Country Spotlight: Vesmain

 This week, the spotlight is on Vesmain.

Vesmain's setting isn't as fleshed out or detailed as Preycia's, but I do have the main information down. Vesmain is also a peninsula, though one with more land mass and connection to the larger continent than Preycia. To the northwest, Vesmain is bordered by the Malarsard Waters and to the southeast they have the Tisrane Bay. The fact that they control Iutharia and Fleyye, countries that also border the bay, means that they have complete control over the Tisrane Bay. Vesmain also shares land borders with Iutharia, Sasnya, Bohl, and Zethea. 

Vesmain is a land of gently sloping hills, rolling fields, and forests. There are meadows and marshlands, outside of the cities. Overall, the appearance is very industrial. Factories and churches are common. The warm sand beaches are off-limits to tourists and civilians as Vesmain is using them for their navy and military training exercises. 

Country Spotlight: Preycia & A World-Building Ramble

 I decided that this week instead of giving you more information about a flag from a nation from my current project that's drawing all my attention, I'd do a spotlight of a country. I think that's going to be the format for things going forward so you'll get flag information and also information about the country so you have a better idea about the people. 

This week, we'll start off with Preycia.

I've given you information about Preycia's flag in a previous post, such as the fact that it is also the coat of arms of the Arnuanna family, the ruling family of Preycia. I've mentioned about Sarai and his father, the tensions and briefly the diplomatic relations between Preycia and Vesmain, and some of more important events from Preycian history, which you can find in the Year End Wrap Up posts. 

This post will cover a bit more about actual setting of Preycia. 

Preycia is a peninsula, bordered on the south by the Gulf of Bientou, the east by the country of Leskovin which was mentioned in the last post, the north by the frigid Alcier Sea, and the west by the Malarsard Waters. The eastern border is marked by mountains, most specifically the Adamantine Peaks, a mountain range that contains Preycia's tallest mountain, the 10,000 foot Irosevain Summit. 

The beaches and shores of Preycia are known for their white sand and very picturesque. They'd be perfect for tourism if not for the rather chilly temperatures. That said, the local Preycians still enjoy time at the beach and, given that Preycia is a peninsula, it is safe to assume that seafood is big part of their cuisine and fishing part of their culture. Of course, for those not into the beach scene, the northern shore has the Wintara Cliffs, fjords that boast stunning views.

Regarding climate, most of the western and northern coasts have a mild climate and are prone to sea storms while the southern coast and part of the western coast have an oceanic-to-subpolar oceanic climate which means they have mild summers and cool winters. The mountains have an alpine climate with a lack of warm summers and very few trees, if any, due to the elevation. Most of inland Preycia has a subarctic climate which leads to long, cold winters and short, cool summers. 

Preycia has a wide variety of plants and animals, despite the chilly environment. Most of their plants include pine, spruce, mosses, and lichens. Wildlife is the most varied, especially their aquatic life. Beaked whales, narwhals, razorback whales, ringed seals, cod, and other fish all call the waters home. The air is home to ospreys near the sea, snowy owls, gulls, pigeons, doves, great crested grebes, and even geese and swans. Ermines, polar foxes, reindeer, muskox, and wolves also call Preycia home, though they aren't often seen near people if they can avoid it. 

Preycia has a thriving navy, their ships mostly in the Gulf of Bientou. That said, their airships are primarily constructed in bases along the Wintara Cliffs. Their submarines that no other nation is aware they're working on are being constructed in the fjords as well due to how shielded they are from potential spies. 

Those familiar with Earth geography can likely guess that I've based Preycia on Norway even though there are a few more countries more northern than Preycia that might fight the geography and climate of Norway better. Well, as the blog says, "life: a rough draft." This is just a rough draft of a project idea. Though I have a map that I'm working from to have an idea where my countries are, I'm not sharing the map and even if I do share it eventually there's no reason to think that it would be the map that would be used as the final product.

