A Tale of Fortuna: Some Background
If you enjoyed the art and story here, then you can thank Helvetica for that, because this was her idea. Late 2008, she approached me with the idea of us collaborating for a Moonridge project, based on the concept of a medieval AU where Jim and Blair were knights, and inspired in part by the Ray Bradbury story, The Dragon.
As it happens, I've read a bit of Ray Bradbury in my time, and I like writing Alternate Universe stories. Once I got over my surprise, I was flattered and definitely interested. The gorgeous picture that Helvetica sent me certainly helped as well. She titled it The Monk, and it was part of the inspiration to make Blair a priest within his knightly order.
I borrowed my 'beast' from Bradbury. Another influence is Guy Gavriel Kay's A Song for Arbonne, in terms of the medieval polytheism, although Fortuna is a mishmash of English culture in a vaguely Swiss geography, rather than the France that's Kay's milieu. Andbeg is approximately Germanic, Thargo comes from Carthage, and the fact that once upon a time the Sahara was grassland rather than desert. And the name Fortuna and elements of the knightly culture are meant to imply a vaguely Roman past influence. My usual melange, in other words.
Blair's t-shirt is a TS fandom reference/in-joke - Garett Maggart's father Brandon was in the first season of Sesame Street. The carpa trees are in fact macrocarpa trees, a form of conifer native to California but also a major part of the New Zealand rural landscape, and my little piece of home in my fantasy world. If Tolkien could have tobacco and potatoes in the Shire...
I'm delighted by how this collaboration with Helvetica has worked out, to be honest. She's done some beautiful work and was very easy and charming to deal with. I hope that people visiting Fortuna enjoy themselves.
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