Tall Tales From Across The Land

Compilation of stories taking place within the fantastical world of Elios.

'Elios' is the fantasy setting I created a decade ago, inspired by the works of J.R.R Tolkien and Robert E. Howard, to serve as the setting for original fantasy projects. It came about during my later years of high school when I had to submit a writing assignment for state testing; I did not like the prompts given and had to conjure 500 words about something in order to meet the passing requirements. The final option was a blank prompt, giving me 500 words to write about whatever I wanted. A risky choice no doubt, but this was in 2013 right after the second Hobbit film came out and I was reading through several fantasy novels at the time. Notably the Hobbit for the 3rd time and original Conan the Cimmerian stories. Naturally, inspiration struck and I wrote the entire ending of said universe within that assignment. I received a passing grade - average and nothing special mind you - but from that I worked my way backwards and began to partake in world building for this setting; drawing maps and fleshing out the nuances, writing stories and transcripts that one day will all hopefully make sense and be published.

For now, however, I will slowly drip content from this series as I deem appropriate until I can put together a full novel. Projects, projects, projects.

- Ryan Payne