(I realize this might sound a trifle pretentious, writing an essay on the origins of a world that's only a few months old as of this writing- July 31, 2003- but I might forget this information a few years from now, so I thought I'd write it down now).
At the time I began considering the first story set in Orlath, Royalty of Wind, and Fire, and Clay, I'd halted my writing for some months and was in a fallow period. I wrote short stories and poems, but no novels, though I started several. I couldn't seem to get an idea that would catch my interest for more than a few days.
Actually, I didn't know at first that the story would be set in a new world. I simply started playing with the idea of a discarded male character, a prince who did the hard work and got none of the notice. The more I thought about it, the more I saw how easy this would be to make into a parody. At first I thought that I would scar the prince, but other ideas took over (though my main character, Pheron, did eventually get maimed).
Instead, I made an ordinary character, one with brown eyes and hair, no magic or Destiny, and the third of four children, then put him in a world full of fantasy stereotypes and stepped back to watch what happened.
It grew from there.
I am having so much fun with this world. I mock everything I can think of: changing eye colors, grand Destinies, unicorns who only let virgins ride on them, the typical warm-fuzzy-Earth Goddess religion that a lot of fantasies have, elemental magic, and so on. And the parody has spread out from Pheron himself to embrace almost everybody.
Pity the poor people I put in these worlds.
And have fun with the stories.
