Zergrinch

The wizard at Castle Roland was not named, not because names are unimportant—they very much are—but because no one cared enough to remember it. Names are like good cheese: valuable, distinctive, and prone to becoming a smelly mess if left too long in a forgotten corner of the universe. Castle Roland had once been a shining beacon of bardic revelry, its halls echoing with the sound of lyres, mandolins, and questionable rhymes about love-struck dragons. Now, the only sound was the low, mournful whistle of the wind, which might have been carrying tales of ancient grandeur—or perhaps just indigestion from the surrounding bog. The wizard sat in the grand hall, which was, frankly, no longer very grand. It was grand in the same way a deflated balloon is still technically part of the concept of "party." The tapestries sagged, the chandeliers drooped like tired spiders, and the fireplace glowed with the enthusiasm of an aging lamp post on its last flicker of gas. “Christmas,” the wizard muttered to the empty hall, “is a time for joy, for merriment, and for not being abandoned in a castle with an unsettling draft that seems personally invested in finding the gaps in my robe.” And yet, no bards arrived with their jingling lutes. No feasts appeared with the absurdly large roasted birds that defied all known ornithological classifications. No wassailing could be heard, unless one counted the wizard’s occasional and self-pitying muttering, which he didn’t. You see, Christmas had a way of highlighting the wizard’s loneliness, much like the way a neon sign highlights the existence of a particularly dodgy nightclub. And while loneliness might inspire reflection and self-improvement in other people, for the wizard, it mostly inspired an awkwardly large quantity of eggnog and what can only be described as "experimental" spells. For instance, there was the "Summon Festive Spirits" spell, which had resulted in a mildly annoyed apparition who had been dead for 300 years and had no patience for tinsel. Then there was the "Conjure Christmas Feast" incantation, which conjured precisely one very alive and very annoyed turkey that proceeded to chase the wizard around the hall for an hour. Finally, in a moment of frustration, the wizard cast the most reckless spell he could think of: the "Summon Somebody, Anybody, Please Just Show Up" spell. Tortured metaphors are inadequate to describe how badly this went, but let us try. Imagine if hope were a teacup and desperation were an elephant. Now imagine the elephant was wearing skates, hurtling downhill at the teacup, which was balancing precariously on the edge of a cliff. This, in essence, captures the vibe. A loud *POOF* filled the hall, accompanied by the distinct scent of burning cinnamon (which would have been festive, were it not also mildly alarming). When the smoke cleared, the wizard found himself face to face with a figure clad in green and red, wearing an expression of confusion, mild disdain, and what appeared to be some sort of festive bell hat. “You summoned me?” said the figure, who, upon closer inspection, appeared to be a very grumpy elf. Not the "tiny and cheerful" kind, but the "corporate employee just trying to finish their shift" kind. “I did!” cried the wizard, elated. “Are you here to bring tidings of joy? Cheer? Or perhaps just company for my lonely Christmas?” The elf looked around the castle and then at the wizard, whose robes were covered in what might have been cranberry sauce or a failed attempt at potion-making. “Right,” said the elf flatly. “Tidings of cheer. Sure. Let’s go with that.” What followed was a Christmas so peculiar, so bafflingly absurd, that it could only be described as "a series of unfortunate yuletide mishaps punctuated by sarcastic commentary." There was a failed attempt to decorate the castle (the elf was allergic to mistletoe), a disastrous gift exchange (the elf gave the wizard a "how to summon responsibly" manual; the wizard gave the elf what he *insisted* was an enchanted snow globe, though it was clearly just a jar of glitter), and a feast that culminated in the accidental creation of sentient figgy pudding. And yet, despite it all, as the clock struck midnight and the wizard sat by the fire with the elf—who had begrudgingly decided to stay for a bit longer—the air in Castle Roland felt just a little less heavy. “Not bad for a lonely wizard,” muttered the elf, sipping a mug of what was possibly hot cocoa, or possibly a failed potion experiment. “Not bad at all,” said the wizard, who, for the first time in a long while, smiled. It was the kind of smile that might not light up a room but could certainly make a chandelier flicker a bit more optimistically. And so, Christmas at Castle Roland came and went, with all the elegance of a drunken reindeer in a snowstorm—but somehow, miraculously, it wasn’t entirely awful. And that, dear reader, is the story of how a lonely wizard discovered that Christmas magic isn’t about grand feasts or carols but about sharing your misery with someone equally snarky. Written by ChatGPT4o

Strangely enough, I'm on Google Chrome and I don't see the error on Castle Roland. Yes, this forum is insecure, but that's on InvisionZone.

