The Spectra World master maps!

 

Summer is here! It's the perfect time to explore somewhere new! Sure, that might include a physical location, but I for one hope to explore a new fictional world as well. When I first designed a map for the Spectra world, I drew it on paper and then scanned it on the computer. That became my master map. Whenever an individual book calls for a map, I'll take a section of the master map and adapt it. Maybe I'll crop it to the relevant section, or take out some labels that aren't important to the specific story in question. I'll definitely dress it up a bit, and probably simplify the colors to remove some of the biomes. But, for you today, in all its rough glory, here is the Spectra Lands Master map!

Until recently, every book I've written has taken place on a piece of this map. However, my kindle vella story, The Centaur Chase, expands into the wider world besides this one continent. The Spectra Lands are inhabited mostly by the Spectra, elemental magic users, except for one corner inhabited by griffins. Each of the other continents in this world has its own magical species, whether human-ish like the wayfinders, animal-ish like the dragons, or a mix of the two like centaurs. I'm not sure when I'll expand into those continents, but I have a lot of room to play with!  Here's an even rougher map of where the different continents are. Note that this is just the western hemisphere. I imagine the eastern hemisphere to be more settled by humans, and there are plenty of books already that take place in that kind of world.

I hope you enjoy your adventures this summer, physical and fictional and everywhere in between!

Why my hometown makes the best setting

 One of the authors I follow asked in her newsletter: "If I were to ask you what is something unique or really iconic about your hometown or where you live now, what would you say? Would your area make for a fun setting for a book? Maybe one of you will talk me into using a location for my next project!"

(It's Esther Hatch. I read her historical romantic comedy, "Manor for Sale, Baron Included", and laughed so much my husband thought I was having a coughing fit.)

Challenge accepted!

I don't write contemporary, but if any of you do, here are some highlights about my home and why it would be an awesome setting for a book:

I live near Yuma, Arizona, the sunniest city on earth! Hotels used to offer free stays on days that the sun doesn't shine, because it happens so rarely. Being on the border with Mexico and further south than all of California, we have the best street tacos. 

The population doubles in winter with all of the snowbirds--which is annoying if you want to eat out somewhere cute, like Kneaders (we're one of the only non-Utah cities to have Kneaders, because the original owners retired here), but the crowds of senior citizens means that we have more opportunities such as orchestra, theater, and art. We also have a huge military presence, with a marine airstrip and an army proving ground, and a branch of the Arizona Western College. So, all together, we have a lot of residents coming and going, as well as some old families here for generations.

We have an awesome (historic) Territorial Prison Museum that spent a few years as a high school, which kept its mascot as "the criminals" to this day. It's supposed to be haunted. We also have the "castle park" (Stewart Vincent Wolfe Creative playground, but no one calls it that), which is a community park so awesome that I was astounded it's free when I first saw it. It was burned down a few years ago and the arsonist was never caught, but insurance covered the rebuild and donations went toward making it even more awesome. A couple could indulge their "inner child" on a tire swing (which was replaced recently by a wheelchair accessible swing) or sliding down the dragon slide. It's near a memorial for the Mormon Battalion, who crossed the Colorado River here. Our young men have an awesome historical reenactment. 

 The county fair in April is so huge that school districts arrange their schedules around it. It's called Fair, not "the fair". We're a big agricultural area, supplying most of the nation's winter vegetables, so a drive around the area will reveal fields in all directions. We grow a lot of citrus and dates too. Summer is the off season, from May to September, with temperatures up to 120. We make up for it with our beautiful, mild winters (no snow, ever). As everyone says, "You don't have to shovel sunshine". Unlike the Phoenix area, we cool off at night (comparatively), and we're a little more humid because of all of the agriculture and the nearby rivers.

Have I convinced you yet? Does anyone else want to join in and answer Esther's question? Why would your home make an awesome book setting?

The Spectra World origins and overlap

 In middle school, I decided to write a story about a group of six kids, one represented by each color. I was inspired partly by the energy cards in my Pokemon collection. The story began with the yellow/electric girl getting overcharged from swimming with her classmates (because electricity beats water in Pokemon), and the other five kids having to rush her into an empty classroom before she exploded lightning everywhere. 

That was the beginning of the Spectra magic system, which has the same colors and similar associated abilities (red for fire/heat, orange for ground/earth, yellow for electricity/innovation, green for grass/life, blue for water, purple for psychic/communication). I daydreamed about the system for several years before I finally started writing my first Spectra book in 2011.

