Through with chapter two!

For now, chapter two is complete. Complete, like good and evil, is an objective term however...like with chapter one, I'm betting that the next time I take a look at chapter two I'll start to revise, rewrite, and add to it considerably. But thats a bit farther down the path. I've found a great name to replace Abaddon (one without satanic origin) and its definition is even more fitting than "to destroy" - and not as corny.

Abaddon's replacement is Asteraoth; an angel, already a stand out in the crowd of riders, Asteraoth supposedly "thwarts power". Who better to play a judge, an enforcer and stickler for the rules, than one who thwarts power? Hopefully, he'll gain a little angelic sense of duty from his namesake and will remain impartial, even if the other riders begin to falter. He may become blinded by justice every now and then, his good judgement tossed to the wind if someone does something wrong...but I think Asteraoth's got the potential to really be a key character.

The world of Hierarchy is starting to grow and with every inch of ground it gains, a few characters come to light...two of which I've yet to mention. One I'll hold out on discussing till I finalize what role he may play, and the other I'll explain soon. In the next post, I'll introduce to you Loki Blodweud, our residential joker and thief in the night.

The Leviathan

I spent a bit of time trying to figure out names for my 4 horsemen - after a bit of trial and error, I've named the majority. I tediously scoured the web for the names of all the fallen angels (paradise lost helped a bit here), and eventually came out with some good, useful names with meanings actually applicable to plot and character persona! However....I'm still on the prowl for rider number four. Rider number four is actually..well, he's number one in the hierarchy of riders so to speak, a leader whose superiority is unspoken, unchallenged, and simply understood.

I had a name for him that I thought quite apt: Abaddon. It roughly means "to destroy" and I figured that with a name like that, there was no way another rider would try to usurp him...this was until a friend informed me that Abaddon is a particularly bad fallen angel who is regularly worshiped in satanic rings... said friend watches allot of history channel specials, particularly about free masons, so I didn't really question exactly WHY he was so informed... Anyhow, Abaddon is now far far away from Hierarchy. As to the rest of the riders, I've come up with Bathin, Gadreel, and Valefor - thankfully, none of them are the points of worship for those satanic people out there and all of their definitions are pretty vague (which, blissfully, leaves much up to my artistic interpretation).

Bathin is described as the fallen angel who rides a pale horse, Gadreel meaning "God is my helper" and Valefor, a fallen angel who appears as a "many headed lion". I'm quite pleased with myself here - with these little snippets, I've got enough info to really base a character off of yet, the're still all my own. The only conundrum I've found myself with, other than the last riders name, is how to have them interact with Zuriel and Tarlin. Social contract theory would say that the Leviathan has to be the absolute power and governor, the absolute enforcer, and as a result, a neutral party. I don't really fancy making them impartial...I need some unfathomable, evil force tromping around.

We'll see how things turn out. If anything, I could make two groups of riders, 4 light and 4 dark (keeping in mind that good and evil are objective terms), constantly waring with each other while enforcing the rules of Hierarchy on their own terms. I suppose it depends on how big of characters I want my riders to be. Once again, only time will tell.

Possesed

I was possessed. Like a wolf on the hunt, I was possessed. Last week, I believe it was Friday, I picked up a copy of Robert Jordan's Towers of Midnight - and I was gone. Lost to this world, syphoned off into another, I had disappeared.

Every second of my free time, up to about 30 minutes ago, was spent with that book. And I enjoyed every second of it. Besides the pleasure of jumping back into a world I've grown to love, traveling through Towers of Midnight let me take a step back and really evaluate the world of Hierarchy. Studying, if I can even call it that, the character development that the Wheel of Time series does so well has set my mind a fire. Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a third protagonist.

So we've got a new character...what else? Towers of Midnight gave me perspective. Something that has plagued my mind for some time has been the question of length - how on gods green earth am I supposed to have enough material for a 300-500 odd page book? Other than describing every single stone in the world of Hierarchy so thoroughly that readers would come after me with flaming sticks and large, ugly looking pitchforks...I had no clue. But now I do!! For a story to be truly encompassing and in order to make a real case for an alternate reality, there needs to be a vast collection of detailed characters. I know...once again I've somehow managed to state the most obvious thing in the world. It's true though...the character thing. Tower's of midnight changed focus every chapter, always switching from one character to the next. By using this technique, not just in Towers but in every single Wheel of Time novel, Jordan made the world believable. I don't just mean his characters believable...I mean his ENTIRE WORLD.

