PROLOGUE OR NOT?

Now that the new Book I of The Daighacaer is ready for the final touches prior to publishing, I'm betwixt and between about including a prologue or simply beginning the story without any preamble. I personally appreciate knowing a bit of the back-story but can just as well do without it. 

I've also considered perhaps not putting in a prologue and gathering the 'historical' aspects of the story which I include at the beginning of each book in the series into a book of its own. This is something which will need more thought.

If you have any views on this, I'd appreciate your input.

Prologue - History of The Ages

 

Faeré

 

In the Realm of Myths and Faeré

Our Fantasies

Live their lives

In the Realm of Myths and Faeré

Our very dreams

Come true

In the Realm of Myths and Faeré

Because Times are

Time survives

In the Realm of Myths and Faeré

Knowledge of Ages

Continue

In the Realm of Myths and Faeré

Lighte dwells in truth

As Darke deceives

In the Realm of Myths and Faeré

I live my life

With you

 

Over the aeons and for no discernible reason, fewer and fewer yldryf baby girls were born in Faeré until the ratio between yldryf men and women was so one-sided that fewer and fewer yldryf children were being born at all.

The Chief Clerics knew that unless something drastic was done, the yldryf would no longer exist and, if the yldryf were lost to Faeré, The Knowledge of Ages too would cease to exist.

When all of their combined knowledge failed to increase the number of yldryf girls born, the senior yldryf tried to encourage the younger yldryf men to accept marriage with women of their communities who were not yldryf in order that the yldryf would endure in at least some form.

Whether because of apprehension or denial of the demise of yldryf, the clerics were painfully unsuccessful and, over time, the yldryf, in Raeldysce particularly, but also in the surrounding kingdoms, were reduced to a mere handful of men.

Apart from Anoral, the Queene of Raeldysce, there were no longer any pure-blood yldryf women in Raeldysce.

Queene Anoral and King Eroyalen lamented the loss of their pure yldryf heritage but understood that life constantly changes and with it societies grow or die.

It took a direct intervention from the Deities to point out the obvious to the yldryf men.

Once their minds and spirits were decisively and inevitably opened by the Deities, it was finally clear to the majority of yldryf men that, for their heritage to continue within Time and Times in any form at all they would, indeed, need to embrace communities other than yldryf.

Nevertheless, the majority of yldryf still firmly baulked at the thought.

During the time through which the clerical debate was raging about the wisdom of diluting the yldryf bloodline, two young yldryf friends had both, at almost the same time, fallen in love with girls from different communities.

The young men were not aware of the heated discussions raging around the dilution of yldryf and consulted with The King and Queene about the situation in which they found themselves.

That the young men would stay with their true and life loves was not in question. What was in question, however, was whether any children they had together would suffer in any way by being only half-yldryf. The King and Queene consulted with the Deities but it was something about which the Deities were strangely silent.

The Royals themselves did not have any answers for the young men.

There was also nothing within The Knowledge of Ages which helped in any way to solve their dilemma.

Despite the possibility of unforeseen complications, the young men decided that their love for their life-loves demanded that their lives be joined not only in matrimony but also in children of their own. Soon, each couple found to their delight that they were with child.

All the other yldryf in the Kingdom kept themselves apart from other communities and slowly as each family grew older, more and more young yldryf boys, as they reached the age of conversion to adulthood, left Raeldysce to find life-loves outside of the Kingdom.

The yldryf of Raeldysce started dwindling and the unavoidable was looming. They were facing a very real danger of extinction.

The one young friend was Leobarden, Lebrowen’s father, who married his lifelong faeré love, Gianaira.

Lebrowen, their son, was their only child.

To his father’s delight, Lebrowen’s yldryf heritage seemed to be as strong as any true yldryf.

To his mother’s delight, the combination of yldryf and faerie endowed Lebrowen with a special heritage that, as he matured into full manhood, he was now beginning to truly explore.

The other friend, Jivdral, was Jivdreg’s father. Jivdreg’s mother, Rinaedra, was dra’en, and she passed on to Jivdreg her own unique heritage, which combined hauntingly with his yldryf bloodline.

Jivdreg’s eyes were jade, just as Lebrowen’s were, attesting to the still vibrant strength of yldryf which coursed through them.

Until Ryallor was born to Prince Eryen and his naiad bride, Princess Allara, Lebrowen and Jivdreg were the only two half-yldryf among the remaining handful of pure-blood yldryf who were living in Raeldysce Kingdom.

Every full-yldryf looked at the world through emerald green eyes.

Every half-yldryf looked at the world through jade green eyes, no matter what the race of their other parent was. Their jade eyes attested to their heritage which drew on the knowledge of yldryf ages but which also included their other uniquely different and powerful heritage from their non-yldryf parent.

♦

Eryen’s parents, Eroyalen and Anoral, who had no time for old-fashioned notions of governance, began to step aside from active administrative duties while Eryen was still young.

The King and Queene were sitting on their veranda, looking out over the beautiful landscaped garden. The scents from the various plants and flowers danced around them, mingling into a burst of intense fragrances.

“This is my most favoured time of the day, My Love,” said Queene Anoral. “Our private time when I have you all to myself, once the obligations of governing our people are complete for the day.”

King Eroyalen smiled his acknowledgement.

He did not need to answer his wife, she knew that he felt exactly as she did.

“I’ve been thinking, Anoral,” said Eroyalen. “There are many administrative duties which Eryen is more than competent to handle, even at his young age. As the future king, he needs to learn all there is to know about the most complex strategic understanding of governing people with the powerful combination of both love and discipline. That will come with time. If we start passing the most basic of administrative duties to him, to be his own responsibilities and not as support to us or even to the administrative clerics, I believe that he will thank us later.”

“I agree,” said Queene Anoral. “There is much power in having the knowledge of the workings of the state. Our clerics always appreciate that we know and are willing to do what we ask of them.”

“Exactly!” replied The King.

“Are you considering starting now, while he is still involved with his studies?” asked Anoral.

“Yes. There is no time like the present. We’ll speak to him during our evening meal. If he accepts, we’ll begin handing over. Of course, it will be simple duties at first, and how much we transfer to him will depend on his alacrity and aptitude.”

This happened rather suddenly while Eryen was perhaps still too young to take over the Kingdom. Yet, Eryen, to his credit, undertook everything that his parents taught him with determination, if not always gladness. The first lessons were rudimentary and deathly boring. He sometimes longed to be outside with his friends rather than writing tomes of stuffy notes about how many barrels of such-and-such liquid were being stored in which building. The mundanity of it all often irked him but, he was the Heir-Prince, and his duty to the Kingdom and its people was impressed on him from before he even knew his numbers.