Demon Eater
This story is set post apocalypse in Ireland. The world has been overrun with demons and Ireland stands as the last bastion of true humanity. Problem with fighting demons is that you can't kill them. Sure, you can kill the host body they possess, but they just go back to hell, regain their strength, and then come back. But, there is hope. On a group of small islands off the coast of Ireland live the Daemon Ith, the Demon Eaters. These people actually cage the demonic spirits inside their own bodies, using centuries of training passed down through their clan and tremendous will power to keep the demons under control.
The story focuses on two people. Liam, a soldier knight in the Irish army, and Niamh, a young woman from the clan of the Daemon Ith. I have some good ideas of where I want the story to go, even with ideas for a second and third story, I just can't seem to figure out how to end the first one.
The Soul Thief
Chris is your typical American living abroad in Ireland (Ireland is kind of a recurring thing in a lot of my stories, I use a lot of their mythology in my writing). He is going to school, has met a great girl, and is about to enter a world previously unknown to him. I can't go into too much detail without really spoiling the story. It is a modern fantasy with heavy themes taken from Celtic and British mythology. Chris has an unknown lineage (I know, cliche) that thrusts him into the world of the Faye. The main quest, for lack of a better term, is that someone has been stealing souls from people because humans don't deserve them. In my mythological world the Faye are actually fallen angels, in a manner of speaking. When the war in heaven was fought there were the angels that stood with God, those that rose up with Lucifer, and there was a third group that didn't choose sides. When God and his angels won, that third group was cast out just like the demons were, but they kept much of their angelic appearance, becoming the Sidhe. So, jealous of the gifts God bestowed upon man, someone decides to take them back.
Hash
Another modern fantasy, this one with monsters like vampires and werewolves. Hash is just your ordinary monster hunter. Well, except he can't die. Hash is really old, about 2000 years old. He made a mistake back in about 33 AD and has been paying for it ever since. Hash is actually Ahashver, the wandering Jew from Christian myth. He mocked Jesus while he on his way to the crucifixion and has been cursed to roam the earth until the second coming (yep, I have a lot of underlying religious themes too, but my stories are not a bunch of super right wing dogma, most characters are rebellious to the church). Hash has picked up some interesting friends along the way, an outcast Faye, the former thrall to a vampire, a half demon boy, and as renegade priest. This actually one of my oldest story ideas, and now the modern monster hunter story has been so done, Anita Blake, Harry Dresden, etc. I like the concept, but this is also my least fleshed out story, despite its age.
Mistrunner
Another story with deep roots in mythology, and also another kind of post apocalyptic story. This story is actually set in the same universe as Demon Eater, just hundreds of years later. Baerd lived during the time shortly after the events of Demon Eater. He witnesses what is known as the Reckoning, when our world and the world of the Faye were thrust together. Normally, the world of the Faye occupies the same space as our world, just separated by magic. When that magic is removed, the two worlds are violently smashed into each other with incredible destruction. Baerd survives by being placed into a magical state of suspended animation, waking up to a completely different world than the one he left. The ancestors of what was the human race and the Faye have fought many wars over who was to blame for the reckoning, and as Baerd awakes the sabers are being rattled once again. He needs to work to stop a war, but is it too late.
This story owes its origins to a home brew role playing game I started developed about 20 years ago. This is the one that I managed to get up to 190 pages before letting it slip. I love the world, but again, it started great and then I found myself without an ending.
Priest 989
Set in the far future, the Church has faced a serious shortage of those willing to take the cloth. With humanity stretched out to a thousand worlds across the known universe, bodies are needed to spread the word. So, the Church decides to make new priests to fill the gap. Cloning is specifically outlawed, so they decide to use existing people to make new priests. Using mind wipe technology they decided to take violent criminals, wipe their minds clean, and "reprogram" them as priests. But what happens when one of them begins to remember his past. Priest 989 faces a struggle as he tries to come to terms with his new life of peace and the violent past he never knew he had.
This story I originally came up with as an idea for a comic. But, I am no artist, and as I began fleshing it out I could see it working as a short novel.
So there we have it, I have narrowed things down to these. I still can't decide which one specifically to work on, so any help and comments would be appreciated. Thanks to all of you.
