Young Writers Society

"...Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies... " - Shirley Abbott

"...Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands." - Linda Hogan







Planet Mossa has five moons, a single ring, and a dwarf star that all align once a month to complete a celestial pentagram. Scholars refer to this moment as the Luneset, the symbol of Life, Magic, and Resurrection.

Since civilization, the benevolent God King of Mossa has taken upon himself to revive a deceased human soul from the clutches of death and back into the present reality. This practice informs all of society, magic, religion, education, economics and customs.

Our main character is the direct descendant of one ReBirth so extraordinary, the world has never been the same, since.




My absolute favorite characters and tropes in fantasy and sci-fi end up being the wise-mentor character— the Dumbledore, Gandalf, Yoda, Mr. Miyagi types— but I was never happy with just having them be mentors of their respected students. I really wished to explore how the "wise mentor" CAME TO BE. I wanted to follow in their footsteps. See in their eyes. Be in their heads, and experience their growth progression, from childhood - to adult - and on to old age.

What's it like to be in the teacher's shoes for once, where your responsibilities are more than your own, but somehow you also have to juggle and guide the choices of your students?

How does a naive, awkward person become an old, master-of-their-field, both confident and wise mentor? What is the cost to that kind of role?

I wanted to invert the trope a bit and go with a female "wise-mentor". I want to start when she is young, I do not want her to be the hero, but I do want her to change her world and actively build towards that. I wanted a world that was filled with mystical wonder and perplexing things for her to witness. So was born Luneset! This is an ambitious, sprawling work of mine because it does follow a character—Fiel Montroy— through her decades of work.

And it is ultimately, the coming-of-age campaign of gathering allies, resolving differences and coming together as a community, coming together with one's old prejudices and biases and ancestral baggage and histories to fight against demons and deity-figures.

This is a world where everyone in power, the "noble class" so to speak, each have a unique (or several unique) ancestors guiding them. That is, a magic-system of ancestral magic. Fiel is partnering up with her extraordinary and oft forgotten ancestor, Luterogan- a figure of such historical importance to their world, it is something like the equivalent of someone bringing back Alexander the Great, and interacting with such a man.

I suppose he's very strong and mighty and wise—but lord, does he have outdated ideas-- people can't bully people into slavery anymore, by the way...lawd, will he shut up about proper clothing attire and what he deems as 'proper' women's roles. Oi!

[Main Character / Main Plot]
An influential warrior dies and comes back to life in a futuristic setting where he must learn to adapt and live by new customs to regain the power and status he had lost upon his death.




Upon his revival, he learns of his multiple descendants, and he chooses 'one' to help him in his quest for power:



[Main Character]
A woman finds her ancestor is revived from the dead and she must assist in assimilating him to this new world. With great power, comes great responsibility. How will she help navigate a power-hungry warrior-king-of-old with his outdated ideas and larger-than-life personality? Perhaps she can utilize him to pursue her own goals for the greater good.




[Minor Character / Subplot]
In her training as Priestess of Mossa, she discovers her sexuality, she discovers herself, and she discovers the dark and dangerous secrets of her world.






[Minor Character / Subplot]
Orphan of anarchy and son to the rebellion, he doesn't care- he will openly defy the Gods of his world for the cause of peace.





[Major Character / Love Interest ]
Youngest of three brothers who were at once so perfectly attuned with one another and now fight in opposing wars of broken bonds, betrayals and revenge-- Liand serves as an antagonistic force, the status quo, the ruling class, and the man Fiel must somehow find a way to work with, in order to fix a broken society.

Planet Mossa, 5 moons and a striking lovely ring around her belly.
Four Continents, numbered for now.
Among the continents exist Dominions, each ruled by a Clan.
Among the Dominions, exist Great Cities, each ruled by a Prince or Princess.
The surrounding lands are Borderlands, here villages are scattered and demons thrive.

Overlooking all, seated upon the tallest mountain peak of the First Continent, the God King resides in his palaces preparing for each Luneset.




He looked as though made of glass, a skin that was both opaque and transparent, almost pearlescent, reflecting back many hues of pink, purple, blue even as He walked, His steps reverberating across the stones.

