Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 68

Lord of the Rings and the Emotional Cadence

Recently, I’ve started rereading Lord of the Rings once again. I forget exactly how many times I’ve read these books now, but it has been quite a few years since the last time. Importantly, this is the first time I’ve read them since I became a writer, so although I’ve read them many times, this is the first time I’ve studied them.

I notice a lot of interesting things by looking at Lord of the Rings through my WriterVision™ — such as how big the physical world of Middle-Earth feels compared to modern fantasy settings, likely a side effect of rapid transit effectively making the world smaller for people in the modern era.

However, what strikes me the most is what I like to call the emotional cadence of the books.

This is something I noticed even when I was much younger, but now that I’m looking at Lord of the Rings through a writer’s eyes, it’s even clearer.

If you lay out the story of Lord of the Rings, it could seem almost crushingly bleak. An almost omnipotent dark lord plans to cover the entire world in darkness. Ancient races and civilizations are mere shadows of their former selves, and there is little strength left to resist the shadow. The only hope comes in the form of a fat, spoiled rich kid with no knowledge of combat or adventure who is slowly being driven mad by the evil artifact he carries.

But it doesn’t really feel that oppressive when you’re reading it, does it? It’s a dark, intense story, but you never feel it start to weigh on your mind the way such stories can.

This is because Tolkien made sure to regularly interrupt the peril and the impending doom with moments of peace and levity: staying with Tom Bombadil, recovering in Rivendell, resting in Lorien, smoking in the ruins of Isengard, even stewing rabbit on the borders of Mordor.

It is this balance between joy and sorrow, peace and peril, that makes Lord of the Rings the brilliant story it is. The balance between the darkness and the light allows the reader to feel each more keenly. A candle shines so much more brightly in a darkened room.

This is something few other authors seem to be able to replicate — save perhaps J.K. Rowling with the Harry Potter books, and is it a coincidence those became monstrously successful instant classics? Too few seem to realize that “emotional rollercoaster” means you have ups as well as downs.

A lot of authors seem to struggle to strike this balance. They just keep ramping up the tension endlessly with no relief until the reader becomes depressed or simply desenitized, or else they offer little to no tension at all, creating a bland and flavourless story of basically nice people doing basically nice things with no excitement.

Even my literary idol, Ian Irvine, has occasionally struggled with this, notably with the Tainted Realm books, which at times delved too heavily into darkness without offering the reader a chance to catch their breath.

Now, there is room for some variety in how one interrupts the balance of light and darkness. Some stories are very dark, and will rarely offer the opportunity for peace and calm. Others are light-hearted and never let the fear or the sorrow become too intense.

But regardless, that cadence still needs to exist. You need to have some highs, and some lows, and they need to spaced out with some degree of regularity. Go too long without some positivity, and readers will become emotionally exhausted and lose interest in the story. Go too long without some intensity, and you’ll bore people to tears.

This is something I’m very conscious of in my own writing. I work very hard to keep the darkness and light balanced in my fiction. This is why Leha almost freezing to death is followed by her befriending Benefactor, and why the quiet comfort of Leha and Tyrom keeping each other sane on the streets of Tallatzan is followed by the crushing realization that humanity is in its waning hours.

Filed under: Misc., My writing Tagged: fantasy, Lord of the Rings, The World Spectrum, writing

Rage of the Old Gods, Chapter Six: No Sleep in the City

We now come to the sixth chapter of Rage of the Old Gods, the first book of my epic science fantasy trilogy the World Spectrum. In the coming weeks, I will be posting the entire book for free on this blog. If you’re just joining us, you can get caught up with the previous chapters now.

In this chapter, Yarnig presses north to make contact with the enigmatic Northern Clans, while the defenders of Marlhem find themselves sleepless in anticipation of the coming battle.

———————

Chapter six: No Sleep in the City

Yarnig had not expected roads.

After gathering a small escort and some supplies, the emperor had traveled north, seeking the Northern Clans, the only nation on Barria with the knowledge of how to successfully fight Automatons without using machines of their own.

Three days ago, Yarnig’s party had left the northern reaches of Tor territory and entered a forest of tall, snowy evergreens. The trees were widely spaced, and little grew between them; there wasn’t much that could survive, this far north. They had traveled through the woods for more than a day, their horses picking their way through the trees and the deep snow. Then, they had reached the road.

The Clan road didn’t resemble the roads of Tor Som. It had not been paved, and it was incredibly wide. Two Automatons could have easily walked abreast upon it. When they had first come upon it, Yarnig had ordered Taldin, his master of the guard, and his men to examine it. After digging through a foot of snow, they had determined that the road had been built by clearing the land, stamping it until it was hard, and then salting it to prevent plants from taking root in it. Taldin had said that likely meant that the roads weren’t used on a regular basis.

This all displayed a level of ingenuity and knowledge on the part of the Clans that was far beyond what Yarnig’s books gave them credit for. He found himself wondering if their technology had improved in the seventy years since the last major conflict with Tor Som, or if his people had underestimated them from the start.

When he had suggested this mission, nearly a week ago, Taldin had tried to talk him out of it. “They hate Tors; they’ll kill us on sight!” he’d said. “It’s suicide.”

Yarnig had shoved aside his guard’s objections. Sometimes, you have to take a chance, he’d reasoned.

Eventually, the old guard had relented, and he, Yarnig, a small escort of soldiers, and Erik, a battle wizard assigned to Yarnig’s protection, had set off.

Now, they pulled themselves through the drifts on the Clan roads, huddling in their thick cloaks, dragging sleds full of supplies behind them. No tracks marred the road’s white blanket save for those made by the occasional lynx or wolf pack. The snow hissed against itself with every gust of wind, and the dense drifts deadened the horses’ labored breaths.

Each night, as they camped, Yarnig would pull a sketchpad from his pack and huddle by the fire, drawing what he could before his hands became too cold to work. Due to the time constraints, he produced sketches of stark simplicity, but he decided it was a style that suited the bleak yet beautiful lands they traveled through.

At night, the wind howled through the branches like an angry beast.

Yarnig had never been so cold for so long. As a member of one of the royal families, he had never been forced to live with hardship. He had been left to his own devices and pleasures. This journey resembled nothing in his body of experience, and he found himself paying acute attention to every pain and discomfort. He had expected to be cold, to be tired, yes, but there were a thousand other tiny aches and irritants he had not imagined. Saddle sores, constant hunger, stiff joints, an itchy beard he could not find time to shave…

Still, part of him welcomed it. He was living. Truly living. He no longer wasted his days with useless hobbies while his people died. He had a purpose in life other than to breed an heir who would one day breed an heir who would one day rule Tor Som, or to act as a figurehead while others shouldered the responsibilities of keeping his nation running.

It took another two days for them to leave the forest. They entered a vast arctic plain upon which little grew. This was the land of the Northern Clans. The books Yarnig had brought said that, while some clans had constructed permanent villages, most of them were nomads, living off of their herds and whatever they could hunt.

They soon lost sight of the trees. With white clouds above and white snow below, they seemed to have entered an empty void. The snow was so deep the horses could barely move through it.

Yarnig reined in his steed and surveyed the empty wastes. His horse desperately gasped for air, steam rising from its nostrils. The emperor felt ice form on his nose hairs.

Taldin nudged his horse, urging it forward to halt alongside Yarnig. A mountain of furs and coats concealed the old soldier’s thin form and gray hair and moustache. “Any particular direction you wish to take, sire?”

“Erik!” Yarnig called, yelling to be heard over the howling wind.

Erik pushed his horse forward. A tuft of gold hair poked out from his hood, and his silver-plated staff glinted dully.

During the preparations to invade Eastenhold, Erik had made the mistake of questioning the war and had been assigned to Yarnig’s personal protection. With the Tor Vargis dead, there was no longer any need for him to baby-sit the emperor, but Yarnig had taken a liking to the young wizard. They shared the same sensibilities on many things – from music to politics.

“Can you detect if anyone out here is using magic?” Yarnig asked.

“I can try.”

Erik raised his staff and closed his eyes. For a moment, the only sounds came from the wind and blowing snow.

The wizard opened his eyes. “I sense something. I can’t tell what it is, but it’s coming from that direction – ” he pointed north and west “ – and it isn’t natural.”

Yarnig nodded. “Good enough. Let’s go.”

He shook the reins, and his horse dragged itself forward. His party followed, and they set off across the frozen fields.

* * *

Somewhere, a hammer rang.

Cold gusts of wind blew over the wall, and Leha hid her hands in the pockets of her cloak. She looked south across the plain. A crescent moon painted the snowy fields silver, and the stars winked at her from above. She looked, knowing that due south, beyond her sight, the Automatons were readying. This plain ran deep into Karkar; the Automatons had built their camp at its edge, and when they came, this was the direction they would come from.

Thinking of that, Leha’s thoughts returned to the ringing hammer. If she strained her senses, she could hear others throughout the city. The forges would be working hard for the next few weeks, preparing for the Automaton attack.

Assuming they had weeks.

Following the meeting with the Urannans, Leha and the other leaders had begun working on their defense plans. Natoma’s experience had proved useful, particularly in matters of supplies and logistics, but as yet, their strategy did not differ greatly from the strategies they’d used since the Battle of Heart. As usual, the plan hinged on Leha. Without her control over the energies of the other worlds, they would be lost.

A piece of ice crunched behind her, and she jumped, clutching the battlement for support.

“Sorry,” Eranna said in her throaty but lyrical accent.

Leha turned to face her, peeling her hand off the chilled stone.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” the Tor said. She had removed her armor, but she wore her uniform under her cloak, and her short sword still hung from her belt. A fur hat covered her head.

“Hello, Eranna,” Leha said quietly.

Eranna came forward, folded her arms on the battlement, and laid her head atop them, gazing out at the plain. “Can’t sleep?”

Leha folded her arms into her sleeves, turned south, and observed the constellations. The Feast had just risen above the horizon. “I needed to think. Besides, my hut isn’t exactly inviting in cold like this.”

“You could always take my place at the barracks,” Eranna said. In the starlight, her hair glowed like white gold.

Leha shook her head as a breeze ruffled her hair. “No. You can keep it.” For the first few weeks after her arrival in Marlhem, Leha had lived in an abandoned house, one of the few still intact, but one day, she had been walking down the street and seen a woman and child living in a shelter made in the ruins of a tool shed. She had given the woman her home, and ever since, she had been unable to accept any accommodation better than what most of the population made do with.

They sat in silence for a time, feeling the ebb and flow of the winds.

