J. Y. Song

I think it’s about time I put up a better write of my story, so, with that in mind: Hello everyone, both old and new. Despite my constant yapping on here my primary passion has always been writing, and my passion project is called Hedge Knight. What is Hedge Knight? It’s an epic progression fantasy novel series that follows the tales of Helbram Alligard, our titular character, across Ellios, a land filled with magic and mystery. Its scope is meant to be focused on a series of individual adventures in place of a constant, sweeping narrative with the main cast being the thread that ties it all together. Do not let the epic fantasy label shape your expectations entirely, however, for Hedge Knight takes the “kitchen sink” approach to its world building elements. Expect elements that could just as easily belong in sci-fi, steampunk, or even dieselpunk novels. Just to give an example, the first book of the series deals with an army of bandits led by an alien conqueror. The intent is to deliver all these elements with enough verisimilitude that it all fits together without pulling readers out of the experiences. More importantly, do not expect any of it to be dripping with irony, either. I want Hedge Knight to be a series with a single, earnest goal: to tell a story as best it can without thinking it needs to depreciate itself for fear of being “cringe”. Anything that sounds absurd on paper will be played straight, as I firmly believe that any idea can be good so long as the steps are taken to execute it competently. Does that mean the series is serious business all the time? No, I actually try to inject a good amount of humor throughout, just expect it to be pulled back more readily than a lot of stories you may see today. The art attached, drawn by the amazing @studio_kart, are glimpses into the world I’m trying to create. But, let’s also introduce the main party of Hedge Knight, shall we? (A thread)

@JabOfLegends @dyingscribe Actually, the story has two different magic systems. One is more in line with the whole body enhancement thing, but the other is straight up magic. The MC himself doesn’t use either, but there is plenty of the magic in spades. I hope you enjoy the audiobook!

I at least like to know a bit of the MC's powers etc before going in. A Knight in title or on cover has not always been accurate, and I prefer that there be Magic Magic in fantasy I read. Too many say Fantasy and Magic, but the "Magic" is just MC uses ruins on his joints to attack faster. That's not magic, at least to me. Spent a Credit on Audible for the first book, though.

The results are in! Clearly the book is perfect in every way and you should pick it up while it’s on sale for $0.99 :^)

@LichesWurms Yeah, but it can be a goal to always push towards, just incase some kind of headway is made

@Critical_Scribe I'm probably one of the few boomers who preferred animation over live action stuff and always will until I'm laid down in the dirt. It would be nice to have a return to form on that, but I'm not going to hold out hope on that.

Insane to think that this was considered a MIDDLING release for Disney back in the day. 2D animation for the West used to carry so much friggin sauce man 😫

@LichesWurms True, but man if only we can return to this form instead of just looking back wistfully

@Critical_Scribe There were so much more potential & it got shoved out for easy unionized slop. Alas, at least one can hold onto the classics through data preservation.

Behold! A story that knows when to turn the humor off and when to be serious! Two books available for $0.99 😉

@JesseDredger Such a tragedy 😞

@Critical_Scribe Then you see a film like treasure planet and you realize just what they threw away. Like the animation in that film was the absolute best blend and experiment with animation and Disney killed it in favor of more Pixar style stuff

@Art444Star @wwarrior_1 Going back to golden age Disney just exposes you to so much more nuance that you didn’t see before, and the sheer gravitas they all had just isn’t there anymore. It’s so bittersweet to revisit.

A part of what makes Claude Frollo so powerful, apart from the performance and musical number, is that every character in the movie is Christian, so it's clear that his moral failing is entirely his own and that the problem isn't Christianity Which is much more interesting because it takes what would've otherwise been a lame, very 20-21st century attack on Christianity, to a story about personal moral vices vs virtues, which is timeless There are definitely stories to be told about systems and their failures, but stories about people are almost always more powerful and interesting

Hmmmmm, that may be because the book itself is so straightforward that I didn’t want to reveal too much of the plot proper in the description. It really is “he gets ambushed, then has to fight for his life” and I didn’t want to fluff it up too much. But that’s a very fair point 🤔

Maybe this is a me thing, I am prepared to eat crow, but your Amazon description for first book told me so little about what it is actually about, that it was only in reading the description for the second book that I got anything besides "MC doesn't have any powers at the start."

