(This is long...it's an outline and summary of a book that Shannon and I were thinking of writing. We never got too far.)

My notes and comments:

Boy and War

Boy is introduced at age 5 as living in a small village. He is mischievous, has problems with authority. His parents are independent farmers (innkeepers?) in a small township. He is the youngest of four siblings, with two brothers and a sister. His older (?) brother was killed a year ago while serving in the army (his Sergeant—the one that eventually trains Boy—accidentally killed him during training). His father now does not want Boy to join the military. Boy is bored with living on the farm/inn, and wants to get out and see the world, join the army, and become a hero.

One day, while wandering in the woods and avoiding his chores, Boy comes across the fairy dragon (giver of the ring can be the dragon, a wizard, old man, or old woman—be wary of a Fizban-type character). The fairy dragon offers Boy the chance of an adventure of a lifetime. The only stipulation is that Boy cannot balk when the fair dragon calls on him. His acceptance of the ring magically binds him. (The words that the fairy dragon uses are important here—should be written like a “prophecy” with multiple possible readings, but one obvious reading, which, although easy to understand, is wrong.) Boy readily accepts and the fairy dragon places a ring on Boy’s finger (the ring cannot be removed—not sure when we want to make this point, though. We can have Boy try to remove the ring when he no longer wants to be a hero—when he sees the realities of war (after he hides under the dead soldier, perhaps?). Or we can have him not try to remove the ring until after the fairy dragon returns after the war to prepare him for his real adventure). Thinking that the ring is magical, Boy tries to make the ring work, but he is unable to figure out the secret of the ring. (This might be the time that he tries to remove the ring—not sure why we would keep this secret.) It turns out there is no secret of the ring (and there better not be a “placebo” effect secret!!!).

At age 12, Boy runs off with the army passing by his town going to battle with one of the warring nations (against whom or what this war is undecided—but it’s the war that Boy participates in and, after moving up the ranks, eventually kills the “Manipulator” who is improperly using magic). He has gotten tired of his father being so overbearing, keeping him busy on the farm all the time (similar to Luke in Star Wars). His father is worried about losing another son in the army. Going against his father’s wishes, Boy joins the army. He believes this is what the fairy dragon was talking about when he mentioned the great adventure.

He’s young to be in the army, but the army, desperate for bodies, allows Boy to join and puts him to work as a scullion or errand-boy. The army is made up of professional soldiers and commoners. The commoners are ill-trained and given a leather jerkin and a sword (or pike? Not sure if they would be giving swords out to every Tom, Dick, and Jane) and shown how to use it.

After an exceptionally bloody battle, the army is decimated and desperate for fighting men. Boy is given a short sword and a used leather jerkin from one of the dead soldiers and placed on the front line with the rest of the commoners. The commoners are routed by the onslaught (or they charge and get decimated). (Do we want his latent psionic powers to show a bit during this first fight? If not, we can pepper it throughout his time in the army.)

Boy finds himself, surprisingly, very much alive after the rout, and covered by a fallen soldier (enemy or friend). Even though he can still hear the battle raging around him (or in the distance), Boy is too scared to move, and decides to remain under the dead soldier.

Boy’s company is victorious and while the soldiers are looting the dead, they discover Boy uninjured and hiding under the dead soldier. The company does not take kindly to deserters and cowards, and Boy is subject to much abuse and violence. An older soldier takes a fancy to him, and rapes Boy, saying something like, “if you’re going to hide like a woman, then I’m going to treat you like one.” (The abuse may go on for some time before the rape. There may be more than one rape as well. We don’t want Boy losing all courage, but we do want him building up a resolve to better himself—as well as the anger he’ll need to focus during his training.) The rape is interrupted by a grizzled old sergeant, who kills the rapist. We are not sure why he does this (at the time, nobody in the company cared much for Boy because of his cowardice).

The sergeant tells Boy that if he wants to live, he needs to learn how to fight. The sergeant teaches Boy to fight every day, beating the living crap out of Boy, who now is mad as hell, but keeps coming back for more. Boy does nothing but practice and fight, and has incredible focus, but talks to and cares for no one but the sergeant. Sergeant lets this go on for a while and then explains that he can be the best fighter in the world, but if he makes enemies of everyone, eventually he will get stabbed in the back. Learning from this, Boy integrate slowly back into the world, but his anger is still his focus.

