Saturday, November 15, 2014

The Sutek Desert: a map for Awakening

The Sutek Desert: eternal sands of the mystic Dua Dara www.DNFrost.com/maps #TotKW A map for Awakening by D.N.Frost @DNFrost13 Part 4 of a series.
This post is Part 4 of a series to augment the Atlas of the Known World available for free download. Start with Part 1 here.

This and other TotKW maps are gathered in my Map Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!



The Sutek Desert
The Sutek Desert: eternal sands of the mystic Dua Dara www.DNFrost.com/maps #TotKW A map for Awakening by D.N.Frost @DNFrost13 Part 4 of a series.
Eternal sands of the mystic Dua Dara.


Geography and Climate


In Chapter 2 of Awakening, the reddish sands of the Sutek stretch from the back of the D'jed Mountains to Allana's east coast. There, the elevation sheers into steep cliffs and escarpments. To the south, dunes spill out into the neighboring plains, while in the north, desert highlands sprout rocky buttes from coarser sands.

Few clouds pass the D'jed to rain on the Sutek, so water is pulled from wells and the rare oasis. Arid summers scorch the lapsing breeze, until winter's cooling air stirs whirlwinds and raging sandstorms.

This region also borders the Katei Ocean and the Back Rishi, of the Plains of Rishi.


Flora and Fauna


Desert insects ground a food chain supporting lizards, hares, and jackals, and domestic camels range wide swaths of land to graze on sparse patches of thornbush. Though cacti grace the rockier highlands and a few natural springs bring green to the sands, most of the Sutek's plant life is irrigated by well water. Elusive and skittish across vast distances, herds of wild pegasi roam the deep desert, but their feeding habits remain unobserved.


People and Dress


An isolated and private race of men, the Suteki shun the outside world. Tall and bronze, they sport golden eyes and dark hair, typically black with a bluish sheen. Men shear close to their heads, while women prefer hair grown long and wound in topknots. Both genders tie on sandals and wear lightweight robes, white to reflect the desert sun. As children, white ropes cinch their waists, and girls adopt a red rope at first blood. Boys ascending to manhood receive a blue rope, as do women after marriage.


Native Magic


The Suteki make poor elemental mages, though on occasion some demonstrate Earth magic talents. Their sensory magics tend to be quite powerful, Flavor magic predominant with Light magic as a strong latent ability. Animal magic is fairly common, fostering a tradition of skilled caravans and herders. Though Suteki eyes are gold with the sight, only Dua Dara mages learn to harness their latent Gift of portent. They remain the only known landfolk with the power to soothsay.

Check out the Magic Codex of the Known World to learn more.


Cultural Values and Traditions


Tribes hold prayer and piety as virtues, and view magic talent as a sacred blessing. Water is precious in the Sutek, and the color blue is correlated with holiness, sanctity, and magic. They emphasize independence and respect, particularly for oneself and one's elders. Many family clans comprise a village tribe, and individuals receive varied rank and council status from their clan name. All Suteki bear their names with pride, withholding them only to spite their enemies, and take grave insult to those who would converse with faces covered.

They measure age in hazes, and all grow one haze older on the first sandstorm of winter, which marks the new year. Boys reach manhood on their twentieth haze, and announce their chosen occupation on their fifth day as men. The Feast of Haze commemorates this first decision of adulthood, which the tribe encourages no matter how foolhardy. They find that self-discovery and learning experience outweigh the risk of error.


Warriors and Guardians


As pegasi warriors, the Dua Dara swear to protect the sanctity of the desert from outsiders. To join the sacred mages, a boy with strong animal magic must bond a wild pegasus foal before his fifth haze. The dangerous rite requires him to venture alone into the deep desert and return within three days. Successful boys leave their families for the brotherhood of Dua Daralel, where they master their magics and learn battle tactics and pegasus care. Once young Dua Dara reach their twentieth haze, the high council assigns them to a specific Daralel, which remains their base for border patrols until retirement or reassignment.


Languages


Though isolated from the Allanic spoken in most of the Known World, the Suteki language is mutually intelligible for the most part, and translation is rarely necessary. Written in a curvaceous script like that of the merfolk, Suteki sounds formal and archaic to an Allanic speaker. Vocabulary and pronunciation differ in places, but both languages derived from a single origin. Similarly, the Dua Dara hand signals used during flight mirror many signs of the gryphon riders from the neighboring plains, suggesting a historical alliance now lost.

Check out the Language Codex of the Known World to learn more.


Characters from The Known World


Awakening is a potent tale of self-discovery. Experience this gripping fantasy adventure and discover yourself within. www.DNFrost.com/Awakening #TotKW
In the book Awakening, Tirrok was raised as an orphan after he was found in the village well of Jahari as an infant.

With no family name to rank him amongst the villagers, he struggled as an outcast despite his adoption by renowned Jokkel the Guardian.

Tirrok attempted the Dua Dara entrance rite in his youth, but though he bonded a pegasus foal, he was not inducted into the brotherhood.

Now the Feast of Haze looms before him, and he prepares to reveal his scandalous decision to seek his fortune in the outside world.


That's it for this post! Up Next: Towering black pines of the faeries...

Download the Atlas of the Known World here, or start your adventure below.






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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

My All-Time Top Five Favorite Sentences: a wordsmith workshop

This post is Part 1 of a series to augment the Tips for Writing Fiction available for free download.

This and other writing workshops are gathered in my Workshops Directory for you to explore.

Find more guest-inspired content in my Guest Directory.



