GENERAL TOPICS > Parenting

New/old way of communicating

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Flyin6:
So, my middle son is off to basic training with the US Army.

We do the typical communicating that everyone else does, texts, emails and so forth, and say all the usual things, but I had a thought the other night.

My son is a soldier in the Army and I am a writer...

I believe JRR Tolken was a writer and his son was an airman in the RAF

I think Mr. Tolken conceived the entire epic story and novel, Lord of the rings, and may well have consulted through letters he wrote to his son. Mr Tolken a lieutenant in the British Army who served in Northern France in WW1 knew of the trials of war and spoke of it with his son.

Well, in a manner, I think I just might give that a twirl as well. Write my own epic adventure fantasy to share with my son, and I guess, after he gets to read each installment, to share with all of you and everyone else as well. Hopefully he might look forward to see what old dad has come up with this time...

So, I have actually been already writing that story. I call it "Thoren"

I will share it in another place after I start mailing the developing story to him...

Flyin6:
So, I have been doing this thing, and by golly, it has taken off.

So far I have been sending Nate bits and pieces of the book as I progress along. I am now working on Chapter 6, passing the 40,000 word mark already, and have sent him up to Ch3. I'll send off Ch 4 tomorrow. His buddies are fascinated by it as well and are now asking me to send it to them as well.

It is becoming quite the work, and although I mentioned sharing it here, it may actually turn into something I publish. Sort of a Lord of the Rings kind of story, its pure fantasy and fun. The privates in basic have zero outlet for entertainment, so i am kind of sneaking in a book under the radar to them.

I'll share the Intro to it and maybe the first map, which is always evolving.

I'd appreciate feedback

It rolls like this: The intro and the first two chapters just lay out the groundwork for the story that is to come and gets rolling with Ch3. There is a glossary which currently has some 124 entries.

So without further adieu, I'll post the Intro in the next post or so...

Flyin6:
Thoren
Introduction
The earth is much older than you would think. Old enough for many great civilizations to have come and gone. Many ages have come to pass, and I suppose many more will as time marches on to some distant point in the future. The earth is a wholesome mother to mankind and to other kinds as well, and after these civilizations have made their mark on the land, the earth might just erase everything that people ever build, only to set the stage anew for the rise of another people to grow and thrive. Some of the civilizations that have passed into the night are all but forgotten, leaving only a hint that they ever were anything at all. Thoren is one of those places where a great ancient civilization that has all but disappeared, once thrived. This is the story of those people.

I am old, oh so very old. It is a curse sometimes but also a great delight to see and experience the works of the great master. He created me, and indeed all that is or has ever been. I suppose he allowed me to come along for such a time to experience all that was of this world of Thoren so that it’s story should not be forgotten. So the task has fallen to me to talk of this as if I was there, because I actually was. I will do my upmost best to tell the story in as great a detail as my mild will allow, and hope that someone, someday, somewhere will come to appreciate all that has come and gone.
Thoren was a great land of antiquity where man lived in fantastic ways that are for the most part lost from the history of those who live on today. A great island, a continent perhaps it rose majestically from the sea on all sides except in a couple of areas where flatlands met the sea. Held in the shape of some giant tear, the thinnest part of it separated it from the other lands by the great chasm. So deep and so utterly unworldly it was nothing less than a total barrier from everything else in the world. Because of if much of the world, whatever that may be was kept at bay because of its presence and the effect it had on everything it touched.

Thoren was probably big enough to be properly called a continent but to the people living there it was the world, their world. Stretching nearly three hundred leagues from the chasm to the farthest reaches to the west at its widest point it spanned almost half that distance. As one travelled west from the chasm it grew steadily wider until approximately two thirds of the distance to the west. There lied the great center lake, an inland sea as it were that made the entire land of Thoren work for the people who lived there. Because of the great center lake, many rivers flowing into it and out from it connected the low lands to other habitable places so that a nexus of transportation grew out of it that united Thoren with at least one shared language, Lore.

