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June 23 Progress Update
🕑 Added 2023-06-29 11:58:54 +0000 UTCHi!
How's it going?
My work on the Amazon remaster of Old Empire has continued through June and while there's still a lot left to do, the finishing line is already in sight. I'm currently about 55% through the editing process, so I'm confident we'll have a new release still in July.
On the way there, I'm glad to present to you what's intended as the cover illustration of the book, shown above! It's not final yet, but gives you an idea of what I'm going for. How do you like it?
You may be surprised to see that the cover character this time is Carmelia instead of the protagonist.
Izumi has been on the cover without exception since part 1 of the web novel, so I thought it was high time we tried something different. And when you think about the story and everything that happens in it, it's clear that our favorite Court Wizard was the spiritual backbone in this episode.
Over the years since the web novel version of Verse 3, Caalan Litha Nidh Vi Vaniphelia went on to become one of the most popular characters in the series, if not THE most popular right next to Izumi herself.
I'm pretty surprised how it happened.
If you take any of the guides out there on how to write compelling fictional characters, you'd see Carmelia is pretty much the opposite of all points. Inexpressive, avoids showing her feelings, is secretive, lies a lot or otherwise omits information, is passive, always prefers to have someone else act on her behalf...Picking up the subtle hints of her true character takes some patience and certain emotional intelligence, which I imagined the typical web novel reader wouldn't bother with.
But I guess it's the mystery about her that appeals, huh?
The story behind the character's creation parallels Miragrave in Verse 2.
I'd gotten so tired of seeing elves in fiction who are supposedly hundreds of years old, but behave only like standard humans or teenagers, and express the typical sensibilities of such, never above emotional squabbles and deeply impressed by the flavor potential of soy sauce on rice. Dwelling in straw huts even after a thousand years of culture.
After 100 years, would you still laugh when you see someone trip on a skateboard? You've seen that a million times already. It'd be no different from seeing a leaf tossed over by a breeze. After 500 years, would you still be dazzled by the shine of diamonds? By then you'd surely have realized they're only polished sand. After 1000 years, would you still be awed by the inner workings of windmills? No, by then, if only to kill time on idle Sunday afternoons, imagining the possibilities of mechanics would've taken you past the level of combustible engines.
When you've lived for so long, you stop reacting when you knock your toe on the corner of a door. It starts to feel pointless to act like it hurt when you've experienced that level of pain so many times before and long grown numb to it.
I guess we should give writers a break for not taking the time to imagine all that and focusing on more important things in their stories, but I tried to imagine that, if only to produce immortals who feel like they really are IMMORTAL.
Not human.
Well, I dived deeper into that in Verse 4, but that was the foundation of Carmelia's character. Not just another tsundere, but someone not so easy for humans to read.
Still, however long you live, there are things that are equally timeless. Such as, when you meet a person you like, that fond feeling stays ever the same and warms your heart no matter how many times it happens. That's probably one of the things that keeps the immortals alive and firmly hooked to worldly existence even after eons.
In case I haven't mentioned this before and you were wondering, the name Caalan Litha Nidh Vi Vaniphelia translates as "a lily that blooms in a valley at sunset".
Emiri don't have family names, perceiving their entire species as one big family and the closer relations irrelevant. Instead, they name their children typically based on the conditions near the moment of the child's birth, or a thought that happened to cross a parent's mind then. This way, the name also becomes a reminder for the child of her birthplace and roots. Not that outsiders can guess where was that valley or the flower.
Here's a little something else as a bonus.
There may not be chapter illustrations in the book, but there's usually a picture on the table of contents spread in the printed editions and this time I wanted to make something special for it. So I set out to create a 3D-model of the imperial palace of Bhastifal.
This is also still a work of progress. I can't hope to make it completely true-to-life, but I'll try to make it as realistic as I can in the timeframe left.
Normally, you'd pick one camera angle from the start and make only the models visible from that specific point of view. Since modeling buildings that don't even show in the image is obviously only a massive waste of time.
But since there might be other uses for this model down the line, and I might need promotional images from other angles too, I decided to get ambitious and model the whole inner district of Selenoreion. I'm still keeping it relatively simple, so it wouldn't take absolutely forever to do, nor am I even trying to include every building and stair and doorstep mentioned in the book.
Does it look anything like you imagined?
It may not be pro-tier yet, but we've sure come a long way from those blocky, untextured towers seen in the first cover of the web novel!
That's all for now!
I'll get back to editing the story, to bring you the sharpened, polished, cutting edge edition of the story of Old Empire. Hope you'll look forward to it!
As usual, thank you for your patronage! None of this would be possible without your active support. This page may not be gathering millions in donations, but really, ever little bit genuinely helps.
Have a nice summer!
See you soon again!
Comments
Thanks for the update! I like the new cover, and it's interesting to see Carmelia art to get a clear picture of how she looks. I'm honestly not sure what I thought the palace looked like, but it's clearly looking far more impressive and distinct than in my imagination. I'm looking forward to reading the new razor-sharp Old Empire, and I hope you have a great summer too! Also "See you soon again!" -> "See you again soon!"
