Welcome to the Akiniwazisaga Union!
An introduction to the Akiniwazisaga series by MD Boncher
Akiniwazisaga is pronounced “Ah-KEE-nih-WAH-zee-SAH-gah”
My very first foray into the world of publishing came with the publication of this book, “A Light Rises in a Dark World”, in 2017. It was supposed to be a trilogy and done, but this original book was too long and needed to be split but that meant I now needed a climax for the new first book.
I managed to get that all done and released this first book, but then my aunt read the book, loved it, and asked me “what happens to Brother Finn?”
I told her “he goes on into the sunset. The series is supposed to be following the boy Reimar.”
Her answer? “No!” quite emphatically. “You will tell me what happens to Finn!”
What could I do? I said “yes ma’am” and proceeded to plot out an entire different novel to become the next book 2, pushing out the other to book 3. Except the new book 2 didn’t want to conclude either and turned itself into a trilogy and so the original book 2 (formerly the second half of A Light Rises) is now going to be book 5….
The story is set in a fantastical alternate history of our world. This was predicated on the question, “How do I include literal Christianity into a fantasy setting, not a fantasy analogue? To resolve this, history flows as it did up to 1,000 AD or so when the Vikings began colonizing North America. I looked at maps from those times which just showed an empty western section labeled “here be monsters” which led me to think “what if there really WERE monsters there?”
Reimar was a character I had made for a game a long time ago, but he had stuck with me and over time, I fleshed out his background. The biggest challenge I faced was that I wanted to used real Christianity. But how do you fit real Christianity into a fantasy setting and make it feel like fantasy? I turned the problem over in my mind for years until I finally realized that the Bible did have a precedent I could use - the gifts of the Spirit. I just turned them up to “11”.
Armed now with a “magic system”, the world building took another turn. I am honestly not much of a fantasy fan. My love is science fiction. But this story as it was forming was fantasy. But I didn’t want it to be the typical fantasy, set in a mythical Europe with dragons and elves and fairies. No, others do that much better than I ever could, and I wanted something different. So I set the story in a mythical North America. The Kisiina Sea is vaguely equivalent to Hudson Bay, and the 7 lakes of the union are mythical versions of the Great Lakes of North America. I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan and knew the history and lore of these waters quite well which greatly enriched the world I was building.
Instead of using typical fantasy races, I chose to go with humans, angels, demons, and creatures from Native American myth, specifically from the northern tribes like the Ojibwae, and lumber jack tall tales.
My post-pagan Vikings then sail in through the Kisiina Sea and build settlements on the rich lands surrounding the lakes to the south. These lakes, however, are surrounded by ranges of dark mountains (picture the Appalachians stretching around south of Lake Michigan across Indiana and Illinois and going back north toward Canada by bisecting Wisconsin). However, they find that the native population, whom they call Skaerslingers, have long been enslaved to demonic powers who rebel against the arrival of Old World religion, kicking off a war between heaven and hell fought with human’s as their proxies. Demons and angels fighting a war amongst men.
The new settlers, however, are not left defenseless; they find themselves now empowered against this extreme threat by a new outpouring of gifts of the Spirit, performing miracles to push back the sorcery of the demonic forces aligned against them. They also miraculously discover steam power which gives them steamboats and trains.
A great climatic event not long after they arrive causes temperatures to drop, freezing over the Kisiina sea and trapping these new settlers in a bowl - frozen sea to the north; demon infested mountains to the west, east, and south. Unable to leave, they continued to build their defenses and manage to carve out their own kingdom on the shores and along the rivers of the lakes, building a society now growing in isolation from the rest of the world.
No one makes it back from the mountains; no one lives to cross the ice.
Wendigo howl from the woods.
Dark creatures stalk the hills
Demon queens stir the waters.
Zombie draugr stalk the living.
Will the Akiniwazi Union survive against such fearsome foes, especially when darkness begins to fester within?
Stay tuned until next week when I post the first chapter of “A Light Rises in a Dark World”!
Or if you don’t want to wait, visit my website to learn more and to purchase the first three books of the series, or Amazon if you’d prefer!