Chapter 180

Chapter 180: Servant of the Axe, 80 – What is to Come

From the author:

This is a bonus chapter, so please forgive me if it doesn’t match the word count. If things go well, this will become the last free chapter of this story.

So I wanted to let you know what to expect. What you would be paying for.

Largely, it is more of the same. Slow progression forward with some major plot swings backward as the main character over-reaches. Life will unfairly abuse the character, and he will almost never have an easy path, and will be expecting ambush when there is no other obstacle.

I will try to lay out the personalities and motivations of the other characters, but as the story is told from the main character’s point of view, that will not always be possible.

I will not be crushing plot elements to make everything happen in 1200 chapters; as needed, I’ll expand the chapter count.

That said, there’s a lot to cover, even before the events in the Southern Islands wrap up and the main character heads home to see how things have progressed in his absence. The Norvik plotline will reach its resolution within two dozen chapters, perhaps half of that depending on how many story elements that won’t matter once the MC leaves that I write in.

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I’m still trying to find that balance between other people being around and things happening in the world and moving the plot forward. That said, the readers don’t need to know the names of all the children in the long house, nor even of all the wives. So while I’m not going to go Tolkien or Martin deep on my history, I will from time to time have a scene that is just a story, either from the past or a cautionary tale, or other bit of lore.

Between going too fast, and going too slow, I’m choosing to go too slow.

Disclaimer: Future volumes will be mixed perspective; mostly the MC but also with parts told by other people with their own points of view.

Future volumes, and what each entails:

The Crafter: After events of the Tidelands, Rhishisikk (now an adult) enters the service of one of the Sultans of the Khanate, who is chafing under the rule of the distant Khan.

Sheng Ishiko, by Ping: Exiled from the Khanate, cynical Rhishisikk (pretending to be innocuous servant boy, Ping) ends up in the service of warrior-woman Sheng Ishiko of Dauria (that empire on the other side of the world).

Terran Diaspora: Having left Athal behind, Rhishisikk travels another world, adjusting to the rules of science fiction and space opera as he’s wrapped up in a war that could ruin the Terran Republic.

If Webnovel ever evolves to regard the novels as their own separate books, I’ll have the first 80-ish chapters of these be free, but the current standard is that future volumes are locked in pay mode. Also, I’d like each volume to have its own cover art, also not currently a reality.