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: That does indeed remind me of Tumindil!

That is also the Alcheon I am familiar with! He was one of my favorite characters in that show. I was inspired by him when I reworked the Seven Reimagined version of the brash young Teodon warrior. I even chose his colorings - yellow with green stripes - in a nod to the Great Queen Seondeok Alcheon's yellow uniform.


Acadian: I would not put much faith in Aela's desire to nurture. She usually has ulterior motives when it comes to helping people. From stalling the younger Camna so Loria could talk to Phereinon in private, to looking out for herself by making sure her companions can hold their own in a fight. Being Loria's friend practically demands you be dependable and reliable. Because he is not going to be either! She would not even be going to defend Agrigento if not for Loria. And of course Loria is there for fortune and glory (preferably the first). She might feel differently about individuals once she gets to know them. But she looks out for number one (with Loria of course being number two, in more ways than one...)

I always did like the comparison of wizards to poop as a teaching tool. It breaks the ice, and is a good way to keep yourself humble.





Chapter 8.4

After the magic lesson, Aela introduced Alcheon to Loria. As always, the Light Elf's open and affable nature immediately dispelled the tension that hung in the air between the young Teodon and the others in the group. Well, most of the tension at least. Venca was certainly nonplussed. But then again, given the older mercenary's apparent disposition toward brooding, Aela was not certain if his behavior was truly related to Alcheon or not.

The villagers too still seemed unsure of both the youthful warrior, and the other mercenaries as well. Aela expected that. They were a group of armed strangers whom the Agrigentans were bringing to their homes, to protect them from other armed strangers. Aela knew it would take time to build trust with them.

The journey across the Bronze Sea was a long one, even via ship. The trip had been shorter in the opposite direction. But Loria was quick to remind Aela that they had been on a hulk then. A much larger vessel than the cog which they currently sailed upon, it could make better time over the waves. The wizard had quoted some mathematical formula about how the length of a ship's hull related to its speed, but it had quickly gone over the Witch's head. That larger meant faster was all that the Arvern really cared to know.

They ate a simple lunch of bread dipped in olive oil, washed down with the ship's cheap wine. Then Aela made her way back to the forecastle for some time to herself. As much as anyone could find solitude on a ship that was only fifty feet long. She leaned back against the parapet and closed her eyes.

The Witch shifted her awareness into the aether, and let her thoughts drift down into the water below. There under the waves, all around the small, dim spirits of fish and other marine life, she found the undines. Spirits of water, they were often the most friendly of the elementals. Indeed, at the Ingenium she had learned that water symbolized empathy and intuition. She found the undines near the ship to be in a bright mood, playing about the water that foamed off the prow, as if the vessel were a toy. They welcomed Aela as a sister, and she danced and splashed alongside them - if only spiritually - and whiled away the time with the elemental spirits.

The smell of roses and lilies filled Aela's nostrils, and the harsh croak of a raven or crow echoed in her ears. Hard footsteps followed, clanking across the wooden planks of the deck nearby. They stopped as a dark shadow fell across Aela's body, blocking out the warm rays of the sun. The cool light of the moon washed over her instead. Wood creaked loudly in her ears, and Aela felt the planks of the deck shift under her as a heavy weight lowered itself down upon them nearby.

The Arvern pulled her awareness fully back into her body. She opened her meat eyes to find Venca squatting beside her. The Rasen wore his black lamellar armor, even in the summer heat, and stared out at the waves beyond. She saw the Ravenwheel hanging from around his neck. Even no longer sensing within the aether, Aela felt its cool effluence bathe her, like flowers in moonlight. Then the mercenary's dark eyes turned to meet her own.

"So just what in the worlds are you anyway?" he asked bluntly.

"I'm Aela," the Witch replied. Her heart doubled its pace at the loaded question, but she did her best to keep her voice neutral. "That is all you need to know."

"So what do I call you," the Rasen went on, "'he' or 'she'?"

"Do I look like I want to be called 'he'?" Aela still fought to keep the anger from her voice. "I'm not wearing a bodice and a chemise because I want to trumpet my masculinity, and I'm not wearing makeup to impress everyone with my manhood."

"Fair enough," Venca nodded. He looked from her to the water, and stared into its depths for a long time before he went on. "You know, Hrafngoelir thinks you're something extraordinary."

"Well that makes one of her," Aela replied caustically.

"It must be hard living in Rase, with everyone who knows what you are treating you like an aberration," Venca observed. "Why do you stay here? You could go west. The Asokari love your kind in Hiakim, so do your own folk in Arvethair."

"Because I have just as much right to be here in Aulerci as anyone else," Aela insisted. "I won't be run out by a bunch of narrow-minded provincials. I would think that Nyktera's Champion would be a little more enlightened. She is the goddess of transitions after all, of traveling from one state to another. That is what magic does. It transforms reality."

"I'm not Nyktera's Champion," Venca stiffened, as she had accused him of a crime. "Or Mhorlor's, or Morrigu's, or whatever you want to call her. I've no use for the gods - or the Fomorians, or Fir Bolgs, or anything else - and they've none for me."

"Really?" Aela pressed on, "is that why you carry the very essence of the goddess of death and magic given physical form? Why do you worship her every sunset?"

"I don't worship her," Venca grumbled. "I'm just… thinking."

"What is the difference?" Aela asked.

"Plenty," the Rasen insisted. "I serve myself. No one else. This world - and the gods - have never done me any favors."

"What, you think the universe owes you some consideration?" Aela scoffed. "You think you're special because you lost something? Well join the rest of us."

"What would you know about it?" Venca shot back.

"What would I know about it?" Aela replied hotly. She noticed that several of the others were now staring from their positions around the boat. A little voice in her head said that she should be building trust. She ignored it. "My whole life was taken away from me when I changed. My family, my home, my future, the people I thought were my friends, everything. I lost it all."

"But you know what? It wasn't the end of the world. I have a new family." Her eyes glanced to Loria. The Silaine mage stood by with his arms crossed, and nodded back to her. "I make my own future now. One day I'll make a new home as well. The gods didn't create the world we live in, or our fates. We are the gods, and we make our destinies all by ourselves, every single day, by what we do, or do not do. What world are you going to make?"

"You sound like someone I used to know once," Venca murmured and stroked his goatee thoughtfully.

"Who?" Aela asked gently. Perhaps it was not too late to listen to that voice of reason in her head after all.

"Damn if I know," Venca sighed. With that simple honest admission, Aela felt her anger ebb away like the evening tide.

"Memories are stored in many different areas across the brain," Aela allowed the vitamancer in her to take the fore. "If you give me time, I might be able to restore some of yours."

"I have been down that road before." Venca shook his head. "There is nothing left to find."

"You have not been down that road with me," Aela insisted. "If you change your mind, I am willing to try."

"Have you done it before?" the Rasen asked.

"Never," Aela shrugged. "But I have read about it."

"I will forgo the honor of being the first then." Venca rolled his eyes.

"There is a first time for everything," Aela found herself saying. She almost felt as if she was she was channeling Loria's dry wit. "My mother used to always say I should try new things. Of course when I tried being a woman, she did not like it much."

The Rasen warrior almost smiled at that, almost. He stood, and looked about at the others, who were all staring back at them now.

"So what do I call you Venca?" Aela asked, still sitting against the parapet of the forecastle. "My friend, or something else?"

"I am your friend Aela," the Rasen rumbled. "Of that let there be no doubt."