"To be human is to bleed and to be bled. These words rattled in the slave's head, as they had ever since they were placed there twenty long years ago. Blood dripped into the awaiting bowl, each drop painting the alabaster crimson. Wicked, accursed blood, tainted by an ancient and divine fury. Narul watched it trickle down his arm, skirting past coarse hair and stony muscle. His veins had been opened a thousand times before, and yet he could not shake the same creeping feeling of unease as his eyes followed its path, as if at any moment it may rear up like a fanged serpent and strike. The bottom of the snowy basin was now completely swallowed by red. His eyes met those of his reflection, as it gazed back at him from the scarlet pool, ugly and monstrous. That familiar cold hand of fear and disgust clenched at his belly. He turned away."
Howdy everyone! This is just a quick WIP introduction, or to be more specific, it is a re(re)intro for my WIP, The Testaments of the Green Sea. This is in response both to a tag from @willtheweaver and a recent poll I held to see what folks wanted to see from me.
Just a quick bit about myself for people that might be seeing this for the first time: you can call me C. I'm in my late twenties, and my partner and I are originally from the USA, but we currently reside in Scotland. I am a student of Mediterranean History and Archaeology (starting up my PhD in September, as long as funding is secured), with a focus on the Aegean and Western Anatolia, which is the driving influence behind the world of my WIP. I enjoy cooking, fishing, DnD (ing?), reading, and of course writing.
I am trying to be a bit more active on here; work and life sort of got in the way for a while there, and I am always open to things like tags and asks, even if it takes me a bit to respond.
The Testaments of the Green Sea
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Anthropologic Fantasy, Mythic Fantasy, Bronze Age Fantasy, Sword and Sandals(ish)
Themes and Tropes (Or more accurately a random assortment of words and phrases vaguely related to the plot): Found family, Bronze Age setting, immortality, loss, love, war, power, memory, magic, insanity, The passage of time, growing up, queerness in the ancient world, violence, spirits, fantasy outside of medieval europe
Summary: The first book of the Testaments of the Green Sea (The lands of the Green Sea are pictured above) follows the journeys of the giant slave Narul and the princess Ninma. After unexpected tragedy forces the two to flee from the Great city of Labisa, they find themselves on a journey which carries them across the ancient and fractured lands of Kishetal as search for a safe place for a fugitive child to grow up and a way in which Narul can come to terms with humanity, or lack thereof. Along the way they encounter spirits, demons, war, gods, pirates, and slavers. Content Warnings for death/grief, violence/blood/gore, mental illness, physical illness, abuse, ancient slavery, elements of horror, and cannibalism, awkward queerness, secondhand embarrasment etc, etc.
The stories themselves are told and translated from the perspective of C.C.H., a student living in the world of Kobani approximately 4,000 years after Narul's time.
Excerpt: "Yes, I am a spirit, though I take some offense at being so carelessly lumped in with all other spirits. Would you appreciate it if I just referred to you as an animal? We spirits are just as varied in our forms, intelligences, and moralities as you mortals. Though perhaps mortal isn’t quite the correct term in this case.” The spirit looked over Narul with appraising eyes.
Draft Status: Well...what was originally meant to be one book has been split into three, I kept trying to edit my manuscripts and make them smaller but I found that instead of the word-count going down they instead kept going up. So, I threw in the towel and decided to split what was supposed to be one book into three. I am in the process of finishing the last third of the first book. (title to be determined) I am subtly optimistic that I can have that done by the start of autumn, at which point I will give it to my partner to edit and will not touch it until after they're done. After that I'll probably start looking for some beta-readers, while at the same time starting up on the second book.
This first book (and the first trilogy) is just the beginning of a larger series following Narul's story throughout I'm so excited to share more with you, and I love answering questions!
