Redam Lore – Mankind

Mankind was created much like Redam, they was given form as the god of stone who moulded the first from clay. Flame baked the clay. Ice gave it a mind. And fauna gave it life.

Mankind was the pinnacle of the gods’ creation. A creature to rule and protect all others. But it seems they only desire to rule and very few to protect. But mankind was given the tools to their growth.

Stone gave them the imagination to build and prosper; this is why we have an innovative mind and our technology is ever changing.

Fire gave them bravery and passion but also anger. To ensure they can protect themselves and thrive without fear of destruction. His gifts are also associated with war, strength and power.

Fauna gave them the knowledge to tent gardens of their own. Herbs and remedies, food and other crafts from life. Those that take all a garden can provide will destroy it and so those who retain and protect will never starve or grow ill.

Ice gifted them with wisdom and the potential for magic and sorcery, giving the potential to ascend.

Man as we know them now is not the same as the ones first created. Many believe the reason why we are so diverse is due their forms in days of old. It is speculated that when a man serves a god or goddess faithfully, or fulfil their use of a gift they developed certain characteristics.

An example of these characteristics is the elfin races being linked to the goddess of ice, Wise, resourceful and showing keen attitude in the magical arts. Fossils of the elfin races are typically found in colder if not frozen lands.

Another is the dwarfs. Short and stocky builds being fit for mining and some of their architecture is still present today. Much like the god of stone wanted.

It is believed the Wolfling tribes are descendant’s to those who fulfilled Fauna’s gift. However this is speculation as there may be other animal/human creatures. It is therefore more common that a Halfling or Fairy children match the goddess’s vision however there existence is as much a myth as the gods themselves.

There has been no record or a creature showing a characteristic of fire. As most creatures are weak against it. This has led to speculation that people with demonic characteristics once roamed the world at one time, however there is no fossil evidence or records from the old days that support this claim.

 

As they do in the present these characteristics divided the world and although violence had existed for as long as time, there was no death. The creatures were immortal but the gifts the gods granted us conflicted.

Mankind was violent but they were also resourceful and wanting to spread life as much as take it. This caused wide spread suffering to all living things, a suffering that was only growing. And so Ice gave us her last gift, Death.

Redam Lore – Creation

In the world of Redam there are many kingdoms and civilisations, each with their own customs and belief’s. But most religions contain barely a sliver of truth to how the world came to be. The truth being lost twisted and destroyed until only the gods and their servants know the true truth of it.

There were once billions of gods and goddesses, but their differences grew into an unimaginable war were worlds were born and destroyed in a blink of an eye. It was until only four of these beings decided that enough was enough and fled their realms.

These gods and goddesses were the four elemental gods that created this world.

There was the artist and visionary: Stone, the Lord of the mountains who carved and moulded the earth.

There was the warrior: Fire, the King of destruction and bringer of the light. He breathed the core of this earth and brought it to life.

The scholar and wise queen: Ice, she was Cold and harsh but her wisdom brings balance and created a better world than the ones we would have wished for. She soared across the skies, cooling the world. Ice and fire brought the oceans and its steam gave the sky.

And finally the fair mother and carer of the world: Fauna. She grew and tended her gardens, providing food, safety and eventually life to the world.

That is how Redam was born. As a statement to all great beings, that difference can create beauty and strength

 

But of course, peace never last forever.

As time went on the Gods created their living creatures and appointed their Angels.

Fire brought Dragons, everlasting, intelligent and powerful.

Stone brought forth stone Gollum’s. The living statues, patient, observant and a true testament to art and longevity.

Fauna brought Pixies, Fairies and Sprites. Small, innocent, resourceful and kind are some of many comments made about their kind. Yet in truth they are powerful and dangerous to those who would defile the forests and jungles of the world. They show how true creatures should conduct themselves and respect their world.

Ice brought frost spirits, Known to be cold, harsh and deadly. They are invisible and ever watchful.

But populating the world with their own wasn’t their intention. And so Stone proposed to make a new creature. One made with all their magic’s and efforts. They would be a further statement of unity and all agreed. But not for Stone’s reason.