At some point, we learn the reason the sergeant took an interest in Boy (not sure how this comes out or at what point. It might be better to hold off on this for a while). It turns out that the sergeant was the one who killed Boy’s brother during training. The sergeant had been an excellent soldier and was steadily working his way up through the ranks (to captain?). He was tough but fair on his people. During a sword training session with Boy’s brother involving real weapons—sergeant was so confident in his abilities that he scoffed at practicing with tourney or practice weapons—the sergeant accidentally kills Boy’s brother. The sergeant was removed from command and demoted. He decided to stay in the army (perhaps to make up for his mistake?). The sergeant rescued Boy from the older soldier because he saw a resemblance to the boy he killed (he did not know they were related—perhaps he never finds out?). Once saved, and knowing that he was a coward, the sergeant decides to instruct Boy so he never runs from a fight again. (We need to figure out what happens when Boy finds out that the sergeant was the one who killed his brother. Perhaps at the beginning of his training, he can learn of this, and start secretly planning to kill his benefactor? Or it might be better after the sergeant explains why he has been beating him up—to focus his anger. What’s the end game for this?)

As the years go on, Boy moves up through the ranks and attains captain, the highest rank a non-noble can achieve. (There’s a lot to be filled in here.) The sergeant remains a sergeant, saying that he doesn't want to advance because he hates politics (again, we need to tie this into the end game above. I think Boy must learn the truth and do something about it—good conflict). Boy becomes the hero of many battles and his troops love him. Boy believes that this war is his grand adventure. A LOT of time passes. During the war, he seems a lot of misery and death. (As Boy kills more and more, he realizes that war is not an adventure, blah, blah, blah—the reluctant hero thing. We might want to avoid this or think of an alternative way of presenting it. Perhaps here he revels in the power and glory of battle, but after he settles down, the glory and power doesn’t seem as important?)

During the fighting, strange things happen to Boy when he gets angry (such as swords that appear to cut unprotected parts of Boy glance off his skin, arrows that are heading for Boy fall to the ground, and other telekinetic related happenings). (Note: should it happen when he gets angry? I thought part of the conflict going forward is that he must learn not to use his anger to focus his psionic powers. Perhaps it should happen randomly and not when he’s angry?) The happenings are all attributed to mage-work (by whom? Boy or his soldiers?), but they are actually manifestations of his latent psionic ability.

During the last battle of the war, Boy confronts the Manipulator in one-on-one combat. He is victorious, but as the Manipulator is dying, he (or she) is able to draw enough power to kill Boy (or some way to have both of them killed—I’d rather see him victorious before he is killed).

At his death, the fairy dragon realizes that hope for the future is in jeopardy, because the Boy’s psionic abilities might be the only magic that works if the negative entity breaks free (which could (would according to the fairy dragon?) result in destroying the druidic magic of the world). Another person born with the psionic powers may be born before the negative entity is released, but there is no guarantee. The fairy dragon decides to resurrect Boy, knowing that the energy pulled for the resurrection might release the negative entity (which is the dilemma). (What does the council of nine think of this? Do they know of the fairy dragon? Are they against him?) The resurrection devastates the countryside for many miles, and the entity is freed. It is weak in this plane, however, and must spend time learning to fight the draining effect that this plane has on it (I’m not sure what this means).

Boy thanks the fairy dragon and thinks that the resurrection is a gift for winning the war. (We need a tie-in here. When was Boy resurrected? Does his army know he’s alive, or do they think he’s dead?)

A war hero (or not), Boy returns to his home village with his woman (who hangs on his every word and obeys him without question, while being always available for sex and never jealous, with huge breasteses, of course). There he works (runs?) his father’s farm. (What happened to his family during the war? Were they killed? Did they live happily in their village?) He marries (who does he marry? It would be nice if the woman was tied into the story in the “…a LOT of time passes” part. It would makes his parting much more painful), and settles down and has two children.