I'm not a professional cartographer. I'm not an expert at mapping out climate zones and whatnot. But, I am a writer and a world-builder so I can do that. I research. I know the look I want for the world and the feel I want for certain countries so what my job is, is to capture that with words so that when the editing is all done and someone with more skill than me is told to make the map they know where to put which country. 

That's just a note to world-builders out there: You don't have to be the best at everything. You don't have to do everything for your idea. You don't have to create the map, make the language, draw the characters, or any of that. You can just write down the basics or you can just write your idea. It's awesome if you can do all of that, but you don't have to.

Yes, Tolkien created an entire language for Lord of the Rings. And that is really awesome, and believe me I have considered it and gone, "You know, I really want to do that, and it makes sense that there would be at least a few different languages in this project." But then I've thought about what actually goes into language, and linguistic studies, and realized that yes, that would be cool and something I would absolutely love if this project were ever to become something else, like a TV series where there would be people other than me working on it, but that at this point, it's not feasible for me.

Yes, I made a map and flags. These aren't the finished products. These are what I'm using currently to have an idea for where everything is because, as the Year End Wrap Up posts indicate this is a far-reaching story that involves crusades, curses, assassinations, gold rushes, revolutions, wars, and all of that. That's also why I have the flags. Having the flags and an idea for the meanings behind the flag colors and symbols give me ideas what the people of those countries value, what is important to them economically and spiritually, what they're like. All of these are import for figuring out setting which helps in the long run. Will the flags and map stay the same if/when this is finished and published? Likely no. Chances are, professionals will be involved in those aspects, but at least they'll have something to work from. 

So yeah, a note to all world-builders and writers out there: You don't have to do it all. You can just write. You can do as much or as little as you need to for your project as you want. There's nothing wrong with not world-building and making it up as you go, but there's also not wrong with having a lot of it figured out or at least having enough information seeded in that you're excited to explore the whole history of your world because it feels real. 

World-Building: A Bit About A New Nation

 Last week, I threatened promised that I would mention more about the flags of other nations in the project that I'm world-building. Well, a fact that my fiancé knows about me, but that I haven't mentioned is that I love to make PowerPoint presentations. This is important because I have made a PowerPoint feature the meanings of all the flags of the nations and keep adding to it as I add nations flags. 

Anyway, this was just a little bit of a detour because this past week, eight new nations were created and they could potentially rival the Vesmain Empire. They certainly serve as a reason for why Fleyye and Askington were willing to join the Vesmain Empire via treaty and why the leader of Preycia sent Sarai to negotiate with Vesmain. So, allow me to introduce you to the Leskovin Federation.

This is the flag of the nation Leskovin and the unofficial flag of the Leskovin Federation. The nation of Leskovin has been conquering and allying with the nations around it to form the federation. They share a border with Preycia, though this border is divided by a mountain range which has been discouraging them from advancing toward Preycia. 

The white, as we learned last time we talked about flags, stands for sincerity, peace, purity, and harmony while the green is agricultural influence, prosperity, fertility, and hope. These are crossed by a blood red chevron representing bloodshed, military prowess, war, power, and domination. And over top of all of it is a blue dove--blue for determination, liberation, alertness, good fortune, strength, and loyalty, and a dove for peace, gentleness, and purity. 

I'll leave it here for now because I will be working more on world-building the world. The climates, geographies, cultures, politics, and all that of all the various nations. Yes, all the current nations. I'll also be working on figuring out things that they specialize in (so that I can stop joking about Obriona exporting assassins and Vesmain being masters of long curses, even if it's true). 

World-Building and Reading

 I haven't done much work this week, mostly because I discovered a love for alternate history novels and finished reading Days of Infamy by Harry Turtledove and began the sequel End of the Beginning. I did, however, get a few things done regarding the world-building that I've been doing on this project. Last time I posted about the project, I mentioned that I made flags and said that I might share them. This is the time.

