First of all, I’m not sure this should be an Afterword. You may recall way back in the Afterword of the first Volume (Penance) that I mentioned wanting to write seven or eight volumes total. The general story is unchanged, but truth be told, I am uncertain whether I should be separating the next Volume apart from this one. This Volume, Renascence, is about ten fewer chapters than all the others, though each chapter has been longer, so the word counts are comparable all the same. (It’s still a bit shorter than the rest.) And while I know what the next Volume should contain, I frankly do not know (yet) how to beef up the in-between story beats to make it a full feature-length novel. So, it occurs to me that I could very well just continue writing the current Volume of Renascence rather than making a sixth Volume to tell the story as per the original plan. I don’t think I’ll do this…
…but I could. Maybe I’ll have a better idea by the time I finish this Afterword.
Storyboarding is not something I do much of too far in advance. I know the grand story, yes, but I have not planned out every last piece of the puzzle to arrive at the final destination. I just remember the big things I want to hit along the way. When it comes to the in-between chapters, when I sit down at the start of a new novel, I open up Notepad(++) and jot down, chapter by chapter, my ideas for each one. I’ll then use this document to keep track of my progress as well, denoting +’s or –’s when I merge or split some chapters. You can see in the image below that Renascence came in well below the original chapter divide, ending up “concluding” at Chapter 17 instead of 21. It happens. But I’m showing this to explain that I haven’t yet sat down with the next Volume and hashed out its chapter descriptions.
Meanwhile, I’ve recently been working on cataloguing this story into an Obsidian Vault. I have come to greatly enjoy Obsidian—it is oddly addicting! I plan to make the Vault available to everyone when the story concludes, perhaps to act as something of a reader’s companion. And I must admit, the graph visualization is quite fun to look at! Here’s where we are now, below, though while I have spoilered any to-be-revealed names, I must caution you, one may (or may not) be able to make some inferences here and there about upcoming plot details by looking at the connections between nodes. So unspoiler at your own peril!
(I’ve corrected Luciene’s name from Lucienne to Luciene after taking this image)
I plan to add places (e.g., planets, ships) to this Vault before saying it’s done. But even now, what a tangled web we’ve woven! Are there any (named) characters you think I’ve missed and should give a node to?
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
But enough about my meta-writing.
***
So, Renascence. A story about Rebirth, literally, physically, and in the emotional sense. But to be reborn is not to be whole or complete. Some may argue that we, as humans, are never complete (which kind of has a Slaaneshi vibe to it), and that we are forever growing. So rebirth is inherently not the end of a story, but perhaps a new beginning. Speaking of “story,” we keep seeing characters refer to their story. Yes, I’ll concede it’s a bit of meta-commentary on the nature of them just being characters (knowingly or, more likely, not) in a story of my writing. But it is also a bit of fun to “toy” with the idea of whose story this really is, in-universe. For four whole Volumes, I bet most of us would have said that it was a story about Callant Blackgar. But, is it, really?
Sure, the entire story is written in his first-person perspective (even when he isn’t present), but does that make it his story? The story is called Cronos! And Cronos claims it as its own in Chapter 119. Is this tale about a grimdark, apocalypse-level greater daemon that threatens to devour all reality?
I mean, kinda, yeah.
But does that make the story belong to this daemon? Jury’s still out. And now Luciene says that her story is not yet told, so we have a third power player on the scene too. And I bet if you asked, Veralith, or at least her siblings, would tell you that it’s actually a story all about them. Are they wrong? We got a couple hints of the Vaktez Quartet way back in Volume 2, before we even heard Cronos’s name mentioned. (Which took until Volume 3.)
I have a friend that “hates protagonists [as a concept].” Now, I’m not writing this for him alone. In fact, he hasn’t read any of this yet. (He may when the tale is finished, which is a good enough motivator for me to keep at it.) But I only just recently learned of this opinion of his, and I’ve found it both very funny and very interesting. I think I can confidently say that Callant Blackgar is the protagonist of this story, and that there won’t be much disagreement there. Hopefully. But I still don’t know if that makes the story his, even if he is the one telling it. I think, and perhaps I’d just like to believe, that perhaps this story is about everyone and no one. It’s about seeing Cronos and Veralith’s respective rises to power. It’s about the desperate defiance against them, and the glimmers of hope that oppose their world-ending shadows.
It’s a story that has grown far beyond its initial scope, when I was writing it for my father alone. Now, it’s a story I am very much enjoying writing for myself, and I’m glad to see it grow and be given shape. In many ways, it’s a story enjoying a Renascence of its own.
***
The future is a bit scary these days. The world seems to be in flux and upheaval. We live in changing times. More personally, I’m moving, for the first time in my life. I signed the lease a few days ago and will begin moving to my first-ever apartment a few days from now. This is no blog, but hey, while I have you here, I’m scared. There’s a lot on my mind, and yet, I cannot shake my thoughts about this tale. Looking ahead, I’m a bit excited. Excited to live on my own (with a friend), excited to write what’s coming up next, though aware that my time to write may be a bit constrained over the next few weeks on account of the move.
For as scary as things may be, try to find some room for hope. I’ve made a point of it, and I hope you can too. Hope is the only way we’ll push through the Dark together. And, together, I hope you’ll join me for Volume 6(5.5?): Cronos.
There’ll be a lot of Dark to push through in it.
- Ceno