Llangeinwen Reference Material

A Chapter by Loekie

The following will, in time, form a compendium for those who want more details on my world. As with A House Fractured, this a work in progress.

Introduction

In many ways, Tolkien had it is easy when he wrote Lord of the Rings. He already had an expansive history of Middle-Earth, which in time was published as the Sillmarillion. He had started the writings back in 1917 so by 1939 when he worked on things like the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, he had quite a mature background to draw on.

As it is with any real writer, there were inconsistencies, holes, etc. And as Lord of the Rings evolved, new stuff popped up. Something that dogged Tolkien when he tried to revise the Sillmarillion. In organizing Rë, I was not so lucky.

My world, Rë started back in April 1982, when my D&D group went for a picnic along the St. Lawerence river. One of the players, Errol Burke approached me with an idea for a project. He is an amazing artist who wanted to put together a fantasy comic book series similar to Elfquest.

The collaboration built a solid backbone for a world, which I used extensively in my D&D campaigns. It provided fresh and unexpected elements to the campaign my players could not find in the various manuals they all owned.

The collaboration brought forth key characters like Pyrais, Magnus, etc. yet it was doomed to failure because of my taking control of the ideas and going in directions Errol did not wish to. The partnership ended with some anger and rancour yet laid the foundation for much of my history of Rë. At least the aftermath did not destroy our friendship.

In the 1990's, when I started the Elegy Series, I needed an anchor to use. I was shifting from science fiction to fantasy. Rë presented a good world to use as a background. Yet it was riddled with aspects of D&D and the Poke series Errol and I had worked on years before. I had pages of history, characters and situations I could use but were not unique. So after The Stone of Blood, I took a scythe and ripped through the material to start to generate something that was mine, and only mine.

One old character kept rising up in the fray, Esterl, the only daughter of one of the two Immortals, Magnus. This character is focused on presenting the true history and knowledge of Rë. She became my voice in developing all of the background material that would influence the Elegy Series and in time, Tangled Threads. Originally, all the material would be in the Cavan Kermin but it was renamed The Eolas, or The Knowledge.

The Eolas is and will be my evolving appendices for all the stuff Rë. Rë has become more and more complex as Tangled Threads has evolved. And because of the complexity, I do not want to fall into the trap writers like Robert Jordan has where the appendices of people, places, terms, etc. are lacking and weak.

The Eolas presents all of the main information to the point, for some, it will be information overload. Yet this is becoming a solid foundation for me to work on and provides a consistency that should reflect in my writing. Obviously, none of this is written in stone.

There is an important caveat and warning I must bring up. The Eolas spans over 1000 years of Rë. There are details here that reveal spoilers for Tangled Threads. I will try to organize it so that details that might spoil aspects of Tangled Threads are indicated but here is the current knowledge that makes up Rë.

For now, Llangeinwen is my main focus. This island is part of a 12 island archipelago called the Alumin Islands. My first set of fantasy short stories (the Elegy Series) are set in about 1149 on this island and Tangled Threads takes place between 949-980. So most of the focus of the development of characters, timelines, use of plants, etc. is here.

Be aware, this place is an area for major spoilers with respect to Tangled Threads. Be it the timeline or details on characters, details are revealed on what happens much later in the series. If you don't want to know what is planned, avoid links like the timelines else you will find out things like who lives and dies. And who some of the mysterious people that haunt Aillil are.

At the same time, you will find details on the different plants you will find on Llangeinwen, the festivals and aspects of law to name a few. The following is the foundation I am using to give Tangled Threads the depth it has and I wanted. But the usual caveat is this is a work in progress.

Maps

At this moment in time, I only have one main map of Llangeinwen. I am working on more details, which in time, will be here.

Small (768 x 552 - 314K)
Full (1725 x 1242 - 1.3M)

Basic Information

The following is basic information, such as a glossary, list of people, etc. This will form the basis of the appendices for Tangled Threads. The following files are in PDF format: