The exercise:
Okay, here's one of the things I promised for this week.
We have now done six yearlong prompts, from Mejaran in 2013 to Empires in 2018. That's a lot of material to work with, and it seems a shame to just abandon them.
So I thought, hey, let's not.
Instead, let us take one day of each month in 2019 to return to them, in a little something I'm calling Yearlong Revisitations. We could pick up the story where it was left. We can leap ahead into the future. We can go back and fill in gaps that were left, whether they were due to time constraints or some other reason.
In theory, that's two visits per story. But we'll see how it actually plays out. If it feels like momentum is building in one tale, we can go there three or four times. Or more!
And while I'm not necessarily going to do them in order, we are going to begin by seeing what's going on in Mejaran.
2 comments:
I like the idea, though I feel slightly worried that I seem to have the task of going first with this: especially with Mejaran that was your creation and g2 played such a part in populating! Having now re-read it all (I'm treating only the entries written on the blog as canonical in order to avoid problems) I think my comments would be:
* we introduced a huge number of characters (largely my fault I think, with Orsana being one of 12) and the plot gets lost a little with so many people in it.
* We got better, with practice, at maintaining continuity between months. Here we definitely jump around in places and it gets hard to remember what's happened or is happening.
* Azmar, despite being Morgana's only contribution, turned out to be pivotal. Well done Morgana!
So, without further ado, let's see where we are in
Mejaran
Lady Liefert scanned the assembled villagers. Next to him, Principal Jocelle also looked this way and that, a smile on her face. There had been some discussion over whether a man could run for Lady and a woman for Principal, and then more over whether the titles should change, but in the end Mejaran had always had a Lady and, it seemed, always would.
"I think everyone's here," said Liefert quietly. Jocelle nodded, still scanning the crowd, counting under her breath.
"People of Mejaran!" Liefert raised his voice. He knew he was shouting, but it was the only way to be sure they all heard him. "Can you hear me at the back?"
"Yes!" That was Yarel, stood right at the back and waving a cheerful hand. Jocelle's eyes rolled, but she said nothing.
"We have reached a trade agreement with Four-corners village. Their deputation left this morning, and Azmar left with them. He will determine fair prices for both of us. This means," he took a deep breath, "we now need to build better jetties on the river. They cannot transport ore quickly over the Nadaga mountains so it will have to be by the river."
"What about building a pass in the mountains?" The voice came from the middle of the crowd.
"We talked about it. A lot." Liefert reached for a glass of water and soothed his throat, which already felt sore from shouting. "And we in Mejaran talked about it too. If anyone can tell me how we'd do it before Winter starts, I'm still willing to listen."
There was an upswell of muttering, local conversations in the crowd. Liefert let it happen for thirty seconds, soothing his throat with more water, then shouted up again. "Until then, we need to work on the river then. We need that ore, we all agreed on it. So now we need to be able to get it."
"I never thought we'd build a port," said someone near the front. Jocelle hid a smile behind her hand.
"Port Mejaran!" yelled Liefert. There was a wave of laughter. "We'll need a portmaster."
There were a few more administrative things to cover, but the meeting was essentially over now, and people started to drift away, getting back to work. After he'd finished speaking, Liefert sat down next to Jocelle.
"That went well," he said.
"We'd done the groundwork already," said Jocelle. "I think we could have expected that."
"I'm still pleased."
"Good. Now... there were too many people in that crowd," said Jocelle.
"What?"
"Well, two too many. One of them was easy to recognise; Divana wasn't disguising herself at all."
"Divana came back?"
"The other one... how many times now have we thought Shotek was dead?"
Greg - my main memory, before re-reading it, was that I kept trying to get you guys to take the story in certain directions, but ending up doing so in such a way as to not make it obvious what I intended, and so you guys kept not taking things where I expected. And then having to rethink the whole story pretty much every month.
After re-reading it? My main memory is the refusal to let Shotek die. Which, I see, you've continued... :P
Right, let's see if this will fit in one comment still.
Mine:
"Do we really trust Azmar to lead the negotiations with Four-corners?" Yarel asked Orsana as they walked back to her forge after the village meeting had concluded. He looked around to make sure there was no one within earshot, but still lowered his voice before adding: "It's only been three years since, you know."
"The Betrayal?" Orsana did not lower her voice. In fact it seemed to Yarel that she was speaking louder than usual, as though daring anyone to object to the subject of their discussion. "He paid his dues then and has been a model citizen since his release."
"Which means...?"
"That no, I do not trust him in the least. But I do trust my brother, and I'm certain that he has taken precautions to ensure that Azmar does as he should. Also..."
"You really want to get your hands on that ore," Yarel finished for her before quickly dodging to his right to avoid being swatted away. "Hey, I don't blame you! Four-corneres has some of the best ore in the Nadagas, or so I hear."
"There is none better on the continent, though I'm not sure why that is... or whether or not I trust the leaders of that village any more than I do our own Azmar."
Yarel mulled this over in silence as they completed their journey to the forge. Once inside, Orsana began sorting through her inventory and supplies, grunting occasionally in either satisfaction or annoyance. Yarel watched her as he continued to ponder what his friend had told him. When he looked down a few minutes later he was surprised to find his knife in one hand and whetstone in the other.
"There might be a way for us to keep a closer eye on things," he said at length, his words slow as he continued to parse his thoughts.
"Us?" Orsana paused in her work to raise an eyebrow at him.
"You heard Liefert at the meeting, we'll be in need of a portmaster once construction is completed..."
"A joke, though obviously a poor one."
"... and if we moved your forge to the river it could function as a building for both duties," Yarel continued as though his friend hadn't spoken.
"Move my what?" Orsana growled, her attention now fully on Yarel.
"Just think of it - no need to transport the ore back and forth from the river, we could figure out a way to use the river to power some of your equipment, like a mill or something like that!" Yarel, caught up in his own excitement, was speaking quickly now. "You could tend the forge and keep an eye on things. But probably not all the things, though. All that ore is going to keep you busy. You'd need my help. Do you think my mother would hire me as portmaster? Then we could work together to keep Mejaran safe and-"
"Slow down, slow down youngblood!" Orsana said, her palms held up before her and the makings of a smile on her lips. "There is much to discuss here, and little point in doing so without the Lady and Principal present."
"So you're in?" Yarel asked, his eyes glittering with excitement.
"I did not say that," Orsana growled, before relenting to add more softly: "Though I do think Principal Jocelle would be open to hiring you as portmaster, if only to keep you out of any other trouble you might get yourself into..."
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