Loads of Worldbuilding Inspiration, and Research
Including speleothems, pigment created from lapis lazuli,and murex snail glands
Though not putting pen to paper that much over the past few weeks, I have been working hard at refining the magic system for Porselein, getting the history of the world together1, and figuring out some of the economics and trade. Specifically, I wanted something that is very valuable and requires specific skills to produce that could be traded. Enter dyes and pigments.
I came across the Traveling Scriptorium website about a decade or so ago2, and I was completely fascinated by this video they linked to, which shows how lapis lazuli is ground and purified to produce a vivid blue pigment.
So, I’m leaning towards creating something similar for the world of Porselein. However, the production of Tyrian purple dye is just as interesting. Reading about this dye’s production – that the purple colour is from murex snail glands3 – is quite different from seeing the dye being created. Business Insider, in their YouTube series “So Expensive”, shows how the dye is carefully crafted by Mohamed Ghassen Nouira4.
It’s so easy to forget the skill and knowledge that goes into natural dyes and dyeing because synthetic dyes are used so widely and is so inexpensive.
I am leaning more towards a lapis lazuli-type pigment as trade product than one derived from animals of plants, perhaps some type of iridescent dye. Cue a rabbit hole that included azurite, copper mines, some interesting-looking geology websites, and ending – for now – at mineral textile dyes.
Stalactite Minerals: Uncommon & Beautiful
Azurite (From Geology Science)
Azurite Pigment – How to Make Azurite Oil Paint
Luckily, as Porselein is set in a secondary world5, I can create my very own Very Valuable and Useful Mineral. And, as it’s fantasy, I’ll be able to get away with using some handwavium instead of explaining all the chemistry involved. It’s more a case of building a stronger foundation for the story than worldbuilding every tiny detail6. Now that the trade and economy has been better outlined, it’ll be much easier to refine the magic system and the society.
In other news
The theme for next year’s SASMARS Conference7 has been announced! It’s ‘Journeys — Borders — Encounters’, which promises to be a fascinating theme. Before knowing the theme, my thoughts were ‘what about something about some type of textile or textile production or trade or something’.
That train of thought can definitely fit into the theme, but now I need to figure out exactly what it is that I want to look at. The first things that come to mind (if I’m staying with Icelandic sagas and Norse mythology) is the bed linen of Thorgunna in the Eyrbyggja Saga8 and the creepy description of valkyries weaving in Njáls Saga using entrails, skulls as weights, swords as shuttles, etc.9 Definitely gross enough to really stick in your mind.10 However, I’m going to let my mind wander a bit (and also wander beyond the Old Norse texts) before deciding on a topic, as the paper can only be 20 minutes long.
Some (more) interesting things I’ve read over the past few weeks
Landmark Studies Track Source of Indo-European Languages Spoken by 40% of World – I already love 11*, so these studies tracking the genetics of speakers were really interesting to see. (Via the Ancient Beat Substack, via Phys.org, with the original research papers here and here on Nature. Unfortunately, the original papers are behind a paywall.)
Airborne lidar at Guiengola, Oaxaca: Mapping a Late Postclassic Zapotec city – I’m definitely a sucker for archaeologists finding cities again (or parts of cities or finding ancient cities in a different place than they thought they were) and I find LiDAR fascinating, so this article (also originally via the Ancient Beat Substack) really hit the spot12.
The Eleonora Project (new updates!) – Since first reading about the Eleonora Project by Sheena Pennell in PieceWork Magazine, I’ve been following the fascinating project updates. Over the past few weeks there were a number of updates, including ‘Florence, an Outsider’, ‘Cosimo’s No Good, Very Bad Year’, ‘The Will of Eleonora di Toledo’, ‘The Vanishing Dress’, and ‘Starting the Sock’.
Playing us out with some a-ha
In the part of the world the story takes place in, that it. I’m not attempting a full-on history of the entire world just for the heck of it, as it’s a standalone.
And yet I can’t remember what I wore three days ago. Go figure.
Who would’ve thought snail glands of all things could create such a beautiful colour?
Keep in mind the “snail glands” part – the video does get a bit icky at times.
And this will most likely not play such a big part in the story I’m trying to tell.
I refuse to give into worldbuilding sickness.
The Southern African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference.
I’d used the part of the text containing this in one of the other papers I’d written for SASMARS. I think it was the 2022 one.
A carved bone would probably make a good shuttle as well, but I think I’m overthinking this a bit…
You’re welcome.
Who am I kidding; I just love language and the absolute strangeness of it. “Let me make a bunch of sounds to communicate anything from saying ‘good morning’ to discussing quantum mechanics and even language itself and, as long as you share my use of sound patterns, you can understand me. If you don’t share it, I’m just making a bunch of seemingly arbitrary and meaningless sounds.”
No pun intended.