Year End Wrap Up Part 4: A Recent History Lesson

 So, in the last post, I mentioned several events in my new project's timeline that were more recent and that because of that they deserved their own post. Today is the day for a recent history lesson.

One of the first events that's ongoing at the start of the project was actually mentioned early on in the last post: the Second Crusade Against Heresy. Since the majority of the last post was about it, I won't revisit it here.

The next event that's ongoing is the Lemming Pox Outbreak. Yes, it sounds cute and light-hearted. It isn't. Characterized externally by small sores, Lemming Pox is a magical disease that was never intended to get out but it did and things have gone downhill from there, especially since sufferers are rendered very susceptible to suggestion. I'll let you ponder for a moment how very bad that can be. The country of Uthauvania is enduring this outbreak and trying to deal with it, though this is made much more complicated by the Chieria Gold Rush.

The Chieria Gold Rush is, as the name suggests, a rush of people into the nation of Chieria following the discovery of gold. Most of the people entering Chieria are citizens of the volcanic nation of Othary and the previously mentioned Uthauvania. 

Chieria is just striking out as far as luck is concerned. Chieria, you see, finds itself in the very beginning stages of a revolution, the Marked Insurrection. The people are rather displeased with the royal family for allowing the imperial guards to kill unarmed protesters. 

And finally, the most recent event, the one that actually starts after the project does: the War of Broken Pacts. The whole project idea started with the idea that a diplomat from Preycia, Sarai Arnuanna (son of Keyleth Arnuanna), visits Vesmain in an attempt to negotiate a treaty that works out heavily in favor of Preycia, but things go wrong and, following an attack on the meeting, Preycia and Vesmain are officially in a state of war. 

Those are the most recent, ongoing events in the fictional history of this project. At least, that's as far as I've gotten so far. This project is still ongoing as I've decided to add more countries which will mean more index cards, more long curses, and more current events. 

Hope you've enjoyed this little fictional history lesson. There will be no post next week as I'll be taking a break from posting to enjoy the holidays. Posts will resume in January. Have good holidays, everyone.

Year End Wrap Up Part 3: A Continued History Lesson

 In the last post, I said that the country of Vesmain from my newest writing project has continued their history of expansion through conquest and said that that was a history lesson for another post. That's this post. 

The first country that Vesmain conquered during their Second Crusade Against Heresy (which they started following the Prophecy of Heresy) was the nation of Struydan, which was enduring a plague at the time and in no condition to fight an invading army. Following that, though, Struydan did make several medical advancements, both mundane and magical. 

The next target of the Vesmain Empire was the city-state Bohl, which was still recovering from the Battle of the Drained Sea, where they fought against the nation of Zethea over salt resources. Being a small city-state and recovering from a very recent battle, Bohl didn't stand a chance. 

Of course, Zethea was having its own problems following the Battle of the Drained Sea. Not everyone had approved of the battle with Bohl so Zethea was dealing with an uprising. This gave Vesmain the perfect opportunity to invade and conquer, which made the whole battle between Zethea and Bohl moot. 

The next nation Vesmain went after was the southern country of Sasnya, which suffers frequent severe droughts and is prone to wildfires. The War of Burning Plains is used as an example in the Vesmain military of why it is important to know the weather and climate of the place you are invading as they were unaware of this at the time and attacked a field with their newest invention: flamethrowers. The Vesmain army did not expect the fire to spread as far or as fast as it did, and a temporary truce was called so both sides could combat the fire. In the end, though, Sasnya became yet another part of the Vesmain Empire. 

Of course, Sasnya didn't just willingly submit to Vesmain's rule. A city in Sasnya, Chason, rebelled and began to gather support from outlying towns and villages. Vesmain couldn't have that and quickly crushed the rebellion by destroying the city. The ruins have been left untouched, a reminder of what will happen to those who fight against the might of the Vesmain Empire. 

