M.B. Scully's Blog, page 2

Dragons of the Black Forest

Odwyn knew very little about Varthurst. The few dragons who had visited it all described it in hushed whispers as a shadowy, fearful place, with people just as unfriendly as the forest. All sorts of dangerous creatures lurked in the undergrowth, unseen by foreign eyes. Few non-Varthurstling were ever allowed outside the border towns.

—excerpt from Nostos

The Éomarin are a mysterious people, inhabitants of the equally mysterious land known to many as the ‘Black Forest’, to the Éomarin themselves as ‘Éomarun‘, a place full of strange creatures and monsters not seen anywhere else.  Sann, another character from Nostos, is one of the Éomarin.  I have a soft spot for these guys, which might be partially due to me having a soft spot for Sann.

Most of the dragons are Germanic in culture and language, but these little dragons are a bit different.  I pull a little bit from Germanic cultures, but with a little this-and-that thrown in for flavour.  A little like Hobbits, if Hobbits lived in the Forbidden Forest from Harry Potter.

The Éomarin are fun to work with, so look forward to many more articles about them and their mysterious home.

The Svanling Dragons

The Storm Witch huffs, her thin nostrils flaring as cold air blows over Hycath, sending down her spine. She swallows again. Some stories claim the northern dragons can freeze a person with their breath, and she hopes she isn’t about to discover the truth of those stories.

—excerpt from The Voyage Tale of Hycath

Once the rulers of a vast empire, the Svanling dragons now reign a much more modest kingdom in the northern mountains.  These are Odwyn’s people, and a people who have had quite an impact in the history of the northern continent.  The Svanling are inspired somewhat by the Roman Empire, somewhat by Old Norse/Viking culture, somewhat by Skyrim.  At the time I was thinking out the different species to populate Mederra, I was playing a lot of Skyrim.  I was intrigued by the whole concept of dragons ruling over humans, and so a similar dynamic got added into my world, although my dragons didn’t get banished from the world following their defeat (still gotta finish that quest line…I keep getting distracted by the most minor of quests).

After the fall of the Empire, the Svanling more or less settled into their diminished roles, having lost almost all their holdings across the continent.  Working on these guys, and really any of the dragons, is always fun.  I have to think about how they interact with the other mortal races, which is somewhat complicated by the fact dragons just live so much longer.  Makes for some interesting dynamics, anyway.

So enjoy what I have so far on the Svanling dragons—let me know what else you want to see.  All these articles are WIPs, so I’ll be adding to them and developing them more as I go.  I’ll also be working on some artwork, to add a little imagery to the world.

Dragons, dragons everywhere!

The Dragons art a Peple unto themselves.  Blessed with long lives and near endless Pols of Magike, it comes as no surprize that the first Rhynodd beleeved them to be of the Devin.  It did not take our Ancestres long to find that the Dragons were no Gods, but just as Mortel as they, and Subgit to the same Vices and Virtus…

—excerpt from On the Historie of Dragons, by Master Kadhal mav Kaniarn

To anyone who knows me, they’re well aware that I just friggin’ love dragons.  So of course I have to include them in my world.  One of my current projects, Nostos, even two dragons as main characters.

Dragons in Mederra come in three flavours:  feathered, with long wings and long tails, the classic European-style scaly fire-breathers, and wingless, furred bois with elk-like antlers.  When coming up with the dragons I wanted to do a little more than just the fire-breathing gold-hoarding monsters of Western legend.  Although I love me a good Smaug-type character, I wanted to create a society of dragons with a distinct culture and language—a people that could give me characters to interact with the world and have their own stories.

And so I present to you the Dragons of Mederra.  Keep an eye out for more in-depth looks into the different dragon cultures, which should be coming out over the next week or so!

The World of Mederra

And when the Mother ended her enemy, she found herself alone.  She sighed, and with that sigh, breathed life into world.  From that breath she created gods and mortals and filled the world with poetry…

—excerpt from a Rhynodd creation myth

The world in which the stories of my novels take place, slowly being pieced together as I continue to write and flesh out the various peoples and places.  Sometimes the lore gets developed as I’m writing and suddenly realise I haven’t a clue what’s going on in the setting.

Most of the time I’m seized by inspiration at 2am and ah yes I shall spend three hours researching the evolutionary history of ruminants because why not.

If you’re at all interested in learning more about the world behind the stories, I’m using World Anvil to keep all the articles together, which you can find here.  I’ll post excerpts and links to the articles here, as well as the occasional note on some of the research that inspires the lore of Mederra.

Stay tuned!

WIP Introduction: Nostos

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Nostos

Status – finished, first round edits

Genre – fantasy, YA

Featuring dragons, ghosts, found family, adventure, mystery, magic…and did I mention dragons?

