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The Sun Children V Appendices



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Mon Sep 09, 2013 4:16 pm
TheSunChildren says...



Hello everyone.

Today i have two rather important pieces of text for you, as well as some pictures.
I have begun to wonder recently, if someone was to become a Sun Child, what could they expect? I decided to write just what they go through, in a not-so-complicated form as it were.

I was also called out recently on the religion which is briefly mentioned in my novel. As such , i have gone into some of the history of the main religion, and what it has caused.
So, please enjoy!

Of the Sun Children:

What they go through:

The Sun Children have always been known as the tamers of fire, but not many know how their minds work. Through pyrokinesis they can control fire with their minds, but it comes at a cost. For prolonged use of fire manipulation, a great stress is put on the cognitive abilities of the person. If they are not within range of their ‘sun vault’, they will feel even worse. To control fire through raw manipulation, it weakens the energy of the Sun Child. To control fire through a Sun Vault is much easier, but still requires willpower and utter focus. Sun Children will start off not being able to do much with their abilities. The first time they realise they can control fire with their mind, their mind will ache. It will continue to ache for years until they have become fully trained within themselves.

The sheer amount of stress that is placed upon the mind when controlling fire is unimaginable. To a normal person, the levels of cognitive stress would likely cause them to pass out in seconds. This doesn’t mean that Sun Children have a greater mental capacity to normal people, but they do have a greater mental tolerance. The pain they go through is excruciating, and often it will cause them to moan or even scream in pain, though this happens more in the earlier stages. Their eyes will feel as if they are being pushed out of their mind, but this is because of another change happening within them. The pigment of their eyes will go from normal to an amber colour, through this does not always happen. Their eyes will go amber through prolonged use of fire, when the rate of cognitive function increases.
The same sort of thing happens with their veins. When they end up contorting fire thorough use of hands or focusing their mind on clenching their fists (usually due to pain), blood will rush to their wrists and due to the changed inside them, they will turn darker than usual – often described as black veins. They will feel pain in their wrists too.

There have been known cases that a Sun Child withstands so much pain and mental stress and resists collapsing, that blood will begin to drip from their nose. There has also been another case where a Sun Child has been known to cry tears of blood when their eyes are in so much pain (again because of the blood rushing to them)

Sun Children cannot feel much cold, and they cannot be harmed by fire if they are near a Sun Vault. Their internal temperature is a little higher than normal people. They can perform better when the sun is out and the air is warm. Without a Sun Vault they can still create fire from warm air, but it is much easier to control and increase fire through an existing flame. Trying to create fire from nothing will put a much greater stress on them. With a sun vault they are able to do thing with fire a little easier. The radiation inside the sun vaults (whilst it also does a small amount of damage to the Sun Children themselves) also changes the air around the Sun Children and allows them to summon flames at an easier rate. (But they will at first struggle to control the amount they summon)

Do not be fooled, the Sun Children are not tame people themselves. They will often be stressed or angered because of the pain they go through, which as already said, is unthinkable. It is not always their choice to control fire. Sometimes it happens unexpectedly. The more they practice, the more tolerant they will become. Death ages of the Sun Children are typically lower than normal people due to a lifetime of stress and pain and their bodies become tired much quicker.

If they are in the presence of another sun vault then they will feel numbness in their minds. They will not be able to summon fire, but instead will feel their own temperature increasing, and it will make them feel faint. Only smoke will rise from their flesh rather than fire. The presence of two sun vaults near one another will cause the Sun Child’s mind to cancel out and they will likely feel more pain due to an increased amount of radiation (that only they are susceptible to)


The Main Religion of Arinalgar:

Galdrath – The High God

Galdrian – Religion name

Two branches: Amargaldrian and Bargaldrian

The religion was founded around 300PE (approximately 4500 years before TSCV began)The Sun was thought to be the birthplace of the gods who existed not in body, but in spirit. Whilst depictions of these gods were made in human form, it was not actually them. Back then it was the religious folk that claimed to be the messenger of the gods and the statues were made of them as they were the people first chosen by the gods, and so it was thought that they were favoured. People much later would not realise this, and the images of the gods would become forever seen as people. The moon was thought to be the resting grounds of the gods (as the glow was dimmer and it was seen after the sun had passed) The story goes that there was gods before the Galdrian race, who created the world, but then they were done, and the new gods were created to take over. Their leader was Galdrian, and hence the religion was called Galdriani.

