Court Wizard fixed-ish.(UPDATE)

It's still in beta, but I replaced two repeated chapters (12 and 13) and handled a couple of glaring errors.  

Let me know what you think.  This post CAN contain spoilers.

SPOILERS!



Update: More updates to come.  Early readers, please feel free to share any corrections or continuity issues with me here, or (if you prefer) email me at tmancour@gmail.com.  (UPDATE ON UPDATE: Just published the third set of corrections, so far).

There are very good reasons why I released it when I did, in this condition, and I'll explore some of them in a post next week.  Right now I just want to finish the "sanding".  If you prefer a better-edited version, then I urge you to wait until August 1st when the final edit will be done and published.

The feedback on the story is helpful, though.  Let me know what you think.  And I'll answer a few questions about your concerns as we go.

Thanks for your patience.  All will be made clear in time.

(That's what a good wizard would say.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HP4W7JA#navbar

Comments

  1. Hi Terry, just bought the book. Thank you. The amazon description says book 9.

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  3. I think there's a similar problem with chapters 35 and 36

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    1. Too many comments go through bit did anyone catch where Penny claims to have been to Nathaniel? She never made the trip upriver, she stayed behind to crack the frozen river spell.

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  5. Wow. I waited until yesterday to buy the book, I didn’t think I would here first. As I read, I made a list.
    1: the following chapters are repeats. 1=2, 9&10=12&13,35=36
    2: Penny Tells min about brandmount hall about a chapter before she actually becomes aware of the place
    3: Azar is not the head of the horkan order. He is Comander of the North, Under Knight Commander Terlemen (who later complains that he is unemployed), who himself is under Lord Commander Min
    4: In Enchanter Vemas says that the wood owls “Wage a nightly war with hundreds” the brotherhood as displayed in this book is not that large
    5: Carmella is Magelord of Salik Tower, not Anguin Tower.
    6: Penny Tells Min that she has told Arborn about Ishi, when she does not actually tell him until ishi’s night
    These are just the plotholes and mistakes. I have a lot more to say on the story itself

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    1. Aaron, thanks for your oversight. I'm working on some of these now. I appreciate your patience and your attention to detail.

      1. Amending the repetition now.
      2. Fixing the continuity with Brandmont/Spellmongers Hall.
      3. Azar is now the "operational head" of the order, while Min still is technically the head. In actuality, Bendonal the Outlaw does most of the parchmentwork. Terleman got fired as Knight Commander by Rard, after the treaty (updated in book). While he's technically still one of the heads of the order, he's mostly been acting as the head of the Kingdom's magical corps, and not as involved with the Horkans. This is about to change in a big way.
      4. Vemas was exaggerating, as a courtier sometimes does, to impress a bigwig. There are about a 120 total Rats in Vorone at the beginning of the book, plus another 100 or so free-lance thugs they can hire as auxiliaries. But yeah, Vemas was inflating numbers. It's been known to happen in a bureaucracy.
      5. You're right. Fixed.
      6. Also right. Also fixed. She meant to tell Arborn, already, she just hadn't gotten a chance or figured out a way to do it.

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    2. ummmm..... I didn't think Rard had the authority to fire Terl from positions in the Arcane Orders, politimagical divide and all that. Fire him as head of the Royal Magical Corps, Certainly, but not his order positions

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    3. The Arcane Orders are still in a bit of flux, when it comes to institutional positions. Knight Commander was designed specifically for the goblins' attack, and was the liaison/head of magical corps to the mundane forces. He got fired the same time as Salgo.

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    4. Is this part about Terl being fired going to be fixed in the previous books later?

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  6. As for the actual story, this was a rather interesting mixture of political and social intrigue. I mean sure the story of the Rise of Anguin and the restoration of Vorone was decent, and Penny’s deliberations on her marriage were genuinely compelling. But for an admirer of worldbuilding like me, the real meat of the story were 3 new additions to cannon.
    1: the injection of Antimei’s prophecies into the plot. Not so sure if it’s a good idea. Prophecy is tricky business in fantasy if your not doing the standard “Prophesized chosen one” Route, but….you seem aware of that already so I will give you the benefit of the doubt on that one. You haven’t let me down yet
    2: Pentandra’s splendid expose on the motives of the Alka Alon and their various levels of responsibility for the “abominations”
    3: the heaping of even more significance on the Aronin of Amadia and his daughter. This remains one of the most puzzling part of the series for me, as so much of what was in that first book does not support what we are now told they were. If the Aronin was the keeper of this Armageddon Arsenal, why didn’t he unleash it when he realized what he faced?
    I am also intrigued by what Rardine’s kidnapping means for the overall plot. I can’t wait to see how the experience alters her character. I’m hoping that she emerges from this ordeal as far less of an evil bitch.

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    1. 1. I'm not sure if its a good idea, either, but we'll find out. I have a plan. Really.
      2. Oh, my yes. Pentandra has been suspicious of the Alka Alon from the beginning, with good reason. And it is not just the Enshadowed who are at fault.
      3. This is reflected by the dramatically imperfect understanding all humans, even educated magi, have of the Alka Alon after four hundred years of light contact. The Aronin didn't unleash the arsenal because it was not handy, easy to get to, and he was prohibited by vow to open it without certain conditions being met. Unrevealed so far are the instructions he gave Ameras before he went to face Shereul. They didn't just use a self-storage place to keep this stuff, it's better concealed and guarded than Korbal's tomb.
      And Rardine's kidnapping is going to be essential to the overall plot . . . and expanded more in Shadowmage, as T&R just happen to be in town when she's in transit through Enultramar. Her attempted rescue is the foundation for the plot of Necromancer. And the reaction of the Royal family to her kidnapping will be instrumental in the political development of the kingdom.

