The street went dark around us, the pitch darkness of the deepest void wrapping itself around us like a lover.
A single mote of light appeared high up in the sky, rapidly expanding into a single drop of raw starlight. It fell down towards me, landing right in front of me. It was eaten up by the void, the fabric of space ‘rippling’ where the drop fell, reverberating around us.
Like a popping flame shooting out sparks, a thousand, a million, a billion
2024-08-09 02:00:06 +0000 UTC
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I had a million things to do, and extremely limited time.
“Let’s go talk with Katerina.” I split my mind again into several processes, doing a dozen different things at once.
The ‘simplest’ one was designing multiple spells that could help handle all this ash and smoke in the air. We were all breathing through masks - a perfectly serviceable solution - but if this state of affairs were to persist, I wanted a dozen different solutions. Hope...
2024-08-07 02:00:03 +0000 UTC
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That had been close. Iona hadn’t been kidding when she said the speedster had a good skill - I hadn’t been able to track how fast they were moving or where they were for most of the fight. She’d even dodged a Radiance beam, which was absurd.
Her sword had been coated with apple juice, among other things, and [Luminary Mind] was split into the full 20 parallel thought processes, and one of them inhaled slightly, ...
2024-08-05 02:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Baradgwend seethed with barely-contained rage.
How dare they.
Ivyhold was dead, almost to the last man and woman. About half of the great tree homes had died, the only survivors being protected by powerful passive skills. Only a few elves had survived the vampire’s attack, everyone else dropping dead in the streets, in their homes.
There were only two survivors under level 1800.
At least the Miasma ha...
2024-08-02 02:00:01 +0000 UTC
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It boggled my mind how quickly I could move and how much I could do at times. I’d just done a full, countrywide tour of Exterreri, and the fact that I could just casually fly over to a city and say ‘alright, everyone here’s in the perfect picture of health’ then move on was just… wow.
It was sobering, in a way. However fast I was, however much good I could bestow, there were hundreds of thousands of people out there who were faster than I was, and more...
2024-07-31 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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I took being bowled over by an explosion with good grace. It all seemed to happen so slowly. I tucked and rolled, turning the harsh push into a somersault, and bounded back to my feet right as everything was disintegrating around me, turning into a hundred thousand splinters that were about to go through the command staff and all the [Scribes].
They’d be fine. Liberal amounts of mental trauma, but none of us were getting out of here without needing signific...
2024-07-29 02:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Xocoh’s arms trembled as she held them up, her knees weak as she’d held the pose for days.
“Son of the sun. Son of the sun.” The kobold ardents chanted. Thousands chanted and marched around Xocoh’s position at the top of the ziggurat, where a gigantic spell was being channeled. It was too bright to look at, a second sun to attract Itzel’s attention and divine favor.
“Son of the sun. Son of the sun!” The chanting reached a fervent pitc...
2024-07-26 02:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The pebbles were thrown fairly indiscriminately, only Tympestshard truly ‘spared’ from Galdir’s rampage. A number of other ‘nations’ were also spared his casual mass-murder to divinity, mostly due to a lack of a major population center.
Both the gnoll tribes of Dairalt and the yetis of Tuvan would bristle at being called a ‘nation’, each tribe fiercely independent and fighting with the rest of them. Their lack of unity and greater civilization was their sa...
2024-07-24 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Eight heavy spheres screamed down to Pallos, each one targeted at a different city in Urwa. Shahrazad. Serendib. Wak-Wak. Miraj Mahal. Azraq. Jamila. Sharaf. Fajr.
Each city had shields and protections, from enchanted walls to powerful Classers with protective skills. The most powerful defenses, however, required active concentration and activation. It was like a turtle in their shell - the withdrawal had to be deliberate. Nobody used [Persistent Casting]
2024-07-22 02:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The cover for book 14! Just three left!
I don't have a subtitle for the book yet, any ideas?
