The Pillars – Open Sourcing Ideas

For the past few weeks I have been toying around with what to do with the The Pillars of Enlightenment series I sketched out late last year and commenced writing early this year. The world building part of the story was great, I loved the idea, but there was a problem: the plot itself was just too cliched. And I couldn’t get past it. So, what should I do?

Then I remembered a Korean children’s story a family friend gave my daughter some years back. The Story Spirits, as the tale was called, was about a group of stories which grew angry because they were kept in a bag and not shared.  The Pillars is a great story with some really interesting characters, who am I to keep it bottled up like the spirits in my daughters book?

And so, I have decided to let them free. I have gone one better though and set up a project on webook, where writers might be able to collaborate and make the story their own.

Listed below is the ideas, outlines and the first few thousand words I wrote for The Pillars of Enlightenment. Please feel free to use them, expand upon them, and do what you want with them. Just make sure the world gets to hear the result, and let the story spirits free.

Short Synopsis:

The Pillar brings life, wealth, power and death. It is the constant reminder that the creator still has a hand in the world. It is also the only conduit between the first two layers of the lands known as Haven. To control the pillar means to control the trade between the layers, and the central dominance, the most prosperous kingdom of the first layer. To Dash and Aurora, two thieves living near the pillar, the constant wars over control of the pillars provides them with a fertile ground for practicing their trade.

But the pillar is fading; the creator is withdrawing his hand from the world. Without the pillar, the only source of light, the entire realm would be plunged into never-ending darkness. Already the dimming light of the pillar has resulted in the outer dominances seeing less and less daylight each day. There are some places now in constant darkness. Here the minions of the Creator’s opposite, the Dark Lord have begun to appear. They sense the coming of their time.

When Aurora’s unique gift brings unwanted attention, the warring factions realize she may be the one foretold who can travel through all 7 layers of Haven and touch the power of creation itself, and remake the 7 layers into one, unified land. Whoever controls Aurora, controls everything!

Expanded Synopsis:

The lands of Haven, a world made up of 7 intersecting layers accessible to each other by a magical conduit called the Pillars. The central lands and the 1st pillar is under the rule of the tyrant known as the Father . Under his rule the practice of magic has been strictly controlled, and periodically kids reaching adulthood are tested for the tattoos; the runic signs which appear on ones body bestowing great power upon the bearer. Any such child is tested to see their potential for high order magic. Those with low order magic (one or maybe two, mostly benign tattoos are let go, but secretly watched. The Father is worried about  the prophecied coming of the one who can pass through all 7 pillars to touch the magic of creation, and remake the world.

But the Father’s grip on the central dominance comes at a cost.

The Pillars, the cosmic trade route between layers is the source of much of the Fathers wealth and power. Controlling the trade routes allows him to fund his endeavors to discover more pillars to the higher layers of haven. So far he has managed to make it only to the second; and that alone make him one of the most powerful beings in Haven.

But the father is not all powerful. Opening the initial pillar introduced an evil into the world that he struggles to hold back. The site of the pillar, a massive creator where a pillar of light stretched high into the sky is a constant warzone between rival factions battling for control. The air crackles with magic and the ground is mud due to the constant pounding of feet and war machines.

Near the pillar, the city of Bakar is a sprawling bazaar crossroad to the world. All sides of the factions recognize the importance of such a city as a way to disperse trade from the Pillar, and rest weary troops. It is a city seething with corruption as all sides seek to make money. An uneasy truce hangs in the air where swords are not permitted and magical warning system controls the flow of magic. In other words it is the prime place for a thief to make a living.

Dash is just that thief. He is young, brash, bold, and very very good at what he does. He lives on the street with his best friend, a pale skinned girl of unknown origin, called Aurora.

Aurora recently came of age, and a tattoo has appeared on her upper arm. Because she is a street urchin, so far she has avoided the detected the Father’s followers. At one stage Dash and Aurora are trapped after picking the pocket of a wealthy merchant. Backed into a corner Aurora unknowingly draws upon her power setting off the magical alarms of the city. They are saved by a side show ‘magician’ who says they are just part of his show, and he has a permit for low order magic. His assistant stupidly got her magic energy crossed with his, thus accidentally triggering the alarms.

