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My family, my friends, it is with great delight and pride that I announce the release of the E-Book version of my first novel, ELURAMANCE CHRONICLES BOOK ONE LESSIA ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 OUT OF 4 STARS "IF YOU ARE A FAN OF FANTASY, SCIENCE FICTION, OR ACTION STORIES, THIS IS A BOOK FOR YOU, AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT." ONLINEBOOKCLUB.ORG REVIEW This glorious new chapter of my life would not have been possible without the support I have received from all of you. This past year has been a difficult time for everyone, and it is my hope that I can in my own small way, bring a little bit of joy and magic back into our world. Lucas 
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Interviewer:
Today I am joined by a fascinating guest. He comes to us from an entirely different plane of reality. His world is called Eluramance and his name is Zethras. Welcome, Zethras. Zethras: Greetings and thank you for having me. It has been a unique pleasure visiting your home, Earth. Interviewer: Please describe for the audience your appearance; I imagine they will be somewhat surprised. Zethras: Gladly. I stand one hundred and seventy-eight centimetres tall, or five feet ten inches for those who go by that system. I have somewhat pale skin and delicate but robust features. However, the thing you would probably notice first is my hair, which is shoulder length and stark white. The sclera, irises, and pupils of my eyes glow a bright red colour. Finally, you would notice that I am carrying a long hammer, the head of which resembles a blacksmith's hammer. It is a deep shade of carmine red and I carry it with me wherever I go. However, I have mostly hidden it while I have been here on Earth. Interviewer: So Zethras, you have been here on Earth for six months, travelling our world and learning about it. Tell us about your impressions. Zethras: I have. The first two months were quite informative; I got to meet all manner of people in my travels, though I admit that having to utilize your strange flying machines was frustrating. Interviewer: Why is that? Airplanes have made travel for us much more convenient, giving global access to the majority of people. Zethras: Where I come from, there are great rivers of magical energy that span the entirety of my home; they branch out and spread into a web of magic that suffuses everything. A sufficiently skilled — and powerful — practitioner of magic can travel upon the largest of these Ley-lines from point to point nearly instantly. So you can imagine that waiting at an aero port for hours seems a little slow to me. Interviewer: I suppose it would when you put it like that. Now, you mentioned that the first two months were quite informative, but what about the other four? Zethras: In the middle of your month of March, I was in the region known as France, specifically the city of Paris - a beautiful town, by the way - enjoying a midday meal when one of those scrying boards... Interviewer: Scrying? Hmm, do you mean television? Zethras: Yes, that's what you call them. When one of those… televisions began relaying a message of a sickness spreading throughout your world and everything began shutting down. Inside of a week, it was almost impossible to travel anywhere expediently. Since nearly everyone had started taking shelter at home in fear of this sickness, I decided to take shelter myself - not that I needed to, mind you, since diseases have no hold over me, but to protect everyone else. Interviewer: I would imagine that it must have been quite dull for you. Zethras: It was, but then again, when you've lived as long as I have, a few months pass by nearly unnoticed. I spend most of my time listening to these televisions talk about world events, and there is certainly no shortage of that. Interviewer: If I might be so bold to make an assumption? Zethras: Certainly. Interviewer: I suspect your opinion of Earth has dropped somewhat, considering what has been in the news recently? Zethras: Hmm, I wouldn't say that per se. Being partially human myself, I can - at the very least - understand what is going on. Interviewer: How do you mean? Zethras: When I was very young, I faced a lot of ridicule and discrimination, because of how different my peers perceived me to be. Interviewer: I take it that white hair and glowing red eyes are not particularly common in Eluramance? Zethras: Those features hadn't even appeared yet; I still looked like a typical human at the time. It wasn't until one of my tormentors brought up a rather touchy subject, causing me to lash out and hurt him - rather severely - that my hair and eyes changed. No, they simply knew of my mother, who was, by all accounts, a powerful woman indeed. Yet she died giving birth to me, which caused my father to take me to live with his family and leave. They all saw me as a bad omen, yet they did not hate me; they were afraid of me. Interviewer: How did you cope with that? Zethras: I set out to do good in the world by helping the helpless, curing the incurable, teaching those who sought