Skara-Koriander / Norien Notes
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aftanithOriginal Dreamwalker* Planning
*which now manifests as Skara-Koriander, not the current iteration of Dreamwalker
Norien is an alternate universe parallel to our own. Certain people have the power to access Norien when they sleep, and these people are called Dreamwalkers. Normally, Dreamwalkers visit Norien for only the length of one REM session, or about twenty minutes a night.
Norien covers various lands and civilizations; some of these civilizations include the land of fairies and pixies, the mermaid kingdom, and the land of fiends.
Norien is ruled over by six powerful beings called the Overseers: a male and female Overseer of Oceans, a male and female Overseer of Land, an Overseer of Sprites, and an Overseer of Fiends.
The Overseers of Oceans maintain the sea life. The Overseers of Land rule the land life. The Overseer of Sprites is the supreme Queen of Fairies, Mermaids, and Pixies. The Overseer of Fiends is the supreme King of all the various fiends (alternately called Dark Sprites). The Overseers and Fairy Queens are both older than anyone can remember, and are supposedly immortal.
There are four types of sprites: air, earth, fire, and water. The Overseer of Sprites is the leader of all fairies and pixies, and the Fairy Queens are subject to her rule. The Fairy Queen of Light leads light-aligned fairies and pixies and the Fairy Queen of Darkness leads dark-aligned fairies and pixies.
There are small groups of pixies that distanced themselves from the land of faeries. The Island Pixies rallied under the command of a light-earth fairy and left for a distant tropical island. The Snow Pixies rallied under the command of a light-water fairy and ascended into the mountains. The Ocean Pixies abandoned fairies altogether and took to the seas to join the merfolk. The Familiar Pixies left the fairylands for the other continents and became protectors and guides of other peoples.
The fairylands have an important legend. First, it is said that the Fairy Queens were once sisters, both dark-aligned. Their elder sister was the single Fairy Queen at that time, and the Fairy Queen of Darkness sought to steal her throne. The current Fairy Queen of Light protected her elder sister, and turned to the light alignment. A great war was waged, but neither side made any headway; finally, the First Fairy Queen ended it. She took to the skies, fleeing from the lands altogether. She became, so the myth says, the sole Space Fairy. Every so often, she still visits the earth to check up on her sisters' rule, and throughout history, people have claimed to glimpse her. It is also said that the Overseers entrusted the Wand of Reality to her, believing no harm could come to it in her realm.
Fiends, on the other hand, are not originally from Norien. Fiends are actually warped Dreamwalkers, and they can physically travel between worlds. Some choose to remain in the land of the fiends under the rule of their Overseer, but others return home. Dreamwalkers have the capability for physical travel, as well, but it is uncertain how such a thing is accomplished: no Dreamwalker has attempted it in thousands of years, for there has been no need. However, it is believed that the Fairy Queens and Overseers may know how it is done.
The only Dreamwalker left is Kari Hill, a young American woman. When she first visits Norien, which she calls the Dreamscape, she arrives on the island of Shenann. This island is the location of the portal to Oasa, the land of fiends. Kari refers to this portal as the Spot. This island is under the power of the Overseer of Fiends, who is luring Dreamwalkers there so that he can pull them into Oasa and turn them into fiends ("aennan" [singular] in Aunna, the High Speech).
The Chronicles of Skara Series Outline (Before Retooling)
The Battle for Norien: The Overseers
The Battle for Norien: The Fury
The Battle for Norien: The Elder Queen
Winchester Institute: Untitled
Winchester Institute: Untitled
Winchester Institute: Untitled
Beyond the Arch: The Silver Scepter
Beyond the Arch: The Forgotten Bride
Beyond the Arch: Untitled
Beyond the Arch: The Cursed Tower
The Blood Sovereign: Crisis in Osenna
The Blood Sovereign: Mermaid Water
The Blood Sovereign: Monkshood
The Aunna: Prina's Game
The Aunna: Maze of Fiends
The Aunna: Deadly Rivals
Journey to Asalden: Uglori's Madness
Journey to Asalden: Untitled
Journey to Asalden: Malik's Fury
Yihasa's War: The Cult of Noka
Yihasa's War: Rise of the Faneth
Yihasa's War: The Queen of Hilina
Yihasa's War: The Royal Six
The King of Fiends: Noka the Sorcerer
The King of Fiends: New Horizons
The King of Fiends: A Twisted Riddle
The King of Fiends: Containment
The Knights of Doom: The Faneth Army
The Knights of Doom: The Immortal Amaranth
The Knights of Doom: Malik's Legacy
The Knights of Doom: The Dying Garden
Unknown/Standalone:
The Thorns of Vengeance (trilogy)
Madara's Secret
Level Thirty
Hybrid Theory: Cry for the Moon / Dance with the Devil / [Rowan's Son]
Run from the Hunter
Alchemist Notes
Before Jesse Davis became Liram's alchemist, there was another man in the position. History forgot his name long ago; perhaps the only two who still know it are Liram and the Alchemist himself. Shortly after Liram killed Skara, the Alchemist abandoned his position with Liram; immortalized as the God of Alchemy, the Alchemist still walks the realm. Secretly, Liram dreads the day that his former student might accrue enough power to challenge him; and now the matter is even more pressing--with Korey's transition incomplete, she's in more danger than ever from the Alchemist. And Liram will do anything to keep her safe.
