Signet of Solomon

[werewolf]

This is the introduction to a stalled fantasy novel l began a few months ago.l plan to return to it when l've completed a revision on another novel and worked out the problems with the plot after the initial few chapters.l had an outline but background details scuttled it.This openning was maily to set the mood .

lt was the year of our Lord 1648.The omminous shadows of the Middle ages were fading at last,like the morning mist before the sunrise.But the bright new era did arise easilly nor all at once. Many and painfull were it's birthpangs.
Apocalyptic fervor was in the air.lt was widely feared that the Last days finally come.As proof there were the terrible wars of the last generation, all across Europe and the British lsles.Christian faught Christian whilst the Moslem Turks threatenned from the East and the Barbary Corsairs ou of the South.
Plague and famine stalked he land.Each year the winters grew longer and colder.Villages and cities had been laid waste, whole swathes of the continent were in smoldering ruin.Entire regions were abandonned.
ln Europe the Pope's authority was challenged, the Holy Roman emporer defeated by his opponents.Even in England the king awaited trial by his own Parliament for treason, the shadow of the headsman's axe hovering over him.
Elsewhere, God had withdrawn the veil to reveal a vast New World, inhabited by strange seemingly savage races.And yet ellaborately caved pyramids lofted above the steaming jungle canopy.Mighty earthern mounds were reclaimed by the forsets,empty cities clung to desert cliff faces and broken walls crisscrossed the great southern mountain peaks.Their masonry was so enormous only the Devil himself could have put them there.Now, the descendants of the builders were doomed to toil for their conquerors, filling the coffers of imperial Spain with gold and silver.
The once mighty Holy Roman empire had been dismantled in all but name by the recent wars.Proud glittering Venice had slipped into senescence as well.
Despite her gilded domes and broad canals she was squeezed between compeing powers in all directions.No longer was she the mistress of he Mediteranean sea.
Off in the blue East the Russian giant stirred to life.Around the Baltic Sweden built her own empire at the expence of Denmark,Norway, Poland and Lithuania.The industrious Dutch, freed of Spanish rule after eighty years of strife,set ot to create their own aritime empire as those of Spain and Portugal began to crumble.
Further afield, East Africa's fabled ports had become empty ruins while the European powers set their sights upon the gleaming wealth of the exotic Orient.They gained lucrative footholds in Mughal lndia and China, where he Manchus had just overthrown the Ming dynasty.Having driven out the Europeans and swept away their foriegn influences Japan alone slept in her dream of splendid isolation.
lt was an age of nascent science and brave explortion.Astronomers gazed at the heavens, some hereticly proposing that the Earth was not the center of Creation.lntrepid mariners circled the globe in their fleat galleons as cartographers mapped the lands they discovered.Fledgeling colonies were carved out of the widerness. Gunpowder and the canon ball gradually replaced the sword and axe, lance and bow.Castles were scarcely more than relics of te medieval past.A new calendar was initiated to regulate the months and years though not all yet accepted it's use.
lt was a time of unbridled ambitions and undreamed of possibilities.Yet, superstition remained rampant.Even as some charted to orbits of the sun , moon, planets and stars , others continued to cast horoscopes by them. Often the same men did both.Dreams and Tarot cards could fortell the future.Remnants of lost misty and pagan antiquity dotted the landscape still cloaked in legend.The ruins of dea races and fallen empires served as an everpresent reminder of a past never quite forgotten if only dimnly recalled.
Witches, it was said, cast sinister spells for their dark master.To combat them, witch huntrs fanned out across Europe, the stench of burning flesh filling the air.Demons tempted or tormented innocents beneath the cloak of nights dark shadows.Specters haunted the churchyards,ghouls lurked in crypts and the desert wastes. Werewolves roamed the forests.The undead rose from their graves to prey upon the living, Banshees wailed out upon the foggy moors and mighty serpentine leviathans terrified mariners on the vast open seas.....
Such was the world of Aedan Sinclair.Born in the Scottish highlands he'd wandered widely abroad, selling his sword since e was fifteen.Great and mysterious forces were gathering about him, though as yet he percieved them not.Aedan was to play an important role in coming events,,,,if he survived.Sailing homeward from fabled Venice, in the wake of the recent wars in which he'd sold his sword,fate began to converge upon him....with the sighting of Corsaire sails on the horizon......

[The Muse]

You were correct about your world building!
If I may offer an opinion, I would say that this "introduction" to set the mood, as you call it, really should be what you use in marketing the book.
The line where you say "It was an age of nascent science..." down to where you introduce your hero,would be a pretty good introduction for the story itself.

