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#elf #elfprince #enemies #fight #lightning #magic #sagara #sword #warlord #darkfey #xallianterra
Published: 2019-02-24 15:46:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 1184; Favourites: 55; Downloads: 4
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My original characters. Xallianterra, a dark fey warlord, and Sagara, a highelf prince and adventurer.Related content
Comments: 28
This is one your coolest scenes! I am imagining this is the final boss battle at the conclusion of a JRPG (presumably after Prince Sagara gets the airship that is implausibly technologically advanced compared to the rest of the world he lives in).
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This is an awesome action scene!
I love how Sagara's hair moves with the force or his blows, and how the frightening spell is crackling around Xallinterra's hands.
The lighting is so eerie and dramatic as well!
Xallianterra's expression is so calm, she doesn't seem to be worried about the outcome of this battle at all.
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Thank you! Yes, the oods were all on Sagara's side, otherwise he would not have survived this fight.
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Oooh, this is very well done! I can practically smell the ozone that electricity is creating as it crackles through the air - like that oddly sweet fragrance that lingers after a big thunderstorm. I sure hope Sagara can make it out of this encounter in one piece!
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Thank you!
Normally, Sagara would not stand a single chance against her – Xallianterra is many times more powerful than he is. But he is fortunate that he has the magical sword of his family – it can absorb magic. In addition, he accidentally triggers a magical anomaly with the sword, because they are fighting in a place with magical ores. They both are deprived of their magic by the anomaly, and Xallianterra escapes, leaving him to die. Sagara manages to escape the anomaly as well, but looses the ability to use his magical skills for a few weeks (or months, I have to figure out for how long).
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Ooooh, magical burnout. Interesting. So, is this his first encounter with Xallianterra or have they already crossed paths a few times by this point? Also, that family sword sounds really cool! A weapon that can absorb magic. I like it!
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Ah, magical burnout is a cool term for what happened!
It is his second encounter with her. The first encounter is at the beginning of the book, where Sagara went on the quest to get the sword (yes, that sword) and the Portal Stone from an old elven fortress. Xallianterra just took the Portal Stone from him and left him standing there.
The sword is made from two ores magically processed together, which gives it the ability to absorb every magic that touches the blade. The sword is named "Cailondir", which translates to "Spherebreaker", and, at the moment, is my favorite for the title of the first book from the stories about Sagara.
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That is a really, really, really awesome idea for a sword and I absolutely love the name! It also works for a book title, so I think you've got the right idea there! And I think it's hilarious how Xallianterra just takes the Portal Stone and walks off with it! Did she do that after he'd gone to all the trouble of getting it? Because that's a great way to establish a villain: The protagonist does all the hard work just for the antagonist to steal it from him. And she doesn't even bother to kill him, either. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound! "Yeah, I could kill you, but you're really not worth the hassle, are you? See ya, kid."
I'm still figuring out what Perdita's swords are like and how she gets them. I do know that they can change shape, alternating between cutlasses and sabers, because they're made of an alloy that uses a special ore which can be enchanted to change shapes. I also know she's regularly upgrading them over time, so they evolve as much as she does. While I like the idea of the swords being able to generate flames, electricity, and the like, I'm trying to avoid relying too heavily on the standard elemental tropes. At the same time, those things are tropes because they'd be effective, and it's not like the people in Perdita's setting are aware that they'd be tropes, either, so I also have to explain why she wouldn't have her swords generate flames and electricity, too. This is why I'm struggling a bit with what her swords do beyond changing forms.
My current idea for how she gets them is that they were made for her by a Gorgon blacksmith. Gorgons in my setting are a race, so there are males and females. They don't turn you to stone just by looking at you, though. It's a magical attack they possess, but it takes a lot out of them, so it's more like a trump card they use in emergencies. However, some of them can use it on a regular basis without much issue. One such Gorgon had become a serial killer, turning his victims into stone. The bad Gorgon's mother would hire Perdita to eliminate him, since Gorgons have a hard enough time with humanoid races as it is and her son is just making things worse by doing this. As payment for completing the mission, the Gorgon mother agrees to make Perdita a pair of swords. Because Perdita has a doctorate in Arcane Engineering, the two end up working together, designing the swords so they're able to modified and upgraded later. The Gorgon has enough of the magical ore on hand to make the swords able to morph, so that's the only thing they can do initially. As Perdita travels and acquires more Spell Gems, she gradually incorporates them into the swords, adding more abilities to their arsenal. I'm still figuring out the exact design for the swords, but these images all have elements which I'm thinking of using:
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Of course, there would be gemstones incorporated into the pommel, handle, and guard of the swords, too, but I think these should give you the basic idea, at least. I really need to come up with some clever names for these swords, too, probably something that has significance to Perdita.