The statues do not teach how visible His aura was. Like a rippling heatwave that surrounded His person with tiny, fluorescent sparks sizzling midair, sparks that seemed to flow as though from inside of Him, as though it were light itself that flowed beneath His veins. And He was tall—ten feet, maybe twelve, with proportions not quite mammalian—but the God King was otherworldly, with limbs that were more wingtips than arms or fingers and eyes that reflected the world around Him as a true mirror.


The creator of everything. Scientists of Mossa believe he is actually a multi-dimensional being living beyond their dimension but somehow interacting with some kind of form.

His purpose on planet Mossa is unclear - but one thing we know - he's been here since the beginning of time, since before the Great War, since before even the cave men walked on Mossa, since before the demons ate the men and possessed their children.

And all this time, he's been busy reviving countless souls. Nobody knows why. Some say he is gathering up energy and magic for his "big" revival, for the revival of his sister- another God-like being like himself. Others never question it, and just believe it exists because it does. Why does the sun shine every morning? The God King just is.

Every month, on the Luneset, for millenia, the God King has resurrected one human from the past to live in their present. Sometimes, that human is an ordinary nobody, and goes on to re-live yet another ordinary life. Sometimes, that human he revives is significant, influential and powerful.

Society forms around this structure of the Luneset, not only are death and burial rituals, religion, etc. revolving around the Luneset - but magic, economy, customs, the social institutions themselves.



Five moons form a pentagram in the sky every month, and on this day, a soul is revived. So that every year 15 souls are revived. So that every decade, 150 souls are revived. So that every century, 1500 souls are revived. The God King has been doing this faithfully, and has provided hope and comfort to many a families who have lost loved ones.

Yet so many hundreds of thousands more die, never to be revived. The hope is that "someday" it may happen to you. The cliché image that this society upholds is one of a grieving mother, having lost her child to a demon or a sickness, attends the Luneset, and through some miracle, the God King resurrects her child, and all is good and happy as they reunite.

There is a custom among all human-kind on Mossa. To send your dead across the world to Asterrun, the First Sanctuary on the First Continent below the shadow of the tallest mountain. Here much of the dead are buried in a massive catacomb right underneath the God King's reach.

When a revived is reborn by the God King, he is reborn in a Sanctuary.

Every Great City (140 totaled on the planet) will have its own Sanctuary however, so even those who cannot afford to send their dead ones all the way across the other side of the world can still at least send them to their nearest Sanctuary. Rumors say all the Sanctuaries are connected underground, but scientists of Mossa debunk this myth. Even still, there are staunch believers of the All-Connecting Underground Death Society.

Each Sanctuary is run by a council of Priests and Priestesses. There is the High Priest who over-sees all. They are morticians, councilors, wet-nurses, religious figureheads who very much help families commune with their dead, record all new births (as well as inject the Signatures to all newborns) among other societal duties, their main one is to faithfully perform their community's Luneset.

On the Luneset, every one in the community is supposed to gather at their Sanctuary. Throughout the years, people just stop going to them so often. It's the same thing every month - a stuffy colleseum of people - some random person in some random city gets revived who you do not even know, and the numbers are surely not in your favor- it's like some impossible lottery, so why waste your time? But many of the most faithful and traditionalists will still attend to their duties for "witnessing" revivals every month.

They all gather around their Sanctuary where there is Colosseum with an empty casket at its center, the Priests and Priestesses prepare. When the Celestial Pentagram forms in the sky, a reBorn gets resurrected by the God King, and honestly, some random soul is literally teleported into that coffin where he "reawakens" and lives again.

Because there are 140 caskets in each of the Sanctuaries dotted throughout the world- it is basically random who gets resurrected and where that resurrected ends up. Through technology, i.e. telecommunications via holograms and satellites, even if the event is literally happening in say, Aster Run's First Sanctuary on the First Continent- someone around the world on the Fourth Continent can also witness it by viewing the events from the telecoms of his own Sanctuary.

** For the most part, this is how I imagine things go, but I'll probably edit and re-work some of the obvious plot holes later :^) **



The Sanctuaries are magical and mystical places, filled with a community's dead, but also a lot of Ancestral magic.

Weak Magic
Anybody can perform. Basically, by certain rituals of blood and pentagrams, people can call upon their ancestors for a bit of good luck! Some people swear by this. A common practice is to call upon this magic whenever there is a big event in one's life, an exam, or a pitch to a project, or when they wish to ask the banks for a loan, etc. Some even say this magic gets stronger near or on the Luneset.

