The Magician - Prologue to 2 Short Stories

“Ladies and Gentleman, come here and treat your eyes with a sight you have never seen before, and very likely never see again! I, the Magician Nacio, will present you my newest magical potion that will make you shake from laughter and hold your breath from amazement!”

Most heads in the lively market turned towards the chubby magician in the middle of the traders. It was not the first time they saw a magic trick, but life within that city got boring sometimes. Some magical entertainment was a strongly desired change for most of the people on the market this morning. Lucky for Nacio, who grinned widely when he saw all the attention his little speech had brought. Still got it, he thought and made dramatic hand gestures to attract even more people. He kept a secret, that he actually was no real magician. He only had the magical potion that he bought along his travels.

When about fifty people stood around him, he waved a glass bottle in front of their nose that contained light a blue liquid. When he shook it, it turned purple.

“I need someone to volunteer!”

The audience looked unsure. It was common knowledge that magicians were very experimental in their creation of potions, but their creativity could also sometimes go wrong. There was the story of the wizard who became invisible, but never turned visible again. Or there was the tale of the bald men who took a potion for hair growth and suddenly became hairy as a bear. Nobody wanted to become one of those poor creatures.

“Don’t be shy, it is tested and works just fine. It will do you no long-term harm!”, the magician promised.

A couple of men laughed, as the leader of the group went one step forward. “I do not fear you, magician!”

 “Very well!”, the magician said with his loud voice and clapped for the teenage boy.

He lifted his arms and waved his hands up to encourage people to clap louder for himself. A real show off.

“What is your name?”

“Ilbert!”

“Ilbert, couragous Ilbert, what is your most favourite animal, if I may ask you?”

“Dragon!”, he said excitedly.

“A dragon is a creature young Ilbert,  not an animal. Do you like lions? Mice? Eagles? Donkeys?” The last 

word the magician spoke with special delicacy.

The boy seemed annoyed. “Give me the potion already, or are we here to do small talk?”

The magician still smiled and put his big hand on the shoulder of the boy. “Well ok then, take the potion, just a small sip, and we all can see what will happen. I will not tell, as the surprise will be the sweetest of joy.”

The boy opened the bottle without hesitation and drank a small sip.

The magician took the bottle away, before the boy could drink more or dropped the bottle.

“So young man, how do you feel?”

“Good, why? Your stupid potion does nothing, magician!”

“Oh, nothing you say?”, The magician grinned and looked theatrically into the audience.

“No, nothing. This potion is usele- Heee-Haaaaw –ss.” Surprised the boy put the hand in front of his mouth. 

“That was just a hiccup.”

“Oh, was it?”

“Ye – Heeee- Haaaaw!” The boy began panicking and turned around, where a big donkey tail ripped open his pants.

The audience began to laugh. Especially this boys’ friends laughed loudly.

Poor Ilbert looked at his hands, which were only hooves, and started running away full of panic. He tripped over his own tail, fell, and kept running on all fours.

Everyone laughed so hard like they did not laugh in a very long time. They laughed too hard, they even did not notice the dark-haired boy who slipped his hand into all of their pockets and took their gold. 

Text Copyright © Rachel Sesom

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Classes in Eblion

Illustration by David Revoy

In Eblion, classes define special abilities in creatures that are beyond the norm and require 

strong commitment, training and discipline. Other classes are only determined by blood, such as Magicians or Shapeshifters. Others again can only be given by another higher power, such as Druids.

Adventurers:  Adventurers are often treasure hunters or in search for the mysteries. They have surviving skills that are out of the ordinary, because of their strong will to reach their goals. Because of their travelling, they are often also strong and live in humble circumstances.

Archer: Archers are highly skilled users of bows. Along their training, they also improve their sense of sight beyond the ordinary to be able to see targets from far, and carve their own bows and arrows.

Assassin:  With excellent stealth abilities, assassins are born killers. They know how to weaken their victim, e.g. with poison.  Only few assassins enjoy professional training, as most have developed the abilities from childhood on.  Violence or traumas in their childhood demoralizes their perception of killing.

Beastmaster: Speaking the language of the animals, beastmaster can control wild animals and creatures. Beastmaster usually grew up with the wild animals and understand their language.

Cleric: There are only few clerics in Eblion, as healing power comes mostly from potions. But there are also Clerics, born with powers to heal the sick, and one even says, bring the dead back to the living.

Druid: The druid is one with nature, can understand the language trees and the wind, and often they even have shapeshifting abilities limited to nature and its animals.  In Eblion, most druids have animal companions. Druids are blessed creatures in Eblion, as they are the closest to the spirit that is said to have created Eblion. 

