I think it’s somewhat unorthodox to critique your own work just after it’s finished, but I care more about becoming a better writer than I do acting like there’s nothing to improve on. JAS is my first completed series—hopefully the first of many—and I’d like it to be my worst, if only because each after is better than the last.
Length
Jackal Among Snakes was too long.
To exemplify this, I’ll talk about character ar...
2024-11-23 06:34:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe moon.
Long ago, it’d been transformed as a result of Lorena’s bargain with the Heralds. They used Sophia’s power of creation to create something of an isolated habitat for the lunar dragons. It couldn’t be compared to the moon that Argrave had known, by all accounts. Most prominently, it had something of a protective atmosphere, permitting life from their planet to persist. It had taken Argrave and Anneliese well over thirty years of study—the bulk of which had come in the...
2024-11-22 06:29:38 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave and Anneliese sat by the hearth as the fire crackled, the both of them staring up at the family portrait that’d been made so many decades ago. It was a little microcosm of what they’d experienced this week—a vibrant family. All save Vincent and Hannelore had Anneliese’s colorful amber eyes, while most had inherited Argrave’s black hair. They were all quite tall. Elimar was bigger than Orion, even, who also stood in the photo right alongside Elenore. Their daughters hadn’t ...
2024-11-20 06:55:32 +0000 UTC View PostElimar watched reservedly as servants placed large platters of food in the center of the table. He was unaccustomed to such treatment, both from sixty-six years serving in the imperial army and from the measured upbringing of his parents. All of them waited politely for everyone to arrive at the table before they began eating, just as they’d been taught when they were children.
“Uncle Vincent, how come you know so much about the Last Calamity?” came chatter from one of Elimar’s ...
2024-11-18 06:57:37 +0000 UTC View PostA tall, black-haired man with a white eyepatch over his right eye stared out across the ocean. The eyepatch had a peculiarly round ruby embedded on the front, giving the faintest illusion of an eye in the socket. His good eye was gray as slate. The sapphire-blue waters of the shore washed at his feet, while a faint smile played about his lips.
“Vincent!”
Vincent turned his head toward the voice. There, Sophia of Vasquer waved at him as she ran carefreely. She had grown ...
2024-11-15 06:25:08 +0000 UTC View PostAt the time I write this, 97AC, there is both tremendous optimism for the future and a growing sense of caution. After the Last Calamity, people had nothing to lose but time. After 92 years of labor, many people feel as though there is far more to lose than there is to gain by continuing to test the boundaries. Others, especially the younger generation, approach new innovations eagerly.
Some believe it too early to call an end to the Age of Revolutions, as the most prominent historians ...
2024-11-13 06:55:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Vasquer Standard
Elenore saw the completion of the capitol of the Blackgard Union during the Age of Revolutions. The Bastion, as it was later named by the people, came to embody the significance of her station by sheer force of necessity. The position of prime minister came to have so many offices serving it that the building needed to be enlarged. The bureaucracy that Elenore had established at the very beginning of the Blackgard Union did not stagnate whe...
2024-11-11 06:58:17 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the most hotly contested points of the age revolves around the debate between the idea that the imperial court ceded power deliberately, or were forced to surrender it and couched it in noble rhetoric to preserve their image. From my perspective, there are valid arguments for both.
As an argument for abdication, the simple fact is that the imperial court remained incredibly popular throughout the whole of the age. To illustrate that point, ‘Argrave’ and ‘Anneliese’ both r...
2024-11-08 06:52:39 +0000 UTC View PostUltimately, though the Age of Fury had its troubles, there’s no denying that the Blackgard Union emerged from the other side of it better than they did the years before. The Great Chu had been cemented as an economic dependent, and trade agreements were made that favored the Blackgard Union. The population continued to boom under the imperial court’s stewardship as the children of the last age began families of their own. Advances in technology permitted such large families, and new, burg...
2024-11-06 06:55:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs life became about more than merely survival, the minds of the people gradually drifted toward the questions that have plagued them for all eternity. Life, and its infinite mysteries, remained unanswered. The reason for being, especially after enduring the destruction of the Last Calamity, felt more pertinent for people than ever.
Those questions created thousands of answers, each with their own philosophies toward life and their own explanations of the machinations of the world. This...
2024-11-04 06:55:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe governance of the Blackgard Union, and the imperial family as proxy for it, was as much a product of excellent circumstance as it was excellent governance. Without the Last Calamity as a foundational event, it’s highly unlikely that such sweeping and effective changes could be implemented. It was a great reset of the board, leaving behind a power vacuum that was taken advantage of for positive effect.
