Dray Prescot Series - Setting

Setting

The series is set on the fictional world of Kregen, a planet of the Antares star system in the constellation of Scorpio. Antares is envisioned as a double star system consisting of a large red giant (Antares A) and a smaller green star (Antares B). Antares B is in reality blue, though often described as green, probably owing to a contrast effect. Presumably some similar effect, or perhaps some quality of Kregen’s atmosphere, makes it appear green from the planet’s surface. Kregen has a multiple moon system.

Bulmer's choice of the setting for the series is a subtle tribute to the Martian series of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the prototypical Sword and Planet romance. The star Antares, similar in brightness and hue to the planet Mars in the night sky, was given its name (ant(i)-Ares, meaning "opposite Mars" or "equal to Mars") by early astronomers to compare it to and help distinguish it from the planet. The premise is furthered in that while on Earth, Prescot meets an unnamed "gentleman from Virginia" who is implied to be John Carter, the protagonist of Burroughs' Martian series.

Physically, Kregen is similar to Earth, being comfortably habitable by human beings. It has seven major continents and nine continental islands similar in size to Australia, in addition to innumerable smaller islands. The scene of all the action is Paz, a grouping of four major continents and four continental islands in one hemisphere. The remaining land masses, in the opposite hemisphere, are little known.

Most of the land masses forming Paz are separated by narrow seas, indicating that in geologically recent times it was a supercontinent, since broken apart by tectonic forces. The continents of Paz are fairly compact in comparison to those of Earth, without connecting land bridges. They include Turismond to the northwest, Segesthes to the northeast, Loh in the center, and Havilfar to the southeast. Turismond and Havilfar both contain large inland seas similar to the Mediterranean. The continental islands of Paz include Vallia between Turismond and Segesthes, Pandahem between Loh, Segesthes and Havilfar, Unrdrin to the northeast of Turismond, and Mehzia to the east of Segesthes. Of the continents and continental islands of the opposite hemisphere, the only one named in the series is the continent of Gah, mentioned in Transit to Scorpio as a place of distasteful sexual customs (an obvious dig at another sword and planet series, the Gor series of John Norman).

At some time in the past Kregen was apparently seeded with intelligent life-forms from many other worlds by either the Star Lords or the Savanti (for whom see below), or both, presumably by the same mysterious means by which Prescot is brought to the planet. In Paz the dominant species is usually the human race, known locally as Apim. Other intelligent species are known collectively as Diffs. Culturally, the more advanced nations are at a level on par with Earth’s European Renaissance, though firearms are unknown and a few nations manufacture aircraft. The opposite hemisphere is apparently dominated by Shanks, savage fish-headed sea-raiders who periodically ravage the peripheral coastlands of Paz.

Notable polities of Paz include the decadent kingdom of Walfarg in northern Loh, remnant of a formerly vast empire, the island empire of Vallia, the smaller kingdoms of northern Pandahem and southern Segesthes’ Balintol subcontinent, the imperialistic empire of Hamal in the northeast Havilfar and the petty states of the Dawn Lands to its south, the more isolated kingdom of Djanduin in southwestern Havilfar, and the perpetually warring Zairim and Grodnim to the north and south of the Eye of the World, the Mediterranean-like sea bisecting Turismond. More primitive areas marginalized from the civilized belt by geography or topography include the Great Plains of Segesthes, the Hostile Territories of Eastern Turismond, the Wild Lands of north central Havilfar, and the jungles of South Pandahem and central Loh.