The Full Rundown
It’s that time of the week again… Err, was that time of the week. Sorry about the lack of entries lately, but things have been hectic, and I knew a GIANT blogpost was in the works that was incredibly necessary. It wasn’t something that I could rush through, so I had to wait until the time when I knew I would have time to sit and devote the appropriate amount of time to the endeavor… the time of which is finally here! Did I use time enough there? ANYWHO!
For this week, the blogpost is exactly what the title says, a full rundown on everything Sapphire Verdict and… well, me! Something I’ve come to realize is that my about me section is incredibly thin, and I don’t have a space on the site that adequately sums up the book and covers all of the stuff related to it in a TLDR. This is something that needs to be fixed if I’m to put my best foot forward, and, for the longest time, I honestly had no idea how to go about it. Now, however, I think I finally have an idea of how to approach this monstrosity, so here’s how this will go. Within this blogpost, part one will cover myself, the Flying Fennec. I’ll go over my life in a brief summary, talk about some of what makes me who I am, and go over some of the bullet points of how I got into writing in the first place. In the second part, I will give a full rundown of the setting of the Sapphire Verdict in a TLDR format that doesn’t force viewers of the website to go into the universe page and browse through everything there. Through these two new pieces, the About Me page will be updated AND a new page will be spun off of it for a Sapphire Verdict TLDR. This is going to be a wild ride excuse of a blogpost, so, without further ado, here we go.
The Flying Fennec… A.K.A Zane Flinn
While I like to go by the moniker of The Flying Fennec or, more historically, Siphonix, my actual name is Zane Flinn. I’m nearly 30 years old and currently live out in North Carolina where I work as the team lead for QA within a recognition company’s IT department. I’ve been out here for almost seven years now, and I am what I would call a complete and utter computer recluse. Everything I do is electronic from my writing to 3D printing to my social activities with friends. I have numerous programming skills, 3D modeling and rendering experience, and numerous art skills that I’ve only just started developing this year. Technology has formed the backbone of my entire life and has continued to shape the way I approach different aspects of our world, but the one thing that continues to form the center point of my life is my writing. No matter what new technology comes out or new experiences present themselves, I always, ALWAYS, go right back to writing, but how exactly did I get started with this? Well, let’s go back a couple dozen years and figure it out, shall we!
I was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and to say I was isolated would be putting it mildly. While my environment was fine, my parents wanted to live as far away from people as possible, so… I didn’t exactly have many social interactions. Not really surprising how I ended up in computers now, is it? While I had friends through school, most of my time at home was spent finding my own entertainment. This manifested itself very early on as my adventurous spirit that constantly led me outdoors. I was always outside finding bugs, following rivers, and seeing all the things that happened to be around me. I just wanted to explore as much as I could, so it was only natural that my desire for exploration would ultimately lead me to worlds that don’t exist.
Sometime in elementary school, I ended up getting hooked on reading. Let’s be honest, it was purely because my mother pushed it on me for scholastic reasons, but I took to it fiercely. I was ALWAYS reading in between classes, and oftentimes read at home even when I had my video games. I LOVED exploring these mystical worlds and seeing everything they had to offer, and I was infatuated with them because they were always so much more interesting than the mundane things I was surrounded by. I kept reading and exploring every chance I got, and, of course, this same explorative desire eventually led me to video games. There were so many mystical and fantastic worlds that I was able to explore visually in a way I had never been able to before, and seeing so many amazing things jumpstarted my mind and got me imagining all sorts of incredible worlds and tales. I really couldn’t stop myself from creating, so it was only natural that I eventually got the spark to start writing!
Now, when I say started writing, let’s be honest. I was maybe twelve or so at the time, so I wasn’t exactly writing Shakespeare, but dang it I was writing! I kept writing small things here and there in different journals my mother kept buying for me, and they were always big, epic works of fantasy that had elaborate plots and incredible settings… but none of these went anywhere unfortunately. My attention span and determination were not anywhere great enough to see me complete anything, but the important thing is that I kept trying. I kept writing, I kept taking classes specifically to improve my writing ability, and I never stopped creating new worlds. While my high school experience saw me gravitate more towards computers and eventually led me to Purdue for Computer Science, I eventually found my place in writing!