Eranna’s eyes searched across the heavens, and she said, “I used to love looking at the stars. When I was little, I’d wander out at night and stay up to watch them. Some nights, in winter, the – ” she searched for the words “ – northern lights would light up the whole sky. It was beautiful.”

Leha leaned forward. “We were too far south for the northern lights.” She smirked. “I tended to spend my nights doing things that made my parents worry. I’d steal food from the bakeries or sneak into parts of the city where children aren’t generally allowed.”

They talked for a long time before making their way back to their respective homes. Leha welcomed the distraction, but part of her couldn’t forget what lay to the south.

She didn’t know how her people had survived this long. Sometimes, she thought it had been simple luck. Nor did she have a clear idea of how they would weather the coming assault.

She hoped that Natoma’s knowledge would help them to put up a defense. She hoped she was the leader her people thought her to be.

She hoped this wouldn’t be the time that their luck ran out.

* * *

Drogin rolled over in his bed, willing sleep to come.

Sleep wasn’t cooperative. He sat up, sighing, and felt a chill as the sheets fell from his bare chest. His mind was too chaotic for sleep.

He swung his legs out of bed and dressed hurriedly. His hand found the hexagonal shaft of his wand, and he willed it to light, illuminating his tiny bedroom and its ramshackle roof. His home had once been part of an armory. The Automatons had flattened much of it, but an office on one end had survived intact – save for the roof – and Drogin had converted it into his home; his bedroom had once been a closet for files and records. The ruins outside were now filled with half-finished prototypes and gizmos. He had been put in charge of designing new weapons to fight the Automatons, but so far, he hadn’t had much success.

Guided by the eerie light of his wand, he made his way to the room he used as study, living room, kitchen, and dining room.

He thought back to his old days in Eastenhold, when he had been an Automaton technician. Things had been simpler then, easier. He had maintained his machines, and he had kept watch over the borders. Simple. He missed those days.

He knelt before his tiny stove and added a few branches of wood, stoking the flames until they began to warm the room. The pungent wafts of smoke helped to clear his head of its fatigue.

He crossed the clutter, coming to sit at his drawing table. As he passed, a draft blew in through one of the many gaps in the roof. He shivered.

As he sat down, he held out his wand. A spark leapt from its tip and lit a candle; its light was not so unnerving as the wand’s green-white glow. He considered the chaotic pile of papers atop the table. Most of them were concerned with two machines he had been designing.

One had been designed to do what Leha did: channel the powers of the other worlds. Drogin had been working on it for months. The energies of Sy’om and Tyzu – and the Automatons’ inability to adapt to them – had formed the foundation for every victory they had won since the Battle of Heart.

But only Leha could channel them. Even with the seal broken throughout much of Tor Som and the surrounding lands, no wizard had been able to channel the powers of the other worlds the way Leha did. They had been forced to conclude that the fighters of the Liberation had used some kind of machine.

Thus far, none of the machines he had designed had done anything. He didn’t have the faintest idea how his sister did what she did, and on the rare occasions when she agreed to be examined, no one had been able to find any clues.

It would have been much simpler, Drogin thought, to create more people like Leha – she and her Lost One friends could produce enough venom for an army of people like her. But when he had confronted her about it, she had flatly refused. She’d said they still didn’t fully understand what had happened to her and that it was too risky.

As he thought about his sister, he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Her journeys in Sy’om and Tyzu had changed her somehow. She wasn’t the girl he remembered from before the war.

Drogin grimaced. Focus. He shoved his sister from his thoughts. The sound of ruffling papers filled the room as he searched for a particular sketch.

The other machine occupying his papers was a device intended to recreate the magical feedback loop first performed by he and Leha. Over the past months, it had proven itself to be an effective weapon against the increasingly common Wizard-Automatons, but it was extremely risky for the people who performed it. Many people had lost their lives to it. It hadn’t taken long for Drogin to begin his work on a machine that could do it without risk.

Unlike his other project, he had made good progress on this device. He expected he would be able to fulfill Eranna’s request to have it ready for use before the next attack.

The difficulty lay in ensuring that its Automaton targets would not be able to take control of it, and in creating the mechanisms that would allow it to operate without a ludicrous amount of human intervention or a machine mind. It was no longer wise to trust a machine that could think for itself.

Drogin hovered over the designs, tapping his pencil against a corner of paper, trying to come up with new solutions to the problems, but nothing came to him.

After several minutes, he admitted to himself that his mind was too occupied for him to concentrate. He knew he couldn’t sleep, so he pocketed his wand, put on his coat, blew out the candle, and stepped outside.

The chill night air helped to wake him, and he took a deep breath. He picked his way through the twisted heaps of metal and half-built prototypes that littered the area around his home and made his way to one of the main streets, walking in long, quick strides that helped to keep him warm.

Few people were out this late, and those that were hurried by, huddling in their thick clothes, their footsteps echoing eerily through the night.

Marlhem was a grim place by daylight, but at night, it took on a surreal, haunted quality. It had not been a pretty city when it was intact, its residents had told him, and now the machines had reduced it to a maze of broken ruins, shantytowns, and silent streets. Here and there, fires and lanterns glowed forlornly, fighting back the darkness that threatened to swallow them on all sides.

In the distance, he heard a hammer ring.

“Good evening.”

Drogin jumped slightly, startled by the unexpected voice. He turned about and saw a cloaked figure standing in the doorway of what had once been a tavern.

The figure stepped onto the street and came forward. Within the man’s dark hood, Drogin caught sight of the skull-like face of a Lost One. Recognizing him, Drogin felt the adrenaline of his surprise fade, replaced by annoyance. He wanted to be alone.

“It seems I am not the only one unable to sleep,” Doga said.

Drogin reached to comb his hair with a gloved hand but thought better of it. “It seems.” He resumed his walking.

Doga matched his stride. “Thinking about the battle?”

“What battle?”

They passed into an abandoned section and were thrown into darkness. The temperature couldn’t have been different, but it felt much colder here.

“The impending Automaton attack,” the black shape that was Doga said.

“Oh. No. I just couldn’t sleep.” He kicked a stone. It seemed to skitter and clatter for an unnaturally long amount of time.

“Does it not bother you?” the shadowy Lost One said.

Drogin shrugged. “Sure it does. It and twenty other things.”

They left the abandoned stretch and turned down a lantern-lit street of relatively intact buildings. In a nearby alley, a pair of Tors huddled over a fire. Judging by the smell, they were burning garbage.

“I cannot think of anything but the machines’ coming,” Doga said. He continued talking. His voice echoed with an odd kind of nervous excitement.

Drogin hardly listened. He noticed Doga’s hands; they were gloved, but the gloves’ fingers had been pierced to allow his claws to stick out. They looked much like the claws his sister now bore.

Drogin’s hood concealed his grimace.

“Awake late, are we?” a voice called out.

Lahune stepped forward from the shadow of a building, his smooth voice carrying in the still night. They came to a stop.

“It would seem,” Doga responded companionably.

“Would you mind if I walked with you?” the Urannan said.

“Not at all,” Doga responded.

Drogin sighed quietly.

The three of them began walking, passing the ruined warehouse district. Even at this hour, the bathes were operating. Many people sent their clothes here to be cleaned; that work was generally done at night. The air smelled faintly of soap.

“So, what’s keeping you up?” Drogin asked Lahune.

He shrugged. He still wore those black robes. Something about them teased at Drogin’s memory. “I’m always like this when I come someplace new. It’s the excitement of seeing new things and meeting new people.”

Drogin gestured to the skeleton of a shop. “This is exciting?”

The Urannan smiled. “The teachings of Aya say that ‘each new place contains within it a selection of humanity’s great diversity, like a bouquet of flowers; if the varying colors, textures, and teachings of the world were ever combined, we would have perfection.’”

Drogin looked at the new man with new eyes, remembering where he had seen those robes. They were the robes of a priest, a follower of Aya. When he had been nine, a group of Urannan priests had passed through Three Gates. They’d been leading a bunch of dirty mules through the streets, pretending to ignore the scornful gazes that had followed them. Leha, seven at the time, had been interested in their exotic clothes, and he’d had to stop her from following them.

They turned down another dimly lit street. A harsh wind blew in their faces.

“You’re a priest,” Drogin said flatly.

“A priest?” Doga growled.

“My order has nothing to do with those who once served the Old Gods,” Lahune said quickly.

Drogin leaned towards the Lost One. “A few years after the Liberation, a philosopher named Aya began preaching that humanity was a sacred and wondrous creation. She founded an order dedicated to worshipping our race and venerating its achievements.” He spoke in the tone of a parent describing their child’s imaginary friend.

Lahune raised a hand. “That’s not strictly true,” he said politely. “We do not worship humanity. ‘Worship’ implies we believe that humans have some form of divinity. We are no more divine than the Old Gods were. Contrary to popular belief, we are not a religion, and we do not seek to replace the belief in the Old Gods. We remember the damage that religion did to our people.”

They passed through an abandoned area where the road had not been cleared, and their feet crunched in the moonlit snow. Drogin was slowly leading them back towards his home.

Lahune continued. “The purpose of my order is to embrace and celebrate the qualities that make humanity the beautiful and diverse thing it is. The Old Gods created us to be their slaves, but we have far exceeded being simple workers. We have art, and music, and language. We have ethics and laws. And we still have not reached our full potential. That is the purpose of my order, the heart of Aya’s teachings: to work towards achieving our race’s full potential.”

Doga didn’t seem to know how to react.

“I’d be happy to tell you more,” Lahune said. “I can read some of Aya’s teachings to you. Perhaps you could tell me about the Lost Ones; I’d like to hear about your world and your people.”

“Perhaps,” Doga said, working his jaw back and forth.

They were near the street where Drogin lived, so he decided it was time to make his escape. He excused himself and hurried home, where he collapsed into bed, and his mind continued to run in circles.

———————

Enjoying the story so far? The next chapter will be posted soon, but if you can’t wait, you also have the opportunity buy the full ebook now!

Filed under: My writing, World Spectrum Tagged: books, fantasy, Rage of the Old Gods free chapters, sci-fi, steampunk, The World Spectrum, writing

BlizzCon 2014: Overwatch’s Diversity, StarCraft’s New Units, and More

BlizzCon 2014 is now behind us, but it provided us with a monstrous amount of info and some big surprises, and if you’re anything like me, you’re still still digesting it all.

There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it, shall we?

Overwatch: An intriguing conundrum

I’m still struggling to decide what I think about Overwatch.

Somewhat to my surprise, there’s a lot I find compelling about it. From what I’ve seen, they’ve built a pretty rich history and mythology around the setting — as with all their games — and of course that intrigues me. Despite the “Saturday morning cartoon” vibe, there is also something intangible about the Overwatch setting that I find appealing.

