I have a working draft for my one-sentence description, my character profiles, synopsis, and inspiration. I’m also working on the first few chapters of “The Bloody Empress”, the sequel to Repenter. Now it’s time to make the donuts.
Author: Jim McGowan
All Systems GO!
Howdy, one and all!
We are live at Stelfire. I’m Jim McGowan (James to my eventual novel covers), and I’m here to write stuff and eat gummi bears. And I’m all out of gummi bears. Silly “They Live” homages aside, I’m really excited to continue the journey to publication. I hope to find many readers along the way. REPENTER is the first in my series of novels depicting Ashe Stelfire. First up is REPENTER. It depicts his struggle against his former lover, Nirva Silv, the craft Corsis, and the A Pox, a disease that makes disturbing conversation with you as it rots away your body.
The road to publication begins with a submission to Angry Robot Books. They currently have an open door during the month of March. I’ll be submitting to them in the next week or two, and we’ll see where it goes from there.
Please feel free to look around the site, register and post on the message board. A moderator will need to approve you initially, but you’ll be good to go after that. Please feel free to also take the “Interested in Reading Repenter?” survey on the Home page after looking over the site’s content.
And if you have any friends who are fans of epic fantasy that’s a little bit comic book event story, a little bit “Final Fantasy”, a little bit film noir, and a whole lot of awesome, please send them on over.
Keep on keepin’ on.
-Jim
Mancy Specializations
Mancy Specializations:
With study, all mancers can use different hexes. However, those who choose to specialize reduce the consumption ethereal energy, create hexes of greater power, and the wherewithal to create exceedingly complex hexes that would take a non-specialized mancer decades to master.
Pyromancy: Fire and heat focused.
Chronomancy: Temporal distortion focused.
Mechmancy: Melding of ethereal energy into devices, simple or complex.
Gunmancy: A subset of mechmancy that focuses on ethereal applications on firearms.
Necromancy: Focused on the forces of death.
Aeromancy: Air and electricity based.
Geomancy: Ground and plant-life focused.
Hydromancy: Water and Ice oriented.
Martialmancy: Combat-oriented with an emphasis on speed of creation.
Fleshmancy: The twisting of biology to create abominations.
Astramancy: Manipulation of the properties of incorporeal realms.
Alchemancy: The conversion of ethereal energy into matter or transmutation of existing matter.
Quandrimancy: The amplification and conversion of different types of electromagnetic or ethereal energy. Named after the Dragon, Quandric, who developed the discipline.
Mastermancy: The mastery of all forms of mancy. This is limited to beings already possessing immense ethereal energy and centuries of experience.
Mancy Theory
Mancy Theory:
Mancy is the practice of tapping into energies outside of the electromagnetic spectrum. In ages past, before it was fully understood, people referred to it as magic. However, as science evolved to explain the processes of the realms, parallel development also occurred in the study of energies of the ethereal spectrum. Reliable techniques emerged in tangent with new technologies. Eventually, mancy came to be seen as a viable science such as physics, chemistry, or biology. The term magic has long since fallen into disuse.
A hex is an applied mancy technique to create a specific effect. Examples of hexes include summoning a white hot Burning Beam or creating a rectangular Distance Door to bypass the space between destinations. A complex hex, more commonly referred to as a plex hex, requires several minutes to several hours of preparation and larger amounts of ethereal energy.
Hex creation requires three components from a mancer:
1) Mental mastery: The mancer must focus all of his or her willpower to conceptualize the hex. Some will perform mental exercises, others will perform physical acts such as subdued verbalization or hand gestures. Regardless of the process, the hex requires mancer’s the absolute focus or it simply fails.
2) Ethereal energy: During their studies, mancers gain the physiological ability to store ethereal energy within their bodies akin to an electrical battery. Depending on their location, they can allow draw on the ambient ethereal energy of their environment akin to tapping an electrical line to supplement the power of a battery. Each hex expends ethereal energy. A mancer will replenish the lost energy through food, rest or mancy supplements such as potions and talismans.
3) Triggering Action: Once inner physiology aligns to supply the ethereal energy and the mind solidifies the concept, a catalyst is required to initiate the hex. A triggering action is most often saying the name of the hex aloud. However, more experienced mancers can create a hex with a mental command. The simpler the hex, the less likely triggering action needs to be spoken.
