Hello Everyone! The release is well underway and I hope you are all enjoying it. If you are and are finding yourself wanting more, you can get the ebook from amazon at the following link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKM9N76B, or by searching for Ardent Tears on your local Amazon storefront.
I'll also greatly appreciate any ratings/reviews on Amazon or 2023-10-18 16:55:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Ædarik felt cold from anger and the ebon flow of night as he followed the two shrouded men garbed in thick, black gambeson. He wanted to kill them, to gut them mercilessly for what they did. In the long hours he had waited, listening to the poor girl’s cries, he knew true torment and that was nothing compared to what she had suffered.
If he could, he would go back and beat Lord Feilan within an inch of his life before having him confess all of his crimes. That was, however, beyond hi...
2023-10-16 18:59:12 +0000 UTC View PostA melancholic lord of perhaps thirty looked down at his indignant son. “No arguments, Ædarik. Until the King decides to extend his protections to the East, you will live with your Aunt and Uncle in the Capital.”
“I don’t wanna,” the boy complained.
“Speak properly, boy. You are a lord, not some uneducated peasant. I will not have my last surviving heir represent our house inadequately with a pauper’s elocution nor will I risk him to poorly veil...
2023-10-13 19:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe caves rumbled slightly as another distant earthquake reverberated across the land. They were increasing ever so slightly in frequency with each passing month. It wasn’t quite at a rate where everyone had noticed. At the same time, it was easy to recognise those who had. They were ever so slightly more fearful than the others. It was almost as if they were asking themselves what would happen when the interval between quakes could be measured in hours or perhaps even minutes.
That i...
2023-10-12 19:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostAgony. That is what Kiriin felt as her torturer worked his craft. She was strapped to a chair and she was adorned with a crystalline crown. He played a grim melody on the crystals that Resonated deep within her soul. Each note gave rise to a different kind of pain. The only way she could hide from it was by retreating into her mind. She found a place so deep that she could barely hear the crystalline tumult.
Then it stopped. She couldn’t hear anything. Lord Fein had walked into the ro...
2023-10-11 19:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostTehri woke up screaming; a silent cry that no one could hear. Night terrors. She had been suffering from them for almost a year, ever since she had woken up in that strange room. They haunted her every single night and they would wake her without fail.
She had nothing. Her family was gone and she was alone; at night, at least. No one could hear her silent cries, so no one would come to comfort her. During the day, at least, she wasn’t completely without company. She was still in...
2023-10-10 19:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostCaer Luen trembled against the might of a terrible storm. At first, it seemed like any other windstorm. The small border fortress had seen many during its long watch over the Ru'eni Empire and the Pass of Changing Winds. The current siege upon its walls, however, was far from standard. Had the keep not been built to withstand an initial invasion from the Ru'eni, its walls would have been devastated.
The Beacon of Keilan's Gaze, on the other hand, was built with a different purpose in mi...
2023-10-09 19:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostFor many long arduous hours, Rowan was tortured by the Silent Sisters. As they worked their grim art, a warden, one of the educators, droned on with an unrelenting tirade of blame. Each word hammered on that Anri’s death was her fault, that Rowan’s unwillingness to act and her feeble attempts at comfort led Anri to the irrational decision that would cause her own demise.
The warden let Rowan know that had she only done what had been expected, then the fight would have eliminated any...
2023-10-07 02:48:47 +0000 UTC View PostFor two weeks, the Silent Sisters continued to torture Rowan, trying to break her, and for two weeks, they failed. Amran remained strong of mind in the face of adversity, as always. With Seres, they had slowly started introducing more and more physical elements to her torment. Somewhat fortunately, though, she had been managing relatively well, all things considered. She had made sure to follow Amran’s advice and it had clearly helped her. Rowan was also glad for the conversation. Anri, how...
2023-10-07 02:47:28 +0000 UTC View PostThree days had passed since Anri returned to the cell and Rowan was almost entirely healed. It had only been seventeen days since the strange symbol had been carved into her back. To think that such a large wound would heal without any serious complications was the definition of a fool’s dream, let alone having it also heal at such an incredible rate. Only one of her compatriots had fallen to infection and a further two were healing even faster than she was.
