What happens when you drop King Arthur's court into medieval Oxford for a summer? And how do you, as an author, find out? Using Universal Fantasy in worldbuilding.
Tag: background
A Discursive Lecture on Late Pizan: a Linguistic Revolution
Professor Eleinn Hahíns and Magister Errícc Cnohrmann discuss the evolution of the Pizan language post-Yḿboldhźh revolution. Late Pizan, known as Kamvlŕsâi, emerged as the official language, marked by significant phonological simplification and a shift from SVO to VSO grammatical structure, reflecting a society's transformation towards directness and efficiency in communication.
Creating Pizan: The Language of Conquistadors and Conquest
In my ongoing development of the languages of the world of my novel Crown of Crows, I've been working on Pizan, a language with a complex fictional history rooted in Spanish colonization and subsequent English influence.
Land of the Witch, Land of the Bear: Naming the Language of a Fantasy World
Why I'm moving from the name "Sagaia" and "Sagaian" to "Artír" and "Artanga." Themes of power, resistance, and cultural identity, highlighting the influence of the Bear and the evolution of language among the inhabitants following the White Witch’s defeat.
On Words and Names in Sagaia
This is a shortened version of a longer post available for Patreon subscribers here. Warr ahwann le Banrían i Sagaia, le Banrían i Sagaia íonai.Once a Queen in Sagaia, always a Queen in Sagaia. Níes le llonfín ccansa.He is not a tame lion. When I began thinking about the redemption of Narnia, one of the… Continue reading On Words and Names in Sagaia
Subordinate Clauses in Gnin El and Sasrâl
Talk about an exciting topic! But how a language encodes the connections between clauses can have far-reaching ramifications. As I explain here, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English have very different assortments of complementizers. How scribes translated them gave rise to a huge variety of interpretations of the New Testament. But I'm sorry to say that I… Continue reading Subordinate Clauses in Gnin El and Sasrâl
Characters: Tori Reathall and Paula Amaranto
Axon, Inc. is a tightly-focused novel, concentrating on the lives of just a few characters. Following up on the in-depth discussion of the protagonist, Walden Reathall, and the antagonist (?) Logan Byrnes, this post discusses two other essential characters: Walden's sister, Tori, and good friend, Paula Amaranto. There are no spoilers here, just notes about… Continue reading Characters: Tori Reathall and Paula Amaranto
Characters: Logan Byrnes
Axon, Inc. is a tightly-focused novel, concentrating on the lives of just a few characters. Following up on the in-depth discussion of the protagonist, Walden Reathall, this post discusses another agonist: Logan Byrnes. Like that post, there are no 'spoilers' here, just notes about character inspiration and background. Logan Byrnes In the summer of 2017,… Continue reading Characters: Logan Byrnes
Characters: Walden Reathall
Axon, Inc. is a tightly-focused novel, concentrating on the lives of just a few characters. Stories like this one explore the ramifications of transformative technologies, unraveling the world we know and weaving a new one from its ruins. Focusing on one or two characters allows the reader to become more immersed in the novel, to… Continue reading Characters: Walden Reathall