The Appendix Notes

Introduction:

I have considered for some time to write this different Additional Manuscript where I would provide commentary on my stories, insight on their creative process and maybe add some brand new content that cannot get its own Manuscript. I also considered adding information from some Wiki pages like the Timeline or the one about the First Syntax War to introduce people not on the wiki with it. However, with the Boards gone, I hardly think this would be useful. I don't think I intend to post this in the gallery to avoid the fuss. Maybe, I'll change my mind later, but we shall see. I decided that since this manuscript is naturally separated to (unrelated) parts, I could publish what I already have and later add as I continue. So, without further ado, the appendices:

Appendix I: On Perpetual Doom

Chapter XXII: The Peculiar Enchanter

The Peculiar Enchanter is, I think, the most interesting character I've made so far, or at least the most interesting protagonist. He is a merge of two characters of mine appearing in two earlier stories: Strange Odd Shadow from the Story of a Minifigure and Wiz Ardon from the Secret Agency series.

Strange Odd Shadow is a clever, imaginative member of the Assembly, who has the power to comouflage with the shadows, hence his name. His real name being John Steele, he is the son of Rusty Steele.

Wiz Ardon is a very bizarre case. As his name easily suggests he is a wizard. In contrast with PD Wiz, he uses a wand for magic and the words for his spells are often taken from Harry Potter. Beyond that, though, his original profile becomes weirder. Together with his blue wizard hat, he wears sunglasses and a gray-red-yellow shirt that has the word “Robo” on it; he carries a suitcase, that is in fact a gun. The weirdest thing, though, is that he is shown to be a son of two mafia leaders. I believe that at the time I was influenced by an anime I was watching that was about a mafia family, which, however, as many anime-mangas are, was not very realistic. Mafia did not seem as bad a thing as it is there. I was young and naive; I was a newbie then. Another thing is that the profile has a very great emphasis on Wiz's liking for food.

About a year after the bio, though, this chapter is written. Wiz Ardon is gloriously merged with Strange Odd Shadow, despite the fact I'd given Wiz black hair in an attempt to prevent myself from doing just that, into the character of the Peculiar Enchanter. This character is based on the archetypes of several magicians, most of them being at least slightly eccentric. He has Dumbledore and Gandalf's wisdom and Chrestomanci and Howl's style. He has the talent of all of them. But at the same time, he's got something personal drawn by me, to make him a distinct character. The eccentricity is increased to the extreme until it becomes madness. The personas of Wiz and Shadow are more easily discerned later, mostly in the Additional Manuscripts.

In this chapter, the Peculiar Enchanter meets Luke and Sharp and scares them with his moody and odd behaviour. Indeed, his madness is very much emphasised, but not so much later. The chapters featuring him later mostly show his wisdom, power and/or intelligence, while in the Additional Manuscripts he's still making his way to be the mental magician and instead he is featured to be witty and clever.

Wiz's fixation on food appears here, too. The odd beverage of Procfroc is mentioned, tea is denounced and hot chocolate should only be really hot.

Another element that adds to his peculiar character is his house. The room Sharp and Luke enter is full of Squirrel Sculptures. That is very much inspired from Brave, where the witch has a shop where she sells wooden bear sculptures. Aside from that, there are the very particular numbers of nine doors, seven windows, three tables and one chair. One could notice that they are the very same numbers with the ones used for the Rings of Power in Lord of the Ring: Nine to Men, Seven to Dwarves, Three to Elves, One to the Dark Lord. However, that's probably, because they are very proper numbers to use for such things. While the choice could be the result of an eccentric sense of aesthetics, there is a possibility that this structure is part of the house's magic. However, that is yet to be confirmed.

Wiz is Wanted, Dead or Alive in six kingdoms. These kingdoms are: Morcia, Aquila, Cheinir, Jepuno, Britay and the Southern Isles. He is also wanted in North Island, but that's not considered one of Militiregnum's kingdoms.

