Roselight Outline: Part 1

I've got a lot of notes I've written on the general storyline for Roselight. So far they've only been maintained as a vague bulleted list, but I think a good exercise will be to convert this to prose. This isn't like proper written novel format, but will help organize my thoughts better, while introducing you, my dear blogreaders, to the story. So here goes!

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Noira comes from a Sefones family who’ve been sustaining themselves on a small farm for generations. Small, family farms like these are starting to be outcompeted by growing industry; unsustainable practices mean creeping desertification further threatens smaller farms that can’t afford to repair and maintain the land. Noira’s family’s future is uncertain; her mother Telma presses her to follow her own path and pursue a career to support herself, to escape the worsening situation on pr’Sefone. Noira has many younger siblings, who are needed to help keep the farm alive. Although Telma hopes to help them all succeed, the proverbial eggs are sort of in Noira’s basket.

Noira learned some mechanical work from maintaining farm equipment. She got her first job beyond farming at Wollstone Air Freight, the operator of pr’Sefone’s ubiquitous airship lines, shipping passengers and cargo simultaneously across the plains. She deliberately shied away from working for the big industrial farming corporations, since they directly threaten her family’s livelihood.

Eventually, Noira’s connections at Wollstone landed her a more promising position working for Arcturus Meridian: a joint venture between Arcturus Steel and Mineral Company (ASMC), the preeminent mining corporation on Orus, and Grand Ark Aeromarine, the manufacturer of enormous airborne ground effect cargo ships. Leaving home was difficult, but she’s found her work enjoyable and made something of a home aboard the bulk cargo carrier Ark Royal. She’s been working this job for some time now, having participated in several week-length voyages servicing open-cast mines across the planet.

The main line of the story picks up when Noira visits home on pr’Sefone between voyages aboard Ark Royal. We see vast farms cultivating hardy crops which are, in a fantasy sort of way, vaguely recognizable but rather distinct from what we’re familiar with on Earth (the idea being they’re genetically engineered for the environment and output). Much of the world consists of small homesteads linked by long roads, although aerostat travel is common, creating a role similar to earthly sailing ships for transporting goods. However, those enormous corporations are carving roads and rails into the landscape, wearing out the soil and subjecting the world to ever-worsening dust storms. This only furthers the struggle of small farms which can’t afford to fight through the difficult conditions.

Noira spends time at home with her mother and siblings, admiring/envying the simple joy and purpose with which they work the farm. She has a conversation with her mother about how she struggles with a sense of belonging; she doesn’t have much in the way of “family” on Orus, and feels very lonely a lot of the time. These ideas of family and belonging will be major themes throughout the rest of the story…

As a keepsake to help remind her of home, Telma gifts Noira the old wooden kalimba on which she used to play lullabies for her daughter. She also gives Noira an heirloom —  a small, beautiful moon-shaped necklace, carrying a relic gemstone from the old world…