In truth Fauna wanted to spread life. To create a creature with resourcefulness and desire to spread her life throughout this world and eventually others, even places where it was not wanted or needed.

Ice was a curious one. Wanting to see if they can fuse all their powers and perhaps make a new god, a god made with all elements. It would end all godly conflict once and for all, but at what cost?

But Fire’s reason was the worst. He was still a warrior and still wanting to save his kin in his home realm or even rule it. He wanted to create the perfect army, unstoppable by all elements and under his command.

This mixture of interests, unknown to one another is what would divide the gods and the creatures of the world. This was how mankind was brought into existence.

---

Hello.

 

This has been Redam Lore. I have been thinking about the creation of my world and thought you may find it interesting. I will be adding some more of these as time goes by so feel free to criticise, it’ll only help.

cheers!

 

why i write

So chuck has issued a flash fiction challenge that in no way involves writing fiction. Instead he wants us to write way we write. I love this idea. ONWARDS!

 

I write because I am a reader. A reader who wants to travel the worlds of fiction: from the wizarding world of Harry Potter to Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings. To be a man capable of helping those in need in like Jack Reacher or even lead a rebellion against an unjust government like Katniss.

As a reader I have loved these stories and I want to contribute some of my own.

But I also write to reflect the world as I know it and even to extract my own revenge against it. In my school days I didn’t have a great time: I had moved to a new town, my dad had passed away and I was too well mannered and sensitive. I was the perfect victim for the bullies. And so I hunted them down and horrifically murdered them.

Ok! Ok! Not me personally, please don’t call the cops!!

I created a character to kill representations of the bullies. Some of you have met him, his name is Amin Nightcoat and he is a ruthless hunter. Yeah he is not the as bloody as what my twelve year old self created but he is still my personal killer.

I also create people to base as a role model for myself. Alistair Dowshan is another protagonist in my WIP and he is a king capable of diffusing conflict and war without drawing his blade. He is a just and diplomatic and above all selfless. A characteristic I admire above all else.

The world itself and the actions my characters play reflect how I feel about our own and how things, in my own mind, should be.

So I write to create the man I want to be, to show how the world can be wrong and to ensure that evil gets what’s coming.

 

Thanks for reading!

I HAVE RETURNED!!!

Hello everyone

Good to see you all again, I have returned from my vacation in turkey and it was awesome.

A quick summery is this:

Too much food

Plenty of drink

More sun

Great diving

And everyone’s favourite: books, I burned through three (literally and figuratively)

Let’s start off with some quick book reviews and then move on to diving.

I was able to read three different books, one of which I started previously. These were two of Robin Hobbs Farseer trilogy. I was shown these books by Periodically Demented, a writer I greatly appreciate as PD has given me a good few tips to my first novel. One of them included reading Robin’s work.

I have now read both the assassins apprentice and Royal Assassin. This series follows a boy called Fitz. A bastard son of prince Chivalry, however due to his very existence he has changed the course of history, shaming his father who must now must abandon his place as heir to the throne and leaves Fitz’s upbringing to his stable master.

However a bastard can’t be left be, just because his father cannot be king doesn’t mean he can’t do damage to the royal procession. So Chivalry’s father, King Shrewd (his name does match the personality perfectly) makes a deal with him, since “a useless bastard is a dangerous bastard” and so he makes Fitz loyal to him by supplying everything he needs including a place in the keep and an education in return Fitz becomes a Kings man, and the role Shrewd has for him is as an assassin.

From the age of seven Fitz trained for diplomacy with a knife, learning poisons and stealth. Meanwhile he has to hide his own secret as no fantasy is complete without magic; Fitz is born with use of the Wit. The ability to communicate and in some cases control animals.

This kind of magic is shunned, should a wit user be caught he/she would be hung over a river and then burned.

I have found both books highly entertaining. It deals with loneliness, fear of being who you are, depression and abuse, in more ways than one. It is highly viewed by George R Martin and I can see why. I often feel sorry for Fitz as he gets dragged through hell and bears responsibility for changing his kingdom.

