Eric K. Barnum's Blog, page 5

Short Stories – Newsletter Sign Up to Get them for Free!

This year, I’ll be focusing on Merakor 2, the sequel to Khalla’s Play. My target is December 2018. However, while I’m chugging through that, I’m please to announce that I’ll be releasing short stories on ForsakenIsles.com and my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/forsakenisles  The short stories, as they are completed will be archived on FI and sent to newsletter subscribers in PDF and MOBI format for free. At the same time, they will be released on Amazon at $0.99. Some of these are co-published works with my editors and beta readers. Readers mean the world to me… and if you think you have the chops to do a short story with me, hit me on FI’s contact form. I’d love to see a writing sample and sort out some details with well-qualified candidates! When they are all completed, they will be released as an anthology on Amazon and in paperback as well. Then, we’ll tackle the other Nexus Gates.

These short stories are between 10k and 20k words, which would be about a 30 page book. If you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of “novellas” for sale on Amazon that are right in this range. Nope, these are short stories.

So, what’s up first? The Nexus of Creation, aka Heaven, aka the Seven Heavens, aka Pha Rann, aka the Sun. All of the “good” gods reside in proximity to the enigmatic god of all that is – Pha Rann, who is essentially the Gate/Nexus of Creation. Pha Rann is not alone and shares the Nexus’ power with all. Cultures variously describe Pha Rann as male, female, other… but most have adopted some symbol representative of the Daystar or a star or a warm fire. Gods in this pantheon have different dominions and their worshippers have dynamic and varied lives in their faith. However, what makes Creation so powerful is a focus on perfect design, an obsession with sharing in the power of Creation, and a focus on returning the Universe to the perfect design that existed and, depending on the doctrine of the god, can still be reclaimed through Pha Rann.

Like most of my writing, the stories are spread across the timeline of Merakor’s fall 5,000 years ago to current times, where Malcor is king in 1800 DAR. Here are some of the stories…

Pha Rannic Literalists vs the Golden Serpent. How would a Literalist battle priest handle worshippers of Geryon the Viper? Set 5 years after Bomoki’s Gate, join the battle priest Jerranic and some of his fellow team mates as they explore the beautiful world of Geryon’s Cult. Driven by drug addiction, most of Geryon’s worshippers do not understand they are worshipping a Hell Lord. Massively suppressed to near extermination on the Forsaken Isles, Geryon’s Cult thrives on other continents.
Cuthberics Backup Plan vs Orcus. If you’ve read Bomoki’s Gate, you may have wondered about Golcir’s plan. This story shows the Cuthberic leader’s back up plan to ensure Orcus dies and to thwart Tania’s plans for Orcus’ dominion.
The Nameless Priest of Braden. Braden is the God of Healing… and not just divine or magical healing. Braden is the god of healing processes, growth, maturation, and movement towards the perfect design where insanity, evil, and bad attitudes are in and of themselves a curable condition. Join the Nameless One in the twilight of Merakor and Vel Pajor’s spite, when the Exodus to the Forsaken Isles was just barely being set in motion. Meet a much younger Daryx and Invri, scions of the Drow, and see how the slaads contributed to Merakor’s fall. The All Father is introduced in this story as well, sort of.
Imperius, the Lord of Angels. Introduced in Malcor’s Story, the Imperics – those who worship Imperius – should be recognizable as a Japanese kind of samurai culture with a strong focus on martial arts, honor, and bushido. However, not told there is that Imperius is the Lord of Angels. Classic concepts of mercy, justice, joy, love, charity, selflessness, and self-sacrifice the core tenets of Imperius, and he holds dominion over the Angels of Creation’s Gate. Join an up and coming Lady Paladin in Haven right before the events in Bomoki’s Gate.

If there are stories you’d like to know more about, use Comments to let me know.

Ynt’taris is back and awesomer than ever before!

