The Novarian series is a sequence of fantasy stories by L. Sprague de Camp, published between 1968 and 1989. The series contains some of de Camp's most innovative works of fantasy, featuring explorations of various political systems, an inversion of the "rags to royalty" pattern characteristic of much heroic fantasy, a satiric look at the foibles of humanity through the eyes of a demon, and a consistently wry and ironic take on conventions of the genre that plays out by taking them to their logical (or illogical) conclusions. Another singular feature of the series is its frequent use of folk tales integrated into the plot to painlessly convey something of the background and history of the invented world. This device obviates the need for lengthy appendices, as in The Lord of the Rings.
The setting
The world Novaria is portrayed as a region of a parallel world to Earth, a plane of existence related to ours in that ours constitutes its afterlife. This unique concept makes it a sort of reverse-Bangsian fantasy, or rather makes our world its Bangsian fantasy. Mankind shares this world with other intelligent beings, like the serpent people of Beraoti, the beast-men of Komilakh, the silvans of the mountain forests, and the mermen and mermaids in the sea. The fauna is largely that of Earth's Ice Age, while the vegetation is similar to that of present-day Earth.
In Novaria's world, the supernatural element is dominant. Magic works, though in a strictly logical fashion that often leaves its practitioners dissatisfied. Gods are real and strongly influence mortal affairs, communicating with their worshipers through dreams. Demons can, and often are, summoned from other planes of existence, which Novarians number in relation to their own (which to them is the Prime Plane).
The western continents The two western continents where most of the series' events take place span the world's climatic zones from the arctic to the tropics. They are bounded by the Western Ocean to the west and the Eastern Ocean to the east.
The northernmost of these continents is largely desolate, consisting primarily of the steppe country of Shven, inhabited by nomads patterned after the Mongols, with the pirate isles of Algarth off its western coast and the land of Hroth in the north. It's joined to the southern continent at the southwest end by the broad isthmus of Novaria, but otherwise separated from it by the Mediterranean-like inland seas known as the Inner Sea and the Sea of Sikhon.
The more civilized southern continent contains, from west to east, the empire of Penembei, the desert of Fedirun, home to Beduin-like nomads, the tropical realm of Mulvan, and the jungles of Komilakh, inhabited by beast men. Other regions, notably Beraoti, lie further south of here. The principal powers are Penembei and Mulvan. Penembei is modeled after Sumerian Mesopotamia, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Byzantine Empire; authority there is shared between a King and a High Priestess, with considerable influence also exercised by two mutually antagonistic sporting/political factions in the capital of Iraz, similar to those that tore Byzantium apart in the Nika riots. Mulvan is a caste-bound empire combining features of India, China, and Persia. In Novaria, there are small bands of wandering Mulvanians, who act as entertainers and fortune-tellers and who are plainly modeled on the Roma.
More distant lands East of the western continents across the Eastern Ocean are the archipelagos known as the Peppercorns, Salimor, and Gwoling. The Salimor islands comprise a monarchy mingling elements of Japan and the Philippines - the ruling Sophi having very imperfect control over outlying islands, some of them inhabited by head-hunters or pirates. Beyond the islands is an eastern continent which contains the great empire of Kuromon, based on China and Japan, and another nomad-inhabited steppe belt. West of the western continents across the Western Ocean is the country of the cannibal Paaluan sea raiders, whose appearance resembles that of Australian Aborigines. Also, the Paaluan cavalry ride Kangaroos when in battle. Since the Paaluans are stated (in The Honorable Barbarian) to be a threat in the Eastern Ocean, there is evidently a navigable sea passage around either the main Novarian continent or the eastern continent, or both. The distant land of Yelizova, located far to the south of the Mulvanian jungles and from which daring Zolon mariners brought the giant squirrel used by Rhithos the Smith, might be located along that route. In the same general region seems to be Macrobia, the ĺand from which the Salimorese wizard Klung obtained qahwa, a drink which keeps sleepiness at bay - an exotic drink in Salimor and completely unknown in Novaria.
Novaria Novaria itself, as noted above, is a broad isthmus joining the two continental masses to the north and south. (De Camp oddly yet consistently refers to it as a peninsula, though it is plainly an isthmus in both his maps and descriptions.) Novaria is separated from the northern continent by the high Ellorna Mountains and from the southern by the great Logram Mountains. On its other sides it drains into the Western Ocean and the Inner Sea, which communicates with the Eastern Ocean via the smaller Sea of Sikhon.