Notable Organizations
NOTABLE ORGANIZATIONS:
The Underguild: A secretive organization of mancers who will do anything to further their knowledgebase. Many of their members care nothing for the damage inflicted by their studies.
The Dirge: An elite gang of assassins with a near perfect success rate. No one is beyond their reach. Gods, Arch Demons, and Dragons are included among their millions of victims.
Dread Corps: An army without a nation, arguably the most lethal military force in all the realms. Dread Corpsmen wage war without apparent goals other than to terrorize their adversaries. The organization serves at the pleasure of a hidden leader.
The Roaq Coalition: The consolidated armed forces of Roaq dedicated to preserving the baronies’ independence. The coalition formed in response to Palle’s campaign to subjugate all of Sufrinzon under its rule.
Brigand Company: A mercenary unit of 200 soldiers commanded by the mighty Gnorok. They align themselves with the Roaq Coalition in opposition of the Palle. Many powerful members walk their ranks such as Tin Skin, Arwith, ViRauni and Repenter.
New Grelland: An island nation in the center of the Fire Well on Trojis. The Grells stand against the Holy Alliance in their home realm, and the continued incursions by nether realms within the Fire Well. New Grelland thrives in this adversity. Its martial might is legend throughout the Realms.
The Holy Alliance: A vast empire lead by Dragons, Titans, and Demons. It takes up the entire eastern half of the Jeean super continent. The Holy Alliance rose soon after the Eruption on Trojis sixteen centuries ago.
The Kri Enclave: The tattered remnants of Celsis Kri’s once great army. During the Eruption, they aligned with the Holy Alliance, but they rebelled and were decimated. They hid in the hinterlands outside the Stretch, plotting to reclaim their lost glory.
Post-Coital Design Advice
The following Stelfire.com exclusive scene depicts the parting of Ashe Stelfire and Nirva Silv. It takes place between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the REPENTER novel. ADVISORY: It contains explicit content.
Post-Coital Design Advice
By James McGowan
The Late Night of Pyrene 50th, 1551
Ashe leaned against a window of six-inch-thick, opaque glass. He clenched his eyes shut for moment, fighting a surge of vertigo. Nirva lay in the oval-shaped bed behind him. The plex hex was over. He stared hard at the window, trying in vain to view the exterior of the villa. Dread churned through his insides. His bare feet writhed against the polished, stone-tiled floor. He made a mistake. He already knew it.
“Success.” Nirva’s dark voice carried no anxiety, only satisfaction. “I’m pregnant.”
He didn’t bother asking how she knew this soon. Warm air wafted upon his unclothed body from the vents in the ceiling. “Tell me.”
“Tell you what?” Her voice carried more than a question.
“You fucking well know what. Where is Retributor?”
She sighed in a hoarse crescendo. “You’re in that big of a hurry?”
Ashe tapped the glass with the butt of his hand. “You still want me having no part of this child’s life?”
Nirva didn’t immediately respond. “It would be best if you didn’t. I have plans.”
Ashe turned from the window and scowled her. She made no attempt to cover her nude form. She reclined on the bed with her arms crossed behind her head. The pale light from the window touched her pale body, muting the red brilliance of her hair. It also revealed the painting hanging above the bed. It was one of Nirva’s many abstract pieces. This one depicted a series of jagged, red brushstrokes on a yellow background. Not for the first time Ashe wondered if Nirva’s skill as an artist influenced his decision to enter into this deal. “What plans?”
“Personal ones.” Her expression soured. “You know what? You’re right. You should leave.” The nude woman sat up, knees close to her chest. “Retributor is in Corsis’s possession. Probably in his lair, but that’s uncertain.”
Ashe’s stomach sank. Corsis was on a very short list of people whom he dared not cross. The bipedal, reptilian man possessed riches beyond reckoning, but power to match it. The pyromancer swallowed hard. “Lovely.”
She ran her hand down the length of her bent leg. “I never said you’d like my answer.
His eyes locked with hers. The passion from every previous encounter no longer showed within them, only cold contentment.
