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[touchingmadness]

Lady Lancelot (Characters)

Elaine (major, lanc: elaine)

Elaine is a disgraced princess who flees to Camelot as a result of an illegitimate pregnancy. She allows the shame of this and the shame of allowing her lover to face her father’s wrath to rule her for a time, even as she does her best to raise her beloved Galahad. All that changes when King Arthur rises to the throne and she becomes aware of a conspiracy to punish his court and the magic-users of Camelot. Elaine begins moonlighting as Sir Lancelot, gradually regaining a sense of identity that she had long since forsaken.

Guinevere (lanc: guinevere)

Guinevere is the servant that takes care of Corliss on Cleve’s orders. She’s got an undeniable attitude and isn’t afraid to question authority when the situation calls for it. Guinevere is also a notorious flirt who borders on vulgar. And guess what? She owns it. (Elaine/Guinevere and Lancelot/Guinevere are totally a thing, which causes some confusion for poor Elaine. Let’s just say, Guinevere’s pretty damn smart and knows more than what Elaine gives her credit for.)

Merlin (lanc: merlin)

Merlin is pretty much a screwball piece of shit. They’re a funloving, shapeshifting individual who likes to pull pranks on members of the court and the people of Camelot. That being said, this playful nature cloaks the fact that they are one of Camelot’s greatest assets, in terms of abilities, foresight, and wisdom. Because when it comes down to it, Merlin values Camelot, its people, and its king, and would do anything for them. They’re not quite a parental figure to Galahad, but are certainly a presence in the boy’s life, as they are the only one aware of Elaine’s true origin.

King Arthur (lanc: arthur)

Arthur is, well... Arthur. As a newly crowned king, he’s a busy man and his people see less of him than they did when he was a prince. He’s a kind, generous man who’s often a little bit behind on whatever’s going on at the moment. (It’s not really his fault. He’s chronically sleep-deprived and the knights and Merlin like misleading him.) Kay is constantly trying to drag him down to train with the knights again, with mixed results.

Cleve (lanc: cleve)

Cleve was initially betrothed to Elaine, but after her disgrace, went on to marry Corliss. At present, he is effectively ruling over their ailing father’s kingdom. Cleve is an ambitious individual who is only kind when it suits him and has a bone to pick with Elaine. (Which means that Gawain automatically hates the guy.) Also, he’s an entitled little bitch and it shows.

Corliss (lanc: corliss)

Corliss is Elaine’s younger sister, and the one who helped facilitate her affair with Slade. She’s a little squealy, a little annoying, a little obsessed with romance, but Elaine loves her. Elaine recognizes that she’s more subdued now that she’s married to Cleve, but it doesn’t prevent her from feeling a deep-seated longing to reconnect with her.

Sir Gawain (lanc: gawain)

Gawain is the first of the knights that Elaine manages to befriend. They meet very early on during her stay in Camelot, and he does what he can to help her and Galahad as the boy grows. Gawain is known as the defender of woman, and he respects and honors them above all else. He also associates with the younger knights and the poor where many of his comrades do not. Gawain sees the best in people, and he is the first to offer his support to Elaine when she decides to pose as Lancelot.

Sir Kay (lanc: kay)

Kay is Arthur’s elder cousin and the head knight. He’s the oldest of the knights and a good leader who listens to his followers. He’s also one of Arthur’s closest advisers, so he gets called away often.

Sir Bedivere (lanc: bedivere)

Bedivere has two young children and a wife he loves. He’s traditionally handsome and much desired, but would never dream of betraying his wife’s trust. Indeed, he is inescapably loyal to all those that he finds worthy.

Sir Gareth (lanc: gareth)

Gareth is Kay’s protegee, a gentle giant who is eager to prove himself. He towers over most of the other knights, but he’s a bit clumsy and a romantic at heart. As the youngest of the knights, he has trouble connecting with them at times and often spends his time with Gaheris instead.

