Lands

The Harrow. The very name seems strange but reflects a process which led to the creation of the fictional world with which it is identified. While extending one of his imaginary stories, Philip Mazza penned the phrase "Harrow" on a piece of paper, setting into motion a developmental process which would ultimately help launch his trilogy.

The name "Harrow" is itself a very odd name for a place. For Mazza, the task of crafting a new world - one of his own imagination - which would coincide with our own world required that he build a coherent mythology around that new place. Mazza's new world had to make sense both to its inhabitants and to his readers.

To Mazza, a word is not simply a word. The word had to carry with it a history which revealed to someone like him - the path that word had followed to its present form. So, Mazza's new world had to have a reasonable meaning. That is, he realized he couldn't simply grab the name out of thin air and give it to his world. It had to be the name for his world for a reason. The meaning of the word itself - to break or tear, as with a harrow; to wound; to lacerate; to torment or distress - provided that reason.