novaharpersworld

[novaharpersworld]

I had a burst of productivity and wrote sixty pages of my WIP this week. I'd been stuck with writers block for at least a year but this blog and doing this worldbuilding really helped get my creativity going again.

In the process I realized I haven't really plotted out enough of the Fae side of things. I need to work on some more Faen characters since half the story takes place there.

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Character: Ember Star

Age: 28

Race: human

Planetary citizenship: Rushfall

In the far flung future of Corsova, a million years in the future, humanity and the Fae have united and become one species, calked Corsovii. They have gone to the stars and settled on countless planets and discovered countless alien races.

They have built a vast interstellar solarpunk civilization called the Harmony, which is comprised of planets in 26 billion galaxies. At the center of the Harmony is Cosmopolis, the city of a million stars.

At the center of Cosmopolis is the world tree, a vast sentient tree called the All-Bough, which upholds life and forges the meta-consciousness of the Mindlink, which unites the citizens of the Harmony together in empathetic solidarity. The tree merges magic, cybernetic technology, and organic life into a harmonious whole--hence the name Harmony.

Ember Star is a transgender woman and a Foundling, adopted by Rael of Rushfall, an Organizer for the Reconciliers (an emergency response group trained in non-violent deescalation and conflict resolution). She doesn't quite fit in because she is fully human and no one knows why. No one cares that she is trans, that bigotry is so long past no one even remembers it existed.

On her first day as a Reconciler, she is called up for a missing person report. The case reveals to Ember a plot by outsiders to the Harmony, non-Linked people called the Alienated. A group of them have attacked a secret Harmonean research facility operated by S.P.E.C.T.R.U.M., which safeguards the timeline.

These Alienated are going to use the time device in the facility to go back to the steam age and alter the timeline and prevent the Harmony from ever being formed. They call this plot Shatterpoint because the crisis of the steam age is what set the timeline on track to become the Harmony. It is the hinge of the timeline and they are determined to bend it in a different, dystopic direction.

Ember is pulled through the quantum horizon after the Alienated go through and travels back, escaping the destruction of the Harmonean future, which is wiped out.

Lost in a strange and brutal past, Ember is the only person in the universe who remembers the future. She must survive, hunt the Alienated in an age of war and chaos, and try to reset the timeline in order to save the future.

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The one thing to know about writing cosmic horror

I've been a fan of cosmic horror ever since I discovered Lovecraft, but especially the New Cthulhu and the New Weird revivals.

But I've noticed that a lot of what goes for cosmic horror isn't actually that scary. Here is why I think that's the case and what I think the best solution is:

Don't show your horror. Don't define your horror.

The thing that's scary about cosmic horror is the fear of the unknown. Cthulhu might be monstrous and evil, but we all know what it looks like. Not so unknown. The Xenomorphs from Alien were scary when the first film came out, but then the whole life cycle of them was developed from egg to chestburster to Xenomorph, and suddenly? Not so scary.

When you come around the corner in the dark and the coatrack is a lump of shadow in the corner, there is that split second where your brain doesn't know what it is. The brain autofulls possibilities, mostly potential threats. But the experience of incomprehension is what cosmic horror is trying to evoke. The experience of the loss of all categories, that jolt of "what is THAT?" and having no answer at all.

Cosmic horror is supposed to be a mindfuck. It's supposed to be about the way a character tries to understand something beyond comprehension, that runs over all we think we know. I imagine looking at one is a bit like trying to look at anything while cross-eyed. Or when you miss a step going up the stairs and for a moment the whole world comes undone and there is no more up and down.

And that brings me to the second, but related piece of advice. Focus on the character's experience of the horror and not the horror itself. Focusing on the thing itself is spectacle, and it reveals to much about the reality of what it is. But if you focus on how it drives a character to the edge of madness, what the character thinks they see, always retaining that doubt that it's fully real and not a hallucination, then it becomes terrifying.

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In my magic system everyone has magical abilities that can be trained, but due to limited access, most never do.

Magic is known as the Weave, and it is both an art and a craft. Magic users are called Spell-weavers by most and are viewed with fascinated suspicion by outsiders. Because of this, they mostly stick to themselves.