Jesse Davis' plans for creating the perfect female companion failed completely; WI rescued all of his prisoners and even cured several. Those they didn't manage to cure are held safely inside the depths of WI's fortress in the mountains. But when the Crimson Star discovers an entire civilization of the winged humanoids that Jesse based his final experiment on--a species thought to be extinct--Olivia Monkshood, Emily Overstrom, Ruby Jefferson, and Lilith Dunn are introduced into this society. Emily, Olivia, and Ruby, while distraught, manage to adjust to the change, but Lilith rejects it. She flees from her new home--her captors, as she sees them--and finds herself stumbling across the path of the Alchemist. No one has seen him in centuries, but he immediately recognizes the handiwork of an apprentice of Liram; Lilith becomes his prisoner and then his ally after he agrees to reverse Jesse's corruption of her.
Like Jesse, the Alchemist is a bit fascinated with Skara. Unlike Jesse, his knowledge of her was not secondhand idealism after hearing Liram's recollections; Skara and the Alchemist were direct opponents on more than one occasion. And on one of these occasions, the Alchemist got the DNA he needed for his new project: he created the three Furies from the DNA of Skara and himself. Both furious and revolted, Skara and Liram imprisoned the Furies in the depths of a volcano; by the time Lilith meets the Alchemist, the Furies are still chained there, waiting to be released.
After a certain amount of time, Liram starts to realize that his companions--Jesse and Solene--are starting to age; his usual way around this is to immortalize those loyal to him, and he intends to make Solene the Goddess of Magic and Jesse the God of Alchemy. The problem, obviously, is that Jesse can't take that role as long as the Alchemist is filling it. For Liram to immortalize Jesse, the Alchemist will have to be killed.
The Alchemist and all related subplots--the Furies, Liram/Skara/Alchemist, and Solene and Jesse's addition to the pantheon--will likely occur in a new quartet, to be possibly titled The Alchemist.
Norien Chronicles (old version): Old Species Notes
Sirah
The most populous humanoid species Norien is the Sirah. Many of the other humanoids are mutations of the Sirah; these mutated species are often referred to by the slur "fiend".
Sirah can be found on two of the three continents: the mainland and the lost continent. The only place they do not is on the forbidden continent of Avalnar.
Sirah come in range of appearances. Sirah skin is always a shade of brown, but can range from very light to very dark. Sirah hair falls into four categories: blonde, brown, red, and black. Each category includes a wide variety of shades. Sirah eyes fall into three categories: brown, blue, and green. Each category includes a variety of shades, and hazel can occur between any two categories.
Fiends
The term "fiend" is a slur used to describe several humanoid species. The species most commonly called "fiends" are those species descended from purposefully mutated Sirah. The oldest of these species — the Aunna, Kyndra, Yukara, and Sisynne — were created by Liram. Newer "fiendish" species were created by the Alchemist and the Blood Sovereign.
Aunna
The Aunna are the oldest of the designed species, spawned by Balcon, the original Aunna created by Liram. However, this original Aunna has a notable difference from the species he sired: his is both immortal and infectious.
As far as is known, Balcon only used that particular ability twice: once to immortalize Bella Schmidt, a woman who had been hunting him for several months before he ambushed her, and later to Luna Mugglestone, a young runaway from Lerena. Both girls eventually turned on their sire, sealing him away—for all eternity, they hoped. They separated then and never saw one another again; Bella didn't learn until decades later that Luna had been pregnant with the beginnings of a new species.
Aunna are usually fair- or medium-skinned; dark-skinned Aunna, while not unheard of, are rare. Aunna can have any shade of blonde, brown, red, and black hair. Aunna eyes can be black, red, gold, violet, blue, or green. The combination of blonde hair and blue eyes is associated with but not limited to the Welsh clan.
Kyndra
Kyndra are the second oldest "fiend" species.
Little is known about this species. The most visible Kyndra is Ares Dulac, a man notorious for terrorizing both Sirah and Aunna, but particularly the members of Steel's clan of Yukara. His relationship with the other members of his species is unknown; he travels with only one Kyndra companion, a woman named Belladonna Alchos, and it is theorized that he might be a rogue, perhaps even banished from some secret Kyndra society. On the other hand, rumors abound that he might be a leader among the Kyndra; there is even speculation that he might be original member of his species.
Reframing Korey's Origin
So maybe instead of having Korey be a human child that gets pulled into Norien (as that's a part of the story that belongs to Dreamwalker), she wakes on the beach, half in the waves. She's washed up on shore because rather than being murdered or corrupted as in earlier concepts, Diamira has chosen to give her life to restore Skara. From this sacrifice, Koriander is born.
Also, unrelated: There's something to be said for the importance of dealing with mundane human wars and politics.
About Uglori
Uglori is the Goddess of All. Her domain is the entirety of Norien; her powers are unknown and perhaps limitless; her mind is so vast that to the common Sirah she seems purely mad.
Her children make up the other two thirds of the Triad; her children are Liram, God of Order and Tyranny, and Skara Koriander, Goddess of Freedom and Chaos. Her servants are the Lyrics.
