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Image description:
A Paladin of Santharia. Picture drawn by Vaelaron
Dalavaga.|
INTRODUCTION TO A DREAM |
WELCOME STRANGER!
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Image description:
A Paladin of Santharia. Picture drawn by Vaelaron
Dalavaga. |
Make
yourself feel comfortable in our wondrous realm and hearken to our tale: Since
the beginning of the year 1999 the team of the Santharian Dream is creating a
complete Fantasy universe in the web in the epic style of the great master
J.R.R. Tolkien. In the fall of the year 2000 Santharia has finally moved to an own domain
at www.santharia.com encouraged by the
many people who like what we have already achieved with the site in the past years.
Our goal still is to design this world as detailed and believeable as we can and
we invite fantasy enthusiasts from all over the world who are interested in our
cause to participate in this unique endeavour! Our destination is to establish a
team to work on this promising project never seen before, where everybody can
share his or her opinions, wishes and beliefs regarding fantasy world creation.
Want to write stories, beast or people descriptions? Are you a talented artist
yourself who'd like to share his/her imagination with us? Any ideas what could
still be improved on the site or the concept? Whatever it is, feel free to tell
the webmaster or sign
our
Guestbook
- we're always happy to receive some response for the work we're doing together.
Or just lean back in your chair, have a look around and enjoy the
Dream...
Santharia is the central realm in the world of Aer'ai'chán where the story of the
"Avaesthoría" takes place, a fantasy trilogy work in progress currently written
by the creator and first member of this site, Christian Strobl (alias Artimidor Federkiel). Anyway, the trilogy is only a
small part of our Santharian realms.
We are elaborating the complete Santharian universe, which means that every hill, river,
village etc. needs its name, history, linguistic derivation and destiny - so come on in,
have a look around and if you have similar objectives or questions or proposals just
drop me a line or deposit some comments on the Santharian Forum (display the
Forum menus by clicking on the Show Forum link at the upper left of this page)!
THE STORY BEHIND SANTHARIA
IN THE BEGINNING or HOW THE SANTHARIAN IDEA CAME TO LIFE
The Santharian Dream is based initially on the idea of Christian Strobl (Santharian name Artimidor Federkiel), which in fact is the one writing these lines now:)
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Sometime in the past millenium I decided to collect all my ideas I had for
my little fantasy world project I've always played around with but never
found the time to really elaborate on it in greater detail. Being someone
who thinks that writing is his destiny in life I had already written the
first chapters of a fantasy trilogy sometime in 1996, a work which should
turn out to be named "The Book of Paths" or - in the elven
tongue - the "Avaesthoría". Parts of this work ("Book I:
The Shadows of Moch'Rónn") can now be viewed on the site.
Unfortunately I'm writing this book in my native tongue, so only parts of
this story are translated to English currently.
However, as you see, I decided to put these collected works on the web. At
first the Santharian Dream was just simple personal homepage, completely
in German, with a rather humble web presentation, but in the course of
time the design and the content of the site improved constantly.
Encouraged by many friends and fantasy fans I finally decided
to translate as
much of the site as possible to English in order to make the Santharian
Dream a massive fantasy project, developing background information to the
book I'm writing. And indeed, response was great, as you see now. All
sections, maps etc. were translated to English, and only some of my
personal texts are still on the site in my native tongue. The Avaesthoría
itself now currently have only little importance for the progress of the
whole project. Fantasy world development has taken over and the team
members are happy to work together on such a vast project. The
Library
section e.g. where the Avaesthoría chapters are placed now contains not
only my own works, but also many other stories taking place in Santharian
lands.
We've even found a solution for the remaining German texts on the site: One of our
members
and a friend of mine, Gnaevio Featherbox (English teacher by now), translates the completed chapters of my
books step by step from German to English, so you just need a bit of patience to read them
in detail. And if you can wait some years you probably might get an English translation of
the completed books in your bookstore. Or you start learning the German language to get
the unique experience reading the original... And of course we always look out for people
who would like to try to translate other texts which are still not
translated!
