The 3 Kingdoms: Volk, Sihr, Shǎn Diàn

Okay, I changed my mind again. 

Instead of The Three Cities, the series will be The Three Kingdoms. I was hoping that making the books about Cities rather than Kingdoms would simplify the plot line, but nope, it didn't work. So, we're back to the original idea.

Guardians of Volk, the first book of The Three Kingdoms will introduce the three kingdoms; Volk, Sihr and Shǎn Diàn. 

Volk is a kingdom that, unlike both Sihr and Shǎn Diàn, runs on both clockwork and magic, one with a rigid society, a polite gloss that covers the steaming underbelly of desperation and ruin. It is a kingdom built upon niceties, order and nobility; where the men are supposed to be gentlemen and the woman, ladies.

Unless you're one of the Guardians. The Guardians, although they are of noble blood, often moved between the high class tea parties and soirees to the prizefights and taverns. They are highly regarded (and feared) and generally spoiled. When you are a Guardian, there is no such thing as a closed door or a closed fist, and boy, do they take that for granted at times.

Volk is a kingdom where the rich gets richer and the poor is, well, poor. Where smiles can hide fangs or claws (in our Guardian's cases, literally) and reputation is everything. Hypocrisy is a way of life and where rules are meant to be broken...as long as you remain discreet.

Sihr, is a kingdom that runs on magic either Wild (magic that the nomadic tribe uses) or Academy (city folk magic), they are very closed off with the neighboring kingdoms, protecting their magic but is opened to trading with both Volk and Shǎn Diàn out of an agreement they made long ago. Although the magic that sweeps the land responds to both man and woman, it is found that woman can control it better. In fact the Magic Academy teaches more woman than men, even in war magic. The city is protected by the Priestesses by blood, magic and sword. 

Because of the abundance of magic, clockwork machines and gadgetry rarely works in this kingdom, so they rarely use them, although they use some but mostly little house objects. 

 Shǎn Diàn is a kingdom that is a combination of three different cities; the Nah, the Ixing and the Hanuk, and is usually always on the brink of civil war. The kingdom is rich in knowledge, clockwork technology and art. They are also famous for their military prowess, agriculture and engineering.

Aristo Dasciano

Name: Aristo Dasciano
City of Dominion: Volk ( a sort of version of Victorian London)
Family: The Noble House of Dasciano
Family Crest: A Crescent moon. A wolf silhouette. A hand grasping a sword.
Age: 19
Rank: Guardian Alpha.
Description: Dark skin, dark eyes, dark hair. Tall with deep-set and sharp eyes, a wicked mouth, a raspy voice and a quick tongue.

Aristo Dasciano is the Guardian Alpha, the leader of the Guardians--men from the noble families who has the bloodline that makes them able to turn into giant wolves. This is not shapeshifting magic, like the people from Sihr are able to do, although it is a type magic; it is blood magic, hereditary magic that passes from father to son.

When the Guardians Turns into the Beasts, they are unable to hold onto their humanity which is why they need the Companions; one that will be bound to them through blood and magic. The Guardians choose their Companion when they first Turn, usually at the age of six. When Aristo Turned for the first time, the Beast instinctively searches for its Companion and quickly finds Kiera.

At first, he was aghast that his Companion was a girl, something unheard of, but the bond between them was undeniable, so he accepted it more quickly than even Kiera had.

Although he doesn't act like it, he's most conscious of the sacrifice that Kiera makes in order to be his Guardian; the looks, the whispers, the damaging gossip that follows Kiera around. And most importantly, he is very aware of the way Kiera's grandfather treats her; a combination of cold neglect and scathing disgust. He is protective of her not only as a companion but also as a woman.

Aristo is a trouble maker, sly and slippery and used to getting his way and being a Guardian, he gets his way a lot. Not to mention, wherever he goes, all the other Guardians follow. Each of their family despairs of their attitude and depends on Kiera to be the calming influence much to Kiera's dismay and frustration.

Kiera Shakur

Name: Kiera Shakur

City of Dominion: Volk ( a sort of version of Victorian London)

Family: The Noble House of Shakur

Family Crest: A Crescent moon. Two swords

Age: 17

Rank: Companion to Aristo Dasciano

Description: Dark skin, dark eyes, dark hair. Petite and shapely but hides it underneath shirts and suits.

Since she is chosen as a Companion who is usually always men, her being the sole exception, Kiera had left all her feminine trappings, cut off her long hair and worn male clothing since she was chosen at the age of 10. 

