"Would you abandon the world if it abandoned you?"
If you're looking for the Twilight book by the same name, see Eclipse (2007).
Eclipse
is an original story authored by Serocco and published on Fiction Press. Set in a vaguely Urban Fantasy scenario where All Myths Are True, the world as we know it is run by beings who have learned to weaponize their Battle Aura in various fantastical ways, while competing with one another for supremacy over their world. Beyond the borders of Earth, numerous mythical species — ala vampires, werewolves, demons, dragons, et cetera — confront (or in some cases, perpetuate) the borderline Cosmic Horror Story lurking around the corner.
Eclipse chronicles the story of Alice Sitchri, a mysterious Succubus who clearly isn't a normal Succubus, as she tries to reconnect with her past in a universe where she remains the most loathed and feared creature in existence.
Contains examples of:
- Anti-Magic: Cullivers are beings with the power to repel, regress, and/or remove Auras. This is the reason many call Skuurnur "Anti-Aura."
- Balance of Power: Skuurnur's very existence has prompted the establishment of a very delicate social order; every other major world power exists to counter Skuurnur's might, which is so vast that a war with them is considered suicide by the leader of one of those major powers.
- Battle Aura: Taken to the literal extreme. Armigers and Evokers are beings who weaponize their Auras, ala manifesting them in the form of Power Armor (the former) or animals (the latter).
- Big Bad Ensemble: Most of the top villains are completely independent from one another, but equally threatening and simultaneously realpolitiking.
- Blow You Away: Escou Draldoch uses really warm air that prompts objects to implode when coming into contact with his talons (which produce the hot air).
- Catchphrase: "It is my belief..." by Draldoch.
- Crapsack World: The more we look into the world of Eclipse, the less appealing it becomes. Many of the human-run nations are starkly divided along class, and the realms beyond the Earth are oftentimes much worse.
- The People's Republic of Amestris is ostensibly a democracy, but it's largely controlled by an unelected class of bureaucrats who'd rather enrich themselves as opposed to the people they supposedly protect under their patronage machines.
- The Commonwealth of Ream is a federation of city-states run by a group of warlords called Exarchs, who've set up a central government that ultimately answers to them. People were subjugated by the Exarchs, who continue to steal from the people to enrich their already-bloated wages and cities. Administrator Hasidic made things more tolerable, but the divide is still stark.
- Nether is an utterly horrid hellhole. It's surrounded by a horde of ravenous Hellhounds who spew a toxic, blinding fog that masks their presence. Its main city in Morrikou is filled with a bunch of hollow, empty inhabitants who've been forcibly reprogrammed by a madman. Apocesis, an underground realm, is an enormous magma-filled crater resembling a volcano, with a central "city" that's run like a deranged amalgamation of a prison ward, a concentration camp, a reeducation center, and a torture chamber, where beings are "domesticated" and reprogrammed by a narcissistic megalomaniac.
- The Dreaded: Alice Sitchri, our heroine, to many people, who either loathe or fear her (often both). Very few are indifferent to her in-universe, and even then, those are mostly just one-off background characters who seem interested only in going about their own business.
- Empathic Weapon: Destriers, which are Augury weapons powered by the wielders' Aura.
- The Emperor: Essachan Sherruk, whose official title is Imperator of Caerleon (described as a society where soldier and civilian are one in the same).
- Exotic Eye Designs: The people of Cessair have eagle-shaped pupils, which help in making them incredible shots.
- Deadly Euphemism: Auerbach's apparent abuse and general mistreatment of Demons? He calls it domestication.
- Fantastic Racism: Cullivers (like those in Skuurnur) do not like Aura Users, and the feeling is mutual.
- A rare case that merges with No True Scotsman is found in Nether with the Demons. The more human-looking demons are "upperclassmen," while Ghouls are persecuted by Auerbach because they are insufficiently human-looking, and thus, insufficiently demonic. Note that the upperclassmen are just sullen, blank, and silent creatures who do nothing other than cannibalize humans - it's not a good life to have and they're largely just... empty, but Auerbach maintains that they are the "perfect" demons.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Most vampires shown here act like regular, everyday people, really.
