Twelve Years in Khataria

Notes:  Synopses for the Khataria series are on the Novels page.  Excerpts are on the Short Stories page.

Wow.  That's the only word I can think of when I ponder Khataria.  It's huge.

It's also premature to be writing this page, for the story isn't finished, but twelve years is a landmark and I figure it's worth a few lines of text.

I'm still a little confused by it all.  I'm an artist.  I don't call myself a writer.  I never realised that I had a fictional story in me, and certainly not an epic like Khataria, but in hindsight I should have.

I understand now that every artist worth their salt should be a story teller too.

It was the end of the millenium when I started this tale - the start of 99 I think.  All around me, everything was epic.

It was the time of all the big emo movies like Titanic and Armageddon, and wonderfully rich lyrics as musicians expressed everything they needed to get out.

The last three years of the nineties were a feast of emotion, expression, and dreaming, and no one was embarrassed by the vibe.  Everyone seemed connected.  Everything felt vibrant and real.

With the coming of 2000, it changed.  Everything went quiet and just a little bit boring.  It hasnt' picked up yet.

But I digress.

It was at this stage of my artistic life that I'd mastered Black Card Art.  With such a huge mix of emotional influences, I was drawing a lot of mystical pieces.  I had sketches everywhere.

One sketch though, I couldn't explain.  I didn't know where the idea came from.

The sketch itself was a simple one; Three youths in a pool, one standing obediently while the other two poured water from ornate jugs over his head.  They were bathing him ceremoniously.

Beyond the three boys was a backdrop of columns and finery.  In my mind, it was a very regal scene.  I wondered what their story was, what they had been doing ten minutes before and what they would do tomorrow.

More scenes filled my head faster than I could draw them, so I had to write them down.

The scene in the initial sketch now forms a chapter called 'Anointment' in Book 5 of Khataria.  I started writing the book from the middle, with no idea of the end or the beginning, but somehow ideas just flowed.

The youth being tended by the others became Karelia, heir to the Khatarian throne, and the other two, Danos and Zanaes, born into privileged servitude to rule at his side.

Simple enough so far, but then I had to ask myself why is Karelia the regent?  What makes him so special?

The answer came 'He isn't special.  He's just a mortal man, but with the kindest heart in the world.  He is everything that I would aspire to be.'

I lingered on the word 'mortal'.  What if the other two were not?  What if it was Karelia's consuls who made him special, and he being of such kind heart, cared for them with utter love and devotion.

Such kindness would likely inspire affection, and in Danos, the gentler of the two Immortals, it does.  Unknown to Danos, Karelia feels the same.

Suddenly I had my story.  A story of unattainable and unrequited love between Danos and Karelia, set against a backdrop of war and corruption, and always lurking in the background, secrets of their forebears that could tear the world apart.

As I scribbled all this down, what I'd imagined would become a novella stretched out to a hundred thousand words, and then a million, and then four million.

In the years that followed, I honed the tale back to 750,000 words.  6 novels.  Cool, I thought, that's enough.

I wrote the six novels, I edited them, and I gave them out for people to read.  Reviews were good.

It was 2006 now.  I'd been relentlessly writing Khataria for seven years, and in this early form, I titled it the 'Princes' series, and for a brief silly window of time, I thought the story was done.

Content with the tale, I stepped away from 'Princes' while I found new distraction in Virtual Worlds, then one unremarkable day, I began reading the novels with a fresh eye.

As I read, two recurring themes annoyed me; first, the mention of twin princes from centuries ago called Tamaq and Bataq.

Second was the mystery of some unnamed Seer from antiquity who penned the Sacred Scriptures, which Danos and Zanaes followed with such diligence, and in which Karelia's reign had been prophesied.

First to the twins.  Several times throughout the books I wrote of how they killed each other in battle, and how this event ushered forth the modern Khatarian empire of which Karelia was now heir.

Tamaq and Bataq were famous in modern times, for their names were everywhere, most notably on two warships, one from Khataria, and the other from its ally, the northern ice kingdom of Althase.

In particular, the people of Althase seemed to revere Tamaq, and as a reader, that confused me.  There is a scene in 'Rage of the Immortals'; a few poignant paragraphs between the two estranged consuls of Althase as they watch the warships side by side.

They draw parallels between themselves and the ancient twins, and in so doing, they find reason, humility, and new affection.  It is one of my favourite scenes in all the books.

Reading the words on paper, as if for the first time, immediately raised questions in my mind.

Why did the Althasians think so highly of Tamaq?

Did Althase and Khataria have common ties through the twins?