As Knight-Hood is fond of saying,
Just my two cents. ;D

[werewolf]

As is pretty obvious it is an historical fantasy set in the mid 17th century. A preequal that serves as sort of an origin tale was set in 1645.l haven't worked the bugs out of that one either as it was an adaptation of a novella formerly laid in a world l created.But te still older seed of he plot was inspired by the Witchfinder general who hunted witches in th 1640's in England.
A seperate strand connects up to my Gothic novel set in th late19th /20th centuries.The hero of Signet, Aedan Sinclair is an ancestor of one of th 19th century characters. The ring is derived from the legend of the one God gave Solomon with which he commanded Demons to build his Temple. lt's also based upon the seal rings used by ceremonial magicians.This oneif not the original went back at least to the 1st century ad and the gnostic sorcerors Simon Magus and his student Menander. The latter created [in my world anyhow] a dreaded grimoire ala Lovecraft's Necronomicon.Like Sauron's ring in Tolkien Menander put much of his inherent power in the book and ring but later lost them.[he died in a massive earthquake and tsunami in 365 ad in his efforts to free the Dark god Abbadon/Apollyon.]The history of the ring and book are lengthy and complex and the details shifting [which is one of the problems.]
But essentially the ring comes into the hands of a group of Templars in Syria during the 1130's, is taken to Cyprus at the fall of Acre n 1291, then France in 1307 and finally Scotland at the suppression of the Templars.Over 300 years later it is inherited by Aedan who knows it only as a family eirloom.But Menander, who survives by possessing mortal hosts, wants both the ring and the book back. His original body was nearly immortal[he lived over 330 years]but it is magicly imprisoned to prevent his full resurrection.He needs to ring and book to do that.Whle still powerfull without them he is also mortal which hinders his grander plans.He was concieved as Abbadon's emmissary in 33 ad....
Aedan's family have the so called old blood like the hero of my modern scifi novel.The women tend towards healing gifts and second sight the men towards greater than normal strength, resistance to disease and faster healing.Sometimes one gender will 'recieve' the gifts traditional to the other.Aedan inherited some of his mothers mental abilities but was not trained to use them.He has the strength etc.At 14 he chose the warrior's life during the Bishop's war between England and Scotland in 1639-40. After that he sailed for Europe in 1641 to hire out with the Swedes in the Thirty Years war.So, he mssed the beginning of The English civil wars ca. 1642-45.During a lull on the continent he returned to fight in Scotland on the royalist side in 1645.The preequal involves his seeking revenge on the an who persecuted his other as a witch.After that he went back to Europe in 1646 until the wars ended in 1648.He then heard of the king's escape and rebellion and headed to Venice to sail home.That's where Signet begins.
But his origin is more convoluted than he knows. The then current host of Menander had gone to Scotland seeking the ring in 1624.With him was the original book [there were a few copies]. The villain tracked down Aedan's mother and captured her.The ring can only be given not stolen by violence or stealth. Sadly, extortion can do it sometimes depending upon the wearer.So can deception.Aedan's mother was pregnant with him so the villain threatenned her husband and unborn child.She used her own abilities to summon a storm sinking his ship.lt went down taking he villains host with it but Aedan's mother survived and he was born soon after.
Aedan's father was killed by the villain.The book washed ashore and was found by Lilias Ruthven, daughter of an aristocratic family disgraced by it's plots against James , king of England [though he only ruled SCOTLAND when the plots occurred in the latter 16th century.]She decided to use the book to obtain her revenge on the house of Stuart.Aedan meets up with her and destroys her in 1645 never knowing of the book or it's connection to his own past. He leaves it in the seaside cave Lilias inhabited.lt was not rediscovered until the 19th century.[Aedan saught her out to get his revenge upon the witchunter as he wanted the man to face a real witch, though admittedly by the definitions of the era his other was one even if not evil.]
Menander's spirit did not give up. But he could only take a new host once per 19 year lunar cycle at the Hunter's moon. Thus, he did not gain a new host until around 1639 or 40 [the cycle began several years prior to the death of the host in 1624.]ln SIGNET the villain catches up to Aedan after he latter's capture by Barbary Corsaires.ln the meantime he had secretly instigated the death of Aedan's mother in 1645 once he realized that she'd passed on the ring. ln the form of English scholar, Cyrus de Winter the villan tracked Aedan across the continent barely missing him in Venice but finding him in the slave marts of Tripoli in Lybia. But the ring had been given to one of the Corsaires who promised to help free Aedan.This Corsaire had recognised it because in his youth he knew one of the last survivors or a hidden cult that dedicated itself to fighting Menander and his master, Abbadon. lt's after Aedan's escape in Tripoli that l haven't decided where it will go.
Aedan was initially created as part of one of the stages the book and ring passed through but then seemed the ideal character to use as the hero of the witchcraft revenge story once readapted to known history.l also wanted to try out a wandering hero of the Howardian type [Conan mixed with a dash of Solomon Kane]Solomon Kane though set in the late 16th century is often depicted more like the 17h.But Aedan is a nominally catholic highlander not a
Puritan nor a Scots Presbyterian.Howards heroes were usually Celtic though and l have an affinity for things Celtic too.l realised that despite the presence of guns and canons alot of the setting of the sort of world Howard depicted actually fit best in around the 15th-17th centuries with the galley slaves, wandering mercenaries, even his Pictish stories mirrored 18th century New York.His pirates were those of the Caribbean or the Barbary Corsaires. Of course the style of barbarism and paganism derived from the Roman era with some of the dark ages tossed in. But l realised a conanesque hero would fit in well then eben if not wearing a skin loincloth ala the comics.ln my intro l tried to do for the 17th century what the Hyborian age essay did for Conan's world. Most people know historical eras as tey learned of them in school where l think the try to make them as dry and boring as possible. l wanted to see if l could restore some of the glamour and atmosphere and of course l added monsters and the supernatural.l went with the notion that people of the era were not all a bunch of gullible simpletons but that what they believd existed in most cases did exist.We'll see if l can pull it off.