Another thing to mention about Shadow in this chapter would have to be his name. He introduces himself to Luke and Sharp as Strange Odd Shadow. I don't mean to say that this is what I thought at the mind, but we can give some insight on it that does make sense. The Peculiar Enchanter is faced with two Nexus-Forcers, so it is very possible that he mentioned this name to make them trust him as a fellow Nexus-Forcer, even though mentioning he's wanted a few words later doesn't help. It's also possible he thought they might recognise it as the name of the Seventh Hero, though they probably don't. Chances are if they'd heard of the name, they thought it was a coincidence, because everyone knew the Seventh Hero had been smashed during the Maelstrom Minifigure Mission. The same must apply for Seton, who as seen in Ten Heroes of Malidor, is present at Shadow's first recognisal as the Hero.

Concerning the name of Strange Odd Shadow, it might be noticed that while in the start it's used as his main name, after some point Wiz Ardon becomes much more frequent in mention. That is very plain to see in the Adventures of the Peculiar Enchanter, where Shadow is mostly used in stories where he is in the Nexus Force, while the rest of time he's mostly called Wiz. The reason is that after some time I thought that calling him Shadow was far too dramatic and common for a cool name. So, instead I began to call him Wiz all of the time, hoping to make you do the same.

There's another interesting point in this chapter. It is that of Sir Sharpie, who in the previous chapter has been smashed by Vladek's gatlin gun. However, in this chapter he appears very much alive with no apparent explanation as to how he survived to be one of the chapter's protagonists. It is, of course, one of Perpetual Doom's famous contradictions. Simply enough, I never noticed the detail of Sharp's smash until Harold mentioned it years later. However, technically, that is not necessarily a plot hole -though a plot hole exists, rest assured. In a previous chapter, some of the Knights are launched by a catapult into the air, smashing on impact. They shortly rebuild in a safe area after the Lego Universe fashion. It is very possible that Talmid, who wrote the chapter, had something like that in mind when he smashed Sharpie. The notion is reinforced by the knowledge that Talmid has indeed included both temporary and permanent smashes in his stories before.

Still, a plot hole remains, that being why do some people rebuild and others do not. I do not intend to attempt to answer that now, though. Instead, I will attempt to see how to save Sharp from his untimely smash, so that he may be included in the stories later. Wait a second... Legoboy rebuilt him. What? Did you expect something cleverer and imaginative. I do believe that one should bring “smashed” characters back to life in original ways, but I did not smash him and I couldn't plan the circumstances. Anyway, Legoboy as a member of the Assembly is one of the candidates for the job. As no other Assembly member comes to mind, he is the only candidate and thus takes the role. Much like Overbuild rebuilt the Duke, Legoboy rebuilt Sharpie. One might question Legoboy's ability to do so, though. I wouldn't disagree. It seems unlikely that just anyone can rebuild smashed minifigures. But maybe if he had a high Imagination source. The mind goes to Talmid's imaginite, but I'd prefer to leave that to its own, as I wouldn't like to meddle with Talmid's stories. So, instead I'm going to propose this. As an Assembly member, Legoboy was one of the people who were sent to study imaginite crystals in a mine in Crux Prime. After working there for some time, he ended up with a good amount of imaginite crystals, some of them strong enough to help him rebuild Sharp. Wait! Maybe, their presence helped them rebuild when they were launched from the catapult. However, after healing Sharp's wounds, the crystals' power was mostly drained and he wasn't able to use them again. Maybe, Talmid's imaginite gifter got the crystal from the very same mine...

Chapter XXVII: Doom

In this chapter, we get to see many developments, because of my overactive imagination; I had many ideas and had to incorporate them before the story continued where I couldn't use them anymore. In one point of view, it shows us the Knights of the Olde Speech heading for Orlan (not yet named) after their victories against thedude. In another, we see Matthias learning of the Aquilones' betrayal and is then influenced by Vladek. We also see Nuncius, who first appears in this chapter, witnessing the devastation of Matthias's army and the beginning of the Aquilone civil war, as two Aquilone brothers in charge of the invasion quarrel over the spoils of war.

In the beginning of the chapter, we see that thedude is not smashed or wounded by Thingguy's arrow, but he just vanishes. The Peculiar Enchanter later informs the KotOS that this was not thedude, but an illusion of him. He suggests that there are sorcerers working with thedude, which is aligned with the idea of the Sorcerers' Council helping him, but that idea goes wrong later, resulting in another plot hole. With the idea of sorcerers not being an option, it is most probable that thedude created the illusion himself using his Grammer Sword.

