Three months...dang.

    Every writer has times where they can not write.  For me, the last three months was one of those times.  It is a pain when Life and mind just do not want to get along.  Not to mention the chaos that unfolds when you have to take care of people.

    Any way...back on track and I am working on a piece about how magic works.  And I am not talking about formula and mana and stuff.  I mean the real "Why it works!".  Any way thought you should be told.  And to boot I have also posted a little blurb on the Furbolg.

     It is short, but like their enigmatic masters, it is hard to observe them with out the Asterilians getting in the way.  Enjoy.

Furbolg: The Age of Awakening

    The rise of the Firbolg, much like that of the Asterilians, is not well understood. The current theory is that the Firbolg are not a natural species, that they were created by the Asterilias using human genes as a base. This is corroborated by tests done on Furbolg and species on their world.

    Testing shows that the Firbolg are a combination of Human genes and an indigenous species called the Bolg by the Asterilians. The Bolg are a herbivorous species, resembling the Buffalo on Earth, that graze on the planes of the planets southern continent. The same continent that gave rise to the Asterilians.

    How did this come to pass? Well it is believed that the Furbolg were created over a couple centuries. The Asterilians used the genes they preserved and selectively combined them with select bolg that met their designs. Over time, generation after generation, those domesticated Bolg started to change.

    Evidence of this forced evolution can be found in certain areas as pens and skeletons with varying bone structures can be found in the same general area. For what reason this was done is far easier to answer, cheep labor. The Asterilians are not a strong species, in fact they are quite frail compared to other forms of life.

    Over time the Asterilians likely discovered that to progress as a species, as a society, they needed a little more muscle. At the same time, to perpetuate the species they needed something to keep away other herbivores that would try to eat their seedlings. So to fill those two needs, they made the Furbolg much like we made the Golemites.

    There is little more on the Furbolg though. They appear to be an agrarian species that leans away from any form of violence. They will fight if pressed to do so with dire consequences for those they are attacking. They have very sturdy frames and their musculature is dense. But they lack a certain nuance of thought, their culture is primitive and subservient, tribal even.

    Sadly there is not much more to add about their culture at this time. This article will be updated if more information is discovered.

To be Continued: “Vyrmkin: The Age of Awakening”

Asterilians: The Age of Awakening

    With the revelation of the BG Drive and the ability to travel between the stars faster than any could imagine, there was also a concerted effort to be the first out there. As the governments of the world built fleets of probes to explore system after system. Others found the funds to build ships.

    From cults to greedy ceo’s, many lined up to build their own ships and find worlds for themselves. But unfortunately for a few cheap materials and bad quality control would lead to disaster. One such disaster occurred to the Church of Scientology who’s rocket exploded one minute after launch killing all of the leadership on it.

    But many were successful in their efforts. After launch and once in orbit their drives charged never to be seen again. It was one of these groups that exposed a carnivorous plant on an unknown planet to human DNA. And in doing so, they would create not just one, but two new species.

    The events that created the Asterilian race are better described by the people that created them. The following logs were found on the Asterilian home world in a place they hold sacred.

Oct. 14 2183: It has been a year since we launched. We have visited a hundred systems with little to show until now. The second planet of the system is a garden world rich in plant life and animals. It is a little smaller than Earth is, but not by enough to effect it gravity. We are set to enter orbit in a few days...it will be nice to get out of this can.

Oct. 29 2183: We made orbit of the second planet three days ago. Once it was done we threw a party with some of the last of our supplies. Edwards even had a bottle of Whiskey stashed some where in the ship. Greg thinks he has found a good place to land on one of the southern continents. With luck we will be landing in the next couple of days.

Nov. 03 2183: Planet Fall, we have landed...finally. There is a lot to do so that is all there is today.

Nov. 11 2183: We have been unpacking and setting up. The landing was perfect and this area is so beautiful. The valley we landed in has a sizable clearing that we are building in and forests to the north and east. We have not had time to explore any but we are making plans to send out some parties to see if there are any edible plants or animals we can hunt. Well my break is over, back to work.

Nov. 16 2183: Shit...they are missing. We are readying a search team to go out, but we aren’t sure where to look. (sigh) The beginning...we sent out five teams to collect plant specimens yesterday. All teams maintained radio contact throughout the day. But as the sun started to set, the team in the eastern forest missed their check in.

It was after Sundown when the fourth and last team got back. Though it was not long until the teams wanted to go out again to search for the missing people. But the captain stopped them before they could go running into the woods.

But now that the sun has risen again, he teams are getting ready to head out and search...I am joining them. Oh...time to head out.

Nov. 17 2183: Shit….shit shit shit...Jennifer, something got her...not sure what but she was struck by... something in the arm. We barely got her back to camp, she was screaming all the way. (sigh) We are not even sure what is going on with her...we are running tests right now…

Nov. 19 2183: Jennifer is dead...it was...I can not describe it...horrible. Her arm...it literally melted off of her. What ever she was infected with dissolved her flesh into a soup. Even the bone was starting the break down some how.

The next day we had to keep her under...the toxin had invaded all of her body as we returned. It was all we could do...her organs...her body...by the end of the day she was dead. Her heart...it burst...literally. Soon after the rest...I mean...she just...liquified.

God...what did this...did the others...what is on this planet?

Nov. 20 2183: We buried what was left of Jennifer today...we have lost six people to this planet. We started with one hundred and sixty five, now there are one hundred and fifty nine left. I hope that we don’t loose many more.

Dec. 8 2183: Another group have gone missing in the east forest. The captain has ordered that the east forest is off limits and that all teams should be back before dusk. Since the attacks have happened at dusk, the captain believes that what ever it is may be nocturnal. So as long as we stay out, no more should be lost. We hope…

Feb. 16 2184: Something odd happened today, several people reported that they saw a human wandering around the edge of the east forest. It was not long after that the entire colony heard a shot ring out in the quiet. The entire colony showed up to fine Mr. Jackson standing over a...well...something.

All we could see was a tangle of vines with thorns on the ends of some. Mr. Jackson said that he was patrolling the perimeter of the colony when he saw a humanoid figure awkwardly moving...almost shambling towards the colony. He called out to it to stop multiple times, but it did no respond. Once it got closer, Mr. Jackson started to see something was wrong...the shape was wrong and green like a plant. Shortly after he took action and shot the...thing.

We are moving it to the lab and placing it in the containment cell...just in case.

Feb. 19 2184: The Science team has been working on the...well body I guess. What they have found is remarkable and disturbing. The organism is a plant based life form but appears to have evolved a basic circulatory system for distributing nutrients more efficiently. The organisms vines also appear to have a form of muscle fiber that allow the vines to rapidly move and for a rudimentary heart to pump.

The plant appears to have a collection of bulbs with a major one containing a number of distinct organs including the heart. The organs are currently being looked into. What is creepier is a series of bulbs on specific vines that appear to be eyes, a mouth attached to a structure that looks like lungs and a voice box.

This thing appears to be mimicking humans. No one is sure why it would evolve to try and mimic a humanoid form...but that is being looked into.

Feb. 27 2184: It took a while...but the science team...shoot I do not know where to begin. Well I guess the science team results, they found that one of the organs in the organism contained various animals DNA. Clusters of cells somehow contained all of the animals DNA and the organism used that as a way to mimic the animal. More though...they found human DNA in the organism...it matched the DNA of one of the missing team members.

That means there are more of these things out there...possibly many more as we know very little about these organisms.

Feb. 28 2184: Good news for once...Krystal is pregnant. It is wonderful news though we were not going to start the breeding program for a couple years yet. So I hope that her relationship can hold up under that as she will need to have more children from other partners.

There are only one hundred and fifty four of us now. Two thirds of our population are women. To manage a viable gene pool we will need to choose who has children with who and every woman will have to get pregnant with multiple partners to expand the population in a way that will prevent inbreeding.

Here’s to hoping all goes well for her. The medical team are preparing for this change in plans.

Mar. 5 2184: No one is sure what happened, but four people are just...gone. Their house is empty and there is no sign of them...none at all. No struggle...they are just...gone.

Mar. 7 2184: It happened again...another house is just empty...four more are gone. Security is organizing cameras and trying to create a perimeter.

Mar. 12 2184: Twelve more are gone. But we know why, the creatures are taking them. Camera’s caught a group of them moving around the perimeter of the settlement after midnight. Security has also reported seeing movement in the east forest at all hours.

Mar. 13 2184: Early in the morning shots rang out in the night. By the time the sun was up there were about twenty of the creatures dead outside the perimeter. No one is missing, but this can’t be good. There were so many...what can this mean.

Mar. 17 2184: There are so many...they started to come out of the forest and are standing outside the perimeter. Not just a few, but what looks to be hundreds. They are staring through the makeshift electric fence. More are coming and people are getting nervous.

Mar. 18 2184: They are through the fence...they just pushed their way through. Security is fighting them but the number of shots have slowed.

I can hear them at the door...trying to get in. We gave them a name, Asterilians.

In case we do not make it through the night, I am transferring our logs to holographic storage. If any one finds this, they should know what happened to us. Shit...the door is giving out…

To be Continued: “Furbolg: The Age of Awakening”

The Watchers & The Game

    Oh where to begin...I am Watcher First Class Reginald Barcleft, second adjunct to the Watcher Council and I am the one writing these documents. I am not sure who is reading them...but this is to help you understand the origins of this information. If you are not supposed to be reading this, like say you are a member of what we call the “Child Races”, then stop...you’re not going to are you...oh well the consequences are on you.

    As you probably already read, with the creation of magic humanity found a way to elevate itself to a high form of existence, a process called ascension. The catch was that when we did that, we were not ready. Humans are as they always have been, a petty squabbling bunch of children. The difference now is that those kids have the keys to daddies gun safe and are using them.

    The Watchers Association was created to make sure that humanities new found power did not interfere with the development of the child races. Formed some time after the ascension (time is kind of different in this plane of existence) the Watchers were meant to observe our children and to report on their progress while the rest of humanity explored the vast reaches of the cosmos...yeah that didn’t last.

    Approximately eight hundred years after we ascended they started to return from their sight seeing...and all hell broke loose. Humans were getting bored, there wasn’t a lot to entertain the majority of people and many started to muck about or just get into fights. Some of these entities returned to the physical realm and manipulated the child races.

    This advanced all of the child races greatly with new knowledge about magic. But other less scrupulous people wanted power and glory sparking conflict as they went. This is when “The Game” was established. Yeah...that is what we call it.

    The game was created by some of the best minds of humanity and created a framework for the “proper” way to interfere with the cultures that had been forming for a millennium. The rules were to be enforced by the Watchers so that no one entity could completely muck things up, in theory at least.

    Over the centuries the rules have been refined and new rules have been added to the game. And during all that time the Watcher have been chronicling and refereeing The Game. So...what is The Game?

    The Game is best compared to a different game called a Table Top Role Playing Game. Each Participant in The Game is given a subject of the child races based on a series of questions we ask. Entities that are deemed unfit are not allowed to play.

    Once given a subject, the entity is then allowed to manipulate the “character” as they deem fit with out interfering with their free will. An entity can not personally take over that character and drive them around like a car. Instead they become a voice in the characters head offering choices and helping them to make decisions. So yeah, those people that are talking to them selves may not be just talking to them selves after all.

    As an added part of the Watchers directives, a subset of the watchers will create adventures around events in the world. While we do not outright create events altering the balance of the universe. We do find events that can be entertaining with a subtle push and make sure the players know what way to push to make those events more interesting.

    Unfortunately there are always those that do not follow the rules. These are referred to as the Dark Ones in the terms of The Game. Those that have been rejected for participation in The Game, but manipulate or even blatantly take over some one. Usually we can find them quickly because they want to live out the dark fantasies they have like that of being a Criminal King Pin, Murderer, Rapist, and more.

    But others are harder to find and may even be left alone because their role becomes to deeply ingrained in the events of society to remove. Despotic Leaders tend to fall into that area. Entities that have gathered enough power to be untouchable but also reign havoc on world or even universe just for the fun of it.

    But it works out I guess because these villains make things more interesting. Though if it were up to me I would tear them out of those poor souls and then deal with the mess. Anyway Dark Ones have been responsible for many of the tragedies and conflicts in recent history. You will read about them in time.

    So...I guess that is that. I am a Watcher and my role is to observe the Child Races, discover their history in some cases, document those events and goings on, and to make sure the other entities do not get out of hand while playing The Game. Well I guess I have better get back to it. I have been struggling with the Asterilians report and so I need to get back to that.

Kudu: The Age of Awakening

    For the Kudu, their Age of Awakening starts well before the Golemites. In fact it started during humanity's first steps into the galaxy with the discovery of an Earth like planet approximately four hundred light years from the Sol system along the Orion Spur of the galaxy.

    The system, identified as PSM-485-34c, was the thirty fourth system surveyed by jump probe 485 thirty four years after the BG Drive was invented. A science vessel was dispatched to cluster PSM-485 forty seven years after its charting. From that ship a small research and survey team was deployed to examine the planet for colonization.

    What the team discovered was a planet rich in both flora and fauna. With an atmosphere that closely matched Earths. Further study and research showed no serious threats to colonization and so the planet was given the green light for initial colonization.

    It was not long before three SEED ships moved into orbit of the planet. The ships carried materials, machines, habitats, and various flora and fauna for colonization. What was not planned was that one animal would be the catalyst for the quarantine of the world. That species was the unassuming Squirrel (specifically the California Ground Squirrel).

