L.L. Stephens's Blog, page 5

LORE: Worlds Apart, excerpt from a book by Marc Frederick

Marc Frederick Stauberg-Randolph, King of Essera and a main character of Sordaneon, first novel of the Triempery series, is a prolific writer. Dorilian even accuses him of writing too much.

Though Marc Frederick's journal appears in The Kheld King, another of his books, Worlds Apart, details his experience learning about a world he was pulled into without knowing anything. Here he discusses Staubauns, the ruling class, and how they came to be that.

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Though the family I...

LORE: Report to King Erydon

When Khelds first invaded lower Tahlwent, entering through a Rift event, King Erydon sent his kinsman Eldhan to find out more about the invaders.

Eldhan sent back this report.

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To my King and Uncle, the Thrice Royal Wall Lord Erydon, master of Essera and Prince of the Royal North — Greetings and Wishes for the continuance of our good communion.

I have done as you have requested and spent these many weeks making acquaintance of the new people who descended so suddenl...

LORE: The Rill

Pre-Return. The Rill is one of a few First Creation feats of engineering to have survived into the Second Creation. The others are the three remaining eternal Cities of Permephedon, Sordan, and Mormantalorus and numerous still intact energy cores buried and forgotten under the destroyed cities.

Leur collaborated with the Aryati in creating the Rill. The main corpus and superstructure of the system were Leur and, thus, living. The operational systems — stations, controls — were Aryati and inclu...

Where to Find Me

Depending on what you are looking for… stories and lore, the latest news, giveaways of my books, get to know me as a person… here are the various avenues!

1. This website. This is where I post longer book-related pieces like my lore posts, chapter or character discussions, short stories, excerpts, juicy updates, and personal pieces. It took me a while to figure out how to make and use a website — I’m too cheap to hire a web designer, so this site is a work in progress! — but now that I’ve figu...

STORY: The Rune Hag's Daughter

Author's Note: This story is set completely with the Kheld people and their culture. Because readers will see more about Khelds and their ways in THE KHELD KING and the remainder of the series, I thought this story would be of interest to those who want to know more about the people Stefan calls his own.

Kheld beliefs differ in significant ways from those of the larger Triempery and they practice their own kind of magic.

Also of note is that this story was previously published in The Pagan Fic...

LORE: The Wall

From afar the Wall looks like… a wall — high, smooth, blue-white, asymmetrical in height, and it moves in ever-shifting elevations. The Wall’s movement is gradual and appears fluid; people say it slithers, though its activity is soundless because the Entity’s changes, while visible, are not physical. The physical parts of the Wall consist of the original Stauberg Wall (now enclosed), the Gate of Transformation and its Guardians, and the Aidion. Much of the latter is underground and connects to t...

LORE: The Creations, First and Second

The creative force that was Leur brought into being many marvelous things, but to their Mind the foremost was the one they called the Creation. It was designed to sustain the highest expressions of all their gifts — color and music / Time and life — and they loved it such that they decided to inhabit it and enjoy the beauty and surprises of their work.

Leur infused the Creation with landscapes, elements, and systems to sustain living things, and the ability to self-create, which led to many ti...

LORE: Why Write About That?

This is the first of my blog posts about the lore of the Triempery universe. If it is possible to tag the entries, I will eventually figure that out and tag them so readers can find them easily. Until then, I will preface each lore entry with LORE.

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While waiting for THE KHELD KING, the second book of the Triempery Revelations series, to be published in a few months, I thought readers might be interested in some of the lore that underpins the novels.

Not all readers enjoy ...

Excerpt: The Kheld King

This passage features Rheger and Elhanan, father and son. Their bloodline, the Malyrdeons, is bound to the Wall Entity and they possess Highborn gifts -- but being Highborn provides little protection from a dismissive and suspicious King. Receiving a communication from that King's hated enemy isn't a welcome development... but neither is the prospect of Dorilian coming into his power.

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“Teach me.” Elhanan looked up from the paper in his fingers. “He offers the Wall...

Excerpt: SORDANEON

Enjoy this nice chonky section from an early chapter, in which Esseran prince Stefan and his friends face the consequences of an attack they made on Dorilian, a foreign prince whose importance to their kingdom they failed to take into account.

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“I didn’t know you were going to kick him! Hells!”

Stefan flinched as Cullen Brodheson grabbed his shoulders and spun him against the garden wall. The boys had split up after fleeing the weapon room, but Cullen had known Stefan’s mind w...