Veloria | When The Stars Drifted...

A colourful world nothing like ours. Everything you have ever believed to be true either doesn't exist or is completely different from how you'd expect them to be. People live among each other in perfect harmony, swimming to work or walking along the building walls, just like everyone else.

There are 9 days in a week that all have ancient meanings:

Moonday — Day of the twin moons.

Tidesday — Day of the ocean.

Wavenday — Day of movement, journeys, and discovery.

Thorneday — Day of pain and healing.

Flaraday — Day of fire, and sudden creation.

Swayday — Day of the free spirit.

Stillday — Day of healing, and deep peace.

Veilday — Day of love.

Giftday — the sacred time of blessings, when Whimlings bring gifts to those chosen.

The weather is very unlike ours as well. They don't have rain, they have something called steam. Imagine walking into a greenhouse, everything is humid and warm, that's what steam weather is. A warm breeze from the ground begins to emerge and brings energy to both the foliage and people around the world.

In a park you'll see how the trees branches feeds the ground beneath it with a stream of clear water. The trunk is liquid of course, and that's why we get the steam weather. All the water that trees produce goes into the ground, creating a natural photosynthetic process that circulates in perfect harmony. Once the roots are well fed and happy, they give all that energy back in a form of warmth.

Architecture breathes. Buildings are alive, gently expanding and contracting with the day’s rhythms. Some even whisper dreams to those who lean close enough to hear. Doors are optional — most people simply step through a wall of soft, shimmering fabric that parts like water.

Time is flexible, too. Clocks are more like musical instruments, with strings or flutes that people "play" to stretch or compress their time — perfect for a long nap during work hours or speeding up a boring lecture.

Every now and then, during a special event called the "Falling of the Second Moon", the ground itself becomes slightly liquid. Streets ripple softly like pools of mercury, and it’s customary to dance barefoot, leaving behind glowing footprints that last for days. Since everything is in motion and connected, crime is not a concept they are familiar with. There is no reason to work against the system, since they will reincarnate as something more brilliant.

Instead of pets, people raise tiny weather sprites — pocket-sized beings that can summon small breezes, pockets of mist, or bursts of cozy warmth. If you take particularly good care of yours, it might evolve into a miniature storm-being, able to hum lullabies made of thunder.

There are plenty of strange creatures in this world, size differences ranging up to 10 feet or more. You see, size does matter in this world, and that's how you determine where you are in the food chain. You'll meet tiny beings along with giants on a daily basis. It is extremely rude to refuse a giant into your home, even if there is no room for them, be humble instead and try to reason with them in a polite manner. Biggest of all is the Wanderer. To an untrained eye the Wanderer might look like nothing, it has no gender, no permanent shape or form. But it's presence is a blessing always. It speaks in elements rather than words, but the stories are endless.

It's not uncommon for one to have three or four arms, speak from their hands or hear thoughts. That's just the way things are here, everyone is connected on a deep and unifying level. You see, this is not a democracy, it's like everyone is one and the same, but with enough differences to stand out. Skin colour is more like an accessory and something you can buy at the local store. There are many trends and fashion statements. These can change from one week to another, nothing is constant, always evolving. There are also people known as a "Shaper" — one who could carve futures from fallen dreams.

Every 9th day of the week there's a gathering of mice-like creatures known as Whimlings who will bring gifts to individuals carefully chosen. These gifts can be both spiritual or materialistic. Such as a trampoline or the ability to sing underwater. It's believed that they actually choose their gifted individuals based on dreams they've collected from under the pillow corners of the world. The Whimlings themselves speak in a language made of soft clicks and bursts of citrus scent. Transportation is practical in the sense that they don't have cars or planes. Whenever you go outside there are these red blobs that kinda bounce off every surface, drawn to whoever might need them. They don't move very quickly, but they don't have to. There are no specific stops, people get on and off at their desired destination. These orbs might look small on the outside, but on the inside it's like walking into a mansion filled with everything you could need. Food, places to rest, even cafés serving all kinds of mushrooms and oak milk.

Food: In Veloria, meals are sung into existence. You hum a specific melody, and nearby plants or energy fields respond by producing edible shapes: glowing fruits, silken cakes, or savory crystal clusters.

Some delicacies are emotions crystallized into sweets — imagine tasting a warm memory of your favorite day, or crunching into a caramelized sigh of relief.

Festivals: The Festival of the Silent Sky happens when the world’s sounds drain away for a single day. No speaking, no music — just hand signals, glowing paint, and heartbeats echoing through the mist.

