I don't have a lot to say about this chapter. It was so long ago that I've forgotten most of my thoughts at the time. At this point in time, the whole story was definitely not planned out. At least, not with the definite outcome. I know I had a solid idea of where to go, but a lot of that has changed since then.

 

A big part of chapter one was lore accuracy. This is especially prevalent in Chapter One Act Three: Guardians. I really thought lore was important back then. That isn't to say lore doesn't belong in a story, but it definitely did not need to be in mine. At least to the extent I tried to have it. But I locked myself into the lore and I was forced to continue with it as the chapters progressed. By the end though, this is not believable at all. I really steered as far away from the lore as I could, while still staying in the boundaries of the lore I established.

 

But more on that later.

 

I personally think this is one of the best chapters in TFOA. Though the image quality is lackluster and the exposition can be forced at times, the overall plot is consistent and flows at a solid pace. I don't know how I managed to execute it as well as I did on my first try. I think this is because there was a lot of passion at this point and I made the whole thing in like 2 weeks or something. Which just seems ridiculous now. I could barely finish a single act within 2 weeks later on in the story.

 

I don't have much else to say about chapter one. I just don't remember much.

 

 

Well first of all, this cover image? Garbage. It just looks so silly with Castalia's face like that lol

 

I'd describe chapter two as the end of my original vision. I was still riding the plot I had since chapter one and was able to keep the content flowing smoothly. By the end of this chapter, the path forward was much muddier. I'll go into that with chapter three.

 

Overall, I'm very proud of this chapter, but damn it is so boring at times. Gerruck and Elyvaea's arc is just not interesting. And it's obvious why. They are literally just going through the vanilla questline with minor changes. This resulted in my opinion of them to degrade considerably. I did not enjoy writing for them or screenshotting them. This culminated into the inevitable death of Elyvaea. I eventually became so bored by their arc that I wanted Elyvaea to die. Of course, I didn't rush into this decision. It was weaved into the story well, if I do say so myself. But her death was, for the most part, an effort to spare me of boredom. And if I was bored, then readers no doubt were too. So it was the right call.

 

Next I wanna talk about Malkor. His arc in this chapter is pretty straight forward. He is bad guy, bad guy does bad things. There was a bit of mystery thrown in by obscuring his plans. Plus the foreshadowing with Taeyva led to an exciting conclusion. But overall, it's standard stuff. That being said, I think some of the best writing in the whole series was done in his arc. I just loved writing for him and it shows. I think this is especially prevalent in Act Four: Threading the Needle. I think the introduction is flawless and there isn't a better one for the remainder of TFOA.

 

Next is Taeyva and Talen. I'm drawing a blank as I write this. I had to reread chapter two to recall everything they did. I thought their arrival at Isabel's coven came later on, but they were there by Act Two: Ravens and Witches. I don't know what that means. I guess they didn't really do much, so it felt like all of that would have fit in just an entry or two. Looking back though, I'm glad it was split up so much. The pacing was solid, for the most part.

 

There is one aggravating mistake I made though. To you all, it is seriously inconsequential. But I've been kicking myself for years at not doing this. Remember this scene?

 

 

Talen escaped his binds (after Taeyva gave him a dagger) and he hid behind the shelf. Well, Isabel enters the room and notices a trail of blood leading to the back. When I took the shots, I just figured Talen used the dagger to draw blood from himself. Well, literally one spoiler earlier, she showed this:

 

 

A bottle of his own blood! Why didn't I show the bottle on the floor beside the blood splatters???? Gosh, it seems so obvious now. But yeah, it's so minor and it can even be assumed that is what happened, but I wish I made it more obvious.

 

Another aggravating mistake, though this is less a mistake and more a result of the story just changing directions, is the whole "blood of kings" nonsense. Originally, I planned on leveraging Talen's destiny a lot more. He was some chosen one hero guy who'd save the world, and his blood was powerful as a result. I can't express how glad I am that I threw that plotline out the window. Talen is a much better character as the flawed, average joe who can shine because of a few major boons. Making him a chosen one would have been incredibly stale.

 

Instead, Taeyva would adopt that plotline.

 

At first, Prophets were not my plan. I didn't come up with the concept until planning chapter three. At the beginning, Taeyva was intended to be a guide for Talen (obviously. I mean, she literally guided him to his wife). When Talen discovered his "chosen one" destiny, she would be the person to help him understand what that means. She wasn't a soul trapped to a destiny, but a proud servant willingly doing what she believed was right. Of course, not a lot of that was changed. Taeyva did end up being a mentor of sorts to Talen and she did always love her role as Hircine's servant, but it wasn't by blind devotion. But more on that later.