2024-07-20 15:20:05 +0000 UTC
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The gloves were coming off. No more restraining myself for the good of other [Healers]. No more avoiding stepping on toes. No more giving opportunities for other people to step in and level.
No more barely-tolerating people I couldn’t see and hear being sick, hoping that someone else would manage to get to them. No more hoping against hope that the sick and poor would find medical attention, either by finding me when I worked in the slums, or if a kind pass...
2024-07-19 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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It was a fairly hard rule that Sentinels weren’t bothered on their time off. Susan regularly sent Elaine letters when I was off rotation, asking to chat socially, or simply sending me interesting little tidbits of information. With her information processing capabilities combined with her multitasking, I had no doubt that she was in close contact and communication with hundreds, if not thousands of people.
I also regularly met with the rest...
2024-07-17 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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AN: I've decided to split the difference on the paperback question. I'm going to find a secondary distribution channel to continue the 'old' paperbacks, while funneling the 'new' paperbacks to Amazon ONCE THEY ARE READY. They're not ready yet, so nothing's coming out yet. It'll be quite some time until spine art, etc. is ready.
AND WE ARE BACK! Early chapter because I can, because you've all waited so patiently. The rest of this week's chapters will be at their n...
2024-07-14 14:00:17 +0000 UTC
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hey all!
This month's Iona-tier incentive. Sorry I almost forgot to post in all the chaos.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NnZzoJrk-R3mLa7Zty3syVSTVI64PWMG&usp=drive_fs
2024-07-11 14:26:02 +0000 UTC
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Hey all!
Okay, I'll start with what you all want to know:
1) Moving's going well. My desktop is setup, my workspace is half setup.
2) Chapter is still planned for Monday, although it's going to need significant editing. I think you'll enjoy it!
Onto the question!
Should I change my paperbacks?
I started off my paperbacks when people wanted it, having basically 0 idea what I was doing. Over the years I've dramatically improved and learned a ton, but I've conti...
2024-07-09 12:56:03 +0000 UTC
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AN: There's an author's note at the bottom, AFTER the stat sheet.
Note this isn't counting as a full chapter. Narratively, I wanted it as a stand-alone for the impact.
=====================================
Nearly 75 years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks
“Emergency letter for Sentinel Dawn from Sentinel Arachne.”
I was on vacation.
Fuck.
[Name: Elaine]
2024-06-28 14:10:47 +0000 UTC
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Sixty Two years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks.
I took a deep breath in, enjoying the myriad smells of life and mango. From the floral blooms to the loamy soil, the ripe mangoes to the morning dew, to sappy resin and freshly cut grass, my orchard was my happy place. My peaceful place. I’d cleared a small area in the center just for me, with a few benches to sit on.
I hadn’t let the looming threat of war stop me ...
2024-06-28 02:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Forty-Eight Years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks
The library of Ithil was going to unveil a new set of books they’d found, and the claims had them dating back to the Remus Empire.
The original Remus Empire.
Given how many different empires claimed the title of ‘Remus’ over the years, I was skeptical, to say the least. At the same time, elves were a little obsessed with proper credit and attribution, and whe...
2024-06-26 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Thirty five years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks.
I was in a bad mood, putting it lightly. A number of elves had decided to ‘go get some levels’, and their way of doing so involved flying into Exterreri, murdering a bunch of farmers and villagers, then fucking off before news arrived at the Sixth, and we were able to muster a response. My foul countenance was echoed six hundred times, the entire cohort darkly looking over the burnt fields and bodies nailed...
2024-06-24 02:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Hey all!
After lots of talking and sorting things out, I've got the schedule for the next set of BTDEM chapters.
Week of June 24th: Chapters as usual... with a little surprise 4th chapter. Narrative, it's needed as its own chapter, but the word count is TINY. It's not counting as a chapter, just as a neat little bonus. Also, it's a huge cliff. I don't want to say too much here and now...
Week of July 1st: Admin week! I'm spending the entire time moving. Yay fun. I'm awar...