I hadn't covered these questions in 'Princes'.  I'd touched on the history, alluded loosely to it, but not explained it.

I saw the entire story unravelling.  I felt like it was under-told.  Who were these ancient twins?

I won't lie.  I seriously considered removing all reference to the twins from the books.  I had to make a choice - Ditch them, or properly tell their story?

I did a word count to check how relevant they really were to the tale.  These characters were long dead yet Bataq featured 102 times, and Tamaq 73.  It wasn't looking good.

I then tried removing all passages that referred to them and re-read all six novels without mention of their names or impact on the plot.  The result was pitiful.

What I hadn't realised sooner was that through the legend of Tamaq and Bataq, I had created a benchmark of honour and duty that all future princes felt bound to live up to.

And that single fact made the difference.  Their story impacted on Karelia - He was the kind and honourable man he was, because of the legend of the twins.  To him, Tamaq and Bataq were idols.

Decision made.  They were officially entrenched in the story.  Now, I had to bring them to life.

Acceptance made my second dilemma easy - The mention of the unnamed Seer who wrote the scriptures.  It followed logically that he was born long ago.

And then I had a brainstorm - His story would be linked to the twins.  I gave the long-dead Seer a name - I called him the prophet Jai.  But that was too simple.  I needed complication.

I found it in Jai's nature.  The way I was writing his character, he was very much like Danos, who would not be born for seven hundred years.  I decided to make him even more like Danos, and then I went in boots and all.  He was exactly like Danos, in nature, and in appearance, and in his powerful gifts of the Faith.

I began writing the plot.  Tamaq, the youngest twin by a handful of minutes, was sent into exile by his demented father to the frontier town of Titania.  There, he meets Jai, a refugee of war, and reluctantly takes him under wing.

Meanwhile, Bataq is training to become the future King but increasingly he is corrupted by his father's influence.  But this is not a tale of sibling rivalry.  It is a tale of the struggle of hanging on to sibling love.

Unsurprisingly, I called the new book (I thought it would just be one book) 'Exile of Titania'.

First hiccup.  I had never mentioned Titania in 'Princes'.  I pondered changing it to another town but no other place had that frontier feel about it.  In any case, it was too late.  The concept of Titania was already a canvas in my mind.  I could visualise every nuance of it.  I had to bring it to life.

I immediately realised that the 'Princes' series would be affected as the tales became intertwined.  Fearing the worst, that I would end up writing junk with disjointed plots like Star Wars, I opted instead for patience - to write a solid epic like Lord of the Rings.  Yes 'Titania' would become a prequel, but it would be done properly.

To that end, I withdrew all copies of 'Princes' and warned those who had read it that the story line would subtly change.  I was wrong.  It changed completely.

And so here I am in the final days of 2011.  'Titania' is up to five books now.

The more I write of Tamaq and Bataq, the more they impact on 'Princes'.  And most wonderfully, they enhance the sweet love story of Danos and Karelia, for The 'Jai Effect' has proved staggering.

It changed Danos from the happy-go-lucky boy he was in the original 'Princes'.  Instead, he dwells on his likeness to the great prophet Jai, and given the strength of his gifts, he wonders if he is Jai reborn.  So do all those around him as he swings from sanity to bouts of madness brought on by his visions.

Throughout, and despite the troubles of the world bearing down, Karelia stays at his side and vows to love him until the end of time.

Writing Khataria has brought so much joy to my life.  I am so in love with this story, and I'm glad I chose to write 'Exile', for it has enhanced 'Princes' tenfold, and now is a truly epic tale.

A lot of people are pressuring me to finish the books and I really am trying to get them done, but I can't rush it.  I want it perfect, as perfect as the characters I've nurtured all these years.

In the meantime, I've put some stand-alone excerpts from the books in the Short Stories section of the site.  I've listed them below.

"A Boy of No Consequences" from Book Seven: "Lords of the Kreyml"

"A Fruitless Adoration" from Book One: "Creatures of the Faith"

"A Lion Roars" from Book Eleven: "The Ice Kingdom"

"Katalia's Calling" from Book Seven: "Lords of the Kreyml"

"Krustallos" prologue to Book Three: "Prophets"

"Lamentations of an Ailing Immortal" prologue to Book One: "Creatures of the Faith"

"Shadows Have No Names" from Book One: "Creatures of the Faith"

"The Second Son of Arasti" from Book Two: "Princes of Khataria"

"Toy Soldiers" from Book Eight: "Exile of Titania"

"Zanaes, Prince Immortal" from Book Three: "Prophets"