Boy turns around 40 and has not swung his sword in some time. He runs a small farm and an inn with the help of his father (if his father survived), and loves the quiet life now. He has plumped up and his greatest joy is raising his children (grandchildren?). He still has the ring, but thinks nothing of it until the fairy dragon appears. The fairy dragon asks if Boy is ready for his big adventure (or ready to serve—whatever the fairy dragon had said originally). Boy is confused by the question, since he thought that his big adventure was finished after he killed the Manipulator and saved the world. Fairy dragon explains that that is not what he had been called for, and the ring came with the bargain that he would be called upon when needed—now he is needed and the adventure he wanted is about to begin.

Boy is not happy with what Fairy dragon has to say. He has a family now and kids he wants to see grow up. He lost his adventuring spirit and he’s grown fat. He just wants to settle down and wait for his grandchildren. Fairy dragon reminds Boy of his debt and what the ring means. Boy tries to convince the Fairy dragon that there are others much better than him now—showing him his beer belly and weak arms. But the fairy dragon insists that Boy was chosen for a reason. (Why would the fairy dragon be so elusive? Does the fairy dragon tell Boy at this point why he was chosen, viz., because he has the psionic gift? This might work better if he tells him after he cuts his finger off. This might be the thing that convinces him after he refuses and tries to cut off the ring.)

Boy returns home angry, he attempts to remove the ring from his finger, but has no luck. In a moment of desperation, he pulls out his dagger and slices his ring finger off. The ring falls to the table, vanishes, and then appears on his middle finger of the same hand. Boy is outraged.

At some point, Boy realizes that he has no choice but to accept his fate and follow through on his agreement. He must leave his family and travel to another realm to learn from the one other known psionicist. (Where he travels too might be important. We might want to send him to the realm he had been fighting against.) At this point, because of the entities influence, magic is becoming more and more unstable and rarely works as directed (the council of nine might be trying to hide this).

And so ends book one (or three)….

Magic and the Council of Nine:

Magic is performed using the earth’s energy (nature and life?). Spell casters, who are similar to druids (should we just call them druids then?), cast spells using the earth around them. The effects of these spells are immediately visible. Conjuring a gallon of water might kill one to two square feet of grass. A large lightning bolt might evaporate 50 cubic yards of water, kill a tree, brown one-hundred square feet of grass, or any combination. Resurrection could devastate the countryside for miles. These are random backlash events. Energy can also be drawn from people by aging or killing them to fuel a spell. Therefore, magic is dangerous and is tightly restricted—you need a license to use magic.

Licenses are granted after spell casters go through schooling where they learn the basics of magic and some techniques that at least help keep the backlash from being totally random. Obviously there are grades of licenses as knowledge increases, and licenses for the specific schools of magic. (What are the schools of magic?)

Magic is governed by the council of nine. The council, through many years of use and experience (so they tell people), have learned to control the resulting backlash. They can pull energy for a spell from 200 miles away, or draw life force from a specific person. Until now it was thought that only the members of the council could do this. (I know we talked about them using the conduit from the negative energy to exert the control, but maybe they could also do it by working together, you know, sort of like triangulation. Just a thought, but your idea probably has more implications and twists to use.) A renegade spell caster somehow has gained this knowledge, and politically important people start dying for seemingly no reason.

If there is not enough energy in the surrounding area, a spell caster may use his own life force to fuel a spell (e.g., causing premature aging).

Magical Seal for Negative Energy and War

As battles go on in the war against the Manipulator, the energy of the earth weakens. Unfortunately this energy is tied into the seal that was created thousands of years ago to hold back the negative energy that is created as a byproduct of hateful actions and pain. (Is the energy of the earth continuously being called upon to maintain the seal? How does this work? Wouldn’t we need to show energy being drawn for this? For example, wouldn’t forests being dying to keep the seal in place? Perhaps the creation of the seal tipped the balance. Before the seal, the power drawn from the earth could be pulled from deeper parts of the earth (for example, subterranean formations and the earth’s core). When the seal as put into place, that power was completely tapped, and only the surface of the earth was left for druids to pull power from. Not sure where this goes, but it’s just a thought).