As time went on, and the first Era endured, the kingdoms of Amar and Barthor began to develop their own ideas about the religion. When one side suggested an idea, the other felt offended. Amar tried to preach its ideas around Barthorin cities and make them believe in that a darker god existed, but was not to be worshipped unless one decided to be with him in the lands of eternal flame. This angered the Barthorin people and hostilities grew. The preachers were executed for blasphemy, but the Amarians declared that Galdrian would smite down the Barthorin folk for slaughtering his messengers. (It was said that although the gods gave birth to a darker god, they made him as an example, but not to be loved). As a result of this, Barthor began a civil war with Amar (the first time they actually started a war)and as Amarian cities were taken, beyond the mountains, temples and churches were smashed and burned. The Amarians tried to prove that the darker god existed by filling a cavern under the mountains with flammable oil and setting it alight, whilst alluring the Barthorin folk into the trap. Thousands burned, and Amargaldrian was hence known as a corrupt religion, but the Amarians refused to believe it. Their influence spread to Elgarn, and they told them there that the gods saw fit to show the Bargaldrian people that the underworld existed, and cast the non-believers into it, and the Elgarnians believed them. Amargaldrian hence became the primary religion of Elgarn after the Elgarnian Religious Revolution (which itself caused a national divide in Elgarn, and those who did not believe in Amargaldrian sparked one of the greatest wars between the two countries)

As the war between Amar and Barthor came to an end, the religion had become fully divided, and both sides began to follow their own rules and teachings.

Amargaldrian believes in a scenario similar to ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’.
The Netherlands are a place familiar in both religions, but only Amargaldrian believes that there is also an underworld where the most wretched of souls are sent to a dark god that Bargaldrians refuse to believe exists. Bargaldrians argue that gods would create no evil on purpose, but then the Amargaldrians believe that there can be no definition of pure without corruption to compare to.

The cathedral built in Arnoncourt was the first of its kind. It held transepts to both religions, Bargaldiran in the northern transept, and Amargaldrian in the southern transept. This meant that the rest of the cathedral could be used to worship the gods as a whole, with Galdrian’s shrine at the eastern end. The clerics who worshipped both sides were often weary of one another and had regular arguments. Preachings about the unique sides of the religions were restricted to their assigned transepts to keep hostilities down in such a religious house that was a haven away from violence. In the past, priests have murdered other priests and fires have been started, but still the cathedral stood. Three grand towers stood on the façade, and one tall tower in the centre of the main aisle. However, due to laws put down, it became illgegal for a building to stand taller than Ringwater Castle, and as such, the central tower was rebuilt, shorter but equally grand. The central tower on the façade, which was dedicated to Galdrian, was removed completely, causing mass protests from both sides. It was one of the only times that both religions fought side by side. The tower was instead replaced by a large gable and round window in dedication to Galdrian, which allowed the setting sun to shine into the cathedral. Galdrian was said to come from the sun, and so its setting was his way of saying farewell to the day. Sundown is the most sacred time of day for clerics, and the religious folk pray in the sunlight. The new look façade hence became more accepted as it seemed to allow Galdrian’s warmth enter the building. The two other towers that stood stand on the façade are dedicated to the gods according to the transepts, and are both identical as to prevent any hostilities between the religions.

The Cathedral was designed by Darrig Dardon, under the 4th generation architectural style. His later works included the Court of Generals and Lords until they were partly rebuilt following the fall of Arnoncourt. It was the architect Riggar Baggaron who was given the task of overseeing the rebuilding of the cathedral’s towers under the new laws.

When you combine the religion with the arrival of the sun children, you begin to see it is quite significant, as this extract from the TSCI prologue will say:

It was a day like any other. The sun began to rise. There was a tempestuous glow that came with the dawn. Its ascent shook the ground and the skies were torn apart. Lights appeared, and they bore fire and bled smoke. They fell from the sky like gods being thrown from the netherworlds.

One great entity blazed through the amber clouds, leaving black clouds behind it. Many of those that fell to the world were lost to the vast oceans of blues and bronzes.
This one however, fell into lands of ruins and remnants of a bygone age. Arinalgar was where it fell, into the eastern lands that had been dead for many years. It was the smallest of things – the stone from the skies. It lay in its crater, burning and searing. Strange wisps of amber and black wandered from the smouldering object as if the entity was feeling the air.

The dust that blew back from the burning fields seemed to take with it the darkness of the Blood Era. The skies still burned. Trails of smoke were slow to fade. The light that came with the falling of the gods was a sign that new times were to come. That was the day that the new Era began. The Era of the Sun.


So, the pictures:

I have done a model of the road leading to Koren Court:

koren.jpg


Also, a 3d model of the cathedral:

render6.png


And a model of the two courts:

two courts2.png
Not many remember how life there began, in the lands amidst surrounding walls of stone and pools of deep darkness, but whilst they forget the secrets of the past, they begin to riddle the future with their growing lust for knowledge, greatness and power.
  








Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
— Mark Twain