Elementals: Similar to Druids, Elementals understand nature. But their understanding is much deeper, as they can control and turn into water, fire, earth or wind. Many survivors of natural disasters become Elementals, as their soul becomes part of nature when they are on the edge to death. However, they can also give their offspring the powers.

Engineers: Engineers are smart creatures, who can build smart weapons or traps quickly. They are also inventors who do barely sleep.  Their high intelligence excludes them from the regular society, so engineers are often meeting secretly to be among themselves.

Knight: There are only a handful of knights each hundred years, as one has to have killed a dragon to become a knight. Since dragons are rare on Eblion, and very deadly, there are only few of the knights. Another way to become a knight is to stop a world threatening creature.

Magicians: Thousands of years ago, the first King of Eblion was given the gift of magic by the faeries. Since then, all of his offspring, has magic in their veins. Since thousands of years have passed, there are thousands of magicians in Eblion. Depending on how far away related the creature is from the first King however, the magic weakens. Many creatures seek for the faeries to get stronger, or combine their magic with magical items or potions to become more powerful.              

Paladin: Paladin’s are the religious creatures of the world, believing in a higher power. Started by a magician, the temples give Paladins who finished training minor healing and defensive magic powers.

Ranger: Because of Eblions variety of creatures, Rangers living in the woods and fields are very important. They hunt any creature that endangers the wild life and work hard to keep a natural balance within nature.

Rouge: Rogues are trained to steal without leaving any trace. They almost find joy in the activity. Unlike Thieves, they do not steal primarily for their survival.

Shapeshifter: Shapeshifter can change their appearance to other creatures and individuals. Born with the powers, they first appear during childhood, often, when the child is scared or strongly emotional. Shapeshifters often cannot control their powers and often consumed by it. It also happens, that shapeshifters stay in their shaped appearance because they forget their real existence after being exposed to the different creature for too long.  Only strong individuals manage to control their abilities and shapeshift into creatures stronger than themselves.  

Warriors: Warriors are fighters that engage in wars and battle. They are trained to use heavy battle armour. 

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Creatures of Eblion: The Human

The human, just like you and me are, covers 34.9% of the population on Eblion and has the largest percentage of any creature of the overall population. The reason for the human to be so strongly spread is its adaptability to weather and other environmental conditions, as well as its ability to reproduce quickly compared to other living creatures.

Humans also perfected the ability to learn and train, which makes them a very useful force within the Eblion economy. They are almost able to adapt and learn all abilities, especially the humans who mixed with other similar races such as Elves, Dwarves or Fairies (read The First King).

Compared to other creatures, they are also very intelligent, even if not the most intelligent creatures on the earth. In between human individuals, there were strong discrepancies found within intelligence.

It also happens, that certain humans gain superhuman abilities such as strength or intelligence through magical items, however the survivors of such are only few because it takes strong will and mind power to hold the powers in the body that was not created for storing it.

In the food chain, humans are in the middle. There are plenty of creatures in Eblion who consider humans a delecacy. Because some humans provide a very large body, those creatures need only few humans to satisfy their need for food during one year, so they do not harm the human population.

Text Copyright © Rachel Sesom

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World Map #1

Eblion is a world covered by 68% of water. Existing over thousands of years, nobody really knows the age of this mysterious planet. Just unknown are the number of species living on this fantastical world. Here are first attempts of a full world map by the world's most talented cartographer, called Bear. 
Missing all cities, names and castles, this map also is said to have missed several mysterious islands which no civilized creature has ever set foot on. 

Source: Fantasy World Creator - http://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/world/

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The City of Men

In the small city of Gia, so they say, it happened that for one generation women only gave birth to boys. The city’s elders believed it was a curse put upon them by an evil witch of the Hissing Woods, as the Paladin’s daughter was said to have seduced the witch’s son. For the city it was a disaster, as it meant that all boys had to leave their families behind when they were old enough and look for a wife. For Gia it meant that all young workforce would leave, and Gia would become the city of the old and helpless.

One summer day, the birds seemed to sing especially beautiful. There was a sweet smell in the air from flowers that the citizens of Gia haven’t smelled in very long. And then it happened that the wife of the city’s painter gave birth to a beautiful daughter, called Shina.

The city of Gia prepared a large festive for the family, as it seemed that the curse was broken. Since the little girl was born, her family was blessed with many gifts from the other families in Gia, as they all wanted to show them their affection. But it happened, that the girl was the only one for many more years, so when she grew up, she had to choose among all men of the town.

