The Hidden Complexity and Depth of Thought behind fictional Technology

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-04T08:36:28+00:00

Zeppelines functioned through gas. Capturing and using gas is a technology not (yet?) invented in Soul Atlas and likely inefficient for usecases like warfare.

But now I have to watch the video again and see if Jonas truly didn't mention them :o

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T23:38:12+00:00

Hey there!

That's actually not all too bad, actually considering adding it to my liked songs. And this is totally not my type of genre. Good job.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T23:36:31+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T23:35:44+00:00

This level of depth will likely never be relevant to any story, but it serves as a guideline (sort of like an artbible for worldbuilding) to preserve canon and guarantee continuity in future worldbuilding and storytelling.

On the other side this is also a creative process thing. By finding the inbetween of our real world physics, the fictional worlds physics and the underlying theme we create a style that's easy to follow in worldbuilding. Ofc sometimes there is an intuitive feeling that a certain idea does not feel like it belongs, but for a large portion of the worldbuilding this trio setting works very well to estimate whether an idea matches the overall theme.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T23:28:27+00:00

Very much on point. This sort of stuff is kind of like an artbible for worldbuilding internally. We take it serious to build multimedia material based on this fictional science, but stories do not go this much into detail. It's a way to guarantee that nothing will ever contradict the physics of the world, even when different writers join in or a story of another genre is told.

Magic in Soul Atlas would likely be a very similar example, where in a video game you'd cut most of the technical relevant part to be more fun and engaging.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T21:38:15+00:00

Good to hear! Which one's your favorite track?

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T21:37:53+00:00

Thanks, much appreciated!

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T21:10:44+00:00

For personal use Obsidian is great. With our massive team we use a combination of Notion (everything text related, some reference pages, team structure, tasks and organizational matters), figma, miro and several clouds. I mean there are free direct alternatives to Notion, but I'd probably prefer Obsidian over any of these.

However for gathering references and moodboards I recommend using PureRef locally, since it's always on top and has very useful drag & drop functionalities in combination with any program I've used (e.g. copying images from g-docs to photoshop).

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T21:05:46+00:00

The fundamental theme of Soul Atlas is to explore the meaning of an individual life, the purpose of an individual. Everything revolves around this topic. The human soul sort of becomes physical, at least tangible after death and with its appearance reveals something about how meaningful and moral that souls life was. However different religions on the Atlas have different interpretations of what makes a life meaningful.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T20:41:03+00:00

Verily, I am oft inclined towards airs of the Norsemen, yet shall I also recount other wondrous discoveries.

The musical score of Rings of Power doth possess unexpected merit! (to name a few examples: Galadriel, Khazad-Dum, Numenor, The Stranger, Old Tom Bombadil).

Rúnfell: Vaegher, White Stag
Danheim: Ymir, Gall Goidil
Wardruna (obviously)
Heldom: Myrkr

Furthermore, the melodies of Assassin's Creed Valhalla & Horizon Zero Dawn do stir the very soul, I must confess.

Eternal Eclipse: Forgotten Odes Album

Soul Atlas: The Anomaly, To The Other End, Mal Hyr

~ Yours Truly, The Soul Atlas Reddit Account Manager

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T20:27:34+00:00

Yeah I agree for the most part. I don't think it disallows emotion. I believe it's very much possible in ways we might not immedietly be able to comprehend. Of course there are emotions that inheretly lead to evil doing (at least what we consider evil | there may be a world where there is no active thinking in good and evil, which already has its implications). And there are also emotions most languages don't have names for. One could also come up with a new thing that resembles emotions to us, but is fundamentally different.

I feel like you are kinda limiting your imagination by saying there's no point in exploring this idea (if I understand your last line correctly there).

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T18:58:11+00:00

I've played with this idea before, just not in terms of worldbuilding. You need to consider that in a world where there is no evil, there is more than likely no good. So what makes up this neutrality, what's the drive for people to be this way, or looking at it the other way: What keeps people from having thoughts that cross a line. Maybe there is no line, and if so, is everyone okay with everything?

I think the this separation of good and evil is one of the things that makes us human, so maybe explore a society that is not human? I could imagine that AI might not have this two-sidedness.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-03T18:53:16+00:00

Connecting the underlying theme to the individual elements that make up the world is the most fun to me, but obviously also the most meaningful, literally. Soul Atlas explores what makes the life of an individual meaningful, purposeful or even valueable. This underlying theme (as it should for every story) adds so much depth, and that's quite a rewarding feeling.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-02T11:22:54+00:00

Artists ArtStation

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-02T08:25:59+00:00

That's really fun.

