Tir na Nua

Primarily Tir na Nua is the setting for my Epic Celtic Fantasy.  This makes it your home for development ideas, short stories, and information about the world of Tir na Nua created ( or rather in the process of creation) by L. Stephen O’Neill.

But What is Tir na Nua Really?

Tir na Nua, the New Land, is a world far from the Earth we know.  Three stars light it, three moons circle it, and there are three worlds associated with it.  Tir na Nua might look like Earth, there are trees and rivers and seas, there are beasts, and monsters, and men, AND these all live together in varying degrees of harmony. 

Yet there are differences.  The South is warmed by the sullen glow of a brown dwarf star, Ember, that the planet of Tir na Nua cartwheels around.  Much of the weather of this world of necessity comes from that most important and close relationship. 

The north draws rain from the South, but it never sees Ember’s light save painted on the world’s satellites.  There is ghostly blue light that shines from blue/white dwarf, Spark, that dances closest to Ember, but the world’s most Earth-like light comes from distant Sol na Nua, it marks the day, sharing it in the North with Bright and brightening the South as well.

Tir na Nua is a world that is marked by cataclysm.  The violent genesis of the planet is painted on its moons as well.  Nearest is the Wanderer, a blasted lump that hurtles around Tir na Nua, racing across the sky.  The Stranger is next nearest, but it is not very reflective, making a ghostly shape in the night sky.  Farthest of Tir na Nua’s moons is Bright, truest reflector of the three suns of the world.

I have several stories, likely novel length, that I am in the process of writing.  Most if not all are set in the world of Tir na Nua.  This new world is a world apart from the Earth that we know and has been, there are names and situations that may seem familiar, but though they echo the world we know they are not from that world at all.

The People of Tir na Nua

Human habitation has diffused from the center of the Gaellic Plain, over the Western Mountains, across the seas, to the South and the East until it has met its opposite in isolated islands like the volcanic island group of the Losterlies.  Man exists on the top of the world, on the ice sheet above the Iron Mountains of the Rus and man also inhabits the misty hot forests of the South.  He lives on and in the mountains and he exists and even thrives on the islands of the seas.

Here are some of those peoples:

The Gaels of the Central Plain .  (A Story of these folk “The Red Son of Concubar“)

The Monsters who ravaged the Plain, The Gobli.

After the great hordes sweep the Gaelish Plain, the Norfolk, the people of Oatey Moss and of Jella, still live where the Great Ice Sheet ended and now on the Plains to the South the horse folk, the Scythians, rule unchallenged. (CPSL to continue these stories.)

In the Far North, The Rus and the Ice Folk.  For a bit about Ice Folk culture read an Anuniaq Tale.

In the Inner Sea, South of Sliebe na Gael, The Eirelanders.  In the scattered islands of the inner sea, the Fae Islanders.

East over the Saffron and driven down into the great isthmus and the mountains there called Scotia.

Above Scotia is a land of Slave camps and warring city states often called the Disputed Lands.  Before the Hordes of Gobli and Darklings ravaged it the land was controlled by Balor and his Slave Raiders who became the Fomor.

North of the Disputed Lands and East of the Norfolk are the Cold Forests of the Darklings.  The Sinoese live above them on the pinnacles of hard rock that stand after the lighter ash of that volcanic lowland was washed away and overgrown with rainforest.

The Great Mountains to the West of the Great Gaellic Plain are ruled by  the Lokians.  Some call these folk Dwarfs, they are dark and stocky in general, they are miners and workers of metal who live in the continental ridge that divides all the east from Umircea.

Across the Mountains to the Western Seas is Umircea, but in the North of that land is the Ribbon Wood, from whence come the Ui Uilsen, the Ribbonwood Elves.

What is the Purpose of Tir Na Nua

On lstephenoneill.com I plan to gather research material, scene drafts, character development studies, back stories and perhaps short stories that contribute to each novel or at least flesh out this new land, Tir na Nua.

I want to write, fantasy stories, sword and sorcery novels, epic fantasy, you know, the whole lot, and Tir na Nua makes this possible for me.  But having the place to write, having stories to tell, wanting to do it, none of these things mean that I can do it.  I can put it out there, but frankly, I was never that good a writer, so says my report cards. (Sad to say I thought I did much better in English than I actually did. This was a bit of an unwelcome surprise. Still, I have these stories. . .) I guess my point is that I really need to practice.  I need to try to write and see if I can do a good job.  Perhaps most of all I need to get faster.

