#skycitadel

AKA all my current WIPs and projects. Why so many???

I didn’t really get tagged by @theprissythumbelina but… I’m bad at summaries so I’m gonna do it anyways. Probably good exercise. So, here you go, have lots of synopses, or whatever :D Anyways. Here we go! (Maybe these can get somewhat short so I have better summaries for NaNo as well, haha)

Dreams and Shadows.

My current project, which I’m actively working on (off and on) since 2014.

This takes places in another world, some 500 years after an apocalypse. Almost all knowledge from before has been lost and the world uses a mix of steam-powered technology and magic.

The lives of two siblings, Ava and Ben, are thoroughly disrupted when Ben has a life-threatening freak “accident” that leaves him in a weird coma-like state, and nobody knows exactly what happened. Ava’s whole life up until that point has been revolving around Ben so this comes as quite a shock, especially since their parents aren’t exactly healthy or well-functioning either, and nobody knows how to cope with this possible loss since Ben was always the one holding the family together. Ben, meanwhile, “wakes up” days later in a sort of In-Between-World and remembers nothing at all. Now he has to find a way to return before the living give up on him, and Ava has to help her parents reconnect and learn that pushing everyone away when they only want to help is probably not the best plan. And maybe there’s a way for her to help Ben, even if she isn’t quite sure if he’s still there. It’s a good thing, then, that the family cat is a lot more than she seems!

Also includes a bunch of tiny dragons, some ancient entities, a former pirate queen, a few monsters, a whole bunch of pigeons, and a demon who may have something to do with the accident.

Status: 1st draft done, but it was probably more like draft 0, haha. So much has changed since that thing x’D As in, all the worldbuilding, magic systems, characters and plot twists. The basic plot and some of the character names are the same but everything else has changed. Proper draft 1 at not quite 50% done, maybe 45%? But I’ve been sort of editing that already so I’m happy with the way it is right now!

Monster.

A sort of active project which will one day become a graphic novel. I hope.

Sierra is nine years old and has befriended the monster under her bed. She was kind of afraid of it at first but then she realized that the monster probably felt the same way, so now they’re friends. Mostly. Except when it wakes her up during the night because it can’t sleep. Or when it wakes her up because it wants cookies. Or when it wakes her up because it wants to play. Or when it wakes her up when—

Suffice to say Sierra is not amused.

They do kind of love each other, though, the way siblings do. And if anyone ever hurt Sierra, the monster would be very angry indeed.

Status: I made Sierra and her monster for a 3D short film for university and now they’re kind of sticking around because there are still so many stories to tell! The short film isn’t all that good but I still love the idea and general design and since I had no idea what I was doing I think the end result is pretty good.

Icicle Soul.

Four different people from different worlds and times have to face the Lord of Winter to make sure that Spring will return to the worlds, and realize that time is sometimes not as linear as it might seem.

Starring:

Bran, a young boy from a world very similar to ours, who leaves his world behind to go on an epic adventure on the back of the bear he made of snow the previous day;

Eoin and Asare, two young people who get lost in a blizzard during a guided exploration of the Ankalanara Ice Desert, and, stranded there alone, lost and out of food, have to decide what to do next;

And Willow, a young girl whose life seems quite normal until the house she and her grandfather live in gets snowed in during winter. Listening to her grandfather’s stories she realizes that there’s so much more to her ancestors and her own life, and that the strange dreams she’s been having somehow tie her into this mess as well.

Status: I have it plotted out and developed the characters and written part of it 3 years ago or so. I’ll rewrite it from scratch when I finally get back to it. It’s probably my favourite wip because I love basically everything about it. I just hope that I’ll one day do it justice.

Morning Star.

A veritable monster of a story. Sigh. Takes place in another world that’s been dominated by a not-so-nice Empire. The boiling point is getting closer and closer, though, as the various rebellions manage to finally coordinate themselves and form into one. And as it is on Earth, so it must be in Heaven… or something. Anyways, the opposing forces of Icari and Oresh are assembling as well, to throw the whole world into one of the worst and bloodiest conflicts of all time.

