Timewaster's Guide Archive

Here's chapter six. not much to say except it's a bit longer and mostly action. tear it apart!

Hubay – Lord Domestic Chapter6 (L, S, V)
3900 words

Summary:
Prefect Gaitu has died of a strange disease, Arilu has taken over, and Jhuz is still coming to terms with his identity as Standard.

Chapter 6:
Jhuz, Zaisha, and Ezlio try to capture a nothroi harpy, we see Zaisha's mejj in action and lexio makes a brief appearance.

Here you go, sorry for the wait. I'm pretty pleased with this chapter overall, but I have two things I was hoping to get feedback on – is the description of the Medusi clear? And I resolve the first main character crisis with Jhuz in this chapter, and I was wondering if anyone thinks I should have drawn it out a little longer. Anyways:

Hubay – Lord Domestic Ch. 4 (L,V, S – if you know Latin) 3900 words

Summary – after a heavy defeat to a barbarian army, the Imperial Legion is on the run in forest. They have made camp on the edge of a river, and the Standard Jhuz is still feeling guilty over his 'cowardice' in the first battle.

Ch 4 – a messenger from Matisu brings ill-timed news, the barbarians attack again, and we meet our first barbarian.

Here you go – someone made a comment about swearing in my last chapter, and while I think its likely that group of soldiers would be swearing at least once a sentence, I decided it might feel better to use non-modern swear words. So I did some haphazard research and came up with some pseudo-latin profanity. Let me know what you think.

Lord Domestic, Ch 2 – 3000 words, L, V

Ch1 summary:
Jhuz, the human Standard of the imperial legion, watches as the army engages with a barbarian enemy. in the middle of the battle, the supernatural Chell attack, and the legion is routed. Jhuz's commander, Prefect Gaitu, is wounded in an attack by the harpylike flyers from the barbarian enemy.

Ch2
we see the affects on morale in the camp the night after the battle. A council of war is called, and Ezlio has some words with Jhuz.

I know I'm a month early, but who's all thinking of doing NaNoWriMo? I was wondering if you guys normally do anything for that in terms of a writing group. If nothing else, I wouldn't mind teaming up with a few people to keep each other on track and maybe critique our work. I like the setup we have here, but I figure the ~3000 word-a-week setup isn't fast enough to really work for november.

Thoughts?

I'm trying to write a short story set during WWII and I realized that I don't have a lot of knowledge about the time period – or rather, I know my history but I don't know the everyday bits and pieces that would make the setting believable. So I'm wondering if there are any good WWII fantasy books out there that might help.

To narrow it down – and I hope I'm not being too specific– I don't want anything too epic in scope, I'm more interested in a foot soldier than a general. If at all possible, I'm wondering if there's anything analogous to Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. Or, in terms of the sort of scope magic is given throughout the world, Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker books.

For that matter, I probably wouldn't mind a few non-fantasy WWII books as well; I'm sure there's quite a bit more of those  out there.

So although the current sticky explaining the cosmere does a good job, I thought it might be nice to write one with a basic explanation at the beginning, and to write it so that new readers can find out what's going on without ruining any of Brandon's books they haven't read. If you're new to his books or even this forum, or just confused by some of the concepts the more hard-core fans are talking about,  you might want to quick read this before you dip in to anything else.

First and foremost:

Yes, most of Brandon's books –Mistborn, Elantris, Warbreaker, and Way of Kings, but NOT Alcatraz and obviously not WoT – take place in the same universe. It's called the Cosmere. No, this doesn't affect how you read the books.

Think of it as more of an "easter egg." That's how this began for fans – a couple of readers noticed a reoccurring character named Hoid. In Mistborn, Elantris, and Warbreaker he never got more than a very brief role, but in Way of Kings, well ... I said this is spoiler free so I'll just say that the Stormlight Archive appears to be a little obviously intertwined in the overarching story of the Cosmere.  However, Brandon has specifically said in an interview that the Archive isn't the overarching story. He said there's another series where he wants to write that.

There are a couple key points to be said here, but  most of them are explained better in longer, more in-depth threads on this forum. If you see a title with the words "Shards" or "Hoid" it's probably one of them.

You see, the idea behind the Cosmere involves a magical/divine artifact/god thing called Adonalsium, which was shattered into sixteen shards. These shards provide the energy necessary to create life on different planets, as well as a source of magic. The magic in Warbreaker, Elantris, Mistborn, and Stormlight is all a product of the shards, sometimes from a single shard and sometimes from the interaction between multiple shards.

Additionally, every shard is controlled by a god-like consciousness that used to belong to a mortal. Each shard has a sort of ... pathology to it that eventually turns the mind of the shardholder until it matches the shard's will. Some might be considered "bad", while others are arguably "good." Some fans believe Hoid might be a shardholder whose power allows him to jump between worlds. It also appears that one shardholder is attacking others.

I'm not as steeped in this as some of you guys are, and I know some what I said is probably still speculation, so let me know if I got something wrong.

Alright, alright, I'm a bit late but I did promise I'd get this in. Please please please don't point at laugh at me silk. I don't think I could bear it.

I forgot to put in a content rating on the email, but for this chapter it's (S, V)

Fathers of Gods, Chapter 2 (listener) 3000 words

Recap
In order to discover his god-power, or shri, Cumo was forced sleep with his best friend's lover, Aela. Aela manifested as a flamedaughter, and can control fire, while Cumo can instantly heal wounds – or at least, he can heal burns and minor flesh wounds.

Summary
This chapter is told half by Simeon Listener, a machiavellian Polaesi who can hear thoughts, and half from Cumo again. Some introduction of other gods, more exploration of Cumo's shri, and a hint at life within Shipolitae.

As per a suggestion by Flo (It was flo, right?) I ditched the metal skirt. Cumo and Aela are both wearing ceremonial robes now. They were stashed in the metal box so they never got burnt.

I've had an idea for a short story, about a kid who thinks he's fighting evil in highschool, and believes his classmates are secretly vampires, witches etc.. but is in fact just crazy and murdering everyone in his class. I'll add a disclaimer that this is exactly what
I thought I Am Not a Serial Killer was about when I first heard of it. I'm happy it wasn't, but now that I have the idea I want to write the story myself.

I'm not sure if it's been done before – let me know if it has – but I'm really hoping to nail the voice that those kinds of novels would use; that is, the kind of story my killer imagines himself to be in. Not having read much YA for a while now, and certainly not bad YA, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a story or two that I can model after – and no twilight. That's one voice I'll never want to model.

Thanks!