Trained magic users join the Collective, a non-hiererchical organization of spell-weavers whose minds are connected in a meta-consciousness (rather like a shared "mind palace") known as the Mindlink. They have intimate knowledge of each other, an empathetic connection to each other's emotions, and have access to the vast, multi-generational collective knowledge of spell-weavers. It allows them to be masters at whatever they put themselves to, and can see every problem from multiple angles, allowing them to solve problems rapidly.

The Mindlink also allows them to communicate with one another instantly, making them instrumental for the functioning of governments, heads of state, merchants, and more. They are typically employed on airships in case of emergencies, and every governmental agency has one so they can cross-communicate. The River King of the Fae employs four on duty at a times, and the same goes for the Soljoran Premier. The High Bank of Rel uses them to scry economic forecasts and ward coins to prevent countetfeiting. For this reason they are politically neutral, but work with and toward their own unknown agendas.

For most of Corsovan history, spell-weavers were referred to as Magi and then Mages. They were scattered with no standardized training. When a mage found a suitable acolyte, they worked alone, one mage and one acolyte. It was Methuseld, a powerful mage who helped Tol Aranon defeat the Fellwraith, who built the first training house on Mount Karath, called the Paideia. After Methuseld's death the Paideia became standardized. When Tol Aranon gave the land grant of half the continent to the Fae to rebuild Instruri during the Illian Accords, it included Mount Karath and the site of the Paideia, so the training house remained and became the Aetherium. They opened another in the Soljoran capitol of Aldervale.

The Collective has always welcomed members of both Fae and human, resisting efforts to pit the two species against each other in times of crisis or xenophobic frenzy, acting always as a ballast for peace.

During the magical rennaisance, mages learned to harness magical energies and assign them to inanimate objects, developing Majtech. Majtech is of immense practical use, as it doesn't require extensive training in weaving spells or the use of a staff, and can be used by anyone.

The sap of the Amaranths were harnessed and many processes of distillation discovered, and these experiments revealed that different processes of distillation in combination with various alchemical spells yielded very different effects. Each process results in a different color of liquid, each of which grants different properties to the one ingesting it. These liquids are called Potents.

The list of Potents are as follows:

Blue: explosive or high energy Potent, used most often in bullets, where a few drops are put into the ignition cap. Majlocks as a result discharge blue flame instead of red. If ingested directly, it gives the user explosive or concussive force, allowing them to perform feats of strength like scaling buildings or sprinting impossible distances at breakneck speeds until it flares out and you must ingest more.

Gold: enhances vision and perception, including night vision. It can dispell darkness or shadows, and can be employed by the sufficiently skilled to generate light based magic such as heat or protective barriers.

Grey: enhances shadow based magic, allowing you to cloak yourself in shadows or blend into dark corners, and grants stealth abilities and can create illusions and disguises. For this reason Grey potents is highly regulated and is only legally possessed by a member of the Collective, but when has that ever stopped a black market?

Copper: electric magic, harnesses storms and lightning, air based magic, including flying (well, falling with style) and harnessing weather events.

Opal: fosters calm, peace, tranquility, harmony, and balance. Often used for conflict resolution or deescalation, diplomancy, and promoted unity, cooperation and feelings of solidarity. It also enhances the intimacy of love making.

Silver: facilitates dreamwalking, used most often for rites and rituals due to its profound visions from the dreamscape.

Red: enhances fire based magic, including the production of fire and resistance to fire.

Green: earth or natural magic, good for healing and rejuvenation, accelerates plant growth, and boosts endurance and vitality.

Orange: enhances cognition, allowing for intense creativity and flares of genius, problem-solving, better absorbsion of ideas, data, and argument.

The basic principle with each is that the more you ingest, the more powerful you are, but the more you ingest the harder it is on your body. For this reason most people only use a drop or two at a time. The complexity of the spell or the greater the power needed to accomplish something, the faster it flares out and must be replenished. This is why magic is best a collaborative project, since spreading the weave between a large group of Weavers reduces the total impact on each. In the Aetherium the Collective distributes all weaving between the whole since they are all Linked.

