TEANO

Long time no update, but now it's time!

Since I've gotten stuck on writing Sunder (due to RL taking up my time but also other things) I've realized why it happened. I've got too much exposition going and too many plot points running through one another. So I'm going to rewrite it, and keep things more separated, and more simple.

One example of a major change will be that the meeting with Mishaado will be postponed. She serves to create some mystery aspect and will become important later on, but right now she's just a ball and chain for the characters and the plot.

Through making such changes, I'll look to increase the pace and the flow of the plot, and also get less lost in everything that needs to be kept track of myself. I used to think complexity was a quality and that the reader needed his questions answered so he wouldn't say 'this guy hasn't got stuff figured out, he can't be a good writer', but I've changed my mind about that.

Now I think simplicity is an art in itself since it's much harder to achieve. Complexity in the moment should be avoided, but can be / should be part of the plot. I also think readers should have questions so they'll keep reading to find the answers, and that you should write in a way that makes the reader feel like his questions will be answered.

With this new mindset, I'm going to focus on rewriting the parts of Sunder I've already written and then continuing on from there. However, I won't be posting them here. Trying to gain an audience before finishing anything is putting the cart before the horse. Once it's in a finished state, I'll focus on marketing it and do the necessary, for now I've resolved to at least write an hour every Saturday for the next three months... a small goal, but a big difference compared to what I've been doing, and the time I spend writing can still grow from there. 

So wait for me, or look for me. 'Cos even if I'm no longer posting story content here, I am working on my stories, and on my return, and when I return I'll spread my work in more effective ways than posting them on DeviantArt and hoping someone finds it. Of course, I'll still post important updates here if I have any. 

All the best

- TEANO

I'm afraid that my first update in a very long time, is not going to be a happy one. Though there's a bit of positive news mixed in, as well. 

Since I've written a big Warcraft fan fiction, that must mean I'm a huge Warcraft fan, right? Well, I was. 

Unless something better comes along, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos and its expansion The Frozen Throne will forever remain the best games with the most immersive stories I've ever played. I was a BIG Warcraft fan at the time.

When World of Warcraft was released, in 2004, things were already starting to get a little sketchy. I didn't like the game, and I didn't like that it attracted a huge number of people who paid 0 attention to the lore, but I could still enjoy the lore, right? For the most part, it was okay, though they did make a few odd decisions even back then.

Things went on and with each expansion Blizzard started struggling more and more to present a proper story. It's hard to do so when major characters' in-game representation is that of 'raid bosses', and when you have a bunch of nameless player characters that lore-wise are referenced as 'adventurers' are going around slaughtering said 'bosses'.

It's even harder because they don't actually give a damn, considering the team that made the original games is no longer around. The Warcraft movie (which I haven't seen, but I've seen enough to draw my conclusions) is just further evidence of the route Blizzard is taking: politically correct storytelling driving out the gritty, more realistic stories and ambiguity of the actions characters were taking.

What made Warcraft 3 so genius was that you could play as every different side, and see their point of view. Sometimes you had to fight the people you'd been controlling in the previous campaign, and you felt neither side was really totally wrong, or right, which was the beauty of it. Blizzard currently is too lazy, complacent, or inept, to maintain that level of complexity in their franchises (Starcraft was dumbed down as well).

When they started involving time travel, I knew they had completely lost it. To make a long story short: the Warchief of the Horde went back in time to stop the evil demonic Burning Legion from enslaving his people by the use of demon blood and using them to attack the world of Azeroth... so he could attack the humans himself with orcish tanks instead of demon blood! Yes, I'm not making this up. It's that bad.

Since this retcons so many things and changes so much down the line, this is already where I stopped keeping up with the lore. It's too much, and time travel is a terrible plot device which I will never use. 

And now what happened? They retconned the War of the Ancients, which is pretty much the first major story set on Azeroth. That, too, is no longer canon now, although the incompetent Richard A. Knaak and whoever else is behind this probably don't even realize how much their changes would change down the line. This article explains in a very concise manner, how much of an issue this is: www.engadget.com/2010/05/08/kn…

It all makes so little sense, it's all so utterly devoid of reason, creativity, common sense and respect for the source material that I can no longer call myself a fan of Warcraft. They've basically destroyed the things that made me a fan in the first place and made it non-canon, so why should I? 

The only way for me is to apply the time travel theory of alternating paths. The time travel in World of Warcraft created a new path where I can't follow, so I will continue going down the old and keep the memories of the true, original Warcraft close to heart. 

For Legacy of Ruin what this would mean is that basically, none of it could even have ever happened, because they changed the major events preceding it. You see, time travel simply creates these impossible paradoxes that make a fictional world collapse on itself. If you went back in time to change an event so that it doesn't happen, you effectively cancel out the reason you had to go back in the first place, which means you wouldn't go back, which means you wouldn't change anything, which means you'd arrive back at the point where you'd have to decide to go back, even though going back would lead to the exact same situation being repeated. See how little sense it makes?

