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 definitely worked hard at showing vs. telling in that last segment, where a great deal of information was dumped on the reader. I wanted to make sure it all flowed out through natural conversation.

Phereinon definitely mic-dropped at the very end there! I had fun with that.


Renee: I really enjoyed writing that second half, where everyone is retelling how their parents kept them in line. It gave me a opportunity to show how multi-cultural this group is, and give every one of the Seven at least one thing to add.

Perhaps the cockatrice should hope that Phereinon does not come back...


Chapter 11

"Come Sindeok, spar with me," Dark-Eye insisted. "There are none here who can give me a good workout."

The former nangdo did as his new leader commanded. He knew better than to gainsay the older Teodon. In the short time he had been in the raider company, it had become very clear that when the one-eyed Teodon spoke, everyone leapt. Failure to do so was tragic.

"I will show you how to use the longsword, as the elves do," the black-striped bandit leader said. "When not using a shield, their methods are superior to our own."

Dark-Eye tossed a wooden practice sword to former nangdo. Like the aetherial longsword that Sindeok had witnessed Dark-Eye summon, the weapon stretched nearly five feet long, with almost four feet of that being the blade. He caught the wooden weapon with one hand, then shifted his grip to both hands when he brought the weapon to a guard position.

It was not as heavy as he expected, nor did it feel at all clumsy. Dark-Eye took a few simple, testing strikes at Sindeok's head, and he easily parried them all. He found himself sliding one hand up past the crossguard, to the lower section of the wooden blade. That gave him more control over the long weapon, and Sindeok soon found, more force to his blows as well.

"Do the elves not use the shield at all?" Sindeok asked. Pure bone aristocrats like himself never used them when fighting in duels. It was considered coarse and crude. But during sieges or set-piece battles, shields were far too effective a defense against arrows for anyone to ignore.

"Their armor makes shields pointless," Dark-Eye said. "Even their simplest fighters wear astril, which will stop any weapon of mundane steel. Their greater fighters wear crystal panoplies, which even enchanted blades are hard-pressed to bite."

"Then how can they defeat one another?"

"With the longsword," Dark-Eye declared. "As you know, every part of your sword is a weapon, not just the point and cutting edge. But with a longsword this is far more the case than ever. Half-swording is much more effective, bringing you far more power and versatility. This allows you to accurately stab into even the smallest weak point of armor."

Dark-Eye emphasized his point by not only half-swording with his weapon, but also by spinning it around, so that he led with the grip. He swung the weapon down in a great arc over his head. This brought the crossguard down at Sindeok's skull like a hammer. The former nangdo brought his own longsword up to parry, also half-swording with one hand upon the hilt, and the other near the point of his sword. Sindeok caught the blade of Dark-Eye's sword upon his own, and they stood there, blades locked.

"This is the morte-strike," Dark-Eye said. "The crossguard itself will not pierce armor. But the physical force from the blow will. Strike hard, and you will break the bones of even an armored foe."

Sindeok was about to push his captain's blade aside when the bandit leader suddenly yanked down hard. The black-striped Teodon's crossbar caught upon Sindeok's blade and pulled it down. Thinking quickly, the younger warrior let go with his left hand, allowing Dark-Eye to harmlessly sweep his point down toward the ground. He imagined that if he had not done so, his sword would have been completely stripped from both hands.

Without thinking, Sindeok followed through with the swinging motion of his blade. This brought the point back toward his body, where he gripped it once again with his left hand part way down the blade. Only now he too was leading with the grip. He twisted slightly to the left, and jabbed forward horizontally with the weapon. His pommel nearly smashed into Dark-Eye's face. But the wily Teodon swept his own longsword in a sideways arc, pushing Sindeok's blade aside.

Continuing the same motion, Dark-Eye took a half-step forward. He thrust his point up toward Sindeok's face. Sindeok was as mindful of the bandit leader's feet as he was his point, and took a half step back. He knew that by coming in so close the red-scaled Teodon was probably intending to trip him. But he was able to get just far enough away to avoid such an opportunity, and parried the sudden attack.

With that Dark-Eye stepped back out of range, and lowered the point of his weapon. "Well done," the bandit leader said. "You have good reflexes, and have trained well. No one else here has ever lasted through an exchange of blows with me. Not even your former hwarang."

"It was you who taught him, was it not?" Sindeok ventured. He had witnessed Dark Eye's duel with Daeso, and his former leader had lasted far more than one exchange of blows. Still, he was not about to point this out to his new captain.

Sindeok had joined the Celestial Gallery company after Daeso had become hwarang and taken command. He had only heard whispers of Ugeo - Dark-Eye now - and those were rare slips of the tongue. None of the older Celestial Flight nangdo had seemed to want to talk about their former leader, and when they did it had been forbidding.

"Indeed I did," Dark-Eye declared. "I trained them all. But in my hour of vengeance, they betrayed me, and cast me out. All because I devoured the hearts of those who did this."

The bandit leader raised one finger to his eye patch, and the scarred scales above and below the leather strap.

"Now that you have tasted the sweet meat of victory, you are cast out as well Sindeok," the former hwarang went on. "Your brothers will now hunt you down and kill you. You now only have one course, as do I. We will take our revenge upon those fools in Hansando, especially the gyukon. They will learn to either eat, or be eaten."

At one time Sindeok would have shivered at the words. But now he simply felt the hunger twinge from deep within his belly. He knew that he should be horrified, but now the thought of eating another manaborn filled him with nothing but craving.



Morte Strike and Half Sword Defense