Uglori is widely considered female, for she takes female form, though she may in fact be genderless. She appears in many, various bodies; some of these appear Sirah in nature, though many are hybrid or in some way deformed. She is also widely considered dangerous; she is omniscient and thus unpredictable in nature, and her actions are often confusing and frightening to witnesses.
The Overseers Planning
The world is full of creatures; these creatures survive by blending in with the animals around them. To the untrained eye, the vampire is a human and the hellhound is a stray dog. Most people have no idea.
Neither do they know where these creatures come from; they know of the galaxies outside their own, but not of the realms. But some humans do know: these humans are the Dreamwalkers, the chosen few who can wander Norien during their sleeping hours. Six powerful beings exist within Norien, each meant to oversee one type of life: a male and female Overseer of Oceans, a male and female Overseer of Land, an Overseer of Sprites, and an Overseer of Fiends. If one of these beings dies, a replacement must be found immediately, lest Norien and its life become unstable.
---
When the female Overseer of Oceans mysteriously vanishes, her brethren suspect the Overseer of Fiends of foul play. Even as they try to discover the fate of their sister, they know they must replace her immediately, and the finally call upon the human soul suited for the job.
Annabelle Ledger is whisked through. Faced with an unexpected destiny, can she cope with her new power, the loss of her old life, and the threat of meeting the same fate as her predecessor?
The Alchemist Premise
Before Jesse Davis became Liram's alchemist, there was another man in the position. History forgot his name long ago; perhaps the only two who still know it are Liram and the Alchemist himself. Shortly after Liram killed Skara, the Alchemist abandoned his position with Liram; immortalized as the God of Alchemy, the Alchemist still walks the realm. Secretly, Liram dreads the day that his former student might accrue enough power to challenge him; and now the matter is even more pressing--with Korey's transition incomplete, she's in more danger than ever from the Alchemist. And Liram will do anything to keep her safe.
Jesse Davis' plans for creating the perfect female companion failed completely; WI rescued all of his prisoners and even cured several. Those they didn't manage to cure are held safely inside the depths of WI's fortress in the mountains. But when the Crimson Star discovers an entire civilization of the winged humanoids that Jesse based his final experiment on--a species thought to be extinct--Olivia Monkshood, Emily Overstrom, Ruby Jefferson, and Lilith Dunn are introduced into this society. Emily, Olivia, and Ruby, while distraught, manage to adjust to the change, but Lilith rejects it. She flees from her new home--her captors, as she sees them--and finds herself stumbling across the path of the Alchemist. No one has seen him in centuries, but he immediately recognizes the handiwork of an apprentice of Liram; Lilith becomes his prisoner and then his ally after he agrees to reverse Jesse's corruption of her.
Like Jesse, the Alchemist is a bit fascinated with Skara. Unlike Jesse, his knowledge of her was not secondhand idealism after hearing Liram's recollections; Skara and the Alchemist were direct opponents on more than one occasion. And on one of these occasions, the Alchemist got the DNA he needed for his new project: he created the three Furies from the DNA of Skara and himself. Both furious and revolted, Skara and Liram imprisoned the Furies in the depths of a volcano; by the time Lilith meets the Alchemist, the Furies are still chained there, waiting to be released.
After a certain amount of time, Liram starts to realize that his companions--Jesse and Solene--are starting to age; his usual way around this is to immortalize those loyal to him, and he intends to make Solene the Goddess of Magic and Jesse the God of Alchemy. The problem, obviously, is that Jesse can't take that role as long as the Alchemist is filling it. For Liram to immortalize Jesse, the Alchemist will have to be killed.
The Alchemist and all related subplots--the Furies, Liram/Skara/Alchemist, and Solene and Jesse's addition to the pantheon--will likely occur in a new quartet, to be possibly titled The Alchemist.
Who is Skara-Koriander?
Skara Koriander is the Goddess of Chaos and Freedom, daughter of Uglori and twin sister/lover of Liram. She is female and always manifests as such; she has two very distinct manifestations that correspond with two very distinct periods of her existence.
The first period of her life began with her birth and ended with her death at the hands of her brother. As Skara, whose most common manifestation was a tall, horned, very voluptuous redheaded woman, she met her death after finally coupling with Liram, who panicked at the thought of the potential repercussions and killed her.
Skara reincarnated almost immediately, but her essence was so weak that Uglori was forced to take drastic measures to ensure her survival; centuries earlier, Uglori created a rift in the fabric between her universe domain and its neighbor--Earth's universe. Uglori deposited Skara's essence in the place she felt it would be safest, a tiny planet called Earth that played home to a species of Sirah-like creatures called humans. After attempting several times to find a mother whose body would not reject Skara's essence, which could easily overpower most human despite its faintness, Skara was successfully reborn as Koriander "Korey" Rodda, a human girl with the latent powers of her previous incarnation.
When Korey reached an age when she would be able to start learning to harness her power, Uglori brought Korey back; cleverly, she did not reuse the rift she created all those centuries ago--instead, she tapped into Cilan's power to create a new one, catching his attention in doing so and essentially summoning him. She then charged him with Skara's child-avatar and left for the process to take its course.
