Sunday Special #03 - The Age of Silence: Death

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If you haven't already, check out Part 1 and Part 2!

On the Age of Silence

The Age of Silence refers to the novel's title, which I oft abbreviate to TAoS. If you've checked the Patreon page, you'll have gotten an idea of what the story's about, namely:

The Age of Silence follows a young Syrilae girl known as Aneskia in her quest to right a terrible wrong that has befallen her home. On her way she will meet unlikely friends and lethal enemies, while her very existence unravels with seemingly every step she takes. 

With madness closing in and threats revealing themselves to her new-gained senses, will Aneskia find a way to mend what has been broken? Will she rise beyond herself and find the strength to oppose the growing darkness? And who, among all foreign faces she will meet, will side with her when the time comes to make the hard decisions? 

The plot in itself I shorten to this: it's a story about Love, Sacrifice, and Death. These words hold a lot more meaning than readily apparent. Today, I will be discussing my favourite aspect: Death.

* * *

TAoS and Death

It feels as though Death has always been with me. Ever since I first was introduced as a child to the tarot and its 13th arcana, Death has been a part of my life. I developed a fascination for Death as an entity - a fascination that peaked when I created Aeyuu's own Reaper.

But nothing shaped my fascination quite like my early depression. In fact, I daresay that without it, I would neither be the person I am today, nor would I have Aeyuu. That depression, and that one moment where I contemplated what it would be like to die, set the gears in motion for further evolution of my fascination. My favourite horror movies are ghost stories - powerful stories such as the original Ringu or Ju-On the Grudge, psychological movies like the Sixth Sense... Terrifying stories like Paranormal Activity Tokyo. Or wondered about Death's own personality, as so well interpreted in Meet Joe Black.

In truth, I have always wondered what lies just beyond reach. And on Aeyuu, all deaths intertwine - be they physical or mental, living or dead. There are many ways to die and even more than one Death.

Death, black and absolute; Death, insidious and grey.

And it is a death in her village that will lead main protagonist Aneskia to embark on an impossible quest: to try and find a way to return life to that which is not quite dead, but no longer alive. A state of being she will only learn to understand, all too well, the more she faces the grey Death and the truth of its existence.

At her side will stand Nalyn, an Elshir man who lived his entire life by death and never found the courage to die; Kristofa, who never quite recovered from Aneskia's mother untimely end; even a black Death might choose to take a stand and help Aneskia along. But in the end she will still have to decide: is the life of one worth the death of thousands more? 

Perhaps the choice will be made for her by Devon, whose long experience fighting the grey Death has left him bitter and vengeful; and what of the dead themselves, who aspire for but one outcome?

Beyond death as we understand it, there is death as the 13th arcana teaches us: transformation. The end of one aspect, so another may take its place. Choices to be made, paths taken or perhaps ignored; in a world where darkness gains a little more weight with every passing day, even Death itself will have to transform and adapt, or be wiped from existence. 

Choose to be more than you are; or follow your course and spiral towards destruction.

With Love in her heart and Sacrifice guiding her feet, Aneskia will face Death without and within until her own life but hang by a thread. Will she submit, or wield?

And will the prophesized Age of Silence come to pass?

* * *

And that is the final part of TAoS' thematic tryptich :) next week Sunday, I'll delve into Aneskia's race, the Syrilae, and the connection between Syrilae, Ansai, and Aberviohn. It'll all make sense then, I promise ;)

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Sunday Special #02 - The Age of Silence: Sacrifice

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If you haven't already, check out last week's Special!

On the Age of Silence

The Age of Silence refers to the novel's title, which I oft abbreviate to TAoS. If you've checked the Patreon page, you'll have gotten an idea of what the story's about, namely:

The Age of Silence follows a young Syrilae girl known as Aneskia in her quest to right a terrible wrong that has befallen her home. On her way she will meet unlikely friends and lethal enemies, while her very existence unravels with seemingly every step she takes. 

