[WORLD PRIMER]
For new readers of Sovereign of the Deep.
▪️The World of Solmaris
Welcome to Solmaris—a technologically advanced yet spiritually fractured world where glass towers rise over crumbling districts and ancient powers still echo through the blood of a chosen few.
The story begins in one of Solmaris' most developed nations: Virelia. Yet even here, inequality runs deep-its 14 districts divided by wealth, power, and silence.
District 1: Reserved for nobles, elites, and the powerful-clean, ordered, and near utopian.
District 14: A decaying slum forgotten by governance-plagued by violence, broken infrastructure, and rampant desperation.
▪️Currency: Vey
Across Virelia, and a small part of Solmaris, currency is measured in Vey.
▪️The Viran
Some individuals are born with an invisible tether to one of the five core elements:
Water • Air • Earth • Fire • Darkness
These people are called Viran.
Once a Viran begins to cultivate their connection, their powers crystallize into a derivative—a unique expression of their affinity. Two Virans may share the same derivative. However, a single Viran cannot possess two derivatives.
▪️Derivatives
A derivative is how a Viran's power manifests.
Think of it as an elemental fingerprint.
It's shaped by the Viran's core element, personality, emotional disposition, and spiritual resonance.
▪️ The Affliction
Every Viran is cursed.
Each core element inflicts a unique affliction upon the bearer-not as punishment, but as a side effect of resonance.
The affliction is both physical and emotional.
▪️Power System
Viran do not awaken as gods. Their path is long. Painful. Often fatal. In this world, the stages of power are known by title, and ascending through them is rare revered, and feared.
Power Stages:
.Initiate
.Shaper
.Forger
.Veinborn
.Kyrios
.Hagios
.God (or something worse)
There are certain requirements Virans need to meet in order to advance to the next stage of power.
Ranks:Every stage beyond Initiate is ranked:
D → C → B → A → S → SS
Two Shapers may be worlds apart in strength based on rank alone.
Resonant State:
When a Viran absorbs enough Vira to achieve deep resonance with their elemental affinity, they enter a trance-like condition called the Resonant State.
In this state, their consciousness is drawn into the inner space of their element—a realm shaped by emotion, memory, and elemental presence. It is here that they may receive a Whisper.
Whispers:
A Whisper is the element's way of speaking—not through words, but through runes, sensations, and visions.
Whispers are unique to each Viran and often open to interpretation. The same Whisper may appear to multiple individuals, but its meaning—and the technique it produces—can vary entirely depending on the user's mindset, emotions, and creativity.
When a Viran awakens from the Resonant State, they carry a seed of that Whisper—a fragment of potential. But to manifest it into a true technique, they must interpret, train, and refine it through focused practice and emotional clarity.
Only mid-tier and high-tier Resonant Arts are received through Whispers.
These cannot be taught, copied, or inherited—they must be drawn from the element itself.
Resonant Arts:
Resonant Arts are elemental techniques unique to each Viran through their derivative.
They are divided into two origins:
🌀 Whisper-born Resonant Arts:
Mid and high-tier techniques received during a Resonant State. Their power depends on the depth of interpretation.
🛠 Crafted Resonant Arts:
Low-tier techniques earned through repetition, elemental training, and technical study. These do not require a Whisper and can be learned or shared among Virans.
No two Whisper-born Arts are ever exactly alike.
The same vision can produce wildly different techniques—because in the end, it is not just what the Viran sees… but how they understand it.
The Whisper Script:
The Whisper Script is a mystical grid or flowing stream of runes that only appears within a Resonant State. Each new technique is burned into the script upon successful interpretation, marking the Viran's growth in elemental communion.
Over time, the runes begin to glow with distinct hues based on the tier of the Resonant Art:
🟤 Bronze-tier – Common techniques. Often crafted rather than whispered. Glow with a dull amber or copper hue. In most cases, rather than displaying the name of a technique, the stage of the Viran (e.g., Shaper, Forger) may appear in the Whisper Script, as crafting a set number of common techniques is a known requirement for advancing to the next stage.
⚪ Silver-tier – Mid-tier Whisper-born techniques. Shimmer with pale light, shifting like mercury.
