Tag: biim

NaNoWriMo Day 12

Neon BrightLeave a comment

Today I got plenty of words written! I never struggled to keep myself writing. And yet, it felt like every time I checked on my word count for the day, I’d only written like, twenty more words than the last time I checked.

Word Count: 2147

Excerpt:

It took him a few months to wander back into town. Marina had given him up by then, so she was as surprised as everyone else when that familiar tall, cowled figure had appeared in Arelvo’s single market district once more.

The bastard had the nerve, back then, to look happy to see her, to lean in for a kiss as if the intervening months hadn’t happened at all.

Marina didn’t allow it. Out of respect for the cowl and the mask he wore, she didn’t slap him like the scorned young women did in all the hexcoin novels in stock at the bookshop. Never one to be idle, Marina had continued her discipline. She hadn’t sat and pined for him at her window, though she had taught herself a handy spell for if she ever saw him again.

A thump of solid force right to his sternum seemed to get the message across loud and clear, and in front of the entire market to boot. He didn’t bother her at her stall after that.

It took him three days to convince her to see him again. By his explanation, it was like he really didn’t understand just how much time he’d allowed to elapse. Her ire over his sudden departure, over his silence all that time, never occurred to him. Those blue eyes of his – beautiful, clear blue eyes that were normally so hidden by his cowl – were wide with the dawning understanding of what he’d done, and how he’d hurt her.

He had apologized, and that had surprised Marina more than most of his odd, clueless behavior before. It wasn’t the first time he’d apologized to her, but it was the first time he did it without her telling him he needed to do so.

And gods damn it all if she hadn’t been swept right up into his charm once again.

NaNoWriMo Day 5

Neon BrightLeave a comment

One day I’ll make one of these posts at a reasonable hour, when people can see them! But that’s not today. I did a lot of work today! I made progress and even got some work done in a new POV. Things are getting endearing between Marina and her new best friend. Hoping I can convey their silly little romance properly.

Word Count: 2480

Excerpt:

He stared in surprise down at their joined hands, and for a moment Marina wondered if he didn’t even know what a handshake was. Then, he grinned too, and his laugh bubbled out of him. “You never respond the way I think you will,” he admitted, and he sounded completely delighted with the fact.

Marina shook her head with bemusement and stepped a little closer. His hand stayed closed around hers and she didn’t make a move to pull it away just yet. “Guess you’ll have to work on getting to know me a little better.”

He tilted his head, intrigue and excitement hiding just behind his beautiful blue eyes. Then, he nodded. “I suppose I will. Where do we start?”

Marina gave his hand a squeeze before finally letting go. “We can start with you helping me work, since you decided to mysteriously appear before me in the middle of an arduous task.”

His eyebrows lifted and he glanced around them, at the grass waving from the breeze and the strike of raindrops both. Then, he found the pouches on Marina’s belt, and the bag hanging over her shoulder. He looked like he wanted to say something against the idea of helping her with the gathering. Marina watched him steadily as his entire thought process seemed to play out on his face.

NaNoWriMo Day 4

Neon BrightLeave a comment

It’s still the 4th where I live, so this still counts, though it’s another late post! Writing felt like it was going at a decent pace but it still took me a while to actually reach my goal. Marina continues to entertain, though soon I’ll reach the point where I plan to switch to a new character POV! We’ll see how it goes.

Word Count: 2165

Excerpt:

Then there was the mask. Even with the cowl off and all the light available on it, it still rested on his face like a piece of the night sky was affixed to him. Marina found herself staring at it, at the way it fit so perfectly to his face, almost seemed to move with him, despite having no visible method of staying there. In the light, she understood the aura of the thing.

That mask was a curse. She couldn’t see the source, but she could see the weavings of magic like a tightly strung net, stuck to him like some kind of leech.

Some folks out there approach the gods in their tenacity. And among them all, none could break the heaviest curses.

Had he been traveling all this time looking for a cure to whatever that curse did to him?

NaNoWriMo Day 2

Neon BrightLeave a comment

I had a slightly late start to the writing efforts today, but I made good progress and maintained a good pace anyway. Today Marina decided to pick a fight with a god. I’m proud of her for that.

Word Count: 2171

Excerpt:

A small glass of sparkling water in hand, Marina marched over to the corner table. She felt like marching, anyway, though she had to drift around the cluttered, crowded tables. For once, she wished for nothing more than a straight line and a clear path to her goal.

Still, he didn’t seem to notice her approach until she was practically upon him, and she slammed the sparkling water onto his tiny table in front of him.

He didn’t flinch, but looked up quickly enough that he couldn’t hide the widening of his eyes, half-shadowed as they were in his cowl. Marina didn’t give him much time to formulate a response to her startling arrival. “This here is what you determined I was worth today,” she told him. “Nothing more than a child’s portion of fizzwater. Perhaps you’ll get more entertainment out of it, but personally, I’m hoping it leaves you a bit queasy. It’d serve you right, acting all high and mighty and then showing yourself here.”

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Neon BrightLeave a comment

It begins – I am not sure if today’s momentum actually reflects how the following days will go, as I hyped myself up for this particular scene. However, I didn’t actually finish the scene, so there’s high hopes! I am so happy to finally get to write these characters.

Word Count: 2279

Excerpt:

At length, he came to her table – or rather, he stood alongside it. Even then, she couldn’t catch a glimpse of his face with the shadow of his cowl stubbornly giving no hints. Marina waited an extra beat, but apparently it was her turn to try to catch this outsider’s attention. He turned, just a bit. She finally caught a glimpse of the shadowed jaw, masculine in its angles and the faint black stubble upon it.

If he wanted to buy anything, he’d already have patronized one of her fellow vendors, so Marina didn’t waste her time on the usual sales pitch. “You after anything, love, or is this a performance piece?”

The stranger paused, then turned towards her more. Odd shadows played tricks on her, kept her from picking out more details on his face besides his mouth. When he spoke, those lips turned up ever so slightly at the corners. “I beg your pardon?”

Marina returned a coy smirk of her own, leaning forward slightly as if she were a schoolmarm handing out an important lesson. “Respectfully, gent, a market isn’t the best place to beg, not in the middle of the day. Are you here to buy, or is the walking around mysteriously a part of a performance for all us little town types?”

NaNoWriMo Day 27

Neon BrightLeave a comment

Another productive day! I’m pretty pleased about that. The week 4 slump was pretty bad up until last night, and I’m hoping I can have another good writing day tomorrow.

Word Count: 1710

Excerpt:

“Who’s that, brother? Friend of yours?”

The voice was tired, broken, weak. Trace turned to his twin. Biim barely clung to consciousness, his eyes narrowed against the blood that ran down his face, and yet here he was finding strength to speak. He searched Trace’s look with something like disbelief, maybe distrust.

Trace didn’t lie to him. He didn’t say anything at all. That seemed to get his message across better than words ever would. Biim accepted it with a faint nod.

Healthcare in Muunfel

Neon BrightLeave a comment

(Forgot to do this yesterday, so there will be two posts today 😛 )

There’s not a ton to say on this one that won’t come across as super generic. There are doctors who specialize in patching people up, giving treatment, that sort of thing. They sometimes work with herbalists to help treat the symptoms of sicknesses. These types are generally easier to afford, since they probably won’t be performing any miracles, but if there’s one nearby they can do good work to help people.

Then, there are the magic users. There are varied levels of talent with healing, ranging from only doing what the body could naturally do but faster, to straight up miracles that repair damaged tissue and bone and wipe away diseases that can’t normally be wiped out. The catch is that their skills are often more costly, if they do this for a living, and the ones that don’t charge tend to wander all over. It’s hit or miss on being able to find someone in time, try though they do to be there for anyone who needs them.

As a side note, Biim, the god of body, is also the god of healing. Once, while he was manifested in a corporeal body, he sustained a curse that was so heavy that it canceled out his healing, and all healing in the world ceased for a short time. The only thing that fixed it is a counter curse that he must always carry with him as a burden.

Religions of Muunfel

Neon BrightLeave a comment

Muunfel is home to many different groups with their own traditions and overlapping beliefs about how the gods should be revered (or not). Since they are far more likely to actually meet the subject of their worship, some folks can adopt an overly familiar tone when talking about them. This might be the main cause of denominations within one group, as others fully believe that the gods should not be spoken of in the same way a friend or family member might be.

Many may choose one god or only a couple to focus their devotions upon. This could range from daily prayer and ritual to draw the god’s attention and favor to simply having a token or shrine of them nearby that one passively acknowledges from time to time. This is not organized religion, and is much more personal to each individual’s comfort levels. Many gods have temples at which their most devoted keep their preferred traditions in practice.

The bigger religions focus on a certain grouping of gods, and so far are mostly centered around only the First gods (ones that existed fully as gods without having to ascend).

The Church of the Life Gods: Worshippers of Leleurya, Diakon, and their children Wiavex, Biim, and Trace. There is emphasis on the cyclic nature of life and all things, as well as a strong desire for being true to oneself in body, mind, and soul. This is the most common organized religion found in Muunfel, and many people follow it as well as a handful of ascended gods.

The four nature gods have a religion surrounding their stewardship of the world. Its most devoted followers will make a pilgrimage to each of the four temples made in these gods’ honor. However, the temple to the god of earth has been fragmented, and so the journey instead takes followers through the mountains to reflect on the power of earth against all mortal creations.

Vayla, the goddess of time, has a small but meticulous following that keeps records of her words and teachings. They work to aid in the gathering of prophecy, and many of Vayla’s followers also worship other gods as well.

Finally, there is a religion loosely called the Order of the Fall, whose main goal is for the ascended gods to return to their mortality and exit the pantheon. A group of its members was successful in preventing at least one ascension in recent history.

Korvasin Grey Metal

Neon Bright2 Comments

Throughout history, the people of Muunfel have found reasons to fight one another and drive rifts between them. One of the most violent rifts is between the people who can channel magic directly (Tamkind, gods, and fairies) and those who must direct it some other way (wizards and sorcerers, etc).

This fighting saw a turning point when scholars of Korvasin discovered and developed what they simply dubbed “Grey Metal”. This material, created through alchemy, enchanting, and rigorous rituals, can be shaped into almost anything. It is an absolute bane on magic channellers.

When it comes into contact with someone with magic in their blood, it floods them with its own strange, false magic. The afflicted person cannot use this Grey Magic, and are rendered almost helpless because of it.

Grey Metal has been made into chains and manacles as well as weapons. In some regions, it is common for magic folk to be detained using Grey Metal, while in others there are those who lobby against its use at all. The ethics behind its use are often brought into discussion, and many of the naysayers cite some of its more catastrophic uses as reasons to ban it without considering its usefulness:

  1. Manacles made of Grey Metal were used on Trace, Biim, and Fiorebell in the incident that resulted in Fiorebell’s death. The land surrounding the village where this took place still cannot support any growth, and Biim himself received an incurable curse thanks to the way his and Trace’s godly magic fled.
  2. The previous Una of the Fae was shot through the spine with an arrow tipped in Grey Metal. Because she was unable to heal, she spent the rest of her days unable to walk. The Aubry placed a curse on the entire empire of Korvasin for this, and it has yet to recover from it.

Regardless of anyone’s stance on the subject, Grey Metal is dangerous and not to be used lightly in any scenario.

Godrend Weapons

Neon Bright1 Comment

The most legendary items of war are extremely few and far between, mostly due to the very difficult steps it takes to create them. These are the Godrend weapons.

The name does not mean that these weapons can kill gods. Nothing can actually do that. However, if a newly-forged weapon’s first blood is that of a god’s corporeal form, and if the wound is heavy enough, the item will become enchanted. God blood imbues the weapon with strength and longevity so that it doesn’t rust or break. Depending on the god whose blood enchanted it, it often comes with an extra enchantment.

A dagger with a barely formed handle and a short blade once injured Trace, the god of mind, enough to become imbued with his blood. The Humble Grey, as it is called, saps the intelligence of those cut by it for a short time. It is currently lost, and very few know of its whereabouts.

A longsword pierced the spine of Biim, the god of body, in the same fight. This Blue Longsword can now produce injuries that take twice as long to heal. It is kept in a vault in Rutan.

There are rumors of a morningstar that injured Gem, the goddess of freeflowing magic. Only Vayla seems to know for sure, because Gem does her level best to keep any information about it hidden away or shrouded in mystery. All of the rumors indicate that this weapon can disperse a wizard’s spells as effectively as grounding electricity.