The reality of my life is that there isn’t much time to develop. . .    . . . or write.  So I’m going to jump on in and do it.  As such, these pages are intentionally rough (not because I’m trying to make them bad, I’m trying the best I can as quickly as I can) so that I get the ideas out of my head and onto the page.  I think I’ve mentioned that I think of these pages as something of a writer’s notepad.

SO, What’s in the Works?

I’m trying to write an online novel right here in front of you, the reader.  Firstly I plan to write a first draft, and I’m not being very picky.  I can’t, I’m trying to do it by my birthday.  Wish me luck.  You can follow my progress here at my progress page for the novel: The Abbott and the Djinn.

I’ve started a story that involves one of Dana Bailey’s children, Lugh, and a young woman of the Norfolk, Oatey Moss.  The third main theme of this story is giants.  Start to read Child of Moss HERE.

Currently I am focusing on a novel set in a island archipelago, the Losterlies, that is effectively on the opposite side of the world from where humanity was first established and from where it diffused. The working title for this novel is “The Man Who Forgot Himself.”

On the Losterlies are a people known as wanderers or gypsies who are descendants of a particular Inuit by the name of Anuniaq.  “Anuniaq Goes to Sea… …Again” is a tale from his life as is Anuniaq and the Storm Tossed Sea.

People groups converge on the Losterlies and one of the cultures that has great impact are the Inuit peoples, known by the Rus as the Icefolk,  who leave with the Russians and are later enslaved by them.  I want to develop a tale about one of these people, a whale talker, who’s people are annihilated by the iron Rus and who in turn gets revenge and then must rebuild a life afterward.  The working title for this novel is “The Poet and the Ice Princess”.

I have a few stories developing in an area of the world, Northern Umircea, that involves or evolved the Ribbon Wood Elves or UiUilsen as they are known. “the Lost Prince”, “Sasha and Faolan”, and a trilogy of stories, “the UiUilsen Cycle” will develop and expand both the peoples of this part of Umircea, the land beyond the Western Mountains of the Gaelish Central Plain.

I love the movie “a Knights Tale” and would like to write my take on the idea of nobility. I also like the idea of warfare as sport presented in that story (I’m an American Football fan) and think it has application, especially in the gaming community of today, but also to the Celtic lifestyle or my perception of what the Gaelic people were about.  I want to set my knights tale in Umircea, but I may move the setting to the cities of the Disputed Lands though nobility is much less a factor in that wild land.

An important part of the development of my fantasy world are figures who make a huge impact by virtue of their many talents and even more because of their longevity. The children of Dana Bailey are intended by Dana herself to be a Celtic Pantheon. These genetically altered super Celts make contributions both by virtue of their leadership, and also in just being a tie and a memory to a technological past that is being lost and replaced by new progress informed by the past but not dependant on it.  Among the characters stories will touch on: Balor, originally Llyr, who was first born and most willing to serve Dana Baily’s purposes, but came to work hardest against those goals as the leader of the Fomorians; Lugh of the long reach, a wanderer and a philanderer at first, godlike in his self-absorption, his many talents are at last turned to good when he learns responsibility; Bridget, maternal in truth and in temperament, she must learn how to be good at her role; Epona, but more her most impressive daughter, Scythia, who’s leadership gives the freedom loving horse folk of the Gaellic plain a name, an identity, and a mother; Loki the miner and technical genius who’s folk live under the mountains, and many more.

In the Disputed Lands life is cheap.  Warlords carve out kingdoms among the fortified city states of the broken and war torn landscape in a section of the northern continent east of the Safron River that drains much of the Great Gaellic plain, north of Scotia and the fortified wall that splits off the Scots Highlands from the rest, west of the Great Sea that has become dominated by the Fomor, and South of the lands of the Sinoese and most notably the Darklings.  Several stories will be set or will touch this volitile region.  Among them are “Icarus Flight”, “Kitsuniko”, “Led from the Dark or the Blind Deaf Mute and the Idiot” (a story about overcoming disability, frustrated revenge, and simple peace), “Fitch in His Majesties Service”

The first arrivals to the Losterlies were Wanderers, 2 males, 3 females, 1 pre-teen female, and 1 young boy with their cargo of small, alpaca like, beasts (who’s descendants become known as king’s sheep) and a number of seeded food plants and herbs.  Having lost their boat to a storm, they develop a life-style on the main island of the Losterlies.

The coming of the Whale-Talker,  the fellow marked by the bear clan, reduces their population, narrowing it slightly in the third generation.  Several generations after that, conflict with the Fomorians reduces their population and drives the wanderers into the mountains.

