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A variety of fantasy inspirations for my religion-centric, polytheistic, India and Asia inspired fantasy world. You can find out more at my site: http://spiritsofeden.com/. I hope to collect all sorts of materials that coalesced into the unique fictional world I'm working on. Anything from history to anime to games to books might show up.
A picture of a girl with the features of a sea slug. It's a common trope in anime to give people animal features, usually the more innocuous ones like animal ears, or vestigial flaps and wings and tails. I find it charming, so the humans in World of Adel exhibit such characteristics. It allows characters to express body language in new, fantastic ways. This image in particular would fit the Damakran race, who take after sea creatures.
2 likes 3 repins
An altar in both the Hindu and Sikh traditions. Looks like a private altar, which can be made simply inside the home, with representations of the deities to which offerings of food and incense can be made. Another tradition you can follow to add character to a person's home in a world of fantasy writing.
by Tupinambah
Another outdoor altar, though this one is inside the grounds of a temple. I made a big deal of modest outdoor altars in another pin, but grand temples are also a fantasy mainstay. Hindu temples are more what I think about when writing about Adelian worship, than western Churches.
An outdoor altar to the hindu deity Ganesh. Offerings can be placed upon the altar. I like the idea of such altars, and how people may privately worship at them at any time. In a fantasy world, such an altar might even be forgotten and rediscovered as time goes on. I think it makes great material for fantasy cultures, so the polytheist cultures in the World of Adel worship at altars for many groups of deities important to their local areas.
from Flickr
An exploration of the interesting fluidity of sex and gender among the deities of the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism, from a website about homosexual devotees of Hinduism. I've always loved the sort of beautiful and mystically androgynous artwork associated with the Vaishnava tradition, and this is a very interesting article on these deities. This kind of tradition inspired the culture and some of the biological and social norms of the Adelians in my world.
A picture uploaded to Wikipedia of the various styles of Sari, a traditional Indian female dress. The Sari is the long cloth, often draped over a blouse, dress and a sort of petticoat. Indian dress is another source of inspiration for me. In Adel, men can dress in this fashion as well, since they don't think in the same sex-segregated ways our cultures do.
4 likes 10 repins
A cosplay item inspired by the Japanese anime Utawarerumono. It is a fantasy anime which took some inspiration from Ainu culture. I rather liked the first half of the anime – it gets a little too crazy later on. This robe is worn by Aruru, a little village girl. As you can see it resembles the clothes of Hokkaido Ainu. I really like this style of dress. I imagine the clothing of the Adelians in World of Adel is a lot like it.
1 like
The Wikipedia Article on the Ainu. A treasure trove of info. They've had a pretty sad history in Japan, but there's strong ongoing efforts to preserve their culture and history.
1 repin
Another artistic take on Ainu clothing, by artist jurithedreamer. Again inspired by Hokkaido Ainu. The Ainu wore robe-like garments that were split down the middle, and tied one side over another. The embroidery keeps away bad spirits.
1 like
A picture by artist Karnella depicting an Ainu in anime-like large-eyed fashion. Pretty entrancing. The clothing is inspired by the Hokkaido Ainu, the most common. The Ainu are indigenous Japanese, and their unique culture and dress is one of the inspirations for Adel's aesthetics.
2 repins
Exploding iron-tipped rockets from India, used against the East India Company in the Mysore Wars. In WoA the Adelians have rockets as well.
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