Flora et Fauna: Source material.

At the right you see me holding a very small sample of the library I have put together regarding plants and one of my notebooks where I record things I have learned from other sources. It may seem a little odd to talk about research where I have been talking mostly about different plants and animals.

I wanted to give you some insight into my working process in today's post. Much of what I write in my flora et fauna posts is in a style that is relatively close to how one would find such things described in actual texts. I am attempting to create a body of work that can provide additional realism for the world I have created. I am also attempting to synthesize a modern simulacrum of the medieval texts focused upon fictional plants.

This project had its seeds planted early when I was a child and my late paternal grandmother was explaining plants to me. She had an earlier edition of Margaret A. Grieves A Modern Herbal (I'm holding volume one in this picture) and I was fascinated by how detailed the plant descriptions were. The line drawings that were sprinkled through out the pages were jaw droppingly stunning in their level of detail. It reminded me of the botanical and naturalist sketches and paintings from the 1800s by people like John James Audubon.

As I started to dream of my little world, I found myself looking at details in close attention. I was curious how a tree would grow in a bog so I studied bogs and trees for a time. I was curious how dragons would reproduce, so I studied dinosaurs, birds, and monotremes. I would think of an evolutionary niche and try to figure out what lived in it. In many ways, I was thinking about the world's story even as I was thinking about how imaginary plants like fireweed were used. There's a reason why my world building notes occupies multiple volumes.

Sadly, they're all disorganized. This is part of the reason why I haven't a new plant or animal for you today. I am still in the process of organizing them. But, my source material for inspiration is always at hand because it comes from the world around me. And our world is just as wonderfully magical as the world of Evandar. Indeed, an Evandari person would be awed by our world. Not just because of our technological prowess but because of the amazing diversity of the biology of our planet.