Now, much like flags and coats of arms in our world, the colors and symbols on the flags in this world have meanings. In most cases, the meanings are the same as they are in the real world. There are a few symbols on the flags that I couldn't find any meaning for so I had to make one up, and those I'll indicate as we come to them. 

For information about symbols seen on coats of arms, I used this website and for flag color information, I went here. 

The first flag I'll be sharing is also the coat of arms for the Arnuanna family, which if you've been following the history lessons, you'll remember are the royal family of Preycia. 

The purple stands for nobility, sovereignty, and justice while the white (which is also considered silver in coat of arms) stands for sincerity, purity, peace, and harmony. The blue seen on the goat represents determination, liberation, alertness, good fortune, strength, and loyalty. The goat itself stands for practical wisdom, victory through diplomacy rather than force, working hard to achieve high honors, and a belief of having god on their side while the swan shows perfection, beauty, grace, a lover of poetry and harmony, and a learned person. 

As you can tell, all of that stands for everything the Preycia royal family represents: education, diplomacy, the belief that they are destined to rule by gods-given right. It is interesting in that while Preycia isn't the only monarchy, they are the only country to have the color purple in their flag and for their flag to be the coat of arms of their royal family. 

I'll only discuss one more flag in this post and that is the flag of the Vesmain Empire. 

The red stands for bloodshed, military prowess, war, power, and domination while the black stands for determination and defeat of enemies. The white, as was stated before, stands for sincerity, purity, peace, and harmony, which, given what we know about the Vesmain Empire seems completely wrong and inaccurate. Except, remember, their religion is Order of the White Wolf. In this case, the color is chosen more to represent their deity than for what it means. The wolf itself stands for loyalty, ferociousness, mercilessness, and a deadly enemy to have as well as representing their deity. 

As with the Preycia flag, this flag stands for everything the Vesmain Empire represents. Vesmain allows the conquered nations to continue flying their flags, though flags that contain animals will have to remove them as animals--barring the white wolf seen in their flag--are forbidden from being represented as that would take worship from their deity. The conquered nation of Zethea has yet to remove the crane from their flag and, so far, Vesmain hasn't pressed the issue. 

Ringing in the New Year with World Building

 Hope everyone had a good holiday season. 

Over the holidays, I had a bit of a computer malfunction so my posts may not be as frequent as they were last year due to laptop difficulties, but I'll make a good try of it. 

Also over the holidays, I did a fair bit of world-building when I wasn't visiting every used bookstore near my mom's and hunting for alternate history books because I've found a new genre that I enjoy. This means that the 53 index cards for the timeline grew to 56 and are still growing. Thanks to a wonderful website for creating a coat of arms (which can be found here), I now have flags that represent the nations involved in the world from my still untitled project. There will be more information about those flags, the colors, and the nations they represent in upcoming posts. 

In this post, I'll share a little about a character who was mentioned in the recent history lesson: Sarai Arnuanna. Sarai is the only son of the ruler of Preycia, Keyleth Arnuanna, who ascended to the throne after the assassination of his father. Despite the potential danger in sending Sarai to the heart of the Vesmain Empire to negotiate, Keyleth sent Sarai (and a couple bodyguards, he's not a fool) in a luxury Preycian liner (but not a luxury airship, which would have been the traditional way for Sarai to travel) to the capital city of Vesmain where he is to negotiate and sign a treaty between their two nations. 

Sarai arrives in Vesmain dressed in the national royal dress of Preycia, decked out in diplomatic adornments that house mind-bending magic to encourage others to bend to their will. He is confident that this will be a simple enough mission and that the treaty will work well in their favor. He doesn't want to let his father down as this is the first time his father has trusted him with something so important. 

Naturally, as I mentioned in the recent history lesson post, things go completely wrong and Preycia ends up at war with Vesmain. 

