Delay

Honk honk,

Sorry for not releasing a chapter this week, I was slightly troubled by the unknown about where the sequel should head. The final chapter features scenes with antagonists to highlight Slade's progress, but I was unsure which ones to use.

For the current story, Griscent acted as the main antagonist and filled many symbolic purposes, such as being Tannhauser's Venus or the threshold to adulthood. Honestly, I knew from the start I wanted to feature a beholder shooting a big ass laser. But so far, my vague ideas for the sequel had pretty weak thematic antagonists.

(I actually drew this picture almost before writing)

So I mulled over the week, finding many ideas. I'll share it with you, so you guys

Spoilers

The prequel was about revealing eudaimonia (Hope), the hidden path in the jungle of hedonia (Rampant Lust).

I wanted the sequel to dig deeper into eudaimonia and reveal that this path is riddled with hindrance, pain, and discomfort (Haunting Anguish).

If you have a balanced life or try to achieve something on your own, you probably cannot enjoy every single second of it because it’s bigger than the narrow ego. How to deal with those pebbles on the road? Do we try to overcome pain? Do we take a detour in hedonia?

So here are the antagonistic forces I came up with:

Lorely - the spoiling mother

She defends the idea to answer one's urges by being the over-protecting mother, shielding all pain and uncomfort.

While she has been portrayed positively until now, she will incarnate overbearing, misguided benevolence.

It’s in some way similar to Griscent’s deal, but without actively clashing with eudaimonia. While Griscent is the test and threshold to adulthood, Lorely is regression and reversion. She's always present and she must be accepted and integrated. It's a constant temptation or needs to veer off the objective. But maybe, some of these temptations are justified.

I wanted to expose her darker side: unhealthy relationship with Violet, her over-controlling tendencies, and the outburst of emotions when she’s cornered (like she feels like she’s bending herself for others but nobody gives a shit). In particular, she played a very big role in putting expectations on Violet and spoiling her with hedonistic treats.

In the following picture, Slade and the young gnolls requests training from Lorely, the highest level rook available. Feeling that she's half-assing the job and treating them like babies, they attempt to convince Lorely to actually teach useful things. Lorely snaps from the trauma and fear of battle. She reveals that she think the gnolls and Slade are unfit for battle, and should quietly sit back while leaving the work to the rooks and their pawn army.

She shows off the unbridgeable gap between their strength, and hammer the gnoll's fear with the idea that many entities are far more powerful than her.

The elven rook - the cruel father (no name yet)

He stands for the idea of discipline.

Rampart is a rebellious, anarchical faction of people living in constant guerilla warfare in their forests. The elven rook runs a private security company in Grimwood, an independant pocket of Rampart territory that can easily flank the Fortress if they advance too far in the North East.

Attracted by profit, he sent his employees snatch the fleeing gnolls to enslave them and sell them. But they are defeated in the final chapter (69) of the prequel. After scouting, he learns about Holloweye and raids it for slaves.

He’ll stand as Lorely’s antithesis of letting people face suffering, sometimes with delightful cruelty. He represents the stoic mind embracing negative emotions and channels its energy to propel itself forward. To let the raging pain of life freely seep into our being and become our strength. As darkness taints our actions, it can lead to evil. But emotions and the needs at the root of pain and discomfort are amoral and not to be ignored.

In the following picture, he easily faces a desperate Slade while the newly reconstructed gnoll huts are attacked by centaur pawns. "While Slade spent his time sucking his mommy's titties, thatt guy crawled through hell to claim the victory."

Gnoll as foils

Slade underwent a heavy character change in the prequel. I need blank sheets of immature characters to allow new readers to enjoy a sense of progress.

It’s one thing to rule through fear and authority with the golem, but Metiva’s clan still has lost the favor and faith of the tribe. In order to regain their trust, Slade must show his ability to lead gnolls and release their full potential. Forming a clique composed of a few female gnolls and Metiva’s male harem, Slade has to train them and pass the rites of adulthood.

However, obeying a weaker gnoll isn’t really in their culture, especially testosterone filled young gnolls.

These young gnolls accompany Slade in this journey to maturity, to seek the balance between the two extremes (Lorely and Elven rook).

Dryad as naive newcomer

Again, I need to expose Violet's towns to new readers. A pair of dryad attracted by Violet's mana lingering in her waste serve as surrogate for readers.

There is an older mature dryad babysitting a precious young treant seed.

The treant seed loves exploring but she's fated to fuse with a tree with little mobility. Her eudaimonia is conflicting with her responsibilities from her birth.



Thank you

That's all my ideas so far. With all that said, I'm more confident to tackle the final chapters of the prequel thanks to those thematic directions.

I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Thank you,

OwOtrucked