VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 1 THE ARTS & other topics WORLD SHOWCASE Mike Myler’s Mists of Akuma ART AS PROPAGANDA A Social Barometer THE ART OF DRESSING CULTURES On Worldbuilding Cultural Costumes ANALYSIS | ART | INTERVIEWS A COMMUNITY PROJECT PROMPTS | STORIES | THEORY Volume 4 | Issue 1 THE ARTS LETTER FROM THE EDITOR CONTENTS Since our first volume began in 2017, we have pub- 04 World Showcase Mike Myler’s Mists of Akuma lished almost 1,000 pages of worldbuilding content— 12 Art as Propaganda and we’re far from done. So what’s next? 04 A Social Barometer WORLD SHOWCASE Mike Myler’s Mists of Akuma 20 Thirty-Three Tales of War This year our podcast, Worldcasting, became available Stories Eight - Eleven on most platforms. On it, we’ve discussed building 33 Thinking Sideways About Magic and Crime histories and magic systems, interviewed author Phil ADAM BASSETT 44 Exclusive Interview Athans, and much more. Meanwhile Worldbuilding Michael D. Nadeau Magazine has been working to maintain the high bar 57 The Art of Dressing 50 The 2020 Cultures of quality we set for ourselves last year while explor- Worldbuilder’s Checklist On Worldbuilding Cultural Nearly 200 prompts! ing new worldbuilding concepts. This issue focuses on Costumes 12 71 Beyond the the arts, and we’re already planning for our next two ART AS PROPAGANDA Meaning of Words A Social Barometer which will take a close look at ancestry and architec- ADDITIONAL CONTENT 79 Avatars of the Divine Gods Living ture, respectively. 27 Community Art 29 Artists Corner Among the Ancients 96 Ask Us Anything 84 Artist Showcase Kurt Ian Ferrer There’s more to come, and we can’t wait to share it. 99 Staff Picks 89 Gender Dynamics in Art Until then, we hope you find something in this issue 100 Meet the Staff & Credits to help make your world feel just a bit more lived-in. 57 Happy worldbuilding! THE ART OF DRESSING CULTURES Adam Bassett, Vice Editor-in-Chief On Worldbuilding Costumes 2 Worldbuilding Magazine 3 Volume 4 | Issue 1 THE ARTS Mists of Akuma is an eastern fantasy noir steam- So what’s the relationship between Soburin and punk. The fastest way to think about it is Afro Ceramia? Is Soburin a single island, and if so, Samurai + Warhammer 40,000 + Onimusha. how large is it? Almost two centuries ago, the lightning-powered The relationship was bad. Ceramia busted ships of Ceramia pierced the skies of Soburin, through a thought-to-be impassable barrier and heralding an age of oppression that still marks then used advanced technology to subjugate and the lands with the resources stripped from the occupy Soburin for some 150 years (the Kengen countryside. Ripped away from a long age of Occupation). Then something went very wrong, peace and broken by soldiers wielding scientif- and meaningful contact with the mainland of ically advanced weaponry, the warriors of the Ceramia came to a full stop. There are still some prefectures were drafted into a distant conflict Kengen diehards and ex-generals roving about, across the edge of the world. Now, ancient tra- but for the most part, there’s not really a Ceramia ditions of violence have reawakened a thirst for to have a relationship with at this point. blood in those few that survive in the decaying world. Emperor Hitoshi’s rebellion a decade ago On the second question: Soburin is its own land- threw down foreign rule, but an ancient danger mass, but whether it’s a tiny little island or a has reappeared to push society to the brink of proper continent is up to the GM. In all of the collapse: the Mists of Akuma. books, you won’t find any distance measure- ments; when we have to provide that kind of WORLD The corrupting fog transforms those within it information, it is always couched in increments into bloodthirsty adeddo-oni, monsters that of time (it takes the party X days to reach the seek only the rending of flesh and the taste of village, etc.). In my personal games, it’s about the living meat. Nobles have retreated to the cities size of the East Coast of the United States. SHOWCASE dotting the countryside, leaving the common folk to face the supernatural haze alone and add What are some of the races present in this world? MIKE MYLER’S MISTS OF AKUMA to the undead horde. Nature itself has been per- ilously wounded as well, and the technology that • Bakemono: goblins begat from insect swarms might save the prefectures is both shunned and in the Mists of Akuma. interviewed by Aaryan Balu feared by the Masuto Dynasty and its subjects. • Enjin: ape folk INTERVIEW TABLETOP GAMING • Hengeyokai: many varieties, including fish, It’s a world of desperation, Pyrrhic victories, and birds, and snakes tragic heroes. • Kappa: turtle-folk ike Myler has been creating Mists of Akuma, • Mutants: from beyond Soburin Ma homebrew