December 10, 2024 • 49 mins
"Noles Honor" explores complex themes like war, colonialism, and cultural misunderstandings through a fantasy lens
The book features a well-defined "hard magic" system and a scientifically-grounded world built using Jason's knowledge of geology, climate science, etc.
Jason is crafting an immense world to support multiple books and stories set across different time periods
Readers can access a free 2-chapter preview and join a mailing list to engage with the project as it progresses
Topics
Story centers on the Noles, a manufactured warrior race, and their conflict with humans
Inspired by works like R.A. Salvatore's that subvert traditional fantasy race tropes
Explores how cultures/species may have tendencies, but individuals have free will
The inciting incident is the destruction of main character Tack's village, sparking the central conflict
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/inspiring-stories--2917948/support.
The book features a well-defined "hard magic" system and a scientifically-grounded world built using Jason's knowledge of geology, climate science, etc.
Jason is crafting an immense world to support multiple books and stories set across different time periods
Readers can access a free 2-chapter preview and join a mailing list to engage with the project as it progresses
Topics
Story centers on the Noles, a manufactured warrior race, and their conflict with humans
Inspired by works like R.A. Salvatore's that subvert traditional fantasy race tropes
Explores how cultures/species may have tendencies, but individuals have free will
The inciting incident is the destruction of main character Tack's village, sparking the central conflict
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/inspiring-stories--2917948/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Thank you for listening to the picture of the radiant.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rat.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
You readything to me?
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Oh well, well say, oh well, not a bad stop.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
I just see.
Speaker 6 (01:14):
Splashion stops it dead.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Event.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
In a world where ancient empires have crumbled and new
kingdoms rise, a young nole named Tack fights to defend
his clan's land from invaders, but when tragedy strikes and
(02:00):
he is left wounded and alone, he discovers that not
all humans are enemies, with new found allies and determination
to unite his people, and in the bloodshed, he embarks
(02:23):
on a dangerous journey of diplomacy redemption, where even his
greatest enemy may become his closest friend. Will he succeed
in living in peace to the land torn by war?
(02:46):
Or will centuries of hate and mistrust lead to the
ultimate destruction of all? So welcome to the show, everybody,
and we're going to hear from the author of Knowle's Honor,
Jason Ross, as he describes some of his motivations for
(03:11):
actually writing the book and the directions he wants to
take this in as it could become a whole series
of books about Teck and his Noel friends.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
All right, Jason, Welcome to the show Man. It's good
to see you again. You know, we've been trying to
do some work together and everything, and we're finbably getting
to at least to an interview about Knowle's honor. Now,
the graphics you sent me and everything, they look fantastic.
(04:17):
But why don't we start with how did you start
developing this story and where where's where did the story
come from?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
It's actually a story. I've been doing different variations on
this story for probably the last couple of decades. Is
kind of in my head. This is the first time
I've actually decided to start writing it down, though, And
I'd have to say my couple of inspirations I really
had were from ra Salvator's Forgotten Realm series focusing on
(04:49):
the draw Elf Drizz, as well as then his later
edition of you know, the Orcish Kingdom, you know, led
by King Obbold and kind of starting to break away
from your traditional fantasy tropes of you know, this particular
set of races are the evil races, so they're and
(05:11):
you'll meet one of them, you know what they're going
to be like. And these guys are the good races,
so they're always going to be beneficial to meet them.
And then of course then you have the humans or
the gray morally gray people that could be good or
bad or anywhere in between. Right right now, I just
decided to go with you know, they're all intelligent, thinking,
(05:31):
reasoning being so free will cultures will create different cultures,
or maybe racial and species tendencies might create different tendencies
for them that some might tend towards being more violent
than others, some might have a culture that's more militaristic
(05:52):
and warrior focused. Right, So, you know, you'll still have
those tendencies, but everyone is still has their free will
and they can choose if they want to follow those
tendencies or you know, or blaze their own path in
the world.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, well, the tokenisms are cold, but we don't have
this strictly always follow them, right.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Like, yeah, they're always going to be the bad guys.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
You know, they're going to side with the evil wizard
or whatever. Right, we can. We can play around with that, right, So.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, certainly. I'm actually currently also doing a short story,
you know, as part of an anthology that my community
Ready Needed Developers is working on in the fantasy genre,
which is going to be kind of a bit of
an origin story of the Knowles from like ancient times.
So in the case of the Noles in Noles Honor,
(06:51):
they basically are are a manufactured race that was essentially
created to be warriors. Hence their reputation is that they're
violent and you know, brutish. So but of course many
(07:12):
many centuries have passed since, you know, the time of
that war, and not all of them have remained that way, right,
And that's kind of where the story picks up on is,
you know, one group of of clans of this species
that have you know, that set off to find some
(07:34):
remote corner of the world where they could, you know,
just get away from all the wars that had nearly
destroyed them. And where the story picks up is is
three hundred years after this particular group of thirteen clans
that all took an epic journey together to find a
(07:57):
you know, just a quiet place to you know, to
live out their lives. And and then the main character
is this goes for short by Tack. It picks up
with him just a day before his sixteenth birthday when
he's supposed to be going out with his father to
(08:18):
do a special hunt where he's supposed to prove that
he can support a family, and that's when disaster strikes
and you know, some enemies that his clan has been
at war with for the last couple of years at
this point ends up finding their home, his clan's home
(08:38):
village and attacking it. And so that's kind of where
the story picks up in the first chapter. So this
was allso like.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Of an emotional grabber right there. It was like tax
family is is attacked? Is town is is uh, we're
going to say mostly destroyed.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Or yeah, right, yeah, essentially, yeah, essentially it's you know,
it's burned, you know, burned to the ground. And they
end up and so his glands going to be moving
to a new place to rebuild their village, and essentially
they're technologically they're kind of in a semi nomad state
(09:29):
where they will build permanent structures, but you know, they
do move around periodically. When an area is getting over hunted,
they'll move to a new place. However, their movements in
this since the war started being constrained because about half
their territory is now contested land. So they obviously can't
(09:52):
locate their civilian population anywhere near that right, So that's
kind of lock you know, their civilian population in the
kind of the northeastern corner of their territory. M.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So, the so that they, of course, the civilians and
combatants are are protected, right.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's the idea. And so in this case though, you know,
the case where the invading army ended up coming in
through a route that yeah, you know, through an eastern
route that the they're defending army hadn't anticipated, and so
(10:37):
they end up getting behind the army and into their
main village. And then and then in the second half
of the opening chapter then switches over to the antagonists
point of view when you start to kind of realize
why they're at war with the Knoles and that you know,
(11:02):
they've you know, been having all kinds of problems with
you know, with you know, you know, Nolish raiders invading
their lands constantly, and any time you've ever seen Noles,
it's always been hostile invaders attacking them.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So m.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And as well as that, so I don't want to
say too much more about their recent you know, about
the thought pattern going into the assault, because that of
course somebody spoilers. But that's kind of the idea behind
why they were you know, the human side of it
is at war with the Noles is is that they've
(11:45):
had nothing but bad history with that race.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yea. So in this in this particular case, through tax size,
the humans aren't exactly the good guys exactly. So yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Basically what you know, kind of what sparks the war
in the backstory is the kingdom the humans come from
is trying to build a road, you know, you know,
a road through to you know, connect through to a
mountain pass on it goes through mountains to the north
of tax people, which would then connect into another kingdom
(12:27):
that's kind of styled after the Scandinavian people, you know,
up in the far North, because that kingdom is trying
to connect to a trade a trade road to the
ocean and a seaport, and the seaports they traditionally used
are not you know, safe anymore because it's in a
(12:49):
fallen kingdom that's you know, where that area is being
ruled by bandit you know, robber barons and pirate raiders,
and so that's kind of you know, in the backstory,
that's kind of the trigger for why they're going up
into that territorial encountering tax people, and for tax people,
(13:11):
they're defending their territory from the invaders.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
The humans are doing the human thing of hey, you're
not human, so you're not worthy of this anyway. This
should be ours because you're not human anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Right, Yeah, I mean there's more to it than that.