 

So if I didn't have her planned out so much, what's with all the foreshadowing? Specifically, this:

 

Come, my hounds, burn the glass. Before the eye, only red will pass.

Sorrowful seas, massacre the slow; down the moon their blood will flow.

 

Well, simply put, I figured I'd use the Hunt as a plot device eventually. So I made up the poem and that's it. I think of it as prepared foreshadowing. Hinting at a future event that I'm 90% sure will come, but have no idea what it will be.

 

Finally, I wanna talk about Castalia and Torund.

 

Torund is the only character who never drifted from my original plan. He was always meant to become a father figure to Taeyva. And, I have to admit, I feel I really nailed his character. His death could have been better. I admit that. But he was always meant to die without honor. But, as I keep saying, more on that later.

 

Now Castalia. Who was Castalia in my original draft? I can't have changed her that much, right? I mean, she literally foreshadowed her relationship with Malkor in her introductory scene. Well, I'm a bit ashamed to say that wasn't foreshadowing at first... In fact, Castalia was not even meant to be a major player in the story. I said I was glad I changed Talen's story away from the chosen one thing. But the relief I feel from that doesn't even come close to how I feel about my decision to make Castalia not only a major character in the story, but perhaps the single most influential, driving character in the entire series.

 

I'm just gonna say my original plan for her and move on. Originally, Castalia was Mephala... in human form... ?

 

 

So I said Chapter Two was the end of my original vision, but that end didn't occur until a bit into chapter three. I remember wanting to make Chapter Three Prologue: The High King for ages. I literally had it planned since the very beginning. And I am pleased with how it turned out. It is really the perfect sampling of how the world turned out without directly showing things. It gives readers an obscure glimpse into the future that was foggy back then, but clearer now. That being said, it locked me into where the story should go from this point on. Which in itself isn't a big deal. I had a vision and a plan. I didn't think the plan would change.

 

The only iffy bits about this prologue are images like this one:

 

 

Celann was talking about the war while I showed this image, so it could be assumed this happened at that time. As we now know, this exact scene didn't literally happen in TFOA. So when did it occur? Well, I obviously have an answer to that. It happened after the war. But if it happened after, why are they gathered with weapons? (Yes, I know no one is actually asking these questions, but still). Well, the world was not perfect after TFOA. Things did not settle very easily, despite the supposed peace established in the epilogue. But the specifics to what happened are for another time.

 

Moving on.

 

I think chapter three has the biggest mistakes in the entire story. Specifically with the antagonists of the story. Basically, after the first couple acts I started steering away from the original plan, but I already had set up a direction to go and had a lot of the shots already taken. I wasn't sure where to go. That isn't to say I was completely lost. I knew where I wanted to end up, but getting there was the main difficulty.

 

So lets break this down one thing at a time, starting with Malkor, Boethiah, and Markarth.

 

In my original draft, chapter three was going to end in Markarth rather than Solitude/Riften. The primary forces would convene there in an ultimate battle, resulting in some... pretty catastrophic events. Also, I still wanted to include a lot of lore at this point and had stumbled upon "The Hunger". If I could take anything back, it'd be their inclusion. I wanted to showcase Boethiah's power and raise the bar for powerful foes. Honestly, they were cool and I did a decent job introducing them. But I found myself stuck in a hole with them. How could a single Hunger take over one city? It fucked up the world building so badly! With that kind of power, Boethiah could have won easily. But it was a blessing in disguise. If I had to get rid of the Hunger, I needed something capable of beating them. But I would not make the same mistake again. I needed unmatchable power with glaring, exploitable weaknesses.

 

So I created the concept of the Prophets. But I'll get back to them later.

 

So at this point, Markarth was taken over, Boethiah is in a mortal form, and Malkor is... there? Honestly, he doesn't really exist in this chapter. Which is fine. It wasn't his time. I'm glad I chose to leave him out for the most part instead of including him for the sake of it. But this left a void in his and Boethiah's arc. I knew I had to throw away my original plan for him. The Hunger had to go and he needed to be more impactful by his own actions. It'd take a LONG time and a lot of winging it until I found Malkor's path.

 

Next let's talk about Castalia.

 

When I came up with the Prophet idea, Taeyva was the only one. At first. I knew I couldn't have her alone, but I was still stuck in this weird phase of both being stuck in a plot I had to finish while also being completely lost on where to go. So Castalia was forced to just go along with it. I was afraid that if I thought too hard about it, I'd create too many plot holes by straying off the path I planned. But I also was completely oblivious to how she was perceived.