Illustration by  David Revoy

During her youth, the family received more presents than they could remember. Almost daily another mother or father knocked at the door and gave the parents gifts. One man brought them free sweet bakery goods that were full of sugar and so delicious, that the family ate them at once and even licked their fingers afterwards. A woman, mother to two boys in the neighbourhood, sew for the girl a beautiful blue dress that brought out her blue eyes. “Do not forget, oh Madame and Sir, that this gift is from me, mother of Gort and Ezal.” “Of course not.”, said Shina’s mother. The very next day, another mother knocked on the door with a large woven basked in her hand. “My husband just arrived from his travels.” , she told Shina and her family. “He brought back so many delicious mushrooms, that I thought you might enjoy some of the most beautiful and most juice ones.” Years passed, and the people gave the family so many gifts, that they were rich with food and luxury goods. Shina always wore the most beautiful dresses, had the best food and the best toys. But all the gifts also had their consequence. Shina and her family got so much food, that they ate like kings, and soon became bigger and bigger. Shina became a large woman and was heavier than most men with the age of 13. Also her parents became bigger and bigger from all the muffins and sweets they received, that they soon could not fit through their door frame and it hat to be enlarged, which was of course a gift by the carpenter, who told them: “Do not forget, that I am the father of Gabriel!” Also, Shina’s popularity made it difficult for her to run around on the streets, so she spend most of her life inside her parents’ house. Everything she wanted or needed was brought by the neighbours, anyways.

The day came, when Shina turned 18. The family made a big fest to celebrate their daughter’s birthday and invited all families with sons of the city.

Nobody had ever such a large birthday, as everyone in the city celebrated with the girl. Everyone wanted their son to get married to Shina, so they could stay and help the parents with their business. Shina’s parents stood in front of their house, were hundreds of handsome young man stood around and watched full of excitement.

“Young gentlemen’s, thank you for coming!”, said Shina’s father proudly, and everyone clapped.

“Over the many years of our beautiful daughter’s life, we were blessed with your love!”, he continued and opened his arms. “Thank you so much for this. And now our beloved Shina is old enough to get married. She told us so herself! She also said, that she is ready to marry any young man of you generous families. So to decide who her husband will become, we decided to let the young men fight for life and death for our daughter’s love, as she deserves the strongest and smartest ma to protect her.”

Everyone whispered excitedly. Many mothers screamed, as they did not want their sons to engage in a fight. They rather send them off into another city than letting them die. But Shina’s parents were too spoiled to think about that.

“The time has come!”, said Shina’s mother proudly. “Our beloved daughter will step out, and everyone who wants to fight for her, stay, as the fights will happen this afternoon at this very street!”

Shina’s parents enjoyed the loud whispers, but mistook them for excitement. Even worse, they mistook the surprised gasp of the audience for a gasp of admiration, when their daughter finally stepped outside.

Shina became fatter than her parents in the many years, because she never left the house to play. The lack of sun made her skin transparent, and her hair was white like snow. Her spoiled life made her greedy, as she was wearing the most pompous dress in pink and white. Her hungry eyes looked for the richest people in the crowd, but she did not understand that everyone gave them so many presents over the years, that the families had nothing left, barely for themselves.

“This is what I was waiting for my whole life?” A young man spoke first. He was dressed as a knight and very handsome. “I do not want a greedy wife, which will eat out children if I cannot provide. And I will not risk my life for her either; I would rather travel through the Hissing woods than marrying this… this… creature!”

And all the men agreed.

“Wait, wait, do not leave…”, said Shina’s father confused. He did not understand what was happening. But it was too late. The men and their families left, and Shina and her parents were left alone with tears in their eyes.



Text Copyright © Rachel Sesom 

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Gemstones

Eblions surface was full of light, trees and colours, as there were more flowers than one could count flourishing and growing all over the hills and valleys. The world was full of live near the shores, as there was water to live and it rained often which was good for the crops. Going deeper into the lands, there were woods and mountains; and deep below those woods and mountains lived the goblins.

They lived in large caves with countless channels that combined the large rooms. Over the years they have built this world below all by themselves.  Generations of goblins have created a tunnel system that was larger than any city above ground.

And while they were creating new tunnels, they found lots of shiny stones and metals. They were worth nothing for the goblins, but they looked nice so they decided to keep them. After generations of mining, the goblins had several chambers filled with gold, diamonds, rubies and other jewels. Until one day, the goblins decided that it was no longer worth to keep all this rubbish, even when it looked so beautiful and shone so bright.

