#Hallendrest Lore

[shellyscribbles]

Heads up, Seven Up

Thanks for the tag @author-a-holmes

Rules: Share recent 7 lines and tag 7 others to invite them to share.

tags: @writingamongther0ses, @illarian-rambling, @emelkae, @authorlaurawinter, @tailoroffates, @axl-ul and @ladywithalamp

From the lores scenes I have been writing:

Aila’s lips curved in the faintest smile, though it didn’t quite extend beyond. “At least Ciena will have you-" She stopped as the thought meant to offer comfort to Halvar struck her so hard she was rendered numb. A chocking sound came from Halvar who pressed his hands to his face as they both realized this was only the first painful death they would have to endure. “Twenty-three.” Aila said with numb lips as Halvar trembled beside her. “We have twenty-three children.” And she would have to outlive them all.

[shellyscribbles]

More Vale/Hallendrest Lore: fluff edition

I was so mean to Aila I thought it might be fitting to give her another good love story.

              Halvar opened his eyes in the darkness and rolled over with a groan. His arm fell on the bed where his wife had fallen asleep beside him but was no longer laying. With a sigh he rolled onto his back understanding why he had woken up. He never could sleep when Aila wasn't beside him.

              He peeled the blankets off and climbed out of bed. After clothing himself in a warm robe, he made his way out of their chambers and down the hall where the guards stood.

              “Your highness.” The man bowed. Halvar hesitated, but decided against demanding he not be called highness. Despite the thousands of years that he had been husband to the one the people lovingly referred to as their Eternal Queen, he was not the king of Vale.

              “How long ago?” He asked.

              The guard’s face scrunched in thought, “Maybe…half an hour?”

              Halvar nodded and patted the man’s shoulder as he passed. The guard started to fall in behind him before Halvar waved him off. “I’m immortal. The room needs more of a guard than I do.”

              He heard the guard hesitate before returning to his post. Halvar chuckled to himself as he continued on. He inquired after Aila of the few servants and guards he came across as he moved through the palace. No one knew where she had gone though he did work out that she had left the palace.

              By the time he reached the entry hall, he was annoyed.

“Where-“ he began to ask the guard when her voice filled his mind.

              I’m in the temple, love.

              The guard frowned as Halvar stood before him, mouth still open, the rest of the question unasked. Halvar shook his head. “Never mind.”

              He made his way down the street on foot in the cold, dark night. His annoyance faded as he approached the temple which was lit with several orbs of nymph light, making a silhouette of the statue that stood before the doors. A warrior with emerald eyes and a sword whose tip rested on the stone base, looking as one would after winning a difficult battle; exhausted but triumphant. The life-like expression rendered with perfection by his wife lifetimes ago.

              Halvar glanced at the statue as he made his way into the temple following Aila’s lights until he found her where he had expected once she’d told him where she was. He came behind her as she sat on the stone bench before the large stone mural of her wedding to Zuriel. Faint nymphlight lingered on select stones ornamenting her hair. He rested a hand on her shoulder and she reached up to lay hers on top of his as she turned to look at him.

              “I didn’t mean to wake you, love.”

              Halvar smiled and threw a leg over the bench to sit straddling it to face her. “You didn’t exactly wake me. You crept out quietly enough, I just can’t sleep if you aren’t there.”

              She smiled at him and he leaned forward and pulled her closer to him, draping her legs over his and hugging her to his chest.

              “I don’t remember our wedding.” She said wistfully.  

              Halvar laughed and released his grip allowing her to sit up with his arm resting behind her. “We’ve been married almost five thousand years, dear. No one remembers our wedding.”

              “I know,” she said, still studying the mural. “But it would have been such a significant thing to wed myself to another immortal, you’d think we’d remember that.”

              Halvar followed her gaze to the mural. “Are we talking about our wedding?”

              “Mostly.” She said and studied the image she had long since memorized a moment longer before turning to face her husband. “He just seemed so significant in the histories…”

              “I don’t remember him any better than you do.”

              “But I was his wife.” She said with exasperation.  

              “I was his guardian.” He said with a shrug. “There is just no way we can remember out entire lives. What would that do to us if we knew every moment of the past six thousand years?”

              Aila huffed and turned back to the mural. “I don’t understand why it doesn’t bother you more.” She said after a moment.

              “I just accept that I am immortal and as such I will have to know things without remembering them.” He took her hand in his and studied her fingers as he laced his with hers. He looked up at her as he saw her turn. “I know that you were my best friend’s wife. I was married to his sister. I had one daughter and I don’t remember any of it.” He released her hand and traced her cheek. “All I know is all long as I can remember, I have loved you and been loved by you. I have been happy, and I just can’t care about a past I can’t remember when my heart is so full of what I have now.” He leaned in and kissed her, lingering in the kiss before pulling back. “Any other questions?”