The whole is the sum of its parts, and in order for the whole to really seem complete, all of the parts need to be visible. Hopefully, as I push on and persevere through the darkness of the unknown, through the shadows of Hierarchy, the people I need will show themselves. Random events, unexpected discoveries, and enlightening details are bound to find themselves into my life and with every little tidbit that comes my way, someone new will be born. The main protagonists are all here, all thats left are those in between. And hell, there's a whole bunch of them.

Apocalypse

The four riders of the apocalypse have been galloping around in my head recently....as to why, I'm not totally certain. Premonition? I hope not.

Conquest, war, famine and death usually pop up in epic fantasies at an alarming rate but rarely are they personified. In fact, more often then not these signs of impending doom serve as vehicles for character development and absolute necessities to plot. I know I know.... obvious right? The point I'm getting to is that I've been admiring the IDEA of the four horsemen rather than what they foreshadow, of the four physical entities that serve as a final battalion themselves. Because, in truth, thats what they are - the final wave of cavalry.

This whole business of the four riders translates, as far as Hierarchy is concerned, into a band of enforcers. Thomas Hobbes wrote about the "leviathan" in 1651 and used this idea to illustrate social contract theory - a theory which I am too lazy to fully explain. In short, Hobbes stated that chaos and civil wars could only be avoided by a strong central government or some sort of enforcer - a leviathan.

The Hierarchy needs a leviathan, and its looking like there will be four of them.

Deadlines

In the future, I think I'm going to stay away from saying things like "chapter two will be done by next friday". These things just don't happen. Wishful thinking isn't the word... hopeful isn't either...lets just go with misinformed.

My misinformed self can be somewhat delusional. But no more! A good friend told me to write at my own pace, for these words are my own. This is brilliance. Not to say that I won't be setting goals for myself... I just won't be publicizing them.

Logistics aside, the Wheel of Time series has just released a knew book: Towers of Midnight. I mention this only because this series, written by the late Robert Jordan, was the original inspiration for my writing. The world that Jordan created was so in depth, so interesting, so full of people I wish I could meet... its a world that I have come to know and love. I've reread all 11 of his books on multiple occasions and I can't help but revel in his genius. Not just his genius for story, but also for the voice that he carries throughout his writing.

Torr fantasy put a chapter from Towers of Midnight online about a month ago as a way to reward the multitudes of fans for their support - I've spent hours dissecting this thing and studying just how Jordan writes. Trying to find my voice in my writing, my own fluid style and signature, is no easy feat - I'm hoping that going over Jordan's writing will help guide me.

So far, it's helped, but at the same time its got me second guessing myself every step of the way. Remove this word here, change sentence structure there...delete this and that..start over here and there... it's frustrating. But good. I suppose, in order to grow, I need more practice. I need to write more. And soon! This here is a story itching to spring from my mind to the paper. The skills aren't there quite yet..but they will come with time.

Progress!

Chapter two is currently about half way done and so far, the course of events that passed through Tarlin's eyes in chapter one have now been illustrated through Zuriel's view. Due to my overzealous amount of description, chapter two is shaping up to be considerably longer than its forerunner; this is good considering chapter one was "short and sweet".

With only a few bullet points left to hit, the rest of the chapter will serve to introduce our two protagonists to each other and to paint a bright, vivid, flashing illustration of the world of Hierarchy. Hopefully, if God smiles on me and the muse is close at hand, the chapter should be finished circa next week friday.

Chapter two update

Apologies for the lackadaisical posting, my mind has been elsewhere this past week.

Chapter two is coming along nicely, but the nature of the scene is forcing me to take things slowly. I'm finding myself struggling with slowing things down enough so that I have a substantial body of description before the main events begin. As I mentioned before, chapter two is, in essence, chapter one from Zuriel's point of view and serves a dual purpose.

Chapter two gives a description of Zuriel in his rawest form; not yet delving too deep into his mind, the chapter serves to illustrate a few of his core principles, worries, thoughts and vices. Along with this gritty introduction, chapter two serves to illustrate the Court from an outsiders point of view. Drafting an in depth picture of the heartwood, chapter two shows just how vivid, showy, and out of place the Court truly is. From the Thuin's point of view the Court is a piece of art, a natural beauty that melds perfectly with the natural world...but to those outside, it's a vivid reminder of the Thuin's alien nature.

Innocence

Over the past couple of weeks, every single 8 am literature class of mine has gone over some poem regarding the loss of innocence. Innocence disappears with time, innocence goes away as we age, certain events in our life causes a loss of innocence - it goes on and on. All of these poems, in essence, have the same message - loosing your innocence is part of growing up; Poe even goes so far as to suggest that the loss of innocence leads to the loss of imagination (I'm not a big fan of this idea).

How does this garble have anything to do with Hierarchy you ask?? Well, not much really but it's intriguing. The whole deal got me thinking about the evolution of an immortal - how do you suggest an immortal ages? If old age doesn't kill you, if disease has no affect on you, how would your body go about physically maturing? It's quite the conundrum actually - and this conundrum directly correlates to Hierarchy.

How the devil am I supposed to craft an appearance for someone who is hundreds of years old but won't ever die? As far as eternity goes, anyone under 1000 had got to be young...hell, if were talking about eternity, then everyone is young! So would that give the character the appearance of a child? Adolescent? Young adult? What a headache.

The gentle kiss of a flame

As I sat in my apartment today, I found myself staring into the little feisty flame burning atop my candle. Transfixed, I picked up the candle and started to play with the flame.

After a few minutes of quickly moving my finger through the little fire, I began to notice that the flame had a peculiar feeling - strange as it was, it felt like it had mass. But how could something like fire have mass? Every time I passed my finger through, it felt like the flame "licked" me - licked me.

Fire has so long stood as a symbol of life, a symbol of prosperity and knowledge - fire is something that man, and man's modern civilization, could never do without. What if fire was actually alive? What if fire, regardless of its shy, coy, and often silent nature, had a mind of its own? Personally, I think something that has stood for so long and so resiliently as a symbol of life must be alive itself. It's often stubborn, not starting when we want it to, and it moves in the wind like a belly dancer on a stage; sounds alive to me. A funny thing fire.

I think fire has just earned itself a special place in the Hierarchy.

Three Spheres

For reasons I have yet to figure out, I found myself contemplating the hierarchy of the angels this weekend. Truth be told, its fascinating.

A friend of mine told me a while back to pick up a book called Paradise Lost, the story of Lucifer's fall and the battle of the Angels - I fully intend to do this soon. Paradise Lost outlines the different stations in the hierarchy of angels, from the "lowly" angels to the high and mighty seraphim and talks about the three different "spheres" to which they belong.

The intricacy, scope, and detail of the angelical hierarchy is stunning. Every single angel has a duty, every angel has reason for being. They play vital roles in human society, serving as guardians, guides, muses....the angels were everything and anything. And they rarely showed (show?) themselves.

Influential? Indeed. Game changing? I doubt it. The hierarchy of angels has given me something to think about, something to research and contemplate while I write, but the Hierarchy won't change because of it. However, it may give birth to some interesting ideas.

Shadow dance

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday - chemistry was occupying my life at the time.

Last night I finished the first "chapter" in Hierarchy. Its only about three pages at this point and a bit rough, but the essentials are there. I plan on going back at a later date and giving it a bit more body, filling it out a bit more, and adding some more dialogue. The chapter is from Tarlin's point of view (as I stated last post) and is a "to the point" chapter. Tarlin's bitterness really comes out here, his angst overflows and his lack of patience is terribly evident. As the general populace losses their minds at the mention of the choosing, Tarlin stares in wonder at there "lemming like" qualities and scoffs at their excitement. Our young Thuin has quite a bit of growing to do.

Currently, I'm starting on chapter two which will be the same scene, but from another view point. Chapter two starts off with Zuriel gazing into the Thuin Court, far away and in an open field. Gazing into the Court, Zuriel waits warily for his sign to move. When the tell-tale "CRUNCH" rings through the air, he knows its time to move and time to move quickly. More descriptive, covering a larger span of time, and from the viewpoint of a more experienced character, chapter two promises far more depth, story, and complexity.

