ENUMA ELISH ("When skies above...") -_-

Ok here goes, I bet a lot of people are lost when it comes to my story, I don't post for awhile, and then when I do... it's this whole long Indo-Arabic schpeel with a forebodingly complex backstory (that hasn't been revealed yet). So here is a summary of all the chapters so far:

-Oh wait, here is the direct link to my story so that you wont have to hunt through this forum to find all the chapters: www.fictionpress.com/~linguaXmachina


A few important terms so far:

soma- the manipulation of the elements using ones will and life-force.
divya- people that have the ability to naturally use soma.

(NOTE: I have a lot of random Indian/Arabic terms /made up objects in this story, don’t get caught up with them. These are the only two that are important. The others get explained and alluded to… as they are usually minor verbs and nouns that if NOT explained would be completely useless.)

Main Characters so far-

Arjun (17)- Rajesh's servant and close friend.
Rajesh (17)- Prince of Balra, Mahvash's younger brother.
Mahvash (28?)- Queen of Balra, has a lust for power.
Harun (32)- Eminent Kshatriya (head of Queen's Guard), Mahvash's past love interest. Rohit's guardian.
Rohit (16)- speed divya, lone survivor of House Isra (!1337 NINJA WARNING!)(ANTIHERO) :ph43r:
Enlil (17)- Boy from a village outside of the Balrain Kingdom…
Imran (18)- Performer from Aurangezeb. Summoner. Tahira’s brother
Tahira (18)- Performer from Aurangezeb. Siraj’s lover. Summoner.

Secondary Characters
Bharat(old...)- Royal Trainer in the fighting arts, secretly a water divya
Siraj (18)- earth divya, noble son of Dumesh, Raja of the city of Aurangezeb.
Sezen(...20...something...)- mysterious divya, mysterious past. (ANTIHERO)
Dhaval (late thirties?)- High Priest of Balra


SUMMARY

CHAP. 1

Mahvash's veiwpoint. We learn the history of how Mahvash came to have the throne and her relationship between Harun and her lust for power. The first part of this chapter is interuppted briefly by intimate dialogue between Harun and Mahvash, which is meant to be a tiny fore-glimpse into their future-er current, rather- relationship.

The second part of the chapter introduces Rohit, the quiet mysterious speed divya. He is called a rakash because of his unearthly demeanor and speed. He is traveling with Harun and his troop in their search to find the rest of Mu’Tasim, a legendary book that is said to be an apocrypha of the Holy Books and contain powerful information (don’t they all?). They are coming to what they hope to be the end of their journey, a city called Aurangezeb. Once arriving there Harun instructs Rohit to find the Mu’Tasim by any means while he and his men feign an audience with the Raja of the city, Dumesh. Then we witness Rohit’s cool-headed awesomeness. Going back to Harun’s POV, we get a glimpse of what the Raja’s palace is like. Back to Rohit’s POV, even more awesomeness, he finally finds a noble boy his age that appears to be trying to hide the Mu’Tasim. After tense conversation, we break away from Rohit right as the battle begins.

Inside the palace, Harun inquires of the Mu’Tasim and Dumesh becomes annoyingly vague. Harun notices the pretty girl playing the govind (a sort of cello). Back to Rohit, he’s fighting the young noble boy, Siraj, who turns out to be an earth divya. In the end Rohit beats Siraj, killing him and obtaining the Mu’Tasim. Yaaaay job done *raucous applause*. But wait? What did the dying Siraj say in his last breath?

“Their age must not come.”

?!

Who’s they?? What age?? How is it coming?? ANSWER ME SIRA- dangit your dead….

A cliffhanger before a long and seemingly unrelated detour into the next batch of characters.

Seemingly.

CHAP. 2
Here we are introduced at first from the veiwpoint of Rajesh. As the prince of Balra he is tired of the royal life's comfort, and has been for a long time. Arjun comes in to complete his normal morning tasks as a servant. Arjun and Rajesh are close friends since childhood. Arjun was given to Rajesh when he was younger to serve as a companion to alleviate the "sacred isolation" that all royal children were to go through until a certain age. Because of this enforced companionship, Rajesh and Arjun consider themselves brothers.

As a "rite-of-passage" ritual, all noble and royal boys are to endure the Oath of Akhil. This ritual is one in which all participating boys are to fight to the death in order to end the childhood cycle of life and enter into the cycle of manhood. Rajesh is extremely against this. Tradition prevails however, and he still must continue training under Bharat to prepare for his Oath.

Also, Esmail gives Rajesh a thin, red-threaded wristband to give to Radha after Rajesh takes his Oath.

?!

CHAP. 3

Rajesh pretty much owns everyone in the Oath...yeah....pretty much. However, at the end he tries to keep Esmail alive to take the Oath with him, but Esmail insists he kills to him to preserve his honor. Ah Esmail... you could've had it SO MUCH BETTER.
:rolleyes: In the end Rajesh is the last-man-standing and completes the Oath.

