by Nathan Marchand
May 10, 2013
While Children of the Wells is a character-driven saga, all characters need a world to live in. Last week, my partner in crime, Tim, wrote about how we created the magic system in CotW. But magic is just one part (albeit a big one) of this world.
Once we determined that magic pooled in wells, we realized that civilizations would develop around them, much like cities formed around bodies of water in our world. The larger the wells, the larger the cities. Because of this, we decided to have city-states as opposed to countries, each one with a distinct culture. After much discussion, we settled on having three large wells, which would be the hearts of the three most powerful cities on this continent, all of them warring and/or competing with one another for dominance.
While all the staff members contributed ideas for each city, much credit must go to the writers of our earliest stories for creating the different cities and the characters who inhabit them.
Not Jalseion.
Our current novella, The Select’s Bodyguard by Nick Hayden, takes place in one of those cities: Jalseion. Nick, believe it or not, is not only very creative, he also a math wizard and, as he admits in his bio, a man with more ideas than time. These sensibilities found their way into Jalseion. He envisioned it as a large city with multiple districts and layers, much like Midgar in the classic Playstation game Final Fantasy VII. It has the deepest well of the three. Science is its people’s religion. Its Select obsessively study magic and invent new technologies that utilize it. Think of it as this world’s “Silicone Valley.” Their architecture is strange and experimental, as you’ve seen with the Wheel. The Select see the common citizens as a parent would a slow-witted student: both lovingly and condescendingly because the Select believe only they can make right decisions for them.
When my novella, The Fall of the House of Kyzer, begins serialization in July, you’ll be introduced to Thyrion, the oldest, largest, and most powerful of the cities. I love history, so I drew inspiration for Thyrion from empires like Rome and Britain. The city has been ruled for centuries by several Select royal dynasties. All the city’s citizens, from the poorest of the poor to the royal family, are strongly nationalistic. As you would expect, Thyrion is imperialistic, so it’s constantly expanding its territory by gaining control of the other, smaller cities around it.
What about the third city? Well, we have to make sure we have some surprises in store for you.
This is quite a volatile mix of neighbors, isn’t it? Just wait until you see what happens in future installments. Oil is going to be poured on this huge fire.
And I bet you’ll be coming back to watch it burn.
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