Year End Wrap Up Part 4: A Recent History Lesson

 So, in the last post, I mentioned several events in my new project's timeline that were more recent and that because of that they deserved their own post. Today is the day for a recent history lesson.

One of the first events that's ongoing at the start of the project was actually mentioned early on in the last post: the Second Crusade Against Heresy. Since the majority of the last post was about it, I won't revisit it here.

The next event that's ongoing is the Lemming Pox Outbreak. Yes, it sounds cute and light-hearted. It isn't. Characterized externally by small sores, Lemming Pox is a magical disease that was never intended to get out but it did and things have gone downhill from there, especially since sufferers are rendered very susceptible to suggestion. I'll let you ponder for a moment how very bad that can be. The country of Uthauvania is enduring this outbreak and trying to deal with it, though this is made much more complicated by the Chieria Gold Rush.

The Chieria Gold Rush is, as the name suggests, a rush of people into the nation of Chieria following the discovery of gold. Most of the people entering Chieria are citizens of the volcanic nation of Othary and the previously mentioned Uthauvania. 

Chieria is just striking out as far as luck is concerned. Chieria, you see, finds itself in the very beginning stages of a revolution, the Marked Insurrection. The people are rather displeased with the royal family for allowing the imperial guards to kill unarmed protesters. 

And finally, the most recent event, the one that actually starts after the project does: the War of Broken Pacts. The whole project idea started with the idea that a diplomat from Preycia, Sarai Arnuanna (son of Keyleth Arnuanna), visits Vesmain in an attempt to negotiate a treaty that works out heavily in favor of Preycia, but things go wrong and, following an attack on the meeting, Preycia and Vesmain are officially in a state of war. 

Those are the most recent, ongoing events in the fictional history of this project. At least, that's as far as I've gotten so far. This project is still ongoing as I've decided to add more countries which will mean more index cards, more long curses, and more current events. 

Hope you've enjoyed this little fictional history lesson. There will be no post next week as I'll be taking a break from posting to enjoy the holidays. Posts will resume in January. Have good holidays, everyone.

Year End Wrap Up Part 3: A Continued History Lesson

 In the last post, I said that the country of Vesmain from my newest writing project has continued their history of expansion through conquest and said that that was a history lesson for another post. That's this post. 

The first country that Vesmain conquered during their Second Crusade Against Heresy (which they started following the Prophecy of Heresy) was the nation of Struydan, which was enduring a plague at the time and in no condition to fight an invading army. Following that, though, Struydan did make several medical advancements, both mundane and magical. 

The next target of the Vesmain Empire was the city-state Bohl, which was still recovering from the Battle of the Drained Sea, where they fought against the nation of Zethea over salt resources. Being a small city-state and recovering from a very recent battle, Bohl didn't stand a chance. 

Of course, Zethea was having its own problems following the Battle of the Drained Sea. Not everyone had approved of the battle with Bohl so Zethea was dealing with an uprising. This gave Vesmain the perfect opportunity to invade and conquer, which made the whole battle between Zethea and Bohl moot. 

The next nation Vesmain went after was the southern country of Sasnya, which suffers frequent severe droughts and is prone to wildfires. The War of Burning Plains is used as an example in the Vesmain military of why it is important to know the weather and climate of the place you are invading as they were unaware of this at the time and attacked a field with their newest invention: flamethrowers. The Vesmain army did not expect the fire to spread as far or as fast as it did, and a temporary truce was called so both sides could combat the fire. In the end, though, Sasnya became yet another part of the Vesmain Empire. 

Of course, Sasnya didn't just willingly submit to Vesmain's rule. A city in Sasnya, Chason, rebelled and began to gather support from outlying towns and villages. Vesmain couldn't have that and quickly crushed the rebellion by destroying the city. The ruins have been left untouched, a reminder of what will happen to those who fight against the might of the Vesmain Empire. 