me out. It took a while but, eventually, people began seeing me as a force of good and not someone to be feared. Now I am nearly universally recognized and respected. Interviewer: To broach another branch of the concepts of discrimination and racism, and consistent with the news reported in recent weeks, how does your criminal justice system work in Eluramance? For example, is it difficult to handle people who are capable of feats of magic? Zethras: That has a slightly complicated answer. Eluramance has a two-sided system which separates crimes that are mundane from crimes of a magical nature. When non-magical crimes occur, the perpetrator in question is apprehended by the city guard and their sentence is rendered by an elected official of the city where the crime occurred. Simple, right? Well, the tricky part is when a magical crime takes place. Interviewer: I would imagine so. Zethras: When children show that they have magical capabilities, their parents enrol them in the Academy of Magic. This institute has existed in Eluramance in one form or another for thousands and thousands of years. There, the students are educated in a wide array of subjects, much like Earth's elementary school system though, coincidentally, they are not taught any magic. Most importantly, the students are taught a rigid sense of moral "goodness." That is to say, they are taught how to become good people so that when they graduate, they are much less likely to become a menace to society. However, despite the Academy's best efforts, a small number of students become problems out in the world. When a magical crime occurs, the incident is reported to the elected officials of the city or town where it took place. The report gets delivered to the nearest Temple - the place where Academy graduates go to learn their magic - where it is reviewed by the senior members of the Temple and bounties are then issued. In Eluramance, magic users - called "mancers" in our language - may choose to lawfully operate outside of the Temple, using their magic to serve the people of Eluramance. One such way of helping the people of Eluramance is the work taken on by mercenary companies. Mancers that offer their services either to a province for work as a bounty hunter (chasing down magically gifted criminals and such) or other, more gentle actions, such as visiting fringe towns and cities curing the sick or helping struggling farming families harvest their crops, for example. But I digress. Once a criminal mancer is apprehended alive - which is more uncommon than not - authorities give the misguided mancers three choices by the law. They may choose their punishment. Their first option is for the criminal to either repair, replace, or otherwise undo their crime. A second option would involve having the criminal's magic removed from their body and being jailed for some time or, if the offence is severe enough, execution. Interviewer: Can you give us some examples of crimes that would warrant each of those punishments? Zethras: Indeed. I recall one incident of a cryomancer - a mancer who uses ice magic - disgruntled with a family in one of the small towns in Hydro Province. He made it snow on their crops for a week in the middle of summer, causing the entire crop to die. Subsequently, he was apprehended and his sentence was to re-sow the fields he had destroyed by hand. After a few days of this hard labour, his outlook had mellowed significantly and he became a prominent cryomancer. For the punishment of having one's magic severed, I distinctly recall an incident regarding a luxmancer - a light magic user - who tried to undo a past event by directly altering the timeline, which is strictly forbidden as it has the potential to cause all sorts of catastrophic events. He didn't even need to be apprehended as the appropriate authorities were present. His magic was summarily severed and he was banished from the Temple. Most things you would consider on Earth to be worthy of execution have parallels in Eluramance though, from what I've gathered, that is a contentious subject from society to society. Regardless, violent crimes such as murder and rape have a zero-tolerance policy. Those convicted of it rarely make it back because the mercenaries typically have to kill them to stop them as they don't come willingly. There are crimes for which there are no equivalents on Earth, such as the practice of blood magic, which also has a zero-tolerance policy. *At this point, Zethras exhales sharply, as he has been speaking for minutes on end, and reaches for the glass of water sitting on the table, which he sniffs.