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: As I have been going back through the story and rewriting it, I have been really pleased with how ordinary Aela often feels. While surrounded by elves, lizard-men, fox people, unliving urban myths, and so on... To me she often feels like an everyman character, like Bilbo in The Hobbit. Then once and a while she shows that she is just as unique as everyone else. Like with how she lives in not just the physical world, but the spirit world, at the same time. She literally does experience reality differently than most people (although so would other advanced magicians).

More about the girl with the golden gun hair this episode, as we conclude their conversation. Then we will be going back to the young Teodon...


Chapter 8.2

"It is obvious you would study vitamancy to change your body." Hrafngoelir considered. "So why spiritism too? Why not something like enchanting or materiality?"

"I have always enjoyed conjuring," Aela mused. "Summoning nature spirits is all about nurturing your relationship with the spirits of the world: of the rocks, of the trees, of the sky, and so on. When I am with the spirits, I can be myself. They always see me for who I truly am, not what other people think I should be."

For a hired sword, the Skanjr knew quite a bit about magic. At their first meeting Hrafngoelir had said that she had spent some time among elves. Clearly the Skanjr had learned much, and with a more open mind than many others of her race. There was definitely more to her than met the eye.

That thought gave Aela a brief snort. She should be the one to know!

"But during the Sluagh, well that changed everything. spiritism wasn't just a way to escape from the company of people anymore. It became a matter of survival. Many of the spirits around Tregyn seemed to go mad, and my magic is what saved me from them. It made me realize just what I could do with spirits. It also got me into the Ingenium."

"The wizards at the school heard of your exploits?" Hrafngoelir scrunched her eyebrows in bewilderment.

"No," Aela laughed, "it made my parents take me seriously. They always said magic was just a phase, something I would get tired of and grow out of. But when I stopped a tornado from leveling our manor, even they had to accept that this was my calling."

Hrafngoelir smiled wryly, and nodded her head. "It was like that with my brother. My mother wanted him to be a shield maiden. Well, shield man. But magic was always in her runes too."

"Did they enchant your things for you?" Aela asked. She did not fail to note how the Skanjr had mixed up genders when referring to her brother.

"Aye, Hetha did make my raven." Hrafngoelir looked down to the black stone raven pendant that she wore, and held it up with one hand. As if wakened by her touch, Aela felt the magic within glow to brilliant life in the aether, a ward to protect Hrafngoelir against all magical harm. "He even carved it from basalt himself. She had always been good at that sort of thing, even when we were little."

"So what does Hrafnvartha mean?" Aela did not know a great deal of Skanjr culture, but she did know that Hetha was not a man's name. Now she was beginning to understand Hrafngoelir's interest in seidberendrs.

"Ravenward," Hrafngoelir said proudly. "Hetha said it would protect me from harmful magics. So far, it has saved my life more than once. But how did you know its name?"

"It told me," Aela said. "Except for those upon the simplest objects like warm cloaks and dry socks, all enchantments have a name. They are unique, special, so they must have a name, just like people."

"You sound so much like Hetha sometimes…" The Skanjr looked away from the Arvern mage, and stared off across the waves.

"So what about yourself?" Aela wondered aloud. "I can see from your aura that you have some magical ability as well. Is that how you do your hair?"

"Oh no, I do that the old-fashioned way!" The Skanjr warrior laughed. She reached up with one hand to touch the elaborate tapestry of golden locks that made up her hair.

"I only know a few spells," she said. Her free hand patted the glowing shaft of the composite bow nestled in the bowcase at her hip. "I know one to cloak Cherry Blossom here. Otherwise you can see me from a mile away at night. Another will muffle my foot falls, even on dried leaves. I know a Night Sight spell to see in the dark, and a few other little things."

"All useful for a hrafn," Aela observed, using the Skanjr word for raven. "So then your name means 'raven' and something else?"

"Hrafngoelir?" the Skanjr warrior turned back to look at Aela. "It means 'Makes The Ravens Sing'. My mother gave me that name because a conspiracy of them took roost around the house when she went into labor with me. They would not leave. She said that when I was finally born, they all began squawking at once. I made them sing. She said it meant that I would be a shield maiden, like she was."

"So what does Aela mean in your people's tongue?" the Northerner went on to ask.

"I don't know!" Aela laughed. Then she turned more serious. "In truth, it all depends on who you ask. Some people say it means 'rock' or 'rampart'. Others say it means 'amour'. Still others say it means 'divine messenger'. But I have simply liked the way it sounded, so that is why I chose it when I changed."

"When you-" Hrafngoelir stumbled momentarily, then went on, "of course, I forgot for a moment. When did you make your change?"

"I went to living female in my fourth year at the Ingenium," the mage said. "Afterward I met Loria. He told me that I should have waited. But I just could not bear it any longer."

"It could not have been easy," the Skanjr woman observed. Aela wondered just how much personal experience she had in the matter, given the matter of her brother, or was it sister now? "They say the elves and Asokari are much more accepting in this. Indeed, I saw more than one two-spirit among the Fox People, and they were all treated with great honor. But we humans…"

"We are not so comfortable with people being different from us," Aela finished the other woman's sentence. "My parents were furious. They tried to make a magistrate send me back to Cymner. But I had reached my legal age of majority by then, so they could not. Instead they disowned me and cut off my funds."

"Then the Ingenium turned down my request for a scholarship. They said my family was too wealthy for me to qualify. So I had to borrow the gold from a shark named Mamarce the Knee to pay my tuition. Many of the staff tried to have me expelled, and the other students… well, as I told someone else today, the Ingenium taught me to fight. I graduated a few months ago, but I'm still paying off my debt. I will be for a long time."