Brace for pain when reading.

What I have learned so far from these books is a better way of showing the past. In my book I want to show recent events in a characters life without being boring. I follow a king whose greatest strength is diplomacy and politics is incredibly boring, I have a brother who may as well be Prince Regal in this regard. In the Farseer trilogy each chapter starts with a bit of history or with recent events. In the first book it’s the history to give you an understanding of the world. In the second its recent events to keep you updated.

I can use the same method in mine.

The third book I read was called “The Winner” by David Baldacci. It is about LuAnn a poverty stricken mother with a drunken “partner”, a poor job and no hope. Until someone others her the chance to win the lottery.

It’s a great book; I had trouble at the start as the first part is about the morality of such a choice: to cheat the lottery while millions pour hard earned money into it. The second is about surviving with a new found wealth.

However this is where I become weird; see I didn’t care much for LuAnn. She became rich but she was a foolish idiot for going against the antagonist Jackson.

In this book I have learned that there is nothing better than a good villain and Jackson is that. He is a master of disguise, being able to impersonate anyone, including protagonists, when LuAnn is ever talking to someone I was sure he was going to jump out and scream “Surprise! You tried to foil my plans” followed by a bloody stabbing.

But Jackson wasn’t completely evil. Or rather he is ruthlessly evil but his master plan will get people out of poverty and stinking rich. Oh LuAnn it would have been a shorter and boring books if you listened to him but at least everyone would win.

I mentioned earlier that I burned through three books both figuratively and literally. I was two chapters away from finishing ‘The Winner’ before some component in my kindle melted. It was 40 degree and glorious.

Now diving we did five dives. Three surrounding a reef at 17 meters, one in a beginners dive site at 9 meters and my final being the deepest dive yet of 23 meters on a sunken Spanish torpedo boat which sunk over 300 years ago.

Ok I will start shallow and sink deeper. The beginners dive site was good fun. You don’t need a licence to dive their just book a day and follow the dive masters. They take you around the site, mainly sand creating nice blue water. Plenty of small fish and even an octopus swim here.

However the site is next to a cliff face with a road above so expect to see litter, rubbish, bottles and the odd tyre. If it weren’t for these things it would be a perfect dive site. CURSE YOU SURFACE DWELLERS!!!

The reef at 17 meters is a lot better. Again clear blue waters, but due to it being deeper you get the proper experience; unfortunately you need an open water licence, which I have. Down here you see the plant life, schools of millions of colourful fish, some as big as your hand and bigger. It the distance at the edge of your vision you can see the big fish, they seem timid and capable of feeding a family of five with more left over for soup.

There are also black sponges and volcanic vents you can warm your hands in.

In one dive we found a large fossilised shell, this size (me holding my hands as if carrying a large ball). In another we found ancient pottery. And in another we had to turn back early because the people we are with chewed up a lot more air than we thought.

Now for the Biggy. 24 meters. My deepest dive.

Now due to the lovely waters the dive masters complained about the cold weather while it was as warm as a swimming pool (Scottish Water is an ice bucket challenge) but down here it is colder. It a nice Scottish Breeze to me and freezing to the masters.

Even still it was scary. Have you read my diving blog? Here it is. so now reading that you know you use more air than the surface. And as you go deeper the denser air gets. Including air inside you. my ears popped multiple times and I used up more air than I was comfortable with. I started breathing faster with the new conditions and had to calm down. Visibility was poor and I don’t want to get lost down here, especially since swimming straight up means death unless you had a safety stop.

So me and Jerry (my dive buddy and step dad) held arms with the dive master as he took us around the old wreck. It’s my first wreck and the old torpedo boat was one large vessel, not it’s in different parts at different depths. The deepest is at 34 meters (no fucking way thank you, at least not yet). What we saw was an old metal husk buried in sand and silt. An old mast sticking up and covered in plant life. Port holes filled up and the hull now bearing sea life. An old cask of wine, ancient now. And the anker, or what’s left of it.

It was scary, eerie, dark and awesome. I look forward to doing another wreck in the future.