 

So I said previously that she was originally Mephala in mortal form. That's not entirely accurate. She was more of an unwilling host, like Jarl Idgrod. So with that concept, I just figured she'd have a puppet like personality. No real emotion or clear motive, just a villain. But I figured that'd be interesting. Pfft! Yeah right. That's when it hit me. I realized that I needed to fix Castalia. But I had to finish her chapter three arc before fixing her character. The good thing though is that changing her character did not have to invalidate or diminish her actions. Changing her character did not change the plot itself, it only made the plot more interesting and believable.

 

But I do have one gripe and a confession.

 

Olivia: There are those who wish to claim a destiny,

 

The Last Sermon is a major act. And the ending was to foreshadow and give insight into the characters future. This last part, where Olivia is speaking about each character, is another example of my locking myself into a plan. But when I was working on chapter four and had finished remaking Castalia, I looked at this line shown above... it seems fine, right? Castalia did want to claim a destiny. She wanted Null, to kill Mephala and reclaim her life. But that wasn't the original line. In fact, I bet many of you here never saw this line. I know you don't remember at all. In fact, i don't even remember what I originally wrote here. But I admit, I changed this line months after The Last Sermon was first posted. This is the only instance of me going back and making a change.

 

Speaking of Castalia, I have to talk about Gerruck and Elyvaea next.

 

Well, not really. I don't have much to say here. Once again, they were pretty boring. Though I think I did an alright job with Elyvaea's death and Gerruck's defeat. I mean, I was pretty happy to kill her off at the time... However, I have to admit, Gerruck is not a great character. He's mostly a "sad man, dead wife", which is a term like "Mary Sue" for male characters who need a reason to do things. Sure, he has his intricacies with Alduin and all, but for the most part, he's not all that interesting. I do think I salvaged this in Chapter Four, but more on that next.

 

Taeyva and Torund.

 

To be honest, this is just a good arc. I had this planned out pretty well so there weren't any real complications with this. Plus, the introduction to chapter three, the swamp chase, was pretty awesome. Yeah yeah yeah, that is my hand on my own back, but I deserve to be a bit self-flattering, right?

 

I think looking at their arc compared to Malkor's is a glaring showcase of how I prioritized my planning of the story after the Hunger's introduction. I honestly don't have anything else to say about them. It's just a solid arc and was the first time in TFOA that character development really, really occurred. I think Act Six really introduced the Prophet concept perfectly for the rest of TFOA to come.

 

And finally, Talen.

 

After chapter two, I decided to rework him. The king's blood business was too much and I did not want a chosen one arc for him. It never would have fit his character. But there was one massive, glaring obstacle. The Dream Sequence in chapter two. Talen saw Isabel and she spoke to him. She was strung up on a cross and there were hundreds of empty crosses strung up around them. What was this? I mean, now it seems obvious. This directly foreshadows Null and the ultimate ending of TFOA.

 

"Gosh, Collygon! You're so clever and good at planning! I wish I were as cool as you!"

 

Well, I don't blame you. But jokes aside, what I originally foreshadowed with this didn't happen. I changed directions. But you won't catch me with my pants down. That scene was obviously incredibly important and I wasn't going to let it go to waste. So I simply planned out my revised story line around it. I wish I had my all my notes on this, but I don't. So I can't remember exactly how I worked around it, but we know how the story ended so I obviously did a decent job incorporating it.

 

But none of what I said there has to do with chapter three. All I knew at this point was that Talen was not meant to be some divine chosen one. I had to make him a hero through ordinary courage and actions. I wanted him to be the "us" of TFOA. Someone the average reader can relate to and root for. He isn't supposed to be a favorite character or a badass one, but the one we ultimately root for because he's just average enough to fight daedra and dragons while also being a regular guy. But I wanted him to rise beyond that. He was still meant to be the High King and lead humanity. Fortunately, I didn't have to change anything to do this. All I had to do was shift directions a tiny amount. Chapter Three Talen is all about establishing him in this way and by the end, I think I did a good job.

 

Chapter Four. The beginning of the end. With everything I've explained by now, I hope you all understand why the gap between chapter three and four was so long. I floundered my way through chapter three and it was difficult. I refused to do so again and wanted to fully plan everything out fully. From when chapter four started all the way to the epilogue. I can say with confidence that I had a path to follow and I did so, but it wasn't always a smooth ride.

