Update 9: The Price of Ambition

"Do you feel it? That burning in your chest, like you've been wrongfully denied something that is your right? That feeling of rejection that you know there is no reconciling with? That's how you know. I am already part of you. Just as with all mortals of your kind..."

Of the numerous immortal powers who have stakes within Chorus, the most influential actors in its affairs have always been those of the Pantheon of the First and the Concord of Ambition, the world's two most powerful groups of deities. Occupying two distinct, opposing sides in a conflict for the fate of the Gradient and the Greater Universe, their worshippers are the pawns of a great game that as of yet has no clear victor. But while the nature of the Pantheon has always been clear to its followers, the blessings of the Concord of Ambition have always been much more fickle.

While it is believed by many that the ultimate goal of Menoze, lord of the Concord, is the complete undoing of divinity in the universe, the powers he bestows upon his followers seem to suggest an alternate angle, providing many of them with the motivation or power needed to achieve their wildest dreams--a stark contrast to the more passive enrichment of the Pantheon. However, Menozan blessings have also been known to be foisted upon those who are opposed to him, in a form known only in antiquated texts as the "burning mark". Those who bear the mark are inundated with ambition unbound, and seem to always be destined for greatness, though there is always a cost to pay in achieving their newfound lofty goals.

It is said that animosity toward the Concord was a tempering factor in the actions of those who bear the mark, and would commonly lead its bearers toward the embrace of their unbidden patron. There are ways to free oneself from it, however... though unfortunately, death is not one of these ways.

Unwilling aspect of the Burning Sun, you and your allies have been brought together by your common connection to divinity, the first known of your kind in centuries. It is up to you how you choose to temper or unleash the ambition within you, though keep in mind one fact that will always be present: greatness will be yours, whether you will it or not.

March 27, 2024

Update 8: Races and Subraces

Everything in moderation

Hey everyone, sorry for the lapse in updates--I was stricken with food poisoning and then was shipped off to Florida to fight in the Great Linux War of 2024. Back now, with the preview on races.

Before I get into that, though, the Kickstarter is fully written and available for preview--check it out here! I will once again say that there is no definitive date for it going live, but if I was to give a super, SUPER conservative estimate, I'd say... before September?

Anyways, new races! The book comes with three of them, as well as 4 (5) subraces. Some of them are a lot more specific to the world than others, but I feel like all of them might have a place in other settings.

The new races are the Andala, the Eidolon, the Tenemann, and the new subraces are the Lawforged Dragonborn, the Glass Elf (and Half Elf), the Babel Halfling, and the Salt Dwarf.

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The Andala

"The andala are a race native to the frontiers of Alto, unique in their position apart from the other races of Chorus. They are beings formed by plants uplifted in a unique ritual process, with a special, magically-enhanced physiology that gives them the ability to utilize their environment in ways normal races cannot imagine. Not any one species, andala is a blanket term for mundane plants given mind through the ritualistic uplifting of the Shantora. After their uplift, the magic that brought them into the world stays with them for their entire lives, granting them a measure of druidic protection against things normally deadly to mundane plants."

"At one time in Antiquity, the andala were simple proles, used for hard labor by their druidic neighbors. However, they have since birthed new minds capable of highly complex, spiritual thought, and are now capable of standing on their own with the other races of Chorus, living alongside the druids that created them as equals, and in some places, leaders."

The Andala are unique in that they technically count as Plants instead of Humanoids, although the changes that accompany this manifest in a racial trait instead of a change in classification. This makes them vulnerable to fire damage, but also gives them a host of survivability improvements in other ways, such as buffs in direct sunlight and an ability to go without rations for extended periods of time. The Andala also come with a number of subraces that represent the plant that they were uplifted from, which gives them unique benefits depending on the plant. From being better at capturing and using sunlight, from being very appealing to the eye, to being hardy and painful to the touch, the andala are as diverse as they are unique.

