Thursday, October 14, 2010

Song of My Homeland


The first long poem I wrote as Tei'dran Duskwatch, Song of My Homeland was inspired while I watched a blood elf paladin in full blood knight gear swinging away at a practice dummy in Silvermoon City. The poem itself is simply a reflection on the elves' history. An elf who never used the arcane much, who gave into the hunger for magic and used fel magics, realizing just how twisted his people had become. His own losses are counted up alongside those of his people. The true losses of his people, however, are unnoticed by most.

Scene Of The Crime


Sexy, violent, and suspenseful, this story was my decision to do all three for once. Generally, I don't enjoy sexy writing. Violent, eh, sometimes. Suspense, however, I enjoy. Bindings of Family is meant to be full of it, and I'm greatly enjoying writing it.

Let's start with sexy. Teleia needed to be described in detail, but I decided to leave her body shape to assumption. She's sexy. The definition of such is up to the reader's imagination. Her face was important enough, though, to be defined clearly. Her surroundings as well. I thought of her as a sculpture. Where the sculpture is displayed is equally important to the sculpture itself.

In terms of violence, I realize I made most of it come from a rather piggish man. This isn't to imply anything about men, obviously. But... Eh, you do get a sense of the trouble Tele is in once he gets a hold of her. Another thing, blood, is kind of fun for me to describe. Not sure why, but I enjoy it.

Suspense is rather heavy in this story. I wanted the reader to genuinely worry about Tele. What's going to happen to her? Is she going to be okay? Every hit she takes, the reader winces. Or... gets a hardon. Depends who you ask, I suppose.

All in all, this story was pretty interesting to write. I fleshed out some details about Tele's work in the Keep, and revealed her true nature in the process. Good stuff.

Flute of the Draconic Oath


Mixing characters up with official characters of the Warcraft franchise is always a fun thing to do. Even better when it doesn't make lore nazis cringe. (Really, though, what doesn't?) But let's get on with the story itself.

"A commitment to something greater than themselves." That's one of the many slogans the Marine Corps uses to recruit. I see it weekly on a billboard on my way to class, right with a photo of a crisply-dressed marine. So what would be the equivalent of that phrase in the Warcraft universe? Dragon oaths, as noted in quests and lore, are not to be taken lightly. If you make an oath to a dragon, you'd best realize that there's no way you can back out of it. How, though, do dragons decide who must make an oath?

I had been thinking of Sintas' history one evening, and decided either she was on the front lines of the War of the Shifting Sands or she stayed home. I picked the former, figuring that was a better way to get her associated with Fandral.

However, there's a much more simplistic reason for why I decided to write a backstory for something like the flute. The flute's function is to allow Sintas to call on the aid of a dragon on any continent. Originally, it would call a blue, green, red, or bronze drake to her aid. However, since the blue dragonflight began the Nexus War and the green dragonflight ended up trapped in their own realm, my pickings were slimmed down. Plus... I don't have a blue or green drake in game as mounts. What I do have are red and bronze drakes, as well as nether drakes and a green proto drake. The flute gave me a reason to be able to interact with this many dragons as Sintas and use them in roleplay.

This story satisfied these two needs for Sintas' character: association with Fandral as well as dragons.

Bindings of Family


Bindings of Family is one of my better attempts at a dramatic, compelling story. Wildheart was a good try, but extremely long (by my standards) and somewhat focused on fan service in comparison. While Wildheart was about two main characters sort of awkwardly falling for each other even though both of them are over nine thousand years old each (no, not a reference), Bindings is about two main characters awkwardly stumbling through the road blocks life keeps placing in front of them.

The line "My shoulder hurt, but the pain of losing was unbearable" is from a writing practice prompt given by a creative writing teacher I had (and adored) in fourth grade. I always remembered it and the basic gist of the story I wrote along with it, and I've always wanted to include it in a story. It may show up again!

Of course, the weird thing that I keep asking myself "Dear god, why?" about is part 15. Yes, it's strange. Kind of disturbing, as well. But more tests of character like this will follow Tei through the story. As Tei is the innocent and Alli is the "unholy terror," when the world starts to get dark, the innocent will be tested the most. Whether or not Tei retains his innocence is up to the circumstances, his own actions, and the reader's opinions.

Cosplay Picks






Jane's Rant - Fantasy

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Jane's Rant - Lore Virgins