Lex Claiborne has spent her entire life in a suburban town called Eveswillow. And she hates it. Embittered and dissatisfied about the expectations others have of her, her life seems to be nothing but a slow walk to the unpleasant inevitable. Until she is given a strange crystal pendant for her seventeenth birthday, and she finds herself being followed. Fearing for her safety, she runs off into the nearby woods at night, and unknowingly passes through a doorway to an alien world, in a place called Tsierr, where she is wanted by two opposing factions for her ownership of the crystal, a rare piece of technology. When Arella, leader of the Orrisken faction strikes a bargain with her for temporary employment in exchange for the chance to return home, and the Murighar of the Underfolk sends out his best operatives to capture her, Lex finds herself caught in a bitter rivalry, and part of a story that she barely knows the half of.
Rise of the Shadows is a smattering together of all the speculative fiction genres. Although it would probably classify as fantasy, it blurs edges with sci-fi (not hard sci-fi, mind you) and horror.
Expect individual plot points to change about. The thing is still under heavy construction, as the world is rather challenging to develop, and I want to get the story right.))
Provides examples of:
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel - Though the setting is vaguely futuristic in appearance, characters wear many, many styles of clothing originating from many different time periods and cultures.
- Badass Normal - Istvan. He simply fights using martial arts an gathers intelligence, while most everyone else works with their bio-interfaced technology, and he somehow remains as one of Arella's top operatives.
- Beauty Equals Goodness - Subverted. Lex and Feran Pravi are arguably the most homely of the entire cast, yet they are the central characters. (Although whether they are truly "good" or not is up to debate.)
- Beneath the Earth - Murighar has set up his operations and built a citadel deep underground. Additionally, many of the larger cities on this world are built partailly underground.
- Bittersweet Ending - In the end, nobody gets what they set out for from the start, save for maybe Misty and Istvan. They all wind up pretty hopelessly disappointed, except for the few things that give them some reason to keep on going.
- Eternal English - Averted. Lex has a very hard time in Tsierr until she meets Istvan, who, improbably, knows English as well as Tsierran.
- The Fair Folk - The fey are groups of a largely tribal deviation from humans. They can interbreed with humans, but also tend to be more feral, and oftentimes nomadic.
- Fire-Forged Friends - Lex was assigned to kill or incapacitate Feran Pravi. Feran Pravi was assigned to confiscate Lex's crystal, and take her as prisoner. They were perfectly ready to carry out their respective assignments until they each needed the other to survive Murighar's halls.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality - Murighar doesn't agree with the way any of the existing societies are run, and so becomes ruler of the Underfolk, where his primary goal is to create a good world for his people, albeit in a rather militaristic and Knight Templar-ish fashion. Arella is the leader of the much larger government faction called the Orrisken, and considers the Underfolk to be a threat to the peace of humans in general, and so wants to suppress them as much as possible. Lex is not very fond of either side, due to her rebellious nature, and Feran Pravi, in his own words, simply does not take sides because any given organisation has too many faults in operation to be truly worth siding with.
- The Grotesque - Feran Pravi, has a slight hunchback, withered right arm, and various other twisted features. Lex's first thought of him is that he looks like an inbred vulture. He turns out to be very sweet to anyone who treats him with decency.
- Idiot Savant - Feran Pravi often speaks in oddly phrased sentences, has a hard time interacting with people, and can be rather detached and amoral, but he is VERY good at manipulating situations themselves to suit his purpose.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Despite her sarcasm, temper, and apparent harsh attitude, Lex has a soft spot for her friends, and will stand by them through nearly anything.
- Knight Templar - Murighar wants to build a utopia for his people. He will not let a sigle person stand in his way, and any defectors from his cause will be punished most severely.
- Leeroy Jenkins - Lex has a tendency to run headfirst into a fight, and damn the consequences, whether or not that fight is a reasonable idea.
- Meaningful Name - Feran Pravi, from Latin feralis for "of the dead" and pravus for "crooked".
- My Girl Back Home - Della, to Istvan. Unfortunately Lex doesn't know this until she confesses that she likes him.
- Oblivious to Love - Lex is very much in denial about Feran Pravi's attraction to her, to the point where she refuses to see it until Pravi himself brings it up.
- Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids! - Lex: "What, you mean Istvan? More like I'm in lust with him. I mean, he's gorgeous, but I just don't do the sappy romance thing." and "Pfft, everyone should be allowed one chance to act like a hopeless sap once in their lives without judgement later on."
- Squishy Wizard - Feran Pravi is perhaps the cleverest of the team, but he's also completely out of shape, and has a crippled right arm.
