Preptober Prompts Day 10 – 2020
It’s the last prompt of the week! Drumroll please…
Who are the great heroes who have shaped your storyworld?
Lorcan and Valda (the Elfbournes’ parents) have been fairly instrumental in the shaping of The Hylands. They’ve already driven out King Julen once, and they’ve helped banish discrimination against faeries in The Hylands.
Valda’s father Willian helped defend The Hylands from Julen’s father Cordier; he died in battle, but not before he’d nearly secured victory and his men were able to finish pushing Cordier back.
There was also an older Lorcan, King Lorcan’s namesake, who was a renowned hunter and earned himself a constellation. (The following excerpt is completely unedited and I’m struggling with narrative voice in The Half-Elves, so… it’s not necessarily pretty, lol.)
Shael smiled a little and pointed to an archer constellation not unlike Orion back home. “This one is Lorcan, named after a Hyland hero of legend.”
Sarabrina looked up at Shael, hoping he’d expand on the story.
“King Lorcan was named after him, too, from what I understand.” Shael looked to Twilight for confirmation and she nodded. “According to legend.” Shael turned back to Sarabrina. “Lorcan was a great hunter. He was able to feed his entire city with a day’s spoils, and there were some who wished to make him their chief, but he refused to take the position. He loved the wild too much and didn’t wish to be encumbered by civilization.”
Sarabrina couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face at the joy of finding someone else who casually used extensive vocabulary.
“Lorcan was so great, in fact, that he caught the eye of Eloren Damerel—the First Dewin—who happened to have a problem with an overpopulation of Vollak in Thienid. That’s on Titania. Eloren, who had mastered inter-dimensional travel in his magical studies, came to The Hylands to enlist Lorcan’s help.”
Shael opened his mouth to continue, but Sarabrina held up a hand to stop him. “Hang on. What are Vollak?”
“They’re a primarily Titanian species of bipedal, wolf-like creatures. They’re really nasty to deal with, from what I’ve read, but they’re fortunately not found on Arken except in the most wild areas of Katar.”
Sarabrina nodded.
“Lorcan agreed to help with the Vollak problem, and saw it as the greatest challenge of his hunting career; he’d grown kind of bored of the ordinary wildlife around The Hylands. So he traveled back with Eloren. He spent two weeks trimming down the Vollak population in the woods of Thienid, but near the end of his hunt he spotted a golden stag. Immediately, he knew that this, not the Vollak, would be his greatest hunting achievement. He tracked the stag for five weeks before he was finally able to snare it. As Lorcan approached to kill the deer, he hesitated. The eyes almost seemed human. But he continued with his intent and killed the stag.
“Immediately, Eloren appeared in a rage and reprimanded Lorcan for his deed. The golden stag was creature protected by the Dewinen’s magic, and there were strict guidelines surrounding its death. Eloren immediately cursed Lorcan to wander Titania like a wraith for the rest of his days, but his exploits were so praised that Eloren gave Lorcan the blessing to be remembered in the stars after his death despite his error. And so, we have the archer constellation today.
“Or at least, so the legend goes.”
Don’t forget to follow Evelyn for next week’s character prompts! :D
Who are your world’s heroes? Are they as noble as they’re portrayed to be? What changes did they bring to your world?
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I can’t say that they are heroes, but they are people who made a difference in the outcome of the war:
Smoke’s grandfather was one of the first (as well as one of the last) “perfect” soldiers. He turn the tide of the war many times. He just couldn’t die and keep fighting, until he was put asleep when he was half dead after particularly brutal battle (which he won). The problem with him was that he could have live another decade or more without “shutting down” in any form. What was left of his human side had died in that battle and all that was left was a machine. In very rare cases, putting him asleep was a mercy for his poor body.
Another would be Smoke’s uncle (his grandfather’s son) [“Heroes” seems to run in the family a bit]. He made huge progress on the cyborg soldiers, making them better, faster and living longer. Since he cared about their wellbeing instead of them just winning fights, the cyborgs under his command were more fit, healthy and were quicker to recover (in readiness to fight again). He was a scientist and a strategist, so he could both design the cyborgs and direct them in how to fight. The rest of the army follow his methods for over a decade before his untimely death in the fire, but still follow them to this day.
Lon made real an idea that changed the whole state of the war. What it is exactly is a spoiler, but I can tell that it is very important during the war and after it. It has the same sort of impact that the other “heroes” made, so he should be included as one of them (even if no one in his world will mark him as one).
This is awesome! I love how much thought you’ve put into your worldbuilding and history. :)
I didn’t know I had so much to say about this. XD The prompts really helped flesh out vague ideas. :)
Awesome! I love when that happens. ^-^
The great ‘hero’ that has most shaped my storyworld is he who became known as the First Ruler – the first dictator who held the entire world in his thrall (or his legacy anyhow) for many ages… until these kids came along and said wait a moment, why are his descendants/followers ruling when they’re so corrupt and whatever? (And I TOTALLY didn’t borrow a bit of the Catholic views of the Pope here, about how they describe whatever he does as good, etc.; not secifically targeting Catholics, just I found their description convenient to use)
*Didn’t do yesterday’s because I had no idea how to answer it…
Ooh, corrupt “heroes” are super interesting. So why ARE his descendants/followers ruling? How do they keep the people’s interest? And how do these kids break free of that influence? (If you’d like to share and can do so without spoilers. ;) )