James_D_Fawkes

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Disillusion 2.1

Yes, Taylor, that is what victory tastes like.

An Essence of Silver and Steel - Cover Art

I debated with myself for a little while, but in the end, I wanted to get it out there as soon as possible, since I'd originally intended to have the cover ready when Essence was posted on Sufficient Velocity. Normally, you guys would have gotten to see it first for a while, but the circumstances here were what they were, so this time, it was a special situation.

So, to make it up to you guys, here. This is the full size version, rather than the half sized version I used for the cover on SV an...

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Pendulum 0.1

And here's the first segment of the Pendulum arc: Pendulum 0.1. In case I haven't said it before, Pendulum is going to be spread out throughout the whole story; Pendulum 0.1 is after Arc 1: Overture, Pendulum 0.2 will be posted after Arc 2: Disillusion, Pendulum 0.3 (which hasn't even been started yet), however, might come after Arc 3, but if it doesn't fit to have it there, it might be post after Arc 4 or Arc 5... It really depends.

With all of that said, here you guys go. I did something fun...

New Tier Images

So, I honestly meant to get more work done than I did last night, but getting all of the new images for my Patreon tiers rendered took up way more time than I thought. 

Fortunately, I did get them all done, so my time tonight will be completely free. Well, provided nothing else pops up that needs doing, but that's fairly unlikely.

A week off

So, I blitzed through the first two arcs of Essence in about two months, and since I was waiting for my advisor to get caught up on Miracle of Zero anyway, I decided to take a week off and just relax and recharge. 

Boy, I didn't even realize how much I needed it.

So, it'll be back to work on Monday. My advisor...ah, heck, I'll just call him my editor. My editor is still catching up with Miracle of Zero, so that's still a bit frozen, but I'll be finishing Pendulum 0.2 and moving on t...

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Overture Interlude 1.b (Empathy Impulse Resonance)

And here is Interlude 1.b. Enjoy.

I'm still not quite finished with Interlude 2.a, but since it's just revising, now, I'm giving you guys this chapter. 

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Overture Interlude 1.a (Wildcard Gambit)

Just finished 2.6, so here's Interlude 1.a: Wildcard Gambit.

Enjoy, and feel free to comment about what you liked or disliked.

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Overture 1.5

The last main chapter of Overture. After this are two interludes and Pendulum 0.1. 

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Overture 1.4

Since I split 2.2 into two chapters and just finished the second half of that, here's 1.4.

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Overture 1.3

And here's Overture 1.3. The original was meant to use invisitext, which only works out right on a forum setting like Sufficient Velocity, so I just shifted the font color of those parts to a pale gray. 

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Overture 1.2

Since it's become clear to me that I won't be able to post text on here while retaining enough fidelity to have the effect intended in the original documents, I decided to start posting these chapters as PDF files. 

So, here's Overture 1.2. 

Mysterious Pendant

What's this? Hm. As a pendant, I'm sure it'll be relevant at a later date, but as for what its purpose is right now, that's a mystery.

Unless you'd like to make a few guesses?

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Overture 1.1

Overture 1.1

[I shall attain all the virtues of heaven.]

There were plenty of people who had it much worse than I did — kids in Africa being used as child soldiers by a superpowered warlord, the people of Japan who had lost their lives, livelihoods, and homes when Leviathan turned Kyushu into a modern recreation of Atlantis, and basically anyone who had ever been a victim of the Slaughterhouse Nine — and that thought did help me make it through the day, some...

An Essence of Silver and Steel: Prologue (Shadow of Ancestral Wisdom)

Shadow of Ancestral Wisdom

[A base of silver and steel.]

Shards were not sapient, not truly.

They had the capacity to think, to feel, to reason, in at least some diminished way, and they were even able to make personal decisions. In the end, however, they didn’t have very much in the way of higher thought, of agency, of awareness of self, as the Entities from which they were spawned and the hosts to which they attached.

That was not to say that they could n...

An Essence of Silver and Steel - Coming Soon!

So, the first arc interludes (there's two) took me longer than I thought (are taking, actually; one's not finished, yet). However, I did finish the first one and the second one is just in need of some refining; after that, I move onto arc 2

The minute I move onto arc 2 in earnest, you guys, my patrons, will get it. No stops, no waiting; as soon as the second interlude is all polished up, I'm going to post An Essence of Silver and Steel for you guys, and you'll get to hold onto it for....

An Essence of Silver and Steel - Coming Soon?

Maybe. I'm almost done with the first arc of the story - somewhere between 20k and 30k words, total, although it may end up slightly larger - and I'd like to get through the second arc, too, before posting any of it (give myself some breathing room). 

If everything continues at the current pace...maybe a few weeks? A month? Six weeks, at the long end? It really depends upon how cooperative the second arc winds up being, because Worm in general is unfamiliar territory and arc 2 wi...