Check out the Ice Patriarch’s new updated look! This completes the trilogy of dragons. That means we’ll have to pose them all together in the Temple At Morbatten. Set the obelisks of Tiamat in the background. The only real question is… should it be the early empire of Dar Tania with unfinished walls and rugged open timber and stone construction, OR the refined cathedral like ‘modern’ empire ruled by Malcor Kell’tayris?

The more I play with Ynt’taris, the more I like this inscrutable lord of the wastes. You really can’t go wrong with an evil dragon who shuns heat but loves children who worship Tiamat, can you? As suggested in the early empire books of Dar Tania and Set’s Dream, Ynt’taris does not form close relationships with humans. The Sage Alaura was an exception… and the ice lord then spent almost 2,000 years trying to find another Rider from Alaura’s bloodline. R’Dar Ora finally came to be. If haven’t seen the parallels between Tania and Ora, I invite you to consider…

Chosen by a dragon
Uplifted, defended, and instructed personally by a dragon
They became Riders to dragons that do not really allow Riders at all
They were allowed to love who their hearts chose
While Tania obviously shaped Morbatten, her lover – Sean – did as well. Malcor is already set on that path. All that awaits is Ora’s impact

My readers know that Alerius really wants Ice Priestesses and Ice Paladins in Tehra. Maybe another time of prophecy and miracles awaits? I can’t hardly wait to write that story! Maybe I’ll kick Merakor 2 to the curb… that story needs to be told too.

On a different note, a browser plug-in update crashed FI. If that affected you, I apologize. Ben and I got it back up quickly but some of the features are still a bit wonky. Bear with us!

Daryx, or Dar Malyx, Lord Priest of Lolth, Founding Member of The Circle

Daryx, dark elf ranger and member of the Circle of Morbatten

While sages and bookmages might argue about WHEN Morbatten transitioned from Dar Tania’s “Consolidation” Phase into its current Dar Ana’s “Imperialist” phase, everyone agrees that Daryx helped define every aspect of the Imperialist. For a long time, Daryx’s arrival in Tania marked the date transition until Dar Ana showed up at a meeting on this topic and noted that Daryx had been present in Morbatten for decades before anyone knew he had arrived. While flattered and terrified by her unannounced visit, it forced the discussion from Daryx-as-the-trigger to some strategy of Dar Ana’s as the fulcrum point.

Daryx was a young warrior in the Kinslayer Wars that destroyed Merakor. He fought with House Larus in the Imperial House’s royal guard alongside the Emperor Ka’ix. Considered a prodigy with the blade, Daryx ranked in the Top 100 best duelists at one point. He is tall for a Drow standing at almost 6′. Though slender in build, his most notable feature is the many scars crossing his body. His face and hands were spared.

The records of this meeting were lost years later when this enclave of scholars was attacked by Jade God worshippers. Only a few were rescued by Dar Ana. Since that time, gentle entreaties for more information to Dar Ana and even to Daryx have gone unanswered. Here is what is known:

Daryx found his way to the Isles entirely by accident, a rare if not unprecedented feat sometime around 570-750 DAR
He was exiled (sentenced to death and escaped) by the Drow for practicing the worship of Lolth as a male. His heresy was to name Lolth ‘The Goddess of Phase Spiders’
Though Daryx is a master with scimitars and rapiers, he fights in combat with faith as a Priest of Lolth
Daryx identified and brought the 3 Vampire Generals of Bloodstone to Tania and away from Orcus
Daryx’s first seat in The Circle was Perdition, the Spy Throne. He has since founded and given over several other seats there. Though never confirmed, the Animal Seat, the Trade Seat, and the Seat of War are though to belong to Daryx either directly or through proxy

Daryx practices a form of Lolth worship unlike any other. He creates breeding grounds for phase spiders and ‘gentles’ them because, as he once said to Dar Ana, ‘you cannot tame a creation of Chaos.’ The scars are from Daryx mastering this form of worship. What he has said publicly, many times, is that he believes in a reunion of the Elves where the worship of Lolth is no more at odds with the worship of other gods as nature concerns itself with insects caught in a web.

