There are slightly different dialects, particularly in Lianti, where the Illusionist network is banned from operation. They still speak the same language, but have an accent different from those in Attarnon. You’ll see this when Isem arrives in Lianti.

The second language is the original language of the Western people. It is primarily based on symbols, where each symbol represents a word – usually a noun. The reason this language fell out of use is its difficulty in representing complex thoughts. In ancient western civilization – wild as it was – there was no need for such abstract things, but as they developed into a more peaceful nation, they needed a better language, and adopted one based on the Eastern language. There are very few who still speak the old Western language, other than the Northmen.

The old Eastern language is spoken more commonly in the East, particularly in Aridia, where they have had less contact with the West. However, it is so similar to the common language in the West that the two can almost be used interchangeably – think American English vs. British English. There were never any regional dialects in the East – the culture is far too organized to allow such a degradation of their language.

Editing progress: slow, but moving. Current scene I’m working on is a new one – Isem is summoned to see the leader of the Asylum, who tells him some important things.

Male names contain more hard or sharp sounds like K, T, or B, and will always (usually) end in a consonant. Examples: Isem, Tomat, Armel, Bayett, Tarvin, Timal, Arlin, Jordel, Toril, etc.

Female names tend to be softer, and will usually end in a vowel. There are more exceptions to this rule (Loral, Millian, Meris) than there are to the male name rule. Examples: Angeli, Tori, Sasha, Sera, Rienna, Reyna, Shirina, etc.

While first names are similar in both the Eastern and Western nations, last names still have some differences. Families originally from the west will have names that consist of several (usually three) distinct syllables and usually end in an A or U. Examples: Tori Bamaru, Armel Nairobu, Nik Subata.

Last names of families from the east are more likely to end in a consonant, most likely an N, and are usually two syllables. Examples: Bayett Laysen, Angeli Roinen, Loral Feynan.

Editing progress: Not much over the holidays, though I have organized what needs to be done. There are currently 41 scenes that need more significant revisions (adding important bits or changing some details), 27 that need minor changes (adding tension or rewriting bits that don’t flow well), and 5 new scenes to write.

The coins, at their simplest, are pieces of metal with a value and a symbol stamped into them. The symbol serves an important function – it names the smith who determined the value of the coin. If the coin is determined to be counterfeit in some way, such as being a bit of iron plated in gold, or if the stamped value is inaccurate, the smith can be prosecuted under the law – or, occasionally, outside of the law, depending on who his coins affect. As such, smiths guard their stamps very closely.

Some smith symbols are recognized instantly across most of Attarnon, and the coins are accepted at face value with no questions asked, since the smith has proven himself trustworthy. Unknown smith symbols are more likely to be examined closely by the merchant accepting them.

There are several methods that have been devised to cheat the system, though none of them are in widespread use. The first involves shaving small pieces off the coins, leaving the symbol and the value intact, but the coin a little lighter. This is time consuming, however, and is not worth the time is takes for the little value it provides, except perhaps for the higher value coins. Another tactic that has been attempted is to reproduce a certain smith’s mark, either to pass off counterfeit coins, or to discredit a smith. However, smith symbols are complex and difficult to reproduce, and a merchant’s eyes are sharp.

The values of coins are determined by the value of the metal used to craft them. Iron coins, called ferits, are the cheapest. These are often not even stamped, as their value is so low that there would be no sense in counterfeiting them. Copper is next, and are called cuvers. It takes 45 ferits to equal the value of a single cuver. Steel coins are called dachals, and are the most common coin found in Attarnon. A dachal is worth 20 cuvers. Next is silver, common among high-priced transactions. These coins are called argets, and are worth 20 dachals. Last, and worth 20 argets each, are the aurits, made of gold. These are extremely rare, and only a few smiths are known to even make them.

Editing update: Finished that last scene, though it may still need a bit of tweaking. Made a list of all the edits that need to be done, and working through that. Don’t expect much from the next couple weeks. Christmas and all.

Moving north, the shoreline gradually returns to beaches, but it also gets colder. By the time the shore is back to normal, the ground is covered in snow and ice nearly year-round. Somewhere around this point, the Northlands begin. Along Attarnon’s northern border are a series of towers, each one within Illusionist messaging distance of the next two on each side. This is the official border line, and squadrons of Quis and Madmen man these towers in rotating shifts to repel Northman raids. No roads extend beyond this point, and only a fool would journey there. Between the cold and the roving bands of Northmen, the chance of survival is slim at best.

