Book One Recap
In Book One of Orion's Ballad we met Iris Orion during her finals days as a shopkeeper in a small village in an unmarked valley deep in the heart of humanity's crowning achievement, the Emerald Empire. During an otherwise normal walk in the woods, her life was changed forever when she stumbled across a rip in the fabric of reality itself called a Thread of Power. Be becoming entangled in this thread Iris became a Threadbearer, gained the first of many magic powers, and began her career as an adventurer. During an unexpected battle with a gang of sentient, murderous scarecrows, Iris came within an inch of death and an unknown effect of her first ability activated to save her life by sucking her into the void and spitting her back out somewhere far, far away.
Iris awoke on a continent on the far side of the planet, in the western deserts of the Giantrock Wilderness Region near the frontier of the Emerald Empire's exploration of the unknown world. Finding herself in a high level region while she herself was only level 1, Iris stood no chance at survival on her own but was lucky to find a party of ambitious young adventurers who took her in, trained her, and soon became her friends. She joined them on their journey to Giantrock City, where they participated in the Grand Hunt.
The Grand Hunt kicked off with three expeditions, each tasked with taking down a titan level threat in the region. Our party joined an expedition spearheaded by a Titan with powerful telepathic abilities called the Dreamweaver to exterminate a giant magically mutated spider called the Matriarch. Things went wrong when another expedition, led by a high ranking member of the Adventuring Corps named Commander Bridge, chased a Wyvern into the Matriarch's territory and the two expeditions collided. The expeditions were further complicated by an unseasonal storm that moved in and settled over the region, the presence of a mysterious, cult-like organization known as the Agents of Morose, and ultimately the arrival of a contingent of shock wizards who descended on lightning strikes, attacked the expeditions, and abducted the Wyvern before it could be killed.
Lost and alone in the Great Forest after fleeing the epicenter of clashing forces beyond her understanding, Iris found herself in possession of a wyvern egg and at the wrong end of a spear belonging to a very angry shock wizard. Through cunning, luck, and the unexpected help of her mother she believed to be dead, Iris managed to slay the wizard and escape with her life. The complications didn't end there, however, as the egg soon hatched and her bottomless bag revealed itself to be an extra-dimensional entity.
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Book Two begins a few weeks after the final events of Book One, picking up in the final stretch of the Grand Hunt, during which time adventurers are mopping up the remaining quests and bounties offered by the city. Meanwhile, our party turns their attention to where they'll go next.
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Hi everyone! Book two begins Monday! I have some quick announcements to go through first.
Book Two Information
First up, we have a new cover!
image [https://i.postimg.cc/yxfY8vtt/Shining-Blue-Cover-Draft-2.png]
The official title of book two is Orion's Ballad 2: Journey to the Shining Blue. Book one has been retroactively given the official title of Orion's Ballad: Expedition Giantrock.
Details about book two:
- You can expect chapters in book two to be between 1400 and 2200 words.
- The permanent release schedule for book two will be 5 chapters per week, released Monday thru Friday between 10am and 12pm Eastern.
- From launch day thru September 1st there will be two chapters released each day, weekends including. One chapter will be released in the regular 10am - 12pm time slot, while the other will be released at a different time each day. (I'll be dropping both chapters back-to-back on launch day, though).
The Patreon
The Orion's Ballad Patreon will officially launch on September 2nd. At launch the tiers will be:
$1/month
- Support the author and gain my undying gratitude
- Your name in the credits of Book 2
- More perks in the future
$10/month
- Read 15 chapters ahead of what's available on Royal Road
- Opportunities to suggest names for side characters, ideas for monsters, and places/environments you'd like to see the party visit.
- Your name in the credits of Book 2 (in bold)
I have plans for more tiers and more perks for the existing tiers, but I need to get familiar with using Patreon before I implement them. I'll also be looking at creating a discord in the future.
Thanks for reading! Each and every one of you is helping my dream come true, and you'll never know how much I appreciate you for that. I hope you enjoy book two!