the fictional works of thaum world, as written by J
scale : universe
ages : bang, early_universe, middle_universe, late_universe, heat_death
facets : none
thaum_world is a universe ive been writing for a long time. the primary aspects i like to play with are top down world building, fantasy sciences, and philosophy. the biggest difference in thaum_world is the addition of the particle, thaum, an electricity that is the inner workings of consiousness and life itself.
a large galaxy that contains the store of the land of fog and snow
https://www.thaumworld.world/thaum_world/the_great_violet_spiral
Thaum is a form of matter that flows through all living things.
The flow of thaum “keeps its shape” and can capture or be molded to the form of concepts.
Thaum can be suspended and stored within crystalline structures.
When destabilized, thaum releases energy and conceptual structure back into the environment.
The control of thaum input and output is the basis of what is commonly called magic.
Consciousness is an example of thaum in structured form.
Thaum is what makes things alive and what makes them aware.
Earth contains very little ambient thaum.
There are regions of the universe where thaum is absent, referred to as dead zones.
Thaum is not only energy — it also carries structure.
Thaum is capable of binding to :
ex : thermal energy, static electricity, sound, light, life, conductivity
ex : hate, love, sympathy, lies, death,
ex : dna sequences ( how creatures and places are referenced ), dna alternatives
ex : a sent message, a situation, an event
a single highly specific harmonic frequency
these are refered to as “concepts” each thaum particle has a concept. thaum is normally mixed, and concepts are not all the same across stored thaum.
thaum can change concept over time, but slowly. this conceptual change can be sped up at the cost of energy. thaum slowly changes over time out of entropy.
every concept in the universe has a place on the frequency system. some concepts take more energy to reference than others.
Thaum flows more easily through certain materials, environments, and biological systems.
Living beings naturally conduct thaum.
Crystalline structures are especially effective at suspending and storing thaum.
Environments rich in death, decay, or biological matter can become saturated with thaum as energy is recycled through compost, digestion, and decay.
Regions with low thaum conductivity become dead zones, where life and consciousness are difficult or impossible to sustain.
Like concepts resonate with like concepts.
Thaum-bound concepts can detect and influence other similar concepts through resonance.
This resonance is similar to tuned bells:
This allows for:
Resonance is a core mechanism for how thaumic systems communicate and evolve.
glyphs represent reference to a concept each glyph has a sound and thaumic frequency that it resonates with the resonation of glyphs molds the concept of thaum. this is magic at it’s core.
each conciousness can be attuned to one glyph at a time, and this can shift over time. this is attunment. see “conciousness_and_thaum”
a conciousness does not have to be attuned to a glyph to cast it from a spell. see “how_someone_learns_a_glyph”
each conciousness can only be attuned to a thaumic frequency at a time
creatures with multiple cooperating consiousnesses can tune each one separatly
each conciousness can be attuned to, and can therefore be represented as a glyph.
a conciousness is not attuned to their own glyph by default, but casters often learn their own glyph first out of proximity.
to learn a glyph, a consiousness must have the following.
that being said, someone doesnt need to know how to spellcast to reference a glyph.
craftsmen who make magic items do this by building thaumic circuits
an attuned being is one conciousness who has attuned their natural thaumic resonance to a glyph, and therefore a harmonic frequency. a consiesness is normally not attuned to a specific frequency at the start of their life.
This occurs naturally through :
ex : in craftsmen who have found themselves to be devoted experts to their field, or mages devoted to mastering a glyph
ex : mass graves of those who have died in similar ways or with similar emotions, or mages who store massive amounts of thaum attuned soley to a single glyph
ex : wild animals eating lots of other wild animals in areas of thaumic presense, or those who hunt the attuned to consume their matter
Thaum explains the existence of:
Thaum is not merely mystical — it is a fundamental structural component of the universe.
The behavior of thaum creates ecosystems of concepts, where ideas, entities, and environments influence each other through stored energy, structure, and resonance.
The universe can be understood as a network of interacting thaumic systems bound together by shared concepts.