Gates To Faerie is a Parallel Earth setting. Our Earth has a parallel twin, existing alongside in a different existence. There are gates between the two worlds, each established by entities which are worshipped as deities by some. Most prominent of these are The Mother, a fertility and nature figure, and Skyfather. Others mentioned thus far include The Huntress (a death figure), The Smith, The Lord Of The Dead (a very different entity from The Huntress), The Healer, and The Mad God.
Our side is our side. Thus far, we’ve seen a lot of it – and the tendrils of influence here from various entities and groups from the other side. I’m intending to spend more time on the other side in the next novel.
The other side is largely populated by human variants. The Smith’s People – what we often call dwarves and gnomes – are two different cultures but one species. They intermarry, and sometimes one of the Mountain kin (dwarves) decides they would rather be Forest kin (gnomes) or vice-versa. Both are talented crafters, albeit in different ways, and most of them have an actual crafting Talent.
Elves used to be human. Roughly a million years ago, they lost a war and were enslaved by the Elemental Lords, whose breeding program ruined their fertility but gave them powers over the elements, although specifics vary with which of the seven Kin and individual talents. Many thousands of years ago, they broke free of the Elemental Lords, but their fertility still requires assistance to maintain viable numbers. Elves are mostly clients of Skyfather.
Both Elves and Smith’s People sometimes interbreed with humans. These mixed-heritage offspring are often able to pass for fully human and are used as agents to interact with humans. Since there was never an industrial revolution on the other side, both groups are desperately poor by modern American standards – but they use our technology where they can – and where they can afford it.
We haven’t seen them yet, but there are also Twisted Races on the other side, mostly (but not all) clients of The Mad God.
There are three sorts of magical talent: The first are Talents, who can do one specific thing, magic-wise. The second are sorcerors, who have specific spells they learn or are taught – think of them as cookbook wizards or recipe followers. The third (and rarest) are mages, who can create new spells, but the course of study for mages is long and arduous. Where a sorceror can be taught a spell in minutes (although sorceror proficiency often improves with practice), it might take a mage months or decades to learn the background necessary to create a new spell.
There are two novels in the Gates setting thus far, The Gates To Faerie and Gifts Of The Mother. The next, An Unexpected Inheritance, is in the planning stages. Unlike any of my other series, this series is intended to be open-ended, with no definite endpoint, and while there are story arc developments, each novel is intended to mostly stand on its own.
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Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSLPC8GQ
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