Another Review for The Last Grand Master
This review is also posted on Joyful Jay’s Site: Review: The Last Grand Master by Andrew Q. Gordon
Tag: The Last Grand Master
Worldbuilding Blogfest Post 5 – Excerpt from The Last Grand Master.
Since yesterday’s entry was about the culture of Nendor and much ink was spilled discussing the festivals, I thought it would be fun to show how Farrell dealt with the preparations for his union ceremony. For the sake of better understanding the excerpt, Horgon is Miceral’s father and the First Minister of Haven – meaning he runs the day to day operations in Farrell’s name.
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STARING at the parchment, Farrell rubbed his eyes. “Are you sure all of this is necessary?”
Horgon gave him a brief smile before nodding. “I’m afraid so. As Prince, you can’t sneak off and get joined. All this…” He waved at the papers. “…is just part of what’s involved. I’ve left the more mundane things out, figuring you don’t much care about things like color of the invitation or which flowers will be on the altar.”
“Unbelievable.” Farrell shook his head, lifting another sheet from the stack. Continue reading Worldbuilding Blogfest Post 5 – Excerpt from The Last Grand Master.
Holidays, Food and Culture of Nendor
I suppose it is somewhat obvious that when world building, one should give the inhabitants something uniquely their own, but it wasn’t to me. Although I like to cook, I’m hardly a foodie. To me, reading a description of what the characters are eating is boring. Generally I skip over these parts, especially if there isn’t anything unique or important in the description. Example of important food would be Lambas bread in the Lord of the Rings or Aliantha berries in Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant Chronicles. Thus far, Nendor doesn’t boast any such miracle food.
Like any other author, I bring to the table what interests me most. I really don’t care what people eat. The fact that characters eat is sufficient. That is probably a bad attitude and given the feed back from the editors at Dreamspinner, I suspect future books will need to highlight something unique to Nendor and I’ll need to pay a bit more attention to what the characters are eating. Continue reading Holidays, Food and Culture of Nendor
Religion and Culture of Nendor
Religion and Culture of Nendor
The world was created by the seven gods and goddesses of Nendor. Siblings, they are in order of age:
Honorus – Lord of the gods; Lenore – Goddess of the earth; Neldin – Lord of the underworld; Arritisa – Lady of the ocean; Khron – God of war; Seritia – Goddess of love; and Falcron – God of wisdom. Each deity has it’s own temples, clerics, and followers. Although there is no prohibition against following more than one, most people choose a specific god or goddess to primarily worship. Of course prayers are offered to different gods or goddesses depending on the need, no matter who a person follows.
The seven gods worked together to create the world and it’s inhabitants. Neldin, however, chafed under his brother Honorus’s rule and plotted to over throw his brother and rule in Honorus’s stead. A fierce and bloody war was fought which ended with Neldin’s defeat. The Six declared Neldin the God of Evil, razed his temples all across Nendor and forbade any to worship him. In the aftermath of the war, Neldin’s few remaining followers hid their devotion to avoid persecution and death from those affected by the war. Within a generation, the world believed worship to Neldin as an organized religion had disappeared. But his followers survived and created an underground hierarchy, planning for their god’s revival.
History and Politics of Nendor
The Seven Gods of Nendor created the world. After a time, Neldin – third eldest – decided to try to rise above his eldest brother Honorus and rule the world. Neldin tricked the dwarves of Trellham to unleash the hordes of Neblor upon the world. The other six gods rallied their followers and the two sides fought to a stand still. After a short but bitterly fought war, a young wizard from the island of Dumbarten, named Kel, followed the will of the gods and sealed off Neldin’s foot hold into the world and ended the war. For the next three millennia, Neldin retreated to the underworld and was rarely heard from.
Geography and Climate
The Last Grand Master is set on the world of Nendor. There are three main continents, Ardus, Erd and Loudria. The island kingdom of Dumbarten is one of the largest kindgoms in the world, but set just of the western coast of Loudria, it is not considered it’s own continent.
Ardus – Book One, takes place entirely on Ardus, the southern most and smallest of the three continents.
There are Seven Major Kingdoms on Ardus, Yar-del, Zargon, Endor, Respital, Arvendia, Pelipan and Honal. Collectively, these nations are referred to as the Seven Kingdom.
The Seven Kingdoms are bordered to the north by Spine of Khron, the highest mountains on the continent, and to the west by the Trellham Mountains. The Kessen Ocean lies to the east. The southern wastes are a snowy icy land that covers the southern tip of the continent. Haven is built into the Trellham mountains.
North of the Spine, an arid dessert that stretches all the way to the Sea of Erd. Along the northern coast, free merchant cities arose. Most, however, housed more pirates than honest merchants. The cities along the Delmun Ocean were founded by wealthy merchants who transformed their domains into prosperous city-states. Occupying the western most tip of Ardus, Belsport was the largest, wealthiest and strongest of these city-states.
Much of the story in Book One takes place in Haven, a hidden city built inside the Trellham Mountains. When Meglar revealed his true intent, it became apparent his power might prove too great for anyone to resist. Queen Zenora of Yar-del and grand master wizard Heminaltose devised a plan to stop Meglar, but they recognized they might not have enough time to execute it. As a contingent against defeat, Heminaltose and scores of lesser wizards spent a decade carving Haven out of the bowels of the Trellham Mountains. When Yar-del fell, Haven was ready to receive the survivors. More, Heminaltose, realized early on that Haven might need to house most if not all the sovereign realms of Ardus and he had his wizards create a massive complex capable of housing tens of thousands of people. Construction of Haven required more than just physical space. Air circulation, sanitation, climate control, lighting, food preservation and storage, ventilation for smiths, tanners, slaughterhouses, massive kitchens to feed the survivors and many other details went into creating the sanctuary.