              Aila sighed and leaned her head against his, taking his hand in both of hers. “Does it bother you that it bothers me.”

              “Yes, it does, but that’s only because I know it makes you unhappy to not remember.”

              “Please don’t think I am not perfectly happy with you.” She said with a plea as she pulled back to meet his gaze.

              Halvar smiled and nestled his head against hers again. “I know you love me, Aila. I don’t even ask that you be perfectly happy with me. I’m not perfect.”

              Aila reached up and cupped her hand on his neck. “ I do love you. You are my heart. I could not be happier with you.”

              “Good.” He sat up, forcing Aila’s hand to slip off back onto her lap where he gathered it up and kissed it. “Now, come back to bed.”               Aila extracted herself from her husband’s lap and they made their way back through the temple, hand in hand.

[shellyscribbles]

Hallendrest Lore

Working out how Drest broke Hallendrest. Haven't yet decided if this is canon or not.

"Halvar?"

Drest opened his eyes.

They killed me! he thought. Those insolent little...children?

His children? No, their children.

But they couldn't have children.

No, they had one, several lifetimes ago. No, wait, he had one. They had adopted their daughter but she had died.

He squeezed his eyes closed again as the many lifetimes of memories assaulted him. All the memories that he had lost through the countless years he had lived. So much time had passed.

Yes, that was right, they hadn't had children. They couldn't. But they had created beings, races on their world. They were gods on Hallendrest and their subjects had killed him.

Drest, once known as Halvar, sat up, which was strange. He never appeared in the Line laying down before.

"What did you do?"

He looked up at Zuriel who looked past Drest at something. He frowned. There shouldn't be anything to see in the Line. He turned to see what his friend was looking at and was shocked to find a strange image of what seemed to be…everything. There was the impression of worlds and realms and the jagged gaps between, but just before them was the only relatively clear image: Hallendrest.

"What the..." Drest muttered as he rose to his feet. He turned away from the mind-numbing image and found that they stood in a small gap between the strange image of Hallendrest and something he’d never seen before. It was just as vast as the universe he had gazed upon with Zuriel, but it was all one. Filled with light and joy and life.

"Is that the house of souls?" Drest asked as he stood staring, awed by the sight.

Zuriel pulled his eyes away and turned to face Drest. “Yes," he turned back to Hallendrest, gesturing with his hand. "What is this?"

Drest tore himself away from the beautiful world of light and turned to face Hallendrest. It was a strange image. It was all of Hallendrest, both in small scale and full sized somehow. It was almost nauseating.

Which was another weird sensation he shouldn’t be capable of in the Line. He had no body here. What was wrong with the Line? The space where his immortal soul waited for the phoenix to revive him. It was as if the Line itself had become a small cord beneath them.

“Halvar?” Zuriel asked after the pause.

"It's Hallendrest." He said quietly. "It's the world we made."

Zuriel frowned. "Why can we see it?" He looked back toward the house of souls. "The line is so thin here."

Halvar shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“You’ve been gone a long time.” Zuriel said. It sounded almost like he was thinking out loud rather than addressing Drest. “It’s been thousands of years since you last came.”

“It has been a long time.” He narrowed his eyes, a specific image was rising to the surface, the already strange image warping before them. “I think I forgot. A lifetime must have passed. You would think I would remember dying regularly.”

Zuriel gave a brief laugh.

              He felt a stab of annoyance at his friend laughing at the fact he had lived so long he forgot that when he died a phoenix would revive him. Perhaps that was why Vontis seemed so upset. He could see her now. She sat on a mountain she had brought up to get his fallen body and herself out of the battle. It was something she had done before, though never on this scale and she certainly didn’t remember it.

              It seemed to be a sort of reflex she had when he died.

              Or when he died in battle at least which had been surprisingly rare. It had taken him some nine thousand years to die the first time. A fact he was sure of at the moment with all of his memories.

"Vonts," Drest’s voice was soft and full of longing. The many lifetimes of their lives together sat in his heart. He’d never had to see her like this before, from so far away. And she was frantically shaking his body, screaming mutely.

A sharp cry resounded around them causing both men to wince and look up where a great bird of fire flew. It made to dive at them, screeching, then circled and tried again before flying away over Hallendrest.

Drest frowned again. That wasn't right, was it? He didn’t normally see the phoenix come, but the bird seemed frustrated and he circled, repeatedly diving toward Hallendrest, but stopped as it seemed to come against some unseen barrier.

