While the story focuses on two feuding families, that is not to say that they are the only Immortals in the this fantasy world. Within the OtherWorld, there are different nations of peoples ranging from Elves and Fey to Wolves, shapeshifters, and beings with demonic powers.
Originally, all of these beings existed harmoniously in a place called the Immortal Court. I believe I've mentioned this before. In the Immortal Court, the different groups strove to improve themselves from being open minded all the while basking in the never ending delights showered on them from Ganef. It was an unwritten rule among the Immortals that Ganef would be the only ruler of this court. Being unwritten, this rule was liable to change at some point.
And change it did. When the Delacroixes first came to the Immortal Court, the different families took notice right away that they had no love for the lack of formal structure to the court. As time went on, the Delacroixes increased their influence until Ganef himself could not make a decision without consulting the family. The moment finally came that they had spent all their resources working towards: the Delacroixes took control of the Immortal Court. Naturally, their first action was to put into writing that their family was to be the only official rulers of the court.
As more and more laws were laid upon the Immortals, the Delacroixes' influence began to wane. The Silvers took up the burden of beginning a riot that would pull the perpertrators from power. Before their plan could be put into action, the Delacroixes were informed of the mutiny brewing. With the usual pomp and circumstance of their reign, the Delacroixes put the Silvers on trial with a charge of treason. It did not come as a surprise that the family and all future generations were found guilty. The Silvers were banished from the Immortal Court. With their heads held high, the Silvers began their trek to a new life followed by those who had also been charged with treason.
Far to the North, the Silvers established their own court known ironically as the Court of Exiles. The Silvers created a home for themselves and their people. In a short time, the Court of Exiles flourished. They covertly traded goods with all of the families left in the Immortal Court while still providing enough to feed themselves. Soon, the orders for food, fabric, trinkets, and other luxury items turned into orders for armor, weapons, and willing men. Intell came from multiple sources that the Immortal Court was crumbling under the Delacroixes and that the families were preparing for an all out war.
The Silvers used the building chaos to enrich their economy. Suddenly, the orders stopped coming. The King of Exiles knew that either the war had began or the families had been discovered and exiled just as his family was. It took months before any information came to him about the condition of the Immortal court. It came to him in a passing conversation with a young artisan on his way to the southern land of Paradiso. As it turned out, the Delacroixes had found out about the conspirators but this time, they were not strong enough to fight them off. The Delacroixes had been forced to flee. The artisan said the family had gone north and as far as anyone was concerned, the Silvers could fight it out with the Delacroixes over territory.
The King of Exiles send scouts out immediately to confirm the rumors. His scouts returned with stories of nobles plowing their own fields and building their palace from stones they found in the rivers nearby. What troubled the king despite the amusement of his rivals working like slaves was that they had moved into his area of the OtherWorld. A war was bound to ravage the land yet again.
And so it happened. The Queen of Exiles had just birthed a son and no sooner was he put into his nursery then an assassin's arrow pierced his heart. The Silvers and Delacroixes raged into a new war that would not see its bloody end until Aubrey and Victoria.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
The OtherWorld
A story cannot take place unless there is a place for it to occur. As such, the setting for THoF is the OtherWorld. Chapter Zero (or the prologue) talks a little bit about the OtherWorld, mostly to refer to why it was created, but not so much the geography of the place.
Here's a paragraph directly from Chapter Zero of THoF. At this point in the book, you're getting a background/retelling of a legend. My original intent with Chapter Zero was to tack it into a section of Chapter Six where backstory was needed. It was pointed out to me later that in doing so, it took away from the main action of Chapter Six. That was also when the suggestion to call it Chapter Zero came out because apperantly, a lot of readers don't actually read the prologue.
Anyway. The OtherWorld - in short - was created to house the Immortals after the Old Gods lost to the new God in a war of who could get the most followers. When I say Old Gods, I mean all of the parthenons of gods that were around pre-Christ. Yes, the new God is indeed a reference to the Christian God who swept through the area and converted a large number of followers.
While this legend explains why the OtherWorld was created, it also explains why any sort of supernatural creature was not left in our world. Chapter Zero also contains the explaination for why Avalon, the home of the Seelie fey, is no longer attached to the mainland.
But before I get into that, I should explain at least some of the geography of the OtherWorld. My inspiration for the OtherWorld came from Pangea, meaning "all of the Earth". I liked the symbolism of having the Immortals all together on one of the first forms of Earth. Due to the species of Immortals seperating up the land for their different territories and their different needs having to be met, I've wiggled the continent around a bit. Besides Avalon, there are no other islands or other large landmasses besides this version of Pangea in the OtherWorld.