While at Purdue, specifically in 2014, I began writing a book called the Sapphire Verdict. I had been nurturing the story in my head literally since middle school, letting it grow and evolve in all sorts of ways, but in 2011, I had a breakthrough in the form of a character named Sapphiria. She completely hooked me, and I knew that I wanted here to be the center of my story. In 2014, I finally locked her place in my world and began writing a story around her, and I finally found my niche! Every single day, I kept writing. I wrote entire chapters, and sometimes multiple chapters, each day, moving her story closer and closer to completion in a blaze of inspiration that would have scorched the sun! Nothing was capable of stopping me, and, before I knew it, I had the Sapphire Verdict completely written… and then the editing started.
I spent SEVEN years editing the Sapphire Verdict. SEVEN YEARS! Every single day, and I’m not even kidding, I would go in for at least two hours and do what I could, chapter by chapter, to improve grammar, flow, and the pieces of the story that weren’t landing write. I wrote, edited, rewrote, and then edited some more in an endless cycle that had everyone around me questioning if I would ever get it done, but I knew it would eventually be completed. I had a plan, and maybe it wasn’t a perfect plan, but it worked for me! I spent the vast majority of that time cutting the book down from an insane starting point of 1.48 million words! To start, I broke the book in half, and then very quickly broke the first part in half again. Then, it was a matter of rewriting what was now book one so that it could stand on its own, which left me sitting at… 1.1 million words… How I did that to myself I’ll never know, but I dutifully paid the toll and brought it all the way down to roughly 550000 words. I am extremely proud of what I have written, and, at the time of writing this, both sequels for the Sapphire Verdict have first drafts after having been completely REWRITTEN from scratch, and the first sequel has already received its full first pass of editing! It’s been an insanely long journey, and, fortunately or unfortunately, it’s not over yet! There’s a LOT more to come, and I am more than happy to continue Sapphiria’s tale so all can experience her heroic journey and the incredible end that I know is coming!
The Sapphire Verdict
The Sapphire Verdict is the very beginning of the incredible tale that will shake the foundation of its universe and set the stage for an even greater conflict the likes of which none of its characters can even begin to imagine! In the far-off future, when humanity has reached the stars and planets are colonized as easily as islands were back in the 16th century, a new empire has risen to upset the galactic status quo. From the ashes of her ruined homeworld, Sapphiria has arisen as the mighty Empress of the Sapphire Eye, an empire of automatons crafted by her own two hands. In the span of only a few short years, her empire has grown at an unprecedented rate and spread its tendrils all throughout the stars for one, single purpose. To protect the innocent and all those who cannot protect themselves! After having lost her own world to the fires of calamity, Sapphiria has made it her mission to prevent such a tragedy befalling anyone like who she used to be, but there is one, massive, dominant roadblock in the way of her vision.
Standing as the supreme force in the known galaxy, the United Earth Confederacy, the UEC, has stood unchallenged since its inception. Humans have spread to hundreds of star systems, their fleets number in the thousands, and their doomsday devices can turn entire planets to ash in a matter of seconds! They are a relentless, technologically superior force that is only interesting in expanding its power and consuming all it can find, and they have swallowed entire civilizations without mercy for the sake of their expansion and power mongering. Seemingly nothing has ever stood a chance of stopping their relentless expansion and consumption, but it’s Sapphiria’s intention to change that once and for all!