Daryx was forbidden from visiting Morilon where, he tried many times, to speak with Vel Pajor. Eventually, Daryx published what he would have said through a series of writs he named “Why All Elves Wept Blood That Day.” The writings were also banned in Morilon. They tell of an encounter between Daryx and a human priest right at the end of Merakor, just before the Exodus, and catalogs Daryx’s role in sweeping the Elven Triopolis from the surface of the world. A surface level scan shows the writing to be self-aggrandizing and even boasting. Underneath it, is a pain and grieving for the loss unity of the peoples over what Daryx felt was a misunderstanding. The most oft-quoted line is a maxim in Tania… “Why, when all other races acknowledge parts of themselves that are necessarily good and evil, must Elves stand apart and be defined in both worship and deed through the barrier of good and evil they serve? You say I serve Lolth and must therefore be evil, when in truth, I serve the spiders that are Lolth’s children. The druids see the good and evil in spiders. I urge you to see the good and evil in Lolth, whom the spiders serve.” In Tania, this is shortened to: The Master’s mind is not the servant’s.

Daryx created The Circle. He once described The Circle’s purpose as this: It is Alerius’ will through a more mortal perspective.

The art here is a rendering of Daryx by artist: Lukas GP Jordao. Hit me up in Comments or through the contact form and let me know how you like it!

 

 

 

Tiamat – Dark Goddess of (evil) Dragons or Hydra

This was my first encounter with Tiamat art. The Dragonlance Chronicles portrayed her as a dark goddess, 1 of 3 moons, and god over dark magic. I remember being in a store and seeing this cover art and, well, things clicked. But, confusion also clicked. A multi-headed dragon would be schizophrenic at best, off-balanced, and with that many dragon heads, how would Tiamat ever make decisions? For a D&D player, it didn’t matter. A single dragon is rough; five dragons is death!

In my own writing, I want Tiamat to make sense. Why would such a goddess exist? She is explained here in detail, but it’s worth noting that Tiamat is not a five-headed dragon, nor is the name unique to Dungeons & Dragons. Look her up. Ancient goddess of chaos and fertility, eventually co-opted by Christianity into a devil-type trope.

Tiamat is awesome. She is the consort to the All Father. They had a disagreement and the All Father ascended to Heaven, leaving Tiamat behind. The patriarchs of each dragon type had their own consorts. They sacrificed their consorts to Tiamat (she was the strongest of all dragons remaining) to make her as strong as the All Father. Though shown with many heads, a reader should get the impression that Tiamat is a group of goddesses: red/fire, white/ice, blue/lightning, green/gas, and black/acid. The shadow dragons and “blind” dragons have yet to join Tiamat’s faction against the All Father. Wyverns, hydras, and other dragon-like creatures already know their place or are too fallen to join Tiamat’s dominion.

So, when I say ‘Tiamat,’ I could mean Tiamat who is ‘the goddess consort of the All-Father,’ or Tiamat ‘who is the group of matriarchs that include Tiamat.’ Either way and whether we consider her awesome or not, Tiamat is dreadful in her power.

I personally see Tiamat as a beautiful and sensual woman appearing different to each viewer based on their own personal understanding of beauty. Male, female, human or not, Tiamat is everything they could ever imaging wanting to worship. So beautiful she makes your soul ache. She does not need a breath weapon; it’s too limiting. Her will drives power in whatever shape or form best suits her mood or thinking. She is omniscient for those things touched and shaped by dragons. To know Tiamat is to know the power that lifted the mountains of Tehra, filled the oceans with water and life, and drives the wind across the vast expanses of sky.

She always bears chains binding her to the matriarchs. The chains trail into space and vanish behind her. They are a covenant between her and the matriarchs to return the world of Tehra to the dragons who created it. She is their avatar. They are her army.