[The Muse]

This IS very extensive. Have you considered, rather than trying to squash it all into one book, writing instead a series? I know of another fantasy series that is just as complex, although containing nothing of earth history. Its called the Wayfarer Redemption series.

With a series, you would not need to sacrifice details or events to make it all fit into one book. You would be free to expound to a greater degree on the back stories and the details. And you could ALWAYS present this as an alternate history fantasy story. That would cure the issues of minor historical discrepancies.

I have seen this done in such a way that the endings of the first book overlaps the beginnings of the second book, etc, etc. It is usually quite successful, with the events of the end of the first book occurring in a different area than the beginning of the next book, with time running concurrent in the stories. The second book then branches off totally into its own story. Towards the end, it overlaps the third books story.

The locations dont need to be drastically different either, it could be as simple as two locations in the same town, or as complex as happenings in two different continents or kingdoms.

I have also seen it done as simply as the characters in the second book being introduced in the ending of the first.

Either way, you have an EPIC on your hands. Handled well, this will be an incredible story. But it is a LOT to try to put into one book without the book being very long.

[werewolf]

lt is intended to be a series if l ever work out the bugs. The first tale in called "PAYMENT IN KIND" and involves the witchcraft revenge story and is essentially Aedan's origin story though there could certainly be preequals set prior to 1645.Similarly, though none are currently plotted he almost certainly had some sort of adventures between 1646 and late 1648 when Signet begins.l actually began Signet in frustration over the problems l was having adapting Payment.l had a werewolf subplot in Payment that is proving difficult to include. lronicly, when debating where to set the historical version of the tale one reason for the choice of Scotland was that wolves survived there until the latter 17th century but had been extinct in England and Wales for hundreds of years by then. They endured a bit longer in lreland so it was also an option.But l wanted a connection to the civil wars and lreland's rebellion then did not quite suit my needs. To be honest the Conan analogy also influenced me since the highlands o f Scotland with it's Gaelic culture suggested Cimmeria more than 'green' lreland.Doubtless the movie and series HIGHLANDER did not hurt either nor all the romance novels .A highlander seemed as close as you'd get to the barbarian hero in the 17th century at least from western Europe. The whole backstory might go even further back than the 1st century ad if l ever decide upon the nature and origin of those who initiated the OLD BLOOD line. They were concieved as godlike but whether l go the Tolkienseque route and make the quasi Angelic or a more scifi gods from outerspace type l don't yet know. l'm torn.l'm more fantasy than scifi oriented but in the modern novel it was implied they had advanced technology and l see no reason for a 'magical' ultrademensional race to require much material tech.Thus, so far l've left that pretty vague ubtil l can settle upon a solution l find satisfying.

[John Reid]

Werewolf and I are old friends. We met on line and have communicated almost daily for years talking about our books and sharing ideas. We even considered a crossover story once between two of our characters.

I confess I envy him his indepth knowledge of history and almost photographic memory. I'm glad to see him here sharing his talent with others aside from me.

Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

I dont suppose that has anything to do with how he found us? If it does..

Why thank you, kind sir, for bring another talent to us.

[werewolf]

lt does. Knighthood mentioned your site and included the url in an email regarding his tales of the likenamed character, some of which he'd previously shared with me.l've been looking for a creative writing forum to begin getting my work out there and maybe eventually get it published if l ever finish the novels.[and stop endlessly revising those l have finished.]

[The Muse]

well, we are actively looking for authors, so you have come to the right place.

[werewolf]

So far each of my novels could have sequals or perequals and are related [in the same world.]The hero of Sleeper Ben Cord was of the old blood ca. 1954-present [in suspended animation between 1980 and 2012.] Aedan Sinclair also possessed the old blood though living in the 17th century.But he also had the ring, the signet of Solomon, that later ended up with Amercan occultist Jared Nicholson in the late 19th century. He built the mansion that serves as the setting for ALL HALLOWS EVE [ca.1974-75,1982 and 2012]Nicholson obtained the ring from his mentor whoes sister wed into the Sinclair line [Aedan's descendants]Nicholson's wife , Meredith was a Sinclair. Reincarnation is part of my world so the hero of ALL HALLOWS EVE lan Holderness is the modern incarnation of Jared Nicholson. The heroine, Dr. Cynthia Akers was Meredith. The villain from Jared's day, Damion Eldridge once stole the codex
and MEREDITH SACRIFICED HERSELF TO STOP HIM. ln 1974-82 Eldridge's ghost was allied to lan's jealous crippled stebrother Seth Blackthorne who has both the book and the ring, with which he secretly levied the curse upon lan. Potentially, Ben Cord could've met characters from ALL HALLOWS EVE prior to 1980they survived until 2012.Since lan was a well known musician ca. 1968-75 Ben could at least have heard of him.lan's son Colin inherited his curse and was alive in Late October 2012 whereas Sleeper took place in that September.Cynthia and her brother, Danny, a New York cop, were also still alive. Lan's fate remains in question. The shapeshiftin reptoids hinted at in Sleeper therefore could appear in the stories of Aedan, Jared or the ALL HALLOWS EVE characters. The talismans similarly could figure anywhere as might the Satan like archdemon Abbadon [whom the writer of the codex served.]The stries stand alone but are part of a much bigger shared universe. Someday l'll get around to Jared's adventures in the gaslight era ca. 1878-1917.