One of the boys who had re...
2023-10-07 02:46:20 +0000 UTC View PostFor what felt like hours, Tehri ran, her body growing weaker with each passing moment. She was confused and terrified. Everything that had happened since she woke up made no sense. Cruel people had surrounded her while she lay with her hands bound and mouth gagged. They wanted to kill her or sell her and they nearly did when they dragged her away. Then Rowan appeared.
Sis saved me. She killed someone.
Because of Rowan, Tehri had been able to escape. But escape from what? ...
2023-10-07 02:44:18 +0000 UTC View PostThe days that followed Rowan’s rather awkward first encounter with the Ferran boy passed much as the rest had, except for the embarrassment that she felt towards the matter. After some encouragement from Anri and Seres, she worked up the courage to approach him again and apologise for her awkward behaviour.
This time, the boy was looking straight at Rowan when she approached. "I'm sorry about before," she apologised. "I know I was acting really strange with all those things I said. I ...
2023-10-07 02:42:06 +0000 UTC View PostFor several days, perhaps even a week after the attack, the raiders rode hard and fast. It was difficult for Rowan to say for sure, especially with the canvas sack over her head.
After the first day, it became even harder when the raiders replaced the sack with several layers of cloth, wrapped tightly around her eyes and ears. From that point on, Rowan lost all sense of time and it compounded with a growing fever to send her into a state of delirium. The only silver lining came from her...
2023-10-07 02:38:26 +0000 UTC View PostHi Everyone!
Ardent Tears Book 1 is currently being reviewed for publishing on Amazon. This means it's only a matter of time before it is released. As such, I'll also be releasing chapters here as well. I'm still working out how many advance chapters are going to be made available relative to the public release, but I'm thinking five or ten.
For now, though, I will leave you with the cover reveal.
2023-10-05 00:15:33 +0000 UTC View PostHello Everyone! Whilst I'm very busy with the final edits to Book 1 and planning the rewrite of Book 2, I did have an idea for this Insight and I promised to not delay it too much. As for why I'm covering the various calendars of the world? Well apart from me thinking it's a neat bit of worldbuilding, there are also some peculiarities that result in there being some key difference compared to the more widely used Earth calendars.
Before I break down those differences in full, I'll cover...
2023-05-24 22:42:17 +0000 UTC View PostHello Everyone! With my recovery from COVID nearly over, we will be starting back with an Insight into the education systems that are in place for the youth of Llen Færa. All in all, it it a fairly basic system that is notably different in style to what many of you might expect. For the most part, I will be focusing on education within towns and cities as the villages tend to vary a fair bit in how they approach teaching their youth.
Either way, I will start by breaking the system down...
2023-05-13 17:28:34 +0000 UTC View PostHello Everyone! Just a quick update. I'm almost completely recovered from COVID, though I have been treated to my time of the month, so things could be better. Fortunately, I'm well enough to write again so I'll have a new insight out either later today or tomorrow. My injury claim is also being finalised as I type this update, so I should be able to put in the commission for the new cover by the end of the month. I just choose the artist and ask if they are interested and available. 2023-05-11 15:54:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello Everyone! I unfortunately have myself corona and it is knocking me into next week. As such, I won't have any new Insights this week as I need to focus on getting better. I do have some potentially good news, however. My solicitor for my injury claim emailed me last friday saying that the defendant has reviewed the case and is awaiting further instruction. If all goes according to plan, I will have a proper update by the end of the week.
2023-05-02 14:56:51 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone! Slight update before I begin. I found out yesterday that I should be getting an update on my injury claim by the end of next week. At this stage of the claim, this hopefully means our offer will be accepted or I'll be given a counteroffer and we'll finally be able to move forwards, which is excellent news for Ardent Tears. I'll be giving a proper update when the time comes, so keep your eyes peeled. Until then, we'll be looking into the three Gifts of the Lover and the abiliti...
2023-04-29 15:52:27 +0000 UTC View PostHello Everyone. I know this is late and I'm sorry for that. I've had a busy week. With that in mind, this is going to be a rather short Insight breaking down the language families in Ardent Tears.
