VINE VEIN Book One of the Gatherer’s Bounty Universe
A parallel universe to Shifting Memory where the novel THE LIGHTLESS takes place, VINE VEIN is my second novel, and its universe is known as the Gatherer’s Bounty. Its main setting is the capital of the Kingdom Vestean, the Copper City.
The Vexings of Vestean and the Lightless
The winter of Age 94 of the 2nd Era would be just as life-changing for the people of the Copper City as the Burning four ages prior. This was when Queen Redshift Allacora’s very first Lightless escaped her laboratory in the bowels of the Southern District, germinating its seed within the unexpecting bodies of the Copperites. Before this, plagues were a common occurrence in the Copper City, all of which were known collectively as Vexings. The Lightless, however, they were something different, something living…something that not only brought sickness and disease along with them, but could birth more of themselves from their infected hosts. After their arrival, Copperites found themselves wishing for any other Vexings besides the Lightless.
At first, Redshift tried desperately to recover her forlorn bastard, but its influence was too swift a thing to pull away. By the time she had found it, it had already impregnated. Witnessing this scientific marvel, Redshift found herself unable to return this creature she had accidentally created back to her lab. If it could create more of itself without her, she could breed an army within the bodies of the people that hated her so, killing those detractors in the process, and getting two things done at once. She needed forces if she was to spread her influence to other kingdoms, and she needed her message to be the prominent one within her own kingdom first, ensuring that people only spoke highly of her from now on. She was tired of the whisperings of the foul things she might or might not have done—because she definitely had done said foul things.
The Order of Dragtide
After Star-Shapers were blamed for the Burning of Age 90, and were deemed Burners by Queen Redshift, Elder Star-Shaper Nebra Oremire remained in the Copper City, despite the harm that could befall her should she ever demonstrate her abilities in public. Luckily for her, Redshift knew not of her existence, as the Copper City was a vast city, and Nebra knew better than to be seen using her star’s skills where eyes loyal to the Queen could be watching. In the ages between 90 and 105, Neb would drag out the remaining Shapers from the city’s shadows where they had been living like any other Copperite, ignoring the Old Ways, and neglecting their stars in lieu of survival.
Vine Vein
The counter to Nebra’s Order Dragtide, Queen Redshift had a faction of her own she had assembled: Vine Vein. You can read more about the individual members in the Character Profiles in separate posts. They were masked, cloaked individuals that slinked about the Copper City—mostly within the Northern District. These five were Queen Redshift’s enforcers, her loyalist of loyal devotees, and had been undergoing the same twisted augmentation as Redshift had been doing to herself for ages. Outside of their devotees they were known as the Enshrouded, or the Masked Shadows, or the Dead-Faced. They were publicly known to be collectors of taxes, debts, and various other financial dealings, though not much was known about them beyond that. Their existence had been largely ignored and left alone by the public, as much bigger things were happening at this time, including Vexings and Lightless ravaging through the city.
The Royal Allacora Family
Queen Redshift had once been in such a deep, visceral love with her only child, Lumi-Nova, that she forbade anyone to look upon her for weeks. Now, however, in Age 105, when Nova was 13, Redshift wanted nothing more than to crunch the unruly child under the heel of her boot. Nova had incredible regenerative abilities, and Redshift wanted them for herself desperately. This dark obsession led Redshift to doing some truly terrible things to Nova without the young princess’s knowledge. King Gallenthrall had once loved Redshift with all his heart, but he too had found an aspect of his love shifting away from where it had once been. He was a terrific father and king, and did his best to keep his kingdom afloat—even as it owned only its final two cities, one of which was no more than a glorified oversized encampment.
Most of the city blamed them for its undoing, while a minority praised the king and queen for helping fight and stop the Lightless.
Nova found keeping people around her to be difficult the older and more independent she became, since her skin had a slight green tint to it—ever since she was spared from an illness in her infancy by medicine provided by an individual called Swivvel. People thought she had some kind of Vexing, so they stayed away from her, and spread rumors about her being sick throughout the kingdom. Those rumors would make it to the ears of the kingdom’s enemies, so some out there believed that not even the Allacoras had been spared from their many Vexings, making the Copper City weaker than it had ever been.
Tensions are at an all time high. Lightless dart about the darkened streets. Vexings claim innocent life after life each day. Scorned Shapers gather and conspire in the shadows. Vine Vein yearns to set itself loose upon the unsuspecting. And the seemingly impenetrable walls of the Copper City had never seemed so thin.
