Preview of Future Story--Part 1 (Patreon)

It was just over four-hundred years ago that the Arcane Council met at Rynchus and conjured the first Wardshell. In a matter of months, they had replicated the feat at most other population centers. While the magical auras couldn’t prevent violence from breaking out, no violent act performed within had been fatal. No blade, club, or even magic had been the cause of death or serious injury. While the victims felt pain to be sure, the damage was restricted to bruises, welts, and light burns. It was still possible to be knocked unconscious by the right blow. But the Wardshell prevented the sort of serious trauma, broken bones, and deep wounds that result in casualty or death. Poison worked, in a much reduced fashion. In effect, no one ever managed to be given a high enough dose before realizing they were being poisoned and remedying it. The leading cause of death was natural causes in the Council Realms, in contrast to neighboring states, where war and violence were common sources of morbidity.

There were, of course, places in the Realms that weren’t covered by the magic—mostly wildernesses between settlements. Few people ventured there and very few, if any, made homes there. It was rumored that outlaws set up camps in the Perilous Wilds, as they were collectively called, but no one had officially mapped them since the Wardshells went up, and travel in the Wilds was so rare, that few ever encountered someone who had left the protection of the shells.

If the goal had been peace, well, the Council had achieved it, in a way. War and Murder had been eradicated in Council lands. But there were unexpected side effects. The cities of the Realms were blighted with overflowing gaols, for example. Criminal gangs that might have suffered from attrition in skirmishes over territory instead thrived. The Council Justicars managed to take some of them off of the streets, but, with the risk of injury or death out of the equation, crime had become a more appealing draw than before.

Jockeying for position among nobles was still common, but instead of honor duels to finish a matter decisively, feuds grew up, pitting aristocratic families and their retainers in haughty displays and humiliating mockeries through the machinations of their rivals. These nobles still practiced the warlike arts; but techniques had changed. Where emphasis had once been on disabling or killing opponents, the techniques had evolved to favor the most mortifying outcome.

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(This is a work in progress, so in future editions I reserve the right to change names and or even do a bit of "retcon."  This story will appear on my Deviantart (and possibly CHYOA) at some point, down the line, but it's one of the things that pulled me out of the pit my health has been in recently.  I offer you a taste of it long before anyone else will see it.  Further text and images will show up here from time to time.  I'm still working on finishing the prequel, and will start the uploads as the new month begins.  I have had the ending to it "written" in my head for months, but I am having problems parting with the story, and at the same time, feel like I've done most of what I could do with it.  I needed some different venture get get me back into working on this kind of thing, so that's what these previews will tell you about.)