Welcome to Gaia! ::

I finally have ample time to work on my book and/or books, considering the amplitude of what I am currently attempting to write. I am still troubled with the quality of my ideas, and therefore I would like to ask of you, as many of you, to voice your opinions to me; I hold all of you in high esteem, for you all have vivid imagination and have good sense.

I have created seven major characters in all, all of whom are to my eyes at the least, very different in many aspects. I have also thought long and hard on the world in which this story is taking place; the races inhabiting this world, how it came to be.

I am asking this of you because I humbly admit that I am quite new to this. I am finishing my half-semester at high-school, and will have two-thirds of a year to work on this; after which I will go to college, but most undoubtedly find as much time as I can to continue this -- or these, -- novel(s). Again, I believe all of you to have great potential, and value your opinions with great respect; I will thank you for any voiced opinions, be it positive or negative.

My experience with many popular fantasy novels such as the Cleric Quintet books, as well as Wheel of Time, War of the Lance, War of Souls, Dark Sword Trilogy, and countless others of which I have enjoyed thoroughly, have led me to the conclusion that for me to be successful in this ambition that has been mine lo' these past few years, I would undoubtedly require the assistance of others; such of these would be you people.

Once again, I thank you for any voiced opinions, for they will be indeed a great help to me, and I am privileged to have individuals such as yourselves willing enough to listen to my dilemma, and even more so to aid me.

- Galen Kiuchenathus Loiren

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This world, my world, has yet to receive a name; this is of course, an important if not frugal aspect to the book. Such classic names have come to mind, though I shall leave this decision to a later date, rather needing to press on with larger matters.

How this place exists, and where it exists, are relatively quite different from many other worlds that you might find in fantasy novels; how it exists is by means of the belief in Reincarnation, or in this case, the belief that the soul does not truly die. This world is a means to give lost souls a new chance to live; most often they would retake form in the species -- or race, for lack of better term, -- that they had once been in their first life. But considering how many worlds had races that differed so little, I had created a new branch of species, a larger selection of peoples and civilizations to be at my disposal.

Therefore, the souls would re-emerge as these creatures, to live once again in this world, a world kept hidden from all other worlds, inaccessible by travel through the stars, or through time; for it was a sudden stroke of imagination that took me when I realized that this world could indeed exist as a separate realm, hidden behind the consciousness of all beings from the large encompassing groups of worlds already in existence. This, of course, also gave birth to the idea that some select few could be able to visit this world by means of dreams, the wonderful places that children often saw being this exact place. A World of Dreams, you might call it.

Other means would most likely be inter-dimensional travel, though I will not delve any further into this unless you would ask me of it, in which case I would be happy to elaborate on this subject.

I have spent some time in the creation of races that might be suitable for this world of dreams; my dedication to my work had proven fruitful when I had come up with around twenty different races.

I have written them all down, having covered aspects such as their average personalities, physical descriptions, relations towards other races, their affinity towards law and chaos, good and evil, their spoken language and/or languages, which might be the case in some, -- their most common names and such. There is also their racial abilities that they are born with, which I find somewhat helpful.

They are as follows:

So'ven (Folk of the Sands), a group of desert-folk that live in the flow of song and dance, of story-telling and other frivolous pleasures.

El'ron (Folk of the Winds), are a tribe of warrior folk that live in heavily-wooded regions, living their lives day by day and attuning themselves to the wilds.

Delzoid are an insect race residing in subterranean utopias often in desert or flatlands, not unlike the classic race of Thri Kreen.

Alamus are nigh-angelic in appearance, being a race of winged folk that hold justice and the powers of good in the highest esteem, much so that they appear almost fanatical about them.

Watchers are a vampiric people, who value neutrality and peace, though because of their nature and appearance are still feared as creatures of darkness.

Gaia Ohva I have had somewhat of a slight delight in creating; for they are like humans that have taken on the characteristics of animals, from a frog to a wolf, from a rabbit to a horse.

Sel'min (Folk of the Waters), these might be the only aquatic race I had created. Naturally talented in the Arts, they are often musicians and artisans, this merely being one aspect of their lives.

Feyhorn might be mistaken for elves, though there are subtle physical differences. They are hermits to the extreme though, just as most elves are.

Trev'an D'uar (Earth Swallowers) a subterranean race created by a friend who had aided me in this, an ancient species that devote themselves to the creation of tunnels, buildings, other things of grandeur just as dwarves.

Diablar, though I do admit the name needs work, they are power-hungry and have an unquenchable thirst for blood.

Sarhas, yet another race often turning to physical means, are cunning lizard folk with a penchant for plunder, whose knack for using others to achieve their gains make them evidently more dangerous than would be expected.

Fraijad as well as Hellkith, both being cousin races, are monstrous creatures equivalent to a mix between the size of an ogre and the ferocity of a dragon, though they look like overgrown yeti with a lot more teeth.

