the utter east

The witch came from the north like a shiver down Narnia’s spine. The type that makes you turn around, certain that someone is watching you, only to find yourself alone.

By the time she realized that there was a danger in her midst, it was too late. She felt the fear in the country increase; her attentions were pulled in every direction. The king and queen marshalled their forces in a last-minute defense, and Narnia felt every death as if it was her own.

The ice and snow followed, scraping over her flesh, leaving her barren and void of plants. Her rivers and lakes froze. Her people turned against one another. The witch built a castle—all sharp and ice—tearing it from Narnia’s chest.

The easiest thing for Narnia would be to slumber, to hibernate through this cold period until it found its end. But she could not abandon her people that way. So she stayed present and conscious. The tried to make her presence known and keep hope alive.

It was all she could do to keep her own hope alive as well. Surely Aslan would return and rescue her and her people from this terrible winter.

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The dwarf on the far left is a river dwarf I’ve decided. I don’t know fully that is other than I think it’d be cool if there was a tribe of dwarves that were close to the water nymphs, and generally have great knowledge and skills that are an asset on a sailing crew.

The river dwarves are one of the reasons telmarines were scared of the water (along with the niads, however the bridge of beruna imprisoned the river god, who otherwise was also responsible for many folk tales told to young telmarine children. Their fear of water is ironic to me cause I believe there’s evidence of them coming from the Caribbean as pirates? I imagine the humans on caspians crew are like, either rediscovering their roots or the few who held on to that seafaring background. Mostly younger telmarines in the same generation as caspian, they questioned the leadership and were very happy when old narnia overthrew Miraz.)

the river dwarves are generally peaceful and most lived in hiding during telmars reign. They’re temperament is very stable and they do well under pressure. River dwarves are incredibly stealthy and only attack in necessity as self defense. In terms of stealth think like lotr hobbits, and this is a great contrast to most other dwarves in Narnia (strong strength and combat, low stealth) A lot of them abstained from fighting against telmar alltogether due to their peaceful values. They are disconnected from some other dwarf cultures which can cause some tension.

The two in the middle come from a tribe of dwarves that are blacksmiths, and also they’re siblings. The brother in particular is a toy maker by trade specifically, and loves kids. His wife (far right) has a background in carpentry. Him and his wife don’t have any but virtually adopt any child they see. The sister is always having a good time, and seafaring comes more naturally to her than smithywork ever did.

The carpentry/forest dwarves generally have a history of closeness with dryads similarly to how the river dwarves are with the water spirits. Some of that connection has been severed due to how deeply the dryads retreated and were removed when Caspian the Conqueror (not our caspian) and his descendants over-deforested. It takes time to restore that connection.

The two on the left may or may not have a situationship and the two on the right have been married for years.

Regardless of trade they’re all on the ship because they’re loyal as fuck to Caspian, the married couple kind of see themselves in a parental role to him but it’s debatable on how that actually plays out.

Also no one has a name cause I’m so bad at coming up with names.

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My thinking in general is that Narnian dwarves make up a lot of the trades, other races do contribute as well, (I’d imagine some marshwiggles work in stuff related to ships/seafaring but perhaps not travelling themselves) most fauns are more into the arts/spirituality, but some do take up trades (a couple of my designs from this post are tradespeople, one of them is a bard.)

I haven’t done many centaur designs, but my vague thoughts is that there are those who are more spiritual and practice prophecy, stargazing, advising, and those who are more into combat, and are protectors, or messengers.

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Gender and the ideas around sexuality I’d also imagine would be a lot more fluid and most Narnians are a lot more open than some of the more human civilizations. (Like it’s a country made of sentient trees, talking animals and mythical beings, and the human countries kind of canonically are like “what the heck is going on over there???” Or they’re afraid of them and try to colonize them, like the telmarines)

Ok so c.s. Lewis isn’t very well known for his like, accuracy/timelines making sense. (The beavers somehow had potatoes and other vegetables despite it being a 100 year winter).

The magicians nephew takes place in somewhere between 1900-1910, cause that’s his childhood. And then LWW takes place in the 1940s, so like at the oldest Digory and Polly would be in their 50s by then, but also Digory is an old eccentric professor with white hair?

(I could be wrong and maybe that does work timeline wise, and I suppose in different eras, 50s is a lot older. My brain just doesn’t compute that at ALL. At the very least the movie version of the professor DOESNT look like he’s only in his 50s with how they made him look.)