Day 11 – Seekretya – Focus In

30 Days of Worldbuilding says to choose one of the following:

1. "Write a complete timeline for your setting (last 500 years or so should do) and for your protagonist's life up until the novel opens."
2. "Write a 1-paragraph description of each major political body (churches, governments, kingdoms, factions, economic forces, guilds, etc.) and name them
2a. "write one sentence about how 3 of your groups (the 3 most important groups) feel about all the other groups."
3. "Write a short glossary or lexicon for some common or important words (like rock, bird, horse, king, ford, river, stream, mountain, holding, village, magic, outsider, etc.)"
3a. "Write down five place names and five character names"

And this is supposed to only take 15 minutes? My foot! I suppose if you weren't creating many, many countries and races then you could. Since the idea is to focus in I'm going to do that. I'm going to try to do 3 "days" a day for the rest of this week, so let's get going.

First, I think the story is going to involve Trols and Fae for the most part. I've already given a very detailed history, but it ends at about 1880. I'll focus in the history since then between two groups. We already have place names so I'll skip that, but I will give a paragraph for each of the major groups in the Trol and Fae nations. I'll throw in some Dragon and some human parts too.

The Stoentrols and Dwarfs have been at war for the entire existence of Seekretya, why? Stoentrols live in Akwaland, Dwarfs in Bluudland, with the Dark Empire between them. Why would they war?

The Dwarf arrived first, and claimed the entire southern region of Seekretya. From the Red Clifs to the Bluu Mountains are noted for their stones and gems. The Dwarfs wanted it all, but the Trols soon followed and claimed some of that land as well, and for the very same reason.

The Graettrols led the fight and allowed the Trols to get the better of the situation for a long time, forcing the Dwarfs into the farthest western of the lands. The Stoentrols are actually less violent, much more like gentle giants and removed themselves to as far east as possible to avoid confrontation.

Establishing Bluudland and Akwaland should have ended the problems, but the intervening land was still up for grabs. The Graettrols fell deeper and deeper into internal struggles and a very complex political dance developed over access to the stones and gems of what eventually became the Dark Empire.

At the height of the chaos, just before the Dark Empire was established the Dwarfs decided to make a preemptive strike, they launched an amphibious and a land attack on the southern shore of the land of the Graettrols and into Akwaland. They intended to bargain from the strongest possible position and gain a big chunk of Graettrol lands, maybe even all the way to the Bluu River.

The Stoentrols were outraged. They felt like they had been the most gracious and agreeable of the Trols. They felt completely betrayed that they're peaceful living was treated with attack. It has been said, "Beware the temper of the patient man." That was surely true of the Stoentrols; they drove the Dwarfs out and attacked deep into Bluudland. They took as much plunder and left.

The Stoentrols have never forgiven the Dwarfs, and for their part the Dwarfs have never forgiven the theft of their precious things. The Dwarfs don't see why the Stoentrols don't understand the strategy of the attack and take it to heart so much. They see the Stoentrols as softies that should, "just get over it."

Because the Graettrols now allow both Dwarfs and Stoentrols access to their own mines the two groups often cross paths and fights breakout. The Graettrols don't mind because they are often hired to fight the battle within their land. Quite often some Dwarf group will claim to discover the description of a Great Artifact that they must make a crusade to find, into Akwaland. Sometimes these crusades carry off things the Stoentrols hold sacred and/or dear, and they launch counter crusades of their own.

Also, the best water for beer is in Akwaland, but the Trols don't drink beer.  The Dwarfs take great offense at that, and will raid just to steal water sometimes.

The "feud" has been winding down for years, but just before the story begins the Fifth Dwarf Crusade, or the Crusade of the Fish ended with the Dwarfs recovering a Golden Carp, said to grant wishes. In the process they carried off a great deal of plunder. Also, although it is as yet undiscovered, the Tree of Wisdom received a death wound and the Dwarfs carried off the last of the Seeds of Wisdom.

I've run out of time so I'll have to end here for today. One other thing I wanted to question is, I haven’t, per the exercise, developed any characters yet. How can I write a personal history for a hero that hasn't been developed yet, with what will most likely develop into the plot, which I haven't worked out yet?