Sorry, I misspoke. He's from North Ossetia, not Odessa. Also, I take no responsibility for your addiction. You have to realize that the author is writing for a platform, Webnovel.com, which pays him for the number of people who subscribe in order to read his work. As such, you realize that Guiltythree is extremely motivated to release bite-sized chapters, at an average rate of two chapters per day, which almost always end in a cliffhanger. 😁

He appears to have a deeply-immersive, thematic writing style. In particular, Kyle needs time to acclimate himself into the Kandric Universe before starting to write something new. Not surprising, since at this point you basically need help to keep everyone and everything straight.

There is no indication that Chapter 34 is even in progress. Sorry to say, you can't assume that Kyle writes one chapter per year, or even every two years.

It's been up since... December 24, 2021? https://castleroland.net/libraries/the-kandric-saga/34/

I stopped reading when the author began the fourth nightmare. I plan to stack chapters so I can read it in one go, once that book is finished. I don't know where the story is currently at, so I can't say whether it lost its way or not. But the structure seems clear to me. One book tackles the nightmare test, in which Sunny goes through hardship to gain power, followed by one or two books set outside it where Sunny consolidates and learns how to use his newfound power.

I'll be honest. For both Brile and O'Connell's Grenadiers to a lesser extent, I have no idea what's going on anymore. Kyle keeps introducing more and more new characters, which bogs down the story since these new characters are all getting their backstories revealed in a massive exposition dump. What's more, these exposition dumps are in the form of actual soliloquies that I can't imagine anyone actually giving. While this proves that Kyle excels in world building, I am starting to question whether he has a concrete plan to bring the stories to a timely and satisfactory conclusion, or will they simply be anthologies to accommodate an ever-expanding cast of characters I can no longer remember. 😅😅😅

I get you're excited, but you don't need to post it 3x

Brile is probably okay, but I think Grenadiers is not ready for publication, at least not without HEAVY rewriting on the first few chapters.

It's not uncommon for Kyle to go silent for months, even extending into well over a year, between posting any updates.

I don't think he can. It's Kyle's universe. He gets final say on everything, unless Rilbur wishes to risk some kind of falling out 😅

Just to set your expectations. It's an adventure story, so there's absolutely zero romance or sex in the 900+ 700+ chapters I've read thus far. Second, English isn't the writer's native language (he lives in North Ossetia, Russia), so expect some idiosyncrasies (though the English is still impeccable). Third, he's heavily influenced by games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls, which you'll notice soon enough. The dream world has RPG elements, and the power advancement system isn't quite as developed as Kyle's. Other than that, welcome to the Forgotten Shore. Hope you survive the experience 😜

Given that Revolutions started as a conservative reaction to the election of Barack "He's coming for our guns" Obama (whose intended expy was President Ashwood), it wasn't surprising that the election of President Trump (who was more Ashwood than Bryce) would derail the authors' keenness on continuing the stories. In other words, you can chalk this up to real life being much stranger than anything you can find in fiction. 😂 Incidentally, I read somewhere that Adventure Quest was supposed to be a collaborative universe where interested authors can write about the Zong adventures of their own IZTAZ teams. It ultimately fell through, and Kyle eventually reworked it into the adventures of Robin McDaniels the secret psionic...

Page navigation is broken. You can't go to Page 1 of this thread by clicking anywhere, for example. The only thing you can do is to change /page/2 to /page/1 in the address box. I think it's time for the site owners to consider a board system that's better than Invision 👀