Building Realities 06/05/2026
Hey there people!
One
I’m Jack Lhasa and what I do is build worlds. Actually I do a massive variety of other things. I’m the publishing and art markets’ Jack of All Trades, so to speak. If it’s a job in either field, I have done it and can do it. I’ve taught classes, courses, clinics, and workshops. That’s enough about me.
This is kinda long so here’s a peak:
1. Jack Lhasa
2. The slow start
3. Arrival of a co-creator
4. Worldbuilding goal and collaboration
5. Press Kit Media and Assets Bundle
6. The World We Build
7. The other side of the universe
Two
Let’s talk about Worldbuilding and the MoonShadow project.
The MoonShadow project is my baby. For about 15 years, every January I’ve picked a project and made it my work for the year(along with paying gigs lol). In 2025, I decided to start the novel I’d always wanted to write, and I changed up my normal rules. Usually a year’s project is either finished by the next January or abandoned(kinda. I keep all the work. Mess with it occasionally, but not full energy).
This time I knew this would be a big task. So at the onset, I pledged to continue this to it’s completion. I knew I was talking about 3 or more years.
MoonShadow is about Magic. In the first few months I held 4 focus groups and consulted several people who I think are experts in their fields. Despite this, very little got done.
Three
Then, in May of 2025, my old friend David reached out, after almost 20 years. He’d moved out of town and we lost touch after a few talks in the early years. We were very compatible in our interests, both very intelligent and well spoken, and when we met, we hit it off fast.
As we were catching up, I mentioned what’d been going on with MoonShadow, the frustration from the focus groups, and the basics concepts involved. Dave immediately wanted to help.
“What can I do? What do you need?” That’s the conversation that really kicked the project into gear. As part of my January project design, I wanted a unique world, that was so compelling others would want to create in it. That’s the basic end goal. After we’ve finished establishing a framework and releasing our own fiction and art, we’ll be inviting others. It’s still a ways off from new collaboration, but tell me if you think you might want to try, and we’ll make the list for first access. The best part about the first few rounds of collaborators is that their work will be canon. They’ll also be playing a role in creating this setting.
We also have loose plans of publishing much of the Worldbuilding info available as RPG supplements.
Four
So, Dave started out just helping me brainstorm, organizing the mess I had made, helping me pick between ideas. By summer’s end, I was like, “Nah. You’ve done so much, you’re a co-creator.”
Since then, we’ve done so much!!! Dave’s already completed some compelling short fiction. I’ve fleshed out the world to cover a wide range in a way that new authors or artists will still be able to write just about anything they like. And those things will become part of the entire setting.
I’ve told this story before, but after my recent absence there’s been some fresh interest, so I thought I’d start with our Origin Story here. 😁👊🏼
Five
We’ve been working on a Press Kit Media and Asset Bundle. We are nearing completion there, but we’re saying release in September, just in case. Anyone who might like to write initial thoughts on the project should reach out. We’ll get the kit to you. You’ll have first access to tons of stuff, including our logos and official graphics to use with your article.
Sorry this has gotten kinda long. I’m going to squeeze in some actual world info, then we’re done for now.
Six
The setting.
God knows when, in a galaxy very different from our own, life developed. A rock in orbit around an Ice Giant, that spent its existence bathed in shades of blue because this blue planet was nearly always blocking or tinting the system’s star. Curious and unfathomable creatures and biomes developed. And magic was intertwined with physics. They only worked together.
On this giant planet’s moon, magic is intrinsic. It is everywhere and in everything. The plants and animals developed strong bioluminescent properties. Real, unfiltered daylight was only reaching this place for around three hours a day. Dusk and Dawn take up most of each days time. The darkest time is also about three hours.
And on this moon, plants and animals were always infused with magic. In the wild, almost every creature had offense or defensive magic. How exactly these creatures were making it work is still a bit of a mystery.
Several hominid-like animals evolved to possess consciousness like humans. Yet humans, earth, and everything from them had never had any type of connection here. It’s long been hypothesized that aliens would be most likely to have developed in a similar way. 2 legs, 2 arms, a torso and a head. Why? Because that’s true(roughly, some have 4 legs) of nearly all mammals here.
The people of this strange satellite were of a variety of races. Even so, a race of hybrids developed, with the possibility of having any color or characteristic of other races.
By the time our story starts in on the written history of the place, there is nearly constant war for limited resources. Those who learned to control the magic all around them rarely shared info. And many were quite mad.
Seven
One day, in the City of Mistyat, which sits at a river delta, a small group of cloaked strangers arrived. They began to teach everyone magic. Eventually the movement lead to a full scale public education system, and three major cities.
Public education was free, but compulsory. Everyone had to attend from age 5 to 25. After several generations, everyone was using magic everywhere for all manner of things. Graduates were capable of total survival, with many skills. Graduates stepped into the world as equals.
Centuries passed.
Scarcity of resources was nearly unimaginable. With the ability to fulfill their basic needs, crime wasn’t something that occurred very often. Society was near-utopian.
Unfortunately, intelligent creatures never handle a life without struggle very well for long.
I’m calling it there. More next week. Promise.
One thing about the Press Kit and possible writers/artists/etc who’d like to collaborate. I’m not the kind of person to toot my own horn. I’ve been on the press side of big project releases. If you write about product announcements, you are going to want the media kit. This is going to be big. I’ve worked big releases before. If you e got one reader or millions, Sign up. Do a short article when you get the kits. You won’t regret it. Potential collaborators, you will want to have art, or short stories, or whatever you do aligned here.
You have all heard me say repeatedly that I never really think my work is all that great. Even when magazines and websites are buying it like crazy. MoonShadow is going to be the best thing I’ve ever created or been involved with. I’m confident of that. At launch, it could be a huge platform for you to make an entire portfolio. Getting in early is always the smart thing when something with this kind of potential comes along. Subscribe. As more and more of our project is talked about here, the more you’ll believe me, but the contact queue is first to express interest, first to get in. A reviewer could easily turn out two dozen commentaries and reviews just on what we’ve already finished. As we roll out over the next few years that means you could release articles monthly. The first to cover MoonShadow consistently will receive exclusive. Contact us email at the bottom, or contact via Substack.
I’m Jack Lhasa.
You are Amazing.
👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼
If you think you might like collaborating with us, or if you think you’d like to be one of the first journalists and critics to be able to write about our work, contact us! You can use the regular Substack avenues, or Contact the MoonShadow Team!
All Rights Reserved.
The MoonShadow world, storylines, images, texts, characters, and any other content, Copyright Jack Lhasa 2000-2026, David Cunnigham 2025-2026 unless otherwise noted.
