Novel Title: Newcomer
Time Setting: 37471
Genre: Fantasy
Minimum Word Goal: 90,000
Timespan: October–December
Location: Military Training Camp Sargs, Zilsvjo, Kingdom of Ovilis
Main Character: Miķelis Eglītis
Background Information:
Located in the northwest corner of a vast plain that covers some 2.5 million square kilometres, Ovilis is bounded on the north by a gulf, to the west by a sea, to the east by the vast realm of Gryebyaninets, and to the south by the smaller realm of Laniakija.
Ovilis was created in 3518 when the king of Laniakija made the decision to engage in peace negotiations with the emperor of the Gryebyaninets. The king of Laniakija had recently inherited the throne following his father’s death in battle, and Laniakija was reeling from having lost the major port city of Mažsakmenous, which it had controlled for 400 years, as the taking of the city from the Gryebyaninets in the late 3160s had led the men who’d participated in the battle to proclaim the man who’d led them to victory as the first king of Laniakija.
The nobles of the far north of Laniakija were not at all pleased by the king’s decision to pursue peace instead of continuing in war, not only to retake Mažsakmenous, but also to destroy the Gryebyaninets, whom they — as most people of Laniakija — believed to be religious heretics, thus to make peace with them was sacrilege.
Despite their vocal opposition, much of the common population was tired of the war, which had been going on for over a century, and the king thus carried out the peace negotiations to a successful end that left the Gryebyaninets controlling well over half of the plain.
In response, the nobles of the far north of Laniakija first tried to depose the king, but following their successful murder of him and his sons, his brother who ascended to the throne expressed commitment to both maintaining the peace agreement his brother had made, and tracking down the murderers.
Believing that their king had apostatised, the nobles of the far north thus declared a breakaway state comprising of their territories in the far north, which amounted to one fifth of Laniakija’s area at the time, and when the king of Laniakija tried to negotiate with them, the two factions entered into war, which lasted until 3527, when a peace was negotiated between them, with the new realm taking the name of Ovilis.
Peace then prevailed over the plains for the next 125 years, as the Gryebyaninets busied themselves making conquests east of the formidable mountain range that formed the plain’s eastern border, but when they started to run up against stiffer opposition there, they decided to go after Laniakija again, and so they did for fifty years, in which they suffered more losses than gains despite their large size and initial confidence that they’d crush Laniakija against the mountains, including losing Savekiya — as they called Mažsakmenous.
Frustrated by the lack of success, Emperor Afanasiy decided to launch an attack from his new capital of Mislitsyega, located at the rearmost reaches of the gulf that formed Ovilis’ northern border, onto Laniakija’s northern coast, which stretched west from its border with Ovilis to the twisting range of mountains that formed the plain’s western boundary.
Afanasiy decided to launch the attack at the smaller of Lainiakija’s two largest port cities on its north coast, just 30km from the Laniakija–Ovilis border, and as a result, some of his forces inadvertently landed on Oviljas soil, attacking unsuspecting Oviljas citizens, stealing Oviljas property, and destroying Oviljas communities.
Newly-crowned King Alvis was by no means pleased with the ignorance of the Gryebyaninets, and so, in addition to sending forces to attack the Gryebyaninets and drive them away, Alvis made plans to further punish the Gryebyaninets as they made their way back to Mislitsyega along Ovilis’ shoreline.
Once the Gryebyaninets forces were driven back from both Ovilis’ lands, as well as Laniakija’s, the plan was put into action, reducing the fleet of forty Gryebyaninets ships to less than six by either destroying them with cannon and incendiary bombs, or damaging them so badly that their own crews scuttled them, and then slaughtering all Gryebyaninets who tried to land on the shore.
Among the dead were the three oldest of Afanasiy’s five sons, which, along with the destruction of the majority of his best ships, prompted Afanasiy to declare war on Ovilis, which he intended to quickly and easily drive into the sea.
It’s been twenty years since then, however, and Ovilis remains. It is a smaller Ovilis than it once was, having steadily lost territory over the years — including its capital, Kiledzoša — but few Oviljas would’ve ever expected that their realm would hold out even two years against a realm millions of square kilometres larger and possessing a population over a hundred million greater than its own.
