07-19-2008, 01:00 PM
First of all, before I start, please, don't fail me. I've written this on other sites, even ones I thought would respond seriously with any feedback, but even those sites failed me.
Warning! This post might be too long for you, so you might not read it. For that there is a short summary of what was written below.
Before the summary, there is also a description about what the novel will be about.
I'll be posting the translation of the prologue of a novel I'm writing, to give you an idea of what the book is all about. It's the same prologue I've released on the internet, as a sort of teaser. Mind you, the whole book will be written in Dutch. I'm not sure whether or not to translate it to English myself, though, since my English is still lacking a bit. But anyway, here's the English translation, with its Dutch original below:
Original:
The novel chronicles one of the many adventures of Nikene, a woman who normally travels trough the world killing ruvis for a living and taking seeds of plants for her own garden. This time, however, she might be longer from home than normal when she hears news about her youngest sister.
Short summary:
It tells about the creation of Ertar, or how the spirets think it happened, about how the creatures called spirets came to be, and about the creation of the ruvis. It also explains why spirets don't age, and why spirets have a chance to regenerate after death.
Warning! This post might be too long for you, so you might not read it. For that there is a short summary of what was written below.
Before the summary, there is also a description about what the novel will be about.
I'll be posting the translation of the prologue of a novel I'm writing, to give you an idea of what the book is all about. It's the same prologue I've released on the internet, as a sort of teaser. Mind you, the whole book will be written in Dutch. I'm not sure whether or not to translate it to English myself, though, since my English is still lacking a bit. But anyway, here's the English translation, with its Dutch original below:
Quote:Before Ertar was created there was only the Goddess. For a long time she only existed to exist, until she decided to create a world for herself. She made a world, bare and dark. The only thing that was was a river that flowed. She built halls and rooms, but whatever she did, she did not felt at home. So she made a new world, a world with light and color. It was a paradise. There was grass everywhere, and there was a clear sky. She felt it was good, and decided that this was her home.
However, she began to feel lonely. Because she didn't want her creations to change her paradise, she decided to create a new world, the world we know. First land was created, after which mountains and water were made. Afterwards she created her creations. These creations, the spirets, worshipped the Goddess. She was the Goddess of the three Skies.
For a long time the spirets lived this way, but the Goddess saw the spirets did nothing. After all, they didn't have any reason to do something. They even stopped worshipping the Goddess. That's why she made a new kind of spirets, spirets that could grow old. However, these spirets kept on growing older, but kept on existing. Many of them wished to stop existing. The Goddess fulfilled their wishes, and all of them fell down and died. All, except for one. This spiret decided to never die, however the spirets that didn't age decided that there should still be a way, without aging. The Goddess created a midway.
The spirets could reproduce, and their children would keep on growing and aging until their eighteenth solar cycle. They could also die, but only due to injuries.
The spirets now had something to live for, and built a civilization. They began building ships and colonized several continents. They developed their own powers, and so there existed two groups: a group which used the power of magic and a group that lived of technology. The bitter, still aging spiret also developed powers. Eventually he changed into something else, no longer was he a spiret, and the Goddess lost control over him. Even his behavior was different. The only thing he thought of was the death of all spirets. After a while the spiret fell apart. His still aging body couldn't handle the growth.
But instead of dieing his blood infected the energy flowing trough Ertar. Within one cycle creatures roamed, with their only purpose to kill spirets. The Goddess had no choice than to give the spirets a possibility to come back to Ertar, out of fear that all spirets would disappear for good. The spirets called the creatures after the one who once was a spiret: the ruvis.
Original:
Quote:Voordat Ertar werd gecreëerd was er alleen de Godin. Voor een lange tijd bestond ze alleen maar om te bestaan, totdat ze besloot een wereld voor haarzelf te creëren. Ze maakte een wereld, kaal en donker. Het enige wat er was was een rivier dat stroomde. Ze bouwde gangen en kamers, maar wat ze ook deed, ze voelde zich niet thuis. Daarop maakte ze een nieuwe wereld, een wereld met licht en kleur. Het was een paradijs. Er was overal gras, en er was een heldere hemel. Ze vond dat het goed was, en ze besloot dat dit haar thuis was.
Echter, ze begon zich eenzaam te voelen. Omdat ze niet wilde dat haar creaturen haar paradijs zouden veranderen, maakte ze een nieuwe wereld, de wereld die wij kennen. Eerst werd er land gecreëerd, waarna er bergen en water werd gemaakt. Vervolgens maakte ze haar creaturen. Deze creaturen, de spirets, eerden de Godin. Zij was de Godin van de drie Hemelen.
Voor een lange tijd leefden de spirets op deze manier, maar de Godin zag dat de spirets niks deden. Ze hadden immers geen reden om iets te doen. Ze hielden zelfs op met het eren van de Godin. Daarom maakte ze een nieuwe soort spirets, spirets die ouder konden worden. Echter, de spirets werden wel ouder, maar bleven bestaan. Velen van hen wensten om niet meer te bestaan. De Godin vervulde hun wensen, en allen vielen neer en stierven. Allen, behalve één. Deze spiret besloot om nooit te willen sterven, maar de spirets die niet ouder werden besloten allen dat er een mogelijkheid moest zijn om dat toch te kunnen, zonder oud te worden. De Godin creëerde een middenweg.
De spirets konden herproduceren, en hun kinderen zouden tot de achttiende zonnecyclus blijven groeien en ouder worden. Ook konden ze sterven, maar alleen aan verwondingen.
De spirets hadden nu iets om voor te leven, en bouwden beschavingen op. Ze begonnen schepen te bouwen en bevolkten verschillende continenten. Ze ontwikkelden eigen krachten, en er ontstonden twee groepen: de groep die de kracht van de magie gebruikte en de groep die leefde van de techniek.
Ook de verbitterde, steeds ouder wordende spiret ontwikkelde krachten. Uiteindelijk veranderde hij zelfs in iets anders, hij was niet langer meer een spiret, en de Godin had geen controle meer op hem. Zelfs zijn gedrag was anders. Het enige waar hij aan dacht was de dood van alle spirets. Na een tijd viel de spiret uit elkaar. Zijn steeds ouder wordende lichaam kon de groei niet meer aan.
Maar in plaats van te sterven infecteerde zijn bloed de energie die door Ertar stroomt. Binnen een cyclus zwerfden er wezens rond, die als enige doel hadden het doden van spirets. De Godin had geen keus dan de spirets de kans te geven om weer terug te komen op Ertar, uit angst dat alle spirets voorgoed verdwenen. De spirets noemden de wezens naar degene die ooit zelf een spiret was geweest: de ruvis.
The novel chronicles one of the many adventures of Nikene, a woman who normally travels trough the world killing ruvis for a living and taking seeds of plants for her own garden. This time, however, she might be longer from home than normal when she hears news about her youngest sister.
Short summary:
It tells about the creation of Ertar, or how the spirets think it happened, about how the creatures called spirets came to be, and about the creation of the ruvis. It also explains why spirets don't age, and why spirets have a chance to regenerate after death.