Kingdom Rattus

Kingdom Rattus is Michael A. Novelli's first novel and is the first book of a series entitled The Rodent Chronicles.

It involves two tribes of rats (the Least-Rogonians and the Marrow-Vinjians), and has as its main characters the champions of each tribe, Lord Bloodford and Astran, respectively. The tribes are separated by a large lake in the middle of the city park. However, they are also separated ideologically; the Marrow-Vinjians are imperialistic, wear clothing, and unlike the Least-Rogonians, don't believe in keeping mice as slaves (although they do consider them to be second class citizens). On the other hand, the Least-Rogonians are capable of using magic and seek conquest only for material gain, rather than to civilize any of the minor tribes. From a military standpoint they are fairly evenly matched.

The story takes place over a four day period and details two separate conquests by Astran and Bloodford to capture The Citadel, a structure of great power and tremendous propaganda value, however, their efforts are continually thwarted by the Kasha, keepers of the Citadel, and a mysterious ferret, who's playing the two sides against each other.

In creating the setting, Novelli mixed folktales and characters from various cultures and used them for ironic effect. For example, characters from Mayan creation myths are responsible for bringing destruction to the two tribes, whereas the various aliases dropped by the ferret(Metatron, Bathin, Rommel) give clues to his true identity.

According to his website, Marrow, who's portrayed as a cruel and malicious leader who dabbles in [...] slavery, is based on George Bailey.