Perspective is generally thought of in the third or first and occasionally second person. It is how we view a book through the eyes of a character or by a narrator. It allows us to focus on a viewpoint and perspective of a certain character or a story in a certain way. In my novel The Imagient King I have many viewpoint character in fact I have a total of eleven viewpoint characters, but the views are mostly split into two individuals. We have the main protagonist Leonli aka Li and the main antagonist William Vilheim Cyph who tell the story of Journey with a Princess of the East. This allows me to show that both my antagonist and protagonist are human, that they both have something to lose and to show empathy on both sides. These aren't just cookie cutter heroes and villains.
The main reason I have a duel perspective is I don't like I when a book has the protagonists as the good guys and the dark lord as the main bad guy. The antagonists are just a fixed evil characters and we don't know anything about them, no hope and no dreams or aspirations except for maybe world domination. But, seldomly do we understand why they want world conquest if they want that at all. I always wanted William Cyph to be the main antagonist of the first book, my goal with him was to eventually lead him on a path towards being a protagonist of his own rite and his own story. For me, the generic bad guy character is boring. William is much more of a complex character so I wanted to show not just his thoughts, hopes and dreams to eventually allow him to have a character arc of his own, but to show that he is not just some bad guy stereotype. William is a character who changes over the course of the story. He starts out as a bastard prince hunting a princess so he can find legitimacy in his kingdom and try to show himself worthy of the Cyphic name. He is almost a foil for the main character Li in that regard. Li doesn't have motivation, except to help Tsuna, while William's whole motivation just like Li is to capture Tsuna although he does have a responsibility and reasoning for doing it. Just like Li, except our protagonist wants to protect Tsuna as she saved him and transformed his life. William seeks the capture of the princess to prove himself. The character arcs of these two characters intertwine to create conflict between the two, and that drives the story. The character arcs we see at the start of chapter three initiate the coming clash between Li and William, both have their own hopes and dreams at stake, and it just so happens that one of them wins in the end. After the events of chapter three going into chapter 4 we see once again the paths of these two individuals parallel with each other, but still very similar. I wanted to show that, because again William is not just some boring antagonist to fight our protagonists, he is a conflicted individual as well. William is human, well he is an Imagient, but that is besides the point. William has hopes and dreams, he as family and he is a flawed individual. He is a human character that people can relate to. Yeah, we don't have a lot of bastards who get forced from their birth father and get adopted by their uncle only for William to rise as a general of a country. His backstory and his status are not relateable, but his struggle to fit in despite his hardships which is a form of adversity. Li also is human, he has a boring job as a blacksmith, but that all changes when a princess from a foreign country asks to have her spear fixed. From this interaction Li is thrust on a journey unexpectedly. He follows her after she protects him from a demon possession not only as a form of reciprocate but also because he wants to find out more about himself. William's character arc is about proving himself to others and Li is about proving himself worthy of Tsuna. These two stories both center around Tsuna, the other main character, but equally would be nothing without our main heroine Tsuna. Through their perspectives we see a side of not just our characters, but a bit of Tsuna as well. In William's eyes we see Tsuna as a childish princess and in Li's eyes we see a heroic and powerful princess on a quest to save her realm. Two different perspectives of one character through their eyes. It is an important distinction to have and one of the other reasons I wanted duel perspectives in my book. The other reason is I wanted to show loss and success with both characters. I briefly touched upon this early when I talked about their character arcs colliding. Both character arcs feature rising and falling actions of success and loss. In the end of the book one of these perspectives is shattered while the other is allowed to move on. So in the end one character arc succeeds and the other fails ultimately. But, you feel empathy for the one who fails, because both characters have grown on you. We know that each side Li and William both have something at stake and both individuals deal with the rising and falling actions accordingly. I have many perspective characters, but William and Li are the main focus of the book both linked to Tsuna, the story's heroine and she has her own perspective and motivations as do these two young men. The story is just as much theirs as it is Tsuna. I didn't want to write a book with boring protagonists or antagonists, but daring and competitive characters who want two different things and both revolve around a stunning plot and cast of characters. With perspective writing I found a way to do that.
0 Comments
A post that one of my friend's made on their Facebook helped create today's blog topic. There are multiple ways to write a story, but for me one of the best ways especially if you have multiple characters is to have them intersect into a story through various paths. Their character arcs themselves drive the characters and the plot, not the plot driving the characters. Obviously in such stories as Lord of the Rings, there is a goal that everyone is trying to accomplish, but everyone getting there has their rocky paths and obstacles. For me one of the best uses of this is the story of Final Fantasy IX, because it is essentially many windows of multiple character arcs that both introduce and progress the story. It isn't just the protagonists that due this either, the antagonists also have their own character arcs of sorts, which shows how much the story cares about it's characters which are what drives the story to success in so many fans eyes. There are three components I think work in the favor of it's characters. The main thing is that the characters have character arcs that are essentially rising/falling actions, the characters interact with the world and their experience and those same rising/falling actions change their perspective of the world and then finally the characters story arcs are what drives the plot, not the other way around. The characters in Final Fantasy IX include Zidane, Vivi, Freya, Amarat, Stiener, Eiko and of course the most important is Garnet. Many would think that Zidane the main protagonist is the focus of the story, but he is not. Garnet aka Dagger is what the story revolves around. Zidane is just a useful viewpoint character not just for Garnet, but for the rest of the characters in the game. Zidane and Garnet can be seen as the two protagonist, and traditional many people have labeled Garnet as the deuteragonist. The main plot of the story starts and is resolved by Garnet's decisions, she leads the story. Her main character arcs are what shapes the story's direction. Zidane's does not, he is just the major player that the events of the story unfold using. His actions do not really put anything into motion, except for in the beginning, but that is a bit of a misnomer due the fact that Zidane although set out to capture the princess, the princess wanted to be captured. Depending on how one interprets that scenario you could say that Zidane went out to capture the princess and to his surprise she wanted to be captured. This is how the game if told through traditional lens would say it happens. But, it doesn't end there due to Garnet being the one to press everything else forward in terms of her actions. It is her actions of wanting to be captured, and her decision to go to Lindblum. Then everything else from Lindblum is instigating by her poisoning the party and by doing so, splitting the party. Although Zidane's group is split from Garnet, it is Garnet who is being proactive, while everything up to Zidane getting Garnet back is him being reactive to the situation. Zidane's character arc itself is still important, it is probably just like Garnet's important to the story. But, most of the story, Zidane is a reactive character. Yes, he wants to help people, but usually it is only after the fact. His character is important as it is through him we see the world of Gaia, and he is the main character that links all the others. His role is not that of the main hero, as Garnet is far more important in that role, but he fufills a similar but paralel role. Through his character arc up until the big reveal about his creation and past, he is our guide through the story. It is his character arc that shows us the beautiful and dark world. The other characters are still important both gameplay wise and story wise. Vivi being probably the third most important character due to him being a black mage, and having to come to terms with his own creation and his own destiny. Steiner has to come to terms with his responsibility and duty and what that actually means. The other characters deal with sadness, emotions and other themes that are seen throughout the story. But their character arcs all blend into and are apart of the story that is being told in the game. Freya's backstory and motivation aligns her with Zidane's crew, and she becomes crucial in the Burmecia/Clerya story arcs. Amarat and Eiko are both linked to Zidane's character arc through their own pasts and character arcs. Vivi and Steiner are the only two who don't really need Zidane to finish their character arcs, hence why they are a bit more interesting as characters and are more important to the overall plot itself. The other characters are more so tied to Zidane, and stay with the party due to him. The reason that these character arcs work is that they are all have something that character arcs need and that are rising and falling actions. This creates