From here on out, posts will occur either when I have a sudden spark of ingenuity, whenever the muse decides to hit me with an idea, or whenever I finish a chapter. They may be few and far between, or the daily blog regime may continue. Only time will tell.

Hit the ground running

Although I'm still struggling with my prologue dilemma, I decided to go ahead and do some writing last night.

The Hierarchy has hit the ground running with action picking up in the first few pages - there really isn't much time to ease into the story before something major occurs. Try as I might, the story wants to take things down a certain road and I'm powerless to stop it. Hierarchy is forcing me to just jump into plot immediately - regardless of whether the books starts with a prologue or in medias res.

Things start off with Tarlin in a meeting of Thuin, preparing himself for his "choosing". The choosing is, in a way, a sorting process that helps the young Thuin decide what element they have an affinity for - it's the major starting point in there magical careers. Everything stays calm long enough for Tarlin's personality to come to the surface, but just as we begin to get into his head there is a sudden avalanche of events that trigger Zuriel's appearance. Within seconds, Tarlin finds himself being dragged out of the conclave, passes out, and finds himself in a cold stone room devoid of light or any clue as to how he's gotten there.

Light the path

So it's been about a week now and already I've found myself struggling with what to talk about. The problem arrises due to the simple fact that delving too deep into the world of Hierarchy would give too much away. Should I start posting pieces of writing? Ideas about how the series will be written? Is it too soon to go into the plot? Should I keep taking you all down the dark road where you can't see the turns, or should I start putting up street lamps? I understand that the dark is somewhat frightening...so maybe it's time for a little illumination.

I was playing around with ideas for starting off Hierarchy and, of course, a prologue seemed like a reasonable idea. I've changed my mind a bit since writing this and I'm considering starting the novel off in medias res - I'll talk about this later. For now, even though it won't make sense to most of you, here is the brief original prologue for Hierarchy:

"The moonlight glinted off of the great lake as Amaros gazed over the castle balcony. A wind blew over the lake sending star studded ripples across its surface; Amaros managed a weak smile as he took in what he knew would be his last night. As a god, he was fully aware of his near future but as a star, he knew that at this point in time he was powerless to change the course of his fate.

According to the scouts, the head of the Hierarchy had been assassinated – eleven hours ago to be exact. He had time yet to live.

As Amaros turned towards his bed a loud crack echoed throughout the halls of the castle – it was like the sound breaking bones…but so much louder. A sudden burst of wind buffeted Amaros from the open balcony sending shivers down his spine. But it was still too early. He should have had more time.

The light in the room began to shift, twist, turn and take shape. Turing quickly towards the balcony, Amaros was greeted with a quick five blows to the chest. Opening his eyes, Amaros found himself prostrate on the floor. As he began to feel his body drain of life, as he began to realize that his body was loosing its God like luster, he saw what he feared most.

Black fire."

An insecure, orphaned, angst-ridden teenage wizard (I mean Thuin)

I don't think anyone has ever created a young orphaned Thuin before - this is going to be big. Maybe an angst-ridden orphaned wizard... but I'm positive there has never been an angst-ridden orphaned Thuin before.

When my buddy and I were in the business of creating characters, we couldn't decide upon a single protagonist - so we made two. I created Zuriel and my compatriot created Tarlin (hat-tip to you Luke). Typical Thuin, Tarlin is long, lanky, lean and unfortunately weak; he's orphaned (of course right?) due to his Thuin nature and harbors a great thirst for the magical world. It's just terribly unfortunate he's so clumsy...and such a chicken. His parents left him as soon as the farm fowl started to lay purple eggs (a side effect of the Thuin magic I suppose) and ran as far away as they could - Thuin tend to stir up quite a ruckus in towns.... something to do with magic being frightening and whatnot.

