Synopsis

A wild and original samurai fantasy epic rolled into an action adventure. This 7-part graphic novel series takes place on the planet Tyr, a world reeling from a series of global wars. While everyone tries to resurrect themselves from the ashes of war, civilization is again threatened by the terrifying expansion of the Horde, an army of hive-minded, cybernetic soldiers. Their lightening quick attacks have left Tyr on the verge of another global war. The Horde’s entire military complex is committed to capturing a young elf named Ardan Nasan, who is soon flushed out of his secluded forest hideaway. He is quickly trained by Master Dwarf in the ancient ways of the Samurai, but there isn’t enough time. After being left for dead, Keegan Wulfston, also an accomplished Samurai, saves Ardan and the two begin their epic journey of discovery as the world around them falters between hope and annihilation.

Step into a world of misunderstood elves, Rasta cyborg dwarfs, bounty hunters, alluring heroines, troubled heroes, pirates, and non-stop action. A place inhabited by strange machines and fantastic creatures, where natural powers and technology live side by side. Welcome to the world of Samurai Elf.

Guide to the Planet Tyr (backstory)

The first capital of Ursu, Castel (kas-tel) is a city founded on a hilltop overlooking the River Serpens. The Ursian flag, which was created in Castel, is a gold triangle with a garnet sun in the center representing the blood the freedom fighters shed during the Liberation Wars. It is still the finance capital of Ursu. Locals refer to Castel as the City of Liberty.

Founded over 500,000 years ago, Castel is located in the southern region of the independent Territories of Ursu, southwest of the modern capital of Tegovia. The temperature is mild most of the year, with a few weeks of blistering heat in the summer, during which time many residents close up shop and go on holiday. The population is 2 million, but with the constant flow of commuters and tourists, it can swell to 4.5 million on any given day. It’s full of charmingly narrow, winding streets that intertwine like a labyrinth. The common currency, like all independent countries in Tyr, is the passarius.

Besides its clear blue skies and three huge fortified walls, Castel is known for its windmills, both ancient and modern, from which most residents receive their power. Hydraulic turbines in the River Serpens supply the rest. Other ancient landmarks include four massive bridges that connect parts of the city separated by the River Serpens. Castel is also famous for its huge open market, El Rastro, where merchants from all over sell anything they can to savvy shoppers.

Castel has always been a magnate for artists, artisans and singers seeking inspiration, like the painter from Dendra, Jon Golez, who lived 700 years ago. His most famous piece “Castel in Summer” is an idealized version of Castel in a mythic past. Castel’s most celebrated singer/songwriter is Okamé, who is popular throughout Tyr.

Another notable citizen was Lon Strolem, a wealthy merchant who lived about 1000 years ago. He hired Chunik Deivenki, a brilliant inventor from Enan. He created Automons, self-sustaining mechanical humanoids, to act as historians and tour guides for the city. Deivenki also created various types of robots to clean and maintain the city. Many say that the Automon project was just a cover for a defense weapon since unlike other cities, Castel has never been touched by war since the time of Maddox. These rumors have never been confirmed or denied.

Below the bustling metropolis lie the ruins of an ancient past. Archeologists have excavated a myriad of layers, thousands of meters deep, to examine the city’s history; churches, cisterns, dungeons, tombs, sewer systems, clandestine hideouts, and harbors that have been lost for hundreds of thousands of years. Their work has revealed many technological marvels that allowed the construction of one city upon another, until we reach the modern incarnation of Castel.

The Old Harbor is buried deep below Maddox Square and can still be accessed by the few who know the hidden path through the ancient sewer system. They say that the ghost airships filled with their dead crews still dock there. Today, goods arrive at the new harbor via the Medityrnan Sea or by airship before being redistributed throughout all of Ursu.

History
The origins of Castel vary, depending on who you ask. An old Castelian legend tells of the great explorer, Round Ear the Great. Long ago, he set sail to find a new passage around Naasbeth, a massive rainforest, which was too dangerous to cross by land. He navigated around it to find a route to the eastern kingdoms and stopped in what is now southern Ursu. He took in the fresh air and climbed the modest mountain leading from the natural cove where he docked his ship. From the top he marveled at the plains that stretched endlessly into the horizon. He pitched his tent for the night and awoke to the sound of voices speaking in an unknown language. He left his tent to meet the inhabitants and noticed that they were round ears like him. In a short while, he was able to communicate with them. After some time, he sailed back to his country and began the fabled trade route between the nation of Sprikia and the aboriginal people of Ursu.

Archeologists and historians, on the other hand, have painstakingly excavated thousands of meters of architectural treasures that tell a different story. They concur that Castel was founded not by humans, but by elves. Hundreds of elvish ruins litter Ursu’s countryside, all of which predate the first human settlements. One epoch that is well documented is that of the Dark Elven Lord, King Corvus, known to history as the first Goblin Lord. Scholars say that Castel was originally constructed as a vacation retreat for Corvus.

King Corvus ruled over a unified elven empire. Soon after his death, the kingdom split in half with Dendra to the west and Orscurium to the east. The main reason for the bitter division was a difference in ideology over how Gyoh was being used amongst the Elven Royalist families. Dendra labeled the residents of Orscurium the Dark Elves for their misuse of Gyoh as a weapon of war and torture. Orscurium argued that King Corvus himself laid the foundation for this branch of Gyoh when he developed its use for the interrogation of enemies of the state. The Orscurium elite soon made cruelty a virtue. To be moved by compassion or love was seen as a spiritual weakness. Most of their victims were humans who lived in the outskirts of their kingdom and were considered dispensable since they were not elves.

The bloodiest chapter in the history of the Dark Elves came under the rule of Emperor Darian III. He escalated violence and oppression to levels never before imagined. Humans who lived in the territories that neighbored Ursu had no rights under elvish law; therefore, the elves could treat them any way they saw fit. They were enslaved en masse and forced into labor camps. It was not long before there were revolts, which were crushed by the Dark Elven armies. Soon Darian began looking outward. He knew no other kingdom could match his military might and his newly trained Gyohdai, masters of the new and perverse version of Gyoh. He was consumed with the desire to conquer the planet Tyr. The iron hand of Darian began to reach out and oppress more and more peoples as he conquered them with ease.

Darian sadistically enjoyed battle. The sights, smells and sounds of the blood drenched spectacle appealed to him. He fought alongside his men and surpassed them all as he fed his bloodlust. Generals often had to beg him to leave the battlefield so as not to endanger his life. His victories were so numerous that he soon took over half of Tyr, but the cost was an army stretched too thin, making it more difficult to suppress growing rebellions in the newly conquered lands. Darian next set his mind on conquering Arma and then his nemesis, the Dendra Kingdom, which he longed to destroy so he could once again unify the Elven Empire as it was under King Corvus.

Darian gathered those most skilled in the way of Gyoh into an elite group of warriors called the Gyohdai, or the wielders of Gyoh. They refined the teachings of Lakhota the Healer, the tenth Spark. Lakhota emphasized that it is an obligation, not a gift, to help all those who were sick or injured. The highly intelligent Gyohdai, who were the most sensitive to Gyoh, studied Lakhota’s Way of Healing in order control the healing Gyoh and harness the energy into a weapon. To do this, they needed an accelerator and found that a metal called yerro was perfect. It could absorb, reflect and amplify the Gyoh found in all elements, turning it into a natural tuner. The Gyohdai and their Tuners became the most devastating weapons ever created. The Tuners absorbed the Gyoh while the Gyohdai acted as conductors, allowing the energy to pass through them. Since the Tuners were better conductors, the energy passed from the Gyohdai and back into the Tuner, where it is amplified and then shot out, killing everything in its path. New weapons were created that could attach to the head, arm, hand, leg or torso. With much training, the Gyohdai could use the gearshift built into the Tuners to control the amount of energy released from the weapon.

The Dark Elves soon discovered that by taking Lakhota’s gentle discipline and morphing it into something grotesque, they began to change as well. The Gyohdai were disfigured by the Tuners. Even with their level of training, the healing force of Gyoh was too much for them to control. Smaller Tuners such as pendants and rings were created to help slow the disfiguration, but all who wielded them were quickly affected. These deformities were often passed down to their children. None of this stopped Emperor Darian and his quest for domination. When his scientists discovered that the more yerro a Gyohdai carried, the higher the amplification, Darian took more elves from his army and added them to the ranks of the original, elite group of Gyohdai. He then declared that new Tuners would be developed for the new recruits that were even bigger and more powerful. They ranged from gauntlets to full sets of armor that covered their entire bodies. But, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The new Gyohdai did not go through the same rigorous training and were less able to deal with the mental strain of being conductors for the Tuners. Some Gyohdai never removed their armor because their deformities were so horrid. Psychopathic mental disorders triggered by a dependence on the Tuners became commonplace. Most of the Gyohdai suffered from psychotic episodes of paranoia and/or sadistic behavior. They were Darian’s favorite weapon of choice since no one on Tyr could stop them. He went so far as to have a whole legion of Gyohdai that he called the Spear of Hunsu, Hunsu being the Tyrian God of War and Vengeance.

Darian and his Dark Elves gained extensive territory, but he overlooked two things. The growing rebellions in the conquered lands and an island state called Arma, the only independent nation with a representative form of government. In the past, Royalist empires tried to conquer Arma, but they failed to defeat its formidable citizen army. Now with the threat of Darian hanging over their heads, long time enemies became allies. Arma’s ambassadors secretly forged an alliance with Dendra (part of the elvish kingdom), Enan (the main dwarf kingdom), Aerius (a human kingdom) and a few other Royalist nations. Everyone was desperate to quash the threat from the Dark Elves, but they needed Arma’s military prowess. With the secret treaty signed, Arma capitalized on this opportunity to spread its political philosophy to areas that were feverishly working to overthrow Darian. They were receptive to Arma’s message of self government and away from the Royalists.

