The Underworld isn’t a cavern. It is an ocean with no boundaries and no map.

With the reviews I’ve received for The Serpent and the Swan, I’ve heard requests for a full-length novelization and sequels. Which makes me pretty pleased with what was supposed to be a short fairy tale designed to phase me out of academia and back into fiction.

And I discovered that I’m not ready to let Cygna go yet. There’s a lot more of her story to tell. And it turns out, I can’t stop thinking about her world. Its culture, its folklore and mythology, its geography…

In particular, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Underworld. The only part of it that we see in The Serpent and the Swan is the King’s Hall, but there is so much more to it. And it’s always bothered me that the Underworld is always represented so literally – underground. Even I am guilty of it, as the novella format of The Serpent and the Swan prevented me from expanding the descriptions and explanations as much as I would have liked. Yes, the Underworld is a common part of world mythology (though not universal). But in the translation of its name through various languages and time, that meaning has lost much of its nuance.

(This is why you don’t hand worldbuilding to a mythologist – it gets metaphysical).

To help myself organize the world I’m building for Cygna, I’ve created a wiki in Notion. The articles are written in the voice of a scholar recording the world’s history, traditions, and mythology, because academic habits die hard.

A brief excerpt on the nature of the Underworld:

The Night Sea

The Underworld is not, contrary to the literal translation of its name, a cave underground. It is an ocean. It has the shape and geography of thought – it is amorphous and ever changing. As such, there is no mappable shore. The water itself may not always be water, and at its depths is not a seabed of rock.

The only constant anchor point is the Lighthouse. Even the King’s Court, the only other reliable touchstone in the Underworld, shifts its physical location. But the Lighthouse is equidistant from all other points in the Underworld. One may travel there by thought, which is more reliable if one has the concentration or innate ability, but the only other way to travel is by vessel over the Night Sea. This is dangerous, as there is no way to navigate reliably, and being so close to the water may cause the traveler to drift, physically and mentally, through their own internal world. The external world is likely to reflect the inner, blurring the lines of reality, and the traveler risks being lost forever in their own mind, drifting back to the Lighthouse — the focal point and amplifier.

The sun never rises on the Night Sea, and the constellations constantly shift. It is unclear whether it is genuinely stars above, or merely a reflection of the glow from the churning water below.

-The Serpent and the Swan Wiki

I would love to make my wiki accessible to the public, but it is as yet a work in progress (WIP) and constantly changing. Perhaps when the books are finished and published. But for now, it’s only available to my closest readers.

I’m interested, how do I read it?

The members of my reader list, Pym’s Pen, love Cygna’s world as much as I do, and I happily share the worldbuilding process with them. If you’re as fascinated as we are, then I invite you to join us.

As is the case with any work in progress, the details of the articles are subject to change. As such, you get a peek into my creative process and the building of a high fantasy world. This process is different for every writer, depending on interest and areas of study. As a mythologist and heritage conservation specialist, my focus starts with the folklore and history that builds cultural practices. That is the center point of my web, and like Arachne my weaving spirals out from there. I hope you enjoy watching the process.

Cover photo by Trevor McKinnon on Unsplash