Update, Postponed Chapter
Hey folks. I wanted to throw this post up so no one was left wondering where the chapter was. Starting last night and continuing into this morning, heavy rains and a clogged mainline beneath my building caused my apartment, a basement level unit, to flood with sewage water. It filled the entire unit and soaked through my carpets, which as you can imagine was a fun thing to wake up to.
I’ve been dealing with this for over 26 hours now, and it has unfortunately put me behind on my writing. I do not have tonight’s chapter ready. It’s nearly done, but I haven’t had the attention to give it proper proof reads and bring it up to standard. For this reason, I’ll be postponing the next post. I’ll try to have it up tomorrow, but I can’t promise an exact time.
Very sorry for the delay,
Sov
P.S. I need 500 words to make a Royal Road post, so I decided to include a list of some proper nouns that’ve become common in the narrative. Hope they’re helpful! This is a very self indulgent and rambling writeup and might contain information I haven’t explicitly shared in the story yet, so read at your own risk.
Aura: Energy that radiates from living things, said to be the emanations of the soul. It allows mere mortals to express their will in ways beyond the purely physical.
Phantasm: A construct of aura, which can be deliberately created by someone who’s awakened the ability to use their aura or naturally in the wild thanks to the interaction of various supernatural phenomena in the world.
Auratic Art: Sometimes also called a Soul Art, these are techniques cultivated by practitioners of magic to perform some specific function using a phantasm, or a construct of aura. They are used by soldiers as often as sorcerers, and are a mainstay of warfare especially in the subcontinent of Urn. Some are unique to specific individuals, some are inherited, and some manifest from impactful events in nature or history that can then be refined into a usable power.
Aureflame: A physical emanation of aura which often appears as flame. Many phantasms are made of aureflame, strictly speaking, but it is most often used in reference to particularly pure and refined spiritual energy like that used by the Knights of the Alder Table.
Od: Spiritual potentia lingering in the world after aura has burned off. It is most often thought of as the “shadow” of aura, a lasting impression of the emanations of the soul that permeate much of the world. It can often take shape as ghosts and other spirits, and over time can even spark new life and awareness in vessels which are typically inert, such as old trees, hills, and even storm clouds. It is theorized that fear, awe, and worship from living beings can speed up this process. Many beings in the world, such as ogres and earthly gods, are created this way either by accident or design.
Elf: Sometimes called The Sidhe, The Old Children, Irks, and Faeries, elves are a wide collective of semi-immortal beings who have inhabited the world of the Alderes for countless ages. They can take many forms and have created many civilizations of their own. Their fey nature can make them both fickle and affectionate, wise and whimsical, loving and wrathful, all of which has made their shared history with humanity complicated. They are often inexplicably drawn to mortals, despite the unhappy results these meetings often culminate in.