Over the course of several years, Sapphiria’s empire has built a massive, indomitable military force that has the full capacity to challenge the UEC’s might and finally bring an end to their unending aggression. Between the might of her inventions and the sheer number of automatons at her command, the UEC is poised to be completely wiped away and have their evil erased from the galaxy forevermore, but even though she knows that this is the only way to truly protect the innocent, Sapphiria finds herself conflicted. More than anyone in the empire, she knows just how much carnage will follow in the wake of the war she chose to initiate, and she hates herself for letting this be the only option. For almost the entirety of her life, she was a pacifist who would dream of even hurting a fly, but after losing the entirety of her people to the UEC’s brutality, she is no longer willing to stand by no matter what that means she has to become… but, part of this tale doesn’t quite make sense.
Sapphiria was from a backwater world that was known for being technophobic. They had no knowledge of the civilizations in the stars, no technology with which to defend themselves, and an army that was only ever used for defense against the monsters that inhabited their world. Moreover, Sapphiria was born a freak. Her fur was the wrong color, she had large ears, seven tails, no powers to speak of, and was effectively an outcast in all senses of the word. No one wanted anything to do with her, and she had nothing to her name for the vast majority of her life. How could it ever have been possible for someone like her to ever create such a powerful empire? How could she have ever even survived the fate that befell her people, let alone learn to use her enemy’s technology against them?! That very question is something that she asks herself quite frequently, and as the hours to war tick down, she finds herself reflecting on the long, lonely path that led to this ultimate outcome…
At its core, the Sapphire Verdict is the story of Sapphiria’s rise to power. It opens with a promise of where the story will end and the mystery of how we even get there in the first point. From there, we are thrown all the way back to Sapphiria’s childhood when she was still incredibly young. As an outcast, the one thing she wanted above all else was a friend, and seeing how none of her people would ever give her the chance, she decided that she would just make herself one! While Sapphiria’s world was largely technophobic, parts of it were not, and the parts that weren’t had surprisingly advanced technology in the form of entities called automatons. Automatons are effectively machines that have true souls. They can think and feel like any living being, and it was these traits that enthralled Sapphiria. Ever since meeting them, her one dream was to learn how to make them, so she put all her time into becoming the best engineer that she could be! Over the course of many years, she learned all the ins and outs of engineering, and after a lot of experimenting and prototyping, she was finally able to craft the best friend of her dream, Atom! Through Atom, she finally had the companionship she had always wanted, but, little did she know that this was only the first step of her life. There were still many hurdles ahead of her, and never would she be able to imagine just how critical her engineering skills would be not just in terms of proving herself to her people, but to saving the entirety of the galaxy from itself… and it’s past…
Kryshendar
Kryshendar is the homeworld of the Krysheek people and serves as the main planet for the Sapphire Verdict story, but it has a long and rich history. For most of its existence, Kryshendar has been completely choked by rampant jungle growth and ruled over by vicious creatures of all walks of life. There are gigantic, abyssal creatures capable of swallowing ships in one gulp, giant arachnids with acid-dipped fangs, and towering titans capable of decimating entire legions. Life on this planet was anything but easy, but there were some developments that ended up making civilization possible.
Geographically, Kryshendar is divided between two main locations, the eastern and western continents. By a mile, the western continent is the largest and serves as the main hub for Krysheek civilization. Most of this continent is still dominated by jungle, particularly in the southeast, but the northern part of the continent is dominated by a vast, arid desert called the Karasi. Through this desert, trade flourishes thanks to the relatively smooth and hazard free passages that exist, but going any further north is impossible thanks to the towering volcanoes shielding the top of the world. Out further to the west stand a range of highland mountains that host a few towns and cities while, to the south, a large archipelago calls itself home. On this continent, there are a few notable locations such as the capital city, Orden, as well as the port city of Nuvar on its southeast tip. Both of these cities are incredibly important to make note of, but the eastern continent has its fair share of landmarks.
