The Pale Dragon of Kaloret

This novel was written as a part of my undergraduate thesis at Lafayette College.  It is over 320 pages long, and took me two years to write and edit it.  It is my most comprehensive novel I have written, and I think it is the best one I have written so far.

I am currently in the process of writing a sequel to it, The Future's Vale.  I have also written a ~30 page epic poem (or at least, Book I of a larger epic poem) that takes place thousands of years before The Pale Dragon of Kaloret.

Synopsis:

All across the lands of Finitelize, Dragons have usurped a previous order and created an authoritarian religion devoted to their own worship called Serpenti.  Where peace and tranquility once was plentiful in Finitelize, it was all dismantled for the sake of Serpenti.  

In the South East of Finitelize, Alokaun, The Pale Dragon rules the Cavernous Cliffs Valley from his own luxuriously and elaborately decorated church in the town of Kaloret.  

It is in this town that Sabert and Stelly Wexgill live peacefully on their farm.  But when giant lumbering beasts encroach on their land, they naturally call for the aid of Alokaun.  Through this, they are eternally indebted to the Church of Alokaun.  

To cash in on this debt, a clergyman with a romantic eye on Stelly sends Sabert on an impossible mission, only for him to return empty-handed and thus sent to Neath-Lind. 

It is in Neath-Lind where the prisoners of Serpenti and disturbed creatures remain in slavery and torture, all under the eye of the dragon Girnaski, The Presage of Genocide.  

It is up to Stelly to find Sabert, rescue him, and to hopefully return to their Wexgill farm…  That is, if she can bypass the nefarious nature of the almighty Dra-Gods.

Here are some thoughts I had while writing my thesis.

On the Appendix…

For my honors thesis, I originally wanted to write one of my trilogies of trilogies, which include The Doktor, The End of Time, and The Great Filter.  But then it became abundantly clear that writing an entire trilogy might take more time than a year and a half.

I began writing this novel alongside an appendix, called Gods and Genocide.  It was supposed to tell the stories that take place before and after this book, similar to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion.  I wrote about 50 pages of that appendix while alternating between it and The Pale Dragon of Kaloret.  The appendix helped give me the bigger picture of the thematic, historical, ecological, theological, and cultural aspects of the broader area that The Pale Dragon of Kaloret takes place in.  Thankfully, I stopped writing the appendix after a month or two since it ended up hindering the language that I wrote my thesis in.  I wrote the appendix in a very literate style with a feeling of antiquity to it, and that language bled into my own thesis which was intended to be written for children.

On Intertextuality…

I set out to write something that held the trademarks of what I believe makes my own writing unique (for example, I include an evil scientist in every novel I write), while also digging into my own personal influences (which are different from literary influences) and making my own favorite kind of story: adventure stories.

My favorite kinds of stories are adventure stories where only the beginning and the end really matters, and the rest of the story is filler.  But the filler has to be written in such a way the ‘filler’ matters to the reader.  For example, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Odyssey and The Hobbit, all three stories have almost nothing relevant to the genuine story matter to the extent that William Shakespeare or Mary Shelley do.  The main character leaves their home, stuff happens, and then the character returns home.  It’s the there and back again story that I love.  For this thesis, I wanted to try to achieve what these stories do.  I wanted a ‘there and back again’ story that has almost the entire story ‘not matter,’ but it’s through the journey of the main character(s) alongside the reader that makes the story matter.

Naturally, the main ‘canon’ epic poems are all adventure stories, so I drew upon Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton and others.  In this way, there are direct and indirect relationships with those legendary stories embedded within The Pale Dragon of Kaloret.

On World-Building…

For the location of The Pale Dragon of Kaloret, the story takes place on a continent (roughly the size of Africa) called Finitelize, in a small area called the Cavernous Cliffs Valley.  And most importantly, a good ‘world’ or ‘location’ gives me a sense of alluring mystery, where I want to know what I can never know (see: Tom Bombadil).  It is very important to me that the reader does not know too much more about the ‘world’ than the characters who inhabit the ‘world.’

To ‘build the world’ of this thesis, I allude and retell some of the story that comes before The Pale Dragon by the dialogue of characters who lived through the end of the Age of Bliss.  I also approached ‘world-building’ in the same way I like to write my Muneral Inc. novels, which is to allude to other stories.  I find ‘worlds’ much more fascinating when they allude to a larger world that exists outside of the presence of the characters in the novel.  For The Pale Dragon of Kaloret, the entire world of Finitelize could easily exist without Stelly or Sabert.  Fantasy typically has the fates of characters to be intertwined with the fate of the world, and so I tried to avoid that trope with my Honors Thesis.

On Fantasy…

I wanted to push back against the ‘world-building’ and ‘fantasy’ associations I have been previously associated with.  Not because of any superficial desire to be unique, but rather since the stories that I whole-heartedly enjoy do not express those qualities.  

I personally love spending time in the woods behind my house or watching nature documentaries, and having never lived in a city that is predominantly human-centric, I have always felt like my own human presence on this planet is only a part of something greater rather than being the main, and most important presence on earth.  Therefore, the story and world of The Pale Dragon of Kaloret is not human centric, and the presence of the ‘Speakers’ showcase how the human form and species is not superior or inferior to the rest of life.

On Children’s Literature…

When writing this book, I did not intend it to be read in isolation by a child.  I wanted my book to be able to be easily read to a child, rather than a child reading it by themself.  I tried to write the dialogue and prose of this book as though it were more prone to be read out loud.  It also has a plethora of fun adventures and characters that hopefully would make children and adults happy while reading.

Here is my favorite part of the novel, I hope you enjoy it!

The Nameless One reached the Faihce Lake.  He traveled south so he could bypass traveling on a water-bearing vessel.  He reached the northmost end of the Cavernous Cliffs mountainside.  Then, he followed the steep shoreline of the Faihce Lake beside the mountainside and reached the peninsula where the Fiend Fortress stood.  An echo from inside his armor could remember the castle in its former glory.

On this peninsula, there was an arid sandy area.  The Nameless One did not let that affect his pursuit.  A voice called out from ahead,

“Hello?!  Heeeellloooooooooouuuuuu?”  

The Nameless One ignored it and continued onwards towards the Fiend Fortress.

“Heeellloooooooohhhhhhhh!”

The voice grew louder and louder.

Finally, a blue flower appeared ahead of the Nameless One.  It waved a leaf to call over the Nameless One.  The Nameless One was walking in that direction regardless.  This flower just happened to be between him and the Fiend Fortress.

“Sir Knight!  Siiiiirrrrrr Kniiiiiiiiiaahhght!”

The Nameless One now stood in front of the flower.  Towering over it.

“Hello there!  Nice to meet’cha!”

Cold breath oozed from his metal helmet.

“I would love to see the ocean one day…  I heard it’s nearby!  Apparently in the ocean there’s magnificent animals and plants!  Would you mind gently picking me up and bringing me-”

The Nameless One pressed down his metal foot onto the flower.  He twisted it left and right.  Releasing his metal sabaton foot, the blue flower’s crunched petals mixed in with the sand.

On went the Nameless One towards she who must be killed.