The traveling magician is more than he seems. The Dash and Aurora thank him and leave only to find their house destroyed and everyone they lived with, killed. The father felt auroras magic.

Helped by the magician, Aurora and Dash escape the city where Aurora begins to have visions of another pillar. Their journey takes them to the dark edges of the world (the source of light into the haven is the pillar and light radiates outwards from there) to find the divining rod. An artifact said to help find another pillar. What they dont realize is that the diving rod is actually a person.

During this time the fighting sanctions of the world increase, the father steps up his attempts to find Aurora. What is worse is that now the inhabitants of the second layer, a more evolved race, have been planing their revenge on the 1st layer for the years of the Father stealing all of their resources. They have been secretly planting people among the population of the 1st layer who lay dormant until ‘awoken’. The divining rod is one of these people.

The 2nd layerer’s are starting to use these spies to open bridges or portals from layer 2 to layer 1. Dash and Aurora, are trapped between a tyrannical ruler who keeps the central dominance relatively safe (through the exploitation of the 2nd layer), warring factions who have heard the prophecies of the enlightened one, and the 2nd layerer’s who appear to understand Aurora’s gift and want to help. All the while, the magician who wanted to help them initially believes Aurora must fulfill the prophecies and unite all seven layers before the creator removes his benevolent hand from the world and ‘turns off the pillars’ due to their abuse.

Who is right, what role does Aurora really play in this? Why is Dash so critical? What about the diviner? can the 2nd layerers be trusted?

Long Synopsis

Dash and Aurora, two friends from childhood live on the streets of Bakar where they make a living as thieves. Bakar is a neutral city very close to the Northern Pillar. The area around the Northern Pillar is the setting for almost constant war as factions fight over the control of the pillar and its access to trade with the upper layers as well as its magical properties which fuel the high order magic.

The Pillar is currently held by Lord Vandel. He controls the largest, most wealthy dominance.

Bakar is hot and under constant light from the Pillar. It is used as a neutral city where soldiers can rest and black market merchants can move goods from the upper layers. It is a melting pot of races. In order to keep it neutral a magical web has been cast over it which forbids the use of anything but low order magic. Any break of the rule will alert the towns protectors – a collection of middle order mages under the control of Lord Vandel.

The pillar’s light is starting to fade. A sign of the darkness (the creators opposite) return.

When Dash is caught stealing a purse from a powerful noble and is chased into a corner. Aurora unknowingly taps into the high order magic and saves him. Aurora comes of age and a tattoo of power appears on her arm. It is not a ‘basic’ high order tattoo but something special – something prophesied.

Lord Vandels guards try to track Aurora and Dash down but they hide in a traveling minstrel show. Vandel has given the guards instructions where to ‘direct’ Aurora and Dash. he wants to trick them into joining the traveling minstrel show. The magician, a high order magic himself from the southern pillar hides them. He knows about the prophecy, and is actually from the next layer above – which is where Aurora comes from originally too.

Vandel sends an assassin to track them down, but he is distracted: the war is heating up near the pillar and rumors of a strange army massing to the east (at the edge of the darkness) is a big threat.

Dash and Aurora flee the assassin and the city (after all they lived in the underground – they know how to escape) and head east in search of the meaning to the mysterious tattoo. Dash wants nothing to do with it. Part of the reason for his name (apart from running fast) is that he runs away from trouble and responsibility (is he the heir to a powerful house but ran away from home when he was young when he found out his parents had arranged a marriage between vandels daughter and him). Aurora, on the other hand doesn’t know anything about her past and believes that the tattoo might lead her to some understanding of where she comes from and who she is. She looks different to anyone else that she knows – she is pale skinned, silver-white hair and light blue piercing eyes.

