From Many Possible Worlds, One...
The real world story of how "Memories of the Cataclysm" was born
“Where does a fantastical world originate?” you might ask. For Tolkien, it has been said that Middle Earth was born in the trenches of World War I. Alas (or, more probably, ‘fortunately’) Isfalinis doesn’t have quite the same epic pedigree. It, instead, was born from the minds of four friends scattered halfway across the world corresponding via e-mail in those hours betwixt work and sleep.
An Update on “Brothers from Flame and Void”
But before we dive into the ‘main event,’ I want to give you a progress report on the much anticipated sequel to “Tears from Iron.” I have completed the revisions to Act III and it is now with my “alpha readers.” I am now pressing on into Act IV where the situation for our brave heroes goes from grim to dire. I’ve made a very pleasing breakneck pace so far, but have already experienced a slowdown going forward as I’m getting into parts that require a little more polish. Nevertheless, everything is holding to schedule!
In the Beginning, Four Men had an Idea
Space Aliens, Primordial Earth, and the Rugged North
Back in 1998, myself and two West Point friends along with a brother, began bouncing around ideas for developing a fantasy roleplaying game. If you’ve ever watched “The Grey Brotherhood” on YouTube, you’ll be acquainted with each of us (I’ll link the series below). Those involved, aside from myself, were Newton, Alex, and Alex’s brother Willie. At the time, Newton and I were active duty Army offices, Willie was hard at work in the cold mid-west, and Alex was attending Harvard Law School. I confess that I don’t recall exactly what spurred us to set out on this journey other than simply a love of gaming, worldbuilding, and a desire to make it a permanent fixture of our lives. The end goal was a business.
As we began, we bandied about numerous ideas, both sci-fi and fantasy. Indeed we had a scheme to work in both genres. The ideas came quick and fierce and, sometimes, exited with the same haste. I recall early conversations about a possible ‘aliens’ style sci-fi but that was rejected because of the challenges of establishing a sustainable game in an environment where the dead often outnumber the survivors. The biggest progress we made in that genre was with a game tentatively titled “Hostile Environment. Alex was in charge of game design, Willie in website and publishing, Newton took on art coordination, and I focused on future-history design. That being said, there was a lot of crossover as we all loved worldbuilding. Many vigorous discussions and debates flew back and forth through our e-mail inboxes, along with the occasional phone call. This was in an era of dial-up before online meeting tools. I can still hear the squeal of my AOL account as I logged in to review my friends’ most recent musings.
The Fantasy Genre takes Hold
On the fantasy front, we morphed much more quickly and this genre eventually became our primary focus. After initially looking at a completely contrived world, we then spent the autumn of 1998 investigating possibilities for an alternate Earth. One idea was to set the game in Antarctica but shift the poles so the continent lay within the temperate zone of the southern hemisphere. Mighty advanced civilizations rose and fell there, but long ago it became Atlantis when the shifting of the Earth’s axis buried it all beneath the grinding ice of the South Pole. Despite its appeal, we ended up shelving that idea because of the challenge of orientation. In a world where 90% of the population lives in the northern hemisphere, we worried that flipping the cold to the south and the tropics to the north would be too jarring. Nevertheless, it remains a cool idea.
Other ideas included Celtic Britain and a mythic Norse world. I really enjoyed the latter concept and began working on a society of “Northmen” based loosely on the Lapps and Finns that lived in the out most rugged polar regions. We left this idea behind, too, because we realized that the overly simplistic stereotype of Norsemen as just being brutish Viking raiders would be a herculean (or should I say ‘Thor-ny’?) effort to overcome. That being said, my “Northmen” were transplanted to Isfalinis as the dogged Karsaeri, though since “Tears from Iron” is set in a Mediterranean climate they don’t appear in the novel… or do they?
Abandoning our own world in the end, we returned to a traditional non-Earth fantasy setting. From many worlds, we had discovered the one that was to be ours. It was February 1999 when we began a deeper dive to flesh it out.
Cosmology and Character
We began creating the game system simultaneously with the cosmology because we wanted the two to be intertwined. Alex made great advances on the game components, though I confess I forgot nearly all of them until I brushed off some old e-mails to draft this article. The one development that has stuck with me through the years was the establishment of character attributes. The idea was to have physical and mental manifestations of four primary building blocks. For example, Fortitude and Will represent physical and mental stamina and staying power. The others were Agility and Cunning, Perception and Acuity, and Might and Knowledge (though I should add that these went through many small but significant adjustments).
Cosmologically, we initially imagined a world that passed through different ages each of which was ruled by a different species, starting with dragons and transitioning over and over until the arrival of the human age. This draconian concept faded away though the idea of multiple ages persisted as we’ll look at in a bit. We also debated about whether there should be a single god, a dualistic universe, or a pantheon. In the end, we went with a hybrid wherein a pantheon of “Elder Gods” (now called “Etyni”) faced off against a singular powerful peer-turned-villain (his initial placeholder name was “Amadeus” but he’s now called “Cydion”). We eventually also settled on a higher “Creator” deity who established this pantheon (now called “His Highest Above”).
