The Search for Horizon's Shadow: July 2010

Monday, July 12, 2010

Why it takes so long to finish.

Firstly, I am a hunt and peck sort of typer. I keep imagining I will take a typing class or the like but I don't. My typing speed is laughable at best so that is the big excuse.

Secondly, I do not do this full time. Writing is part compulsion and part hobby. It is a brain break from the crazy shit I do for a living but I actually have a career that detracts from writing. If I am lucky I can squeeze out eight hours a week though I often don't even have that much time.

Last is my penchant for constant...constant...constant re-writing, re-editing, and revising. I have likely deleted half of everything I have written and my last word count was 89K. Yes 89K and I am maybe only 1/8th the way there. Maybe.

That said I am wrapping up chapter 4 which had been bothering me for awhile. Then again everything I write bothers me and deciding when it is time to stop and call it done is the hardest part.

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Rules For Writing

I set out to write a book. To do this I had to create a list of does and don'ts reflective of the things that I like and dislike about the great books I have read. Here is a partial list of those rules:

1. The Gandalf Effect: If I am going to have a very powerful caster then it will actually use magic. No skipping out on the team when they need you most.

2. The Problem With Power: If powerful mages use that shit frequently then people get scared of near-godlike mages. These sorts become the deadliest catch and often get hunted down and snuffed out. Tremendous power has serious consequences.

3. Power Currupts...Period: The downside of tapping into knowledge that pushes the parameters of one's consciousness (Magic) is that doing so often makes one quite mad. Magic is madness for most.

4. Religion Ruins Everything: My races are not the god fearing sort. When one realizes that one is powerful enough to reverse gravity, that individual has little use for faith in a higher being. My book has no gods.

5. Downplay the Hero Factor: These are largely normal folk who happen to have a story written about them. Magic and adventure are common in this world, I just happen to be writing about some of the people in it.

6. Realistic Timeline: 100,000 years ago? Pah, who cares (sorry JRRT). We humans have a hard enough time imagining a time when the pharaohs walked the land or even envisioning the rise of industrialism around the time of the Civil War. Nuum's history is measured in hundred of years, not thousands unless necessary.

7. The Jordan Dilemma: I truly dislike a book that recants the previous book/s for the first 50 pages and retells the back story, rules for magic, or plight of the hero every chapter or so. No repeating unless necessary.

8. Engage the Senses: Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, Hearing. Put it all in there as often as you can.

Lexicon for Nuum

Aigurdu: A sweet stone fruit with a dark green skin and a yellow meat. Common to S. Zavoor.

Anthon Oil: The tinture of the anthon flower. Known for its strong analgesic uses but can be highly addictive.

Aparat: A machine-like object usually composed of metal, wood, and or clay. Most are fueled by magic energy and built to perform a wide range of tasks. Similar to a construct.

Assylum: A slang term to describe the old universe prior to the Sundering.

Bantling’s Soil: A blackish-green mold that grows on harn grain in hard shingle-like plates which are dried and shredded for its strong stimulant properties. Used by clavigers as a focus for Sirancal based spells.

Bohuol: A race native to Nuum. The bohuol are seldom encountered outside of Vulswaen.

Carrion Corpse: A type of undead creature. Similar in some ways to a zombie but invested with a greater hunger for flesh and retaining a slightly higher intellect.

Chosk: A creature common in most fresh water environments, Nuum's equivalent of the crocodile. Noted for their large toothy maw, myopic eyes, and sharp claws, they are quite fierce. Some varieties can grow to twenty feet when food is plentiful. There is a rare salt water species near the equatorial waters of Vulswaen said to grow to thirty-five feet.

Crowler: This is a sleek river and lake dwelling fish that grows to immense size, up to twenty five feet. It is a blind bottom feeder and can disperse a powerful shock to stun its prey.

Cujanir: A predatory mammal ranging in size from about as big as a lion to slightly larger than a bison. Common to the foot hills and savannah of southern Zavoor. Known for its ferocious temper and highly territorial nature.