The Wanderers develop a herder/hunter-gatherer life-style on the bones of their earlier agricultural society.  The folk still seed favored plants and use fire to control undesirable ones.  They maintain mobility and, to a lesser extent, develop stealth almost incidentally, but these traits serve them well when the Seabrook colony is established.

The wanderers have some association with the agrarian and fishers of the original Seabrooke colony, but avoid the domination of the Celts.  Hiding away — drifting into the misty hills, they stay free and maintain their distinctiveness.

They and their alpaca “king’s sheep” live among the hot-springs and steam vents of the volcanic mountains.  They know the landscape, where the water is good and bad, where the lava is safe, where it has formed tubes and caves large and small, and they know where they have planted gathering gardens and where among the basalt wastes grass and wild flowers have taken root.  They have cultivated trees too, and they hide in crevices among the rocks.  They have a small grove they call the Ribbon Wood where they go to have council and “be of one mind”, but it is only a memory of that origin from which they spring, in part.

By the time of “The Man Who Forgot Himself” (TMWFH) the wanderers trade personally with outlying farms, coming out of the mist to exchange pleasantries, crafts, and food only to disappear, magically it seems to the farmers, back into the same mists.  

There are a handful of fairs in which wanderers participate.  For the country folk it is a chance to meet and mingle.  Dancing and song are part of the social event and the wanderers distinguish themselves in both.  The fairs are as long as a week and leading up to them are surrounding market days where there are dances and trading at crossroads and in villages.

There are other “meets” before and after fairs where mostly youth of the Seabrookians, Celts, and Wanderers meet and mingle.  Mostly the young islanders meet each other in ways that lead to marriage alliances and the magical, sensual wanderers lend a magic to the festivities.  Rarely the connections are between islander and wanderer, but these loves bridge alien worlds and do not often survive those differences.

Though wanderer clans are independent there is a recognized King and the wanderers use fairs and meets to conduct their business.  More rarely a King might gather the folk or their leaders to the Ribbon Wood.  Since the Wanderers are a world of their own, they might favor a particular market day or even meet over the fairs.  Such a meet is a glimpse of magic to the islanders who find their small meet is a major gypsy gathering.

The Occupations of the Losterlies

What led to the conditions at the time of “The Man Who Forgot Himself.”

The first folk to come to the Losterlies were probably the Grey Elves. In their wanderings they became aware of it, used it as a shelter, and for provision, but one can not rule out the Fomorians as possible first arrivals. The Grey Elves, it can not be denied, certainly used the isles, stored cache’s in it, and used them, sometimes even wintering over on rare occasions. It is therefore safe to conclude that they were the first residents no matter how brief the occupations. *Considering their longevity there might be a written record or even living memory of Grey Elf occupation.*

A ship’s company of Wanderers, folk related to the Grey Elves but not long lived, are known to have been ship wrecked with a cargo of items including live goods from the far South, among these are a small species of Alpaca, potato, certain peppers, yams, and other tropical fare, many of these things did not and do not thrive in the climate of the Losterlies, but the wanderers have made the best of the available genetics, breeding things to the conditions and finding volcanically created micro climates that have allowed these stocks to be cultivated if only to preserve them and for very limited, sometimes medicinal, use. However some of these experiments in botany and animal husbandry have succeeded well enough to gift the islands with a unique and particularly favorably diverse and rich flora and fauna. The Wanderers have added these and continue to husband others in their mountain micro-climates. They continue a semi-nomadic lifestyle despite being limited to the Losterlies. They seem to prefer the mountains and seclusion coming out to trade their biologicals and crafts for the things that make their lives better.

It is a company of Grey Elves that tell Seabrooke about the Losterlies and they find and establish a colony in the sheltered bay of the main island. Though the going is difficult the group survives and begins to establish a strong presence. As soon as survival seems assured, a crew member, Calvin, begins to cause trouble. When the boat that bears them to the isle is no-longer needed for survival, Calvin takes charge of it and moved with a couple supporters and their families to the Northeastern side and establishes a separate village focused more on fishing and the sea.

The Coming of the Laird and the Celtic Overlay on the Seabrook Base

Despite numerous Fomorian raids over the years and the occasional interaction with the Gypsies, the Seabrook colony remains largely homogeneous until it is overwhelmed by a Celtic invasion. Initially the overlord Celts maintain a highly bifurcated population, but in just a few generations the two halves begin to integrate.

