MELEENA’S WORLD – TREASURE OF THE UMBRUNNA

Meleena’s world is a fantasy setting in a galaxy far far… fugeddaboudit. Let’s just say it’s different, which is the whole point of a fantasy world. It breaks all the rules… well, not all of them.

For the scientifically minded, you might as well get off your high horses. You’re probably going to hate the story. Remember, this is a fantastical setting. Real-world physics don’t apply, at least to a point. The world has its own set of rules that bend and flex for not only story purposes but for my own satisfaction. Deal with it.

GEOGRAPHY

The continent of Gallin in which Treasure of the Umbrunna is set is not clearly defined in the first novel. In fact, Gallin isn’t even named. It may be on a map if I ever get around to including one on a future book. I can say that the continent takes up a vast area, roughly the surface equivalent of Asia on Earth. However, the climate is quite different. For the purposes of the first novel, the area around Bug Flat is rolling hills with near and distant forests. In the far distance is the vast area known as the Blue Mountains. This forbidden and blocked off enclosed space is the realm of the Gods of the Blue Mountains, which also happens to be the title of book two.

BUG FLAT

Bug Flat is the small city where Meleena hangs. It’s the only home she knows and is her base of operations. She’s spent most of her life making trouble there. While venturing out of town occasionally, she’s always come back. Bug Flat is the capitol of a kingdom now run by Queen Rona, who reigns from Sivrisinek Castle, the edifice that dominates the skyline in a sharp bend of the Otraph river. The castle is quite old with an elaborate myriad of dungeons and tunnels below. Meleena is quite familiar with many of them.

PIG SPLAT

The Pig Splat is her home. It’s a bar started by her best friend Chit Chit. It was originally an Esveen chapel, abandoned until he grabbed it and fixed it up. It has flourished ever since.

RELIGION

Though there are many gods and Pagan beliefs throughout the many kingdoms and societies in Meleena’s world, the only one I introduce, so far, is Esveen. Esveenians worship the Gods of the Blue Mountains. They’re run by a fanatic that isn’t addressed until the second novel.

MAGICK

Note the spelling. Magick in Meleena’s world plays a big part in the daily lives of many citizens. Here, magick is spelled that way because like in our real world, magic is illusion, what a magician/illusionist does on stage, slight-of-hand. Magick, on the other hand is when Pagans perform rituals and spells, akin to Judeo Christians praying, but with a bit more elaborate oomph. In this fantasy world, magick is spells performed by a magick user.

A wizard is not a magick user. A wizard is a phony, an insult to the profession. It’s the same thing as a warlock isn’t a male Witch in our real world. A warlock is an oath-breaker or traitor. In Meleena’s world, a wizard is a fake magick user, someone who pretends to know the craft, but uses slight-of-hand to fool people into thinking he or she can do spells. That’s especially inane in this world because almost anyone can perform magick if they have the right ingredients and can learn the correct phrases. The issue is the consequences.

In Meleena’s world, magick can be performed at will, and there are no limits to the number of spells one can produce, given the proper ingredients and spell knowledge. The problem comes with mental capacity. The more spells cast, and especially the more powerful the spell is, the more it diminishes mental capacity. Depending on your species and race, you could perform many simple spells with little issue, but big ones would turn you into a raving lunatic. This is especially bad in the heat of battle. Elves have a better tolerance that most for casting spells as well as a race called the Rammanuta. Snorgs, on the other hand, can barely perform an itch spell without going nuts for an entire sun cycle.

MEASUREMENT

Measurement in Meleena’s world is completely different from ours. It takes some getting used to. There are no seconds, minutes or hours. There are only moments. Sixty moments is approximately an hour but that’s a close as it gets. Days are sun cycles. Years are season cycles. There are no months. Decades are ten season cycles and centuries are one hundred season cycles, millennia one thousand season cycles just like years.

Distances are paces. There are no inches, millimeters or whatever. Ten feet is about ten paces, but of course, that’s not quite right because there are multiple races and creatures, so a pace means something different to a Dwarf than it does to a human or a giant. As for height, a storey is about the same height as it would be in our world. Then again, we’re looking at it from a human perspective and through Meleena’s eyes because she’s human, so for the purposes of this story, a “storey” is the same as in both worlds. For other measurements of height or measurement, the term is hand-span. That would be a human hand-span. In this case, it’s assumed the same size even by Dwarves and Elves who often have large hands.

FLORA AND FAUNA (ANOTHER TERM FOR ICKY BUGS)

Meleena’s world is filled with normal as well as fantastical and horrible monstrosities. Not only will you find deer, beavers, dogs, cats, lions, elephants as well as seals and earth-like animals, but normalized fantastical beasts like Dwarves, Elves, Umbrunna and many surprises. To complicate matters, because of a battle between magick users a millennia ago, they created a myriad of monstrosities to sic on each other and those creatures survived, flourished and spread. That plague of beasts became ingrained into the fabric of Gallin.

The flora includes species of trees that one would find in any nursery from pine to ash, maple to poplar and flowers too numerous to list. However, there are many exotic and quite deadly species already natural to the world, now mixed with mutations created during that battle of the magick users. They, too, have spread throughout the continent.

What’s more is that Gallin is only a microcosm of the rest of the planet. What will Meleena find when her adventures take her to much more distant places?

Happy writing!