After the fall, demons inhabited animals and places outside the safe haven God marked off for the family of Ani. Twelve scepters marked the edge of their territory until they outgrew their land. It was decided that they would split into twelve divisions, each anointing a leader to wield their scepter as they went on their mission to cleanse the world.

Present day, the world is split SW to NE between the Shofar and humanity. The Shofar are humans united to demoniacally hosted animals creating various magical powers, lands and fauna that they intend to use to conquer humanity by collecting the last remaining scepters.

Humans have advanced in technology, but their resources are dwindling (such as fossil fuel). One of my main characters, Trev Helkim, is the CEO of Helkim Industries, a company built from solar power innovations, most recently incorporating nanotechnology. Sounds like a Sci-Fi story, but it's a blend because the hero, Orino Toak, finds the scepter hidden in mountains in his land and uses his new powers to fight the shofar who have invaded.

The shofar plan is to resurrect a demon high lord, Honin, who has been trapped under a volcano since its last eruption. The anointed leader of this unearthing is the main antagonist, Tyree Shako, who has been given charge over some mokta sorceresses to not only cause the volcano to erupt, but to cast a spell over the eruption so that the people who inhale even the smallest speck of dust will turn into moker people.

Moker is a black rock found in this area, and is the element Honin is trapped in. Moker has absorbed some of his powers, and so Tyree's followers are being trained to use them in their fight for things such as walking through walls of moker, telecommunication, and general weapon and shield manipulation.

The moker people need a better name, but for now that will do. Their purpose will be to be walking shells that Honin can manipulate as if they were his own body. He has to physically touch any carrier he wishes to take over, and they will be the army he uses to take over the human territories.

I'm getting ahead of myself, as the end of this book will be whether or not the volcano erupts and if they are able to cast their spell over the eruption before and during.

Very intriguing. Sounds like it will be a fun blend between fantasy and sci-fi. The history of the scepters is very interesting. Have you written out any history describing what happened to the various scepters after the people started expanding? How did the one come to be hidden in the mountains?

Thanks Philli.

I haven't worked out much history about the other scepters, though I'm wondering if I haven't forced myself into a twelve book series with each book discovering a new scepter.

One question I had before elaborating on the history of each scepter, is whether or not a scepter can be used for evil. I will pose this question in the theology section (here). This is important because I will need to figure out if any scepter bearers used their powers for evil or if the scepters were hidden in order to keep good from utilizing the powers against evil.

As part of qualifying for a subforum, I will need to label the continents I've drawn and in that I will need to identify where the scepters are in each continent. That is the plan anyway.

I've been thinking about their situation and the need for expansion. If God set these scepters to be placed on the edges of their kingdom, maybe they gradually increased the size of their walls, until they realized holes were appearing where the monsters could break through without hitting the shield created by the scepters.

I'm not trying to say that God's power is limited, but sometimes God limits His blessings in order to make his people move. In this case, it forces them to expand on their own and develop new towns.

From a schematic viewpoint, I'm wondering how they would best expand. Here are some options:

1) Expand the walls to encase all the people, but then take one of the scepter-bearers and put him in the middle, waiting with his vision power to attack intruders that break through their defenses. (The scepter bearer won't be the only line of defense, as they would come up with spears, bow and arrows and swords...).

2) Move to areas of better natural boundaries like the edge of the water or a mountain so they can focus their shield on vulnerable areas to attack.

The question remains if they could do this without breaking up or if they would originally split in two once they find two defensible positions. It might be more fun to force them into two defensible positions so they have to travel in between for trade, thus taking one of the scepter bearers on patrol or defense of the convoy and then switching which group sacrifices their scepterbearer.

3) God calls them to follow their scepter bearer to the land they have been assigned. There are twelve major continents on my map, and the Spirit will guide the bearer to his land.

On one hand, it might be smarter to expand gradually, but on the other hand this would be a kind of all out assault on the evil beings in an effort to not miss a place which could then let them build up and counter attack.

What do you all think would be the best way to expand?

I like option 3. It reminds me of the Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of Fire. I like tie-ins with the Bible, not tie-ins that are blatant word-for-word but that are similar (I hope you get what I mean ).

Thanks Sui,
I think this could work, just as the other options could work. It would depend on their circumstances. If I had it so they were overrun and had to leave, then each group would follow their bearer and I'd have 12 Moses in the wilderness situations.

Twelve Moses! It would be interesting though, especially if their stories are unique.

That's complicated, but I think, when you work out the details, it will be very engrossing and deep.

I think it makes sense that there'd be a point when the scepters were too far apart from each other to form a barrier. God is not limited, but He creates things that are limited. Also, He gave them the scepters when humanity was small in population. Perhaps it was His design that they would eventually "grow out of it" and use the scepters differently.

If you go with that option, as soon as two scepters got far enough apart and the barrier broke, leading to invasion, the different people groups would be forced to think differently. Some might take their scepter and go elsewhere (I like the Moses idea), while other groups might work together to reposition their scepters, leading to pockets of protected land like in option #2. Still others might develop defenses and cease to use the scepters all together (perhaps they reject God in the process), which is how some of the scepters got hidden in mountains, unused.

Thanks for your thoughts Philli. As part of my weekly goal to connect the beginning of this world to the present day, today I plotted out the first age - Haven Age. (click here to read)

I am taking the idea of their growth causing them to separate, but also having Tanith (eldest son, and prophet) get prophecy after last scepter bearer was annointed with his power to have the people colonize the rest of the world. Another scepter bearer, Olemsoon, has the gift of vision, and once he completes his map, the people will be sent out. Read that thread for more info. I'll use this thread as an update as I build more history to connect the past and present.

I also posted a thread showing the map of what the Exploration Age will look like once each nation is established. (click here)