They flee to a nearby town, which is typically used as a staging area for the armies of one of Vandels enemies. The musician tells Aurora and Dash of a song which he remembers about a race of fair skinned people who live beside a pillar of light. The song alludes to an ancient city directly beside the pillar, where the light skinned people understood how to tap into the magic of the pillars and the true, high order magic: it is this race that wrote the original runes, and high order tattoos. They believe it is in the wasteland beside the pillar of light. The wasteland is the bowl of scorched earth that is under constant war for control of the pillar. There are many ruins near by. (Reality is that the song refers to one of the other pillars to the east which went dark long ago)

Dash and Aurora travel into the wasteland to the city the musician referred to with instructions to recover a disc containing a rune of power – the one that matches Aurora’s tattoo. The Runes of Power allow travel to the different layers. Vandel already has one rune (this is how he can cast high order magic which protects people to be able to travel to the layer above. Vandel is actually disguised as the musician. Vandel believes that this rune of power will unlock the next layer above, but can only be retrieved by “one marked with the sign”. He tricks them into fetching it for him.

Dash and Aurora brave the wasteland, find the ancient temple and eventually the disc in a cavern below. The temple is right on the edge of the pillar – it is hot and electricity crackles overhead. Aurora retrieves the disc and is visited of the spirits of the temple elders — they look just like aurora. She gets a glimpse of a enlightened, utopia with a strange blue sky and instead of a pillar for light there is a strange ball of light (the sun) in the sky. Its not clear whether it is the past, present or future. Reality is is that this race of people (aurora’s lost race) have transcended to the highest layer – the 7th layer. The 7th layer is the only layer above the ground with a real sun and blue sky.

Another tattoo appears on her skin; a gift from the ancients.

Aurora also feels that she should not give the rune to the musician. It somehow belongs to her race, to the temple, to her. Instead of going to back to the musician Dash agrees to take her back to the homeland where his parents are the king and queen. He doesn’t tell her about who his parents actually are, just says he ran away from home.

They travel to Dash’s homeland which is one the outer edge of Vandels kingdom. The homeland is mountainous and strategically important because of the minerals it mines which are crushed and used for many of the inks for middle order tattoos. Vandel intended to marry his daughter off to secure the supply of inks for his troops. The kingdom is also at the edge of the reach of the light from the pillars and is under a constant twilight illuminated only by a steady use of middle order magic to illuminate miniature pillars (created by the magicians to look like the real pillar) throughout the city.

Armed with the rune, Dash and Aurora return to his homeland. Aurora doesnt realize why they are sneaking into the royal castle; Aurora just believes it is another job — they need the money. When they sneak into the dining room Dash comes face to face with his parents, the king and queen. What is worse they are dining with the musician and another 18yo girl. Dash recognizes the girl as the one he was betrothed to all those years ago. The girl recognizes him too and then the truth sets in — the muscian is Vandel!

Aurora is shocked, scared, and a little jealous/pissed that Dash would hide all of this from her. After escaping the castle she flees into the darklands. Dash cant find her and goes to his childhood ‘secret place’ to think. Vandel’s daughter finds him there — they used to go their together when they were kids but she never told anyone.

She explains that Vandel is not bad. The world is threatening to be plunged into darkness and strange armies have been spotted congregating in the darklands coming from somewhere. (Dash and Aurora encounter a few of these scouts during their journey to Dash’s homeland. They are strange looking people with odd creatures, who during the day move as shadows unless fully robed in black coats.) Dash starts to have doubts as to whether Vandel is good or bad? The daughter still wants to marry Dash; partly because of love, partly because it would mean securing the mineral inks which will be critical to secure the pillar once and for all and allow him to focus on this new enemy (reality is if Vandel controls the pillar, he can have a beachhead to expand into the next layer above and conquer

Dash realizes that Aurora has gone into the darklands and is in danger. He runs after her, and finds her captured by the dark forces. (the story splits between them for a while). The dark forces take her to the center of the darkland where a pillar of black rises. At its base Aurora recognizes the runic symbols of her race (its another template like the one they found in the wasteland).

The black pillar opens the portal to the layers below – the place where the dark armies are coming from. The magic of the pillars is fading and the ‘blocks’ which prevented the layers below entering Haven have failed. (the dark pillar on the other side of the world is still closed at this stage however).

