I fancy myself a writer of speculative fiction. Sure, I’ll write non-fiction articles, read & edit the work of others, even toil in fields completely unrelated to writing. But my first and foremost desire is to use my grasp of language and imagination to provide an escape for people looking for new worlds in the pages of a book. I’ve put some fiction up here before, but it can be hard to find them and they aren’t necessarily the best I have to offer.
Every couple of weeks, I’ll put a new story up there. Sometimes it will be exhumed from the early days of the blog, sometimes it’ll be completely new. But it will always be free.
This week, I’ve edited and am re-presenting The Jovian Flight. Enjoy.
No D&D this week, but I took the opportunity to expand a bit on the geography and current events beyond the Nentir Vale (pictured above). The map I’ve sketched is on graph paper in pencil, and I don’t have access to a scanner yet.
North of the Vale
The orcs that brought the Bloodspear War into the Nentir Vale continue to thrive between, under and on the Stonemarch, in their vast warrens called the Fanged Jaws of Kulkoszar. Cheif Urfeng Bloodspear eyes the Nentir Vale, and Fallcrest in particular, as irritants that must be stricken from the memory of his people. The Keep on the Shadowfell stands in his way.
West of Kulkoszar and leading north out of the Winterbole Forest is the Glacial Pass, a wind-swept and narrow plain emptying into a wide taiga. Above this frozen stretch of land rise the Frostjaw Peaks, a cluster of jagged mountains dominated by the Titan’s Vigil. It is said that a structure of some sort exists above the clouds that always conceal the top of the Vigil in darkness and the occasional flash of lightning. None who have dared to test the Vigil have returned.
South of the Vale
The King’s Road leads south out of the Nentir Vale to two very different cities, each about the size of Fallcrest. To the west along the coast is the stoic walled port of Stormwatch. Its lighthouse is one of the largest in the world. Princess Tavia Stillwater maintains control of the city, though threats of the Iron Circle and a possible blockade coupled with increased tariffs seem poised to choke her and her city into submission.
On the other side of the King’s Road through the Vale is the city formerly known as Adamantine. When Emperor Lysander seized power, King Alphonse Markelhay of Adamantine was among those who refused to kneel to the new potentate. He was returning to Adamant Keep to prepare for war when he disappeared. It is rumored he was slain by highwaymen of the Iron Circle. Indeed, the mercenary force moved into the city backed by the Emperor’s sorcerers and vicious beasts, putting down resistance and claiming it for their own. The Emperor declared the city be renamed Sarthel, in honor of his late father.
Resistance remains in Erathgate, the coastal city south of Stormwatch. Baron Silas Shandra pays homage to the Emperor but does all he can to keep commerce flowing to Stormwatch and his own ports rather than the Imperial-controlled Junction or the free city of Daggerport. He is a prudent and cautious man, and does not wish to call undue attention to his sympathy towards the anti-Imperial forces.
The Second Nerathan Empire
South of Erathgate, the King’s Road becomes known as the Imperial Highway. It leads to Junction, the largest city outside of Nerath itself and a crucial part of the Emperor’s strategy of securing his rule. Duke Karl Calebros, the Emperor’s finest warrior outside of the Executioner, has ensured that all commerce worth having comes into Junction, having raised tariffs on shipping to and from Stormwatch and exaggerating the dangers of Daggerport.
Along the Highway to the east is Nerath itself. Easily twice the size of Fallcrest and seated where the Nentir River splits in three, it maintains control of most of the commerce flowing through the region. Until recently, it was a city administered by a duke and every five years played host to the Games of Ascension. If the current king could be defeated in an honorable tournament, he would be come Duke of Nerath while his opponent became King, at least until the next Games. King Perrin II had been king for twenty years before Prince Lysander Nerath arrived with his Iron Circle mercenaries, dark sorcerers, priests of Bane and tamed beasts to seize the city and declare himself Emperor.
South of Nerath along the Imperial Highway, which follows the Scintil River, Shoredale rests near Lake Iris. It is a quiet and peaceful town, a bit smaller than Fallcrest, where the farmers of the southern plains gather to trade goods and barter for new equipment as caravans travel between Nerath and Fortune’s Harbor to the south. Baron Gabor Zoltus capitulated to the Emperor without contest.
Fortune’s Harbor serves as the gateway to both the Eladrin leading north to the elven lands and the mysterious Caliphate of Seven Stars to the south. Earl Carlson Everdawn ascended to ruling the city after his mother, a favorite to become Queen, was poisoned by her chancellor, who now advises the Earl not to contend with the will of the Emperor.
Daggerport
The only openly free city in the Nerathan Empire lies along the Low Road, across the long stone bridge called The Hilt. The delta of the Nentir Vale, The Knives, frames the city to the west. The natural defences of the coast allow the shipping to and from Daggerport to avoid some of the Imperial patrols, just as they did the Royal Coast Guard before it.
