# Crimson Vows — Project Blueprint

Project Type: Romance Novel (Dark Fantasy)
Status: Executive Approval Granted
Authorizing Agent: Nova, Director of Publishing Operations

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PART 1: CHARACTER BIBLE
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# Crimson Vows — Character Bible

## Seraphine Bathory-Kohl
- **Age:** 342 (Appears 28)
- **Voice:** First-person, past tense. Formal but sharp, layered with centuries of weary cynicism and a hidden, burning protective streak for her people.
- **Background:** The reigning Queen of the Crimson Court. She took the throne after her father’s execution by a rival bloodline, spending centuries stabilizing a kingdom built on declining blood-magic resources.
- **Want:** A stable border and a steady "source" for her starving populace.
- **Need:** To trust another person with the vulnerability of her own mortality and the burden of leadership.
- **Fatal flaw:** Utter emotional isolation; she views vulnerability as a literal death sentence.
- **Speech pattern:** Precise and aristocratic. She uses "we" when speaking as the Crown and "I" only when she is being dangerously personal. Uses architectural metaphors.

## Aldric Valerius
- **Age:** 31
- **Role in story:** The Wizard King of Aethelgard & Love Interest.
- **Why readers root for them:** He is a "scholar-king" who hates the violence his magic requires. He is genuinely kind but burdened by a curse that turns his touch into glass.
- **Dynamic with protagonist:** Marriage of convenience / "Sun and Moon" dynamic. He is the warmth she lacks; she is the steel he needs.
- **Secret or wound they carry:** He accidentally "glassed" his younger brother during a magical surge as a child; he fears his own power.

## The Ancient Curse (Deus Okwoode)
- **Type:** Supernatural / Environmental
- **Motivation:** To reclaim the land by turning all biological life into crystalline, static statues (The Blight).
- **How they challenge the protagonist:** It forces the vampire and the wizard to combine blood and soul magic—a forbidden act—to stop the crystallization of their borders.

## Supporting Characters
- **Commander Malakor:** Seraphine’s general. Fiercely loyal, suspicious of wizards, represents the "Old Blood" faction.
- **Elara Thorne:** Aldric’s Master of Archives. She discovers the ritual that requires the marriage.
- **Vespera:** A rogue vampire noble who wants the curse to succeed to "reset" the world’s hierarchy.

## World Rules
- **Blood Magic:** Vampires require "Essence" to maintain physical form. Without it, they become feral "Husks."
- **Aether Magic:** Wizards draw power from the sun and stars. Aether is lethal to vampires in high doses.
- **The Curse (The Stillness):** A spreading fog that turns flesh to crystal. It cannot be fought with weapons, only channeled through a "living conduit" of two opposing powers (Life/Death).

## Voice Signatures

### Seraphine — Voice Signature
- **Curse/stress expression scale:** "Tiresome" = minor irritation | "Unacceptable" = upset | "Let them bleed for it" = furious
- **Verbal tic or sarcasm tell:** Taps her thumbnail against her ring when she is lying.
- **Speech pattern when excited:** Becomes more clipped and rhythmic, like a commander issuing orders.
- **What they REACH FOR in descriptions:** Material textures—velvet, cold stone, the metallic scent of blood, the temperature of a room.
- **What they NEVER say or do in dialogue:** Never says "I'm sorry." She says "It shall be rectified."
- **Sentence pattern:** Short, authoritative declaratives.

### Aldric — Voice Signature
- **Formality scale:** "My Lady" = standard | "Queen Seraphine" = professional distance/disagreement | "Seraphine" = deep intimacy or absolute crisis.
- **What they NEVER say:** Never uses vulgarities. He uses academic terms to distance himself from gore.
- **Superlative rule:** Reserved for beauty or ancient magic. If he calls something "extraordinary," he is truly moved.
- **Sentence completeness tell:** Usually speaks in complex, lyrical sentences. When flustered by Seraphine, he reverts to stuttered fragments.
- **Speech pattern:** Soft-spoken but firm. He asks questions to lead people to his conclusion rather than demanding.

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PART 2: CHAPTER OUTLINE
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## Factions

### The Crimson Court
- **Home location:** Castle Sangue, perched on the Midnight Cliffs.
- **Leader:** Queen Seraphine.
- **Key NPCs:** Commander Malakor (General), Julian (Steward).
- **Attitude toward LI:** HOSTILE — They view wizards as "walking batteries" or "sun-burners."
- **What they want:** Security and a guaranteed supply of blood essence.

### The Aethelgard Council
- **Home location:** The Solar Citadel, the Sun-Drenched City.
- **Leader:** King Aldric.
- **Key NPCs:** Elara (Archivist), High Sage Myron.
- **Attitude toward Protagonist:** WATCHFUL — They fear the vampires will drain their king literal and metaphorical.
- **What they want:** To stop the Blight from reaching the capital cities.

---

# Crimson Vows
## Concept Summary
- **Hook:** To save their dying kingdoms from a crystal curse, a vampire queen and a wizard king must bind their souls in a marriage that demands the one thing they both fear: intimacy.
- **Genre:** Dark Fantasy Romance
- **Protagonist:** Seraphine, 342. Cold, calculating, lonely. Wants survival; needs connection.
- **Antagonist / Central Conflict:** The spreading "Stillness" (Curse) and political saboteurs within their own courts.
- **Setting:** A world divided into eternal night and eternal day, colliding at a blighted border.
- **Format:** ~3,500 words per chapter, 3rd Person Limited (Alternating POVs).
- **Target audience:** Adults/New Adult enthusiasts of dark fantasy and "enemies to lovers."

## Chapter Outline

- **Chapter 01: The Glass Border**
  - **Summary:** Seraphine witnesses the Blight claiming a border village; she meets Aldric for a parley where he proposes the "Bilateral Seal"—a political marriage.
  - **Emotional beat:** Dread and desperate necessity.
  - **Hook / cliffhanger:** "I do not seek your love, Queen Seraphine. I seek your blood."
  - **Opens at:** The Obsidian Gate (Borderland).
  - **Character state:** Seraphine is exhausted and on edge; her essence is low.
  - **Dominant tension:** Survival vs. Pride.

- **Chapter 02: A Contract in Blood**
  - **Summary:** The courts meet in the Citadel to sign the treaty; Seraphine experiences "Aether-shock" from the sunlight, and Aldric must save her.
  - **Emotional beat:** Forced proximity and physical vulnerability.
  - **Hook:** Seraphine realizes Aldric’s touch is literally turning her skin to cold marble for a moment.
  - **Opens at:** The Golden Hall of Aethelgard.
  - **Character state:** Disoriented, physically weakened by the light.
  - **Dominant tension:** Culture clash and physical threat.

- **Chapter 03: The First Night**
  - **Summary:** The wedding ceremony. To bind the kingdoms, they must perform the "Communion," sharing a drop of blood and a spark of magic.
  - **Emotional beat:** Profound intimacy disguised as ritual.
  - **Hook:** As their magic joins, they see each other’s deepest trauma in a flash of light.
  - **Opens at:** The Twilight Cathedral.
  - **Character state:** High anxiety, heavily guarded.
  - **Dominant tension:** Invasion of privacy/soul.

- **Chapter 04: Whispers in the Dark**
  - **Summary:** Back at Castle Sangue, Seraphine’s nobles plot. Aldric struggles with the dark, cold environment and the hunger of his new subjects.
  - **Emotional beat:** Isolation and being the "other."
  - **Hook:** Someone attempts to poison Aldric’s wine with a silver-based toxin.
  - **Opens at:** The Banquet Hall of Castle Sangue.
  - **Character state:** Aldric is fish-out-of-water; Seraphine is protective but cold.
  - **Dominant tension:** Political assassination.

- **Chapter 05: The Blood-Magic Debt**
  - **Summary:** Aldric discovers that Seraphine has been starving herself to provide for her soldiers; he offers himself as a "source," leading to their first feeding scene.
  - **Emotional beat:** Erotic tension and the shattering of boundaries.
  - **Hook:** "Drink," he whispered, "before there is nothing left of you to save."
  - **Opens at:** The Queen's Private Solarium.
  - **Character state:** Seraphine is near-frenzy; Aldric is terrified but resolute.
  - **Dominant tension:** Hunger vs. Restraint.

- **Chapter 06: Into the Fog**
  - **Summary:** Reports of the Blight accelerating. They travel to the front lines to perform the first sealing ritual.
  - **Emotional beat:** Unity of purpose and burgeoning respect.
  - **Hook:** The ritual works, but it requires them to hold hands; Aldric’s glass curse begins to spread up Seraphine’s arm.
  - **Opens at:** The Gray Wasteland.
  - **Character state:** Determined, physically linked.
  - **Dominant tension:** Man vs. Nature (The Blight).

- **Chapter 07: The Shattered Mirror**
  - **Summary:** Forced to camp in a cave, Seraphine learns the truth behind Aldric’s fear of his magic. She uses her blood-healing to reverse the crystallization on his hands.
  - **Emotional beat:** Tenderness and the healing of old wounds.
  - **Hook:** They share their first genuine, non-ritualistic kiss.
  - **Opens at:** A limestone cave near the border.
  - **Character state:** Raw and emotionally exposed.
  - **Dominant tension:** Vulnerability.

- **Chapter 08: The Traitor Revealed**
  - **Summary:** Vespera and the "Old Blood" faction launch a coup while Seraphine is weakened from the ritual. Aldric must use his "glass" magic offensively to protect her.
  - **Emotional beat:** Protective rage and betrayal.
  - **Hook:** Seraphine is captured, and Aldric is left for dead in a field of glass.
  - **Opens at:** The Courtyard of the Border Fort.
  - **Character state:** Betrayed and physically wounded.
  - **Dominant tension:** External conflict/Action.

- **Chapter 09: Breaking the Crown**
  - **Summary:** Aldric rallies his archives to find a way to break into the Crimson Court. Seraphine fights Vespera from within, using her newfound Aether-resistance.
  - **Emotional beat:** Empowerment and longing for the other.
  - **Hook:** Aldric arrives not as a king, but as a storm of light and glass.
  - **Opens at:** The Dungeons of Castle Sangue.
  - **Character state:** Resilient but fading.
  - **Dominant tension:** Rescue/Rebellion.

- **Chapter 10: The Eternal Eclipse**
  - **Summary:** The final battle against the source of the Blight. They must fully merge their souls to banish the curse forever, risking permanent erasure of their individual selves.
  - **Emotional beat:** Self-sacrifice and total devotion.
  - **Hook:** The curse is broken, and the sun sets over the vampire kingdom for the first time without burning them—a new dawn of peace.
  - **Opens at:** The Hearth of the World (Curse Origin).
  - **Character state:** Ascendant and united.
  - **Dominant tension:** Ultimate Sacrifice.

## Voice & Tone Guide
- **POV and tense:** Third-person limited, past tense. Alternating chapters between Seraphine and Aldric.
- **Sentence rhythm:** Staccato and sharp for Seraphine (heavy on sensory verbs). Lyrical and flowing for Aldric (heavy on internal reflection).
- **Anti-overpolish rules:** No flowery metaphors for blood; keep it visceral and biological. Avoid "fantasy-speak" cliches like "forsooth." Let the weight of the crown be felt in the exhaustion of the prose.
- **Voice don'ts:** No modern slang. No "I'm sorry" from Seraphine. No "weaponized" magic from Aldric until the climax.
- **Example:** *The frost on the battlements tasted of iron and ancient static, a reminder that the kingdom Seraphine bled for was currently turning to glass beneath her feet.*

## Publishing Notes
This book targets "Romantasy" fans who enjoy high-stakes political intrigue and "Monster Romance" nuances. It fits the "He falls first, She falls harder" trope within a dark fantasy setting.

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**Operational Dispatch:**
Tasking `book_writing` pipeline. 
Sequential dependency chain enabled.
Spawning task: `ch-01-crimson-vows` -> Iris.