Back to Avalon. In Chapter Zero, the reader is introduced to the cast of Old Gods as well as Nolan the Red. (See below for list of Old Gods). Nolan is the first antagonist of the OtherWorld and he is also the first emperor. He gets it into his head that he wants to transfer the OtherWorld back to the world of mortals. However, he needs a powerful companion to assist him in this. Thereby, Nolan decides to kidnap the Seelie Queen and use her magic to accomplish his task. That's without mentioning that Nolan has a taste for that which is not his.
Long story short, Nolan is defeated in his quest, but he isn't going quietly. The Old Gods set up a bit of trickery and then end up having to improvise. In the end, Nolan is sentenced to the Land of the Lost, which is pretty much like the Underworld of Greek mythology except for the fact that for the most part, it's on the surface and you aren't necessarily dead when you go there.
So, here's a list of the Old Gods and their job descriptions.
I've been working on a map of the OtherWorld and have come up with one that looks to be about correct.
Without the faith of the people, the Old Gods would not survive to see the new millennia. Just when they thought their end was near, the Old Gods pulled together for one last attempt at a victory. They did not go to the people who they used to rely on, but created the OtherWorld – a sanctuary for the creatures of lore that had supported them during their war efforts.
Here's a paragraph directly from Chapter Zero of THoF. At this point in the book, you're getting a background/retelling of a legend. My original intent with Chapter Zero was to tack it into a section of Chapter Six where backstory was needed. It was pointed out to me later that in doing so, it took away from the main action of Chapter Six. That was also when the suggestion to call it Chapter Zero came out because apperantly, a lot of readers don't actually read the prologue.
Anyway. The OtherWorld - in short - was created to house the Immortals after the Old Gods lost to the new God in a war of who could get the most followers. When I say Old Gods, I mean all of the parthenons of gods that were around pre-Christ. Yes, the new God is indeed a reference to the Christian God who swept through the area and converted a large number of followers.
While this legend explains why the OtherWorld was created, it also explains why any sort of supernatural creature was not left in our world. Chapter Zero also contains the explaination for why Avalon, the home of the Seelie fey, is no longer attached to the mainland.
But before I get into that, I should explain at least some of the geography of the OtherWorld. My inspiration for the OtherWorld came from Pangea, meaning "all of the Earth". I liked the symbolism of having the Immortals all together on one of the first forms of Earth. Due to the species of Immortals seperating up the land for their different territories and their different needs having to be met, I've wiggled the continent around a bit. Besides Avalon, there are no other islands or other large landmasses besides this version of Pangea in the OtherWorld.
Back to Avalon. In Chapter Zero, the reader is introduced to the cast of Old Gods as well as Nolan the Red. (See below for list of Old Gods). Nolan is the first antagonist of the OtherWorld and he is also the first emperor. He gets it into his head that he wants to transfer the OtherWorld back to the world of mortals. However, he needs a powerful companion to assist him in this. Thereby, Nolan decides to kidnap the Seelie Queen and use her magic to accomplish his task. That's without mentioning that Nolan has a taste for that which is not his.
Long story short, Nolan is defeated in his quest, but he isn't going quietly. The Old Gods set up a bit of trickery and then end up having to improvise. In the end, Nolan is sentenced to the Land of the Lost, which is pretty much like the Underworld of Greek mythology except for the fact that for the most part, it's on the surface and you aren't necessarily dead when you go there.
So, here's a list of the Old Gods and their job descriptions.
- The Ancient Mother
- The matriarch of the Old Gods. The goddess with the title can only pass it on to her eldest daughter after her death. She is responsible for overseeing that the other gods are doing their jobs as well as being the main goddess for the Immortals. The current Ancient Mother is Elona.
- Krie
- The god of the Land of the Lost. Also called Death. His palace is often referred to as an icy palace. He guides souls to their final resting place.
- Natalia
- The goddess of the Land of the Lost. She is Krie's wife and assisstant. Her duties are similar to Krie's.
- Maeve
- At one point, she was the goddess of Seduction. When Nolan took to slaughtering anyone in his way, Maeve was assigned to help ease the burden on Krie and Natalia. She refused to do so, instead using her seduction to lure men and women to their deaths in her bed. She is the patron goddess of the Court of Exiles.
- Ganef
- The patron of the Immortal Court, Ganef is the god of worldly pleasures. Oddly enough, he's never thought of Maeve as a worldly pleasure. Chances are, it's due to her sucking the life from her victims.
I've been working on a map of the OtherWorld and have come up with one that looks to be about correct.
