World Building and
Warfare
James A. Moore
So I recently
finished writing an article on world building, and that works well for me here,
because I’m still in that mind set. It’s a different sort of thing, really. I’m
used to writing horror more than I am fantasy and that gives me a handy
shortcut to take, because horror is usually set in the modern day and in the
world we currently live in. There are exceptions, of course, but not really all
that many. Even if I decide to set a story in the era of the Western Expansion
in the United States, it’s still this world and only a little research is
required to work out the details of how different the world is now from what it
was then. To be sure, there are some very radical differences, but ultimately
the work has already been done.
That’s not the
case when you’re creating a completely new world. Just as basic information, I
have to consider the history of that world, the cultures that have evolved in
that world, the people of that world and the geo-political boundaries of that
world.
Let’s break that
down a bit more, if you don’t mind. I promise I’ll keep it brief.
The History of the
World:
In the world of
the Seven Forges, the history is significant and a great deal of it has been
lost in time. SEVEN FORGES deals very heavily with the fact that the largest
empire on the planet—very possibly the only
empire on the planet—is vast and old. How old? Over one thousand years. Any
way you look at it, that covers a lot of time. In the case of the Fellein
Empire, they’ve had a peaceful run of things for most of four hundred years.
They have their traditions and they have certainly kept up with running the
Imperial Army and protecting their borders, but they haven’t really had
anything to protect themselves from. The empire eliminated all of their biggest
threats a long time ago.
Except, of course,
that history is always there. Somewhere past the Blasted Lands, an area
devastated during the very early formative years of the empire, there is a land
filled with people who’ve spent the last thousand years honing their martial
skills and working to become the absolute pinnacle of human perfection. They’ve
lived hard lives, brutal and violent lives and they’ve studied every form of
combat they could think of, all with the notion of serving their gods. They are
fanatical in their devotion and they are physically superior to the average
member of the Fellein Empire because of the lives they are forced to live.
The two groups
have a shared history and you want to know the most important part of that
history? They each remember it very differently. Therein lies a significant
part of the story.
Cultures:
It’s not something
I really had to think about in the past. A little research, a few pages from
history books and a news article or two and I had all I needed to know about
most cultures. The difference, again, is that I made a new world. The only
cultures here are the once I create.
The Seven Forges
has seven different countries wrapped into their own religious doctrines and
run as separate entities, crammed into a relatively small area. For one
thousand years they have struggled between each other, occasionally formed
alliances, often faced the same threats at the same times and dealt with crime
and punishment in their own ways.
They have followed
seven different gods that have decidedly changed the ways in which those
kingdoms deal with each other. They have never been properly united as an
empire. Instead they have dealt with each other as enemies and on many
occasions as necessary evils. And all that time, they’ve been consciously aware
of the fact that they were, as a people, studying the art of war and becoming,
as individuals, the best possible warriors.
They have several
different languages and they have their own unique ways of dealing with their
pantheon of gods, with the hostile environment right outside of their valley
and the belief that somewhere, out beyond the desolation of the Blasted Lands,
there are other people who will eventually come to the and change their world
completely.
The Fellein Empire
is built of several different kingdoms. It’s a loose conglomeration of nations
that deal with each other amiably because there are no real threats and because
they have known prosperity for a long time. They share a political government
and each kingdom or region has its own geography, culture and traditions in
addition to the traditions of the Empire.
Beyond that Empire
there are several other kingdoms that are, mostly, unseen by the people of
Fellein. They are simply too far distant to have much of an impact on their
lives.
That will change,
of course, but the point is that I have to develop those different cultures.
I can look to the
history of our world for a part of that, of course, but not for all of it.
There have to be differences or I’m just cheating and copying what already
exists. That would be far less interesting and, frankly, far less fun.
I have to follow a
certain logic with all that I do, and to an extent human nature helps with what
happens, but before I can create those new countries I have to understand the
aforementioned history of each area. I have to know how they’ve reacted to each
other and whether or not there is bad blood between these different nations and
countries and neighbors.
I have to consider
their religions, their economies, their pasts and their present situations. I
have to anticipate how those situations will change as the story progresses.
The People of the
World:
The culture and
history of the world are all part and parcel for the people of the world. The
people are byproducts of both, really. There are places in Fellein where
slavery is perfectly acceptable. There are areas, as explain in SEVEN FORGES,
where it just plain isn’t wise for a member of the fairer sex to move out on
her own unless she wants to risk being assaulted. Of course, there are also
females in the same world who make mincemeat of the type of scum who would
attempt to take unwanted advantage.
The two sides of
the coin in this particular tale are the people of Fellein, a very large and
diverse empire with vastly different ethnicities, and the Sa’ba Taalor a single
people isolated from the rest of the world for a thousand years.
Let’s take a step
back for a moment, shall we? I already said that there are seven separate
nations in the Taalor Valley. That’s the truth. But they are seven nations with
one people. They share a very closed environment. No one from outside of the
Seven Forges has come into the area willingly in a thousand years and those
that have? Well, that’s for another story as yet to be revealed. But they are
one people with multiple cultures. They do not have the same diversity that has
shown up in a thousand-year-old empire.
Culture shock is
inevitable and, for me at least, fun.
