Tuesday 13 March 2012

Altmortis Begins

Unfortunately Bane of Souls is taking rather longer to get released than I’d hoped. It feels like a date where I get back to the girl’s house, she’s waiting in bed and I’ve managed to lock myself in the bathroom.

And so I climb through the bathroom window and find myself getting stuck into her sister, as it were.

Altmortis is the book which follows Bane of Souls. There are some characters that are in both (I won’t say who, as Bane of Souls has a relatively high death toll and I don’t want to mark anyone as safe) and a couple of new faces. It’s set in the Kuhrland, which is a kind of Germanic/Gothic/Viking realm. No kings or lords, and only a few Godi and elders who handle legal and ritual matters.

The theme of the book will be revenge, whether it’s really a good thing to attain and whether lusting for it might cause harm to the vengeful as well as those that wronged the victim to start with. Hopefully it’ll be interesting to write and read about the corruption of a man’s heart as he’s torn between rightful restitution and murderous retribution.

Unlike Bane of Souls, which has tons of magic, there’ll be almost none in Altmortis. This is largely because the Kuhrisch almost never have any talent for it. Because of that and the overarching theme of the book it’ll be a somewhat grimmer and grittier affair. The death toll will be smaller, although that’s largely because of the smaller cast list.

Got quite a bit of good background stuff done which helps, and there are a few scenes of particular violence and fantastical happenings that I’m really looking forward to writing. It’s always a bit weird getting back into the swing of first drafts after redrafting something several times and writing only little scenes and paragraphs, but I’m doing ok so far.

With luck, Bane of Souls won’t be too much longer. The lock on the bathroom door can only take so much hammering.

Thaddeus

6 comments:

  1. "It feels like a date where I get back to the girl’s house, she’s waiting in bed and I’ve managed to lock myself in the bathroom.
    And so I climb through the bathroom window and find myself getting stuck into her sister"

    Good heavens! And to think I encourage my son to read this blog which until now has always been family friendly. "Getting stuck into her sister", indeed. I am surprised at you, Mr. Thaddeus.

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  2. Getting stuck into: become occupied with, according to ye olde Wiktionary.

    I do humbly apologise if you feel I've let Son of Llama down. Out of interest, how old is he?

    Oh, and cheers for thrashing him with a cane every day he doesn't read my blog.

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  3. Actually he is 18, a karate brown belt and is about to join the Royal Navy (he wants to be a submariner). So he is a bit past the thrashing stage. He does like his fantasy games though and so enjoys some of your posts.

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  4. Oh, yes, I remember now. He's the silly fellow who thinks Hannibal was inferior to Julius Caesar.

    Reminds me, I think that I've never actually written a post about why this is an enormously silly belief. I think I'll remedy that omission shortly.

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  5. Apologies for forgetting this before, but best of luck to him.

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  6. "He's the silly fellow who thinks Hannibal was inferior to Julius Caesar."

    He is indeed one of a large body of well-read individuals who think that Hannibal was a loser - not least because Hannibal lost.

    I look forward with keen anticipation to your post in which you explain how losing, that is being a loser, actually makes a man a greater general than a man who always won.

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