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The Eidolon

"When the explorers of the old world discovered Tempomancy, it opened up awesome new potential for applications of magic in everyday life. However, the arcanists who experimented with it in the years that followed would soon discover an unfortunate truth about tampering with the timeline: reality itself is somewhat self correcting, and tampering beyond one's understanding risks these corrections excluding the tamperer or tampered. Normally, a tempomancer or a target of one subjected to this is simply "deleted" from physical existence, their fate unknown as they drift through the instants between seconds. Rarely, however, be it due to one's willpower, magical connection, or outside tinkering, a person's essence is not entirely lost, their soul instead becoming fused with the magic that would have condemned them to form a new, odd form: an Eidolon."

"Stuck in a somewhat uncomfortable state between life and death, eidolons are uncanny, shimmering echoes of their former selves that are altered in fundamental ways. Similar to arcane constructs, their bodies are comprised entirely of arcane energy, a fact that completely alters their day-to-day needs and capabilities. After the 'birth' of an eidolon, they tend to abandon their old lives to pursue new ones, believing that their new state is somehow a second chance at existence that was granted through divine intervention. Unfortunately, the life of an eidolon is commonly one wrought with fear, as their frail bodies can be undone by things that mortal bodies are normally capable of weathering."

"Eidolon" is a term for a member of any race whose form is altered by tempomantic magic, anchoring their soul to Material existence by way of a magical construct form. This form makes it impossible to engage in some things normal to mortal beings--eating and drinking being among them--requiring them to seek alternatives. Despite the shedding of the flesh, the mind and soul of an Eidolon continue to persist through their transformation, meaning that some of their old racial characteristics also translate. However, this racial reflection also means that effects that may have otherwise cured their eidolic condition simply alters the form of their reflection... mending the flesh when there is no flesh remaining to mend is an ordeal that some eidolons devote their lives to solving.

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The Tenemann

"Some believe that the tenemann are the unfathomably ancient progenitors of the races of Mankind, forced to adapt to the seas out of fear of divine wrath. Others believe that they are the descendants of extraplanars who were once hellbent on the destruction of the world. Some believe them to be harbingers of weal and woe, potentially even demons cursed to reside within the Prime Material Plane. But for all of these theories, one thing is certain: the esoteric and vengeful culture of these beings has been both feared and revered across Chorus following their discovery during the Mana Rush."

"These long lived aquatic beings are thought to be the ancient rulers of Alto, during a time when a large part of the landmass was theoretically submerged in the Shrouded Sea. At some point in the deepest parts of Antiquity, their race declined sharply due to some unknown force, forcing those who remained to retreat beyond their domain, abandoning their kingdom and retreating into obscurity. As the millenia passed, the landmass of Alto shifted to assume its modern form, lifting the ruins of the tenemann society along with it."

Ancient and effectively immortal, the Tenemann have inherited a part-humanoid, part-piscine form that has allowed them to hide from the gaze of the gods beneath the seas for millenia. They can breathe underwater indefinitely and can also walk on land just as well as anyone else (though they occasionally need to catch their breath in a body of water). Their divine heritage imparts upon them some unique abilities, depending on the form of divinity they or their ancestors subscribed to. Those who side with chaos tend to work against civilization in the shadows, while those who side with order are commonly seen attempting to communicate with the landbound races.

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And also some subraces...

Glass Elves and Half Elves

"Having long monopolized much of the world's magic, the elven descendants of the first Judges have enjoyed lives saturated with the arcane. However, spending so much time in the proximity of such unbound power as the elves who live in capital city of Absiet do has a tendency to change a person on a fundamental level. Such elves are born malformed and weak, and grow up spindly and tall with featureless glassy eyes that are their namesake. In exchange for losing their physical fortitude, these elves inherit an innate skill for (and dependence on) magic use."

Lawforged Dragonborn

"Some dragonborn are curiously born with an affinity for the divine energies of the Gradient, with shimmering white and gold scales that almost seem to glow iridescently in the light. They stand out starkly among other races and even among their kin, similarly to how an aasimar might stand out among humans, though without the conditional immortality. These 'lawforged' are exceedingly rare, with it thought that only one of their kind are born for every million dragonborn of other ancestries. They seem to be naturally drawn to intense sources of divine magic, which includes their Primordial Dragon cousins that dot Chorus."