The eastern continent, often times referred to as Falador, is dominated by a massive mountain range. Almost eighty percent of the continent is mountainous, and the remainder is covered in golden plains and soft hills. Overall, most civilization on this continent has taken root on its very north and south, but there are some isolated villages scattered in between alongside a larger town nestled in a valley deep in the mountains. Life in this region, while a bit harder because of its isolation, is actually far more peaceful and safe than on the other continent. So long as one avoids the rampant snowstorms in the mountains, there are few creatures to speak of that pose any threat to the Krysheek people, and that is the ideal life for anyone looking for a cozy retreat.
To the south of Falador is a volcanic island that, amazingly, plays host to a number of towns and cities. Almost the entirety of the island is dominated by lava and fire, and the ground constantly heaves with volcanic activity. Life in this area is beyond harsh, and water is a distant dream, but the island plays host to one of the largest military garrisons in the world. With a rich history and vast array of life, the volcanic island stands as one of the most unique areas in the world, but it has quite a lot of competition from a more verdant island chain not so far away.
Aptly named the Southern Isles, this island chain is known around the world for its vast array of life. The tiny islets are covered in jungle life, and the waters are resplendent with coral and all sorts of tropical fish species. There are so many wonders to be found that new things keep getting discovered all the time, and trade in this region is the largest in the world by a mile. Nearly anything worth its weight in platinum comes from this location, and the markets are absolutely bursting with rare fruit and exotic arrays of fish, and that’s to speak nothing of its shipbuilding industries. All in all, the southern isles are the perfect capstone to a wide, lush, and vibrant world, but Kryshendar wouldn’t even be on the galactic map if not for its native population!
The Krysheek
The Krysheek people are a relatively old race. Resembling a mix of foxes and wolves, the Krysheek are a sentient bipedal race with multiple tails, short ears, and a color range that makes a crowd look like a canvas. For the most part, there are no separate languages amongst them, and they typically adopt the same fashion of wearing robes and sandals. As a whole, they are ruled by an emperor who oversees the course of their civilization’s development, and their economy is carefully controlled by a series of trade guilds that ensure no group gains too much power. Overall, life for the Krysheek is peaceful and prosperous. There are very, very few who could be considered poor, and art is a common thing to encounter in all walks of life. In many ways, their civilization comes across as a utopia, but it wasn’t always so.
When the Krysheek first came around, they were the underdogs. Their world was wild and untamed, and trying to take root anywhere on its surface was borderline impossible. Tribes constantly appeared and disappeared, entire civilizations were swallowed by sand and jungle, and even a short walk in the jungle could spell death in thousands of different ways. Life was beyond harsh, and there seemed to be no chance for their people to ever develop into anything, but that all changed when they discovered their powers.
Roughly two or three thousand years prior to the events of the Sapphire Verdict, the Krysheek people suddenly discovered a mystical energy. They were each capable of wielding a strange energy they ultimately named powers that allowed them to perform incredible feats of strength. Some could wield blistering infernos while others could summon the might of cyclones. None amongst the Krysheek have any clue how they came to have these powers, but the energy seems latent in their very genetic coding, something they seem to have always had. While none of them can guess where powers developed from, there was no questioning how they could be used.
Through their powers, they were able to finally tame the jungle. They burned away the undergrowth, washed away the vicious monsters that hounded them, and buried everything else under tons of rock. At last, the Krysheek were finally able to build a civilization, but they were not yet a united people. Numerous empires in many different guises took root all across the world, such as the Crimson Empire or Adecia. Each of these empires had their own culture, and while they weren’t exactly fond of each other, they weren’t at war. Over the years, the Krysheek developed in relative peace, advancing their technology bit by bit and experimenting with all the materials they could find. For a long time, the course of development stayed relatively even, but then a breakthrough occurred!
Automatons
Around fourteen hundred years ago, a discovery was made that would change the course of history. Across the Krysheek homeworld were strange crystals with unique properties. Some could float while others glowed like the stars, but learning what each crystal could do required careful experimentation. One day, when a group of researchers were experimenting with a set of what they thought were sky crystals, a new type of crystal was discovered. When connected to a machine via wires, it was revealed that a specific type of dark green crystal was capable of controlling the machine like an extension of itself. Upon further testing, it was discovered that these crystals could fully pilot a machine, and it didn’t stop there. They could hear and speak, and even think, and that’s when the automatons were finally discovered!
