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: I spent a lot of time working on Waranari's. I wanted to replace the straightforward dive of The Lonely Suitor with something a little more suitable for mercenaries and adventurers. Not classy, but not vile either. I decided to go with a place for physical, energetic folks to have fun. A sports bar. So I did some research on old pub games, and built Waranari's around it. Waranari himself is of course Luke Cage. At least that is how he looks. My Waranari is not a superhero.

I had fun finding ways for Loria to make the ordinary farmer folk of Agrigento seem as larger than life as he prefers to portray himself and Aela. And of course it is fun to introduce his speechifying nemesis in the form of Dhasan.


haute ecole rider: I spent a lot of time working on the Asokar. I was first inspired by a Netflix series called Wild China, and the Dai/Tai forest people of Yunnan province. I was originally going to make them wood elves - because of how they lived in rural settlements close to nature (with wild birds living in their homes). But then I thought, haven't wood elves been done a million times? So I looked for a anthropomorphized animal race instead. I looked through legends on such, and the Kitsune just leaped out at me. So I decided they would be Fox-People.





Chapter 6.2

"Trump, and rubber," Loria crowed as he laid down his last card upon the table. Ranazu and Hyunsu groaned as they stared at the cards in the pot.

Daehyun grinned at Loria, revealing a mouth full of fangs. "Perhaps we should play some of the others here for coin. We might earn enough to hire an army before nightfall."

"Or get your throats slit," Dhasan observed from his seat beside Aela. They were still at Waranari's, much to the Arvern's regret. "Many in a place such as this take offense at losing."

"Yes, that is the trouble with gambling for a living." Loria shocked Aela by actually agreeing with the Asokar. "The better you are at it, the more likely you will need to be a good fighter. Rather defeats the purpose of trying to make a living without killing people."

The opened front door caught Aela's eye, as did the unusual sight that walked through it. The newcomer was a Skanjr standing at least six feet tall. She was clad in mail armor, but Aela noted that it was not comprised of ordinary steel. From the silvery glint of the links this must be astril, the lighter and stronger steel of the Light Elves. Stranger still, an elvish composite bow was slung in a combined bowcase and quiver at her right hip. Made of softly glowing solascran wood and bearing crystal tips, it drew the eyes like a bonfire in the darkness.

The round shield that was slung over one of her shoulders was of ordinary human manufacture however, as was the straight-bladed Skanjr sword at her left hip. An equally ordinary spangenhelm hung from her belt by its chinstraps. Aela noted a pendant made of black stone hanging around her neck from a simple rawhide strip, carved into the likeness of a bird.

The newcomer's hair was spun gold, and pulled back into an elaborate series of braids and knots. Two rows of thin braids ran along either side of her head, pulling her locks up from her ears. More short braids wove through a series of knots along the top of her head, pulling the rest of her glorious mane back from her face and spilling it down her back and shoulders in a waterfall of color.

She took a moment to casually slide her long, slender fingers across her locks, as if to smooth them out. Yet not a single strand in her resplendent coiffure was out of place. Aela wished that she could make her hair look like that, let alone stay that way, and wondered how the other woman accomplished such a magical feat.

The newcomer stood in the doorway and scanned the crowd. Then her eyes met Aela's. She stared for a moment, and the Arvern recognized the look of discovery upon the Northerner's face. The Skanjr had seen through her female presentation. But rather than sneering, or laughing, the woman's features seemed to fill with regard.

The new arrival strode purposely across the room to the pair of corner tables where their group sat. The others looked up as she approached, and Loria set down the deck of cards before him. The archer ignored them all however, and remained focused upon Aela.

The Arvern Witch felt magic resonating within the Skanjr's gear as she stepped near, and out of reflex she shifted her senses into the aether. The newcomer's glowing composite bow instantly told her that its name was Silinblaen, which Aela knew meant 'Cherry Blossom' in Elvish. That was just the beginning however. The Skanjr's armor was named Creidlan, or 'Faithful', and Aela could sense that it was enchanted to not only protect her wearer, but also to increase her strength. The Skanjr's sword proudly announced itself as Frostbita, which the Witch thought might mean 'frostbite' in the Northerner's tongue. Finally her pendant glowed with great power, and whispered the name Hrafnvartha, into Aela's ear. She did not know what that meant, but could sense the ward it placed around the warrior, protecting her from magical attack.

Aela glanced over to Loria. He nodded back at her. Clearly the other mage had sensed the same power in the newcomer's gear that she had. If that magic were not enough, the Skanjr had the hard set to her frame, the swagger in her walk, and the glacial look in her blue eyes that said she was a killer.