I think a lot of it may boil down to the fact that — like many Blizzard games, but even more so in this case — the developers were clearly very passionate about Overwatch, and they poured all that love and enthusiasm into the game. They told a story about the pitch meeting for Overwatch, where Chris Metzen (jokingly?) threatened to quit the company if they didn’t greenlight it.

I’m also intrigued by the obvious push towards diversity in Overwatch’s cast. It’s still not perfect — I mentioned Widowmaker in my last post as a stereotypical femme fatale, and while the character’s official name may be Mercy, I can’t think of her as anything but “generic healer girl” — but on the whole, Overwatch is tickling my IDIC feels something fierce, and there’s a lot to commend.

We’ve got one character who’s a Middle Eastern woman with a lawful good personality and practical, badass armour. We’ve got an Indian scientist. The poster character for the game is a sensibly dressed tomboyish lady.

This is certainly not something I ever expected from Blizzard, but it’s a most pleasant surprise.

Even putting aside the obvious ethnic diversity and strong push for representation of female characters, it’s very multicultural. It has occurred to me that none of the currently announced characters are American. Tracer is British, Mercy is Swiss, Reinhardt is German…

As someone thoroughly sick of sci-fi treating the future as the sole domain of the United States, I find this incredibly refreshing.

But every time I get myself jazzed up about all that, I then remind myself this is a purely competitive first person shooter, and then I feel sad.

I’m not pathologically opposed to shooters or PvP — I have dabbled in both and enjoyed them — but they’re both way down the list of my gaming interests, and a game that focuses exclusively on them isn’t terribly inspiring.

If Overwatch had a single player campaign, I’d be on it like stink on a monkey. As it stands, I’m feeling pretty conflicted about the game.

There may be some hope on that front, though. They did mention there has been talk of some sort of story mode, though it’s still just an idea. Metzen is apparently very keen on the concept, but has not yet succeeded in convincing the rest of the team.

Let’s hope.

If nothing else, I look forward to playing the Overwatch characters in Heroes of the Storm. I can imagine Tracer and Hanzo being a blast to play.

Legacy of the Void: New units and game modes

The other big news comes courtesy of StarCraft II, as Blizzard offered previews of the new units and game modes for Legacy of the Void.

Terran gain the herc, an awkwardly named melee infantry with a grappling hook and high health, and the cyclone, a highly mobile tank with strong single target damage.

Zerg gain the lurker, which is the lurker, and the ravager, which are basically those artillery bugs from Starship Troopers.

Protoss gain only one new unit, though another may be added later: the disruptor, a mobile bomb that enters an energy form to gain brief invulnerability before exploding for massive area of effect damage. It’s not a suicide unit; it can be detonated many times.

I’d say all these new units fit into the category of interesting, but not terribly exciting. They’re all solid concepts, but there’s not a lot of wow factor to them.

Several units have also received redesigns, some of them so radical as to make them virtually new units. Swarm hosts, for instance, have gone from being siege units to harassment units. Battlecruisers and carriers have finally gotten some buffs, as well, so hopefully we’ll start to see them used more seriously.

On the downside, immortals have lost their iconic hardened shield in favour of an activated defense buff. I can see the logic in this, but there was something so wonderfully Protossy about just shrugging off siege tanks blasts like they’re nothing. I’m really going to miss that.

They also announced three new game modes.

Automated tournaments are pretty self-explanatory. This isn’t a feature I see myself using a lot, but it’s been on many fans’ wishlists for years, and I think it will be very popular.

Archon mode is bizarre. This allows two players to control a single base/army in a 1v1 setting. I guess the idea is to make the game more approachable by splitting the responsibility between two people, but it still seems like it’ll lead to a lot of “too many cooks in the kitchen” issues.

Allied Commanders sounds the most interesting. I’ve had trouble finding details on it, but it’s apparently some sort of never-ending online campaign played cooperatively with fellow players. You have a character that will continually progress between matches (like home cities in Age of Empires III), and from what I understand, each match is an objective-based scenario versus AI like the campaign.

It’s hard to imagine what Allied Commanders will be like based on what little information is at hand, but I’m very intrigued. If they can balance the difficulty well and provide more variety than the standard skirmishes versus AI, I could see playing this a lot.

Finally, they also announced some pretty big changes to the core economy of StarCraft II: More workers to start, fewer workers per base, fewer resources per base. Seems they want to speed up the early game, an idea I whole-heartedly support.

Overall, Legacy of the Void looks to be making SC2 much faster and more micro-intensive. Though this may steepen it’s already harsh learning curve, I think these are positive changes on the whole.

Heroes of the Storm: New characters and maps

Rather than any big reveals, Heroes had a lot of little pieces of news at BlizzCon, mostly centered on new hero and battleground previews.

Most of the attention was given to three long-awaited new heroes: Thrall, Jaina, Proudmoore, and the Lost Vikings.

To my surprise, Thrall is a melee damage-dealer. I was expecting him to be a caster, and maybe a support. But he does have some of his iconic abilities, like chain lightning and earthquake.

Jaina is pretty much your standard frost mage. She focuses on crowd control and very high burst damage. Lot of people are going to hate playing against her.

The stars of one of Blizzard’s pre-Warcraft games from more than twenty years ago, the Lost Vikings seem ready to replace Abathur as the game’s most mechanically unique and challenging hero. Each is a completely separate unit that can be controlled, or killed, individually. I foresee that they will either be completely useless or brokenly overpowered depending on who’s playing them.

They also had some teases for other upcoming heroes. Sylvanas got quite a bit of attention. From the sounds of it, she may actually be a specialist rather than an assassin, which I find very surprising but also intriguing. Her current design has her able to stunlock anything that isn’t a player. Definitely looking forward to learning more about her.

Most surprising of all, her in-game model appears to be fully clothed.

Miracle of miracles.

Several more in-the-works heroes were mentioned and/or appeared in the background of the trailer shown at the convention: Rexxar, the Butcher, the Skeleton King, the Warcraft III blademaster, Zul’jin, and the Diablo III crusader. It looks like they’re using the female version of the crusader, which I find mildly disappointing purely because I have a man crush on Gideon Emery.

The two new maps are on an Egyptian theme. Details on their mechanics are still a little sketchy, but Sky Temple is supposed to have some kind of PvPvE capture points to unleash fiery blasts on the enemy base. Sounds a bit like Cursed Hollow and Blackheart’s Bay had a baby. I like.

They also showed off concept art for a new map based on the Diablo universe, where one half is styled after the High Heavens and the other after the Burning Hells. Looks very cool.

The rest: Trailer rage and the barbarian capitol

There wasn’t a lot of news for Warcraft or Diablo fans at this BlizzCon, perhaps not surprisingly.

The most interesting thing for Diablo was that they will be adding a new zone in an upcoming patch: Ruins of Sescheron. This will be in act III, and is the remains of the barbarian capitol.

The impression I get is that this will only be in adventure mode, though I’m not sure of that. I don’t see them adding new story to the campaign for it. It’s a neat-looking zone, though: snowy ruins. I like it.

The only Warcraft news of note surrounded the movie. To the great anguish of myself and countless others, there was a trailer at BlizzCon, but it will not be released to the public.

Son of a…

In the end, the most interesting tidbit to reach the public was our first glimpse of the film’s Orcs, which are created using motion capture like Gollum in Lord of the Rings. Looks very good — exactly like in WoW’s cinematics.

* * *

All in all, this was a very interesting BlizzCon with a lot of surprises. I still would have liked some news on the idea of revamped Warcraft strategy games, as well as a trailer for the movie, but otherwise, I can’t complain.

What say you? What do you make of the revelations from BlizzCon 2014?

Filed under: Games Tagged: Diablo, fantasy, Heroes of the Storm, movies, Overwatch, sci-fi, Starcraft, Warcraft

BlizzCon 2014: Overwatch and More

Opening, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone:

The opening to this year’s BlizzCon was interesting. They began with a retrospective video covering the entire history of the Warcraft franchise, and I have to say I found it thoroughly nerdgasmic. Was like being ten years old again… though it was an odd choice for a convention that seems to have little news on the Warcraft front.

Something else that I thought was very interesting was that Mike Morhaime took some time out of his opening speech to address the great shame of the gaming community, Gamergate, and encourage people to stop being pricks and act like human beings.

Now, I could pick some holes in this action. He didn’t actually name what he was talking about, and overall, his language could have been stronger. But he didn’t have to address it at all, and it raises my estimation of Blizzard somewhat.

They then moved on to some announcements for Heroes of the Storm. The main news is that Thrall and Jaina are on the way (about time), as well as the Lost Vikings and two new battlegrounds: Sky Temple, and Tomb of the Spider Queen.

I’m a bit disappointed in the lack of Sylvanas, as well as the lack of a StarCraft map, but still, this is good news.

Closed beta will begin in January. I’m going to assume they’ll allow you to buy access through founder packs, because otherwise I don’t see the point of a closed beta. That’s pretty much what the technical alpha is already.

They then announced the first Hearthstone expansion, Goblins Versus Gnomes, which will be launching next month(!). It doesn’t seem like it’s adding much other than new cards.

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

This was the most exciting announcement so far for me, even if it was also the least surprising. Legacy of the Void is nearly done, and they showed a truly fantastic trailer for it.

I had such a raging nerdgasm watching this. The Protoss fan in me is just delirious with joy.

The final battle with Amon! Purifying Aiur! Artanis and Selendis! Zeratul and Kerrigan! Death and ruin!

It’s all so epic I can’t even be coherent. All I can tell you is that when the trailer was finished, I threw my arms into the air and shouted, “YES! YEEEES!”

Gameplay details are sketchy at this point, but it sounds like the campaign will feature something like the god powers from Age of Mythology in the form of orbital strikes from your mothership. I can get behind that.

As I predicted, there will be new multiplayer units, though the only one announced at the time of this writing is the lurker.

Overwatch:

But probably the biggest news out of this BlizzCon is the announcement of Blizzard’s first game from a new IP in nearly two decades: Overwatch, introduced with both cinematic and gameplay trailers.

It’s a quirky, sci-fi shooter. Seems somewhat inspired by Team Fortress, but also with some MOBA elements. There seems to be quite a large cast of characters, and it looks like they all have pretty unique abilities and playstyles. So a large twist of RPG in this FPS, it seems.

I can already hear legions of angry nerds howling about Blizzard going to the kids, because Overwatch does seem incredibly “Pixar.”

That said, it seems reasonably well done for what it is. It’s silly, but it’s charming.