Dreck Tossed: To describe something unwanted or tossed aside, similar to bull shit.

Drenolok: A type of undead creature. Similar in some ways to a vampire except the drenolok feeds on fear. It will terrorize its victim to the point of raving lunacy before feeding, sometimes re
turning to the same prey repeatedly until it either dies from fear or grows fearless at which point it is slain.

Erezium: A type of magically enhanced ceramic infused with various metals, gems, and or stones creating unique colors and properties. Commonly used in weapons, virders, and aparats.

Falling Star: An alcohol with mind altering qualities, similar to true absinthe.

Farg: A slang word of Blade Ridge gebahr origin, derived from the word faharg which means to have sloppy or drunken sex, but also used loosely to mean something that has been botched or performed very poorly and/or anything that can be considered bothersome or unsavory.

Flags: A card game typically played for money. There are several forms of flags such as Double Deck (two decks), Cahoots (swap a card to the right), or Liar's Pass (high hand wins but high card passed to the left before call), and so on.

Frak: A slang word of Sepoorian origin, derived from the word fragment or frag. The meaning loosely translates as something that could be anywhere or dispersed over a large area, “Where in the frak is it?”

Frost Phantom: A type of undead creature. Within the family of monsters known as malaegoes.

Gasper: A cigarette made from dried and often flavored sacha leaf.

Ghost Light: The simplest of magical lights which simply gives off a dull deadened yellow green glow slightly brighter than a torch.

Gontoag: On offworld creature af relatively high intellect, used as slaves by the zenild.

Great Annihilator: The sucking vortex at the center of the multi-verse. It is the generator of entropy and destruction. It sole purpose is to rend existence asunder and therein fuel the ever-churning River of a Thousand-Thousand Suns.

Great Hunt: A period of time which marks the end of the Harrowing and the Closing of the Gates when Nuum's native races and a handful of outworld slave races banded together to eradicate the threat of the zenild and many of the foreign creatures transported across linear space. Many of the creatures of legend were slain in this time.

Gur: Similar in size to a small rhino but raised like boar or pig in pens. The meat is similar to wild pig and the hide can be tanned as a versatile leather.

Harn Grain: A hardy grain grown and harvested throughout Zavoor and exported around the globe. There are several varieties but all are used similarly for breads and cereals.

Harrowing: A cluster of many wars that spanned many years and reached over every continent on Nuum. Started by the zenild and their attempts at enslaving the peoples of Nuum, it became a time of mass famine, plague, and death for all races. It ended with the Sundering of the Gates.

Iron Pine: A rare pine tree that grows only in the Tine region of northern Xhamantil. The wood is said to be hard as steel and ever-sharp as long as it is honed with rosin.

Liar's Tonic: A very strong alcohol, similar to everclear.

Iahri: A derogatory word derived from the urma word Iha-Hiri, meaning 'without pride' but used in Forint to loosely mean worthless.

Illsabul: A type of undead creature. Distinct from other undead, the illsabul feasts on the brains of the recently dead and in doing so retains some of their memories. This is then used to lure new prey to itself by mimicing voices and phrases of the dead if at all possible.

Kana Spice: A cloyingly sweet spice used in a variety of ways, such as in pastries, teas, and even mixed with sacha weed to smoke.

Kedrin: A predatory mammal common across Grimmsalon, Rathdra, Vulswaen, and Zavoor. Similar in many was to the great cats, the kedrin come in many shapes and varieties depending on their environment. The smaller ones are even occasionally domesticated.

Kedrineye: A humanoid race genetically modified by the urma from offworld humans as slaves to have enhanced vision in darkness. The name is due to the distinct triangular shape of the pupil, similar to that of the kedrin.

Klygot: A race of squat albino ruminants native to the planet Nuum. Once inhabiting most of northern and eastern Grimmsalon, as-well-as Zavoor, and Rathdra they now only maintain their numbers primarily in Rathdra and north western Grimmsalon.