Meanwhile, other nations have watched the Vesmain Empire's conquest. One of these nations, Fleyye, requests to join the empire through a treaty and thus avoid a war. The ruler of Vesmain agrees and the Treaty of Ma'az is signed in Fleyye's capital. 

Fleyye's neighbor to the north, Askington, is less eager to join the empire. The presence of the Vesmain army in Fleyye increases tensions and leads to the Vesmain army invading Askington during a lunar eclipse which starts what becomes known as the Battle of the Eclipse. The battle raged for several months until finally, Askington requested a treaty. The treaty, signed in the capital of Askington, is officially known as the Treaty of Knosk but has the nickname amongst Askington natives as the Treaty of Extortion due to how heavily it favored Vesmain. 

For awhile, Vesmain's conquest ceased. Following the Treaty of Knosk, the Deathbell Curse, a long curse that targets a family line was levied against the family of the current ruler of Vesmain, Katyr Lurona. Long curses are something that Vesmain specializes in. There were no witnesses to this curse being cast. Months later, Katyr Lurona was assassinated and her assassin (Valida Durthane of Obriona) attempted to frame Wistari Qidan of Preycia, the brother-in-law of the then-leader, Azaki Arnuanna. After investigations revealed the truth, Wistari was permitted to return to Preycia and the new leader of Vesmain (Ruvyn Syljeon) cast a long curse against the country of Obriona, Curse of the Hallowed, which would take a long time to come to fruition. This is when the tensions began between Preycia and Vesmain.

During all of this, Preycia has been making advancements to ships and airships. The leader of Preycia, Azaki Arnuanna orders steel-hulled ships invented and, following the discovery of helium reserves, orders airships for luxury travel. This worries the country of Obriona and prompts Eremon Strakeln to assassinate Azaki Arnuanna which leads to his son, Keyleth Arnuanna, ascending the throne. Keyleth, unlike his father, encourages a focus on military advancements such as weapons for their ships, aircraft-carrying capabilities for their airships, and submarines. 

The most recent country added to Vesmain's empire is the country of Iutharia following the Assault of Fasad, which was an attack on their capital city where the Vesmain army destroyed a statue of a beloved Iutharian leader.

Shortly after the conquering of Iutharia, Vesmain received the Prophecy of War, which spoke of a war that would consume the world. 

Obviously, these are not the only nations involved and there is more history that's been left out such as the discovery of a planet, the Chieria Gold Rush, the Marked Insurrection, the Lemming Pox Outbreak (which is not as cute and light-hearted as it sounds), and the War of Broken Pacts. Those last four are more recent history (as in, ongoing at the time the project is set to start) so I think that those warrant their own post. 

I will, however, end this post by stating that only in nations that aren't part of the Vesmain Empire is it possible to learn about or even mention that there has been a new planet discovered. In the nations that are part of the Vesmain Empire, that knowledge is suppressed. 

Year End Wrap Up Part 2: A New Hobby & A Fictional History Lesson

 Over Thanksgiving, after an impromptu art lesson I hadn't planned on participating in, I discovered that I rather enjoy painting. One sketchbook purchase later and it turns out that I'm pretty good when it comes to drawing if I look at a reference photo. 

I'm pretty proud of how my frog turned out. I'm going to continue nurturing my art skills now that I'm not spending my time looking at my work and comparing it unfavorably to others' as I did through my youth. I spent a long time hating that my art wasn't like this person's or that person's, but now, I've realized it's okay. I'm proud of what I can do when it comes to drawing. My fiancé wants me to sketch out things on their canvases when they paint and our roommate wants me to draw a frog on a canvas for them too.

I mentioned that I finished the timeline for the random project that I started in November. I'm now in the process of culture building. First, though, I think I should mention a couple important events from the timeline. It's still lacking dates, but it's in order.

