Warren (Book)

Front Cover

Warren is the first published novel by C.M. Wolfe set in the world of Oeriad. It was published on April 21, 2019 (Easter of that year) and is set in a medieval fantasy period. Initially going to be a trilogy, Chelsea broke it down into two separate time periods to be portrayed in their own respective novels, the first being Warren.

## Background

Chelsea began working on the world building for Warren shortly after she turned eighteen while working as a janitor. During her breaks she would sketch various characters, she recounted creating the winged Hares, specifically Bramble, and main character Barin first.

In archived posts she discussed creating the flora, fauna, and religion from nothing and mentioned how she was tired of reading the same rip offs of Lord of the Rings over again and how that stifled creativity in the medium.

## Story

A young Severin walks the long ocean path to the gates of The Crown, she is emaciated and is revealed to be carrying an equally starving infant. She rattles the gate demanding entry and is let in when promising wealth to a pig-like gatekeeper.

Deep within the Sheath, a magical forest where time does not pass that keeps the rabbit-like gods of this land safe within, The Sisters are preparing for the return of the umbral litter: spirits of non-godlike hares that ventured too far from the Sheath and lost their physical bodies. Instead of festivities they are met with a dying priestess from a nearby village who tells them that the entire litter has been intercepted and killed by mortals, she is the only survivor along with a rapidly dying child.

Ophelia, the youngest Sister and god of time, has already seen the branches the future can take and offers her life for the child to survive while leaving the half-human half-Hare infant in the direct care of her twin and god of memory, Amalthea.

A time skip happens that takes us to the childhood of the two infants. Severin now sells her body as a prostitute to fund her preteen brother, Barin's, schooling. He is head of his class and is already a master scholar. He comes home finding Severin naked and bruised on her bed and promises her that one day she will no longer have to work. While discussing how to celebrate how far he's come, Barin accidentally knocks over a well of ink Severin had been hiding under the bed causing her to burst into a rage and sends him away.

While walking through the streets of The Crown, Barin bumps into a young chimera who calls himself Pip. Pip scuffs his knee and runs off again, avoiding guards in the alleys. Barin continues walking but grows cold and tired, falling asleep in the streets. He wakes up shirtless in a small dark room with a small fire going. Pip is hovering over him and asks him to stay for the night since he doesn't get to talk to people his age much and his mother pregnant and preoccupied, promising him that he will grant Barin's only wish of making Severin happy. The two talk all through the night, Pip mentions a legend of the Sheath, before they notice light showing through the boarded windows. Pip has been watching for guards and tells Barin to play along before the two collapse in the streets at the guards' feet. Pip is revealed to be the crown prince, Rorik, and Barin is sent home to his furious sister.

In the Sheath, Amalthea is teaching the young half-Hare about the Hares and how they came to Oeriad she is also teaching the child to speak through her "eye" the immortal soul of the Hares. Amalthea decides it is time to show Anomaly, the child, how to access her godlike powers of memory, leading her to lower herself into the wisp pool where infant Hares wait for the umbral and astral celebrations.

Another time skip leads us to Anomaly lowering herself, now as a young adult, into the wisp pool and asking the late Ophelia for access to her late memories. Everything is fine until the eldest Sister, Ostara (who is revealed later to be the god of life and light), demands she be subjected to what Ophelia saw before she chose to give up her body. Ostara's twin, Bramble, tells her that Amalthea has banned it and that Ostara had always been a spoiled child. The two are about to fight until Destan, middle Sister and god of nature, splits them up but before she can Ostara has sunk the idea into Anomaly and she channels into Ophelia's dying memory.

In the memory, Anomaly directly walks through the all female village of The Spire. They are the only outsiders given access to The Sheath as long as "the sheath" has been laid upon it, restricting the inevitable damage of mortals. A childbirth event is going on in tandum with the umbral return, celebrating the female babies born in The Spire that year. While the priestesses are leaving to the titular Spire to present the children to be blessed one cannot get her baby to stop crying and stays behind giving herself and the baby a small dose of sedative putting the child nearly instantly to sleep. The priestess hears a scream and smells smoke shortly after, leaving the tent to see the women being slaughtered by knights of The Crown, including her best friend. She grabs the baby and wraps her in a basket before mounting her gold-tipped hare and racing to The Sheath. Halfway there they get caught by a soldier who throws a spear through the hare's leg, throwing the priestess and dislocating her arm. The priestess then pours the rest of the sedative in the hare's mouth so it does not suffer in death. The priestess manages to get the upperhand and kills the soldier but also discovers the greying spirits of the returning Hares and breaks down, driving herself to finish the journey on foot.