Dash frees Aurora but not before she uses the rune of power to seal the pillar turn it into another pillar of light.

They return to Dash’s land and find it under attack by the remains of the dark army. It is run over, and his parents killed. Dash rallies his troops and with the help of aurora and her growing tattoos and magic they beat back the army.

Book 1 ends with Dash now the king of the realm, Aurora with another rune of power (from the dark temple), and the world at war: Vandel intends to crush Dashs empire now as it has become a critical midway point between to the two pillars. Armies from all nations are rushing to secure the new Pillar for their own.

The other two pillars (the southern pole and the western pole) are still black making that part of the world impassible and seething with more of the dark army.

Dash doesnt realize it yet but his job is to hold onto his kingdom and unite the others against the dark armies.

Aurora realizes she needs to travel up into the layer above and seek out her relatives — she is obsessed with the glimpse of the Utopia she saw and is plagued by visions from her Elders about the importance of traveling down before she goes up towards enlightenment.

All the while Vandel, has been tightening his grip over the first pillar and growing stronger, threatening to destroy Dash. Vandel is starting to partner with the Darkness thinking he can form an alliance to take over all the pillars and control Haven. Reality is the darkness needs to extinquish all the pillars of light allow the ‘devil’ to enter the layer fully and take control.

Series Synopsis:

Book 1:

Aurora glimpses her ancestry. Dash

Book 2:

Dash tries to unite the layer of Haven. Vandel continues to threaten the stability of the layer and partners with the darkness

Aurora is troubled by increasing visions of a world plunged into blackness and the ‘devil’ taking over. At the same time she is driven/obsessed with the idea of the blue skies utopia. She studies the text in the template beside what used to the be the eastern pillar.

She realizes that the pillars are failing; they are being blocked by something below. The pillars power comes from the core of the planet.

Dash is visited by a visitor in the night – it is Vandel’s daughter. She tries to seduce him and he realizes she is covered in high order runes. Aurora bursts in, woken from a dream, and saves him.

She and Dash must travel down to level 3. They have to travel to the southern pillar (still a dark one) While they are on level 3 they find another rune of power. They find the darkness is syphoning off the pillars power to create the armies.

They destroy the tap into the pillar and create a pillar of light in level 3 – laying waste to everything around it for hundreds of miles.

Now the darkness is pissed!

Meanwhile on Haven, Vandel has been expanding but is weakened when his dark army is mostly cut off from its re-enforcements. Not before he secures the northern pillar of light and invades level 5.

Haven hangs precariously in balance tipped between good and evil – a massive continual battle wages on the edge of where light and darkness meet laying waste to everything.

Book 3:

With Vandels invasion of level 5 he has effectively opened a conduit between level 4 and 5 – you no longer need a rune of power to travel between the layers from any pillar.

Aurora did the same thing when she create the pillar of light on level 3. Good and Evil can now travel freely between levels 3,4 and 5. Armies seeth out of the pillars constantly, now even transporting themselves between pillars. The front lines which were once the boundary line between light and darkness are now blurred.

Dash’s hold on his kingdom is threatened from all sides. A kingdom between 2 pillars is threatened from all sides.

Aurora’s dreams become more vivid, and she travels to level 5 in search of the elders. She finds one elder who remained on that level. He guides her to another rune.

Aurora learns the history of the layers and more of her race. She learns that each layer has 1 more pillar than  the next; with layer 1 having only one, drilled into the core of creation itself. Layer 6 has 6 to light the entire layer and “offer all who are worthy a path to enlightenment” — the utopia Aurora is plagued with visions of. Man starts in the middle (level 4) and must choose whether they go up or down.

Vandel is now not much more than a puppet to the darkness. He finds a rune of power and turns one of the pillars to dark allowing the dark to enter level 5, and give him (and the darkness) access to a bunch of new magic.

The elder tells Aurora that in order to reach enlightenment and truly stop the darkness they must defeat the darkness at its core (level 1) Only here, can a true high order mage use a particular rune of power to light the ‘master pillar’ which will ignite them all. He tells her the only way to the 7th level is to dispel temptation and jealousy. She doesnt really understand that bit.

