Rereading my current novel has been both fun and informative. I feel as though I am looking upon it with a new set of eyes, and am able to ask questions and create a deeper world as I go. Currently I am reading of how the protagonist has been kidnapped by a group of fighters and magicians called the Wingless. As I read the brief description I wrote about them, I began to realise that their fate is tied to the fate of the Leapers from the past two posts. So here we are, and you get more insight into the world I am creating!
The concept of the Wingless isn’t something unheard of. Many religions and stories have used Earth-bound angelic beings in some form or another. In fact, some of the names I use for characters are also deeply rooted in mythology and religion. For the purpose of my story, the Wingless are beings hidden among the world in secret orders with abilities similar to the Watchers. Their power is mostly holy in nature, keeping them from actually being able to access the demon realm like the Leapers but also being yet another line of defence against a demon approach on the heavens.
As I mentioned in previous posts, the demon realm and the human realm coexist. Only at certain points can the demons actually enter the human world or through the rifts created by Leapers. Before the Wingless were many and organised, the Leapers themselves were the second line of defence against the demons. After all, their ability to see into the demon realm gave them foresight and their ability to leap allowed them to create ambushes, thus keeping the demons in relative order.
As the Leapers grew few and far between and the threat of demons became a faint memory, eventually the demons began mounting an offensive. They captured some leapers, mostly thieves or young ones unsure of their abilities, and used them to open quick gates into the world of men. The Watchers at that point activated the ‘sleeping’ warriors among the humans, and together with their combined might, they overcame the demon assault. As a gift to those warriors who survived, they retained their memory of the event and of their powers. These people began orders (Paladins, Clerics and Bards) and secret societies mostly devoted to understanding their power and using its power for good.
The Wingless since then has operated as a secret society and has watched out for others with their latent abilities. Those who refer to themselves as Wingless consider themselves to be equal to the Watchers and no longer consider their power a gift, but a birthright as the ability can be passed on from generation to generation. Those who became clerics and paladins, pass their power on just the same, however have also developed ways to tap into the magical energy of the divine. They are considered by most pure born Wingless to have ‘forgotten the ways’ and ‘abandoned their heritage’.
As you can see even from this small snippet, there is a lot going on in this world. Many rivalries and prejudices are alive and well, even if two groups are doing the right thing and helping people. This drives certain characters in ways that they may not have acted against otherwise. For a Wingless to strike out at a Watcher is a tragedy but if they were to kill a paladin, they would see it as no loss. Well, thanks for swinging by and if you know of someone who might enjoy these ideas or snippets of my world, please feel free to pass it onto them! The more people who read this, the more questions I may get and the better my world will be for it!