After several years of life in Norien and interaction with Liram, Korey began the process of reassimilating with her former incarnation; at the end of this process, she would be most properly referred to as "Skara Koriander".
As Skara Koriander, the goddess is still considerably weaker than she should be; however, Korey endeared herself to Liram in a way that Skara never managed, and Skara Koriander is subsequently much safer than she ever was as Skara. That puts them, however, that much closer to the inevitable End.
Skara Koriander does not actively employ her cult of Lyrics, though she is occasionally involved in the lives of various Sirah. Unlike her brother, her involvement is rarely manipulating or sexual; instead, she is most often vengeful, and in that sense, she is feared much the same as her mother. While those close to her, such as Liram, Marek, and others, vastly prefer Korey to Skara, the public in general considers Skara to be a much better, safer, and more reliable goddess. Skara Koriander is a much misunderstood, sometimes even hated figure.
Luna Everstone and Bella Darkwing
This note dates from when Winchester Institute took place within Norien.
Bella Darkwing is an ancient and powerful Aunna that joins Winchester Institute. She considers herself to be the archnemesis of the First Aunna, who sired her; she was his first "convert", the second Aunna to ever exist.
Luna Everstone is the legendary founder of the Welsh Clan; a distant ancestral relative of Lerena's Rose family, she ran away from home at age sixteen in order to escape her arranged marriage to the elderly and crippled King of Lerena. She fled to Madara, where she was captured by a nobleman and held for ransom; she eventually escaped from his castle near the mountains, and she fled into the forest. There the First Aunna found her; she became his second creation--the first being Bella Darkwing.
Both girls eventually turned on their sire, sealing him away--for all eternity, they hoped. They separated then and never saw one another again; Bella didn't learn until decades later that Luna had been pregnant, founding the Welsh line.
Notes on the Aunna (from when they were part of Norien)
This contains now notes pertinent to Skara-Koriander, Maze of Fiends, and Hybrid Theory.
Balcon was the first Aunna and was created by the Alchemist. Shortly after his creation, he became obsessed with creating another Aunna; while his attempts to have an Aunna child were unsuccessful, he eventually (per the Alchemist's instructions) kidnapped Luna Everstone, an ancestor of the Rose-Hayes dynasty. She became the second Aunna to exist.
After several decades, Balcon created a second Aunna, Bella Darkwing, to serve as a companion to Luna. Bella, however, helped Luna escape from Balcon rather than join them, and the two have been in hiding ever since. It is unknown whether the two are still alive.
Millennia later, during the Koriander period, the Welsh clan of Aunna claimed to be the direct descendants of Balcon and Luna; cousins Abigail and Anthony Welsh have four children (they live with and preside over their extended family), Chloe, Lucas, William, and Prina Welsh.
During this period, Prina Welsh was quite the troublemaker for the Welsh clan. Inheriting her father's penchant for torturing the Sirah, Prina kidnaps a group of young men and women that includes Xavier Burdge and Yasmeen Corby; while she eventually manages to kill both individuals, Xavier's lover, Adrienne Caston, kills Prina at the Welsh compound.
While trapped inside the compound, Adrienne kills Abigail, who is going through a mating period, before being killed by William. William is then killed by Anthony.
Prior to this, however, Chloe Welsh had already abandoned the clan to live with her Kyndra lover, Irene Dulac. Shortly after the deaths of Prina, Abigail, and William, Lucas Welsh overthrows and kills Anthony, whose mind has been failing since the incident. Given the close relationship between Lucas and Chloe, she is at this point invited back into the clan, though she rejects the offer.
Shortly after Lucas takes over the Welsh clan, Chloe Welsh and Irene Dulac move into a Madaran boarding house to share a room with Melanie Brown. While these three women are living together, Irene's brother Ares sends an assassin to kill her lover, and Melanie is attacked and nearly killed by mistake. Ultimately, this incident leads to Melanie's relationship with Lucas and all three women moving into the Welsh compound.
After his sister moves into the Welsh compound, Ares Dulac is prevented from further attempts to reclaim her by his clan's conflict with Steel's clan of Yukara. He and his chief general, Belladonna Alchos, are lifelong enemies with Steel and his mate, Artemis. In launching their attack against the Steel's clan, Ares' original plan is to use their young daughter, Johanna, to get to them. Instead, however, he ends up seducing an orphaned young woman from the clan who had been harboring an unrequited crush on Steel.
During the ongoing conflict between Ares and Steel, Ares finds allies in the half-Kyndra, half-Yukara Tumblety siblings, Elizabeth, Jack, and Jane. Throughout their partnership, Jack and Ares become relatively good friends, and his respect for the siblings contributes to his attraction to Rowan. Ultimately, Ares takes Rowan as his mate; their union eventually leads to the birth of Everett Dulac.
In the months (or years) leading up to Everett's birth, Elizabeth and Jane Tumblety are both killed (Jane is executed by W.I. for her murder spree, while Elizabeth is killed by Steel); during Rowan's pregnancy, Jack's attraction to her grows into an obsession, and his M.O. changes. While he would originally torture and kill women who looked like Elizabeth (who look quite a bit like Rowan), he shifts to kidnapping and raping women who look like Rowan (and killing them if/when they refuse to go along with his fantasy). His primary victim during this period is Serena Devries, a teacher at Queen Academy.
