Aralyn is a fictional world that began with the creation of a single dwarf character. As the story of Bainurek developed the world of Aralyn began to expand to include humans and elves and as personal and place names were assigned, languages for these people began to take shape. In The Dwarven Prince, there are three principle races involved.
First, the dwarves of Kheled Mor under the eastern mountains. Unlike the uncouth, impulsive, greedy and often incorrigibly-grumpy and gruff dwarves of other fictions, the dwarves of my creation are a people of quality, certainly brave, inventive and honorable, but also wise, cultured and spiritual. Moreover they are a people of compassion for the sufferings of others, not necessarily of their own race. And far from the monolithic race stereotypes of some fictional constructs, these people are complex and diverse in character, and the main character struggles with feelings of unworthiness and a sense of being lost. Their intelligently structured language is a linguistic masterpiece rich in bold combinations of sound and meaning, with strong-edged consonants that reflect the geometry of their world of stone, metal and crystal. Linguistic inspiration for this Dwarvish tongue include Russian and Navajo.
In contrast to the dwarves, the elves of Aralyn are a people of former glory who are now lesser than they were, yet still under an illusion of greatness. Moreover one of their kind brought forth the greatest evil their world has ever known. They are aloof and although not unwilling to give aid, they seem resigned to the prospect of failure. Their language has a liquid, vocalic sound and fluidity that reflects their life in the forests west of Kheled Mor and in riverlands to the west of the human kingdom of Beorwaith, both lands dominated by the eternal ebb and flow of the biosphere. Elvish in Aralyn is inspired by such fluid languages as Latin, Welsh, and Hawaiian, with some Germanic influence as well.
The humans of Aralyn are a proud and insecure people, who emerged more recently than the other two races, and have built a young civilization amidst ruins of an ancient, but now decayed elven civilization. They yearn for the greatness of the ancient elves, but receive little or no help to accomplish this from the withdrawn elves of their own time. Their old heritage language, reflected in personal and place names, is inspired by German and both Irish and Scots Gaelic and is both strong and gentle in sound, reflecting their dualistic nature. Their kingdoms lie between the riverland elves to the west, and the forest elves and dwarves to the east, but stretch far to the wilds of the north and to the southern coast.
My next writing project will be the first in a series of novels set in Aralyn spanning many thousands of years, and besides humans, elves and dwarves, other races will play a significant part. Things to expect in the near future include full linguistic descriptions of the Dwarvish and
Elvish languages I have created, as well as other races and their cultures and languages. The current map will also be vastly expanded to include places these people live and to which story characters journey. I am holding out on names for the series and its component novels until those are finalized.
Sincerely, Drake