Mirror Doll

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Characters

Arc One - Mirror Doll

Trea
*Silver-blonde hair, dark sapphire blue eyes
*Queen's Mirror-Doll (similar to a kagemusha)
*Doesn't remember any life prior to that, but has a distinct recollection of time in the past spent sleeping
*Mother of Amathana and Miven
*Believes herself to be a ten'cki, or created being, and therefore not capable of any of the stronger emotions
*Appears to be favored by the Sleeping Ice Goddess, Solamida, and she is extremely devout in her belief of the Goddess

Kyan
*Deep garnet ruby red hair, pale blue eyes
*Captain of the Shadow Guard
*Worked his way up in the ranks to this point, from the lowest of the lowliest positions, to be near Trea
*Has loved Trea afar for years and more recently in utter secret
*Many within the palace think he is unfit for the position because of his lack of magic ability - his profiency with weapons has silenced most naysayers
*Father of Amathana and Miven

Arc Two and Four - Eyes and Sleeper Arisen

Lenna
*Golden hair, dark red eyes
*Member of Shadow Guard
*Considered the best rendaina, or sorceress, of her generation
*During the Battle of the Palace, she ended up in a fight against a halfbreed (or eiranda), namely Kyaren, during which both were cursed to be immortal and forget their past
*Raises a small boy, Amon, in around 500 BCE and follows his souls now as it is reborn
*Eventually (post Gods and Other Creatures) holds the soul and power of Amaterasu now

Kyaren
*Dark red hair, pale blue eyes (think Siberian Husky's eyes)
*Kyan's half brother, born to his father and a Dhauren (human) slave girl
*Participated in the Battle of the Palace to prove to his father (and Kyan, who didn't even know he existed) that he was every bit as good as his brother
*After being attacked by Lenna, whose attack is absorbed to form the curse, he forgets his past and becomes a thief
*By the time he and Lenna meet again (circa 500 BCE), he is one of the best thieves anywhere
*EXTREMELY limited magic but highly skilled with weapons

Arc Three - Say Nothing

Amathana
*Pale blonde hair, dark blue eyes
*Seal of Spirit (Light)
*Daughter of Kyan and Trea, 11 years older than Miven
*Created the Elder Gods for the Battle of the Immortals, using the grave majority of her power
*Left part of her power was behind as Amaterasu
*Originally died when she was 33
*What was left of her power after Amaterasu was banished and several of the Elder Gods had died went into Lenna, including some of her personality
*Is determined to stop the cycle of death and rebirth for the Seals
*Enormously powerful and no one knows why
*Priestess of Solamida

Miven
*Silver-blond hair, dark blue eyes
*Seal of Water
*Son of Kyan and Trea, 11 years younger than Amathana
*Originally died when he was 22, meaning by the Ancients' terms he was still a very young child
*Despite the age difference, he feels he should take care of his sister, not the other way around
*Kyan and Trea died when he was 3, so he was raised by Amathana in the temples

posted by Li @ 8:16 PM 0 comments links to this post

Songs

It has been a little while since I updated here, and yet it hasn't as well. I've been working on getting sections of the story typed and I've been using this blogger to do it -- I just haven't been posting it for people to see yet.

The subject of today's post is fairly simple. I'm starting to compile a list of songs that I associate with various characters, in the attempt to start to work on a soundtrack (at least a mental one for myself).

Trea:
* "Back to the River", Xandria
* "To Myself I Turned", Lacuna Coil

Kyan:
* "And So You Disappear", Xandria

Lenna:
* "My Wings", Lacuna Coil

Kyaren:
* "The Authority Song", John Cougar Mellancamp

Amathana:
* "Swamped", Lacuna Coil

Miven:
* "Consign to Oblivion", Epica

Solamida:
* "Ice Queen", Within Temptation
* "She's Nirvana", Xandria
* "Beltaine", Inkubus Sukkubus

Various:
* "Bittersweet", Within Temptation
* "Deceiver of Fools", Within Temptation

posted by Li @ 2:50 PM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Short Story - Ice Queen

Series: Original, Mirror Doll universe
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 1,000 words
Notes: Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem "A Dream within a Dream": "Is all that we see or seem/But a dream within a dream?"; as well as a line from the Evanescence song "Everybody's Fool": "You're not real and you can't save me". However, most of the inspiration comes from Within Temptation's "Ice Queen".

How long now had she slept? A day? A week? A month? A year? More? She thought that perhaps once she had counted the time, but now she was not so sure. How could she have done that anyway? Oh yes, the time that existed within her dreams' minds was her marking points.

At first her dreams were ugly and animalistic, covered in hair and barely capable of communication with their fellow dreams. Gradually she came to find new dreams though, and as time passed, they became more beautiful. With their increasing beauty came increasing complexity, and that kept her intrigued. She wanted to watch them, to see what they would be able to do next.

Something told her this was not her first sleep. She had slept before and dreamed so much that, when she woke up, her dreams were still there all around her. Waking dreams, that's what they were. Beautiful dreams, somehow made real by the dreaming. Real and so very, very close to perfect.

The name of one of her dreams floated up to her, and she smiled. Her favorite beautiful, waking dream, all deep reds and blacks and silvers and palest blue. She liked that dream. Where had it now gone? Had it fled her in search of a new dreamer? No. Another set of dreams had taken it from her and destroyed it and defiled it and tried to make it less perfect and she wanted that dream back now...

Somewhere in the Mediterranean, a small island is covered in snow...

