Turesia

January of 2013, I procrastinated working on ASH to draw up some character concept art for a work in progress.

Then, the entire month of April '13, I posted daily for the A to Z challenge, going into some detail on 20+ different aspects from the same story.

In September '13, Brandon Ax called me out in his blog (which, go check out his blog if you haven't!) to talk briefly about my next big project. By this time I'd already shelved ASH, not realizing I'd run a successful Kickstarter for it in December '13.

In March '14 I delved into the process I adopted to sort out a story with 20+ relevant characters.

I released A Sawmill's Hope last month, giving me no excuse but to dive into the thick of Turesia.

BUT in my typical procrastinating fashion, I decided, instead, to draw. This video (here's an actual link) is a time-compressed look at the third draft of a map of Turesia. It's 2+ hours squeezed into 9+ minutes, meaning for every second that passes in the video, about 13 seconds of drawing took place.

I'd like to discuss the music chosen for a second. First of all, to whomever eventually reads this story, I'm sorry. I didn't start writing it thinking I'd write the most tragic tale I could possibly imagine. But I'm afraid it will be. And so the music I would choose for a book trailer would reflect that.

Prelude to Liberation

This song feels like an entity has given its very hardest effort to make the best of a catastrophic situation... Like a girl planting flowers in the ashes of a destroyed city. To be honest, it's a little more upbeat than I'd choose for a trailer.

Reminiscence

Ugh... I can hardly listen to a note of this song without tearing up. Feel free to laugh at that. But in my mind I've adopted this song as the theme for the entire story. If there was a book trailer that highlighted the emotional, tragic, or otherwise painful moments of the story, this would be the song.

The Ultimate Treasure OR Seize the Artifact for Tallness

Finally, a song to match the action packed moments. This song best reflects one particular scene. A violent king has been granted the war he's always wanted. He's finally free to loose the terrifying force of his entire nation on his damnable enemies. This song reflects the freedom he feels, standing on the prow of his ship, like Leo on the Titanic, rushing over the Faithless Sea to crush his foes once and for all.

The Battle of Red Cliff

I'm just digging this song / score right now. If you're into Chinese history / legend, check out the film Red Cliff. It might be my favorite movie of all time (today, anyway).

~~~

Locations mentioned in the map -
Adenhelm
Ausgan
Erudition
Faithless Sea
Fohrvylda
Keswall
Kaedheim
Promontory
Redemier

Thanks for reading. I'd like to promise to release Turesia in 2015. We shall see.

David