A great deal of this early cosmological concept survives with only minimal changes in Isfalinis. By March 1999, the ten “Elder Gods” all had their names (excluding the outcast Cydion who was the eleventh), though the spellings of a couple would undergo slight alterations. These were Fenr, Itesa, Henji, Lelpfios, Eicai, Naedda, Niella, Zaris, Oltos, and Isi. Indeed, if you’ve read my “Treatise on the Creation and the Lost Age” (complimentary for all subscribers to this Substack) you may have reached this conclusion already. Eight of these deities would each be assigned one of the physical or mental traits as four sets of sibling pairs. Initially, they were also linked to the elements and that remains partially true though only in terms of their physical manifestations. Now they are properly referred to as aspects of the world of Isfalinis, its Flesh, Blood, Breath, and Heart. But these refinements were to come long after this collaboration ended. The remaining “Elder Gods” had governance over two other aspects. One of these was (and remains) Balance while the other was Influence (which has grown to incorporate sound and music). A third aspect has since been added, Time.
Along with the pantheon, we also debated what sentient species inhabited our world. We quickly settled on four races with the initial inspiration being the four seasons though that has long since been lost. These were humans, elves, dwarves, and great eagles. Eagles, being the only non-humanoid of the group, were subsequently replaced by winged-folk. I think that change was done as a collaboration, but it may have occurred later. The elves remain, though they have evolved into the not-quite-elven Aestari, but neither dwarves nor winged-folk exist in Isfalinis. I would eventually replace them with the rugged Bergrist and the nocturnal Ie’dhae but that is a tale for another day.
A Great War and an Age that was Lost
We decided that the world would begin with a “First Age” (which I later changed to “Lost Age”) followed by a cataclysmic event that leads to a modern era. Once the basics of the cosmology were worked out, we focused on filling out this archaic period. I sketched out a continent that would eventually fracture. We each took on a handful of realms and began plotting their histories and influential leaders. It was during this time that Newton created Parys, the First-Born of the Elves, and I created Reigliff, the enigmatic ‘Shadow-Servant.’ In time, Parys would become the long-deceased husband of Lady Ninanna of “Tears from Iron” fame. Reigliff, however, should need no introduction here.
The capstone of our development, to my recollection, occurred in late June or early July 1999 when I began to get a sense that we were bogging down. Sometimes that can happen in even the best of collaborations (as this surely was). I therefore settled down to draft a history of the Great War that would end the First Age. Inspired by “The Silmarillion,” I attempted an epic form of prose and wrote an 11-page piece (9,000 words) describing the war. The others responded with incredibly positive feedback that became the singular pivotal spark propelling me into my writing journey. I’d been dabbling around the edges of writing for years prior to this and perhaps would have pressed on anyway. But to me, that was the “watershed” moment of confidence in my ability to become an author.
But it also occurred nearly simultaneously with the death of a dream…
In the next article, I will recount that pivotal moment that changed our endeavors forever. But for now, I want to wrap up this tale by bringing us back to how it opened. While Isfalinis wasn’t born in the trenches of World War I, one of my earliest short stories, a mere two pages in length (1,200 words) titled “The Price of a Loaf” was written in a small notebook as I sat perched upon my tank one evening in the desert during a deployment to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, CA.
I’ve rushed through a lot of this early development to keep it concise. Let me know in the comments if there is anything you’d like me to elaborate on. My old notes are detailed in some places but woefully sparse in others and my memories of 25-years ago are somewhat imperfect, but I will try as I can.
Other News from “Memories of the Cataclysm”
In my latest YouTube video, I turned to the fantasy genre as a whole and looked at the negative influence of Tolkien. “The Silmarillion” is my favorite work of fiction and he was a master of the craft, but in the years since, his classic fantasy races have devolved into clichés of drunken greedy dwarves, capricious tree-hugging elves, and halflings who gobble up food while robbing everyone blind (I’m looking at you, Kender!).
I offer an analysis of how this happened and what we can do to reverse this trend. Check it out!
In honor of those wonderful friends of mine who were with me at the beginning of Isfalinis, I’m also linking our current gaming adventure here which uses Alex’s rule system called ACKS (and is wholly unrelated to our old joint endeavor). As part of this Grey Brotherhood campaign, I’ve also taken on the role of annalist. In the description of each episode, there are links to two PDFs I’ve prepared that tell of our adventures. One is a synopsis where each episode gets about ten lines while the other devotes a few pages to each session.
As we come to a close, I’ll make the same call that I usually do. If you have anything you’d like to see in these newsletters, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I also maintain a website with more information on the World of Isfalinis including maps and a glossary as well as some of my older pre-YouTube articles on Isfalinis, writing, and the fantasy genre. If you want to read some deep dives into individual characters and themes of “Tears from Iron”, you can find them here!
https://jonathanoldenburg.com/
I want to thank those of you who have added ratings to “Tears from Iron” on Amazon. This really can help me get the book in the hands of more people and I appreciate it. If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to do so. You don’t have to write a detailed review if you don’t want to and can simply provide a rating (though I love to read the feedback). Thanks and until next time!
Jonathan Oldenburg