Happy Friday!
It's been crazy in the Pogue house. The hubs is switching jobs, and I've been in the midst of tax craziness. BUT I'm diving back into the Darkborn Saga. I have book one and two written, and I was starting book 3, but then decided I need to revisit book one. It's the foundation of the entire series, which has turned into an epic dark fantasy romance at this point, which means there's a lot of world-building and ground to cover, especially in book one. So, I want to hone that in and make it super solid before writing book 3 and 4.
Members already have Sylas's Origin story. Thorne, Arless, and Lucian are coming next! Keep an eye out for those. I might even put up all of PART I once I've revised it.
Anyway, here's something fun I just finished -- the backbone of the Darkborn world has finally come together. It's funny; I write these stories because I cannot get the characters out of my head. But that doesn't mean I have everything ironed out before I sit down to write. It has taken me two books to feel solid in the mythological world I've created - all the little nuances that drive the world my characters are trying to save. If you look closely, you might see where this story is taking us. :)
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Finalized Lore of the Darkborn Saga - the backbone of the world I've created. It's taken two books to get the lore ironed out. Here's a sneak peek at the first page of Bloodborn:
From the Fragments of the Convergence Chronicles
In the time before memory, the world was whole—one land, anchored by the Soulwood buried deep beneath the earth. From the Soulwood, ley lines spread like roots, carrying life and magic across the realm and binding Röthgard in balance.
As all living things do, the world changed. Seasons turned. Life and death held equal dominion. Light and shadow flourished side by side, and the gods ruled the mortal plane from afar.
But change, like rot, is inevitable.
Every thousand winters, when balance waned and darkness threatened to overtake the light, the ancient protectors of Röthgard—great winged guardians and their Root Keepers—would wake. With frost and flame, they scoured the land, halting corruption and burning away what could not endure.
When their task was complete, the guardians returned to slumber, and the wheel began anew.
Yet the chronicles speak of an evil that rose beyond the natural order.
The Root-Rotter.
An ancient being that poisoned the foundations of the world itself, corrupting the Soulwood and waking the guardians before their slumber was complete.
The guardians fell, dying before their work was done. The texts do not say how, nor why. Only this remains: the Soulwood fractured, the Root-Rotter was cast into the depths of the realm, and the power once bound by the Soulwood surged free. Uncontained, the power splintered the land, creating the Great Fissure.
The fissure tore through Röthgard and the realm. The northern lands were ripped away, and where the continent split, the sea rushed in. Thousands perished, and when the tremors ceased, the world was changed forever.
What was once one land became two: Nordlund, frozen and scarred in the north, and Soothlund, land of sun and secrets in the south, divided by the Bitter Sea. Ley lines weakened, seasons grew cruel, and magic began to fade.
Yet still, the wheel must turn.
For all things endure only until they break.
Translator’s Note:
References to the Root-Rotter appear throughout recovered texts. In Old Soothlunder: Níðhöggr. In northern dialects: the World-Eater, the Root-Rotter.
Translated by Bryanna Thorvold, Archivist of the Forsaken