Irindia and Beyond

As a writer of fantasy and science fiction, I create worlds. This is a place I can share them with you and hopefully take you to some of the places I'm creating.

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Before and After idea  for The Gather book cover design

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Featured Author - D John Watson

Today I have another author on the blog who hides his face, but let's welcome him none-the-less. Hi John, thanks for letting me grill you over a slow fire to get some answers to questions that kept...

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The Chronicles Of Irindia Book One: The Gatherer (by D. John Watson)

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  This review is from: The Chronicles Of Irindia (Book One: The Gatherer) (Kindle Edition)

In his debut novel the author takes us on a journey to the land of Irindia where the protagonist, David has been transported. As The Gatherer, his fate is to find pieces of the stone of Irindia to defeat Lord Draga, the evil wizard who is trying to take this world over. The story is ripe with characters and I found myself rooting for David from the beginning on his quest to fulfill his destiny. He is easily relatable to any young adult that might pick up this book. And this becomes in many ways, a coming to age story as David learns how to yield magic, and fight Lord Draga. I look forward to the next book in these chronicles and suspect we haven't yet seen the best from this author yet.

Nicholas Sansbury Smith 

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New Review-5 Stars

In his debut novel the author takes us on a journey to the land of Irindia where the protagonist, David has been transported. As The Gatherer, his fate is to find pieces of the stone of Irindia to defeat Lord Draga, the evil wizard who is trying to take this world over. The story is ripe with characters and I found myself rooting for David from the beginning on his quest to fulfill his destiny. He is easily relatable to any young adult that might pick up this book. And this becomes in many ways, a coming to age story as David learns how to yield magic, and fight Lord Draga. I look forward to the next book in these chronicles and suspect we haven't yet seen the best from this author yet.  Nicholas Sansbury Smith

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Alesha Escobar says. "I enjoyed the characters Watson introduces, and he does a splendid job at constructing and describing a rich and detailed world with many races, traditions, and magic."

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Stone of Irindia

The Stone of Irindia is ancient beyond measure and is the most powerful weapon in Irindia.  During the time of the Jumdah Sek's first effort to come through from his realm, it was used to harness the power of the Ancients and destroy his pawns Mishao and Kava.  After they were destroyed, the rune covered stone was broken into four fragments and hidden until they were needed again.

When Lord Draga begins to prepare the way for Sek to come through, the Ancients set in motion the fulfillment of a prophecy.  A Gatherer is brought to Irindia to begin collecting the pieces of the artifact.  The fragments, each of which is imbued with a an element, will only reveal themselves to him. Each fragment is guarded by a unique set of challenges and only when all four are gathered can they be used to harness the power of the Ancients and destroy Draga.

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A great site for authors and readers alike

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Irindian Settings

For Irindia, I wanted a landscape that was rugged and ancient.  I envisioned a land that was sparsely settled and had territories for several races.  I drew a rough map, added mountains and forests as well as a coastline and cities.  Next I needed to populate my world which wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  I wanted a variety of cultures and I wanted them to be as realistic as possible and for this, I started with the language of magic.  Once I settled on Gaelic as the root language for white magic and decided to include elves in my story line, I went on to use other mythical races such as centaurs and fauns.  I gave them histories and appropriate real languages.  These are complicated, sometimes contentious relationships that can be seen between races and cultures in our own history.

My hero however comes from this world so I decided to use a real setting I know.  After a lot of thought, I settled on a small town in rural North Carolina where I spent a couple of years.  I think this gave me a realistic flavor that I'm trying to use in the rest of the settings in my series.  

I like the contrast between modern earth and the fantastic world or Irindia. David comes from a world of fast food, movies and video games.  Although I never return to this world once David arrives in Irindia, the idea is reinforced through references.  

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This is a new billboard on a really awesome site for both readers and authors.

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Of all of the creatures that inhabit Irindia, wyvern are some of the nastiest.  They’re smaller than their fire breathing cousins and the ones that roam the skies of Irindia are a constant threat to the air ships that ply and prey on the trades routes.  And Irindian wyvern, unlike their heraldic emblems, are equipped with small front legs for grasping prey.

Source:  http://merlin.wikia.com/wiki/Wyvern

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In the land of Irindia, darkness is threatening to swallow everything in its path. Lord Draga is a powerful dark wizard who is working to prepare the way for his dark master, a demon named Jumbdah Sek. However there is a prophecy that tells of a warrior who will come and unit the fragments of an ancient magical weapon and use it to destroy Irindia's greatest enemy. David Sanchez is chosen and together with a powerful wizard named Suma, he begins a quest to gather the fragments. Can one boy save a world?

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World Building

  For my first book, I had to create a distant land.  Not only a landscape with towns and rivers, but a history and a population of different cultures.  This is something all writers of speculative fiction have to do and it's a daunting challenge.    However because this is the first of three books, my world building has to be more detailed and consistent from book to book.  For Irindia I found the need for several races, both light and dark, and each has a territory and a culture of it's own.  Some, like giants, are only looked at briefly.  Others, like elves and centaurs, have a greater role so their cultures and histories are delved into in greater detail.

  Most of the natural races of Irindia are related to creatures in our own ancient mythology and for those I chose to use languages that they would use if they were real.  For example white magic and the language of the elves is Gaelic, while centaurs and fauns use Greek. There is also a language for dark magic and another for the Targans and the Selcar who are a different class of fey.  The more involved a race is in the story the more involved I had to be in the building of their history and culture.  And in the process, I built a history for Irindia itself.

   This is true within the human world as well.  Each Lord or Lady has a territory and a culture that is different from the others.  They have connections to others, and like all people they have weaknesses, ambitions and secrets.  Most of the people I've placed here are forced into a situation their ancestors had gone through, a war against a dark wizard who is struggling to free his master.  They are led by Lady Akara Nene and it's through her and her interaction with others that we see a lot of the human histories.  Through Lord Draga, the enemy, we see the complete range of darker ambitions and talents.  His connections to the others fighting him are old and compelling.  The people he is determined to destroy are the reason for him becoming what he is.  They are the reason this war was started. 

  Irindia is more than a collection of people and the places they live.  It has a diverse landscape with unconquerable mountains, rivers and deserts as well as sweeping savannas and thick forests.  Each of these climates has its own unique set of challenges.  When two of my main characters are fleeing from raiders they are unable to find cover because of the sparse amount of trees on a vast savanna.  Along the west, Irindia is bordered by the Vvarliscar Mountains which no one has been known to cross.  There are rivers that act as borders and influence the course of the story.

  Throughout the series I'm expanding the landscape and it's history to build a real world.  It's the responsibility of the writer to create as full a world as they can to give the reader as complete an experience as then can get.  It's one I take seriously and whether it's Irindia now or the worlds of future works, I hope my readers have the same fascination for them I do.  

Welcome to Irindia

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The cover of my new book