Homogenizing the Population

Defending against a wave of Fomorian attacks unifies the island in two (2) ways. 1) Working and fighting together is a great leveler and 2) the Fomorian wave isolates the island from greater Oceanic Celtia–Celtia contracts leaving the Losterlies isolated, embattled, and with these shakings the island’s population begins to homogenize. the survivors value their co-survivors and come out of the battle as islanders together. Celtia forgets them and the Folk of the Island become a people. Their is still a Laird and a Tanist, but Tanistry reaches deep into the community and by the time of “The Man Who Forgot Himself” it reaches across race, occupation, and even surname.

Initially, in the first generation, Capt. Seabrooke sought to keep the colony together in the one village, but Calvin’s defection, Fomorian attack, Celtic overlordship, Gypsie influence, intermitant growing and contracting population, trade, and even the Skellig Monastry all work to spread out the population.

Probably the biggest factor was the periodic Fomorian incursions. The benefits of having some resources decentralized and some population base to at least have a place to flee to, became apparent when Brookton was attacked by the Fomorian sea raiders for the first time.

Landmarks and Works of Man

The Celts build a stone ring fort, stripping the village surrounding fields of their walls. As agriculture moves up the valley and around the lake, crannogs are built for defense. There is a narrowing of the river bed that leads from the lake so it is a natural defensive point that the colony fortifies and the Celts improve making a stone stronghold between Brookton and the Lake region.

The Separatists use the black stone (basalt) of the North Shore in all their buildings and after the first Fomor attack they create a tightly organized village with narrow corridors, blind corners and various defensive strong points and escape routes, it becomes known as Blackwarren.

The southside of the island relies on poor moorage and remoteness for its safety. This is particularily true of the Skellig Monastry. The coast is very rugged. Even if a safe landing is made on the narrow beaches, raiders face a difficult climb up cliffs to reach the widely spaced farms and a long hike further into the interior to two or three settlements any larger than a single extended family compound.

The last act of the heroic heyday of the Losterlies was a pitched battle against a large Fomorian raid. In it the Celts are aided by both the “native peasantry” and the mysterious Wanderers. There is much death and destruction AND volcanic eruptions add to the chaos.

Harvests are poor for years after–the population dwindles–the Losterlies are forgotten and they too forget, focusing on survival again through the lean times. Volcanism in the Losterlies is only the local manifestation of world wide disasters and a much less generous climate — the Losterlies are spared the wars over diminishing resources. War with Fomorian raiders reduced the population already and the survivors used an infrastructure and an agricultural base built for a larger population. The living was hard and there were technological losses, but starvation was not a great concern.

So it is that a healthy and somewhat happy population of Celtoseabrookians is filling out the loose garment of the earlier golden days. There is much hope for progress, indeed this typifies the population, that they are eager for gain and not afraid of hard work to reach it. Trade has recently been re-established within the last 3 or 4 generations and young men have sought glory fighting for Celtic Kings in distant lands — The Oceanic Celtic world is the big city to the Losterlies village farm.

What do you mean by Free Celtic Fiction?

Ah, I’m glad you asked.  Is this fiction from Ireland or Scotland or Wales?  No.  The title of my pages, this “blog”, was L. Stephen O’Neill.  Sadly, not so many folks were searching for me by name, so being advised to be more descriptive I came up with descriptive words that I felt would be popular searches as well as descriptive. 

Being at least partly Scots I am personally drawn to the word FREE.  I consider myself a celt, live in Oregon, like bagpipes, tartan, woolens, potatos, I’m CELTIC.  and I’m constructing a FICTIONal, Roman Empire Free, world to let the Celts have another go at world domination.  I think its high time, read about that below.

I am trying to focus my efforts on a few primary storylines.  Because the posts are not always in order I’ve started to organize the storylines on which I’m working on a novel progress page for the Abbott and the Djinn, and a Current Primary Storylines page for Child of Moss, the Deer Riders, and the Red Son of Concubar.

Philosophy of Fiction

Fiction can be truer than real life.  The lives of mere characters, literary constructs, can clarify and instruct a reader, helping them to gain perspective, inspiration, and fortitude for their real life situations.  Their own problems and opportunities are much more complex to be sure, but sometimes the perspective of fiction is a perfect catalyst for positive change. . .

. . . or just a very entertaining read!

These are the stories that I have begun to commit to ones and zeroes to this point:

The Abbott and the Djinn my first draft online novel.

The Red Son of Concubar is an attempt to tell a truely Celtic story, drawing elements from some of the most loved Irish legends.