Sir Caradoc (lanc: caradoc)

Caradoc is a gruff, bitter man who resents Lancelot’s presence, unaware of the fact that the mysterious knight is Elaine. He was the product of his married mother's affair with a sorcerer. Despite the fact that his mother’s husband treated him well, he still thinks that the world’s out to get him. Caradoc has magic abilities, but resents magic as a whole. Thus, he refrains from using it, and settles in for even more self-loathing.

Sir Lamorak (lanc: lamorak)

Lamorak is a stubborn, proud man who holds himself high above all others. This makes him the butt of a lot of jokes with the other knights, as he could really stand to acquire some humility.

Gaheris (lanc: gaheris)

Gaheris is a crippled young man who works as stablehand for the knights. Mostly, the knights overlook him, but Elaine takes an interest in him. He dreams of being a knight, but suspects that no one would take him seriously. Gaheris is also quite close to Sir Gareth.

[touchingmadness]

Lady Lancelot (Synopsis)

We've all heard the stories of King Arthur and his knights. Mystical tales from the long-dead, long-awaited Camelot... We've watched Arthur rise and fall in countless ways, seen the wizard Merlin and Queen Guinevere in endless lights.

But what of Sir Lancelot?

He is present often enough, but scarcely granted a chance to shine.

At last, she receives her well-deserved chance as a disgraced princess raising an illegitimate son in a kingdom that is not her own.

(Full synopsis below the cut.)

Elaine is forced to flee her father's kingdom after he learns of her affair with a commoner despite having been promised to a nobleman. Upon learning that she is with child, she puts down roots in Camelot in hopes of fading into obscurity with her darling Galahad. It works for a time, until the newly crowned King Arthur announces that he is in search of a wife.

Suddenly, the kingdom is bustling with those who could identify her, including her former betrothed, who is now wed to Elaine's own sister and effectively rules over her ailing father's kingdom. And it doesn't help matters that the growing Galahad is becoming more and more besotted with the idea of knighthood, sneaking off to watch Arthur's knights whenever he can and encouraged by the slightly-deranged Merlin.

Factor in the loss of her previous job and being hired within the palace gates... Yeah, Elaine doesn't expect to last very long, especially when Sir Gawain keeps grinning at her and putting a sword in her son's hand.

And then that whole conspiracy to uproot Arthur's rule and exact vengeance upon his court and the magic users of Camelot...

One can hardly blame a woman for taking that sword into her own hands, especially if she knows how to use it.

Thus, Sir Lancelot is born, and she slowly learns to live for herself and to never feel shame for being who she is.

Some notes...

Guess what? Lancelot and Guinevere are still a thing. Woot woot for a f/f love story!

Main characters are the knights. Arthur is almost entirely background, with Merlin appearing a little more frequently. (But, ah... Since elements of the plot are subject-to-change, so is that.)

Merlin is kind of... magic. Literally no one knows their age or gender or species or any of that shit because they're a shapeshifting screwball who likes to keep people on their toes.

Magic is legal in most featured kingdoms, but Camelot is the only one that doesn't treat it as a taboo.

Still working out the kinks with the whole conspiracy thing. I have a general idea, but this was a "characters first" project.

In the original stories, Elaine was in love with Lancelot and basically tricks him into impregnating her. A bit messy, you say? Yeah, a bit. So I just made Elaine and Lancelot the same person and solved that problem. Yay!

This will be written in November 2018.

Probably a standalone book, although I might write a couple tie-in short stories about some of the other characters.

[touchingmadness]

Cathedral (Characters)

Doctor Angela “Buck” Buckley (major, cath: buck)

Buck is an ex biowarfare specialist for United Earth. She doesn’t have a problem using the Venduraan prisoners brought to her for research purposes, at least until shes given a newborn child. Sickened despite her own personal vendetta against the Venuduraan people, Buck takes the child and flees. She is soon brought to the Cathedral, where she finds herself questioning everything she knows about the war and the people they are opposing, all while struggling to care for an alien child. She’s headstrong and stubborn, but adheres to her moral code at all costs.