The Actual Start of the Adventure
What use is a blog about writing and getting exposure for a novel if the reader has no idea what the novel is about? The answer, dear friends, is there is no use to it. To keep this blog from being useless, I think I ought to start off with a brief (probably not that brief) summary of The Hand of Fate (THoF).
Firstly, The Hand of Fate is the first in what I hope will be a trilogy. If it happens to be longer than that, great. I'm really shooting for three in this first go around with the OtherWorld (explained later).
I have been working on the characters in THoF for almost eight years. By no means do I consider them "finished". But I digress. In working on these characters, I've shifted them from being in present time to being in the past and have found they work best in a fantasy version of the distant past. More on characters in another post.
THoF has been difficult to explain to people who ask what it's about. Due to my dissatisfaction with my lousy attempts at covering the plot and characters in the brief window of time before their attention drifted, I came up with a summary to quickfire at potential readers. After seeing glazed eyes and forced interest as reactions to the said summary, I've come to realize that a brief explanation simply will not do justice to this piece of work that has dominated my writing life.
Allow me to attempt to explain this chunk of my life.
You know that feeling you get when you'd give anything just to change one huge, horrible part of your life? Imagine if you could erase 9/11 or make it so the Holocaust never happened. All you had to do was change your lifestyle completely. And the change has to be instantaneous. Not to mention that after the change has occurred, there's still a chance those awful events could happen anyway. So you have to be extra good at this new lifestyle. Our protagonist, Aubrey, finds himself in this position on a smaller scale.
His family, the Silvers, have been feuding with the Delacroixes, a rival kingdom, almost since the creation of the OtherWorld. Aubrey, as the youngest of his family, has been convinced he'd never make it to be king only because he has five siblings ahead of him. All the while, he's been living it up and doing as he pleased. Responsibilities were lost on him. Aubrey did just enough to scrap by as a prince. Even as his siblings gave their lives to the bloody conflict, the youngest Silver continued to believe his lifestyle would never have to change. He could say that he wished the war would end all he wanted. Words were easy. Aubrey would probably never have to back up his laments.
As a side note, the Silvers were exiled from the Immortal Court by the Delacroixes. After being banished, the Silvers created a following of those opposed to the Delacroixes and moved north. When they settled, their leader founded the Court of Exiles. Not long after the founding of the Court of Exiles, the Immortal Court fell to internal civil war. At the conclusion of the civil war, the Delacroixes fled north as well, not realizing their rivals had settled there. They too founded a court known as Delacroix Manor. Since then, tensions have been the norm.
THoF opens with the sounds of a victorious night for the Exiles. Aubrey rushes downstairs, hoping to surprise everyone with the news. Having apperantly thrown a party the night before, it is not shocking to find out that the Prince of Exiles is the last one to find out about the success. In Battle Sanctum, the room used by his family for war preparations, the Prince finds his fate has taken a horrible turn.
It appears that the gods are further unkind to the Prince of Exiles as he moves about on his new thread of fate as misfortunes pile upon him. Perhaps it is penance for years of misdeeds. Or maybe, the gods would like to see some return on their blessings of sparing Aubrey from the horrors of war and clearing the path to the throne for him. Either way, Aubrey has a rough time of life up until the very end.
And that is just the Exile's view of things. THoF is formatted so you get a good view of different perspectives. More on that later. For now, we'll call this a blog.
Firstly, The Hand of Fate is the first in what I hope will be a trilogy. If it happens to be longer than that, great. I'm really shooting for three in this first go around with the OtherWorld (explained later).
I have been working on the characters in THoF for almost eight years. By no means do I consider them "finished". But I digress. In working on these characters, I've shifted them from being in present time to being in the past and have found they work best in a fantasy version of the distant past. More on characters in another post.
THoF has been difficult to explain to people who ask what it's about. Due to my dissatisfaction with my lousy attempts at covering the plot and characters in the brief window of time before their attention drifted, I came up with a summary to quickfire at potential readers. After seeing glazed eyes and forced interest as reactions to the said summary, I've come to realize that a brief explanation simply will not do justice to this piece of work that has dominated my writing life.
Allow me to attempt to explain this chunk of my life.
You know that feeling you get when you'd give anything just to change one huge, horrible part of your life? Imagine if you could erase 9/11 or make it so the Holocaust never happened. All you had to do was change your lifestyle completely. And the change has to be instantaneous. Not to mention that after the change has occurred, there's still a chance those awful events could happen anyway. So you have to be extra good at this new lifestyle. Our protagonist, Aubrey, finds himself in this position on a smaller scale.
