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DM Falk's Eighteenth Writing Challenge on InkBunny finally concludes this whole looney business. The three keywords are "mouse", "year", and "resolution".

As this is still an early draft of the serial, there will be errors, both grammatical and plot-wise. I'm sure they will be pointed out as time passes (please, feel free to be constructive about it). Important changes will be noted below.

Things to note: Farmers often planted their crops and some herbalists prepared their concoctions according to the phase of the moon. Realistically, this was probably because the moon served as a useful long term time piece, but the symbolism of the moon's waxing and waning inspired much in the way of lore. Also, the words loony and lunatic derive from one of the names for the moon, Luna.

The three categories of energies Baksrit describe were inspired by Chōkon Power from Japan's Transformers: Masterforce series. The three types of Chōkon Power were Chichōkon, the power of Earth; Jinchōkon, the power of humanity; and Tenchōkon, the power of the heavens. I originally thought the creators of Masterforce had adapted Chōkon Power from some existing philosophy, but I have yet to find where it may come from. Still, I thought the general idea was good, so adapted it for the Winterfur world as general categories for spell energy used by mages. However, Winterfur mages consider the categories ill-defined and somewhat imperfect, in much the same way as modern science considers the classical Western elements, earth, water, air, and fire.

Ley lines are "rivers" of earth energy that flow across and connect places across the world. Skilled Winterfur mages like Baksrit or Solomon can tap into ley lines to supplement their own spellcasting power. However, not all spells can effectively use energy from a ley line. For example, mages can't power their white magic or black magic spells with ley lines unless they go through a lengthy rite of some sort.

Story and characters © 2012 Marvin E. Fuller