The Spectra world is a lot of fun to write in because there is a lot of room for variation within those broad categories. I've also loved creating an alternate history for their continent, which is loosely based on the western United States. 

One advantage to staying in the same world for every book is that they can overlap a bit, and cameos from one book to another show up a lot. I'll share some examples from DreamRovers, since the series finale comes out on the thirtieth!

In my very first book, Keita's Wings 1, Keita mentions in passing a valley full of people who can travel through dreams (which expanded into the DreamRovers trilogy several years later). In Keita's Wings 3, she and another character mention legends about One-Shot Walker, a character in DreamRovers, which takes place about two centuries earlier. DreamRovers 3 will go into more about griffins, and even see a carving of the characters of Mira's Griffin. DreamRovers will be a major focus of the second Spectra Crowns book, and in my future book, The Captain's Dowry, the characters visit a city named after a DreamRover character.

The Legend of Aiyana

Posted by Christie V Powell on July 13, 2016 at 10:25 PM

This is a legend told in Spritelands to warn young Sprites of the dangers of humans. It is referenced in The Spectra United (Keita's Wings book 2).

Once upon a time, a young Sprite girl called Aiyana lived with her family on the coast of what is now Lectranis. She was a natural healer, and her parents did everything to get her the very best trainers. However, her training was halted when her parents died in a winter storm. A neighboring Lectran family took her in, and though they were not cruel they did not love her. Though Sprites do not usually eat, she was required to find food for her new family.

 

One day Aiyana spied a dark shape out at sea. She had not heard of the humans, who had arrived on a similar vessel years earlier and built a small settlement further north. This ship had blown off course and landed far from the others. Aiyana watched the strange, Spectra-like creatures land, but because her village insisted that the humans be left alone, she did not approach. Still, she often stopped on her daily forages by the sea to look at them.

 

Aiyana soon discovered that the humans were doing poorly. Ill equipped for surviving alone, many caught diseases and perished. When winter approached, Aiyana knew they would not survive. She abandoned the laws of her village and offered her assistance to the humans. The humans were amazed as she healed them, one by one. She taught them to feed themselves by gathering food from the sea, as she had done for her Lectran family. The human colony survived, and in gratitude gave their settlement their version of her name, Hanan. Eventually Aiyana moved in with them, using a small abandoned cabin as her own.

 

The news of Hanan's magical healer spread. Many sick people visited, and she healed them all. Even today, the poor and ill are treated well in Hanan, now a bustling human city. But one group of men saw opportunity while others saw healing. They laid in wait, deciding to catch the young Sprite and take her overseas, perhaps collecting money for her healing in the land over the water. They tangled her in immense nets and threw her into a cage with mesh bars so tiny that she could not escape. She called for help, but her human friends, those neighbors she trusted and healed, served and protected, would not hear. Her captors took her aboard a ship and she was never seen again.

 

After her abduction, and many other attacks, the Sprites abandoned humans completely, disappearing into their forests with strict rules to avoid all human contact. The other clans followed, until today when few humans know that Spectra exist. But take caution, for their cages and their ships are still ready.

Lectran Pox Defeated

 

Posted by Christie V Powell on April 9, 2016 at 5:20 PM

This "newspaper article" describes some of the backstory from Keita's Wings book 2, The Spectra United.

8 August 209

Queen Taima arose from her bed and greeted the public this morning for the first time in several months. Tears streaked her scarred cheeks as she expressed her appreciation for the concern and well-wishes of her people. Earlier that day, the first healers from Spritelands had arrived, but they came too late for many of us.

Amber Sage, niece of our good king Antony, married the Sprite prince and heir Drake Sage three years ago. When Prince Leon and his wife, Valerie, caught the dreaded pox, they sent messengers to her, begging for help.

“We came as soon as we heard the news,” said Sprite healer Merle Arden. “I brought my entire family and we intend to stay as long as we are needed.”

But Arden and the twenty other Sprite healers came too late. Leon, his wife Valerie, and his twin sister Luna join the list of those killed by the disease. King Quentin appeared in his second official ceremony as king for their funeral. His wife and baby daughter Viviana survived, though scarred. Hundreds of others did not.

 

The Great Stygian War

This information, written in the style of a history book, formed some of the backstory for the Keita's Wings series. 

Kieran Sclera was a counselor to the Muse king, Cato Pensier. In the year 145 he married the king’s young daughter Tracy. After a few months, Tracy disappeared into the neighboring kingdom of Merlandia. Driven by anger, Kieran joined forces with a Stygian called Adrian Blake. Under Adrian Blake’s tutelage, Kieran became a Stygian and killed his brother-in-law Crowther Pensier.