It's also a case of you know, we need to
get through here, this is the only route through, and
these guys are getting in the way and attacking us,
and to our knowledge, nobody lives here. So these and
this is also an area that's going through this forest
called the Blackthorn Woods that you know, the Knolls call
(13:49):
home but has a reputation from hundreds of years ago
when an empire at once dominated the area fell of
being you know, cursed and infested with monsters. Of course,
there's a whole story behind that that kind of you know,
get bits and pieces of that coming out and in
(14:09):
the book. So from their point of view, these are
these are some of the monsters that infest the area
just attacking them and and so they're defending themselves from
you know, some evil creatures that are attacking them. From
their point of view, yeah, that's kind of creating a
(14:32):
bit of a dichotomy that early. Neither side's holly good
or evil. They're you know, they each have their reasons
for doing what they're doing. Yeah, And at the end
of the day, the war what has really come down
to is what does war usually come down to real life?
They're fighting over territory. One side has it, the other
side wants it.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, yeah, we look at the real life consequences the
war as like in the and if they have a conversation, hey,
we want to build a road to connect to this,
and then they all say say yes or no or
what the conditions are for that road to be built? Right,
(15:13):
then everybody has a happy ending, you know, loss of
life avoid.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It, right, And that's kind of what the story is
all about, is kind of can these two people that
you know, that are at odds with each other actually
overcome their differences and forge a piece with each other?
Speaker 7 (15:38):
Yeah, So without swelling the whole book, you know, maybe
they do come to some sort of a piece or
understanding or you know.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
So yeah, Well, at the same time, there's other you know,
there's other interest in the world that would rather see
those peep Yeah, to see that kingdom continue being stuck
in all these different wars up north. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So, you know, I want to say this though, One
of the things I like about the fantasy genre is
that through through that fantasy world you can say a
lot about what's happening in our in our real world
without offending people, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
And it seems like you're you're actually your book is
following that same exact suit about what's going on. Just
take the territory, you know, Oh, it's nothing but but
these evil, brainless creatures attacking anyway, so just pushed through it, right.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, so, and and in the book, I won't say
who does what, but the you know, the uh, it's
gonna be one small random act of kindness. It's going
to actually set in motion the potential for peace. Of course,
whether or not that's realized, well, that's why you read
(17:09):
the story to find out.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, well it's been. Of course in real life again,
there have been many recorded random acts of kindness that
did help bring people together. Later that's so much governments,
but they bring people together.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Right, yes, And of course the government it's hard for
them to maintain a war if the people that are
out in the front lines fighting it don't want to
fight it anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Well, yeah, that's become a little difficult, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Even if you're an authoritarian, you know, ruler that rules
with absolute authority, you still need people to carry out
your orders. And if they just choose not to comply
on en mass, well what can you do? Yeah? Well,
I think there's a certain king named Louis and France
have found that out the hard way. Oh yeah, people
(18:04):
choose not to comply. It could become rather dangerous for
the leader, right right, right, you know, doesn't give the
people what they want.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
The whole French Revolution thing there. Yeah, yeah, that was
kind of disastrous for him, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
So?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
But like you said, there's a lot of parallels that
can be drawn. And it's one of the things I
really appreciated, going back to the token ism because when
those when those books were written, you didn't you had
(18:51):
Germany attacking and stuff like that. It wasn't War War.
It was World War one, I think it was, or
somewhere between the two or something. Yeah, that he wrote
his books and you see the the political representation of
you know, the evil creatures versus the the good teach creatures,
(19:14):
and how they had to band together to to defeat
the evil, right, So yeah, that yeah, definitely token you
and his Lord of the Rings, you know world in
Middle Earth.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That I really did kind of set in motion the
overarching fantasy trope of the dark Lord, which you get
you see showing up not only in fantasy but in
some science fiction, like for example, in the Star Wars
universe with you know, the Emperor and and his you know,
(19:52):
in his second and likely heir apparent to dark Lord
Darth Vader and all that. Yeah, and then you see
in like the Aragon series you have Emperor Galbatorix who's
presented as this all powerful dark lord type, and many
(20:12):
others that, I mean, even the Wheel of Time you have,
Well that was kind of more in the overarching eternal
good versus evil battle that's never ending, yeah, which kind
of requires you have the dark Lord trope in that
one and the light Lord. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, it's far on on on the warring end of things.
One of I actually used the quote from Doctor Who
about after all the battles are fought and all that,
and the mass destruction happens, lives or lost and everything,
you still have to sit down at the table and
(20:55):
talk about what's going to happen after, you know, still
got to be discussed, and why not skip all that
and just go straight to the conversation.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
You know. Of course, sometimes there's a third party that's
stirring the pot and making that difficult. Sometimes there's hot
heads that just can't see any other way than war.
And sometimes there's a language barrier where one or the
(21:27):
other side or both sides are trying to talk but
they can't understand what each other is saying.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, I like how Star Trek eventually handled that language
barrier thing with the Universal Translator.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah, even then, they still sometimes will have the language
barrier come up if there's a language that's not been cataloged.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Before traditions there was one the next generations and where
certain traditions had to be followed, or something like that,
you know, yeah, so or else the person's internally offended
or something, you.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Know, yeah, and then you then there's also been times
where they've encountered someone who, you know, species use language
syntaxes quite different from anything they've encounter before. So it's
something where their language, entire language syntax has never been cataloged,
and it takes a little while for the universal translator
to start figuring out the words. Yeah, I think any
(22:29):
even you know, languages that use familiar syntax. If it's
a new language, it's still you know it can you
know they'd still show could sometimes take up to a
minute or two of of talking before it would start
figuring out what the words mean and then start translating.
And even and it might be imperfect, as there might
be still encounter unknown words periodically that would fail to
(22:52):
translate initially, and then eventually, after a long enough period
of time, it eventually get the entire dictionary of that
language cataloged and translated into all other known languages. But
sometimes it would take time, even with Star Trek next
gen level computers.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah. But but but when when you considered consider real
life value to that, it's it's sometimes it takes a
while to understand people what they want and and everything.
