James_D_Fawkes

Sunder 5.7

The original idea had this thing so much bigger than this. Like a lot of things this week, however, things didn't quite go according to plan, so I decided that rather than cram everything into one chapter, I'd split it into two. 

So, this is the first half of what was originally going to be 5.7. 5.8 will pick up where it leaves off, 5.b will finish out the arc, and then we'll move on to arc 6: Tyranny.

As a result, what you get today is about 3.8k words, rather than 7k or 8k. Unless...

Essential Material: Vafrlogi

Vafrlogi [Noble Phantasm]
Trampling Divine Flames

The Noble Phantasm of Sigurd’s exalted steed, Grani.

Originating from the legend wherein Sigurd rode Grani through the wavering flames Odin placed to safeguard the sleeping Valkyrie, Brynhildr, this Noble Phantasm is the mark of Grani’s victory over the enchanted fire, a powerful charge that combines Grani’s great speed and overwhelming strength with the magic of the Norse God of Sorcery. It is a...

Essential Material: Discernment of Potential

Discernment of Potential [Term]

A skill related to Aífe’s nature as a teacher. 

Differing from her sister, who overflowed with talent in many respects and possessed the ability to see through the character and traits of others, Aífe instead had an intuitive grasp of “limitations.” Rather than being able to determine one’s worth in such a manner, it allowed her to grasp exactly how far any of her students was able to go in a given discipline. 

Ra...

Essential Material: Blood-Stained Queen

Blood-Stained Queen [Term]

A unique skill derived from Aífe’s dual nature as both a queen (leader of armies, ruler of a nation) and a great warrior. It is a representation of her ability to both lead her army against another and to fight duels against other powerful foes one-on-one. 

Whereas certain other queens would not lower themselves to engage in direct combat and dirty their hands or else do not possess the mental capability to switch from regal queen to bl...

Not Today

Ugh, if it's not one thing, it's another, isn't it?

So, rather than something entirely my fault, like delays usually tend to be, this one is something I can't really do anything about.

Those of you who still follow the thread have already heard, of course, but I've got a rash on my right hand, specifically my middle and ring fingers. Don't know how it happened, don't know why, but it did. Tried hydrocortisone before, but it came back, and whenever I think it's gone away or going away on ...

Sunder 5.6

The full version. Would've been out sooner, but my editor was MIA all of yesterday and in bed sooner than I expected on Friday. 

Not too much to say about this one. Lots of aftermath going on. Some important details interspersed throughout.

Last week turned out to not be as productive as I would've liked, though. The reason why... Well, one of them was that the beginning and lots of interaction in 5.7 wound up hinging on something I wasn't sure would be happening until the very end ...

Easter Holidays

It's Easter, this weekend, so there won't be any releases. This is really last minute, but I forgot it was this early and then waffled over it for a few days, since 5.5 got delayed so much. In the end, however, it's a holiday, and I should probably be consistent about which of those I take breaks for.

We'll return to our regular schedule next Saturday, during which you just might get the finished 5.6, 5.7, and 5.b all at once. Might. We'll see if I can be productive enough fo...

Essential Material: Nicolas Flamel

Nicolas Flamel [Heroic Spirit]
Eremitic Alchemist

The great mind that plumbed the secrets of alchemy. The hermit who discovered the process for the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone. A humble bookseller who spent his riches on philanthropic projects to better mankind.

Sometimes also referred to as the Father of Modern Alchemy, Nicolas Flamel is all of those things as well. 

He was a hermit who studied alone, a prodigy f...

Chapters-in-Progress: Sunder 5.6

As promised, CiP for Sunder 5.6. 

This, as you can see, is a fallout chapter, where we can see some of the results of last chapter's fiasco. Some reconciliation is planned, too, although I won't say between who, yet.

Sunder 5.5

And it's done!

Well, mostly. My editor still needs to give it a pass, but I like this version better, so I can't imagine he'll have too much to correct. In either case, I'll swap out this version for that revised version when he's gone through it with a comb, but since he's offline right now, that'll have to wait until tomorrow.

