Author: D. C. Key

This is the beginning of a series of posts showing a bit of the worldbuilding and thought processes I go through for my writing.

First off, I want to stress that the militaries of Gaia Terra are highly fictionalized and based extremely loosely on real-world militaries. I specifically wanted to establish a disconnect between the militaries of my world and real world militaries.

Ranks, particularly of units and individuals with no real-world counterparts, are depicted with the intent of ‘courtesy rank’, as they are often utilized across branches and shared among militaries on special assignments.

We’ll begin with dragonriders. All dragonrider pairs just out of training are commissioned by their home region’s military as 1st or 2nd lieutenants. Typically whoever is wingleader is awarded 1st lieutenant, while the others are 2nds. This rank extends across any cross-assignments the wing or individual may be given. Advancement is based on performance, and rank may be awarded via field or board in any military the pair is assigned to. That rank will then carry through for all assignments. I say dragonrider pairs because the dragon of the pair carries the same rank as the rider, although it means a bit less to them.

Within the actual Dragonflights, dragons are simply considered by their ages, whether hatchling, young adult, adult, or elder. Pairs are ranked as Apprentice until their graduation from a sanctioned training program, then they are considered Journeyman, and finally, after gaining a few years of experience, full Dragonriders. It is possible for an experienced pair where the dragon is only a young adult, to carry the draconic equivalent respect of an adult or elder, depending on their reputation and accomplishment.

The human or elven side of the pair generally thinks in terms of the commissioned rank, hence why Kylara is so excited for her commission as 1st lieutenant aboard the Thunder Child, and mentions their apprenticeship, but not the Dragonflight journeyman rank that she and Illvaren carry.

There is a similar consideration among the War Mages. Within their own organization, they have the following ranks: Supplicant, Apprentice, Journeyman, and 3 levels of Mastery before being considered a Grandmaster. Like dragonriders, they are assigned a courtesy rank beginning at 2nd lieutenant upon being graduated as a Journeyman. This rank operates the same as that of a dragonrider pair, crosses assignments, etcetera.

Further tales in Gaia Terra may involve other militaries, like a modern Rome, or the Mayan Imperial Army, and they will have their own structure and titles. It’s an interesting journey in worldbuilding, and I’m glad I started on it without bogging myself down too much. That was a trap I almost fell into, and one of the many reasons it took me so long to finalize the draft of book one.

As many of you may know, I recently returned from Parsippany, NJ after vending with FoxScales at the wonderful Dark Force Fest. To say that I had an amazing time would be an understatement. We were able to connect with old friends, meet new ones, and even sell a few things.

Perhaps it was naivete on my part, but I didn’t think that my book would sell all that well at a goth-industrial music festival located in a hotel modeled after a castle. Boy, was I wrong. Lots of folks took the plunge into the world of Gaia Terra and the adventures of Ky and Illvaren, some even pointedly demanding my return with a second or further books.

How can I refuse?

We are currently planning to be back up there next year, hopefully in the same location (the back of the main ballroom where the main stage was set up). That way we can both meet and share our work with lovely, spooky people, and support the bands that truly made the show.

Shout out to the incredible folks from VampireFreaks who made this one of the best con experiences I’ve ever had. Thank you!

I have been reading Lovecraft and derivative works since I first discovered the Cthulhu Mythos via the unlikely vector of the AD&D first printing of Deities and Demigods. That book also led me to Moorcock’s Elric stories and to Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales. I’d already taken steps into Middle Earth, Narnia, and Prydain, but this opened up whole new realms for me, and I really dove heavily into fantasy fiction and somewhat less into science fiction and horror.

Just recently, I finally got to spend some time as a player in a game of Call of Cthulhu 7th edition, run by the owner of a local game store. Before this, I’d never actually played. I had always been the person behind the screen, driving the characters insane as they discovered the truth of the world and the uncaring cosmos.

I loved it. I’m looking forward to the next session, where we finally try to banish the creature an old family friend and his associates summoned. Hopefully it ends well.

