project overview:
I had the opportunity to develop design skills I wanted to explore during a personal university project: worldbuilding and concept art. Having already done a lot of the former, I wanted to take it further by adding an additional layer of questioning :
HOW TO CREATE concepts of MYSTERY IN THE WORLDBUILDING PROCESS ?
To explore this question, I created a fantasy themed region explained and recounted through The Salt Marches Guide (Guide des Marches de Sel in french): an incomplete scientific work written by a foreigner traveling through a remote desert land.
The chapters of this book serve as narrative elements that could be found in a video game or a tabletop RPG. The order of the chapters would be irrelevant, further enhancing the sense of mystery surrounding this story.
My tasks:
- Researching references and ideating on my objectives
- Creation of a worldbuilding bible on Notion
- Writing the story for the Guide des Marches de sel
- Concept art and illustration of the regional map on Photoshop
- Keeping a development journal with Notion
region & lore overview
The Salt Marches are a vast, dry, and arid desert located at the edge of the known world. Its surface is not made of sand, but a thick layer of salt that stretches across the entire region.
The Marches are inhabited by a people of nomadic clans who have managed to survive there for generations. Known as "Those Who Walk with the Wind", they are in search of a spiritual answer in a hostile environment where the deceitful Spirit of Salt and the guiding Spirit of Wind are in constant conflict.
NARRATIVE STRATEGIES TO CREATE MYSTERY IN WORLDBUILDING
In my opinion, not every narrative question requires an answer. I wanted to leave some questions unanswered so that they could be filled by the reader's imagination. The bible itself, therefore, contains no more information than the final text.
One of the many strategies I used to achieve this while writing the Guide was by establishing 2 narrative points of view:
1. OBSERVATIONS of the stranger
The text is primarily told through the POV of a stranger to bring the reader closer to the unknown:
He is a researcher reporting facts objectively (which reinforces the exposition of facts that seem "normal" to him in this universe, but are not for the readers),
But there are times when he adopts a more subjective tone, emphasizing his confusion in the face of something he encounters.
The traveler assumes that everyone knows the meaning of a serpent tattoo, but the reader is left to question it.
2. quotations from the nomads
The text also contains excerpts of translated quotes, offering the perspective of the people of the Marches:
- The Guide itself is not continuous; it consists of fragmented texts, allowing me to withhold information from the reader in a thoughtful manner, information they would likely have if the book were complete and in order.
The reader wonders what Laziness (La Paresse) is. Why is it written like that ? Is it simply a way to describe a state of being, or is it a deeper spiritual concept?
concept art
I also wanted to populate the Guide with illustrations that would serve the goal of mystery. By removing the description or context of, for example, an object and its function, the reader is free to draw their own conclusions.
These various objects are handcrafted by the nomads. However, their uses and meanings are not explained.
Among them is a dagger with a transparent blade and a strange stone embedded in it, as well as an unknown object attached by a cord.
These varied masks, carved from bone, primarily serve as visors to minimize the intense reflections from the suns on the white ground of the Marches.
They feature mysterious engraved symbols and patterns that also appear in the tapestry (below).
The tapestry traces the history of a nomadic clan from its first generation, depicting the clan families, their newborns, marriages, spiritual awakenings of each member, and any other significant moments.
This fragment of a tapestry features a varied symbolic register, allowing for open interpretation by the readers.