The World of the Verlisi: Natural Features

Peace to you my friends.

Plotting a story is hard work so I didn't feel like doing some deep post about writing. Instead I thought I'd share some bits about the world that Girl of the Rumours is set in. I think it's interesting (otherwise I'd have invented something else) and telling you about it will help me solidify my ideas.

I've already shared the common local greeting, so now I should introduce the world.

Suppose many, many different things had happened in the past of our world, and that something had happened in South America that depleted the population a lot. Also the geography formed differently. Then in 1343 a group of people from many different nations arrived there and settled the land. My story takes place about 300 years after this arrival. There are many different entities, but the most important to my story is a union of kingdom of many provinces and another nation that separated from it about a hundred years before. That nation is Nalanza, and the most important provinces are Verlis and Amra.

Geography and climate:

This is all based loosely off Peru, Ecuador and Paraquay. Imagine mountains, jungle, sweeping plains and waterfalls. It's still a bit hard to figure out. I should have looked at the geography and then figured out where everything should go, but I got an idea in my head first and it doesn't really fit. I'll figure it out somehow. I can tweak it if I want. This is supposed to be fantasy after all.

I'll just give the basic of what I do know. The province of Wherm is coastal and a bit on the dry side. Then Verlis is made up of large valleys among mountains. There are plenty of small rivers cutting through and lots of farm land. There is a very long, warm wet season. It mostly dries up in the winter, so that's the best time to travel if you have any choice. And the dragons are less active in the coldest weather.

Along one side border the mountains become very tall and very difficult to navigate. And one end is an area of very rough jungle. It runs right up into the big mountains. On the other side of the jungle is Amra. There's a big river separating the two. Amra is more rugged and mountainous, but still gets about the same rain. Finally over the mountains we have Nalanza. it's mostly savannah and a bit arid in places.

Fauna and flora:

Such eyes. How could they kill such a creature?

I mentioned dragons above. They're not your typical, big, fire breathing dragons. These creatures are
small, and mostly eat bugs and small rodents. They have been know to make off with young poultry as well.

I also have smallish wild cats inspired by ocelots, but more colourful. They're a menace when traveling, but it's illegal to kill them without special permission. They're not likely to kill you if you have a weapon, but they can give nasty scratches. So rather a lot are killed illegally.

There are herds of a creature that is somewhere between alpaca and buffalo, which are used for fiber pack animals, and occasionally meat. In Nalanza they have donkeys as well.

There are myriads of parrots, insects and small mammals including rabbits. In some areas they have various messenger birds. I'm thinking something fiercer than pigeons.

For plants I have not invented much that is unique. There areyour typical rainforest plants, and for crops they have corn and potatoes and many varieties of beans. There are also many plants used for dyes. Textiles are a big industry in Amra, so these are in high demand.

I hope you enjoyed this. Next week I'll be talking about culture, custom, clothing and cities.