More on Bloodstones in the Ruon Chronicles and a New Stargate Article
Also, Tattoos and some ramblings about the Dragon Bane plant
Hello again Fellow Adventurer,
It seems like I’m finally catching up on doing these weekly again! The time has just flown by (as usual) and I also packed my first Box o’ Books for The Great Trek 2022. One of the local book shops were kind enough to give me a shopping trolley full of boxes after they packed out their Christmas stock. Yay!
But I digress…
In Writing News – Sci-Fi and Greek Mythology
My second article for the sci-fi fansite The Companion was published! It’s about Stargate SG-1 again (because why not), this time taking a deep dive into the Greek mythology that infuses the episode “Torment of Tantalus”. Click on the link to read the full article.
In The Ruon Chronicles News – Bloodstones, Ash Tattoos, and Dragon’s Bane (O, my!)
I’ve been spending more time fleshing out the details of the magic systems and bad guys of the world of Airtha-Eyrassa after realising that they do need some more work. They also had to be included in the story more because 1) it’s cool and 2) because it makes the stakes higher for the other characters.
You can read this newsletter, “Bloodstones, Blogs, and Weird Search Histories”, to find out a bit more about the initial ideas around the bloodstones. Although the name is quite self explanatory, to be honest, haha.
More Information About the Bloodstones in The Ruon Chronicles
I came across the mineral spessartine while reading the Rock n Gem Magazine’s website (because I’m that gangster, apparently) and it looks exactly like the bloodstones in my imagination. These, luckily, are not made from blood, Airus or otherwise.
Here is a photo of a piece of spessartine, taken by Rob Lavinsky:
Now, doesn’t that just shout “bloodstone”?
Anyway…
So there I was, working on the bad guys and the bloodstones when it hit me: the Khalver use the bloodstones to become more like the Lewjan (the Very Bad Bad Guys).
The Khalver basically want to “ascend” (or should that be descend?) to become like the Lewjan in strength and power. This is why they prefer to use Airus blood for bloodstones. However, Airahna (someone who shares mortal and Airus blood) blood can also be used – dun Dun DUN.
Here are some more of my worldbuilding notes on the bloodstones
The Ver-nith (dark magic) that is used to make the bloodstones is extremely powerful, so it’s not just anyone who knows the incantation that can make the stones or who can perform the incantation without causing serious damage to themselves.
This is part of the reason why the Airus went into hiding and exile for the most part - they know that by being between mortals they are in a lot more danger of being taken and killed for their blood than if they are with their own people.
The reason for this is that the Khalver and their followers have found devious ways of living between mortals (many times they are mortals) and, in this “camouflage”, they can get close to the Airus.
As the centuries passed and the Airus kept more and more to themselves, the knowledge of the bloodstones faded until they became little more than legends to the vast majority of those living in Airtha-Eyrassa.
Ash Tattoos and Dragon Ceremonies
The ideas about the bloodstones have actually led me to work more on one set of “bad guys” and their Dragon Ceremony that is basically their coming of age ceremony.
I’ll go into the whole ceremony next time and give you an early draft of it taking place in the storyline of the Chronicles, but in it tattoos play a large part. And I was happy with that until I realised that I had no idea how people used to make tattoos. After all, I can’t have my characters all take an Uber Van to the closest tattoo parlour, now can I?
(Note: No, it’s not the tattoos that make them bad guys and no, not all the bad guys have tattoos. I also say “bad guys” as they’re not cardboard cutouts who twirl their mustaches while guffawing over taking over the world. It’s more like some of the people have been led astray and over the years a few of their beliefs have become a bit wonky.)
So, I ended up looking at how these tattoos were originally made and the answer is: ash. My research started with Ötzi the Iceman, really, as I knew that he had tattoos thanks to a documentary I watched a couple of years ago. (You can read about Ötzi the Iceman and his tattoos over here.)
Of course, that led me on to research about these “ash tattoos” and traditional tattoos. I found some really interesting reads while doing so:
Scarification (Includes a note about tattoos made from ash.)
Now, although these and other articles I read gave me a good idea about the way in which the tattoos are made, I’m very aware of not taking the actual cultural beliefs of these various cultures and going ta-da! Look at my bad guys, y’all! In many ways it’s actually helped that I had the whole ceremony already figured out beforehand.
The Ash Tattoos and What Their Made Of (Besides Ash, Obviously)
Okay, so the ash for the ash tattoos are made from a plant found in the Farlands as well as growing in Agravér in the Midlands, called “dragon’s bane”.
Dragon’s bane plants, when cut, releases a deep red sap that quickly hardens to resin – much like the dragon’s blood tree in Socotra (quite the coincidence!). This resin is burned along with the bark that has been removed from the tree to form a deep gray-coloured ash.
This bark-and-resin ash is then rubbed into the cuts made in the skin of those receiving the tattoo(s).
But, more of that next week when you’ll see the actual ceremony in action (with some more notes because I don’t want to give away spoilers).
Until next time, stay safe!
Love,
Carin