So it's a It's one of the things I like
about uh, fantasy science fiction and the art is behind them,
(23:35):
is like, hey, I'm making a point here. Why don't
we all use commerce coler heads and and be patient
and and it works out we're all basically wanting the
same things, some sort of security for our generations or whatever,
you know.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
So yeah, so yeah, yeah, and and actually I was
speaking of science. That's actually something that I put, you know,
you know into the world building of Nole's Honor in
addition to you know, your you know, more magic based
fantasy triops and the way the magic works actually Nole's
(24:14):
Honor is it's a very I would say, it's a
hard magic system in a sense that what magic can
and can't do is quite clearly defined, but the magic
itself is designed to be working more subtle ways and
rather than flashy, which I think I kind of took
some inspiration from how the magic is portrayed here for
(24:37):
the most part, in for example, Middle Earth, in that
you know, you never see Gandalf throwing any fancy fireballs
or throwing lightning bolts about, or even the big bad
Souron does that their magic kind of works in a
lot subtler ways and over longer periods of time, whether
(24:58):
it's influencing people's moods and emotions, or or whether it's
being able to divine and foresee future possibilities and kind
of understand more of what's going on in the world
than your average mundane person without magic. Would. Yeah. So,
(25:20):
like in the books, for example, Lord Denethor knows a
lot about what Sauron's plans are and what his potential
allies are doing because he's using his peal ANDERI to
view what's going on in the world, and that's kind
of a contributing factor to also what mentally breaks them eventually,
(25:40):
you know, by the end of his arc Is has
too many tragedies too close together with losing you know,
so he thought both his sons plus you know, one
too many tests of wills with Sauron. Right. But so
in my world, the magic kind of works similarly to
(26:02):
that that you that it helps give you a broader
understanding of the world when you're able to use it.
You know, though it's not going to be some way
you can use that for direct combat action or anything
you're doing anything crazy like that. You know. For the
science part of it, you know, in college, actually studied
(26:23):
classes on geology, meteorology, climate, so what it is. I
decided to apply that knowledge to the world building and
creating a full you know, once the world building is complete,
there will be a full globe, a world roughly Earth
sized with you know, the land masses based around plate tectonics,
(26:44):
and a real world geology is to where a mountain
building happens, where oceans lie, where can that's lie, where
your islands are, and all that, as well as what
areas get what kind of weather.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Right based on real geology, physics all.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
That, right, Yeah, so yeah, give me a chance to
use some science that I studied both as electives and
out of the fact that I am genuinely interested in
learning about that stuff. Just until started building the world
for Nole's Honor, it didn't get a lot of opportunity
to use it as much as out of light. But
(27:29):
that's you know, that's actually been a I'd say a
really fun part of the process is, you know, creating
this complete world, which means that you know, I can
do all kinds of different stories go forward and backward
in time on this world to set things into a
more primitive or more advanced time than say late Middle Ages,
(27:50):
which is where the time period that Nol's Honor takes
place in. Right, I can switch to very different cultures
simply by moving the story to a different part of
the world where there's very different types of people there.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Right now kind of makes sense, you know, we we
we we keep dancing around this a little bit, but
is there an ultimate message that you want people to
get from those honor and and and the world that
you that you've created.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I would say probably the most recurring theme is really
just how terrible war is, because well, you know, is
there a lot of cases where there's you know, there
is a battle scene, it's not just showing kind of
the glory of it that it's really showing, you know,
(28:48):
the aftermath of it, the loss. So I mean there
is going to be some named, you know, named characters
in there that will die as part of helping to
really drive that home as well as you're going to
see as well as there are scenes where you see
the aftermath of battle, combat and warfare. Yeah, and you know,
(29:13):
the terrible consequences of it, such as for example, you know,
in one of the characters returns back to his home,
his home village, and to find it, yeah, you know,
nothing left of it but to burnt out ruins for example,
(29:35):
and all the people have moved on. Or in another
scene where where a patrol of scouts comes across a
farm that's been burnt out and they find you know,
the family, you know, the burnt remain, charred remains of
the family inside their house, Yeah, with signs that they'd
(29:55):
been restrained and forced to remain in there in the
fire and things like that. And it's kind of showing
this tragedy of the wanton destruction that happens, you know,
in times of war and chaos.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, it was something that the talk about named characters
being killed. In the end the Harry Potter series, the
major characters that were part of the Order of the
Phoenix died, Yeah, trying to defeat defeat Baltimore, you know, so,
(30:35):
and it kind of makes makes a point, you know,
they especially when we were talking about battles in war,
there's uh, they a lot of people want to say, oh,
there was, there's an honor in signing up for the
army and and of course in some political fashions. I
(30:56):
don't want to dive too much into US politics in
the but there balance back and forth. Well, he never
saw comebat Well, he never signed up for the draft.
It's like, so they're less than honorable because they didn't
go to war, and that's not exactly a true statement. Yeah,
the war has nothing to do with with being honoring
(31:19):
going to war. And coming back is more about luck
than it is about being honorable.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, although going to war and being willing to put
yourself your life in danger to you know, for the
betterment of others, you know that there is honor in that.
And then the courage of yeah, you know, fighting to
defend something that you know means something to you, and
(31:45):
you know, being willing to face that your fears and
face that ultimate sacrifice and the chance that you might
not come back from this thing that you're doing. I mean,
there is that all of it. Now, That's actually something
I do also bring out in there is is that
(32:07):
at the end of the day, if somebody is attacking you,
you got to defend yourself and sometimes you got to
go to war to do that. If it's many people
attacking many people, that's when you get a war happening.
And yeah, and if somebody is getting into your territory
the land that you need in order to live and survive,
and are going to start constraining and squeezing you out
(32:29):
of your ability to provide, then you know what's the
outcome of that is your people are conventional you to
starve and die or you to get pushed into inhospitable
lands where you know where're gonna have nothing but rocks
to eat, and you know your life expectancy is going
to be very good. It's making to be bitter cold,
and you're so not fighting that war is just submitting
(32:53):
to death, just a longer slower death than you know,
fighting for what's yours.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Mm hm for a good point, you know, so because.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You know in our day of luxury and say, well,
this thing is just a hammer, But to that carpenter
in the Middle Ages, that hammer is his life. Some
thief comes and takes his hammer. That carpenter can't earn
a living. If you can't earn a living, he can't
get food. If he can't get food, you die. So
that thief stealing a hammer is literally stealing that carpenter's
(33:26):
life and that of his entire family. He's got a family.
So you know, there's a reason why people in less
affluent societies treat things like theft as a life or
death thing is because it.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Is absolutely true, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
And so you get into something like in the world
of Nol's honor, where so you're going to take someone's
land away from them. Well, in the case of tax
Klan who are called the Klug. So in the case
of the Kluge, you start taking half their land away
from well, they need that land to hunt and log
and mine, mine iron and other minerals. You know that
(34:10):
they need to be able to go about their life,
and you take that away from them, you're taking away
their ability to do that and survive. So you can
bet they're going to fight for that because they're fighting
for their lives.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Right, absolutely, And that's not always a matter of honor,
that's a matter of survival, you know. Yeah, So survival
is a totally different story, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
So, and well there's a lot of examples of colonialism
where they decided, oh, well, we want that for ourselves
and you don't know what you're doing with it anyway,
so we're just going to take it from you, and
people will had to die for that sort of sort
(35:03):
of belief.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, yeah, And you know, I would, and I would
say that pretty much every society, you know, every culture,
every society, and every every corner of earth has done
some form of colonialism at some point or another, maybe
the only exceptions being in really ancient times. And you're
(35:25):
having the first humans ever to set foot in a
particular part of the earth that maybe that you would
say is is you know, non destructive to someone else colonialism?