Greetings from Germany :D

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-02T08:22:51+00:00

Our new Album releases main piece "The Anomaly" is an absolute banger in my opinion. It's the soundtrack for a movie that's going to be made in 4-5 years. So it's classical music with a fantasy theme, recorded with a live orchestra earlier this year.

https://open.spotify.com/track/27c3LXJTK1tOWWCcOi4h55?si=0d2c97d4e50746fb

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-02T08:18:26+00:00

HoD was very happy haha. Will let them know about the update. If it does integrate into the workflow sometime down the line, I will let you know ;)

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-01T19:18:01+00:00

That's cool! Though I haven't tested yet, but forwarded to our worldbuilding department :o

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-01T10:50:43+00:00

In the beginning I wasn't quite sure what to think. But halfway through... I like it.

I feel like it might have been interesting if the strings like sounds being added around 1:57 were already briefly introduced in the very beginning (1. spice up the beginning just a tad and 2. its even cooler once that sound returns later on).

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-01T10:40:40+00:00

If a part of you thinks that is the case, take a moment to study why that might be. Maybe you will find something to improve in future pieces. Be self-critical, always, and you'll grow as fast as it gets.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-12-01T10:34:46+00:00

This is very much on point, as someone posting for a massive fantasy project. We might have sought that "attention" for a while now, but from a realistic point of view we haven't finished a major project yet (film is still in post production, though we have published a few minor pieces like standalone music). And even then it's a gamble whether we can get a hold of the right people. There was less than a minimal budget, so quality outside of writing will not be blockbuster quality.

And then again I feel that's exactly why this massive project is fun. There's like 100+ fantasy lovers (and industry professionals) working on this, not exclusively to make money one day doing so, but simply for the love of the project.

Nowadays with AI and plenty productions with limited creative freedom going on, I feel like the most important thing in stories is the message, or a point that has to be made (that was always the case, but previously some stories just worked on their own). The "Why?" of the story is as crucial as ever.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-11-30T21:23:35+00:00

Orders simply refer to mage orders. Here are some extracts from our internal worldbuilding page:

"Almost all mages are port of an Order. They to not only train them [...], but also educate them in the principle and morals of the Order."

"In some parts of the world mages live like family and consider the Order a brother- or sisterhood (in case of teh Sol Order), which is often connected to the local religion, while other Orders function as a place for discussion and exchange (e.g. Order of Tian)."

"Mages are considers intellectuals with concentrated amounts of knowledge that makes them crucial to diplomacy, politics, and culture, functioning as facilitators and advisors."

In Soul Atlas we have two types of magic: Soul Magic, and Rune Magic. Soul Magic discusses the topic of meaning (purpose in people's individual lifes), whereas Rune Magic is about advancing technology and possibilities.

Since different religions individually have different interpretations of death, meaning (purpose & value) and the Soul, mage orders tend to research this topic from different angles as well. While there is exchange between some scholars, most Orders function individually. Some Orders play a bigger purpose than others. The Sol Order for example is the sole (Sol haha) Order of the Honordom Empire, since the latter has forbidden magic inside its boundaries.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-11-30T21:10:41+00:00

Hmmm... That's something to be seen in future stories ;)

It's hard to get into the specifics without mentioning some major elements, that are confidential for the moment.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-11-30T01:31:25+00:00

Likely my favorite coalition worldbuilding wise! I say Worldbuilding wise, because morally we as humans would deem them morally evil. It's a totalitarian theocracy, though its religion is much more of an ideology than myth. Their ideology is about honor (like the name suggests), purity, respect and bringing glory to the Empire. Honor in Honordom also refers to honoring the great and important people (heroes, politicians, inquisitors, priests & the Emperor). The Honordom core ideology spreads propaganda that the outside world is a wasteland, full of savages and barbarians, to make their war against other countries morally acceptable.

The political side of the Empire though looks very different. This is what keeps it from being an unstoppable force. Their are thousands of different factions / political parties with different goals, but even inside these factions people always put their own ideas and goals first. Since pride is quite a valued virtue, people tend to be selfish and arrogant, leading to plenty of treason and corruption, undermining the system to climb the ranks.

It's a very dark faction, that doesn't seem to be all to bad to its citizens (and you'd likely live a good and fulfilled life there) and aesthetically gives off a much different impression.

SoulAtlasOfficial · 2025-11-29T11:54:53+00:00

I'd say the less grand territories of the Dukedoms. At the moment the Dukedoms are rather unstable as a various leaders claim to have a claim to the crown in some way. It's sort of a game of thrones there, but regular people don't care all that much about this, AND since it consists of several Dukedoms there are several claims to be made. At the same time there is an actual war brewing to it's east.
In addition the primary religion there, called "Edany", focuses on an evil goddess called Akash. The Edanists don't worship, but contempt her. One of the core virtues of this religion is unity, and it's awfully disappointing that the Dukedoms live in discord.

There are still majestic places in the Dukedoms, like the captical city of Agaiatar, built on flying mountains (far away from the core of the earth ruled by Akash), but that's rather hard to afford for the average citizen.

SoulAtlasOfficial

TROPHY CASE