 

During this planning period, I wrote the Restitched series. I really wanted to fix the looks of my characters and write simple stuff to give myself a break from the strenuous process of creating TFOA. To this end, Restitched was excellent and it came out great. For 10 image stories, they do a good job of showcasing exactly what I wanted them to. The other important thing about Restitched was maintaining my inspiration. I must confess, at this point, TFOA was becoming very draining. I was really getting into making mods and learning 3D modelling and became very passionate about it. As a result, my passion for stories suffered. I didn't enjoy taking screenshots as much as I used to and writing became difficult at times. I wasn't wavering in commitment at this point. I LOVED TFOA and was determined to get chapter four done. But this is where my enjoyment began to dwindle.

 

But eventually I finished Restitched and knew it was time to get back to the main story. I had everything planned out and was excited to begin bringing everything to a close, even though that close was a loooooong way away.

 

This starts all with the prologue. In my opinion, this is the most important prologue in the entire story. At least it is for me. It's the start of me tying everything together. It explains Castalia's and Erinye's plans, the fate of Isabel, and previews how everything will culminate in the end. I'll admit, there is a bit of patching I did here. I had rewritten my storyline so some things had to be properly explained. This first spoiler is really all about that. It establishes the conspiracy while hinting at Isabel's "survival". I had to set up everything right away for my own sake, that way the direction could be set and I could feel comfortable proceeding. And believe me, it was a tough decision. I was rife with uncertainty as to whether or not I was making the right choices.

 

Act one follows this same idea. The prologue established the past and the first act was to establish the new future. It set everything up to go forward. There's not a whole lot to say. I do want to talk about the third spoiler: Olivia's awakening.

 

I haven't really talked about Olivia until now because she frankly did not matter until this point. That isn't to say her role in the story could've been removed, but it isn't until now that she even has a character. She is a martyr. A tragic character doomed to die. I bet a lot of you forgot about her, didn't you? Well, maybe not forgot, but didn't really think about her until now. And that's exactly the point.

 

Originally, she was a much more evil character. In my first draft, she was more of an insanely devout priestess who'd serve the gods to unimaginable ends. But I scrapped that early on and was kinda lost with her. Fortunately, I had Castalia take over her so I didn't have to worry about changing her character until now. It wasn't until I saw Gerruck as a "sad man dead wife" that I realized Olivia is the perfect tool for fixing him.

 

She became the innocence that Gerruck lacked. His arc in Chapter Four would be terrible if Olivia was not there to be that source of sobering guilt. She was the reminder of their humanity and the juxtaposition to Gerruck's willingness to give it up. Gerruck's arc in Chapter Four isn't really his arc. It's Olivia's.

 

 

And it all began here. I think this scene is one of my best. The screenshots capture everything I want them to, making it so words aren't needed. Her gradual descent from the podium is the perfect showcasing of her fallen character. The once highly regarded and respected priestess has been brought to nothing.

 

But she wouldn't remain that way.

 

If you think about it, Olivia is actually only present in one chapter in the entirety of TFOA. Before she was ensnared by Castalia, she was only present in a few acts and never showed any real character depth. Which is fine. She wasn't supposed to. But I think that is what makes her such an interesting character to me. Every other character in TFOA had to grow over multiple chapters, but Olivia had to do so in just one. Or rather, I had to do so in just one.

 

Olivia was going to die at the conclusion of Chapter Four, but that left me with a very short time frame to properly send her off. As I said previously, she hasn't been developed at all to this point, yet I still needed the audience to feel like they knew her. I had to basically remake her while also making her seem familiar instantly. And I think this first dialogue does this exactly.

 

 

It establishes her regret, showcases Gerruck's lack of shame, and offers insight into the struggle the two will face going forward. And this is basically how their arc continues until Gerruck succumbs to Alduin and Olivia is subsequently slain. It is pretty straightforward, but done in a way that I'm really proud of. I finally made Gerruck interesting, and all it took was Olivia's life.

 

Let's now move over to the main group stationed at Fort Dawnguard. Taeyva has now finally joined up with Talen and the rest, establishing a central "good guy" group. But, as we all know, it wasn't going to be that easy. I knew that the vigilant needed to clash with Taeyva and I really did not want to rush it. This ends up making their arc centralized to the fort. They never actually left Fort Dawnguard throughout all of Chapter Four, which I find kind of interesting. There could never be any real progress until Taeyva and Carcette were able to unite. So I had to find a way to do that. In that pursuit, I utilized the same strategy that you've probably noticed by now. I used another character.

 

Dennis was originally a minor character. He wasn't supposed to make huge strides in the story, but be a sounding board for vigilant ideas outside of Carcette. But in planning out chapter four, I wanted to do more with him. He needed to be the bridge for Taeyva and Carcette to cross. The problem was that I made both these characters incredibly stubborn. Neither would ever make the first step without a huge shove. It was because of that Chapter Four needed to close on that point and really build up to it, otherwise it wouldn't be realistic. But anyway, in order to get these characters "over the bridge" they needed Dennis to help them. But again, they are really stubborn. And in planning I realized that these characters wouldn't be shoved by just anyone. Carcette was made to be extremely adamant and narrow minded. She was devoted to the ideals of the Vigil. So getting her connected to Dennis was easy, since he was already a Vigilant as well. Taeyva was a different story.

 

By this point, we've seen Taeyva's trust issues and her habit of holding onto the past. She defines herself by who she used to be, despite the success she finds in the present. The goal for her development was for her to discover the ability to move on from the past and relinquish her grudges. And that's when it hit me. Dennis should be the one who caused the defining moment of Taeyva's past: when she was captured by the vigil.

 

 

This Restitched story: Innocence Among Intolerance, is probably the most impactful of the Restitched stories. It is the only true glimpse into this crucial moment in these two character's pasts. Sure, this moment was blatantly explained in Act One, but the impact is not the same as this Restitched story.

 

In order for Taeyva to be able to even remotely forgive Dennis, he needed to have always been "innocent". This was an interesting conundrum because it meant Dennis did not have much room for development. That doesn't mean he didn't grow, it just meant he would be the person he is meant to be basically right away. But that isn't a bad thing, and I think it made his role in this chapter more believable. When doing this, I learned that not all characters need to grow a whole lot to have meaningful development. Dennis was always the same person, from act one to act seven. He didn't grow as a person, per say, but he did find his courage and was able to ultimately go against Carcette's orders to do what he thought was right: freeing Taeyva.

 

Now we can't talk about Taeyva without at least mentioning Davey and Torund. There isn't a whole lot to go into, but this is another example of my strategy of using character relationships to grow the characters. Torund was protective of Taeyva. This relationship was built up in chapter three. But I wanted him to be a father figure to her. And what's a father stereotype? The D.A.D.D. (Dad's against daughter's dating) trope. Which is kinda stupid when taken to extremes and all, but you get what I'm saying here. Davey was the tool for not only Taeyva, but for Torund as well to soften up and see the good in the world and people that they previously ignored.

 

 

I hope you all remember this scene. I think it's one of my best. The idea behind it is pretty simple, but it's powerful. Taeyva had grown a lot and had found success in her role as Hircine's Prophet, but it didn't really do much. She still wasn't confident in herself and the weight of her past failures continued to drag her down. I thought a lot on how she would overcome all of it and realized that the answer wasn't my first thought. She could succeed at her role as a Prophet a million times over and nothing would change. Facing the problem head on only makes you blind to the solutions on either side of it. Taeyva could never heal while she clung to the same ideals that brought this despair upon her. But she doesn't know any other way. So I had Davey introduce it. To move past her regrets, she needed not to overcome them, but to move around them. And I think this scene does that.

 

Next is Talen, and unfortunately, I don't have as much to say as you might think. Talen kinda took a step back from the center stage of the plot in this chapter. He was still very present and a lot happened to him, but in terms of the events of Chapter Four, Talen didn't do much. For Talen, chapter four was all about setting him up for chapter five. His meeting with Sheogorath, his new role as 'leader', and the turbulence with Taeyva were all to ground him in the place I wanted him to be for TFOA's conclusion. It might seem odd to have him struggle to trust Taeyva when he was supposed to be the one person to unite the group, but I felt it was the most logical obstacle. He had to struggle with who to trust, and it just did not make sense for him to do so with any one else. Maaaaybe the vigil, but that would have been a stretch.

 

Moving on to the primary antagonists of Chapter Four: Erinye and Argus. Again, there isn't much to say about them yet. In this chapter, their scenes are there to drive the plot and establish conflict. There wasn't much in terms of development. I did try to clearly juxtapose them to one another though. I took a similar approach with both Erinye and her "sister". They were just the "bad guys" in this chapter and that's it.

 

Speaking of Erinye, lets discuss Castalia and Malkor. In my opinion, their arc in Chapter Four is the best arc in TFOA, specifically for Castalia. We finally learn who Castalia really is and what her real motivations are. The conflict with her, Malkor, and Erinye is exciting. I think it worked so well because it was almost a separate story itself. Obviously their conflict integrated into the main plot, but it could easily stand on its own. All of this climaxes in what I think is the best Act in the entirety of TFOA: The Spiderling.

