Tsarainese Literature

The Greater Ascendancy is home to most of the wide variety of genres and writing styles, of which there are several prominent variations deserving of note.

The Tsarainese Gothic novel was brought to prominence in the 1850s by an author named Kalir Ilkehausen. This was a generation after the final closing of the Rukine temples by the State; Ilkehausen was a member of the first generation to grow up without significant religious influence.

With the temples destroyed and the Rukine faith persistent only in rural regions, a profusion of religious sects and cults arose; most were at least partially based upon atheistic principles. Those that were not operated under a veil of secrecy and mysticism to protect themselves from the secret police.

This atmosphere of theological experimentation coupled with mistrust of organised religion produced a fertile climate for Ilkehausen's writing; his novels featured mad priests, ruined temples, strange cults, hereditary curses and beautiful women in large amounts, leading to what might be termed a "Gothic" movement among the Tsarainese intelligensia.

The Tsarainese Gothic movement is now firmly linked to Ilkehausen's novels, and experiences an upswelling whenever the genre becomes more popular; it is said that you can tell the popularity of the genre by counting the number of non-Ktrazirha wearing white in the corridors of Deep Tsarai (white is a funerary colour in Tsarainese culture, and features in most of Ilkhehausen's Gothic works).

The revedh vorestu ("illustrated novel") was either adopted or created (depending upon whom you ask) around a century later, in the 1950s, but is also linked to Ilkehausen; during his fading years the great author diverged into stranger, more experimental forms of novel.

Most of these never gained much popularity and remain of interest only to fans of the author, but one - a retelling of the Zand-i Vohuman Yasht, the Zoroastrian apocalypse myth - was further adapted by a later author.

It is commonly agreed that Arvasz Seirali originally intended to create an illustrated novel based upon Ilkehausen's retelling, but due to a strange quirk of economics and personal circumstance the text was reduced and the number of images increased, until what Seirali had was the precursor to an indigenous breed of graphic novel.

Seirali's illustrated version was sold in seperate chapters, illustrated in the linear, angular style of the graphic art of the period. The later chapters possessed more images than text, even to the extent of incorporating the text into the lithographic plates to save expense. Certainly he was aware of the Western comic-book, but to what extent and how much this influenced his work is still hotly debated by afficionados.

Despite this the serial novel was a large success - everyone was talking about it, even if a large segment of the population disliked it - and Seirali began work on a second novel based upon the Christian Book of Revelations and the Second Coming. Initial chapters of this book were similarly successful, but Seirali was killed in a train derailment halfway through production. The work was continued by other artists, but the quality of the later chapters were less well received and sold poorly.

Still, the revedh vorestu was established as a literary form, and other authors continued the genre, which inevitably revolved around the gods of foreign pantheons manipulating the lives of chosen mortal heroes (a direct copy from Ilkehausen's original novel). Even the religious sects and cults of Ilkehausen's time were adapted for the vorestu. Around fifty years later, when the artist-authors were running out of notable religious traditions, they began to make up their own - some of which even became minority religions in their own right. The Kamauret Oni, based around a scientist-demigod who kept the souls of notable heroes in bottles, still has a few adherents today.

The Obsidian Event removed most of the existing vorestu, along with four hundred and fifty million Tsarainese citizens, but for the survivors it was a chance to rewrite or reimagine the majority of the genre (one of the most notorious examples of which was the recasting of the Norse trickster-god Loki as a woman). The failure of negotiations for a collection of original vorestu in Kynarai nearly led to a diplomatic incident.

Today the revedh vorestu still commands a large following among Tsarainese youth, and it's authors are quick to pick up upon any newly-discovered or newly-created religious movement. Their shameless exploitation of religious belief may offend, but for millions of Tsarainese it also entertains.

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