“The look on your face is by far the best thing to come out of this.” A smile retook Nirva’s face. “And a lot of good things came out of this.”
Ashe’s muscles tensed. “Yes, quite a few.” The urge to do something violent clattered at the back of his mind. He did not act on it. This woman now carried his child. She also outmatched him. Despite her deception, Ashe knew this plex hex imbued her with added might. The risk was worth it to obtain Retributor’s whereabouts. He now stood closer to that goal.
He approached his discarded clothing, intermingled with hers in a trail from the suite’s door to the bed. He redressed within a minute, hurriedly pulling on his hooded cloak and fastening his bandoliers.
Nirva remained on the bed, watching him like a predator, a very beautiful predator. She offered no further words.
Ashe reached in one of his cloak’s inner pockets and pulled out a very old cigar held within a white suede sleeve. The soft cloth’s preservation hex kept it from deteriorating. He bought the sleeve soon after his mother died, intending to save it for the right moment. And this was it. The pyromancer gently removed the cigar, exposing it to the air.
Nirva frowned at it. “I thought you just smoked that ugly pipe.”
“Special occasion.” He touched the brown tip with a flaming finger, lighting it. Succeeding where his mother failed, Ashe raided the Nagus Queen’s vault and sold the gaun herb pipes. He kept three for himself, one on his person and the other two hidden in different locations. Ashe should have been an old man by now. Instead, he entered his eighth decade as spry as the day he met with his mother. He sucked in the bitter smoke. Despite his efforts, it lost its rich scent. His pipe tasted so much better.
She gestured to the door. “That smells like a dead rat in a chimney. Get out.”
“In a minute.” Ashe lowered the cylindrical roll from his mouth. “What are you planning on naming the baby?”
Nirva stood from the bed, hands on her shapely hips. “No. You don’t get to know anything about her.”
“I didn’t.” Ashe returned the awful-tasting cigar to his open-mouthed smile. “But now I know it’s a ‘her’.”
She gestured to the door and it swung open. “Leave.”
He nodded to the yellow and red painting above the bed. “One last thing and I’m gone. It’s about your work of art.”
“If I have to ask again, I’ll impale your testicles on the same skewer as your eyes and eat them in front of you.” Nirva pointed at him now, ready to call forth a hex.
“Your painting needs some blue for contrast. I think our child would like that.” Ashe departed the suite into the villa’s garden maze of thorn bushes.
Nirva wanted to remain true to her word. But neither parent would have a hand in their child’s development. The baby went missing three weeks after her birth. Ashe made no attempt to find her when he learned of her disappearance. For his apathy, he will one day repent.
Nirva Silv
Nirva Silv
An artist who once lived in Inner Yeom, Nirva created an abstract painting of orange, black and red smears. Within its brush strokes, she viewed a perfect reality free of strife under her control. She initially dismissed it as a day dream, something to which she should aspire, but never reach. However, the idea of it gnawed at her mind, the singular inspiration of the many realms perfected by her hand and the horrors awaiting every living thing if she did not act. Nirva scrutinized her creation, finding nuances only detectable by her eyes. She knew she did not suffer from delusion. A path lay before her. A lonely and dark one, but it fell to her to take it. She alone possessed the ambition to bring her beautiful masterpiece from the canvas to all the realms. Sufrinzon’s fragmented baronies offered her a place to initiate her grand design.
Nirva joined the Underguild and honed her dormant ethereal prowess to become a mancer. Her drive for all forms of power intensified with each passing day. She could not fear what she had to do, so she chose to embrace it. Every line she crossed, every life she took, brought her closer to a perfected reality.
She met Ashe Stelfire beneath a sheen of purple light in one of the Cosm’s reality observatories. He distrusted her. She hated him. Yet, they couldn’t resist one another. They had no rational reasons for their affair, only reckless abandonment. Nirva later discovered a reason in her studies, a plex hex that would permanently imbue her with vast ethereal power. Among the numerous prerequisites, the plex hex required that she conceive another mancer’s child at its conclusion. Nirva needed the power to further her goals, but she told Ashe only that she desired an heir to raise on her own. To entice him, she promised to provide him with a vital piece of information concerning the location of Retributor, a mythical weapon lost to the ages.