His family, the Silvers, have been feuding with the Delacroixes, a rival kingdom, almost since the creation of the OtherWorld. Aubrey, as the youngest of his family, has been convinced he'd never make it to be king only because he has five siblings ahead of him. All the while, he's been living it up and doing as he pleased. Responsibilities were lost on him. Aubrey did just enough to scrap by as a prince. Even as his siblings gave their lives to the bloody conflict, the youngest Silver continued to believe his lifestyle would never have to change. He could say that he wished the war would end all he wanted. Words were easy. Aubrey would probably never have to back up his laments.
As a side note, the Silvers were exiled from the Immortal Court by the Delacroixes. After being banished, the Silvers created a following of those opposed to the Delacroixes and moved north. When they settled, their leader founded the Court of Exiles. Not long after the founding of the Court of Exiles, the Immortal Court fell to internal civil war. At the conclusion of the civil war, the Delacroixes fled north as well, not realizing their rivals had settled there. They too founded a court known as Delacroix Manor. Since then, tensions have been the norm.
THoF opens with the sounds of a victorious night for the Exiles. Aubrey rushes downstairs, hoping to surprise everyone with the news. Having apperantly thrown a party the night before, it is not shocking to find out that the Prince of Exiles is the last one to find out about the success. In Battle Sanctum, the room used by his family for war preparations, the Prince finds his fate has taken a horrible turn.
It appears that the gods are further unkind to the Prince of Exiles as he moves about on his new thread of fate as misfortunes pile upon him. Perhaps it is penance for years of misdeeds. Or maybe, the gods would like to see some return on their blessings of sparing Aubrey from the horrors of war and clearing the path to the throne for him. Either way, Aubrey has a rough time of life up until the very end.
And that is just the Exile's view of things. THoF is formatted so you get a good view of different perspectives. More on that later. For now, we'll call this a blog.
The Start of Something Strange
Here's to hoping this magical adventure of a blog doesn't leave me stranded on a backwater country road in a broken down Dodge Stratus. Not that MY Dodge Stratus would ever break down on a country road. Or anywhere else for that matter.
Alas, I've already hit my first confession: I'm highly intimidated by this blank space of a blog. But that's like most writers, isn't it? The blank space is our arch nemisis; staring us dead in the eyes and mocking our every attempt. There's just no hiding from that empty page. No matter how small you scribble, you will run out of lines.
I'm just procrastinating. And I'm well aware of it. If I put off this blog for any longer, it will continue to be put off until I either finally forget about it or become so guilty that I'd give a half hearted attempt at it before giving up. At least this way I'm trying. That should count for something. We'll see about that.
My second confession of the night is this: I have ideas about blogs and none of them seem to be based on facts. For example: People read blogs and therefore people will read my blog. Another prime example of my ideas: Just because I put my writing/ideas/prattlings/what ever out there, people will enjoy/respect/respond to/acknowledge their existence. That's just two examples. I'm sure I could whip up a few more. But perhaps I should save that for later.
Now what? Do I hit the big orange Publish button or do I continue to ramble on for a few more paragraphs in the hopes that I might redeem myself for horrible start to a blog? I guess I can't expect perfection the first time through. But hey, it could have happened...right?
Maybe a list will help. Okay, these are the things you (the reader) and I (the supposed writer) can expect from this adventure.
And for now, I'll call this a blog.
Alas, I've already hit my first confession: I'm highly intimidated by this blank space of a blog. But that's like most writers, isn't it? The blank space is our arch nemisis; staring us dead in the eyes and mocking our every attempt. There's just no hiding from that empty page. No matter how small you scribble, you will run out of lines.
I'm just procrastinating. And I'm well aware of it. If I put off this blog for any longer, it will continue to be put off until I either finally forget about it or become so guilty that I'd give a half hearted attempt at it before giving up. At least this way I'm trying. That should count for something. We'll see about that.
My second confession of the night is this: I have ideas about blogs and none of them seem to be based on facts. For example: People read blogs and therefore people will read my blog. Another prime example of my ideas: Just because I put my writing/ideas/prattlings/what ever out there, people will enjoy/respect/respond to/acknowledge their existence. That's just two examples. I'm sure I could whip up a few more. But perhaps I should save that for later.
Now what? Do I hit the big orange Publish button or do I continue to ramble on for a few more paragraphs in the hopes that I might redeem myself for horrible start to a blog? I guess I can't expect perfection the first time through. But hey, it could have happened...right?
Maybe a list will help. Okay, these are the things you (the reader) and I (the supposed writer) can expect from this adventure.
- Snippets from The Hand of Fate (my novel in progress)
- Character and plot sketches
- Musings over different elements of writing fiction
- Various other writing samples.
- Advice to and from other writers
And for now, I'll call this a blog.
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