saintsmith

[saintsmith]

i have not been working on this setting much for a long time (been focused on other creative endeavors when i'm doing anything creative at all), but i am cooking up something new, based on an idea i had for a previous project that got orphaned when i abandoned that setting. i might post about it later

[saintsmith]

it's also mostly an excuse to pontificate about how magic works diegetically

it's almost certainly bc i've been reading a wizard of earthsea but i am SO interested in writing some wizard school bullshit now. except instead of wizards it's saints and instead of earthsea it's aurenna

[saintsmith]

also like. i am very torn about the spelling of shiaaj's name. i have been pronounce it in my head as "shee-ahj", but technically in the system i've come up with that should be spelled more like "shii'aaj" probably. but i'm so attached to the "shiaaj" spelling even though it would be more like "shih-ahj" or even "shyahj"

[saintsmith]

it's almost certainly bc i've been reading a wizard of earthsea but i am SO interested in writing some wizard school bullshit now. except instead of wizards it's saints and instead of earthsea it's aurenna

[saintsmith]

so i've not been writing much for aurenna (and posting here even less) but i HAVE been thinking quite a bit. specifically, about magic. and i'd like to share some with you!

the fundamental basis of where magical power comes from is something called "the trinity of body," often simplified to the "tri-body." there are three "bodies" that every living being possesses:

1.) the mundane body, which is the physical body of flesh and bone

2.) the astral body, which is considered to be the highest, most "ephemeral" spirit or soul of a being

3.) and the subtle body, which is the place where the mundane and astral bodies meet. the subtle body is ultimately the means by which magical works are conducted.

one way to look at it is: the mundane body is a puppet, the astral body is a puppeteer, and the subtle body is the strings that the astral body pulls on to manipulate the mundane body.

the subtle body is a series of invisible pathways of light that run through the mundane body, supposedly carrying the "essence" of the astral body throughout. if you were to cut open a body, you would not see the subtle body, its channels, its focal points. but they are detectable by their effects, namely the animation of the mundane body, and more obviously, the magical powers that it can project.

most mortal tenvo are not born with innate magical ability. this is because they are born flawed, the channels of their subtle body blocked in various ways, preventing the proper flow of light and magic throughout their body. most often, only saints and mortals born with relatively unblocked channels, called sorcerers, can perform magic. however, it is possible, through meditation, effort, study, practice, exercise, and often some amount of acupuncture, to "unlock" these blocked pathways and gain access to magical ability. these tenvo who have had to strive for many years to attain magic are often called "wizards." generally speaking, saints are always trusted with magic; wizards, by the trained disposition they possess, are often trusted with magic; sorcerers, wildcards, are rarely trusted with magic in temple society.

the following is apocrypha:

the astral body might not exist. while the mundane body obviously exists by observation, and the subtle body can be well-reckoned to exist by its effects, there is no evidence for the astral body's existence, beyond temple doctrine saying it is so.

there are two known heresies kept from the knowledge of the public that propose respectively 1) the complete non-existence of the astral body, or 2) that the astral body is not natural, but a sort of "binding" that raam places upon mortals as a way to control their magical natures.

the first heresy can be retrained out of the heretic. the second is punishable by death.

[saintsmith]

hm. i think i just came up with a solution to my “can different tenvo types interbreed” issue. i think things would get messy very quickly if 1) they can interbreed and 2) the child possesses traits of both parents. but i don’t want to do the lazy bethesda thing of “they’re just the same type as their ‘mother’”

so i think they CAN interbreed but they’re always one of the three types, not any in-betweens. they’re more likely to be one of the types of their parents, but it’s somewhat random. like an aajakiri and dromag couple could produce a greshtal child theoretically, it’s just not that common. they usually just randomly get one of their parent’s types. same-type couples almost always produce the same type of child, but there are very rare occasions where the child is of a different type. and when that happens the child is more likely to be a saint.

i think it didn’t always work this way - once upon a time they were all completely incompatible. but Raam made it so they could have children together and that it would work the way it does

[saintsmith]

Korleth scrambled through the tight autorat chute, richly-bejeweled ring clutched in his large Dromag fist. Even full-grown now, he was still somehow small enough – just barely – to squeeze through these tunnels meant for the small thaumechanical sweepers. Good thing, too – they made excellent escape routes, and connected most of Derthn.

He needed to crawl far enough away – to some adjacent district of an adjacent district – to evade any pursuers, as well as shake off the noses of the autohounds. They followed a different network of tunnels, more accommodating to their larger size, so he wouldn’t run into any down here. 

