An audiobook listener of The Divided Region who shall not be named (not sure he wants his name broadcast to the Legion) recently wrote in with two interesting questions:
Great story! I enjoyed listening to it and the narration was fantastic.
2 Questions:
1) What real world language does Valenian most sound like?
2) If this book were a movie, who would you cast as the main characters?
I'll forgive the misspelling of “Vlencian” as he is consuming the story by ear.
To answer them:
1. Vlencians have a southern dialect, though it varies. The poor speak more in cockney ("I 'aven't got two pennies to rub together, guv’na.") while the nobles speak with a more, let’s say, astute tongue (think the Lannisters of King's Landing).
I noticed he did not ask the question about Elronians (always an afterthought, those poor northerners), but that isn’t going to stop me from answering it anyway. 😈
Elronians speak in a northern English accent. YouTube “a thick Geordie North England accent,” and that is how many speak beyond the Forbidden Forest.
At least in my head they do.
As for the chap’s second question…
I'm going to take full advantage of the fact that he never gave me any guardrails, so using my powers of immortality, I shall bend time to my will and summon actors/actresses of both the past and present.
Shall we?
With no further ado, here is my dream cast for The Divided Region:
Darius – Russell Crowe in his prime (think: Maximus from Gladiator).
Alere – David Wenham (Faramir from LOTR)
Jangar – Tormund Giantsbane (the red-headed wildling from GoT)
Dillian – Joaquin Phoenix in his prime (Gladiator)
Robick – The late Richard Harris, who played Marcus Aurelius from — you guessed it — Gladiator (spotting the theme yet?)
Vresha – Carrie-Anne Moss in her prime (think: Trinity from Matrix)
Alysia – Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman (quite the mouthful, I know), who plays Chani from Dune.
Jefor – Mark Addy, who played Robert Baratheon from GoT. Only he’d need to drop a few pounds and get that beard trimmed.
Alastar – Charles Dance, who played Tywin Lannister in GoT
Lyara – Gwendoline Christie, who played Brienne of Tarth in GoT, only she would have longer, dark hair.
Anyway, that's just to name some of the main ones. There's still Bjolan, Jux, the Seer, Helmund, Gauwalt, Philyp, Quintell, Elder Rigma, Alderan, Balthazar, and a slew of other characters.
Perhaps they warrant a future email. 🤷
In any case, you now 1) know a little more about the dialects that inhabit the region of Estos, and 2) some of the actors and actresses I would pair them with if I could reverse wrinkles and Russell’s beer belly, which I imagine would prove more difficult than bringing Richard Harris back from the grave.
(Sorry, Russ.)
If you're yet to meet the cast of The Divided Region, you can do so by tapping this link:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/TDR-Bundle
You will find an ebook and audiobook version of the Starter Bundle.
But if you're a little dubious about buying directly in the back alley of my Storehouse for whatever nonsensical reason, then you can grab the ebook on your preferred retailer here:
https://books2read.com/dividedregionexiled
DJJW