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Thank you, I'm glad you like the title! Yes, she did take it after all the trouble to get it, though there was a little fighting, but nothing Sagara could prevent.
Oh, what's the difference between a saber and a cutlass in a fight? I didn't knew the difference is that critical, that she needs both.
They all look cool and have interesting elements – my favorite is the black one with the blue edge!
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A cutlass is basically a shorter version of the saber. The saber is an excellent weapon for fighting on land or on the back of a horse while the cutlass, being shorter, is a much better sword to use while fighting on a crowded deck of a ship. But weapons have the same basic shape, but the cutlass is shorter and often wider than the saber. If you know how to fight with a saber, you know how to fight with a cutlass, and vice versa. It's mostly a matter of adjusting to the difference of the reach of the blades. The saber is most often associated with cavalries while the cutlass is associated with sailors (and by extension, pirates.) I decided that, given her background on the high seas, it would make sense for Perdita to wield cutlasses, but a cutlass is not going to be very useful if she's fighting while seated atop Storm Herald. Since she prefers to be efficient, and since weapons that can change shape are a thing that exist in her world, Perdita decided that having swords that could alternate between a saber and a cutlass made the most sense. She only has to worry about two weapons instead of lugging around four and having to swap them out constantly.
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Ah, good to know. If I develop a character I can keep this in mind!
How does the blade change its form? Is it similar to her ring?
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No the ring is a Boon, so it's powered by a god. The swords are powered by Aethyr, the energy behind all Arcane Magic, aka Thaumaturgy. Thaumaturgy can bend the laws of physics but only to a certain point. The way the swords work is a combination of Arcane Magic and physical construction. They're made from an alloy that blends steel, a small amount of Adamant, and a shape-changing metal I'm currently calling Morphium. (But I don't like that name because it's too similar sounding to morphine.) The Morphium content is the key. You can program it to change from one shape to another when a particular charge of Aethyr is run through it. So, for example, you could make a sphere that turns into a cube, a pyramid, and a bunch of other shapes when the right command is given. Each shape requires a Spell Gem to store the physical dimensions the material has to assume. Aethyr is channeled through the Spell Gem, getting the "program," and flows into the metal, which rearranges itself into the prescribed shape.
However, because the total amount of material remains the same, the durability of a shape varies significantly. Spread that material too thin and it will be very frail. That's why variable weapons, like Perdita's swords, have to be designed carefully. You have to take into consideration how the shape will hold up under different kinds of strain. Arrange things the wrong way, and the weapon will become quite weak, either becoming so flexible that it's effectively useless for damaging anything or so brittle that it shatters. Perdita's swords have a small amount of Adamant mixed into the alloy to reinforce the material so it's resistant to breaking under stress but still capable of altering its shape. This comes at the price of requiring more Aethyr to morph between forms, but Perdita doesn't mind that too much.
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So she has to use the Aethyr stored in her to give the command for the weapon to change?
I'm also curious how the design-process goes when the two forms of the weapon are forged. Do you have the material first, that gets prepared and alloyed, then the first form gets forged, then the magical command to change is give, so it changes to an unworked piece of metal again, which gets forged into the other form?
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The swords have Power Stones of their own, but if those run out of Aethyr, Perdita can supply Aethyr from her own body or the Ring of Arcane Power, if necessary.
You got the basic premise of how weapons like Perdita's swords are made, actually. With morphing weapons, you create the alloy and shape it into a base state. You then magically scan the dimensions of another physical object into a Spell Gem, saving a template of that object. This Spell Gem will direct the base state to morph into a duplicate of the object you scanned, at least in terms of its shape. You will need to make some adjustments to the template, of course, but scanning an object is the most efficient way to get the template started. For each shape you want the object to take, you have to make a separate Spell Gem with its own template. When you connect the Spell Gems to the material, they will direct the material to change from its base state into one of the templates they hold.
So, for Perdita's swords, the Gorgon blacksmith started by making a cutlass and a saber, both to Perdita's liking. She then scanned both designs into two Spell Gems, since each sword would need one Spell Gem for the cutlass template and one Spell Gem for the saber template. Then she created the same amount of alloy to make each sword, shaping the materials into metal bars that were halfway between the length and width of the cutlass and saber templates. Meanwhile, Perdita had made the handles for each sword, installing a Power Stone into each pommel and the Spell Gems with the templates in them into the grips. When these were placed over the tang of each bar, it connected the Spell Gems to the base shape. She and the Gorgon then tested the Spell Gems to make sure they worked, made some adjustments to the templates to perfect them, and set the cutlass template as the default shape for the weapons to assume.
As for the cutlass and saber the Gorgon made to scan for the templates, those were kept for making other template Spell Gems for other morphing swords that her clients might commission her to produce. Most blacksmiths who make morphing weapons will do this, in fact. It's easier to hold onto physical models than make a new one each time. Perdita's swords could have had templates from swords the Gorgon had previously made, but she didn't think those models were good enough for the Half-Orc, so she made new ones to use.
