An Intro to Aquil Lun

Hello, my name is Aquil Lun. Well, not really, it’s just a name made from butchered Latin that somewhat describes who I am. My real name is unknown, as my parents left me in the woods when I was born. And, I really can’t blame them.

One thing I should clarify, I’m not from this planet. I don’t know if my planet really has a name, or when it existed. I couldn’t even point to it on a map of the universe. Really. What I can tell you is that the place I grew up in was called Drak-Bar’s Boulders.

Now, you may be asking how I know this, and I really can’t answer that either. I just know who I am and a little about where I grew up. There are some things I can guess about, but, with my parents, the truth seems stranger than fiction. I’ve met a few interesting people along my long, maybe, journey. I’ll let you know about them as well, but you may be more interested in knowing a bit more about me. Maybe you don’t, in which case feel free to go to some other place. If you want to know more, keep reading.

If a writer were to write my intro, it may look something like this:

“Blah, blah, the hero’s town was taken over by an evil wizard.” Okay, I can stop here. Adding “evil” in front of “wizard” really isn’t necessary. No wizard is truly good, and I’ve known a few. Way to many, I hate wizards. More on that later.

“Blah, blah, the hero’s friends were away for too long trying to free me from the bad man that raised me.” Now, I should say I’ve never called myself a hero. I just lived my life trying to get back home from a horrid childhood.

“Bad wizard walks into the hero’s friend’s bar and causes trouble, not knowing the hero is waiting.” Yeah, all bad actors are blind. Not like I could really hide. More clarification, I can’t really say how tall I was or anyone else. My memories aren’t that complete, and they’ve been mildly altered. When I say there was a dog, I don’t mean a dog like you see on Earth. I mean a creature that walks on four legs and is sometimes kept as a companion that is comparably sized to the people of my world. My memories show me as human, but I know that isn’t correct. These memories were altered to make it easier to relate. This is the same as any animal I describe, they are close, but not what you see on this planet. Wizards, however, would be the same pulsating black goo-balls with tentacles. They are ugly and evil on any world.

“Hero and his friends deal with evil wizard, but forget about his henchmen.” Yeah, I made a few mistakes in my youth, and even more when I grew up. Still making mistakes now, and I don’t have the pressure of my mother and father that I used to.

“Henchmen scare the towns-people out of the bar and nearly kill the hero’s friend while assaulting the young lady of the bar.” You can read the whole intro later, but, yeah, it sucks.

“Hero returns to the bar just in time so save the lady in distress and keep his friend from dying.” Really? Did you expect anything different? I didn’t, but it was my life and timing.

Maybe having a goddess for a mother and a dragon for father isn’t all bad. Maybe it is.

Drak-Bar was my father’s name, and the name of the area I was originally born into. At least, I think it was the first time. Again, that wasn’t likely the name, I’m sure my current vocal cords don’t know any of the language that I had originally spoke. I’m not even sure I had vocal cords. Maybe it was telepathy. But, I am sure I spoke with others, and we’ll just play along that we were all humans.

Drak-Bar was said to have created Drak-Bar’s Boulders to protect the people in the area. Boulders? Yeah, not really. Even then we often joked about the size joke. The boulders in this case were taller than you could really see when standing at their base. You could see the top from a few day’s travel, high in the clouds.

We did have day and night, both about the same amount of time. A little more daylight when it was hot, and a little less when it snowed. It didn’t really snow in half the region, only the north. I hope you realize by now, I’m just going to use north as the cold part and south as the warm part. There was a large ocean in the east and forest everywhere. There were a lot of rivers as well, fed by the waterfalls that ran from the boulders.

Hours, minutes? Didn’t know them. Most of the time, the sun and moon traveled their normal paths. But, if the gods, or goddesses, were particularly grumpy, they would wonder around the sky, not yielding day to night or vice versa.

It was said if a lady had a child during the continuous day, the child and its town would prosper. Since the time of continuous days wasn’t predictable, this was just pure luck. Now, I was conceived and born during the continuous night. And, now you know why my human parents left me in the wood to die.

Oh, yeah, I did say my mother was a goddess, but you really didn’t think a goddess would put her own body through child-bearing, did you? No, of course not. When a goddess decides to have a child, they find a human woman. Usually celibate. If you’re trying to imagine how a dragon and a goddess produce a child, you may be disappointed to know that it really isn’t that interesting, and certainly not worthy of a shady movie. It’s more of a conversation between the two and, boom, a human woman is now carrying a child. She doesn’t know either, and that wouldn’t make much of a shady movie.

