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Tag Archives: Sempervians

The Ultras who were banished to Sempervia, and ultimately exiled from there.

I prevail over the breath of my enemies - quote from Pietas, Bringer of Chaos

"I prevail over the breath of my enemies" - quote from Pietas, Bringer of Chaos

Prevail (definition):...

To be valid, applicable, true, superior, or to persuade successfully.

Said of Pietas.

During the first few months of exile, every day, Pietas worked on his compulsion ability. He had no one to target but Six, a human.

Prior to imprisonment, for practice, Pietas would ask for some item he needed, such as a stylus. He wouldn't say which one or what type, but instead, as whoever was near reached for one, Pietas extended a wave of compulsion to choose the desired item. It never failed. Each person always picked the one he wanted. People who entered his presence would turn around and leave without Pietas saying a word. Practicing with small things made the big things second nature.

He had once turned a whole division and made them attack their comrades. But coerce Six? Might as well ask the sun for ice. Was it because he was reanimiated? A ghost? Or was it inherent in his nature?

Pietas sent Six a strong wave of compulsion to come to him, but the ghost continued filleting a fish without the least pause.

Casting himself back onto the grass in a fit of pique, Pietas stared up at the sky. He'd had more control as a child! Would he have to start over and relearn everything? Was the gift lost? He'd honed it for centuries. Surely, it was not lost. Please, let it not be lost...

No matter how hard or how long it took, he would reclaim every power, every gift, and every ability. He would own everything he'd lost. No one robbed Pietas ap Lorectic, First Conqueror, War Leader of the Ultras and got away with it. Humanity had tried to rob him of his birthright, but they would not prevail.

Check the links below to find more authors in this blog hop.

Pick up the first story in the Bringer of Chaos series, Lights Out, free by joining a reader group!
https://kayelleallen.com/reader-groups

Origin of Pietas

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Forged in Fire

Forged in Fire: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Lights Out

Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi


JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS
Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog.
It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors.
Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.

Pietas, performed by Nik Nitsvetov @nitsvetov

 

Imagine playing dress-up with living dolls! Watching Nik Nitsvetov cosplay Pietas is like that.

Live Action Imagination

He's performed as my immortal king three times now. Will there be a fourth?

Nik said he would always do a cosplay for me, so I might hold him to it.

 

Amazing that we accomplished it this year, given the way 2020 has gone so far!

I won't reveal more images on my blog until after I've sent out previews to my newsletter subscribers. They get to see images I won't be releasing anywhere else.

So, how many do I have? Almost 900 from this photo shoot.

Pietas Cosplay

Nik and Julia are extremely generous and they spent a lot of time getting everything just right. Their friend, Vlad, also helped, and I wanted to give a quick rundown of what each person did to make this cosplay a success.

Julia

Julia stood on a stool to get some shots, and she would hop down, straighten a lock of Nik's hair, step back, straighten it again and then get back up on the stool and snap the picture. She'd turn him left or right just a bit, take a few pictures, and then move him again. She sat on the floor for some images and the angle (a "hero" shot) produces fantastic results. Having seen the images, I can tell you she is effective at getting just the right aspect of Nik's face and body on camera. She knows him well. They've been together many years. You can tell she knows all his best sides, and gets him to show them off.

Vlad

Nik's friend, Vlad, also a cosplayer (and a flatmate to Nik and Julia) live-streamed the cosplay. He also played music for the scene (Rammstein - a fave of mine as well as Nik's), and he narrated the comments. It was interesting to hear my name with a Russian accent. It comes across as "Ki-ell" (long I) versus "kay-elle" and it made me smile every time I heard it. I almost prefer it!

Nik

Watching Nik perform is so amazing that while I was watching live, I forgot to comment most of the time. I did respond with things like Perfect! Which isn't all that helpful, all told. But honestly, I had no need to direct. Nik and I had emailed about 20 times setting up the various aspects of the shoot and getting the props and poses right. I sent him a link to a few examples of poses that I would like and he did it perfectly. There's that word again. Nik doesn't think of himself as "perfect" but to me, there is no better Pietas. When I think of my character, it's Nik as Pietas that I see -- except that he's seven feet tall!

