Unity's Call

Changes to the prologue...

2010-10-09T16:23:00.001-07:00

I tweaked the prologue to reflect some additional future plot points I have outlined, and also to make the foreshadowing a bit less blatant. Here is the text as it stands now....

Prologue

Eston's dream, when it came, was always the same. He saw an arcane figure hanging in the air before an army vast and powerful, energy crackling all around.

"I am become Ascendant, a walker on high, all shall kneel before me or fall in fire and blood" the arcane figure said, and the cold words rang off the surrounding mountains and boomed out to terrify the hearts of Visere. In the shadow of those words absolute silence reigned over the dusty plain as the two massive armies faced each other. The Unified Armies of High Viseroth wavered, and for a moment the fate of the world hung in the balance as a million men faced terror and felt doubt. But, in the center, massed three hundred thousand strong, the blooded veterans of a devastated nation wavered the least. For rage and lust for vengeance won out over fear in their anguished hearts. At their lead, a great King sat resolute on his war mount, drew his sword, and let loose a terrific battle cry. He was soon joined by his army, and the ferocious yell from three hundred thousand raw throats roared out across the open plain to answer the arcane figure and his army. Soon the rest of the armies of High Viseroth joined the cry and the sound was enough to rattle the titanic walls of the great city behind them.

Lost in deep sleep, Eston Lan stirred as his body tensed for what he knew must come next.

In the middle of the rising noise, a young man stood silent, his eyes focused on a strange crystalline shape as it shimmered with untold power. It had changed, the shimmering more ordered and intense as if it sensed the importance of the moment. The young man seemed to forget himself and opened a flow of mana into the unusual object. White light came, brighter than the sun, piercing all shadows for a hundred miles around High Viseroth. It consumed the mind in blazing, roiling, light. And then, in an instant, the light was gone.

Now, in the dream the viewpoint shifted and Eston saw through his own eyes.

Everything had changed. He could see creation, could see life. Time stopped, the world melted into a swirling matrix of stars and planets, millions of them, billions, all spinning, all together, all locked in a universal rhythm that set the universe pulsing like the heart of a giant that spanned all of time and creation. He saw the past, and the future, and the present. All laid out, all so clear. And other things, deep patterns that bound reality, dimensions spanning up and down spacial volumes and merging with planar fields to spin off the planes of existence. Beings, those of myth, those no longer empowered, nodded in his direction in welcome. With their approval came power, flowing through him like strong wine to set his veins on fire. Laughing voices surrounded him, others urged him to action. There were so many, so various in their forms, and wondrous. At the back of his mind, words were whisphered. Behold, the Transcendent Heirarchy is once more arisen. Brothers in struggle, brothers in power, the ebb and the flow, to create or break worlds as fate may decide.

Now the young man stood on the plain before High Viseroth surrounded by the armies he had helped bring together. He was changed, empowered. The crystalline object was gone, or rather, moved and transformed. It was within him, he realized, and a look at his outstretched arms showed his skin to be that of radiant crystal. He had become the crystalline object, and it had become him. And with it, power unimaginable, and a mandate from the powers of old. A sudden urge came over him, and the young man rose into the air and swept forward to hover next to the King who had rallied his armies. Nodding at the startled King, he turned in place to face the arcane figure. Without hesitation, he spoke.

"I am become Ascendant, a walker on high, none shall compel these lands under Infinity's Reach" he said, and the cold words rang off the surrounding mountains and boomed across the lands to strengthen the will of Visere. From across the plain, the arcane figure and the young man glared at one another, their opposed power palpable in the air. Silence had returned as all eyes fell on the two entities that had become more than men. There were gods now, and they walked the world. And soon, they would do battle amongst men.

With a start, Eston awoke. Drenched in sweat, he reached for his canteen and drank deeply from the cold mountain spring water. Around him the camp was as it should be. The fire was low, and the watchmen he could see were warming themselves over the sullen flames. There was little wind. Malice was in full, its mottled brown and red face casting a blood red light that made the stars hard to see. It always took some time for his nerves to settle after the dream, and he found it more and more difficult to put it out of his mind. It had begun six weeks before, when the Council had directed his wardens to scout into the high passes of the DaggerSpine Mountains in search of new sources of crystal for the hungry magick foundries of Visere. Eston turned over, and after a time his mind wandered again into blissful sleep. Overhead, the dim stars twinkled and Malice climbed its away across the heavens.

