Setting of Noches~

So coming up with the world of Noches from my story Rey de Noches, I wanted to go the extra mile and try to make it as epic fantasy as possible.

I got the idea when I was watching the Avatar series and the Lord of the Rings series. Obviously, Avatar and LOTR gain inspiration from Asian and European cultures respectively. After giving it some thought, it hit me: why is there nothing that is focused on the latin american cultures?

Time

Obviously the world that exists without a sun is often questioned: how does time work where no sun exists? Well there are two version of night known as 'Night' and 'True Night'.

A passage from the Prologue of the story itself:

Ruiz thought about the correct order that was needed for him to properly explain. “There are sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, thirteen hours for Night and thirteen hours for True Night. Thus making a total of twenty-six hours in a ‘whole night’. Every hour, natural water in the world changes color in a certain order. Thus, we tend to keep water in glass containers reflecting ‘real time’. We’re able to tell minutes by sensing the cycle in water with basic magic. How we view it varies from living being to living being.

“For an entire moon cycle, The Moon carries a colored ‘shadow hue’, which lasts for twenty-five Nights, and will convert into a different color afterwards. There is a total of fourteen cycles that make up a ‘blue cycle’. Thus, a complete blue moon is considered as the mark for an entire year. The Moon becomes completely blue in this process instead of just its hue, and this will not occur again until fourteen cycles later.” Ruiz sighed heavily after finishing the long explanation.


Countries

Noches, spanish for 'Night', is a world that is comprised of six nations inspired by real world historical nations and empires:

Hispania - Obviously the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula which was a respective province of theirs. Unlike in the real world where Spain/Portugal did not get to keep these territories, Hispania managed to keep a huge chunk of land that is next to Esmeraldsia. Their origins from their old world (basically whatever version of 'Europe') is vague many and for good reason...

Gran Esmeraldsia - The name inspired by Emerald, it a nod to the riches and valued 'treasures' that the territory holds. Inspired by the historical union known as Gran Colombia, it has an influence of modern Colombia, Venezuela, Educador, and Panama; the nations which were known to make up the confederation. Costa Rican culture is shown which bridges Esmeraldsia to the Anahuac Union.

Anahuac Union - Anahuac Union is inspired from the 'Valley of Mexico' and 'Anahuac' is the ancient (Aztec) name of the Valley of Mexico itself. I felt that this was a good name considering that the 'land' itself is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, and was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including Teotihuacan, the Toltec, and the Aztec. The ancient Aztec term Anahuac (Land Between the Waters) and the phrase Basin of Mexico are both used at times to refer to the Valley of Mexico today. The Basin of Mexico became a well known site that epitomized the scene of early Classic Mesoamerican cultural development as well. Hence another reason to choose this name. It has a influence of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica which the latter as I mentioned before, has an ethic culture that bridges the Union with Esmeraldsia.

Inca Union - If you're savvy with pre-Columbian history, this is from a great empire known as the Incan Empire (and the Inka Empire), known as the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and argued as the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century. Historically, it had reached as far as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, although Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador have the closest post-Spanish intervention heritage ties to this nation. As you would expect, this connects to Esmeraldsia and the country listed below.

Republic of Argentum - Argentum from the latin word 'silver', this nation has a strong tie to Hispania; like the modern Argentina and Uruguay who have a very close cultural history together. In fact, it's commonly joked that they get confused quite often for the other. With a strong European heritage, they are often confused for Hispanians despite having an Indigenous population as well.

Republic of Caribilia - Basically consisting of today's latin american countries in the Caribbean, it has a vague history; there are many mysteries due to the legend that the collection of islands was relocated via magic. A feat that is naturally argued and questioned even to this day- NIGHT. So you can expect certain cultural references from latin american countries in the Caribbean like Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Hati, etc. I am purposely being vague about this region for the sake of story telling~



Now there are certain cultures/countries like Brazil and Paraguay not referenced but there's a reason for that as they ARE within the world of Noches but in a different way. You'll have to read to learn more~



Races

All living things use magic. This is natural because magic is what this world uses commonly as a natural resource; be for powering up technology, or using it within their bodies where they have both a circulatory system for blood and a similar system but for magic. Thus, where a normal human heart would be on the left chest, they also carry a magical heart on the right chest. And of course, this applies to other races or creatures with their own system. The main usage of magic in their bodies is for controlling body temperature; no sun = freezing your ass off...

Humans - Do I really need to explain? Aside from the magic system that we all carry, it's not uncommon for eye color and hair color to be influence by magic; one could have dark green hair and orange eyes just because...

Scales - Once known to be giant underground reptiles, this intelligent species were well-respect in ancient times to that of dragons in mythology; although wingless. That being said, at one point in their history, Scales realized that their large bodies made it difficult to maintain magic which forced them to stay as deep underground as possible where raw sources of magic existed. Thus, they eventually learned to adapt their body structure to that of a human and are quite social. A running gag is while they are naturally cold blooded, they enjoy alcoholic drinks to 'warm' themselves despite that being a common real-world myth. Yet it works for them somehow... That being said, they're generally common like humans.

Lunarians - One who comes from the moon itself, Lunarians look exactly human, save for their white hair and white colored eyes. While rare, they are seemingly kind and social despite their influence on making others uncomfortable. Due to the fact that every non-Lunarian holds extreme sensitivity to their own magic. They are often seen as the children of Luna herself.

Brazuka - Unique, their hair is fire itself but does not burn. Sharp teeth and non-human skin color, they are barely different from humans and are found everywhere across Noches.

Imperdonables - I don't want to spoil much but basically these are the race that does NOT benefit from magic as a necessary; when they breathe, they release something that unbalances magic itself to the point where it can destroy it. However, they are considerate enough that they invented masks that naturally filters out this toxic to magic. Often discriminated, they hold a strong belief that all living things have become too reliant on magic itself. Ironically, they are commonly the strongest users of magic itself.

Importance of Magic

Magic itself is an important aspect in this world. Because of way how life is, Magic has always been there like oxygen. It influenced many possibilities with science and religion. Its raw properties is hot and dangerous; think of lava in a way. Because it comes in different forms, magic can either help or harm you depending on how it's presented before you. Hell it's a natural light source where plant life 'glows'. Hell using magic as various possibilities, giving it many forms via various mediums.

Magic is used via the language which is commonly Spanish. Although the main character begins to learn that the parent language Latin has other languages (French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, etc.) that is used in Noches. But for the sake of keeping things simple, Spanish in this world is reference as 'magic' and the main language used for magic.

I thought at first this would be 'cheap' to always use magic as the explanation, but it's more than that; it brings an argument of how much life can be different if you add something that is a game changer. In fact, the main character does begin to question if magic is really a benefit or even a weakness.





This series of the 'Legacy Cycle' has many things already written/planned. And I hope that you'll get into this~