Kyle Aarons

just a little more inspiration!

Hey, come on Castle Authors!
Let get excited about this. It is a wide open disaster story! Do what you want, make up the details. The story possibilities are near endless and I am jumping in on this with both feet! (Already over 22,000 words!) lets get this part started!

I am working at tweaking this some. it has not been dismissed nor has it been forgotton

hope this will help you on that some

David,
Thank yo for the kind words.
The world I endeavored to build is just as much of the story for me as is the actual plot. One thing I have really poured my heart into is making the entire world a place a reader could see and understand beyond what the characters have to deal with. It is one of the reasons I have so many open threads and characters of 'lower levels' included. I want readers to get a feel for the whole, not just the super powerful characters and world of the rich. For while the rich and powerful are very important for the world, they are too far above those of the lowest casts to matter much if at all. For those who live in the Kandric world and have to deal with the day to day life and the struggle of survival of just putting a roof over head or food on a plate, there is a whole different feel and struggle.

Breaking ground on chapter 21 with background work... Started LST weekend

Kandric may be a bit slow between chapters but it is over 700,000 words at this point with some "chapters" being the size of books. It also is draining to write for me, since it is my most detailed work with literally hundreds of named reappearing characters. Also, for those who like to look for foreshadowing and clues, I have taken 15 years so far in hiding clues in Kandric, some that do not come to the surface for hundreds of thousands of words. So, while slow, there is a reason.
 
finally all those who know me, knows I go into a different mental place when writing Kandric. the speech of characters is wide and diverse and I do my utmost to make them accurate throughout. That is a drain and I work on nothing else once I start a new chapter of Kandric.
 
Here is something for readers to think about: what Pontarious uses in chapter 29 was hinted at being available over 20 chapters prior. it was a single line, spoke by Kandric, but those who do not know history well enough my never find it.

Breaking ground on chapter 21 with background work... Started LST weekend

More than a Christmas Story: Officer Rail is back----- with a vengeance.....

the way I work EXP in the kandric world is you have to defeat in some way shape or form someone/something of Equal echelon to get one exp. Now if you are fight lower Echelon things, you have to defeat your echelon squared in a single altercation to get one, so.......... at teaching echelon you have to defeat 9 echelons worth of lower beings (9 primary, 2 secondary and 1 Primary, ext...) therefore at Expert you would have to defeat 16 echelons worth, 25 at Master 36 at Legendary... this means many times you fight and get a big zilch.. too bad, so sad
so there you have it. Not nearly as easy to go up once you get to badass echelons... also more exp needed to advance so it just keeps getting harder unless you decide to pick on things way higher than you... oh, like a major demon, a great dragon, a lich... you know, the things that are the real monsters under the bed or in the sewers under the house (also still technically under the bed  )

Aw hell! You just had to go and write that, didn't you!

Is that why the force from the kill was not shared with Kandric and his siblings, as well as Conth who was in the immediate environment? Or is experience-sharing unique to killing dragons? Or maybe the demon was not quite as narcissistic as dragons and chose to not give any death gifts?
The demon was utterly destroyed, a Dragon has an afterlife somewhere. Therefore, there was nothing put out to share, just the raw power of the kill. Now it did put Kandric 1 exp from Expert, but he was still only teaching afterwards due to the limitations on the body to accept such magical advancement
 

I would never use a reference like that in a time period where it didn't exist. It was a built in clue. But hey, there are several others scattered in almost all my stories. It makes if fun to drop a hint and let it sit on a low simmer for a bit...

Is that why the force from the kill was not shared with Kandric and his siblings, as well as Conth who was in the immediate environment? Or is experience-sharing unique to killing dragons? Or maybe the demon was not quite as narcissistic as dragons and chose to not give any death gifts?
The demon was utterly destroyed, a Dragon has an afterlife somewhere. Therefore, there was nothing put out to share, just the raw power of the kill. Now it did put Kandric 1 exp from Expert, but he was still only teaching afterwards due to the limitations on the body to accept such magical advancement
 

OK< this is about the best I can do for character sheets I started with Aster- Kandric looks like I will have to type in since I have him in an even harder format to paste in, and just to do this I had to change over to my note pad since I cannot copy and paste from my main computer.
 