Raam, it was scorching in here. These tunnels must run adjacent to the geothermal systems for this district. It didn’t help that the blasted autorats had a tendency to run hot.

Shit, there goes one now. Korleth arched up his back and spread his arms and legs wide to let the autorat pass under him. It barely fit, chafing his front as it went by. He’d lost too many tunics to these bastards tearing through them as they ran by like this.

A little farther along he thought, This should be far enough. He turned a corner and –

He hit his head hard, ruffling his scarlet hair. He looked up to see a welded grate blocking the tunnel. That hadn’t been there last time he’d come this way. Damn Architects. Fine. Have it your way. Korleth backed out and started crawling farther, towards the next district over.

After another few minutes in that hot, cramped tube, Korleth found another exit side-tunnel. He turned to follow it and pushed open the vent to the outside.

And his head was almost crushed by the lumbering foot of an autotrunk.

He ducked his head back just in time and hid inside as the huge thaumechanism and its entourage of thaumechanics passed the vent, his heart pounding. Once he was sure the sounds of footsteps had passed, he pushed open the vent again and crawled out. 

As he dusted the metal shavings and dust off of his tunic, he glanced at the passersby across the street giving him brief notice. They had no connection to the district he’d just stolen the ring from, and besides, a tiny Dromag crawling out of an autorat tunnel was probably not the weirdest thing they’d seen today.

Keeping it shielded from the rest of the city, he opened his fist and made sure the ring was still intact. The dozen or so tiny jewels smiled at him with their sparkling facets, but the big one at the center all the more so – a perfectly-round carnelian thoughtstone, a vague light gently throbbing inside the dark red gem. This one would fetch a pretty penny – probably. He had no way of knowing what the thoughtstone said.

He looked up to see what district he was in. Judging by the address numbers he supposed it was Residential-Four. Kids swung from artificial brass trees in the miniscule gardens of these middle-class apartments. Tenvo tended to the bioluminescent fungal crops bursting from the transplanted soil. Others were hanging their laundry out to dry, tunics and cloaks and turban-cloths and undergarments. One of them, apparently a mother with an infant on her hip as she struggled to one-hand the clothespins, stopped a moment to wave at Korleth. He supposed that was good – he didn’t stand out as not belonging there, despite his rather drab attire. He waved back with his free hand.

Who was the local fence? In Res-Four it would be…Zrikr. A miserly old Dromag. But he might have Aajakiri connections who could appraise the thoughtstone. Korleth again examined the nearby address-markers, engraved into the brass lintels of the apartment’s front doors. Res-4-Hrem-15-22. Res-Four. Subdistrict Hrem. Area fifteen. Level twenty-two. Zrikr shouldn’t be far – in this subdistrict, at least. Korleth wracked his brain. Area six, level twenty-nine, if he recalled correct. It would take some walking up-town and an elevator ride, but nothing he couldn’t manage in a half-light. He stuffed his hands – ring carefully in fist – in his tunic’s front-pocket, and started up the street. 

He followed an autoshell for a while, head bowed like an thaumechanic, until its six skittering legs walked it into an autoshell tube, collapsing into its carapace so that it could roll on hidden wheels through the tunnel. Then he carried on alone, seamlessly switching from slow thaumechanic piety to the lazy stride of a normal citizen. Blessedly there was an elevator in area five – there were elevators in every fifth area of a subdistrict – so it only took crossing a single area after descending to level twenty-nine to arrive in Zrikr’s area.

There were signs, if you knew what to look for, that could point you towards a clan fence. Subtle etchings in the walls of the caverns. Only clan members could interpret them. Korleth had more or less been born into the clan, he was adopted so young. So he followed the signs to the seemingly abandoned apartment they indicated. 

He knocked on the door, a harsh rhythmic rap that signaled clan membership. After a minute or so the door cracked open to reveal a pair of red-flecked black eyes, Dromag eyes. The door closed for a moment, then opened all the way. A tall, stocky Dromag stood in the doorway, her beard styled like a cage around her mouth, individual braids stiffened upwards in arcs like prison bars. A Silencer – clan bruisers. Korleth took careful note of the thick, barely-tapered stone club in her hand. 

“Speak,” said the Silencer, leaning against the door frame, arms crossed with club in tow.

“Here for Zrikr,” answered Korleth. “Got something for him.”

“Delivery or merchandise?”

“Merchandise.” Korleth half-revealed the ring in his pocket to the Silencer. She nodded and went back inside, closing the door behind her.

