I have a pet project. It's something I've been working on intermittently for the past 2 1/2 years, and it hasn't seen much light because it's such an ambitious project that it will probably take me 10 years of dedicated work to get it where I want it to be. Think J.R.R. Tolkien with Middle Earth. Same deal.

To be more specific, it's a world that I've been building. As far as I can recall, the initial inspiration for the project came from playing D&D with my friends-- there came a point when I realized I wanted to have an original fantasy world where I could base my campaigns. I don't like having to improvise when I run a game, you see. I prefer to have every possible avenue laid out carefully, so that whatever the players may choose to do, there will be an interesting adventure waiting for them. But when I got started down this road, I didn't realize just how far it would take me.

I wanted to build it from the ground up to ensure it was completely realistic. One of my biggest fears with world building is that someone much smarter than me will come along and say, "Well, there's no way something like that could happen." Not that I plan on many geologists or meteorologists critiquing the realism of my world, but there's a certain degree of pride in saying that I did this and I did it right.

I won't go into too much detail about the physical features of the world. I've already written a blog entry about it elsewhere for those interested in doing the same: Building a World Old Testament Style, pt. 1. Just know that eventually, I walked away with a good physical map as well as knowledge of the air and water currents, average rainfall, and the locations and types of forests.

You'd think after all that the process would get easier. But no-- that's where things got hard. And fun.

I started naming things. I brainstormed first, crafted interesting sounds and alliterations and added them to a big list. Then I started assigning them to the physical features of the land. The Dragonspire Mountains were among the first names I came up with: though I know it's a bad idea to play favorites with a project like this, I'm pretty fond of the northwest region of this particular continent.

Bits and pieces of history started to fill themselves in as I named features and cities. The Dragonspire Mountains, obviously, have an unusually high population of dragons. Wintergate is named for the massive gate that protects the city, and the nearby Blackblood River earned its name when a slain dragon's blood leeched into the waters and poisoned them for years afterward. The White Lady's River is named for Freja, the White Lady of Wintergate-- the very same Freja entombed in a solitary peak on the northwestern islands bordering Alovul's Cradle. Glassbridge, like many of the human cities on the west coast, was established on top of Elven ruins and is therefore famous for its distinctive glass bridge that spans the River Istuar. 

The list goes on and on. I wanted the map to be interesting to look at, and the names of its features to be intriguing enough that people wanted to know more. And while the western side of the continent (one of at least six, mind you) has developed nicely, the east still feels relatively vacant to me-- especially surrounding the capitol of the east, Amaranth Amalgamate.

Although it's not finished, I'm finally bringing Centoros into the light because slapping names on a map and coming up with a loose history will only go so far. I've started painting concept artwork, starting with Queen Freja of Wintergate. I'm not sure how far this project is going to go, but there's plenty more work to come, so I might as well start putting it out there. From here on out you're going to start seeing Centoros Spotlights on specific characters and settings, in a halfway attempt at compiling all these ideas I've got rattling around in my head. Stay tuned.