The energy is held in an extra dimensional space with a conduit for energy to siphon to this place, but with no way for the energy to escape back to this plane. Unfortunately, the biggest threat to humans is the byproduct of things like war, and this is why the council of nine did not want the hunt for the renegade to turn into a war (we’ll get into details on the political outline…we really need to think about that next).

Behind the seal, so much negative energy has collected over time that it has coalesced and evolved into a living, sentient entity with thought, motive, and purpose. Its purpose is just to perpetuate itself, and it does this by getting people to hurt one another. So, as the wars proceed and more magic is used, the earths energy decreases and the shield weakens. Unfortunately, there was the tiniest crack formed in this shield in the first place, and it is through this that the entity was able to impart upon the renegade the knowledge of how to control the backlash.

Limited officers to noble born.

Everyone above captain is noble-born.

Roman style army.

Generals have political say.

3-5k army passing by the village

army of a realm if they came together would equal 30-50k

Shannon's Comments:

Our protagonist (look at my literary genius already coming out), we will call him X, starts out at the age of 5. He is very mischievous, doesn't listen to authority much, wants to be a soldier. He has both parents, they are independant farmers in a small township. He is the youngest of 4, w boys and a girl, but the oldest brother was killed a year ago in a training accident with the militia.

During one of X's forays into the woods he meets the giver of the ring(dragon or whoever) - who gives him the ring and says that if he accepts it he will have the adventure of a lifetime, but he has to realize that when he is called for this adventure, he must accept it. His acceptance of the ring is a magical binding. So, of course he accepts, and quickly finds that the ring will not come off.

Magic: Performed using the earths energy. If a spell caster(who are much like druids) casts a spell, it uses the earth around them, and the effects of this are immediately visible. Conjuring a gallon or water might make 1-2 sq. ft. fo grass brown and dead. A large lightning bolt might evaproate 50 cubicc yards of water, kill a tree or brown 100 sq ft of grass, or any combination. Resurrection would devastate the countryside for miles. these are random backlash events, and even people can be aged or killed if their energy is tapped to fuel a spell. Therefore, magic is very dangerous and it is very tightly restricted - you need a license to use magic. This is granted after you go through schooling where they teach the magic and some techniques that at least help keep the backlash from being totally random. Obviously there are grades of licenses as knowledge increases and even licenses allowing use of specific schools of magic. This is governed by the council of 9. They are the few who, through many years of use and experience(so they tell people), have learned to control where the backlash comes from. They can pull energy for a spell from 200 miles away, or draw lifeforce from a specific person. Until now it was though that only the members of the council could do this. (I know we talked about them using the conduit from the neg. energy to exert the control, but maybe they could also do it by working together, you know, sort of like triangulation. Just a thought, but your idea probably has more implications and twists to use.) A renegade spell caster somehow has gained this knowledge, and important people start dying for seemingly no reason.

If there is not enough energy in the surrounding area, a spellcaster may use his own lifeforce to fuel a spell.

At age 12, X runs off to war with an army passing by his town going to battle with one of the waring nations. He has gotten tired of his father being so overbearing, keeping him on the farm all the time and keeping him busy just so he cannot run off. Dad of course is just scared of him being killed like his brother.

So, he runs off with the army and works as a scut boy for them until in a battle so many of them die that they need every hand they can get to fight. So, he is given a short sword and a used leather jerkin from one of the dead and put in the front lines to absorb blows. He survives the first battle by having a dead man fall on him and covering him. He soils himself and lays there until the battle is over and he is found by his fellow fighters. Now he is marked as a coward and is a target for many of the soldiers, especially one. He takes many jibes and is beaten up, and is eventually raped by one of them. This act is cut short by a grizzled old sargeant, who kills the man and tells X if he is going to stay and wants to live, he is going to learn how to fight.

He proceeds to teach him to fight every day, beating the living crap out of X, who now is mad as hell and keeps coming back for more. He does nothing but practice and fight, and has incredible focus, but talks to and cares for no one but the sargeant. Sargeant lets this go on for a while and then explains that he can be the best fighter in the world, but if he makes enemies of everyone, eventually he will get stabbed in the back; so X slowly learns to integrate back into the world, but his anger is still his focus.