The first event: The creation of the national religion of Preycia, one of the main countries that is involved in the main conflict at the start of the novel. The Oracles of the Attuned is a polytheistic religion that preaches that the ruling family, the Arnuanna family, are blessed by the gods above all others and the Oracles of the gods.

Preycia is a country on a peninsula in a northern portion of the world. They have a large navy, which following the discovery of helium reserves, includes airships that also serve as airborne aircraft carriers (which is based on the USS Akron and USS Macon, which were operated by the United States Navy in the 1930s). Preycia also pioneered the invention of luxury ocean liners and airships. While they have a substantial navy, they don't have much in the way of an army. They have royal guards, but no real army.

The second and third event, which blend together: The creation of the national religion of Vesmain and the creation of the nation of Vesmain itself. The Order of the White Wolf is a monotheistic religion that focuses worship on the god, the white wolf Fenris. It forbids graven images of animals and people (with the exception of the white wolf depicted on their flag) as creating the images robs Fenris of his worship. 

At around this time, Aeson Vesmain, the founder of the Order of the White Wolf, led his army on The First Crusade Against Heresy. Those who would not convert and could not flee to neighboring countries were killed. By the end of this bloody war, Aeson Vesmain declared the land his army cleared as their nation and named it Vesmain, after himself. 

Vesmain, as a nation, kept its military and religious history. They have a large standing army and maintain a military dictatorship with strong ties to the church. They have also continued their history of expansion through conquest. But that is a history lesson for another post.

Year End Wrap Up

Goodness, where did the year go?

Figured I'd kick December off with a year-end wrap-up. 

November 23rd, one of our ducks laid their first egg and we're very proud of them. They're all grown up now and it's been quite an experience raising them from little ducklings to full-grown ducks. 

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I spent part of it working on The Agency. Thanks to a lovely writer whose Discord group I joined (shout-out to Liz Bloom!) who shared the website Neural Blender, I now have a cover that I am rather fond of. 

Regarding The Agency, the current word count is sitting somewhere around 83 thousand and I'll be sharing a couple more entries in January. I'm also going to begin working either finding a publisher or getting things together to self-publish.

Now, I didn't win NaNoWriMo and didn't spend the entire month writing. That is because I spent the latter half of the month working on creating a map and timeline of a fictional world because I got it into my head that I wanted to write an alternate history (which, being fair, some of the stories from The Agency could be seen as that) after November. That led to me realizing I don't actually have enough knowledge of history to be able to write an alternate version of it which led to me going, "Well, fine, I'll just write a fantasy setting involving technology on par with World War I and throw in magic because I can." 

Well, that led to me needing to know which countries are involved, where they are, what was invented when, what wars happened when, and other important events. Soon enough, I had so many index cards scattered around me and color-coded that it looked like I was studying for a history exam except I was the one making the history. 

That also meant that I made a map. At first, I did the "cheating from Earth" method listed in The Magical World Builder's Guide that I've shared before. Well, I wanted to see the full continent so that led to me taking pieces of the coastlines and mashing them together. It worked pretty well, in my opinion. Of course, then I started thinking about where the countries were in relation to each other. I still don't have one of the main countries listed on the map quite yet. I'm going to be doing a fair bit of work on the map still. Mostly making several versions of it to show the geographic features and things expected to be seen on maps, roads, railways, the extent of the empire, the country borders, and a variety of other features. 

I've just finished the timeline with a whopping 53 index cards. 

It still needs dates, but at least the important events are listed. I was having difficulty visualizing my timeline until I used the index cards that I had saved up from my college days. (I tend to hoard office supplies, a bit like a dragon hoarding gold.)

I've been working on this for half of November and will continue working on it until other ideas call to me. This wasn't even supposed to be as big a project as it was. I wanted to write a simple war story (though what war story is ever simple?) and that led to wanting to write an alternate history and that led to this whole project. I'm having a fair amount of fun with it and trying to blend magic and technology. I'd like to think I'm doing a good job. 

I'll be sharing more of this throughout December.