Keep in mind all stats are based on a number of 1-100 with 50 being dead average
 
 
At the Start of Story
 
Character Name: Aster
Age: 45
Human Equivalent:  12
Race: Alphar/Darkforest
Sex: Male
Weight: Heavy
Height: Above Average
Hair: Classic Silver
Eyes: Classic Green
 
Current Social Status: Secondary Echelon (Merchant)
Birth Social Status: Royalty
Current Attack 125
Current Counter 55
Magic Defiance 98
 
Training
 
Field: Animal Adept
Subfield one: Healthman
Subfield two: Metalworker
Guild Rating: Secondary
Actual Echelon: Secondary Step 5
Force 8
Experience 86
Birth Traits
Primary Hand: Right
Power
81
61
Agility
67
51
Hearing
77
IQ
80
60
Sight
89
Charisma
79
79
Smell
60
Quickness
48
36
Taste
73
Appearance
88
88
Touch
43
Talent: 92
Learned Traits
Acrobatics
42
32
Bartering
87
66
Climbing
50
38
Cooking
57
43
Diplomacy
77
58
Language
49
37
Leather Quality
76
57
Metal Quality
94
71
Music
65
49
Nautical
68
50
Navigate
44
33
Perception
72
54
Riding
44
33
Running
66
50
Swimming
78
59
Wood Quality
60
45
 
Where there are two Numbers the first is the Base number (when adult age of 16 Equivalent is reached) the second is the current age adjusted stat
 
At Chapter 29
 
Character Name: Aster
Age: 45
Human Equivalent: 12
Race: Alphar/Darkforest
Sex: Male
Weight: Heavy
Height: Above Average
Hair: Classic Silver
Eyes: Classic Green
Current Social Status: Secondary Echelon Guilded (Merchant Caste)
Birth Social Status: Royalty
Current Attack: 160
Current Counter: 95
Magic Defiance: 190
Training
Field: Animal Adept
Subfield one: Healthman
Subfield two: Metalworker
Guild Rating: Secondary
 
Actual Echelon: Master Step 2
Force: 18
Experience: 251
 
Birth Traits
Primary Hand: Right
Power
91
68
Agility
89
67
Hearing
77
IQ
80
60
Sight
89
Charisma
79
79
Smell
60
Quickness
48
36
Taste
73
Appearance
88
88
Touch
43
Talent: 92 +131
 
Learned Traits
Acrobatics
42
32
Bartering
96
72
Climbing
50
38
Cooking
57
43
Diplomacy
85
64
Language
49
37
Leather Quality
76
57
Metal Quality
100
75
Music
65
49
Nautical
81
61
Navigate
44
33
Perception
72
54
Riding
61
46
Running
66
50
Swimming
95
71
Wood Quality
60
45
 
Where there are two Numbers the first is the Base number (when adult age of 16 Equivalent is reached) the second is the current age adjusted stat

I could let others answer that for me, but basically, yes. Brile and O'Connell have that degree of would building and so does Defenders and Re-E. Destiny is to a lesser degree, and I still think the main reason I was brought into the RU was because I like to build worlds and my services were desired primarily for that reason. The world with the least detail of all my stories is AQ, and I still have world maps, backgrounds, psionic power charts, wormhole tech specs, and that sort of thing

Glad the maps helped, Roger & Tyler
 
Ricky And anyone else who really wants to get down to the nuts and bolts of age equivalency ratings:
 
age equivalency is something I spent a long time figuring out before I could even start writing Kandric and it is a whole host of things so it is more than just a mindset. I built an RPG based on this world and in the game concept the longer it takes for a person to age the more experience he/she needs to advance within the echelon framework I set up. In simple terms a person with a longer lifespan needs more magic to fill his or her pool  of magic than someone with a shorter lifespan.
 
Wen I first started trying to conceptualize this concept I came up with a way my brain can fully understand it so I will try to explain it here in the same way.
 
Think of each race as having an inner pool to start with. Everyone starts with some magic at the bottom of his or her pool. The more magic a person starts with the more innately talented they are. However, unless someone trains to utilize this magical pool the pool starts to dry out and is totally empty by the time a person is the human age equivalent of 25, but between the ages of 16 to 25 the base talent line dwindles so for every 2 years past the equivalent age of 16 the pool forever looses 25% of the being's base line talent. This doesn't mean the being cannot start to train and work to start filling the pool up, but it means he or she starts with less magic than he or she would have otherwise had available at a younger age. By the time a being reaches 25 the pool is empty and cannot be filled at all this person is now totally mundane.
 
Once fully trained, however, the being can then work to pour more magic into his or her pool. This is done though book learning, apprenticeship, or using the magic within the pool in the real lto gain needed understating of the magic to pour more in and thus advance. In simple terms the pool is getting fuller though learning.
 
