Greetings from Hendra’s World!
Greetings from Hendra’s World!
Geography & Biology
Hendra’s World is a Fantasy Story in progress, written and illustrated by Stu Helm
GREETINGS FROM HENDRA’S WORLD!
Hendra is the hard-nosed, battle-tested, ever-ready warrior queen of the Dwarves of Hen’lin, which is one of 10 sovereign Dwarven territories on the continent called D’waiv’lin.
At one time, there were 13 Dwarven territories that were ruled centrally by the queen of Hel, but 100,000 years ago Hel, as well as the lands of Cal and Haim fell to Goblin and Human invaders. Their queens were killed, their houses and lineage were ended, and these three peoples — Humans, Goblins & Dwarves — have been pitted against each other ever since for control of the continent.
WORLD (BUILDING) WITHOUT END
I don’t know how that other guy made this world in just 6 days, but I’ve been working on an Atlas of Hendra’s World for months, and it’s not even close to being done! As always, I’m using Adobe Illustrator to create this, and all of the other Illustrations for Hendra’s World. The working file for this “Detailed Atlas” has eleven layers (so far) that can be hidden and revealed to show various features on the atlas, like Dwarven borders, Human borders, tunnels, roads, towns & cities, fortresses, terrain, and information.
While adding details, filling in gaps, and naming shit on this map, I’ve been working my way from North to South, because that’s the direction the characters travel in over the course of my story. Building this atlas has really helped me to figure out where my characters are, geographically speaking, and where they’re heading, especially after they split-up and go off in different directions.
Once I get back into writing the narrative, this new map will definitely force me to change large parts that I’ve already written in order to make the story fit with the geography!
World-building, as far as I can tell, might be a never ending process.
SAMENESS AMONG DWARVES IN HENDRA’S WORLD
Since atlases can be kind of dry, I thought y’all might enjoy these naked Dwarves.
Apart from their hair & various scars & piercings, all Dwarven men in Hendra’s World are perfectly identical in every way. They are of a uniform height & weight & have the same eye-color & facial features. They are born in litters of 1,000 at a time. Those born in the same litter consider each other as brothers, while those born in a different litter are called cousins, even if they share the same mother. No two litters share the same father, as the Queen takes a new king every year, with whom she produces a new litter.
Most dwarves in Hendra’s World have dark red hair although a few have lighter orange or even blond & very rarely black hair. All Dwarves have beards. Older Dwarves tend to have grey or white hair, and may go bald on top over time. Dwarven men reach full size & maturity at 4 years old & can live to be 400 years old!
The incredibly wide gap between the male & female populations of Dwarves means that most male Dwarves will never procreate, or even spend any time at all with a female Dwarf. In all of Hen’lin, there are only four female Dwarves, while the male population is in the hundreds of thousands.
— to be continued —