Annals: Year 20
A story fragment, codex entry, and character profile from the Dustsong Cycle
From the Annals of the Vaporous Realms
In this year, the poison of heresy afflicted the Wind Hunters of the wandering wastes. The eldest son of the Whisperer became lost among the dunes. When he returned to the village after a seven-day, he was in a delerium. Upon slaking his thirst and resting a full day, he declared that Duiz, the aurochs-lord of chaos, had appeared to the youth and revealed himself as the source of the whispers on the wind. Several apprentice Trackers heeded his words, whereupon a clandestine cult of Duiz arose among the young women. This heresy spread quickly to other clan-folk and persisted through the generations of the first epoch.
Codex: Wind Hunters [revised entry]
The Wind Hunters were one of the twelve clans that followed Len Ghremson out of the wandering wastes early in the first epoch. Their chiefs and elders were Wind Trackers, men- and women-folk (though mostly the latter) who claimed to hear the whispers of the wind.
The unseen source of this windborne voice was ambiguous: Listeners and other folk might attribute the whispers to the Wright, to Duiz or Livyat, or to the wastes themselves.
The chiefs, one male and one female, were nearly always husband and wife. The foremost Tracker, called the Whisperer, became the chief woman of the tribe, while her counterpart was called the Hunter.
Kaelii, companion of Len, was born the daughter of two Wind Trackers.
Author Note
Catching up on work and life in the wake of holiday seaon sickness is really cramping my creative style this month, y'all. (I owe us an extra post before this month is out, to make up for last week.) On the bright side, I'm settling into a new, more spacious office with plenty of room for imagining the Vaporous Realms in ever greater depth and breadth.
Here's the profile for a Wind Tracker. I've decided to try aligning the weekly tabletop character profiles better with the weekly annals.
After I catch up on others' Substack posts, I'm resolved to finish the various novels I've started over the past couple of years. Daily book reading and book writing habits are two of my favorite goals for 2025—and two of the most important, I'm convinced.
Now that some of the shine of the new year has worn off (or perhaps I'm not convinced 2025 has truly begun yet), I'm doubling down on my goal to slowly but surely finish a Sceg novella and an expanded Len novella in the next eleven months. More substantial starter rules, resources, and scenarios for Vaporous Realms at War are secondary goals for the spring. But I'm going to allow miniature crafting be more of a promotional, for-fun enterprise and not at the forefront of my creative efforts.
For now, happy reading, folks!