Creative Outlets That Aren't Writing

One can't just pound out words for eight hours a day, five days a week.  Well, maybe some people can, but I sure can't.  So what else do I do to chum the creative waters?
For me, and I know this is going to be a real shocker-- it's worldbuilding work, especially maps.
Now, I'm sure a lot of writers just build the world for the stories, or craft a world around a story idea.  Which is probably the smarter thing to do.  I mean, if you're doing all that worldbuilding work, it should be for a purpose, right?

  And for each of these, maybe there will be a purpose somewhere down the line.  But when I'm-- I don't want to say stuck or blocked, because I don't think that's accurate, but let's say conceptual brewing, and my brain needs to mull on where things are going or how to do a certain bit, then doing some map-drawing or other worldbuilding activity (like figuring out biomes and then connecting rise of agriculture to said biomes, and thus determining where those Fertile Centers of Origin are going to be that civilization arises in) or micromanaging a pair of linked villages for what sort of setting might be there.  Or the rise of multiple interstellar empires. 
This is probably the sort of thing that other sf/fantasy writers dread.   And I get that.  But for me, it's a lot of fun.  And dorky.  I will fully admit to compiling spreadsheets filled with just raw data of animal domestication or tech development of number of planets for hundreds of stars or regions or whatever else.  That gets the processing and analytical part of my brain in gear, and lets the writing brain churn and simmer, and then, hey... a thousand words show up. 
Plus, maps are fun.  I can't draw very well, but I can do maps.
That's all for now.  I'll be at OryCon this weekend, and if you're in the area, I hope to see you there.


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An admin note: I'm in the process of consolidating and updating my website, so everything, including this blog will be in the same place.  I'll post in both places for a while, but eventually the Blogger version will go away, and everything will be over there. 

Edits and Research and Maps, Oh my!

This blog has, unfortunately for the moment, devolved a bit into "Stuff is happening and I'm busy!"  Today is no exception to that.  In part because I'm finalizing the edits for Murder of Mages so I can turn it in tomorrow. 

On top of that, I've got a fair amount of pre-ArmadilloCon work on my plate.  Part of that is the administrative side of the Writers' Workshop, part is the actual workshopping work for my group, and part is doing additional research and reading to prepare for some of the panels I'm on.

As part of that research, I've been revisiting Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, two books that have strongly shaped my ideas of worldbuilding.  I've also been thinking about the Columbian Exchange, and how that could be applied to worldbuilding.  I'll be posting more on that in the near future.  And that ties into geography, first and foremost, shaping the worlds we build.

And with geography, there's maps.  I've been re-working the maps to appear in Thorn of Dentonhill and Murder of Mages so they are of publishable quality.  Which is an excellent way for me to be productive while the back of the brain churns on writing things. 

So, back to work in the word mines.

Worldbuilding, Food and Regionalism

Here are some choice passages from the intro of a book that most people probably wouldn't think of in terms of worldbuilding, especially fantasy/sci-fi worldbuilding:

In bald terms, terroir refers to the soil, climate and topography of a microregion, and pinpoints what makes an ingredient grown in one place taste different from the same ingredient grown in another.
But terroir isn't merely rainfall, mineral content, and angles of exposure to sunlight.  no matter where we're form, terroir is our cultural and historical link to the land, the expression of the land itself and the people who live there.
         --Country Cooking of France, Anne Willan

Defining regions, when it comes to worldbuilding, is a big part of a shift from macro-worldbuilding to micro-building.  The food people raise says a lot about who they are and the way they live.  Especially in any sort of pre-industrial setting, where a hundred miles of distance could may as well be a world away. 

The basic staples of domesticatible animals and major crops will only give you so much definition (unless you really go to town in building all new flora and fauna, in which case, I salute you)... but the minor variations of culinary regionalism can give you a wealth of details to color your world with.  Then you can even take a basic dish-- say a stewed chicken-- and then add in two or three ingredients that define the region, and you have a traditional regional dish.

Travelers in Druthal could therefore have Chicken Thalin (in the eastern region of the Archudchy of Sauriya), cooked with onions, carrots and mustard seed, and then cross the Maradaine River into the Toren region of Maradaine Archduchy, where the local dish is stewed in cabbage and beer.  (And, of course, Toren locals might give funny looks to a bunch of bulbmouths from Thalin coming over.  But that's just what those cabbage-eaters do, isn't it?)

In the upcoming weeks, I'm going to do a little "culinary tour" of the Druth Archduchies, showing some of the macro-worldbuilding in food and culture. 

Worldbuilding: The Broad Strokes and the Fine Details

I've made little secret of the fact that I'm a worldbuilding completist, though even I have a limit of what "completist"would actually mean.   For example, in my Banshee setting, that meant having a strong sense of what was going on within 30ly of Earth, a solid framework of 100ly from Earth, and a rough sense of 150ly from Earth. 

In the world of Thorn of Dentonhill, I at least don't have to deal with the infinite vastness of space.  One planet is a simple enough limitation, at least in terms of continents and oceans.  Draw out a world map, and you've defined the scope, and then place the cultures in them.

On this level, I've worked out the general concepts behind each nation and culture, and on a map level, the breakdown of districts/provinces and cities.  However, for a lot of the areas that aren't Druthal, that's the limit of what I've done.

For example, while the history of Druthal is a 25,000 word document*, over in the eastern areas of Xonaca or the Tyzanian continent, I have just a bullet-point outline of the history.  Can I delve into greater details there?  If I need it.  Right now, at the very least, I don't need that at all, and at a certain point that degree of worldbuilding is more distraction that purposeful. 

After all the stories I'm writing, at least right now, take place in Druthal, specifically in the city of Maradaine.  Now, I've built Maradaine as a cosmopolitan city, a place where people from all over the nation, as well as the world as a whole, might end up.  So it was important to have a sense of the whole country, and how the finer details could affect the city.  This was especially true in the case of Way of the Shield, which deals with Maradaine as a capitol city.  With Parliament members from Acora, Monim or Linjar, I need a strong sense of what being from those places mean.

But even knowing all that, the thing I really needed to know was the city of Maradaine itself.  Just as you wouldn't try to write a book about New York City without having a sense of what you were really saying when you mention Soho or the Upper West Side, I needed to know the city itself, and understand what it would mean to live in Aventil or Dentonhill or Seleth or High River.  Every neighborhood has its own sense, and to a degree, its own minute history.  I wouldn't work out other major Druth cities like Fencal, Yoleanne or Lacanja with the same level of detail, because, again, I don't need that at this point in time.  Maybe I will never need it.  So, again, even for a worldbuilding completist, it would be more a waste of time a distraction from the writing itself.

Now, of course, what I really needed to do-- what all stories need from the worldbuilding-- is how it works on a personal level.  Some of this is micro-managing the geography, which is a level I personally felt I needed to do.  I have to admit, I've got a certain pet peeve in fantasy books where cities-- sprawling metropolises-- are little more than towns with no street names, and districts that are more on-the-nose descriptions than actual names. Honestly, when I see that sort of thing, it highlights that the writer simply didn't do their worldbuilding work, which makes me feel like the work as a whole is going to be sloppy.  As I said, there are plenty of details that don't need to be done, but the ones closest to the story itself should feel full, vibrant and detailed.  That way, the story you write in it feels like it's in a living place, rather than a vague template of a generic setting. 

Because, after all, who would be interested in reading about that?


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*- For my own sense of verisimilitude.  In no way will the reading of Thorn or Murder of Mages make you feel like there will be a quiz at the end.

Worldbuilding: Neighborhood Map

I've got a lot on my plate this week, so today's post is a quick one.

Namely, it's a map of the neighborhoods of Maradaine where Thorn of Dentonhill takes place: Aventil, Dentonhill and the University of Maradaine.

This map also shows the territories of the seven street gangs that dominate the Aventil neighborhood.  I don't do the same for Dentonhill because that neighborhood really doesn't have the same divisions.  Mister Fenmere controls everything up to Waterpath.

But Aventil is a far more fractured neighborhood, as the map clearly shows. 

All right, into the word mines I go.  Later.

