A World of Glass, A Hell Not By Your Design

L’vanquiet—an archmage, a scholar, and also the biggest eccentric in the lands of Glasselia. A world entirely made of glass, with even plants and animals pristine and fragile. Of course, the nature of such an object takes on a different evolutionary path to support living beings, along with the properties of the people themselves being altered. As glass is made of sand, we’ve created a race of humans called Dustrins along with various other species made of sand who, upon death, nourish the very planet they come from.

However, a few are cursed by the vengeful Goddess of Fate to be sewn from flesh rather than sand—which is where our characters come in. They must walk carefully to avoid damaging the ground beneath them, they must subsist off of ground down glass, an act that alienates them from the world due to the appearance of consuming the very essence of sentient beings. Somehow though, L’vanquiet had discovered a magical amulet that allows him to feast off of the sun, which gave him a place among Dustrin society; in particular, a country called Sapphire that cared more about the study of magic than societal standards. He worked his way up to the top and often fraternized with a fellow Fleshling named Sylvia Goldenbloom, the princess of the kingdom that they both belong to.

Of course, he crafted such an amulet for her as well—and the two plan to change society to create a place for fellow Fleshlings, with the dream of challenging the goddess who made them that way. We’d built that lore over the course of a week, so it was satisfying to see it all together.

We’d even finished an RP last night of their first meeting. L’vanquiet had traveled miles to see the princess in order to put the finishing touches on her magical amulet.

A gentle knock on the door was all L’vanquiet needed to alert Sylvia, but before she could move, someone else was quick to intervene for the princess. One of her maids opened the door to her bedroom, revealing the glitz and glamor that he had never seen before. It was lavish and gleamed with color from the stained glass floor and walls—reflected from the rising sun. It was a place of beauty, one that Sylvia could hardly take a step in without a crack. Her dresser, her bed, her shelves and books were lightweight and made of a special kind of glass-lumber that was sturdy enough to handle the weight and grip of a Fleshling, with the predominant color being blue. The stained glass that surrounded her depicted pictures of oceans, rivers, the kinds of natural wonder she couldn’t ever see in person.

The room was bathed in blue light—it created the setting for her sadness, yet as she remained still on her mattress, eyes fixed on the bends and folds of the glass bed curtains, they burned with a small spark of hope. Hope, that cursed thing.

“Enter, sir, and may the rest of you depart,” she said, and at her beck and call the maids bowed and left. Sylvia had fair toned skin and wore a simple blue sun-dress that looked far firmer than any other dress to accommodate her. Her golden blonde hair and dark black eyes were in contrast—where her hair was beautifully maintained, no amount of make-up could hide the years of stress under those lovely onyx jewels.

Not that L’vanquiet held such thoughts. He was focused on his work, not for any deep and personal reason, but because he loved doing it. He adored magic and hardly thought much of his flesh state, carelessly leaving a crack on the floor as he waltzed in and shut the door behind him.

“Yoo~hoo!” he called, waving his hands. “Your savior has arrived!”

“Hey!” she yelled as she sat up straight. She glared at the archmage who had intruded upon her room with such a lack of manners. “Saviors should have better manners than to ruin the room of the lady he’s trying to help!”

“Sorry, sorry,” he said as he maneuvered around the crack. He made his way to her bedside with careful steps and reached into the bag thrown over his shoulder. He wore thick, dark red robes and a large pointed hat that did a lot to obscure his face and features, with a large staff for his magic tied to his back and a brown satchel to accompany him.

“So?” She leaned in closer to him, careful but curious. “Is it true? Will this…really allow me to live amongst my subjects as one of them?”

“Somewhat,” he said as he puled out a amulet with a pure black jewel clasped within the centerpiece. “You won’t be viewed as a monster for wanting to live, but you’ll still need to be mindful of your strength. Example, me~!”

“I can see that,” she said with a frown. “but I’ll take it. Where do we start?”

He smiled and held out the amulet to her. “By putting this on. I can handle the rest.”

She reached out and put her hand over his, where the amulet laid. However, she didn’t claim it right away. Her hand trembled and slowly gripped the jewel, as if struggling to believe this promise after her heart had been broken far too many times before.

After a bit, she gripped it firmly, and put it on. “Now?”

“Now, I need to use a spell to bind its enchantment to your life force,” L’vanquiet said. He knelled at her bedside, careful not to put too much force between his two feet as he put his palms together.

Sylvia watched and gripped the jewel of the amulet tight. It was her lifeline, her path to a new life. If it was to be given to her so simply, then…

Then her heart felt like it could just burst.

“I plead to you, forces of nature,” he began as the air stirred around him. It picked up the traces of dust in the room, swirled them around the pair as a condemnation for their existence—yet, his voice remained firm. “Please, bestow the gift of the sun upon this maiden. Our curse runs deep, but we will not fight nature. We will adapt, with the love and wisdom of the Gods above. Allow our hearts to connect, to see our love and pure intent for your creations, and for the world you’ve blessed us with.”