* Zethras: I am relieved that this water doesn't smell like some of the water I've partaken of in the big cities; it tastes like chlorinated lime. While we're discussing large towns, there is a foul miasma of toxic gases that hangs over many of them, although some are worse than others (such as parts of China, India, and also here in your country). Interviewer: It is a huge problem. Many of the countries of the world are doing their best by taking steps to clean our atmosphere. The most prominent contributors aren't making concerted efforts, mainly because the businesses that produce the fuels that power the machines don't want their profits to plummet. Zethras: But what about their children or their grandchildren? Don't they care that if they don't take drastic steps soon, there won't be a place for them to live? Interviewer: Judging by their actions, their only concern seems to be their monetary wealth. Zethras: That's profoundly ignorant; I hope for all your sakes that something changes, and quickly. Interviewer: Indeed it is. And so do I. I am rather fond of our little blue planet. Zethras: I will say though, that despite all these negative things I've seen over the past four months - especially that leader from the south half of North America - who can't seem to squeeze a single drop of truth from between his lips to save his life, most of what I've seen has been incredible. Overall, your world has an enormous amount of love shared between people from all across your world. Love and respect are fundamental in Eluramance; it was by the love of our creator that we came into being and we show that in countless ways. In Eluramance, love is ubiquitous and not anchored to one specific ideology or way of thinking; all love is beautiful and precious and celebrated in all forms. As it appears to be happening right now, I see your televisions refer to it as "Pride Month." Interviewer: That's right; it is the celebration of love and respect between all of Earth's people. Zethras: That is a beautiful reason for celebration. In Eluramance, celebrating love in such a festive way would be like celebrating having a pair of hands. Interviewer: Would you elaborate on that? Zethras: Love for those in Eluramance is so ingrained into our beings, so profound in its ubiquitousness, and thus open-heartedly accepted, that if we were to throw a party for it, it would never end. Interviewer: One final question for you. You mentioned in a previous question "when you'd lived as long as I have..." , it piqued my curiosity. Would it be inappropriate to ask your age? Zethras: Hahaha, not at all. I just don't think you'll believe me. Hmm, let me see. Based on the number of hours for Earth's daily rotation and the number of days in your yearly cycle, I am one hundred thousand, eight hundred and forty-two years old. Give or take a month or two. *At this time, the Interviewer's jaw opens slightly, and she tilts her head to the side, as if deciding whether or not Zethras was joking.* Zethras: I told you - even in my world, that's a very, very long time to be alive. Interviewer: You must have countless stories to tell, having been alive for so long. Zethras: Indeed I do. Interviewer: That's about all the time we have for now, Zethras. Do you have any final thoughts to share with the people of Earth? *Zethras seems to stare past the interviewer, his red eyes looking to make contact with yours, the reader.* Zethras: Remember, love is unconquerable. Zethras: And one more thing, for you. *Zethras reaches into his coat pocket and removes a round, deep red garnet about the size of an almond and slides it across the table towards the interviewer.* Interviewer: What is this? Zethras: One of the many stories that you guessed I carry with me. Simply hold it in your hand, extend your thoughts towards it, and it will show you. After another few seconds, Zethras waved his hand slightly and a crackling red portal appeared behind him. With an inclination of his head, he stepped through the portal, which closed behind him. The interviewer stared at the gemstone, wondering what it might contain. I’ve decided to start a Blog where I’ll talk about specific character elements used in storytelling, and discuss some of my favourites. If you’d like to respond with who your favourites are, and why, that would be awesome :) Today, we will talk about not the good guy, but instead the bad guy; the antagonist. Antagonists are important to the story, because they provide the equal - sometimes greater - and opposite to the protagonists. However, some villains are written to just be evil for the sake of being evil. Very well written villains have hopes and dreams of their own, complex motivations, and of course never truly see themselves as a villain. One of my favourite villains is Claude Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame, a judge who sees himself as superior to all but God, and believes that he himself is incapable of being wrong, and that anything he does is for God. But one day he meets and becomes infatuated with Esmerelda, and romani dancer living in Paris. She denies his advances, and through a wonderfully dark song, “Hellfire” decides to go on a manhunt for Esmerelda, eventually threatening her with death by fire, and very nearly succeeds. Frollo is such a wonderful villain, because he is believable; a man who believes himself capable of doing no wrong, and abuses his position of power to get what he wants when he wants, and if he can’t have it, he will destroy it instead. So my friends and family, tell me who some of your favourite villains in stories are.  |
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