Content Warning: Violence
What is Aeteru?
Aeteru is what I like to call a "space fantasy." It's not a science fiction, but an epic three-part fantasy tale that has elements of space in the worldbuilding.
It is by far my oldest story. It was the first major story I came up with when I was teenager, and has gone through dozens of iterations over the years.
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In a world where magic has been banished, Faracy has been on the run her entire life for the crime of merely existing. Unbeknownst to even her, she carries something with her that a mysterious figure has been searching for long before she was born.
As she finds herself on the run from entirely new enemies, she is forced to finally ally herself with others, as they uncover the truth of what she carries and what it could mean for the Realms of Aeteru.
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For what she carries is the key to an ancient and powerful weapon that if found could change the very fabric of magic and threaten the lives of all.
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The World
This is where the "space" part of space fantasy comes into play. Aeteru is a ringed gas planet with a crystal core. This core "sheds" magical dust, also called Aeteru, which rains down onto the 13 moons that orbit it. This dust often crystalizes into a solid form, which can be used to power certain devices invented by the inhabitants of the moons.
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The moons, known as the Realms, are all inhabited, save for one, which was lost long ago. Travel to each of these Realms is possible through a system of portals, called Conduits, which utilize a refined form of solid Aeteru known as transport crystals.
The twelve Realms are ruled by a governing body known as the Conclave of Light. 12 regents, each representing a Realm, make up the Conclave. The Conclave of Light rules from the Crystal Keep on the largest Realm, called Antiera.
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Several centuries ago, magic was horribly abused by several Feya (elves), the most prominent and powerful magic users. In reaction to the abuses and the deaths they caused, a sect of radical Feya known as the Astral Flame enacted a severe punishment upon their people: the Purification. A spell was cast that blocked the Feya's ability to perform magic of any kind. Halfbreeds, known as Zana, were forbidden, as their mixed blood would be immune to the Purification, and Zana Hunters were created to expunge all Zana from the Realms.
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The Realms have managed to adapt, for the most part, to the absence of magic. But because Aeteru energy is not being used and returned to the core of the planet, the energy is building up with no where to go.
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The build-up could lead to unimaginable disasters the likes of which the Realms have never experienced, save once.
The Characters
FARACY
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Faracy is a Zana. Hidden by her human father as a child, Faracy has been on the run from Zana Hunters for most of her life. As a child, she stayed in the apartment above her father's bookstore, reading all of the books and dreaming of life outside. Eventually, she was discovered and her father helped her escape. She hasn't seen or heard from him since.
Because of her secret, she is extremely closed off, only interacting with people when she has to. She often steals to survive, but prefers to keep to the wilderness where there are less people.
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Her true nature has been discovered several times, but she has always managed to escape thanks to transport crystals her father had collected for her when she was younger. As a Zana, she can use magic to active a transport crystal and teleport away before she is apprehended. However, he stash is running low, and she doesn't know where to find more.
DARRON
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Darron is the son of the Captain of the Guard in Flarin, a floating city on the Realm of Spellwater. He was in fact on the Guard for several years. But the Guard was becoming more and more hostile towards the citizens of the city, and though Darron tried to intervene on several occasions, he was the one who kept getting in trouble.
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Eventually he had enough, and left the Guard. He made it his own private mission to meddle with Guard business every opportunity he can, and has been arrested several times, always released by his father. But his father warns him that he won't put up with his son's behavior for much longer.
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This habit of interfering with Guard business is in fact how he meets Faracy, who gets caught stealing fruit and panics when the Guard tries to identify her.
TANWIL
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Tanwil is what is known as a Scaed, one of the main villain's elite warriors and hunters. He is cunning, ruthless, with an extremely keen pair of eyes. He is part of a team sent to find Faracy and what she carries.
What he doesn't know is he has a connection to Faracy that he doesn't seem to remember. But as he continues to hunt her, that lost connection keeps breaking through. I won't say anymore to avoid spoiling, but his story is actually rather tragic.
The Story Behind Aeteru
Originally named Legend of the Orbs, Aeteru was inspired by the Lord of the Rings movies when they first came out (I know, shocker), but has since evolved into a very different story. Certain aspects of it have managed to survive to the current version, but it is a very different from what it was when I first created it...when I was 15.
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There honestly isn't a whole lot to say about it as far as where all the inspiration came from. I wanted to create a story as epic as Lord of the Rings, but I wanted it to be a bit more colorful and magical.
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I've been working on this story for so long now that I don't actually remember what all the changes and evolutions were. One thing I do remember from the very first version, when I had no idea what I was doing and fell into a lot of cliches, was Faracy, who was originally named Sylanya, was not a person who's existence was forbidden. She had grown up knowing Darron and was best friends with Darron's sister, who was long ago cut from the story.
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It was a few years ago when I finally did the Great Revamp, when I renamed the title, gave Faracy a new knew, and overhauled a huge chunk of the story and world it existed in. I did so because I was just bored with it. I still loved it, but I wasn't really interested in working on it anymore because it was full of so many cliches. The quest used to be looking for a bunch of elemental Orbs that the main villain wanted to collect (huh, I guess I moved that over to Rift Raiders lol) to use as weapons, and now it's just one object that Faracy already has that she has to keep away from the villain at all costs. The world used to just be one continent, now it's an entire planetary system.
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I'm not going to go into what all the changes over the different iterations of the story are because I could honestly fill a whole book with that, but needless to say, this is a story I keep coming back to, and it's not even because of the plot or the world, because those have changed a lot.
It's because of the characters. I love them dearly and I want their story to be told.
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And in case you are wondering, yes I have done a lot of art over the years of this story. But most of it is pretty old (from before the Great Revamp), so it isn't really relevant to the current iteration, and I don't like most of it anyway.
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I will show you one old piece of Darron, to show that he has ALWAYS had a red scarf (long before Callum from Dragon Prince, whom he often gets compared to). This isn't even my oldest art of Darron.
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From 2013. So embarrassing
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