Shiderak, cowardly by nature, often become the lackeys to other, more physically powerful races such as the Sarhas, though their innate racial abilities do help them escape nigh-everything.

Fanglings are merely wolf-like beings on two legs, they still hold most aspects of the wolf within them, spending their days hunting in packs and scouring their territories for intruders.

Kron'os (Folk of the Mountains) -- who are possibly one of my favored people, -- are a barbarian people dwelling in the mountains, whose life revolves around skill in combat and honor.

Wyrmen are what you might called a glorified human, though their dragon-characteristics give them reason to comport themselves in such a manner. They indeed also retain certain powers that dragons are reputed to wield.

Fenbalgier are a race of cat-folk, slender and somewhat beautiful in appearance, whose blatant curiosity and penchant for trouble make them a source for excitement.

Raodkei are energy-based beings with remarkable intelligence, living with a natural thirst of knowledge that often governs their lives.

It is to be known that two races are missing from here, for I cannot find them as of yet in my pages; they are Ae'Threa, a goodly race of powerful beings, and Ehr'Thul, a military race of dark people who seek to rid the world of any that aren't of their own kind.

These are but small descriptions of my races, for I have it all written on sheets and I am as of yet unsure whether or not any of you would be willing to read so much into it. Though if there are any questions or suggestions, feel free to voice them out.

I suppose that another larger part of this would be about the deities – of which I have come to see play a rather large role in many novels. Though some races merely wield the magic of the world itself, some do receive their powers from their deities.

The gods do indeed bring about a large aspect to this novel, for it is around one of these gods that some of the story persists in processing. I thank you for taking the time in looking through this, some of you might see this as a waste of time when looking at all the little things I’ve as of yet shown you.

The seven characters that I have created all have something to connect each other together. Galen, thus being my username as well because it is a name that I am quite fond of, is one of the larger forces moving the primary story, as is his brother Rath. These two are both only half Ae'Threa, though Galen's other half is Alamus, Rath's other half is Ehr'Thul.

The others are as follows: Lawman Reynheart, a Kron'os bounty hunter; Eludrian Feyrbane, an exiled Alamus prince; Daladar, a cursed Feyhorn; Amonthalas, an intelligent and powerful Ae'Threa mage; Asthayanax, a strict and righteous paladin of sorts whom holds honor and straight-forward justice to the highest degree, and of course Galen, next in line to receive the throne of his father.

Each have their own intricate past, which I will not only integrate into the story, but will mostly likely have to create a separate smaller novel for each depicting all that had happened before the main story truly began.

I always find it interesting to be reading a story and realize the context of what is going on because I have heard the story from another's point of view. I also find it interesting to be reading a story about one character and another character is mentioned that was the protagonist of a different story, but the characters of the story I am reading at the moment don't even know the one who is mentioned.

Galen is the younger of the two brothers, and therefore it should have been Rath who would have become Emperor, but because Enoreth, theior father, had found that Rath would inevitably become evil, he had decided that Galen would have to become Emperor. Realising this, Rath removed himself from his kingdom and dissapeared. He returned as the right hand of this world's deity of death. Their father believes that it might have been because he had chosen Galen that Rath had become evil, which brings a little complication to this aspect. How Rath became the 'avatar' to the god of death was by killing his predecessor, and performing the act of skinning and using every body part of the preceding avatar to fashion a suit of hideous armor as homage to his deity. Thrilled with this, the deity made him his right-hand. After this comes the war between goodly races and those of darkness; but some have managed to escape the tides of war and were left out of this luckilly. There are many things that I hve not written here, but there is a part where Rath shows his mistrust for all by betraying his master and thus becoming the new God of Death. Many things happen after of course.

I wouldn't stick all the races all at once, that wouldn't be wise; I was thinking of showing a few at a time, just like in some FR (Forgotten Realms) books.

I've read books one through ten of WoT, but I've yet to read the eleventh book. I know that for a person to start in the fantasy buisness, it's better to write one book first, because the demand for fantasy is a lot lower than the demand for sci-fi, no matter what people say. It could be cruddy sci-fi and people would still want to read it, it's weird but taht's how the buisness is.

As for the races, having so many races all at once wouldn't be wise of course, but I'm not going to stick them all at once in there. Besides, the way it's written there isn't made for putting in a novel, so you wouldn't find it like that.

The way I write is a lot like a novel, descriptive, but surrounding the flow of actions that's happening.

The books I liked were the Cleric Quintet, most of the Dragonlance series, Ravenloft books, and I especially liked the Sword of Truth, I'm not sure if it's linked with Wot but there are a lot of things in common with it. Another series I loved was the Wizardborn books. I like WoT, the story was addictive, but one of the things I didn't like was the sort of way men were demeaned, it might not be so obvious, but I kept seeing it everywhere, and it often got on my nerves. I don't very much like anything modern or sci-fi, like Catcher In The Rye and all that -- I felt my Iq drop the whole time I read that book, I'm sorry but it's just not very good.