Horizons of the Heart

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By Melange
Copyright © 2013-2014 Melange
All Rights Reserved.

In a world filled with magic and adventure, a group of would-be heroes set out to create their own legend.
Jay is a Lacunai Mystic, able to borrow the power of magical creatures to overcome the challenges life puts in his way. But the magic of his father’s family carries a price. The mystic will inevitably turn into something like the very creature they pull their strength from. This is a source of pride among the mystics of his family — his father smugly wears the signs of his draconic source of power. Jay, though, is a little more reluctant to use his abilities. He is not pleased with what he was given, and now seeks to change his fate, before it changes him.

Disclaimer: This is a slow moving story where transformation and changes are a part of the story, but not the story itself. The story will progress at its own pace. Feel free to explore the world of the story together with me while we wait for things to happen!
Oh, and please note that the themes and elements may refer to the overall story, not the individual chapters.
Also, this is not a historical story. It’s Fantasy. The people will probably sound a little bit modern when they talk, but… well, fantasy! So there.
Finally, the usual things about how any characters portrayed within belong to me, and I’d like to keep it that way, even if they would resemble living, dead or fictional people by coincidence. The written world is big enough for all of us!

Book Zero: The Value of Sacrifice

Book One: The Value of Truth

Book Two: The Value of a Song

Book Three: The Value of a Voice

The world of Aden - Eastern Continent

one big map

Comments

Translation effects

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I admire your boldness for putting the following into your disclaimer here and more along the same lines elsewhere:

"Also, this is not a historical story. It’s Fantasy. The people will probably sound a little bit modern when they talk, but… well, fantasy! So there."

I sometimes myself wonder at the complaint that 'they can't talk like that because...' What is missed with a statement like this is that this is fantasy and another world, not here. As such the quotes that we read are not the actual words that they would have uttered since their language might not have any more than a passing resemblance to english. It's true that there can be the use of older forms of the language to emulate an older language. However the most important thing that a writer can do is to make the meaning clear. Smoke and mirrors by using tricks of language are crutches used by those who can not by their writing paint an different time and place from here in the rest of the story.

It's like a reader of the bible insisting that the old english 'Thou Shalt' is the more authentic than the modern 'You will' when the original was written in nothing like either in the original Hebrew and Latin was the first language it was translated into. Reading those ancient texts by way of a modern translation means that I can understand and enjoy what is said without having to try to filter it out of some extraneous linguistic baggage that isn't the original either. I guess the purist out there could read Hamlet out of the original Klingon if they cared so much for the authenticity. Just saying! ::Giggle:: Well Done!

Jo Dora Webster

Linguistics!

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Melange's picture

That's a very interesting point, Jo. While I didn't consciously "translate", I was aiming at comprehension. Why create an artificial barrier for communication? I admit to using a few stereotypical accents to some of my characters to denote cultural differences, but that's my way of adding to their character, making them memorable :) (The merchant Zajid is probably one of my favourite random people in the story)

Though, now I want to hear Shakespears in various fantasy or sci-fi languages. Hamlet in Klingon, of course, or Much Ado About Nothing in Quenya...

Found the map!

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Your map looks awesome, Melange! And what is that to the west of the map where the land mass continues but is off the map? Room for expansion or source of a new challenge? Very smart! Could you let us in on the details on how it was created? I'd love to know and I imagine others would as well. Looks like someone very talented gave an excellent effort. Good Job!

Jo Dora Webster

Awesome snooping skills!

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Melange's picture

What can I say? I have some awesome friends :) My oft-times game-mastering friend and I made it together (based of a hilariously childish map I had made earlier), and I believe the program she used is called Campaign Cartographer? Sometimes like that? We had to watch a YouTube tutorial to make it as pretty as it is now, though. She mostly used it to make interiors and treasure maps before.

Also, yes, not all of the map is shown, in either direction :) This is a pretty stripped-down version without the cities and villages, or anything except the countries. We've got a much more complex map that I refer to when thinking about distances and things like that. While it's not perfectly to size, it's a remarkably handy tool for visualising where I "am" in the story.

Dat map

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Reminds me of the one on the Catan card back. Not that that matters in any way.

All the mappitude!

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Melange's picture

You know, it does. A little, anyway :)

I'll attribute that either to subconscious influence (I love Catan. All the grain is mine! Mine!), or to how my accomplice and I read a guide about fantasy map building and how they advised readers to map out the tectonic plates before drawing in the geography. That way the mountain ranges look more natural :)

One of these days I'll upload the detailed map with all the towns and points of interest. But probably not until Book 2 is done.

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