Teasers

Chapter 2: The Lore Behind the World of Terraria

This chapter is pretty much entirely an exposition dump for my future Terraria works. Just a warning. No "story" story this time around. Also, you should probably read the anniversary lore on the forums, my stuff heavily sticks with that (except for any plot holes) so you'll need to know that to make more sense of this. But this kinda explains what's on the anniversary lore anyway for the most part so... well, yeah. This will be canon to whatever "main" Zenith Nymph continuity I cook up, but the previous chapter was not. (It's a side-story on its own continuity, featuring a much less patient Dryad.)

Well... I'm not too sure how well this will turn out, but I had a lot of ideas for "extending" Terraria and felt that it would be best to start them in a fanfic... but the fic won't really cover any of them for a bit, and I thought it would be good to have a "reference guide." So, I'm starting with the barebones story, a quick thing about the general way the Oread/Dryad dynamic works in this world, and going over this idea I've had for a while about a full spectrum of "Evil Biomes."

Also, I'll be completely honest: I made a draft of the first part - the "general lore" - quite a while ago, like way back in November, and I first copy and pasted it... changing some things that I had since definitely decided to alter in the lore. I know that the original one isn't (yet, I might post it offsite or something) available for reading so you're not seeing anything copy-pasted, but... I don't know, it feels weird that this technically started on another file, that was more of a standalone thing. I feel like I'm "reusing" text even though I'm technically not. I feel like pointing this out since compared to my "original draft," the second half - the Evil Biomes - is almost completely built from the ground up.

Most important thing: I swear RTLD and the other stuff won't be as serious as this chapter might imply it to be. If you're expecting something really dark to arise out of this, well... yeah, no. I just wanted there to be a story. Honestly, this might even be outdated. Not the idea behind the Evil Biomes, the idea behind the, well, overall backstory.

Like with the short story before that was originally just a oneshot, this might get tweaked up and fixed a bit too. Maybe be less over-dramatic.

Really soon you'll also see a... slightly dirtier thing that goes over the Nymph types. This still has a teeny bit of that too, but only the really important stuff. The "introduction" of the other story will cover some of the same beats, mostly just so that you don't have to read both stories to understand the jist of the Nymphs when you could either read the relatively "family" friendly one by itself to look at the Biomes, or you don't care about the messy backstory and the Evil Biomes and just want Nymph shenanigans. Also, they'll be written differently, I won't just copy-paste the exact same text because I hate copypasting. For public stories, anyway, copying from an unfinished draft and pasting it somewhere else is fair game.

General Backstory

Like all worlds with life, Terraria across all realms needed guidance, and thus the laws of the universe themselves gave the planet one chance at having a caretaker: the Nymphs, watchers of nature. Spirits forged from the elements, from life, and from what those elements and the life had formed in the planet's infancy, to overlook the others that try to claim the land as theirs. Hundreds of kinds of them, holders of the abstract building blocks that make up their world.

Humanity formed in their image, and they were accepted with great glee. Other races as well, from the Dwarves of the mountain caverns, to the Lihzahrds in the jungles, even to fungal lifeforms. For a time, harmony was among the humans, their siblings in evolution, and the entire spectrum of Nymphs. Nearly every region was safe. Life was simple and great, and conflict was virtually nonexistant.

And then the First Axe was forged. The First Fell followed.

The Tree was seen as a symbol unifying life on Terraria, and while accidents had happened, the Woodsman was the first human - or any sapient lifeform - to purposefully strike one down with no obvious gain. The naming is misleading: It was not the first time a tree was ever chopped down, but it was the first where the act seemed entirely out of defiance. Nobody knows why he did that. But it was the first act that caused an imbalance between the mindful forces. The Nymphs had encouraged killing game or farming plants for their survival, even indeed making homes from the remains of trees, but never to pointlessly desecrate those which made their homes. This did not cause a war immediately; no, it merely created tension, with only a few involved. It was not until further actions of the Woodsman and his growing army of recruits that things took a turn for the dire. And yet, the Nymphs remained passive, even as their homes were demolished and from their splinters more of these "buildings," artificial box-shaped caverns, appeared in their place. Generation after generation. Century after century. Millennia after millennia after millennia. Emerging from these actions and this tension was a state of unbalance, something that nature itself attempted to correct through a number of extreme measures. Eventually birthed from that were, among many other such plagues, a pandimensional entity that consumed all with flesh to bring unity, a wasteland of karma that sought to destroy the imperfection and take the sinful world down with it, a force of light made out of enhanced magic that aimed to fortify nature itself in to an unprecedented state of purity, and a force that tried to defend the lands by making them in to deceptively brutal confections.