Malaego: A creature crafted by magic, it is the melding of elemental magic with a soul heavily tainted by darken. They are easier to craft than the onaego but are very volatile and destructive in nature. Something between an aparat (construct) and the undead, it shares both traits.

Manko: An alcohol with a wide range of variety but usually a smoky quality, similar to whiskey.

Mass: A measurement of weight similar to one kilogram. One mass equals about two pounds.

Measures: The basic measures of distance on Nuum are (from smallest to largest): Little Bit: apx 1 milimeter, Bit: apx 1 centimeter, Short Span: apx 1.5 ft, Span: apx 3 ft, Long Span: apx 10 spans, Run: apx 100 spans, Long Run: apx 1000 spans. The standard weight measurement is a Mass: apx 2 pounds.

Nexus Seeds: These objects appear throughout the universe and are an aspect of the physical knot of two or more planes in the universe. They can be used to travel, like gates, from one locaion to another across space. The space between those threads of space is known as Uerayle or the void and the Nexus Seed allows its wielder to fold that nothingness. All known seeds on Nuum were collected and destroyed during the Closing of the Gates.

Onaego: A creature crafted by magic, it is the melding of elemental magic with a new soul freshly churned out of the River of a Thousand-Thousand Suns. Similar to the malaego, they too are something between an aparat (construct) and the undead, sharing both traits. They are exceedingly rare as they are difficult to forge.

Pin Pipe: A pipe commonly used to smoke sacha leaf, so named because it is long, thin, and has a vaporizing chamber at the distal end that is typically ball shaped, making it look like a push pin.

Raak: A race native to Nuum. The raak are seldom encountered outside of Vulswaen.

River of a Thousand Thousand Suns: In the teachings of Sartur this is the connecting force of life that strings together all life in the cosmos. It is the web of harmony that keeps the universe from collapsing into the Great Annihilator.

Rock: Or to rock, as in "I will rock for the Commander right now." It is a slang verb meaning to call or contact somebody by-way of a talk rock.

Sacha leaf: A leaf commonly found in S. Zavoor and Vulswaen, harvested and dried for smiking. Often flavored with kana spice to mellow its harsh flavor. It has a mild stimulant effect and also acts as a mild laxitive in humanoids.

Saimoq: A humanoid race of offworlders brought to Nuum as slaves by the zenild.

Saroak: A large herd animal similar in size and use to a camel. Tamed as livestock, it’s meat is popular throughout Zavoor, and the milk is commonly churned into a salty cheese called Vetra. It has a dense shaggy wool commonly used for winter garments.

Shaeden: A humanoid race genetically modified by the urma from offworld humans as slaves to be able to manipulate darken energy.

Shank Oak: A rare oak wood that makes a serrated hard wood blade. Though not as dense as iron pine it is valued for its perpetually jagged edge and unbreakable nature.

Span: Similar in length to a meter or about three feet (see Measures).

Spectre Lamp: A derivation of a wraith orb but gives off an even reddish ebb of light in total darkness, brighter than a ghost light, (see wraith orb and ghost light).

Sundering of the Gates: An event that marked the end of the Harrowing and the beginning of the Great Hunt. It was the collection and destruction of the Nexus Seeds, which allowed for transplanar travel and the severing of the world of Nuum from most of the threads of linear universe.

Seven Stars: After the Sundering, the world of Nuum was extrated from the macro-universe and became it's own distinct micro-universe, or Shard World. When this happened seven companion or nearby stars were taken with it and all others were left behind meaning that only seven stars now shine in Nuum's night sky.

Talk Rock: A magically infused item usually made of some semi-precious gem, that is set to contact a particular individual. Always made in pairs, they are similar to walkie-talkies but typically worn around the neck as an amulet or worn near the ear.

Tathlum Rosin: An infused rosin used to hone non-magical weapons such as iron pine and shank oak blades.

