Greetings Earthlings, here is the first post in a series of posts dedicated to world-building the imaginary land where all of my paintings take place. All of the content about my imaginary world is either scribbled in my sketchbooks or typed out in scattered computer files, so this series of blog posts is an attempt to formalize the material. Eventually, I plan to compile all the posts into a single Wiki page on my website called “Stories”. In addition to the Southwestern Bellows World Compendium, it will also include the narratives from my past series of paintings and juicy details about recurring characters and….aliens.
Introduction:
Typical citizens of the Southwestern Bellows
All of my paintings are fictional stories set in a magickal land called the Southwestern Bellows. The Southwestern Bellows is a human breakaway civilization existing on a separate planet, terraformed like the Earth to support human life. In the mid-1850s pioneers traveling West to follow the gold rush were abducted and transported to this new planet by an enigmatic race of aliens called the Zeta Reticulans to further the goals of their creepy human-extraterrestrial hybridization program. Note: the Zeta Reticulans are also known to harvest dreams, store human nightmares inside crystals, and other fun stuff like that….but more on them later.
Over the years, generations of people placed on this new planet established communities, towns, and even cities. Although the descendants of the original abductees occasionally encounter the Zeta Reticulans, the citizens of the Southwestern Bellows--citizens of a human breakaway civilization tapped in a bizarre likeness of the Old American West--carry on, business as usual. Most people live their entire lives without ever experiencing one of the gray-skinned entities. For the most part, these unknowable beings remain a spooky mystery.
Here is the rough map from my sketchbook. I am planning on re-drawing this one day. Fun!
The geography of the Southwestern Bellows is mostly undiscovered. No one is certain what lies beyond the map, but there is a map…made out of gold and it was gifted to one of the first human inhabitants by an entirely different race of extraterrestrial….but more on that later…. The mapped region of the Southwestern Bellows is roughly the size of a European country and its citizens have never traveled beyond its borders.
Despite being a country without neighbors, the Southwestern Bellows has its fair share of dangers from within and without; reptilian monsters, hybrids, bandits, demons, cultists, and creatures so terrifying they shall not be named.
The Southwestern Bellows is a dangerous place, but it is also a magical place. Some would suggest that magick is stronger in the Southwestern Bellows than it is on Earth. Many children display powerful psychic gifts early on, and the land is home to many hereditary witch families, natural-born wizards, and all manner of magickal creatures, from fairies and gnomes to Sasquatch and talking turtles.
Next up: A History of the Southwestern Bellows in three parts. (I sure do love history….especially when it is imaginary!)