A Little World History

Hey Everyone! I’m back!!

Well, sort of back. I did manage to charge through all my editing on my little break last week, but since most of Part Six of Domna was all freshly written in the last draft, it required another (ugh) read through over the weekend due to some confusingly wonky bits I came across during last week’s edits. Today I’m plowing through those changes and that means I’m going to race my way through this blog post.

So, let’s cut the preamble and get on with….

A Bit of World History

Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with Fertile Crescents or Attila the Hun or Manifest Destiny. Instead, this is a little bit of the world history I’ve thrown into Domna (Domna being my upcoming serialized novel whose first part is coming out in January, in case you’re just tuning in).

As you know, Domna takes place in Osteria, my fantasy world that’s set in a future Pacific Northwest in which the people have rebuilt from The Disaster. The Disaster obliterated any technology, wiped the population down to next to nothing, and left little more than scattered tribes of people in its wake.

Still, people tend to be resilient and these little tribes eventually began to rebuild. And in their rebuilding, they took on the cultures and customs of an Ancient Greco-Roman world.

The Greek gods, seeing this little world that looked a whole lot like the land of their own former glory days, decided to call it home. (Hey, we do have a Mount Olympus in the Pacific Northwest, so this was bound to happen one day.)

Now, in the Osteria Chronicles, things have gotten pretty advanced, relatively speaking. There’s some technology that’s been developed, a rudimentary rail system, and the gods are major influencers on daily life. There’s also twelve separate city-states (poli) each with its own patron god.

That’s not the world of Domna.

Domna is set perhaps three or four generations before The Trials of Hercules (Book One of the Osteria Chronicles) begins. The world is still very much like it would have been in Ancient Rome (and the story is actually based on Roman history, as you can see in this post). There’s a good road system, but no rail. There’s no technology, although the Athenians are starting to unearth some of the Pre-Disaster goodies that will allow them to start down a more technologically advanced path.

The world itself is also different. Portaceae City is the capital of all of Osteria. Over time, Portaceae has been able to grow strong enough to expand its empire (much like Rome expanded to become the Roman Empire). At the point in which the story of Domna starts, the poli are not independent city-states, but part of the Osterian realm ruled by Portaceae City. And Portaceae is still acquiring and settling more land.

However, not all the poli are happy about this, especially Portaceae’s rival city, Seattica. There’s continual threats for the city-states to split from Portaceae and become independent, and this is a constant source of strife to the rulers of Portaceae who want to keep Portaceae as the most powerful city in Osteria. Because, you know, that’s what rulers like to do.

While the gods in Domna do have some influence in people’s lives, they don’t play as strong a role in this story as they do in the Osteria Chronicles. Most of the people of Osteria do worship the gods (the Twelve), but there are a few cults that are vying for influence in Osteria and this doesn’t sit well with some less tolerant folks in the story.

Basically, whereas the Osteria Chronicles series is mainly based around humans dealing with the gods’ petty ways, Domna deals more with human and political intrigue, which can be just as petty at times. But don’t worry, there’s still centaurs!

If you haven’t read the Osteria Chronicles, don’t worry. Domna is a completely independent story to that series. However, if you have read some of the Osteria Chronicles series, you’ll have fun noticing some familiar locations and perhaps a few familiar creatures that play a role in The Trials of Hercules.

Okay, I’ve got to get cracking my way through another nine chapters’ worth of edits. Thanks for stopping by and if you have any thoughts on the world of Domna, do toss them in the comment box below!

I’ll be back next week with some random updates, including a little announcement. And you’ll be glad to know that Finn McSpool will finally return on Saturday with a marvelous first day in Dublin. See you then!!!

Oh, and please please PLEASE be sure to take a minute to vote in Round Two of my book cover survey, if you haven’t done so already. The results are painfully close so every vote matters!!!

Book Cover Survey….VOTE NOW!!!!