Solace In Valleys

A long invested struggle, between man and spirit, has ventured past eons on the soil from which both originated. Scorched beyond recognition, a compromise is desired between both parties, yet none can come up with an ideal solution. It leaves little to the imagination to suggest whether or not one side can concede for the other, as cost for conflict grew beyond their comprehension. All that was left was further loss in the eyes of those who have been just as scorched as the soil.
Carrying the burden of an idealistic goal, Leaders across the land discussed terms with which they could present with the sacred grounds that spanned across their territories; as a means for which their heritage wouldn't be as sorely sacrificed. One of the members of the meeting, a Lord's trusted scientist,conducted an experiment that allowed for the vitality in foliage to be harnessed into a gemstone, and with it, proposed extending the war. Many leaders stated that they had no interest in such things, but thought that it was worthwhile in providing it as a keepsake for their successors if their treaty were to go sour in the future.
Reaching out for the air, a sword materialized and fell onto the table, piercing the weatherd bark. The party was baffled and questioned the scientists abilities, and requested him to explain why he showed them this blade.
"Gentleman, our fury will bloom whether we like it or not. There is an age of war coming from the clouds, and we must bear arms. the question is not when or how, but why. Have we forgotten the sacrifies our forebearers made to give us peace? I know this is not the case, and perhaps you feel insulted. I wish for you to display your anger before this blade, for it shall present to you an affinity which will allow us to progress through this battle with victory set in our sights."
Forcing themselves into a rushed meeting, none knew of what was about to come. a Warrior clad in feathers that bore resemblance to coal walked towards them, and unsheathed a staff that retained a harmonic oscillation. He was requested to speak up but said nothing, and simply demonstrated his power. The meeting table became a map which displayed projection of invasions from the spirits, and that the meeting was fruitless. They had their hands forced into chaos. This man knew that and wished to clarify it, but none knew of his origins, nor cared enough to belay a reassessment of their plans. He was asked to Leopold's battalion, as he was the head of the meeting's orgainzation, and follow back to his kingdom when there was time for clarification.
The first to look at the blade with scepticism was The King of Wurfstone, Cuthbert. He and his loyal Knights crawled to the blade to grab its hilt, but to his shock, his subjects were destroyed immediately, while he was left to absorb their power. The other leaders were shocked but retained composure, and began discussing what could have happened. Were they dead?
"What treachery is this? You are no man of nature. Speak before I slay you!". Cuthbert was enraged, and drew the blade which took his loyal warriors, his friends, and intended to find retribution through blood.
That was, until the scientist spoke.
"Much like your friends were slain i presume? Do not fret, for they are still around, just not in their mortal coil. Their vitality has been assimilated into your body, Lord Cuthbert. Can you not notice a difference in your own strength?"
"It does not matter to me how much strength i have if it at the expense of those i wish to fight for. Undo your curse before i dismember you before this company."
"Ah but you see, they will return. just after the war is resolved. The power you have obtained is not merely the sum of their heads. You have unlocked something raw, something forgotten due to years of peace. this will allow us to win against these foes."
"What are you babbling about? What is this sword? Who are you?"
"My name is Odomir, and this blade was forged from refined rubble of Thiurhilt, the first fortress of our kind. It was more of a Ziggarach than anything else, but that does not change the fact that it retained properties that baffle even myself to this day, as you can see. All we know is, it can be reversed by drawing the blood of a thousand enemies. So I ask of you all, even if i must pledge as well, to hold this blade and cure this land of its sorrow."
The leaders spoke with one another, looking at the seething but charismatic Cuthbert, and one spoke out.
"I will accept, but are we correct to assume that all our underlings will be absorbed by our own flesh and bones?"
"You are not, however it is a fair error. The blade only seeks the strongest. Even those who are not disciplined might be taken in. this may perhaps worry you. fear not, for it will not affect your psyche. Bear in mind, however, that means you may submit to a stronger individual of your respective kingdoms, but that is highly unlikely unless they were to be present at the time our writ, or if their emotional disparity presented itself on the battlefield."
"I see...if that is the case, then i concede. My subjects have already consented."
"Again, your subjects may not even be chosen. You must be prepared to take the burden of holding the lives of innocent bystanders in your hands."
This began to worry the kings. But then a voice shook over the castle. The first to point it out was Leopold's Warrior.

Eden Adel el Hubal

Prologue

  I remember being in my bed when it happened. I remember hearing the loud scream from my mom as those sick men in black slit her throat. I remember the sound of my dad chocking on his own blood. I remember walking out of my room just as the men in black left and looking at my mom and dad’s bodies lying on the floor, cold and dead. I was only 5 years of age when this transpired. After I called 911 I packed my backpack with two chocolate bars, a pair of pajamas, and some clothes. I left that night before the cops came, walking for hours in the cold with only a jacket and a wool hat to keep me warm. I survived for two years selling chocolate bars and water when Derek came along. He said he could save me, he could show me how to channel my anger and sooner or later get revenge on "the men in black".

  I followed him about four miles down the road and into a cave in the woods. Outside it read "Terra of Silenti". He escorted me into the cave and there I was met by a massive man wearing a red mask.

"They call me Aswad, Lord of the sword. I will be your mentor. You will learn how to channel your anger in an aggressive, but controlled, manor."

  Aswad was very muscular and massive. I remember looking up to him thinking he was as tall as the Empire State Building, but as strong as a bull. He wore this long red cloak followed by his read mask and his katana. He had a tattoo of a dragon that went up both arms and, very faintly, you can see a tattoo of some sort on his face.

"Let's begin." He says in a deep serious tone. Aswad hands me a yellow mask, a yellow cloak, and a yellow belt.”

"Go put this on then meet me back here in 15 minutes."

  Derek brings me down a dark hallway into a room. The room was very mystifying. It had a bed, a dresser, a book case, and a nightstand with a bible on it. The weird thing was everything in the room was yellow.

"Asfar, Lord of the light." said Derek in a humble tone.

"What?" I said all confused

"Asfar, that's your new name." Derek said seriously.

  Me being seven at the time I just ignored him and went about putting on my gear and headed out to meet up with Aswad.

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I walked back to the main entrance where Aswad was waiting.

"Are you ready Asfar?" asked Aswad.

   I nodded enthusiastically. Aswad started walking and I followed scoping out the place. We made a left down a hallway where there were other rooms just like mine, but different colors. We continued all the way down the hallway until we reached the training room. The training room was probably the biggest room in Terra of Silenti.

  The training room contained a set of training dummies, swords, bows and arrows, spears, staffs, and throwing knives.

  “Pick your weapon young Asfar. Chose wisely, for the weapon you chose today will be the weapon the weapon you will have for the rest of your life. You will learn to make your weapon a part of you.”

  I decided to take the sword. It was long and sharp. When I picked it up off the rack I nearly cut my foot off because of the weight. The sword had a black tint that faded as it made its way up to the tip of the blade. The length of it was almost the size of my leg.

“You have chosen the sword of light. With this sword you will begin to realize the black tint become yellow. Your final blade will be a shaded fully yellow. This symbolizes the connection between the sword and its wielder. Now that you have chosen your weapon let’s begin.”

  Aswad led me to a room with a bunch of hanging ropes and ledges. It was like a big obstacle course. The wallpaper in this room had buildings and at every ledge there was a dummy. Each dummy got taller and thicker. Around the dummies were wooden dummies. “Bodyguards” as Aswad called them.

  “Here in the Terra of Silenti we take out people who threaten our legacy. For example your parents, they were honorary members of the Terra and never gave us up due to their loyalty to the Terra. The men in black killed them for, what Derek believes, was a sign that war has been declared, the Terra of Silenti being the hunted. You, young Asfar, were supposed to initiate into the Terra at the age of 10, but because of the killing of your mother and father, Derek had to hunt you down before the men in black got to you.”

  “Now for your first days training, here at the Terra we like to move swiftly, quietly, and effectively. This will train you how to get from rooftop to rooftop quietly and undetected. What you will do is, you will start at the yellow rope, you will swing from rope to rope until you reach ledge number one, then you will take out the security guards without setting off the alarm. To do this you must use the length of your blade to your advantage and take them all out in one sweep. After you take out the guards you will take out the target then move to the green rope and repeat until you’ve taken out every target. If you are to set off the alarm, fall off the ropes, or drop your blade you will restart from the beginning. Once you have completed your task report back to me.”

 

  Aswad left the room as I began walking towards the first rope. I was young, weak, and uncoordinated, yet, I was determined to complete the task. I put the sword in a space between my belt and my cloak then started climbing the first rope. I got through the first stage no problem. Just like Aswad said all I had to do was use the length of my blade to my advantage. After taking out the first target in less than five minutes, I proceeded to the second rope and began climbing. I made it to the second ledge and began to take out the imaginary bodyguards. As I began my swift slash and thrust of my blade, I was soon surprised to see the dummy move. Instinctively I jumped from the outside rope to the ledge taking out the bodyguard and target all with one big swing of my sword. After taking out the second target in roughly seven minutes I noticed my blade starting to change color.

 

  I made it through the rest of the stages with only making one error, (dropping my blade at stage four), and finishing around dinner time. I was greeted by Aswad and Derek outside the training room.

 

“Congratulations young Asfar. Your impressive skill and agility has earned you your rightful spot here at the Terra. Now that you have you completed your training I may now formally introduce myself. I am Derek Addington, better known as the Eden of Terra. This is Aswad, my right hand man and your mentor here at the Terra.”

 

“Salutations” Aswad said in a deep and polite tone.

 “The Terra of Silenti is a…how do you say… cleansing group. We take out the evil in our world, like the people who killed your parents, and cleanse the universe one twisted soul at a time. This is your new family my dear, young Asfar. Welcome to your new home.”

      

lol

is this considered a failure yet or what

Musings

I suppose I'll join the fun.

In truth, I expected a few people to miss the deadline - but I did not consider myself one of them. Generally, when push comes to shove, I can meet deadlines. I can't guarantee quality, but I can at least guarantee completion.

But that didn't happen. I struggled quite a bit this week deciding on what to write, and even more on how to write it. I spent several hours Saturday morning just doing draft after draft, but nothing stuck. No matter what I wrote, I hated both the concept and the words on the page, and I quickly trashed it to move on to other work.

I think I misjudged my free time overall, which has been a major hurdle. I no longer have the luxury of sitting in front of my home computer 10 hours a day; being able to drop whatever I am doing when inspiration hits me, and write until the words stop flowing. Now I need to plan in advance what I want to write, when I'll write it, and generally how long it'll be. It's quite the killer for productivity. At best, I can get 2 minutes to write down an idea when one comes, quickly jotting it on a notepad then stuffing it into my pocket, leaving it more or less dead.

I'm thinking of, perhaps, changing the format of the blog a bit - not because people missed the deadline, but because I have some other ideas for how to tackle things. It may be better to present this more of a general blog; urging people to talk about what they're working on, rather than going straight to publishing some story that's been festering. Any sort of outlet may be enough to encourage people to finish a piece, or at least let them get their ideas on paper.

In any case, I don't think we have any viewers yet - so these posts are mostly just for us to communicate amongst ourselves. Let us hope that we can meet this week's deadline, but let us not hope too much.

Another Excuse

I sort of expected everyone to miss the deadline, but I am disappointed in myself for not meeting it as well. I have an idea of what I'm going to write now i just have to plan it out.




  See y'all soon,
  Sihr

More Excuses

Seems pretty much everyone missed the first deadline, but I'm not really that surprised. It was kind of expected.

I'm gonna try my damnedest to meet this next, coming deadline, because if I don't then the blog was pointless, but I'm trying to think of how the narration should go.

Anyway,
kissshit

Excuses

How embarrassing.

I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it up for long but on the first deadline? Kuyashi.

Due to the format I have chosen to present the story it is a lot more difficult to translate what's in my head on screen. Hopefully I'll have it done by next weekend. If not, I'll just present it as is or write it as simple prose.

Also I've been ill since last Sunday, plenty of important real life work I've been skipping on as a result. Feel sympathy towards me hue hue hue.

See you next week.

Love,
Senpai.

Intro

       My fellow bloggers,
Expect a lot of mystical, funny, and dark writings. Writing a little intro because kisshit told me to. So as I was saying. I'll be posting mostly every Tuesday, if I'm running late, then Thursday will be my backup day. Signing out see y'all Tuesday!
      ~Lord Sihr

Yo, yo. Yo.

I've been harassing this blog's admin (don't trust his username, by the way) to just sit down and start this thing already. Apparently he has, finally. So now here I am as well, bad at introductions and stuff.

I like the fantastical or the strange. Usually when I read a book I don't stop, through hunger or sleep or anything important, until it's finished. Unfortunately I can't say the same for what I write, so let's see what we get here.

kissshit

Crashing This Blog...

I don't even know anymore.

A story a week doesn't sound too tasking but I'm not known for my consistency.

I'll use this blog to help me procrastinate and take my mind off of anything that would benefit my life, eventually this blog.

No sunshine no sunshine no sunshine.

Hello.

Hello There, or "What is this and why do I care?"

Note: Because people kept whining, I actually proofread this and corrected some typos, but very likely not them all.

What is this?

A blog, naturally. What is it for? Writing.
This is a blog created just for writing. There isn't anything special about it. If it's anything, it's a motivational tool. People often come across writer's block or a general lack of motivation and inspiration. This is a way to keep writers writing without having to worry much about the quality or length of their work, or even the content. it's just a tool to keep you writing.

How will this work?

