-SF & Fantasy Writer-
R. Jay Carissimo
The World of the Vormonde
Raymond E. Feist once said, "I don't write fantasy; I write historical novels about an imaginary place. " So here’s a history of the world of the Vormonde.
In a city nicknamed the Heart, gangs of Gramalkhans, Elves and Knollocks once waged constant battle for dominance over the streets. The Five Packs of the Vormonde were engaged in one bloody challenge war after another until a new Overlord, Jaytr “the Foeless” Thierria, emerged victorious from the Vormonde Wars and became known as the Boss of Bosses. He brought peace by settling feuds between the other gangs, even the Goblin Gang of Demon’s Circus and the Pirate Brethren.
Jaytr’s most powerful Pack Lords were Balladur the Sly One and Strong-Arm Vinse. Lord Balladur of the Points headed a gambling empire with his partner Ranit Ran-Zadok that stretched from the stuss parlors of Trident Street to the harbor clubs of Lullonae Bay. Strong-Arm Vinse ran vice operations with his underboss, Bargo the Blade, down in the Hook.
As Jaytr Thierria grew older many in the world of thieves pondered which of Jaytr’s “boys” would succeed to his throne?
So that is the history that comes before page one of Thieves of the Vormonde. Whenever I told friends about the world of the Vormonde they would say "It's a mafia story set in a fantasy realm?"
I would say, "That's right. It's a world of gangsters and goblins... wiseguys and wolfmen." Hope you like the idea!
The Concept
A lot of people ask where did I get the idea for Thieves of the Vormonde... well that's kind of a story unto itself.
Long ago I was working on a story called Sins of the Father (yeah it took great imagination to come up with that title) and it was about a young man living in the suburbs of Northern New Jersey who finds out his recently deceased father was secretly a captain in one of New York’s five families and that a rival family was coming after him because his father had whacked their boss years ago. Now the only one who can protect him is the boss of his father’s family. Well it was a good idea (I'd like to think) but it seemed too much like another famous mafia story so I never went further with it.
Years later I did my MA in History on “the role of organized crime in urban culture.” By the way my advisor was brilliant and he taught me so much about urban history and I became what he called a “cops & robber” historian. One day in between classes I had an idea: What if I took everything I learned from my MA and used it to create a fantasy realm.
I started having lots of fun creating ideas about street wars between goblins and elves and how dwarves, who like to tunnel underground, would use sewer lines to dig into a bank vault and so on. Coming up with names of the neighborhoods was fun too; the Points derives its name from New York’s Five Points and the Hook is from a neighborhood my father used to hang out in. The neighborhood bordered the Passaic River and had many dead end side streets so it looked like a barbed fishing hook. Lullonae Bay is named after an infamous pirate and it ryhmes and Trident’s Fork is obviously where Trident Street splits three ways. My favorite is Timber Island named after the best four-legged friend you could ever have!
So now I had my milieu and a history of that world but I needed a story; I dug out my old composition book on Sins of the Father and everything fell into place. The cool part was since it was a fantasy I could use women in the role of consiglieres and that’s how Vormonde visionary queens were created. So here’s a crime story where women can be a lot more than girlfriends, gun molls and estranged wives.
Perhaps my inspiration came from students who claimed fantasy just isn’t “gangsta” enough for them.