“What shall we do with all this?”, asked one of the goblins. The goblins were excited and had many ideas what to do with the useless dump.

“We can just burn it.” – “Let’s throw it into one of the old tunnels that nobody uses anymore.”  - “Lets destroy them and use the powder to decorate our homes!”

“No. I have a better idea.”

Everyone turned around to one of the most intelligent goblins of their city. He smiled a devilish grin. “I know exactly what to do with it. We will sell it to the world above.”
Suddenly there were excited whispers. “Sell it? That dirt? Who will exchange anything valuable for this?”
“Trust me, fellow goblins! We know the over ground, but they do not know the world below. Let me try my brilliant trick, and if it shall not work we can still burn it.”

 So the goblin started following the tunnels to the upper world. It took several days until he arrived a small whole covered by leaves that was the gate to the world above.

It was in the middle of the day, and the goblin, having been in that area already several times in his life, knew exactly where he had to go, as there was the biggest city of Eblion’s overground only a few hours of walk away.

The goblin went to the busy market place of that city. A lot of different creatures were on their way, so nobody even gave the goblin a second look. Without hesitation the goblin climbed a house and stood on its roof.

“Everyone behold!”, he screamed as loud as he could, and everyone turned.

“I am a goblin, from the world below Eblion. We are much more civilized and more advanced than you. We have a button that we push, to start fire and have light. We have bows that shoot deadly metal faster than any dart. And we have windows that show us what happens all over the world!” – All this, was of course, a lie, but they did not knew. Everyone turned around and looked at the goblin with surprise, respect, and, this enjoyed the goblin the most: with fear.

“I will not harm you. But I want to help you poor, stupid creatures on the world above.”

Slowly the goblin put a hand into the pocket of his cotton pants and pulled out a handful of the shiny stones.

Everyone gasped, as in the light of the sun the gemstones shone even brighter than the goblin could imagine. He was also surprised, but did not show it. The sun reflected thousands of little dots of light over the crowd below him. It looked like magic. They had different colours: Blood red, dark green and ocean blue.

“Creatures! We have tons of this where we come from. Too much. They are the most valuable….” The goblin thought of another word for ‘thing’. “They are the most valuable products of exchange for us superior creatures. Do you want to keep living your simple lives, or become as superior as we are?”

The goblin smiled triumphantly; when he saw the creatures below him discuss the beautiful stones in the hand of the goblin.

“I give you one night. Tomorrow I will be back, at the very same roof, and I will give you all of our highly valuable stones. All we want in return are your crops.”

“But then we have nothing to eat!”, someone from the crowd shouted.

“With those stones you can get even more crops. It is just, that my poor friends below the ground, we have only bats and insects for ourselves. But I would love to give my children sugar, bread, cake and potatoes. Think about it.” The Goblin jumped behind the house and hid between the bushes, so it looked like he magically disappeared. But he could listen to the creatures discuss the surprising offer of the goblin.

The very next day at the same time, the goblin climbed back to the roof.

“So, what is your decision? If you will not take it, I will give it to another city that understands the value I am having in my hand only. And there are so much more of those diamonds that I will give you in exchange for your crops.”

“We will take it, we will take it!”, the people screamed.

The goblin grinned, and threw the jewels in his hand into the crowd. He achieved the effect he wanted, because the creatures started screaming and crawled on the floor on all fours, just to collect the gemstones the goblin had thrown on the floor.

Only a few days later the citizens of the city transported all of their crops to the woods, where the gate to the underworld lay. Hundreds of goblins helped transport the valueless dirt and brought back fresh and delicious crops.

The goblins were never so happy. Thousands of years later they would tell each other about the brave and smart goblin who traded their dirt to get more crops than they could eat. The goblins enjoyed the sweetness of their food and were surprised, when a few years later their trick has developed into Eblion’s currency that is still used until this very day. 


Text Copyright © Rachel Sesom

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The First King

The first generations on the planet of Eblion lived in harmony with their world. Quickly they learned the basics to survive, used tools, developed language and writing. On the islands developed a handful of tribes. Similar to group of animals, soon the strongest and most intelligent male became the leader of the group.

