Earth

The final from hell and the gaming project from hell are sucking up my creative energies. I've sidelined the gaming project (even though it will pay ACTUAL money) and focused on the final for now. It should be much easier to write once this is done. Even easier when I've graduated.

Still, Fire and Vance are nearly ready for submission, and I'll be sending them Friday.
Water is stalled but must be ready by the writing group this Friday. In fact, I'll probably finish it Wednesday.

Which means it is about time to start designing the next story. The design I have in my mind are the third race. And the time is in the third era, right before the novel (whatever that might be) but long after Fulcrum of Prophesy. This is a world in which Pickle has been shattered into seven different parts. One to preserve the wall that protects humans inside of Glashouse, but the other six warped by his brothers and sisters and used for their own purposes. I like the idea of the other six using humans or modifying them in some way. Of course, the problem with this is...how?

For example, the Simsaur would easily change humans and quite frankly would make a lot of them to suit their purposes. The Abysmali could do the same thing, possibly with Mermen or possibly with gnomes or some tech loving race....but I must admit, I've never read about technically proficient mermen before. I'll have to think on it. The Gods...well...I don't know there. On the one hand, they love to meddle, but on the other hand they never got quite as raw a deal as the others, so I don't know. I'll have to think on that. The Bleyoki would just kill the humans in their lands, but I could see them eventually twisting something already modified by the Sopensen. And I could definitely see the Sopensen 'refining' humanity more to their own tastes. Subtle yet verifiable changes. Maybe even Elves. I don't like elves, and consider them...I dunno...boring...but in this case they, or something like them actually make sense given Sopensen sensibilities. Not that there aren't already some similarities between Sopensen and Elves anyway.

That's part of the challenge. The more original I make it, the more freedom I have and the more I'll enjoy it, but the more tropes of classic fantasy and mythology that I use, the more people who haven't read anything I've written before will be able to connect to it.

But the focus of the story that comes most to my mind are the third race. I can't even remember the name of the third race because they're so bland. I mean, intelligent beavers that build shelters with power in them? Whatever.

But, it does seem a wonderful way to segue into the 'magical forest' trope of fantasy. The modified humans, and the shard of Pickle could become Centaurs, or Nymphs or Fauns etc. But the thing that I find most fascinating about this idea is the beginning of the New Age, which starts with Fulcrum building the wall and ends with that wall coming down, but the beginning of the end, which probably takes centuries if not millenia, is the slow distancing of the Elder races and their patron Powers.

So what starts it? Well, why not kill two birds with one stone and have the classic story of fratricide...ie, the 'woodland humans' in whatever form I give them, rising up and killing their masters. Which would certainly make the other races take another look at their 'tame' humans, wouldn't it?