In the past few years, I’ve spent much of my online time researching and analyzing and planning how to manage my writing career.

Almost a year ago, I attempted a Kickstarter funding drive to launch a publishing venture with some friends and fellow authors. It didn’t meet its goal, but I learned a lot from the process (including how many people like things I’ve written and what I want to write in the future). I’m happily humbled by people’s support of that project and hope to relaunch it soon.

Even so, I’m forced to admit that the last year has not been good work for me. I’ve been spinning my wheels without intending to do so. I’ve gotten lost in the research mode–searching a labyrinth that doesn’t end.

Case in point–I have over 7000 pages/posts in my “Read It Later” app to review (yeah, right). I have 1.4 gigabytes of articles saved in the name of publishing and writing research (that’s 3450 articles in PDF format, of which I’ve probably read maybe 20% in full and 50% in brief scans to read later).

Were I to actually put all the time into reading all that material, I might get around to writing by the year’s end–and that’s if I don’t read or download any more material.

So, to the point–no more time lost to research or “research.” If I’m online, I’m either putting something on my blog(s) or I’m answering emails. Nothing more. I’ll keep an eye on my Google Reader feeds (which at maximum were pulling in more than 100 feeds to the tune of 200-400 posts to read daily) but will only prioritize the top 15 or so; if I don’t immediately need to read the article based on my current Work In Progess, I’ll most likely mark it read and move on. Sadly, I have to do this with a lot of friends’ sites as well, despite really wanting to stay in better touch.

I have spent more time researching than writing. I’ve only finished 4 stories in 16 months and that’s a poor output by any measure. Sure, I’ve been busy raising a toddler and preparing for the arrival of Baby #2 in less than a week, but still…..

So, expect a bit more activity here of a creative nature, and please feel free to egg me on (or jeer), suggest topics you want to hear about, or steer me away from wasting more time.

©2012 Kharndam.com. All Rights Reserved.

Now, youngling, the world-birth’s distance from us today makes knowledge of it seemingly pointless, but that is the short-sight of most mortals. Know that our lives are trees with roots stretching far from the present, nourished (or poisoned) by the humus of history acknowledged (or history lost, ignored, or misunderstood). What you understand of your history allows you to stand and grow to great height or shrivel and falter with hardly a leaf to mark your passing. Too, even the most well-meant actions can turn to rot by ignoring what nourishes one’s family (or racial) tree.

—Petram of Sarval, Day 151 in 1670 Overdrake of the Drakereckoning calendar

First Age—Age of Birthing

The Age of Birthing was the world’s First Age, and the Creation Times lasted approximately 8,000 years.

Circa -24,000- -16,000 OD (8,000 years)

The world formed from the elements, a world of fire and water, air and earth. Many islands and lesser attendants pushed up above the waves along with the four continents that were Rokhal and Shael and Orpak and Lammok.

First before all other living things were the Erl, the trinary plant entities who birthed the Flora and were creator, mother, and father to all plant life. Then came the Primal, the trinary mother-father-creator of Fauna, who populated the lands with all animalian creatures, predator and prey, warm- and cool-blooded, biggest to smallest. Among Erl and Primal, plant and animal life propagated and flourished among all elements on Dharual.

Next came the Progenitors—the Four Races of Reason: the Dragons, the Giants, the Goblins, and the Shay. All other sapient races on the world today descend from these four in some degree. In secret, the Shay allied with Primal and Erl to help protect all life and environments, while the others worked to exploit flora and fauna as resources and fuels for their needs. To dragons, giants, and goblins, the world was to be tamed for safety, and there was peace and creation for a time as all the races found their equilibrium and place in the world. But the Dragons knew greed and they sought to conquer all rather than share any.

Second Age—Age of War

The Second Age lasted five millenaries and was the Age of War when Dragons fought to (and briefly did) dominate all life on Dharual through the Spawning Conflicts.

