The Key to Creation

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A Preview of
Hidden Empire

To Shawn Gordon at ProgRock Records, who expanded the imaginary horizons in the Terra Incognita series by making possible the companion rock CDs,
Beyond the Horizon
and
A Line in the Sand
.
And thanks for being a cool friend, too.

The Story So Far

According to legend, ONDUN (the creator of all things) sent out His sons AIDEN and UREC in two Arkships to explore the world and also to find the mysterious Key to Creation, while His third son, JORON, remained in the Eden-like land of Terravitae. Leaving the world in the care of His sons, Ondun departed, leaving His creation behind.

Today, the known world has two continents, Tierra and Uraba, connected by a thin isthmus, on which stands the sacred city of Ishalem. The “Aidenist” people of Tierra are the descendants of Aiden’s crew, while the “Urecari” people of Uraba believe that their ancestors originally sailed on Urec’s ship. For all of history, the wreck of one ancient Arkship dominated a hill in Ishalem, and the Tierrans and Urabans dispute whether the ship originally belonged to Aiden or Urec. Likewise, each people has legends of a wandering hermit, the TRAVELER, whom Aidenists believe to be immortal Aiden watching over them, while the Urecari believe him to be Urec.

Despite their underlying rivalries, the followers of Aiden and Urec managed an uneasy peace for centuries, punctuated by occasional skirmishes. After long negotiations, KING KORASTINE of Tierra and SOLDAN-SHAH IMIR of Uraba agreed to divide the world into two parts, so that each land could have peace. Korastine traveled with his daughter ANJINE, the future queen of Tierra, and her childhood friend MATEO BORNAN, the son of a guard captain. Sadly, during the city-wide celebrations after the signing of the Edict, an accidental fire started and holy Ishalem burned to the ground. Thus began decades of furious fighting between the followers of Aiden and Urec.

During the fire in Ishalem, a fanatical Aidenist, PRESTER HANNES, who had been living as a spy among the Urabans, tried to desecrate a Urecari church, but was seriously burned and barely escaped with his life. One of the soldan-shah’s wives rescued Hannes and nursed him back to health in the Uraban capital city of Olabar. However, sure that it was his sacred mission to wreak havoc on the hated Urecari, Hannes murdered the soldan-shah’s wife and escaped from the palace. He spent years wandering the foreign land and took every opportunity to harm Urabans, poisoning wells, burning churches, causing mayhem.

Meanwhile, in the Tierran capital of Calay, the young sailor CRISTON VORA signed aboard the exploratory ship
Luminara
, under the command of CAPTAIN ANDON SHAY. King Korastine had commissioned the ship to discover new lands and find the lost continent of Terravitae, where Ondun’s third son, Joron, would be waiting for them. Before sailing away, Criston said goodbye to his wife ADREA, took a lock of her hair, and promised to write her letters and throw them overboard in bottles. As the
Luminara
sailed, Criston did not know that Adrea was pregnant.

Adrea returned to her village of Windcatch, where she lived with her lame brother CIARLO and Criston’s mother. They thought they were far from the war until a bloodthirsty Uraban raiding party struck, led by the soldan-shah’s son OMRA. Ciarlo hid as the raiders burned the Aidenist kirk. Omra and his followers murdered Criston’s mother and kidnapped Adrea, taking her off to Olabar.

During the amazing voyage of the
Luminara
, Criston grew close to Captain Shay and the ship’s prester, who told stories about the Lighthouse at the End of the World. As storms approached and the waves grew rough, Criston took watch and saw a distant light on the horizon, perhaps the legendary lighthouse. But then the most horrific monster of the seas, the Leviathan, destroyed the
Luminara
and devoured Captain Shay. Floating among the wreckage, Criston made a crude raft and managed to catch a sea serpent with a grappling hook. The monster towed him to familiar waters, where he was eventually picked up by a fishing vessel. When he returned to Windcatch, however, he learned that his beloved Adrea had been taken away in a Urecari raid, and Ciarlo told him that she was pregnant at the time. Devastated, Criston turned his back on the sea and went to live alone in the high mountains.…

Another group of people are the Saedrans—scientists, craftsmen, philosophers—who believe their ancestors left Terravitae and settled on another continent, which sank beneath the waves. They have settled in both Uraba and Tierra but don’t espouse either religion.

