Evening adventurers,

It’s not very good one, I’m feeling sick with cold sweats and fuzzy head (probably something to do with the painkillers) Slept a lot and had disturbing dreams and plenty of sleep paralysis. Brrh..!

Here’s a wip of the Arachnos portrait. (I was very tempted to just throw here wiki image of a spider but I’m not that horrible for my arachnofobic pals.) In a previous update I told you that Helene would follow but then decided to do this in the order of appearance. 

Arachnos is an interesting character. The lore on djinn is pretty vague. But I really do want to go with the djinni rather than the westernized genie (don’t worry he’s going to look a lot less from Alladin when I’m done). He doesn’t live in a bottle, and doesn’t do wishes he doesn’t want to fulfill. He hails from his own realm which has their own systems of power and all, which really does make Arachnos an interesting character on its own. Add his personality and motivations to that, we have  a wonderful mess. If some of you know about the djinn class system from marid to jann, Arachnos is in the ifirit-shaitan fork. For Christians, the shaitan are different from the Bible super villain so no jumps from there. Keep reading the good book (both yours, and yours truly *wonk*) Ahaha, not really funny, I’m sorry, had a difficult youth- BOY I’m too chatty.

At first the design was nude. Nothing to censor there anyways as this form ends on the hips, but nevertheless I felt like it was objectification of the only so far appeared mostly masculine character - not cool (Apart from Apollo who hasn’t shown himself and Pegasus, who is a horse with wings and magical hooves... Pegasus is cool, just stay away from Loki.)  

Originally the name Arachnos is from a myth about a mortal who fell in love with the wrong goddess and got turned into a spider. If anyone has knowledge of that myth, please share, I haven’t found the site since 2012.

Sleep tight, good night, and thank you!

-H.A.

Good evening, adventurers!

The portrait is finally finished. One thing I had a mistake with: she is too skinny in this compared to my head canon... Head canon? Darn it, I’m the author! It is canon, humph. I’m still happy about it, the portrait shows her attitude well. 

 "You dare to judge me upon my appearance? Child, I have seen your future and it’s in Tartaros. Soon. Have a nice day."

Without further ado, I give you:

350BCE, Delphi, The Seer, Eudoxia. Takes no bullshit.

Thank you, and I wish you all a good night!

-H.A

Dear Followers,

I don’t have much in the means of an update tonight, but I do believe I have finished studying Ancient Greek clothes, and here the research is, in its completion:

You can open the picture in a new window and explore it in detail. If you ever have the need to reference Ancient Greek garments, feel free to use this as your material. It’s a small gift to all of you :)

Yesterday night (or this morning, it’s all a bit blurry) The Hunter Saga rose up to 2% on the Quill goal. I am so delighted to have new readers that my heart feels all happy-tingly. Welcome! Soon, very soon, you get to see my vision of Eudoxia, and a portrait of Helene will follow after. I’m so pumped! Aa! Maybe I should give a hint... Who or what is the second hunter..?

Valais, 15th century. 

Finally, a little shout out to my muse, who is sick and in pain at the moment. May you be well soon.

Thank you, all 28 readers, I cannot say it enough. I appreciate every single one of you. You matter.

-H.A.

Dear followers,

Tonight I was going to share with you a portrait of Eudoxia, but then I figured it’d be better first to know exactly what she would wear. When you think of clothes in Ancient Greece usually you just think drapes, but I want it to be accurate! So I studied Robert Flaceliére’s book Daily Life in Greece at the Time of Pericles, and drew up some of the clothes from the descriptions. It’s really quite fascinating even to a person like me who doesn’t really care about fashion.

Here’s my sketch with notes:

I hope you find this interesting and fun! At the very least it shows some of my dedication for the little details in The Hunter Saga world. I promise that in the following 3 art days you shall have a character portrait. Perhaps even multiple! We will see.

I have to come clean on one matter. There is something that dictates my productivity on some days, and that is chronic pain. I’ve had abdominal adhesions for about two years now, from a surgery that went wrong. This is not me begging for coins of pity, but this is something I choose to be open about since I’ve noticed it helps people understand my daily life a little bit better. They are a major and literal pain in the ass, but I don’t suffer from them. (It’s a buddhist way of coping, if I remember correctly.) I do my best and hardest for the things I love every day, because that’s just who I have become. And I love The Hunter Saga.

I hope you have a wonderful evening!

-H.A.

Hi everyone!

After yesterday, I got some really nice advice from you regarding THS. They cheered me up again, and now I’m also a bit more grounded with concrete things I can do to make this project better. I appreciate the likes too, they make me think I’m actually writing to people and not to myself in a diary.