Something I found interesting is that the majority of the first few characters they previewed were female, of ethnicities other than Caucasian, or both, and only one of the female characters seemed overtly sexualized. Perhaps I’m reading too much in, but maybe Blizzard is finally getting the message about inclusiveness.

Another surprise is that Overwatch is apparently not years down the road. Beta is planned for 2015, and it’s already playable at BlizzCon.

I’m not sure what I make of this just now. A competitive online shooter is not a genre I’ve ever had any interest in, and I’ve got somewhat mixed feelings on the whole “Pixar does X-Men” vibe of the universe. If they had a single player campaign, I’d be all for it, but this sounds like a purely PvP game. I’d also feel a lot better if they had a third person perspective option, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

That said, it is Blizzard, and they’ve succeeded in getting me interested in genres I didn’t care about before (see: Heroes and MOBAs). The graphics are very cool, and Tracer does look like a pretty fun character to play.

I am gonna sign up for the beta.

If nothing else, I commend Blizzard for trying something new.

* * *

There has been no word of anything related to Eye of Azshara, perhaps not surprisingly. There’s always the remote possibility they might announce it later, but I seriously doubt that.

I am a bit disappointed there’s still no news of any updated versions of old Warcraft games. With all the hype they were doing about this being the twentieth anniversary of Warcraft, I’m kind of surprised there was no news on that front. Feels like a wasted opportunity.

Aside from that, though, this is shaping up to be an interesting BlizzCon. No doubt there will be much more details on Overwatch, Legacy of the Void, the new Heroes content, and more over the coming days. Stay tuned to this blog for further updates and my thoughts.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, sci-fi, Starcraft, Warcraft

Blizzard Trademarks “Eye of Azshara”?

Here we go again.

According to a post on MMO-Champion, Blizzard has trademarked the title, “Eye of Azshara.”

Now, there is an excellent chance this is a hoax. After the “Dark Below” fiasco,* I’m not going to jump to any conclusions. There is some evidence it may be legit — as far as anyone can tell, someone had to spend a few hundred Euros to register this, which is a lot for a hoax — and the fact that Blizzcon is only a few days away is also suspicious. But I do think there is at least a 50/50 chance this is a hoax.

*(It is however interesting to note that The Dark Below may not have been a hoax after all, though it definitely wasn’t related to World of Warcraft. The first expansion for Activision’s Destiny is called “The Dark Below.” It seems very strange to me that Blizzard would file the first trademark application for a game published by their affiliate, but it’s also hard to believe these two things are totally unrelated.)

But speculation is fun, so for the sake of argument, let’s think about what this could mean.

I desperately want this to be a WoW expansion, or maybe even Warcraft IV.

Azshara is by far the expansion concept that most excites me. Azshara is perhaps the last great Warcraft villain left undefeated by players, barring godlike beings such as Sargeras that really aren’t suited to be raid bosses.

She is one of the most powerful individuals in Warcraft lore — a mage of incalculable power and skill who has also been empowered by the Old Gods and may now control the elemental of water. She is also one of the most selfish, twisted, and cruel individuals in the Warcraft universe.

An expansion featuring Azshara as the main villain and the Great Sea as its setting could bring in all sorts of long-overlooked locations and ideas in Warcraft lore. We could finally go to Kul Tiras. We could visit the Tomb of Sargeras. We could journey to Zandalar and have our long-overdue reckoning with Zul. We could come face-to-face with N’Zoth, the Drowned God. Want to visit the Emerald Dream? This would be the ideal time to do it.

Furthermore, Blizzard has been foreshadowing something terrible brewing in Azeroth’s oceans since Warcraft III. That’s how we wound up with Murlocs; something drove them from the depths. And they’ve been dropping more hints ever since.

I think an expansion based on Azshara would be the first and perhaps only expansion to rival Wrath of the Lich King in its epic grandeur and significance to the ongoing Warcraft story.

It’d also be a great chance to finally give Tyrande the attention she deserves. As Azshara’s most obvious rival, Tyrande is the ideal choice to be the protagonist of such an expansion. Although knowing how Blizzard is going lately they’d probably make her play second fiddle to Malfurion or resurrected Illidan or maybe just make the protagonist someone else completely random for no reason, like Velen.

All that said, I think the odds of this being a WoW expansion are very low. A lot of people are guessing they’ll announce the next expansion at this year’s BlizzCon, but as I’ve said before, I think that’s very improbable.

Yes, Blizzard keeps going on about how they want to do yearly expansions. But they’ve been saying that since Wrath, and the wait between expansions has actually been getting longer.

Even if they were far enough along to have something to show from 7.0, it would be a monumentally foolish PR move to unveil it before Warlords of Draenor is even released, thus stealing their own thunder.

The odds of Eye of Azshara being a new Warcraft RTS are even more abysmal. Blizzard’s RTS team is already splitting its attention between StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm, and I don’t think we’ll see another Warcraft RTS while WoW is around, much as it pains me to say that.

One intriguing — though, again, highly improbable — possibility that I haven’t seen mentioned is that Eye of Azshara might be a new expansion for Warcraft III.

Sounds crazy — and it probably is — but it’s not entirely outside the bounds of possibility. There’s a lot of talk of an HD re-release of WC3, and it’s concievable that Blizzard might want to sweeten the pot by including some new content. A short new campaign set around the time of the Frozen Throne — either a prequel dealing with how the Naga joined Illidan or a sequel dealing with the aftermath of their defeat in Northrend — probably wouldn’t tax the RTS team too badly.

Interesting to think about, but again, it doesn’t seem likely.

If Eye of Azshara isn’t a hoax, I think it’s probably a Hearthstone expansion.

We know Blizzard is working on a big Hearthstone expansion, and there’s a pretty good chance they’d announce it at this year’s BlizzCon. Now would be the right time to trademark its title. So it makes sense.

So I think Eye of Azshara is probably a hoax, but there’s also a fairly strong chance it’s a Hearthstone expansion. It could be related to WoW — I hope it is, and I won’t rule it out — but it seems improbable.

* * *

It’s also worth noting that the same post on MMO-Champion mentions that “Overwatch” has continued to proliferate across trademark databases, so there’s a good chance that’s legit. I have no further thoughts on the matter beyond what I’ve already said, though.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

TSW: Halloween 2014

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — if you’re a fan of The Secret World. The long-awaited third Halloween event is at least upon us. This event stumbled a bit getting out of the gate, but as is usually the case with TSW, it’s worth it once you get into the actual content.

Better late than never:

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a damper thrown on this year’s festivities before they had even begun. The start of the event was heavily delayed, and it didn’t end up launching until the day before Halloween.

So we now have a Halloween event that takes place almost entirely after Halloween, and that just doesn’t feel right. It’s like that period of several years where The Simpsons kept doing their Treehouse of Horror episodes in the middle of November.

I’m used to delays at this point.  I’ve spent a lifetime as a Blizzard fan, and I’m used to pretty much everything in TSW coming out at least a week or two (and sometimes much more) after when it was supposed to. For the most part, I don’t let it get to me. It is, of course, frustrating, but I know the devs are doing their best, and it’s usually worth the wait.

But a holiday being delayed this much just strains my patience past its limit. You can’t put back the real world holiday, so delaying the in-game holiday just gets messy. A Halloween event that mostly takes place in November is no more acceptable than a Christmas event in January would be.

Aside from which, since Halloween is so important and iconic for TSW, I really thought this was the one thing we could count on. For a while there, it seemed like things were finally improving and Funcom was starting to put out new releases at a healthy clip again, but if they can’t be on time with something this publicized and important, that reflects very poorly on the game, and it makes me once again worry for TSW’s future.

At least they didn’t cancel holidays outright like a certain other MMO I could name…

The Broadcast:

As is now tradition in the Secret World, this year brought back the events of the last two years, but also included an all-new one: The Broadcast.

It’s just one mission, but it’s a very good one. The player is contacted by paranoid conspiracy theorist Dave Screed, who has learned of a twisted plot involving number stations and mysterious radio broadcasts in graveyards all around the world.

What follows is the kind of surreal, twisted mind-frackery we’ve come to expect from TSW.

It all culminates with a chilling journey into a haunted Soviet bunker, and no, that’s not as scary as it sounds.

It’s worse.

Each Halloween event seems to be better than the last. Though short, the Broadcast was a truly excellent mission, and the ideas it raises are both chilling and awe-inspiring.

Like Tyler Freeborn’s story from last year’s event, it touches on some of the more bizarre yet intriguing ideas within TSW’s lore: the concept of information as a force and an intelligence unto itself. It echoes concepts already touched on by the Buzzing, the Black Signal, and the Facility. The end result is a story that works brilliantly on its own, but also feels a logical part of the Secret World’s greater mythos.

It also featured some pretty cool old audio dramas from around the 40s and 50s, and my understanding is that if you complete one of the holiday achievements, you get an in-game item to listen to them again whenever you want. That’s the sort of clever and awesome thing you only see in TSW.

Glorious loot!

It is perhaps a sign that I have become a hopeless MMO design geek that the thing I find most interesting about this year’s Halloween event is not the content, but the way the rewards are set-up.

All of the new rewards for this year’s Halloween — and holy crap there are a lot of them: make-up, clothes, pets — are random drops from bags earned through the new content, but they can all be traded, and you can buy more bags through cash shop should you desire.

What this means is that there’s basically no risk of being screwed over by RNGesus. You can swap items you don’t want for things you do. You can buy stuff at the auction house. If you’re one of the rare people who doesn’t care about cosmetics, you can sell them all for massive profits.

It’s a fantastic system that needs to be industry standard for MMO events right the Hell now.

Something else that’s very clever is you can buy another type of bag from the cash shop that gives you loot just like the others, but also grants loot to up to twenty players around you. Hit enough people with your loot-splosion, and you get an achievement that unlocks the new /dance_thriller emote for your character.

This is, again, a brilliant idea. This is encouraging socialization in an MMO the right way.

So often, attempts to get players socializing are akin to the developers holding people’s heads together and demanding, “Now kiss! KIIIISSSSS!” But here’s something that rewards generosity and encourages players to get together in a fun way.

The one downside is that the plethora of new items makes me hate flares more than ever.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, The Secret World

Pointless Nostalgia: Mainframe Entertainment

I mostly use this blog to discuss my current interests — my recent writing projects, the books I’m reading, the shows I’m watching, and so forth. However, my love affair with speculative fiction has been a lifelong thing. I thought it might be interesting* to turn back the clock a bit and look at some of the sci-fi and fantasy I loved as a child, and which started me on the path to become the nerd I am today.

