MarvinKnight

Founding of Deania [5]

Sam, Dean, Yonda, Erula, and Anyatara emerged in an encampment much like the one they'd just left, only on a far larger scale. Their teleportation had brought them to an inner courtyard.

"Okay, as soon as we exit this chamber we're going to start running into orcs. That means we need to look like we belong. Sam and Dean, now would be a good time to activate those invisibility talismans."

Sam and Dean both activated their talismans, disappearing from visible sight. Then Anyatara tu...

Cover art update

I really like how the background is coming along. I might use it as a banner for my Facebook page, which is in dire need of me putting some work into it.

For the character I think I'll want him to darken the hair a little until it's more purple-ish. I wanted to hint at the bloodline relations to Assyrus and the Waterbeetle tribe, but right now it looks more blue than purple. Maybe darken the clothes a bit as well so it's more black.

Let me know what you think...

Founding of Deania 4

Dean whistled when they finally caught sight of the orc encampment.

"Is that a real castle?" Dean asked excitedly, grabbing Sam by the shoulder. "It looks like a real castle!"

"It's a real castle, Dean." Sam said as he too gazed at the orc encampment.

The walls were rougher than anyone was used to. After years of looking at smooth-walled elf structures it took them a moment to understand why. The walls were made of individual blocks, instead of massive pillars of smooth ston...

My artist just got back to me with the preliminary sketch.

I thought about it for a long while and decided to put Eltiana on the cover. She has a major role in this story and is visually distinctive from the others, which I think works well with the new background theme for the new arc.

And since you guys are paying for it (I've been saving the Patreon money for this, thanks everyone) I decided to go for more of a full-body action pose rather than the normal thigh-up sketch I frequently got before.

You'll also notice that the background i...

Founding of Deania 3

After rescuing a group of elves, Dean liked to spend at least a week letting them thank him. Besides, Dean couldn't very well leave a group of bruised and battered elves alone. That was a point he often insisted on.

Dean spent the next few hours putting out the rest of the fires and helping the villagers repair walls and cover roofs. The mage acolytes from the Songstone Clan didn't intend to leave without the two of them, which didn't surprise Dean. They'd want to thank him as well, and...

Amisra Copperguard [Poll 5]

Pick 3 blood-aspect spells. This is her secondary aspect, so expect Amisra to be a bit weaker with these spells. Depending on their nature, she may not even use them at all in public.

Amisra Copperguard [Poll 4]

Top four of these lightning-aspect spells get added to Amisra's arsenal. This is in addition to the blood-aspect spells, though I'm giving fewer slots for that one.

Founding of Deania 2

The group quickly found themselves at ease in the Songstone Clan. The elves there made good on their promise to to entertain them and see that they had everything they needed.

Yonda was up to her neck in maps covering every settlement and town, along with pictures of the leaders of each neighboring faction and the Songstone Clan's analysis of their ideals and personalities. It was an incredibly extensive catalogue of information to have been thrown together on such short notice.

W...

Founding of Deania 1

Forward: This is the Sam and Dean short story, by popular request. Sam and Dean are both true mages in this short story and in the very early stages of founding/exploring the pre-Deania nation. Despite calling it a short story, I'm aiming for about 15k words total, novlette length. So longer than a short story but shorter than a novela.

Approximately four hundred years ago.

Five figures stood at the edge of a very different Hearthwood Forest. Th...

Amisra Copperguard: Zeal Aspect [Poll 3]

Hello again everybody. We're in a bit of a dry spell right now so I appreciate you all hanging on until I start getting more Spellheart content out. I'm still hard at work on the series but the work I've done thus far is not stuff that's particularly interesting to read in isolation. I've rewritten a number of key scenes, including the climax at the end. That's going well, though going through the whole manuscript to make sure everything is consistent with the changes definitely takes a lot o...

Amisra Copperguard Backstory Poll

The name votes for this character are now closed. The palace guard captain’s real name is now officially Amisra Copperguard!

I’m pleased with the name. If your top pick wasn’t one of the results, don’t worry, there will be plenty more votes to be had on Captain Copperguard.

Based on your name choices for Amisra’s backstory, we know she was a young elf filled with untapped talent, and a soldier from humble origins who rose through the ranks after years of bringing orders ...

Character Design Fun for the Palace Guard Captain

 I mentioned in one of the author notes that I planned to expand the captain of the palace guard into a full character and that it might be fun to do so together. A couple of people seemed interested, so we’ll give it a go.

How this is going to work:

We’re going to have a series of multiple choice polls. All the ideas will be mine, you guys will just be choosing which ones I implement. This should (hopefully) streamline things considerably and keep the ch...

A more recent (non-canon) Hearthwood Map

So here's a map of the Hearthwood from early last book (I mentioned before I switched to Wonderdraft). The red line traces the Corpse Collector Company's projected path through the forest during my early draft. There are more than mountains and trees on the left, they're just not part of this map. Also, the trees in the Hearthwood are as dense as shown on the edge, I just drew the center portion mostly empty because my original version had a lot more notes on it and they were hard to read on ...

My original book 1 Heathwood map.

Buzzorth requested this, so here it is.

I've shifted a few things around since book 1, but this was generally where everything was located while writing book 1.

I switched to using wonderdraft some time in book 2, so that map is a lot more fun to look at. I'll see if I can purge the spoilers from that Hearthwood map and show you guys it, since it's a bit more exciting than this one. I may even post my Deanian Queendom map, though a lot of those names are still very subj...

What do you want to see in book 4?

*Spoiler Warning for Book 3*

So I think if I set this to public we'll have enough people to do one of these, and there are also a lot of patrons here I haven't heard from yet. I make no guarantees about anything showing up in the story but I think it would be fun and informative to hear what people are excited about.

Prompt ideas (for people who don't know what to write):

Which do you think is cooler: World of Tooth and Claw (Catgirl world) or the World o...

Memories of the Reborn is now on Amazon

Whew! It's finally out. Now I can focus on writing book 4 without worrying so much. Thank you everyone for your help and support.

I'm still working on story structure stuff for book 4, but in another few weeks I'll have hashed out enough of the details that I can really dive into writing, at which point you'll start seeing chapters appear on this blog regularly. I'll probably go slow at first, but then speed up as we get into the thick of things.

Shadowblade Beast reference sketch from my notes

Now before you look at this drawing, I just want to remind you that you're here to read my writing, not see my drawings. They're all pretty bad and when I created them I was pretty sure I was the only one who was going to see them.

But I do want to provide content while I'm outlining and dealing with story-structure stuff, and this was on my hard drive, so here you go.

The Future of this Patreon Page

So that was Memories of the Reborn! I hope you enjoyed it. Writing it was quite an adventure for me. You’re probably wondering what comes next.

For the next few weeks, I’ll mainly be posting worldbuilding content. That’s where my headspace is as I’m outlining the story, so that’s what I’ll be putting up here. You guys won’t be getting the worldbuilding work I’m doing right now though. Mostly, I’ll be posting maps, terrible sketches, and worldbuilding documents from whi...

Memories of the Reborn Cover Art

There's Nela!

I've actually got a wrap-around background too with a cool underground spooky cave theme. I might make it into a wallpaper or something. I'll upload it later for you guys.