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 put a lot more work into the background of events this time around. How Dark-Eye became not only a bandit, but a cannibal and champion of a dark goddess. And how he was able to operate unchecked. When working on the local governor, I was inspired by the Native American belief in the Wendigo. It is not only a cannibal, but it is also seen as an allegory for the dangers of capitalism and consumerism - and how the more money and objects one accumulates only makes you need more and more. Dark-Eye is the classic Wendigo who eats the flesh of others. The governor is this second type, who is driven by greed - and untempered by any sense of ethics or morality.



Chapter 10.7

Alcheon vanished somewhere during the trek. Hours later they came across a dead pheasant dangling from a tree limb by a rawhide cord. Dhasan declared that it had been slain by a javelin, the same kind as several which the young Teodon carried along with his spear.

"That Teodon is going to make us all fat before this is done," Hrafngoelir laughed.

They made camp for the night soon after, and were once again rejoined by Alcheon, who now clutched a duck in one hand. While he might have been inexperienced in war, the young Teodon was certainly a proficient hunter.

Venca was even more silent and moody than normal, and Aela realized that he was again entranced by the sunset. The Rasen spent the entire time staring at the falling sun, and the brilliant colors it splashed across the horizon. Aela wondered what it was he saw there, since it was plainly more than just the end of the day to him. Was it his own sun setting that he saw? Did he see his own doom writ upon the firmament?

They struck out again at dawn's first light. The forest grew warmer and damper than even when they had been on the river. Soon sweat began to drip from their skin. Except of course for the Teodon, who seemed more than ever at home in the moisture. It was not the heat that bothered Aela. An Alalian summer was hotter. But the humidity seemed to just suck the sweat from the Arvern's pores, as a vampire would blood.

Soon they came to a break in the trees, and found themselves in a wide field of grass. This was not the short green carpet one would find in Rase or Aulertil however. This grass stood taller than Aela, and came in thick blades, whose edges she soon discovered were razor sharp.

"Well would you look at that," Hrafngoelir whistled.

The Skanjr and the other, taller members of the group came to a halt. Aela stood on tip toes to try to get a look at what the Northerner saw. But the grass was still too high. A moment later she felt Dhasan's furred arms wrap around her waist, and the vulpine warrior lifted her high into the air.

Now that her head was above the grass, Aela saw a herd of wild hadrosaurs wandering lazily through the field. Over thirty feet in length, the adults were easily double the size of the crumheads that she often saw used as draft animals. They lacked the big, bony crests that rose up from the heads of so many other hadrosaurs. Instead they sported a single line of flat, bony ridges running down the middle of their back, from head to tail. The vitamancer within Aela immediately recognized them as elongated projections of bone from the vertebrae in their back bones. The manaborn possessed the same projections of bone of course, just not so long and dramatic.

"Maias," Alcheon murmured.

The maias were munching on the tall grass. The Arvern Witch imagined that with their thick scales, the sharp edges of the grass did not bother them. She could not suppress a smile as she watched the massive herbivores. Somehow by simply doing so, she forgot the heat and humidity. Instead she was reminded of her connection to the natural world, and part of her wanted to rush out and touch one of the gentle beasts.

But her amazement was cut short when one of the hadrosaurs reared up its head to scan the skies above. A moment later a series of short, yet booming roars rose up from one of the maias. It was almost like the moo of a cow, yet far deeper, and much more energetic. The herd scattered, running for the trees on all fours.

Aela reflexively brought the pattern for her arcane shield firmly in mind and called upon her mana. Dhasan set her down upon the ground, and reached for his flatbow. The other mercenaries did likewise, all looking this way and that for the source of the danger.

"There, a cockatrice!" Ranazu cried.

Aela followed the farmer's pointed finger up into the sky. She saw a dragon wheeling high overhead. The scales of its lower body were light green in color, and a row of spines ran down the length of its back, from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail. Its head and back were covered in dark green feathers. Its four legs ended with long claws, and she saw that it clutched a dead hadrosaur within its mouth. Aela could see it was not one of the maias from the clearing below, but belonged to yet another type of duck-billed beast. For this poor victim possessed a large, bony sail that rose up along the top of its head, colored bright orange and purple.

"That is a cockatrice?" Dhasan stared amazement. "I thought they looked like chickens!"

"It does!" Daehyun insisted. "See the feathers on its head."

"That is a dragon with feathers!" the vulpine cried.

"Shhh, will you be quiet," Vesia hissed. "Don't get its attention. Our we might end up the appetizer for his meal."

Dhasan nocked an arrow on his bow as they began to back toward the treeline. The Teodon all looked horrified, and even old Hyunsu raised a hand before the Asokar warrior. They had not noticed it, but Malediction had formed from thin air in Phereinon's hand as well. Aela had felt its cold loneliness enter the air, and hoped that the dragon was too intent upon his supper to sense its presence as well.

"You must not harm it!" the old farmer cried.

"The cockatrice is sacred!" declared Alcheon.

"Well, as long as he feels the same way about us, we shall get along just fine." Dhasan said. The vulpine did not lower his weapon until Aela motioned for him to do so. She said nothing to Phereinon, but looked pointedly at her sword. A moment later if faded into nothingness, as if it had never been there in the first place.