Stories: Nine Lands

The Nine Lands are a world I created several years ago, in part as a challenge to myself, to create a setting where there were many different -- and truly different -- cultures. As an anthropologist and folklorist, I enjoy reading fantasies where the settings are both vivid and varied, so I began making a world like that for myself.

I've written a number of short stories set in different parts of the Nine Lands. So far, seven have won awards or gotten published.

• "Calling into Silence"
• "The Legend of Anahata"
• "White Shadow"
• "Sing for Me"
• "Execution Morning"
• "Lost Soul"
• "Kingspeaker"

The map shown on this page is a scan of an older, smaller version of the map; it's not great, but it's enough to go on for now. To give the stories a bit of geographical context: "Calling into Silence" takes place on the Nahele Peninsula, the skinny bit in the south; "The Legend of Anahata" takes place in Sahasrara, the plains in the southeastern corner of the mainland; "White Shadow" takes place in the Kagesedo Isles, which aren't actually on the map; "Sing for Me" takes place in Quilíbria, the central-western area with the hooked peninsula; "Execution Morning" takes place in Mittern, the eastern coast where it curves in to form a bay; and "Lost Soul" takes place in Tir Diamh, the northeastern quadrant of the map.