Inthonic: Core's World Tour, is a standard 'human gets dropped in a world of monsters' story. The title Inthonic, comes from the word chthonic, meaning "in, under, or between the earth," also referencing the "underworld."
The protagonist of our story is Mak, a happy, yet directionless 20-something girl. On a night shift (which she hates) at the gas station she works at, she has a chance encounter with two monsters that somehow leads to her moving into the underworld, residing in the Earth's core. This world is very simply and conveniently known to its inhabitants as the Core.
Here, in the Core, Mak explores the various layers and meets a variety of its unique creatures.
The World...
The Layers
The Core consists of the Outerlands, the Innards, and the Dead Center. Its inhabitants are known as Unearthers.
Despite its name, the Dead Center is the best place to be in the Core. You can live comfortably, never having to think twice about the horrors and hardship of the other layers. High security systems creates a dome of safety. This area is filled with the Core's richest denizens.
The Innards, the layer between the Outerlands and the Dead Center, comprises of the inner workings of the Core. The world's energy plants and resource centers reside here. Most of the Core's population lives here. This area is separated into various districts, some nicer than others. However, no matter the district, everyone here has to work to keep themselves from slipping into the Outerlands.
The Outerlands is both the most vast and dangerous area of the Core. It is a lawless expanse of land filled with bounty hunters, questionable sources of food, and rampant abuse of shimmer. Law enforcement has long since given up on trying to monitor this area. It is not unusual to see death here. Those who pass through the Outerlands do so at their own risk, usually for the purpose of obtaining cheap materials, illegal trading, or fulfilling bounties and various other jobs.
Shimmer
Considering the lack of sun in their world, inhabitants of the Core must use various other light sources, those of which they power with a substance known as "shimmer."
Shimmer acts as a general power source, being used for everything from household appliances to magic spells. While it is not hard to come by, it's naturally in high demand. It can be found forming naturally, sprouting mostly in the expanse of the Outerlands. It appears in various forms, such as ores in caves and ravines, pods that fall off of plants, and within the bellies of specific marine creatures.
While easy and plentiful to obtain, natural formations of shimmer only yield small amounts, requiring high amounts of labor to sustain the Core, including light sources, general appliances, as well as both recreational and malicious use by its citzens.
Another way to obtain shimmer, while extremely discouraged, is by killing any Unearther, both humanoid or beast. Shimmer naturally becomes imbued in any creature that is born in the underworld, becoming something like a 'lifeforce' to them that's connected to their being. In death, shimmer is naturally released from decaying bodies of Unearthers, yielding a significant amount of energy.
Bullet Worm
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Inspirations...
Some of the things I was influenced by when I began thinking about this story: