Two posts in two days. That's what you get when I'm off work. I'm not really off-work, just off of my main tasking, too much energy to just sit around and enjoy the silence. But the upshot is you all get another peek behind the scenes as I post another work in progress. This is a longer story, looking for a home on the timeline for my world and more time for me to work it up into a full-fledged novel. Notes are mixed in with the text.
Here's a shaman, telling the story of the Pale Divers, who stole Secrets and Power from the sea... This is a tale of High Fantasy, and will make a nice addition to my others tales of the world as it merges and diverges with other worlds...The Pale Divers
The family lives along the blustery, granite coast of one of the islands between the Old Country and the New World.
For generations they have tapped a hidden source of ancient power that makes them incredibly strong, healthy and long-lived.
Centuries earlier, the founder of the family line, a sailor named Tamnir, was shipwrecked and investigated this strange coastline. After years of exploring the area and its shape-shifting ways, he stumbled upon a glowing, undulating underwater cavern, at times huge, at times small, at all times maddening. The water would churn and grow opaque as silt and rock broke loose and mixed with the water. The shifting of water, land and space in this area cause many problems, earthquakes, destructive waves and hurricane winds. Ferocious beasts tore up and down the waterways of the coastline, tracking a subtle scent of prey.
When the water cleared, Tamnir saw that the underwater cavern was lit by glowing pearlescent orbs lining every surface. The orbs were large, the size of a crouching man. Each one pulsed with a living light, soft and throbbing, that sequenced together with the other orbs in the cavern. The lightshow was enchanting.
What were they, Tamnir wondered. Ancient treasures? A hidden cache of magic from a lost empire?
The orbs are full of warm, nurturing power. Shortly after finding the cavern, Tamnir was rescued from the dangerous island. He returned several years later to further investigate the curious cavern.
The next few generations of divers learned how to harness the power of the orbs and survived through the appearance of several gigantic creatures. Tamnir’s grandson was the first to connect the large hard-shelled creatures as the source of the glowing orbs. They were eggs! The orbs of power were the unborn offspring of a race of realm-spanning, snail-like ‘sea’ creatures, sort of magical, gigantic abalones. The creatures have a muscular underbelly and a hard, mother-of-pearl shell protecting them. The cavern was a safe harbor for the creature’s eggs. The gigantic snail creatures ate spatial growths and creatures that survive along the edges of existences. They are in turn occasionally eaten by huge furred, otter-like creatures and shelled spatial horrors with claws. The adult snail creatures mindlessly drop their eggs and sperm in the cavern as they blindly crawl and swim through.
Planned voyages to the Old Country and shipwrecks brought in more ‘family’ members.
Once an egg has been fertilized and matured, the creatures break away from the rock and grow a nacre shell. Some of the family felt protective of the young, but the desire for the power contained in the orbs was too strong.
The adults’ shell material was also useful for making protective armors and mirrors to peer into other worlds. The adult creatures use their powerful muscles to cling onto rock formations. They also anchor themselves in space-time as well, a power useful as the realms move about.
The family used the power of the eggs and the nacre shells of the adults. The shells make excellent armor, proof against creatures that break through planar barriers. Enchanted necklaces made from the shells prevented the wearer from crossing planar boundaries. In essence, it stuck the wearer on the current plane.
I hope to devote a lot more time to this story. Knowing me though, I'll probably place this one to the side as I work on other snippets laying around.
To end on a funny note, here is another picture:
FYI: I don't drink coffee. :) But if I did, it would look 'perfect'