At the same time, in a small village in the mountains (fascinatingly at the centre of the growing revolution) a young girl has been born, which is nothing special, usually. Only problem being: Skye is actually Lucifer reborn*, even though she doesn’t know it, given another chance at life. Within her are two parts at war, the one that just wants to live its life in peace, and the one that was once Lucifer, that is completely insane and murderous and really would like to continue spreading chaos and pain. And if that wasn’t enough as it is, Skye grows up as daughter of two religious leaders whose religion preaches first and foremost against Lucifer. Also, all the old enemies that Lucifer amassed know pretty well that she’s back, and also where they might find her.

So when Skye runs away in a fit of teenage aggression in order to get away from her parents, it doesn’t take long for her and her childhood friend Echo to run into some other people, and to find themselves entangled in a quest to find the body of God, to awaken Her from Her eternal sleep. And as chance has it, only the most timid and afraid of them all, Okazaki, knows the truth about Skye, and also that awakening God would kill her once and for all.

There are 12 POV characters all in all most of whom are not straight, and I love all my children and hate how I hurt them. I’m so sorry!

*Since it doesn’t take place on Earth anymore it doesn’t really make much sense to call her Lucifer so I’ll probably change the name, even if the meaning will stay the same.

Status: I have written some parts. I have a very long plot with lots of twists. And characters. And magic systems, and world building. Now I just need to write it. Sigh.

Burning Skies.

A kind of origin story, if you want? Love the characters and story. As usual, haha.

I did write a kind of okay synopsis about that once so I’ll be lazy and take that.

It’s been three hundred years since The Fall. Society has slowly started to revive, pick itself up again, rebuild what was destroyed and retrieve what was lost. Only, the questions remain: What was The Fall, why did it happen, how can we make sure that it doesn’t happen again? Everyone who knew the answers to those questions died back then. A lot of knowledge has been lost during those last days of chaos – including the knowledge of magic. Something of legends, people say, stories told children at night, to try and keep them from acting stupidly. The only problem is — magic has never been lost, just pushed away. Now the power thickens and it’s returning, fast, and the costs are very high. Too bad that the world is trying to force every single mention of it away, and too bad that it’s becoming more and more important in the grand scale of things…

Rin has been abandoned by everyone she’s ever loved, left behind and betrayed. And she knows that she will one day destroy the world. At least that’s what everyone who’s trying to kill her tells her (and she’s dealt with a lot of those people). They have never told her how she will do that but apparently many of them think that she will, somehow – and why shouldn’t she believe them, after all of their attempts? If they think so, so be it — and if the world doesn’t care about you, why should you care about the world?

Cass, on the other hand, has had a similar life in the one sense that she’s completely, utterly alone and lost. Working as a slave for a man who owns a dozen children like her isn’t easy, especially if he choses to train each of them according to their newly-given talents. When the chance finally arrives, the chance to escape and achieve freedom once and for all, Cass doesn’t know what to do. Run and hide or stay and plot revenge?

Status: Wrote some parts of it during NaNoWriMo 2015, and I uploaded them, too. They’re not particularly good though so I’ll rewrite everything, I guess. Just have to get writing. Ugh. Also this one has one of my meanest plot twists yet :D

Firewings (=Feuervogel)

My very first proper project! It’s also at least 600K long by now even though most of that are re-writes, and most of those are in german. And bad. Still love the idea and characters though. Same as usual, I guess.

One of the protas of this story is the reason why my side blog is called Lirhin :D

Also, not in the mood to change anything about the synopsis, so here you go.