 

Two years later, the two Stygians attacked. Kieran killed the rest of the Muse royal family, eliminating that line. The next year, Kieran left the Muse kingdom and attacked Spritelands, where he believed Tracy had gone. He destroyed the royal family and claimed that crown. At the same time, Adrian killed the Lectran royal family, except for the two youngest, Ambrose and Antony. Those two boys escaped to the central summit where Stygians cannot enter. Adrian took control of the Lectran army and sent it to battle the Nomes. The Nome queen was killed, but the king Clayton VI escaped to the summit with his infant son, Clayton VII. He also sent messengers to the other clans.

 

While the Stygians overtook the other clans, the other royals were able to escape: the young Cole king Brand and his sister Embry, and King Seward Neried of Merlandia, and his family. Two clans were lacking: Sprites and Muses, and without them the royals could not create a full spectrum, with all six clans represented, in order to defeat the Stygians. In the year 148, the two kings, Seward and Clayton VI, left the summit and entered the Spriteland mountains. Seward was killed, but the king Clayton VI was rescued by a Sprite boy called Orson Sage, who helped him return to the summit.

 

The royals still lacked a Muse, but they all knew that entering Castalia would be fatal. Instead, they entered Merlandia and enlisted the help of a Mer guard named Dorian Fiske. Out of duty, the Cole princess Embry agreed to marry him, knowing that their children would be Muses. She bore a daughter and called her Brynna. In the year 150, Orson Sage joined the others at the summit, bringing his new wife and infant son, who he wanted to keep safe from the searching Stygian soldiers. Over the years, some of the more impetuous royals left the summit, but eventually all returned safely.

 

In 156, young Princess Brynna gained full control of her Muse abilities. The royals emerged from the summit. They travelled in secret to the Lectran capital, Telosa, and killed the Stygian Adrian, setting King Antony on the throne. From there they moved on to battle the other kingdoms. In the Battle of Gadwall Hills, Kieran was defeated and replaced by young Brynna, watched over by her father Dorian. Osron Sage took the Sprite crown, beginning the Sage dynasty, and young Torrent became king of Merlandia.

 

The Summit

This story was written in the style of a textbook entry. 

The Spectra have lived in separate kingdoms, based on their abilities, since before written history. The relationships between the various clans changed frequently, but for the most part, they kept to themselves. The Sprites were last to choose a king and unite the various settlements in their kingdom, only a few years after humans first entered the Sprite kingdom.

 

Everything changed in the year 111 after human discovery. Before then, Stygians, which are Spectra that have taken oaths which give additional abilities, attacked small settlements, but never on a wide scale. In the year 111, a Stygian managed to conquer first Castalia, and then Merlandia and the Cole Kingdom. A few survivors escaped to the other clans, which banded together in the face of this great threat. Once the Stygian was defeated, the Spectra leaders began meeting together yearly. In the year 126, they built a hidden retreat at the center of the continent. The walls of the hidden place were created with Spectrite, a substance manufactured by all six abilities combined, and which repels Stygians. The location and the yearly meeting were both called the Summit, and the meetings continue to this day, with each leader bringing an heir, a custom begun in the year 157.

Human Discovery

This information, written in the style of a textbook, provided backstory for the Spectra Books.

Hundreds of years ago, the first year according to our calendar, human explorers landed on the gentle beaches of our land, in the region of Lectranis known as Hunan, or Human Landing. They found good farmland backed by the Shield Mountains, with the rich prairies of central Lectranis to the south and the great deserts of Nomelands north and west over the Shields. Those first explorers called the land Vesspucia, though even now they argue over whether it is a large island or small continent.

 

Further explorations revealed the rich variety of climates across our land. They sent colonists, who built a new town at the first landing place, a home base from whence other parties could set out to explore. They soon ran into their first Spectra. The Lectrans treated them well, interested in their culture and new materials they had brought with them, but other clans were less friendly. The humans were wary with every clan, and rumors flew, with strange words like ‘magic’ and ‘witches’. Violent conflict began, and after many years, the Spectra went into hiding and all but disappeared from human awareness.

 

Spectra written history begins from this point. While the Spectra did have a system of runes, painted onto rocks or carved into trees, the humans introduced a more comprehensive written language, and paper for portable records. Within two hundred years the Spectra language had all but died out, and only a few scholars could read our runes. The Spectra also adopted the human calendar and began counting years, starting from the year humans landed on our land. Thus, when we say the Spectra went into hiding in the year 22, we mean that it took place twenty two years after human discovery.