While Prince Brave Kingsfort embarks on an intense inner battle to control his magical elements in book 3 of The Broken Spell series, he's duty bound to remain at the new mage academy and stay close to home. Kingsfort castle and its surrounding area becomes an essential part of the story in Guardians of the Spell, and as the seat of the royal court, the castle is central to the all-important Congress meetings called by the Queen Regent. As political intrigue kickstarts a tense dance of monarchy versus egalitarianism, Brave and his friends are caught in the middle.
While much of the action happens within the confines of the courtyard and castle walls, make a special note of the lack of defences - a key failing to be rectified as multiple threats draw closer. Notice the Falconite fighting area and archery meadow mentioned in book 2, An Element of Magic. Trace the flow of the Wordhaven river, which features as an important geographical feature during a pivotal scene in book 3. The castle and the archway face the deeply forested south, while the little mentioned village services the castle and provides workers for the practicalities of a working court. Imposing Fort Crag (former home of Mallevia Newcomer) lies due west and True's home town, Harborsfort, is a few days ride to the east.
In Guardians of the Spell, True's tale is confined to a small, unmapped area as she remains within the wilds of the Other Side, trusting the strangers who saved her life but hate her kind. See the Impenetrables mountain range in the map below to get a rough idea of where she might be hiding.
A new map for Book 2: An Element of Magic - here's the Instagram post!
Follow the journey! Keeping much of the west in a nebulous mist and swirling maelstrom of sandstorms, map 2 of epic YA fantasy An Element of Magic reveals a few tasty details. Like 'The Beak', a two tipped massive mountain that marks the true beginnning of The Impenetrables mountain range, the largest mining village in the Minington region - West Lofty - and looking further West, a rather mysterious grand canyon. Can you spot a volcano? /\ Book 2 features both the original 'overall' map of Arvalonia's known regions and this new extension.
The sensational map for Book 1: The Dangers of Being Brave & True
Creating a believable young adult fantasy series map is so important, especially when you story involves a quest that navigates a desert, a river and a rainforest, in the hope of finding lost family.
A huge continent, Arvalonia is a vast, untouched natural wonder and only partly mapped. Cartographer Master Treadbetter created this gorgeous map an age ago, in the hope that he'd prevent a few people getting lost. As you can see, only the east is clearly recorded. This is because the largely unexplored areas in the west - known as The Other Side - can't be reached due to massive mountain ranges, unfavourable weather events and an infuriatingly large array of people-consuming creatures.
In The Dangers of Being Brave & True, True is forced to venture from the mage academy in the humid northern rainforest near Mt Resolution, to journey through the arid wastelands of the Inner Heat, True's journey is epic, especially when you consider how far she and her fellow students trek on foot.
Brave lands in the Inner Heat and hikes through the desert, joining True for a seriously long river expedition down the Sugarcane. Within the story, he also visits Fort Crag and Kingfort in the south and True returns to her home town of Harboursfort.
Although Far Forreston, Minington and the Graingrower regions aren't visited, they're mentioned along the way and will play a greater part in books 2, 3 and 4 of the young adult fantasy book series The Broken Spell.