Several different plotlines follow a series of characters: Ilien has lived alone for a very long time solely for the purpose of revenge, hunting down demons in his spare time, until one night he saves a litte girl from being kidnapped. Her parents were murdered during the kidnapping, so he sort of adopts her, calling her Lirhin since she’s stopped talking. Now the kidnappers want her back. Jeanna is still a child when her mother and older sister are killed (among others) in a demon raid because there was a flaw in the rune system of the whole village. While Jeanna is determined to learn how to protect herself the whole village starts to collaborate to survive the night. Everything changes when she discovers something unbelievable about herself and her older brother. Razouk is brought up knowing that he is not good enough, that he will always be second choice after his sister. He decides that he must prove himself, which is quite difficult when you don’t even know the real identity of the man you want to prove your worth to. Then there are also Meena and Arrick, crown prince and princess, watch as their kingdom falls apart since their father is not capable of ruling anymore and their mother is the only person holding everything together. They must find a way to survive and do the best they can for their people. Finally, Rheon is fed up with the way the kingdom is ruled, being the ruler of a major city himself and fearing for his people who are starving to death. He decides that he must do something about that and that the best way is to start a rebellion.

Status: wrote far too many words for this one, nothing is finished, and it’ll probably end up as a trilogy. Why does everything I do end up longer than I meant for it to be???

Sky Citadel.

Least priority, I think. But I still love it and sometimes think about it :D

Camp NaNo synopsis from when I wrote it: What was once forgotten must be relearned. What was once lost must be reforged. How can we stand against an enemy when we cannot stop fighting ourselves, each other, our only allies? When we have forgotten the truth about them and about ourselves, when we don’t remember the threats of the Deep? How can we survive if our worst enemy is rising again and we don’t remember how to fight?

The People of the Spired Sea have forgotten the past, have forgotten about their guardians, the Faye, and how they were saved. Now the old inhabitants of this world are returning but humanity’s struggles are directed at each other, inside the community, and at the Marked who have started to rise again to protect humanity against the once-known threat. Jaivyn has lost everything he ever had, and yet gained so much. Ivy had everything and lost it all. And they are only two of the Marked, mankind’s “Saviours”, broken and conflicted, who are supposed to fight the Ancients and ensure that the Spired Sea has a future. How can anyone do something like that when they cannot even save themselves?

Haha, I think that synopsis is actually kind of nice for once. I’ll rewrite and write again and blablabla when there’s time. Good night.

Monster

Status: 

Not yet started to write/paint. It will one day be a graphic novel. I hope. A 3D short film exists which is when I first developed the idea. Mind you, that’s my 2nd semester short film, it’s not perfect and I had no idea what I was doing. But given all that I’m still really proud.

I have about two thousand ideas for four-panel comic strips and short comics and short stories and a whole novel and a graphic novel. One day I’ll make them all! 

Synopsis/Description:

Sierra is nine years old and she has befriended the monster under her bed. At first she was kind of scared until she realized that the monster was probably as scared of her as she was of it. Now they’re both very comfortable with each other and the monster usually wakes her up during the night because it wants cookies. Suffice to say Sierra is not amused. They do kind of love each other, though, even if it’s more in a sibling sort of way. 

Dreams and Shadows 

AKA my current WIP fantasy novel

Status:

First Draft done. Second and third drafts abandoned half-way through because they were stupid. Currently on the fourth draft, the one that might actually be worthwhile! 

Wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo 2014 which was back then 93,734 words. At first it was called Dreamweaver, then Dreamweaver and Shadowdancer, and then I shortened that because it sounded stupid. Now the total wordcount that I’ve invested in this stupid book is in the 500K words area, and the current approved words are roughly 75K. It’s probably going to be two books if it continues getting longer without my permission. Also, it’s a fantasy novel set in a world that’s more or less steampunk-y (because who doesn’t love steampunk) :D

Synopsis:

How does one break someone?  There are different ways for different people.  Take Ben, for example. He has many friends, many loved ones. To break him one needs to isolate him from everyone else. Pull him away. It won't work by just taking someone he loves -- he loves too many, it wouldn't be complete. He has lived most of his life with a chipped heart anyways -- another crack would hurt, but in the end it wouldn't make much of a difference.  But then there's also Ava, his little sister. By isolating him one isolates her as well, because her whole world revolves around him. Sure, she's got friends, a mother, a father. But there's only one person she can't live without, so by taking him away you break her, too.  It’s an art to break someone, an art that only few have mastered.

