Stories
There are a number of stories that I've written over years – and there are more to come, of course.
Tales of thieves
Anchorfall, ca. 624—627 AR. These stories will chart the deeds of the Shadowhawks, a group of honourable thieves in the great city of Anchorfall. Most often, they focus on two of them: Faira Ativel, a former Privateer, and Lex Egrain, a... well, a thief, for the lack of better descriptor.
2006-07-30 —
Two thieves accidentally acquire a curious painting by painfully legitimate means. Discovering its origins is twice as painful. Or is it "paintful?"
There's hardly anything interesting to say about this story... no wait, there's plenty of that stuff to say! This is the first Avarthrel story that I published that deals with events before the Varmhjelm's Great Revolution and the War against Apathy. So, this is a bit different from the other stories: The protagonists are Faira and Lex, still in employment of the Shadowhawks, and the street life is a bit different. Not much...
The Worrying Exploits of the Company
Anchorfall, ca. 630 AR. After the Great Revolution of Varmhjelm and the successive massive war against the invaders, three of the heroes – Faira Ativel, Facyr Tann and Gnedrnygr Adithebadoggr, a Rogue, Mercenary and Mage respectively – had absolutely nothing better to do, so they started adventuring. And, of course, they also enjoyed occasional breaks from the monotony of thrilling adventures and met interesting new people...
2005-07-29 —
The very first Avarthrel text that got actually published. More of a stylistic exercise, and not really anything very serious; this isn't really a short story as such, just a short peek at one of the major characters.
This was the very first completed Avarthrel "story", written around July 29, 2005. I'm a bit confused about the date; I'm very certain I wrote the story in one sitting, and perhaps posted it in deviantART the same day.
The only story that pre-dates this thing was my first attempt at starting a novel, and that story just never got anywhere.
2005-08-07 —
Three adventures enter a long-abandoned fortress and make some curious discoveries.
This work has the dubious honour of being the first full-blown Avarthrel story. Dubious, because in retrospect, it might not have been such a great idea to go crazy with stylistic experiments, and, more importantly, publish the results. But I certainly had a lot of fun writing it.
2005-09-20 —
Pirates come! Something completely not what anyone had in mind happens! I can't remember how this story went! Please don't remind me!
*facepalm*
If Hidden Horrors of Megyntia turned out a little bit weird, the second story went horribly awful.
I basically have the story on this web page because I made the mistake of actually putting the story out there.
So why is this story awful? I kind of started a journey and... well, I didn't quite have any idea where I'd end up to.
2006-05-31 —
The three adventures head to the harsh far northern reaches of the elven country, and single-handedly annihilate some bad nasties. And do they ever talk a lot, or what.
A rather archetypical fantasy story about a journey and some mad mages and lots of orcs to kill. It's rather long.
2007-08-08 —
Two separated warriors meet, and end up pondering the nature of love.
This is yet another giant story where I poured a lot of emotions and feelings and scenes and sights and, well, Stuff from the preceding summer. The story itself is more of a technical exercise than anything serious; I learned a lot while writing this story, and it is probably the most revised story I've worked on (Five printout revisions and two text-to-speech revisions). I uncovered many clumsy bits, and while I probably didn't fix all of them, I think it's a lot less flawed than it started out as.
2008-09-07 —
Faira writes to her sister: The life is good, she has been incredibly lucky lately... and, oh, she unleashed a rather nasty goddess upon the world.
This is the story that introduced us to the Order of Dried Petals, who will play a large role in Kara the Assassin comic and other stories that are cooking.
2009-11-08 —
The City Guard does its best to make sure that people know about a dangerous criminal, but it seems that the operation is going out of hand in an unexpected manner...
This story was originally going to be part of Flash-Fiction-A-Day 2. The problem with Flash-Fiction-A-Day 2, and why I somehow haven't been able to do that yet, is that it had a couple of stories that just took off on their own. This is one of those tales. Another is a gigantic tale involving a treasure hunt in the high seas, that may turn into another huge novella.
The Heroic Deeds of the Battlemages
The Battlemages of Varmhjelm are a surprisingly hardy bunch, leading valiant soldiers into stirring battle with otherworldly beasts, gargantuan monsters, mad mages and the restless dead. These are their tales.
2008-07-17 —
One wizard's fight ends when she suddenly pauses to consider the situation.
This is the story that introduces us to Quirierle Foggymorn. Unfortunately, due to all sorts of stuff, this is still the only published story that has Quir in it in any capacity; she has appeared in some of my drawings, and as-of-yet unfinished stories. And, of course, my NaNoWriMo 2011 novel.
Explorations in the elven lands
What lies in the far-away forestlands? Even the elven explorers, who have studied these vast ranges for millennia, don't always know what they will find here...
2007-02-14 —
Far in the north, two elves wander into a valley where they make a truly wondrous discovery.
They say that James Cameron came up with The Terminator when he was in high fever. I, on the other hand, came up with this stuff while actually feeling pretty normal. In short, I was compelled to record some Weirdness here.
Flash Fiction Weeks
Sometimes, I just write. Sometimes I write rather short things. Sometimes I even finish writing those short things while they are short.
2007-06-18 —
Weird ideas! Wolfiloid hijinks! Scraps that turned out to be interesting later on!
What, indeed, do we have here? One day in early 2007, I just... somehow... got this bright idea to write some Random Stuff about Random Things. I figured out that reading longer stories off the screen was tough for people, so I decided to write some exceedingly short stories – specifically, I limited myself to one page (on 12pt monospaced font), or about 400-500 words. And, to improve my skills (not sure if this worked), I decided to write one story every day for a week. It turned out to be quite fun!
Assassinations by the Order of Dried Petals
The Order of Dried Petals is a group of assassins dedicated to making life more interesting - primarily for the survivors, that is, and if it depended on some of the assassins, sometimes even the corpses.
2012-05-30 —
A witch decides to do some rather dramatic actions to ensure peace in her hometown.
[In progress] A huge novella that has so far been a real pain and horror and interesting thing to write. Featuring a new heroine, Auria Gustawynde, who goes out and gets some inconvenient details sorted out.
2012-10-06 —
The Order of Dried Petals face their deadliest mystery yet: a man who tries to get away with a murder.
[NaNoWriMo draft available] My NaNoWriMo 2012 novel, in which some of the characters whom we've not yet properly met fight some unconvincing and boring villains. I've published the NaNoWriMo draft now, but I think this novel will need tons of work before it's in any way presentable...
About Avarthrel
Avarthrel is a fantasy world project, originated by Urpo Lankinen.
Powered by Drupal