Babel Halflings

"In the wake of the Convergence, the nearby plains that the halflings of Kaz Ranar once called home were made inhospitably hostile almost overnight, in essence displacing their entire race. However, what should have amounted to a genocide instead was a new beginning for them--some luck must have been with them to allow them to quickly find niches in other parts of the world, and eventually those who were able to persevere up until the Mana Rush had their story open into prosperity. Over time these hardy survivors changed in the magic-stricken world, and now known as the babel halflings, they finally see some of their lost fortune catching back up to them."

Salt Dwarves

"In the world of Chorus, the mountains and hills of the dwarven heartland of Ven Eldara are much less common than the open seas that defined the development of their nation and subsequent spread across the world. Specifically, many of the dwarves who were chosen as colonists, especially for the frontiers of Alto, were of a kind that adapted to be able to manage sea travel better, allowing them to better take advantage of the bounties of the ocean. This new kind of dwarf, the salt dwarf, would spread across Chorus to become one of the most prominent types."

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And those are the new races! Hopefully the long post and lore makes up for the lack of update last week. Unsure what the topic for next time will be, but I promise to keep on schedule this time.

Again, make sure you keep your eye on the Kickstarter! Any feedback is appreciated, as always.

March 12, 2024

Update 7: Preview of Kickstarter

Even smaller update for a microcosm of text

Unsure if this is going to count for the usual Tuesday update, but I wanted to share:

I have a draft of the renewed Kickstarter! Take a look here!

Link to the Kickstarter

All feedback is appreciated, as well as any follows if what you see interests you. Hopefully this encapsulates the theme I'm going for with the rewrite of the book.

Next goal is to finish the TLNAtC page on the website.

February 26, 2024

Update 6: Naming, Kickstarters, and the Future

Small update for a small amount of text

Hi! I know it's not Tuesday, but I wanted to put some of my thoughts down in a place where you guys would be able to read them.

I still haven't come up with an idea for a name that I'm satisfied with--I feel like The Lord Navigator's Almanac to Chorus was a pretty bullseye-ish hit for what I was looking for in a title. The Lord Navigator character whose perspective the book is meant to be written from (somewhat like Volo in his eponymous Guide to Monsters) still exists, although they've been downgraded from wise demigod-like entity to an actual navigator who was among the first to land in the new world, so keeping them in the title would still work. Perhaps "Chorus: The Lord Navigator's Account of Alto" would be more fitting for the setting, although it doesn't run off the tongue nearly as well. I'll probably just be keeping the existing name, keeps things simple.

Now that I've landed on a title I like (the same one, har har), I feel like the natural next step is to start working on setting up the Kickstarter again. I'm nearing the end of the rewrite, and if my planning is correct, I'll be given plenty of time to finish before a renewed Kickstarter begins and ends.

But before I actually launch-launch said Kickstarter, I'm going to be doing a lot of advertising and planning, and hopefully drawing people into the server.

Any more updates on this and you'll be the first to know--expect another update on it by next Tuesday. Thanks!

February 23, 2024

Update 5: Subclasses

Who are you?

A number of new subclasses appeared in the premade character descriptions, but there are even more coming in the book. In fact, outside of the new classes themselves, a total of 24 new subclasses are coming in the new book, 2 for each existing 5E class.

These new subclasses fall into one of three categories. The first are disciplines that originate in the new world of Alto, having been developed by its native population. The second are ones that originated as part of the colonial effort, using methodologies either not needed or frowned upon in the old world. The third are ones related to Tempomancy, giving them a measure of control over time and a better way to use said tempomantic effects.

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Barbarian's subclasses are Path of the Dragon and Path of the Sands. PotD allows players to adopt a draconic aspect, giving them an unarmed attack option and the ability to deal passive and active fire damage while raging. PotS has players adopting ancient techniques, letting them cast unique spell effects while raging under certain circumstances, as well as being empowered in arid and desert environments.

Bard's subclasses are College of Fates and College of Discovery. CoF lets players gamble using their Bardic Inspiration, randomly attempting to change the outcomes of other rolls. CoD gives proficiency in firearms, and allows them to randomly 'discover' new uses for their Inspiration every long rest.

Cleric's subclasses are Balance Domain and Disorder Domain. Balance clerics are wardens of spiritual energies, allowing them to punish enemies for dealing damage and easily level playing fields. Disorder clerics are forces of destruction, twisting chaos to alter the minds of others and enhance their own capabilities... at a price.

Druid's subclasses are Circle of the Labyrinth and Circle of the Primordial. CotL allows them to conjure powerful illusions to confuse and persuade, while also giving them the ability to disguise themselves as plants. CotP gives them the ability to adopt a divine Wild Shape, as well as summon reflections of their own will to assault their enemies alongside them.

Fighter's subclasses are Conductor and Gunner. Conductors are temporal warriors, using Tempomancy to augment their speed and capabilities, as well as 'undo' mistakes they make in combat. Gunners are what it says on the tin, wielding heavy firearms with less of the drawbacks inherent in their use... unless it's convenient to them, that is.

Monk's subclasses are Way of the Mirror and Way of Law. WotM lets monks harness reflections, easily parrying incoming damage and dividing their bodies (along with their capabilities) into mirror images capable of attacking independently of one another. WoL gives them a way to assume a tanking role, rewarding them for landing blows and blocking hits with heightened AC and damage.

Paladin's subclasses are Oath of Preservation and Oath of Horizons. OoP allows them to exert their will at a distance, using Channel Divinity to let them apply Divine Smite to ranged attacks and conceal themselves. OoH pushes them to reach their full potential, allowing them to 'snowball' by getting more powerful with successful actions.

Ranger's subclasses are Wayfarer and Demolitionist. Wayfarers are experts of exploring the unknown, moving with uncanny swiftness and awareness. Demolitionists are... well... they can craft explosives and strap them to ranged projectiles. Fun!

Rogue's subclasses are Heartbreaker and Sapper. Heartbreakers operate best when they are the center of attention, capable of manipulating enemies to act as cover for them to make their moves. Sappers are adept at exploiting the weaknesses of machines, giving them firearms proficiency and a number of tools that can be brought to bear against constructs, vehicles, and structures.

Sorcerer's subclasses are Timekeeper and Bifuricated. Timekeeper's magic originates from tempomancy, allowing them to trade reliability for more information and an ability to stop enemies in their tracks. The Bifuricated gets their power from having two souls inhabit one body--this second soul can help fill in the gaps of the Sorcerer's capabilities, as well as operating as an independent agent in unique cases.

Warlock's subclasses are The Betrayer and The Navigator. The Betrayer bids their warlocks to collect the energies of the fallen, granting them boons after a long rest depending on their successes. The Navigator gives them a measure of control over planar energies, allowing them to channel otherworldly powers and even traverse the planes themselves at higher levels.

Finally, Wizard's subclasses are the School of Tempomancy and Entropic Magic. As with subclasses before this one, School of Tempomancy is a 'school' subclass to accompany the new school of magic in the book, with similar effects. Entropic Magic allows the wizard to enhance their spells with chaos, which has an unfortunate side effect of wearing away at the wizard... with great power comes great suffering?

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Some of these are subject to change as the book nears completion, but it's stuff you can hopefully look forward to. Next time, more history about the new races!

Thanks for reading!

February 21, 2024

Update 4: Premade Characters

Adventurers in the New World

In my experiences playing and running D&D games (and especially one-shots), you'll have the occasional player who doesn't want to go through the whole shabang of character creation and occasionally just want to just pick up a premade and go. Which is understandable! And of course, premade characters provide an opportunity to give players story hooks that they might otherwise be ignorant of, without spoiling too much of the story. Another reason to have them is as examples for players who wish to make use of new features in the book, but don't know exactly how to fit them into a build.

