The Adventures of Elizabeth Bismuth

The unbelievable Travels of the Adventuress Extraordinaire

Elizabeth Bismuth. The name that has graced a thousand aspiring adventurer's minds. The Ur Adventurer herself, who climbed the Begoria Mountain Range with a Wyrld Walker on her back, found the lost Malted Seagull, and even defeated the grand Zar of the Lilipits in single-handed combat. Her exploits are legendary.
And it's all thanks to this little series of books.

Purpose

The Adventures of Elizabeth Bismuth is a series of Adventure novels written by famed journalist Julius Johnstone. They proport to be a 'true and factual' record of the famed Adventurer's exploits, but even the tamest of the claims within are hard to verify. Nevertheless, they are quite popular as bedtime stories and inspiration for adventures of one's own.

Document Structure

Publication Status

The Adventures of Elizabeth Bismuth makes up a series of over twenty five novels, published over nearly fourty years. They have been printed and re-printed several times, and any explorer worth their salt has a collection on the shelves at home. They have become both the Publisher and Julius Johnstone's greatest work, and have ensured that Julius could retire comfortably even after the Night of Falling Crowns saw an end to the adventures of Elizabeth Bismuth.

Historical Details

History

The Adventures of Elizabeth Bismuth did not start as a series of adventure novels. Far from it; they were the notes of Intrepid Reporter Julius Johnstone as he followed the famed Adventurer throughout the Mortal Lands. But when he sent his stories back to his editor to be published in Poartlind's newspaper, the editor claimed they were too 'fantastical' to ever be taken as serious fact. This despite the fact that every story Julius wrote was, beyond imagination, true.
Dismayed yet unwilling to let his hard work go to waste, Julius took the editor's disdainful observation that the stories would 'make a decent half-penny novel' and instead reached out to a publisher. While the publisher first thought that the stories were a bit beyond normal belief, Julius' engaging writing was enough to see the story through to publication, with a bit of financial support from the famed adventurer herself.

Public Reaction

The First Elizabeth Bismuth book was published quietly, Johnstone expecting little fanfare from its release. Instead the book exploded, its popularity soaring as readers enjoyed the outrageous and yet thrilling adventures of Elizabeth Bismuth. The publisher quickly ordered a second book, then a third as Johnstone compiled notes of adventure after adventure. Almost forty years later the books are still the most popular novels in the Mortal Lands, comprised of over twenty-five books.
The stories themselves inspired a new generation of adventurers and explorers, scientists and historians alike. The new age of adventuring is attributed to the waves this series made as it was published.

Legacy

The Adventures of Elizabeth Bismuth not only started the New Age of Adventuring, but changed the landscape of publication as it had been known for a century. Before these fantastical novels of whimsy and discovery, publication had been reserved for medical journals, bibles, extraordinarily thick textbooks and maybe the occasional half-penny novel. That a mere work of fiction became so popular as to cause a revolution in the world of writing boggled the minds of many older scholars, who worried that their heavy-and expensive-textbooks would fall by the wayside.
A flood of authors soon followed Julius Johnstone, each with their own fantastical story to tell. The publishing market was soon saturated as small and large publishers alike tried to cash in on the sudden popularity of written fiction. Perhaps most popular were small books printed with old children's stories, to better encourage literary skills in the coming generations.

Type

Text, Literary (Novel/Poetry)

Medium

Paper

Authors

• Julius Johnstone

Who is Julius Johnstone?
Julius Johnstone was working for the Poartlind Herald when he was sent as a journalist to the far reaches of Dalreme to investigate a recent, undiscovered ruin. It was there that he met Elizabeth Bismuth, and together they traversed the ruin and all the dangers within. Julius quickly became a member of her inner circle and, eventually, her husband. Although the pair of them have since retired from adventuring, his passion for writing has not faded an inch.
Who is Elizabeth Bismuth?
Elizabeth Bismuth has been hailed as the Greatest Adventurer known to the Mortal Lands. She inspired a new age of Exploration and Adventure, and her own journeys have been many a wide-eyed child's bedtime story. While she retired from Adventuring after the Night of Falling Crowns, she forever remains in the heart of the people as the greatest explorer who has ever lived.