"No," Drest said, cold fear shooting through him. His Phoenix couldn't reach him to resurrect him. What happens to an immortal soul if his body can’t come back? What would happen to Vontis?

He took three quick steps toward the image of Vontis, reaching for her, calling her name.

The image suddenly blurred as she moved nearly faster than he could see.

Horrified, he jumped back and the image ceased its movement. There was now a structure around her, over the top of the mountain and she sat slumped against the wall, rags and bones on the ground before her.

He stared at the scene wide-eyed. What was happening?

"I don't understand." Zuriel said. His voice sounded strange, choked. Drest was too confused and horrified to register how his friend must have felt seeing her after so many lifetimes. "I need to speak to The Great Creator." Zuriel said as he slowly turned away from the pitiful image of Vontis and walked quickly back to the House of Souls.

Drest wasn't sure how he knew, but as soon as Zuriel turned he knew the Line would vanish. He turned and reached out as he tried to open his mouth to cry out, but it was too late. Zuriel had already crossed the barrier that had rejected him.

Drest felt the space that had barely been there to begin, vanish. His soul was jerked back to Hallendrest. He screamed as the terror of what would come filled him. What would happen to an immortal soul, banned from The House of Souls when his body was nothing more than bones and dust?

He felt himself hurdling back toward the ground much as he did upon being resurrected, but this was different. Before, he always felt himself shrinking, shedding the larger mind that were his memories, the ones he couldn’t hold. This time he felt himself rip apart.

His very soul let out a sort of shriek as it shattered and scattered out across the world. Each fragment hurdling faster to the ground, gaining speed as they neared the ground.

Then he hit.

Over and over. One collision and a thousand all at once.

He took a sharp breath. Hundreds of breaths.

It was agony. His mind was suddenly filled to the brim with not only his own mess of lifetimes but several extra. A hundred names echoed through him until...

"Oren?" A gentle voice asked. "Oren, dear, can you hear me?"

He opened his eyes. A beautiful woman's face marked with concern hovered over him.

For a moment he lay confused. He'd never seen her before, except he had. It was his beloved Seriah.

He squeezed his eyes closed again. Who was he?

"Oren?"

Stefin?.... Alric?... Chasok?...

"I broke. I'm broken. Shattered." He muttered.

"What?" Seriah asked, alarmed.

Vontis!

Oren shook his head and sat up. "How strange." He looked around him. The name of the goddess Vontis echoing in his mind. And a deep longing.

"I feel strange." He said as he allowed Seriah to help him to his feet.

"Let's get you inside."

"Yeah," he said and shuddered.

[shellyscribbles]

Toying around with some of lore between the Shadow of Vale and Hallendrest.

Fun. I really want to make a story of it, but I don't have a conflict in mind.

[shellyscribbles]

Disembodied scribbles

Toying the ideas about Aila as the eternal queen who becomes Vontis.

              The narthex was a beautiful open room with fountains on either side and complex stone scenes on the walls and pillars. In the middle, near the door to the next room stood a statue of a warrior clad in shimmering armor which had been skillfully wrought from metal ore. He held his sword out from his side, the tip rested forever against the stone base on which he stood with one foot slightly forward. His face was remarkably life-like bearing the weary expression of a warrior who had just won a great victory.

              Aila stood and studied the face a moment, one she had carefully brought out herself centuries before. She lowered her gaze and carefully stepped around him and made her way into the first room.

              It was referred to as a shrine and perhaps had been in its conception, but the building she stood in now was more a temple filled with tens of rooms and thousands of scenes and books detailing the life of a great man, a great warrior. Zuriel, her first husband.

              She walked along the left wall, running her hands over the stone scene which glowed with nymph light which had nearly faded. Near the center of the wall, she paused and looked up at the wedding scene, studying each detail. The faces so clearly depicted the rapture of the bride and groom as they began their marriage after a brutal war which left a deep scar on the realm. They stood in a crowded room filled with many plants and flowers. Her long hair cascaded down her back laden with beautiful small lilies. Her dress still shone with pale nymph light. Brighter than the light that remained in the rest of the shrine.

              It was one of her favorite scenes, it was so joyous.

              Though it often invoked a strange sadness to see herself depicted in such a scene as if a character in a story someone else had written.

              With a soft sigh, Aila turned and walked toward the benches which stood in the middle of the room beside a pair of book shelves. She ran her hand along the dusty spines before taking a seat.

              “Aila?”

              “I’m sorry, Love, did I wake you?” Aila turned her head slightly to address her husband as he approached.