One other thing concerning the longer texts presented on the site: Literary texts lose atmosphere if you read them by using a medium
like the PC. I advise you to read them offline or to download the Word documents
from the Download
section and read them printed:) - Have fun!
SANTHARIA
AND AÉR'ÁI'CHÁN/Caelereth - A KINGDOM AND ITS WORLD
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When
you take a closer look at the site you will notice that Santharia is only
a kingdom in a large world. This is due to the fact that the site of the
Santharian Dream constantly expanded in the course of time, and so did the
world where Santharia is part of. However, the site is still called the
Santharian Dream although it should in fact be called the
Aér'aí'chánian Dream because Aér'aí'chán is the name of the world,
which is dreamed by the High elven Goddess, Avá the Beautiful.
At least this is the elven interpretation. Humans call the world Caelereth.
The so-called United Kingdom of Santharia itself is located at one of the
continents contained in this world, at the southern part of the continent
of Sarvonia, while the northern part is mainly inhabitated by orcs and
barbarians. It is one of the largest kingdoms of the whole world (if not
the largest) and comprises several races, among them elves, dwarves,
humans, halflings and even brownies. Santharia consists of several smaller ancient kingdoms, which
were united by Santhros, king of the former Tharanian kingdom. The
Santharian Calendar begins with the ascension of Santhros to the
Santharian throne.
Many details about this ancient
kingdoms still aren't elaborated currently, but in order to read the
latest details be sure to check out the
Places
or the Tribes section. Here you will find all information currently
available on Caelereth, Santharia, the other continents as well as
about the ancient Santharian kingdoms.
A
GLIMPSE AT THE STORY OF THE AVAESTHORÍA
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As has been
mentioned the Santharian Dream was originally based on the story of the
Avaesthoría I have started quite a while ago. The Avaesthoría consist of three
books, book one named "The Shadows of Móch'rónn". If you're interested in the
outlines of this story, here's a short summary:
The atmosphere of the first book should be a reminiscence to the fantastic
"Ultima Underworld"-games (you can hear some musics on this site upon selecting
them in the musics menu) combined with a bit of Jules Vernes' "Voyage to the
Center of Earth". So the first book will take place to approximatly seventy
percent in the underworld, other parts of the trilogy will lead the protagonists
to ancient elven mysteries all over Santharia, long forgotten islands in the
Dark Sea and will finally let the reader take a glimpse at other worlds which
were also part of the creation of the Sleeping Dreamer.
The main theme in part one is devoted to the magical dispute between human magic
(artificial) and elven magic (natural ability). The so called "Móch'rónn"
represents the dark elven lord who in reality was born as a bastard, a half-elf.
His arrogance to gain immortality forces him to neglect human and elven magical
principles as well. His striving leads towards a necromantic combination of the
contradicting magical arts, which finally results in a promethic reach for
godlike power: Centuries before the story begins the Móch'rónn started to
descended into the depths of the Hèckranian volcano to topple the legendary
Earthen Titan (one of the four elemental pillars supporting the material world
of Aer'ai'chán). The objective of the Móch'rónn was to seize the titanic power
and to gain his immortality, to unite himself with the universe and to be adored
as a god himself.
The descent couldn't be prevented as the Santharian kingdom and a powerful
regent were non-existent at this historical time. But on his mission to destroy
his father's ambitions, the Acrón Serveran, heir to the elven throne, managed to
unite the three races all over the continent (elves, dwarves and men) forming an
alliance against the Móch'rónn. This finally resulted in the foundation of the
United Kingdom of Santharia, named after the human regent, Santhros, the first
Santharian king. Santhros established a central capital, Santhala, divided the
realm into several provinces and was responsible for the kingdom's legacy
(supported by elven and dwarven advisors). The crisis concerning the Móch'rónn
was pressing, but it was held secret by the leaders of the realm to avoid new
wars of the races against each other.
