Zergrinch

I'm considering this as a canonical explanation for the incredible prowess of Kandric, Aster, and Conner, who all must have "conquered" their partners at some stage. 😂

There is always the possibility we're already too far ahead of the Kandric Saga timeline, and Kyle has to catch up first

Perhaps Sorcerers can do that as well as they are the undisputed masters of the forces of magic.
Given that Xavier says the process can result in the creation of malevolent undead, it seems to me Dark Mages and Dark Mystics can do it as well.
They seem to be headed towards Slome (assuming they survive Junsac) so if that ring happen to catch the eye of the Alphar Queen Gambra who is in a bind regarding succession of the House, I am sure there will be much celebration to be had.
 

I was bored. And curious. So I made a picture of all named dragon breeds (12 of them). Each breed is accompanied with named representatives, and the type of breath they have.
So, while this is more appropriately posted in Kyle's "Kandric World Discussion" thread, I felt it may be more relevant here since this particular story is going to deal with politics relating to dragons.
My question is, how much of these did I get wrong? And are you at liberty to fill in the blanks? 

I would like to add that I do not, in any way, represent the readership of Castle Roland, nor do I claim to do so. My opinions are my own. I just wanted to discuss the latest chapter with other fans, is all  
 

One of two ways, I imagine.
First is to have a physical bulletin board writing all the plot threads, like this one which the producers of Young Justice used to plot out 26 episodes:

Or, the software approach. I hear Scrivener has such a feature for authors:

Hmm, if someone has consecutive releases on a weekly schedule, that actually tells me that they have the entire series "in the can", so to speak. 
So actually, I don't think this quite supports my wild ass guess of 1000 words of a good day. More likely, Multimapper has finished writing several chapters in advance and are just releasing on a regular schedule so readers are fed on a trickle basis like many TV shows, unlike Netflix's binge watching.
i suspect, though I can't prove it, that Roland himself writes like this too.

I've been re-reading the Saga, and have some questions. If you think they border on spoilerish territory, I've no issue if you just say "no spoilers".
A paragraph in Chapter 23 has a "human dressed in a midnight blue robe with the constellations moving slowly" say this in a conference of the mythlets: "it is time to add at least one chair to this table and be prepared to help, not hinder, the others form the avatar powers they will certainly gain on their own." My question is, what are these avatar powers?  In Chapter 31, the Wind Spirit has this to say to Kandric: "Word has come to us one of your brothers has made his mark in the realms of Kryplok and Brandall in a way not seen since the Mythling Wars, so your line is quite simply not one most outside the Mortal Realms want to trifle with. Those who have and will are by far the exceptions." Which brother was this? The ones who are doing any number of impressive things are Aster and Conner, and I can't really imagine how either of them made their mark in the realms of Kryplok (evil demon of Punishment) and Brandall (god of Death for good souls). In Chapter 31, Mathard stated that he was "lucky that his wife gave him three children before becoming barren.". Earlier, the Alphar emissary Count Salostar asked Sagell, after she fantasized about bedding Quavis and mothering his child, whether she wants "to have what may be your only offspring with a Human child." Does this mean that many women can only have one child -- even for high-ranking Garm like the Duke, and well-connected people like Sagell who have the Watch looking after her? That actually explains quite a lot - why Kaylaria's ability to pop out babies very easily is highly prized, as well as the cost for Sagell to acquire knowledge about Animal Magic (produce an heir for an elf). However, it is also very curious, given that magic can regrow long-missing limbs in this world -- surely it can regrow wombs as well? And of course, it raises the issue with why the 'mothers' in the Swamp slums sell off their children so cavalierly -- when faced with the prospect that they aren't able to make any more. Is there a hierarchy of healing? That is to say, can we safely say that the best Healthmen cannot heal as well as a Shaman, who then cannot hold a candle to the Channelers? In Chapter 12, Vondum secretly cast a detect spell to check everyone's Echelon and step. Klorna was Teaching step 2, Gablon was Teaching step 5, and Vondum himself was Expert step 5, and Kandric was Teaching Step 3. This may need to be corrected for new information in Chapter 31, since Kandric is supposedly 1 XP below Expert after defeating Cyronia. Or perhaps, Vondum's spell was faulty? In an earlier chapter, it is said that Rovnar has no mythling who is his direct opposite, and hence his attempts to sabotage Gambra's prospects. However, I looked through your list of gods in the Kandric Saga, and it looks like there is a philosophical opposite? Since Rovnar's domain is thievery, trickery, and freedom, Entropic who is dedicated to enslavement and power should oppose him, right? I tried to match the deities to their opposites and came up with this:

