Annals: Year 21
A story fragment and codex entry from the Dustsong Cycle—and updates
From the Annals of the Vaporous Realms
Resentments festered betwixt the two elder hunters who led the Sand Folk and the third of their number. This latter chief protested their folk's endless circuit about the western wastes and came to despise his counterparts. One day on a hunt, by some malfeasance of Livyat or Duiz, a fell spirit came over him. He donned the carcass of a jackal one of the elder chiefs had slain, later fashioning a tunic from its skeleton. The troubled young chief proclaimed that slaying a jackal was sacrilege, because (he claimed) the three hunters had sealed their oath by the blood of a jackal. On these grounds, he broke covenant with the other chiefs and fomented discontent.
The Sand Folk splintered into several camps, most of which made reconciled by year's end. But they drove the third chief and his most stubborn adherents from their midst, deriding them as Bone Jackals—a name that stuck.
Codex: Bone Jackals
The Bone Jackals were one of the smallest desert-folk clans early in the first epoch. They originated as a dissident group of Sand Folk who eked out a meager existence at the western edge of the wandering wastes.
Under their matriarch Madrra, the Bone Jackals were tenth of the thirteen clans that followed Len Ghremson out of the wastes. They resided in the third quarter of Danoh-town, as far as feasible from their estranged Sand Folk cousins. But like the Sand Folk, the Bone Jackals eventually moved into the central hills of the valley below the Fangs, where their descendants numbered among the knoll-folk.
Author Note
Like most of the desert clans, the Bone Jackals had a name before they had any inkling of a backstory. Drafting the history of the Vaporous Realms year by year has proven a constructive challenge, forcing me to flesh out details I've managed to avoid in all my years of worldbuilding thus far.
This annal, intended for February, is a few days delayed thanks to the hydra of an article on which versus that I was tangling with for my editorial site. According to the new rhythm for the Vaporous Realms Substack, I'll also post a (free) tabletop profile for a Bone Jackal and a (paid) draft chapter for Sceg's novella this week. And you'll get another round of posts later in March. Since I'm posting on a monthly rather than weekly basis now, new posts will be free for three months (instead of four weeks).
Speaking of editorial things, I was hunting for a sample relative clause from my Dustsong novella and found Len the Wanderer musing about the sundry folk on the earthly realm instead of in the earthly realm. For the umpteenth time, y'all, editors need editors.
A few recommendations:
Here on Substack, I'm liking what I've read thus far of Ethan Sabatella's Hunter's Moon sword-and-sorcery series, about young nomads in a "fantasized early Bronze Age period."
A nod, too, to A. C. Cargill's well-maintained "Celebrating Writers" index of Substack writers. I especially appreciate the credit given to those who use little to no AI in their work (without judgment on others).
Off Substack, Philip Wilder has just published Jake Rogers' Planet, a science fiction adventure with Christian themes written for young adults. (We were in a critique group together for a season, and I'm happy to have backed his recent, successful Kickstarter.) Philip is a genuinely talented storyteller who's been getting some well-deserved recognition this past year. If you're trying to find an entertaining yet spiritually enriching book for young men, Jake Rogers' Planet is a good bet.
Keep a look out for more posts this week—and happy reading, folks!