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About

Taliskarn is a fictional world-building project currently in active development. According to my grand plans, Taliskarn is set to receive the following content:

A fully developed setting with its own wiki, map, regional guides, bestiaries, and adventures.
A series of novellas set in Taliskarn (which, to be honest, was the original goal—until I got a little too invested in world-building and decided to merge my two creative hobbies). The stories will unfold during The Dark Time and lead up to the point where The New Dawn begins—by which time the world should be well-suited for both Fate-style games and more traditional D&D adventures.
Adventures, additional materials, and more.

We’ll see how it all turns out.

About the Author

Orthan Thundy, creator of the Taliskarn project

My name is Dmitrii Sosnin. My players know me better as Fortan or Thunda (it’s more like “Tkhunda”, but who cares), but I like using different versions of my pseudonyms for different creative projects. That’s why I sign Taliskarn as Orthan Thundy.

A guy, 32 years old (as of March 2025), who has been passionate about fantasy since childhood—devouring books, playing games, and then writing short stories, getting into MtG, discovering D&D… and, well, rolling down the slippery slope :). In TTRPGs, I quickly realized that my place wasn’t so much at the table as behind the GM screen—I absolutely love creating worlds, stories, and characters, then watching my ideas come to life in my players’ eyes as they weave their own narratives in my setting. This project is my attempt at a magnum opus in this genre, my way of expressing accumulated ideas and putting nearly 20 years of experience to work.

I’m here to write an ode to my love for fantasy, TTRPGs, and D&D in particular. I’m trying to create Taliskarn. Join me—as an audience, a consultant, a critic, or an active participant!

Project Development Chronicle

A record of milestones and plans that have become reality.

The Distant Past

Conceived the general idea | Around 2015, though I don’t remember exactly
Spent 10 years thinking, “No way, I can’t pull this off…” While running campaigns, writing stories, gaining experience, and building up the courage.

2024

Began active development | September 2024
Defined the overall concept: what the world is, why it exists, what happens in it, and who lives there | August 2024
Outlined the key features of each region | September 2024
Started drawing the physical map of Malkona—the main continent of Taliskarn | September 14, 2024
Wrote the foundational mythology and history of the world… | September 27, 2024
…and in the process, sketched out notes on its peoples, their cultures, and physiological traits | October 2024

Winter 2025

Finish drawing the first version of the physical map of Malkona, hand it over for retouching. Completely exhausted. | February 16, 2025
Retouch the map: refine coastlines, gradients, colors, apply post-processing, and tweak a couple of regions in the process. | February 16-27, 2025
Write the narrative version of the Myth of Taliskarn in alpha (covering the main gods and events—will likely need expansion and revisions later, but this is the starting point). | February 18, 2025
Realize that Taliskarn needs artwork—a map alone won’t cut it. Estimate the budget. Feel sad. Commission the first sketch from an artist. | February 24, 2025
Receive the sketch—it’s cool, but not quite what I envisioned. Matches the budget I had, I’d say. Feel even sadder. Realize that no one will read my mind on my budget. Make the tough decision to start learning to draw (never had a knack for fine arts). | February 25, 2025
Grind through a character drawing course like a madman, learn Procreate. Simultaneously do another pass on the regions, placing major—region-defining—points of interest and large labels on the map. | February 26-28, 2025
A sudden burst of inspiration—I write the first short story vignette for Taliskarn. Chronologically, it’s either a prologue or an extra-flashback to the main story I have in mind. Walk around feeling satisfied—the first step is taken. | February 28, 2025

Spring 2025

Launch the website, fill its pages with basic information, write my own comments. | March 1-12, 2025
Unexpectedly draw my first Taliskarn sketch: Ismeria, a Bryleahn and the main character of the first planned novellas. Spend half a day on it—still not happy with the brow ridges (or rather, the folds under them), and it’s an early concept… but overall, I’m crying with joy. | March 4, 2025
Get completely absorbed in drawing. Nothing turns out right. Occasionally ask my mother (who is very good at drawing) for help—she points out obvious mistakes and explains how to fix them. Struggle through the concepts of Noctids, Kyonnhs, and Flammars—the main non-human races of Taliskarn. Overall, I’m happy. | March 5, 2025
Keep drawing. Create portraits of a few more key characters. Slowly start to relax: shift drawing practice to 2-3 hours a day, focusing on improvement rather than immediate content production (realizing that the few tricks I’ve learned won’t be enough). Skeleton anatomy, here I come… Refocus on pushing the project toward public development. | March 6, 2025
Set up a Discord server for the project, possibly other social media platforms. | March 12, 2025
Move the project to limited public development: publish the website, invite my players, friends, and acquaintances as the initial audience. | March 12, 2025
Panic a little.
Move the project to full public development: present some content and seek feedback from major communities on Reddit, for example. | March 12, 2025
—>WE ARE HERE: Panicking a lot. | March 12, 2025

Future Plans

Here’s what I still plan to do and in what order.

Note: All dates below are my hopes and goals, not fixed deadlines.

Spring-Summer 2025

Gather feedback, possibly make some immediate adjustments.
Detailing region by region: geography, wonders, population and its culture, cities and settlements, points of interest, bestiary. For now, everything remains in the “general information, current concept” stage. As I finalize details, I publish them on the site, seek feedback, and make edits, notes, and adjustments.
Looking at Malcona in its entirety, ensuring harmony and consistency within the world, making necessary revisions to the regions.
Adding essential reference materials: articles on economy, lore clarifications, etc. A glossary?
Establishing the world’s status as an alpha version, starting to write novellas. In the process, I further develop and adapt the world, refining it in greater depth, and reflecting changes in the wiki.

Fall 2025

Bringing the storyline in the novellas (or at least their finalized synopsis) to the stage of “Taliskarn: The New Dawn.” Taking a breather.
Beginning work on the first fully-fledged supplement for Taliskarn – “Notes on the Warm Sea” (probably). Developing all necessary elements: geography, population, cities, NPCs, bestiary with stat blocks, DM tables, and several adventures in the region. Most likely preparing corresponding Foundry modules. Sincerely hoping that by this point, I’ll have learned to draw well enough to illustrate it with something better than awful sketches.

Winter 2026

With the completion of the supplement, announcing Taliskarn’s transition to beta version.
Celebrating.
Distributing the supplement as widely as possible (for free), trying to attract the community and DMs to it, gathering feedback, revising and polishing it.
Starting work on the next supplement, trying to secure funding and support for professional design, publishing, etc.
Happily continuing to work on Taliskarn, trying to breathe as much life into this world as I possibly can.

Project Support

Right now, I’m mostly working on Taliskarn alone, relying on my love for this project, patience, diligence, and other positive words. Given that my current budget consists of two cups of coffee and a sandwich, I can’t afford to hire anyone at the moment, but if you’re interested in what I’m doing, I’d be grateful for any kind of participation:

A kind piece of advice
Brutal critique
Feedback and comments
A question about Taliskarn
A powerful idea
Bug reports on the website
Bug reports on the map
A shared link to any of the project’s resources
A drawing
Simply being around in some way (as a creator, it means a lot to know that my work has caught someone’s interest)

So, if for some reason you’ve read this far and feel drawn to the project – or if you just have something to say to the author – all links to our resources and my contact details are below. I’d deeply appreciate any advice, feedback, or recommendations. Thank you.