Powered by a type of crystal called a soul core, automatons are effectively machines that can think and feel. They have thoughts, emotions, and dreams of their own, but what they ultimately look like was determined by the Krysheek that first built them. Typically, automatons are built as bipedal creatures without features like ears or noses. They are incredible strong and can perform feats of strength the Krysheek would never be able to without their powers, but, overall, they are a surprisingly peaceful race. All they need is a source of power and a purpose, a reason for existence, and they will be as happy as they can be!
The development of the automatons sent a ripple through Krysheek society, and they were quickly integrated into day-to-day life. Many of them were employed as laborers and field hands, and others were given even greater tasks and titanic bodies. Across the world, automatons grew in number, and the Krysheek learned to rely on them for many, many things, leading to a massive technological revolution that saw development across the world explode out of control. For a time, it seemed as if their world had entered a golden age, but then night fell…
The Clockwork Crisis
One thousand years ago, a Crisis broke out that nearly destroyed the Krysheek homeworld. The Eclipse empire, an empire rooted on the continent of Falador, began to build a Clockwork army in secret at the direction of its emperor with one singular goal, the complete domination of the world. Unbeknownst to the other empires, the Eclipse empire had discovered a way to effectively brainwash automatons and make them subservient slaves. The automatons were incapable of protesting, and once the loyalty locks were installed, they could do nothing except accept every command given to them. As the numbers of the legions grew, so too did their weapons. The Eclipse Empire funded the development of war machines never before imagined, including gunships, tanks, vast oceanic fortresses, and a superweapon capable of leveling a city in a single shot. With their armies growing, the Eclipse simply bid their time and waited for the premiere moment to strike, and, eventually, it arrived.
Without provocation or warning, they declared war on every other empire across the globe and began a brutal campaign to destroy anyone that opposed them. Thousands upon thousands lost their lives in the opening throes of the war, and it took only a few weeks for the other empires on the continent to fall before their weaponry. Between the vast arrays of automatons under their control and the superweapons they had developed, there was little that any empire could do to stop them, and entire swaths of the map were erased in fire and destruction. Towns, cities, and the culture developed over thousands of years was erased, and, for a time, hope seemed like a distant dream, but one beacon began to shine in the darkness.
Archons
In the opening throes of the Crisis, there were those that risked all they had to stand against the Eclipse and try to slow the path of destruction, but the one that shone above all others was a shasheek known as Caleia. Caleia hailed from a small mountain village that was decimated in the very first few days of the war, and she was one of its only survivors. Having lost everything, including her younger sister, she vowed to fight for everything she was worth, not with the goal of protecting others or saving the day, but to die fighting as valiantly as she could so she could rejoin her loved ones. That, however, was not what fate had in store for her.
As the Eclipse Empire pushed north, Caleia fought battle after battle. When commanders faltered and generals retreated, she stood as the beacon of resistance, charging against the automaton frontlines and risking her life over and over to find victory even in the jaws of defeat. While her forces continued to suffer loss after loss, she began to gather a following of loyal soldiers that believed in her with all their hearts, and she snagged the attention of a secretive group that had been monitoring the war since many, many years before it began.
After the Clockwork Legion pushed to the Western continent, Caleia was approached by a group called the Archons. The Archons were a secret group that had arisen many, many years ago when bandits had dominated the world. They had stood against them so long ago and secured peace for their people, but had returned to the shadows when their task had been fulfilled. With the surfacing of the Crisis, however, secrecy was no longer an option. The Archons were formed from the most powerful Krysheek the world had ever seen. Their powers could sunder mountains and decimate armies in one fell swoop, and after seeing Caleia’s heroism, they wanted her in their ranks as they finally began their charge against the Clockwork Armada.