As the years in battle go on he moves up through the ranks and eventually attains captain, the highest rank a non-noble can achieve. The sargeant stays a sargeant, saying that he doesn't want to advance because he hates politics. Eventually X finds out the the sargeant was the one who accidentally killed his brother in training (although sargeant does not know it was his brother) and this is why he stays at this rank. This is also why he took X under his wing., trying to make up for past wrongs.

As battles go on in the war to stop the improper use of magic, the energy of the earth weakens. Unfortunately this energy is tied into the seal that was created thousands of years ago to hold back the negative energy that is created as a byproduct of hatefull actions and pain. This energy is held in an extradimensional space with a conduit for energy to siphon to this place, but with no way for the energy to escape back to this plane. Unfortunately, the biggest threat to humans is the byproduct of things like war, and this is why the council of 9 did not want the hunt for the renegade to turn into a war.

Behind the seal, so much negative energy has collected over time that it has coalesced and evololved into a living, sentient entity with thought, motive, and purpose. Its purpose is just to perpetuate itself, and it does this by getting people to hurt one another. So, as the wars proceed and more magic is used, the earths energy decreases and the shield weakens. Unfortunately, there was the tiniest crack formed in this shield in the first place, and it is through this that the entity was able to impart upon the renegade the knowledge of how to control the backlash.

About X: As battles continue, weird things happen around him, especially as he gets more angry. Objects fly around, swords glance off his skin, etc. These things are all attributed to mage-work, but they are actually manifestations of his latent psionic ability.

At the final battle, X and the renegade mage kill one another. With the death of X, the ring-bearer realizes that hope for the future could be lost, because the entity will be free, and will gain strength and render useless the magic of this world. This will take time, but another psionic may not be born in that time, and he knows that only a psionic can take on this challenge. So, he wants to resurrect X, but realizes in doing so that this may free the entity right now, and speed up the whole process. This is the dilemma, but he resurrects X anyway, so that at least he knows that someone will be alive to take up the challenge. This resurrection devestates the countryside for many miles, and the entity is freed. It is weak in this plain, however, and must spend time learning to fight the draining effect that this plane has on it.

During this time X settles down back home with a woman that he met along the way (yes, I know we have to figure this out), and has 2 small kids, ages 1 and 3. He is now about 40, and has not swung a sword for years. He runs a small farm and an inn with the help of his father, and loves the quiet life now. He still has the ring, but thinks nothing of it until the ring-bearer comes and asks him if he is ready to serve. He doesn't know what the hell he is talking about, because he already had his adventure and did his part in saving the world. The ring-bearer reminds him that he was not called to do those things, and the ring came with the bargain that he would be called upon when needed - now he is needed and the adventure he wanted is about to begin. This angers X greatly, to the point where he even cuts off the finger with the ring, but it just re-attaches itself.

He is bound, and he must leave his family and travel to another realm to learn from the one other known psionicist. At this point, because of the entities influence, magic is becoming more and more unstable and rarely works as directed.

Well, thats what we spoke of. I'm sorry its so long in coming and that I haven't really thought of anything more. Work is really ramping up right now, and my already limited creative juices are further stifled. I will talk to you later tonight

Whitecloaks

Boy eventually joins the Whitecloaks. (This can happen because of his surrender after joining the other army, or perhaps this is his first choice. Regardless of how he joins, his first couple of years there does not go very well.)

After many battles, he is raised to Sergeant-like command (for about 25 or so soldiers). He becomes involved in a conspiracy to mutiny and join the other side. Unknown to the Boy, the conspiracy is being headed by a third group whose motives are unclear. The third group is using “mind powers” to influence the would-be-mutineers.

During an important offensive of the war, the Boy is nudged not to participate in the slaughter of a village with a known “witch” in its midst by the third group. The village was being attacked because it had stood up to the Whitecloaks, and the Whitecloaks felt that their only recourse was to slaughter the village.

The other army learns of the attack and arrives to challenges the Whitecloaks presumably to save the village. The Boy and a number of other divisions – unknown to the Boy – allow the army to pass unmolested through their ranks. This results in an annihilation of the Whitecloaks’ main standing army. The village is not destroyed, but most of the men are drafted into the other army.