Andrew Rowe - On the Shoulders of Titans

This book is dedicated to every person who has had to livein fear of persecution due to their sexual preferences, gender identity,ethnicity, disabilities, religion, or any other element of who they are.

This is also dedicated to anyone who has suffered becauseof their lack of characteristics that others have tried to impose uponthem, such as sexual preferences, gender, or religious beliefs.

The map above shows the continent of Kaldwyn, where this novel takesplace. It is divided into four major nations Valia, Edria, Caelford,and Dalenos. Each major nation has one or more of the Soaring Spires;these are also shown on the map.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic took place entirely within the nation ofValia.

The Serpent Spire and Lorian Heights Academy are both located inBeaufort, in the eastern nation of the nation of Valia.

Corins home is located in Hathridge, a city south of Beaufort.

On this continent, no one is born with magical abilities. Instead, whenhumans reach a certain age which varies from nation to nation theyre eligible to visit their local Soaring Spire for somethingcalled a Judgment.

The spires are huge towers filled with monsters and treasure. Theyrealso basically giant death traps. Their goddess must have a sick senseof humor.

That seems to be an unfortunate trend among the gods Ive encountered ingeneral.

Yeah, so, survive a Judgment and you get an attunement. Attunementsare marks, seemingly similar to the dominion marks from back home, morecomplex. I have some theories on how they work, but Ill get into thatlater.

You dont get to pick which attunement you get after you finish yourJudgment, as far as I can tell. And the place the attunement shows up onyour body impacts how your magic works. It seems like people can trainto work around that, but the location of the mark determines what iseasiest for you.

These are the attunements for the kingdom of Valia, where Im visitingsoon.

Diviner: Standard information gathering attunement. They can alsomake memory crystals and store memories inside.

Mana Types: Mental (Primary), Enhancement (Secondary)

Guardian: Guardians are capable of focusing mana into specific partsof their bodies, imparting vastly enhanced physical combat capabilities.Also capable of discharging their mana through contact, enabling them toharm creatures impervious to conventional force.

Mana Types: Enhancement (Primary), Life (Secondary)

Elementalist: Ranged combat experts with fire, air, and lightningmagic.

Mana Types: Fire (Primary), Air (Secondary)

Enchanter: Capable of imbuing items with permanent enchantments,similar to Dominion Marks back at home. Its strange to see so manyitems with runes around here.

Mana Types: Transference (Primary), Mental (Secondary)

Mender: Healers. Enough said.

Mana Types: Life (Primary), Earth (Secondary)

Shadow: Concealment specialists. They can also use shadow magic tosuppress other forms of magic, and have some physical enhancements.

Mana Types: Umbral (Primary), Enhancement (Secondary)

Shaper: Able to conjure and manipulate mana constructs, includingsimulacra. Extremely flexible. Reportedly excellent duelists.

Mana Types: Earth (Primary), Enhancement (Secondary)

Summoner: Form contracts with monsters to exchange their own manafor some of the monsters power, similar to Soulblades up in Dalenos.Id love to learn more about how these work.

Mana Types: Air (Primary), Transference (Secondary)

Attunements get stronger as you use them. As your attunement getsstronger, the color of your aura changes.

Locally, they refer to attunement levels by gemstone names. Some of theother nations use other styles.

The colors of their auras follow the color of the rainbow.

They are as follows:

Quartz: Clear aura. This is the level where people start when theyfirst get an attunement.

Carnelian: Red aura. At this point, people develop an aura thatprotects them from attacks called a shroud. Sounds useful. Wish I hadone.

Sunstone: Orange aura. At this level, generally learn to manipulatetheir shroud, including suppressing their attunement abilities to avoiddetection.

Citrine: Yellow aura. I always get this confused with Carnelian. Atthis level, they gain access to another type of magic.

Emerald: Green aura. This level supposedly lets them manipulateambient mana.

Sapphire: Blue aura. They claim these dont actually exist, but Impretty sure they do.

Notably, some of the attunements dont give out abilities in exactly thesame sequence. For example, Guardians get their shroud immediately atQuartz, and Ive seen some attunements that can suppress their shroudsas soon as they get one.

Ill write down more notes when Im done with this visit. I have afeeling its going to be a long one.

Okay, Keras.

In case you dont remember me, Im Corin Cadence. We never really wereproperly introduced. Im a student at Lorian Heights Academy right now,but we met a little before that.

I suppose thats a good place to start.

Im sure you remember being in that weird crystal prison.

Well, when I found you, I was supposed to be taking my Judgment. Thatsa test that someone can take when they come of age in Valia, assumingthey can afford the entrance fee.

There were two main reasons I wanted to take a Judgment.

One, because surviving one means you get an attunement. Each attunementcomes with magical powers. And everyone wants magical powers, right?Right.

The other reason is a bit more personal. My brother, Tristan,disappeared when he took his Judgment five years ago.

Everyone told me that meant that Tristan was dead. I wasnt convincedthat was the only possibility. But even if he was dead, I also knew thatif I managed to get strong enough to climb all the way to the top of thespire, I could ask the goddess for a boon. Bringing my brother back tolife seemed like a reasonable thing to ask for.

Of course, climbing all the way to the top of the spire would be muchharder than just finishing a Judgment, but I needed to start somewhere.

Our local Judgments are held inside the Serpent Spire, one of the sixSoaring Spires. I assume you went in through the Climbers Gate, whichis a different entrance meant for groups of veterans who are trying toclimb to the top of the spire.

Yeah, thought so.

Anyway, I found a book early on in the test. Trials of Judgment.

When I opened said book, it started to give me advice. No, not verbally.That would have been even stranger, but possibly more hilarious.

Text started to appear on the pages. It wrote me helpful commentsabout each of the rooms I was going through, like, This is the Room ofEternal Death. Its like the Room of Normal Death, but somewhat morerepetitive.

That sort of thing.

For reasons beyond my recollection, I followed some of the booksadvice. And I found a secret passage.

That led me to your prison.

You and two others Echion and Vera were in different jail cells. Atthe time, I didnt know if that was a part of the test or if it wasreal.