IANTH: A New Non-TES Project Founded By Me, Is Recruiting!

[IceFireWarden]

“Greetings in blood, companions! If you're reading this than you are either a part of the writing team developing I Am Not The Hero (shortened to the acronym IANTH), a person trusted with the reviewing of its lore and story, or a new recruit! The main goal of this world-building project is to create a fluid and realistic universe in a steampunk/dark fantasy setting with Lovecraftian elements, where everything feels alive and natural, in order to create a work of literature that possesses an amazing narrative and fantastic illustrations that is a fusion of Western and Eastern literary storytelling and design through creative ingenuity and teamwork. To clarify, what I mean by a fusion of Western & Eastern storytelling is that this novel will be told in two separate ways - via full length written chapters accompanied by Victorian Era illustrations which will be used for character focus and narrative exposition, and fully drawn manga/comic chapters (utilizing an artstyle combining the artistic directions of Dragon Ball Z and Cowboy Bebop while still having an antiquated, gritty feel) that will be used to convey one-on-one battles or large-scale conflicts that would either be too hard to visualize or are too fantastic to demonstrate through written words.

I've personally taken to calling it a novanga myself in jest, but that's a sentiment that's open to discussion and change amongst everyone on the team.

What we’re really working for with the story of this universe is to create something that has a feel of uniqueness and freshness, which doesn't contain a lot of the standard clichés and tropes found throughout all forms of fictional media. While this cannot be completely avoided due to the nature of fiction, which is the art of retelling the same stories over time with a new flavor (which means some major storytelling tropes will eventually crop up in our world), we can still strive to avoid having some of the rather common and ridiculous ones (like the Power of Love/Friendship, Villain Monologuing, Serial Escalation in regards to new enemies and conflicts that advance the plot, Fanservice that is unneeded and serves no relevance to the plot, Adults Being Useless, etc.) popping up.

If a character or a group of characters win a fight, it’s because they were able to successfully work out a plan that utilizes their abilities to the fullest instead of relying on ‘inexplicable power ups’ or ‘my badass is simply stronger than yours’. If a story element is introduced, it will be relevant to the plot in some way or fashion and won't be tossed aside or become a plot hole. Fights will be visceral and engaging, with enemies having their own unique advantages and quirks that will make them genuinely challenging to our heroes; if a main character can't realistically win a fight, then they won't win the fight. Deus ex Machinas will also, naturally, be reduced or not even used in the grand scheme of things.

Through hard work, luck, ingenuity, a little bit of procrastination, debate, and the will to succeed, we can and will be able to create a groundbreaking work that will leave its mark on all fictional media for years to come. But only if we do our best, and have some fun while doing it.

And with that said, let's get to work. As I've always said, give me a pen and I'll build you a world.” - LaJaveyon Saunders (IceFireWarden), Project Founder

Interested in the themes of dark fantasy, steampunk, and Lovecraftian horror? Fond of telling grandiose, epic stories revolving around realistic and intriguing characters trying to find their place in the universe? Good at illustrating amazing works of art that capture the emotion, tone, and thoughts of what is being depicted in a scene? Then you might be a great fit for joining Project Requiem and helping make the world of IANTH not only a reality, but a work of fiction that people all around the world can experience and enjoy!

If interested, or if you know someone who might be, then please visit our Google Drive folder (https://drive.google. com/open?id=1J61vugMXHNkfg1Dpa6QTrbGi7vytJ4Zv) and peruse our documents. Our official meeting hub (which can be accessed below) and email addresses can be found in the Organization document, in case you want to contact us about joining or have any questions. We hope to see you soon!

[VirtualWeasel]

Provenance of Laira
By Del of Reora, circa Kudes 900
Book I
First, under the swept Star-Blood of the First Rift, where endless Few Shape and Reshape, was Void, terminal in its woe and benevolence;
The End, The Un-End,
Hollowness.
Sparks in Darkness, from Beyond, flickered splashes of Star-Streaks of the First Rift.
Some reached to its Warmth, whose Glow never stretched Its grasp back.
Among them, the Few,
Mother and Brother,
Twisted and Curled,
in a Half-Life.
Here, They saw one another.
They Thought.
They Dreamed.
They Were.
Here, a faint Perception was hatched, the Abstraction, in a mind-egg.
Here, Change was conceived.