At the end of Chapter 1, I have a set of eight character sheets of premade characters, each utilizing a new class, subclass, race, or background found in the book. Some short descriptions of them:

Ath Yiedrel is a glass half-elf Disorder Domain cleric of Arkhon who was exiled from the magocratic Absi'teset due to being one of many unfortunate enough to inherit the Curse of Glass. After witnessing the deaths of his own parents and feeling his connection to the divine falter as a result, he travels to the new world hoping to find distant relatives or new friends beyond the reach of Tesetian oppression, only to find them attempting to repeat the mistake that created the Curse in the first place.

Damian Vanta is a tiefling Oath of Preservation paladin, raised as a soldier in a paladin order who fled to the new world after letting a combination of high expectations and inner conflict get the best of him. In Alto, he searches for allies in helping to protect Absolution, the last old world settlement of his kind, as well as finding a solution for the dark inheritance that plagues himself and all tieflings in Chorus.

Helena Lukeg Bruenkirk is a salt dwarf College of Fates bard who lost her career as a tradesman and was taken in by a traveling fortune teller during her search for continued employment. During her apprenticeship, she recieved an apocalyptic vision that shook her view of the world to its core. She would then set off believing that finding proof of such an event's approach would prove herself in the eyes of her mentor, potentially even helping to stop it... if only she could overcome a few vices in the process.

Theodoros Neka is a human Gunner fighter, a fallen kingpin who was once the heir to his mother's prospector empire, only to watch it be overthrown by her closest allies. He follows their trail to the new world hoping to reclaim what was meant to be his, only to find that the corruption and subversion of what his family had built runs much, much deeper than originally thought.

Xanthian Ellamir is an eidolon Timekeeper sorcerer, a former noble patriarch of a royal house of Norimar who sought the secrets of new world magic and ended up in much deeper than he wished--his soul torn from his body by tempomantic magic and transfigured into that of an eidolon. He now seeks a way to return to his former self, fearing he would be unable to reclaim his former position at the head of his house in his current state.

Zimi Yathar is an elven School of Tempomancy wizard, a self-made sage and daughter of an immensely-powerful archdruid who sought to break free from her destiny of becoming as her mother's successor. So intense and unbreakable was her resistance that, to ensure that she would be forced to adhere to her destiny, the mother took drastic action and 'cursed' Zimi with a divine power. She was then set free into the world to follow her wanderlust, with the specter of an inevitable future hanging over them both.

Zyra Mae is a tenemann Mortal Divination mystic--the first of a long line of powerful diviners who lived in a prehistorical empire. Her connection to tempomancy would lead her to being temporally challenged, dragged to the present day by modern mages, finding the world entirely different to what she left behind. Her place now unknown, she must decide if she wishes to reunite with her people in the present, or return to live out the life she had in the past.

A lot of these subclasses, races, and backgrounds haven't been explained yet, but I will be doing such in the following updates.

Thanks for reading!

February 13, 2024

Update 3: Rise, Mystic

Claim the forces of death!

The Knight has been reborn as the Mystic, a full spellcaster who commands the forces of death and the spirits of the Ethereal. Though they are relatively rare in modern Chorus, they have been known to act as advisors and wise mediums for numerous leaders across time, their insights provided by the departed providing them with a unique outlook on life. They are set apart by a spell list comprised with little damaging abilities, but numerous control and area denial abilities. These spells can be augmented with Shadow Magic, allowing failed saving throws against crowd control to be converted into damage over time, and are complimented by a host of 'hauntings', which allows the mystic to conjure persisting areas of both helpful and harmful effects, allowing them an uncanny ability to lock down a battlefield while their allies move freely. Additionally, they have a measure of control over their own soul, allowing them to 'cheat death' in a unique way that has lasting consequences.