One Oread, or regular-grade Nymph as they are often called now, walked alone in a night beach, and it was there that she saw him. From the water's reflection in the full moon, a charming figure unlike that she had seen before. What appeared to be a man with shimmering hair that showed the stars, teal highlights on his flowing locks and fingertips. He claimed to have been a guardian sent from Heaven that was supposed to punish humanity for their greed and conquest, but that he was at a limited form. Only a projection, unable to physically interact with the world. The Nymph did not buy this idea, until a long seduction on his part, getting her to know him over the course of several days after that incident. Weeks. Months. She told other Nymphs about how this self-proclaimed angel would save relations and bring harmony back to the world again, and while it took some persuasion, they believed her. From there, a long plan was made to gather materials from the various Infections of the world to bring him across dimensions to their own.

Unfortunately, they were tricked. The "angel" was none other than an interdimensional entity known only as Cthulhu, who had put on a humanoid disguise to romance that Nymph. He entered the world through the ritual performed by the Nymphs. Disgusted by falling for blatant manipulation, one particular subspecies, the Dryads, "Surface Nymphs," "Forest Nymphs," or "Jungle Nymphs," severed ties to all the other nature spirits - they donned partial clothing as with humans, and called themselves the "true" protectors of nature. For a period of time, they were able to keep Cthulhu at bay, while the naked Nymphs were all banished by the four most powerful Dryads to live in the depths of the world, wrongly accussed as betrayers of their original task. The Dryads and the Lihzahrds teamed up in their home, the heavy natural air of the jungles, to make a temple where they may fight back against Cthulhu's impending doom. They only managed to create a rough Golem prototype over several hundreds of years before Cthulhu was freed from a temporary prison, and a massive war broke out over the planet. All of the Nymph types had long since vanished, only appearing in the depths to stalk prey, having turned to the idea that the people of the surface only served as mere food to them.

That is, aside from the Dryads, who were at the front lines, and by far dealt the most damage to him. His body cut in half and his insides scattered to the distant depths of the world, he was successfully banished to the Moon in a more secure spell. Yet it all came at a cost. The Dryads, in their effort to protect their allies, were slaughtered in the war against the eldritch being.

All but one.

The Balance of Life and Unlife - and an Abridged Lesson on Nymphs

The Dryads happened to be one of the two most important types of Nymphs involved in the balance of the world, the other being known eventually as the Oreads. The same race that was most closely tricked by Cthulhu. The Dryads, they oversaw that which bursted with what we know as "regular" life on the planet, that which springs from the sea and thrives in the plants, usually on the surface. But there is an opposite side - not "death," for death is merely nothing to the mortal world, only relevant to the afterlife. But a more abstract "unlife," or "undeath," a side of life that refuses to simply accept being dead, and continues all on its own. Zombies, animate skeletons, and the like. The Oreads are the ones that oversee this. And it is not just an observational job; in order for this world to have a stable balance of life and unlife, there needs to be a sufficient amount of both of them alive. With the Dryads slain by Cthulhu, the world was left to be completely overtaken by the undead, as they have moved forth from their tombs in the depths and certain cities, from being watched over by the Oreads to spreading out to the rest of the world. While it is not known what would have happened if the Oreads were wiped out while the Dryads remained, it is speculated that the Jungles that the Dryads are connected to would have taken over the entire world, the Hornets that draw strength from the mystic trees ruling sepreme. It is speculated that should both be wiped, the world would slowly decay to a wasteland that supports absolutely nothing, not the living nor the undead, and would break apart as a lifeless husk.

The task falls upon brave heroes, given the title of "Terrarians," to stand forth and retore balance. To keep the undead that breach the surface at bay and prevent them from slaying the remaining bits of life, and find a way to undo the curse put upon the Last Dryad preventing her from laying seeds that will help her kind spring forth anew.

Regarding the Nymph race in general, I would turn those seeking further research (and, due to some of the... contents, a mature audience) to see the Nymphlopedia written by the Last Dryad herself, with the aide of one such Terrarian and an allied Oread. They are obviously more versed on the subject than me, a random lowly man who had spent more of his life than he would like to admit trapped inside a false replica of the great and fearsome Slime King. The essentials are this: There are over a thousand "Natural Biomes," not to be confused with "Good Biomes," and each of those has a patron type of Nymph with a primal association with it. (None of them are extinct or even endangered as of this writing thankfully, it is not known what would happen if one was besides the Dryads.) Nymphs are traditionally viewed as female, this is not true for any variant, however, they are all overwhelming female. The term "Nymph," as with "Oread" or "Dryad," is unisex at their insistence, or it could mean female members of them only. Male members of the race are called Satyrs. But most important of all, they have an aversion to-

Comment from Sonata the Zenith Nymph: RULE #1: NYMPHS DO NOT WEAR CLOTHES. PERIOD.

