After long, long days of radio silence, because you know, I was busy writing a new book (which by the way it already has a tentative release date, but more on that later), I’m back. And what better thing to show in my triumphat return to my own blog, here is the map for the second novel of the Tempest Blades series: Cursed Titans, drawn with the help of my friend Marco García.
Auris is the western continent of the planet Theia. Not as populous a Ionis, it does however contain its own set of legendary locations, exciting places and rich history and cultures. The eastern coast of Auris is not that far from the western coast of Ionis (as you can see in the tiny map on the right lower corner), and given the Lyrian Ocean is ‘relatively’ calm, can be transversed by ship or warptrains that gro through the multitude of smaller islands.
Auris’ western side can be divided in three main regions, which also belong to the three main regional powers: the Kuni Empire, the Straits, and the Wastelands. As per the previous map, anything above the World’s Scar belongs to the Freefolk and the other continent, across the Straits and Azure Turtle Sea/Slender Sea, is Ouslis and belongs in its enterity to the Samoharo Hegemony, which means that can be described as ‘Here be dragons’.
The map, for the sake and brevity, only depicts places that are mentioned in the actual story or are really important (such as the three main cities). There are more places there, but it would have been madness to fit all in that space. So this is a primer on the places marked there.
The Kuni Empire: one of the oldest human nations still standing, purveyor of technology, animated cartoons, and its own set of religious and combat beliefs. The home of the demonhunters capable to take down monster through the use of their rigorous training that put them on par of titanfighters -without having to use armors- and even of a Gifted. It’s capital is Kyôkato, where most of events on the new novel takes place. The Empire possess a network of Temples, such as the Quiet Water Temple, secretly interconnected between them, where powerful yôkais -spirits- reside or are trapped. Those temples are consecrated to a particular element or natural phenomenon. It’s weather is similar to that of Japan. The Kuni speak Kunigo, but most of them are also fluent in Core and Nawua.
Kasumi, a new character in the Cursed Titans novel is from there.
God’s Eye: a big volcanic island, right across Kyôkato, in the Sea Horse Bay. The volcano has been active since at least the Dawn Age, making it the oldest active volcano in the Core region. The Kuni -and interestingly enough, the Samoharo as well- consider it sacred ground for it was there that the Storm God, a mortal that ascended to godhood, and using the Tempest Blade Yaha, took down the last of the Titans.* It is said that those that visit the inland, beyond the tiny villages in the coast, can experience visions, no doubt it part due the fumes expelled by vents located all over the place.
The Angel River serves a frontier with The Straits.
The Straits: a conglomerate of city states unified by shared culture and history (including their difficult time under the Asurian Empire). It’s nominal capital is Xelahú. Composed mostly of rain and cloud forest to the south (weather similar to Southern Mexico/Costa Rica), the Straits are renowned by their food, their music, their mines, their complex ecosystems, which include the Predacors -underground creatures that come to the surface every time there is an earthquake, which is frequently- and their peculiar veneration of the dead. It also has some problems with corruption. The Straits as polity usually delegate the international diplomacy part to their more powerful neighborghs, mainly the Samoharo -whose commercial and cultural ties have shaped the culture of the Straits- or in occassion to the Kuni, who have been their allies since the time of the Titans. As well, the Straits have reclaimed any territory below the Lion’s Pass, from what was left of the Assurian Empire, as ‘war reparations’. Their main language is Nawua, but most of it inhabitants learn to speak Adapted Samoharo tongue, Kunigo, or Core. Some become fluent in all three.
Alex is from the Straits. Which explains a lot.
Albarran Point: the most soutwest point of the Straits, it used to be a holiday spot and place for sports tournaments due it’s accesible locations… that is until the first Incursion from the Pits took place a decade and half ago, where residents and vacationist, except a handful of students and a samoharo, were killed. The details of the event have been kept as a secret and the place has remained deserted since then, sans a port guarded by the few soldiers the Straits have. Albarran Point holds an strategic place -alog the Coyoli Archipielago– as they serve as entry point to the Azure Turtle Sea. Across it, lies Sotz’na, the only Samoharo port that allows humans and freefolk inside it’s walls.
The Wastelands: formerly the Asurian Empire, a vast desert nominally ruled by the corrupt hive of scum and villany that is Meteora. In the distant past, the Wastelands didn’t even have that name, for it was a vast amalgamation of climates and fertile soil that made it the Breadbasket of the Continent. But their experimentations with bio weapons & energy weapons, their constant warring and attempts to conquer the Kuni and the Straits, and their intercontinental, genocidal war against the Freefolk, rendered the whole region an unforgiving desert, as the Bestial sucked every ounce of life out of it. After that, the region collapsed into chaos, alternatively being ruled by a zealot theocracy or a tyrannic oligarchy, with only generations after generations of Sand Pirates (supported in secret by the Kuni and the Straits) offering some resistance to help the oppressed and to make water accesible for all. The Straits keeps most of its soldiers on the southern frontier of the Wastelands, across the Lion’s Pass, to keep raiders away.
Basically the place is cursed.
Carpadocci: the Buried City of the Damned and the Secrets. Most of the city is underground as in the past served both as a commercial hub and biological weapon developments facility. No one has lived there for centuries, mostly because of the experiments that escaped and killed most of its inhabitants. The city -which now possesses some sort of evil sentience- killed the rest, anyone who was foolish enough to try to unbury it’s secrets, or to escape from it. In a way, Carpadocci is the ultimate weapon.
Joshua, the protagonist of my short story ‘Buried Sins’ and a new character in the Cursed Titans novel, is from there. It also explains a lot about him.
So this is it. This is the other half (or sort of) of Theia. I hope you like it. And I hope to update dthe blog more frequently, now that the book is in editing stages.
*Titans: powerful beinhg, formerly mortals, that were granted amazing powers to keep the rest safe from incursions and the avatars from the God of the Pits. They became corrupted and enslaved most of humanity, almost killed most of the samoharo and were about to kill the freefolk if it weren’t for the Storm God -formerly a demonhunter- and the first titanfighters, who hunted the Titans down, one by one, to rip their core seeds from their chest and keep them secured at secret locations.
“Tempest Blades: The Withered King.” Shadow Dragon Press. August 2019. Approx. 97,500 words.
“Asherah’s Pilgrimage.” in the anthology Tales of Magic & Destiny (Inklings Press). Edited by Leo McBride & Rob Edwards. July 2019. Approx. 9,100 words.
“No-Sell.” in the anthology Gunsmoke and Dragonfire. Edited by Diane Morrison. March 2019. Approx. 4,800 words.
“Good Boys.” in the anthology Gods of Clay: A Sci Fi Roundtable Anthology. Edited by Eric Michael Craig & Ducky Smith. February 2019. Approx. 4,800 words.
Ricardo Victoria 