Speaker 1 (35:40):
But right, yeah, you look in.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Africa, there's plenty, you know, you look in Africa. The
Zulu actually in the time of Shaka Zulu, actually his
motivation to rise to powers and and train his people
into a warrior society is because the Zoo who were
basically being taken as slaves by their neighbors constantly. So
(36:05):
they're essentially the Zulu people were being colonialized by their
own neighbors. And I'm not talking about Europeans, I'm talking
about fellow African people that don't like each other. And
so he trained his people to become warriors. They went
over and conquered the people that were constantly taking them
as slaves, and so then the colonizers became the colonized.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
At that point. Well yeah, yeah, it's and there's plot
there's stories like that also.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
So yeah, or take the Mongolian Empire that again they
conquered the way across all of you know, Genghis Khan
conquers the way across all of Mongolian lands, reuniting all
the Mongolian tribes. Then he conquered China and most of
you know, Eastern and Southeast Asia, conquers the way across
(36:57):
India and into eastern Europe and the Middle East. M hm.
And we're not for a few fortunate things. For the Europeans,
he likely would have made his way all the way
to the Atlantic coast and colonized all of Europe. So yeah,
you get different, you get you get like bates of
(37:18):
that from all over the place. And then of course
obviously things like the British Empire, oh yeah, Spanish Empire
and all that. So it is, yeah, that is an
unfortunate thing that happens in history, and eventually we like
to think that we're getting the point where it's kind
of starting to evolve beyond that for most of human society.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
We would like to believe that. And like I said, well,
I don't want to get too political because this isn't
that that that that exactly that show. Uh, but you know,
current events may be proving differently, you know. So you know,
(38:06):
but with with your writings, your books, your and your artwork,
did you're creating a world where you're trying to teach
people maybe to think a little bit differently, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Some of that. A lot also is you know, there's
a want to create entertainment that's entertaining as well, yet
at the same time working in you know that this
world does have its you know, it does have its politics,
and and it's in there and there. You know, so
there's people, you know, different peoples that don't like each other,
(38:44):
other people that groups of people that do like each other.
So for example, you know, going back to the clue,
they basically they have you know, neighbors on four sides.
To the east, there's the other twelve ally clans, you know,
so those we obviously be friendly their allies, and that's
(39:06):
actually something that is meant to be a factor in
the story, you know, the fact that these twelve thirteen
clans are all allied with each other. To the north,
they've got a mountain range with a couple of passes
through it which leads to a land called Isinsland, which
is very heavily modeled after the Norsemen in their culture
(39:30):
and the way they're portrayed. And that kingdom is has
had you know, some clashes with another Nordic kingdom just
to kind of the northeast of them, and there's another
to the west of them, that they've generally been more
or less peaceful with most of the time. They also
are generally friendly with the human kingdom which is called Tardrell,
(39:54):
you know, to the south of the Knolish clans. And
that's why there and that's why those two people wanting
to reconnect that road, which is actually an ancient the
route of an ancient road back in the days of
an old empire that once dominated the northern part of
that continent. And so that and they still are friendly
(40:18):
with each other, and so they want that road to
reconnect their kingdoms. To the west is a kingdom called Wessel,
which currently has no king as it's basically been torn
apart in civil war to the point that there's really
no governing body Anymores is pretty much anarchy and robber
(40:39):
barons and you know, and other types of you know,
dis despicable types rising to power, just basically strong panning
their way into power in the in the power vacuum
that exists there. And of course the south is the
Charginal Kingdom, which occupies pretty much a large central grassland
(41:04):
and in plateau area of the continent, which you know,
caused that kingdom to kind of really blued out into
a large kingdom, you know, out of necessity, Yeah, due
to most of the lands around there being not very defensible,
making it something that's gonna kind of naturally coalesce into
(41:26):
a single land. And then to the east of the
thirteen Knolish clans is you know, some kind of more
northern you know, grassland area that's currently uninhabited, So that
(41:46):
would be your land that's open for the taking for
anyone that wants to colonize it. There's really nobody there
to complain about it.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Just settle, right yeah, yeah, you know, nothing like settling
on sacred taking ground, right.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
So yeah, you know, unclean land that's just there for
the taking for the first person that comes and decides
to state their claim to it.
Speaker 5 (42:16):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
So be you're already in print right with the with
the book.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Not yet. I'm actually still working on the final three chapters. However,
I do have a two chapter free preview available, okay, yeah,
so basically.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Put that Lincoln in the of course the liner notes
of the of the show. Ah, so people can can
download that, right.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah, yeah, basically yeah, you can download that. You'll you
can also get onto our you know, into the mailing list,
you'll get updates on the progress of the book and
when it's ready to release, as well as he also
get some extra By joining the mailing list, you also
get some extra perks such as some of the character
concept art as well as some other concepts and artwork
(43:09):
that's coming out as it comes out. Yeah, we have
a preview.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah, you have a pretty pretty cool graphic team working
with you.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, it was really Yeah, I would
say is forming that communities really you know, been the
difference maker because I've got three different artists and I've
worked with actually four of you count the cover artists
I worked with at different points during a book. One
(43:40):
of the artists I'm working with also happens to be
a fellow writer, and we're actually, you know, have a
you know, co authored book that we have planned for
when you started a bit of it, and we're planning
on continuing it after I've finished, you know, the main
writing for Nol's Honor h And that's going to be
(44:02):
an alternate history story that takes place during the Triassic
Age kind of write it the birth of the Age
of dinosaurs. Yeah, wow, And that's going to be involving
in alternate history where elves are the precursors of modern humans. Yes,
(44:22):
you have l So you have these prehistoric l's, you know,
living amongst the dinosaurs. So you know that's going to
be a fun one.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
But yeah, that sounds like a fun storyline. Yeah. So
ultimately with we're the best ways to actually take a
look at your work and get on that biling list.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
So the link that you will be included in the description,
that would be probably your best bet. You'll be able
to you know, learn more about the story. Get you know,
read the first two chapters and and that's reading, you know,
read all about what happens with you know, the events
I mentioned before with the attack on the main character's
(45:08):
home village attack, you know, the attack on his own
village and what their response is, which is what when
you get to in you know the second chapter.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah all right, so he Jason, thanks for joining us
today and we look forward to to seeing the complete
the book and all the perks and everything they go
along with being part of your mailing list so we
can keep up to date on latest greatest projects.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Man, Yeah for sure. And of course Nole's honor isn't
this standalone book, there is going to be other follow
ups to it, as well as many other books planned
in the world of Knowle's Honor. As I mentioned, I'm
building a complete world, so there's plenty of opportunity for
additional stories taking even take place in any kind of
(46:07):
time period. He even think of even you know, you know,
emerging fantasy with you know, a bit more modern themes. Yeah,
are possible. I won't say what I'll what exactly I'll do,
because I haven't figured it all out yet, but you know,
I do have a kind of an overarch and story
plan in mind for the first three or four books,
(46:29):
starting with Knowle's Honor, and then we'll go from there.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Awesome, all right, everybody, thanks for joining us today. Check
out the show notes and get the link to the
mailing list. Join in with Jason as he celebrates Knowle's
Honor in the whole world that he's actually building. It's
going to be fun, so, uh, talk to everybody later,
(46:57):
and please find that subscribe button wherever it is.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Yeah, it's been a pleasure being on here and definitely
looking forward to being a lega talk about our the
other upcoming projects in the future.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
Help us to.