The following Stelfire.com exclusive scene depicts the parting of Ashe Stelfire and Nirva Silv. It takes place between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the REPENTER novel. ADVISORY: It contains explicit content.
Post-Coital Design Advice
By James McGowan
The Late Night of Pyrene 50th, 1551
Ashe leaned against a window of six-inch-thick, opaque glass. He clenched his eyes shut for moment, fighting a surge of vertigo. Nirva lay in the oval-shaped bed behind him. The plex hex was over. He stared hard at the window, trying in vain to view the exterior of the villa. Dread churned through his insides. His bare feet writhed against the polished, stone-tiled floor. He made a mistake. He already knew it.
“Success.” Nirva’s dark voice carried no anxiety, only satisfaction. “I’m pregnant.”
He didn’t bother asking how she knew this soon. Warm air wafted upon his unclothed body from the vents in the ceiling. “Tell me.”
“Tell you what?” Her voice carried more than a question.
“You fucking well know what. Where is Retributor?”
She sighed in a hoarse crescendo. “You’re in that big of a hurry?”
Ashe tapped the glass with the butt of his hand. “You still want me having no part of this child’s life?”
Nirva didn’t immediately respond. “It would be best if you didn’t. I have plans.”
Ashe turned from the window and scowled her. She made no attempt to cover her nude form. She reclined on the bed with her arms crossed behind her head. The pale light from the window touched her pale body, muting the red brilliance of her hair. It also revealed the painting hanging above the bed. It was one of Nirva’s many abstract pieces. This one depicted a series of jagged, red brushstrokes on a yellow background. Not for the first time Ashe wondered if Nirva’s skill as an artist influenced his decision to enter into this deal. “What plans?”
“Personal ones.” Her expression soured. “You know what? You’re right. You should leave.” The nude woman sat up, knees close to her chest. “Retributor is in Corsis’s possession. Probably in his lair, but that’s uncertain.”
Ashe’s stomach sank. Corsis was on a very short list of people whom he dared not cross. The bipedal, reptilian man possessed riches beyond reckoning, but power to match it. The pyromancer swallowed hard. “Lovely.”
She ran her hand down the length of her bent leg. “I never said you’d like my answer.
His eyes locked with hers. The passion from every previous encounter no longer showed within them, only cold contentment.
“The look on your face is by far the best thing to come out of this.” A smile retook Nirva’s face. “And a lot of good things came out of this.”
Ashe’s muscles tensed. “Yes, quite a few.” The urge to do something violent clattered at the back of his mind. He did not act on it. This woman now carried his child. She also outmatched him. Despite her deception, Ashe knew this plex hex imbued her with added might. The risk was worth it to obtain Retributor’s whereabouts. He now stood closer to that goal.
He approached his discarded clothing, intermingled with hers in a trail from the suite’s door to the bed. He redressed within a minute, hurriedly pulling on his hooded cloak and fastening his bandoliers.
Nirva remained on the bed, watching him like a predator, a very beautiful predator. She offered no further words.
Ashe reached in one of his cloak’s inner pockets and pulled out a very old cigar held within a white suede sleeve. The soft cloth’s preservation hex kept it from deteriorating. He bought the sleeve soon after his mother died, intending to save it for the right moment. And this was it. The pyromancer gently removed the cigar, exposing it to the air.
Nirva frowned at it. “I thought you just smoked that ugly pipe.”
“Special occasion.” He touched the brown tip with a flaming finger, lighting it. Succeeding where his mother failed, Ashe raided the Nagus Queen’s vault and sold the gaun herb pipes. He kept three for himself, one on his person and the other two hidden in different locations. Ashe should have been an old man by now. Instead, he entered his eighth decade as spry as the day he met with his mother. He sucked in the bitter smoke. Despite his efforts, it lost its rich scent. His pipe tasted so much better.
She gestured to the door. “That smells like a dead rat in a chimney. Get out.”
“In a minute.” Ashe lowered the cylindrical roll from his mouth. “What are you planning on naming the baby?”
Nirva stood from the bed, hands on her shapely hips. “No. You don’t get to know anything about her.”
“I didn’t.” Ashe returned the awful-tasting cigar to his open-mouthed smile. “But now I know it’s a ‘her’.”
