Willowsby

Willowsby is a town in the world of Gloriana lying in a small valley in the Bavaria region of Germany and Tyrol. It lies in the valley east of Spielburg Valley across the Wolf's Bane Peaks and Wolf's Bane Mountains, and to the south of Jotunheim. It lies roughly between Spielburg and Mordavia which lies farther east.

Background

It is the hometown of Devon Aidendale (the Hero), and his family, the Aidendales. Willowsby is a bustling town, its streets filled with men going to work, women heading to market and children getting into trouble. Adventurers study at the Willowsby Adventurers' Guild Hall, a grand building. Foothills surround the town. The town is covered in snow during the winter. During early spring there is a spattering of snowy patches which lays on the ground still. Budding trees promises the end of winter. The town of Spielburg stood in a valley on the other side of the mountains from the town. Spielburg was about fourteen days journey from Willowsby on foot (in good weather). A road passed through the narrow Spielburg Pass through the mountains.

In Willowsby magic is considered wicked. Although magic is neither good nor evil, the townsfolk are not easily convinced otherwise. Magic users practice their runic lessons in private, sharing them with no one. The Town Guildmaster apparently teaches secret lessons in magic in the town's Adventurer's School.

There is a jail to toss thieves in.

In Willowsby, like other cities near Spielburg, the local cuisine includes knockwurst and sauerkraut. It is a traditional food of Devon's homeland, although Devon never really cared for it much. Still it is something to remind him of his home. Quite a bit of it gets imported from Spielburg into other lands.

It is a fancy Germanic european city with the ruins nearby. The city is filled with germanic medieval towers, and is surrounded by several walls, and a stone-covered bridge crosses a river to the main city beyond it. Devon apparently climbed the walls as a child.

A desert lies to the east of the mountains of Spielburg. Salt is mined there. Thus salt may be one of Willowsby's main commodities.

Culture

They have German culture and foods. Many enjoy foods like sauerkraut and knockwurst.

They celebrate holidays such as All-Fool's Day, and Christmas.

People of Willowsby are taught English/Common, German and Mordavian.

Geography

• The Adventurer's Guild Hall in Spielburg is much like the one in Willowsby. It is run by the Town Guildmaster It's much fancier though. It has portraits of the town's illustrious adventurers, and fancy tapestries on the walls. The main hall had wood floors, and a few stuffed chairs. Stuffed monsters and a moose head adorned the walls on dark paneled walls. Another marble pedestal lay the Book of Adventurers, which had the histories of the town's heroes past and present.
• Aidendales next door neighbor is a woman who has a wine celler under her house. She keeps the door to the celler locked.
• Willowsby lies about 14 days on foot from Spielburg in good weather, 16 in rainy weather. During the winter it can take up to a month. It took a Devon Aidendale a month to travel to Spielburg Valley as he got caught in a late winter storms.
• Willowsby is surrounded by foothills and deciduous trees (that blossom during the spring). It is a verdant with lush greenery and vines, and is an uncommon fertile spot in a rather inhospitable valley. The foothills lead up into the eastern side of the Wolf's Bane Mountains leading into Spielburg Pass.
• A dry and barren region called simply 'the desert' lies beyond the foothills, an oasis or two its only source of water. The desert is location of a salt mine, which are collected into barrels and delivered Spielburg and other places. This maybe is Willowsby main trade item.
• The weather is generally nice in Willowsby, with a blue sky. The blue sky often brings homesickness to the hero. Note: this appears to be true based on descriptions given in the story

Other Possible Locations

• The hero may have learned FACS training from his old Town Guildmaster. During one of the lesson's he was taught Lawyer's were the most dangerous threats to a hero. Highly unlikely, as the story says that they had only visited the Guild Hall one time, and that was shortly before they left for Spielburg.
• The village has a local Healer. The hero has annual appointments, sometimes he misses them. Possibly true, but its not mentioned in the book.
• There is apparently a pawnshop there run by a gnome. Devon saw a strange chair at the gnome's pawnshop. That same shop sold strange things like musical jokes and oddly colored metal-plated feathers. "Rap Puns Sale! Rap Puns Sale! Lead down, hue rare!" Note: Nothing about this is necessarily contradicted with what we know from the Devon's background.
• Willowsby may have had it's own Adventurer's School, classes were taught by the Town Guildmaster. They teach FACS courses and other adventurer classes including Griffon 101, Rune Lore 101, and Arcania 101.However, this seems to be contradictory of the fact that four Devon's had not visited their Adventurer's Guild except only once, and that was shortly before they left for Spielburg, after reading a wanted notice there.
• Willowsby may have its own Thieves' Guild as well. However, while the game states that the Hero's Hometown had a Thieves' Guild (and one which the narrator claims the Hero remembers). This might not actually be true of Willowsby, and the Devon universes. As Thief Devon's account never mentions any Thief Guild, in fact he tried to stay out of trouble, and avoid being thrown in the local jail by the sheriff. He did all his practice out of sight, and returned everything after he did his practice. He had no intention to become an actual thief (and did not see himself as a thief). He escapes the town before he could ever find a Thieves' Guild there (doesn't actually become a true thief until he makes it to Spielburg). In fact it's implied he saw his first Thieves' Guild in Spielburg (by then it was too late for him he could no longer back out of his new career).
• Willowsby may have had a Lawyer's Guild. Maybe, maybe not it's not brought up in the book (besides details about it are related to the Adventurer's School, which doesn't fit what we know of the Devon's backstories in the book).

