The First Estate
So, The First Estate is the tentative title for my first book. It's sort of young adult, I suppose, in that it follows a teenage protagonist, but I'm trying to steer in more the direction of Mother of Learning, rather than Harry Potter. It's going to be shit, of course; as all first books are (I think Sanderson said something along the lines of "everyone has 7 bad books in them, that they have to get out of their system before they start writing good books", so this is my first bad book. Hopefully six more to go from here!
Status
Currently Unedited, sitting at 110,000 words.
It's complete in terms of story right now, but hasn't been edited. I'm waiting to finish my other project, Eldar's End, before I dive back in and fix it up. I'll probably cut a good 10-20 thousand words before it's all said and done (as there are several plot threads which are pretty uncessary and don't contribute huge amounts to the story beyond world exposition).
Synopsis
The First Estate is set in a secondary fantasy world, during that world's bronze age. The world, despite not knowing how to smelt iron, has artifically entered that age using magic: the only thing that can get hot enough to out-and-out melt the iron directly from reduced ore. This technological leap forward has allowed a relatively more primitive society to produce large quantities of high-quality low-carbon steel and iron, along with myriad other inventions whose level of technology would otherwise be considered anachronistic. The story's set in a theocratic empire, under a regency that waits for the return of the gods that used to govern it, who departed the world centuries previously. Recently, after a series of weak regents, the empire teeters on the verge of economic ruin, and political fracture, exacerbated internally by tensions between powerful factions of the nobility, and externally by barbarians at the gate.
The story follows a single protagonist in this world, the youngest son of a major noble. Not really in line to inherit anything, he's never really been groomed for much, beyond getting a standard upper-class education. Until, one day, a party of high-ranking clergy, noblemen and other distinguished visitors turn up at his father's estate to conduct a serious magical ritual, which needs one major ingredient: blood. Specifically, our protagonist's blood. A lot of it.
When the ritual goes sideways, our protagonist is able to abscond away with his life and his blood, eventually making his way to a nearby monestary. Using his relatively uncommon ability to read and write, he's able to convince the abbess to take him on in the monestary's scriptorium without asking too many questions. This allows our hero to quietly slip into monastic life and away from any sort of intrigue. Years pass, and despite doing his best to keep out of trouble, trouble eventually finds him. The empire's regent issues a call to order for the Estates General; the empire's parliament of which both his abbess, and his father are delegates. And the abbess just so happens to have her eyes on our protagonist as a good candidate to be her personal secretary for the duration.