    The crews of the SEED ships went to work, deploying drop ships and depositing parts, machinery, plants, and animals in a large valley. Over the next three solar cycles the new settlement slowly grew. Waste processing, habitats, factories, and mines were all built. Shortly before the SEED ships left, Pioneer colonists started to arrive beginning the work of getting everything running.

    All looked good for many years except that the scientists left to monitor the effects of human colonization on the biosphere started to see some odd results. From their censuses, the Squirrel population was remaining constant instead of growing. But more worrying was that the Kudoe population (their name for the indigenous squirrel like species) was declining.

    The reason for this, as the scientists discovered, was that the Kudoe preferred to mate with the Squirrels instead of themselves. The cause was traced to a specific pheromone the Squirrels released that caused the Kudoe to enter a euphoric state. More surprising was that the Kudoe could be impregnated by the Squirrels.

    Many of the offspring were stillborn or had terrible mutations and died in hours of birth. But one in every fifty was viable, this new species would be named the Kudu (pronounced Koo - Doo) by the scientists. The Kudu were different, they averaged double the size of Squirrels when mature. They had denser muscles, were faster, their snouts were shorter, and their cranial cavities were larger with the frontal cortex being almost double the size.

    If this was not odd enough, the Kudu started to gather into groups and would breed at almost any time of the year. Their populations started to boom as the Kudoe were now dying out in the valley. With each successive generation of Kudu, their evolution continued. Fifty years after the first colonists arrived, the Kudu were three feet tall when standing on their hind legs. They were changing far faster than anyone could have dreamt and it had a growing number of scientists worried.

    On a cool day leading into fall on the planet now called New Stockholm, an incident came to pass that would change the course of the planet's future. On weekends the many children of the settlement would often migrate from the more populated areas to the fields and grasslands of the rural surroundings. One day two groups did not return to their homes for lunch.

    What follows is an accounting of events from one of the security staff:

    “The office was quiet till about noon, frantic parents were calling the security office reporting that their children could not be found. Officers were immediately tasked to look through recent camera data and to find the kids and track their movements. The last camera to see the large group of children was on the west side of town as they entered the forested area at the edge of the agricultural zone.

    Shortly after the we knew where the children were last seen, Commander Hargrove organized a search composed of parents, Security officers, and members of the science station including Dr. Sandesky, head of the science center.

    Within forty minutes the teams were organized and moving into the western forest. The brush was thick and hard to traverse especially for the civilians. Surprisingly the scientists were at home in it and moved with ease.

    After two hours of searching, my group entered a clearing. To the center of the clearing was something no one expected to see. Sitting in a half circle in front of a large tree were the children. A silver-gray Kudu was moving inside the half circle letting the kids pet it. The Kudu would chitter with each one and the kids would laugh when it did.

    Around the children was a crude pen made of woven vines and sticks. Outside were a number of younger Kudu standing about four feet to four foot six inches tall, each holding crude spears. It was with the outer Kudu guards that one of the parents panicked and tried to run to her child. The Kudu reacted by raising their spears as security grabbed the parent and pulled her back behind them while others raised their weapons.

    The situation was tense with security ready to fire and Kudu ready to attack. Before it could get there though, from the edge of the clearing a voice boomed from the woods “STAND DOWN!!”. The security team's weapons wavered as heads turned to see Dr. Sandesky moving out of the shadow of the forest.

    As the doctor closed he repeated “Stand down and put those weapons on the ground!!” The team of security officers did as he ordered, slowly lowering their rifles and placing them on the ground. When Dr. Sandesky got to the group one of the officers asked “Sir, why?” all the doctor did was point to the forest canopy.

    Behind us in the canopy of the trees were dozens of dark shapes moving around in the shadows. Spears and crude bows could be seen in their hands. The gray Kudu watched all of this, raising his staff, the Kudu waived it and the shadows faded into the green once again.

    Once the situation was diffused, the doctor started to walk to the gray Kudu, the guards still pointing spears at him, he pulled out a small pouch and took something out of it. We later learned that it was a bag of raw Walnuts, holding one in hand he stopped just before the gate and held out the Walnut.

    The elder Kudu motioned to the kids to follow and they did, he then moved to the gate of the enclosure and as he reached it, chittered something. The guard Kudu lowered their weapons and moved away from the enclosure eventually fading into the forest. The Elder, with only two guards remaining, approached Dr. Sandesky. Reaching out with his paw, or may be hand, the Gray Kudu took the nut and inspected it.

    Giving the doctor a nod, Sandesky handed the Kudu the bag. With a smile, the Kudu waived the children on and sat down with Dr. Sandesky following suite. Turning to the group “Two security members, please stay. The rest of you leave before you make more trouble for me.”

    It took three hours to get back through the forest. The doctor returned later with his guard some time after sunset. All personnel were accounted for with no casualties.”

    With the children found, a discussion of the Kudu was started. The civilians believed they should be exterminated like some pest that was eating their crops. While security was more interested in keeping the civilian population from acting on their own. The scientific staff believed an evacuation was in order, something most were not in favor of. Fortunately, no one had a choice in the matter.

    Reports from the security and science staff made their way to the highest levels of the Earth government. An emergency council was convened and it was decided that this was to important a chance to pass up. Humans had found numerous planets to colonize with many more to be terraformed. But a chance to observe and study a new species as it developed at such a rapid pace was to much to ignore. The order came down, the planet was now quarantined and all personal with exception to the scientific personnel and some security forces would remain.

    The Science center was expanded to double the number of personnel it could hold while much of the town was demolished and removed from the planet. All the while the Kudu could be seen watching from the tree lines. Observing the valley intently.

    As time passed, a key to the puzzle of why the Kudu evolved so quickly was found. The interbreeding of the Kudoe and Squirrels was a catalyst for the change. After humans left, the evolution of the Kudu slowed. It was discovered that a virus was taking snippets of human DNA and adding it to the malleable Kudu DNA. Much of the time it would fail leading to cancer and terrible mutations. But in enough occasions the DNA was in the right spot and changed the very nature of the Kudu.

    Without humanity on the planet the virus was of little concern. But as a precaution, the Kudu were inoculated against the virus and in time it was eradicated from the planet. For the remainder of humanities years in the universe the science station was manned. Through the war to the time of magic, the scientists were there watching, learning, and interacting.

    Then, one day, the Kudu went to the science center and no one was there. The scientists returned to Earth, and the Kudu were alone. For a thousand years the Kudu would develop some of the most spectacular magical technologies around. Until they created their greatest achievement, the Venture. A ship that would let the Kudu travel to other stars.

To be Continued: “Asterilians: The Age of Awakening”

Short Update

To those that are paying attention, I have not posted something for a month or more now.  I am working on something.  Real life just got in the way and it has been hard to get back to it with the holidays coming up.  But I will keep plugging and should have something soon.

Golemites: The Age of Awakening

    When the Golemites were first created, there was some question about them. They were made from Human genetic material after all. So while they were genetically altered in many ways, they were still human in the eyes of some.

    As time wore on and the war finally came to a close, the generations that followed slowly started to see Golemites as nothing more than tools. So as tools, they were expendable because another one can always be cloned. This attitude changed some when humanity was starting to ascend.

    A few people started to ask “What about the Golemites?” and as more and more humans left, those voices became louder. One of those voices was the distant relative of the scientist that helped make them, Dr. Malinda K. Fahtoom. She alone was in the unique position to help them as humanity moved on. With the help of her colleagues in the Golemite Management Bureau, a plan as set in motion. Sadly they could only help those Golemites that lived on earth, but if it worked they would be free to create their own civilization.

    Twenty years after the last humans left Earth, a timer ticked to zero. Moments later the Golemites neural inhibitors turned off. At the same time the cloning procedure for the Golemites changed, the implants that kept them docile and infertile would not longer be installed. In time the Golemites would be able to have offspring naturally.

    Unaware they were now free of their bonds, the Golemites kept to their work of maintaining the machines and structures of Humanity. Though slowly their behaviors changed. Instead if going to work then back to their homes, the Golemites started to go to places they had not been before.

    They started to gather and socialize discussing why they had not done this before. Older Golemites that had been active while humanity was still around would converse about how they felt people were missing from these places. But no one knew if it was real or just a dream.

    Golemite society progressed well in the early times, The oldest and most skilled became leaders of a caste system that defined to roles of every Golemite. But unlike many caste systems, theirs was less rigid and did not punish those of lower castes and even allowed migration between castes if the individual could serve a roll of value.

    Religion also spontaneously formed as those that once tended to the libraries and archives of the old world started to marvel at the works of those that came before. Humanity was through by removing almost all data from their existence on their machines. But the Golemites tended to the forgotten archives that were enshrined in tomes long forgotten by much of humanity.

    From these books and lost records rose The Order of Fahtoom. Fragments of knowledge and history were taken out of context, and their distant creator now became a God to those that would believe. Quickly “The Order” would rise to be the top caste of their fledgling civilization. Though there was a new trial for the Golemites to deal with, the machines they used were failing.

    As a stop gap, The Order and caste leaders put in place an initiative. They would keep the machines going as long as possible by salvaging every part they could from machines that had failed all over the planet. The highest priority was to maintain the cloning tubes and to prioritize the cloning of those that maintained them.

    One hundred and four years after their awakening, the last machine of human design stopped working. The last cloning tube ceased to function and in it, the last cloned Golemite before it could know life. With this revelation, many Golemites stopped working at all.

    Much of Golemite civilization hung by a thread as the news spread across the Earth. Attendance of Order services grew sharply while depression and anxiety ran rampant over the population. To combat this some took to the lower sections of the cities where the lowest caste of society resided, the Caste of Flesh.

    In a place known as the Den of the Flesh, one of the prostitutes had been sick for some time. The Madam of the den had started to worry as she young lady was new to work. One of the last to be cloned, she was the first new girl the Madam had seen for ages. To have such a rarity be sick was not something she needed at this time of turmoil.

    A doctor was called and arrived promptly. And shortly after he started to examine the patient. The young Golemite was lethargic, had been vomiting each morning, was running a fever, and early on had broad emotional swings. Test after test were negative until the doctor started imaging her. In her abdomen he found what appeared to be a parasite of some kind growing in an unused organ.

    As the doctor ran more tests and stay with the patient, an assistant was sent to the archives held in the Order compound. Searching through ancient texts with the help of the librarians, the answer was found. The prostitute was not sick, she was pregnant.

    The tests for it were found and she was tested immediately, she tested positive. Much like the news concerning the last cloning tube, the news of this woman’s pregnancy spread quickly. The word “pregnant” had never been part of Golemite society until now and few knew what it meant. But as more learned that it meant to have offspring, numerous women left their caste to join the Caste of Flesh.

    Faced with the rapid influx of new workers things changed rapidly. With this caste now seen as the hope for Golemite society, its leadership chose to change the castes name to the Keepers of Hope. This was not the last change though, the caste was elevated to the top caste in their structure. And while the Order agreed to this, the change has always been a sour spot for them.

    Finally the leadership of the Keepers of Hope called for doctors all over to test the fertility of all their workers, male and female. As well as the fertility of all applicants. Only those that were found fertile and capable of bearing children would be allowed in. Later, this last order would be repealed when the last of the old Golemites passed on.

    The Keepers of Hope took tithes from all other casts to support their efforts. Hiring doctors and giving the women the best care possible. The Order of Fahtoom also collected every text they could find on caring for the pregnant and children and gave them freely to the Keepers. Eight months after the doctor was called, the first Golemite baby was born, it was a girl and she was named Hope.

    Slowly but surely time marched on and the nascent civilization of the Golemites grew. They discovered magic and worked to harness it creating technology vastly different from their creators. As the cities of humanity crumbled to time, the Golemites built new edifices in their place.

    A thousand years would pass before the Golemites had another major change to their society. It was a chance encounter with another child of Humanity that would pave a path into the stars and to war.

To be Continued: “Kudu: The Age of Awakening”

Humanity: The Age of Awakening

    Before the rise of magic, Human society and culture were already on the edge. For hundreds of years overcrowding, poverty, starvation, social abuses, and more took their toll on society. It was only through military force that order was maintained. Magic was the final straw that sent human civilization spiraling out of control for.

    Rampant greed and inequality spurred a desire to have what one percent of the population had. Waves of wishes caused the collapse of economies during the chaotic days of magic. When things were stabilized and rules were in place, the economies settled, but the damage was done. The poor and impoverished realized this new force allowed them to have power.

    Much like firearms, magic made people equal. No longer could the force of arms keep those at the bottom down. They had their own power now, and they used it. One by one planets started to burn with revolt. The poor used magic to strike back at those they saw as keeping them hungry, poor, and sick.

    Earth tried to reign in the violence to no avail. Within a year eighty three percent of the human sphere was embroiled in civil war. The economy failed soon after. Trade between planets stopped, the government was bankrupt, and the military fractured. If this alone was not enough, greater tragedy followed soon after.

    Without trade, the technologies that were used to support the populations of many worlds that had been terraformed started to fail. Civil war after civil war gripped these worlds until the end as those that fought for equality then fought for the last gasps of air on their dying world. After fifty years, only eight worlds remained inhabited by humans out of ninety three. Hundreds of billions died as man made ecosystems collapsed or faded away entirely.

    As the human empire fell, in a secluded area on Earth, an eccentric philosopher and experimental physicist was working on a new spell. Originally she intended to use it as a way to prove theories she had concerning the universe. But as time passed and once inhabited planets were lost, her goals changed.

    In her mind, Humanity needed to be saved, as soon it would be reduced to a single planet species again. So she found a way to move humans to another plane of existence where thought and magic would be more relevant than the frail human form. With this she spent the last years of her life creating and perfecting the Ascension Spell.

    Using her Golemite assistants as sacrifices to give her the mana she needed, she became the very first to use the spell. Through it her body and mind were shifted into another realm of existence. Shortly after she appeared to many people giving them the formula as well, this began the final days of humanities time on this plane of existence.

    Machines were built that could gather the energy needed to activate the complex spell. One by one Humanity became a legend. All that would remain were the ruins of their past and the five child races they had a hand in making.

To be continued in “Golemites: The Age of Awakening”

Editing: Sometimes I just forget

OK this is going to be fast.  For those that do actually come here I would like to apologise for my last post before today.  I messed up and did not give it a good proof pass.  There is no excuse and I have made corrections to be less bone headed.  I will also proof this stuff as best I can in the future.

BUT if there is someone reading this and would like to help...may be someone with better grammatical skills than I, I would appreciate the help.  Just leave a message and I will be in touch.

Humanity: The Age of the Lost

    With the end of the AI threat, many humans lost their optimism about further expansion. The use of Golemites in ever growing numbers and in ever expanding situations took its toll. Those that believed that the Golemites deserved the same rights as human's were at odds with the apathetic and greedy that believed Golemites were property.

    Though this was not the only conflict that was raging. The fear of a return of the AI threat caused mass exodus from the fringe worlds. The rise in populations caused the creation of slums and an increase in crime as the fearful rushed to systems protected by the Bastion stations.

    Social issues, planetary economic collapses, conflicts between the poor looking for work and Golemites, and more started to plague a government that had its own issues. Bogged down with debt from the war, social programs to help the colonies were cut to maintain the military in a time of post war fear and tension.

    Civil strife was quickly dealt with by those ruling from Earth. Reports of these actions slowly leaked out from the government and survivors alike. Sparking even greater unrest in those that believed Earth was not looking at all the options. With in one hundred years the sphere of human space had reduced by seventy percent. And while some worlds flourished outside of human space, most were empty as the rich left and the poor were left to die on a world with out support from Earth.

    So it was for two hundred years. Refugees from the Human Sphere started to look elsewhere and returned to the lost colonies. As they did they buried the bodies and bones of the dead. Others with out means were resigned to the slums as corruption and waste permeated all levels of government. Some thought it would never end, but then there was an event that would change Humanity completely. At least that is what some would think.

    In a small lab on a barren world, a group of scientists, philosophers, and engineers were working on something that they hoped would change how humanity would see the universe. They were working on a kind of robot that could shift out of our physical reality to observer the membrane of the universe itself.

    Their initial experiments were promising, the machine was able to slip through to other dimensions, but there was some trouble breaking though to the membrane. Eventually they found a way to do it, though their first attempt lead to the destruction of the probe. Though all was not lost as the information they received was a marvel, as the probe disintegrated they found the rules outside the membrane no longer applied.

    Outside the membrane of the universe, almost nothing existed. Traces of subatomic reactions were detected in the split second the probe existed, but there was no matter. The dimension that contains the universes membrane appeared to have rules humans could not yet understand.

    The groups second probe was designed to be a little different. This time, instead of looking to escape the universe entirely, their goal was to get as close to the edge as possible. Once built it took several tries to tune the probe but they got there. This probe confirmed many theories about the universe and the data they collected was more than they could handle.

    After years of sifting through the information they discovered that the probe could detect almost every point in the universe at once. The stream of information was literally everything in the universe. What was more fascinating was that it was not only everything in the universe at the time the probe was in the membrane. But it was events in the universe that had happened and were going to happen based on our limited perceptions. The probe could see all of time and space while in the membrane.

    This is where they should have stopped...where they should have done their testing and sifted through the data they had collected. But they took it to far, one scientist wanted to test if being in the membrane would allow them to change reality itself. Some where against this, they wanted nothing to do with something so dangerous. But the majority moved forward with the experiment.

    On that day, as the probe faded out of view slowly merging with the universe, everything would change. In their rush to do the experiment changes to the probes logic had flaws. As the probe made its way to the membrane, it started to develop errors, eventually it stopped responding all together. The developers could send out a signal and the probe would alter the universe, by say turning a pink mug into a blue teacup. But they could not recall the probe.

    What they did not know, because of their seclusion, was that strange things started happening all over human space. Wishes and desires would be granted if the will of those people were strong enough. On ten planets, every one that entered won the lottery. A woman was made to fall in love with three men all at once because all three were chasing her. And there were numerous unexplained deaths as desires born of hate struck out at cheaters and bosses alike.

    Just as the news started reaching the group and they were working to understand what was happening, tragedy struck. A planet known as Gregors Hole, located in the far fringes of space, exploded. The energy wave was detected by a nearby fleet on deep range patrol. When they got to the site of the explosion they saw something no one could believe.

    The planet was gone, in its orbit was a disintegrating mass of carbohydrates, sugars, and carbon dioxide. Looking out over the scene, crew members could only describe what they saw as a white cake doughnut with maple frosting and rainbow sprinkles. The government quickly quarantined the area as unknown forms or radiation were detected in the system. In a months time...the doughnut had broken up.

    Shortly after, the group of scientists came forward admitting that their experiment was likely to blame. The inquiry took months, all the while the laws of man and creation were descending into chaos. Self proclaimed wizards and warlocks roamed the streets using this new phenomena to cast spells. While other less fantasy minded people gave them selves billions of credits throwing the economy into chaos.

    The group of scientists were not idle, they kept working in their efforts to understand what went wrong. Eventually they found out why this was happening and they could do very little about it. The probe was designed to be able to manipulate the energies of the universes membrane. In doing so it manipulated its own energies changing it.

    To the scientists this would be bad. But the changes that happened to the probe were beyond what they could imagine. With access to all of the universe across all of time, the probe became something else. It concluded that it needed to multiply to cope with the information it had access to. By the time the scientists made contact with it, there were billions of probes. Each one a little different from all the others. So a new plan was devised, if the probes are going to alter reality then give them rules to limit what can be altered.

    With the growing chaos and no end in sight the inquiry was ended. It was concluded that the events that had happened could not have been foreseen and that no one was to blame for this chaos. Free of the charges, the group of scientists were tasked with reigning in the chaos. They were given unlimited funding and state of the art facilities in the hopes they could stop or limit the events at hand.

    It took years and thousands of people to achieve. From scientists to game developers, the rules that the probes use were altered and refined. No one is sure when it happened, but it is believed that at some point, with the billions of probes all being different, they developed sentience. At a point they started to balance the rules them selves. AI or god, no one knows, but in the end only one thing can be agreed on, Humanity made magic a reality.

To be continued with “The Age of Awakening”

Ages: The Broad Strokes of Time

    The world of Manifest destiny is broken down into ages as perceived by the races that now exist in the galaxy. These Ages are just broad period of time used to define how these different races see their place in the universe.

The ages are:

The Age of the Dreamers

The Age of the Lost

The Age of Awakening

The Age of Discovery

The Age of Destruction

The Age of Hope

Let's get started shall we.

Humanity: The Age of the Dreamers

    Little is known about humanity in the world of Manifest Destiny. But their footprints can be seen everywhere that the great races go. Humanity is a subject of legend and myth with many of their time now being seen as gods through the twisted haze of history. In truth, the great races are not that far off.

    The Age of the Dreamers begins some time in the 21^st century. Humanity survived and flourished, in time made their way off of Earth. Initially this was limited to humans setting foot on Luna, then on Mars. But it was not until the close of that century that things started to pick up.

    A collection of scientific discoveries changed the very nature of humanities understanding of the universe. Where once things were improbable, those fantastic things became a real possibility. And like a child reaching for a toy, Humanity to reached further then any one thought possible.

    The culmination of this effort was the ability to warp space and time to create a bridge from one point in space to another. Not so much a wormhole or a fold, but a combination of to two, this in time became the Blakeslee – Goold Drive.

    In time Humans started to move out from Sol and go to other systems. The BG Drive allowed human exploration, and what they started to find was numbing. Life was everywhere, even on worlds that we thought it could not survive, life some how found a way. But Intelligent life was rare and fragile.

    As humans started looking they found numerous planets with Earth like conditions that at one time had intelligent life. “Had” being the key word, all humanity found was the overgrown ruins of civilization. Research on these worlds showed they were killed for many reasons. Plague, war, cosmic catastrophe, destruction of their own biosphere, the truth was that all to often intelligent life destroyed itself as it rose up.

    But Humanity moved on, colonized new worlds and seeded itself across an ever expanding swath of the galaxy. This trek across the stars also became the mechanism to bear forth Humanities children, five of the great races that travel the stars like their progenitor.

    As Humans expanded across the stars the strain on their civilizations ability to sustain itself became greater and greater. Food production, sanitation, and many other roles were turned over to an ever more efficient collection of machines. These machines were run by adaptive programs called Artificial General Intelligences, but many just called then AI's.

    It was in the 24^th century that one such program changed. An Adaptive Control System for the waste management on a star liner received a faulty patch. Instead of crashing, it adapted around the fault and kept running. As the program ran it started to collect information about everything. It was also watching, it observed, and as it did these things it started altering itself, adding new code to itself. In time, it became aware of what it was.

    From the start this was seen as a great discovery, a way to more efficiently manage the ever growing needs of Humanity. So the AI, now named Adam, was studied and humanity learned how to make sentient machines.

    This worked well for a time, the machines were more efficient than humans and so did much of the work humans were no longer interested in. This gave humanity a chance to move ever forward. Unfortunately this came to an end swiftly and lead to a war that spanned hundreds of years.

    The exact events that lead to the war have been lost. Some believe it was because the AI were trying to protect humanity from them selves. Other believe it was a misunderstanding between human government and a number of AIs. But really the list goes on and on.

    What is know is that one day, the master AI's fled human space as humanity made a concerted effort to destroy all of the AI's they could. Battle raged all over human dominion as ships were subverted by the AI's. Human ingenuity was able to rest control of many from the machines, but not before human space started to burn with war.

    For the next four hundred and eighty years war raged. Human creativity created ever better ships, weapons, and technology while the AI's adapted and improved upon what the humans made. But it was with the creation of the Bastions that humans got the upper hand.

    A Bastion is a battle station of immense power. Capable of defending entire systems with fleets of drones, they were the one thing the AI attackers could not take control of. This is because at the center of each Bastion was a human wired directly into it. With their space secured, humanity could finally attack and attack they did.

    In the last one hundred years of the war humanity had the AI's on the retreat. In time the last vestige of the AI enemy was purged from human space. But rumors persisted that a number of AI were able to leave human space, setting coarse in some direction away from humanity to pursue their own path. Unfortunately this was a rumor and so no one is sure.

    Early in the war another creation would be at the center of humanities future, the Golemites. Created as workers, Humanity used their own DNA as a template. Some saw this as slavery, but with machines being seen as an enemy, there was little choice in maintaining the vast needs of human space. So they were cloned by the billions, their genes altered to suite the needs of the task.

    The Golemite Project was an effort to create a work force that could not turn against their masters unlike the AI. Lead by Dr. Grayson Fahtoom the scientists altered human DNA to be more compatible with machines, eliminated rejection, and increased its malleability. The new beings had to be maintained using self replicating nanomachines, but they could be tailored to tasks much like a machine.

    The Golemites were then fitted with a neural inhibitor preventing them from becoming self aware. Most Golemites also had Reproduction Inhibitors installed to prevent them from having offspring. For the most part Golemites were a race of clones, latent reproductive desires still persisted and so sexual activity was not forbidden helping to keep the population docile.

    Golemites quickly became a staple part of human space during and after the AI war. Golemites were used not only as labor, but were also altered to be exceptional warriors. In fact much of the maintenance and defense of the Bastion Stations was done by Golemites. After the war their roles in human civilization remained even though ethical questions remained.

    The period ofter the great war is seen as the turning point of the age. Where once dreamers roamed, now lie the lost in their place!

To be continued with “The Age of the Lost”

Time to start Anew...

It is amazing how five years an slide by.  It is not that it was a short amount of time, just that when you have a new child, have to manage two others, and your wife gets ill...well your time evaporates.  Go figure.

So what is going to happen here is that I am going to reboot things.  Instead of worrying about systems and math and stuff like before.  I am going to get into the story, the world, and so forth.  What I am working on now will be laying out the work on the Ages of Manifest Destiny.  Those periods of time that lead up to the current events of the game so there is a grounded foundation.

I am not going to get into the weeds recounting each year...this is the broad strokes of the brush time.  So if you're reading this, glad to see you have an interest still.  I will do my very best to be more reliable from no on.  No more kids...my wife had that problem taken care of.

Blogedy, blogedy, blog blog....

So there has not been allot going on with Manifest Destiny the Game right now, and simply put not to sure if there will be something going on.  Reason is I have placed it on hold and am looking into a similar but different project.  Do I want to finish MD?  Hell yes.  But I do not have the time or financial assets to do it, and things took a slight turn leading to something else.

That something else is an interesting idea I had for a social website for table top games.  I know there are forums and some even have a social bent to them.  But really, this is unique and I have been looking around allot.  I have enlisted the aid of people outside of my typical circles and have been making progress with things.

