And along the way, I hope that you will laugh. I hope that you will fall in love. I hope that you will weep in sadness, and cry in your joy. Most of all, I hope you will live in my world as you do in your own. And in that brief time we spend together linked only by a page with words, I hope that my world will stay with you, forever.

I am a writer because of magic, mystery, and the need to believe. It is also why I continue to read. Without stories, who would take me outside of my own imagination? Who would show me a world beyond my own? Who would allow me to dream?

A world without stories is a world without imagination–our unique gift to the world. For it is our imaginations that make us human. And it is why we will never stop telling stories.

Just a quick update for those who might be interested in actually reading something from book 1. I’ve added the prologue and the first two chapters to my website for those interested in getting a glimpse of The Mark of a Legend (pending title). If you happen to read it and would like to read more, just send me a message or post in the comments.

So here you go: Sample Chapters From Book One

I won’t be posting much until I find an agent to represent book 1. So until then, enjoy the silence. Hopefully it won’t be too long…

P.S. I might be doing a major overhaul of the world map. Some of these changes will include adding tons of new biomes and replacing a number of unrealistic names.

Hey Folks.

I know I’ve been absent for several months, but as I work on finishing up the first book, I wanted to stop in and show the newly updated trailer. It’s not much different than the last one (major changes are coming in the future though). However, this version has a little better audio and the actual map of Zylaria, rather than an abandoned city borrowed from Google Earth.

I’m also including an atlas-style map of Zylaria below the new trailer. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqSFqK9ck_0&hd=1

Click to Enlarge

This time, however, I decided to start dabbling with animation. I’ve tried doing flash animation before, but it requires way too much time spent learning, which I can’t afford to invest. So my flash animation never amounted to much.

A month or so ago when I was updating my maps using a cool program called Zoomify, I decided to pick up their HTML5 product. In case you’re not aware, HTLM5 is the new animation platform that is set to replace flash in the future. I really enjoyed working with it, and was able to produce some pretty cool stuff. Unfortunately, HTLM5 is so new, there’s still some bugs to work out, so I wasn’t able to finish my project and get it up on my website. Look for some really cool zoomable maps in the near future.

Anyways, that led me to Adobe’s new animation program (in beta) called Adobe Edge Preview. It’s super cool. I used it to animate a new webpage to replace the main page of my “The World” tab. Again I ran into some quirks, and wasn’t able to get the animation to work in every web browser (Damn you Firefox! You used to be so reliable. Have you been spending time with Internet Explorer?)

Well, after this I decided to do some real 3D animation. So I turned to making a book trailer. Book trailers are the new hot thing. Of course, from what I hear many of them suck. They either make no sense, have nothing to do with the actual book or books, or they’re totally boring. So I set out to make my own promotional trailer with the goal of it not sucking. I hoped it would be epically awesome.

Of course, I knew zero about 3D animation. So I watched some tutorials and spent about 100 hours making my own trailer. It’s not totally finished yet, but here’s my first attempt at real 3D animation with audio, of course. Let me know what you think.

Click to Enlarge

I’m trying to solidify the hours of the day, the days of the week, and the months of the year for the Zenita World. I’d like to get people’s opinions on what they like and don’t like. So I was hoping you could post comments on here and let me know what you think. A lot of them are meant to be descriptive of that particular time.

If you don’t like something, please offer an alternative, if you can think of one.

Here are the months. Note that there are 10 months, not 12 (30 days to every month):

Winter’s Grip (1st Month)
Last Snow (2nd Month)
First Sow/First Seeds/First Planting (Tell me your favorite) (3rd Month)
Life’s Blessing (4th Month)
Mid Year (5th Month)
Great Sun (6th Month)
Full Harvest (7th Month)
High Gathering (8th Month)
First Freeze (9th Month)
Winter’s Dawn (10th Month)

Here are the hours of the day. Common folk break the day up into 10 divisions, sort of similar to the Liturgy of the Hours in the Middle Ages. There are 30 hours in a day (NOT 24), hence 10 divisions. Note that there are 15 hours to a night and day (on average) as opposed to our 12. Just subtract 3 from any of these times to compare them to Earth and ignore the 3 o’clock times.
Also, do you like the time as two words or one?