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    2. NECROMANCER???!!!!

      So you are going to write a book from a perspective other than the title character! after all, I doubt that story will be told from the perspective of Korbal...

      I wasn't just talking about the arsenal thing. Amadia has been a source of plot inconsistency since warmage, when you first started contradicting the lore that Ameras told Minalan.

      On a different note, why was it important for min to drink the mead? I know he'll find the written account of the "Spellmonger's Honeymoon" story, but most of what he learned there was about the true nature of the gods...which he now knows about anyway. And the Enshadowed are already after him for the alaran stone, so the addition of the blood oath of vengeance is also kind of superfluous.... so why "Drink the Mead"

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    3. Re: Amadia: that's because the Alka Alon are concealing the true nature of their involvement in humanities affairs. They're trying to be nice about it, but just because they're acting in humanity's interest doesn't mean that they aren't also protecting their own interests . . . and telling the ephemeral humans whatever they need to hear.

      And yeah, Drink the Mead becomes very, very important. For Alya.

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    4. Really? I could buy that they told min they believed in the human gods to "tell them what they needed to hear" but there was no utility in telling him an apparently false history where all non-human races other than seafolk and trolls were mutated alka

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    5. Hm, I had forgotten that they had found a way around the mind wipe through the mead... so if she drinks it, it would possibly bring back those memories, and give a basis on which to restore the others. I mean, when you are unravelling a ball of twine, you do first have to find one of the ends, right?

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    6. the mead isnt a magical rememeberall. If I remember correctly, sealed in with the mead is a written account of the entire adventure. It will not help alya with her current problem

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    7. I haven't reread Spellmonger's honeymoon in a while, but given that Alya's memories are jumbled, perhaps the Alka memory loss spell failing when the written account is read to her, which I believe was the parameters of the spell, her memories will fall back into place.

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    8. It will tell minilan that his problem is able to be solved by ithalias grandmother... as she is good with fixing people's memories and such...

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    9. It will tell minilan that his problem is able to be solved by ithalias grandmother... as she is good with fixing people's memories and such...

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  7. I only have 2 real complaints, and then I can get to the gushing about all the parts I loved.
    First: Queen Grendine has been built up as this sinister master of shadowy manipulation. The subtle hand that ensures convenient accidents befall the people who speak out of turn…. But between the “letter” she sent anguin, and Countess Shirilin, she came off as about as subtle and manipulative as a freaking Cavalry charge. I thought the family who specialized in Female spies could produce an agent smart enough to avoid making some of the mistakes Shirilin made, some of wich were so obvious that I (a dude) could see how bad they were before penny even explained!
    2: Ishi is supposed to be the god of Sex, Love, and Beauty. But as portrayed here, she could not possibly be that goddess. This Ishi is the goddess of female Sexuality. NOTHING ELSE. Honestly I got that impression from her conduct by the snowflake in Enchanter, but it was confirmed here. All that talk about marriage Ruining Penny doesn’t make sense coming from a goddess of love. And to be honest, towards the end, especially in her last chapter, she started to come off as a man hater. I hate to use the….ahem….Other F word on the internet, as even mentioning it usually sparks a flame war but….yeah. What was up with that?

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    1. Good points: Grendine, like most other power players, was caught completely off guard by Anguin's move, largely thanks to the obfuscation and misdirection of his advisors and Minalan. When presented with a fait acompli, she did her best to do damage control (Shirlin and Rardine) while she gathered more information. She got caught flat-footed, and has to play catch-up. She is very unhappy about this, as will be seen. Shirlin is actually not a spy, per se, just an observer. The spies are in her retinue, and they're reporting stuff back to Grendine. Promise.
      2. The distinction lies in how Ishi was manifested: think of this aspect of her as Opportunistic Femininity taken to its logical extreme. She has other aspects who are far more conciliatory, but the one who Min got stuck with is a bit of a . . . wild woman. And one who has her own messed-up agenda in this aspect. This will eventually be addressed in a future book (probably Theurge) but for now, it is purposefully written that way. The struggle between raw female sexuality (Ishi) and refined female sexuality (Trygg) was introduced in this volume, but it will be explored and expanded in a future book. Sorry, that's the best I can do right now.

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    2. Shadowmage, Necromancer, Theurge.... You are really ambitious. I like that

      given the trend, and the bits of worldbuilding in Enchanter I'm going to go ahead and assume one of the books is Seamage, Probably another one would be Thaumaturge (I'd be just as happy if that one were about Taren then Min), maybe throw in a short story about Olmeg(green Mage).

