Sele
far
Elves live where trees are rare.
Worldbuilding
A world of my own, built one map, one word and one story at a time.
For almost two years I've been building Alethi — a fictional world inspired by The Lord of the Rings, with its own maps, language, peoples, ecology, and history.
Specimen · ink map
Aiemi / Alethi on the page
The scanned ink continent carries place-names, a glowing crater sea, an elf research forest, and a margin note: dragons of crystal used to fill the land — now few, and none found by eyes. This is not decoration; it is the atlas the diorama had to answer.
Iren Lene Selti
Far north — tundra edge for the elves
Silveth
Central spine of settlements
Inren
Triple-circle mark — a place that refuses one shape
Glowing Sea
Crater sea off the eastern coast
Crystal dragons
Once many; now few and none found by eyes
Northern peak
Conical summit — a landmark you can see across the board.
Specimen · diorama
The island you can hold
Tap the markers. Peaks, flock forests, a sandy clearing, a dark pond, and tiny ring settlements — the same landmass that began as pencil and ink, then foam, paint, resin, and flock. In class I had to explain why the world needed a body you could walk your eyes across.
Language plates
Words that grow forests
A world isn't real without its own language. Sele means "far," because my elves live in the tundra where trees are rare. Selen (tree) + theyi (world) = seleyi, forest. The notebooks hold phonetic charts, number glyphs, and a handmade script.
Selen
tree
Root for green things that stand.
Theyi
world
The whole place you can point at.
Seleyi
forest
Selen + theyi — a wooded world.
Chapters
Played, not just drawn
A world only feels real when people live in it
As Dungeon Master I run D&D campaigns in Alethi and improvise as my friends explore it. The map has to survive questions I did not plan for.
Science & history
Evolution, crystals, and revolutions
I design species the way evolution would — like a kudu-inspired creature adapted around the crystals. I borrow patterns from the French Revolution for what happens when the rich and poor grow too far apart. Notebook pages track the Veinborn, the Vein War, and elves who once worshipped crystal.
Constructed language
Sele · Selen · Seleyi
A world isn't real without its own language. Sele means "far," because my elves live in the tundra where trees are rare. Selen (tree) + theyi (world) = seleyi, forest. The notebooks hold phonetic charts, number glyphs, and a handmade script.
Ink → foam → flock
I taught myself to see the land in 3D
It started as an ink map. Then I carved the landmass from foam and finished it with paint, UV resin, and flock. When the laser bed was too small, I cut the board into four pieces. When the mountains looked fake in a straight line, I reshaped them with clay. Plan B is part of the craft.
Process film
Foam clamps, crystal gorge, plan B
Short clip: XPS foam under bar clamps, then a painted landmass with cliff edges, twin ridges, a crystal gorge, and branching veins. Long film: the classroom talk — why the world needed a diorama, the Canva research board, the YouTube playlist named “world,” and the fixes when the laser bed and the mountain line both said no.
Closing line
I'm also writing a book about Alethi. But the book is for the world. The world is not for the book.