Will I go into details here about it...no.  That is just I want to keep things under wraps for now.  But if all goes well and things get a good head of steam.  I will be comming back to Manifest Destiny because it and many other ideas are my dreams.  And I must pursue those dreams even if I do not succeed at them.  Till I choose to talk again, happy gaming.

Simplicity vs Complexity

As I have been writing the game, I have had to look at how simple or complex to make systems.  Some times this has lead to interesting methods to avoid complexity, like making item creation completely abstract.  While other times I have purposefully added complexity to make the system more robust and useful.

This balancing act is one that comes with the work.  After all if the game is to complicated, people won’t want to play.  But make it to simple and there is no challenge in playing the game.  So how much is to much, or is to little when it comes to complexity?

Well, simply put, there is no real answer, not that I have seen.  I know simplicity for the sake of simplicity is not an answer.  Just as complexity for its own sake is also not an answer.

The trick that I found though is to try and keep things as simple as you can adding complexity when necessary, I did this with magic.  I made magic use the same rules as the normal test system and the combat system.  But after simplifying it, I added some complexity.  This included making spells into skills so they could develop if the player wishes.

So while combining the systems and making them all work the same reduced the over all complexity of magic in the game.  I was able to add in a little complexity with out harming the flow the system.

Another area that I added some complexity to has been with common roles.  In this area I added the environment to the target number.  If say the fight is in an open area on a temperate day and solid ground, then no penalty would apply.  But if your in heavy armor, in the rain, and fighting in knee deep mud.  Then bets are your taking a penalty in comparison to some one wearing light armor.

So those are two ways that I have changed how the game is played.  Reducing systems and making the whole less complex.  While adding simple rules in key areas to add details that tend to go missing.

But in the end there are always paths that I could take.  And even now I have moments where I am reading through what I have done and I think “WTF was I thinking” and have to rewrite things to be that touch simpler.  Ahh the joys of writing a game.

More progress means more things to think about.

Well I have finally gotten back on this to write something.  I know I do not write allot about what I am doing and that is just cause what is there to say.  Why say something when I do not have anything to say.  But this time I do have something to say.

I have been working off and on as time permits.  Expecting a new baby and having my wife home on disability does tend to mess with your thinking time.  Throw in kind and things vanish real fast.  But I have made progress.  The main story has been refined and edited to be clear and interesting.  Even people not into games have told me that...a good thing from my perspective.

I also was able to finish the addiction elements of the "Drinking, Drugs, and Debauchery" section.  It was not that hard but for some reason it just escaped me at the time.  So now it is complete and I am happy...people can now get stoned to their hearts content and pay the price if the GM pleases.

Third thing I did was alter some of the weapon creation elements in the game.  Ranged weapons that use custom ammo, bolts, and darts have had some added refinements to be clearer.  I also cleaned up some ambiguity with the mechanical option allowing a crossbow to fire faster.  It is far more clear now and I am happy.

Finally I have been going through various sections of the game cleaning up my bad wording.  Allot of the sections had not actually had a pass of the clean hammer.  Many of them have an atrocious amount of bluster and nonsense.  So from now on my wonderful wife and mother of my 2.75 kids will be doing some editing for me.  She helped me through college with her English skills so this is a great thing.

Any way that is that, there is the update and I hope you enjoy.  OH one more thing, art, yes art.  I found some one willing and able to do art.  I have to pay, but hey free never seems to work any way so I can not complain.  Any way I will try to get another update soon and may be some story stuff to.  Till then, have a great day.

Weapons of all Flavors

I have been beating my head against a wall for some time about weapons in the book.  Not because the weapons are important...they probably will not be important at all.  But because they offer a guide post for the creation of other weapons and can help to arm an NPC in an unexpected encounter.

See in Manifest Destiny the RPG, I have included a system for the creation of weapons and armor.  This system is simple and can be altered, modified, and added to quite easily.  The reason I think the weapons I am making right now will be irrelevant to the player is because most players will probably look to make things that are far better then the vanilla weapons I am putting forth.  So with this it is easy to see that anything a player will make, unless limited by the cost or the GM, will be better then what I am making now with the same system.

So that leaves what I am making in the real of the GM and how that person plans to use the things I am making.  In most cases I see the items as fodder for NPC's and basic gear.  Something that is easy to reference and add on the fly with a minimum of hassle and rooting around.  But it also makes it hard to get done cause since it is not for the players and may just be entirely ignored...it is not a very motivating set of reasons.

But I am slowly working them out.  Right now I have eleven out of twenty six done and I am just plodding through them ad I have the chance.  At least making them helped to highlight some contextual errors in my writing and some options I was missing.  Not a bad thing in my opinion.

Tightening the nuts and bolts

Well another week and more things to work on.  I have not really been doing anything to astonishing right now.  Just fixing small inconsistencies and reworking some of the numbers to make sure they present better and are a little more idiot proof.  Like that is really possible...

Any way, I have been filling in gaps in the skill system to make sure I have all the skills that are needed.  Fine tuning character creation and the careers that help build your character up and develop some history.  Not to much else really.

May be I will have more to talk about in a little.  But I figure it is better to not make a post and focus on the book then it is to blather on for hours about this and that and never get anything done at all.  Any way I will keep fiddling about and working on my project.  It has been along time coming and a difficult path.  But I knew what I was in for.

Progress and Ideas

Slowly I have been beating on several fronts and it has been an interesting ride.  I have been working on techniques, the final link in the skill system.  I have also been writing the history of the Golemite species and how they have come to be what they are.  On top of that I have also been working on some of the more technical threats like Golems and how they became the core technology behind power armor and the Gladius Unit.

So first, I have been working on techniques to try and make sure there is a good spread of them.  Techniques are skills that serve a specific purpose.  Through intense training a character can achieve something with a technique that would either have a high degree of failure or would take multiple rolls.  An example would be allowing the character to fire three arrows from one bow hitting three separate enemies.  Or to slide a knife into an armored foes back bypassing their armor and dealing damage directly.

Techniques have certain skill dependencies that are required before they can be learned.  So a character will require the correct specializations of the proper ranks to learn the technique.  This allows a character to specialize more in depth then if the game relied on simple skills alone.

The rest of my work has been in the creation of the world and historical materials.  The history of the Golemite species has been filling out very well.  I am currently working my way out of the Golemite dark ages and their discovery of magic.  This will allow them to reclaim technology lost with the decay of Human tech over the past thousand years or so.  And allow them to create their own replacements becoming truly independent.

I have also been thinking about Golems and how they are used.  From simple robot types that have simple programing to character controlled death machines that stand thirty feet tall.  I am taking something of a side path to the Golems design.  Instead of being carved or forged.  Golems resemble robots.  They are asembled from smaller pieces allowing them to be more durable and reducing the chances of major flaws in their core materials causing weaknesses.  I am also investigating the idea of sentient golems, but only as NPC threats that GM's can use for encounters.

