๐๐๐ share more about your novel and it's giant mass of world building (please)
gladly, and thank you for asking!
it's a fantasy / romantasy series set in the fictional world of myridia. the story is written from the perspective of my female main character called maralyn falcrest who i'll tell you more about later. i do plan to keep the story plot and character-driven; the romance will probably be more of a byproduct. also, in terms of romance it's likely gonna be a slow burn ( the most that happens in book one is an almost kiss in the last chapters ) but there will be tension and some nice moments to strengthen their connection outside of a romantic relationship. reason might be that i'm bad at writing romance โ i do like writing the part leading up to it, but getting into the actual romantic stuff is something i struggle with. so far, i've fully written down the plot of book one and some key points for the next parts ( so i'm not sure yet how many parts it will be in total. my current estimate is about 4 to 5 books )
like i said, the story is set in the fictional world of myridia. it's loosely inspired by common fantasy tropes and has seven main regions ( which will all be explored throughout the series eventually ) that differ from one another. sometimes more, sometimes less. the biggest, most populated region is called elyndor. there we have the current reigning king alaric ashborne whose family has been the royal family for almost 400 years โ ever since the great war that divided myridia, caused the fae to flee to their own region called sylvaris, and made the lumeni ( the most powerful magic users who ever existed ) disappear.
in myridia, you can find humans, fae, sirens, dragons, and more. another race you can find are the arcani. they are somewhat related to the lumeni and are also magic wielders โ but instead of commanding magic itself, they are only able to control one of the four elements: fire, water, earth, or air ( and, in rare cases, one or two of their respective sub-elements ). humans and arcani generally live in harmony, or so they believe. there are some tensions brewing for years, not only between them but between the different types of arcani as well. as the ignaris, the fire wielders, are the ones in power as the royal family belong to the ignaris, they see themselves as better than the others. of course, there is the high circle of elyndor which has been made with the purpose of keeping peace and unity between the different arcani, but ever since alaric became king and malakai falcrest, a powerful ignaris, has become high general of the high circle, things have come into disarray.
i gave them their own religion and gods, created a royal, military and magic system, wrote some laws ( for the arcani codex and the imperial codex ), deciding on some trading routes and the whole import / export thing, wrote a timeline and gave every region a few important cities, landmarks and their own history.
โ the ( main ) characters
i have five main characters in total: maralyn falcrest, caelan mirell, darian ashborne, jonan greve and nyx lysander.
mara, 21, is an ignaris with the rare ability to also control shadows. her father is malakai falcrest, who i mentioned is the high general of the high circle of elyndor as well as the right hand to the king and the general of the most powerful army ( which is called the flame legion ). since birth, mara has pretty much been drilled to be the perfect daughter, the best ignaris there ever was, and the secret weapon her father can use to gain power. she's been trained in weaponry, politics and strategy, and thanks to her shadow magic she was thought to be useful as a spy. none of that made her life easy, though. she's never experienced love or affection from her parents, and they often made it clear that they didn't love her for who she was but for how useful of a tool she could be for them. so she may be highly skilled, but she has no idea how to truly live and be herself or how to give herself the things she most deeply desires.
caelan, 23, is an aqueris, a water wielder, and the eventual love interest for mara. he was born in the cold ice region of aestrand. shortly after his fourth birthday, his family left aestrand in hopes of making it to the city of thalemere in elyndore, which is considered to be the capital of the aqueris. since caelan was the only one in his family with any magic abilities, his parents hoped he'd have some good teachers there. but unfortunately, on their way, they were attacked by soldiers of the flame legion. caelan himself cannot remember much of it, but that was the day his mother was killed and him and his dad have been on the run ever since. they also never made it to thalemere ( not for long at least ) and caelan taught himself most of what he knows about magic โ which means he isn't all that skilled in it. however, he has a natural ability for healing, which is one of the sub-elements aqueris can have. caelan himself is prove that even though the world can be cruel, one can still remain soft and kind.
darian, 22, is an ignaris, mara's best friend since childhood, and the son of alaric ashborne, so that makes him the crown prince of elyndor. however, he is no longer considered a prince since his father banished him after he, in the eyes of the king, betrayed the crown and all of elyndor when he failed to execute the mission he's been given after he came of age at 21. alaric then punished him by exiling him โ however, if darian were to be able to locate the lumeni who haven't been seen since the great war and bring them to the king, he'd be welcomed back with open arms. but finding them might be impossible, because all traces have been wiped from history books and there are barely any clues as to where they might be. or if they even still exist. now darian is torn between wanting his old life back and learning that maybe the ignaris and the royal family aren't always the good guys they seemed to be to him.
jonan, 24, is a human and a sailor on the tempest's wing โ the ship darian generously has been given to leave elyndor with. jon pretty much grew up in and around water as his father is a sailor as well, but he also never really had much he could call his own. that's why he often turned up in places he wasn't supposed to be in โ he excelled at thievery, breaking rules and bypassing boundaries. he does kinda fill the role of the comic relief character, but he has depth. because beneath his humor and sarcasm is actually someone who worries and cares too much and who doesn't actually know how strong and significant he truly is.
nyx, 21, is half-fae and half-human and the last main character who only shows up near the end of book one. she is the princess of the moon fae ( as the fae living in sylvaris are divided into the moon fae and the sun fae ) and the daughter of queen amaryllis. nyx never really had it particularly easy because she is not fully fae. her mother once fell in love with a human and they had one child together. when the fae found out about that betrayal ( as fae weren't supposed to mingle with other peoples ) the queen was punished. her wings were cut, but as she born royal, she still remained queen. however, the fae had mixed feelings about the queen and especially her daughter. some saw them as inspiration, other as proof a betrayal. so nyx never truly felt like she belonged โ but she also wasn't allowed to leave their forest to maybe learn more about humans as it was deemed too dangerous for her. so she grew up within the confines of the capital, were she was always watched and always guarded. but what nyx truly wants is to learn more about her father and her heritage and just who she is โ and maybe find a place where she actually belongs.
this is the part i don't want to spoil too much in case i do get it published one day, so i'm only give a few pointers of what to expect.
book one is pretty much an adventure journey that is setting up the future parts of the series. it is a stand alone part of the series, though, with its own beginning, middle and end, but obviously not all questions will be answered immediately and not everything will be revealed right away.
the story takes place almost 400 years since the great war and a few weeks after darian was banished. it's the evening before he forever has to leave on board of the tempest's wing and mara decided to follow him โ partially because she is loyal to darian and doesn't want him to be alone, partially because she finally wants to break free from her father's pressure. and so they take on the journey in hopes of potentially finding any clue about the whereabouts of the lumeni. throughout it all, they learn more about what is really going on in myridia, from secret rebellions to the spreading power of the ignaris. they meet different people on their journey, learn more about their destinies, and somehow become involved in something that's bigger than they ever expected.
in case anyone's interested, these are the stats for only the worldbuilding doc โ mind you, i have most of it written in bullet points, not in full sentences:
another thing you can check out if you want are the pinterest boards i made for the book. i haven't updated it ever since i fully finished the whole worldbuilding doc, so i may need to make some adjustments to it, but i think it already gives a general feel for the story / world / characters.
