About

Gaia is the name of a planet in a far-off universe where magic is real and unicorns exist. When I talk about Gaia outside of the narrative, I usually mean World of Gaia: The Worldbuilding Project, which includes not only the planet, but the surrounding celestial bodies and the other planes of existence. For ease of understanding, on this page I'll be calling the project "Gaia" and the planet just "the planet."

History of Gaia

Gaia's roots lie in a different worldbuilding project I started in mid-2015 called Arcadia. I was twelve years old, so it wasn't... the best. But it was fun, and I created a world that was a mish-mash of media I enjoyed at the time, converted into a medieval fantasy world that was filled with half-animal half-human hybrids. I was more focused on the characters than the world, and I eventually moved on to other projects.

I've tried to create a few more worlds over the years, and some still exist, but none really stuck. And then some friends and I decided we wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons, and I offered to DM. Which meant I needed a world. I didn't want to use any premade worlds, because that felt boring. So I decided to make my own!

And thus, Gaia was born.

Themes

Of course, Gaia is its own world with many characters and not every story set here has the same theme. Some are very different in tone. But here's a list of general themes that I think pop up often.

Worldbuilding rules

A guide on the hard limits of content of Gaia.

Technology must not use electricity: I don't like to call Gaia "medieval fantasy" because I don't really see it that way, as a lot of medieval fantasy is just kingdoms of Europeans plus dragons. I also don't want to blink and suddenly Gaians are using the internet.

Magic is an uncommon resource: Magic isn't the solution to everything, but it isn't so rare that a light spell will wow an audience. Not everyone uses magic, but magic users still make up a significant chunk of the population. Magical apothecaries, bookstores, etc. are found in nearly every major city, but it's a fifty-fifty chance that any given small roadside town will have any kind of magical shop.

No timeline shenanigans! This rule is here because I adore stories that mess with time, like time loops, paradoxes, parallel universes, etc. Even though honestly, it might be really cool, it doesn't fit with how I view Gaia as a world. This won't stop me from writing/drawing fun little "what if x happened like this instead" concepts, they just won't be canon.