Raithe

Seeing the announcement about PoE2 pre-order times, makes me feel I really should try and carve out some time to do that replay of PoE and finally get around to playing the White Marches....

Re-reading Michelle West's House War. If you like epic fantasy types of story, definitely worth a read, but it is a bit of an investment slog. To be fair, it's actually several different series that all intersect in the same universe. The Sacred Hunt Duology was published first: "The Kingdom of Breodanir is facing a threat unlike any seen for centuries. An orphan boy and his adopted brother struggle against the ties that bind them together (and to their land) as they complete an impossible journey to save the world - at the risk of their own destruction. These are the first books set in the Essalieyan universe to be published." Then you had The Sun Sword sexalogy : "Sixteen years after the events of The Sacred Hunt, the Empire of Essalieyan and the Dominion of Annagar are at war due to machinations of the Kialli. The resulting struggle for power will define the lives of those who would bring an end to the Kialli threat. Events laid out in The Sacred Hunt are referenced, but are not necessary to follow the story." Now, here's where it gets.. quirky, as mentioned, events from The Sacred Hunt are referenced, but...it basically tells a slice of the story or rather, a particular story revolving around several characters as the Kialli (basically a form of fallen angel / demons) manipulate events so the Demon-God has managed to return to the mortal plane and is unfolding his manipulations. Now, while the principle story is begun and finished, it doesn't actually involve the defeat of the mentioned Demon-God, just.. that part of the story. And, partway through the plot, a bunch of secondary characters are brought in with various subplots and accompanying movements. A bunch of those movements are not wrapped up in these six books. It actually makes it feel like a living, breathing universe in some ways because of that. So, complicated, sprawling, 6 book fantasy epic laid out, with references to a two-part semi-epic and expanding on elements presented there. Then you have the (as yet) unfinished House War series where it gets a touch complicated. The first three books in this series are actually prequels of a sort. They tell the story of how one of those secondary characters in the Sun Sword series grew up and ended up in the position they did, plus in part, how the Demon-God managed to escape the Hells and come ot the mortal plane. Then the rest of the series picks up in the aftermath of the Sun Sword series weaving elements from that into everything else and starts moving those unfinished subplots into major plotlines and how it all snowballs together and onwards. It might sound awkward, but it works surprisingly well at weaving all those elements in together, showing how the viewpoints can shift, and seeing characters evolve over decades, at how what might be minor subplots to one group of people turn out to be major things occuring elsewhere. Lots of little butterfly wings causing tornado's as it were.

Caught Bright with some friends tonight. It's a fun enough movie, Will Smith pretty much plays aging, cynical Will Smith. But it really did feel like a very high budget pilot episode for some potential tv show. Or maybe that's just my Alien Nation nostalgia kicking in.

Heh. Liam Neeson on why he can never watch the 50 Shades of Grey movies - "I used to know Dakota's mum, so years ago, I used to swing Dakota around when she was a child and give her piggy back rides. So, yeah, those are movies I'm never going to be able to sit down and see."

For the counter-balance of crappy world news; Pope Francis marries couple of Flight Attendents on his plane

Just because they're not needed, doesn't mean they shouldn't be given. Condolences, and may the memories stay strong.

Quote for the Day: "I agree that single-name bad guys are more awesome, like Sauron, Ganondorf, Loki, and Madonna."

Got an email from Profantasy "Unfortunately, that version of CC2 is so old, that our system does not offer an automatic upgrade option. Here's a voucher for £5 off." Pondering on whether my urge to be creative in this manner is worth spending the money on some of the value packages they do. Although I do have to kind of blink that it's £400+ for the full bundle of mapdrawing software. I don't think I'll be going that extreme no matter what.

Finished off the final draft of my research paper outline, now going to let it settle overnight before looking at it again. Got distracted looking at some fantasy art, and started rough sketching out some floor plans and general ideas, which got me curious into looking up some suitable software to do it on the pc as well as by hand, which led me to the Campaign Cartographer site. Then noticed they had CC3+ "upgrade from earlier versions" and remember that about 20 years ago I did actually pick up a copy of CC2 for DnD purposes. Although that was back in the day you got it delivered as a CD by post rather than order and download online, so out of curiousity I've emailed them with my serial number and a "Hey, does this 20 year old copy count for the free upgrade to current version?". I'll be somewhat amused to see what response I get.

"And I looked, and behold a pink flamingo. And his name that sat on him was Death" "Just lovin life. lol. Nah, jokes. Lookin to reap some peeps this summer. If ur gonna make dumb decisions in the water, I’ll be waiting. Holla! "