*(By which I mean that I wanted an excuse to look through a bunch of nostalgic YouTube clips.)

Originally, this was just going to be one post, but it got long enough that now I’m thinking I might make a whole series out of it.

Mainframe Entertainment:

When I think about things I loved as a kid, the shows produced by the Canadian company Mainframe Entertainment (now known as Rainmaker Entertainment) jump to mind almost immediately.

It all started with ReBoot. The first ever computer-animated television series, ReBoot was a piece of history, and while I loved it at the time, I think I have an even greater appreciation for ReBoot now that I’m an adult.

ReBoot was, above all else, wildly creative. It was a story set inside a computer, where each character is an anthropomorphized program. For example, one of the main heroes was Bob the Guardian, essentially an anti-virus program.

But what was so clever about ReBoot was that they never actually came out and said, “This is a story about life inside a computer.” They just sort of left you to figure that out on your own. And they created this brilliantly deep and bizarre mythology and cosmology of life inside cyberspace that was just so completely original.

There were of course times when ReBoot devolved into pure, pointless absurdity as kids’ shows tend to, but on the whole, it was remarkably smart for a show aimed at children, and the later seasons wound up being surprisingly dark.

ReBoot also featured one of the greatest characters in human history: Mike the TV.

There’s been talk of a continuation of ReBoot for a long time, but the future remains uncertain. There was supposed to be a feature film trilogy, but I believe it’s been cancelled. Now just recently there’s word that Rainmaker is working on a new TV series called ReBoot: The Guardian Code.

I don’t generally want to be one of those adults who still watches kids’ shows… but I’d probably watch a ReBoot revival.

ReBoot was far from the only Mainframe show I loved, though. There was also Shadow Raiders (AKA War Planets).

Shadow Raiders was, if anything, even more bizarre than ReBoot, featuring a star system of warring elemental worlds forced to band together for survival against an all-consuming void planet.

Like ReBoot, Shadow Raiders had a surprising maturity once you looked past its odd outer trappings. The show went to some dark places, with entire worlds destroyed and civilizations brought to the brink of extinction. It’s not often you see a kids’ show deal with ideas like ingrained racial hatred and genocide.

Shadow Raiders was perhaps my first exposure to one of my favourite themes in fiction: the idea of old enemies banding together for mutual survival. The show repeatedly hammered home both how much the different worlds hated each other, and how utterly doomed they would be if they didn’t work together.

Shadow Raiders was also my first experience of a show I loved being cut down before its time, as it lasted only two seasons and didn’t really have a satisfying conclusion. This would become a regular theme in my life: Star Trek: Enterprise, Stargate: Universe, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles…

But of course, the most famous of Mainframe’s shows, and the one I most loved at the time, was Beast Wars (and its sequel, Beast Machines), a spin-off of the Transformers universe.

Here’s a show to win the heart of any young boy. What’s better than a giant killbot? A giant killbot who turns into a truck. But what’s better than a giant killbot who turns into a truck? A giant killbot who turns into A MOTHER****ING DINOSAUR MOTHER****ER.

To say I was obsessed with this show would be a colossal understatement. I adored it with an almost religious fervour, and I wince to think of how much money my parents wasted getting me the toys.

My favourite characters were Rattrap, because rats and because I always gravitate towards the geeky characters, and Silverbolt, because I like lawful good types. Also, he was a wolf cross-bred with an eagle. Badass.

I especially enjoyed the episodes dealing with the alien Vok, who I found fascinatingly mysterious and creepy. In this, we see the earliest signs of my fascination with the concept of alien and unknowable beings, still present today in my fondness for things such as World of Warcraft’s Old Gods or The Secret World’s Dreamers.

Ironically, while it was my most beloved Mainframe show at the time, Beast Wars is the one I have the least respect for as an adult. It was the most overtly childish, and the need to support the toy line forced the storyline to go in odd and often unnatural directions. It did not have the same wild originality as Shadow Raiders or ReBoot.

Still, it does deserve credit for once again being darker and more mature than one would expect from children’s programming, albeit to a lesser extent than its contemporary shows by the same company.

Something that amuses me to this day is how they were able to get away with putting such hideous acts of violence in a kids’ show simply because robots don’t bleed.

Filed under: Misc., Retro Reviews Tagged: Beast Wars, pointless nostalgia, ReBoot, sci-fi, Shadow Raiders, TV

Rage of the Old Gods, Chapter Five: The Urannans

We have now reached the fifth chapter of Rage of the Old Gods, the first book of my epic science fantasy trilogy the World Spectrum. In the coming weeks, I will be posting the entire book for free on this blog. If you’re just joining us, you can get caught up with the previous chapters now.

We now begin the second section. Six months have passed since the rise of the Old Gods, and the survivors have retreated to ruined Tor Som. Former enemies have become allies, but humanity is a shadow of what it once was. Now, a band of refugees approaches from the south, bringing news of a new threat.

———————

Part two: The Defense of Marlhem

Six months later,

Tor Som…

Chapter five: The Urannans

A gust of wind lashed at the hut, rattling its crude, wooden roof.

Leha opened her eyes. Realizing morning had come, she sighed inwardly. She sat up on her pallet and ran her fingers through her hair. She had shrunken her claws to small nubs. One night, soon after she’d gotten them, she had rolled onto her hand in her sleep and cut her stomach badly.

The air was chill, and she shivered. It was already colder than what she had been used to in Three Gates, and the Tors told her that the coldest part of the year was yet to come. She dressed quickly.

Wrapping herself in her cloak – the same one that Benefactor’s people had gifted her with six months before – she exited her hut, a lean-to of wood and canvas built against the side of an abandoned shop, and marched down the street. Her bare feet crunched in the thin snow. She had adapted them to the weather, and she hardly felt the cold. She hadn’t been so successful with the rest of her body. All her attempts to make herself immune to cold had resulted in her entire body sprouting fur, or her metabolism increasing to the point where she moved as if she was in Tyzu’s high energy and ate like she had fasted for a month. She preferred the cold.

The few people she passed stared at her and muttered to each other. Some even backed out of her way in a sign of deference.

She flexed her claws. No matter how hard she tried, she could not make them into normal nails, and she could not make the people think of her as anything other than the Hero of Heart, the person who had made it possible for humans to fight the Automatons.

She passed a pair of Lost One warriors. One of them, Haj, a member of the Watching Eye clan, nodded at her. Leha smiled back.

The Watching Eye clan had born witness to her transformation. Sometimes, she thought that they were the only ones who saw her as a person.

When Leha had been little, she had dreamed of being a great hero of the Liberation. She had pictured herself riding into battle alongside Phanto and the other heroes. Now, in a sense, she had gotten her wish. Ever since her victory at Heart, the people had looked to her for guidance. The same natural charisma that had made her a good saleswoman led the survivors of humanity to put their trust in her, and she now led the charge against the reborn Old Gods.

It was ironic, she thought. Her parents and her brother had constantly criticized her inability to commit to anything or anyone. She bored easily, and the only thing that had kept her from abandoning her old antique shop had been the constant stream of new artifacts for her to discover. Commitment and responsibility had always been things she’d avoided like plague.

Now, she had the crushing responsibility of saving the human race. There was too much at stake for her to give in to her natural instinct to flee. And in truth, there were few other options. The machines had been thorough in annihilating humanity’s leadership.

She remembered her father’s advice to be careful what one wished for.

She took a left and walked onto a street of ruined warehouses. This city was called Marlhem. Before the Automatons had risen against their masters, it had been a center for Tor Som’s military. The Tor army had used it as a staging area during the invasion of Eastenhold.

The Automatons – the Old Gods; she never knew what to call them – had destroyed much of it in the early days of their revolt. Later, Leha had come here with the survivors of the Battle of Heart – those who had not fled into the Gormorra Mountains – and the Tor, Karkaran, and Eastenholder refugees they had encountered along the way. They had made their home in the remains of the city, and from here, they had contacted the rest of Tor Som, forging a bastion of resistance against the machines

Half of one of the warehouses had been left relatively intact, and it had been converted into a rudimentary bathing area. A wall had been built across the open side to keep the wind out, and the space had been partitioned into separate bath stalls. Some of the Tors had felt that bathes were a waste of resources, but Yeldar had reminded them that cleanliness helped to stave off disease. “We don’t need fever to do the Automatons’ work for them,” he’d said.

Leha stood one of the bathing cubicles, huddling in silence, as the attendants heated water for her. In here, the air smelled of soap and wood smoke. When they were done, she pulled the curtains shut around her, disrobed quickly, and lowered herself into a makeshift tub made from an Automaton’s head. She found soap and a washcloth – luxuries reserved for the likes of her – on what had once been the machine’s chin.

The cold rabidly sucked the heat from the water, and she worked quickly, scrubbing soap into her hair and splashing water over her skin. The harsh soap stung her eyes.

After finishing, she scrubbed herself dry with a coarse towel, dressed, and headed back into the cold. She headed for the inn she, Doga, Eranna, and the other leaders had been using as a command center.

* * *

Yarnig Tor Lannis, emperor of all Tor Som, gazed into the glass of brandy he held with his left hand, breathing in its heady aroma. Most of his people were living off of stores and whatever they could scavenge for themselves. They lived in ruined houses and makeshift tents. And here he was, sitting in his chair, drinking his fine brandy in his warm, intact country home. It felt so wrong. He let out a breath, set down the brandy, and ruffled his brown curls.

He left the chair and began to pace. His feet made little sound on the carpeted floor.

Six months. For six months he had sat in this plush playhouse, doing nothing. He was supposed to be the leader of his people, and he didn’t even run his household – his majordomo handled those responsibilities. He shook his head.

The fire crackled.

Six months. Six months ago, the Automatons had risen up against their masters – though he wondered if humanity had ever truly held power over them – and unleashed destruction on the entire world. In a single stroke, the machines had virtually wiped out Tor Som’s capitol, Retgard, killing two of Tor Som’s royal families, the Tor Sinnis and the Tor Vargis, along with thousands of their people.

Yarnig grimaced as he thought of the Tor Vargis. If they had not built the Wizard-Automatons, none of this would have happened. If they had not dreamed of war and power, Yarnig would not be in the position he was in now.

Yarnig’s father had been emperor. After he had retired, the Tor Lannis should not have held power again for another two generations. No one had bothered to teach Yarnig the intricacies of ruling a nation, of war and strategy. And so, when the mantle of rulership had fallen on his shoulders, he had been forced to give over his power to underlings. It had been painfully clear that the best thing he could do for his country was nothing.