Sixty years ago, Odwyn Tyra  Halstånsdåtir’s mother disappeared.  Unable to find any hint of what had happened, or even where her mother hand gone, Odwyn had resigned herself to the fact that her mother had simply vanished.

Then she had the vision.  A vision of a grave hidden within a dark, enigmatic forest kingdom, with the voice of her long-lost mother echoing in her ears, urging her to fly out, to find her, and bring her home.

Urged on by the possibility of finding her mother, Odwyn sets out, leaving home for the first time on a journey that will take her straight across the land and to places she had only ever heard of in stories, a journey that will take her home in more ways than one.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Image by Ambady Sasi from Pixabay

Photo by Ray Bilcliff from Pexels

Introducing: Tabia

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Tabia  had quite the easy life.  She was the most successful master thief in Tsarova, had enough to live rather comfortably, and managed to dodge the mandatory military service required of all of Tsarova’s citizens.  Beholden to no one, Tabia had all the freedom to live the way she wanted.

Then she got caught, struck a deal with a vengeful, vindictive goddess, and betrayed her country.  So she started running, and kept going, desperate to escape her mistakes.  But she would soon discover that her past would find her no matter how far she ran…

some fast facts about Tabia:

quiet pansexual the only thing quiet about her lol
always down to party
is here for the lulz
rules are made to be broken and Tabia is here to break them all
don’t tell her what she can’t do, she will see it as a challenge and somehow break several world records while doing it
rarely suffers consequences for her shenanigans as she always manages to find someone to pin the blame on
Tragic Orphan Backstory^TM
no wallet or coin purse is safe around her
lost her right hand early in her thieving career
if she had a removable prosthetic she would be the kind of person waiting for the moment she could say “need a hand?” and throw her hand at them
the depression can’t catch you if you run fast enough
absolute Disaster Child

ghost from Getty Images

kpinga from Wikipedia

Introducing: Sann

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Sann lived a quiet life in the Forest, and he was quite content with that.  He already had his fair share of adventures in the outside world, and he had no intention of ever leaving the safety of the dark, forbidding trees of his home, especially not when his mother left on a trip sixty years before and never returned.

Then he stumbles across some dumb northern dragon nearly drowning herself in the river, completely open to attack from any of the many strange and vicious creatures lurking in the Forest, and his peace is quickly shattered.  What first starts out as a paid job to guide a clueless foreigner through the Forest soon turns into a joint quest to uncover the truths of their mothers’ disappearances…

some fast facts about Sann:

grumpy asexual
is Done^tm with ur shit
eternally Smol and Angry
literal walking encyclopedia
and is completely insufferable about it
he’s like a cactus
spiky on the outside but soft and squishy on the inside
would read the most sappiest romances stories if he were human
but would deny that completely
lives for teasing Odwyn
which just results in her picking him up and watching him squirm
hates the sun ’cause he has to wear the dumbest looking sunglasses to protect his precious little eyes
has a dark past as the most trouble-making hatchling ever

Character Moodboards:  Odwyn, Tabia (coming soon!)

antler photo from worthpoint.com

Introducing: Odwyn

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Odwyn had mostly come to terms with her mother’s disappearance.  She was only a hatchling when it happened, and she’s had sixty years to accept the ache.  Even though a travelling merchant wasn’t the most dangerous of jobs, it still had its risks, after all, risks that included the possibility of her family never learning exactly what happened.

Until she starts having persistent dreams that seem to urge her to seek out a grave, deep in a dark, mysterious forest kingdom, dreams that speak to her in her mother’s voice.  With a chance to uncover answers, Odwyn sets out to find the grave, and, potentially, her mother.

some fast facts about Odwyn:

shy lesbian
hates being the centre of attention
srry bby u have pure white features ur hard to miss
if she were a person she’d be the one who wears white shirts all the time but somehow never gets spaghetti sauce on them
Eternally Confused^tm
a bit sheltered tbh i mean in all her 87 years she’s never left the kingdom
constantly getting her tail feathers pulled
works as a mail-flyer
can be a bit spacey
one time she zoned out while flying a mail route and six hours later she was nearly in the other kingdom over whoops
has those frodo-type freaky blue eyes
likes picking Sann up and watching him flail
absolute precious sunshine child with a slightly vindictive streak when it comes to Sann

 

photo of Nordic Dragon design by vikingtattoo

Character Profile: Odwyn

One of the main stars of Nostos, a current WIP.  She’s already gone through many changes since she first appeared, but I think I’ve finally got an idea of who she is.  I’ve even drawn up a sketch that I plan on inking and colouring in the next few days, so there will be a visual to go along with this chart.  But for now, you can get to know Odwyn and a bit of her history.

