The World's Background

Most of the stories take place on Sartorias-deles (deles being their world for a world with magic); there are three other inhabited worlds in the same system, plus one newly restored that was almost completely destroyed, except for a small colony underground. This is not the same as Wren's World. S-d is where Erenlara of the Venn came, who is known by several names all over, but on Wren's World as Eryn Beyond-Stars.]

Humans came to Erhal's system milennia ago, crossing time through the world gates. Some of Erhal's worlds had indigenous beings, some didn't.

On Sartorias-deles there was, eventually, a loose empire established, called Sartor. The government processed yearly between cities established in a longitudinal line down two continents.

Magicians--mostly women--worked hard on improving quality of life, which included a now deeply kept secret, a deliberate plan of genocide to eradicate sexual preditors; the impetus here was fear that the indigenous species would eradicate all human life, so appalled (if you can assign human emotions to non-humans) they were by the horrors of human behavior on their world. The next goal was to eradicate the instinct for violence and warfare, which almost worked.

But not quite.

So there are basic spells at work that altered life in subtle but far-reaching ways for human beings, ringing profound changes on the developing cultures.

Indigenous magic also enhanced human potential; most people spoke mind-to-mind, and controlled the aging process from within, which meant one could take decades to age if one wished. Ideally death was a time of personal choice, and as such a process of completion, not an ending. Since they recognized the body, mind, and spirit as a kind of triune whole--called dena Yeresbeth 'unity of the three'--death was considered a translation to another existence.

They were still human, and evolving, so not everyone was equally happy or tranquil.

As their abilities were enhanced, so too were their healers, who learned to use an indigenous material known as disirad. It looks like a cross between metal and stone, would be a metalloid on the Periodic Table, somewhere around Palladium, but with the addition of a third bound state of quarks besides proton and neutrons, which makes magic possible. This non-Palladium, disirad, might be considered the balance point in the Periodic Table of Elements on S-d, as its neutrons, protons, and this third nucleod are balanced in number. Disirad resonates through everything in that world, including humans, enabling them to effectively divide the three (body, mind, and spirit) for purposes of restablishing harmony. Since it was only found in few places, it had to be mined, and healers fashioned it into easily portable aids called dyra. The dyra were used by trained healers, called dyranarya.

There were--these being humans--those whose motivations were too complex for the healers; those who desired a control beyond death, because part of the accepted translation was the surrender of ego into the greater whole. They wanted, in short, power, and of course the desire for power is manifested in a spectrum of goals.

Those people coalesced into a group. An identifier was assigned by the Norss--the guiding council--of the third world, Songre Silde. Those who opposed the Norss were Norss-endar, a term which was adopted by Sartorans and altered into Norsunder.

Who were the Norsundrian leaders, and what happened to them is explored slowly through the stories. (There are no generic black hats in this story cycle, though there are some pretty scary people.) To summarize drastically, four thousand years before the stories here begins, Norsunder made a bid to take control of two of the worlds--Ildaraeth and Sartor--and as the strengths and wills of the foes were fairly evenly matched, Ildaraeth was very nearly all destroyed--not just the population but the world as well. And sartor take a major hit as well: among other disasters, the population was drastically reduced, and disirad effectively vanished. Norsunder could be said to have won--but they didn't get much for their triumph. And so they withdrew behind the time barrier to wait on their collecting

One of their key players was their single captured and switched dyranarya, named Detlev y Reverael ne-Hindraeldre. One of the very best of them, he was brought down by personal loyalty--forced into a surrender through the trapping and tormenting of his twelve-year-old nephew, Siamis Y Reverael.

On Sartorias-deles, so much of Sartor had been destroyed it took a couple millenia to rebuild. Abilities like dena Yeresbeth were also nearly forgotten, relegated to puzzling references in the scarce old records stored in the remains of some of the old cities.

Magic has changed as well, for people can no longer control it as they had once. The single agreement (tacitly made) between Norsunder and those left was that what came to be called the old magic would no longer be used; it was too easy to lose everything.

Sartorans, who couldn't use the old magic, forgot it. Norsunder's leaders, who could, restrained themselves. Secure in their stronghold outside of time, they had patience, and it became part of the game to find other ways to accomplish their goals.

They sat back to wait for a worthy time--and a worthy foe.

The Window Opens: Senrid

It's summer of the year 4,735.

Some of Norsunder's minor eager-beavers have made sporadic tries over the centuries, of course, but just as humans had mostly forgotten the old ways, so the new Norsundrians resorted to the customary ways--mostly military might.

Magic has split into mirror image methods, as it was rediscovered. Termed 'white' and 'black'--or light and dark--black willingly spent magic; the concept of nothing equated with darkness. White was slower, required more balance and training, but it in essence cooperated with the world, spending nothing. It left the light intact.

Detlev, Norsunder's pet dyaranarya, has not been completely quiescent all those years. (See Ramis of the Knife, in the Inda stories.) He was known in the world from time to time; a hundred years before the present story, he interfered with several of the strongest kingdoms on Sartorias-deles, setting up magical enchantments of various types--all of them warping rulers and their families--to see what would happen.

Most of those enchantments had been broken within the last few years, again mostly by the newest generation. Despite broken families, and the destruction of war--or maybe because of it--the children were tough, resilient, and determined to prevail against Norsunder. An echo of the old ways lingers; one of the magic spells developed over time was the non-aging spell. This way children could remain children as long as they wished, something accepted in the cultures of the world, though it sometimes carried its own problems. But one had to find magic to do the spell--at least, until dena Yeresbeth appeared again.

Which it had, it seems.

And so Siamis, trained by his uncle, has decided it is time to prove himself by making his own try at attaining power--and of course he has to find where dena Yeresbeth has emerged, and take control of that as well.

Ranged against him are two kids in particular. Accomplishing their goal means a long, arduous run, and awakening old magic, and meeting non-human denizens who force them to see the world through different eyes. It also calls for a terrible sacrifice, one which forces those with great abilities to accept the great responsibilities their talents demand.

And it forces them to see that the world's struggles--but also the bonds of friendship and alliance--are just beginning.