I'm very excited to have fantasy author Tracy Falbe return to tell us about the intriguing Rys beings in the world of her Rys Chronicles.
Meet the Rys - A
Fantasy Race to be Loved and Feared
By Tracy Falbe
Have you ever wanted
a magic friend? Or how about a magical master who you must obey with all your
heart? The heroes of my fantasy novels get some of both from their
relationships with the rys.
I developed the rys
race for my fantasy novels because I wanted to explore ideas beyond the
tried-and-true fantasy races of elves, dwarves, dragons, and so on. Although I
love these fantasy elements, I wanted my imagination to be free of literary
conventions. My stories are based on the premise of human societies being
manipulated by a superior race whose powers cannot be matched by humans.
Ambitious humans must have a rys on their side if they are going to succeed.
What are the powers of the rys?
They can live for
thousands of years but they are not immortal.
Most rys are known
as “common” meaning they have basic powers like limited range landscanning,
heat spells, close range battle magic and self healing. In battle these common
rys fighters rely on enchanted weapons and protective crystals made by higher
level rys.
A tiny elite
minority of rys have very advanced powers. They can see across vast stretches
of land, read minds, levitate, enchant objects, hibernate, perform great feats
of healing, influence the thoughts of others, and cast destructive spells on a
large scale. Most terrifying is the power to seize the souls of the dying and
enslave the ghosts. On rare occasions they can even alter living flesh into
monstrous servants.
Although the elite
rys might sound invincible, they are vulnerable to physical attack while in
spellmaking trances. To protect themselves they often train warriors, both rys
and human, to protect them during battle.
A rys protected by
humans will derive extra power from their devotion. And dominion over whole
human societies adds to the power of a rys ruler. The more a rys controls, then
the more he or she is able to achieve magically. Power begets more power.
Rys are generally
tall with trim fit bodies. They have black hair that turns white with age or
after intense magic battles. They have blue skin of a hue that matches the
great mountains that surround their secluded alpine homeland.
Sometimes a rys
becomes very fond or his or her human servants, and intense friendships form.
When this happens, the rys is mindful of outliving a human friend by centuries
and values their limited time together. Aside from these compassionate
anomalies, rys generally regard humans as potentially useful but definitely
inferior.
I’ve received some
compliments from readers about how I incorporate the rys and human roles in the
saga. I wanted the humans to be able to contribute meaningfully to the schemes
of the powerful rys, and I also wanted the rys to have a real need for the
humans. The foundational premise driving my novels is the concept of humans
navigating life and adventure while existing in a world ruled by superior
beings that don’t necessarily take human interests into account.
So far I’ve written
eight novels in my rys world. I filled my fantasy epics with lots of intrigue,
kings, spies, warriors, and women. My characters experience everything from
winning the greatest of treasures to the bleak sorrow of total defeat. I strive
to offer excitement and maybe deep thought. If you try my novels and enjoy
them, perhaps you’ll wonder if it’s rys magic making you like them or if you
truly feel that way.
Enjoy this short excerpt from Rys Rising: Book I when Amar learns that the rys Onja wants his
help:
He asked her why she was leaving. The subject seemed to
trouble her. She looked at the jagged blue mountains that were her homeland.
“A rys cannot stay always away from the Rysamand,” she said.
“The snows of winter are coming and I would go home.”
Amar envied her because she still had a home to go back to.
He opened his hand that held the warding crystal.
“You will contact me again?” he said, seeking reassurance.
“Someday, Amar,” Onja said.
Saddened at the prospect of her absence, he dared to ask if
he could go with her. Onja pondered the possibility. At last she said, “Not
now, but I think that someday you will see Jingten.”
“I would like that,” he said, accepting the rejection that
she had softened with hope.
Onja stopped gazing wistfully toward her home and regarded
him seriously. “Amar, I would have you seek power. Be the prince you were born
to be. I will have need of your strength, and I know I have your loyalty,” Onja
said.
Her statement was both ominous and exciting to Amar. He
thought he knew what she wanted him to do. His own thoughts had begun to flirt
with ambition, and her command gave him the courage to be more than a lousy
bandit or assassin.
“Why do you help me, Onja?” he asked. “If you seek powerful
allies, why don’t you go to a king or warlord who already has power? You are
great. No one would deny you their loyalty.”
She replied, “Chance brought you to me, Amar. Sometimes that
suffices to make a decision. I think that in time, these kings you speak of
will lend me their strength, but they will never be my friends. Not like you.”
Amar gripped his warding crystal tightly, profoundly touched
by her kind words. “I will do my best,” he vowed.
Rys Rising: Book I
could be your gateway to a new reading addiction. See all my fantasy novels at:
Brave Luck Books
Amazon Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Tracy-Falbe/e/B002BLWI3S/
Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/tracy-falbe
Sony Reader Store http://ebookstore.sony.com/author/tracy-falbe_160285
Kobo http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=%22Tracy+Falbe%22&t=none&f=author&p=1&s=none&g=both
DriveThruFiction http://www.drivethrufiction.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=5363
2 comments:
Hi Marsha,
Thank you so much for letting me tell your readers about the rys.
You're welcome! It's so nice to have you spend the day here.
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