Projects That Get Bigger When You Aren't Looking: The Future Of The World Shall Rise From Ashes · 8:50pm Oct 23rd, 2023
Before we get to the main event, some news on my Ko-Fi.
After I needed to make a goal for a refill for my medication, I mentioned that I may need to stick to more immediate and practical goals for a while. And with my having put thought into that, there is now a general "October Expenses" goal. This isn't every expense I have in a month (after all, this isn't my only income, either, given that I'm about to discuss a commissioned work), just what I feel I would need to have covered before I could comfortably do something more "fun" that month like get myself a new video game or ttrpg book.
So don't feel any sense of urgency in giving me tips, because I'll survive even if a given month's goal isn't reached. Tip what you can spare and that you feel my work is worth. This just feels like a much more practical way of managing the tip jar from here on out.
Now onto the reason you're actually here.
Those of you who have seen the "Cancelled" on The World Shall Rise From Ashes, don't panic. The story's not going away entirely, it's just going to be taking on a different form.
Myself and HumanUnitNotKilled, who has continued to communicate with me over Discord (obligatory plug for my own Discord server here), have been constantly brainstorming on where the story is going. Over time the initial idea has been expanded on, characters we hadn't originally touched on were incorporated into the narrative, backstories for the original characters were revised, new worldbuilding was devised and fleshed out, and we drifted further and further away from the Equestria at War inspiration and leaned more on the FIM comic books instead, with the tone becoming more gothic horror than first envisioned.
And eventually we came to the conclusion that a reboot was in order.
The story will instead be split into a trilogy. The first story (with a working title of Moonstrider) will include the events of the original version's three chapters, but with a different opening and with some scenes rearranged, expanded, trimmed, or rewritten. The second currently has a working title of The Queen's Will, and is predicted to be the longest of the three. The title of The World Shall Rise From Ashes will then go to the final installment instead.
When the first chapter of Moonstrider goes live, there'll be an announcement blog and the original will be unpublished. If you liked the looks of where it was going, we hope you'll come along for the ride on the new and improved version when it arrives.
Happy reading and writing, all.