Since then she has been treated as male and has experienced more freedom than other girls around her. But in exchange for that freedom she is also deemed an outcast and a peculiarity. She has to give up the future that girls of her rank hoped for: marriage and children since who would want to marry someone like her? A girl who is not really a girl; a girl who is trained in the art of war instead of the art of conversation. Who is taught how to wield a sword rather than a paintbrush. Who converses far too intelligently, and behaves far too freely with other men. 

Being a Companion, no one dares to give her a cut direct, or refuses her entry into their houses and offending her Guardian, but whenever the Guardians and Companions manages to drag her to one of the society parties or personal outings, she is whispered and stared at.

Frankly, though she often wondered how her life would be if Aristo didn't choose her as his Companion, she knew that the life she lived now is better than what her family would ever offer for her. And by family she meant her grandfather, the Patriach of the Shakur family. 

With both her parents dead, she is left in her grandfather's not so tender mercies. 

Kiera is the child from his son's second marriage to a woman who did not come from nobility, and her grandfather hated that and didn't bother to hide it. Cold neglect and vicious words were often her grandfather's choice of torture. And the situation only got worst after Kiera is chosen as a Companion rather than her two half brothers; her father's sons from his first marriage. 

Background ideas

These are the imagery that brings me to mine of The Three Cities: Volk (a fantasy version of victorian London), Sihr (the fantasy version of the Middle East, basically the desert), and  Shǎn Diàn (a fantasy version of somewhere in China).

(Shǎn Diàn)

(Volk)

(Sihr)

The Three Cities have a long-standing alliance with each other, strengthen by their trading ventures. Volk, the city in which Kiera Shakur lives is a version of Victorian London; unlike Sihr ( a city that runs wholly on magic) and Shǎn Diàn ( a city that runs on steam and clockwork) uses both magic and clockwork which is supplied by the other two cities. 

In return, Volk supplies them with their military power and the protection of the Guardians of Volk.

Book 1 of this series: Guardian of Volk, takes place in Volk (obviously).

The Guardians of Volk are nine men that comes from the nine noble families of Volk who has enough magic in their blood that lets them able to turn into giant wolves. Aristo Daciana is one of these men and with his fellow Guardians is trained from infancy to fulfill their duty and obligation to protect the cities if needed. 

But when using the power of the beast, the man disappears completely, which is why they need to be controlled by a Companion; someone who is bound to them through blood and magic.

A Companion, like a Guardian, is chosen when they were children by the Guardians themselves. When the Guardian first uses his power, the beast will pull him towards his Companion.

This is how Aristo finds Kiera.

But there is one problem, Kiera is a girl when all Guardians and Companions through the ages has been men only. 

But Aristo's beast ignores Kiera's two half-brothers and chooses her instead. 

So, Kiera leaves her identity as a girl and lives the life of a man in a rigid society where gender equality does not exist, scandalizing her family and everyone who sees her, much to Aristo's amusement.

But in the official inauguration of them as Guardian and Companion something happens that turns Kiera's world upside down. It is discovered that she isn't the chosen companion of her Guardian, that there is another more suited; her illegitimate half-brother, Faelan.

Confused, frightened and left out in the cold, Kiera must find her way back to who she was, who she would have become before fate played her false. 

But after experiencing so much, would she be satisfied with the life she was meant to have as a young, normal girl of noble blood?

Copyright © 2012 by D.F. Jules

...all artwork comes from deviantart.com.. 

NaNoWriMo novel: Preperation

Book 1 of the Three Cities Series: Guardians of Volk

Genre: YA. Paranormal. Fantasy. Clockwork

Kiera Shakur has been handpicked and chosen to be the companion of one of the Guardians of Volk since she was a child. As a companion she must abandoned all family ties, her self-identity as a girl and all imaginings of the future; marriage, husband, children. In an occupation that is traditionally held by men, she must stand alone with only her fellow male companions and Guardians as friends. Having 'tainted' blood in one of Volk's noble family, and being a woman in a man's world, Kiera did not feel like she belonged anywhere except beside her Guardian, Aristo Daciana.

Then one day, in her official inauguration as Companion, it was discovered that she wasn't the chosen companion of her Guardian after all, that there was one more suited, her illegitimate half-brother, Faelan.

Confused, frightened and left out in the cold, Kiera must find her way back to who she was, who she would have become before fate played her false. 

But after experiencing so much, would she be satisfied with the life she was meant to have as a young, normal girl of noble blood?

Copyright © 2012 by D.F. Jules