Patrick Jinks

I am a secondary school teacher with a love for fantasy. Before I'd started secondary school myself I'd read the Hobbit cover to cover more times than I could count and waded my way through through a great deal of the ENDLESS collection that is the world of Terry Pratchett.

As I grew up, I expanded my pallet with series such as the Wheel of Time (yes, that used to be a book before Amazon came along), the Kingkiller Chronicles, Phillip Pullman, the Belgoriad, Mistborn to name a few.

But in doing so I came to the conclusion that, whilst entralling and entirely laudable in their own right, not one of these works laid a glove on Tolkein's magnitude of worldbuilding. Upwards of five attempts it took to put myself through the Silmarillion, but after coming out on the other side I realised the sheer scope of such worlds hasn't been seen since Middle Earth.

And so I have set about genesising my world, and whilst a finished product is something yet too far to be considered, I have loved every moment of it. I have learnt things I didn't know needed learning, taught myself the structures of different languages, learnt the basics of farming, finance system across the world, educational hierarchies, medieval jobs and ways of life, the real-world progression of civilisations and their achievements after so many years... and the list goes on. Monarchies, the ranks of royal and noble standing, the systems of kings, emperors, czars, pharaohs. Nature, what fauna and flora can live where, ecosystems and animal networks, how much 'stuff' a city really needs to survive...

And very haphazardly, piece by snippet by nugget, a world has begun to weave itself together. This world is called Lamaria, and it is where the story Silent Pillars takes place.

(Further reading can be found on the Fandom website link)