When Ben wakes up the world and his place within it have changed.  There was an accident he can't remember, and now he's in a strange parallel world where nobody can see him, changed in ways that go so much deeper than he could ever imagine. He's alone now, invisible in the crowd, isolated from everyone he loves. And with his loss Ava's world burns down within a single night, leaving behind nothing but ashes and broken bones.

Ben must find a way to Return before those he left behind finally give up on him.  Ava needs to learn that isolating herself only rarely helps and that accepting help from others might be difficult but necessary – and that she might be the only one who can help her estranged parents reconnect and rebuild their relationship.

Also, there might be a way to help Ben, even if Ava is only half certain that he’s still there at all.

The good thing is that they’ve got a guardian on their side, the family cat Amber, who can see both and knows much more than she lets on.

More about it here!

Icicle Soul

Status:

Currently on hold.  Started the first draft during Camp NaNo a few years ago, plotted the whole thing, and then wrote something else. This is the project that I’m most hyped for! I just never feel as if I’m good enough to write it yet. It’s also the one I’m going to write when I’m done with Dreams and Shadows! AKA the thing that’s keeping me focused and writing because once I’m done I can get back to this one! :D It’s also the story that is simplest to pitch and probably sounds the most boring but actually it’s really complex and I love it so much  (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Synopsis:

Four different people have to face the Lord of Winter because otherwise Spring won’t return to the worlds. 

Morning Star

Status:

Currently on hold, started with the first draft which is not yet finished. Completely plotted out, characters are fully developed, many great plot twists, magic system and worldbuilding are there... just have to write it. AAAAHHH.

Synopsis:

The Ekhir Empire has survived for over 60 years but now that the First Emperor has died the throne passes on to his only surviving son, a monster by all accounts, throwing millions of lives into the bloodiest conflict to date as the various rebellions form into one to fight back together against a common enemy.

The Guardians created and appointed by God have split into two factions whose conflict has grown into a full-blown civil war, fought by beings who command incredible powers. A small group of people has decided to search for the body of God and to re-awaken her from a coma that, according to legend, started millions of years ago, in hopes of getting help during the fights. What only one of them knows are two important facts: One of the travellers is Lucifer Reborn; and in addition, if they actually manage to find and re-awaken God, she will die. The storyline follows twelve different POV-characters as they try to survive the conflicts that threaten not only their lives but also their families, friends, everyone they ever loved and everything they ever knew.

Since this no longer takes place on earth I’ll change Lucifer’s name when I get back to it^^

An excerpt can be found here! ヽ(‘ ∇‘ )ノ

Burning Skies

Status:

Currently on hold. Another half-written NaNo project. The origin story of my fictional universe (the one where all the other stories except maybe Sierra’s take place.) I’ll definitely write it one day. 

All the NaNo chapters that I’ve written for this are on my sideblog @lirhin​ which was my writing blog back then, here. First draft though, so probably kinda wonky. 

Still love the concept, and all the plot twists. And the magic systems! I’ll start from scratch when I write it again, though. 

Synopsis:

It’s been three hundred years since The Fall. Society has slowly started to revive, pick itself up again, rebuild what was destroyed and retrieve what was lost. Only, the questions remain: What was The Fall, why did it happen, how can we make sure that it doesn’t happen again? Everyone who knew the answers to those questions died back then. A lot of knowledge has been lost during those last days of chaos – including the knowledge of magic. Something of legends, people say, stories told children at night, to try and keep them from acting stupidly. The only problem is — magic has never been lost, just pushed away. Now the power thickens and it’s returning, fast, and the costs are very high. Too bad that the world is trying to force every single mention of it away, and too bad that it’s becoming more and more important in the grand scale of things…

Rin has been abandoned by everyone she’s ever loved, left behind and betrayed. And she knows that she will one day destroy the world. At least that’s what everyone who’s trying to kill her tells her (and she’s dealt with a lot of those people). They have never told her how she will do that but apparently many of them think that she will, somehow – and why shouldn’t she believe them, after all of their attempts? If they think so, so be it — and if the world doesn’t care about you, why should you care about the world?