- Healing Factor: Draldoch regenerates injuries that would automatically kill off any other being. This includes regrowing his talons and closing up a large gash across his chest.
- Hero Killer: All of Skuurnur's Freiherren, due to being walking Anti-Magic Implacable Men.
- Hope Spot: Chapter Seven, Empress of Impulse. An incredibly angry Alice is persuaded to calm down, the object of her rage - Gideon Petraeus - is forced to resign as Governor of Cessair (which triggers an election that Freesia was sure to win), and by this point, the family issues in the House of Dreyvor are at least softened. Sounds like an ending to a story, in more ways than one, right? Well... not in here. Not at all. Once the smoke/fog (generated by Alice) clears up, we're treated to a frightening sight - an invading fleet quite literally at the walls of Cessair. Well, since the situation cleared itself up, perhaps they would leave peacefully...? Nope, next we see is the admiral ordering his forces to open fire.
- Magitek: Called Augury, which utilizes the elements as well as magic and technology. Such products include bottles, with wave-like engravings, that automatically refill themselves, or cylindrical engines that keep buildings levitating.
- Man Behind the Man:
- Hangman's Noose (chapter 18) reveals that Emperor Auerbach sent Nyurei Arihiku to find the main character. It was also Auerbach who created and unleashed the Hellhounds into Nether.
- Path to Safety (chapter 20) reveals that Escou Draldoch was apprehending and transferring Aura Users over to Skuurnur as part of a non-aggression pact between himself and Skuurnur, which helps explain why he attacked the heroine in the beginning. He's not the only Zoan in Menagerie doing this, but he is the most visible face doing so.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Zoans seem to be amalgamations of various other animals. For example, there was a nameless Zoan (killed by Kyrie) who had the head of an ox and spiders for hands. Draldoch, by contrast, is a bipedal velociraptor with grasshopper legs and a crocodile snout.
- Monstrous Humanoid: Nyurei Arihiku is a very lean creature with jet-black skin, red outline around his skin, an Eyeless Face, an elongated head, and skin-less mouth. Justified in that he is a demon, but it's still fairly jarring.
- There's really no other way to describe Skuurnur. Despite looking like knights, the Freiherrs are fairly freaky looking. The short and stout Ayew Brogguhn has meat mallets for hands. The impossibly skinny Oroesius Caulhyr has forearms modeled after crossbows. Yuehni Siggueir has spiked pauldrons that turn into tentacles and a gaping maw encompassing his stomach. Eraldo Supryor has tentacle-like fingers and legs that are split open. Beyniph Osciteck also has split legs with silver wings at the sides and three black rods trailing down to his feet.
- Morality Kitchen Sink: Being a member of one faction or group does not automatically have you pinned as inherently "white" or "black". Nobody is really motivated by vague concepts of "good" or "evil," and largely go about their business doing what they want rather than what's "expected".
- N.G.O. Superpower: Skuurnur possesses a staggering amount of paramilitary might and resources for a group without a nation. They have an intelligence department (led Beyniph Osciteck), an army (led [[{Afrofatic}} Ayew Brogguhn]]), a science and research division (led by Eraldo Supryor), a navy (led by Eighinn Stossuhl), and an artillery/armory/weapon manufacturing agency (all made by Oroesius Caulhyr).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: At the end of the first chapter, Draldoch attacks the girls because they were using weapons powered by Aura (in reality, Kyrie is the only Huntress of the two). He ends up wrecking a large chunk of his city anyway, which Alice addresses at the end of chapter two. When he gets the chance too look at what happened to his city post-brawl, this was his response:Draldoch: Well, shit.