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The entity was so utterly beyond description that Joel could not comprehend what it was he was looking at. His brain searched for patterns, recognizable appendiges, a body, a solid form his mind could latch onto, something that would allow him to make sense of what had opened up through the rift. But there was nothing. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before, perhaps unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, and so there was no basis for comparison, no anchor of familiarity for his mind to seize upon, no description or visual that could make sense of it. It hurt his brain to look at and he tried to screw his eyes shut against the sight of it, but he found himself unable to look away, compelled by his need to understand and it held him fast in his doom. It seems to be constantly shifting form in a trillion places at once, in no particular order, in no particular direction, comprehensible in no particular way. Here a tuberous, parasitic limb or appendage like that of a plant or insect spearing through whole planets, there what seemed for a moment to be a cluster of eyes or a great maw with which to devour the stars. And then gone again.

It had ignited in him a deep set dread, a terror beyond all rational thought, and yet an allure that was undeniable; so vast, so timeless, so incomprehensible, that to look away felt worse than to continue gazing into its unspeakable depths. It was as if his brain was afire with profundity and horror in equal measure, burning with the bright flame of adrenaline and the shattering apocalypse of all his categories and concepts. What he once believed was his great knowledge he saw now for the empty, foolish trifles it was, like an ant speculating about the unfathomable giants who strode through their domain with nary a thought to them. It was to see a thing so huge that it could span the dark and shadowed void between galaxies, encompass whole sectors of space for purposes alien and unknowable, reach out and grasp planets as if each were a speck of cosmic dust.

And it was looking at him, if looking could indeed be claimed as a word to do justice to the sensation of its eyeless and ceaseless and pitiless perception of that which was utterly beneath its notice. Microbes on the bottom of a upturned stone. A great tide of dread filled him, the darkest dread he had ever known, for he did not know and could not grasp what it was. The fire in his brain was acute now and the sheer blinding pain of non-comprehension seeped into his waking consciousness.

He screamed. He screamed and screamed until his voice was hoarse, screamed like countless beings on countless worlds in countless galaxies from countless universes had screamed, screamed to no end and for no purpose, a senseless noise equal to the senseless sight before him.

Bria found him in a corner of the lab an hour later, shaking and writhing, drool trailing from slack, pale lips, eyes wide and casting madly about for an unseen terror he could no longer see, his voice ruined and unable to scream further, speaking only an inchoate word in a harsh whisper, repeated over and over as if it were a name.

"Dread . . . Dread . . . ."

[novaharpersworld]

Character: Elynor Glade

Age: 24

Race: human

Nationality: Soljoran

Elynor Glade is the daughter of merchant Friedrick Glade and sister of Mattis Glade (Ash Tullis's boyfriend).

Always clever with an exceptional mind, Elynor stagnates after finishing her tutor's curriculum and chafes under Soljoro's repressive laws prohibiting women from working in any field save the factories. So Elynor goes undercover as a washer woman in the factories and writes a blistering expose on the treatment of women and workers and children.

None of the major papers will publish it, however, so she persuades her father to invest a majority share in a small, failing muckraker paper called the Soljoran Voice. The Glade fortune will underwrite the paper and keep it afloat in exchange for hiring Elynor as Soljoro's first female journalist. She is assigned to Special Projects, headed by cynical muckraker Jakob Flint.

Her expose and hiring sets off a firestorm of controversy. Suddenly everyone is debating whether women can perform work that any man could, and whether they should have the right. The paper is sued by Isaiah Stalitt of House Stalitt, and Edwin Tullis, of House Tullis (whose factories were the focus of Elynor's piece) arguing that women are incompetent, her expose retracted, and she must be dismissed.

Her father files a countersuit (women cannot bring suits) in which she argues women must be found to have the same rights and freedoms as any man, and should be allowed to work in any field. The case goes to the Soljoran High Court and as the legal battle drags on, Elynor helps spark a movement of women marching for liberation that grows and expands to encompass not just women but rights and liberties for all, drawing in the Utopians as well.

The sudden mass movement sparks a backlash and a nationalist, authoritarian movement rises to counter it. The counter-liberation movement takes the fight to the streets, attacking gatherings, groups, marches, and any person known to support it or the Glades. They are funded by House Tullis and House Stalitt, and led by Isaiah Stalitt himself.

