Hexenkessel Interludes: The Ghost Crucible
“I heard a call through the pigments of things that could be, and have been. It surprised me because it lacked any command. There was no snare, no threat, no bribe either. It was as a doorway left open.”
Tag: worldbuilding
Worldbuilding: The Dubious Art of Blitzhau
“In tight-eyed recollection, she told us of a swordmaster named Bodo Haddenwich, and made mention of the peculiar art he practiced. She named this art as ‘Blitzhau'”
The Sgain Togre Phase-Duelists
“You were the one who loved the ringing masses, cheers and stamping. You were the one who needed their racket to believe your own power.”
High Fantasy Knights: Reviving the Classic
The year is 2020. Runaway corporate avarice is consuming Earth’s natural resources to the point of unsustainability, and not a single imposing dystopian metropolis has been built in the process. With each day, society’s rancid husk sags further upon its shattered metaphorical ribs, soon to collapse entirely. In a disappointingly functional, non-cyberpunk apartment rented at […]
Missed Opportunities: New World Same As The Old World
They’re everywhere you go. Everywhere you turn. At the other end of each turning page, nestled in the middle of a sentence. Watching you. Laughing at you. You can only read of that other world, but they slip between it and ours. They are ancient and strong beyond human reckoning. The mightiest strongman strains to […]
On the Potential of Games to Create Narratives and Their Lessons For Writers
I’ve mentioned once before, in my “Why I Write” essay, that gaming got me started scribing things. Well, I hope today I might be able to show you why it worked as it did. I’ll preface this by saying that it’s an unfortunate coincidence I was playing as Germany during the events of this story, […]
North’s Whiplash Writing Recommendations: No Questions Asked, Answered Anyway
One of the big problems I’ve seen among genre fiction authors in recent years is an obsession with explaining things no one wanted explained. Some prime examples include Prometheus, because what everyone really wanted from the Alien franchise was a prequel movie entirely focused on humans (down to a ridiculous HUMANS ARE ACTUALLY ALIENS plot point), and that […]
Ashenvein Gate: Stories & Dreams 