In Calay, one young Saedran, ALDO NA-CURIC, passed the rigorous tests to become a highly sought-after chartsman. In Aldo’s youthful naïveté, he was duped by con man YAL DOLICAR, who told him a fanciful story and sold him a fake map. By the time Aldo learned he’d been tricked, the charlatan was gone. Nevertheless, Aldo established himself as a skilled navigator and served aboard several Tierran ships, until he was captured by Uraban pirates. The captive Aldo was taken to a Saedran woman in Olabar, SEN SHERUFA NA-OA; she was ordered to convince Aldo to serve Uraba as a chartsman. But Saedrans have their own priority—to complete the Map of All Things—and after Sherufa and Aldo shared their knowledge, she helped him escape and he made his way back home.

As the war continued, King Korastine and Soldan-Shah Imir expanded their armies. Anjine’s dear friend Mateo began years of military training with DESTRAR BROECK in the frozen lands of Iboria, DESTRAR TAVISHEL in the islands of Soeland, DESTRAR UNSUL in the rangeland of Erietta, DESTRAR SIESCU in the high mountains and mines of Corag, and glory-hungry DESTRAR SHENRO in the farmlands of Alamont.

Imir secretly established the Gremurr mines on the northern shore of the Middlesea, technically in Tierran territory but inaccessible due to the rugged mountains. From there, his miners (and Tierran slaves) extracted metals for swords and armor.

Both sides committed war atrocities. One of these acts included the slaughter of Aidenist settlers who came to rebuild the ruins of Ishalem.

Adrea worked as a household slave in Olabar. Because she refused to speak to anyone, many believed she was mute. She gave birth to Criston’s son, SAAN, but when he reached the age of four, the sikaras (priestesses of the church of Urec) took him away. Over the years, the Urabans kidnapped Tierran children and, under the guidance of a sinister masked TEACHER, brainwashed them to become zealous saboteurs, called
ra’virs
. Saan was destined to become one of them.

Frantic, Adrea turned to an unlikely ally: Omra himself. By eavesdropping, Adrea uncovered a scheme by VILLIKI (one of the soldan-shah’s ambitious wives) and the ur-sikara (the head of the church) to assassinate Omra and pin the blame on Omra’s equally unlikable wife CLIAPARIA—so that Omra’s half brother TUKAR would become the next soldan-shah. Adrea revealed the plot to Omra, on the condition that her son be returned to her; Omra exposed the treachery, and Villiki was disgraced and banished. Though Tukar was a devoted, bumbling man who had no idea of his mother’s schemes, Soldan-Shah Imir had no choice but to send him away to manage the Gremurr mines.

Impressed with Adrea, Omra promised that he would raise Saan as his own and protect her if she agreed to be his wife. Seeing no other way to ensure safety for her child and herself, Adrea consented and took a Uraban name, ISTAR, believing that her true husband was long gone. Meanwhile, Criston lived in isolation in the mountains. Once each year he made the trip to the seashore, where he cast another letter in a bottle into the sea, clinging to hope that somehow Adrea might receive one of them.…

Lonely and heartbroken by the war, King Korastine married the daughter of Destrar Broeck, ILRIDA, who gave birth to a son, TOMAS. Ilrida died when Tomas was young, and King Korastine was so paralyzed by grief that Anjine effectively became the ruler of Tierra. Korastine announced he would build another exploration ship to search for Terravitae. Anjine questioned the wisdom of this expense in a time of war until he showed her an ancient magical relic, Aiden’s Compass, which would reveal the location of the lost land.

At the southern boundary of Uraba, a strange man named ASADDAN staggered in from the edge of the Great Desert. His people, the Nunghals, lived on the other side of the dunes. Asaddan convinced Omra to sponsor an expedition to the other side of the desert, via a balloon-borne sand coracle to ride the winds.

Over the years, Omra had grown fond of Saan and raised him as a true son, despite the boy’s Tierran heritage. Saan, now twelve, and the retired soldan-shah Imir accompanied Asaddan across the desert, along with a reluctant Sen Sherufa. Among the Nunghal clans, as guests of KHAN JIKARIS, they traveled to the coast of the southern ocean. From maps used by seafaring Nunghals, Sherufa suspected that the southern ocean connected with the coastline of Uraba, far to the north. Sherufa, Imir, and Saan returned home with their exciting news, and Sherufa hired a courier—the ubiquitous con man Yal Dolicar—to deliver the details to Sen Aldo in Calay.