      I just have one question? is there going to be a book called Pyromancer? I usually end up RPing as a Pyromancer in D&D... In fact I modeled my last character off of Min, and he ended up using almost exclusively fire spells. Maybe about Azar??? I WOULD LOVE TO SPEND A BOOK INSIDE AZAR'S HEAD

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    3. The series is plotted for 30 books, not counting the YA cadet series and various short stories. I got tired of fantasy series that just petered out after the first dozen books or so. Seamage is already in concept (with my youngest son) featuring Ruderal - it's a YA cadet novel, but it will add to the plot. Theurge will feature a new character. Necromancer will be, of course, about Korbal, but it will also be about how Min learns necromancy. Or at least enough to fake it.

      Heh. And I might have to do one from Azar's perspective, especially after what happens to him in Necromancer. Pyromancer might be a good direction to go with that . . .

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    4. Wouldn't a more appropriate title be Theomomancer rather than Pyromancer. Given that the study of Fire, Temperature etc is Thermomantics in these books?

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    5. dude, this is a coolness factor thing. For as long as I've been involved with Fantasy RPGs, tabletop, videogame or otherwise, The magical study of fire is Pyromancy, and the wizard who specializes in burni-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Azar: making a room a few degrees cooler in the summer because some pansy can't take the heat? Thats thermomantics......but what I just did to him? That was PYROMANCY!

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  8. Oh and 1 last thing?

    Why on earth did you release the book in this state when you could just put out a call for one or two fans to be proofreaders?
    I assure you, fans like me would happily do that sort of thing for free... Hell thats what I'm doing right freaking now

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    1. Your ire is noted . . . and will be explained in next week's post on the subject. Not excused, explained.

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    2. Ire? I'm not really mad, just a little confused that your not taking advantage of free labour.

      Its kind of like the wizards in Enchanter who agreed to do drudge enchanting with Irionite in exchange for 1 hour of personal use

      I would gladly submit to the work of finding every single solitary spelling error and timeline misstep and plot-hole for free if it meant getting the book early

      but I'm sorry if I gave the impression that Im mad about it.

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    3. Don't sweat it, Aaron, if you were you'd have a right to be. For the record, I do have a couple of fans and a paid editor who helps, but for this one I had to hurry, for commercial and marketing reasons. And because I'm already behind my schedule by 3 months.

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  9. Better in the the state it was in than having to wait another minute. But would have liked to see the fight with dragon.

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    1. That's probably going to be told from the direction of the two rascals in shadowmage.

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    2. I'm with you on the first bit, regardless of my other comments.

      The second.... eehhh if you read between the lines, it wasn't really a fight. The Dragon demolished the ducal palace. I'd be more interested in the the duke's reaction than the fight.

      as for Matt Ruby... I had always assumed that shadowmage would continue the tradition of telling the story from the perspective of the mage described by the Title of the book. The shadowmage himself (a little weird since we were not told of one shadowmage but a whole family of them)

      still, whether they are the narrators or not, I definitely want more details about Tyn and Rons notoriously destructive Rat hunts in sunny Enultramar.

      Every time they describe one of their escapades that happened "offscreen" I feel like the kid who was too sick to go on the mega-super-awesome-school trip

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    3. Then you will be quite pleased with Shadowmage. It's designed to appeal to the 16 year old boy in all of us. It has as much blood and gore and cool magic in it as Court Wizard had meetings. To give you a hint, I'm taking a lot of inspiration from a certain shared-world port city of yore.

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    4. I'm afraid that reference flew right over my head...are you talking about another series, or one of the real Caribbean Pirate havens from the golden age of Piracy

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    5. No problem. Enultramar is based, very loosely and more in feel and tone than anything else, on the Sanctuary anthologies from back in the 80s.

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    6. Thieves' World! Yes.... very much yes. I've the entire collection. Depressing and gritty as heck yet it draws you in.

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  10. How do I get the updated version?

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  11. Bought the book yesterday and I'm only on Chapter 3. I hid my eyes from the spoilers up top. Awesome so far! Thank you Terry!

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  12. Hey terry? If I recall correctly, Hawkmaiden was actually supposed to come out BEFORE court wizard, along with some short stories that have been in the pipeline... do you think they'll be out before the holidays?

    Yes I know how ungrateful and greedy I sound. In my defense, I know their not going to come out next week. I just want to know if you can say if they'll be ready this year or not

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    1. Hawkmaiden is already out, HawkLADY is in the pipe for next. The third book in the YA series will be Skyrider, probably for next year. It will come out before Shadowmage (probably) and after my Super Secret Project #1. And I've been working on the shorts, occasionally, but CW was a lot of work.

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    2. Really? Skyrider not Hawkmage?

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    3. Hawkmage would be much less cool, and also wrong. she is a mage of a lot more than hawks

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  13. Ooohhh yeah one other thing. I think I speak for nerds everywhere when I say that I really hope the idea that the undead can be repelled with wild Orgies catches on. It would make Table-top role playing games so much more......Interesting.

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  14. Well, finished the book last night, and it was great. Though, that Alka Alon reveal... They really screwed up, huh? I mean, they tried to blame the Dead God on humanity, when that was at best, like, 5% human's fault. And now they got caught out lying about how nice they are, even the Kasari might lose a little trust in them now.

    And poor Min, still recovering from losing Alya. Though the hints about what might happen to Alya were interesting, since it implies that even if they manage to recover her, she won't be the same as she was before.