Check the links below to find more authors in this blog hop.

Pick up the first story in the Bringer of Chaos series, Lights Out, free by joining a reader group!
https://kayelleallen.com/reader-groups

Origin of Pietas

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Forged in Fire

Forged in Fire: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Lights Out

Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi


JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS
Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog.
It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors.
Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.

Bringing Pietas to Life #Voiceover @voicesbyzack #Cosplayer @nitsvetov #PietasFans #SciFi #MFRWhooks #MFRWorg

Discovering Pietas through a voice actor and a cosplayer

Bringing Pietas to Life

Watching Nik Nitsvetov perform as Pietas during the Ritual of Strength cosplay, I understood my character and saw nuances I'd never caught when I wrote the character. I'll share those insights in a later post. Because I had hundreds of images to choose from, I saw things in the background that readers never see. It opened my eyes to my character in ways I never expected.

Here's a quick video to introduce Pietas.

An interview with Pietas, the immortal king during his initial period of exile on Sempervia, from the Bringer of Chaos science fiction series.
Pietas voice actor - Zack Black
Pietas model - Nik Nitsvetov

What's your experience?

Have you ever worked with a voice actor? How did it go? Where did you find them? I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Please leave a note in the comments.

Check the links below to find more authors in this blog hop.

Pick up the first story in the Bringer of Chaos series, Lights Out, free by joining a reader group!
https://kayelleallen.com/reader-groups

Origin of Pietas

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Forged in Fire

Forged in Fire: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Lights Out

Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi


Book Hooks - a blog hop sponsored by Marketing for Romance Writers

JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS

Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors.

Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.

Massive Science Fiction Giveaway with Multiple Authors #SciFi #SpaceOpera #FreeBooks

You'll love this book fair featuring free Science Fiction and Space Opera books.
Multiple authors and subgenres, all books that begin a series. A great chance to sample an author's work and discover a new treasure.

This special event showcases all genres of sci-fi including:
military, hard scifi, soft scifi, robots, time travel, space opera, cyberpunk, and more.

Join us!  SF Giveaway Event

 

 

Join multiple authors in a Kindle Unlimited book fair. Science fiction and space opera books aplenty #SciFi #SpaceOpera #KU

Sci-Fi Book Fair for Kindle Unlimited books

A Kindle Unlimited bundle of high-caliber authors for lovers of SF/F.

This special event showcases all subgenres of sci-fi and may include:
cyberpunk, dystopian, fantasy, hard scifi, military, post-apocalyptic, robots, soft scifi, space opera, technothrillers, time travel, and more.

Join us! SF Kindle Unlimited Event

Ready: Fight! Choreographing a fight scene #SciFi #MFRWhooks #PietasFans

Choreographing a fight scene is a challenge for any writer. Rewriting it in another story from a different character's point of view is a special kind of madness.

Ready: Fight!

Having written Origin of Pietas first, when I wrote Lights Out, a prequel introducing Six, I had to retell some of the story the way Six saw it. Note: Six was using the name Tornahdo then, a special ops moniker for the way he fought.

What did I do to ensure I got all the hits and bumps right? You can read about it in this post. In Lights Out, Tornahdo (as Six was known then) was one of eight special ops soldiers. They had all been in fights with immortals before this, but none of them had faced Pietas, the immortal king. Here's the scene from Lights Out, Tornahdo's POV.

Tornahdo has entered a closed section of a space station. It's been several minutes since all the air has been removed. Pietas is on the ground, but he's where cameras can't get a good look at him. While Tornahdo and the soldiers can hold their breaths a long time, no one is sure just how long the king can accomplish this feat. Immortals can manipulate human emotions, so to protect the ghosts, they've been fitted with a chip to suppress emotion.