They can avoid having to draw blood by utilizing a charm. Basically, any object embedded with the ashes/DNA/belongings of a dead ancestor is a charm. Some would have an amulet of a dead family member, the amulet may be embedded with ashes or teeth melded onto the metalwork for example. It can provide good auras, good karma, good vibes. OR depending on WHO the dead person whose ancestral magic they are drawing upon: it can also be bad auras, bad karma, bad vibes - like say you wear the amulet which holds the remains of a psychopath or serial killer.

Charms can only work however, if you are the direct DESCENDANT of the ancestor whose remains you are drawing upon. So, if you are a child who is using a mother's remains, or a great-grandmother's remains, etc. Thus, charms are useless if they do not belong to you.

Most people in life are pretty average and mundane. And so the magic is negligible. Those who have amazing people in their families will have more powerful magic for their descendants to draw upon!

The Faithful are always striving to live their life to be of good service for their descendants.

Medium Grade Magic

This is more costly and more powerful form of ancestral magic. Rather than the ashes of your ancestor being embedded into any object to form charms - you can embed them into Runes.

Runes are special gems and minerals from deep within Mossa, and so hold more of the ancestral magic. Artificers will uncover the minerals and then craft them into a particular symbol of magical significance. Rather than just "luck" and "good vibes"-- you craft the magic into anything you want.

SO

If the Ancestor was a remarkable boxer with loads of body strength in his previous life. You embed that ancestor's ashes (it has to be ashes, specifically-burning the bone marrow works best) into the rune and you can draw upon that ancestor's quality. However, the rune has to be crafted by an expert with an understanding of symbols and pentagrams and magic to specifically have the knowledge of crafting the stone to make it do what you want.

So, a rune made of that boxer's remains and crafted with a symbol that forces the magic to draw upon that boxer's STRENGTH will allow the user of that rune to have increased strength, and can then use that strength in a battle.

Unlike charms (the user has to be a direct descendant of those remains) -- Runes can be used by anybody, regardless of their ancestral heritage. So they are a BIG aspect to the economy of this world as powerful runs of powerful men get traded and bartered and sold.

Direct Descendants due note a more powerful link to their runes however. The magic lasts longer and is stronger, but that increase is not too much of a difference.

Powerful Magic

[Communions]
Only a High Priest or High Priestess can perform a communion with a dead ancestor. Family members can talk to the dead for a limited period of time. Usually, right before, right after, or during the Luneset is the best time to get a full conversation going. However, these are NOT the same as revivals.


[The Reborn]
So, when the God King resurrects a dead ancestor, that ancestor is known as a ReBorn and that being is in between the "living" and the once dead. For some reason, this person's traits and abilities are amplified - especially if they were previous leaders or previously worshiped or held in high esteem by others of their society.

Not only can the Ancestor himself be the "best" he or she has ever been/ but their qualities and traits can also be shared with their directs descendants.

An Example:

An ancestor who was an esteemed orthopedic/radiologist in a previous life who found a cure for worn-out bones and shared that cure among the rest of society during his lifetime. Suppose he is revived again by the God King some 50 or 70 years later.

He might find himself to be the same person he was upon his death, still a good doctor with all of his previous knowledge. But somehow looking at XRays of bones all his life, he might find that in his Second Life, he himself has XRay vision. Not only that, but he was also someone who took great care of himself physically and great care of his bones. He might find that in his Second Life, his bones are as strong as steel (or whatevs)

These powers (XRay vision, strong as steel bones- he can draw upon himself) as well as, he can share with his direct descendants. But only one descendant at a time can be host for his powers.


** Not every ReBorn has amazing powers. There are some ReBorn who never amounted to anything in their First Life. An example: a baby who died during labor, and is resurrected a year later - there really isn't any magic or power. Still, any parents of that baby will be pretty darn happy So the effects aren't all about magic all of the time.

Another example, a person who led a mediocre life and gets revived may not have much power or magic either, but may be inspired to lead a better Second Life. Or not.



*** Magic can stack! A Revived Person can wear a charm of HIS ancestors and grow a bit more powerful. They can also utilize any combination of runes.


**** Negative energies exist as well in all examples. Someone extraordinarily incompetent will have that incompetency multiplied in ancestral magic. Someone extraordinarily clumsy, will find their second life to be ....disastrous.