As the tear drew steadily narrower travelling westward the elevation decreased some from the central mountain lands surrounding the great center lake and were heavily, very heavily forested. To the west the trees grew truly gigantic reaching toward the heavens with roots anchored deep in the strong rock of Westwald. Well at least the people of the west hung on to the old name for that forest as Westwald, but history would record that the peoples of Thoren generally referred to all forests of the entire continent as ThorenWald. Thinkers of the time would more accurately and scientifically divide the land into seven distinctive forest lands along with a few desolate regions. But as common folk go, they tend to distill everything down to its most simplistic terms and names.

ThorenWald was easily the greatest forest of the known world and it supplied for the needs of all the inhabitants of the land and could have likely provided for the needs of the entire known world (Had much been known of it!), if any means of trade or export was possible, but it was not, so it provided in abundance and scarcely showed anything of the effects of mankind had upon it.

Five great cities grew and thrived on the land, three on the habitable flatlands along the coast, one near the mouth of the Blue river on the great center lake and one located in the uplands three hard days ride from the great center lake.

The greatest of all cities in Thoren was likewise named Thoren, located on the southern coast in warmer waters along the rolling hills about fifty leagues from the Chasm. It was gigantic by the standards of the time and the land easily twice the size of the next larger city. A man of good health could barely cross from the east to the west of the city in a three day walk. Perhaps not so much from the sheer distance as the difficulty navigating the complex structure of small and large roads, alleys, waterways, and bustling markets and homes by the thousands. Having grown steadily from the earliest recordings it suffered from never having had any central plan nor influence of any governing body strong enough to effect any change or rule for its growth. No, it just added on this’s and that’s as people felt the need and grew to be quite charming and interesting. It seemed one would turn the corner to discover a whole new world from the one behind. The city did have one beautifully perched collection of marble and stone buildings where the kingship resided and centers of thinking and medicine and science and money also found a home.

Moving westward the city of Bern occupied the west flat lands where the mountains finally broke against the ever crashing waves of a relentless sea. I suppose they did that long enough to break down that giant of a mountain range to make a place for the farmer to gain purchase. With fields to cultivate and gentle hills to pasture his animals, life, human life gained a foothold and throughout time constantly grew larger and more successful. The land was mostly farm folk but some thinkers built the Bern University where all the arts and science of the time were available for study. Iron workers and other trades made their craft in Bern especially the fast ships, a long narrow hulled craft well suited to take advantage of the strong winds flowing out of the west. These fast ships could reach Thoren in less than a week during the fair months

The Guild also maintained a strong presence, as it did throughout Thoren, but existed there unmolested by any of the thinking going on in other cities, except for its native city, of course, that of Ginder. Judging from the coastal cities of Thoren which allowed men to settle in protected places where food was abundant, the forest lended its helping hand with an abundance of materials such as the much sought after Krispen pine, fresh water, and wild animals. Ginder stood in stark contrast to all of that. Found in a place in the central uplands, all of it was built in the clouds where the pines were sparse if they could be found at all. The people there were thought to be from a faraway land they called Timmen which lied east of the great ocean. Much of their history remains a shrouded mystery, but it is said that one time, long ago, the chasm was spanned by a land bridge of sort that fell into the depths during the great shaking that had apparently also made the sub-continent into an unassailable island.

These people who many called the “long swords” because of the narrow, long blade they carried on their side kept to a tight regiment of living that governed all facets of their lives. They were known to be fierce warriors and were in the best physical condition of any humans living. They spoke both lore and their own language that was if anything, extremely difficult to learn. Therefore they tended to represent themselves in person wherever they tended to land. It seemed as though they were interested in assimilating into the other cities and many towns of the land, but there was always something there, something religious in nature that seemed to govern their lives. They were true to that belief to the core of their soles. Because of that, they were sought for advice and counsel, were teachers, and maintained the single most difficult fighting school in all the lands.