To the south, Attarnon shares a once-violent border with Lianti, who split off into their own country some time ago. While there were – and still occasionally are – some minor border skirmishes, the war was not particularly bloody, for the most part. At the time, Attarnon did not have the control of their Madmen that they now do, nor the support of the Quis. By the time Attarnon became as powerful as they now are, public opinion no longer supported a war, and Lianti became a hesitant trading partner. Some battle sites were lost, and the bodies are still out there somewhere.

To the east are the Mountains, though Attarnon’s border ends somewhere in the foothills. Towns here tend to be rougher than elsewhere, particularly in the southeast. This is likely due to the ease with which criminal types can disappear into the mountains should they be pursued. Closer to the northern border, a large river runs from the mountains and all the way through the country, passing the capital city of Insen and eventually emptying into the ocean. This is a major trade route between the mountain kingdom and Attarnon.

Central Attarnon is forested. Almost entirely, except where the trees have been cut down to build villages, or burned down in the occasional forest fire. The trees are mixed, with a higher concentration of coniferous trees to the north, and more deciduous trees to the south. Slightly rolling hills cover the landscape. The city of Insen was built near the river, about two span’s march from the mountains, slightly more north than south. It sits on a large hill, with walls that reach out of the ground itself to embrace the buildings within. The King’s palace sits on the peak of the hill, and the Asylum is nearby, but closer to the river.

In total, it would take somewhere around 6 to 8 span to walk from the western border of Attarnon to the eastern, depending on walking speed and the number of hours a day spent walking. On a good Attarnon horse, it could be as little as a single span, whereas with a Druid-bred Ganyan horse, it could take as little as two days. From north to south would be about 20% less.

Editing update: planning on finishing up that scene today, then we’ll see what I need to do with the Asylum scenes.

In recent years – since the War of Magic, if that can be considered recent – the LEOs have been a sort of counter to the Quis, who are often viewed as holding too much power over the country. Any non-magical disturbance is investigated by the LEOs, and often magic-related crimes as well, provided they bring a Qui with them.

Officially, the LEOs have more power than the Quis, though either one can arrest the other if they have cause. If necessary, a LEO can act as executioner, though this is frowned upon. There is no official court system. In theory, criminals are supposed to be brought before the King, but in reality this is far too impractical for all but the most serious of crimes. Most villages handle their own criminals.

Each village has at least one LEO, with most having three or four. The LEO in charge will be the one who usually passes judgment. A summary of these judgments will be passed up to the King to be read and approved. If the judgments are not satisfactory, disciplinary action will be taken. In theory, at least.

LEOs are sometimes called Lions. This is not usually taken as an offensive remark, and is used as slang between officers, or in many other non-official situations. The term ‘cat’, however, is meant to be offensive, and is not suggested to be used within hearing range of a LEO.

Edits update: About two lines since last week. There are a couple things I need to fit into this scene, and I’m figuring out how to do so.

Druids – Woodworking, mostly. A druid can control the shape a tree grows into, and can form intricate shapes from the wood. In addition, Druid-grown wood doesn’t suffer from knots or other imperfections, and so is highly valued. A lesser known use for Druids is modifying and breeding animals for specific traits, though this requires techniques only known in Ganyan, which are a closely held secret. Darill horses are sought after for this reason.

Elementalists – Usually work with fire – for example, in a forge – or with stone. Elementalist stonework is common in Ganyan, with stone spires rising into the sky. In Attarnon, without the use of Ratans, the most complicated stonework done has been the Asylum wall – a solid, perfectly polished chunk of stone, four feet thick and nearly twenty feet high, that surrounds the entire grounds. Less commonly, Elementalists are asked to work with water or air, to create wells or lift heavy objects.

Warders – Warder-wrought steel is incredibly intricate, due to the Warder’s ability to mould the metal with his hands directly, rather than requiring a hammer. With the assistance of an Elementalist, the metal can easily be heated to molten or near-molten levels, at which point the Warder, immune to the heat, can easily shape the metal as if it were clay. Other uses of Warder include bodyguards and Wards against magic for the most paranoid.

Necromancers – A Necromancer can usually be found on the teams of law enforcement officials working on murder cases. If they’re lucky, the spirit of the deceased will still be around for the Necromancer to speak with, or even revive, depending on the injury. Another use is in the arenas where warriors fight to the death and are raised after the battle.

