After another week, my first chapter is about 55% complete with around 1500 words. It inspires this chapter as stated previously by Jay Christoff’s Nevernight chapter one. He goes back and forth between two events that happened during the same day, starting with the oldest and switching till it ends with the present. I have taken the approach of two events separated by many years and start with the most recent and go through four cycles, just like the original, with one extra that brings me back to the present.
The first pair introduce the evil entity from the eyes of the MC. The next set focuses on the environment and the different senses while the MC moves toward the target, then I go into the actual fight during the third with an aftermath segment as the fourth. Since I will end with the aftermath of the past, I am adding in one last scene that brings the story back into the present.
This week I discovered my MC’s skills, temperament and fighting prowess during the past event, mostly. For her settlement, they have a fifty-year training program before they graduate as protectors of their respective people. During the end of her training, she is at the top of her class. What she lacks in physical strength she makes up for in magical ability and a cunning mind. On an outing with a few of their instructors led by her father, the third ranked student in her class attacks her father from behind, revealing himself as a traitor and a dark mage.
The dark mage and his converted recruits start attacking everyone else. Both the MC and her best friend and second ranked make their way from the back of the column to deal with the traitor, the friend focusing on the others while the MC takes on the dark mage. She shows off her shielding skills by deflecting magical attacks but surprises everyone, including me, and strengthens her own fingers to stab one of the weak traitors in the chest and crush his heart with her hand.
It may change or deleted from now to the finished product, but this is the brutality the MC will face for the entire book and provides a glimpse at what’s coming. I have four sections left for chapter one and it will be easier for me to finish it by next Thursday.
I watched Daniel Greene’s hot takes debate on the religion that was released today (9/24/20) and I decided to talk about how religion impacts my story today. I touched on the basics last week when I discussed the history leading up to the events of this book, but wanted to expand on it.
To start off with, I did not base this religion off any real-world belief. If I had to choose, the native Americans’ belief in nature spirits might be the closest. For my fantasy world, there are no signs of a higher power that created life. It evolved naturally instead. The first sentient species, the elf’s, survived by hunting and gathering from the forest and worshipped it to say thanks and appease the forest so it would continue to provide.
The magical energy the planet and elves were born with powered a spell without their knowledge, using the collective subconscious over countless centuries to create two immortal spirits made entirely of magical energy whose only purpose was to provide and protect.
There is always a balance, and the negative traits that built up over the generations formed the dark god. The dark god was born from hate, greed and a desire for change and it attempted to do so by magically corrupting its followers and waging war against the elves and the light gods that protected it.
The story can be viewed as a straightforward good vs evil, or light vs dark. Most of those that helped fuel the darkness in the beginning only wanted change. The long-lived elders in the tribes became complacent and content with the way things were. That desire turned to frustration and anger until it blossomed into a blood-red flower.
Belief in both the light and dark fluctuated between the three dark wars. By the end of the last war, the elves were gifted with magical potential from their respective magical entities with their own unique set of skills, and the world was once more without a god. Both sides handled this change of circumstances differently. The light followers thankful for the noble sacrifice and gift of magic. A portion of the population continued to honor and worship despite knowing it no longer lived.
The dark gods’ followers became corrupted by the new powers and used those gifts to grow in strength and finish what the dark wars could not. This included generating hate on a massive scale by carrying out acts of terror and violence in the hopes of one day “summoning” the dark god once more. So, the villains in my tale don’t do evil just for the sake of being evil. They were corrupted, and it enhanced their negative desires.
Those gifted with the powers of the light god can be just as ruthless and evil as the dark gods’ followers. The MC in my story isn’t a chosen one hero that can make it to the end and make all the right choices without sacrificing moral high ground. She can be the most loving mother, wife, daughter, or best friend to those that she surrounds herself with. But if you cross the line and betray that trust, the built-up magical force she keeps at bay releases in a torrent of anger, terror and brutality that you would expect from the real world video game Mortal Combat.
The two forces that make up the religion are more in the forefront during the two-part novella that take place prior to the events of this book (only one written so far) and become a shadow war fought in the background until the MC is forced into becoming a “soldier” in the war that isn’t a war. The light vs dark plot is considered a sub-plot this time, with a focus on the MC’s journey following her character arc. The sub-plot helps drive the narrative as it should, but it’s not the boat that carries the story, only the shark chasing it.
If everything goes well, there should be an update to the character concept art series (part 2) before the next SD update. I am still waiting for the artist to finish the drawings before adding in the base color.