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Character: Jeras Monroe

Age: 29

Race: human

Nationality: Soljoran

Jeras became a constable with the Peacewatch at the age of 21 in the small town of Silvia. He was able to apprehend the notorious Driftford gang and received an Honorable Commendation and was transfered to Aldervale.

On his first day, he is assigned to quell the riots in the aftermath of the Lightbringer's execution and sees the brutality of the Peacewatch, who the peasants call "Bloodcloaks," first hand.

He tries to keep his head down and focus on his work, but when he bonds with an eight year old orphan caught pickpocketing and is swept into the Soljoran justice system, which condemns her to the same fate as adult thieves, he begins to question everything he thought he knew about justice.

Then an unarmed immigrant Vashan youth is shot by one of his fellow officers and the murder covered up, his conscience can take it no longer. He must speak up and act, earning himself the hatred of his former friends and officers for betraying "the thin red line."

"Nobody said doing the right thing was easy, but that's no excuse not to act" --Jeras

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Character: Vesan

Age: 32

Race: human

Nationality: Vash

Vesan was once the partner in crime with Kiran Stormbold. They knew each other since childhood and met on the streets of Aldervale as fellow orphans and became fast friends.

After a string of mediocre heists and cons, he was growing frustrated with Kiran's eternal optimism for "the next big con," but went along with the Lightbringer con mostly out of desperation and hope.

Initially one of the most skeptical of Kiran's crew after his transformation into the Lightbringer, Vesan was quickly won over by the Lightbringer's teachings.

He works to recruit people to the cause from among the poor and working class, growing the movement. The execution of Kiran has catapulted the Utopians into popular consciousness, and they regularly protest at the Cathedral of the Twelve and One, insisting that the Constellation open their vaults and distribute to the poor as prophecy demands. Their calls for justice fall on deaf ears.

He is best friends with hot-headed thief Casan, who is more skeptical of the Lightbringer and his teachings of peace. Their disagreement over means will widen as the Soljoran nationalist movement gets more violent and begins to target the Utopians as their chief rivals on the streets. Vesan wishes to keep with the nonviolent teachings of Kiran, but Casan insists that they must defend themselves and everything they have built.

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Character: Kiran Stormbold (Lightbringer)

Age: 42

Race: Noth

Nationality: Noth/Soljoro (duel citizenship)

Kiran Stormbold was born during a great storm that washed away his family's village when the levies broke and flooded their valley. His parents survived and the stress forced his mother into labor as they fled in the howling tempest. Thus he was given the name Strumbuuld, which in Soljoran means Stormbold.

However, when plague swept through Noth, it took both his parents and he was forced into the streets to survive. Always a charismatic person, he conned his way aboard a merchant airship headed for Soljoro, where he gathered a company of young thieves and rogues around him. However, Kiran's charisma wasn't enough to pull off more the mediocre heists and cons. He spent some time in Soljoran prison and when he is released, his debts to the Black Fox thieves guild have grown too large to pay.

He needs one big heist to clear his ledger and one day hears some Devoted discussing the Lightbringer. Inspired by the promise of the opening of the Hierarch's vaults, he devises a con in which his crew manufactures the fulfilment of the Lightbringer prophecy, the vaults open, and his crew can steal away with the riches in the chaos.

It would have worked had the Hierarch not become corrupt. Dreading the arrival of the Lightbringer, the Prelates first try to disprove his miracles and dispute his teachings, but his popularity with the people prevents them from moving openly against him. When he calls upon the Hierarch to open its vaults for the poor, he is arrested as a public danger and thrown into prison. His execution is set and a sham trial arranged where he must stand in the Wheel of Light, which weighs the soul and will determine if he is truly the Lightbringer. If not, the light will consume him.

The night before the trial, Kiran is alone in his cell, shackled and chained. He is half asleep when the cell is filled with light that flows into his heart. He has been chosen by Anistaru to be the actual Lightbringer.

