Legends of Windemere

Published on January 13, 2013, this feels like another post where things that now feel obvious just dawn on me.  I would eventually go on to talk a few times about the setting being as much of a character as the heroes and villains.  For anyone curious about Windemere’s early days, check out Beginning of a Hero for free.

Art by Alison Hunt

I keep thinking about the character posts that I will be tossing out as characters appear in the chapter sections.  Well, I realized that there is a very important ‘character’ that I give less credit and attention to than Stiletto.  This is the world that I meticulously created and now call Windemere.

As I stated, I began these stories when I was playing D&D, so the initial form of Windemere was the Forgotten Realms.  Really it was only Waterdeep because within two months of starting, I had begun adding more to Windemere.  The world that began as a simple coastline grew into multiple continents, four moons, and so many regions that I had trouble keeping track of it by the end of college.  You see, I got bored on weekends and nights when people were too busy to hang out.  So, I would sit at my computer and add regions onto Windemere or outline stories that included new cities.   The world evolved just like my characters, but at a stranger, less consistent pace.

I don’t remember what the initial name of Windemere was, but I knew it was lame.  Now, I went to college in upstate New York and the college was right on Lake Ontario.  So, I would go out to the lake to think if the weather was tolerable.  I remember wandering along the coast while the rain began to fall and I was trying to think of a name for my world.  I had gotten caught up on the idea of putting -mere at the end of it for some reason.  There was something about that ending that just clicked with me.  Then, a gust of wind started whipping the rocky coast and churning the lake.  I have always had a fascinating with watching nature and this time was no exception.  Windemere came into my mind and it was there to stay.

Here is where the story gets a little odd.  Windemere was not the first world that I created and nurtured.  There was it’s older sister named Mylrix from my high school days.  Mylrix was a simple world with a continent to the north, south, east, west, and a central island chain.  Not much was different between them and I only had a few stories taking place on the world.  Well, Mylrix wasn’t too thrilled with the new world on the block, but she was quickly losing in the power struggle.  She had so powerful warriors, but Windemere had legendary figures and living gods.  Things became an even bigger mess when I started dabbling in superhero stories and created the simply named Super Earth.  Now, Mylrix was horribly overshadowed and Windemere was trying to be nice.  Super Earth was kind of a bully and would push into my thoughts more often than Windemere liked.  Poor Mylrix was almost forgotten by the time I hit 25 and the power struggle was really between Windemere and Super Earth.  A few smaller worlds showed up for a few one-shot ideas and short series, but they promptly stayed out of the fight.

Then came the Great Cataclysm of Windemere.  Characters began talking about it and I wasn’t 100% certain what it was.  Eventually, I fixed this by combining Mylrix and Windemere with Mylrix being Pre-Cataclysm Windemere.  The name of Mylrix went to the plane of magic, which had crashed into the physical plane, hence creating the high-magic world that you see now.  Mylrix had passed away and given her power and stories to Windemere.  The smaller worlds decided to do the same, becoming islands and kingdoms of their oldest sibling.  This all brought about last summer where I realized that Super Earth and Windemere were butting heads too much.  I was getting my wires crossed with their stories because there were several cross-overs and similarities.  So, the decision was made to merge them and Windemere absorbed Super Earth, making it so vast and in-depth that I don’t think it’s early form would recognize it.

This merging cleared up a few mysteries of Windemere such as the origin of the day-walking vampires and what happened to Varlis City.  The superheroes were now a side-effect of the fall of Mylrix that were sealed away and will return for a series that plagues me.  Maybe I’ll go into that at some point, but I think I’m still forbidden by my wife and a few friends from uttering the name of the series.  This also put a mysterious Ice Crown at the top of the world, which the gods are unable to see or get into.  Horsemen of War, an organization of revolver-using warriors, ghost hunters, witches, and everything that I had fit perfectly into Windemere as if this was how it was supposed to be in the end.  Sure, this makes my fantasy world very powerful and closer to a Final Fantasy type world than Middle Earth, but there is something about operating in a single world for my entire career that makes me smile.

That is the origin of Windemere and some notes about its former siblings.  It is a character that will be slowly explored over the course of all of my books.  As the characters move along their path, the reader will get to explore with them.  Even today, I have no idea what is going to be ahead for this ever-changing world.