I was bored. And curious. So I made a picture of all named dragon breeds (12 of them). Each breed is accompanied with named representatives, and the type of breath they have.
So, while this is more appropriately posted in Kyle's "Kandric World Discussion" thread, I felt it may be more relevant here since this particular story is going to deal with politics relating to dragons.
My question is, how much of these did I get wrong? And are you at liberty to fill in the blanks? 

Massive spoilers.  Don't say you weren't warned.
 
Just for fun, I'm going to try my best to link each of the fields to its D&D 5e counterpart:
Animal Adept > Beastmaster Ranger Druid > cast elemental spells: Circle of the Land Druid; through animal companions: Pact of the Chain Warlock Enchanted Archer > no direct 5e counterpart, but is the quintessential 4e Seeker (it might become a Ranger archetype in the future) Legionnaire > sounds like a War Cleric to me Mage > the Wizard, naturally Mystic > the Artificer Wizard (playtest material) Shaman > no direct 5e counterpart, but the Nature Domain Cleric might come close Sorcerer > there is a 5e Sorcerer. Spirit Warrior > no direct D&D counterpart, but I can picture the Oath of the Ancients Paladin in this role Swordsman > definitely the Champion Fighter Warrior-Adept > he's the Eldritch Knight Fighter Wild Cat > this is the Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian I'm a little saddened, however, that unlike the Squires of Telisan Keep, the Kandric Universe doesn't draw any magic from words or music, aka Bard.