Aurora travels to find another rune and is confronted by Vandel’s daughter. They have a massive fight laying waste to everything around them. The battle is fierce and the daughter ends up winning. The elder is killed and Aurora is severely injured and left for dead in the waste created. The rune is the master rune capable of destroying the darkness.

Dash wins a major victory securing all the pillars of the 4th level. He has a beachhead onto level 3 and is preparing to go to war on Vandel’s forces on level 5.

But he can’t find Aurora.

Book 4:

Dash’s army invades the 5th level battling back Vandels forces. Vandels daughter tries again to turn Dash, and infers that she killed Aurora. Dash lashes out at her, but she escapes. She has gained many more tattoos

Dash finds Aurora who has been swept away into her visions. She finds it hard to tell dream from reality. The Darkness has begun speaking to her too. He convinces her that Dash has been unfaithful. When Dash comes to save her, she lashes out in anger somehow tapping another high order magic (another tattoo appears) which transports Dash to level 2. In his place a very confused Vandels daughter appears (multi-level teleportation works by substituting some on that plane, typically someone with an emotional attachment, with another. Dash went to level 2, Vandels daughter who was on level 2 comes to level 5 where Dash was.

This time Aurora kills Vandels daughter. She goes to the pillars on level 5 searching for more elders of her kind desperate to get him back.  The only thing that she manages to find is an explanation of how the teleportation works. She then realizes her mistake: she just killed the only person with such a strong connection to Dash. In desperation goes to the only person she thinks of that could help her — Vandel. (reality is she is planning on using him – he has known Dash for longer than anyone — since he was a child remember)

Vandel agrees to help if she will use the rune of power he has to open the portal to level 6. She agrees but tricks him. She taps the magic teleporting Vandel to level 2 and Dash back here. She also manages to secure another rune of power (from Vandel)

Dash tells her he saw another rune when he was teleported to Vandels daughters lair in level 2. Aurora realizes it is the rune of power.

With Vandal out of the way, the Darknesses reach is limited on level 5. Dash and Aurora led an army taking level 5 as well.

Book 5:

Things are looking good. Dash and Aurora have secured level 4 and 5. They have a toe-hold on level three but the darkness is growing stronger. The pillars are flickering between light and dark — the appear on the edge of ‘short-circuiting’.

Aurora is finding it harder and harder to block out the visions; she is somehow connected with the pillars and the true magic. As the pillars fade, so does she. She cant avoid it anymore and must  travel to level 2 to recover the rune of power. She and Dash travel to level 3 and eventually make it to level 2.

There they confront Vandel who has been ‘supercharged’ during his time there

Book ends with them killing Vandel and securing level 2 & and 3. They now have 2,3,4,5. Aurora finds a rune and opens the pillar to level 6.

Book 6:

Dash and Aurora are surprised to find that the darkness has already arrived on level 6. The visions Aurora has been having now make sense. The Darkness has been secretly boring a new hole from level 1 all the way to level 6. He is close to boring it all the way to level 7 where he intends to destroy the sun itself.

They manage to destroy the bore, but not the darkness and the core. The darkness launches a last ditch effort and starts teleport-substituting thousands of people and buildings and mountains and parts of the world from level 1 to all the other levels, including level 6. — he realizes it is now or never.

The levels are ripped apart and gaping holes start appearing between one level and the next. The world is being reformed – oceans flood down to the lower levels. Society is almost blown back into nothingness with many of the advancements lost.

Book 7:

Aurora and Dash make it to level 1 and the core. Aurora uses the rune of power, thrusting it into the core finally destroying the darkness for good. All the pillars on all the levels open and shine brightly. Aurora transcends to level 7 where she sees the sun for the first time and the blue sky. They started from poor street thieves and they were happy. They managed to make the rise to wealth and power and were unhappy (Aurora thought he cheated, they always had to battle for things etc). Now with it all over, they have nothing. Kingdoms are meaningless now as the world has been reformed. But they have each other and Aurora is finally united with her people. She has reached enlightenment. She and Dash finally marry.

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