Glashause

How does one make a boy come from nowhere? Somewhere where something important happened once a long time ago but that nobody cares about any more.

Long ago, Glashause served as the scene for the rise of the Second great imperial human dynasty, the one that confirmed the prophetic cycle of empire and chaos and then a rise from the ashes. It was so famous for so long, that eventually it became a backwater. The people were initially full of themselves, and then forgotten, then hicks and then something else altogether. Of course, to one degree or another, thousands of years of human history could make most of the planet like that, but Glashause was one in particular.

It is the largest and oldest of the city states, best known for the Light House which served in the last empire. It is also known as a center of learning. The worst kept secret in the world is that the next prophesy will take place there. This isn't another empire, that isn't supposed to happen until 200 years later with Ful, but everyone knows it is the last big 'foreshadowing' event.

And one guy (who I'll detail tomorrow) attempts to manipulate prophesy to the point that he tries to keep the prophesy from happening. The thing is, that no one really knows about Fa, or the fact that he's ultimately the one behind the prophesy, because most people either worship Gods or one of the ancient powers. The fate manipulator is in for a bit of a rude shock, despite his incredibly sophisticated methods of manipulating prophesy.

First Story: Fire

Name of Kingdom: Speilglase
Basic Description of Kingdom: A confederation of seven city states between two powerful and warlike kingdoms. They have hints of viking and Japanese culture in their societies. They are located on the eastern coast of the largest and primary continent on Sylte (aka the Green world).

Government: Weak fuedal monarchy.

Social Structure: There are four basic social levels...five if you include the king.

The King: First among equals of the Thranes. Traditionally a hereditary position but the position is elected once every thirty years, therefore a weak king or a weak house can be changed with relatively little bloodshed.

Thrane: Essentially a hereditary dictator for one of the city states. They have theoretical control over all aspects of life not protected by powerful institutions (such as Hushers, Wizards and Destiny Prophets) or powerful castes (see below). In practice, they are almost all pretty live and let live except in times of war, simply because the unspoken cultural norm is that you let people do what you want.

Of course, conversely, the unspoken cultural norm is that there are certain expectations for most aspects of daily life and you're expected to conform to them unless you have a darn good reason.

The Castes: There are five honorable professions amongst the Speilers.

The general philosophy with each case is a balance between specialization (which gathers respect) and generalization (which also gathers respect). There is a guild like series of peer review to reward merit in each, with general levels of Apprentice, Journeyman and Master, with a Master having a certain number of Laurels which they get for doing noteworthy or cool things, which are especially useful in pissing contests with other masters. There is a minimum level of proficiency that is expected for each specialty in a casteman to know in their chosen caste.

Sailor: Obvious, but it includes raiding, fishing, trade, navigation etc.

Soldier: Footman, Archer, Calvary, Knight etc. All soldiers have some leadership training, obviously all are not good at it. By tradition, in times of war, ranks are divided by Caste Rank and Laurel unless otherwise ordered by the Thranes. There is a Shadow Rank system, however, which is controlled by Guild Masters at large, which puts compotent officers in charge and which is generally used by the Thrane in times of war.

Farmer: Not only agriculture and livestock but all of the various things that make a house hold work including carpenters, home makers etc.

Craftsmen: They make things. If you can think of something worth making, then you're considered a craftsmen. Technically speaking, all Castesmen are merchants, but in practice this mainly applies to Craftsmen. Of course, Castemen technically do not think of themselves as Merchants, but rather Entrepenurs, which is to them an entirely different thing. A merchant doesn't actually DO anything and merely moves money around or moves goods from place to place, which is something a thrall is good for. That means, generally, by definition, all foreigners who come to trade are Merchants, not Entrepenurs. This is a source of tension with Speilglase's neighboors.

Skald: Bards and entertainers of every kind of performance imaginable from poets to jugglers to painters. Technically, all of the other castes consider themselves dabblers in this caste, but selling their works or services is considered bad form unless they are of the Skald case. This also includes knowledgeable specialists such as lawyers and teachers. It technically would include scholars if the Hushers didn't tend to crush such things.

Thralls: The fourth and lowest rank. Anyone who doesn't choose a caste becomes a thrall, either in the service of castemen or the Thrane. Thralls are sworn for a year and a day at a time, after which they must become a thrall again, become a Casteman or leave.

Goals for 2009

Write a status update of all writing (prose) projects once a week.

Begin writing high fantasy in September of 2009, at 1000 words a day for four months to create 120,000 words for the novel so I can still have 100,000 words and cut 20,000 of them.

Write 12 short stories, 1 every three weeks until then to flesh out the world. Outline the short stories here but write them off line so I can submit them for publication (Thus forcing me to improve the stories to publishing quality standards.)

I am also considering writing a science fiction story once a month, but I will wait until after Grad School in May 2009 to do this, which would make the goal to submit 7 non novel related short stories for publication in 2009.

The novel short stories (fantasy) must NOT be part of the novel itself or involve its characters. This is designed to flesh out the world and make it more livable.

Year In Review

Well, what have I accomplished this year?

I submitted about 15 stories for publication, but all but 4-5 of those had been written in 2007.

I did complete my goal of writing a novel this year, but it wasn't the novel I originally set out to write.

I've also started the first 25% of another novel with a friend of mine. We're waiting for his life to get a little less hectic before we move forward.

All things told, a pretty good year.

Enter the Riot

Well I have now decided that the 4th novel will include a riot. A riot in which the heroes to that part of the book decide to sit back and do nothing or to use 'non violent means' of stopping the crowd burning the livelihoods of those in a town or tossing broken glass bottles and scarring the faces of their victims.

The 'heroes' will justify it 'for the greater good.'

Shades of gray generally makes for a better novel anyway.

Most authors I've read about take bits and pieces and sew them together....of course if it doesn't fit it doesn't fit.

But it seems like to telling a moment not to use.

Not much progress

Working on the first half of chapter 10 and the second half of chapter 11. Ken is doing the other half. This is the first mixed chapters we've done (except the preface) so this should be interesting.

Still, didn't get much done during the last weekend due to the thanksgiving break.

2nd Novel

I was ill last week, so Chapter 8 was bumped to Chapter 9 in the 4th novel.

My volunteer reader (my mother) has also been ill and extremely busy so the 2nd Novel is currently in limbo.