BIG Schedule Announcement (Patreon)

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 able to anticipate the upcoming plot and guess it with some measure of accuracy, while leaving enough twists and turns to keep things fresh and exciting. I think.

I also feel like I've executed most of my arcs well, or at the very least, they did what they were meant to do. (Elf arc, for all I was burning out and didn't go a great job, did check off a number of boxes I was aiming for.)

Which brings me not to the next mega arc, but the one after THAT.

I realized I was plotting three whole books worth of content, but there were no character arcs. There was no growth for Elaine. There was no real challenge, no problems that really required MC-tier thinking and management. It was a pure 'numbers go up, do steadily-less-cool-thing-because-she's-done-it-a-thousand-times-already, repeat' arc. While also implying a strong genre shift. I'll post the details at the bottom, under some spoiler tags.

However I sliced it, the story just wasn't good. I couldn't make it good. And I realized the story and the setting is a FANTASTIC setting for a different story, one I hope to get to One Day TM. Roar of the Lion is still probably going to be first, along with working on Mango Media, which is doing extremely well.

After a lot of discussions and soul searching, I decided a shorter, stronger series was better, and not just padding it for the sake of padding it or because that's what the plot demanded. There are a few loose ends though, and I hope to partially address some here, and some in the spoiler section.

The first issue that arises, and I don't have an amazing solution, is the scale of the 'wheel of time turning'. It's not going to be CLOSE to the fae timeskip, but there's going to be some awkwardness around it. A feeling of being a little rushed. I've got quite a few fun plans on how to mitigate that in the last few books, but I think it's inevitable that the level pacing is going to feel a little quick.

I had never planned on showing every single classup, so there's not much lost there.

The second major point I don't think I'll be able to properly address is the 'breaking' of the Immortal War Cycle. If it helps, my betas informed me that my solution was stupid and didn't work AT ALL, so maybe this is a good thing!

By my planning, book 16 is going to be the last book, which is poetic with how big powers of 8 have been in BTDEM. It's also looking like it's going to be MASSIVE, which again - full approval on my end. Probably 300kish words, if not more.

While the ending looks like it might be a little wobbly on the runup, I do think I'll stick the landing. There is a strong chance that the last ~4-6 chapters are going to be on a different posting cycle, as I make sure each one of them is large, meaty, and satisfying, while giving plenty of time for betas to give me feedback. I might pause billing for a month just to hammer out all the details and write like heck, to give the finale the big bang it deserves.

I'm both sad, and excited. I've been planning THE END since before I started writing, and we've been steadily following Elaine on her life's adventure. I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who've been with me every step of the way, and I hope we'll all see the end together.

I'll do my best to answer questions in the comments and on discord

Thank you,

Selkie


SPOILERS!
READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL

=======================

I had planned a 'planar invasion' arc. I've been hinting at a vast multiverse out there, unlimited worlds, each with their own cultures, races, etc. etc. etc. Pallos is a small fish in the grand scheme of things, and the gods have worked very hard to keep Pallos hidden from the greater multiversal forces. It was somewhat explicitly said by Night.

While there are lots of smaller planets and forces out in the multiverse, there are several huge multi-world organizations. The arc started off with Pallos being 'found', and the invaders basically ripping a bunch of portals open to invade and take over another juicy world.

Except, fuck 'send monsters through endlessly', they'd be PRACTICED at this shit. Portals open and gases and diseases are launched through, high-energy weapons and plasma bombs bombard capital cities. They're not trying to enslave the natives or anything, they're trying to wipe off all life on Pallos and get their own brand-new habitable world with a strong 'anchor'.

Added fun, there are TWO factions fighting over Pallos. Team A was a hybrid of Protoss/Covenant. Radiance, Lightning, Void, Brilliance, Mantle as some of the primary elements. A 'high tech scifi civilization' They're a little better to be taken over by, because Team B were the Formorians. Originally I was going to have them be zerg-like, before realizing I'd already done a bunch like this, and it was too perfect.

BTW, the item at auction that fired Radiance? A Not!Protoss laser pistol. Not even the first foreshadowing of the arc I did.

The gods WERE copy-pasting from all over, and the originals had quite a few more models than the ones copied over. They're on the Miasma-Spore-Poison-Wood-Forest, and all those other biological elements.

The natives are caught between a rock and a hard place. Both are bad, and they're trying to survive. There's interesting stuff with gods cutting down portals as they formed, stranding entire fleets in the void between worlds. Supercarriers being brought down by dragonflights, treachery by some Pallos factions throwing in with the Not!Protoss faction, Jordunmandger awakening cranky, and the practical look of what being on the wrong end of a genocide looks like. (Destroy crops, burn fields, but leave nothing 'easy' behind, then starve cities like that. Once people disperse, the second wave of hunters are unleashed to pick them off... there was a lot more to that.)

But just because Pallos is being invaded doesn't mean people can't invade BACK. Sabotage missions deep into the hivelands to cut off their production, snipers hitting the Not!Protoss portal generators and shattering their crystal spires, there's just so much!

In the end, Good Guys Win, and the infinite multiverse opening up 'solves' the Immortal War problem - when populations are exploding, when greedy Immortals are always looking for MORE, they can open portals and delve there for more. (Yes... I know this doesn't quite work for a variety of reasons... I thought it would in my head when I was planning this.)

For the "Wait this sounds totally cool" - I agree! It's why I want to do it as its own story, not part of Elaine's. From Elaine's POV it would be a lot of: "Pew pew pew nobody dies pew pew pew cannibalism pew pew pew pew pew pew pew. Magic spell. Pew. Lemme meditate on Oath and see if I can join a strike team. Pew pew pew. GO dragons! Wait what? Pew pew! Ding! Oh hey, we won."

There just isn't a whole lot of character growth, introspection, or new fields for Elaine to properly explore. I don't want to drag this on and on, and it would be quite a tone and genre shift. Trying that right before the final arc just doesn't sit well with me. So it'll be its own story one day!

Thank you all for understanding!

End Spoilers