With madness closing in and threats revealing themselves to her new-gained senses, will Aneskia find a way to mend what has been broken? Will she rise beyond herself and find the strength to oppose the growing darkness? And who, among all foreign faces she will meet, will side with her when the time comes to make the hard decisions? 

The plot in itself I shorten to this: it's a story about Love, Sacrifice, and Death. These words hold a lot more meaning than readily apparent. Today, I will be discussing Sacrifice.

* * *

TAoS and Sacrifice

Paradoxally, Sacrifice is a notion foreign to me. I do not view the world from the perspective of having to give up certain aspects of my life in order to keep advancing; rather, I see these losses as natural consequences of choices made. The major difference here is, where sacrifice holds a negative connotation, my perspective allows me to, on the whole, not regret what I lose.

In the dark world of Aeyuu, sacrifice is a part of surviving. Humans sacrifice their dignity, Elshir abandon their unwanted children, Syrilae sacrifice their lives - all in order to survive. They say that only the strong survive - in a world where the strong may become weak in a heartbeat, there are no certainties, no guarantees that tomorrow will ever be seen.

In the Age of Silence, main protagonist Aneskia, a young Syrilae girl full of kindness and unconditional love, will eventually be faced with a terrible dilemma: to accept the death of one in order for thousands more to be saved.

When you cannot accept death in any way or form, what choice can be made? What Sacrifice is acceptable? 

Beyond sacrificing one life - or thousands more - the real Sacrifice is that of Self. This is a Sacrifice many citizens of Aeyuu have known all too well.

For the second main protagonist, Nalyn, Sacrifice of Self is something so ingrained in the entirety of his life that it is hard to say where he begins and Sacrifice ends. Dignity, morality, health - there is nothing Nalyn has not traded in at some point in his life. The only thing he has never been able to Sacrifice is his very life.

For Kristofa, Sacrifice of Self meant betrayal, that indirectly caused the death of the one woman he'd ever truly, and unrequitedly, loved. After everything he'd known had changed, the hard-hearted Kristofa discovered what it truly is to feel regret.

For Devon, Sacrifice of Self was a loss of humanity born of jealousy. The woman he loved chose another, and this man ultimately became her death. Never, before then, had he killed because he'd wanted to.

And these are but a few of the characters who, in one way or another, closely or distantly, relate directly to the story of The Age of Silence. There are many more whose lives and exploits (in)directly affected the state of the world, such as Sorasiehn, a bloodthirsty Syrilae who Sacrificed her Self the day her mother was murdered, or Eglen, whose Sacrifice of Self made him become a better person, to one day lose all that he had so painstakingly acquired. 

Everything comes down to choices made. Such are our lives, and such are theirs. They may not know what their lives will be made of, but of one thing is certain: everything ends with death.

Or does it?

And on that note: stay tuned for part 3, Death, next week Sunday, same Blogger channel :D

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Sunday Special #01 - The Age of Silence: Love

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If you've been on my blog for a few years (which is likely not the case but let's imagine it is, for ego's sake! :D), then you may remember 2016. On January 4th, I posted some resolutions, and then I started a year-long character blog that, I must admit, I never thought I'd manage to keep up with. I was late a few times, struggled for ideas some weeks, but in the end I succeeded. 

And reading those 2016 resolutions over, one caught my eye:

So, I'm going to start talking about these beloved characters, and draw them, and share thoughts and ideas because, in the end, whether the book gets written or not is irrelevant: what matters to me is sharing my world, my headpeople, and, perhaps, get a novel out of it. The main idea is clear, the main characters too, all I need is to... write. Good luck to me XD

When I say my goal is to be read and enjoyed, I clearly mean it.

Hence why I decided to reboot this world-sharing tradition, yup in the middle of the year, and this time with a greater focus on specific characters and even that elusive novel-to-be. I need some order in the chaos and figure this would be a nice addition to the Patreon, where I post stories (and the occasional artwork and/or Blogger life post) that, though relevant to TAoS in some way, may seem a bit disjointed nonetheless due to a lack of back-information on everything. So, I'll run this directed Sunday Special alongside the stories' inspiration. What that means ought to be apparent at some point ;)

But first of all,

What's in that acronym, TAoS?

