Natus Lumen
10-14-2006, 01:30 PM
This is a condensed, very shortened version. If you want the long version, I can send it to you in the form of attatchments. Just send me an email. Karmapoliceman5@hotmail.com.
Here goes.
Once upon a time there were two cities. Apparatus Urbs, the city of machines, and Veneficus Urbs, the city of magic. Each had their own specialties and skills, and they had an ongoing state of friendly competition in the atmosphere between the two. The cities existed peacefully and harmoniously, and the whole planet thrived off of the goods produced by these two cities.
But one Winter, the air got so cold that ice fell from the sky for weeks on end. It did not stop, and eventually, the machines of Apparatus Urbs began to malfunction and break down, while the people of magic were able to repel the heat and readily fix anything that went wrong. The king of Apparatus Urbs became very jelous of Veneficus Urbs, and harmony was distorted.The cities stopped trade with each other, and eventually, war broke out.
Shortly after the fighting erupted, the machines were fixed and got running again, but fighting had already broken out. Many machines with terrible functions were invented, each more colossal and more destructive than the last. The city of Venefcus Urbs was able to fight back at first, but while the wizard army was being depleted, the mahines were fighting on behalf of the Apparatus Urbs, while more still were being created. The end was approaching for Veneficus Urbs.
Finally, all of the wizards were destroyed. There was no magic left in the land. Only a dead shell of a fantastic city. The war had gone on for generations, and now it had finally ended.
The people of Apparatus Urbs were not the same ones that had invented the machines of destruction, so nobody knew how to stop them. By the end of the war, thousands of machines were left over, many of which were colossi that had developed a mind of their own, and slaughtered indiscriminately. Such machines proceeded to attack their fellow machines and the people of Apparatus Urbs, and the city did not stand a chance. Within a year, both of the cities had been destroyed, and their people no more. None of the surrounding towns and villages knew how to survive without the two cites, so they, too, eventually failed.
Before the war, however, a man from Apparatus Urbs and a woman from Veneficus Urbs had fallen in love and eloped. At about the time the war started, they had a child, but were called to their respective cities to aid in the destruction. The child, named Vir, was given to a nearby village to be raised.
As he was growing up, Vir was truly a master at everything he did. He learned quickly to read and write, and then proceeded to learn other languages. He was a master hunter, easily bringing back twice the game as the others his age during competition. Good fortune seemed to follow him wherever he went, and he never got in trouble.
Vir quickly grew bored with regular education, and began to collect things from about the village and put them together to invent new things. He became so immersed in this that he stayed in his cottage for days on end to keep working on these innovations.
Once he was at the age of forty, yet still looking not a day older than twenty, some of the local villagers told him of his past, and what his parents were. They also told him that his parents had to leave him in that village because there was a terrible war raging in their home cities, across the mountains. He was deeply disturbed by this, and immediately set out to travel to the cities, and find his parents.
When he came to the summit of the mountain he was crossing, he saw one city completely destroved, and another seemingly under seige. Enormous noises came from the city below, and large explosions erupted every two or three hours. Vir decided to camp out in the mountains until the fighting had ended.
A week later, Vir peered over the summit to see two cities burned to a crisp and to all extremes, devastated. He descended the mountain.
He came first to the ruins of Veneficus Urbs. Odd glyphs and seemingly ancient symbls were carved into the sides of the toppled buildings. Architecture that looked as though it could not possibly work still remained in parts of the city. It was a very odd place indeed.
After exploring for a little while he came to a descending stairway, and followed it down. A large stone doorway stood in his path, and n the wall on his right were written words which he had never seen before, but seemed to make an impression on an undiscovered, dormant part of his mind. The words read:
"To read this is to be blessed with a mighty, ancient gift. Few can read the words etched upon this wall, and thus the secrets contained within these chambers. To open the door, one must connect his or her mind with the essence of magic, and pray for admission. Only then will the secrets of magic be revealed."
Vir figured that if he could read the words, then he could open the door. After all, his mother was magic. So he reached down into that same, dormant part of his mind to which had just been awoken, and searched. He could feel himself gravitating towards something beautiful...something whose powers were unimaginable...powers that could answer all of the mysteries of the universe...powers so pure....In his mind Vir felt as though he were walking through a maze, and at the center was the voice of a beautiful creature. It was only a matter of time until he came face to face with the greatest power known to all life....
