Zurvanight

Korone's newest song Trouble "Wan"der. Cute joke in the title because "wan" is the Japanese sfx for dogs barking.

I'm reading Disquiet Gods the sixth book in The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio. So far it's been great. Every single one of The Sun Eater books have been amazing and this one is no exception.

This guy (Arkhand) makes some really good tracks using clips of my oshi, Ceres Fauna. I first heard it on her birthday stream, which was hilarious and included a fun DnD style game she created and played with her friends.

Durbin is a band I just discovered today and holy moly is it some of the best metal I've ever heard. It reminds me a lot of my favorite older bands like Queensryche and Helloween. This is the whole album, give it a listen because it's SO good.

I've been reading The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio. I'm already on the fourth book, Kingdoms of Death. The last book, Demon in White was absolutely incredible. Probably some of the best hard sci-fi I've ever read.

Watching True Detective Season 4: Night Country. It's basically a Lovecraft horror story, with a lot of similarities to the first (best) season.

I'm on the second Coldfire book, When True Night Falls. In it the warrior priest Damien Vryce, the Rakh woman Hesseth, and the undead sorcerer Gerald Tarrant with whom Damien shares a rocky partnership with, must travel eastward across the sea to unknown lands that the West has supposedly never made contact with, to confront the source of the evil they witnessed in the Rakhlands in Black Sun Rising. What they find in these new lands is surprising and terrifying in equal measure. Man this series is so good.

I took a break from Recluce to start on the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. I'm on the first book, Black Sun Rising. I really like the mix of dark Gothic fantasy and sci-fi, and the "magic" of the planet that brings humanities deepest fears to life with just a stray thought.

Bumping because tons of new info from the Tokyo Fanfest. Pictomancer is the second DPS job they revealed. Like Relm in FF VI they use paint and art to attack enemies and support allies. The Limited Job Beastmaster was revealed but very little was mentioned about it. Female Hrothgar was confirmed. Space exploration will be a thing. Tons of new areas and towns were revealed including a cyberpunk city called Solution Nine. Full trailer: Pictomancer trailer: Female Hrothgar trailer: Solution Nine:

I'm on the fourth Recluce novel, The Order War. This one takes place 200 years before the first novel and follows Justen, a young engineer. If you've read the first book you'll know who Justen is and what he does, but reading his story is quite interesting. There is a much bigger focus on magic in this book, unlike the others which were more low fantasy. A new faction gets introduced in this book, the Druids of Naclos. They are also known by their more common name, Gray Wizards, those who balance both the magics of Chaos and Order. Personally I find Justen to not be very interesting, but the story is probably my favorite next to Dorrin's in The Magic Engineer which was phenomenal.

On the third Recluce book now, The Magic Engineer. So far Dorrin isn't as neat as Creslin, but he's better than Lerris. Pretty awkward kid, who'd rather tinker with machines than do anything else. Machines aren't allowed on the island of Recluce so he's basically forced to attend a school and go on a quest in the mainland or be permanently exiled. Pretty cool thing is this book takes place several centuries after the events in the last book. Creslin and the events in The Towers of the Sunset have become a sort of quasi-legend historical fact, that builds upon the already existing legends from that book. Some of Creslins achievements have been exaggerated or even false, while others are spot on or are missing vital parts. Some characters don't even believe he existed. It's a very neat take and I hate to say it but I feel like it's done better in these books than in Mistborn.

The Towers of the Sunset by L.E. Modesitt Jr. This is the second Recluce novel and I am loving it even more than the first. While the first book was in first person, this one is third person, present tense. The main character Creslin I like much more than the first books protagonist Lerris, who loved woodworking and berry juice a bit too much. Creslin is a silver haired youth, adept in swordsmanship and has latent magical talents. His sheltered upbringing makes him a bit naive, and often times he ends up getting into trouble because of it. I love when he talks to people though because he speaks with a very flowery vocabulary and the peasants and mercenaries he often finds himself with just look at him like he's crazy or an easy mark. He is also extremely beautiful and is often mistaken as a girl dressed as a boy at first glance.

I started The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr today. I'm going to read the whole series of (currently) 22 books in publication order which is what the author recommends. I own about half the books already, some of which I got for free awhile back. So far I am really enjoying it.

Japanese Eurobeat is awesome

Enderal has one of the best soundtracks ever.

Been playing around with mods in Skyrim. Found a really good one called Clockwork about a spooky mansion, a creepy wailing ghost that follows you and can go through walls (normally I wouldn't be scared of Skyrim ghosts but this thing is freaky), and immortal clockwork soldiers. Reminds me of Enderal a bit (another Skyrim mod I love). It's got this Lovecraft/Poe feeling to the whole thing.

If it's your first time playing an RPG, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a must. It's basically the quintessential role playing game. The cool thing about Bethesda games is you can mod them (download fan made content to make the game even better). Like for example I have one that adds around 150+ new spells to the game and others that add new landmasses filled with quests, and even one that changes how you attack in combat. It's literally an endless playground and the base vanilla game isn't bad either. If you want turn based then the older Final Fantasy games are a good starting point (4-10 are all very good in different ways).

I'm finally on the last Lightbringer book, The Burning White. Really enjoying it so far. *Spoilers for The Blood Mirror and The Burning White*

I'm about a third of the way through The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks. Very good so far. Spoilers:

I'm about halfway through the third Lightbringer book, The Broken Eye. I'm right at the part where they realize what The Blinder's Knife is actually used for. I really enjoyed the chapter with the mock battle between Ironfist and Tremblefist. I'll admit I got a bit teary at the end.

The newest song in Alan Wake 2 by the fictional band, The Old Gods of Asgard, preformed by the very real band Poets of the Fall. It's called Herald of Darkness. It also has kind of a back and forth duet at some parts between Alan Wake and Mr. Door.

Playing Alan Wake 2. This game is everything I wanted it to be. Solving cases, delving into The Dark Place and exploring its liminal spaces, looking for clues. It's much scarier than the first Alan Wake. The dual protagonists are pretty interesting as it has you switch between Alan Wake and a new character Saga Anderson, an FBI agent who may have some psychic abilities. Lots of references to Remedy's other game Control, which is a masterpiece itself. I highly recommend it since it's about an author getting trapped in a story that he's desperately trying to escape from, and I know how much we all love books and authors here. I do recommend playing the original and Control first to get the full experience. Beware though because it's definitely not for younger players.

If you guys haven't seen The Amazing Digital Circus yet, you're missing out.

Beyond the Shadows. I wasn't aware he was working on another trilogy. I just didn't like the end. It felt extremely rushed with things getting resolved in months in the span of a few pages, and there was a blatant deus ex machina. Don't get me wrong I loved the first and second book, and a lot of the third, but I was so upset at the ending of Beyond the Shadows I swore off reading Weeks books for awhile. He had a lot of neat ideas like the ka'kari, the krul, Khali, and the angels. Garoth Ursuul was also a fantastically evil villain.

Reading the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks. Originally I was very disappointed in the last Night Angel book since the pacing was absolutely awful and a lot of cool stuff was never really explored, but Lightbringer has been much better so far. I'm on The Blinding Knife right now. The Black Prism also suffered from some pacing issues but it was definitely better. I especially liked Gavins big secret he's been keeping. That was a neat twist I never saw coming. Blinding Knife has been nothing but good so far. I think Kip makes for an interesting and different protagonist than what I'm used to, and his interactions with the students and teachers at the Blackguard school have been pretty great. Also Andross is terrifying.