Seek: 3 - Overall Premise and Jael

Jael: not the exact look I was going for,
but the old-ish but still strong man in a
cloak is somewhere close to what I was
thinking. The feathers also tie into an idea
that I've been toying with for a while,
though they would likely be a cape rather
than shoulder ornaments.

Overall premise: Jonah Cross is an average kid growing up in the jungle megalopolis of Khaios when he is selected to attend an elite, government-sponsored school where he will learn the secrets of the Onim--advanced elemental technology left over from the days of the Founders, who created Khaios and the other great cities, now in ruin. Just weeks before his eighteenth birthday, Jonah is conscripted into the Salamander Legion, an elite military strike force, but time soon reveals that a very different path lies ahead for him: a path that will take him far from the walls of Khaios as he seeks to understand truth and find his place in the world. He embarks on an epic journey of discovery and wonder, finding friends in unexpected places, unlocking the mysteries of the past, uncovering devious plots, and coming to understand the true meaning of love and sacrifice as he forges his own path to truth.

Jael: Kaiya's father. He was once a powerful political figure in Khaios but was driven out by opponents and had to make his way on his own. He was taken in by the village of Secra, where he was initially spurned but later gained respect and garnered a strong following among the local villagers. At his behest, groups of Resistance members and refugees began exploring the ruins of the western canyon city, Shibboleth, and ten years later, the city had been born anew, a haven for Khaios's outcasts and enemies. As news of the city's revival spreads, more and more people flock there from all different cultural backgrounds and climes, a reality that serves as a constant source of conflict and worry for Jael, who serves as one of Shibboleth's nine elected councilors and who sees the success of the city as his personal responsibility.

Out of Khaios

I was thinking today, what if every twenty dollar bill that you found in that old pair of jeans was really put there by someone else, just to make you happy? I think I want to do that for my kids some day.

I've been thinking a bit about a novel premise that I've been mulling over for a year or so now, and I've decided it's time to quit sitting around thinking about what could happen and instead work to get something out, whatever the form. So, here we go.

[1st person] Not everyone can be a hero. What to do when you are too afraid to do the things that you know you should do?

[3rd person] Main character, Jonah, is drafted into the Salamander Legion, an elite military corps responsible for maintaining the security of the megalopolis Khaios, the only remaining city of the four ancient capitals. On a night raid of a nearby village--purported to be a safe haven for rebel Seekers, or users of ancient technology that has been denounced as heretical by Khaios's prelates--Jonah is tasked with razing a group of huts, and Mara, a young woman from the village, arrives just in time to see her home go up in flames as the soldiers fade into the darkness of the jungle all about them.

It's afternoon of the next day, and Jonah receives a court summons to stand trial before a military tribunal for the crimes he committed the previous evening. Jonah wants to think it all over and write everything down before worrying about the trial, but his mother, fearing for his life, hires men from the ciity's Outer Rim to smuggle Jonah out of the city by night. Three men arrive in dark clothes, their faces masked, and they set off into the darkness despite curfew enforcement. [Ronan and Simeon are among them: "Surely you can't have forgotten that dark night in Khaios just months ago." Simeon looks upon his face as if in recognition when they later meet outside Khaios]. They proceed through the Market District, which is abandoned except for scattered patrols of mercs, the city's hired peacekeeping force. They stumble into a guard, who sounds the alarm, and the mercs give chase through the market, weaving through the narrow rows and crashing past stalls that would be bustling early the next morning [Jonah later remembers this as he is chasing [Scout] through the market later on]. One of the smugglers is shot, but they keep going. Another falls to a concussion sphere and is left behind. Jonah and the two remaining smugglers reach the outer wall--the Founders' Wall--and as the taller of the two smugglers places his palm to the wall, one of the engraved Founders' marks erupts into blue-green light. "You use the [Onim]?" / "Well, you didn't think we were going to throw you over the Founders' Wall, did you?" The glyph shattered as the man's hand fell to his side once more, and the blue-green light flowed into the cracks on the wall, outlining the shape of a door on the white stone. . .