Notes on a Fantasy Novel

The Orcish Invasion

… and King Altair sent his armies East to guard the mountain passes. Many months went by and no sign on the Orcs came, save for a few meager raiding parties that were quickly forced back. Then from the Northwest came word that the great city of Ordra was besieged. Only a few within the court believed this. For how could Orcs have reached so far? Only by crossing the great Northern desert, and this was believed to be too difficult. Then too, the King of Ordra, Lucexar was a great warrior and would never have allowed his city to be attacked by mere Orcs.

It was judged impossible.

More months went by, and no attack came, but also no word came from the city of Ordra. Still the king’s advisors said that Ordra was impregnable: its walls were taller than the walls of the king’s own city and Lucexar was a proud, great king. Perhaps this was the truth: that Lucexar was too proud and had ambitions of his own, and had betrayed King Altair.

Altair sent an envoy to the Ordra: it did not return. He sent another and it too vanished. Finally from across the plains a beggar arrived: a blind beggar, whose face was horribly scared and who was dressed in rags and who smiled without lips. It was clear that great atrocities had been committed against this man. He said that he was from Ordra and that he knew its fate.

And so the beggar was brought before the king.

King Altar stared at the blind man in the uncomfortable way all sighted men behold the blind.

“You hail from Ordra?” the king asked.

“I did,” the beggar replied. His speech was slurred – for without lips he could not speak well.

“How fares that noble city?”

“It does not fare. It is dead.”

“What do you mean? How can a city be dead?”

“The city has been killed, as surely as if it was a beast of the earth or a bird of the sky. It is dead. Its walls are destroyed, its buildings burned. It’s people, all of its people, are dead. Ordra is no more.”

“You lie!” The king shouted. “Its walls were as tall as mountains.”

“Then those mountains are fallen, my lord, fallen into a sea of Orcs.”

“And my cousin, the king? Did he not fight? How could he be overcome by mere Orcs?”

The beggar laughed, and as he laughed he reached into his shirt and pulled out a crown of gold and held it up for the king to see.

“How did you get that?” the king asked. “What has become of the king of Ordra?”

“I AM THE KING OF ORDRA!” the beggar screamed. “I am Lucexar! Of all that was Ordra, only I remain.” And then Lucexar screamed.

These were the last words of Lucexar, king of the once-great Ordra. 

 None would yet dare admit it, but the downfall of the Empire of Man had begun. The Orcs had conquered the entire Northwest and held the empire in a pincher grip from which it could not escape.


The Fate of the Orcish Empire

And after a thousand years (really a hundred, but the Orcish historians loved hyperbole), the golden age of the orcs ended. The elves with the aid of men and dwarves overran the Orcs. The empire fell. No more were the great festivals, the giant drums of the North fell silent, the war poems of Grag the One-Eyed were lost. A great age of darkness descended upon the land.

The scheming Fey Elves wormed their way to the top. Men and dwarves manipulated by the elves helped to destroy the great tent cities of the plains, never realizing their folly. Orc children cried out in the night, but their mothers' were dead.

The Legends of Creation
What is evil? Is it to go against the creator’s will? If the creator were to will that the eating of leeks was evil, would that make the act of eating leeks evil? Is evil merely rebellion against God? Or must even God bow to reason?

God cannot make a square circle and he cannot make a moral action immoral or an immoral action moral.

Why would Thexor (the high angel) rebel against the creator?
Was it from pride or perhaps from awe? For when the creator made the earth, Thexor was dumbstruck, it was an act that he could not even conceive of and the shock of it was too great for him. How can it be that I (who was most like the Creator) could not see this? 

Thexor supposed himself nearly like God, and then his world was upended. He rebelled against the act of material creation.

Others say that Thexor was fated to be evil, that even this was part of the Creator’s plan for how else could it happen? The Creator knew Thexor, knew his essence, created him and must have known that he would become evil – even if it was of his own volition.

Still others claim that Thexor saw his own act of rebellion as proof that the creator was flawed.

The esoteric philosophers claim that free will negates omniscience, and that God created free will in order to feel delight: only ignorance can lead to surprise and only surprise can lead to delight.

It is said that the supposition of a supreme creator leads to paradoxes which implies that either God exists or Reason exists, but not both. But this argument is based on logic...

Otal the supreme philosopher said that he finally understood the truth, but he went mad. His book was lost. The last copy burned by its author who said he wanted more light.

All these philosophies (even Otal’s) were scattered and hidden. Only the secret brotherhood seeks them out now...


The Wizards

A wizard without his staff is like a bird without its wings.
The staffs come from the Ur-Tree. Wizards must hang from the tree in order to gain a staff. The staffs are alive.

Toxis: a Wizard with a forked staff – in the fork is a spider and its web. He is adept at poisons. He admits that he is not good, but insists that he is not evil either.

What wizards say of priests: they believe in dead wood.