But the story of the first real king of Eblion’s continent Sodor, is a magical one, literally. As it was simply a lost child, that was taken care of by creatures of the woods. Taken care of by fairies living in the trees, the boy grew up outside civilization. It happened that the boy fell into so very many dangers, at he was the only living human in the dark woods where the fairies lived. But in the woods lived other creatures, such as the screaming nymphs, Shadows, trolls, and worst of all, Scarters, who killed and ate humans like he was one. The fairies quickly grew tired of protecting the little human and saving his live every night through an adventurous fight, so they decided to share with him their magic. As no magic has been ever shared with a human before, the boy could not control his new powers. The magic in his veins was so strong and pure, that it almost killed him from inside. The fairies brought him healing herbs, food and water, knowing that it would take the boy years in deep sleep for his body to take control over the magic in his blood. It took one full decade for the boy to open his eyes, which were shining as bright as the eyes of the fairies surrounding him and looking curiously at what they have done. They did love him very much, similar like people loved their dogs. At that time they did not know however, that their little “dog” would be soon the king of Sodor.

The little boy without a name lived in the woods until he became a strong young man and was ready to leave the home of his family, the fairies.

The fairies cried, when their beloved pet left, as he was like a son to them. And they reminded him to not show the other humans his special powers, as they would not understand and their jealousy would be dangerous for him. The boy promised.

And so the boy without a name travelled seven days and seven nights until he left the woods. The walk was a dangerous one, as he had only little sleep during the night and had to fight a handful of monsters on his way.  But the magic in his body, that he could now control, was a very strong one, as he was received magic directly from the fairies. IT was the first time magic combined with the human body and reached a new dimension which was even stronger than the magic of the fairies. He could rip monsters into thousand pieces with simply blinking his eyes, or pull out massive trees from the ground with the power of his mind.

When he reached a city, the boy, now a man, without a name, was confused.

The people there definitely looked like him, but they did not have magical powers and were so weak. Also, they did not grew up in the woods, with fairies or other creatures, so they did not know anything about survival or political and tactical decisions to enable peaceful living with other tribes nearby.

And so it happened that only a few nights later dwarves attacked the city. The unexperienced humans did not know what to do, as a young man stood up in between them and showed them how to fight, and in a legendary fight against the leader of the dwarves, the man killed him without anyone understanding how.

The tales of that man without a name travelled the world quickly. And he received letters from other tribes of humans and other magical creatures, such as the Valley of talking animals, who needed help with monsters and creatures endangering their right to live.

So the man travelled from city to city. On his adventures, he was said to have saved humans from Cyclops’s, centaurs and even giants.

It was in the city of Latura, where the people, who were very talented in building, build him a large castle as a way to thank him.  And when he moved in, another tribe of horses with wings, came to give him jewellery. Many tribes travelled to bring him gifts of appreciation for what he had done. One tribe even brought him their ten most beautiful daughters that he could choose from. And indeed he found his wife among them, married her and brought a beautiful son into the world of Sodor.

The son was called King, and like his father he had magic pumping through his veins. He reined the continent of Sodor, and so did his children, and his children’s children. And they all had magic in their veins, as later they would be known as wizards, witches and sorcerers. 


Text Copyright © Rachel Sesom

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Eblion’s History: The Day of Creation

Before the first day of dawn, the planet of Eblion was a large and round rock, grey and dry. It was more by accident than anything else, that the old spirit decided to rest at this rock and not at one of the others floating nearby. The spirit was tired, as it has travelled for so very long. The spirit lay down on the hard and uncomfortable rock, but it did not mind as the physical pain was nothing compared to the pain in its soul.

I am all alone, it thought. What do you want me to do? – it asked loudly, not knowing who or what it was asking.

The long fingers of the spirit ran through the dust of Elbion. The pain it was feeling was endless and the loneliness it felt was unbearable. What did it help to be a magical creature it thought, when it was all alone in this endless universe?

Thousands of years ago, it had friends and a family. Then the unthinkable happened. It all turned dark, as the evil seeded between the other spirits. The big war began.

Did the spirit feel bad for not joining the fight? It has run away, of fear and confusion. When it had the courage to come back, everything has turned into ashes that were floating through the nothingness.

The spirit rolled on its back and looked into the dark sky. 

And for the first time, the spirit cried. There has never been a spirit that cried in the history of existance before. But the spirit did not know that, so it wept full of dispair. It has been through so much pain in its existence. And with every tear, a drop of magic left the spirits body, running over the rocky surface of Eblion. The spirit cried and cried. And Elbion, once a hard and dusty rock, was covered with rivers, lakes and oceans. Finally the spirit cried until it was no more.

But with water came life. Elbions grey surface became green, piled dust turned to mountains and hills and the roughness of the rock created caves and islands.

That is the tale how Elbion was born. At least it was the tale the habitants of Elbion told each other when it rained, saying the spirit came back and was crying again. Those tears were however no tears of pain, rather tears of joy, because it was not alone anymore. 


Text Copyright © Rachel Sesom

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