Speaker 5 (47:24):
So I don't know, so I wish your PROWN match.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
So what.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
This guess.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
To sit me ca chob.
Speaker 5 (48:07):
Wall shows.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
You can't dres wait.
Speaker 5 (48:16):
So wa got?
Speaker 1 (49:32):
The show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please contact
us at depictions dot media for more information
Thank you for listening to the picture of the radiant.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rat.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
You readything to me?
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Oh well, well say, oh well, not a bad stop.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
I just see.
Speaker 6 (01:14):
Splashion stops it dead.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Event.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
In a world where ancient empires have crumbled and new
kingdoms rise, a young nole named Tack fights to defend
his clan's land from invaders, but when tragedy strikes and
(02:00):
he is left wounded and alone, he discovers that not
all humans are enemies, with new found allies and determination
to unite his people, and in the bloodshed, he embarks
(02:23):
on a dangerous journey of diplomacy redemption, where even his
greatest enemy may become his closest friend. Will he succeed
in living in peace to the land torn by war?
(02:46):
Or will centuries of hate and mistrust lead to the
ultimate destruction of all? So welcome to the show, everybody,
and we're going to hear from the author of Knowle's Honor,
Jason Ross, as he describes some of his motivations for
(03:11):
actually writing the book and the directions he wants to
take this in as it could become a whole series
of books about Teck and his Noel friends.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
All right, Jason, Welcome to the show Man. It's good
to see you again. You know, we've been trying to
do some work together and everything, and we're finbably getting
to at least to an interview about Knowle's honor. Now,
the graphics you sent me and everything, they look fantastic.
(04:17):
But why don't we start with how did you start
developing this story and where where's where did the story
come from?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
It's actually a story. I've been doing different variations on
this story for probably the last couple of decades. Is
kind of in my head. This is the first time
I've actually decided to start writing it down, though, And
I'd have to say my couple of inspirations I really
had were from ra Salvator's Forgotten Realm series focusing on
(04:49):
the draw Elf Drizz, as well as then his later
edition of you know, the Orcish Kingdom, you know, led
by King Obbold and kind of starting to break away
from your traditional fantasy tropes of you know, this particular
set of races are the evil races, so they're and
(05:11):
you'll meet one of them, you know what they're going
to be like. And these guys are the good races,
so they're always going to be beneficial to meet them.
And then of course then you have the humans or
the gray morally gray people that could be good or
bad or anywhere in between. Right right now, I just
decided to go with you know, they're all intelligent, thinking,
(05:31):
reasoning being so free will cultures will create different cultures,
or maybe racial and species tendencies might create different tendencies
for them that some might tend towards being more violent
than others, some might have a culture that's more militaristic
(05:52):
and warrior focused. Right, So, you know, you'll still have
those tendencies, but everyone is still has their free will
and they can choose if they want to follow those
tendencies or you know, or blaze their own path in
the world.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, well, the tokenisms are cold, but we don't have
this strictly always follow them, right.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Like, yeah, they're always going to be the bad guys.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
You know, they're going to side with the evil wizard
or whatever. Right, we can. We can play around with that, right, So.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, certainly. I'm actually currently also doing a short story,
you know, as part of an anthology that my community
Ready Needed Developers is working on in the fantasy genre,
which is going to be kind of a bit of
an origin story of the Knowles from like ancient times.
So in the case of the Noles in Noles Honor,
(06:51):
they basically are are a manufactured race that was essentially
created to be warriors. Hence their reputation is that they're
violent and you know, brutish. So but of course many
(07:12):
many centuries have passed since, you know, the time of
that war, and not all of them have remained that way, right,
And that's kind of where the story picks up on is,
you know, one group of of clans of this species
that have you know, that set off to find some
(07:34):
remote corner of the world where they could, you know,
just get away from all the wars that had nearly
destroyed them. And where the story picks up is is
three hundred years after this particular group of thirteen clans
that all took an epic journey together to find a
(07:57):
you know, just a quiet place to you know, to
live out their lives. And and then the main character
is this goes for short by Tack. It picks up
with him just a day before his sixteenth birthday when
he's supposed to be going out with his father to
(08:18):
do a special hunt where he's supposed to prove that
he can support a family, and that's when disaster strikes
and you know, some enemies that his clan has been
at war with for the last couple of years at
this point ends up finding their home, his clan's home
(08:38):
village and attacking it. And so that's kind of where
the story picks up in the first chapter. So this
was allso like.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Of an emotional grabber right there. It was like tax
family is is attacked? Is town is is uh, we're
going to say mostly destroyed.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Or yeah, right, yeah, essentially, yeah, essentially it's you know,
it's burned, you know, burned to the ground. And they
end up and so his glands going to be moving
to a new place to rebuild their village, and essentially
they're technologically they're kind of in a semi nomad state
(09:29):
where they will build permanent structures, but you know, they
do move around periodically. When an area is getting over hunted,
they'll move to a new place. However, their movements in
this since the war started being constrained because about half
their territory is now contested land. So they obviously can't
(09:52):
locate their civilian population anywhere near that right, So that's
kind of lock you know, their civilian population in the
kind of the northeastern corner of their territory. M.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So, the so that they, of course, the civilians and
combatants are are protected, right.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's the idea. And so in this case though, you know,
the case where the invading army ended up coming in
through a route that yeah, you know, through an eastern
route that the they're defending army hadn't anticipated, and so
(10:37):
they end up getting behind the army and into their
main village. And then and then in the second half
of the opening chapter then switches over to the antagonists
point of view when you start to kind of realize
why they're at war with the Knoles and that you know,
(11:02):
they've you know, been having all kinds of problems with
you know, with you know, you know, Nolish raiders invading
their lands constantly, and any time you've ever seen Noles,
it's always been hostile invaders attacking them.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So m.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And as well as that, so I don't want to
say too much more about their recent you know, about
the thought pattern going into the assault, because that of
course somebody spoilers. But that's kind of the idea behind
why they were you know, the human side of it
is at war with the Noles is is that they've
(11:45):
had nothing but bad history with that race.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yea. So in this in this particular case, through tax size,
the humans aren't exactly the good guys exactly. So yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Basically what you know, kind of what sparks the war
in the backstory is the kingdom the humans come from
is trying to build a road, you know, you know,
a road through to you know, connect through to a
mountain pass on it goes through mountains to the north
of tax people, which would then connect into another kingdom
(12:27):
that's kind of styled after the Scandinavian people, you know,
up in the far North, because that kingdom is trying
to connect to a trade a trade road to the
ocean and a seaport, and the seaports they traditionally used
are not you know, safe anymore because it's in a
(12:49):
fallen kingdom that's you know, where that area is being
ruled by bandit you know, robber barons and pirate raiders,
and so that's kind of you know, in the backstory,
that's kind of the trigger for why they're going up
into that territorial encountering tax people, and for tax people,
(13:11):
they're defending their territory from the invaders.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
The humans are doing the human thing of hey, you're
not human, so you're not worthy of this anyway. This
should be ours because you're not human anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Right, Yeah, I mean there's more to it than that.