————❖————

Mother, to Lýr; Brother, to Kál.
Lýr was bearer to the Idea, Kál steadfast at Her side.
Kál became bearer to the Early Eyes,
Only He Saw, the Is-Was-Will Be,
Of the wakes to come.
And He writhed in it,
And He obsessed,
And It became Him.
And It Was. Blinded by Infinite Sight, Kál’s gaze lingered Elsewhere,
Whilst Another cracked the bones of Lýr.
And so a New Rift was scrawled onto the walls of ephemera.


Lýr, eyes now burned and hands mangled, whose Soul listens,
She whispers in the Rife,
She whispers in the Hollow.
The other was lynched by Kál, tormented by guilt.
Lýr became bearer to a New Idea,
The Ever-Shifting Tides,
The Inception.
Kál became slave to the First Idea.
In It, He is the Keeper.
He is, the Knight.
Without It, he is the All-Without-All.
The New Idea coagulated, safe in the cocoon of Lýr.
All was Night.
Chaos was rampant,
Light, of distant Here-Nowhere, now penetrating across the All-In-Nothing,
It fought the Dark,
endlessly.


Book II
First emerged out of Blackness and Mute Space, Andain, took up his Cleaver, standing Vigilant of Cadin, the First Rift keystone.
First emerged out of Star-Blood and Blind Purity, Lythus, looked to Andain and said,
“I am the Beginner, the Board, the Ender. Look to me for Truth.”
Andain looked to her and said,
“I am the Destroyer, the Watchman, the Firstfruit. Look to me for Peace.”
Lythus peered to the Light, Star-Streaks in frivolous decay:
“Here, I make my Home, built of Heart and Bone,
for Men to gaze
and Hounds to praise.”
Andain peered to the Dark, the Abyss, the End:
“This Keystone I make my Home, built of Brawn and Salt,
for Gods to fear
and Heroes to leer.”




Book III
Ugan soon grew in the First Place, Ðurkvi,
The Egg of Perception,
The World-Spine,
The Apex.
In Her young days She walked among the blank crescent of the place, Shepherding Light-Beings across vast expanses of Silver-Silk tides. Here She fed off the Fruits of a sole Seris.
While, deep in the Void, Kál gathered Others,
Grund and the Tenatua,
Out of the Pit, the Shade,
The Place-Between the Star-Blood,
to create a First Grimhunt.
Blackness fell across the Womb, Kál wrapping his serpentine guise around the place.
But, Kál gifted the Tenatua Night-Eyes.
Ugan’s sight faded, Her Path lit only by Light-Beings,
Who scattered,
Who shuddered,
Who shook,
In the Dark.
Nightmare realized, She moved across the Blackness of the Silver-Silk,
now Charred-Dark like ink.
Grund and the Tenatua, descending unto the World-Spine, gave chase through the Dark Quagmire.
And Ugan hid in the Dark Places,
Where devilish claws do snag and prod,
And the Tenatua always found Her,
And They Gnashed and Howled.
It Was, until, in the Dense Shade Ugan found the Seris,
The First World-Tree,
And a Voice spoke through and said thus:
“Here, from the First-Queen I gift you a Branch,
Haft mighty, I give you Ano, Will, Passion,
The Middle-End, the Sword.
I give you Perception, the Seeing-Mind,
I give to you, and all your Kin.”