There is one thing I noticed about Kyle's style of dialogue: exposition is character-driven. He favors letting the characters set the scene and just about describe everything, be it off-camera events, history, or what the surrounding environment looks like.
It doesn't matter who the character is. Can be a teacher or a pre-pubescent child. I would bet that if you read it aloud, you'll probably run out of breath at the end.
Again, I recognize this as part of Kyle's style and charm, and am just making an observation.
Here's an example from the latest chapter, straight from the mouth of Cory Bennett:
“Beating on it may break it. I need it to survive long enough to tell us what it knows, so I will find ways to make it talk without major damage. As far as the base goes, once you see it you will understand. There is a lot of systems and junk below, but most is power and some mining tunnels and garbage. The nucleus of this place, what everything I could find is tied into, has to be the computer on the tracked platform. As soon as I got it unhooked, I could see there was still power to this base because of a red light on the wall. It’s weird, really, but there is also a massive manual breaker, which makes me think most of this was here before the machines took this place over. Anyway, I was able to flip it and give us normal power. At least, from what I can tell, there is no sign it is being run through any advanced computers. There is a monitoring station below, but it looks and acts like a normal human operated console. It doesn’t even have security lock out protocols enabled, although it does have them available.”
--
Here's another example, this time Cory is the mechanism by which Kyle is giving flashback information. I dare you to read that aloud without taking a drink of water
“I’ll give you the full story, if you want to hear it, after the training, but I’ll tell you this much now. This all springs from the attempt of Earth Core to take your home, New Bravaria. Earth Core was on the verge of winning, and probably would have, but Earth Core lost its command ship and allowed the defenders to regroup using some of the equipment in the wreckage to help them fight back. But there was far more to it than a loss of a command ship. When it went down, it killed thousands of framers and crippled command and control. It also killed a nephew of the Emperor, along with a well-liked great grandson. The EC Emperor was beyond furious. He sent in his most vicious and blood thirsty commander, also one of his most trusted and highly decorated leaders.
“Field Marshal Kormar was given the task and the full resources of his entire command to find who was responsible for the death of this nephew and capture or eliminate them. While most of Komar’s forces were shattered trying to land by Blood’s Honor, Kormar managed to get ample reinforcements to the Earth Core units. He also managed to push back units around the crash of the Fluvius Camillus and found out the responsible party for her demise was the O’Connell Grenadiers. He even found enough of a surviving record to pinpoint a particular target; a kid by the name of Robin Lerrik. It had been Robin who had really caused the Fluvius Camillus to crash.
“Now this gets confusing, but as it turns out Robin and several other O’Connell Grenadier kids had been rescued by Joel along with Gabriel, Chip, and even Karen here along with some of the others of us following Robin’s escape from the Fluvius Camillus. The two groups actually fought an EC armor unit and was about to be overrun until BH dropped in supporting units. They got to Robin just in time. He was close to death and was sent to a hospital with a rejuv unit. The hospital was attacked and was destroyed, but Robin had been extracted hours earlier by Blood’s Honor, along with all the staff and injured. It was just in time, too. The fight over the empty hospital destroyed it but also wiped out a good portion of Kormar’s remaining frontline units too. In fact, it left him so short on veterans, the tide of the battle for New Bravaria turned irreversibly against EC and they were on the defensive for the rest of the fighting.
“This only made Kormar more angry. He ordered the Grenadiers wiped out and a huge reward for Robin to be captured. Word somehow got back to Blood’s Honor about this and I volunteered to prove my loyalty to them. Well, really to Joel, Gabriel, Karen and Chip, but I guess Colonel Price as well. To make a long story short, I infiltrated the EC command center, detonated the power core, and eliminated Kormar before he could send his report back to Earth Core, so all Earth Core knows is the O’Connell Grenadiers were on New Bravaria and had taken part in the fighting, which led to the destruction of the Fluvius Camillus. As part of this, I procured the Field Marshal’s of his Eye of Mars, knowing it would lead to horrible consequences to those who let it be taken. I was correct. The remaining units were declared Ronin and were forced to flee from Blood’s Honor, the ABR, and even EC. Those who survived are almost all wanted criminals and have probably transitioned into merc units. It would not surprise me at all if many of them didn’t get hired to be part of the raids on Andar IX. This is especially true, since many of the units who hit us there were previously unknowns, but had some really good EC equipment.”
---
I really noticed this tendency when Kyle switched styles to set the scene. An example is in the Kandric Saga where Monarch had an internal monologue about Vondum. Another example is the third party narration in O'Connell's Grenadiers which described what happened to the zip ball sent by Robin to Forest Garden.
---
In the interest of not double-posting, I guess I'll just put this question of the Brile Universe's military ranks here:
I'm trying to reconcile real world ROTC cadet ranks (left) to Brile cadet ranks (right), and have so far come up with the following correspondence. Have I made any mistakes? Private --> Private Private First Class --> Senior Private Corporal --> Corporal Sergeant --> Sergeant Staff Sergeant --> none Sergeant First Class --> Senior Sergeant Master Sergeant --> Master Sergeant First Sergeant --> Command Sergeant Sergeant Major --> Master Command Sergeant Command Sergeant Major --> Ensign Second Lieutenant --> Lieutenant First Lieutenant --> Senior Lieutenant Captain --> none Major --> Major Lieutenant Colonel --> unrevealed Colonel --> unrevealed Second, early on, the recording given to Joel's team granted Senior Sergeant promotions to the non-core BHJMA children, with one person of Joel's choice (presumably Lawson) becoming a Master Sergeant.  However, in later chapters, the list of characters indicate that Lawson is a Senior Sergeant, while the other two (Derek Mathis and Paula Swartz) are Sergeants. Did Joel choose to demote them by a rank?

I can't say much for chapter 17, except that asking for 3 new chapters in a year may already be way too greedy.
However, I will say that upon reading the two newest installments, I came to the opposite conclusion. I'm rather convinced that we will see characters from Brile show up in Grenadiers. Namely, former BH cadette Candice and those she is currently with 

One of two ways, I imagine.
First is to have a physical bulletin board writing all the plot threads, like this one which the producers of Young Justice used to plot out 26 episodes:

Or, the software approach. I hear Scrivener has such a feature for authors:

One of two ways, I imagine.
First is to have a physical bulletin board writing all the plot threads, like this one which the producers of Young Justice used to plot out 26 episodes:

Or, the software approach. I hear Scrivener has such a feature for authors:

I was bored. And curious. So I made a picture of all named dragon breeds (12 of them). Each breed is accompanied with named representatives, and the type of breath they have.
So, while this is more appropriately posted in Kyle's "Kandric World Discussion" thread, I felt it may be more relevant here since this particular story is going to deal with politics relating to dragons.
My question is, how much of these did I get wrong? And are you at liberty to fill in the blanks? 

