《Manifestations of Faith》Prologue
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Keep to your faith, send your devotion. Bless the divine and be blest in turn.
Keep to your path, your sight true, your mind clear. For blessed souls of Wargain, the Shadows are watching, listening. Be pure, your nature a shining light to pierce the dark of the Ruiner, the Maker of monsters. Shine, shine my fellows, cast down his tempting thoughts, shatter his many plots, burn the heretic corrupted by his touch.
Keep to your purity, for our gods are always with us, our ascended brothers at the ready to end the machinations of the Ruiner, he has no power here, so have no fear. Shine bright and hold your weapons high, for all is clear. We are the future, Wargain followers, the shepherds to herald the age of Order. We shall cast down all the vile distortions of chaos, we shall rise and shine like none ever before. So dear brothers.
Keep to your faith, keep to your path, keep to your purity, for war calls, Wargain beckons, new lands await us. The realm shall shake, civilizations shall bow, the savages shall be converted, the heretic shall burn.
Keep to your faith, keep to your faith, keep to your faith. For the Shadows are amongst us, their whispers closing, his touch nearing. Keep to your path, keep your purity, do not listen, to not falter. Ignore the words of his champions, the offers they peddle.
The power…
Keep faith. Keep faith, devotion is rewarded, the halls of Valor await all worthy, high and low. Keep faith, shine bright, keep his words from your mind, his lies, his secrets.
Such secrets, such power.. Such freedom.
Keep faith!
Even as conquest takes all you love.
Keep faith!
Even as you are left behind to rot.
Keep faith!
Even as you lay forgotten in a bed of death. Alone, neglected, just another follower out of millions.
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Keep, keep. Do not listen to the offers, in all of Wargain name, do not, do not…
You will hear secrets, you will see the truths, you will be freed from all the lies. You will rise, you will ascend.
Do you hear his words? So kind and understanding, do you see his Shadows, always guiding, always tending. Do you see how close you are to your fellows, welcomed and appreciated? Power given without fear, none planning against each other. Devotion answered with warmth, blessings often granted. Knowledge provided that even the most studied scholars lack.
Do you see it my fellow, how death means nothing? A moment delay to the inevitable. We have all the time in realm to work our trade, to free those chained to gods only interested in themselves.
Do you see we are eternal? The Shadows always watching. The Shadows always listening. The souls that are truly free.
Send your Devotion my fellows! Spread his name!
Malan the Healer, Malan the Lifeworker, Malan the Guide.
Malan the bringer of Wonder!
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- In Serial20 Chapters
Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
8 153 - In Serial23 Chapters
Blind Judgment
First a soldier, then a blind man. Could he ever be anything else? Suffering from a massive change of perspective, Cain finds himself in a new world as earth is destroyed by unknown forces. With change comes pain and opportunity. Can power be gained, when he has no eyes to see? Writing chapters as I go, so tentative release schedule of two chapters a week.
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Tale of Yashima is loosely based on the Sengoku era of Japan. The power of the shogunate has crashed and the daimyos of Yashima are fighting for the survival of their clans and control of the land. However, they’re not the only ones. Yashima is a land where both man and yokai co-exist, and not always peacefully. As the daimyos are busy with each other the yokai are also planning their next move. The Night Parade is coming, and not everyone is going to survive. Published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
8 54 - In Serial8 Chapters
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"Shed your moral integrity and sever your connections; for the True Dragon is not restricted by human constructs." "Do not mindlessly destroy; for a dragon leads and conquers their enemies with decisiveness and wisdom." "A pack of seasoned warriors that is led by a sheep is inferior to a herd of sheep led by a competent dragon." "One laceration can separate the heavens, one thrust can cause the mountains to tremble, and one mistake can mean the death of all." ... Son of Heaven is a tale that revolves around Zhuge Sai, a young man who is predominately driven by his thirst for knowledge and inexplicable origins. He, who values victory over his moral compass.
8 68 - In Serial8 Chapters
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Follow this grandma’s unhappy journey of being transmigrated with all her memories intact. ‘“Why me?” she cried to herself “I can't even die in peace?” “...at the very least, I demand compensation!" "Erase my memories!”
8 129 - In Serial12 Chapters
My Batman System
When the barrier that kept the universes apart from each other began to fall apart, people with superpowers that resembled those of superheroes from movies and cartoons began to appear. Unfortunately, along with those powers, monsters and mythical creatures started to terrorize the world as well. Those who called themselves new superman, new thor, new hulk, and new naruto began to fight those creatures and became worldwide famous… Among those people, a certain someone also had awakened his powers. His name was Jason, and while he couldn't do anything outstanding at first, he had the power to become stronger and learn all the other super abilities with his system… The batman system. With money, he will literally obtain everything… To hang out with us: https://discord.gg/McSDmqqYtH To read more chapters: https://www.patreon.com/BSystem
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