Fortunately it turned out that the descent of the Móch'rónn to the Titan would
last centuries, but a victory against dark elven mages (summoning creatures of
other worlds) and the Móch'rónn's slave army in the underground turned out to be
an impossible feat. The entrance of the mine leading to the Hèckranian volcano
was therefore guarded by the Santharian alliance. Finally the so-called "King of
Charity", Santhros, transformed the mines into a prison where the most dangerous
criminals of the realms were kept and trained only to be unleashed versus the
Móch'rónn's dark powers. The fight of the criminals combined with the Santharian
elite guard against the elven mages became some sort of ritual in the Hegedorn
dungeon (as the mine was renamed), took place in special arenas and lasted two
centuries, but the efforts of the Santharian alliance were to no avail.
All these incidents are described in flashbacks during the first part of volume
I of the trilogy. The main story is unfolded only bit by bit and with constantly
changing scenaries.
The plot starts 200 years after the Móch'rónn's descent. The main character
Eyrin Fontramonn, a Voldarian courier (a province in northern Santharia), is
ordered to deliver a secret message to the king (proposing a final attempt at
defeating the Móch'rónn, as the Móch'rónn seems to gain power by finally
reaching his goal: earthquakes and constant weather changes show that the
Titan's power seem to dwindle more and more). Even as Eyrin receives the message
he is confronted with the shadows of the Móch'rónn and survives only by mere
luck. On his ride to Santhala Eyrin is accompanied by an old friend, Leander,
whom he meets by chance (seemingly) at an inn where he changes horses. The two
young men are hunted by darkfriends and while an apocalyptic storm is roaming
and heavy earthquakes take place they are forced to cross the Hèckranian pass.
They know not that they move straight to the headquarters of the darkfriends,
where their horses are shot. They drop into a gap, which opened under their feet
and find themselves in an abandoned dwarven mine, which was sealed centuries
ago.
Their struggle to survive leads Eyrin and Leander after numerous adventures to
the underground city of Hegedorn, where they are welcomed as the Santharian
saviors due to the prophetic words of the last dying captain in the arena ("the
return of the sign"). Together with Serveran, a condemned halfling, a dwarf and
a white mage they have no other choice as to face their fate and to begin the
descent, following the Móch'rónn...
HELP
WANTED/CONTACT
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If you read
the information on this site very carefully, you'll have noticed that creating a fantasy
universe is not as simple as it seems to be.
Maybe you have made similar experiences. Or maybe you have made no experiences at all
concerning the creation of a universe (you aren't a god, eh?), but always wanted to take
part in such a process. Anyway, you're welcome if you have any ideas which could
help us to push the project any further. Eveen if you don't plan to join us
we'd be happy to hear some comments. I assure to collect all your proposals, suggestions
and wishes and to answer your e-mails if you want to stay in contact.
There are some main categories where I would prefer some helping (but of course you are
free to any other suggestions):
If you would like to support the Santharian Dream in any way, just feel free to drop me a line:)
If you intend to design major parts of the Santharian universe yourself please let me know
your intentions and I will report to you concerning the progress in the specific topic
you're interested.
And here's your webmaster's e-mail address: webmaster@santharia.com.
Final note.
Please be aware, that the Santharian universe is a unique fantasy world and
shouldn't contain collections of names, places and stories you've encountered already in
other fantasy realms or in this world's reality (e.g. I think that it's not very wise to
name an elven king Tomas as Feist does). Let Santharia be part of yourself, constructed by
ideas of your own. Trying to implement already existing material in the plot would be
contradictory to the creators and the team's intention.
And now have fun with the site and maybe you can come up with some ideas -
we'll be very happy to
hear from you!
Yours sincerely,
...and don't forget
to sign the
Guestbook, longing for your comment!
