People joke that fantasy writers just create fictional worlds for the power trip, but in my experience the process is less “playing god,” than it is begging God to give you ideas… Good world building can make or break the entire story depending on a hundred little factors that all have to play nicely together.

Thankfully I had a simple but strong premise when developing Tenebra, and it helped me not to get too much ahead of myself, and I didn’t have to figure it all out at once; my knowledge of land and the complexity of its cultures and regions deepened and expanded as I wrote the series. Eventually, it felt like home for me as much as it is for Doran, Errol, and Mavis. And I hope that’s how readers feel too.

So let’s talk about how I got to that point!

Geography:

Any writer of fantasy or sci-fi has met the challenge of creating an interesting land mass, and I’m sure they all have effective approaches, but I’d like to think mine is one of the most unique: Christmas DIY!

I messed up the image I was attempting to iron onto a canvas zipper pouch for my mom, and since I didn’t have any extras, I had to peel it off and give it another try. The pieces of iron-on paper came off in frustratingly small flakes so that I had to pick away at it slowly. After a while, all that remained was an odd, messy shape of warped upside-down and inside-out paper clinging to the canvas bag.

Odd, messy… and quite cartographic! I copied the shape onto a piece of paper, and thus the world of Tenebra was born.

I kid you not. It was literally that dumb and simple.

But a map is useless without any scale, and since Gift of the Tiding Bearer is nothing but a big road trip, I had to establish realistic travel times between locations. I settled on 65 miles per square inch. FUN FACT! This means Doran travels about 400 miles across a country roughly the size of Texas. RIP Doran’s feet.

(Also, if you’re a fantasy writer planning any type of travel, making a map ahead of time will save you so much speculation and make your story a lot more believable. ;-D Please don’t skip that step.)

The latest and greatest, created by fantasy cartographer Kate Korsak: this version is found in ebooks and will soon come to the paperbacks as well.

Naming:

Remember that simple but strong premise I mentioned at the beginning? It’s this: every region represents a different obstacle to salvation. Put another way, each region of Tenebra is held fast by a particular vice that blinds its residents to their need for the True King, known to His followers as simply the Giver.

That being said, I didn’t hide these metaphors very deep, as I think you can tell from the names of the capital cities. The main hub of business and wealth in the greedy coastal region is named Firmgrasp, conveying the idea of a miser holding tightly to his gold. And in the prideful, display-loving plains region, Spreadfeather references a peacock fanning its feathers to impress someone, like everyone in the city proudly flaunts their knowledge and supposed superiority. (Check out the Explore Tenebra page to see the rest of the capital cities!)

When it came to naming the land itself, Tenebra was an easy choice. It’s a Latin word meaning darkness, obscurity, and ignorance. Biblically, God’s truth and goodness is compared to light and contrasted with evil and error, represented by darkness, and light vs. darkness is one of the most prominent themes in the trilogy.

Culture and Characters:

I carefully and intentionally planned each region’s culture around its “vice,” taking inspiration from Proverbs and similar books of the Bible to highlight some of the most common soul-numbing distractions: power hunger/violence (fire lands), pride/vanity and human wisdom (the plains), greed (the coast), love of pleasure (the desert), and deception (the foothills). With these faults as a basis, I was able to define central characters by their hometowns and reinforced the themes of their character arcs.

Doran’s Flamebridge displays the violence and depravity of a place where everyone strives to overpower the other and any sign of weakness (like Doran’s limp) is taunted, exploited, and even feared. His own sense of powerlessness is constantly reinforced by General Isambard’s abuse. Growing up in such an environment its little wonder Doran craves power—and revenge for himself. But the Giver’s Path will lead him in unexpected directions.

Spoiled heiress Mavis is brought up to be shrewd and selfish, as are all influential citizens of Firmgrasp. But it’s that very greed that piques her interest in Dara’s message, proving that God is not limited in His means of bringing us to salvation.

Errol is molded by his surroundings as much as Doran or Mavis, but with an added complication: the political environment of Spreadfeather. In this city, no one is a neutral party in the relentless contest between Terravants and Auteers. Inspired by Romans 1:22-23, they represent the two extremes of faulty human wisdom: worship of creation and worship of human intellect. The Terravants look to the stars, mountains, flora, and fauna to explain the world around them (their name is derived from “terra” which means “earth”), while the Auteers look within themselves, deifying logic and reason much like classical Greek and Roman philosophers (the “aut” in Auteer comes from “auto,” meaning “self”). Each group believes the other to be ridiculous, unreasonable, and even dangerous, while they are both catastrophically wrong.

As a result of growing up in such a culture of tradition, Errol has a lot of deeply ingrained prejudices. Once he’s finally forced out of his comfortable “bubble,” he takes the longest of the three to see his need for the Priceless Treasure the Giver offers.

I hope you enjoyed this informal examination of my world building process and weren’t too disappointed by how basic I really am. LOL. Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions! Hit me up on Instagram @tidingbearer_official or drop me a message through the contact form! And until next time, stay kind, curious, and courageous. <3 <3 <3

Building Tenebra

Geography:

Naming:

Culture and Characters:

Same God, Different Paths

Publishing My First Book: Gift of the Tiding Bearer