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: One of the things that really annoys me about movies that have a training sequence, is that there is never any actual teaching involved. It is typically just one person beating up another, and somehow they are supposed to learn that way. So I did a lot of research to put together both a demonstration, and some actual hands-on teaching.

Aela and Loria are totally out of their element here! You are right, in that it was nice to write this from Aela's pov precisely because it is all as new to hear as it is to the people being taught.



Chapter 9

Dark-Eye called a halt to their march, and Sindeok found a log to sit upon. His feet ached. This was the price of having spent so much of life riding an oro everywhere. His once fine silk leggings were splattered in mud, and his leather boots were completely encased within the goop. Worse, the bronze plates sewn into the front and sides of the footwear were likewise inundated.

He knew the armor would not rust like iron would. But the last thing he wanted was for the plates to turn green with verdigris, or worse bronze disease. A nangdo would be expelled from his company for being so lax and slothful with his equipment. He might be an outlaw now, but he had not forgotten his pride.

The black and white scaled Teodon pulled off his boots and began wiping them clean of muck. It was a thankless task. But it was one he had performed a thousand times back in the barracks in Hansando. Somehow simply going through the motions took his mind off recent events, and reminded him of better days. Days when he was still a man of honor, still a credit to his family.

When he was almost finished another bandit came sloshing through the mud nearby, splashing a thick spray of the muck all over Sindeok and his boots. The former nangdo recoiled, shielding his eyes from the mud. After wiping his face clean, he curled a lip at the offender, who merely laughed as he walked away.

"They are testing you."

Sindeok nearly jumped out of his scales at the sound of Dark-Eye's low voice. He had not heard the bandit leader come up behind him. Turning, he found that the red scaled Teodon gazed at the interloper's back.

"You had better do something, lest you be found wanting in their eyes."

Sindeok nodded. He was no stranger to hazing. His first week as a nangdo in the Celestial Gallery had been the worst week of his life. Or at least he had thought so at the time. But he had found that by enduring it, he had gained the respect of his comrades, and showed them that he was strong enough to be counted among them.

"How do I earn their respect?" Sindeok asked. He suspected that things in a raider camp - much less a cannibal band - would be much different from a hwarang barrack.

"You don't," Dark-Eye said plainly. "They have no respect. Not for me, not for anyone, least of all themselves. They only thing they understand is power, and fear."

"Then I should do something dramatic," Sindeok said. It was not a question, so much as a thought spoken aloud.

"And do it soon, or something dramatic will likely happen to you," Dark-Eye cautioned. The raider captain turned his single eye to the former nangdo's boots.

"Those do not help," he said. "It incites them. It makes them think you are insulting them. There are no pure bone aristocrats here. We are all mud-feet now."

With those final words, Dark-Eye walked away through the mud. Sindeok noted that he did so with bared feet. He knew that the bandit leader had once commanded the Celestial Gallery company. His bones were born as pure as his own. Yet he walked barefoot through the mud, the same as any peasant.

Sindeok looked around him. Everyone was barefoot. Everyone but him.

He looked down to his boots. He knew that he would never wear them again. But he still had one final use for them. Picking them up in one hand, he rose to his feet and strode through the mud. He was surprised to find it was much easier than with the boots on. The webbing between his three front toes found more purchase in the muck, and allowed him to almost swim through it. It felt strange. But then lately so did many things.

He found the Teodon who had splashed him with mud. The offender's scales were dark brown, fading to a softer shade of the same color on his underside. He wore a bronze heart-guard disc over his chest, and a few belts to hold his gear. A spear tipped with a bronze head was nestled against his shoulder, and a long knife slung at his waist.

Sindeok ignored the other Teodon around the offender, and focused upon Brown-Scales. Lifting his boots in one hand, he flung them at the Teodon's back. They connected with a pair of loud thumps, plastering the bandit's scales with mud.

"Lick them clean you eggless bastard," Sindeok snarled.

Brown-Scales staggered forward, and rose to his feet with his spear in both hands. Sindeok's single-edged sword sang from its sheath. He brought it up with the point forward, and ring-shaped pommel at eye level. He waited calmly while the bandit spat and hissed at him. That might have frightened a peasant, but not a trained nangdo such as himself.

Sindeok moved closer, daring Brown-Scales to strike. The raider took the bait, thrusting his spear directly at Sindeok's face. By reflex he raised his sword blade just enough to meet the shaft of the bandit's spear. That lifted it up and to his right, and pushed Brown-Scales' weapon off line.

Sindeok simply had to flick his wrist to continue the motion. That spun the long, straight blade from right to left around his head. Before the bandit could bring his spear back to guard, the former nangdo's sword fell in a diagonal cut. Scales and bone parted as easily as rice paper beneath the blow. Brown-Scales' body fell to one side, and half of his head to the other.

Sindeok stepped back casually, but kept his eyes on the bandit's maimed body. Instant kills were rare. Even a mortally wounded enemy could still strike back to take his slayer with him to the grave. But Brown-Scales did not move, and Sindeok could pick out the convolutions on the surface of his bisected brain in the muck.

Now he took the measure of the other bandits. Some gaped openly. Others stared with hard, cold eyes, like sharks recognizing another predator in the water. Dark-Eye simply nodded when Sindeok met his gaze. It was a simple motion, but it conveyed much. Their leader had given his blessing to the killing.

Even as his bare toes sank into the mud, Sindeok felt that he was now on much firmer ground than before.



Here is a link to Sindeok's killing move