She knew that all around her was snow and ice and cold. It had never bothered her before, and it certainly didn't now. The cold was her eternal companion, and it kept her wrapped in her dreams. It was her great hidden refuge, where she could escape her reality and dream. Wait... What was her reality? Was it the snow and ice, or was it the people who moved around and had lives and families?

Families... That brought one of her first dreams back to mind - or rather two dreams she'd had so very, very long ago. Almost identical, excepting one was fourteen and the other three the last time she saw them. Had they fled her for another dreamer as well? No. They too had been taken by other dreams. She'd seen them both several times since then, since she'd gone to sleep again; even if they looked different every time they reappeared, they were still two of her most recognizable dreams.

Now, though, almost all her original dreams were gone. There were two clearly recognizable ones left: one full-blooded, the other half-blooded. Even her two precious reoccurring dreams were gone now, having laid themselves to rest. The world she'd seen when she last awaken was now long gone, but even its inhabitants were disappearing. Sooner or later, she would be the only one left.

Unacceptable...

A valley hidden deep in the Amazon river basin mysteriously starts to experience its first deep frost as a layer of snow begins to coat the trees and ground...

The world of her first waking was by no means perfect, but it was better than this! Her first waking dreams had at least respected the planet she'd cultivated for them. Her first waking dreams at least paid her proper homage. Her first waking dreams had not driven to extinction the animals of this planet.

If these new waking dreams were allowed to continue as they were, there would be no planet left. There would be no more animals, no more trees, no more of those damned annoying waking dreams.

She was waking up. It was time for the world to again see her face. And if the waking dreams died with her awakening, then sooner or later, she'd sleep again and start it all over again.

In this blue and green world, she was queen. She had ruled from the shadows once before. This time, these horrible but beautiful creatures would know who controlled their paths, who had brought them into being, who would just as easily destroy them as continue to put up with their antics. They were like her wayward children, and if they continued such antics, they would be punished. Her own true children had laid down their lives for these monstrosities, after all. She could not let that stand. She would not let that stand.

She would reap her vengeance on the world that remained. She had earned that much at least. These pitiful creatures would rue the day they ruined her gifts to them.

"...Despite continued threats of global warming, temperatures around the world have continued to drop at alarming rates. In New York City, the temperature is currently 15° Fahrenheit, while Los Angeles is experiencing record lows today for the month of July, coming in at 33° Fahrenheit. Across the country and around the world, scientists are baffled by the strange weather that has already covered parts of the Amazon basin along the equator in what could be its first deep frost perhaps since the last Ice Age...

This just in. An explosion of some kind, in the far northeast area of Siberia, in a sparsely inhabited area usually covered by a thick layer of permafrost. Miners in the area are reporting Russian news sources that something is emerging from the ice. Reports are conflicting, but it seems to be... human. It's a woman! A woman is coming up out of the ice! According to reports, she seems to be floating in midair. They're saying the storm is increasing around her. No! She's controlling it!
What? I'm sorry; we seem to have lost communication with Siberia. Moscow currently has no official statement, but it appears the Russian armed forces is being deployed to the area. We will of course keep you informed as developments are made available..."

The goddess of snow and ice, worshipped millennia ago as the unnamed Goddess who controlled the fate of the world, had awoken.

posted by Li @ 10:06 PM 0 comments links to this post

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Language II - Nouns, Verbs, and other important things

Now that names and such are out of the way, it's time to move onto other nouns, verbs, and a few other words that will prove important (or maybe not so much) along the way through the story and series.

There is no real rhyme or reason to this, but I will do my best to keep things divided up nice and neat.

Nouns:
ama = sun
amathana = sunshine (lit., sun-light)
cert = moon
certhana = moonlight
cler = strength
kha = wind
ky'an = sword
mi = sky
miven = rain (lit., sky-water)
naori = hope
naora = life
seia = star, jewel
thana = light
ven = water

Verbs:
tre- = to protect

Adjectives:
len'n = best
rila = holy, sacred

posted by Li @ 5:59 PM 0 comments links to this post

Language I - Family and other people

I'm probably going to regret starting this, but it seems that I need a more standardized way of keeping up with the language of Mirror Doll, before it gets away from me completely.

The first thing to note about the language is that it is rather gender specific.

Family:
thanlenna = Mother (Thala is a shorter form for this and is similar to "Mom" or "Mama".)
milenni= Father (Mili is the shorter form of this term and is like "Dad" or "Daddy".)
njiki = brother (This term works for older and younger brothers. There is no age limit attached to it.)
njika = sister (This too works for older and younger sisters. Again, there is no age limit attached to it.)

Siblings usually refer to each other as 'brother' or 'sister' rather than by name, especially in formal settings. Siblings raised in the palace or lower courtly life will always use these titles.

Terms of Address:
endaini = sorcerer
rendaina = sorceress
tazane = thief
eirenda = halfbreed (This is a somewhat insulting term. There is the connotation of "other than us", giving the term a rather stereotyping feel to it.)
Dhauren = humans (Literally, this term means "those others".)
alanri = lifemate (This term is only used regarding a male.)
alanria = lifemate (This term is only used regarding a female.)
abeb' = beloved, darling, sweetheart (This is a bit of a slang term, but actually has no gender.)
abebi = beloved, darling, sweetheart (The same as above but for a male.)
abeba = beloved, darling, sweetheart (The same as above but for a female.)

Insults:
brema = bitch
bri = idiot
kaheri = bastard (There is no direct translation for this term. It's extremely rude, but oddly there is some respect attached to it, like a respected enemy. Applying it to a female is a bit of a double insult.)
vritre = weakling

posted by Li @ 8:06 AM 0 comments links to this post

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