    Also, great to see another sane and useful goddess, even if she hasn't been made permanent yet. She definitely had the wise mother thing down, and is probably even more powerful than Ishi is, considering how many more worshipers she has. I do wonder if the reason she refused to be made permanent is because she wants to be invoked by Min before she stays. Especially after Min saying that the gods seem to just like him, that with the prophecies all claiming he is super important to humanity, implies that he can incarnate them in special ways, or that his perception of them is normal enough that when they incarnate, they can actually get things done.

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    1. gonna disagree with you there. I think the Alka Alon and Humans can go halfsies on the blame for Sheruel.

      The Alon shared the knowledge that allowed him to be created. But the motivations of Sheruel, and the reason he is dead in the first place? thats on us. I mean come on, if the Alshari hadn't shafted the Gurvani worse than the European settlers shafted the native americans, there would be no need for a genocidal dark lord

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    2. His motivations wouldn't have mattered if he was never revived. His revival caused him to aim for humanity, but its not like he was the only goblin to ever dislike humanity. There were tons of other figures that might have gone genocidal on humans, and many with more reason to do so. I mean, the dead god wants to kill humans based on what a small number of them did, which they had done against the morals of their own society.

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  15. Oh and to revisit an old complaint of mine...
    When are we going to start seeing the Snowflake/celestial mother in the story? every time this book talks about how cool the paraclete in Everkeen was, all I was thinking was

    "If this is what an elaborate dick joke can do, then how awesome is the snowflake gonna be?"

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    1. well, it is still charging up. It will probably be semi-functional by the time they hit the city of rainbows, but it still lacks a power source IIRC. and since they said they would need several pounds of ironite to power it...

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    2. She's coming. Expect to start to see her wake up in Necromancer.

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    3. Yay, though considering Antimei said that the Dead God's defeat would be the least of his victories, I doubt that it will mean that her waking up will mean instant win over everything else, even if she is the most powerful enchantment ever devised. Sounds like the Dead God is just a minor threat, as compared to the rest of the world. And considering he can warp the fabric of reality through his mere presence...

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    4. Greg Stritar Im a little curious about that myself.

      Necromancer is the one right after shadowmage right?

      is that also when we go back to Minalan's first-person perspective stories?

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    5. Yes, Necromancer will be back to Min's perspective. Shadowmage will be from T&R's perspectives.

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    6. Yes, Necromancer will be back to Min's perspective. Shadowmage will be from T&R's perspectives.

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    7. @Greg Stritar
      I don't really think we should underestimate Sheruel. I get the feeling it’s the Enshadowed who are the ones being used not the Dead God - despite what they may think to the contrary. Korbal is definitely the most dangerous and frightening of the two once he gets powered up and as things stand and I know what Onranion believes (although I think Onranion has the cultural Alka blind spot where this may be concerned 1 – but I think Sheruel has a lot more potential than we have seen so far. After all we don’t really know a huge amount about what he can do – we have only had a glimpse from the confrontation at the end of the first book.

      Given the massive level of power he has and his obsession with the Molopor my guess is that Sheruel is Evolving - possibly in power but definitely in complexity and sophistication. I would also point out that he also has that Massive encyclopaedia or Ancient Gurvani Magic. Who here thinks he's doing what Min is - rediscovering the ancient might or his magical ancestors and likely improving the overall magical might and sophistication of his priests while he's at it.

      @Terry Mancour - Given how useful they obviously are we now going to see Min add a Paraclete to Blizzard? And will we start to see more of the personality of the Paraclete in Min's staff?

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    8. @Dark Prophet

      Oh, my, yes. Between Everkeen and Warmaster, Min is starting to see the distinct advantages - and power - implicit in using an advanced paraclete. But he's also a) wary of putting an unknown creature into a powerful tool, as well he should be and b) a fussy perfectionist when it comes to such things. He doesn't want any ol' paraclete . . . he wants the most useful and bad-ass paraclete he can find. In order to be able to make that distinction, however, he's going to have to learn an awful lot about an obscure and forbidden area of thaumaturgy concerning such things. Like, y'know, Necromancy.

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    9. question: will shadowmage advance the plot further, semi like court mage or just something which already happened in another perspective?

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    10. @Dark Prophet Oh, I'm definitely not saying that beating him will be easy or fun. I also think that you are right about the Enshadowed are massively underestimating Sheruel, since that seems to be a pretty common thing for the Alka in general. What I was trying to say was that the Dead God is not the final boss of the story, and that are far, far more powerful beings that Min is going to end up fighting.

      Also, will be fun to see what kind of paraclete that Min throws in his staff. If the Ghost Rock has something as awesome as a celestial mother in it, what other kinds of insanely powerful and awesome creatures touched it?

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    12. I was under the impression that blizzard's paraclete was the celestial mother, since they are already connected via sympathy stone

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  16. your super secret project wouldnt happen to be Donald Trumps commencement now would it? :D
    now that would be some seriously classy magic :D

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    2. Can't we leave real world politics out of this - I don't think it will lead anywhere good.

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  17. I'm ready to read shadowmage already, this constant waiting is killing me

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  19. Terry, since we are discussing the snowflake, I assume that mins connection to it is going to have some unforseen side effects. I believe that it will change him into something no entirely human just on the basis that I don't think a humanind and body can handle the degree of power and complexity of a connection to the mother.

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    1. Not without a great deal of "compromise", no. Some mediating force or agent is needed to protect the human mind, otherwise extended use is a quick trip to madness. Not even an Alka Alon, who have a more sophisticated neural architecture, could handle that for an extended period.