- Unstoppable Rage: When Ramona was, erm, effortlessly eradicated by Stossuhl, Jameis literally beat Stossuhl to a pulp... and then had his hand crushed.
- Urban Warfare: The second half of Urban Upheaval (chapter eight) switches to this format. Surprisingly, the nameless grunts actually end up doing some pretty significant work, at least compared to most Red Shirts elsewhere.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: There's a surprisingly large amount of level-headed people in power, which serves as a good contrast (and a bigger highlight) for those who aren't reasonable.
- Take Eschemi Hasidic, the Administrator of the Commonwealth. In her debut, she takes her time to weigh the options (i.e. mentioning that military intervention against Skuurnur could provide a deterrent for future invasions - if the invasion was premeditated), while pointing out the flaws of said options (e.g. there is no precedent for military action against one country). Her first major action on-screen was to shoot down Sherruk and Kahranna at the meeting and head to Cessair so she could negotiate with Skuurnur personally.
- Beatrice nu Kahranna initially comes across as a cold military leader with No Sympathy over the refugees in Cessair (because it is her job as a Valkyrie to collect the souls of the dead) and a hardline stance against Alice Sitchri. When pressed about it, Kahranna reveals that she thinks Alice is responsible for the Valkyries' inability to take the souls of the dead in places where she shows up. The reason she wanted war with Skuurnur was so she could determine if these isolated incidents weren't emblematic of a species-wide extinction event (implying that a Valkyrie who can't collect souls defeats the purpose of being a Valkyrie). Eventually, she's forced to back down, authorizes her colleagues to stand at the ready in the event of a spillover, and conducts her own investigation over the soul-stealing.
- Yuehni Siggueir, despite being a member of a paramilitary Anti-Magic organization, is often the first of the Freiherrs to balk at the extremism of his colleagues. He's pragmatic enough to broker deals with neighboring species and opposing world powers whenever necessary to avoid conflict. It's not for nothing that he's Skuurnur's go-to diplomat and pseudo-bureaucrat, although his colleagues think he's a Slave to PR and way too cautionary.
- Rudeyveon Asuturo, the Executor of the Citadel, is the loudest advocate against military intervention of any kind. He may have a distinct No Sympathy behavior towards other people, and seems to be strictly concerned with his own internal affairs, but he's profusive in his belief that international military intervention against Skuurnur is stupid, unproductive, and suicidal.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: One of the more... dramatic cases, really. We start off with a bartender who - while dangerous - was not much of a match in the end for our heroine. Our next major villain, Eighinn Stossuhl, annihilated an entire city, eradicated their government, and systematically picked apart the main supporting cast to that point. Whoa, that was quick.
- Starter Villain: Escou Draldoch, the bartender in the first two chapters. He's fairly tough on his own, but he's removed fairly easily by both heroines (although Kyrie had some trouble).
- War Hawk: Essachan Sherruk is vociferous in his desire for military intervention against Skuurnur after Eighinn Stossuhl attacked Cessair. Even more so after the Cessairu refugee fleet was suddenly attacked and destroyed, purely on the possibility that it might have been Skuurnur.
- War Refugees: Eschemi Hasidic convinced Yuehni Siggueir to allow her to deploy a fleet of her own ships to transport the people of Cessair into a sanctuary. The refugees were all eradicated by an armada of nuclear warheads.
- Wham Line:
- In a setting where humans (and others) weaponize their Battle Aura, we are introduced to a commander of Skuurnur, a fairly unpopular paramilitary organization that is known for being Anti-Aura. For much of chapter five, Skuurnur is portrayed as a militant paramilitary corps rooted in racism... then we get confirmation as to why they are called Anti-Aura. Once Freesia hears it, she backs away from using her Empathic Weapon.
Eighinn Stossuhl: Well, more to the point, why do you think Skuurnur is called Anti-Aura?- At the very end of chapter seven, when everything calms down after Petraeus backs down, we get a very alarming final two words.
Eighinn Stossuhl: Open fire.