Illusionists – Entertainment is a common application – the Illusionist will project a scene for a crowd of onlookers. Depending on the quality of the production, the actors will either be projections as well, or real actors that have to be careful not to destroy the illusion when they are required to interact with the scenery. The other common usage is as messengers, since they can project a voice to another person. Illusionists have a network that they can send messages through, from one side of Attarnon to the other, if necessary. There is a limit to how far they can project their voice, so the Illusionists are carefully spaced.

Scouts – They make good assassins and thieves. There’s little they can do on the honest side of society, though some clever individuals have come up with uses – like the woman who wanted someone to tend to her flowers without trampling them – Scouts don’t leave footprints. Or the man who suspected his house guests were stealing from him.

Healers – There is usually a Healer in every town with a sufficient population. They are incredibly useful to have around, for obvious reasons.

Shifters – Spy work is the obvious one, since a Shifter can look like anyone he wants to. Shifters don’t have a common role in Attarnon, though they can be called upon to do odd jobs.

Mentalist – Mentalists tend to work on their own, mostly due to the fact that most people don’t like having someone around who can read their thoughts. Tends to make people nervous. However, Mentalists are incredibly useful to law enforcement officials who want to know if a person is lying. Most towns will employ at least one Mentalist for this purpose.

Assistants – You can find Assistants lurking nearly everywhere there are people doing difficult jobs, as they can push their stamina into others, helping them do more work. The Asylum itself employs several Assistants for this reason, and they often help out when strenuous tasks are required. There is also a secret to Assistants that has been hidden from society for quite some time…

Editing update: Realized I need a new scene in Chapter Two, so I’ve been working on that. It’s about half done.

Since that time, the Quis in Attarnon have been on a downward spiral. There are several reasons why they are weaker now than they ever have been in the past. The first is simple complacency – Madmen have been conditioned to believe that the Quis are more powerful than themselves, and so fall easily when caught. In truth, there are ways to resist the Quis, but these methods have been suppressed. And so the Quis don’t need to keep themselves in top condition.

The second is their training. The old method – the one Jarem Nebriah undertook – was extremely slow. It took, on average, ten years for Quis to learn how to master their skills. The new method – the one developed and now used exclusively in the Asylum – can be as quick as a month, most of which is spent training in combat abilities. I can’t go into the details of how this works at the moment, as that would be a minor spoiler, but suffice to say they don’t get the chance to truly hone their skills. In addition, there are more subtle uses of their abilities that are ignored completely.

And the final reason is a lack of understanding. Most Quis in Attarnon do not know their true purpose, what their powers are, or where they come from. All they know is that they’re stronger, faster, and they can block Madmen. I won’t explain this right now, but there is a reason why Quis take oaths to keep the law, and why some see themselves as peacekeepers.

There are Quis in the world that do not share these weaknesses, but most of them are in the eastern lands, and rarely venture west. In Attarnon, a particularly determined group of Madmen would likely be able to defeat a group of Quis.

There won’t be much information on the Quis – or Resses, or Vers – until the second book, which ventures into the eastern kingdoms of Darill and Aridia.

Editing update: Finished the new beginning and the edits on the Prologue and Chapter One. Then I spent a large portion of time on “fantasy research” in the form of Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson and Skyrim.

The second form of life consisted of a Body and a Spirit. Not only could these creatures interact with the physical world, but they had instincts and reactions drawn subconsciously from the spirit realm. They were not, however, capable of conscious thought. These were the animals.

And the third form of life was created with the trinity of Body, Spirit, and Mind. These creatures had conscious thoughts, could reason and plan – and they could use magic. They were, of course, the humans.

It is theorized that, as there is a physical realm and a spirit realm, there must be a realm devoted to the Mind as well. Further, this must be a realm of great power, as it is where all magic is drawn from. Great effort has gone into attempts to discover this realm, but with no success. Some believe that Mentalists hold the key, as they can catch glimpses of another’s conscious thoughts.

This is also why a Madman’s mind deteriorates the more he uses magic – the power needs to flow through the mind and into the physical realm through the body. In truth, when a Madman snaps, it’s not his mind that breaks. If it was, Ratans wouldn’t be able to use magic. Rather, it’s the connection between mind and body that gets eroded away.

