World Setting

This page is still under construction. If there comes some information into your mind which you would like to know conserning the world and setting of the story, please contact me. Every question you would make would help me to get the needed information up here. winzrella@hotmail.com

STORY

During the time of Vikings there existed an empire by the border of today's Finland and Sweden. This empire, Prohenta, was inhabited by humans and a magical race called q'etyana. While the empire gets ready for a war against Vikings and Crusaders an exiled sorcerer gets himself involved with it all. This sorcerer was long ago exiled, but still he never left the kingdom. His past is a mystery and so is the reason of his exile. There are many rumors of him and of a deceaced soldier and of this soldier's missing lover, but no one seems to remember the truth. And now the sorcerer has returned to be an important player in the upcoming war.

TAINT OF EXILE

Where comes the name of the story? The main character Viator is an exiled sorcerer. That tells already a lot of the name, but what is this taint?

In Prohenta when a person is exiled a certain kind of curse is placed on the person. The curse is usually done by a shaman. This curse makes it so that everyone can recognize that this person is exiled - a traitor. It's a kind of smell or characteristic odour that's surrounding the person because of the curse. It's not a bad smell that makes people run away. It just tells the people near that this is a traitor. It's like you can recognize the smell of fire or coffee and are able to immediately tell what it is that you smell.

PROHENTA

Even thought I partly base the story on some historical facts, Prohenta is completely a creation of mine. The story also revolves around this empire Prohenta so not many historical facts will in the end affect the story. However I have done some reading and other research to create the story.

Prohenta is an empire between Sweden and Finland near todays border in Lappland. It's far more developed than the surrounding countries of the time. However the life around affects the empire a lot. Their clothing is not that different from that of the Finns or Swedes. They worship the same deitys/spirits as the Finns used to back in time. Still their worship is differently done.

(this section is still a bit under construction) 

RACES

Q'etyanas
Q'etyanas are a magical elf-like race. Still they are not elves. They do not have a long lifespan, they do not live as part of the nature and many of the other things that usually has to do with elves. They look very much human. They can be either slender or big, short or tall, beautiful or ugly. However they do differ from the humans enought to be recognized as q'etyana.

The clearest and most certain way to recognize a q'etyana is by seeing their ears which are exactly the reason why they are elf-like. They have long horizontal elf-like ears. The other recognizable difference compared to humans is their usually lively colored hair. Most often the haircolors are far from the natural human hair colors and it's very common that a q'etyana has two-colored hair (our main character for example). However they can have very human-like hair colors so this is not always the best way to recognize a q'etyana. The third way to recognize a q'etyana is by looking for a star symbol on their forehead. Most of the q'etyanas have it, but not everyone. Our main character has lost it because of his exile, but before it he used to have the star on his forehead. Q'etyanas can also choose to hide it with will power and it is possible, because the mark is magical and not a permanent one. Also, not everyone is born with it and those who are not can never have the mark even thought it's magical. The star symbol, however, is a privilege of the q'etyanas. No other race has it. Otherwise q'etyana look very much like humans.

I already mentioned that q'etyanas are a magical race. It's very common that a q'etyana posses some kinf of magica from birth. However, not everyone has this gift, but if not then they usually has the chance of learning them. It's almost unheard of that a q'etyana isn't able to use or doesn't possess magic. The magical skills and gifts can be pretty much anything between earth and sky. Still most of the q'etyanas rely on the same powers as humans; their own physical strenght and skills.

Q'etyanas live long compared to the humans, but they rarely grow over 100 years old. They get old the same way humans do; hair turns gray and skin becomes wrinkled.

Humans
Humans is the other major race of Prohenta. Since the creator and all the readers are humans I do not need to tell everything about them, because we know a lot already. However, in the story humans live a shorter life than they do today. They live to be around 50 years old and if they are lucky then maybe a bit older. Back in time humans used to live a shorter life than nowdays is possible. The dangers in past have been different and the medical knowledge wasn't as good as today.

Generally humans are a non-magical race. However, the expection to this rule is shamans and witches. Those who practice these professions have gained their magic-like power from spirits they worship.

Mixbloods
Even thought in Prohenta humans and q'etyanas live together as one people they do not really mix together. It's an unsaid rule which only few dare to break. Mixing the blood of the two races isn't generally regarded well. The further you live from the capital of Prohenta the less acceptable it is. However mixbloods (as they are called) are born from time to time. Still most of the mixbloods are unwanted children. Often the mother of a mixblood abandones her child. Also, often the reason for ever getting bregnant with a mixblood is because of rape or the mother sells herself for living or she just likes to sleep around with who ever she can.

