Hello Friends,
When I was writing Ascendant, one of the very first choices I made was whether or not Nym would keep his memories. We all know which way I went, but what if I'd gone the other way? What if he'd been in full possession of all his knowledge and skills? Well, given the world and magic system I built for this story, it likely would have ended fairly quickly since there wasn't much stopping Nym's climb back to power other than a lack of knowledge.
However.
I still wanted to explore that concept, so after my first attempt at a litRPG (it went alright. In hindsight, I can see a lot of things I did wrong), I went back to the drawing board on the idea of an old monster reborn into a new body, only this time one with his mind and abilities intact. From that seed, I started writing Keiran. I've currently written about 200,000 words of this as of the time I post this on December 1, 2023, with plans for the entire story to be a bit over a million words long. It's obviously not the same story as Ascendant, but if you liked this story, I hope that you'll like my new one as well. It's pure prog-fantasy, no numbers, no blue screens, no system, just a millennia-old archmage with a new body that doesn't have any back or knee pain, but also needs a lot of work to get his mana core back up to par. The magic system itself is totally new, as is the world he lives in.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Please consider giving it a try. I promise you won't be disappointed.
Thank you,
-E.C.
> [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/covers-large/keiran-aaaaye2urbq.jpg?time=1699813192]
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> Keiran of the Night Vale has staved off death for two thousand years, but even he’s reached his limits. His body is old, worn out, and failing. While the flesh fails, however, his mind and his magic remain as sharp as ever. What he needs is to reincarnate into a fresh, new, young body, and he bends his prodigious talents towards doing exactly that.
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> He awakens to find that he’s been reborn in a wasteland where mana has become a scarce resource, one to be hoarded and guarded jealously. Even the internal mana generated by people is stolen away by those who rule them. And without mana, he’s no longer a mage.
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> It will take more than that to stop Keiran. With each passing week, he regains more of his old strength, but can he keep his secrets safely hidden? Standing in his way is his new home’s cult-like nightly mana tithing, a governor with secrets of his own, and an unforgiving desert with hidden monsters who’d love nothing more than to swallow him whole.
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> It's a deadly scramble to claim the mana he so desperately needs to survive, but Keiran didn’t become an archmage by accident, and he’s willing to use every dirty trick and tactic he knows to get there again.
Keiran: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/77820/keiran