CHAP. 4

This chapter seems to start off from Rajesh’s point-of-view, but (misleadingly) its Arjun’s. In my usual jumbled expect-you-to-know-what-I’m-thinking style I jump between Arjun’s reflections on his friend and their history. Soon we meet Dipak a really minor character that Arjun is in a sort of band with (he is actually an aspect of one of my real life friends hehehe), and they head to the saraya-basically a bar- to perform for money. When they get there, they begin to perform, and a mysterious dancer appears and begins to dance. Everyone (especially Arjun) is entranced by her. Who is she? Is she noble? If so, why is she here in a lower-quarter saraya? Thus the introduction of a love interest ^_^. The performance stops, and Arjun is abruptly summoned to the palace by Rajesh.

When he arrives, he hopes Rajesh is back to himself, but he sees that he isn’t. Rajesh instructs Arjun to deliver a letter to a noblewoman, along with a small threaded wristband (why a simple wristband instead of a royal crest…? XD). After a failed attempt to show support, Arjun leaves. He goes to House Sonal, and is escorted to the women’s inner chambers, a place in houses where men rarely go during the day. In the midst of awkward conversation Arjun delivers his letter, and hurries out. Upon his exit however he catches a glimpse of the dancer girl from earlier in the day.

Arjun decides to visit Bharat to train. Here we get to see a glimpse of what’s to come, the techniques of soma. The Amit-Mutar (a mixture of Sanskrit and Arabic meaning Endless Rain, of attacks that is.), Damayanti-thirtha (Subduing River), are just a few of the moves shown here.

CHAP. 5

ROHIT! A character that’s really starting to become my favorite (because anti-heroes RULE). He’s traveling from Aurangezeb and, OH SNAP we learn his history. Rohit is the last member of a decimated assassin family, House Isra. The priesthood from the capital city came and took over the village, killing the noble family and ridiculous counts of heresy against the national religion (basically the Royal family). Rohit was hidden in the surrounding forest by an older brother and stayed there in exile for...uh… years. All that time he became a legend, and was thought of as an evil curse cast upon the town (which is a pretty good story considering his looks: long hair, crazy lookin‘ eyes, unearthly speed…). When Harun and his men had been searching the Fringe towns for the Mu’Tasim they stumbled upon this story and decided to solve the villages problem in exchange for information. The priests and the soldiers all went into the forest and were soon attacked by crazy Rohit. And I mean CRAZY, heck the priests SUMMONED earth avatars and the kid still beat them down. In the end Rohit lost and was captured and bought by a merciful Harun.

Aw.

Back to the present, Harun and Co. decide to rest in the city of U’dashir. After arriving, Rohit gets weird vibes from a servant girl (not that kind). A day later, our restless anti hero is exploring when he catches sight of a servant, which conveniently corresponds to a commanding voice in his head. After following the creepiness, Rohit discovers a flame-engulfed dungeon with only one prisoner. After freeing the prisoner for no apparent reason other than curiosity, the prisoner-man ends up being awesome by putting out the fires with shadows and covering the room in pitch black darkness. After the explosion seal written all over the prisoner’s body blows up, the chapter ends.

Can you tell I like cliffhangers? Yeah, I’ve taken Alias and LOST in J.J. Abram’s “School of Writing”.

(okay bad joke.)

CHAP 6.
Chapter starts off from Rajesh POV (OMG longtimenosee! howya been buddy??), and his guilt-trip. He’s changing, become more of a man and realizing his responsibilities to his kingdom. Short and sweet. Amazing what a little trauma and self-reflection can do.(NOTE: My attempt to develop yet ANOTHER character in my cast of myriads.)

NEXT.

ROHIT! He wakes up and- “OMG! What the- where- who are- why am I- HUH?”. He is an unwilling companion to the mysterious No-Name-Shadow-Thought-Man. They stop to rest and before Rohit can drift off to sleep he realizes a whole bunch of crazy people have been following them from U’dashir? Why? As always, explanations later ^_^. No-Name-Shadow-Thought-Man tells Rohit that they are trying to get to Vishal, Balra’s capital city.

NEXT.

VILLAIN ALERT! VILLAIN ALERT!

Dhaval the High Priest of Balra, remember him? (look in chapter 3, not the summary, the real chapter) Probably not, but he’s not such a minor character anymore, oh no! A sudden hint at not-so ancient technology and he’s talking to his brother Girish, who is who-knows-where, but obviously someplace far away (notice how he mentions “…up there?”). After talking vaguely about one of the characters (evidently Girish has a son down-there with Dhaval…), they discuss the discovery of the second-half of the Mu’Tasim and that melts into politics and repeated mentionings of “The Remnant“. Interesting… Dhaval appears to be working with the Queen, but he’s not as with the Queen as we were lead to believe eh (REF: “wench“)? Notice the name Ahura? He was mentioned briefly in the second chapter. Just to explain who he is since he’s dead: He was the previous High Priest, who was also a fire divya. He died of… ‘natural causes’…*cough*ASSASSINATED*cough*.

