A Song for Eldaru

By Joshua Elzner

Bearing questions in their hearts, the five companions continue their journey with pain and sorrow behind them and hope ahead of them. But with every passing day the land of Telmerion continues to spiral into chaos and strife. They seek answers, answers ancient and forgotten, in the only place that they know to look, but will these answers be enough to confront the ever more tangible darkness and otherworldly violence that descends upon their people? Or shall the secrets that are revealed prove to be a greater burden even than the questions? Or rather shall they truly be a light in darkness, a hope in despair, that can carry and lead them even when they return anew to the conflict to which their hearts are inexorably being drawn, even unto the final confrontation in which the fate of their world shall be decided?

Lightborn is the centerpiece of the Dawnbringer series of novels set in the world of Ir ndiel, upon the small continent of Telm rion, cold and rugged and yet inhabited since the beginning of human history by the first family of humankind. Though the setting is high fantasy-a work of co-creative imagination fashioning a mythical world with its own history and geography-the plot and the ins-and-outs of the world are deeply realistic, portraying as it were an ancient and long-forgotten past of our own world. Or more precisely, what is offered here is a mythical exposition of the true past that we all share-with very little magic or other fantasy tropes, but with a great deal of "magic," in other words, a world filled with wonders and terrors of all kinds, from the ancient guardians of the world, the Ana on, to vicious and deadly beasts such as dragons, e tenga, and vru' dach. The characters thus find themselves caught in the cosmic battle between light and darkness, between the weakness of love and the power of hate, which casts its rays and its shadows also into the heart of every man and woman. The journey marked out before their feet calls for integrity, fidelity, and heroism, and also something more, something that lies at the heart of every good adventure and every life, and which is the very measure of man.

Throughout time myth has been one of the fundamental activities of the human heart as it seeks to contemplate and understand the mystery of reality, to find a path through the fabric of history as its tapestry is ever woven, a path that unveils meaning in the enigmas of life and gives sense and stability to the drama of existence. But especially, the activity of myth, of fantasy, is born of a primal wonder before the awesome miracle of being, and of the fundamental human activity which is play, and serves to keep this wonder and play alive always. In precisely this way it has been, and shall always be, a catalyst to enkindle and deepen the longing in the heart of each one of us for redemption-for a new and better world, a world where righteousness and happiness dwell, and all is freedom and purpose, unity and harmony, ecstatic delight and true adventure.

Such does Dawnbringer humbly seek, stepping into the flowing current of thought and imagination as it surges on through history, offering, in a narrative of proportions both intimate and epic, a glimpse of the light that shines upon us all, and of the conflict that resides at the center of every life, that the weak again may be strong and the child again may be king.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CTCDDG23
• ISBN13: 9798877431645
• Release Date: January 2024
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"