A Brief Introduction to the World, the Characters and More

This chapter will be me talking about the characters and explaining the world, countries, what influenced me, and what my characters look like, etc.

The world is basically the same as that of Earth geographically and has similar cultural elements to Earth. Basically, every country in this world is in some way influenced by the real events that happened.

First of all, the location of the Holy Order of Alta is Istanbul, historical Constantinople, and the Holy Order is basically the Latin Empire of the Fourth Crusade, or at least with a Norman twist of it.

The Kingdom of Pergamon is a mix of the ancient Greek kingdom of Pergamon and the Catalan Company, who were hired by the Byzantine Empire to reconquer some of their territories back from the Turkish principalities of Anatolia. I thought that was an interesting event when I came across it and decided to incorporate it in some way into this web novel.

Speaking of Anatolia, the situation is similar to that of the Pre-Mongol invasion of Persia, mainly the era of the Seljuks. There are around 10 small states across Anatolia that have established a sort of non-aggression agreement among themselves to protect the remaining strength in the case of a Persian, or in their counterpart in the novel, Medes invasion.

"Medes" is the name of the geographical location and the known name of the state present in Iran before the rise of the Achaemenid Empire. I named the Persian state after the ancient Empire of Medes. It is a major enemy of Alta as they believe in the God of Fire Atar, influenced by the Iranian Fire God of the same name.

In the Balkans, Most of Serbia and parts of Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia, and Bosnia are controlled by the Kingdom of Moesia. "Moesia" was the name of a Roman province in the same region during the Roman period, so I decided to name a similar region with that name.

Greece is ruled by petty principalities that broke free from Alta, similar to the crusader principalities that were established in Greece after the fall of Constantinople in 1204. There are four notable regional powers in the region, the Duchy of Thessalonica, the Duchy of Athens, the Duchy of Naxos, and the Principality of Achaea. The Duchy of Thessalonica is ruled by Aelius's maternal grandfather and is currently in the process of being absorbed into the Holy Order of Alta.

There are three major religions in the region; the faith of the Goddess of Light Aenna, the faith of the God of Moon Syn, and the faith of the God of Fire Atar. The name "Aenna" comes from the Temple of Inanna/ Ishtar, an ancient Sumerian temple mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Inanna, or more commonly known as "Ishtar" was the Goddess of beauty, love, war, justice, and fertility of the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. The name "Aenna" also kinda resembles the name of the Hittitian Sun goddess Arinna. "Syn" is the name of a major Lunar deity in the religions of Mesopotamia, and since the modern majority religion of the Middle East and the Arabic-speaking world is Islam, I thought a Lunar deity would be a more fitting major God for their fictional counterparts' faith. I already talked about Altar above, so no need to mention it again I suppose.

Now let's talk about the Holy Order of Alta's origins. Although the country was based on the Latin Empire, the actual people ruling the state are from Normandy and have the same origin as the Normans. Scandinavian invaders being assimilated into Northern France and carved themselves a state there. However, in this universe, the Normans decide to conquer not Sicily, but rather the Old Empire, aka the Eastern Roman Empire. However, there were still Latins among the people who conquered the Old Empire, thus the creation of the Crusader States in Greece, well except for the Duchy of Thessalonica.

Humans make up the majority of the world, followed by exotic races in far corners of the World currently unreachable and unknown by Alta. In Europe though, the Elves have the second largest population. The majority of the Elves live in what is today Scandinavia, Germany, England, parts of France, Ukraine, Poland, the European part of Russia, and Turkey due to the Holy Order of Alta. Dwarves are less populous and live only in Scandinavia, small parts of Russia, and Alta. There are some places where a race reigns supreme, however, all races are equal in Alta as their ancestors all shared the World Tree as their home while running away from the Demons. These races have intermixed through the centuries and the only reason a race is associated with an individual is their appearance. Dwarves live the longest among any race with a lifespan of around 90 years, followed by Elves who live an average of 70 years, and humans who usually live to their 50s.

Aelius Alkimos Cala

The protagonist of the novel. He is half-elf and has pointy ears the size of human ears. He has shining white hair due to his overflowing magic power, which is a sign of being blessed by the Goddess, though the level of his blessing is just overwhelming compared to other blessed people. He has purple eyes, which I thought would symbolize Imperial power. His hair is white because white as a color traditionally symbolizes purity, which is perfect for a Goddess' apostle. The color of his eyes, purple is the classic symbolic color of the Eastern Roman Empire, aka the Byzantine Empire, because it was one of the rarest colors to find and was expensive, therefore it symbolizes Imperial power.

He knows a lot because he had a distinct cynical personality while growing up as a son of diplomats from an ex-Soviet country and figured out that his parents were corrupt politicians, therefore he questioned everything he was told and tried to find the facts himself by researching and reading. He has a vast knowledge of literature, and philosophy, as well as practical knowledge of medicine, architecture, engineering, and agriculture as his major at university was literature, and he had spent a good portion of his previous life working in volunteer organizations across the globe.

He hates any system where bureaucracy and judiciary are not efficient, fast, convenient, and fair. He also hates the class system and is planning on taking the legislative powers of the nobility across the globe, and instead favors meritocracy and no class system. He has the kind of personality that would not stop unless he achieves what he wants, however, he wouldn't sacrifice anyone for it if he could. He has the opposite of the character I, the author, have lol.

Aelius is Latin for "Sun" and "light". "Alkimos" means "Strong" in Ancient Greek, and "Cala" is "light" in Quenya, one of the Elven languages created by Tolkien.

comment 0 comment

Vote

SEND GIFT

Load failed, please RETRY