[Omen]

This is intriguing. The overview you gave displayed an approach to Worldbuilding that is second-to-none. Your detail was very rich and created a stir in me as I struggled to separate actual slivers of history from your statments of fantasy and fiction.

This is a great technique.

Currently, there is a hole in Fantasy because of the greatness created by Lords of the Rings (movie trilogy) and Harry Potter. This is why the Hobbit will have strength and genres such as Goth and SteamPunk are experiencing growth and movement.

People want more freedom within their thoughts and more escapism into their dreams. "What if..." is the questions that rules the day and the factor that sells it happens to be how 'relatable' a piece of work is; for this determines the demographic that will follow as a fan.

This one dares a true historian to look beyond a fact or two in order to entertain the, 'What if...' scenario. You handled it very well, because you made it almost a challenge.

Your test is going to be in your capability to 'walk' them deeper into your world by holding their hands.

Your Worldbuilding is solid, as mentioned above.

Your Core Concept, raises the eyebrow of interest and carries a hint of spice because your story reaches across generations. This implies that it is multifaceted, which adds excitement to the immersion process.

You tone seems to have a sense of chaos, politics, angst, and question. This can be great because it won't allow the reader to seat comfortable in one place too long.

I would like to see you pull your niche out into the light so that it readily identifies the difference of your story to the others that it will be compared to.

Your Vision is VERY prominent by the background details that you have given.

Overall, I think that I am smelling the development of an Epic tale that has a TON of potential. It makes me anxious to see how you handle your Storytelling aspects and Drama.

Just from what you have here... this is something your should continue to work on.

[werewolf]

Thanks for the encouragement. l can always use it. lt's the reason l finally saught out a site like this one.l've been writing and drawing since childhood back in the 60's [dating myself a bit there.]l did not respond sooner because l have a cold and have not been on line much for a couple of days.Some of the characters go way back with me. The 19th century character Jared Nicholson has changed his first name and his dates several times but his general appeareance and essence have remained for almost 40 years [originally he was more monster hunter than mage but even the latter has been in place for about 30 years.His iookalike modern decendant goes back about as far.l also had an heroic fantasy hero l focused upon for much of the 70's and 80's set in his own world. Since his being a king was central l'll probably leave him there .Someday if l live long enough l'll get around to him again. Aedan rather resembles him.The actor [Chris Hemsworth] currently playing Thor might give you the impression of what Aedan looks like save for period costumes.l do a fair amout of research alot of which never gets used but l figure it might eventually. l like to get as much of the history correct as l can so that it grounds the supernatural element.

[Omen]

Now I'm REALLY interested in your talent, abilities, and capabilities with your storytelling!!

Thanks for responding.

I am being honest when I tell you that I like what I see, but now I want you to take it to the next level (please forgive me if I sound pushy - actually, I'm more of excited).

Take a quick look at our Wrytrs Challenge section and go to the BASTARD INTRO post. This one would be EXCELLENT for you and your skills!!

I would love to see you create a BASTARD INTRO for the first book in your first story to give us a taste of what to expect. I want you to HOOK us, as readers, and to let us know that your story is really an epic.

I like what I see... now I want it presented in a box with a bow on top. This actually has me excited!!!

;D

[The Muse]

*sigh*

Pushy....

[werewolf]

l am only a slow hunt and peck typist and not very good with computers. My level of patience with them is even less.l write by hand which is not terribly fast either. Sadly, l have no idea how to create a pdf or virtually anything else your average first grader these days probably knows by heart.Still, here is the openning of Chapter1 of PAYMENT IN KIND the preequal to Signet and basicly the intro for Aedan.lt is no more finished as a novel than signet but the broad outlines are clearer. lt's more the bridges between those points and the staging of them that is fuzzy for now. [lt's doubtless too long as well.]
PAYMENT IN KIND:age of darkness, age of light.