It's also a case of you know, we need to
get through here, this is the only route through, and
these guys are getting in the way and attacking us,
and to our knowledge, nobody lives here. So these and
this is also an area that's going through this forest
called the Blackthorn Woods that you know, the Knolls call
(13:49):
home but has a reputation from hundreds of years ago
when an empire at once dominated the area fell of
being you know, cursed and infested with monsters. Of course,
there's a whole story behind that that kind of you know,
get bits and pieces of that coming out and in
(14:09):
the book. So from their point of view, these are
these are some of the monsters that infest the area
just attacking them and and so they're defending themselves from
you know, some evil creatures that are attacking them. From
their point of view, yeah, that's kind of creating a
(14:32):
bit of a dichotomy that early. Neither side's holly good
or evil. They're you know, they each have their reasons
for doing what they're doing. Yeah, And at the end
of the day, the war what has really come down
to is what does war usually come down to real life?
They're fighting over territory. One side has it, the other
side wants it.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, yeah, we look at the real life consequences the
war as like in the and if they have a conversation, hey,
we want to build a road to connect to this,
and then they all say say yes or no or
what the conditions are for that road to be built? Right,
(15:13):
then everybody has a happy ending, you know, loss of
life avoid.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It, right, And that's kind of what the story is
all about, is kind of can these two people that
you know, that are at odds with each other actually
overcome their differences and forge a piece with each other?
Speaker 7 (15:38):
Yeah, So without swelling the whole book, you know, maybe
they do come to some sort of a piece or
understanding or you know.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
So yeah, Well, at the same time, there's other you know,
there's other interest in the world that would rather see
those peep Yeah, to see that kingdom continue being stuck
in all these different wars up north. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So, you know, I want to say this though, One
of the things I like about the fantasy genre is
that through through that fantasy world you can say a
lot about what's happening in our in our real world
without offending people, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
And it seems like you're you're actually your book is
following that same exact suit about what's going on. Just
take the territory, you know, Oh, it's nothing but but
these evil, brainless creatures attacking anyway, so just pushed through it, right.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, so, and and in the book, I won't say
who does what, but the you know, the uh, it's
gonna be one small random act of kindness. It's going
to actually set in motion the potential for peace. Of course,
whether or not that's realized, well, that's why you read
(17:09):
the story to find out.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, well it's been. Of course in real life again,
there have been many recorded random acts of kindness that
did help bring people together. Later that's so much governments,
but they bring people together.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Right, yes, And of course the government it's hard for
them to maintain a war if the people that are
out in the front lines fighting it don't want to
fight it anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Well, yeah, that's become a little difficult, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Even if you're an authoritarian, you know, ruler that rules
with absolute authority, you still need people to carry out
your orders. And if they just choose not to comply
on en mass, well what can you do? Yeah? Well,
I think there's a certain king named Louis and France
have found that out the hard way. Oh yeah, people
(18:04):
choose not to comply. It could become rather dangerous for
the leader, right right, right, you know, doesn't give the
people what they want.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
The whole French Revolution thing there. Yeah, yeah, that was
kind of disastrous for him, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
So?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
But like you said, there's a lot of parallels that
can be drawn. And it's one of the things I
really appreciated, going back to the token ism because when
those when those books were written, you didn't you had
(18:51):
Germany attacking and stuff like that. It wasn't War War.
It was World War one, I think it was, or
somewhere between the two or something. Yeah, that he wrote
his books and you see the the political representation of
you know, the evil creatures versus the the good teach creatures,
(19:14):
and how they had to band together to to defeat
the evil, right, So yeah, that yeah, definitely token you
and his Lord of the Rings, you know world in
Middle Earth.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That I really did kind of set in motion the
overarching fantasy trope of the dark Lord, which you get
you see showing up not only in fantasy but in
some science fiction, like for example, in the Star Wars
universe with you know, the Emperor and and his you know,
(19:52):
in his second and likely heir apparent to dark Lord
Darth Vader and all that. Yeah, and then you see
in like the Aragon series you have Emperor Galbatorix who's
presented as this all powerful dark lord type, and many
(20:12):
others that, I mean, even the Wheel of Time you have,
Well that was kind of more in the overarching eternal
good versus evil battle that's never ending, yeah, which kind
of requires you have the dark Lord trope in that
one and the light Lord. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, it's far on on on the warring end of things.
One of I actually used the quote from Doctor Who
about after all the battles are fought and all that,
and the mass destruction happens, lives or lost and everything,
you still have to sit down at the table and
(20:55):
talk about what's going to happen after, you know, still
got to be discussed, and why not skip all that
and just go straight to the conversation.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
You know. Of course, sometimes there's a third party that's
stirring the pot and making that difficult. Sometimes there's hot
heads that just can't see any other way than war.
And sometimes there's a language barrier where one or the
(21:27):
other side or both sides are trying to talk but
they can't understand what each other is saying.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, I like how Star Trek eventually handled that language
barrier thing with the Universal Translator.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah, even then, they still sometimes will have the language
barrier come up if there's a language that's not been cataloged.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Before traditions there was one the next generations and where
certain traditions had to be followed, or something like that,
you know, yeah, so or else the person's internally offended
or something, you.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Know, yeah, and then you then there's also been times
where they've encountered someone who, you know, species use language
syntaxes quite different from anything they've encounter before. So it's
something where their language, entire language syntax has never been cataloged,
and it takes a little while for the universal translator
to start figuring out the words. Yeah, I think any
(22:29):
even you know, languages that use familiar syntax. If it's
a new language, it's still you know it can you
know they'd still show could sometimes take up to a
minute or two of of talking before it would start
figuring out what the words mean and then start translating.
And even and it might be imperfect, as there might
be still encounter unknown words periodically that would fail to
(22:52):
translate initially, and then eventually, after a long enough period
of time, it eventually get the entire dictionary of that
language cataloged and translated into all other known languages. But
sometimes it would take time, even with Star Trek next
gen level computers.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah. But but but when when you considered consider real
life value to that, it's it's sometimes it takes a
while to understand people what they want and and everything.
So it's a It's one of the things I like
about uh, fantasy science fiction and the art is behind them,
(23:35):
is like, hey, I'm making a point here. Why don't
we all use commerce coler heads and and be patient
and and it works out we're all basically wanting the
same things, some sort of security for our generations or whatever,
you know.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
So yeah, so yeah, yeah, and and actually I was
speaking of science. That's actually something that I put, you know,
you know into the world building of Nole's Honor in
addition to you know, your you know, more magic based
fantasy triops and the way the magic works actually Nole's
(24:14):
Honor is it's a very I would say, it's a
hard magic system in a sense that what magic can
and can't do is quite clearly defined, but the magic
itself is designed to be working more subtle ways and
rather than flashy, which I think I kind of took
some inspiration from how the magic is portrayed here for
(24:37):
the most part, in for example, Middle Earth, in that
you know, you never see Gandalf throwing any fancy fireballs
or throwing lightning bolts about, or even the big bad
Souron does that their magic kind of works in a
lot subtler ways and over longer periods of time, whether
(24:58):
it's influencing people's moods and emotions, or or whether it's
being able to divine and foresee future possibilities and kind
of understand more of what's going on in the world
than your average mundane person without magic. Would. Yeah. So,
(25:20):
like in the books, for example, Lord Denethor knows a
lot about what Sauron's plans are and what his potential
allies are doing because he's using his peal ANDERI to
view what's going on in the world, and that's kind
of a contributing factor to also what mentally breaks them eventually,
(25:40):
you know, by the end of his arc Is has
too many tragedies too close together with losing you know,
so he thought both his sons plus you know, one
too many tests of wills with Sauron. Right. But so
in my world, the magic kind of works similarly to
(26:02):
that that you that it helps give you a broader
understanding of the world when you're able to use it.
