It’s Saturday morning, and I am sitting here in front of my Mac wondering what to do…. I want to do some recording but my friend is still asleep in the spare room, don’t want to wake her up… even though it is 11:30!

I have heaps of notes to deal with surrounding Apalmia – writings that need typing up and editing, documentation on alphabets, number systems, the tetraic tradition… I even have some concepts for martial arts and warriors (good grief!)

I think the first item on the agenda though is a map – I need to start planning the geography of Apalmia to set stories in, and come up with a few extra creatures to populate the world with (I already have a soaring tiger like thing, and an aquatic dragon-fish… it’s a start)

I particularyly want to define the sort of magic and sorcery in use in this world. I saw Miyazaki’s rendition of Tales from Earthsea and the mage there said somthing along the lines of “the world is in a perfect yet delicate balance, and casting a spell upsets this balance; hence a spell must only be cast when in the most dire need”. It’s a very interesting concept, even one which I would love to incorporate, but it won’t suit for what I plan on the lines of magic. I’d rather give the mages other reasons to not reveal themselves.

Another show that influenced my imagination of how magic would be introduced was RahXephon, with the instrumentalists, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

In Zelda, magical effects can be produced when Link (the protagonist) plays a certain melody on his ocarina, changing the weather, or moods of people, or even teleporting. In RahXephon however, it can suffice that the Instrumentalist sing a single note to unleash destruction on a massive scale… I am also imagining on top of that arts of summoning animals, spirits and armies. War will be ever so melodious….

Ah la la, here I am talking about all these things I wish to incorporate…. It would be about time I start writing the stories themselves!

I am on my way to gathering all the past elements of my old Edelia Project – recently re-baptized Apalmia Project – for a soon-to-come release to the general public.

When I started it, it was supposed to be simply a fantasy story trilogy. Sevral iterations later I had more or less the story pinned down (although I seem to have lost some significant pieces I remember writing down…. ah well.) The legend would be that of Ankunaroth, a demon warrior, trying to conquer the world of Niaxan (NIA-shan), and the plot would include a curse, a summoning, gigantic warriors, magic, a revenge quest… hey, I was 17 at the time!

But since, the focus has changed. The peoples were moved to Apalmia, Ankunaroth became a near-forgotten warrior from the ancient land of Edelia, the Holkor and Ansuthan creatures that were initially supposed to form the main bodies of opposing armies would become closer to human, more humane, less ghastly, and be left more or less in the landscape.

A culture was devised, with its own stories and legends. My other focus character, Kalula, became first a fierce and grusome demon, then a ancient spirit of evil, passing through being the judge of souls, to finally sit as a wise ancient, an Etherlu, along with Hannei, Nathel and Banta. I am working on the conceptualisation of beasts, of plants, of lands… Apalmia has a justice system, a pseudo-religion, with rites of passage and temples, and I am attempting now to devise a musical tradition to go with the rest; There is a separate counting system that makes better use the fingers, hands and even arms… For cryin out loud, it even has 3 alphabets and a language!

Back in 2005 I wrote a first draft to the Night of Stars (on love and desire – it is quite sad in the end); then the legend of the Foundation of Apalmia (short of a genesis tale), and the alleged “true” story of the flight from the dying land Edelia, of the ordinary people who would rise as great leaders and found Apalmia, the land of the Apali, the wise.

Until recently it has been more or less an intellectual playground, for small essays of a philosophical nature; and also serves as a background for the little stories I want to tell, for the sake of it.

If I do finally get the motivation together and decide to display the fruits of my musings…. here’s where it will first be posted. Watch this space.

NOTA: damn Electricité de France for using the name Edelia in their product line! GRRRRR!