Captain Nikola Parsons (major, cath: parsons)

Parsons was discharged from the Earthen military for conspiring with the enemy to end the war without clearance from his higher-ups. As a celebrated war hero, he could hardly be imprisoned without damaging Earthen morale, so he was placed in the gilded cage of the Cathedral, unable to leave and left to deal with his depression and PTSD on his own. Guilt is practically Parsons’s only state of being, knowing that he got his friend in trouble with his own government and feeling as though he betrayed them. All the same, he does what he thinks Matov would have wanted and offers protection to those who are persecuted for unjust reasons. He refuses to allow any of those under his protection to see him, but goes to their rooms in the cover of the night to speak to them. If only they deign to listen, he deigns to let them stay and ease his loneliness and sorrow.

General Matov (major, cath: matov)

Matov was captured by Parsons during the war. The two became close and began to conspire to end the war behind their governments’ backs after discovering the truth about the conflict. Matov was very much a gentle giant, with noble intentions and a big heart. He considered himself a protector of the innocent and was known to be an honorable opponent.

Commander Ambrose Jettison (cath: jettison)

Jettison was Parsons’s first officer. He was promoted to Captain after the alliance between Parsons and Matov was discovered. He’s legitimately terrified of Admiral Germaine despite his high ambition. He is also the epitome of lawful good in the first season.

Admiral Yvonne Germaine (cath: germaine)

Germaine was Parsons’s hard-ass commanding officer. She’s also the one who checks in on him at the Cathedral (sort of like a warden) and makes sure he doesn’t spread the word about what happened. She’s stern and actually quite scary.

Eve Donnery (cath: eve)

Eve is Parsons’s caretaker and the only one allowed to see him. She owns a bar in the neighboring town that she uses to keep her finger on the pulse of United Earth. That’s where she meets Buck, taking her back to the Cathedral. Eve is a no-nonsense woman that the residents of the Cathedral would not survive without. She’s a tough-love type of person who truly cares about the Cathedral’s strays just as much as Parsons.

Teri Langles (cath: teri)

At age seventeen, Teri is the youngest resident of the Cathedral, with the obvious exception of Ruth. He was also the first “stray” that Parsons took in. At fourteen, Teri was gravely injured, saved only by his father, who was a cybernetic engineer for the United Earth military. Unfortunately, the military wasn’t fond of its resources being used for a child when it could have gone toward strengthening a soldier, so Dr. Langles lost his job. The pair became transient and stumbled upon the Cathedral. Parsons offered to take them both in, but Teri’s father left in the night. Now, Teri is remarkably resilient young man with a quick head on his shoulders. He’s mischievous and enjoys tinkering around with technology the same way his father did.

Ruth (cath: ruth)

Ruth is the Venduraan child Buck rescues.

Please note that this is an incomplete list and will be added to over time.

[touchingmadness]

Cathedral (Synopsis)

Buck has never questioned the measures taken against the Venduuran people. The are, after all, at war, and any prejudice she might hold is justified. But when the government institution she works for gets their hands on a Venduuran child, she begins to question if what they're doing is really the right thing. In the dead of the night, she takes the child and flees.

Ex-captain Nikola Parsons lives in the gilded cage of the Cathedral. Having worked for peace with a Venduuran general behind the Terran government's back, he was sentenced to a life of confinement for treason. Parsons's ally is dead, and he blames himself. The best he can do now is open his home to those running from unjust laws.

Buck is one of them.

(More details below the cut.)

Expanding on this...

Cathedral is intended as a serial television series, but will likely be written as a series of short stories to start out, each representing an episode. Rendering of the screenplays will come later.