Fantasy Worldbuilding Tour: Ch'omikTaa

It's been a bit since I've done one of my worldbuilding tour posts: now that the Hugos are voted on, it seems like a good time to return to it.

Ch’omikTaa (q͡χʼomɪkʼt̪ɒ)

“They came over the hill not as a few hundred men but as one thing—an eagle swooping down or a wave over the sea.  And then they crashed into their enemy in a terrible symphony of metal and flesh and bone.  And it occurred to me, in the most horrible part of my soul, that it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.” –Druth General Loren Callum

“In Ch’omikTaa, what they call politics, anyone else would call civil war.” –Lyranan Intelligence Report

“I have stood against The Storm and against a Ch’omikTaan. Both were, indeed, a force of nature.” –Lord Lessak du Retal

“My heart fills my chest
With fear
With dread
My honor is on my face
Tears of blood
Screamed at the sky.”
                -Ch’omikTaan Song of Defeat
Ch’omikTaa is a nation of warriors, but it is much more than that to them.  Being a warrior is a noble calling, and an integral part of who they are. War is an art form, a religion, and a philosophy.

The government of Ch’omikTaa is made of two Councils of Elders. The Council is made up of members from the four Ch'omikTaan provinces: Chachen, Relomik, Taanis and Ju'dun. The first three are the main part of Ch’omikTaa, while Ju'dun is considered an occupied territory, as it consists of Jelidan lands and people that were annexed, conquered or allow to join Ch'omikTaan after its initial forming.  It is given least consideration. The Senior Council has nine members , three each from the most prominent Houses from the main three provinces. The Junior Council has thirty-six members, from the remainder of the most powerful Houses in Ch'omikTaa.

The Provinces are all broken into Houses, who control the land. A House’s influence in Ch'omikTaa depends on many factors: its land, its wealth, its militia's strength. The honor and martial skill of the Elder of a House is also important. Houses are further broken into Families, and Families have varying strength in a House, based on many of the same factors that make Houses strong. Both Families and Houses will vie for power and have their influence wax and wane, through battles, marriages, bondings, sales, Just Conquerings.  Technically, all the Houses in Ch’omikTaa are allied, but at any given time, some House is doing battle with another.

The function of the Council is not so much to govern, since each House is governed by its Elder. Rather, it is a forum for the Elders to discuss the impact of their actions to all of Ch’omikTaa and to defend the honor of their House if its actions are called into question.  The Council also will take notice of and judge any warrior who has come to their attention, for good or ill.  Most actual politics and decisions are made not by a vote, but with battle.

All the laws in Ch’omikTaa center around their Warrior Code.  Thus, an act in violation of this code, such as theft, or ambushing a defenseless enemy, is against the law.  The Code is not specifically written down, but rather is based on hundreds of minute unspoken cultural mores, as interpreted by the sense of the Council.  If Council members feel something is a dishonorable act, it is.  Killing another is not dishonorable, but killing someone through use of poison is.  The “Pillars of Dishonor” are a concept they use to help define a dishonorable act.  The Pillars are Deceit, Sloth, Cowardice, Avarice and Treason. 

If someone’s actions are considered dishonorable, they will have to come before their House elder, or sometimes the whole Council, to answer for their actions.  If they are still found dishonorable, the will lose rank, or in some cases, stripped of rank entirely.  This will involve flaying and cutting their skin to remove the signs of rank and family from their body.  Such a person is a pariah in Ch’omikTaan society, and usually leaves the country.

The military in Ch’omikTaa is structured around the ranks of the culture. One of the most important aspects of being a Ch’omikTaan is rank. Rank is both social and military in nature, and is a measure of both the honor and respect you hold as a warrior. Children who have not begun The Rite of the Warrior, fieldworkers and laborers and women do not hold any rank.

• The first rank is Ta, which is given to those who start The Rite of the Warrior, usually done at an age of 8 to 10. Vassals and foremen on a commune (more on communes later) will usually hold this rank. Young boys of higher standing usually move through this rank quickly, though, as do those of great prowess in fighting skills.
• The second rank is Ra, which would be held by either the head of a commune, or a lesser member or functionary of a Family.
• The third rank is Cha, which indicates the higher members of a Family, or the functionaries or lesser members of a powerful Family.
• Kla, the fourth rank, is the head of a Family, and usually a Warrior of Distinction in the House. Kla also will serve as Special Warriors of the Council, either to protect council members, or to go on dangerous missions outside of Ch’omikTaa.  Many Ch’omikTaan met in other parts of the world are Kla.
• Amra, the fifth rank, is either the head of a House, or a high member of an important House. The Council must grant the rank of Amra. All the Kla of the House will respond to the Amra's call.
• Demra, the sixth rank, is given to high members of council House, or the head of important (but non-council) House. A Council of Demra act as governors for each province.
• The final two ranks, Jham'ra and Kel'ra, are members of the Councils. Jham'ra are the Junior Council members, and Kel'ra are the senior members. One of the Kel'ra is the Council Lord, and all of Ch'omikTaa will fight at his word.

It should be noted that in the Council Houses and Families, members hold higher ranks than standard. For example, in one of the Kel'ra Families, a family might be headed by a Demra or Amra, and a Commune could be headed by as high as a Kla. There is much more honor in serving a noble Family or House.

Families are a very important thing to the Ch’omikTaa, but it is also used very broadly.  Many people are part of the same Family, and yet are barely related to each other at all.  Ch’omikTaan are very concerned about their ancestry, and know the line of their fathers back for several centuries.  Loyalty in Ch’omikTaa is first to the Family, and then to the House.

Ch’omikTaan homes are very simple and utilitarian, even for the most powerful of Ch’omikTaan.  They are usually constructed from stone, made to withstand assault, with the only adornments being the symbols for that Family and House, which are found in every room and on the door.  They also usually have very large and high rooms to them, so combat is possible within the room.  Most homes have a large central room that functions as a training room, a meeting room and a ritual room, and this room is called the kadackh.  It is the most important room in the house, and smaller homes consist of only a kadackh.

Ch’omikTaan practice a form of ancestor worship.  They believe that the spirits of those who have come before them watch over the world and give them strength.  They are the culmination of all that their ancestors were and did, and that they represent the reason for their ancestors existing at all.  Therefore, they believe that the actions of their ancestors reflect on them, and their actions reflect on their ancestors.  Thus any form of dishonor in the family is regarded with much shame, and the stain of it lasts through centuries.

Burial sites are very sacred to the Ch’omikTaa.  Each Family will have a private burial site. Desecration of a burial site is not only one of the most dishonorable of acts, but it is also the greatest insult you can give to a Ch’omikTaan.

Ch’omikTaan wear leather almost exclusively.  They usually wear leather pants and boots and an open vest.  Chests are usually kept bare, and arms always are.  Arms are scarred and tattooed to show rank and family—left arm will show rank, and right will show family.  They will further scar, pierce and tattoo their faces, ears and bodies, each one commemorating a great victory or event in their lives.  Hair is usually allowed to grow long, and is braided tight.

Ch’omikTaan are mostly meat eaters, but a large aspect of Ch’omikTaan cuisine is use peppers and other hot spices—the hotter and spicier, the better.  Some have commented that eating a Ch’omikTaan meal is similar to fighting a battle in one’s mouth.  The primary crop in Ch’omikTaa is the yam, which grows well in their climate.  Also, a wide variety of peppers are grown in Ch’omikTaa.  Ch’omikTaan will show great pride in their pepper crop. The Ch’omikTaan don’t vary what they eat per time of day very much.  They usually eat twice a day, in the morning and at sunset.  Most meals are a combination of meat, yams and peppers: Roasted meats stuffed with yams and peppers, roasted peppers stuffed with meat and yams, stews of meat, yams and peppers, and so on.  They will drink fermented teas that are made with a variety of spices, peppers and flowers from the region.

Worldbuilding: A Glance Under the Hood

So, last week, I shared a map and some worldbuilding details for one of the nations in the world I've been building, and opened the floor for questions. The questions I got were more about process than the world itself, which is just fine with me. 

I loved the level of detail that you spent on the government.  Do you have a process that you use?  Perhaps you can write it down and share it with your peers?