🟡 Gold-tier – Rare, high-tier techniques forged from deep resonance. Glow with radiant gold or auric flame, often pulsing with life. Gold-tier arts are rare and often mark a turning point in a Viran's path or legend.
Paths:
A Path is the soul's instinctive interpretation of its resonance with Vira. While your Core Element gives you a domain, and your Derivative refines it, the Path is what unlocks its true potential.
Revealed the moment a Viran enters a Resonant State and sees their Whisper Script, a Path guides the form, style, and evolution of their techniques—how their soul chooses to fight.
Some Paths manifest as objects, animals, deities or even abstracts. Others are far stranger.
To know your Path is to understand the deepest shape of your power—and what lies waiting beneath it.
——
Each stage represents a deeper resonance with Vira, and a greater toll taken by one's affliction.
The power system leans toward cultivation. Techniques are developed by the Viran themselves and are powered by their reserves of Vira.
▪️Main Character Spotlight: Ren
Age 17 (Current age.)
Country of Origin: Virelia
Ren doesn't talk much. Doesn't cry either.
He's quiet. Composed. A little too composed for someone who's lost everything.
But that's just how it is when you're born with the kind of affliction that clings to water-bound Virans—an invisible weight that drains not just your body, but your emotions too. Some days, it feels like he's watching the world from underwater. Distant. Muted.
Still, Ren's never used it as an excuse.
He doesn't have time for self-pity. Not when he's the only one left to protect the person who matters most—his little sister. Not when he's barely survived a disaster that wiped out an entire city.
He didn't even know he was a Viran until the sky bled and the world cracked open.
Didn't know what he was… what he could become.
But once he learned the truth, he didn't run from it. He faced it head-on.
Ren works harder than anyone—pushing through the pain, through the thirst, through the quiet ache of being different. He trains. Studies. Fights. Falls. And then does it all again.
Because he's not just trying to survive anymore.
He's trying to become someone strong enough to protect his domain—whatever that means, whatever it takes.
He may not say much. But Ren's the kind of person who keeps moving forward, even when it hurts.
Especially when it hurts.
▪️Key Terms
Vira – Elemental energy drawn from the world, used to fuel a Viran's abilities.
Vessel – The inner construct where Vira is stored, refined, and circulated within a Viran.
Dominion Technique – A powerful ability that projects a field or environment shaped by a Viran's will and derivative.
VHQ - Viran headquarters. This is the Viran body that governs all Viran activities. There are divisions for almost everything.
Aberrants- are beings with corrupted Vira—but they are not Virans.
They may be:
Humans whose bodies were overwhelmed by raw or unstable Vira,
Creations that have broken away from their masters or were never bound to one,
Or entities exposed to unstable Domains, where Vira flows chaotically and without order.
Ghosts - are criminal Virans who operate outside the law.
They fall into two specific categories:
Unregistered Virans who use their powers illegally
– These are individuals who never registered with the Viran Headquarters (VHQ), but actively commit crimes using their abilities — including assault, murder, smuggling, or forbidden technique use.
Registered Virans who have been declared "Null"
– These were once official VHQ-listed Virans but committed major crimes (e.g. treason, mass killing, Domain abuse) and were stripped of all rights and records. Now fugitives, they live in hiding to avoid execution or capture.
Null - is the absolute sentence of annihilation issued by the Null Judges.
To be declared Null means:
You will be executed.
Your organization will be dismantled.
Your family—if any—will be hunted and destroyed.
This is not exile. It is erasure. A declaration of total unworthiness to exist within the world's Viran structure.
Null Judges - are a secretive and elite group of Virans within the Division of Execution and Sanction—an enforcement arm of the Viran Authority tasked with delivering the highest form of judgment.
They are the ones who declare a person Null—a sentence of total erasure.
▪️A Note on Tone
This is a dark novel.
You may not feel the weight immediately— some early chapters ease you in, breathing light into the lives of the characters. But soon, the weight settles.
The story explores grief, trauma, violence, and existential horror.
There will be gore. There will be moments that make you pause. This is not a story of heroes in shining armor—it is a tale of broken people dragging themselves through blood, memory, and the cold shape of power.
Viewer discretion is advised.
This novel is a revised and expanded version of my earlier work, crafted to bring you a richer story and more immersive experience.