An Essence of Silver and Steel - Logo V2

Revised this a little.

One of the things I found out about doing lineart the way I did in the last version is that the lines are smoother and less jittery if you start out with a smaller image, use the Trace Bitmap function, then scale up the resulting vector map. Not sure exactly how much difference it made, but I did notice some differences in the lines' smoothness.

Historically Accurate Jeanne [Type Moon]

Because that travesty that Takeuchi came up with is a disservice to the real deal. 

Anyway, this is my take on what Type Moon Jeanne should have actually looked like. You'll notice that the bodysuit beneath her armor and the skirt of her...I guess it was supposed to be a tunic? The bodysuit and the skirt are my only real concessions, color-wise, to Takeuchi's version. 

The armor wasn't much changed. It's got more protection for her knees and thighs, plus a full breastp...

An Essence of Silver and Steel - Logo

This might be a bit rough. It was entirely hand drawn, inked, and then I used some voodoo witchcraft (read: Inkscape) to turn my hand-inked image into lineart. What you see here is the end result, plus some fill effects to give it fullness.

As for how I came up with the design, I actually took cues from Grail-form Iri from Fate/Zero. Parts of the design patterns were taken off of the chalice Iri transforms into in the last few episodes, the image of which can be found on the Type Moon...

Tousaka-sensei's Lecture Corner #13

The TLC section for the upcoming chapter. Yes, this is usually finished before the rest of the chapter.

CONTINUE?

[YES/NO]

Tousaka-sensei’s Lecture Corner #13

“So tragic,” Ilya said tearfully. “A love story for the ages. A young boy met a girl and became her protector, and as he stayed with her and became a great warrior, they slowly fell in love. There were great trials, and it wasn’t always easy. Sometimes, they d...

Fate/Recursive Wisdom (Snippet 1)

Ideas are things, and I have them. Frequently. This one was had yesterday, while I was taking a walk.

                                                               &...

Essence Cover - Color test 2

The second color test for the Essence cover. I'm happier with the overall aesthetic, because it fits together much better, but I still like that Tyrian purple better.

Essence Cover - Color test 1

Testing out different colors for her costume. I like the Tyrian purple of her vest, but I can't seem to find something I'm happy with for her pants. That aside, I'm particularly happy with how the Red Shadow came out. 

Essence Cover - Basic Lineart

The basic lineart for An Essence of Silver and Steel, my upcoming Worm and Fate/stay night crossover. That's Taylor in her costume, of course, and there, in the background, is the Red Shadow (aka Alaya).

Miracle of Zero Chapter 18

Chapter 18, For Someone's Glory, is now available on Fanficion.net  and Sufficient Velocity . 

Miracle Material: Ogrenix [Armament]

Ogrenix [Armament]
Wrought-Iron Greatsword

A blackened greatsword, patterned along the flat of the blade with a design akin to smoke. It is one of Shirou’s experimental alloy designs, fashioned in the image of the sword wielded by the Black Knights in a certain video game series. Other than its unique alloy and an enchantment to help maintain its durability and sharpness, it is an ordinary blade with no real special attributes, which ma...

Miracle Material

The encyclopedia pages detailing terms from Miracle of Zero: Kingdom of the Forsaken. They'll cover a wide range of topics, all relevant to the story in some way, from Noble Phantasms to persons of interest to important terms used throughout the story.

No profile pages, yet, but those will come later. For now, it's just these short encyclopedia entries.

For patrons, those pages which have not already been released into the wild will retain exclusivity for at least one week.

Miracle Material: Gavilain [Noble Phantasm]

Gavilain [Noble Phantasm]
Shining Sword of Salvation

The radiant sword of light possessed by Emiya Shirou. A holy sword forged from the human prayer “salvation,” crystallized within the Earth. It’s a Last Phantasm on the same level as Excalibur that sees excellent performance as both a sword and a Noble Phantasm. Originally held by the fairies, it passed into Shirou’s hands from the Lady of the Lake as a sign of their contract. 2017-03-18 18:30:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Miracle Material: Fairies [Term]

Fairies [Term]

The Fair Folk, the Fae. Cousins to the Elves. Spirit-like entities that have approached the realm of demons. Originally, nature’s sense of touch on the continent of Halkeginia, but as a result of the rapid and merciless destruction of other Nature Spirits in combination with the hatred and antagonism of the invading humans (Brimir’s people), they were transformed irreversibly. They have, instead, become something close to that of true demo...

Miracle Material: Apeiron [Person]

Apeiron [Person]
King of Light

The alternate persona of Emiya Shirou, the “Emiya who is a king.” It is the nascent Elemental which was transplanted inside his body, a kind of reverse Guardian Spirit. In terms of rank, it is undoubtedly below that of regular Elementals and Nature Spirits, owing in no small part to its young age and dependence upon a physical body to exist.

However, the advantage of Apeiron is its attachment to Em...