First Time Writing Process

It’s my first post, so forgive me If I don’t quite understand how Tumblr formatting works.

Anyways, I’d like to start by sharing why I’ve started my account: I currently have a novel in the works!

It won’t be done for quite a while, but In the meantime, I can update on setting, history, characters, and lore (without giving too much away 😉).

For now, I don’t have much to share, other than it will be fantasy, and it will likely be a series of 5-6 books (as of now).

I’m also a first time author (besides dabbling in fan fiction), so please be patient if I don’t quite understand all the terminology yet.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned for more, and feel free to ask questions! I will be answering to the best of my ability.

For ease of access, I’ve categorised everything posted so far. Please note that this worldbuilding belongs to me and me only.

Have fun;

Hello everybody! I am pleased to announce that Duvaria lives on!

As of now, I am rewriting all of my drafts, and am up to chapter 2! Hopefully I have my story under control and we won’t need any complete rewrites again.

Most of the plot has been realised, and while I’m still not 100% on the conflicts, I certainly have a direction to work in.

For now, I’ll continue worldbuilding on the side while I see what this new draft has to offer in terms of story and ideas.

Hello again everyone!

Thank you for bearing with me after a while of radio silence about the series, but I finally have some updates I can share.

The first is a major change. Instead of Salem being the protagonist of the first book, Hayle is taking that role.

This will make the theme of changing the narrator every instalment consistent, plus it will allow for new storytelling opportunities I just didn’t have with him.

On another note, I am happy to say the worldbuilding is slowly coming along. With each new piece of information I can see everything coming together, it’s just a matter of figuring out what other meaningful plots I can add to fill out space and showcase the world while the major background plot develops.

And for the last, I think I’ll be getting back into taking another shot at writing a second draft soon once I figure out the last few kinks of the storytelling.

Good news; I’ve come up with some great ideas that will make the plot more interesting and make the character relationships more dynamic

Hello all! I’ve enjoyed showing you the sneak peaks to my world, however we’ve more or less reached the limit of my worldbuilding.

Of course, there will be more eventually as I continue to flesh out the world, but as of now there’s not much else to show.

In the meantime, I’ll give occasional updates on my progress with writing and maybe a passage or two if I feel particularly proud of it.

Please, feel free to ask questions, as I’ll still be online to see them.

Propaganda

From young, Eric’s worldview is shaped by the propaganda of his grandfathers, molding him to believe that the Alkans are dangerous and need to be driven out.

Almost as soon as he could speak, he was given command of small infantry squads to help him learn how to command an army.

Growing up

While Eric learned many valuable skills with his troops, such as socialising, survival, strategising, etc, he could never quite get the hang of leading his troops.

As a result, the final date for their siege was postponed many times as he struggled to learn this skill. While he yearned to follow the path laid out for him, he couldn’t help but notice his father’s disappointment. So, he pushed away his friends in order to take a more authoritative role with his army, which began to work.

Bitter end

However, as things got better, danger lurked in his blind spot. One night before the armies set out, he was assassinated by his sister, Ophelia, in his sleep.

I apologise for the lack of options. It is both due to needing to flesh out more of my world, as well as not wanting to give anything away that might reveal the plot before the book is even out.

Advancements in Duvaria

After the invention of agriculture, many jobs have been created as a result of demand. In addition, people have also begun to create new recipes.

The farming goods have also greatly boosted the economy, due to their popularity in the market.

Seeing Georg spend his life devoted to improving and upgrading farming equipment, many have vowed to follow in his footsteps.

Resuming ongoing legacies

Ivor has dedicated his time on the throne to finishing what his father begun, figuring out the final details for his father’s last draft’s plans.

After filling out the final details, Ivor orders for an army specially trained to use the strategy devised by his father, this includes the production of many weapons.

Heirs

While waiting for the armies to be ready, Ivor has two children, Eric and Ophelia.

Hello all! I apologise for missing my post yesterday, things have been a little hectic lately.

Today we’ll be discussing another animal; barrims

Barrims are large beasts, similar to a mix between bear and badger. They are primarily brown, but have beige stripes beginning at their eyes and travelling down the rest of their body.

They have large tails with plume-shaped fur and legs short compared to the rest of their body proportions.

These creatures are apex predators, with nothing hunting them except the occasional lightning-charged zephyr. Despite their size, they’re surprisingly fast and stealthy, however they struggle with sharper turns.

In most cases, they’ll live in forests where they have plenty of cover, however are not opposed to hunting in grasslands if the grass is long enough to cover them.

In most cultures, it is seen as certain death if a barrim has chosen to hunt you, as they will rarely give up chase once the target has been decided.

However, one culture keeps them as equals, offering them food and shelter in exchange for protection and companionship.

Advancements in the kingdom:

Due to fearmongering and rumours, fables have begun to spread about the ‘ruthlessness’ of the Alkans.

As a result of constant fishing over the generations, fish are slowly becoming scarcer.

With tinkering, the first crossbow was invented.

Vergil’s reign

As Vergil takes the throne, he at first intends to carry on his father’s work and begins scheming ways to drive out the Alkans. However, his plans are soon interrupted as more reports are made about the slowly declining rate of fish in the kingdom.