      Which is why the events in Necromancer are so important.

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    2. Min was only connect to the CM for the brief period during her "installation" as described in Enchanter. Clearly he still maintains some connection to the CM since it warned him about mask, but it seams to me that that was either the last fading remnants of the transfer, and is gone now, or he does have a permanent connection, but it is just a small limited enough one for his mind to handle it

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    3. also, are we gonna hear more about Mask's backstory? Loiko Venaren struck me as a character worthy of more development

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    4. We will definitely see more of Mask's backstory, why she chose the side she did, and what her upset daddy does about it. It's one of those situations where no one wins, but everyone might get something out of the deal if they try real hard.

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    5. Okay... i have to ask, will min get his own dragon...i know its cliche but the dragons in this story are utter bad-asses.

      Min needs an epic steed. It goes with being the future archmage/demi god

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    6. Does it have to be a real dragon. They have started building Golems now as well. Bring on the Magical Golem Dragon. Or Grifeen - or other mythological beast.

      On that line of thought though are we going to start seeing more permanent and sophisticated - and numberous golem constructs. The only ones who built them so far are Rondal and Tyndal

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    7. *Edit
      To clarify I mean as a more permanent fixture in the armies protecting the Penumbra. Something to even out the mismatch of the Trolls.

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    8. I just re-read Magelord and noticed that Mask was imprisoned by the censorate at one stage. Makes me wonder why she went to the "darkside" - I would have thought she'd been over the moon with the overthrow of the old order.

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  20. i just noticed something about sir durandel:
    eary in the book it was said he would take over some of baron edmarins estates but during the festival (where min also attended) he was described in disfavour

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    1. Both are correct. As the former head of intelligence, he is looked upon with suspicion by many in court. But he's also competent, reasonably loyal, and he has some connections left. Viscountess Threanas and some of the older members of court are the ones who don't see him in a positive light. That taint remains even after he's invested as a baron.

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  21. One of the earlier posts about A paraclete for Blizzard gave me an idea.

    The celestial mother was a massive creature whos consciousness shaped the lives of thousands of other lesser life forms, essentially controlling an ecosystem like a conductor would an orchestra. Thats what made her complex enough to handle the snowflake.

    and according to Ruderal, ennegrams can .....communicate somehow if you know how to see them like he does (look at how he describes how he knew how to find Min at the chepstan fair)

    If the CM can function in more than one place at the same time, then extensions of her ennegram could "guide" the paracletes of other magical items just like she once did for her ecosystem.

    depending on what kinds of objects she could inhabit, how many, and what kinds of things she could do with them, the possibilities are endless.

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    1. Excellent point, and one I'm exploring. Another one: not everything in the GR is friendly to the CM. Just sayin'. In some cases, eons separate the recordings.

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  22. Speaking of the Celestial Mother, How much longer until the Seafolk start showing up? From what Herus said in Enchanter, we know their going to get involved eventually

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    1. I think were gonna start seeing the Seafolk when Min starts using the Celestial Mother.

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    2. You might see them before then. It's taken enough time for the Ketta's downstream wash to reach the sea, and have them react. Of course, they might have mixed feelings about Min making a pretty piece of furniture out of one of their revered ancestors.

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  23. Oh and one other continuity error....

    In Enchanter, Warmaster was created by Master Cormoran, and not as a gift to Terleman. He created it for himself. How did Terl get it?

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    1. It was decided (I haven't written that story yet) that Warmaster was the appropriate battle staff for Terleman. Master Cormoran is a swordsman, at heart, something that will come into play at the end of Necromancer. As he is semi-retired, keeping such a magnificent weapon off the field stung him. He'd rather see Terl use it and test some theories than to see it gathering dust. But good catch. There is a lot of back-ground warmagi stuff I'll probably address in an upcoming anthology.

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  24. NB: Thought y'all might like to know this about the makeup, geography, geology and oceanography of Callidore: whereas Earth's oceans are no more than 7 miles deep, there are places in the Shallow Sea (the area of ocean directly south and east of the Five Duchies) that are more than eight miles. The deepest parts of Callidore's oceans are about 60 miles deep.

    More, that's not even the "deepest" part. In five intercrustal pockets, there is a hellish mix of sand, sulfur, volcanic debris, heavy metals, radioactives, really heavy seawater, etc. that extends a further twenty-fifty miles. These are the Deeps, and they are inhabited.

    A few other interesting things to note: Callidore has two moons, a white one about 991 miles wide, and a small greenish one about 337 miles wide, but much closer to the planet and only visible in the equatorial regions. It is not original to the planet.

    Finally, Callidore is larger in radius than Earth, about 17,600 miles wide, but has a slightly lower over-all mass due to a smaller levels of metals. It has eleven continents, five major archipelagos, numerous islands, and four major subcontinents, of which The Five Duchies is one.

    Some or all of this may be altered later, but those are the figures I've been working with.

    Hope that helps. Inspire questions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 60 miles of ocean? 60 miles of water is about 18,500 psi, or about 9 tons per square inch, if anything alive down there could reach the 4 1/2 Duchies without dying it'd be bloody unstoppable.

      If it's anything besides a microbe it'd have to have bones of titanium or be made of jelly.

