MOTIVATION
My motivation behind joining WorldAnvil is to help me organise and record the world I have created, and to challenge me in my worldbuilding adventures. I started writing stories a region of an unnamed world that came to be called the Saeric Lands, when I was eleven years old. I am currently working to finish the first draft of my novel,
Harbinger. It will be the first book in
The Sorrow of Souls quartet.
GENRE
Dark fantasy that is greatly influenced by real, historical events.
MOOD
My overall impression of this world, on the dark-light scale, is that the Saeric Lands are towards the darker end of the grey spectrum. Good things do happen in people's lives, but this is general overshadowed by greater anxeties generated by the Raskvaerii Empire's harsh social and religious realities.
Character agency is limited. The three main countries of Kredashmi, Lormont and Raskvaeric are experiencing economic growth and the rise of a middling class, but these individuals are still mostly excluded from positions of political and social power. by an entrenched heirarchical class sytem. Even within their own stories, characters struggle to effect change and have to fight to have their voices heard. Characters that can effect large-scale change are generally supernatural in nature, or are part of the ruling classes.
On the noble-grim scale, the Searic Lands tend towards the bleaker side of neutral.
SCALE
The scale of The Sorrow of Souls series is concentrated on four countries that are part of a geographic landmass known as the Saeric Lands. These countries are Raskvaeric, Kredashmi, Lormont and Versarna. Clustered around the Saeric Basin, these waters are the fastest navigatable route out into the main seas from the eastern side of Raskvaeric. Although the Raskvaerii cite religious motivations behind the acquisition of their neighbouring territory, there are clear military and economic advantages to their control these waters. Kredashmi and Lormont have been under the control of the Raskverii Empire for over two-hundred and fifty years. Despite repeated invasions, the wild and mostly uninhabitable Versarna remains a haven for heresy and the humanoid creatures fleeing religious persecution.
Harbinger is set in the Raskvaerii capital of Latharin, and in the small town of Nrovatin. It also explores Kredashmi's distant past in a series of visions, set in the immediate run-up to the rebellion that killed the Raskvaerii ruler in Kredashmi, and almost lost the empire the territory it had held for twenty-three years.
Themes
- Death
- Sin and repentence
- Religious and racial prejudice
- Good vs. evil
- Dissilusionment and dreams
- Fate
- Coming of age
- Overcoming
- Justice
What is your conflict?
- Known as the Phoenix, the goddess who controlled death, the afterlife and rebirth, has been overthrown. The usurper, referred to as the Raven, believed the actions of men and women in life deserve punishment in death. In response, humans bottle the Souls of their dead while they try to find a way to appease the Raven.
- In order to change the afterlife, the Raven Confiscated the Power (magic) of humans and used it to transform their bodies into demons to torture Souls that enter His care. This Confiscation led to the realisation that many of the traditional gods and goddesses worshipped in the Saeric Lands were not divine, but were Humanoid creatures or humans with Power. There is a lot of mistrust and judgement for anyone who has Power, and they are generally considered to be subhuman.
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