I’ve been designing and redesigning the Cathedral universe and characters for almost four years now. It started out as very heavily mirroring the characters of various science-fiction canons, but has been heavily remastered since then. Buck didn’t even exist in the first couple outlines, but she’s a major character now which is... good for her, you know?

Buck is the POV character for most of the first “season,” but the primary character is actually Nikola Parsons. Buck simply serves as our window into his past and his psyche.

Parsons is heard but not seen for the majority of the first “season,” suffering from PTSD and depression as well as nursing physical injuries. The residents of the Cathedral aren’t supposed to speculate or share anything that he tells them in private.

Flashbacks galore! Approximately ever-other “episode” in “season one” is Parsons relating to Buck the story of how he ended up in the Cathedral. Suffice it to say, it’s quite significant to the narrative.

I’m hoping the first “season” will be my primary project at the beginning of 2019. Cathedral has come a long way, and I think it’s almost ready to be brought to life.

Cathedral will, in all likelihood, not be the final title of the series. Similarly, names of characters might yet change. (Mostly the Venduraans, as I reassigned their naming conventions to another one of my original species. Oops.) 

[touchingmadness]

Revolution: Book One (Characters)

Glory Kelley (major, rev: glory)

Glory grew up on one of the Reserves allotted for human use until her fathers and sister died. She uprooted herself and her younger brother and was taken in by the Resistance. Since the death of her husband and her confinement to the walls of Nirov’s estate, she has grown bitter and depressed. She wants to give her son the love she knows that he needs and deserves, but Ransom reminds her very much of the man that she loved and blames herself for losing. She hates working for Akarians, and she hates even more that the human servants and her own son are content. She often wishes that she and Ransom would have been killed as she initially expected, believing it to be a more merciful fate. Glory also has a bit of a temper and once she gets something in her head, she will not be dissuaded. 

Miss Genesis (major, rev: genesis)

Genesis is Nirov’s lover and the caretaker of his children. She’s softspoken, kindhearted, and truly wants the best for her wards. Genesis is especially close to Zephraz and offers him wisdom and guidance in his time of need. She’s working toward the reintegration of humans into the ruling class alongside the heads of the household, but she gradually realizes that the role she’s been called to play isn’t exactly the one she expected.

Ransom Kelley (major, rev: ransom)

Ransom is a loving individual, even from the very start, but he is very much aware of the reality in which he is living. He’s honest and is driven by a desire to help others feel at ease with themselves, wise beyond his years. Ransom is Zephraz’s closest companion in youth and most valued confidante as they grow older. He Ascribes to the Akarian perception of Fate, and believes that his role in the Tapestry is to walk with Zephraz down his own Path so that the prince might not be so alone. Ransom puts others before himself, to the point that it might be considered a fault, and is often ruled by his insatiable curiosity. Other characters have indicated that his understanding of the Tapestry is likely beyond their own.

Zephraz (major, rev: zephraz)

Zephraz is the younger child of Nirov, although his Path requires him to take up his father’s mantle. He has lived with this knowledge since youth, a constant burden placed upon young shoulders and eased only by the support of his family and his closest friend. Like his father, he’s a bit soft-spoken and would rather keep to himself, but acknowledges that there is a role he must play and places it before his own comfort. He does what he can to shield Ransom from his mother’s bitterness, and would, in fact, do anything for his Pathmate.

A’tura (minor, rev: atura)

A’tura is Nirov’s elder child. She’s driven by honor and a love of of fun. Despite the fact that they don’t always see eye-to-eye, she would do anything for her brother and his friend. It’s her Fate to serve her brother when he takes the throne, to protect and help him at all costs. She trained under L’Kana to become a Sentinel before pursuing a Guardianship. 

Nirov (minor, rev: nirov)

Nirov is one of the Akarian High Lords. He tends to keep to himself and is a strategic mastermind. He’s not always sure how to handle the children, but he does what he can for them. He disapproves of the oppression of the human race and doesn’t keep slaves in his household. Nirov also works with the rest of his family and a number of other High Lords and High Ladies in hopes of uniting the human and Akarian races despite their history.