*which now manifests as Skara-Koriander, not the current iteration of Dreamwalker
Norien is an alternate universe parallel to our own. Certain people have the power to access Norien when they sleep, and these people are called Dreamwalkers. Normally, Dreamwalkers visit Norien for only the length of one REM session, or about twenty minutes a night.
Norien covers various lands and civilizations; some of these civilizations include the land of fairies and pixies, the mermaid kingdom, and the land of fiends.
Norien is ruled over by six powerful beings called the Overseers: a male and female Overseer of Oceans, a male and female Overseer of Land, an Overseer of Sprites, and an Overseer of Fiends.
The Overseers of Oceans maintain the sea life. The Overseers of Land rule the land life. The Overseer of Sprites is the supreme Queen of Fairies, Mermaids, and Pixies. The Overseer of Fiends is the supreme King of all the various fiends (alternately called Dark Sprites). The Overseers and Fairy Queens are both older than anyone can remember, and are supposedly immortal.
There are four types of sprites: air, earth, fire, and water. The Overseer of Sprites is the leader of all fairies and pixies, and the Fairy Queens are subject to her rule. The Fairy Queen of Light leads light-aligned fairies and pixies and the Fairy Queen of Darkness leads dark-aligned fairies and pixies.
There are small groups of pixies that distanced themselves from the land of faeries. The Island Pixies rallied under the command of a light-earth fairy and left for a distant tropical island. The Snow Pixies rallied under the command of a light-water fairy and ascended into the mountains. The Ocean Pixies abandoned fairies altogether and took to the seas to join the merfolk. The Familiar Pixies left the fairylands for the other continents and became protectors and guides of other peoples.
The fairylands have an important legend. First, it is said that the Fairy Queens were once sisters, both dark-aligned. Their elder sister was the single Fairy Queen at that time, and the Fairy Queen of Darkness sought to steal her throne. The current Fairy Queen of Light protected her elder sister, and turned to the light alignment. A great war was waged, but neither side made any headway; finally, the First Fairy Queen ended it. She took to the skies, fleeing from the lands altogether. She became, so the myth says, the sole Space Fairy. Every so often, she still visits the earth to check up on her sisters' rule, and throughout history, people have claimed to glimpse her. It is also said that the Overseers entrusted the Wand of Reality to her, believing no harm could come to it in her realm.
Fiends, on the other hand, are not originally from Norien. Fiends are actually warped Dreamwalkers, and they can physically travel between worlds. Some choose to remain in the land of the fiends under the rule of their Overseer, but others return home. Dreamwalkers have the capability for physical travel, as well, but it is uncertain how such a thing is accomplished: no Dreamwalker has attempted it in thousands of years, for there has been no need. However, it is believed that the Fairy Queens and Overseers may know how it is done.
The only Dreamwalker left is Kari Hill, a young American woman. When she first visits Norien, which she calls the Dreamscape, she arrives on the island of Shenann. This island is the location of the portal to Oasa, the land of fiends. Kari refers to this portal as the Spot. This island is under the power of the Overseer of Fiends, who is luring Dreamwalkers there so that he can pull them into Oasa and turn them into fiends ("aennan" [singular] in Aunna, the High Speech).
The Chronicles of Skara Series Outline (Before Retooling)
The Battle for Norien: The Overseers
The Battle for Norien: The Fury
The Battle for Norien: The Elder Queen
Winchester Institute: Untitled
Winchester Institute: Untitled
Winchester Institute: Untitled
Beyond the Arch: The Silver Scepter
Beyond the Arch: The Forgotten Bride
Beyond the Arch: Untitled
Beyond the Arch: The Cursed Tower
The Blood Sovereign: Crisis in Osenna
The Blood Sovereign: Mermaid Water
The Blood Sovereign: Monkshood
The Aunna: Prina's Game
The Aunna: Maze of Fiends
The Aunna: Deadly Rivals
Journey to Asalden: Uglori's Madness
Journey to Asalden: Untitled
Journey to Asalden: Malik's Fury
Yihasa's War: The Cult of Noka
Yihasa's War: Rise of the Faneth
Yihasa's War: The Queen of Hilina
Yihasa's War: The Royal Six
The King of Fiends: Noka the Sorcerer
The King of Fiends: New Horizons
The King of Fiends: A Twisted Riddle
The King of Fiends: Containment
The Knights of Doom: The Faneth Army
The Knights of Doom: The Immortal Amaranth
The Knights of Doom: Malik's Legacy
The Knights of Doom: The Dying Garden
Unknown/Standalone:
The Thorns of Vengeance (trilogy)
Madara's Secret
Level Thirty
Hybrid Theory: Cry for the Moon / Dance with the Devil / [Rowan's Son]
Run from the Hunter
Alchemist Notes
Before Jesse Davis became Liram's alchemist, there was another man in the position. History forgot his name long ago; perhaps the only two who still know it are Liram and the Alchemist himself. Shortly after Liram killed Skara, the Alchemist abandoned his position with Liram; immortalized as the God of Alchemy, the Alchemist still walks the realm. Secretly, Liram dreads the day that his former student might accrue enough power to challenge him; and now the matter is even more pressing--with Korey's transition incomplete, she's in more danger than ever from the Alchemist. And Liram will do anything to keep her safe.
