Part of me is overwhelmed.

I've been on this project for over two years now. Tracking back, I started it based on a group of characters, a team of the first Eidolons from Utopian history. They were a springboard into the setting and then plot, all within the Omniverse. Aziacht is easily one of the oldest characters I have. He developed from a story wherein the protagonist descended off the edge of hell and into total quiet, meeting him there. Curse or Ouroboros, as a character, predates even that. They were summoned from that quiet and their character took form first.

This has all been an idea of mine for a long while. It's finally taken shape and come to life. These ideas which troubled me, these old characters and questions, they've been beautiful, in my eyes.

I can finally take a breath. I can go back and read and take it all in.

As always, I've written to deal with things on my mind, but it's been very important to me that you all have read. My biggest thanks to the Blue Eyed Watcher. Sound can't bounce in a vacuum, so thank you for allowing me to hear myself and better judge. The story wouldn't be the same without.

The progress we've made and will continue to make is what's most valuable. Dirge has personified that, and it's not done. I'll continue this thought at the bottom.

Final stats here: http://freetexthost.com/h64czbeja3

Themes.

Absurdism is the belief that humans exist in purposelessness, meaninglessness, and that there are three responses to this. Those responses were embodied in the three conflicting Primordials in the story, Aziacht, Elicht, and the Ouroboros, as Suicide, Acceptance, and Philosophical Suicide, respectively. I wanted to pit these ideas against each other, and, of course, suicide was rejected. It couldn't work as a universal option, it was judged by nature, and its only product was collateral damage. This is universally recognized, but it's a thought many people, including myself, still face and have to individually reject. The spirit of life is struggle.

The Ouroboros, a symbol which is in fact classically representative of chaos, stood in for God and faith. In the end, they were killed by the existence of tragedy. Theodicy is consistently, in my experience, the weakest point of apologetics. And so it was. Though they lived on in Porter, but only by sheer force of will. As faith limps on today, intellectually scorned.

Christopher too lived on in Aku, still up in the sky.

A joke is never quite as funny when you explain it, so I'll leave that there.

In the end, Doran died and counted it a good thing. He, being suicide, realized he was justified in giving up. He could never change, so that was what he wanted. The world became smaller, but Porter, Anna, and a few others will go on. The Omniverse, which really represents so much potential in life, can only be restored when this is all finally resolved. Just like I feel that society's existential problems can overshadow our hope, which is a will to actualize potential, so do I think that meaning has to be rediscovered or created in the end for us to move on.

Which is why, ultimately, the story isn't done yet.

Not by a long shot.

I will be writing a not (it is) sequel named 'Chosen Shackles', part two of the originally planned trilogy. Phase Two. All leading up to the final questions, greater than anything we've yet seen. Doran was the one who rejected the options, but he's out of the picture now. There's only the dread of a false order and infinite chaos remaining, and we have to make a choice. We all know the terror of being boxed in, ordered to choose. No right choice to make, only drug by our feet through the mire.

As it stands, I'm going to take a break, plot the story, and get back in a few or more months. There's already a first chapter and site if you'd like to get an email when the journey begins, promptly sign up there on the main page.

If you have any questions, if you'd like to discuss the themes and story direction especially, please leave a comment. It's been an experience I would always recommend, writing a novel. It's a way to explore and find answers. And I was never one to settle for the little questions. In comparison to what's coming, this has only set the stage. Dirge has been a first act, excited and confused, ending in anticipation of the long conflict ahead.

It's a way for me to face the world and its conflict. It's the same one we're dealing with in society, and it always comes back to what is true and right.

If it can be settled at all, and I'm not sure it can, we're going to see. That's been my heartfelt desire from the start.

Finally, this has all gone by in a flash. I'll print up this bastard, bind it, and read it. Until then, I can't say in every way it was imperfect, though I know it was. But I'll never regret having written it, and in that way, it's perfect to me.

Onward to the summit.

Thanks for coming.

- Shaeor