And then, he felt as though his mind was being attacked by angels. He was being invaded, posessed. He knew he must stop it, but it felt so magnificent. All of a sudden, Vir felt himself drawing towards the line of life and death. He felt himself willingly move towards the end of the tunnel, and then, all of a sudden, he pushed it all away. Everything retreated from his body, and he could feel an unbelievable foce surging inside him. He stared at the door and willed it to open. It immidiately slid apart. He walked inside and what he saw puzzled him.
It was a room lit by golden light from an unidentifiable source. There were oddly shaped swords and staves on one of the walls, but the others were lined with shelves, arranged tidily with scrolls. He was confused: how could all this exist under a city as decrepit as this one?
He walked to a shelf and picked up a scroll.
Okay I know this wasn't short at all, but I have to go do other stuff. So shoot me. But basically what happens after all this is Vir learns all of the magic stuff and then goes into the machine city and creates two machines: one that destroys all of the life remaining on th planet (except him) and another that will keep him alive forever in an unconcious dream state. He dreams up a world, and a portal to transport people from the dream world to his world. He creates seven kings: five to rule the land, one to regulate the portal, and one to guide the people to the portal. So the gatekeeper (the portal king) goes on a power trip and takes complete control of the gate. Vir and the other 6 kings try to override him, but he's too powerful. So Vir dreams up a protagonist in his image to travel across the land and gain enough strength and power to defeat the gatekeeper and free the people from the dream world into Vir's world so he can start over new in the dead world. And that's where the story begins. So now you have the backstory, tell me what you think. In my head I have an idea about a mirror that splits the universe down the center and passes through the center of Vir's dream world and connects to other worlds, like the one that we live in, or something. It's obviously not very developed. But tell me what you think.
=====
And by the way, I'm putting copyright laws on this. This is the sole work of Sam Campbell, and if you wish to distribute this, I may grant you permission but you have to send me an email first, which is up there before the story starts. If you distribute this without permission of the owner, you are subject to federal penalties under the discretion of the United States Federal Government.
Here goes.
Once upon a time there were two cities. Apparatus Urbs, the city of machines, and Veneficus Urbs, the city of magic. Each had their own specialties and skills, and they had an ongoing state of friendly competition in the atmosphere between the two. The cities existed peacefully and harmoniously, and the whole planet thrived off of the goods produced by these two cities.
But one Winter, the air got so cold that ice fell from the sky for weeks on end. It did not stop, and eventually, the machines of Apparatus Urbs began to malfunction and break down, while the people of magic were able to repel the heat and readily fix anything that went wrong. The king of Apparatus Urbs became very jelous of Veneficus Urbs, and harmony was distorted.The cities stopped trade with each other, and eventually, war broke out.
Shortly after the fighting erupted, the machines were fixed and got running again, but fighting had already broken out. Many machines with terrible functions were invented, each more colossal and more destructive than the last. The city of Venefcus Urbs was able to fight back at first, but while the wizard army was being depleted, the mahines were fighting on behalf of the Apparatus Urbs, while more still were being created. The end was approaching for Veneficus Urbs.
Finally, all of the wizards were destroyed. There was no magic left in the land. Only a dead shell of a fantastic city. The war had gone on for generations, and now it had finally ended.
The people of Apparatus Urbs were not the same ones that had invented the machines of destruction, so nobody knew how to stop them. By the end of the war, thousands of machines were left over, many of which were colossi that had developed a mind of their own, and slaughtered indiscriminately. Such machines proceeded to attack their fellow machines and the people of Apparatus Urbs, and the city did not stand a chance. Within a year, both of the cities had been destroyed, and their people no more. None of the surrounding towns and villages knew how to survive without the two cites, so they, too, eventually failed.
Before the war, however, a man from Apparatus Urbs and a woman from Veneficus Urbs had fallen in love and eloped. At about the time the war started, they had a child, but were called to their respective cities to aid in the destruction. The child, named Vir, was given to a nearby village to be raised.