 

I really enjoy focusing on one character. It is easier to get into the headspace and it frees me from the constraints of juggling multiple characters. The Spiderling focuses almost solely on Castalia. It was time for her to transition away from her role as antagonist and I needed to really sell it. She did a lot of bad stuff and I knew it would not be easy to shift the audience's view of her so drastically. So I utilized a very common, yet very effective strategy, in storytelling. I victimized her. Extremely.

 

First, she was an unwilling prophet. This worked without much explanation thanks to Taeyva's history as a prophet that had already been established. We knew that prophets had a rough life, but didn't have the explicit details. By providing them in a way that also makes us feel sorry for Castalia, we learn to feel bad for Castalia because we associate that with what we learned about prophets.

 

Then I took it a step further by connecting her motivations to Malkor. This would have been very abrupt if it had not been introduced and foreshadowed already. Her mentioning of Malkor in chapter two was the perfect introduction, but their difficult relationship needed to be shown before we saw the cause of it. When Castalia runs into Malkor after the slaughter of Whiterun, we see this turmoil directly, but don't understand why. So this leaves the audience wondering why Malkor is so mean to her, which plants the seed for taking her side. Once it is then explained, because his grudge seems very forgivable (especially after all the things she had done for him) it makes her eve more sympathetic.

 

And finally, by making her essentially a tool for Erinye after all of this, we then want her to win. Erinye partially symbolizes Castalia's relationship with Mephala. As soon as Mephala left in the story, Erinye was there to take her place. Castalia has to get past Erinye to achieve her goals of killing Mephala, and she has to get past Mephala to achieve her goals of revenge/earning Malkor's forgiveness.

 

But yeah, I'm really proud of how I handled Castalia.

 

And that's about it for Chapter Four.

 

 

Chapter five takes a similar approach to Chapter Four, by focusing on a central location and eventually concluding with a big battle at said location. What made chapter five different though was that it had a more direct timeline. In previous chapters, you didn't really know how the timelines overlapped. Events like Solitude's destruction was felt throughout all parties, but for the most part as the experiences weren't overlapped in a clear way. Which isn't an issue or anything, but I found it interesting when making Chapter Five.

 

The other big change was my method of actually making it. In the past, I'd take the shots of an entry and then write it before moving on to the next one (with the exception of a few acts here and there). This strategy worked pretty well because of how I took screenshots. I have a very basic storyboard and then take shots of whatever scene I'm doing, imaging the dialogue in my head. I don't write the dialogue down and then just remember what I had them saying when I write. Typing this out, I realize how insane such a method seems. But I have a good memory for that kind of thing, so it wasn't much of an issue. But just to show you how bad I am at writing down my ideas, here's a pic of an actual "storyboard" for the end of chapter four. (You'll notice a pretty remarkable change I made if you read it. A change I made very early on in development, and am glad I did).

 

 

But with Chapter Five, I took all the screenshots ahead of time because I wanted to finally have a consistent release schedule. And it worked pretty well, though by the time I got to the final acts, it was sometimes difficult to remember what I wanted them to say exactly. It worked out though.

 

I wanna start with the Prologue: Cold Origins. This prologue did not make the impact I wanted it to. I didn't keep in mind that an audience really doesn't remember a lot of details and the prologue was based entirely on the past of two characters that had only been shown through dialogue. I went into it assuming people would remember (big mistake) and as a result, it seemed confusing. Plus I was just getting back into screenshotting and writing, so it was pretty messy overall. It would have been better to take the same approach I took with The Spiderling. Making it a more standalone story rather than one that relied on remembering information. But it doesn't matter now and for the most part, it did its job.

 

This chapter as a whole had a shift. I'm not really sure what it is, but it just feels... different. It could be because of the huge gap between 4 and 5. Or maybe it changed because of my screenshotting/writing technique. Or maybe it's just final chapter syndrome. You know in a lot of book series and shows the final season/book seems to change in style/direction? I feel like I understand that now, but I still can't figure out why. My guess is that the ending of a story is the first thing you plan, so when you get closer to that it's easier to plans your steps. But that's enough rambling about that.

 

I had less characters to deal with in this chapter in terms of development. Dennis has his arc. Isran, Carcette, and Celann were no longer important to warrant any real focus. I even felt like Mike was somewhat completed, though he was never meant for much. So with that, I wanted to make sure everyone else was "finished". And pretty quickly into writing I realized I had a lot to cram into a short time. This meant some characters didn't get the ending they deserved.

 

Lets start with Erinye, who had a lot of screentime.

 

We start off with Erinye where Argus ends. Argus' time had come. He never really had much screentime or development, but that was intentional. He was somewhat of a foil to Erinye, the more composed daedra juxtaposed to her hotheadedness. But the main reason for him in the story was to be the only person Erinye ever felt close to. But I kept this mostly concealed until after he died.