Any child conceived in the continuous night is born before the night ends. How long is this night? No one knows, since we didn’t have clocks. But, it was well considered to be about 30 days, maybe a little longer, but certainly not the 300 days for a normal child to develop. But, these children always brought horrible luck, usually turning vibrant towns into empty shells. I didn’t. I was born in a town with an economy based on thievery. Every house had gold, silver, and jewels stolen from other towns. Thief’s honor, they didn’t steal from their own town.

Strange economy, you may think. But, so were many other towns. Thieves were generally accepted, even though watched closely. For me, it took some time for me to forgive my thief parents, but when all the gold, silver, and jewels turn into lead, iron, and rock, people get a little upset. By the time I returned to my town some years later, the town had a new economy. Tourism. Well, maybe it really was the same economy of old.

About my father, Drak-Bar. During my time, it was said he was asleep, and just waking. But, I know he was a little awake when I was conceived. My human mother had gone to visit his cave in the boulders, and said she even spoke with him. She said it was an attempt to fix their town of thieves. Her husband said it was because they couldn’t make a child, and old folklore says a dragon can fix that problem. Well, there was only one dragon anyone knew about, and he sleeps for very long times, many generations usually.

Did my human mother really speak with Drak-Bar? He would never say when he finally woke up. And, based on what I know, and you’ll find out later, I have my doubts. For one, he didn’t have a cave that he slept in.

Wizards

Wizards. You may be wondering why I don’t like them. Well, there are many reasons, some of which I’ll explain here. Also, there is a difference between a normal magic user and a wizard. I guess you could also say we had mages, which could weave magic better than the average person, but hadn’t yet devolved into the gel of a wizard.

One thing you may be wondering is why I call wizards gelatinous balls of goo. That’s what they look like when using your magic vision. To most people, they would look fairly normal. Their fingers were typically a little long and calloused, but otherwise somewhat normal. They did tend to dress a little different, but that wasn’t entirely unusual.

Magic vision? I wouldn’t expect you know what that is, but you maybe have guessed. For the most part, people in my world saw everything basically the same as on Earth. You never really know what others are seeing, but there is some common guess work. Mostly learned. Magic vision had to be learned. Some had a natural tendency, they are the ones that learned magic early. And also the ones that tended to have short lives.

You’ve no doubt seen a young child that likes to grab whatever is within reach. Grab a strand of magic. The right one will make you feel good, the wrong one will make you feel nothing. Could you stop a child from grabbing the magic? Yes, kinda. But you had to be quick.

In order to see the magic, you had to give a prayer to your god of choice. Most of us, anyway. The natural ones skipped this step. This prayer would put you in a mild trance and un-focus your eyes from the world you know. As the world faded, you could see the lines of magic dancing around. With enough practice, you could focus the natural world and the magic world at the same time. This is what I did when traveling or fighting.

What does magic look like? Glowing strings would be the best description, but they weren’t coherent strings. More like strings of oil floating in water. In order to use the magic, you had to move the string over your target, then tie the ends together. It could also be woven around a target for a better effect. Want to heal a scratch? Place the string along the wound and loop the ends. Have an arrow sticking through your knee? Wrap the string around the knee before attaching the ends together.

Oh, in order to create the magic effect, you just placed the ends of the string together. The larger string you wove, the more powerful the effect. You could weave different types of strings also. With enough practice. I tried a healing string with a fireball. That makes you warm. I didn’t practice beyond some basics, and a few tricks that were taught to me. Mages practiced by following texts. Wizards just through things together to see what happens. That much magic play will distort your being in the magic realm, and a little in the natural realm.

Depending on how, or when, you’re reading this, you may have seen that magic use wasn’t really well tolerated on the whole. The reason is the power and the reason I call the world you’re accustom to seeing the natural world. Even though magic was pervasive on my world, the use of it was seen as a necessity. Not unlike using electricity on Earth. You could live without it, but why? Admittedly, electricity isn’t quite as useful as magic, but there are some parallels.

We didn’t have electricity.

I did have a few wizard friends. They weren’t wizards when we met, but they trended down that road. One particular interaction happened before I had my armor. I definitely needed some help to prevent too many injuries.

My friend said he’d found a way to combine the strings to create armor from your own flesh. I should have run. But, being young and dumb, I listened. It sounded quite useful. Take off as an eagle and fly far away. He told me which strings to weave and how long each should be. I watched him move, and pulled out a couple daggers. Plunge them deep.

