Preface for the Upcoming Art Project

Before the coming upload on Friday, I figure I should add some background.

The UA Series

If you know anything about my Book of the Shadows series, then you know that I tend to be less than focused in terms of starting a story and finishing it. I will use a bit of a justifiable excuse, since I’ve been working full-time and going to school, thereby splitting my free time between writing for my stories and drawing. But I will admit that I could do better in terms of staying focused on a single story and working it to a completed product.

That being said, because of the lack of focus on a given story, I tend to still amass ideas, and lack the time to refine them into a version that can fit a particular existing story. So, to not forget those ideas and lose the spark that initially makes them a compelling idea in the first place, I write them as their own story. The idea then is that if I can fit it into an existing story, I roll it back into that story, editing what I wrote as necessary.

That’s possible with the UA series, which at the moment is a standalone within Looking Glass. But as of this moment, it’s a purely standalone story. I’m about to spoil most of the story, so if you’re interested in waiting for it to be actually written, I’d skip this next section.

Spoiler Alert!! The Story

The subtitle for the saga is The Three Kingdoms War. This is an action-fantasy story. It tells of a region where there are three major powers – West, East, and South. West is ruled by a monarch named Ashowan Eurum, who is known as a crass man and something of a war-monger. At the beginning of the story, West is invaded by East, their age-old rival. Ashowan rushes out to the battlefield with his armies to repulse East’s invasion. While he is gone, however, East has infiltrated deep into the kingdom and begins a secret raid on the capital. Ashowan, realizing the forces from East on the border were a diversion for the attack on the castle.

Ashowan’s wife, two sons, and daughter were at the castle when it was attacked. While they fought hard to defend the castle, in the end the sons ushered their mother and sister away as the caste fell. The daughter, Nikkita, wants to stay and fight, especially as her mother is injured and tells her to go on ahead without her. Forcing her to do so, Nikkita is whisked away. She eventually hears that her mother and brothers were killed, her father was captured while rushing back to the castle, and that East is searching for her.

Nikkita, who was always more interested in fighting and marital arts than the more princess-like things her father wished her to do, begins coalescing a force of West’s scattered generals and fighters, intent on reclaiming her homeland. Much to the surprise of East’s forces, and to her own countrymen, Nikkita proves to be wildly successful, winning many battles against East’s forces, and liberating many towns and cities captured by East. She leads this campaign for several months, desperately working her way towards the city where her father is being held prisoner, believing that if she can free him, they can together lead a decisive blow against East and truly liberate West. However, as she nears this objective, Ashowan escapes.

Although the father and daughter are finally reunited, things don’t go as Nikkita expects. Ashowan shows her no apparent thanks or respective joy at their reunion. Her father assumes command of the massive force Nikkita has amassed, and immediately sends her away to the far ends of the kingdom, well away from the frontlines, and gives her an impossible task of amassing a force nearly the size of the one she just turned over to him, and not to return until she has done so. While many who had been under her command until then are angry and critical of the idea that she would be exiled in this way, Nikkita places her trust in her father and sets out to do as he demanded.

Only days into her journey, Nikkita and her small group travelling west find that they are being shunned, even attacked, by angry people living in the towns they are passing through. Nikkita learns she is being accused of conspiring with East over the invasion of West, and that her father has declared her a criminal and a usurper. Confused and upset, but nevertheless certain that there must be some mistake, Nikkita returns to the temporary capital to see her father and find out what is going on. When she confronts her father, she is imprisoned. She learns that, above all her other alleged crimes, she’s being accused of being a consort of the “Azure King”.

The Azure King if a historical figure, an Elf (the term “elf” referring to any human-like non-human, such as vampires, Dullahans, and, of course, elves). The Azure King was said to have destroyed the peace that had existed for ages between Elves and Humans. The Azure King was said to be violent and terrible, obtaining his title because of the brilliant blue flames he was said to be able to create and used to burn people alive. Ever since his death, the world has feared the rebirth of an Elf with the rare power to use the brilliant blue flames that the Azure King did, those who held such power being known as the Consorts of the Azure King.

Saying nothing to her, Nikkita sits in a dark dungeon for several days, until her father tells her she is to be executed. She pleads that he listen to her, believe that she never tried to take the throne or conspire against her own homeland. But he never speaks to her again. On the day of her execution, she has abandoned all hope and faith. The people who had been celebrating her as a hero and even as a goddess for fighting to liberate West, now stand in celebration as she is led to the execution grounds. Representatives from all over, including East and South, are seated in the observation gallery with her father, watching as he gives the order to proceed with the execution. With her final words, Nikkita curses all of them, swearing that she will find a way from the grave to make them all pay for unjustly killing her. But, just as the executioner’s axe is about to fall, there is an attack on the grounds. Nikkita is rescued by the unknown group and taken away far to the west, beyond the Haierline Ridge, to a provincial area known as something of a lawless area because it is so remote and difficult to travel to.

While there on West’s coast, Nikkita learns that her mother is alive, having been in hiding with the Azure Clan since East captured West’s capital. She then learns that King Ashowan has been executed in Nikkita’s place, blamed for allowing a Consort of the Azure King to escape. Finally, she learns that her father had orchestrated almost everything since their reunion. He’d known that Nikkita was a Consort, but kept it secret. East found out, however, which was the reason for their attack. He had feigned ignorance of Nikkita’s heritage when he was captured, but was released when they thought he’d made a deal with them to kill her. He sent her away on the impossible task with the intent that she would escape East’s eyes. But her strength proved a folly to his plan, Nikkita too successful a fighter. He then made arrangements with the Azure Clan, setting up the execution as an opportunity for them to take Nikkita away from East’s eyes, and give her the change to save herself from East.

From here, the UA series follows the story of Nikkita’s fight to uncover the truth of her past, as well as reclaim her kingdom from East. It also delves into the story of the other major powers, South and East, as well as their respective leaders, Hide Mar-Grave, and Ira Ignis.