Wow, you’re actually interested in more details of my stupid little story? Goodness! Be still, my fluttering heart... ^_~ There are links to more reference pictures below the text, and if you need any more pictures, have a question, or anything else, feel free to email me at Faerie_Dust_Art@hotmail.com. Thank you all soooo much, and have fun!
The Story
Well, this story has been around for a while, festering in the back caverns of my mind playing poker with my non-existent muse and occasionally jumping out to give me a little jab in the right direction. So far, I have the basis of the story and about a third of one comic issue. It is based with Fallon as the main character, but I also wanted to create a strong supporting cast and a believable world and history around the story, so most of my work has been creating the world behind the story. As for the actual plot, err...there isn’t much of one yet. *ducks bricks* Yeah, I know. Bad me. What I know so far is that the story will revolve around the adventures of Fallon and her friends as they live, learn, and generally make fools of themselves; while all the time the shadows and rumors of war are gathering… The story also deals with the themes of fear, prejudice, insensible hatred, and finding one’s identity in a world that seems too cold for anyone to survive in. Err...yeah.
Background of the Realms
Basics
In this land, generally known as "the Realms," (that is, until I come up with a better name) the “good” races co-exist relatively peacefully, but often it is an uneasy truce. The “elder” races of Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings carry old grudges and do not always fully trust each other, but they all work in concert to hold back the equally old but foul Goblin-kind, the Undead, and the perversion that they seek to spread across the realms. Only Man is undecided in which path he will take; Man has the capability to be as pure as any elf, but he is also capable of cruelty unmatched by any orc. It is often said among the elves that the final outcome of this eons-long feud will depend not on the elder races, but on the actions of man. This prophecy is especially worrying now that the rumors of war have crept up through the world...
Magic is wild in this world. Everyone has the potential to use magic, given they have enough training, but only mancers can control the Great Forces of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Sorcerers are also born with power, but they are weaker and cannot command the sheer elemental power of the mancers. However, hardly anybody knows this, and mancers get blamed for many problems that were caused by renegade thieves who knew just enough magic to pull of a heist or murder a nobleman for his gold. People who have only seen it used for selfish gains often misunderstand magic. As a result, mancers are distrusted and outcast by the same people they fight so hard to protect. This world is filled with distrust and suspicion, but the people would have a heck of a lot more to worry about if there was no Academy or any independent sorcerers running around.
So far in the project, I have created only two countries, Coranth and Aeolia. Coranth is Fallon’s “homeland.” I don’t have any details yet, but it’s rather a harsh land, all things considered. The Academy is based in Coranth (see the Academy section), but all of their magic would not be able to change the rugged land. The people have adapted to the land, and they are as tough as the sea-cliffs by the oceans (as yet unnamed, as is most of the planet/realm/whatever.) The mountainous regions of Coranth are filled with both dwarves and orcs, and the human inhabitants are quite content to stay to the coast and the flatlands.
Aeolia, on the other hand, is a warm, fertile country with citizens who welcome or at least tolerate strangers. Halflings especially love this land, with its warm climate and extended rule of peace. The land of Calais’ birth, this expansive country in the southlands is very much like Italy. Vineyards, farmlands, and rolling hills make up most of the countryside, and Aeolian wine is known all throughout the world for its fragrant taste and potent kick. More than once, invading Kings have tried to take the seemingly simple country of Aeolia, but under the façade of naïveté and country bumpkin-ness is a trained, fighting force that has routed armies. The King of Aeolia is more of a figurehead, and it is the three Dukes of the land who do most of the actual ruling. They are skilled, trained negotiators and diplomats, but border on the edge of paranoia if there is any threat to their land. Low-key but trained soldiers, soldiers who are trained to stay low and shoot first, patrol the borders of Aeolia. Calais’ father is Duke of the First Third (?- “third” doesn’t fit there…), and is arguably the most powerful and certainly the most influential of the three dukes. It is rumored that if there were no royal bloodline to the throne then the Kingship of Aeolia would pass to the Duke. However, he is quite content where he is, because being a Duke gives him more actual power, whereas as a King, he would have little or no power and control.
