This is yet another excerpt from the ongoing Insularis project that I'm working on with Shastacat.

For a quick background of Insularis: It is a world with some similarities to our own, but also with some very large differences. The first of these is that Insularis is completely cut in two: the Northern and Southern Hemispheres being separated by an impenetrable belt of super-storms, and thus, having had no contact with one another for several Millennia.

In addition, some poorly-understood event in this world's distant past has broken up, or sunk the continental land-masses, so they instead exist as thousands upon thousands of islands, none of which are larger than the US State of Texas, and most of which are far smaller.

The largest chunk of these islands are ruled by an absolute Theocratic Empire, which has stifled most scientific progress for well over 3,000 years. Hence, what is likely the best explanation that one can give is to picture what Europe may have been in modern times, had the Inquisition succeeded in nipping the Renaissance in the bud, and continuing the Dark Ages to the present day.

Additional complicating factors are that this world's human-like primates, who once reigned supreme, and who founded the Church, and the earliest iteration of the Empire, were eventually supplanted and enslaved during a bloody revolution. The species, which enslaved them were dog-like Canids, which, much like in our own world, were pets and companions to these early humans.
At some point in distant prehistory, some of these Canids started to become sentient, and it wasn't long before some of them decided that they were the Supreme Species, Chosen by the Goddess, Herself.

Hence, 3,682 years after this original revolution, the church and the empire is now ruled by the Canids, who now call themselves Lupines, mainly due to the fact that they have utterly rejected their previous status as 'Dog', and everything that the label entails, including centuries worth of efforts to undo the 'dog' traits that the 'humie apes' had bred into their peoples, and breed themselves back as close as possible to wolves pure of the spirit, seed and blood.

On the Northern half of the planet, where most of the action of the early novels takes place, society has stagnated, and the church has often become cruel and corrupt. Nevertheless, there are still places in the far reaches of the Empire, where folks have not forgotten the simple messages of the Love of the Goddess, and where humans and lupines eventually learned that they are stronger together than apart.

Unfortunately, however, during the three millennia of the lupine-run Church and Empire, it seems that every time harmony is achieved, some new paroxysm destroys the balance. One of the first of these occurred 749 years into the existence of the new Church, when one of its high-ranking Priests named Kloson Lorfen, developed the delusional belief that he could turn himself into a demi-God, and he raised a fleet, and an army to seize control of both the Church and the Empire. The sheer magnitude of the horrors committed during his short reign of terror eventually earned him the appellation of 'Traitor Lorfen', and the status of a folk demon.

Another of these great paroxysms occurred roughly five centuries before the start of the first Insularis book, when the lupine-controlled Church went to war against the third species of Sentients of Norther Insularis: namely a large, Felid species known as the Sun-Trophs, who had their own, smaller Empire of Elstotme far beyond the Easternmost reaches of the Lupines' 'Great Northern Empire'.

In an event known as 'Fourth Contact', the Supreme Leader (known as the Great Sire, or the Grand Master), of the Church of the Goddess, announced that he had received a vision (i.e. 'Contact') with the Goddess, and She had told him that the Sun-Trophs, who had now been trading with the Lupine Empire for several centuries, but who had steadfastly refused to renounce their own religious beliefs, were to be punished and enslaved for their evil and defiant ways.

Over thirty years of bloody and horrific war ensued, with the end result that Elstotme broke off all contact with the Holy Northern Empire, and the few Sun-Trophs, who had been living on the Lupine-Controlled islands as traders and merchants, and who managed to escape the slaughters, but had been unable to escape the Lupine Empire itself, found themselves forcibly enslaved. And just as the Lupines had once striven to breed the 'dog' traits out of their own population, so then did they embark on a new campaign to breed intelligence out of their new Felid slaves, with the end result that after four Centuries, the vast majority of the Sun-Trophs living and toiling in the Holy Northern Empire are little better than dumb animals without language, though most of them can understand basic commands, and some might possess a very crude command of language.

Likewise, every time the Church is rocked with one of its paroxysms of horror, there are certain Priests and Mystics, who very much disagree, even at the risk of their own lives. Some of these also make prophecies.

This particular piece outlines a prophecy made not long after Fourth Contact. Eventually, during the course of the first Insularis book, it becomes clear that this five hundred year-old prophecy involves two of the main characters, namely a young, white-pelted Lupine Priest named Te'Dzaru Demetrius, and a teenage Humanoid girl named Betranax Raina.

With regards to when the Insularis novels might finally see the light of day, both myself and Shastacat have been dealing with the issues of day to day life, which have often served to slow down the progress on this project to a crawl, but we both have hope that it WILL eventually appear. Especially since the first two novels are essentially finished, and only need to go through a couple of more edits. The issue, as always, is in having the time and the energy to do it.