Sunday, June 3, 2012
Realms of Ellithica Series Cover Designs and Descriptions...
This is the new fantasy fairy tale series that I am planning. Here are rough mark ups of the covers and descriptions of what each book is about :) More details to come... (Yes, I write to myself.)
Seventeen years ago, the queen of Unnamed Country gave birth to twins. Not wanting their children to fight, the king and queen decided one would be raised as a princess and one would be raised as a knight. Now, the time has finally come for both of them to know the truth...
Princess is unhappy because her parents are determined to have her get married. She does not like all the suitors who are storming the palace, each thinking they will win her hand -- and "more importantly" the crown.
The Knight tells Princess a story about a mysterious Prince who is trapped inside an enchanted tower in the middle of the Great Desert. Princess thinks someone like him might be just the solution she needs. After all, if he's silly enough to be locked in a tower, he won't be trying to tell her how to run her kingdom. She and Knight decide to switch places.
There are only two "little" problems: (1) Princess has never been outside the palace on her own and knows nothing about surviving in the outside world, let alone surviving a journey across the desert. (2) The Prince in question turns out to be a Naga -- a being who can shift between being a man and a snake. Princess is terrified of anything that goes "hiss".
Will Princess survive her journey, even want to win the Prince and make it back to the palace in one piece? And with Knight pretending to be Princess, and having to deal with pushy obnoxious suitors who won't take "no" for an answer, will Princess still BE a princess when she gets there?
Knight is glad to be done pretending to be a princess. She is happy her sister has made it back to the palace safely and even likes her new fiance, Prince Naga. But meeting her sister and experiencing the luxuries of palace life as a princess, rather then a protector, has made Knight wonder: why did her parents choose Princess and send her away to be trained? What's wrong with her?
Her time to question such things is short. Princess goes missing and a secret message is sent to Knight by the leader of the Naga Undercity, telling her that he is willing to exchange Princess if she (Knight) will take her place. Princess's Fiance warns that doing this would be dangerous, but Knight decides it is the right thing to do since (1) she is a knight and protecting the royal family is her duty, and (2) Princess has people who care about her and it won't matter if Knight disappears anyway.
What Knight doesn't know is that Naga Leader thought he was taking her when he kidnapped Princess, and that he is the handsome suitor Knight wished she could have for herself when she was taking Princess's place during her journey. Now Knight must work within the Naga Undercity to help bring about peace between the Naga and her kingdom and thwart a plot that would see Princess and Naga Prince assassinated. She just needs to figure out whether Naga Leader will help her, or whether he's the one pulling all the strings.
Goodie, Princess of the Evil Shadow Kingdom, has been rescuing and freeing slaves with the Secret Organization for two years now. Finally old enough to get married and take her rightful place as queen, she meets the man her father intends to marry her to -- and promptly decides to run away. But though Goodie is smart, escaping the Shadow Kingdom and seeking protection from the Elves of Wizard City will be a long and dangerous journey. So Goodie decides she needs a bodyguard.
Unfortunately, anyone who hears what the job will entail, from her loyalist Knights right down to the most brutal of cut throats, makes as hasty a getaway as they can. No one wants to mess with the Shadow King. Deciding to do one last rescue sweep of the Auction District ("I'm no coward...") Goodie stops a merchant from beating a new slave the only way she can -- by buying him.
When they leave town and have put a few miles between them and it, Goodie takes off the slave's collar and tells him she will make him a deal. If he will escort her to Wizard City, she will see that he is returned to his home and he will be free to go. But the Slave has plans of his own. He decides to put the collar on Goodie and have her serve him for a while. Unfortunately, the magic of the collar is much to potent for Goodie's much smaller body and it chokes and brands her, leaving a violent scar.
The Slave, who is actually son to the chief of the Salari tribe, out in the Great Desert, is horrified at what has happened. He knows he has to see Goodie safely to Wizard City now, as the Elven Wizards are the only ones who might know how to heal the injury the collar has left. But with her weakened and branded, assassins from the Shadow Kingdom on their trail, and him feeling more and more like he'd like to keep Goodie permanently, getting to Wizard City is looking more complicated by the minute.
Bookie is a half elf who, because of her heritage, has never been able to receive proper training to hone her magic. She lives in Little Village by the Mountain, where the people have come to see the two mages who live above them as their masters. Elves who live outside Wizard City tend to do so in small groups, and generally don't like other Elves near their homes, but Little Village has many poor children, and Bookie uses the skills she does have to provide for them.
Once a year, the people of Little Village send a child to the top of the mountain to serve the mages. Generally, these children never return. This year the Mayor's daughter is selected and the wealthy citizens of Little Village are outraged. They decide that they will banish one of the poor children instead. Bookie disagrees with this and offers to take her place, but the villagers claim the girl is an outcast that they will no longer shelter.