The war has nevertheless taken its toll, but Ovilis remains committed to the fighting not just to continue its existence, but to maintain a bastion of truth on the plains, considering that the prevailing view is still that the Gryebyaninets are heretics, while Laniakija has certainly gone soft on religious doctrine in the face of a new movement in the years since their separation, causing the Oviljas to question whether those of Laniakija who claim to share the same beliefs as them actually do, or if they might possibly hold to some questionable — even heretical — variation.
In fact, if not for religious zeal, many Oviljas would have given up long ago, and many of the most ardent combatants — including the entire royal house — are deeply devout people intent on seeing spiritual victory over heresy and questionable softness of doctrine as much as they are intent on seeing military victory and territorial gain.
Born the youngest of nine sons and twelve children to a woodsman and his wife who dwelt in the southern highlands of Ovilis, Miķelis was born just one year after Emperor Afanasiy declared war on Ovilis, following which his father and oldest brothers departed to join the army.
Miķelis and his remaining brothers were thus taught the family trade by their grandfather until each, by turn, reached the age of eighteen, at which time they were drafted immediately into the army to join in the fight.
When Miķelis was seven years old his third and fourth-oldest brothers were killed in battle and his father and second-oldest brother disappeared, being presumed dead, as the Gryebyaninets weren’t the sort to take a lot of prisoners.
Two years later Miķelis and his family were shocked when his father and brother returned alive and explained that they’d been part of a group of men who’d been pursued by Gryebyaninets forces into Laniakija by accident, and had actually been taken in and cared for by villagers despite the fact that the people of Ovilis and Lamiakija typically disdained one another.
These villagers revealed that they were adherents to the new religious movement, known as the Reform, which had meant to correct dangerous, even heretical, errors in the religion to which Laniakija and Ovilis adhered, but had become a separate movement because of poor reception to the idea of correcting the wrongs, which were so well-established that they weren’t believed to be in any way false or near-heretical.
Miķelis’ father and brother had become persuaded that the Reform movement was true and right during their time in the village, which shocked and unsettled Miķelis’ family, but because they had to return to the front lines to fight, there was no time to try and turn them back from their new beliefs.
Before they left, Miķelis’ father and brother left one of the two Holy Books they’d been given which had been translated from the Sacred Language into Laniakija’s language — which was similar enough to Ovilis’ that they were mutually intelligible — behind for the family to read.
Because it was illegal in Ovilis for the Holy Book to be in any language outside of the Sacred Language, Miķelis’ grandfather meant to destroy the book, but Miķelis’ mother feared that, if it was actually Holy Text, destroying it could cause the family harm, so she hid the book from her father-in-law, eventually reading it and becoming persuaded as her husband and son had become, that it was not the Reform believers who were heretics, but those who resisted the Reform.
Gradually Miķelis’ brothers, sisters, their spouses, nieces, nephews, and even his grandmother — as well as Miķelis himself — followed suit, along with other members of the community, facing stiff resistance from the likes of Miķelis’ grandfather until his death when Miķelis was thirteen, and others in the nearby village.
Miķelis, in particular, became strongly devoted to the Reform beliefs, to the point that some suggested he should become a minister, but he wasn’t sure that he should, as he was also a talented hunter, and seemed likely to do well as a soldier once he turned eighteen, and he wasn’t as confident in his potential abilities as a religious minister as others were.
The Reform minister who had come from Laniakija to lead the growing community of Reform believers also didn’t believe that Miķelis was called to be a minister, but agreed that Miķelis would be better suited to life in the army.
Recently Miķelis’ eighteenth birthday finally came, and as a result, Miķelis is set to accompany the youngest of his older brothers — who has recently been on leave — to the same Military Training Camp where all of his brothers went before him to receive their mandatory one year of basic training before being sent into combat, despite the fact that many people are confident Miķelis doesn’t need to be taught a thing, considering that his abilities as a woodsman are the best in the area, and are very similar to the skills he’d need as a soldier in war.
Pronunciations:
Sargs: sahrgz
Zilsvjo: zihlsveeyo
Ovilis: auvihlihs
Miķelis: mihkehlihs (rhymes with Nicholas)
Eglītis: eggleetihs
Gryebyaninets; greeyebyahnihnets
Laniakija: lahneeackeeyah
Mažsakmenous: mahzhsahkmenohs (rhymes with dose)
Savekiya: sahvehkeeah
Afanasiy: ahfahnahzee
Mislitsyega: mihslitsyegah
Oviljas: auvihlyahs
Alvis: alvihs (rhymes with Elvis)
Kiledzoša: kihlehdzoshah
1does not correspond to any existent year-counting system.