About the Aquilones: Aquilone is Simplified/AlteredGoogle Translate Latin for Northern.

About Nuncius: Nuntius is Latin for Messenger.

About Sergeant Centurio: It is obviously something military in latin, but I don't remember what word I'd translated then.

Same goes for General Dux.

Those two were the two characters that began the tradition of naming military men (well maybe Nuncius, too) with latin words. The two of them also appear in This story is called “Harold didn't want any more Rises”.

In the end of this chapter, Thingguy, having witnessed his friend Talmid being mind-controlled by thedude- says they need MajorQ. Having talked it over with Major, he'd asked that he is not interpreted similar to his character Major, who was a very talented, yet seemingly neither kind nor sensitive, bounty hunter. What I had in mind was that as a great writer in real life, perhaps, he could be of help in regrammarising Talmid in the story. Eventually, the story did not go that way, though, Major being mostly pictured as a very efficient fighter.

Chapter XXXII: The Magician, the Messenger and the Muffin

The title of this chapter always reminded me of Narnia.

In the first paragraph of the chapter, it is mentioned that the KotOS and the Knights of Morcia wore multiple colours. The former is quite logical, but as for the latter, the explanation is simple. This is a very subtle hint to Jayko, Rascus, Santis and Danju. As each of them has a different colour, I thought that the Knights of Morcia might have been wearing colours after these four very important knights (or their families, in retrospect).

A black-wearing bearded man appears in this chapter, fighting on the side of thedude. While it is not stated clearly, it is implied he's a member of the Sorcerer's Council. It is odd to see him fight alongside thedude's forces if an agreement did not precede, as seems to be the case later.

It is mentioned that Nuncius knew where to find Matthias and free him, because he had stumbled upon the secret corridor that led to the particular cell where he was being kept the previous time he'd been to the castle. This, of course, is outrageously ridiculous, but it is Perpetual Doom, isn't it?

Quite Bad Muffin and Tolkien Fan Axe are names inspired by Major's fans and friends good.enough and Axolc. As Major had entered the story, it made sense to draw inspiration for the character's friends from his actual friends. Good Enough was reversed to Quite Bad, while good.enough's phrase, “nuff said”, inspired the use of the word Muffin. Axolc had once mentioned that the username was a combination of Tolkien with some other names, which made him a Tolkien Fan. Axe was taken from the beginning of his username. However, the characters were in no other way related to the actual people. A reason that I did not make the connection more obvious was that at the time we already had one reader who'd been given the right to vote on the Barney poll (Major) and I didn't want any more. I still don't understand why Barney was voted out.

Chapter XXXV: On the Roof and Off of It

In this chapter lies the real problem concerning the Sorcerers' Council. It would be possible to explain why thedude is against the Sorcerers in the next chapter, even though they think they're allies and fight for him in this chapter, by saying that Vladek was the one who made the agreement and there was a miscommunication between him and thedude leading to thedude's ordering an attack against them. However, there's just one little problem. In the beginning of this chapter, thedude shouts: “Fulls shourshererersh! Atakes!”, which translates into, “Fools, sorcerers! Attack!”.

With one sinle quote, no more than a line. The whole aforementioned theory collapses. thedude commands the Sorcerers, but attacks them later. That is a plot hole. thedude doesn't even know who they are. I think that in light of that, we can ignore that quote and pretend thedude never said it.

Chapter XL: An Enchanter being Enchanting

This chapter includes the cleaner's first ever and only official appearance in the series, though his first actual appearance was in Perpetual Doom: Siege of a Castle.

Later on in the chapter, there's the first implication that Wiz has travelled in time, when it is mentioned that the legend has it he was given his Mosaic Jester suit by an actual ancient Mosaic Jester. However, when later I finally wrote the story in which Wiz goes to the past no such thing happens. There's still of course the possibility that Wiz travelled in time more than once, though.

Appendix II: On the Additional Manuscripts

Major's Most Unfortunate Venture:

It is mentioned in this story that the Easterlings' Empires have been conquered by thedude. It would seem that Major and his fellowship are misinformed as at the time, the Empires are still allied to thedude, though fighting each other.

