PowerKeepers: the 12 Cities

[Steeldancer]

This is an explanation of the 12 cities, possibly my favorite part of my PowerKeeper Universe. It takes place right after the Great Mages have won their final victory over the Enemy. 

They had won. The Great Mages had won the final battle. But what happens when such power is exposed to the universe? For when they won, they came back to the normal dimension. 

With such power, they could work something wonderful before they died. Because they HAD to die; such godly power could not exist for long unopposed. So each Mage took his weapon of power and searched for a planet that reflected their element. 

Eventually, they all found planets rich with their elements. There, they wielded their enormous power and created massive cities. Beautiful cities, created in the fashion of each element. A city of ice, a city of light, a city of glass (which is the city of fire) and a city of trees. They are gems in the universe, the best place for a mage of that element to train and boost their power. 

After the Great Mages finished creating the cities, they infused nearly all their magic into their city and their Prime Weapon, which was different for each Mage. After the age of the Great Mages, mages slowly became less powerful, as generation after generation went by. To compensate, the best mages began training with the Prime Weapons of the Great Mages. They used the significant fraction of the power of those Mages, and used them to protect the Cities. They formed the Knights of the 12 Cities, and passed the weapons down from mage to mage.

A list of the Prime Weapons, by element: 

Water: a shapeshifting Trident

Fire: a double bladed flaming ax

Air: a  light, thin, hollow, but durable staff

Earth: an obsidian hammer

Light: magical lightsabers

Kinematics: nunchuks

Gravity: throwing stars, have small weaponized black holes in the middle of them

Space-Time: Gauntlets

Life: a Scythe

Sorcery: the Crystal Eye of 1000 Faces- an amulet that can expand into a magic-enhancing crystalline armor 

Quantum: the quantum weapon. Essentially a point of light, that can spit out matter to form different weapons. Can also be used just as the point, as it will cut through everything. 

Entropy: the swords of Order and Chaos- a pair of swords. The white sword of Order will stay in its form and enhance Ordering spells. The black sword of Chaos constantly is changing forms, and can enhance Chaotic spells. It is also possible to combine the two; however it takes great control to prevent them from exploding. 

All of the weapons can be used as weapons, or harnessed for their inner energy, or used to focus and direct spells. The greater the understanding of the weapon, the more that can be done with it. 

[Steeldancer]

I don't really see any discussion on this topic so I'm going to write out a short story. Coming soon. It'll be about the dragons attacking the City of Glass. 

Spoiler

Syten awoke, the fire burning in his blood. 

   As he reported to the Lens building that morning, he roasted a piece of toast skillfully with fire. He also heated up his cup of tea. He was tired, his brain felt stuffed with cotton. He needed magic to wake up. 

As the current wielder of the Axe of Fire, he was an essential part of the city council. But he didn't want to be there this morning. He was so tired. After a rogue air mage had shattered many important buildings, he had drained himself day after day to reform the buildings of glass. The precision and power it had taken had been enormously costly, and today it was particularly bad. 

As he walked into the Lens, he passed the doorway into the Chamber of Fire, where the Axe resided when not in use. He felt a wave of heat come down the hallway, but he couldn't go pick it up right now. He doubted his aura would be able to handle any more usage of the Axe for at least a couple of days. One of the trainees would have to use it if necessary. 

  He walked up to the Conference room, and placed his hand on the detection plate. He let just a little bit of magic flow, and fire burned on his hand. The plate recognized his distinct magical signature, and the door opened. And so he walked into a flurry of activity he had not expected. 

  The frazzled secretary of the council ran up to him, eyes red with exhaustion. 

"Thank goodness you're here! We've been trying to contact you for hours!" She gushed out. And then she tore off to go talk to a... a very high ranking General of the 12 Cities, Syten realized. What was going on here?!

  As he watched people run around the room in an obvious panic, he recognized the small terrified glances they gave the General, and the relieved glances they gave when they saw him. Syten looked at his messenger watch. Sure enough a load of Code Red messages were on it. Had he really been so out of it that he hadn't noticed the stack of such urgent messages? He rubbed his eyes and shook his head, trying to clear the fuzz that felt stuffed in his brain. 

  The General walked up to Syten. 

"So, you're the official Warrior. I hope you're up for a challenge," he said gruffly. 

The two walked across the room to the video conference room. Pictures of the city of ice and the city of trees came on screen. Except... they were burning. 

"The dragons attacked the city of life and water earlier today. They killed the Warrior of water, and destroyed the surface city of ice. The inhabitants were able to escape to the undersea portion of the city, and the apprentice warrior covered their retreat. At the same time, they also obliterated the city of life. The Warrior is fine, but drained much of her aura and has had to give the scythe to another trainee. They are coming for this city next. You need to be prepared."

 Syten stared in horror. A Warrior, dead?! 2 cities destroyed? And how was he supposed to help, as drained as he was? 

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm still recovering from rebuilding the city from the rogue air mage attack. I don't know that I'll be able to last long, even with the Axe." 

 The general grunted. "No one else is able to use that axe like you do. Thankfully for you, I'm a Life Mage. I will boost your aura, so you can do this."

The General put a hand on syten's shoulder. Syten had had aura recovery before, but this was a lot more intense. His aura flared into visibility as the cloudiness in his brain disappeared. He felt alivened, powerful again. The general now appeared as he had felt. He reached out a hand to steady the General, who pushed it away. 

"I came here to help you, and I sacrificed my aura to help you. Now go do your job! Set up your defenses, and protect this city!"

Syten ran out of the room into the Chamber. The chamber, as always, was very hot. And there, on the pedestal, tested the Axe. He ascended the steps, and took ahold. 

