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Chapter 40: Shifting Tracks (Patreon)

Published:
2015-08-16 18:29:53
Imported:
2022-02

Content

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/40/Mother-of-Learning

Another chapter for your enjoyment, dear readers. Enjoy.

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Comments

Kanashimu

A really cool chapter. Do you have any plans to ever make a commercial realease of the different arcs or the whole story as a whole? I for one would like to buy it, but I have no idea if it would be commercially viable.

Anonymous

Thanks for another great chapter! Reading this is always the highlight of my day.

Nepene

Thanks for the chapter, glad to have it. Also, yay for the awesome predictive power of people about Rea.

Nepene

If you're still willing to answer questions- what sort of things do enhancement rituals do, based on publicly available information/ stories? Is there any reason Zorian isn't seeking them out? They seem like the sort of thing that would be useful for someone with little mana and a need to make his resources last.

nobody103
>>719207

Once I finish the story, I will consider cleaning it up and selling it as a classical book. Right now I don't want the hassle of dealing with publishing along with working on my day job and trying to actually finish the story.

nobody103
>>719351

Enhancement rituals often have large drawbacks, especially if done incorrectly... and they are easy to do incorrectly. No, using the time loop to save scum doesn't make that irrelevant - Zorian hates dying, especially in a horrible, painful fashion. Also, many of them esentially turn the mage into a magical creature, and thus force them to spent their mana to maintain their enhancements. Hardly something a mana-conscious mage would be crazy about. FInally, most of those enhancements wouldn't carry over to other restarts, and require lengthy and dangerous procedures to apply, making them relatively unappealing to Zorian.

Anonymous

Thanks for another great chapter. This certainly cleared up a bunch of questions I had about what's going on, and was extremely interesting with what Zorian saw of the invasion...That said, wonder what Red Robe's up to, because it would have to be pretty dang important considering he had given the invaders full information on how to defeat their enemies in every single reset before the local colony got wiped out, up until now. Looking forward to more, as always.

Anonymous

This chapter was nice to read, I am glad to see plot move forward. It is nice to see various improvements Zorian worked so hard to achieve paying for themselves. Reading unshielded minds really is an incredibly powerful ability.

Anonymous

Hi! I just finished reading through Mother of Learning for the first time. Most of my friends and family who know my my literature tastes consider me a bit snobby; they wouldn't expect me to fall in love with a half-finished fantasy novel on the web in a million years! I just entered myself for a one-time $40 donation. Some things I love about your extraordinary piece of art (in no particular order): 1) The great magic system (for that reason alone I liked it more than the only other two works of fantasy that I've ever enjoyed: LOTR and The Black Company) 2) Your writing style 3) The detailed and self-consistent gradually-revealed world 4) The time-loop premise: obviously it's not original, but the execution is flawless and it fits ridiculously well with everything else you've done with the story. I especially love the way the world and the characters unfold as Zorian chooses different actions in different restarts. 5) Zorian is not Zach: if anything, he is less innately talented than the average mage. His only advantage is being in the loop (and that's a disadvantage against Red Robe, who has been in the loop longer). Zorian has little inborn ability beyond his (deliciously ironic) empath abilities: he only has his wits and will to aid him. 6) I would never admit this to the people I've recommended this novel to...but I love the methodical way Zorian tackles problems and how you illustrate and reinforce this chapter by chapter. I've noticed a slight change in myself the past few days in how I've approached several real-life problems. This is perhaps ridiculous considering my age and experience, but I think I've really learned something valuable from a fictional teenager in a half-finished web fantasy novel. Thank you for that! 7) The internal consistency makes it clear that you've planned and structured the story from the very beginning. That makes all the difference. I won't say hurry: don't change your pace or writing process to please the fans. But please be faithful to your vision for the story, keep writing the same way you have been, and most importantly, STICK WITH IT! When the story is over, if the quality doesn't drop off a cliff, I'll give considerably more than $40. I can't read a chapter once a month, so I'll keep an eye on your progress over the next few years (or decade?) and return and re-read from the beginning when your work is complete. Thank you again for this masterpiece. P.S. What were your sources of inspiration? I'd love to read through a list of works that inspired this story or are simply some of your favorites.

nobody103
>>726106

>But please be faithful to your vision for the story, It would be next to impossible to do otherwise, as most things have been decided in advance when I started writing it and aren’t really open to changes. >so I'll keep an eye on your progress over the next few years (or decade?) I love writing Mother of Learning, but I sincerely hope it will not take a decade to finish writing it… >P.S. What were your sources of inspiration? D&D is a big one, obviously. Mostly for its magic system, which I’ve always liked – it’s incredibly versatile and powerful, yet has clear rules and limitations. MoL magic is not D&D magic, but it draws heavily on it and most people familiar with it can tell that. Though it isn’t obvious at the moment, Planescape (the setting as well as the video game) was also an inspiration. Naruto and Harry Potter (and the vast amounts of fanfiction stories they spawned) provided a fair amount of inspiration. The Avernum/Exile series of games was a large inspiration – the aranea were heavily inspired by it, for instance, though the talking spiders in those games are nothing like the aranea. The Dungeon is also somewhat inspired by those games. The other part of the Dungeon-inspiration comes from roguelikes (NetHack, Angband, Stone Soup, etc.) and Dwarf Fortress (which is apparently also a type of roguelike…). I never did win any of those games, but I had Fun playing them, and that’s what matters. Various non-standard fantasy stories where the world isn’t stuck in medieval stasis are responsible for making me realize I actually prefer a higher-technology setup, which was crucial for a lot of things about Mother of Learning. Off the top of my head, I can name the Fullmetal Alchemist manga (the first Japanese work I read, and the only one I unreservedly like) and the Urbis D&D fan-setting (I’m not sure how much info about this remains on the internet these days) as important in having this realization really click in my mind. I often browse random images on DeviantArt and read worldbuilding attempts by other people, and these things have been a fair amount of influence on how MoL ended up in the end. Real life history is also a big inspiration, because I like reading historical books and Wikipedia articles when the mood strikes me. I also read various timelines AlternateHistory.com, and I’m pretty sure some of them inspired some of the historical background information for MoL.