 

All of Erinye's backstory was shown in Act Two: Tears for Eternity, with some other parts of her history sprinkled in dialogue in future and previous entries. But this act is what really went into it.  I'm actually a little surprised how well it ended up. Shoving that much background into one entry could have easily been an overload, but it wasn't. And at this point, Erinye was explained as much as she needed to. One thing I wanted to make sure with Erinye is that her motives were only ever implied. Never does she directly say why she wants Null, or where she sees herself in the future. I wanted people to understand her because of her pain and nothing more. I felt that if I made everything about her transparent, then it'd be tempting to take her side. Erinye is a villain. No amount of sympathy should sway readers from viewing her that way. And I think she remained that way all the way up until her end.

 

But her end wasn't perfect. Taeyva killing Erinye was symbolic for Taeyva. Though the two of them never interacted, they were two sides of the same coin. Prophets whose past defined them, but took different approaches to life as a result. Erinye is hatred, regret, and vengeance. Taeyva is love, understanding, and acceptance. Taeyva killing Erinye is meant to show that the future of prophets will be different. But from a story telling perspective, it is somewhat random. It would make more sense for Castalia to kill Erinye, given their sordid history. But I'm skipping a bit ahead here. Before we talk about the ending, lets discuss the relationships of these characters.

 

Castalia and Taeyva had parallel arcs in chapter five. They each grew into themselves through a relationship (Malkor and Davey) and were focused primarily on the final battle in Null. I'm quite pleased with how their arcs turned out. I've never delved into romance much, so I took it slow. Small moments with large impacts, rather than frequent, romantic scenes. To be honest, Taeyva did not need a romantic subplot. Her conflicts were a result of a lack of confidence with herself and that can be resolved in other ways. But I wanted to do it. And it make the battle between Malkor and Davey much more impactful.

 

As for Castalia, her romance was absolutely a requirement. It was what I've been building towards her this whole time after all. And let me tell you, I really struggled with it. Not by execution, but indecision. I wanted Malkor to be the good guy. I really did. He went through so much and was so close to moving away from the person he grew up to be. But Castalia had to die. She just did. I mean, look at the shit she caused? Olivia, Erinye, Gerruck, and Elyvaea. Castalia orchestrated so much and never faced consequences. And it's not that she "deserves to be punished", but from a story telling perspective, it's tough to allow such a character the perfect ending. But that doesn't mean she can't have a resolved one.

 

Because in the end, Castalia won.

 

And Malkor didn't. Like I said, I struggled with Malkor. I love him as a character and wanted to see him happy. But to love him as a character is to remain true to the character he was. Not who I wanted him to be. In the end, I'm happy with Malkor's arc. It was tragic, but correct. There was one part though that could've should've been better. Torund.

 

I had always planned for Torund to die by Malkor's hand. They were always at each other's throats and never hid their loathing of one another. I knew from the very beginning that if Malkor remained evil, he would kill Torund. I also decided long ago that it wouldn't be honorable. This is my biggest regret.

 

Torund died unjustly. We all know what happened. He was shot from behind by a falmer and died. Terrible. Here's what I should have done:

 

Torund gets shot by the falmer, but lives. But he shot is deadly, nearly fatal. Maybe through a lung. He then faces Malkor for the final time, fighting while on death's door. But ultimately cannot win due to the actions of the falmer.

 

I wish I did that instead. But alas, did not. In the end, the difference is very minor. Torund's death is still the same, but at least he would have died fighting. I do think Torund's send off in the end was good though. He manages a last word with Taeyva and is able to remain with her in spirit, even after his death. This is made clear in the epilogue when Taeyva kills the hag using the claws she got from Torund.

 

Now before I move on to the battle in Null, I have to talk about Talen and Isabel.

 

Originally, as in very early in the beginning, Isabel was not a part of the whole story, as I mentioned earlier. She was written in later and I am very glad I did so. Making her the ultimate goal gave Talen a real purpose. If I had Talen continue in the story the same way, but without Isabel as a motivation, it wouldn't have felt real. I still think it would have worked. Talen unites humanity and saves the world. But it would've just been... lacking. He originally set out on this journey to save Isabel! It would have been criminal to take that away. And yet, in the end, he didn't save her. Well, kind of. He just didn't acquire her spirit for Null.

 

In planning the conclusion, I found myself at a crossroads. On one path, Talen gets the power of Null. On the other, Castalia does. What ultimately decided this conflict was Sheogorath.

 

If something occurs in a story, it has to have a consequence. Whether that consequence is good or bad doesn't matter. It just needs to do something that alters the direction the story was going. I knew Sheogorath's inclusion needed to have a huge impact. But just how huge?  Well, I made the decision by the same ideals that resulted in Castalia's death. The actions of a character's past must have consequences to their future. And for Talen, it would be the ultimate irony.

 

In chapter one, Talen sought daedric power to save Isabel by sacrificing Ellia to Boethiah. This was a foolish wish. You shouldn't meddle with dark powers. But Talen never really learned. I mean, you can't really blame him. Immediately after the events at the sacellum, he met Taeyva, who was also a daedric being, who promised to help him do exactly what he wanted. Bring him to his wife. And she did. Though as we know now, that wasn't really his wife in the marsh.

 

And then Talen meets Sheogorath who promises to help him. And of course, Talen agrees. Old habits die hard. But Sheogorath also sows doubt into his relationship with Taeyva, nearly turning them against one another. But who is the one who took him to his wife in the marsh? Taeyva. And who is the one who took Talen into Null, literally taking him to his wife? Taeyva. Taeyva never broke her promise. She took him to his wife in the end, just as she said she would in chapter one.

 

So did Talen learn his lesson? I like to think so. But he had to suffer through a lot in order to. If he never meddled with daedra, he would have gotten Isabel in Null. But on the other hand, if he hadn't done so, he never would have met Taeyva or gone on this journey.

 

So for that reason, Talen did not get the power of Null. And Castalia did. She deserved it more than anyone else too, if you ask me. Yes, even more than Talen. Because despite how horrible Castalia's actions were, she did more to fill Null with souls and cause these terrible evens to happen. As messed up as it may be, she earned it.

 

And that's ultimately why Taeyva killed Erinye and Castalia did not. Because Castalia achieved justice by killing 'Elizabeth' and acquiring the ultimate prize. Castalia got what she set out to achieve, but at the ultimate cost.

 

And that's really it.

 

Well, there is one thing I wanna reveal. What happened to the citizens of Whiterun? Malkor had them trapped at the Sacellum of Boethiah. Did he kill them before his falmer swarmed Windhelm? Did they survive and were forgotten? Malkor never told anyone they were there, after all.

 

The answer is in one screen shot in the epilogue.

 

 

That man behind Taeyva is Proventus Avenicci.

 

I could go a bit into the epilogue, but I'd rather not. It wasn't perfect, but was enough.

Collygon's Poser Version 5 was the final update to my pose mod. But it wasn't the last pose mod I'll release. As you all know, Erinye wields a custom weapon called Malefic. It is rather unique, and unrealistic, which meant I needed to make custom poses in order to use it. I'd like to share those poses with all of you.

 

This is the Erinye Package. It includes 81 object poses using Erinye's spear. It also includes Erinye's horns. One version decorated with gold jewelry, the other bare. No, Erinye herself is not included as a follower. Don't ask. I will not release any character from TFOA as a follower for the public.

 

I hope you like the poser.

 

LE Download

 

SSE Download

 

Thanks to @Alter Native, @Devianna for testing and feedback.

There's definitely more I could talk about, but some things are better left unsaid. This is officially the end of TFOA. There won't be a sequel. I know there is room for one. I left the world in a place for lots of development, but I need to move on.

 

After I finished this story, I expected... well, I don't know. Relief? Joy? Melancholy? I really didn't know. What I did not expect was emptiness. I remember tearing up after writing the epilogue and act eight. But those emotions were fleeting. Not even a day after I was left feeling a void. Years ago I wanted nothing more than to bring TFOA to a conclusion, free myself to work on new projects. But now that I'm here, I just feel lost.

 

I want something new. Something grand and time consuming like TFOA was. It started this entire journey. It's over now, but the journey continues. And yet it often feels like it's already ended.

 

I don't know what's going to happen next. I put up a poll to help me come up with what to do, but I don't know if it will have any impact. I just don't know what to do anymore.

 

I'm sorry that this is so dreary. Writing this post has taken me months. I think I understand the finality of it.

 

All I can really say is thank you. Thank you for reading this story. It's changed me for the better and I'm so happy to have met so many of you. If there are any questions about the story you want answered, please ask. Or for writing in general. I'm not an expert, but the more stories on here, the better. I'd love to help anyone get to experience creating something at this level. It's a life changing experience and if you've been sitting on the fence, I'm happy to help you over it.

 

I'll be back soon. I hope. If I ever post again, it will be whatever content this blog will have going forward. But don't worry, I'm not leaving! Even if this blog goes silent, I will still be here. Reading your stories, admiring your mods, and working on new content.

 

Peace.