"I am Hrafngoelir," she declared in a heavy Skanjr accent. "I am told you seek warriors."

"What makes you think that?" Loria raised his fingers into a steeple before his chin.

"Cutu told me, at the Bowyer's Bundle," the archer said. She paused to glance at Loria, then turned back to Aela once more. "He said two mages - a Silaine and an Arvern - were looking for extra swords on a long term contract."

"We are," Aela admitted. She was beginning to find the tall woman's gaze more than a little strange. What was Hrafngoelir so intrigued by, in herself of all people?

"Then I shall join," Hrafngoelir declared. "When do we begin?"

"This is an eager chwa'ai!" Dhasan exclaimed. "Don't you even want to know what the opposition is, or the pay?"

"It doesn't matter," Hrafngoelir said. "If a seidberendr is involved, I know it's going to be remarkable."

"A seid-what?" Ranazu scrunched his eyebrows in consternation.

"It's Skanjr for-" Vesia began, only to be cut off by Aela.

"I haven't heard your name before," she said to Hrafngoelir. "What sort of experience do you have?"

"As a child I was trained by Hallveig Troll-Burster," she said. "I've sold my sword for about a decade up and down Aulerci, fighting in wars, bodyguarding, hostage rescue, even hunted bounties. I've slain ice trolls and frost wyrms in the Jotunfjeldene Mountains. I've raided the Guzuks in the Alagars, and fought alongside them and the Brightfolk against the Rock Tolls."

"I heard about that," Dhasan rubbed the lightly-colored fur under his chin thoughtfully. "Nasty business, trolls wiping out entire settlements, using tactics, fighting in formation. Not at all like normal trolls."

"Aye, the elves suspected that someone, or something, was guiding them. Perhaps even controlling them." Hrafn looked to Loria. "I spent much time with your folk then. I am not too proud to admit that I learned a great deal from them."

"About war?" Aela felt her brow furrow in bemusement. This did not sound at all like any of the Skanjr she had ever met!

"About being a better person." Hrafngoelir said. "I made many good friends then, elf and orc alike."

"Is that where your armor and bow came from?" Dhasan nodded to her bright astril cuirass and translucent solascran bow.

"Aye, they were a gift from a... friend of mine." The Skanjr's eyes looked away, as if gazing back through the years. The ghost of a smile played across her fair features, but drifted past a moment later.

"That is some friend." Loria said.

"Ryolin is some man," Hrafngoelir replied evenly. She took an empty chair from a nearby table and pulled it up to the table. Aela and Dhasan made space, and she sat between them.

"We had quite the adventure together in the deep roads beneath Mount Mazani," she said. "We became... close."

"So what happened to him?" Vesia asked, "When it was all over?"

"He returned to his people," the Northerner shrugged, "and I took a ship to Hiakwia. We are from different worlds, and those worlds rarely meet."

"But still..." Vesia's words trailed off into silence.

"Why did I not run off to live with him in a magical tower?" Hrafngoelir smiled, but there was no laughter in her eyes. "The Light Elves are not quick to welcome strangers in their land, especially not those with round ears. Nor are they fond of venturing from their crystal forests and shining cities."

"Which makes me wonder what a Silaine is doing so far from home?" The warrior turned to look at Loria. "I have met many of your cousins from the sea in my travels. But your own folk... why I can count those I have met since those days in the Alagar Mountains on the fingers of one hand. Are you an ambassador of some kind, or a wandering trader?"

"Well I have been known to make a few transactions." Loria straightened up in what Aela recognized as his best imitation of an honest businessman. "But the truth is I was born here, in Alalia in fact. I have never even laid eyes upon Ainetir."

"You are all a curious warband." Hrafngoelir gazed from one to another. "A Silaine, an Arvern, and an Asokar walk into a tavern. It sounds like the beginning of a joke!"

Aela smiled in spite of herself. She had to admit, she liked the Skanjr. Clearly, there was a great deal more to this woman than one could see upon the surface.

"I came to Veia a week ago with a friend of mine," Hrafngoelir said. "He said this was the city of opportunities. But I have been nothing but bored. The greatest challenge I have had since coming here has been against my hair."

"Well, you seem to have won that battle!" Dhasan laughed.

Aela looked to Loria and nodded.

The elven wizard smiled. "Our warband grows curiouser by the hour."



Raven pendant

Hrafngoelir