My fantasy map lovers may be particularly interested in this post.
Rise to Dust really began in three separate ways. Firstly, 14-year-old me had discovered the power of Windows Live Movie Maker and wanted to make a full-length fantasy adventure film. My best friend Caroline Nickolaus and I sat down and began discussing what would make a good fantasy story. She sat at the computer typing the overview of a story I told her as I paced about. We typed this into three slides of a PowerPoint and this became the 'script' we followed for the creation of the film.
We shot about half of it, and created many concepts, costumes and characters which still made it into the book today. In fact, many little moments like Melga dropping the plate of cookies were from real scenes we shot where my friend Natalie Myers who played Xaqara and Melga truly dropped a plate of cookies on accident during a scene. Though by the time we were in the middle of the film, I had learned so much about filmmaking and knew I had made so many mistakes with things like the audio that I decided it would be better to wait to finish filming it.
The film script stayed on my computer for a few years, but I decided I would keep building the world, maybe even writing it into a book. In student resource time in my freshman year of school, I began writing the alphabet for the Archaic language. In this time, I started creating more of the languages the characters would use. Some of this survived to the final versions, but most I updated over the years. When you make words in your language based off of things like your crush's name backwards, it's easy to see why it needs to change to sound like a real language.
Then in 2016 I attempted to actually write the book, not getting very far. I put it down and then Freshman year of college decided to actually do it. The published book was really born then. But before that, there were two other areas that preceded the filmmaking for creating my story.
Around late 2011 or early 2012, my father and my friend Kevin and I went on a hike in our local parks. We discussed what kind of house we would have in a fantasy land. We came up with the simple idea of calling it House DAK, from our names Duane, Alexander and Kevin. We made a fantasy city in our heads that we would live and rule from. We called this city Wolvesgarden. I went home and wrote out much the ideas, drew a map and wrote a bit more about it. (See Wolvesgarden Drawing)
Then around April of 2012, I had just watched the first season of Game of Thrones and I loved the story telling style at the time. I made up a fantasy world which my cousin and my friend Caroline played with me in. We pretended that we were in a TV show and wrote each of our adventures into episodes. I called this fantasy show The White Legion. I have no idea if a show already had a name similar to this but I named it based on the last name of a set of characters which was "White." I doubt a name like that would be suitable for modern times, nor do I even like the sound of it. Nevertheless, at the time I created many references and drawings to go along with the imaginary show.
On my very first map for the world, created April 2nd, 2012, I made three continents, Androv, Gorgandros and Rangrast. (See Picture labeled with date at top) Then I continued creating the world, developing it further. In a pizza shop with my family for lunch, I brought a journal and sketched out the more detailed version of this world. I named the world itseld 'Vaildkarn' prounced differntly to the spelling, 'vah-lid-karn'. (See map labeled Vaildkarn) I added the city Wolvesgarden to it that I had created.
A while later, the show 'ended' and then I began plans to make a spin off show in the future. It would be based around a heroine named Xaqara that saved the world. The world would be renamed after her as well. I redrew much of the maps and renamed Androv into Andronia. I kept Gorgandros, then added Cerulia, Neonia, and two other strangely shaped continents. (See map labeled Xaqara)
After I decided to create Rise to Dust in 2013, I began to build the world from these three maps. From the original map only three things survived into the Rise to Dust world called Eorrid. These were the name of the main continent Androv, the name of the side continent Rangrast (though it switched sides) and an area on Androv called the Wold, which I named in honor of Tolkien's maps. (The Wold is an area near Rohan).
From the second map a few additional things survived. A few concepts were kept but renamed like Karn Eiglos, the obsidian citadel which became later Uearzoth and Gorgandros, which became the continent under Androv called Uleus. The concept for having an old capital that was mostly in ruins was moved to the later continent of Yarris, where the men originally came from in Rise to Dust's lore.
The Seaside Citadel which was huge in my fake TV series was put on the final Androv map as
a watchtower instead called Nuavëa. The Berrin Plateau (probably just a misspelling on my part) was moved to Androv under the capital and renamed Mt.Roimerya. This is where the furthest watchtower of Nesgarnoth lies that Amelia looks to in fear, knowing she has left the safety of her home. And lastly, the city Wolvesgarden was kept as it is my favorite city. I can't wait to share the cities designs with you in detail in the books. I think it will be very appreciated by design lovers.
Then from the third map I made, the continent of Andronia became later Altadur, the land of Xaqara. This map will be put in the second book for you to view. The continent of Cerulia became later Melstadur. And of course, the city of Xaqara's Wroth was added to Eorrid. Not much else was kept that was created for that map.
When I created the final version of Androv that was published in the first book, I tried to put every location the characters would go to throughout the series and any additional series in the universe. I can say I'm very happy with how my cartography skills improved. The journey of how the maps grew was a long but fun one.
For those of you awaiting the second book in the series, I plan to have quite a few more maps and sections of maps to view. Until then, I hope you enjoy looking over the maps to get lost in them as I have. In fact, the original hand drawn Androv and Drangsnes from the book hang in frames in my hallway and I look to them for reference and inspiration often. Maybe for some of you, my maps will inspire you to create your own worlds too.