Now, with this in mind, let me go back to races.
 
I want you to think of the Echelons as an upside-down stepped pyramid (look up Djoser if you do not know what a step pyramid is) each step needs to be filled before a being has enough knowledge and ability to advance to the next Echelon. However, on the path to the next Echelon, there is some advancement in abilities and magic, this is the steps within the Echelon.
 
The longer living a race is the bigger their pool is to start out with. The longer living races tend to have more magic inside them from the start. For instance a Garm or Alphar spell caster starts out with considerably more casting force than a Human. In simple terms their upside-down pyramid is bigger to start with. To understand this think of it in terms of filling up a container. If you have ten square containers each with a different sized bottom, but each starts with a single centimeter of water at the bottom, the one with the biggest bottom will have more water, but will also take more water to fill it up. At the point the container is full, it is time to "graduate" to filling up the next container which is even larger than the first one. In this case it is magic, not water, but the same thing applies.
 
And this is where the age equivalency ratings come into play in advancement as well as in physical development: Because the longer living races have a bigger upside-down pyramid to start so it takes longer to fill it up to get to the next stage of advancement. While the average Human can get fully trained in five years, an Elf needs longer and an Alphar needs much longer. It is because of this the vast majority of longer living beings take their time and learn at a pace more in line with how fast they physically age.
 
I am going to put this in game terms so you can all see numbers:
 
 human who is in training gains experience as he or she works under his or her Teacher and slowly gains extra magic to fill his or her pool until the Training Echelon is totally full at 11 points of experience. When the 12th point is gained he or she breaks out of Training Echelon to become Primary Echelon, or fully trained (at which point he or she is no longer considered a child as well) however along the way, ever 2 experience points, the apprentice gains a step within the Training Echelon as the magic within his or her pool increases.
 
Now lets take a look at an Alphar.
 
An Alphar who is in training also gains experience as he or she works under a teacher and gains extra magic to fill up his or her pool until the Training Echelon pool is filled, but they have a bigger pool and it takes longer to fill so they need 21 experience points to totally fill up their Training Echelon pool until at 22 points it overflows and they become primary Echelon. While this looks like it would only take twice as long, it actually takes longer because the base line mindset gets in the way.
 
Think of a Metal Worker Subfield Apprentice at a forge: Those who are around other races see a human progressing faster and my be jealous at first but then they see all the mistakes, all the rushed work, and see their counterpart growing up so much faster and they roll their eyes and shrug. They have plenty of time to learn and the Human's work is so rushed and shoddy. Wouldn't it be better to spend an extra couple of years pumping the billows and lean how not to have the hot sparks burn your arms by watching those older and stronger? Besides, pumping the billows builds strong arms needed for the harder work to come. The Alphar's slow aging also means slow body development, so until he or she is old and strong enough to pick up a forge hammer and really work on the metal , what is the rush?
 
This is further reinforced if they are only around their own kind. Life doesn't need to be rushed. There is time to do perfect work. For does it really matter if a suit of armor takes an extra couple of months to make when one will be wearing it for decades if not longer? Why make it flawed. You will be wearing it for a century or two if you really do it right and take care of it. So make it comfortable, pretty, and functional all at the same time, for protecting one's self is not the only thing armor is good for.
 
On the other hand, there is nothing really stopping an Elf, Dwarf, Garm, or Alphar from jumping in and taking the hot sparks to the arms and learning from mistakes. It still takes more life expericne to fill up the pool to break into the next Echelon, but they can do it quickly. It would normally be frowned upon in communities of their own kinds and could easily end up as being seen as "trouble makers" and find themselves without a teacher. Conner, Aster, Kandric, and many of the others in the Kandric Saga didn't have people telling them they needed to slow down and learn some wisdowm. They had people pushing them while they also pushed themselves.
 
Also and equally important, when one defeats someone in the Kandric world, even if they only subdue and not kill, they "earn" a gifting of magic from the defeated being in the form of a magical and knowledge grant. This normally does not mean the winning person knows something about the defeated person, but gains some "insights" into what that person knows about magic and magical force. So,  when someone who is lower than his or her enemy in Echelon and ability takes down someone more powerful the "gifting" gives considerably more magic to fill the pool while if they defeat someone below their ability, there is very little to be learned so the gifting is much smaller. Also a very high power defeated being can gift part of himself to the winner as a way of showing respect and by making the person stronger it makes it look like the fight was more even than it really was. This saves some face since the person instantly becomes a much more fierce opponent and thus is seen by others as being deserving of credit as well. However, this is not something commonly known since it is exceedingly rare for it to happen. Instead many see such gifting's as a "bow of deference" to a superior being which keeps the mystique of the defeated powerful foe intact.
 
