable mark across Vazdimet's worldbuilding.

Shane has left his mark across Vazdimet, in both my worldbuilding and my prose. A former villain with a broken conscience but a drive to leave a better universe for his adopted son, Shane is at once both a doting father and a ruthless mercenary leader willing to go to any lengths to defend those under his protection.   Given that he is also a powerful necromancer, death is the kindest option facing those with the misfortune to cross him. There's so many layers to Shane, and I love exploring them.

How do ships travel between the stars in a science fantasy? Hyperjumping through the Afterlife, of course!   This spell is in many ways the foundation of Vazdimet. I love reading about quantum mechanics, and when crafting my magic system I had the thought to base Necromancy on string theory as I understood it from reading Michio Kaku's books about string theory and the higher dimensions, making the Afterlife the realm of the higher dimensions.   Which of course meant necromancers owned the tesseract, so here we are now.

TR-75, also known as Janikk, is actually the main setting of my next book, Spirits of the Relentless. (Publishing May 2024!)   There's a lot of stories about her, some of which are true and others... Don't believe everything you're told.   I had a lot of fun exploring new ways to take on the old trope of a sentient planet, all while keeping the subject true to Vazdimet's worldbuilding, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.   Not sure what else to say here without spoiling the book, so I'll leave it at that.

Under maps, I'd like to submit Admiral Kydell's Office - SAF HQ as an exploration into one man's life, and how his part-time living quarters reveal both him and his motives.   I was happy with this map when I first made it, but of course the original version didn't contain enough pins. I may have gone a little overboard adding them to bring it to the minimum required for the WorldAnvil Worldbuilding Awards, but the resultant map and all its notations really drives the point across about this character, and I couldn't be more pleased.