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This is a great concept! I like the magical designing and work process. And I really like how they both worked together to make those weapons.
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Yeah, Perdita's skills as an Arcane Engineer are only hampered by the mental block that's keeping her from casting Spells. It prevents her from doing almost any Enchanting of her own, so she has to get help from those who can make Spell Gems. She'll help with constructing the item and figure out the parameters of the Enchantment, but placing the actual "program" into the Spell Gem has to be done by somebody else. Perdita can only manage very simple Enchantments on her own, like making her own Spark Sticks. (Those are basically a magical lighter that's about the size of a match. Nearly everyone has one of those, so making a Spark Stick isn't very impressive.) But once she gets past the mental block, that starts to change, though she still gets assistance making things, since it saves time. That's part of the reason she's looking to purchase an estate in Kraken Cove, actually - she'd have access to a lot of people who would be able to help her make things.
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Ah, poor Perdita, I can almost feel how she longs to be able to do it all by herself! I hope she will find a nice estate there!
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Yes, her father really screwed her up in that regard. His overbearing conduct, constant pressure to excel, and other actions were what created the mental block. Perdita's subconscious mind is convinced that she can't perform any Arcane Spells, even though she consciously understands the processes. As a result, the Aethyr gets mixed messages, which makes it do nothing. One part of her mind is saying "do this" while the other part is effectively telling it "no, don't do that." Since Aethyr has no will of its own, being energy, it can't discern what it's supposed to be doing, so it tries to follow both commands simultaneously. This is why most of the time, it just does nothing or the Spell malfunctions. My thinking is that, even after she gets over the mental block, Perdita never really becomes a full-fledged Mage unless she's Riona. Indeed, Riona is the part of her who can handle Enchantments.
As for her estate in Kraken Cove, I'm thinking she acquires it in one of the books that comes after An Errand in Kraken Cove. I'm debating what it will be about, exactly, though one idea I am considering involves a sort of Cinderella tale, with Perdita in the role of the fairy godmother. How she does that involves her calling in some favors from certain talented people with magical abilities to put together a dress in a hurry. There's a lot I'm still unsure of, however. I want to keep as many of the plot elements from Cinderella as I can, so there would be an evil stepmother and at least one stepsister who's rotten, a party of some kind, a deadline of some kind by which Cinderella needs to leave the party, a Prince Charming-like character for her to fall in love with, and some article from Cinderella's outfit that plays a role in bring her and Prince Charming together. Perdita getting an estate in Kraken Cove through this would be that Cinderella, who is the rightful owner of the house in which she and her family live, sells it to Perdita once she and Prince Charming are engaged, since Cinderella will be living with him and won't need the place anymore. I think one of the stepsisters will actually be a good person who's just as much a victim of abuse as Cinderella. Indeed, I'm thinking the reason Cinderella stays is actually because she doesn't want to leave the poor girl to suffer on her own. That seems, to me, a more logical and compelling motivation for her not to try to escape her situation. She knows the good stepsister will be treated more cruelly if she's not there to take the brunt of the stepmother's abuse. How the rest of the elements would be used I'm still figuring out. I also need a good reason why nobody recognizes Cinderella at the party, though I think having it be a masquerade is the most believable explanation. What do you think? And what would be a good replacement for the glass slipper? That's probably what has me stumped most of all.
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Oh, this sounds really cool! I also like the part with the not-so-bad stepsister. Masquerade sounds fine too, I'm a huge fan of masked balls and I want one in one of the next books about Sagara as well.
Maybe a magical fan? If it's not going to be a masquerade, the fan could help her hide her Identity. Later she loses it (or someone acting against her takes it from her) and then she has to flee.
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You know, I think I'll send you an email with some of the ideas I'm having for the Cinderella story, since I want to be able to reference this conversation in the future if I need to. As for the masked ball Sagara attends, I hope there's some cloak-and-dagger stuff going on at the party. I can't think of a better place for it than a masquerade.
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Email sounds good –but I have to answer the other two mails first!
I'm not sure yet what's going to happen on that ball, I have to find the right setting. So far in the first books, Sagara is nowhere, where a ball of that kind would be held.
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Don't worry about it! It's going to take me a bit to get to it. The ideas are not quite solidified enough to write about yet.
Perhaps Sagara has to make a detour into such a location to obtain some supplies or send a message or something and gets caught up in the local festivities? What is expected to be a short side-quest ends up becoming something more complicated, maybe. Some of Perdita's stories are going to be like that, actually. She's just passing through and gets dragged into something interesting. Not that she ever really minds, of course.
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Yes, I'm already thinking if there is something like that where I can send him!
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Coool! Nice movement
Das wirkt sehr lebendig und super Lichteffekte
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