Avishraa Reloaded

The emergence of Avishraa resulted from a conjunction of two factors. One was the existence of free, ad-supported messageboard provider InsideTheWeb (ITW), which operated from 1997 to 2001, and which made it disturbingly easy for anyone to create, customize (in a basic way) and post on a messageboard, or even many messageboards. The second was Shyriath, Avishraa's creator, first obtaining Internet access toward the earlier end of the same timeframe, while he was in high school.

Shyriath vaguely recalls searching for promising locations for fantasy roleplaying, and hitting upon, as one of them, an ITW board called Amber's Place. Shyriath never did become fully aware of its history before his arrival, but at that time, being a spot for peacefully roleplaying any of a variety of fantasy creatures - particularly dragons - it had begun to develop into a kind of hub for other, less-active boards that functioned as various characters' private realms.

Shyriath's character was a magically-powerful but physically-pathetic dragon, also named Shyriath; the name, in fact, was created for the character, since up to that point the person behind him had not previously required any kind of username. Those powers that the character had were mostly telepathic, but the details were not consistent and shifted in accordance with the player's needs and/or whims. However, feeling a need to give the character some background, Shyriath gradually built up a picture of where he was from and why he'd come to Amber's Place, and the result was the Avishraa setting.

Avishraa consisted mostly of background information, and very little if any of the world was ever directly seen in any of the continuity, though it remained a persistent influence. Shyriath's ITW board, title Citadel of Life, was set in a kind of living building complex that had been magically transported from Avishraa to the same world (or plane, or reality, or whatever it was) that Amber's Place, as well as the private domains of the other players that Shyriath had become familiar with, all resided in. Several of the threats the character faced throughout the character's career emerged, directly or indirectly, from there, especially Zadireth, his eternal nemesis.

Shyriath's participation in ITW, however, declined as 2000 approached, and so did that of much of the rest of the community. In Shyriath's case, this had much to do with the end of high school, applying to colleges, and getting a part-time job. Given that many of the other players were in a similar age bracket, this may have been the case for them as well, though Shyriath had noticed, on wider-ranging sojourns throughout ITW boards, that many other communities seemed to be suffering from a similar problem. Certainly, a drop in ad revenue was cited by ITW as the main reason for shutting down in 2001, and may have been linked to the rise of EZBoard at about the same time.

Many ITW users fled to EZBoard as the main free board provider left standing. Shyriath was ultimately among these, though he did not immediately make the jump; what was left of the community had effectively been scattered by ITW's closing, and Shyriath had not known where most of the familiar players had gone. He eventually joined two players, Racky and Wyvr, at a board created by the latter, named 'Amberworld' in honor of Amber's Place. There, the characters of Shyriath and Zadireth were developed and given more complexity, Ilirith was introduced, and several more years of fun were had - on a smaller scale than on ITW, more self-contained and slow-burning, but easier to keep up with through Shyriath's college years.

The EZPlague of 2005, in which a hacking attack caused thousands of boards to be lost of corrupted, affected Amberworld as well, and in a sense marked the beginning of the end of the RP. While it continued for several more years, the loss of so much work demoralized the participants, and combined with lack of inspiration and various personal concerns, the RP finally trailed off in the late 2000s, marking the end of the continuity

Over the course of about ten years, the idea of what Avishraa was like, how it worked, and the rules its natives had to abide by, all changed with repeated reevaluation - some well-thought-out remedies to earlier flaws, some on-the-spot decisions that added convenience to an RP session. What follows here is broadly a picture of what it was like toward the end of the process, focusing on the most stable parts.

Avishraa is, then and now, the large, habitable moon of a gas giant, previously called Telvahr (the equivalent of current Kastun). At the time, the implications of this for day length had not been thought through, though the effects of tides had, and there were instances where Avishraan characters, introduced to worlds where tidal pull was not so strong, felt this as a curious absence.

Avishraa was in a star system centered on a close binary star, the Eyes of Avikael (Sharii and Shayel), with the planets orbiting around both of them. Telvahr was one of six planets (and an asteroid belt). At least two other major moons of Telvahr were identified.

While Avishraa's status as a habitable moon has not changed, much of the rest of the solar system cannot be assumed to be the same. Though most of it has not been determined at all, it is known that the system has only one sun, Mikurmiya. This has a lot to do with Shyriath's desire to ensure that that Avishraa would be realistically inhabitable; he felt that having both a binary sun and a habitable moon around a gas giant would introduce too many complicating factors.

(On a related note, Avishraa is also now far enough away from Kastun that being able to feel tides in one's body is rather unlikely, if indeed there was a point where that wasn't the case. The distance is far enough to avoid getting fried by the planet's radiation belts but close enough to be shielded by its magnetosphere.)

Aside from a few specific locales and features, little was known about what Avishraa was like, except that it was warm and mostly tropical. Something like this remains true today; Avishraa is, on average, warmer at sea level than Earth is, and its sapient species all originate, and thrive most easily, in warm climates.

The Sahvarr was one of the largest rivers on the planet by volume, and its watershed was the epicenter of Avishraan civilization. It flowed through deserts and canyons in its upper reaches, and jungle and rainforest in its lower reaches, before finally reaching the sea.

While the Sahvarr has been placed in a more detailed context, relatively little about it has actually changed. Though the deserts have been relocated away from it, so that the watershed is almost entirely forest or wetland of one stripe or another, it remains exceptional both in its size and as the region most densely populated by the takmar.

The Hzataalar Kaea, after splitting away from the other Chosen, established themselves on another world. Orbiting binary red dwarfs, they named it mek'Tarae (“in blood”), for the ruddy color of its sunlight.

While the planet was habitable, with ample water and an oxygenated atmosphere, the life native to it was strange to Avishraan eyes, and while edible was unpleasant-tasting. It didn't help that the region the HK arrived in was an archipelago that wasn't particularly biologically rich to begin with; it was cold and rocky, and the Avishraan predilection for living underground was reinforced by this environment, since away from the surface they could live in warmer and more visually pleasing surroundings.

The HK had built a civilization of sorts across the archipelago, consisting mostly of widely spaced estates or homesteads; there were a few local capitals, mostly trade hubs or favorable sites, as well as the Great Citadel carved into Mt. Aduruth; this was their major population center and the seat of their rulers.

While mek'Tarae has not reappeared within the worldbuilding project, its influence continues to be felt. The name of the Citadel, its general organization, and the nature of its center in Oldstone are all heavily inspired by mek'Tarae. As for Dlyss' followers, the Friends of the Future - the forerunners of the Hzataalar of the worldbuilding setting - they may yet find it convenient to have a world to be used as their private meeting place.