She gestured to the door and it swung open. “Leave.”
He nodded to the yellow and red painting above the bed. “One last thing and I’m gone. It’s about your work of art.”
“If I have to ask again, I’ll impale your testicles on the same skewer as your eyes and eat them in front of you.” Nirva pointed at him now, ready to call forth a hex.
“Your painting needs some blue for contrast. I think our child would like that.” Ashe departed the suite into the villa’s garden maze of thorn bushes.
Nirva wanted to remain true to her word. But neither parent would have a hand in their child’s development. The baby went missing three weeks after her birth. Ashe made no attempt to find her when he learned of her disappearance. For his apathy, he will one day repent.
T-Minus…
After a few months of tweaking, this baby is about to go live. The fuze is lit. Awaiting the bang.
Realms
Realm: A sphere or plane of reality.
Realm Sub-categories:
Pico Realm: A plane of existence with limited space and finite borders. Inner Yeom, the Cosm, and the Shade Lands are pico realms.
Planet Realm: A sphere of existence that orbits at least one daystar. Its people are both good and evil. Trojis, Outer Yeom, and the Macro Worlds are planet realms.
Nether Realm: A secluded sphere of existence tainted by evil and peopled by the lost. Despite this, hope does glimmer within them. Sufrinzon, Decadia, and Forboda are nether realms.
Realms of Note:
Trojis: A wet, blue planet comprised of vast oceans and the super-continent of Jeea. It is home to the ceaseless blaze of the Fire Well. The conflicts and culture of Trojis touch dozens of interconnected realms. New Grelland, Crystal Keep and the Holy Alliance are counted as its most potent nations.
Sufrinzon: A vast Nether Realm often described as a distorted reflection of Trojis. Burning oceans and orange-black clouds encircle it. Despite its darkness, beauty and valor thrive among those who choose freedom over tyranny. It’s divided into several baronies including Palle, Darbin and Velsuvia.
The Shade Lands: The realm connecting the shadows of all places, people and things. Space is folded within its perpetually-twilit environs. If one dares to walk within the Shade Lands, vast distances can be covered in minutes and impossible to reach realms are accessible. However, those who lurk within its dim expanses rarely make such excursions uneventful.
The Macro Worlds: A network of fifty-five planets all sharing a nebula-sized atmosphere of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Trillions of beings once inhabited them. The majority of the Macro Worlds are now lifeless husks after the Underguild ignited their atmosphere to end the A Pox’s first pandemic. Little breathable air remains, all of it sterilized.
Outer Yeom: A desolate, hollow shell planet realm that once rivaled Trojis in cultural influence. Its few remaining people all know the name Corsis, and fear it.
Inner Yeom: A verdant, inner-sphere, pico realm untouched by the strife of its outer counterpart. The wise forest of Halonir resides within its plush borders.
The Cosm: The Pico Realm containing the Underguild. A small nation unto itself, the Cosm spans only a city-sized amount of space, yet it has never been fully explored. Its geography shifts over time at the fancy of a select few of its inhabitants.
Decadia: This entirely urban Nether Realm possesses the most advanced capitalistic economy in existence. Its weapons are rivaled only by those of New Grelland and Dread Corps. However, it tends to covertly trade its wares with other nations, rather than overtly enter into conflict with its enemies.
Forboda: Home to the Nagus Demons, humanoids with snake tails in place of legs. Lush rain forests sprawl everywhere. Tales of its subterranean cites’ riches has led many a raider to an untimely death.
Elaine Nielsen’s book, “A Century on the Trail: Ogallala”
I made a very happy discovery today. My late grandmother, Elaine Nielsen’s book, “A Century on the Trail: Ogallala” is back in print from Bison Books. My wife showed it to me when we were at Barnes and Nobles. I recall my aunt saying something about the University of Nebraska Press wanting to make a trade paperback of it, but I didn’t know it was this far along. If you’re interested in reading a well-crafted retelling of frontier life in west Nebraska, you will enjoy this book. The ISBN is 978-0-8032-3447-5 if you’re interested in tracking it down. More than a decade after passing away, Elaine Nielsen continues to be a positive influence on me as a grandson and a writer. When Repenter gets published, it’s getting dedicated to her.