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@devastate-lasting

 

So, here is my follow-up email…as promised. Many of my friends here do not even know these things about my WIP that I am about to divulge, but I hope it peaks someone’s interests.

 

I have, after all, put this out there publicly on my blog as I work through it.  Sort of a commitment to no longer hide my work under a bushel by allowing others to see me committing to seeing it through.

The first two “books” are in draft form. The third is planned but not fleshed out since I am editing through the first novel to finally get it out to my publisher within a “reasonable” time frame.  (Been writing this since 2017, but contracted with the publisher in the fall of 2019, before the world turned upside down.

 

I am not sure I can truly categorize the type of “Fantasy” that I write.  It is a blended genre of some elements of science-fiction, historical fiction, mystery, supernatural thriller, romance, symbolic allegory, and perhaps even some “horror”, though I tend to balk and chafe a little at that latter label.

 

As the ancient sailors and cartographers once wrote on nautical maps of the ocean, “Here there be Monsters”, that is true in my current work in progress…(yes “WIP” is the preferred reference, I know, but I stupidly skipped the short-hand class).

I have 3 types of Dragons in my work. The Three Dragons – of Air (Flier), of Water (Swimmer), of Land (Tunneler) ALL of which have biblical origins or ties into the subtext of a historical biblical account.

The “Flying Dragon” can breathe fire and…well…ascends to the heights. The “Swimming Dragon” is a Leviathan that excretes a phosphorus gel (Luciferan) that glows in the depths, and blinds deep sea swimmers and lures top swimming creatures towards the light deceptively in the deep rather than the sunlit surface, before it attacks. The tunneling dragon literally east dirt, rock and detritus, cutting and clawing its way underground in the darkness, cutting out the foundations of buildings and towns above, pulling it victims into the darkness to their deaths. The “Dust Dragon” is translucent in daylight and feels scorched by the overhead sun, so it dwells in shadowy places and rarely ever fully surfaces except in an attack.  It can move and tunnel underground within “soft earth” at the speed of a freight train. It is strangely fully visible in half-light, say where a shaft of light pierces a tunnel and grays out into the darkness.  It has bony spines, and metallic surfaces, a head the size of a panel van, and large stone-like teeth that torque when it opens and closes it jaws.  Its eyes are odd, in that they are not uniform.  They are the size of large platters, with one being a striated obsidian and the other appearing almost human, with a white sclera and an icy blue iris that is luminescent.  It has a nictitating membrane, like a shark’s, that covers its eyes while it tunnels, and a curved and hard beak that can break through thick sheet-slabs of granite.  It can sense the smells of blood on the ground surface from a depth of about thirty or forty feet and has the ability to psychically tag and pull at the thoughts of any sentient being above who are experiencing fear (like a fish on a hook and line). This ability is called a “thrall” in the story.

My WIP also has things called “Gollums” [following the traditional meaning of the term, not the LOTR character] which are molded and created by the “dragons”, but especially the “Dust Dragon” for it requires combining dirt, its own secreted and salivatory dragon plasma and human blood “with the Breath of God in it” so it HAS to be fully human with DNA to define the “attributes” of the “Gollum form”.  Since the dragons, cannot create a soul or spirit, these mud forms, that take the image from the blood of the human victim the Dragon consumes, it must be inhabited by a separate spiritual entity, which is where the “elemental wind spirits” come in.  The dragon supplies the shape-shiftable form, and the malevolent “elemental wind spirit” provides the sentient spirit trapped temporarily inside the Gollum for to go out an “deceive” humans, who do not know their “friend” or “family member” has been killed.  A nasty kind of deception, I’ll grant you, but it makes for interesting story surprises.

I have a kind if biblical origin story for a group of half-human half-creature races of cursed hybrids that populate this “World” between “existence” worlds and are made up of many creatures appearing in Classical Greek and Roman mythology as well as some Babylonian mythical hybrids too. These “Half-Men” are a hodgepodge tenuous kingdom of kinds all subject under the rulership of The Pan, a monstrous hulking and ancient Half-Man/Half-Ram-Goat, standing about 12 feet tall, but anciently suffering the effects of extreme age with the inability to die without first being pierced through.

The Pan can see into the Physical World and whisper into the minds of humans, but it can no longer see into its present world, because its eyes are clouded by thick cataracts.  It must rely on its other keen senses to move about and attack its prey in its own world and often has to rely on its underlings for simple things.  It rages against the One True God, but fears Him and those chosen among mankind by Him who rely too much on His authority and find themselves empowered by that surrender.  The Pan is weakened by a human who knows his or her identity is in Christ and he fears that one of these will strip him of his power by piercing him through.  It is not that he doesn’t want to finally die, it is just that he is addicted to power and cannot imagine giving any of it up.  Satyrs and dryad nymphs are his principal courtier companions, along with Harpies and others yet to be determined.

The lands are very medieval period in nature.  Some are vast stone-hewn cities, carved by the use of what is called a conical “Builder Stone” that can lift massive monoliths with ease and precision cut through them.  [almost like a pyramid builder…]  There are 12 builder stones in this world, each divided up and given to an ancient tribal family, whose clans build the major sprawling citadels.  Then these tribes became suspicious and envious of each other and eventually gathered their family behind great walls of stone.  Certain tribes from among them became dominant and fractured the family into two warring kingdoms each with very different philosophies of how their peoples should be governed and ruled.  There are three human groups of peoples in this world as a result at the time of the story.  Indigenous peoples (Communal and Tribal traditions akin to a softened feudal system), the Xarmnian Empire (Marxian with leanings towards Totalitarian rule) and the Capitalians (Western style Democratic Republic governance).

The Half-Man Kingdom is Tribal and like a Monarchy, only very pagan in its rulership by gods.

All supernatural power is limited in some way. It is not merely conjured but yielded to and channeled from an internal Source. That circumstance is called “the quickening” and has its roots in the biblical meaning of the term. There is a sense of supernatural communication which appear to be a psychic ability, but it is merely due to the essence of the world in which these characters inhabit.  It is a metaphysical world called simply “The Mid-World” and this place occupies its own timeline that every now and then eclipses the Human timeline of the Surface World, or physical world in which “we” occupy.  Access to this “Mid-World” is achieved through any one of the Seven Oculus portals, but only by permission or calling by The One. Transit between the physical world and the metaphysical world without that permission will result in disastrous personal consequences for the intruder, either a full-mental breakdown or a permanent physical deformity or tragic fusing to whatever the intruder may be touching when attempting the invasion.

Some of the creatures are purely bizarre and arise and take their forms from tribal legends of peoples through the Surface World.  There are creatures called Moon-Sprites which are far more hideous than one might think from the mere sound of their playful name.  (Think of an aquatic silver-eyed, fish-belly white, mercurial bleeding, Medusa-creature, with living tentacles.)

There are many tie ins to biblical historical accounts and even two mysterious biblical prophets that show up in it.

I am fairly sure all that “before stuff” plops me primarily in the “Fantasy” category.