I use it every so often out of habit/ease, and got into that habit because I didn't want too much known about the novel itself. You live, you learn, and I've reached a point where (as I will state every so often) I just want to be read and enjoyed. I don't want too many plotpoints revealed, but at the same time there's a difference between knowing a book's end and reading it, experiencing the world, the characers, the emotions, etc. You may know how Harry Potter ends because you've seen the movies, but it'll still have a very different impact to read the books and get into the characters. 

So: TAoS refers to the novel's title, which is The Age of Silence. If you've checked the Patreon page, you'll have gotten an idea of what the story's about, namely:

The Age of Silence follows a young Syrilae girl known as Aneskia in her quest to right a terrible wrong that has befallen her home. On her way she will meet unlikely friends and lethal enemies, while her very existence unravels with seemingly every step she takes. 

With madness closing in and threats revealing themselves to her new-gained senses, will Aneskia find a way to mend what has been broken? Will she rise beyond herself and find the strength to oppose the growing darkness? And who, among all foreign faces she will meet, will side with her when the time comes to make the hard decisions? 

The plot in itself I shorten to this: it's a story about Love, Sacrifice, and Death. These words hold a lot more meaning than readily apparent. Today, I will be discussing Love.

* * *

TAoS and Love

Love is an emotion I sought for a long time. It used to be a blinding form of madness that, in time, I recognized for what it was. Nowadays Love is peace - it's calmness, comfort, un long fleuve tranquille. I used to resent the peace because I'd put it in my mind that love was supposed to be something powerful, something that tears at your heart and strengthens emotions 'til breaking point.

I may no longer feel that chaotic form of love myself, but I experience it every so often with my characters. In most cases, Love is exactly what that quote states. And Friendship can be a subdivision of this Love.

"Two Solitudes that meet, protect, and greet each other" - that is exactly how I would describe main protagonists Aneskia, young Syrilae girl, and Nalyn, old Elshir warrior.

The idea for TAoS has been with me since 2011, and has evolved a lot since then. The main event that sets it in motion, which is hinted at in this first chapter rough draft, has remained the same. Funny thing is, though I knew Aneskia would be its main protagonist, I'd had no idea at the time who to place on her path that may become that needed protective force. I ran through my vast catalogue of characters and debated the situation with some (yes, I'm that kind of writer), until I managed to answer the pretty vague question of 'who do I have for whom it'd make sense to be in the area at the required time?'. The day I thought of Nalyn, everything clicked.

Two extremes - a fragile child whose childhood has been over-protected, and an old man who's only known hardship since the day he was born - meet through chance, through danger, and eventually tame one another through mutual grief: both have lost everything they've ever cared about. Aneskia has lost her mother, her friends, her home, while Nalyn has lost the only love he's ever known. Though their personalities are polar opposites - Aneskia is a fearful child with no knowledge of the outside world, Nalyn has seen and done enough to despise the world and himself - they will travel together, seeking answers to certain events in their lives.

Most other characters they will meet have known the loss of loved ones. Among others Devon, a Vampire with close connections to the Syrilae, whose greatest loss was Ansai Nefahtil's daughter Selessannea and, mere years later, both of Selessannea's own daughters; and Kristofa, a Syrilae man who knew Aneskia's mother Niskania all too well. Love is as much a driving force as it is an obstacle, sometimes even a threat. For some, love is a madness without a cure. But whatever a character's relationship with love, be it grand, excessive, or vastly non-existent, all are driven by it in some way.

And Aneskia, whose source of power is unconditional love, is the glue that holds the entire story together. She is the voice of emotional reason, who'd rather give a murderer a second chance than condemn them outright. As TAoS will advance, that unconditional love will be tested until only one question remains: is the life of one worth the deaths of thousands more?

And on that note: stay tuned for part 2, Sacrifice, next week Sunday, same Blogger channel :D

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