Ah, the spookiest time of the year.

Halloween and All Saint's Day (or Día de los Muertos for our Latinx readers) is such a different time of the year. Just about every other major annual event is a celebration of life and triumph.

Thanksgiving is a time of community and family. Christmastime and the winter holidays are mostly religious observances and celebration of the year that ended and the year to come.

But this season, this weekend, celebrates fear and transformation. The unknown that settles in our midst, and the spiritual veil that seems to thin on nights such as All Hallow's Eve.

I always think Halloween is a wonderful time of year because I'm a fantasy writer. It is the one time of year that we seem to really contemplate the terrifying nature of the unknown. That we don't know everything, haven't figured out the world. And we admit that it scares us.

I hope that we all experience that fear sometimes. It's healthy, and sometimes a wonderful feeling.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

The Lore Corner

Margaritte Evershade, The Barbaric Genius

Margaritte Evershade is an anomaly. The Barbaric Genius, a dwarven merchant far from the Khyrstein mountain range. She’s spent decades on the surface, honing her limited salescraft while pursuing her passion: magic.

Not magic like those mages. Feeling the energies in the air, innately understanding and then just wishing everything into existence. Margaritte is a wizard, perhaps the first of her kind. Where everyone else either runs from magic or feels it, she studies. Making new runes, forging rings and wands and other elements to bend the magical forces to her will.

She is traveling up and down the Thirty Kingdoms looking for new ways to study magic, and keep making enough coin to make it to the next town. Next stop: Fiora.

Another Spooky Piece of Art from The Innkeeper's Dirge

In this very spooky season, we get to reveal one more piece of art, and it is the terrifying center of Tir Aileni: the Maelswood.

The Maelswood has existed for well over two thousand years on the continent. Long ago, the Dark Dragon Phaedron broke through the veil between worlds. Intent on destroying the world that had been built by Gallantil and the other gods, he sent a plague of demons through the tear into the world.

Even after Gallantil defeated Phaedron and sent him howling back to his own world, the Scar remains. Its demonic darkness has infected the land, twisting the surrounding area into this terrifying wood known only as the Maelswood.

No one ventures into the Maelswood. Human, elf, or dwarf, it is all the same. Demons lurk in the darkness, and the land itself has become corrupted beyond all hope of repair. To enter the Maelswood is to invite your death. And it seems to be growing.

I absolutely adore what Antonio Sforza did with this particular piece. We wanted to see what he would do when given a brief idea and to let his creative ideas flow. And this hearkens back to the awesome pulp adventures of the 70s and 80s. Wait until you see the colored piece next week!

Want an advance copy of The Shattered Wing?

Reminder that we are still building our ARC team. Applications are still open. Readers interested can fill out an application in the form below.

And if you want to stay up-to-date on the upcoming project and know when it launches, make sure you sign up to be notified on our Kickstarter Pre-Launch Page.

Where to Find Us Next

We will be doing an exclusive signing at The Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square, Sunday November 22nd at 3-5 p.m.! Excited to go back to one of our favorite stores with Legends of the Realm!

If you want to read more of our short stories, poetry, see behind-the-scenes work, or support everything that Arcane Inkdustries is doing, click the link and sign up to be a Patreon supporter now.

Thank you for reading. I hope that this sparked a piece of magic for you this week.

Until next time.

Blessings,

Jack Holder

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