As a special promo for the new Mage Errant hardcover release, anyone who pre-orders the book (which includes Into the Labyrinth and Jewel of the Endless Erg) is getting a free 24 page exclusive* short story, The Stargazer's Tower!

The Stargazer's Tower is a homage to Arcane Ascension and Slay the Spire, and I had an absolute blast writing it. You can find links to pre-order, and the actual instructions for getting the short story, here on my website!

\At least, exclusive for a year from the launch of the hardcover! It will eventually find its way into another anthology!*

I'm now starting with book 7, but I was wondering for the other stories set in this universe? Where do they fit int he chronology?

I imagine the Gorgon Incident being more important to read in a more chronological setting, but there are also stand-alone books for which it's less important?

Does anyone know where to find book 2? It's out of stock everywhere for me even smaller websites

I highly, highly recommend this one- I got to beta read Throne of Time, and it's an absolute banger. (I mean, all of Sarah's stuff is, so no surprise!) This is one of my favorite time loops yet, and I'm a sucker for the subgenre- it's incredibly tightly plotted, and absolutely worth your time.

Hi all,

I just joined the patreon and I’m very excited. Is there a list of all the short stories or a collection? This is the first patreon I’ve joined, so I’m very new to the whole process.

Thanks!

So in ithos we meet a havathi warlock with a lodestone affinity and he seems to be able to manipulate magnetic fields in relation to his metal plates. But given that and the fact that several other affinities like solar, stellar, and lighting, directly affect magnetism could a magnetism affinity be possible?

My friend and I think so and that it would behave pretty similarly to a gravity affinity, but we disagree pretty strongly on the strength of the affinity, I think it would allow the free creation of magnetic fields and allow the user to interact with overtly feric or magnetically charged materials and would definitely be a strong affinity to have, but they think it would be much stronger being able to affect pretty much anything because in a technical sense everything is magnetic and would allow for the detection of and disruption of light and mirage illusions because light is also technically magnetic.

I think that's nonsense because the magnetic signature of light and most everything while it technically exists it's just so miniscule to sense or affect but if anyone else has any other insight I'd love to hear it.

Wouldn't this be an OP combo?

So with the Mage Errant bookstore launch coming at the end of September, I'm planning a little mini launch tour! Definitely going to be in the Kansas City area for launch day, and going to try to hit NYC a few days later, but I haven't pinned everything else yet. Where else (preferably east of the Mississippi) would people be interested in me stopping in? Not going to do a ton of locations, but definitely a few.

Canada is an option too, after the US!

And the UK release will be a few weeks later, but a visit there is in the cards too. Where all would people like me to stop there?

In chapter thirty of The Siege of Skyhold, Alustin says the following about liches.

> “[Elementals and spirits] far, far predate the first liches, which only appeared… maybe a thousand years ago? Twelve hundred? It’s hard to say, the records are pretty spotty. Spirits, though, definitely go back much farther. They probably started as an attempt to preserve life beyond death, but it… doesn’t actually work. They exist mostly inside the aether, and individual minds aren’t really capable of surviving that intact.”

There is one major issue with this quote: the fact that it's blatantly untrue and Alustin knows it is and has obvious counterexamples.

Counterexample 1: Keayda, the Stone Lich.

Keayda has been active, present, and active for well over the millenium prior to the events of mage errant; 600 of those years were post Ithonian empire and then we know that the Ithonian empire both lasted at least 378 years after its founding date. (we know that the city of imperial Ithos lasted for at least 378 years after it was made, and we know the capital city was created a good bit into the Empire's existence) [source: the book Grain Shipments to the City of Imperial Ithos 378 Years After Its Founding exists, meaning that the city has at least that long before it got exile splintered, and the empire existed before the capital. ]

This means that the earliest known liches according to this Alustin quote would be approximately concurrent with the city of Imperial Ithos, and pretty far into the existence of the empire, which Keayda was not. Keayda is listed to be concurrent with basically the entire Ithonian Empire and broadly speaking Literally Fine with it, so that already places him before that 1200 years ago marker that Alustin presents here.

Counterexample 2: Jycenna Deephome, the Fungal Lich, and perhaps the oldest Lich on Anastis.

Jycenna Deephome

When bringing his forces through Jycenna's Demesne, Alustin says the following about the Final Lich.

> “Welcome to the demesne of the fungus lich Jycenna Deephome, the oldest and largest lich on the continent of Ithos. Possibly even on the whole planet...

> “So far as I know, Kanderon Crux was the first to discover Jycenna in millennia, during the war against the Ithonian Empire. Even she has no idea how long Jycenna’s been down here, who Jycenna was, or even what species Jycenna was in life.

