I’ve added a new chapter today to ‘Through the Night Gardens’. Please let me know of any problems, should you come across any when trying to read the page.
Here’s a direct link to the new chapter. 2. Deepmoss Pile
And here’s a link to chapter one: 1. The House on the Red Cliffs
Meretrice Bilander, a planarist by profession, moves to an isolated corner of the world in order to further her experiments in creating new lifeforms, drawn from different elemental planes. She becomes intrigued by Jeriko Rayce, a man who lives nearby, in particular by the unusual – and certainly unearthly – violet flower he grows in his house: a plant whose scent is a song, whose bloom is the sound of sadness. Meretrice discovers that no one can get near Rayce, not even the shamaness whose domain lies below the red cliffs. Wards of repulsion protect him. Together, she and Catty – the shamaness – seek to penetrate the mystery of Rayce, discover why his house can’t be approached and for what reason he has the violet flower. Then one night, reality cracks and Meretrice discovers Rayce’s house can at last be reached. She and Catty unearth some of Rayce’s secrets, which sets them on a journey to knowledge that is at once both folly and irresistible. They are invited to follow a trail, either to oblivion or salvation, through the Night Gardens, other realms of existence, led by the bewitching scent of the violet flower that might be balm or poison…
‘Through the Night Gardens’ is a transmedia project by fantasy writer, Storm Constantine. Using landscape building features from the MMORGP Rift to create scenes from the story, this project brings a new dimension to story-telling. An audio book and accompanying videos are also being planned, with the chapters of the story eventually being published as a full length novel in printed form and eBook.
The chapters of the story will appear as ‘episodes’, and each will have an accompanying landscape, which can be viewed and explored in Rift (which is free to play). Or the story may simply be read on the blog, where screenshots of the landscapes will be included.
The first chapter, ‘The House on the Red Cliffs’, was published on 21st December 2015, with subsequent chapters to follow on roughly a monthly basis.
The Introduction section describes Storm’s aims and inspirations with this project. Links to this, the story itself, plus instructions on how to view the landscapes in Rift, are given below, or can be navigated to using the buttons at the head of this page.
Through the Night Gardens 