Go on...

Wow, 25,000 to 50,000 words. Does that still fall within the purview of "short story"? That's "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" put together, with change left over

I don't have special knowledge, so take my opinion as mere speculation.
Although a lesser dragon cannot produce a great, perhaps Xavier can find a great female of some other color to mate with. If Mendelian genetics applies to the Kandric universe, then there's a 25% chance of creating a pure blood. I'm sure dragons are genetically compatible and colors are similar to our skin color and such...
Now of course the issue of inbreeding is a different matter altogether. He probably shouldn't mate with any of his offspring 
On a practical basis, I think the father was probably hoping some eggs would survive? Xavier was of course in deadly peril and right in the line of fire, but perhaps there were sand dragons he hoped would survive the attack because they weren't there when the citadel fell...
 
Also, I am inclined to believe that knowledge of magic has atrophied over the ages. Why would a typical fairy dragon such as Stealth have any special knowledge, unless he is a scholar?

Nah, pretty sure the guilds don't care about a nasty Illorc like Dylar. They probably sold him that fake ranking fully expecting him to be massacred by the other guilds. Don't forget the Swordsmen Guild in Slome was totally corrupt :'D

Yes, but Dylar probably sucked at being a swordsman. Maybe he just bought his title?  

Awww, but I do so love picking on kobolds and goblins in my RPG to reap those delicious, delicious experience points
Poor poor General Dylar. I guess Expert echelon swordsmen are not even worth 1 experience point for teaching echelon shamen 

Ooh 1 XP from Expert. Does that mean you stop gaining any experience whatsoever from scrub kills once you are at, say, High Secondary/Teaching level? That's another interesting fact in the leveling system, because in between the time he slayed the demon and killed Gebetthia, thus leveling up to Expert, Kandric defeated quite a lot of beings and didn't gain a single exp:
The mean cloud spirit in the spirit realm The gnoll caravan raiders, with Sy The cloud demonette, with his mother Half-orc protectors in the gnoll camp, with Vondum All the students in Saslara's school, together with Rylop and two other guards Monarch's officer (Expert Echelon swordsman) in single combat The lower-ranked soldiers in Blathamort's forward base, with his students All of Gebetthia's protectors, with his knights 

Is that why the force from the kill was not shared with Kandric and his siblings, as well as Conth who was in the immediate environment? Or is experience-sharing unique to killing dragons? Or maybe the demon was not quite as narcissistic as dragons and chose to not give any death gifts?
The demon was utterly destroyed, a Dragon has an afterlife somewhere. Therefore, there was nothing put out to share, just the raw power of the kill. Now it did put Kandric 1 exp from Expert, but he was still only teaching afterwards due to the limitations on the body to accept such magical advancement
 

Ah. So, on paper, a (very lucky) primary step mortal who kills a god can only go up to high secondary, no matter how much experience points is gained. That's an additional tidbit of information we didn't have before. Shame about that overflow though!
Is that why the force from the kill was not shared with Kandric and his siblings, as well as Conth who was in the immediate environment? Or is experience-sharing unique to killing dragons? Or maybe the demon was not quite as narcissistic as dragons and chose to not give any death gifts?
Upon rereading the latest chapter, I think it is pretty evident Kandric is now Legendary echelon. That means he can potentially go toe-to-toe with Glaster, and even win! Not that it will even happen in a million years.
 
Gotcha. The female sex can be hard to understand sometimes, much less, be written about

Ah, so THAT was the reference you mean between Kandric talking about it and Pontarius coming out with a gun.
Kandric never said that though. The pertinent passage was just: "Kandric realized if he continued to argue Vondum might become suspicious. As it was, he had been lucky his obvious desire to leave had been mistaken lock, stock, and barrel for a need to get back home. Slowly he forced himself to nod, "I know, but it sure looks like a huge storm. It may take days to pass."
I now understand that these are the parts of a musket, but I must admit I interpret the phrase as a figure of speech that means "everything" and not in fact talking about a boomstick.