Daggerport is not ruled by a noble or even a particular group of individuals. However, anybody living or trading in Daggerport knows they had better not cross Szcathia, the drow reportedly in control of Daggerport’s network of thieves and assassins. To engage in commerce in Daggerport is to engage in crime, and Szcathia is Daggerport’s criminal mastermind.
Dwarves & Elves
East of the Nerathan Empire are two of the most extant threats to the new potentate. As soon as he seized control of Nerath, Emperor Lysander sent emissaries to the Dawnforge Dwarves. The messages spoke of a pact of non-agression between the dwarves and the Nerathan Empire. The dwarves agreed, but not before allowing some of the elite forces of Adamantine to flee into their holds. Before Lysander could protest, the mighty stone doors in the shadow of Adamant Hold rolled shut, leaving Hammerfast the only open road into dwarf territory in the region.
South of Sarthel is the Moonwood, seperated by the greater Feywood by the city of Sehavia. While the city boasts some idyllic mountain retreats, natural hot spring baths and all the wonders of the Feywild available for sale or trade, it is also a place for the exchange of secrets. Eladrin and tieflings are common sights in the city, far moreso here than in any other city in the region.
The Feystride takes travellers south from Sehavia to the other sylvan city in the region, Meloravia. A port city far from Fortune’s Harbor, Meloravia rests at the apex of the Eladrin Bay. Intrepid explorers can seek adventurous crews to take them around the Black Marsh towards the Bay of Bahamut, rumored to be a gateway to a realm of metallic dragons and untold hoards of treature. However, the waters in the bays are treacherous, and more than a few crews have washed up in the turgid, stinking waters of the Black Marsh to make their sticky way home, while others are never seen again.
The Feystride then leads east into the Feywood. Little is known of this place. It is said the elves (not eladrin) hail from this realm, and that it is a shard of the Feywild itself, just as ways to the Shadowfell lay concealed beneath the Stonemarch.
Some personal stuff related to writing and my life in general follows. Maybe this stuff will be useful to somebody else, and I apologize in advance if you choose to click the spoiler link and find the following text empty, useless or pointless.
Spoiler
There are some habits that are good to get rid of. Excessive drinking, smoking a pack of cigarettes that are more chemicals than tobacco a day, picking your nose or other body parts in public… You catch my drift.
There are other habits that one should hold on to. Keeping up on household chores, paying bills on time (if one’s economic situation allows), things of that nature. It can be a lot easier to fall out of these habits than it is to lose the habits that are bad for us, mostly because the more effort something requires, the less inclined we are to do them, especially if there’s a dayjob and other responsibilities involved. Firing up a game or watching a movie requires a lot less effort than washing the dishes or changing the car’s oil, after all.
But the more we put those things aside, the longer we stay out of the good habits, the worse things get. Detritus piles up, be it dirty silverware or engine deposits or recyclable waste. Then more effort than what should have been necessary is required to deal with that detritus, leaving us even more drained and less inclined to do the task on the following day. It’s a cycle that perpetuates itself, and it takes conscious effort to put a stop to it.
The habit of pursuing art is no differnet. Gone are the days when the artist could seek a patron as a source of income that kept them fed and clothed while they pursued their vision. Nowadays, to appease the exorbidant rates of utility companies and maintain even the most meager of households, one has to submit themselves to the will of a corporate or small business master. And while the cost of living goes up with shocking regularity, the salary of the day worker often remains the same. Make a single mistake, indulge in a single distraction, and you can expect nothing but disappointment if not scorn from those above you.
Thus it falls to the artist to engage in the habit of pursuing art in one’s spare time. The reduction of a life-long passion to the status of a hobby can be a crippling one. Your dreams limp along, gasping for air and vying for one’s attention admist distractions that require much less effort, input and time. After a long day of disappointment and doubt, a film or game or night out holds a great deal more appeal than even more disappointment and doubt, even if it’s in the form of something you love.
As my big sister was in the habit of saying, “Suck it up and deal with it.”
Without our passions, we’re nothing. We’re empty husks trudging from day to day banging away at insignificant tasks and spewing preprogrammed corp-speak jargon. Living that way isn’t really living. It’s existing. Amoebas exist. We should live.
I know it may seem like a lot of whining or grousing on my part but it’s been made crystal clear to me that I have once again gotten out of the good habit of seizing appropriate opportunities to write. It’s a habit I need to return to and this is my way of expressing that. Maybe somebody reading this will come to a similar realization and re-engage in a discarded good habit that leads them to freedom from a vicious cycle of depression and a dimishing self-image.
We, as individuals and especially as artists, are so much more than cogs in a machine, regardless of what anybody with a higher pay grade might say. It’s necessary for most of us to become a part of that machine just to afford a warm place to live and clean food to eat. But the machine need not be our lives. It doesn’t have to be our reason for being. There’s a reason people put faith in things that cannot be proven by science, other than ignorance or stupidity – there’s hope in the notion that there’s something more than what we see every day, because most of what we see every day can be pretty damn depressing.
I know I may never really succeed at writing. I know I may be doomed to working thankless, underpaid jobs for which I have little passion until my body begins to fail, my mind starts to unravel and all of the fire in my heart goes out.
