Hello! First time submitting here, so I apologize if I’m doing anything wrong.
But! Onto the subject at hand. A while back, I made mention here (via ask) that I was working on a book series about dragons that had two ace/aro protagonists, who are now pictured above. I’m finally ready to start working a lot more on the book and to engage in my blog more, so I’m starting by posting here!
The novels take place in the world of Vahaar, a continent of magic and gods. On Vahaar, dragons are the dominant species, and humans don’t exist. The magic that dragons wield - unoriginally named Elements - is basic and clunky. You can’t conjure up demons or shoot lightning, but you can manipulate the basic threads of the world, such as fire, air, earth, rot, so on and so forth. The Elements you have are based upon the elements your parents had.
Four large kingdoms dominate the continent, and they’re where the action happens. As of right now, there’s been a war raging for about three hundred years between the oldest kingdom and the youngest, and some people are starting to get tired of all the fighting. Much of the plot revolves around secret puppetmasters and the vying for control, but I can’t say much else without spoilers.
The two protagonists, pictured above, are Invictus and Hadratu. Invictus (bottom right) is an incredible rarity in the dragon world: a dragon with no Elements. Elements are the reason why every dragon looks unique, and they’re also what cause dragons to grow wings, so not having them is really, really damn sucky. Secondly, most regions have superstitions regarding Elementless dragons. Needless to say, Invictus has had a really crappy life thus far. She’s quiet, more intelligent than she shows, and considerably cowardly.
Hadratu (top left) is a young hunter from a tiny swamp town. They eschew many of the conventions of society: a warm bed, gender, all manners of caution, that sort of thing. Though Hadratu’s had more luck in life than Invictus, they’re still kept under the iron heel of their aunt, Splintervine, who may be more than a little unstable.
After a freak storm blows through and completely destroys Invictus’s home, she finds herself on Hadratu’s doorstep, and the two quickly get swept up in a plot of godly games and subterfuge.
That’s all I can say for now! You can find more on these two over at @sanctiontheskies. I’m not too active over on there yet, but I plan on doing so soon, and I might also consider running an Ask the Characters sort-of deal with these two (and maybe some other major characters, too). Toodles!
Thank you so much for sharing with us such a fabulous submission, @luthyx! There’s nothing wrong with sharing your creative awesome with this blog!
Your dragons are adorable! I love the texture work in the eyes and their distinct and contrasting looks.
You’ve clearly put a lot of thought into your worldbuilding and magic, and I am always here for fantasy plots that are about ending wars and politics. Hadratu sounds like a dragon after my own heart (such a yay for eschewing gender, something I’d love to see fantasy do far more often than it does). It’s so nice to see characters here that are so much more than being a-spec, characters that are well-drawn and complex with personality and history.
I’ll say that I’m loving the combination of dragons and human cultural elements you’ve got going. I’m curious to see how the framing of dragons shapes and changes some of those elements we take for granted.
Best of luck with your creative process! I’m sure we’ll all be looking forward to seeing where these characters end up.