For the first few weeks, chaos had completely consumed the nation. Eventually, some of the remaining military officers and government officials had restored a semblance of order, but it had not been until the arrival of Leha and her army that true leadership had come to Tor Som. Yarnig had not been able to do anything but watch.

He paused his pacing and downed the brandy, feeling it warm him from the inside out.

He stirred the fire, causing the embers to crackle and spit, and resumed his motion. He strolled along the walls of the parlor, looking over the artwork – his artwork – that adorned the walls. This was what he was comfortable with – the paintbrush and the pencil.

He came to a drawing that was not his, a map of the known world, and stopped. He traced a line on the glass with one finger. The line extended from the Mannall Mountains; cut a diagonal through Karkar, separating the northeastern half from the southwestern; and ended at the Southern Spur of the Gormorra Range. No news had come from behind that line – not from lower Karkar, nor Pira, nor Uranna – in six months. None who had tried to pass it had returned. Some rumors said that everything beyond it had been destroyed, and that the Automatons had gained dominion in those regions. If that was the case, Yarnig didn’t know how those on this side of the line could hope to prevail.

He had only met Leha a handful of times. She had projected an air of confidence, and he’d seen that her charisma had inspired those around her, but he knew how to read people, and he’d seen the doubt, the uncertainty, that hid behind the face she showed to the world. He hoped she was up to the task of defending what was left of humanity. The trust and the expectations of his people now rested on her and her powers.

He found his gaze moving upward. It came to rest on the wild lands north of Tor Som, and as his fingers brushed the glass above the blankness representing that untamed wilderness, an idea came to him, something that presented hope of aiding humanity’s cause.

For a moment, he hesitated. If he did this, he would be taking a tremendous risk. His life would be in danger. But, if he failed, he would do so while attempting to do something worthwhile. So many have died already. I doubt my death would make any difference.

He made up his mind, and in spite of all the peril, he smiled. This was something he could do. This was something that would help.

He made for the door, taking long strides that ate up the distance across the carpet. He opened the door and turned to the guard. “Summon Taldin.”

* * *

Doga found her first. He came jogging towards her on the street, his bare feet kicking up snow. He wore the red tunic and maroon pants of a Tor soldier, a mail hauberk, and a fur-lined helm. He carried a spear in one hand.

“Leha!” he called.

She stopped. “What is it?” Her pulse quickened. She reflexively began to regrow her claws.

Doga stood before her, and a smile split his leathery face. “The sentries have spotted a group coming from the south – humans,” he said, speaking Eastenholder with an accent.

Leha’s eyes widened. They had not encountered anyone from the south in months. She gestured for him to take the lead.

They hastened down the streets, their misted breaths coming quick. People called out questions as they passed. Leha found the time to shout that the city was not under attack.

They scaled the intact portion of the southern wall. Marlhem had been built in a roughly hexagonal shape; the south and north walls formed the midsection of the hexagon and were connected by two asymmetrical points. The walls had been built thick and high to withstand attacks by Automatons, but nearly every section had been fractured somewhere along its length. The south wall had only one gap, but it took up most of the eastern half.

Up here, the wind was even more biting. She pulled her cloak tighter, giving thanks for the craftsmanship of Benefactor’s people.

She found Drogin there, staring out across the plain and huddling within his coat. Her brother seemed to have aged a year for every month since the Battle of Heart. His face was bleached and wan, and wrinkles creased the skin around his eyes.

“Hello, Drogin,” she said coolly.

He grunted a greeting.

Since her return from the other worlds, she had noticed Drogin had grown cold and awkward around her. She didn’t understand the reason for it, and she had, in turn, grown increasingly hostile with him. It had driven a wedge between them, and for the first time in their lives, they were not close. Leha wasn’t sure how to cope with it.

Next to Drogin, her pale braid stirring in the wind, was Eranna. After proving herself in the Battle of Heart – and the death of nearly every Tor leader, military or otherwise – Eranna had become the de facto ruler of Tor Som. She had helped Leha to integrate after her arrival in Tor Som, and she had aided in setting up the defenses that shielded her nation from the Automatons. She had a natural mind for tactics, and Leha had come to rely upon her. She wore armor and clothing similar to Doga’s.

Eranna pointed. “There.”

Leha leaned on the parapet, feeling the harsh chill of the stone, and gazed out on the vast, snowy plain that surrounded the city. Several tiny figures were making their way north across the plain. Concentrating, she enhanced her eyes and was able to pick out more detail. There appeared to be about two-dozen of them. They brought with them three sleds pulled by two mules and a horse. And they were definitely human.

Leha breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back, blinking to clear the snow blindness from her eyes. She allowed her vision to return to its normal state.

She turned to Doga. “Gather a group of Lost Ones, the fastest runners. We’ll go out to meet them.”

He nodded and left. Since helping to defeat the Automaton on Tyzu, Doga had become something of a celebrity among his people. His friendship with Leha had heightened his notoriety, and now, even the elders deferred to him in most situations. Thankfully, he had so far proven himself able to handle the responsibility.

She glanced farther down the line. “Eranna, get some food and medicine ready. They might be hurt, and they’ll probably be hungry.”

The Tor warrior hurried off, and Leha made her way down the wall’s steps, shaking her head. She felt like a fraud when she gave orders.

She left Drogin on the walls. He had not moved since her arrival.

* * *

Within a few minutes, Leha stood at the gap in the south wall. Doga – as well as soldiers from the Watching Eye, Swift Hand, and Tall Tree clans – had gathered with her. She channeled the power of Tyzu, and they flew forward with supernatural speed, passing an outwork constructed from the ruined hulk of a Quadramaton.

She and her companions kicked up clouds of white powder as they raced across the snowy plain. The wind tore at her face, knocking her hood aside and sending her brown hair whipping wildly. The cold burned her cheeks, but it also exhilarated her. It was easy to believe she was flying as her feet glided over the ground below. She felt as if she was once again leaping through the trees on Tyzu.

She drank in the clean, crisp air, heard the wind roar in ears, and for the first time that day, she felt happy. Her face broke into a wide grin.

As she drew closer, she began to pick out details of the people ahead, who had stopped to wait for her. They were a variety of ages. The youngest appeared to be in their late teens, and the oldest seemed to be in their forties or fifties. Some were armed and carried weapons, while others had empty hands. Some of the armed ones seemed to be trained soldiers, but others were clearly civilians. All had rounded faces, pale skin, and black hair that glinted blue as the light touched it. Urannans, Leha thought. Her heart fluttered. If they had made it past the Automaton blockade, they could have valuable information.

She reached out with her mind, contacting Benefactor in case they did not speak Eastenholder or Tor.

I am ready, Leha, the ice creature said, his tranquil voice resonating in her mind.

She came to a stop, the snow creaking underneath her feet. Doga took up a position next to her, and the other Lost Ones formed a loose crescent behind them.

The Urannans crept forward. Their gazes swept over the alien visages of the Lost Ones. Their gaze also took in Leha, her blue pupils, and her bare, clawed feet.

Two figures stepped forward. One, a tall man, had an oval face and short hair. He wore dark robes and carried a crossbow over his back. The other, a woman, had a lithe, athletic frame and wore her hair in what Leha recognized as a traditional Urannan style – the front short and loose, the back long and kept in a ponytail. The hilt of a sword poked out from her cloak.

The woman spoke something to the man in the Urannan tongue, and he nodded.

The man clasped his hands in front of him and spoke in a polite tone. “Are you Leha?” His smooth voice held no trace of accent.

Leha nodded. “I am.”

The man bowed. “It is an honor to meet with the Hero of Heart.”

Leha blushed.

The man gestured to himself. “My name is Lahune.” He waved at the woman. “And this is Natoma. She understands Eastenholder, but she cannot speak it well.”

Leha bowed awkwardly. “Greetings.” She paused. “Uh, this is Doga of the Watching Eye clan. He is a Lost One,” she said, indicating her companion.

Doga nodded.

Natoma arched a graceful eyebrow. “Tyzu?”

The Lost One warrior smiled and bowed. “Yes. I am honored to meet you, my cousin.”

Natoma began speaking, and Lahune translated. “‘Then it is true; you have broken the Old Gods’ seal.’”

An icy wind whipped across the plain. Leha shivered and drew her cloak tighter. “Yes. About a week after the battle in Heart, my brother and some of the wizards were able to discover a hidden machine maintaining the seal. We destroyed it, and several more since then.”

A smile tugged at the edges of Natoma’s lips, and she said something.

Lahune smiled as well. “She is impressed. As am I.”

Leha blushed again. “Thank you.”

Another gust of wind blew over the field, peppering their faces with particles of snow. Several of the Urannans shivered.

“‘We should continue this conversation someplace warmer,’” Lahune said, translating for Natoma.

Leha nodded. “An excellent idea.”

She and Lost Ones set off at a slow jog, and the Urannans followed, chattering amongst themselves excitedly.

* * *

Leha had realized two things about their guests. One, there was something familiar about Lahune’s garb, and two, Natoma was beautiful; Leha had noticed several men staring at her as they had entered the city.

Leha, Doga, Eranna, Natoma, and Lahune had gathered in a room on the upper floor of their inn/command center. Benefactor, as a representative of his people, joined the meeting through his link with her mind. Leha wanted to keep the first meeting small.

Leha and Doga sat on the bed, Natoma and Lahune had been placed in a pair of chairs near the small fireplace, and Eranna leaned against the wall near the door, alongside the bed and opposite the Urannans. A fire crackled to itself and left the room comfortably hot.

A servant arrived, bringing water and bowls of Tyzuan fruit to Leha and the two Urannans. Once the sweet, yellow fruit had been eaten, they got down to business.

Natoma leaned forward, wiping her sticky hands on a handkerchief, and told her tale, Lahune translating. “‘Before the war, I was the captain of the guard for the province of Nettoh. It was my duty to protect the border with Karkar. Then came the day when our Automatons turned on us.

“‘At first, I believed that someone had stolen their control amulets and was using them against us. I didn’t learn the truth until days later. ’”

She leaned back. “‘I don’t know how I survived that day. The machines tore my barracks to shreds, and they slaughtered my lieutenants and the other soldiers stationed there. Many times, I came within inches of being killed.’”

Natoma’s voice remained perfectly calm as she spoke, and only by looking deep into the woman’s eyes, a reddish brown that reminded one of a warm cup of tea, could Leha detect evidence of the pain of what had happened to her. It was as if it had happened years ago, not months.

“‘I fled Nettoh’s capitol and headed into the wilderness. As time went on, I met with other survivors and learned the extent of the Automaton’s rebellion. We hid as best we could, running from hiding place to hiding place for months.