I know my progress on this story has been at an all time low. I know that giving up on Warcraft probably implies giving up on the story as well. But it doesn't. My intention has always been to bring a story - set within and limited by the confines of the World of Warcraft as it is - that approaches the quality and has the same characteristics of the original Warcraft's storytelling. Seeing how badly this beautiful franchise has been ravaged by the greedy and the incompetent, I feel that I should finish the story as a homage to everything that made Warcraft great in the first place. 

It will never get published, of course, chances weren't high before, but after the retcons making the facts it was based on non-canon, and after this rant, I guess the chance is now effectively 0.

I currently still have other things to do, but I will not give up on Legacy of Ruin. 'Cos if the developers can't respect their own world, then it's up to the fans to do it instead.

Hello,

The internship is finally over, and this time, I aced it.

Sadly school is still very demanding, with assignments, assignments and yet more assignments, and exams aren't far off. And after exams? Another internship.

My laptop's keyboard is also broken, but this should be fixed soon. I don't know how much time I'll have, but I'm certainly eager to get back into writing.

Peace

- Teano

Hi,

I've just finished one of 9 rather substantial school tasks I want to have finished before the weekend is over. After that I need to focus on preparing my internship, which will last until Friday 27/11. Oh and then exams will be close by... and directly after exams the next internship is starting! Oh and we have a big ass portfolio and no doubt more tasks to do in the meantime!

In other words, I'm going to have to take a 'break' (if you can call it that, considering I'm working my ass off) from writing. Usually what having this amount of work does to me is get me to the point where I can't even enjoy my free time or do anything that requires me to think, 'cos I feel guilty for taking time off. It ruins my focus and my immersion into my writing.

So don't expect a new chapter today... or any time soon. Maybe I'll write when I feel like it, but I don't expect it to be soon. I can't predict when things will be less crazy, but I'll be back... sometime.

Regards

- Teano

Hi people!

I realized I've been working on Legacy of Ruin for three years now, longer if you consider the basic idea and premise of the story spent a couple of years in the drawer before I picked it up again. It's quite daunting to think that it took me this long and it has made me think about all the other stories and series I'm hoping to write. As you know Fallen Children is a fanfic and therefore unlikely to be published, so a part of me wants to focus on my original stories, but since I like the story (hopefully) as much as you guys do, Fallen Children will continue.

The time-travel / alternate universe direction the official Warcraft lore has taken has also given me more freedom to do what I want, which is a good thing, since fitting my story into an existing world has probably been one of the most challenging things to do (though obviously, being able to draw from existing lore also has a lot of advantages!). 

The chapter I put up yesterday, 'Back from the deep', is the second to last chapter in the first volume. I have two more planned in the Fallen Children series. I had originally planned to finish the story much sooner, but new ideas, like character arcs and the murder plot, kept popping up.

Going places and sailing over the seas has been a pretty central theme in Legacy of Ruin. The chapter that's coming up, 'Departure', marks the ending of one journey and the beginning of another. That said, the second novel, 'Blood Feud', will see our characters spending more time on land. It will also most likely be shorter.

I'm not sure of exactly what I will do after I finish Legacy of Ruin yet. I'll probably start by giving the entire story a re-read (and write) first, because it will put me in the right mindset to start working on Blood Feud. There's also another reason for this. Over the course of these three years, my writing skills have improved (not in a small part thanks to the ever helpful Pedigri) and I sometimes shake my head in wonder at some of the stuff I wrote in the earlier chapters. There is a lot to be improved upon, especially in the first few chapters.

I also have a list of changes that need to be made - these are mostly minor things that don't really affect the plot that much, like decreasing the amount of dreadnoughts Irewyth sinks to one in 'Red Horizon.' As I read through it, I may decide to make more changes though, or even add things, but that's something I will only really be able to tell while I'm doing it. Chapter names and division may also be subsequent to change. However, I'm not just going to go back and edit all the original chapters. 

My plan is to create a new 'Legacy of Ruin: Ultimate' folder where each chapter will be posted as one separate piece, rather than a collection of parts that make a chapter. I've received requests from people to do this, but as you know the wait between chapters would become too long and the editing process Pedigri and I go through too slow if I were to do this from the get go. I'll also admit I'm hoping to draw in some new readers this way, since I realize I lost a couple over the course of time, probably because they (rightfully) thought I'd given up on the story after not uploading something for months. Above all, it'll keep you updated on my progress. In the meantime I'm also hoping to get some work done on the outline of the Blood Feud plot (which is largely written out, but still has to be fine-tuned) and the character profiles of the new characters, and get back to work on Sunder as well. 

Ambitious, I know, but what's the saying again? 'Fortune favours the brave?'

Stay tuned,

- TEANO