High Night/Highnight (3 am)
Last Dark/Lastdark (6 am)
First Light/Firstlight (9 am)
Low Day/Lowday or Low Sun/Lowsun (12 am)
Mid Day/Midday (15 noon)
High Day/Highday or High Sun/Highsun (3 pm)
Last Light/Lastlight (6pm)
First Dark/Firstdark (9 pm)
Low Night/Lownight or Low Moon/Lowmoon (12 pm)
Mid Night/Midnight (15 midnight)

Lastly are the days of the week, which as of now I’m using important historical and religious figures. In my world there are 10 days in a week as opposed to our 7. So here they are 1-10:

Zeniton’s Day
Mara’s Day
Brigg’s Day
Luna’s Day
Grumm’s Day
Isla’s Day
Amadon’s Day
Vadra’s Day
Kai’s Day

Another alternative is to use the 10 luminaries (the Sun, the 3 Moons, and the 6 planets visible to the naked eye).
The names of the 3 Moons are:
– Mephador (green colored moon, also known as the Life Moon or Kindra. It is the symbol of life, earth, or birth);
– Zeladon (red colored moon, also known as the Blood Moon, Sigor, or Kravin. It is the symbol of blood, or death);
– Mephon (blue colored moon, also known as the Spirit Moon or Nesric. It is the symbol of rebirth).

I have not officially named the other 6 visible planets yet, but, like in traditional East Asian Philosophy, where the 5 planets in our sky are named after the 5 elements (Fire being Mars, Water being Mercury, Wood being Jupiter, Metal being Venus, and Earth being Saturn), I thought of doing the same, except using 6 elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Sky/Air, Wood, and Metal.

So what do you think. Stick with what I have, go with the luminaries, or perhaps something else? I’d love to hear any suggestions that you might have.

As a worldbuilder, a lover of books, and a person who believes in helping others, I wanted to share a fabulous charity that one of my favorite authors, Patrick Rothfuss, runs every December. Pat is an awesome fantasy writer, and he also happens to be a wonderful and giving person. Every year, since becoming a published author, he runs a charity called Worldbuilders.

Worldbuilders is connected to Heifer International, a charity that helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. They also promote education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry. By doing so, they don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat. It’s no surprise that this is Patrick’s favorite charity.

YOU CAN HELP! By following the above Worldbuilders link, you can donate money and get your name entered into a drawing to win any number of cool stuff, like rare and signed books. Every ten dollars gets your name put into this lottery. If risk isn’t your game, you can also hop over to Pat’s gift shop, The Tinker’s Pack and purchase any number of the cool merchandise available. All of the proceeds go to Worldbuilders. There will also be auctions, where you can bid on ultra-rare and super cool stuff, such as an entire manuscript review/critique by Patrick Rothfuss himself, or one from several professional agents in the industry (something I hope to bid on next year…if I can come up with the money).

Note that Patrick matches every dollar you donate and Heifer matches 50%. That’s pretty awesome. In fact, the first year Pat started up Worldbuilders, it did so well that it left him broke. But he said the entire process helped him get his emotional feet back under him after dealing with all the stress of becoming a published author, as well as getting him out of a dip of a depression.

Worldbuilders is something I partake in every year, and if you like the cause, I urge you to do the same. Helping people and winning cool stuff is a win-win for everyone. So just click this WORLDBUILDERS link and get all the info from Pat himself OR go directly to the Worldbuilders Donation Page.

The shagans know how the Great Law came to be, how and why the advancements of science and technology were put to a stop. It is why they turned their back on the High Church and gave up the Vendrian religion. Rather than follow the Almighty God, they instead chose to find their answers in science. Of course, this was a secret among the shagans, as sharing their new ideals would label them heretics, and see them hunted by deathmonks, warriors of the open fist trained from birth to kill heathens.

The Vendrian High Church believes that the truth can only be found in Zenitonionism, the one true religion, and preach that technology was a dark gift from the Gmorgon, a seed of evil that would grow to cataclysm and destroy the world. That is why the Great Law came to be. Only Vendrian scientists are exempt from this law, which states, “that to study banned science and/or develop forbidden technology is punishable by death.”

