Piggymoto- All Star Boar Band

Aristocratic horses have ruled Vaspania for as long as this country has been on the maps. Though highly defensive of their own soil, the Vaspanian government has taken a more passive stance on world politics and international trade.

When their neighbors, the Weslayans, declared themselves an empire, the royal families of Vaspania chose to cooperate with the humans. At least outwardly. While yielding to Weslayan authority in the seas, the Vaspanian government bolstered its military and trained specialized foot soldiers.

With a formidable, defensive army, Vaspania quietly repelled any covert attempt by foreign powers to gain a strategic foothold against the Vaspanian people.

While peaceful, this is a predominately military-organized country – ruled by a family of warrior equines. Laws are strictly (and sometimes brutally) enforced, but citizens life quality is protected by a highly organized bureaucracy.

Corbin was born in Vaspania to a lower-class serf family that worked on the Espinosa Vineyard near the western border.

This is also the country in which the horses of Five Hourse Stout were born, though they reside in Lancemyth.

Weslaya

This country can trace its history back nearly five-thousand years. To a time when (allegedly) dragons dominated all mortal races. During this time the human god Kamerdann was born and cast down their great, reptilian oppressors. This region (most notably marked by the bellowing dragon maw peninsula) became the settling place for most human tribes that fled dragon-controlled lands. And, it has remained humanity’s homeland throughout the ages.

It is said that about 300 years ago, the fairies took interest in the struggling apes, and helped them establish a strong, efficient government. They helped position the first king Wesley into power, and have remained allies to the human throne ever since. The previous king (Wesley VII) decided that his power should be grander in scope, and initiated a policy of aggressive growth and international trade dominance.

While some countries cooperated with the fledgling empire, many others resisted. This conflict resulted in a war that spanned decades, and finally ended when a group of non-human heroes who came to be known as the “Warenders” coordinated a series of precise strikes against Weslayan colonies and other interests.

King Wesley VII died before seeing his world-conquest dreams realized, and his heir promptly withdrew all Weslayan forces and called an end to the nation’s expansionism.

Faunasia

Nobody knows for sure exactly how many countries compose the Faunation Confederacy (also called Faunatia), which is not really all that confederated. The Weslayan humans coined the term in a derisive way some centuries ago when the peoples of these rich and fertile lands seemed to unite against any trade agreement offered by the empire. “Fauna-folk” the Weslayans took to calling non-simian peoples – AnimalPeople.

When King Wesley VII ordered trade embargoes and blockades against all nations that would not cooperate with imperial expansionism, the city states and small countries of this region did unite. They struck up a very loose set of guidelines governing trade and military cooperation, but hesitated to establish anything too concrete. The confederation was intended to last only as long as Wesley’s aggressions persisted.

With the end of war, the countries that compose the confederation have sent delegates to debate whether to dissolve the union, establish a stronger federation, or maintain the status quo. So far, no decision has been made, and thus, the status quo persists.

Prominent countries in the FC include:

Chateausberg, where Eberhard was born and spent most of his childhood.

Deautron, where Johan and Gustave were born (although they never met until Corbin came along)

and

Smith Haven, where Byron was born, schooled, an ultimately incarcerated.

Though the various countries in Faunatia vary in social and political clime, a species-based caste has evolved. So-called predatory races (felines, wolves, etc) are strictly governed and either forced into official service as warriors and bodyguards, or banished from the region. Working species such as horses and cattle are celebrated as the backbone of civilization, but segregated from aristocratic communities. They are rarely paid money for their work, and are therefore kept lowy. Rats and Rabbits make up most of this regions aristocracy.

Pigs, of course, are the nations’ scapegoats. Rarely employed by the wealthy, barred from court and “polite” establishments, Pigs are outcasts and pariahs. Worked hard, paid poorly and forced to live in squalid parts of town, it is very difficult for swine to climb the social ladder.

Here’s a little something I doodled last night.  It’s a map of Mancemyth.  There are a WHOLE lot more little towns than are shown here, and I will probably update the map as time passes, but these include al the major points of interest for the story.  Including Farpoint, Candleton (the capitol), and Mina’s home town Winterwood.

History of Lancemyth

<!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>Up until the most recent decade, this young, peninsula nation was just a confederated collection of independent city-states, with no centralized organization or government to speak of. Trade between cities was difficult and dangerous because of varying tax rated, currency values and social laws. The only thing uniting individual cities, really, was the threat of invasion by neighbors to the west and east.

(royal fairies to the east, imperial humans to the west)

It was not until goblins invaded from a small island to the north that the people of Lancemyth realized the need for unified defense. Humans and Fairies seized this opportunity to flood Lancemyth with their forces in an attempt to take the peninsula. Lancemythian militias, however, organized by a young warrior bull named Ralph Lowemann, held off and eventually expelled all three invading forces.

The city states then united, establishing a two-part government in which the king held executive power over the military, and a council of citizen-elected officials to oversee domestic issues. In the passing years, Lancemyth has grown stronger, despite taking heavy losses during the brief war, and with the dissolution of Human and Fairy cooperation pacts, foreign trade has flourished.

It is in Lancemyth that All Star Boar Band is set.

In the northern-most port city, Farpoint, resides a company called the Almoners’ Outfitters. Founded as a way to employ the local handicapped and impoverished, the company grew in popularity among explorers, adventure seekers and treasure hunters for their fair trade practices and low prices. After the recent Elf / Human / Goblin conflict, however, and with the death of the company’s founder, the Almoners’ Outfitters fell on hard times and needed a serious boost.

It was the idea of the founder’s daughter and heiress to expand the company rather than employ more conservative business practices. She decided that with world-class talent to sing the company’s praises across the nation, the Almoners’ Outfitters mission and popularity would grow. And thus was born the Almoners’ Outfitters’ international talent search.

So, my “to do” board, which usually only holds about 5 or 6 items, tops out at a whopping 14.  Seems a little daunting, but most are pretty straightforward tasks, and it always feels so good to scratch one off.

I just got done editing chapter 11 of the MSS, which was a pretty good one, imo.  I am working with the nooker to get it into the best shape possible.  I’m pondering taking a page from Scott Sigler and offering .pdf versions of each act as I podcast them.  While I’m not classically published yet, that might build up some interest in p.o.d. or whatnot when I finish the project.  Heck, I might even woo a smaller publisher or something. *hope hope*  we’ll see.

I’m also trying to come up with new ways to attract listeners and increase subscriber participation.  I was kicking around the idea of starting “The Sounder” for PM fans.. but not sure how to go about getting that off the ground.  Any ideas?

I’m also trying to get onto Podiobooks.com, but am having some annoying technical problems.  Gotta get my tags just right, and have already messed up my application twice.  So, I need to con someone without lunix into taking a look at my prologue file to see if everything comes up in iTunes right.  UGH.. so much trouble.. but SO worth it.  I’ma wait until act I is entirely produced until I try submitting again.