Dread Lord Spark – Lord of Lightning

Spark, Patriarch of Lightning Dragons

Though one of the 3 dread lords in the Court of Patriarchs, Spark often takes a background role in the Forsaken Isles stories. This occurs as a function of geography and interests. Unlike Alerius and Ynt’taris, where they both watch over the people of Morbatten, Spark is the watcher of the Gnomes in their mountain fortress of Gnomsh. Where the watcher dragons have sometimes contentious relationships with those they watch, Mallaforax and the Elves of Morilon for example, the Gnomes are deeply fascinated by Spark and vice versa. When he is gone too long, they miss him and call him back. When he is leaving, they beg him to stay. The Gnomes treat Spark like a god and regard him as their king.

Spark is the smallest of the dragons. Though still huge compared to a normal blue dragon, Spark prefers his human form as he is unable to use magic in dragon form like Alerius. His Orrery, dictated to the ancient sage Alaura and recorded by the various apprentices of Alerius, detail a few of this thoughts about Tiamat’s plan and the prophecy of the Spear and Shield. While his words are somewhat vague, centuries of observation show an infallible truth: Spark is completely devout in his eternal loyalty to Alerius.

There are no lightning priestesses. There is no order of paladins dedicated to the blue dragons. Spark has no riders. Though Alerius is the supreme archmage of Morbatten, Spark leads the Mages Guild. Some speculate that Spark is Alerius’ apprentice. There appears to be some truth to this.

Spark is the fastest of the dragons, moving as actual lightning across the land. Where Alerius shows his human face to any who meet with him, Spark has never shown any features out of the shadowed cowl of his blue robes sizzling with electrical snaps and pops.

Like the other eldar dragons, Spark’s power comes from his indomitable will. For what he has said, this much is clear. He views Set as a rival. When he gave up his matriarch to Tiamat, he pledged his life – “however long it be” – to Set’s destruction as a trophy for his matriarch.

 

Book Read Order versus Read What You’d Like When You’d Like To

Each book contains a foreword explaining the setting for the book. The intent of this is to catch a new reader up so they can enjoy the book out of order. It’s always been a pet peeve of mine to encounter a “trilogy” and find the 3rd book, or even the 2nd book is not yet published with no date in sight. GOT fans know what I’m talking about, am I right?! So, in my own writing, I’ve adopted what I call a “standalone principle.” That is, you should be able to pick up and enjoy any of my books at any time. Sure, you’ll miss some of the fun background setting and character development from the former, but it should never be so much that you kick yourself *. The asterisk is that I can’t help it if you love a character so much you grab the other book and read it too! Obviously, there might be some high level spoilers when this happens, but I will never ever “give it all away” in the subsequent book.

Another aspect to the Forsaken Isles is that the stories occur in a very long timeline set against immortal dragon rulers and a divine prophesy of the Spear and Shield. These are the only constants. A character in one book is probably going to be a legend in some other book. For example, in Dar Tania 1 and Dar Tania 2, the Sage Alaura is shown as a winged statue on the cover of Khalla’s Play, set 1800 years later. I realize this might annoy those with a meticulous nature and I make no apologies. But, I offer you this. In the worlds of immortals, 1800 years is a normal lifetime. It might be only 2 generations of elves, 7 generations of dwarfs, and 1 generation of dragons.

With that being said, there is a logical read order shown in the following graphic:

 

Another thing that happens in this timeline is that Morbatten, as an empire, begins with very low magic. It grows over time as does its military might. In the world of Dar Tania, there are no “magic items.” By Malcor’s Story, Morbatten is drowning in enchanted gear. So, take your pick… want to read high fantasy in a low magic world with a focus on fantastical creatures and gods? Read Dar Tania! Want a heroic paladin geared to kill a god? Read much later on the timeline; I recommend Khalla’s Play.

Now, when it is my intent to publish a series where the plot line continues, I will use a # label. So, Dar Tania is followed by Dar Tania 2: Set’s Dream. Khalla’s Play, just published on January 1, 2018 is subtitled as Merakor I. It will be followed by Merakor 2.

