Steatoda
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Soul Taker: Part 1 (Chapters 1-4)
🕑 Added 2025-03-07 15:42:51 +0000 UTCSoul Taker Chapters 1-4 are out for all Ascended and Doctors.
What the heck is this?
Soul Taker is what happens when you take Rogue Replacement and throw it in a blender with the setting from Forever Quest (the Friday Feature from September), and then add in a system like Star Jumper's. So, in short, it's a fantasy LitRPG.
Okay, but why?
Not to hit you with a sob story or anything like that, but my job is in public education, and I have a child with special needs. I could get hit from both sides with potential cuts coming to the Dept. of Ed. Private schooling will likely become a necessity. I appreciate you all for your contributions, and I love putting out Rogue and Star Jumper. But I can't sell those stories.
So, that's why I created Soul Touched. I've put a lot of time into Rogue and figured I could redress it and turn it into a couple of novels. But as I got into it, Soul Taker spiraled into a story that could support its own world and not just be a copy of a fanfic. Rogue Arc 1 was only 42k words. I figured I could take Arcs 1-3 and smash them together into a novel. What actually happened was that the first three chapters became the basis of the new story.
What I'm intending
The Soul Taker draft is complete at 83k words. Chapter updates will come as I progress through the editing. Chapters will be available for subs to Doctor and Ascended tiers. Once it's finished, it will remain available for a few weeks while I work on the cover and other tasks; then, it will be uploaded to Amazon. At that point it will be taken down from the shop. Soul Touched will not be posted publicly on WebNovel, Scribble Hub, etc.
So, when I started writing Wither, it was going to be the series that funded my other writing. Problem was, Wither was a romance, and not a great one. So I'm still stuck on writing it because romance-fantasy just doesn't come naturally to me like fantasy with a dash of romance.
What about the other stories?
Rogue - I'm currently writing Chapter 124, which puts me about 6 months ahead. This is the sweet spot I like to stay in. The hard part is that I like to stay an entire Arc ahead, and the Arcs have been getting longer to the point where this isn't possible. This makes it harder to do things like all the call-backs and foreshadowing, but c'est la vie. I did sit down and do a detailed outline for Arcs 9, 10... and 11! Early on, I tried to outline several Arcs in advance so I could drop little hints throughout. As I outlined, I caught a major oversight. There was an entire storyline I didn't intend to put into the story, but the direction Arc 8 is going in made a perfect opening for it. So what was planned for Arc 9 is now 10, and Arc 9 is something different. So that poll for the Arc 9 love interest is now the Arc 10 interest. I know this prolongs the story some, but to make up for it, there will be some twists in Arc 9 that will see Tyson come up against a BIG bad.
Star Jumper - There are only two more Episodes in Season 2. I'm currently working on the 5th Episode of Season 3. I should have been further along, but unlike with Season 2, I didn't have a set direction when I started 3. My goal was to not have a month-long break before releasing Season 3, and I think I'm on track to keep that goal.
Meteor Freak - Episode 5 isn't done yet. But... I have two other episodes written that I could put out if I need to. I wanted to push them back because I have the ideas of a timeline in my head, and I didn't want to do this story completely chronologically.
Let me finish by saying thank you. I get notifications when you guys sub and cancel and buy chapters, etc. I see those of you who are here all the time, and those who sub up once every arc, or purchase chapters intermittently, and so on. Money is time, and reading is time, and all of our times are precious. I'll say it again. I appreciate you guys. Enjoy the new story!
Comments
Steatoda
*salute* I have lots of love for EQ/former EQ players. And thanks for the feedback. So the idea is to use most of Rogue in this story. Transferring over the main internal conflict and Drawback eases this. The Drawbacks are just in-your-face versions of the conflicts that he needs to overcome. And they can be overcome, just like we saw with the Mary Sue in Star Jumper. Points for problems. The Relentless Dead charm resistance only applies to the undead raised by that Perk. When Tyson gets the power to raise the dead on his own, he'll control them with no problem (Book 2). He'll just need to be faster than the Drawback. As for why he wasn't buried... Good point. I suppose it would be easy enough to add in a paragraph of 'set dressing' so it looks like he was going to be buried when the undead started rising and drove off the gravedigger or whoever.
Fortunis
I like that the world is an EQ knockoff, but that start. Ooff. I really don't like the original drawback. It basically fucks him immediately because none of his earth knowledge means anything. It immediately puts him in the "im gonna die to goblins" category of "heroes." Which is basically, let's face it, immediately what happens. I mean he didn't even make it out of the summoning room. Then there's the entire graveyard thing. Why was his corpse the only one not buried? Also those drawbacks FAR outweigh the so called "perks" he gained randomly. All they did was waste the points he got screwed for and he gets no say in it. It doesn't even tell him when the System stops choosing shit for him. Don't get me wrong, undead MC's are cool. I love me some Necromancer stories. But even that he's fucked for because his undead are now harder to control if he does manage to end up with Necromancy as a power. The whole forced drain thing even means he can't let anyone touch him. Despite his "you don't look dead" perk. Gotta say i can't see where your going with this one.
Steatoda
That's really what this is. I want to be safe with how far removed it is from the Marvel stuff. It's hard to see the Rogue in the story because it hasn't come in yet. Next posting, you'll see the similarities, as it'll come into what was Rogue's chapter 1.
Fortunis
Just do what those guys that made the awesome Star Trek fan movies did when they got sued and change the names of everything. It's not the Federation it's The Republic or some shit. Same with character names and what not. People will still realize what you did but legally you'd be in the clear. You'd probably need more world/universe lore though. Not really sure how much of that you can use without being slapped for it.