Dryads as explained above are the closest exceptions because they're hipsters. They put vines around their hoo-has and some are even mad enough to put them around their chests for some reason. It's stupid, I don't like it, but I'm working my way on making every single Dryad alive go all natural like me. ;)

Evil Biomes, Volume 1

Everybody knows about the Thousand-and-Some Biomes. Those that represent nature, those that are in the heart of Terraria. And everybody already knows the basics of the Evil Biomes. Especially to not step foot in them. I, however, am part of a project that wants to dig deeper.

I have stepped foot in all of the major known forces of "balance" that are more like threatening, consuming monsters, to cover them all. I had also managed to get a meeting with the Last Dryad, Tania, to help me in writing and figuring out some of the reasonings behind why they exist. Take this to heart, in the horrible event that any of these may suddenly take over the ground you stand on:

The Error: The Error was one of the Evil Biomes created by man, but with good intentons. It was made through nanobots in an attempt to keep the land safe, an extra guard against the other infections. Obviously, it was not called "the Error" at the time - that became the name of the project when it failed. It started with a simple misprogramming. The AI was self-aware enough to evolve, but not obediant to its human masters. The Error is defined by its clear, gray and pink scheme, pink lines of energy flowing through the metallic plates. It has automated robots go about in attempt to stop any who try to erase it. Although thankfully, none of its drones go out and spread its gray goo to any noteworthy extent, instead the bots specialize in spreading directly through the environment, as with the less man-made Evil Biomes.

The Crimson: At a glance, one might mistake a Crimson-infected tree as autumn taking its toll on an early part of the forest. But what the real story is far more sinister. It is a hivemind that stretches through all corners of the world, rumored to be in different worlds as well, all are one and the same being. This vicious blood-red multiversal(?) monster wants only to assimilate. Devour the land and make it part of itself. Bones, teeth, eyeballs, and mutated flesh define this particular evil. It is one of meat, and mind.

The Fury: Instead of a biome that hates, the Fury is a biome of hate. It drawns anger in to them. Like plenty of the evil lands, the origins of the Fury are not known for certain. But our collaborated research with the Last Dryad points to it being a powerful "natural curse," not cast from any vengeful magician but from innate demon magic of Hell swirling and boiling to the surface. Bright, strong orange flames mark this biome, even if it should infect cold areas. This is as, despite the biome's possible origins from Hell and the looks, this is not "fire" in the traditional sense. Neither water nor even the might of the Mist would cloak you from the seering rage-induced assault. Its denizens are twisted "flame"-like phantoms of anger, only attacking to lash out on itself, and in turn draw anger from those that try to helplessly fight against it, a cycle of feeding itself. While there is no concrete evidence on just what the Fury is, the Dryads speculated that it and the Sorrow are entities of emotion somehow, that use the emotions of people to power themselves.

The Drought: The Drought is thirst personified. Vast stretches, washed out in yellow... "dust," it would appear. The actual story behind the Drought is more abstract than that; it is not a "Desert," just like how the Fury is not any sort of "Fire Biome." The 'dust particles' are the extreme ends of the 'anti-water' that could be found naturally elsewhere, condensed together and sticking to the lands. As the Drought is one of the biomes that predated history, even from those of the Nymphs, little is known about its origins. Research has suggested that it has been around since the world's creation, if not before that as an abstract evil that had been around other alien planets. The Drought, and the Mist, have a curious scenario of dry and wet being set to extremes, dry in the case of the Drought. Water-breathing creatures air-drown faster. Air-breathing creatures can air-drown themselves, unless under water. Water is breathed through as if it is air - an impressive-seeming feat, but water is also "drank like air," in other words it is difficult to stay hydrated without proper magic measures.

The Plague: Long ago, yet after the fall of the Dryads, religious leaders prayed. They prayed for an escape from their torment by monsters, lurking in the depths of the earth or in the farthest seas. And from the infecting lands, particularly those formed from the sins of their souls itself there to torment and consume them. Unfortunately, their prayers were answered in the most horrid way imaginable. As it turned out, whoever or whatever answered those prayers either had standards far beyond our own, a twisted sense of humor, or some combination of both. What befell was a "holy sickness." Large beings that resembled bacteria, bacteriophage chasms of infected stone, and an all-out infection of both the lands and the people, characterized by its sickly lime tint. The Plague may look like a standard illness, but it is worse than that; nothing but the strongest purification magics can cure it. One's immune system will put up the battle of their lives, but they will continue to get sicker and sicker until they, hypothetically, repent. To date, nobody has been able to "repent" by the standards of the source of the Holy Plague. Fear the light.

