User:JohnB/Fanfiction/The Book and the Stone

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The Book and the Stone: an Epic Voyage of Discovery[edit]

In 2005, my younger brother introduced me to the game "The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind", to which I am still so enamored that I started dabbling in fan fiction in 2008. Some good stuff was written then and thereafter, but my all time favorite is this story, upon which I've lavished more time in developing than all the other stories put together. As a matter of fact, my PDF copy of the entire story comes to 65 pages, but it is broken up here for a less cumbersome read. It's a topic I've always been interested since when I was small paging through my dad's copy of Peter Freuchen's The Book of the Seven Seas. I also remember a Columbus Day song that went something like this:


In 14-hundred-and-92,

Columbus sailed the ocean blue,

and sailed, and sailed, and sailed, and sailed,

till he found a place for you and me.


Of course, nowadays everybody knows what a devious, self-deluded slave-driver Columbus really was, so how does one write about a voyage of discovery that doesn't sink to the same level of depravity carried out by Europeans in the New World? I guess to write an alternative voyage of discovery that doesn't do that, and this is what I'm attempting here.

I wrote "The Library of Bethamez" in two days, based on the Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle story The New Catacomb, in which an archeological researcher acts on a grudge against a fellow researcher who seduced his fiancé. That story was also based on Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado. If you aren't familiar with either story, you really should read them.

I later wrote another story called "The Lodestone", which somehow became a continuation of "The Library of Bethamez", so much so that I decided to join the stories together. But "The Library of Bethamez" made for a clunky introduction to the story development and so got ditched from the final version, which you see here. "The Lodestone" became the preliminary core of this story.

What got added on later, the voyage to Asantia and the circumnavigation of Nirn, was very loosely based on Jacques Cartier's exploration of the St. Lawrence waterway as I was reading Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages A.D. 500-1600 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1971]. That and my overheated imagination turned this into a ripping yarn, and I hope you like it.)


Chapter Title Release Year Summary
User:JohnB/Fanfiction/The Library of Bethamez The Library of Bethamez 2016 I wrenched this prequel off the story and have regretted it ever since. Now it is back to provide the book that goes with the stone in order for this story to make sense. An archeologist tries to take revenge on a colleague who stole his work, only to have the revenge land on his own head.
One Introduction 2017 Introductory excerpts from literature, story background, and cast of characters.
Two A Birthday Gift 2016 Asantus Ildaril finds a magic stone and takes it to the Guild of Mages in Ald'ruhn to find out what it is. Master Cyreril takes him to the Imperial City to show this stone to some interested investors.
Three Leaving for Good 2017 Asantus is welcomed on the voyage to the new continent as "Asantus Needlegazer".
ThreeB Eyes and Ears 2017 Aldaril is shanghaied into into spying on the expedition.
ThreeC Wanted: A Sea Captain 2018 Maurice Delamer is tapped as captain of the expedition, though he has no experience--but then nobody else does either.
Four Outward Bound 2017 Mostly about preparations to launch the fleet of ships.
Five Vaezbrub 2017 They encounter a madman marooned on an island who proves to be an indispensible asset.
Six The Sea Monster 2017 A sea monster makes a short order of two of the ships.
Seven Frozen In 2017 The ship strays into the antarctic region and would have perished but for Vaezbrub's lunacy.
Eight Mount Royal 2017 The ship arrives in a bay that seems like paradise after all their hardships. Things go wrong because nobody wants to return home.
Nine Exploration 2017 The captain bides his time exploring the interior and returns to find his men chafing to get home. On a hunch, he decides to continue sailing east towards home.
NineB Aldaril Unmasked 2017 Unfortunately for Aldaril, Vaezbrub is on the same ship.
Ten Back in Tamriel 2017 Coming home is not so easy when you're coming from the wrong direction and you have a bastard-lunatic to deal with.
Eleven The Outcome 2017 The intrepid heroes make a splash, Vaezbrub makes an unexpected comeback, and the captain can't account for a missing day.
User:JohnB/Fanfiction/A Visit to Pelagiad A Visit to Pelagiad 2018 Arowhena and JohnB discuss how this story came to be.

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