#kin verse

[els-writes]

Here’s a glance at The Last Taint (which I’m still reworking, because I have a serious problem, and can never stop editing this book). Questions are from here! 

1. How long have you had the idea for your WIP?

My oldest document on my laptop currently for this project is from 2010, but that was when I finished the first version, so I believe I’ve been working on it for at the very least a decade? Since I was 14? 

2. Is it the same story today as it was when you first began working on it?

HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA nope. 

It’s been ‘finished’ three times. And those are just the 3 major rewrites. What started as a 14-year-olds terribly cheesy, predictable, and overly-dramatic story, has finally turned into something that resembles a half-decent and (I hope?) original novel. 

3. How many characters are in your WIP?

Um... a lot. I’d round it to about 14-21 important ones. But there’s 4-5 key players who are consistently around. 

4. What’s your main characters’ motivation?

Seth: To rid himself of his Taint - a magical ‘gift’ from the gods that is slowly destroying his life and hurting everyone he is close to. 

Viola: Honestly? Who the hell knows. She says its to find The Library, just to get back at the gods, but she’s pretty good at lying. 

5. Does your main character have a significant other?

Seth: Does Asher count? Asher probably counts. 

Viola: Lol no. 

6. If your main character was real, would you want to be friends with them?

Seth: Um... sure. So long as I didn’t attend his sleepovers? 

Viola: I feel like she’d be the friend I wouldn’t actually want to stay friends with, but I’m stuck with her. 

7. Where is your WIP set?

In the Kin Verse! Which is... complicated. And big. Some of the settings include...

Desert city: Xalder // Ruined city: Zukin // Hell’s asshole: the Abbey of the Seven Orders // The city that’s going to kill Seth: Willsend

8. What time period does your WIP take place in?

An alternate universe, so time period doesn’t really work. Each ‘country’ has a different time period aesthetic, depending on the technology available there. In terms of the Kin Verse timeline, it takes place in the year 700. 

9. If you had to choose, what character from your WIP would you marry?

Gimme Devan. Brooding, sarcastic, hates everyone: we were made for each other. 

10. What gave you the idea for your WIP?

I literally don’t even remember... I think Tsubasa Chronicles was a big influence when I was reading/watching it? It’s where I got the idea for Xalder at the very least! 

[els-writes]

Xalder

Country Name: Xalder Patron Sibling: Saturday Group: Descodian Country Ruling Party: Xalderian Monarchy Language: Deish, Stohane (sign language) Religion: Kin

It burnt into existence, a land of smoke and ash, the life burning away until Saturday had created their perfect world: a desolate, dusty, death-ridden place. It picked off the weak, leaving on the strong, only those stubborn enough, determined enough to survive in the dried-up lands. Their sandy cage was vast, stretching out further than nearly any other country, no end in sight for the rolling dunes. 

But Saturday wasn’t stupid. They didn’t want their land to remain a graveyard for those who tried to conquer the heat. In the very centre, buried beneath sand and stone and rock, lay the water. The pure, cool, rich water that would save them, hidden deep in the caves. It was no easy feat to find; many undertook the quest, and their bones remain to this day somewhere under the sand. 

Her name was Mellani. She was the first to make it through. A child of Saturday so often overlooked, written off as a failure before she’d even began. She was not the large, strong, angry fighters who battled through the desert. Small, delicate, shy around others: Saturday barely saw her. But she had something the failures before he never had. Her young babe strapped to her chest, already parched and hungry, and she with no milk to give; Mellani had a reason to search for the water. And so she searched, and she searched, until her feet were burnt and raw from the heat, and her skin torn apart by sandstorms, and before Saturday had even thought to look over at her, she was standing at the edge of the water. The first. The founder of Xalder. 

She and her babe were gifted with eyes the molten gold of champions, as all their descendants would be. Her city grew and grew, thriving despite all odds. And Saturday looks down upon them all: the city of impossibilities. Defying the odds and not only surviving in the sandy grave, but living.