Anyways! Here’s what I got for you:

• To everyone who orders a Hero Pack, I will send a hand-made, personalized bookmark with THS art on it.
• To everyone who orders an Epic Pack, I will send a T-shirt with THS art printed on it, in your size. (Of course, the postage is on me in both cases.)

There was also a realization that I haven’t exactly told you that the chapters you’ve been reading are only a beginning of an origin story for one of the big main characters. There are two more main characters like this one, the second character is born in 15th century Switzerland, and the final one in in 18th century France. The three unite in their common goal: to hunt down every monster that threatens humankind, and to kill them.

This is what I mean by "the story is huge" and the talk about how this could turn into a book series if things go well and I get published. I’m not going to do the stories in chronological order. Each character have many solo stories, and there are also many party stories, with 2-3 of the characters.  What I aim to write here are the three origin stories, starting from this first one, and ending on the final one. My book will be at least 172 pages long, and ideally I will get the chance to explore all the three stories, in depth, in this book.

I have so many adventures to write, ohh this is gonna be so good! Hints of the characters and of future events will be dropped every now and then, here’s to hoping your curiosity awakened!

Tonight I share with you a draft of a map. Classic first-page material on every fantasy book. It’s not yet detailed and decorated to be beautiful like it’s going to be, but it’s all I managed to do today with my inability to say no to a friend in need. I have, however, marked the main locations of the first origin story. And also, guys, cartographers are friggin’ amazing. That’s all I can say after carefully tracing the tiny islands and crispy shorelines. Here you go!

Happy dreams!

-H.A.

To be honest, I feel a little discouraged tonight. 

It would be really nice to get some feedback, even in the form of harsh criticism. I’m new to the whole Inkshares site and I don’t even know if I’m doing this project right. As in, I’m certain and confident in my story, but I have zero marketing skills and I just don’t know how do I sell this idea of a beautiful universe to everyone.  And does it annoy you followers when I send you the chapters? Or is it the correct thing to do? How about the e-mails?

The world I’m building here is... pure fantasy. For example, everyone understands the concept of consent, "the villains" too. I’ve grown to hate fantasy that glorifies sexual violence, abusive relationships, violence for the sake of violence, I’m disgusted by that. I wish fantasy would represent miracles, wonders, legends, all that which made us giddy when we were children! Where is that fantasy? I found it nowhere, so I begun creating it. How lovely would it be to feel that childlike wonder instead of the gut-turning grit and hearts made of stone or plastic we are being force fed by every popular tv-show.

I want my fantasy to be a delight. Something that makes you feel excited in a good way.

For the next 5 days I will be releasing sketches and concept art instead of chapters. I hope it works. As always, thank you all so much for your support. I wish you all the good in the world. May you sleep soundly tonight and dream of wonderful things.

-H.A.

Thank you so much for your support! The cover is now ready and THS has reached its first percent of the publishing goal! I am overjoyed and very excited to show you how the characters you’ve encountered will develop and progress the story, it’s "exquisite"!

Here is the cover that has caused me to completely screw up my sleep rhythm just before my studies continue (tomorrow). Finally, this one feels happy with the cover. Finally. If I decide to draw another furry creature in the becoming days, please, feel free to kick me in the virtual genitalia.

  Not to worry about the studies. I will still have plenty of time to write THS - ideally a chapter every day like it has been for now, blessed be. I’m working my butt off with advertising and every share, recommendation, every spoken word about THS helps me towards the publishing goal, and I am ever so grateful for all the help I’ve received. Thank you all, so, so much 

-H.A. 

Thank you all so much for your support! I’ve gotten another recommendation, tips to correct my grammar, I have now 13 followers and my very first pre-orders! Ahh, the happiness! I am always open to more suggestions, advice, tips, anything that comes to your mind, please, tell me.

The cover v.2 is progressing slowly but surely. Here’s another WIP:

As you can already see, the flats are down, and the title is already much clearer. Now I’m just working on detailing, shadowing, and highlighting.

Here’s a Work In Progress pic for the book cover v.2, hope you’re gonna like it!

There’s the line art for now. I want the cover to look really polished once it’s done.

I am very hyped about the first pre-orders I’ve gotten!! Thank you so, so much! 

Even though I’m currently struggling with money, I don’t really care about that in this project, or fame for that matter, but to get my baby out there? Published and available? That’s my dream, to share this wonderful story in my head. Every individual matters in this great universe, and I hope that readers will pick up on that and implement it in their own lives. You are important, you matter.

And the cover is online! Might do some changes, but not today. No, this day in its all glory went into writing the first chapter and drawing the cover from scratch! I’m a tiny bit proud of myself. I also got my first lovely follower, thank you so much for joining! Alright, off to sleep. Have a good night!