The Academy
The Academy is only a school in the very vaguest sense of the word. Rather, it is a loosely connected group of master sorcerers, mages, and mancers who each take one or more apprentices under their wing to train them to control their power. These children can be mancers, sorcerers, or any bright individual who seems to have a knack for magic. Often these children have been shunned all their lives and do not know why they are different from the others around them. The Academy takes them in until they have completed their training and can live on their own. It is “based” in Coranth simply because that is where most of the master magi (magic users) have chosen to live there, for reasons that they choose not to disclose. This of course baffles the Coranthians (and Fallon) because Coranth is a harsh land and the weather can be absolutely wretched. Each of these prospective settlers must prove his honor and trustworthiness before he is allowed to settle in the slightly paranoid country. It is ironic that while the other races are welcome, human magic-users must prove themselves before they are accepted.
The Mancer Wars
Several generations ago were the terrible Mancer Wars, in which there was terrible fighting between mancer brothers and much of the world was laid waste. It is from these catastrophic years of turmoil that the world’s mutual distrust of mancers has sprung. All of the records of the Mancer Wars were lost (i.e. I haven’t thought of them yet…) but it is known that before the Wars, mancers were much more common than they are today. In the years following the Wars, only Men have been born mancers, whereas any of the races can still bear a sorcerer. However, this was not always the case. Legends and old records tell of Elven, Halfling, and even Dwarven mancers; but some catastrophic event in the Mancer Wars somehow severed the ties that these races held to the Elemental Planes. There is no known record of any mancer born to the Goblin-kind. Most of the mancers of the world were killed in the wars, and it seems that mancer births are getting rarer and rarer. Fallon is one of the rare mancers who was born since the Mancer Wars and has actually survived; though nobody knows quite how she managed that.
Master Dryden, Fallon, Rierdon (an apprentice Pyromancer…he doesn’t have a design or a history yet, and in any case he doesn’t appear until later in the story), and maybe one or two others are the only known living mancers. However, the stories are legendary, and people with funny marks (albinism, odd birthmarks, etc.) are mistaken for mancers and are persecuted out of fear. If a true mancer should show up, these people would be terrified.
Cast
Fallon-The main character. Duh. I think I’ve babbled about her long enough, time to move on to my other victi- I mean characters.
Noah Faroaks-Noah is a young elf (elves! ^_____^) who is apprenticed to a master swordsman. He is tall and slender as elves usually are, with brown hair and piercing green eyes. Noah usually comes off as distant or even haughty, but it is merely his elven aloofness and reservation that makes him put on a mask of arrogance to hide his true feelings. Once someone gains his trust, however, he has a warm heart and a generally positive outlook on life. He *is* an elf, after all. While he is proficient with most weapons due to his natural agility and extensive training, his primary weapon is an elven longsword. He is distinctly un-elven in his love of practical jokes; especially those pranks played on those who he feels really deserve it. He hasn’t got much of a past yet (or at least, none that he will disclose), but his master just so happens to be the brother of Fallon’s master.
Noah is one of the main characters of the story, and he acts most often as Fallon’s cohort or partner-in-crime. Their first meeting is…adversarial…to put it nicely, and at first they can’t stand each other. Time and fate conspire to throw them together, however, and they somehow end up working together. They come to tolerate each other beyond their careful professionalism, and even come to really like and trust each other.
An observer would be really hard-pressed to figure this out, though, because they bicker. A lot. They spend most of their time together bickering. If one really, really wanted to piss them off, they could say that they sound like an old married couple. Of course, the offender would probably crawl away missing several teeth, but I digress. Either of them would gladly give their life for the other, but neither of them would ever come anywhere close to admitting it, just as they would never admit that the other one’s actually kinda cute. The nearly constant sniping at each other just conceals the fact that they really do respect and care for each other, despite all of their protests to the contrary.
Calais- Calais (cah-lie-as) is a journeyman mage- soon to take final exams, etc. to become a full mage. Calais is completely unflappable, calm, and composed. Her hair is long and silver-blond, pulled back into a loose braid that hangs almost to her waist and her eyes are a clear grey. She is an aristocrat, daughter of the First Duke of Aeolia - the duke is a steward of a third of Aeolia and is second only to the ancient King in power. Her royal birth shows in her demeanor and her poise, and it doesn’t hurt her recognition value that she wears a small silver circlet on her forehead. She studies under the tutelage of Master Connoll, a short-tempered mage who also lives in Coranth. Calais has spent her entire life studying the art of governing a country, and chose to become a mage only for the good that she can do for her people. She is totally committed to her duty and obligation to her people and has become an expert at repressing her own emotions and impulses for the “greater good” of Aeolia. She also plays the harp, something that she considers so princessly trite that she avoids it whenever possible.