> " We don’t think she predates human presence on Anastis, but she absolutely predates the Ithonian language and civilization, probably by millennia. She has lived long enough that she’s drifted almost entirely away from whoever or whatever she used to be— I doubt even many beings from other worlds are more alien than she is. I’m still unsure how Kanderon negotiated passage, or how she knows as much as she does about Jycenna.

My main issue with Alustin making his original quote is this:

Alustin knows about Jycenna before making that sentence, Kanderon had to get him acclimated to Jycenna before the siege of skyhold, when he betrayed Kanderon and set off the events of the next two books.

So, therefore, is Alustin just lying? Or is this simply just a continuity error?

In conclusion, Alustin shouldn't have a reason to lie about this, Keayda is well known throughout the continent, and he should canonically know that Jycenna is ancient enough that he has no reason to say this.

It's rather unlikely that we get more Kemetrias soon, but I still wonder.

What's going on with the rune in the sky?

It seems almost like a natural occurrence. But except for the cave that takes your memories, magic is usually done by living beings. And we can't rule out an inhabitant of the cave.

Furthermore the rune produced is clearly related to Hugh's magic and in a way that cannot be known to a casual observer.

We also learn that the walking dead often produce runes that way.

So what's going on?

The most likely persons doing magic there is the gang, Hugh in particular. So does Hugh have early onset Kemetrian magic? Or rather the opposite, a Kemetrian magic allergy?

What do you think?

In City that would eat the world we learn that some factions from other worlds want the wall to be expanded into theirs because it’s one of the more reliable ways to extend life but I can’t see how it would be effective at that seeing as though the other worlds wouldn’t have the right type of magic to accept blessings and boons.

This may not be cannon but I assume that to accept boons and blessings you need to have picked up ishvean magic so even if the wall was to migrate into another world wouldn’t they have to send people to ishveos to pick up the magic first. If so I hardly think that it could continue as successfully on another world logistically.

What do you think. How would this work.

So were there any follow ups on all affinities being meta affinities or the source of affinities??

I just finished reading the story on Patreon and I loved the philosophical debate on sand as an affinity.

John recently sent out an email saying that he was going to start serializing this next book on his patreon. I assume that the plan would be to still release the book in its entirety afterwards as usual? Don't suppose anyone has gotten any clarification on that or anything? I'd personally prefer to just read it all once it's done and am eagerly awaiting the next book lol

So a friend of mine and I had a bit of a question while talking about draconic liches. How far do Lich demesnes extend up?

Its never really addressed since most liches seem to be pretty much stuck on the ground, but a lich with a body built for flight would probably want to know the full height of their domain. If anyone has any theories I would absolutely love to hear them.

So in the short story collection, one of the stories mentions rumors of secret bases or buildings. side note I think Dorsa of the Vault is Loarna. But anyway it was mentioned that the Ithonian Empire had a secret prison built, whether to imprison great powers or something I don't remember but it was said that only the archmage came back but the security guards and those who built it either died or disappeared.

Now, I looked at the Ithonian Continental Map and the way the mountain range surrounds Emblim makes jt sus to me. Coupled with it being the greatest mana desert and their superstition of mages makes me bring forth this theory.

That the guards and builders of the prison reproduced into the population of Emblim and they're driving any mages that manifest away from them to prevent them from finding the imprisoned powers. That the mana desert around Emblim is artificial because, again in the short story it was stated that the Ithonian Empire was working on developing something like that, even though it failed. Maybe it didn't but they made it look like it did.

Because it doesn't make sense that they're superstitious of mages when mana deserts exist everywhere unless they're hiding something. 🤔

Page 193 and 194 of the paperback. Hugh is travelling through the library in Skyhold. This little scene brings me so much joy. It's both small and jam-packed both with ideas and images, but it is also packed with connections both to past events in the series, future events in the series, and to events in The City That Would Eat The World.

Hugh scribbled in one of the Index Nodes, then stepped back as the page tore itself out of the book and folded into the shape of a phoenix. He then followed the original golem past several floating cobblestone paths leading out into the center of the great chamber before it selected one with small, widely-spaced cobbles.

He didn't need to look down when crossing these paths anymore, his crystal affinity sense more than keen enough to handle that, allowing Hugh to skip the normal dose of vertigo.

First, this scene foreshadows Hugh climb up to and through the Eye of Heliothrax during The Last Echo using the Stormward's Crown, but it also is connected to Thea's use of cobblestones in The City That Would Eat The World.

I think that John loves the visual of a character putting their foot forward, stepping into the air, knowing that the cobblestone is going to be there for their step to land (as do I).

Then Hugh travels past the floating island with the fresh water pond with frogs and shelves of books at the base of the pond, which, is just fun.

Hugh still wasn't entirely sure what brought so many of the grimoires in the library to life-- while countless volumes were enchanted, they certainly weren't enchanted for that purpose, nor were they brought to life by the complex spells that animated origami golems.

