A Look Into a World #2: How Magic Came to the World (The Lady Annabelle Mystery Series)

                                                   Click here to read the first post in the series. 

                                                                       Happy Holidays everyone!

This particular post is for the world of the Lady Annabelle Mystery series. These posts have helped me so far to know the world better. Also, in case anyone is confused and wondering why the gods from All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again are involved in something from the Lady Annabelle mystery series, that is because I ended up moving the gods (except the Creator Goddess, who will be modified) to that world, due to the setting change in All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again. The gods seemed a bit out of place, so I moved them to a series that seemed very in keeping with their nature.  

Along with the world-building series on my blog, I will also be occasionally posting articles on World Anvil  about this world. So sometimes when a Look Into a World post is published I will also post a World Anvil article that is related to it. I have an article that goes along with this post called "The Festival of Magic," which I will be linking on the world-building page on this blog. (You will see it under the "World Anvil" section of the page) and I will update you about it in a blog post. 

Anyway, on to this post: 

        How Magic from the Gods Came to the World- 

Nisis (left) and (young) Karleon (right) 

Two trickster gods were involved in bringing to the world magic that is not inherited at birth. Their names were Nisis/Nyro and Karleon. These two trickster gods were very fed up with the fact that the King and Queen of the gods were hoarding all the magic and were unwilling to teach the mortals any. 

So, Nisis/Nyro and Karleon came together and formed a plan to get the magic and give it to the mortals. Karleon played a role in distracting the god who protected the magic, while Nisis/Nyro took the magic down to the world and gave it to the mortals. The mortals were really happy about this; the king and queen of the gods were not. 

While Karleon escaped punishment, Nisis/Nyro did not. Karleon told the king and queen of the gods that he completely misunderstood the plan that Nisis/Nyro had "told him" and didn't think the magic of the gods would come into the world of the mortals. In contrast, Nisis/Nyro got banished to the world of the mortals for a few years so they would learn from their "mistake." Though there are variations on this myth (some where both the gods get punished, and some where Karleon is the one who gets punished instead of Nisis/Nyro), all end with Karleon and Nisis/Nyro not being on good terms. In the version of the myth I'm following, Nisis/Nyro got banished because the other gods worried they would take on the form of their loved ones (since Nisis/Nyro has no clear form other than that) to escape punishment. So this was the reason for their unfair punishment of Nisis/Nyro. 

After Karleon and Nisis/Nyro released magic into the world, the king and the queen of the gods decided to put restrictions on how much magic the mortals could have at once. This is because it turned out the other gods were very unwilling to take their magic back. Hence they created rules for becoming a devotee to a god or a goddess. This made it so that the gods whose magic was in the world was limited and had to be taught. The king and queen did this because they believed the other gods would be too vain or not feel that the mortals were worth their time. However this backfired, because the gods whose magic was given to the mortals spent a lot of their time teaching them the craft. 

And out of this event came the Festival of Magic. It is celebrated biannually given that there are two different assumed dates for when it happened.  These two dates are in the middle of spring and the beginning of winter. 

                                  Magic given at birth- 

The species who have this are fairies, elves, and some other creatures. According to the religion that is predominant in Dragon's Province, the gods created them to have these powers and gave a little bit of their magic to those creatures. 

For the fairies, the gods decided to give them the ability to make themselves "invisible" (though in reality they go to another dimension). This is a power that every fairy has, and the gods gave it to them so they could protect themselves if they were in grave danger (to hide from their attackers or from wild monsters). 

For the elves, they were given better eyesight and hearing than humans, as well as a better connection to the gods. While they may not be able to turn "invisible,"  elves can spot a god within a crowd of mortals or see a god when a human couldn't. This also links them to the major religion in Dragon's Province, where the gods teach mortals magic. 

                                   Enchanted Objects- 

An enchanted mirror

There are many different kinds of enchanted objects: one being enchanted crystals and jewels. If one believes the legends, then out of spite Karleon made all the jewels have different powers. (Some versions written by Elven scribes who don't have to mine in cold and damp mines say this is a  "blessing;" most others call it a "curse.") Karleon thought it would cause confusion for mortals (dwarves in particular) and that it would be fun to watch. To this day, no one is quite sure what the powers of enchanted jewels and crystals are, and in mining them people have to be careful or they could be cursed by them. 

There are also objects that are less dangerous and unambiguously blessed by the gods. These are considered sacred and can grant certain powers. Some are even said to be given to certain heroes on their journeys. 

One notable magic object is a magic mirror, which can have different abilities. Usually they can used as a way to look at different areas of the world or see the true nature of a person.  Fairy dust is also commonly described as being an "enchanted object," because it can be used in many ways: as a dye, as a way to find fingerprints, and for other uses. 