“‘The Automatons were ruthless with Uranna. They reduced every settlement to ash and broken rock. Every pocket of resistance was annihilated. Eventually, we decided to flee to the north. That was three months ago.

“‘Once we reached Karkar, we learned of the machines’ blockade. I realized that the Automatons must have a reason for keeping us out of the north, and I thought that, if we could run the blockade, we might find a way to resist them or throw off their plans.’”

Natoma took a breath and a drink of water. “‘It took us another month to make it across the Automatons’ lines. Their patrols are frequent and seemingly random; every time we tried to cross, we were nearly caught. But eventually, we made it.’”

She pulled off her cloak, not needing it in the warm confines of the room, revealing glistening plate armor – a rare luxury in a world where, until recently, metal had been reserved for the production of Automatons. “‘As we made our way north, we began to hear odd rumors from the few people we met. I was not sure whether to believe them – I still don’t know whether I believe all of them – though I can see that at least some of them are true.’” She fixed Leha with an appraising gaze.

“‘They said that the Automatons are the Old Gods reincarnated. They said that an Eastenholder woman had broken through the seal on Barria and had united the peoples of three worlds to stand against the machine threat.’”

Leha realized that the last sentence had been spoken without a hint of disbelief. She smiled slightly to herself.

Eranna opened her mouth to ask a question, but Natoma held up a hand.

“Wait. There is more,” the Urannan said, speaking for herself for the first time. She glanced at Lahune, and he resumed his smooth-voiced translation. “‘As we passed through Karkar, we came upon a camp of the Automatons. They had occupied a wide area outside of Crossroads. We couldn’t risk getting close, but we could see that they were preparing an attack force. We saw them upgrading themselves and building more fighters.’”

Leha leaned forward, feeling chilled again. “How were they doing this? Enslaved humans?” For months, Drogin had been trying to decipher how the Automatons maintained themselves. Before the war, they had required frequent repairs and maintenance from human technicians.

Natoma shook her head. “We couldn’t see,” she said, speaking Eastenholder with a thick accent. She switched back to her native language. “‘We caught sight of something else as well. Have you encountered any of the Wizard-Automatons? The new, giant models?’”

Leha, Doga, and Eranna nodded, grimacing. Eranna shifted uncomfortably.

“‘We spotted an Automaton that seems to be their leader. We saw it patrol their camp, seemingly giving orders. It is like the Wizard-Automatons, but greater. It stands head and shoulders above all the other machines. I’ve never seen anything like it.’” She paused. “‘I believe they’re coming here. I believe they plan to lay siege to this city and crush their main source of resistance.’” As before, Natoma stayed calm, but Leha thought she could detect a hint of worry in her voice.

Leha and her companions did not share the same confidence. Doga, his face grim, had set his jaw; Eranna’s sapphire eyes glinted with fear; and Leha clutched the bed sheets in a fierce grip, her claws threatening to puncture the wool. Lahune, too, appeared frightened as he spoke of the Automaton leader.

A moment of silence followed.

“Now, please, I would like to hear your story,” Natoma said, speaking broken Eastenholder. She sat up and fixed Leha with a companionable gaze.

Leha took a deep breath. She began to compose her thoughts, when she had an idea. “Would you prefer if I showed you?”

Natoma tilted her head, looking confused.

Eranna crossed the room and added another log to the fire, causing it to crack and snap. Sparks and smoke drifted through the room, and the Tor returned to her previous position.

Leha released the bed sheets and placed her hands in her lap. The firelight highlighted her claws in brilliant crimson. “When I traveled to Sy’om, I met a race of creatures who communicated through a mental link. When I broke the seal, some of them came here to aid us in the war – they have no love for the Automatons. With their help, you could experience my memories as if you had lived them yourself.”

The Urannans glanced at each other. They conversed in hushed tones, speaking their native tongue.

They seemed to come to an agreement.

“We trust you,” Natoma said.

Leha reached out with her mind, and Benefactor answered. She sent him the impression of what she wanted him to do, and she sensed him bare his teeth in response.

“Do we need to do anything?” Lahune asked. For the first time Leha had seen, he seemed unsure of how to react.

“No,” Leha said, an expression of serenity settling over her features.

She felt her mind link with Benefactor’s, then Natoma’s and Lahune’s.

Benefactor did not create a sufficiently strong connection for Leha to sense the innermost thoughts of the two Urannans, but she could feel the stronger themes of their minds. Natoma’s mind carried the feeling of clarity and purpose, and from Lahune, she touched upon sensations of curiosity and trust.

A smile tugged at the edges of Leha’s lips. This, the telepathic union offered by Benefactor’s people, was what had allowed humanity to survive the last six months. This link had brought Tor and Eastenholder together. This had allowed the forces of the human race to fight together, as one, against the machines.

Leha gave herself over to the feeling of oneness and allowed Benefactor to reach into her memories.

She relived it all. Once again, she was fleeing Three Gates with the Tor army in pursuit, she was poring over tomes in the library at Heart, she was soaring through the space between worlds. She walked the icy caverns of Sy’om, and she darted through the steamy jungles of Tyzu. She followed Doga into the damp cave and battled with the ancient Automaton.

The memories flowed by. She ran through the ash-covered streets of Heart, passing bodies and rubble. She joined her mind with the fighters around her and drove the Automatons back.

Natoma and Lahune were there with her, watching as Drogin and the battle wizards discovered the Old God machine hidden in Cantodra’s Rock. She felt the cold metal in her hands as she tore the machine apart, breaking the seal on Barria.

They were with her as Elder Sheen’s promise was fulfilled, and the armies of the Lost One clans arrived to join the war on Barria. Leha felt her heart swell with gratitude, and she sensed those feelings mirrored in the minds of the Urannans.

They were with her as she again wept over the ruins of South Tower, the last Eastenholder city, and they were with her as she led her people north, to Tor Som.

At last, Benefactor receded from their minds, and the link dissolved. It had only taken a few minutes, but it felt longer.

The Urannans were silent a moment.

“We should begin plans to defend the city,” Eranna said softly.

The others nodded.

“We found an intact armory a few weeks ago. We have some acid for anti-Automaton bolts we can add to your stores,” Lahune said.

Eranna thanked him.

“I would like a few moments to collect my thoughts,” Natoma said.

Doga, Eranna, and Lahune filed out, but Leha lingered, reaching out to Benefactor again.

She took the chair Lahune had used, placed it before Natoma, and sat. “I want to see this new Automaton. Would you show me?”

Natoma appeared confused for a moment; then comprehension dawned. “Ah, you want to see my memory? Yes, I can show you.”

Leha gave a little smile. She sought Benefactor with her mind.

She found herself on a snowy hill overlooking a vast scar on the earth – the ruins of Crossroads, Karkar’s capitol. Next to her, she felt Natoma’s presence. The skies were overcast and ashen, and a cool wind blew across the hilltop.

Leha caught a whiff of smoke. She turned to her right, and gasped.

Just north of the ruined city, a massive camp sprawled across the plain. She saw the huge shapes of Automatons marching throughout it, and she felt the earth rumble beneath her feet. Smaller, indistinct forms could be seen scurrying about, and massive fires burned in at least four places.

Sounds drifted up from the camp: the thud of Automaton feet, the clang of metal, and the grind of machinery.

Near the center of the camp, towering above all else, was the lord of the Automatons – it could be nothing else. It stood far away from Leha’s hill, but she could still see it clearly. It most closely resembled the Old God she had fought on Tyzu – it would seem the Automatons had attempted to copy their old designs – but it was taller and larger. Silver glittered at its wrists, and three prongs of iron extended from its head like a crown. With every step it took, she heard a faint boom.

None of Leha’s books had mentioned the Old Gods having a king or single leader, but she was certain they had one now.

She withdrew from Natoma’s memories, suppressing a shiver, and Benefactor allowed the link to dissolve.

Natoma saw the fear in her eyes and nodded.

Without saying a word, they went downstairs to begin preparations for battle.

———————

Enjoying the story so far? The next chapter will be posted soon, but if you can’t wait, you also have the opportunity buy the full ebook now!

Filed under: My writing, World Spectrum Tagged: books, fantasy, Rage of the Old Gods free chapters, sci-fi, steampunk, The World Spectrum, writing

WoW: It Was a Good Day + Unconventional Game Heroes

Monday was a day of rather absurd good luck for me in WoW. I’m sure I’ve used up all my luck for months to come, and I’ll have nothing but bad drops and fail groups for the foreseeable future, but it was worth it.

Prepare yourselves! The bells have tolled!

As with every day at this time of year, I began my time in WoW by running the Headless Horseman holiday boss. I started with my warlock, planning to then do it again on all my other max level characters as is my tradition.

And then it happened.

The mount dropped.

Oh. My. God.

After five years of grinding, I’d pretty much given up on ever getting it. Hell, there are people who’ve been playing since vanilla who still don’t have this thing. But there it was, cheerfully smiling up at me from within my bags.

*Happy dance.*

I love this mount. Partly because it’s an awesome mount — it’s a fel-fire wreathed horse that flies without wings — but also because it’s a reminder of how cool the Horseman is.

It always amuses that a fairly silly pop culture reference of a holiday boss actually has a better and more lore-appropriate backstory than most “serious” bosses.

I fought for you!

I fought in vain!

Now scatter, scurry, shriek in pain!

No mercy this night abides!

On Hallow’s End, when the Horseman rides!

But that was just the beginning of my good fortune.

Reaping the Black Harvest:

Earlier that day, I heard some random commenter on WoW Insider mention that the final boss of the warlock green fire quest had been inadvertently made much easier by the 6.0 patch, so I decided to give it one final try, having failed repeatedly whenever I’d tried in the past.

Sure enough, old Kanrethad was a lot weaker than before. The main difference is that his health seems much lower, even taking into account the effects of the item squish. It was still a bit tricky, and it took me several tries, but in the end, I managed to burn him down.

I’m actually not that fond of green fire, so I’ll probably turn it off before too long, but it was nice to get it done.

Surprisingly, the feat of strength and its associated “____ of the Black Harvest” title are still available. Most thought they would be removed after 6.0, but it turns out they’re still valid until Warlords of Draenor launches.

Getting the title is what makes me really happy. It just sounds cool, and considering it’s only going to be available for a few more weeks, that’s some good timing on my part.

Sure, I probably don’t deserve it since the fight is now clearly much easier than was intended, but… screw it, I don’t care.

But wait! There’s more!

Conqueror of Orgrimmar:

To cap off the day, I hopped on my rogue and tried out the new premade group finder in the hopes of taking advantage of the guaranteed heirloom off Garrosh until WoD. After being rejected by about a dozen groups, I found a heroic (formerly normal) group willing to take me that was already on Garrosh.