The guards come running as his chains fall away and the cell door springs open. When he emerges, shining with the light of Anistaru, they fall at his feet in terror and he walks out of the prison and returns to his crew. His hair has gone white and he explains what has happened and must prepare them for the task ahead. His time is short and they must follow in his footsteps to gather the poor and helpless and infirm and marginalized and orphaned, because it is they who have Anistaru's special favor and are the future.

He then says he must return to his cell and undergo the weighing of the Wheel. His closest companions Vesan and Casan try to stop him, but he passes through their arms and passes through the locked door and goes back to his cell.

The next day he is dragged before the Wheel in the Cathedral and undergoes the trial. He passes, to the outrage of the Prelates and High Petrarch, who accuse him of forgery. They drag him in a rage to the Hall of Justice and insist he is a false prophet and must be executed between the Horns of Penance. Soljoran Premier Cresh Eson reluctantly agrees and the Lightbringer is hung, sparking a city wide riot.

That night as his crew hide from the chaos and the Peacewatch (Soljoran police, known perjoratively among the poor as Bloodcloaks), the Lightbringer appears to them one last time and bestows them with his Charismata and sends them out to carry on the work.

The Utopians are born.

[novaharpersworld]

The Faith of the Constellation

The Constellation of the Twelve and the One is a syncretic religion that developed after the defeat of the Fellwraith at the end of the 4th Epoch, drawing together various elements from the many faiths that existed on Corsova in the hopes of uniting a fragmented age.

It draws from the Zhaing-Shenese Cult of Daras, the informal faiths scattered across Nulor, and the faith of the Fae and merged them with the worship of the high god Anistaru.

The Constellation worships Anistaru (the One) and the Heroes who in the 4th Epoch defeated the Fellwraith (the Twelve), of whom the predominant is Tol Aranon, who the Devoted revere as semi-divine and whom they refer to as the Slave King because he was a slave who rose to inherit the throne of the Tols and overthrow the ages of shadow and sorrow. Each Hero is identified with one of twelve constellations seen in the night sky.

The sacred documents they follow is also called the Constellation. It was once known as the Book of Secrets because it contained a series of prophecies given by Anistaru to the Heroes dating back to the dawn of the 3th Epoch and the First Hero, and was only able to be read by the Heroes themselves. After the defeat of the Fellwraith, the Book's purpose was achieved and could be read by everyone.

The faith of the Constellation is governed by the Hierarch, a conclave of 235 Prelates led by the High Petrarch. Together they weigh spiritual matters, guide the Devoted, teach from the Constellation, and debate arcane theology.

The Cathedral of the Twelve and the One where the Hierarch gathers is set in Aldervale, capitol of Soljoro. It is the largest building in the Marketplace of the Gods, a large open city square where each of the many faiths of Corsova can proselytize under thr Cathedral's long shadow and the Hierarch's watchful eye.

In the last sixty years, the numbers of the Devoted have declined and the Constellation's rival faiths are growing. Folk religions oriented around magic and the worship of the Amaranths is on the rise. The opulence of the Hierarch is widely seen as a mark of corruption.

Alarmed by this, the High Petrarch has declared all other faiths heretical abominations. The Hierarch has long aligned itself with the Republic but in recent decades it has turned against Soljoro as hostile to its aims. It now believes the merchant class and the Seven Houses could restore its fortunes if the monarchy were restored.

The Constellation contains a vague reference to a figure known as the Lightbringer, a prophet guided by Anistaru who will cleanse the faith, restore justice, and distribute to the needy from the fabled treasure vaults of the Hierarch. At the time of the series, the arrival of the Lightbringer is broadly expected by the Devoted.

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Character: Enoch Shedland

Age: 56

Race: human

Nationality: Soljoran

Enoch Shedland is father of Bria, and a medical doctor who gave up a successful practice in order to run a free clinic in the industrial district of Aldervale. Industrial factories and their great assembly machines are dangerous, especially to children, who are employed to crawl in the machines and repair them from the inside (because it is cheaper than disassembling the machine). When Edwin Tullis sold one of his many textile factories, Shedland bought it at auction and has been fixing it up ever since.

The clinic is run in the front half of the factory's first floor while the living quarters are upstairs and in the back of the first floor. Bria's lab is in the basement.

