​The Imagience is a world that I created years ago. It is a pocket space in between the Computus Galaxy and the Imagined Realm. I have discussed a bit of the lore history, and a bit of important parts of the Imagience itself. But, in today's blog post we will discuss the influences of Imagience geography both in the physical aspect, but also the names of places on the map.


This blog will be in three parts, the first one will describe the physical attributes of the geography of the Imagience and discussing their real world influences. The other two parts will involve the naming of places on the map. They are composed into two classifications, those that are named from real world people/places and the ones that are influenced by fictitious places.


The Imagience consists of one giant continent and some islands, the continent has no actual name as it really isn't a continent. The Imagience isn't a planet, but a plane of existence. It literally is a flat-earth, except not really. It has a spherical contortion that is bending due to gravitational forces. It is kept in check by four massive pylons known as shritar, composed of imagicite dust covered black imagicite plated diamond. These massive pylons lock the ability to keep the Imagience in it's current place. But, even this sub-space gravity of the near-by stars of Hyatt Raa, Io, and Pheonix still impact it.


Water and earth was brought here by an unknown transportation, that has faded from mianthi memory. There are no continental drifts, but earthquakes occur due to gravitational pull, so it isn't necessarily a real earthquake in the traditional since. But, there is a molten core that is held in place by all four pylons. That core will sporadically expand growing the Omi Islands as well as mountains. As the Imagience grows so does the rate of separation of the pylons. It would be really bad for everyone in the Imagience if anything were to happen to these pylons. There is one north of Tillasona Heights in the Kasite Ocean, One west of Myvandium in the Lycera Sea, one east of Odai making it the most eastern point in the Imagience, and the last is the one far southwest of Eros.


The seas themselves only go to the area restricted by the pylons. The water doesn't fall off because it is kept compressed by the gravity of both the distant star's pressure, but also due to the gravity magic coming from the pylons themselves. So no water falls off of this sub-space. It wouldn't have anywhere to go. Travelers have taken ships past these regions, and are never seen from again. The most common scientific explanation is that they go into the sub-space and get either lost or die a horrible death in the confines of space.


As you can see there is a lot of space in the Cyphic Kingdom that is because there are tons of plains and grasslands. The two most important of these regions are the Northern Plains and the Central Plains. These are massive bread basket regions for the country and in fact most of the Imagience. The country of Cyphic has many rivers, bordering the country to the west is the Faros River and in the east we have the Safir river that leads into the Southern Hills which borders with the Kirkia.


Speaking of Kirkia, it is one giant rain forest, but it didn't always be this way. Kirkia only had pockets of rain forest, but then after the fall of the Sycamor disrepair as well as use of plant growing imagitechs to keep people especially the Cyphic out changed the whole region. The Kirkwood grew to encompass the whole country and stopped would be armies from Sutite and the Cyphic from invasion. Only a few know safe passage through this rain forest, and hiring guides from Tomvan and Meekyr are very common.


There are also various mountain ranges, the four that are most important are the Kasite Range in the north, the Black Stand Mountains in the West, and both the Tailbone Peaks and Raptorclaw Mountains in the southeast. The Black Stand Mountains reside in Myvandium and is known as a source of black imagicite. While the Kasite Range is where the combined forces of the Cyphic, Sycamor, Legosolith, Garfield, and Omi pushed the Kasite into, it's name comes from the mountain people whom at one time were also known as the best shipbuilders in the Imagience.


The Imagience has many names that might be familiar to some people, but that is to be expected. Some of the names are combination of other names, and some are variants on existing people and places. The Cyphic Kingdom, and Kirkian Kingdom are based off real people that I know, as is the Kirkwood named after a friend of mine.


Most importantly are the names of Garfield, Grisson, Wilson, Maring, South Port, Sutite and Storan are all named after schools in my area. Vheeling, Tillasona Heights, Walnut, Meekyr, Mock, Sycamor, May, Gastan and Macedona are all named for streets in my home town. Andersona and Ft. Alban are based off of cities near me. These are all influenced from my real life, but also have an origin story to them. I created another story years ago similar to Dynasty Warriors that had great kingdoms named after those places, so instead of getting rid of those ideas I morphed them into the Imagience as I didn't have much of a pre-history. I changed some lore and took Munshi Warriors and turned it into the history of the Imagience instead. Killing two birds with one stone n the process.


Certain places like Andra Grif, Zulgan, Zanelof, Myvandium, Umar, Thexor, Nymphos, Eros, Aethia and most of the Omi Islands may look like they are original, but they are not quite. Myvandium is named for a city of my friend's creation. While Adra Grif, Zulgan and Zanelof are variant spelling, and based off drug companies. It's quite fitting that merchant cities are influenced by drug companies. Thexor and Umar are based off ancient cities of Persia and Egypt while Nymphos and Eros are based off of Greek mythology.