conflict which allows characters to progress in a story. Zidane faces the Alexandrian Army with success and loss. Through that loss, we learn about other characters mostly antagonists and about the overall plot, but what builds as a mystery, eventually through these failures and rising actions allows for a small plot thread to be seen each instance. Be it Garnet's capture because of her own protagonist actions or Zidane and crew being beaten by Beatrix. These conflicts allow the story to progress, it gives the characters a reason to exist in the world and not only gives them motivation, but it gives the player a sense of where the story is heading at each turn. It is through these character arcs that are a series of rising and falling actions that new characters and certain plot threads are unveiled. The mystery in the beginning is far more serious than the player is let on. Although we are told one thing, eventually the truth is far more complicated. It isn't written as some lame and cheesy twist either, it is shown slowly with small pieces of information that are useful for piecing together the puzzle. The rising and falling character arcs become the thread that make the rising and falling actions of the plot so intense. It only works because the character arcs form individual threads that are important to lay a ground work for discovering the mystery of Zidane, Vivi and Garnet's back stories. Through these pasts and histories we meet Freay, Eiko, and Amarant and it is also through these plot threads and actions of the protagonists that they become threats and targets of our antagonists be it Queen Brahne. Garland, Kuja or even Necron, who doesn't really appear until the late game. What drives the plot is not the plot driving the characters to an end point, instead the actions of the characters in their individual, but primarily by the character arcs of Zidane and Garnet reach various rising and falling actions that force the plot along. This is a bit different than Final Fantasy games before and after it because in many of the Final Fantasy games from previous years or afterwords push the plot onto the characters and that is your plot. This game does something I think that creates better characters and a much more proactive and natural plot. People can disagree with me, but for my money this is one of the more succesfull ways that characters arcs pushing plot can be used as an example. Do you have any stories that you think pushes character arcs to the front to drive the plot along. Post a story you think does a good job about doing this. Unless, you are living under a rock then Netflix's original series Stranger Things should be something that you are familiar with. Although, I typically write on my own world mythos, lore and world-building I came around this show. I finished it in a weekend, and was blown away from the way that I was enthralled to the characters, the pace and writing the show instilled on me. A week after I watched the show I decided that I would dedicate this week's blog post to this show and why I think it works as a show. This statement rests on three reasons, the overall writing of the plot, the characters and the blend of elements to create a unique experience that ushers back into 80's sci-fi/horror of old. The show itself was created by the Duffer Brothers, and immediately starts off in a small town of Hawkins, Indiana a town after my own heart. The starting characters are four nerdy middle-school kids playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons, again this show really knows how to hook a nerd. The episode begins when Will, one of the boys mysteriously disappears and from that we are introduced to more characters including the Sheriff ,the mother of Will, and a cast of other important to semi-important characters. The plot moves slow, but it picks up by the third episode when the plot and conflicts start to be brought to the surface with a series of weird and bizarre things occurring in the town. The main reason for this seems to build the setting, the time, and to establish the characters. This is set in the 80's in a small Indiana town, so getting the tone and the setting down to mold the viewer into a specific mindset. The plot wheels really start to go when doubts of our main cast of characters are thrown into motion. Slowly, but surely small hints of a greater conspiracy including psychics, the government, and a a monster are brought to the surface, with a few more character arcs that slowly move the characters towards initial contact and conflict. Even when they give you enough that you understand what is going on, there are more surprises near the end of the show. These surprises don't jump out either as much as they are slowly given to you and the viewer has to put together the plot like a puzzle. Nothing is given too easily or too quickly. The plot is itself in two main paths, unless we count the antagonists then there is a third path. These paths and plot points are really a series of rising and falling actions. We get some clarity occasionally and then something happens to screw up that clarity. We find a body of Will, but it is not the actual body. But, this causes the Sheriff to investigate even further and a huge reveal is staged after this event. Which escalates the character into more peril. Which segways into my second great thing about this show is the characters. Not just their development, but their character arcs. The eight main characters particularly who have character arcs. The three boys Mike, Dustin, and Lucas; their psychic friend Eleven who goes by Eli; Chief Jim Hopper; Joyce Byers who is Will's mother; Jonathan Byers who is Will's brother; and Mike's sister, Karen. There is also Dr. Brenner as the main antagonist of the series, but we will discuss him in a second. The characters themselves are very proactive bunch of protagonists who go out and try to solve the case of the missing boy and each have a character arc to boot. The boys sorta ties in with El's arc, but El has her own arc as well. Each of the boy's have a rising and falling action with Lucas and Mike having the more important roles that are tested in the story. Lucas is there for support, but as he is counted as one of the boys I feel he has an important role to play in the character arc of the boys. Eleven or El has her own arc that is both coming in terms with her powers, but as she was in a lab for most of her life, she has to come to terms with being a girl in 80's society. Her character arc is probably one of my favorite from the series, and she is one of my favorite characters because of that. Her powers resolve what the boys can not, and because of that she is sort of their answer of finding Will. She is what moves the plot forward for the boys, and in reality the whole story is centered around her in a way, which we will talk about in a second. Chief Hopper is tied to Joyce in terms of character arcs and support. He is trying his hardest despite his own trauma about his own daughter to help find Will. He pushes the plot along first, and is the first to discovery something is not quite right with the events surrounding Will's disappearance. He is one of the most proactive characters in this show, and along with El, my favorite character. Joyce's arc is also tied to her sons, and her son to Nancy. The three of them have their own arcs that are very similar. Joyce's arc is all about her losing her sanity, but still wanting to find her son. Her brother gets emotional due to his brother's disappearance, and when Nancy's friend goes missing her arc collides with that of the others. Each of these character arcs are eventually brought together near the finale where Dr. Brenner is featured as the antagonist of our protagonists. He is a man of science, and apparently has some relationship to El. He also is the one who might be responsible for breaking the walls between dimensions using El's powers. Yeah, there are quite a bit of science stuff, that is mostly theoretically addressed which is an important part of the story. The way science is used, makes it a huge part of it's science fiction/horror genre plot and setting. The way this show blends multiple ideas about science, and pseudo-science in a somewhat historically accurate Indiana town is quite interesting. We have big government funded science and conspiracies as the main driving force of the antagonists and slowly our protagonists are sent to face this. Pretty much the sci-fi trope of the big bad government and corrupt science did something bad and unleashed a monster in the form of demogorgon a monster from Dungeons and Dragons. Speaking of the Dungeons and Dragons themes in the series, they are quite appealing to me as a nerd and avid table-top player. However, they function not just as references for fanboys, but references to easily explain the science-fiction and horror aspects and world-building that this series tries to accomplish. It might help nerds like myself get into the series, but more importantly it is a starting point for the viewer. Since the show starts and ends with a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Besides science-fiction and horror the main source of conflict and plot point in the show is that of a mystery. Everyone is trying to find Will. His disappearance is what sparks the plot into motion, and draws all of these characters into the fray. But, it is not the only mystery as Hopper as he is trying to find Will ends up following the trail of not Will, but of Eleven. This allows for the eyes of the viewer to see Eleven's story play out in a very creative and mysterious way. Not only that, but it ties directly back into the evil government conspiracy. Everyone comes together, just like characters arcs and just like the writing. So, in conclusion the show bridges it's characters, it's overall plot and it's elements to create a very nice homage to 80's science-fiction. If you enjoy stuff like The Thing, or enjoy the writings of Stephen King, then I recommend this show. I am not a huge fan normally of horror, but the way that Stranger Things is written I can respect. It was a wild and short ride with an ending that makes me hopeful of some sort of sequel series. My hat goes off to the Duffer Brothers and to Netflix, such a phenomenal show that takes it's influences and creates something new. Watch out Hollywood, Netflix is coming.
Today's blogpost will be discussing something I have briefly discussed in previous posts. The difference between mages and imagients in my universe. I briefly discussed this on my 'What is an Imagient' blog post, and I will go over the summaries there and then try to expand on the ideas I worked in that, to hopefully better separate between the two so that people understand that they are the same. Imagients vs. Mages, the differences between the two can be seen by how they maintain and control their abilities, what powers their abilities, and the maximum potential between the two. I will also go into detail about Imagient Mages, and how yes, despite the fact that there is a difference, there is also a blend of both, because I need to make myself more confusing. In the 'What is an Imagient' blog post I discussed how both Imagients and mages are limited by the laws of magic, but that an Imagient can somewhat bend these rules, but they must at least make rules for their own imagientechs. Pretty much Imagients manipulate reality and make it their own, that being said control for a mage is actually much more simpler and less metaphysical. Control is one of the defining factors on what makes a mage capable of doing magic, and an Imagient from not destroying themselves or others when using their powers. A mage has either been training with his or her powers at some type of academic or home school setting. Be it some fancy mage's school, home schooled by their parents, or in the case of a cleric or a priest at a temple. There are also those sorcerers, witches, and druids who are either have innate abilities or train pretty much solitary like monks. All of these 'mages' have to learn to control their power, and generally can with years of practice, master their art. For a mage control comes from practice and materialization of their powers. It occurs because of training of some sort, which rely on generally a type of magical theory to make all of their control of power necessarily. It may be an actual theory like an arcane school, or specialization such as a cleric's holy spells to ward off demons. A monk could train for years under a waterfall channeling their ki or spiritual energy (ki,chi, spiritual energy is all the same thing in my universe) into devastating weapons or defenses. Mages are called such because they manipulate magic, and use it in ways that only they can do because of their training. A mage who has trained for years can control their powers and is much stronger than an Imagient who just trying to understand their abilities. They are generally unless they are super specialized have a variety of spells or abilities to interact in most situations. Control of their powers, and knowledge about their own abilities make mages their own category of magic users. Imagients on the other hand don't necessarily have this type of control through training. Yes, Imagients gain power by using their powers and training, many can go to dojos, mages schools, and the like to increase their power. However, they are not tied down by those magical theories and arcane schools, they don't get their powers from divine sources, it is inherently theirs. But, Imagients still have to deal with control, in fact probably even more so. An imagient has to deal with the fact that they must make rules for all their powers. If an imagient doesn't learn from their parents the rules of their abilities and/or manifest them later in life, they are called a 'wilder' which is an Imagient who has a very vague, and very limited control of their power. This can be a blessing and a curse for an Imagient. A wilder technically has a very vague idea of their powers meaning they are pretty limitless, but that also needs a great deal of control. Sometimes that control and focus can be too much for an Imagient to handle and it overloads or they end up not controlling their power and it can in fact injure those around the imagient and even lead to the death of the Imagient. That is why wilders are generally seen as freaks in some circles, and in others bad omens. More so than not 'wilders' are seen as people who still need to master their powers. The main way for Imagients to control their power, is to give it specific rules that only the Imagient knows. The more rules and imagientech has the more specific and specialized the ability is, but it allows for greater control. One could say 'less is more', but for an imagient more rules is more like 'more is more' which means more to work with and more imaginative ideas can come out of this. Playing with rules, and bending them at times, allows an imagient to pretty much control their abilities and know their own weaknesses and faults and then work around those areas to make sure that they know their boundaries. Because Imagients can bend their own rules, and since they have a much greater imaginative process than a mage who is doing stuff via some type of school or limited ideas of power will generally lose. It doesn't help that Imagients don't necessarily power their abilities the same way that normal mages, monks or other magical people do. Imagients and mages all use spiritual energy or ki, or chi or whatever you want to call it. For a mage that spiritual energy is their battery fuel for their magic. An Imagient the fuel is just the canister, and their imagination is the fuel. There are three types of spiritual energy flow which is how spiritual energy is regulated in a body. These are burst, focused, and cycle. All spiritual energy exists outside the body and inside the body and will enter and exit the body at various times. The three types of flow exhibit how mages and even imagients use spiritual energy. Burst is a very powerful and forceful use of energy. It drains a lot of spiritual energy from the user, but is very strong. For instance someone could shoot spiritual bullets out of their and or a massive beam of energy, both would be considered burst type. Focused is more so what mages aim to have in their spiritual control. It takes energy from outside the body and inside the body to create a more focused and concentrated use of both energy sources. For instance clerics take energy from divine sources outside the body and control that source with their own spiritual energy, while a druid does similar things with their spiritual energy except the source is natural. The third type is called cycle, and generally is regulated by the spiritual points or chakra points of energy entering and exiting the body. It doesn't use that much spiritual energy, and allows more spiritual energy to enter the body. Abilities that use a cycle flow are generally not as powerful, but those who use cycled flow can use more energy. For mages these flow types are important because they ensure that a mage has enough spiritual energy to cast a spell. But, as I previously eluded for an Imagient that is not the case. These flow type are just canisters to use their energy. For an Imagient as long as they have the imagination to fill that canister of energy flow their power regulation depends on other factors such as other imagientechs, and in some cases the environment where the ability is being used. Making most of their imagination is what defines an Imagient, and the main difference between a mage and Imagient begin. A mage is limited by his potential for a variety of reasons. Not saying a mage can not become godly or very powerful. On the contrary mages especially master mages who have trained in their craft can make giant fireballs, cause storms, and defeat dragons. However, they are generally limited by the rules of magic. An Imagient is not limited by these things, and in fact their potential is only limited by their imagination. If an Imagient has the ability to control and power a world catastrophic dilemma, geuss what they can do it. Imagients are scary to many non-Imagients because of this fact. It is why mianthi control and regulate Imagients in their country of Legosolith. It is why earlier humans kicked Taisha Taika and other Imagients out of Neona, because they feared Imagients. That being said mages and Imagients are not so different. An Imagient can learn a lot form how a mage studies, and using the magical theories and understanding them can make an Imagient Mage, an individual who uses their imagitechs like a mage's magical abilities. This may seem as a weird fusion of ideas, but it can still happen and create some of the most powerful beings in the Imagience. The Mage's School that is located in the Sutonite Confederacy is just one place where this is not only common, it is the norm. Of course non-Imagient mages also exist there, but it is still a place where these two theories I talk about work together in harmony as much as I have stated that mages and Imagients are different. Imagients and mages are indeed very different. Imagients and Mages both use spiritual energy, but while a mage is limited by their own spiritual flow and Imagient is limited by their Imagination. A Mage can control their abilities through training, although Imagients can do that, the easiest way for them to do so is to add rules to their imagientech. Imagients are not limited by their potential as mages are, but by their own imagination. Despite these differences Imagients and Mages are not that different, but there is a difference in a very metaphysical sense. Both will be encountered in The Imagient King. Today's blog post discusses the modern or at least at the time of The Imagient King, the various contries and even factions within the Imagience. Cyphic Kingdom With it's capitol at Cyphar, it is the largest country in the Imagience. It is ruled by an aristocracy and the most powerful are either related to or serve the Cyph family, although the Cyph family alone do not control the country, only around the city of Cyphar do they directly control. It was created by most of the Sycamor lords aligned with the Cyph family when they rebelled. The currency is Cyphicals which are coins with various Cyphic leaders, princes, and wolves on it. Cyphic culture is based on Roman culture, and it's infrastructure includes Roman tropes such as aqueducts, paved brick roads, and a large urban sprawl. The larger cities have coliseums, and instead of slavery there is a feudal system that makes criminals work in mines and farms if they are not sent to be executed. The Cyphic Kingdom is a patriarchy, and has very little place for women advancement, it is the only place in the Imagience that is like this, oddly. Dispite this there are quite a few powerful women in the Cyphic Kingdom, and as Civil War looms in the kingdom, the old rule might be shaken up by anyone with power to maintain peace. In War the Cyphic Kingdom primarily uses light cavalry as it's main strike force. The Cyphic Wolves are medium infantry who uses spears and medium shields. They are defended by archers and generally move in very Roman formation. The light cavalry generally comes to flank around the enemy while the arrows inflict damage from afar. The Cyphic have fought against Kasite, the Omi Empire and the Southland Kingdom of Kirkia not to mention their previous enemies the Garfield, Southview, Anderson, Albanu, and Macedons. The banner and symbol of the Cyphic Kingdom are three wolf heads, which some say is reference to the three sons of Erik Van Cyph. But since he only acknowledges one as an heir, one as a bastard, and the other one as his son who doesn't have any legitimacy this theory is not correct. It actually references the three trinity of the Cyphic unity, The King, his men, and his countryman. Because of this, many refer to Cyphic loyalists as Cyphic dogs. Empire of the Omi Islands Originally formed by the famous Imagient Taisho Taika, the dragon general. The Omi islands is a feudal society ruled by a joint Imagient-and Magic families. They are based on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean societies, but have no shogun, only an emperor. The Liang and Omi families are the two strongest. It's capitol is Ondai Yo. The currency is Onyo which are square gold coins that go on strings. These strings and sashes are attached to clothing via netsuke which are ornamental. The currency itself is mostly golden with square hole in the middle that allows the string or wire to be placed through. Omi Empire is based off Confucius Asia and has traits of Japan, Korea, and Han and especially Tang China. Interestingly there are Omi diaspora throughout the Imagience outside of the Omi Empire including in Sutite, their colonies along the Cyphic territories, and in the Zulgan city states. An interestingly very Vietnamese culture has been encountered on the mainland in Omi occupied Cyphic prominently in Andersona/Nesson. The Omi Empire's military is split into three factions, the navy, the military, and the mages. It's navy is very Korean and Ming Dynasty influenced while it's military ground troops are mostly Japanese inspired. Lords bring soldiers and are led not by army type, but by allegiance, and mages come from either religious institutions or self-trained dojos that combine either Imagientechs with martial arts or magic/spiritual training with martial arts are are more of a special ops. The symbol of the Omi Empire is a dragon, known as the great Dragon of the East. Some have mislabeled Omi as snakes, to mock the eastern looking dragon and not acknowledge it as powerful. Great Southland Kingdom of Kirkia One of the oldest kingdoms in the Imagience formed by Kras Kirkia, it is mostly a jungle nation now, but had powerful temple complexes where the old Iron Priestess religion was formed. Currently led by Dan Kirkia, at his grandfather's capitol of Kirkian. It is an oligarchy controlled by Dan Kirkia jointly with his local lords many secretly are aligned with the return of the Sycamor hier. The control is ruled as a Meritocracy, only giving people roles who show their merit. Kirkia is a southern kingdom that takes its culture primarily from Peruvian, but especially Incan culture. Also like the Sycamor and Suttonite culture it takes certain ideas from the Iroquois League and Native American culture as well. However, many Kirkians attitudes are very Italian and are lax and are deemed by Cyphic and Zulgans as lazy. The currency are idols made from clay and painted various colors. Brown is common and worth 5, Green is uncommon and worth 10, Silver rare and worth 20, and golden idols are worth 50. Miathi Kingdom of Legosolith Ancient Spacial elven kingdom, mostly deluted by non spacial-elven dna and even imbreds with Imagients. Based at Myvandium, the oldest city in the Imagience, found by the Spacial Elves or Mianthi. It is a queendom ruled by a motherly doting queen, and female elves. Males are used as soldiers and other occupations such as smithies. Imagients must have a register to a family or are enslaved to work in camps. Only those with elven blood even half-imagients can have political power. Only pure blood elves can rule the country. Imagients are treated like second class citizens in most of the kingdom, but Myvandium is a popular stop thanks to the Library of Myvandium. The border is guarded with towers, walls, and troops and has strong immigration policy. If the border guards seize someone illegally in the country they force them into slavery. Zulgan City States Consisting of various city states in the Tomas Sea and on the border with Kirkia and Cyph. Run as various plutocracies who all trade and regulate with each other.. Merchants, free trade, and freedom of choice are paramount here. The Zulgan city States are all unique cities that are all primarily based on Southeast Asian city states such as Tomvan being a port version of Hong Kong, Tomas Port being similar to Singapore, and Zulgan is based off of Jakarta, other cities such as Adra Grif are based off of Bangkok, and other smaller cities are based off of Angkor, Malaka and other trade cities in Asia. The various city states are mostly controlled and led by merchants or at least a council of merchants. Tomas Port is run by a council of five prominent families including the Reis, Poluff-Sheridan, and three other families. Andra Grif is controlled by a council which itself is loyal to the Thief King and so on. Although, one would think that people can just buy their way into politics in the Zulgan city states there are rule of engagement, and courtesy that are paramount in the delicate political games of the Zulgan City States. The only place where this is different is Tomvan which has become very Cyphic since the city states opened their trade doors back with Cyphic. Zulgan City States have private armies based on the merchant, none of them are standing armies and act more like mercenary bands, but many bands have loyalty to a city. Adra Grif and Zulgan are the only two exceptions to this rule as Adra Grif has a partial standing army that only acts in time of war. These two places also have an active navy, unlike Tomas Port which has no navy, but instead hires pirates during times of war. Zulgan use gold, silver, and bronze coins called Zullians. They are all uniform, and flat, but many people plaster stamps on them to make them look artistic. These stamps can be washed off and applied. Many people who store and invest with tons of money decorate their stamps and coins in very ornament fashion. Sutite Confederacy Once controlled by the Kirkians, now by the Cyph and then later the Omi. The Sutites are people who are multicultural and desire freedom. They favor liberty and independence. The Sutites are descendants of the Great Suttonite Kingdom which was one of the kingdoms that formed after the death of Taisha Taika's kingdom. They were then destroyed by the original Kirkian Kingdom. However, some Suttites fought back against Kirkian oppression and retained cultural heritage. This faction then split once more once the Omi invaded. You have the Mienes family who claim allegiance to the Sycamor, but aligned with the Omi during the invasion. The other two factions are the Southviewit Knights who are a Templar Knights like Satari organization and The Mage's School. The Mage's School of the Imagience are mostly human mages who live in the Imagience. The leader of the school is a dragon, but leds mostly human students. Both of these factions support independence form Cyphic and Omi rule. Kasite Great monarchy to the north ruled by the Konkan family and their various allies. They consider themselves more than the Sycamor as heirs to Taisho Taika. Their capitol is Konite which lies inside a mountain. Kasite is a Kingdom ruled by Patriarchs who rose during the end of the Michianan War. The dynasts claim descendancy from the Munshi much like the Sycamor. But, they claim they have a more purer bloodline since Lyander Sycamor married into the Sheridans. Culturally they are based off Carthage, but many see them as northern barbarians like the huns, or mongols. The Kasite in war use heavy cavalry that are built on strong war horses that can endure the elements. They also know how to use the mountains to their advantage. Kasite has trade networks down into Nubyar which allows them to obtain gunpowder, black imagicite is their largest export which means that in war the Kasite also use black imagicite in new and exciting ways including black imagicite wire and dust. Nubyar On paper, an autocracy, sometimes considered an oligarchy and in theory a theocracy who follow the teachings of Sect Lie eventually. Who worship the fertility goddess Sian-nah. Nubyar is a Persian and Indian influenced area where merchants export exotic goods. They also have access to the Great Portax of the Imagience which allows trade outside of the Imagience. Making this area somewhat at times more technologically superior. At the time of the Imagient King, though trade and tech has been slow do to various trade deals and international/intergalactic problems. Nubyar is actually home of the oldest Imagient civilization in the Imagience, a fact that many don't want to forget. Learning about history via poetry, writing, and oral history is important and much like in Zulgan City States museums and monuments depicting this are found all around. Nubyar like the Zulgan city states not only value trade, but have war elephants as their main war machines. Their army uses gunpowder units, cavalry, infantry, archers, and a variety of tactics.
What is the Imagience? The wold in which The Imagient King book series takes place. Is it a world? A planet? Well, not really, and in this blog post I hope to explain what exactly is The Imagience. Most fantasy books are set in fictitious worlds much like our own, a reflection of society, but The Imagient King is placed in a somewhat different universe and a somewhat different type of world. In fact it isn't a world or a planet, but rather a spacial plane in between two different universes. The Imagience was created by the mianthi or some say by an elder race much older than the mianthi as a spacial distortion between the Computus Galaxy and the Imagined Realm. This connects the Imagience with my greater world building or rather universe building aspect. The Computus Galaxy is where most of my other stories will take place, and I might make a blog post about that later. However, for simplicity sake in today's post I will limit it to the Imagience itself. The only thing you will have to know about the Imagined Realm is that in it exists every story or idea ever imagined. So all of your fan-fictions go there. The mianthi were the first settlers to the Imagience, they fled to the Imagience eons ago during the 'Great Flight of the Elves' a world changing event that occurred in the Computus millions of years ago. This sent the various elven families diverging into their modern variations, the mianthi were one of these variations and they made this their home. The mianthi would routinely expand the Imagience with giant spacial distortion pillars imbued with their power made from Imagicite. The pillars are what both keep the Imagience intact, but also stabilize it so it doesn't collapse. For all intense and purposes, the Imagience shouldn't exist as it is a spacial distortion between two different universes it is on the periphery of a multitude of physics breaking calamity, the only thing that stops the Imagience from being ripped apart is those pillars. It is unknown if the mianthi terraformed the area or if it was already terraformed. There exists the main continent and various islands. It isn't that people haven't tried to explore beyond the ocean boundaries they have, but once they get to the boundaries there are literally a spacial distortion of walls. The sun is one of the suns of a somewhat near solar system. The moon really isn'ta moon, but a floating piece of spacial debri. The Imagience is a lie, and nobody not even miathi know this. Historically there have been various miathi kingdoms and empires, but most of those are not important to the story of The Imagient King. The first one that might be mentioned is Loranthil which was the first kingdom that Taisho Taika defeated when he and his Imagient horde arrived to the Imagience. It was here at the Battle of Galdrewa'weol that the history of the Imagience was forever changed. The Imagients would shape the history of the Imagience, and eventually get to the events of The Imagient King. My novel series The Imagient King in it's title brings up a world of fantasy, but it also brings up a good question, what in the world is an Imagient? How is it pronounced and what does it have to do with today's blog post? Those answers and more will be addressed in today's blog post. Today we will discuss what is an Imagient, why they are different than normal humans, a brief pre-history of Imagients, and how being an Imagient in the Imagience affects ones life.
Imagients pronounced i-maa-ji-ent are humans that have a special mutation that makes them different than normal humans. Technically all Imagients are humans. That is they look like humans, share all biological and cultural traits with humans. Imagients can breed with humans and produce offspring. The difference between Imagients and humans starts on the magical disparity between the two. Normal humans can naturally learn magic and have inherent abilities to control magic. Although throughout human history, magic has either been seen as either a blessing or a curse, depending on the society and culture at the time. Magic in at least my universe is generated by using one's own spiritual energy or manipulating spiritual energy from outside the body, such as getting magic granted by a god or getting energy from nature like a druid. Humans are forced to be limited by laws of magic, pertaining mostly to the various magical theories of thoughts and in most cases limited by their own knowledge as well. There are indeed powerful mages that have powers that rival gods, some of these will meet in later books in The Imagient King, but to keep things simple at first we focus on Imagients, and what makes them different than mages. Imagients are different than their human counterparts thanks to a mutation that allows them to take everything I just said in the previous paragraph and bend the rules. Imagients cheat the system of magic, they don't necessarily have to be limited by the laws of magic instead they substitute those laws with their own imagination, allowing them to break and bend existing magical laws and properties. Don't misunderstand, Imagients technically still follow rules of magic, and their attacks are still are in abidance by the studly of elementology, which is the study on how magical elements interact with each other. That being said, while a normal mage might have to be limited by his power and his knowledge on a spell an Imagient doesn't necessarily have to. For example let us say a mage who has trained for a decade casts his favorite spell a fireball. The fireball is pretty much limited to the size and duration of the caster. Magic is a skill in this case, it has to be learned and it has to be perfected. The same mage will cast the fire ball as an elemental attack and it will do damage. An Imagient who has an Imagientech, or Imagient Technique to control, manipulate and produce fireballs doesn't need a decade of practice to get to that level. The Imagient must still learn how to control and get to that level, but it is usually not in a decade. The other big distinction is that the fireball Imagientech is far more versatile than the fireball. Imagientechs can do anything that magic spells can, and can do more. Think of an Imagientech in the same vein as an esper ability. They both do supernatural things, but one is explained by magic and the other one is by science. Although, Imagientechs are not science, they are a visible and tangible manifestation of an Imagient's imagination made real. One could say that magic is the same, but magic is generally taught as a skill and again is limited by the school of thought while an Imagientech is general birthed and grows with the limitation and aspiration of the Imagient. Let's go back to the fireball analogy for a second. The mage casts the fireball, and it is done. Unless he has decided to place more spells into the fireball, it is over after it is cast. A fireball imagientech however could if the Imagient willed or imagined it could split into multiple fireballs, turn to different colors, and a multitude of other things. For an Imagient an Imagientech is a reflection of their personality, just as certain people think that colors can reflect a person or personalities, an Imagientech is reflective on the wielder. It's an extension of themselves and can be as mighty or as minor as they want. The more Imagientechs an Imagient possesses the stronger the Imagient which led to Imagient culture wanting pure bred Imagients and powerful ones. Power was the key to early Imagient culture and success. A pure-bred Imagient also known as Imagient Lords rule over most Imagients due to a couple of reasons. The main being a pure-blood has a total of four slots of attainable Imagientechs. But, what does that mean? All Imagients have Imagient potential or Imagined slots that hold abilities. Now an Imagient makes these slots due to rules of controlling an Imagientech. If they don't have rules their their powers and contain them, the Imagientech will overcome the Imagient and the Imagient will become a problem for themselves and for others. Hence one of the reasons why pure-bred Imagient families keep their powers in house. They pass down one or two Imagientechs to their children and then let the Imagient find out their own abilties from there. This keeps Imagient families and powers very distinctive, but also creates a sort of bond to family to Imagientech and why one can trace lineage with Imagientech. Purebred Imagients rule over non-pure-breeds, because those with more power of course can dictate to the powerless. This doesn't mean that half or even quarter Imagients don't have the tendency to become powerful or respected in purebred societies, but it is usually a minor population of non-Imagient Lords who rule over the population. This very power hungry control over Imagients and their powers has led to many families and power struggles throughout history. It should leave very little to the imagination on why normal humans don't get along with Imagients. In pre-history past on the human home world of Neona, Imagients were called witches, demons, and other bad things associated with Imagients. They were rounded up, and slaughter, massacred. Then one day a man named Taisha Taika from a small archipelago, rose up and created his own kingdom. He then sent out word that he was trying to recruit an align with other Imagients. Not all of Neona's Imagients followed his wish, and decided to not come and stay hidden from humanity. Then a group of human wizards, mutant sentient animals called Monjins, and some angels and even demons created an Anti-Imagient alliance to stop Taisha Taika's empire. Seeing that his empire on Neona was crippled Taisha Taika took his kingdom and escaped through a portal called a portax and escaped creating a saga fit for it's own book series eventually to the Imagience. Then at the Imagience the Imagients began creating their new home in the desert region in the southeast. The Imagients would venture north and fight mianthi kingdoms who were at the time in a massive war. In the confusion the Imagients under Taisha Taika's reign would spread throughout the Imagience, and after his death would continue to spread until the mianthi would be regulated to western Imagience. No, wonder they are suspicious of Imagients and want to enslave them nor trust them. Imagients have powers that are breathtaking, they are sometimes called one-man armies because the stronger ones in legends and tales have taken on armies of humans, mianthi, and even other Imagients on their own. They can defy reality with their imaginations, and have had a long way and a long journey ahead of them. The Imagient King is just the beginning on shedding the light on the Imagience and the stories of the Imagients that I want to tell. The Imagient King is a series that I have worked on and off for about ten years now. It has changed multiple times, and in this first set of edits, I see that I have been influenced by a lot of mediums. The three most consistent influences to my work are fantasy novels, anime, and live-action films. There are other smaller influences like my knowledge of history, my love of video games, and a few other things that have inspired me over the years, but for the sake of keeping this a bit more precise in this blog post I will talk about how literature particularly fantasy books, anime and a special anime influenced western cartoon as well as live action films and tv series have inspired and changed the way that this book was written.
Imagient King is a coming of age/high fantasy series so it is no surprise that I was inspired by fantasy books. The four big ones are probably Lord of the Rings by Tolkein, Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson, and most interestingly Journey to the West the great Chinese epic. Each of these have contributed as an influence to me in multiple ways, some more than others. My earliest literary influences come in the form of the Star Wars novels that I read as a small child. I mostly read nonfiction in elementary school, and most of that was dinosaur books since I wanted to be a paleontologist at a young age. The in middle School I picked up and read The Hobbit for the first time, partial inspired by Lord of the Rings which came out around the same time. I also remember watching The Hobbit animated film in one of my classes for some reason. Tolkien is one of my first memories when it came to literature that was of the fictional variety. I had read monster and mystery novellas as a child, and even read Harry Potter, but Tolkien particularly The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are still series that I really related to. The journey of a hobbit and dwarves across Middle Earth helped carve in my imagination the idea of a journey that needed to be completed. In middle school I read beyond fantasy an that included a lot of scientific and philosophy books. I encountered C.S. Lewis a contemporary of Tolkien and author of the Chronicles of Narnia. It was my love of fantasy and medieval combat that I made friends in both middle school and high school. One such friend introduced me to the works of Robert Jordan, and from there I started to read The Wheel of Time series. I also read the Ranger's Apprentice series around this time, but The Wheel of Time has a much more important role to play in terms of the development of The Imagient King. I was so enthralled by the world that Robert Jordan created in The Wheel of Time that it consumed me. I loved the characters, I loved the world building, I could see the influence of Asian philosophy and culture interwoven into Robert Jordan's material that it influenced me a fan of Japanese video games and anime to delve deeper into epic fantasy for more reads and influences. This love of Jordan along with my love to create my own characters and my own worlds would be the basis for me created the story of The imagients, and the Imagient King as a whole. The early ideas of a princess from the east meeting up with a blacksmith from a farming town was birthed in high school, and the original idea for the story was eerily very similar to Jordan's Wheel of Time series. So one could say that Jordan is the first and biggest influence on my writing and of the developmental process of the Imagient King as he inspired me to write. Although, I would leave the basic manuscript and ideas that I started in high school, the basic plot that revolved around a blacksmith who has a destiny being reveled by his mixing of paths with a princess from the East became the inspiration for Imagient King in the future. After high school I went to college and it is here where I for the most part stopped reading fantasy. I was a history major, particularly interested in Asian culture. I read tons of Asian primary sources in my courses and developed an appreciation for Asian storytelling. I was already a fan of Japanese anime, but most of Japanese literature is based on Confucian and Buddhist teachings from China. The biggest of which is Journey from the West, and it would be my next biggest influence. Journey to the West is an epic tale of a monk who sets forth on a journey fighting monsters and traveling to India to get the sacred texts of the Buddha. That by itself is similar to the story of the first Imagient King book- A blacksmith along with a princess from the East travels west to a library to find out about his past and his destiny. I won't say that I stole that from Journey to the West, as Journey to the West is a very spiritually themed story, and that summary is not necessarily what Journey to the West is about, but the influence is supposed to be there. Just like Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama was inspired by Journey to the West, so was I, and the first book which is pretty much a giant chase scene, but inspired by Journey to the West structurally. The Chinese have inspired many Japanese and other Asian films and books, but we don't see a lot of Western fantasy based on Asian history or culture. Most fantasy is European based, due to the Tolkien worship, but Jordan defiantly influenced by Hindu and Buddhist religions used those inspirations to create the religion and culture of Randland or whatever you want to call his world he created in Wheel of Time. I was more of a fan of Confucian views, which ironically Journey to the West satirizes. So, you will see probably some very Confucius principles in my writings. I left school with my history degree and Asian Studies minor, not really knowing what the future would hold. I needed to focus on my future, but I would eventually start to work on my draft for Imagient King I was interested in reading contemporary fantasy novels. The one that was recommended by a friend was Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. I didn't know what to expect as many readers either hate Erikson's books or love them. I became a part of the latter, and it is probably because we have similar backgrounds. Steven Erikson is an anthropologist with an archaeologist background who fell into role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Gurps. I myself am a historian with knowledge in paleontology who loves playing role playing games. When I created lore for the stories I wanted to create as a teenager and young adult I obsessed over lore and setting. Erikson's first book in his Malazan series, Gardens of the Moon is very much so in this vein. Gardens of the Moon was originally going to be a film script according to Erikson, and then after that was canned he was going to turn it into an RPG setting like Gurps or Dungeons and Dragons. Although, this could probably still be done, sometime later Erikson turned Gardens of Moon into a novel series and along with his friend Ian C. Esslemont would created the shared universe of Malazan. This inspired me to continue building lore and focusing on making my world as realistic as I could, not so in the since of making it realistically based in reality, but making the characters feel like real people with something at stake. Creating a world and society that seemed believable, not just some fantasy fodder world that people had seen before. Erikson's attention to detail allowed me to continue with what I was doing and helped me craft my setting and tone in a new way. Beyond literature my biggest hobby is that of watching animation particularly Japanese anime. I have been an anime fan since I saw Pokemon when I was in the second grade. My love or more realistically my obsession has just grown since then. Anime is an interesting medium, because unlike American animation which focuses on children anime focuses on genres and story arcs. If you watch adult animation in the states it is mostly stuff like Family Guy, The Simpsons, South Park which is mostly potty mouth humor. There are not story arcs, even in kid shows. The closest thing was the Justice League, Batman, and Superman shows in the nineties and early two thousands, and even then they don't concentrate on the story and plot like anime do. Anime as a medium have characters and stories to tell that may seen strange and bizarre to a majority of westerners. Since I was enthralled early on, and loved the characters and stories presented and latter delved into Japanese culture I came to respect the medium even more. It became my main hobby, and more often not on my free time I am watching anime, it has become that important part of my life. The anime that truly probably inspired me the most is actually in truth not an actual anime, but an anime influenced cartoon known as Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar actually does a lot of things superior to most modern anime creating a world that is interesting and characters who are instantly likable. It showed duality between two sides which was an inspiration for me to focus not just on my heroes and heroines, but show the side of the villains and antagonists as well. Both are proactive, and both have hopes and dreams. That is probably the biggest literary thing I learned from the Avatar series. It is not the only inspiration I have taken from the Avatar series. The simple elemental system used in Avatar inspired my magic system of elementology that I use. My system is a bit more complicated that the one that is used in Avatar, but it is very similar in nature. The way that the benders in the Avatar series use their elemental abilities also inspired me when developing the abilities of my own characters. My characters themselves were not influenced by Avatar, nor was my world. Although, it is anime influenced much like my own writings other anime series helped me influence my characters and world building. Moribito, in terms of my characters is probably one of the more obvious ones. Moribito is an anime series that is based on a novel of the same name that centers around a middle aged woman named Balsa. Not only is that quite unorthodox the characters in the anime series are quite complex. The complex nature of someone like Balsa who does jobs as a mercenary to redeem herself inspired me to make my heroes and especially my heroines have passions, dreams and be strong characters. Moribito had a great Asian influenced fantasy setting as well, and helped me craft some of my lore and setting, but for the most part Malazan and Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere helped inspire my setting and lore. Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere is an anime series that itself is based off a light novel series notorious for not being so “light” in size. It is one of my most loved anime series, and despite the fact that it gets a lot of hate for it's use of fan service I still love it. The world building, the setting is grand in scope. Much like Malazan. Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere is a science-fiction based light novel series that has a massive cast of characters much like epic fantasy. The characters are also a part of the smaller scale of the world and eventually involve themselves with the greater problems facing the world head on. That is the tone of my series as well. The first three novels of the Imagient King the main protagonists are small scale and only doing their own tasks and duties while a much biggest threat looms that they don't face directly. Eventually after Li and Tsuna form their destiny, they will tackle the larger issues in the last three books. The big deal in Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere is the world is ending, the Apocalypse. It isn't that serious in my book series, and also isn't as weird and outlandish like Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere. It is a much more simpler tale than ending the Apocalypse. The first three novels follow Li and Tsuna's destiny, and then the last three show what they will do to carve their own path. I don't watch that much films or television anymore, but I do enjoy me a good fantasy film. Lord of the Rings as a film franchise influenced me to read The Hobbit which kickstarted my love of fantasy so film as a medium has influenced me. However, the biggest film series to influence my writing is probably Star Wars. It is obvious that something like Star Wars would influence me, I loved the Star Wars children books when I was little, I loved the first trilogy, and I love the new series of films and lore. Star Wars has inspired me to write strong characters and always have a bit of mystical and magical qualities. Unlike, George Lucas I know I am writing a fantasy series and won't ruin it by bringing in midoclorians. But, despite my personal misgivings about George Lucas as a writer, his writings and lore that he built for Star Wars are inspirational. Star Wars doesn't have a great plot, it is just stole from films and myths. It is the characters that are most important in Star Wars, we care about Luke, Leia, and Han Solo. Yes, the characters are essentially tropes, but they are at least written well. We don't delve too much into character development with these characters, but it is interesting to see Luke follow the heroes journey. The Force is an interesting and unique in it's implementation in the original Star Wars. Instead of just using magic, although the Force is essentially magic, it has it's own rules and boundaries. In tern this inspired me to develop imagitechs. Imagitechs started out trying to find a way to over power saiyans from DBZ, but thanks to my love of Star Wars lore, and creating the elementology system I would create a magical system of my own with it's own rules and boundaries similar to that of the force. Star Wars was great, but as I have already stated it is a pretty generic story told in a very unorthodox way. I still love it, but I began to understand that in high school Lucas was partiality inspired by Akira Kurosawa. The Hidden Fortress is one of the most credited films in history, and is a huge influence to Star Wars particularly A New Hope. The Hidden Fortress is told by the perspective of two peasants who are pretty incompetent, but there is a princess, a samurai and a journey. I won't really say that The Hidden Fortress has inspired me beyond that. The princess in my story is the driving force, and one of the most proactive characters. The samurai or bodygaurd could be seen in both Li and in Tyvan. But I don't really have peasant characters who goof off like in The Hidden Fortress. When it comes to Akira Kurosawa my main influence is that of Kagemusha, which is one of my favorite films ever. Kagemusha is partially inspired by the tale of Shingen Takeda a warlord or diamyo in the Japanese Warring States period. It helped me envision how life in an asian culture and land would be like. Kagemusha helped create the idea of the Omi Empire, and the culture that lived there. Although, the Omi Empire would evolve to be a very Japanese influenced culture I would add a very Chinese bureaucratic system and have some Korean motifs such as a strong navy, strong walls, and Korean architecture. Kagemusha also helped shape a political and historical based drama that was different than anything I saw in modern fantasy. It inspired me to take from asian history and culture to create a world that was not like anything in contemporary fantasy. Asian politics and culture is something that interests me, so as I researched it using Kagemusha as a basis it helped me draft a better understanding on how a culture like that would work in a fantasy setting. The fantasy setting that I ended up crafting for the novel was one that had multicultural influences, the Imagients were a culture of invaders, warriors and aristocrats. They fought with each other as much as they fought with the native Imagient mianthi. It was a chaotic struggle for life and death in the Imagience inspired by historical fiction, fantasy literature, anime, and television. Many might see influence from Game of Thrones, and I won't detract that I have not been influenced by the tv series or even George RR Martin's fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, but these other influences outweigh I think any comparisons between Martin and me. My writing was influenced by fantasy novels, by anime and animation in general, by video games, television and by Asian films. I crafted a world based on these influences. I made characters to inhabit this world, and The Imagient King is the series that is dedicated to telling the stories of the Imagients and humans who live in The Imagience. It is just through the lens of a blacksmith who has a heroic destiny and of a runaway princess who will soon face her own destiny.
