Show Notes
Why, you might ask, is a special unexpected episode being released out of our normal schedule? Well, over one hundred submissions were received when Holmgard Press put out the call for a short story anthology. Now, anthology editor and curator Shane Walsh-Smith once again joins August and Jonathan on the podcast, to share insight into the anthology process and give teasers about all of the stories that will be present in volume one! Join us as we examine every single story and its accompanying art, and experience the incredible creativity which will soon be available to you. You will get insights into people and places of Magnamund that we never have before and we promise you'll leave this episode excited about this upcoming release.
More from Journeys Through Magnamund
Good morrow, students! The history we shall cover today belongs to you. It is the story of how the Kai were restored and a bulwark against the future was secured. The New Order was forged in the fires of the Darklands War, doused in the blood of the First Order, and tested against foes greater than even the Darklords.
Seven Stones... their names are mostly hidden from you, yet plague the edges of your consciousness like a foul odor that flees your attempts to catch it. Though the day is warm, you shiver as echoes of screams long ago unleashed whisper through your mind. The Darklords do not keep stories, they only keep their confidence. Their atrocities are lost to all but them, who keep them the way we might keep favorite books, opening them from time to time to savor memories of blood.
Seven Stones... their names are known to you. Now you find their stories, buried among ancient texts thought lost when the monastery was destroyed. Reading the words set down by hands long turned to dust, you are taken back to days of darkness and uncertainty, where the Kai Lords did not yet exist, and the spies of the Darklords were everywhere. Here, a man dared to chase destiny and in so doing, set the world on a path towards hope.
Closing your eyes, you cast your mind into the infinite possibility of what ifs. A swirl of faces swims in your mind, some famliar, some new. Making sense of it all proves difficult, showing that retelling the story already told is no easy feat. One thing remains certain: in all versions there was but a small beacon of hope and the threat of eternal darkness if that light went out. For the dark door had opened and would never fully close again.
You come to the top of the rise and settle your back against a bare pine. The lands you came from are shrouded in mist yet a map exists in your heart of the journey you have taken so far, the twenty or so milestones you have passed to make it here, not to mention the many side quests. As you reflect, new thoughts come to you, dark secrets of the Pentad. The mists grow cold. You shiver, and summon the voices of friends to warm your nerves. It will be time to move on again, soon, so you take what respite you can to celebrate your achievement.