Purelings™ are creatures who have never lived in the world. From the beginning, they have lived in sanctuaries protected by the Creator. There, they have known companionship, peace, and love. Predator and prey have lived together as companions. There is no hunger, fear, cold, or need to survive.
They have never needed to learn the ways of the world.
Deep inside every living creature is a primal instinct to survive. In a Pureling, that instinct has always remained quiet because it has never been needed.
Until a Pureling enters the world.
There, everything changes.
Hunger awakens. Cold is felt. Fear becomes real. The instinct to survive begins to speak.
A Pureling may begin to do things it would never have considered before. Things that once seemed unthinkable can begin to seem necessary.
This is Worldly-Wise™.
But Worldly-Wise™ does not mean lost.
It means the world has begun to change a Pureling.
The world can leave its marks.
It can cover a Pureling in the mud of hunger, fear, cold, and survival. It can make the Pureling bow beneath a weight it was never meant to carry.
But the mud is not the Pureling.
The weight is not the Pureling.
And the ways of the world do not have to define the Pureling.
The first sign that a Pureling is becoming Worldly-Wise™ is the loss of its light.
In the Beginning and the New Beginning, Purelings are white and filled with light. That light reflects the love in which they were created.
As the world grows colder around them, their light begins to fade.
Their colors darken.
Their voices may begin to crack.
Creatures that once stood upright may slowly drop to all fours.
But even then, the light is not necessarily gone.
A Pureling may need help.
Because its deepest desire is not simply to escape the world.
It is companionship with the Creator.
Some Purelings have crossed over to the New Beginning before. And once a Pureling understands what the New Beginning is, it will do whatever it can to reach it—even if that means giving up the very things it once believed it needed to survive.
And perhaps that is why love matters most.
Love warms what has grown cold.
The light can return.
The mud can be washed away.
The weight can be lifted.
And a Pureling that has been changed by the world can still find its way to the New Beginning.
Worldly-Wise™ does not mean lost.
It means there is still a journey home.
Broken Sanctuary: The Chronicles of Peckles-Wood Shire is the vessel that brings all of this to life.
The story is read. The world is explored. The Purelings are understood.
And perhaps, through them, something in us is understood, too.
Bring a Pureling to Life
Visit the Eighteen-Eighty-Five category in the shop at Lee’s Novels and Books, beginning October 1, 2026. See the Purelings. See how the warm love of a hand can bring their light back again.
Welcome to Peckles-Wood Shire.
Continue the adventure with the Broken Sanctuary novel, the first journey into the world of Peckles-Wood Shire. Then discover collectibles and keepsakes inspired by the Whitaker family’s adventure.
Own a Piece of 1885 → | Peckles-Wood Shire Map →
The Illustrator’s Vision—The maps and illustrations of Peckles-Wood Shire are inspired by the real landscapes, places, and traditions of Victorian Northumberland. Created for The Chronicles of Peckles-Wood Shire, they blend historical research with imagination to bring the world of Broken Sanctuary to life and invite young explorers to step into the Whitaker family’s adventure of 1885.
Copyright©2026 by Lee Wimmer and Hightower Publications. All Rights Reserved.