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What magic exists in your Fantasy world? And which way would you like to get magic? 

-Quinley 

I Finished the First Draft of Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass!

I finished the first draft of Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass on December 10th!  If you want to find out more about Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass I recommend checking out this post where I talk about the plot, the characters, and stuff like that. In this post I will be talking about what I am going to be doing next with the story. 

                                     Let's begin: 

                                                Synopsis- 

Genre: Gothic Horror | Historical Fiction 

Maltida Moore was found dead at the castle, her brother, Felix, is missing. No trace of him was found except an eyeless wax doll made in his likeness. What happened at the castle is unknown, but it is as if something evil is lurking within it...something evil is causing these terrible events to happen.

Excerpts- 

"They say to write thoughts and feelings down, or else they will be lost to time. This, is what happened to me. And what I feel I must do now. 

Or else any thoughts or emotions I felt during this time will merely be twisted and turned in various ways into a different story of someone else’s imagining, and not of the truth. Which I will tell you now."  

- Chapter one, Matilda tells her side of the story. 

"Perhaps it was my imagination or something else entirely, but I was certain I saw a shadow move across the room and then disappear. I blinked for a moment, as if thinking that would clear my vision and whatever it was that had crossed my path was gone from my vision, but not from my hearing…For I was certain I still heard foot-steps in the distance and, laughter— well to be more specific giggling, like child-like giggling, like whatever had crossed my path had played a prank on me, and was happily giggling in the corner at my reaction." 

- Chapter seventeen, Felix tells his side of the story. 

What's next for Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass? 

This novel is going to be the first one that I publish (or self publish), before I publish The Mystery of the Body Thief. This is because this novel doesn't require a ton of world-building in order to get through to the second or third draft. There is micro-worldbuilding but that is with the castle and areas where the characters are. 

A lot of Gothic books have detailed descriptions of where the characters are, and I am pulling from a theme that has been used for a while which is "the house/place where the characters are staying seems alive."  I also found that an issue with the first draft was the pacing. I mostly outlined what was going to happen, but most of it felt like it went too fast. In the finished product the book it is going to go much slower and be more descriptive. I want to spend more time on details like the appearance of the castle. I also want to focus more on how the castle is crumbling. 

In rewriting there will be some things that will remain the same, and also some issues in terms of plot holes and such that need to be fixed. For example I am going to need to add in an extra character to explain a plot point. One element that I wanted to keep some similarity with was the inspiration for the novel which was...my nightmare. 

Also, an aside. Which isn't exactly related to the book itself, is that I plan to use this blog as my author's site when it gets published. This is partly because there is years worth of content about my characters and stories on my blog, and I would love for readers who discover me through my books, to have something to look at or read involving the characters from my stories. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What's your favorite element of Gothic literature? And have you ever written or read a ghost story? 

-Quinley 

My Art From Inktober 2021 (Part Three)

                                       

                                                       Click here to read part one and part two. 

This is sadly my last Inktober post for 2021, but, I will be doing it again next year, so stay tuned.

                                            Once again, here is the prompt list for Inktober 2021: 

                                                 

                                                    And here are the rest of my drawings:

Day #21 Fuzzy- I interpreted this as having a fuzzy memory. So I drew my character, Horatio, from The Mystery of the Body Thief. Horatio has amnesia, so, I decided to go a little abstract with the design of his fuzzy memories. 

Day #22 Open- I interpreted this as being open to the spirit world. I decided to draw Matilda Moore from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass with a silhouette of ghosts behind her. 

Day #23 Leak- I interpreted this as having magic leak out of a magic lamp. 

                                Day #24 Extinct- I decided to draw a dinosaur. It was very fun to draw. 

                          Day #25 Splat- I decided basically to draw a drawing of an abstract painting. 

#26 Connect- The movie The Mitchells Vs. The Machines was originally called Connect. So I decided to draw the dog from the movie (part of the drawing references a joke that shows up in the movie). 

#27 Spark- A drawing of my character, Riona "Fire," she was the first character that came to mind when I thought about the word "Spark." She can turn back and forth from being a human and a phoenix, so I thought the prompt would fit her. 

#28 Crispy- At first I didn't know what to draw for this prompt, so I looked up the definition of Crispy and one of the descriptions of the word was about bacon. So I decided to draw that. 

#29 Patch- I decided to draw a rag doll. 

I think this doll belongs to one of my characters, but I'm not sure which one. 

So, because of that I'd love to hear your suggestions about which character should own this doll in the comments down below. 😉

#30 Slither-  A drawing of the Norse god, Loki, and the world serpent. 

#31 Risk- This is a drawing of the final chase scene between the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In this drawing Ichabod is going to be taking the risk of crossing the bridge to get away from the horseman. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? 

-Quinley