The journey up was terrifying, nothing but dive watches told us we were going up to quick and even though I equalised and pooped my ears I still heard the air screaming out of my left ear as I surfaced. Also the after effects to this dive was new to me. It takes 12 hours for all the air to escape and the nitrogen to dissolve. If we flew that day we would have died as the nitrogen poisoned our bodies and the air expanded.

Turns out however we were flying that night. We just didn’t realise it until our taxi phoned us asking when we want picked up did we realise that we had one hour to get to the plane. So we had an extra day in turkey. A very expensive mistake but hey all inclusive beer!

So in conclusion I have done the deepest scariest dive yet (only encouraging me to do more) burned through books and am into a new book series. Ate way too much. Also bought an awesome leather jacket, and so tanned people thought I was Turkish (seriously I nearly turn black; I don’t burn like most Scottish people).

anyway i hope i  have made you all jealous enough. Thanks for reading. I hope you all got away to someplace nice as well! 😀

HOLIDAAAAAY!!!!

Hey everyone.

Just so you know (and to make you all jealous) I will be away for 2 weeks in turkey.
Where I will be enjoying all inclusive food and drink, reading several books and of course diving!

And of course leaving tonight before hurricane bob hits Scotland. Yes we have strange names for storms. Our first was called baw bag, so yeah.

But in any case. While I am away enjoying myself i will be looking forward to reading and seeing all the blogs when I return. Keep typing.

Bye!!

the 3rd and final!!

The final day, the final qoute. As you all know i was nominated for the 3 days quotes challenge by the amazing thumbup

Rules are:-

1. Thank the person who nominated you.

THANKS THUMBUP!!!

2. Nominate 3 bloggers with each post.

And the nominees were:

https://tonij.net/

Poorerdick

https://warjna.wordpress.com/

3. Post 3 of your favorite quotes each per day for 3 recurrent days.

The quotes can be of any other people or it may come straight from your own heart.

So my quote for today is….

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

-Dumbledor, Harry Potter and the prisoner of azkaban. By J.K Rowling.

WAIT WHAT? Another Harry Potter qoute Adam? Really? you’ve already done one.

Yes i know but look at it. Look at it.

Personelly i have had a lot of downs in life, like many of us, and have hit depression once and suffer anxiety. My family right now is having a bad case when it comes to depression right now and so this qoute serves a great reminder for me.

In the book/movie this was used when discussing dementors. If depression had a physical body it would b a dementor, in fact dementors are based on depression. So this qoute just shows us that all it takes is one happy thought, turn on the light and vanguish darkness.

Expecto pa-fucking-tronum!!

*clears throat* anyway thanks for reading! hope you like me qoutes.

2nd day

Good morning. A couple of days ago I got nominated for the 3 days quotes challenge by the amazing thumbup

Rules are:-

1. Thank the person who nominated you.

THANKS THUMBUP!!!

2. Nominate 3 bloggers with each post.

And the nominees were:

https://tonij.net/

Poorerdick

https://warjna.wordpress.com/

3. Post 3 of your favorite quotes each per day for 3 recurrent days.

The quotes can be of any other people or it may come straight from your own heart.

So my quote for today is….

“Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”

-1984, George Orwell

yes 1984. a book mostly read so people can say they’ve read it. or a book given to you to study at school.

I was given it at school and studied the hell out of it. I loved it. Yes it gave us a laugh when we complain about the continuiety of simple math proplems in English and Maths but it also gave me great insight into the world.

I like this qoute because a lunatic was anyone different in the world of 1984. The fact that the protagonist Winston thought this shows that he won, despite the books ending.

To me this shows that it is ok to be different. Even if it isolates you from the rest of the world and makes you “weird”.

thanks for reading!!

first day.

Good morning. I got nominated for the 3 days quotes challenge by the amazing thumbup

Rules are:-

1. Thank the person who nominated you.

THANKS THUMBUP!!!

2. Nominate 3 bloggers with each post.

And the nominees are:

https://tonij.net/

Poorerdick

https://warjna.wordpress.com/

3. Post 3 of your favorite quotes each per day for 3 recurrent days.

The quotes can be of any other people or it may come straight from your own heart.