The shagans were once Vendrians, back when Ordawniel was king, during the golden age of science. When Vendria embraced the Great Law, those citizens who did not agree and refused to follow were silenced, put to death as heathens. The knowledge of thousands of years was destroyed, science no longer taught, and subsequent generations knew nothing of what came before them. In time, humanity lost its past, forgot what life was once like. But a few Vendrians escaped the city. Determined to keep their knowledge in tact and not forget where they came from, they started their own society.

In the centuries that followed, the shagans reincorporated themselves back into Vendrian society. They were no different than any other Vendrian, except they had spent their entire lives learning about a hidden world, learning about what lies just beneath the surface. They understood the science of how the human body worked, of how the world functioned, of how the universe was a place too vast for others to comprehend. They had studied the intricacies of the mind, built their own secret laboratories, experimented on animals, and concocted countless chemical compounds.

Many of the shagans took their knowledge of science and put it to use. Some found their way into the Vendrian government, becoming scientists or state officials. Others found their way into the lucrative black market, making and selling forbidden goods. It is thought that a raid by Vendrian deathmonks on one of the black market factions is what eventually led to the uncovering of the shagan people. The Iron Monks, also known as the Monks of Inquisition, are legendary for their brutal and inventive means of torture. It is said that given enough time, an Iron Monk can pry loose any truth from a man, even ones he had forgotten.

Before the Mage Wars, magicians were respected, feared, and often earned substantial earnings. Many were employed by royalty, aristocracy, and wealthy or affluent travelers. An Archmage could even earn the pay of an entire army, as kings would often submit to an enemy whose forces were led by one. It was not uncommon to do so without a single man falling in battle. But after the Wars, and the many thousands of magicians that were killed, the Magi all but disappeared. Magic was seen only in the workings of the High Church in the form of healings, and in the prowess of the monks of the Holy Order, whose physical powers transcended human strength and speed. However, when the memories of what had started the Mage Wars faded, the shagans came out of hiding and brought with them magic.

It was not the same kind of magic practiced by the Magi, the Church, or even the Nama. In truth, it was not magic at all, or at least not magic in the traditional sense. It was mimicry, it was science. The shagans had spent their entire lives studying the natural world. They saw how animals used mimicry to fool one another, to escape predation or even entice prey. Only practitioners of magic understand the process by which their powers work. To everyone else it is a mystery. The shagans took these principles and used neuroscience, psychopharmacology, biology, chemistry, physics, and a host of other sciences to use trickery and mimic “real” magic.

Over several centuries the shagans refined their science-based magic, and developed two separate systems that are now commonplace today. Illusory magic, commonly known as illusion, uses many different methods to fool the mind into seeing something that does not actually exist. Airborne psychotropics are commonly used in illusory magic along with well established instruments and practices of physics-based science. Fallogaldor, meaning “trick sorcery”, uses chemicals and contraptions to mimic magic. Fallogaldor is often elemental based, and most commonly imitates fire, water, and occasionally air magic (More on these magic systems later).

The shagans, like all heathens, are hunted by the Holy Order, and yet they continue to practice their illusionary magic, even within Vendria. To some, defying Vendrian Law is worth the risk of death. For others, it is a matter of pride. Thousands of years of honing their craft has made it extremely difficult, even for those in the Holy Order, to differentiate false magic from real. But false magic or not, the danger a shagan possesses is very real.

A shagan is always prepared to fight, and if need be, willing to stand against an entire squadron of deathmonks. Carrying deadly chemicals, corrosive poisons, explosives, and neurotoxins, a shagan mage can be a force to reckon with. Some of the most deadly occurrences within the city of Vendria have been from shagan mages confronted by Iron Monks. In the popular Vendrian historical chronicle Building an Empire, Uniting a World: The Rise of the Golden King there is reference to one such occurrence that resulted in the deaths of nearly three hundred monks and over two thousand civilians. The result of an extremely deadly airborne biotoxin. This is why huge rewards are given to those who report shagan magicians. Should one be caught practicing “false” magic, the consequences are death at the hands of an Iron Monk. These public tortures and executions draw small numbers nowadays, for few can stomach the barbaric brutality.

Check back later for updates and more about the shagans.

The rumors of their immortality, led to a mass genocide of the shagan people by the Vendrian High Church and their soldiers of deathmonks. Vendria claimed their war was justified, because the shagans were using dark magic to transfer their souls from a dying body to a fresh one, in a process similar to the deadriser’s “soul transfer”. Centuries of interrogation, imprisonment, and torture of high ranking shagans, led the Vendrian government to this conclusion. Vendria’s proclamation was that the shagans had made a deal with the Dark Lord, the Gmorgon. But this was not the truth. The shagans did not use magic, but rather an advanced science that had been outlawed many thousands of years ago.

Unbeknownst to most, the world of Zenita was once technologically advanced. Science had given man the ability to fly, to communicate great distances through space, and even the power to destroy entire worlds. This is when Zeniton, creator of the world, came to mankind and declared that science was a source of malevolence, an invention by the Gmorgon. Or so it is said in the Zenitonion Tomes, the religious text of Vendria and the civilized western world. According to Book Three of the Tomes, Zeniton gave man the Great Law and forbid him from developing technology and practicing science. Centuries, then millenniums passed, and this knowledge was lost to the world. Only the classified labs within the city of Vendria kept the history of what truly happened. Now the world has only an ancient religious text to tell it of its past.

And yet, Vendria continues to develop and practice science. Only it does so behind closed doors. Zenita has become a world of privilege, in which the great majority of people know very little of how the world works. Society as a whole has regressed back to the Dark Ages. Technology is no more advanced than that of medieval Europe. But wealth and power provide the means to greater knowledge and understanding. Within the vast city of Vendria, a sprawling megalopolis far too large and advanced to survive in such a society, is a secretive hierarchy that explains many of the West’s oddities.

Beneath the city of Vendria runs water and sewage facilities that would rival twenty-first century Earth. Secret labs grow advanced medicine and food that keeps the city running smoothly. A library ten times the size of the Library of Congress allows affluent members of Vendrian society to uncover the knowledge of what is being kept from the poor and impoverished. This a system based on class, tightly regimented by fear, in which less than one percent of the population has access to the higher Access Level Libraries. And only the King or Queen of Vendria is allowed to read the most sensitive texts. Seekers, a group of legendary treasure hunters, storytellers, keepers of history, and purveyors of myth and legend, are one of the select groups who have been granted such access.

During the days of Ordawniel, the King of Vendria who was said to have put the Great Law into effect, one of these shagans learned the secrets of Logeron, Ordawniel’s son. The history of Logeron was meticulously destroyed by Vendrian officials, and what remains of it can only be found in a single book in the very highest Access Level Library, available only to the Vendrian royal line. Yet the story was passed on through shagan folklore. As the story goes, Logeron defied the Great Law and delved deep into the hard sciences. In a moment of cosmic clarity, he developed a new science through a single unifying theory. The result was a new understanding of the universe. Such understanding transformed both his mind and body, and he eventually developed an art he called “astralcraft”. Logeron recorded all of his findings in a secret text and then hid it. According to shagan mythology, one of them found this book.

But this shagan could not master astralcraft as Logeron did, who was said to have become an entity that could not be killed, a man who transcended mortality into godhood or perhaps devilhood. Despite this, the shagan discovered a way to live forever. He uncovered the secrets of the mind, the intricacies of the electrochemical processes of the brain, and the physical manifestation of the spirit and the “I”. When his body and mind became aged, he transferred his identity from his dying body to a young one. But this process is not simply like pouring a pitcher of water into an empty basin, but rather like pouring liquid into an already full one. It is like a wall of soldiers meeting another one at full speed. The shagan’s mind must be strong, very strong. Only then can it overwhelm the body and spirit of the invaded.

Should the shagan triumph, the transfer will be clean. He will have a new body, and his spirit and memories will remain in tact. The invaded mind and spirit will be purged, and the soul will become lost between realms. However, if the mind the shagan tries to overwhelm is more powerful, the two minds will merge, their memories will become one, and the shagan’s spirit will become lost instead.

But this process is so violent on the mind, that even in victory, the individual will suffer severe amnesia. They will have no memory of anything before the event. No idea who they are or where they came from. Such an individual may be capable of speaking multiple languages, yet having no recollection of what these languages are. They are often troubled by vivid dreams, nightmares, and flashbacks, which often increase through time. It is thought they they will never remember who they are, because they are actually a conglomerate of many minds. At best, they will have access to all the information the shagan had before them. How the memories of separate identities merge and are later recollected, no one knows.

If the first “body thief” is still alive and taking over bodies, imagine all that he’s come to know and understand. All the history he has lived through and seen. And if one should be lucky enough to defeat him, then they would perhaps come to live an extraordinary life. Perhaps people would come to think him a prophet, or even God. It is no wonder that according to shagan belief, God is nothing more than a trickster. Not omnipotent, but simply a being who’s been around so long he’s come to know everything.

Check back later for updates and more about the Body Thieves.

What binds the deadrisers as a group is death and the idea of rebirth. Like the blood cultists, they see power in death, but unlike the Kantic religion, the deadrisers do not believe there is power to be gained in murder, but rather in the stages that follow the cessation of life. They are a conglomerate of cults bound by faith; only a small number are actually bound by blood. What makes them family are their beliefs and the oaths they have taken.

Society fears them because the deadrisers do not lament death; they do not bury their dead. Instead, they feed on them. They even dig up corpses that others have buried. Those who become ill eating the dead, eventually become immune to the sickness that follows eating rotting meat. If one should die, then they were never meant to belong, and they will become food for the others. The deadrisers believe that in eating the dead, they gain not only strength, but prolong their lives. And most important of all, it grants them the power communicate with the departed.

In order to become a true member of the deadriser society, one must learn to communicate with the souls trapped between realms. A select few of these members may even have the gift to bring back the dead. The power to bind soul and flesh is one of the most powerful abilities a mortal can master. But there are greater powers still–the power to create flesh, and the power to halt senescence. The most terrifying of the deadrisers may not only create armies of soldiers from the earth, but can even render themselves undead, immortal. They can stop the aging process, or transfer their soul from one body to another. Some of these dark mages have the ability to use the souls trapped between realms to wage psychic war against powerful beings, such as dragons, in order to gain control over them. Read about such powers from the mouth of Xydrikan Vyinkar, a member of the Obro Cult.

The power of soul binding and transfer, is why the deadrisers have been a target of war and genocide from nearly every nation and religion throughout time. Fear is one of the greatest motivations to kill. But so is misunderstanding. Learn first hand of these fears from an Acolyte of the Holy Order.

In truth, there are few deadrisers that have such power. The deadrisers are simply misunderstood. The name given to them is not one they embraced, since few can actually raise the dead. Instead, their society is about the connection with the departed, and their reverence for what comes after life. The souls trapped between realms are lost, unable to find their way. The deadrisers act as a medium to ease these souls’ suffering and confusion, and if possible, as guides to transition to the afterlife. The wise teachers and scholars of the Sagery have even said that the deadrisers have done just as much, if not more, than the High Church for helping the lost find their way. Of course, the Holy Order has been efficient in destroying all textual accounts of such blasphemy.

Some Vendrian scholars and theologists believe that the Nama, the blood cultists, and the deadrisers, all descended from a common faith long ago, because all three religions hold similar notions of the world’s moons. The green moon Mephador is the symbol of life, the red moon Zeladon is the emblem of death, and the blue moon Mephon is the representation of eternity and rebirth. It is no wonder then that the deadrisers worship Mephon, also known as Nesric, the Spirit Moon.

Much like the Nama, the deadrisers have been content being separate from society. They often reside in remote places, in regions of the world where no one else would willingly choose to live. In a sense, they are scavengers, eking out a meager life, surviving on whatever they can find to sustain themselves. Their faith has given them the ability to live on very little food, and their capacity to feed on spoiled meat has allowed them to carry on when other people would have died long ago. But in times of terrible famine, the weakest of the group will sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the cult. This is a natural part of their culture, and it is even a great honor to die to keep others alive. Besides, death is sacred, and he who gives up his life will be blessed by Nesric in the afterlife. The strong may rule the earth, but it is often the meek that rule the heavens. Perhaps that is why the strongest of the deadrisers try to live forever.

Check back later for updates and more about the deadrisers.