Cass, on the other hand, has had a similar life in the one sense that she’s completely, utterly alone and lost. Working as a slave for a man who owns a dozen children like her isn’t easy, especially if he choses to train each of them according to their newly-given talents. When the chance finally arrives, the chance to escape and achieve freedom once and for all, Cass doesn’t know what to do. Run and hide or stay and plot revenge?

Firewings (Feuervogel)

Status:

Currently on hold, also going to be at least a trilogy, I guess. This is my first “proper” story, the first time I participated in NaNoWriMo, and I really owe everything to that program. First I wrote it in German, then I re-wrote it in German, then I started re-writing it in English, and now I’ve got at least 600K worth of words. I still love the worldbuilding, magic systems and characters. I might have to think about the plot when I re-write it. Still love it though. Also, it has a lot of characters even if it only started with one (Ilien... always Ilien). 

I named my side blog @lirhin​ after one of my main protags from this project, and my username on NaNoWriMo is also Lirhin... guess why (✿◠‿◠)

Synopsis:

Erlanthar — a world where demon-like creatures, the Skadar (meaning Cursed), come out at nightfall to kill and torture all life they can find, human or otherwise. Everything that protects the human population at night are runes and prayers — prayers that they and their families might be spared tonight, that the runes won't fail, that everything will go on.  Several different plotlines follow a series of characters:  Ilien has lived alone for a very long time solely for the purpose of revenge, hunting down demons in his spare time, until one night he saves a litlte girl from being kidnapped. Her parents were murdered during the kidnapping, so he sort of adopts her, calling her Lirhin since she’s stopped talking. Now the kidnappers want her back.  Jeanna is still a child when her mother and older sister are killed (amongst others) in a demon raid because there was a flaw in the rune system of the whole village. While Jeanna is determined to learn how to protect herself the whole village starts to collaborate to survive the night. Everything changes when she discovers something unbelievable about herself and her older brother. Razouk is brought up knowing that he is not good enough, that he will always be second choice after his sister. He decides that he must prove himself, which is quite difficult when you don't even know the real identity of the man you want to prove your worth to. Then there are also Meena and Arrick, crown prince and princess, watch as their kingdom falls apart since their father is not capable of ruling anymore and their mother is the only person holding everything together. They must find a way to survive and do the best they can for their people.  Finally, Rheon is fed up with the way the kingdom is ruled, being the ruler of a major city himself and fearing for his people who are starving to death. He decides that he must do something about that and that the best way is to start a rebellion. 

Sky Citadel

Status:

Currently on hold. A former Camp NaNo project. I love it and I’ll come back to it. Probably not top priority though. 

Synopsis:

What was once forgotten must be relearned.

What was once lost must be reforged. How can we stand against an enemy when we cannot stop fighting ourselves, each other, our only allies? When we have forgotten the truth about them and about ourselves, when we don't remember the threats of the Deeps? How can we survive if our biggest threat is rising again and we don't remember how to fight? The People of the Spired Sea have forgotten the past, have forgotten about their guardians, the Faye, and how they were saved. Now the old inhabitors of this world are returning but humanity's struggles are directed at each other, inside the community, and at the Marked who have started to rise again to protect humanity against the once-known threat. Jaivyn has lost everything he ever had, and yet gained so much. Ivy had everything and lost it all. And they are only two of the Marked, mankind's "Saviours", broken and conflicted, who are supposed to fight the Ancients and ensure that the Spired Sea has a future. How can anyone do something like that while they cannot even save themselves?