[Kilsyth, Scotland August 15, 1645]

Dawn was about to break, though darkness and a clammy guaze of mist still veiled the scene.The battle was about to begin.lt was liable to be the culmination of the war.Aedan stood silently his right hand fingering the leather bound hilt of his claymore beneath it's filigreed guard.He waited the coming battle with eager anticipation.All else was merely a dull interlude for him, save perhaps a few moments with the wenches. He smiled at the thought.
Aedan towered over his fellows at well above six feet in hieght.Shoulder length strawblond hair and icey blue eyes made him look more Norse than Scottish.But Scandinavian blood ran strong in the Orkneys whence came his parents, Collum Sinclair and Maggie MacClaren
Aedan rankled at the comparison.His grandfather had faught the Danes and Norwegians, admittedly in the pay of the Swedish king.Yet, the Swedes hardly counted to Sinclair as it had been the Danes and Norwegians who had raided Scotland, ruling parts of it for nigh on eight centuries.And it was a Danish privateer, Olaf Magnussen, that slew Aedan's father, taking his mother captive.
Only when a tempest swallowed the reiver's vessel did Maggie escape, to wash ashore near the small coastal village of Dirleton.lt lay perhaps six leagues east of Edinburgh.ln the months before Aedan was born Maggie met Jamie Sinclair and they married.
Jamie was of Collum's clan.He came from Caithness on Scotland's northern promontory, facing the Orkneys.He was visiting kin in the Sinclair barony of Rosslyn in the south when Maggie was found amidst the remains of the foundered ship.Stockier than his stepson he was also a few inches shorter, though otherwise accounted as tall.His wild auburn mane and tangled beard were tinged with silver.Laughlines radiated from his warm haezel eyes, fading freckles visible on his face.
Jamie willingly accepted his deceased clansman's son as his own, at least initially for Maggies' sake. Aedan's strength and prowess as a fighter ascerted itself early on as did the boy's distaste for much else.His size helped him stand out from the start.By age fourteen he already stood a full fathom in height.
lt made Jamie proud to call him son, despite idle whispers that Aedan bore Faerie blood in his veins rather than Norse.He never seemed to get sick like others did and healed with, what some said was unnatural swiftness.Jamie and Maggie would not countenance those who called Aedan a changeling but the rumour refused to die. To Sinclair Jamie was the only father he ever knew, Collum being but a name to him.
Jamie brought Maggie and Aedan home to Caithness with him and that was where Aedan was raised, in the proper Highland manner. For Dirleton and Rosslyn held more to lowlandish ways than Jamie cared for.There, the local Presbytterians named Aedan the Devil's son, behind his back, fearing tosay it to his face.Abitter fued with Jamie's older brother,Rory,forced the family south, despite Jamie's reluctance, when Aedan was thirteen. lt was then the locals christenned him with his unofficial nickname.
A more dour bunch than the lowland Presbyterians Aedan never laid eyes upon.They were often called Covenanters due to a covenant they pressed upon the king after the Bishop's war
five years before. lt had been then that Aedan first tasted battle at fourteen.The'Covenanters' took no joy in anything unless it was dissapproval of the pleasures of others.No drinking,dancing, singing or wenching!Faugh on the ruddy bastards!They saw the Devil and sin everywhere, making Cromwell's Puritans seem cheerfull by comparison.
Soon after Sinclair sailed to sell his sword on the continent the very uncivil war broke out amongst the Damnable Sasseanach [the English].The long suppressed Parliament rebelled against the intransigent king, Charles Stuart.The strife quickly spread. lreland rose in revolt whilst the Scots were divided in allegiance.
The Covenanters sided with the Parliament, even fighting the royalists within England itself as part of their alliance.The Highlanders, with few exceptions, favored the king, despite his inconsistent policies towards Scotland itself.He was, after all, a Scot on his father's side at leasrt. And that counted for something.The Puritans disdained Scotland caring only to spill Scottish blood, whether as ally or enemy.
James Graham,Marquess of Montrose, lead the royalists in Scotland against the Committee of Estates, which was dominated by Covenanter nobles and churchmen, allied to Parliament.The Committee was nearby , in Sterling, driven from Edinburgh by an outbreak of the plague.Rumour blamed it on witchcraft.But then then Covenanters saw witches behind everything and burned ten times more of them the the English in the same span of time.
Montrose skirted Sterling on the way south from Kinross.He hoped to defeat the smaller enemy force, commanded by the Earl of Lennark, before it could meet up with the larger one, out of the north, under William Bailie.
The Royalists were outnumbered almost two to one by Baillie's men alone. Unless the Earl's army was defeated quickly, Montrose' men would be crushed between them.Unfortunately, Baillie was already there and Lennark yet to arrive.
That meant that the Covenanters had the numbers, the highground and reinforcements on the way. They also had a fortified base in the city of Sterling, only a few leagues to the northeast. All the proverbial cards seemed in their favor.
And yet, the Royalists had Montrose.Three times he'd faced his foes in open battle, beating them soundly on each and every occaission.Many of Baillie's levies were half trained and faught in those very battles.They knew, even if Baillie didn't, that the devil, Montrose might still drag triumpf out of apparent defeat.The forced march had left Baillie's men weary, with no certainty that Lennark's army would even show up.Meanwhile, the Royalists were rested, ready and....waiting.
lt was a small advantage.But it would have to do.There was no retreat for Montrose and his men.lt was lierally victory or death.Baillie clearly planned to make the royalists choose to confront either he or Lennark, exposing them to attack on both sides.
lt was a good plan. lt was what Sinclair himself would've done.Whether the sunrise brought them doom or triumph it promised to be a glorious fight.This was what Aedan had been born to do.Let others herd cattle, tend pigs, dig pitifull little gardens in the stoney soil or drag fish flopping onto the deck from the cold sea! To be a warrior was....and always would be the life for him.
Suddenly, Baillie's men began to move down the slope.Delimitting, they attempted to flank the Royalists on both sides.Why they chose to go early, not waiting for Lennark who can say?Perhaps the Committee in Sterling grew jumpy and impatient.Possibly, Baillie was confident that he had enough men on his own and did not wished to share credit.Or maybe he feared to let anticipation sap his men's already flagging will Aedan neither knew nor cared.
lt was the chance Montrose had waited for.The first glimmers of sunrise warmed the hills to the east. Montrose ordered his men to attack. His preciouss cavalry charged that of the Covenanters.The Highlanders and Alisdair MacCola's lrish mercenaries rushed at the enemy footsoldiers, with a blood chiiling roar in Gaelic.They surged up the slope,swords, axes and polearms waving , sunlight glinting steel as they came. Some clashed swords on their small wooden bucklers as then leaped forward into the enemy ranks, shattering Baillie's formations.
Muskets discharged repeatedly,blade clanged against blade or chopped the wood of the bucklers.Men cried out in pain, anger fear and ....exhultation.Horses reared and whinnied.lt was a chaotic melee'.Aedan and his stepfather slashed their way through the enemy with feirce joy and practised skill.But it was butcher's work , requiring little finesse and with luch being as important as prowess.
Though only twenty one Aedan's years of fighting in Europe's wars had hardenned him, honing his abilities on the feild.He was a veteran perhaps even more than Jamie who was twice his age.Sinclair had served in the very armies that Cromwell modeled his fabled round heads upon.Baiilie's men were not of that caliber.
Before long Aedan was scored by a dozen bruises and gashes, though none vital. For once he was greatfull for the 'gifts' that garnered him the apellation of 'the Devil's son'.Let the tongues wag so long as they told of his indominability in battle and not his questionable bloodline.lgnoring his wounds he sliced through every foe that confronted him, fighting instinctively,with little visible effort.A trail of fallen Covenanters littered their path up the slop as the morning sun burned away the predawn mists. The sky was bright for once unobscurred by clouds save far away of the eastern horizon.......