E’karya (minor, rev: ekarya)

E’karya is Nirov’s wife by a marriage of convenience. She excels in diplomacy and manipulation where he doesn’t. She considers Genesis and dear friend and although stern, she’s a positive maternal figure to the estate’s children.

L’kana (minor, rev: lkana)

L’kana is a high-ranking sentinel charged with Glory’s care early on in the novel. She is shown to be fond of the children and trains A’tura to become a sentinel herself.

[touchingmadness]

Revolution: Book One (Synopsis)

When Glory Kelley’s husband is killed on a mission to assassinate one of the Akarian High Lords, she expects her own life and that of her unborn son to be forfeit. What she doesn’t expect is for the Lord’s human consort to plead on her behalf. Her life is spared, but she is told that she must work as a servant to the household until her son comes of age. The consort, a soft-spoken woman respectively called Miss Genesis, assures her that her son will be provided for and raised alongside the Lord’s own child without judgement. Terrified that being taught by the Akarians will turn him against her but provided with no alternative, Glory unhappily acquiesces to these conditions. She names her son Ransom, to reflect that he is the price she must pay for her freedom.

Genesis has lived in the Estate of E’krov for many years as Lord Nirov’s lover and caretaker to his children. For all intents and purposes, she runs the household alongside Lady E’karya as an equal. When she pleads on behalf on Glory Kelley, she doesn’t expect the woman’s bitterness, knowing only that she would be grateful for the mercy and the second chance for her child. She tries to love Ransom the way she knows that Glory is unable to, perpetually associating him with his father and all that she had lost.

Ransom knows that his mother loves him, but he also knows that he makes her unhappy. It would hurt more if he didn’t have Miss Genesis and Zephraz - Lord Nirov’s son and his best friend - at his side. Even so, he struggles to cope with how she cuts him out and condemns his relationship with Zephraz and the rest of the members of the household. And when he learns of his friend’s Fate, of the Path his parents had walked and the Path he was being called to, he must decide who needs him most and which revolution he wants to back.

(More under the cut.)

Some notes...

Revolution is one of three books. The second has the same basic cast of characters, with a couple being promoted to major or demoted to minor.

I wrote the first draft of Revolution during Nanowrimo 2017. I’m gradually getting through the second draft.

This book takes place over the course of Ransom’s first eighteen years of life. 

There is no traditional antagonist in this novel. Depending on which of the women (Glory or Genesis) you sympathize with more, different characters could be viewed as the antagonist. This is deliberate.

Glory represents revolution by uprising. Genesis represents peaceful revolution. This novel exploits the flaws in both and allows the reader to take different approaches to the situation by discussing how history is “edited” depending on what people want you to think. In all truth, both humans and Akarians are to blame for the current situation. (I’ll be making a worldbuilding post about the different “histories” eventually - human version, Akarian version, and the truth. If you’re curious, drop me an ask and I’ll probably make the post sooner.)

Ransom and Zephraz are pretty much soulmates. Accept it.

A’tura is hella gay and I love her.

In an ideal world, Revolution would be my first published novel. And when I say “in an ideal world,” I mean that it’s the long term goal that I’m working toward here. I’ll probably be looking for beta readers within the next year or so (after the second draft but before the third), so if you’re a fan of soft science fiction... Let me know. I plan on having a sounding board of no less than four and no more than eight. I’ll contact you when I’m ready to see if you’re still interested.

I’ll make a post about Akarian appearance, basic biology, spirituality, government, and culture eventually. As with the history thing, drop me an ask and I’ll try to make it sooner.

[leonawicz]

My Github user site, made with R

My Github user site, made with R

Original post

My Github user account web site is now online, but the best thing about the site is behind the scenes: I can create and update it very rapidly using R.

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