#singayn

I'm barely scraping by the daily quota, but I am having fun!

My story is The Road to Singsingan, basically an update and slight makeover of the Singayn set of story elements. I'm writing about it now, because my account in the pinowrimo's pimp my plot blog has just been validated and I was able to write a synopsis of the story.

I kinda liked it, so I'mma post it here.

Henrik is a scribe’s apprentice whose town burned down because of the whims of a mad king. He has vowed to go to Singsingan, the city of the king, to seek revenge, until a group of Firstborn (natives of the land) intercepted him and told him to go to another city instead, where he is meant to meet his destiny. While there he has to learn to master the magic of Scriptwork in order to achieve his goal.

Anina is the daughter of an Exiled Firstborn who had to run from Singsingan when someone tried to kidnap her and steal her father’s amulet, which he gave to her before he disappeared a few years ago. She doesn’t have a home, as she cannot return to the place she grew up in, nor will any Firstborn help an Exiled. She has to fend for herself while simultaneously trying to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance and the importance of his amulet.

Vil is a boy of Silangdako. He doesn’t have a family and he cannot remember why. One day he meets Anina and Henrik, and decides to help them on their quests.

Together they embark on the road to Singsingan to unravel the mysteries thrown before them, but little by little they discover that their separate quests are all just threads of a single, looming conspiracy that could unravel the very fabric of magic and devastate the world.

It eventually devolved into an "Engineer vs. Architect" debate, which is kind of unfair because I have no artistic skill whatsoever.

The whole thing started in one of my eee classes, when I had a huge urge to draw a dragon. This was my first drawing:

A better (but still crappy) drawing addie took for scanning.

After class I showed it to aji and ordered asked her to draw a dragon for me. I wanted something that was like a mix of a komodo dragon and a pterosaur.

(I especially like this gif)

This is Vil, an upbeat sixteen-year-old homeless boy in the city of Singayn who named himself. All of his clothes are inexplicably too big for him, and he somehow has a different hat every day.

He first met Anina and Henrik when they were running away from some Lawscribes. The next time they see him, he's cooking dinner in Anina's hideout and offering them some bread.

This one's Anina, the daughter of an exiled Firstborn. You may remember her from a previous post. In this one I'll talk more about her history and stuff. 

The Firstborn are the native people of Haven, having lived here for thousands of years before the "Outworlder" Haveners came and took over. They now live in the Midlands, a region of the continent specially "fenced off" and "protected" for them.

Anina's father was exiled from the Firstborn cities forty years ago  and nearly twenty years before her birth. Despite this Anina is proud of her heritage and is eager to learn more and practice her culture, even though her inherited status as an "exiled" means she can never enter a Firstborn city.

Five years ago the settlement her family lived in was ransacked by the Shadowless King. Since then she's been living on her own, dealing in the black markets of Singayn with her knowledge of potions and poison.

This is Aji's concept art of Escoda, the current leader of Singayn's underground rebellion against the shadowless king. The character was based on Josefa Llanes Escoda and Gregoria de Jesus, a fact slightly obvious from her name.

She is in her mid-twenties, incredibly proficient with the use of fans (for combat Aji, and yes, I know why you're laughing), and is of mixed race.

The last one is a secret she's kept since she joined the rebel ranks, because even though the people of Singayn have no qualms with having a female leader, they are still wary of (and sometimes outright racist against) people of Firstborn blood. If her heritage is discovered, who knows what might happen.

Escoda was created as a love interest for Anina. Aji denies it but we all know this to be true.

Case in point:

Due to technical problems, I will be uploading Aji's drawing today. She hasn't named it yet, but in the spirit of her titles, I have decided to call it "Anina and Escoda sparring and touching inappropriate things while Henrik tries to study and Vil keeps copying him while wearing a fez"

Anina: Strong fingers! Been training in somewhere?

Escoda: Ugh, you can still talk? If I bring your tongue down, can you still?

Henrik: Keep the flirting down, guys. I'm trying to study.

ok, so aji and I have been brainstorming on a singayn story all night. Before she went to bed, I asked her what a good title for the story would be, and that's what she suggested.

...

I actually have a few loose ideas hanging around in my notebooks and other stuff with which I could wrangle out a story. One of the story snippets is this one after the jump, "The Legend of the Dog's Lantern" which was written like a fairy tale set in the Singayn series.

I may be able to write something that parallels this, and fit everything into a four-page, double-spaced format. If I'm lucky.

The Dog's Lantern

Long before the empires grew there lived a man who was a dog. He was kind and honest and loyal, and throughout the vast continent, he was alone.

Now this dog, he had a lantern, one gifted by the spirits of the caves as a reward for his endless obedience while they explored the caverns. “Take this,” said they, “and let it light the path you wish to take.”

“The only path I wish to take,” said the lonely dog, “Is one that leads me to another of my kind: one who is kind, honest, and loyal, a dog that can be my friend.”

“But dog!” the caves answered “There is no one in the continent like you, who is as kind and honest and loyal as you.”

“Then one who is only kind and honest will do,” the loyal dog said.

“But dog!” the caves sighed. There is no one in the continent like you, who is as kind and honest as you.”

“Then one who is only honest will do,” said the kind and loyal dog, who was losing hope.

“But dog,” the caves asked, “Is there anyone in the continent like you, who is as honest as you?”

  “There is one way to find out,” said the dog, his lantern firmly in his hand. “I will take this lantern, and I will let it light my path to one who is as honest as me.” And this was a good plan, a very good plan, had his lantern burned for him.

But the dog’s lantern did not light, for it found now way. And the dog said, “Perhaps it will light one day?”