That's not quite where the chapter ends but this is already notably longer than it should've been.Needless to say all does not go quite so glowinly for Aedan beyond this point, despite his prowess. lf it did the story would be over in the first chapter. But it does give a reasonable intro to a tough but still young Aedan.l hope the historical exposition was not too boring.

[werewolf]

a couple of minor corrections or explanations.Aedan was 20 here not 21 as stated. l was thinking of the shipwreck in late 1624 instead of his birth in spring 1625.Similarly, at one point it is implied he was still only 19 because he first fought in the Bishop's war five years earlier. But that was artistic shorthand.The Bishop's war began with riots in Scotland in 1637 over an edict by the king seeking to enforce English religious unity on the Scots who had their own church.The actual war took place in 1639 and 1640 with a several month truce in the middle.The king, as indicated was forced to back down because the Parliament refused to support him and help pay for the war as they held the purse strings. Aedan was 14 in 1639 at the war's start and 15 by it's end in 1640.

[The Muse]

Historical Exposition??? I love historically based stories and novels....Even the "alternate history" ones!

I will say that your immersion factor in your writing is FANTASTIC! In short order you had me standing in his world...seeing it as if I was there. To me the best stories are the ones that form a movie in your head...sights, sounds, smells, images, textures.....LOVE THIS!

[werewolf]

l'm glad you liked it. lt's hard for me to tell what others will go for. l personally like dialogue, description and exposition. But in forums on books and movies elsewhere l've repeatedly read crticisms for being wordy or boring whenever it wasn't frenetic action or gore on display. l can write both though l'm only average at it. l hope the overall combination works anyhow. Here's the remainder of chapter 1

Jamie was clearly getting winded, whereas Aedan had barely gotten started."Ah may na' make it, lad...."He breathed heavilly, huffing and puffing with effort.Sweat beaded on the older man's face."There's nowhere Ah can go teh catch mah breath. Ah'm naw as young as ah used teh be."
"Do nah be foolish!Ye'll be swingen' your blade long after ah'm too weary teh fight..."Aedan grinned,though both knew it was a face saving lie, for Jamie's benefit.Jamie gave him a wry sad smile in return.
"Ah wish it were so ,lad" he sighed wearilly."But ah know better an' so do ye'. lf we get seperated in the fray, find me lad. lf...if ah don't make it, ye' know what teh do.Ah don't need teh tell ye.' But send mah love teh Maggie.You two're the only things ah'll miss...."
lt will'na come teh that, old lion."Aedan replied gently, gazing at his stepfather with concern."But ye' have mah vow, an' it makes ye' feel better.lf ye' canna' return teh her ah will.Ah'll wander neh more. She will'na' be left alone."
"Tha's all ah could ask for lad. Ah know what ah
m asken' of ye' son, and ah'm greatfull teh ye'.Ah know ye'll take good care o' yer mah fer me."
"Aye! That ah will." nodded Aedan vigourously.The whole time he continued tocleave through the Covenanter host.
"Slay a few o' the bloody curs for your old Dah, will ye'?"Jamie forced a tired grin."Ge' the king mah greeten' when ye' see im'..."Then he fell back, defending himself as best he could but no longer advancing.Aedan glanced back and nodded wordlessly, in answer.With great reluctance Sinclair forced himself to turn and continue to move forward up the hill.lt was what his stepfather wanted.Yet, it was the hardest thing Aedan had ever done.He'd lost freinds before. But Jamie was his father. Nothing would ever be the same for him again.His parents had always been there even when he wandered far away. Now there was only Maggie.He had few illusions.Jamie might survive....but not unscathed.
The joy went out of his face.Aedan faught grimly now, his teeth gritted, eyes hard as diamonds.For him the day had turned dark though the sun was now high above.Aedan went from fighting for the shear love of it and to protect his stepfather to preemptively avenging him. Hopefully,he was wrong and they'd share a mug of ale tonight and laugh about it.But Sinclair sincerely doubted that that would be the case, much as he might wish it so.
Then, there was a flash of light,followed indefinitely by a distant bang he only half heard.Searing pain exploded in his skull....and all was blackness.

[werewolf]

This is a modified intro to the preequal to Signet set several hundred years before in the same continuity.[Key to the Seven Seals]

The Dark Ages were wanning, though the coming dawn was obscured by ominous clouds.lt was the year of our Lord 1191, the 587th of the Hajira.Christendom had lain prostrate for centuries, besieged on all sides.But the tide had begun to turn at last.
Norse sails no longer struck terror along Europe's coasts, since their conversion to Christianity.The once nomadic Magyars had settled down and ceased their dreaded raids, founding the Christian nation of Hungary.The Slavs too had begun to create their own realms in Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria,whilst half Norse Kiev dominated Russia.
Islam, which had threatened from the south and east, lay riven into numerous localized dynasties,many now ruled by the Seljuk Turks.Two of the three Moslem Caliphates had fallen, the last far gone in decay.The Recoquista of the Iberian peninsula proceeded apace and Normans had seized Sicily and southern Italy.Even once crumbling Byzantium displayed renewed vigour.
A century past the flower of western Chivalry had poured forth to reclaim the Holy Land.Yet, instead of protecting pilgrims, as they professed to do, they carved out realms of their own in the east, at the expense of Islam and Byzantium alike.
It was an age of Faith not Reason.Bards sang epic lays in every court.Legendary relics were saought out and treasured.Paganism, though receeding, had not entirely dissappeared.Heresies, like those of the Bogomils and Cathars spread across the heart of Christendom, threatened by savage persecutions.The Roman and Eastern Orthodox churches had split acrimoniously, sowing hatred between the Latins and the Greeks.
The very boundries of the Earth remained unknown.Fearsome monsters were thought to fill the Deep.Dragons, it was said, darkened the skies above. Wildmen roamed the forests.Ghouls lurked in specter haunted tombs.Djinn preyed upon the unwary amidst ruins in the desert wastes.....
Astrologers read the stars and mages cast their sinister spells.Demons came by night to tempt and taunt the innocent, at the behest of their foul Master.The superstitious pointed to omens that the end of days approached......

[The Muse]

o.O wow...

[werewolf]