Jesse Davis' plans for creating the perfect female companion failed completely; WI rescued all of his prisoners and even cured several. Those they didn't manage to cure are held safely inside the depths of WI's fortress in the mountains. But when the Crimson Star discovers an entire civilization of the winged humanoids that Jesse based his final experiment on--a species thought to be extinct--Olivia Monkshood, Emily Overstrom, Ruby Jefferson, and Lilith Dunn are introduced into this society. Emily, Olivia, and Ruby, while distraught, manage to adjust to the change, but Lilith rejects it. She flees from her new home--her captors, as she sees them--and finds herself stumbling across the path of the Alchemist. No one has seen him in centuries, but he immediately recognizes the handiwork of an apprentice of Liram; Lilith becomes his prisoner and then his ally after he agrees to reverse Jesse's corruption of her.
Like Jesse, the Alchemist is a bit fascinated with Skara. Unlike Jesse, his knowledge of her was not secondhand idealism after hearing Liram's recollections; Skara and the Alchemist were direct opponents on more than one occasion. And on one of these occasions, the Alchemist got the DNA he needed for his new project: he created the three Furies from the DNA of Skara and himself. Both furious and revolted, Skara and Liram imprisoned the Furies in the depths of a volcano; by the time Lilith meets the Alchemist, the Furies are still chained there, waiting to be released.
After a certain amount of time, Liram starts to realize that his companions--Jesse and Solene--are starting to age; his usual way around this is to immortalize those loyal to him, and he intends to make Solene the Goddess of Magic and Jesse the God of Alchemy. The problem, obviously, is that Jesse can't take that role as long as the Alchemist is filling it. For Liram to immortalize Jesse, the Alchemist will have to be killed.
The Alchemist and all related subplots--the Furies, Liram/Skara/Alchemist, and Solene and Jesse's addition to the pantheon--will likely occur in a new quartet, to be possibly titled The Alchemist.
Norien Chronicles (old version): Old Species Notes
Sirah
The most populous humanoid species Norien is the Sirah. Many of the other humanoids are mutations of the Sirah; these mutated species are often referred to by the slur "fiend".
Sirah can be found on two of the three continents: the mainland and the lost continent. The only place they do not is on the forbidden continent of Avalnar.
Sirah come in range of appearances. Sirah skin is always a shade of brown, but can range from very light to very dark. Sirah hair falls into four categories: blonde, brown, red, and black. Each category includes a wide variety of shades. Sirah eyes fall into three categories: brown, blue, and green. Each category includes a variety of shades, and hazel can occur between any two categories.
Fiends
The term "fiend" is a slur used to describe several humanoid species. The species most commonly called "fiends" are those species descended from purposefully mutated Sirah. The oldest of these species — the Aunna, Kyndra, Yukara, and Sisynne — were created by Liram. Newer "fiendish" species were created by the Alchemist and the Blood Sovereign.
Aunna
The Aunna are the oldest of the designed species, spawned by Balcon, the original Aunna created by Liram. However, this original Aunna has a notable difference from the species he sired: his is both immortal and infectious.
As far as is known, Balcon only used that particular ability twice: once to immortalize Bella Schmidt, a woman who had been hunting him for several months before he ambushed her, and later to Luna Mugglestone, a young runaway from Lerena. Both girls eventually turned on their sire, sealing him away—for all eternity, they hoped. They separated then and never saw one another again; Bella didn't learn until decades later that Luna had been pregnant with the beginnings of a new species.
Aunna are usually fair- or medium-skinned; dark-skinned Aunna, while not unheard of, are rare. Aunna can have any shade of blonde, brown, red, and black hair. Aunna eyes can be black, red, gold, violet, blue, or green. The combination of blonde hair and blue eyes is associated with but not limited to the Welsh clan.
Kyndra
Kyndra are the second oldest "fiend" species.
Little is known about this species. The most visible Kyndra is Ares Dulac, a man notorious for terrorizing both Sirah and Aunna, but particularly the members of Steel's clan of Yukara. His relationship with the other members of his species is unknown; he travels with only one Kyndra companion, a woman named Belladonna Alchos, and it is theorized that he might be a rogue, perhaps even banished from some secret Kyndra society. On the other hand, rumors abound that he might be a leader among the Kyndra; there is even speculation that he might be original member of his species.
Reframing Korey's Origin
So maybe instead of having Korey be a human child that gets pulled into Norien (as that's a part of the story that belongs to Dreamwalker), she wakes on the beach, half in the waves. She's washed up on shore because rather than being murdered or corrupted as in earlier concepts, Diamira has chosen to give her life to restore Skara. From this sacrifice, Koriander is born.
Also, unrelated: There's something to be said for the importance of dealing with mundane human wars and politics.
About Uglori
Uglori is the Goddess of All. Her domain is the entirety of Norien; her powers are unknown and perhaps limitless; her mind is so vast that to the common Sirah she seems purely mad.
Her children make up the other two thirds of the Triad; her children are Liram, God of Order and Tyranny, and Skara Koriander, Goddess of Freedom and Chaos. Her servants are the Lyrics.
