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]

haute ecole rider: Daeso was partly inspired by Kim Yushin from The Great Queen Seondeok, with his heavy-hitting blows. But he lacked Yushin's principles.


ghastley: I imagine that an aetherial sword has a similar weight to a normal one. Mana gives it form, which I also take to mean mass as well (the same with conjured spirits. Although in their case the form and mass depends upon their element. Air has almost no mass, while earth a great deal).


Acadian: Every magic item should be unique, with it own personality, based upon its creator, its history, and its function. I try to give a glimmer of that with their names, and how they make people feel when they perceive them.

Dark-Eye's finishing move is a real longswording technique. here is a link to it. I definitely stepped him up from the original version. We will learn where he got his training in magic and elvish longswording in this episode in fact.


Chapter 2.3

In the meantime Sindeok found the other bandits crowding around him and Buru. His hand rested upon the grip of his sword. But the nangdo knew the futility of the situation. He had no doubt that he was a far superior swordsman to any one of the outlaws. But with their numbers and position, he would die just the same.

For the moment the raiders waited, and all eyes turned to Dark-Eye. The renegade paid them no heed however. Instead he opened both of his hands, and his mageblade vanished into a sparkling haze. Drawing a knife of ordinary iron from his hip, the red and black scaled Teodon squatted down over Daeso's corpse. Sindeok could not see exactly what it was he did there, and from the sound of cracking bones that followed, he did not truly want to know.

Finally Dark-Eye rose, holding the hwarang's bloody heart in one gory hand, stained knife in the other. He strode to Sindeok and Buru, holding the organ before him.

"For the past five years, you have both lived in the shadow of Daeso and his lord Gaesomun," he said. "All of this time, they have used you like tools, and prevented you from realizing your true power. For they fear what you might become. They fear what you might do. Just as they fear me. I will show you why."

"Daeso was strong, and a skilled warrior" the bandit leader admitted. "But mere strength and skill are not enough. True power requires something more. It must be taken. It must be consumed. Feast upon the heart of your enemy, and you will take his power."

"Swear by me, and I will show you a power that you have never imagined," Dark-Eye continued. "You will stride across this earth like gods. The scales of men will quake at the sound of your names, and the tails of women will be yours for the taking."

"What say you?" the one-eyed bandit turned from one nangdo to the other, holding Daeso's heart before them. "Who will take this power I offer?"

Buru shook his head and backed away. The corners of his long mouth curled downward, revealing the nangdo's disgust. Girim bared his serrated teeth in a terrifying rictus. At Dark-Eye's nod, the bandit wizard leveled his staff at the recalcitrant Teodon. At the same time, the bandits near Buru all scampered away.

Once again Sindeok smelled the mana rise up from the wizard's bones and pour it into his staff. The enchanted weapon focused the energy into a brilliant projectile of fire, which leapt from the oro skull at its tip and blasted clear through Buru's armored chest. The nangdo did not even have time to cry out as the flames seared through his body and left a gaping hole in their wake. Buru simply fell dead as a stone into the muck.

Sindeok stared at the corpse of his comrade, and felt his tail twitch involuntarily at the sight of his charred scales. He looked back to Dark-Eye, and saw that he was aptly named, for there was nothing but darkness in the other Teodon's gaze.

With one shaking hand Sindeok reached out to take the severed heart. He raised the organ to his mouth, and bit down hard into the tough muscle. He had to twist his head this way and that so that his sail-shaped teeth - more suited to grinding up plants than ripping flesh - could tear out a bite. The resilient meat was no easier to chew, and it was as much a physical effort for the nangdo to finally swallow the mouthful as it was a moral one.

But finally he did gulp down the meat. As soon as he did, a sensation of heat rose from his belly. It surged up his throat, and spread through his entire frame. It felt like someone had poured flaming oil into his stomach, and it was burning him up from the inside out. He wanted to scream, but his training won out. He would never so openly reveal weakness. Instead he screwed his eyes shut, and ground his teeth together to bite down the pain.