Regardless of his pitfalls, Tarlin is another cornerstone in the story of the Hierarchy. He is irreplaceable and vital to Zuriel's struggle. Tarlin's journey is one of self-discovery and of pushing past the deepest darkest fears that a sad and unloving childhood can manifest in a young man. Zuriel feels distant, but Tarlin feels familiar - he's a character that everyone can identify with, at least at some point in his or her lives. His anger is justified, but not really noble and full of purpose, and his fear stems from lack of acceptance. He's young, he's lost, and he needs a shepherd - that shepherd is Zuriel.

But that makes you think...what's the point of the shepherd if he doesn't have a flock to attend to?

The Thuin

So in an attempt to make my magicians sound slightly more interesting, I've given them a name - the Thuin.

The Thuin are considered to be an abnormality in humans, a strange phenomenon that occurs very rarely in society. Magic cannot be learned, only inherited by chance. Worthless in any sort of physical battle, the Thuin are weak and slight in stature yet tall and thin like saplings. The magic that fills them eliminates all hope of physical prowess but gifts them with some interesting collateral - doppelgangers. At any given time, a Thuin can create a doppelganger of themselves at the expense of loosing magical power for the duration of its existence.

I'm using doppelganger at this point for the lack of a better word...but don't worry, creativity will strike me at some point and a more appropriate name will surface. Regardless of the lackluster name, the Thuin doppelgangers are actually quite good fighters - used in tight spots where the original Thuin needs a body guard, the doppelgangers provide a limited amount of protection and are usually a last resort.

Now, it really is important to understand that magic is a curious thing - authors throw it about as anything from spells, to books, to the most random and destructive forces created out of a characters will. Magic is hard. Rather than spend countless hours deciding to conjure up an unknown and ridiculously complicated ancient language, I figured I would make the Thuin elementals.

The magical knowledge they posses is already ingrained in their minds, they just have to chose an element and explore it. For example, lets say a Thuin decided to become an elemental of the forest - this particular Thuin would be able to do anything regarding a plant or trees.

However, the downside to the Thuin's magic is that the more they use it, the more like their element they become. I'll use the forest Thuin as an example again - over time, the more and more he uses his magic, the more tree-like he will become. His skin will become gnarled and begin to resemble tree bark, his clothes will start to look more and more like foliage, and he might even survive strictly off of water and soil. Maybe he grows roots? Who knows.

The last subject I would like to touch on is that of light and dark - can light and dark be considered elements? And if they very well could be....will a dark Thuin eventually be absorbed by the shadows? Will a light Thuin rise and shine like a star or become invisible to the naked eye?

It's ironic how the mastery of either element would make you disappear.

The never ending chess game

What is chess. I mean, really, what is this little board game? Could it possibly be a metaphor for life, a small wooden/plastic/stone representation for the actions of all mankind? It's a curious thought to think that were being controlled and moved across the board of life by some set of unknown players... and if we are in fact pawns on this chessboard, who are the two sides and which side are we playing for?

What if I told you that the Hierarchy was like a chess game; a really BIG chess game. What if I was to say that the Hierarchy is a multilateral, multilayered chess match that encompasses everything and everyone. And what if I told you that there were more than two players? What if I even told you that the people who think they're players are actually pawns themselves?

Wouldn't that be interesting.

The Corner Stone

To borrow from Robert Jordan, "Duty is heavier than a mountain, death lighter than a feather". Alone, invisible, brooding, calculating, and with a single never ending duty, Zuriel is like the little light in your room that keeps you up at night - not that big, but troublesome enough to give you grief. But does that little light in your room grow? Does it glow ever brighter until it shines like the stars in the midnight sky? Zuriel does.

To understand Zuriel, one has to imagine being the last human on earth... or better yet, being the last person who speaks english in a world full of others that prattle on in gibberish. You can see these people, you can interact with them, but truly joining them and learning to speak their language is a farfetched dream. It's gibberish after all, and what's the sense in that?

Now that you've got this hermit mindset going, imagine being required to work for those that damned you. Imagine being made to run errands for all of eternity for the people that left you alone, the people that forced you onto a god-forsaken land far away from home and devoid of friendship, laughter, love and revenge. Thats Zuriel.

He fits into the Hierarchy in a very peculiar way - he's the last of his kind. He is a watcher, a spy, a reporter and an errand runner. He is a warrior, a priest, an unknown disciple of some far away and long forgotten religion - or could you even call the Hierarchy a religion? Zuriel represents an epoch of forgotten events, of forgotten wars and strife that once tore the earth to its very foundations; he is the corner stone upon which so much of the worlds story has been built.