So my quote for today is….

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

– Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows, by J.K Rowling.

I KNOW, I KNOW, a harry potter reference but you see I am a man child damn it.

I picked this quote because it applies to every piece of fiction in the world. Be it a movie or a poem or a book. Just because it isn’t in the physical world it doesn’t mean it has no effect on it. Or that the experiences may as well be real since it effects those that experience it.

Thanks for reading!

Amin Nightcoat

Another bit of my story. This one centring on Amin Nightcoat. A character that I have mention previously in this blog. But for those who don’t know. Amin is a creature called a Wolfling. A humanoid creature with the head, coat and claws of a wolf. They are fast and swift and live off of hunting. Amin has black coat, hence his name, and has recently became the clans chieftain.

Normally you would find them (or they would find you rather) in woodlands and forests but Amin’s clan is currently living as refugees in a human town which hasn’t been all that welcoming.

Do let me know what you think of this. It is only a snippet and I am still playing around with the story so criticism will only help.

Cheers!

---

 

Amin walked down the cobble stone path, heading east towards his ghetto. It was another unsuccessful day, the guards had refused him entry into the Lords hall, his people were only given bare scraps and had to resort to begging. And three more members of his clan had disappeared.

He felt ashamed for resorting to this. But he also felt rage for the humans that wouldn’t help them.

His clawed feet click softly on the stones, slowly dulling the claws. He carried his spear, despite protests from the guards for during the night he had to be prepared.

It was odd for him to be in a town. His wolfling senses were still adjusting to the new sounds and smells. In the woods he would smell all kinds of life, flowers, and trees and nearby animals. He would hear the wind, the songs of birds, and the nearby river gurgling silently and of course his clan’s laughter.

Here however, there was no laughter, at least none that was real. This place is the lair of politicians and noble men and women. Even the low born believe they are above most. Naturally there is nothing but lies and selfish grabs for power. The laughter was fake and to his kind it was often cruel.

And then there are the sounds and smells. The people here are loud. Their feet practically stomping, shouting when they could be speaking. The days roar with chatter and the nights with drunken fools.

The air smells of dust and stone. The meat being cooked over fire wood and coal was unpleasant. They keep beasts as cattle and instead of hunting their meat they breed it. Being bred to die was no way for any animal to live.

Manure and dung can be smelled everywhere. As well as coal and dirt. Amin could even smell the inns from here. This late they were full and even though he was outside and a fair distance away he could already smell the ale and sweat.

In fact Amin could even smell the breath of the man just around the corner. No. not man, men.

Three walked out around the corner. Amin wasn’t surprised, he could hear their clumsy footsteps a league away despite their efforts to conceal themselves. And now that they were before him the stench was unbearable. Tobacco on breath and clothing, dung from the stable lingered on their boots, ale, a few pints at least, stained their breath. Other narcotics and toxins seeped out of their pores as well, making a highly unpleasant stench to those around them.

Each wore a grin that unnerved the Wolfling, his kind weren’t welcome here and so trouble lies behind each corner.

“Fancy that” the large man in the middle. Amin made a mental note of him as soon as he saw him, he wasn’t the toughest looking but it was clear he was the alpha. “The dog has bared teeth.” He gestured towards the spear.

Amin remained silent, staring into his challengers eyes.

“What do you think lads? What do we do to violent dogs?”

The big one started laughing; he smelled of coal dust, must have been one of the miners. The smaller one smelled of fresh water and salmon, a River-man. It was the river man who answered.

“We cut off their balls of course” to which he took out a thin knife with a curved point.

Amin’s grip tightened around his spear and he spoke with a menacing growl.

“Walk away now! While you still can. And if you so much as touch a wolfling I will gut you!”

“Oh we wouldn’t dare ‘touch’ one of your kind.” The Alpha approached drawing a knife of his own. “Well, maybe after a few more pints” he lunged with the blade but Amin was too quick.

Amin side stepped the man and grabbed the knife hand, he pulled it past him while sweeping his foot under his.