Anomaly awakes from the memory shocked and horrifically scared as her half-mortal body goes into shock. Amalthea, having felt her twin's suffering, crashes through the trees and goes for Ostara's neck nearly pulling her physical form from her eye.

Barin, back in The Crown, is now Lord Scholar and tutor to the young princess Valha while being best friend and confidant to crown prince Rorik. Severin is captain of the guard and leader of the army. Valha and Barin sneak out to do flora studies in the area and Rorik tells Barin to come to his room afterwards as he's nervous about his upcoming coronation. Barin reassures him that he is not a conquest driven monster like his father and Rorik goes into an emotion driving rage causing Barin to misread the situation and kisses Rorik deeply before running away realizing the possible significance of his mistake.

At the coronation Rorik does a complete tonal shift and declares he is going to pursue his father's quest of claiming the gods of The Sheath. During the coronation reception the next day an attempt is made on Barin's life causing princess Valha to get a head injury protecting him and putting her on the hit list. Barin wakes up and is treated by Valha and the queen who encourages Barin to save himself and the princess since now there is a mercenary out for the both of them and she cares for her daughter more than anything since the loss of her husband. The two escape while the party rages on and Barin rescues what he can of his research before quickly destroying the rest.

The two arrive on shore south of The Crown and start to venture through the forest but Severin, now hunting her brother, and Rorik travelling the path of his late father, soon catch up which Barin hears long before they arrive and drives himself and Valha down into a starkrose bush to hide off the path. The two choose to sleep there for the night before Barin is attacked by a woman who imitates Rorik in his mind's eye and tries to seduce him. He calms himself while in the trance and uses his hightened senses to feel a rock and knock her out. Valha and Barin carry her out of the forest but Barin collapses since she managed to drain some of his life. Valha finds an inn nearby and gives the owner's adoptive son a large amount of money to let them stay while Barin and the woman creature recover.

Barin recovers quite quickly and begins studying the woman who grows to be a friend. They live there a while until Barin wakes up to an odd sound one night and sees that the inn has been broken into. Rorik has backtracked and has taken Valha and the owner's son hostage unless Barin agrees to come along. He does not and is driven to the ground by a large soldier who puts Barin's skin in the light causing it to burn away. He wheezes for the woman creature and she appears nearly instantly, slaughtering the soldier like he was prey. Valha gets the upper hand on Rorik and stabs him in the abdomen leaving him to die. The inn owner's son comes with them to the end of the open field but chooses to leave them as his father had been killed in the incident, he gives Valha his hair tie and vows to see her again.

Anomaly in The Sheath gets a vision of inpending doom and The Sisters agree that time has come that she must leave the forest and find a new space to lay The Sheath so all life on Oeriad does not die. Her mortal body can harbour the immortal soul without dying beyond the forest. As she goes to leave Amalthea cannot take the pain of losing her twin a second time and accidentally steps beyond the forest. Amalthea's body, being a godlike soul cannot survive and she vanishes to nothingness in Anomaly's arms. Time has been lost to the world of Oeriad.

Barin and Valha reach a small village where they decide to bath and get Valha some new clothes since she has grown. They are running low on money and realize they seem to have been there much longer than initially thought. The choose to leave instantly but arrive at the rainforest's edge within two days instead of the at least two weeks it would have normally taken. The driver however had sold the information that he had the princess and the caravan is intercepted by Rorik, still alive and well. Rorik and Barin go privately while Valha is taken by guards. Rorik is no longer looking to harm them, he has forgiven Barin and is hurt but feels more himself. He confides to Barin that he must carry on with his quest to The Sheath or he will never feel fulfilled, the two make love and Barin leaves finding Valha having escaped the guards.

Anomaly reaches the desert and is taken to the ruler of the land by two exiles. He worships her as a god but she falls in love with him and orders him to be hers, she gets pregnant with his child and he asks her to be his queen. Their child is born shortly after with hare-like ears like his mother but the exiles come in and murder the king for defiling a god and creating a monster child. The child is pried from Anomaly's arms and she crawls and cradles the king's corpse for days before snapping weilding her full godlike form and discovering her wings. The people of the kingdom cannot run from her light as she wipes everyone's memories and falls to the desert below, having spent her energy.

