QuoteIn the world of Aora, on the continent of Vaesko, a war rages. A war between the Church of Silene, followers of the Goddess of Light, and the vain thinkers. For the Church of Silene, the vain thinkers (the metal workers, the scholars, and the doctors) are pure evil for one reason: their work is not for the sake of the Goddess. To the Church, work not done in the service of the Goddess is work against the Goddess and her children, the Church. As the Church amasses vast armies from the various lands of Vaesko, the vain thinkers make a desperate exodus to the kingdom of Qura, led by the queen, Lara Nassa (the fifth). There, they find shelter in her land, but only as long as the queen can keep the
lords of Qura in line, with a minority of them are sympathetic to the vain thinker's plight. Now, the queen and the vain thinkers must fight to keep the land free of the grasp of the Church and the lords of Qura that seek to destroy the last vestiges of free knowledge on Aora.
Main Characters:
1) Queen Nassa. Being only 25 and the last in the line of the Nassa family, Lara seeks to make her rule the most just. Under her reign she has freed many from the controls of the law. Farmers, who once were forced to give a portion of their crop to their local lord, are not free to keep it in whole for their wishes. Serfs are free to roam the land, so long as they commit no crime of violence or theft. And no person in the kingdom can be indentured or made a slave. These acts by Queen Nassa have won her the love of the people, but the hatred of the lords, who see these acts as anarchistic and undisciplined. Yet under her rule, the kingdom of Qura has become a beacon of prosperity in the whole
of Vaesko as traders, and the vain thinkers, find her rule to be favorable for their needs.
2) Martin Shrader. A scholar and a father, Martin Shrader seeks Qura as a place to keep his family safe from the Church of Silene, and to continue his research into the prime essences, the natural powers of Aora. Despite his seemingly esoteric work, Shrader is a man that prefers the practical to the theoretical where it matters. For him, the prime essences could free all of humankind from slavery to hard labor with their natural properties.
3) Sera Shrader. Daughter of Martin and Chessa Shrader, Sera finds herself being the odd one out where her family is concerned being that she finds the work of the Church as virtuous, to the point that she left her family for the capital of the Church, X'rno, to become an acolyte of the Church. Within just five years, she has risen to the ranks of prime inquisitor for the Church, serving with the distinction of never killing a heretic once in her purging of vain thought, and the spreading of the Gospel of the Goddess, across Vaesko. Her compassion and conviction has made her favor within the Church's high council grow to where many of the acolytes call her the Voice of the Church.
4) Lord Azreous. Azreous is not your typical lord of Qura as his family were invaders to the kingdom of Qura that failed in the attempt, but despite this violent act, the Azreous family was able to garner the support of a border county of Qura and ensure their installation within the kingdom. To Azreous, no act is forbidden and no ally is too good as to betray to make sure his family gains the throne of Qura. To him, the Church of Silene is a tool to be used to make that happen.
...More to come...
It's just a general idea of where I'm going so far. I plan to actually draw the world of Aora and the rest of the geographic features, even explaining the prime essences. Essentially, the themes of the story are individuality vs the collective, free knowledge vs sanctioned [socially] knowledge, and the nature of government, and the nature of family. Plus, there's no real magic, even though the prime essences seem magical, but in reality they're easily explained via scientific methodologies.
-- Brede
