Melanie The Mender and the Builder were brothers. For a long period of time, perhaps years, perhaps eons, they lived together in harmony. One day, as they were laying together by the lake, the Builder said to his brother that there was nothing in life that equaled the act of creation. The Mender took offense […]
Glimwarden, Chapter 6
Sander It took a thousand hearts to become a glimwarden. Darkling hearts came in different sizes though, so when a person said “one thousand hearts”, that was really just an abstraction for “one thousand hearts of average size”. But that was also an abstraction, because what they really meant was “a certain intensity of the shadow […]
Glimwarden, Chapter 5
Philip Technically speaking, there were no laws against the mayor being a glimwarden. The laws of Light’s Hollow stated that mayoral elections were to be held once every nine years, or in a few other special circumstances. Every citizen in good standing was given the vote, including the engineers and the glimwardens, though they made […]
Glimwarden, Chapter 4
Sander Sander was usually the one to make breakfast, but the day after his trip to the forest, he woke to the smells and sounds of frying bacon. Normally this would have been a pleasant surprise, but this morning it was undoubtedly a precursor to a conversation with his father. He debated staying in bed, […]
Glimwarden, Chapter 3
Melanie Melanie Masters was running out of books. Such a thing hadn’t seemed possible when she’d first started reading. The town library had seemed cavernously large, its selection not so much robust as it was daunting. She had started with suggestions from the librarian, a stooped old woman Melanie felt some affection for, but that […]
Glimwarden, Chapter 2
Philip The city council had four members, but because four was an unlucky number, it was usually referred to as three members and one officiant: the mayor. It was that extra member of the council that Philip clerked for. The council members were technically equal, but the mayor represented the city of Light’s Hollow as […]
Glimwarden, Chapter 1
Sander Light’s Hollow was surrounded by bollards of creamy white marble, spaced out like gapped teeth around the domain of the seven lanterns. They were a warning to anyone that got too close to them, and an ominous reminder of the darklings that stalked the world. Sander stood next to one of the bollards, looking […]
Glimwarden, Prologue
The original settlers of Light’s Hollow had come to the valley with only a single lantern to ward off the darklings. The lantern was small and inefficient, carried on a wagon that was pulled with four oxen. There had been only two glimwardens to keep it fed and two engineers to keep it running as […]
Review: Massive Chalice
I’ve been playing Massive Chalice lately, and it bothered me enough that I feel the need to write a review. No spoilers, because the game doesn’t really have a story. Long-view Gameplay There are two core gameplay mechanics in Massive Chalice. The first is long-view gameplay, which takes place over the course of three hundred years. […]
Shadows of the Limelight: Post Mortem
Spoilers for Shadows of the Limelight follow. If you keep reading, not only will none of this make sense to you, but you’ll also deprive yourself of enjoying the actual book. So if you haven’t read it, get out of here. I still intend to finish up the second appendix and write an epilogue, and I […]
Creating superpowers through “Yes, And”
Okay, so I’ve never actually done improv. But one of the basic principles is that you’re never supposed to deny and offer made by your partner. If your partner says “I just bought a pet zebra”, you don’t say, “No, you didn’t buy a zebra” because that leaves the scene with nowhere to go. Instead, […]
Shadows of the Limelight, Appendix: On the Nature of the Domains
On the Nature of the Domains In Meditations, the earliest work of its kind, Lyander first divides the domains into two groups: material and immaterial. At first this might seem wise, in the ways of the old masters, but the problems are immediate, even at that first division. If we believe that there is a […]
Shadows of the Limelight, Ch 23: The Way Forward
Vidre had felt a gnawing pit in her stomach when Dominic made his entrance. The plan was balanced on a knife’s edge. If Welexi didn’t take the bait, the other options were grim. If Welexi took the bait and moved in with full killing intent, in complete disregard of narrative instincts honed by a […]
Shadows of the Limelight, Ch 22: Impressions
The first bath had been tinted with dried blood and dirt. It was an ugly color, the hue of battle, watered down. Vidre had scrubbed with pumice until she was clean and pink. She would have gone until her skin was raw, but mere pumice was no longer enough to abrade it. She sometimes […]
Shadows of the Limelight, Ch 21: Revolutions
It was all falling apart. There was a flaw in the artifact which they had run into early on. When someone with a link placed their hand inside it, the artifact would draw that link out, taking the domain and standing with it, an ephemeral connection to the stories and interest of the masses. […]