So I spent the morning browsing my site, looking for ideas to write about and thinking about other authors like Rowling and Sanderson. What are they doing with their site, I wonder. And that’s when I realize…I don’t think I ever talk about my magic system! Dolor and Shadow is a fantasy! Some of you read fantasy just for the magic systems. So here is mine.

In North mythology, Ginnungagap is the great gap that opened spilling out two worlds: the world of ice (Niflheim) and the world of Fire (Muspellsheim). The fires of Muspellsheim melted the ice of Niflheim and the water that came from that divide formed into the oceans of Midgard. There’s much more to this that involves the body of a giant and a cow…but you get the gist.

From Wikipedia…

In the northern part of Ginnungagap lay the intense cold of Niflheim, and to the southern part lay the equally intense heat of Muspelheim. The cosmogonic process began when the effulgence of the two met in the middle of Ginnungagap.

Some predict this incident was believed to be Iceland and can you blame them? The pictures posted are of “Eyjafjallajokull,” the volcano in Iceland that erupted within the last few years.

In the beginning, when the earth was made, pure energy flowed from the Gap. This energy was called Seidr (pronounced “say-th” or “seeth”). The Seidr is a life source that flowed like a river into all things that took form: water air, and earth. As all living things took shape, the Seidr t fused itself into plants and animals until each living thing formed around the Seidr making the Seidr its cor.

At first the Seidr was so natural that no one knew of its presence. They didn’t know to question it. Stripped from a living being, that being would die as the Seidr was the core to all life. The very energy that produced life.

During that time that the worlds began and the Seidr first fused itself to all things, there were two clans: the Aesir and the Vanir who lived for a time in peace. They resided in the gardens that grew in the deserts. One day, the Aesir found the Seidr and knew the potential of its power. They horded it and kept it for themselves as they studied it and learned of its use. Hungry with greed, the Aesir secreted the Seidr from the Vanir for fear that the Vanir would grow in power and attempt to keep the Seidr for themselves. And so it was in secret that the Aesir developed a race known as the Drui who could hone and master the Seidr.

There was one, an Aesir, who learned of the Aesir’s plan to enslave the Vanir with with the Seidr and she told the Vanir of the Seidr and taught it to the Vanir. The Aesir learned of this betrayal and the first war of time broke out. The Vanir were triumphant and the Aesir were driven underground. Rumors formed that the Aesir had died and the Seidr was soon forgotten by man.

There are three elemental parts to the Seidr. The Air Seidr, Water Seidr, and Earth Seidr. But there is also the Seidr within a living being’s core giving life to that being. A Seidr Wielder, or Seidkona, can located the lines of Seidr in others and withdraw them from a being. The extraction of life will literally suck the life from them. In turn, A Seidkona can also expand and condense their own Seidr. They can accumulate the Seidr, expand it, and control it.

In Kallan’s case, she learns how to compact the Seidr until it forms heat. Eventually, fire forms from the heat and then lightening. The greatest of Seidr Masters can pull the earth along the lines of the Seidr, carry rivers, and create wind storms. They can draw the very life out of everything around them like a great vacuum and wield lightning like whips of light. The greatest of Seidr Wielders can pull the very Seidr from the gods as they ride in the skies over head.

But the Shadow…The Shadow is what Kallan faces. A being that eats Seidr, consumes it, and keeps it. The Shadow that is forever hungry and always looks to sate that hunger. That is the Shadow. It is the Shadow that hunts Kallan.