Meanwhile, other nations have watched the Vesmain Empire's conquest. One of these nations, Fleyye, requests to join the empire through a treaty and thus avoid a war. The ruler of Vesmain agrees and the Treaty of Ma'az is signed in Fleyye's capital. 

Fleyye's neighbor to the north, Askington, is less eager to join the empire. The presence of the Vesmain army in Fleyye increases tensions and leads to the Vesmain army invading Askington during a lunar eclipse which starts what becomes known as the Battle of the Eclipse. The battle raged for several months until finally, Askington requested a treaty. The treaty, signed in the capital of Askington, is officially known as the Treaty of Knosk but has the nickname amongst Askington natives as the Treaty of Extortion due to how heavily it favored Vesmain. 

For awhile, Vesmain's conquest ceased. Following the Treaty of Knosk, the Deathbell Curse, a long curse that targets a family line was levied against the family of the current ruler of Vesmain, Katyr Lurona. Long curses are something that Vesmain specializes in. There were no witnesses to this curse being cast. Months later, Katyr Lurona was assassinated and her assassin (Valida Durthane of Obriona) attempted to frame Wistari Qidan of Preycia, the brother-in-law of the then-leader, Azaki Arnuanna. After investigations revealed the truth, Wistari was permitted to return to Preycia and the new leader of Vesmain (Ruvyn Syljeon) cast a long curse against the country of Obriona, Curse of the Hallowed, which would take a long time to come to fruition. This is when the tensions began between Preycia and Vesmain.

During all of this, Preycia has been making advancements to ships and airships. The leader of Preycia, Azaki Arnuanna orders steel-hulled ships invented and, following the discovery of helium reserves, orders airships for luxury travel. This worries the country of Obriona and prompts Eremon Strakeln to assassinate Azaki Arnuanna which leads to his son, Keyleth Arnuanna, ascending the throne. Keyleth, unlike his father, encourages a focus on military advancements such as weapons for their ships, aircraft-carrying capabilities for their airships, and submarines. 

The most recent country added to Vesmain's empire is the country of Iutharia following the Assault of Fasad, which was an attack on their capital city where the Vesmain army destroyed a statue of a beloved Iutharian leader.

Shortly after the conquering of Iutharia, Vesmain received the Prophecy of War, which spoke of a war that would consume the world. 

Obviously, these are not the only nations involved and there is more history that's been left out such as the discovery of a planet, the Chieria Gold Rush, the Marked Insurrection, the Lemming Pox Outbreak (which is not as cute and light-hearted as it sounds), and the War of Broken Pacts. Those last four are more recent history (as in, ongoing at the time the project is set to start) so I think that those warrant their own post. 

I will, however, end this post by stating that only in nations that aren't part of the Vesmain Empire is it possible to learn about or even mention that there has been a new planet discovered. In the nations that are part of the Vesmain Empire, that knowledge is suppressed. 

Year End Wrap Up Part 2: A New Hobby & A Fictional History Lesson

 Over Thanksgiving, after an impromptu art lesson I hadn't planned on participating in, I discovered that I rather enjoy painting. One sketchbook purchase later and it turns out that I'm pretty good when it comes to drawing if I look at a reference photo. 

I'm pretty proud of how my frog turned out. I'm going to continue nurturing my art skills now that I'm not spending my time looking at my work and comparing it unfavorably to others' as I did through my youth. I spent a long time hating that my art wasn't like this person's or that person's, but now, I've realized it's okay. I'm proud of what I can do when it comes to drawing. My fiancé wants me to sketch out things on their canvases when they paint and our roommate wants me to draw a frog on a canvas for them too.

I mentioned that I finished the timeline for the random project that I started in November. I'm now in the process of culture building. First, though, I think I should mention a couple important events from the timeline. It's still lacking dates, but it's in order.