Commander Sean, Pragmatist Knight of Pha Rann

While Sean is well-detailed throughout the Forsaken Isles and in the early timeline books, there are certain ideas that he modeled so well they have enduring almost 2,000 years. So, let’s peel the veil back a bit and look at who he was before he joined Morbatten in 1 DAR, before he was “The Commander.” Who was he? What made him tick? How did he become legendary?

Sean was born in Ymac, one of many sons in a merchant house. Though smart enough to excel at business, he was too-principled to actually excel. His father railed against what he termed his ‘greatest failure’ but his mother saw a different path. Long after the others had gone to bed, or were off seeking distraction from a hard business day, Sean’s mother would pull him aside and tell him what little she knew of the gods. When his brothers went out with caravans, Sean would seek excuses to stay home. Seeing it bothered his father, he eventually packed what few things he had and went to Taysor, telling his father he’d be out for ‘a while.’

As a fifteen-year-old, Sean walked all day and night for two days to reach Taysor. Exhausted, he pressed on to The Temples. Seeing only a tired and dirty teen-ager, the various guards would not allow Sean to stay in the holy district. Sean slept on the bridge just past where the guards told him he could not be. The next morning, he went back and lingered by the fountain all day. He watched the knights and the clerics as they moved about between the great buildings. That night, he slept in the same place. The third day, Sean timidly began asking the knights if they needed a squire, or any help at all. As Sean told it:

The Cuthberics said he had too much excitement and not enough holiness
The Literalists said he was too uneducated in Pha Rann’s scriptures
The Perfectionists said he was too dirty and his request too vague and ill-planned

…this continued until Sean at last asked a Pragmatist knight. That knight, the Lord Marshal Tomeist and head of the Pragmatist Order, later said, “When I first saw Sean, he was a dirty, wet, and stinky youth. I felt compassion for him. I had also been told by one of our paladins that he had been sleeping just past the bridge. I offered him a cot in the stables if he would carry my backpack and shield for me. He could barely lift them. It took him nearly an hour from the Fountain to the Temple!”

Sean defends the 1,000 step trip by noting he had not eaten well or slept for days. From there, Sean began caring for the horses and became a stable boy. He taught himself how to read Merakoran, so he could study the Pha Rannic scriptures. He watched the squires training and tried to recreate their combat forms late at night by himself in the stables. Both Sean and Tomeist agree that it was the Lord Marshal’s divine steed who finally told Tomeist to make Sean a squire.

Sean excelled and grew from a scrawny youth into a brawny fighter, tall and fair in both countenance and composure. As he progressed through early successes in his knighthood, he developed a reputation for non-standard thinking, going so far as to shirk expected quests for those of his own making. By the time of Dar Tania’s ascent, Sean had become an outspoken voice for change within the Pragmatist Order and had drawn a following throughout the other Temples. His message of learning from Merakor – yes – but as he said, “Not repeating the exact same mistakes they made either” – smacked of heresy to the Cuthberics and Absolutists. When word reached Taysor of his commitment to stay in Morbatten, the High King Nathaniel is said to have sighed and said, “Well, I guess we lost another Pragmatist to heresy. At the time, the Lord Marshal did not correct the High King.

In Morbatten, Sean was able to identify the early beginnings of Tiamat’s religious practices and infuse many of Pha Rann’s into it, not as part of the religion, but as part of the culture he shaped into the paladins, and through Dar Tania, the matriarchy. Using a common adage in Morbatten: Dragons and ladies, as a reference point, the Sage Alaura was able to point to a specific before and after change. Dragons and ladies and then there’s the right thing to do.

His career and impact in Morbatten are still being assessed. But, what of his early career? His first inkling of heroism was:
Completing his quest for The Avenging Blade of Fire within record time of becoming a squire. The typical was 5 years. Sean did this in the early part of his 2nd year.
Completing his quest for a Holy Steed. Typical was 10 years. Sean did this a month after attaining his Avenging Blade.
Sean was awarded a medal of valor in his first military action against a necromantic cult in Otavia, where he is credited with defying orders and combining with a Krentismic priest. Had he had not done this, the priest could not have thrown back the undead surrounding them and their entire unit would have died.