Even thought mixbloods are not regarded well and neither are marriages between humans and q'etyanas, there are still some who oppose the general thinking of the people. In the capital of Prohenta there live a few mixblood families. These families just have to be ready for hateful glances, disrespecting behaviour, fights and loneliness.

Mixbloods get qualities from both humans and q'etyanas. Often their ears are small like humans but with a pointed shape. Their hair colors vary between ordinary human colors and the exotic q'etyana colors. Some mixbloods inherit magical abilities from their q'etyana parent, but not all. However, they often end up being skilled witches or shamans.

Spirits / Deitys
The spirits or deitys (however you wish to call them, I use "spirit" in the comic) are taken from Finnish mythology. Finnish believed everything around them to have a spirit and nature was very important to them. Originally they had no face nor gender, but when Christianity arrived to Finland the old spirits started to get shape and personalities. It's not easy to get information of the old spirits, because Finnish didn't have a written language untill Mikael Agricola went and created it in the 16th century. This is why the spirits are mostly based on the old deitys. I have used a lot of imagination when creating them to make them useful for the story and easier for the readers to understand. Still troughout the story they will stay a mysterious group of characters.

Louhiatar
I would like to bring up a bit of Louhiatar, who is an important character in the story. Some of you might have come in contact with this character at some point. She has a lot of names - Louhiatar, Loviatar, Lohetar, Lohiatar, Pohjatar (these as examples). In Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, she is the queen of a land Pohjola. In Kalevala she's called Louhi.

She's quite the evil character in Kalevala. Also she's said to be the mother to three children, Ruho, Rampa and Perisokea. (They are not exactly easily translated. Ruho means body, but it's not a very nice word. It remind me more of a dead body. Rampa is what we call a disabled person. It's not a very nice word either. Perisokea has to do with blindness. Sokea is blind.) These three children are bringers of sickness'. Some information says Louhiatar is a blind character that has to do with Tuonela which is the place where the deceased go. Also she's the mother of wolves.

There is a lot of different kind of stories I have read of this deity. Generally she's an evil character. However, in Taint of Exile she's not blind nor she's the queen of Pohjola. In TOE she's the mother of wolves.

Loaus
I will soon provide something more of this spirit.

SOME CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HUMANS AND Q'ETYANA

(Coming soon.)

HEIGHT DIFFERENCES

In the comic I have ridigulous height differences. I decided this because I want to learn to maintain the height differences in every panel. I have not decided how tall the characters are in meters. Viator is a middle heighted man. Not tall nor short. Please do not let these bother you :)

NAMES

The names I have chosen to the q'etyana characters are Latin names I looked up from the internet. The names I have given to the human characters are actually Finnish words. Aamu, for example, is a mix-blood character and "aamu" is "morning" in Finnish. However there is a few exceptions to this.

SHAMANS

In Taint of Exile shamans are a link between the spirits and the mortals. They serve both and thus so are entrusted with powers of the spirits despite their mortality. Usually shamans are either q'etyanas or mix-bloods but they are always men. However there are a few human shamans in Prohenta, but their abilities are more similar to the shamans of the surrounding lands (Viking lands and the land of Finns).

A shaman's powers are strongly connected with the spirit world. They work as messengers to the spirits by telling prophecies or giving warnings. It's not uncommon for a shaman to meet a spirit in person, but most often they just get messages to their minds. They also possess a skill commonly called far-sight. With this skill they can see future and past happeninds and also to far places greatly out of the range of normal sight. Shamans are also protectors and leaders. They lead the people to do the right things in life and thus so prevent them from angering the spirits. They will also take the wrath of the spirits instead of the common people.

Saturnin

Saturnin is the high-shaman of Prohenta and an advisor of the emperor. Being a high-shaman he is the highest ranked shaman in the empire. Despite his young age he's much more powerful than many of the other shamans. To the poeple of Prohenta the high-shaman is as important as the emperor himself.

Saturnin using his powers:
- chapter 1 page 14 (far-sight: here he's seeing things far out of the range of normal sight)
- chapter 3 page 2 (far-sight: here he's seeing things happening in future)

USEFUL LINKS

Finland's map and satellite picture - link (geology.com)
Finnish mythology - link (wikipedia)
Finnish history - link (wikipedia)
Viking age - link (wikipedia)
Scandinavia - link (wikipedia)