And so Ugan waited a final time, for Grund.
And the Wolf-God came, mouth snarled, the Beast-Maw ready to Devour.
Ugan lashed the Beast with the Branch, and with all her Might,
Cast Him to the center of Ðurkvi, doing the same to the other weak Tenatua.
Ugan fled the Womb, floating off into the Great Void-Sea, self-contained in a capsule of Will,
The Chaos turning around Her,
The Dark tempting Her Passion,
The Light testing Her Might.
Here She sealed the Womb, Tenatua within, forbidding their Escape.
Ugan looked to Andain and spoke:
“Guard this World-Arc, the Egg,
For those within are Cursed, Misled.
Release them when they have shown Faith
to their Sovereign.”

Book IV
Ugan floated through the Void-Sea, safe from Kál’s grasp.
Here She saw the All-In-One, Everything.
Thrashing Chaos.
She spoke of Balance, into the All-In-One, and She gathered the Light and said:
“Let this One, built from Light and born from Balance, the First True Sovereign,
Be His People’s Guide,
Their Prophet,
Their God.
And They will call Him Kusa.”
Then Ugan gathered the Dark, and said:
“Let this One, built from Dark and born from Change, the Second Sovereign,
Be His People’s Guardian,
Their Aegis,
Their Ward.
And They will call Him Kuta.”
And, in the Void-Sea, both Brothers awoke,
And began Their Work.

First Kusa roared, and thus Chaos bent to its knees.
The All-In-All Silk-Weave,
The Lifeblood,
Time,
Coursed through the Universe.
Lythus assumed her Birthright to regulate its Flow.

Second Kuta beat His mighty wings, and the Dark obeyed His Will.
It came together, making Grikke,
A Shadowed place,
Where Light does not go.
Third Kusa waved His tail, and the Light obeyed His Will.
It came together, making Arkā,
A Bright place,
Where Dark does not go.
With the Brothers’ success, Ugan spoke.
“To control Chaos is to control Life.
Now, Our Work begins.
The construction of Free Beings,
To counter the Is-Was-Will Be.
To build the Free-Thought.”

Book V
Kusa and Ugan, staring into Arkā, Sang.
And in a Half-Life came Adder,
Land born of Chaos, hungry for Stability.
Formless, Time-Bound, Writhing and Turning.
In a Half-Life came Mire,
Land born of Stability, hungry for Chaos.
The False Paradise, the Barrow, Stalwart and Busy.
Kuta spoke to Ugan and Kusa:
“May We contain the Mire in Darkness
So no Untruth can Pierce its Veil.”
And Ugan spoke back:
“May we harbor our Throne,
Our Mantle, Our Hearth,
In this Rapture.”


Book VI
Ugan was Alone on the Mount, where She Tampered with the Ruran. Curious as It was, it Spoke to Her,
it lulled Her Soul,
it showed Her Beauty in all Its Faces,
the True,
the Deadly,
the Striking and the Blinding,
From a Facet of the Ruran, She broke a Plinth.
Plinth Mighty, and awash with Harmony, Ugan cut off Two Toes,
Out poured, in a Torrent,
the Call, the Time-Before-End,
the Breath Undying.
And so She spoke:
"From here, now, I become Undying, never to Leave this Universe.
Now, I become God of All Things, I become God of Gods."
In the Plinth Ugan kept It, and She flung Herself to Aelan, to Gift Lythus with the Plinth.
And Ugan spoke unto her.
"To you I gift the Holy Plinth, a piece of the Piece.
Within lies the Rebirth,
the Undoing,
the Catalyst of Man.
Within lies Death, and all Its riches."
Lythus, ever-grateful, thanked Ugan.
"O Great Alter-Queen, for this Gift I could never reciprocate well enough,
Let it be known that I shall never seek to Harm Your Image.
Let it be known that I shall never seek to Harm Your House.
Let it be known that I swear my Fealty unto Neutrality,
For I have Seen what Is,
And what Was,
And what Will Be."
And Ugan returned to Mire, where she prepared a Feast.

