The Creation of the Faerie Apocalypse Setting

I’ve always been a fan of the post-apoc genre. There’s something cool about rebuilding a world – being forced to rebuild a world – while having some knowledge and relics of the world before.

(There’s something even cooler about the concept of the post-apoc cargo cult, worshiping relics of a world you know longer know or remember. But that’s a story for another day.)

Add to that fascination a Cold-War childhood with the nebulous sense that the end is nigh, and a fondness for those comic takedowns that point out that damage done by super-human fights (Kingdom Come comes to mind), and you have the beginnings of the Faerie Apocalypse setting.

What happens when the monsters fighting to take over the world and the heroes fighting to save it are the same sort of being? What happens when their fights destroy as much property as the “bad guys” originally did on their own? What happens, in short, when hundreds of super-powered people suddenly start fighting over territory occupied by millions of humans?

What happens is an apocalypse, a faerie apocalypse. And it is in the middle of that mess that “Monster Godmother,” my short story, takes place.

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“Monster Godmother” can be found in What Follows, here:
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(We will be on Kobo shortly)
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The Aunt Family Setting – A Welcome

The family – Evangaline’s family, Beryl’s family, the family – has known known how to use power for a very long time. They’ve known who should have power, too – them, of course, and preferably nobody else.

It’s a big family, but there’s a lot of power to be had; they’ve been collecting it for quite a while.

And, because they understand – through hard experience, in some cases – what happens it you hold power without paying sufficient attention to it, the family condenses that power into one person in each branch of the family, an unmarried, childless woman who has, so the theory goes, no distractions from her power. Because the family is not known for its creativity, they call this woman the Aunt – and she is always the niece of the former Aunt.

Evangaline has recently taken on the mantle of the Aunt, but the family is already guessing that her teenage niece Beryl will be the next one to wear the mantle.

The “Aunt Family” setting is rural modern fantasy, set in an unnamed town where the family’s reputation has, over the generations, gotten around. The magic is quiet, but nobody really doubts that it’s there.

The Aunt Family Landing Page is here.

The Reiassan Setting – a Welcome

Welcome to Reiassan.

The continent stretches from the northern ice to the warm southern isles, carved by glaciers into long trenchlike valleys and shoved into high ridges of mountains that act like a spine down the eastern coast of the land.

The history stretches from its first settlers, stranded here by a climate change, through an age of magic and mercenaries, to the peace of ages and the subsequent chaos. It continues on through into the nation’s steam era, with the advent of goatless carriages, airships, and the harnessing of what was once called magic, sira, into aether.

The Iron Era, when magic was high and war was a series of dirty skirmishes, is a high-fantasy setting. Warriors ride into battle on war-goats, followed by sira-flinging mages. Armor is simple, magic is wild, and nobody is certain who will win the war, the northern Calenyena or the southern Bitrani.

The Peace Era, when religion binds up magic and war is ending in a series of complicated battles, is a low-magic fantasy setting. The peace has been signed, and much of what remains is politics. Magic is done quietly and subtly, and warriors head home to their farms. The Calenyena have beaten the Bitrani, and nobody knows what will happen next.

The Steam Era, when science has taken over and magic is a distant myth, is a steampunk setting. The Calenyena are firmly in charge, and engineers and scientists, politicians and scholars, adventure where once warriors rode. The Bitrani might rebel – nobody knows – but in the meantime, the aether will flow and the steam will punk.

The Reiassan’s landing page is here.