It’s time to begin the themed blog posts, and what better to start with than a look at the landscape? Because, for the first time in Fairy Tale Enchantress and Timeless Fairy Tales, you get a chance to visit the self-isolated country of Zancara.
Angelique doesn’t see much, but since I know you Champions have been speculating on this country for a long time, I thought I’d shed at least a bit of light on this mysterious country!
To begin with, Zancara is very loosely based on historic Spain.
Citizens use Spanish titles of respect (Don and Dona) when addressing what is basically a rudimentary police force, the escolta. Architecture style is a mish-mash of Spanish and Italian, though you history nuts might be able to tell that the architecture type is slightly older than the kinds I’ve described in Loire and Trieux. (I was trying to reflect how the country’s isolation has kept some of its styles a little more archaic.)
When it came to the country’s colors–red and blue–I had to be a bit more loose in my interpretation of Spain’s colors. Spain’s modern flag is red and yellow–which is a problem because both of those colors are used together already in the Timeless Fairy Tale world. So I studied one of the more traditional versions of the royal family crest, which although the majority is red and gold, it also has blue or in some cases purple in it. I decided to go with blue to give Zancara a very stark contrast to the more traditional red, thus giving them their own flair!
As you now know, Zancara has enforced its isolation by walls and magic, making it difficult for others to sneak into the country. Additionally, as Angelique noticed mages are not organized under a Council and organization like the Veneno Conclave, and are allowed to own businesses. As Angelique confirms that some mages work for the escolta, you can see that Zancara magic users are also allowed to work directly for the monarchy, which makes them the only country with that distinction.
As is hinted in the book, Zancara entered its isolated state not because of tyranny from its royal family, but rather because the royals were doing what they thought would best protect their land. How and why the royal family came to that conclusion has been forgotten by those outside the country, but eventually I am hoping to explore that story.
But! That’s another book entirely. I hope you enjoyed your look into Zancara, Champions! Thanks for reading.