I moved around a
lot as a kid. I counted it once and I went to a total of seventeen schools in
my twelve years of public schooling. I lived in five different states and
multiple cities, towns and counties in the process. I loved meeting new people
and going to new places when I wasn’t busy dreading the exact same things. I
loved meeting new people when they weren’t actively hostile toward anyone who
was an outsider. Happened more than you might expect. I kept that in mind when
I started writing SEVEN FORGES, but I also tried to remember the sense of
wonder when I saw new things and met new people.
Geo-Political
Borders:
They are only
important for one reason: They can alter the course of armies. It might be easy
to attack a neighboring nation if the land between you is wide open fields, a
little farmland and a creek or two, but throw in a mountain pass, a serious
collection of hills and valleys or an ocean and suddenly the war takes on a
different meaning.
In this case we
have the Blasted Lands. Listen; in the books the Blasted Lands are bad enough.
Expeditions have tried for hundreds of years to get past them with no real
luck. Those that came back did so without any success at all and a lot never
came back. There are raging storms, bitter cold winds, horrid living conditions
and things out in that darkness. They never go away.
Anyone attempting
to travel through that madness to have a fight has to come prepared for a great
deal of inconvenience. Or, they need to have been dealing with negotiating the
hideous conditions for the last ten or so centuries. You know, like the Sa’ba
Taalor.
The one potential
advantage the Fellein Empire has is that the Sa’ba Taalor are forbidden to go
anywhere near the wreckage that the people of the valley call “the Mounds.” The
bad news? There are things in the
Mounds and those things do not play nicely with others.
For the Empire
there has been no challenge for a very long time. For the Sa’ba Taalor every
day has been a challenge for even longer. It’s one thing for an army to
“invite” themselves into neutral territory and storm across the terrain. It’s
quite another to move quickly through frozen mountain passes and across deep
ravines with an army of ten thousand soldiers.
One of the things
about fantasy settings that keeps them interesting is the lack of too many
cheats. By that I mean in a modern setting you can move your army via ship or
plane. In a fantasy setting it’s not always that easy. Of course the rules
change from world to world, but there it is. In the world of Fellein there are
no airships, nor are there dragons to ride into combat (it would be cool, but
no, not this time).
There are foot
soldiers, navies and armies. There are horses and there are the mounts of the
Sa’ba Taalor. The mounts are fewer in number, like the Sa’ba Taalor. They are
also deadly predators with large teeth, heavy claws and a penchant for eating
their enemies.
Those are really
the only modes of transport available, and the armies have to cross some rather
unforgiving terrains.
Which brings us to
war.
The line under the
title on SEVEN FORGES is “War is coming.” The line under the title of THE
BLASTED LANDS is “War is here.” The third books should have the line “We’re
only getting started.” There are conflicts in both books. They are violent and
bloody and set the tone for the rest of the series.
The Sa’ba Taalor
worship seven different gods, true enough, but they are all gods of war. They
have spent a thousand years preparing for a fight and the people they intend to
fight have spent four hundred years getting a little lazy and out of shape as
far as nations go.
The Fellein Empire
has no real information on the size of the Sa’ba Taalor armies. They only know
that their enemies are seriously scary in combat. They only know that on the
two occasions where they’ve seen the Sa’ba Taalor engaged in fights, the people
of the valley walked away victorious and left no survivors.
It really depends
on how you look at it, but on the psychological warfront the Sa’ba Taalor are
already well ahead of the game.
There is also a
fleet of black ships in THE BLASTED LANDS, and that fleet comes sailing out of the
volcanic ash and ruin of a series of islands now completely devastated. And it
heads directly for the southernmost part of the Fellein Empire with every
intention of making brutal contact.
On the one hand
there is the Empire, which while prosperous has grown careless. When there are
no threats it is easy to relax. They have numbers, yes, and they have vast
resources, but those resources are spread out as far s the Fellein Empire
itself.
On the other hand,
the smaller, harder armies of the Sa’ba Taalor. Armies? Yes. Seven gods, seven
kingdoms, seven kings and seven armies. They have fought each other for
centuries and for the first time in their history, they fight together united
against a common enemy.
Each god has a
different philosophy of war. Each king follows a different god and the orders
of that deity. Each kingdom is populated by people who believe that war and
worship are the same thing and they are a very devout people.
Which side would
you bet on?
Thanks for having
me here at I Hate Critics!
About the Author -
James A. Moore is the award
winning author of over twenty novels, thrillers, dark fantasy and horror
alike, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The
Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring
anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels, Blind Shadows,
Homestead and the soon to be released Seven Forges. He has also recently
ventured into the realm of Young Adult novels, with his new series
Subject Seven. In addition to writing multiple short stories, he has
also edited, with Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, the British
Invasion anthology for Cemetery Dance Publications.
His Site - http://www.jamesamoorebooks.com/
His Twitter - https://twitter.com/JamesAMoore
About 'The Blasted Lands' -
The sequel to SEVEN FORGES
The
Empire of Fellein is in mourning. The Emperor is dead, and the armies
of the empire have grown soft. Merros Dulver, their newly-appointed –
and somewhat reluctant – commander, has been tasked with preparing them
to fight the most savage enemy the world has yet seen.
Meanwhile, a perpetual storm ravages the Blasted Lands, and a new threat
is about to arise – the Broken are coming, and with them only Death.
