I mentioned last time that I retconned Countess Ariana’s name in order to bring her into the OreHosa fold, so I had to go back and change the citations of her name in EM1, 2 and 3; which were surprisingly few, only twice per book in the text itself. It actually showed up more in the character glossary in EM2 and EM3. While I was double-checking that, I found a detail about Mariana and Iliana that I forgot about, that Mariana has white hair with a black stripe and Iliana has black hair with a white stripe. I opted to redesign the models in DA despite knowing that it’d be implemented really inconsistently (and for some reason, the system kept trying to apply Iliana’s eye color to the hair stripe). I decided to run with it, and the premise will be that the white hair is a sign of the sisters’ relative power level, so as Mariana’s power wanes, you’ll see more black and as Iliana’s rises, there’ll be more white. It’s so much fun making excuses for the system, but this is what happens when you use AI and don’t want to do a million generations and edits to get everything just so.

While I was at it, I realized I hadn’t written any commentary for the EM series, so I did a little bit on that. I then went back to work on the summaries I wanted to get out, only to get distracted on a minor detail and forgetting to get back to the main task. Whoopsie. Maybe I’ll get those teasers out Monday instead.

In other news, I decided to add Sturla to the cast in anticipation of a sidestory to echo CeleKing2 and 3. Poor Yasuko doesn’t get to catch much of a break in this new world. The scenario is still under development, but the idea is that here he’s the son of a Hell Princess (the second degree of Superior Demon) and a Demonized human, making him the equivalent of a mid-ranking Greater Demon. Now, a Demon of inferior rank can elevate themselves by killing and absorbing the powers of higher-ranking Demons, and Sturla being Sturla, his ambitions are nothing short of claiming the throne as the Demon King, even as the war is underway (or perhaps exactly because the war is underway as it creates the conditions to facilitate his rise to power). However, if I’m sticking with the core power structure reflecting the Sheolites of the Tico series, he’s going to find that Samael is no Wusheng.

Anyway, with Sturla being added, there are others to naturally follow, so I imagine I’m about to fill up the rest of those slots. More about that next time. Stay tuned.

Although literally all I did was write a single sentence, it officially marks the completion of EM3, so I felt that was enough to warrant a post. The current wordcount stands at 52,352, which is well short of the general 75-100K goal, but so long as I continue to be a web novelist, I don’t really need to worry about it that much. Also, if I intend to go for traditional publication, I’ll be attempting it here in Japan, where the rules are different. In fact, were my books to get published as light novels, the longer ones would probably get broken up into two or even three parts. Of course, I actually have to work on getting things translated and polished up to standard first. That’s a concern for another time, though. A more pressing concern is getting something to take EM3’s slot in six weeks. One of many things rolling around in my noggin at the moment. I’ll try not to leave you all waiting so long for my next post. Stay tuned.

Although I haven’t accomplished much, it’s been so long that I really felt that I ought to check in. Technically, I did a little bit of work on Chapter 21 of TWH last Friday, but I didn’t think it was enough to warrant a mention, but I did a little more poking on it and some revisions to the epilogue of EM3. Regarding the latter, I still feel I need a couple more lines to properly close things out. I’ve been rather busy with the start of the new term and haven’t had the time to focus on writing. There’s still quite a bit of work piled up and it’ll take me at least another week until things start to settle down a bit. I’ll try to get some content here with a little more frequency, but I won’t make any promises just yet. Stay tuned.

I’m really close to having the epilogue of EM3 finished. I probably just have another sentence or two to tie a bow on it and be done, though I imagine I’ll want to give it a couple passes before I post it. I also did a little writing in RttW while I was preparing the story update.

What took the bigger chunk of my time was some work in the peripheral materials I was doing with regards to juvenation and life extension, something that isn’t that well reflected in some of my materials. It was a big part of my calculations when working on the CeleKing series, but in the overarching narrative of the Cross Arc as a whole, I hadn’t really factored it in when I was doing my early genealogical work. I considered not making life extension much of a thing until the Fifth Empire period, but that didn’t jibe with my work on CeleKing as Emperor Wuzu of the Hua Dynasty made it to 266 years and life extension treatments would have had to have started no later than the mid-5th Century for him to have made it so long. We do have about a 50-year period for the Æther War for life extension to develop and we can argue that the Skyfall Calamity caused disruptions in its application, but that didn’t change the fact that I wanted it to be reflected in the main Imperial line and major pretender factions.

One example of a major change was changing Emperor Michael I Neologos’ birth from NE 541 to NE 461. This meant that rather than being the great-grandson of Emperor Victor Alexis I Neander, he’s now that Emperor’s brother-in-law with the two of them having married sisters. I had to move around the family tree to reflect this change, which is a bit of a pain when you’re just using a text file for this sort of thing. (I really should consider upgrading how I do my genealogy work.) With Emperor Michael’s lineage now majorly altered, I had to fill in a couple generations up so that he doesn’t just spring up out of nowhere. I ended up with quite the little soap opera story brewing in House Goldbaum. (I always love how stories come together as I make family trees.) Anyway, that kept me busy a good long while. Got to see the sunrise, so I guess you could call that a perk.

Anyway, Monday I’ll be switching over to TWH, but in the meantime, I’ll probably fiddle around with this stuff a bit more. I’m sure you all find it thrilling. Stay tuned.

I continue to inch along with the epilogue of EM3. I was also doing some work in the peripheral materials to better establish the situation post-time skip. I really want to get this finished, so maybe enough of a fire will be lit under my tail to get it done. Stay tuned.

I won’t bore you with excuses, but I haven’t been able to get to working on EM3 like I was hoping until now. I didn’t get it too far, though, but at this point I might as well stick with it until I either finish it or I need to switch over to TWH.

I also spent some time on the peripheral materials for the WttW trying to standardize the system of weights and measures. That doesn’t get us any further in the story proper, but these details are all part of the worldbuilding iceberg. Maybe I can get some actual writing done sometime before the weekend’s out. Stay tuned.

I made more progress on the epilogue of EM3 but didn’t quite get it finished. I didn’t get anything written Saturday or else I might’ve met my goal to get it done by now. I’ll give it one more day and then move on to RttW. I’ll be running out of my lead time two if I don’t buckle down there. Of course, TWH is the real sticking point right now, but we’ll save that one for next week. Here’s to whatever progress I can get made. Stay tuned.

I made a little more progress on the epilogue of EM3. I would’ve liked to have done more, but I didn’t get started until late and by then, the mascot was agitating for me to go to bed. I’d like to get things wrapped before the weekend is out, but we’ll see how things go. Stay tuned.

I made a little more progress on the epilogue of EM3. Probably another day or two of work and I’ll have it done. Stay tuned.

I finished Chapter 26 of EM3 and started on the epilogue. Just a little bit more to go. I need to figure out what I’ll be working on next. Stay tuned.