Twistform

By D.A. Rogers

Colonel Axmund Abaqh has been ordered to destroy a pitgate, a dimensional portal that allows demons to enter the world of Archea. This is the only hope of crushing the Demonbringers in the coming war, to deny them their demon soldiers. Such an urgent mission can not wait, but as his skyship, Grey Duchess rushes to fulfil these vital orders, another more immediate menace plagues him. Why are his crew dying? Is it an ancient curse or murder? Are the archaeologists of Hermit’s Isle hiding something from him? Or does he face something beyond the experience of his officers, something that none of the species of the Trade Sea Alliance have dealt with in its history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D.A. Rogers
• Release date: Mar 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311124869

D.A. Rogers

I live in sunny Perth, Western Australia. I work in security and I.T. My interests include military history, physics, strategy gaming, martial arts, sketching, engineering, comedy, game theory and etymology. I like to read about unusual settings and bizarre worlds that are a little outside the regular comfort zone. I like to contemplate the impossible and wrap my head around alien places and unorthodox inhabitants. I primarily write sci-fi or sword and sorcery. I am currently writing about the world of Archea, a moonless planet dominated by reptiles, but host to numerous stranded visiting species, including humans. Because it isn't tilted on its axis, Archea experiences only summer and winter and in both hemispheres simultaneously. It is a large tropical and very volcanic planet. The people of Archea struggle for space, as well as resources both arcane and mundane.

Book preview

TWISTFORM

Abaqh Voyages Book One

D.A Rogers

Copyright 2014 by D.A. Rogers

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Prologue: A brief history of Archea, and the humans of the Trade Sea.

Archea followed an elliptical path around its sun; it spun on an upright axis in alignment with its fellows. This conventional angle provided the world with mild seasons experienced at the same time of year in both hemispheres, and a steady predictable flow of trade winds across its moonless skies. Archea’s youthful core of magma burnt hot, its crust pubescent with eruptions, and its seas crowded with juvenile volcanic islands. Three great continents separated its oceans, two stretched laterally across the northern and southern hemispheres, the third ran north to south bridging both. Ley-lines criss-crossed them all along every imaginable angle, and where they met, junctions of great power formed, the ley-nexus. Most believe that the power of great primordial storms acted on these junctions to create arcane bridges to places and times unknowable. It is thought the many strange peoples of Archea were born of these gateways from the wombs of other worlds.

About five thousand years ago, the first humans appeared on the southern continent, in what is now eastern Shu. It is not recorded exactly where they came from, only that they brought the first horses and bows to Archea with them. They were small, dark haired, and ferocious. They spread quickly across the vast plains; they raided, and burnt the villages of the spiky faced gweifolk as they did so. Once they had conquered all the lands they could ride too, from the mountain spine to the Trade Sea, they gradually settled. They built cities, and for the most part gave up their nomad ways. They founded the first dynasties, beginning with the Ghol Dynasty with its many walled cities. Then the Chong Dynasty, which built simple boats, and began to trade with the hecatian people. Three dynasties followed, Tsun, Shang, and finally the Shu, from whom the region gains its name. Almost a thousand years had passed before the new humans came. These arrived in dozens of long slim boats upon the shores of Grand Isle. There they found a few poor fishing villages established by those unfortunate enough to row too far into the dancing currents of the trade sea, and find themselves unable to return to the mainland. The new humans were tall, pale, and wore shaggy beards of auburn and blonde. They carried iron weapons and understood the sea’s moods. They were the greatest sailors Archea had yet seen. The new humans settled on the green slopes of Grand Isle’s southern plain, they conquered the fishing villages easily and built more boats to raid Hecatia and Shu. They called themselves the Nanes and built an empire around the grand city of Caulfel. Their seamanship brought them into contact with the jima and established the first trade routes within the Trade Sea. Three centuries of wars followed between the hecatians, jima, and humans. The jima fought against interlopers who claimed territories on their native world. Hecatians battled to keep their culture isolated from the chaotic philosophies of alien societies, and the Nane raided and waged war for a love of combat.

The era after this, we know as the great philosophical reformation. It was a period of peace and trade. It led to debate between these species, about the future of life-kind and the perfectibility of the individual and civilisation. Three powerful philosophies emerged, transcending the species that made them. Hecatianism, ruxtalism, and caulfelianism dominated the political landscape. These three philosophies and the nations or factions supporting them fought a few sporadic wars over the next hundred years and would have continued if not for the kohlinite invasion. The serpent tailed kohlinites swept into southern and central Shu, not merely intent on conquest, but destroying the human population to make way for their own. The philosophically opposed ruxtalists and caulfelianists found themselves forced into an alliance to stop them. The hecatianists saw a unique opportunity for a new era of unity and joined them, sending a fleet of troopships into southern Shu to cut the kohlinite supply lines. In this way, the War of Unification had created the Trade Sea Alliance and proved its diverse races and philosophies could collaborate and achieve greatness.

The Trade Sea Alliance had continued beyond the war with two common goals, to acquire the defensive strength needed to fend off the chaos that swept Archea in sudden destructive waves and to encourage the betterment and progress of the species who founded it. They collectively felt that where there is disease, war, privation, thoughtlessness, selfishness, and avarice, there would soon be destruction and chaos. Nobility, health, and intelligence were acclaimed the path to greatness. However, without strength in battle, no civilisation on Archea could hope to stand the tests of time or the twisting paths of fate. The alliance strived to perfect its people, to understand science, to master magic, and conquer weakness and disease. But, always it maintained an army of defenders, armed and equipped with the best devices of war its great minds could create. This was the Trade Sea Alliance Defence Corps.

Chapter 1 – The Colonel and the Grey Duchess

The Grey Duchess was a skyship with seven decks. She was a three-masted, schooner-rigged frigate, armed with two decks of cannon with 62 guns in total. Her arsenal further augmented with ballistae, twin Mortars, repelling guns, harpoon launching boarding guns, and hundreds of pitch bombs. She could carry a small army across mountain, sea, desert, or swamp at great speed and provided a hawk’s eye view