Inspiring Word

Aside from being a cheeky little Dungeons & Dragons reference, this page is one that I've set up basically just for me, and people like me. I've always liked to know an artist's inspirations. You know, the works of art and other wellsprings that brought a piece of fiction, or a movie, or an album, to light. So, I thought I would put a page on this blog to show you the things that have brought me here, and what have made, and will continue to make, The Company of Wandering Kings what it is. Entries will be added as I come across them.

Let's get started, shall we?

World of Warcraft

I suppose I should start with the obvious. Blizzard Entertainment's (now Activision-Blizzard's) magnum opus, the king (and bane) of the MMORPG genre, is basically where I got my start with all this. This is where a great number of the plot points, character concepts, and general inspiration came from when I started really fleshing out the world of Avorah, and eventually the story that would become The Company of Wandering Kings.

It's by far the most popular MMO on the market, even now (10 years later, as of this writing), but that doesn't mean it isn't without its detractors. And honestly, I have no real argument. It's not the best game I've ever played, but it is the one I've played the longest, and I owe a great debt to it. So many characters who have since migrated to Avorah began as my player characters in this game.

The Lord of the Rings

There's a golden rule of fantasy fiction: everyone steals from Tolkien. Seriously. There's J. R. R. Tolkien, and there's everyone else. Every piece of fantasy fiction, whether it be a book series or a videogame or a trading card game, stems from Tolkien's well. I read The Lord of the Rings in high school, and while it didn't make the same impact on me as it has so many other fans, it definitely opened my eyes to the depth and breadth that a fictional universe can have.

The movies, on the other hand, did influence me. A lot. I think that the movie trilogy (two trilogies, if you count The Hobbit, which I do) crafted out of these books are some of the greatest masterpieces ever put on film. I adore these movies. I've heard that the Tolkien family is basically disgusted by what became of them, but personally I think they're nuts. These movies are great. If you don't think so, then I'm sorry to tell you: you're absolutely wrong.

Dragonlance

I was originally going to put Dungeons & Dragons here, since it's been more instrumental as a creative tool than any other when it comes to crafting Avorah as a living world, but decided to use Dragonlance instead, since this series of books (written for the campaign setting of the same name) is what got me into fantasy in the first place. To me, D&D will always mean Dragonlance.

I've never played a D&D game set in the Dragonlance world, but I think that's because I don't think I could ever do it justice. It hasn't exactly been supported in recent editions of the game. Be that as it may, however, I will forever owe a massive debt to Tanis, Flint, Tas, Raistlin, Caramon, Goldmoon, Riverwind, Laurana, Kitiara . . . and, of course, Margaret Weis, and Tracy Hickman.

Thank you for shaping my childhood.

The Dark Tower Series

If Dragonlance was the first large-scale series I ever obsessed over, the foot of the mountain, then this one is the peak. Stephen King's dystopian western/fantasy/sci-fi/horror epic is responsible for just about every philosophy I've ever held about writing in general, and if my writing ever reaches the point where it can lick this series' boots, then I'll be a happy man. The Dark Tower is everything to which I aspire.

I had to be convinced to read this series. It took a long time, too. My mother, in fact, had to bribe me in order to finally take a look at it. I think I had her read one of the Dragonlance books, actually, in exchange for my reading The Gunslinger. Long story short, this exchange changed our lives. Roland Deschain, the Last Gunslinger, is probably still at the top of my list of favorite fictional characters in history. And Stephen King definitely remains my absolute favorite author.

Chrono Trigger

Returning to games, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Squaresoft's perennial classic, Chrono Trigger. While an earlier game, Super Mario RPG, kickstarted my interest in the JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game) genre, Chrono Trigger started my obsession with game narratives, and started my career in fanfiction. The Demon King (or Fiendlord), Magus, was the first character about whom I ever wrote . . . it was a poem for my freshman year English class. It was awful. I loved it.

If not for fanfiction, I wouldn't be here. And if not for this absolutely glorious game, I wouldn't have found out about fanfiction when I did . . . and who wants to live in a world like that? This game has everything. Time travel, sentient dinosaurs, prehistoric drinking games, anthropomorphic frog knights, and some of the finest music ever put into a digital medium.

The Final Fantasy Series

Ah, Final Fantasy. Do I need to really say anything? Chrono Trigger paved the way for me into Squaresoft's (now Square Enix's) flagship series. I lumped them all together into one entry because to write about each individual game I've played, and how they changed my life, would take entirely too long. Let's just wrap it up by saying this: even if you hate JRPGs, there's most likely at least one Final Fantasy which would catch your eye.

My favorite installments, for those in the know, are Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. A couple of these (I don't have to name them, I'm sure) puts me on an island when it comes to the fanbase. But the sad truth is, I'm weird. I love a mixture of fantasy and science fiction, and these particular games got that down. Now, Avorah doesn't have much in the way of technology (yet), but there's definitely a little bit of each game sprinkled into the creation process of this little world of mine.

The Souls Series

A more recent outing when it comes to game series, From Software really hit on something special when they came out with Demon's Souls in 2009, with barely any fanfare. I saw a news article about it one day, made a deal with my mother to borrow the money for it (don't worry; I paid her back), and pretty much never looked back. For Dark Souls after it, and Dark Souls II after that, I played on launch night, and both have proven, to me, to be just as groundbreaking and tragically beautiful as the first.