Basic Info

Full Name: Odwyn Tyra Halstir

Reason or meaning of name:  The tradition of the northern dragons is to name the child for the parents, taking the mother’s name for the second name and the father’s name for the surname.  The father’s name is typically shortened so only the first syllable is used, and the old suffix ‘-dottir‘ has been shortened in recent generations to simply ‘tir’  Her given name, ‘Odwyn’ means ‘wise white one’ in the northern dragonic languages, deriving from the name of one of the dragonic gods, Wyda.

Name:  Odwyn

Birth date:  12 January

Gender:  Female

Orientation:  Lesbian

Race:  Dragon, feathered

Nationality:  Væłvólskan

Physical appearance

Age:  87 years

Eye colour:  bright blue

Feathers:  white

Feather patterns:  none

Weight:  idk still working on that.  how does one calculate the weight of a dragon?

Height:  6.3 ft to the top of her head, 4.2 ft to the top of her shoulder

Length:  17.2 ft

Wingspan:  34 ft

Personality

Good personality traits:  loyal, always keeps her promises, kind

Bad personality traits:  nervous, impressionable, reluctant

Mood character is most often in:  quiet

Character’s greatest joy in life:  enjoying a quiet sunrise with her father

Character’s greatest fear:  losing her father like she lost her mother

Life philosophy:  Take it slow.  

Greatest strength:  her loyalty to those she cares for

Greatest vulnerability or weakness:  her inability to make decisions on  her own

Biggest regret:  never finding out more about her mother’s disappearance

Goals

Drives and motivations:  to find answers

Immediate goals:  find the meaning of her dreams

Long term goals:  find out what happened to her mother

Past

Hometown:  Wyvałarin

First memory:  her mother coming home from a long trip, bearing a little carved white stone swan as a gift

Most important childhood memory:  when she was first learning how to fly, her mother took her fishing at a nearby lake and showed her how to fish on the wing

Dream job:  a merchant flyer, like her mother was

Past

Current location:  Wyvałarin

Occupation:  mail flyer

Family

Mother:  Tyra Arnbjorg Magnistir (disappeared)

Father:  Halstein Einara Ketilsson

Siblings:  none

Favourites

Colour:  pink

Music:  good ol’ traditional dance reels

Food:  raggmunk and lingonberries

Literature:  folktales, especially told in front of a fire on a cold winter’s night

An Excerpt from ‘Nostos’

Odwyn was having that dream again. After almost a week of it, she was tired of the same confusing, exhausting dream every night. It wouldn’t be so bad if she actually woke up rested, but every morning she woke feeling as though she had actually lived the dream.

The forest stretched as far as she could see. An endless sweep of pines, a blur of dark greens and browns beneath her wings. Odwyn looked around but, as usual, saw nothing identifiable about the forest. Just tree after tree after tree. The sky above her was black, without a trace of any celestial body. It was as though she were alone in this forested world.

Odwyn flew on and on in silence until her wings ached and her lungs burned. Then, as always, she spotted a small clearing. She angled for it and landed gratefully, closing her shaking wings. She felt as though she had flown for miles and miles, but could never determine for certain just how far.

After a brief moment to catch her breath, Odwyn walked to the other side of the clearing, where a stone gate stood at odds with the dark trees surrounding it. Stone walls extended from either side of the gate, to the end of the clearing where they disappeared into the pines. Odwyn knew from past experience that if she tried walking along the walls, they would extend forever, never ending. So she kept her attention fixed on the gates. They opened before her as she approached.

A dark, silent graveyard lay beyond. In the first few dreams, Odwyn had stopped at several gravestones to read the names, only to find each of them blank. All the gravestones, except for one, were blank. Odwyn wove around the gravestones, carefully lifting her tail over the small, flat slabs. She walked all the way to the far corner of the graveyard, where a small, worn gravestone sat crookedly beside the wall. It almost looked like an afterthought, as though someone had accidentally dropped it and never bothered to pick it up again.

Odwyn stopped in front of the stone. She ran a claw over the carved letters, worn shallow by time.

“Here lies a long-lost friend. How far you are from home.” Although Odwyn read quietly, her voice sounded unnaturally loud in the otherwise silent graveyard. By now, she knew the words by heart. She moved her claw to the word carved below the dedication. “Tabia.”

Odwyn had no idea what Tabia was supposed to mean. She had done a little research in the waking world, but to no avail.

Find her.

Odwyn jumped, nearly falling over the gravestone behind her. No one had ever spoken in the dream before. She looked around wildly, but the graveyard was empty.

Find her, the voice said again, fainter. Bring her home.

Just a quick peak into one of my current projects.  I’m working on editing and playing around with the structure.  This is also the project that will be making use of my conlangs.