Welcome to the Earthen Calamities
In the spring of 2016, the Aperien Event forever altered Earth.
In an inexplicable moment, everything humanity anywhere in the world had ever imagined became real. No one understood why or how, but the who, what, and when were cataclysmic.
Every myth, every monster. Every story and every dream. All the things that went bump in the night and the virtues descended from various heavens. Gods, demons, vampires, dragons. Magic powers, dangerous alchemy, and a dozen recipes for the elixir of life. Wishes, witches and wendigos. Undead, rebirth, immortality. Apocalypses. Lots and lots of apocalypses.
If there’d been a story about it at some point in human history, it suddenly existed. All of it. All in the same instant.
And as one might imagine, it was a fucking mess.
What the hells is the Aperien Event?
Any myth, legend, creature or magic that's existed in human history! You'll encounter gods from different pantheons, beasts from various folklore, and all sorts of different types of magic. The Slavic mythos plays heavily into the first novel, but as the series continues, more and more different fantasy and folklore will make appearances.
This includes hybrids - the children of two or more different Aperiens. More than 200 years have passed since the Aperien Event when BLOOD ON THE TAIGA is set, so there will be generations' worth of new magical beings.
Did King Arthur and Aphrodite hit it off and have a few kids? Maybe Quetzalcoatl moved to Japan and settled down with a nice Kitsuné. Ever wonder what would happen if someone bred and unicorn with a kelpie?
I can't wait to explore the endless possibilities with you!
What the hells is an Aperien?
With multiple pantheons of gods suddenly walking around, you can imagine there might be a few clashes, not to mention all the ends of days in various stories throughout human history. Following the Aperien event, Earth spent a long time in a state of chaos, fueled by those calamitous events.
One of the most well known is the Storm Belt Calamity: All the gods of thunder waged war on each other, destroying central Europe and killing millions of humans and Aperiens. The thousands of miles swirling of thunder clouds still hasn't dissipated, and likely never will.
What the hells is a Calamity?
With calamities and apocalypses ravaging our Earth and humans and Aperiens dying off at an alarming rate, the gods of knowledge and wisdom united to save what they could of our world. They formed a new pantheon of deities and other powerful beings from across many mythos, dedicated to preserving history, myth, knowledge in all forms, and most importantly, the dreamers.
The Citadel itself was constructed in Iceland, forged through the magic of many gods, including (but not limited to) Thoth, Majurshi, Odin, Papa Legba, and Mnemosyne.
What the hells is the Icelandic Citadel of Knowledge?
Dreamers are humans capable of creating new Aperiens, during the post-Aperien Event era. While dreamers cannot recreate mythos that already exist (for example, a dreamer can't 'imagine' a new Thor to replace the one who died in the Storm Belt Calamity), they can create new Aperiens from nothing but their imagination. These people are the artists, writers, philosophers, and geniuses of the world.
But what happens to the Aperiens if all the dreamers die?
No one knows. And everyone is afraid to find out.
What the hells are the dreamers?
In order to protect both the dreamers and, in turn all, Aperiens, the Icelandic Citadel of Knowledge Pantheon founded the Accords in the year 2133. Using their combined prowess, they created a series of magically binding laws to help preserve the world.
What the hells are the Accords?
When the Accords were founded, powerful Aperien leaders were given the opportunity to embrace these magical laws as Accorded Territories. Those who reside in the Accorded Territories are both protected by the laws and shackled by them.
A few of the Accorded Territories include: The Moscow Dominion, controlled by Koschei the Deathless and Jaga Baba; The Eastern Seaboard Conjunct, lead by Archlich Lawrence Davids; and the Coalition of Creatures, a magical creature preserve surrounded by a massive labyrinthine wall.
What the hells are the Accorded Territories?
What the hells is a duster?
A duster is any person with a combination of human and Aperien blood. Bloodlines have mingled in all sorts of interesting ways in over two hundred years since the Aperien Event. Demigods are commonplace, along with endless new types of magical demihumans.
Gunnar, the main character in BLOOD ON THE TAIGA, is a vileblood duster. He is descended from one of the Vilestars, the twelve children of Lucifer Morningstar and the goddess Lamashtu, the mother of monsters.
The Vilestars War was one of the most deadly Calamities resulting from the Aperien Event. In a quest to destroy humanity and all dreamers, Lucifer and Lamashtu created twelve beings cursed by their hatred for humankind.
The six Vilestar daughters were monstrous creatures, set loose on the world to devour children and slaughtering anything that crossed their paths. The six Vilestar sons were as beautiful as their fallen angel father, tasked to seduce human women and corrupt the gene pool with vileblood dusters.
Vileblood dusters continue the curse of their sires. Daughters are born as twisted monstrosities, their human mothers corrupted and often killed over the course of their pregnancy. Sons are born with black blood and black eyes, driven by their cursed lineage to spawn the next generation of vileblood and drive humanity to extinction.
The Vilestars War raged for more than fifty years, a true battle of good versus evil, with heroes and villains of many mythos joining the fray. Ultimately, Lucifer, Lamashtu and the twelve Vilestars were slain, but not without heavy causalities on both sides - including millions of humans. The events of the Vilestars War were a leading factor in the formation of the Icelandic Citadel of Knowledge and the Accords.
What the hells was the Vilestars War?
The Vilestars Accord (before the events of BLOOD ON THE TAIGA) is a binding magical law requiring all dusters of vileblood heritage to imprisoned for life when discovered.
What the hells is the Vilestars Accord?
The Accords founded different island regions around the globe as designated Penitentiaries, or Pens, for imprisoning dangerous creatures. The Citadel assigned Wardens for each location, a lifetime position. Current pens include Manhattan, Madagascar, Ireland and Sir Lanka.
What the hells are the Pens?
More coming soon!
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