Spelldancer, new story coming soon

[SYED]

This is what fel posted about it.

[quote]This new story is tentatively named Spelldancer, and the summary is thus:
The world of Thress is a world of water, with only one continent divided into two landmasses called the Twin Lands and the rest of the world dominated by the Vast, a mighty ocean filled with archipelagos of small island chains. The Empire rules this continent and the Nine Races of Man that dwell upon it, dividing its citizens between the nobility and merchant clans and the peasants. The noble and the rich live in floating cities above what little land there is on Thress while the peons labor on the precious earth to produce for the Empire.
Thress is a world of magic as well as water. The magical sciences of Runimancy and Symbology powers the Empire, the art and science of creating runes or symbols that trigger magical effects when invoked. Any practiced hand who can inscribe the runes with calligraphic skill can invoke the power of Runimancy, any artistic hand can inscribe the designs of Symbology can draw upon their power, yet it is a crime punishable by death for any peasant to practice either. It is a crime just for a peasant to know how to read and write.
But there is more to the world than Runimancy and Symbology. Long ago, there were the Spelldancers, the first form of magic ever developed by man, a form of magic practiced by the extinct Tenth Race of Man. They were known as the Wavewalkers, who lived in the Vast and traveled from island to island by walking upon the water as if it were solid ground using their magical skills. The Empire thinks the Spelldancers long dead and the people who practiced the art lost to the mists of time, arts that the Empire itself destroyed because it felt the Spelldancers might be a threat.
But those arts live on.
Shen the Younger is one of the last of his people, one of the last of the Wavewalkers, living a simple life as a fisherman. He is one of the last few remaining Spelldancers, having been taught the traditions of his people in secret by his father, Shen the Elder, who hides himself and his son in plain sight on the fringes of the Empire, on one of the thousands of small islands surrounding the Twin Lands, a place where the two exotic fishermen don't stand out very much.
But Shen's simple life of the sea and secret study in the lost arts of his people is thrown into chaos when pirates from the Vast attack Warm Waters and take him captive. Shen the Younger is thrust into a much larger world, a world of lawless pirate strongholds out in the Vast, a world Shen never knew existed. He finds that the Vast isn't as empty as the Empire claims, filled with men who seek to rule themselves rather than be ruled by another, and that the Empire wages an endless secret war to take control of the only part of Thress outside of their dominion...the Vast. Shen is thrust into the middle of the struggle between the free men of the Vast and the Empire that seeks to control them.
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That's what I have so far, and I have to admit, I kinda like it. I'll admit now, the Spelldancers will be something of my homage to Avatar in that they enact their magic through movement, akin to "bending," and spelldancing is also used as a martial art, a means of self defense. And the story world and main plot combines several setting and world ideas I've been kicking around for a long time. Thress is a world within a world, with floating sky cities and flying ships soaring over the mundane world below, a world divided between the rich and the poor in stark ways, a world where the civilization of land contends with the wild frontier of the oceanic Vast.[/quote]

It seems like a very cool story to come along.
If magic, reading and writing are all illegal for peasants, wan to bet the pirates break those laws all the time. They might even assist or run an underground black market for both magic and books. Seeing as he might get killed for who he is, he might as well learn other forbiden things. Imagine integrating the two arts into one. I am wondering if this waterdancing is limited to just the tenth race, or say any that carry their blood. There are always survivors of some sort and they will have children, even with those that may be hunting them.
If this is truly a water world, i wonder if there are any under water cities hidden away.