Besides Shedland and Bria, Jakob Hartman stays with them, as well as Shedland's difficult mother, the Lady Marianna Shedland, who because of an arthritic disease, is mostly confined to the upstairs. Shedland's wife died during a rash of coughing plague that swept the city a decade prior and he has never had eyes for anyone else.

Because medical care and clockwork limbs are so expensive, most of the poor and working class can't afford them, so he works with various businesses and benefactors to get donated metal scraps that Bria and Jakob can reforge and repurpose. He's involved in Soljoran politics and is constantly working to get better and safe factory conditions, advocates for universal education for the children in the factories, and a law requiring factory owners to be responsible for the medical care of those who are injured while on the job.

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Character: Bria Shedland

Age: 25

Race: human

Nationality: Soljoran

Bria Shedland is the daughter of Enoch Shedland, a medical doctor who runs a free clinic in Aldervale's industrial district. He purchased an old factory building and turned it into living quarters and the clinic, with a basement for Bria's Contraptionist lab.

Bria is a skilled Contraptionist who is adept at clockwork mechanics. She is currently working on the first Atomaton, an artificial intelligence that could revolutionize Soljoran Majtech called Eduard. She is currently stuck in the project and has turned her attention to an experiment with the Ether distilled from the Amaranth sap.

In Soljoro, women are not allowed to work (other than in the factories) and are forbidden from being Contraptionists or Artificers under the law. Bria's father therefore works as a front man, dealing with the public face of the lab with Bria as an assistant. He signs the paperwork, applies for grants, and deals with others; Bria teaches him the basics of her research so he can be as competent as possible in this role. (Bria is aware of several other women who do this to get around the law, publishing their work under men's names).

When a factory explosion brings in a young girl, Willow, with severe injuries and in need of a new leg, Bria forges a bond with her and makes her a clockwork leg (usually too expensive for factory laborers). In the process, Bria discovers that Willow has an extraordinary mind and may be able to help her with her Atomaton, Eduard.

Bria's assistant and sometimes lover, Jakob Hartman, assists in her research and experiments. When they finally get their Ether centrifuge stable and running, they are able to split an Ether particle--and tear open a rift in space. Jakob, who is closest to the rift, looks through it across the universe and sees a cosmic horror. And it looks back. Its gaze drives him mad and he now spends his days howling nonsense in a straitjacket in his upstairs room.

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The 7 Epochs of Corsovan History (2nd Epoch)

The 2nd Epoch begins with the Banished from the Forgotten Shores sailing direction less on the tides for months. When they have begun to starve they finally sight land: a ring of islands that are all that remains of a dormant undersea volcano.

The islands are full of resources, lush vegetation, and abundant life. The Banished settle here, building over thousands of years a vast and advanced civilization. At the center of the largest island, they plant the Amaranth seed and it grows into a tree two miles tall. It produces golden fruit potent with magic.

They called their civilization Altanis. It is governed by 8 of the wisest citizens, four human and four Fae. They are known as the Witch-Lords.

Magic is centered in the House of Light and Shadow, where the Magi study their arcane arts and do research.

Meanwhile, in the multiverse beyond Corosova, the Fellwraith has slain its 23 rival Elders and Anistaru is desperate to stop it. Anistaru corporealizes the heart of magic in the Worldstone and casts it into Corsova where the Fellwraith cannot follow (it cannot corporealize). It lands in the deep water just outside Altanis and Anistaru sends a vision to a young acolyte in the House of Light and Shadow that the Worldstone is the source of all magic in the world and it must be protected at all costs. A deep sea expedition is organized, the Worldstone is retrieved, and placed in the House of Light and Shadow.

Unable to defeat Anistaru without destroying the heart of magic, the Fellwraith focuses on finding a way to break into Corsova to destroy it. It cannot corporealize but it can still influence and manipulate. It begins to work in the House of Light and Shadow, pretending to speak from the Worldstone, pretending to be Anistaru. Slowly the House of Light and Shadow becomes corrupted.

Tensions flare between the Witch-Lords and the House of Light and Shadow, threatening to tear Altanis apart. When the corrupt leaders of the House of Light and Shadow open a dimensional rift it allows the Fellwraith and seven of its servants, daemons, into Corsova.