The first game I ran of CoC was in high school, as a Halloween activity for a group of my friends. We went all out in the dining room of my house, with candles, dim lights, and music (record or tape, as I recall, I’m that old).

My players were investigating the disappearance of an artist by the name of Richard Upton Pickman, since Pickman’s Model was one of my favorite stories by the old gentleman of Providence.

At first, they followed the clues, finding Pickman’s workshop and the covered passage downward in the basement, and it was there that everything took a completely different turn. They managed to take down an ambushing ghoul, but instead of following the information, they turned to weapons, recruited a couple of police officers, and dove straight into the sewers of Boston.

How many of you remember the Colonial Marines in Aliens? That’s what happened.

Waist deep in water, they kept getting ambushed and picked off, although they did discover that emptying a full drum from a tommy gun will definitely kill a ghoul. Unfortunately, they were outnumbered, in the ghoul’s territory, and woefully unprepared.

This was the first TPK I ever ran, and I don’t think I’ve run one since, but I suspect, if it ever happens again, I’ll be behind the screen facepalming while the party is eaten by the eldritch abomination they poked with a stick.

The great thing was that everyone had an absolute blast of a time. It was the first time I’d managed to catch the mood properly, build tension, and keep all my players on the edge of their seats. Despite the characters becoming ghoul chow, the players had a great time and everyone left happy. I don’t think they expected to live, but managed to go out with a bang.

Anyway, to me, that’s what gaming is about, the joy of coming together, seeking mystery, and getting scared out of your socks by words and the roll of dice. Win or lose, you have to have fun doing it.

IA!
Cthulhu fhtagn!

For those of you laughing in the front row, I really do have thoughts. They might not always make sense, but they are there!

It occurred to me that it might be fun, in addition to sharing news and clips from my writing (deeper dives will be on Patreon, along with art and maybe some teaser chapters and side stories) that I might like to share my thoughts on things I read, movies and shows I watch, and games I play, of all varieties – video, board, and rpgs, mostly.

Considering I’ve been a gamer since the late 70s, lived through the Satanic Panic that struck Dungeons and Dragons in the 80s, and experienced the growth of the industry and the smaller properties that came about in the 90s, I might have a few insights, and can share my experience and thoughts on systems and setting old and new. Interestingly enough, I’m relatively new to board games, although I did play some 40k and Blood Bowl in college, along with everyone’s favorite obsession at the time, Magic: The Gathering.

Computer and console-wise, I started with a Commodore Vic-20, and progressed through a C-64, and C-128, and also had an old Atari 2600. From there, though, I jumped straight to a PS/2 Model 50 (IBM), and never really did much with consoles until the Playstation 1.

Nowadays, I’m almost exclusively a PC gamer for my videogame fix.

Anyway, I’m probably going to start with books and TTRPGs to begin with, then branch out from there. We’ll see what happens.

Don’t worry, it’ll be fun.

For those of you who don’t know, CoastCon is a small Con in Biloxi, MS that takes over a section of the Mississippi Coast Coliseum around the beginning of every March. It’s one of the first Cons that Reyn and I ever vended at, and we’ve made some good friends and met a lot of really nice folks there.

In a way, we consider it our “Home” con.

This was the first CoastCon where I actually had a book of my own, and despite my lack of an adequate pitch (my opinion), a good number of folks took the plunge to dive into the world of Gaia Terra.

That said, there is one downside, and that is the size of the con. Despite being a long-running show, CoastCon is still fairly small, although this time saw around 2000 people coming through, many of which were new to the scene, or opportunists from the other events going on at the same time.

Despite that, which is a pretty minor point for us, we will continue to attend CoastCon for the foreseeable future, if for no other reason than we love the con and the people.

Looking forward to next year!

Hello, and welcome to my little corner of the internet. Here you will find information about my current book, upcoming projects, public appearances, art, games, things I’m reading (books, comics, ingredient lists), and anything else that might catch my distractible mind.

You can find my other media efforts here: https://linktr.ee/dckeywrites