The reason why everyone is probably reading this blog, and coming to this site is because this is the official blog site for my books. The stories that I want to tell can be summed up in grandiose style, and I have a lot, and I mean a lot of ideas. I want to turn these ideas into stories and tell them to people across multiple multimedia platforms and genres. Then I thought I needed to start somewhere, so the best way to introduce you into this universe I want to create to tell these stories is with the Imagient King, a story that has grown and evolved to it's own monster over the years. In this blog I will discuss the Imagient King, what it is and what it means to me. Then I will talk about it's own evolution as an idea and what the book itself is about. Finally, I will attempt to explain what I want to do with the series, and this blog. The Imagient King, a story within a story. The idea for the book series itself can go back to my elementary school years where my friends who pretend to role-play various heroes and villains during recess. Although, the term Imagient was probably manifested by me in middle school the stories and the games we played in my early years helped shape ideas that would later be used in the Imagient King series. It is in essence my idea of going back to my childhood dreams and stories that I have always wanted to tell. I have tried to tell stories about characters in my head, as many friends now whenever I try to explain my “big idea” story Dino Wars Army to them, it comes off flat and they are confused. I have so much lore and so much to explain, that it goes over many of my friend's heads. But I am not here to talk about Dino Wars Army, although I can discuss that monster on another blog post. Imagient King itself manifests itself as a dream to tell stories that I have wanted to tell my friends, and indeed some of my close friends now about Imagients, and a bit about them. They are magical empowered individuals very similar to psychics and psykers for Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons fans might know. I only use those terms because they are close to what Imagients are, but they really are their own thing that I have created over time. The fact that I am actually working on a series discussing the Imagients, and their own lore to fit my greater universal lore, is fitting and at the same time monumental to me. It's a big task to explain Imagients, Imagientechs, and many terms that most people reading this blog won't understand. But, hopefully once I get this book written, rewritten and edited over a hundred times then this blog will be in retrospect something that is very powerful and representative of a big risk that I am taking in trying to tell a story of characters who are just stepping stones in more extravagant stories to come. For me, Imagient King is the easiest way to explain and open the door to something greater. My idea of the Computus Lore, which is a huge set of lore and setting where all of my stories interconnect and relate to each other. Spanning millions of years, centered with thousands of characters I want to tell the story of these worlds and these people. And with Imagient King, I can finally do just that. So you might be thinking, what in the world is Computus Lore? Well that is a story a bit more complicated that I might explain in a later blog post. For now the easiest thing to explain is Imagient King, the Imagients, and the Imagience where they live. And to do that I will first have to explain to you what in the world these terms mean, the origin of it, and in essence what you are all getting into when you eventually read The Imagient King: Journey with the Princess of the East. The origins of Imagients as I so briefly discussed earlier comes from two different distinct sources. One is that childhood recess escapades where I took the stories and imagination of my youth and coined the term in retrospect Imagients. Me and my friends were the Imagients who fought against the Bullies and other bad things that all elementary aged boys fight such as cutties, aliens, and bad homework. This is the origin of Imagients, but it is not what I eventually used as the plot of my book, Imagients in their more modern form came to me as a young anime fan trying to find a way to make individuals more powerful than saiyans. Yes, saiyans as in the alien race in Dragon Ball Z, which the main character Goku and many others are members of. How does one make something stronger than someone who can destroy a planet? Well, in my youth I decided that people who could manipulate reality using their imagination, just might be able to do that. Imagients evolved to be able to control the world we know it by tapping into their imagination and making it into reality. Imagients were originally created in late middle school/early high school for a very juvenile purpose. So I created Imagients to fill my current stories at the time including Dino Wars Army. But, they didn't really have any lore or backstory at this point. So, after being inspired reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and a few other fantasy series I worked on the lore for the Imagients. Their origins, and their homeland. I created the Imagience originally as their homeland, a place between existence and parallel worlds. This was eventually expanded upon a bit more in high school and it forced me to create a cast of characters to fit this world and lore. So all of the main cast of Imagient King were created for this world. A princess on a quest to find a lost heir, a blacksmith who doesn't really have any goals in life, his cousin who he sees as his sister, and his soldier friend who is really a spy. These archetypes and story was then created in high school in it's most early and archaic forms. Then I got accepted into college, and my situation changed. I didn't work on my lore and stories anymore instead I wanted to graduate school and be a historian. My goals in life changed and I left these stories to the sideline. It became clear around my third year that I may not be able to get into graduate school so I needed a back up plan. My first back-up plan was to create a business to publish and support local artists, including my own work. This plan would ultimately be shelved DE.I.C.E still exists as a business plan, but it has been pushed back until I can get more content for it to be successful. I returned to Imagient King briefly during this time to make a hit content idea. Here I worked on my 'big idea' Dino Wars Army again, and redrafted the whole Imagience making it more to what the story is now. But, it still wasn't there. I still had a lot of time before the story would become what I am working on now. The main push to create the Imagient King that I am working on now, happened during the tail end of my college life. I shared script ideas of Dino Wars Army to animation and computer friends, and they still didn't understand it. It came to me that Dino Wars Army was too big of a monster to handle at the moment. After all it is my epic, my baby and I decided to shelf it for a bit. To improve my craft first I needed a guinea pig, and Imagient King would be that guinea pig. Imagient King became my guinea pig out of necessity. I went to Indiana Comic Con 2015 and attended various writing panels and it was here that I was inspired even more so to write a story. I researched how to make books, what I was needing for my book and how to write stories. I am a historian by trade, so I built a new lore and a new infrastructure for the Imagient King universe. I tweaked characters, empowered motivations, and pretty much destroyed my existing Imagient King story and built a new one by scratch. The initial plot stayed the same, the main protagonist was a blacksmith named Lee, now named Leonli has no motivation in life except to stay in his humble small farming town as a blacksmith, but this changes when a princess from the east named Sumi now named Tsuna Liang encounters him and by way of chance involves him in a chase where he faces off against demons, the inquisition and the Cyphic military. The first book is essentially a chase scenario where Leonli the main protagonist, his cousin and assistant Kerrin, and his soldier friend Tyvan all end up helping this mysterious princess from an eastern Empire escape the clutches of their corrupt government. I decided to flip things on the readers head by making the corrupt government hunters all unique characters that were also relatable. A bastard general, who is the unclaimed son of the king of Cyphic Kingdom which is where the first book takes place. He has a group of individuals including two inquisitors, his own eccentric brother who is the actual heir to the Cyphic dynasty, as well as his own soldiers and officers. The book is essentially a high fantasy/coming of age story with the main characters who are engaged in one long chase sequence from their pursers who are the Cyphic military and inquisition. Strong themes such as friendship, propaganda as prophecy, responsibility, and life motivations are discussed. The book sets up the Imagience world, Imagients, and their abilities called Imagientechs. Which I try to distinguish from magic in my universe by bringing in mages so that there is a difference in place. The Imagient King series which will be six books in total, with the Princess of the East ending on a good note, where a good majority of the plot is contained into the first novel. Yes, there will be more books after the Imagient King: Princess of the East. Not everything will be ended nicely in the first book, but there is at lease a lot of closure that it can be considered almost stand alone. Or at least that is my intention. The first three books in the franchise form a trilogy of sorts which showcases the main character Leonli and his female co-protagonist Tsuna on a coming of age story about both of them facing their destiny. Tsuna's main story arc is one of accepting her responsibilities as a princess and as someone who helps guide Leonli through the story. Leonli's arc itself is one of motivation, as we enter the series Leonli has no motivation and with Tsuna he is given that. But, that is not his ultimate destiny, as you will read in the book itself, there may be a few things about Leonli that I hint about, but will not spoil. But, let's just say it may or may not involve the series title. My goal with this is to not only write six books for the Imagient King, but to use it as a stepping stone to write other novels I want to write, outside of the Imagience and throughout the greater Computus Lore. Stories on such far off worlds as Mithrenok, Avesauria, and Neona. These names mean very little to you readers of this blog now, but I hope in the future to greater explain these worlds, and the characters that dwell here. Imagient King will hopefully prove to be the catalyst for this greater lore I want to tell, because I have more in store for you, not only in this blog, but as stories that I want to tell readers as a whole. So, in closing the Imagient King is a book series that I am going to write and I have wanted to write these stories for a long time. Through trial and tribulation I have created a world rich with lore that I hope many will come to love. Eventually, I want to expand outwards into other mediums beyond novels especially into animation to tell even more stories. These are my goals, and a little bit about the Imagient King as a whole. I hope you liked reading this actual very first blog post about my book series and for you to come back to my blog in the future. Well, I have finally decided to break down and get myself a blog. This is both of necessity just as much as it is out of pure happenstance. I have stories that I want to write, and this is a good way to interact with my fans. Additionally to the stories I want to tell, I want to write opinion pieces that probably won't necessarily be best for posting on social media. Facebook is not the best place to vent out one's frustrations, but this blog will allow me to discuss a variety of topics from history, religion, literature, politics, and more fandom based ones that I am highly subjective on including modern anime, modern gaming, modern fantasy, and modern comics. This blog will at least be an attempt to wrestle all of those topics at one time or another. But, only time will tell if this blog actually becomes something I can use once my writing career begins, whenever I can finish my novel and get it published.
|
AuthorA.L. Hornbeck, historian, author, metalhead, and all around geek. Archives
September 2018
Categories |