Although she is in her early twenties and is therefore several years older than Fallon, she quietly understands everything and is the closest thing that Fallon has to a real best friend.
Rowan- I haven’t worked out yet what role that Rowan will play in the story, but she’s an elf, so that makes it all worthwhile (XD hahaha). Rowan has deep green eyes and chestnut brown hair that hangs about to the middle of her back, with two twists of hair tied in the front behind her ears. She is a ranger, a free spirit who roams the lands protecting the forests and sylvan creatures. Her principal weapon is a wicked halberd that is taller than she is, but she also carries a curved falchion (heavy scimitar) and a couple of daggers. She has to carry all of these weapons because she is a wanderer, living in the wilds of the untamed lands. Rowan has few possessions, only her clothes, weapons, a few trinkets, and her herb satchel. She has an extensive knowledge of herbs and healing, a gift that she uses to heal whomever is truly in need. Her herb satchel is deceptively small, but the interior is enchanted to hold whatever the carrier desires to store. (She’s been known to pull half a bush out of that bag, and sometimes even stores her halberd in it. It’s a useful little thing.) Rowan is very connected to the land and is freer than most people of the world, even her fellow elves. She is cheerful, light hearted, and remembers the innate connection with nature that her fellow elves have too often forgotten.
Master Dryden- Dryden is a master Aeromancer who lives in the capital city-castle of Coranth. He is very old, and his face is lined with thousands of wrinkles around his white beard, but his mind is still sharp and he is surprisingly agile for an old man. His “Marks,” the features that distinguish him as a mancer, are his eyes. He has no irises or pupils. Instead, his eyes hold a swirling yellow-clear vortex that churns eerily like oil in water. However, he is not blind, and his sight has also not declined with his age. Master Dryden is the only known living survivor of the Mancer Wars.
Fallon’s master and Noah’s swordsman master are brothers. Sorcery seems to run in the veins of this family, as all but a few have been born marked for a life of magic, although Dryden is the only living son who was born a mancer. The brothers grew up fairly close, but the younger brother (tentatively named Aspen) often felt that his family, who paid more attention to his older brother, slighted him. They had a bitter falling-out when they were young and went their separate ways; one taking the traditional path of Sorcery at the Academy, and the other forsaking his magic birthright in favor of the more tangible warrior path. When the elder Dryden chose to pursue his power as a mancer, his fiery younger brother chose to run away from home and become a swordsman. Of course, Dryden wasn’t too happy, and he confronted his brother after his own training was complete. They had a bitter face-off, and it was only the timely intervention of Aspen’s master that stopped them from killing each other. They haven’t spoken to each other since.
Master Aspen-Um…I’m too lazy to type out his history here. Look above at Master Dryden’s section. He has neatly kept black hair that is graying at the temples and a neat black goatee. His mannerisms are very precise and restrained, but you really, really don’t want to piss this guy off.
Master Connoll-Master Connoll is still a minor character at the moment. He is Calais’ master in the Academy at Coranth. He has sharp, angular features on a long face that gives him a harsh appearance. His hair is gray and cut neatly to his chin- he would rather die than let it be known that he used to be a redhead. *g* He speaks in clipped tones, abrupt and often sarcastic, as is his personality. He also gets exasperated easily, but shows it by becoming brusque and rather ruder than usual.
Extra Reference Pictures
castshot_mob.jpg – pencil sketches of pretty much everybody. They’re kinda crappy, but you get the idea.
cfn_mob.jpg – this is currently the best picture I have of Calais and Noah’s standard outfits. Nobody’s outfit is set in stone, so feel free to dress Fallon or whoever in whatever you like (within reason).
dryden_mob.jpg – comic panels of Master Dryden, since I don't have any better reference pics of him
inkwork_mob.jpg – a couple of inkwork drawings of Fallon, looking sullen and pissed, respectively. (I draw her looking pissed off an awful lot…^^;;;)
rowan_mob.jpg – fullbody shot of Rowan
rowan2_mob.jpg – pencil headshot of Rowan. You can see her hair better here.
Please let me know if you need any more reference pictures!