First we have the language family that the big three (Midiran, Ferran, and Særan) belong to which are collectively known as the Feldarin languages after the name of the region of Talras they inhabit. When designing these languages I took a lot of inspiration from the celtic languages of ...
2023-04-25 20:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone. Today is going to be a rather small Insight as I breakdown the three Gift types and how they differ. This isn't the first time I've covered gifts and it certainly won't be the last, but before I mostly looked at the Lunar Gifts. These are the Gifts that are received by humans, Ferrans, Miriel, Kairosi, and any other race that may be derived from humans.
So, what about the others? Well, first off, let's start with some universal qualities that are shared between all...
2023-04-19 22:51:00 +0000 UTC View PostHello! Today we will be looking at the topic of religion in Ardent Tears. It's a little late because I ended up rewriting the entire thing. With the divine being a known entity, most people on Illyria are religious to some but there are some that are iconoclasts or alatrists. These people are very much a minority and as we go further into this Insight, I'm sure you will come to understand why. I will also be focusing on the human faiths as I want to save the Al'duur for when they become more ...
2023-04-15 22:22:20 +0000 UTC View PostHello again. Today we will be concluding this trilogy with the birth of Rowan's homeland. Out of the three nations, it is by far the youngest, at least in certain respects. It is also the one with the least to cover as much of the background information is in the other two Insights. There is still plenty to look into, however, so let's get this party started.
As I've mentioned before, Llen Færa is an island nation situated to the west of Særis. Modern day Llen Færa is comprised of th...
2023-04-14 04:28:57 +0000 UTC View PostHello again. We are here for part 2 of this trilogy with the birth of what is now the Principality of Ferran. Before we go into that, I'll go into some details about the region that don't tie into its eventual evolution from a land occupied by various tribes and clans to the Principality of today.
The first of these details is where the region is located. Ferran is situated on the western side of the Talrasian continent with Særis to the north and the Shield Mountains to the east...
2023-04-13 00:45:00 +0000 UTC View PostBefore I start this Insight, I must apologise for the delay. My sleep schedule was all over the place last week and to top it all off, I was sick amongst other things that certain Patrons will relate to. To keep apologies short, however, I will now move on to what you are all here for, the latest Patreon Insight. For this one I will be covering the birth of Særis as a nation. This will be the first of a trilogy in which I cover Særis, Llen Færa, and Ferran. As for why I'm starting with Sæ...
2023-04-11 20:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostHello! As I said at the end of yesterday's Insight I'm going to be pacing myself with future Insights. I may have gone a bit overboard with the magic series, so hopefully this will be a little bit more digestible. As for what I'll be covering today, I'll be looking at commerce. Specifically, we'll be looking into Midiran currency and some of the more standard trade practices of the Azure Flame Alliance (Llen Færa, Særis, and Ferran).
As for which of these I'll be looking at first, let...
2023-04-05 00:46:53 +0000 UTC View PostThis is it, to conclude the first miniseries on Magic we will be looking at the most relevant system in the story, Awakening, and, by extension, Ardents and Stoics. Now, much like I did with Soulforging, there will be quite a few details that I will be avoiding here in favour of covering it in the narrative. There will still be fair part of Insight that may give hints as to why certain characters act as they do and what their motivations might be, so you may wish to leave this Insight for lat...
2023-04-04 08:46:56 +0000 UTC View PostTo end off this first week of Patreon Insights we'll be looking into Soulforging and what makes it both special and a rarity. However, before we start, I will point out that this is a system that is not referenced in any real way through the course of the preview so some of you may consider this to be too much of a spoiler. If that is the case, I recommend putting this to the side for now and coming back when you are ready.
Now without further ado, let's get started. As with all the sub...
2023-04-02 02:12:21 +0000 UTC View PostToday's Patreon Insight is going to be a little late because I'm currently suffering from a migraine and I don't want the quality to suffer as a result. I'm currently about halfway done and I'll be going back to it once I'm able to think straight again. Next week I'm going to do my best to have all the Insights done at least a day in advance so this doesn't happen again. Once again, I'm sorry for the delay
2023-03-31 23:36:01 +0000 UTC View Post