We wiped a few times, but in the end, we managed to get him down with minimal trouble and only a little dickishness and douchebaggery on the part of my fellow raiders.

I got myself my heirloom dagger — a major improvement over the heroic scenario drop I was using before — and a warforged belt.

This also earns me the “Conqueror of Orgrimmar” title… although I still think “Hordebreaker” has a better ring to it.

Not bad for one day.

* * *

New article:

My latest article for ADANAI is Top 10 Unconventional Video Game Heroes. Covering those who do not fit into the stereotypical mould of beefy, gun-toting white guys.

This was a strange article to research. It’s actually easier to find good female video game heroes than I would have expected. Obviously, they’re still a minority, but it’s not as vanishingly small as you might think.

I also found that the majority of non-white video game heroes are of mixed race, usually with one white parent. I’m unclear on whether this speaks to a desire to be progressive by refusing to conform to rigid racial structures, or an attempt to “soften the blow” by giving them all a twist of whiteness.

Most non-white heroes also seem to be female.

The most underrepresented group seems to be LGBT characters — not surprising considering the virulent homophobia that dominates the gaming community.

What really surprised me is how incredibly hard it is to find unconventional male heroes. If you want to play a game where the hero is male, but not a steroid-abusing white guy, your options are shockingly slim. Non-white men and men who aren’t mountainous brutes seem to be almost unheard of.

Since I don’t find anything identifiable about muscular man-bulls, it is perhaps not surprising that I tend to play female characters so much. I mean, the vast majority of people playing games are probably wimpy little geeks like me. Why can’t we have some heroes who are more brainy than brawny?

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: fantasy, video games, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, writing

Retro Review: Continuum Season Three, Episodes 10-13

I think we all know how this works. As usual, there are spoilers ahead.

“Revolutions Per Minute”:

This episode felt a little odd. It’s not really filler, but it sort of felt like it at times. It’s another episode where a lot is happening, but not all of it is particularly compelling.

The main plot deals with Liber8 taking an interest in a pharmaceutical company which is currently small, but will be a major player in the future. They’re testing a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s, which immediately reminds Kiera of Flash.

Further complicating matters is that Dillon’s daughter has succeeded in infiltrating Liber8, and they’re using her to infiltrate the pharmaceutical company.

Flash may also hold the answer to John Doe’s identity, if Kiera can get him some.

Meanwhile, Alec 1.0 makes a breakthrough with the aid of Kiera 1.0’s stolen CMR, but when he tests his new device on Jason, it has unexpected results. As Jason experiences a welcome jolt of lucidity, Alec is already moving on to other plans, hiring Julian of all people to help improve Piron’s image.

The most interesting part of this episode in my view was the continued effort to learn John Doe’s identity. I’m now thinking perhaps he comes from a future that has been changed by Kiera’s actions in the past (where Kellogg became emperor of everything instead of Alec?), and is even worse than Kiera’s soulless dystopia. Unfortunately, this also got the least attention of all the episode’s story arcs.

On the other hand, the plot surrounding Dillon’s daughter wasn’t interesting at all, and I’m left wondering what the point of it was. I guess just an attempt to humanize Dillon? Didn’t work very well, regardless.

Something else I feel strange about is how the attitudes toward altering history have changed so much. Kiera has spent most of the series trying desperately to preserve her future, but she went out of her way to shut down Flash before it started, which will undoubtedly have consequences. It’s somewhat understandable considering what happened to her sister, but still…

Also, in the season premiere, we saw all of time and space collapse because of Alec’s meddling. Now things have changed even more despite Kiera’s best efforts, but the continuum remains un-kerploded. Maybe there’s an explanation for this, but if so, I missed it.

“Revolutions Per Minute” was still a decent episode overall. I enjoyed how the plans of Alec, Liber8, Kellogg, and Kiera all converged in such an odd yet effective way, and pretty much everyone on the cast gave strong performances.

Overall rating: 7.4/10

“3 Minutes to Midnight”:

Where do I even begin? Phrases like “mind-blowing,” “earth-shattering,” and “game-changing” come to mind.

“3 Minutes to Midnight” is an episode full of answers and revelations, with the potential to turn everything about Continuum on its head.

Having regained his memories, John Doe — or Brad Tonkin — flees, unable to face Kiera due to his guilt over killing her other self.

Meanwhile, Jason experiences a violent psychotic break. The evidence points to Halo’s involvement, and he might not be the only one having problems, though Alec is quick to downplay the issue.

Carlos seeks the aid of Julian in getting to the truth surrounding Halo, and for perhaps the first time, Julian really is on the right side of things.

But it’s an ambush by Liber8 halfway through the episode that takes “3 Minutes to Minute” from interesting to incredible.

When Kiera and Brad are captured, what starts as an interrogation becomes a tense stand-off, and that leads in to possibly the biggest burst of revelation in Continuum’s history, and I don’t think the show will ever be the same.

All through Continuum’s run, there has been one question hanging over everything: Can the future be changed?

Now, we have our answer.

Yes.

Kiera’s future is gone. Brad hails from an equally but differently ruinous future, where Liber8’s actions have led to blood-soaked anarchy.

But that’s just the start, as everyone laid their cards on the table.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Liber8 learn the truth behind their mission, that they are and always have been pawns of Alec Sadler. Lucas may have hammed it up a bit, but overall, seeing everything they ever believed in shattered was very satisfying.

Everything is changed now, and no one knows what they’re fighting for anymore, or if it’s even worth fighting. The future Kiera fought to protect is gone. Liber8’s mission is a lie, and they now know their cause leads only to death and ruin.

With so many revelations and such a powerful ending, “3 Minutes to Midnight” easily could have been an excellent season finale. But there’s still two more episodes!

Overall rating: 9/10

“The Dying Minutes”:

Here we have another episode spectacular and climactic enough to easily serve as a season finale, but again, it’s still not over.

As with the last episode, the theme here is everyone losing faith in what they once believed in. Due to Brad’s revelations, it has become clear that the future cannot be predicted, or controlled.

As a result, Liber8 has disbanded, but Sonya still believes in the cause. She forms a last ditch plan to sabotage Piron on the eve of Halo’s launch, but forced to go it alone, things don’t work out well for her.

Kiera, also, has had to abandon that which she once believed in. With her own future now out of reach, she can only hope to create the best possible future, and it’s clear she picked the wrong Alec for that. With Brad’s aid, she sets out to rescue Alec 2.0, who is being tortured by the Freelancers.

As all this is unfolding, Curtis is hatching his own scheme. He believes the other Freelancers have lost their way, and he seeks to free the heart of their power: the Traveler, an ancient being who founded their order more than a thousand years ago.

The end result is an explosive, cinematic, action-packed episode that is a glowing example of Continuum at its finest.

With a major cast member dead, another clinging to life, and the Freelancers all but eradicated, this is another episode that will likely shape the face of the series for a long time to come. Continuum has pulled off some crazy twists in the past, but this might just take the cake. This is some Battlestar Galactica grade crazy.

I am going to miss Sonya. As an idealist driven too far by a corrupt world, I think she may ultimately have been the most interesting member of Liber8. Travis was more frightening, and Garza more entertaining, but Sonya had the most depth as a character.

My one very minor complaint is that they seem to be setting up Brad and Kiera as a couple, which I don’t much care for. True, expecting her to hold to her marriage vows at this point is unrealistic at best — and Greg was a cheating bastard anyway — but it feels a little forced, a little predictable, and I just don’t care for it.

On the plus side, if it means more of Ryan Robbins going forward, it’s probably a good thing.

Overall rating: 9/10

“Last Minute” (season finale):

The final episode of Continuum’s third season begins with everything in a fairly peaceful state. Kiera and Brad have retired to a peaceful life in the country, and Alec 2.0 and Emily are in the process of riding into the sunset.

That doesn’t last.

It soon becomes clear that there can never be peace as long as Alec 1.0 is around. He has gone too far, and the future he envisions will bring nothing but doom. Everyone is in agreement: Alec Sadler must fall.

And I do mean everyone. Including Liber8.

The lines are drawn, and the fight to define the future has begun.

Everything about this episode was brilliant. Absolutely stellar. Action, emotion, suspense, intensity. This is everything you could possibly want in a sci-fi season finale.

I think my favourite part was how Kiera’s character arc has evolved. She went to some very dark places, did some terrible things, to preserve her future, but now, she has let go of it. She has been awakened to the terrible truth of her future, and she now knows she cannot allow it to come to pass. Though it pains her terribly, she has decided to change the future for the better, even if it costs her everything she once held dear.

It’s a fantastically powerful evolution, and it gives me a totally new appreciation for her character.

I’m sorry if this review is a bit vague, but it would feel redundant to go through and talk about how I loved every single thing. “Last Minute” was just an excellent episode all around.

The one thing I have somewhat mixed feelings on is the ending.

I say this mainly because — minus the last five minutes — this could have done beautifully as the series finale. Pretty much every story arc was wrapped in a satisfying way, and it was all excellently done.

I don’t want to be in the position of wishing death on one of my favourite shows, but the future of sci-fi television shows is always shaky. I’m tempted to say they maybe should have just quit while they were ahead. Even if they do get the opportunity to end things on their own terms, I doubt they could do much better than this.

On the other hand, if there is a fourth season, and if this latest new direction turns out well, I suppose it will all be for the best.

Overall rating: 9.3/10

* * *

And that’s it. I am now caught up on Continuum. I am very glad I took a chance on this show; it’s far-exceeded my expectations.

There was never a time when Continuum wasn’t worth watching, but it’s only gotten better, with each season improving significantly on the previous. What started as a fairly basic action-adventure has evolved into a surprisingly smart, intense, and powerful sci-fi epic, and some of the best speculative fiction I’ve seen on TV in quite a while.

It carries a pretty powerful message, as well. I can’t help but worry its vision of a future in the thrall of corporations will prove prophetic, and we’ll all be slaves to corporate interests, toiling endlessly to pay off a Life Debt that serves as an eternal shackle.

Hell. Is that any different from now?

Whether there will be a fourth season or not is still up in the air. There seems to be strong arguments for either possibility. Apparently the show-runner has plans for at least seven seasons — which seems a bit over ambitious — but the continued silence on the matter is worrying.

I hope there will be another season. Continuum deserves it. But it’s best to prepare for the worst where sci-fi TV is concerned.

Well, damn. Now what am I going to watch?

Filed under: Retro Reviews Tagged: Continuum, review, sci-fi, TV