              “It’s alright.” He said as he drew close and laid his hands on her shoulders. “What are you doing out here so late?”

              Aila sighed, placing her hand over his. “I was just restless. Thinking about your question. It reminded me that I have a whole shrine dedicated to him.”

              She grew quiet and thoughtful as Halvar squeezed her shoulders and released them to take a seat beside her.

              “I know who Zuriel was. I know he was my husband and I must have loved him very much. I built this place in an obvious effort to remember him.” She looked around with a furrowed brow and sorrowful eyes. “I detailed so many moments and I can’t remember any of them. I know so much about him and the life we shared but I can’t say I remember him, not the way I remember Alira but more the way I remember Agur or even Abner.” She paused and looked down at her hands with a shake of her head. “He’s just a historical figure. A character in a story.” She turned to look to Halvar. “I raised twelve children with him and built a whole shrine to commemorate him, shouldn’t I remember him at all?”

              Halvar sighed and rubbed Aila’s back. “I don’t remember Zia. Or Ciana. Or Zuriel,” he turned to face the wall before him. “That doesn’t mean the man they made me doesn’t exist. I am sure we are both who we are now in part because of them, but Aila,” he turned back to her, “We have lived a full three lifetimes. We shouldn’t be here to remember them at all, we remember them just as we should. We have kept enough of them while time has taken the rest away. That isn’t our fault, but you have held onto and displayed the best of him for Vale to remember. His courage, strength, devotion, loyalty, these things he instilled in your children with you and they in theirs.

              “Just because we can’t remember what it was like to love them doesn’t mean we it didn’t happen and that we haven’t done our best to honor them. Its part of times’ way of letting us know we can’t live in the past. We take what it made us and live here now.”               Aila smiled and leaned against his shoulder.

[shellyscribbles]

Find the word

Jumping on an open tag, thank you @dogmomwrites.

I will tag a few, no pressure, @toribookworm22, @avrablake, @blind-the-winds and pass on the open tag for anyone else that loves this particular tag game.

Your words: Check, Yellow, Fresh, Rain, and Fire. And I love the idea of if you are missing one of the words, share a fun fact about your wips, OCs, and/or writing process.

My words were: Something, Anything, Nothing and Everything.

My new draft of Hallendrest is actually nearing 5k and has become more useful for these games so I have opted to use it for this one.

Something

              As the mix of annoyed and amused dancers returned to their conversations, Kallias noted one woman standing off to the side. Her long blond hair was mostly down, cascading over her shimmering rose-colored dress. She was looking up to the mezzanine but quickly shifted her attention as the king’s eyes fell on her.

              “You’ll be needed in Hastow.”

              Kallias turned his attention back to the table, vaguely aware he’d missed something as Khalid seemed to respond to the deflated prince.

              “Of course,” Prince Narvi said quietly as he returned to picking at his food.

Anything

This one is missing from this draft. So a fun fact about my Hallendrest story is that I have lore that may not ever be written out relating to the Gods of Hallendrest, Vontis and Drest, who have extensive backstories going back to The Shadow of Vale which occurs many thousands of years prior.

Nothing

              Mircea sat forward in his seat, “We aren’t talk about me. Why didn’t you feed them today?”

              “Because there was no extra loaf this morning.”

              The prince narrowed his eyes at her, “There was less since father has let go the grounds staff, but there was extra. Ceres makes one for you; for them.”

              “Let go the grounds staff? How could he?” Reena’s voice bordered on anger.

              “Why don’t you want to answer my question?” Mircea sat back and crossed his arms, his blue eyes scrutinizing his sister.

              “Where will they go? There are no other grounds to tend.”

              “There is nothing left to tend here. Why-”

              “Because it doesn’t matter.” Reena snapped, cutting him off before he could ask again.

              “What do you mean it doesn’t matter? They depend on you.”

              “Oh please, there is not nearly enough bread to go around.” She lowered her eyes to her hands as she picked absently at her nail. “It’s just false hope.”

Everything

              Ektor paused a moment and Reena could see movement from her mother though, she feared to turn to face her. “That a princess of Adullam would become queen of Vonterre.”

              “What?” Reena exclaimed. Horror filled her mind as she wondered at the reality of her father shifting from doing everything to protect his people from the destruction of Vonterre and its ruthless king, to giving his own flesh and blood over to be ravished by it. “You’d send Cassandra to be married to that, that monster? How could you? How long do you think it will last, how long she will last before…before…” she sputtered and grew quiet as her father lowered his eyes. “Oh, sweet Vontis, you aren’t sending Cassandra.”