l'm glad you liked it.l've been ruminating on plot points and character details but l felt doing the intro and a couple of chapters might help me get the flavor of the tale more.The intro resembles that for Signet intentionally since it is in the same continuity about 460 years earlier.l've been struggling with the history of the ring and codex and the villain who created the latter for some time.To figure out how the situation in the 1640's arose l had to go back in time. l had a range of possible timeframes for this earlier series of events between the late 12th and early 15th centuries ad., based upon various considerations.This era would be when the older scroll was transcribed by the villain as a codex. After being out of sight for centuries the villain and his servants once more became a force to be reckoned with ala Sauron in LOTR.But he was somehow prevented from completing his revival and once more went dorment for 2-400 years.l needed to figure out how and why.
The villain is the gnostic leader Menander [who really existed.]His orthodox foes claimed he was the student of Simon Magus [cited in the New Testament].Both claimed to be incarnations of the godhead placing them at odds with Christianity as potential competitors. Both were Samaritans either geographicly or religiously if not both.[The Samaritans say they descend from the northern tribes of lsrael and remained when the Judean elite was deported to Babylon.They had fled to Judea to avoid deportation by the Assyrians about 130 years before.The Returning Judeans said the Samaritans were heretical descendants of pagans settled in former lsrael by the Assyrians, hence their bad reputation in the Bible.]
Menander founded his own school in Antioch after Simon Magus death.[ca.66-67 ad.]He was there about 80 ad but little else is recorded.ln my mythos Menander turns to the dark side after Simon's death as his rejection by the Jews, Christians and orthodox Samaritans injures his pride and blunts his quest for power.He manages to find the ancient signet of Solomon and begins to build his own cult following.He creates a master scroll of his teachings pouring much of himself into it [as Sauron did the ring.]But some of his students begin to see his selfish ambitions and they turned away from him too.He vows revenge upon them. He gains a reputation as a sorcerer and the anti Christ mantle placed once upon Simon he take up himself. Legend now claims that he'd been born in the hour of darkness when Jesus died on the cross, sent into the world as Satan's eir and emissary on Earth.Those of his students who rejected him form a secret order to fight his ambitions.They wrangle back and forth until 365 ad.Menander plans to summon his master physicly into the world, performing the ritual in Alexandria.But it causes a catastrophic earthquake felt over much of the eastern mediterraean and tsunamis devastate Alexandria [this disaster is historical, on par with that in the lndian ocean in 2004.]Menander is seemingly slain which no mortal had been able to accomplishin over 330 years.
His surviving foes take the ring and use the scroll to imprison him within a specially made sarcophagus with seven magical seals.They fear that since his body was incorrupt his followers might be able to resurrect him.They then secretly hide it in the Great Pyramid which few knew the entrance to.lt's special qualities they hope would prevent him from psychicly directing his followers.But it was already too late for he had taken control of the one who carried the scroll.lt too could not be destroyed by ordinary means so it was to be dumped at sea.The possessed host continued his plotting until defeated by the emperor Theodosius 1in 394 ad.That host without the ring was still mortal.The scroll was taken back to Milan by Theodosius.There, bishop [and future saint] Ambrose tried but failed to destroy it.So, he placed it in the emperor's casket when Theodosius died in early 395.There it could only call to a dead mind.lt was brought to Constantinople in the emperor's funeral cortege'and interred in the Church of the Holy Apostles,where it remained until the church was entirely rebuilt by Justinian ca. 550. But the secret of it's location had died with Ambrose in 397 and it was installed in the new church.
The ring remained with the secret order of Menander's foes,passed down to it's leaders century by century.From Egypt they moved to Harran in Syria after the rise of lslam.When that city was sacked in 1033 they moved to nearby Edessa, then on to Antioch in the 1070's when the Turks took Edessa.ln 1084 Antioch fell to the Turks as well.Having learned where the scroll was they moved to Constantinople to guard it in case Menander's followers ever discovered where it was.For though still imprisoned in the sarcophagus it had been removed from the Great Pyramid in 820//32 when the Moslem Caliph broke into the Pyramid.lt was taken to Harran then and the two groups battled each other there for 200 years.ln 1033 Menander's cult fled south settling in the ruined city of Petra in Jordan.They remained there in 1191.But they were about to learn where the ring was and to go after it.
The hero of this tale is a young Dane, Eirik Sigurdson, who arrives at the siege of Acre in 1189 aboard a Dano-Frisian fleet which blockades the harbor to prevent Saladin from resupplying the city's defenders [he took it from the Christians in 1187 shortly after capturing Jerusalem.][this fleet was really there then.]As the tale opens the city has fallen to the Crusaders in July 1191 while Saladin and Richard the lion hearted haggled over terms of a truce.Menander's cult has kidnapped the neice of the ring's wearer and her maid from Constantinople as leverage to get the signet.The girl's uncle pursued them to Acre alongside her father, Darion, a member of the Varangian guard. [he is half greek half Norwegian.]The uncle is a neo platonic scholar and monk named Isidore Vakharios.All three 'groups' will meet up in Acre where the story really begins in earnest. Eirik had joined the fleet after being outlawed in Denmark for slaying his father's killer, a wealthier neighbor.He is 27 at this point , already a veteran warrior since the age of 12.

[The Muse]

Your killin' me over here!!! I love stories that feature REAL people and REAL events and REAL locations. I suppose thats why I love alternative historical stories so much. It allows the author to play with events and create new details or rearrange old ones..
You are a master of research sir!

[John Reid]

When you get around to reading "The 13th Cycle" I sent you, you'll see that the main villain is the spirit of Simon Magus. I wrote this at a time when Werewolf and I were communicating daily via email and since both of our tales involved Simon I asked him if I could use the signet of Solomon in my tale which gives it a tie in to his tale. It was just a little personal tie in that only the two of us knew about and the two stories are otherwise completely independent of each other. Just thought I would share that, I thought you would find it amusing. We even considered a cross over tale between the two novels once but decided against it.
Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

I like the tie in. What a great idea!

[werewolf]

ln the THIRTEENTH CYCLE there is also a version of Menander as Simon's jealous lieutenant. There Simon has multiple 'apostles each possessed or at least identified with the Magus former protoges.Since Knighthood's story takes place in the 21st century we presumed the ring was somehow taken from my characters in ALL HALLOW'S EVE, who were last seen with it in 1982.The tales can be entirely separate since the ring was derived from extant legend and Menander from history along with Simon himself.But it is equally possible they do occur in the same continuity.We were going to let Simon's host partake of the type of quasi immortality used in my stories but decided against it because it seemed to require too extensive a backstory to explain it.lt is almost possible to entwine the chronology of Simon's activities with the events in my stories each filling blank periods in the other save perhaps in the 19th and 20th centuries but maybe even there as Simon was able to influence or possess more than one person in the same era.