As he recited the spell, the gust wrapped around them both tightly, faster and faster, threatening to pull their very beings in to be decimated. At the very last word, though, the air grew still—the light of the gemstone gleamed and transformed from a dull black to a bright green, shimmering and glowing as it brimmed with magic.

L’vanquiet had shut his eyes tight to keep the dust out. When he opened them to see his handiwork, he whooped and cheered, careful to stand up slowly beforehand.

“It worked!” he yelled. He clapped for Sylvia, then held a hand out to her. “C’mon—let me show you what it’s like to live amongst the light.”

“It…”

Her hand trailed to her neck. She ran a finger against the chain of the amulet, then stared at her hands. The hands she hated for most of her life, for being of flesh and skin when everyone she loved was so incompatible. Having to only carefully touch those she cared about, having to tread and tip-toe…she was an alien existence who could never be a part of the world she loved.

He understood, being the same as her. While she moped and accepted the pain, he fought against it. Now a path to a cure hung off of her neck. It can’t fix everything, but it was a start.

“…Thank you,” she said, and accepted his hand. Whoever this stranger, this odd young man ended up being, she’d like to be his friend.

Friends, of the same flesh. Of the same curse, fate, destiny—

My computer pinged. It shattered the elaborate daydream my mind had built up as a barrier between me and my dreaded pile of unfinished homework.

dropsgum: Ooooooh, that sounds cool!

Nice, I typed something coherent!

TowersFall: thx
TowersFall: im a really big fan of this world we made if im being honest
TowersFall: surprised we pulled it together in such a short span of time
dropsgum: I know right!? Almost feels like a waste to keep it to ourselves
dropsgum: Hmmmmmm (μ_μ)
TowersFall: i know right
TowersFall: but ur worldbuilding ideas with the flesh people in a fucking glass world were really fun, i can totally imagine it as a campaign idea for one of those online tabletop shows
TowersFall: or just for a group rp it has the potential
dropsgum: HMMMMMMMMM
dropsgum: HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!
TowersFall: u good?
dropsgum: towers!!
dropsgum: Wanna mod an rp w me??????

“Huh!?”

My exclamation didn’t reach the keyboard, escaping my mouth before I could stop it. I clamped my mouth shut and stayed silent to make sure none of my parents came to check on me before I typed a normal and reasonable reply to her request back.

TowersFall: HUH!??!?!?!?!??!
dropsgum: ∑(O_O;) Such an explosive response!
dropsgum: Are you that delighted a cute girl asked you to do something so cool and important with her???
TowersFall: its not THAT
TowersFall: just
TowersFall: uh
TowersFall: it feels like i reached a friendship milestone i haven’t earned yet ig?
dropsgum: Awwwww don’t be so modest! It’s not a big deal!
dropsgum: I mean from what i heard from other RP pals it is BUT THATS BESIDES THE POINT!! i think itd be a fun first attempt!
dropsgum: I really wanted to do a survival type thing set within our world!! Our characters could be npcs and it could be super cool, maybe something with the goddess and a group of fleshlings?
TowersFall: hmmm
TowersFall: sounds cool
TowersFall: i think i see where you’re going with this. maybe instead of having it be because of the goddess, she has some other plot relevance and its some sort of test between the nations of our world to eliminate the curse forever
TowersFall: or smth like that? having issues from both the Dustrins and the goddess meddling during all this to enact more revenge
dropsgum: So cool!
dropsgum: Hypothetically we could give a chance for one of the players to take on a special role for that? I always love leaving plot hooks that people can get involved with if they show the passion
dropsgum: Assuming ppl app and all which of course they will!
TowersFall: first we gotta like
TowersFall: get an rp together
TowersFall: gonna need a lore doc a site n shit we can advertise on that Group? fits their alley
dropsgum: That’s what i was thinking!! Only once we get everything together of course
dropsgum: I don’t really know much about web design but maybe we can put smth together?
TowersFall: i think i can make a good doc for our lore
TowersFall: if were seriously doing this then how about i get to work on it rn and we can progress report tomorrow?
dropsgum: Sure!!
dropsgum: Omg omg we’re really doing it this is so cool!! __〆(￣ー￣ )
dropsgum: Gonna get on the grind right now!! If you see me dm u again at like 3 am dw abt it k?

And with that, I saw her status turn idle. I intended to make good on my promise as I opened a few other RP lore doc examples I had. For now, I would put down the basic rules of our world that we’ve already decided on, and figure out what specifically we’re going to look for in characters later. The setting is somewhat adaptable for reusing OCs if you didn’t mind the whole ‘people made of sand and world made of glass’ thing.

For aesthetics, I kept it simple, with an edited banner of two stained glass images by the side of the title: Glasselia. We should think of a name for the RP rather than just using the world, though…

Red on black looked pleasant, so I went with that for the text and background. The effort was…amateur, to say the least. I knew I wouldn’t be using this for the final product. By the time I finished my first draft, though, it was far too late to judge the quality, so I saved it.

Tomorrow, I’d send it to dropsgum—or that was the plan.

As school ended and I settled back home, I would send her the document and get no reply for the next week and a half.