Uglori is widely considered female, for she takes female form, though she may in fact be genderless. She appears in many, various bodies; some of these appear Sirah in nature, though many are hybrid or in some way deformed. She is also widely considered dangerous; she is omniscient and thus unpredictable in nature, and her actions are often confusing and frightening to witnesses.
The Overseers Planning
The world is full of creatures; these creatures survive by blending in with the animals around them. To the untrained eye, the vampire is a human and the hellhound is a stray dog. Most people have no idea.
Neither do they know where these creatures come from; they know of the galaxies outside their own, but not of the realms. But some humans do know: these humans are the Dreamwalkers, the chosen few who can wander Norien during their sleeping hours. Six powerful beings exist within Norien, each meant to oversee one type of life: a male and female Overseer of Oceans, a male and female Overseer of Land, an Overseer of Sprites, and an Overseer of Fiends. If one of these beings dies, a replacement must be found immediately, lest Norien and its life become unstable.
When the female Overseer of Oceans mysteriously vanishes, her brethren suspect the Overseer of Fiends of foul play. Even as they try to discover the fate of their sister, they know they must replace her immediately, and the finally call upon the human soul suited for the job.
Annabelle Ledger is whisked through. Faced with an unexpected destiny, can she cope with her new power, the loss of her old life, and the threat of meeting the same fate as her predecessor?
The Alchemist Premise
Before Jesse Davis became Liram's alchemist, there was another man in the position. History forgot his name long ago; perhaps the only two who still know it are Liram and the Alchemist himself. Shortly after Liram killed Skara, the Alchemist abandoned his position with Liram; immortalized as the God of Alchemy, the Alchemist still walks the realm. Secretly, Liram dreads the day that his former student might accrue enough power to challenge him; and now the matter is even more pressing--with Korey's transition incomplete, she's in more danger than ever from the Alchemist. And Liram will do anything to keep her safe.
Jesse Davis' plans for creating the perfect female companion failed completely; WI rescued all of his prisoners and even cured several. Those they didn't manage to cure are held safely inside the depths of WI's fortress in the mountains. But when the Crimson Star discovers an entire civilization of the winged humanoids that Jesse based his final experiment on--a species thought to be extinct--Olivia Monkshood, Emily Overstrom, Ruby Jefferson, and Lilith Dunn are introduced into this society. Emily, Olivia, and Ruby, while distraught, manage to adjust to the change, but Lilith rejects it. She flees from her new home--her captors, as she sees them--and finds herself stumbling across the path of the Alchemist. No one has seen him in centuries, but he immediately recognizes the handiwork of an apprentice of Liram; Lilith becomes his prisoner and then his ally after he agrees to reverse Jesse's corruption of her.
Like Jesse, the Alchemist is a bit fascinated with Skara. Unlike Jesse, his knowledge of her was not secondhand idealism after hearing Liram's recollections; Skara and the Alchemist were direct opponents on more than one occasion. And on one of these occasions, the Alchemist got the DNA he needed for his new project: he created the three Furies from the DNA of Skara and himself. Both furious and revolted, Skara and Liram imprisoned the Furies in the depths of a volcano; by the time Lilith meets the Alchemist, the Furies are still chained there, waiting to be released.
After a certain amount of time, Liram starts to realize that his companions--Jesse and Solene--are starting to age; his usual way around this is to immortalize those loyal to him, and he intends to make Solene the Goddess of Magic and Jesse the God of Alchemy. The problem, obviously, is that Jesse can't take that role as long as the Alchemist is filling it. For Liram to immortalize Jesse, the Alchemist will have to be killed.
The Alchemist and all related subplots--the Furies, Liram/Skara/Alchemist, and Solene and Jesse's addition to the pantheon--will likely occur in a new quartet, to be possibly titled The Alchemist.
Who is Skara-Koriander?
Skara Koriander is the Goddess of Chaos and Freedom, daughter of Uglori and twin sister/lover of Liram. She is female and always manifests as such; she has two very distinct manifestations that correspond with two very distinct periods of her existence.
The first period of her life began with her birth and ended with her death at the hands of her brother. As Skara, whose most common manifestation was a tall, horned, very voluptuous redheaded woman, she met her death after finally coupling with Liram, who panicked at the thought of the potential repercussions and killed her.
Skara reincarnated almost immediately, but her essence was so weak that Uglori was forced to take drastic measures to ensure her survival; centuries earlier, Uglori created a rift in the fabric between her universe domain and its neighbor--Earth's universe. Uglori deposited Skara's essence in the place she felt it would be safest, a tiny planet called Earth that played home to a species of Sirah-like creatures called humans. After attempting several times to find a mother whose body would not reject Skara's essence, which could easily overpower most human despite its faintness, Skara was successfully reborn as Koriander "Korey" Rodda, a human girl with the latent powers of her previous incarnation.
When Korey reached an age when she would be able to start learning to harness her power, Uglori brought Korey back; cleverly, she did not reuse the rift she created all those centuries ago--instead, she tapped into Cilan's power to create a new one, catching his attention in doing so and essentially summoning him. She then charged him with Skara's child-avatar and left for the process to take its course.
After several years of life in Norien and interaction with Liram, Korey began the process of reassimilating with her former incarnation; at the end of this process, she would be most properly referred to as "Skara Koriander".