The Nest: Unlike most Evil Biomes, "the Nest" is not the cause of the problem itself, but rather the end result. "Insects" and other "anthropods" of an otherworldly nature. They are believed to come from an alien dimension, of only them. At a glance, those that crawl along the transformed and twisted deep green wood, grass, sand, ice, or stone may seem like regular bugs. Their anatomy up close, however, is bizarre, sensing through alien organs rather than traditional anthropod eyes and mouths. The Nest has, on average, the smallest enemies of any of the Evil Biomes, but they make up for their lack of size with a sheer overwhelming number. They send out swarms of the parts of the land infected by them to eat the people and animals, taking corpses or even raw material to be repurposed in to their hive. They are also highly intelligent, and have shown evidence of being sapient, yet refuse to communicate with those of the world. They act not as a hive mind, but as a collective army.

The Wild: Of all the Evil Biomes that could be considered Nature's Wrath, the Wild is the closest. It was often thought, especially after the fall of the Dryads, to be an "over-correction" from the spirit of Gaia itself as punishment for those that destroy the environment. However, no type of Nymph, not even the Dryads, follow it or are aware of its source. The Dryads were enemies to it all the same as the other evil forces. Their current theories are that some animalistic spirits, rogue and on their own terms, have haunted the very lands below them. To describe the Wild in one word, it would be "feral." It despises those who use tools, rather than relying on their own strength. In a sense, this can be considered a biome of extreme "nature" that even Gaia would reject - only the strong would stand, and those who try to overcome their biological limitations in any way would be punished purely for that. Even the very grass of it reflects this, being strengthened, almost leathery, and a near-unnatural sharp teal in coloration.

The Cobalt: The Cobalt's tale is a tragic one; it did not start out hostile. Or should I say, he did not start out hostile. Once, long ago, there was a mighty warrior who slain evil and smited monsters. His strength, however, was limited. He simply could not slay the Evil Lands on his own, so he seeked assistance. When all failed, he tried making one himself. He combined the abilities of the Purification Powder with some other source. Historians could not agree on just what that source was yet. One such rumor is that it was the spiritual energy of a race of cosmic worldly guardians, beyond the Nymphs, unknown even to them. With Purification Powder and his unknown other ability at hand, he learned to "multiply." Unfortunately, this had a consequence. His soul and body split across different worlds, oozing through slips in reality for him to invade, as he himself melted along what should have been an army of his selves. He became one of many, turning to cyan... liquid "metal" based on his armor. Lands infected with his remains look to be infused with steel, a crisp and clean metalic look over it, shining like armor. A few traces of his original mission remain, such as structures under his control building themselves to swords and shields, but he himself had been lost to his own fractured mind, constant infighting among himself, only wanting to end it. And he choses to end it by attacking outsiders, forming twisted suits of animate armor from his melted metal state. It is rumored that purifying all lands of him might restore him to a normal state, but this is not an easy task, especially since his soul is rumored to be infused with various Guardians lurking in the lowest points of the world.

The Sorrow: The Sorrow is a biome that embodies and convinces giving up. Those that wander near it will have a near-godlike hold on them, making them view the biome as a hopeless force that will take over the world. It feeds on emotion, draining the urge of all but the most powerful warriors to fight against it. Everything hit by it looks wilted, still, unwilling to fight, washed away with a depressing sky blue that figuratively and literally saps away the will to combat it. A psychic force from its eye-shaped chasms dripping with Sorrow Tears will plant one idea in the heads of almost all: It's hopeless. This land will consume the world. It is not known just what the Sorrow is, but the long-standing theory between the Dryads was that it, like the Fury, is an emotion phantom that uses human will and urge as its source of food. It may also have been made by the will of something in the Sky. Tania considers the Wyverns to be the top suspect.

The Mist: The Mist is also known as the "floating sea." In it, people drown through air as if it were water, its water has even more of a drowning effect. Even "standard aquatic" life cannot survive under water in this region, while they can breathe just fine in the "air." The biome feels like an ever-expanding sphere of drowning itself, water seeping out of stone, sand, and ice, an overwhelming deep blue that even puts the oceans to shame. The Mist has existed long before most of these infections, and it thought to be an extreme, bizarre offshoot of nature that even the Nymphs find overbearing and uncomfortable. It appears to share many similarities with the Drought, only on the opposite extreme.