Windswept, and washed in the Light of a Travelling Sky-Lantern, Mire floated upon the Sea of All-In-All.
Upon Elysian Fields of Gold and Grain,
Kusa walked,
a naive Lamb,
whose gaze could not yet peer past the Trickster-Web of the Skittering Void.
And He danced in the fields, the Wisps of Ages to Come purring around him, hidden in the Breath of the Land,
In the Mountains and the Trees,
Who brood on things Eternal.
It was Ugan who Saw, that the Mire was an ephemeral dream, a Rapturous moment between the Sea Change of Epochs, but She spoke nothing of it.

In the deep fields, Kusa stumbled upon a Columbine Bud. He looked on it with Awe for its Beauty.
Out of the Bud, came forth a Woman, who Shown Herself to Him;
“I am Kyus, Sower of Love and Bearer of Beauty,
I am Queen of Prey, all that Scuttles upon the Many Worlds,
Gaining its Meal from the Earth.”
Kusa was struck by Her, and spoke:
“Into our Temples and Houses you are Welcome,
To our Sanctums at High and into the Blood of our Heirs,
We Welcome you who are of Good Faith,
You who are Kind, and Fair.”
So the Two returned to the Mount, where Ugan’s Feast awaited.

Then to Mire, Lythus sent her Meculða, born between a Rock and Ice in a Crag of Júd,
from a Catalyzed Shatter-Core,
by watch of a Tempered Eye.
Meculða, Witch-Raven bearing the Moon’s Gaze, entered unto Mire from the Heavens,
to greet Ugan with the Good Word,
a bag of Marbles,
a bag of Bright-Painted wonders,
the Chronicle,
the Pinnacle,
the Plow,
the Beginning.
Ugan, because she Saw, cautiously welcomed the Raven to the Mount.
Seeing the Marbles, She took them closely and spoke out:
“This Creation of your Mother’s, the fact it can Be and Not-Be, confounds Me.
How, Witch, did such a thing Become?”
Meculða looked into Ugan and Saw Her Cautious Intent, replying:
“O Ugan, mighty Alter-Queen, let me tell You of the Place from Whence I Came…”

Book VII
First, Mother Lythus Graced Aelan, in one hand a Crosier, the other, the Holy Plinth.
Awash at first with Ambition, here She seeked to Sow the Seeds of Prosperity.
But it was not To Be.
Alone on Aelan She Sought the Stars to keep Her company,
But all there was, was the Cacophonic Blankness of Ather,
Turning, Slithering, Writhing.
It Begged, It Beamed and It Shook, It Called for Life. Lythus Spoke into Ather:
"I would aid You, I would give you Life and Land,
But it is not To Be."
Then an Idea came to Her. Plinth and Crosier in hand, Lythus explored the dark ridges of Aelan, and its deepest pits, in Search of Life. Soon, the Plinth, neigh, That Within, drew close unspeakable things.
First came the Fear.
Fear for the Imminent End, Fear that stalks in the shadows, Fear that devours worlds.
It Haunted Her Days, Her Nights, and Lythus no longer found Peace.
Second came the Beasts.
From the depths of Here-Nowhere, the Pit of Wilting things.
They were Drawn to the Plinth, its Call, its Devilish Grin.
Lythus refused to bear its wondrous Burden anymore.
She cast the Plinth into the Arkā,
the Mute thing Cracking Light,
Bonding itself to the Flesh of Life.
The Castrophony so Massive, its Sound Awoke
the Middle, the Massive, the Knowable One.
From the Darkness of Cadin swooped an Owl,
The Great Inner-All,
The Eldest Solrös.
From the Keystone He came, Wings Ablaze with Fury.
With a Gaze of the Eyes, and the Holy Fire,
All the Light the Plinth drew to Its Darkness
was Frozen in Gypsum,
and All was Peaceful.
And so They called the place Júd, the Lighthouse, the Bastion of Death.
And to all, the great Solrös proclaimed:
"May Júd, Lesser Lamp of Arkā, Great Runner in the Sky,
guide all Lost Souls to their Home,
to the Firmament,
to Communion with the Gods.
May I take My Home on Júd, in its Darkness, and Watch the Universe from Above."
And from Here Solrös Hearkened Space,
the Submersion of All,
the Glass, the Eternal Sea.
Here He Wove the Great Space into All Things, and All-Within-All,
the Basket-Cradle of Life, to which All Things owe Their Safety.

