Last Updated: 12-02-03

Rashan

This is the sneak preview only and has been cut.

This is one story that will probably not be anywhere near finished anytime soon. But I love it. :)

Rashan's story isn't one story, but a series. It started with one story that had a woman named Rashan in it, but her background was so complex that I ended up outlining her entire life. And in the process, I started to create a world and culture that I'd like very much to write a story about.

My favorite part of this world, I think, are the people I've named the Noe'tra, which means "traveling people-spirits" in their tongue. I've actually worked on making their own language, their own traditions, and their own history and faith. They are similar to gypsies, but aren't. They consists mainly of traveling merchants, musicians, and free-spirits organized into clans, but also have their own country and city with a land-based population. I'm very proud of them.

I also like the Desoi, which is my second-most detailed culture. They are very distantly related to the Noe'tra; they share the same base language, much in the way the Romance languages are related. They also share a similar spiritual belief. While the Noe'tra are outgoing explorers, the Desoi are a reclusive people.

Below is not an excerpt from anything, but just a quite synopsis of the main story line.

Cara Maveras is an orphan who was found by after her village burned down, leaving only her alive. She was rescued by the Meru'a (may-RUH-ah) clan of a traveling society called the Noe'tra (no-AY-trah). After a few years of living with them, her Uncle Beson learns she is alive and they have no choice but to turn custody of Cara over to him.

In this world, there are few who can do "real" magic, which is the manipulation of life energy forces around them, but there are many "Gifted" and "Sensitive" people who can do minor magic using their own life force, or can sense the presence of life energy around them, respectively.

Cara posses a strange "gift". She has a sensitivity to magic and some empathy, but all her powers were "locked" inside her. Also unusual, Cara is a "touch" Sensitive. She senses life energy as a physical sensation, usually fire. She has a great fear of fires as a child, and when she pushed too far emotionally, her locked powers erupt, resulting in a fireball. Cara is not an emotionally stable child, either. Because of this, it's likely that someone locked her powers away on purpose when she was a child; on her palm is brand which reads "razhana", which means "fire spirit" or "fire demon."

Beson dislikes her powers and discourages her from using or admitting she even has them. However, when Cara is 16, strange men come to speak to Beson about taking her away to be trained by the "Alliance." It's not a choice. Help arrives on horseback; Cara's old friends from the Meru'a, Leta and Garen come to invite her to join them on their travels and help her run away.

Cara, Leta, and Garen go on to have several adventures and run-ins with the Alliance, which seems to think it has a claim on Cara's life. They form their own mini-clan when they meet new friends who join them. After meeting a mage named Cirelian, they travel far north and meet the Desoi, a reclusive mountain people who help Cara control her powers. Unfortunately, the Desoi are unable to completely free her powers and put them under her conscious control. Whoever "locked" it was very skilled and set it to a specific "key" which they don't have.

Cara studies with the Desoi for several years and become close friends with Vhiami, daughter of the Keeper Varetta, which makes her the Desoi "princess." However, a run-in with the Alliance pushes Cara too far one day and her powers are released explosively. Among the casualties are several of Cara's mini-clan mates, and Vhiami's son, Adron. Vhiami banishes Cara from Desoi. Cara leaves Noe'tran friends on a quest to seek out the Alliance and avenge her friends' deaths.

After this, Cara's life becomes much darker. Cara changes her name to Rashan and changes her appearance. She meets a man named Kaishen, a captain of the Cadan Militia and also on a quest to find the Alliance. They decide to work together.

There's more to Rashan's story, but you'll just have to wait until I actually write it.