      Or, as it occurred to me just now, Magic.

      Also, what's going on with the rest of the land masses? I remember a mention in perhaps the first book of a type of Alon that Minilan hadn't heard of, are they on one of those land masses?

      Does the Deep Sea contain properly Benthic Horrors? Does this prevent ships from exploring?

      Do the magi know the shape and formation of the world they live on? They seem to be able to Astral Project in some sense.

      Also, I have this theory that humans came to Callidore as an Ark Spaceship, it explains why they had all those trees and the origin of Tekka. I feel like someone might of brought it up before, but I haven't seen it.

      Delete
    2. You are not incorrect about the pressures at the bottom of the regular ocean. The Deeps only rarely connect to the regular ocean, and even less frequently with land. Where they do, the entrances are usually guarded.

      The creatures who dwell therein are, indeed, powerful, physically. And yes, they are magical, simply as a survival mechanism. Think "Cthulu" without all the ego issues. Humanity, as a seafaring people, rarely goes beyond the coastal shelf of the Shallow Sea. Beyond the ridges that lead to the Depths, where only the Leviathans, the bold and the foolhardy dare to go, are creatures who feed off of the relatively rich oceans of the Shallow Sea. These massive creatures of the Depths - Sea Folk Leviathans, aspidochelones, ketosi, hydrasaurs, kraken, strange serpents and predators of massive proportion and deadly bearing - all of these giant beasts avoid the terrors of the Deeps like minnows fleeing a shark. The few times they have escaped their hellish existence and ventured into the far more pleasant parts of Calidore, Shit Goes Down in a pretty serious way.

      This has not happened since long before the Humani came to Callidore. `

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    3. The five Ds are.... a SUBCONTINENT??? I thought a subcontinent had to connect to a real continent in at least one place. I gues I can understand why humans avoid the sea, given the last post, but why has there been no landward expansion.

      also, what part of the sea does the seafolk live in? what is there relationship with the things in the deep? Are the things in the deeps what killed the CM?

      Delete
    4. wow, ok i thought callidore was a continent
      also this sort of puts the power relationsships into perspective

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    5. "and a small greenish one about 337 miles wide, but much closer to the planet and only visible in the equatorial regions. It is not original to the planet."

      Planetoid class starship?

      Delete
    6. The Five Duchies connect to the rest of the continent via the Mindens to the west and the upper Kulines (a distinct range from the Lower Kulines). The lands on the other side of Mindens are very different, ecologically speaking, than in the 5Ds.

      The Sea Folk roam Callidore's oceans from their traditional breeding waters, feeding waters, and migration routes. There are several (about two hundred) organized pods, though the Sea Folk of the Shallow Sea are considered poor and low-status for historical reasons.

      The planetoid was, indeed, involved in transplanetary migration. It is not human in origin.

      There is a smaller subconinent settle by humans on the other side of the Shallow Sea to the east, on the other side of the (formally) central island of Perwyn. Unstara is at the farthest southern reaches of the Shallow Sea, just a few hundred miles from the Depths, and there are several archepalegos that were inhabited by humans as well.

      The Sea Folk tend to avoid the Depths, when possible, and the Deeps if at all possible. But when something ugly does rise, they are not shy about beating it back down.

      Delete
  25. Are you working on a hi-res map? I really would like to be able to zoom in on any part on my iPad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm trying. It's hard, integrating all the old material with future material, while you're still composing. But it is in process, I promise. Also, a very pretty, utterly inaccurate medieval-style map of the Kingdom will be produced, shortly, along with a short story about its reason for existence.

      Delete
  26. Wow! I became so caught up in the story I barely noticed the errors. Second read I will write down anything I think will help and post.

    The story was worth waiting for but of course now I want shadow Mage as soon as possible.

    Just a few thoughts for reflection....

    I believe Min could deduce who the human mage is that Ameras may have contact with if he put his mind to it. I have two candidates in mind myself.

    Allura is a welcome addition. The interplay between her a Pen had me chuckling on a few occassions. I would love to have that relationship developed more plus Allura and the other apprentices and former apprentices interactions. Allura would be a good candidate as a spymaster.

    Thanks for giving me hope that Alya will come back into everyone's lives. I know the character will probably change and not be her normal self but I think she will have more depth.

    Thanks again Terry. I have new theories to play with and am looking forward to the next 21 books!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alurra will be getting her own YA book, and will be a frequent character in future books.

      I'm curious as to who you think the two candidates are.

      Delete
  27. There are still so many duplications in this book. You are telling us the same thing about 6 times in the first 10 chapters. Most glaring are:

    Penta's living arrangements need to be handled once only at day 2 or 3.

    Arborn's help to Penta's efforts are introduced multiple times inconsistently.

    Lose 90% of all the name dropping, and checkpoints as they are redundant and at times conflicting.

    You have two versions of scenes still in the first 4 chapters.

    The entire chapter dealing with forming the Woodsmen is a mess. They get named off camera all of a sudden. Penta is hiding dangerous things before they even do anything but gather information, but she has already talked to him about him summoning help.

    I am struggling reading this on Kindle as I feel a need to markup the story and send you line by line corrections and suggestions on scene order.

