Presentation
The Crown of Dominion is a fantastic extensive entertaining adventurous epic novel having an extraordinarily elaborated backround, and taking place on the distant world of Erabon. Its author is a Hungarian writer, who wrote this artwork under pseudonym Robert Locksmith.
The novel's original Hungarian title (known as A holdsarló fénye) literally means "the light of the crescent moon". It is mysterious and stems from the author's quondam artistic inspiration, but unlike the English title it is not specifically connected to the content of the novel, except for the fact that the moon, the crescent moon or the mother moon often appear in the descriptions, sometimes even impersonated. The real power of the book is given by its gripping and fascinating story, diverse characters, profound message and unmatchedly detailed original background world elaborated and drawn to high standards by the author.
The author was working on the first version of the artwork for almost two years, and through another year of activity he prepared a compact disk (CD) presentation for it, but at the time this demonstrative material was intended only for the book's introduction. Besides, he created web pages as well, so the result of his artwork became online reachable and viewable, too.
One third part of the story, that is the first 37 chapters, was issued by the Nézőpontok Kiadó Kft. (literally: Viewpoints Publishing Ltd.) from the town of Eger, in 2007. During the following years the artwork went through a monumental reconstruction and revision, and finally, in 2018, its Hungarian version got published in electronic form, under the subtitle A teljes történet (literally: The complete tale). Now it is already reachable in most countries of the world.
This website is meant to present this original artwork.
Introduction
The epic novel titled The Crown of Dominion is about ethical values, friendship and camaraderie, dreams and visions, faith and consistent perseverance, being woven around an extremely dangerous, but at the same time exciting and adventurous journey, which the entrepreneurs took in the distant world of Erabon in order to acquire the powerful, supposedly lost relic known as the Crown of Dominion.
The world of Erabon is exceptionally rich in details. The author defined the astronomical position of the solar system and the planet; drew up Erabon's geography and living world (so its races, folks and nations, wildlife fauna and flora); appointed the government forms, systems, laws and hierarchy existing in the countries, with numerous related heraldic symbols. He presented the public life going on in the reigns, along with the related economy, currency, culture, as well as traditions and gastronomy; depicted various militaries and armed forces in high details, including uniform, armament, army corps and units; besides, the contemporary naval vessel types known by the navy and seafarers are also shown. The author presented the multitude of religions that evolved out of mysticism, together with the corresponding religious orders, and revealed profoundly the concept, the schools and the forms of magic, as well as introduced its capital users: the academic wizards. He repeatedly mentioned the contemporary sciences (herbalism, medicine, alchemy etc.) and their achievements, as well as he introduced the world's mining resource types (which are unknown to us in many occasions), thus its gems and ores, with the alloys and sometimes even magical artifacts prepared from them. From the writing we recognize the chronology differing here and there on the continent, and partly––through descriptions or dialogues––the historical events, personalities, moreover occasionally dynasties as well.
The capital thread of the plot takes up approximately eight months, that is a half-year long period in Robert Locksmith's world, according to the yonder chronology. The story starts up during the autumn of the year 922nd, in the twelfth month named Fildam or the "month of the Yellowing Meadows", and ends at the beginning of the spring, in the forthcoming year's third month named Breswa or the "month of the grass' Awakening Offshoot". However, the author sometimes steps out of this timeline or framework, lifting the curtain from other historical periods and eras.
The novel has no less than five main characters: a rogue (actually a thief-fighter), a wizardess, a fortune hunter (soldier of fortune), an archer woman and an adolescent apprentice thief. Each one of them has a detailed life story, sincere motivation and deep mentality; all this – as the similarities and differences between their personality traits – turn out gradually with the progress of the story.
Beside the main characters approximately one hundred more or less important characters enrich with their diverse activity the color palette of the events, therefore there are supporting helpers, but also insidious intrigue-weaving persons among them. The powerful, influential entities may occasionally even alter the course of previously planned actions or affairs.
The tale takes place in the regions of the continent known as the Old World, thus in three countries, furthermore on the Done Sea and in the area known sometime as Samswels Domain (or District), but in the time of the story it is the desolate, bleak Oblivion Desert. One of the Amuran Kingdom's cozy atmospheric Mediterranean cities is the first site, which opens up before us, and a rather pleasant, sunlit afternoon makes it memorable. Here encounter two childhood fellow sufferers (companions in distress) – the former pupils of the local orphanage –, the first protagonists entering the scene.
During the gradual unfoldment of the plot every now and then descriptions reveal some elements of the background world or the historical background of certain events. The reader gains insight through dialogues to the surface of characters' mentality; besides the protagonists' outlook on life, casually shown in an inner monologue or a description, disclose the quintessence of their real self. Most of the sites and concepts possess a unique name, which etymologically often derives from an expression of Latin, Greek, Japanese or an other language, but in other cases they emanate from the author's mere imagination.
Feedbacks from former readers of the novel related or pointed out the fact that the depiction of the characteristics is outstanding, the stages appear realistically, and the elaborateness of the scenes is exceptionally precise; often so highly that it is almost possible to see them, as in a movie.
Within this website's Background menu point, in the Background world submenu item, it is possible to read about the details of the world of Erabon. More information about the protagonists and other characters is accessible in the Characters submenu item.
Antecedents
Certain antecedents preceded the emergence of the book titled The Crown of Dominion and the world of Erabon.
The author embraced creative spirit already as a small child: he learned to read and write long before the beginning of the elementary school, was using building blocks and was drawing often, frequently even various maps in view of knowing the world atlas and countries. Later he was occupied with (railway and rocket) modeling and studying music, then recognized video games, and learned programming on the computer he got from his mother, so his realm of imagination gradually widened.
In his adolescent age his mind already possessed great imaginative conceptualizing power, which in those days he expressed in planning and programming computer games, in Basic and Assembler language(s). This period increased efficiently his creativity. Beside his high school studies actually only one work was finished completely, and mostly he was meditating on 2D strategic and simulation developments.
One day one of his open-minded classmates, Csipa Attila introduced him the concept of role play games. Thereafter his scope of activity expanded: following some less successful trials while taking the first steps, within a short time he laid down the firm foundations of the new fantasy world, and drew the first sketch of the map for it.
The remade, precise variant of this map appears before the Prologue of the newest, publishable (Hungarian) book titled The Crown of Dominion – The complete tale.
The existence of the world's fundaments and the drawn map made possible for the author to develop this world further. During the role play game sessions he and his contributing friends, namely dr. Tibor Budai, Zsolt Rózsa and Gábor Vígh spent in the time of their academic studies, in most occasions unnoted stories were born, however, the background world was increasingly delineated, took shape by getting more and more details, while it finally reached such a level that it was already possible to write about it. After one or two unfinished novel writing experiments and chronicle writing attempts, by obtaining the needed experience and required expertise the time came for the author to finally gather his thoughts, and write down the greatest creation of his life.
The birth of the book
The manuscript of the basic work was written from the beginning of 1999 by the end of 2001. The process included a lasting cessation of activity (pause) too, so finally the first version of the manuscript was born on the 12th of December, 2001.
During the summer of the next year the author read through the manuscript, then on September 16, 2002. the Artisjus Society registered the work.
In the next period the author made a small animated website; from 2005 by the beginning of 2006 he created a CD presentation related to the book, furthermore he designed a new animated website, and revised the manuscript of The Crown of Dominion for the first time, doing the fundamental necessary corrections. Following this, the publisher Nézőpontok Kiadó és Kereskedelmi Kft. (literally: Viewpoints Publishing and Commercial Ltd.) from the town of Eger showed interest in the work.
After reading, the publisher's employees found the manuscript fascinating, and the management decided that the work would be published with the author's consent. Due to its extent the novel was divided into three volumes, and the author gave a subtitle for every book. Each subtitle was also present as a chapter title, and was referring to the overall plot of the particular volume. The subtitles, namely:
- In the Shadow of the Empire
- In the Gate of Mystery
- The Great Secret.
On April 12, 2007., the opening day of the XIVth Budapest International Book Festival the publisher issued the first volume of the novel titled A holdsarló fénye (The Crown of Dominion); this volume has the subtitle A Birodalom árnyékában (literally: In the Shadow of the Empire) (ISBN: 978-963-87525-0-5).
The cover of the old volume – created by Csilla Juhász
Photos about the XIVth Budapest International Book Festival
The first volume, beside the prologue, contains a map, 37 chapters and a glossary.
For the issued book the author built up a fully animated web site, which was possible to visit on the internet address www.aholdsarlofenye.com until March 2009. Thereafter the domain unintentionally – on the one hand due to the internet service provider's omission, and on the other hand because of its relatively high Google Page Rank – got into Russian hands, and later into Japanese ownership, whilst the author made reachable the content of the web page on one and later on another address until the beginning of 2014. At this moment it can be observed in our archive.
The book did not get into the media's attention; it received some spotlight merely in an article of a weekly newspaper and a television interview. These are presented in the Media submenu item.
Shortly after the process of publishing the author wrote about his feelings related to the book. Although all the time from the very beginning he considered the work as a uniform whole, in this train of thoughts – probably because of the course of the publishing process – he also mentions a trilogy and three parts. His post is readable (in Hungarian) on the web page of Ahogyérzed or here.
Issuing the remaining two volumes within a short time period was present in the publisher's plans; nevertheless, the publishing was held off from some kind of reason. The author had personal loss in March 2009, and the publisher bankrupted in 2012. In this year the author created the first volume's Facebook community page.
The rebirth of the book
Complete revision
Between the June of 2013 and July of 2015 the author revised the story of The Crown of Dominion also for the second time, and finally, focusing on the unity of the epic novel he gave it the subtitle The complete tale. Ms Eszter Nagy also took a considerable role tn the editorial tasks.
Occasionally occurrent spelling and grammar errors, linguistical and styling mistakes were corrected; certain events and details were specified and accurately fixed; some dialogues were renewed; the background world and the glossary of concepts got expanded enormously; the places of numerous paragraphs were changed etc. An Appendix conceivable even as a separate volume or an independent book, furthermore an Index referring to the glossary got place in the end of the newly edited work. In his blog, under the entry titled Miért dolgoztam át A holdsarló fényét? (Why did I make the reedition of The Crown of Dominion?) the author gave an explanatory account of the details and reasons of his activity.
In 2016, due to receiving a job in a foreigh country, the author left his home, and was able to attend to his artwork only partially and periodically. Thus he performed the final refinements on the manuscript.
He returned home in 2017, and was drawing maps for the book through approximately 4 months. During this time Eszter made graphic illustrations for the Appendix. So by getting to its utmost stage the new book already contains totally seven maps and 21 drawings too. The maps can be seen right off in the Maps submenu item, while some of the graphic illustrations are shown in the Graphics submenu item.
Finally the author did the complete prepress (printing preparation) tasks, and created the cover of the book.
The artwork got materialized in its completeness.
The work was also converted into electronic format. The finished e-book was published on the 25th of July, 2018., and now it is reachable in most major significant web stores of the world.
We wrote in details about the newly created book in the next menu point titled Book.
Robert Locksmith