Another minute passed until the door opened again. This time the Silencer stood to the side to let Korleth in. He gave her a curt nod as he passed, but she only returned with a puff of air from her nostrils, rattling the bars of her beard-cage.

It smelled heavily of gridc smoke in here; a filmy haze of it lingered in the air. The apartment appeared inside as it did outside – abandoned. Almost all the furniture was overturned, dusty, moldy, and cobweb-stricken. And it was not even of consistent organization, seeming to have too many of some articles, and not enough of others. There were only a few relatively clean and upright pieces: a brass cushionless couch, which the Silencer sat on when she wasn’t answering the door or Silencing, and a desk in the back with a small wheeled chair, also of brass. Its occupant sat with his back turned to the door, but when Korleth approached he swiveled around to face him.

In that chair and at that desk sat a wiry old Dromag, puffing on a claypipe. As Korleth approached, he noticed that the claypipe was ornamented with intricate brass inlays – or was it gold? The room was too dim to be able to tell for sure, and Korleth was no metallurgist. Most he ever got ahold of was silver, since the damned Temple hoarded most of the gold jealously. Zrikr played a dangerous game if he decorated something so mundane as a claypipe with the precious metal. They could send Saints after him to confiscate it, or worse.

“Aye?” said Zrikr, not removing the claypipe from his lips as he did so. 

“Venerable Zrikr,” began Korleth with the typical clan salute for elders, a spreading of the mustache with the index finger and thumb. “I come to offer merchandise.”

Zrikr slowly pulled the pipe from his mouth, put it out, and laid it down gently on the desk. “Very well. Come closer so I can take a look. Lay out your product.”

Korleth obeyed, stopping inches from the front of the desk. He removed the ring fully from his pocket and began to set it down on the desk –

Zrikr grabbed Korleth’s ring-bearing wrist. “Do my old eyes deceive me, tenv?” He squinted his eyes at Korleth’s face. Korleth managed to maintain his outward composure, but his tongue rolled across the back of his sharp teeth anxiously. “You the old Baron Cemming’s kid? That autorat he picked up off the street? Glorious prodigy of the clan?” He tightened his grip, but his eyes roamed in recollection. “Korleth, is it?”

“Yes, Venerable Zrikr,” said Korleth smoothly, but between his teeth. “Maybe not so many words are needed.”

“Maybe not, maybe not,” said Zrikr. “I knew old Cemming when we were lads. He was a whip of a tenv, but he knew his shit. Took good care of his people. Not like those gasbags in charge now.” He smiled, revealing teeth too sharp for a Dromag this old. He must sharpen them daily, Korleth thought idly. “I hope you’ve got the old tenv’s same measure.”

Zrikr released Korleth’s wrist. “Now, what have you here, young tenv?”

“Thoughstone ring,” said Korleth, finally able to lay the jewelry down on the desk. “Carnelian with orbital rubies and citrines.”

“Carnelian thoughtstone,” said Zrikr, picking up the ring and holding it close to his rheumy black eyes. “What ever will they think of next?” He examined the ring entire for a minute before setting it back down. “Gems are well cut. Silversmithing is of high quality. Couldn’t tell you shit about the ‘stone.”

“Do you have an Aajakiri associate who could appraise it?” asked Korleth.

“You take me for an amateur, tenv?” said Zrikr coldly. Korleth could hear the slap of the Silencer’s club on her palm. Zrikr glanced at her and shook his head. “Yes, yes. I have a damn Aaj on the payroll. Give me some time to ask her about it. Couple days maybe.”

“Advance?”

“Of course,” said Zrikr, his smile wicked. He reached into the desk, pulled out a wrapped parcel, and handed it to Korleth. Korleth opened it halfway to peek inside: it was a half-loaf of dense mushroom-and-nut bread, the nuts few and far between in a tight matrix of grey-green grain. It barely fit snug in Korleth’s palm. “That should keep you ‘til I hear back.”

Shellshit, Korleth thought, but he played it cool. Zrikr didn’t seem like the type of tenv you messed with – you didn’t get this old in the clan without a bodycount. And Korleth certainly didn’t want to get on the wrong side of that Silencer’s club. “Yes, Venerable Zrikr. Thank you.”

“Now off with you,” said Zrikr with a wave. He picked up his claypipe and used a thaumechanical sparker to light the bowl again. “Disturbing my smoke time.”

Korleth obeyed, and left. He didn’t bother nodding at the Silencer this time.