Like the Augur and the Knight before it, the Mystic also comes with a set of subclasses, known as 'Occult Modi', which define how exactly they interact with the dead and change what deathly forces are available to them:

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Mortal Divination

"Even with their soul having departed, the bones of the fallen carry a power unique to them that has been known to rouse the forces of death with notable potency. By fashioning bones into fetishes, totems, armor, or by simply using them as tools for divination, a mystic can call the attention of powerful specters to them, allowing them to draw on their power to act as an aspect of death itself, greatly increasing hardiness and martial prowess."

These morose warriors adopt a level of martial prowess, allowing them to act as frontline fighters to a degree. They can also anchor their hauntings with totems of bone and wicker, allowing them to have greater radii and longer durations.

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Enthenic Herblore

"It is known that many herbal reagents found across Chorus can have mind-altering effects when consumed, which has lead to their use and abuse across time. Only the mystic knows the true potential behind them, and by burning them as incense or consuming them in very specific amounts, one's mind can be opened to communion with wild and druidic spirits, who have been known to pass on their knowledge and sway over the natural world to the mystic communing with them."

These naturalists commune with spirits using mind-altering herbs and incenses, allowing them to commune with nature spirits easily and even invoke them as hauntings for a variety of effects unique to them.

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Runic Infusion

"A rune can hold very intense importance to singular beings, and even after death the presence of such runes can bind them to specific places or objects for centuries at a time. This is a known method of creating some types of sentient weapons, but a mystic is capable of seeing the true potential of their proper use, with some having been known to bind extremely powerful spirits to rune-imbued constructs, animating them according to their will."

These unique 'smiths' can animate armor with the presences of spirits, granting them another hand in their conflicts and a much more mobile source of haunting effects.

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Tarotic Cartomancy

"A common method of divination employed by career diviners is that of the tarot, a set of cards whose faces carry specific meanings and connections to certain spiritual and divine concepts. Flashy, but woefully impotent when in the hands of magicians and tricksters. Mystics have been known to employ the tarot when contacting the dead, although when used outside of strictly divination, results can vary as much as shuffling of a deck of cards can, leading to chaotic outcomes."

Using the tarot to commune with spirits, these mystics leave their abilities to the whims of fate, making them unpredicatble and efficient in their invocation of death.

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Attached here is a preview of the class description/lore.

Attached here is a preview of the class table.

Thanks for reading! Next time, we talk about premade characters!

January 25, 2024

Update 2: The Knight's Days are Numbered

But It's Mechanics Will Live On

In the previous update, I talked about sweeping changes to the book that are occurring as a result of my dissatisfaction of the setting. This time, I'm going to talk about another pain point related to these changes: The Knight. In the previous setting, the Knight existed as a sort of binding force for the unraveling societies of Kaz Ranar, a champion whose entire purpose was to be a force for others to rally behind, to the point where they even at one point had a class resource called 'Influence'. With the changes to the setting, this has begun to come into question.

As the apocalypse is no longer current, the differences between the Knight and classes such as the Fighter or Ranger have begun to blur, putting into question whether or not it should continue to have a place in the book. At the moment, I am erring on the side of no, and the more I consider it the more I fall further onto that side. The banner system, while unique, was simply a thin sheet draped over what would otherwise be an augmented form of a Battle Master Fighter. And I think the biggest issue I'm having here is the fact that the Knight was somewhat anchored in the idea of it being a martial class--at the end of the day, the concept of manipulating the battlefield through a semi-mobile source of AOE buffs and debuffs is cool, but difficult to implement when you are also expected to dish out decent amounts of damage. You know, like how one would when attempting to fulfill the fantasy of a Knight?

To be honest, the current iteration of the Knight derives from a class concept I wrote several years ago, and was the initial spark that prompted me wanting to write the book. And while it will be sad to rip out those roots of the project, I feel like it must be done to maintain a cohesive theme and setting.