Sean was awarded another medal of valor when he uncovered a plot to assassinate the High King so that a Grand Duke could assert control over Taysor. Though he successfully thwarted and exposed this plot, the Lord Marshal ordered him out of country for five years to prevent retaliatory attacks. Though Sean has never said, it is believed that he met the Ranger Bruce in the wilds and together they formed a team that is rumored to have saved the dwarven kingdom of Stone, the elves of Morilon, and they even intervened with the Orcs of The Quat to prevent a contagion from spreading.

Because of the controversy surrounding his choice to stay in Morbatten and love the high priestess of Tiamat, Dar Tania, Sean’s name fell out of favor in Taysor is hardly in use there now. However, Sean remains a popular boy’s name throughout Morbatten. After Dar Tania and dragon art, Sean’s face is the third most common type of statue found in Morbatten. He is the only non-Tiamat worshipper quoted extensively in Tiamat’s scriptures via the Book of Paladins.

How Dragons Feel

The Tanian dragons love treasure. More than gold, they love the furious emotions that burn in the hearts of those who love them. For, while amassing treasure Smaug-style is nice, having treasure that loves and adores you back is far more interesting. It’s what makes these dragons different in their mentoring of the Tanian people.

Virginia was cold end of 2017. We had family visit and did pictures. My three-year-old was freezing and so I held her. A blue dragon wouldn’t hug a child. They’d do something magical so the child would feel warm. A silver dragon would have rescheduled the pictures to summer. I am my daughter’s dragon.

Genevieve’s Shiver

When it’s freezing cold,

And chill bites your toes,

A gold dragon would cherish,

A red dragon would treasure,

A black dragon would guard,

A white dragon would love,

Their shivering daughter. 

Breaking into the Top 1000

While it might not seem like it, there are some 12,000 authors in the Fantasy genre on Amazon. Some are the big names like Tolkien, Brooks, Martin, and LeGuinn. Others are aspirants like me. With the release of Khalla’s Play, I had a moment where I hit this mark. Like getting the first book out there, or getting your first review, breaking into the top 10%, even if for just a while, is something that made me happy. I hope these stories amuse your days and fire your imaginations. I also had my first mediocre review – another milestone, from someone who clearly has not read the books. I do not make sexual orientation a predominant part of any of my writing; it’s fascinating the reader felt this way.

Here’s a review from Khalla’s Play I thought worth sharing.

From Celia on January 3, 2018: “Eric K. Barnum has the mind of a true visionary. Ever radiant and always unconventional, Barnum’s fantasy worlds are not for the faint of heart, and they are especially not for those who are looking for a quick procession of empty action scenes that are heavy on superficial blockbuster tropes and entirely void of any human depth. Because when you begin to read a book by the author, it will become clear that you have stepped into a world full of hidden meanings and mythological symbols, a world where almost anything is possible, and where the search for something greater than ourselves can become an intoxicating reality.”

Khalla’s Play – Official Release Date Jan 1, 2018

Pick up Khalla’s Play on Amazon here… 487 pages. 200k words. Free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. $5.99 eBook. $16.75 paperback
Like all Forsaken Isles books, you do not need to read others to enjoy this one. However, if you read Bomoki’s Gate, the characters and themes in Khalla’s Play will make more sense
The eBook is free from Tues Jan 2 to Fri Jan 5, 2018
To celebrate Khalla’s Play, Dar Tania I is being steeply discounted to $0.99 during this same time period
Join my newsletter in Jan 2018, and receive exclusive short stories in Kindle Format or PDF. The first, Temple of the Golden Serpent will be released in January 2018

War rages around the corpse of a dead god. 

Join Khalla, a young elf and master thief, in a quest for her guild to control the

black market for the dead god’s body. When friend turns on friend and allies

backstab each other, Khalla unearths an ancient horror hidden under the city of Taysor.