Ginder did not lie along any waterway. It was not constructed on a flat place, but seemed to be hewned right out of the stone mountains. Its existence encapsulated the lifestyle and culture of the long swords or guildsmen as others called them in certain places. There was but one road leading down to north river and the entire city was built above two thousand stands! (A stand being about five feet in length, the average height of an older woman in Thoren) The air was thin, the water mostly frozen, the wind whipped about fiercely at times, and farming was difficult. Wherever one had to go in guild was either “up there”, or “down there!” Because of that the guildsmen of the city developed large lungs and strong hearts. Many a story recorded long swords running for an entire day and night in the lowlands with no rest. Another interesting fact about the people was that they all seemed tethered to the place in the clouds. For they would only stay in other cities, towns and villages for a certain amount of time, then they would leave to journey back to Ginder, almost as if they needed to restore their energy and rejuvenate. It was odd indeed.

It is of particular interest to note that Ginder was closer to two other cities, actually forming a powerful triad of Thoren culture which made for the greatest concentration of peoples in all the land. Ozman on great center lake and the mouth of green river and Norse on the northern coast.

Ozman should have been one of the largest cities on the continent but it has suffered over the years from many wars. It needs to trade for food and commodities from the other cities and villages that it often found itself at odds with over the years. That has of course caused Ozman to go without on many the occasion. Something changed with all that years past when a prominent warlord, Ozman after winning a decisive battle with a lesser village decided to make peace with his neighbors by inviting representatives of all those communities to join in a league of sorts where problems were aired in a court overseen by surviving members of the Osman’s and an equal number of Guildsmen.

It is odd to note that guildsmen, although being the fiercest warriors in the land, and being close enough nearby to have easily simply conquered the stumbling town that would later  become Ozland, sought peace above all else. They spoke about onus, their God who spoke to them and all of them worshipped throughout their lives. They would speak of Onus and of his love for men, and how he wished all would come to his table, and that he was disappointed in man’s behavior, but that he wanted guildsmen to simply help these troubled people of Ozman.

Because of what happened and how all that sorted itself out, Ozman now grew and thrived and had become a great inland shipping port where trades exchanged and flowed out to ports throughout the land. Ozman was indeed a key city and was very much under the watchful eye of the Kingship of Thoren.

Norse, the last of the great cities at the mouth of the Blue River was the same in size as Ozman. It differed from all the other cities in Thoren in that it clung onto its ancient religion and roots. Its culture was one forged from a people who had to survive a difficult life. The ground was good, but not as good as that found in other places. The banks of the Blue River, where they could be found, provided the most fertile grounds where corn and wheat, and potatoes and other vegetables were grown.

In the hills surrounding Norse sheep grazed and in the small farms, some actually raised pigs. Fishing vessels a bit more squat and more of a working nature than the fast boats of Bern provided much of the people’s food. During the cold months, ice floats would sometimes clog the fishing grounds, preventing fishing for some time. A few times in the past, the ice flows came following a cold summer when crop yields were not as plentiful and starvation ensued. The poorly nourished Norse people then suffered a few recorded bouts of disease, particularly something they called the Benz. Apparently something had so sickened the bowels as to cause its victims to twist and bend in an attempt to alleviate the pain that some who recovered retained a horrible twisted and bent stature. Those people were generally thought to be disease carriers and put to death by having their living bodies thrown into burning pits of black oil. Their screams from the horrific pain can sometimes be heard in the wind as it tumbles through the ramparts of nearby, towering stark mountains.

Norse is a place not generally visited, nor traded with, although they seem to have an abundance of the black oils which are finding more and more uses in other more industrialized places. The Thoren kingship maintains a small presence there and serves as their main connection with the outside world. Whereas most of the rest of Thoren seems to be expanding and trading with nearby peoples, the Norse, clinging to their ancient religion where a harsh god called Got reigns over his earthly domain and demands total loyalty and obedience which is and has been enforced by a system of priests and spies who all report to the seated ruler called the Valtine. He or “she,” as has been the case a time or two, is the absolute ruler and final settler of any dispute or public or private matter.

He (who currently sits on the golden and silver inlaid wooden throne) would have nothing to do with the southern kingdoms if it were up to the priests, but Valtine Alfarr never the less entertains a small representation of guildsmen and of course diplomats from the kingship of the southern city, Thoren. While Thoren seeks someday, somehow, to unite all the peoples, the guildsmen hopes that process is a peaceful transition.