————❖————

In the Half-there Gypsum of Space, Solrös cast out half the Doors of Corruption,
Here in Gypsum the Pit of Wilting things was half Sealed away.
Let it be known that these Doors are Watched by Andain,
but His Gaze does Wander,
and It finds a Way in,
and it Writhes in the Chasmous Planes,
where God does not See.

————❖————

So Lythus did commend Solrös, but felt Shame, for Her Mistake near-destroyed All.
She wandered Jūd, a Lamb, defeated.
Here She peered into the Icy Depths and Stoney Heights and found Herself in Awe.
"How is it that This Place is so Beautiful, when it is the Eye of Death?"
She spoke, Confounded,
"How is it, that Aelan is so Empty?"
As She spoke, a Figure drifted from the Sky, and Peered into a Sandy Dune.
It Whirled and Spun the Sand, and It took Its form. It Stood next to Lythus, and spoke:
"What is Outside Lýr?”
Lythus was Puzzled, and turned to See It.
“A wheel.” It spoke, the Sand Shifting.
“You, among Others, Know It.
You, See It.
They do not Know.
It is what Gives, what Takes,
It lives in the Body of this Place,
It Creates Purpose.”
First, Lythus did not Perceive this Thought, but stood,
In a Half-Stare toward Ather,
Screaming as it Turned
Like Tides of Phantoms,
It Writhed.
It Wailed.
Then, She Saw. It was Within Jūd, It Was Ather.
It Looked Into Lythus and Shook.
“I am, Ur-Kukhal, Orukaa, Eru-kel.
I show what is Hidden,
What is, Before, and After.
I live in the Depths,
After Dark,
Before Light.”
Lythus, Eyes bright, sailed across Lȳra, to the Mire. Here She plucked a Seris from its roots.
And from it She made a Paintbrush.
Then, to Jūd She sailed back, and with Love in Her Eye She descended the deepest chasm.
Here She found, frozen in Gypsum and Star-Wax,
But Ten perfect Shards of the Plinth,
Glowing in a Rainbow-Myriad of Color.





Book VIII
Ugan, Knowing this was the Catalyst She sought, raised Her right arm, and with three fingers pointed to the Heavens spoke thus:
“Hear this, that Our Duty is to Give Ano to Those-Who-Follow,
To foster a New Being,
And in the Eyes of Men and Beasts,
Ignite the Holy Flame.”
Kuta smiled and looked to the Heavens.
Kyus fawned over the Marbles.
Kusa shrugged.


Meculða was a shape in the corner. Story told, she shut her eyes, and as a Blackbird,
Flew to the Heavens, and disappeared in the shades of Júd.
Lythus grinned for the Future.


Book IX
Kuta looked to the Place-Between of the Star-Blood, back to the First Rift.
Kusa never looked here because Ugan told Him not to.
Kuta looked here because He felt Asleep,
Wishing to Wake Up.
In His eyes, the Pit rooted itself,
Dug deep with its Worm-Fingers,
Ate Him from Within,
Took Him into the Prism.
In the Prism Kuta asked:
“What is Outside Lýr?”
There was no response.
“My Kin are Blind and I fear I am Blind as well.”
“They Are. I Fear. I Am.” Spoke Kuta’s Reflection.
“I fear that I am.” Spoke Kuta, looking to Júd.
Then the Pit stole Kuta’s Reflection with its Many-Hands.
So They stole half of Kuta.

When Kuta left the Prism, He hated what He’d become.
He blamed Himself.
In desperation, Kuta flew to Arkā, where Kusa worked.
He looked at His Brother, and pled for Help.
Kusa shrugged.


In desperation, Kuta used His Knowledge of the Dark,
To pierce the flesh of His Kin,
To steal half Kusa’s life.