But heres the thing about corner stones....once they are placed, their importance is oft forgotten.

Day 2

I've got a feeling that after a few days, titling these posts "day 1, day2,day3" ect. is going to get pretty boring, so I promise to give some more imaginative titles in the days to come.

I suppose the first thing I should address is the definition of the word "Hierarchy". Loosely speaking, a hierarchy is a system where people are ranked one above the other depending upon status and authority. If you take the idea of a hierarchy and apply it to different life forms, it creates a "chain of being" if you will. The idea of a chain of being, of a universal hierarchy, sets the groundwork for the story of Hierarchy.

Now, trying to explain this central principal of the story has me walking on a fine line: just how much exactly am I willing to divulge? In order to even ATTEMPT to explain this story, this idea is quite vital. So I suppose I'll go a little farther.

So what the hell does this definition of a hierarchy have to do with the STORY of Hierarchy? To understand this, we need to go back to the chain of being idea and to my previous post where I spoke of breaking away from that Tolkien platform that so many fantasies are built upon. Yes there will be elves, yes there will be Gods, and of course there will be human beings - but these Gods, these elves, and these humans are by far not alone and every race has a very specific relationship to one and other. I will go as far to say that the chain of being puts the Gods at the top and the humans at the bottom, but everything in between will be revealed in due time.

The other little tid-bit I must divulge is that certain classes I have taken in college the past year (international relations and government) have begun to shape the story line and over all structure of Hierarchy. To give a little insight, international relations deals with the communication and interactions between the nations of the world and outlines the details of how diplomats are received and treated in foreign countries. The specific rules and regulations that countries, diplomats, and citizens are held too inspired the way that I designed the internal system of Hierarchy. As far as government is concerned, all I will say is that a court system plays a major role in Hierarchy.

That should be enough to chew on for today: tomorrow, Zuriel will make his entrance

Day 1

First of all, to anyone who finds themselves on this blog: welcome.

I've had a story floating around in my head for some time now, one that a good friend of mine and I first started to contemplate on a windy summers day about 3 years ago in our neighborhood Borders. We had read copious books together, series after series, spending countless hours discussing and dreaming about what possible plot twists our favorite authors could make next. After awhile, even though plots were far from the same, things started to blend together and worlds began to mesh - the stories all followed the traditional fantasy outline of Tolkien. We longed for our own world, and in that longing, in that deep desire to disappear into our own imaginations, Hierarchy was born.

After spending most of my early life hungrily consuming the contents of every major fantasy novel I could get my hands on, I had decided that maybe - just maybe - I could write one of these things myself. Stories based on Arthurian legend, stories revolving around dragons and elves, and even a story about a certain orphan wizard shaped my vivid imagination. As I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of the fantasy novels I read followed the Tolkien template, but there were a few that stood out like a hot piece of steel fresh out of the forge and made a true impact on me - Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series, George R. R. Martin's A song of Ice and Fire, and more recently Steven King's The Dark Tower.

In all honesty, it wasn't until the project seemed to come to a halt that the desire to make it happen truly started to burn within me. As days turned into weeks, and as the weeks began to fly by, I just couldn't take my mind off of the Hierarchy. It sat idle, like a beast lurking in the depths of my subconscious just waiting for an opportunity to attack. I know this makes the idea sound voracious and like some creature from hell, but in a way it was. It just wouldn't, no, COULDN'T leave me alone.

I started to write. Truth be told, the more entrenched in the plot I became, the more fearful I was to write the story. A writers greatest fear is that the story they create, the world that their imagination birthed, will not be as good as it originally seemed. I wrote sporadically, jotting down notes in my classes and occasionally writing a paragraph or two, but nothing truly serious. But I've made my mind up, and this blog is a testament to my decision - it's high time this story got the attention it deserves. This blog is going to be a running diary, a place to test out ideas, scenes, and character development. Mind you, I wont be giving important things away but I do plan on giving readers a taste of what's to come.

This blog will be the map of my journey through the Hierarchy - I hope you all enjoy this adventure as much as I do.