Here is a map of the story's setting. I have absolutely no drawing talent, so this map was generated courtesy of Azgaars (https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/)

I spent a lot of time naming and renaming the cities on the map as well as the provinces and the trade routes. I'm a big fan of Crusader Kings, you see, so I wanted to emulate the setting of that game.

After I generated the map I spent hours fantasizing about the various peoples inhabiting it, their cultures and their histories. I even tried to come up with a language at one point (the suffix -waine meant settlement) but that turned out to be waaaaay too big an undertaking. I did however come up with an alphabet for the New World. One day I'll digitize and share it with you all. I also came up with a religion for the Kingdom. You'll get to see more of it in future chapters.

So, the story itself. I like Vampires. I like reading about Vampires. I especially like reading about Vampires existing in some sort of supernatural society - so naturally, I wrote about that. In my mind, I had a Pulitzer winning story - transferring it onto paper turned out to be much harder than I anticipated. I had some minor problems with visualizing my characters and planning out their actions for the first few chapters. I had some major problems with word choice those first few chapters too. But as I wrote more, the more I grew as an author. My characters are now somewhat consistent and I'm more comfortable with my English now. Next, I want to try to make the characters more compelling.

All in all, it has been really fun writing this series. This is my first novel - but I'm taking it very seriously and intend to see it through to the end.

So, where is the story going? you may ask. Well, I mentioned how I like Crusader Kings before, so expect some court politics and scheming. and maybe a civil war or two thrown in the mix. Also, the gang of three find out more about those Angels Desmona has been going on about.

This chapter marks the end of Part 1. The next part starts with Druscilla's courtly debut. See you then.

As a bonus, here's a map of Boshamia's five Grand Duchies. They take after the name of their respective capitals.