So, in this case, I've been particular blessed to have a worldbuild/brainstorm partner, in Dan Fawcett.  Dan is far more of an academic than I am, and while I'm pretty good at the research side of worldbuilding, he's really the master.  He's the one who first turned me on to Jared Diamond's works Guns, Germs & Steel and Collapse, both of which I consider required reading for worldbuilders.

As to the process itself: Dan and I hashed out the real broad-brushstrokes, soft-import, high-concept stuff of each nation/cultural area.  Then we came up with tour National Document template-- something I want to rework to a degree, but that's neither here nor there-- which I would use to write up each nation*, and then pass it off to him.  He'd tear into it, usual with questions about specifics, which would help us drag each culture away from its broad-brushstrokes, soft-import, high-concept origins and give it something unique.

In the case of Waisholm, a big aspect was making it something that Druthal wasn't.  Druthal is a parliamentary monarchy, a relative enlightened state for a fantasy/renaissance type of culture, and I wanted Waisholm to be... not so much harsher, but further back on that path.  And more to the point, a place where small-group insularity and in-fighting was the main thing holding them back.  So this required the throne to be a weak title compared to the local lords, and a place where "civil wars" are a relatively common part of their history.  So this required creating a government system where fealty and identity function strongest at the local level.

The question was about achieving that level of detail, which I attribute to the national document, which is relatively comprehensive (what I posted came from sections on government, military, law and criminal activity, for example), and it went through that question-and-respond process to make it stronger.

How did you create the actual map?

The maps have had a long history-- the initial map started nearly twenty years ago, hand-drawn of the whole world.  I eventually got that scanned (and this was in the 90s, where "getting something scanned" meant going to Kinkos and giving them your 3.5" disk to put the scan on), and started making more detailed maps of each respective part.  Over the course of time, as the capabilities of the computers and drawing programs I had access to improved, so did the details of the maps.

So maps that had their origins in hand-drawn, followed by MS Paint, have now been worked over in PhotoShop 6.  There are some that I haven't updated as much as others, of course-- Druthal itself has had the most evolution-- but on the whole it's a far more advanced and detailed work.  And, more to the point, more advanced and detailed than it could have been back then.  Somewhere in the house I still have the 3.5" floppies that have zipped-up files of the maps-- i.e. it took multiple disks and compression to carry it all.  Now I have map files that would have made the old computer explode.



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*- There are a few nations he did the initial write-up of, though I don't recall which ones off the top of my head.

Future Worldbuilding: Geopolitics in the Interstellar (Part Three)

Borders are a hell of a thing in three dimensions.  They aren't lines, of course.  They aren't usually even walls.  If anything, they're planes where spheres intersect. 

I made a decision about how my FTL drive works that kept the whole "space is a lot of big empty nothing" front and center-- namely, you're still navigating in real space, you've just created a field around your vessel in which reacts to normal space in an amplified way.  So if you're going from Earth to Alpha Centauri, you still have 4 light years to traverse, just you can do it in, say, three weeks instead of twice as many years. 

What this means is there's a lot of space to "control", once a civilization has decided it wants to hold dominion over a region of space.  What even is a "region" of space?

I have to confess something: I really loathe when sci-fi has some area of space defined as "Sector 47" or such, because it seems so utterly random.  What is a Sector?  Why is that one "47"?  I like a bit of sense and order to these things.  I like the idea that they were designed by someone who had a system.

So I had a system.  Actually, two, in a way, but the same root beneath it, that root being a Cartesian coordinate mapping system.  I prefer Cartesian coordinates to the Right Ascension/Declination system*.  An X-Y-Z grid, marked by light-years, creates a clean system similar to latitude and longitude.  So, since this is a human system, Earth is the "Greenwich", at point 0,0,0.**  Thus, Indus Colony, for example, has the coordinates (5.66, -3.16, -9.9). 

This system breaks all of space into eight Divisions, based on where they are, positive or negative, on the X-, Y- and Z-axes.  Initially, I went with Greek letters-- Alpha to Theta-- to name the divisions, but A. that struck me as to close to Trek's "Alpha Quadrant" and such, B. offered potential for confusion, since the FTL system also used the Greek alphabet.  So I took a different form of classical, with the eight divisions being: Zeus, Hermes, Gemini, Poseidon, Athena, Artemis, Apollo and Taurus.  It has a certain degree of arbitrary to it, of course, but human naming systems can be arbitrary from time to time.

Next, I broke those Divisions into Sectors and Regions.  A Sector is simply a cubic light year, defined by its Divisions and Cartesian Coordinates.  So Indus Colony is in Sector Taurus-6-4-10.  An alien colony, further away, is Paxin Gamma, (9.82, -7.78, -27.33), and it's in Sector Taurus-10-8-28. 

But when you're talking in terms of space, a cubic light year is nothing.  Traveling from Indus Colony to Paxin Gamma takes you through 18 sectors, and there really isn't anything there.  Some of those sectors are clearly Human controlled, some are Paxin controlled, and some... aren't much of anything.  So, where is the border between Human Space and Paxin Space?  Is it defined, or is there a no-man's land somewhere between? 

So, Regions give something with a little more scope, though they are only 1000 cubic light years.  "Only", as if a 10x10x10 ly cube was something to sneeze at, but again, in an interstellar scope, that's still zip codes on an global scale.  But it gives one an area of space that is easier to define, and define "ownership" of.  Taurus-111 is clearly Human, for example, while Taurus-113 is Paxin controlled. Taurus-112, in between them?  That's more disputable...

The other system divides the neighborhood into Expanses-- which are 30x30x30, aka 27,000 cubic lightyears.  Expanses are kind of the Celsius to the other system's Fahrenheit. It still uses Cartesian, and uses eight division, but it just numbers them 1-8.  Then each 30-ly block is letter-coded.  Expanses aren't as useful for figuring out, say, borders or areas of control-- that Indus-to-Paxin Gamma trip is all in Expanse 7AAA-- it's helpful for figuring out larger geopolitical interactions.  Sectors and even Regions are rarely populated by more than one species.  Looking at Expanses gives you a better sense of how they bump into each other.  But even that can be daunting-- in my defined 150-ly radius sphere, there are over 600 Expanses. 

So that can give you some idea how big the "big picture" really can be.

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*- Though I'm given to understand that RA/D is preferred by astronomers. 
**- Which it is on Star Trek as well, despite the fact that the Federation is supposedly formed by many species.  Earth is still the center.  Hmmm.

Future Worldbuilding: Geopolitics in the Interstellar (Part Two))

Last time, I talked about working out every culture's homeworld, how advanced they are, and when they achieved FTL tech.  So, knowing that, the rest is simple, right?  Whoever has the most advanced tech, who gets there first, they're the most powerful, right?

Not necessarily.

First of all, there's a matter of location.  Where species are in terms of not only each other, but other worlds, and what those resources mean.  A species that hits the stars and finds they have thirty-some odd other stars within 10 light-years, and most of those have vibrant solar systems chock full of potential resources-- they're going to have a different interstellar experience than a species whose closest star is 15 light-years away. 

Even with that, I make deliberate decisions, since I'm the worldbuilder here, for example, if a species takes an aggressive or isolationist stance in exploration.  If they focus on staying close to home, or perhaps try and spread themselves thinner than they should.

For example-- I've set up my FTL rules so increases in velocity jump in increments.  Ships form a field around themselves, and the level of that field determines their velocity.  An Alpha Field is the slowest FTL field, then Beta Field, Gamma and so on.*  This gave me an easy way to benchmark future tech-- I can measure general advancement of cultures compared to each other without having to get too specific about what that means, techwise.  A culture that can form a Zeta field is more advanced in general than a culture that one can only form a Delta field.  I don't need to figure out the specifics of hull composition or missile yields for every different culture.  So, every culture is rated by their maximum speed.  And with that, I can estimate a reasonable radius a species can maintain control over.  That Zeta culture can spread out, say, 30 light-years from home, while the Delta really can only manage 16.  But at the same time, a culture's nature might be to push themselves.  They might have to push themselves to reach resources they need.