Thus someone who walks around picking on Mundanes all day long will gain almost no experience while a person who manages to take on and defeat a demon is likely to get a couple of really big waves of knowledge which causes faster advancement as the inner pool gets buckets of magic dumped into it.
 
Besting a Dragon, especially a Great Dragon... well there is a sure fire way to get a gushing of magical understanding and experience beyond the reach of all but a very very few and will also get the given gifting from the Dragon because, let's face it, no Dragon wants to be seen as being bested by some scrub. For even in death Dragons have a hell of an ego.
 
Now does this make more sense or did I just totally muddy the pool

hope this will help you on that some

As for female characters, while there are some hard hitting females, the Kandric world is dominated by males, at least in combat. That does not mean characters like Klorna, Sagell, Kaylaria, Jostallis, and others are not key to the story or can't fight. While it is easier to write a male character for me, I do have several females in Defenders, O'Connell, and Brile.

OK, just so you understand the way it works in the Kandric universe, you can never go up 2 echelons, the body simply cannot handle it. Kandric went from Secondary to the very top of Teaching after the Demon kill. It is the most he could progress without his body overloading and killing him. Hope that clarifies things. some.

I think I am hurt.... Didn't like poor Yarnay's group... Pout... You may want to re-read those sections, because I spent a great deal of time on time for a reason... Also keep in mind, I think it is good to see lower powered actions instead of all the heroic powered characters. I hope others enjoy a fight where things are more evenly matched. Also, keep in mind, while there are heroes that go down in history, the story behind them is every pit as important to the bigger picture.
and Zirgrinch, just because I haven't talked about the high council for a bit... you may want to investigate what time and words were between Kandric saying "lock, stock and barrel" and the time Pontarious shot someone with a flintlock...
or, to move to another story, in GS the time and words between a camera sliding under a bed and it coming back into the light of day...
Just saying, some things may not be nearly as "dead" as they seem

from the depths of the realms of Kryploc.... Grrrrrrrrrr.........
Take your puny spell and shove it oh dabbler of magic. Tell you what, why don't you go against the little *%#&@)(^!)*^$%^!()#!#&%($&!*%^#!(*&.... Huh, well ^&^(&)(^%()&)*%$^@_)$@_&, it won't let me say what I really want to call the... the... um... well ^(&$%#*()(*#*()(*%... Let's just call him the little creep what he is now calling himself, Premier.
Keep in mind, dabbler of Magic, I was not the first Great to fall to this Premier, I was the second and thus he had the powers of his first kill within him. I was not simply going against the Premier, I was fighting the Dragon Death Gifting of the Great Green female. So if you want to ask your question, why not ask the Green whore who fell to him first. Me I fell to a Premier! After you do so, go find this Premier and slap him in the face so you can join me down here and I can amuse myslef with your afterlife for a second to two."

A note on this story: This was an attempt by me to take on "racism" and "religious bias" in a way that takes color and normal religious themes and twists them so people can hopefully look at both with a different skew. I can only hope I have succeeded to some degree.
 
As pointed out above, I certainly left it open for another book. I have several ideas down and even some introduction chapters, but I am holding off since of all my stories, I have received the least comments on Defenders. I don't know if it is just to 'off' for most, or those who read it didn't really look at some of the deeper things I was trying to accomplish with it. I would sure like to know if it is worth my effort to continue to expand this universe since it is enjoyable for me to write.

as a side note, since Joe is not going to continue, let me see a show of hands of those who really want to know or care about Lawrence and Aaron.

As Al mentioned above, Chapter 19 is all but Book 19. The editorial staff asked for me to put two sections back in that I originally took out because it was getting so long. However, much of this is my own fault because I am trying to edge closer to the timelines of other stories that my characters have or will show up in. Also, if you wanted to know if some of the threads were going to at least touch on each other, this chapter (once all its parts are posted) will answer more than a few questions while opening up a few others.
One other side note: there have been a few people who have suggested I only focus on one race in a world full of many races and social statuses. I am hoping this chapter puts to rest some of those e-mails, but with my luck I will be told I am patronizing and stereotyping other races. If that is the way you see it, then take a closer look at the story and the world we really live in.
 
I would really love to know at this point, what character is everyone's favorite since by now I feel I have fully developed several outside of the GS as well as pretty much the entire GS.