Inspiration: Durgon V
I got the idea for one of my favorite locations in Day of the Devourer from a book I had when I was a kid. It was called The Great Superman Book. It was an encyclopedia of everything that had happened in Superman comics since his very first appearance in Action Comics in 1938. I inherited this book, which was published in the 70’s, from an uncle who apparently loved Superman just as much as Jerry Seinfeld does.
One of my favorite spreads from that book was a map of the planet Krypton. I love maps. I remember an inset in the map that said “Bokos—The Isle of Thieves.” Apparently, crime was legalized on Bokos, and stealing was a decent way to make a living.
Bokos, the Isle of Thieves, in Superman comics.
This idea intrigued me. What if there was no government and criminals were completely in charge of where you live? What would life be like? It’s an interesting setting for a story. A lot could go wrong in a place like that.
When I needed to send my protagonist, Rej, somewhere to get information, I wanted it to be an interesting place. I thought The Isle of Thieves would be a great place to get in trouble, so I invented a whole planet with the same kind of anarchist society: Durgon V.
The largest city on Durgon V is Draudeega. It’s a massive metropolis that covers the land from the local hillsides and spills into the ocean.
The massive, grey city encrusted the sides of several mountains in a range and then spilled over a valley and a cluster of tall hills. From there it ran downward to a bay of dark water where it had grown over a series of tall, rocky islands before it found its end in several patches of ramshackle villages floating on a disorganized cluster of rusty, yellow pontoons. Much of the city looked ancient, dirty, and shoddily built, but bulkier, more modern structures of matte alloys and stained concrete seemed to be climbing on top of the older buildings and feeding on them.
I thought about what a planet run by crime syndicates would be like and decided there would be no building codes. So, I thought about places like that on Earth and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong came to mind.
A favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Street view in a favela
Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong
Kowloon from the air
Draudeega isn’t just a city of shoddy skyscrapers, it’s also a place with a historic past, ancient parts of the city, and meandering alleys. When I thought about the ground level of Draudeega, I thought of my trip to Venice ages ago. It would be a maze of dark, narrow alleys with some crowded bazaars like in Marakesh or Cairo.
Alley in Venice, Italy
Alley in Rio de Janeiro
Bazaar, Cairo, Egypt
This setting had so much potential I had my protagonist, Rej, return to it three times at different points in the story.
