A bunch of beings trying to survive in a broken clock
I typed this earlier as a means of explaining my base ideas more clear, but I figured this would make a good journal entry for Chimeric as well.
There's more to describe, from smaller references, to what I added beyond references, to the writing approach in mind, but the point is describing the main foundation my setting is modelled on. There's always time to figure out and realize the direction I want to take, but wherever I go, a lot should trace back to this. As much motif minutia I can describe, it is important to remember: the rest is left to theorize through practice itself.
It's also worth noting I do have many periods of slowing down because on top of everything below, I want to make the final product as sophisticated as I can, not in terms of veneers, but of its parts and ideas I find majestic and fit into the whole.
The bottom line is I have wanted to do my own dark fantasy. I can go on why I've wanted to do one, but it is the bottom line regardless. However, between all the dark fantasy out there and my general mindset, I want one much more nuanced, especially for how prone it is to becoming superficial. Past any recognizability a term may give - and towards nuance, I've also wanted to make something towards a hodgepodge of introspection, otherworldlyness, and all sorts of visceral feelings. Of the feelings, they're more towards my sentiments concerning time and me hoping to cleanse them.
For the given nuance, it's one whose main motif is based around a juxtaposition of some form of morbidity or esoteric nature, as well as giving an all around withered and strangely aged presentation of things. In terms of the big references here (at least by the outset), they include setting bits from Pathfinder, then of Late Antiquity, and the Chinese Bronze Age.
The general idea of the setting is that it's the "decay" of reality, the machinations or the clock of life before now more visible. Likewise, it's also why I went with those two periods of history, since the idea is that those periods got pulled into that decay to varying extents, from the onset of sporadic conflicts, to the Mesoamerican-esque geometry popping up. (Also there was a record floating around that the geometry in Chinese bronze artifacts was a means of communicating with the spirits of the dead, if I'm remembering correctly.) All around, the Abaddon setting from Pathfinder is referenced quite a bit, especially for anything concerning magic, and the grim edge is swapped for more melancholy. So they still have a deathly air to them, still associated with the Horsemen, but then they are evil in the sense that humans are evil, defined by being miserable, and the true dread around them is more subtle. Alongside, magic users are gnostic-like here, and their abilities are mostly paralleled with the Oracle class from Pathfinder as well.
With those references, the simplest way to put it is filtering daemons through either of manuscript creatures, and/or of the Shanhaijing, and associate them with some element of Chinese esotericism, so animals referenced are of the Chinese zodiac or are paralleled to it in one way or another, or a daemon's aspect is paralleled to an element. For example, if it's a pale daemon, they're paralleled with water and winter, and in turn may have a concern with bones or with agriculture, along with old age. The point of it is wherever this goes, there is a sort of language given to the designs, more than fulfilling some element of art.