Greetings dear readers!
I was waiting until I hit 600 followers to post this for a nice round number, but 599 of you is just as special to me as 600! Whether you are new here, or have been following since the beginning, I wanted to share some fun stuff in celebration of hitting 600 followers*!
So, I have withheld a little piece of origin lore regarding Necromancer for Mayor, and thought that some of you would find it interesting! This post will include some art, some backstory for what inspired this story, and some context for what spawned the world itself!
If this isn't your sort of thing, no worries, I will see you Tues/Thurs/Sat for regularly scheduled chapters, but for those of you who are interested, I hope that you find what I have to share with you enjoyable!
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D&D: Double-DMs and Duo Delves
The concept of Maplebrook and Terragard started out, as what you may or may not have gleaned, as a D&D campaign. In fact, my closest friend from school and I created the original concept of the map together to run as a "West Marches" style campaign, where in we co-dm'd a group of 10 players from our theatre group. Mind you, very little of that original campaign exists 1-to-1 in my version of the story, but a lot of the early concepts that went into this narrative had stemmed from those early days running two interconnected campaigns together. Of course, such an endeavor proved to be rather weighty and didn't last for far long, but I still remember our attempt quite fondly.
I, to this day, have used the bones of this setting for several campaigns, typically as a starter experience for players who are new to D&D. I often adapt to the aspects of the game that each group gravitates most toward. Some have been content fighting bandits, some have preferred antagonizing the paladins, and others have adopted kobolds as forever allies. Regardless of how each campaign has unfolded, there's one thing that has always persisted: Maplebrook has astonishingly terrible luck!
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Baldur's Gate 3 and 400+ Hours Later
Look, I am what some people might refer to as a "Forever DM." Very rarely do I get to play D&D, and quite very often I am the storyteller and guide for friends and students alike. Still, that doesn't mean that I don't want to play, in fact I have spent a decent amount of my off hours creating characters and concepts that I fantasize about one day playing. Well, imagine my delight when BG3 finally released with such polish** and in accuracy to fifth edition D&D! My love of character creation kicked into full overdrive and I spent a lot of time making characters, then more, and then more. (Oh how blessed it was when they introduced the mirror, in combination with mods, hirelings, and Withers class respecs. . . Oh look, another 100+ hours have passed by, how did that happen?***)
Now, how does this come into play with Necromancer for Mayor? Well, you see on one of my attempts to maximize character creation, I learned of a trick where one could open multiple instances of BG3 and launch a multiplayer game, thus allowing such a player to make multiple custom characters. This was before hirelings had been introduced just yet, and I longed for more diversity of party customization. What were the two characters I made? None other than a Dark Urge, White Dragonborn Necromancer, and a Half-Orc Paladin. This, dear readers, was the first conception of Jevrick and Atan - a dark wizard who drags a conflicted paladin around on his bloody quests, tethered together by a single cause to defeat the greater evil before them, and forced to set aside their moral opposition for the sake of survival.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
This first concept sparked in me so much excitement that I decided to make it into a long-form story. . . in web comic form.
*599-ish followers, technically.
**Actually, the game had quite a few bugs, and part of why I spent so many hours in the game was because when I got to Act 3, the game constantly crashed and I had no choice but to replay Act 1 and 2 over and over until it got patched. But I dare not hold that against the masterpiece too harshly.
***Worry not, fair friends, I have indeed beaten Baldur's Gate 3 and was not trapped in Act 1-2 for eternity. In fact, I have beaten it a total of three times - two times were Honour Mode runs, one of which I was cheated of winning during the final battle. . . but I won't hold that against the masterpiece too harshly either.
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The Grave Pact
I have been a novelist and game writer for many years of my life, but I have always wanted to have a full comic under my belt. Sure, I have some artistic skill, which I typically utilize in the creation of my book covers and ads. BUT, I had never drawn a comic from start to finish (and technically still haven't). Eventually, I scrapped the project as I didn't have the expertise to keep up, where as my core strength was indeed in writing (I like to think so, anyway). Good fortune to you that I decided to leave behind the original comic idea and commit to the prose version instead, as that decision would eventually lead to the current narrative you have been so faithfully reading thus far! (Not to mention, the original concept was not the least bit funny, and was going for a dark fantasy vibe. I think we're all happy for the direction I ended up taking it.) Also, at this point, Atan was now a human that would be corrupted by a resurrection ritual, and Jevrick was a "definitely not a dragonborn" race. It'd take another year or so before I came to write Necromancer for Mayor and its characters as it is in our current adventure.
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Conclusion
Now you have the abridged history of Necromancer for Mayor and how we got here, a narrative with over a decade of incubation, and still ongoing! Thank you so very much for your support and engagement. Reading all of your comments is my greatest highlight when posting chapters.
As promised, I have decided to include some panels from the original web comic! Keep in mind that these were created a couple of years ago, and I did not really know what I was doing at time (or still, for that matter)!
NOTE: Most all of the context in these panels are non-canon, though there may be some minor details I may utilize in the future, they will look very little like their original iterations.
SPOILER WARNING: Careful about searching up the original comics online, as they most definitely will include some form of spoiler for the story you're currently reading, though I won't say what or how! (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)
Now, the art I'm sharing below I have deemed spoiler free, but I have tagged them as spoilers just to respect anyone who does not wish to have their vision of the story potentially influenced by crude early concepts.
Thank you again for your time, and I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!
Jonco
The Grave Pact:
