Seven Reimagined, A new view of an old story Options

[SubRosa]

A while ago I wrote Seven, which is set in Tamriel. Afterward I thought about adapting it to an original setting. I did a lot of world-building, remade the characters to fit the new world, and got started into translating the story over.

I ran out of steam when I started looking at my over-arching direction, and started seeing some problems. The biggest one was that I had in mind a big High Fantasy story - an ancient race rising to destroy the world, champions rising from the dead, the army of light banding together to fight off evil, and so forth. The twist I planned to this standard format was that the protagonists were trying to stop the war, rather than win it. With finding a peace between all involved being the end goal, rather than destruction.

But the story I was starting out with - Seven - is Low Fantasy (at least the way I define it). Farmers and mercenaries vs. bandits. Ordinary people, with ordinary problems. I like that, as it feels very accessible, and makes the characters, even the extraordinary ones, feel more relateable. So that made me want to continue in that vein, and do a series of stories about a pair of hired spells who are part mercenaries, part private detectives. Sort of like Spenser For Hire or Magnum P.I. with magic. That in turn meant scrapping the entire over-arching story. Or trying to bridge the gap between Low Fantasy and High Fantasy. It left me with a lot of questions, and I was not feeling excited about the answers. So I ended up setting it all aside.

Instead of leaving it all collecting dust, I decided to post what I did finish up here. Maybe it will fire me up to get back to working on it again. People who have read Seven will recognize most of the main characters. Names have been changed in many cases. Some because the originals were Bethesda creations, others to suit the new races/languages. Speaking of which races and the like are entirely new, as is the geography, flora and fauna, how magic works etc... I will put some of that here in this post, and start the actual story in a second post. Let me know if you want to see more of the background notes, and I will put them in this post.


This is a world map

This is the continent of Aulerci, where most of the action takes place



Aela

Loria



The Stone Forest (IRL The Shilin Stone Forest outside of Kunming)

Another example of karst landscape


An Oro (IRL Orodromeus)

A Crumhead (IRL Parasaurolophus)

RL Troodon (the inspiration for the Teodon race)

Troodon front

Troodon head

Ancient Rasen Armor (IRL Samnite bronze armor)

Bronze lamellar armor

Bronze lamellar armor again


Veia Map

Rasen street

Rasen city

Rasen apartment block

Rasen-style architecture





Phereinon

Phereinon again

Malediction

Owl Screeching

Owl Carving





Serves Camna



Wooden mug

Tamac (tomahawk)



Raven pendant

Hrafngoelir

Hrafn's shield

Hrafn's seax


Venca



Rasen bedroom

Rasen bedroom 2

Rasen bedroom 3



Lorcras armor

Hagalaz rune




Horse-Powered Ferryboat 1

Horse-Powered Ferryboat 2

Spirecrown - Saurolophus Angustirostris





Lambeosaurus

Parksosaurus

Ornitholestes

Hadrosaurs 01

Hadrosaurs 02

Orodromeus

Gasparinisaura

Ouranosaurus

Maiasaura

Tropical Milkweed Beetle




Teodon Coloration (this is just what their scale colors look like, not actual representations of the characters)
Alcheon's coloration

Daehyun (a very common peasant coloration)

Dark Eye (though his belly is not so brightly white

Sindeok



Banyan tree

Durian tree

Bromeliads

Bamboo forest

Solagea


Kye Rim Graves

Teodon Dok

Teodon village house

Teodon village house



Earthen rampart, wall, and ditch

cheavaux de frise


Shield Wall training




Fighting Moves
Dark Eye's finishing move against Daeso

Phereinon's belly to back suplex (German Suplex) that she used upon the Arvern Oathman of House Camna

Here is a link to Sindeok's killing move against Brown-Scales

Morte Strike and Half Sword Defense

[SubRosa]

Acadian: It is good to work on writing again. Finding the time is never easy these days. I need to get back into the habit again, to make it a habit again.

One of the things that always struggled with when writing fiction set in Bethesda's game world is how limited it all was, especially concerning magicians. To Beth a mage is simply another class, and their abilities have to be balanced with everyone else's to make the game fair and even. A fighter gets a sword, a mage gets a spell, a thief gets a bow. In the end they are all the same (or should be).

I like to show that being a magician is not simply one more form of doing damage to an opponent. It is a different way of perceiving the world, of occupying the world. IRL magicians are people who step from the physical world to the spirit world, and back again at will. They live between worlds. I really want to show that here in how Aela perceives reality. Which can be good for her, and bad for her (as the next few segments will show).


Kazaera: Hey, its Kazaera!

That is exactly the sort of critique I hope for. In fact, that very paragraph you singled out is one I took out because I thought it was too much Telling. Then I put it back in, but still felt uncertain about it. I feel better taking it out completely now. It is not necessary for the reader to understanding what is currently happening. I think I am going to try to use that as a litmus test to decide what more to cut out, and what to leave in.

I also have done some more editing to other parts. I changed the comparison of an arcane bolt to a lightning bolt in the beginning. Instead I followed the comparison to water. There are also a few bits here and elsewhere, such as Aela ruminating about how in the war they took out the physical protection from their arcane shield, so she does the same. I pared that down so it flows better, but you can still see that she is acting from past experience. I also changed it so the dark priest's initial arcane shield protecting all of his followers instead of just himself. That makes the fight much more even until the end.


Renee: Writing about how Aela lives in the spirit world is one of my favorite parts of writing her. Her world is more than what she can see and touch.

I am glad the effort Aela put into using and maintaining her shield came across as being engaging. That is one of her major talents after all. She is defense while Loria (formerly Ungarion) is offense. I don't want her to come across as insanely overpowered. It should seem like a lot of work, even though she is good at it.

This is not set in another part of Tamriel. It is all created by me, and is entirely separate from Bethesda and anything they have ever done.