campaign setting for role-playing On the game design side of things, Mists of • Necroji: tech-animated skeletons from Ropaeo games (RPGs). This is how he describes his world. Akuma is very modular, which has been received • Oni-touched: tieflings well by game masters (GMs). Plenty of folks have • Psonorous: also from beyond Soburin told us that they just dropped the island into • Pyon: frog-folk their homebrew worlds and it’s worked out well, • Shikome: hobgoblins formed from animals in which is something we were shooting for while the Mists of Akuma making the setting. There’s definitely stuff going • Steametic: automaton soldiers from Ceramia on beyond the island of Soburin, but one of our • Tanuki: raccoon-folk top goals as designers was to make it accessible • Tengu: bird-folk and easy to plug-and-play inside other settings. • Umibo: water people 4 Worldbuilding Magazine 5 Volume 4 | Issue 1 THE ARTS A hengeyokai is a hybrid CLAUDIO POZAS Each prefecture is ruled over by animal-person able to assume the a clan of nobles who can claim shape of their animal or disguise ancestry among the Imperial Sib- themselves as humans. lings that founded Soburin some ~3,000 years ago. They mostly get Among those, many are hated outright (bake- along, although the Gekido, Nami- mono, mutants, necroji, oni-touched, shikome, da, Hakaisuru, and Kirai have this and steametics). They even get a trait for that long-time feud which is at the heart of Imperial Matchmaker, one of social perception in-game. our adventures. The Rimono, Supai, Uso, and Uragi all embrace science The tanuki are in a bit of a gray area because, after and technology—which is heresy. the successful rebellion, the re-instated emperor Most people fear technology not just because of its use against them called for an end to slavery—but their prefecture during the Kengen Occupation, but is just kind of ignoring the edict. The rest of the also because the Mists of Akuma races have been influenced by their time being can prematurely transform an ob- subjugated, and it depends on where you’re look- ject into a tsukumogami (a monster with attitudes and desires deter- ing at. Tengu have kind of gone with the flow; mined by how well it was treated the umibo suffered mightily and live long lives, before attaining sentience—so so the memories of the Kengen Occupation are weapons of war tend to be angry, fresh; the Enjin have clung to tradition in the destructive, and murderous). face of oppression and embraced nature. Oh, and nobody trusts Miyaki. That whole island recently reappeared The dozen different hengeyokai run the gamut via the mists with a supposed true Imperial Sibling ruling over it. but generally align with their associated animal’s traits—inu (dog) hengeyokai are known to be loyal; saru (monkey) hengeyokai are mischievous and often unlawful; nezumi (rat) hengeyokai are sneaky planners. Can you tell me a bit about the first few years of Ceramian occupation, or is the focus of the content more on the present-day? MICHAEL McCARTHY It was very brutal and gets covered in the take the steampunk out. That’s why it’s always the last descriptor “Prefectures” chapter, but basically they showed for the setting. All the prefectures (a territory within the empire The Imperial Siblings are mytho- up, proved they were an overwhelming force, and of Soburin) that have embraced science are literally on the corners logical wuxia figures—impossibly then divided up all the inhuman races across the of the world map, so if you want to use the book and play a more powerful warriors and mages who tamed the lands long ago, beating continent. All the tanuki over in Shinko; all the traditional Eastern fantasy noir game, you just declare that those back the oni and other monsters kappa forcibly moved to Korusu; on and on down prefectures are absent and remove a few character options. that stood as obstacles to civili- the line. They mostly used Soburin as a source for zation. You can meet two of them soldiers in a distant conflict (the War of Kaiyo) What can you tell us about the titular Mists? (Shūshō Ikari and Kanja Korosu) in Trade War—specifically in Feud against the Ropaeo, but they also strip-mined Primordial, which is part of that and deforested and basically abused the land. The Mists of Akuma and the ravenous undead roaming within adventure path. There’s not much the fell haze arrive and depart whenever the GM decides. They known about them, however, as of- The focus is definitely on the modern day, but are a narrative tool to reinforce the desperation across Soburin ficially they’ve been in absentia for millennia (although obviously, we that whole modular design I mentioned? It has and to tax the resources of both the party and the people of the know they are not actually gone; another facet.