I was finally able the goal of finishing the book within the year! I'd like to take this time to thank all of my patreons on here for all of your support, it is greatly appreciated :). I wish you all a happy and fantastic 2023!
Here is the link for the whole of book on google docs! I have also uploaded a version a very basic epub version. I'll update it with tables once the manuscript goes through a final editing pass and I learn how to format.
The saga of Gilgamesh will continue ...
2022-12-30 10:18:43 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 46 - A New Companion
“She blesses the poor by letting them lose their favored beast, only to then aid them in finding it again.”
- Attributed to Cardinal Mauros at the Conclave of the Righteous AC 681
All in agreement, we exited the building. Following Taciano’s advice, we headed towards the directions we were given to a local alchemist that could provide us with some healing potions. I remembered the taste of the potion that I was for...
2022-12-30 08:58:50 +0000 UTC
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Initial Sketch of Cillis, the blacksmith from the Soot Stained Pig.
2022-12-28 03:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 45 - Beaurocracy
Bibsis, Rainspeakers, or Callers are only found in one sacred pond that grows into a great lake with the coming of the rains in the Grieving Lands. To gaze upon them is said to be akin to receiving a blessing from the Goddess herself.
-The Fanciful Travels by Beron de Laney 376 AC
At long last, it was now our turn. Behind the counter, stood a thin dark-haired bookish man clothed in an elegantly cut shirt with a silver bolo t...
2022-12-27 06:19:31 +0000 UTC
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Just a quick merry Christmas to all my patrons new and old. Your help has been greatly appreciated in helping me make a fantasy world for others to enjoy and helping me become a better writer!
Enjoy the holidays :)
Mesa
2022-12-24 12:33:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 44 - The Name Behind the Man
Seas rose, and continents cracked under the energies that ravaged the world. The sky itself burned in places that scoured the very ground beneath of all life. Great volcanos spewed mountains of dark ash into the air covering the world in primordial darkness. In the deep places of the ocean, there was to be no refuge, the water boiled, killing all but the hardiest of creatures and the people of the Mer suffered greatly.
...
2022-12-23 11:44:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 43 - Symphony
The High Elves in their hubris think themselves at the pinnacle of all things cultural, yet when was the last time their bards composed a new song? Their poets' new verse? Their tailors a new cut of fashion? Theirs is a legacy of stagnation that permeates all aspects of a society that has not seen change in millennia. What I have done in ten their best could not do in a hundred years. They call us the children of the day but I view them as no...
2022-12-20 01:04:15 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 42 - Fortune’s Favor
The short-lived races too were ravaged by the horrors of the great beyond, their delicate psyches overwhelmed by the total fear of the end of all things. Those who had the gift of magic were consumed in a conflagration of magical energies which started a chain reaction throughout the rest of the world. Only those who had fully given themselves to the path of necromancy had any defense against the great psychic cry that consumed any o...
2022-12-16 15:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Final Ansan artwork. Will be added to Chapter 8. Enjoy!
2022-12-16 13:02:52 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 41 - The Sands Once More
Every strike must be filled with the deadly intent of damaging your opponent. Your attacks your defense, your defense your attack. You must be the discord in your opponent’s sword song.
- The Living Sword by Fen Vaigorus Kaldari Swordmaster circa 520 AC
We flowed with the tide of the cloth city, distancing ourselves from the scene of the crime, my mind comprehending what I had just done and my steps grow...
2022-12-12 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 40 - A Measure of Vengeance
Elven mages felt the horror of the void for the first time as it touched their minds. Many of their number went mad and unleashed the sum total of their magical energies. Those who kept their sanity failed to shield the rest of their brothers and sisters, their own defenses overwhelmed with the outpouring of wild entropic magic that ate away everything it touched.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103...
2022-12-09 15:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 39 - Sign of the Soot Stained Pig
It is better to walk the path alone than in the company of the foolish.
- Quassian Aphorism
In the end, I had taken watch for most of the night, my Drain spell keeping me revitalized. Kidu only relieved me of my watch in the early hours of the morning when took his toilet. During the night my repeated use of the Drain spell, and my earlier use of Identify, had enabled me to keep my Mana full. No...
2022-12-05 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 38 - Practice Makes Perfect
Research into the necromantic arts, sped up by the twins need and necessity, had opened dark channels into another plane of existence. Here the sibilant denizens of the void promised a quick end to the war with something that was translated by the magical researchers as the ‘Seed of Oblivion.’ Grasping at a chance of total victory the leader of the Republic accepted the dark bargain and brought the Seed fully into the world.<...
2022-12-02 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Here is the latest draft of the Ansan artwork, enjoy!
2022-11-30 15:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 37 - Return to Ansan
The sword is a truly noble weapon for the traveler. A good blade is perfectly balanced for both offense and defense and is the symbol of an honest man. A man is judged by the quality of the weapon on his hip.
- The Fanciful Travels by Beron de Laney 376 A.C
My dreams were of a different flavor this time. The tentacled creatures of the void did not disturb me. Nor did the susurrations of the cruel whisp...
2022-11-28 15:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 36 - Rules of the Road
With casualties mounting on both sides, the Republic began to lose its appetite for war. Even with necromancy filling the holes in the army ranks, the constant attrition of war was beginning to wear away at the people, with some even demanding that they heed the elve’s earlier offers of amnesty. The Steward of the Republic, feeling the pressure of his people’s cries, searched for a way to end the war and force the invaders back.
2022-11-25 16:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 35 - All the Bases
“A true master of the sword need never use his sword at all.”
- The Living Sword by Fen Vaigorus Kaldari Swordmaster circa 520 AC
Unluckily for us, the moon was high and bright among the veil of stars and cast a silvery light. The charcoal piles continued to emit their smoke, ghostly now under the moon’s pale light under the sleepy watch of their minders. Our group stalked towards the edge of the trees a...
2022-11-21 15:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 34 - Blind Faith
The Guild in the frontier regions is nothing more than a collection of opportunistic bandits, thieves, and failed mercenaries. They deem themselves monster hunters, heroes all, and the shield of the common peasantry. Most shocking of all is that they allow women and whores in their ranks! But tell me this, what hero is he that would not render assistance unless compensated in coin?
- The Fanciful Travels by Beron de Laney 376 A.C
...
2022-11-18 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Here is an initial sketch of the vista of Ansan.
2022-11-16 15:45:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 33 - Interruption
Too much of any one thing can lead one down the path of the many-coloured myriad loss.
- Well-known Qisnian aphorism
Something was applying pressure to my arm, moving it to the left and right, up and down slowly in more forceful motions. I opened my eyes quickly thinking that it was Kidu trying to wake me, only to find to my horror that a beast had begun to worry my arm. Screaming in shock rather than in pain, I saw ...
2022-11-14 15:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 32 - Priorities
With the birth of the Bone-Dragon, the Dragons were horrified and unwilling to play any further part in the campaign. With the loss of one of their number, they felt the first pangs of fear of newfound mortality. The great lizards left the short-lived races to their fate and flew back across the ocean to their high mountain homes. With their departure, the war began to grow back into a grinding stalemate.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown ...
2022-11-11 16:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 31 - Blessings & Curses
Slowly, like a grave flower blossoming the dark energies flowed into the great lizard’s cadaver sloughing now rotting flesh from thick pristine white dragon bone. A new nightmare was born, arising with the stench of a freshly turned grave and all the majesty of the winged tyrants of the sky. The first Bone-Dragon Vizzeks came into existence with a roar and the howl of a thousand lost tortured souls.
- On the Cataclysm by...
2022-11-07 15:31:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 30 - The Power to Choose
A lucky ballista bolt shot from atop one of the border forts was able to fell one of the lesser dragons from the sky, piercing it through the heart. The bespelled adamantine tip punching through inches of rock hard scale and thick muscle. The mages of Arastia ecstatic having acquired a vessel of indomitable power poured all of their magical might into the dragon’s now still corpse.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian ...
2022-11-04 16:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Here is the complete version of 'On the Cataclysm' (by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC). This was originally going to be presented in the form of a prologue at the begining of 'The Grieving Lands,' before I decided to break it up between chapters. Enjoy!
The war had started at the behest of the elves when they were still one people. The First Children spoke of the great devourer, the herald of the end that would consume all things and leave this world a shr...
2022-11-01 17:12:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 29 - Divine Grace
Though a small nation, it was a nation of free thinkers where great strides had been made in the fields of magic. Even so, their mages, who were growing fewer, could not protect them all from the constant barrage from the skies. Desperate, the Republic sanctioned the use of a newly researched form of magic that combined dark and life energies in an aberration of the natural order. Necromancy, the art of raising the dead and bringing them b...
2022-10-28 16:55:02 +0000 UTC
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Finished versions of Grieving Lands chapters are being uploaded to Royal Road every day this week, come check them out!
Thank you to all supporting me on Patreon. An exclusive early version of Chapter 29 will be available next Friday.
2022-10-21 20:46:30 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 28 - Loss
“There is always sun above the darkest of storm clouds.”
- The motto of the Avian Guard.
“Only one thing could be responsible for this whirlwind of destruction…an orc in a berserk heat,” the dwarf answered stoically in response, “combined with the pain from the collar and you have a recipe for a natural disaster.”
Remembering the orc’s hulking physique and brutish appearance from our team, it ca...
2022-10-11 09:37:19 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 27 - A Bid for True Freedom
So incensed by the refusal of what he thought was a reasonable offer of amnesty the High King of the Elves begged once more with the Dragon Queen for aid, offering a dragon’s egg weight in precious silvery mithril. Greed sinking its claws into her reptilian heart, she commanded that flights of dragons launch into the sky and rain death and destruction on the Republic.
- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scho...
2022-10-11 06:18:34 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy this new artwork of the MC's party camping in the forest.
2022-10-07 21:34:33 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 26 - The Darkest Hour
Most of the creatures found in the deep places of the earth are best left undisturbed. Most of those underground denizens are pale and blind, living most of their lives in eternal darkness. Many of the creatures found there are of fearsome aspect, their other senses of smell, hearing, and touch enhanced to a murderous degree. The most fearsome of which is reputed to be the Great Crawler, though no adventurer or explorer has ever laid ey...
2022-10-07 21:27:09 +0000 UTC
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