If I may point out, the seated Valtine can scarcely understand why a kingdom hundreds of leagues away which is somewhat united with these odd but fierce guildsmen would care at all about a land so vast. These Guildsmen, these strange, fierce people who are the greatest warriors of the land want peace! It just makes no sense, and Valtine Alfarr has no real interest beyond his defendable borders. Outside the kingdom of Norse people mostly think that the Valtine does not believe these longswords have any long term interest in peace, so he keeps them at distance as best he can.

Most of the people of Thoren live in these five cities but many small towns and villages dot the landscape. Some share the beliefs of the nearby or closest city, but some have become quite independent. This is very true of all the lands of the southern costal swamp lands. A place to be avoided by adventurer and trader alike, it is a place of stinking backed up waters filled with rotting trees and a hundred different dangerous creatures that will eat a man if given half the chance. The people living in these hundreds of thousands of hectares also keep to themselves and are said to be outwardly unwelcoming but treat each other as family. They share only a few common names suggesting there has been very little marrying outside of their own tribes. These people, the Muse speak their own language but look at life much differently than most people. For example they do not have any known name for the lands they inhabit and simply call the place, Swamp lands.” Some Swamp Landers living closest to wandering river have picked up and speak Lore as well. “Border people” as their kin call them have been inter marrying with other coastal people and folks from the far west, even from Bern. Because of these connections, more and more is coming to be known of the Muse although it would seem because of the sheer difficulty with travelling anywhere in swampland, contact with inner-lands is not likely.

It has been rumored that in the heart of swamplands lies a region of bubbling and flowing pure water. No one knows where it comes from but the swamp landers who speak lore, talk of it as though it is a patch of heaven on earth. Some of the springs issuing forth from the depths are rumored to have life extending and healing properties, although none of that has been seen by other peoples of the southern lands.

Most people of Thoren travel by boat either from the coastal cities on the ocean or inland up one of the many rivers. Great central lake which is probably more like an inland sea is a common intersecting point for many of the land’s rivers. Flowing south from the lake toward Thoren is the east bends, a slow, meandering river of considerable depth. Although it gets a bit angry during rainy times, most of the time one can travel its length in comfort and safety.

Moving westward the wandering river starts off as a fast moving river near the great center lake but widens and settles into a wide lazy expanse as it empties into the eastern end of the southern swamplands. It is not as useful for trade as east bends and therefore is far less travelled.

Dumping into the center of the swamplands is pike waterway. Also a slow meandering affair, it is about the only way for one to enter into the heart of the great southern swamp. Fortune hunters for eons have ventured from the lake into the pike, most of whom never to return. Those who do talk of the sudden boils that happen here and there that closely resemble the folding seas which encircle all of ThorenWald a hundred leagues from shore in any direction.

The black sails can be found all over the Great Center Lake, however they seem to be found in special abundance around the mouth of the Pike River. Travel in those parts is never safe, nor is travel on any waterway when talk of the black sails is about.

The western end of great center lake, narrows to yet another river, the west bends. So named because of its similarity with the east bends, it has been the main conduit of travel from Thoren all the way to Bern since travel existed at all. Far from being a straight line the river meanders aimlessly for what seems to be forever and along its banks can be found so many of the west’s towns and ports.

To the north two more rivers empty into the cold northern sea, one to the west, the Bear Claw and a short one snaking through deep valleys of the cathedral mountains northward to Norse called Blue River. It is said to be as deep as the ocean itself and is just as blue. The land either side of the river rises to dizzying heights and for most of its length no shoreline of any sort exists. Should one fall out of the boat at the mouth of the river, they would have little hope at all of rescue from anyone other than another boat. The steepness of the cliffs either side have contributed to the isolation that Norse enjoys and has made it somewhat difficult for the guild to reach them Although the city of Ginder lies only fifty leagues to the south west, it is a trip of nearly three times that distance to wind through the mountain valleys until reaching the great center lake, then to take a boat for another almost one hundred leagues across the lake and into the Blue river.

Flyin6:
And the old map which has undergone many revisions:

cj7ox:
Shaping up to be a great story, Don! It would make a great D&D campaign setting, too!

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