In this story Major is fist called the Tenth Hero, because of his username. It is from this that the whole story of The Ten Heroes of Malidor sprang.

Hallowe'en Carol:

This was such a spontaneous story. Hallowe'en came and I just suddenly had the idea and wrote it down. Then, I reached the end and added the little piece with the storyteller and all of a sudden, Jonna! And then a whole story was written from this. Now, you may be thinking, “Lady Jonna's Quest could have easily existed without this piece of information”, but you are wrong. Jonna's storytelling is the most important part of that story!

The Adventures of the Peculiar Enchanter: No Path

Concerning the title, “No Path” was chosen in reference to Paths to Redemption. The latter was the story following the first misfortune of Wiz's life, Geidrich's death. In that story, Wiz begins as a devastated man, but in the end he finds the path to recovery in joining the Nexus Force. In contrast to that, in this story Wiz feels there is no path. He completed his magical education first, but then he could see no particular purpose calling for him or a way to experience redemption.

A confusing matter might be Elomar and Elemiere. Elomar (< Elor + Mar, which mean light and star respectively) was a star attributed special importance by the Figorani. It was said that it was related to some Figrith or Figgelus himself. The Bright Star was considered so significant, because of its abnormal properties. It is known to be able to move across the sky, change different colours and sometimes shine even during the day.

The star is mentioned in several tales of the Figorani, but the most famous one of them all is the one of Figroth Felanor. According to legends, Figroth ascended to the heavens and captured the star, later placing it on a circlet, he wore instead of a crown. The circlet later became an heirloom of the Morcian royal family. However, even though the circlet still exists, Elomar has recently reappeared on the sky.

In Enchanting Encounters, Shadow calls Ellwen Elemiere for he doesn't yet know her name and it is explained that this means Day Star. Elemiere is in fact a corrupted form of Elomar used by the Galazians as a name for Elomar. Hence, in this story both names are used.

Nalor meaning darkness in the language of the Figorani (but this is a word of good connotations, meant to show the Figorani's respect for the untainted darkness; Tahor is the word used for darkness as a bad thing), Nalmiere is a name that practically means Dark Star.

Now, let's address Wiz's behaviour in this story. No Path takes place in what I like to call Wiz's Grumpy Phase. After discovering that his village had been destroyed, a devastated Wiz returned to Geidrich's tower and shut himself there for a whole year. After this year of isolation, Wiz returned to the world, having overcome the original overwhelming feelings of shock and sorrow. However, Wiz is now angry. Angry at himself for his failures; angry at the one who brought his parents' demise (who he suspects to be the yellow-eyed man); but also angry at the world for bringing these misfortunes at his way.

In this state, he's grown very impatient and unwilling to trully communicate with anyone. When he goes back to the Nimbus System, only to find Nexus-Forcers fighting each other, Wiz grew angry and did not stick around to realise there was more at play than was obvious. To his defence, at this stage the situation was a lot more confusing than Paradox Rogues versus the actual Nexus Force for everyone. But still, his impatience drove him away.

Although, his anger has brought Wiz to his worst self, yet, he remains a good-willed person at heart. He still wants to help others, even if his manners are rather lacking. He traverses across the Crux System helping where he can, but he never stays too long, never talks too much, always on the move.

Almost a year passes in this fashion and Wiz finds himself in Aesregnum (one of the Seven Kingdoms of Castellar Regnum, which takes up the majority of one of the faces of Crux – Wiz himself hails from another of the seven, Argenturegnum), not having changed at all. In his state, it is no wonder that the ruler of Aesregnum caused Wiz's wrath and an Enchanter's anger should always be feared. Whether the Squirrel Statues he made of the king and his councilmen later adorned Wiz's house is uncertain. It is true that such hexes usually have a way to be broken, so possibly they were saved later, though in some cases I find it hard to believe.

After the Plague Master, Wiz arrives in Roveros, where he will begin to experience some changes. His dreams and talks with Nirthariel (whose name was origanally something else, but then I forgot what it was) have already prepared him to start seeing things differently and as a result we can see his doubts over his actions begin to surface (for such doubts indeed have already existed, part of Wiz knowing that the way he's acting is not the greatest).

