Rogue Magician (The Magician Rebellion)

The Magician Rebellion: Volume 1
Copyright: Curtis Cornett
Published: 23rd December 2011
Publisher: Curtis Cornett

Copyright © 2011 by Curtis Cornett
Cover design by Curtis Cornett
Book design by Curtis Cornett
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who
may quote short excerpts in a review.
Curtis Cornett
Printed in the United States of America

Before
you lays the story of fledgling magician, Byrn Lightfoot, as he navigates
through the dangers of being a magician in the kingdom of Aurelia- a place
where magic is outlawed and those with the talent to cast spells are imprisoned
or segregated from the rest of the kingdom to protect the populace. It is a
story of action and adventure set in a fantastic realm filled with elves,
dwarves, mystic creatures, monsters, and, oh, did I mention magicians? Lots of
magicians.

The
reaction that I have gotten personally from readers has been mostly positive
and it is a great feeling when someone contacts me to tell me how much they
enjoyed my book. However, I also value the constructive criticism I receive and
have tried to take that into consideration with this second edition, not to
change characters or events, but to hopefully try and make the intentions of
some characters clearer as well as to improve the book’s prose a bit.

I’m
sure you’ve heard this a hundred times from a hundred other authors, but
please, please, PLEASE post a short review on your book website of choice (or
two). It only takes a few minutes, but it also has the single biggest impact on
an ebook’s success or failure, especially if there are only a few reviews.

If
you’d like to contact me directly, my email address is in the Afterword at the
end of the book. I look forward to hearing from you and hope that you enjoy
your visit to Aurelia.

In
the beginning there were only the gods who came to our world and found it a
barren, lifeless place. They looked upon this cold world with disdain and
resolved to shape it in their images and so they began the great task of
reforming our world. It was through their guidance that the rivers and the
oceans were created and they judged their creation good for it would spring new
life. Then they pulled some of the lands toward the sky and made them into
mountains that the rich minerals deep within the world could be put to use.
Then Waicossan planted the seed of life and it grew into lush forests and
grasslands where only dirt had been before; again they judged their work to be
good.

Then
the gods grew tired from the rigors of creation and made life to draw their
strength from. Animals from the great mammoth to the tiniest of insects filled
the woodlands and spread out across the lands into the valleys and the gods
judged them to be good, but they needed more. They needed to be worshiped fore
only through the love of their creations could they grow strong and unthinking
trees and small minded animals were incapable of understanding the gods'
greatness so they created those called the higher races.

The
wisest of the gods, Lerion, was the first to birth such a race and in his
wisdom the dragons came into being. Seeking to make the perfect race, Lerion
made the dragons so that they would not want giving them size and strength that
matched their intelligence so that they would have no fear of the animals or
the world they inhabited, but the dragons did not seek to rule over the lesser
creations. Through their vast knowledge they became pacifists seeing no need to
make war on the world's other inhabitants choosing instead to live in harmony
with the world around them and take no more than they needed.

This
did not please Vailon who thirsted for battle and saw no honor in the dragons'
peaceful ways. He created the dwarves who became fabled warriors and inventors,
but were greedy in their lust for power and riches. Vailon then made the orcs
who were stronger in body and had a more primal, but honor-bound nature. The
two races fought each other ceaselessly and Vailon judged this to be good.

The
dragons, dwarves, and orcs who did not appear to have much room for love in
their hearts saddened the god, Locklinigand. He created the long-lived and
beautiful elves in his own image. The elves saw the wonders of the world around
them and rejoiced in it becoming the first artisans of the world.

Kassani
believed that the longer lifespan of the elves would upset the balance of the
life and death so she added goblins to the world. The goblins were the shortest
lived of all the races and became bitter at the others races especially the
elves who lived alongside them in the forests.

The
gods watched the races as they argued and fought amongst themselves and worried
that they would eventually destroy each other. Though these were the higher
races they could find no common ground so in a divine moment of wisdom the gods
created humans taking traits from each of the other races and combining them to
make a new race that could bridge the gap of the others and bring a relative
peace to the world and so they did for a time.

As
the centuries passed the races began to grow distant seeking only the company
of their brothers and sisters and looking upon the other races with distaste
and mistrust. Life became filled with turmoil and war once more. Fearing that
the higher races would again try to wipe each other out the goddess Ashura, who
wished the races to survive more than any of the other gods, tried once more to
bring the races together by giving them the smallest essence of the gods so
they could bend the world to their will just as the gods did. Then they would
not want for anything and there would be no need to fight anymore, but she did
not stop at the higher races. She gave her gift to the animals and the trees
too so that all life in the world was connected to the gods. In time this gift
became known as magic and it flowed as freely as the air.

The
races grew strong again with the goddess' gift, but they grew arrogant as well,
believing that they were like gods themselves and in truth they were not far
wrong as they held the keys to life and death in their hands. The races grew
more powerful and the struggles of daily life became a thing of the past, but
what should have been a cause for celebration only served to give the higher
races more time to find faults with one another. War, it seemed, was
inevitable, but this time they controlled forces of such great destruction that
the world itself trembled in fear at the devastation they reeked.

The
gods banded together to correct Ashura's mistake. For a thousand years the wars
between the mortals and the gods raged until the mortals eventually faltered
and fell to the gods' might, but only just so. The gods were grievously injured
and only possessed a shadow of their former power when they finally claimed
victory. Likewise the higher races found they were cut off from the magic they
had taken for granted and struggled to relearn the mundane skills of survival.

Some
members of the higher races found that they retained a glimmer of the gift of
Ashura, knowing that it lived deep within all beings now and could never be
fully removed. They became known as magicians- the wielders of magic. Though
they were few in number they possessed power far beyond that of their brothers
and sisters and with the gods' influence weakened there was no one to stand
against them and they naturally rose to become war leaders and kings. For
centuries the magicians ruled their lesser brethren with an iron fist until
they eventually turned on each other in their lust for ever growing power.

The
magicians destroyed each other while their slaves watched joyously in silence
and when their numbers dwindled and the fighting at last stopped the slaves
revolted. Dragon, human, dwarf, elf, orc, and goblin fought side by side using
special skills and weapons crafted using the blue flame to put the remaining
magicians to death and they were victorious.

Following
the eradication of the magicians, the races resumed their old roles and the
world knew balance once more. It would be centuries more before another
magician would be born, but the knowledge and history of their ancestors had
been lost so that they would never know the greatness that the magicians of old
once possessed. The gods came back after their long rest and judged their
creation to be good once again.