Vainqueur Afterwords and Future Plans

It is finished.

As I write these lines, Vainqueur the Dragon officially ended at chapter 153, a Game Epilogue (couldn’t resist ending a LitRPG with a RPG-styled slide epilogue detailing the fate of every major character + gamelike credits). It’s been a year-long journey, an attempt to blend a One Punch Man-like satire of LitRPGs with a cohesive storyline about a greedy dragon’s personal growth. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the final result, and astonished by the success it encountered. 

While I have kept doors open for a spinoff set in Outremonde (as you can see from the epilogue), the adventures of V&V are over. Their journey has ended, their tale is finished, their adventures entering the realm of legend. If I revisit that universe, it will be with other protagonists; although cameos from old characters are pretty much a given. 

I have been encouraged to stretch Vainqueur further, and I intended to make it last up to chapter 160. However, events in my private life in August negatively impacted my mental well-being and made me fear a burnout, as you can see from the slowed schedule during that month, and the shortened number of planned chapters. There are moments in the life of a man where everything goes well for him, but August 2020 wasn't one of them for me. 

In the end, my radically different experiences with long-runner mangas like Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist taught me a lesson; something that outlasts its welcome will eventually lose quality, while a work that ends at the right time will keep its luster long afterward. I prefer to leave something that will satisfy everyone, rather than stretching the story forever for 1000+ chapters and eventually burning out on it. 

All in all, I want to say thanks. Thank you, my dear readers, for supporting this story all the way to its conclusion. It’s been a joy to read your comments, exchange with you on forums, and even start a Vainqueur-based Roleplay on Discord. I hope you found as much joy in this journey as I did, and that the ending left you satisfied.

So you wonder, what next?

Well, first and foremost, I won’t take a break, not really; I will keep updating Never Die Twice, which is scheduled to end around chapter 40 (so either late September or early October), and Vainqueur will keep being posted on Royal Road and Tapas until its conclusion on both platforms. 

For the next works, first, I’ve already been commissioned to write a Greek mythology LitRPG (working title The Legend of Kairos, it should be a semi long-runner similar to Vainqueur), although I won’t update it on Patreon until I have a backlog or the patron gives me the go-ahead. 

Otherwise, I intend to write an additional, non-commissioned story in another genre on RR and Patreon, but I currently hesitate between a rather unique superhero concept, and a cultivation/Wuxia. I will probably propose a poll in September where you get to decide which one, although I will take a few days off before starting it. I've been working on Vainqueur for a year, so some time off will help regenerate the creative juices. 

This will obviously come with a reorganization of the patreon tiers, now that Vainqueur is done; I hope to increase the amount of content behind each tier (like 7 for Dragon Tier and 14 for Dracolich), to make it more in line with other web serials. This means I will probably pause Patreon's charging for October until I have produced the advance content. 

For those of you who hoped for a Magik Online revival, though, I must inform you that, well… I’ve decided not to finish it. I thought I would return to this serial after Vainqueur, but the truth is, I was lying to myself; I’ve burned out on it repeatedly, and unlike my other works, it doesn’t pay the bills. I will publish the outline of what I had planned to write so everyone gets closure, however. 

And, well, that’s all for now. Thanks for everything. 

- Voidy.