Knowing the girl might die if she travels up the mountain alone, Bookie leaves another of the children in charge and gives them all of her things, figuring she is not going to make it back down. (If there's anything Elves hate less then unwanted Elven guests, it's half-elves near their homes.0 When Bookie and her friend get to the mages' home they find a brother and sister living there who are about Bookie's age. They decide they will take in Bookie and the girl as servants.
When Bookie discovers the mages' library and is assigned to clean and re-organize it she begins to practice spells in the books when the mages are not looking. When she is eventually caught and gets into trouble, the little girl overhears her and one of the mages arguing and runs away. Bookie goes after her and they both end up getting lost and needing to be rescued. Bookie's bravery may have been a mistake, though, when creatures from the Gloom Swamp, near Shadow Kingdom, have sensed her power and want to bring her to the Shadow King.
Will Bookie stay where she is and learn magic properly from the slightly arrogant but not-as-evil-as-they-seem mage twins? Or will the lure of fame and power tempt her to lend her services to the Shadow Kingdom? The choice she makes will determine the nature of her magic, so she must choose wisely...
Megan has spent her life living in Village by the Sea. She has known and been friends with merfolk all her life. This changes when her mother gets sick and her father decides to listen to someone who tells him that consuming a merman's tail will make her well. Instead, Megan's parents die and their curse passes to her, since humans live such short lives in comparison to the Mer.
For four years Megan has been plagued by vicious nightmares and haunted by the ghost of a merman who once thought he loved her. She traveled to The Great Kingdom to live with her aunt, fearing the Mer might get tired of waiting for her to die and come to collect their revenge personally. But when her best friend asks her to return to the village to be with her the night she makes her change, gaining her tail for the first time, Megan cannot refuse.
Vincent has been lost ever since is twin brother died, and Megan, the one being punished for his death, is the last person Vincent expects to meet when he journeys from the Underwater Kingdom to Village by the Sea. Vincent has come to the surface for two reasons: (1) To help his cousin with her first change. and (2) to find the girl he wants for his new queen. As he gets to know Megan, though, he will have to decide whether he will toss aside tradition to be with her -- thereby freeing her from the madness of her parents' curse -- or whether he will continue to hold onto the pain and guilt he feels over his brother's death.
When her father suddenly dies, he never has the chance to tell his daughter, Holly, that he arranged for her to marry the younger prince of the Great Kingdom when she was still a little girl. So when Holly receives a letter just weeks after his death announcing her husband will be coming to lay claim to his kingdom, she is outraged. She sends word she has no intent to marry anyone and that he can stay right where he is.
The Great Kingdom is outraged by Holly's refusal to honor her father's agreement and decide they will take Wizard City and its so-called fountain of youth for themselves. At the orders of the Prince, he and a few men ride ahead to meet Holly and make sure this can be avoided, but she mocks him and his brother, the High King of The Great Kingdom will suffer no further insult.
As things heat up, a mysterious Knight fights for the people of Wizard City and its surrounding farmlands, protecting innocent villages, running off scavengers and opposing the Knights of The Great Kingdom when they try to do anything cruel. This Knight quickly gains note on the hate list of The Great Kingdom's champion, the Black Knight, and a heavy rivalry ensues. But when these two warriors find out who lies beneath the armor, neither one will be prepared to face the truth.
Can Holly, disguised as a Knight, find a way to save her people? Will The Great Kingdom take over Wizard City, burning its libraries and enslaving the mages? Or will two very stubborn people be able to look past their pride and save everyone?
The High King, ruler of The Great Kingdom, has known for a long time that a day would come when he would have to face his kingdom's greatest enemy -- the Shadow Kingdom. With Wizard City still recovering from the battle waged against them, the Shadow King has chosen now to launch his strike.
A prophecy from the Naga Undercity tells the King that the key to winning against the Shadow King is Erika, one of the mages who lives on top of the Great Mountain. Since the Great Mountain is part of his domain, the King demands that Erika must do everything in her power to ensure their victory.
Erika, who has faced the Gloom creatures of the Shadow Kingdom, knows better then pretty much anyone how terrible and dangerous this war will be. At her advice, she and the King set off on a journey to bring humans, elves, naga and mer together to defend their land.
Yet as the battle rages and victory hangs by a thread, Erika must fight a battle of a far more personal kind... Is she willing to let go of her pride and allow herself to love the stubborn human King who stands at her side, becoming more appealing with each passing day? Or will she let the fear that her Elven kin would see this as a betrayal after the attack on Wizard City hold her back?
***
Anyway, there they are. There may be more and they may not happen in that exact order. What do you think? Do I have something interesting here?
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