Saga of Ebonheim's first season is complete!

With the limited amount of works I've read in the LitRPG genre, it's been a learning process to incorporate RPG elements into the narrative in a way that fits the premise of the story. Deciding on what stats to show, how to present them, and how many numbers pop up during combat scenes has been an iterative process, much like editing for grammar and readability.

I'm still not convinced that I made the right call in labeling and categorizing this story as a LitRPG, despite the stats, numbers, and character progression. I think it's closer to Gamelit because Ebonheim has no context that all the information she perceives from the System is in the context of a game.

The story is closer to the Forgotten Realms setting in Dungeons and Dragons (been a player and DM for years now). Imagine if any of the notable characters in that setting somehow managed to access their character sheets (as described in D&D terms) and see their stats.

Beyond the LitRPG aspects, the outline below shows the goals I established for myself to try and complete for the first season of the story:

1. Main Character: Show Ebonheim's (the Main Protagonist) naivete, courage, compassion, humor, struggles, thought process, and other aspects that give her depth. I generally tend not to present a lot of inner thoughts from the main POV character in the narration, but I try interlacing a few when I feel it's warranted.

2. Progression: I planned to have her ascend twice during the span of Season One, but the scale of growth between each ascension is not linear as you'll find out during Season Two, so I decided to briefly have her second ascension be in the last chapter.

Some of you may have already realized, but the Quintessence she receives from her followers every month is essentially her passive EXP gain. Even though she gets Quintessence from 'quests', and from certain beings, the majority of her progression will be time-gated.

3. Balance: One concern/observation I see is that because Ebonheim can just buy Divine Abilities at a vastly cheaper cost compared to her contemporaries, she would be a bit more OP. Theoretically, she can just ask the System for any ability that could solve any problem she comes across, but I have measures in place to address that, without (hopefully) making it seem like a cop-out.

4. Side Characters: Generally, I don't like sticking to only one character's perspective for the entire story. As a reader, I like it when I get to read from different characters' perspectives as long as the perspective switch is presented properly. I realize this comes at the cost of the story's pacing, but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make. I think there's been a decent amount of side characters introduced and hopefully, I've managed to make them interesting enough for readers to care about their perspective if/when I switch to them.

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5. PLOT: What's the main plot of the story?! The story doesn't have the traditional story structure that one would expect out of a fantasy novel. I've set it up as a collection of small story arcs and I think it's worked out decently well.

6. World-Building: I didn't want to dump too much lore and world information at once. I'm sure readers have a lot of questions about the setting and I've presented and eluded to bits of lore throughout Season One. The world may seem like a typical medieval fantasy world, but hopefully I've managed to convey that there's more to it than that.

7. Pacing: The thing about writing that I enjoy the most is trying to immerse the readers into the world. Usually, I go a bit too much on the sensory details and descriptions of what characters are doing, at the expense of slowing down the pacing. It's probably influenced by being a DM for many years. I favor the details of moments over the summation of events. Some of the LitRPG stories I've read speed through the details of combat scenes in favor of just summarizing an attack as 'Your energy blast dealt 50 damage', or 'You've killed the monster'. But that's not a fun way for me to write.

Unless I know for sure that I'm not adding anything to the lore, the character(s), or advancing the plot by letting a scene play out its course, I tend not to summarize scenes.

8. Time Skips: The timeline of Season One spans just two years or so, not counting the time skip that was in Chapter One. Time skips will be common, and as the story progresses, it'll become even more prevalent and lengthy (think Frieren: Beyond Journey's End).

9. Mysteries and Hidden Plots: I've planted most of the seeds of mystery regarding Ebonheim, the Akashic System, and the unknown forces lurking in the background. I wonder what interesting theories readers have on the matter...

Season Two!

What to expect:

1. Town-Building: I did say that the story will have Kingdom Building elements, and I've very briefly introduced the foundation for that early in the story but it never came up again. Well, for most of Season Two, that aspect of the story will be one of the main themes to explore.

2. More Side Characters: As if there are already enough characters to keep track of, there'll be more characters joining the cast. Expect more groups, factions, and shenanigans.

3. Magitech: Hopefully this doesn't scare readers who prefer to keep the story 100% classic fantasy, but I've already introduced some Magitech elements in Season One. Season Two will delve more into that side of the fantasy. I'll give you some hints: think...Escaflowne, Knights & Magic, Final Fantasy VI, etc.

4. Longer Story Arcs: The Kungwan War has been the longest story arc so far, and although the ones for Season Two won't be as long, they'll be longer than the other story arcs.

5. Political/Economic conflicts: It won't be heavy-handed, and it's not on the level of something like 'Spice and Wolf', but I plan on exploring more of this during the town-building parts of the story.

With all that out of the way, I want to thank you all for continuing to read this story. There's going to be a one-week break before Season Two starts with Chapter 80: A Lazy Afternoon with Friends; A Moment of Reprieve. It'll be published on December 4 at the usual time. I want to keep emphasizing that any feedback is greatly appreciated.

While you wait, feel free to check out my other story "Slumdog Hero".

Zanafar

P.S. If you like the story so far, I appreciate the follow, favorite, and/or rating and review! Thank you all! See you next season!