During his lifetime Elery has enjoyed reading fantasy stories such as those written by JRR Tolkien and others. He has also enjoyed playing fantasy role play games with friends for many years. This ...view moreDuring his lifetime Elery has enjoyed reading fantasy stories such as those written by JRR Tolkien and others. He has also enjoyed playing fantasy role play games with friends for many years. This book was inspired by what happened in one of these games, starting with notes he had taken while playing to remind everyone what had happened when they played the week before. But he also made many changes to make the story more interesting, so the book is somewhat different than what happened in the game. His job as an urban and regional planner and his interest in history helps him to understand what the economic circumstances of the fantasy era would have been. He has done enough writing to explain things in ways that are easy to understand.view less