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Set your story in a world where astrology and the movements of celestial bodies deeply impact the lives of inhabitants.

Posted in Fantasy on Apr 5, 2024

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✍️ 35 stories

Avraám & his Sons

Submitted to Contest #245

Note: A.E. (After-Event) refers to the new dating system in-universe. In the year 2012, a massive solar flare hit the Earth, sending the human race back into the Dark Ages. A Second Dark Ages. City of Athens, Greek Union of Cities August 17th, 2145 (133 A.E.) "Iakovos, please bring the feather and ink. Tonight's sky is clear, and we need to begin documenting the stars," ordered Avraám, the Star-Gazer of Athens, a respected role held in high regard by the Greek community. "Of course, Father," replied his son. "The Council and the King requi...

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Lux

Submitted to Contest #245

[Colony #A4829: LOG] The first thing you need to know about me is that I was born for this. It doesn’t look like much now, I’ll give you that. But it’s mine. I’ve fixed every glitch in every computer on this dusty heap of rock. I've trekked halfway across this asteroid and back every day to sweep the solar panels. I clean the pipes; I patch the airlocks- I nursed the biosphere back to health on my hands and knees when a fungal disease slipped through quarantine.  I was made for this world. So I’m not bailing now. I’m not. ...

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At Least There's No HOA

Submitted to Contest #245

The Edge always gave Rick the heebie-jeebies. He deactivated the till setting on his new Spyder Deluxe, silencing the low thrumming noise of jagged claws that had been working the ground below, then killed the engine. The machine’s legs stretched and the body lifted, raising Rick’s vantage and giving the impression that the Edge was creeping inward, encroaching on his land like weeds to wheat. In a few minutes, his neighbor’s property, now only a slow-moving speck hardly visible against the spackled backdrop of deep space, would swing close ...

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Hypellaen

Submitted to Contest #245

The star assigned to Naija at birth wasn’t a particularly special star. It wasn’t one of the brightest, or attached to a fancy constellation. Her life would’ve been so much easier if she had an in with the Orion or Andromeda crowds, of course. But still, she couldn’t help but love the distant dim light of Hypellaen, the star that granted her a gentle spirit and positive attitude. She did feel lucky she had a star she could see all year, and every night she made sure to take time to look out her window and thank that sweet, faint light as it ...

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The Weekly Eclipse

Submitted to Contest #245

April 8th, 2024. The day of the weekly solar eclipse. For Maria Sweet, the eclipse is just another day. Maria knows the rules: do go outside during the eclipse. Being outside during the eclipse is something no human in Holdover should do. The Goddess of Holdover has warned all the citizens about the consequences of being outside during the eclipse. Maria is 26 years old and works in the local hospital in Holdover. She must travel to the hospital before the eclipse to start her shift. However, due to her constant procrastination, Maria is run...

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The Dark Sister

Submitted to Contest #245

     Sarex stepped out into the balcony of the Governor's Palace and looked out over the city of Queenstown.  It was quite early, and usually, the streets were quiet, but the locals were making preparations for the upcoming eclipse.  To him, it was orbital mechanics: the Dark Sister passed in front of the Light Sister, blocking some or all of its light.  To the locals, it held a religious significance that he couldn't quite fathom.  Not that he went out of his way to get an explanation.  He d...

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Melvin's Full Moon

Submitted to Contest #245

Jay texted me a little after midnight asking if I still needed a j-o-b. I couldn't afford to be picky. The hour of the request left me questioning the legality of the work though and I wondered what my parole officer would think of this late night appeal. My stomach grumbled and as if on cue, Jay texts “I’ll get you McDonalds, bro,” and that settles it. “Where at?” A few minutes later, I'm in Grandma’s monkey-shit brown 1991 Chrysler New Yorker, her Homer Simpson keychain knocking my knee as the potholes on Dequindre test the shocks.  I...