Barin and Valha reach the same desert, crossing it with ease before being attacked by a giant sand insect with piercing limbs that wait to feel vibrations on the sand's surface. Barin ends up getting pierced but Valha saves him and drags him through the desert, briefly crossing paths with Anomaly. They reach the base of the mountain that leads to Barin's original home, where he was to be sacrificed because he was the weak twin. He has been bred for the high altitudes but Valha gets altitude sickness, allowing Severin to finally find them. Barin kills his sister after she reveals that she had been sending letters to his twin, he is welcome in the glacial city and will not be killed upon entry as he originally assumed, however, Rorik has perished to the glory of Freyja, formerly Bramble, who is the god of death and destruction. He returns to Valha who is frostbitten and incapacited but warms her up and they reach the city. Barin leaves her with a soft gesture.

Anomaly finds a hut with a mysterous mute woman at The Bloodshore who feeds her and cares for her as Anomaly builds a raft. She feels The Sheath die along with her Sisters and takes to the water. Finding a small island she crawls to shore and offers her eye to the land, realizing she is memory and with her power all she remembers is what exists. The Sisters are there as she dies, including Ophelia, and welcome her to return to Mother, the god of all things.

Barin writes a letter to Valha years in the future. He lives on an island off The Bloodshore however there seems to be a magic there that has made him immortal. He has fallen in love and lives with a seemingly otherworldly man with hare-like ears and childlike tendancies. Valha has sent Barin a mysterious gift and has been working to establish democracy across Oeriad along with her husband, the innkeeper's son from earlier.

## Characters

None of the characters are true antagonists. Even Rorik is meant to be looked at as a confused individual, struggling to find himself.

### Main Characters

* Barin, duskcrawler scholar and tutor to the princess
* Anomaly, half-Hare half-dunefolk Sister, tasked with finding a new home for The Sheath
* Valha, pure chimera and princess of The Crown
* Ostara, Eldest Sister, diety of light and life
* Bramble, Eldest Sister, hiding her true identity, diety of death and destruction
* Destan, Middle Sister, diety of nature
* Amalthea, Youngest Sister, diety of time
* Ophelia, Youngest Sister, diety of memory

### Side Characters

* Rorik, heir to The Crown and unrequited lover to Barin, closest thing to our antagonist
* Mother, creator of all things, split her being into The Sisters
* Miramelle, succubus like creature who tries to kill Barin
* Severin, Barin's elder sister, leader of The Crown's army
* Wander, innkeeper's son
* Callera, ruler of Prina, trade city deep within The Shimmering Sands

### Other Characters

* Proteus Stain, former executor in the king's death, mercenary
* Ama, young Spirian priestess, saves Anomaly
* Maya, Ama's best friend and fellow priestess
* Avalai, Barin's twin sister, cheiftan of the duskcrawlers of Fearinn Ghaetar
* Mana, handmaid to the princess
* The queen, Barin and Valha's mother
* The king, Barin and Valha's father, destroyed the Spirian people
* Second in command, Severin's love interest
* Innkeeper, Wander's adoptive father, former blacksmith
* Mihael, Avalai's personal handmaid
* Man with hare-like ears, Barin's lover
* Mysterious woman, takes Anomaly in at The Blood Shore
* Carriage driver, takes Valha and Barin to the Sea of Shards
* Carraige driver's son

## Cover

The front cover is a stylized pop art illustration of Ophelia. She is standing alert as though looking at something in the distance. It has Chelsea's signature instead of her name.

The back cover is an oil painting of an unnamed hare mentioned in a story that Barin tells to Valha. It appears as though she is drinking from the wisp pool however is surrounded by golden leaves as opposed to the green canopy explained in the first chapter regarding The Sheath. There are also blue flowers presumably skyblossoms or skypetals.

## Trivia

* Chelsea has written regarding Warren saying "I am lucky enough to be born in a place where I am not held back due to my gender, sexuality, or race and I will continue to make stories where those things are not "groundbreaking" because they are the norm. That is the world I wish to see, so that is the fantasy I will write."[1]
* Chelsea's instagram shows a pile of sketches including a map, and a paper with the words "Beast Child" written [2], as well as pictures above her desk that seems to be a sketch of Barin and a list of plants.[3]
* The Spirian symbol seems to be a sort of floral, hare-like motif as shown on a sketch of Anomaly, it is also shown on Miramelle's forehead perhaps hinting at her past. [4]
* The book reads "For Gaara" Chelsea's rabbit.