I did a little more writing on Chapter 4 of JJ. Getting really close to finishing it, which will put me in all the better of a position when its serialization begins. I probably should make sure I have as good a lead on EM as well. Also wouldn’t hurt to push myself to wrap up TTWC2. If I can get myself to start writing regularly again, these things won’t be that big of a problem. We’ll see if I can manage it or not. Stay tuned.

We kick off our coverage of the leads of TTWC2 with the big man himself. First, let me talk about Liches in my canon. I was initially inspired by the Dark Lich of Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2), but it wasn’t until years later that I came to understand the conventional concept of what a Lich is in fantasy fiction. For the uninitiated, conventionally a Lich is a powerful mage who becomes undead as a means of immortality (usually by means of a phylactery, much like Voldemort’s Horcruxes). I would later apply this concept to what I term Demi-Liches. In my canon, a Lich is a male-only race of generative undead with great magical power. They are so powerful, in fact, that their power eventually consumes their physical bodies, so before that happens, they much transfer that power to a new generation. Liches will mate with a number of different species in an effort to give rise to a hybrid offspring with a physical form strong enough to contain the Lich’s great and growing power. Occasionally you’ll get a Lich who has a stronger sense of himself as an individual rather than as part of a continuum, which leads to problems. For instance, the ancient Black Lich caused the Lich line to go extinct for nearly five thousand years because he thought himself to be the perfection of the Dark Race. He did, however, realize his folly at the end and managed to seal up his power so that his line could be revived at some point in the future. The Monarch Lich very nearly terminated the second line for much the same reason.

Originally, the Monarch Lich had little motivation, particularly after Solon’s death. Much like Magnus Lee in Vampire Hunter D, a bored villain is rather, well, boring and so I knew something had to change. As I established the idea of the Copy Golem (think along the lines of the revived Kikyou from Inuyasha), I realized that death was no obstacle at all to the Monarch Lich’s torment of Solon and so his obsession is preserved. I found myself moving farther and farther away from the aloof overlord concept to making him much more hot-blooded, even petulant. One of the key themes with him is the conflict between his Lich and human natures. His ego and ambition are his undoing, but ultimately he does sacrifice the greater part of himself to continue his line.

I’d actually consider doing a prequel chronicling his conquest of the Darklands. It might be interesting to see him when he was young and brash, with all this power but little control. Perhaps I could even show his rise and Solon’s in parallel. That could be interesting. Anyway, that does it for now. Next time, we’ll give Arachne the Spider Queen some attention. Stay tuned.

I almost wonder if I should expand the scope of these posts to include reviews or simply resign myself to the fact that I’ve been terrible about meeting quota lately. I think that I’m simply going to have to recommit myself to dedicating the time needed to make story progress. I certainly ought to be making time to pursue my calling and not just spend my days playing video games, watching movies and listening to LPs. Well, as I try to restore my resolve, I can say that I made a little progress on Chapter 4 of JJ and spent quite a bit of time in the peripheral materials, to include some work on the world map and sorting out some of the currencies of the different nations.

As always, while I haven’t had an abundance of story progress since the last post, I have been continually churning out new reviews. I already have built up enough to keep me in business for a while. The reason last week’s batch of reviews didn’t come out is because I got tripped up on the Azumanga-Daioh manga reviews. Really, the format for the comics/manga reviews strikes me as a bit of a liability compared to the simpler approach I take to movies and TV series. I may consider a reformat to simplify things. Anyway, hopefully there’ll be more progress to come. Stay tuned.