So, that process of building every culture out from their homeworlds, figuring out what they build and where, who they bump into, what they decide to do when they bump into each other-- that's the real gearwork of the worldbuild here.  It's not sexy, and it's not stuff that really appears in the text.  Iceberg rules apply in spades here.

Then comes the next big step: figuring out who the Big Dogs are.  Of course, the Big Dogs are the ones I chose-- especially the ones that are big dogs because they joined up to form larger empires.  I've got eight First Tier* level powers, and four of those are joint-species collectives of some sort or another.  And also, that isn't just about tech level, but about dominion and influence. The Colmerohn are more advanced than the Zutheka-- but the Colmerohn are slow and deliberate, and would rather withdraw than engage in conflict, while the Zutheka are hyper-aggressive conquerors.  So the Colmerohn are a Third Tier power, and the Zutheka are First Tier.

The next step: figuring out the "borders".

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*- I've worked out the math, but you knew I did.  An Alpha field will make the trip to Alpha Centauri in 2.95 years.  With a Delta field, it takes 40 days.  An Epsilon field cuts that down to under two weeks.  If you managed to form a Xi field**, that trip is slightly over a minute.
**- No one has a Xi-field level of tech.
***- There are also three Zeroth-level, i.e. very high tech isolationists.  

Thanksgiving Quick Post

Happy Thanksgiving, all.  I've got pies and stuffing and turkey to make*, so I won't go on for too long on this post**.  I had considered just linking to some past posts, like on worldbuilding holidays or food details.   But I didn't want to be quite that lazy. 

So: state of the writer, thankfulness version.

First and foremost, I'm thankful for by amazing wife, whose love and support have kept me going through this journey.  She's put up with the many, many times I've stayed awake into the wee hours or sequestered myself with headphones on and nose in the computer, accepted the fact that my head is quite literally in some other world half the time, and has kept the fire under my feet when I get distracted.  She's willing for me to not only have giant maps printed, but to have them framed and hung in our studio.  Thanks to her I've got three novels*** in my agent's hands, and more on the way.

Second, my agent.  It's hard to quantify what an agent does for someone, but in the time we've been together, he's been a source of support, as well as inspiration.  He's pushed those three books into being better than they were without him.  He's regularly plugged this very blog.  He's working for me, and he doesn't make a dime from me until we have a sale.  And when we do, you damn well better believe he's earned his percentage. I sure do.

I'm thankful for my health and my energy, and that I've had the ability and freedom to keep working like I have been.  I'm thankful that I've just finished a draft of a short story, and wrote another short play last week.  I'm thankful that I have more ideas than I know what to do with.  Novels are cooking and brewing in this brain, and I have every intention of continuing to crank them out.

I'm thankful for all the people who've given help and advice over the past year and more-- from my mentor and friend Stina Leicht to my worldbuilding brainstorming partner Dan Fawcett to the café manager who doesn't charge me every once in a while because she likes supporting writers.  Too many people to name.  Besides, that's what the acknowledgement page of books are for, right?

All right, time to hit the kitchen, folks.  Have a good one.
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*- I'm a traditionalist, but that ties to my roots as a worldbuilder and an amateur food historian.  Turkey, potatoes & corn are all native foods to the Americas.  That's important, in my mind.  That's why desert is a chocolate pecan pie. 
**- I swear, half the times I say that, I end up writing twice as much as a normal post.
***- And two trunked ones.  I don't think anything tests the patience of a writer's spouse quite like a trunk novel. 

Worldbuilding: Mapping in 4-D

There's a neat little video out there that shows the various political shifts in Europe over the course of a thousand years.  It's the sort of thing you have to be something of a map/geography/history dork to really get into, but, hey, here I am:

Now, this highlights a startlingly obvious points: the politics of a map change over time.  A LOT.  The question is: does your worldbuilding reflect this?

There is a bad tendency, especially in fantasy, to have the map of the world essentially be: this is how it is, and that's how it's been.  Empires stand for 10,000 years, locked in stasis.  Any changes over the course of history are singular and tied to key events.  No tweaks, no shifts, no growth.

Of course, I understand this.  Doing a full world map (or, even crazier, a full sci-fi map of however many stars to however many light-years) is a lot of work.  To then document even FURTHER the shifts over the course of time is a daunting task, and one you have to be somewhat obsessive to do. 

Which means I try to do it. 

On the Druthal maps, it's a matter of broad brushstrokes and a few generalizations.  For example, far east of Druthal is a nation called Lyrana.  Over the course of history, that land has also been part of the Tyzanian Empire, and the Pagari Nations.  Now, "Pagari Nations" is collective term for a number of city-states in that area.  There were something on the order of fifty different Pagari Nations, but I don't really need to know the details of which were which or what exactly went on between them.   A notation of the area as "Pagari Nations" and that they were fifty-some odd city states at a bronzeworking level of technology that had ever-shifting alliances, wars and trade is all I really need to know.*

Sci-fi mapping is a bit more interesting, because you have two big factors to work in: which planets have intelligent life, and when those civilizations achieve FTL flight.  It's all well and good to note that, distance-wise, two different species might claim a certain planet as a colony.  But if you add in one species has a hundred year headstart on colonizing... then "might" goes out the window.  Am I crazy enough to create a spreadsheet crossing each intelligent species to various technological milestones in order to chart exactly when each one achieves interstellar flight, and then calculate the spread based on that?

What do you think?

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*- One could argue that, given as of now all my stories take place in Maradaine, and modern Lyrana barely has an impact on it, let alone it's deep history, that I don't even need to know that much.  But I like to.  It's how I am.

Monday Melange: Protectors, Aspiring Writers, Space Maps

Various busy things happening today and all week, so some brief things:

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There is, apparently, only one copy of The Protectors left in stock at Amazon.  I'd like to think this means sales have been phenomenal, but it's more likely that they didn't have too many in stock to begin with.  Either way, go get it!  It's loads of fun. 

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My friend Abby has launched her webshow, Aspiring Writers.  So far, I beliee she only has one episode, but more are on the way.  Worth checking out.


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If you follow me on twitter, a bit ago I mentioned having a new idea on how to make the Great Big Space Map.  So far, it's been working, though it's still a Work In Progress.  Still, I find mapmaking a good creative exercise when words aren't quite coming together.  It helps get the juices flowing, and they really have been of late.  But here's a section of it as it starts to come together.  Slowly but surely...

Future Worldbuilding: Stellar Map Time

I'm under a bit of a hammer today, so: SPACE MAPS.

Now, I don't have a good way to display the full scope of the 100-light year radius of space that I've defined.  If I make it small enough to fit on a screen, it's to dense to read properly.  I've made some attempts at combining screenshots, which I've found... unsatisfying. Partly because it's showing 3-D space on a 2-D screen. The actual ChView program lets you turn the view on all three axes, so while one can't create a static image that gives a proper sense of the stellar geography, you can move around and get a sense of distance and connections.

But this is still a work in progress.

 Map 1: Centered on Terra (Earth), with a 25 light-year view radius.  (Of course, since the screen is wide, we don't see the full 25 light-years to the top and bottom.)  The white circles with blue trim are homeworlds: Terra, of course, as well as Starkasia, Caraw, Lestri, Krek'ixa and so forth.  The gray circles are colonies: all six human colonies can be seen: Centaurs and Europa Nueva (though their labels overlap, since they are part of the Alpha Centauri binary star system), New Canada, Cygnus 1, Indus and Reijani.  Their are also 15 Terran Fleet Bases (the various TFB's).   In the right corners the edges of Surani and Nirizhi space are visible.  But this is somewhat misleading: One would think that TFB-Bravo and Delta are the closest to Reijani.  In fact, neither are: TFB-Oscar is the closest.

 MAP 2: The same map, with route markers turned on for some sense of scale.  Blue lines means less than 8 light years distance.  Yellow, less than 6, and green less than 4.  But this is also pretty confusing.  Let's spin the image.

MAP 3: From this angle, we get a very different sense of the geography.  We can see how Reijani and TFB-Oscar are in roughly the same direction from Terra now, for one.  We no longer see Surani or Nirizhi space, but Paxin space dominates the right side of the screen.  And the top left shows a few outlying territories of the Triumverate (the strange symbols-- how ChView renders the Greek Letter "Ψ").  

MAP 4: Finally, a different part of space, centered on Quro and Senilac, homeworlds of the Quuos and the Senicala, two species that have been at war with each other for decades.  This is about 40 light-years from Earth, and the scale is slightly larger-- about 30-ly radius.  Some Terran space is visible in the bottom right corner.  The bottom and bottom left is dominated by Triumverate Space, as well as Calitras Terriories.  And up by the top, we see the very edge of Zuthekan space.  Zuth-Ω-81 (another bad rendering of Greek letters...) is only 19 ly from Quro.  That was actually a bit of a surprise to me: I didn't think the Zuthekans came that close to Quro, or Nirizhan space for that matter.  A happy discovery. (Happy for me, the writer, since it's ripe with potential.  Less so for any Quuosians or Nirizhi who may have to deal with Zuthekans.)

This ended up being more than I intended to write-- it was just supposed to be, "Here, look at some maps."  But, frankly, once I started checking them out myself, I kind of geek out on my own work.  Silly, no?  But that's how it works.

Future Worldbuilding: New Life, New Civilizations and the Mos Eisley Cantina

What's a Space Opera without some aliens?*  I'm firmly of the opinion that once you've breached the idea of humans going into space, traveling faster than light, aliens are an inevitable, logical step.  Of course, how those aliens are presented, and what they do can vary wildly.

This ties to stellar geography, of course.   An alien species might be a peaceful, enlightened civilization that only wants to make the prettiest baskets in the history of the cosmos, but if they have a highly advanced conqueror species in their interstellar backyard, that's the thing that's going to define them.

Now, there's always an urge to show a vast interstellar community.  Regardless of other politics, there is an urge to showcase places that act as a crossroads for dozens of alien species.  These places are usually bars.  Of course, there is the classic Cantina Scene in Star Wars, and Star Trek, Babylon 5 and especially Farscape have all milked this trope for everything its worth.  And it's fun, and it looks impressive-- though usually that's because the make-up and art design people are having a blast, and not because much thought is put into who any of these people are.  The idea that they could all share a space-- comfortably in the same atmosphere and gravity-- let a lone that a single establishment could easily serve all their needs... that's challenging to believe.  And more to the point, they tend to be just set dressing.  B5 tended to purge the more set-dressing aliens early on, so there were very few random-aliens-of-unnamed-species.  But most of the time, aliens are just thrown out there, with little thought about how or why they are there.

Me, I can't work like that.  Just like I need to know the stellar geography, that includes the political geography.  Neighbors matter.  Tech levels of neighbors matter.  If you have an area where there are several species that are FTL-capable, then any species that is not is dependent on the good graces of those that are. 

In my setting, there are 11 intelligent species whose homeworlds are within 30 light-years of Earth.  Of those, 5 are of starfaring technology, and three of them were starfaring before humans.  Fortunately for humanity, those three were in alliance with each other, and agreed upon a rule of non-interference with planet-bound species.  We thrived and reached out because they let us.  Some fifty light-years away is the Surani homeworld, and they didn't share that philosophy: the two closest species to them (the Xaedon and the Dalians) were incorporated into their empire, conquered and integrated as servant classes effortlessly.  And within 30 light-years of the highly advanced Rilixa, there are no intelligent species.  Not one remains in what they've defined as their space.

I've done a lot of work along these lines: within 100ly of Earth, I've defined (roughly, mind you, roughly) 153 alien species, of which 69 are starfaring.  For me, this was groundwork.  This was just getting the lay of the land so I could get a sense of the stories I could write. 

Because for me, I have to know where I am, and who's around me, before I really have a sense of what's going on.

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*- Firefly or Battlestar Galactica, I guess.

Future Worldbuilding: Geography of the Interstellar

I'm sure my credentials as something of a map geek when it comes to worldbuilding are well established.  I don't know one can seriously do worldbuilding without a sense of where things are, and who one's neighbors are.   In making a world map, one has to have a decent sense of geography and earth science to have the whole thing be sensible.  Expanding this to an interstellar map, the base science understanding one needs to give it verisimilitude also expands.  I, personally, hit a wall at a certain point with higher-math stuff, but I at least try and match star types and Goldilocks-zones and attempt to get the physics of multiple-star systems something approaching correct. 

Of course, how one works their travel from star-system to star-system affects how you do your maps.  For future-worlds that use hyperspace travel, like Babylon 5 or David Weber's Honorverse or Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, the actual space between stars is kind of irrelevant.  Every star is a key point, and the linking paths matter-- but the result can look more like a subway map instead of islands in an ocean.  That's not bad-- it fits the needs of the world and the story.

What needs to work is a proper sense of scale, which sometimes gets thrown out the window if worldbuilding is done in an on-the-fly manner, as much of the Star Trek verse was.  For all the talk of vast, interstellar distance done on that show, there was still a very real sense that everywhere in the known galaxy was just a hop-skip-and-jump away.  The linked map doesn't show-- possibly because it's nigh-impossible with the limitations of a 2-D map-- what was implied in the series: that Klingon, Romulan and Cardassian space all border each other, as well as Federation space. 

Not that after-the-fact mapbuilding can't yield some interesting results.  Both Firefly and Battlestar Galactica implied that their future-civilizations were in singular star systems, but with multiple planets in each one (twelve in BSG, who knows how many in Firefly).  Someone in the creative department (not necessarily in the shows themselves, but in designing the "official" material for dedicated fans) came up with clever ideas, casting both verses as multi-star systems-- and making some very nice looking maps in the process.

Now, for me, I'm dealing with near-Earth stuff (something most of those other ones didn't deal with much, frankly-- BSG and Firefly dodged the idea completely).  I'm not going to create a map of an interstellar verse that spreads 100 light-years from Earth and not pretend we don't know what stars are in that sphere, and where they are in relation to each other.

Of course, what is happening at each those stars is another matter: dead planets, living planets, planets with civilizations, planets that are home to interstellar civilizations?  The answers to these questions matter, and need to be taken seriously.

But more on that next time.

Digging through the archives

I'm trying to figure out, going through my old files, exactly what happened on September 18th, 2005.

I say this because it appears to be a significant date, as of my old worldbuilding files and notes, MANY of them were last modified on September 18th, 2005.  So why was that the last time I touched them?  Near as I can gather and recall, that was around the time I got rid of my old desktop, so I probably transferred/saved a bunch of stuff onto my flashdrive.  And while I've kept and shuffled those files around between computers since, I've not really touched them. 

Most of this stuff is worldbuilding files of various other nations and cultures in the same world as Druthal.  I wrote up a lot of those documents (using a "National Document" format, the origins of which lost to memory) with my old worldbuilding/writing partner (who I still consult & confer with, even though he doesn't do any fiction writing anymore), mostly between 2000 and 2003.  Some of them are incomplete.  And most haven't been touched since Sept. 18th, 2005.

The truth is, they would all need massive levels of overhaul.  For one, I'm not particularly fond of the "National Document" format, and I would need to come up with a new template that's more to my liking.  Second, much of the actual writing-- on a craft and sentence structure level-- I find somewhat embarrassing.  Third, and most important, there's a lot of stuff in all that I don't necessarily agree with anymore. 

Some of it is due to being more knowledgeable now. I've done a lot of reading and research since writing those, and knowing that I have stuff in there that's just plain wrong.  Other parts I just don't like, too simplistic, or the broad brushstrokes are a little too broad.  (I'm looking at one right now that I really don't remember a lot of it, but I don't care for it.)

But the only nation in which I've done modern, up-to-date work on is Druthal.  Two other nations (Acseria and Imachan) I had some more recent work (dated in 2007)-- but that was because I was working on Crown of Druthal in 2007 (that was when I finished the rough draft), and it's set primarily in those two nations. 

Since then, I narrowed my focus to Druthal, and specifically the city of Maradaine, which was a major factor in improving what I was writing.  I was trying, since I had done an entire world's worth of building to showcase THE ENTIRE WORLD.  I mean, that was the underlying concept of the Crown of Druthal series-- they would travel around the world and stop in every country.  Because I made it so I MUST SHOW IT ALL.