After consulting the brightest minds in the kingdom, it’s realised that the fish haven’t been given a chance to repopulate in generations. To control the issue, he temporarily orders all vessels to fish in other waters until a solution is found, with imprisonment as the punishment for fishing in Duvarian waters.

Georg’s agricultural project

After being consulted on the fishing issues, Georg begins looking for the alternatives for fishing. He sees how plants are grown at the people’s homes and wonders if the same can be done for food.

He begins experimenting with this idea, creating the first crude farming tools, successfully developing the first stages of agriculture.

With years of experimenting, he finds the only unreliable time for plants is Winter.

Unstable kingdom

While Georg worked on the first steps of agriculture, the kingdom slowly ate away the remaining rations. The people began slowly starving, leading to many deaths in the following months. This caused small groups to begin rioting.

After the prototypes for farming tools were created, Georg informs Vergil of his discovery. Vergil orders the first farm to be built and reserved large amount of land for crops.

Agriculture introduction

After sprouts begin appearing, the roots begin settling, and as the plants continue to grow the people slowly become more receptive to Vergil’s orders.

While Georg teaches the people to farm, Vergil consults the bright minds again for a final conclusion regarding the fish.

Finally, it is decided that fishing is entirely illegal, with the exception of fishing during the Winter.

Back to drafts

With the food crisis solved, Vergil returns to his original endeavours. After rereading the journals of Klaus and Halst, he determines that no current war strategies would work against the Alkans.

The rest of his rule is dedicated to drafting new strategies, with more confidence in their success as each draft is renewed.

Kingdom’s advancements

Thanks to the relatively peaceful end of Klaus’s reign, the following advancements have been made in Duvaria;

They were able to focus on lawmaking, and officially outlawed the acts of murder, kidnapping, stealing, and terrorism. However, these laws did not apply to the Alkans.

As for economy, people began working in niches, providing diverse services to barter and trade with.

And for technology, the settlers successfully set up the first black smithing buildings, giving them ready access to swords, spears, armour and reinforced bows.

Halst’s wall

After years of inactivity, the kingdom’s scouts spot gatherings of Alkans going up to the hundreds. They quickly reason that this is the planning phases of an invasion and begun preparing for battle.

In preparation, Halst orders his army to begin building a wall to defend. In an impressive span of two weeks, the first layer is completed and provides good defense when the eventual attack comes.

While the wall holds strong, both sides still suffer harsh losses. After a long fight, the Alkans are eventually forced to retreat, but not without leaving much of the town burned or torn down during the skirmish.

As the town slowly rebuilds, Halst, seeing the wall’s partial success, orders a larger, grander wall to be built.

Halst’s propaganda

After dedicating most of his rule to overseeing the construction of the kingdom walls, he comes to the conclusion that his kingdom will not be safe until the Alkans are driven off or killed.

In order to ensure the kingdom’s compliance, he begins convincing the younger generations that the Alkans are waiting just beyond the walls to attack. Plus, going through his father Klaus’s journals and taking passages out of context to convince the people that the Alkans had been trying to drive the settlers off since the beginning.

After spending the little time left of his life to spreading fear and hate, the people, especially the new generations, are fearful of the Alkans and are enthusiastic about driving them away from Duvaria.

That’s all for today. As always, I’m open to questions and (especially with the more serious subject matter surrounding their history) am open to feedback.

Hello all! Today we’ll be diving into more Duvarian history, starting with the events during Klaus’ rule.

The election of Klaus

Klaus was a smart man. He was the first to learn how to create a basic fishing rod (a stick, some wire, and bait), and used his invention to become well-liked among the people.

Due to the sudden abundance of food in comparison into their old home, they find themselves overfishing, being forced to leave some out of rot due to how successful their fishing endeavours were.

The Alkans, who had been watching them, decided to take some. One of their main philosophies is to share when something is in abundance, and assumed the new settlers would be the same.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. Once Klaus caught wind of this, he began convincing the people that the Alkans were stealing food in an effort to scare them off.

Using this momentum, Klaus places himself as the leader, successfully fulfilling his ambition of leadership over his fellow men.

While few challenged his claims, they were eventually drowned out by the fear spread to the rest of the settlers.

Following conflicts

As in most wars, Klaus used fear to keep his people in line, while claiming he had the answers. Because they were somewhere new, and being faced with retaliation after threatening the Alkans, everyone was happy that a leader had been assigned and obeyed him unquestioningly.

Klaus took heavy advantage of this. Everything he did, he convinced the people that it was to drive the Alkans back.

First, he expanded the kingdom, unknowingly ruining sacred ground to the Alkans along the way. This further drove the Alkans to fight, which only justified Klaus’ leadership further to his subjects.

However, after being overwhelmed by the numbers and technology of the settlers, the Alkans made a temporary retreat. They called upon the other tribes to aid them in this battle.

Unfortunately, spreading the messages across the land and convincing the others to assist them took a long time, allowing Klaus to spend the rest of his reign relatively peacefully, but not without fanning the flames of fear toward the Alkans so he could stay in power.

Tldr; Minor misunderstanding occurs between settlers and Alkans. Klaus proceeds to fearmonger so he can be king.