For whatever reason, I felt something wasn’t quite right with his weave, but it was too late. The final two ends came together. This was one time having such powerful parents became a benefit. Instead of becoming a stone statue, I was instead surrounded by a stone statue. This friend was older than me. He knew to run. Far away.

My hands could still move. I could see. Nothing else really moved. For a very long time. Why were my hands free? Those daggers. They were quite magical themselves, and reflected any magic effect. Maybe I was just old enough.

I turned the daggers toward the stone surrounding my flesh. And started chipping away. Being magic stone, it was quite hard, but magic damage could move it easily. I just couldn’t move my hands very far.

I know I watched the moon rise a few times. Each time asking for help. I think my mother was too busy laughing at my predicament.

Eventually, the stone was chipped away. And I had a friend to find. But, not today.

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My Mission

What was my reason for being? Most people can’t answer that question. I thought I could, but I really don’t know anymore.

It would be a fairly easy conclusion to assume a goddess and dragon wouldn’t create a lifeform without a plan. Really, neither a god nor a dragon would ever do anything without some plan. My plan? I really wasn’t told, but I do know the path I was given and what the problems were on my planet.

Now, I know I’ve said I couldn’t really say what or where Drak-Bahr’s Boulders was located or if it really was a planet, but I’ll go with that assumption to keep everything simple.

The problems? It wasn’t really crime. It was much worse. Think for yourself, how bad would it have to be for you to not consider thievery to be a problem. Or one that you’d rather ignore. I was able to reduce that trend in my first life, but it was never completely eliminated. I simply ran out of time solving the bigger problems.

Murder? Nope. Rape? Nope. Child abuse? Nope. Wizards? Well, kinda, but not really. My primary mission did have something to do with the magical realm, which is why it was so easy for me to see that realm. Most others had much more difficulty, and certainly weren’t walking around looking at both realms.

What was the problem? It really isn’t very easy to explain, but magic shouldn’t flow. It should be much more like the atmosphere. Instead, it flowed and moved, making it fairly difficult to keep hold of the threads you wanted to weave.

But, that wasn’t the only problem. Although getting a healing thread mixed together with a fire thread was uncomfortable, it didn’t cause issues that would get the attention of a dragon, much less a god. Dragons really didn’t care for the magic threads, even though they were masters at the craft. The gods, however, spent much of their life walking through the magic realm. Exiting only to help mortals from time to time.

You may be asking if the gods can exist without the magic tapestry. They can. They sleep a lot and prefer to remain hidden when awake. You may have already met a god, and not known it. If they aren’t disguised as your species, you won’t really become enamored with them. They may be a lovely flower, maybe the most beautiful you’ve seen, but that memory imprint won’t last as long as meeting the most perfect person.

Back to my mission. Naturally, I couldn’t fix the weave. But I could find out who was unravelling the tapestry. Definitely a wizard. No mage could spend that kind of time to master the tapestry without transforming themselves. A god? Maybe. But, another god would have no problem detecting another god’s work. Or so my mother said. A dragon? Possible, but not likely. Drak-Bahr kept the other dragons away. That was the reason behind Drak-Bahr’s Boulders.

There were reports of dragons hiding in caves. My mortal mom followed one of these reports. Supposedly. You may be curious as to who she spoke with if it wasn’t Drak-Bahr. A wizard would be most likely. How did that turn her into my birth mother if it wasn’t Drak-Bahr? Easy. My mother had been watching and looking for someone. Her story made for a nice tale.

It may have also given me some sensitivity to wizards. I could detect them even when I was too young to understand what was going on. I hid a lot as a child, for more than one reason. Okay, more than two obvious reasons.

Recovering in my mother’s temple gave me some insight. There were many wizards there, but they were different. They weren’t black balls of goo, they were more of a shadowy-white figure. You may be thinking it’s a cheese-ball reference to good and bad, but even the shadowy-white figures would turn your stomach. The coloration had more to do with the god that the wizard worshipped. Look at the moon, my mother’s domain.

I am a little unfair in calling all wizards black gelatinous balls of goo. They actually had a variety of colors, but most had a black undertone. It took me several years to see why. What did I look like in the magic realm? Look at the moon.

My mission wasn’t really tracking down all these wizards. That would be a suicide mission, even for someone with my pedigree. A god wouldn’t take that quest. A dragon might, but they have a special mindset. No, my mission was to find the god allowing that much access. For all I knew, it could have been my mother. It wasn’t, but it could have been.