    If you want some help with this I can take some time with a highlighter on the docx version of this and notate specifics for you to rewrite.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I haven't bought the book yet. Are you updating Kindle as you fix things? I just wanted to know if I buy the book now will it still contain the above errors.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've made three updates, so far, and will continue as I go. The final version will be done on August 1st, but if you get it before then you can update it at that time.

      Delete
  29. Awesome! Loved it! Just finished CW! Other than the obvious errors which have been mentioned in previous posts, so I won't mention those. I only have one small comment about the book CW. It would have been a nice touch, if maybe Penny randomly saw or had a run in with Lt. Randaw towards the end, to give us a feel for how the locals are with the changes. He seemed a nice sort, and it would be nice to know a loyal subject got rewarded and not forgotten. It's just a small thing, But I did find myself wondering what happen to the poor Lt. From the first chapter.

    Anyway that's all I really had to say other than I loved the book. Thanks for the early release and I'm looking forward to all the future books you've hinted at. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like that. It may come to pass in the re-write.

      Delete
  30. i just noticed but can i request a conversion table for currency?
    how much is an ounce of gold related to an ounce of silver to an penny,etc? it gets hard to compare otherwise

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  31. Have read through the book twice now. One before and one after the updates released so far.

    Really enjoyed the book overall. It was really interesting to see things from Penny's perspective for a change.

    That being said a log of work still need to be done to fix the continuity errors. The most glaring for my are:
    1. The first and second appearances by Astyral and Azar. They appear for a single scene - then disppear - then come back and have a second conversation as if the first had not occured. I think its jarring mostly because its difficult to keep track of exactly how much time has passed chapter to chapter in the book.

    2. Conversations with Planus. This whole thing still has some continuity errors. It doesn't flow correctly between what is now the first instance and the second.

    3. In Enchanter Penny tells Minalan that Arborn knows about Ishi already but in this book he doesn't find out until after the first night of the feast and Minalan departs. Also in Enchanter it says that Minalan, Alya, Penny and Arborn all retire to Penny's suite and talk until the wee hours but obviously that doesn't occur now

    ReplyDelete
  32. Question... Can a brown mage slip behind the eyes of a sea creature?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only a few importasta creatures. Many nativista creatures are immune to human brown magic. There are notable exceptions, as will become clear in time.

      And no, dragons completely resist brown magic.

      Delete
  33. Question... Can a brown mage slip behind the eyes of a sea creature?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only some, and usually those with paleoterrestrial genetic origins. But it depends on the mage. Talent doesn't necessarily discriminate.

      Delete
  34. More importantly, can a Brown Mage control a Dragon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. also can a dragon be made a familiar?

      Delete
    2. My Guess would be the magical resistence of dragon's would cause any attempted link to fail without using snow stone or quartz first

      Delete
    3. What about Amera, Aronin's daughter, being seen with once with a Dragon and now with a Mage....are they related and together?? Maybe as Dragon's age and gain wisdom and intelligence they can choose to bond with magic users.

      Also, Skyrider seems to be a title that pretty clearly states that Dara will be riding more than hawks and eagles soon...

      Delete
  35. I found a number of typos and missing words, for each I added a Kindle note. Can I just share those with your instead of trying to describe where each is?

    ReplyDelete
  36. 1st chapter. Lesbeth vs elsbeth

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  37. Just want to point out... I hate you because now I want the next book right now... you might now be my author just on how quickly you release you books and I know we would have gotten gotten it long ago if not for your illness which I hope your doing better from - Glen cook,g.r.r.Martin could learn from you...tho Martin got lazy after hbo and I fully blame the TV deal for that...not that I wouldn't Lovery an HBO spellsmonger....

    ReplyDelete
  38. Just want to point out... I hate you because now I want the next book right now... you might now be my author just on how quickly you release you books and I know we would have gotten gotten it long ago if not for your illness which I hope your doing better from - Glen cook,g.r.r.Martin could learn from you...tho Martin got lazy after hbo and I fully blame the TV deal for that...not that I wouldn't Lovery an HBO spellsmonger....

    ReplyDelete
  39. I did find one continuity issue. In then first book you said Penny was the third daughter of a Imperial family. In Court Wizard Penny has only one sister.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Just a thought.... I envision a YA novel on Alurra. At what distance can she maintain contact with her animal friends. She seems to be more powerful than Dara in brown magic.

    Another thought. ... the new mage city needs a green mage. Will it be made of snowstone. Penny is having triplets seems a good time to invoke a goddess.

    Terry, as I've mentioned in the past your writings give me hours on end of entertainment. I love to speculate what will come about in the future stories. And of course you surprise me when they do come out. I never would of envisioned a new brown mage since brown magic is rare. But humanity is in real trouble so one is not enough. I'm looking forward to Shadowmage.

    Also Hawklady.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Both Dara and Alurra's brown magic is untrained. It's possible that they can both do this with practice and the right spell.

      Delete
  41. Just a thought.... I envision a YA novel on Alurra. At what distance can she maintain contact with her animal friends. She seems to be more powerful than Dara in brown magic.

    Another thought. ... the new mage city needs a green mage. Will it be made of snowstone. Penny is having triplets seems a good time to invoke a goddess.

    Terry, as I've mentioned in the past your writings give me hours on end of entertainment. I love to speculate what will come about in the future stories. And of course you surprise me when they do come out. I never would of envisioned a new brown mage since brown magic is rare. But humanity is in real trouble so one is not enough. I'm looking forward to Shadowmage.