I've gotten that out of my system since then. 


At some point, I would like to go back through it all.  Especially since I've made far more specific maps since then.  But that's not a project I'm going to get to any time soon.

Druth History Month, Part 4

Previously, under the incompetent reign of Shalcer, Druthal splinters into several smaller nations, including the democratic Acoria, and the nation of Oblune under the ruler of Warlord Merit Terkin

Now, the Eighth through Tenth Centuries
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Eighth Century
Shalcer focuses all his attention on the lands closest to Maradaine, and as a result Southern Druthal gets ignored in all respects.  Many lords realize that Druthal is no more and see opportunity they make a grab for power and land.  In 700, many of the counties secede and form new nations, grasping on to old cultural identities: Shielik, Nalat, Limarra, Oscina, Tivark and southern Ciolsan become Scaloi; Siltana, Briyon, Jierre and Henitan become Monim; Cijana, Amalade and northern Ciolsan become Linjar; Nirado, Stalakae and Resechet become Yinara.  Kesta, like Brellin, becomes its own state.

In 704 the Kierans call a meeting of Trade, realizing that most of their treaty and trade agreements are signed with Druthal, and are therefore void for all intents and purposes.  As a Trade Convention, it is a dismal failure, being nine new nations represented and quite a lot of bad blood between them all.  Kieran politicians use this to their best advantage, pitting the various new leaders against each other, who have no idea that they are being used, but rather think that their new Kieran “friends” are helping them.  Warlord Preceptor Korit Hiekar discommendates Terkin from the Order, which results in Terkin declaring war on Monim (as Hiekar was from Vargox).  Acoria declares war upon Patyma; Scaloi upon Linjar.  Shalcer declares war on all the new nations, saying he will reclaim Druthal, and pledges that the Orders will help him.

The Preceptors are wary on committing themselves to Shalcer, as they know that their members owe allegiance to various different kingdoms and lords.  When the Preceptors and Grandmasters meet in private, it is decided to not involve the Orders in these internal wars.  Vanguard Preceptor Alamarkin states, "In these dark years ahead, We shall be the ties that bind the Trade Nations together.  The Orders must place themselves in light of the greater good, and we must place ourselves above any nation, any king, any emperor and even any God who strives against the light.  Each man of the orders shall decide for himself which fights he lends his arm to, as his honor decrees, but our pledge is to the Order first."

Thus in 705 the Wars of Possession, possibly the bloodiest period in Druthalian history, begin.  The first stage of this is The River Wars. The rivers, specifically the Maradaine and its source rivers (The Waish and the Oblune) controlled the land, Shalcer and others reasoned.  The mouth of the Maradaine was controlled by Druthal (or Druthalia Proper, as Shalcer had dubbed it), and Shalcer imposed an embargo on all ships trying to go further inland, seizing their contents, as well as ransacking any ship, armed or not, that came from inland.

Also, the rivers formed most of the new borders, and as many of these new kings and lords were feeling expansionist, to push ones border one must have control of the river.  Therefore, many battles were fought on the water, which required boats and ships.  For both Oblune and Monim, this was a considerable problem, as neither nation had an appreciable shipyard.  Their boats were rather poor, and their tactics were limited to ramming the enemy, which usually resulted in both boats involved sinking.

In 706 an army from Waisholm landed on the north shores of Patyma, and made a march directly for Maradaine.  However, the Patymic army tore apart this invading force, whose single-minded march made them extremely vulnerable.  The army wore no colors of clan and the Waish king and Clan Lords denied all knowledge of it.

In 712 Ian Acorin dies, and the Republic elects Mikael Canar to the seat of Republic President.  Canar is an effective administrator, who craves peace above all else.  He sends emissaries to Patyma to end their war.  At this point, the body count of the River Wars is enormous.  However, no one nation is in any better of a position than when they started. 

Shalcer dies in 719, heralded as "Shalcer, Idiot King of Druthalia Proper".  His only son, Malceen, is complete moron, barely possessing the ability to speak in complete sentences, let alone to rule.  What remains of the royal court sequesters Malceen away and places his second cousin Cedidore on the throne.  King Cedidore (719-754) was brilliant and efficient as a ruler, but was regrettably quite insane.  He has no interest in reclaiming Druthal or making war with the new nations.  He did, however, begin a massive campaign of conscription and mobilization, to the end of completely sealing the borders of Druthalia proper.  King Alasar of Kesta declares neutrality in the Possession wars when it becomes clear that Oblune, Monim and Yinara had been eyeing Kesta as a means against each other.  King Terkin II of Oblune heads a massive assault on Vargox, which is almost completely burned to the ground.

In Druthalia 722, Cedidore begins "cleansing" his nation by executing any non-Druthalians found.
This is also the year of "The Salt War".  Convinced that Kestan neutrality is a lie, and that Kesta is truly allied with Oblune, Monic forces march through the salt flats into Kesta.  The Monics have superior numbers in the fights, but when they meet the Kestans they are weakened by their march through the hostile climate.  There are five battles total, during which both sides almost completely destroy each other.

By 723 Cedidore decides that Corvia is not worth protecting or having, as it has little of value and is too separated from the rest of Druthalia.  Four ships leave Kyst for Corvia, filled with refugees.  Once they are gone, Cedidore declares that no more ships will leave Druthal ever, nor will any dock again.  He seals the border-- no trade, no entry or exit for any reason.  Thus begins The Quarantine.  The true degree of Cedidore's insanity is clear, but to the dismay of potential usurpers, he is too prepared for anyone to be able to remove him from the throne.  He is oddly charismatic, and he has manipulated the army so members of it are fanatically loyal to him.  Druthalia Proper is now a militant state.
   
In 728 the Pathfinder and Underbrush clans both start a war with Acoria.  Acorish President Canar tries to send emissaries to the clans rather than fight.  This proves ineffective.  Canar tries to give lands to the Waish to appease them.  The Waish take the lands, and start to fill them up with soldiers, primed to move forth.

The next year King Yar of Brellin notes the ease in which the Waish took the Acorin land.  He takes his forces into Acoria up to the Waish River, slaughtering thousands of Acorins.  Canar tries offering money to Yar, which he takes, but the Brellic forces do not leave.  Canar sends word to any allies Acoria may have to help him.  The Kierans send relief troops to Acoria to help remove the Brellic forces from Acoria.  The Kierans will not help remove the Waish troops, since Acoria ceded that land to the Waish. 

In 732 Canar dies in his sleep.  Some Acorin officials suspect foul play, but it is never followed up on.  Rafael Parrin becomes President.  Parrin is not the peacemaker the Canar was, and he pushes retaking the territory lost to the Brellics.  Acoric and Kieran troops march against the Brellic troops.  The Brellin Army is joined with forces from Jastam.  The Waish clans move in as well. The assaults are brutal, and in the end, the city of Talite is burned to the ground. 

The Kierans follow strict adherence to the Trade Nations Treaties, and refuse to send any troops into Brellin.  As the Acorin troops march into Brellin, the Kierans enter Jastam, since their violations give the Kierans right to enter their territory.

Meanwhile, a refugee from the Opiskan territory in Druthalia Proper has reached Yin Mara, having escaped the Quarantine.  He reports that food supplies are all rounded up and brought to the major cities, while thousands starve in the countryside.  He begs for help for Opiska to be free from Cedidore’s tyranny.  These pleas were mostly ignored except by a Vanguard named Lotain.  Lotain convinced the Yinaran King that he would sneak into Opiska, observe the conditions, and give an objective report for the King to base any decision on.

At this point, The wars between Linjar and Scaloi continued unabated. 

The Acorins lay siege on Gorivow in 737.  The city holds for a short while, but soon the defenses fail.  However, before the Acorins can enter the city, a diplomatic contingent of Kierans arrive asking that they not further assault the city.  Rather, they will arrest and try King Yar for War Crimes.  The Acorins balk at first, but the Kierans remind them that they enjoy good relations with the Kieran Empire due to their abiding by the tenets of the Trade Nations Treaties and the Rules of War.  The Acorins relent, and King Yar is tried and found guilty.  Brellin is forced to pay reparations, and Brellin and Jastam are considered “Dominions of the Empire”, as terms of the trial.  Kierans leave an “Administrative Force” behind to govern the regions.

