So, for those of you who keep track of me mostly through this blog, this update may seem a little out of the blue. "Testament? What's Testament?" I had (still have?) a tiny mention of it on one page and nothing else. Testament is my pet project, my exploration into high fantasy. And I haven't really talked about it here much because, well, this is very prominently a fanfiction site. So I became uncomfortable whenever I started to talk about Testament here. Additionally, I want to make sure I get all the "rewrites" done before I release it into the wild. I can't afford to get stuck in rewrite hell with Testament the way I did with LotE. Over the last few years, I avoided people with similar interests to mine, because people with common interests and different mindsets annoyed me more than people with different interests and common mindsets. This was an grave mistake, because as a result, I don't have enough experience with the expectations of fantasy readers: which tropes are considered cliched, which tropes are fundamental, which tropes are considered offensive, etc. Is it okay if 'a' knight rescues 'a' princess? Do all princes have to be jerks? Is it okay to portray the human race as good? Does everything from nature have to be holy? Anyway, during the Spring 2015 semester, I typed up a draft of Testament's early chapters for a creative writing class. Due to my inexperience, I didn't know how much groundwork I had to lay out. So in one chapter, I went into a complicated explanation of mana, without using the word mana, confusing the entire class. Whoops. If you were in that class and are reading this right now, I apologize. I got tangled in my own explanations. I can't say I'm experienced now, but I hope I can explain this a little better now. And if you're from Route 50, where I only posted the first two chapters, I hope this is an interesting read. Magic in TestamentIn Testament, there are three different terms to refer to mana: Cryling, Magia, and Mana. Confusion arose when Rivana, the protagonist, insisted that all three terms were differerent. This is not quite accurate.
"Magia" and "mana" are the same thing. The separate terms simply indicate different views on the nature of mana. Elves call it magia because it's ordinary to them. Cannors call it mana because it's mysterious to them. And humans use both terms because it's not really ordinary, but they study it as a scholarly pursuit. Cryling is a special type of magia that I'll just refer to as "body mana" for now. Basically, this is mana attached to the body. Every elf has Cryling; they wouldn't be an elf otherwise. There isn't a "halfway" point because controlling Cryling is a function of their pointed ears. Either you have pointed ears or you don't. Elves do not consider Cryling magia (though technically, it is). I'm not sure how to put the reason into words, but it's similar to the reason why we don't consider humans animals, or why Grover Cleveland is both the 22nd and the 24th President of the United States instead of just the 22nd, or why some people say "giff" and others say "jiff". If you aren't an elf, you still have body mana. Your body mana just isn't Cryling. For humans, body mana takes the form of creative potential. For cannors, body mana manifests as an aura, and is primarily a socialocial force. (Wolf packs might not exist in the wild, but hey, this is fantasy.) I won't get into too much detail, as I'm still working on the parts of Testament taking place in cannor and human lands. Anyway, that's all for now. Cheers!
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SparkleafSparkleaf has been writing fanfiction since 2009. He also enjoys anime, manga, and visual novels. CategoriesArchives
April 2021
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