With Caleia shining at their lead, the Archons rallied the Crimson Empire, the only empire left standing, and pushed back against the Clockwork Armada. While the fighting was intense and the Clockwork superweapons decimating thousands in single shots, the tide finally began to turn. After an unlucky encounter with a fierce behemoth in the desert, the Clockwork Armada’s main superweapon, and spearhead force, was decimated by the Archons, and they finally were on the backfoot. With the resurgence in strength, the Archons pushed the armada back across the ocean all the way to their capital. After destroying the Clockwork Armada’s most powerful weaponry, the Eclipse emperor himself was finally slain and the loyalty locks deactivated. With the fall of the Eclipse, the Crisis was over, but their world was still sundered. People were scattered, villages were gone, and there seemed to be no future, but that is where the Archons finally took charge.
At Caleia’s direction, the Archons finally took center stage. They spread out across the world, rebuilding villages and helping the displaced all the while unifying their people under the Crimson Emperor’s banner. At last, the Krysheek were a unified people, but there was still the threat of another Crisis that could unfold at any moment. Instead of leaving things to chance, the Archons decided to establish a system to ensure the protection of their world. Alongside the emperor, five Archons would remain for all of time to watch over every corner of the world. They would assist the emperor in governing and ensure that any threat to the peace of their people was snuffed out before it could arise. They would always strive to achieve the best possible outcome, and, under their watchful eye, the Krysheek could finally rest easy.
In total, for a thousand years, there have always been five Archons, each chosen by their predecessors. In the current year, watching over the capital city and much of the western continent, is an Archon by the name of Kaden. He has golden fur and is well known for his control over his light-based powers. With his palace situated just a few miles from the capital city, he stands as one of the oldest Archons on the current council and is the Archonic heir to Caleia herself.
Watching over the far western shores of the same continent is an Archon by the name of Ostaren. Truly the oldest on the council, his palace is situated deep in the highlands, and he is quite renowned for his scholarly pursuits. His library is the largest and most complete in the world by far, and his mastery of winds is second only to one of the previous Archons. Alongside Kaden, the two of them are responsible for watching over the entirety of the western continent.
To their south, the Southern Isles are home to the Archon known as Thrissa. Violet in color, Thrissa wields overwhelming telekinetic powers capable of producing impenetrable shields. Most of her focus is on oceanic travel and ensuring that their sea trade remains undisturbed, and her palace is actually partially a shipyard. Though she is behind Ostaren and Kaden in terms of age, she is largely seen as the figurehead of the current council.
Making his home on the volcanic island is the fourth Archon, Gaoren. Gaoren is the most militaristic of the five Archons and is often referred to as ‘Warlord.’ His fur is volcanic in color and his powers equally hot, the warlord capable of summoning jets of magma and wielding a blade of pure lava. With his fortress situated at the heart of the island, he spends much of his time focused on military matters. He has a massive legion called the Flame Reavers that are devoted to his authority, and his singular goal is to ensure that should a Crisis ever arise again, the Archons will be ready to meet it head on.
Monitoring the entirety of Falador by herself, Gale serves as the final Archon. She is the youngest Archon by far and has actually only been an Archon for three years after having taken over for her father in a rather controversial decision. While many continue to question her legitimacy, she takes her duties extremely seriously. She works around the clock to help her people, and she has the most difficult responsibility of all the Archons by far. Despite her young age, she is incredibly powerful, having inherited her father’s control over wind, but uses it to enhance her own capabilities rather than use it to summon hurricanes like he did. While she has a long way to go, she is every bit the Archon the others are, and, together, they ensure that peace remains for all walks of life on their world!
The Status Quo
To fully set the stage for Sapphiria’s journey, we need to set the state of global affairs for the Krysheek people. One thousand years have passed since the Clockwork Crisis, and all of their world is calm. The emperor’s lineage has governed without crisis, there have been no wars or disasters, and the line of Archons remains unbroken. The world is completely at peace, and there seems to be no chance of that changing anytime soon no matter what part of the world one finds themselves in.
