Scope
The motivation behind building Caledonia
The world of Caledonia is being created to form a narrative for the story of the many iron age tribes of Scotland. The story of these tribes has never been told before and all that we do know about them comes down to us from a Roman perspective. I hope to create a psuedo historical account of the rise of the Caledonians and their 400 year conflict with Rome. Weaving Scottish folklore, myths and legends into the story to create a believable but embellished account of the conflict told from the perspective of the tribes for once.
My dream is that this novel will become popular, that it will become a Netflix or HBO series and that as a consequence of this popularity people will come and visit the places made famous by the story resulting in a tourism boom and an explosion of interest in the subject of Scottish prehistory. In the same way that dan browns davinci code was responsible for renewed interest in the knights templar.
The goal of the project
I am creating this world as a place to store the story arc of the characters for the series of novels and any associated lore, or any information that goes beyond the contents of the novel. If someone was inspired by this narrative and wanted to turn it into an RPG world then that would be cool.
Caledonia's Unique Selling point
I'd like to tell the story of the brochs and the tribe of my home county of Caithness. Creating a narrative that connects the Cornavi to the Catti and then the Catti to the Attacotti. In the hope that this creates a story that fills the missing gap in Scottish prehistory and explains why brochs are found in the north and south of the county.
Theme
Genre
The genre of Caledonia is pseudohistorical a grim and brutal account of the reality of Scottish prehistoric tribal warfare and the rise of the tribes into a confederation and eventual nation in the face of a common enemy. The magic level is low but the tribes do believe in magic and legend, with druids acting as mediums to a spirit world induced by psychedelic drugs and trance. Magical items robbed from ancient Cairns and mental illnesses being seen as gifts from the gods.
Reader Experience
I want the readers to feel that they can empathize with the characters even though the world they inhabit is very different to ours. I want them to believe that what the characters see as magic can now be understood as science. I want to confuse fact with fiction so that people find themselves lost in wikipedia wondering if this story has any basis in truth and always finding a breadcrumb of truth to ensure the story always has a continuous thread of plausibility.
Reader Tone
The world is an adaption of the grim reality of iron age life. The days are hard and filled with toil. Life is cheap and easily taken, death is a daily part of life. The bones of the dead are worn as tailismans and amulets..cannibal feasts are held to honour the dead. Women are sexually free and can have children by any partner they choose, children are brought up by the tribe sometimes never being sure who their father is. All of this is normal and not seen as grim in any way..
What is grim is the prospect of losing their freedom and way of life to Rome. To become slaves and lose their place among the rites of the druids, falling out of favour with the gods of fate and there should condemned not to return to this world.
Recurring Themes
Brochs are one of the recurring themes. How the northern tribes live in these tribal farming republics based around a community living in these structures.
Druids and the druidic faith. All the tribes respect the druidic order, take part in the yearly festivals and honour the gods and teachings of the old living religion.
Decite
Character Agency
The characters are faced with no option but to find agency within themselves and each other to change what is about to befall them or die knowing that their family will be raped and become slaves in some far off Roman land.
Focus
Tribal warfare
Druidic religion
The rise of Rome
Herbs, drugs and natural world
Drama
The Romans are coming to subjugate Caledonia and make slaves of the people.
Tribal warfare is still rife, Caledonia is not yet united into a nation, with various tribal groups keeping old feudal differences alive. The tribes need to put aside their differences and unite to face a common foe.
The druid order is a shadow of it's former self, weakened after years of tribal in fighting and a diminished sense of trust in their authority. There was a time long ago when druid kings ruled over all Britain, now they hold sway from their power base in Orkney. Sending emissaries out among the tribes to keep order and ensure the cling in to a semblance of authority. Factions have formed within the order itself, with many druids aping the customs of druidy bit really just in it for the power and prestige.
Talorcs father nechtan is going to die of the illness. Conall the eldest of the brothers will inherit the title of chief of Crosskirk land. Conall is favoured by his doting mother but the rest of the clan would prefer Talorcs strong leadership. Conall is to be sent to Rome and would prefer to allign with Rome against the Caledonians. Talorc is left in charge in conalls absence. The two brothers can not agree on which direction to take, the Orcadians have already submitted to the power of rome but Talorc would rather try to unite the tribes and fight for freedom.
Talorc falls in love with enthi the druid from mona. She is captured by the Romans and raped to death
Drust wants to protect his children
Galan uses nature as a weapon
