So, a few days ago, my partner on Kentauroi, Christopher Stuck,...

So, a few days ago, my partner on Kentauroi, Christopher Stuck, was gearing up to finally, for real this time, get rolling on the script. He asked for a map of the continent it takes place on. A scribble showing where the capital was in relation to Arran would have been sufficient, because the entire story, at least for the first LONG while, takes place in that peninsula in the NW corner, Arran, and nowhere else. And that’s basically how it started out. 5 minute doodle thrown at him just to outline where the assorted groups of elves and humans made their homes. As often happens with things Kent related, it snowballed….We (it’s very much a collaborative effort) ended up placing it over a map of Earth to figure out just the right scale and place it just right in regards to the equator, (the darkest horizontal line near the south tip. Also plotted are 30 and 60 degrees north and south) the climate, topography, figuring out trade goods and routes, currents, a whole scenario of the Akrotann/imperial elves moving their capital long ago… We actually have other maps in addition to this, but i think this one gets the important stuff across, aside from borders. Chris is doing a more in depth political map, but don’t have that yet. All of this, while probably more than strictly necessary, was far from useless, knowing where everyone comes from is a valuable thing when constructing the story, and now we know things like what sort of trade goods would be coming from the various parts of the empire, and how they’d be arriving, so we can keep everything consistent and everything will make sense. But I felt like it was a shame for all of that work to go completely unseen by anyone but us, so here it is.

You can see that we have what would be an extremely geologically active continent, very ring of fire type scenario, and that’s totally intentional. Volcanic eruptions have played a large part in the history of the story (the human’s old island is vaguely equivalent to Iceland, and they don’t live there anymore because it blew up). And yes, the imperial capital is in the caldera of a supervolcano. It’s probably a bit large.. but pffft. fantasy, i can have i that there was an extremely massive eruption in the past. I don’t think they quite realize what a dangerous place for a city they’ve chosen. The whole area is like Yellowstone, if it blows, it will be utterly devastating.

So basically, there are 3 major races of elves. We need better names for the Sea and Wood elves, we have a real name for the elves from the middle of the continent, but not the other two just yet. But anyway, the Akrotann are in charge, they’ve turned the entire continent into an empire with them at the head. They’re vaguely middle eastern looking, though generally with light eyes, and their culture is kind of a mish mash, but mostly Greek/Roman with some Persian. Sortakinda. The Wood elves are the one you’ll see the most of other than them, they’re caucasian looking, and probably the closest to what you’d think of when you first think ‘elves’. Nature loving hippies, and they’re basically a loose collection of city states. The Sea Elves you will see fairly rarely because they are from so far away from Arran, but there will be a few of them showing up, mostly in the coastal cities, they are black, kind of a Caribbean vibe to them. The humans in the story are caucasian, since, as mentioned, Iceland and all, culture is very Norse inspired. But they represent just a tiny fraction of the humans on the planet as a whole, they’d have as much diversity as humans on Earth if you could see their home continent…. But if we ever do see it, that’s a loooong way off, they’re far across the sea.

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/50531075159