For the average citizen, life is fairly straightforward. There are many opportunities across the world in terms of art or labor from any kind of life, and anyone has a chance of becoming someone meaningful. For most Krysheek, Orden is the focal point of their civilization. All advanced technology is developed within its walls, and it remains the center of culture and innovation. Culture typically is the same no matter where one finds themselves thanks to the unification of the world, though some differences may be encountered in extreme environments such as the desert or the ocean, and life isn’t overly stressful. Work schedules are fairly relaxed for most of the Krysheek and are really only stringent for those in the military, giving most plenty of time to pursue hobbies or other lines of work alongside their typical responsibilities, and there are no such things as corporations or conglomerates.
In terms of economy, Krysheek society is based around coinage, specifically silver, gold, and platinum. One whole platinum is typically what someone can earn in a month, but that depends entirely on vocation, and it is more than enough to cover all their basic expenses and leave wiggle room for extra spending. Most of the economy is controlled and managed by the empire through the use of Trade guilds, most of which are based out of a city called Mercanta. They check the prices for goods all across the globe and ensure that nothing gets too high or unreasonable. Most of the guilds are perceived as being wealthy, and while their leadership is a bit better off, they aren’t completely untouchable by the average citizen.
Overall, politics are in a relatively safe spot. There are of course different groups with interests in the emperor’s courts, but their voices intermingle with so many others that no single group has full control. This leads to a balanced political state where most everyone can be heard by the emperor and most issues don’t go unnoticed. Additionally, the Archons are heralded as heroes and celebrities by the people. Almost everyone respects them, and they have full control of most parts of the world. Given their continued vigil of the world, people have incredible faith in them and the empire in turn, which means most of the population is quite content with how things are in their current state.
Technology is the one point of Krysheek civilization that is changing dramatically. Following the Crisis, technophobia gripped the world and brought it to a screeching halt. Technology was almost entirely banned, and no one wanted to dabble with it at all. The Krysheek stagnated technologically for hundreds upon hundreds of years, but, in recent times, that has begun to change. Technology has started finding its way back to life, and numerous people have picked up engineering once more, and this is very noticeable in Orden. The academy has dedicated numerous departments to the development of technology at the emperor’s request, and automatons are starting to find a place in life once again after having been avoided for so many years. These developments mean new opportunities for the Krysheek to enter into the line of engineering and have easier access to engineering tools, which in turn means that technology has begun to slowly spread once more even to the far reaches of life. While the Archons are cautious of this, they are not impeding it yet. They are simply content to sit and watch how this plays out, and this decision ultimately proves to be what will change the course of their history in a way they can’t imagine.
Sapphiria
For thousands upon thousands of years, the Krysheek people have always been the same, but with Sapphiria’s birth, everything has changed. Sapphiria is an anomaly that her people couldn’t possibly have predicted, and her existence sends a shockwave through Krysheek civilization that even sees the Archons getting involved. All their society was built around several core pillars, and those pillars never included something like her. For the first time, a Krysheek has blue fur, but it doesn’t stop there. Sapphiria also has unusually large ears and seven tails instead of the usual two or three. None of her people have any idea how to respond to her, and their indecisiveness leads to her being treated as an outcast. Tradition is firmly built around all the existing colors and powers, and it has no room for someone like her, and so Sapphiria is forced to leave one of the hardest types of lives anyone can experience. Isolation.
From a young age, Sapphiria never really had a place to belong. Her parents didn’t want anything to do with her, the kids at the Sanctum didn’t want anything to do with her, and visiting the local villages was borderline suicide. She was forced to grow up in hiding, never certain if she could trust those around her or not, and it left her little heart constantly broken. She never was able to experience a feeling of belonging or love, and every day, she was forced to endure the torment of her people. While she did her best to keep her head up, every day, she was beaten down just a little more, and she truly felt like there was no chance for her life to ever be something. One day, however, things changed.
