Kingdom Building Story

This is story drafted from my love of nation building stories where someone gathers capable allies and creates a nation from the ground up. I think I'll repurpose characters and settings from previous drafts in order to better suit the writing.

The central character is Cepheus Kent, illegitimate heir to the Kent family. However, the time the story takes place is several years after a war that has destroyed Cerivane, a once rich and powerful citadel. Ceph works as a slave to Serdun, foreman of a mining community. Cepheus has lost his memories and is considered another orphan of the war, currently in his teens, and taken advantage of by such communities for labor in exchange for housing and food. He works alongside several other orphans of the war, Lucian, Xander, and Briston. Though Ceph has only fragmented dreams and broken memories of being the illegitimate heir to the Kent family, having been raised separately due to his mother's status as a commoner, he retains teachings his father had instructed him including reading, writing, and knowledge of the Kent family craft.

The Kent family lineage is denoted by their carmine hair. Their industry is crafted from earth minerals and what flames they produce when ignited. However, carmine hair sometimes only appears when the Kent lineage reach adulthood. By comparison, Ceph currently has straw colored hair making any physical connection by appearance impossible to recognize. In addition, the Kent family has been thought to have been wiped out in the war and Cerivane's fall.

Ravignye Varus of the Varus family visits the mining front, one of the main donors and patrons. He brings along his daughter, Serifva, for the trip as he is stopping by on his way to Aladine, a fragment city built from prominent survivors of Cerivane. Lucian stumbles across a book Serifva left behind by accident. Surprising the other workers, Ceph learns he can read and begins teaching the others. This carries on for several weeks until Serdun catches him. Rather than punishing him, Serdun affirms that Ceph also knows arithmetic and promotes him into being a useful assistant to help keep track of progress, something that was lacking when Ravignye had visited.

With his newfound power, Ceph improves conditions across the mining community having worked in the shafts first hand.

In a joint venture with another mining front, Cepheus prevents a disastrous collapse that would have been caused by a reaction found in the earth with his Kent education.