Urma: A race of creatures native to Nuum. The first race to master void-warping on Nuum, the urma exploited accessable plains for slave races, treasure, and further magic knowledge. Having nearly conquered the planet they were decimated by foreign born disease and war.

Vark: An arboreal creature native to the jungles of Erzay in E. Zavoor. Size varies by variety ranging from the size of a humming bird to the size of a howler monkey. No matter the size they are voracious eaters and adept pack predators that skitter through the trees like carnivorous squirrels.

Vetra: A salty hard cheese common throughout Zavoor. Made from Saroak milk.

Virder: Any sort of magical device that requires a charge to convert one form of energy into another, which has been imbued in that device. Virder is a derivation of the word converter.

Void Warp: The manipulation of time/space. Once used in conjunction with Nexus Seeds to travel across the known planes of existence.

Vulswaen: A continent south of Zavoor. Its volcanic mountains and lush jungles are largely unpopulated. The Zakaia, Raak, and Bohuol races live here in scattered tribes. Some humanoids, zenild, and xien also dwell here.

Wraith Orb: A powerful magical light typically housed in an orb that gets brighter as the environment gets darker. It gives off a distinct dead blue glow (also see spectre lamp an ghost light).

Xien: A race of creature native to Nuum. They are close to the elements and are seldom encountered. Their numbers were greatly reduced during the Harrowing.

Zakaia: A race native to Nuum. The zakaia are seldom encountered outside of Vulswaen.

Zavoor: A large continent on Nuum. 90% of all humanoids dwell on this land, largely clustered along the western shores. Most of this continent is covered in wild dense forests and striated with sharp mountains.

Zenild: A race of outworlders. Alerted to the location of Nuum by their contact with the urma, they attempted to enslave and control the planet. Their reign began with the Harrowing and end with the Closing of the Gates.

The Realms of Magic or 'Pools'

Bururu: The realm of mind, thought, dreams, and nightmares. It is closely bound to the realm of Querpos.

Darken: The realm of death, colorless dark, and stagnation. It is the slow drawn out tug of the soul towards the pristine nothingness of order. Its binary opposite is Sirancal. See: Great Annihilator.

Etzoth: The seasonal realm of winter, aligned with water, ice, justice, and resolve.

Haize: The seasonal realm of autumn, aligned with air, wind, determination, and travel.

Irredus: The seasonal realm of summer, aligned with fire, heat, vitality, and freedom.

Lur: The seasonal realm of spring, aligned with earth, stone, balance and contemplation.

Querpos: The realm of the body, flesh, pleasure, and passion. It is closely bound to the realm of Bururu.

Sirancal: The realm of life, the oscillating brilliance of light, and creation. It is the chaotic bustle of the soul coming to life. Its binary opposite is Darken. See: River of a Thousand Thousand Suns.

Uerayle: The void. That which is unknown, unexplainable, and exists between all things. Some believe it is a realm all its own as it was once a powerful source for magic. Its use in spells is now outlawed on Nuum.

Currency
Hub or "Nub": $1-This is the smallest of the coins, so named because it is a small tin gromet that fits like a hub inside the central hole of a gear.

Gear: $5-This copper coin is named for its gear shape which is designed to fit into a spoke.

Spoke: $10-This silver (sterling alloy) coin is named for the eight pointed star embossed on its tail which looks like spokes on a wheel. It fits snuggly inside of a wheel.

Wheel: $20-This silver coin is larger than a spoke and is so named because it looks like a thick silver wheel.

Sunner: $50-This gold coin (alloy 50/50 copper and silvermix for density) is the largest coin and fit around a wheel.

Golden Roller: $85- This is a sum that usually only comes up in bets and drinking games “I’ll bet a Golden Roller.” Or “The last one to pass out wins the Golden Roller.” This gets its name because it is a gear, a wheel, a spoke, and a sunner all fit snuggly together. If a hub is fitted into the gear, making the sum $86, then it is called a “Beggar’s Roller,” due to the charity of adding in the extra hub.

