Late last year I was making a joke about a new prestige TV adaptation with a leading lady who seemed to have stepped out of a high fantasy cover. In the joke the audience was split; half thought what they were seeing was trashy fun while the other half, the ones who’d read the book, insisted that there were deep lore reasons that made total sense for why everything was happening on screen.
This dissonance was funny enough to sit with.
And so the idea for Lyrianna Wolfheart was born: A high fantasy heroine who found herself living in a grimdark world and carrying on regardless.
The joke snowballed to the point I started writing fake episode synopses around the adventures of Lyrianna, as she went around the continent fighting monsters and getting into trouble bad and good with the people she encountered along the way.
But I realised for the joke to work, there had to be something deeper beneath it, something close to epic fantasy. So I began creating other POV characters in different parts of the world. Enter, Luka, Marco and Rurik.
Synopses snippet: Out on the roads of the river realm a merchant and his bodyguard get asked to transport an unusual cargo. Duke Marco decides against a safe harbour and sails somewhere darker.
Somewhere along the way, Lyrianna encountered a channeler in chains. That image became the motif for the entire series, and the episode synopses became more detailed.
Synopses snippet: The Queen of the night gives Marco a ship. He builds a crew. The hunter finds an unlikely ally in the chieftain’s daughter. Lyanna searches among the city for tales of abyssal breaches, flirting her way through night life in search of rumours, she breaks hearts and bones. Luka learns that the people who hired him have a special interest in folk with powers. This strikes a chord with him but it is not explained why. The chieftain’s daughter believes the hunter and they set out for proof of the monster. They are attacked by lesser monsters. The daughter (Sigrid)…[spoilers] Marco sets out on his first mission and takes a ship. He finds the cargo is … [spoilers].
By the time I’d finished the last episode synopsis, I realised I already had the spine of a novel and since no-one else was about to write it, I set to work, returning to writing fantasy after about a decade spent writing science-fiction.
Looking back, it’s surprising how much of those episode synopses not just formed the basis for The Rule of the Chain’but provided material for sequels as well. If ever you find yourself wanting to write a fantasy book, I can honestly recommend this technique. A few mad weeks of productivity later, ‘The Rule of the Chain’ existed as a first draft. The world of the Dragon Moon Saga was in motion, and over the next six months ‘The Rule of the Chain’ was followed by ‘The Day of the Souls’ and ‘The Hour of the Wolf’ in draft form.
Now you may be wondering; who was right in the original joke? Is it trashy fun or is it grimdark?
The answer is that one of the great things about fantasy is that you don’t have to choose.
When a dragon sets a town on fire, it’s spectacle, but it’s also a story about power is used, and the lines that should or shouldn’t be crossed in war. As one of my characters, Veyra, loves to say: more than one thing can be true.
The joke accidentally evolved into a dark fantasy ‘Cloud Atlas’ with genuine stakes. But readers and characters still get the chance to laugh.
If you like the scope of A Song of Ice and Fire, the humour and monsters of The Witcher, if you’ve ever played an RPG and wondered what lay beyond the edge of a map, there’s a fair chance you’ll enjoy the Dragon Moon Saga.
I will be posting chapters regularly on my Substack over the coming days and weeks. The opening chapters will be free, so if you’d like to join the adventure, I’d love to have you along
Hope to see some of you set out on the road (where the first rule is to survive).
All the best,
JW Wolfstar
I write about wolves and stars
To read new chapters from The Rule of the Chain go to either
https://www.patreon.com/cw/JWWolfStar
OR
Nexus-Fiction 