Fire blazed along the Axe, and Syten flew out of the Lens, Axe strapped to his back. He found the main defense building, landed, and began to work defensive spells of Fire. He would have to battle the dragons, but first to protect the city.

 And just as he finished the last spell, a dragon ROARED. 

Body aflame, and Axe in hand, the Warrior of Fire set out to protect his city.

I'll finish it tomorrow, don't have time to do it at the moment. 

Edited June 4, 2017 by The Flash
Syten

[StrikerEZ]

Johnathan seems like a weird name for a person in a magical kingdom....

Otherwise, seems interesting so far.

[Steeldancer]

1 minute ago, StrikerEZ said:

Johnathan seems like a weird name for a person in a magical kingdom....

Otherwise, seems interesting so far.

Honestly it was the only name I could come up with. That is one of the things i struggle most with, naming people. 

[StrikerEZ]

4 minutes ago, The Flash said:

Honestly it was the only name I could come up with. That is one of the things i struggle most with, naming people. 

Oh, same. I'm not sure how Brandon does it, and keeps the names fitting a certain world's linguistic patterns.

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

Everyone tells me I have great naming abilities, and I feel it comes down to specific letters. The following is what I use for male names. Female names are harder for me.

A, D, G, and sometimes V are good powerful names. Pairing A with C or K works really well. Names that fit this criteria are good for prominent heros or generals.

Z, F, H, R, and M usually fit well as mysterious characters or as villains. Not always, though.

E, G, C, S, J, and L, but also others, are good protagonist names. 

[StrikerEZ]

2 minutes ago, Hemalurgic_Headshot said:

Everyone tells me I have great naming abilities, and I feel it comes down to specific letters. The following is what I use for male names. Female names are harder for me.

A, D, G, and sometimes V are good powerful names. Pairing A with C or K works really well. Names that fit this criteria are good for prominent heros or generals.

Z, F, H, R, and M usually fit well as mysterious characters or as villains. Not always, though.

E, G, C, S, J, and L, but also others, are good protagonist names. 

Do you mean pairing A with C or K as in there are C's and K's in the name? Or what do you mean?

Honestly, when I'm naming people in non-Earth worlds, I just tend to come up with interesting sounding names, usually 2-3 syllables and not that hard to pronounce. The main character in The Chosen Ones, a book I want to write, is named Kyren (Keer-in). It's a pretty simple name. Usually, powerful and/or villainous characters have longer, more complex names for me. 

And I hate making female names too. Probably just has to do with the fact that I'm a guy, I guess.

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

12 minutes ago, StrikerEZ said:

Do you mean pairing A with C or K as in there are C's and K's in the name? Or what do you mean?

Honestly, when I'm naming people in non-Earth worlds, I just tend to come up with interesting sounding names, usually 2-3 syllables and not that hard to pronounce. The main character in The Chosen Ones, a book I want to write, is named Kyren (Keer-in). It's a pretty simple name. Usually, powerful and/or villainous characters have longer, more complex names for me. 

And I hate making female names too. Probably just has to do with the fact that I'm a guy, I guess.

C and/or K in the name. This "letter template" works with quasi-European fantasy names, which is what I write most of the time.

[Dragon314]

So if they all are in their element, how does "quantum" work?  I mean, is there like an energy world? With a city made of... energy? How do things live there?

[Steeldancer]

3 minutes ago, Dragon314 said:

So if they all are in their element, how does "quantum" work?  I mean, is there like an energy world? With a city made of... energy? How do things live there?

It's really really small. How they discovered it... I honestly haven't worked that out yet. It is pretty much impossible to attack though. Mages shrink things so they can come to the planet. It's like an antman planet, basically. And now I'm thinking about names... hmmm. And I'll probably now start working out an explanation of the quantum planet. 

What about Vakken. That's a cool name. Although I almost feel that would be a better name for the Rogue Mage. How about Syten. Syten, warrior of Fire. Now I'm going to have to go through and actually name all my characters lol. Not to mention finish writing the dragon attack (I want to show off how versatile the magic is, basically the only limitations are your aura, and your creativity)

[Dragon314]

Seem legit and like you know what your talking about. Cool premise.

[The One Who Connects]

5 minutes ago, The Flash said:

Now I'm going to have to go through and actually name all my characters lol.

Biggest issue with my old project. Granted, I had the ability to use normal human names and mostly tried not to, but it's still annoying to do early on.

[StrikerEZ]

1 hour ago, Hemalurgic_Headshot said:

C and/or K in the name. This "letter template" works with quasi-European fantasy names, which is what I write most of the time.

Ah, makes sense.

45 minutes ago, The Flash said:

It's really really small. How they discovered it... I honestly haven't worked that out yet. It is pretty much impossible to attack though. Mages shrink things so they can come to the planet. It's like an antman planet, basically. And now I'm thinking about names... hmmm. And I'll probably now start working out an explanation of the quantum planet. 

What about Vakken. That's a cool name. Although I almost feel that would be a better name for the Rogue Mage. How about Syten. Syten, warrior of Fire. Now I'm going to have to go through and actually name all my characters lol. Not to mention finish writing the dragon attack (I want to show off how versatile the magic is, basically the only limitations are your aura, and your creativity)

That actually sounds really cool. I'm not sure how that works, but it sounds cool.

Vakken sounds really cool. I really like that name, even though it does kind of sound like a villain's name.

[Steeldancer]

13 hours ago, StrikerEZ said:

Ah, makes sense.

That actually sounds really cool. I'm not sure how that works, but it sounds cool.

Vakken sounds really cool. I really like that name, even though it does kind of sound like a villain's name.

Well Vakken is more of an anti-hero, at least compared with the PowerKeepers. so it's ok.