by Kell Inkston
Realmancy – Banned in all kingdoms but Spirakander and among the operational elite, Realmancy is a craft of the outright insane, and one of the most mentally-degenerative of magics known to man. Though most of the population does not believe realmancy is in fact real, there are a few circles of elite academics that do not only know of it, but can in some limited fashions perform it. Such uses are often fatal, however, as the incantations are mercilessly complex, meaning the caster could at any time “dis-exist” parts of their own body, but usually just their entire body.
Realmancy is the collection and alteration of objects and information that may or may not exist. This is accomplished by gaining “causal strands” and “pulling” until one opens up an alternate reality’s composition network, and inheriting the items into reality. There are no rules, so a person can be as irresponsible as they wish.
For instance, have you ever wondered if you were a character in someone else’s book? With realmancy you can find that out.
While the process is statistically overwhelmingly fatal, there are in fact a small, small handful that can use realmancy and survive, however, and they are right off their rockers. One should always be weary before trusting a realmancer.
Reinen – Lord of Kingdoms and Invincible Bastion against The Dragons. Reinen of the Far North was long the Western Kingdom’s capitol city before the destruction of the Planar Sphere, which was the only magical device capable of holding back the immensely inhospitable cold of the surrounding arctic environment. While the other kingdoms are wide domains with great midland towns and sprawling countryside, Reinen was a small land that stretched only as far as its unwalled boundary at twenty kilometers from the center of the Planar Sphere’s placement.
Under The Sphere’s power of temperature alteration, the snowy tundra was transformed into a brimming paradise for all who would take shelter from the dragons and their kin, who could not brave the immense cold of -30 Celsius, and thus could not attack from land nor sky.
The ruination of the Planar Sphere plunged the realm back to its original colds, killing the kingdom’s harvests in the first three days, and then the citizens began to starve. Migration was a simple process, as Reinen boasted one of the only non-Rondi-constructed Space Gates in The Omniverse. It is from there that the entire population of the kingdom, along with the head quarters of the Royal Knights and its corps, all migrated to the other four kingdoms, which are now considered political and cultural peers.
Reinen remains in ruin to this day, its many secrets and ghosts upturned by only the most intrepid, or nostalgic, of explorers.
Royal Knights of the Old Kingdom of Reinen (R.K.O.K.R.) – The prime defense association of the Western Kingdoms, the R.K.O.K.R., commonly referred to as “The Knights” is the last remaining vestige of King Rayda the Golden’s legacy.
While founded officially in the year R.F. 0 alongside Reinen, The Knights, (known as The Knights of the Reign at the time) have been in service to Rayda as long as he has been in recorded history. It is the prevailing theory among historians that Rayda recruited the first knights upon his immediate arrival to the Aernan continent.
School (of magic) –
The manner in which mana expresses itself when exiting the body. The “School” is the form the conscious (and in some, more extreme cases, the subconscious) mind assumes when attempting to press its will on the waking reality.
Often this state requires the use of words or symbols, all in the pursuit of causing one, fleeting, second-long thought required for the spell’s proper expression. Schools tend to group into elements, phenomena or singular methods of interaction, like changing an object’s weight, or shooting sick-ass bolts of lightning out of one’s hands.
Space Gate: Erected structures that serve as direct connections between worlds, these hollow arches, usually constructed out of some neigh-indestructible stone-like substance, have existed longer than recorded history.
By inputting a runic sequence into one of these arches at various panels or spots along its structure, one can open a route between dimensions in a safe manner that perfectly negates the transfer of environmental concerns like temperature, pressure, atmospheric content, and more.
Historically, they’re largely credited to the Sorceress Rondi for their creation, though most do so with the cheeky sort of understanding that it would be far too unlikely for such a mythically-dubious character to have traversed every single realm that contains a space gate—simply a ludicrous idea.
Spirakander –
Long south kingdom of tourism and agriculture, Spirakander is settled in the hostile Zhan’Vant Gulf, which by the way is Draconic for “Fatal Swimming”. Despite such risk from aquatic unpleasantries, tourists and locals from all around converge onto Spirakander during the warm seasons for swimming and games of all sorts. With all that sun and sand, it would be hard to say no, after all.
Aside from the danger of the water, it’s considered to be the safest of the four kingdoms, where its scarce crimes only tend to occur due to its lax stance on less approved magics. This lenience has drawn in mages from less influential schools of magic to practice their craft and study their magics here, much of which borders on the depraved.
To the north are the Dragon Clan Canyons, its multitude of mesas and drop offs named after the many relocated dragon-kin reservations forced to take refuge there after The Extermination Wars’ only treaty passed in the Kin’s favor.
Spirakander’s people have a healthy love for a good day’s work, athletics, and music. Take a walk through King’s square sometime and pull in all the exotic sights. Those magicians and merchants certainly know how to entertain their customers.
Towerne –
High Overlord Chaos’ tower network, Towerne could rightfully be called a kingdom simply by the expanse of its demesne coupled with a truly ludicrous power projection. As Chaos and his dimensional operation minions maintain a rather extreme amount of towers in a multitude of different dimensions, and they almost always go undetected, Chaos has a perfectly fortified assault point for the majority of high-society dimensions in The Omniverse.
It also makes for very easy vacation travel. Sick of your job as a mechanic minion? Change over towers and enjoy the mountain air for a bit. Sick of that? Change over again and take a dip in a beach. Sick of that? Just change jobs, Chaos wants you to be happy, after all, and he pays you in food and belly rubs, so it might as well be doing something you enjoy.
Trench –
A great canyon between Kanvane and Ragnivan spanning miles across, the Trench has been around as long as cartographers have survived the visit to the locale.
These old map-makers weren’t just hopping into the chasm without regard, of course, rather there is a nation of insects that actively defend it as their nest. These “Trenchlings” are intelligent, speaking creatures and are many in variety, as if they are in fact multiple terrible races banded together to protect their king, who apparently boasts some high-power psychic link to his subjects; the natural outcome of such well-organized and focused solders would be that the Trench is considered a no-man’s land for any other than the approved insect races that call it home.
They’re a weird bunch, and not the sort you’d want for tea.
The innards of Trench sport a pleasantly-cool, if dreary atmosphere, what thin slivers of light peering inside bearing life to the sparse evergreen forests within. There’s a lot of room down there; it would be a fine place to put something, especially if it were evil, and you wanted it unwittingly protected by a giant swarm-army of insect people.
Whihelmish –
The least populous kingdom of the W.K.D.R. and a certifiable shithole. If you don’t believe me look up the Justice Department’s crime statistics on the Western Kingdoms at large. There’s a reason the general public calls the well-snowed Whihelmish “Ninety five percent of the problem”. It is in fact because Whihelmish boasts 95% of the department’s recorded crimes, so that said it’s a dangerous, cold, rotten
place, ruled by a small oligarchy of overlords who call themselves “The Lords of Desire”.
Popular pass times are drinking, gambling, prostitution on both the giving and receiving end, and brutal murder.
Don’t go there, it’s garbage.
Here’s Kell:
Kell sincerely hopes you’ve enjoyed the story thus far, and that you will look forward to the next exciting release!
Go over to https://kellinkston.com/ to sign up for updates and find out the moment the next book’s out.
Here are some other books and short stories also by the author:
Sci-fi:
Voidstar Empire (Series)
Solution (Short Story)
Fantasy:
Nocturna League (Series)
Breath (Series, Short Stories)
Kell wishes you to have a wonderful day!