Been working like mad on my latest work which is a book series set in the Wizards of the Coasts' Dungeons and Dragons world of the 3.0 and 3.5 core rulebooks of the Player's Handbook, Monster Manuals 1 - 5, and the Dungeon Masters' Guide. I have called the first book in the series Swan and the first 21 chapters are listed on www.fanstory.com under the user name of sylvernyght. For those of you that wish to read this work, please be fairly warned: the books in this series are NOT meant for kids. They get graphic in violence, language and sex. Particularly in violence and sex because there is a scene of the graphic rape of a minor  in Chapter Nine, "The Madness of Ryxs," and a graphic love scene between the two main-ish characters, Galaukiir Amanodel and Valanthe Galanodel, in Chapter 16, "Hyln Village". Just so you know, I am not including the rape of Arn Stormwynd as a form of entertainment. It is merely a means to show what causes her behavior in later chapters in the book and in the rest of the series as well.

The love scene is meant to draw readers closer to the two Elves as well. One rule of writing that I am just beginning to understand and appreciate is: "Write for yourself first and foremost, the audience second" and I have several friends that have gone through this kind of hellish nightmare. I will not defend my work to anyone for any reason other than to say that if you're foolish enough to read it without reading the warnings that will be published with the book series, then as far as I am concerned, you deserve the anger you may feel when reading these scenes. I don't write for kids and never have nor will I ever write for kids. I write mainly for adults and by that I mean people that are 30 years old or older. Basically, people that are mature emotionally enough to realize that this isn't supposed to be entertaining. It is meant to drive the story forward and get the reader to feel for the plight of Arn and the love between Galaukiir and Valanthe and nothing more or less.

I am having trouble with Chapter 22 in that I am trying to decide exactly how to explain that Einasze, a half human half fiend fighter is related to Arn. Arn is her sister and neither of them have ever met each other. As far as Einasze knows, prior to Chapter 21, "Shadows of the Past", she's an only child. Now she has met the ghost of her mother, Maeryn, and her mother shows her images of the past from Einasze's birth and various events in her life that reveal to the girl that she has a sister. Later in the story, we will learn why and, possibly, how Maeryn managed to slow Arn's aging down so that Einasze will be the older of the two. In the book, Einasze is almost 18 and Arn is fifteen when they should be the same age because the two of them are supposed to be twins.

For those that wanted to know, Arn is the current wielder of the Sword of Ryxs, which is both a cursed weapon and a possessed weapon as well. In the sapphire embedded within the cross guard of the sword are three souls. One belonging to the original wielder of the weapon, one that belongs to the Elven prince that the original wielder murdered and the final one belonging to the Elven maiden that the wielder fell in love with, was rejected by, and also murdered. Basically anyone, male or female, that uses the sword is cursed to become the original wielder psychologically pretty much whenever the soul of this guy wants out and they are also driven totally bat-shit crazy because of this. To prevent the soul of the sword from taking over Arn, a sorceress in the King's City gives to her every week, a quartz crystal that is enchanted to absorb at least some of the evil of the weapon. When it turns jet black, Arn must replace the crystal with a new one or be driven mad with blood lust and wanton violence as well as a deep hatred of all those of Elven blood, even the Drow.

According to Elven legends the only thing even have a chance to defeat the cursed weapon is the enchanted ring that the Elven maiden was wearing at the time of her death, now called the Mourn. But only an Elf female can wear it or even use it without being cursed by its grief that it carries within it. I am also having a little trouble is showing the relationship Einasze has with her demon father, a currently unnamed Balor that is second only to the Demon Prince of Undeath himself, Orcus. In Chapter 22, yet to be titled at the time of this blog, the Balor tries to sort of seduce Einasze to the paths of evil through the spirit of her dead mother by bringing the girl into the shadows' shadows and once there, he will corrupt her and destroy every last trace of her good side, thus paving the way for the demons to enter the mortal Material Plane. The basic gist of the whole series is:

What happens when Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath, finally kills Gra'azt the Dark Prince and Demogorgon the Mad (as far as I know he doesn't actually have a title so this simply my assignment to his character). Demogorgon is a two headed demon and both heads have their own personalities and both want to destroy the other, but neither realizes that the destruction of one means the death of both. Anyway, I also wanted to address the issue of what happens if Orcus kills Lolth, the demonic patron of the Drow and does so in a way that she can never, ever be reborn as was done by R.A. Salvatore in the War of the Spider Queen series that he wrote as well as what will happen when Orcus destroys all the devils of the Nine Hells? Basically it's going to be total and complete chaos! Whoot! So back to writing....