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Ranoruben, Part I
"Thousands of years from our own time, industrial civilization has long since disappeared and humanity lives as it did in its very birth, in small enclaves, while the sparse populations support themselves by the hunting of game, the herding of sheep, and the culture of wheat and grain. Life is difficult and burdensome, as the climate is harsh, but humankind has managed to survive through the long and tiresome twilight years, as not very much happens. In recent times, famine rages in the small valley of Ranoruben. The young orphan prince is ill, and the people of this village, especially the Council of Elders, fear for his life. On a fateful evening, a wandering priest from a foreign nation stumbles upon this land, and learning of its current state of affairs, begs the council of elders if he can speak with the bed-ridden prince. The elders, with little hesitation, allow him to talk with the boy. The priest reveals to the sick yet intelligent young man that he knows of a place far away and sealed away from humankind that may hold the secret to finding a cure for his illness and the illness of others adversely affected by the drought. Just then, a messenger comes to the castle, frantically reporting that a crazed monster is attacking the fields. A shepherdess from the pastures nearby is trying to calm it, but to no avail. The priest knows what he must do, and goes to the place of the crisis. He casts the girl aside, and tries to empathically subdue its rage. He succeeds, but is severely weakened by his attempt. The monster, still alive but unconscious, is caged up securely until the priest is nursed back to health, since he seems to be the only one who has the knowledge to deal with the thing. The next morning, the young shepherdess is at his bedside when he awakes, much stronger than before. She expresses gratitude to him that she saved not only her but the entire valley from the faceless creature. He studies the creature all day, and reveals that it is one of the soldiers that guards the place he mentioned to the ailing prince, a place he calls “The Land of the Crimson Sun.” No man has ever traveled there and returned except himself, but he is too old to go there again; something is amiss in that paradise, and turning back to the prophecies his religion foretells, he claims that it could threaten the relative peace of the world’s nations. The Council of Elders, however, disagrees with the religious fanatic, dismissing it as only a normal attack of a hunger-crazed animal. The priest wisely does not argue with them, even when they forbid anyone to leave to investigate it. Secretly, he convenes with the prince and the beautiful shepherdess, who was herself engaged to him until his illness made him invalid – she still loves him, though. She volunteers to leave her village and go to this faraway idyll, to not only find the source of the problem and solve it, but also to find the cure for the prince’s illness. She knows that since she would break the law, when she returns she will be killed, but leaves in the still of night with a ceramic sword, a hand-cannon, a flare rifle, food rations to last her a few months, and a flightless camelback horse-bird hybrid. She leaves silently out into the world. After weeks traveling through seemingly uninhabited deserts and grasslands, she comes across a tiny yet bustling seaside village. Finding a hospitable inn, she rests in comfort through the night. However, things do not turn out as planned. She is sold into slavery, raped, and then sold into prostitution, until she comes across an old and wise woman, who buys her out of slavery. She is made a servant of the woman’s grandson’s farm. He is handsome and strong, and falls in love with her quickly, though she resists him; however, she tries to explain to him why she must leave soon to continue her journey, and begs him to let her go. He dismisses what she says, and she attempts to escape, but he easily predicts this, and he pays some men to capture her and keep her from leaving the estate. Meanwhile, the old priest returns back to his homeland, the Orubesh Empire; he turns out not only to be on the board of the Council of Priests in the service of the emperor and a spy for the emperor, but also secretly a priest and a spy for a secret heretic religious branch, which has connections with the emperor’s brother, who wishes to overthrow his brother and be emperor in his place. The priest persuades the emperor to conquer Ranoruben and other smaller states in order to increase the military power and the workforce of his empire and destroy the “Other Religion” that prevails in these peripheral regions which is seen as a threat to their own, as well as to successfully crush his brother’s army to avoid opposition from his brother’s scheming plans and to gain an upper hand in the war with the Soquewyn empire for control of an “Ancient Abacus”, which could revive the old and forgotten technology of thousands years past as well as offer a chance at immortality for the Council of Priests and a cure for the plague that ravages many towns in their empire, while he also persuades the emperor’s brother to fight the emperor’s army so as to weaken it with his own secretly-trained and “secretly unbeatable” army so they can obtain the emperor’s objectives of conquering the smaller peripheral states and coming into possession of the “Ancient Abacus” which could offer a chance of immortality for his secret heretic religious branch, while crushing not only the emperor’s regime but also crushing the Soquewyn Empire and destroying the genetic engineering technology of the Soquewyn Empire which is seen as a threat. He has also brought over the faceless soldier from “The Land of the Crimson Sun” to the heretic branch’s council – he believes that if they obtain the “Ancient Abacus”, they can surely control of that faraway idyll and abolish all other religions but their own while obtaining order by banishing illness and any burdensome work and unhappiness. If they come into possession of the genetic engineering technology of Soquewyn, they can mold the slaves of “The Land of the Crimson Sun” into whatever they wish so as to increase their skills, as well as enhance their (the heretic council's priests) own innate talents. He has, though, forgotten a figure moving in the mists, getting closer to this land and discovering its secrets – if only she can resist a burden-free life with a handsome man who promises her a happy life. And can she forget the prince she loves, even despite his ailment?"
This is an idea I have for the first volume of a novel I mean to write. Any suggestions?
EDIT: Added new plot details.
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Post last edited by Konan on 07.25.2005, 04:11 PM.
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07.24.2005, 06:54 PM
