unKnown world of Ída

Covers for each chapter of the book the unKnown world of Ída.
Chronologically
1) Rise of the Atlanteans
2) Bellovesus
3) Akvila Conquest
4) The Great Flood
5) Empire Fall
6) Godfrey's Rebellion

What is the unKnown world of Ída?
Godfrey's Rebellion and Other Stories from the unKnown world (unKnown world for short) is the name of my illustrated book (artbook), which is a collection of stories that tell the history of this fantasy world, which is inspired by real history and various theories and myths about the origin of mankind.

This world-building project has been in development since 2011, when I first created the Bellovesus story, which was supposed to be a variation on the collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations and the migration of the "sea peoples", a struggle of the prehistoric Greeks, with the twist that the sea people were Atlanteans , as recorded by Solon from his journey in Egypt and then retold by Plato.

A few years later I created the story of Godfrey's Rebellion. It was just a separate story – more like concept for my RTS game which was never made but I always wanted to play - but I began to wonder what preceded this rebellion. As I delved into world building, lore, and developing history, I suddenly found myself a thousand years before Godfrey's Rebellion, in the story of the Akvila conquest, the semi-legendary king who united Ída (which is the central continent of this world). Then it occurred to me where these first ancient civilizations came from, and at this moment I included as a piece of the puzzle - the story of Bellovesus and the Atlanteans, as an explanation of the first people.

From then on, everything started to fit together and layer on top of each other. That's how it was with every story, and new mini-stories, histories and various explanations come to mind almost daily.

The inspiration behind this world is my undying love for ancient history and the early Middle Ages, books by ancient authors such as Herodotus, Livy, Polybios and many more. This world also creates pop culture references from my childhood, such as Robert E. Howard's Conan, Swords and Sandals movies (Clash of the Titans) or Sinbad's Seventh Voyage (1958), Age of Mythology games or Prince of Persia. For example, Bellovesus is a combination of all of the above and a paraphrase of the already mentioned Bronze Age and the later Spartacus uprising.

Although it seems to be just some kind of ancient fantasy with a large share of military, the stories mainly capture my thoughts and reflections on human nature, psychology and how we should live in harmony with nature. I try to depict all the characters and events neutrally, sometimes even rather antagonistic, and not glorify their actions, even if it seems that they have a reason for it.

Two years ago, I finally started diligently (daily) drawing and painting illustrations and ideas for unKnown world. And from the bottom of my heart I want to thank everyone who participates and supports my work. Whether it's here, on patreon, or on my youtube channel, which shows the process of my illustrations and there is series about world-building of unKnown world . All this makes me very happy and I'm glad (as the name suggests) that the world is now a little bit more KNOWN to you. :)