This week, I'm pleased to introduce guest blogger Jocelyn Crawley, author of Erudition. Her top five favorite sentences unveil the precision writers use to craft their best work.




I don't do much outside of writing except reading. And when I read, I'm always on the lookout for writers that have an innovative way of doing things. Whether the doing involves an exceptional articulation of the absurd or an inventive complication of something simple, ingesting a well-written sentence is an activity that leaves me in a state of mental reverie.

Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to read a lot of really great books that conform to the aforementioned (and somewhat subjective) guidelines for literary excellence. These days, my literary surmisings have caused me to conclude that the following five sentences are amongst my absolute favorites:


#5. "By nature I am fitted to be a hidden observer of people strutting across the stage of life—rather than to be a skilled actor flooded with limelight under the eyes of an audience."
The ingenuity indigenous to this passage is plentiful. In addition to utilizing the ostensibly universal and ubiquitous world as stage metaphor effectively, al-Hakim appropriates the analogy to juxtapose two important and elusive modes of existence: the observer who dissects the behavior of other people and the actor who is subjected to the aforementioned type of dissection.

#4. "The housekeeper and her husband were both of that decent phlegmatic order of people, to whom one may at any time safely communicate a remarkable piece of news without incurring the danger of having one's ears pierced by some shrill ejaculation, and subsequently stunned by a torrent of wordy wonderment."
- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Queen of the long sentence, Bronte is likely a cherished, canonized author because her choice of words and their arrangement are as artistic and meaningful as the concepts that the terms are used to articulate. Like thoughtful decorations that enhance the aesthetic appeal of a home, key phrases like decent phlegmatic, shrill ejaculation, and wordy wonderment make the concept Bronte delineates here illustrative in addition to meaningful.



Check these Tips for Writing Fiction to see more workshops!




#3. "A single window slit glowed in the distant stable complex, and she ghosted toward it."
- D.N.Frost, Awakening
Here is a short text that contains several subtle forms of brilliance that induce a deep, cerebral pause. On one level, the author does an excellent job of problematizing our sense of singular space insomuch as we are presented with a distant object that a character is moving towards. In addition to complicating the sentence with the reality of two disparate spaces that may soon be united, the passage utilizes a novel verb to describe the activity that will make the union possible: ghosted.

#2. "On rainy nights in the late eighties, we would swan in and request a booth."
This sentence is great because it opens up with a descriptive reference to the weather as well as the time period in which the narrative unfolds--and the author uses just seven simple words to unveil it all. This is to say nothing of the efficacy resulting from the use of the word swan in place of more prototypical verbs like walk or wander to describe the act of moving from one sphere to another.

#1. "On the sly, Cheri studied his companion's large nose, the greying hairy upper lip, and the little peasant eyes which glanced incuriously at ripe cornfields and scythed meadow."
It seems that there is no activity so simultaneously strange and normative as humans observing one another. In this passage, Colette does an excellent job of detailing the action that Cheri drinks in as a result of observing his companion. The description is effectively innovative, particularly the reference to cut grass with the illustrative phrase scythed meadow.

Jocelyn Crawley is a 30-year-old student who holds B.A.s in English and Religious Studies. Her work has appeared in Jerry Jazz Musician, Nailpolish Stories, Visceral Uterus, Dead Beats, The Idiom, Thrice Fiction, Four and Twenty, Kalyani Magazine and Haggard and Halloo. She is the author of Erudition and Droll.




That's it for this post! Up Next: My guest post for Jocelyn's blog...

Download Tips for Writing Fiction here, or start your adventure below.






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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Portent IV of Awakening: a riddle in rhyme

In the novel Awakening, there are 23 portents fortelling the events of the unfolding saga.

Start with Portent I here.

These and other riddles in rhyme are gathered in the Portents Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!



The hidden prince unveiled his plan
To take the darkened sky
But mountain met where time began
Awaiting flame to cry

With flame without the flame within
Did flee through snow and hate
To meet another shifting sin
And find A'lara's mate

The bound with binder came to flee
The builder sent to wed
Adopting long mistaken key
When mages both lay dead

At last the stolen builder deems
Escape from master right
Awakening from broken dreams
To flee unto the sight

The dragon mage emboldened fled
The builder's errant son
And master drank the growing dread
Of destiny begun.


Can you decode the future Tales of the Known World?

Share your interpretation!
Comment below with your take on this portent.


This prophesy details the events that take place in Part 1 of Awakening. Its five stanzas mirror the five chapters of Part 1, and it references each of the characters as they begin their seemingly unrelated journeys.

Can you guess who the prince or dragon mage is? (Hint: if you haven't read Part 1 yet, you can get the free sample here.)



Download the Prophesy Appendix:

The merfolk culture is built on the prophetic Gift. Nearly all men produce a portent every twenty days, and they devote their lives to interpretation. For more about the role and inner workings of prophesy, check out the Prophesy Appendix above.



Alongside every prophesy is an attribution block. This block contains a byline giving the name of the person who said the prophesy, and a dateline giving the day the prophesy was first said. Here is the attribution for this portent:
Vyedik Ndeloh Dynde XX
4:2:3:6/9, 1:3:2 IX
V 1:3:4:1/5, III:IX
The portent attributed here has been interpreted, and it references multiple events that culminate on an exact date. An additional verified dateline has been added to the attribution, noting the final date when the portent comes to pass.


That's it for this post! Up Next: Astride the rift of knowledge gained...

For the Prophesy Appendix, enter your email above.






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