Stormhaven Writers Guild

This website has been updated to make the site more navigable. If you want to get straight into the stories go to the Stormhaven Chronicles homepage and begin there. If you want to know more about the project and the World of N’Ume, continue reading this page.
~ Gavin Sealey.

Welcome to the Guild

First off. Welcome and thank you for being here and taking an interest in the Stormhaven Chronicles and the Stormhaven Writers Guild. My name is Gavin Sealey. I’m the original author of the Chronicles.

The Stormhaven stories are released episodically rather than as a single completed work so they resemble an ongoing TV series more than a book or a film.

The Stormhaven Chronicles take place in the fictional world of N’Ume. They start in the city of Stormhaven – but N’Ume is a big world so they don’t end there. This world, even the city, is more than big enough for all of us and our stories. And that’s the invitation, not just to read about the world and its characters but to extend them – to use the Stormhaven Chronicles as a platform for writing and sharing your own stories.

The Chronicles are a continuing story. Sometimes they are in graphic novel form, sometimes it’s plain text, sometimes there’s a link to an audio narration on YouTube, sometimes an episode might be present in the form of interactive fiction. I’m experimenting with forms of presentation and I invite you to do that too.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to become a member of the Stormhaven Writers Guild and to build, expand, and explore the world of N’Ume through shared storytelling.

Welcome to the Website

Welcome to the website. It’s divided into five sections:

1. The Stormhaven Chronicles. This section contains episodes of the central and ongoing story. It is organised into ‘Seasons’ and ‘Episodes’ following the structure of ongoing TV series. For consistency Gavin Sealey will remain the director and main writer for all episodes of the Chronicles but other writers may be asked to contribute ideas to an episode or even to write an episode within the continuity.
2. Tales of N’Ume. This section allows any author to write stories set in Stormhaven or anywhere in the world of N’Ume. Stories in this section are accepted as canon, part of the official history of N’Ume. Tales of N’Ume will include short stories, poetry, music, videos, illustrations, games and articles that contribute to building the world of N’Ume.
3. Otherworlds. This section contains stories set in other worlds of fiction. It also features articles about writing fiction and reviews of fiction in books and other media.
4. The Guild. This section pertains to the creation of the fictional world – it is the ongoing story of the ongoing story. The main comment, conversation and collaboration section where we discuss contributions before they become canon, where the focus is on continuous creation more than completion.
5. Writers Notebook. This is the blog section about the development of this website, the Chronicles and the Writers Guild.

The ideal is that this should be a member driven site with members contributing stories, artwork, music and so on but until that happens the primary author (me) will take responsibility for keeping the site fresh and interesting. There will be comment boxes on most pages where readers will be able to comment, whether they are Guild members or not.

Welcome to the World of N’Ume

N’Ume, a planet, vast as our own, orbits the third sun in the Sirius system, about 8.6 light years distant from Terra. This third sun Sirius C orbits the binary system Sirius of A and Sirius B. The existence of Sirius C is merely conjectured by some Terran astronomers and it may not exist in our universe but surely exists, like Barsoom of legend, in an alternate reality.

The huge moon Miranda lights the night skies of N’Ume and the far suns Sirius A and B, the Dancing Sisters, for half the year, dance with her at night even when her full light drowns that of other stars. During the other half year the sisters dance in the day with N’Ume’s true sun, Sirius C. N’Ume is a planet more bathed in light than our own but there are nights, in that season when the suns align and Miranda rules alone, when she is eclipsed by the planet’s shadow, and true night falls, dark, and deep and sacred. On those nights it is remembered that there are other stars and stories to be told.

It is under these distant lights with their rarer darks, that the stories in the Stormhaven Chronicles unfold. In the Commonwealth of Arten on the continent of Damunger. About the size of Europe, and one of five on N’ume, Damunger is the only continent that is currently known to us and that features in the Chronicles.

