Jalon is a big place. For reasons that won't become clear for eight or nine books, the people of Jalon are entirely unaware of the country of Nord. Much of the continent is frozen tundra to the North. Jalon is a continent, make no mistake. It's enormous. I've been building Jalon for more than six years and I haven't finished yet. This map is itself out of date but it does give some idea of the size and complexity of the place. My newly published novel Gally Delbar, Healer takes place in the Autumn(Fall) and Winter of 1162 AM. (The new year starts in Spring in Jalon in the city of Delbon.) AM stands for After Magicians btw. Jalon has a long history. The Magician Kings (six families with magical power) ruled Jalon for 1527 years by their calendar. By the time they found themselves in a genocidal war with the Fairie (1524 M) there were hundreds of thousands of people in those families. It was the Fairie that were intent on genocide and they succeeded. Within three years all the Magician Kings were dead bar two, one in hiding, the other hidden by dark magic. Jalon collapsed in chaos, millions died and the country reverted to a small number of ancient cities and scattered villages. The cities were too far away to wage war on each other and besides which there were few diseases, lots of land and no population pressure. Trade between the cities only continues because each has particular products the others need. There are two trade routes still open and these are widely separated. The Golden Triangle is the first, running between the southern cities of Delbon, Bagdor and Enbar Entar. Each leg of that journey is hundreds of miles long. The second route is the Northern Passage, Ballis to Ranwin by the River Jalon. Ranwin to Telmar by the Magicians Road (Built by magic and still in one piece) and Telmar to Slarn by the River Jalon again. The river is no longer navigable between Telmar and Ranwin.
In 265 AM Jalon's only true prophet was born. He foresaw (and he could see past, present and future all at the same time) that Humanity, Fairie, Dragon and the Giants were doomed to extinction. But since he could manipulate the future by changing the present, he set up a chain of events that would bring Daniel and Jalia together as well as moving Gally to Delbon. If all the triggers (including the immortal dragons) played their parts to perfection, the world might yet be saved. Over 800 years later Daniel and Jalia meet and the story begins. This is fantasy on an epic scale. Around half a million words have been written so far and one of the books has just been published. I hope the others will follow soon.
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July 2020
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