War breaks out and the daemons prove to be unkillable with conventional weapons and even magic. Something new is needed, a weapon that could stop them. The Witch-Lords lead a raid on the House of Light and Shadow and capture the Worldstone, at great cost, and use one piece of it to forge three weapons that can kill both flesh and spirit, capable of slaying the daemons and the Fellwraith. The first is the Necroblade, a longsword. The second is the Necro-dagger, and the third a Necro-bow.

Pushing a new offensive, the Witch-Lords regain control of the islands. The Fellwraith, who cannot reopen the portal to return to the multiverse, is stranded and vulnerable to being killed. For the first time it knows fear, and it knows it will lose. Desperate, the Fellwraith directs the Magi to detonate the volcano beneath Altanis and destroy everything. Unable to refuse, they do so.

Altanis is wracked by massive quakes. Buildings collapse, the streets buckle, and entire islands are engulfed in fire or sink into the sea.

A group of survivors assemble a fleet of ships to save everyone they can before the cataclysm overtakes them all. The young acolyte girl who saw the first vision is given a second: save one Amaranth seed to take with them and Anistaru will show them a continent to dwell and plant it anew. Take the Worldstone, and the Necro-weapons as well.

They narrowly escape as doomed Altanis is engulfed in a massive volcanic eruption, carrying the hope of the ages with them, once again adrift on the endless sea. They sail further east.

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Character: Atticus the Bloody

Age: 37

Race: human

Nationality: Noth

Occupation: adventurer, mercenary

Atticus the Bloody is the most feared adventurer/mercenary in all Numaria. Originally AFAB, Atticus quickly showed aptitude in combat, strategy, and improvisation under pressure. His first quest was to find the key to becoming his true self, and far to the east it is said that he found an ancient hermit with the magic to reveal his true self. When he returned, he had transitioned. The difficult journey home had been long and arduous, and he was now, years later, he returned a grown man, tall and strong.

His nickname "the bloody" began as an insult regarding his AFAB status, but in four different campaigns he proved such an unstoppable force that the insult become a badge of honor whispered in respect. No one dares insult him now.

One of his principle goals is liberating slaves, and he is a terror to all who dare enslave another. He is often hired by the Soljoran government to investigate those who violate the anti-slavery laws. Those he rescues often join up with his rag tag band of companions and are taught by Atticus himself in combat. At series start he has about 60 companions and a rattletrap airship called Leviathan.

Atticus always carries a long case strapped to his back, but he never opens it. When he is asked what it is, he replies that it is "in case of emergencies." Its a blunderbuss repeater with a hand crank, given to him by his father for his adventures, but Atticus prefers to solve things in other ways, leaving it only as a last resort.

But times are hard and with 60 people to feed and an airship to keep in the air, Atticus has had to shift from adventuring to mercenary work, often taking jobs he would never have taken before, just to make ends meet.

When Atticus is hired by Jovian Marsh, a wealthy merchant, to kidnap a femboy sex worker who is blackmailing him with the threat of exposure, Atticus reluctantly agrees. However, Ashlay Marcs proves to be an extraordinary person and Atticus falls in love on the journey to deliver him.

Jovian Marsh, however, betrays them both and attempts to kill them so there are no witnesses, and nearly sacrifices them to a horrible creature Atticus has never heard of before. They fight their way free and discover a map in Marsh's study with a destination far to the north, in the glacial flows of the Northfelds.

The call of adventure summons Atticus again, and his companions agree to go with him to hunt for these ancient ruins and this monstrous horror that is said to dwell there. It is there in the thick snows they will encounter a horror beyond imagination and set in motion an adventure that will take them to the stars.

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The 7 Epochs of Corsovan History (1st Epoch)

1st Epoch

After Anistaru made sentient beings and Corsova, the high god placed them in a paradise whose only remembered name is the Forgotten Shores. The Forgotten Shores are a place where the dimensional wall between Corsova and the multiverse where Anistaru dwells is thin and the planes overlap. Anistaru plants a forest of Amaranth trees and the first mortal beings live there in harmony as a couple, and birth human and Fae which grow into large, divergent species.

