Conversion: Chapter 1, Part 3

Living Story Excerpt

Seryth found the gnolls dragging what was left of his supplies to their leader, Hogger, as a tribute. As Seryth planned how to steal his things back, a unit of Watch guards broke from the bushes, slaying the gnolls and laying irons on Hogger. Seryth’s crops were trampled under the hooves of their horses.

Stil angered by the interruption to his trip, Seryth demanded the guards repay him for the damages. The guards laughed, telling him they’d give him some coin–if he helped thin the numbers of the gnolls in the bargain. Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 1, Part 3”

Conversion: Chapter 1, Part 2

For sake of my own motivation, I’m going to try to keep posting the converted form of Seryth’s Story as it might appear in a novel to this blog. For more information on the process and why I’m doing this, see Seryth’s Story, which starts in this post, and Part 1 of Chapter 1, which can be found here. Continue reading “Conversion: Chapter 1, Part 2”

Elder Scrolls Fan Fics Now Up!

As of May 23rd, 2022, the majority of the links in this post are broken. You can find the associated series here and here instead.
FoxFire Administrator

Two new fan fiction series are up! …though I suppose I shouldn’t call them “new”, because they were actually written years ago.

“War Front” introduces the character Azzir, who I hope to expand more in future writings as an Ordinator with a skooma problem.

The second series, “Lives of the Saints“, is quite a long series I will probably turn into a novel at some point. As it is, it’s stretching my Fan Fiction page to the point I’ll need to go about changing the formatting of my blog sooner rather than later! This series introduces the characters of Shizzal (based on a certain other name you might know, Kevaar) and Drai: an outlander Dunmer and an Ashlander who have a mysterious connection to each other. These characters will also probably show up in a later series, since they do come into contact with Azzir, as well as certain other key characters from their own storyline.

Until I figure out the formatting thing, you can find both these series and more like them under Fan Fiction. I’ve also included links to them below, since “Lives of the Saints” is rather long, and the entries aren’t numbered like most of my other series are.

Enjoy!

WAR FRONT

LIVES OF THE SAINTS

Lives of the Saints

Two more Elder Scrolls characters introduced today: Shizzal the Outlander and Drai the Ashlander. You might remember this pair from the introduction for “Of Fire Ants and Hooms“. This new series, which I’m titling “Lives of the Saints” for reasons of my own, gives more background into how these two characters met and why they became so important to each other over the course of their adventures.
The ordering of the scenes in this series proved problematic, as they were interwoven with roleplay plots from the Elder Scrolls Online that spanned a few years. Some of the details of those plots are now lost to time, and so I’ve condensed those scenes down to be more relevant to Shizzal and Drai’s storyline.
Author’s Note

Shizzal Awakens

“Don’t move!”

This was it, Shizzal thought groggily, as consciousness returned. Continue reading “Lives of the Saints”

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War Front

Finally I turn to getting some of my old fan fictions from Elder Scrolls posted up on the blog here. This introduces a new (but old) character of mine, Azzir the Ordinator.
Though his concept originally comes from the game Morrowind, this version of him is set in Elder Scrolls Online. Though I’m not fond of what ESO did to Tamriel’s lore, I tried to remain faithful to its setting with this piece. The war referenced here is the Three Banners War in which Dunmer and Nords served together against the Altmeri Dominion.
Author’s Note

The shrill whinny rent the pre-dawn air, like a knife cutting through a fresh pat of scuttle.

Aizar lay face-up in his cot, considering the tent walls slowly growing lighter with the approaching day, and the icicles forming along the center pole, courtesy of his breath in the frosty morning. All around him came the soft snores and wheezes from the others housed in the healer’s tent, even the most restless among them having finally found sleep at this hour. All was quiet.

Until that shrill whinny came again, echoing in the hills surrounding the Pact fort. Continue reading “War Front”

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Tyrric’s Madness

Inspired by a roleplay scene, as what was going through Tyrric’s head while the Sunwalker crew discussed how to cure him of his Void corruption. This would take place shortly after Tyrric was rescued from Ny’alotha, the Black City of N’Zoth.
Author’s Note

Alelsa poked him in the ribs. At first he was merely annoyed: he wanted to sleep. Then, as she continued to poke, talked over him, he came more alert. Memories about who and where he was started to coalesce.