The fire in him burned on and on. By the time it was finished, Sindeok felt lighter, as if he had been freed from invisible weights. When he opened his eyes once more, Sindeok realized that the flame had burned away the nangdo he once was. In the place of that man of duty and honor, he felt something new: a hunger.

It was a hunger for flesh, but not just for any flesh. Somehow he knew - as if by instinct - that only the flesh of the Manaborn would do. Bread, rice, or the meat of beasts were mere fodder. They might sustain the body, but not the soul. What his spirit demanded now was something more. More than even duty and honor could provide. He could not put a finger upon exactly what it might be. Perhaps it was the soul of an enemy, the force of his life, or some other ineffable thing. But Sindeok knew one thing for certain, it could only be taken from a sentient being.

A cheer rose up from the bandits, and Sindeok felt several clap approving hands upon his armored back. Sindeok paid them little mind. Instead he turned his attention back to the heart in his hand. Taking another bite, he found that this time it was easier to rip out a mouthful and gulp it down. Now that fire in his gullet warmed him like the afternoon sun, and everything was right in the world.

The other bandits now fell to the corpses of Daeso and Buru, and began carving them up. Sindeok stepped back out of their way, feeling satiated for the moment. He saw Dark-Eye standing beside the wizard Girim. The two were speaking in low tones, but Sindeok found that by drifting nearer, he could overhear their words.

"Daeso was right about one thing," Girim said. "His master will now come for us. From the Celestial Flight company to the most lowly spearmen, Gaesomun will send everything he has to kill us."

"Let him," Dark-Eye said calmly. "We both knew this day would come sooner or later. It may as well come now. "

"They will not fall as easily as the farmers and travelers we usually prey upon," the wizard cautioned. "They are trained warriors, many you once taught yourself. We must be prepared."

"Aye, and we shall be my friend," the one-eyed Teodon nodded. "We have allies of our own, and powers at our command. We shall journey to the west. In the forest of stone there is a place of darkness, the Dark Barrow where I learned the secrets of consuming flesh. We shall find strong warriors there, trained in the human and elven styles of longswording. There will also be skilled wizards, with the knowledge of elven magic. Then we shall return. The other outlaws of the forest will join us, whether they like it or not, and we shall march upon the Gyukon's fortress in Hansando."

"We shall meet them in the open then?" Sindeok noted that Girim's tail twitched as he spoke. Clearly the idea of fighting a set piece battle against trained warriors did not sit well with the bandit wizard. Sindeok could not help but agree with the feeling. He knew full well what his former comrades were capable of. Attacking them head on would be suicide.

"Of course not!" Dark-Eye laughed. "We shall flee, like the scum we are. We will melt away into the swamps and lead them upon a chase through the countryside. We know these lands, we know every fen, every river, every village. We know where to find food and shelter, and where the leviathans make their lairs. Those pampered pets know nothing, and will exhaust themselves in a fruitless and deadly pursuit. Finally, when they are spent, frustrated, and spread out across the rainforest, we will slip past them and take the city while it stands defenseless."

"But the walls…"

"Are of no concern," Dark-Eye waved off the wizard's unease and went on. "There is a secret way into the palace. One known to only a few. We will be within the very heart of the Sublime Ancestor's fortress before he can catch a whiff of us coming."

"And Gaesomun's heart will be yours," Girim smiled.

"His heart is filled with nothing but envy. The crows can have it," Dark-Eye spat. "But his riches, that will all be ours. You will not believe your eyes when you see it my friend. There will be fine silks and shining crios crystal from the Light Elves of Ainetir, and golden torcs from the Arvern in Aulertil. There are fine Rasenna wines, frost stones and amber from Skanlond, carpets and fire crystals from the Aymaran desert, pearls reaped from the ocean's depths by the Sea Elves, and more. He has a hoard the likes of which you have never dreamed of my friend, and it shall all be ours."

"Nothing can stop us now."