Author's Note
"I have some reservations in allowing this piece outside of the secrecy of my own mind, but at the prompting of a member of the Department of Ancient Histories and Archaeologies (AHA), who I shall refer to only as Dr. H for the sake of anonymity, I have chosen to submit this manuscript as a part of the annual “Arch-fest,” an annual sharing of projects, performances, and papers concerned with the Era of Greater Bronze I-IV, that is to say the period of approximately 1800 years between the foundation of Cish or Kişetal by the demi-mortal Tamel the First and the crowning of Queen Dapia the Second marking the beginning of Tarquinian dominion in much of the Western Green Sea. The Fest has shared its fair share of controversy, particularly amongst the more religiously conservative members of Yannish society.
Before all is said and done, I must preface that this is a work of fiction. All characters are inspired by my own interpretations and feelings, inspired though they may be by the literature and archaeological record. I am not questioning the wisdom of the authors of the Ancient Tomes nor the authority of modern clergy and theologians, regardless of affiliation. With all this being said and done, I must acknowledge that my own philosophical, political, and religious proclivities will most assuredly appear within this story, as they are ought to do in just about any work of fiction meant to evoke serious thought and emotion. While I have largely forgone organized faith, I was raised within a New Jothist household and grew up well acquainted with many of its intricacies. The figures which appear within the Tomes are of deep emotional importance to me, and though I may have largely moved past my religious connection to these figures, they are, I believe, still an essential foundation to my political, ethical, and spiritual understanding of our world.
Now that I have addressed that particular issue, let me turn to more academic matters. I make no connections or mentions to Joth or Tarque, as both would be meaningless to the figures inhabiting the world at this time. Nor will you find mentions of the more grandiose events of the Ancient Tomes, much to the disappointment of the theologians, I have no doubt. Rather, all that I will describe will be in keeping with what the most recent advances in archaeology, Calamatic and Pre-Calamatic Studies, paranatomical research, zoology and azoology, in addition to other fields, have shown us about magic, monstrous species, spirits, the Calamity, and the nature of demi-mortals, also archaically referred to as Spiritbloods and demigods, with the truly fantastical being included only on rare occasion. Recent excavations at the site of Chibia (Çibal) and Hapir (Labisa), along with more ongoing studies of the recently uncovered remains of Specimen G56, who some believe to belong to the famed demi-mortal Satrick or Sadaric, were of particular use.
Lastly, I will apologize to the philologists. I am no expert in ancient languages, and I must admit that my grasp of Middle Kishite is somewhat tenuous and my grasp on Lawuian is even worse. With this in consideration and with broader society in mind, I will be rendering Kishite words in a way that is more immediately accessible to those who are not versed in academic writing. However, I will also not be using the Etruitized nouns with which the common man is so well acquainted. You will find no Naro or Nina here, nor will you find Na-rŭ-(u)l and Ni-n(a)-ma or, Joth forbid, the proper Kishite characters, but rather the far more approachable, and frankly more practical for general transcription, Narul and Ninma."
-C.C.H.
Narul and Ninma courtesy of @faeporcelain
(Here's some links too. I have way too much worldbuilding content)
Language, Phrases, Food Pt1, Food Pt2, Maps, Magic, Status Symbols, Labisa Tour, MC intro.
@illarian-rambling, @mk-writes-stuff, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @willtheweaver, @patternwelded-quill
@elsie-writes, @elizaellwrites, @the-ellia-west , @the-golden-comet
@finickyfelix, @theprissythumbelina, @autism-purgatory, @diabolical-blue , @tildeathiwillwrite
@katenewmanwrites, @leahnardo-da-veggie, @paeliae-occasionally, @melpomene-grey
@drchenquill, @marlowethelibrarian, @phoenixradiant, @pluttskutt, @3-2-whump
@dyrewrites, @unrepentantcheeseaddict, @roach-pizza, @rivenantiqnerd, @pluppsauthor
@flaneurarbiter, @dezerex, @axl-ul, @surroundedbypearls
@treesandwords, @the-golden-comet, @wyked-rebellion