The main problem for the Allies was how to defeat the Gyohdai. The Elves of Dendra were forced to make a horrible decision. Although the use of Gyoh as a weapon had caused the division of the Elven Kingdom after King Corvus died, they now debated whether to sacrifice their ancient beliefs in order to stop Darius and his Dark Elves. After many heated discussions, the leaders of Dendra decided to sacrifice some of their Healers, masters in the teachings of Lakhota, in order to save Tyr from annihilation. The Healers had to learn how to use the Gyoh in the same manner as the Gyohdai. 24 Healers from Arma, Aerius, Enan and Dendra volunteered for the experiments and became known as the Lakhotai, or the Blessed Dammed.

Arma and Enan had been spying on the Gyohdai for some time. Operatives from Enan were even able to get hold of a Tuner. Scientists from the allied countries immediately began to study the weapon and discovered that the use of 100% yerro was highly unstable. Unlike Darius, they had no intention of sacrificing their Healers and found an acceptable way to mix yerro with other metals to create an alloy that was not quite as powerful, but was not nearly as unstable. 24 large Tuners were created and given to the Lakhotai. They were joined by a battalion of several thousand men. Soldiers who were sensitive to Gyoh were also trained by the Lakhotai and allowed to carry small amulet Tuners. Their strategy was to cut through Ursu, capture Castel and strangle the supply routes used by Darian’s thinly stretched forces. The man chosen to lead the mission was the great General Maddox.

Maddox Abhay Njall was born in a small town in northern Ursu, but soon after his birth Darian III took the throne. Maddox and his parents fled to Arma along with many other refugees. He grew up like any young person in Arma and excelled in the art of war, becoming a highly skilled Samurai. He had a natural sensitivity for the healing Gyoh, but did not focus on this line of study in order to fulfill his dream of freeing his homeland. He was often referred to as the 25th Lakhotai and was given a Tuner that was less powerful than those used by the volunteers.

When Maddox, the Lakhotai and the battalion crossed over Ursu’s border, they were plunged into battle and emerged victorious, freeing the locals who were enslaved wherever they went. The newly freed people were happy to take up arms and join Maddox’s push towards Castel. Onwards they continued, their ranks growing with each victory, until they reached the capital. The leader of the Dark Elves there was Darian’s daughter, Dyr the Heartless. She was renowned for her strategic brilliance and ruthlessness. The first year Maddox’s army only succeeded in laying siege to the city, during which time Dyr organized the completion of two additional defensive walls. The next two years brought a stalemate until Maddox formed a strategy to secretly infiltrate Dyr’s headquarters through the sewer system. Dyr was taken captive by Maddox himself and the Lakhotai swiftly took control of the city. He placed the Ursian flag atop the highest turret for all to see. From there he was said to have shouted, “By the blood of our sons and daughters, Castel is now free.” The battle for the rest of Ursu raged on for decades. Maddox’s struggle to free his homeland began when he left Arma at 40. At 80 he was still fighting to free the Glassian Kingdom, Darian’s last stronghold in Ursu, where he died in the Fields of the Fallen. It took another 20 years after Maddox’s death to finally strip Darian’s talons from Tyr’s throat. Arma and its allies would continue to challenge Orscurium and win back territory little by little. Some adopted a form of self-determining government, while others maintained their Royalist kingdoms.

Darian’s last stand came during a vicious battle that lasted for months on what is now called the Cursed Fields, near modern day Dhaboo. After his final defeat, the Orscurium Empire fell, marking the end of the Liberation Wars. The Dark Elves were promptly rounded up and tried for war crimes. A few managed to escape, but were eventually caught and enslaved, especially by the human populations who sought revenge for centuries of oppression.

With the fall of the Orscurium Empire, the deformity of the Dark Elves from lifelong exposure to the Tuners was uncovered for the world to see. They had become frightening monsters and from that time onward were called Goblins. King Corvus was labeled the first Goblin King since he was the first leader to use Gyoh as a weapon. The original Orscurium Kingdom was divided into 4 new countries: Flankium, Unuk, Izar and the Glassian Kingdom. The first three became independent countries, while the Glassian Kingdom replaced an elvish monarchy for a human one. They captured and enslaved many of the Dark Elves in retribution.

Once the Liberation Wars ended, allied scientists poured over the technology developed by the Dark Elves. After years of study, they concluded that the power of the Tuners both to kill and to deform the wielders was too great and posed a risk to the wellbeing of the entire planet. What they most feared was to witness the rise of another Darian III. The allies then suppressed the information and sealed it away. It was so well hidden that most people know very little about this period. The benefit of this research was great leaps in the advancement of technology. A casualty was the gentle philosophy of Lakhota’s healing Gyoh. The stigma from the Gyohdai and their perversion of his teachings made people fear Healers and associate them with the Goblins. Minor healing techniques are still practiced, but advanced healing was abandoned to the detriment of many on Tyr.

Some countries, like Enan and Dendra, slowly moved away from a Royalist government and towards a system similar to Arma. Eventually, more countries followed suit until Tyr was equally divided between Royalist and independent nations. Centuries later, it took a rogue nation to break the deadlock and begin the First Global War.