The Journals of Lüe

The Journals of Lüe are the published versions of Lüe the Mapmaker’s private diaries, which she began writing at age 9. This twelve-volume text is a seminal Edenian document, still taught to grade schoolers throughout Oz—even hundreds of years later.

The centerpiece of the collection is a hand-drawn, fold-out map contained in Volume 5, the basis for the map of this post-apocalyptic paradise that is still used to this day.

Original Purpose

Lüe began the journal as a letter to her future self, spending the opening pages enumerating a list of the things she wanted to be and to do “when she grew up.” And in the early years, the document’s purpose remained informal—an adolescent girl’s musings on growing up, and on the limits placed on her by Edenian society’s expectations for children, sapient females, and halflings.

Later, both in college and over the course of her career, Lüe began to see the document as something that might eventually be read by others. She considered, for a time, excising the earlier passages. And yet, for whatever reason, she did not. Scholars debate that matter to this day, with most believing she wanted to use the notes on her early development as a way of encouraging a passion for science, cartography, and exploration in young women.

Publication Background & History

Following Lüe’s death at the hands of the vile necromancer Stagnekad, a Gillikin publishing concern contacted the government of Winkie Country to propose the immediate publication of Lüe’s heretofore unpublished manuscript. They had no idea just how much material Lüe had compiled, but they were overjoyed at the financial potential.

And the importance to the culture of getting this book out there, of course.

The twelve volumes were released monthly over the following year, and have not been out of print since. The originals are stored in the vaults of the Edenian Athenæum.