When, however, he is forced into a situation where he must stay at the same place for some time and have to talk to people, his anger people begins to lessen, his heart to soften. Still, his social skills are lacking, as can be observed in his form of conduct in relation to the Queen. Alhasima, seeing a talented, decisive and powerful man, decides Wiz would be very fit for her land's King and, one must say, is charmed herself. However, when Wiz notices her advances, a series of ambiguous replies and awkward silences let the Queen think the feeling is mutual. Waiting for the opportune moment to tell her his actual feelings, Wiz soon finds himself facing the actual wedding arranged by the hasty Queen. The Enchanter once again opts to avoid Alhasima rather than telling her the truth. So, he runs. I am not saying he made the right choices there. He did not. But no one is perfect and, especially those days, Wiz made mistakes.

Yet, Wiz's inner fermentations have now brought him to question his choice to stay away from Ellwen. In the past, he was subconsciously afraid Ellwen would critisise him for his choices, part of him sees her as something negative, for indeed meeting her would open his eyes to his own faults. On the other hand, Ellwen represents joy to him, a feeling he could not partake in while he was angry. Now, however, his anger and guilt had been lessened and thinking more clearly, he's not as certain he should stay away. The final dream finally convinces him he needs her help.

The meeting of the two Enchanters had a minor challenge to it. If Ellwen were to continuously put Wiz to the straight path from which he'd strayed, without her own mistakes, their relationship would become very unequal. That's why I realised Ellwen couldn't appear perfect like in Enchanting Encounters. Perhaps, even now her problems were not as emphasised as possible, but I hope that in the future, they'll become clearer.

On this matter, it is interesting to point out that it is Ellwen that initiates the duel. Wiz responds automatically, but he is not willing to continue the conflict before the second attack. What might be seen as strange is that while both of them are angry prior to the fight what really infuriates Ellwen and pushes her to attack is Wiz's damage to her door. Is that really that bad? To us, it might not seem so, but this may often happen with magicians. While unmagical people think it unimportant, they will damage or meddle with something of their possession and the magicians will be very upset. That is because of the enchantments they very possibly have woven into them. Often the exact physical state of these objects is important to the enchantment and ignorant handling might hurt the magic. Ellwen is sure to have filled her house with enchantments, most importantly the one that allows it to be at two planets at once. Even the slightest damage to the door could ruin the balance of the magic in place. What is worse, Wiz knew about all this and still chose to disregard what is very important to Ellwen. I'd say that with that in mind, the whole incident is a lot more reasonable.

thedude's appearance in the story was something long planned (not that it's alone in that respect). In Perpetual Doom, Wiz states that he's heard of thedude and also met him once. When I began writing the Adventures of the Peculiar Enchanter, it became apparent I should also write about that event and here it is. It also allowed me to give some more info about the Faction War, though I'm not sure how compatible that is with the Stromling Saga.

At one point, Ellwen says “Deyrmarchogion, Morcia is in trouble”. To those confused, Deymarchogion is none other than Militiregnum. It is only natural that Militiregnum wouldn't be the only or even the first name for the planet. Deymarchogion is more obsolete these days, as it originates from before the time of the Figorani, but Qíshìwáng is another name that is very much in use, mainly in the Eastern lands.

The idea of the portability of Wiz's house began with Perpetual Doom, though you may not have noticed or remember. In chapter 22, I write: “However, he [Sharpie] saw something very strange. A house had appeared from nowhere. He was sure it wasn’t there before, so he told Lukey, who decided to go explore it”. Thought I should mention this.

By the end of this story, Wiz has changed his appearance to look like the original Wiz. Now's the time to get you used to the sunglasses, which feel so natural to me. At the same time, the makeover symbolises the combination of old and new, the latter representing his

Finally, the story ends with the words, “I am Strange Odd Shadow and I'm here to help”. There are some comments one can make on this. Firstly, the fact that he calls himself Strange Odd Shadow means that he's fully accepts his identity as a member of the Nexus Force again. “I'm here to help” is another confirmation of his change of heart. He abandoned the Nexus Force, but now he's back. It is also a reference to the Original Janitor's line “I'm the Janitor and I'm here to help”.