Showing results by author "Inadvisably Compelled" in All Categories

Twenty years ago, the hero Glorybeam and the villain Blacktime fought. The aftermath leveled twenty city blocks, killed thousands, and orphaned hundreds. Neither of them have ever faced any consequences. Isaac Hartson was one of those orphans. As a nominal-class metahuman–a dreg–he knows that he’ll never be able to hold them accountable by force, but years as a janitor have taught him the value of simple plans and hard work.

The Guild of Arcane Regulation has fractured, and new forces move on the board. Callum cannot quite declare victory, for even a weakened GAR still forces him to hide from the world at large, yet he is no longer prepared to run. Instead, he builds his own strengths to stand against those who wish to do him harm.

Dungeon: a place full of monsters, traps, treasure, and death. Those are the Great Dungeons, with unplumbed depths below the roots of the mountains. That's not for me. Dungeon: a place of rape, torture, and death, to control and corral enemies and slaves. These are the Red Cores, from which the mage-kings draw their power. That's also not for me. I don't like monsters. I don't want adventurers. I want to stay well away from enemies and slaves. Fortunately, there are alternatives....

Callum had seen things all his life. There are monsters and beasts living among people, but he learned very early not to admit such things, not if he didn’t want people to think him crazy. It turns out that the supernatural is real, but at 30, Callum has no desire to be part of that secret. Not that he has a choice when it turns out he is a mage, albeit one that hasn’t cast any spells in all his life. There are requirements, duties, and education that the powers that be insist he be subject to. To hell with that.

With Tarnil free, Blue and his allies consolidate and recover from the mage-king's depredations. As he establishes himself firmly at home, he starts reaching out to the world that he is now a part of. There is a lot of work to be done to prevent further war, or worse.

Callum is at war with the Guild of Arcane Regulation, the organization that governs mages on Earth. He’s spent most of his time lying low and hiding out, trying to understand what he can do and how he can remain free from their meddling. What he’s learned is that he can’t.

The portal to the Night Lands is closed, and vampires are barred from Earth, but at a high cost. Not only does Callum have to deal with the fallout of the vampire race’s final spasms, but the political consequences of demonstrating his ability and willingness to attack portal worlds directly. The forces that were moving to control a weakened GAR have come out into the open, and Callum has to deal with stakes much higher than his personal freedom.

After escaping from the Guild of Arcane Regulation and the Bureau of Secret Enforcement, Callum has lost his greatest protection: his obscurity. Now the powers that be know who he is, and hiding is harder than ever. Nor is hiding a plan, just a reaction. Now Callum is forced to decide how he wants to approach the supernatural world, and how he’s going to keep himself secure when the apparatus of government is arrayed against him.

Spreading into the wider System, Cato is confronted with the full scope of his crusade. Tens of thousands of worlds or more, beings capable of destroying planets, and even stricter limitations on technology if he doesn’t want to show is hand early.

When the System came to Earth, technology failed, monsters appeared, and billions died as humans were inducted into the game-like physics the System enforced. Unfortunately for the System, not all humans were on Earth. Some scattered postbiological individuals decided to push it back, and embarked on a decade-long crusade to eliminate the System from Earth.

In the years since the Annexation War, Cato has quietly spread throughout the System, watching, waiting, and building his forces. When the Sydean Lineage returns, he finally has a line to the Core, and once he can deal with the System Core, he can bring down the System for good. Of course, it isn’t so simple. The System-gods are aware of him now, powerful and ancient forces waiting to pounce on any mistake — and perfectly willing to murder millions of innocents for even a perceived injury against him.

Jonathan Heights saw sunlight once. He must see it again. At least, that’s what he claims when he charters an expedition east beyond the bounds of civilization. The Illuminated King has an abiding interest in such legends, while the Reflected Council is more interested in the treasures that they are convinced he has found, out there in the dark. The truth is shrouded and motives uncertain as Jonathan and the agents of both Crown and underworld take the airship Endeavor to the strange and exotic lands out there in the darkness.