Rylae’s Storm
S T Xavier
Published 2014
Copyright 2014 S T Xavier
ISBN: 978-0-9906535-1-6
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Graphic design services by gigblast and fantabanner on www.fiverr.com
All rights reserved. This eBook is licensed to the purchaser per the terms and conditions stated on the reseller site used to purchase this eBook.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I acknowledge all of you. Every single one of you. I see you.
To my family and friends, who never admitted to being sick of hearing me be happy over every small book-related accomplishment, I thank you for your silence. Keep it up. It was nice.
AUTHOR’S NOTE TO THE READER
(aka “What genre is this book, really?”)
This isn’t your normal high-fantasy swords-and-sorcery universe. This isn’t your normal science-fiction space opera either. This is something different. This is a little of both. I call it ‘modernized fantasy’.
Ten thousand years before events in this book (approximately… I think everyone in the universe lost track when the year numbers were reset seventy-four hundred years ago), everything was as you’d imagine it would be in a magic-oriented swords-and-sorcery adventure – elves, dwarves, goblins and numerous other creatures on a single magical world just trying to get by.
Then technology happened. However, as you’ll see, technology in the Ugly Dirt Box Universe didn’t start from mechanics and steam power. It didn’t start from military design and the need to win wars. It started from a curious dragon and a magical solution.
Time passed, and the world modernized in its own way. Everything built logically from the goals, materials and processes they had at their disposal, which skipped most of our history’s industrial phases entirely and took things in semi-parallel-but-not-equal directions. (A more ‘organically evolved’ form of ‘magitech’, if that combination of words means anything to you. If they don’t, steampunk with magic. I think everyone knows steampunk by now.)
The races quickly took to the stars in search of new worlds to call home – some worlds with lots of magic, some worlds with very little magic, and some worlds with no magic at all. An oversight body was created to maintain travel between worlds, train travelers on what they needed to know, and be a third-party diplomatic and trade entity without being directly related to any government or military.
This is the basis for the way the universe works. It doesn’t adhere to a standard sci-fi or fantasy atmosphere. It’s a wonderful hybrid of the two. Adventurer sci-fantasy, if you will.
I hope you enjoy your stay in the Ugly Dirt Box Universe. If you do, please keep an eye out for future books, which will be released as soon as I can finish them. You can find information at www.uglydirtbox.com.
With true sincerity and thanks,
S T Xavier
P.S. If you enjoy the universe and story, please review this book wherever you can and visit www.uglydirtbox.com I have some notes about fan art and book sharing that you’ll want to read. (Spoiler: I love both of those things)
PRONUNCIATION NOTE
Goblin names can be a bit difficult to say sometimes. Some goblins have names where too many consonants run together. In usage, these names are pronounced with the “missing letters” added. They also regularly shorten their names to more standard variants for social reasons.
Additionally, the X in most goblin names is pronounced as a SH sound.
Examples:
Smonz = SAI-muns = Simon
Kesn = KEH-sehn
Rsadun = ROH-sah-doon = Rosa
Zaxn = ZAHSH-en
Bax = BAHSH
Lusz = LOO-siz = Luis
Additional note – Elven and dwarven names are pronounced like they’re spelled. They gave up on difficult names a few thousand years ago. It’s really only the goblins that fell behind on social changes like these.