"Why did they do those things?" Hrafngoelir looked confused. "Because you are a seidberendr?"

Aela nodded, but said nothing.

"But that is mad!" Hrafngoelir exclaimed. "I would think they would want more people like you in their Ingenium? Aren't all these new magic schools I hear about based on the elven ways of teaching? Bringing teachers and students all together in one place, to gain further knowledge than could ever be done in the old way of master and apprentice?"

"They are," Aela sighed. "But they are still run by humans. And you know how we are. You are supposed to be like everyone else. Learn the same trade as your parents, inherit their property, positions, and titles. Marry who they tell you to. Have children of your own and do it all over again to them. Duty, loyalty, and obedience, that was all I was taught as a child."

"Aye," Hrafngoelir nodded, "and I know my own people are probably the worst of the lot. For all that these Rasen would not allow women to bear arms or use magic before King Knutr Serpent-Eye came south, in many ways they are far more enlightened now. Even though we conquered them, sometimes I think they are the ones better for it. The last of the Skanjr successor kingdoms fell what, two and a half centuries ago? Now Skanlond is just as poor and backward as it ever was. But these southern lands are rich, and people have more freedom than ever, men and women alike. They are certainly a lot more open to other races and ideas than back home!"

"They say my people were never bad in the old days," Aela frowned. "Now you can hardly tell the difference between a city in Aulertil and one here in Rase. But in the west, across the straits in Arvethair, they say we Arvernach are still like we were in the old days. I had some distant cousins living there, and they always shocked my parents with their impropriety. My parents once said they were more like elves than humans."

"The elves say that every person must find their own true calling in life." Hrafngoelir murmured. "They say no one can choose the fate of another. For no one can live the life of another."

"You seem to know a great deal about elves," Aela noted.

"As do you," Hrafngoelir replied with a smile. "You and Loria seem to get on well. Are the two of you…"

"No," Aela shook her head. "Loria has never been attracted to women."

"Oh," Hrafngoelir stared wide-eyed. "Oh! So then he and Dhasan?"

"By the blessed Earth no!" Aela laughed. "They are just friends. They just act like they are married from how they love to argue!"

"And what about yourself?" Hrafngoelir asked. "Which are you interested in, or both?"

"You first," Aela had to suppress a giggle. It was beginning to sound like they were a pair of teen girls. She had to admit, the feeling was not unpleasant. It was something she never had the chance to experience before.

"Well men of course," Hrafngoelir said matter-of-factly. "But they can be such crumheads most of the time. I cannot see why any woman would ever want to marry one."

"What about Venca?" Now it was Aela's turn to cast a sly gaze in the other woman's direction.

"Him?" Hrafngoelir sputtered. "Bah, he's too busy brooding - and looking for more black clothing to wear - to find the time for a woman."

"So the two of you never…" Aela let the question trail off.

"Well, there were a few times," The Skanjr stared down into the sea. "But those were just physical. You know, after battle celebrations. You have to put out the fire somehow. It's not like I want to have his children or anything."

"Well you might if you are not careful." Force of habit brought out the vitamancer in Aela. "It only takes one time..."

"Yes, yes, I know mother!" the Skanjr woman held up a hand to ward Aela off. "I learned a long time ago that a little princess nettle and tanet flower will keep that from happening. My mother taught me in fact, when I had my first courses."

"I wish I had a mother to teach me these things," Aela sighed. "I had to learn them in a class in school."

"Ach, you are doing just fine woman," Hrafngoelir waved a dismissive hand. "Besides, that is what friends are for. I learned more about hair and makeup from my friends than I did from my mother. She liked to shave the back of her head like the men do, said it made her helm fit better."

Aela could help but to gape. She could not tell if the other woman as being serious or not.

"Please tell me you did not really mean that," she blurted out. Instantly she regretted the words. What if the Skanjr would take offense? After it seemed that they had been getting on so well.

"I do!" Hrafngoelir nodded. "She wanted to shave my head when I was sixteen, but I would not have any of it. I like my hair. I plan on keeping it until I am so old it all falls out!"

"Well you wear it very well," Aela admitted as she looked into the Skanjr's eyes. She hoped that she was not blushing. "You're beautiful."

"That is kind of you to say," Hrafngoelir smiled. "But look at you, with that lovely long hair, and those soft brown eyes."

"Aye, hair brown as dirt, and eyes brown as bark," Aela grumbled, looking back down at the waves below.

"Nonsense!" Hrafngoelir exclaimed. "Well, your hair is rather sandy, and your eyes are brown of course. But there is so much more to you than that."

With that, the Skanjr leaned back. The next thing Aela knew, Hrafngoelir had pushed her forward, and was gently taking up her hair in her slender fingers.

"Let's do something with this," the Skanjr suggested. "We'll start with a braid around either side of your head, then tie it all in back into a tail. Then we can do something with your eyes. We'll start with some eggplant color on your lashes. That will make the whites of your eyes really shine. Then we'll put some gold on your lids, which will make the brown in your eyes glisten. It will give you more color, without being overwhelming. When you want that, we can use cobalt shadow, and deeper black on your lashes."

A small, white-winged butterfly danced across the rail before Aela's eyes. She could not repress the grin from her features, and knew that she was blushing now. But she could care less. For the next few hours she forgot all about prejudices, seidberendrs, loan-sharks, and everything else. She was just a young woman having her hair and makeup done by a friend.