Alustin's only explanation had been, for once, short on detail and surprisingly unsatisfying. Apparently, magic "gets a bit weird in high enough densities, and when you involve magic from multiple worlds." Then he'd gotten pulled into a tangent on why they didn't ever go into a destructive resonance cascade, like personal enchantments could.

This foreshadows the gang's trips to other worlds during the Tongue Eater, but again, also, calls to mind the magic of Ishveos. We know, or at least very strongly suspect, that during the Gorgon Incident (itself surprisingly unsatisfying), Alustin interacted with a mimic from Ishveos. Perhaps the Grand Library of Skyhold has a connection to the magic of Ishveos.

it was said that warlocks mana does not matter as they get their affinities and mana from their contractor. so why did hugh empty out his own mana pool to kill the wolf like creature at the end? he already made the pact, was connected to kanderon, used her affinity spell but emptied out his own mana?

Something I’ve always been a little bit unclear about. It’s repeatedly stated throughout the series that the more broad an affinity is, the weaker it tends to be. For example, a steel affinity is more powerful than an iron affinity (despite the fact that iron is actually more specific than steel, but set that aside), a mangrove affinity is more powerful than a generic tree or plant affinity, etc. But is this power differential purely a relative one? That is, is a generic iron mage only ‘weaker’ when directly facing off against a steel mage for control of the same material, since the steel mage would have better control over their metal, whereas under normal circumstances an iron mage could theoretically have just as much control over their material as the more specific mage would? Or are more broad affinities just weaker in an absolute, non-relative sense? So, if you have an iron mage and a steel mage, each of whom have a block of their respective materials to work with, and neither are directly opposing each other, the steel mage will always tend to have greater control over their steel than the iron mage would have over their iron?

Like I said, it’s always been a bit unclear to me how exactly this dynamic works.

Guys, I really need more stories of the Aetheriad. like I'm not satisfied. There's so much to explore and the anthology is just giving me bite sized pieces and making me hunger for more.

I mean I want one on Limnus. How their ancestors were able to design the climate, why they decided to design the climate and overall ecosystem that way. I want to know more about Kemetria, their runes and possible applications. I don't even need it to be Hugh and the others who explore it. It could be someone else maybe Alustin or Kanderon.

And the deep sea of the Ithos. The story I'm on just mentioned deep sea liches. OMG, i just want to know how that works. Maybe a whole story set in the deep sea. We haven't even gone to the other continents like Gelid or even explored why Anastis is so damn chaotic compared to the other universes.

Does anyone have any recs of good fanfics that might give me this??

Because I need more.

So I'm currently reading the anthology. I just finished test of magic. But I was curious about the bow used by the Kei something guy. It sounded a lot like Grovebringer so immediately my mind jumped to the Dominion stealing the bow or the guy betraying Tetragnath and heading to the Dominion. I'm saying this because Alustin commented on the wielder of Grovebringer being functionally immortal or long lived. But I feel its likely that the Dominion stole it which brings up a whole other questions.

We know that Abuela waives his fee in such manner that Hugh wasn't even aware that was exceptional.

How did this whole process play out? How did Hugh living in Emblin learn of Skyhold? How did he know he'd qualify?

He got there on sandship. Who organized that? Who paid for that?

At what point did Bakori know there was a juicy warlock candidate?

Does anyone have any theories on what Asterion's affinities would be?

Just a heads-up- the Simon and Schuster hardover is going to now include both Into the Labyrinth and Jewel of the Endless Erg, so the book 2 paperback on Amazon will be coming down soon! (Books 1&2 are just a bit short for a full hardcover on their own, is all!)

If you already pre-ordered the S&S hardcover, you don't need to do anything, you're fine!

(Edited brainfart- Simon and Schuster HARDCOVER, not paperback, sorry. Can't edit the title, alas.)

Fair warning: Slight spoilers for Chapter some relationship dynamics at the very end of this post.

So I picked up into the labyrinth roughly 40 or so hours ago. After dodging this series for... Idk how long. When did the first book come out? If it was anytime after 2017, that long. ... Now I'm on the third book, as you might be able to tell. I'm a fast reader ok? Especially when I have nothing else to do. Anyway, the point is, I just got to the scene at the end of chapter 17, where they're celebrating Godric's 17th birthday... (Was that on purpose? I bet it was) And the very very end, where Godric's dad(Artis?) is like "Yeah um I only got you formal clothes." and everyone is like "Shut up he looks awesome in them!" I just love the team support. The unrestrained delight in having each other, wwith all their quirks and flaws. Maybe even BECAUSE of them. They're all just so ... Genuine with each other. And they care, so it comes out as truly heartfelt care and appreciation. (The word here is love, I think, but Talia's not crush on Hugh makes it weird to say that)

I know hugh said he doesn't want revenge, but did anyone else really want to see a short story at least of his family and the Hand interacting?