In the Age of Fury, cracks in the foundation began to show themselves. The...
2024-11-01 06:01:47 +0000 UTC View PostWhen asked of his parent’s reaction to his brother Enrico’s death, Prince Garm had only this to say.
I thought I had seen my mother and father truly angry before that point. I was wrong. Terribly wrong. They were angry most of all at themselves. They hated what they saw as complacency, and they would never forget what yielding for love of their son had earned them. They became far stricter. The pain of losing a child made them hesitant to have any more.
By some...
2024-10-30 06:21:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe Age of Reclamation was a period of great prosperity. The times after the Last Calamity represented the greatest period of opportunity that the wider populace would be granted for all time, ostensibly. Bolstered by lack of competition, solidarity after suffering, advances in healing arts, and exceptional government, the diminished population exploded toward previous levels.
By the end of this age, the general consensus is that the population had recovered from its losses—an astound...
2024-10-28 06:55:01 +0000 UTC View PostI worked as a mercenary long before I had even heard of Argrave. I fought in a few of King Felipe III’s wars of conquest, but decided to veer away from that path when I came to the conclusion that he had no regard for the lives of his men. Most other armies that I’d served in had that perspective. Levies and mercenaries were not knights—for lords and kings, they were a resource to be used and expended until consumed by the ravages of war. I was given special disregard whenever they disc...
2024-10-25 06:57:42 +0000 UTC View PostPrincess Elenore of Vasquer
BC to present
To be frank, I was hesitant to pen this profile. Prince Garm, however, has given me assurances, and wishes for Elenore to receive some recognition after all these years.
“The simple truth of the matter is that we’re Elenore’s instruments, not the other way around. What she tells us to do, we do. We get all of the accolades, all of the recognition, but most of the essence comes from her. It’d be a...
2024-10-23 06:55:41 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave of Vasquer and Anneliese of Vasquer, known by enough titles to fill a book on their lonesome, proved to be as able in the restoration of Berendar as they were in its defense. From the outset, their rule was a triumvirate, comprised of this couple and Prime Minister Elenore. While Elenore was undoubtedly pivotal, she seldom appeared in public. Emperor and Empress were the public-facing rulers, and the focus of this section.
From the outside looking in, it would be difficult...
2024-10-21 06:55:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe events of the previous volume of this work may make the reader question if it should be taken as a historical account or a novel born of my imagination. To that skeptical reader, I assure I exaggerated no feats. The vast majority of it was corroborated by multiple firsthand sources who survived the Last Calamity, including many that have no known relationship to the imperial court of the Blackgard Union. I put my own testimony in that list. I was a soldier in the Kingdom of Vasquer’s ar...
2024-10-18 06:55:00 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave and Anneliese walked toward Elenore’s large command tent in the early morning. Sophia had been reluctant to see them leave, but they’d persuaded her to rest more. As they walked, Argrave paused.
“Forget something?” Anneliese asked, knowing that look.
“The hand mirror,” Argrave said ponderously. “The bronze one. I’ve no idea where it is.”
Anneliese put a hand on her hip as she thought. “It may be a safe assumption to deem it lost, considering you...
2024-10-16 06:56:20 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Argrave and Anneliese walked out of their tent, the first thing they noticed was that underfoot.
“Grass?” Anneliese questioned. “How long have we been asleep? A week, or…?”
The reason for the lack of sound became clear—a ward surrounded their tent, blocking all noise from entering. Even had it not been there, things probably would’ve been quiet. It was the dead of night. The red moon shone brightly overhead, illuminating the place well. Hundreds and hundreds of ...
2024-10-14 06:53:41 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave drifted.
All of the things that had kept him confined to a state of existence had ceased to hold him any longer. Time had ceased to flow. Space had ceased to act. He had been consumed by that abyss of his own design—perhaps this was the expected result. Then again, perhaps deep in his head, he thought he’d appear back with the fused suns, overlooking the realm he’d come to call home before eventually being called back to join it.
Griffin had claimed that having power...
2024-10-11 06:55:01 +0000 UTC View PostSophia watched the sky with bated breath. All that remained of the wound in the world was a small sliver of blackness. She felt that, any moment, Argrave would burst free of it, triumphant. Everyone else nearby seemed to hold that same thought, for they watched with anticipation equal to her own.