But tragedy occurs and one kills the other, either the First Human kills the First Fae or vice versa. Later records conflict over who killed who, and both human and Fae develop divergent myths that blame each other.

Anistaru sends them away and closes off the dimensional wall so that Corsovans no longer have access to the high God or paradise, uprooting the Amaranth forest, allowing human and Fae to keep only one Amaranth seed to share with one another.

They sail away on a fleet of boats into the open sea with no idea where they are going.

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Political Factions (Soljoro)

At the time of the series, Soljoro is torn between five competing political Factions.

Preservationists

The Preservationists believe nothing fundamental needs changed in Soljoro and that only staying the course will preserve the Republic. They view Reformists as dangerous idealists who are distorting the Republic and seducing it away from its original principles. They are patriotic nationals who also oppose the Restorationists as regressive and the Utopians as hopelessly naive. Most of the Soljoran political class are Preservationists.

Reformists

The other, minority wing of the political class are Reformists. This group also believes in the Republic but think it could be better with some reform and tweaks, but oppose revolutionary or fundamental change.

Restorationists

The Restorationists are mostly the ruling class and merchant class, led by the Seven Houses in their hope of reinstating the dynasty of the Tols. Their efforts are stalled until they can locate a rumored heir to the Tols somewhere on Numaria. They must find the Heir before making their move if they are to have any legitimacy. Thus, the Restorationists are more of a long term political project rather than an aspect of electoral politics.

Utopians

The Utopians are a mass movement of poor and labor class people who follow the teachings of the Lightbringer, a prophesied figure who would cleanse the corruption of the church of the Constellation and transform the Republic so that the well-being of sentient beings are prioritized over profits and power. They are nonviolent and, as they are not eligible to vote, work as a mass movement outside politics and have no representation. Their leader, the Lightbringer, was once a con artist and thief whose name was Kiran Stormbold; he tried to con the Constellation by pretending to be the Lightbringer in order to plunder the church's treasure vaults. The church, however, was so corrupted instead of welcoming him they threw him in prison, where he was struck with Enlightenment and became the true Lightbringer. He proved so troublesome that he was executed by hanging, sparking a city-wide riot by the poor. The Utopians now follow the Lightbringer's closest followers and friends, Vespan and Casan.

Stormboots

This violent Soljoran nationalist movement is led by Isaiah Nero Pellham, merchant and patrarch of House Stalitt, a corrupt man who wants to overthrow the republic and install himself as a new monarchal dynasty. They attack the Utopians wherever they can find them, and hold the Fae with disdain, and want to deport anyone who is not Soljoran. Pellham allies with the Restorationists out of convenience but has no intention of serving a heir to the Tols.

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Character: Ashan Tullis

Age: 23

Height: 5'9"

Weight: 145 lbs

Ashan Tullis is the eldest son of Edwin Tullis, patriarch of House Tullis, the oldest and richest of the Seven Houses of Soljoro.

Ashan (he prefers Ash) is 23, well trained in combat and dueling, in etiquette and manners, dancing, and educated by the greatest tutors. He is kind, hates the expectations of position put upon him as heir to House Tullis, and wants to make the world better. He sees the sufferings of the poor and working class and wants to help them.

He is also gay, and in a relationship with Mattis Glade, son of a middling merchant family. His father Edwin is an aggressive homophobe who hates Mattis and the "shame" Ash brings on the family.

Finally having enough, Ash's father decides to ship him off to Insturi to live among the Fae as diplomatic attache to the Soljoran embassy, in the hopes splitting him up with Mattis will force him to grow out of this "phase." When Ash says goodbye to Mattis, he gives Mattis House Tullis's sigil ring from when they were still a noble house, one of the last few heirlooms of house Tullis, as a sign that Ash will come back for him.

What Edwin Tullis doesn't fully understand is that the Fae are sexually and gender liberated. While any Fae is free to find their own gender and sexuality (provided it harm none), most are nonbinary or gender fluid, and go by they/them. They will have a profound impact on Ash, who gets stranded indefinitely among the Fae after a Soljoran stealth airship is shot down behind Insturin lines during an illegal reconnaisance flight that sparks an international crisis that threatens to spill over into war.