A Flight of Wyverns

A Flight of Wyverns is a novel-length work-in-progress that started with a short story which got out of hand. It is based in a multiverse concept that started to develop in this and other short stories I was writing at the time (c.2019). The working title for this concept is The Twelve Realms. Each of the Twelve represent a separate but at times intersecting plane of existence (I should write a blog sometime about how, and why, the numbers 7 and 12 keep cropping up in myth, legend, and the fiction derived from them). Sometimes it is easier to think of them by their number. A Flight of Wyverns and also another work-in-progress, Amylia's Big Plan, both take place on the Earth of the Second Realm (see map above). The Realm in which I presume you are reading this blog is the Tenth Realm (this Realm is where Roger the Wyrd is set, only in 1969).

The story of A Flight of Wyverns involves a young female called Stormraven, who is of a race that refers to themselves as Tree-folk (see Hero Forge image above). These are one of the indigenous races of the Earth of the Second Realm, and humans, interlopers from the Tenth Realm, refer to them and all other of the more attractive "humanoid" races as "elves". This, of course, is a contrivance by which I enable my human readers to know what the Hell I am talking about. Tree-folk are lightly built, rather androgynous, beautiful, and green. They practice a "magic" based on their greater understanding of the spirit of all things. One of the "things" they develop a spiritual awareness of, are wyverns.

This brings up the whole "what is a damned wyvern anyway" issue. Scaly creatures with wings have had various and interchangeable names, the term "dragon" being the most well-known. Heraldry people may have been behind the need to be more precise, and by the 16th century it was decided that a wyvern has two legs and wings, while a dragon has four legs. So the above flag, the emblem of Owain Glyndwr by all accounts, carries a wyvern. It has also been thought to be a symbol of Wessex, which is where I am from, so they crop up a lot.

My wyverns, however, are more sleek, less spiny, very intelligent, and may agree to be ridden. Some say that the wyverns were attracted by the Tree-folk's ability to sense the spirit of prey no matter how well hidden that led them to collaborate, so it is really less like domestication and more like co-evolution. The wyvern-rider selection process is protracted, and involves reading romantic poetry to the wyverns.

A "flight" is a tactical group of wyverns and riders, typically 4-5 wyverns. The main plot is about how the Tree-folk are attacked by a growing human empire, and the flight of wyverns led by Stormraven must fly around the world to gain the allies their people need to defeat the invaders (hence map, top).

A Flight of Wyverns is presently at over 47,000 words, but again as soon as I knew the story would end I stopped writing it. I will return to Stormraven at some time. By the way, I suspect that just about every young heroine of a vampire/werewolf/fae or whatever young adult story is called Raven Storm or something like that, but since I never read that kind of story, I didn't know that. But now that's her name and I'm not changing it.