I’ve found a fragment of a planned novel (actually trilogy) That introduces the point of view character of the UiUilsen Saga.  Meet Hunter Wilde.  I had not planned on sharing things I actually planned to one day publish, but I wanted to introduce you to Hunter.

An Anuniaq Tale about an Inuit who meets the mysterious Others, folk of the Ui Uilsen.

The Deer Riders in the far North of the Gaellic plain

Information regarding the Losterlies is background material for the setting of a planned novel, The Man Who Forgot Himself.

Kitsuniko Awakes in the land of the Sinoese, but among these people she is a mystery, even to her self.

the Red Hand of Courage

 The Annals of the Tuatha de Dana

Tir na Nua

I have several stories, novels, that I am in the process of writing.  Most if not all are set in the world of Tir na Nua.  This new world is a world apart from the Earth that we know and has been, there are names and situations that may seem familiar, but though they echo the world we know they are not from that world at all.  For stories specific to Tir na Nua but not included elsewhere you could explore that blog topic: Tir na Nua

Here I plan to gather research material, scene drafts, character development studies, back stories and perhaps short stories that contribute to each of them or at least flesh out this new land, Tir na Nua.

Currently I am focusing on a novel set in a island archipelago, the Losterlies, that is effectively on the opposite side of the world from where humanity was first established and from where it diffused. The working title for this novel is “The Man Who Forgot Himself.”

On the Losterlies are a people known as wanderers or gypsies who are decendants of a particular Inuit by the name of Anuniaq.  “Anuniaq Goes to Sea… …Again” is a tale from his life as is Anuniaq and the Storm Tossed Sea.

People groups converge on the Losterlies and one of the cultures that has great impact are the Inuit peoples, known by the Rus as the Icefolk,  who leave with the Russians and are later enslaved by them.  I want to develop a tale about one of these people, a whale talker, who’s people are annihilated by the iron Rus and who in turn gets revenge and then must rebuild a life afterward.  The working title for this novel is “The Poet and the Ice Princess”.

I have a few stories developing in an area of the world, Northern Umircea, that involves or evolved the Ribbon Wood Elves or UiUilsen as they are known. “the Lost Prince”, “Sasha and Faolan”, and a trilogy of stories, “the UiUilsen Cycle” will develop and expand both the peoples of this part of Umircea, the land beyond the Western Mountains of the Gaelish Central Plain.

I love the movie “a Knights Tale” and would like to write my take on the idea of nobility. I also like the idea of warfare as sport presented in that story (I’m an American Football fan) and think it has application, especially in the gaming community of today, but also to the Celtic lifestyle or my perception of what the Gaelic people were about.  I want to set my knights tale in Umircea, but I may move the setting to the cities of the Disputed Lands though nobility is much less a factor in that wild land.

An important part of the development of my fantasy world are figures who make a huge impact by virtue of their many talents and even more because of their longevity. The children of Dana Bailey are intended by Dana herself to be a Celtic Pantheon. These genetically altered super Celts make contributions both by virtue of their leadership, and also in just being a tie and a memory to a technological past that is being lost and replaced by new progress informed by the past but not dependant on it.  Among the characters stories will touch on: Balor, originally Llyr, who was first born and most willing to serve Dana Baily’s purposes, but came to work hardest against those goals as the leader of the Fomorians; Lugh of the long reach, a wanderer and a philanderer at first, godlike in his self-absorption, his many talents are at last turned to good when he learns responsibility; Bridget, maternal in truth and in temperament, she must learn how to be good at her role; Epona, but more her most impressive daughter, Scythia, who’s leadership gives the freedom loving horse folk of the Gaellic plain a name, an identity, and a mother; Loki the miner and technical genius who’s folk live under the mountains, and many more.

In the Disputed Lands life is cheap.  Warlords carve out kingdoms among the fortified city states of the broken and war torn landscape in a section of the northern continent east of the Safron River that drains much of the Great Gaellic plain, north of Scotia and the fortified wall that splits off the Scots Highlands from the rest, west of the Great Sea that has become dominated by the Fomor, and South of the lands of the Sinoese and most notably the Darklings.  Several stories will be set or will touch this volitile region.  Among them are “Icarus Flight”, “Kitsuniko“, “Led from the Dark or the Blind Deaf Mute and the Idiot” (a story about overcoming disability, frustrated revenge, and simple peace), “Fitch in His Majesties Service”

Stay tuned.  I have been adding material as quickly as I can.

Enjoy,

LSO