You know, though it's not going to be some way
you can use that for direct combat action or anything
you're doing anything crazy like that. You know. For the
science part of it, you know, in college, actually studied
(26:23):
classes on geology, meteorology, climate, so what it is. I
decided to apply that knowledge to the world building and
creating a full you know, once the world building is complete,
there will be a full globe, a world roughly Earth
sized with you know, the land masses based around plate tectonics,
(26:44):
and a real world geology is to where a mountain
building happens, where oceans lie, where can that's lie, where
your islands are, and all that, as well as what
areas get what kind of weather.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Right based on real geology, physics all.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
That, right, Yeah, so yeah, give me a chance to
use some science that I studied both as electives and
out of the fact that I am genuinely interested in
learning about that stuff. Just until started building the world
for Nole's Honor, it didn't get a lot of opportunity
to use it as much as out of light. But
(27:29):
that's you know, that's actually been a I'd say a
really fun part of the process is, you know, creating
this complete world, which means that you know, I can
do all kinds of different stories go forward and backward
in time on this world to set things into a
more primitive or more advanced time than say late Middle Ages,
(27:50):
which is where the time period that Nol's Honor takes
place in. Right, I can switch to very different cultures
simply by moving the story to a different part of
the world where there's very different types of people there.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Right now kind of makes sense, you know, we we
we we keep dancing around this a little bit, but
is there an ultimate message that you want people to
get from those honor and and and the world that
you that you've created.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I would say probably the most recurring theme is really
just how terrible war is, because well, you know, is
there a lot of cases where there's you know, there
is a battle scene, it's not just showing kind of
the glory of it that it's really showing, you know,
(28:48):
the aftermath of it, the loss. So I mean there
is going to be some named, you know, named characters
in there that will die as part of helping to
really drive that home as well as you're going to
see as well as there are scenes where you see
the aftermath of battle, combat and warfare. Yeah, and you know,
(29:13):
the terrible consequences of it, such as for example, you know,
in one of the characters returns back to his home,
his home village, and to find it, yeah, you know,
nothing left of it but to burnt out ruins for example,
(29:35):
and all the people have moved on. Or in another
scene where where a patrol of scouts comes across a
farm that's been burnt out and they find you know,
the family, you know, the burnt remain, charred remains of
the family inside their house, Yeah, with signs that they'd
(29:55):
been restrained and forced to remain in there in the
fire and things like that. And it's kind of showing
this tragedy of the wanton destruction that happens, you know,
in times of war and chaos.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, it was something that the talk about named characters
being killed. In the end the Harry Potter series, the
major characters that were part of the Order of the
Phoenix died, Yeah, trying to defeat defeat Baltimore, you know, so,
(30:35):
and it kind of makes makes a point, you know,
they especially when we were talking about battles in war,
there's uh, they a lot of people want to say, oh,
there was, there's an honor in signing up for the
army and and of course in some political fashions. I
(30:56):
don't want to dive too much into US politics in
the but there balance back and forth. Well, he never
saw comebat Well, he never signed up for the draft.
It's like, so they're less than honorable because they didn't
go to war, and that's not exactly a true statement. Yeah,
the war has nothing to do with with being honoring
(31:19):
going to war. And coming back is more about luck
than it is about being honorable.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, although going to war and being willing to put
yourself your life in danger to you know, for the
betterment of others, you know that there is honor in that.
And then the courage of yeah, you know, fighting to
defend something that you know means something to you, and
(31:45):
you know, being willing to face that your fears and
face that ultimate sacrifice and the chance that you might
not come back from this thing that you're doing. I mean,
there is that all of it. Now, That's actually something
I do also bring out in there is is that
(32:07):
at the end of the day, if somebody is attacking you,
you got to defend yourself and sometimes you got to
go to war to do that. If it's many people
attacking many people, that's when you get a war happening.
And yeah, and if somebody is getting into your territory
the land that you need in order to live and survive,
and are going to start constraining and squeezing you out
(32:29):
of your ability to provide, then you know what's the
outcome of that is your people are conventional you to
starve and die or you to get pushed into inhospitable
lands where you know where're gonna have nothing but rocks
to eat, and you know your life expectancy is going
to be very good. It's making to be bitter cold,
and you're so not fighting that war is just submitting
(32:53):
to death, just a longer slower death than you know,
fighting for what's yours.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Mm hm for a good point, you know, so because.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You know in our day of luxury and say, well,
this thing is just a hammer, But to that carpenter
in the Middle Ages, that hammer is his life. Some
thief comes and takes his hammer. That carpenter can't earn
a living. If you can't earn a living, he can't
get food. If he can't get food, you die. So
that thief stealing a hammer is literally stealing that carpenter's
(33:26):
life and that of his entire family. He's got a family.
So you know, there's a reason why people in less
affluent societies treat things like theft as a life or
death thing is because it.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Is absolutely true, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
And so you get into something like in the world
of Nol's honor, where so you're going to take someone's
land away from them. Well, in the case of tax
Klan who are called the Klug. So in the case
of the Kluge, you start taking half their land away
from well, they need that land to hunt and log
and mine, mine iron and other minerals. You know that
(34:10):
they need to be able to go about their life,
and you take that away from them, you're taking away
their ability to do that and survive. So you can
bet they're going to fight for that because they're fighting
for their lives.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Right, absolutely, And that's not always a matter of honor,
that's a matter of survival, you know. Yeah, So survival
is a totally different story, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
So, and well there's a lot of examples of colonialism
where they decided, oh, well, we want that for ourselves
and you don't know what you're doing with it anyway,
so we're just going to take it from you, and
people will had to die for that sort of sort
(35:03):
of belief.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, yeah, And you know, I would, and I would
say that pretty much every society, you know, every culture,
every society, and every every corner of earth has done
some form of colonialism at some point or another, maybe
the only exceptions being in really ancient times. And you're
(35:25):
having the first humans ever to set foot in a
particular part of the earth that maybe that you would
say is is you know, non destructive to someone else colonialism?
