Welcome to Thrycia

Happy Friday, everyone! Yes, I meant to post yesterday. However, I spent the day at my parents’ house and had a meeting that afternoon and went grocery shopping and by the time I got home, I just wanted to snuggle my cat. So you’re getting a Friday post today.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce you to my latest work in progress. I am going to preface this by saying that I’ve never been a huge fantasy nerd. I loved Narnia as a kid (I still do) and the longest academic paper I’ve ever written compares Bilbo Baggins to Sir Gawain. But I’ve never actually read any of the Lord of the Rings books. I’ve tried–I think I’ve tried two or three times to get through The Fellowship of the Ring, but I’ve never gotten more than halfway through the book. I can enjoy the fantasy elements, or I can make sense of the formal language, but I can’t do both.

But nevertheless, I have started writing a fantasy book.

The main continent is called Thrycia. It is a pleasant world. To the north, you have the Docks of Norrica, which is one of the few places where you’ll find a swarm of different races. There are humans, of course–various kinds of humans, as they’re the most adventurous of the races. When they leave Thrycia, their goal is to find new places and new people. The elves have ships, too, but their main goal in sailing is to find new trading partners. They’re more financially motivated than humans.

Norrica is built around the mouth of the River Nock, which flows from the east. When you follow it, you’ll come first to Laireann. Laireann is a human town, and all human towns are laid out the same way–a central city area surrounded by farmland. About half the population lives on the farms, and the other half lives in town and makes their livings as craftsmen, innkeepers, and clergymen. Laireann, however, is a bit of a ghost town. There was a famine many years ago, and between the people who died and the people who left, many buildings are left empty. Many fields are left fallow.

If you keep going upstream on the River Nock, you’ll reach a place with a bit more life in it. To the south you have Bennerick, another human town. This one is more alive than Laireann. Children play in the cobblestone streets. Bakers and farmers and merchants bring their wares to market. Almost everyone has a goat or two, and a young boy leads them out to the fields to graze every day. If you leave Bennerick and cross the River Nock to the north, you come to what the humans call Dwarf Hill. It’s more of a small mountain than a hill, and it boasts a bustling dwarvish community. Mining and blacksmithing are the dwarves’ main occupation, although there are plenty of farmers and craftsmen as well.

And if you keep following the River Nock, you’ll come to Galvettena, the city of elves. Statues of Queen Ysindra–the first queen, not the current one–greet you at the gates, as do well-trained guards. Inside, once you pass the peasant houses and brothels and public bathhouses, you come to the most prestigious academy in all of Thrycia. Rich elves clad in flowing white go about their days of eating and drinking and learning and conversing about philosophical and political topics.

But the Nock only goes east. What lies south? Not much–forests and wild men. Or at least, that’s what most people will tell you. Others talk about the nymphs, immortal tree spirits that shapeshift into whatever form they wish. They talk about the Elysians, the result of the nymphs’ union with human men and women. They talk about the mermaids that swim in the sea, and they tell stories of a race of giants that died out long ago.

But those are only stories, and most people never venture too far away from the River Nock.