12.04.15 - Weekly Update One: The World of Herbridia & The Awakening

Hello, Readers and Followers of “The Animal in Man”. This first week has been overwhelming! I’m finding it hard to stay in my chair since I’m constantly being floored by how much interest and support is coming my way, and I am so humbled by how awesome the Inkshares community has been in welcoming a fellow author. So please let me say thank you, thank you, thank you for being here, right now, reading this very first weekly update.

Some of you have already pre-ordered the book (again, thank you!), and some of you have elected to follow the project and get a little more details about it before taking the plunge. For that, I label you a savvy shopper, sir or madam! I plan on posting at least once a week, every Friday, with a fairly lengthy description of the world, the characters, and the themes that define The Animal in Man’s story. Besides poring over the enticing details that follow, if you ever want to know more about anything (I’ll even totally spoil the plot if you push me to it!), you can engage me @BulletTime000 on twitter and/or friend me on facebook. Clearly, I already know my story’s great (*ahem*), and I really want to prove that to you and earn your pre-order.

Today’s post focuses on the World of Herbridia. It’s a small planet, about the size of our moon, which is home to five animal kingdoms that have claimed their own territories to form five distinct nations, each with their own distinct culture, architecture, laws, and more. The Leorans are comprised of mammals that roam the plains; Corvidians are birds who call mountainous regions their home; Pescorans thrive in, under, and along Herbridia’s oceans; Drakorans are the reptilian race whose dwindling population stalks the swamplands and deltas; and the Thraxians are - were - a once-thriving kingdom of insects who thrive no longer since the Extermination Wars. (More on that bloody history in a future post for sure, as the events that transpired near the end of that war set everything in motion for the hero’s story.)

Understanding what’s constantly in the skies above Herbridia is just as important as knowing who dwells on her lands below. The Aigaion is a supermassive, perhaps ‘alien’ structure that wanders aimlessly just beyond the stratosphere. When it passes, it can blot out Herbridia’s sun for a hundred miles. The star that gives this world its light is Yinna, and her smaller yet closer sister Yerda is this world’s dark moon, surrounded by a thick asteroid belt and marred by a gaping wound that’s visible even to eyes less acute than a Corvidian Hawk’s. The myths of these celestial bodies have become the central belief structure of a cult known as The Mind, which has gradually risen to immense power over the last two decades.

But we’re not ready to discuss exactly how much influence The Mind exerts, how tight their grip on the hearts and, well, the minds of Herbridians has grown. Instead, for now, you ought to know a brief history of those last twenty years or so, and you ought to know the history of what came before them, and the great event called “The Awakening” that stands in time between them.

Life was brutal, for hundreds, maybe thousands of years before The Awakening. The foundations of civilization were there, but every Herbridian’s focus was ever on the preparation, the execution, the never-ending cycle of battle. Birth. Training. War. Death. For who knows how long. Nothing was written, nothing was recorded. No stories were told. No heroics remembered. No complete victories were ever reached. All five of the animal kingdoms could ever gain any advantage, as if some unseen hand was ever working to ensure the wars would continue forever. And they did. Until suddenly they did not.

A sudden wave of fugue and unconciousness struck every Herbridian down , inducing nausea, fatigue, sudden uncontrollable bouts of dementia. But after a few days, that wave passed, and when the Herbridians came back to their senses, their desire to fight passed with it. That part of their nature was somehow, inexplicably forgotten, gone like it had never been. The beasts in their hearts were silent. They no longer remembered why they fought, so they laid their weapons down (mostly), and for the first time used their sense of reason to draw borders, forge alliances, and carve out a true foundation for peaceful society. And from that time forward, the cult of The Mind rose to power as the architects of that society. While the Herbridians might coronate kings, rally around warlords, or nominate councils to govern their everyday ways of life, The Mind has always found their way to elevate themselves as these rulers’ most trusted advisers.

I’d love to tell you more about exactly how they do so, but I’ll save that for another day. Of course if you can't wait, we can continue this quietly elsewhere... Please engage me @BulletTime000 or befriend me on facebook.

Allow me to finish by simply saying how glad I am you’ve chosen to follow “The Animal in Man.” I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re interested. Trust me, if you stay for the long haul, tune in to every update, read every chapter I post (they’re on the way!), and ultimately buy this book, then you’re not only in for a grand adventure, you’re also validating my dream of becoming a published author. For that, I cannot thank you enough.