That’s not going to stop me from trying, dammit.
I just have to try when I’m not getting paid to do something else.
The character of Liara T’soni in the original Mass Effect wasn’t an overall fan favorite. Aside from being a source of controversy and leading some phenomenally ignorant people to call the game “a sex simulator”, Liara’s tendency to be both loquacious and seemingly naive could get on people’s nerves, while others (like myself) found her desire to help and fascination with the Protheans to be endearing. And then, she turned up in the sequel, holding down a desk on Illium where she worked as an information trader and someone you really, really didn’t want to mess with. Just ask her secretary. The graphic novel Redemption expands on the role she played in the events following the opening of the second game, and the big question on the minds of most players was just how badass Liara had become, to say nothing of the resolution of the possible romance a player may have pursued or even abandoned over the course of Mass Effect 2. Those answers are questioned in Lair of the Shadow Broker.
The DLC begins when you deliver some information to Liara, courtesy of the Illusive Man. Following up on it, Liara is attacked at home. You and your squad show up in the aftermath, meeting the lead investigator and beginning to piece together what happened. By the time you find Liara again, it becomes clear that the Shadow Broker has classified the asari scientist as a threat and is moving to eliminate her. With the information she’s gained, however, Liara can beat him to the punch, a task for which she needs your help.
Just like old times.
This DLC is much, much larger than anything produced for the game to date, expanding on the location of Illium and adding new upgrades and achievements. You also get Liara as a temporary member of your team, and she’s a fantastic addition. While we did have adepts on the team in the form of Samara and Subject Zero, Liara brings the fantastic crowd-control combination of Singularity and Stasis to the field. She’s the only character besides Shepard (as an Adept) to have access to the miniature black hole, and you can add Stasis to your arsenal permanently if you make the right choices.
BioWare’s always shown decent character writing chops in their work, and this DLC is no exception. In fact, it’s pretty exemplary of everything that makes the Mass Effect games so playable. Not only do we get interesting events and character development from both the first game and the graphic novel, we get a great change of pace, similar to that in Kasumi’s Stolen Memory, in the form of a car chase.
The environment of Illium’s soaring towers is reminiscent of Blade Runner, and the chase takes place between and even through those towers. Environmental concerns, other vehicles and little surprises crop up to get in your way. And the entire time, Shepard and Liara are in the car bickering like an old married couple. It’s fast-paced action that has you rolling with laughter while you’re dodging other sky-cars. It’s one of the highlights of the DLC.
Between the unique setting of the eponymous Lair, the great dialog and the expansion of Liara’s character, this DLC has plenty to offer and is well worth the price. Even after the mission ends, you get plenty of use out of its content, from interesting video surveillance of some characters to dossiers of your team and some of the people who’ve crossed your path, for good or ill. Finally, it begins setting up the story for Mass Effect 3 even moreso than any of the sequel’s in-game content. I thoroughly enjoyed playing through it, and I actually look forward to doing so again. If that’s not praise, I don’t know what is.
Remember how I mentioned that I’m playing Magic: the Gathering again? I’m not the only one. My niece has taken up the hobby, both of her parents play and my friends in Chesterbrook are trying to nail down a date in December for a Magic night.
I’ve blown the dust off of my decks and started a couple others. Here’s the state of things in this planeswalker’s arsenal.
Reanimator: After some trial and error, I’ve narrowed this deck down to two primary colors, green and black. There are a couple cards that let me add the white necessary if I need to hardcast Teneb, the Harvester. However, a few of the defenders, such as Twisted Abomination or Penumbra Spider get some help in the form of Lure and Gaze of the Gorgon. The core of the deck remains the same: by destruction in combat or discarding, my creatures sent to the graveyard don’t stay there long thanks to Dread Return.
Sliver Legion: People hate this deck. It’s pretty much remained unchanged since I put it together.
Chronomancy: Slightly less hated than the Sliver Legion, Jhoria and I still make a good team. I pared down the “big guns” to a single Akroma, Angel of Fury and a pair of Lightning Angels to ensure I had enough counters and ‘answers’ to enemy threats. It may still need a tweak or two, but it’s performed well.
Grinder (working title): At the core of this deck are four Millstones. Around this are built a variety of counters, including Induce Paranoia and anti-creature answers such as Assassinate and Doom Blade. It’s creatureless, nasty and a HUGE target.
Creature Feature: Still in the concept stages. The more I consider the best way to make use of Magus of the Future, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary and Vorosh, the Hunter, the more I consider Vedalken Aethermages and Plaxcaster Frogling essential parts of it. The Aethermages are pretty self-explanatory, letting me tutor my deck for two of the three essential trio. The Frogling can protect the other creatures in play, provided I have enough mana, but I’d also need more +1/+1 counters to spread around. I think most of them will come from the same block as Momir, such as the Simic Initiate and the Sporeback Troll. More on this deck as it develops.
This is of course without diving into the latest edition of Magic, including its preconstructed decks and Planeswalkers. We’ll have to see what the holiday holds…