Known citizens

• Devon Aidendale
• The Aidendales (his parents and sister)
• Helen (his aunt)
• Hero's grandmother and great aunt.
• Hero's old friend.
• Hero's accountant
• Town Guildmaster
• Healer
• Neighbor
• Gnome (pawn shop owner)
• Lawyers
• Dentist

See also

• Hometown
• Oakhurst
• Coarsegold
• Lucasville
• Alpendorf

Behind the scenes

• The Quest for Glory series, including Willowsby was made canon when published by the former Sierra Online (currently owned by Activision). The Coles did not include a name in the games, to allow players to create their own backstories for the character and his homeland. However while it maybe be canon, it is only one potential canon. Like the name of the Hero, the hometown can be anything the player desires, or be located anywhere.
• The QFG1 Technical Manual described the backstory as such:

"You will begin Quest for Glory as a recent graduate of the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School for heroes. A poster in your local Adventurer's Guild reads: Wanted hero No Experience Necessary. Visit Beautiful Spielburg. Fight Monsters. Defeat Brigands. Reward and Title of Hero of Spielburg' to the successful applicant.

It sounded good, especially the "no experience necessary" part. Now, after a month's journey over tortuous terrain, narrowly evading death at every turn, you aren't enthusiastic. But, here you are at the town gates, and its too late to turn back. You will defeat the monsters and brigands that plague Spielburg or die trying. (The latter seems more likely at this point!)

• QFG1 only offers vague details about Hero's homeland before Spielburg. That his homeland was one month away from Spielburg on foot as per the Technical Manual, and that its to the 'East' "Hero from the East". QFG2 suggests his homeland has German foods.
• There is a location "Willoughby" in the World of Narnia
• There are a few Willoughbys in England (but that lies west of Bavaria)
• In German language, 'Weide' (willow) or 'Weiden' (willows) from 'Weidenbaum' (willow tree) can be associated with Willow[3]. There was a town known as Weiden in Bavaria in the year 1241 into the 1800's. It is now known as Weiden in der Oberpfalz ('...in the Upper Palatinate'), however note that Weiden can also translate as "pastures". Weiden is a city the eastern edge of Bavaria near the Czech Republic. Based on play on words sometimes used for lands associated with real earth locations in Quest for Glory, Willowsby could work as pun/adaptation of the name of the city of Weiden into English. Willowsby, however, may more properly be translated as 'by the willows', or 'willows by' ("...willows by the water courses.", Isa 44:4). If Willowsby is the anglicized name for a Bavarian town, it would explain why 'knockwurst and sauerkraut' were cuisine from the Hero's homeland, as stated in QFG2.
• A more direct translation from Willowsby to German would be Weidenvon.
• Willowsby in proper English is Willoughby, and a number of towns and villages are named that in the UK, United States and elsewhere.
• Though not specifically mentioned, the budding trees outside the town of Willowsby, could themselves be Willows,thus explaining the name of the town.
• The Hero's home city can be seen in the intro of the VGA version where you select the playable character. Similar medieval style artwork showing a similar looking city appears in the QFG1VGA technical manual on the page next to the backstory of hero's journey from his hometown to Spielburg.
• Salt is mined near the Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden, at the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine.
• There is no specific desert in the Alps, but there maybe a type of climate known as "alpine desert", a region high in the mountains that receives little water. This would actually be conductive to salt formation. However, there is no traditional desert in Bavaria/Germany, and this maybe a reason why the line about the salt mining is left out of QFG1VGA.
• Willowsby's location would place it roughly still within Bavarian Alps or even into Austria. The salt mines of Austria are found near "Salzburg". However, like Germany there are no 'deserts' in Austria.
• There may actually be a high Alpine high deserts in the Alps of the Tyrol/Salzburg Alps region, at least as geologists would classify it as stony and low water precipitation, as one example the Grünsee, Switzerland (west of Austria) shows.

Willowsby (unofficial)

willowsby (unofficial)