And completely unintentional, I should say.

A character appeared in my WIP whom I love to pieces.  At this point he’s probably my favorite character.  He just kind of appeared out of nowhere like the rest of them do but I’m glad he did.  His presence gives the story a sense of mysticism, not to mention his homeland sounds really freakin’ cool.  And I invented it!

He’s from a section of the kingdom called South Fair.  It’s a port province so it acts as a cultural melting pot.  Think New York City but nowhere near as hard and brutal.  The thing is there’s a very large concentration of energy in that area, magic completely separated from what the Giver would dole out.  This is magic of the earth as opposed to magic of the stars.  The more native people to the area (those that have been there from the beginning or at least a few generations) are closer in respect to gypsies.  Think Romani.  But there’s also, for lack of any other reference, Native American mysticism there, worship of the earth and the water, voodoo cultures, types of jive from New Orleans.  Pretty much it’s an amalgam of a bunch of different mystic people centrally located into one area (mind, they’re not all there).

Now because of that, because of all that earth-bound energy buzzing around the air, it creates a draw, a sense of lost to anyone that may visit if they so wish to succumb to it.  It’s a raw energy, filtered through the people directly from the earth.  The people in that area aren’t looked on as weird per se, just extraordinarily different since it’s not the norm in the “upper” kingdom.  The rumor of the kingdom is that people go to South Fair to get lost.  It’s not what you’d call a vacation destination and while people do emerge from it safe and sound, they usually go there with specific purposes in mind.

Now, lets not read too deep into the magical elements of this.  In no way does the star/Giver magic reflect a kind of “heaven-sent” magic while the earth-bound magic of South Fair represent some kind of “hell-sent” magic.  Not a chance.  The earth in and of itself exudes it’s own magic and energy.  The people of South Fair have learned through generations to harness it themselves.  The star/Giver magic is doled out to the people of the kingdom at the Giver’s will as directed by the stars.  The stars, physically, hold the magic.  If you’re not bestowed with a gift from the Giver at birth and you’re not from a culture in South Fair, you’re just a normal person.  But a person from South Fair can be given a gift since it’s a province of the kingdom of Raydin, as is the case with the character in question.  He’s a Crier but also from a culture in South Fair so he’s much more superstitious than the rest and can harness a touch more energy than the others because of where he came from.  Not much because he was young when he was taken so his experience is limited but it’s more than just being a Crier.

more…