world-building |

Making Up God

by Natasha Hayden
February 28, 2014

This week in Children of the Wells, you were treated to a glimpse of the more zealous side of one of this world’s religions: the worship of the god Elthor. He is the god of Thyrion’s monotheistic state religion. The Emperor and his family believe their godlike power comes from Elthor. They believe their divine right to rule comes from him. In fact, they take their belief a step further: they believe they are gods themselves. Others, like the High Priest Pelag (from The Fall of the House of Kyzer) are fervent, more traditional believers, and still others believe only as far as Elthor suits their needs and whims. (more…)

February 28, 2014 - Tags: christianity, Natasha Hayden, The Well's Orphan, world-building Posted in: Blogs

Left Hand, Meet Right Hand

by Nick Hayden
December 6, 2013

Josep Ma. Rosell via Compfight – Creative Commons

One thing we here at Children of the Wells looked forward to doing when we started this world was exploring several different plotlines at once. Back in the planning stages, when all was bright colors and lollipops and rainbows, we wanted to have three parallel storylines proceeding simultaneously.

That turned out to be too many for us to manage. It’s hard enough running a continuing story if there’s only one person involved. When you have a half dozen authors, each with his own ideas and each with his own day job, well…you can imagine.

But even with a measly two parallel plotlines, we’re experimenting with ways to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. (more…)

December 6, 2013 - Tags: Nick Hayden, storylines, The Fall of the House of Kyzer, world-building Posted in: Blogs

We Built This City

by Nathan Marchand
May 10, 2013

While Children of the Wells is a character-driven saga, all characters need a world to live in. Last week, my partner in crime, Tim, wrote about how we created the magic system in CotW. But magic is just one part (albeit a big one) of this world.

Once we determined that magic pooled in wells, we realized that civilizations would develop around them, much like cities formed around bodies of water in our world. The larger the wells, the larger the cities. Because of this, we decided to have city-states as opposed to countries, each one with a distinct culture. After much discussion, we settled on having three large wells, which would be the hearts of the three most powerful cities on this continent, all of them warring and/or competing with one another for dominance.

While all the staff members contributed ideas for each city, much credit must go to the writers of our earliest stories for creating the different cities and the characters who inhabit them. (more…)

May 10, 2013 - Tags: creative process, Nathan Marchand, The Fall of the House of Kyzer, The Select's Bodyguard, world-building Posted in: Blogs