Beggar's Roller: $86-A Golden Roller plus a nub.

The Caster Professions
Clavigers: Masters of the realms of Darken and Sirancal. These casters are able to draw upon the energies of destruction and harmony to harm their foes and heal their allies.

Ghosters: These casters are the illusionist and the manipulators of the mind, altering that which is seen, heard, and even smelled. They draw upon the pool of Bururu. Within this grouping is the sub-group of Hexers which only focus on mind command spells.

Limners: These casters have access a the widest range of spells by sacrificing focus on individual spells. Spells are selected from the hive mind of their guild or school giving them access to all the pools abilities of their collective..

Materianists: Masters of the Inner Circle or four seasonal/elemental pools. These casters have fewer over all spells but master the ones they do know and learn to augment the power of their favored spells.

Reavers: Access to very few spells but able to augment what little they know with tremendous power. This mage is a blaster who focuses on meta-magic.

Seeker: This is a diviner. Seekers are commonly encountered on Nuum as sort...mage trackers and law enforcement.

Warder: These are the abjurers and the spell thieves mixed because they both ward with magic and unlock the secrets of magic.

The Combat Professions
Brigand: This is the duelist and master of quick assaults. They excel in a one-to-one match using their agility of their physical prowess.

Brute: The brute is just that, a melee combatant that soley focuses on strength in battle. The brute is able to perfom amazing feats of strength and has access to abilities that boost their pure brawn and strength.

Harbinger: This class hones their skills and power to inspire or enthrall those around them in battle by force of wilpower and charisma. The quintessential military leader.

Mastermind: This is the warmarshal, the brains behind the battle. Where the brute relys their strength, the mastermind fights relys on cognition. In melee they study the enemy and strike with cunning rather than might.

Savage: This combatant learns to chanel the power of the soul into their fighting skills. What most percieve as wild battle rage is actually a very focused spiritual ritual learned to enhace their prowess in combat.

Sentinel: Somewhere the knight and the paladin, this is the virtuous combatant or the dark general who draws strength from their stringent code of conduct. They often work in conjunction with a mages guild as bodyguards.

Skin Shifter: Able to change the actual shape of their body, the 'shifter' does not need weapons because they can become the weapon.

Warrior: The basic schooled fighters that train in various techniques to hone their powers. The warrior can become a master of just one fighting style or a dabbler in many martial arts.

The Craft Professions
Barrager: This is the ranged fighter. Not fond of geting dirty in battle the barrager hangs back and fires into the fight from a distance using wands, virders, and conventional weapons.

Grayer: So named because they gray the lines between caster, combat, and craft. They sacrifice extensive spell knowledge by training in close contact battle and highly offensive spells but learn craft specific talents that other professions do do acquire.

Harrier: Sometimes known as skirmishers or sappers, harriers are a class that revels in reeking havok on the enemy and bleeding down their opponent slowly. Using quick strikes, traps, suckerpunches, and even japes the harrier always avoids a fair fight.

Outrider: The outrider is the scout who specializes in speed and cunning to detect the presence of a target without being seen. They are adepts at information gathering, whether in a metropolitan city or in the vast frontier.

Skulker: This is the assassin. The skulker kills his/her opponent through the use of subterfuge, and shadow.

Tinkerer: This is the engineer and the artificer. The "tinks' fix that which is broken and they comand their aparats to fight along side them in battle.

Tracker: It's in the title. Unlike the seeker, the tracker actually uses largely non-magical means to hunt their targets. Masters of finding signs in the most difficult terrain, they are commonly employed as bounty hunters.

Yegg: This is the safecracker, thief, and burgler. A yegg lives to break into things and find out whats inside, solve puzzles, and find the loophole in a game to load the odds in their favor. They are equally adept at locking things away and setting and dismantling traps.