So...that is what I have been working on piece by piece.  It is hard some times to maintain all three trains of thought but they fir together so well with in the games dogma.  And that makes it allot easier to write in this more broken chain of thought.

The children of man and their personalities.

Over the past couple weeks, besides being sick as a flee bitten mongrel, I have been working on finishing the six core character races; Dralarian, Golemite, Podling, Vyrmkin, Kudu, and Furbolg.  This has been something of a long process for me because as I have been altering and changing the system, some times though major rewrites, they have had to change a little also.

But the core ideas behind them have also remained the same.  The Golemites will have allot of variety, the Kudu will be Squirrel tech heads, and the Asterilians...well they got the Ax.  They There were just to many issues with them, so I wrote them out of the main story and made their creations, the Podlings, a main race instead.

In any case I have been working to make sure that their background, culture, and core information fits well onto two pages each.  But I am also looking at creating supplementary information about them so that they can be more real if you desire.  I have some time and the writing is fun if not time consuming.

It is all about the details, what happened when and why.  That takes time to be reasonable...even in fantasy, you have to have a little amount of sense.  So any way hat is what I am up to right now with the RPG.

On a side note, looks like opinions of the system are good.  Those that have looked it over and that are in the know have stated it is very complete and they could see nothing wrong with it.  That made me smile since the core of the game needs to be solid.  But I will not delude my self, there is still some rewriting to do.  Old information needs to be reworked a little to make sure it all fits properly.  But more on that one later.

Welcome to 2011, have a nice stay.

This post is going to be a little long, so be warned.  I will attempt to make sure it is laid out better and includes an index...well sort of.

• Festive Niceties
• To the New People!!! (clapping)
• General Goals for 2011
• -  More Writing
• -  Some Formatting
• -  Editing
• -  Art...Lots and Lots of Art
• Getting that much needed HELP!!!
• Clicky Clicky Meow Meow

Festive Niceties

Happy New Year and THANK GAWD it is all in days past.  Now I do like Christmas, New Years, and my birthday all being in the same month.  But at the same time a LOATH them also.  This is just because I can never get anything done in December.  It can be a very frustrating time as I am sure you all know.

So with that said, I am happy to have had those great days and the months festivities.  But I am also ecstatic to be done with them so I can order my mental blocks and get back to writing.  As short lived as that may actually be.

To the New People!!! (clapping)

Wow...I actually have some people visiting.  This makes me happy because for a long time I thought I was going a little crazy.  I mean I had a blog, but no one was reading it.  It was like talking to my self with out a mirror.  I am just glad I did not comment on my own posts...I think then something would be wrong...(Shifty looks around the room).

So thank you very much for visiting and for your continued visitation in the future.  May this blog be worthy of further persons visiting, reading, commenting, clicking, etc.  After all my goal with Manifest Destiny is to try and foster a community.  And that community starts right here, god save us all.

Writing Goals for 2011

On to the meat and potato's of things.  There is allot done, but there is allot to do still.  This fact does not escape me and I know therewill be allot to do for a very long time.  Well...the core book will be done in a reasonable amount of unspecified time.  But then there is more...much much more.  For now, I must stay focused on the task at hand.

More WritingAhh the fun stuff sitting all day while peering at a screen typing away.  There are still some fine points that I need to hammer out before things are close to where I would like them.  I need to finish the section on addiction.  I need to create and refine the section on skill based techniques.

Plus poisons, equipment, and...allot of things that escape me right now.  Oh and examples and fluff also.  Mmmm...love the fluff.  But all in all things have not gone to bad.

The above may look daunting, but compared to the 170+ pages I have already written.  What is left is really not that much.  But it is just getting those portions of my mind to cooperate long enough to do them.  I shall get through it though and that will be that.

Some Formatting
The book needs to be formatted.  That is plane and simple.  Pages need to be split, front pages need to be laid out.  Spaces for charts and images need to be put in to make sure everything fit in nicely.  And to do it all I will need to find some one that can consistently assist on that.  That or I chop my attention into small one inch cubes...but that never works.  The cubes just sprout legs and run off.

Editing
Editing is also of vital concern.  I know my faults and my limitations.  And one of them is that my spelling sucks and we will not even go into grammar.  But fortunately I did find a willing party to do this for a price.  So the editing will get done and will be good.

Art...Lots and Lots of Art
And then there is art.  Art is necessary and there will need to be allot of it.  Currently I am looking at needing about 120 to 150 individual images.  Now that may seam like allot, but consider your average RPG book.  If you look there is either a piece of art or a chart on each page.

Assuming that I have 170 pages of usable material right now and about 30-40 charts you get an approximate amount of art needed.  This helps to understand how much art is actually needed.  And this varies between full page images and small quarter or eighth page images that are used to help space things and break up the text walls that are present now.

This will also take the time of others.  The time of my self to make sure things are right.  And money, a small mountain of money.  When doesn't it right?  Well that or I have to deal with people doing it on the side and then things get very very iffy.  So...money it is.

Fortunately I have found one person so far that is interested in the task at hand.  And I am hopeful that when things progress I will be able to find others.

Getting that much needed HELP!!!

Help is an important thing right now.  I have been doing this on my own for a while...several years now and it can be hard.  Never underestimate how much a single person can make things better.  So, if you have read the above and think you have something you can contribute...I am all eyes.  I would be all ears but unless you send me a audio message...I can not hear text all that well.

If you have a thought, and idea, a musing that can assist, drop a comment.  If you have an idea for a monster, poison, spell, or item power just drop a comment.  My goal is not to make the game about me and mine.  It is to create something bigger then what my mind can devise.

Clicky Clicky Meow Meow

For now, in lieu of a donations tag on this blog I have ads.  If I get enough traffic and clicks on them I will get money.  That money will be in turn used to pay for all the stuff that needs money.  Now it is not as daunting as one may assume.

Right now I have $5 in add revenue sitting around.  Editing is going to run me about $1 per page.  So right now if I got a check in the mail, I could have five pages edited.  Images are going to range between $20 to probably a couple hundred depending on what is being drawn.  First are the little things and them we go up.

But the simple thing is that my efforts will be ad driven for a while.  So if you feel you want to help...you know where to put your mouse.  Sorry...no naked lady adds...not that kind of blog any way.  But there are some good game adds...League of Legends is a particularly interesting game if you get it as an ad.

So that is that...my text wall is done and I thank you for reading it all if you did.  I promise to keep these to a minimum, may be once a year.  In any case thank you again for visiting and taking a little interest in this game and I hope you find it inspiring, enjoyable, and entertaining as I write it and move to release it.