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Hezna and the Darkening

Submitted to Contest #245

Kane’ Hezna shivered in the open doorway and sipped the strong, steaming zoombi. Her wrinkled, spotted hands held the warm drinking bowl close to her chest. Not even the oldest farmer in the Golden Marshes could remember such frigid sunrises this early in the harvest season. The change in weather concerned Hezna so much that she had taken to staying up late with her young daughter, Zenzi, teaching her to read the wisdom scrolls that were under Hezna’s care. She hoped that, perhaps, together, they could discover what might be happening.&...

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Zodiac City

Submitted to Contest #245

My name is a foreign stranger to my ears, a song from a far away memory whose melody has long been forgotten. Each syllable carves like a knife to my chest, pressing deeper until crimson blood beads at the place scarred flesh meets the harsh coolness of the blade. “Rowan Wilder.”Chancellor Cage repeats himself into the microphone and this time my feet step forward like a soldier to an order, body moving before my mind can beg to stop it. Around me, the Ecliptic Hall billows with the pellucid stained glasses of colour glinting in honeyed...

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The Reset

Submitted to Contest #245

The streets of our tiny kingdom were soaked in sunshine as people got ready for today. It was as if even the Sun got excited for what was happening next.The Reset was about to begin. Every thirty years, the world was drenched in darkness as the Sun decided who would lead our people for the next third of the century.Being only twenty-four years old, this would be my first time witnessing the Reset.I have heard that the Leader was a surprise to our kingdom time and time again at the beginning.But now, there has been talk that wise men could pr...

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Icknield Way

Submitted to Contest #245

Out and up into the hills, each footfall an affirmation. For the first five-odd miles the path cut a careful white line over the grassy slopes. Already the buzz of his thoughts quieted, and he started to lose himself in the swing and tramp of his feet on the chalky ground.Around mile six the path met a crossing of ways. The left turn ran down the hill to join a stream, which stumbled down the rocks into a river, the inrush of whose waters gathered pace in the lowlands below and poured itself distantly into the sea. He'd usually take the left...

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The Lost Tales of Anerudo: A Rogue Moon

Submitted to Contest #245

Anerudo is a small, round planet. Smaller, in fact, than our own that we call home. But she is far from alone. From the viewpoint of her sibling, Anerudo might be mistaken for a moon revolving around the larger of the pair, known as Hel, a giantess in her own right. Hel's gaseous visage resembles that of Jupiter, adorned with stunning clouds in hues of pink, red, orange, gold, and occasional purplish storms obscuring her countenance. Nevertheless, her severe climate, much like our own, gaseous giant, renders her environment inhospitable for ...

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The Hunt

Submitted to Contest #245

Joachim wove his way through the tangled forest brambles like a jungle cat, following the narrow game trail cut through the undergrowth. Overhead the Green Moon hung full, and lit his path with its lambent glow, casting dull shadows that made it difficult to tell real from illusion in the thick midnight, and reached out in an attempt to snare his hide-wrapped limbs. He had spent his entire life in this forest, and ones like it, learning how to track, to hunt, to walk silently in the fallen leaves. This was his domain, and he moved through ...

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Sir Fredrick's Discovery of the Damned Village

Submitted to Contest #245

I, Sir Fredrick son of Dal, knight of King John, Ruler of Edinbrough, do hereby solemnly swear by Mary and all the Saints that my testimony is the truth and nothing but the truth. If I should fabricate my account in any way, may the Good Lord Almighty strike the ground on which I stand.In the Year of Our Lord 1354, I, Sir Fredrick son of Dal, was ordered by King John, Ruler of Edinbrough to scout the lands in the West for enemy outposts and to report back by the end of the year. I traveled many months over hills and mountains, fields and mea...

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All the Fortunes Are Bad

Submitted to Contest #245

In the Night Market, you can find your future. Some nights, when the moon is full, fortune tellers will lay out their black blankets and their star-charts and they will call out to you or singsong the fortunes of babies born in this hour, at this time, on this day. And while the fortunes of infants were always sweet as chai, it seemed to me that my own fortunes got worse the older I became. When I was ten, I went to the Night Market on one of these occasions with my girlfriend, Atia. I call her my girlfriend, but the truth is that she was a ...

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