As I've been working on trying to explain and describe each character which is on the poll I have quickly discovered that there are a couple of things I need to clear up first.
The first that comes to mind are Sessak. Strange word, one of those I'm never sure if I'm spelling right, but they're very important, espesually in books one and two.
But... before I get talking about them, we must explain something else first. Elves... which I've pretty much explained there are plenty of in the Five Worlds. However, Elves are just the second largest group of mortals in these books. You have Humans, which nearly double the size of the elven population without even trying. You have Elementals, which can manipulate the forces of nature, though there are said to only be about two thousand of them throughout all five worlds. Then you have Shape-shifters, which there are only around five hundred alive at one time. Elementals and Shape-shifters look just like average humans... that is until they use their abilities. You also have the Dragon Tamers, which are born in any of the other species, but when they reach the age of fourteen they are finally told by the Dragon Council what they really are... confusing, I know, I'll talk about them later today probably.
Those are you're important species which are natural occurrences in these books. However, they're not the only ones. You have the half elves, which are children of a human and elf (shouldn't be a new concept) you have light elves, dark elves, and many others (I only really focus on the elves) but then you have the Sessak...
Sessak were once elves, doesn't matter what kind, light, dark, shadow, half... they were once elves....
Another side track, Fallen. One thing I enjoy so much about Brandon Sanderson's writing is he creates not just stories, but entirely new cltures and and governments... and religions. Now, I'm Mormon, just re-emphasizing that fact, and the religion I've made for this world I do not believe in at all... just saying.
In the Five Worlds there is one dominate religion... in fact there are only different religions in the Western World, every one else is just solid in this big macho religion, which is commonly referred to as the True Religion. The true religion teaches that before there was time there was the Fallen, and every mortal species is a decedent of the Fallen. I haven't written the legend on this yet, but it basically goes like this: The five worlds were one continent, no division, blah, blah, blah. One night the animals which lived on this jumbo Pangaea looked up to the empty sky and say "there's no light... why is there no light in the sky at night when during the day we have a sun that it makes it so we can see?" because, of course, animals could talk before time began.
Right when they had this realization a bright light flashed across the sky and landed in the exact center of this big, gigantic continent. Rising from the flames comes a man, clothed in white light. hair like snow, all that fantastic stuff, then he looked across the land around him, raised his arm and says a single world "part". That was when the five worlds became... five separate worlds... you know... whole tectonic plate shift theory just super, super, super, super, Super, SUPER fast. (enough supers for you? I hope I spelled that right...).
Then, he lifted his arm to the sky and said "Fall" More light, more shooting stars that are just really big and bright, and the entire world was suddenly populated by the "Fallen" which had been sent by Divinity to populate the world with their own descendants before leaving....
Yeah, waked out and stuff, but I'm getting back to the Sessak.
Fallen looked like humans, but were immortal... like really immortal, my best comparison to the Fallen is resurrected angles, shinny light and all singing "hallelujah"... but not really. The first generation the Fallen made were the light elves, then the dark elves, then the humans, which have all the physical characteristics and traits of the Fallen except two... one, they had very short life spans, especially compared to the immortal Fallen. Two, they are missing one bone... yes, a bone... it's about the size of a dime, complete spherical in shape residing in the inside part of ones wrist. One little bone... why does this matter? because it is what makes the Fallen immortal, gives the elves and dragon tamers the ability to live forever... and when removed from an elf, turns that elf into a Sessak. End all, be all, no ands, buts, or ifs.
So, turn that arm of yours, either one, over so that fish belly of yours is facing up. Look at your wrist, see those veins underneath your skin? You should, if you don't I'm concerned. Under that spiderweb of blood pumping tubes is where this bone resides... if you were a Fallen, Elf or Dragon Tamer that is...
Now, why would any elf be crazy enough to remove one of their bones which grants them the chance to live forever and a whole lot of other good stuff? Because, they retain their extended life, though can only live about a thousand years after removing the bone, and they get super cool and powerful abilities. Examples: reading minds and or emotions, teleportation, speed, super strength, manipulating gravity and a whole lot of other things. Just think, all super powers that don't have to do with an element like water, fire, ice or such....
Reciprocation? Well, of course the pain of having to remove a bone from your wrist without any anesthetic or pain killer, you can't even be drunk like people did forever ago so they wouldn't feel pain.You have to be completely alert and, as Lynn says in what I have written from the Wrath of the Sessak so far is:
"It’s one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to witness, and I’ve only had to witness it once. I still have nightmares about it, I can’t imagine what it’s like for them."
Not only is the pain a reciprocation but there are others as well. No mater what you look like before you have the bone removed, after, and what classifies a Sessak so well, you have jet black hair, which doesn't look natural. Your skin turns so white that if you held a piece of paper against it the skin would be whiter than the paper (not a bright white, sort of like a dead white anyone thinking of stupid romance novels... well, they don't sparkle in sunlight). They also have the tendency of wearing only black...
Like Aurora, Sessak are creatures which have been carried over from a story which has died. There weren't elves in that story, so they've been altered quite a bit, the main difference is the fact that they're people, not creatures any more. They're not savages that do the bidding of some really dark overlord, rather, they're savages that do their own evil bidding... anyways, they're really bad.
Remember how I mentioned that the Western World is the only place that has different religions? Well, the Sessak are why. Several centuries before the first book takes place a group of elves became Sessak, went to the Western World and over through the government there. There are religions that believe Sessak are those who are so devoted to Divinity that they'd sacrifice themselves in such a way just to serve. There's another religion that believes that each Sessak is the embodiment of a piece of the devil himself... funny story behind that but I won't go into that on this blog though.
Okay, back to the little bone... what's it called? well, it really depends on what species you are. For Elves/Sessak it's known as a Kessak Stone. (really important in book two... just saying). for Dragon Tamers they're called Daragon Stones. for Fallen... I don't know, I haven't named them yet... haven't needed to.... I should probably do that though.
Also, they're colored different in each species. For Elves/Sessak they're a really shinny black, like little spheres of obsidian. For Dragon Tamers they're pure white versions of the Kessak Stones. Once again I have no details of the Fallen, but I'm guessing they're just like the Daragon Stones, maybe a little different, like they glow or something silly like that.
Well, that's all I feel like I really need to mention about Sessak or Fallen at the moment. I'll talk about Dragon Tamers in another post, and I'll revisit Sessak multipul times on this blog. Thank you for reading this long and rambling post.
-Dancy M. Grant ©2010
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