The Omi Islands are a culmination of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese names, phrases, and ideas to create a 'Confucist' set of islands. Omi Islanders are not Asian, but they share traits with East Asians. Their land forms are based off of Japanese names and words as well as Korean and Chinese slang. Their captured cities of Suyuki, and Nesson are based off of Japanese products and companies while Omi itself as well as Etchu and Aino are based off of old Japanese provinces from the Sengoku period.


Real life places are not the only thing that influenced naming of Imagience places. Alexandros a port in southern Kirkia on the Gulf of Kirkia, is named for characters in the Final Fantasy series. While the cities of Tomas Port and Old Tomas are based off of Tomas from Narnia. Their symbol is a satyr and sometimes a fox, depending on who is talking.


Returning to that idea that I stole a lot from my old Dynasty Warrior style game idea Munshi Wars, Aethia is based off a kingdom from there. Duranth is also based off of a fictitious character I made, who was a human raised by dwarves. Arman is based off of the character from Attack on Titan to further the idea I just took random names and placed them on the map. I am defiantly someone who is influenced by media.


I took names that influenced me and turned them into historical and cultural landmarks for this map. Influenced by media, geography, and culture to create interesting places that you will encounter on a story. It shows progress to travel on a map, and whenever you read my stories I will always have a maps as it is one of the first things I do when I build a world. I need a reference point, after all. I hope this blog post has been a great reference point for you all as well.  

I haven't posted since the beginning of the month, and I am truly sorry for that. It mostly boils down to lack of content to post as I am steadfastly working on editing the second draft of my book. But, it is also a bit of not being motivated to write a blog post. Today, I'm going to discuss an update as well as potentially throw some ideas around. 

First, I'll talk about the update on the second draft. I am currently as of this date, three-fourths of the way done with the edit. I should be done by the end of January. Once that happens, sometime in February I will start the second beta reader session for the first book. I want to focus this beta reading on looking at the characters, plot holes, and the personal opinions of the people involved in the story. I need to find plot holes, character arcs that don't make sense, things that people like in the book, things that the reader does not like about the book. Stuff like that, so I can make the best book I can make. Because, remember we will still send this to an editor later in the year. 

Next, I will start a book currently titled, "Pit Fight" which is not related to 'The Imagient King' and instead is a stand alone novel. That book should be done by May-June. That is also the time that the beta readers should be done with the book. We will then move onto sending the first book of "The Imagient King" to an editor and hopefully after that begin the third and maybe final draft of the book. I will also start once I get the editor's edited copy back begin the second book in the series. So an exciting year for me indeed. 

As for further updates on this blog, we come to discuss some more ideas. I'm thinking about doing a lore post once a month throughout the year of 2017. I will also try to write some other articles as well. I'm potentially throwing in an idea to do music and anime reviews. Which I have done in the past, with limited success. So, what do my devoted fans think I should do for blog topics in the future? 

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A.L. Hornbeck here with a post about my hopes, dreams, aspirations and plan for 2017. This year I have a lot that I want to get done. First, I want to finish editing my second draft of the first book in the Imagient King saga. Once that is done editing, I will send it through a second beta reading. Once the beta reading phase is done, which will start in February and end sometime in May or June, then we will move to one final edit of that version of the second draft. I will then take this second draft edit and send it to an editor sometime in the middle of the year. Once we have the second draft edit sent through an editor I will work on the third draft. Hopefully, once that draft is done, I can edit it and send it through one final alpha read, and get reviewers ready for the self-publish of the first book, Imagient King: Journey with the Princess of the East out by the end of the year. That is at least my first plan.


Starting next month while the second draft of Imagient King: Book One goes through beta readers, I will be working on another book. This book is a stand-alone heroic fantasy tale about a gladiator. It really isn't connected to Imagient King, but is a different book all together. It won't even be a series, just a stand alone book about a tale about a gladiator who rises and falls and then rises through a series of bloody gladiatorial battles. Once this book is done, hopefully by the May-June date, I can edit it and then hopefully send it through beta readers as well.


Then in June, I want to start on the second book of the Imagient King saga. It might be pushed back to August depending on my beta readers and editor's influence. But, I want to at least start writing the second book, by this time. The book won't be done for at least a year, but if I start on the second book in the Imagient King series now, I can make sure I don't take two years to write it like it did Journey with the Princess of the East. Once, that is done, which should be near the end of the year. I will do a self edit and eventually in 2018 another beta reader session for the first and then second draft of it.


If I have time I have some short novellas to write that tie into the Imagient King book series, but not apart of the actual mainland story. Most of these stories are about the Brotherhood of Brotherton, but would just be short novellas. I want to write them, to tell the stories and expand the lore, but also to maybe release some free books next year to help sell my other books as well.


I will try to be more active on my blog, and write something every week. I mostly just don't have a topic to write, so that is why I haven't written on my blog in a while. This is a yearly update that I hope will follow in years to come.