A little more about Calandis…

The world of “Wick and the Wandering Barge.”

While I will have a proper map made of Calandis, I wanted to detail the wonderful world I’ve created in writing to you all. Perhaps it’s just your cozy cup of tea.

Calandis, the world in which Wick and the Wandering Barge is set, is a weapons-free world. You may see some billysticks/truncheons/bully clubs, but there will be no guns, no canons, no swords, no flinging fireballs, no cloak and daggers. This is a world that is fundamentally at peace.

Life in Calandis is all about the four cardinal rivers (The River Ought, River Brey, River Keen, and River Opal) that run from an endlessly churning set of waterfalls from a central mountain, the location of Oubliette (the Capital City).

I know it’s geographically impossible for a single set of inland waterfalls to fuel four massive rivers… but… magic.

Life flows around these rivers, and a series of hundreds upon hundreds of canals, some well-traveled and others nearly forgotten.

The north of Calandis and the River Keen are cold, but not overly so. Think… Canada. At the very end of the river is Glace-on-Sea, a town built into the crater of a shallow, dormant volcano.

To the west on the River Brey, you have wide-open farm country, and the city of Kingstep-on-Brey, an industrial town and heart of trade with other countries.

To the east, you have Wick’s hometown of Damplight, along with shallow rivers and swampy land.

To the south, you have Opal-Reach, until the River Opal turns wild and untravelled, with the very southern mouth of the river being the location of “Lighthouse at the End.”

These are just some of the locations featured in Wick and the Wandering Barge.

If I were to compare the cities and the culture to any other work of fiction, the closest I would suggest is the wonderful world created by Diana Wynne Jones and her Howl’s Moving Castle, from which I have derived great enjoyment and great inspiration. To me, she is the grandmother of cozy fantasy. Without her wonderful stories, our little niche would be considerably less cozy.

I took some time to define how Calandis would operate and decided against a monarchy, instead opting for a bureaucratic state that largely maintains the status quo, with a fair amount of pomp and ineptitude. The true spirit of what keeps Calandis running is a series of government-like guilds, master/apprentice transfer of knowledge, and a heavy, heavy emphasis on the importance of contracts.

If this seems like a world you would like reading, please stick around. There’s plenty more to come :-D