    Also Hawklady.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Can Alurra communicate and control or influence the dragon?

    ReplyDelete
  43. Hi Terry,

    I've got a question also, it seems very much to me like Pentandra is acting quite a bit more as "Ducal wizard" than what her actual role there was, chiefly to present the arcane orders interest in Alshar and acting as Minalans "Eyes and ears" in the ducal policy.

    I mean, she's intentionally keeping him out of a lot of decisions that have very far reaching consequenses for not only the duchy but also the arcane orders and Minalan personally.

    Now the question: what is her motivation to start working so much around Minalan suddenly?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It seems less "hide things from him" and more "not bother to tell him stuff" Penny seems private and independent. The prophecy stuff she can't tell people, for safety reasons

      Delete
    2. Pentandra is doing what she's always done, just in a new way: protecting Min's position and interests while furthering her own. While her specific ambitions may have changed a little, her new dedication doesn't deviate from her original intent. But she's also self-interested enough not to depend upon Min to rescue her, to want to establish an independent power structure, and to manage what she sees as her affairs apart from his. They're friends, colleagues, and partners. And this also represents the devolution of power from the Spellmonger to the magelords. While Dunselen/Isily was one example of this, Pentandra and the transformation of the Wilderlands by the magi is another.

      Delete
    3. I'd say Min also needs some plausable deniability in some of those cases too. He has to keep the seperation between Royally Chartered Organisation vs Ducal Power.

      Its ok if some Magelord does something but its another if that action is openly endorsed and supported by the Arcane orders rang than by Magi who happen to work from the Duke.

      Delete
  44. Minor note, you have the Spellmongers hall in Vorone as both 1 mile from the Palace and 2 miles from the Palace.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Awesome read.

    Are we ever going to get that update post for your reasons for the rush of Court Wizard. Not that it stops me from enjoying the book but am curious if it gives any insight into the schedule of books like Hawkmaiden is shooting for ????

    ReplyDelete
  46. Alright...

    The magical Avitalines are on Farise.
    The rebel censors want Farise and are in league with pirates.

    Terry, can we expect a book with major sea battles in defence of Farise and what other teasers can you give us?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Yes Yes. Magical Battle at Sea. Pirates vs Magelord Privateers!

      Delete
    2. I'm jumping on this band wagon. So much opportunity for magical mayhem at sea. One ship with a few high mages could take out the entire southern fleet...

      Delete
  47. I found at least one case of IRONITE instead of IRIONITE--which doesn't appear to be mentioned above.

    ReplyDelete
  48. At the first meeting of the Great Council, Angrial addresses everyone before Anguin arrives, but the dialog switches as if Anguin is there, "What kind of assignments, Your Grace?" but I cannot find mention of him entering. To this, the reply comes from Angrial, then again, the lawfather addresses Anguin, "Your Grace, that garrison is a Royal garrison" and this time Anguin responds--but no mention of his entering before the end of the chapter.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Chapter Seven. After the council meeting, Pentandra describes meeting the caretaker of Spellmonger hall and confirming her right to use the place--but I recall her telling Minalan earlier that she and some of the rangers were already staying there.

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  50. There where a couple of chapters that repeated but omg I am so in love with court wizard. I am about at the half way point (going to the Conclave) This has been an amazing book.

    ReplyDelete
  51. I spotted a couple of continuity errors which I don't think have been mentioned yet.
    1) In Enchanter Coinfather Larso is appointed Minister of Treasuries, in Court Mage it is Coinsister Saltia
    2)In Enchanter Alya calls on Pentandra to help. It is after this meeting in Sevendor that Min captures Lady Mask and interrogates her. In Court Mage, Lady Mask was captured during the burglary, didn't escape, and was interrogated before the meeting in Sevendor.
    3) I'm not clear where in the timeline the last few chapters of Court Mage fits with the Epilogue of Enchanter. Based on Court Mage, Min's meeting with the Baron to transfer Rolone (Enchanter epilogue) should happen sometime between him turning up drunk (Chpt 40) and the meeting in Vorone where Penny is meant to tell Min to drink the mead. But in Chapter 36 Ishi says that Min is tied up in dealing with the war in Sashtalia, which I take to also be a reference to the Enchanter Epilogue.


    ReplyDelete
  52. masssive fan! read CW in just under 2 days. going on a buissness trip soon so will reread it then! As with the rest of the series massively enjoyed it. Any news on the timeline for the rest of the books, any changes to the book orders?

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  53. Ok so just re-read CW ALOT of stuff has been fixed, props on that, but there are still 2 big flaws, one of which I actually didnt catch the first time.

    1: chapters 1 and two are still copies.

    2: chapters 35 and 36 while not carbon copies of eachother, do cover the same material twice. they state and then restate the tale of Penny returning to Vorone, dealing with the raid, and then finding out about isily and min.

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  54. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  55. The Anvil) having the spellmonger live there... It seems to me that Sevendor will be lost to him at some point? Including the snowflake...at least, that's what my first thought was...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. P.S. Deleted the post above this one because it posted as Unknown on accident.

      Delete
  56. Also, is there anywhere there is a compendium of the maps that have been included in the books so far that are higher quality? I can't read the words on most of them on my phone's kindle app.

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