As Skara Koriander, the goddess is still considerably weaker than she should be; however, Korey endeared herself to Liram in a way that Skara never managed, and Skara Koriander is subsequently much safer than she ever was as Skara. That puts them, however, that much closer to the inevitable End.
Skara Koriander does not actively employ her cult of Lyrics, though she is occasionally involved in the lives of various Sirah. Unlike her brother, her involvement is rarely manipulating or sexual; instead, she is most often vengeful, and in that sense, she is feared much the same as her mother. While those close to her, such as Liram, Marek, and others, vastly prefer Korey to Skara, the public in general considers Skara to be a much better, safer, and more reliable goddess. Skara Koriander is a much misunderstood, sometimes even hated figure.
Luna Everstone and Bella Darkwing
This note dates from when Winchester Institute took place within Norien.
Bella Darkwing is an ancient and powerful Aunna that joins Winchester Institute. She considers herself to be the archnemesis of the First Aunna, who sired her; she was his first "convert", the second Aunna to ever exist.
Luna Everstone is the legendary founder of the Welsh Clan; a distant ancestral relative of Lerena's Rose family, she ran away from home at age sixteen in order to escape her arranged marriage to the elderly and crippled King of Lerena. She fled to Madara, where she was captured by a nobleman and held for ransom; she eventually escaped from his castle near the mountains, and she fled into the forest. There the First Aunna found her; she became his second creation--the first being Bella Darkwing.
Both girls eventually turned on their sire, sealing him away--for all eternity, they hoped. They separated then and never saw one another again; Bella didn't learn until decades later that Luna had been pregnant, founding the Welsh line.
Notes on the Aunna (from when they were part of Norien)
This contains now notes pertinent to Skara-Koriander, Maze of Fiends, and Hybrid Theory.
Balcon was the first Aunna and was created by the Alchemist. Shortly after his creation, he became obsessed with creating another Aunna; while his attempts to have an Aunna child were unsuccessful, he eventually (per the Alchemist's instructions) kidnapped Luna Everstone, an ancestor of the Rose-Hayes dynasty. She became the second Aunna to exist.
After several decades, Balcon created a second Aunna, Bella Darkwing, to serve as a companion to Luna. Bella, however, helped Luna escape from Balcon rather than join them, and the two have been in hiding ever since. It is unknown whether the two are still alive.
Millennia later, during the Koriander period, the Welsh clan of Aunna claimed to be the direct descendants of Balcon and Luna; cousins Abigail and Anthony Welsh have four children (they live with and preside over their extended family), Chloe, Lucas, William, and Prina Welsh.
During this period, Prina Welsh was quite the troublemaker for the Welsh clan. Inheriting her father's penchant for torturing the Sirah, Prina kidnaps a group of young men and women that includes Xavier Burdge and Yasmeen Corby; while she eventually manages to kill both individuals, Xavier's lover, Adrienne Caston, kills Prina at the Welsh compound.
While trapped inside the compound, Adrienne kills Abigail, who is going through a mating period, before being killed by William. William is then killed by Anthony.
Prior to this, however, Chloe Welsh had already abandoned the clan to live with her Kyndra lover, Irene Dulac. Shortly after the deaths of Prina, Abigail, and William, Lucas Welsh overthrows and kills Anthony, whose mind has been failing since the incident. Given the close relationship between Lucas and Chloe, she is at this point invited back into the clan, though she rejects the offer.
Shortly after Lucas takes over the Welsh clan, Chloe Welsh and Irene Dulac move into a Madaran boarding house to share a room with Melanie Brown. While these three women are living together, Irene's brother Ares sends an assassin to kill her lover, and Melanie is attacked and nearly killed by mistake. Ultimately, this incident leads to Melanie's relationship with Lucas and all three women moving into the Welsh compound.
After his sister moves into the Welsh compound, Ares Dulac is prevented from further attempts to reclaim her by his clan's conflict with Steel's clan of Yukara. He and his chief general, Belladonna Alchos, are lifelong enemies with Steel and his mate, Artemis. In launching their attack against the Steel's clan, Ares' original plan is to use their young daughter, Johanna, to get to them. Instead, however, he ends up seducing an orphaned young woman from the clan who had been harboring an unrequited crush on Steel.
During the ongoing conflict between Ares and Steel, Ares finds allies in the half-Kyndra, half-Yukara Tumblety siblings, Elizabeth, Jack, and Jane. Throughout their partnership, Jack and Ares become relatively good friends, and his respect for the siblings contributes to his attraction to Rowan. Ultimately, Ares takes Rowan as his mate; their union eventually leads to the birth of Everett Dulac.
In the months (or years) leading up to Everett's birth, Elizabeth and Jane Tumblety are both killed (Jane is executed by W.I. for her murder spree, while Elizabeth is killed by Steel); during Rowan's pregnancy, Jack's attraction to her grows into an obsession, and his M.O. changes. While he would originally torture and kill women who looked like Elizabeth (who look quite a bit like Rowan), he shifts to kidnapping and raping women who look like Rowan (and killing them if/when they refuse to go along with his fantasy). His primary victim during this period is Serena Devries, a teacher at Queen Academy.