The Tumblelight Parade celebrates the arrival of new Whimlings. People float in upside-down boats, tossing handfuls of glittering seeds into the steam-saturated air. The seeds hatch mid-flight into tiny firefly-spirits that grant small blessings for a year.

The Day of the Fifth Reflection — where everyone must meet with their dream-self in a pool of living silver water. These encounters shape your destiny for the next cycle of moons.

Dream Travel Dreams aren't just private — in Veloria, people visit each other's dreams deliberately. It's as common as having coffee together. You might drop a small glowing stone under someone's window if you want to enter their dream that night.

There are professional Dreamsmiths who craft beautiful, shareable dreams for parties, therapy, or exploring new ideas. Some particularly talented Dreamsmiths can even build shared "Dream Cities," vast floating realms of thought where entire communities live part-time.

Some of the characters of Veloria: Lyswen the Echo Keeper A serene figure who wears robes woven from old songs. Lyswen tends to the Memory Gardens, making sure no memory-tree grows too wild or sorrowful. She can listen to the "echo" of a memory just by touching a leaf, and sometimes, she gifts travelers with a single petal of deep understanding.

Cindrel the Gravity Dancer A mischievous performer who specializes in the Day of Weightlessness. Cindrel wears shoes made of captured moonlight and can teach people how to "surf" on the rippling liquid streets. His laugh sounds like a thousand tinkling bells in a jar.

Moira of the Fifth Reflection An ancient Dreamsmith who crafts personalized dreamscapes for those about to undergo major life changes. She has dozens of glass orbs floating around her at all times — each containing a frozen moment of possibility.

Brindle and the Whimling Choir Brindle is a small, mouse-like Whimling with fur that constantly shifts colors. She leads the Choir of Whimlings, responsible for choosing who receives gifts during the 9th-day Gatherings. It's said Brindle herself can "hear" the potential of a person's soul as a melody.

And a few of the creatures that you might find in this world: Loomlings: Gentle, jellyfish-like beings that drift through steam storms. They gather fragments of lost thoughts and weave them into silky scarves that can be worn to sharpen memory or induce creativity.

Flutherbirds: Tiny, transparent birds that leave trails of sparkling vapor as they fly. They can be coaxed into forming temporary bridges in the air if someone sings the right note to them.

Smoulderfoxes: Fox-like animals made of soft embers and warm mist. They act as guides during the noiseless Festival of the Silent Sky, nudging people gently in the right direction when words fail.

Glintbacks: Large, slow, turtle-like beings with reflective shells. The patterns on their backs shift with the phases of Veloria’s moons, and it's said if you sit atop a Glintback during a steam storm, you can glimpse a vision of your future.

Cities and Places of Veloria Murmura — The Breathing City: Built along the walls of a colossal canyon, the buildings of Murmura sway and pulse like slow, sleepy creatures. People walk along vertical walkways or swim gently through spiraling air-currents called Whisperstreams. Murmura is famous for its floating markets, where goods drift lazily past on clouds, and you just pluck what you need from the air. The city's central square is a massive, living clock made of vines that chime by releasing scents instead of sounds.

The Verdant Reverie — The Living Forest:

An endless, mist-soaked forest where the trees change species overnight, according to the collective dreams of those sleeping nearby. Giant bioluminescent petals drift down like snow, and the ground hums with hidden root-songs. It’s said if you lie still for long enough under the Reverie’s canopy, you might wake up grown taller, wiser, or with a new song encoded into your bones.

Caerulith — The City of Singing Water:

Built on a vast, shallow lake where the water hovers slightly above the ground, shimmering without falling. All the architecture is made of resonant stone that sings when touched by wind or footsteps. Ferries are driven not by engines but by choirs singing harmonized tunes that gently push the vessels across the air-thin water. During certain festivals, the entire lake lights up with neon-colored schools of thought-fish.

The Luminous Expanse — The Field of Weightless Stars:

A boundless, flat grassland under a deep violet sky, where small personal stars hover just a few feet above the ground. Each star represents a dormant wish — visitors can "adopt" a star by whispering their truest desire into it. Some nights, the stars drift upward and vanish — it's believed this means the wish has taken root somewhere unseen.

The Swaying Chasm — Where Gravity Dreams:

A massive, mist-filled rift in the world where the laws of physics are soft and blurred. Bridges woven from soft glass and singing vines span the gap, but many prefer to simply float or swim through the air currents. At the chasm’s deepest point, the walls open into underground steam gardens filled with creatures that only exist for one night every thousand breaths.