2024-06-22 13:38:38 +0000 UTC
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To avoid cliffing you all with a TWO WEEK admin week, this week is going to be admin week.
I'm going to be taking the first week of July off as admin week while I move. There is a non-zero chance that I'll need to take a 'Fuck moving takes forever/more than I expected' week after that, which would kinda defeat the point of an admin week now to stop a double... but that would stop three weeks in a row I suppose.
I'm unsure what will happen if I need a lot of extra time from the ...
2024-06-16 21:30:19 +0000 UTC
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25 years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks
Given my druthers, I’d stay locked away in my library, letting Skye and Titania rotate the books, happily devouring books as I nibbled on snacks. Maybe I’d occasionally meditate for the health benefits - the giants really knew how to combine the two - but all in all, I’d probably retreat deep into my happy little shell and isolate myself.
It was a good thing I wasn’t alone! After going to the moo...
2024-06-14 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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I was Immortal. I was, barring a violent death, going to live forever. I was still adjusting my mindset to what that meant, and I’d started to idly doodle out a list of every career I ever wanted to try - basically all of them - and ranked them in order that I wanted to try them in.
High up on my list was [Courier], to my mild surprise. The work itself didn’t sound or feel super ‘me’, but the travel, the outdoors, being able to spend most of my time j...
2024-06-12 02:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The moon.
There were two of them, and the layer of illusion Lun’Kat had over them had ended about half a mile from the surface - lower than most clouds were on Pallos. The illusion was razor-thin, as most mirages were, and the ancient dragon had clearly not bothered to do anything so mundane as make it see-through on one side.
Above us was an endless illusion of a dragon’s eye, looking down on us just as much as it was looking up. I’d never wondered bef...
2024-06-10 02:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone!
TL;DR: I anticipate BTDEM has about a year left until the big THE END. If you're on an annual subscription, I'd start taking a look at it. Also, I am shit at estimating how long I have left in things, so maybe there's two years left.
Long version:
For a long time, I've had all of the meta arcs of BTDEM laid out, and how they flow into one another. This has let me foreshadow, plot, and plan quite a bit, and I think I've done well. Many people have been a...
2024-06-08 14:33:49 +0000 UTC
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Hey all! Another month, another incentive!
I am trying to get round to doing more text-based incentives.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NnSDCA2PI-kE8AYz-hmhYxMU1lgR3pn2&usp=drive_fs
This link should work!
Cheers!
Selkie
2024-06-08 13:25:15 +0000 UTC
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My healing snapped me back to the picture of health, but that was the only thing that looked good about the situation.
[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 908-> 909. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Contro...
2024-06-07 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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I had a lot of images in my mind of how this was going to go. Papilion had removed quite a lot from my mind, and I hadn’t spent much time over the years thinking about it - I’d gone fully native - but the space shuttle launches, the vibe and the feel of them, were one memory that had been preserved. Roaring flames underneath, rattling sensations, and a whole lot of force and energy being applied.
I had no idea past that how any of it worked - that had been s...
2024-06-05 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Iona and I waited hand-in-hand by the gate leading to the coliseum, various speeches and a few initial games going on. The pre-show before the real show, entertainment for those who came early and grabbed a good seat.
Also, I mentally bounced around inside of [The World Around Me], a habit I’d developed over scanning around with my eyes.
“Where is Auri?” I asked, mostly knowing the answer but wanting to get some of my frus...
2024-06-03 02:00:03 +0000 UTC
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A bell, amplified by both skills and enchantments, rang out, the pure notes resonating through the entire villa. The entire place boiled with action as people shifted around. [Priests], [Paladins], and a dozen other assorted religious-types, along with a solid chunk of the Valkyrie Order headed towards the chapel, and I anticipated a number of arguments over who was allowed in and who would have to wait outside. I had things to do and went to find Skye, bumpi...
2024-05-31 02:00:02 +0000 UTC
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