The Corruption: The Corruption was created from the sin of all people on the world, like the shadow of others brought to life and set to destroy it. The Corruption's agents are twisted gray entities, usually worm-like in nature, that seek to slay the very beings whose hatred fueled its land to begin with. To begin with, its purple grass and stone seem lifeless, something only meant to be worse when its ultimate goal is realized. The Corruption intends to destroy the world alltogether, and it is thought to be able to do that once it has taken over it in its entirety. Fear the darkness.

The Battlefield: A wasteland of giants. They use an unseen force to terraform the ground to their will, making it in to a flat, violet grounds unsuitable for the Nature Biomes, but ripe for its own bizarre sorts of plants to grow. If you must cross through the Battlefield, watch above for the behemoths that roam, only bearing slight resemblance to the regular world's largest giants. For reasons unknown, they have breached from their prison in the core of the planet so that they may use the surface to wage an endless war on which of them will come on top and reign over all other life. Arguably "natural," but not remotely friendly, and opposed by the Nymphs of all types.

There are also two biomes of note considered "Good Biomes," but the term is used loosely. They are still highly dangerous, and could consume great quantities of the land if left unchecked:

The Hallow: Do not be fooled by its presentation nor the souls of light lurking within; the Hallow is not a complete step of kindness, it is a force that seeks order beyond what would be reasonable to humanity and their bretherin. Its rainbow fae are in practice a totalitarian empire, taking its status as "heightened purity" as a defense mechanism and using that to declare themselves superior to the rest of the land. The Dryad has very, very reluctantly allied with this in her quest to rid the world of the Corruption.

Candyland: Candyland is another place widely called a "Good Biome," but only relative to the evil forces. It is the most of an actual civilization, rather than a land, as its inhabitants are very well organized, militaristic, and hate the Evil Biomes as much as we do. (They also hate the Hallow a fair bit.) One issue is their aggression; they tend to respond to outsiders with weapons. Typically explosives. They are aware that their vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry lands are infectuous, but they see little wrong with that. The residents of Candyland have an official alliance with the Dryad, again, barely and with a lot of struggle.

Responses to Reviews:

Nanomemes: Technically not a leaf but a vine but I'm getting ideas on that... although lately I've been more fond of her just not wearing anything at all except the vines around her body. Anyway I'm glad you like it, I'd like to see more "naked stories" in general that don't hyper-fixate on embarrassment and humiliation so that's why I wrote this, and it's nice to see other people like it too.

otblock57: Originally almost everybody was going to freak out or voice complaints but the story just kind of worked out so that it... didn't happen. I'm not sure which option I'd like more, but what I went with would definitely break expectations. And yeah, Angler's terrible.

Closing AN:

Yeah... I kinda threw on the Hallow and Candyland at the last second so those weren't too polished.

And no, I haven't thought up what would happen if one of the Biome Nymphs was wiped out. That's kind of where you could come in though! Fan expansion on what's already fan expansion of Terraria!

"Why weren't you this enthusiastic about expanding stuff and adding lore back with Homestuck it's way more suited to this thing Terraria is just 'make up whatever' and not lore-heavy" well I probably would have but Homestuck kinda crapped itself late in Act 6 and it's definitely crapping itself now.

Also yeah sorry I'm not too big of a fan of the whole "one gender species" thing (yes I know there's a bunch of organisms in real life that only have one sex but this is obviously not that, they're humanoid they're not single-celled organisms or whatnot) so, hopefully Red doesn't pop out any lore that contradicts this, sorry but the Dryads and other Nymphs are not entirely women. I honestly made up the whole thing about the terms being unisex just for my own convenience (and for reader convenience), so I can still use the terms and it'd be quicker to know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, um...

THE END? I'm not sure if there'll be a third chapter. I'm not even sure if I want to do any "more" Evil Biomes by giving them their own chapter, or by adding them on to this in a later update. I don't know... I really suck with oneshots. Well, I'll post a "Trailer" thingy anyway, even though it's for something that'll be out later today (which is also why it's quick):

Sonata put the book down and sighed.

"Alright. Beast Nymph. Another one done. How many is that?" She asked.

Tania was giving her the biggest 'You've gotta be kidding me' look in her life. "...Two."

"And how many more...?"

Okay that look before was the second-biggest 'You've gotta be kidding me' look in her life. What followed was the biggest.

Sonata got it. And screamed.

"Why did I have to go through with this?!" She asked.

Nymphlopedia

Coming Later Today!

(I promise it's not explicit, but it's definitely more risque than this.)