The first event: The creation of the national religion of Preycia, one of the main countries that is involved in the main conflict at the start of the novel. The Oracles of the Attuned is a polytheistic religion that preaches that the ruling family, the Arnuanna family, are blessed by the gods above all others and the Oracles of the gods.

Preycia is a country on a peninsula in a northern portion of the world. They have a large navy, which following the discovery of helium reserves, includes airships that also serve as airborne aircraft carriers (which is based on the USS Akron and USS Macon, which were operated by the United States Navy in the 1930s). Preycia also pioneered the invention of luxury ocean liners and airships. While they have a substantial navy, they don't have much in the way of an army. They have royal guards, but no real army.

The second and third event, which blend together: The creation of the national religion of Vesmain and the creation of the nation of Vesmain itself. The Order of the White Wolf is a monotheistic religion that focuses worship on the god, the white wolf Fenris. It forbids graven images of animals and people (with the exception of the white wolf depicted on their flag) as creating the images robs Fenris of his worship. 

At around this time, Aeson Vesmain, the founder of the Order of the White Wolf, led his army on The First Crusade Against Heresy. Those who would not convert and could not flee to neighboring countries were killed. By the end of this bloody war, Aeson Vesmain declared the land his army cleared as their nation and named it Vesmain, after himself. 

Vesmain, as a nation, kept its military and religious history. They have a large standing army and maintain a military dictatorship with strong ties to the church. They have also continued their history of expansion through conquest. But that is a history lesson for another post.

Year End Wrap Up

Goodness, where did the year go?

Figured I'd kick December off with a year-end wrap-up. 

November 23rd, one of our ducks laid their first egg and we're very proud of them. They're all grown up now and it's been quite an experience raising them from little ducklings to full-grown ducks. 

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I spent part of it working on The Agency. Thanks to a lovely writer whose Discord group I joined (shout-out to Liz Bloom!) who shared the website Neural Blender, I now have a cover that I am rather fond of. 

Regarding The Agency, the current word count is sitting somewhere around 83 thousand and I'll be sharing a couple more entries in January. I'm also going to begin working either finding a publisher or getting things together to self-publish.

Now, I didn't win NaNoWriMo and didn't spend the entire month writing. That is because I spent the latter half of the month working on creating a map and timeline of a fictional world because I got it into my head that I wanted to write an alternate history (which, being fair, some of the stories from The Agency could be seen as that) after November. That led to me realizing I don't actually have enough knowledge of history to be able to write an alternate version of it which led to me going, "Well, fine, I'll just write a fantasy setting involving technology on par with World War I and throw in magic because I can." 

Well, that led to me needing to know which countries are involved, where they are, what was invented when, what wars happened when, and other important events. Soon enough, I had so many index cards scattered around me and color-coded that it looked like I was studying for a history exam except I was the one making the history. 

That also meant that I made a map. At first, I did the "cheating from Earth" method listed in The Magical World Builder's Guide that I've shared before. Well, I wanted to see the full continent so that led to me taking pieces of the coastlines and mashing them together. It worked pretty well, in my opinion. Of course, then I started thinking about where the countries were in relation to each other. I still don't have one of the main countries listed on the map quite yet. I'm going to be doing a fair bit of work on the map still. Mostly making several versions of it to show the geographic features and things expected to be seen on maps, roads, railways, the extent of the empire, the country borders, and a variety of other features. 

I've just finished the timeline with a whopping 53 index cards. 

It still needs dates, but at least the important events are listed. I was having difficulty visualizing my timeline until I used the index cards that I had saved up from my college days. (I tend to hoard office supplies, a bit like a dragon hoarding gold.)

I've been working on this for half of November and will continue working on it until other ideas call to me. This wasn't even supposed to be as big a project as it was. I wanted to write a simple war story (though what war story is ever simple?) and that led to wanting to write an alternate history and that led to this whole project. I'm having a fair amount of fun with it and trying to blend magic and technology. I'd like to think I'm doing a good job. 

I'll be sharing more of this throughout December.