In 740 Lotain returns to Yinara from Druthalia, have barely escaped.  His report of the horrors under Cedidore’s rule (which is graphic and thorough) shocks, astounds and horrifies the Yinaran court.  People are starving, arrested on a whim, tortured and executed for little cause.  The king of Yinara, Essa, decides to try and free the Opiskan territory from Cedidore.  The Yinaran forces mobilize.

For ten years, the Druthalian/Yinaran War progressed no further.  The Yinarans attempts to occupy any part of Opiska last for only a few days before they get pushed back again.

The northeast settles down, with a Kieran “peacekeeping force” (which very carefully never violates a single treaty) keeping the Waish in line. During this time, Acoria flourishes.

The Scallic/Linjari War rages on, with no sign on the horizon for settlement or victory.

Kestans break their neutrality and join the Yinarans in freeing Opiska in 754.  Cedidore himself, while being almost 70 years old, rides to Opiska to “Show the fools how to fight!”  It’s clear that he is quite insane, but he is a capable warrior.  He leads the charge against the combined Kestan and Yinaran force.  The Druths are beaten, and Cedidore is killed.

His eldest son takes the throne, and the title Cedidore II (754-787), claiming that the Cedidores are the “New Maradaines of a New Druthal”.  He is just as charismatic and fanatical as his father, but he sees a hopeless cause for what it is.  Cedidore II also has five brothers, whom he gives key positions and titles to, helping to secure his place in the government.  He withdraws from Opiska, and begins building the “Druthal Wall”, a forty-foot high wall that surrounds the entirety of the nation (even though most of its borders were marked with great rivers—Cedidore II also has the bridges destroyed).  This project is finished shortly before the end of his reign.

The nation of Free Opiska is formed, with the aid of Kesta and Yinara.  The three nations sign a mutual alliance pact.  The Kierans also send aid.

The Druthal Wall being well underway, the other nations see fit to leave Druthal well enough alone.  By 765, the western part of what once was Druthal settles down into a relatively calm area.  The Kierans sense an opportunity, and send out emissaries to the various new nations, offering to make trading agreements, build and repair roads, and send in “Peace Patrols” to protect the roads and trade caravans.  Kesta, Yinara and Free Opiska accept these offers.

The east begins to settle as well, as the war between Monim and Oblune cools, but does not end.  Both sides line the Oblune River with soldiers and siege engines (which the Kierans sold to both sides), so that any attempt to cross the river is fatal.  This effectively ends active hostilities.  The city of Monitel, high in the Briyonic Mountains, is isolated by these actions, having relied on the river to ferry its mined goods to Vargox and Marikar.  Although Monitel was technically part of Monim, when goods stop coming from there, it is virtually forgotten.

When Cedidore II dies in 787, his son takes the throne as Cedidore III (787-792).  Cedidore III is a raving lunatic of a tyrant, however he is completely lacking in charisma and therefore destroys the loyalty from the military that his father and grandfather built up.  Without this protection, the other Druthalian lords remove him from the throne in short order and execute him.  In an effort to retain some royal continuity, they give the crown to Lord Mishral, grandson of Cedidore by his third son. 

King Mishral (792-799) seems to lack the madness that ran in his cousin’s line.  His short reign concentrated on rebuilding the damage done by the Cedidores, improving the condition of the common man.  Unfortunately, while personally visiting a particularly devastated farming village, and mob of angry peasants, blaming him for their situation (for they only knew that the King had done this to them, and he was the King), attacked the King’s train and stoned Mishral to death.  His son, Mishral II (799-808) continued to work for his father’s goals.

By the end of the eighth century, the Scallics and the Linjari were still fighting their war.  The war had gone on for five generations, and the original goals of the war had long been forgotten, both side now possessing an intense blind hatred for the other.

Ninth Century
Mishral II had never been healthy, and over the course of his reign he almost never sets foot outside the royal palace in Maradaine.  He also proved unable to father a child.  When he finally died in 808, his successor had already been chosen.  Mishral took part in the choosing, though many lords found fault in it.  The new king was Duke Halitar of Delikan, who was eligible due to being Cedidore’s great-great grandson (by Cedidore’s fourth son).  When historians point out that there had already been a King Halitar, he takes the throne as King Halitar II (808-815).

Both he, and later his son, focus one rebuilding what is left of Druthal as a strong nation.  Halitar III (815-831) has Druthal build ships again, contacting those on Corvia.  To a limited degree, he re-opens trade routes, as Druthal still controls the best source of wool.  Some of those prime wool sheep are raised outside the city of Erien, near the border of Patyma.  As it is a valuable commodity, the Patymics send their army in, trying to claim all the wide pastureland that the Druths control north of the Patyma River.  Halitar III leads the Druth army against them.  Starting in 826, the Druth and Patymics gain and lose control over Erien, the city crumbling around them, for several years.  Then in 831 the king is killed defending the city.

Halitar III had no sons, and the various lords were primed to pick a new king, and several candidates began politicking and backstabbing to gain the throne.  Some thought they could increase the legitimacy of their claim by marrying Halitar’s daughter, Mara.  Mara was not interested in any suitors, and announced that she would claim the throne for herself.  Some lords considered this a joke, but Mara, who had learned the art of swordplay from her father, showed the lords that she was not to be laughed at by disemboweling several of them in the Council chambers.  The rest quickly crowned her Queen Mara (831-838). 

Mara pushed the authority of the crown to its limits, as she herself took charge of the Druth army at Erien.  The soldiers were at first reluctant to follow her, but she showed that she also had a keen tactical mind, and under her command, they routed the Patymics.

Her rule did get her many enemies though, most notably Lord Ferrick of Abernar.  Lord Ferrick, at first covertly and then openly, attacked the legitimacy of her rule.  He did this, though, by challenging the legitimacy of Halitar II’s claim to the throne.  Ferrick himself also descended from Cedidore, through the second eldest son (though it was not a straight male line), and therefore by all rights his family should hold the royal position.  His supporters grew, and eventually rose up against Queen Mara.  Mara refused to give up the throne, fighting to the last.  According to legend, she defended the throne room in the Royal Palace, killing twenty knights before she was slain, and she died on the throne still holding her sword.

And thus Ferrick (838-861) was made king.    Despite the bloody beginnings of it, his rule was quite benign and enlightened.  Druthal’s peaceful relations with the power bloc of Kesta, Opiska and Yinara allowed for increased trade.  Druthal also negotiated with various Fuergan and Imach traders, creating diplomatic enclaves at the harbors of Kyst and Maradaine, which made those ports more attractive for foreign ships than Lacanja or Yoleanne.  The shipyards of Kyst worked to build up a strong Druth Navy.

The situation in the east began to become active again.  The Ringfire Clan of Waisholm claimed that Acoria was their ancestral home, and since a Ringfire now sat on the Waish throne, the clans
all came together and attacked Acoria.  The army of Acoria was in no way prepared for the full might of Waisholm, and the entire country was overrun in 845.  Several hundred refugees took to fishing vessels to escape the Waish, traveling along the northern coast and then turning south until they eventually landed on one of the northernmost Napolic islands, where they formed New Acoria.

The Kierans then declared war on Waisholm for these actions.  They pulled out all of their “peacekeeping” legions from the west and Kellirac to attack the Waish in Acoria.  The Waish responded to the Kierans, and soon the two nations were fully at war with each other.

Through the 850’s, the Scallics and the Linjari became unable to continue their war, as both sides were so utterly drained of resources and men from the effort.  The border between the two was called “The Wall of Bones”, for it was literally a barrier made of eight generations of their dead.  Acserians send relief to both nations in exchange for a cessation of hostilities.  The two nations agreed, and the Acserians came with relief, food, and the word of God, all of which they spread throughout the two nations. 