For now, here you guys go. 

I'm not sure how many of you took the chance to read the CiP version and watch the evolution of this chapter from the prev...

Thank You

I want to thank you, all of you, for sticking with me, even during the rougher patches, for your understanding when I have difficulty getting a chapter to cooperate with me, or when it gets delayed because of real life problems that crop up every now and again.

I know it can be frustrating. I know it can be disappointing when I have to say, "Bad news, everyone." I know sometimes you might feel like you're not getting what you were promised, especially when I have a tendency to make promises th...

Chapters-In-Progress: Sunder 5.5

This chapter is way late and it's taking me way too long to finish, so I figured I'd share it with all of you as an apology and let you see where, exactly, I'm having trouble.

Sunder 5.5 

Sunder 5.a: Binary Liquidation

To some degree, I felt like this would fit better after the next chapter. Like this ruins a surprise or two, even though it really doesn't ruin the important ones. It definitely fit better in its current lineup back when 5.4 was going to cover more material, but I didn't want 5.4 to balloon into 7-10k words, again.

Anyway, it's been a few arcs since we've had an interlude from her perspective. I thought, at one point, to save it for the Leviathan arc, but that cleaves closer to canon ...

Sunder 5.4

It's a day later than I wanted, really more like two or three, because I would've preferred to be done by Saturday, but here it is.

It's some more fluff, with the addition of a new character. More setup, in other words, and sometimes, I just want to get to the action, too, but the setup is necessary so that the action set pieces make sense.

I agree with Taylor, though. If there was fanfiction about me, there're certain topics it might cover that I definitely wouldn't wa...

News

I've got some news to announce, so listen up, please.

First, the bad news (for you): my grandmother's birthday (the other one; Dec. was my paternal grandmother, Feb. is maternal) is this weekend, so the next chapters of Essence might be delayed by a few days. Monday at the latest, I intend.

Now, the good news: yes, you read that right, chapters. Both Sunder 5.4 and Sunder 5.a: Binary Liquidation will be released on the same day. The plot of arc 5 will really start to get rolling...

Sunder 5.3

Too tired to offer witticisms, here. 

So, this is what you get: Sunder 5.3. This is another buildup chapter, although there's no Madame Simone to complicate things.

If you have your shipping goggles on, you might see some shipping, too. Nothing setting sail, yet, of course.

5.4, we'll get some conflict. 5.5 will be our first interlude, I think. After that... Well. That would be telling.

Sunder 5.2

Tarot and palmistry — never again. Ugh, that took up so much time and effort, trying to get that right. I think I would make a terrible psychic. 

Good thing I'm a writer, then.

Ahem. Anyway, some more Taylor-Amy bonding, yay! Also, a...kinda-sorta weird moment in the second half. I think a lot of people are going to be wondering what kind of purpose it serves.

But that's the fun, isn't it? Making you guys guess?

There are a couple of things in this ch...

Mysterious Woman

Another secret. Don't tell anyone, okay?

Here, we have a character from the Eternityverse. An early concept of her, at least. The basics will remain the same, but fine details will probably change quite a bit by the time I finally decide on what she'll actually look like.

There are some things that need to be fixed, like, immediately, but those'll be handled in the next draft of her. 

As for who this is, that's top secret. No, seriously, top secret. At this t...

Sunder 5.1

The start of a new arc! 

Here it is, the beginning of arc 5. Watch out for that timeskip, if you blink, you'll miss it.

Anyone have any guesses why it's "Sunder?"

Serenity

The first concept of Serenity. Undoubtedly, she'll change in some form by the final product.

Since she was done before I got the tablet, the lines were done using vector trace, which is naturally why they're a little less lower quality. When I take another shot at her, I'll be doing the lines by hand, so it will be cleaner and nicer.