Circa -16,000- -11,000 OD (5,000 years)

Dragons took mates by force, crafting new servitor races through abduction, experimentation, and other malign methods. They bred with Erl and Primal, spawning carnivorous plants and monstrous behemoths to keep the natural world beneath their claws. From captured Shay they birthed many Fiends that enforced their will over the Giants. They forcibly bred with Giants to create the original Ogres that dominated the Goblins. Willingly or no, Goblins mated with Dragons to unleash the Reptlar races across the world to ensure they had a place among the powerful (and races over which they could certainly rule).

In response, the Shay and the Giants in turn created Humans and Dwarves to challenge the fecund spread of Goblins and Reptlars. They bred with Erl to spawn the Fey races of such variety less than half were ever recognized by history. They too with Primal to birth the “Primal-Amalgams” or Prigams, as the name has survived for the animal-humanoid fusions of all elements and forms. All these races allied as the Armies of Light to fight the onslaught of the Dragon overlords. Dwarves built Dhiirm and Shaalth, their great homelands of on the continent of Lammok, and in them they crafted their weapons with great secrecy and precision.

Rokhal became the primary Battlelands in this war, and some dwarfish and giantish fortifications from these conflicts survive as ruins in the present day. By the end of the age and these conflicts, the Dragon and Fiend populations fell to near-extinction on Rokhal and Shael, though the Fiends survived in remote pockets on Orpak.

©2012 Kharndam.com. All Rights Reserved.

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Our prototype for the exclusive badge (available to a maximum of 40 patrons, 10 of which have already been claimed) has been made by Eric Joseph, an artist in Michigan whose intricate historically inspired art pieces blew me away when I first encountered them. He’s got a website up showing a number of his pieces, so please go check his work out at griffinstone.com.

For those in the American Midwest with a taste for medieval history, Eric’s also showing and selling a number of pieces at the International Conference on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan today and through this weekend (May 12-15, 2011).

I’ll try to get Eric to chime in later with more specific details on how he makes the badges, but here’s an image of the thick leather badge prototype, the finals of which may have some tweaks to the design and most likely a hole drilled for putting the badge on a chain or thong. (Or would patrons be more interested if it were a pin-backed item with no hole? Drop a comment, please, if you’ve an opinion either way.)

Akanri Mark (hand-made by Eric Joseph)

That’s the real art piece available in a production run of 40 pieces and ONLY available through the kickstarter funding drive. Now for the world-detail and story stuff that’s more my bailiwick….

Within the scope of the stories and the KHARNDAM™ world, each Akanri crafts his or her individual badge, rather than having a mass-produced mark to identify members of the order. Each badge is unique, though all share similarities enough to mark them as Akanri since all must have the central image of a hand and a number of circles around it. The circles either signify auras in general or they might sometimes reveal a person’s degree of mastery in aura manipulation.

As an example, the horn-headed rhamath Karov of Flaroth’s Heart wears his badge carved on a slate disk amulet, three concentric circles within the palm of its hand bearing three squarish fingers and opposed broad thumb.

One other note in world and character detail: Any Akanri bearing such a mark inside Imperam territory knows it carries with it an implicit death sentence, as the Akanri are much misunderstood and feared by Impral military and magical forces alike. Such laws have stood for over eight centuries, even though few today remember or know why Akanri are so feared inside the Impramense.

More updates and info soon, and thanks for your patience, your support, and your time.

Steven Schend

©2012 Kharndam.com. All Rights Reserved.

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Thanks again, all and every, who’ve taken the time to stop by and read this nascent-site-on-the-rise….

Steven

©2012 Kharndam.com. All Rights Reserved.

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It’s a world devoid of elves, though it was not always so. The Star and Stone Wars attest to that, their ruins remaining millennia after the mutual destruction of the dwarves and their enemies.

But that’s old history and there’ll be more to talk about soon.

Our initial launch project can be found at Kickstarter.com or through this link!

Please say hi or leave us a comment or a question either here or at the kickstarter.com site, and we’ll try to answer as soon as we can.

©2012 Kharndam.com. All Rights Reserved.

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