Pretty simply. Each blogger is expected to write one story a week. It doesn't matter what day you post, or how long the story is, or what it's about. The important thing is this: that you actually wrote it, and that you finished it. As long as the story cleanly comes to an end, you can quite proudly proclaim "I wrote this!" (unless it's awful and you decide to pretend somebody else did it).
There will be weekly 'deadlines', and by that all I mean is that each week starts on Sunday, and ends on Saturday. As long as you post one story within that timeframe, you're safe. This means that, no matter what day you post your story, you have a minimum of 7 days to post another - but usually people will probably have around 10 days per story, I think.

Guidlines

As mentioned, there really aren't any rules other than "make it complete," but I'll mention a few things people should have in mind.

• Try and keep the story focused! Don't stray too much from your themes (unless that's your focus), because we have limited time to write this stuff and limited space to throw it on (<- this second statement is not true). Try and remember what you were thinking of conveying when you started and stick to that!
• Don't rush the ending! I want the stories to be complete so they don't feel half-assed, but this doesn't mean you should abruptly close the story. If you are working on something and just kill it partway through, you're hurting both yourself and the reader. If you can't end the story in a logical way, maybe you should try to write something else. The deadlines are there to guide you; it's fine if you miss one (although I will be disappointed if you do.)
• Serials are fine. You can write a story that's actually chapters from a book you're working on or whatever else, and publish a chapter every week or so, or every few weeks (in between unrelated works!) But make sure each chapter ends; you don't want to leave people hanging. View this more as a weekly magazine (maybe a monthly, if a week is too short), rather than a way for you to vent your ideas.
• Have fun. If you stop enjoying this, or view it as a chore, it'll ultimately defeat its purpose. If you get worn out, you can take a break. If you need some time in between stories, go ahead. If week is too much for you, why not just make it a month? Ultimately, each blogger can determine their own deadlines.

Who's doing this?

Nobody important, sadly. We're all amateurs here, which is both good and bad. It's good because we should be able to critique each other accurately, and nobody should really be knocking it out as superior in their stories - but it's bad because we're amateurs. We're more likely to make grammatical errors than professionals and, naturally having never been published, probably will mostly produce sub-par stuff at best. But who cares? This is about improving and writing more.
If you want to join in (which is fine by me!) just drop an e-mail. Mention why you want to join, maybe prove you'll do it every week, and you'll probably be approved. It'd be great to spread this a bit.

Anything else?

Not really. I'd like to give some words of encouragement, but I haven't even finished my first piece yet, so what can do I?
The first deadline will start Sunday - tomorrow (2/7/15, or 7/2/15 for you Yuropians), so hopefully we'll see some stuff being added between tomorrow and next Saturday.
Other things to note...it's extremely likely that 90% of my stories will have similar settings to one another, or even downright bizarre themes. I like to screw around but I also like to stick with what I know - so I imagine that, looking at things in bulk, most of my stories will be set in the stOPverse (which is a sci-fi realm you've never heard of)  or on Azetta (which is a fantasy realm you've never heard of it). I will tag such stories appropriately, mostly just for my own reference.

Closing Comments?

 

About me

Uh, I'd like to talk about myself but I'm not very interesting. Other bloggers, feel free to throw up an introduction post before you get started - just tag it! Let's keep things as organized as possible.
Now, about me... as mentioned, the majority of my stories will probably be in the same world. I'm not too unique when it comes to my own tastes; I mostly read fantasy books and historical fiction. You will very likely see that reflected in my works.
I am a programmer too, so I am forced to enjoy sci-fi. Even I don't particularly write it.
Also, I've done something similar to this before. But I am an awful, awful artist. If you think my prose is bad, you will blown away by the quality of my artwork.
In summation, I hope you like swords and sorcery, because you'll be seeing a lot of it.
Also, anything that takes a minute to think about - or has a hidden meaning - I love that, too. But I am not very good at subtlety, so we'll see how well I can accomplish such things on my own.

 

About the Site

I actually originally was going to make this website through Wordpress, just so we had more options at our disposal, but I am an extremely cheap person (contrary to my careless spending habits), so I've opted to stick with the completely free blogger/blogspot/whatever instead. That said, I will still be making changes here and there to the site - probably producer a logo, maybe make a proper page about each blogger, things like that. I'd like this blog to have a unique flavor to it, even if it's nothing special (and I stole the template off the internet), so if I ever stop being lazy I imagine there'll be some interesting changes here and there.

I may also change the format from "a story a week" to "a long story a month," with other things being published during this month - previews of your longer work, shorter stories by minor characters, or anything you want to write. It may be easier for creative flow if people are given a longer period in between works, but still are encouraged to write something during that work's gestation period. I'll probably think about it a bit more and talk with the other bloggers to determine a real format.
For now, though, you'd best be writing one 30,000 word story a week, or we're goign to have problems.