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 was originally going to use horses on the ferryboat, as in the original Seven. But then I remembered that we are now journeying into Kye Rim, so I changed them to hadrosaurs to keep with the mysterious setting of the lizard peoples.

I very much enjoy writing a character with a magician's perspective, who sees things beyond just the ordinary, physical world. It adds more layers to the story, and their way of looking at the world.




Chapter 10.2

Captain Hesari stopped at many of the villages they came across. Their inhabitants all seemed to know him. Sometimes he bought supplies from the inhabitants, other times he sold them things, and often he even carried letters between them. Passengers left at some stops, only to be replaced by new travelers who boarded at other places. It seemed there was always something happening on the Queen.

There was plenty to see within the jungle between settlements as well. Wild hadrosaurs and theropods of all sizes congregated around the river. Of the two-legged saurians, some were as small as house cats, while others such as wild oros rose to height of horses. Aela noted that many of the smaller breeds bore feathers over parts - and sometimes all of - their bodies.

Of the hadrosaurs, some were as small as the fifteen foot long spirecrowns on the Nakdeok Queen. But most were far larger, many of whom stretched nearly three times as long, and rose over twice the height of a human. All had the same ornithopod body type however, with massive hind legs and more slender forelimbs. They all likewise bore the thick, stiff tail that thrust out straight into the air behind them, and finally the wide, almost duck-like bill of their mouths.

But these other breeds had many different forms to their head crests. Some bore tall, sail-like frills that ran evenly along the top of their skulls. Others had a fan-shaped crest that began small, then rose up dramatically behind their heads, only to veer steeply down again. Others had irregular frills and bony plates. Finally some bore no head ornamentation at all.

"The cattle of Kye Rim," Alcheon followed her gaze. "You will find them near all the rivers and streams."

"They like to swim?" Aela wondered.

"No," the young Teodon shook his head, "they just like the edges of rivers for drinking. They get out in the open fields too though. They can eat just about anything, grass or low leaves."

"Their feet are good in water," Hyunsu added. "Your horses with their hooves would never last in our rice paddies. It's too wet for them. But the hadrosaurs do just fine in the mud."

"The hadros thrive in almost all environments." Phereinon's voice rang out from farther back on the boat. Aela turned, and saw that she was sitting cross-legged with a book spread out before her. It was not the oversized folio containing sketches of ancient Tregyn that Aela had seen her studying before. Rather this was a smaller- journal-sized book. As Aela watched, she noted that the white-haired warrior was making notations within in.

"You can even find them along some of Rase's waterways." Phereinon continued to write in her book. "The Rasen have discovered that they can haul much heavier loads than even the strongest draft horse. They are prized for hauling barges along canals. They are really only limited by their food intake, which can be quite substantial. It takes a rich land to support them. For example, the Silmar use smaller ones like the spirecrowns and crumheads on the plains of Glastal. But the steppe there is just too arid and vegetation too sparse for the larger breeds, like the maias or hatchetheads."

"We have plenty of them back home in Hiakwia," Dhasan added from behind them. "Both big and small. I never smelled a horse until I came to Aulerci."

"Their smaller, two-legged thero cousins like the oros are even wider-spread." Now the scarred swordswoman did raise her head to look at Aela and the Teodon. "The oros are smaller, so require less food, and adapt easier to difficult climates. Members of their genos can be found all across Glastal - from the deserts of Tiwanku, and all across the steppes farther south. They live in the rainforest to the north, and up through the temperate forests and prairies of Hiakwia. The frozen north is the only place they cannot survive - there in Hiakwia, or over here in Skanlond. The Sea Elves have even brought them and the hadros to their islands in the Inner Sea "

"You seem to know a great deal about them," Aela thought aloud.

"I have studied life in my time upon this Earth." The ghostly pale woman turned back down to her book, and began writing again.

The Arvern stepped closer, and noted that a small insect crawled aimlessly across Phereinon's open journal. There sketched out upon the same open page was a large diagram of the same creature, with every detail of its form recreated in painstaking detail. It was not a work of art. There was nothing imaginative or aesthetically appealing to it at all. Rather it was a precise and analytical illustration. In fact, it looked just like those she had seen in her anatomy books in school. Except the specimen here was a bug rather than one of the manaborn.

"You are a naturalist then?" Aela said.

"Yes, when time allows." The insect came dangerously close to leaping from the page. With one hand Phereinon gently nudged it back toward the center. Aela saw it was some sort of beetle, with a bright orange design seemingly painted across its shell.

"This is a Tropical Milkweed Leaf Beetle," Phereinon continued. "It has a temperate cousin that lives north in Rase. This particular eidos is interesting, because I have observed that they guard their larvae from predators."

"Don't you have better things to do than draw insects?" Hyunsu spoke with the same bewilderment that Aela had to admit that she felt. "I have smacked thousands on my scales, and found nothing worthy of note in them."

"Ah… he means that a farmer's mind is preoccupied with his work," Alcheon interceded diplomatically. "Planting, harvesting, husking, digging paddies, shoring up the bunds to keep the fields intact, adding water, removing water, the work never ends."

"Farm work is hard work," Phereinon looked up from her illustration to the young Teodon. "From before the sun rises to after it sets. There is little time for dreams on a farm, and no time to make them real."

"I have dreamed much." Phereinon looked to the aging Hyunsu. His green and brown scales seemed so faded and worn compared to Alcheon's lustrous skin. "My dreams have murdered millions, and left this world scarred. So now I seek value in life, that rare spark that so quickly fades. Someday I might be the only one to remember it ever existed."

Phereinon looked away, across the river to the thick rainforest beyond. Then she turned her ghostly face back to stare at Aela.

"I will remember you all," she insisted.

Aela felt a chill creep through her bones, in spite of the bright sun overhead, and the thick humid air around her. The Arvern felt as if someone had walked over her grave. Perhaps someone had?

After that the white-haired woman turned back to her beetle. But the cold feeling persisted within the Witch's skin. She drifted away from the swordswoman, and found herself on the other side of the boat. Dhasan almost bumped into her when she stopped.

"That one's scent is all wrong," the vulpine warrior said in a low tone, nearly a whisper. He gave a brief nod to indicate Phereinon. "I do not like it."

"Why?" Aela whispered back, careful not to turn her head back toward the icy mystery woman.

"She has no smell," Dhasan declared. "No real one at least."

"That's bad?" Aela wondered aloud. "So she bathes…"

"No, that is not what I mean," Dhasan explained. "I can smell the natural odors of your body, of your sweat, of the pomegranate oil you put in your hair, of the vanilla you put on your skin. I smell the oregano and parmesan from the olive oil you dipped your bread in for lunch. But she has no body odor. She does not sweat. She is nothing but oil and leather, and… death."

"Death?"

"Yes," Dhasan breathed. "I was not sure of it at first. It is so... empty. All living things give off odors from their bodies. But she does not. It is as if there is nothing alive there to make a scent."

Aela thought over that for the rest of the day, and added it to the store of strange things she had already noticed about Phereinon. It all pointed in one direction. A direction Aela did not much like.

Aela was silent during their dinner of fried fish, still pondering this. They spent the first night tied up at the safety of a village's dock. She did not speak to Dhasan about it again, nor with Loria. Though she could tell the Light Elf suspected something as well, from the carefully disinterested glances he sometimes sent Phereinon's way, when the white-haired woman was not looking.


Lambeosaurus

Parksosaurus

Ornitholestes

Hadrosaurs 01

Hadrosaurs 02

Orodromeus

Gasparinisaura

Ouranosaurus

Maiasaura

Tropical Milkweed Beetle