Pendulum 0.3

It feels a little...unfinished, in some ways. Like there was more I could have added or expanded. But if I'd expanded every bit that even resembled summarization into full, descriptive text, this chapter would have ballooned to an unreasonable size. 

That, and the parts that are summarized probably wouldn't have been all that interesting to read in full, anyway.

Next up, arc 5: Sunder. There's a reason it's called that, folks. A very good reason.

Collateral 4.b: Amicus Curiae

Well, I did say, "As soon as I finish," so it's finished and you're getting it now.

On the other hand, since this is coming out on Saturday, you guys only get exclusivity for a few days. I really need to get back on this damn horse, but I'm much closer than I was a week ago.

Anyway, here's 4.b: Amicus Curiae. Remember that hanging plot strand introduced in 1.b way back when? Yeah. That's involved, here.

Essential Material: Outsiders

Outsiders [Term]

The Entities. The Parasites. The Worms. Referred to by these and several other names, these are the beings that came upon the Earth and seeded it with the phenomena known as “parahumans.” It is from their shed fragments that such powers arise and are made possible. 

They are great beasts of outstanding might which naturally evolved an ability similar to the Operation of Parallel Worlds, the Second Magic. As one of their primary defenses against ...

Collateral 4.a: Delusive Lacuna (Redux)

The fixed version, hopefully. Let me know if this version works better for you guys.

The difference: added some more context for Vista, so her reaction is slightly changed. Tweaked the last few lines to give her a future course of action a different implication.

Update

Right. I wanted to be back on track for this weekend, but a couple of things came up:

First, Alan Barnes is hard to get into the head of. Yes, he's the perspective character for 4.b (still don't have a name for that). I was going to spend all of Saturday finishing, but number two...

Secondly, I went into the Patron Discord server to ask opinions on 4.a right before it was time to release it into the wild, and suddenly, I had a bunch of you telling me, "Actually, about the end of that cha...

Hero of the Dawn

She's a secret. The first picture I've done from start to finish on that tablet I bought. 

Obviously, anyone with any familiarity with Worm will probably be able to figure out who this is. It's not like I was being particularly careful with keeping her close to the vest, here.

When will she no longer be a secret? I dunno. You guys get her, for now. She'll go out in the wild, later on.

Collateral 4.a: Delusive Lacuna

Like I said: when it rains...

My editor has apparently been rather busy, the last few days, on top of his computer troubles. We just sped through the editing of this chapter in the few minutes he could spare.

Anyway. It got delayed way too much, but here's Delusive Lacuna, interlude 4.a. 

For some reason, getting into the head of a bullied fifteen-year-old girl is easy. Getting into the head of a twelve-year-old girl is hard. 

Yes, this interlude is Vista's.  2018-01-17 04:24:16 +0000 UTC View Post

A Glitch In the System

Some of you have probably noticed that things are a little...wonky with Patreon, right now. Not only on your end, but there's also some trouble on my side, too. All the pledges have apparently gone through (that usually go through), but some Patrons aren't being listed in my list of Patrons, some Patrons are being listed as "declined," even though their pledges for December did go through just fine, and the crazy guy who actually pledged $100/mo is not showing up in either my list or on...

Upcoming

January 2018:

-Collateral 4.a: Delusive Lacuna

-Collateral 4.b: [To Be Announced]

-Pendulum 0.3

-Sunder 5.1

-Sunder 5.2

February 2018

-Arc 5: Sunder

March 2018

-Arc 5: Sunder

-Arc 6: Tyranny 

Spring 2018

-Arc 6: Tyranny

-Pendulum 0.0

-Arc 7

-Pendulum 0.4

An Alternate Essence: Of Blood and Sunlight

A few days later than I wanted it, but oh well. Here it is, the first "official" appearance of "best vampire," Serenity.

Her first official appearance should have been "Serenity is a State of Mind," but that's going a bit slow and it's only half-finished. You guys will get exclusive access when it does get finished. And I do mean "exclusive." 

I tried like you wouldn't believe to keep too many spoilers about Serenity's character and story out of this short, so if y...