If there's one source for general tone when it comes to what I want to do with Avorah, it's this series. Now, granted, the Souls games are known for their grim, dirty, stark horror. As of this writing, none of that has really touched this story. But it will. Oh. It will. These games changed everything I thought I knew about world-building. They taught me that tossing everything you know about the world right into the audience's face is . . . well, a terrible idea. Better to be careful, patient, and kind of sadistic about it.

The Resident Evil Series

One word: zombies. That's it. That's all I really need to say about this one. That's what Resident Evil brought to the table, when it comes to Avorah. Nothing modern will touch this story (yet), no 9mm handguns or gigantic magnums or grenade launchers (. . . yet). But zombies. Oh, zombies. Can you tell that I love them? No, seriously. I'm probably one of about six people who aren't sick to death (undeath?) of zombies, and this is basically my catch-all inspiration for all things undead.

I could put Max Brooks in here. I could put The Walking Dead. I probably should. But Resident Evil will always be synonymous with "zombie" for me. I'm not just talking about the games, either. The movies, too. Well, a couple of them. The first and second movies, I absolutely adore. The rest, well, I don't regret seeing, but they didn't really add much to the tapestry for me. Again, as of the time of this write-up, there aren't any zombies in Avorah. But, spoiler alert . . . yeah. That's kind of the whole point.

The Harry Potter Series

This . . . is a weird one for me. Not in terms of the impact it's had on me as a person. The Harry Potter phenomenon has changed me in so many ways that I can't list them. I'm talking about the impact this series has had on Avorah. Honestly? Not much. Honestly, the reason I have to put J. K. Rowling's masterworks on this list is because . . . well, the Harry Potter fandom has been hugely helpful for me. I'm a lurker, I don't really participate, but it's still touched my life in innumerable ways, and I'll always be grateful.

I hated Harry Potter at first. Without reservation or apology. I thought it was stupid. I thought magic wands were stupid. I thought a magic school was stupid. I thought the name Dumbledore was stupid. The tipping point was the realization that my favorite author (Stephen King, remember) was a fan of the series . . . enough to make a reference in the fifth Dark Tower novel. Since then, I picked up Jim Dale's audiobooks to give it a try, as my last defense was basically gone. I've since gone through the series about five or six times, and every time I notice some little nuance that I didn't before.

The Sword of Truth Series

Terry Goodkind is a genius. I'm not necessarily talking about his plot, or even his characters. I love both. Richard and Kahlan will always be immensely special to me. But the reason Sword of Truth is on here is for a very singular reason: Goodkind's writing style is perfection. If Stephen King represents who I aspire to be as a thinking writer, then Goodkind is who I aspire to be as a writing writer.

The narrative flow that this man has cultivated over sixteen books is entrancing. No writer before, or since, has ever perfected compulsive page-turning in me more than this man. I have certain issues with his more recent work, and the short-lived TV show based on the books is . . . a sore spot, but I will always support Terry Goodkind. He has done more to influence my actual writing style than anyone else.

Mike Bennett

No, I'm not talking about the wrestler. I'm talking about the author. The creator of Underwood and Flinch and Hall of Mirrors. I'm talking about a man whose voice is so intoxicating that it turns things that should be cheesy into horrific masterpieces. I know he's put out printed books. I know I should own them. But for me, it's just not the same without the voice. Seriously. This guy is a master.

I discovered Master Bennett a while back, while searching for horror stories on iTunes. His particular method is to write specifically for performance, and his stories have entranced me ever since I found them. Sure, I haven't listened to as much as I probably should, but . . . you want to talk about a master of horror. Mike Bennett's voice will rip out your soul.

And you'll thank him for it.

The Critical Hit Podcast

Tied to Dungeons & Dragons but not on this list for the same reason, Critical Hit (an offshoot of Major Spoilers) taught me how to play the game. More than that, it taught me how to run the game. This years-long epic of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaigning has been my go-to whenever I need inspiration for a D&D session . . . and since Avorah was built around the D&D system (I came up with the name "Avorah" while running a game for a couple of friends), I have to give acknowledgement here.

Also, this podcast probably saved my sanity. A few years back, I was hit with a severe bout of depression. I felt lost. I had no idea what I was doing with my life, and no way to combat that feeling. Amid my scrambling attempts to find purpose and meaning in my daily existence—one tactic eventually grew into this world, and thus this story—I found Critical Hit. I listened to it day in, day out. Multiple times. As soon as I reached the most recent episode, I would start again from the beginning.

I'm pretty sure this podcast of a bunch of guys (and girl) playing make-believe saved my life.

That's all, folks!

Let's get some links out of the way, shall we? Just in case you'd rather use these. If not, you can always head back to the top of the page and use the bar beneath the logo.

To find the most recent pages, you can head home. You can also start from the beginning of the story, or find specific pages and chapters in the Table of Contents. Or, check out the latest at the news archive. Care to learn more about Moonguard? Gotcha covered. Want to know about me? We got that, too.

Feedback is always appreciated! For questions and comments, send a line to icedblood@gmail.com. For business inquiries, r.steven.castro@gmail.com.