In ancient times, Novaria was divided into three kingdoms. This era was ended by an invasion by nomads of Shven, precipitating a Dark Age from which the present twelve city-states gradually coalesced. Among the earliest to emerge were Kortoli, Othomae, and Aussar. Finjanius, a reforming king of Kortoli, reigned just after the end of the Dark Age. The city-states were united only once in their history, by the conqueror Ardyman the Terrible of Govannion. Ardyman's chief legacy was Ir, the capital he built for his empire, a mostly subterranean city delved and carved out of living rock. But, after his death the realm fell apart and the cities regained their independence, with Ir becoming one more among them. In Kortoli, after it threw off Ardyman's yoke, ruled the legendary line of kings which included Fusas, Fusor, Forbonian, Forimar the Esthete, Fusonio, Filoman the Well-Meaning, and Fusinian the Fox.
Culturally, present-day Novaria bears resemblances to the eras of both Classical Greece and late Medieval Europe (Italy in particular), especially in conveying the vivid life of a cluster of city states sharing a common language and culture, though widely different in political regime and often at war with each other.
There are various references to other times and places: In the Novarian city states is a strong movement towards the abolition of slavery, which was common in Classical Greece but not Renaissance Italy; there is a reference to Doctor Truentious, the Vindium revolutionary, taking the tile "First Consul" which was historically Napoleon Bonaparte's title before he became Emperor; the reference in Metouro's history to a social reformer being assassinated by oligarchs and his cause taken up by his more radical brother recalls the Gracchi Brothers in the Roman Republic; the story of King Fusinian of Kortoli supposedly halting the tide refers to the well-known story of King Canute of England; references to "a really effective contraceptive spell" loosening public morals in Novaria clearly reflect the 20th Century contraceptive pill.
The twelve city-states into which Novaria is split are ruled under a wide variety of competing governmental systems, some of them unique. Several of these are visited and their contemporary situations shown during the progress of the stories; the general history of the region is recounted from a Kortolian perspective by Jorian, the series's main protagonist, in a number of folktales he relates in the course of his adventures. The Twelve Cities and their governments (as far as these were revealed) are as follows:
Aussar - a despotate of the medieval Byzantine type Boaktis - a tyranny of the classical Greek type Govannion - a shogunate ruled by a "hereditary usurper" Ir"Ir" (עיר) is Hebrew for "city." - a republic ruled by a syndicate of plutocrats Kortoli - a hereditary monarchy with no nobles but the royal family Metouro - a republic ruled by a secret society
Othomae - a grand duchy ruled by a civilian grand duke and a military "grand bastard" Solymbria - an archonate, with officials selected by random drawing Tarxia - a theocracy dedicated to a toad god deemed a minor deity in the rest of Novaria Vindium - a republic of the classical Roman type Xylar - a monarchy with kings chosen by lot and beheaded every five years Zolon - an island thalassocracy ruled by a High Admiral.
Other Planes The Other Planes of Existence, accessible by magic, play an important part in the plot. Calling up the denizens of other planes, and demanding of them to perform various services, is an important part of magic. So, wizards are called upon to study their life, language, society, and habits. The inhabitants of various Planes are lumped together under the general and rather pejorative term "demons" - though there are very considerable differences between them, and at least some of them are quite civilized and sophisticated on their own terms. The Planes are numbered according to their order away from the Prime Plane - which is a term used by human wizards for their own plane. As noted by Zdim in the first paragraph of The Fallible Fiend, there is nothing objective about this designation, any Plane could term itself "Prime" and number the others accordingly. Some of the Planes get detailed descriptions, in particular, Zdim's Twelfth Plane - while others get only a brief mention.
Our World ("First Plane" or "The Afterworld"). Our world is located directly "above" the Prime Plane, which would make it "The First Plane" - but this term is not used. Rather, it is called "The Afterworld", since the souls of deceased Prime Planers supposedly go to it for their next incarnation.Princess Yargali: "To what is the upper end of this rope fixed?". "Jorian: "it is affixed to the afterworld" - The Goblin Tower, Ch. VI. That is why many people in our world often ask the advice of occultists and fortune tellers, even though they are charlatans with no real power - because we retain some vestiges of memory of an earlier incarnation in a world where such people had real, manifest power. "The Afterworld" is located some thirty of forty feet "above" the Prime Plane, though completely invisible and inaccessible except by the use of magic. There is a clear one-to-one correspondence between any point in the Prime Plane and the one "above" it in our world. Thus, walking a certain distance in a certain direction in our world would bring one to directly "above" a spot at the same distance and direction in the Prime Plane. Clearly, from the description in the beginning of The Goblin Tower, Novaria seems to be directly "under" some part of the United States. It seems logical (though never explicitly stated) that the other Planes are similarly laid out one "above" the other, so that in principle using a magic rope one could get into more faraway ones. In practice, however, wizards in general have no wish to themselves enter into any other Plane (which might be very dangerous) but rather to bring their denizens into the Prime Plane.