Of interest is the fact that animals have spirits. This is important for two reasons. One, it means that anything a Necromancer can do with a human spirit, he can do with an animal’s. This includes something as simple as returning it to its body, or something as complex as fusing the spirit to another object.

The other reason is enchantments. Enchantments are something that can only be performed by a Ver, and they require the use of spirits. This usually involves a sacrifice. If animals didn’t have spirits, a human sacrifice would be required. While this is done on occasion – human spirits produce the strongest effects – it is frowned upon for obvious reasons.

Editing update – done with the first scene of the new beginning. There should be one more scene left, and then it’ll get into where it started before, which was a bit too abrupt.

One odd thing about Ratans is that there is no record of them before about 500 A.C., despite Madmen existing long before then. In fact the term ‘Ratan’ comes from the name of the first Madman to snap – Ceodore Rattan.

Despite the often violent and potentially deadly nature of their formation, Ratans were a highly prized commodity for many years after they first began to appear. This was due to the way they could be used. A Ratan could still access magic, and would perform any command mindlessly. There was also no danger of them snapping – a Ratan who drew too much power would suffer from a slow corruption of the body, followed by a sudden and silent death. This made them ideal tools for the rich and powerful.

Of course, there was backlash. Some of the more power hungry and morally bereft people attempted to create Ratans from Madmen by forcing them to draw on their magic. This often did not end well, but it was still attempted. Eventually – for this and other reasons – the Madmen drew away from Attarnon and through the mountains to form their own country – Brochus. There, any Ratans that were created were sold to the neighbouring country of Darill, where they were brought to the capital of Ganyan, treated well and used for magical research – which was then sold back to Brochus for more Ratans.

Meanwhile, a public revolt formed in Attarnon against the use of Ratans, and eventually the practice became illegal. This was the basis – officially, at least – for the War of Magic that Attarnon waged against Brochus.

Ratans are now rarely seen, as the main function of the Quis in Attarnon is to prevent them. Brochus has been destroyed, and the Ratan trade with it. Towering spires and intricate woodwork in Ganyan still stand as a testament to their power. Even horses and cows were manipulated in Ganyan by Ratan Druids to be faster, more obedient – in some cases, nearly mindless – or to produce better meat and milk. The prices of such animals has skyrocketed, and are now only in the possession of the very few who can afford them.

Much of the research that was produced in Ganyan was destroyed in the War. Some copies may still exist in Ganyan, but travel beyond the mountains is rare, especially with the Quis keeping a close eye on their Madmen.

One has to wonder, however – how does the Asylum keep their Ward going over the entire area if the powerful Ratan Warders are illegal?

Writing update – haven’t had much time this past week, thanks to real work, but this week looks slower. My goal is to finish the new beginning this week.

Allow me to explain. Magic in the world of Osterin is based on the Madness. If you’re reading this, you probably knew that already. In order to create a magical effect – say, a fireball – you need to request it from the Madness, who will grant your request if it is within your ability. Usually, this is done instinctively, but for a Warder, it’s much more explicit.

A Warder can create a Ward that blocks a single thing. This thing can be, as mentioned, nearly anything. A weapon, air, light, magic – the Ward at the Asylum is a perfect example of this. In order to provide a sanctuary of sorts to Madmen, the Asylum is surrounded by a massive Ward that blocks the Madness.

But back to Warders. In a fight, a Warder can choose to block, for example, weapons. But not only does this prevent the Warder from attacking anybody else, but the definition of ‘weapon’ can change. Is a table leg a weapon? It can be, if wielded as such. But then, air can be a weapon in the hands of an Elementalist. Does the Ward then block these as well as swords? It depends on the mind of the Warder and how the Madness interprets the request. Better then to customize your Wards to the situation. If the enemy attacks with a sword, block steel and attack with a wooden hammer.

The best way to fight a Warder is to attack with two different types of weapons. A favoured approach by Quis is a sword/club attack, or a glass/obsidian dagger, or to occupy the Warder with a swordsman while an archer fires bone-tipped arrows.

The best Warders can perform a technique known as ‘flickering’. All this is is an impressive feat of mental dexterity, where they switch quickly between two different Wards. This provides an extra layer of defense, but requires great concentration. There have only been a handful of Warders who could do this successfully. Most require a second or two between switches.

Update on edits – about a third of the new beginning is done.