Ilemuria, Kumari Kandam, Atlantis go back centuries. Decades of legends and stories have been passed down through ancient texts, travelling plays, over the camp fire stories, but one thing always remained the same.
There are worlds out there that we haven't explored yet.
These worlds already exist in lore, but how was I to fill them? Were there villages and cities? Were the inhabitants human? How did society function and how did this world differ from the one we live in?
Researching history and getting input from extremely reliable sources (check out @whatthepottu on IG) led to more questions than answers. Stories get passed down through generations and branch off through different story tellers, each with their own version.
I started with villages. One of the oldest records of Tamil literature, the Tolkappiyam, divided the lives of ancient Tamils into five different landscapes called thinais. These five regions are Mullai (forest), Marutam (agriculture), Kurinji (mountainous), Pallai (desert) and Neytal (coastal). The villagers of each region had their own unique occupations, food, resources and even Gods. I used these as a base for the five different villages in my series.
Language was a tough one. Ilemurians were coming from all over the world and needed a way to communicate with each other. I paid homage to one of the fathers of the Tamil language here.
And my favorite part, the Ilemurians themselves. I wanted this series to be as mythological as possible. The stories I enjoyed the most growing up were fantasy, not just with humans, but dragons, centaurs, unicorns, trolls, ogres and many more. It was so engaging writing these complex characters.
I've grown attached to not just all my characters, but the world I've built as well. Make sure you get your copy July 17 so we can share the world of Ilemuria together and all its inhabitants.
Which clan do you think you'd be a part of?