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Albans ChoiceBits and Pieces 
book.jpg
book.jpg
map of Upleania  from Dragons' Flight book

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Maps created by Swati Chavda  using a pro version of Inkarnate

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                    Dragons and their riders


     Size     M/F      Name       Color    Riders Name 

       L         (m)       Shaleth,       Black      Boral          

       L         (m)      Loganth,       Brown    Alex          

       S         (F)        Sharth,         Blue        Brill           

       S         (M)       Garth,          Green     Healer       

      M       (M)         Darth          Red         Joseph      

       S         (F)         Baleth,         Yellow     Griller       

      M       (M)        Bareth,         Red -       Jackson         

       L         (F)         Rumruth,     gold         Jen           

       L         (F)         Kayelinth,     gold        Mary (D)   

       S         (F)          Jayth-           B/W         Aron     

                                       Caylob’s back story

                                          as told by Caylob

                                          (not in the book)

This was the one class I had teach, and it never got any easier for me. But telling these kids the truth was something that I took seriously. I hitched my sagging pants and sat my heavy ass down on a stool in front of the kids sitting on the sand. Brushed back my super thick, pain in the ass, hair from my face and tried my best to look friendly.      “Today I am going to tell you kids some stuff. Now there are some that think I should not tell kids some of these things, but I disagree, and as long as I am hatching grounds master, I get to do pretty much as I please.”        “I wasn’t always the hatching grounds master, you know. I was just like you as a child. Got my dragon at the age of twelve.” I scratched at my beard. As black as the dragon I was speaking about. I looked at the twelve ten-year-olds sitting in a semicircle, staring back at me. “Twas a black, and blacks, as you know, are special, being they be largest and, most would say, smartest of the breed. I’d have to agree with that, cause my dragon was definitely smart, and he was bigger, even than the other blacks. His name was Hameth.”          The red head at the back coughs. I nod. “I know Jacob. My opinion is biased. And, yes, all dragons are equal in terms of smartness, but some day you will swear that red of yours is the smartest,” I glance at each of the boys and girls in turn. “Each of you will, and rightly so.” I smiled as best I could.         “Me and Hameth, we lived in the southern plateau and the hatching ground master there was tough. His name was Horas, and he was dragonless, too. See, I didn’t know then that all hatching ground masters are dragonless.”         “Why?” That was Anna. A tiny thing, smaller than all the rest. Someone had once said they thought she had a touch of pixie in her. The same sort of folk that said I had ogre blood because of my size.         “Because it takes someone that can stay put and not be off and flying around to run a place like this. But it also takes someone that understands dragons and what it means to be a dragon rider. Most can’t be both at the same time.”        “How did you lose your dragon, sir?” That came from the largest boy in the group. Pauly. And as always, it caught me just a bit.          “My Hameth died when a storm blew us off course and slammed him into the side of a mountain. He might have survived, if he hadn’t turned at the last second to save me. I survived. But to this day, I wish I hadn’t.”           I saw the eyes of the children well up and hurried to fill in the silence that had fallen over the group. “Now listen closely and learn a thing. I teach so you don’t have that happen to you. I teach you so you don’t ever have to experience what I have.”         Each child nodded. A few wiped away a tear and others sucked in air. “You listen, you learn, and you protect those dragons. Because here is what some don’t want you to know. Your dragon will do anything you ask of him or her and they can die because of what you ask. And they will die to protect you. My lesson to you is, you’d better never put them in the position to have to.”

                        The writers of epic fantasy    

  take their influences from a wide variety of cultures.

A fantasy world is not tied to this world.       I write a vaguely medieval world but I have rugs and tapestries wich means trade and tech of a low sort. Printing presses existed long before Guttenberg, with wooden letters that would wear out over time, and glass was invented long before most of us think, and hey, the Myans had pressurized plumbing ... so creating a world where books and at least a crude form of plumbing exists is not out of line.       Glass making history All About Glass | Corning Museum of Glass (cmog.org) History of Glass | Epiphany Studios blog | Glass 101 (epiphanyglass.com) Yes, my friends, they had glass in medieval times and even earlier. And yes, they had running water in medieval times, not so much in the British regions, but other cultures certainly did.      The history of running water  Public health in the medieval period - Developments in public health and welfare – WJEC - GCSE History Revision - WJEC - BBC Bitesize History of Running Water - TOMORROW’S WORLD TODAY® (tomorrowsworldtoday.com) History of water supply and sanitation - Wikipedia       Books and printing? Yes, they had books. The first printing of books started in China using the process mentioned in Dragons’ Flight. Woodblock printing was, invented by  Bi Sheng, a key contributor to the history of printing, invented the process of Movable type printing (1041–1048 CE) History of books - Wikipedia

                      The oceans of Upleania

                             By  Den Valdron

                                with permission  

This is interesting. I am assuming that this map is the entire world, including both upper and lower hemispheres. Skalea extends to the pole, and is partially glaciated, creating a stationary north cap with southern reaches of Boreal Forest. The south pole is open ocean. Likely cold waters but no polar cap down below - there's no land to anchor one, and no surrounding land masses to let long term sea ice form. Assuming axial tilt for seasons, this may produce some really interesting effects, in terms of north south currents. Basically, cold water is heavier than warm water, so it submerges and flows south, which forces warm water up top and north - that's your gulf stream, and other stable currents like El Nino and La Nina. ​ What you have here is basically a narrow water chute between the two bordering continents opening on both poles. So, what you'll get are reversing seasonal currents as the world proceeds on its axis - in North Hemisphere winters, the South Hemisphere will be summer, warm waters will flow south to north. When the Axis is the other way, north hemisphere summers and south hemisphere winters, the flow between continents will be north to south. Which has cool implications for sea travel and navigation, settlement, waterways etc, particularly since the configuration is not smooth, but rather, waters will flow very differently whenever they reverse direction. With attendant consequences for rainfall, etc. Well, a lot depends on scale. You have three continents - so loosely take Edeonia - how big is it? 10,000 to 12,000 miles north to South? Or about the size of Africa/Asia? Or 5,000 miles north to south - about the size of South America/Australia? 1000/1500 miles? About Greenland size? The interior region is probably very fertile - very productive fishery, but super-complicated sets of currents which change seasonally. Great sailing territory, but navigating is going to be super-complicated, if stable. Navigators and sailors are going to be expert and seasonal driven. Fisheries productive, but also highly specific and seasonal. Lots of emphasis on local knowledge. The interior region is probably very fertile - very productive fishery, but super-complicated sets of currents which change seasonally. Great sailing territory, but navigating is going to be super-complicated, if stable. Navigators and sailors are going to be expert and seasonal driven. Fisheries productive, but also highly specific and seasonal. Lots of emphasis on local knowledge. Both continents have what looks like fertile flood plains in their lower halfs. Edeonia's looks much dryer, probably grasslands, strongly seasonal rain patterns. Uplos flood plain is probably more reminiscent of the Mississippi basin - wet, fertile, constantly replenished. Both relatively hard to defend, and prone to being overrun... that's flood plains for you. More complex geography further north - smaller fertile areas, more broken up, but more easily controlled or defended. That's where you get your tougher states. Skalea, as I've noted is partially glaciated, lot of boreal forest. Probably not big on agriculture - there aren't many good crops, the growing season will the short. A lot of the protein comes from the sea. Also expect a lot of cattle herding and milk and cheese supplementing the diets. Athery are likely famed sailors, and likely timber merchants - a lot of high quality seasonal wood comes from there. Also, pseudo-Viking raiders, lots of sailors - they'll have experience with very rough seas.

More to come 

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