The alpha fell forward giving Amin time for the rest.

The fisher was next, slashing furiously. Amin leaned back and pivoted his hips to dodge the knife. He found an opening and-

WHACK

The butt of the spear cracked against the fishers face.

A footstep behind him, he ducked as the big one punched the air. Amin spun round and slammed the spear shaft into the brute’s side. No effect.

Amin rolled out of the way before he grabbed him.

The man roared in pain as the spear tip slashed through his arm. Amin rolled behind him and sliced into the back of his knees. As the miner fell Amin jumped and smacked the spear into his head, knocking him out.

Amin turned round to face the Alpha; he was now shaking as he picked himself up.

“Stay down!” Amin growled.

But the alpha didn’t listen.

“G-GUA-” His cry for help was cut short as the Wolfling plunged his spear into his throat.

“I warned you”

Amin planted his foot on the Alpha’s chest and forced him to the ground as he retrieved his spear. Blood gushed out of his neck as he drowned in blood.

“No more” Amin said to himself “we start tonight”

He killed the last two and returned to his clan to plan their next move.

Podcasts

“A lovely desert town community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful and strange lights pass overhead as we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to night vale”

-Cecil Baldwin, Welcome to night vale intro

Happy 1^st of the month everyone or as I like to call it: Night vale night.

I have just recently found out that there will be live show near me in the future so I am in a night valian mood today!

For those of you who don’t know, Night vale is a twice monthly podcast set in the fictional dessert town of Night Vale. Unlike most podcast it doesn’t feature real world news or reviews, just this fictional town, this includes community calendars, traffic, gossip, local news and sometimes even horoscopes. We see this town through the protagonist Cecil Palmer (voiced by Cecil Baldwin) who hosts the town’s radio.

This gives a bit of immersion as you can pretend that it is our local radio station about your own town. But I wouldn’t want to so much as live there. You see Night Vale is a place where conspiracy theories, horror stories and urban legends are common place. There have been many fans who say that Night vale is a cross between H.P. Lovecraft, Twin Peaks and the twilight zone.

Most would see Night Vale as a terrifying place, there’s a faceless old lady who secretly lives in your home, secret police, vague yet menacing government agencies, angels that we cannot acknowledge, strange hooded figures, strange floating cats and a glowing cloud that drops dead animals.

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY GLOW CLOUD ALL HAIL!!!

But due to the radio shows presentation we see that this is normal. That no one in town is normal. And everyone in the town is in danger.

But while things are weird, so weird that if it was normal for one episode an entire fandom would be freaking out. It also holds some interesting messages. An example would be one of my favourite story lines, the mayoral elections, in which one of the candidates was Hiram McDaniel, a literal five headed dragon.

In his opening speech he told the audience how he found night vale; he was looking for a good place to eat and asked a man, who seeing a five headed dragon ran like hell. This made him upset, but when he found night vale and asked a man for a good place to eat, the man merely unhinged his jaw and screamed like a wild animal while pointing at the midnight all night diner.

In Hiram’s campaign he says “I am literally a five headed dragon. Who cares?”

This and the fact that the radio host is in a loving relationship with a Hispanic scientist called Carlos shows that Night Vale, despite its horrors, is actually a great place for equality.

That is until you hit the secret government. Who can arrest you for thinking of something, detain your family in the abandoned mine shaft during elections (it has HPO as well as interrogation rooms so it’s not too bad), surveillance everywhere and denies the existence of mountains and angels (naturally).

But even though I have told you that night vale has some great messages on equality and satire on government and surveillance, there is so much more. Corporations, free will, freedom, perspective on life and more.

You should listen to it sometime, it’s free and amazing. You might find something there that picks your fancy, just don’t expect to be “normal” afterwards.

You can listen to it on this link: http://podbay.fm/show/536258179

Or if reading the transcripts is more your thing there is this link: http://cecilspeaks.tumblr.com/

 

Are you a fan of the podcast; are you a fan of another podcast? Let me know in the comments and I might listen in sometime. Thanks for reading!