Speaker 1 (35:40):
But right, yeah, you look in.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Africa, there's plenty, you know, you look in Africa. The
Zulu actually in the time of Shaka Zulu, actually his
motivation to rise to powers and and train his people
into a warrior society is because the Zoo who were
basically being taken as slaves by their neighbors constantly. So
(36:05):
they're essentially the Zulu people were being colonialized by their
own neighbors. And I'm not talking about Europeans, I'm talking
about fellow African people that don't like each other. And
so he trained his people to become warriors. They went
over and conquered the people that were constantly taking them
as slaves, and so then the colonizers became the colonized.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
At that point. Well yeah, yeah, it's and there's plot
there's stories like that also.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
So yeah, or take the Mongolian Empire that again they
conquered the way across all of you know, Genghis Khan
conquers the way across all of Mongolian lands, reuniting all
the Mongolian tribes. Then he conquered China and most of
you know, Eastern and Southeast Asia, conquers the way across
(36:57):
India and into eastern Europe and the Middle East. M hm.
And we're not for a few fortunate things. For the Europeans,
he likely would have made his way all the way
to the Atlantic coast and colonized all of Europe. So yeah,
you get different, you get you get like bates of
(37:18):
that from all over the place. And then of course
obviously things like the British Empire, oh yeah, Spanish Empire
and all that. So it is, yeah, that is an
unfortunate thing that happens in history, and eventually we like
to think that we're getting the point where it's kind
of starting to evolve beyond that for most of human society.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
We would like to believe that. And like I said, well,
I don't want to get too political because this isn't
that that that that exactly that show. Uh, but you know,
current events may be proving differently, you know. So you know,
(38:06):
but with with your writings, your books, your and your artwork,
did you're creating a world where you're trying to teach
people maybe to think a little bit differently, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Some of that. A lot also is you know, there's
a want to create entertainment that's entertaining as well, yet
at the same time working in you know that this
world does have its you know, it does have its politics,
and and it's in there and there. You know, so
there's people, you know, different peoples that don't like each other,
(38:44):
other people that groups of people that do like each other.
So for example, you know, going back to the clue,
they basically they have you know, neighbors on four sides.
To the east, there's the other twelve ally clans, you know,
so those we obviously be friendly their allies, and that's
(39:06):
actually something that is meant to be a factor in
the story, you know, the fact that these twelve thirteen
clans are all allied with each other. To the north,
they've got a mountain range with a couple of passes
through it which leads to a land called Isinsland, which
is very heavily modeled after the Norsemen in their culture
(39:30):
and the way they're portrayed. And that kingdom is has
had you know, some clashes with another Nordic kingdom just
to kind of the northeast of them, and there's another
to the west of them, that they've generally been more
or less peaceful with most of the time. They also
are generally friendly with the human kingdom which is called Tardrell,
(39:54):
you know, to the south of the Knolish clans. And
that's why there and that's why those two people wanting
to reconnect that road, which is actually an ancient the
route of an ancient road back in the days of
an old empire that once dominated the northern part of
that continent. And so that and they still are friendly
(40:18):
with each other, and so they want that road to
reconnect their kingdoms. To the west is a kingdom called Wessel,
which currently has no king as it's basically been torn
apart in civil war to the point that there's really
no governing body Anymores is pretty much anarchy and robber
(40:39):
barons and you know, and other types of you know,
dis despicable types rising to power, just basically strong panning
their way into power in the in the power vacuum
that exists there. And of course the south is the
Charginal Kingdom, which occupies pretty much a large central grassland
(41:04):
and in plateau area of the continent, which you know,
caused that kingdom to kind of really blued out into
a large kingdom, you know, out of necessity, Yeah, due
to most of the lands around there being not very defensible,
making it something that's gonna kind of naturally coalesce into
(41:26):
a single land. And then to the east of the
thirteen Knolish clans is you know, some kind of more
northern you know, grassland area that's currently uninhabited, So that
(41:46):
would be your land that's open for the taking for
anyone that wants to colonize it. There's really nobody there
to complain about it.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Just settle, right yeah, yeah, you know, nothing like settling
on sacred taking ground, right.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
So yeah, you know, unclean land that's just there for
the taking for the first person that comes and decides
to state their claim to it.
Speaker 5 (42:16):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
So be you're already in print right with the with
the book.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Not yet. I'm actually still working on the final three chapters. However,
I do have a two chapter free preview available, okay, yeah,
so basically.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Put that Lincoln in the of course the liner notes
of the of the show. Ah, so people can can
download that, right.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah, yeah, basically yeah, you can download that. You'll you
can also get onto our you know, into the mailing list,
you'll get updates on the progress of the book and
when it's ready to release, as well as he also
get some extra By joining the mailing list, you also
get some extra perks such as some of the character
concept art as well as some other concepts and artwork
(43:09):
that's coming out as it comes out. Yeah, we have
a preview.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah, you have a pretty pretty cool graphic team working
with you.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, it was really Yeah, I would
say is forming that communities really you know, been the
difference maker because I've got three different artists and I've
worked with actually four of you count the cover artists
I worked with at different points during a book. One
(43:40):
of the artists I'm working with also happens to be
a fellow writer, and we're actually, you know, have a
you know, co authored book that we have planned for
when you started a bit of it, and we're planning
on continuing it after I've finished, you know, the main
writing for Nol's Honor h And that's going to be
(44:02):
an alternate history story that takes place during the Triassic
Age kind of write it the birth of the Age
of dinosaurs. Yeah, wow, And that's going to be involving
in alternate history where elves are the precursors of modern humans. Yes,
(44:22):
you have l So you have these prehistoric l's, you know,
living amongst the dinosaurs. So you know that's going to
be a fun one.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
But yeah, that sounds like a fun storyline. Yeah. So
ultimately with we're the best ways to actually take a
look at your work and get on that biling list.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
So the link that you will be included in the description,
that would be probably your best bet. You'll be able
to you know, learn more about the story. Get you know,
read the first two chapters and and that's reading, you know,
read all about what happens with you know, the events
I mentioned before with the attack on the main character's
(45:08):
home village attack, you know, the attack on his own
village and what their response is, which is what when
you get to in you know the second chapter.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah all right, so he Jason, thanks for joining us
today and we look forward to to seeing the complete
the book and all the perks and everything they go
along with being part of your mailing list so we
can keep up to date on latest greatest projects.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Man, Yeah for sure. And of course Nole's honor isn't
this standalone book, there is going to be other follow
ups to it, as well as many other books planned
in the world of Knowle's Honor. As I mentioned, I'm
building a complete world, so there's plenty of opportunity for
additional stories taking even take place in any kind of
(46:07):
time period. He even think of even you know, you know,
emerging fantasy with you know, a bit more modern themes. Yeah,
are possible. I won't say what I'll what exactly I'll do,
because I haven't figured it all out yet, but you know,
I do have a kind of an overarch and story
plan in mind for the first three or four books,
(46:29):
starting with Knowle's Honor, and then we'll go from there.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Awesome, all right, everybody, thanks for joining us today. Check
out the show notes and get the link to the
mailing list. Join in with Jason as he celebrates Knowle's
Honor in the whole world that he's actually building. It's
going to be fun, so, uh, talk to everybody later,
(46:57):
and please find that subscribe button wherever it is.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Yeah, it's been a pleasure being on here and definitely
looking forward to being a lega talk about our the
other upcoming projects in the future.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
Help us to.
Speaker 5 (47:24):
So I don't know, so I wish your PROWN match.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
So what.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
This guess.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
To sit me ca chob.
Speaker 5 (48:07):
Wall shows.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
You can't dres wait.
Speaker 5 (48:16):
So wa got?
Speaker 1 (49:32):
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