After convincing her father to let her come with him to a local engineering shop as a part of his work, Sapphiria was finally exposed to engineering, and she fell in love. She was stunned by the mechanical marvels that she witnessed, and she couldn’t stop exploring every corner of the shop that she was allowed into. That was when she finally met the automatons. Meeting these kind, gentle creatures completely changed her perspective on life. She was stunned that living beings could be constructed from metal and was fascinated by their kind hearts and gentle demeanors. Seeing them interact with the world and speak to her with respect completely bewitched her, and she finally found her true calling in life. After that day, she spent all her free time learning all she could about engineering, because she finally knew how to solve the one problem in her life. If she couldn’t make friends or have a family, then she would make one!
Over the course of many years, she continued to grow her engineering knowledge on the side while enduring all the pain of her life, but another major event unfolded in her life. After a particularly bad day at the Sanctum, she stumbled upon a field of farming units, the aqua farms. It was a beautiful and peaceful spot, so she decided to stay and try to calm down a little. After all, there was no one to chase her off since the field was run entirely by automatons, but that didn’t entirely reassure her. Every time she was approached, she ran away, never staying in one spot for too long out of fear of how she would be treated. After many hours, she was finally caught off guard when an automaton approached her without her noticing. At first, she was scared, but after realizing that it was only concerned about why she was so sad, she finally relaxed. On that day, she finally made the connection with someone she had always wanted and found a true friend, or, rather, someone more like the parent she had always wanted. His name was Trigon.
With Trigon’s guidance and support, Sapphiria was finally able to have respite in her life. He treated her like an adopted daughter and was always thrilled whenever she came around. They played in the jungle, he baked her confections, and they sat around on his back porch staring at the stars in the late evening. At last, Sapphiria finally had the family support she had always wanted, and it was through Trigon that she was finally able to build her first automaton, Atom. With Atom and Trigon both, she had a true family, but her heart still yearned for the acceptance of her people. It seemed like something that would never happen, but then, one day, everything changed…
Kaden’s Apprentice
Archons cannot remain Archons forever. Eventually, they have to retire, and after over three hundred years of devoted work, Kaden, the Archon of Orden, has decided to step down. In order to step down, however, he has to choose an apprentice, someone he can teach and groom up to assume his title, so the line of Archons remains unbroken, but he has deviated from his predecessors. Instead of choosing someone directly, he has decided to host a sort of competition to find his apprentice. He has decided to choose four candidates from each Sanctum across his area of influence and send them to his own Sanctum where they will learn for a whole year before he finally chooses someone among them to be his apprentice. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime and will completely change the lives of whoever he selects, but even Kaden can’t predict how this will turn out. Unknown to him, word of this has reached Sapphiria, and she finally sees a chance to change her life and join the order of her heroes! Though she has no powers, she is determined to prove to the Archon that she is a worthy apprentice, and thus her journey will finally begin, one that will end with her rising as the empress of a new empire and a galactic superpower that no one could ever see coming…
All in Good Time
And, with that, we’ve reached the end of the full backstory for the Sapphire Verdict. We have covered Sapphiria, her world, and her place in the universe. There is so, so much more to tell about the Sapphire Verdict, but those things must wait for the story to unveil itself. Will Sapphiria find the acceptance she’s looking for? Will she find her powers? What happened to her world? How does she become the empress? All of these questions, and so many, many more, will be answered within the first Sapphire Verdict book, so, for now, all we can do is be patient and wait for the grand unveiling of Sapphiria’s long, long journey towards becoming the most powerful force the galaxy has ever seen!
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap! Apologies for this taking so long to get out, but there was a LOT that needed to be covered. With this written, many, MANY aspects of the website will be updated and changed post haste, so expect almost everything to get shifted around and changed. There’s a lot more coming in the future weeks, so, until next time… CHEERS!
The Flying Fennec