@Thundersteel81 I dig it 🧐

@Critical_Scribe Steel

It is my turn to trend hop, what type(s) do I seem like?

@JesseDredger Instant

@Critical_Scribe Alright sure thing would you prefer quick and painless or slow and horrible?

I’ve lived long enough to see an IP like Alvin and the Chipmunks get rebooted twice. Kill me.

@SixVoidOverlord The characters really were a surprise in 6, all of them made themselves memorable in some fashion.

@Critical_Scribe Its a testament to their writing to get me to care for characters just through dialogue alone. Walter's cold pragmatism slowly warming to 621 was one of my favorites. Really good game and surprisingly good story for a 5 way corporate war. Other favs:

While I wouldn’t say Armored Core has never had compelling narratives (a lot of them are actually really deep and the lore is outstanding) Armored Core 6 is such a treat because it’s made by a FromSoft that has finally nailed down their identity. There is so much sheer confidence in the game and clear passion in how it presents itself that it really feels like it’s the game they’ve wanted to make Armored Core be all along. The game popped off so regularly and made you so invested in faceless characters so well that I’d say they were doing a better job of it than in their Souls series. I really can’t wait for more.

He paused, rubbed his eyes, and sighed, and dropped his controller like he just found out his son ate all the cookies. Yeah it’s not DRASTIC but it is clearly exaggerated for an effect, which is what he’s getting now. Again, not mad at it, but it’s clear what his intent is. He does this with all these new games and people fall for it every time.

@Critical_Scribe Always try to. But over dramatic reaction? The dude sighed and showed his disappointment. That's not even a regular over reaction. That's just...a reaction.

This dude does numbers every time he pulls this ragebait and everyone falls for it every single time. I can’t even be mad at him, he just knows the engagement hack.

@Sablesketch I say you did splendidly! Also I didn’t notice my typo so now it seems like I’m a glory hog lmao. But it’s good to see you branching out!

@Critical_Scribe Doing focused lighting like this is real nice because it gets me out of my comfort zone. Doing on bit of real bright orange and the rest cool blues is relaxing

Relaxing Vi Sometimes I enjoy doing a more relaxing piece. Something different than the usual high energy feeling stuff. Hope you take a moment to rest and enjoy. Take care of yourself!

@CorpseKings This is an average fishing trip in Florida wdym

Yes, Corpse Kings: The Silent Abyss includes new rules for fishing. Hopefully things go better than this. 😅

Nah her main method of fighting is dancing to control her magic, but levitating swords and weapons to throw them with wind is a common tactic she uses if they’re laying around. Most of the time, it’s more like she’s the Avatar, but with dancing movements and not quite as powerful (currently)

@Critical_Scribe Does the dark elf girl actually fight by telepathically controlling multiple swords at the same time?

@endthusiam You make a marvelous first impression. I get that there should have been a splash, but the over dramatic reaction over this stuff is this guy’s MO and it gets people riled up everytime. Just because it’s correct doesn’t mean it’s not ragebait.

@Critical_Scribe Except, no, you moron. You can't ragebait when you're giving visual proof of the issue. The splash from people going into water was in the original. The fact that it's not in the "super special awesome" graphical update is embarrassing.

@Libriomancy101 Beats me man

@Critical_Scribe But why though?

That’s right! Real nerds read books! Up that nerd cred!

@Truthful1316 Gonna be tall enough to reach the ceiling at least muahahaha

@Critical_Scribe I'm looking forward to it chief! Each book in itself is a milestone, each stacked upon the last until it reaches the heavens!

Huzzah! It continues! And it’ll definitely be doing that and more by the end 👀