My ideas in changing the Knight have boiled down to a class which currently has no name. Names such as 'Shaman', 'Caller', 'Emissary', 'Thaumaturge', 'Mystic', Theurgist', etc. have rolled around in my head, and I have yet to settle on one. Regardless, this new iteration of the class will be similar to the Knight in that its main class gimmick will be to manipulate a number of AOE effects that will allow them to either impose powerful effects onto allies or enemies, or corral these enemies so they are easier for the class to clean up with its extensive spell list (also mostly AOE abilities.) In theme, it derives these abilities from being a sort of spirit medium, calling upon the spirits of the departed to lend their strength in Material, in exchange for the chance of being finally sent to their proper afterlife.

Other ideas included a runesmith and a smashing-together of the Knight and Augur, but I think the first one lends the most credence. Once I have a full concept thrown together (and have decided on a name, hur hur), this class will have an update of its own to fully outline its fantasy. If it's ready by next week, I'll talk about it then. If not, I'll probably be talking about something else I'm including in the rewrite... premade charaters.

Thanks for reading!

January 23, 2024

Update 1: A Rebranding

Some Much Needed Changes

Hi! It's been a while. A good, long while. Going on half of a year, actually.

I apologize for the extreme lack of updates on my part--frankly unacceptable behavior from someone trying to get people excited about a product, huh? I sincerely apologize to anyone still around waiting for updates (don't worry, I'll be getting back into the swing of things starting with this post).

There was a bit of a spell where there was some really weird mental health stuff going on on my end; another (entirely unrelated) project of mine ended up being shelved for the time being because I just needed some time to settle into my new job and get the spiders out of my head. But the whole time, I've still been working on the book...

...although when I start showing you things, you might find that it's in a bit of a different state than you might remember.

As I continued to work on the book, I was somewhat dissatisfied with how things were coming together. The scope was too large, the overarching themes a bit too vague. As I mused, it started to feel to me like the whole setting was just dressing; an excuse for me to get the mechanical aspects of the book out in a fashion that I felt like people might be interested in. And as I continued to think and muse, I decided that wasn't how I wanted my beautiful child of a literary work to enter the world in.

I've been experimenting with other ideas on how to have the setting better stand on its own, including sweeping changes to the setting and overall theme. One that has gained traction among personal confidants is (working title) Chorus: A Navigator's Account of the New World. The current setting of Kaz Ranar is made much larger (the 'old world') and set off as a background location, and the focus of the book instead takes place in a region of a recently-discovered continent named 'Alto', wherein old world powers attempt to gain a foothold (out of necessity, there's a bit of a resource shortage in the old world which rings similar bells to the Flood of Chaos in the old book concept) in the face of adversity from hostile environments, creatures, and native populations.

Personally, I like the direction that the change in setting is going--the constricted scope makes every location much more impactful, while the change to a colonial setting still allows the diverse host of cultures I wrote to still have a place. The more mechanical parts of the book are mostly unchanged, though some minor things needed to be retooled as the lack of apocalypse meant that there wasn't really a need for a bunch of grimdark edgelord subclasses. I'm open to critique and ideas regarding the new setting; I'm not sure how many of you showed up specifically for the post-apocalyptic setting, but I'm hoping to fit as much of what I had before into the new setting.

Of course, I'll need to throw together new promotional material whenever I decide on a title (open to suggestions by the way), and of course the page on the website is going to be a pain to redo, but hopefully the changes I'm writing ease my concerns over the setting being 'wide as an ocean, shallow as a puddle'.

With this update, I'll be getting back into my weekly schedule, as well as contuing to work on promoting the project to hopefully get more activity into the Discord. Thank you so much for continuing to stick around! I won't promise a date as of now for an updated Kickstarter campaign, but as always, you'll be the first to know.

I'll leave you for now with two descriptions of new backgrounds I've added to the book as part of the rewrite.

The Arcanist background. Researchers of magic and the multiverse with a penchant for recognizing more subtle arcane influences.

The Newblood background. No life experience prior to their adventure, but a powerful potential that provides unique opportunities.

January 16, 2024