California is a coastal land of the Crown of the North, reached by sea rather than by road, and also the name of the non-human matriarch who holds authority there. It was first called New Albion.
| Type | Place; character (the matriarch) |
| Chronicle | Crown of the North |
| Claimants | California (the matriarch); Draco Drake for Queen Elizabeth of England |
| Spanish entry | California |
The land
California lies at the edge of the known world: coast, valleys and an arid interior, the California Desert. It is “a dry place in summer”, hot enough to make travelers sweat. Newcomers call it “the ass-end of the world”; its admirers call it “the new inextinguishable California”. A pirate came here to repair his hull.
The matriarch
California is also a woman, and not a human one: “sometimes she liked to look human”. She is an artist, a painter. She lives on the plane of dragons and comes down to the human world by choice. She is over a hundred years old and held to be immortal or long-lived, though those who report it admit they do not know her condition. She acknowledged having “some special matriarchal condition”. Among the Wintun, a native people of the territory, she is “a kind of matriarch, a kind of chief”. Her character is “peaceful and intransigent”.
The two claims
Draco Drake, English navigator and pirate, landed to repair his ship, the golden hound, renamed the land New Albion and claimed it for Queen Elizabeth of England. The matriarch’s claim is older and rests on her condition. She complained against Drake for what he did to the natives. Both names remain in force over the same ground.
Inhabitants
Three layers of inhabitants exist: the Wintun; the matriarch; and those born there who claim lineage, such as Amador and Angélica, “born here and considered of good blood”.
Open questions
- Whether the land was named after the lady or the lady after the land.
- What exactly she is (dragon, spirit or something else).
- Whether “matriarch among them” and “leader of the coast” are one office or two.
- Whether the people wronged by Drake are really the Wintun; the records give the name confusedly.
- Whether Amador and Angélica descend from the conquest or the earlier people, and whether “New Albion” is still in use.
- The year of Drake’s landing survives only as “nine”.
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