Eryn
Eryn is a sweltering, incredibly hostile jungle world and one of the seven ancient Prime Planets in The Metalwood Saga. Designated as a Seed Planet by the ancients of Starmist Prime, Eryn is dominated by massive, lethal wildlife and the sentient, upright wolf-men known as the rylak.
Eryn serves as the primary setting for the spin-off book The Savage Wild. It plays a critical role in the overarching history of magic, being the planet where the Twin Nelenor was imprisoned and where the dark mage Calarel (also known as Cariel or Magona) first discovered the horrific power of soulbinding.
Geography and Environment
Eryn is a planet defined by extreme heat, dense humidity, and an unyielding, savage ecosystem where everything is a predator. The planet’s sky is illuminated by three moons, including the blue moon Geija and the sickly red moon known as Argul.
Key geographic regions include:
- Kalmansa Wilds: The brutal western jungles, home to numerous rylak settlements such as Felgr and the ancient, destroyed village of Skallgr.
- Kojo River: A wide, turgid, and swift gray river that acts as a natural border dividing the Kalmansa Wilds from the Sholorna Wilds to the east.
- Sholorna Wilds: The eastern expanse of the jungle. Hidden deep within its cliffs and waterfalls is Aldaron, a secret bastion city built by the surviving Eldrim population.
- Kryptan Mountains: A volatile, volcanic mountain range in the south where Calarel constructed her massive fortress.
- Lagafel (The Dark Forest): An eerie, desolate forest with black ground and twisted, brittle trees, created by the spilled blood of an ancient war. It is the primary home of the vel.
- Kaja Ocean: A southern ocean where the peaceful Eldrim settlement of Ylfethas was established to avoid the dangers of the deep jungle.
The Bestiary
Eryn is infamous for possessing the most dangerous collection of flora and fauna across any of the Prime Planets. The wildlife includes:
- Rylak: The indigenous intelligent life of Eryn. They are towering, upright wolf-men covered in thick brown fur, possessing razor-sharp fingerclaws and toeclaws. They live in vicious, patriarchal packs and historically enslaved the Eldrim who were stranded on the planet.
- Cavek: Essentially similar to dinosaurs on Earth and the largest beasts in the jungle, these massive gray herbivores stand 100 feet tall and 200 feet long. They possess four single-jointed legs, scimitar-like teeth, and faint, glowing rune-like patterns on their skin.
- Kabul: Sleek, black wildcats with glowing yellow eyes. Solitary apex predators, their saliva acts as a potent coagulant that can instantly stop bleeding.
- Welak: Quadrupedal, non-sentient wolves that are the distant ancestors of the rylak.
- Sakul: Small white birds with black beaks. Highly aggressive and territorial, a single peck from a sakul injects a venom that causes an agonizing death.
- Phylax (dragons): Sentient, fire-breathing reptiles that were intentionally seeded on Eryn fifty years ago by Kythaela (Kira). They possess genetic memory and a strict Order of Ascension encompassing breeds like the pi-grunt, grunt, slinker, skyeel, pi-agile, agile, talonwyrm, winged talonwyrm, and Titan.
- Vel: An ancient, enigmatic alien species that resembles semi-transparent, glowing deer. Capable of telepathic communication, they can expend massive energy to transform into destructive ribbons of light during battle, but require a year of hibernation to recharge.
- Bekal: Annoying, blood-sucking insects that swarm in the millions during their mating season. They are heavily attracted to skondul sap.
- Dela: A common jungle prey animal hunted by predators in the Wilds, similar to deer on Earth.
Telepathic Links
Eryn is unique among the Prime Planets for the prevalence of natural, telepathic networks that connect various species across the globe. These networks allow for instant communication, emotional resonance, and coordinated action without the use of traditional Prime magic.
- The Dragonbond (Phylax): All dragons on Eryn share a latent telepathic network that connects their species across vast distances. To fully access this connection, a dragon must complete the Ritual of Bonding. Once open, the bond links the dragon's mind to the entire species across the planet, allowing them to share thoughts, emotions, and coordinate actions.
- Vel Network: The ancient, semi-transparent vel possess a telepathic network that functions similarly to the Dragonbond, connecting their species across vast planetary distances.