You may have heard a line about false gods. There is a meaning here on Earth, but my world had a different meaning. If you went to a temple and became devout, you couldn’t walk into another temple and ask for the same favor. At best, you would lose your access to the magic realm. At worst, both gods would treat you unfavorably. Now, you may be wondering if a god would really pay that close attention to a mortal. Usually, no. But, if you were trying to follow many gods, that would get their attention. You do not want a god’s attention.

Becoming devout to more than one god wasn’t a large issue in my world. There were a few that would try, but they served as examples for others. Another question is if you were unsatisfied with your god, or if you learned another god would be better to follow. Tell a god they aren’t worthy of your mortal attention. That is about as entertaining as convincing a god they aren’t as good as another god.

Now, truthfully, there is a difference in the gods and there may be reason to choose one god over another. But, your youth is when you spend your time learning about the gods. Many didn’t become devout until much later in life. And that was okay. I didn’t get a chance. Between being a certain god’s child and an untimely eagle attack, my path was set for me. I didn’t mind. When you are hunting gods, it’s a good idea to have a god on your side.

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My Castle's Government

A little about the socialist republic I set up. First of all, I did eliminate the need for money as well. After my outing with Khrista and Klarys, I realized it was useful to sell the items of value that I found in my journeys. For a short time, I used these items to find better items for myself, but soon realized it was easier to just take the coin.

I carried my coin in an infinity bag, which looked a lot like a standard coin purse that most people carried. By the time my castle started, I had an infinity bag for each level of coin, and one to carry those in. I filled a few bags.

Our economy was a lot simpler than what I see on Earth. No electricity, no computers, no television, no radio, no cars. We did have carts, and most people used animals to move their carts. We also didn’t have the number of people I see on Earth. How many? Nobody counted. In my castle and area, there were maybe enough to fill a smaller city on Earth.

What did we do for fun? Bows, daggers, games, books. Things like that. What we did to live? Farm, mainly. Maybe about half the people farmed for others, most people had their own small garden as well. There wasn’t a lot of need for money for the most part. I believe that’s the same for some places on Earth as well. Primarily the countries that have the resources to be self-sufficient for food and most wares.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. This is about Drak-Bahr’s Boulders.

You may guess that my friends didn’t like the idea of removing the need for coin. They actually loved the idea. Elysha and Leyan were able to get all the food they needed to cook for their customers. And they had more customers. And no thieves, no unpaid tabs. They would get tips from time to time. Usually a small tool or knife, but Leyan did get gifted a new dress. She never wore it, but she liked it.

Khrista and Klarys? They loved the idea. It gave them more trading freedom to obtain items they really wanted. Or, what other customers really wanted.

The general person? They never had to worry about new clothes or food. Did their garden get stamped out? No problem. There was plenty of food.

Housing was the most difficult task to tackle. Everyone wants a castle. As you may guess, most of our houses were fairly basic. You typically had a single level with a few rooms. Some homes had a storage cellar under the house to store food supplies, and things of value. Simple houses.

There were some that had larger houses, mostly those that made coin from the work of others. These were the people that really didn’t like the idea of eliminating coin. I don’t know if I’ve ever changed their mind, but most stayed after learning they wouldn’t have to give up their houses.

So, how did we handle who lived where? Barter. You want a new house? You find someone that wants your house. Maybe you trade. As people aged, they wanted smaller homes, or just to move into my castle. To give a bit more information, most of the living spaces in my castle were very similar to an Earth hotel. Not a fancy one. You didn’t get a kitchen, but you did get a nice place to sit with friends that wasn’t part of your sleeping area. I had a good mix of older and younger people that chose to live in these rooms.

Generally, most people were unhappy to begin with, but everyone became happy as they learned to adjust. I didn’t rule as a monarch. I was seldom around. I had suggested a senate to take care of rulings on arguments. This wasn’t a standing senate. If there was a question or disagreement, there was an election to fill a senate. That’s usually the most involved people would get with politics.

Voting? Yeah, we voted. You didn’t go to a polling place, it came to you. Colored stones. You carved your mark in a colored stone that was distributed before the election. An official came by and collected the colored stones. Was there a chance of people altering stone colors? Not really. There were only a certain number of stones made, one for each person.

Stone may mislead you, but it’s a good description.

After being voted in, the senate would deal with whatever issue had been brought up. Then, they’d go back home.

How does this help you on Earth? It may get your mind thinking, and that’s the point. How would you remove money from your country? How would you determine who gets to live where? Who deserves a house, an acreage, a racecourse? More importantly, how do handle hobbies, such as cool tractors with many implements?

I’ll get more into my own ideas at a later time. Or, it may be at the same time depending on when you read this. Either wait a few days, or scroll down a little. Only irrelevance will tell.

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