Stormhaven is the capital city of the Arten Commonwealth, a federation of city states roughly the size of Germany. Arten has a climate that varies between something similar to Southern Portugal in the Stormhaven to the Highlands of Scotland in Narshadow.

The most accurate maps we have are those produced by the Durdassan scholars of Azgaar. Their scale is continental so the many smaller towns and villages of Arten are not at all noted. The value of the Azgaar maps lie in their accuracy of scale.

If a town or city is noted on the Azgaar map it usually indicates a population of 10,000 to 500,000 inhabitants. Stormhaven has a population approaching 400,000 while Azdar City approaches 500,000. Such cities are few across Damunger and are state or regional capitals.

Most of the population of the Adzar Empire,  the Arten Commonwealth and Narshadow do not live in the cities and large towns but in smaller agricultural towns, villages and hamlets with populations well under 10,000. These towns and villages can be found along the roads connecting noted towns and cities but are not marked on the continental map unless they have a particular significance.

There is a good network of major roads in Adzar and Arten (once part of the Empire). It was the first Adzar Emperor, Marius Cuso who initiated the Empire’s road building project, and the network of roads across the Empire and much of Arten became known as Cuso’s Gift.

Similarly the system of aqueducts in the Arten Commonwealth became known as Ulf’s gift after the Paladin Ulf Pendragon who founded the Commonwealth  a century ago. It is said that Euen Mistborn, the current Prime Administrator of Stormhaven, prioritises constructing the Stormhaven sewerage system because he wants it to be remembered as Mistborn’s Gift.

The level of technological development evident in Azdar City and Stormhaven is similar to that of Europe’s Renaissance period with Adzar City and Stormhaven matching Mediterranean trading cities such as Venice and Constantinople. Clinker and carvel built sailing ships ply the seas, clocks tick with wheeled precision and printing presses spread knowledge across the cities of the Gharissan Gulf (which the people of Arten call the Shining Sea).

Complementing technologies depending on known laws of Newtonian physics there are also resonance based technologies that are commonly categorised as ‘magic’. These  will be addressed elsewhere. In addition to human invention there is considerable influence on technological development through the Dwarakai (Dwarf and Gnome) community in Stormhaven and other Manakai (human) cities.The Adzar Empire is known to be using guns and gunpowder but they have not yet arrived at the stage  where they are effective in battle.

Although the human (Manakai) population of Azdar and Arten resembles Earth’s European populations and are referred to as ‘Renlai’ (meaning white-skinned) there are significant non-Renlai humans in both nations. Stormhaven is particularly multicultural having been conquered and held by the darker skinned Gharissans and Durdessans (similar to Earth’s Middle Eastern and African populations) in the times before Ulf established the Commonwealth. During the time of Ulf Pendragon an alliance was established with Durdessa. For these reasons Durdessan or Durdessan descended individuals feature prominently among Stormhaven’s Warrior and Mage classes.

The non-Manakai population of Stormhaven features small but significant Dwarakai and Orakai communities. The terms Manakai, Dwarakai, Elvakai and Orakai were invented as part of Ulf Pendragon’s idealism. Outside of the Commonwealth and in its provinces more distant from Stormhaven and the T’Ever Corridor the terms Dwarf, Gnome, Orc, Goblin and Elf are still common. The word ‘Kai’ refers to the quality of mind that Ulf named as  ‘sentient, sapient and sacred’.  It is a term of respect. An alternative to Kai covering Manakai, Elvakai, Orakai and Dwarakai, is ‘numan’ (meaning man or person of N’Ume). Ulf Pendragon also endorsed this term saying he was ‘numan’, not ‘human’, not of Earth, the old planet, but of N’Ume.

There is of course much more to be said about N’Ume, Damunger, Arten and Stormhaven itself. But this is enough for now. To learn more you will have to experience Stormhaven for yourself. You must walk its streets, hear its voices, and greet its people with the words of ‘Hai Kai’ – meaning ‘My Soul sees your Soul.’