New material posted...

2010-10-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4 is now available in the list of chapters. I still think its pretty rough, and maybe too short, but I decided to go ahead and post it so I can move on to new stuff. I had been bogged down with it forever.

I also posted a new Background notes item that relates to chapter 4, "The Pirate Lords"

Chapter 4

Background Note Item : The Pirate Lords

Chapter 4 becomes chapter 5....

2009-12-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

Changed chapter 4 into chapter 5.

The new chapter 4 will cover the aftermath of the wardens vs. trolls battle. Decided I want to stay on that for a bit before switching back to Rall's stuff.

I'm about half way done with the new chapter 4. It will have more dialog than the previous chapters so it may be rough, dialog is not one of my strong points really. Hopefully I'll get better at that eventually.

Re-ordering of the early chapters...

2009-12-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

I've re-arranged the chapters so that the early part of the novel flows a bit better. It nows goes straight from the prologue and into Eston's mission in the mountains so that we stay with Eston early on and get some action as a hook in the first chapter - then it alternates with the Zurander Rall scenes.

I may squeeze in another Eston-chapter prior to going back to Zurander so the current 4th chapter may become chapter 5.

Also, I changed the layout of the blog so that the chapters of the novel are shown in a block separately from the background notes. I think its clearer this way.

I'm still alive....

2009-06-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

...and will be picking up this project again. Just been busy with work and life in general lately

Chapter 4 completed

2009-01-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

Chapter 4 of Unity's Call

Regarding the Trolls...

2009-01-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

Since trolls were introduced in the third chapter I've decided to post my detailed notes regarding their biology and culture as well as the nature of the trollish menace upon humankind

Notes - Trolls

Notes - The Trollish Menace

I'll work on wrapping up chapter 4 now.

Chapter 3 completed

2009-01-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

Finished the second half of chapter 3. Moving on to chapter 4 and then I'll write some more background notes to flesh out more ideas I have on the setting.

Chapter 3 of Unity's Call

First half of chapter 3...

2009-01-22T00:47:00.000-08:00

Chapter 3 is taking awhile to finish, so I've decided to go ahead and post the first half of it.

Chapter 3 - Down the Valley(first half)

More re-writes

2009-01-19T22:55:00.000-08:00

I've done another significant re-write on chapter 1 and also now a re-write on chapter 2.

In chapter 1 I have attempted to clean up the point of view so that the story remains consistently within the third person POV rather than dipping between that and omniscient. I've also tried to give Rall a bit more personality and make the character a bit more personable.

In chapter 2 I did the same in addition to stripping out some of the darker/harsher tone that Rall was taking on. He was becoming too much of a power-mad maniac and too rapidly.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2

I am going to move on to the next chapter now before I get any more bogged down in trying to perfect the first two.

Chapter 1 re-written

2009-01-19T03:06:00.000-08:00

I have re-written chapter 1 with an emphasis towards reducing the amount of data dump and tightening the narrative. I think its cleaner now but I'll be looking forward to any comments.

Revised Chapter 1

Prologue

2009-01-18T22:35:00.000-08:00

After some debating back and forth I've decided to add a prologue. My intention is to give a more compelling initial hook for the reader. Would be curious as to opinions on whether it accomplishes this or not

Prologue

Notes : A Brief History of Magick

2009-01-17T23:25:00.000-08:00

A Brief History of Magick

Notes : Magick Explained

2009-01-17T22:45:00.000-08:00

Magick Explained

Unity's Call - Chapter 2

2009-01-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

Chapter 2 of Unity's Call

Unity's Call - Chapter 1

2009-01-17T19:14:00.000-08:00

Chapter 1 of Unity's Call

Introduction

2009-01-17T19:07:00.000-08:00

This blog is intended as a place to post chapters of the new fantasy novel I am working on. Chapters will be posted, as well as various notes about the fantasy world.