By the reign of Ferrick II (861-883) the Acserian church had taken a strong hold of the Scallic people.  It had also spread into southern Monim, as well as into Kesta and Yinara.  In Linjar, in didn’t take as strong a hold, as the Linjari loved what the Acserians would call “sin and hedonism”.  Eastern trade is disrupted when the Tyzanian Empire falls apart, throwing its entire continent into turmoil.

It was during the reign of Ferrick III (883-903) that the institution of slavery (as is allowed by Acserian doctrine) came back into fashion in Scaloi and the southern parts of Monim, usually using Linjari for slaves.  The people in northern Monim were appalled by this and in 892 they broke off from the southerners, creating North Monim.  Since a majority of the Monic army was northern, they were able to effectively create and guard the border.  They declare the practice of Acserianism to be illegal in North Monim.

Tenth Century
Acserianism has a hold on all of the people of the west, with the exception of Linjar and Opiska, when Ferrick IV (903-915) comes into power.  The real test of this comes in 907, when Allynum, an extreme member of the Fundamentalist side of the Church, is elected Rei.  He passes a number of anti-magic and anti-tolerance laws in Acseria, and a number of the Druth nations follow suit.  Druthal itself does not, as Ferrick IV is not a believer in Acserianism.  A large number of the Druth people are amongst the faithful, though, and there is a growing feeling that the king does not speak with the voice of authority since he has no faith in God.  The people rally around Kellith, second cousin to Ferrick, and a vocal proponent of the Acserian faith.  Faced against this, Ferrick abdicates the throne and exiles himself to Corvia.  Kellith takes the throne and the people rejoice, although later most historians would call him Kellith the Cruel (915-934).

Kellith immediately declared that Druthal would again be a whole nation, starting with the heathens of Opiska.  The Druth Army thundered into Opiska.  Both Kesta and Yinara then declared war on Druthal, although they did not ally themselves together.  Opiska became the burning battleground for their three-way war.  Kellith also would take any opposition to his orders, even to the point of slight disagreement, as a challenge to his power, and since he was on the Druth throne by the divine right of God, it was a challenge of God, and therefore heresy.  Heretics, by his decree, were to be tortured and crucified.  The Druth nobility quickly took up the policy of staying quiet.

Since the Druth attention was focused in the south, Erien and the surrounding countryside was left undefended.  In 919 the Patymics moved in on this opportunity, capturing the territory with almost no resistance.  Patyma, Oblune and North Monim also signed a mutual defense treaty, as the Waish/Kieran war had now spilled over into Brellin and Kellirac.  The Kings of these three nations also affirmed that the Rei of Acseria would get no foothold in their countries, and the northwest became the only safe area for free thinkers and practicing mages.

In 934 Kellith and several of his close advisors die during dinner, which was obviously poisoned.  His son takes the throne as Kellith II (934-938), and various lords persuade him that he is needed on the war front.  He goes, giving the group of lords who were plotting against the line of Kellith some latitude.  They wished to remove him from the throne, but needed a suitable replacement that the people would accept without hesitation.  As they discuss in secret, a breakthrough is reached when Baron Culathain casually mentioned the differences between the Acseram and Kellith would quote and the one he possessed. 

Some of the other lords examined his copy, mostly out of idle curiosity, and found it to be almost a millennium old.  Culathain explained that the book had stayed in his family for all these generations, noting the record of births that had been written in the back of the book for the past centuries.  This record revealed (unbeknownst to Culathain) that this Acseram was given to the first King Maradaine by Galena as a gift, and the lineage it marked was Maradaine’s—Culathain was a direct descendant of the first king of Druthal!  Knowing they now had the strongest possible claim to make on the throne, this discovery was announced to the populace.  It was met with skepticism until Kanna Ishien, the Church’s representative in Maradaine, verified the authenticity of the book.  Kellith II got the news and rushed to Maradaine to find himself neatly deposed, and Culathain being coronated Maradaine VII (938-964).

Maradaine VII quietly ceded the war in Opiska, pulling Druth troops out.  The Kestans quickly moved in and annexed the area.  Neither the Kestans nor the Yinarans gave up on fighting Druthal, though, as both armies began to push at the southern border, forcing Maradaine to keep the bulk of his troops there to defend it.  By 940 these armies stop trying to invade Druthal, but keep their forces at the border as well.

The next few decades are marked with a “quiet, uneasy peace” in which most countries took up an attitude of isolationism, as it seemed the slightest misstep might trigger a new war.  The only contact between nations was through the Acserians, who had missionaries and ambassadors throughout the Druth Nations.  All nations began to build their armies and hoard as much gold as possible, knowing that some great war was coming.  The lowest classes suffered the most from this, as they were heavily taxed. 

Druth ships started traveling east again during the reign of Maradaine VIII (964-988).  In the wake of the fall of the Tyzanian Empire, the territory known as Bürgin had become a major power, showing dominance on the oceans.  Another major power in the midst of several petty kingdoms was Lyrana, which seemed to be holding on to several Tyzanian traditions.  Neither country seemed to be worth trading with, however. 

As Maradaine IX (988-1009) came into power the tension between the nations was intense.  All borders were closed, except for between Patyma, Oblune and North Monim. 

Working on a working space

I do most of my writing work on my laptop.  This is mostly out of practicality, in that I kind of need to be mobile and write when and where I get the chance.  Right now I'm in a bookstore, and once I finish this entry I'll do a bit on Way of the Shield before I have to go again.  I do know that I'm fortunate in that I can work just about anywhere.  In my briefcase I can easily carry my laptop, power cord, memory stick, headphones and notebooks and pens.  Boom, instant workspace anywhere I need.

Heck, I wrote a sizable chunk of Maradaine Constabulary in the car driving out to West Texas. (I was in the passenger seat riding; I didn't write and drive at the same time.) 

But getting really productive writing done takes getting into the mode, into the rhythm, and that is kind of challenging if one needs to move around. 

On the other hand, I have a desk with the desktop, and sometimes I find working there a bit stifling.  Possibly because it's in our guest bedroom, so in some ways it feels like the space isn't "mine".

On top of that, I just received the poster-sized maps of Maradaine, Druthal and the whole world they are a part of.  They're really pretty, if I do say so, though I recognize that I'm the only person dorkish enough to care about such a thing.  But part of my "workspace problem" is figuring out where I'm going to hand these things.

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One side point: If you're thinking about going to ArmadilloCon and haven't firmly decided yet, the reduced convention rate for a hotel room expires on Thursday (August 4th) and 5PM Central Time.  You know it'll be a lot of fun, and you want to go.  Yes, you.

Another Map for another busy day

Today's post is another map.  A lot going on this week.  Maybe the next post will be a guided culinary tour through Druthal...

Worldbuilding: Food and Regionalism

Here are some choice passages from the intro of a book that most people probably wouldn't think of in terms of worldbuilding, especially fantasy/sci-fi worldbuilding:

In bald terms, terroir refers to the soil, climate and topography of a microregion, and pinpoints what makes an ingredient grown in one place taste different from the same ingredient grown in another.
But terroir isn't merely rainfall, mineral content, and angles of exposure to sunlight.  no matter where we're form, terroir is our cultural and historical link to the land, the expression of the land itself and the people who live there.
         --Country Cooking of France, Anne Willan

Defining regions, when it comes to worldbuilding, is a big part of a shift from macro-worldbuilding to micro-building.  The food people raise says a lot about who they are and the way they live.  Especially in any sort of pre-industrial setting, where a hundred miles of distance could may as well be a world away. 

The basic staples of domesticatible animals and major crops will only give you so much definition (unless you really go to town in building all new flora and fauna, in which case, I salute you)... but the minor variations of culinary regionalism can give you a wealth of details to color your world with.  Then you can even take a basic dish-- say a stewed chicken-- and then add in two or three ingredients that define the region, and you have a traditional regional dish. 

Travelers in Druthal could therefore have Chicken Thalin (in the eastern region of the Archudchy of Sauriya), cooked with onions, carrots and mustard seed, and then cross the Maradaine River into the Toren region of Maradaine Archduchy, where the local dish is stewed in cabbage and beer.  (And, of course, Toren locals might give funny looks to a bunch of bulbmouths from Thalin coming over.  But that's just what those cabbage-eaters do, isn't it?)