[saintsmith]

doing some writing about norkhec, one of the far north provinces of aurenna, and home to one of its largest cities, derthn. here's some info about it:

norkhec is named after the enormous coniferous trees that grow there, the tallest of which reaching half a mile into the sky. these trees are known, beyond their height, for the edible cones they drop at the end of the year, which sustained the ancient dromag tenvo who lived there.

the capitol of norkhec, derthn, lies in a crook of the northern raamo mountain range called the jolikr valley. although the precise location is not known with certainty, the source of the jolikr river is nearby where the city is dug into the cliffs at the far extent of the valley, where the mountains close back in into tall foothills.

the jolikr river, while not the longest river in aurenna (the tashri of rosyev takes this title) is certainly the widest. even at its thinnest points, the jolikr still reaches across nearly ten miles, its far banks beyond sight owing to the dense mists over the rushing waters, and for the islands across its breadth with their towering norkhec trees that take root upon them. it has been a breeding ground for piracy across norkhec, ships able to hide within the coves and grottos of these islands and dock within the mists to avoid detection.

[saintsmith]

i think magic in aurenna is so common as to be unnoticeable most of the time. like saintly miracles and the spellworks of sorcerers are such everyday occurrences that it’s just seamlessly woven into the fabric of society. this gives an illusion of a relatively magic-less world, when in fact it’s a world filled with the stuff

[saintsmith]

so i may have mentioned that iron is extremely rare in aurenna (if not, i have now). it's only found in small quantities mostly in the raamo mountains in the center of the continent. as a result weapons made from it are very rare, usually in the hands of saints and their 'sworn, or as very valuable trinkets when in the hands of civilians. most of the arms and armor (as well as other metal items) in aurenna are forged from copper, bronze, or brass.

but! tin is also somewhat rare in aurenna, so by a combination of alchemy and magic, tenvo have invented ways to extract aluminum from fairly-common bauxite and alloy that with copper to make aluminum bronze, which is actually a bit stronger than tin bronze! tin bronze is still sometimes used, but since the process for refining aluminum was invented, people mostly use aluminum bronze.

[saintsmith]

i know i haven't been posting much here in a while (basically not at all lol) but the main reason is i'm kind of hesitant to post any actual writing (which i am definitely working on!) due to feeling like maybe i could attempt to publish at some point. maybe that's naive to think but idk. i think it has potential. plus, all the worldbuilding i've been doing has been just kind of incidental to what i'm actually writing, so it doesn't feel like, worth talking about ig

[saintsmith]

i’m really trying to “splinter” what’s unfortunately become a somewhat monolithic culture in aurenna. i haven’t really posted about them yet but there’s two “societies” i’ve been working on recently.

1) the great lake ellaadra (the great big body of water between mornet and kelgib) and its floating island city of ruun’kheyon, ruled mostly by a council of saints called the synod. (this one is still somewhat temple-adjacent or at least temple-cooperative.)

2) the great salt-plains of central kolqust, and the various saltanates that rule there. (this one is fairly distinct and separate from the temple.)

[saintsmith]

oshr has a license to sell them. glaa’ib may or may not, but he doesn’t sell them if he doesn’t

okay i think i figured it out. it’s illegal to manufacture/fill thoughtstones without the aid of a saint, saintsworn, or holy, but it’s only illegal to sell thoughtstones without a license, and only in certain jurisdictions. kheloz planned to travel to a jurisdiction without such a restriction to sell his thoughtstone. but mrogem was absolutely filling and selling them illegally.

[saintsmith]

okay i think i figured it out. it’s illegal to manufacture/fill thoughtstones without the aid of a saint, saintsworn, or holy, but it’s only illegal to sell thoughtstones without a license, and only in certain jurisdictions. kheloz planned to travel to a jurisdiction without such a restriction to sell his thoughtstone. but mrogem was absolutely filling and selling them illegally.

[saintsmith]

i have a new character i’m starting to write about! her name is pyaarut, a newly-wed aajakiri (but not a saint) in the lake-floating city of ruun’kheyon! her husband waarang IS a saint and a member of the ruun’kheyon synod, a kind of governing body for the city mostly outside the temple structure. i think she’s turning out to be kind of interesting!

[saintsmith]

crystal orb telephone.

[saintsmith]

i like that gurduu has just a teeny little part of its border along the southeast coast of the great lake ellaadra. they probably think it gives them a claim of some kind to ruun’kheyon, even though the city mostly floats through kelgib and mornet waters