The Barren Fields is a short story that acts a third installment for Circle of Magie, a series of stories centered on various sorcerers who live in the fantastical land of Oliviani. I started writing it in late 2021, but I ended up putting the project on hold for A Better Place and its numerous installments. The Barren Fields takes place only one day after the events of The Bleak Oasis, with Marcel and Tanneke showing up at Agnés and Felicity's flat in Stavelot's early morning after an unfortunate encounter with bedbugs. Following some brief talk about their respective paths, the group choose to visit Stavelot's magic library for typical studies befitting sorcerers in Oliviani, but some talk with the library's master, Piret, reveals unusual occurrences in Stavelot's countryside; these occurrences, however, prove surprisingly personal to Tanneke, who ventures out on her own to try and tackle the issue herself, only for further problems to result from her act of defiance.
The Barren Fields can be downloaded as a PDF in the following formats:
The above photograph is that of the real-life Mont-sur-Marchienne, a small town found in southern Wallonia, where French is the primary language. I felt the image meshed well with the small city feeling that I was aiming for with Stavelot, with its smaller buildings, fewer pedestrians, children playing in the nearby river, and large clearings of nature's beauty, something that went well with the group choosing to venture to the countryside. The composition of the photograph also helped, with a standard eye-level point of view instead of a high, birds-eye view to get us closer to the subjects. Stavelot itself is an actual city in Belgium as well, again located within French-speaking Wallonia.
This was an interesting story to compose. Outside of having to switch back to fantasy from sci-fi from the previous story, quite a bit of time had passed since I had last written about the various sorcerers for this series, so I had to refresh my knowledge of not only the four main characters and general lore for the land, but also the various historical and cultural cues from Belgium, France, and Netherlands, alongside various swears for both French and Flemish, especially for Tanneke's vulgar speech. This story also required me to look into the language and history of Frisia, a cultural enclave located within the Netherlands and Germany; while Oliviani is primarily based on Belgium, stretched out into an entire continent instead of a small country, the historical Frisian Kingdom likely extended into northern Belgium at its peak, so having the classic sorcerers speak in Frisian isn't too much an anachronism in my view.
Sinclair Martin has roots in this series before it officially started. Circle of Magie stems from an earlier writing project I had in mind when I was younger, as said earlier in the notes for The Unwelcome Visitors. Sinclair herself varies little from her prototype, being a farmer with a foul mouth, cursed mark, and similar aspects, though in the original novel idea, Sinclair was supposed to be a childhood friend of Felicity's. The idea for Sinclair having a cursed mark on her left breast came from a nightmare I had many years ago, involving a topless woman whose body was variously covered in tattoos and scars; this nightmare also helped inspire the scarred appearances of both Migizi and Zetian in A Better Place, with Soryn's own constantly shifting and undulating mark on his right forearm also being influenced by this dream. Sinclair was also heavily inspired by the lyrics to Nemo by Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish.
The attire of classic sorcerers was heavily inspired by this picture of Sione from the visual novel Primitive Link. I have never played the game, but I came across the image many years ago and I've always been rather taken by her design. Primitive Link has never seen a release beyond Japan, but I'd love to have the chance to play it one day to see what Sione's character is like. Bolting and Divine themselves were also the names of the chief antagonists of this earlier project, a pair of mysterious women intent on discovering a variety of types of magic for their own use, ending with Felicity discovering the two were her half-sisters, though this backstory was dropped in favour of Divine's lineage with Agnés. Circle of Magie has come a fair way from its prototype, and I'm amused to see what stayed the same and what radically changed in the intervening years.
A general rule I follow when I'm writing stories of any sort is that whenever I create characters, I try to avoid having them share names with people I know in real life; even if a character predates someone I've met, I'm likely to change their name regardless. A few exceptions exist to this rule, with Agnés being named after a foreign exchange student I briefly interacted with in pharm school, and both Felicity and Marcel's surnames being taken from two other students in my graduating class, but its been a rather hard and fast rule ever since I started writing. Divine's true name, however, was taken directly from an old friend, specifically one who heavily inspired my writings, and I have no feasible way of contacting again. I just hope wherever she is, she's happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment