Tale Weaver's Dream: Fantasy Blog Stories

Fantasy Blog Stories: Tale Weaver’s Dream

The Queendom of Gryphonia

The scribes once wrote that the world of Gryphonia is “alone among the stars, an oasis of life in a galaxy riddled with dead worlds”. Unlike those dead worlds, Gryphonia is a diverse world that is full of life. Its population includes gryphons, winged horses, hippogryphs, gargoyles, and hophas, to name just a few of the many life forms that inhabit the planet. The hophas (known in some spheres as humans) are relatively new arrivals to the world, having traveled through the dimensions in starships so that they might escape conditions on their own depleted world.

The hophas were extremely fortunate to have landed on such a gem of a planet and so far have restrained themselves from running roughshod over it. The hophas were responsible for naming the planet after a large portion of its population: the gryphons who inhabit the world are everywhere. A curious mixture of leonine and aquiline features, the beings both fascinate and terrify the hophas.

The gryphons, for their part, consider the hophas to be mythological creatures. The avian felines are very parochial, seldom straying very far from their home in the mountains. Since the hophas inhabit the land that the gryphons call “The Flatlands”, the two species have interacted little if at all.

To the gryphons, “Gryphonia” is not a planet but is simply their particular home territory. There are gryphons of the mountains, the valley, the seashore, and the forest. Each group considers their own area to be “Gryphonia”. The gryphonic beings of the mountains will one day forge an alliance with the dreaded, two-footed hopha creatures.