- Sakul Flock-Mind: Despite their tiny size, the deadly sakul birds possess a latent telepathic network that allows instant communication with their brethren. When communicating, their thoughts are frantic and fragmented, consisting of rapid strings of concepts and actions.
- Cavek Herd Bond: The colossal cavek also share a telepathic pack or herd bond, allowing them to feel the presence and emotions of their fellow herd members.
- Souljoining (Demisouls): Individuals who possess a demisoul, such as Jascyn and Lysa, have an innate, heightened empathy that allows them to tap into these animal networks or forge new telepathic links. Through the gentle magic of "souljoining," they can communicate telepathically with creatures like welak wolves and kabul cats, as well as share thoughts and offload mental trauma amongst themselves.
Key Events
The Great Awakening and Imprisonment
One hundred thousand years ago, during the Great Awakening, Aten (Orym) led an expedition through a planetary gate to Eryn. He brought with him the sky-being Nelenor, whom he drugged and bound within a willow sapling. This act killed the expedition party and created a Prime Tree, forever tethering Nelenor's soul to the dimension of Ambarhal and establishing Eryn's connection to Prime magic.
The Rise of Cariel
The surviving Eldrim from Aten's expedition awoke on Eryn with fractured memories. They were quickly subjugated and enslaved by the brutal rylak. Among them was Cariel. After being viciously attacked and permanently blinded by rylak in the village of Skallgr, Cariel discovered the horrific magic of soulbinding. By forcefully subjugating the souls of kabul, cavek, and sakul, she amassed an army of jungle beasts and massacred the entire Skallgr pack in an act of violent revenge.
Over the following millennia, Cariel manipulated the remaining rylak packs from the shadows. The rylak themselves eventually attempted to harness Prime magic, delving too deeply and accidentally executing a soulsundering ritual that wiped out their entire ancient civilization, casting their souls into Ambarhal.
The Planetary Gate
Months after the apocalyptic Conjunction brought Earth (Mar) into the Persephone solar system, Eryn was also forcefully gated across the universe. Near the end of The Silent Binds, the dark mage Calarel (operating as Cariel) used her soulbinding magic to take control of the young Prime Mage, Rylan. Utilizing fourteen Books of Amplification at the subterranean Memory facility on Valaralda, she forced Rylan to open a massive planetary gate, pulling Eryn into orbit near Valaralda and Earth.
Just prior to this event, the rylak Talon (Hloldr) banished the mindmaster Quynn to Eryn. Quynn wandered the sweltering jungle alongside an Eglaria operative named Saul. The two personally experienced the jarring planetary translation when Eryn arrived in the Persephone system, shortly before Quynn escaped back to Valaralda to fight the freed Twins.
The Arrival of the Phylax
Following the defeat of Orym at the end of The Splinter Soul, Kythaela (Kira) intentionally hatched a dragon egg in the jungles of Eryn, seeding the Phylax on the planet to act as the successors to Starmist Prime. Over the next fifty years, an immediate, decades-long war broke out between the rapidly-maturing Phylax (dragons) and the surviving rylak packs, keeping both species distracted while the hidden Eldrim populations—such as those in Aldaron and Ylfethas—attempted to live in secretive peace.
The Savage Wild
Fifty years after the events of The Splinter Soul, Eryn becomes the focal point of a new crisis during the era of The Savage Wild.
Calarel—having survived her apparent death by fragmenting her soul into spiders—captures the newly-appointed Xyclami Operators, Rylan and Elanil, trapping them in a decade-long coma within her Kryptan Fortress. Her goal is to forcefully use their access to reactivate the god-machine and conquer the universe.
During a violent Phylax attack on the rylak village of Felgr, Rylan and Elanil's teenage child, Lysa, escapes enslavement. Fleeing into the Kalmansa Wilds, Lysa crosses paths with Jascyn, a highly unusual, empathetic rylak demisoul, and Aena, a newly hatched agile dragon.
Together, the three form the Triad. Utilizing Jascyn's unique, gentle magic of souljoining, they unite the disparate factions of Eryn. Leading an unprecedented army of cavek, kabul, welak, sakul, vel, Phylax (dragons), Eldrim, and rylak, the Triad marches on the Kryptan Fortress. In a massive, multi-species battle, they successfully defeat Calarel, rescue the Operators, and forge a new, hopeful era of peace across the Savage Wild.