As he was growing up, Vir was truly a master at everything he did. He learned quickly to read and write, and then proceeded to learn other languages. He was a master hunter, easily bringing back twice the game as the others his age during competition. Good fortune seemed to follow him wherever he went, and he never got in trouble.
Vir quickly grew bored with regular education, and began to collect things from about the village and put them together to invent new things. He became so immersed in this that he stayed in his cottage for days on end to keep working on these innovations.
Once he was at the age of forty, yet still looking not a day older than twenty, some of the local villagers told him of his past, and what his parents were. They also told him that his parents had to leave him in that village because there was a terrible war raging in their home cities, across the mountains. He was deeply disturbed by this, and immediately set out to travel to the cities, and find his parents.
When he came to the summit of the mountain he was crossing, he saw one city completely destroved, and another seemingly under seige. Enormous noises came from the city below, and large explosions erupted every two or three hours. Vir decided to camp out in the mountains until the fighting had ended.
A week later, Vir peered over the summit to see two cities burned to a crisp and to all extremes, devastated. He descended the mountain.
He came first to the ruins of Veneficus Urbs. Odd glyphs and seemingly ancient symbls were carved into the sides of the toppled buildings. Architecture that looked as though it could not possibly work still remained in parts of the city. It was a very odd place indeed.
After exploring for a little while he came to a descending stairway, and followed it down. A large stone doorway stood in his path, and n the wall on his right were written words which he had never seen before, but seemed to make an impression on an undiscovered, dormant part of his mind. The words read:
"To read this is to be blessed with a mighty, ancient gift. Few can read the words etched upon this wall, and thus the secrets contained within these chambers. To open the door, one must connect his or her mind with the essence of magic, and pray for admission. Only then will the secrets of magic be revealed."
Vir figured that if he could read the words, then he could open the door. After all, his mother was magic. So he reached down into that same, dormant part of his mind to which had just been awoken, and searched. He could feel himself gravitating towards something beautiful...something whose powers were unimaginable...powers that could answer all of the mysteries of the universe...powers so pure....In his mind Vir felt as though he were walking through a maze, and at the center was the voice of a beautiful creature. It was only a matter of time until he came face to face with the greatest power known to all life....
And then, he felt as though his mind was being attacked by angels. He was being invaded, posessed. He knew he must stop it, but it felt so magnificent. All of a sudden, Vir felt himself drawing towards the line of life and death. He felt himself willingly move towards the end of the tunnel, and then, all of a sudden, he pushed it all away. Everything retreated from his body, and he could feel an unbelievable foce surging inside him. He stared at the door and willed it to open. It immidiately slid apart. He walked inside and what he saw puzzled him.
It was a room lit by golden light from an unidentifiable source. There were oddly shaped swords and staves on one of the walls, but the others were lined with shelves, arranged tidily with scrolls. He was confused: how could all this exist under a city as decrepit as this one?
He walked to a shelf and picked up a scroll.
Okay I know this wasn't short at all, but I have to go do other stuff. So shoot me. But basically what happens after all this is Vir learns all of the magic stuff and then goes into the machine city and creates two machines: one that destroys all of the life remaining on th planet (except him) and another that will keep him alive forever in an unconcious dream state. He dreams up a world, and a portal to transport people from the dream world to his world. He creates seven kings: five to rule the land, one to regulate the portal, and one to guide the people to the portal. So the gatekeeper (the portal king) goes on a power trip and takes complete control of the gate. Vir and the other 6 kings try to override him, but he's too powerful. So Vir dreams up a protagonist in his image to travel across the land and gain enough strength and power to defeat the gatekeeper and free the people from the dream world into Vir's world so he can start over new in the dead world. And that's where the story begins. So now you have the backstory, tell me what you think. In my head I have an idea about a mirror that splits the universe down the center and passes through the center of Vir's dream world and connects to other worlds, like the one that we live in, or something. It's obviously not very developed. But tell me what you think.
=====
And by the way, I'm putting copyright laws on this. This is the sole work of Sam Campbell, and if you wish to distribute this, I may grant you permission but you have to send me an email first, which is up there before the story starts. If you distribute this without permission of the owner, you are subject to federal penalties under the discretion of the United States Federal Government.