Yet a sudden crash by her side jolted her attention away. She looked to see Doctor Raven, fallen to his hands and knees. His body warped and twisted. A second, far louder crash made Sophia look...
2024-10-09 06:48:46 +0000 UTC View Post“Do you know what’s more agonizing than having tried to gain power, and failed?”
Argrave awoke with a start, throwing his head around as he scanned his surroundings. He laid in the grass, and upon orienting himself, rose to his feet as fast as he could manage. He stood in a wide-open plain, a single tree off in the distance.
“It’s to have unimaginable power, and then lose it.”
Argrave spotted the owner of the voice. It was a small boy sitting in the tree, with bl...
2024-10-07 06:55:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs the chaos all around died, an eerie silence set over the world as if everyone, all at once, was contemplating what had happened. They all feared one another, even their closest allies, because moments ago they’d been fighting against them. Argrave searched this field of dead nightmares for Anneliese.
It became clear he was coming closer to her as the images he saw shifted. He saw her mother, her father. He saw himself, repeated countless times in dead bodies. He saw sights not so d...
2024-10-04 06:52:38 +0000 UTC View Post“So long as you stay with me, Sophia, you’ll be fine. Ignore everything that comes for us, no matter what form it takes.” He held her small hand in his, preparing for what was coming. “I won’t let go. You can’t, either. He’ll try everything to break what you’ve created. But we won’t let him, will we?”
“No,” Sophia said defiantly yet fearfully.
A terrifying, fleeting power had permeated the city of Blackgard. Everyone could feel it, and some had even experie...
2024-10-02 06:53:14 +0000 UTC View Post“Are you sure you’re alright to do this?” Argrave asked as he stared at the last fort standing between the southern valley and the city of Blackgard. The last thing keeping out Gerechtigkeit’s present avatar—a terrifying force of nature.
Sophia watched ahead unwaveringly. “It’s what you’d do… right, dad?”
Argrave eyed her. He’d never actually heard her call him ‘father’ or ‘dad.’ He didn’t want to demand it of her—he had no right to force the titl...
2024-09-30 06:57:26 +0000 UTC View PostGriffin stared at Argrave, who stood defiantly in his tattered black coat deep within the valley leading to Blackgard. In truth, Griffin himself had done appreciably little to come this far. Most everything had been the work of Argrave alone—wresting Sophia from Sandelabara, depriving the Heralds of their voice in this world, putting an end to the ambitions of the Hopeful… all his own feats, even if he had some help along the way.
Of the foes Griffin had fought during his previous d...
2024-09-27 06:54:44 +0000 UTC View PostRaven pulled away from the wound in the world from which Gerechtigkeit had emerged, his study complete. Though the Trial by Fire affected him as much as any other, the unique form of pain it caused was something he could easily ignore. It always took a great deal of pain to morph his body, and over the many centuries, he’d grown used to the sensation.
It certainly hadn’t impeded him in tracing what laid beyond the wound.
Raven’s gaze followed the long cut that had left its i...
2024-09-25 06:52:30 +0000 UTC View PostWith the world aflame, Argrave walked toward the shadows of the Hopeful. The tendrils of darkness writhed like snakes embroiled in conflict with their own tails, and beyond, Argrave could see the smile of the Hopeful. His ever-constant grin was somewhat marred as he ground his teeth together. The fire had overtaken him, too, yet his shadows raged and fought against it.
“It’s easy to endure when you know what waits beyond,” shouted the Hopeful, his voice nearly drowned out beneath ...
2024-09-23 06:52:11 +0000 UTC View PostWielding the spark of eternity, Anneliese felt as though they finally had the upper hand in the battle against Gerechtigkeit.
As the intensity of the engagements around the continent lessened, more and more hands were freed up to fight against the main body of Gerechtigkeit. With Law as their heavy-hitter and countless others providing more than sufficient auxiliary fire, they finally had a strategy that could contain his seemingly-indefatigable assault. In contrast to the inhuman rage ...
2024-09-20 06:56:29 +0000 UTC View Post“Argrave, the Hopeful is making steady progress through the southern valley,” Elenore told him, speaking directly into his head. “He’s already overrun a few of the checkpoints. The repelling enchantments we imitated don’t hinder him as much as they do others. Those shadows he projects seem to just… eat them.”
Argrave processed that information. He had hoped that when the Hopeful had consumed his flesh, the thing would’ve triggered the landmine Argrave had placed where hi...
2024-09-18 06:59:19 +0000 UTC View Post