Christian Gottreich Alexander Graf Falke von Falkenhorst was born on 25 April 1833 at the Hohenfalkenhorst castle in Ruritania. The son of Konrad August Graf Falke von Falkenhorst (1791 - 1866) and Alexandra Maria Gräfin Falke von Falkenhorst, née Alexandra Maria Freiin Freyser von Lohenberg (1808 - 1903). Falkenhorst entered the Kadettenschule (cadet school) at Hallstätte in 1843, where he undertook his introductory military training and education prior…

Those that know me well know that I was taken at an early age by a love of languages inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien. I will never claim to be his equal in philology, but I do love playing around with words and invented languages. Of course such things need worlds to go with them or they are just dead phonemes lying around in large clumps, so I play with sub-creation of fictional worlds and civilizations as well. All of this means nothing in particular, except that I really do need a life. Who…

I find myself wishing I had something interesting to post, other than travelogues of lovely Ruritania, but alas such is not the case. The Muses have abandoned me and I sit alone in my study pondering adventures to Mars and other equally bizarre matters. I have never been a talented writer, so any hope of turning this mass of background material into something more than random scribblings seems a forlorn hope. Oh Ghost of Tolkien, rescue me!

“I sit beside the fire and think

Of all that I have seen

Of meadow flowers and butterflies

In summers that have been…

Zähringen (gefürstete Grafschaft Falkenhorst):



    The city of Falkenhorst is the seat of the Grafen von Falkenhorst (Counts of Falkenhorst) who rule the region known as Zähringen from their castle the Burg Falkenhorst (Falkenhorst Castle), also known as the Burg Hohenfalkenhorst (High Falkenhorst Castle) from the name of the mountain on which it is situated. The oldest portions of the castle date from the 12th century. Underneath the castle is an extensive complex of ice caverns…

I am sharing a few thoughts from the dark depths of my mind. The origin of Ruritania is to be found in a series of novels written by Anthony Hope in the 1890s. They are, of course, set in a fictional country located in the heart of Europe and were never meant to be expanded into any sort of basis for the strange, obsessive imaginations of others. Naturally, I accepted the challenge because I am strange and obsessive. What emerged was intended to be background material for use…

Burg Hohenfalkenhorst

Ruritanien

December 1st, 1882



My dear Dr. Maßenbach,



I was quite fascinated by your letter and the enclosures and am sure they will be of great use in my preparations to visit Mars. Her Majesty has expressed a great interest in my visiting the Tossian Academy and in particular, seeing Mme. Kovalevskaya. She hopes that anything I discover there might be of significant help to Prof. Graf Zerneck’s various…