Ready: Fight! Choreographing a fight scene #SciFi #MFRWhooks #PietasFansInside, as instructed, Tornahdo stayed near the back. Two of the eight ghosts closed in on the pod.

Pietas lay on the floor behind it. His body showed, not his face.

Tornahdo tingled with a fighter's high. The mix of anxiety and excitement kept his instincts on maximum alert.

Beside Pietas, a ghost stooped. The change in lighting angle showed the Ultra, limp on the floor. When turned, the body flopped. The ghost pressed two fingers against the throat.

With a jerk, Pietas yanked the man down while thrusting a hand up.

A pierce of mindless fear stabbed Tornahdo. He'd faced that snap of terror before. It meant two things. First, the Ultra was controlling their emotions. Second, the chip was worthless.

Pietas tripped the next ghost, jabbed an elbow into his neck.

Another spurt of fear and confusion.

All that training. Days of suffering, learning control. For nothing.

Pietas flashed into speed mode.

Tornahdo's world moved in slow motion.

A blur showed where the Ultra had been. Pietas halted, braced both hands on a pod and kicked a pair of ghosts behind him.

They flew backward. Slow.

Momentum carried the Ultra straight toward Tornahdo.

Stumbling out of the way, Tornahdo went down in a tumble, taking out the ghost beside him, who knocked down the last two.


From Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos

Pietas's point of view, same scene. No air means no sound.

Crowded as the space was between his life-pod and the wall, two ghosts crept into it. Six spots of light showed on the other side. Eight ghosts then. That would be a much better fight. One nudged him with a foot.

Suppressing a smile, Pietas continued to play dead.Ready: Fight! Choreographing a fight scene #SciFi #MFRWhooks #PietasFans

Ghost One bent down, turned him onto his back.

Pietas let his body flop.

The guy came in closer, checked for a pulse.

Pietas opened his eyes.

The ghost's alarm fed Pietas energy.

He yanked him down, hard, while jamming the heel of his hand up. The ghost's head snapped back, and Pietas felt his bones crack. He shoved him aside and went after Ghost Two.

Pietas gripped his leg and tripped him. He jammed an elbow down onto the man's neck. Bones broke. The ghost's stab of dying fear spiked the energy from the first, and Pietas mixed it with his gift of chaos. He flung the vortex of emotions outward, broadcasting confusion and terror.

He activated his ability called zip. The pseudo speed meant he could move at a regular pace, but humans perceived him as a blur. They could not focus on him long enough to get close. To him, everyone moved in slow motion.

He flipped onto his feet, braced both hands on his pod, and kicked Three and Four square in the chest.

He pushed off the pod, and the momentum carried him straight into the arms of Five and Six. They stumbled backward, tumbling Seven and Eight onto the floor.

Writing different points of view

As you can see, the two viewpoints tell the same story, but the emotions reveal levels of attachment that are quite different.

Tornahdo knows he's had.

Pietas has hope he can escape.

Each is facing a person who refuses to quit, no matter how hard the going gets. Which will prevail?

Read the full story in Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos, and follow through with Origin of Pietas and its sequel, Forged in Fire.

If you like Pietas, you're in luck. He's in most of the Antonello Brothers series set in the far future from the Bringer of Chaos series. When you're immortal, you come back over and over and over. But does that mean he wins the fight in this scene? What's the word for damned if you do and damned if you don't? Hmm, how about screwed...

Check the links below to find more authors in this blog hop.

Pick up the first story in the Bringer of Chaos series, Lights Out, free by joining a reader group!
https://kayelleallen.com/reader-groups

Origin of Pietas

Origin of Pietas: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Forged in Fire

Forged in Fire: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi

Lights Out

Lights Out: Bringer of Chaos #SpaceOpera #SciFi


JOIN US FOR BOOKHOOKS
Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. It's a chance each week for you the reader to discover current works in progress or previously published books by possibly new-to-you authors. Thank you for stopping by. Please say hello or leave a note in the comments.