The conversation continues and Girish tells Dhaval that he is going to send his son, Bhuvan “down” to “…provide firepower when the time is right.” Dhaval heartily disagrees and his segment ends there.

Harun is wondering “Where? In the world? Is? Ro? Hit? Isra?” (*does a little dance* Carmen San Diego anyone?…Anyone? Come on…) He is still back in U’dashir and during these past few days he’s bee looking for Rohit in the city and the surrounding area. In this scene however, he’s resting and watching a musical performance by a bunch of pretty girls and boys. One of soldiers is drunk and begins to mack on one of the girls. Suddenly she goes ninja and pierces the freak’s leg and in the commotion the boy playing the flute summons shadows that take out the torches in the room (Ooooh…No-Name-Shadow-Thought-Man is everywhere! No, it’s not him.) The attacking girl uses freakish voice in the mist of the darkness to interrogate Harun as to the whereabouts of Rohit.

This voice is so compelling it makes grown men curl up in the fetal and crap their pants.

(…I want a voice like that…)

After a threat, the girl and the boy make the weirdest exit.

Through the ground.

CHAP 7.
ARJUN (howya been??), is training with Bharat. By now Arjun knows a little water soma, just enough to be dangerous. Bharat beats him, as usual but congratulates the boy on being able to naturally attune himself to water. After training, Arjun is in Bharat’s small bookroom and stumbles upon a book that just happens to be The Bible. Yeah. The Bible. What’s that doing there, you ask? Hehehe…all in due time, Padawan. Anyway, after a tense conversation between master and student, Bharat sends Arjun out. All the sudden a now classic moment happens: all the torches in the room go out. This turns out to be an illusion and Bharat finds himself talking to No-Name-Shadow-Thought-Man, who we learn can also be called Lilitu and The Dreamwalker (YAY! More titles to confuse you! XD). In this discussion we begin to see the plot wheels turning. Lilitu speaks of Lion-Eyes, whom you should now know to be Rohit. He also speaks of a gathering taking place in Vishal, that “…Two are following, and once I find the other he will come also.” Once again The Remnant is mentioned. Repeatedly. Which means they are very important. Also, another group is mentioned: The Nivasi.

Hmm…Yes you assume correctly. These two organizations are EXTREMELY important.

Moving on.

ROHIT(!) finds himself in a wagon in Vishal with Lilitu. When Lilitu goes to find shelter Rohit tries to resist and insists on knowing Lilitu’s name. The man’s real name is Sezen Lilitu.

Then the introduction of two new characters! Imran and Tahira. They are the performers from the last chapter. Right now they are riding on an avatar towards Vishal. After a brief reflection on past events Imran begins to play his flute…

OMG! Now outside of the Balrain Kingdom?! Another new character, Enlil. A boy who for now, lives in a forest village called Midvidukag. He is on post as a village Night Watcher, sitting up in the tall tower overlooking the land. He evidently really likes the air and sky…He suddenly falls asleep and experiences a vision. The vision pretty much speaks for itself: a group of young people gathered around a throne with a boy seated on it? Come on, think, who’s the only boy who’s royalty in this story so far? Exactly. Falling from the sky to a city in a valley Vishal. Check. Stopping above the face of a man in black clothes who says “Come”? Sezen. Check. Yeah.

So there you have it so far, a summary of my first seven chapters.

Questions you should be asking yourself:

1. “Their age must not come”? Who’s? Why?
2. What does the second-half of the Mu’Tasim say? What is the ‘Age of Man’ that Mahvash is trying to start?
3. Why did Esmail give the wristband to Rajesh to give to Radha Sonal?
4. Who’s the hot dancer chick?
5.WHO THE HECK IS SEZEN LILITU? Why is he trying to start a gathering?
6. Who is The Remnant?
7. Who are the Nivasi?
8. Who is Bhuvan?
9. WHAT THE HECK IS AN AVATAR?
10. What is Bharat hiding?
11. When will LXM’s story not be so confusing?
12. Does J.J. Abrams really have a writing school?

^_^

Don’t be afraid to ASK QUESTIONS at ANYTIME. I would be more than happy to expound on scenes, character relationships, plot history/connections and my made-up cultures. As long as they don’t reveal the plot its A-OK.

Excellent. It's a really good story and, as i've said before, a very complex yet immersive world. Don't forget to update this as you post new chapters.

Now to google "JJ Abrams School of Writing"...