The expedition into the Black City had ended poorly. Everything had made sense until then. Now, nothing did, and the danger was — seemed? — constant.

Alelsa gave him another poke, but was it really her? Could it not be the probing tentacle of a n’raqi, the scraping claw of a silithid? Be still, his instincts told him. If it was a monster, maybe it’d think he was dead and leave him alone.

He had some inkling he’d been manipulated: that something had been in his head and had rearranged his thoughts and motivations to its liking. He couldn’t trust his perceptions; when he had, he had done something terrible. Something that couldn’t be repeated. If he just remained still, barely even breathing, maybe his actions couldn’t be turned to the darkness’s whims again.

Alelsa — or the something pretending to be her — slapped him. He couldn’t help jumping, and then he froze, tense, expecting that the admission he was alive and aware would bring more pain in short order. Nothing happened or seemed to; his cheek stung. He pushed the pain aside, deep down. Bury it, ignore it. Like it was happening to someone else. Another Tyrric, another man broken. Not him…

A memory flashed up, of Nya’lotha, unbidden and unwanted. At that time, the pain had been more pronounced, as something dark and terrible had held him in a slimy embrace and tried to burrow its way inside — into his belly, his innards, his mind, his being. He had flung his consciousness away, formed a mental image of a forest and a hill he alone had access to. He ignored the reality. Just as he was doing now. Ignored the pain. Only the forest existed. The tree… a light… wavering… his whole world.

The image wavered again as something called to his attention in that other life, the one he wasn’t sure was real. His skin quivered as something rasped against it — claws? — his stomach turned as he was lifted and dropped a short ways. Something had picked him up. He felt its gait under him. Desperately he tried to find the tree again. He could not let them into his mind. There, he could see the light. He could imagine a picnic here, with Alelsa…

Was that her, speaking, just now? She sounded sad, angry. Angry with him. He was being useless again — but no, the picnic… everything was okay. The horror was happening to another Tyrric, another person. All that existed was his light, his tree… and Alelsa…

Then the baritone of Keelath interrupted her. That was wrong; Keelath was far away, a traitor Tyrric had exiled!

Or was he?

Tyrric opened his eyes. He was in the sitting room at the Dawnmist manor, or somewhere that looked just like it. Alelsa was nearby, as was Keelath. And Mirium. Confusion and strong emotions bloomed in him, his stomach. He felt nauseous.

The others spoke to each other. Alelsa reached over to poke him again, talk over him. Tyrric willed himself still. Were these beings, that might be Faceless in disguise, aware he was awake?

…no, he decided. They seemed to think he was sick. Unresponsive. That was well. They would ignore him. Tyrric shifted slightly, trying to see the rest of the room. Could he escape while their attention was off him?

Did it matter if he did? Maybe he was home, and this was all real.

Tyrric recoiled at the thought. That was just as bad. Shame overwhelmed him, and he returned to his tree on the hill. He had lost control of his life, but this, at least, he could still manage to make… if not perfect, then good enough.

Time stretched. Whatever being that wore Keelath’s face turned on him, smacking Tyrric’s cheeks and demanding his attention with an angry shout. Tyrric refused to give it. Let the Void do its worst, he thought. Back under his tree; he told Alelsa that he loved her and was sorry for all he had done.

Perhaps the Void lurking in his mind disapproved of his sentiment, because the torture began again. They were poking him, then stinging him. Silithid? He opened his eyes. No, it appeared to be the wand of some sin’dorei magister from Silvermoon. When had he arrived? The wand hurt, like a shaman’s lightning bolt, each time it stuck him in the ribs. Tyrric struggled to return to his tree. His body demanded action, a warrior’s riposte to the attack, but he held it back. Maybe that’s what the Void wanted, after all.

The man with the wand demanded an answer from him. Yes, that confirmed this was an interrogation. Tyrric wouldn’t play along. They would not get information out of him that they could use against his family or against the Horde! He would remain silent.

Someone tried to dribble something in his mouth, too. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding it open. His body reacted before he could, licking up the moisture and soothing his racking thirst. It had been so long since he’d eaten or drunken, but — no! Poison, truth serum, a curse, bottled death! It was a common tactic, and he could not give in to it. He spat the liquid out before it could work its evil on him.

As expected, they pressed it on him twice as hard. Something seized his nose, trying to force him to open his mouth again by cutting off his breath. He knew that tactic too. Live. He threw himself forward, gasping in breaths while they were distracted by his thrashing.

Even as he fought, he knew submission was inevitable. Something stung him again, and this time he was sure it had to be a silithid. A numbness spread across his limbs and into his mind, emanating from the prick site. He tasted the awful serum again in his mouth, but he couldn’t make his jaw work to spit it out as the numbness encapsulated him, dragging him into the darkness…

He came to later, lying on his back. He wondered what he had revealed under the serum’s coercion. He thought of his family and how he was letting them down — again.

No, not again. He had to resist, had to…

How? How could he escape this nightmare? Perhaps his torturers had left tools within his reach that he could use to end it…? Death was never a good answer, but was it preferable, to that…?

He opened his eyes to scout. He saw Alelsa and Mirium around him, one holding his head still. So the Void was still manipulating him with that illusion. So be it. He closed his eyes and waited for it to grow tired of the tactic. Even the creatures of the Void had to sleep…

The dopplegangers were talking again, crying now. Over him. His resolve wavered.

What if it was real? What if he could steal a few moments of happiness, tell this Alelsa of his love and his apologies? Even if it wasn’t her… even if it wasn’t real…it would make him feel better, at least.

No!

They would use it against him. No, better to retreat.

He found his tree. He had to be strong for his family. He had to resist. He missed them, so badly… He had to resist…

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First Part of Great Revision is Complete!

As mentioned aaaaaaall the way back in September 2020, I’ve been wanting to go back over Keelath and Mirium’s posts and bang them into better shape for a while now. I’m thus happy to announce the first part of the Great Revision is now completed, with the series “What Darkness Lies” fully edited and re-ordered to better taste!

Unfortunately this editing has highlighted a problem with my blog software, where the plugin I use to order series on the Fan Fiction page has broken and only lists posts in order of the date they were originally posted instead of the order I’ve specified. I’m still investigating why this happens, but until then, the proper order of these chapters goes like this:

“The Rise of Keelath” has also seen a facelift during this update, with some of the lore behind Keelath’s first adventures now better explained.

Next up in the Great Revision are some posts that interweave with the “Brothers Apart” series. Due to one of the main actors ducking out of this plotline halfway through, I expect most of this editing to be along the lines of fully converting the old storylines of Tyrdan and Lellith into that of Tyrric and Alelsa, as well as explaining just where the true Lellith got off to in the process. Hopefully this will make the Sunwalker story a little more coherent to any of whom have not been following their progress in-game.

Once that is complete, I’m finally casting a eye to converting more material from Discord and forum roleplays into posts along the lines of the new “Awakening” series. So far this mostly involves the Sunwalker family, again, but eventually you may see some old friends from another favorite universe of mine.

Critter Wars Animation Test

Because I can, I did.

(Animation test for a game I’m working on. No more spoilers than that!)

A Knight’s Purpose

“Are we just both naive?” asked Keelath, a note of forlornity in his voice.
“I suppose you have to be, to want to keep living,” said Mirium. “When we stop striving for something, for anything at all, we die.”

Yes, I looked it up. Forlornity is indeed a word.
Author’s Note

“Sylvanas was sighted in Ardenweald.”

Mirium looked up slowly at his words. Keelath stood in the doorway. There was something about his stance that in a living man would have suggested having run a marathon. A living man would be panting however, holding onto the doorframe like it was the only thing holding him up. Keelath, being undead, didn’t tire, and he didn’t breathe. Still, she could imagine him gripping the doorframe so tight he would have ripped it from the wall if he took a step forwards. Continue reading “A Knight’s Purpose”

Seryth’s Story: Conversion to Novel Format

In this post I’ll show you part of the process in converting Seryth’s Story from its Living Story form into what it might look like in a novel. Continue reading “Seryth’s Story: Conversion to Novel Format”